The diocese of
Mercia was founded 656 with
Diuma as its first bishop; according to Bede he was at the same time the Bishop of Lindisfarne and of the Middle Angles, amongst whom he died. When
Chad was made Bishop in 669, his seat was at Lichfield, thus the diocese was named after that city. In 691 the area over which the bishop held authority was divided to form the smaller dioceses of Lichfield,
Leicester,
Lindsey and
Worcester. It was briefly the seat of an
archbishop under
Hygeberht from 787 to 799 (officially dissolved in 803) during the ascendancy of the
kingdom of Mercia.
Offa, King of
Mercia seemed to resent his own bishops paying allegiance to the
Archbishop of Canterbury in
Kent who, whilst under Offa's control, was not of his own kingdom of Mercia. Offa therefore created his own archbishopric in Lichfield, who presided over all the bishops from the
Humber to the
Thames, in 786, with the consent of
Pope Adrian I. The Pope's official representatives were received warmly by Offa and were present at the
Council of Chelsea (787), often called 'the contentious synod', where it was proposed that the Archbishopric of Canterbury be restricted in order to make way for Offa's new archbishop. It was vehemently opposed, but Offa and the papal representatives defeated
Jænberht, Archbishop of Canterbury, installing
Hygeberht as the new Archbishop of Lichfield. Pope Adrian sent Hygeberht his ceremonial garment, obviously denoting his support for this move. In gratitude, Offa promised to send an annual shipment of gold to the pope for alms and supplying the lights in
St. Peter's church in
Rome. However the Archbishopric of Lichfield only lasted for 16 years, ending after Offa's death, when at the
Fifth Council of Clovesho its dioceses were restored to
Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury by
Pope Leo III. The bishop's seat was briefly moved to
Chester in 1075, but by 1102 was in
Coventry. From 1228
Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield became the official title with seats at both cathedrals, though various older names remained in common usage. After the
Reformation of the 1530s
the cathedral at Coventry was demolished, and after the
Restoration of Charles II in 1660 the bishop used the style
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. In 1837 the ancient bishopric was divided. The
archdeaconry of Coventry (comprising northern and eastern Warwickshire) was transferred to the
see of Worcester and the style
Bishop of Lichfield adopted. ==List of bishops==