{{short description|15th and 16th-century Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of Rochester, and Bishop of London}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | name = Richard FitzJames | title = Bishop of London | image = | alt = | caption = | religion = Catholic Church | archdiocese = | diocese = | appointed = 5 June 1506 |term_end = 15 January 1522 | predecessor = William Barons | successor = Cuthbert Tunstall | ordination = | consecration = 21 May 1497 | consecrated_by = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = 15 January 1522 | death_place = | previous_post = Bishop of Rochester<br>Bishop of Chichester | coat_of_arms = Richard Fitzjames arms 2.jpg | ordinated_by = }} thumb|Steyning Screen '''Richard FitzJames''' (died 1522) was an English academic and administrator who became successively Bishop of Rochester, Bishop of Chichester, and Bishop of London.

==Origins== Born about 1442, he was the son of John FitzJames (died 1476), who lived at Redlynch in Somerset, and his wife Alice Newburgh. The judge Sir John FitzJames was his nephew.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| year=2004 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/9612 |url = https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/9612|access-date = 22 October 2022| last1=Thompson | first1=S. }}</ref>

==Career== He was principal of St Alban Hall, Oxford from 1477 to 1481,<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB |wstitle= Fitzjames, Richard |volume= 19 |last= Pocock |first= Nicholas |author-link= Nicholas Pocock (historian) |pages = 180-181 |short=1}}</ref> and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in 1481 and 1491.

He was nominated to the see of Rochester on 2 January 1497 and consecrated on 21 May 1497, being translated to the see of Chichester on 29 November 1503.<ref name=Handbook268>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 268</ref> He was translated from Chichester to the see of London about 5 June 1506.<ref name=Handbook240>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 240</ref>

He died in London on 15 January 1522,<ref name=Handbook259>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 259</ref> and was buried in a tomb he had prepared for himself in the nave of Old St Paul's Cathedral,<ref name = ODNB/> with his arms being depicted on the ceiling.<ref>{{Cite book| last =Dingley | first =Thomas | author-link = Thomas Dingley (antiquarian) | title =History from Marble | date =c. 1680 | location =London | page =449}}</ref> During his life he had co-founded a school in his native Somerset, now known as King's School Bruton, which he remembered in his will dated 11 April 1518.<ref name = ODNB/>

==Steyning Screen== He probably commissioned wooden panelling,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tudor Panels – Steyning Parish Church of St Andrew and St Cuthman |url=https://steyningparishchurch.org/tudor-panels/ |access-date=2023-04-26 |language=en-GB}}</ref> originally for the Bishop of London's Palace at Fulham, which, eventually, became a screen now displayed in the Parish Church of St Andrew and St Cuthman in Steyning, West Sussex. It commemorates the wedding of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, bearing the Royal Arms and Catherine's pomegranates, as well as Richard FitzJames Coat of Arms and the date 1522. It is suggested that it would be an embarrassment after the divorce and so it was removed from Fulham Palace.

==References== {{reflist}} * {{cite book |last1=Fryde |first1=E. B. |last2=Greenway |first2=D. E. |last3=Porter |first3=S. |last4=Roy |first4=I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }}

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{s-bef|before=John Lane, William Sutton}} {{s-ttl| title=Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University | years=1481}} {{s-aft| after=Robert Wrangwais, William Sutton}} {{s-bef| before=John Gigur}} {{s-ttl| title=Warden of Merton College, Oxford | years=1482–1507}} {{s-aft| after=Thomas Harper}} {{s-bef| before=John Coldale}} {{s-ttl| title=Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University | years=1491}} {{s-aft| after=John Coldale}} {{s-rel | ca}} {{s-bef | before=Thomas Savage}} {{s-ttl | title=Bishop of Rochester | years= 1497–1503 }} {{s-aft | after=John Fisher }} {{s-bef | before=Edward Story}} {{s-ttl | title=Bishop of Chichester | years= 1503–1506 }} {{s-aft | after=Robert Sherburne}} {{s-bef | before=William Barnes}} {{s-ttl | title=Bishop of London | years= 1506–1522}} {{s-aft | after=Cuthbert Tunstall }} {{end}}

{{Bishops of Rochester}} {{Bishops of London}} {{Bishops of Chichester}} {{Authority control}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzjames, Richard}} Category:Bishops of Rochester Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Category:Bishops of Chichester Category:Bishops of London Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford Category:Year of birth missing Category:15th-century births Category:1522 deaths Category:15th-century English scholars Category:Founders of English schools and colleges Category:Wardens of Merton College, Oxford Category:Principals of St Alban Hall, Oxford