Hubert Walter - Under John

Under John

According to the Life of William Marshal, which dates to soon after 1219, when word reached William Marshal, one of the richest and most influential barons, that Richard was dead, he consulted with Walter and discussed whom to support as the next king. Marshal's choice was John, but Walter initially leaned towards John's young nephew Arthur of Brittany. When Marshall was insistent on John, who was an adult, the author of the Life has Walter say in reply " 'So be it then,' said the archbishop, 'but mark my words, Marshal, you will never regret anything in your life as much as this.'" This is almost certainly a retrospective comment that has been inserted into the biography, however, based on John's later behaviour. Once John knew he had the support of Walter and William Marshal, he sent Walter ahead to England to request all free men to pledge fealty to the new king. On 27 May 1199 Walter crowned John, supposedly making a speech that promulgated, for the last time, the theory of a king's election by the people. This story is only contained in the writings of Matthew Paris, however, and although it seems certain that Walter made a speech, it is not certain what the exact contents were. On his coronation day, John appointed Walter Lord Chancellor. W. L. Warren, historian and author of a biography of John, says of Walter that "No one living had a firmer grasp of the intricacies of royal government, yet even in old age his mind was adaptable and fecund with suggestions for coping with new problems."

One of Walter's first suggestions was to lower the fees for having charters confirmed, from nine pounds and five shillings to eighteen shillings and four pence. Accompanying this measure was a requirement that no charter would be accepted in a king's court without having been confirmed by King John. Not only did this reduce forgeries, it led to the establishment of the Charter Roll, an administrative copy of all charters issued and confirmed by the government. In his relations with other officers, Walter worked closely with the justiciar Geoffrey Fitz Peter, on the collection of taxation, and both men went to Wales in 1203 on a diplomatic mission. Another joint action of the two men concerned a tax of a seventh part of all movables collected from both lay and ecclesiastical persons. The medieval chronicler Roger of Wendover said that the king "had Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury to act for him in the matter of the church property, Geoffrey fitz-Peter in the matter of lay property; and these two spared no one in carrying out their orders." Walter was also responsible for the keeping of copies of other royal letters in the Close Rolls and the Patent Rolls. The Patent rolls record letters that were issued in "patent", or openly and not sealed, and the Close rolls record letters issued sealed, or letters close. The various rolls are extant from 1199 for the Charter roll, 1201 for the Patent roll, and 1204 for the Close roll. Walter also continued to innovate in local government, as the earliest record of the coroner's rolls, or county records, being used to cross-check oral testimony in the county courts date from 1202 and 1203, during Walter's chancellorship.

In 1201 Walter went on a diplomatic mission to Philip II of France, which was unsuccessful, and in 1202 he returned to England as regent while John was abroad. In April 1204 Walter returned to France with John de Gray the Bishop of Norwich, Eustace the Bishop of Ely, William Marshal, and Robert de Beaumont the Earl of Leicester to seek peace with Philip Augustus. Philip insisted that John hand over Arthur of Brittany, Arthur's sister Eleanor, and renounce all of his continental possessions before the French king would make peace. John refused to do this, and the embassy returned to England not long before Philip conquered Normandy.

Besides sending Walter on diplomatic missions, King John gave Walter custody of Rochester Castle on 20 July 1202, but as Walter was already accounting for the taxes and fees of the city of Rochester to the Exchequer in 1200, it is possible that he held the castle before 1202. John also upheld the right of the archbishop to mint coins, which Walter held until his death in 1205.

Under John, Walter continued to be active in ecclesiastical affairs, and in September 1200 held a provincial church council at London. This council set forth 14 canons, or decrees, which dealt with a number of subjects, including doctrinal concerns, financial affairs, and the duties of the clergy. It drew heavily on earlier church decrees, including those of the Third Lateran Council of 1179. Walter also interceded with Pope Innocent III in 1200, mediating between the pope and the king over a royal dispute with the Cistercians. Walter's intercession prevented the dispute from escalating, and kept the pope from imposing sanctions on the king for his threats to the Cistercians. It was in 1200 that the church court records of the archdiocese of Canterbury began to be recorded and kept, although after Walter's death in 1205 the records become sparse until the 14th century.