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Walter Wardlaw (diedc. 1387) was a 14th-centurybishop of Glasgow inScotland.

Wardlaw was the son of a Sir Henry Wardlaw of Torry, a middling knight ofFife. Before becoming bishop, Walter was acanon ofGlasgow, aMaster of Theology andarchdeacon ofLothian. He was at theUniversity of Paris, and a roll of the year 1349 has one "Master William de Wardlaw" in the English Nation. By this stage, he was already a canon of Glasgow, with a prebend in Glasgow and another in thediocese of St Andrews. Yet a petition of 1349 to the papacy has Walter requesting the church of "Dunenach" in thediocese of Aberdeen. By 1359, he isrector of Erol and archdeacon of Lothian.^[1]

After the death on 27 January 1367 ofWilliam Rae, Bishop of Glasgow,Pope Urban V, who had previously reserved thesee for his own appointment, advanced Walter as bishop. The canons of Glasgow had already elected him, but the pope declared the election void before himself providing the same man to the bishopric. On 23 December 1383, during theWestern Schism in which theKingdom of Scotland sided with theAvignon Papacy,Avignon Pope Clement VII made Walter acardinal priest (without title, that is, title to any church inRome to which he would have been theoretically attached). In the following year, on 24 November 1384, the same pope granted Wardlaw with the powers of alegate inScotland andIreland. At this point in time, cardinals had to "vacate" their bishoprics upon becoming a cardinal, and so Wardlaw ceased using the title "Bishop of Glasgow". However, after a papal grant he retained administration of the diocese and continued to use his Glaswegian episcopalseal. Walter was frequently used as a diplomat for the Scottish crown in its relations with theKingdom of England. For instance, in June, 1369, Walter was ambassador in England, and in 1384, he was one of the plenipotentiaries involved in negotiating the truce of 1384.Henry Wardlaw, futureBishop of St Andrews, was Walter's nephew. Henry was one of three nephews to whom Walter offered patronage and assistance gaining benefices.

Wardlaw probably died in September 1387.

• Dowden, John,The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)

• 14th-century births
• 1387 deaths
• Bishops of Glasgow
• Scottish cardinals
• 14th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops
• University of Paris alumni
• 14th-century cardinals
• Wardlaw family

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