Welcome to the history of England, episode 27, hateful to his people and odious to guard.

The history of Anglo-Saxon England saw a pretty close relationship between the church

and state, even when things needed to change, as with Dundston's reform in the 10th century,

the changes were done through the leadership of the king, and this partnership carried

on with William I, a pious conqueror who'd found in Landfranca close-talented and willing

partner. William Rufus had also been close to Landfranca and had been under his tutelage

throughout his youth. Landfranca on the conqueror's instructions had supported and enabled Rufus'

claim to the throne in 1087, but in 1089 Landfranca died, and with his death a moderating

influence was taken away from Rufus. It's difficult to overemphasise just how important the archbishop

of Canterbury was to the medieval Englishmen. It was not just a matter of the operation of

the church, though that was of course a major part of his role, but he was also the spiritual

leader of a nation for whom religion was deeply interwoven with daily life.

Another fact that Rufus did not immediately move to replace Landfranca was massively

more scandalous than it would be today, and of course even these days eyebrows would

move skyward if there was any substantial delay.

Rufus quite liked not having the primate there to lecture him, and while the position

was vacant he also got all of the lovely revenues of Canterbury. Four years later there was

still no archbishop appointed, when William fell ill and probably thought he was going

to die in 1093. He went into a right-old panic and was suddenly all contrition and repentance.

He issued a written charter of repentance. He promised to release prisoners, forgive

old debts, restore good old laws, and not tax the churches that he had been doing up

to now, and he rushed to find an archbishop of Canterbury.

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