Waldric

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
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

• Davis, H. W. C., "Waldric, the Chancellor of Henry I" The English Historical Review Vol. 26, No. 101 (January 1911), pp. 84-89
• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961