Records of his episcopate are thin, but there are enough to allow a modest reconstruction of his activities: he presided over legal disputes, issued a dispensation for an important irregular marriage, attended parliaments, and acted as an envoy of the Scottish crown in England.

Walter de Coventre was typical of a new class of men in 14th-century Scotland, the university-educated career cleric from the lower nobility.

[1] Such men often acquired university education through their family resources, through the patronage of more substantial nobles, or through church influence, particularly support from the pope and his court.

[2] Patronage gave access to the resources needed to finance the considerable expense of a 14th-century university education, particularly through the presentation of benefices, gifts of land or income made by the church.

[10] In some sense, the conflict became a side-show of the Hundred Years' War, and David resided at Château Gaillard in northern France for much of his exile, until he could return to Scotland in 1341.

[10] In 1346, in response to a plea from France to come to its aid, David led an army into England only to be taken prisoner at Neville's Cross; he remained in captivity until he was ransomed in 1357.

[12] James Hutchison Cockburn, a historian of Dunblane's medieval bishops, assumed that Walter's surname derived from the town of Coventry in England.

Before December 1341, when he resigned, John de Coventre held the parish church of Inverarity, Angus, in the diocese of St Andrews.

[16] On 7 October 1349, Pope Clement granted an indult to Walter allowing him to be absent from his cure while he continued his studies at Orléans.

[21] He may already have been a Doctor of Civil Law by that point, because in the following year, on 22 November 1350, he is found as such acting as the Regent of Orléans presenting a candidate for licence.

On 20 December 1348, he was made Dean of Aberdeen Cathedral, a high-ranking office which Walter was not technically eligible to hold without a papal grace, being only a sub-deacon in orders.

Although in July the Pope had given it as an extra prebend for Annibald de Ceccano, Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, this had been cancelled by 20 December, when it was given to Walter instead.

[13] Walter remained as a teacher and official at Orléans, perhaps without returning to Scotland at all, until the late 1350s, by when he would have been absent from his native country for more than 25 years.

[27] Walter cannot be traced back in Scotland with certainty before his appearance as a witness to a charter of Thomas, Earl of Mar, on 9 July 1358.

He may have returned a year earlier, as a document dated sometime between November 1357 and April 1359 records him in the sheriffdom of Forfar (royal demesne in Angus) assisting a justice ayre.

[8] Walter, bishop-elect, travelled to the papal court at Avignon, and was provided (appointed) as bishop by Pope Innocent on 18 June 1361.

It was on that date that he presented a roll of petitions to the Pope on behalf of several Scotsmen, including Michael de Monymusk, future Bishop of Dunkeld.

The document in which Walter is mentioned recorded that William Rae, Bishop of Glasgow, along with his cathedral chapter, agreed to put a dispute to arbitration.

[33] The deed authorised the reduction of canons at Abernethy Collegiate Church from ten to five, adding the consent of the patroness Margaret, Countess of Angus.

[40] On 13 March 1366, Walter was commissioned by the papacy to authorise dispensation for the irregular marriage between John Stewart, Earl of Carrick (much later King Robert III) and Annabella Drummond.

[44] The parliament's discussions on Anglo-Scottish relations preceded peace negotiations later in the year, at which Bishop Walter was one of the Scottish envoys.

There was some urgency behind the matter, in view of the impending end to the five-year Anglo-Scottish truce agreed by King Edward III of England on 20 May 1365.

[46] Walter attended the Perth parliament of 18 February 1370, and was named as one of the members of a special committee "for the deliberation concerning the consideration of common justice".

[48] Walter de Coventre must have died later in 1371 or in very early 1372, because on 27 April 1372, the Pope appointed Andrew Magnus to the vacant bishopric of Dunblane.