Hubert Walter

Hubert Walter
Installed	May 29 1193
Term ended	July 13 1205
Predecessor	Reginald Fitz Jocelin
Successor	John de Gray
Personal details
Died	July 12 1205
Buried	Trinity Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral

Hubert Walter (died July 13 1205) was chief justiciar of England and archbishop of Canterbury in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. He owed his early advancement to his uncle Ranulf de Glanvill, who helped him become a clerk in the Exchequer. Hubert served King Henry II of England in many different ways, not only in the financial administration. After an unsuccessful candidacy to the see of York, Hubert was elected bishop of Salisbury shortly after the elevation of King Henry's son Richard I to the throne of England.

Hubert accompanied King Richard on the Third Crusade, and was one of the principal persons involved in raising Richard's ransom after the king had been captured in Germany while returning home from Crusade. As a reward for his faithful service, Hubert was selected to become the next Archbishop of Cantebury in 1193. Hubert also served as justiciar for Richard until 1198. While justiciar, Hubert was responsible for raising the money that Richard needed to prosecute his wars in France. He also set up a system of justice that involved the selection of four knights in each hundred to administer justice, a system that was the beginnings of justices of the peace. He also revived the dispute of his predecessor to set up a church in rivalry to Christ Church Priory in Canterbury, that was eventually settled by the pope ordering him to quit the plan.

With Richard's death in 1199 and the elevation of Richard's brother John to the throne, Hubert was named Lord Chancellor of England, an office he held until his death in 1205. Hubert had been instrumental in ensuring that John became king, and it was Hubert that crowned John. While chancellor, Hubert began the keeping of the Charter Roll, a record of all charters issued by the chancery. Hubert also served John as a diplomat, undertaking a number of missions to France. Hubert was not noted for his holiness in life or his learning, but historians have judged him one of the most outstanding governmental ministers in English History.

Early life

Hubert was the son of Hervey Walter and his wife Maud de Valoignes, one of the daughters (and co-heiresses) of Theobald de Valoignes. Bertha, Maud's sister, married Ranulf de Glanvill, the justiciar of Henry II. Hubert, and his older brother Theobald Walter, were thus nephews of Ranulf de Glanvill. Hubert rose under the eye of his kinsman to an important position in the Curia Regis. Other brothers were Osbert, who was a royal justice and died in 1206, and Roger, Hamo and Bartholomew, who other than attesting some charters are unknown.

Early assignments

The capture of King Richard I from the Chronicle of Petrus de Ebulo, 1197

In 1184 and in 1185 he appears as a baron of the exchequer. He was employed on different tasks by the king, sometimes as a negotiator, sometimes as a justice, and sometimes as a royal secretary. He was appointed Dean of York by order of King Henry II about July of 1186. He was also an unsuccessful candidate to become Archbishop of York in September of 1186. In 1188 he founded a Premonstratensian house of canons on family property at West Dereham, Norfolk. After the death of King Henry, the new King Richard I appointed Hubert bishop of Salisbury, with his election taking place on September 15 1189 and his consecration on October 22 1189. His election took place at a council at Pipewell and he was consecrated at Westminster. Also elected to bishoprics at this council were Godfrey de Lucy to the see of Winchester, Richard FitzNeal to the see of London, and William Longchamp to the see of Ely. The elevation of so many new bishops was probably meant to signal the new king's break with his father's habit of keeping bishoprics empty in order to retain the revenues of the sees.

By Richard's command Hubert accompanied the king on the Third Crusade. He was sent with the group that went straight from Marseille to the Holy Land, which included Baldwin of Exeter, Archbishop of Canterbury and Ranulf Glanville, Hubert's uncle. He gained the respect of the crusaders, and acted as Richard’s principal agent in negotiations with Saladin for a peace treaty. After the conclusion of the treaty with Saladin, Hubert was honored by being given a place in the first band of pilgrims that entered Jerusalem. He led the English army back to England after Richard's departure from Palestine; but in Sicily he heard of the king's captivity, and hurried to Germany. He, along with William of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, was one of the first of Richard's subjects to find the king at Ochsenfurt where Richard was being held. In April of 1193 he returned to England to raise the king's ransom. Richard wrote to his mother Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine that Hubert should be chosen for the see of Canterbury, and soon after his return to England, he was duly elected archbishop of Canterbury, having been transferred to the see on May 29 1193. He was chosen as archbishop without consultation from the bishops, who normally claimed the right to help decide the new archbishop. As well, he was made justiciar on December 25 1193.

Justiciar

After Richard was ransomed, the king spent little time in England, instead concentrating on the war in France. Hubert was left in England, to raise money for the king's wars and to see to the administration of the kingdom. Hubert was forced to find new and novel means of raising money. The main feature of all his measures was the novel and extended use of representation and election for all the purposes of government.

One of his first acts as justiciar was in February of 1194, when he presided over a feudal judgement of Prince John, who had sent letters to his retainers to prepare John's castles for defense after the release of Richard from captivity. This was to have been the start of a rebellion by John, but the letters were intercepted and John was deprived of his lands. Hubert was required to lay siege to Marlborough Castle himself, in order to defeat John's rebellion. Hubert's brother Theobald was employed by Hubert in efforts in Lancaster, and was rewarded with the office of sheriff of Lancaster. When John showed no signs of submitting, Hubert called an ecclesiastical council at Westminster for the purposes of excommunicating John unless John submitted.

Hubert's chief administrative measures are contained in his instruction to the itinerant justices of 1194 and 1198, in his ordinance of 1195 for the conservation of the peace, and in his scheme of 1198 for the assessment of the land tax. The justices of 1194 were to order the election of four coroners by each county court. These new officers were to "keep," or register, the pleas of the crown, a duty before this left to the sheriff. The juries, both for answering the questions asked by the judges and for trying cases under the grand assize, were to be chosen by a committee of four knights, also elected by the county court. He also worked to introduce order into the lending of money by Jewish moneylenders, and organized a system whereby the royal officials worked to combat fraud by both parties in the business of Jewish moneylending. Hubert also is probably the originator of the custom of keeping an archival copy of all charters, letters, patents and feet of fines in the chancery.

In 1195 Hubert issued an ordinance by which four knights were to be appointed in every hundred to act as guardians of the peace, and from this beginning eventually was evolved the office of justice of the peace. His reliance upon the knights, who now for the first time appear in the political sphere, is the first sign of the rise of this class who, either as members of parliament or justices of the peace, were to have the effective rule of England in their hands for so many centuries. In 1198, to satisfy the king's demand for money, Hubert demanded a carucage or plough-tax of five shillings on every plough-land, or carucate, under cultivation. This was the old tax, the Danegeld, in a new and heavier form and there was great difficulty in levying it. To make it easier, the justiciar ordered the assessment to be made by a sworn jury in every hundred, and one may reasonably conjecture that these jurors were also elected. Besides these constitutional changes, Hubert negotiated a peace with Scotland in 1195 and, in 1197, another with the Welsh. In 1196 a popular uprising in London led by William Fitz Osbern was quickly suppressed by Hubert. Richard had grown dissatisfied with him, however, for the carucage had not been a success, and Hubert had failed to overcome the resistance of the Great Council when its members refused to equip a force of knights to serve abroad.

Archbishop of Canterbury and Justiciar

Hubert held a legateship from Pope Celestine III from 1195 to 1198, which enabled him to act with the pope's delegated authority within the English Church. Hubert was active in investigating ecclesiastical abuses, and deposed a number of abbots, including Robert of Thorney Abbey in 1195 and an abbot of St Mary's in the province of the Archbishop of York. He also took steps at the monastic cathedral of Worcester to discipline the monks between the death of Henry de Sully and the election of John of Coutances.

He revived the scheme of his predecessor Baldwin of Exeter to found a church in Canterbury that would be secular and not monastic. He offered to promise that the new foundation's canons would not be allowed to vote in archepiscopal elections nor would the body of Saint Thomas Becket to ever be allowed to be moved to the new church, but the monks of his cathedral chapter were suspicious and appealed to the papacy. The whole dispute from the time of Baldwin of Exeter, Hubert's predecessor as archbishop, flared up again, with the papacy siding with the monks and the king siding with his archbishop, and the monks ending up locked up in their buildings once more. In the end, Pope Innocent III ruled for the monks and ordered Hubert to destroy what had been built.

The archbishop held ecclesiastical councils, including one at York in 1195 which legislated that the clergy should collect their tithes in full, "without any reduction." Another was held at London in 1200, which legislated about the size and composition of the retinues that the clergy might travel with. This council also ruled that the clergy, when saying Mass, should speak clearly, and not unduly speed up or slow down their speech. Walter also headed up inquiries into the canonizations of Gilbert of Sempringham and Wulfstan of Worcester, which he had been requested to do by the papacy. It was Hubert that refused to acquiesce in the election of Gerald of Wales to the see of St David's in Wales, and Hubert also opposed the efforts of Gerald and others to elevate St David's to an archbishopric.

In 1198 Hubert, gave the monks of Canterbury who he was quarreling with another opportunity of complaining to Pope Innocent III. When he arrested William Fitz Osbern in 1196 he had committed an act of sacrilege in Bow Church, which belonged to the monks. The pope asked Richard to free Hubert from all secular duties, and the king did so, thus making the demand an excuse for dismissing Hubert from the justiciarship, which Hubert resigned on July 11 1198. It may have been that Hubert resigned willingly, as he had talked of resigning his secular duties since 1194.

Under John

King John from a medieval manuscript of Historia Anglorum circa 1250–59

The Life of William Marshal says that when word reached William Marshall that Richard was dead, Marshall consulted with Hubert and they discussed who to support as the next king. Marshall's choice was John, but Hubert initially leaned towards John's young nephew Arthur of Brittany. When Marshall was insistent on John, who was an adult, the author of the Life has Hubert say in reply " 'So be it then," said the archbishop, 'but mark my words, Marshal, you will never regret anything in your life as much as this.' " This is almost certainly a later retrospective that has been inserted into the biography, however, based on later knowledge of John's behavior. After John knew he had the support of William Marshall, who was one of the richest and most influential barons, and Hubert, John then sent Hubert ahead to England to get all free men to pledge fealty to the new king. On May 27 1199 Hubert crowned King John, making a speech in which the old theory of election by the people was enunciated for the last time. This story is only contained in Matthew of Paris, however, and while it seems certain that Walter made a speech, it is not certain what the exact contents were. The same day that John was crowned, John appointed Hubert Lord Chancellor. W. L. Warren, historian and author of a scholarly biography of John, says of Hubert that "No one living had a firmer grasp of the intricacies of royal government, yet even in old age his mind was adaptable and fecund with suggestions for coping with new problems."

One of his first suggestions to his monarch was to lower the fees for having charters confirmed from nine pounds and five shillings to a fee of eighteen shillings and four pence. Accompanying this measure, was a requirement that no charter would be accepted in a king's court without having been confirmed by King John. Not only did this cut down on forgeries, it also led to the establishment of the Charter Roll, an administrative copy of all charters issued and confirmed by the government. Walter worked closely with the justiciar Geoffrey Fitz Peter, on the collection of taxation, and both men went to Wales in 1203 on a diplomatic mission.

In 1201 Hubert went on a diplomatic mission to Philip Augustus of France, and in 1202 he returned to England as regent while John was on the continent. In April of 1204 he returned to France with John de Gray the Bishop of Norwich, Eustace the Bishop of Ely, William Marshal, and Robert de Beaumont the Earl of Leicester along with the papal legate to seek peace with Philip Augustus, but Philip insisted that John hand over Arthur of Brittany and Arthur's sister Eleanor, plus renounce all his continental possessions before he would make peace. The embassy returned to England not long before Philip conquered Normandy.

Death and legacy

Hubert died on July 13 1205, after a long illness that permitted a tender parting with his monks. He was buried in the Trinity Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, next to Saint Thomas Becket, where his tomb can still be seen. Hubert was not a holy man, although he was, as John Gillingham, a historian and biographer of Richard I, says, "one of the most outstanding government ministers in English History." Saint Hugh of Lincoln, who was Hubert's contemporary, is said to have asked forgiveness of God for not having rebuked Hubert as often as Hugh probably should have. Nowadays, it is not commonly put forth by historians that Hubert was the only driving force behind the administrative actions of Richard's reign, and that Richard was uninterested in government and left all decisions in the hands of his ministers, especially Longchamp and Hubert, which was the older view. The studies of James Holt and others have shown that Richard was highly involved in governmental decisions, and that it was more a partnership between the king and his minister. Hubert was, however, very innovative in his approach to government.

Hubert was the butt of jokes about his lack of learning, and was the target of a series of tales from the pen of the chronicler Gerald of Wales, who was the archbishops's enemy. Even Hubert's supporters could only state that he was "moderately literate." Hubert's lack of learning earned the scorn of scholars, especially Gerald of Wales. W. L. Warren puts forth the theory that either Hubert Walter or Geoffrey Fitz Peter, instead of Ranulf Glanvill, was the author of Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae, which was a legal treatise on the laws and constitutions of the English. Chrimes agrees that Glanvill was probably not the author, and feels that Hubert was probably the author, without finding any definite conclusion.

References

• Bartlett, Robert England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225 Oxford:Clarendon Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-822741-8
• British History Online Bishops of Salisbury accessed on October 30, 2007
• British History Online Deans of York accessed on September 10, 2007
• Chrimes, S. B. An Introduction to the Administrative History of Mediaeval England Third Edition Oxford:Basil Blackwell 1966
• Cokayne, George Edward The Complete Peerage: Volume Two Bass to Canning Vicary Gibbs & H. A. Doubleday eds. Microprint reprint edition Stroud:Sutton Publishing 2000 ISBN 0-904387-82-8
• Gillingham, John Richard I New Haven:Yale University Press 1999 ISBN 0-300-07912-5
• Joliffe, J. E. A. Angevin Kingship London:Adam and Charles Black 1955
• Jones, J. A. P. King John and Magna Carta London:Longman 1971 ISBN 0-582-31463-1
• Knowles, Dom David The Monastic Order in England: From the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council Second Edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976 reprint ISBN 0-521-05479-6
• Moorman, John R. H. Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century Revised Edition Cambridge:Cambridge University Press 1955
• Mortimer, Richard Angevin England 1154-1258 Oxford: Blackwell 1994 ISBN0-631-16388-3
• Petit-Dutaillis, Charles The Feudal Monarcy in France and England: From the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century trans. E. D. Hunt New York:Harper Torchbooks 1964
• Powell, J. Enoch and Keith Wallis The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540 London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1968
• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961
• Stacey, Robert C. "Walter, Hubert (d. 1205)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004 Online Edition accessed November 8, 2007
• Warren, W. L. King John Berkeley:University of California Press 1978 ISBN 0-520-03643-3

Further reading

• Norgate, Kate England under the Angevin Kings, vol. ii. 1887
• Stubbs, William Constitutional History, vol. i. 1897
• Stubbs, William, preface to vol. iv. of Roger of Hoveden's Chronicle Rolls Series, 1868—1871

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)