William of Louth
Bishop of Ely
William of Louth, also known as William de Luda (died 1298) was a medieval Bishop of Ely.
Life
William probably was born in Louth, Lincolnshire but his parentage is unknown. William attended a university and held a university degree. He probably held an office in the chancery under King Henry III of England. Soon after the coronation of King Edward I of England, Edward appointed William cofferer of the wardrobe, on 18 October 1274. The cofferer was in charge of the money of that department of the administration. In 1278 through 1280, William was put in charge of the construction of the town and castle at Rhuddlan by the king.
William held prebends in the dioceses of Lincoln, London, Wells, and York as well as the deanery of St Martin le Grand in London before being named Archdeacon of Durham by 22 August 1284. In 1286 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to France by the king.
William was elected to the see of Ely on 12 May 1290 and consecrated on 1 October 1290.
The public source identifies “William of Louth” as bishop of Ely. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Louth and Bishop.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8020887. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1298, 1274, 1278 and 1280.
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This entry incorporates text from “William of Louth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.