Walter de Coutances

Seal of Walter de Coutances

Walter de Coutances (also Gautier de Coutances or Gualterus Constantiis ) († November 16, 1207 ) was an Anglo-Norman clergyman. He became Bishop of Lincoln in 1183 before becoming Archbishop of Rouen in 1184 . To this end, he served the Angevin kings for many years . From 1191 to 1193 he performed the duties of royal justiciar for England. Disappointed by Kings Richard the Lionheart and Johann Ohneland , he appointed the French King Philip II as the new Duke of Normandy in 1204 .

Origin and career as civil servant and clergyman

Walter de Coutances came from Cornwall . His parents were probably noblemen and were called Reinfrid and Gonilla, they or their ancestors probably came from Normandy . He had a brother, Roger fitz Reinfrid , who served in the royal household. His nephews included John de Coutances , who later became Bishop of Worcester, and Richard, who became Archdeacon of Rouen . Several canons in Lincoln and Rouen, where Walter was bishop, were also called de Coutances and were probably related to him. Walter de Coutances probably studied in Paris and was referred to as a Magister . Probably through the influence of his brother Roger Fitz Reinfrid, Walter also came into the royal household of Henry II. Before 1169 he was canon and in 1177 treasurer of the cathedral of Rouen . In England he became archdeacon of Oxford in 1173 or 1174 . When Ralph de Warneville became royal chancellor, Coutances became his vice-chancellor. He moved from the royal household to the household of Heinrich the Younger , the king's eldest son. However, when he rebelled against his father in 1173, Coutances rejoined the king. In 1176 and 1177 he traveled as envoy to Count Philip of Flanders and to King Louis VII of France . He then became royal administrator of the vacant Wilton and Ramsey Abbey and the Honor of Arundel .

Bishop of Lincoln

After Geoffrey Plantagenet's resignation as Bishop of Lincoln, Coutances was elected the new Bishop of Lincoln on May 2, 1183 with royal support against three opposing candidates. He was ordained a priest on June 11, 1183 by Bishop John of Évreux and on July 3 by Archbishop Richard of Canterbury in Angers . On December 11, 1183 he was enthroned in Lincoln. As a bishop, he took part in the 1184 council of churches in Westminster , at which Baldwin was elected Archbishop of Canterbury. Otherwise little is known about Coutances' eighteen-month tenure as Bishop of Lincoln. The contemporary chronicler Gerald of Wales accused Coutances of running into heavy debts as a bishop. As early as the summer of 1184, Coutances took over a new office and became Archbishop of Rouen in Normandy .

Archbishop of Rouen

Service under Heinrich II.

In Rouen, King Henry II had rejected the election of the candidates for the cathedral chapter and instead proposed three English bishops for election. He had made it clear to the canons that Coutances was his preferred candidate. On November 17, 1184, the election of Coutances by Pope Lucius III. approved. Allegedly, Coutances was initially reluctant to accept the election of archbishop of the rich diocese of Rouen, preferring instead to live as a simple priest. But even as archbishop, Coutances remained in the service of the king. In 1186 he served as the English ambassador to the French royal court. In 1187, the monks of Canterbury Cathedral Priory turned to him with a request to mediate in a dispute with Archbishop Baldwin. He planned to found a collegiate foundation for the Archdiocese of Canterbury, which the monks resolutely rejected, which was followed by a protracted dispute between the archbishop and the monks. Together with King Henry II and the French King Philip II , Coutances made a vow of crusade in January 1188. In the same year he served again as the English ambassador who demanded compensation from the French king for the damage caused by the French during a campaign in Normandy. In 1189 he accompanied Heinrich II with Philip II and Heinrich's son Richard in La Ferté-Bernard . The Pope appointed him to be one of the mediators whose arbitration the two kings wanted to submit.

Service to Richard the Lionheart

Participation in the Third Crusade

After the death of Henry II in July 1189, Coutances gave his son and successor Richard absolution for the rebellion against his father. He then set him up in Rouen as Duke of Normandy. He then traveled to England, where he attended Richard's coronation at Westminster Abbey . Then he returned with him to Normandy. In order to fulfill his crusade vows, he joined the Third Crusade in the summer of 1190 under Richard's leadership. After the crusaders reached Sicily, there were bloody clashes between the English crusaders and citizens of the city in Messina in October 1190 . Coutances was one of the English representatives who concluded a peace agreement with the citizens. Before the Anglo-French army of crusaders set out to continue to Palestine in the spring of 1191, Coutances took part in Richard's consultations with the French king. He helped guarantee that Richard would keep the peace with King Tankred of Sicily. The king appointed him treasurer of the English crusader army. Then the king learned of the unrest in England, which had arisen through the machinations of his brother Johann and the unpopularity of the justiciar William Longchamp . Thereupon Richard sent Coutances back to England with extensive powers that put him on a par with Longchamp. Pope Clement III released Coutances from his crusade vows, and with Richard's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine , Coutances returned to England.

Justiciar of England

In the spring of 1191, Coutances reached England again, where he found a confused situation. Longchamp's unpopularity led to open hostilities among the barons, while Johann Ohneland tried to take advantage of this situation to gain power himself. Coutances did not support Longchamp or Johann, but tried to mediate between the two. At a council meeting on July 28, 1191, a balance was reached between the two, at which the possession of disputed castles was also clarified. But then, in September 1191, Longchamp had Geoffrey , the king's half-brother and elected Archbishop of York, seized when he landed in Dover to take over his office as archbishop. Thereupon Coutances deposed Longchamp as justiciar , who had to hand over his castles and fled to Normandy. Coutances excommunicated him as Archbishop of Rouen and took over the duties of Justiciars himself in October, although he did not use this title and always ruled in the name of the king. Longchamp did not give up, however, but turned to King Richard and the new Pope Celestine III. for help. The Pope then sent representatives to Normandy to investigate the confused situation. These were prevented from entering the country by William Fitzralph , the Seneschal of Normandy, whereupon the Pope imposed the interdict on Normandy . In England, however, Coutances had Longchamp's diocese of Ely occupied. Coutances ruled England during the absence of King Richard until the end of 1193, trying to include the bishops and barons in the rule. One of his tasks was to find a successor for Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, who died during the crusade in 1190. He himself, but also Longchamp, had justified claims to this highest ecclesiastical office in England. In addition, the monks of the cathedral chapters of Canterbury refused to elect the royal candidate Guglielmo , archbishop of the Sicilian Monreale. As a result, Bishop Reginald of Bath was elected in November 1191 , but he died after a month. Coutances now oversaw the new election on May 22, 1193, in which the new royal candidate Hubert Walter was chosen. Meanwhile the news that King Richard was being held captive in Germany had reached England. Coutances was now trying to get the king released. He called a council to Oxford for February 1193, which decided to send the abbots of Boxley and Robertsbridge Abbey to Germany to contact the king there. The abbots brought the king's order that Coutances should accompany Richard's mother Eleanor to Germany. When Coutances then left England, he handed the government over to Archbishop Hubert Walter.

Falling out with Richard the Lionheart

On February 2, 1194, Coutances attended a meeting with emissaries from Emperor Heinrich VI in Mainz . which set the terms for King Richard's release. After Richard's release, Coutances remained in his place hostage in Germany until the ransom was paid in full. Since the king never paid the last installment of 10,000 marks , Coutances had to raise this sum himself in order to regain his freedom. In May 1194 he finally returned to England, from where he returned to Normandy a little later. There it came to war between Richard and Philip II over the duchy. Coutances was shocked by the high taxes that had to be raised to cover the cost of the war. However, in his attempt to broker a truce, Coutances met only angry refusal. In an agreement concluded in Louviers in January 1196 , the two kings agreed that Les Andelys , an estate of Coutances south of Rouen, should be considered a neutral area. This made the wealth of Coutances a kind of pledge that Coutances could lose should he excommunicate one of the kings or impose an interdict. Disappointed, Coutances withdrew to Cambrai and did not return to Rouen until July 1196. In the meantime, King Richard had started the construction of Château Gaillard , which was on the site of Les Andelys. In view of this violation of his possessions, Coutances imposed the interdict over Normandy and fled to Rome in November 1196, where he asked the Pope for help. Pope Celestine III however, decided on April 20, 1197 that the construction of Château Gaillard was of vital importance for the security of Normandy. Therefore, Coutances should agree to an exchange of land with the English king. As a result, Coutances and Richard signed an agreement on October 16, 1197, in which Coutances received the port of Dieppe and other possessions, through which he had an annual income of 2,000 Angevin pounds. Despite this compensation, however, Coutances had lost confidence in Richard because the king no longer protected the Church of Normandy and its possessions. As a result, he no longer served the king, but devoted himself to his duties as Archbishop of Rouen.

Archbishop under Johann Ohneland and change to Philip II.

After the death of King Richard in 1199, Coutances appointed his brother Johann Ohneland as the new Duke of Normandy on April 25 . Johann swore to protect the church and its rights. A little later Johann confirmed the swap of Dieppe and the other areas for Les Andelys. As a result, however, he contested the right of the archbishop's secular jurisdiction for his possessions, the forest rights of the church and other rights. To defer the king's claims, Coutances paid John 1,500 Angevin pounds, plus an additional 600 pounds, before the king reaffirmed most of the rights in question. As a result, Coutances took part in the peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Le Goulet between Johann Ohneland and Philip II on May 22, 1200 . However, when the Franco-English War broke out again in 1202 , Coutances no longer supported Johann Ohneland in the defense of Normandy. When the French conquered Normandy in 1204, he switched to Philip II's side, whom he appointed as the new duke.

The nave of Rouen Cathedral, built mainly during the tenure of Coutances

Acting as archbishop

Although Coutances was almost completely absent from Normandy, especially between 1190 and 1194, he nonetheless took his duties as archbishop seriously. In negotiations with the Seneschal of Normandy in 1190, he achieved that clergymen in Normandy continued to enjoy immunity from the ducal courts . He also modernized the church administration. Before 1200 he began to compile a register of his judgments and he was the first archbishop to appoint an ecclesiastical official to carry out his official business. He had the rebuilding of Rouen Cathedral, begun in 1155, continued in the early Gothic style . When the cathedral was badly damaged in a fire in 1200, he immediately began rebuilding.

After his death in November 1207 he was buried in the Cathedral of Rouen. On his death he left behind extensive and valuable personal possessions, which included jewelry, liturgical vessels, vestments and an extensive collection of books with theological works, stories of saints, writings on canon law and works by Statius , Juvenal and Ovid .

literature

• Peter Anthony Poggioli: From politician to prelate: the career of Walter of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen, 1184–1207 . University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor 1984

Web links

• Ralph V. Turner: Coutances, Walter de (d.1207). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley 1978. ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , s. 42
2. ^ Francis West: Justiceship England 1066-1232 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1966. ISBN 0-521-06772-3 , p. 76
3. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley 1978. ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 63

predecessor	Office	successor
Geoffrey Plantagenet	Bishop of Lincoln 1183–1184	Hugo of Lincoln
Rotrou de Beaumont	Archbishop of Rouen 1184–1207	Robert III Poulain
William Longchamp	Chief Justiciar of England 1191–1193	Hubert Walter