came off badly, are to be noticed in connection with the life of Hubert, as they doubtless afford the key to unfavourable notices given of him in the Dunstaple annals). In spite of the ill success of the king in this war, he longed to undertake a more serious expedition. Envoys from the nobles of Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou, and from the chief men of Normandy, urged him to war with the French king. Hubert, who knew the emptiness of the treasury, and the need of peace, succeeded in staving off the matter for a season. But the king, no less headstrong than fickle and incapable, was set on a French expedition, and overruled the justiciar. At Michaelmas 1219 a large force was gathered at Portsmouth ready to embark. At the last moment it was found that there were not half enough ships for the transport of the army. The king fell into a violent rage, and laid the whole blame on the justicar. In the hearing of all, he called him an 'old traitor,' and declared that this was the second time he had brought failure on him, and that he had been bribed by the French queen. Utterly carried away by his anger, he drew his sword, and would have alain the justiciar, had not the Earl of Chester and other bystanders interposed. Hubert withdrew himself for a while until the king's wrath had cooled (Wendover, iv. 204). In spite of this violent scene, he still remained at the head of affairs. He kept the king from sending a body of knights to join the discontented nobles of Britanny. 'It would,' he said, 'be simply sending them to die.' He went with the army in 1330 on the expedition the king made to Poitou and Gascony. The result showed the wisdom of the advice he had vainly given; no good was done, and much money was wasted. On his return he was sent to quell a rising of the Welsh, who were laying waste to the country about Montgomery; he beheaded all his prisoners, and sent their heads to the king. Instead of intimidating the Welsh, this severe measure only made them fiercer.
Although Hubert had crushed the alien lords, another and more subtle attack was mode by aliens on the rights of Englishmen, on the side of the church. Papal collectors drew vast sums out of the country, and English benefices were made the spoil of Italian priests. A widespread confederacy was secretly made to resist this foreign aggression, and many acts of violence were committed on papal officers and alien eleigy. The justiciar was believed to have abetted these disturbances. Nothing could have more surely turned the king away from him than this belief, for Henry delighted in subjecting himself to Rome. In 1331 Hubert had a dispute with the Archbishop of Canterbary. As guardian of the lands of the young Earl of Gloucester, he held the castle and town of Tonbridge. Archbishop Richard claimed them as held of the brb. The king declared that the earl held of him in chief and that the wardship of his lands pertained to the crown. The archhishop carried his cause to Rome. When he came there he eaid what evil he could against; the justiciar. He declared that Hubert's wife Margaret was too near akin to his former wife Isabella, and also, as it seems, that he had neglected to fulfil a vow of pilgrimage. He complainnd that he was the king's one counsellor, all others were as nothing, and that he had invaded the rights of the church of Canterbury. The king's proctors spoke in vain on behalf of their master and the justiciar. Hubert had, however, been absolved from his vow of pilgrimage, and as to his marriage he managed, so it is said (Ann. Dunstap. iii. 138), to obstruct the hearing of the case by legal hindrances. In the course of this year the Bishop of Winchester returned to England. His return decided the downfall of the justiciar. Renewed incusions of the Welsh gave him an opportunity of bringing matters to a crisis. In company with other counsellors he represented to the king the scandal of these constant forays. Henry replied by complaining that his treasury was empty. The counsellors answered that his poverty arose from his grants. Acting on the bishop's suggestion, the king took away the treasurership from Hubert's friend Ranulf Brito, and gave it to the bishop's nephew, Peter of Rievaulx. The bishop waa now all-powerful with Henry, yet even as late as June l232 Hubert received a grant for life of the jusliciarship of Ireland. On 29 July, however, acting on the advice of the Bishop of Winchester, the king turned him out of office, and demanded an account of all receipts and payments during his own reign and the reign of his father, together with an account of his proceedings in the matter of the Italian priests. Hubert pleaded a charter of quittance granted by John, but the bishop declared that the charter had lost all force by the death of the grantor. The next move against him was a series of distinct charges, viz. that he had prevented the marriage of Henry III and Margaret of Austria ; that he had prevented the recovery of Normandy; that he seduced Margaret of Scotland, and married her in the hope of gaining the crown of that kingdom, and the like. His property and offices wore taken from him, Dover Castle he had to give up to the new treasurer, and the wardakip of the Earl of Gloucester to
