foremost in our desires, that, as the renewer of the old Adam, seated in the paternal throne, said—' Behold, I make all A.D. 1274 things new, so he (the king) may induce new growth of virtues [to spring] in the Church, and that new joys may be bestowed upon us through the king and in time following, whereof now we have undertaken to treat.

Accordingly, messengers were sent to the Council assembled, as aforesaid at Lyons, whereat the heir of England attended, urging him to return to his country and restore the condition. of the desolate realm. Returning accordingly to England in the same year, being thirty-five years and two months of age, he was received in most honourable manner by the whole nation, [and] was solemnly anointed and crowned on the 14th of the kalends of September1 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Brother Robert of Kilwardby. The nobles of the land attended the ceremony with a countless multitude, redoubling the display of their magnificence in honour of the new king. But my lord Alexander King of Scotland, who attended with his consort and a train of his nobility, exceeded all others in lavish hospitality and gifts.

Before the date of this coronation, Robert of Stichell, Bishop of Durham, died on his return journey from the Council, about two days' journey on this side of Lyons. He had besought from the Pope letters and license for his resignation, [because] he disliked to be mixed up in worldly trouble. In dying, however, he suffered the greatest remorse of conscience because he had deprived the burgesses of Durham city of liberty of pasture, and bestowed it upon those who needed nothing. Therefore in proof of penitence and in token of his desire for reconciliation with St. Cuthbert, he gave his ring to his confessor to be carried to the shrine of the saint, vowing that, should he recover health, he would annul that gift.

In this year Margaret, Queen of Scotland and sister of the King of England, died on the fourth of the kalends of March.2 She was a woman of great beauty, chastity, and humility-three [qualities] seldom united in one individual. When her strength was failing many abbots as well as bishops collected to visit her, to all of whom she refused entrance to her chamber; nor from the time that she had received all the sacraments from her 119th August, 1274.

2 Feb. 27, 1274, or, according to our reckoning 1275; but in the Calendar then prevailing in Britain the year began on 25 March.

confessor, a Minorite Friar, until her soul passed away, did she admit any other to discourse, unless perhaps her husband happened to be present. She left behind her three childrenAlexander and David and a daughter Margaret, all of whom followed their mother in a short time, owing, it is believed, to the sin of their father.

Richard of Inverkeithing, Bishop of Dunkeld, departed from the world, treacherously poisoned, as is affirmed, and it is believed by many that the aforesaid Queen [perished]

in the same manner. For, after the death of the A.D. 1275. aforesaid man, a certain [fellow] author of this plot,' drawing near to death, declared that he had sold poison in this place and that, and that a full bottle thereof still remained in Scotland. And seeing that the movables of bishops dying in that kingdom devolve upon the king, he [the Bishop of Dunkeld] only and one other named Robert de la Provender, Bishop of Dublin, whom we remember above all others, so made a virtue of necessity at the point of death by distributing their goods, that they left scarcely anything to satisfy the cupidity of royal

personages.

About the same time in England there lived in Hartlepool William Bishop of Orkney, an honourable man and a lover of letters, who related many wonderful things about the islands. subject to Norway, whereof I here insert a few lest they should be forgotten. He said that in some place in Iceland the sea burns for the space of one mile, leaving behind it black and filthy ashes. In another place fire bursts from the earth at a fixed time-every seven or five years and without warning burns. towns and all their contents, and can neither be extinguished nor driven off except by holy water consecrated by the hand of a priest. And, what is still more wonderful, he said that they can hear plainly in that fire the cries of souls tormented therein. In the same year there [fell] a general plague upon the whole stock of sheep in England.

In this year, on the seventh day of the month of October, the King of Scotland's fleet steered into the port of Ronaldsway. Straightway Lord John de Vesci and the king's chief men with their forces, landed on Saint Michael's Isle, the

Hujus confectionis.

2

2 Near Castletown, Isle of Man. S. Michael, having been set to guard the gate of Eden after the expulsion of Adam, is commonly the patron of extra-mural churches and of islands, such as Mont-Saint-Michel and S. Michael's Mount.

Manxmen being arrayed for war under Godred the son of Magnus, whom shortly before they had made their king. But the nobles and chieftains of the King of Scotland sent to treat for peace with Godred and the people of Man, offering them the peace of God and of the King of Scotland, provided they would desist from their most foolish presumption and submit in future to the king and his chief men. But as Godred and certain of his perverse counsellors would not agree to the treaty of peace, on the following day before sunrise, when the shades were still upon the land and the minds of foolish men were darkened, a conflict took place and the wretched Manxmen, turning their backs, were terribly routed.

Pope Gregory died and was succeeded by Innocent the Fifth, a native of Burgundy, whose previous name was Peter of Taranto, of the Order of Preachers. He was formerly A.D. 1276. Doctor in Holy Writ, then Archbishop of Lyons, and afterwards Cardinal of Ostia. He sat but for five months and two days and the seat was vacant for eighteen days. To him succeeded Adrian the Fifth, and sat for one month and nine days. He suspended the constitution of my lord Gregory regarding the election1 of Cardinals, intending to substitute another. After him in the same year John the Twenty-first was elected, formerly called Peter the Spaniard. He sat for eight months and one day, and the seat was vacant for twenty-eight days. Through want of attention he altogether destroyed the constitution which his predecessor had suspended. Expecting greatly to prolong his life, for he excelled in skill as a physician, he caused a new vault to be built at Viterbo, supported by a single column. In this [vault] when it fell, whether by treachery, as some say, or by accident, he alone was crushed, and, having received the sacraments, he survived for six days; and, albeit he was a physician, he did not heal himself.

There lived in Rome about this time a certain very rich man, notoriously a usurer, who, although often admonished for his sin, died at length excommunicate. His friends having

assembled, preparation was made for his sepulture, and, in accordance with the customs of his country, he was placed on an open bier adorned with all his garments, and carried to the place of the Minorite Friars in the Capitol, the Church of S. Maria in the Ara Coeli, which used to be the chamber of Octavian, to be buried there. The Rector of the Friars

1 De inclusione.

there would not permit the wrong to be done of burying a vessel of Satan, a person excommunicated by the Pope, within the sacred walls; [so] his [the dead man's] insolent friends [and] poor dependents forced the priest to the altar, so that he should begin the mass by their command, [while] they opened the pavement of the church to dig a grave. And lo! an enormous parti-coloured wolf appeared at the door of the church, and, showing no fear of so great a gathering, seized the corpse in the presence of them all, and carried it out of the church without hindrance from anybody; nor is it known to this day what became of a hair of its head. This was reported by one who was present in the church at the time.

Nicholas the Third, who was previously called John of Gaeta, a Roman by birth, was created Pope and sat for four years. He was so devoted to the blessed Francis that he caused to be painted above the A.D. 1277. altar in his chapel Saint Nicholas drawing him to heaven and St. Francis pushing him from behind. Also he caused the general chapter of the brethren of Assisi to be summoned to his presence in Rome by the Cardinal Legate, whereat he [the Pope] personally attended. Besides this he issued a famous bull, expounding the rule of Saint Francis -[a bull] so glorious as would [have] amazed all previous ages.2

3

At this time Robert de Coquina was created Bishop of Durham, being a monk of that house.

Also, Philip King of the French marched with a picked army against Spain, no doubt for the following reason. The eldest son of the King of Spain had married the King of France's sister [Blanche], and, having had two sons by her, was carried off by an early death before his father. That father, utterly unmindful of [his] dead [son] endeavoured to supplant the sons of the defunct [prince] by putting forward the surviving brother. When the King of Aragon became 1 Quo vel capillus capitis devenerit: an idiomatic phrase which I do not recognise.

2 Quod retroactis seculis ingerat stuporem.

History repeats itself: the present Dean of Durham is the Very Rev. G. W. Kitchin, D.D.

4 Ferdinand, son of Alfonso X. of Castile, killed in battle with the Moors, 1275.

aware of this, he had the boys brought [to him] and took care of them in one castle, while his mother passed the time with [her brother] the King of France. Roused by this [proceeding], the King of Castile (who is the principal lord of Spain) determined to break into the castle where the boys were guarded. [The King of France] having advanced in this manner with an immense army three days march into Spain to the aid of the King of Aragon and the boys, [his people] could find nothing to sustain life, [so they] returned within their frontier.1

I shall insert here as a joke a certain anecdote made known to me by Sir Robert of Roberstone, one of the King of Scotland's knights, which at my request he related before many trustworthy persons. The said noble gentleman owned a town in Annandale, in the diocese of Glasgow, which he let in farm to the inhabitants thereof.

These people, waxing lewd through their wealth and giving way to wantonness, on leaving the tavern, used to violate each other's wives or seduce each other's daughters, and by such practice would frequently replenish the archdeacon's purse, and, by repeating the offence, they were almost continually upon his roll. But when the landlord required the rent of his farm, they either pled poverty or besought delay. That kindly and just man said to them-Why should you not pay me my annual rent, any less than my other tenants? If [the land] is let to you at too dear a rent, I can reduce it; if you are unable to cultivate it, give it back to me.'

'No, my lord,' quoth a comical fellow among them with a loud laugh,' none of these things which you mention is really the cause; but our incontinence is so great, and it exhausts us so much, that it re-acts both upon us and upon you, our lord.'

Thereupon the landlord said-'I make this law among you, that any man who commits adultery shall relinquish my land forthwith.'

Taking alarm at this and deterred by the penalty, they refrained from illicit intercourse, applied themselves to labour and agriculture and began to make money unexpectedly, although day by day their names disappeared from the Archdeacon's list.

1 Ora conclusi.

2 In rotulo Officialis, i.e. the Archdeacon in his capacity as episcopal judge in the consistorial court, the nature of which office is explained in the preface to Liber Officialis S. Andree, published by the Abbotsford Club in 1845.