A.D. 1259. THE EABL OE LEICESTER GOES TO GATJL. 361 take up their ahode at Dunstable, being taught by the example of the Minor Brothers, who had lately built themselves a mansion at Bury St. Edmund's, to the great injury of the abbey which existed in that town. Therefore, the said Preaching Brothers, encouraged by the privileges granted them by the Roman see, built a church, and celebrated divine service with all due solemnity, as they desired. This year, in the first fortnight of Lent, died the countess of Boulogne, through whose tyranny, a few years before, so many thousand men had been slain, and had perished. When, therefore, our ambassadors, who have been mentioned above, had arrived in the countries beyond the sea, the king of France came thither, in order to take those vacant or disputed counties, the counties, namely, of Boulogne, Flanders, and Hainault. into his own possession. When the towers of the city were thrown down, the Romans assembled with great indignation and fury, and created for themselves two new senators, who, collecting a numerous army, made an insurrection against the senator who had been lately created, the uncle of Brancheleon, and besieged him in a castle which he had at Rome. But he, relying on the oath of fidelity which had been taken to him, and on the hostages which he had in his city, namely, Bologna, of which he was a native, defended himself vigorously, so as not to deviate from the nobleness of his nephew and predecessor. And so the city was thrown into great confusion, and a great part of it was destroyed. During the same season of Lent a great quarrel arose, both at Oxford and Cambridge, between the scholars and the townsmen ; because the clerks had broken the prison, and forcibly carried off a criminal under sentence of death, and who was being kept in prison, and had conveyed him into the church, so as to be protected by that sanctuary. And in a similar manner the university of Paris was thrown into great confusion by the brotherhoods of the Preachers and Minors, who would not adhere to the common rules of the scholars, according to the custom of the university. In those days, when, during the suspension of parliament, some salutary statutes were provided, words of insult were branded about between the earls of Gloucester and Leicester, to such a degree, that the earl of Leicester, being excited to anger, crossed the sea, and withdrew into Gaul. And when