580 ROGER OK WEN'DOVER. [A.D. 1-234. and peace go hand in hand, and when justice is corrupted, peace also is violated. Again, 1 am glad that the legate is coining; for the more people there are to hear the justice of our cause, the mole will the enemies of justice he put to shame. And now, although 1 have particularly dwelt upon my own grievances, 1 say ti.e satr.e with respect to all my friends and allies ; and on their behalf I make the same complaint as on my own, and without them I can do nothing at all towards coming to a durable arrangement.* //ore king Henry kept Chrutmas at Gloucester, Α.Ό. 1234. Which was the eighteenth year of his reign, king Henry held his court at Christinas at Gloucester, with only a small retinue; for he had been deserted by a great many of the nobles, who had a short tune before been deprived of all their property at Grostnunt castle, as above related. At the same time the frost set in with such severity that the crops in the lields were destroyed, the roots of the trees in the gardens were rotted, ami those of the apple trees were frozen four leet down and died ; and this continued without any fall of snow till the Purification of St. Mary, putting a stop to all agriculture; and this was followed, in the same year by such an unhealthy atmosphere, and such imsea sonahlo weather, that a great scarcity ensued of all the produce ι 1 the earth. /low the marshal caused great slaughter amongst his enemies. The day after Christinas day. John of .Monmouth, a nobleman, who had fought on the king's side in W ales, collected a large army to surprise the earl marshal ; the latter was however informed of his intention, and betook himself with his army to a wood by which the enemy would pass, in order to delude those who thought to deceive him. When therefore the enemy came to the (dace of ambuscade, the marshal and his army rushed on them amidst the din of horns and trumpets, and taking them unawares, soon put them all to flight, and closely pursuing them, slew great numbers • Paris adds : '· About the same time, in the seventeenth year of his reign, king Henry, at his own expense, built a handsome church, lit for no assembly of monks, with outbuildings adjoining, near the Old Temple :.c London, where he established an order of the * Colivi recti,' for the redemption of the souls of himself, king John bis father, and h.s other ancestors j and to this house all the convertisi Jews who had abandoned the darkness of Judaism fed, in order to have a safe refuge, with a certain rule of living for their lives, as well as sulHcient sustenance, without performing servile labour or living by extortion and usury. In a very short tunc a large number of the Converted assembled there and were bapt./ed and instructed in the faith of the Christians, living a prai-eworthy ite, anil under the rule of a learned reetur especially appointed for t lie purpose. King Henry also, inspired by the Holy Spirit allei incitisi by a pious motive, established a noble hospital at Oxford, near the bridge, m eireler that sick men ami pilgrims might there receive relief according tt their wunU and be restore 1 to health."