kingdom was in enormous danger on all sides, ordered the entire nobility of the whole kingdom to be summoned at Oxford, in order to take into their careful consideration the state of the kingdom, now manifestly in danger ; and they were to meet at Oxford on the day when the anthem, "As if lately born," is sung. And he was especially strict in summoning the prelates to this parliament, because he saw that they were now continually being pauperised by the papal extortions, the frequency of which manifestly threatened the ruin of the kingdom. It was hoped therefore, that by their united wisdom something might be enacted which should be wholesome for the church and the whole nation ; which expectation, however, deceived every one, as the following history will show. The election of Conrad as king of Germany being annulled, William, count of Holland, is elected. In those days, the lord the pope having promised an immense sum of money to the nobles of Germany, to procure the deposition of Frederic and his son Conrad, king of Germany, laboured with great diligence to effect hie purpose, which was that, when Conrad, the son of Frederic, and kmg of Germany, had been deposed and rejected, William, count of Holland, should be elected in his room, and substituted for him. He was a man united in the bonds of indissoluble friendship with the archbishop of Cologne, and a cousin of the bishop of Liege, nephew of the duke of Brabant, and connected with many of the nobles of Germany by blood, or affinity, or friendship ; in age he was but a youth, and in the flower of his strength, and for his age he was very distinguished as a knight, very accomplished in his manners, and very sagacious counsel. And when this had become known to Frederic and his son Conrad, having sent a military expedition of no slight force to the city of Aix la Chapelle, where, according to ancient custom, the kings of Germany are crowned, he caused it to be very strictly guarded, lest the new king elect should by any means effect an entrance into it to be crowned. Therefore, the archbishop of Cologne, and the archbishop of Mayence, and the bishop of Liege, with the troops of the legate who were marked with the cross, and other nobles of Germany, eurrounded the city with a blockade, and did not cease attacking it with stones and javelins with all their vigilance and all their might, and to cut the besieged off from every kind of supply or provisions.