Dover Castle

Having been established at Dover for nearly a fortnight, on Monday 14 September the King paid the first of several brief visits to Canterbury. The most significant business this week was nonetheless transacted at Dover, on Sunday 13 September. There were two chief items of concern: Ireland, and the appointment of envoys to treat with the Pope. Let us begin with Ireland. On 13 September, Richard de Burgh, son of William de Burgh and cousin of Hubert, was restored to his father's lands in Connaught, save for the castle of Athlone (co. Westmeath).1 At the same time, and in return for a fine of 5000 marks, the native Irish King of Connaught, Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair (d.1224), was confirmed in possession of his kingdom, once again excepting the castle of Athlone.2 The fine was made payable in two equal instalments, the first due immediately before delivery of the charter, the second at Easter 1216. All of the money collected was to be stored in Dublin together with other funds raised from the fine of Walter de Lacy. Nonetheless, there can be little doubt that this Irish treasure was intended, in the longer term, to assist with the costs of the King's military endeavours in England.3 On the same day, a charter was issued to Henry archbishop of Dublin, confirming him and his church in possession of the Staffordshire manor of Penkridge and its surrounding manors.4 This was to confirm a grant made recently by Hugh Hose, an associate of the Lacy family in Ireland and until 1214 a ward in the custody of the King, who seems to have recovered Penkridge and its members as recently as 1207.5 In the longer term it was to provoke disputes between the archbishops of Dublin and the nephew and later heirs of archbishop Henry, over whether this was an ecclesiastical or a personal estate.6 The witnesses to these transactions included the bishops of Winchester, Coventry and Worcester, Alexander Neckham abbot of Cirencester, and the papal subdeacon Master Pandulf, newly styled as bishop-elect of Norwich.7 Pandulf himself was promised all exits of the bishopric of Norwich previously collected by the King's keepers.8 Other Irish business this week included a grant of 'English law and liberty' to a native Irishman, and enquiry into the credit and debt of the men of Dublin.9

Also on 13 September, there was confirmation to the canons of St Oswald's Nostell of their valuable church of Bamburgh, whatever disputes the King might previously have raised, and a promise of £100 in ecclesiastical rents for the young son of Thomas count of Savoy: the future William bishop of Valence, a major player in English politics of the 1230s, whose promotion here was perhaps intended to ease the passage of the English bishops and other English envoys crossing the Alps to attend the papal council summoned to meet in the Lateran Palace in Rome.10 On the same day, and no doubt continuing his efforts to keep the peace with France, the King sent the abbot of Bardney and a Hospitaller knight as envoys to the court of Philip Augustus, with undertakings that he intended no harm to French merchants and would take no maltolts (as John had repeatedly promised since the Anglo-French truce of September 1214).11 Much more significantly, a series of letters was entered on the dorse of the Patent Roll, apparently all to be assigned to 13 September, raising loans of up to 2000 marks at the papal court to pay for the expenses of the King's ambassadors, headed by Henry archbishop of Dublin, himself that same day granted confirmation of the manor of Penkridge.12

Pope Innocent III, as depicted in an early 13th century fresco at Sacro Speco

No less than four royal letters were addressed to the Pope concerning this embassy, the intention being, apparently, that the envoys themselves decide which particular missives should be delivered and which should merely be held in reserve.13 The second and third of these letter take the form of standard credences, informing the Pope of the appointment of an embassy composed in one version of the archbishops of Bordeaux and Dublin, the chancellor Richard Marsh, John Marshal and Geoffrey Lutterell, and in another of a slightly larger group now supplemented with the names of the abbot of Beaulieu, Master Peter Russignol, precentor of York (and a close associate of Peter des Roches bishop of Winchester), the archdeacon of York and Master Robert de Airaines canon of York. The letter here with the more select list of envoys is the more carefully phrased, granting the embassy not 'general' but 'free' administration, agreeing that the King would ratify whatever two or three of his envoys might decree, and asking that the Pope make known these terms to the King's 'adversaries' should they appear in the papal court.14 The fourth letter in the sequence, appointing Master Pandulf to represent the King's views before the Pope, sets out a brief summary of complaints against the 'stubbornness' and 'disobedience' of English prelates which had prevented the implementation of the Pope's efforts to defend the King, railing against these 'proud and malevolent' men who had thwarted papal plans, and seeking means by which the King's enemies might be confounded and reduced to abject fear ('terror').15 Meanwhile, much the most interesting letter is the first in the sequence, here naming the fuller list of envoys, but opening with a suggestion that it was the Pope as much as the King who had first provoked the barons into rebellion:

'Since the earls and barons of England were loyal to us before we undertook to subject ourselves and our land to your lordship, it was specifically for this cause that they violently rose up against us, as they publicly declared'16

In other words, it was the surrender of England and Ireland to papal lordship, in 1213, that had directly provoked rebellion, two years later. In this reading, it was in the interests of the Pope, as much as those of the King, that John obtain the support that he was seeking. All of this was transacted on the single day, 13 September. A desire to drive home his determination to stamp out any clerical opposition may explain the King's decision, on the following day, to enter Canterbury: a city no longer in archiepiscopal control, now that Langton had set out for Rome.

A knight (England, 3rd quarter of 13th century), BL Royal MS 1 D I, f.241

Over this and subsequent days, arrangements were made for the payment of wages owing to serjeants at Berkhamsted and Winchester.17 There is also evidence for the recruitment of further mercenaries from across the Channel, payable according to the quality of their equipment either as knights or as serjeants, sent to join the garrisons of Hastings and Rye or placed under the command of Fawkes de Breauté and Peter de Maulay.18 Fawkes' brother, Nicholas, was promised a prebend in York Minster previously held by the archdeacon of Rouen.19 At least one of the King's Flemish allies, Archembald the Fleming, appears as witness to a royal charter this week.20 Another, William de Fiennes, descendant of Faramus of Boulogne, received a further confirmation of the Buckinghamshire manor of Wendover, first promised to him a month earlier.21 As Flemings and Frenchmen poured into England, so various of the King's aliens departed for France. These included Geoffrey de Martigny, the former constable of Northampton, proscribed under clause 50 of Magna Carta and now offered passage overseas at the King's expense in two small ships, each capable of carrying up to 15 horses.22

Various other commands this week suggest a sporadic but ongoing process of retribution against those now leagued in rebellion against the King. Thus the lands of Robert fitz Walter in Cornwall were promised to Henry, the King's bastard son.23 Robert's kinsman, Walter de Valognes, outlawed for association with the plot against the life of King John as early as 1212, was deprived of land at Stourmouth in Kent now granted to Nicholas of Dunwich.24 The estate lay on the Wantsum Channel dividing Kent from the Isle of Thanet, at a point crucial to any attempt to raid up the Stour in the direction of Canterbury.25 Land in Bedfordshire was conferred upon the archbishop of Dublin pending proper obedience from its former lord.26 Despite having incurred the King's anger for permitting the pirate, Eustace the Monk, to land at Folkestone, the lord of Folkestone, William of Avranches was promised leniency, should he seek the King's mercy.27

On Thursday 17 September the King put in train a major redistribution of offices in the west country. Henry fitz Count, illegitimate son of the late earl Reginald of Cornwall, was granted custody of the county of Cornwall and Launceston Castle, pending an inquest, when things were more settled, into his claims to these estates as his hereditary right.28 He was meanwhile commanded to release Portchester castle to Ralph Gernun, nephew of William Brewer.29 John Marshal, now appointed to the King's embassy to Rome, was promised the rights of his marshalcy in Ireland and custody of the forests of Somerset and Dorset.30