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Corbeil, William de (d. 1136), archbishop of Canterbury, was probably born in Corbeil, a small town on the Seine a little way upstream from Paris, now absorbed in Évry Corbeil-Essonnes. He could have been born about 1070, in the reign of Philippe I of France. Nothing is known about his parents or upbringing, but two brothers, Ranulf and Helgot, appear much later in his company.

Durham

His first appearance in the historical record is of his presence at the inspection of the ‘incorrupt’ body of St Cuthbert on 24 August 1104 before it was translated to the new Norman cathedral, then nearing completion. He was present as a clerk of Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, to whom he possibly first attached himself in 1101 (on Ranulf's return from exile in Normandy), and was granted a canonry in St Martin's, Dover when this royal chapel was restored to Ranulf as a secular college by Henry I. It was at a house at Dover, during a desperate illness whilst still a clerk, that de Corbeil had a vision of being attacked by two mobs of devils in succession and being rescued by the Virgin Mary, with the help of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. This crystalised thoughts of moving further into the religious life, and made him even more devout - every day, while a student, he recited the little office of Our Lady, and later he celebrated frequent masses "de angelis" (votive masses for a special, private intention).

Canterbury and monastic life

However, de Corbeil later shifted his allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury, either due to frequent and familiar contact with Anselm (a relationship datable to 1107-09, unless it was formed abroad), or to a visit de Corbeil made to the famous school of Laon 1107 - 12, during which he tutored the sons of Ralph, King Henry's chancellor, or of Ranulf Flambard, and stayed at the bishop's palace with bishop Waldric (the previous Chancellor) in order to attend Anselm's lectures.

By 1116 de Corbeil was in the service of Ralph d'Escures, another contact from Durham (probably at the 1104 translation) and Anselm's successor as archbishop, whilst d'Escures was in exile as abbot of Sées. He was present on d'Escures's journey to Rome of 1116–17 to dispute concerning the consecration of Thurstan as archbishop of York which, though otherwise a failure, involved a week's stay at Sutri as the guests of Henry I's son-in-law, the emperor Heinrich V, which convinced de Corbeil to enter the religious life.

During 1118 he became a regular canon at the new Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, in London (as did one of his brothers, later on), from which he was in 1121 appointed prior of the Augustinian]] St Osyth's Priory in Essex upon its foundation by Richard de Belmeis, bishop of London

Archbishopric

Surprise election

On d'Escures's death on 20 October 1122, William was eventually elected in his place. This was a surprise since the 1107 ‘compromise of Bec’ for regulating appointments and its corollary the 1122 imperial concordat of Worms had traditionally had episcopal elections held in the royal court.

Henry did summon the traditional ‘national’ council to Gloucester for the beginning of February 1123, and barons, royal servants, bishops and abbots all answered the summons in large numbers (including Thurstan of York), but the presence of the Christ Church monks, backed by the barons (claiming the sole right to elect their archiepiscopal abbot themselves from among their own number) and a faction from among the bishops, led by Roger of Salisbury and including Richard of London and backed by the king (opposing the monks and insisting that the diocesan bishops of England should have a say in the choice of their metropolitan) triggered a raucous two day debate.

Finally the king reached a compromise deal, that the bishops could nominate 4 clerks, from whom the monks could then choose, which was accepted reluctantly by all parties, with the monks opting on 4 February for the one they considered the least unsuitable - de Corbeil, who was at least a regular canon if not actually a monk. (Symeon of Durham claims that the Canterbury monks were also swayed by good reports of de Corbeil's learning via his friend Anselm.) Thurstan of York and Athelwold, prior of Nostell, Yorkshire also advised the king that this was a good choice.

The dispute over primacy

de Corbeil was consecrated by William Giffard, bishop of Winchester at Canterbury on 18 February. This was a snub to Thurstan, who should have carried it out, over his long-standing refusal to make a profession of obedience to Canterbury and acknowledge the primacy of Canterbury.

The feud thus rekindled was to last until William's death. In 1123 both archbishops took their cases to Rome. William sought a pallium, Thurstan the quashing of William's election on the grounds of various irregularities, including the rejection of his services. In the end, on 21 May, Calixtus II—bowing to the pressure of Henry I and the emperor Heinrich V, with both of whom, because of recent concordats, he wished to remain on good terms—confirmed William's election and granted him the pallium. But, after a dossier of forged papal privileges produced by Canterbury had been laughed out of court, the matter of the primacy was, as usual, deferred.

In 1125 Calixtus's successor, Honorius II, sent to England a legate, the formidable cardinal-priest Giovanni da Crema, who in April 1121 had commanded the papal forces at the siege of Sutri, to deal with all the English problems. And in the autumn in Normandy king and legate produced a radical compromise which both archbishops were ordered to accept. Canterbury should surrender to York the bishoprics of Chester, Bangor, and the unnamed diocese of St Asaph; Thurstan should accept Canterbury's primacy verbally, and his successor should make a written submission. But when the legate and the parties appeared before Honorius at Rome, William objected to the terms, and the pope, who cared only for his own primacy, substituted his own solution, which probably also suited the king. At the end of the year he made William his vicar and legate in England (within which was comprised Wales) and Scotland, thus giving him a personal superiority dependent solely on papal grant. The office could be revoked at will, and lapsed automatically on the grantor's death. William's legation would subsequently be in abeyance for two years after Honorius died in 1130. But since William had not abandoned his claim to the primacy and its associated privileges, he had not suffered final defeat. And Thurstan remained defiant. At the king's Christmas court at Windsor in 1126, York not only claimed the right to crown Henry, but also had his cross carried before him in the royal chapel. His claim, however, was unanimously rejected, and his cross-bearer and cross were ejected from the chapel. Subsequently both parties coexisted uneasily.

A reforming archbishop

On his return from his fairly successful visit to Rome in 1123, William was enthroned, wearing his pallium, at Canterbury on 22 July. And on the same day he performed as metropolitan his first consecration of a bishop—Alexander to Lincoln. He and Thurstan had arrived too late at Rome to attend Calixtus's Lateran Council (18–27 March), which signalled the renewal of the papal drive for reform. But in 1125 Giovanni da Crema was commissioned by Honorius not only to settle the Canterbury–York dispute but also to publicize the relevant conciliar decrees. On Easter day, to demonstrate his authority, he celebrated high mass in Canterbury Cathedral. The monks regarded William's demotion as a punishment for their having a clerk rather than a monk as archbishop, but observed scornfully that the legate arrayed himself in full pontificals although he was merely a cardinal-priest. Then, after making a widespread visitation of the kingdom, on 8 September Giovanni held a council at Westminster, and in the presence of both archbishops, twenty bishops, and some forty abbots promulgated seventeen canons, mostly based on the First Lateran Council. Those that caused most alarm in the audience were the condemnation of any hereditary claim to a father's church, prebend, or benefice (canon no. 5), and the prohibition of the presence of any woman, except a permitted relation, in a clerical household (canon no. 13).

In 1127 William, fresh from his visit to Honorius II and himself a papal legate, took up the cause. He was clearly an enthusiastic reformer. On 13–16 May he held at Westminster a legatine council to which Thurstan refused to go, and to which Ranulf Flambard, taken ill, sent proctors. In a crowded and disorderly assembly eleven canons were issued. The decree not only that priests, deacons, subdeacons, and all canons who refused to dismiss their wives or concubines were to be degraded and deprived of their benefices (canon no. 5), but also that their women should be expelled from the parish (unless they had contracted a lawful marriage), judged by the bishop, and, in the last resort, condemned to slavery (canon no. 6), was received with hostility. And two years later, in October 1129, King Henry presided over a national council at Westminster, attended by both archbishops, at which he added his authority to the prohibition of clerical wives. They were all to be dismissed by 30 November. William's gullibility in conceding justice in this matter to the king, who simply allowed unchaste priests to keep their women at the cost of a fine to the royal exchequer, was blamed by the chronicler Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon.

Provincial and diocesan

William was a disciplinarian, and it would seem that he stood up for his rights within his own province. He treated the Welsh bishops just like the English. In 1124 he and Bishop Alexander of Lincoln quarrelled, apparently over Canterbury's claim to a peculiar in the latter's diocese known later as the deanery of Risborough, Oxfordshire; and they crossed to Normandy to litigate before the king. This discord probably contributed to the disparaging verdict pronounced on the archbishop by Henry of Huntingdon, in Alexander's diocese, in his Epistola de contemptu mundi: ‘No one can sing his praises because there's nothing to sing about’ (Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, 608–9). But in his own diocese William was clearly an active pastor; and he sometimes used Bernard of St David's as a suffragan. An Augustinian canon himself, he was particularly interested in the reformation of collegiate churches, and he looked askance at Benedictine communities. His relations with his own chapter, although he was a doughty champion of Canterbury's rights, were probably cool. But he received the dedication of a spiritual letter from Elmer, who became prior of Christ Church in 1128, with whom he was obviously on excellent terms. He succeeded, if only with difficulty, in getting a profession of obedience from Hugh of Trottiscliffe, in 1126 elected abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, and he seems to have restored the decayed nunnery at Minster in Sheppey. Moreover he put regular canons into St Gregory's outside Northgate, Canterbury.

In his last years William attempted to reform St Martin's, Dover, in which he himself had held a canonry, a church that the king had granted to the archbishop and church of Canterbury on the occasion of the cathedral's dedication in 1130. William built a fine new church outside Dover and, when dying, sent bishops John of Rochester and Bernard of St David's, Helewise, archdeacon of Canterbury, and Elmer, prior of Christ Church, to conduct an advance party of regular canons drawn from Merton Priory into the church. But they were intercepted by the insubordinate Christ Church sub-prior, Jeremiah, who forbade the canons' entry, on the grounds that St Martin's belonged to the monks, not the archbishop, and appealed to Rome. William's agents gave way; and as soon as the archbishop died, the monks, taking sweet revenge, sent twelve of their own number to colonize Dover.

Dover was only one of William's building works. After King Henry had granted him Rochester Castle he improved it by constructing what Gervase of Canterbury described as a remarkable keep. And, taking over from Bishop Ernulf of Rochester, who died in 1124, he brought both Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals to completion. On Sunday 4 May 1130, with the king and queen and David, king of Scots, among the large and distinguished congregation, he dedicated his own cathedral. The splendour of the ceremony, claimed the monk Gervase, was without equal since the dedication of King Solomon's temple. And on the following day William consecrated Rochester Cathedral.

The accession of Stephen and death of Archbishop William

King Henry died in Normandy on 1 December 1135, and was buried by William on 4 January following in the late king's foundation at Reading. Meanwhile the part he played in the succession of Henry's nephew, Stephen, inflicted serious damage on William's reputation. On 1 January 1127 he had sworn with the other bishops and abbots and the barons to acknowledge Henry's daughter, the Empress Matilda, as the heir to the throne. But in 1135, after some prevarication and debate, perhaps because he was overborne by that powerful pair of bishops, Henry of Winchester and Roger of Salisbury, William accepted Stephen's coup d'état and, together with them, crowned him at Westminster, probably on 22 December. He secured, however, from the new king two important concessions in writing: the coronation charter, which confirmed the rights of the king's barons and vassals, and the Oxford charter of April 1136, which elaborated Henry I's coronation charter of 1100, especially as regards the freedom of the church. That Stephen soon showed little respect for ecclesiastical liberties does not diminish the value of these royal undertakings. One more step had been taken on the road to Magna Carta.

William did not long survive Henry I. While attempting to complete his reform of St Martin's, Dover, he fell seriously ill at his manor of Mortlake, Surrey, and, deeply chagrined by the opposition of his monks, had himself carried to Canterbury. It was probably there that he died, on 21 November 1136; he was buried in the north transept of his cathedral. His conduct throughout his career had been mostly admirable, and his achievements were by no means negligible. He was a devout man, in the circle that fostered the cult of the Virgin Mary; and it was at the Council of Westminster in 1129 that the feast of the Immaculate Conception was generally authorized. He was a zealous reformer and his three visits to Rome were exceptional. William of Malmesbury considered him a courteous man, temperate in behaviour, and contrasted his sobriety with the flamboyance of the ‘modern’ bishop. But most of the contemporary chroniclers were prejudiced against him, and grudging in their tributes. His enacted reforms were unpopular. The author of Gesta Stephani, although allowing him the countenance of a dove and the dress of a monk, accused him of hoarding money. Monastic writers could not accept that a clerk or canon could be a proper archbishop of Canterbury; and those who supported the excluded Matilda, and later her son, Henry II, branded him a perjurer and a traitor. That he should, nevertheless, have been regarded favourably by Hugh the Chanter of York, and generally held to be basically a decent and religious man, must be considered a remarkable tribute.