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Simon Sudbury

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Installed
  
unknown

Successor
  
Term ended
  
14 June 1381

Predecessor
  

Other posts
  
Consecration
  
March 20, 1362

Name
  
Simon Sudbury

Appointed
  
May 4, 1375

Simon Sudbury stgregorychurchsudburycoukwpcontentuploads20

Died
  
June 14, 1381, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, United Kingdom

Buried
  
Canterbury Cathedral, City of Canterbury, United Kingdom

Sneaking Into The Tower Of London For The People's Revolt


Simon Sudbury (c. 1316-14 June 1381) was Bishop of London from 1361 to 1375, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his death, and in the last year of his life Lord Chancellor of England.

Contents

Simon Sudbury Simon of Sudbury39s face revealed by computer modelling

Life

Simon Sudbury Tyrtylius39 records source 1 source 2 The killing of

The son of Nigel Theobald, Sudbury (as he later became known) was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, studied at the University of Paris, and became one of the chaplains of Pope Innocent VI, one of the Avignon popes, who in 1356 sent him on a mission to Edward III of England.

Simon Sudbury wwwcanterburyarchaeologyorgukcommunities700

In 1361 Sudbury was made Chancellor of Salisbury and in October that year the pope provided him to be Bishop of London, Sudbury's consecration occurring on 20 March 1362. He was soon serving Edward III as an ambassador and in other ways. On 4 May 1375 he succeeded William Whittlesey as archbishop of Canterbury, and during the rest of his life was a partisan of John of Gaunt.

Simon Sudbury Simon of Sudbury St Gregorys Church

In July 1377, following the death of Edward III in June, Sudbury crowned the new king, Richard II at Westminster Abbey, and in 1378 John Wycliffe appeared before him at Lambeth, but he only undertook proceedings against the reformer under great pressure.

Simon Sudbury Face of Simon of Sudbury revealed by forensic artist BBC News

In January 1380, Sudbury became Lord Chancellor of England, and the insurgent peasants regarded him as one of the principal authors of their woes. Having released John Ball from his prison at Maidstone, the Kentish insurgents attacked and damaged the archbishop's property at Canterbury and Lambeth; then, rushing into the Tower of London, they seized the archbishop himself. So unpopular was Sudbury with the rebellious peasants that guards simply allowed the rebels through the gates, the reason being his role in introducing the third poll tax.

Death

Simon Sudbury The reconstructed face of an archbishop who was beheaded in the 14th

Sudbury was dragged to Tower Hill and, on 14 June 1381, was beheaded after eight blows to his neck. His body was afterwards buried in Canterbury Cathedral, though his head (after being taken down from London Bridge) is still kept at the church of St Gregory at Sudbury in Suffolk, which Sudbury had partly rebuilt. With his brother, John of Chertsey, he also founded a college in Sudbury; he also did some building at Canterbury. His father was Nigel Theobald, and he is sometimes called Simon Theobald or Tybald.

Simon Sudbury Simon of Sudbury St Gregorys Church

In March 2011 a CT scan of Sudbury's mummified skull was performed at the West Suffolk Hospital to make a facial reconstruction, which was completed in September 2011 by forensics expert Adrienne Barker at the University of Dundee.

References

Simon Sudbury Wikipedia