Walter de Coventre
Walter de Coventre was a 14th-century Scottish ecclesiastic. He was elected Bishop of Dunblane in 1361, and served for 10 years. He died in either 1371 or 1372, and his life is not well documented. It has been assumed that Walter’s surname derived from the medieval town of Coventry in England.
About Walter de Coventre in brief
Walter de Coventre was a 14th-century Scottish ecclesiastic. There is no direct evidence of his birthdate, his family, or his family’s origin. He studied the arts, civil law and canon law, and was awarded many university degrees, including two doctorates. His studies were paid for, at least partially, by his benefices in Scotland. He was elected Bishop of Dunblane in 1361, and served for 10 years. 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. He died in either 1371 or 1372, and his life is not well documented. No modern historian has written a monograph about him, and the most extensive attempt to reconstruct his life in modern literature is a two-page entry in D. E. R. Watt’s Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to A. D. 1410. Such men often acquired university education through their family resources, through the patronage of more substantial nobles, or through church influence. The ultimate reward for such services was a bishopric, which brought wealth, prestige, and a \”job for life\”. He was typical of a new class of men in 14th century Scotland, the university-educated career cleric from the lower nobility. He may have come from the region around Abernethy, where a family with the name de CovENTre is known to have lived. In 1330s, civil war raged in Scotland as those loyal to David fought Edward Balliol and his English backers.
King David II was driven into exile in France at the age of ten. The conflict became a side-show of the Hundred Years’ War, and David resided at Château Gaillard, until he could return to Scotland in 1341. It has been assumed that Walter’s surname derived from the medieval town of Coventry in England, where he lived in 1357. James Hutchison Cockburn, a historian of medieval bishops, has suggested that Walter was part of David’s court while both were in northern France, and that the relationship subsequently benefited from Walter’s relationship with him. He says that the medieval bishops of Dun Blane’s medieval settlement of diintrie in Scotland was a settlement of the medieval Coventry or Coventry diIntrie in the medieval period. He also suggests that this is where Walter’s medieval bishops’ medieval settlement in Scotland may have been based, and where he may have had a connection to the town of Coventry di Intrie in England in the 15th century. He writes that the settlement was called Coventry Diintrie or Coventrie, and it is believed to have been on the banks of the River Tweed, near the village of Abernathy. He concludes that the name of this medieval settlement may be the same as Coventry, in the county of Leith, Scotland, which was once part of the Duchy of Lancaster.
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This page is based on the article Walter de Coventre published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
