page_title: William II Canynges
section_title: Interaction with royalty
hierarchical_section_title: William II Canynges / Interaction with royalty
caption_attribution_description: English: A mezzotint of William II Canynges (c. 1399–1474), in clerical robes. Originally an English merchant and shipper from Bristol who one of the wealthiest private citizens of his day, Canynges took up clerical orders following the death of his wife Joan Burton in September 1467.
context_page_description: William II Canynges was an English merchant and shipper from Bristol, one of the wealthiest private citizens of his day and an occasional royal financier. He served as Mayor of Bristol five times and as MP for Bristol thrice. He was a generous patron of the arts in Bristol, particularly concerning the church of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, "The crown of Bristol architecture". Following the death of his wife Joan in 1467, he renounced civic and commercial life and was ordained a priest in 1468, in which capacity he remained until his death six years later. His tomb effigy in St Mary's later inspired the boy poet Thomas Chatterton to write the romantic poem "The Storie of William Canynge".
context_section_description: At Bristol in 1456 he entertained Queen Margaret of Anjou, consort of the Lancastrian King Henry VI (1422–1461). William's half-brother Thomas Young, whilst serving with him as the Bristol MPs in 1450, had proposed a motion in Parliament for the recognition of his Yorkist royal patron Richard, Duke of York (d.  1460) as heir to Henry's throne, for which action he was imprisoned.  Canynges appears to have shared his half-brother's support for the Yorkist cause as in 1450 during his third term as mayor he prevented the sale in Bristol of gunpowder intended for use against the Duke. He also occupied Bristol Castle on the Duke's instructions, holding it against his rival Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (d. 1455).  Whilst mayor in September 1461, following Henry's deposition in that year, Canynges received in Bristol the Duke's son, the new Yorkist King Edward IV (1461–1483), to whom he loaned 500 marks.
caption: William II Canynges by J. Jehner. Mezzotint, 1787. National Portrait Gallery, NPG D24072
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