GRAY or GREY, WALTER DE (d. I255)-, English prelate and statesman, nephew of John de Gray, bishop of Nor wich, was educated at Oxford. He owed his rapid preferment to the favour of King John. He became the king's chancellor in 1205, and in 1210 was elected bishop of Lichfield by the chapter at the king's orders. But the papal legate quashed the election. He became bishop of Worcester in 1214, resigning his office of chancellor in the same year. Gray was with John when the king signed Magna Carta in June 1215 ; in the autumn he left England on the king's business, and during his absence was forced into the archbishopric of York, owing his election to the good offices of John and of Innocent III. He took action against the French invaders on the accession of Henry III. and played a leading part during the young king's minority. When Henry took over the Government he continued to employ de Gray, who carried out many important diplomatic missions and acted as the king's chief justiciar during Henry's absence in France (1242-1243). As archbishop of York de Gray's insistence on his right to have his cross borne erect in the southern provinces involved him in a dispute with Archbishop Stephen Langton, and he maintained his claim to the point of absenting himself from the king's second coronation in May 1220. The archbishop of Canterbury had an interview with him at Lincoln in 1222 on the subject, but no decision was reached. Later the archbishop absented himself alto gether from public business for a time, but in 12S5 he visited London to attend a meeting of parliament, and died at Fulham on May 1, 1255. Gray was always anxious to assert his archi episcopal authority over Scotland, and sought to assert it on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II., but Innocent III., who desired the continued independence of the Scottish Church, intervened in favour of the Scotch claim. De Gray built the south transept of the minster at York and is said to have built the west front of Ripon cathedral.