Walter de Coutances
Walter de Coutances | |
|---|---|
| Chief Justiciar of England (de facto) | |
| In office 1191–1193 | |
| Monarch | Richard I |
| Preceded by | William Longchamp |
| Succeeded by | Hubert Walter |
| Vice-Chancellor of England | |
| In office 1173–1189? | |
| Monarch | Henry II |
| Personal details | |
| Occupation | Bishop |
| Profession | clergy |
Walter de Coutances (or Walter de Coutances or Walter of Coutances) (died 1207) was a medieval bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen. He also served in the government of Henry II and Richard I. His highest government office was de facto Chief Justiciar of England.
Life
He was born in Cornwall.[1] He commenced his career in the chancery of King Henry II of England.[citation needed] He held a canonry in Rouen Cathedral by 1169.[1]
He became Vice-Chancellor of England and Treasurer of Rouen Cathedral in 1173. He became Archdeacon of Oxford perhaps by 1173, certainly by 14 March 1176.[2] He was elected to the see of Lincoln on 8 May 1183, and was consecrated bishop on 3 July 1183[3] at Angers. He was enthroned at Lincoln Cathedral on 11 December 1183.[4] On 17 November 1184 he obtained, with King Henry's help, the see of Rouen.[3][4]
Throughout his career he was much employed in diplomatic and administrative duties. He started with Richard I for the Third Crusade, but was sent back from Messina to investigate the charges which the barons and the official class had brought against the chancellor, William Longchamp. There was no love lost between the two; and they were popularly supposed to be rivals for the see of Canterbury. The archbishop of Rouen sided with the barons and John, and sanctioned Longchamp's deposition--a step which was technically warranted by the powers which Richard had given, but by no means calculated to protect the interests of the crown.
Wallingford Castle was entrusted to the archbishop while Richard I was at the crusades, but John besieged it, ousting the archbishop.
The Great Council now recognized the archbishop as Chief Justiciar although he was never named such in any documents, and he remained at the head of the government till 1193, when he was replaced by Hubert Walter.[5] The archbishop did good service in the negotiations for Richard's release, but subsequently quarrelled with his master and laid Normandy under an interdict, because the border stronghold of Château-Gaillard in the Vexin Normand had been built on his land without his consent.
After Richard's death the archbishop accepted John as the lawful heir of Normandy and consecrated him as duke. But his personal inclinations leaned to Arthur of Brittany, whom he was with difficulty dissuaded from supporting. The archbishop accepted the French conquest of Normandy in 1204 with equanimity although he kept to his old allegiance while the issue of the struggle was in doubt. He did not long survive the conquest, and his later history is a blank.
During his career, he advanced his nephew John of Coutances to the offices of Archdeacon of Oxford and Dean of Rouen, and his nephew later became Bishop of Worcester.[6] Other nephews were William, successively a canon at Lincoln Cathedral and an archdeacon at Rouen, and Richard, also an archdeacon at Rouen.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c Spear "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy" Journal of British Studies p. 8 Cite error: The named reference "Spear8" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ British History Online Archdeacons of Oxford accessed on 28 October 2007
- ^ a b Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 255
- ^ a b British History Online Bishops of Lincoln accessed on 28 October 2007
- ^ Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 70
- ^ British History Online Bishops of Worcester accessed on 3 November 2007
References
- 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) - British History Online Archdeacons of Oxford accessed on 28 October 2007
- British History Online Bishops of Lincoln accessed on 28 October 2007
- British History Online Bishops of Worcester accessed on 3 November 2007
- Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Spear, David S. (1982). "The Norman Empire and the Secular Clergy, 1066-1204" (fee required). Journal of British Studies. XXI (2): 1–10. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
Further reading
See William Stubbs's editions of Benedictus Abbas, Hoveden and Diceto (Rolls series); R Howlett's edition of William of Newburgh and Richard of Devizes in Chronicles, etc., of the Reigns of Stephen, henry II and Richard I (Rolls series). See also the preface to the third volume of Stubbs's Hoveden, pp. lix.-xcviii.; JH Round's Commune of London, and the French poem on Guillaume le Maréchal (ad. P Meyer, Soc. de l'Histoire de France).