[(30)] We are not inclined to find fault with such an appointment as that of Stephen Langton; still his forced election at the bidding of Innocent was a distinct breach of the rights of the King, of the Convent of Christ Church, and of the English nation generally. See the account of his election in Roger of Wendover, iii. 212; Lingard, ii. 314; Hook’s Archbishops, ii. 668.
[(31)] See the Bulls and Letters by which Innocent professed to annul the Great Charter in Roger of Wendover, iii. 323, 327; the excommunication of the Barons in iii. 336; and the suspension of the Archbishop in iii. 340.
[(32)] There is a separate treatise on the Miracles of Simon of Montfort, printed along with Rishanger’s Chronicle by the Camden Society, 1840.
[(33)] I think I may safely say that the only royalist chronicler of the reign of Henry the Third is Thomas Wykes, the Austin Canon of Osney. There is also one poem on the royalist side, to balance many on the side of the Barons, among the Political Songs published by the Camden Society, 1839, page 128.
Letters to Earl Simon and his Countess Eleanor form a considerable part of the letters of Robert Grosseteste, published by Mr. Luard for the Master of the Rolls. Matthew Paris also (879, Wats) speaks of him as “episcopus Lincolniensis Robertus, cui comes tamquam patri confessori exstitit familiarissimus.” This however was in the earlier part of Simon’s career, before the war had broken out. The share of Bishop Walter of Cantilupe, who was present at Evesham and absolved the Earl and his followers, will be found in most of the Chronicles of the time. It comes out well in the riming Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (ii. 558):—
“Þe bissop Water of Wurcetre asoiled hom alle pere
And prechede hom, þat hii adde of deþ þe lasse fere.”
This writer says of the battle of Evesham:—
“Suich was þe morþre of Eivesham (vor bataile non it was).”
[(34)] This letter, addressed in 1247 to Pope Innocent the Fourth, will be found in Matthew Paris (721, Wats). It is written in the name of “universitas cleri et populi per provinciam Cantuariensem constituti,” and it ends, “quia communitas nostra sigillum non habet, præsentes literas signo communitatis civitatis Londinensis vestræ sanctitati mittimus consignatas.” Another letter in the same form follows to the Cardinals. There are two earlier letters in 1245 and 1246 (Matthew Paris, 666, 700), the former from the “magnates et universitas regni Angliæ,” the other in the name of Richard Earl of Cornwall (afterwards King of the Romans), Simon Earl of Leicester, and other Earls, “et alii totius regni Angliæ Barones, proceres, et magnates, et nobiles portuum maris habitatores, necnon et clerus et populus universus.” The distinct mention of the Cinque Ports, whose representatives in Parliament are still called Barons—the “nobiles” of the letter—should be noticed.