Hubert Walter
Hubert Walter, the son of Sir Hervey Walter and Matilda de Valognes, was probably born in West Dereham, in about 1160. His father was only a small landowner but his uncle, Ranulf de Glanville, sheriff of Yorkshire. Hubert spent his childhood in Glanville's household. He did not go to school, and in later life "his lack of formal education was sometimes an embarrassment to him". (1)
In 1173 Glanville was appointed as sheriff of Lancashire. In this role he helped King Henry II defeat the rebellion that included Henry's wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their three sons, Henry the Young, Richard the Lionheart and Geoffrey of Brittany. One historian has pointed out that the brothers "were typical sprigs of the Angevin stock... they wanted power as well as titles". (2)
Ranulf de Glanville succeeded in capturing an English ally of the Scottish king, Hamo de Massy, This was followed by the defeat of William the Lion, king of Scots, in July 1174. William was captured and taken to Normandy. He was rewarded by being appointed Justice of the King's Court. (3)
Glanville used his position to help Hubert Walter. By 1180, he was Glanville's chief deputy in England. He came to the notice of Henry II and this "tall, elegant and handsome" man became the king's chaplain. (4) Walter carried money to south Wales for the king's troops, and conveyed messages to King Philip II of France. He was also asked to mediate in the dispute between Baldwin of Forde, Archbishop of Canterbury and the monks of Christ Church over his proposal to establish a house of canons at Lambeth. In 1186, the king appointed Hubert Walter dean of York Cathedral. (5)
Third Crusade
On 3rd September 1189, Richard the Lionheart was crowned king at Westminster Abbey on 3rd September 1189. Richard stayed in England only long enough to make the necessary financial arrangements for his involvement in the Third Crusade. This involved selling some of his recently acquired land. He even joked that he would sell London if he could find a buyer. Roger of Howden claimed that "he (Richard) put up for sale all he had: offices, lordships, earldoms, sheriffdoms, castles, towns, lands, everything." (6)
According to Charles Scott Moncrieff: "Richard tended to regard England mainly as a piece of property from which, by taxes or other means, he could raise money for the Crusades. He got it chiefly in large lump sums from the wealthier people." Richard sold the Archbishop of York for £2,000. He put Ranulf de Glanville, the former Chief Justiciar of England and one of the richest men in the country, in prison and only released him when his family paid Richard £15,000. (7)
Many of Glanville's followers also lost their offices at this time. Hubert Walter, however, survived the purge and on 15th September 1189, he was elected bishop of Salisbury. In return, Walter made it clear that he was willing to serve with King Richard in the Holy Land. Bishop Walter and Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury arrived in Tyre on 16th September 1190. (8) In early October they joined the crusader army besieging Acre. Conditions in the crusader camp were terrible, and Baldwin died 19th November 1190. (9)
Bishop Walter now became the leader of the English contingent at Acre, and quickly began to reorganize the camp. He was also willing to lead military expeditions against Saladin, the Muslim leader. According to his biographer, Robert Stacey: "Bishop Walter an executor of Baldwin's will, he used the archbishop's possessions to pay wages to the sentries and buy food for the starving common soldiers. He led sorties against Saladin's camp, and also ministered to the religious needs of the army. Morale rose; and when King Richard at last arrived at Acre in June 1191, having spent the winter in Messina, he found the army in far better shape than it had been six months before." (10)
Richard the Lionheart
Richard the Lionheart was considered to be the best military commander in the Christian world. Saladin attempted to take the besiegers' heavily fortified camp by storm was beaten back on 4th July. The exhausted defenders capitulated. Terms were agreed on 12th July: the garrison to be ransomed in return for 200,000 dinars and the release of 1,500 of Saladin's prisoners. (11)
In January 1192, King Richard and Bishop Walter reached Bayt Nuba, 12 miles from Jerusalem. Richard realised that if he managed to take the city, "they did not have the numbers to occupy and defend it especially since many of the most devout crusaders, having fulfilled their pilgrim vows, would at once go home". He decided to take Acre instead. Soon after this military success he heard that his brother, John, had joined Philip II of France, in an attempt to overthrow his government in England. (12)
Richard the Lionheart now reopened negotiations with Saladin so he could return to England. By now both sides were weary, and Richard himself fell seriously ill. A three-year truce was agreed on 2nd September. Richard had to hand back Ascalon; Saladin granted Christian pilgrims free access to Jerusalem. Many crusaders took advantage of this facility. "He had failed to take Jerusalem, but the entire coast from Tyre to Jaffa was now in Christian hands; and so was Cyprus. Considered as an administrative, political, and military exercise, his crusade had been an astonishing success." (13)
Hubert Walter left the Holy Land in October 1192. Walter's route home took him to Sicily and then to Rome, where he met with Pope Celestine III in January 1193. Soon afterwards he heard that Richard the Lionheart had been captured by Duke Leopold of Austria. Walter immediately began negotiating terms for Richard's release. In March 1193 Bishop Walter left for England carrying letters from the captive king concerning his ransom. Among these letters was the king's command to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to have Hubert Walter elected archbishop of Canterbury. (14)
Archbishop Walter played an important role in raising the £100,000 ransom money. "New taxes were invented and old ones revived; churches gave gold and silver vessels; a special tax of one-fourth was levied on all incomes." (15) The English people were subject to a 25 per cent on tax on income and movables. Monasteries and churches around England also had to contribute. (16) Ralph de Diceto commented that "Archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls and barons contributed a quarter of their annual income; the Cistercian monks and Premonstratensian canons their whole year's wool crop, and clerics living on tithes one-tenth of their income." (17)
John Softsword decided to make a bid for power while his brother was imprisoned. Based in Windsor Castle he urged the magnates to join him in his rebellion. After summoning a council to condemn John and his followers, in February 1194 Walter himself led the successful siege of Marlborough Castle and a few weeks later he personally accepted the peaceful surrender of Lancaster Castle. (18)
Hubert Walter urged Queen Eleanor and the regency council to adopt a conciliatory policy towards John. He was not optimistic about Richard's chances of being released and if John became king he might exact vengeance on those who had opposed or offended him. He also pointed out that John's co-operation in raising ransom money from his tenants might be needed. Eleanor and the magnates took Hubert's advice and negotiated a truce with John. He agreed to surrender his castles to his mother and if they were unable to get Richard back, he would become king. (19)
Richard was eventually released and according to the chronicler Roger of Howden, King Philip II of France wrote urgently to John to tell him the news. "Look to yourself, the devil is loose." (20) Richard landed in Sandwich on 20th March, having been away for nearly four years. Ralph de Diceto wrote that three days later "to the great acclaim of both clergy and people, he was received in procession through the decorated city of London into the church of St Paul's". (21)
Richard the Lionheart devoted the next five years to successfully recovering the territory he had lost while he was in prison. While he was away Hubert Walter served as his vice-regent. According to Dan Jones, the author of The Plantagenets (2013), "Walter was probably the greatest in a tradition of medieval royal servants... Royal and ecclesiastical business flowed smoothly through his hands. His reforms of England's judiciary, its exchequer and its chancery made government more profitable, available and efficient. He was widely trusted, his word as good as the king's itself." (22)
Walter also oversaw the establishment of a new system that supervised, recorded and regulated moneylending by England's Jews. Hubert Walter's financial policies were necessary simply because Richard demanded more revenue from his kingdom than any other king before him. Walter's role as Archbishop of Canterbury meant that he was able to keep the support of the Church. "Walter stood for harmonious cooperation between the church and state. In his hands the domestic business of the empire was efficiently and profitably administered." (23) Hubert helped Richard to develop a strong centralised government that had been devised by his father, Henry II. (24)
King John
On 25th March 1199, Richard the Lionheart arrived at Châlus-Chabrol, a small castle belonging to Aimar de Limoges. While walking around the castle perimeter without his chainmail, he was struck by a crossbow bolt in the left shoulder near the neck. Mercadier, his loyal lieutenant, attempted to remove the arrow head but "extracted the wood only, while the iron remained in the flesh... but after this butcher had carelessly mangled the King's arm in every part, he at last extracted the arrow." (25)
Within a day or so the wound grew inflamed and then putrid and Richard began to suffer the effects of gangrene and blood-poisoning. Richard knew he was dying and the man who fired the arrow, Bertram de Gurdun, was brought before him. Richard asked him why "you have killed me?" He replied: "You slew my father and my two brothers with your own hand... Therefore take any revenge on me that you may think fit, for I will readily endure the greatest torments that you can devise, so long as you have met with your end, having inflicted evils so many and so great upon the world." Richard was so moved and impressed with Gurdun's speech that he ordered him to be released. (26)
Richard named John as his heir before dying on 6th April 1199. Some sources claim that Mercadier took revenge on Gurdun and "first flayed him alive, then had him hanged". (27) However, Frank McLynn, the author of Lionheart & Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest (2006) has pointed out that one source argues that Mercadier sent Gurdun to Richard's sister Joan, "who put him to death in some gruesome way." (28)
William Marshal was a strong supporter of John becoming king. Hubert Walter was not convinced he would be a good ruler and pointed out that while Richard was on the Third Crusade he had rebelled against the king's appointed ministers, interfered with ecclesiastical appointments, encouraged an invasion from Scotland and attempted to bribe the German emperor to keep his brother in prison. It is claimed that Walter told Marshal "you will never come to regret anything you did as much as what you are doing now". (29)
On 27th May 1199 Hubert Walter crowned John king of England in Westminster Abbey. On the same day John appointed Walter his chancellor. "Immediately upon taking office he instituted a new, fixed schedule of chancery fees. Within two weeks he had begun to insist that outgoing chancery writs and charters be enrolled in chronological order on special rolls.... Even as chancellor, Hubert Walter continued to play an active role both at the exchequer and in judicial proceedings." He also was involved in determining foreign policy and in June 1205 persuaded King John to abandon his plans to lead a new expedition to France. (30)
Alison Weir has argued that it is because of Hubert Walter that King John is seen by some historians as being a good administrator who showed a concern for justice: "Unlike his brother Richard, he showed real concern for his kingdom, and travelled more widely within it than any of his Norman and Angevin predecessors, dispensing justice and overseeing public spending. During his reign... the Exchequer, Chancery and law courts began to function more effectively." (31)
Hubert Walter died on 13th July 1205 at the manor of Teynham, of a high fever resulting from an untreated carbuncle on his lower back. He was buried the following day in Canterbury Cathedral.
Primary Sources
(1) Dan Jones, The Plantagenets (2013)
Richard the Lionheart... confirmed the position of his crusading ally Hubert Walter as the head of government... Walter was archbishop of Canterbury, chief justiciar and, by early 1195, a papal legate. An outstanding administrator, and famous for his bravery and courage on crusade, Walter was probably the greatest in a tradition of medieval royal servants. Rich, generous, pious and ambitious, he was the nephew of Henry II's exchequer chief Ranulf Glanville, and had made his way in life through practical legal and administrative training, rather than formal education. He had been a faithful, effective servant to Henry II and a subtle, successful diplomat on Richard's behalf in Outremer. When Richard was taken captive, Walter had been the first English subject to reach him, and had begun the process of negotiating his release. Richard had appointed him archbishop of Canterbury by letters sent from prison and Walter had repaid him by rallying the political support that prevented John from doing fatal damage to his absent brother's kingship. Now Walter was promoted effectively to the post of vice-regent, and he did not let Richard down. Royal and ecclesiastical business flowed smoothly through his hands. His reforms of England's judiciary, its exchequer and its chancery made government more profitable, available and efficient. He was widely trusted, his word as good as the king's itself.
With Walter at the head of the royal administration, Richard was confident that he would not be starved of cash when he returned to France on campaign. Even after the demands made on England by the ransom, spare capacity was still found. Richard raised a great deal of money from the sale of offices, either to new incumbents, or to existing holders who were sometimes put out to be told that they must pay again for positions they already occupied. Walter personally led a sweeping judicial visitation of England. This was partly with the aim of restoring law and order following John's rebellion, but there was also meticulous attention paid to the profits and state of royal manors and lands, as well as feudal rights such as wardships, custodies and escheats (inheritances due to the Crown). Local knights were appointed to oversee the maximizing of all sources of royal revenue in the shires, which could be sent back to the exchequer for accounting. Walter also oversaw the establishment of a new system that supervised, recorded and regulated moneylending by England's Jews - a matter of concern to the royal finances, since unpaid Jewish debt passed to the Crown when the lender died.
All these measures helped to reinforce the sense, which had been established under Henry II, that royal government was settling ever deeper and more uniformly into local society. Not that this was Richard's primary concern. Hubert Walter's financial policies were necessary simply because Richard had already demanded more revenue from his kingdom than any other king before him. It is testament to the wealth of England (and Normandy, whose coffers began to swell during the late 1190s) that even these demands were met without insurrection or constitutional crisis. One of Richard's greatest feats as king was to impose financial sacrifices while retaining the trust of the great men of the kingdom. The sums he demanded may have been fed directly into the insatiable maw of siegecraft and bloody warfare, but they were never wasted.
(2) Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999)
Richard the Lionheart... had a high opinion of Hubert Walter. Tall, elegant and handsome, Hubert hailed from East Anglia and was the nephew of the former justiciar Ranulf Glanville. An expert lawyer and administrator, he had served the Angevins well, first as chaplain to Henry II, then as a royal judge, a baron of the exchequer, Dean of York and latterly as Bishop of Salisbury. During the crusade he had worked tirelessly to assist injured and dying soldiers, and Richard had entrusted him with the task of leading his army home.
Student Activities
Henry II: An Assessment (Answer Commentary)
Christine de Pizan: A Feminist Historian (Answer Commentary)
The Growth of Female Literacy in the Middle Ages (Answer Commentary)
Women and Medieval Work (Answer Commentary)
The Medieval Village Economy (Answer Commentary)
Women and Medieval Farming (Answer Commentary)
Contemporary Accounts of the Black Death (Answer Commentary)
Disease in the 14th Century (Answer Commentary)
King Harold II and Stamford Bridge (Answer Commentary)
The Battle of Hastings (Answer Commentary)
William the Conqueror (Answer Commentary)
The Feudal System (Answer Commentary)
The Domesday Survey (Answer Commentary)
Thomas Becket and Henry II (Answer Commentary)
Why was Thomas Becket Murdered? (Answer Commentary)
Illuminated Manuscripts in the Middle Ages (Answer Commentary)
References
(1) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(2) Winston Churchill, The Island Race (1964) page 44
(3) John Hudson, Ranulf de Glanville : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(4) Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999) page 290
(5) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(6) Roger of Howden, King Henry the Second , and the Acts of King Richard (c. 1200)
(7) Charles Scott Moncrieff, Kings and Queens of England (1966) page 28
(8) Frank McLynn, Lionheart & Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest (2006) page 143
(9) Christopher Holdsworth, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(10) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(11) Dan Jones, The Plantagenets (2013) page 126
(12) Charles Scott Moncrieff, Kings and Queens of England (1966) page 29
(13) John Gillingham, Richard I : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(14) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(15) Charles Scott Moncrieff, Kings and Queens of England (1966) page 29
(16) Dan Jones, The Plantagenets (2013) page 133
(17) Ralph de Diceto, Pictures of History (c. 1180)
(18) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(19) Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999) page 296
(20) Roger of Howden, King Henry the Second , and the Acts of King Richard (c. 1200)
(21) Ralph de Diceto, Pictures of History (c. 1180)
(22) Dan Jones, The Plantagenets (2013) page 137
(23) John Gillingham, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (1975) page 45
(24) Winston Churchill, The Island Race (1964) page 46
(25) Roger of Howden, King Henry the Second , and the Acts of King Richard (c. 1200)
(26) Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999) page 319
(27) Roger of Howden, King Henry the Second , and the Acts of King Richard (c. 1200)
(28) Frank McLynn, Lionheart & Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest (2006) page 278
(29) Dan Jones, The Plantagenets (2013) page 149-150
(30) Robert Stacey, Hugh Walter : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(31) Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1999) page 328