William Greenfield

William Greenfield
Archbishop of York
Archbishop Greenfield's monument at York Minster
Elected	4 December 1304
Installed	unknown
Term ended	6 December 1315
Predecessor	Thomas of Corbridge
Successor	William Melton
Orders
Consecration	30 January 1306
Personal details
Died	6 December 1315 Cawood
Buried	York Minster

William Greenfield (died 6 December 1315) served as both the Lord Chancellor of England and the Archbishop of York. He was also known as William of Greenfield.

Greenfield was born in the eponymous Lincolnshire hamlet of Greenfield – but the date of his birth is now lost but we do know that he was related to a predecessor in the See, Archbishop Giffard – and it was Giffard that paid for the young Greenfield's Oxford education. in the year 1269 Giffard instructed that his bailiff at Churchdown (near Gloucester), "...to pay to Roger the miller of Oxford twenty shillings, for our kinsman William of Greenfield while he is studying there, because it would be difficult for us to send the money to him on account of the perils of the ways". After Oxford Greenfield studied in Paris, where he became a doctor of both civil and canon law. Giffard's brother was Bishop Godfrey Gifford – the Bishop of Worcester.

Greenfield was the first of a number of Archbishops who ruled the northern English Archiepiscopal diocese as well as being significant statesmen during the fourteenth century.

Before being made Archbishop he was variously:

Greenfield was elected by the Chapter of York on 4 December 1304; however there was delay in his consecration due to the death of Pope Benedict XI; when finally consecrated it was by Clement V at Lyons, on 30 January 1306. Greenfield was strongly commended to the pope and cardinals by the King, who told them of his "...wisdom in council, industry, literary knowledge, and usefulness to the state".

Before his appointment Greenfield had lived for some time resident in Rome where the cost of his living and the procuring of the Papal assent were very heavy leaving Greenfield obliged to borrow money and to remark, "All the money lenders were ecclesiastics. The Jews had disappeared some years before and the greater part of the treasure of the country was now stored away in the chests of some wealthy clerk or in the coffers of the monastery." He was forced to raise money to pay his debts from the company of the Bellardi of Lucca. In an attempt to free himself from the Italian money lenders he exacted aids from the clergy, and borrowed from many church dignitaries in the north of England.