Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 7, 2010

Henry de Lichton [de Lychtone, Leighton] (died 1440), was a medieval Scottish prelate and diplomat, who, serving as Bishop of Moray (1414–1422) and Bishop of Aberdeen (1422–1440), became a significant patron of the church, a cathedral builder, and a writer. He also served King James I of Scotland as a diplomat in England, France, and Italy.

Lichton was born in the diocese of Brechin (probably Angus) somewhere between 1369 and 1379 to Henry and Janet Lichton. He was well-educated for his time, attending the University of Orléans and possibly the University of St Andrews, earning licentiates in civil law and canon law, a bachelorate in canon law, and a doctorate in canon law, all achieved between 1394 and 1415; he attained an additional doctorate—in civil law—by 1436. Lichton followed an ecclesiastical career simultaneously with his studies. The first notice of this career comes in 1392, when he was vicar of Markinch in Fife, a vicariate of St Andrews Cathedral Priory. He was a canon of the diocese of Moray by 1394, and Archdeacon of Aberdeen by 1395, holding this position into the following year, 1396.