Pandulph

Pandulph (or Pandolfo) (d. 1226), Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and bishop of Norwich, was born in Rome, and first came to England in 1211, when he was commissioned by Innocent III to negotiate with King John.

Obtaining no satisfactory concessions, he is said to have produced the papal sentence of excommunication in the very presence of the king. In May 1213 he again visited England to receive the king's submission. The ceremony took place at Dover, and on the following day John, of his own motion, formally surrendered England to the representative of Rome to receive it again as a papal fief.

Pandulph repaid this act of humility by using every means to avert the threatened French invasion of England. For nearly a year he was superseded by the cardinal-legate Nicholas of Tusculum[?]; but returning in 1215 was present at the conference of Runnymede, when the great charter was signed. He rendered valuable aid to John who rewarded him with the see of Norwich. The arrival of the cardinal-legate Gualo (1216) relegated Pandulph to a secondary position; but after Gualo's departure (1218) he came forward once more.

As representing the pope he claimed a control over Hubert de Burgh and the other ministers of the young Henry III; and his correspondence shows that he interfered in every department of the administration. His arrogance was tolerated while the regency was still in need of papal assistance; but in 1221 Hubert de Burgh and the primate Stephen Langton successfully moved the pope to recall Pandulph and to send no other legate a latere in his place.

Pandulph retained the see of Norwich, but from this time drops out of English politics. He died in Rome on September 16 1226 but his body was taken to Norwich for burial.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.