Thurstan, or Turstin (c. 1070–6 February 1140) was a medieval Archbishop of York, the son of a priest. He served King William II of England and King Henry I of England before his election to the see of York in 1114. Once elected, his consecration was delayed for five years while he fought attempts by the Archbishop of Canterbury to assert authority over York. Eventually, he was consecrated by the pope and allowed to return to England. While archbishop, he secured two new suffragan bishops for his province. When King Henry I died, Thurstan supported Henry's nephew Stephen of Blois as king. Thurstan also defended the northern part of England from invasion by the Scots, taking a leading part in organizing the English forces at the Battle of the Standard. Shortly before his death, Thurstan resigned from his see and took the habit of a Cluniac monk.

Early life

Thurstan was the son of a canon of St Paul's in London named Anger, Auger or Ansgar who held the prebend of Cantlers. Another son of Anger, Audoen, was later Bishop of Évreux. accessed on 14 September 2007Hollister Henry I p. 242–244Spear "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" Journal of British Studies p. 5Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants p. 151 Thurstan's mother was named Popelina. Thurstan was born sometime about 1070 in the Bessin region of Normandy. Before 1104 the father was given the prebend of Cantlers by Maurice, bishop of London, and the family moved to England.Burton "Thurstan (c.1070–1140)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography accessed 11 November 2007right|thumb|150px|The Abbey of Cluny, where Thurstan visited and vowed to become a monk at some point in his life.
Early in his career, Thurstan held the prebendary of Consumpta in the diocese of London, accessed on 14 September 2007 and served both King William II and King Henry I as a royal clerk. accessed on 14 September 2007 At some point in Thurstan's early career, he visited Cluny, where he vowed to become a Cluniac monk later in his life. Thurstan also served Henry as almoner,Barlow, Frank, The English Church 1066–1154 p. 83 and it was Henry who obtained Thurstan's election as archbishop of York in August 1114.Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 281 He was ordained a deacon in December of 1114 and ordained a priest on 6 June 1115 by Ranulf Flambard, who was Bishop of Durham.Mason "Flambard, Ranulf (c.1060–1128)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Controversy and exile

thumb|left|150px|Henry I of England, from Cassell's History of England c. 1902
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d'Escures, refused to consecrate Thurstan unless the archbishop-elect made a profession of obedience to the southern see. This was part of the long-running Canterbury-York dispute, which started in 1070.Barlow English Church 1066–1154 pp. 39–44 Thurstan refused to make a profession,Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 394 and asked the king for permission to go to Rome to consult Pope Paschal II. Henry I refused to allow him to make the journey, but even without a personal appeal from Thurstan, Paschal decided against Canterbury. At the Council of Salisbury in 1116 the English king ordered Thurstan to submit to Canterbury, but instead Thurstan publicly resigned the archibishopric.Cantor Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture p. 305–309 On his way to the Council, Thurstan had received letters from Paschall II that supported York, and commanded that he should be consecrated without a profession. Similar letters had gone to Ralph d'Escures from the pope, ordering Ralph, as Archbishop of Canterbury, to consecrate Thurstan. After the news of the letters became public, nothing happened about Thurstan's resignation, and he continued to be considered the archbishop-elect.
Over the next three years, the new popes, Gelasius II and Calixtus II, championed Thurstan's case, and on 19 October 1119 he was consecrated by Calixtus at Reims.Hollister Henry I p. 269–273 Calixtus had earlier promised Henry that he would not consecrate Thurstan without the king's permission, which had still not been granted. Enraged at this, the king refused to allow the newly consecrated archbishop to enter England, and Thurstan remained for some time on the continent in the company of the pope. While he was traveling with the pope, he also visited Adela of Blois, King Henry's sister, who was also Thurstan's spiritual daughter. At about this same time, Calixtus issued two bulls in Thurstan's favor, one that released York from Canterbury's supremacy forever, and the other demanded the king allow Thurstan to return to York. The pope threatened an interdict on England as a punishment if the papal bull was not obeyed. At length, Thurstan's friends, including Adela, succeeded in reconciling him with Henry, and he rejoined the king in Normandy. At Easter 1120, he escorted Adela to the monastery of Marcigny, where she retired active secular affairs.LoPrete "Anglo-Norman Card of Adela of Blois" Albion p. 588 He was recalled to England in early 1121.

Archbishop

One of the main weaknesses of the see of York was its lack of suffragan bishops.Rose "Cumbrian Society" Studies in Church History p. 124 Thurstan managed to secure the resurrection of the Diocese of Galloway, or Whithorn, in 1125. It is possible that he compromised with Fergus of Galloway, who was the lord or sub-king of Galloway, in what is now Scotland. Thurstan secured another suffragan, and Fergus gained a bishop in his lordship, where previously ecclesiastical matters in his subkingdom had been handled by Scottish bishops. The first bishop was the native Galwegian – Gilla Aldan. This provoked the wrath of Wimund, Bishop of the Isles, who had previously had jurisdiction over Galloway; but the new bishopric survived, and York had a new suffragan. The latter was an important step in the battle between York and Canterbury over the primacy, which was mainly a battle over the prestige of their respective sees. The number of bishops subject to either archbishop was an important factor in the reputation of each.Barlo The English Church 1066–1154 p. 40–41 In 1133, Thurstan, who had received papal permission to found an entirely new diocese, consecrated Æthelwold as the first bishop of the new see of Carlisle.
Thurstan refused to accept that the new archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeil, was his superior, and did not help with William's consecration. The dispute between the two continued, and both archbishops carried their complaints in person to Rome twice. In 1126, Pope Honorius II ruled in favor of York.Duggan "From the Conquest to the Death of John" in Lawrence The English Church & the Papacy in the Middle Ages p. 98 The pope based his decision on the fact that Canterbury's supporting documents had been forged.Poole Domesday to Magna Carta p. 184thumb|right|125px|A monument at the site of the Battle of the Standard, where the troops Thurstan defeated the Scots.
Thurstan supported King Stephen after Henry I's death in 1135, and appeared at Stephen's first court at Easter held at Westminster.Powell The House of Lords p. 64 Thurstan negotiated a truce at Roxburgh in 1138 between England and Scotland. It was Thurstan who mustered the army which defeated the Scots at the Battle of the Standard on 22 August 1138 near Northallerton, Yorkshire.Barlow The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216 p. 211Huscroft Ruling England 1042–1217 p. 73 Thurstan did not take direct part in the battle., but he created the standard that gave the battle its name, by putting a ship's mast in a cart and hanging the banners of Saint Peter of York, Saint John of Beverley, and Saint Wilfrid of Ripon on the mast. The Scots had invaded attempting to aid the Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henry I and Stephen's rival for the throne.Davis King Stephen p. 36–37 On 21 January 1140 Thurstan resigned his see and entered the order of the Cluniacs at Pontefract and he died there on 6 February 1140. He was buried in the church at Pontefract.

Legacy

Thurstan gave land to many of the churches of his diocese and founded several religious houses. He founded the first nunnery in Yorkshire when he founded St Clement's between 1125 and 1133.Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 438 He obtained for Whitby Abbey a papal privilege of protection as well as giving his own privilege to the abbey.Dawtry "Benedictine Revival in the North" Studies in Church History 18 p. 91 He also helped found the Cistercian Abbey of Fountains, by giving the site to monks who had been expelled from the Abbey of St. Mary's, York.Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 70 Thurstan helped the hermitess Christina of Markyate at several points in her career, and tried to persuade her to become the first prioress of his foundation of St. Clement's.Barlow The English Church 1066–1154 p. 203 He was a patron to the Augustinian Hexham Priory, founded by his predecessor at York, as well as helping the foundation of Bridlington Priory, another Augustinian house.Burton Monastic and Religious Orders p. 48 He was a sincere reformer, and opposed to the election of unfit men to the episocpacy. When Pope Innocent II asked Thurstan's opinion on the elevation of Anselm of St Saba, who was Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, to become bishop of London, Thurstan replied "If we consider his life and reputation, it would be much more fitting to remove him from his abbacy than to promote him to be bishop of London."Appleby The Troubled Reign of King Stephen p. 106–107 Anselm was not confirmed as bishop.