Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/138

 council to Henry VI (Proceedings of the Privy Council, v. Pref. viii). Immediately before the election of Albert II as king of the Romans in 1438 he was ordered to go with a knight of Rhodes to Aix-la-Ohapelle and Cologne to congratulate the new ' emperor ' (ib. pp. 89, 91). In 1440 he was made archdeacon of Taunton (, Fasti, i. 167), a prebendary of St. Paul's, London (ib. ii. 448), and archdeacon of Salisbury (ib. p. 624). He successfully petitioned the king in 1441 to confer on him the living of Cottingham, Yorkshire, and being then dean of St. Buryan's College, Cornwall, was elected dean of Salisbury (ib. p. 616). In that year he was sent on the king's business to Frankfort, whence he proceeded to Rome with letters from Henry to Pope Eugenius IV, requesting the canonisation of Osmund, bishop of Sarum, and King Alfred. In October he exhibited articles before the commissioners for the trial of Eleanor Cobham, duchess of Gloucester [see under ], for sorcery (English Chronicle, p. 59). By the spring of 1442 he had resigned his place as clerk, and become a member of the privy council (Proceedings, v. 157, 173). He attached himself to the Beaufort party, and to the leadership of William de la Pole (1397-1450) [q. v.], earl, and afterwards duke of Suffolk, and was in February 1443 sent to John Beaufort (d. 1444), earl, and in that year duke, of Somerset [q. v.], to whom he would be an acceptable messenger, with a flattering message from the king with reference to the earl's new command as captain-general of Guienne, and to inquire specially as to his intentions with respect to the war (ib. p. 226 postea). He received a present of a hundred marks from the king for his services, and was commissioned to treat with envoys from Holland and Zealand concerning the complaints of their merchants (ib. p. 307). On 11 Feb. 1444 Moleyns was appointed keeper of the privy seal, in succession to Thomas Beckington [q. v.], bishop of Bath and Wells, and on the same day was commissioned with Suffolk and Sir Robert Roos as ambassador to conclude a peace or a truce with France (Fœdera, xi. 53, 58, 60). In May the ambassadors succeeded in arranging a truce, and obtained the betrothal of Margaret of Anjou [q. v.] to King Henry (ib. pp. 61, 74). Moleyns was prominent at the reception of, and in the negotiations with, the French ambassadors who came to London in July 1445, when the truce was prolonged (, French Wars, i. 101 sq.) He was rewarded with the see of Chichester, to which he was, after papal provision, consecrated on 6 Feb. 1446 (, Fasti, i. 247). He received a grant of exemption of all the coast within his lands from the jurisdiction of the court of admiralty, and he held the living of Harrietsham, Kent, in commendam. As Henry had not fulfilled his engagement to surrender Le Mans, Moleyns was sent to Charles VII of France to request an extension of time (Fœdera, xi. 138 ; Proceedings of the Privy Council, vi. 51).

As keeper of the privy seal Moleyns must in 1447 have sealed the warrant for the arrest of Suffolk's great rival, the Duke of Gloucester, who died a few days afterwards (, Constitutional History, iii. 137, where it is remarked that there is nothing in the history of Moleyns to give probability to a charge of connivance at the murder of the duke). He received a patent from the king for the exportation of wool, which Henry bought back from him for 1,OOOZ. (, Lancaster and York, ii. 79), and also had license to 'impark' twelve thousand acres, and to fortify twelve manor-houses. Le Mans being threatened by the French, Moleyns and Roos were commissioned in January 1448 to negotiate for peace or a truce, and went to France to do the best they could for the town and its garrison (, ii. 84 ; Fœdera, xi. 196, 216). They obtained an extension of the truce, and made terms for the surrender of the town. Other difficulties having arisen between England and France, Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset (d. 1455) [q. v.], then lieutenant of France, requested Charles VII to lay the matters before Moleyns and Roos, as more acquainted than he was with the arrangements between the two courts. By the time that his letter arrived the English ambassadors had left the French court and gone into Brittany, where the duke had cause of complaint against the English (, ii. 85, 86). Early in 1449 Moleyns was engaged in negotiations with the Scots. The surrender of Maine and Anjou and the failure of Suffolk's policy caused general dissatisfaction in England, which was increased by the loss of a great part of Normandy. Moleyns was regarded as, next to Suffolk, responsible for the surrender of Maine, and was accordingly the object of popular hatred. On 9 Dec. he resigned the privy seal, and received the king's permission to travel on either side of the Channel (Fœdera, xi. 255). He went down to Portsmouth, where a force was gathered for the relief of Normandy, to pay the men their wages, and lodged in the hospital called God's House. The men were out of control, and were committing all manner of excesses. A dispute arose about the payment of the sailors.