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 eighty-one persons who had despoiled the Italian clergy in England, and the guilty persons had met with no discouragement from Hubert. Peter, moreover, suggested to the king that the royal poverty, which prevented him from taking active measures against the plundering raids of Llywelyn of Wales [see, d. 1240] on the border counties, was due to the bad government or dishonesty of his ministers. Hubert and his friends were displaced, Stephen Segrave [q. v.] was made justiciar, and a nephew of Peter des Roches, Peter de Rievaux [q. v.], was made treasurer (29 July 1232, iii. 31). The late justiciar was summoned to answer an inquiry into his administration [see ]. At his trial he brought various accusations against Peter. But the bishop had triumphed, and was now supreme. He and his partisans had ‘immutably perverted the heart of the king’ (, iii. 244).

Armed bodies of Poitevins were summoned from beyond seas. All offices were filled by Peter's adherents, most of whom were his fellow-countrymen. Richard Marshal, third earl of Pembroke [q. v.], placed himself at the head of the malcontents, and, demanding the dismissal of Peter and the Poitevins, talked of driving out the king and his evil counsellors, and electing another ruler in case of refusal. The bishop, on his part, boasted that he had been the trusted adviser of the emperor, and would counsel no half-measures (, iii. 240, 246; Annals of Winchester, ii. 86). The news that foreign mercenaries had arrived led the barons to refuse to attend two councils summoned by the king, one at Oxford on 24 June 1233, and one at Westminster on 11 July ( iii. 51). Pembroke fled to Wales and allied himself with Llywelyn, whereupon Peter and Stephen Segrave advised Henry to summon his military tenants to Gloucester on 14 Aug. In that assembly Pembroke was proclaimed a traitor, and the king declared war on him. On 9 Oct. a council met at Westminster. When complaint was made of the treatment of the earl marshal, Peter insolently claimed for the king despotic rights over the persons and property of rebellious barons. The bishops thereupon excommunicated Peter and the king's other evil counsellors, despite Peter's remonstrance that he was exempt from their power and was subject only to papal censure. In November Peter accompanied the king in his campaign about Gloucester against Pembroke, but the king's inadequate forces compelled him to remain inactive. The earl's supporters, under Richard Siward, ravaged the bishop's lands at Winchester.

But Henry was growing tired of Peter's domination. As far back as 24 June 1233 a Dominican friar, Robert Bacon [q. v.], assured Henry he would never have any peace until he dismissed him (, iii. 244). It was rumoured that the bishop of Winchester had promised to make the realm subject to the emperor ( iii. 66). At length he overreached himself by procuring the election of his friend, John le Blund or Blunt [q. v.], as archbishop of Canterbury. He lent money to Blunt, and wrote to the emperor in his favour (ib. iii. 50;, iii. 243). But the pope quashed the election on the ground that Blunt was a pluralist, and named Edmund Rich [q. v.], whose arrival was the signal for Peter's fall. The bishops at once drew up a long accusation against Peter. Henry was reminded that it was owing to Peter's counsels that his father had lost the love of his subjects. The king was deeply impressed by Edmund's saintly character, and on 10 April 1234 he ordered Peter to retire to his bishopric, and cease to occupy himself with secular affairs ( iii. 78). On 11 May Peter's enemies burnt his town of Ivinghoe. In a great council on 1 June the archbishop of Canterbury read a copy of the letter which Peter had sent to Hugh FitzGerald in Ireland, directing him to murder the Earl of Pembroke on his arrival in that country. The king said that, in ignorance of its contents, he had affixed his seal to the document under the compulsion of Peter and his other counsellors. Peter and his nephew were summoned to the royal presence to account for their financial administration and their use of the royal seal. An attempt at flight on their part was foiled at Dover, and they took refuge in Winchester Cathedral (28 June). On 2 July Richard Siward and others made a vain search for them, and captured the horses of the bishop and the prior. Peter excommunicated them, and laid an interdict on the church and city; but the marauders at once repented and were absolved. The city and church were reconciled the day after (Ann. Wint. ii. 86). Next year Peter was pardoned by the mediation of the archbishop of Canterbury (Flores Historiarum, ed. Luard, ii. 213).

On 11 March 1235 he left Winchester to place his wealth and military experience at the service of the papacy, by invitation of Gregory IX, who was at war with the Romans (Ann. Wint. ii. 87;, iii. 304, 309; iii. 103). Henry warned the emperor, Frederick II (27 April 1235), against placing any confidence in Peter's account of the recent proceedings