leader and general was Falcas de Breaute, a man of ignoble birth and a bastard, and carried away by his fury, began to lay waste the northern parts of England, to destroy the castles of the barons, or compel them to submit to his own order, to burn without mercy all the palaces and towns which belonged to the barons, to oppress the inhabitants of the country by carefully devised tortures, in order to extort money from them, so that the lord of the country seemed in his madness to be angry with his people, and to hate his own inheritance. Everywhere there was grief and misery. The priest became as the people, and the sceptre of the church was profaned. The bishops were proscribed, and the flock was scattered as the shepherds fled. At the same time, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, because he had always been a reprover, and, as far as he was able, a corrector of king John, who, however, always resisted him, was suspended from his offices, on the ground of his being a favourer of the enemies of king John, the vassal of his lord the pope, who was acting foolishly in every thing. And the lord the pope confirmed this suspension in a general council. At last, the archbishop, with great diffi culty, though many persons exerted themselves in his behalf, prevailed so far as to obtain the grace of absolution. In these days the castle of Bedford was taken and given to Falcos, on whom the king also bestowed a wife of noble birth, namely, Margaret de Riparie, with all the estates that belonged to her. Moreover, this same Falcos took the town belonging to William Manduyt de Hammeslape. Also the town of Tunbridge was taken. The same year, on the day of the conversion of Saint Paul, William de Cornhulle was consecrated bishop of Chester, and on the twenty-second of February, Master Benedict, the precentor of Saint Paul's in London, was consecrated bishop of Rochester, and Master Richard, dean of Sherborne, bishop of Chichester. In the meantime, Master Simon de Langton was elected archbishop of York, a man who had but little of the favour of the people ; I wish that he may have had the grace of God. But by the influence of the king, his election was soon annulled ; for the king, now that he had become a tributary of the pope, could obtain very important favours from him. And the king was afraid that if Stephen, being archbishop of Canterbury, bore rule in the southern provinces, and his' brother Simon, being made archbishop of York, governed the northern districts, as they would then be