Nicholas Close

{{short description|15th-century Bishop of Carlisle and Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield}}

{{Infobox Christian leader

| name = Nicholas Close

| title = Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| religion = Roman Catholic

| appointed = 30 August 1452

| term_end = late October 1452

| predecessor = William Booth

| successor = Reginald Boulers

| ordination =

| ordinated_by =

| consecration = 15 March 1450

| consecrated_by =

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date = late October 1452

| death_place =

| previous_post = Bishop of Carlisle
Archdeacon of Colchester

}}

Nicholas Close (died 1452) was an English priest.

Close is widely regarded as having been born in Westmorland, in Birkbeck Fells,{{cite book|title=Alumni Etonenses: Or, A Catalogue of the Provosts & Fellows of Eton College and King's College, Cambridge|year=1797|author=Thomas Harwood|section=John Chedworth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubY8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA103}} but may have been of Flemish descent.{{cite journal|journal=Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society|volume=96|publisher=Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society|year=1996|title=The hospital of St Nicholas, Carlisle and its masters; Part 2 — The period from 1333|author=W. G. Wiseman|page=62|url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-2055-1/dissemination/pdf/Article_Level_Pdf/tcwaas/002/1996/vol96/tcwaas_002_1996_vol96_0008.pdf}} He was educated at King's College, Cambridge, being elected a fellow in 1443, one of the first six fellows on the foundation.{{acad|id= CLS450N|name=Close, Nicholas}}{{cite book|title=Observations on the Construction of the Roof of King's College Chapel, Cambridge|year=1840|author=Frederick Mackenzie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=409HAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5}} He held the curacy of St John Zachary, a church demolished to make way for King's College Chapel, the construction of which he was appointed overseer by Henry VI.{{cite book|title=The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, Volume 1|author=Horace Walpole|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1937|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jB8JAQAAIAAJ|page=18}}

He served as a commissioner to Scotland in 1449. He was provided to the see of Carlisle in January 1450, and consecrated on 15 March 1450.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 236 On 19 March he was granted an indult from the King "for life and as long as he is bishop of Carlisle, to visit his city and diocese by deputy (he being hindered so much by the service of Henry, king of England that he cannot conveniently do so in person)."

Also in 1450 he was elected to the then annual position of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.{{cite book|title=The historical register of the University of Cambridge, being a supplement to the Calendar with a record of University offices, honours and distinctions to the year 1910|editor=J.R. Tanner|year=1917|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/1910historicalreg00univuoft/page/16}} He was Bishop of Carlisle from 1450 to 1452, and was then translated to Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on 30 August 1452, serving for a short time before his death in late October 1452.Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 254