William the Old (Latin:Gulielmus Senex; died 1168)[1] was a 12th-centuryprelate who became one of the most famousbishops of Orkney. Although his origins are obscure in detail, William was said to have been a "clerk of Paris".[2]Saga tradition had it that William had been bishop for 66 years when he died in 1168, meaning that his accession to the bishopric would have been around 1102.[2] There is no contemporary evidence of his episcopate until a letter ofPope Honorius II in 1128, which even then does not name William specifically, but rather only mentions a bishop holding office at the same time asRadulf Novell.[3] He was however definitively in charge by December 1135 during the earldom of EarlPaul Haakonsson.[4]
Bishop William was a promoter of the cult ofSt Magnus, and was allegedly witness to some posthumous miraculous activity of the former earl. William had St Magnus' relics transferred toKirkwall, fixing the episcopal seat at this location and, with the assistance of EarlRognvald Kali Kolsson, constructing a new cathedral there. It was probably for these reasons that William was remembered in later Orcadian tradition, saga and ecclesiastical, as the founding bishop of Orkney.[2] Along with Earl Rognvald, between 1151 and 1153 William went on pilgrimage to theHoly Land. In 1153/4 the bishopric of Orkney came firmly into the Scandinavian fold, as opposed to theYork orSt Andrews fold, when thePapal legateNicholas Breakspear arrived inNorway to create a newArchbishopric of Trondheim (Niðaros) embracing the Orcadian see.[2]
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| Preceded by | Bishop of Orkney 1102 x 1135–1168 | Succeeded by William (II) |