LETTER VII 



I SHALL now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubtedly 

 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 adventurer was a Poictevin by birth, 

 had been bred to arms in his youth, and distinguished by 

 knighthood. Historians all agree not to speak very favour- 

 ably of this remarkable man ; they allow that he was pos- 

 sessed 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 management of the realm, and was 

 soon appointed protector of the king and kingdom. 



The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed 

 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 ; 



1 See Godwin de Prcesulibus Anglia. Folio. London, 1743, p. 217. [G. W.] 



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