July 1270 he received a patent of protection as a ‘cruoe signatus,’ and is described as about to accompany Prince Edward on his crusade. The highest ecclesiastical preferment Burnell had as yet attained was the archdeaoonry of York. But on the eve of the rince’s departure the death of Boniface of gavoy (8 July 1270) left the arcbbishopric of Canterbury vacant, and Edward made a strong effort to secure the succession for his faithful friend and clerk. Not content with urging Burnell’s claims by letter, Edward hurried to Canterbury, broke open the doors of the chapter-house, and vehemently pressed his election on the hesitating monks, But their reply that they must follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit threw the prince into a violent passion. He returned to Portsmouth, whence he embarked on 19 Aug., highly indignant with the monks, who, on his withdrawal, elected their own prior, Adam of Chillenden. This dispute made Pope Gregory X the ultimate arbiter of the question, and his appointment, of the Dominican Robert Kilwardby settled Burnell's chances (An. Wav.; Wykes; Cotton, p. 145). If Buruell went with Edward to Palestine, he must have very soon returned. He was nominated, along with the archbishop of York and Roger Mortimer, to act as the prince’s locum tenens and deputy during his absence (Shirley, Royal Letters, ii. 3-16); and his appointment as one of Edward's executors ( 8 June 1272) was another mark of his patron’s esteem. The three locum tementes became, on Henry III’s death (19 Nov. 1272), regents of the kingdom until the return of their absent principal. They nominated a chancellor, held a great council, received fealty oaths to the new king, and, under legatine pressure, heavily taxed the clergy. Their government was peaceful and successful (An. Winton. ; An. Wav.)
Edward's return was soon followed by Burnell’s appointment as chancellor (21 Sept. 1274), an office held by him for the eighteen remaining years of his life. On 23 Jan. 1275 he was elected bishop of Bath and Wells, and on 7 April consecrated at Merton by his old rival Kilwardby (Wykes, but the An. Wigorn. say ‘apud Londinium’). On every opportunity Edward strove to obtain for him urther promotion. On Kilwardby`s retirement to Rome in 1278 the king persuaded the monks of Christ Church to postulate for Burnell, who was then in Gascony on royal business (Wykes, in An. Mon. iv. 279) as archbishop. An earnest letter of entreaty from the king accompanied their postulation to Rome (Rymer, i. 559, ed. 1704); but Nicholas III yielded to his entreaties only so far as to appoint a commission of three cardinals to examine Burnell’s fitness. After long inquiries, circumstances came to the pope's ears which, he declared, maade it impossible for him to consent to Burnell’s appointment, and he nominated the Franciscan ohn Peckham instead. Edward concealed his disappointment, and again on 20 March 1280 his influence obtained the election of Burnell to WVinchester, But the pope simply bade the chapter proceed to a new election (An. Wav. in An. Mon. ii. 393; An. Wigorn. 177. iv. 478).
It is hard to determine Burnell’s precise share in the great legislative acts of Edward I’s time. But his constant and intimate association with his master, the strong bonds of personal friendship that plainly united the sovereign and minister, and the facts that Bnrnell's elevation to the chancery marks the beginning of Edward’s legislative reforms, and that alter his death few more great statutes were passed, combine to suggest that Burnell largely shared in the glory of the work. But not in lawmaking only was Burnell’s influence felt. His resolution in 1280 to settle the chancery, which had hitherto followed the court, at London as a fixed place where suitors could always find a remedy for their grievances (An. Wav. and An. Wigorn. in Annales Momastici, ii. 393, iv. 477), marks an important epoch in the history of that court. In general politics also Burnell took a leading share. He was almost always in attendance upon the king, whether in Aquitaine, Wales, or Scotland, and was prominent as at least the mouthpiece and the executor of the policy which Edward pursued in relation to the French crown, the annexation and pacitication of Wales, and the award of the crown of Scotland among its rival claimants. After his death Edward's assumption of a harsher and more peremptory attitude shows how great a check Burnell had been on the narrower and less genial sides of his master’s character (Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 305). On several occasions the multiplicity of his business or his absence abroad necessitated the appointment of deputies to discharge his business as chancellor. In 1275 the statute of Westminster I, a code in itself, began the legislative work which went on among as Burnell was chancellor. In the same year Llewelyn of Wales had the assurance to require Burnell as a hostage on his going to London to perform homage. In 1276 (12 Nov.) Burnmell took part in the council at Westminster which gave judgment against Llewelyn (Parl. Writs, 1. 5), and next year was summoned to send his service against the Welsh prince (ib. i. 195). In 1277 Burnell was one of three commissioners
