COUTANCES, WALTER OF (d. 1207), bishop of Lin coln and archbishop of Rouen, commenced his career in the chancery of Henry II., was elected bishop of Lincoln in 1182, and in I 184 obtained, with the king's help, the see of Rouen. Through out his career he was much employed in diplomatic and adminis trative duties. He started with Richard I. for the Third Crusade, but was sent back from Messina to investigate the charges which the barons and the official class had brought against the chancellor, William Longchamp. The archbishop of Rouen sided with the barons and John, and sanctioned Longchamp's deposition. The Great Council now recognized the archbishop as chief justiciar, and he remained at the head of the government till 1193, when he was replaced by Hubert Walter. The archbishop did good service in the negotiations for Richard's release, but subsequently quar relled with his master and laid Normandy under an interdict, be cause the border stronghold of Château Gaillard in the Vexin had been built on his land without his consent. After Richard's death the archbishop accepted John as the lawful heir of Normandy and consecrated him as duke. • The archbishop accepted the French conquest of Normandy with equanimity (1204), although he kept to his old allegiance while the issue of the struggle was in doubt.
See W. Stubbs's editions in Rolls Series of Benedictus Abbas, No. 49 (1867) ; Hoveden, No. 51 (1868-71) ; Diceto, No. 68 (1876) . R. Howlett's edition of "William of Newburgh" and "Richard of Devizes" in Chronicles, etc., of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I., Rolls Ser., No. 82 (1884-89) . See also the preface to vol. 3 of Stubbs's Hoveden, pp. lix.—xcviii.; J. H. Round, Commune of London (1899) , and the French poem on Guillaume le Marechal ed. P. Meyer (Soc. de l'Histoire de France, 1891-1901).