Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/174

 reception was offered him by Frederick II, who was then in Sicily. Richard then proceeded to the papal curia bearing documents from Frederick, and hoping to mediate a peace between pope and emperor. He reached Rome in July. But Gregory IX, who was at his last gasp, would hear of nothing except the absolute submission of the emperor. Richard went back to Frederick much disgusted. He was still with him on 10 Nov. (, Regesta, i. 940). Soon after he set off on his journey homewards. Accompanied by imperial deputies, he made his way slowly through the cities of Italy, and was everywhere received with great honour. In January 1242 he reached Dover.

On 28 Jan. he entered London (, iv. 180). Next day he took an active part in the opening of a council called by the king to secure a grant to equip a new expedition to Poitou. Richard, whose interests as Count of Poitou were specially affected, made himself the spokesman of his brother's wishes. But the barons urged that the king and the count had better wait until the existing truce with France had ended, so that Henry was forced to collect what money he could by private negotiations with individual magnates. But the expedition went forward, and Richard accompanied it, sailing with Henry from Portsmouth on 16 May, and reaching Royan on 20 May. Thence they proceeded by land to Pons. The disastrous campaign of Taillebourg and Saintes followed. Richard rebuked the disloyalty of the Count of La Manche before Taillebourg, and sought to save the army from its perilous plight by crossing the bridge to the French army, and persuading St. Louis to grant a truce till the next day. Going back to Henry, Richard recommended his immediate retreat to Saintes. But he soon quarrelled with his brother. He blamed him for his harsh treatment of a northern noble, William de Ros, and at last, joining with other disaffected nobles, sailed home to England. On 22 Aug. he got license to return. After a stormy passage, during which he vowed to build an abbey if he escaped shipwreck, Richard landed at Scilly on 18 Oct. (, iv. 229). He had lost all hope of any real power in Poitou.

But, to improve his position, he now agreed to marry Sanchia, third daughter of Raymond Berengar, count of Provence, and sister of the queens of France and England (, Peter II von Savoyen, iv. 87). The lady, brought to England by her mother, Beatrice, solemnly entered London on 18 Nov. On 23 Nov. 1243 the marriage was magnificently celebrated at Westminster by Walter de Grey, archbishop of York. On 1 Dec. the king and Richard made a settlement with regard to the latter's property. Richard renounced his rights in Ireland and Gascony, and received a confirmation of his earldom of Cornwall, and the honours of Wallingford and Eye, with a sum of money and fresh lands in compensation (Fœdera, i. 253–4). Just as his first marriage had connected him with the baronial opposition, so did his second marriage closely bind him to the court, to the Savoyards, and the unpopular foreign influences. Henceforth he was the political ally of his brother. His change of policy left room for the rise of Simon de Montfort.

A few years of comparative quiet followed. In August 1244 Richard mediated a treaty of peace between Henry III and Alexander II of Scotland, and immediately after engaged in an unsuccessful campaign against Davydd II, prince of Wales [q. v.] He carefully administered his estates and had much money at his disposal. He constantly lent the king large sums (, Geschichte von England, iii. 673). The king gave him the farming of the new coinage for twelve years as a means of recouping him for his loans to the state. In 1247, when the magnates were desirous of formulating their continued grievances against the king in parliament, Richard betook himself to Cornwall to avoid attending the parliament, and thus thwarted the barons' plan (, v. 73). In the same year, after the death of Henry Raspe, the first anti-king set up by the pope against Frederick II, a papal legate was sent to Richard offering him the succession of Henry Raspe's precarious throne; but Richard rejected the offer.

Nevertheless, Frederick II complained that Richard was in the hands of the papal party (, iv. 577). In the autumn of 1247 Richard went on a mission to St. Louis of France, who had arranged to sail on crusade next year, and wished to restore every man his rights before his departure. Richard, it was believed, vainly urged the claims of the English on Normandy and Poitou. In 1250 he again went to France with Peter of Savoy [q. v.], as ambassador to prolong the truce (Fœdera, i. 272). Subsequently he proceeded to Lyons, where Innocent IV then held his court. The pope received him with deference, and long and secret conferences were exchanged. It seems probable that Innocent sounded Richard as to whether he would accept the Sicilian throne (, Die letzten Hohenstaufen, p. 42), of which the excommunicated emperor had been formally deprived. But Richard was not prepared to declare openly against his brother-in-law (cf.