John Maunsell, sending the Pope's mandate of the month of May last, addressed to the said Archbishop, the Bishop of Norwich, and John Maunsell, Treasurer of York and papal Chaplain, and orders him by virtue of the said mandate to proceed in person to Hugh le Bigod, and admonish him to deliver the castles of Scarborough and Pickering to the King, intimating to him that if he refuses to do so the Archbishop will proceed to excommunicate him in accordance with the form of the mandate.[1]
This mission, which it must have required some courage to execute, he evidently discharged, for on the iij Kal. of September (30 August), the day after his election, the new Pope Urban IV.[2] writes to Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, and John Maunsell, Treasurer of York and Chaplain to the Pope, acknowledging their letter of xi Kal. of September (22 August), received that evening, quoting the late Pope's Bull, and informing him that they had personally approached Sir Hugh le Bigod at Kyrkelymoreshesd' (Kirby Moorside), and carefully admonished him to give up the said castles to the King, who made answer that he had received them by the will and command of the King and his sworn magnates, under his corporal oath that he would guard them faithfully, and he would give them up to no man unless by the will and command of the said King and his magnates. But he professes that he will readily give them up to the said King, with the express advice and will of the said magnates or the greater part of them.[3] Whether these castles were eventually given up to the King or not I do not learn, but the new Pope does not appear to have given any further mandate in the matter.
In the following November a treaty for peace was made between the King and his barons, which was ratified at London
