[703]
The Brut (a. 1210) says that the host assembled at “Caerleon,” and
returned to England “about Whitsuntide.” It places the campaign in 1210,
but this is obviously a year too early. Cf. Ann. Cambr. a. 1211, and W.
Coventry, vol. ii. p. 203. John was at Chester (i.e. “Caerleon”) on May 16
and 17, 1211, the Tuesday and Wednesday before Whitsunday; Itin. a. 13.
The Itinerary shows that the expedition had not taken place earlier than this;
and from May 17 to August 29 there is a blank.
[707]
July 8, R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 235. The Brut, l.c., says he
“returned to Wales about the calends of August.”
[708]
Fourteen “or more,” according to Ann. Cambr. a. 1211.
[709]Brut, a. 1210. Cf. Ann. Cambr., Margan., Tewkesb., Winton., Waverl.
a. 1211; W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 203, and R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 235.
Roger says John was back at Whitchurch on August 15.
[711]
Cf. Canterbury Chronicle, in Stubbs’s Gerv. Cant. vol. ii. pp. cvi., cvii.,
cxi., cxii.; Gerv. Cant. vol. ii. p. 106; R. Coggeshall, p. 164; Ann. Winton.,
Waverl., and Dunst. a. 1210. The date comes from Itin. a. 11.
[713]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 234, 235. He gives no date; but John was in
London, seemingly for the only time in 1210, at the end of October; he dates
from the Tower on October 27. Itin. a. 12.
[714]Ann. Dunst. a. 1210. Cf. R. Coggeshall, p. 164, and Ann. Waverl.
a. 1210.
[719]
The second appendix to Innoc. III. Epp. l. xv. No. 234—“Forma quidem
est talis” (printed also, under the heading “Instructiones legato traditae,” in
Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. p. 109)—is obviously a copy, enclosed in a letter of 1213, of the
original commission issued to Pandulf and Durand in 1211. See below, p. 179.
[720]
The day comes from Ann. Burton. a. 1211, and we know from the Itinerary,
a. 13, that John was at Northampton on August 29. The Ann. Waverl.
date this conference a year too late, viz. 1212. Cf. W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 204;
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 235, and Ann. Margan., Tewkesb., Winton., Oseney,
and Worcester, a. 1211.
[721]Ann. Burton, a. 1211. Cf. Ann. Waverl. a. 1212.
[736]
Cf. R. Howden, vol. iv. pp. 83 and 116. The account of Richard’s testamentary
dispositions in the former place is open to two interpretations. Richard,
says Roger, “divisit Johanni fratri suo regnum Angliae ... et praecepit ut traderentur
ei castella sua, et tres partes” [in p. 116 Otto claims only “duas partes”]
“thesauri sui, et omnia baubella sua divisit Othoni nepoti suo regi Alamannorum;
et quartam partem thesauri sui praecepit servientibus suis et pauperibus distribui.”
Grammatically, there is nothing to show whether “tres partes thesauri sui” is
meant to be connected with “praecepit ut traderentur ei [Johanni]” or with
“divisit Othoni,” but common sense strongly supports the former interpretation;
however anxious Richard may have been to help his nephew, he could not
possibly mean deliberately to leave his own chosen successor literally without a
penny. The actual wording of Richard’s will may, indeed, have been as
ambiguous as Roger’s summary of it, and Otto may have tried to take advantage
of its ambiguity. His claim to the earldoms seems somewhat unreasonable; he
had never really held the earldom of York, and it was for that very reason that
Richard had granted him Poitou; but it was clearly preposterous to expect John
to renew this latter grant after Otto had accepted the German Crown.
[737]
R. Howden, vol. iv. p. 116; Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. p. 80.
[738]
Leibnitz and Scheidt, Origines Guelficae, vol. iii. pp. 281, 282.
[739]Rot. Chart. p. 133 (1204); Rot. Pat. vol. i. pp. 11 b (1202), 40, 44
(1204), 48 (1205).
[740]
The young countess of Holland, Ada, daughter and heiress of Count
Theodoric who died in 1203; see Art de Vérifier les Dates, vol. xiv. pp. 261,
430. Her mother at once married her to Louis, count of Los; her father’s
brother, William, claimed Holland against the young couple; he and Louis took
opposite sides on the Imperial question, William holding for Otto, Louis for
Philip of Suabia; and eighteen days after the wedding William drove Ada’s
mother and husband out of Holland, captured Ada herself, and sent her to
England to be kept in prison by John. She was still there in 1207, and was
only released when her husband had done homage to both John and Otto, Rot.
Pat. vol. i. p. 82, 82 b.
[741]
Cf. M. Paris, Hist. Angl. vol. iii. p. 109, and Rot. Claus. vol. i. p. 82 b.
[747]
W. Armor. Gesta P. A. c. 162. The date there given is a year too late,
as the English Rolls show.
[748]
Boulogne, Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. p. 104; Rot. Claus. vol. i. pp. 116, 117;
Chart. p. 186; Pat. p. 93; Bar and Limburg, Pat. p. 92 b; Foedera, p. 106;
Flanders, Pat. pp. 93, 94; Louvain, Foedera, pp. 106, 107.
[763]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 239; W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 207. John was at
Nottingham September 9–15, and reached London on the 20th, after passing
through “Salvata,” Geddington, Northampton, and St. Albans, Itin. a. 14.
The assertion of the Ann. Margan. (a. 1211 for 1212) that in his terror at the
discovery of the meditated treason he “shut himself up for fifteen days in Nottingham
castle” is thus shown to be false.
[765]
W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 208. Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 240; Hist.
des Ducs, pp. 122, 123; Ann. Tewkesbury, a. 1212, and Chron. Lanercost, a.
1213.
[772]Ib. p. 240; R. Coggeshall, p. 165; W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 207. The
entry in Ann. Dunst. a. 1211 about the razing of Fitz-Walter’s castles and the
cutting down of his woods is probably misplaced, and should be referred to 1212.
See Note II. at end.
[773]
W. Coventry, l.c. R. Coggeshall, l.c., and Ann. Dunst. a. 1211 (for 1212)
name as one of these victims a clerk called Geoffrey of Norwich, whom M.
Paris, Hist. Angl. vol. ii. p. 126 and Chron. Maj. vol. ii. p. 527, confuses
with the archdeacon whose fate is related by Roger of Wendover, vol. iii.
p. 229. See above, p. 136.
[775]
Cf. Rot. Chart. pp. 191 b, 192; Ann. Waverl. a. 1212; W. Coventry,
vol. ii. p. 207; R. Coggeshall, p. 165, and M. Paris, Hist. Angl. vol. ii. p. 132,
and Chron. Maj. vol. ii. p. 537.
[777]
From the tenour of these letters it is clear that neither of the persons
addressed had been in England recently. We must therefore suppose that an order
countermanding the muster at Chester had reached the barons in Ireland before
they set out to obey the royal summons, and that for the muster at Nottingham
their presence had not been required.
[788]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 243. Cf. W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 209. W.
Armor. Philipp. l. ix. v. 235, makes the day April 22. “Culvertage” was the
penalty for treason—forfeiture and perpetual servitude.
[792]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 245, 246. Cf. Ann. Dunst. a. 1212 (evidently
meant for 1213). John was at Canterbury May 4–6, 1213; Itin. a. 14.
[793]
John, who in his prosperous days made almost a parade of disbelief in
William’s loyalty, and delighted in straining it to the uttermost by saying and
doing everything he could think of to insult and provoke William, nevertheless
knew well that in moments of peril William was the one counsellor to whose disinterestedness
he could safely trust, the one follower on whom he could count
unreservedly, the one friend whom he could not do without. So at the close of
1212 or early in 1213 he had recalled the Marshal to his side, and proved his
confidence in him by giving him back his two sons who were in England as
hostages (Hist. de G. le Mar. vv. 14492–598). The bishop of Norwich had
also come over from Ireland with five hundred knights and other horsemen to
join the muster (R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 245). It tells something of the success of
John’s measures for the settlement of the Irish March that the simultaneous
absence of the justiciar and the Marshal, at such a crisis in the king’s fortunes,
appears to have been followed by no disturbance in the country which they thus
left without a ruler.
[795]
See Petit-Dutaillis, Hist. de Louis VIII. pp. 37, 38.
[796]
The Pope’s letter, the “Forma,” and the “Expositiones” are given in
Innoc. III. Epp. l. xv. No. 234. The two former are also in Ann. Burton,
a. 1214. I think there can be no doubt that the three documents together
constitute the “quasi peremptorium mandatum” brought by the three envoys
mentioned in W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 209. Cf. above, p. 160.
[799]
Cf. W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 210, and the letter patent in R. Wendover,
vol. iii. pp. 248–52, Innoc. III. Epp. l. xvi. No. 76, and Foedera, vol. i. pt. i.
p. 111.
[800]
Innoc. III. Epp. l. xvi. No. 77; R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 252–4;
Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. pp. 111, 112. The oath of fealty is given by R. Wendover,
p. 255, and in Foedera, p. 112. Roger makes the date Ascension Eve, but it
was really the Wednesday in the week before Rogation Sunday.
[802]
“Addidit autem hoc ex suo,” W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 210.
[803]
In a private letter which he wrote to the Pope on the same day, John says
he did it “inspirante gratia Sancti Spiritus, ad perpetuam Ecclesiae pacem et
exaltationem,” Innoc. III. Epp. l. xvi. No. 78.
[805]
“Salvis nobis et haeredibus nostris justitiis, libertatibus et regalibus nostris,”
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 254.
[806]
If we may believe Matthew Paris, the Pope was not the only potentate to
whom John about this time offered homage and tribute. In Matthew’s Gesta
Abbatum S. Albani, vol. i. pp. 236–40, and in his Chronica Majora, vol. ii.
pp. 559–62, is a long account of an embassy which John is said to have sent to
the emir of Morocco, Al Moumenim (Mohammed al Nassir), “significans eidem
quod se et regnum suum libenter redderet eidem et dederet, et deditum teneret
ab ipso, si placeret ei, sub tributum. Necnon et legem Christianam, quam
vanam censuit, relinquens, legi Machomet fideliter adhaereret.” Matthew proceeds
to give a lively account of the ambassadors’ adventures, and of the rebuke which
the emir administered, through them, to the sovereign who had sent them on so
shameful an errand; all of which Matthew professes to have heard from one of
the envoys themselves. Unluckily for him, he has given two contradictory dates
for the embassy. In the Gesta Abbatum he represents it as taking place during
the Interdict; and Dr. Lingard has shown, by evidence drawn from Matthew
himself, that if it was sent at all, it must have been sent in 1212 (Lingard, Hist.
England, vol. ii. p. 325; cf. M. Paris, Chron. Maj. vol. ii. p. 566). But in
Chron. Maj. Matthew puts it after the reconciliation with Rome, representing it
as despatched by John in his disappointment at finding that transaction profit him
less than he had expected. The story of the interview between the envoys and
the emir, as Matthew tells it, has therefore a very strong appearance of having
been invented by that writer, as a kind of satire on John’s submission to the
Pope; though the mere fact of some overture on John’s part for an alliance with
the emir is neither impossible nor unlikely.
[807]
In March 1215 William Mauclerc, John’s agent at Rome, writes to John
that there have come thither some envoys sent by the barons to complain to the
Pope, “cum ipse sit Dominus Angliae,” that John refuses them their rights, etc.,
and he continues: “Supplicant autem Domino Papae quod super his eis provideret,
cum satis constet ei quod ipsi audacter pro libertate Ecclesiae ad mandatum suum
se vobis opponerent, et quod vos annuum redditum Domino Papae et Ecclesiae
Romanae concessistis, et alios honores quos ei et Romanae Ecclesiae exhibuistis,
non sponte nec ex devotione, imo ex timore et per eos coactus fecistis.” Foedera,
vol. i. pt. i. p. 120. See Lingard, Hist. Eng. vol. i. p. 333.
[811]Ib. p. 212. Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 255, 256.
[812]
W. Coventry and R. Wendover, ll.cc. Cf. Hist. des Ducs, pp. 125,
126; and R. Coggeshall, p. 167. The date, May 28, is given in Ann. Waverl.
a. 1213.
[813]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 256; Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. p. 112.
[814]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 257. Cf. W. Armor. Gesta P. A. cc. 169, 170;
and Rot. Pat. vol. i. p. 99.
[815]Hist. de G. le Mar. vv. 14612–40; Hist. des Ducs, p. 130 (the dates are
from this writer); R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 258; and W. Coventry, vol. ii.
p. 211.
[816]Hist. des Ducs, p. 131. Cf. Rot. Pat. vol. i. p. 100.
[817]Hist. des Ducs, pp. 131–3; W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 211; R. Wendover,
vol. iii. p. 258. Salisbury was wrecked on the Northumberland coast on his
return, but nothing was lost, Hist. de G. le Mar. vv. 14649–58.
[818]
W. Coventry, l.c.; Hist. de G. le Mar. vv. 14641–6.
[819]
Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 259, and W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 212.
John was at Porchester June 16, and at Bishopstoke June 17–20 and June 29–July
1; Itin. a. 15. For Salisbury’s mission, see Rot. Pat. vol. i. pp. 100 b,
101 (June 22 and 26).
[820]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 259, 260; W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 211;
Rot. Pat. vol. i. pp. 98 b, 99, 99 b, 100, 100 b; Rot. Chart. pp. 193 b, 194.
[821]
W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 213, says “mense Junio”; R. Wendover, vol.
iii. p. 260, July 16; Gerv. Cant. vol. ii. p. 108, and Ann. Worc. a. 1213,
say July 9.
[822]
R. Wendover, l.c. Cf. Ann. Tewkesb. and Worc. a. 1213, and Itin.
a. 15.
[823]
The Ann. Dunst., which place the return of the exiles under a wrong year,
1212, say the king met them “in monte juxta Porecestre.” This is surely an
error for Winchester. Nothing is more likely than that John should have gone
to meet them on S. Giles’s Hill.
[824]
Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 261; Ann. Dunst. a. 1212; and W. Coventry,
vol. ii. p. 213.
[828]Ib. p. 261. Roger says John went to Portsmouth; but the Itinerary
shows him hovering about between Studland, Corfe, Dorchester, Poorstock,
and Gillingham.
[844]Ib. John’s order for this payment is in Rot. Pat. vol. i. p. 106.
[845]
Such an investigation by joint commissions was going on in the diocese of
Durham in January 1214, Rot. Claus. vol. i. p. 106 b.
[846]
York, Durham, Chester, Worcester, Exeter, Chichester, Whitby, S.
Edmund’s, S. Augustine’s at Canterbury, Reading, S. Benet’s at Hulme, Battle,
Ramsey, Peterborough, Cirencester, Eynsham (W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 213),
Grimsby, Wherwell and Sherborne (Rot. Claus. vol. i. pp. 147, 148, 150).
[847]Rot. Claus. vol. i. pp. 146 b, 148, 150, 150 b.
[848]
Date, November 1, 1213; R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 277. Cf. W.
Coventry, vol. ii. p. 216.
[849]Rot. Pat. vol. i. p. 107. The name of the abbey is there printed as
Evesham; but cf. W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 213.
[860]
M. Paris, l.c. p. 559, makes John repeat on the death of Geoffrey Fitz-Peter
the remark which he has previously recorded as having been made by the
king on the death of Hubert Walter. See above, p. 113.
[861]First Report on Dignity of a Peer (1826), vol. ii. appendix i. p. 2, from
Close Roll 15 John; see Hardy’s edition of the Close Rolls, vol. i. p. 165.
In Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. p. 117, the document is printed with an obviously
wrong date.
[864]
Cf. R. Coggeshall, p. 168; Hist. des Ducs, pp. 139–41, and Itin. a. 15.
The Flemish authority says “li cuens ... li fist houmage de la tierre ke il
devoit avoir en Engletierre”; the English chronicler says the homage was for
“all Flanders.” Unluckily there seems to be no charter extant to settle the
point.
[865]
R. Coggeshall, p. 168. Raymond seems to have been on his way home,
and travelling at John’s expense, in January 1214; Rot. Pat. vol. i. pp. 106 b,
108 b.
[869]
It is a question whether this means the queen’s child so named, or that
elder son Richard who figures actively in his father’s struggle with the barons
a year or two later.
[870]
Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 280; R. Coggeshall, p. 163; and Itin. a. 15.
[884]M. Petit-Dutaillis (Hist. de Louis VIII. p. 48) thinks this affair at Nantes
occurred “dans les premiers jours de juin.” The only blank days in John’s
itinerary during this month are June 2–4, 8, 9 and 13. From the relative
positions of the places where he was on the other days, I cannot but think that
the 13th is the most likely date.
[885]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 285, 286. Cf. R. Coggeshall, p. 169; W.
Armor. Gesta P. A. c. 172; and Hist. des Ducs, p. 143.
[887]M. Petit-Dutaillis (Louis VIII. p. 49) remarks that the modern post-office
spelling, “La Roche-aux-Moines,” is wrong, the Latin form being “Rupes
Monachi,” not “Monachorum.”
[897]
Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 288–91; M. Paris, Hist. Angl. vol. ii. p.
151; W. Armor. Gesta P. A. cc. 181–97; R. Coggeshall, p. 169 (wrong
date), and W. Coventry, vol. ii. p. 216.
[914]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 283, 284. The terms are stated in a very confused
way, both in the Pope’s letter (given l.c.; also in Rot. Chart. pp. 208, 209),
in a letter of Earl William of Ferrars (Rot. Pat. p. 139; Ferrars was one of
those who swore as sureties for the king), and in that of John himself (Rot. Chart. p. 199); but a comparison of the three documents with Roger’s own
account of the matter makes it tolerably clear that Nicolas was authorized to
raise the interdict as soon as he had obtained security for the payment of twelve
thousand marks a year, in half-yearly instalments, till the total of forty thousand
should be complete.
[916]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. p. 284, makes the date June 29; W. Coventry,
vol. ii. p. 217, R. Coggeshall, p. 169, and Ann. Waverl. a. 1214, make it
July 2.
[921]
At Dunstable, “after the octave of Epiphany,” R. Wendover, vol. iii.
p. 278.
[922]
R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 278, 279, says that Nicolas, with the king’s
assent, sent Pandulf specially to plead for him at Rome against the archbishop;
but Pandulf’s approaching departure over sea “in nuncium nostrum” was
announced by John on January 4 (Rot. Claus. vol. i. p. 141), ten days at least
before Stephen’s appeal was made or even threatened.
[923, 924]
Cf. R. Wendover, vol. iii. pp. 278, 279, and R. Coggeshall, p. 170.
[925]Statutes of the Realm, Charters of Liberties, p. 5. A copy of this grant,
with the date January 15, is printed in Foedera, vol. i. pt. i. pp. 126–7.