Robert Holgate was Bishop of Llandaff from 1537 and then Archbishop of York. He recognised Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. Although a protege of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, Holgate had a career in the Gilbertine Order of which he became master. He was briefly Prior of Watton until the priory was dissolved in 1539. Most of the Gilbertine houses were lesser establishments which should have been dissolved under the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535. However, Holgate is credited with using his influence to save them for a few years. For example, Malton Priory, one of the lesser Gilbertine houses, was the last of them to surrender in December 1539, whereasSempringham Priory, worth more than £200 a year, surrendered in 1538. Holgate was consecrated as Bishop of Llandaff on 25 March 1537. He translated to York on 16 January 1545. At York in 1546, he founded a school, now called Archbishop Holgate's School. He was President of the Council of the North from 1538. In 1550 Holgate married Barbara Wentworth, who was about 25 at the time. This may however have been a second marriage to make it fully legal, and Holgate and Wentworth may have first married in late 1547 with Roger Tongue officiating. In 1551 Anthony Norman claimed that he was already married to Barbara Wentworth, but the courts decided that their marriage when she was about seven had not been a binding legal transaction. Robert and Barbara remained married until 1553, when shortly after Mary I of England came to the throne she imprisoned Holgate on various charges, with his being a married clergy being central to these. In 1554 Holgate renounced his marriage claiming he had only entered it to avoid suspicion as a papist. In January 1555 Holgate was released from prison, but he was not restored to priestly office. He died later that year. In 1558 a Robert Holgate from Yorkshire entered the University of Cambridge. He may have been a son of Holgate, since there are some claims he had two children by Barbara, but there is no conclusive evidence on the matter.
