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ENGLISH HISTORY 
 BY CONTEMPORARY WRITERS 
 
 Slje pliovulc of £jxmnj iif 
 
ENGLISH HISTORY BY CONTEMPORARY 
 WRITERS. 
 
 The series, of which the present volume is one, aims at setting 
 forth the facts of our National History, political and social, in a 
 way not yet systematically tided in this country, but somewhat 
 like that which Messrs. Hachette have successfully wrought out 
 in France under the editorship of MM. Zeller, Darsy, Luchaire, 
 etc. It is planned not only for educational use but for the 
 general reader, and especially for all those to whom the original 
 contemporary authorities are for various reasons difficult of access. 
 
 To each well-defined period of our history is given a little 
 volume made up of extracts from the chronicles, state papers, 
 memoirs, and letters of the time, as also from other contempo¬ 
 rary literature, the whole chronologically arranged and chosen 
 so as to give a living picture of the effect produced upon each 
 generation by the political, religious, social, and intellectual 
 movements in which it took part. 
 
 Extracts from foreign tongues are Englished, and passages 
 from old English authors put into modem spelling, but otherwise 
 as far as may be kept in original form. When needed a glossary 
 is added and brief explanatory notes. To each volume is also 
 appended a short account of the writers quoted and of their 
 relations to the events they describe, as well as such tables and 
 summaries as may facilitate reference. Such illustrations as are 
 given are chosen in the same spirit as the text, and represent 
 monuments, documents, sites, portraits, coins, etc. 
 
 The chief aim of the series is to send the reader to the best 
 original authorities, and so to bring him as close as may be to 
 the mind and feelings of the times he is reading about. 
 
 No definite chronological system of issue is adopted, but it is 
 hoped that the entire period of Mediaeval and Renaissance his¬ 
 tory may be covered in the space of two or three years 
 F. YORK POWELL, 
 
 Editor of the Series. 
 
 Ch. Ch., Oxford, 1887, 
 
Henry III.’s Tomb in Westminster Abbey. 
 
ENGLISH HISTORY BY CONTEMPORARY 
 WRITERS 
 
 f&Vjt of g)envu iif 
 
 Extracts from the writings of Matthew Paris , Robert 
 Grosseteste, Adam of Marsh, etc., etc. 
 
 Selected and Arranged by 
 
 The Rev. W. H. HUTTON, M.A. 
 
 Fellow of S. John's College, Oxford 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DAVID NUTT 
 
 17 GRAPE STREET, NEW OXFORD STREET, W.C. 
 OO 
 
< 142..03 
 
 HS %5n 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The reign of Henry 111., a reign which witnessed a 
 jubilee so unlike that of our own time, is too long for 
 treatment in a single volume of this size. I have, 
 therefore, thought it best to confine my work within 
 the years which show the growth of opposition to 
 royal misgovernment and papal interference, and the 
 working out of that opposition in rebellion, and 
 revision of the constitution, that is to the years 
 1235-1266. The Marriage of Henry III. forms a 
 convenient opening, for the foreign influences it 
 introduced were responsible for much of the subse¬ 
 quent disturbance. And the Ban of Kenilworth is 
 a fit ending, for it marks the close of that struggle of 
 which Simon of Montfort was the popular hero. 
 
 The present volume is concerned with the time 
 when the general discontent found a voice, but no 
 recognised leader, to unite all opponents of tyranny 
 and on their behalf to demand redress. S. Edmund 
 of Abingdon sank under the burden of the wrongs 
 which he was powerless to avert. Even bishop 
 Robert Grosseteste, who in many ways is the typical 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 figure of the time, failed to win universal support. 
 He protested vigorously, but he accomplished little. 
 
 The extracts have been chosen with the view of 
 throwing light on the causes which made different 
 classes ready to welcome earl Simon as a deliverer. 
 It is well to notice that while ecclesiastical grievances 
 and royal extortion are present from the first, the 
 effects of foreign entanglements only gradually come 
 to the surface, through the Gascon troubles and the 
 popes’ endeavours to drag England into their own 
 quarrel with the emperor. Not less interesting is it 
 to observe that it is long before Simon is anything 
 to the people but an alien and one of the king’s 
 greedy family, while the chroniclers hardly give us 
 the means of deciding with any certainty on the 
 reasons which made him eventually the champion of 
 popular rights. Already, in 1252, he had joined 
 himself to Grosseteste in his great aims of refor¬ 
 mation. It will be the purpose of a succeeding 
 volume to trace the struggle to its end. 
 
 I must express my great indebtedness to Mr. 
 Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, B.A., formerly Scholar 
 of S. John’s College, who has given me much valuable 
 assistance in all that concerns Matthew Paris. 
 
 W. H. HUTTON. 
 
 -S'. John's College, Oxford, 
 
 April, 1886. 
 
®J jc jBjttterule of itf 
 
 Jan. £0, 1236.—The ceremonies at the marriage 
 of Henry III. 
 
 Matt. Paris, vol. iii., pp. 336-339. Rolls Series, ed. Luard. 
 (Henry married Eleanor, daughter of Raymond IV. Count of 
 Provence, sister of Margaret wife of Louis IX. of France. 
 This royal feast was the most splendid since Richard I.’s 
 coronation, 1189.) 
 
 Arms of Provence (Westminster Abbey). 
 
 There were assembled at the nuptial banquet 
 such a host of nobility of both sexes, so many 
 of the clergy, such crowds of the people, and 
 such a variety of actors, that London with its 
 capacious bosom could scarcely contain them. 
 The whole city was therefore decorated with 
 flags and banners, wreaths and hangings, can¬ 
 dles and lamps, and with certain wonderful 
 devices and extraordinary displays ; all the streets 
 were cleared of mud, dirt, sticks, and everything 
 offensive. The citizens of London went out to 
 
6 HENRY HE’S MARRIAGE. 1236 
 
 meet the king and queen in holiday attire and 
 trappings, and vied with one another in trying the 
 speed of their horses. 
 
 On the same day when they set out from the city 
 for Westminster, to perform the duties of butler 
 to the king at the coronation, an office which 
 belongs to them by ancient right, they proceeded 
 thither dressed in silk garments, and with mantles 
 of cloth of gold, and handsome tippets ; they were 
 mounted on costly steeds, which were ablaze with 
 new bits and saddles, and were arranged in troops 
 in order. They carried 360 cups of gold or silver, 
 and the royal trumpeters went in front of them 
 sounding their trumpets ; so remarkable a novelty 
 struck all who beheld it with astonishment. The 
 archbishop of Canterbury, in virtue of his peculiar 
 right, performed the coronation with the usual 
 ceremonies, the bishop of London assisting as dean, 
 the other bishops taking their stations according 
 to rank ; so also did all the abbats, at the head of 
 whom, as was his right, was the abbat of S. Alban’s. 
 For as the blessed Alban, the protomartyr of England, 
 is chief martyr of England, so also his abbat is first 
 among all the abbats of England in rank and 
 dignity, as the authentic privileges of that church 
 bear witness. The nobles performed the duties 
 which by ancient custom and right belonged to 
 them at the royal coronations. So also the in¬ 
 habitants of certain cities performed the duties which 
 pertained to them by right of their ancestors. The 
 earl of Chester carried the sword of S. Edward, which 
 
1236 
 
 HE NR Y III.'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 7 
 
 is called Curtein * before the king, in token that he 
 was count Palatine, and had by right the power of 
 restraining the king if he should commit an error ; 
 his own constable of Chester attended him and kept 
 the people back with a wand when they pressed 
 forward unduly. The grand marshal of England, the 
 earl of Pembroke, carried a wand before the king and 
 
 Great Seal of Henry III. 
 
 cleared the way before him both in the church and 
 [ in the banquet hall, and at table marshalled the 
 
 * This sword has a rounded point and is shorter than other 
 swords. It is called Curtana , or the short , from the sword 
 j of Ogier, Charles the Great’s paladin, which sword, having been 
 \ broken in a trial of its temper, was so named. 
 
8 
 
 HENRY III.'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 1236 
 
 royal banquet and guests. The wardens of the Cinque 
 Ports carried a canopy above the king on four spears, 
 this duty, however, was not altogether undisputed. 
 The earl of Leicester supplied the king with water in 
 a basin to wash before dining. The earl of Warrenne 
 filled the post of royal cupbearer in place of the earl 
 of Arundel, who was only a youth and not yet a belted 
 knight. Master Michael Belet was butler ex-officio; 
 
 Great Seal of Henry III. 
 
 the earl of Hereford had the office of marshal of the 
 royal household, and William Beauchamp acted as 
 almoner. The Justiciar of the Forests arranged the 
 dishes on the king’s right hand at table, although 
 
1236 
 
 HENRY III.'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 9 
 
 he at first met with some opposition, which, however, 
 fell to the ground. The citizens of London passed 
 the wine about in all directions, in costly cups; 
 and those of Winchester superintended the cooking 
 of the feast; the rest, according to the ancient 
 statutes, filled their separate stations or made their 
 claims to do so. And in order that the marriage 
 festivities might not be clouded by any disputes, 
 saving the right of any one, many things were put 
 up with for the time, which would have to be 
 decided on a fitting occasion. The office of chan- 
 ! cellor of England and all the offices connected with 
 the king, are appointed to and located in the 
 : exchequer. Therefore the chancellor, the chamber- 
 lain, the marshal, and the constable took their seats 
 there, as also did the barons, according to the date 
 of their creation, in the city of London, whereby 
 each of them is there allotted his own place. The 
 whole ceremony was magnificent and notably adorned 
 by the clergy and knights who were present. The 
 abbat of Westminster sprinkled the holy water, and 
 the Treasurer, acting as subdeacon, carried the dish. 
 Why should I give the list of all those who reverently 
 .ministered in the church to God as was their duty? 
 Why describe the superabundance of meats and 
 various drinks that were on the table ? the quantity 
 of venison, the variety of fish, the wit of the jesters, 
 the grace of those that served ? Everything pleasant 
 and magnificent which distant lands can produce 
 was there displayed. 
 
10 
 
 GROSSETESTE'S REFORMS. 
 
 Grosseteste’s reforms in his diocese. 
 
 Grosseteste, Ep. 107. 
 
 (Grosseteste was elected Bishop of Lincoln in 1235 and at 
 once set about a reform of his diocese. This seems to be his 
 earliest pastoral.) 
 
 A Circular to his Archdeacons. 
 
 We have heard from trustworthy authority that 
 many priests of your archdeaconry, fearing not God 
 nor regarding men, either do not say the canonical 
 hours or say them in a mutilated fashion, and that 
 which they do say they say without any devotion or 
 sign of devotion, rather with evident show of an 
 undevout mind ; nor in saying them do they keep 
 an hour which may be more convenient to the 
 parishioners for hearing the divine offices, but which 
 may suit more with their own desires. Moreover they 
 have concubines—a fact which though it escaped us 
 and ours when we made inquisition thereon, and 
 these persons of whom the enquiiy was made did not 
 fear peijury, yet ought not to escape you who are 
 bound either yourselves or by the rural deans or 
 officers continually to keep watch over them. For 
 the clergy, as we hear, make plays which they call 
 Miracles, and other plays which they call the Bringing 
 in of May, or of Autumn,* and the laity Scotales, 
 which could by no means escape you if your prudence 
 
 * These plays, of which our modem May-day Garlands anu 
 Guys are the last remnants, are fully illustrated in Grimm's 
 Mythology, trans. by Stallybrass, p. 762-788. The Summer 
 game took place at Mid-lent, or Laetare Sunday (usually in 
 March;, and there were May-day games. 
 
GROSSETESTE'S REFORMS. 
 
 diligently enquired thereof. There are also certain 
 rectors and vicars and priests who not only scorn to 
 hear the sermons of friars of either order, but also, as 
 
 Bishop (13th Century) from Window, Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 far as they can, maliciously hinder the people from 
 hearing their sermons or confessing to them ; they 
 
12 
 
 GROSSETESTE’S REFORMS. 
 
 1235 
 
 also admit to preach those who make a trade of it, 
 who only preach such things as may the better extract 
 money; whereas we license no such trader to preach. 
 
 .Wherefore we warn you in the Lord, 
 
 we exhort, and strongly enjoin you that ye gird up 
 your loins like men to purge away these and the like 
 things, lighting the battles of the Lord boldly, and 
 reducing the aforesaid inordinate deeds and the like 
 to order, by compelling priests to perform the divine 
 offices as they ought, to expel their concubines, to 
 effectually lead the people to devoutly and attentively 
 hear the sermons of the friars of both orders and to 
 confess to them ; not to admit hirelings to preach ; 
 moreover you shall, as you easily may, utterly suppress 
 the miracles, and the aforesaid plays, and scotales ; 
 and you shall, as far as you are able, study to prevent 
 the dwelling of Christians with Jews. 
 
 1235.—The usury of the men of Cahors. 
 
 Matthew Paris, vol. iii., pp. 328-331. 
 
 (Till the 13th century money lending in England was wholly 
 in the hands of the Jews; but at this time Christian bankers 
 from Cahors and from Lombardy were beginning to compete 
 with them.) 
 
 At this time the detestable nuisance of the Caur- 
 sines * prevailed to such an extent that there was 
 scarcely anyone in all England, especially among 
 the bishops, who was not already ensnared in their 
 
 * The Caursines were banished in 1240 .—Matthew Paris,vol. iv., 
 
 p. 8. 
 
1235 
 
 THE USURY OF THE CAURSINES. 
 
 13 
 
 meshes. The king himself was under bond to them 
 for an enormous sum. For they defrauded the needy 
 in their necessities, cloaking their usury under the 
 pretence of trade, and professing not to know that 
 all which is added to the principal is usury, whatever 
 the name by which it is called. It is evident that 
 their loans lie outside the path of charity, since 
 they do not stretch out a helping hand to the 
 poor to relieve them but to deceive them ; not to 
 aid others in their want but to gratify their own 
 covetousness, seeing that “ the motive stamps our 
 
 every deed.” f. 
 
 . . . . If I may make a play on the word, they 
 
 were rightly called Caursines, as it were, causantes 
 (quibblers), or capientes (takers), and ursini (bearish). 
 At first they used to entice the poor with soft and 
 honeyed speeches, but in the end wounded them 
 as with a spear; for which reason, because their 
 bills are subtle and extracted from the law books, 
 and of a kin with the tricks of the pleaders, many 
 men consider that these things were not done 
 without the connivance of the court of Rome, 
 recollecting the words of the Gospel, “ The children 
 of this world are, in their generation, wiser than 
 the children of light.” J The Jews also finding a 
 new kind of usury among Christians scoff at our 
 Sabbaths with some reason. 
 
 t Quicquid agant homines intentio judicet omnes. 
 j S. Luke xvi. 8. 
 
1 + 
 
 THE FRANCISCANS' WORK. 
 
 The work of the Franciscans. 
 
 Grosseteste. Ep. 58, to Pope Gregory IX. in praise of the 
 
 Franciscans. (Extract.) 
 
 (The friars minor of the order of S. Francis of Assisi first 
 landed in England on Sept. 10, 1224, and devoted themselves 
 to missionary work, chiefly among the poor and lepers.) 
 
 Your holiness may know of a surety that inestimable 
 service hath been done in my diocese by the aforesaid 
 brethren. For they enlighten our whole land with 
 the bright light of preaching and doctrine. Their 
 holy conversation vehemently inciteth to contempt 
 of the world and voluntary poverty, to maintaining 
 humility even in dignity and power, to paying all 
 obedience to prelates and the head of the Church, 
 to patience in tribulation, to abstinence in abundance, 
 and, in one word, to every good work. O that 
 your holiness could see how devoutly and humbly the 
 people run to hear the word of life, to confess 
 their sins, to be instructed in the rules for daily 
 life, how much profit the clergy and the monks 
 take from the imitation of them, you would imme¬ 
 diately declare that to them that dwell in the valley 
 of the shadow of death hath the light shined. Let 
 the zeal of your holiness therefore provide lest by 
 the extinguishing or darkening of such a light— 
 which may the True Light avert—the ancient dark¬ 
 ness of error and sin, now to a great extent dispersed, 
 should overspread and enwrap that land which He 
 especially loveth. 
 
GROSSETESTE'S HOUSEHOLD RULE. 
 
 '5 
 
 Ordinances of Grosseteste’s Household. 
 
 Monumenta Franciscana, Rolls Series, p. 582. 
 
 (This, says Mr. Brewer, is evidently a letter addressed to the 
 bishop by an intimate friend. Adam of Marsh may very probably 
 have been the writer. The MS. from which it is printed appears 
 to be a 15th century translation of the Latin original.) 
 
 Let all men be warned that serve you and warning 
 be given to all men that be of [your] household to serve 
 God and you truly and diligently. 
 
 1. First let the servants do perfectly in all things 
 your will and keep they your commandments after 
 God and rightwysness and without condition ; and 
 also without grief or offence. And see ye that be 
 principal head, or prelate, to all your servants both 
 less and more that they do fully, readily and truly, 
 without offence or gainsaying, all your will and 
 commandment that is not against God. 
 
 2. The second is that ye command them that keep 
 and have keeping of your household afore your 
 meyny [servants] that both within and without the 
 meyny be true, honest, diligent, both chaste and 
 profitable. 
 
 3. The third, command ye that no man be admitted 
 into your household, neither inward neither outward, 
 but it be trusted and levid [believed] that he be 
 true and honest and namely to that office to the 
 
 I which he is admitted. Also that he be of good 
 manners. 
 
 4. The fourth, be it sought and examined oft times 
 if there be any untrue man, uncunning [unskilful], 
 unhonest, lecherous, strifeful, drunk, lewd, unprofitable. 
 
16 GROSSETESTE'S HOUSEHOLD RULE. 
 
 If there be any such found or diffamed upon these 
 things that they be cast out or put fro the household. 
 
 5. The fifth, command ye that in no wise be in the 
 household men debateful or strifeful, but that all be 
 of one accord: of one will, even like as in them is 
 one mind and one soul. 
 
 6. The sixth, command ye that all those that serve 
 in any office be obedient and ready to them that be 
 above them in things that pertain to their office. 
 
 7. The seventh, command ye that your gentlemen 
 yeomen and other, daily bear and wear their robes 
 in your presence and, namely, at the meat for your 
 worship, and not old robes and not according to 
 the livery, neither wear they old shoon, nor defiled. 
 
 8. The viii., command ye that your alms be kept 
 and not sent to boys and knaves, neither in the 
 hall, nor out of the hall, nor be wasted in suppers nor 
 dinners of grooms, but wisely, temperately, without 
 bate [abatement] or betyng [increase], be it dis¬ 
 tributed, and then departed [dealt out] to poor men, 
 beggars, sick folk, and feeble. 
 
 9. The ix., make ye your household to sit in 
 the hall as much as ye may at the boards of one 
 part and of the other part [on either side], and let 
 them sit together as many as may, not here four and 
 three there ; and when your chief meyny be set, then 
 all grooms may enter, sit, and rise. 
 
 10. The x., straitly forbid ye that no wife be at 
 your meat. And sit ye ever in the middle of the 
 high board that both your visage and cheer be showed 
 
GROSSETESTE'S HOUSEHOLD RULE. 17 
 
 to ail men of both parts and that ye may see lightly 
 [easily] the services and defaults ; and diligently see 
 
 I ye that every day in your meat season be two men 
 ordained to oversee your meyny, and of that [for 
 that] they shall dread you. 
 
 11. The xi., command ye and give license as little 
 time as ye may with honesty, to them that be in 
 your household to go home. And when ye give 
 license to them, assign ye to them a short day of 
 coming again, under pain of losing their service. 
 And if any man speak or be wroth, say to him, 
 “What! will ye be lord? Ye will that I serve you 
 after your will.” Aud they that will not hear that ye 
 say, effectually be they warned, and ye shall provide 
 other servants, the which shall serve you to your will 
 and pleasing. 
 
 12. The xii. is, command the pantler with your 
 bread and the butler with wine and ale come together 
 afore you at the table afore grace, and let be there 
 three yeomen assigned to serve the high table and 
 the two side tables on solemn days. And lay they 
 not the vessels deserving for wine or ale upon the 
 table but afore you : but be they laid under the 
 table. 
 
 13. The 13, command ye the steward that he be 
 busy and diligent to keep the men in his own person 
 inward and outward, and, namely, in the hall and 
 at meat that they behave themselves honestly, without 
 strife, foul speaking, and noise. And, that they that 
 be ordained to set messes, bring them by order and 
 continually till all be served, and not inordinately 
 
i8 GROSSETESTE'S HOUSEHOLD RULE. 
 
 and through affection to persons, or by speciality. 
 And take ye heed to this till the messes be fully set 
 in the hall, and after tend ye to your meat. 
 
 14. The xiv., command ye that your dish be well 
 filled and heaped, namely, of entremes [entremets] 
 and of pittance [regular fare] without fat carking 
 [loading it], that ye may part courteously to those 
 that sit beside, both of the right hand and of the 
 left, through all the high table and to others as 
 pleaseth you, though \^prolably we should read so that] 
 they have of the same that ye have. At the supper 
 be servants served of one mess and both meats, and 
 after of cheese. And if there come guests, service 
 shall be had as needeth. 
 
 15. The xv., command ye the officers that they 
 admit your acknowledged men familiar, [acquaint¬ 
 ances] friends and strangers, with merry cheer, the 
 which [those] they know you to will for to admit and 
 receive, and them the which will you worship [honour], 
 and they that will to do that ye will to do, that 
 they may know themselves to have been welcome to 
 you and be well pleased that they be come. And 
 also much as ye may, without peril of sickness and 
 weariness, eat ye in the hall before your men. For 
 that shall be to your profit and worship. * 
 
 16. The xvi., when your bailiffs come afore you 
 speak to them fair and gently in open place and 
 not in private. And show them merry cheer, and 
 search and ask of them how fare our men and 
 tenants, and how corn do and carts, and of our store, 
 • The withdrawal of lords from hall is blamed by other writers. 
 
GROSSETESTE'S HOUSEHOLD RULE. 
 
 19 
 
 how it is multiplied. Ask such things openly and 
 know ye certainly that they will the more dread you. 
 
 j 7. The xvii., command ye that dinners and suppers 
 privily in hid places be not had, and be they forbidden 
 that there be no such dinners neither suppers out of 
 the hall; for of such cometh great destruction, and 
 no worship thereby groweth to the lord. 
 
 1236.—The council at London in April, 1236. 
 
 Matt. Paris, vol. iii., p. 362. 
 
 On the 28th April, 1236, the nobles of England 
 assembled for a parliament at London, in order 
 to treat of the affairs of the realm. Many won-, 
 dered that the king followed the advice of the 
 bishop-elect of Valence * more than was seemly, and 
 as they thought despised his own natural subjects; 
 with this they were annoyed, and charged the king 
 with fickleness, saying amongst themselves, “ Why 
 does not this bishop-elect betake himself to France, 
 seeing that the king of France has married the eldest 
 sister f of our queen, so that, by reason of his niece 
 the queen of that country, he may manage the affairs 
 of the realm of the French as he does ours?” And 
 they were exceeding wroth. The king also, who on 
 the first day of the parliament withdrew to the Tower 
 of London, gave many cause to complain on this 
 ground, and to entertain more unfavourable than 
 favourable conjectures. The nobles were unwilling 
 to go either singly or in a body to the king at the 
 * William of Provence, uncle of the queen, 
 t Margaret of Provence. 
 
20 
 
 COUNCIL OF LONDON. 
 
 1236 
 
 Tower, fearing that he might incline to light counsel 
 and vent his wrath on them; they were warned by 
 the words of Horace— 
 
 Quia me vestigia terrent 
 Omnia te versum spectantia, nulla retrorsum. J 
 The king however, restrained by motives of pru¬ 
 dence, came from the Tower to his palace, where 
 he might more becomingly discuss urgent business 
 with his nobles. After several matters had been 
 treated, he effected one praiseworthy thing, to wit 
 that he dismissed all the sheriffs, and appointed others 
 in their place, because they had taken bribes and 
 departed from the path of truth and justice. Accord¬ 
 ingly the king appointed in their place men of larger 
 estates, greater wealth, and nobler birth, who would 
 not be forced to seek presents and to accept bribes 
 in order to recoup themselves. He also made them 
 swear to accept no gifts, unless in food and drink, and 
 that only in moderation and without any kind of 
 excess, or earthly remuneration, whereby justice 
 might be corrupted. || 
 
 1237.—Financial difficulties of Henry III. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., pp. 380-81, 383. 
 
 In the year of our Lord 1237, which was the 
 twenty-first of his reign, king Henry III. held 
 his court at Christmas at Winchester. And 
 forthwith he sent out through all the borders of 
 England, royal writs, directing all who had regard 
 f 1 Epist. i. 74, 75. 
 
 I) Stubbs’s Const. Hist., vol. ii. p. 53. 
 
1237 
 
 MONEY DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 21 
 
 for the realm of England, to wit the archbishops, 
 bishops, abbats, and installed priors, the earls and 
 barons, to come without fail to London on the 
 octave of the Epiphany, for the purpose of treating 
 on royal business touching the whole realm. On 
 hearing this, the magnates at once obeyed the royal 
 command, believing that they were to consider 
 imperial or other high matters. There accordingly 
 assembled at London on S. Hilary’s Day a vast 
 number of nobles, even the whole community of 
 the realm. And when they had taken their seats 
 in the royal palace at Westminster to hear the 
 king’s will, William of Raleigh rose in their midst; 
 he was a clerk and servant of our lord the king, 
 a discreet man and skilled in the law of the land, 
 who, acting as a sort of mediator between the king 
 and the magnates of the realm, put forward the 
 king’s wish and intention. “ My lord the king,” 
 he said, “ informs you that, whatever he may have 
 done heretofore, he will now and henceforth, without 
 hesitation, submit himself to the counsel of you 
 all as his faithful and natural subjects. But those 
 who have till now, as managers of his affairs, been 
 guardians of his treasury, have not faithfully rendered 
 an account of all the monies received ; now, there¬ 
 fore, our lord the king, being wholly without money, 
 in which case any king whatever is desolate, humbly 
 begs an aid of money from you; on the under¬ 
 standing that the money be collected at your good 
 pleasure and kept to be expended for the necessary 
 service of the realm, according to the discretion 
 
22 MONE > DIFFICULTIES. 1237 
 
 of certain of your number chosen for this purpose.” 
 At this they all and each, since they looked for 
 nothing of the kind, murmured greatly, 
 
 Alter in alterius jactantes lumina vultus, * 
 and said one to another, 
 
 Fuderunt partum montes, en ridiculus mus. + 
 
 They angrily answered that they were constantly 
 oppressed on all sides, by promises and payments, 
 now of twentieths, now of thirtieths, and now of 
 fiftieths; they declare that it would be unworthy 
 of them, and injurious to allow a king, who was 
 so easily led astray, who had never repulsed nor 
 frightened even the least of the enemies of his 
 kingdom, who had never extended the borders of 
 his realm, but had contracted it and brought it 
 under the rule of foreigners, to so often extort so 
 much money from them, his natural subjects, as 
 though they were slaves of the lowest degree, to 
 their own loss and to the advantage of foreigners. 
 On hearing this, the king, who desired to calm 
 the general complaints, promised, under oath, to 
 never again vex or annoy the nobles of the kingdom, 
 provided that the thirtieth part of the movables of 
 England was kindly granted and paid to him for 
 his present use ; for the large sum which he had 
 lately sent to the emperor for his sister’s marriage 
 and his expenses at his own had, so he said, 
 largely curtailed his treasury. Thereon they replied 
 that all this had been done without the advice of 
 * Ovid, Heroid., ep. iii. 11. 
 t Hor. A.P. 139. 
 
1237 
 
 MONEY DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 23 
 
 his faithful servants, and that they who were free 
 from the blame ought not to be sharers in the 
 penalty. At length they withdrew to a private place, 
 that after moderating the king’s demand and supply¬ 
 ing his necessities, they might discuss the manner 
 and amount of the assistance which was required. 
 . . . . It was decided that since it would seem 
 
 harsh to suddenly remove the king’s present council 
 as though they were wicked, it should be strengthened 
 by the addition of some nobles. They accordingly 
 add to it the earl of Warrenne, William Ferrers, and 
 John Fitz-Geoffrey. The king, as he previously did 
 at Windsor, made them swear that they would never 
 for bribes, nor for any other reason, deviate from the 
 path of truth, but would give advice that was whole¬ 
 some for the king himself and to the advantage of 
 the kingdom. On these conditions a thirtieth* of the 
 realm, that is to say of all movables, was then 
 granted to the king for the purpose of recruiting his 
 treasury, saving however to every one his gold and 
 silver, arms and horses, which were to be employed 
 for the service of the state; J the thirtieth shall be 
 collected in every county in the following form: four 
 trustworthy knights are to be chosen in each county 
 together with one clerk whom the king shall add to 
 their number; and after taking an oath of fidelity 
 the knights shall collect the money in conjunction 
 with the king’s clerk, and the money when collected 
 
 * A writ for the collection of this thirtieth is given in Stubbs’s 
 Select Charters, pp. 366-368. 
 f M. Paris apparently reproduces the actual words. 
 
24 
 
 MOKE Y DIFFICUL TIES. 
 
 1237 
 
 shall be deposited in an abbey, religious house, or 
 castle. To the end that if the king desire to with¬ 
 draw from his intention, which heaven forbid, each 
 man’s money may by a faithful distribution be 
 restored to him. Therefore after the archbishop of 
 Canterbury with his bishops and clergy had first given 
 their consent, a grant of a thirtieth of the movables 
 of the realm was made to the king, to be generally 
 collected throughout the kingdom from every knight 
 and from every prelate according to the tenure of 
 his barony. It was however often annexed to the 
 conditions that the king shall then and thenceforth 
 reject the advice of foreigners, whose wont it is to be 
 ever friends to themselves and not to the kingdom, 
 and to waste the wealth of the kingdom instead of 
 increasing it, and that abandoning all unnatural 
 advisers he shall cleave to the advice of his liege and 
 natural subjects. So the council broke up, not without 
 some murmuring of heart and conceiving of wrath, 
 because it was so hard to turn the king’s mind to 
 wholesome counsels, and to induce him to comply 
 with the advice of those from whom he has all earthly 
 honour.* 
 
 1237.—The wretched state of England through 
 papal extortions. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iii., p. 389. 
 
 In these times the small fire of the faith began 
 to grow exceeding chill, so that it was nigh well 
 reduced to ashes, and scarce shewed a spark. For now 
 * Stubbs’s Const. Hist, vol. ii. p. 54. 
 
1237 
 
 MONEY DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 *s 
 
 was simony practised without shame, and userers on 
 various pleas openly extorted money from the com¬ 
 mon people and lesser folk; charity expired, the 
 liberty of the church withered away, religion was 
 trampled under foot and became of no account; the 
 daughter of Zion was made, as it were, a barefaced 
 harlot having no shame.* Every day illiterate persons 
 of the lowest class, armed with bulls from Rome, 
 burst forth into threats, and despite the privileges 
 enjoyed by our holy predecessors, feared not to 
 plunder the revenues which our pious forefathers 
 had assigned for the maintenance of the religious, 
 the support of the poor and the sustaining of 
 strangers; for thundering out their decrees of ex- 
 communication they made no delay in taking what 
 they demanded by force. And if those who suffered 
 wrong or were plundered took refuge in an appeal, 
 or in their privileges, they at once suspended and 
 excommunicated them through some other prelate 
 under power of a writ from the pope. So not 
 by prayers, not according to the canons, did they 
 rob the simple-minded, as says the poet, 
 
 Armato supplicat ease potens. 
 
 Whence it came to pass that where nobles and 
 bountiful clerks used to make the broad country¬ 
 side renowned by their wealth, by entertaining 
 travellers and relieving the poor, there did degraded 
 creatures void of morals and full of cunning, the 
 proctors and farmers of the Romans, scrape together 
 all that was valuable and useful in the country, 
 * Jer. iii. 3. 
 
26 
 
 SONG OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and send it into distant lands to their masters, 
 who live in luxury on the patrimony of the Crucified, 
 and enjoy their pride at the cost of others. Thus 
 might you see grief at the hearts, and tears on 
 the cheeks of the saints, and hear complaints burst 
 forth and sighs redoubled ; many exclaiming with 
 heartrending sobs, “ It were better to die than to 
 behold the sufferings of our nation and of the 
 saints. Woe to England, who was once the chief 
 of provinces, the mistress of nations, the mirror of 
 the Church, the exemplar of religion, and is now 
 brought under tribute. Mean men have trampled 
 on her, and she is become the prey of them of 
 low degree.” Yet manifold sins brought these 
 scourges on the English through the anger of Him 
 who, by reason of the sins of the people, makes the 
 hypocrite to reign and the tyrant to hold dominion. 
 
 From “ The Song of the Church.” 
 
 Political Songs, ed. Wright, Camden Society, p. 43 . 
 
 (This is part of one of many songs to the same effect, which 
 reiterate the familiar complaint of Matthew Paris against the 
 weakness of the king, the avarice of the popes, and the venality 
 of the bishops.) 
 
 Free and held in high esteem the clergy used to be, 
 None were cherished more or loved more heartily. 
 Enslaved now, betrayed, brought low, 
 
 They are abased sore 
 
 By those from whom their help should come: 
 
 I dare no more. 
 
1237 
 
 THE LEGATE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 27 
 
 King and Pope, alike in this, to one purpose hold, 
 Howto make the clergy yield their silver and their gold. 
 This is the sum, the Pope of Rome 
 
 Yields too much to the king, 
 To aid his crown, the tithes lays down 
 To his liking. 
 
 1337, Jan. 29.—The arrival of the legate Otto in 
 England. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iii. pp. 395 and 403. 
 
 In the same year about the feast of SS. Peter 
 and Paul, for some unknown reason, the lord 
 Otto, cardinal deacon of S. Nicholas in Carcere 
 Tulliano came to England as legate under a 
 summons from our lord the king, and without the 
 knowledge of the magnates of the realm. For which 
 cause many conceived great displeasure with the 
 king, saying: “The king breaks everything, the laws, 
 his good faith, and his promises, in everything he 
 goes wrong. For lately he united himself in marriage 
 to a stranger without taking counsel of his own 
 friends and natural subjects ; now has he secretly 
 summoned a legate to disturb the whole realm ; at 
 one time he gives away his own, at another he seeks 
 to recall what he has given away.” In this manner 
 from day to day the kingdom, divided against itself 
 and in disorder, was brought to terrible desolation.* 
 It was soon said that Edmund, archbishop of Canter¬ 
 bury, rebuked the king for acting in such a manner, 
 and especially for summoning the legate, since he 
 * S. Matt. xii. 25. 
 
28 
 
 UNPOPULAR TAXES. 
 
 1237 
 
 knew that this would cause great loss to the realm, 
 and be to the prejudice of his own dignity. The 
 king however rejected his advice, as he had that of 
 others of his own subjects, and would in no wise 
 recall the design which he had conceived. The 
 legate accordingly came in great state and power. 
 The bishops and eminent clergy went as far as the 
 shore to meet him, and some went off to him in 
 boats receiving him with acclamations and presenting 
 him with costly gifts. 
 
 .Otto was prudent and modest in 
 
 bearing, and, contrary to the custom of the Romans 
 generally, rejected the costly presents that were 
 offered to him ; thus falling short of the general 
 expectation, by his well ordered bearing he calmed 
 the anger which the clergy and knighthood of the 
 whole kingdom had felt. 
 
 1237.—Indignation of the people at fresh, taxation; 
 earl Richard takes the popular side. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., pp. 410-412. 
 
 At this time king Henry III. relying on crooked 
 counsels that were contrary to his duty and to 1 
 expediency, estranged himself from the advice of 
 his natural subjects, and made himself stiff-necked 
 against those who wished well to him, and were ser¬ 
 viceable to the kingdom and the state ; and so there 
 was little of the affairs of the realm which was treated 
 or managed by the advice of these latter. With a 
 view to extort money from them by cunning pretexts, 
 in a parliament, to which he had summoned the 
 
1237 
 
 UNPOPULAR TAXES. 
 
 29 
 
 nobles from afar, he declared on oath that he had no 
 treasure whatever, nay was absolutely in want. At 
 this the nobles were greatly troubled, and replied that 
 the weakness of the nation through poverty and the 
 many dangers which were threatening were due to 
 the fact that they were too often burdened, while 
 they saw foreigners fattening on their goods. How¬ 
 ever after a long discussion, because the king humbled 
 himself and promised that he would then and thence¬ 
 forth stand by their counsels without fail, they granted 
 him a thirtieth of moveables, though not without great 
 difficulty. This the king afterwards had assessed 
 and collected in accordance not with the royal price 
 but with the common value ; and instead of having it 
 deposited in castles and monasteries, to be expended 
 at the discretion of the nobles, as had been arranged 
 and determined, he entrusted it to foreigners to be 
 carried away. He became like one bewitched, having 
 no sense, and murmurs therefore arose among the 
 people and the wrath of the nobles waxed hot. 
 
 Earl Richard of Cornwall, the king’s brother, was 
 the first to call the king to account. He sharply 
 rebuked him for the great desolation that he had 
 produced in the kingdom, and because day after day 
 on new-found and captious pretences he spoiled his 
 own nobles and natural barons of their goods, and 
 thoughtlessly bestowed all he could scrape together 
 on the enemies of the kingdom who were plotting 
 both against him and his realm. The king, continued 
 earl Richard, had in his time collected vast revenues 
 and immense sums of money, nor was there an arch- 
 
30 EARL SIMON'S MARRIAGE. 1238 
 
 bishopric or bishopric in England, save those of York, 
 Bath, and Winchester, which had not fallen vacant 
 during his reign. He made a similar statement with 
 regard to the abbacies, earldoms, baronies, wardships, 
 escheats; yet the royal treasury which ought to 
 be the strength and mainstay of the kingdom had 
 received no increase. But the king had rejected his 
 advice as well as that of his other natural subjects, 
 and the madness which he at first displayed had 
 grown greater and greater; he had so completely 
 surrendered himself to the will of the Romans, and 
 particularly of the legate whom he had inconsider¬ 
 ately summoned, as to seem to worship their footsteps, 
 declaring both in public and private, that he could 
 make no arrangements for the kingdom, no alterations 
 and no alienations, without the assent of his lord the 
 pope or of the legate, so that he might be called 
 no king but a feudatory of the pope. By these and 
 other acts of madness the king had tortured the 
 hearts of all his nobles. His counsellors were of ill- 
 report and mistrusted, as men who were said to 
 encourage him in such conduct, and who were all the 
 more hateful to the nobles of England because they 
 themselves traced their origin from that kingdom. 
 These were John earl of Lincoln, Simon earl of 
 Leicester, and brother Geoffrey the Templar. 
 
 1238.—Marriage of Simon de Montfort. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., p. 370. 
 
 (Simon son of Simon of Montfort came to England to seek 
 his father’s heritage of the king. He was well received by Henry 
 
I23§ 
 
 EARL SIMON'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 3 l 
 
 and recovered his rights. For his genealogy and kindred see 
 Table I. at end.) 
 
 Banner of Leicfstf.r. 
 
 In the year of our Lord 1238, which was the 
 twenty-second of his reign, king Henry held his 
 court in London, at Westminster; and there on 
 the day after Epiphany, which was a Thursday, Simon 
 de Montfort solemnly espoused Eleanor daughter of 
 king John, sister of king Henry III., and widow of 
 William Marshal earl of Pembroke. The ceremony 
 was performed and mass celebrated by Walter, 
 chaplain of the royal chapel of S. Stephen at West¬ 
 minster, in the king’s small chapel, which is in a 
 corner of his chamber. The king in person gave 
 away the bride to the said Simon earl of Leicester, 
 who received her gratefully, by reason of his dis¬ 
 interested love for her, her own beauty, the rich 
 honours that were attached to her, and the dis¬ 
 tinguished and royal descent of the ladv; for she was 
 the legitimate daughter of a king and queen, and 
 
32 
 
 EARL SIMON'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 1238 
 
 furthermore was sister of a king, an empress,* and a 
 queen f; so that the offspring of so noble a lady 
 would be a kingly race. Our lord the pope too gave 
 him a dispensation to marry her, as the subsequent 
 narration will show. 
 
 Feb. 3, 1238.—Richard’s anger at Simon’s 
 marriage. 
 
 Henry III. to the barons of the Cinque Ports. Royal Letters, 
 Rolls Series, p. 15, ed. Shirley. 
 
 The king to the barons of the Cinque Ports 
 greeting. We give special thanks to your fidelity 
 for the good and laudable service which you have 
 done to us and our predecessors. And since 
 we believe that you have heard of the anger 
 of R. earl of Cornwall, oui brother, because we 
 have given our sister, the countess of Pembroke, 
 in marriage to Simon de Montfort, we command 
 you that if he or any of his endeavour to entice 
 or draw you to the party of my said brother, who 
 pretends that he will do something to our honour, 
 you will in no way do so, until you have heard 
 from our own mouth our own pleasure, as John 
 of Gatesden, our chaplain, whom we send you, will 
 explain more fully. But send to us without delay 
 from each of your ports four legal and discreet 
 men, to speak with us and to hear our pleasure, 
 as the same John shall tell you on our behalf. 
 
 •Isabella, wife of Frederic II. 
 
 "Joan, wife of Alexander II. of Scotland. 
 
1238 
 
 EARL SIMON'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 33 
 
 1238, Feb.—The marriage excites general 
 indignation; earl Simon goes to Rome. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., pp. 475-480 
 Earl Richard was very wroth, for when he 
 heard that the marriage had been clandestinely 
 confirmed, just as it was previously arranged, that 
 is to say, without the knowledge or assent of the 
 magnates, he had just cause for anger; and all 
 the more because the king had frequently sworn 
 to take no important action without the advice of 
 his natural subjects, and especially of the earl himself. 
 The earl accordingly rises,* and assails the king 
 with warnings and threats, making a serious com¬ 
 plaint and charge against him, in that he had rashly 
 transacted the business of the realm by the advice 
 of foreigners whom he had sworn to utterly remove ; 
 and that, dismissing all others from his side, he 
 had hearkened to Simon de Montfort and John earl of 
 Lincoln, while they had brought about underhand 
 marriages without the knowledge of his allies. 
 Simon, as above related, had brought about a 
 marriage with his sister, the countess of Pembroke, 
 and John earl of Lincoln one between Richard de 
 Clare, son of the earl of Gloucester, and his own 
 daughter, after first winning over the king. Earl 
 Richard was supported by Earl Gilbert Marshal and 
 all the earls and barons of England, together with 
 the citizens and people in general. At that time 
 
 * Earl Richard was in arms on the 3rd of February, and the 
 king was summoning forces. Civil war threatened, but was 
 arrested, and Henry obtained a respite. Stubbs, vol. ii. pp. 56-7. 
 
3+ 
 
 EARL RICHARD'S PROTEST. 
 
 1238 
 
 sure hopes were entertained that earl Richard would 
 free the land from the wretched slavery it experienced 
 at the hands of the Romans and other foreigners ; 
 and everyone, from boys to old men. heaped constant 
 blessings on his name. The king had not a single 
 supporter, besides Hubert earl of Kent, and no 
 fears were entertained of untoward action on his 
 part, both because he was under an oath never to 
 bear arms, and on account of his age, and his 
 discretion, which had been proved by many trials 
 On discovering this the king was alarmed, and. 
 showed it by his looks; he sent messengers to the 
 various nobles of the land to carefully inquire 
 whether he could rely on their assistance in 
 the storm which had arisen. They all, and the 
 citizens of London in particular, replied that as the 
 course on which earl Richard had entered, was 
 calculated to their honour, and to the advantage 
 of the realm, even though the king did not acquiesce 
 in his wholesome counsel, for this reason they would 
 offer no opposition to the earl’s designs. On learning 
 this the Legate, perceiving the imminence of the 
 danger, applied all his powers to effect a reconciliation 
 between the king and his natural subjects ; he secretly 
 advised Richard, who was the leader in the attack, to 
 forthwith desist from his enterprise, and promised 
 that the king would bestow on him larger estates, 
 which grants should be confirmed by our lord the 
 pope ; he further added that, if all in the land were 
 to rise against the king, he who was his brother 
 ought unweariedly to stand by his side against all. 
 
EARL RICHARD'S PROTEST. 
 
 35 
 
 125S 
 
 To this earl Richard replied, “ My lord Legate, your 
 business is not with the lands of the laity, nor with 
 the confirmation of them, but with ecclesiastical 
 matters. Do not wonder, if I am concerned about 
 the condition of the realm, seeing I am the sole 
 heir-apparent. The king has had the guardian¬ 
 ship of nearly all the bishoprics in the land, and 
 of many escheats, yet his treasury has never received 
 any increase for the protection of the kingdom, 
 though various enemies shut us in on every side. 
 Moreover many wonder that the king, who mostly 
 needs assistance and discretion, does not follow 
 in the steps of discreet men ; as of the emperor, 
 who when we bestowed on him our sister with a 
 large sum of money, in the hope that it would be 
 to our advantage, only kept his wife and sent back 
 her train without giving them either lands or treasure, 
 though he is very rich and wealthy. We can like¬ 
 wise quote a similar example in the king of the 
 French, who is married to the eldest sister of our 
 queen. But our king of England has on the contrary 
 loaded his wife’s kinsmen and relations with lands, 
 possessions, and money, and has made such a 
 marriage that he is not enriched but is rather 
 impoverished, and is not strengthened by a military 
 alliance in case of need. Moreover he allows the 
 revenues and ecclesiastical benefices bestowed by 
 our pious predecessors, and especially those which 
 they bestowed on the religious, to be seized on as 
 spoil, and distributed among foreigners, though there 
 are plenty of suitable men in the country ; England 
 
36 
 
 EARL RICHARD'S PROTEST. 
 
 1238 
 
 is become as it were a vineyard without a wall whence 
 all they that *go by pluck off the grapes.” 
 
 The nobles assembled at London to consider these 
 matters, and after a long discussion, the king agreed 
 to submit to the directions of some of the more 
 influential men and swore to abide thereby.! Articles 
 were accordingly drawn up and reduced to writing, 
 and the seals of the legate and other magnates 
 were affixed, to be shown to all parties in common. 
 But while the arrangements were incomplete, and 
 the matter was still in suspense, Simon de Montfort 
 humbled himself to earl Richard, and through the 
 agency of many mediators and certain presents, he 
 obtained from earl Richard the kiss of peace. This 
 caused great annoyance to the other nobles, who 
 had not been consulted as to the adoption of this 
 course, though it was through their exertions that 
 the matter had been carried thus far. Earl John 
 of Lincoln likewise, by praying and paying, appeased 
 the anger of earl Richard, though he had to give 
 security that he would make full atonement for what 
 he had done. By these irregular proceedings the 
 whole affair was, in a great measure, cut short, and 
 did not take its full effect; but the misery of the 
 kingdom was protracted and earl Richard’s fair fame 
 * Psalm Ixxx. 12. 
 
 t This plan of reform, which was produced Feb. 22nd, was, 
 says Dr. Stubbs, the first of the many schemes of the sort which 
 leave such important marks on the reign, and which show the 
 instinctive tendency of the national wishes towards a limited 
 monarchy, acting through responsible advisers. 
 
1338 
 
 THE LEGATE AT OXFORD. 
 
 37 
 
 clouded, and so it came to pass that he, who was 
 believed to be a staff of strength, was thenceforth 
 an object of suspicion. 
 
 However, Simon de Montfort, perceiving that the 
 hearts of the king and of earl Richard, as well as 
 of all the nobles, were estranged from him, and 
 that the marriage which he had contracted with the 
 sister of our lord the king, was already in the eyes of 
 many entirely annulled, wasted away with excess 
 of grief; and having seized a ship he set sail 
 by stealth, * after extorting a large sum of money 
 from every possible quarter; from one citizen of 
 Leicester, Simon Curlevache, he wrung 500 marks. 
 He then went to the court of Rome, hoping, by 
 means of his money, to overreach it and obtain 
 permission to enjoy his unlawful marriage. He first 
 took service as a knight with the emperor in order to 
 win his favour, and then obtained from him letters 
 on the matter to the pope. J 
 
 1238, May. — Quarrel of the Legate with the 
 scholars of Oxford. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii. pp. 481-84. || 
 
 At that time the lord legate went to Oxford 
 * The king’s safe-conduct to earl Simon was dated March 27. 
 
 j After spending a large sum, Simon obtained the dispensa¬ 
 tion, to which many raised objections. But, perhaps, says 
 Matthew Paris, the Roman Curia look too subtle a view for 
 us to understand. — Vol. iii., p. 487. 
 
 || For an independent account of this riot see the Chronicle of 
 T. Wykcs, who was possibly himself then resident at Osney.— 
 Roll Scries, Ed., p. 84. 
 
?8 
 
 THE LEG A TE AT OXFORD. 
 
 123S 
 
 where, as was due, he was received with the 
 highest honour and lodged at Osney Abbey, a 
 house of canons. The scholar clerks sent him an 
 honourable present in the shape of meat and drink, 
 before breakfast. After breakfast they went to his 
 lodging to call and pay their respects. On their 
 arrival an Italian porter, with improper and untimely 
 jesting, opened the gate a little, and bawled out after 
 the Roman manner, “ What do ye want ?” whereto 
 the clerks replied, “To pay our respects to the lord 
 legate.” For they felt sure that they would receive 
 honour in return for honour. But the porter replied 
 with taunts, and in wanton pride and abuse refused 
 them all admittance. On seeing this the clerks made 
 a rush and got in ; the Romans wishing to keep them 
 back struck them with their fists and sticks ; while 
 the contending parties were bandying blows and 
 abuse, a poor Irish chaplain, who was standing at 
 the kitchen door, happened to earnestly beg for 
 something in God’s name, as poor and hungry men 
 will do. The master of the legate’s cooks, — he was 
 the brother of the legate, who appointed him to that 
 post as being the most suitable person, for the legate 
 was very much afraid of poison being given to him. 
 — heard him but paid no heed, and being annoyed 
 with the poor man, threw in his face some hot water 
 from the cauldron in which rich meat was being 
 cooked. At this wrong a clerk from the Welsh 
 border cried out “ Shame ! that we should put up 
 with this,” and drawing a bow which he carried — 
 for as the tumult increased some of the clerks had 
 
THE LEGATE AT OXFORD. 
 
 59 
 
 123S 
 
 snatched up any arms that came to their hands—he 
 discharged an arrow which pierced the cook, whom 
 the clerks satirically called “ Nabuzaradan,” which 
 means Chief of the Cooks.* When he fell dead, an 
 uproar arose, at which the legate, overcome with 
 amazement and excessive fright, which may befall 
 even the most steadfast, took refuge in the church 
 tower, having on his canonical hood, and had the 
 doors closed behind him. When the approach of 
 darkness had put an end to the tumult, the legate 
 laid aside his canonicals and mounted his best horse 
 in haste ; under the guidance of those who were 
 acquainted with the less known fords, with much 
 danger he crossed the river at the nearest point, that 
 he might the more quickly fly to the protection of 
 the king’s wings. The clerks, beside themselves 
 with rage, did not cease to search for the legate in 
 the most secret hiding places, shouting and saying, 
 “ Where is that usurer, that simoniac, that plunderer 
 of revenues, that thirster for moneys, who perverts 
 the king and subverts the kingdom to enrich 
 foreigners with our spoils ?” The legate likewise in 
 his flight while he still heard the shouts of his 
 pursuers, said within himself:— 
 
 Cum furor in cursu est, current! cede furori. + 
 
 And patiently enduring all things, he became as 
 a man that heareth not and in whose mouth arc 
 no reproofs. j; After crossing the river as above 
 described with only a few companions, on account of 
 * Jer. xxxix. 9. In our version Chief of the Guard, 
 t Ovid. Rcmed. Amor, i. 119. + Ps. xxxviii. 14. 
 
4 o 
 
 GROSSETESTE AND HIS CHAPTER. 123. 
 
 the difficulty of the passage, while the remaindei 
 lay hitl in the abbey, he came to the king at Abingdon 
 breathless and alarmed. There, with tears and sobs, 
 he unfolded to the king and his attendants whal 
 had happened and made a serious complaint in the 
 matter. The king, in amazement, showed great 
 sympathy at his pitiable story, and hastily despatched 
 the earl of Warrenne to Oxford with an armed band 
 to rescue the Romans, who were in hiding, and to 
 arrest the scholars. Master Odo, the lawyer, was 
 roughly seized and, with thirty others, ignominiousl) 
 consigned to chains and prison at Wallingford Castle, 
 which is not far distant from Oxford. The legate, 
 when the snare was broken and he was delivered, 
 assembled several bishops and laid Oxford under 
 an interdict, and excommunicated all the abettors 
 of this enormous deed. After this, at the legate’s 
 instance, the prisoners were conveyed to London 
 in carts, like thieves, and there deprived of their 
 revenues, put under anathema, and delivered to close 
 custody in prison and chains. 
 
 1239.—Quarrel between bishop Grosseteste and 
 his chapter. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iii., p. 528. 
 
 The bishop of Lincoln was the hammer and 
 cruel persecutor of the religious* in his diocese. 
 For verily he rose against the canons of his 
 own cathedral church, who had created him, and 
 instantly required of them to set aside the dean 
 * — i.e., those under regular vows, as monks. 
 
1239 GROSSETESTE AND HIS CHAPTER. 
 
 41 
 
 of Lincoln and accept the visitation of the bishop, 
 contrary to the custom of the church from a time 
 beyond the memory of man. But they were urgent 
 to appeal, and, after protracting the time and 
 disputing a great deal, referred the matter to 
 arbitrators, namely, Walter lord bishop of Wor¬ 
 cester, # the archdeacon of that place,f and master 
 Alan of Beccles X ; it was agreed that if they did 
 not act canonically, it should be open to either 
 side to make a fresh appeal to the pope, both 
 parties in the meantime ceasing 'to visit. This 
 addition, “ both parties in the meantime ceasing to 
 visit,” seemed to endanger the cause of the canons; 
 for the bishop had never visited, and so could not 
 cease to do what he had never commenced ; like 
 Diogenes who could not lose the horns which he had 
 never had; but the dean,^[ on whose behalf the 
 canons were acting, would cease to visit, and so 
 seemed to be robbed of his rights, at any rate for the 
 time ; there was such murmuring at this and a very 
 serious scandal began to arise. The dispute and 
 controversy thus passed into an angry stage, and the 
 canons refused to allow the bishop to enter the 
 chapter or make any visitation amongst them. And 
 they were very sorry that they had made so mean a 
 person to be bishop over them, and openly said so 
 in the bishop’s presence. So there was great strife, 
 * Walter de Cantelupe. 
 t William Scot. 
 
 J Archdeacon of Sudbury. 
 
 11 Roger of Wescham, or Washam. 
 
42 
 
 EDWARD I. BORN. 
 
 1239 
 
 and after no small sum of money had been spent on 
 either side to no purpose, an appeal was made to the 
 pope, and master Odo de Ivinkelni was appointed 
 advocate on behalf of the chapter. One day a 
 remarkable coincidence occurred ; one of the canons 
 who favoured the cause of the chapter, whilst preaching 
 to the people in the noble church of Lincoln, com¬ 
 plained before them all of the oppressive conduct of 
 the bishop, and said “ Even if we be silent, the 
 stones will cry out ” ; and immediately a large part 
 of the church broke away and fell down. 
 
 1239, June 16.—The birth of Edward I. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., p. 539 . 
 
 At Westminster on the night of the ibth of 
 June a son was born to the king by Eleanor 
 his queen. All the magnates of the realm con¬ 
 gratulated him, and the citizens of London in 
 particular, since the child was born in London; they 
 assembled troops of dancers with drums and timbrels, 
 and brilliantly illuminated the streets at night. The 
 bishop of Carlisle initiated the infant, but the legate 
 baptized him, although he was not a priest; Edmund 
 archbishop of Canterbury however confirmed him; 
 at the king’s wish he was called Edward.* A great 
 number of messengers were despatched to announce 
 the news, and returned laden with splendid gifts. 
 And in this matter the king cast a dark stain on his 
 royal magnificence ; for when the various messengers 
 
 * He was named after Edward Confessor, to whom Henry III. 
 paid special veneration. 
 
1=39 
 
 EARL SIMON GOES ABROAD. 
 
 43 
 
 returned, the king inquired of them what each had 
 received, and though the gifts they had brought were 
 valuable, he commanded those who had received less 
 to return their presents with scorn. Nor was his 
 anger appeased till each had received satisfaction 
 according to the pleasures of the messengers. 
 Whereon a woman wittily remarked, “ God gave us 
 this child, but the king sells him to us.” 
 
 1239, Aug. 9.—Simon earl of Leicester incurs tho 
 king’s anger and leaves England. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iii., p. 566. 
 
 On the 9th of August certain noble ladies 
 assembled at London to accompany the queen to 
 a monastery for her purification, as was the custom 
 When Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester,* 
 arrived with his wife, the king called him an excom¬ 
 municate, and forbad him and his wife, whom he 
 had basely and clandestinely defiled before the mar¬ 
 riage had been contracted, to attend the festive 
 ceremonial; after reiterated reproaches from him, 
 the earl and his wife withdrew in confusion, and 
 hastened by water to his lodging, at the palace of 
 the late lord bishop of Winchester, which the king 
 had liberally lent to the earl. The king, however, 
 at once ordered them to be forcibly ejected. And 
 though they returned with tears and lamentations 
 begging for pardon, they did not appease the anger 
 of the king, who said: “You seduced my sister 
 
 *He bad returned to England Oct. 14, 1238, and in Feb., 
 1239, bad received full investiture of his earldom. 
 
44 
 
 THE BISHOPS PROTEST. 
 
 1239 
 
 before marriage *; and when I discovered it, I gave 
 her to you, in order to avoid scandal, though it was 
 against my wish. And in order that her vow might 
 not prevent the marriage, you went to Rome where 
 by costly gifts and great promises you bribed the 
 curia to allow you to do that which was unlawful. 
 Edmund archbishop of Canterbury, who was then 
 present, knows it, and conveyed to the pope the 
 truth about the matter; but truth was vanquished 
 and gave way before Roman greed, under the in¬ 
 fluence of many gifts. To crown your wickedness 
 without my advice or knowledge you have by false 
 witnesses made me your surety.” f The earl was 
 put to shame by these words, and at the close of 
 day he embarked on the Thames in a little boat with 
 his wife, who was pregnant, and a small retinue, and 
 hastily going down to the sea coast immediately 
 crossed the Straits. 
 
 1239, July 31.—The bishops protest against the 
 action of the legate. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iii., p. 616. 
 
 On the 31st of July all the bishops met at 
 London, thinking to make some satisfactory ar¬ 
 rangement with the legate concerning the oppres¬ 
 sions of the church of England: but the legate 
 
 * For this accusation, often repeated, M. Bemont, Simon de 
 Mom fort, p. 7, seems to think there was some foundation. 
 
 t Simon had given the king’s name, without his knowledge, 
 as surety for a debt of 2.800 marks of silver, which he owed to 
 Pierre Mauclerc, count of Bretagne. Bemont, pp. 10-11 
 
THE LEGATE'S DEMANDS. 
 
 45 
 
 1240 
 
 was not at all anxious about this matter, and 
 demanded fresh and renewed procurations of them. 
 After holding council they replied that the ever 
 grasping importunity of Rome had so often in various 
 places drained the church, that almost all were 
 exhausted, and they could scarcely draw the slightest 
 breath, nor could they possibly endure such extortion 
 any longer. And they added, “ What benefit has the 
 kingdom or Church so far derived from the religious 
 tyranny of this legate, who is but a supporter of the 
 king, a persecutor of the Church by divers exactions, 
 for which we were now at least hoping for some 
 consolation ? Let the king, who summoned him to 
 the kingdom without the advice of his natural 
 subjects, supply him.” And the legate seeing there 
 was such stedfastness in many of them, had recourse 
 to the low estate of the religious, from whom he 
 extorted no small sum under the name of procuration. 
 But the council broke up amid murmuring and 
 complaints on the part of the prelates. 
 
 1240.—The legate demands aid for the pope’s war 
 with the emperor. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv., pp. 10, 15. 
 
 (Gregor)' IX. had excommunicated Frederic II. in Holy Week, 
 1239. The excommunication had been published in England, 
 and though the emperor was the king’s brother-in-law the pope 
 endeavoured to exact money from the land for the support of his 
 war. M. Paris throughout speaks strongly in favour of the 
 emperor.) 
 
 In this year all the archbishops, bishops, and 
 greater abbats of England, together with certain 
 
46 
 
 EARL RICHARD GOES ABROAD. 
 
 1240 
 
 magnates of the realm, assembled at Reading to hear 
 the lord legate unfold the pope’s command. On their 
 assembly the legate made a long speech with the 
 view of turning his hearers’ hearts towards him, and 
 at length laid before them all the various hardships 
 which the pope had endured to obtain justice for the 
 church, by withstanding the attacks of the emperor 
 Frederic. He therefore urgently demanded of them 
 a fifth of their goods on behalf of the pope, by 
 means of which he might be able to repel the 
 wrong-doing of his powerful enemy. To this the 
 bishops after taking counsel replied, that they would 
 in no wise undertake so insupportable a burden, 
 which concerned the whole church, without careful 
 consideration and lengthy discussion. So a later 
 date was appointed for deliberation on this important 
 message. . . . First of all the bishops, the arch¬ 
 
 bishop of Canterbury yielded to the above mentioned 
 exaction of a fifth of his revenues, though he did so 
 unwillingly, making a virtue of necessity: he paid 
 the pope’s agents 800 marks before they were exacted 
 by force. And when the other bishops of England 
 perceived it, they in like manner gave way. 
 
 1240.— Earl Richard takes leave of the bishops. 
 
 HI. Paris, vol. iv., p. 11. 
 
 (Richard of Cornwall, Simon de Montfort, William of Salis¬ 
 bury, and others sailed after Ascensiontide. Before their arrival 
 in Palestine, Amaury de Montfort, Simon’s brother, was taken 
 prisoner by the sultan of Egypt. On June 7, 1241, the barons 
 of the kingdom of Jerusalem petitioned the emperor to appoint 
 
S. EDMUND GOES ABROAD. 
 
 1240 
 
 +7 
 
 Simon guardian during the minority of king Conrad; but he 
 returned home about this time.) 
 
 Earl Richard and the other crusading nobles 
 who were there * present, bade farewell to all 
 assembled there, for they were ready to start on their 
 journey to Jerusalem. And when the prelates saw 
 this, they all burst into tears and said to earl Richard, 
 “ Why, earl, dost thou, our only hope after the king, 
 abandon us ? To whom dost thou leave us in our 
 desolation ? In thy absence will greedy foreigners 
 attack us.” Then the earl replied in tears to the 
 archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of them all : 
 “ My lord and father, verily though I had not taken 
 the cross, yet would I depart and absent myself, that 
 I might not behold the evils of our nation, and the 
 desolation of the realm, which men think I have 
 power to prevent, though I have not.” 
 
 1240.—Fresh, demands of the pope ; archbishop 
 Edmund leaves England in despair. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 31. 
 
 Our lord the pope sent a sacred warrant to 
 Edmund the lord archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 to the bishops of Lincoln f and Salisbury, j directing 
 them to provide for three hundred Romans in 
 the first benefices that fell vacant, and intimating 
 that they were suspended from appointing to benefices 
 until that number had been suitably provided for. 
 Whereon great amazement seized the hearts of all 
 * i.e., at the assembly at Reading referred to in the previous 
 passage. 
 
 t Robert Grosseteste. % Robert de Bingham. 
 
4$ 
 
 THE RECTORS' PROTEST. 
 
 1240 
 
 who heard it, and it was feared that one who ventured 
 on such things would be overwhelmed in the gulf of 
 despair. 
 
 At the same time Edmund lord archbishop of 
 Canterbury, who by his own accord, though not by 
 his own wish, had yielded to the afore mentioned 
 detestable exaction, by paying 800 marks to the pope, 
 seeing that the church of England was daily trampled 
 on more and more, robbed of its temporal goods and 
 spoiled of its liberties, was overcome with weariness, 
 for that he lived to behold evils upon earth ; and 
 on reproving the king for allowing it, he obtained 
 nothing but evasive answers. So provoked by his 
 various wrongs, he went into exile in France, and 
 with a scanty retinue took up his abode at Pontigny, 
 where his predecessor the blessed Thomas had 
 dwelt during his exile, and employed himself con¬ 
 tinually in pravers and fasting. 
 
 1240.—Reply of the rectors of Berkshire to the 
 legate’s demands. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 38-42. 
 
 The legate and his accomplices still hoping 
 to bend the rectors of Berkshire and certain others 
 to his will and induce them to make a contri¬ 
 bution, assembled them together and addressed them 
 in a long harangue, adding threat to threat and piling 
 up promises on promises. Whereunto the)'stedfastly 
 replied that they would not withdraw from the form 
 of the answer, depending on the reasons of the 
 
12*0 
 
 THE RECTORS' TROTEST. 
 
 49 
 
 bishops * ; to which though those are sufficient we 
 add others, f 
 
 I. The rectors of Berkshire, all and singular, declare 
 i that they are not bound to make contribution against 
 
 the emperor as against a heretic, since, although 
 excommunicated, he has not yet been condemned 
 or found guilty by the judgment of the church ; nor 
 are they bound by reason that he is holding or 
 attacking the patrimony of the Roman church, for 
 the church does not employ the secular arm against 
 heretics. 
 
 II. As the Roman church has its own proper 
 patrimony, the administration whereof appertains 
 
 j unto our lord the pope, so also, by the bounty and 
 grant of kings, princes, and other Christian nobles, 
 have other churches theirs, which are in no wise 
 liable to assessment by, or tribute to, the Roman 
 church ; wherefore prelates ought not to be com- 
 I pelled to contribute of the patrimony of their churches. 
 
 III. Though by the letter of the law all things are 
 said to belong to the prince, yet they do so not 
 in the way of dominion or proprietorship, but of 
 care and protection ; so also are the churches related 
 to our lord the pope in this way of care and pro¬ 
 tection, and not of dominion aud proprietorship; 
 wherefore they declare that they ought not to be 
 compelled to make contribution. 
 
 • Given in the previous chapter, Matt. Paris, vol. iv. p. 37. 
 t This document is also given in the Burton Annals {Annal. 
 Alonast. i. p. 265). It is there headed, Responsiones cleri Angliae 
 and begins, ‘Dicuntomneset singuli rectoresecclesiarum A>1 glia.' 
 
5 ° 
 
 THE RECTORS' PROTEST. 
 
 1240 
 
 IV. When the Truth says, “ Thou art Peter and 
 upon this rock will I build My church,” He reserved 
 unto Himself the proprietorship while entrusting the 
 care, as is evident from the words of the Gospel next 
 following: “ Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
 shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
 loose, &c.” Not “ Whatsoever thou shalt exact on 
 earth, shall be exacted in heaven; ” wherefore they 
 declare that according to the word of God and justice 
 they cannot and ought not to be compelled to make 
 contribution. 
 
 V. Inasmuch as by the authority of the holy fathers, 
 the revenues of the churches have been devoted to 
 fixed uses, namely, of the church, the ministers, and 
 the poor, they ought not to be turned to other uses 
 save by the authority of the whole church ; wherefore 
 a contribution of the goods of the church may not be 
 made for fighting, least of all against Christians. 
 
 VI. Inasmuch as the proceeds of the churches are 
 scarcely sufficient to provide daily food for the clergy, 
 first by reason of their meagreness ; secondly because 
 famine at times occurs in the country through a de¬ 
 ficiency in the harvest; thirdly because there is so 
 great a number of poor, and of strangers, some of 
 whom we have seen perish through want of nourish¬ 
 ment ; fourthly because no one can hold more than 
 one benefice ; for these reasons they are the poorer, 
 and, having scarcely sufficient for themselves and the 
 poor, ought not to be compelled to make such a 
 contribution. 
 
 VII. Even though it were a good thing to make 
 
124 ° 
 
 THE RECTORS' PROTEST. 
 
 52 
 
 contributions, yet it would be advantageous to let the 
 matter drop and it ought to be done, on account of 
 the scandal that has arisen and been wafted abroad 
 through the world against the Roman church ; for it 
 is publicly asserted that such exactions have else¬ 
 where been made, and the clergy beyond measure 
 impoverished ; and that so soon as the money has 
 been extorted the pope and emperor have come to 
 an agreement and not one farthing has been restored ; 
 nay, if after the agreement there has been any balance 
 or arrears, they have been rigidly exacted. Now the 
 canon declares that, although it is not right to 
 commit mortal sin to avoid a scandal, yet at times 
 what is good may be let pass for the purpose of 
 avoiding scandal ; wherefore we ought not to make 
 contribution. 
 
 XI. Whereas the king and nobles of England, by 
 hereditary right, and by good and suitable custom, 
 have the right of patronage of the churches of 
 England, and whereas the rectors are desirous to 
 be appointed on their presentation, they neither 
 ought to, nor can, agree to any contribution without 
 taking the advice of their patrons, for in this manner 
 : prejudice might arise to them from their own 
 churches; since the said patrons have endowed 
 the said churches with lands and revenues for this 
 particular purpose, to wit, that their rectors should 
 receive guests as well rich as poor, and show 
 hospitality both to laity and clergy, according to 
 their means, as the custom of the place requires; 
 
52 
 
 EDMUND'S DEATH. 
 
 1240 
 
 if such an exaction is made from them it ought 
 to be stopped, for in this way the patrons will be 
 cheated of their rights and intentions for the purpose 
 of making this donation; and so the patrons will 
 demand their gifts back or at least seek other grounds 
 of complaint, and will not again found churches or 
 bestow benefices out of their own property. 
 
 XIII. Whereas they lately did elsewhere make a 
 contribution in a like case, and whereas a promise 
 was given to the contributors, on the authority of 
 this same pope, that no such exaction should be 
 made hereafter, they still feel themselves oppressed 
 by the said burden, and ought not to make con¬ 
 tribution ; for they fear lest by frequent contributions 
 they be drawn into a slavish and unwonted custom; 
 the more so because in several countries many, 
 and the French among them, do not yet consent 
 to this contribution. Nor is it evident or notorious 
 that any gain has accrued to the church by extortions 
 of this kind ; would to God there had been no loss 
 therefrom. Certainly the enemies of the church 
 are strengthened and enriched thereby, and grow 
 stronger and stronger: it is hard for us to be undone 
 with our own weapons ; wherefore we must make no 
 contribution. 
 
 (The legate, however, prevailed by dividing his opponents.) 
 
 1240.—Death of archbishop Edmund. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 72. 
 
 Edmund archbishop of Canterbury, who had 
 
•S'. EDMUND'S DEATH. 
 
 S3 
 
 of his own accord gone into exile beyond the 
 j seas, there wasted away in body and mind; and 
 heaving a deep sigh he would constantly repeat: 
 “ How much better it were to die, than to behold 
 the evils of my nation and of the saints upon the 
 earth.” For those whom he had excommunicated, 
 the legate, to the detriment of his dignity and without 
 his consent, absolved, and those whom he had 
 absolved the legate excommunicated. So in his 
 desire to be released and to be with Christ, he used 
 to pray, saying: “ Woe is me that the time of rny 
 tarrying is prolonged. It is enough, nay it is more 
 than enough, that I have beheld all things fall 
 : headlong into destruction. O Lord my God, take 
 away my life.” * So the archbishop dwelt certain days 
 at Pontigny, where the blessed Thomas the Martyr, 
 his predecessor, dwelt some time in exile; and there 
 day and night, in tears and fasting, he poured forth 
 unceasing prayers to God and S. Thomas for the 
 I state of the church of England, that was in peril, 
 
 I And so, worn out by fasting and grown weak through 
 grief, with his bod) consumed, shrunk, and enfeebled, 
 
 : he fell seriously ill. By the advice of his physicians 
 I he had himself carried to Soissy for the sake of 
 the better air. There, after a short time of suffering 
 from dysentery, he was freed from the bondage of 
 the flesh, and, bidding farewell to a worthless genera- 
 I tion, went the way of all flesh. His spirit happily 
 I exchanged the exile of this life for the heavenly 
 i country. For, in truth, he was an exile, in body 
 * i Kings six. 4. 
 
THE LEGATE DEPARTS. 
 
 124 
 
 04 
 
 alone tarrying on his pilgrimage here, and weary 
 through the attacks that were made on even' 
 side. The rebels likewise, whom he had tried 
 and excommunicated, the legate did not fail to 
 wantonly and disrespectfully absolve, and with rash 
 and unseemly presumption on the king’s consent and 
 permission he did many other things outside his. own 
 province, and to the prejudice of the archbishop and 
 primate of all England. But this plague cruelly 
 harassed all the prelates of England. Wherefore 
 when the king and legate were jestingly conversing 
 together, and promising to co-operate with each other 
 against everybody in everything, a certain man 
 censured them, saying, “ Go to, go to ; now well I 
 know that, when the wolf and the shepherd have 
 made a treaty of peace, cruel slaughter threatens the 
 sheep.” * 
 
 1241, Jan. 7.—Departure of the legate Otto. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 84. 
 
 On the morrow of the Epiphany, after em¬ 
 bracing and kissing the king, the legate went 
 on board ship at Dover, and laid aside the 
 insignia of his legateship ; so he crossed the sea 
 and turned his back on England, where none, save 
 the king and those whom he had fattened on the 
 goods of the realm, mourned his departure. Nor 
 in that hour was there left so much money in 
 England, saving the vessels of the Saints and 
 
 * S. Edmund died at Soissy on November 16, 1240. He was 
 ccr.onised on Dec. 16, 1246. 
 
1241 
 
 A VISION OF S. THOMAS. 
 
 55 
 
 ornaments of the churches, as he had wrested from 
 the English realm. For he had disposed of prebends, 
 churches, and divers of the wealthiest revenues to 
 the number of more than three hundred, according 
 to his own or the pope’s wishes. Wherefore the 
 realm was, as it were, a vineyard exposed to all 
 that go by, which the wild boar out of the wood 
 hath rooted up, * languishing in piteous desolation. 
 The aforesaid legate likewise left the church of 
 Canterbury, which was noblest among all the churches 
 of England, in great disorder, together with many 
 other cathedral and conventual churches that were 
 robbed of all comfort. Nor had he strengthened 
 any of the weak parts of the land, so that it was 
 clearly proved that he had been sent, not to protect 
 the sheep that were lost, but to gather the money 
 which he had found. 
 
 1241.—Events in London : Vision of 
 S. Thomas the Martyr. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv. pp. 93-95. 
 
 A certain priest, a holy and prudent man, had 
 a vision by night, wherein an archbishop clad 
 in full pontificals and carrying a cross in his hand, 
 1. approached the walls which the king had lately 
 1 built by the tower of London, and regarding them 
 with a frown, struck them stoutly and fiercely with 
 li the cross which he carried in his right hand, and 
 | said, “ To what end are ye built ? ” and forthwith 
 the newly built walls fell down as though they had 
 * Psalm l.vxx. 13. 
 
5 & 
 
 A VISION OF S. THOMAS. 
 
 1241 
 
 been overthrown by an earthquake. At this the 
 priest was frightened and says to a clerk, who seemed 
 to be in attendance on the archbishop, “ Who is this 
 archbishop ? ”, and the clerk replied, “ It is the 
 blessed Thomas the martyr, by birth a Londoner, 
 who, considering the walls to be built in contumely 
 and to the prejudice of the Londoners, hath irre¬ 
 parably destroyed them.” Whereon the priest said, 
 “ How great was the expenditure and the toil of the 
 workmen that he hath brought to nought.” And the 
 clerk replied, “ If poor workmen who seek after and 
 need pay, have obtained food for themselves by the 
 work, it is endurable ; but, seeing that these walls 
 were built not for the protection of the realm but for 
 the oppression of harmless citizens, even if the 
 blessed Thomas had not destroyed them, S. Edmund 
 the confessor and his successor, would ruthlessly and 
 utterly have overthrown them.” After this vision 
 the priest awoke from his sleep, and rising in the 
 dead of the night openly told what he had seen, to 
 all who were in the house. And when morning 
 came a rumour spread abroad through all the city of 
 London, that the walls which had been built round 
 the tower, and on which the king had spent more 
 than twelve thousand marks, had fallen irreparably ; 
 many wondered and proclaimed it as an evil omen 
 that on the same night, nay at the same hour of the 
 night, in the previous year, namely on the night of 
 S. George’s day, April 23, these very walls had fallen 
 down, together with their bastions.* The Londoners 
 * This is mentioned above by Matthew Paris, vol. iv., p. 80. 
 
I2<I 
 
 A VISION OF S. THOMAS. 
 
 57 
 
 felt little sorrow at the event though they wondered 
 greatly; for the walls were to them as a thorn in the 
 eye. People had also been heard taunting them 
 with threats, that the walls were built in insult to 
 them, so that if any should dare to contend for the 
 liberty of the city he should be put in fetters and 
 shut up therein. And in order that if there were 
 several prisoners they might be confined in several 
 prisons, a great number of separate cells were con¬ 
 structed in them, so that no one might have any 
 communication with any one else. 
 
 At this time also the king took away by force from 
 the mayor of London his income of forty pounds, 
 which each mayor had been accustomed, du«ing 
 his own time, to receive yearly for the honourable 
 support of his dignity from the commune of the 
 city, as from a republic. For the king had been 
 informed that, on pretence of making this collection, 
 which was limited by a fixed form, the mayor had 
 laid a heavy hand on the poor, and secretly stored 
 up for himself in his coffers a much larger sum 
 than he was allowed to do. The king compelled 
 Gerard Bat, the then mayor, to swear that he himself 
 would no longer collect and receive that tax, nor 
 allow any one else to collect it on his behalf. And 
 this was done in the chapel of S. Stephen at 
 Westminster. 
 
 Not long after, the citizens of London, contrary 
 to the custom and liberty of the city, and like slaves 
 of the lowest degree, were compelled, though un¬ 
 willingly and reluctantly, to pay a sum of money 
 
58 
 
 BONIFACE CHOSEN ARCHBISHOP 1241 
 
 to the king, not under tire name and title of voluntary 
 aid, but of tallage, wlric sorely vexed them. 
 
 1241.—Election of Boniface of Savoy to be 
 archbishop. 
 
 J I. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 103-4. 
 
 The monks of Canterbury, who had been sent 
 to Rome, on behalf of the convent, to obtain 
 absolution from the terrible sentence * which the 
 archbishop had imposed on them, returned in April. 
 They had obtained a grant of absolution under 
 caution, the abbat and archdeacon of S. Alban’s, 
 together with the prior of Dunstable, being appointed 
 to arrange the matter. But their old persecutor, 
 Simon Langton archdeacon of Canterbury, opposed 
 their decree by immediately appealing against it; 
 he stedfastly maintained that the letters of absolution 
 had been wickedly obtained by false insinuations 
 and the suppression of the truth. But the monks, 
 who had faithfully promised the king to elect 
 Boniface as their archbishop, as he had most 
 earnestly entreated them to do, laid a heavy com¬ 
 plaint before the king of the wrong they had suffered, 
 and of the malice aforethought which they had 
 experienced from the archdeacon Simon. The king 
 took the part of the monks and, accepting their 
 promise to elect Boniface, warned the archdeacon 
 Simon with dreadful threats, that if he did not at once 
 
 * M. Paris, vol. iii., pp. 492-93. S. Edmund had quashed the 
 election of a prior and excommunicated the whole convent 
 in 1238. 
 
I24 1 
 
 GILBERT MARSHAL'S DEATH. 
 
 59 
 
 desist from his rash design, he would feel the full force 
 of the royal displeasure. On learning this, the said 
 Simon, as he knew that the pope would never offend 
 the king, and felt that he was too old to take a 
 journey across the Alps, kept the peace and withdrew 
 from the design he had entertained. The monks 
 of Canterbury, finding that the pope and the king 
 indulged them by turns and mutually assented to 
 each other’s requests, after invoking the favour of 
 the Holy Spirit and the king, chose as shepherd 
 of their souls Boniface the elect of Bellay, a man 
 who was unknown to them of lofty stature and hand- 
 
 and, as was asserted, was, 
 in knowledge, morals, and 
 age, unfitted for so high 
 a dignity, when compared 
 with his predecessors, the 
 archbishops of Canter¬ 
 bury. * 
 
 some figure, and uncle of 
 the Lady Eleanor, the 
 illustrious queen of Eng¬ 
 land, though utterly un¬ 
 known to the aforesaid 
 monks. 
 
 1241, June 27 .— Death of earl Gilbert Marshal. 
 
 Matthew Paris , vol. iv., p. 135. 
 
 Earl Gilbert Marshal and some other nobles 
 had held about a bowshot from Hertford, a kind 
 of tilting - match, which is commonly called an 
 “ adventure ” but might better be called a “ mis- 
 
 * This is the reading of the MS. C. In B it has been 
 erased, and the passage on the right hand written in its place. 
 The alteration is Matthew Paris’s own, probably made when 
 time had softened his feelings towards Boniface. Similar 
 alterations are made in many passages referring to the king or the 
 Roman See. Cf. Luard’s edition, preface to vol. iv., pp. xii. & xiii. 
 
60 GILBERT MARSHAL'S DEATH. 1241: 
 
 adventure,” as a trial of strength. That he might 
 win praise for warlike prowess, he there showed such; 
 vigour and energy in knightly pursuits that he was 
 deservedy declared by all, considering the small 
 size of his body, to have distinguished himself above 
 the others. This was what the earl chiefly aimed 
 at, for he had been originally destined for holy orders, 
 
 Knight Mounted (13th Century)- 
 
 and w'as reported to be weak and unskilful in warlike 
 exercises. He was mounted on a magnificent horse, 
 an Italian charger, to which he was not accustomed, 
 
1241 
 
 GILBERT MARSHAL'S DEATH. 
 
 61 
 
 and dressed in handsome armour, was accompanied 
 by a numerous escort of his own knights, who soon 
 left him and dispersed in pursuit of gain. Now 
 whilst the earl was at times checking his horse’s 
 speed, and then presently driving his sharp spurs 
 into its flanks to increase, and again as need required 
 suddenly drawing rein, both reins broke just where 
 they joined the bit. His horse was thus beyond 
 control, and tossing up its head struck its rider a 
 violent blow on the chest. Some unhesitatingly 
 declared that the bridle had been treacherously cut 
 by a jealous person, in order that the earl being thus 
 left at the mercy of his horse, might be dashed to 
 pieces and killed, or at least might be taken by his 
 opponents at will. The earl had already dined, and 
 was half smothered with the heat and dust and sweat, 
 and was oppressed by the weight of his helmet. 
 Neither he nor any one else could hold his horse in. 
 He was seized with faintness, and beginning to totter 
 presently fell half-dead from his horse—one foot, 
 however, caught, in the stirrup and he was thus 
 dragged for some distance, whereby he suffered some 
 internal injuries. To the deep sorrow of the spectators 
 he died in great agony on the evening of the 27th of 
 June at the house of the monks of Hertford.*' 
 
 * Gilbert Marshal had stayed at home from the Crusade in 
 order to settle his differences with the king, who would not do 
 justice to the children of his benefactor. His death released 
 Henry from a foe.—Stubbs’s Const. Hist., vol. ii., p. 59. His 
 two brothers died in 1245, and the dignity of earl marshal passed 
 through his sister Maud to her son Roger Bigot earl of Norfolk. 
 
62 
 
 PETER OF SAVOY. 
 
 1242 
 
 1242, Jan. 1.—Intended departure of Peter of Savoy. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv., p. 177. 
 
 In the year of our Lord, 1242, which was the 
 twenty-sixth of his reign, king Henry III., as usual, 
 kept his court at Christmas in his greater palace 
 at London with brilliant gaiety, and prolonged his 
 stay at Westminster through nearly fifteen days of 
 festivity. During which time, on the day of the 
 circumcision of our Lord, it was rumoured abroad 
 that earl Richard had arrived in England. Whereon 
 Peter of Savoy earl of Richmond,*' like a wise and 
 discreet man, prudently surrendered into the king’s 
 hand the more important and famous castles of 
 the kingdom, of which he had received charge. 
 For he feared that his sudden elevation would be 
 very displeasing to the nobles of England, and 
 that he had undertaken a burden beyond his 
 strength in receiving the guardianship of these 
 renowned castles, while the English were treated 
 with suspicion and neglect. And that he might 
 not be the cause of any disturbance in England 
 on the arrival of earl Richard, who would hear very 
 serious complaints on this matter, after wisely 
 weighing the danger that threatened, he resigned 
 the castles altogether and, after obtaining the king’s 
 leave, made arrangements to return to his own 
 country. By this moderation he appeased the 
 feelings of many. But the king, with the same 
 readiness with which he gave him leave, hastily 
 
 * Peter of Savoy had come to England early in 1241 and received 
 the earldom of Richmond. 
 
1242 
 
 PARLIAMENT A T LONDON. 
 
 63 
 
 recalled him before he had embarked, and urgently 
 pressed him to receive again the castle of Dover, 
 which he did, although with reluctance and against 
 his own wishes. 
 
 1242.—The parliament of London. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 181-184. 
 
 As the feast of the Purification of the Blessed 
 Virgin drew near, the nobility of all England, 
 prelates, earls, and barons, assembled at London 
 by the royal command. And because they had heard 
 that the king had so urgently called them together 
 and had so often in this manner harassed them with 
 false pleas, they firmly resolved, with an oath and 
 under penalty of anathema, that at the council no 
 one should on any account consent to an extortion 
 of money on the part of the king. For they all 
 well knew that the count de la Marche, who was 
 urgently pressing the king to cross the sea with 
 all the treasure he could scrape together, cared 
 nothing for the military force of the English, and 
 would set little value on the knighthood, strength, 
 and loyalty of the kingdom, for he regarded the 
 king as a huckster, whose money was all he wanted 
 to get. For which cause the English were properly 
 excited against the count and all his Poictevins, 
 and no longer looked with a favourable eye on 
 the king, who assented to such projects without 
 taking the advice of his own nobles. When, there¬ 
 fore, the king set before them the irrevocable deter¬ 
 mination of his heart, to cross over at the summons 
 
6 + 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT LONDON. 
 
 1242 
 
 of the count de la Marche, and, with various argu¬ 
 ments, demanded an aid of money, the magnates 
 replied with great bitterness of feeling : that the 
 design he had conceived was rash, and that 
 he needed a bold face to make so shameless 
 a demand; he had so frequently harassed and 
 impoverished his liege subjects, demanding money 
 of them as a matter of course as from slaves of 
 the lowest degree; and had frequently obtained 
 from them vast sums, * which he expended to no 
 advantage. They therefore opposed the king to his 
 face and refused any more to be spoiled of their 
 money to no purpose. So the king had recourse 
 to the crafty devices of the Romans, and directed 
 them to wait till the morrow to hear his wishes 
 on these and other matters. On the following day 
 he summoned them one after another to his private 
 chamber, like a priest calling his penitents to con¬ 
 fession. And, as he could not weaken their 
 determination when all together, he cunningly tried 
 to weaken them one by one through his arguments, 
 and asked them to give him an aid of money, saying, 
 “ See what a subsidy such an abbat has given me, 
 and what such another has given.” And then he 
 held out a roll, in which it was written down that 
 such and such an abbat or prior had promised to 
 give so much; though none of them had given 
 their assent thereto, or had any knowledge of it. 
 
 * A thirteenth in 1217, in 1225 a fifteenth, in 1232 a fortieth, 
 a great aid for the marriage of Isabella in 1235, a thirtieth in 
 in 1237, besides scutages, carucages, and tallages. 
 
I 24 2 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT LONDON. 
 
 65 
 
 By such fictitious examples and verbal snares the 
 king warily entangled a great number. * Many, 
 however, kept their ground and, in accordance with 
 their oath, would on no account consent to swerve 
 from their reply. To these the king answered wrath- 
 fully, “ Am I to be perjured ? I have sworn by 
 an oath that may not be broken to cross the sea, 
 and, with an outstretched arm, to seek my rights 
 from the king of the French.” But neither by these 
 nor by any other words could he entrap some of 
 them, although, as before said, he summoned each 
 of them to come to him in private. 
 
 Yet the king again summoned some with whom he 
 was more intimate, and addressed them saying: “What 
 an evil example you set to the others! You valiant 
 barons and knights ought not to waver even if others 
 like the prelates of the church are afraid. You should 
 be more eager than others to claim the rights of the 
 realm, and to try the fortune of war against those 
 who wrong us. The right which we possess to call 
 on the magnates with the certainty of a promise to 
 follow, is held to strengthen and support our position; 
 look at Wales, where we have of late f happily tri¬ 
 umphed, and see how success in the past commonly 
 leads to success in the future. How can you have 
 the face to abandon me your lord, who are about to 
 take up so important a matter of state, since I shall 
 
 * He thus obtained a large sum of money, with which he 
 equipped the expedition. 
 
 t In August, 1241, when Wales submitted without a battle, cf. 
 
 M. Paris, iv., p. 150. 
 
66 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT LONDON. 
 
 1242 
 
 be held to be strictly bound to the fulfilment of my 
 oath to cross the sea.” When this came to the 
 knowledge of the assembly of nobles they replied as 
 follows: “ Words cannot express our amazement at 
 the gulf which has swallowed the countless wealth, 
 that you, sir, have wrung from the various wardships 
 of nobles, divers escheats, frequent extortions both 
 from pastorless churches and from the estates of the 
 nobles, and valuable donations, enough to create 
 astonishment in the hearts of all who hear of them ; 
 and yet this weal has brought little or no advantage 
 to the realm. Furthermore, you have lately sum¬ 
 moned to this kingdom certain legates/” or persons 
 acting as legates, who have collected the money that 
 remained, as it were the gleanings after the vintage. 
 Moreover all the magnates of England are much 
 surprised, that without their advice or assent, you 
 have entered on so difficult and perilous an under¬ 
 taking, putting your faith in those who are faithless; 
 and that despising the goodwill of your natural 
 subjects, you expose yourself to the chances of fickle 
 fortune. To the peril of your soul and the tarnishing 
 of your fame, you are shamelessly and dishonourably 
 breaking the truce made between the king of the 
 French and yourself, to which you swore on your 
 soul, and which was to be observed without breach 
 till the time that was fixed on your behalf by earl 
 Richard your brother, and earl Roger Bigot.” 
 
 * i.e. —P. Rosso and Peter de Supino who came to England 
 in 1241, and after much extortion left on the death of Gregory 
 IX. M. Paris, vol. iv. pp. 157 and 160. 
 
I24 2 
 
 PARLIAMENT AT LONDON. 
 
 6 - 
 
 The older and more important nobles of the realm 
 further added: “You have, to your peril, put too 
 much faith in, and promised your presence in person 
 to, these notorious nobles beyond the seas, who 
 are raising up their heads against their own lord 
 the king of the French, for which very cause no 
 faith is to be put in them, since they are noted 
 for their manifold treacheries. You are likewise 
 aware that the king of Navarre, whose assistance 
 they promise you, was lately engaged in the Holy 
 Land, and that a wound he received is not yet 
 healed over.” 
 
 “ Take warning also by the examples of the illus¬ 
 trious kings, your predecessors, who had impregnable 
 castles and ample territories, large forces and great 
 wealth in those regions, and yet could not break the 
 firm strength of the unconquered knighthood of the 
 French, or even retain what they possessed.” 
 
 On hearing this, the king burst into a violent 
 rage, and with an oath called the saints to witness 
 that no fears shotild recall him, no ambiguous 
 speeches beguile him from his purpose of embarking 
 in the octave of Easter * to dauntlessly try the 
 fortune of ivar against the French in foreign parts. 
 So the parliament f dissolved, leaving fixed, but 
 * Henry embarked at Portsmouth on May 9. 
 
 t The proceedings of this parliament were formally recorded 
 and are the subject of the first authoritative account of a par. 
 liamentary debate. The document follows immediately on the 
 above passage in Matthew Paris, and is given in the Select 
 Charters, pp. 368-370. Cf. Stubbs’s Constitutional History , 
 vol. ii., p. 59. 
 
68 
 
 THE WAR AT SEA. 
 
 1242 1 
 
 secret, anger in the hearts of either side, 
 
 1242.—Naval incidents of the war. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv. pp.198-199, 1 
 When autumn was coming on, the king of the 
 French issued a harsh order that the persons of 
 English merhants trafficking in his kingdom should 1 
 be seized, which was very unbecoming; by so doing 
 he inflicted a heavy wound on the ancient reputation 
 of Gaul, which once offered an asylum and protection 
 to all refugees and even to exiles, especially if they 
 were peaceable, and it was for this reason that it first 
 obtained the name of France in the vulgar tongue. 
 When this disgraceful wantonness came to the ears 
 and heart of the king of England, he gave a like 
 order that all French merchants who were in England, 
 should suffer a well-deserved retribution. At the 
 same time also our lord the king of England, sent 
 to his own kingdom, to the guardians of his realm, 
 namely the archbishop of York and his colleagues, to 
 ask aid both in men and money. They accordingly 
 in obedience to the king’s orders, sent off without 
 delay fifty crossbowmen, a large sum of money, 
 provisions, and men at arms, under conduct of the 
 Cinque Ports. Thereon some of the nobles of England 
 thinking it shameful, to sit at home at ease, whilst 
 the king was engaged in war abroad, made ready to 
 start with the expedition, with a proper equipment of 
 horses and arms. Among these were certain Irish 
 nobles, Richard de Burgh and others, who through 
 the agency 01 Maurice, the justiciar of Ireland, a wise 
 
12^2 
 
 THE WAR AT SEA. 
 
 69 
 
 and prudent man, after having sumptuously and carefully 
 furnished themselves with arms and provisions, readily 
 hastened to the king’s assistance. They altogether 
 made up a large fleet and constituted a formidable 
 naval force. On learning this the sailors and pirates, 
 who by order of the French king were usefully 
 guarding the opposite coast, fitted out a fleet and 
 armed themselves, and put out with their ships under 
 sail and, and their galleys manned with numerous 
 rowers, with the purpose of either attacking the 
 approaching force at sea, or of frightening them into 
 a retreat to the English coast. But when they were 
 coming to close quarters a storm suddenly arose and 
 scattered them in all directions so that the captains 
 and pirates, consulted their own safety, yielded to 
 the fury of the winds, and within an hour scarcely 
 knew which were the ships of their own company. 
 The French as they were nearer to their coast than 
 the English or Irish were to theirs, and as the wind 
 was not much against them, quickly and successfully 
 reached safe and nearer harbours or even their own 
 ports: but our ships in no small terror both of the 
 wind and the French, took to flight, and in fear, 
 shame, and bitterness of heart were forced to put in 
 at various distant and unknown spots. Through this 
 the lord abbat of Evesham, the lord Richard de 
 Burgh and many others of their company never after 
 recovered a sound state of health but gradually pined 
 away ; until in suffering they breathed out their weary 
 souls, which after all their toils could never thoroughly 
 recover in a foreign land and strange climate. By 
 
70 BATTLE OF TAILLEBOURG. 1242 
 
 this unhappy chance, the king incurred a great and 
 irreparable loss of powerful and prudent men, arms, 
 and provisions of corn which he had collected from 
 the archbishopric of Canterbury and other bishoprics, 
 together with a considerable sum of money which he 
 had got together from all quarters. 
 
 1242.—The battle of Taillebourg. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 209-212. 
 
 Meantime the hopes of the French king were 
 raised by the surrender of many castellans with 
 their castles, and he directed his march on the city* 
 of Taillebourg. This is a very noble city, with many 
 fruitful vineyards and a pleasant stream flowing 
 through charming meadowlands, which is crossed 
 by an excellent bridge f; the stream, which is deep 
 and unfordable, is called the Charente. When the 
 king of the French approached the city, the inhabi- 
 
 * Matthew applies “ civitas ” in a mere literary fashion to what is 
 really only a little country town. “Nobilis ” is an epithet which it 
 must owe to the vineyards and meadows, for it can never have 
 been more than a small town running up the hill to the castle, 
 which stands on a rock above the river. Matthew gives a capital 
 description of the view from it. 
 
 t There is no bridge now. Perhaps he means a remarkable 
 causeway built on pointed arches to lead over the meadows to 
 the ferry across the Charente, which has probably changed its 
 course, as a bridge would never have been replaced by a ferry. 
 The description of Louis’ army, camping in the meadows between 
 the town and bridge, makes this almost certain. The whole story 
 is plain enough on the spot, if only we suppose that the causeway 
 once spanned the Charente itself. See an article on Taille¬ 
 bourg in the Guardian for Dec. 1, 1886, by Mr. Freeman. 
 
S. Louis (from the French Archives, Register 57). 
 
1242 
 
 BATTLE OF TAILLEBOURG. 
 
 7 1 
 
 tants, having neither the will nor the power to make 
 a stout resistance, took more wholesome counsels 
 and came out to meet him peacefully; they sur¬ 
 rendered themselves and their town, together with 
 all their possessions and liberties, to the king of 
 the French, who at once received them into his 
 favour and protection. He forthwith proceeded to 
 the city and was entertained there, together with 
 his principal nobles, while the remainder pitched 
 their tents in the meadow close by. On the morrow, 
 which was the Sunday next before the feast of S. 
 Mary Magdalene, the king of the French intended 
 to cross the bridge and transfer himself and his 
 troops to the districts of Poitou beyond. This 
 became known to the king of England and his 
 nobles, the chief and leader of whom was the count 
 de la Marche, by whose advice the king got his 
 troops in array during the night, and suddenly 
 marched with his army to the meadow to which 
 the bridge leads; there he pitched his tents over 
 against the city, so that the two armies were in sight 
 of one another. In the army of the king of the 
 English there were present 1600 knights, twenty 
 thousand infantry, and 700 archers, but only 24 
 of these were English. And so there was a king 
 on either side of the river. When morning came 
 our English saw the oriflamme of the king of the 
 French and their banners and standards, and a great 
 host of tents on the other side of the river like a 
 large and populous town. And when the king 
 of England, who expected nothing else than a 
 
72 
 
 BATTLE OF TAILLEBOURG. 
 
 1242 
 
 battle, was ready to encounter the French at 
 the point of the sword, and the English were 
 guarding the passage of the bridge, he said to the 
 count de la Marche : “ My lord father, where is now 
 your promise ? For by many messengers, while we were 
 yet in England, you promised under the certificate of 
 your own letter patent that you would, when the need 
 arose, supply so strong a force of knights that they 
 might oppose the French king without fear, and that 
 we need only trouble ourselves about money.” To 
 which the count replied, “ I never did so.” Whence 
 earl Richard, “ Nay; but you did. And I have still 
 got your letter patent with me in the army.” “ It 
 was never signed nor was drawn up by me,” said the 
 count de la Marche. Then the king in amazement 
 said, “ What is this I hear from you, my father ? 
 Have you not often sent to me, nay, earnestly begged 
 me by messengers and letters patent to come hither, 
 and found fault with my delay? Where is your 
 promise ? ” The count answered with a terrible oath» 
 “ I never did it. Charge it to your mother, my 
 wife.” * And again with an oath in his throat, “ By 
 the throne of God, she has devised all this without 
 my knowledge.” When earl Richard heard all this, 
 he laid aside his armour, and taking a staff in his 
 hand, crossed the bridge to discuss a peace and 
 truce. For the king of England was clearly in danger 
 of being made prisoner. It was a Sunday ; and when 
 
 * Henry’s mother Isabella was hated by the French and 
 Poictevins who said she was better called Jezebel than Isabel, 
 as being the cause of much evil. Vol. iv. p. 255. 
 
BATTLE OF TA 1 LLEBOURG. 73 
 
 the earl came to the army, the French received him 
 [with great honour, and many hailed him as their 
 redeemer, because he had delivered them by his 
 arrangement of peace in Holy Land. On coming to 
 the presence of the king of France he was addressed 
 :\vith respect. He laid his desire to obtain a truce 
 before the king, and after some trouble a truce 
 was granted till the morrow. And this he ob¬ 
 tained firstly because the French favoured him 
 ■on account of his deliverance of the nobles in 
 the Holy Land, secondly because he was the 
 king’s cousin, and finally because it was Sunday. 
 As he departed, the king saluted him as follows : 
 
 | “ My lord earl, my lord earl, I have granted you 
 a truce for this day and the following night, that 
 you may in the meantime consider with yourselves 
 what is a more wholesome policy for }'ou to adopt 
 for the future. Night is the time of counsel.” The 
 jearl replied, “ It was for that cause that I asked 
 for the truce which I have obtained.” On his return 
 the earl went to the king and said to him secretly, 
 “ Quick, quick, let us depart. Our capture is 
 imminent.” They therefore took a hasty meal, for 
 it was noon, and, since the sun had passed the 
 meridian, each man busied himself in collecting his 
 baggage. At a late hour, when it began to grow 
 dark, the king, who had now some experience of 
 t’oictevin faithfulness, or rather faithlessness, dis¬ 
 gracefully retreated, and in his haste did not spare 
 the spurs ; he was followed by the whole army, with 
 Ijreat risk to men and horses, for many had had 
 
74 
 
 DISSENSION IN THE ARMY. 
 
 1242 
 
 no food, and the horses were weary and useless. 
 The king, who was mounted on his fastest steed, 
 never drew rein till he reached Saintes. * 
 
 S. Louis, 1226-1270 (From Chartres Cathedral). 
 
 1242, October.—Dissensions in the army. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 228-9. 
 
 At this time earl Bigot, earl Roger of Winchester, 
 and several other nobles came to the king and laid a 
 serious complaint before him, because he had 
 unadvisedly dragged them from their own homes 
 to the distant lands of those who were traitors to 
 him, without affording them any comfort or assistance; 
 
 * South of Taillebourg, higher up the Charente, on the left 
 bank. Taillebourg is on the right. This account of the battle 
 may be compared with that of Joinville (ed. Wailly, pp. 56-8). 
 
1242 
 
 DISSENSION IN THE ARMY. 
 
 75 
 
 wherefore, since the French king and his army had 
 withdrawn into the interior of France to recruit 
 their strength, they also asked leave to depart and 
 return to England for a similar purpose. The king 
 inquired, “ Is a safe w r ay open?” They replied 
 “We will ask.” They accordingly asked for and 
 obtained a free passage through France from the 
 French king, who said : “ They may freely pass 
 
 through my territory without hindrance, and I hope 
 will never return.” And when his advisers blamed 
 him for this he answered, “ I would that all my 
 enemies would go into a far country never to return.” 
 So they passed through France in peace amid the 
 derision of the French, and returned to England. 
 
 At the same time, because a certain noble of 
 the north of England, William de Ros by name, 
 l had not the means of staying any longer with the 
 king on the continent, the king hastily ordered him 
 f to be disseized of his lands, without the judgment 
 of his peers. Everyone thought this unjust and 
 tyrannical; for William de Ros, as he was a poor 
 man, said to the king, “ My lord king, take my lands 
 under pledge, and supply me with means to fittingly 
 serve you as a knight, and I will remain here.” Earl 
 Richard, on hearing of these and similar proceedings, 
 sharply rebuked his brother the king, and, a dispute 
 arising between them, he departed in bitterness of 
 , heart, with the intention of returning home. He 
 i! accordingly summoned certain of the nobles and 
 made preparations to cross the sea. The king, 
 with inconsiderate haste, burst into angry threats 
 
HENRY AND THE CISTERCIANS. 
 
 1242 
 
 76 
 
 against the earl, who, in order to cloak the self-willed 
 violence of his brother, dissembled his feelings and 
 remained. But when he saw that the king acted 
 in direct opposition to the advice of his own people, 
 he took with him the earl Marshal Walter, the earl 
 of Hertford, and many other nobles, and going on 
 board ship returned home, leaving the king, who had 
 entirely given himself over to the Bordelois and 
 Gascons, and despised the advice of his own natural 
 subjects. Henry, however, indulging himself in ease 
 with his queen, who had brought him a daughter, 
 prolonged his idle stay at Bordeaux, where he spent 
 his treasure to no purpose.* 
 
 1242.—Henry demands aid from the 
 Cistercians. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 234. 
 
 The king of the English strictly directed and 
 lovingly desired the archbishop of York f to assemble 
 together by royal authority all the abbats in England 
 who belonged to the Cistercian order, and meeting 
 them with fair words to anxiously entreat them on 
 behalf of their said lord the king, who was engaged 
 in foreign parts warring for the advancement of the 
 realm, and exposing his own person to the chances 
 of a hazardous war, that they should effectually 
 advance his cause by supplying money, and thereby 
 give him assistance. When the abbats -were gathered 
 * Henry did not leave Gascony till Oct. 1, 1243. 
 t Walter de Gray, archbishop of York, had been made 
 guardian of the kingdom on Henry’s departure. Yol. iv., 
 p. 191. 
 
Messenger Cringing Lexter to Royal Army, 
 
1242 
 
 MASTER MARTIN. 
 
 77 
 
 together they replied to the archbishop, “ How 
 much, Lord ? ” Whereto the archbishop, “ A little.” 
 Whereon the Cistercians inquired, “ How little ? ” 
 “ As much money as you. can get for your wool in one 
 year,” replied the archbishop. Like the man who 
 said, 
 
 Da mihi nunc animas, caetera tolle tibi. 
 
 For no one could endure want of food for a few 
 days and lack the support of life without yielding 
 his breath. But they were the king’s words that were 
 put in the mouth of the archbishop. * 
 
 1242.—Master Martin in England . 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 284-85 
 
 The new pope sent to England a new extortioner, 
 Martin by name, who brought a letter of authority 
 from the pope and had power to excommunicate, 
 suspend, and punish in many ways those who opposed 
 his wishes. On the strength of this he suspended 
 the prelates of England from appointing to benefices 
 till the wishes of the pope, who required revenues for 
 his clergy and kinsmen, had been satisfied. Master 
 Martin, however, thought it beneath him to receive 
 anything less than thirty marks for fear such a great 
 man should be thought to collect trifles ; he therefore 
 began to imperiously demand and extort from the 
 prelates, especially the monastic ones, presents, and 
 particularly desirable palfreys ; he used to send letters 
 to this or that abbat or prior strictly charging them to 
 
 * The Cistercians evaded the demand, but promised the king 
 1 their prayers. 
 

 THE NORMAN NOBLES. 
 
 1244 
 
 send him such horses as were suitable for a special ] 
 clerk of the pope. Those who refused, and gave even 
 reasonable excuses and causes for refusing, as for 
 instance the abbat of Malmesbury and the prior of 
 Merton, he punished severely by suspension until full 
 satisfaction had been made. This careful inquisitor 
 kept on the watch for vacant churches and stalls to 
 offer them to the yawning gulf of papal needs. 
 When the best stall at Salisbury, which was attached 
 to the precentorship, fell vacant, he at once laid his 
 greedy hands on it and, against the wish of the bishop, 
 and to the great vexation of the whole chapter, 
 bestowed it by the pope’s command on a nephew of 
 his who was a mere boy, which caused much wonder 
 and bitterness of heart. For many believed and 
 hoped that the Roman Curia after its manifold 
 scourging*' by God, would put a check on its avarice. 
 
 1244.—The Normans lose their English 
 possessions. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 288. 
 The king of the French assembled at Paris all 
 dwellers beyond the sea who had estates in England 
 and thus addressed them : “ Whatever inhabitant of 
 my realm has estates in England, seeing that he 
 cannot fitly serve two masters, must completely and 
 irrevocably attach himself to me or to the king of 
 England.” For which cause some who had estates 
 and revenues in England abandoned them and 
 * — i.e., in the struggle with the emperor Frederic II., which 
 had so far gone against the pope. 
 
1244 
 
 HENRY'S LETTER TO INNOCENT. 
 
 79 
 
 devoted themselves to their French properties, and 
 others did the reverse. And when the king of Eng¬ 
 land was informed of this he directed that all natives 
 of the realm of France, and especially Normans, 
 should be disseised of the land which they held in 
 England. Whereon the king of the French con¬ 
 sidered that the king of the English had broken the 
 terms of the truce*' which had been concluded 
 between them, because he had not given those who 
 were to be deprived of their estates in one country or 
 the other, the option of freely attaching themselves 
 to either king, as he himself had done. But seeing 
 that he was much weakened in body since his return 
 f from Poictou, he did not wish to awake a dispute, 
 nay rather he took pains to restrain the hasty com¬ 
 plaints of the Normans, and their wanton and greedy 
 desire to attack the king of England. 
 
 1244.—Letter of Henry to the Pope complaining 
 of his exactions. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv. pp. 314-15. 
 
 The king roused by these injuries and annoyed 
 I by the manifold avarice of the Romans, wrote 
 1 to the pope as follows :—“ To the most holy 
 father in Christ and lord Innocent, by the grace of 
 God supreme pontiff, Henry, by the same grace king 
 
 R of England, &c., greeting and kisses to his holy feet. 
 The more that the son submits himself to the 
 pleasure of his father, and the readier and more 
 : devoted he shows himself to his commands., the more 
 * Made April 23, 1243. M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 242. 
 
8 o 
 
 HENRY’S LETTER TO INNOCENT. 
 
 I2 4I 
 
 does he deserve to obtain his father’s protection, and 
 to reap the advantages of his devotion and service. 
 Since, then, father, during the whole of our reign we 
 have shown ourselves and our kingdom obedient to 
 your pleasure and commands in everything, although 
 we have in some matters connected with ourselves 
 and our kingdom generally found in you the anxiety 
 and kindness of a father, yet in some of the provisions 
 constantly granted by you to the clerks of England 
 and other countries, we feel that ourselves and our 
 kingdom have been burdened and oppressed in no 
 slight degree. Indeed, the English churches are 
 burdened with so many heavy provisions of this 
 kind, that not only are the patrons of churches and 
 those whose duty it is to confer ecclesiastical benefices 
 defrauded of their rights, but, besides this, many 
 works of charity are given up ; for these benefactions 
 which are usually charitably bestowed on religious 
 houses for their sustentation, and almost all others, 
 are exhausted by your provisions. And whereas the 
 Apostolic See ought to show favour to its petitioners, 
 provided the right of others is not injured thereby, 
 may it please your holiness, we have thought it our 
 duty to beseech you, as a father, to abstain from 
 granting provisions of this kind, at least for a time. 
 In the meantime, we entreat your fatherly highness 
 to protect, with paternal solicitude, our rights and 
 liberties which you can consider to be properly oui 
 own, and to preserve them inviolate and intact, 
 and not allow them to be in any way disturbed 
 by the suggestions of any at your court. And we 
 
1244 
 
 PARLIAMENT OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 81 
 
 , trust that your holiness will not be excited to anger 
 against us if we have, in any points, opposed the 
 ■ tenour of your commands, since we are urged thereto 
 by clamorous complaints, seeing that we ought not 
 to fail in defending the rights of any man, but, by 
 virtue of the kingly office granted to us by God, 
 ought to afford full justice to every man.” 
 
 By the same or more clever arguments, our lord 
 the king, who was too mild and enduring, had 
 begged his predecessor, pope Gregory, to spare the 
 kingdom of England from the burden of such 
 i exactions. But neither the one nor the other ever 
 i thought fit to curb his inclinations in this matter 
 : Wherefore we believe that the Lord and His Apostle 
 I Peter, in whose steps they followed not, were with 
 ) just cause provoked against the Roman church, to 
 | bend their bow and make it ready. 
 
 1244.—The Parliament of 1244. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 362 368. 
 
 * In the same year by a royal summons the 
 magnates of the whole kingdom assembled at Lon¬ 
 don, where at a council f held in the refectory' at 
 Westminster, the king with his own mouth asked for 
 * This passage is not translated verbatim. 
 
 t Matthew Paris describes this Parliament as adjourned until 
 three weeks after the Purification, Feb. 2, and so would have us 
 I to suppose that it was the usual Hilarytide session of 1244. 
 
 But this is incompatible with the history of the year. Bishop 
 \ Stubbs shows it must have fallen between Sept. 9th and Nov. 
 
 ] 8th; probably it was held at Michaelmas or soon after. Const. 
 
 : Hist., vol. ii., note on p. 62. 
 
82 PARLIAMENT OF WESTMINSTER. 1244 
 
 an aid of money. The reason which he stated openly 
 ■was, that in the past year he had crossed over to 
 Gascony by their advice, as he asserted, and had 
 there got indebted in a large sum of money. The 
 magnates replied that they would consult on the 
 matter, and withdrawing from the refectory the arch¬ 
 bishops, bishops, abbats and priors met together for 
 careful consideration by themselves, and at length 
 asked the earls and barons if they would unanimously 
 agree to their advice in making answer and provision 
 on this matter; the latter replied that they would do 
 nothing without the assent of the whole assembly 
 Then by common assent there were elected, on 
 behalf of the clergy, the archbishop elect of Canter¬ 
 bury and the bishops of Winchester, Lincoln, and 
 Worcester," 1 and on behalf of the laity earl Richard, 
 earl Bigot, Simon de Montfort earl of Leicester, and 
 Walter earl Marshal, and for the barons Richard de 
 Montfichet, f John de Balliol, and the abbats of S 
 Edmund and Ramsey. And because the Charter of 
 Liberties which our lord the king had once granted, 
 and for the observance of which Edmund archbishop 
 of Canterbury had become surety, had not yet been 
 put in force, and because the aids that had so fre¬ 
 quently been granted to the king had contributed 
 nothing to the advancement of the king or kingdom, 
 and because through lack of a chancellor writs had 
 
 * Boniface, William of Ralegh, Robert Grosseteste, and Walter 
 Cantelupe. 
 
 f One of the few survivors of the twenty-five barons of Magna 
 Carta. 
 
1244 PARLIAMENT OF WESTMINSTER. 83 
 
 often been granted contrary to justice, petition was 
 made for the appointment of a justiciar and chan¬ 
 cellor by whom the state of the kingdom might be 
 strengthened.* The king from fear of seeming to 
 adopt a new policy under the constraint of his council, 
 refused assent to the petition of the magnates, but 
 promised that he would himself amend the matters 
 of which he had heard from them. The assembly 
 was then adjourned to meet again three weeks after 
 the Purification.* It was agreed that if the king 
 should in the meantime of his own free will choose 
 such counsellors and so observe the rights of the 
 realm, the magnates would be content, and would 
 then give an answer on granting an aid ; on condition, 
 however, that whatever money was granted to him 
 should be expended for the service of the kingdom 
 by the twelve above mentioned. The king delayed 
 them several days in the wish to weary them into 
 consenting to an aid without the postponement, and 
 met them repeatedly, though without overreaching 
 them, for the magnates wisely weighing the matter 
 remained immovable. At length the king hoping to 
 bind the clergy, at least, to his wishes, summoned the 
 prelates, and produced a papal letter to the following 
 effect.'! • • ^ was resolved by common consent that an 
 
 * Cf. the account of a council held in 1248 on p. 120. 
 t There is probably some confusion as to this date, cf. the note 
 in Stubbs referred to above. 
 
 t Here follows a letter from Innocent IV. to the Prelates of 
 England, exhorting them to give liberal aid to the king as one 
 i who has always shown tolerance to the Roman church. Letter 
 dated Genoa, July 29, iv., pp. 363-65. 
 
84 PARLIAMENT OF WESTMINSTER. 1244 
 
 answer to the pope’s letter of entreaty on behalf of 
 the king should be put off to the time before-men¬ 
 tioned, and when the magnates were leaving on the 
 last day of the council, which had lasted six days, 
 the king entreated the prelates one by one, begging 
 them to meet him again on the morrow. And when 
 they assembled the king sent the earl of Leicester, 
 Peter of Savoy, Ralph Fitz-Nicholas, William de 
 Cantelupe, and John Fitz-Geofrey, to explain his 
 wishes and beg them to obey his will at the pope’s 
 request if his own was disregarded. They explained 
 the king’s pressing need and imminent danger from 
 the war in Gascony and the necessity of crushing the 
 Welsh. While the discussion was going on the king 
 suddenly arrived unexpected and unattended, and 
 protesting with his usual oath that their honour was 
 as his own, heaped entreaty on entreaty. But they 
 reply that they would carefully consider the matter, 
 and the king withdrew in confusion. And when, 
 after a long discussion, some were in favour of a mild 
 answer, the bishop of Lincoln replied with these 
 words on theological authority: “We may not be 
 divided from the common counsel. For it is written, 
 if we be divided we shall all die forthwith.” * . . . 
 
 And so the answer to the pope’s request as well as 
 that of the king himself was postponed. The king, 
 considering that he could not weaken their deter¬ 
 mination when all were together, had recourse to 
 Roman cunning and determined to try them one by 
 
 * Referring to the agreement with the barons. Cf. Grosseteste, 
 Ep. 79, which may possibly refer to this demand. Cf. Luard, ii. 17. 
 
1244 
 
 PROVISIONS OF THE MAGNATES. 
 
 85 
 
 one as he had done on other occasions ; so he returned 
 and begged them to wait at least one day longer. 
 But some of the prelates with wary heed would not 
 be entrapped, and by departing early in the morning 
 escaped the meshes in which they had once been 
 caught, and so the council broke up to the king’s 
 discontent. * 
 
 Provisions made by the magnates with the king’s 
 consent to be inviolably observed for the future. 
 
 [This document which purports to be the result of the 
 deliberations, contains propositions of a far more fundamental 
 character than any that have yet been broached, and to a curious 
 degree typical of later forms of government. Whether or no it 
 were more than a paper constitution, it anticipates several points 
 of the later programme of Simon de Montfort, and some at 
 least of those which for centuries afterwards were the chief 
 subject of contention between king and people. Cf. Stubbs, 
 vol. ii., p. 64.] 
 
 “ As for the liberties obtained, granted, and con¬ 
 firmed by a charter of the king on a previous occa¬ 
 sion let them henceforth be observed. And for the 
 better security thereof let a new charter be made with 
 special mention of these points. And let all the 
 prelates solemnly excommunicate those persons who 
 knowingly and deliberately presume to impugn the 
 liberties granted by our lord the king or to hinder their 
 observance ; and let the position of those who, since 
 the last concession, have received any injury in their 
 liberties be made good. And whereas the promise 
 made on that occasion has not so far been observed 
 
 • A description of this parliament is given in Stubbs, vol. ii. 
 pp. 62-63. 
 
86 PROVISIONS OF THE MAGNATES. 1244 
 
 either by virtue of his oath or from fear of the sentence 
 pronounced by S. Edmund, to the end that danger 
 of this kind may not again arise and the last state be 
 thus worse than the first, let there be chosen by 
 common consent from the more discreet persons of 
 the whole realm four men powerful and noble, who 
 shall take oath to faithfully treat the business of the 
 king and kingdom, and to show justice to all men 
 without receiving of persons. These four shall follow 
 our lord the king, and there shall always be present, 
 if not all of them, yet two who may hear the com¬ 
 plaints of individuals and give speedy assistance to 
 those who are suffering wrong. Thetreasuryof our lord 
 the king is to be managed under their inspection and 
 attestation, and money specially granted by the whole 
 community for the service of the king and kingdom, 
 is to be expended by them according as they think 
 best. And they shall be conservators of liberties. 
 And as they are elected by the assent of all, so 
 without the common assent none of them shall be 
 removed. And if one of them is taken from our 
 midst, * then by the consent and election of the three 
 another shall be substituted in his place within two 
 months. And there shall not again be a full assembly 
 without these four, except under necessity or at their 
 request. The justiciar and chancellor are to be chosen 
 by all, and whereas they ought constantly to be with 
 the king, they may be of the number of the conserva¬ 
 tors. And if for any cause the king take away 
 the seal from the chancellor, whatever is sealed 
 * — i.e., by death. 
 
1244 
 
 MASTER MARTIN'S MISSION. 
 
 87 
 
 in the interval is to be null and void. And afterwards 
 the seal is to be restored to the chancellor. No 
 justiciar or chancellor is to be appointed in place 
 of another, except through the solemn assembly and 
 assent of all. There are to be two justices of the 
 bench and two barons of the exchequer, and at least 
 one justice of the Jews. For this turn they are to be 
 appointed by common election, and, as they are to 
 treat of the concerns of all, so in the selection of 
 them the assent of all should concur. But, hereafter, 
 when it shall be necessary to appoint a successor 
 to any of them, it shall be done by the provision 
 of the four counsellors aforesaid. Those who have 
 been hitherto suspected or are less necessary are 
 to be removed from our lord the king.” * 
 
 1244.—Master Martin sent to England. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 368-69, 374-76. 
 Our lord the pope, believing that the.pliant English 
 would after their custom submit their necks to a con¬ 
 tribution, as well by reason of the king’s greed as 
 of the pressing nature of his own request, despatched 
 a latere a certain clerk, Master Martin, whom, owing 
 to his insatiate rapacity, many called Master Mastinus,f 
 * The appeals and other interferences of Master Martin dis¬ 
 tracted the attention of the magnates, and nothing was really 
 settled. On the 3rd of November the barons refused to grant 
 money (cf. vol. iv., p. 395) ; but after an adjournment a scutage 
 | of twenty shillings was in February, 1245, granted for the 
 ; marriage of the king’s eldest daughter ; Matthew Paris wrongly 
 ; dates this aid in 1244, cf. vol. iv., p. 372 ; but cf. Stubbs, vol. ii. 
 pp. 62-64. 
 
 f- From French mastin, a mastiff. 
 
88 
 
 MASTER MARTIN'S MISSION. 
 
 1244 
 
 with great unheard-of powers, fuller than any we 
 remember a legate to have had. For he stretched 
 forth his hand to exact a contribution, to make 
 provisions for unknown persons after the impulse 
 of his own mind and setting reason aside, and to 
 forcibly extort revenues and bestow them on kinsmen 
 of the pope; and this he did, being armed with 
 authority bv the pope, from whom he displayed each 
 day new charters adapted to his own wishes or any 
 sudden emergency. For which reason some said 
 he had a quantity of parchments, unfilled up but 
 ready sealed, so that he could write in them whatever 
 he pleased; but heaven forbid! This sophist of 
 a legate was sent in the first place to the king, 
 begging him to make a return to the pope by 
 diligently endeavouring to induce the English prelates 
 to consent to give a contribution to the pope ; or 
 at least to promise a speedy payment of ten thousand 
 marks. The king replied that his magnates, prelates, 
 and clergy, earls, and barons, and knights are so 
 constantly spoiled of their goods on various pretexts, 
 that they have scarcely enough for themselves, “ they 
 have not the will or the power to contribute to 
 me, their king, or to the pope. But as I humbled 
 myself to them and bent to their wishes they now 
 answer more moderately and have promised assistance 
 according to their means.” On hearing this, Master 
 Martin retired with a downcast countenance, bringing 
 away no hope of assistance from the king. However, 
 he summoned the prelates and showed apostolic letters, 
 firstly to the. archbishops and bishops, and after- 
 
1244 
 
 MASTER MARTIN'S MISSION. 
 
 89 
 
 wards to the abbats, both exempt and not exempt. * 
 
 .The prelates were not to be turned 
 
 from their purpose, but after holding due deliberation 
 they appointed as their spokesman the dean of S. 
 Paul’s, a discreet and eloquent man, and replied 
 to Master Martin as follows f : “ Sir, the community 
 of the prelates of England makes answer to you 
 ! as well in the matter of contributing an aid of money 
 to the pope as in the matter of the revenues, which 
 our lord the pope demands to be delivered to him 
 through you from the several churches. Your 
 proposals specially concern our lord the king of 
 England, and generally also all patrons of churches. 
 They likewise concern the archbishops and their 
 suffragans—not to say all the prelates—of England. 
 And as the king, by reason of illness, the archbishops, 
 bishops, and other prelates of churches are not here, 
 in their absence we have neither the power nor 
 the right to make reply ; and if we should presume 
 I to do so it would be to the prejudice of all the 
 prelates who are absent.” After they had thus 
 spoken there came John Mansel J‘ and other messen- 
 
 * Then follows Innocent’s letter asking for an aid to be paid 
 to Martin. What with king and pope, the abbats complained, 
 they were between the hammer and anvil. Frederic II. wrote 
 urging the English not to contribute, but when the nobles 
 granted an aid to the king (for his daughter’s marriage), Martin 
 renewed his demands with honeyed \yords, iv., pp. 369.374. 
 
 ! This would throw the second meeting into 1245. 
 
 f The date of this answer is Feb., 1245. 
 
 + John Mansel, a clerk of the king’s, who had afterwards charge 
 of tlie great seal. Cf. iv., 601. 
 
9 o 
 
 MASTER MARTIN'S MISSION. 
 
 1244 
 
 gers from our lord the king to strictly forbid all 
 prelates who held baronies in capite of the king 
 from pledging their lay fiefs to the Roman church and 
 so depriving him of the service due to him. Master 
 Martin, on understanding this, fixed a day in the 
 middle of Lent f for those who were present to meet 
 him, with the intention of, in the meantime, 
 securing the presence of the king and absent 
 prelates that he might then bring the business to a 
 conclusion. But without the assent of the king and 
 others who were absent they refused to accept the 
 appointed day; and so returned each to their own 
 home. But on the authority of fresh letters, whereof 
 master Martin had such supply as he pleased, some 
 of the prelates were again summoned and refused to 
 agree to the aforesaid contribution, and offered a 
 more effectual resistance, replying as before: “In 
 primis. The poverty of the kingdom of England, 
 which is in danger of war from all sides, does not 
 allow of our consenting to this exaction which 
 threatens the whole kingdom, and on account of this 
 same poverty many churches and especially monas¬ 
 teries are burdened with heavy debts. II. Whereas 
 when at the request of the cardinal legate, on 
 account of the burden of debt under which the 
 Roman church was asserted to labour, a contribution 
 was lately made, to our great vexation it was not 
 turned to the service of the Church, surely now 
 when a simple nuncio makes the request we have 
 reason to fear a similar or worse event. III. If a 
 
 t — i.e., Lent of 1245. 
 
1244 
 
 THE JEWS OF LONDON. 
 
 91 
 
 second contribution were now made, we might not 
 unreasonably fear its adoption as a precedent, for an 
 act twice repeated leads to a custom.* IV. Whereas 
 it is believed—or at all events is reported—that the 
 pope is shortly going to hold a council where the 
 several prelates will assuredly be burdened with great 
 and costly exertions as well as with making visits, 
 whether voluntary or not, to our lord the pope or to 
 others whom we have never seen reject a present, 
 it may happen that through the heaping of trouble 
 on trouble few will be found who can endure so 
 unbearable a load. V. Whereas our holy mother 
 the Roman Church is alleged to be heavily laden 
 with debt, it is just and honest that as she cannot 
 sustain such a burden by herself, assistance should 
 be given in common by all her devoted sons who are 
 believed to be shortly going to meet in council. 
 And let what chiefly concerns all, be approved by all, 
 that so the Church may be the better relieved, and 
 each of us the less burdened.” 
 
 1244, Aug. 1.—Supposed crucifixion of a boy by 
 the Jews. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv. pp. 377-8. 
 
 [This extract is given as an example of many statements of 
 the kind to be found in the chronicles. If the tale seems 
 | incredible we may imagine how incredible the dynamite plots 
 | will seem six hunded years hence.] 
 
 On the first of August in this year the body of a 
 j boy was found unburied in the graveyard of S. 
 
 * Binus actus inducit consuetudinem. Marginal note to 
 Codex i. Tit. 7, lex. 3. 
 
9 2 
 
 THE JEWS OF LONDON-. 
 
 1244 
 
 Benedict in the city of London ; on his legs and 
 arms and chest there was an inscription written 
 regularly in Hebrew characters. Many people 
 assembled in amazement at the sight, and being 
 unable to read the letters but knowing they were 
 Hebrew sent for some converted Jews who inhabited 
 the house which the king had founded at London; 
 and commanded them as they loved life and limb, 
 for the honour love and fear of their lord the king to 
 interpret the writing without deceit; and there were 
 present some royal bailiffs who were conservators of 
 the peace. They also thought and not without 
 reason that the Jews had as a taunt and insult to 
 Jesus Christ crucified the boy—a circumstance stated 
 to have constantly happened—or had tortured him in 
 various waj r s previous to crucifixion, and when he 
 died, had thrown him out there as unworthy of a 
 cross. Furthermore there were on the body livid 
 marks and weals caused by rods, with evident signs 
 and traces of other torture. The converts were 
 brought to read the inscription and endeavoured to 
 do so thoroughly ; now through the extension and 
 contraction of the skin and flesh the letters were 
 dragged on this side and on that and were much 
 disordered and out of shape, and some were not 
 legible; however, the names of the boy’s father and 
 mother without the surname were found, and a 
 statement that the boy had been sold to Jews, but to 
 whom or for what purpose they could not discover. 
 Meantime some of the Jews of London suddenly 
 and secretly took flight whereby they brought on 
 
1244 
 
 COUNCIL OF NEWCASTLE. 
 
 93 
 
 themselves merited suspicion. Some declared that 
 the Lord worked miracles on the boy’s behalf. And 
 when it was ascertained that the Jews had sometimes 
 done such deeds, and that holy crucified bodies had 
 been received into a church and become renowned 
 by miracles, although the marks of the five wounds 
 were not visible on the hands, feet, and side, the 
 canons of S. Paul seized the body and buried it with 
 full ceremonies in their own church near the great 
 altar.* 
 
 1244, Aug.—Dispute with Scotland. 
 
 M. Pans, vol. iv., pp. 379-80. 
 
 This year, by a public proclamation and general 
 summons, the king made notification throughout 
 England, that each baron who held of the king in 
 chief, should hold all military services which were 
 due to the king ready to be discharged on the royal 
 mandate, as well the bishops and abbats as the 
 lay barons. With a large force he set out for 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, alleging as his principal motive 
 for so doing, that Walter Cumin, a noble and power¬ 
 ful baron of Scotland, and certain others of the 
 kingdom of Scotland had suspiciously strengthened 
 two castles f in Galloway and Lothian, to the 
 prejudice of the king of England and contrary to 
 the charters of his predecessors. Likewise he had 
 leagued with the French and received exiles and fugi- 
 
 * Cf. the account of the murder of S. Hugh in 1255 related 
 in a passage given in the volume on “ Simon de Montfort and 
 his cause ” in this series. 
 
 t One of these castleswas the Hermitage, Ermitage in Liddesdale. 
 
9 + 
 
 COUNCIL OF NEWCASTLE. 
 
 1244 
 
 tive enemies of the king’s, as, for instance, Geoffrey 
 of Marsh * at this present time, and others on other 
 occasions, thus, as it were, secretly desiring to with¬ 
 draw the homage under which he was bound to the 
 king. When, therefore, the assembly of the nobles of 
 all England was gathered at Newcastle, this difficult 
 matter was carefully discussed in a council held on 
 and about the Assumption of the Blessed Mary. In 
 this council, by the management of earl Richard, 
 and by the wise and wholesome intervention of other 
 magnates on both sides, an agreement was concluded 
 between the two kings. The king of Scotland, f 
 a good, just, pious, and generous man, was deservedly 
 beloved by all the English, as well as by his own 
 people. He had with him a very numerous and 
 powerful force, consisting of a thousand knights 
 sufficiently well mounted, though not on Spanish, 
 Italian, or other costly horses, and properly equipped 
 in mail and linen accoutrements, and also about a 
 hundred thousand foot, who were all of one mind, 
 and who, having made confession and being en¬ 
 couraged by the assurance of their preachers that 
 they would fight in a just cause for their country, 
 felt little fear of death. However, that the bloocf 
 of so many Christians might not be shed and call 
 unto the Lord for vengeance, thereby giving offence 
 to Him into Whose hands it is terrible to fall, peace 
 * Geoffrey of Marsh, or de Marisco, an Irish noble, who, when 
 justiciar of Ireland in 1234, had been induced by Peter des Roches 
 to bring about the death of earl Richard Marshal. He died in 
 1245. Cf. iv., p. 422. 
 
 t Alexander II. 
 
1244 
 
 MOKE V NEEDED BY HE NR Y. 
 
 95 
 
 was happily restored, as witnessed in the charter 
 below.* 
 
 1244, Nov. 3.—Financial difficulties of the king. 
 
 > 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv. pp. 395-396. 
 
 On the morrow of All Souls’ Day the assembled 
 nobles of England, when the king most urgently 
 again demanded an aid of money, as they had been 
 so often despoiled and deceived, refused him to his 
 face. For the king was proposing to send a 
 / numerous force against the Welsh. Moreover he 
 was so indebted to foreign merchants, vintners, and 
 others, for wax and other necessaries of life,f that he 
 could scarcely appear in public for the clamorous 
 requests of those demanding their due. From 
 which it was clear that he he had been shamefully 
 attacked and ensnared by the guileful and grievous 
 traps of foreigners. 
 
 So the king in his thirst for money without con¬ 
 sulting the assembly of the realm or at least not his 
 own natural subjects, 
 
 J for a light cause and for a reasonable cause 
 fictitious occasion shame- as was given to be under- 
 lessly extorted stood by him and his 
 
 agents obtained 
 
 * Charter of Alexander of Scotland giving his agreement and 
 promise to his well-beloved and liege-lord Henry III. king of 
 England. 
 
 t Cf. vol. v., p.114. 
 
 J This is the reading of the earlier MS.C. ; that on the right 
 hand is that of B over an erasure. Cf. note on p. 59 above. 
 
96 MASTER MARTIN'S GREED. 1245 
 
 fifteen hundred marks from the citizens of London. 
 For the king’s party asserted that twenty years back 
 they had received one of their fellow-citizens Walter 
 Bukerel by name who had justly been expelled from 
 the city and had long been in exile. This the 
 Londoners contradicted and declared that he had 
 been made a loyal subject by the entreaties and 
 presents of his brother Andrew to the king, and that 
 he was forgiven by the king’s consent and command, 
 and became one of their fellow-citizens as the king’s 
 rolls would testify. On the king’s part it was at 
 once* replied that the king was young at the time, 
 impressionable and easily led and under guardian¬ 
 ship, wherefore what was then conceded by him was 
 invalid, f This, however, evidently redounded to the 
 disgrace of his guardians. The decision stood, not 
 by reason but by will alone ; and the citizens had to 
 pay the sum mentioned to be thrown away on 
 foreigners. 
 
 1245.—Master Martin’s rapacity. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 416-17. 
 Master Martin was most watchfully and unceas¬ 
 ingly busy in collecting revenues as he pleased for 
 the pope’s use and in bestowing them on the pope’s 
 kinsmen. Of his wanton and harmful rapacity, out 
 * m instanti, so B over an erasure. C has cavillose. 
 t On similar grounds in 1227 Henry interpreting the ordinance 
 of 1218 restraining him until he came of age from making 
 grants in perpetuity, to imply the nullity of all charters sealed 
 during the minority, directed all who had received such charters 
 to apply for their renewal. 
 
1245 
 
 MASTER MARTIN’S GREED. 
 
 97 
 
 of respect to the holy Roman Church, I think it 
 more honourable to keep silence than to offend the 
 ears of my hearers and the minds of the faithful by 
 describing it. The king favoured his cause and 
 protected him against all parties, perhaps from a 
 hope of remuneration, and so the state of the king¬ 
 dom became very wretched. 
 
 In this strait some of the nobles who lamented 
 the manifold oppression of the kingdom gave orders 
 to have the ports guarded and the letters, which were 
 daily brought to England to extort money, seized. 
 About this time it happened that one of the pope’s 
 messengers arrived with bulls and landed at Dover. * 
 The warden of the port and provost of the town at 
 once arrested him, took away all his letters, which 
 contained many abominations in the shape of divers 
 pretexts for extorting money, and imprisoned the 
 messenger himself in Dover castle. On hearing of 
 this Master Martin went to the king to present a 
 | complaint. The king at once denied that he had 
 l authorised the action, * and ordered the messenger to 
 be released; and, to the ruin of his kingdom and of 
 ♦ Shortly after however Henry ordered an inquiry to be made 
 as to the revenues held by Italians and Romans in England, and 
 on finding they amounted to 60,000 marks, more than the 
 revenue of the kingdom, was very angry and began to detest 
 the insatiate greed of the Roman court. So ‘per regni 
 universitatem ’ an ‘ elegans epistola ’ was drawn up complaining 
 of the papal exactions; and earl Roger Bigot, John Fitz 
 Geoffrey, William de Cantelupe, Philip Basset, Ralph Fitz 
 Nicolas, and Master William Powic a clerk were appointed to 
 lake the letter to the council at Lyons. Cf. below, and Matthew 
 Paris, vol. iv., p. 419. Stubbs, vol. ii., p. 65. 
 
9 8 
 
 MASTER MAR TIN DEPARTS. 
 
 1245 
 
 his own honour, had the letters taken from the mayor 
 of Dover by force, and freely presented to Master 
 Martin for him to rejoice at pleasure in the effects 
 produced by some of them. 
 
 1245, June 30.—How Martin leaves England. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv., pp. 420-22. 
 
 Some tournaments of malicious design to be held 
 by some people assembled at Luton and Dunstable 
 were forbidden by the king as dangerous, and after 
 this on the morrow of the feast of the apostles Peter 
 and Paul, Fulk Fitzwarenne was sent on behalf of 
 the community of the realm to Master Martin, who 
 was then staying at the New Temple in London. 
 Eyeing him with a scowl he thus addressed him : 
 “ Depart and leave England immediately.” Whereon 
 Martin : “ Who orders me ? Is it you, on your own 
 authority ?” Then Fulk: “ The order is given through 
 me from the assembly of armed men who lately met 
 at Luton and Dunstable : and if you trust in wise 
 counsel you will not stay three days lest you and all 
 your companions be cut in pieces.” Fulk withdrew 
 in great wrath and heaping threat on threat with 
 terrible oaths ; and Martin, breathless with alarm, at 
 once went to the king and said: “ My Lord, such 
 have I now heard ; is this done by your authority or 
 by the boldness of your subjects ?” To this the 
 king replied : “ I declare I am not the author of this 
 proceeding. But my barons scarce keep from rebel¬ 
 lion against me, because I have thus far tolerated 
 the depredations and wrongs committed by you in 
 
1245 
 
 MASTER MARTIN DEPARTS. 
 
 99 
 
 ,his kingdom on them, and which exceed all measure 
 md justice ; it is with difficulty that I have held them 
 back in their fury from attacking you, and tearing you 
 limb from limb.” With a low and trembling voice 
 Martin says : “ I therefore beg you by the love of 
 God and in reverence for our lord the pope to grant 
 me a free exit and safe departure under your conduct 
 from your land.” The king, who was very excited 
 and angry, replied : “ The devil take you and give 
 you a conduct through hell.” His attendants with 
 difficulty appeased him, and he then ordered Robert 
 Norris, the marshal of his palace, to safely conduct 
 Martin to the sea. Martin at once set out on his 
 journey and kept close to the side of his guide 
 Robert, and >vhenever he happened to see any riders 
 or passers-by he was seized with such fear and 
 trembling, that if the earth had opened he would 
 have hidden himself under the turf. When they came 
 to the edge of a wood which the archbishop elect 
 of Canterbury had put up for sale, and where some 
 countrymen had assembled to choose and buy 
 trees, Martin in terror at the sight of them says 
 to Robert, his guide: “ Alack, alack, what I feared 
 has happened. See, they are going to attack 
 us. 0 my friend and lord Robert, have you son, 
 nephew, kinsman, or friend for whom you desire an 
 ecclesiastical benefice ? I am ready to obtain all you 
 demand. See they lie in ambush for my life; protect 
 me under the shadow of thy wings.” Robert replied : 
 “God forbid that any friend of mine should thus by 
 my means obtain entry to an ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
100 MASTER MARTIN DEPARTS. 124 . 
 
 I do not know who they are; but I will hasten tc j 
 them while you wait me here, so that if they are il 
 disposed I may check this rashness by displaying the , 
 king’s warrant.” When on coming up to them h(| 
 learned the truth, he returned to Martin quickly, ancl 
 in order to impose on him said : “ It was wit! 
 difficulty I checked their fury and prevented theii- 
 tearing you in pieces. But now let us go or* 
 stealthily and cautiously, lest a worse thing come or. 
 you; and when you set sail you will, if you are wise 
 never return, lest unhappily you fall into the snares 
 of those who seek your life.” Thenceforth Martir 
 did not spare his horse’s flanks, but chiding hi; 
 guide’s delay, hurried to the sea. On reaching 
 Dover he embarked on S. Swithin’s day, and by his 
 departure made many glad. But that the force ol 
 this virulent plague might not utterly cease he! 
 entrusted part of his authority to one master Philip 
 to be still exercised in the extortion of revenues; 
 and thus he left his foul traces behind him*. This 
 I said that everyone may know how timid are these 
 gapers after money whose own consciences wound 
 them. 
 
 When this came to the knowledge of the many 
 Italians who were fattening on the richest revenues 
 in England, they disappeared and concealed them¬ 
 selves in secret places. Many also of the Caursines, 
 who had been spreading the deadly poison of their 
 usuries amongst the western districts which till now 
 
 * On Martin in England cf. Milman’s Latin Christianity, 
 vol. vi., p. 235. 
 
[245 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY, ior 
 
 had been ignorant of such proceedings, secretly 
 departed. 
 
 1245.—Letter of the commonalty of England to 
 the Pope.* 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 441-444. 
 To the reverend father in Christ Innocent, by the 
 grace of God supreme pontiff, the nobles and com¬ 
 monalty of the kingdom of England commendation 
 and kisses to his holy feet. 
 
 Our mother the Roman church we love with all 
 our hearts as is our duty, and with all possible 
 affection we aim at the increase of the honour of 
 her, in whom we ought to have a refuge at proper 
 times, so that the heavy sorrow of the son may be 
 soothed by the consolation of the mother. And 
 this consolation the mother is bound to impart to 
 the son the more gently and readily, as in return 
 for the nourishment of her motherly kindness she 
 requires the gratitude and devotion of her son. It 
 cannot indeed be that that mother is ignorant of the 
 gratitude which from times long past the kingdom of 
 England has paid her, by granting for her exaltation 
 and better preservation a suitable and not unfruitful 
 subsidy, that thereby the league of affection between 
 the church and aforesaid kingdom might be more 
 firmly inaugurated. In process of time this subsidy 
 | came to be called Peter’s pence,f but the church 
 * Presented at the Council of Lyons, 
 t Probably originated in the tribute paid by Ofla of Mercia 
 or the payment made for the maintenance of the Saxon school 
 at Rome. Cf. Stubbs, vol. i., p. 251. 
 
J02 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY. 1245 
 
 not content therewith did at other times, as well 
 by legates* as by many other nuncios, seek divers 
 subsidies in the aforesaid kingdom, which were 
 liberally and willingly granted by her devoted sons, 
 who as it were embraced her in the arms of true 
 affection. Holy father, we do not believe that you 
 are ignorant that our ancestors, as men of Catholic 
 faith, inspired alike with love and fear for their 
 Creator, and desiring to insure the salvation of their 
 own souls, and of their ancestors as well as of their 
 posterity, founded monasteries and endowed them 
 with their own goods, both with domains and with 
 the patronage of churches, to the end that in these 
 monasteries the religious might worthily exercise 
 the first branch of religion, and with deep devotion 
 serving the Most High, might enjoy peace and full 
 security, as is known to be agreeable to religion, and 
 receive their necessary support from the said do¬ 
 mains ; and that their clerks receiving the churches 
 that were in their patronage might undertake on their 
 behalf the toils of the outer w-orld, and cleaving to the 
 second branch of religion protect them from the at¬ 
 tacks of others. Wherefore it is to our great annoyance 
 and most intolerable vexation that the said religious 
 should be in any way defrauded of their patronage 
 or appointments to churches. But now through lack 
 of consideration on the part of you and your pre¬ 
 decessors, in addition to the above named subsidies, 
 
 * On Legates in England cf. Stubbs, vol. iii., p. 30C. On 
 papal taxation in England cf. Milman’s Latin Christianity , 
 book x., ch. ii. 
 
1245 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY. 103 
 
 the Italians in England—and there is an endless 
 number of them—are endowed with churches be¬ 
 longing to those very religious, and are called rectors 
 of the churches, yet leave the said religious whom it 
 is their duty to defend wholly undefended, and 
 having no care of souls allow greedy wolves to 
 scatter the flock and plunder the sheep. Whence 
 men can truly say that they are not good shepherds 
 since they know not their sheep, neither have the 
 sheep knowledge of their shepherds. They are not 
 constant in hospitality and in the giving of alms, 
 according to the decrees of the Church, but only 
 receive the fruits and carry them beyond the king¬ 
 dom, in no small degree impoverishing it and 
 occupying the revenues wherewith our brothers, 
 nephews, kinsmen, and others who have deserved 
 well of the said kingdom ought to be beneficed, who 
 both could and would mercifully perform the said 
 works of charity and others as well; and would in 
 their own persons serve the churches so that they 
 who serve the altar may also live of the altar. Yet 
 now under constraint of necessity these men are 
 either laymen or exiles. Now, that the truth may be 
 more fully known to you, the Italians in England 
 receive each year upwards of 60,000 marks, and not to 
 mention divers other receipts, take more clear gain 
 of revenue from the kingdom than the king himself*' 
 who is the protector of the church and holds the 
 reins of government. Moreover after your creationf 
 * In 1252 Grosseteste declared that the pope’s nominees had 
 revenues within the realm three times as great as the royal income. 
 
 t Innocent IV. became pope in June 1243, the papacy having 
 been vacant since the death of Ccelestine IV. in October 124.1. 
 
104 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY. 1245 
 
 we firmly hoped and yet do hope, having confidence 
 in you, that by the mediation of your mercy, holy 
 father, we shall rejoice in the re-establishment in 
 your time of our said alms in their former propet 
 condition. 
 
 But we cannot keep silence on our own burden, 
 wherewith we are not only burdened but are likewise 
 oppressed beyond measure. To wit that Martin, 
 without the licence of our lord the king,* and with 
 fuller powers than we have ever seen a legate asked 
 for by the king possess, has lately entered the said 
 kingdom ; and though he does not employ the 
 insignia of the legateship, yet has multiplied the 
 duties of legate, and daily producing fresh and 
 unheard of powers, has gone from excess to excess; 
 certain benefices which were already vacant, worth 
 thirty marks a year or more, he has bestowed on 
 Italians, and when they die others are appointed in 
 their place without the knowledge of the patrons, 
 and so the latter are defrauded of their presentations. 
 Again the said Master Martin endeavours to assign 
 similar benefices, when they fall vacant, to similar 
 persons by reserving the presentation to certain 
 benefices for the apostolic see ; and, moreover, 
 extorts immoderate pensions from the religious, and 
 gainsayers and opposers he everywhere puts under 
 
 * In 1070 the Conqueror had formally laid down the rule that 
 no legate should be allowed to land in England unless he had 
 been appointed at the request of the king and church. Matthew 
 Paris says (iv. p. 379) of Martin “That he behaved like a legate 
 though he did not wear a legate’s robes, which was a sophistical 
 device to save the king’s privilege.” 
 
1245 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY. 105 
 
 sentence of excommunication and interdict to the 
 great peril and danger of their souls. Inasmuch 
 therefore as the said Master Martin, to the great 
 disturbance of the whole kingdom, exercises the 
 above named jurisdiction, which we cannot believe 
 you to have knowingly issued, because in many 
 matters he discharged wider duties than we ever 
 remember a legate to have done, to the derogation 
 of the privilege of our lord the king, under which 
 he has a special favour from the Apostolic See 
 to the effect that no one shall discharge the office of 
 legate in England except under special request from 
 our lord the king*; with all possible humiliation 
 and devotion, we therefore pray your fatherly holiness, 
 inasmuch as an affectionate father is bound to extend 
 his hand in mercy to relieve the oppression of his 
 sons, that it may please you in your fatherly kindness 
 to apply a timely remedy to the above-named oppres¬ 
 sions and burdens. For however much our lord 
 and king, who is a Catholic prince, and watchfully 
 zealous in the service of God, not considering the 
 wasting of his own body, may desire, in the per¬ 
 formance of his duty to Jesus Christ, to reverence 
 the Apostolic See, and as its well-beloved son may 
 long for an increase of advantage and honour to 
 the Roman church, while at the same time fully 
 preserving his royal rights and dignity; yet we, who 
 in his service bear the burden and heat of the day 
 * See Eadmer, Bk. vi. p. 138, where Henry I. declares that 
 : he will not part with the privileges which his father had obtained 
 from the Holy See, “in quibus haec, et de maximis una, erat, 
 quae regnum Angliae liberum ab onmi legati ditione constituerat. ” 
 
i o6 PROTEST OF ENGLISH COMMONALTY. 1245 
 
 and whose duty it is, together with him, to see 
 to the preservation of the kingdom, cannot patiently 
 endure the said oppressions, detestable alike to God 
 and man, nor put up with burdens too heavy for 
 us to bear, and by the grace of God we will no longer 
 endure them, thanks to the interposition of your 
 affectionate assistance, which we hope and trust to 
 receive speedily and opportunely. May it therefore 
 please you, holy father, to so hear this our request, 
 that you may justly receive peculiar thanks from 
 the nobles and commonalty of the kingdom of 
 England, as from your well beloved sons in Christ.'* 
 
 1245.—Answer of the pope to the above letter. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. hr., pp. 478-79. 
 
 The proctors of the commonalty of England, 
 namely, earl Roger Bigot and his above-named 
 colleagues, meanwhile awaited a favourable answer 
 from the pope, as he had promised; but at length 
 they were given to understand that they would not 
 obtain their wishes. Thereupon they departed in 
 great wrath, threatening with terrible oaths that they 
 
 * This letter was read at the council of Lyons by William 
 Powic, who first rose and made a speech in complaint of papal 
 extortion and especially of the tribute, and demanding redress; 
 the pope taking no notice he produced this letter, and read it 
 amid general silence. The pope postponed his answer in spite 
 of the urgency of the messengers; he was indeed more con¬ 
 cerned about deposing the emperor. Cf. vol. iv. pp. 440 and 
 445 and the note on p. 97 above. For the council of Lyons, cf. 
 Mdman’s Latin Christianity, vol. vi., pp. 236, sqq. Stubbs, 
 ii. p. 65. 
 
1245 INNOCENT'S ANSWER. 107 
 
 would never pay nor allow to be paid the tribute to 
 Roman avarice, which was an object of detestation 
 in every age, and that they would no longer suffer 
 the extortion of the revenues of the churches, 
 especially of those of which the nobles of the 
 kingdom are known to be patrons. The pope, 
 however, with a patient mind shut his eyes to all 
 this, and passing it over with dissimulation awaited 
 the time for sterner action when his prosperity had 
 revived. He therefore sent to all the bishops of 
 England, strictly ordering each one to affix his seal 
 to that detestable charter which king John of unhappy 
 memory, despite the opposition of Stephen archbishop 
 of Canterbury, had unfortunately concluded with 
 regard to the tribute, in order that by their so doing 
 it might be confirmed and perpetuated. And this 
 alas! the bishops with inexcusable weakness through 
 fear did to the great prejudice of king and kingdom. 
 On hearing of this the king flew into a violent rage 
 and swore that, though the bishops had disgracefully 
 yielded, he would stand firm on behalf of the liberty 
 of his kingdom, and so long as he had breath would 
 never pay tax to the Roman court under the name of 
 tribute.* 
 
 * The pope nursed his wrath, and early in 1246 a report 
 became prevalent that he had threatened, if he could subdue 
 Frederic, to crush the pride of the English for their complaints 
 of oppression and especially of the tribute. In a secret interview 
 with Louis IX., Innocent tried to stir him up to attack England, 
 but without success (iv. p. 504). On March 18th, 1246, a parlia¬ 
 ment was held in London, at which the chief subject of considera¬ 
 tion was fhe oppression of the Roman court, and Innocent’s 
 breach of the promises he had made at Lyons, iv. pp. 518-22. 
 
108 ARTICLES OF GRIEVANCES. 1216 
 
 T 
 
 1246, March. 18.—Articles setting forth the 
 grievances of England.* 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 527-29. 
 
 I. The kingdom of England is oppressed, in that 
 our lord the pope is not content with the subsidy, 
 which is called Peter’s pence, but extorts a heavy 
 contribution from the whole clergy of England, and 
 endeavours to extort yet heavier ones, and this he 
 does without the assent of our lord the king and 
 contrary to the ancient customs, liberties, and rights 
 of the realm, and contrary to the appeal and opposi¬ 
 tion made by the king and kingdom in the general 
 council. 
 
 II. The church and kingdom is oppressed, in that 
 the patrons of churches have not the power to present 
 suitable clerks to them when vacancies arise, as our 
 lord the pope granted in his letters,! t> ut the churches 
 are bestowed on Romans, who have no knowledge of 
 the peculiar language of the kingdom, to the peril of 
 the people’s souls, and who carry money out of the 
 kingdom, thereby impoverishing it beyond measure. 
 
 III. There is oppression in the provisions made 
 by our lord the pope and in the exaction of pensions, 
 contrary to the tenor of his letters,! wherein it is 
 stated that out of all the reservations made in England 
 he only intended to confer twelve benefices, after the 
 writing of the said letters ; but we believe that he 
 has given away many more benefices, and made 
 provisions, since. 
 
 * These articles were drawn up in the parliament held March 
 18, 1246. 
 
 t i.e .—The promise-, made by the pope at Lyons in August, r 245. 
 
1246 ARTICLES OF GRIEVANCES. log 
 
 IV. There is oppression, because Italian succeeds 
 Italian, * and because the English are by apostolic 
 authority dragged out of the kingdom in their causes, 
 contrary to the customs of the realm, f and the 
 
 ( written laws, since they ought not to be summoned 
 amongst their opponents ; and contrary to the privi¬ 
 leges granted by the predecessors of our lord the 
 pope to the king and kingdom of England. 
 
 V. There is oppression by the constant appearance 
 of that infamous clause, “Non obstante,” | whereby 
 the religious bond of an oath, ancient customs, the 
 . force of Scripture, the authority of grants, statutes, 
 rights, and privileges are weakened and destroyed ; 
 for numbers of people in the kingdom of England 
 are severely oppressed and afflicted, nor does the 
 pope, by recalling the plenitude of his power, bear 
 himself with such courteous moderation towards 
 England as he verbally promised the proctors of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 VI. There is oppression in the general tallages, 
 collections, and assizes, made without the king’s 
 assent and will, and contrary to the appeal and 
 opposition of the king and community of England. 
 
 VII. There is oppression in that in the benefices 
 of the Italians, the duties, the support of the poor, 
 hospitality, the preaching of Scripture, the useful 
 
 * One privilege granted at Lyons was “ ne scilicet Ytalicus 
 Ytalico immediate succedat.” iv. p. 522. 
 
 t Constitutions of Clarendon, ch. 8. 
 
 ; } M. Paris (iv. p. 522) says the use of this clause made all the 
 pope’s promises of no effect 
 
no ARTICLES OF GRIEVANCES. 1246 
 
 decoration of churches, the care of souls, and the 
 divine service in the churches are not attended to, 
 as is proper and as is the custom of the country, but 
 the walls and roofs of the buildings are falling in, 
 and are completely ruined. 
 
 After giving their attention to these articles, they 
 all and each agreed, with one accord, that, out of 
 reverence for the Apostolic See, they should, by 
 letters as well as by special messengers, with all 
 humility and devotion, beg the pope to relieve them 
 of such intolerable grievances and so unbearable 
 a yoke.* 
 
 1246, July 7.—Return of the messengers. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., pp. 560, 561. 
 
 On the day of the translation of S. Thomas the 
 martyr a great council was held between the king and 
 magnates of the kingdom at Winchester, to consider 
 the manifold desolation of the whole kingdom and 
 especially of the church. For the messengers who 
 had been sent to the Roman court, namely Master 
 
 * Letters on these grievances were sent to the pope from the 
 suffragans of the province of Canterbury, the abbats and priors 
 of England, the nobles, clergy, and people, and the king; and 
 also a letter on the same subject from the lung to the cardinals. 
 M. Paris, iv., 529-536. In April William de Powic and Henry 
 de la Mare, a knight, were sent with the articles and letters to 
 the Roman court, iv., p. 551. Meantime the pope’s demands 
 continued, he claimed the property of clerks dying intestate and 
 demanded a subsidy; the king wrote to the prelates forbidding 
 them to pay a tallage to the pope. So the church was between 
 two millstones, the king striving for the salvation of his kingdom, 
 the pope for its impoverishment (pp. 552-559). 
 
1246 HENRY YIELDS TO INNOCENT. II r 
 
 William of Powic and Henry de la Mare, had arrived 
 with a message from the pope which contained no 
 words of softening but rather of harshness. They 
 declared that they could not see either in the pope’s 
 behaviour or words any signs of humiliation or 
 moderation in the matter of the oppressions under 
 c which the kingdom and church of England were 
 burdened and complained. For when they looked 
 for some agreeable answer the pope had said to them, 
 
 | “ The king of the English, who is now kicking against 
 me and following Frederick’s example, has his own 
 plan; but I have mine, which I shall follow.” And 
 f thenceforth it was with difficulty that any Englishman 
 could arrange any business at that court; nay rather 
 they were all repelled as schismatics and provoked 
 with insults. And when the king and his magnates 
 heard this he was very angry, and rightly; and he 
 directed public proclamation to be made in every 
 county, through all the towns and markets and 
 assemblages, that no one should agree to a contribu¬ 
 tion or send any aid of money to the pope. And 
 when the pope heard of this he burst into a violent 
 rage, and again wrote in more violent terms to the 
 English prelates ordering them, under pain of excom¬ 
 munication and suspension, to give satisfaction to his 
 nuncio,* who was then staying at the new Temple in 
 London, in the matter of the said aid before the feast 
 , of the assumption. And when the king was stedfastly 
 prepared to stand up for the freedom of the kingdom 
 and church his resolution was broken and he became 
 
 * Martin. 
 
J i 2 PROTEST OF CARDINAL JOHN. 124b 
 
 alarmed by the threats of his brother earl Richard, 
 who for secret reasons was particularly attached to 
 the pope and favoured the papal business, and of 
 certain bishops, the chief of whom was the bishop of 
 Worcester, to whom, it was reported, the pope had 
 granted the power of laying an interdict on the land. 
 So all the endeavours of the nobles and bishops were 
 of no avail, and the hope of freeing the kingdom and 
 church of England died away to the bitter and heart¬ 
 felt grief of many; and satisfaction was made with 
 impunity to the yawning avarice of Rome in the 
 matter of the said contribution.* 
 
 1246.—Protest of cardinal John to the pope. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv., p. 578-79. 
 
 Meantime the pope heard that the king of England 
 was prepared boldly to oppose his exactions—for 
 the messengers had not yet arrived with the news 
 of his weak fear and yielding—and he was exceedingly 
 angry and proposed in revenge to put the kingdom 
 of England under an interdict. But whilst he was 
 in this foolish spirit, Master John, f an Englishman 
 of the Cistercian order and a cardinal, opposed him, 
 saying: “ My lord, for God’s sake spare vour anger, 
 which is, if I may say so, indiscreet; put the curb of 
 moderation on the impulse of your will, considering 
 
 * Henry now gave way entirely, and allowed the English 
 church to be spoiled of 6,000 marks for the pope’s service against 
 Frederic, who complained of the weakness of the English and 
 especially of earl Richard.—Matthew Paris, iv., p. 577. 
 t John Tolet, cardinal tit. S. Lorenzo in Lucina, afterwards 
 bishop of Porto. 
 
1246 
 
 PROTEST OF CARDINAL JOHN. 
 
 ,x 3 
 
 how evil are the days. The Holy Land lies open to 
 danger, * the Greek church has seceded from us, 
 l Frederic, who has no superior, nay nor equal, 
 among the princes of Christendom, is in opposition 
 to us. You and we, who are the head of the church, 
 have been expelled from the Papal See, yea from 
 the city and from Italy, and are living in exile, f 
 Hungary and its border lands expects nothing short 
 of ruin from the Tartars. J Germany is divided by 
 internal wars. § Spain has shown madness, even to 
 the cutting out of the tongues of bishops. || France, 
 which also has conspired against us, is now reduced 
 to poverty through us. England, that we have so many 
 times injured, like ^Balaam s ass, wounded with spurs 
 and blows, at length speaks and rebukes us; and 
 complains that she is harassed beyond bearing and 
 irretrievably injured. So like the Ishmaelites, hateful 
 to all men, we provoke all men to hate us.” 
 
 The pope’s mind was not however moved to pity 
 : or humiliation by these words, and he still burnt for 
 punishment and vengeance, but now' there came 
 messengers from England who softened his grasping 
 spirit, and affirmed that, through his most particular 
 
 * — i.e., from the Charismians, who had invaded it in 1243. 
 t Innocent had fled from Rome to Genoa in July, 1244, and in 
 December of that year arrived at Lyons. 
 
 t Hungary was devastated by the Tartars, 1241-1245. 
 
 $ — i.e., between Conrad, the son of Frederic, and Henry of 
 Thuringia, the rival emperor set up by Innocent. 
 
 || This was done by James of Arragon to a bishop who rebuked 
 him.—iv., p. 578. 
 
114 HENR Y’S NEIV ST A TUTES. 1247 
 
 friends in England, whose names I who write this 
 work am not allowed to mention, the king’s resolution 
 had been bent, so that speedy effect would be given 
 to his wishes, and joy at this wonderfully calmed his 
 mind and countenance. 
 
 1247.— New statutes made by the king of England. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 614. 
 
 In this year the king of the English, taking an 
 example from those barons who had enacted statutes 
 in France,* to which the king of the French had 
 given his assent and fixed his seal, for the purpose of 
 in some measure restraining the insatiate greed of 
 the Roman court, made the following statutes to be 
 inviolably observed in England : 
 
 All suits in cases of breach of faith and perjury are 
 forbidden by the king when laymen are summoned 
 in such cases before an ecclesiastical judge. Eccle¬ 
 siastical judges are forbidden to try any cases against 
 laymen, except cases of marriage or of wills. Item, 
 the king prescribes anew to the bishops a fixed form 
 in cases of bastardy, that is to say whether they be 
 bom before marriage or after. Clerks are forbidden 
 by a royal writ to institute their actions concerning 
 tithes befoie an ecclesiastical judge; that writ is 
 intituled Indicavit. Of oaths which are exacted from 
 clerks, to be taken before the royal justices, because 
 
 * In hatred of papal avarice certain French nobles had entered 
 into an agreement for mutual aid against the clergy, and made 
 an ordinance against ecclesiastical encroachments on secular 
 jurisdiction, iv. 590-94. Louis IX. also forbade the French 
 prelates to send money to the pope. iv. 601. 
 
1247 
 
 CLIPPING THE COINAGE. 
 
 II# 
 
 they are stated to have proceeded in their suits con¬ 
 trary to the king’s prohibition, inasmuch as clerks 
 are not bound to make oath unless before a spiritual 
 judge, especially in spiritual cases. Item, of clerks 
 arrested by the king’s officers, on ground of an accu¬ 
 sation made against them by laymen. 
 
 1247 .—Clipping of the coinage. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. iv., p. 632. 
 
 At this time the sterling money, owing to the good 
 metal of which it was composed, was, by a detestable 
 fashion of cutting it round the edge, deteriorated and 
 injured by those falsifiers of money, whom we call 
 :clippers; so much so that barely the inner circle 
 remained and the lettered border was wholly cut 
 off. The authors of this fraud, who were the 
 merchants of the countries bordering on England, 
 especially the Flemings, were more clearly convicted 
 on the Continent than on this side of the Channel; 
 and so the king of the French'* punished such persons 
 more severely than the king of the English did. 
 And so, as the money was adulterated and depreciated 
 beyond all measure and bearing, the king began 
 to carefully consider as to some remedy ; namely, 
 whether the coin could not be advantageously altered 
 in form or material. But many discreet persons 
 considered it would be better to change the metal 
 
 * Cf. iv., p. 608. Louis, finding that its good material made 
 i English coin very useful in trade, and that it was much injured 
 by clipping, ordered any deficient coin to be melted down. 
 jlCoin-clippers were ordered to be hung on gibbets. Cf. v., 15. 
 
HENRY’S HALF-BROTHERS. 
 
 u6 
 
 '247 , 
 
 than the shape, as it was not owing to the latter ; 
 but for the sake of the former that the money suffered ■ 
 such debasement and waste.* And of this the French 
 money and that of many other princes is evidence 
 and example. 
 
 1247 .—How the king enriched the Lusignans. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. iv., p. 650. 
 
 When Guy de Lusignan, the king’s brother, left 
 England, the king filled his saddle bags with such 
 a weight of new money, that Guy had to increase 
 the number of his horses. On another brother, 
 William of Valence, he bestowed the castle of Hert¬ 
 ford and its Honour, together with a large treasure; 
 so that the king himself appeared to be in want, 
 and had to plunder or beg for even his food; where¬ 
 fore those who loved the king truly and without 
 pretence were in great fear lest his almsgiving should 
 be of no effect through the curses that the poor 
 heaped on his head; and that his prayers in the 
 church would be attributed to him, which God forbid, 
 as a sin. And his third brother, Hithelmar, f he 
 provided for with so many abundant and fruitful 
 revenues, which, by imperious entreaties, he had 
 extorted from each bishop and abbat, that the king 
 
 * Cf. v., p. 15. In 1248 a proclamation was made forbidding 
 the circulation of money that was not of lawful weight and 
 unclipped. And v. 18, where it is stated that the change caused 
 great distress, thirty of the old shillings scarcely exchanging for 
 twenty of the new. Earl Richard obtained the profits of the 
 coinage in payment of the king’s debts to him. 
 
 t Or Ailmar. Afterwards bishop of Winchester. 
 
1248 EARL SIMON TAKES THE CROSS. 117 
 
 seemed to exceed the Romans in audacity, and 
 jEthelmar to surpass the bishops in wealth. 
 
 1248.—Simon de Montfort takes the cross. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 1. 
 
 At this time Simon earl of Leicester took the 
 cross, that he might win absolution from his sins 
 and gain admission to heaven. For, on reflection, 
 he was in great alarm about the marriage he had 
 contracted with his wife, who had previously taken 
 a vow of chastity before S. Edmund archbishop of 
 Canterbury. The countess, too, influenced, it is 
 believed, bv the same spirit, when she saw her 
 husband wearing the cross, flew with all speed to 
 * assume it also. The knights and many others of 
 their household took the cross to obtain the reward 
 of eternal salvation. 
 
 1248, Feb. 9.—The parliament of 1248. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 5.7. 
 
 At the beginning of this year, on the octave of the 
 Purification, the nobility of all England was summoned 
 to London, to diligently and effectually treat of 
 | the business of the kingdom, which was greatly 
 disturbed and impoverished, and injured in our days 
 beyond measure. Besides the barons, knights, and 
 nobles, as well as a large number of abbats, priors, 
 and clergy, there were present nine bishops and 
 as many earls; they were the archbishop of York, 
 and the bishops of Winchester, Lincoln, Norwich, 
 Worcester, Chichester, Ely, Rochester, and Carlisle ; 
 
PARLIAMENT OF LONDON. 
 
 1248 
 
 118 
 
 earl Richard, and the earls of Gloucester, Leicester, 
 Winchester, and Hereford, earl Roger Bigot the 
 Marshal,* and the earl of Oxford; also the earls, 
 of Lincoln, de Ferrers, Warenne, and Richmond 
 (Peter of Savoy). There were absent from this great 
 assembly Boniface archbishop of Canterbury, who 
 was fighting for the pope abroad, and the bishop 
 of Durham, who was ill at a distance; the bishop 
 of Bath was lately dead. 
 
 On the king proposing (though his intention was 
 no secret to the assembly) to ask for an aid of 
 money, he was severely reproached for not being 
 ashamed to ask for such assistance at that time; 
 especially as on the last similar exaction, to which 
 the nobles of England had with difficulty consented, 
 he gave his charter that he would no more cause 
 such wrong and burden to his nobles. He was 
 further, and no wonder, most severely rebuked for 
 unwisely summoning foreigners, and for unwisely 
 and lavishly bestowing and scattering the property 
 of the kingdom among them, and for marrying the 
 nobles of the kingdom to foreigners of low birth, 
 thereby despising and putting aside his natural-born 
 subjects, and that without asking the assent of both 
 parties, which is necessary to the completion of mar¬ 
 riage. He was also blamed, and not unreasonably, 
 because he seized by force whatever he used in the 
 
 * Earl Roger had become earl marshal in 1246 by reason of 
 Maud, his mother, the eldest daughter of AVilliam the great earl 
 marshal; Walter and Anselm, the last of her brothers, had died 
 jnDec., 1245. Cf. iv., pp. 491 and 548. 
 
1248 PARLIAMENT OF LONDON. 119 
 
 . way of meat and drink—especially wine,—and even 
 1 clothes, and against the will of those who were going 
 : to sell these things and were the true owners; for 
 t which cause the native dealers withdraw into hiding, 
 as also the foreign ones, who w'ould bring goods to 
 1 sell in this country, and so trade, whereby different 
 nations are mutually enriched and strengthened, is at 
 a standstill; and we are defamed and impoverished 
 because they get nothing but law-suits and idle 
 1: speeches from the king; and hereby the king brings 
 on himself terrible curses from many people to the 
 danger and disgrace of himself and his whole king¬ 
 dom. Moreover that he may have the means for 
 imprudent almsgiving and extravagant illuminations, 
 he forcibly seizes from these merchants wax, silk 
 . stuffs, and other goods without making any agree¬ 
 ment in return; and this brings scandal on himself, 
 his kingdom, and all w'ho dwell therein ; and causes 
 grave offence to God, who hates robbery for burnt- 
 offering. # In all these matters he is so tyrannical 
 and oppressive that even on the sea-coast he does 
 not allow the herrings and other fish to be disposed 
 of at the will of the poor fishermen, who do not ven¬ 
 ture to appear in the adjoining places or in the cities 
 for fear of being robbed, but think it safer to trust 
 themselves to the stormy waves and seek the further 
 shore. The unfortunate traders also are constrained 
 and cruelly impressed by the royal agents, when their 
 teams and horses are weary, themselves to carry the 
 loads of the former to distant places, despite the 
 * Isaiah lxi. 8. 
 
7 20 PARLIAMENT OF LONDON. 1248 
 
 inclemency of the weather and difficulty of the roads; 
 and thereby punishment is added to loss and wrong 
 piled on wrong. The king was also censured because, 
 contrary to the first and principal oath which he took 
 at his coronation, he impoverishes even to their ruin 
 not only vacant wardships, but also bishoprics and 
 abbacies founded by our generous and sainted fore¬ 
 fathers, and detains them for a long time in his own 
 hand; of which he ought to be the protector and 
 defender, and therefore they are' said to be in his 
 hands, that is under his protection. The king is 
 also accused on the no slight complaints of each and 
 all of us, because, unlike the noble kings his prede¬ 
 cessors, he has no justiciar, chancellor, or treasurer 
 appointed through the common council of the king¬ 
 dom, as is proper and expedient, but such as follow 
 their own wish in everything provided it is profitable 
 to them, and who do not seek the advancement of 
 the state but their own, by collecting money and 
 procuring wardships and honours for themselves. * 
 
 * Cf. Stubbs, vol. ii., pp. 66, 67. “ Henry replied with general 
 promises, and the barons replied with general professions made 
 contingent on his fulfilment of his promises. After a delay of 
 five months he returned an arrogant refusal:—the servant was 
 not above his master, he would not comply with the presump¬ 
 tuous demand; yet money must be provided. The answer of 
 the barons was equally decided.” Henry in his disappointment 
 turned against his foolish advisers, and found money by extracting 
 a loan from the Londoners. Cf. M. Paris, v., pp. 8, 20-22, 47-49. 
 
 1248, Oct. 13.—Westminster fair. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 29. 
 
 The king declared and ordered proclamation to 
 
1248 WESTMINSTER NEW FAIR. in 
 
 be made throughout the city of London and else¬ 
 where that he established a new fair, to be held 
 at Westminster for a full fortnight. He also strictly 
 prohibited, under pain of heavy forfeiture and loss, 
 
 ! all fairs, which usually lasted for such a length of 
 time in England, and also all traffic, which is usually 
 carried on in London, both in and out of doors, that 
 the Westminster fair might have a better attendance 
 of people and be better supplied with merchandise. 
 Whence it came to pass that numerous people flocked 
 thither as to the most frequented fair, and the 
 r translation of S. Edward was celebrated, and the 
 Blood of Christ* worshipped to an unexpected degree 
 r by the people gathered and assembled there. How- 
 |i ever, the merchants exposing their goods for sale 
 there were exposed to great inconvenience, as they 
 had no shelter except canvas tents, and, owing to 
 i 1 the changeable winds which are usual at this season, 
 [' suffered from cold and wet, and hunger and thirst, 
 and their feet were soiled with the mud and their 
 goods rotted by the rain. And when they sat down 
 to their meals there, those who were accustomed 
 to take their meals by the fireside in the midst of 
 their own household, knew not how to endure this 
 ; state of want. The bishop of Ely made a heavy 
 complaint to the king on the loss of his market at 
 Ely, which had been suspended by the decree of 
 the king, who devised such novelties to the injury of 
 
 * Henry had obtained the Sacred Blood from the Holy Land, 
 I and brought it to Westminster on the feast of the translation of 
 | S. Edward the Confessor in the previous year. Cf. iv., p. 641. 
 
122 
 
 PAPAL AND ROYAL OPPRESSION. 
 
 1248 
 
 his subjects; however, he got nothing but empty 
 words in soothing pronrs s of consolation to come.* 
 
 1248.—Papal and royal oppression. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 38-40. 
 This year did manifold devices many times increase 
 the burdens which flowed from the court of Rome to 1 
 the unhappy realm of England-! In addition to the j 
 unwonted straits and slavery due to the suspension 
 of the prelates from presentation to benefices until 
 satisfaction had been given to the avarice of Rome, | 
 and against which the petty and weak-spirited king I 
 did not protest, hateful swarms of fresh oppressions 
 shot up every day. And though we cannot give all 
 the oppressions—for it were difficult, nay impossible 
 to do so—yet we have thought proper to insert some J 
 of them in this work that those who read of them 
 may grieve, and grieving may complain to God, and I 
 so may in His favour be some day deterred, and that I 
 all may perceive the piteous plight of England, which ! 
 * This fair was held again in 1252 (M. Paris, v., 33), to the 
 injury of Ely fair and the vexation of the Londoners, 
 t The pope’s success had emboldened him to demand a third 
 or a half from all holders of benefices in England ; by a royal 
 prohibition the clergy were encouraged to refuse this. In a 1 
 parliament held in Feb. 1247 it was decided to send letters of 
 complaint to the pope. Later in the year Innocent sent two 1 
 Franciscans to England to extort money; despite his love for 
 their order Grosseteste declared this exaction could not be lis¬ 
 tened to. Afterwards one Master Martin was sent to England, ( 
 and other clerks to Scotland and Ireland. A heavy contribution 
 was exacted in April of that year. Cf. Matthew Paris, iv., pp. . 
 580-85, 594-97, 600-603 and 623. 
 
1248 PAPAL AND ROYAL OPPRESSION. 
 
 123 
 
 unhappily lacks good rulers and defenders. The 
 abbat of Abingdon had received a mandate from the 
 pope to make provision for a certain Roman without 
 delay ; but this Roman, not caring to receive any but 
 a wealthy church, waited in silence concealing his 
 intentions until a vacancy occurred in a noble and 
 wealthy church, namely that of S. Helen at Abing¬ 
 don, which is reckoned to be worth a hundred marks, 
 and is supplied with every convenience, as being in 
 a borough subject to the monastery named. The 
 Roman after his long silence at once demanded this 
 church, and urgently pressed for appointment under 
 apostolic authority. But on the very day on which 
 the church became vacant the abbat received a most 
 pressing order from the king, full of threats and 
 prayers and promises, and bidding him bestow the 
 church on his uterine brother Htthelmar, though this 
 same/Ethelmar had already such a number of churches 
 and revenues that we should not be surprised if he 
 did not know their number or value. The abbat, in 
 perplexity and crushed as it were between two revolv- 
 : ing millstones, took counsel with the convent and 
 with some wise and faithful friends, who answered: 
 “ It is clearly a case of hardship both ways ; but if 
 our lord the king is willing to protect you from the 
 pope’s violence we think it better to bestow the 
 church on the brother of the king, who is our prince 
 and your patron, than on the Roman who when your 
 neighbour will always be on the watch to plot against 
 you, and unwearied in persecution, being as it were a 
 , thorn in your eye.” In due course this was signified 
 
HEAP Y BEGS MONE Y. 
 
 1249 
 
 I24 
 
 to the king, who promised his sure protection with 
 every manner of indemnity. So the abbat trusting 
 in these deceitful words bestowed the church on 
 Hithelmar at the king’s request. The Roman in 
 great wrath went at once to the pope, and gave him 
 with bitter complaints a full account of the affair, 
 together with additions to excite his anger. The 
 pope at once cited the abbat to appear before him in 
 person and answer on the charge of disobedience. 
 Then the abbat, obtaining no aid or consolation 
 from the king though he often asked for it, old and 
 feeble as he was, went in great sorrow, fear, and 
 bitterness of heart to the Roman court, where after 
 much trouble and great expense he had to give satis¬ 
 faction to the said Roman, according to the pope’s 
 decision, by paying fifty marks a year from his 
 chamber to the great injury of his church.* 
 
 1249, Jan. 13.—The king begs money. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 51-52. 
 
 Whilst the king, with open mouth, was thus 
 greedily gaping after money, f he happened, about 
 the feast of S. Hilary, to go to Huntingdon ; there 
 he sent for the abbat of Ramsay and, addressing him 
 privately, said, “ My friend, I earnestly beg you to 
 * This is followed by an account of how both king and pope 
 made a vacancy in the abbacy of S. Edmund’s afford an opportu¬ 
 nity for exaction. 
 
 f He had extorted two thousand pounds from the Londoners, 1 
 and had endeavoured to obtain money from individual nobles on 
 pretence of a war with France. Cf. v., pp. 49-51. 
 
1249 THE VACANT SEE OF DURHAM. 125 
 
 afford me your assistance, by giving or, at any rate, 
 lending me a hundred pounds; for I am in want and 
 must have them without delay.” The abbat, as 
 he could not honourably do otherwise, replied, “ I 
 have sometimes given, but I have never lent to you, 
 nor will I now.” And he at once borrowed that 
 sum at heavy interest from the Caursines, in order 
 that he might supply his beggar-king. At the same 
 time the king worried the abbat of Peterborough 
 with similar entreaties for money, declaring it would 
 be greater charity to bestow such assistance on him 
 than on any beggar at his doors. But as the abbat 
 excused himself for not yielding to his entreaties, 
 he was loaded with reproaches, whereon he secretly 
 left the king’s house. At the same time, by a similar 
 speech, he extorted 60 marks from the abbat of S. 
 Alban’s, although by cunning arguments he had 
 cheated him out of no small sum, both in this year 
 and the last. So the king, seeing that no one could 
 or would deny him, conceived sure hopes that none 
 of the abbats or priors would offer him any resistance.* 
 
 3249.—Henry seeks the bishopric of Durham for 
 his brother 2Ethelmar. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 55. 
 
 That vigilant and indefatigable searcher after 
 money, the king, in an unseemly manner, laid aside 
 
 * On the strength of this he had written (Dec. 18, 1248J to 
 tiie abbats and priors of Essex and Hertford, demanding a con¬ 
 tribution. The money was required to pay his debts in Poictou 
 and Gascony. Cf. v., pp. 52-3. 
 
126 THE GASCOXS ACCUSE EARL SIM OX. 12^8 
 
 all fear of God, and sent prayer after prayer to the 
 convent of Durham, which had the right of election.*' 
 With a view to win them over he sent prudent and 
 circumspect messengers to counsel, entreat, and 
 command them with threats, to elect his brother 
 .Ethelmar, by the unanimous favour of the convent, 
 bishop of Durham and pastor of their souls ; and 
 in order to succeed in his purpose, as the poet says :— 
 “Imperium, promissa, preces, confudit in unum.” t 
 The convent humbly replied, “ Most Christian king 
 and lord, may it please you to remember the first 
 and principal oath which you sware at your corona¬ 
 tion ; and do you allow holy church at any rate occa¬ 
 sionally to enjoy her freedom, that, with God’s favour, 
 we may choose a fit father and shepherd of our souls. 
 You know, and the world knows, that your said 
 brother is incompetent, by his age and learning, 
 to undertake the burden of so important a spiritual 
 office.” The king is reported to have replied, “ I 
 have the power, and am quite willing, to keep 
 the bishopric in my own hands for 9 or 10 years or 
 more, when he, being of mature age, may be accept¬ 
 able to you.” I 
 
 1249, April 3.—The Gascon Accusations. 
 
 Letter probably from Simon to Henry III. Royal Letters , p. 52. 
 
 [Simon de Montfort was appointed to the government of Gas¬ 
 cony in 1241. “There,” says the bishop of Chester, “he had 
 * Nicholas of Farnham had resigned the bishopric in Jan., 1249. 
 t Ovid. Met. iv., 471. 
 
 7 However, in Nov., 1249, Walter of Kirkham was consecrated 
 bishop of Durham. Cf. v., p. 83. 
 
1249 
 
 EARL SIMON'S LETTER. 
 
 127 
 
 to contend with a body ot nobles whom Henry II. and Richard 
 I. had failed to reduce, and whose only object in acknowledging 
 Henry III. was to evade submitting to the stronger hand oi 
 Louis IX. In this contest Henry supplied him with neithet 
 men nor money; Simon had to raise funds either from his own 
 1 estates or by taxing the Gascons; the king acted as if he had 
 j sent him abroad simply to ruin his fortunes and wreck his repu- 
 ; tation, for, far from strengthening his hands, he lent a willing 
 L ear to all complaints against him.”] 
 
 Sir, since your envoys, the bishop, sir Antony, 
 and the lord Robert, left Paris, I have heard for 
 certain that some knights of Gascony, whom your 
 envoys saw there, because they do not recover their 
 ■ lands by the lord Gaston, which lands I hold in 
 your hands under judgments, and because they know 
 well that they will lose if they demand right in the 
 [ court of Gascony, have provided themselves with 
 l everything to demand their lands by war. And 
 they are certainly leagued together, they and their 
 friends; and I fully understand that they will begin 
 soon after Whitsuntide to overrun the land; but 
 i what they will have I cannot as yet be at all sure. 
 And because the great men of the land bear me 
 such ill will, because I uphold your rights, and those 
 of the poor, against them, there would be danger 
 and shame to me, and great damage to you, if I 
 were to return to the land without instructions from 
 you and without speaking to you. For if I were 
 I there, and they made war on me, it would be needful 
 for me to return to you, because I have not and 
 cannot have a penny of your revenues, because the 
 king of France holds all, and I cannot trust much to 
 
128 ROBBERIES IN ENGLAND. 1249 
 
 the people of the land. And, on the other side, 
 one cannot stay such men by an arntv in the kind 
 of war which they will make, for they will do nothing 
 but rob the land, and burn and plunder, and put 
 the people to ransom, and ride by night, like thieves, 
 by thirty or forty, in different parts ; wherefore it 
 is needful in every way, if you please, that I should 
 speak to you before I go into the country. For I 
 have heard that they have given you to understand 
 many sinister things of me ; they will tell you soon 
 that I was the cause of their war. Therefore, sir, 
 if you please, do not take it amiss if, when I have 
 finished your business in this parliament of Paris, 
 which is going well, thank God, I return towards 
 you to know your advice, ready to do that which 
 you command me. And your castles and your lands 
 and your men are well supplied, for that matter, 
 to hold out until I come. And I have sent the 
 lord Bidau de Coupenne there, to aid and advise 
 them; and I have told them that I shall be there, 
 if God will, by Whitsuntide. 
 
 Given at Paris, this Easter Eve. 
 
 1249.—Robberies in England.* 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 56-60. 
 
 Tn Lent, while the king was at Winchester, 
 two Brabant merchants came and complained that 
 when travelling in his territories for purposes of 
 trade they had been robbed of two hundred marks. 
 The suspected persons were arrested, but when it 
 * This passage is abridged. 
 
1249 
 
 ROBBERIES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 129 
 
 was decided that their acquittal should depend on 
 the report of their district, the oath of their district 
 released them. And what wonder, for the district 
 was like unto them, wholely infested with robbery. 
 
 The king, moved by the complaints of the mer¬ 
 chants, applied to his counsellors, who answered, 
 
 “ Sire, we have heard, and we know, that all the 
 provinces of England lie under a similar suspicion” ; 
 and added that the merchants threatened reprisals on 
 the English merchants in Brabant. So the king 
 summoned the bailiff's and freemen of the county 
 of Southampton, and says to them, “ What is this 
 I hear of you ? There is no such disgraceful county 
 or district in all the width of England. Here, in 
 the very city where I am, or in its suburbs or 
 neighbourhood, robberies and murders are com¬ 
 mitted. Nay more, my own wines are carried off 
 
 i by these evil doers, who get merry and drunk over 
 them. To root out these and like crimes, I have 
 appointed wise men to rule and guard my realm. 
 I am but one man, and have neither the wish nor the 
 power to bear tire burden of the whole realm without 
 assistance. I was born in this city, and never was so 
 
 [ much disgrace brought on me anywhere as here. 
 It is probable and credible—nay, is already well 
 established—that you citizens and residents in the 
 district are infamous accomplices. I shall summon 
 all the counties of England, that they may try you 
 and detect your crimes, nor will the arguments of 
 cunning protect you any longer.” This took place 
 in the hall of the castle of Winchester, in the presenee 
 
13° 
 
 ROBBERIES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 1249 
 
 of William the bishop. Suddenly the king cried 
 out: “ Shut the castle doors at once.” Then the 
 bishop rose and said, “Stay, sire, and hear me 
 patiently. There are in this castle some strangers of 
 spotless reputation, whom it is not proper for you 
 to shut in. You only accuse the citizens of Win¬ 
 chester and their abettors.” And then turning to 
 the crowd he continued, “ I, your spiritual father, 
 having power over you in spiritual matters and in 
 great measure in temporal ones, excommunicate all 
 conspirators in this infamous crime, together with 
 all who, for any cause, conceal the truth concerning 
 it.” Twelve men were then chosen from the citizens 
 of Winchester and county of Southampton, to give 
 under oath the names of any thieves they knew. 
 They discussed this matter for some time by them¬ 
 selves, under good custody, but when they were 
 called in, absolutely refused to make any mention of 
 the thieves. The king was greatly displeased, 
 knowing that they had some knowledge of the 
 robbers' plans, and said in wrath, “ Seize these crafty 
 traitors, and throw them chained into the lowest 
 dungeon, for they conceal what they ought to make 
 known. Choose me twelve others of the city of 
 Winchester and county of Southampton who will 
 discover the truth on my inquiries.” These other 
 twelve, seeing that the first were imprisoned, under 
 sentence to be hung, for suppressing the truth, 
 were in great alarm, and, after a long and secret 
 consultation together, came forward and disclosed 
 thefts and crimes committed by many persons of 
 
1 1250 GROSSETESTE A T ROME. 131 
 
 .he neighbourhood. On this, some of the citizens 
 md many of the countrymen, who were reputed 
 aw-abiding and good men, wealthy men whom 
 ;he king had appointed wardens and bailiffs of the 
 .vatch for the arrest of thieves, and also some 
 superintendents of the royal household were arrested, 
 :onvicted, and hung in gibbets. Some, however, took 
 : refuge in churches, and others in flight. When those 
 ivho were taken were more closely questioned, they 
 ronfessed that they had committed unheard-of crimes, 
 both robberies and murders, with the advice and 
 :onnivance of others. Of those accused and clearly 
 :onvictcd about thirty were taken and hung. Those 
 of the king’s household said to the officers, “Tell 
 the king that he is to blame for our death, because 
 he so long withheld the pay that was due to us.” 
 Whereat the king was touched with shame and grief, 
 
 1250.—Grosseteste at Rome. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 97. 
 
 The bishop of Lincoln, old though he was, was 
 very active in bending to his will those whom he had 
 summoned to hear the pope’s mandate,* and who had 
 appealed to the apostolic see against his unheard-of 
 oppressions. For the exempt abbats, the Templars 
 and Hospitallers, had appealed, and many others who 
 afterwards by means of money wisely purchased peace 
 for themselves from the pope, according to the 
 
 * Grosseteste, “ religiosorum fatigator irulefessus,” as M. Paris 
 calls him, had summoned the monks of Lincoln to Leicester in 
 Jan. 1250, to hear the papal privilege he had obtained, placing 
 their churches and incomes under his author'ty. v., p. 06. 
 
132 
 
 GROSSETESTE AT ROME. 
 
 1250 
 
 words of the moralist: * 
 
 Judicis auxilium sub iniqua lege rogato. 
 
 When, after his great expenditure and useless trouble, 
 this became known to the bishop, he went in sorrow 
 and trouble to the pope, and said, “ Holy father, 1 
 blush at being defeated in my intention, for I had 
 firm trust in your letters and promises, and now I 
 am deceived in my expectations, for those whom 1 
 believed I had subdued have gone away free, to my 
 confusion.” The pope is said to have replied with a 
 frown, “ Brother, what is that to thee, thou hast 1 
 freed thy soul; we have given them grace. Why is 
 thine eye evil, because I am good?” The bishop said 
 with a sigh to himself, though the pope heard him, ; 
 “ O money, money, what power thou hast, especially 
 in the court of Rome.” The pope in wrath replied, 
 
 “ O Englishmen, most wretched of mankind, each of 
 whom gnaws at his neighbour, and seeks to impoverish 
 him. How many monks, thine own sheep, fellow- 
 countrymen, and servants, intent on prayer and hos¬ 
 pitality, dost thou labour to make subject to thee, 
 that thou mayst sate thy tyrannous greed with their 
 goods, and make others, perchance strangers, 
 wealthy.” So the bishop withdrew in confusion, all 
 crying out at him for an oppressor, and that he j 
 might not appear to have effected nothing he pro¬ 
 ceeded with some other business, f 
 * Ethici, —philosopher. “ This is Dionysius Cato, always i 
 referred to as Ethicus (Luard). 
 
 t For Grosseteste and his relation with his chapter, his monies, | 
 and with Innocent, see Milman’s Latin Christianity, voL vi., ■ 
 pp. 288-293. The end of the dispute in Grosseteste’s favour is 
 narrated by M. Paris, vol. iv., 497. 
 
1250 KING HENRY TAKES THE CROSS. 
 
 *33 
 
 1250.—Many nobles take the cross. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. v., p. 98. 
 
 This year Roger de Montalt, one of the nobler 
 barons of England, took the cross, and let the share 
 which he held in woods and other revenues at 
 Coventry to the prior and convent of that place, a 
 fee-farm for a large sum of money, in order to pro¬ 
 vide himself with means for his journey; much of his 
 ( property he entirely alienated, as also did many other 
 I nobles both on the Continent and on this side the 
 Channel. In addition to Roger, a great number of 
 nobles in the kingdom of England took the cross 
 1 about the same time, to follow and assist the king of 
 the French in advancing the service of the cross ; 
 r among them were the bishops of Worcester and 
 i Hereford, the earls of Leicester and Hereford,* 
 | Geoffrey de Lucy, f Robert de Quency, j and many 
 
 I others too numerous to mention; great numbers who 
 were unwilling to openly receive the sign of the 
 I cross, or to wear it on their shoulders, through fear 
 of the snares of the Roman court, took a secret vow, 
 with the firm intention of going to the Holy Land in 
 all devotion and power. 
 
 1250, March 6.—The king takes the cross. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. ror. 
 On the same day our lord the king received the 
 I; cross from the hands of Boniface, archbishop of 
 * Humphrey de Bohun. 
 t Lord of Newington. 
 
 £ Eldest son of Saber de Quency, earl of Win ton. 
 
134 KING HENRY'S ECONOMY. 1250 
 
 Canterbury, who afterwards bestowed that holy 
 symbol on some of the nobles, among whom were 
 Ralph Fitz-Nicolas, the king’s seneschal, William of 
 Valence, the king’s brother, and Paulin Peivre,* one 
 of his special councillors, together with many other 
 nobles and courtiers. Edmund, abbat of S. Edmond’s, 
 to the scorn of all men, in evil example to monks 
 and to the prejudice of the holy order, broke all his 
 vows and took the cross; as also John Mansel and 
 Philip Lovel, the king’s clerks and counsellors, 
 together with many others too numerous to mention. 
 Some evil interpreters ventured to assert that the 
 king’s only reason for taking the cross was that it 
 would give him an opportunity to extort money from 
 his nobles, who had previously refused his request, 
 on the ground of winning the Holy Land and 
 advancing the business of the cross ; but discreet and 
 more reasonable persons reserved their opinion on 
 this matter to be proved by subsequent events. 
 
 1250.—The king’s economy. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 114. 
 
 The king, disgracefully leaving the footsteps of 
 his father, ordered the expenses of his court and 
 the pleasures of ordinary' hospitality to be lessened! 
 to such a degree as to bring on him the charge 
 of inexcusable avarice. He also ordered the bounty 
 
 • Peiure, Mod. Fr. Poivre. Called in Latin Paulinas Piper, and 
 described as miles literatus sive clericus militaris, vol. v., p. 242. 
 He was the king’s dapifer or butler. 
 
 t Cf. p. 148 below. 
 
1250 
 
 ARCHBISHOP BONIFACE. 
 
 135 
 
 of his usual alms, and the number of tapers in his 
 ) church to be cut down. * However, he wisely freed 
 himself from the entanglement of the debts which he 
 owed to many merchants, which was praiseworthy. 
 
 1250.—The Jews fined. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. v., p. 114. 
 
 About this time the king was so parched with 
 the thirst of avarice tha laying aside all mercy, 
 he ordered such an extortion from the Jews as made 
 them seem utterly and irrecoverably impoverished ; 
 for he exacted from them whatever they had in 
 their chests. Yet, wretched though they were, none 
 of them deserved pity, since they had been constantly 
 ! convicted of forging both money and seals. 
 
 : 1250, May 14.—Tyranny of archbishop Boniface. 
 
 I M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 121-124. 
 On the morrow, f still swelling with wrath and 
 wearing mail under his robes, as those who saw 
 l him assert, the archbishop came to the priory of 
 S. Bartholomew to make a visitation of the canons 
 there. On his arrival, as he was entering the church, 
 he was met by the sub-prior, for the prior was not 
 then at the house, attended by the brethren of 
 * Cf. p. 95 above. 
 
 t Boniface had been visiting and extorting money from the 
 monks and clergy of his diocese, and had come to London on 
 May 12th, and had there practised his tyranny on bishop Fulk 
 and the chapter of S. Paul’s, the latter of whom appealed to the 
 Pope, v., pp. 119-121. Cf. Milman’s Latin Christianity , vi., 
 
 I pp. 320-325. 
 
136 ARCHBISHOP BONIFACE. 1250 
 
 the house in solemn procession, bearing numbers 
 of lighted tapers, while a peal of bells was rung 
 in his honour; the brethren were dressed in rich 
 choral copes, the most handsome being worn by 
 their then head, the sub-prior. The archbishop 
 cared little for the honour showed him, and said 
 he had come there to visit the canons. All the 
 canons were in the choir in the middle of the church, 
 as also was the archbishop with most of his train, 
 which was crowded together anyhow, One of the 
 canons, speaking on behalf of all, then said they 
 had a tried and careful bishop who was their visitor 
 in case of need, and they neither would nor ought to 
 be visited by any other, for fear of showing contempt 
 for him. At this the archbishop burst into an 
 unseemly and inexpedient fit of rage and, forgetting 
 his station and his holy predecessors, rushed on 
 the sub-prior, who was standing in the midst of 
 the church, and impiously struck this holy priest 
 and monk a number of cruel blows on his aged 
 breast and venerable hoary head, shouting to him, 
 “ This is the way to treat you English traitors,” 
 and then in a horrible frenzy, with unmentionable 
 oaths, he ordered his sword to be brought to him 
 instantly. As the tumult increased and the canons 
 endeavoured to rescue their sub-prior from the hands 
 of his violent aggressor, the archbishop with his own 
 hands tore the costly cope which the sub-prior was 
 wearing and broke off the fastening, commonly called 
 a “ morse," and this last was trampled on by the crowd 
 who rushed in, and lost, as it was valuable for the 
 
125° 
 
 ARCHBISHOP BONIFACE. 
 
 1 37 
 
 gold, silver, and jewels; the magnificent cope itself 
 was also trampled on, torn, and irreparably injured ; 
 nor was the fury of the archbishop yet appeased, for 
 rushing on this holy man he forced him back against 
 the framework which divided two stalls with such 
 violence as to crush his bones and injure him inter¬ 
 nally. The others seeing the unrestrained fury of 
 the archbishop rescued the sub-prior from death 
 by forcing back his aggressor. As the archbishop 
 fell back his robes were thrown aside, and the mail 
 beneath was clearly seen by many, who were horror- 
 struck at the sight of an archbishop in armour; and 
 manv surmised that he had not come to make a 
 visitation or correct errors but to excite a contest. 
 Meanwhile his hot-tempered followers, Provencals 
 like himself, made a fierce onslaught on the other 
 unwarlike and unsuspecting canons, and following 
 the orders and example of the archbishop ill-treated 
 many of them with blows and wounds, throwing 
 them down and trampling them underfoot. So the 
 canons with bruised and bloody feet, disordered, 
 maimed, and injured, went to the bishop of the city 
 and complained in tears of this abominable conduct. 
 The bishop answered, “ Our lord the king is at 
 Westminster, go show this unto him that at least he 
 may be moved by so violent and manifest a breach 
 of his peace in his own principal city.” 
 
 Four of the canons therefore, the rest being unable 
 to go from the pain of their wounds, went in the 
 midst of a crowd of sympathising spectators to 
 Westminster in order to enter the king’s presence, 
 
138 ARCHBISHOP BONIFACE. 1250 
 
 displaying the traces of their illtreatment, the blood, 
 the bruises, the swellings, and their torn garments, 
 to all men, who expressed their sympathy and abhor¬ 
 rence for so monstrous a deed. A fifth, namely 
 the sub-prior, could not go to the court either on 
 horse or on foot, but was carried groaning to the 
 infirmary and, taking to his bed, passed the rest 
 of his life in sickness. The king, however, refused 
 either to see the canons or hear their complaints, 
 though they waited for a long time at the door of 
 his chamber. So, in yet greater trouble, they 
 returned to their church, which the archbishop had 
 profaned with the blood of priests and monks. 
 Meantime, the whole city w’as greatly excited, and 
 a sedition, as it w’ere, arising, the citizens proposed 
 to ring the common bell and cut the archbishop in 
 pieces, whatever the result might be. The place 
 rang with insults and reproaches, and, as the arch¬ 
 bishop w’as hastening to his house at Lambeth, the 
 people, who w r ere rushing in crowds in search of 
 him, cried, “ Where is this robber, this impious and 
 cruel cut-throat, no gainer of souls but an extorter of 
 money, w'hose advancement was due not to God, 
 nor to free and lawful choice, but w r as the unlawful 
 intrusion, through the king, of an uxorious illiterate, 
 whose foul infamy has already infected the whole 
 city ? ” * 
 
 * Boniface went to the king, who defended him ; and shortly 
 after went to Rome to lay snares for the innocent. Cf. v., p. 
 125. The account of this outrageous behaviour has been torn 
 out of the MS. B., probably by Paris himself. Cf. vol. iv., p. xii. 
 
1250 WILLIAM LONG SWORD IN EGYPT. 139 
 
 1250, June.—Ill-treatment of the Londoners by 
 the King. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 127.3. 
 
 At this time the city of London was greatly dis- 
 1 turbed, because the king exacted certain liberties 
 from the citizens for the service of the abbat of West¬ 
 minster, to their great loss and to the injury of their 
 liberties. So far as they could the mayor of the city 
 and the whole commune opposed the wish or rather 
 the violence and madness of the king, who, however, 
 proved harsh and inexorable. So in great excitement 
 they went to earl Richard, the earl of Leicester, and 
 other nobles of the realm, with sorrowful complaints 
 of how the king had not blushed to violate the 
 charters granted them by his predecessors, perhaps 
 after the example of the pope, starting aside like a 
 broken bow.* So the nobles named, who were much 
 troubled at this for fear that he would make some 
 similar attempt on them, sharply reproached and 
 icorrected the king with threats, and yet more sharply 
 irebuked the abbat, who was believed to have been 
 the originator and promoter of this wrong, adding to 
 their rebuke angry abuse which out of regard for his 
 order it is not proper to repeat. So the wisdom of 
 the nobles happily recalled the king from the design 
 he had conceived. 
 
 1250.—William Longsword in Egypt. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 132-134. 
 
 This William Longsword was the son of William Longsword, 
 earl of Salisbury, the elder. 
 
 William Longsword had secretly learnt from some 
 * Psalm lxxviii. 57. 
 
140 WILLIAM LONGSWORD IN EGYPT. 125c' 
 
 cunning spies in his employment, that certain rich 
 eastern merchants were imprudently going under a v 
 small escort to a fair held near Alexandria, where j 
 they confidently hoped to increase their wealth. So 
 taking all his soldiers with him he hastened thithei 
 by night, and rushing on them like lightning 
 unawares, slew the merchants on the spot, captured 
 some of their escort and completely dispersed the 
 remainder; thus the whole train, which is commonly 
 called a caravan, fell into his hand. There were; 
 camels, mules, and asses laden with silks, dyes, 
 spices, gold and silver, as well as waggons with 
 their teams of buffaloes and oxen, and also provision; 
 for men and horses, of which they were much ir 
 need. Though the earl killed and made prisoner; 
 of a great number of the enemy in this skirmish, he 
 only lost one knight and eight retainers killed 
 however, he brought back some wounded whc 
 required medical care. Thus he returned with hi; 
 wealth to the camp rejoicing in his victory. The 
 French, who had remained inactive and were ir 
 want, were stirred with envy and covetousness, anc 
 met him with hostility on his return; all that he hac 
 gained they took from him by force like wantor 
 brigands, imputing to him as a sufficient fault, tha? 
 with rash daring against the royal command anc 
 the orders of the leaders of the army, he had, ir 
 opposition to military discipline, with excessive pride 
 and folly, separated himself from the main bod) 
 of the army. On hearing this, William promised to 
 give full satisfaction by allowing all the food he hac 
 obtained to be distributed amongst the needy army 
 
, I2J0 WILLIAM LONGS WORD IN EG YPT. i \ I 
 
 but at this the French cried out claiming all for them- 
 | selves, and with much abuse seized it immediately. 
 
 , So William, saddened to bitterness of spirit at such 
 an injury, laid a grievous complaint before the king, 
 adding that his brother, the count of Artois, had 
 been the leader in this violent trespass and plunder. 
 The king, who was of a most pious spirit and 
 countenance, answered humbly, “ William, William, 
 He, who knows everything, knows that I grieve for 
 the wrong and loss inflicted on thee ; I deeply fear 
 that our pride and other sins will lead us to 
 -confusion. Thou knowest how serious a thing it 
 would be for me in any way to excite or offend 
 my nobles in my present perilous position.” As 
 he was speaking in came the count of Artois 
 excited and furious like a madman, and without 
 saluting the king or those sitting round him, in 
 great wrath shouted at the top of his voice, “ What 
 means this, my lord king ? Dost presume to defend 
 this Englishman and to oppose thine own Frenchmen ? 
 That fellow, in contempt of thee and the whole army, 
 guided by his own impulse alone, has of his own free 
 will by night and in secret captured booty whereby 
 his fame alone is spread abroad through the regions 
 of the east, and not that of the king and his French¬ 
 men. Our names and titles are all thrown in the 
 shade.” Thereon the most Christian king turning 
 his face and bending towards William said in a mild 
 tone, “ Now thou canst hear, my friend. So easily 
 can division, which God forbid, arise in an army. 
 At such a crisis w r e must put up with such things and 
 
142 
 
 FOREST TYRANNIES. 
 
 1250 
 
 with even more than these.” William replied, “Then 
 art thou no king, since thou canst not justify thine own 
 followers and punish delinquents, when I promise 
 full satisfaction for any delinquency of mine.” And 
 wounded to the heart he added, “ Henceforth I serve 
 not such a king, I will not hold to such a lord.” He 
 then went to Acre and stayed there many days with 
 his companions in arms, publishing to all who dwelt 
 there the wrong he had suffered ; whereby he excited 
 the sympathy of all, and especially of the prelates, 
 for himself, and aroused their anger against the 
 French. Those of experience and understanding 
 and who were approved in war, unhesitatingly fore¬ 
 told that this was a gloomy presage of future events, 
 and that such sins must excite the heavy anger of the 
 Most High. The count of Artois is reported to have 
 said with a laugh, “ Now is the army of the noble 
 French well rid of these men with tails.” * 
 
 1250.—Forest tyrannies. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v. pp. 137-8. 
 
 At this time a certain knight, named Geoffrey of 
 Langley, a royal bailiff and inquisitor of trespasses 
 in the royal forests, made the circuit of several 
 districts of England, and showed such cunning 
 wantonness and violence in the collection of money, 
 especially from the northern nobles, that the amount 
 of treasure collected passed the belief and excited 
 
 * In reference to a popular French story that the English had 
 tails fixed to them as a punishment for the act of Robert de 
 Broc, who cut off the tail of archbishop Thomas Becket’s horse 
 
1250 
 
 WILLIAM LOiXGSirORD'S DEATH. 
 
 H3 
 
 the wonder of all who heard of it. This unbounded 
 oppression with which the king treated the north- 
 i erners seems to have had its source in ancient hatred. 
 The said Geoffrey had a large armed retinue, and if 
 he heard any of the aforesaid nobles making excuses 
 or murmuring he ordered them to be at once arrested 
 and lodged in the king’s prison, since the judges 
 I were hostile to them ; nor could any reply be given 
 for fear of censure. For a single small beast, a fawn 
 . or a hare, though straying in an out of the way place, 
 
 I he impoverished some men of noble birth even to 
 t ruin, sparing neither blood nor fortune. In com- 
 parison with him Robert Passelewe * was considered 
 most gentle, nay all his predecessors were justified 
 and well-spoken of when compared with him. 
 
 ' 1250, Feb. 8th.—Death of William Longsword f 
 the younger at Mansourah. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., pp. 153-4. 
 At length, after receiving many blows and wounds 
 and overwhelmed with showers of stones, William 
 
 his spirit, clearly to receive the crown of martyrdom; 
 
 * Robert Passelewe had in 1244 made a severe inquisition 
 into the occupation of the royal forests, and again in 1245, 
 fining those who were improperly occupying them (iv. pp. 400 
 I and 427). He had been the patron of Geoffrey Langley, who 
 1 afterwards basely supplanted him. v. 137. 
 
 t William Longsword had returned from Acre at the request 
 | of Louis IX., and, joining with Robert of Artois in an attack on 
 Mansourah, had been led by the rashness of the latter into a 
 t dangerous position in which both lost their lives. 
 
*44 
 
 WILLIAM LOMGS WORD'S DEATH. 
 
 1250 
 
 with him fell his standard-bearer, Robert de Yere, 
 a distinguished knight, and many English who had 
 followed his standard from the beginning. 
 
 On the night before this battle his mother Hela, 
 the most noble countess of Salisbury, and abbess 
 of Laycock,* had a vision in which a knight clad 
 in full armour was received up into the open heaven. 
 As she knew his shield by the device on it, she 
 
 Shield of Longespee. 
 
 inquired who it was who was ascending into heaven 
 and who was being received into such glory by the 
 angels ; and in a clear and distinct voice it was 
 replied to her “ William, thy son.” She marked the 
 night on which she saw the vision, and its meaning 
 was afterwards made clear. But to return to our 
 subject matter. 
 
 Robert, count of Artois, being drowned, and 
 William Longsword having been slain, the Saracens 
 confident of victor)-, surrounded the helpless Chris¬ 
 tians and mercilessly put them to the sword ; and 
 of all that glorious and renowned body of knights 
 * Rear Chippenham in Wiltshire. 
 
125° 
 
 DISTURBANCE OF THE SEA. 
 
 145 
 
 there escaped but two Templars and one Hospitaller, 
 with one person of inferior rank who swam the river 
 and brought word to the king of tire French and 
 rest of the army of this for ever deplorable calamity. 
 [The others who escaped were so sore wounded and 
 weary that they could scarcely breathe, and were 
 unable to cross the river, but hid themselves in the 
 rushes on the bank till night. But the anger, nay 
 the fury of the Lord did not allow any of great 
 name to escape.* 
 
 1250, October 1st.—Disturbances of the sea. 
 
 M. Ban's, vol. v., pp. 175-77. 
 
 On the first of October, the moon, which was in 
 its first quarter, rose swollen and ruddy in sign of 
 a coming tempest, according to the words of the 
 philosopher and versifier: 
 
 Promittit de more rubensnova Cynthia ventos, 
 
 Caumate vel Borea valido nisi prsepediatur; 
 
 Turgida dat nimbos, seu pallida clara serenum.f 
 So on that day in the first week of the waxing moon, 
 the heaven was wrapped in a thick fog, and in violent 
 commotion with a whirlwind, which tore away the 
 branches, and the leaves, then dying on the trees, 
 and carried them to a great distance. What was 
 more destructive, the sea was disturbed and crossed 
 its usual bounds, the tide flowing twice without any 
 ebb, and emitted such a terrible roaring sound, that 
 it re-echoed through distant parts of the land to the 
 amazement of all who heard it, including old men, 
 for no one in recent times remembered to have seen 
 * Cf. Joinville, ed. Waillv, pp. 101-159, and the Anglo-French 
 Poem on William’s death. 
 
 t Mr. Luard says he cannot ascertain the author of these verses. 
 
146 DISTURBANCE OF THE SEA. 1250 
 
 the like before. In the darkness of night too the 
 very sea seemed to burn as with fire, and the billows 
 piled on billows to strive with such fun - , that no 
 skill on the part of the seamen could save their 
 sinking ships, and many large and well built vessels 
 were sunk and lost. Not to mention other places, at 
 Hartbourne alone, three noble ships were swallowed 
 up by the raging billows, besides small ones and 
 others of moderate size. At the port of Winchelsea 
 on the east coast, let aloae salt houses, fishermen’s 
 cottages, bridges, and mills, more than three hundred 
 houses in the town as well as some churches were 
 thrown down bv the violent rising of the sea. Holland 
 in England, as well as Holland on the continent, 
 together with Flanders and other flat places on the 
 sea coast suffered irretrievable damage. The rivers 
 falling into the sea were driven back so far that they 
 rose and flooded the meadows, mills, bridges, and 
 neighbouring houses, and invading the fields carried 
 away the corn which had not been stored. So the 
 anger of God plainly appeared to mortal men on the 
 sea as well as on land, and the punishment of sinners 
 appeared imminent according to the saying of 
 Habakkuk: * “ Art Thou angered in the rivers, O 
 Lord, or is Thy wrath in the sea ? ” And what wonder, 
 for from the court of Rome which should be held 
 the fountain of all justice there flowed unmentionable 
 enormities, f 
 
 * iii. 8. 
 
 + Then follows an account of how Innocent IV. presented 
 the church of Westley to a Genoese, the rights of the prior of 
 Binham and the indulgence that an Italian should not succeed 
 an Italian (cf. above p. 109) notwithstanding. 
 
1250 
 
 AN EARTHQUAKE. 
 
 H7 
 
 1250, Dec. 13.—Earthquake. 
 
 M. Paris , vol. v., p. 187. 
 
 This year, on the morning of S. Lucy’s day, there 
 was an earthquake at S. Alban’s and in the neigh¬ 
 bouring district which is called the Chilterns, where 
 no such thing had been known or heard of within 
 the memory of man. For the land there is firm and 
 chalky, with few hollows and little water, nor is 
 it near the sea; so such an event, being unusual 
 and unnatural, was the more to be wondered at. 
 If this earthquake had been as destructive as it 
 was unusual and remarkable, it would have thrown 
 down all buildings. At the same time as the tremors 
 of the earthquake there was, as it were, a terrible 
 thunder underground. The following remarkable 
 thing occurred during the earthquake : the pigeons, 
 jackdaws, sparrows, and other birds, which were 
 perched on the houses and on the trees, were seized 
 with fright as though a hawk was hovering over 
 them, and, suddenly spreading their wings, took 
 flight as though mad, and flew backwards and forwards 
 in confusion, exciting fear and dread in all who 
 saw them. But after the rumbling and tremors of 
 the earth had ceased they returned to their usual 
 nests, which had been disturbed by the earthquake. 
 This earthquake struck the hearts of all with horror, 
 which I think is more than amazement or fear, 
 and it was believed to be indicative of things to 
 come. So in this year both land and sea were 
 afflicted by unusual and dreadful commotions, which, 
 according to the words of the Gospel, * “ there shall 
 * S. Matt. xxiv. 7. 
 
148 
 
 KING HENRY'S ECONOMY. 
 
 i 2 5i 
 
 be earthquakes in divers places,” threatened that 
 the end of the world was at hand. 
 
 1251.—The king’s economy. 
 
 M. Paris, vol. v., p. 19S. 
 
 At Christmas the king, perhaps in anxiety and 
 saving for his pilgrimage gave no presents to his 
 knights or household, although all his predecessors 
 had been accustomed to give royal garments and 
 costly jewels. 
 
 The usual richness and hospitality of the royal 
 table was also diminished, and his usual shame was 
 set aside. He sought his lodgings and his meals 
 with abbats, priors, clerks and men of low degree, 
 staving with them and asking for gifts. He was no 
 longer considered a courteous host who did not, 
 besides showing the king and his household splendid 
 hospitality, honour him, the queen, sir Edward and the 
 several courtiers of dignity with noble and valuable 
 presents : nay, the queen herself did not blush to ask 
 for them, not as a favour but as her due. At this vert' 
 time, not to delay the ears of those who hear with 
 examples, the king when dining with Robert Passelewe, 
 whom he had but lately foully abused in his chapel 
 at Westminster, was treated with rich presents. Nor 
 did the courtiers and royal household appreciate any 
 gifts but rich and costly ones, as for instance desirable 
 palfreys, gold and silver cups, necklaces with choice 
 jewels, and imperial girdles and the like. So the 
 king’s court became like to that of Rome, sitting or 
 rather prostituting itself like a harlot for gain. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ACCOUNTS OF THE AUTHORS CITED AND 
 BOOKS QUOTED. 
 
 MATTHEW PARIS. 
 
 Matthew, called Parisiensis either because he was a native 
 of Paris or had studied there, or because it was his family name 
 (one not uncommon in the 13th century), was bom about 1195- 
 In 1217 he entered the Benedictine monastery' of S. Alban’s, 
 where, on the death of Roger of Wendover, in 1236 he became 
 chronicler. Though Matthew was a monk he was not a recluse, 
 but took an active part in the life of the world, was a traveller, 
 a politician, and a courtier, a man with a reputation which 
 extended beyond his own country, as is proved by the mission 
 with which he was entrusted by Louis IX. of France, who sent 
 him in 1247 as the bearer of despatches to Hacon VI. king 
 of Norway. In 1248 Matthew paid a second visit to Norway at 
 king Hacon’s request, and on the application of the Norwegian 
 Benedictines to Innocent IV., in order to repair the financial 
 disorder of the monastery of Holm. These two journeys were 
 the chief events of his life, but we find him at court in 1247, 
 when Henry III. bade him write a full account of the bringing 
 of the Sacred Heart to Westminster. It is evident from his 
 history that he had a wide circle of acquaintance among the 
 chief men of all classes in the kingdom. He died at S. Alban’s 
 in the summer of 1259. 
 
15 ° 
 
 MATTHEW PARIS. 
 
 His chief work is the Chronica Majora (from which the 
 extracts in this volume are taken), a history from the Creation i 
 to 1259. It is not, however, entirely his own work; indeed, the 
 part covering the years 1235-59 is the only one for which he is 
 responsible. Down to 1189 the Chronica is the work of John 
 de Celia, abbat of S. Alban’s from 1195-1215. Thence it was 
 continued by Roger of Wendover on the same plan and from 
 the same sources to 1235, the whole work up to this date long ' 
 passing as his production and being known as the Flores 
 Historiarum. This chronicle was transcribed by Matthew 
 Paris, with numerous additions and corrections of his own. 
 The Hist oria Anglorum , or Historia Minor, is chiefly an 
 abridgment of the latter part of the Chronica Majora, extending 
 from 1067 to 1253, but comprising additional information. Other 
 works which have been ascribed to Matthew Paris are the 
 Duorum Offarum Merciorum Regum Vita, which is certainly 
 not his, the Viginti trium Abbatum S. Albani Vita, together | 
 with the Additamenta to his Chronica Majora, being chiefly a 
 collection of explanatory documents. He states that he had 
 written a Life of S. Edmund, but this is not known. 
 
 Matthew Paris has justly been considered the best Latin 
 chronicler of the 13th century; and his work contrasts sharply 
 with previous works of the kind. In place of an almost colour¬ 
 less narrative, we have a series of brilliant historical criticisms, 
 a change which is mainly due to the altered policy of the clergy 
 who were compelled to abandon their position of political 
 neutrality for one of active partisanship. His style is constantly 
 vivid and lively, and often marked by considerable humour. 
 Such passages, for instance, may be observed as the account of . 
 Taillebourg and of Master Martin’s mission to England, which t 
 bear every trace of being drawn from the accounts of eye- < 
 witnesses 
 
MATTHEW PARIS. 
 
 15 s 
 
 Matthew, like the majority of the clergy in his day, was a 
 warm supporter of the popular cause. He fiercely denounces 
 alike the encroachments and oppression of the Roman court 
 and the extravagance and tyranny of the king and his foreign 
 kinsfolk. In his pages, indeed, the national sentiment may be 
 said first to receive adequate expression. The wide range of his 
 history should be noticed, for not only is it the best source of 
 information with respect to events in England, but it is also 
 an authority of value for the history of France, of Spain, and of 
 the struggle between the Papacy and the Empire. 
 
 S. Alban’s, as lying close to London, was a great centre of 
 intelligence; moreover, numbers of state documents were sent 
 there to be preserved or copied. This alone would have made 
 Matthew a valuable authority; but, as we have seen, he had also 
 ample means of getting information as to events from the chief 
 actors in them. With earl Richard of Cornwall we can easily 
 see that he was intimate, and his authority is several times cited. 
 In his later years Matthew came to know the king himself. And 
 Henry was at S. Alban’s in 1252 and again in 1257, on which 
 latter occasion Matthew says he consorted with him in memo, in 
 ■palatio, et in thalamo, and obtained from him a list of English 
 kings who had been canonised, which he gives in order that his 
 illustrious informant should not have taken this trouble for 
 nothing. Among others of Matthew’s informants were bishop 
 Richard de Witry of Chichester and bishop Richard of Bangor. 
 He did not allow these intimacies to warp his judgment; earl 
 Richard is freely criticised for his abandonment of the popular 
 cause in 1239, and though personal knowledge softened the 
 opinion which Matthew had at first formed of the king and 
 archisliop Boniface (witness the alterations made by him in 
 revising his work), much was still left that could not have been 
 pleasing to the royal ears. If his feelings as a monk seem to 
 
152 
 
 ROBERT GROSSETESTE. 
 
 have made him judge Grosseteste harshly during his life, after his 
 death he praises him warmly. While we recognise that Matthew 
 had strong feelings on the politics of his day, we may accept his 
 work as a just and fair history of his own times. 
 
 The Chronica Majora, from its denunciations of the papal 
 court, was very popular at the Reformation. It was first pub¬ 
 lished under the direction of archbishop Parker in 1571, and 
 several editions appeared in the following century. The complete 
 work has now been edited by the Rev. R. H. Luard in the Rolls 
 Series, and the Historia Anglonim in the same series by Sir F* 
 Madden. C. L. K. 
 
 ROBERT GROSSETESTE. 
 
 Grosseteste was bom—it is at least a probable conjecture—in 
 1175, at Stradbrooke, in Suffolk. Little is known of his early 
 life, save that he studied at Oxford. How long he remained 
 there is doubtful. In 1224 he was appointed rector of the 
 Franciscan scholars there, and Eccleston in his “ Coming of the 
 Friars ” speaks enthusiastically of the influence he obtained over 
 them. He was archdeacon successively of Wilts, Northampton, 
 and Leicester, and was elected bishop of Lincoln by the chapter 
 in 1235. He held the see till his death in 1253. For those 
 eighteen years he was the foremost ecclesiastic in England, 
 foremost in internal reformation of the church, foremost in 
 resistance to Papal aggression, foremost in opposition to the 
 king’s attempts to tyrannise over clergy and laity. The life of 
 Grosseteste indeed is so important a part of the history of his 
 time that a short summary of its events cannot but be inadequate. 
 The extracts given from his letters sufficiently illustrate his 
 attitude toward the great question of the day; but we may 
 observe :—(i.) That he canned out in his own diocese a thorough 
 reform among the monastic and parochial clergy, acting always 
 
ROBERT GROSSETESTE. 
 
 *53 
 
 with justice and true spiritual earnestness if sometimes with 
 apparent harshness. He was greatly aided in his reform by the 
 Friars minor, whose good work he took eveiy opportunity of 
 eulogising. His action was far from popular among the monastic 
 clergy, as may be seen by the tone of Matthew Paris, who was 
 in general sympathy with his aims, regarding him. He was 
 involved for years in a quarrel with the chapter of his cathedral, 
 on account of his claim to visit “ not only the cathedral itself, but 
 also the churches belonging to the prebends and those 
 attached to the cathedral.” The conclusion of the dispute was 
 a victory for Grosseteste, but a victory won at the price of agreeing 
 to collect, for a short time, from England for the papal needs, 
 (ii.) AVe should notice also his 'political position, as the friend of 
 Simon de Montfort, and tutor of his son, and as the hearty 
 supporter of all attempts at political reform. It is possible, 
 however, that had he lived to see the civil war his reverence for 
 authority would have caused him to cast in his lot with the king, 
 (iii.) But the most famous acts of his life are those of his opposition 
 to papal provisions. From 1247 he waged a ceaseless war against 
 the attempts of the popes to tax the English clergy on behalf of the 
 private needs of the Roman see, and to provide for foreign 
 ecclesiastics by conferring upon them English offices and 
 benefices, of which, in many cases, the duties were beyond their 
 powers or outside their intentions. In 1250 he delivered a 
 speech before The papal court at Lyons in which he traced all 
 the evils of the church to the corruption of the Curia and 
 the greed and avarice of the Romans. But the needs of 
 the papal exchequer were not satisfied by denunciations—the 
 abuse continued to grow. “ Such a point had it reached,” says 
 Matthew Paris, “ that the bishop of Lincoln, being struck with 
 amazement at it, caused his clerks carefully to reckon and 
 estimate all the revenues of foreigners in England, and it was 
 
134 
 
 ADAM OF MARSH. 
 
 discovered and found for truth, that the present pope, Innocent 
 IV., had pauperised the whole church more than all his pre¬ 
 decessors from the time of the primitive papacy. The revenue 
 of the alien clerks, whom he had planted in England, and whom 
 the Roman church had enriched, amounted to 70,000 marks. 
 The king’s revenue could not he reckoned at more than a third 
 part of the sum.” The culmination of the pope’s endeavours is 
 to be read in Grosseteste’s answer to the request addressed to 
 him to institute Frederic de Lavagna, the nephew of Innocent 
 IV., to the next vacant prebend at Lincoln. The foreigner was 
 a boy, not in holy orders, and had no intention of even visiting 
 England. The reply of the bishop is the most famous assertion 
 of English feeling against the Roman see which the history of 
 the middle ages furnishes. The Chronicle of Lanercost relates 
 that Innocent immediately excommunicated Grosseteste; more 
 probably he was restrained from so impolitic an act. In 1252 
 Grosseteste addressed a letter to the nobles of England, the 
 citizens of London, and the community of the whole realm, with 
 a last protest against the tyrannies of the time. In 1253 he 
 died, denouncing with his last breath the whole system on which 
 the popes endeavoured to exercise their authority over England. 
 
 ADAM OF MARSH. 
 
 Adam of Marsh, or de Marisco, from whose letters extracts 
 appear in this volume, was educated at Oxford, ordained priest, 
 held a living near Wearmouth in the diocese of Durham, and 
 was already famous when he took the Grey Friars’ habit at 
 Worcester during the wardenship of Agnellus (1236-1239). 
 Throughout the life of that great prelate Grosseteste, Adam of 
 Marsh enjoyed his friendship : under his patronage he lectured 
 at Oxford and did much to found the great Franciscan School 
 there. Eminent as a lecturer and in some sort the father 
 
THE POLITICAL SONGS. 
 
 155 
 
 of the great English schoolmen, he was also well known as 
 court and to the great leaders of the time. He was favoured 
 by the king except when his plain speaking offended, was 
 a familiar correspondent and adviser of the queen, and the trusted 
 friend and counsellor of Simon de Montfort; all the while living 
 as a rigid follower of the rule of S. Francis, “serving the 
 wretched and the vile, and performing the prime and essential 
 duties of a friar.” Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury, whom 
 he assisted by many wise counsels, with the aid of the king 
 endeavoured to procure his appointment to the see of Ely 
 in 1256, but the candidate elected by the monks, Hugh of 
 Belesale, secured the pope’s approbation. Adam died in 1257. 
 
 THE POLITICAL SONGS. 
 
 A striking feature of the period of Henry III.’s misgovern- 
 ment and the Barons’ War is the outburst of song on political 
 and social evils. The volume edited by Mr. Wright for the 
 Camden Society, 1839, contains fifteen versifications of the 
 popular feeling. One is in English, jeering at Richard Icing of 
 the Romans, whose action was considered as desertion of the 
 popular party, and whose ridiculous position at the battle of 
 Lewes is the theme of many a jest in the chroniclers of the 
 lime. Of the rest some are in Provencal, some in French, some 
 in Latin, some half English, half French. Some were songs, no 
 doubt, for the people, sung by the wandering minstrel who 
 found welcome everywhere. But most are the composition of 
 the clergy, mainly, in all probability, of the Grey Friars, scholars 
 at Oxford, and show the vague popular discontent through the 
 medium of the political intelligence of those, sons of the people 
 themselves but trained ecclesiastics, who did so much to make 
 the movement for reform a success, While the great earl and 
 the nobler barons, with a few of the bishops, led the fight 
 against papal and royal tyranny, and the historians of great 
 monastic houses wrote the truths of the struggle for the eyes 
 of the future, the friars and the lesser clergy gave a voice to the 
 
ROYAL LETTERS. 
 
 156 
 
 popular feeling, and showed what it was that the people, clerk 
 and lay, really needed, and how they regarded the great issues 
 and the great men. 
 
 The Song of Lewes , the most important of these pieces of 
 verse that has reached us, is a fine, vigorous rhyming 
 Latin poem, possibly by a Franciscan clerk, giving the case of 
 the reformers in the fullest and clearest form in which it has 
 ever been presented. It is indeed one of the most valuable 
 documents for the constitutional history of England during 
 these times that has come down to us. 
 
 ROYAL LETTERS OF THE REIGN OF HENRY III. 
 
 A collection of the letters of royal and eminent persons from 
 the Close and, Patent Rolls of the reign of Henry III. was 
 published in the Rolls Series in 1866, edited by the late 
 Dr. Shirley, some time Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History 
 at Oxford. The second volume, from which several letters are 
 inserted in this book, extends from about 1230 to the end of the 
 reign. It contains much important matter relating to the foreign 
 relations of the period as well as to the constitutional struggle. 
 
Table I. 
 
 THE FAMILY OF HENRY IH. 
 
 2 Gboffrey = Hawis, = King John=Isarel, only child 
 
 e. of Essex dau. of 
 & Gloucester. William, 
 
 3 Hubert de earl of 
 Burgh, Gloucester. 
 e. of Kent. 
 
 of Aymar, ct. of 
 Angouleme. 
 
 Hugh de Lusignan, 
 ct. of la Marche in 
 succession to his 
 mother ; ct. of Angou- 
 18me in right of his wife. 
 
 i ill 
 
 Hugh XI. Guy de Lusignan Ailmar William 
 ct. of la Marche Sire de Cognac bishop of of Valence 
 8c Angouleme Winchester Earl of 
 
 and in right of Pembroke, 
 
 his wife ct. of 
 Penthievre 
 
 Raymond Berenger V. =Beatrix 
 ct. of Provence dau. of 
 b. 1198, d. 1245. Thomas 
 | ct. of 
 I Savoy, 
 j d. 1266. 
 
 Louis VIII. ^Blanche of Castile 
 K. of France | gd. d. of Henry II. 
 
 Joan=Alex- Isabel=Fred. II. Eleanor 
 
 1 Wm. Marshal iIsabel, dau. 
 =EarlofPembroke ofWm.Mar- 
 
 ander II. 
 K.of I 
 Scot¬ 
 land I 
 
 Alexander III. 
 K. of Scotland 
 =Margaret 
 d.of Henrylll. 
 
 Emperor 
 of the 
 Romans, 
 
 K. of Sicily. 
 
 For issue see Table II 
 
 2S1MON de Mont- shal 
 fobt. 3 Beatrix 
 
 I 
 
 =Richard=2 Sancia d. Nov. 16, 
 
 niece of 
 Abp. of 
 Koln. 
 
 e. of Corn- 1 (3rd dau) 
 wall, K. of 
 the 
 
 Romans. I 
 
 Henry III. H® LKan or ! I 
 
 b.Oct.1,1207 (2nd dau.) Marga rei=LouisIX.Charles=Beatrix 
 ’ ’ * d.11291. (eldestdau.) Kingof of Anjou. (4th dau.) 
 
 France. 
 
 1272. 
 
 Edmund 
 . of Cornwall, 
 d. 1300. 
 
 Richard 
 d. 1296. 
 
 Henry 
 killed at 
 Viterbo, 1271. 
 
 Edward I.— Eleanor Margaret=Alex- 
 b. 1239 dau. of ander 
 
 d. 1307 Ferdinand III. III. 
 
 of Castile. Kingof 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 Beatrix=John of 
 Dreuxsoo 
 of John I. 
 of Brittany. 
 Blanche=Edmund 
 
 dau.of Robert I 
 ct. of Artois, 
 b. of Louis IX. 
 
 titular king 
 of Sicily, 
 Earl of 
 Lancaster. 
 Thomas e.of 
 Lancaster. 
 
Table II. THE HOUSE OF MONTFORT, EARLS OF LEICESTER. 
 
 Robert of Beaumont==Petronilla, d.iu. of 
 Karl of Leicester, ob. ngo | Hugh of Grantmesnil. 
 
 L'liabannais, ct. of Bigorre. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF EVENTS 
 AND TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1236 
 
 Jan. 
 
 20 
 
 Marriage of Henry III. 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 Grosseteste’s Reforms . 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 Usury of the Caursines. 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 Work of the Friars . 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 Grosseteste’s Household 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 Jan. 
 
 23 
 
 Council of Merton . 
 
 
 
 
 
 April 
 
 28 
 
 Council of London . 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 1237 
 
 Jan. 
 
 13 
 
 Want of money . 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 Papal extortion . 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 Song of the church ... . 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 Jan. 
 
 29 
 
 The coming of Otto the legate... 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 Richard of Cornwall calls the king to 
 
 account 
 
 28 
 
 1238 
 
 Jan. 
 
 7 
 
 Earl Simon’s marriage . 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 Feb. 
 
 3 
 
 Earl Richard’s anger. 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 
 General indignation . 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 May 
 
 
 Otto and the Oxford scholars 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 1239 
 
 
 
 Grosseteste and his chapter 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 June 
 
 16 
 
 Birth of Edward . 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 9 
 
 Simon’s departure. 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 
 July 
 
 31 
 
 The Bishops’ protest. 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 1240 
 
 
 
 Council at Reading . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Legate’s demands . 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 The Crusaders depart . 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 
 S. Edmund leaves England. 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 
 The Berkshire Rectors’ protest 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 16 
 
 Death of S. Edmund . 
 
 
 
 52 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I6l 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1241 Jan. 7 Otto leaves England . ><t 54 
 
 A vision of S. Thomas, and the king’s treat¬ 
 ment of London ... ... ... . 
 
 Election of Boniface of Savoy . 58 
 
 June 27 Death of Gilbert Marshal . 59 
 
 1242 Jan. 1 Peter ot Savoy. 6 2 
 
 Jan. 28 Parliament of London . 63 
 
 War with France — Expedition to Gascony 
 
 The fights at sea. 68 
 
 July 20 Battle of Taillebourg. 7 o 
 
 Oct. Dissension in the Army. 74 
 
 Henry and the Cistercians. 76 
 
 Martin, the new legate. 77 
 
 12 44 The Normans lose their English lands ... 78 
 
 Henry’s letter to Innocent IV. 79 
 
 Parliament of Westminster. 81 
 
 Provisions of the Lords. 85 
 
 Master Martin's mission ... . 87 
 
 Aug. 1 Jews of London; the tale of a crucifixion ... 91 
 
 Dispute with Scotland . 93 
 
 Nov. 3 The king’s needs. 9- 
 
 Martin’s greed. 96 
 
 12 45 June 30 He leaves England . 98 
 
 Protest of the English Commons ... ... 101 
 
 The Pope’s answer thereto . 106 
 
 1246 March 18 Articles of Grievances drawn up in the 
 
 Parliament . I0 3 
 
 July 7 Henry yields again. IIO 
 
 Protest of Cardinal John ... ... ... II2 
 
 12 47 New Statutes . II( ^ 
 
 Clipping the Coinage . XI 3 
 
 The king and his half-brothers . 116 
 
 12 4 & Simon again takes the cross . Jt y 
 
 Feb. 9 Parliament of London . II7 
 
 Earl Simon made governor of Gascon}' 
 
 Oct. 13 Westminster fair . I20 
 
 Continued oppression . I22 
 
 x *49 Jan. 13 The king begs money . I2 ^ 
 
 And desires Durham for his brother . 125 
 
 April 3 The Gascon accusations . I2 6 
 
 Robberies in England . I2 8 
 
 12 5 ° Grosseteste at Rome.. x 3 x 
 
 A new Crusade . 
 
 The kings’s economy . ^ 
 
 The Jews fined . j,* 
 
162 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 May 
 
 h 
 
 Tyranny of Archbishop Boniface ... 
 
 1. 
 
 June 
 
 
 The king and the City of London 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 William Longsword in Egypt 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Forest tyrannies. 
 
 1 
 
 Feb. 
 
 s 
 
 Death of Longsword. 
 
 r 
 
 Oct. 
 
 I 
 
 Disturbance of the Sea . 
 
 1 
 
 Dec. 
 
 13 
 
 Earthquake . 
 
 1 
 
 Dec. 
 
 25 
 
 The king’s economy . 
 
 ... 1 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Accounts of authors and books :— 
 
 Matthew Paris. 1 
 
 Robert Grosseteste . : 
 
 Adam of Marsh ... . ... ... . : 
 
 The political songs . 
 
 The Royal letters . i 
 
 Table of the family of Henry III. . 
 
 Table of the Montforts . 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Tomb of Henry III. in Westminster Abbey . Frontispie 
 
 Arms of Provence. 
 
 Great seal . 
 
 Great seal . 
 
 A Bishop. 
 
 Banner of Leicester . 
 
 A mounted knight . 
 
 S. Louis . . 71. 
 
 Messenger bringing letter to Royal Army . 
 
 Shield of Longespee . 
 

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