Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/68

  [For Peter's English career the original authorities are: Matthew Paris, Annales Monastici, Flores Hist., Cont. of Gervase of Canterbury, Marsh's Letters in Monumenta Franciscana (there is a friendly letter to Peter on pp. 282–4), Shirley's Royal and Historical Letters (all these in Rolls Ser.); Liber de Antiquis Legibus, and Rishanger's De Bellis, &c., (both in Camden Soc.); Rymer's Fœdera, orig. edit.; Rôles Gascons, vol. i. (Documents inédits sur l'Hist. de France); Bain's Cal. of Documents relating to Scotland, vol. i. For his history in Savoy see Monumenta Historiæ Patriæ Sabaudiæ, esp. vol. i. Scriptores, and vol. iv. Chartæ (the Chroniques in vol. i. are of late date, and very confused and legendary; they make Peter a knight of the Garter); Carutti's Regesta Comitum Sabaudiæ; Gingins's Les Établissements du Comte Pierre II; Guichenon's Histoire de la royale Maison de Savoie, i. 280–7, and the Preuves in iv. 73–9. Wurstemberger's Peter der Zweite Graf von Savoyen, Zürich, 1858, is an elaborate monograph in 4 vols., the last containing a collection of documents and extracts illustrative of Peter's history. See also Mugnier's Les Savoyards en Angleterre (which was published at Chambéry in 1890); Bémont's Simon de Montfort; Prothero's Life of Simon de Montfort; Blaauw's Barons' War; Whitaker's Hist. of Richmondshire; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 111–12.]  PETER (d. 1268), bishop of Hereford, was a Savoyard of high rank (‘natione Burgundus,’ Flores Hist. ii. 480), and belonged to a junior branch of the house of the lords of Briançon, viscounts of the Tarentaise or valley of the upper Isère in Savoy, and possessors of considerable estates in Graisivandan (, Des origines féodales dans les Alpes occidentales, pp. 408–410, 462). The younger branch of the house derived its name from the fief of Aigueblanche, also situated in the Tarentaise. Peter seems to have been a son of the younger brother of Aimeric de Briançon, who was the head of the house after 1234. The Briançons were closely attached to the rising fortunes of the house of Savoy. Accordingly, Peter of Aigueblanche became the clerk of William of Savoy, the warlike bishop-elect of Valence, one of the numerous sons of Count Thomas of Savoy; Matthew Paris describes him as William's ‘familiaris clericus et procurator expensarum’ (Hist. Major, iv. 48). He accompanied his master to England when the latter, in 1236, escorted his niece Eleanor of Provence [q. v.] on her journey to England to become the wife of Henry III, and was thus brought into close contact with the English king. William left England in 1237, and Peter probably accompanied him. But on his master's death at Viterbo in November 1239, Peter returned to England, and was warmly received by the king. He became the warden of the king's wardrobe. In 1239 he was already archdeacon of Salop. Shortly after Henry procured him the bishopric of Hereford, vacant by the retirement of Bishop Ralph of Maidstone into the Franciscan convent at Gloucester. The see was poor, and Henry was reluctant to bestow on Peter a trifling recompense for his services. He consequently made a vain effort to induce the monks of Durham to permit the election to the palatine bishopric of Durham, which had been vacant since 1237, of either Peter of Aigueblanche or his wife's uncle, Boniface, the future archbishop of Canterbury. On the failure of this proposal, Peter, on Sunday, 23 Dec. 1240, was consecrated bishop of Hereford at St. Paul's by Walter Cantelupe, bishop of Worcester, and Walter Grey, archbishop of York (, iv. 74–5). The king was present, with a large number of nobles. The monks of Canterbury protested against his consecration elsewhere than in their cathedral. Peter held the bishopric until his death; Henry III thrice repeated his attempts to procure his translation to a richer see—in 1241 to London, in 1254 to Lincoln, and in 1256 to Bordeaux. But the king's efforts met with no success.

Peter was ignorant of the English tongue (ib. v. 442, ‘Anglicum idioma ignoravit’), and made no effort to carry on the administration of his see in person. He was still the king's ‘special councillor,’ and continued closely attached to the service of the court and of the queen's uncles. Of these latter Peter of Savoy [q. v.] now chiefly represented the family in England. The bishop of Hereford witnessed the grant made to this prince of the earldom of Richmond in 1241, and was, early in 1242, despatched with him on a mission to France. They were commissioned to announce to the Poitevins faithful to the English cause the speedy arrival of Henry III to raise troops for the projected war in Poitou, and to negotiate for a marriage between Richard, earl of Cornwall, Henry III's brother, and Sanchia, the younger sister of Queen Eleanor. The bishop showed great activity, sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with Peter of Savoy. He spent most of the summer in Guienne, at Bordeaux and Bazas, where Henry III now held his court; but he also found time for a hasty journey to Provence, where, on 17 July, he and Peter of Savoy signed at Tarascon the marriage treaty for the alliance of Richard and Sanchia (the act is printed by, Peter II von Savoyen, iv. 87, and in and , Documenti e Sigilli di Savoja, ii. 143; , pp. 39–