Walter Champfleur or de Champfleur (died 1498 or 1499) was an Irish cleric and judge of the fifteenth century, who played a leading role in Irish politics.Ball p.186 He was probably a Dubliner, and had cousins living near Dublin city. He was

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

of the Cistercian house of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin for more than 30 years: he became Abbot in 1467, in succession to John Handcock. The Abbey was located near the junction of present-day

Abbey Street Abbey Street () is located on Dublin's Northside, running from the Customs House and Store Street in the east to Capel Street in the west. The street is served by two Luas light rail stops, one at the Jervis shopping centre and the other ne ...

and

Capel Street Capel Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland. On 20 May 2022, it was made traffic-free, following a campaign by people who wanted to improve the quality of life on the street. It is now the longest traffic-free street in Dublin. History Capel ...

in Dublin city centre. Before his appointment as Abbot he had been one of the Irish Canonical Visitors of his Order.Warburton p.309

Activities as Abbot

As Abbot, he secured the passing of a statute of the Irish Parliament in the session of 1471-2,''Statute 11 and 12 Edward IV c.11'' confirming the Abbey in all its rights and possessions, and the validity of all its

charters A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

.Gilbert pp.xvi-xxii Parliament further enacted that the Abbey had the right to have all

legal proceeding Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that " e term ''legal proceedings'' i ...

s which might infringe its

liberties Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society f ...

annulled. Champfleur used the statute of 1471 to good effect in defending a lawsuit brought against the Abbey in the

Court of Exchequer (Ireland) The Court of Exchequer (Ireland) or the Irish Exchequer of Pleas, was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was the mirror image of the equivalent court in England. The Court of Exchequer was one of the four royal courts of justic ...

for £100, this being the estimated value of some casks of Spanish

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

whose ownership was in dispute. The

casks A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

had washed ashore at

Portmarnock Portmarnock () is a coastal suburban settlement in Fingal, Ireland, with significant beaches, a modest commercial core and inland residential estates, and two golf courses, including one of Ireland's best-known golf clubs. , the population was ...

in north

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

following a shipwreck in December 1465. The

Sheriff of County Dublin The Sheriff of County Dublin (or (High) Sheriff of the County of Dublin) was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Dublin. Initially, an office for a lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the Sheriff became an annual appointment follo ...

had seized them as the property of the county, only to have them confiscated in turn by Champfleur's predecessor, Abbot Handcock, who claimed them as Abbey property. Champfleur successfully maintained this claim. A further statute passed in the session of 1475-6''Statute 15 and 16 Edward IV c.84'' permitted the Abbot and his successors, as well as a number of other prominent clerics like the Prior of

Great Connell Priory Great Connell Priory () is a former house of Augustinian canons dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint David, situated on the eastern side of the River Liffey, in the Barony of Connell just to the south-east of the town of Newbridge, County Kilda ...

, to deal with their lands in territories controlled by the "enemies of the King" i.e "the hostile Irish", without committing any

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

. The Abbot and his successors were exempted from the usual penalties for having dealings with the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. They were specifically permitted to enter contracts for the sale of land and

foodstuffs Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...

with them, "in time of war as well as peace", and in a rather curious detail, were allowed to act as godfathers to Irish children. He was one of the founder members of the Dublin Baker's

Guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

, which received its charter in 1479.''Patent Roll 19 Edward IV''

Judge

Champfleur was Lord Keeper of the

Great Seal of Ireland The Great Seal of Ireland was the seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Ireland was used fr ...

in 1479, and again following the death of the bitterly unpopular William Sherwood,

Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Unt ...

(Elrington Ball suggests that he actually held the more senior office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland) from late 1482 to early 1483, when he was replaced by

Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth (born c.1435 – died before 1488) was a leading statesman in 15th-century Ireland who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Through his second marriage, he was a close connection to the new Tudor dyna ...

Lambert Simnel

Like almost all of the Anglo-Irish ruling class, who were led by

Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare KG (born – ), known variously as "Garret the Great" (Gearóid Mór) or "The Great Earl" (An tIarla Mór), was Ireland's premier peer. He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1477 to 1494, and from 1496 ...

, he made the mistake of supporting the spurious claim of the

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...

Lambert Simnel Lambert Simnel (c. 1477 – after 1534) was a pretender to the throne of England. In 1487, his claim to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, threatened the newly established reign of Henry VII (1485–1509). Simnel became the ...

to the English Crown. Simnel appeared in Ireland in 1487, posing as a surviving Prince of the previous

Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

dynasty. Simnel was crowned King of England at

Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the ( ...

in May 1487, but his cause was crushed by King Henry VII at the Battle of Stoke Field the following month. The victorious Henry was magnanimous to his enemies, and Champfleur shared in the general pardon issued by the King in 1488 ( Sir James Keating, the notoriously turbulent Prior of the

Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

at Kilmainham, was the one notable exception to the King's clemency). Champfleur took the required oath of allegiance to Henry in July 1488, in the presence of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, the English official charged with bringing the Anglo-Irish nobility into obedience, and with punishing those, like Prior Keating, who were regarded as incorrigible rebels.

Adviser to the Earl of Ormond

As well as his performing his duties as Abbot, Champfleur acted as political adviser and financial agent to the powerful Anglo-Irish magnate

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond PC (1426 – 3 August 1515) was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was attainted, but restored by Henry VII's first Parliament in November 1485, and the statutes made at Westminster, by ...

. He collected the Earl's rents, stored money for him, and kept him informed of political developments in Dublin. In particular, while

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

was in session, Champfleur on at least two occasions advised Ormond to have private bills drafted to secure his own interests, which the Earl duly did. In 1497 Walter wrote inquiring about the health of Ormond's second wife Lora Berkeley, who was pregnant, and offering his prayers that "God send (her) a good and fair deliverance". The expected child was Lady Elizabeth Butler, who survived infancy but died in her early teens. On a more practical note, he suggested that one of his cousins would be a suitable tenant for the Earl's farm at Rush in north county Dublin, which was apparently in a ruinous condition. This is one of the few known references to Walter's family.

Death and reputation

He is usually said to have died in 1497, but there is evidence that he was still alive in February 1498; he may have died later that year or in the following year. His death was a blow to Ormond, whose relations with the new Abbot of St Mary's, John Orum (previously one of the

monks A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

of the House), were very bad: Orum refused to hand over monies collected for Ormond by Champfleur, despite admitting that the funds in question were the Earl's property. Champfleur was mourned by his

and by the people of Dublin as an "aged, prudent and learned man", and a man of energy and initiative O Conbhui p.21 who had made vigorous, if not very successful, attempts to reform

abuses Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

within his Order. The judge Nicholas Sutton thought highly of him, and on his death in 1478 made him both his executor and

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in ...

of his children.Ball p.103

References

Notes

{{reflist

Sources

*Ball F. Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 *Gilbert, John T. ''The Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

reissue 2012 *''Letter of John Orum, Abbot, and the Convent of St Mary's Abbey to the Earl of Ormond with regard to goods entrusted to the Convent for the Earl 13 November 1501'' National Library of Ireland *McCormack, Anthony M. "Champfleur, Walter" ''Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography'' 2009 *O Conbhui, C. "The Lands of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin" (1961) ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy'' Vol. 62 *Warburton, John; Whitelaw, James; Walsh, Robert ''History of the City of Dublin: from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time'' London Cadell and Davies 1818 15th-century Irish judges 15th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests