Bi/ John Watson-Taylor. 55 



conquest of the duchy by the French King.^ But while the recipient 

 of these favours fi-om the King, Matthew did not escape the penalty 

 due for letting a hound of his stray into a royal forest, for which 

 the fine of a hundred capons seems heavy.- At Christmas in the 

 year 1209 he was made sheriff of Sussex and in that capacity 

 received orders of various kinds which have a bearing on the 

 many troubles of the King: in 1210 John's quarrel with the 

 Pope had become acute, and he was threatened by the continental 

 league which for political ends Innocent III. was fornimg against 

 him and his nephew. Otto of Germany, and his brother-in-law, 

 Kaymojid of Toulouse, and in 1211 Matthew was a witness with 

 his brother Peter to King John's undertaking not to make peace 

 with the King of France without the concurrence of the Count 

 of Boulogne,^ showing that the Count had joined the kinsmen, 

 and in November of the same year Matthew had orders to arrest 

 all ships in the ports of his bailiwick and fit them out for the 

 King's service.* In 1213 the King's allies were so much in- 

 volved with their own troubles that he lost all hope of their 

 assistance against Philip Augustus, whose alliance with the Pope 

 he realised to have been engineered by the latter more for the 

 purpose of securing the adhesion of England to the Roman alliance 

 than for its conqiiest. He therefore determined on a reconciliation 

 with Rome, and accepting the Pope's terms, executed a form of 

 homage to which Peter and Matthew were witnesses,^ and in July 

 Matthew was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury to urge him 

 to return to England and was appointed a commissioner in the 

 diocese of Canterbury to assess the damage suffered by the Church 

 during the period of disagreement between King and clergy." 

 During the next year he was evidently absent from the court, for 

 his name does not appear in any royal letters or charters, and the 



' Cal. of Cloxe Bolls, an. 1231, p. 477; Chanc. Inq. a. q. d. 6 Edw. II., 

 No. 124. 



- Bot. de Finibits, p. 275. 



'•' Bymer's Foedera, i., 105. 



< Bot. Litt. Claus, p. 127i. 



5 lb., i., 115. 



"■ lb., p. 164. 



