Godfrey Giffard was born about 1235 and was the younger brother of Walter Giffard, who was to become Archbishop of York and whose successful career ensured the preferment of Godfrey.
14 Facts About Godfrey Giffard
2.
Godfrey Giffard appears to have profited from his brother's position, and held the following positions:.
3.
In 1272 Godfrey Giffard acted with Roger de Meyland Bishop of Lichfield in treating with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Wales.
4.
Godfrey Giffard was made a commissioner along with Roger Mortimer to investigate certain grievances of the Oxford scholars, and in 1278 acted as an itinerant justice in Hertfordshire and Kent.
5.
In 1279 Godfrey Giffard succeeded to the very extensive property of his brother the Archbishop of York.
6.
Godfrey Giffard was one of the four negotiators selected in 1289 by King Edward I of England to treat at Salisbury with the Scottish and Norwegian envoys about sending Margaret of Norway to Scotland.
7.
Godfrey Giffard ruled over the See of Worcester for more than thirty-three years, and his activities were almost confined to his own diocese.
8.
Godfrey Giffard was engaged in many disputes with his monastic cathedral chapter, long accounts of which, written from the monks' point of view, have survived in the "Annals of Worcester".
9.
Godfrey Giffard was involved in another great dispute with the Abbot of Westminster after he had deposed William of Ledbury, the Prior of Malvern, for "gross crimes".
10.
Godfrey Giffard had already been involved, like the other suffragans to Canterbury, in the struggle against Peckham's excessive claims of metropolitical jurisdiction; he however later more friendly with him, and sent the Archbishop many expensive gifts.
11.
Godfrey Giffard's heir was his nephew John, who was the son of his brother William Godfrey Giffard and who after fighting on the baronial side at Boroughbridge, was hanged at Gloucester, thus forfeiting his estates to the Crown.
12.
Godfrey Giffard sought leave to fortify and finish Hartlebury Castle which Bishop Cantelupe had begun.
13.
Godfrey Giffard extracted from the Bishop's executors a legacy which had been left to the See, for supplying a stock of cattle on the lands of the Bishopric.
14.
Godfrey Giffard obtained a "grant of fairs" to Stratford-on-Avon and Blockley and secured permission to fortify his palaces at Worcester and Wydindon as he had done at Hartlebury.