Walter Champfleur

Walter Champfleur (died 1498 or 1499) was an Irish cleric and judge of the fifteenth century.

He was Abbot of the Cistercian foundation of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin for at least 30 years, being first recorded as Abbot in 1467. He was briefly Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Ireland from late 1482 to early 1483.

Like almost all of the Anglo-Irish ruling class, led by Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, he made the mistake of supporting the claims of the pretender Lambert Simnel to the English Crown. Simnel's cause was crushed by the incumbent King, Henry VII, at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487. The victorious Henry was magnanimous to his enemies, and Champfleur shared in the general pardon issued by the King in 1488.

As well as his performing his duties as Abbot, he acted as political adviser and financial agent to the powerful Anglo-Irish magnate Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. He collected the Earl's rents, stored money for him, and kept him informed of political developments in Dublin. In particular, while the Parliament of Ireland was in session, Champfleur on at least two occasions advised Ormond to have private bills drafted to secure his own interests.

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 severe blow to Ormond, whose relations with the new Abbot of St Mary's, John Orum, were very bad, and Orum refused to hand over money owing to the Earl collected by his predecessor. Champfleur was mourned by his monks as an "aged, prudent and learned man", who had attempted to reform abuses within his Order.

Sources

• Ball F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
• Letter of John Orum, Abbot, and the Abbey of St Mary's to the Earl of Ormond National Library of Ireland
• McCormack, Anthony M. "Champfleur, Walter" Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography