Most of what is available in print about Bishop Hugh de Mapenore of
Hereford is in my edition of Hereford episcopal acta (= English
Episcopal Acta vii: Hereford 1095-1234 [Oxford U.P. for the British
Academy 1993]).
Hugh appears to have made his early career serving William de Braose
(the one who died 1211); he then became clerk to one of William's
sons, Giles, when the latter became bishop of Hereford in 1200 and
Giles shortly afterwards, in about 1201, made Hugh dean. On Giles'
death in November 1215 the chapter of Hereford cathedral elected Hugh
as bishop.
There is no evidence that he was ever unfrocked. There is a slightly
scandalous reference to him in the Prose Salernitan Questions (ed.
Brian Lawn); cf. brief mention of this in my article 'Athelstan to
Aigueblanche' in the recent history of Hereford cathedral (Hereford
Cathedral: a History, ed. G. Aylmer and J. Tiller [London and Rio
Grande 2000]). It is true that King John didn't want Hugh to become
bishop, but this probably had nothing to do with religion and more to
do with the fact that Hugh was not his own choice, was relatively
speaking a nobody and, worst of all, had been a protege of the de
Braose family, with whom John had fallen out badly. Honorius III gave
Hugh de M. the all clear after John's death, and he was bishop from
1216 to his death in 1219.
Julia Barrow
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