Great Britain -- History -- Henry III, 1216-1272; Henry III, King of England, 1207-1272
For more than nine weeks Falkes was kept, strictly guarded, in
the custody of the Bishop of London. The meeting of the Council
which was to decide his fate had been fixed for 14th October, but
no decision seems to have been reached till about the 26th.[1119]
{Oct.} Moved partly by remonstrances which the Pope had, some months
before, addressed both to the King and to the Primate in behalf of
Falkes,[1120] partly by their own undeniable knowledge of Falkes’s long
and faithful service to the King’s father, the Council unanimously
determined that he should be spared in life and limbs, on condition
that he would abjure the realm and go over sea on pilgrimage, never
to return.[1121] The Primate exacted from him a further promise not
to carry his complaints to the Pope.[1122] To these conditions he
submitted. On 26th October he received a safe-conduct to go to the
coast and remain there till he could get across the sea,[1123] and
orders for the manning of the ship which was to carry him were issued
to William de Breuse and the Earl of Warren,[1124] the latter of whom
was commissioned to see him safely on board. It was reported that
when parting from the Earl, Falkes with tears begged him to carry
his greetings to “his lord the King,” declaring with a solemn oath
that his disturbances of England’s peace had been instigated by “the
great men of the land.” Five of his men-at-arms accompanied him to
Normandy.[1125] So far was Louis from regarding him as an ally that
he was seized by the French King’s bailiffs immediately on landing at
Fécamp and brought as a prisoner before Louis himself.[1126] The cross
on his shoulder, however, procured his release.[1127] Next Easter
(1225) he proceeded to Rome.[1128] On his way across France he met
Robert Passelewe,[1129] a man learned in law, who may have put into
shape (or at least into Latin) the “Complaint” which--in defiance of
his promise to Archbishop Stephen--he presented to the Pope. In August
he was captured in Burgundy by a knight called Anselm “de Duime,” whom
he had once made prisoner and put to heavy ransom in England. The
Pope seems to have procured his release,[1130] on which he returned
to France, and dwelt for a year at Troyes; at last he was driven out
of the country because he refused to do homage to Louis. Returning
to Rome, he once more entreated the Pope to insist that he should be
restored at least to the enjoyment of his wife’s society and of the
proceeds of her patrimony.[1131] Honorius wrote accordingly, both to
the King and to Archbishop Stephen.[1132] Soon afterwards, however,
the whole matter was ended by the death of Falkes.[1133] A year later
{1226} Henry was trying--with what success we know not--to reclaim from
the Master of the Temple in London eleven thousand marks which Falkes
on his death-bed was said to have confessed were still in the head
house of the Order in England, where he had deposited them for secrecy
and safety.[1134]
[Sidenote: 1224]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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