High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! William de Corbeil or William of Corbeil (circa 1070–1136) was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Very little is known of William`s early life or his family, except that he was born at Corbeil in the outskirts of Paris and that he had two brothers. Educated as a theologian, he taught briefly before serving the bishops of Durham and London as a clerk and subsequently becoming a canon, a priest who lived a communal life. William was elected to the see of Canterbury as a compromise candidate in 1123, the first canon to become an English archbishop. He succeeded Ralph d`Escures, who had employed him as a chaplain.