Walter de Coutances[a][b] (died 16 November 1207) was a medieval Anglo-Norman bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen.

After Richard's death, Coutances invested Prince John as Duke of Normandy, but was forced to pay 2,100 Angevin pounds to secure contested rights from the new king.

After John lost control of Normandy in 1204, the archbishop did not resist the new government of King Philip II of France.

His brother was Roger fitzReinfrid,[4][c] a layman and royal justice during the reign of King Henry II of England.

[3] 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.

[15] 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.

[4] He was ordained a priest on 11 June 1183[4] and consecrated bishop on 3 July 1183[18] at Angers by Richard of Dover, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[19] While at Lincoln, Coutances took part in the election of Baldwin of Forde as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, which took place at a council held in Westminster in 1184.

[4] Coutances helped the schools in the city of Lincoln, acting as the patron for scholars such as John of Tynemouth and Simon of Southwell.

King Henry had initially rejected the Rouen cathedral chapter's nominees and put forward three English bishops as the royal candidates.

The medieval chronicler William of Newburgh wrote that eventually Coutances' ambition overcame his greed, and he agreed to the translation.

[22] In the later part of 1186, after the death of King Henry's son Geoffrey—who was Duke of Brittany—King Philip II of France demanded that Geoffrey's daughters be placed in the French king's custody, and that the duchy of Brittany, which Geoffrey had ruled in right of his wife, be surrendered into French royal custody.

Henry rejected those terms, and neither Philip nor Richard would negotiate, even under the legate's threat of an interdict on France.

[24] Shortly after Richard took the throne he sought absolution for his sins in rebelling against his father, from Baldwin of Forde and Coutances.

[27] On 9 November 1189 Richard appointed Coutances to a commission tasked with deciding the dispute between Baldwin of Forde and the monks of his cathedral chapter over Baldwin's plan to create a church dedicated to Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury, and to staff this church not with monks, but with canons.

The archbishop landed in England on 27 June, after a short detour to Rome,[30] where Coutances received a release from his crusading vow.

In September, however, Longchamp imprisoned Richard's bastard half-brother, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, who was attempting to return to England after having been banished by the king.

The imprisonment renewed memories of the murder of Thomas Becket almost 20 years earlier, and Geoffrey was quickly released.

[4] After Longchamp's exile Coutances was named head of a council of regency, which is sometimes equated to the post of Chief Justiciar, although he never referred to himself as such nor is he titled that in any official document.

The archbishop also stressed that his decisions were made with the advice and consent of many of the leading nobles of the realm, as well as the barons of the Exchequer.

Reginald died a month later and the see remained vacant until March 1193, when the king's candidate, Hubert Walter, was elected.

[36] In February 1193 Coutances summoned a council to Oxford, to address problems of administration and defence after the recently received news of Richard's captivity in Germany.

[38] In February 1194 Coutances was in Germany, at the court of the German emperor, along with Longchamp, who brought letters to Richard, still in captivity.

On 4 February, Coutances became a hostage to the German emperor as surety for the payment of the outstanding portion of Richard's ransom, and the king was released.

[39] The king never paid the final instalment of his ransom, and the archbishop had to pay 10,000 marks for his own release.

[4] From that point onwards Coutances was no longer involved with English politics or government, and spent the rest of his career on Norman affairs.

This led Innocent to order Normandy laid under an interdict, but eventually Silvester was allowed to take possession of Sées.

[45] 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.

He began the custom of keeping records in registers of episcopal judgements from about 1200, and he appointed the first officials of Rouen.

[21] The inventory of his personal possessions made after his death included a large number of jewels and vestments.