Registers and registration under William Wickwane and John le Romeyn, Archbishops of York (1279-1296)

Episcopal registers have hitherto been seen as administrative records that became increasingly efficient throughout the thirteenth century. Viewed through this lens, the registers of Archbishops William Wickwane and John le Romeyn have been characterised as steps forward in the efficiency of York’s archiepiscopal registers.

This thesis takes inspiration from scholarship of the ‘archival turn’ and the ‘social church’ to re-evaluate the development and use of registration under these two archbishops. Part One analyses Wickwane’s and Romeyn’s registers as objects and records to offer a new assessment of the development of registration in York. It shows that registers were the products of distinctly personal approaches to archiepiscopacy, shaped by individual archbishops and their administrators, while registration practices were learnt, often through trial and experiment.

Part Two explores the functions of registration within archiepiscopal practice. It uses thematic chapters (disputes and cura animarum) to explore how different types of archiepiscopal business were handled in and out of the registers. It reveals the distinct ways in which Wickwane and Romeyn used their registers to preserve certain aspects of their archiepiscopacy. In doing so, it reframes the registers as political documents designed to support specific archiepiscopal aims, as well as the broader aim of shaping future archbishops’ practice.

Overall, the thesis reveals a far closer relationship between archbishop and register than has typically been acknowledged. In understanding differences between registers, we must look first at the archbishops for whom they were kept rather than an abstract idea of advancement or efficiency. Despite their brevity, these archiepiscopates brought significant learning in registration practices and using registers to support particular modes of archiepiscopacy. At the core of this was the selection and omission of material. In choosing what to register, the archbishops and their administrators constructed and memorialised specific ideas of archiepiscopacy to shape future practice.