Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/250

 Walsingham bury [q. v.], John Brompton [q. v.], Henry Knighton [q. v.], Nicholas Trivet [q. v.], Roger de Hoveden [q. v.], Matthew Paris [q. v.], William Rishanger [q. v.], Matthew Westminster [q. v.], Adam Murimuth [q. v.], the St. Albans chronicle, the chronicle of Walter de Hemingburgh [q. v.], the Harleian MS. 3634, and the manuscripts in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The 'Ypodigma' was first published in London in 1574 fol., and was edited by Mr. H. T. Riley in the Rolls Series in 1876.

It is remarked by Pits in his life of Walsingham that we owe to him the knowledge of many historical incidents not to be met with in other writers. He is, in fact, the principal authority for the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and Henry V. Our acquaintance with Wycliff's career is largely due to his information, though it must be borne in mind that he was greatly prejudiced against lollardy. He is also the chief authority for the insurrection of Wat Tyler in 1381. The peasants' revolt of that year was formidable at St. Albans, the abbey being besieged, many of its court rolls and other muniments burnt, and charters of manumission extorted. Walsingham's admiration for Henry V, as the opposer of lollardy, led him to follow with minute detail the progress of that king's campaigns in France.

Walsingham was a painstaking collector of facts rather than an historian, though he sometimes manipulated his facts with ulterior objects, as is illustrated by the contradictory accounts he gave of the characters of Richard II and John of Gaunt. Tanner (Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 752) mentions a manuscript in the library of St. John's College, Oxford (MS. W. 92), as attributed to Thomas Walsingham. It is intituled 'De Generatione et Natura Deorum,' a title which suggests remoteness from Thomas Walsingham's literary pursuits.

[Leland's Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britamricis, ed. Hall, Oxford, 1709, ii. 360; Bale's Scriptorum Illustrium Majoris Britanniæ Catalogus, Basle, 1559, p. 579; Pits, De Rebus Anglicis, Paris, 1619, p. 423. See also Nicolson's English, Scotch, and Irish Historical Libraries, 1776, p. 55 (on Nicolson's assertion that Walsingham's account of Edward II is wholly borrowed from Thomas de la More [q. v.], see Riley's Hist. Anglicana, vol. i. p. xvi n. 3); Halliwell's Chronicle of William de Rishanger (Camden Soc.), 1840, p. vii; Hardy's Monumenta Historica Britannica, 1848, pp. 11, 30; Gardiner and Mullinger's Introduction to the Study of English History, 1882; Gairdner's Early Chronicles of England, n.d.]

 WALTER (d. 1079), bishop of Hereford, a native of Lotharingia or Lorraine, was chaplain of Edith or Eadgyth (d. 1075) [q. v.], the Confessor's queen, and as a reward of his industry was appointed to the bishopric of Hereford at Christmas 1060 ( sub an.; Codex Diplomaticus, No. 833). As the position of Archbishop Stigand [q. v.] was held to be uncanonical, he and Gisa [q. v.], bishop-designate of Wells, received leave from the Confessor to go to Rome for consecration, and were commissioned by him to obtain the pope's confirmation of privileges for St. Peter's Abbey, Westminster. He was consecrated with Gisa by Nicholas II at Rome on 15 April 1061, and set out to return home with Earl Tostig [q. v.] and others; was with them robbed on the way, and, owing to the earl's remonstrances, had his losses made up to him by the pope. He is said to have resisted the tyranny of the Conqueror, to have had his lands ravaged, to have been oppressed by the king and Lanfranc [q. v.], and to have been forced to take refuge in Wales (Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, ii. 45-6, 48-9; there is no doubt an element of truth in these statements). He was present at Lanfranc's councils of 1072 and 1075. According to a story, told as a report by William of Malmesbury, he had, when advanced in age, a violent passion for a seamstress of Hereford, attempted to violate her, and was killed by her. He died in 1079, was buried in his church, and was succeeded by Robert Losinga [q. v.], like himself a native of Lotharingia.

[Flor. Wig. ann. 1060-1; Æthelred, col. 738 (Decem Scriptt.); Eccles. Doc. p. 16 (Camden Soc.); Vita Eadw. p. 4 11, Will, of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontif. iv. c. 163 (Loth Rolls Ser.)]

 WALTER (d. 1153), founder of Rievaulx Abbey. [See Espec, Walter (DNB00).]

 WALTER (fl. 1170), archbishop of Palermo, primate and chancellor of Sicily, was sent to Sicily by Henry II of England as an instructor for young William II of Sicily, for whom Henry had destined his daughter Johanna. So at least Pits reports, but others make Walter the tutor of the Sicilian princes during the lifetime of the old King William. Peter of Blois [q. v.], a friend and correspondent of Walter, succeeded him as tutor of the young king when the Englishman became archbishop of Palermo. Walter was first archdeacon of Cefalù in the province of Palermo, then dean of Girgenti; then under William II he was, according to Hugo Falcandus, violently thrust upon the see of Palermo,