Bishop William de Kilkenny - Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire
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William de Kilkenny (d1256) monument. Bishop of Ely Cambridgeshire. This monument, made of Purbeck marble. has his effigy on a tomb shaped slab with columns on either side and angels in the spandrels.
Mathew Paris of St Albans said that he was a "modest, faithful, and well learned man". Between 1250 to 1255 he was keeper of the great seal, and acted as Chancellor when Henry III travelled, in 1253, to Gascony to quell a rebellion there that had been partially formented by the kings of Aragon and Castile.
During the Gascony expedition by Henry III, an alliance had been made with the king Alfonso X of Castile, and Henry's son Edward I was married to Eleanor, Alfonso's daughter in 1254.
William was made bishop of Ely in 1255. However in 1256 he was sent to Spain on a diplomatic mission for Henry III, where he became ill and died at Sugho, where he was buried, and his heart was returned to Ely.
