ANTIQUITIES 



LETTER VII. 



I SHALL now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubt- 

 edly the most interesting part of our history. 



The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la 

 Roche, or de Rupibus *, one of those accomplished 

 foreigners that resorted to the court of King John, 

 where they were usually caressed, and met with a more 

 favourable reception than ought, in prudence, to have 

 been shown by any monarch to strangers. This adven- 

 turer was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to arms 

 in his youth, and distinguished by knighthood. Histo- 

 rians all agree not to speak very favourably of this 

 remarkable man ; they allow that he was possessed of 

 courage and fine abilities, but then they charge him 

 with arbitrary principles, and violent conduct. By his 

 insinuating manners he soon rose high in the favour of 

 John ; and in 1205, early in the reign of that prince, 

 was appointed Bishop of Winchester. In 1214 he 

 became Lord Chief Justiciary of England, the first 

 magistrate in the state, and a kind of viceroy, on whom 

 depended all the civil affairs in the kingdom. After the 

 death of John, and during the minority of his son 

 Henry, this prelate took upon him the entire manage- 

 ment of the realm, and was soon appointed protector 

 of the king and kingdom. 



The barons saw with indignation a stranger pos- 

 sessed of all the power and influence, to part of which 

 they thought they had a claim ; they therefore entered 

 into an association against him, and determined to 

 wrest some of that authority from him which he had so 

 unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned the storm 

 at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way to 

 that torrent of envy which he knew not how to with- 



1 See Godwin de Praesulibus Angliae, folio, Cant. 1743, p. 217. 



