Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury

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Boniface of Savoy (c. 1217 – July 14, 1270) was the Prior of Nantua, Bishop of Belley and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Boniface and his elder brother Count Amadeus IV of Savoy were sons of Thomas I, Count of Savoy and Margaret of Faucigny. He is thus not to be confused with his nephew Count Boniface of Savoy, the son of Amadeus IV.

Boniface was the Prior of Nantua (1232-1253). He then became the Bishop of Belley (1232-1243) in Burgundy and, in 1241, through the influence of his niece, Queen Eleanor wife of Henry III, was nominated to the See of Canterbury. He did not, however, come to England till 1244 and was present, in the following year (1245), at the Council of Lyon. There, he was consecrated by Innocent IV but it was only in 1249 that he returned to England and was enthroned at Canterbury.

He showed little concern for the spiritual duties of his office. His exactions and his overbearing behaviour, combined with the fact that he was a foreigner, gave great offence to the English. To his credit is his attempt to free the Archiepiscopal See from debt and that, with all his faults, he is said to have been pauperum amator.

During the Second Barons' War, Boniface seems to have first made common cause with the English Bishops against the exactions of Pope and King, but he drifted more and more to the King's side. In 1262, he retired to France, where he joined with the Papal Legate in excommunicating the Barons. On the triumph of the Royalists in 1265, he returned to England.

Boniface was ordered by Pope Urban IV either to repair the buildings at Lambeth or to build new ones and the present Early English Chapel of the Palace is part of the work which he then undertook. He died in 1270, whilst on a visit to his native land.

Religious Posts
Preceded by Edmund Rich	Archbishop of Canterbury 1240–1270	Succeeded by Robert Kilwardby (William Chillenden chosen but set aside by the Pope)

[edit] Reference

• From G.M. Bevan's "Portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury" (1908).