his order, and at the London council in 1163 opposed the king's claims. Henry, however, succeeded in winning him over to his side (Materials, ii. 377), and Becket, learning his defection, spoke of him as ‘malorum omnium incentor et caput.’ Roger now threw himself boldly into the contest in support of the king, and from the first gave full assent to the constitutions of Clarendon. He continued to negotiate with Becket, though he proposed to Henry that Becket should be imprisoned for contumacy (ib. i. 37). Henry asked of the pope that Roger should be appointed papal legate in England, and he received a papal commission dated Sens, 27 Feb. 1164 (ib. v. 85–7). Roger, now immersed in intrigue, had envoys in France supporting his interests at the king's court and in the papal curia (ib. p. 117), and claiming the primacy of the Scottish church (ib. p. 118). He himself was sent by Henry, with other envoys, to Sens to lay his causes of complaint against Becket before Alexander III. They visited Louis VII on their way, but Louis warmly supported the archbishop of Canterbury. Speaking before the pope, Roger declared that he had known the character of Thomas from his youth, and that there was no way but by papal rebuke to correct his pride (Alan of Tewkesbury, c. 22). The pope temporised, but eventually ordered Roger to aid his legates, Rotrou, archbishop of Rouen, and Henry, bishop of Nevers, in compelling Henry to do justice to Becket. Roger, however, caused the clergy of his diocese to take an oath, at the king's command, that they would not obey the pope's orders in the matter of the archbishop of Canterbury.
On 5 April 1166 Pope Alexander III withdrew his permission to Roger to crown kings, on the ground that he had learnt that, by immemorial custom, the privilege belonged to Canterbury (Thomas Saga; Materials, v. 323). On 17 June 1167, however, he formally authorised Roger to crown the young Henry (Materials, vi. 206; the authenticity of the letter has been doubted by Roman catholic writers, such as Berington, Henry II, pp. 606–8; Lingard, ii. 153; but the manuscripts seem conclusively to prove its genuineness; cf. Materials, vi. 269 sqq.). But Becket's remonstrances induced the pope to withdraw his license to Roger to crown the young Henry, and on 26 Feb. 1170 Alexander forbade the archbishop of York to perform the ceremony of coronation during the exile of the primate of all England (ib. vii. 217). Nevertheless, on 14 June 1170, the coronation took place at Westminster. Roger of York performed the ceremony, assisted by the bishops of London, Salisbury, and Rochester, and in spite of the protests of Becket. The pope eagerly took up the cause of Becket, and suspended Roger (ib. vii. 398). Henry, under fear of excommunication, was (22 July 1170) brought to a reconciliation, and the archbishop of York was thus left unprotected. Roger endeavoured to prevent his rival's return to England; but Becket, before sailing, sent over on 31 Nov. a letter suspending Roger, which was delivered at Dover on the following day. Becket, on his return in December, met with great opposition from Roger, who dissuaded the young Henry from admitting him to his presence, and eventually crossed to Normandy to lay his complaints before the king. He bitterly urged upon Henry that he would have no peace so long as Thomas was alive (ib. iii. 127), and, according to one authority, himself urged the four knights to take Becket's life, giving them money, and suggesting the very words they used when they saw the archbishop of Canterbury (Garnier de Pont S. Saxence, ed. Hippeau, pp. 174 sqq.). When the murder was accomplished, Roger hastened to purge himself of all complicity. He took oath before the archbishop of Rouen and the bishop of Amiens that he was innocent, and that he had not received the pope's letter prohibiting the coronation of the young king. He was thereupon absolved. In a long and joyful letter to Hugh de Puiset [q. v.] he announced his absolution and return, and he sent his thanks to the pope (Materials, vii. 502, 504).
Roger's relations with Richard (d. 1184) [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, were hardly more happy than with his predecessor. He was absent from the Westminster synod of 1175, but sent claims to carry his cross within the province of Canterbury, and to have supervision of the sees of Lichfield, Worcester, Hereford, and Lincoln. He appealed to Rome against the archbishop of Canterbury. His power to carry his cross was restored provisionally (ib. vii. 568). He claimed also the rule over the church of St. Oswald at Gloucester (Benedict of Peterborough, i. 89, 90). Later in the year an agreement was arrived at by which that church was yielded to York, ‘sicut dominicam capellam Domini regis’ (ib. p. 104), and the other matters were referred to the decision of the archbishop of Rouen. On 25 Jan. 1175–6, in a council at Northampton, Roger claimed that the Scots church should be subject to the see of York as metropolitan, and a new dissension broke out with Canterbury, to whom also the subjection was
