Rowland Lee

Bishop Rowland Lee (c. 1487 – January 28 1543) was an English administrator and bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

Lee is best known for his term as the Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches, where, on the direction of Thomas Cromwell, he set out in 1534 to bring law and order to the Welsh regions. What ensued was a reign of terror, in which Lee decided the best way to deal with the 'lawless' Welsh was to convict and hang with impunity. Lee claimed to have hung 500 Welshmen in his five years; possibly an exaggeration, but in any event indicates the character of the man described as a "great despiser of Welshmen" by Dafydd Jenkins. Lee was also disliked by the gentry for his scant respect, he once boasted to have hanged "Five of the best blood in the county of Shropshire".

The "hanging Bishop" was said to be disappointed and incensed when the first Act of Union was enacted in 1536, as he believed the Welsh could not be trusted as part of England. He died at Shrewsbury.

External links

*Michael A. Jones, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16307 ‘Lee, Rowland (c.1487–1543)’] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 1 June 2007