Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/218

Grey stood high in the king's favour, and was much employed by him, being sent for example in 1226, along with other ambassadors, to induce the nobles of Brittany, Normandy, and Poitou to revolt from their young king, Louis IX, and ally themselves with Henry, and to negotiate a, marriage between Henry and the daughter of the Duke of Brittany. The ambassadors held several interviews with the French lords, but nothing came of them (Fœdera, i. 183; Annals of Dunstable, p. 103;, iv. 136, 140, 141;Chron. Turon. Recueil, xviii. 318), and the archbishop returned to England the following May. Grey made some attempts to assert the claims of his see to the obedience -of the Scottish church, and in the last year of his life consecrated a bishop to the see of Withern in Galloway. In 1233 he protested, on the ground of these claims, against the coronation of Alexander of Scotland as contrary to the rights of his see as well at to the dignity of the English kingdom. The Roman see, however, was in favour of the full independence of the Scottish church, and Innocent IV in 1251 settled the question against him (Fœdera, i. 209, 277). When the legate Otho opened the council held at St. Paul's on 19 Nov. 1237, Grey seems to have claimed that as the senior archbishop he should take precedence of Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury; the legate, however, settled the matter by declaring that the Archbishop of Canterbury's proper place was on his right hand, and that of the Archbishop of York on his left (, iii. 416, 417). The next year Grey was summoned to London by the king to protect the legate, who had fled from Oxford on account of the affray between his household and the scholars, and he evidently took a leading part, in bringing about the pardon of the university (ib. p.485). In 1241 the archbishop attended a meeting of bishops and other great ecclesiastics to consider the condition of the Roman church, which was then in trouble, for Gregory IX was dead and the Emperor Frederic was triumphant in Italy. They ordered prayers and fasts, and determined to send messengers to remonstrate with the emperor (ib. iv. 173). On 9 June Grey consecrated Nicolas of Farnham to the bishopric of Durham, and received a profession of obedience from him, and this had an important bearing on the dispute which afterwards arose between the sees in the days of Archbishops Wickwaine and Romanus, When the king was about to set out on his expedition to France, he sent the archbishop with two other commissioners to the great council which met at London on 2 Feb. 1242 to demand an aid; the commissioners were not successful. Henry sailed at Easter, leaving the archbishop in charge of the kingdom, and Grey is therefore described as the 'king's chief justiciar' (Fœdera, i. 244; Liber de Antiqq. Legg. p. 9); the Bishop of Carlisle and William Cantelupe were appointed as his chief advisers. During the king's absence, which lasted until September 1243, Grey had much to do to supply him with money, stores, and troops, specially as some of the stores which he sent were lost, as he believed, at sea. He demanded an aid from the Cistercians on account of their wool, but, though he threatened them with the king's displeasure, was unable to obtain it, and consequently refused to allow the abbots to leave the kingdom in order to attend the general chapter of their order (Fœdera, i. 246, 250;, iv. 234, 235). The guardians of the Cinque ports applied to him for help, representing that they were unable to protect the coast from the ships of Brittany and Poitou, and that the seamen of Normandy and Calais were preventing them from fishing. Grey wrote urgently to the king, bidding him return as he cared for his own safely and that of his kingdom. He provided ships for his voyage, and went to Portsmouth to meet him on his return. In 1244 he was warden of the Tower, and as Griffith, the eldest son of Llewelyn of North Wales, who was confined there, broke his neck in trying to escape on I May, he obtained a writ from the king declaring that no blame attached to him in the matter (Fœdera, i. 256), Henry requested Pope Innocent to excuse the archbishop from attending the council of Lyons in 1245, but the pope would not consent. In 1249 he was employed on some fruitless scheme of marriage between the reigning houses of England and Provence (ib. pp. 270, 277).

Grey distinguished himself by his magnificent hospitality at the marriage of Alexander III of Scotland to Henry's daughter Margaret in 1252. The wedding was held at York. Grey gave sixty oxen for the feast, supplied all deficiencies, and provided lodgings for all who had none, pasture for horses, firing, and utensils, at a cost of four thousand marks behaving as became one who was 'the prince of the north' (, v. 269), He did not attend the assembly of the clergy held the following October, and the prelates refused to decide finally on the demand made upon them in his absence, especially as the Archbishop of Canterbury was also absent. The next year he excused himself from coming to the parliament, alleging his old age and the length of the journey.