William Knight (bishop)
William Knight, who lived from 1475 or 1476 until 1547, served as Secretary of State to Henry VIII of England and ended his career as Bishop of Bath and Wells. In 1527 he told his king that he was old and losing his sight. Henry sent him to Rome regardless. What sort of man receives that assignment? What did decades of travel on the Crown's business prepare him to do there? And what did he leave behind in the places where he finally settled?
Born in London, Knight entered Winchester School as a scholar in 1487. In 1491 he moved on to New College, Oxford, and in 1493 he became a Fellow there.
In 1495 Knight went to court, where Henry VII made him one of his secretaries. Much later, on the 12th of October 1531, he took the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Under Henry VIII, meanwhile, he was employed again and again as an ambassador.
On the 3rd of June 1512 Knight set out for Spain with Sir Edward Howard. Storms and sickness slowed the journey, and he reached Valladolid on the 18th of February 1513. He and John Stile carried a commission to negotiate with Ferdinand II of Aragon about the defence of the church. Knight stayed at Valladolid until June 1513.
On the 3rd of April 1514 he was at Mechlin, the first stop in a long series of embassies to the Low Countries. Richard Wingfield and Spinelly were with him on the 18th of April. By the 12th of June he was at The Hague alongside Sir Edward Poynings. In July he seems to have visited Switzerland.
On the 7th of May 1515 Knight was appointed ambassador, again with Poynings, to Prince Charles. Their task was to renew a league dated the 9th of February 1505. They met Cuthbert Tunstall at Bruges on the 23rd of May. Six days later they had an audience with Charles at Bergen-op-Zoom. Knight stayed in Flanders for the rest of 1515 and found himself short of money. The treaty was concluded in February 1516.
On the 30th of December 1516 Knight was named ambassador to the Emperor once more, this time alongside Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester. He had an interview with Charles on the 22nd of January 1517. Through 1518 he served as English representative to Margaret of Austria in the Low Countries. He sailed home from Calais on the 15th of February 1519, and a quarrel over trade soon claimed his attention.
In 1520 Knight stood among the English party at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He attended as one of Henry's chaplains and as clerk of the closet. On the 10th of June 1520 he was also commissioned, with Sir Thomas More, John Hussee and Hewester, to settle disputes between English merchants and the Teutonic Hanse. That work took him to the Netherlands again.
On the 28th of October 1521 Sir Richard Wingfield wrote from Oudenarde that Knight would take over his post as ambassador to the emperor. It seems the emperor objected to Knight's low birth. He preferred Sir Robert Wingfield instead.
Knight made a diplomatic journey into Switzerland in 1522. He also went on an embassy to the empire about the wool staple, a matter of the English wool trade. In 1523 he concluded a treaty against France with Charles III, Duke of Bourbon. By August of that year he was back at Brussels. About August 1526 he became secretary to the king, a post that would soon send him toward Rome.
On the 14th of July 1514 Knight received a grant of arms that described him as prothonotary. In May 1515 he was styled chaplain to the king. That same year he became dean of the collegiate church of Newark, Leicestershire.
In 1516, probably after returning to England, Knight was collated to the prebend of Farrendon-cum-Balderton in Lincoln Cathedral. In 1520 he seems to have become prebendary of Llanvair in Bangor Cathedral. By 1532 he also held the rectory of Romald Kirk, Yorkshire.
On the 11th of November 1522 he was admitted archdeacon of Chester. On the 11th of September 1523 he was appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon. On the 19th of December 1527, while still in Italy, he was made canon of Westminster. He was admitted archdeacon of Richmond on the 7th of December 1529 and held that office until 1541, the year his career took a new direction.
Thomas Wolsey doubted the choice. He thought Jerome de Ghinucci, bishop of Worcester, would suit the work of ending Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon better than Knight.
On the 10th of September 1527 Knight met Wolsey at Compiegne. On Wolsey's orders he went on to Venice to watch for a chance to reach the captive Pope Clement VII. A safe-conduct came through Gambara the prothonotary. At Monterotundo on the 4th of December 1527 Knight was nearly murdered. When he finally entered Rome, all he could do was send in his letters of credence with a note of what the king wanted.
By the end of December Henry Jerningham was writing that the secret of the negotiation had been badly kept. The Emperor had already written to the pope about it. Full instructions then reached Knight, along with a commission to Wolsey and a second document. If the pope signed it, it would have empowered them to settle the divorce.
On the 1st of January 1528 the pope had been set free, and Knight visited him at Orvieto. Cardinal St. Quatuor, who was given two thousand crowns, had altered the commission. The pope signed it. Knight reached London in February 1528 and admitted that the embassy had failed. A new mission was already being prepared for the end of that year.
William Benet travelled with Knight on a mission that began on the 13th of December 1528. They were to confer with Anne de Montmorency about Italian affairs, and then to proceed again to Rome. On the 31st of January 1529 Stephen Gardiner joined them at Lyon with new instructions. Knight went back to Paris and acted through March and April with Sir John Taylor as ambassador. In June, Suffolk and Fitzwilliam were with him.
On the 30th of June 1529 Knight, with Tunstall, More and Hacket, arranged the Treaty of Cambray. He also took part in the convocation of Canterbury that same year.
In February 1532 Hacket and Knight were appointed to treat with the emperor's commissioners about commerce. That embassy did not bear much fruit. On the 30th of January 1535 Knight served as a commissioner for collecting the ecclesiastical tenths. On the 15th of October 1537 he was present at the christening of Edward VI. Within a few years of that ceremony, Knight would be consecrated a bishop.
On the 29th of May 1541 Knight was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells, succeeding John Clerk. He resigned all his other preferments. Thomas Fuller relates that at Wells he built a market cross with the assistance of Dean Woolman.
In Gloucestershire, Knight rebuilt Horton Court using ideas drawn from Italian architecture. In London he lived in a house in Cannon Row, Westminster. In 1536, under an act of 27 Henry VIII, that house was assigned to the bishops of Norwich.
Knight died in 1547 at Wiveliscombe, Somerset. He was buried in Wells Cathedral next to Sugar's Chapel. A pulpit he had erected, bearing his arms, served as his monument. He had been a patron of Henry Cole. In his will he left money to Winchester and New Colleges.
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Common questions
Who was William Knight, Bishop of Bath and Wells?
William Knight (1475/76-1547) was an English bishop and politician. He served as Secretary of State to Henry VIII of England and later as Bishop of Bath and Wells.
Why was William Knight sent to Rome in 1527?
Henry VIII sent William Knight to Rome in 1527 to promote the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Knight returned to London in February 1528 and admitted that the embassy had failed.
When did William Knight become Bishop of Bath and Wells?
William Knight was consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells on the 29th of May 1541. He succeeded John Clerk and resigned all his other preferments.
What role did William Knight play in the Treaty of Cambray?
On the 30th of June 1529 William Knight, together with Tunstall, More and Hacket, arranged the Treaty of Cambray.
Where is William Knight buried?
William Knight is buried in Wells Cathedral next to Sugar's Chapel. A pulpit he erected, bearing his arms, served as his monument.
What did William Knight build?
William Knight rebuilt Horton Court in Gloucestershire using ideas from Italian architecture. Thomas Fuller also relates that he built a market cross at Wells with the assistance of Dean Woolman.
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4 references cited across the entry
- 3Party per fess or and gules, an eagle with two heads displayed sable; on its breast a demi-rose and a demi-sun conjoined into one, counterchanged of the field.
- 4BookFasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541: volume 6: Northern province (York, Carlisle and Durham): Archdeacons: RichmondJones, B. — Institute for Historical Research