Part 3

V. That he had sent messengers to Rome, and before the lord the King was of full age had obtained that he should be of full age, as if this had been for the advantage of the lord the King, and by authority of this his age, had caused to be granted by charter to himself lands which had been of Henry de Essex, and many other lands, dignities, and franchises, of which, by his own authority, he took possession after the death of King John, and of which the said King John died seised, as he also caused to be given and confirmed to religious persons, ecclesiastics, and others, many lands and franchises and other things, to the lessening and great detriment of the dignity of the lord the King and his crown.

VI. That whereas the lord William, King of Scotland, formerly delivered to the lord King John his two daughters, the elder of whom was to be married to the lord the King, or to Earl Richard, if the lord the King should die; and for which marriage the same King William released King John all his right which he had in the lands of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland; and, besides, gave to him 15,000 marks in silver; he (_i.e._, Hubert de Burgh), before the lord the King was of such age as to be able to determine whether he would take her to wife or not, married her; so that, when the lord the King came of age, he was obliged to give the King of Scotland who now is, eight hundred oxgangs of land for the release of the lands aforesaid, because the first agreement had not been observed, and this notwithstanding he had before married the Countess of Gloucester, who had formerly been betrothed to the lord King John while he was Earl, and whom King John had committed to his custody, and whose marriage he had formerly sold to G. de Mandeville for 20,000 marks, whereby each of them was connected in a certain degree of consanguinity.

VII. Whereas the lord the Pope commanded that, on account of the said relationship, a divorce should be made between him and the Countess, his wife whom he now hath; he caused all the corn in the ear, belonging to the Romans, to be threshed out by those who were called Lewytheil. In consequence whereof, a general sentence of excommunication was passed against all those offenders, and those who favoured them; and this he did while he was Justiciar and bound to keep the peace, and so that by these means the peace continues disturbed to this time.

VIII. Whereas he had placed himself in the prison of the lord the King, and by the agreement made between them, he was to be taken to be an outlaw, if he should ever escape from that prison without the licence of the lord the King; he did escape from that prison, and ... he was become an outlaw; and afterwards when the lord the King had received him into his favour, he would not accept any writ of the lord the King for the remission of that outlawry....

IX. That he spake base and scandalous words of the lord the King in the presence of the lord Ralph, son of Nicholas, Godfrey de Cramcumbe, the brother of G., and others; and the lord the King still has many things to be proposed and alleged against him, which, for the perusal, he reserves in his mind to propose when it shall please him and occasion shall serve.

THE POITEVIN INVASION (1233).

+Source.+--_Roger of Wendover_, vol. ii., pp. 565-566. (Bohn's Libraries.)

A.D. 1233.--The seventeenth year of King Henry's reign he held his Court at Christmas at Worcester, where, by the advice of Peter, Bishop of Winchester, as was said, he dismissed all the native officers of the Court from their offices, and appointed foreigners from Poitou in their places. He also dismissed William de Rodune, a knight who carried on the duties of Richard the Grand Marshal at his Court. By the same person's advice the King also dismissed Walter, Bishop of Carlisle, from his office of Treasurer, and then took from him a hundred pounds of silver, and also spitefully deprived him of some trusts, which he the King had by his own charter confirmed to him for life. All his former counsellors, Bishops and Earls, Barons and other nobles, he dismissed abruptly, and put confidence in no one except the aforesaid Bishop of Winchester and his son Peter de Rivaulx; after which he ejected all the castellans throughout all England, and placed the castles under the charge of the said Peter. The Bishop, then, in order to gain the King's favour more completely, associated with himself Stephen de Segrave, a yielding man, and Robert Passelewe, who kept the King's treasury under Peter de Rivaulx; and he entirely ruled the kingdom with the advice and assistance of those men. The King also invited men from Poitou and Brittany, who were poor and covetous after wealth, and about two thousand knights and soldiers came to him equipped with horses and arms, whom he engaged in his service, placing them in charge of the castles in the various parts of the kingdom; these men used their utmost endeavours to oppress the natural English subjects and nobles, calling them traitors, and accusing them of treachery to the King; and he, simple man that he was, believed their lies, and gave them the charge of all the counties and baronies, as also of all the youths of the nobility, both male and female, who were foully degraded by ignoble marriages. The King also entrusted them with the care of his treasury, with the enforcement of the laws of the country and the administration of justice. In short, judgment was entrusted to the unjust, laws to outlaws, the preservation of peace to the quarrelsome, and justice to those who were themselves full of injury, and when the nobles of the kingdom laid complaints before the King of the oppression they endured, the said Bishop interfered and there was no one to grant them justice. The said Peter, too, made accusations against some of the other Bishops of the kingdom, and advised the King to avoid them as open enemies.

THE PAPAL LEGATE AND THE CLERKS OF OXFORD (1238).

+Source.+--_Matthew Paris_, _Chronica Majora_, vol. i., pp. 126-129. (Bohn's Libraries.)

At this time, the legate, having come to Oxford, and been received with the highest honour, as was due to him, was entertained in the house of the canons, which was at Oseney Abbey, where the scholar-clerks before breakfast-time sent him an honourable present, in the way of meat and drink, and after breakfast proceeded to his place of abode to pay their salutation to him, and to visit him out of respect. On their approach, however, a transalpine porter, with unbecoming and improper raillery, raising his voice after the manner of the Romans, and holding the door a little open, said: "What do you want?" To which the clerks replied: "We want his lordship the legate, that we may pay our respects to him;" for they confidently believed that they would receive honour for honour. The doorkeeper, however, with taunting speeches, saucily refused admittance to them all, with haughtiness and abuse; on seeing which, the clerks rushed forward with impetuosity, and forced their way in, whilst the Roman attendants, in their endeavours to keep them back, struck them with their fists and sticks. Whilst the contending parties were engaged in repeated blows and taunts, it happened that a poor Irish chaplain was standing at the door of the kitchen, and had earnestly besought for something to be given to him in God's name, after the custom of a poor and hungry man, when the master of the legate's cooks (who was also his brother, and whom he had placed at the head of that office, that no poison might be given to him, which he, the legate, greatly feared) heard him, but paid no heed to his request; and, becoming angry with the poor man, threw in his face some boiling water drawn from the caldron where fat meat was being cooked. At this injury to the poor man, one of the clerks, a native of the Welsh borders, cried out: "Shame on us to endure anything like this!" and drew a bow which he carried (for, as the tumult had increased, some of the clerks had seized on whatever came to hand), and by an arrow discharged from it, himself pierced the body of the cook (whom the clerks satirically called "Nabuzardan," which means chief of the cooks). On the fall of the dead man a cry was raised, hearing which the legate was astounded, and, struck with fear, which can overtake the boldest man, he betook himself to the tower of the church, clad in his canonical hood, and secured the doors behind him. When the darkness of the night had put an end to the tumult, he put off his canonical dress, quickly mounted his best horse, and under the guidance of some persons who knew the most private fords, crossed the river at the nearest part to him, although with much danger, for the purpose of flying under the protection of the King's wings as soon as possible; for the clerks, carried away by rage, continued to seek for the legate in the most secret hiding-places, crying out: "Where is that simoniacal usurer, that plunderer of revenues, and thirster for money, who perverts the King, subverts the kingdom, and enriches foreigners with spoil taken from us?"... Having crossed the river with much trouble (as above mentioned), and with only a few attendants, owing to the difficulty of the passage, the rest remaining concealed in the convent, the legate came to the King breathless, and in a state of alarm, and with sighs and tears interrupting his discourse, he explained to the King, as well as his attendants, the series of events which had happened, making a serious complaint in the matter. The King was astonished at his pitiable story, and sympathised much with him, and sent the Earl of Warrenne with an armed troop to Oxford, with all haste, to rescue the Romans who were lying concealed there, and to arrest the scholars; amongst the latter, one Master Odo, a lawyer, was roughly seized, and, together with thirty others, was ignominiously consigned to close imprisonment in the Castle of Wallingford, near Oxford; whilst the legate, thus liberated from the broken snare, summoned some of the Bishops, laid Oxford under an interdict, and excommunicated all the abettors of this enormous offence. The prisoners were then, at the instance of the legate, conveyed in carts, like robbers, to London, and were there committed to close confinement, after being deprived of their incomes, and bound by the anathema....

At length it was suggested to the legate, by the Bishops and the whole of the clergy, that the dispute took its risk from his own dependants; but at the end of the dispute the clergy got the worst of it, for, by his orders, a great portion of them were committed to prison; the rest of them, in obedience to his orders, were ready humbly to make submission, at a place about three days' journey from Oxford; to these, on the petition of so many great men, his mind ought to be inclined to mercy. At length it was arranged that the legate would grant this mercy, on condition that all the scholars there assembled should proceed on foot, in company with the Bishops, also on foot, from St. Paul's Church, which was nearly a mile distant from the abode of the legate, until they reached the abode of the Bishop of Carlisle, and from thence should go, without hoods and cloaks, and barefooted, to the abode of the legate, where they would humbly ask pardon, which would be granted them, and they would become reconciled. This was done; and the legate, seeing this humiliation, received them again into his favour, restored the University to its municipal site, mercifully withdrew the interdict, with the sentence of excommunication, and granted them letters that, on this account, no stain of disgrace should at any time be thrown on them.

PAPAL EXACTIONS (1240-1244).

A. +Source.+--_Matthew of Westminster_, vol. ii., p. 196. (Bohn's Libraries.)

A.D. 1240.--And about the same time, a friend and relation of the lord the Pope came into England, the Master Peter Rubeus, who passed rapidly through England, and coming to Scotland, collected with great energy one-twentieth of everything in that country for the use of the Pope. About the same time, Master Peter de Supion, being sent into Ireland diligently to collect the same twentieth in that country, carried off all he could from thence, like a genuine inquisitor of the Pope. And the booty which he collected is said to have amounted to the number of fifteen hundred marks and more. But the collection of Peter Rubeus, which he extorted from the Scotch territories, is supposed to have reached the double of that sum. And subsequently, returning through England, he looked into all the houses of the religious Orders with a new spirit, and exacted money for the use of the Pope with exceeding strictness, compelling them to swear that they would keep that oath as a secret of the confessional for half a year. By which conduct he turned aside the hearts of the faithful from any devotion and affection towards the Church of Rome, and wounded them with great anguish.

B. +Source.+--_Matthew of Westminster_, vol. ii., pp. 222-223. (Bohn's Libraries.)

A.D. 1244.--About the same time, the Pope, relying too much on the King's simplicity and patience, sent into England a new extorter of money, not invested with the insignia of a legate, but fortified with unheard-of powers, by name Martin, who immediately betook himself to the usual abode of all the Papal legates, and nuncios, and secular clergy, that is to say, to the New Temple in London; and without delay displayed his power of receiving revenues, and extorting money in all kinds of ways, and practised it diligently, to the great distress of many hearts, and to the wounding of men's consciences. For he had the power of prohibiting all collation to benefices, until satisfaction should be made to him according to his wish. And, despising all scanty revenues as so many husks, he laid rapacious hands on all rich booty. He had also power of excommunicating, suspending, and punishing in various ways, and just as he pleased, all who resisted his will, though it might have been a mere hasty action; just as if on that very day he had, according to established custom, produced authentic Bulls, drawn up in the Papal chancery. On which account it was said by some people, and not without reason, that he had brought over a great many papers sealed with a Bull,[15] but not filled up, for him to fill up himself as he pleased; but I would hope that this was not the case. Accordingly, the aforesaid Master Martin began to exact presents on all sides from the prelates in an imperious manner, such as desirable palfreys and precious vessels, and to extort them even by force (especially from those who belonged to any religious Orders) for his own use (for that man prays foolishly who forgets himself); and for the use of the Pope he extorted sums of money and prebends to which men had been already elected, using this odious additional form of words: "notwithstanding any privilege to the contrary," etc. And as a certain rich prebend at Salisbury was vacant, the aforesaid Master Martin, a diligent searcher out of such things, laid his greedy and hooked hands upon it, and without consulting, or, I may rather say, against the express wish of the Bishop of that See, he conferred it on a young man, a nephew of the lord the Pope. And in a similar manner the unwearied Master Martin, before-mentioned, conferred other benefices on the kinsmen of the Pope, of whom there was an astonishing number, not without causing great astonishment to many persons of experience. For many people believed, and because they believed, hoped that the Roman Court, having been so repeatedly chastised by God, would, in some degree, at least, check its accustomed avarice by the bridle of moderation.

[15] Technically, the Bull was the leaden seal affixed to a Papal document.

THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE (1242).

+Source.+--_Matthew of Westminster_, vol. ii., pp. 206 _et seqq._ (Bohn's Libraries.)

The same year a great sedition arose in Poitou, which subsequently produced great ruin, and a deadly quarrel, and war, and irreparable damage; for the Count de la Marche, at the instigation of Isabella, whom the French call the most impious Jezebel, being his own wife and the mother of the King of England, lifted up his heel against his lord the King of France ... and he intimated to the King of England to come to Poitou, not with any great retinue of English, but armed only with a large sum of money, and that he would make over to him all his territories beyond the sea. The King, by the advice of the Poitevins, a race always ready for treachery, gave credence to his proposals, and agreed to them, and prepared for his passage, with much treasure, and in a single vessel, and could not be delayed by either the advice or entreaties of any of his friends or natural subjects.... When Earl Richard (the brother of King Henry) saw that there were no means of turning the King from his design, he agreed to cross the sea with him, and prepared in a magnificent manner for the passage. And encouraged by his example, many other nobles prepared to make the passage in company with the King and the aforesaid Earl. The guardianship of the kingdom, therefore, being entrusted to Walter, Archbishop of York, because he was considered a man of singular discretion and fidelity among all the nobles of the kingdom, the lord the King, accompanied by his Queen, and by his brother, Earl Richard, with seven other Earls, and about three hundred knights, embarked on board ship on the fifteenth of May and set sail, steering his course towards Bordeaux....

About this time, the most pious and accomplished King of France, being moved by the spirit of mercy and peace, offered the lord the King of England excellent conditions of peace, because he was his kinsman, and because the Queen, his wife, was sister of the Queen of England. But the King of England, being led away by the false promises of the Count de la Marche, utterly refused them, asserting that he would never reject the advice of the said Count, whom, according to his usual custom, he called his father. And immediately, in a rash and hostile manner, he defied the King of France himself. Therefore the King of France repented of having thus humbled himself to the King of England, and unfolding the oriflamme, he made a vigorous attack on all the territories which belonged to the Count de la Marche; and in a short time the war was so successful in his hand, that he had crushed his enemies and brought the war to a wished-for end; for he had already occupied the Castle of Frontignac, which appeared to the Poitevins to be impregnable, and in it he took prisoners the son of the Count de la Marche, and a hundred knights. After that, he took the castle called Movent. And after that, day by day, he took other castles and cities, and all their inhabitants, illustrious citizens and knights, voluntarily submitted to his power. At last he came to a city very rich in vineyards, which is called Taillebourg, and which rejoices in a river, which is called the Tarente; and while the King of France was there, the King of England came in close order of battle to the other side of the river, and the two armies were so near that they could see one another's flags and standards, and there the King of England was saved from the danger of a disorderly battle by the energy of Earl Richard. Accordingly, King Henry fled with prudence and good fortune, and came to Saintonges; but the King of France pursued him without delay, and a very fierce battle took place between the French and English, outside of the city, in which the French, though against their will, were forced to confess that the English gained the most honour.

But as the army of the King of France was increasing every day, like a lake which grows in consequence of torrents which pour into it, a sedition arose in the city, in consequence of which evil reports got abroad, and so the King of England fled disgracefully, and retreated with all expedition to Blaye, where for some days he was detained by illness. So when the Count de la Marche heard this, being stung with grief in his heart, he sent the Count of Brittany to the King of France, to be a mediator and an intercessor for peace. And so, though with great difficulty, he was admitted to peace by the King of France, on very severe conditions, being forced to abandon the King of England, after he had drained him of his treasures and injured his honour. After these events, Reginald de Pontibus, and (following his example) William, surnamed the Archbishop, and the Viscount of Thouars, and many other nobles of Poitou, who nevertheless had craftily, or one might say treacherously, received all the money of the King of England that they could get, now flew to shelter themselves under the wing of the King of France....

Meantime, the King of France, having taken counsel with his nobles, because he saw that his military enterprises all prospered in his hands, according to his wishes, proposed to pursue the King of England in a hostile manner, without losing any time, as far as Blaye, because he knew that the said King was now deserted by all the forces of the Poitevins, and deprived of all comfort, and descending rapidly to the abyss of despair; and from Blaye to Bordeaux, if he departed in that direction, and to continue the war with unwearied diligence till its termination. And lo! the Lord, pitying the King, the Lord who giveth salvation to Kings, when and how He wills, that Henry might not appear to have recommended himself in vain to the prayers of the men of the religious Orders on his retreat, threw the hearts of the French, who were giving way to absurd pride, into confusion, by permitting seeds of division and dissension to arise among them.... Besides, a great want of provisions, and especially of water, oppressed their army, which was numerous, in a miserable manner, so that as their want of all kinds of food grew greater, they became swoln, and wasted away with sickness, and being afflicted and exhausted with various miseries, expired. For their fellow-citizens of the province had closed up the mouths of the wells, and had polluted and poisoned the rivers and fountains, had ploughed up the meadows and pasture-lands, and, having driven away the cattle, had removed to a distance all their supplies and all their crops. Accordingly, when they drank the waters, both horses and men perished; and as the dog-days were just at hand, those who were sick lay down, and speedily died, being destitute of all comfort and rest, and having no attendance or medicine. And in this way upwards of eighty nobles of the French army, who were entitled to bear standards, died, and of the infantry about twenty thousand. And as the King of France at the same time was very ill, great fear and despair seized upon the French, who said that the alms of the King of England had undone them. For they were greatly afraid that their own King, because he was tender and delicate, and indeed that they themselves, too, might be overwhelmed with sudden death; and the example of strong men who were overtaken by death increased their fear.