Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/379

"Utrum salvâ reverentiâ et obedientiâ sedis Apostoliæe posset Archiepiscopus (Anselmus) fidem terreno regi servare, annon^[1]?"

The bishops, who seem to have known their duty towards their Sovereign better than their intractable leader, advised Anselm not to insist on any reservations on the grounds of spiritual authority, since there were general complaints against him for intrenching on the king's prerogative. But on his still endeavouring to compromise the freedom of the English Church, by yielding a higher allegiance to Urban II., who had offered him a pall, the prelates at once renounced him as their archbishop.

King John more especially delighted to resort hither, and as will be seen from the following extracts from his Itinerary, visited it once, and sometimes twice or thrice, nearly every year of his reign.

1204. Aug. 30.—1205. Sep. 24.—1207. Feb. 20^[2], 21, 22, 23; Ang. 10, 11.—1208. July 26, 27, 28; Nov. 30.—1209. April 1; Sep. 1; Novemb. 13, 14, 15.—1210. March 18.—1212. July 10: when he acknowledged the receipt of a coat of mail, which had belonged to the constable of Chester^[3].—1213. Sep. 24.—1215. Dec. 23.—1216. Sep. 20, 21.

Besides these fourteen recorded royal visits, the members of the House of Plantagenet were frequently in the habit of passing their time in this agreeable retirement. From the attesting of writs, it appears that Henry the Third was here, 1220. June 26^[4], 27^[5], 28^[6].—1226. July 16^[7].—1229. June 26^[8].

Edward the First, 1275. Aug. 24^[9].—1279. Aug. 20^[10].—1290. Sep. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6^[11].—1300. April 20, 21, 25, 26, 28^[12].

Edward the Third attested more than twenty writs at Rockingham between 1334^[13], March 25 and April 1.—1345. Dec. 9^[14].—1354. Aug. 28^[15].—And here, Aug. 24^[16], 1375, the truce concluded at Bruges, between Edward the Third, and Charles the Fifth of France, was duly ratified^[17].

During the absence of the king, Constables (Comites

1. Spelman, Cone, vol. ii. p. 16.
2. He was at Lamport the preceding day.
3. Introd. to Pat. Rolls, p. 37.
4. Lit. Rot. Claus., p. 422.
5. Rot. Fin., vol. i. p. 49.
6. Ibid.
7. Rot. Lit. Clans., p. 129.
8. Ibid., p. 422.
9. Rymer, Fœder., vol. iii. p. 82.
10. Itinerary of Edw. I., in Queen's Remembrancer's Office.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Rymer, Fœder., vol. iv. p. 597; and vol. ii. p. 881—886.
14. Ibid., vol. iii. p. 64.
15. Ibid., vol. iv. p. 608.
16. Ibid., vol. iv. p. 608.
17. Ibid., vol. vii. p. 82.