COUTANCES, WALTER OF (d. 1207)

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 336 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

COUTANCES, WALTER OF (d. 1207) , bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen, commenced his career in the chancery of

Henry

II., was elected bishop of Lincoln in 1182, and in 1184 obtained, with the king's help, the see of Rouen. 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 Longc4mp. 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 depositiona step which was technically warranted by the powers which Richard had given, but by no means calculated to protect the interests of the crown. The

Great

GREAT

Council now recognized the archbishop as

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

justiciar

JUSTICIAR (med. Lat. justiciarius or justitiarius, a judge)

, and he remained at the head of the government till 1193, when he was replaced by Hubert Walter. 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 Chateau Gaillard in the Vexin had been built on his land without his consent. After Richard's death the archbishop accepted John as the lawful

heir

HEIR (Lat. heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in heres or erus, master of a
house
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
  Gothic
  - GOTHIC
  it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
, Gr. xeip, hand, Sans. hat ana, hand)

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 with equanimity (1204), 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.
See W.

Stubbs

's editions of Benedictus Abbas, Hoveden and Diceto (Rolls

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

) ; R. Howlett's edition of " William of Newburgh " and " Richard of Devizes " in Chronicles, &c., of the Reigns of Stephen,

Henry

II. and Richard I. (Rolls

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

). See also the preface to the third volume of

Stubbs

's Hoveden, pp. lix. xcviii. ; J. H. Round's Commune of London, and the French poem on Guillaume le Marechal (ed. P. Meyer, Soc. de l'Histoire de France). (H. W. C. D.)

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