428 ANTIQUITIES 



LETTER VII. 



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, 1 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 favourably of this remarkable 

 man ; they allow that he was possessed of courage and fine 

 abilities, but then they charge him with arbitrary prin- 

 ciples 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 Win- 

 chester. 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 ; and, prudently 



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

 G. W. 



