of the Archbishop of Tarentum, Simon, Earl of Leicester, and Peter de Savoy, as one of the special envoys named by Edmund, King of Sicily, with the authorization of his father, Henry, King of England, to approach Pope Alexander IV., and beg him to amend the conditions under which the Kingdom of Sicily had been conceded to him.[1] But he could not have gone into Italy at that time, because on the 20th July he was sent into Scotland with the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, the prior of Durham, and two others, for the purpose of settling the dispute between the Scottish King and certain of his nobles.[2]
In pursuance of the same business, by letters patent, dated at Westminster on the 4th of August in the following year, 1258, Henry gave full power to Simon, Earl of Leicester, and John Maunsell, Treasurer of York, to determine the said matter.[3]
In the meantime, when Simon de Montfort, Peter de Savoy, and others had been appointed, by patent of 4th May, 1258, to treat of peace with the King of France, Walter de Merton is ordered to remain, during the King's retirement, at London, with domino John Maunsell, Hugh le Bigod, and magisitro Rostando, to affix the King's Seal to whatever they might arrange concerning peace with the King of France, and concerning the Sicilian business.[4]
Being a member of the King's council, sworn at Oxford on the 22nd of June, he was one of the two chosen by the barons to elect the council of twelve who should treat with the King's council on behalf of the commons at the three parliaments appointed to be held in each year.[5] And the King, by letter of the 26th of June, dated from Oxford, after reciting that he had sworn to his nobles and magnates that a reformation of the realm should be made by twelve of his council chosen for the purpose, of whom Maunsell was one, and twelve chosen on
