Hugh Nonant

Hugh Nonant (sometimes Hugh de Nonant; and he was also a nephew of Arnulf of Lisieux, another bishop of Lisieux. Nonant had a brother, Sylvester, who was treasurer of Lisieux. before serving as an archdeacon of the diocese of Lisieux from 1167 until 1184. Nonant served in the household of Thomas Becket while Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury, and went into exile with Becket, although he left Becket's service while the archbishop was in exile. While in Becket's service, Nonant may have authored a letter dated to 1165 that is attributed to Becket. Nonant had been reconciled to King Henry II of England by 1170.

Bishop of Coventry Nonant was elected bishop in 1185, probably in January, and consecrated on 31 January 1188. The long delay between his election and his consecration was due to Nonant's continued diplomatic efforts on behalf of Henry II. In 1186, he was sent to Rome to secure papal permission for the crowning of Prince John as King of Ireland. The bishop-elect was briefly in England from December 1186 until February 1187, but then went with King Henry to the continent and did not return to England until January 1188. However, when Henry returned to France in July 1188, Hugh accompanied the king and did not return until shortly before the coronation of King Richard I of England. Nonant also purchased the offices of Sheriff of Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire. Holding these offices was against canon law, and the bishop's tenure in these offices may have been the cause of his quarrel with Baldwin of Forde. Nonant was very shrewd and eloquent, but he was also violent in his attempts to reform or expel his monastic clergy from Coventry. In October 1189 he attempted to persuade his fellow bishops who had monastic cathedral chapters to expel the monks and replace them with secular clergy. He also attempted to get all the bishops to prosecute a joint case at Rome to expel the monastic cathedral chapters, but gave up that idea after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin of Exeter declined to go along. Nonant did, however, receive papal sanction for the replacement of monks at Coventry. By 1197, however, Pope Celestine III issued instructions to Hubert Walter, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Hugh of Lincoln, the Bishop of Lincoln and Samson of Tottington, the Abbot of Bury St Edmunds, to restore the monks to the cathedral.

After King Richard went to the Holy Land on the Third Crusade, Nonant supported the efforts of Prince John, King Richard's brother, to seize power in England. Nonant joined with John in trying to wrest control of the castles of Tickhill and Nottingham from William Longchamp, the Bishop of Ely, who had been named justiciar and chancellor during Richard's absence. It was probably Nonant who was responsible for the meeting at Loddon Bridge on 5 October 1191 that ended in the deposition of Longchamp from office. The bishop lost his three sheriffdoms, and retired to Normandy.

Death and legacy Nonant died on 27 March 1198. Another historian, John Gillingham, stated that Nonant was King "John's chief propagandist and, in his spare time, bishop of Coventry". Hugh's brother was Robert Brito, who was captured by King Richard in 1194 and starved to death because Robert had earlier refused to be a hostage for the payment of Richard's ransom.

The constitutions of the cathedral chapter at Lichfield are often stated to have been Nonant's work, but this has been disproven. This letter has now been published as part of the English Episcopal Acta series in the volume on the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry.