Waldric
Lord Chancellor
In office
1102–1107
MonarchHenry I of England
Preceded byRoger of Salisbury
Succeeded byRanulf

Waldric[1] (aka Gaudry,[2] died 1112) was the eighth Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England, from 1103[3] to 1107.[4] He was also Bishop of Laon from 1106 to 1112.[5] He had been a royal chaplain as early as 3 September 1101.[6]

At the battle of Tinchebray (1106), Orderic Vitalis states, Waldric capellanus regis captured Robert Curthose, Henry I of England's brother and leader of the opposing forces as Duke of Normandy.[7]

As bishop he was greedy and violent,[8] unconventional in his habits and joking, a prodigal spender on himself; he is portrayed in very unflattering terms in the 1115 chronicle Monodiae of Guibert of Nogent. He had Gerard of Quierzy murdered[9] in the very cathedral of Laon.

His election as bishop was contested; he had been hurried into minor orders after the battle and made a canon of Rouen, but it was upheld by Pope Paschal II at the Council of Langres.[10] He was murdered at Eastertide 1112, in the crypt of Laon Cathedral by citizens of Laon who had set up a commune in the city.[11] Guibert's account of this event alludes to Isengrin, making it of literary-historical value.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ Gauldric, Gaudry, Guadri, Galdric, Goldric, Gualdricus, Waldricus.
  2. ^ Frank Barlow, ‘Waldric [Gaudry] (d. 1112)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 24 Nov 2012
  3. ^ His attestations of charters show that Waldric entered the office between 13 April and 24 May 1103.
  4. ^ (Johnson, Charles (January 1936). "Waldric, the Chancellor of Henry I". The English Historical Review. 51 (201): 103–104. doi:10.1093/ehr/li.cci.103.).
  5. ^ Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 81
  6. ^ Johnson 1936.
  7. ^ Frank Barlow, The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 (4th edition 1988), p. 177.
  8. ^ Medieval Europe, by H. W. C. Davis | HISTORION Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation (1983), p. 509.
  10. ^ Marjorie Chibnall, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis (1978), note p. 90.
  11. ^ Barlow, p. 261.
  12. ^ Jill Mann, Nivardus, Ysengrimus: Text (1987), note p. 2.

References

Political offices Preceded byRoger of Salisbury Lord Chancellor 1102–1107 Succeeded byRanulf Catholic Church titles Preceded byEnguerrand Bishop of Laon 1107–1112 Succeeded byHugo


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