Early in April, and shortly after the Council of Nottingham, William met the king of England at Clipston, passing the remainder of the month in his company. He soon found an opportunity for urging a restoration of the dignities and honors which had belonged, as he maintained, to his predecessors, putting forward a formal claim upon the earldom of Northumberland, and the Honor of Lancaster, together with the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland--the whole territory, in short, which had once been held by his father, Earl Henry. Richard returned an evasive answer, alleging that he must consult his barons: and after the council held at Northampton, in Easter week, he replied that, in his present circumstances, it was impossible to listen to William’s demands; as concession on his part would be attributed to his fear of the French war, rather than to his affection for the Scottish king. As a set off to a reply which was tantamount to a refusal, he conferred upon William a charter of privileges, specifying that whenever the king of Scotland attended the English court, the whole of his expenses should be defrayed out of the English exchequer; and providing that he should be escorted, both in arriving and on his return, by the bishops and sheriffs of the different dioceses and counties, through which it was necessary for him to pass in the course of his progress. William was obliged to be satisfied with this concession; and he assisted, in token of amity, at the second coronation of Richard, bearing, upon this occasion, the principal sword of state.[452] Another opportunity soon occurred for again advancing his claims. After the conclusion of the coronation, the bishop of Durham resigned his earldom of Northumberland into the hands of Richard, and the king was on the point of transferring it to Hugo Bardolf, when William hastened to offer 15,000 marks for the fief. The magnitude of the sum tempted Richard, who was seldom proof against an offer of this description, and, after a short deliberation, he consented to grant the earldom without the castles--or, in other words, the pecuniary, but not the political, advantages of the fief--a compromise which did not accord with the views of William. He made a final effort to obtain his object a few days before the departure of Richard for Normandy, but equally without success, for the latter would only hold out the hope that he might take the matter into consideration on his return from his expedition into France; and the Scottish king, towards the close of the month, retraced his steps towards the north in bitter chagrin at his failure.[453] [Sidenote: A. D. 1195.]