Service To King John
When Richard died on 6 April 1199, 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 in order 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.
In September 1201 one of Coutances' suffragan bishops, Lisiard, the Bishop of Sees died. King John objected when the cathedral chapter attempted to elect one of their own members as his successor. Coutances refused to recognise the result of the election, and the chapter divided into two parties, one favouring the elected chapter member, the other party another choice. Both parties appealed to the papacy, who eventually approved of the election of the Archdeacon of Sees, Silvester. Coutances had the right to consecrate the bishop however, and he refused to do so, arguing that the king's choice had been disregarded. Pope Innocent III then ordered another Norman archbishop to consecrate Silvester, but the king refused to allow Silvester to take possession of his see. This led Innocent to order Normandy laid under an interdict, but eventually Silvester was allowed to take possession of Sees.
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. When John lost the duchy in 1204, Coutances did not resist the government of King Philip II, although he did not make his complete peace with Philip until March 1207. In 1206–1207, Coutances, along with his suffragan bishops, petitioned Philip for special legal procedures relating to patronage, which Philip granted.
Read more about this topic: Walter De Coutances
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