Walter Map

Walter Map is a Welsh cleric, courtier, diplomat, and author of De Nugis Curialium (Courtiers' Trifles), a series of anecdotes about people and places which he did not publish, and the widely circulated satire Dissuasio Valerii (Against Marriage).
De Nugis Curialium contains numerous items of folklore, including the stories of King Herla, Eadric Wild a dragon-bride and other strange brides, revenants, devil twins, centaurs and phantasms.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Map was born in the Welsh Marches, probably somewhere near the Black Mountains south-west of Hereford.
He likely attended school at Gloucester abbey. By 1154 he was a student in Paris, and was in Paris several times in the 1150s anf 1160s. He served as a clerk to Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London (1163-1187) and former Bishop of Hereford, in the 1160s. By 1173 he was a royal clerk in the service of King Henry II.
In February 1173 he was in attendance at Henry's court in Limoges, where he was tasked with entertaining Peter, Archbishop of Tarentaise. Later that year he acted a as a royal justice in England, and was made a canon of St Paul's Cathedral, London, by his patron Gilbert Folio. This last appointment carried with it the prebend of Mapesbury. Over the next few years he acquired a substanital group of churches and dignities, which allowed hiim to maintain a substantial household. Henry II granted him the advowson of Ashwell in Hertfordshire.
Through the 1170s Walter's time was split between the royal court and brief visits to his churches, prebends and properties.
In 1179 he was one of Henry's representatives at the Third Lateran Council, where he debated with Waldensians.
He was appointed a canon of Lincoln Cathedral by 1183; by 1186 he was Chancellor of Lincoln, nominally head of one of the leading theological schools in England.
His court career drew to a close with the death of Henry II in 1189, and he became precentor of Lincoln.
In 1196 he was appointed Archdeacon of Oxford. He was nominated for the bishopric of Hereford in 1199 and St David's in 1203, but achieved neither.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Map likely wrote the bulk of De Nugis Curialium in 1181 or 1182, but some sections are later - he refers in one chapter to the fall of Jerusalem (1187), and another mentioned it is two years after the death of Henry II (therefore 1191). The book was likely in looseleaf draft form. Map never published it, though he may have shown or performed parts of it. His notes remained at Oxford after his death, and the manuscript was copied by a monk of Ramsey in the 14th century.

Intellectual Characteristics

Map is a learned and witty man. His Dissuasio Valerii (Against Marriage) is considered one of the most brilliant anti-feminine satires of the period.

Date of Death

1210

Year of Birth

1130 AD 62 Years old