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John Mansel (died 1265),Provost of Beverley Minster, was aking's clerk and ajudge. He was the leading administrator and councillor toKingHenry III.
Accotding toMatthew Paris, Mansel's father was a country priest.[1] As the son of a deacon under orders, his birth status periodically came into question eventually resulting in a letter fromPope Innocent IV ratified byPope Alexander IV in 1259 stating "Approbation, addressed to John Mansel, Chancellor of London, the King's Clerk, of the dispensation given to him, at the King's request, by Pope Innocent, to be ordained and promoted, notwithstanding that his mother married his father, a man of noble birth, not knowing that he was a deacon, and was accounted for the time being his lawful wife; his father, after some time, repenting, resumed his orders, a divorce having been declared by theirdiocesan. The dispensation is approved, even if his mother's plea of ignorance and the reputation of a lawful marriage cannot be sustained."
Mansel became a favorite of the young King Henry III and was appointed to the vacantprebend ofThame by Henry, butRobert Grosseteste, a reformingbishop with strong feelings about ecclesiastical rights and privileges, refused to admit him. Reportedly, Mansel took the Thame church by force before giving up his claim to the prebend (a specific type ofbenefice). Grosseteste, having thus vindicated his right, bestowed upon Mansel the more lucrativebenefice ofMaidstone. Despite the loss of the Thamebenefice, Mansel probably obtained morebenefices than any other contemporary clergyman as he amassed his plurality. Mansel'sbenefices included the livings of Haughley,Howden andBawburgh and prebends of Tottenhall, South Malling and Chichester. He was alsoProvost of Beverley (1247), Chancellor ofSt. Paul's, London, Dean ofWimborn, Rector ofWigan, Papal chaplain, and King's chaplain.
He fought with a contingent ofEnglish underHenry de Turbeville in the aid ofFrederick II,King of Germany in the north ofItaly in 1238. Frederick II was married to Henry's sisterIsabella in 1235. He fought alongside Henry III in theBattle of Taillebourg during theSaintonge War (20–24 July 1242) and took Peter Orige, seneschal of theCount of Boulogne, prisoner. He was reckoned not least among brave men in this unsuccessful venture againstLouis IX of France. He was seriously wounded while leading an assault in siege of theVerines monastery.
During 1246 and 1247 he served asLord Chancellor of England.[2]
John Mansel established theAugustinianpriory atBilsington, nearRomney in 1253 prudently reflecting that "the king's favour is not hereditary or worldly prosperity of lasting duration." He is however spoken of disparagingly by the chronicling monkMatthew Paris, of St Albans Abbey, for unfairly denying legal judgment in the Abbey's favour after a monk had been attacked and robbed by his protégé Geoffrey of Childwick.
He enjoyed great secular power; the 1258Provisions of Oxford gave four men the power to elect a council of fifteen to govern thetreasury and thechancery. These four men were theEarl Marshal (the Earl of Norfolk),Hugh Bigod, John Mansel, and theEarl of Warwick (John du Plessis). Not only did he arrange the marriage of Henry III daughter,Margaret of England toAlexander III of Scotland in 1249, but he entertained the courts of England and Scotland on King Alexander's visit toLondon in 1256. Such a feat would not have been possible but for the income from his pluralities. He was namedSeneschal of Gascony in 1243 a post later held bySimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and subsequently by PrinceEdward.Alfonso of Castile had his eyes on Gascony and John Mansel helped to defuse the situation by arranging the marriage of Edward to Alfonso's half-sister,Eleanor in 1254. Sedgwick castle came into his hands in 1249. In 1261 he was named Constable of the Tower of London. He was mediator along with Simon de Montfort in arranging the marriage of Henry's daughterBeatrice withJohn of Brittany in 1259. John Mansel was inFrance withQueen Eleanor andEdmund when Simon de Montfort vanquished Henry III at theBattle of Lewes, 14 May 1264. Shortly thereafter, Simon de Montfort took possession of Mansel's estates in August 1264.
In his biography of Henry, the historianDavid Carpenter commented on the Eleanor's return to England in October 1265: "There was one person who did not return with the queen: John Mansel. With Eleanor throughout her exile, he had died in January 1265. Courageous, wise and moderate, he was the best minister the king ever had. Henry could have done with him now.[3] Mansel's will does not appear to have been carried out, apart from a bequest of Bilsington Priory to King Henry. The rest of his estate was treated as crownescheat.[1]