In the year 1251 a general chapter of Knights Templars being assembled in the Pilgrim’s Castle, the Marshal, Brother REGINALD DE VICHIER, who had commanded with great skill and prudence in Egypt after the death of Brother William de Sonnac, was chosen to fill the vacant dignity of Grand Master. Henry III., king of England, had assumed the cross shortly after intelligence had been conveyed to England of the horrors and atrocities committed by the Carizmians in the Holy City. Year after year, he had promised to fulfil his vow, and the pope issued numerous bulls, kindly providing for the tranquillity and security of his dominions during his absence, and ordered prayers to be offered up to God for the success of his arms, in all the churches of Christendom. King Henry assembled a parliament to obtain the necessary supplies, and fixed the 24th day of June, A. D. 1255, as the period of his departure. His knights and barons, however, refused him the necessary funds, and the needy monarch addressed the military orders of the Temple and the Hospital in the following very curious letter. “As you are said to possess a well-equipped fleet, we beseech you to set apart for our own use some of your strongest vessels, and have them furnished and equipped with provisions, sailors, and all things requisite for a twelvemonth’s voyage, so that we may be able, ere the period for our own departure arrives, to freight them with the soldiers, arms, horses, and munitions of war that we intend to send to the succour of the Holy Land. You will also be pleased to provide secure habitations and suitable accommodation for the said soldiers and their equipage, until the period of our own arrival. You will then be good enough to send back the same vessels to England to conduct ourselves and suite to Palestine; and by your prompt obedience to these our commands, we shall judge of your devotion to the interests of the Holy Land, and of your attachment to our person.”[129]