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Walter Giffard

Walter Giffard
Archbishop of York
Appointed 15 October 1266
Installed 1 November 1266
Term ended late April 1279
Predecessor Godfrey Ludham
Successor William de Wickwane
Other posts Bishop of Bath and Wells
Orders
Consecration by Peter d'Acquablanca
Personal details
Born c. 1225
Died April 1279
York
Buried York Minster
Parents Hugh Giffard
Sibyl de Cormeilles

Walter Giffard (c.1225 – April 1279) was Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York.

Giffard was a son of Hugh Giffard of Boyton in Wiltshire, a royal justice, by Sibyl, a daughter and co-heiress of Walter de Cormeilles. He was born about 1225, and may have been the oldest son. Hugh and Sybil were entrusted with the care of the young Prince Edward in 1239. In 1256 Giffard and his mother received the king's licence to live in Boyton Castle. Giffard's brother was Bishop Godfrey Giffard, who was Bishop of Worcester and also Lord Chancellor of England; his sister Mabel was the Abbess of Shaftesbury Abbey. Walter was also a kinsman of William of Bitton I, who was Walter's predecessor at Bath. The family was also related to Walter de Gray, who was Archbishop of York from 1215 to 1255.

Giffard studied at Cambridge University and took his master of arts at Oxford University. While at university Adam Marsh wrote to another scholar praising Giffard's scholarly skills. Giffard took holy orders and became a canon and archdeacon of Wells and a papal chaplain. On 22 May 1264 he was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells and received the temporalities on 1 September 1264. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Boniface of Savoy was in France, Giffard travelled to Paris to be consecrated at Notre-Dame on 4 January 1265. The service was performed by Peter d'Acquablanca, the Bishop of Hereford, Giffard having first sworn that he would not take part against King Henry III. However, the barons were angered that he had ventured abroad against their will and ravaged nearly all his manors. Archbishop Boniface ordered him to excommunicate Simon de Montfort the Earl of Leicester and his party on Giffard's return to England. Following the Battle of Evesham, on 10 August 1265 King Henry made Giffard Chancellor and awarded him a stipend of five hundred marks a year. In August of the following year he was appointed one of the arbitrators for drawing up the award of Kenilworth which provided the disinherited lords a means of recovering their estates.


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