Henry le Chen | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Aberdeen | |
 | |
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| See | Diocese of Aberdeen |
| In office | 1282–1328 |
| Predecessor | Hugh de Benin |
| Successor | Walter Herok |
| Previous post(s) | Precentor ofAberdeen Cathedral |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 1282 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mid 13th century North-eastScotland. |
| Died | ProbablyAberdeen 1328 x 1329 |
Henry le Chen [le Cheyn,le Chein,Cheyne,de Chene] was a late 13th-century and early 14th-centuryScoto-Normanbishop.Hector Boece claims that he was the nephew ofJohn III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, but no contemporary evidence supports this.[1] Cheyne belonged to a family with Norman roots which was well established in the northeast ofScotland, holding significant amounts of territory on the boundaries of theEarldom of Buchan.[2]
Henry emerges for the first time - asPrecentor ofAberdeen Cathedral - when his name occurs in a document dated to 22 January 1277.[3] Despite the fact he was only adeacon, after the death of the former bishop,Hugh de Benin, thechapter unanimously elected le Chen to be the newBishop of Aberdeen.[4]Pope Martin IV originally cancelled the election because le Chen had not been yet ordained apriest, but reversed his decision and commissionedRobert Wishart,Alan de St Edmund and William, the bishops ofGlasgow,Caithness andDunblane respectively, to consecrate le Chen after one of them had ordained him a priest.[4]
Le Chen's strong Comyn connections meant that, in the succession dispute which followed the deaths ofAlexander III of Scotland andMargaret, Maid of Norway, he firmly supported the Comyn-backed claims ofJohn Balliol; he was one of the auditors employed by Balliol during theGreat Cause.[2] Although one of the senior royal councillors during the reign of King John Balliol,[2] when KingEdward I of England invaded and deposed King John, le Chen quickly swore an oath of fealty to Edward, and was so well trusted by the King that the latter put him in charge of thesheriffdom ofAberdeen.[2] In the period immediately following the uprising and restoration of the throne by Robert de Brus (Robert the Bruce),Earl of Carrick, in 1306, le Chen was noticeably lukewarm to the new king (nowRobert I of Scotland), and at some point was temporarily deprived of thetemporalities of hissee, though there is no direct evidence that he suffered exile.[5]
In 1309 he attended Robert's firstparliament and was part of the renewal of theTreaty of Perth in 1312, but Bishop Henry nevertheless held a low profile for the remainder of the decade.[6] However, despite the complete success of the Bruce cause, no other bishop is found to be promoted, and le Chen was a loyal subject of the king by the end of the decade when he was summoned to thepapal curia (16 August 1320) to account for the behaviour of his king.[7] On 16 June 1321,Pope John XXIIexcommunicated Bishop Henry, and on 23 May 1322, commanded the bishops ofWinchester and Dunblane to promulgate the sentence.[8]
Henry died c.1328 and certainly before 11 June 1329, the same year as King Robert.[9] Pope John XXII referred to le Chen as "of good memory", meaning that Henry had been absolved of his sentence before his death.[10] He was credited with constructing a bridge over theriver Don.[11]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by | Bishop of Aberdeen 1282–1328 x 1329 | Succeeded by |