A.D. 1241. THE LEGATE RECALLED B Y THE. POPE. 199 merciless manner by the Saracens. Bat the king of Navarre, who is also the count of Chami and likewise the count of Brittany, knowing the prudence and magnificence of earl Richard, and being excited by envy, and grieving that Richard, whom the English looked upon as a boy, and of no experience in warlike expeditions, should obtain what they, with all their Frenchmen, had never been able to bring to the desired result, made a treacherous peace with the lord of Gathre, on condition that he would allow his captives to depart in freedom, though in reality he had no power over them, that so they might avoid seeming to have done nothing whatever in the Holy Land. And immediately before the liberation of their allies, that is to say, of the French prisoners, they secretly and hastily embarked on board ship at Joppa to return to their own country. And by this conduct they revealed their treachery beyond all denial to the whole world, when they desired to appropriate to themselves the credit that belonged to others. This year also, John, the son of Bpbert, a noble and powerful man, and one of the principal barons of the north country, died. The general council is hindered, the prelates being taken. Archbishop Edmund is distinguished by miracles. Peace is re-established between the Christians and Saracens. A .D . 1241, which is the twenty-fifth year of the reign of king Henry the Third, the said king held his court, at Christmas, at Westminster, near London, where a great many of the nobles of the kingdom celebrated the festival of the Nativity with him. But, on the fourth day after Christmas, the legate being recalled by the pope, bade farewell to the prelates of England, and proceeded to the coast to journey across the Alps. And the king conducted him with excessive pomp and magnificence to the sea-shore, with the sound of trumpets, and an innumerable train of nobles accompanying him, and prelates and secular clergy ; and, on the day after the feast of the Epiphany, he embarked on board ship at Dover to cross the sea, having changed his scarlet vestments. But he left both the kingdom and church of England in a very desolate state, and most especially was the church of Canterbury, which is well known to be the metropolitan see of England, in a state of irregular disorder, as if he had come, not for its consolation, but for its desolation.