Walter de Coutances
Walter de Coutances | |
---|---|
William Longchamp | |
Succeeded by | Hubert Walter |
Walter de Coutances
When
Coutances took no further part in English government after returning from Germany. Instead he became involved in Norman affairs, including a dispute with Richard over the ownership of Andely manor, an archiepiscopal property that Richard desired as a fortress. Eventually the archbishop surrendered it to the king in return for two other manors and the seaport of Dieppe. Richard went on to build the castle of Gaillard on the former archiepiscopal manor. After Richard's death, Coutances invested Prince John as Duke of Normandy, but was forced to pay 2,100 Angevin pounds to secure contested rights from the new king. After John lost control of Normandy in 1204, the archbishop did not resist the new government of King Philip II of France. Coutances died in November 1207 and was buried in his cathedral.
Early life
Coutances was born in Cornwall,[3] to Reinfrid and Gonilla. His brother was Roger fitzReinfrid,[4][c] a layman and royal justice during the reign of King Henry II of England.[6] Although the medieval chronicler and churchman Gerald of Wales related that his friend was descended from Trojan heroes who escaped the Sack of Troy and ended up in Cornwall, that was a flattering invention on Gerald's part. Coutances' family was of the knightly class, and probably from Normandy originally.[7]
Coutances was usually given the title of magister, which signified that he had received an education in a school; most likely he attended the schools of Paris. Gerald of Wales said that Coutances was dedicated to learning, and considered him to be a talented courtier.[4]
Service to King Henry
Coutances started his career as a clerk to King Henry II of England in the royal chamber.[8] He probably owed the position to his brother, who was already in royal service.[4] Coutances may have been associated with the Beaumont family faction at court before beginning work for the king, but this is not certain.[9]
By 1169 Coutances held a canonry in Rouen Cathedral.
On his return to England, Coutances was given custody of the abbeys of
Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of Rouen
Coutances was elected to the
On 17 November 1184 Coutances was
In the later part of 1186, after the death of King Henry's son Geoffrey—who was Duke of Brittany—King Philip II of France demanded that Geoffrey's daughters be placed in the French king's custody, and that the duchy of Brittany, which Geoffrey had ruled in right of his wife, be surrendered into French royal custody. Coutances was one of the negotiators sent by King Henry to secure a settlement, but they had to settle for a temporary truce.[23] In January 1188 Coutances took the cross when he pledged to go on Crusade along with King Henry and King Philip of France.[4]
At
Service to King Richard
Shortly after Richard took the throne he sought absolution for his sins in rebelling against his father, from Baldwin of Forde and Coutances. The two archbishops absolved Richard in a ceremony in Sées.[25] Coutances also invested Richard as Duke of Normandy in a ceremony held in Rouen, before accompanying Richard to England, where he participated in the new king's coronation,[4] on 3 September 1189.[26]
In 1189 Coutances held an ecclesiastical synod which legislated, among other things, that the clergy should not hold secular offices, even though Coutances himself had held and continued to hold such offices.
When Richard left England in late 1189, the archbishop accompanied him to Normandy and then to Sicily, where Richard began the Third Crusade. In October 1190, Coutances was one of the negotiators between the city of Messina and the crusaders, and later was a guarantor of the peace treaty between King Richard and
While Richard was still in Sicily, word reached the king of the disputes between William Longchamp, whom Richard had left in England, and
Acting Justiciar
After Longchamp's exile Coutances was named head of a council of regency, which is sometimes equated to the post of
Coutances had long experience in the chancery, but little experience with judicial matters. Most of his efforts while in the justiciarship were centred on raising Richard's ransom. As evidence of this emphasis on raising money, Coutances sent out few itinerant justices during his time in power. Six groups of justices were sent out in 1192, but in 1193 none were sent out, and even the justices based in Westminster held few sessions.[32] Of those justices appointed, like his predecessor in the justiciarship, Coutances used justices from a wide range of backgrounds, and many of those sent out on itinerant rounds were local to the area, rather than the increasingly professional justices used under Coutances' successor Hubert Walter. The justiciarship during this period was less connected to justice and was more closely tied to the Exchequer, or treasury of England, and most of the power in the office derived from its control of the Exchequer.[34]
A new note in Coutances' administration was his custom of issuing writs not in his own name, as had previously been the practice, but in the king's name. The archbishop also stressed that his decisions were made with the advice and consent of many of the leading nobles of the realm, as well as the barons of the Exchequer. This was a reaction against Longchamp's authoritarian method of government.[35]
The archbishop supervised the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, as Baldwin of Forde had died while on Crusade in 1190. Although both Longchamp and Coutances were considered as possible candidates and rivals for the see, the cathedral chapter of Canterbury elected the
During 1191 the citizens of the city of London managed to acquire from Coutances and Prince John the recognition that the city was self-governing, something they had been attempting to secure for a number of years. This however, was not the grant of a complete charter of liberties, which did not occur until 1199.[36] In February 1193 Coutances summoned a council to Oxford, to address problems of administration and defence after the recently received news of Richard's captivity in Germany. The council also took oaths of fealty to Richard.[37] Prince John, however, hearing that Richard was in captivity, immediately went to France and swore homage to King Philip for Richard's lands, and then returned to England and raised a rebellion. Coutances proceeded to besiege Windsor Castle, which was held by Prince John's men. When John heard that Richard was going to be freed, he left England and went to France.[38]
In February 1194 Coutances was in Germany, at the court of the German emperor, along with Longchamp, who brought letters to Richard, still in captivity. On 4 February, Coutances became a hostage to the German emperor as surety for the payment of the outstanding portion of Richard's ransom, and the king was released.
Return to Normandy
Coutances returned to Normandy, and in December 1195 attempted to secure compensation for the losses his archdiocese had sustained in the warfare between King Richard and King Phillip. He sought compensation from both kings but obtained no satisfaction, and felt so ill-treated by the kings that he abandoned his see.
When Coutances returned to his diocese in July 1196, he found that the king had seized the manor of Andely independently of the treaty provisions, and when the archbishop refused to relinquish it to the king, Richard began to fortify the manor. He also built a castle there, now Château Gaillard. On 7 November 1196, Coutances set off for Rome, to protest the seizure to the pope. Richard sent a royal embassy, and eventually a settlement was reached. The archbishop was ordered to remove the interdict he had placed on the duchy, and in return for the manor received two others and the seaport of Dieppe.[42] The various lands that Coutances' received in exchange for Andely were worth £1,405 a year.[44] This episode marked the end of Coutances' service to the Angevin kings; for the rest of his life the archbishop focused on protecting and guarding the archiepiscopal properties and rights.[4]
Service to King John
When Richard died on 6 April 1199,[26] the archbishop invested Richard's youngest brother John as duke of Normandy on 25 April 1199. At the ceremony, John pledged to protect the Norman church, and soon afterwards confirmed the grant of Dieppe and the other manors to the archdiocese. John contested the right of the archbishop to some jurisdictional rights however, as well as forest rights, forcing Coutances to pay 2,100 Angevin pounds to secure most of the contested rights. In May 1200, Coutances was involved in the peace treaty of Le Goulet between King John and King Philip of France, but took no active part in the Angevin defence of Normandy.[4]
In September 1201 one of Coutances'
In May 1202, Pope Innocent III wrote to Coutances, urging him to impose religious punishments on any rebels against King John's rule in the duchy of Normandy.[46] When John lost the duchy in 1204, Coutances did not resist the government of King Philip II,[47] although he did not make his complete peace with Philip until March 1207.[48] In 1206/07, Coutances, along with his suffragan bishops, petitioned Philip for special legal procedures relating to patronage, which Philip granted.[49]
As archbishop
Although Coutances was absent from Rouen for most of the period between 1190 and 1194, he remained an active archbishop. He secured the continued immunity of clergy from secular jurisdiction, and supervised the administration of the archdiocese. He began the custom of keeping records in registers of episcopal judgements from about 1200, and he appointed the first officials of Rouen. He also oversaw the rebuilding of Rouen Cathedral, which had begun in 1155, and restarted the work after a fire in 1200.[4] His relations with his cathedral chapter were evidently excellent, as they remembered him as "a magnificent benefactor of the church of Rouen".[50]
Death and legacy
Coutances died on 16 November 1207 and was buried at Rouen Cathedral,[4][d] in the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul.[21] The inventory of his personal possessions made after his death included a large number of jewels and vestments. He also owned a large library, which contained not only religious works but also legal texts on canon law and works of classical authors such as Juvenal and Ovid.[4]
Coutances' nephew, John of Coutances, became Archdeacon of Oxford and Dean of Rouen under Walter's influence, and later Bishop of Worcester.[51][e] Other nephews were William, successively a canon at Lincoln Cathedral and an archdeacon at Rouen, and Richard, also an archdeacon at Rouen.[3]
The historian John Gillingham called Coutances "one of the great fixers" of his time.[53] Two other historians have argued that it was probably Coutances' judgement and stability that persuaded the king to trust him.[54] The medieval poet John of Hauville dedicated a satirical poem in 1184 to Coutances called Architrenius.[55] It was on the tribulations of a poor scholar.[55]
Notes
- ^ Coutances is a town of Normandy.[1]
- ^ Also called Walter of Rouen,[2] or Walter of Coutances.
- ^ It is possible that Roger was a brother-in-law instead of a brother. Roger is occasionally called Roger FitzReinfrey.[5]
- ^ His death was commemorated on 14 November at Beaulieu and on 20 November at St. Evroul.[21]
- ^ The election of John to Worcester in 1196 may have been an attempt by King Richard to mend his relationship with the archbishop, which had been damaged during the dispute over Andali.[52]
Citations
- ^ Warren King John p. 42
- ^ Scammel Hugh du Puiset p. 53
- ^ a b c Spear "Norman Empire" Journal of British Studies p. 8
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Turner "Coutances, Walter de" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Duggan "Roman, Canon, and Common Law" Historical Research p. 25
- ^ Turner English Judiciary p. 62
- ^ Turner "Changing Perceptions" Judges, Administrators and the Common Law p. 241
- ^ Lyon Constitutional History p. 266
- ^ a b Peltzer "Henry II and the Norman Bishops" English Historical Review pp. 1222–1225
- ^ Joliffe Angevin Kingship pp. 144–145
- ^ Schriber Dilemma of Arnulf of Lisieux p. 116
- ^ Greenway "Archdeacons of Oxford" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 3: Lincoln
- ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 84
- ^ Joliffe Angevin Kingship p. 208 footnote 4
- ^ Schriber Dilemma of Arnulf of Lisieux pp. 118–119
- ^ Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases p. 237
- ^ Warren Henry II p. 559 and footnote 4
- ^ a b c Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 255
- ^ a b Greenway "Bishops of Lincoln" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 3: Lincoln
- ^ Scammell Hugh du Puiset p. 70
- ^ a b c Spear Personnel of the Norman Cathedrals p. 199
- ^ Turner "Richard Barre and Michael Belet" Judges, Administrators and the Common Law p. 181 footnote 4
- ^ Warren Henry II p. 610
- ^ Gillingham Richard I pp. 94–98
- ^ Gillingham Richard I p. 104
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 36
- ^ Turner "Clerical Judges" Judges, Administrators and the Common Law p. 163
- ^ a b Young Hubert Walter pp. 31–32
- ^ Young Hubert Walter p. 13
- ^ a b Barlow Feudal Kingdom of England pp. 374–377
- ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 71
- ^ a b Turner English Judiciary pp. 65–66
- ^ West Justiciarship in England p. 75
- ^ Heiser "Households of the Justiciars" Haskings Society Journal pp. 226–228
- ^ Turner and Heiser Reign of Richard Lionheart pp. 130–131
- ^ Lyon Constitutional History p. 277
- ^ West Justiciarship in England p. 77
- ^ Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 95
- ^ Gillingham Richard I pp. 247–248 and footnote 94
- ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 369
- ^ Heiser "Households of the Justiciars" Haskings Society Journal p. 234
- ^ a b Gillingham Richard I pp. 301–304
- ^ Powicke Loss of Normandy pp. 113–115
- ^ Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 375
- ^ Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England pp. 339–340.
- ^ Turner King John p. 114
- ^ Turner King John p. 94
- ^ Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 264
- ^ Powicke Loss of Normandy p. 277
- ^ Quoted in Turner "Coutances, Walter de" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Greenway "Bishops of Worcester" Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300: Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)
- ^ Turner "Richard Lionheart and English Episcopal Elections" Albion p. 10
- ^ Gillingham Richard I p. 111
- ^ Turner and Heiser Reign of Richard Lionheart p. 125
- ^ a b Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta p. 242
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