the ill-fated judge at liberty, the archbishop and bishops solemnly excommunicated Falkes and his retainers, and the king laid siege to the castle. This stronghold, however, for a long time resisted all efforts to capture it, and before it fell Falkes de Breauté had escaped into Wales. When, after some weeks, the castle was taken, the king hanged most of the defenders, amongst whom was William de Breauté, Falkes's brother. Upon this, the latter made his submission and was handed over to the custody of the bishop of London, until such time as it should be determined what to do with him, besides depriving him of all his property.'

Before this, however, and whilst the siege of Bedford Castle was actually in progress, the pope intervened in de Breauté's behalf. On 17th August, 1224, he wrote to the king, reminding him that he had frequently warned him to deal with his subjects in "a spirit of mildness," and "to strive to keep peace and concord." In spite of all these admonitions, he hears, he says, with grief that, “despising these warnings, you have rashly taken up arms against that noble man, Falkes de Breauté, who in time of need has risked his life and property for your father and for yourself." Those who have counselled you in this are as unwise as they are faithless. It is not the time to turn your arms against your own subjects. "Even if they have gravely injured you, at the present moment you should rather strive to win them by your royal favours to unite heartily in defence of your kingdom and yourself. . . . We warn your Highness, therefore, and earnestly exhort you, as well as strictly order you by these Apostolic letters, at once on sight of them, to desist from the siege of de Breauté's castle without delay, and not to punish the foresaid nobleman, nor allow him to be punished in any way." Then after saying 1 Dunstable Annals (Ann. Monastici, iii.), 5; cf. Wendover, ii. 279.

that should the king have anything against de Breauté, he, the pope, will himself be surety for him, he concludes: "Prefer not any other counsels to our salutary admonitions and commands; but do what we suggest and order as you trust to our favour and help.”1

To Cardinal Langton, Honorius wrote on this subject in a manner even more peremptory. "We have not yet," he says, "been able to force our mind to credit what has been suggested to us about you by many, though they have striven to enforce the truth of what they say by many evidences. We thought indeed of that eminent knowledge of Divine Scripture which you possess; of that uprightness, which you should have put on with the bishop's office and dignity; and of that abundance of love which has been shown to you by the Apostolic See in so many ways; and turning these things over in our mind, we could not bring ourselves to think anything evil or unworthy of you." The pope then goes on to say that, whilst Langton's agents were representing that "all things in England were peaceful and tranquil, so as to prevent by every means in their power the mission of any legate," others were "telling us of disturbances in the kingdom and eagerly beseeching us to dispatch a legate thither." Trusting to you, "though not indeed without suspicion (for why do you fear the eyes of the Apostolic See), we desisted from our design to send thither a legate, and determined to send simple messengers. When they were ready to start, so that in two days' time they would have left the city, your letters arrived containing assurances that peace was fully established in England." Upon this the orders to the nuncio were recalled. Immediately after, however, "we were informed by the other side," of the king's attack upon Falkes de Breauté, and of 1 Royal Letters, i. 544. G

the fact that you with other bishops had published an excommunication against him and his. What can you say to this? Will you reply, that after your letters had been dispatched to us discord broke out against your expectation? If so, why did you not inform us about it at once? Perhaps you will say, that justice required arms to be taken up against the foresaid noble? But most certainly prudence would have required the contrary, and at the present time prudence should rather be considered. Where then is your great wisdom, if it has been done by your advice? We consequently warn your Fraternity, and strictly order you, by our Apostolic letters that . . . you cause the king at once to abandon the siege of the said noble, and that you, without delay or difficulty, relax the sentence you have laid upon him and his followers." By so doing, and “faithfully carrying out our order, you may justify our trust in you and give us greater hope of your love." 1

Henry replied to the pope with firmness and dignity. The case of the bishop of Winchester, as well as that of Falkes de Breauté had evidently, he says, been misrepresented to him. He had acted by the advice of those who knew the circumstances, and he details some of the doings of de Breauté, for which it had been considered necessary to punish him, that the pope might understand that the very order of the kingdom demanded peremptory satisfaction from the man whom the pope had gone out of his way to defend."

The correspondence was dropped; but the pope's mind seems still to have been set on protecting de Breauté, and there can be little doubt that this was one reason which prompted him to take up once more his design of sending a nuncio, about which he had told Langton.

1

Royal Letters, 543.

2

Ibid., 224.

CHAPTER V

THE NUNCIO OTHO

IN the year 1225 the needs both of the king of England and of the pope became pressing. In some way or other money had to be procured from the English people to carry on the administration of the kingdom and of the Church. The situation both in England and in Rome was extremely critical. In England the authorities of the Church, headed by Cardinal Langton, were resolved to resist, as far as they lawfully might, the growth of exactions on the part of the Curia, regarding them as tending inevitably to the utter ruin of religion in this country. In concert with the nobles, too, they were equally resolved to give no more aids to the king, unless he would pledge himself under the most solemn oaths to grant those measures of liberty which he had long promised them, but which under one pretext or another he had hitherto managed to evade. This was the situation when the pope determined to send over a nuncio to expedite the business in which he was chiefly interested; namely, the procuring of money for the work of the crusades, and the securing of some of the best ecclesiastical benefices in England with which to reward those whose services were necessary to carry on the general administration of the Church.

In preparation for this mission, as early as the beginning of February, 1225, Pope Honorius III endeavoured to gain a favourable reception from the king for his representative.

He urged the English bishops to help Henry liberally out of their ecclesiastical revenues, and shortly after directed his legate in France, Romanus, to induce Louis of France to act, in regard to matters in dispute between the two kingdoms, in such a way that the rights of England might be preserved, and Henry might realise that he had found in Honorius his natural protector.1

The needs of the sovereign had already been set before the parliament, which met at Westminster shortly after the close of the Christmas festivities, in January, 1225. Hubert de Burgh, on behalf of Henry, drew a melancholy picture of the foreign troubles and misfortunes of the nation, by which not only the king, but many of the nobles had suffered the loss of their foreign estates. As much was at stake, and because, if the fortunes of the British arms could not be retrieved, the general interests of the country at large would be placed seriously in jeopardy, he asked that the entire nation should rally to the king's assistance with a generous gift of money. He suggested that an aid of a fifteenth part of all movables, ecclesiastical as well as lay, would be sufficient to enable the king to defend the rights of the Crown and to reclaim the national inheritance over the sea.

Cardinal Langton and the other prelates discussed the matter with the lay peers and agreed upon a common reply to the royal demands. They would willingly grant the proposed tax, they said, provided that the king, upon his part, would grant those liberties which the nation had sought for so frequently, but had not been able to obtain. "Moved by his desire to obtain the money," says Matthew Paris, "Henry consented, and forthwith the royal Charters were dispatched under the king's seal into every county, and judges were appointed to view the forests and determine

1 Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, tom. xix. 767.