would never be able to meet unless helped by the bishops and clergy, etc., of Scotland and elsewhere. Rustand is to declare to the ecclesiastics of Scotland that by papal authority he has granted to the English king for his work of establishing his son Edmund on the throne, and meeting these debts wherewith the Church is burdened, a twentieth part of all the ecclesiastical revenues of the Scottish Church.1

A few days later than the date of these documents, the first indication is given in the papal letters that Alexander IV is thinking of relieving Rustand of his position in England. On 30th September, in a letter addressed to the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of Gascony, he speaks of sending Rustand to them as "an angel of peace"; and, on 6th October, he acquaints the English nuncio of this appointment.' Meanwhile the term of grace given to Henry to fulfil the conditions upon which Sicily had been granted to his son Edmund had again run out. He had been threatened with excommunication and his kingdom with interdict if these conditions were not carried into effect; but once more his agents at the Curia interposed their petitions and assurances, and the pope consented to a further delay of six months, from 1st December 1256. To try once more and obtain money from English ecclesiastics in order to meet the papal debts, the archbishop of Messina was dispatched to England. In sending the archbishop's credential letters the pontiff again recalls the great trouble and expenses he had been put to, after the English king had accepted the crown of Sicily for his son, to defend interests which were then rather those of England than of the Holy See. An expedition

1 Rymer, i. 349. 3 Ibid., f. 481.

2 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,358, f. 477.

4

Rymer, i. 350.

had been promised again and again by the English king, but none had ever been dispatched. This state of affairs could not obviously be allowed to continue, and the archbishop of Messina was given full powers to take counsel and to determine what was to be done. Though unwilling to take back the crown thus bestowed upon the king's son Edmund, the pontiff felt that something must be done to bring the matter to a conclusion; he hoped, however, that Henry would not readily abandon the position he had taken up, and thus display his weakness and impotency before all the kings and princes of the world. The pope concluded by begging the king to secure what money he needed "by reconciling himself with the prelates of his kingdom, who assert," says Pope Alexander, "that they have been despoiled of their rights by him, and with all other persons" by whose assistance he could accomplish this important business.'

At this same time Pope Alexander likewise wrote to the king as to the state of the Church in England. The bishop of Rochester, who, it will be remembered, had proceeded to Rome to plead for the English prelates against the nuncio Rustand, had asserted, so said the pope, "that they and their Churches were much ground down in their rights and liberties by the royal power." The bishop had come to the Holy See, as others had previously come to his predecessor, Pope Innocent, asserting that these rights had been gravely injured by the king's action in regard to Sicily. Desiring to safeguard the royal honour as far as possible, and to eliminate from the question whatever might be dangerous, after consultation with the royal agents, the bishop-elect of Salisbury and the abbot of Westminster, the pontiff suggested to the bishop of RoRymer, i. 351.

1

B B

chester the propriety of adjourning for a time the consideration of the English grievances. "We insinuated to the said bishop," continues the pope, “that in all that pertains to the free, peaceful, and tranquil state of the said Churches, I will induce you, by God's help, so to act that neither he nor his fellow bishops, nor the other prelates, either secular or regular, need trouble themselves in the matter." This being so, Alexander IV warns Henry of the danger of neglecting the sentence of excommunication that had been pronounced by all the bishops against those who infringed the ecclesiastical liberties, which excommunication had been confirmed by the pope, and which liberties he had at his coronation, and subsequently, sworn to protect.1

For half the year 1257 matters continued in the same uncertain and unsatisfactory state. The archbishop of Messina came over to the country, and, having discussed the Sicilian question with the king, appears to have departed with the king's renewed assurances that he intended in a brief time to send over an expedition under an able commander and supplied with plenty of money. In June, however, a letter to his nuncio seems to show that the pope's suspicions of Henry's plain dealing were aroused. Rustand had evidently written to say that the king had forbidden him to pay to the money lenders any more of the money he had been collecting from ecclesiastics, and had ordered him to lodge it all in the new Temple in London, "until it should be more certain what would be the end of the negotiations about Sicily." He had reason to complain, so said the pope, since Henry had received so many favours and grants from the Roman Church, and only recently, in order to protect the rights of the young king 1 Rymer, i. 251. 2 Ibid., 355.

of Sicily, he, the pope, had publicly excommunicated Manfred and his followers. Does the king of England, he asks, wish to see the Church sink beneath the burden of debts incurred for him in his behalf? Is he going to allow us to be harassed by the demands of money lenders? "Is this a sign of the great devotion which he pretends to have as a son for his father, not to think of how our mind must be disturbed by all this? Assuredly We never expected such a mode of action from him, nor ever imagined that he would in this way repay us for so many benefits, favours, and rich gifts." The pope then goes on to order Rustand to ignore the king's command, and, notwithstanding his prohibition, to continue to pay off the loans as he receives the money. He is to tell the king, that if he tries to hinder the payment being made to the money lenders, the pope will be compelled, though unwillingly, to proceed against him and the kingdom of Sicily as he thinks best.'

About the middle of the same year, 1257, Alexander IV determined to make one more effort to bring the unfortunate matter of the crown of Sicily to a conclusion, and he wrote once again to the king, that he was sending over Master Herlot as his legate to treat on the matter.' Herlot arrived only in the week before Easter of the following year, some time between the 17th and the 24th of March. Although he was not given the name of legate, he had the power and dignity; and "the king, according to his wont," says the chronicler, "warmly approved of his coming." Shortly before this, however, Rustand departed from England, being summoned to Rome to answer accusations which had been made against him of receiving bribes and of otherwise enriching himself through his office.3

1 Rymer, i. 357.

2 Ibid., 358.

3 Matthew Paris, v. 673.

Henry anticipated the work of the legate by sending powers to his agents in the Curia to renounce the crown of Sicily in his son's name should they think fit.' At the same time he laid before the pope a statement of what he had done in the business. He had already paid many of the debts incurred in the matter by the Church, not indeed as fully as he wished, because he had had, and still experienced, great opposition from the prelates in getting the tax on ecclesiastical property granted him by the pope. But since this delay was apparently considered to be gravely detrimental to the Roman Church, unwilling to be the cause of this, he desires to leave it to the pope to determine whether he should retire. "This being understood," the king continues, "that looking only to the honour of the Roman Church, you will so determine the said business, so that we, our heirs, and the whole kingdom of England, will obey with our wonted devotion to the Roman Church; nor, by reason of this business from which we have derived no advantage, shall we at any future time suffer loss. If we have bound ourselves to carry out the business, we have done so through the sincere affection and devotion which we have ever had for our mother the Roman Church, and not from any desire of temporal gain."* With this letter was sent a set of instructions to the English agents, and to those who were to represent Henry in the Curia. They suggested the possibility of securing considerable modifications of the conditions under which the Sicilian crown had been originally accepted by Henry for his son, and in view of the likelihood of these proposals being accepted, several blank skins of parchment, signed and sealed by the king and by his sons Edward and Edmund, were furnished the envoys."