POLITICAL HISTORY 



army, devils rather than soldiers as the Chronicle of Melrose calls them, 1 

 contrary to the command of the king who had taken men of religion 

 under his protection, savagely attacked the monastery of Holmcultram, 

 pillaged the whole district, and spread terror and confusion among its 

 peaceful inhabitants. Retribution quickly followed, for on their retreat 

 across the estuary of the Eden, the * dainty Cumbrian queen ' of Dray- 

 ton, they were enveloped in its swiftly rising tide, and it is said that 

 1,900 Scots perished in one brief hour. 8 The death of King John 

 brought this tumultuous period to a close ; peace was established be- 

 tween the two kingdoms, and the people of the county returned to 

 their allegiance. 3 



The Scottish claims on the northern counties, handed on as a 

 damnosa hereditas from one English sovereign to another, were at length 

 settled by papal intervention. Pope Gregory made strenuous efforts to 

 compose the estrangement between the two kingdoms arising from this 

 dispute. The matter was now taken up in earnest and carried to a 

 successful issue. Writing to the parties in 1236 the pope described 

 himself as specially bound by ties of affection to Henry III. and as 

 sincerely loving the King of Scotland, and urges them to come to an 

 agreement, believing that from peace great benefits would accrue to 

 either kingdom. 4 In 1237 King Henry issued his letters patent, em- 

 bodying the terms agreed upon in presence of the legate's clerk and 

 envoy at York, for the ' extension ' of his demesnes in Cumberland and 

 Northumberland, where there were no castles, up to 2O f ^ anc ^ 

 annually, excepting his manor of Penrith and forest of Cumberland, it 

 not being the king's intention that the said manor or forest should be 

 ' extended.' 8 After much disputing between the assessors deputed to 

 select the lands, an agreement was ultimately arrived at in 1242, when 

 King Henry handed over the manors of Langwathby, Salkeld, Scotby, 



they irreverently and contumaciously celebrated divine offices in forbidden places in the presence of 

 excommunicated persons ; they became the subjects of the King of Scotland who was in hostile possession 

 of the city, received him as their patron and lord, and did fealty to him ; and, worse than all, in prejudice 

 of the king's right and that of the Church of York, they elected at the instance of the King of Scots an 

 excommunicated clerk as their bishop and pastor (Pat. I Hen. III. m. 3d ; Rymer, Foedera, i. 147). The 

 chronicler of Lanercost endeavours to rehabilitate the reputation of the canons by saying that they were 

 compelled by fear of death to celebrate divine offices with the excommunicated King of Scots (Chron. de 

 Lanercost, 27). 



i Chron.de Mailtos (Bann. Club), 122-3. 



Chron. de Lanercost, 1 8. 



3 Eodem anno (1217) omnes vero barones Angliae fecerunt homagium Henrico filio Johannis : et 

 rex Scottorum Alexander, antequam absolvi mereretur, Carliolum voluntati regalium Angliae tradidit 

 (Chron. de Lanercost, 25). See the list of knights who returned to their allegiance on the accession of 

 Henry III. in Close Rolls (Rec. Com.), i. 373-5. 



The pope's letters, dated 4 January 1235-6, one to the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of 

 Carlisle, and another to the King of Scotland, have been printed by Rymer (Fcedera, i. 214-5). A sum- 

 mary of another letter to the King of Scotland, dated 26 April 1236, has been given by Bain (Cal. of Scot. 

 Doc. i. 232-3). 



Pat. 21 Hen. III. m. i ; Pipe, 22 Hen. III. m. 4 ; Pat. 22 Hen. III. m. 8. See also Pat. 22 Hen. 

 III. mm. 5d, 6. Fordun says that on the day of St. Maurice (21 September) in the year 1237, Alexander, 

 King of Scots, and Henry, King of England, with their queens and the lords of either kingdom, met at 

 York ; where, for fifteen days, they talked over the entangled affairs of the kingdoms in the presence of 

 Cardinal Otho, the papal legate. When the negotiations were over, the King of Scotland went home 

 again in safety (Chronica [ed. Skene], i. 291). 



2 47 



