Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/39

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History of the Church and Manor of Wigan.
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his uncle, and who incautiously followed Maunsell to Boulogne, where he was siezed and imprisoned by Ingelram de Fiennes.[1]

The King now agreed with his barons to refer the settlement of their disputes to Louis, King of France, to whose court he at once repaired. The barons also sent their representatives to the court of Louis, where they found the ever ready John Maunsell,[2] who had already procured letters from the Pope to the French King. Louis gave his award on the 23rd January, 1264, in favour of Henry, annulling the Provisions of Oxford, but the barons refused to abide by his decision, and the result was a civil war in which the English King was defeated and taken captive at the battle of Lewes on the 14th of May, 1264. But all this is matter of general English history, which we need not follow here any further.

The Tewkesbury Annalist informs us that Maunsell's lands were seized by Simon de Montfort and given to his (Simon's) son. In fact, they had already been seized by his enemies as soon as he had left the country, and by letters patent, issued in the King's name, in July or August, 1263, all the hereditaments in England which belonged to John Maunsell were given to Simon de Montfort, junior, son and heir of Simon, Earl of Leicester.[3] Almaric de Montford, another of the Earl of Leicester's sons, succeeded to Maunsell's office of Treasurer of York, to which he was appointed on 7th February, 1265, after the said Maunsell's death;[4] and William de Montfort to his prebend in the church of Bruges (Bridgnorth, in the county of Salop).[5]

In the meantime, on the 14th of February, 1264, the King deputes his royal consort Queen Eleanor, Peter, Earl of Savoy, and John Maunsell, Treasurer of York, to receive from Louis, King of France, the money which Louis owes to the English

  1. Annales de Dunstaplia
  2. Annales de Theokesberia
  3. Cal. Rot. Pat. 47 Hen. III. m. 16.
  4. Le Neves' Fasti.
  5. Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 1. p. 339.