Gilbert Foliot - Bishop of Hereford

Bishop of Hereford

In early 1148, Foliot accompanied Theobald of Bec to the Council of Reims, even though the archbishop had been forbidden to attend by King Stephen; Foliot was presumably with Theobald when the archbishop used a small fishing boat in his escape from England to the continent. Robert de Bethune, the Bishop of Hereford, died at the Council of Reims, and Foliot was nominated by Pope Eugene III to fill the Diocese of Hereford, which was held by the Angevin cause. Theobald was behind the appointment, having urged it on the pope. It appears likely that before his consecration Foliot gave assurances that he would not swear fealty to Stephen. He was consecrated Bishop of Hereford on 5 September 1148 at Saint-Omer by Archbishop Theobald. The other English bishops present at Reims—Hilary of Chichester and Josceline de Bohon—refused to help with the consecration, claiming it was contrary to custom for an English bishop to be consecrated outside of England. Another of the bishops' concerns was that the pope had infringed Stephen's right to a say in the election. After his consecration Foliot swore fealty to Henry of Anjou, the son of the Empress and the new head of the Angevin party.

Foliot switched his allegiance on his return to England and swore fealty to Stephen, angering the Angevins. Theobald managed to secure peace between the parties, saying that Foliot could not refuse to swear homage "to the prince approved by the papacy". Foliot also attempted to hold Hereford in plurality, or at the same time, with the abbey of Gloucester, but the monks of Gloucester objected. Rather than accept a situation like that of Henry of Blois, who held the Diocese of Winchester as well as being Abbot of Glastonbury, the monks of Gloucester held an election three weeks after Foliot's selection as bishop, and chose their prior as the new abbot.

Foliot supported his uncle Robert de Chesney's nomination to become Bishop of Lincoln, lobbying the pope on Robert's behalf, and maintaining a long correspondence with Robert after his elevation. The letters to this uncle are full of warm sentiments, more than would be expected of a dutiful correspondence. Other episcopal correspondents and friends included Roger de Pont L'Evêque, the Archbishop of York, Josceline de Bohon, the Bishop of Salisbury, and William de Turbeville, the Bishop of Norwich, who became a regular correspondent after Foliot was translated to London.

During the later part of Stephen's reign Foliot was active in judicial affairs, including a case in 1150 involving sanctuary and his kinsman Roger, the Earl of Hereford, which ended up in the court of Archbishop Theobald. Foliot's participation in legal affairs led him in 1153 to employ a clerk specialising in Roman law.

After Henry of Anjou's accession to the throne of England as Henry II in 1154, Foliot persuaded the Earl of Hereford to submit to the new king's demand that he return the custody of certain royal castles to the king. In the summer of 1160, Foliot wrote to Pope Alexander III, whom the king had just recognised as pope instead of Alexander's rival, Victor IV, intimating that the canonisation of King Edward the Confessor, which had been delayed by Alexander's predecessor Innocent II, might be warranted as a reward for Henry's recognition of Alexander.

The art historian Hans J. Böker claims that Foliot began the construction of the Bishop's Chapel at Hereford Cathedral. Böker contends that the architectural style of the chapel (which was destroyed in 1737) resembled that of the German imperial chapels, and was deliberately chosen by Foliot to demonstrate his loyalty to King Henry. However most sources credit Robert of Hereford, bishop from 1079 to 1095, as the builder of the chapel.

When Theobald died in 1160, most observers believed that Foliot was the leading candidate to become archbishop of Canterbury. Traditionally, the see of Canterbury had been held by a monk, at least since the replacement of Stigand by Lanfranc in 1070. Although Foliot was a Cluniac monk, they were a subset of the Benedictine Order and thus the cathedral chapter at Canterbury, which was Benedictine but not Cluniac, would have had no objections to him on that score. Foliot denied that he ever lobbied for the office, but John of Salisbury and Thomas Becket apparently believed that Foliot desired it.