Great Britain -- History -- Henry III, 1216-1272; Henry III, King of England, 1207-1272
The Marshal appears to have resigned of his own accord, giving as a
reason that he had vowed a pilgrimage to S. Andrew’s; and it was with
the declared intention of fulfilling his vow immediately that he parted
from the King at Winchester at Midsummer. He had, however, got no
further north than Coventry when he heard that his pilgrimage was being
represented to the King as a cloak for some evil design; whereupon he
at once wrote to Henry that he had given up his project and resolved to
go straight back to Ireland. Henry, on 10th July, warmly protested that
he had no suspicions of his brother-in-law, but looked upon him as a
trusty and loyal counsellor and friend. “But,” he added, “if you really
intend to give up your journey and cross over to Ireland, we bid you
first come to us and surrender our castles of Caermarthen and Cardigan;
or, if you cannot possibly come, send us a man of yours with power to
do so. We are going towards York on business, and propose thence to
return to the marches of Wales.”[1195] This surrender was duly made
before 18th August, when the King committed Caermarthen and Cardigan
to Henry of Audley, by a letter-patent in which he expressly declared
that the Marshal was to be quit for the whole of the time during which
these two castles had been in his keeping and in that of his father
before him.[1196] Probably the brothers-in-law had at their midsummer
meeting agreed upon this transfer, and also upon another arrangement
which was put into legal form a few days later. On 22nd August the
castle of Caerleon, “of which the King demanded seisin,”[1197] was
committed to him by the Earl Marshal “saving his own right and his
inheritance” therein; and on the 26th the King “committed the castle to
the Marshal, to hold for four years from the ensuing Michaelmas day.”
At the end of the four years the Marshal was to deliver the castle to
the King, “saving his own right”; and the King, within a month after he
had received it, was to “cause the Earl to have judgement of his peers
of such right and seisin as he had on the day when this convention was
made at Hereford, and of any other right which he might be able in
the meanwhile to search out”; such right not to be prejudiced by the
present convention. If the Earl’s peers should adjudge seisin to him,
he was to have it without delay, “saving the rights of each party”; and
the judgement was not to be delayed beyond the appointed term. Finally,
“through this convention the King’s anger--if he had any--against the
Earl and his men shall be left behind.”[1198] On the day after this
convention was made public, it was announced that the Marshal “had
set out for Ireland in the King’s service.”[1199] This was shortly
after Geoffrey de Marsh had been complaining that when he called upon
the barons of the March to renew their homage to the King, those of
Leinster failed to respond, and one of them, Theobald Butler, flatly
refused to recognize the new Justiciar’s authority without instructions
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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