Walter de Brugge

Walter de Brugge, or Walter de Brigge (died 1396) was an English-born clergyman and judge in fourteenth-century Ireland; much of his career was spent in the service of the Earl of March.[1] He is mainly remembered now as the first person known to have owned a copy of the celebrated poem Piers Plowman.[2]

Biography

Both versions of his family name are early forms of Brydges, so he may have been connected to the Brydges family of Coberley in Gloucestershire which held the title Baron Chandos from about 1337, and who at that time usually spelt their name Brugge.[3] He was already "connected with Ireland" in 1369, when he was guardian of the Irish estates of Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March.[4] He spent much of his career in the service of the Mortimer family, and spent a great deal of his time travelling between the various Mortimer estates "shipping cash and auditing accounts".[5] In the political crisis of 1387, where the 2nd Earl's natural son Sir Thomas Mortimer worked with the powerful faction of the nobility called the Lords Appellant to defeat King Richard II, Brugge, who was described as being constantly "on the move", served as a useful go-between among the Appellants.[6]

Trim Cathedral, formerly St. Patrick's Church- Walter was appointed vicar of the church in 1381.

As a clergyman he was frequently accused of corruption, and he was certainly guilty of pluralism, being Archdeacon of Meath, Archdeacon of Kells, vicar of Burwell, Cambridgeshire, vicar of St. Patrick's Church, Trim,[7] prebendary of York, Hereford, St. David's and prebendary of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.[8] He attempted to become chancellor of St Patrick's Cathedral, but was opposed by John de Karlell, a fellow Baron of the Exchequer. A petition from Brugge to the Privy Council dating from about 1377 survives, asking for the King to examine the evidence so that justice might be done to him in the dispute. In spite of his pleas the office went to Karlell.[9] Brugge became a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) in 1381, and died in 1396.[10]

Piers Plowman

He is said to have possessed a considerable library, and he is the first person known to have owned a copy of the famous medieval poem Piers Plowman, by William Langland.[11] This is somewhat ironic since the "false priest in Ireland" whom the poet denounces for corruption has recently been identified as de Brugge himself: but even if de Brugge knew that the reference was to him it clearly did not prevent him from enjoying the poem.[12]

Piers Plowman First edition

References
  1. Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p.165
  2. Gillespie, Alexandra and Wakelin, Daniel ed. The Production of Books in England 1350-1500 Cambridge University Press 2011 p.71
  3. Cokayne Complete Peerage Reprinted Gloucester 2000 Vol. 3, p. 151
  4. Ball p. 165
  5. Dunn, Alistair Richard II and the Mortimer Inheritance; in Fourteenth-century England, Given-Wilson ed. Boydell Press 2002 Vol.2, p. 162
  6. Dunn p.162
  7. Butler, Rev. Richard Some Notices of the Church of St. Patrick's, Trim H. Griffith Trim 1837 p.12
  8. Ball p.165
  9. National Archives SC 8/213/10619
  10. Ball p.165
  11. Gillespie and Wakelin p.71
  12. Heron, Thomas Spenser's Irish Work-Poetry, Plantation and Colonial Reformation Ashgate Publishing Company Aldershot 2007 pp.206-7
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