Newark and Sherwood: Alexander the Magnificent by David Purveur, commissioned by The Acorns Project

This article, written by DAVID PURVEUR, is one in a series commissioned by The Acorns Project.

Supported by Arts Council England’s Cultural Recovery Fund, The Acorns Project seeks to improve access to culture across Newark and Sherwood.

These articles form part of the Voices Of Newark And Sherwood strand of the project and have been written by local writers to tell the stories of notable local figures.

To find out more about the Voices Of Newark And Sherwood and The Acorns Project, go to facebook.com/theacornsproject

Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, was arguably among the greatest bishops of the 12th Century. He was also known as Alexander the Magnificent, not just because of his lavish lifestyle but also because of his many accomplishments as a bishop.

Originally from very humble beginnings, he was schooled in Laon in Northern France.

His early success was largely due to his connections and the fortunes of his wider family. He is recorded as one of several nephews (nepotes) to Roger of Sarum, a man with the knack of being in the right place at the right time.

Roger was serving in a church in Caen when he managed to befriend the man who would eventually become King Henry I.

In 1121, as the trusted adviser and chancellor to the king, Roger would appoint Alexander as an archdeacon in Salisbury, where he was now bishop ­— a fine example of nepotism that was characteristic of church appointments at that time.

In January 1123 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that Roger of Salisbury was accompanying the king and Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln, on a ride through Woodstock deer park when the bishop suffered a sudden fit and announced, “Lord King, I die”.

Once again, ‘uncle’ Roger was in the right place to ensure he had an influence over the chosen successor and by Eastertide of that year Alexander was given the bishopric.

In the years that were to follow Alexander set about proving a most worthy bishop, establishing abbeys, seven nunneries in the diocese, and St Leonard’s leper hospital in Newark, remnants of which are still visible today in the timber-frame buildings on Kirkgate.

But it is perhaps for his building works Alexander is best remembered.

Following a fire in Lincoln cathedral it is believed he was responsible for strengthening the building with possibly the first known stone vaulting. Although there is little surviving evidence in the records and even the building itself, he began work to transform the west front.

By the year 1135 Alexander had turned his attention to building castles. There were three we know of ­— Sleaford, Banbury and the best surviving example in Newark.

It was to be the last year of his reign when Henry I declared through charter: “I have granted to Alexander…that he may make a ditch and rampart of his fishpond of Niwerc upon the Fosseway…”

We can only hope there was a fishpond and this is not how Henry viewed the town.

Henry’s successor, King Stephen, was less trusting of the dynasty that had seen Alexander rise to his magnificence and in 1139 he was arrested with his uncle in Oxford and imprisoned until they each gave up their strongholds, power and much of their wealth.

Alexander passed the rest of his years in purely ecclesiastical matters.

He spent much of 1145-46 in Rome and during another visit to the Pope in France in 1147 he was taken ill.

He returned to Lincoln in February 1148 where he died.

There is no known tomb or memorial, but his memory lives on and he is well remembered above and beyond ‘his fishpond of Newark’.