A .D. 1245. THE KINO SENDS AN ENVOY TO DOME. embark on board ship, ordered the woods of his archbishopric to be cut down—and sold, and tailliages and collections to be made in his diocese. And he appointed one of his officers, a Poitevin by birth, namely, Master Hugo de Mortimer, to perform his commands care fully. On the day of Saint Marcellus, queen Eleanor bore the lord the king a son, and his name was called Edmund. On the day following the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Isabella de Bolbek, countess of Oxford, died. And the day after the feast of Saint Valentine, Baldwin, earl of Devon, died, a youth of an admirable disposition, and a most accomplished knight, who is more commonly known by the title of earl of the Isle of Wight. This year too, just at the beginning of Lent, the lord the pope caused the emperor Frederic to be a second time excommunicated throughout all France and England, in order that the infamy of his name might be spread throughout all Christendom, because he had made fresh attacks upon his kinsmen. During Lent itself, warlike attacks were made upon one another in Montgomeryshire, by the Welch and English ; but the keeper of Montgomery castle, having placed an ambush in their rear, and feigning to flee from fear, intercepted a great number of the Welch, who were pursuing incautiously, and slew those whom he intercepted without putting them to ransom. Accordingly, David, with the view of retrieving that disaster, ordered the abrupt paths of the mountains, along which the English must pass, to be closely guarded by his own guards. Accordingly, while one of the greatest nobles in England, namely, Hubert, the*son of Matthew, was passing by one of those roads, under an unlucky star he was struck down by a blow of a stone, and so died. After that, the aforesaid David with his partisans seized the castle, which is called Monthant ; and having put to the sword all whom he found in it, he levelled it to the ground. The same year, about the middle of Lent, there came couriers from the lord the pope into England, bringing his precept for calling a general council, in this form: "Innocent, &c. The virtue of God and the wisdom of God, to whose ineffable Majesty all things are subjected/' &c. About the same time, the king having, as it seemed to him self and his friends, suffered an enormous injury, because now a great many bishops were created in his kingdom without his