Walter de Coutances - Service To King Henry

Service To King Henry

Coutances started his career as a clerk to King Henry II of England in the royal chamber. He probably owed the position to his brother, who was already in royal service. Coutances may have been associated with the Beaumont family faction at court before beginning work for the king, but this is not certain.

By 1169 Coutances held a canonry in Rouen Cathedral. During the 1170s a group of royal clerks rose to prominence, among them Coutances, Walter Map, Ralph Diceto, John of Oxford, Richard of Ilchester, and Geoffrey Ridel. Coutances was the chaplain to Henry the Young King, eldest living son of King Henry, but when the younger Henry rebelled against his father in 1173, Coutances returned to King Henry's service. He became Archdeacon of Oxford, perhaps by 1173, certainly by 14 March 1176. He was named vice-chancellor when Ralph de Warneville became Chancellor of England, which occurred in 1173. In 1176 and 1177, King Henry sent Coutances on diplomatic missions to Flanders and the French royal court. Arnulf, the Bishop of Lisieux, alleged that Henry allowed Coutances to use all the administrative machinery of Normandy to drive Arnulf from his diocese, so that Coutances might become bishop there. This happened in early 1178, but the only real evidence for this effort on Coutances' part comes from Arnulf's correspondence, and as Coutances was back in England by July 1178, it does not appear that the attempt was a sustained one.

On his return to England, Coutances was given custody of the abbeys of Wilton and Ramsey, which were being held by King Henry pending the election of new abbots. He thus acquired the right to collect the abbeys' revenues in the name of the king, who had the regalian rights to that income. In 1180 Henry sent Coutances to France on another diplomatic mission. In February 1182 Coutances witnessed King Henry II's will, made before the king travelled to Normandy.