CHAP. V. Parliament The papal ambassador did appear, though not, as was dreaded, furnished with the authority of a legate; his name was Rustand; he was a lawyer, and a 1255 Gascon by birth. On his arrival the Sicilian affair refuses aid was brought forward by the king in the October for Sicily. Parliament, 1255, with pressing demands for money. Earl Richard headed the opposition, and declared he would have nothing to do with an engagement undertaken without his counsel and the assent of the baronage. The barons, returning in a remarkable manner to the original form of the Great Charter, complained that they had not all been summoned to Parliament, and, in the absence of so many of their peers, could, in accordance with the charter, assent to nothing. At the ecclesiastical assembly held at the same time, the Bishop of London vowed he would lose his head rather than submit, and was supported by the Bishop of Worcester, who professed an equal readiness to be hanged. The hopes raised by these bold utterances were further encouraged by the proclamation of the Bishop of London, that no one in his firm the truce already made by his cousin (writ dated 20 Jan., 1256), and with him J. Mansel and another (writ dated 24 Jan., 1256; cf. Matt. Par. 912). This staved off the danger for some time, but the election of Richard so much increased it, that in June 1257 a commission of three was sent over, consisting of the Bishop of Worcester, Hugh Bigod, and Adam Marsh, and they were empowered to act under the direc tion of the former ambassadors, S. de Montfort and P. of Savoy, who were to cross at the same time ('quos similiter ad partes illas transmittimus,' writs dated 22 June, 1257). S. de Montfort and J. Waleran were to have been sent at first (Roy. Letters ii. 121). It appears that the ambassadors did not start till the end of Sept. 1257, and did not return till 2 Feb., 1258 (Matt. Par. 955). Roger Bigod went out instead of Adam Marsh, who died about this time. Peter of Savoy and John Mansel were appointed at the same time to conduct the negotiations with regard to Sicily (see writs dated 28 June, 1257, in Fad. i. 359, 360.) cf. below, p. 127, note 1. Matt. Par. 913. The allusion is of course to the suppressed constitutional clauses of Magna Carta. CHAP. V. 1256 Opposition of the church. A crusade preached. Vain efforts of Henry and the Pope. diocese should obey the orders or instructions of Rustand. Upon this the king violently attacked him, and threatened to persuade the Pope to unfrock him. The bishop made the memorable reply, 'Let them take away my mitre, and I will put on my helmet.' ' The clergy in general, in their diocesan assemblies, agreed on a single form of protest, in which they objected that the tenth had been granted without their assent, and that the previous concessions had been made for a specified object, which had not even been attempted.2 Meanwhile Rustand and others. vigorously preached a crusade, which, being directed against Christians instead of heathens or heretics, provoked more scoffing than enthusiasm.3 Large sums had already been sent to Italy, and had been swallowed up by the war against Manfred, whose success, joined to a natural feeling of indignation against the way in which the Pope had handed over the country to an unknown foreigner, caused all Apulia to swear allegiance to him. The opposition of all classes in England rendered the payment of the sums demanded quite impossible. The Pope sent letter after letter urging haste, and threatening with excommunication all who refused to pay the tenth. He even threatened to put the kingdom under an interdict, and left no stone unturned to get the money. Next year the king instead of lowering raised his demands. He produced papal ''Tollant mitram, galea remanebit.'-Matt. Par. 915. 2 Ann. Burt., 360. In spite of all this the feeling with regard to both Pope and king was that they acted in ignorance, being led away by evil counsellors. 'Moverunt sannas et risum prædicatorum mutabilitates.'-Matt. Par. 914. Fad. i., under the year 1256 passim. CHAP. V. 1256 letters in support of the claim for a renewal of the tenth for five years, and other extravagant exactions.1 The prelates, assembled separately in February 1256, hard pressed by king and Pope, bullied by Rustand, were on the point of giving way, but for the support of the lay magnates. They however remained firm. It seems almost strange that they should have thought Arguments it worth while to argue the point, or to give reasons against the for their refusal. They urged however in self-defence scheme. the state of the realm, the disturbances in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Gascony; pointed out the difficulties of the Sicilian undertaking, the disadvantageous conditions offered by the Pope; and finally, since the contract was made without their knowledge, refused the aid demanded. Sicilian the Meanwhile the object of Henrys wishes was Critical rapidly falling from his grasp. He was sorely vexed situation of by the news he received of Manfreds successes. The country. election of Richard to the German Crown raised up a rival in the King of Castile, and a feeling of jealousy in France which threatened every moment to burst forth into war. This situation of course produced disturbances in Gascony, which were fomented by the Spaniards. The Welsh harried the frontiers, the nobles of the northern marches were disaffected towards the English king and his son-in-law of Scotland, yet the infatuated monarch would not give up the struggle. He thought to impress his subjects with a fait accompli, when in the Lent Parliament of 1 Ann. Burt. 388, 390. Such were the demands for the first years income of vacant benefices during the next five years, half the income of non-residents, the revenues of all but one of benefices held by pluralists (the right to hold a plurality was conceded by the Pope to the English Church in 1245), &c.—Cf. Ann. Osney, 115. CHAP. 1257 Henry persists in the scheme, and exacts contributions. A Welsh war. 1257 he produced his son Edmund, with the royal ring on his finger, and in the Apulian dress, as King of the Two Sicilies, before the assembled magnates. At the same time he confessed the enormous debt of 350,000 marks, which he owed on his return from Gascony,' and the full extent of which seems to have been hidden from the public hitherto. In answer to his appeal the laity remained obstinate, and the king was forced to use the expedient of a scutage for an expedition against the Welsh, which probably could only be levied on the poorer and weaker tenants.2 The clergy however, seemingly in despair, voted the king the large sum of 52,000 marks, on consideration of that which ere now must have been seen to be the weakest of safeguards, a fresh confirmation of the charters, and the promise of redress of grievances which were to be embodied in a protest. This was the last great contribution which went to swell the list of papal and royal exactions. Whether the money was ever collected or not seems uncertain. The king is said to have refused to accept so paltry a gift. The convocation which assembled in the following August to draw up the list of grievances was dissolved prematurely on account of the Welsh war, and the grant was probably lost sight of in the confusion of the next year. The ravages of the Welsh drove the king in the summer of 1257 to summon all the forces of the kingdom against them, but the army, 1 Matt. Par. 913. 2 Ad maximum pauperum gravamen.'- Ann. Tewk. 158. Matt. Par. 947. The sum is said by Matt. Par. 951 to have been 42,000 marks. The sum of the unnecessary expenses which Henry had incurred since he began to be 'regni dilapidator,' was computed in this year to amount to nearly a million of marks, which, as Matt. Par. 948 says, is horribile cogitatu,' when we recollect that it is equivalent to about fifteen millions at the present day. V. 1257 by wanton destruction of the crops in order to anticip- CHAP. ate the enemy, did more harm to the country than the Welsh. After suffering several defeats the famine. which they themselves had produced forced them to The failure of the expedition, and the wound it inflicted on the national pride, were apparently the last thing needed to break down the reverence of the people for their king. return. chosen At the same time a change occurred in Henrys Change in foreign foreign policy, which 'shows incidentally the growing policy; strength of the opposition. It is remarkable that all the ambassadors sent with Simon de Montfort in the summer of 1257 to prolong the truce with France were among the earls supporters, excepting Peter of Savoy, who however had been one of his best friends in 1252, and was after all but a lukewarm royalist. Hugh Bigod was the baronial Justiciar ambassanext year. Adam Marsh was one of his oldest and dors most intimate friends; the mantle of Grosseteste had from fallen on Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester. friends. Although the same cannot be said of the ambassadors appointed to conduct the Sicilian affair in conjunction with the earl, yet their instructions left no doubt as to what must be the result of their embassy, and coincided with what we find afterwards to have been Simons policy. The king was still very unwilling to relinquish the enterprise, and wrote to the Pope to say that in spite of the opposition of the barons he hoped still to carry it through. The commissioners. 1 See note 2 on p. 116, where I have collected the details respecting these negotiations. 2 Roy. Letters ii. 126. This letter is said by Dr. Shirley to have been written in Jan. or Feb. 1258. It is not dated, but it seems probable that it is rather earlier than this. The ambassadors who really Simons |
