confirms the English possessions of the abbey of St Stephen at Caen.[1] Its first two witnesses are Walter bishop of Rochester and Master Peter of Blois, archdeacon of Bath: it must therefore be earlier than 26 July 1182, when Bishop Walter died, and consequently earlier than Peter's crossing of the channel at the 'summer solstice' of that year. There is however a Wells charter which gives what may possibly be yet earlier evidence: namely, Gerard de Camville's confirmation of his father's grant of Hengstridge. This is dated at Westminster in 1182: and both it and its confirmation by Archbishop Richard are attested by 'Peter archdeacon of Bath'.[2] It was made in the presence of Ranulf de Glanville, 'Justice of England', a title which he obtained at the end of February 1182, on the eve of the king's departure for Normandy. It may be dated between the beginning of March and the end of June when Peter went abroad. We may consider it therefore established that Peter became archdeacon of Bath in the earlier part of the year 1182.[3]
Whatever may have been the nature or extent of Peter's new archidiaconal responsibility—and this point we shall have to consider later—it was not such as to sever his connexion with the archbishop. We have seen that he crossed the sea for him at Midsummer 1182; and the next year he was abroad again in attendance on the primate at the king's court.[4] The year 1183 was to bring the greatest anxiety and sorrow to K. Henry. It began with a revolt of Prince Richard, and after his reconciliation there followed a fresh revolt of Prince Henry, the young king. Archbishop Richard, who had left England the previous November, remained abroad until the beginning of August. Peter was with him at the court at Poitiers on 8 March and attested an agreement which the king had at length required Roger the abbot of St Augustine's to make with the archbishop. Early in May he was still with him; for the archbishop then wrote, by Peter's hand, a letter to the young king (Ep. 47), appealing to him to submit to his father and not behave like a captain of brigands: if he does not come to a better mind, the
- ↑ Round, Doc. in France, p. 162.
- ↑ Wells, Reg. i, ff. 21, 21 b. Several of the witnesses are known to have been sitting in the curia regis at Westminster on 29 April and 1 May 1182: one of these, John bishop of Norwich, crossed the straits during the summer (Eyton, Itinerary, pp. 247 f.).
- ↑ It is interesting to note, as confirmatory of this date, that John Cumin, who had been archdeacon of Bath, was consecrated archbishop of Dublin by the new pope, Lucius III, on 21 March 1182 (elected 6 Sept. 1181).
- ↑ It is quite possible that he remained abroad from Mids. 1182 till his return with the archbishop, who was in Normandy from 13 Nov. 1182 until 11 August 1183.
