"On Rogation Sunday (30th April 1122), when the king was at mass and Guymundus performing divine service before him, did when he came to that parcell of the prophet, 'it did not rain upon the earth for the space of III. years and six months,' read thus, 'it did not rain upon the earth one, one, one years six months.' Which the king observing, and all the clerks marvelling and laughing at, did when mass was ended reprove him for it, and furthermore asked him the reason why he read after that manner. Guymund smilingly answered, 'Because you, my liege, are used to bestow your bishopricks and other church benefices to them that read so; and therefore be it known to you, henceforth I will serve no other master but Christ my King and Sovereign, who knoweth as well how to confer temporal as eternal benefits upon his servants that always obey him.'" By the eleventh century important national meetings were held in Oxford, as when in 1020, Cnut being then king, the English and Danes were reconciled, and both nations agreed to observe the laws of Edgar. But no king ventured to visit the city, for, after the failure of Algar, there was a tradition that boded misfortune to any king who entered within the city walls. Henry III. was the first to defy it by coming to worship at the shrine of St. Frideswide in 1264; but his example was an unfortunate one, for within six weeks Nemesis came in the Battle of Lewes. Edward I. was less daring than his father, for in 1275, when he reached the gates of Oxford, he turned his horse about, and sought a lodging outside the town. Later in his reign, however, he made the venture, and destroyed the superstition.