No sooner was Normandy lost than John’s ecclesiastical troubles began; and they began in the most dangerous way, for the very event that caused them robbed him of the only counsellor he had who could have guided him safely through them. Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury--whose career we have traced first as a chaplain to Henry II., then as Bishop of Salisbury, counsellor, captain and chaplain to the third Crusade; then as Chief Justiciar of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and legate, making laws and canons, leading armies, administering justice, collecting taxes, under Richard; and lastly, acting as Chancellor to John from the coronation to his death--Hubert Walter died on July 12, 1205. [Sidenote: Disputed election at Canterbury. ] The appointment to the archbishopric had been for many years a vexed question. The monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, claimed the right of free election; they were the chapter of the cathedral, and had the same right as any other chapter to elect their prelate. It was a right that was distinctly recognised by the canon law, had been granted by Stephen’s charter, and had been so far made good at each change in the primacy that certain forms of election by them had been required as needful to the validity of the appointment. But the bishops of the province of Canterbury, whose chief and judge the archbishop was, also claimed a right in the election, partly on mere grounds of equity, but partly also on the ground of a prescription which, based on the precedent of the Anglo-Saxon councils, had given them an active influence on each occasion since the reign of Henry I. And besides these the king had his right; the Archbishop of Canterbury was his chief constitutional counsellor, the counsellor of whom he could not rid himself without breaking at once with religion and state custom. The king had generally since the Conquest nominated the archbishop, sometimes with and sometimes without the co-operation of the other two bodies, but always practically by his own fiat; and the pacification between Henry I. and Anselm had contained an admission that the homage of the archbishop elect to the king was necessary to the full right to exercise his constitutional power. Usually, however, as was generally done where the canon law and national law ran counter or overlapped one another, the end in view was secured by adroit management, saving the rights of each party, for the time. The quarrel on this occasion began with the monks of Canterbury. [Sidenote: Election of the sub-prior. ]