Though banished, William was so constantly employed as bearer of the papal overtures that he was frequently passing to and fro between England and the continent under safe-conduct from John. The history, therefore, of William between 1208 and 1213 is the history of these negotiations. Innocent instructed William that should John fulfil an agreement with him, the interdict was to be relaxed (Epp. Inn. III. bk. xi. No. 91). Between 14 July and 8 Sept. 1208, and again for three weeks after 8 Sept., William had safe-conduct to remain in England (Rot. Lit. Pat. i. 85); but after keeping William and his fellow-bishops waiting for two months, John in the end would not see them (Ann. Wav. p. 261). Henry, duke of Saxony, and Otto of Germany attempted to effect a reconciliation (ib.). Finally, on 12 Jan. 1209 Innocent wrote to John threatening excommunication within three months. The three bishops were ordered to see to the execution of the sentence (Epp. Inn. iii. ii. 1530; Rog. Wend. p. 228). But, though the king remained obstinate, the three bishops fled without announcing the excommunication (ib.) On 2 Oct. the archbishop, with the bishops of London and Ely, came to Dover under safe-conduct. The king went to Chilham; the archbishop and bishops recrossed, as all negotiations broke down (Gerv. Cant. ii. 103, 105; Ann. Wav. pp. 263, 264; Coggeshall, p. 164). William went with the bishop of Ely and Langton to Rome (Rog. Wend. iii. 241). William and the bishop of Ely returned with Pandulf [q. v.] from Rome to France in January 1213, together with Langton, and published the sentence of deposition in a council of French bishops. Philip Augustus prepared to carry out the papal orders (Rog. Wend. iii. 242). In February 1213 the pope issued a mandate to William and his companions to suspend from their offices and benefices all ecclesiastics who had in any way assisted the king since his excommunication (Cal. of Papal Registers, i. 37). The king, frightened at last, submitted to Pandulf and Durand on 15 May. Among the conditions of submission was restitution to William and the other exiled bishops (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii. 543; Ann. Burton, i. 219, 220; Ann. Wav. p. 263). On 16 July William, with Langton and the other bishops, landed at Dover. On 20 July they absolved the king at Winchester (Rog. Wend. iii. 260). William received 750l. from John for his losses, and to make amends for the loss of his house of Bishop's Stortford, which the king had demolished in 1211, John gave him and his successors the manor of Stoke, near Guildford in Surrey (Newcourt, Repert. Eccl. i. 12). On 29 June 1214, John having at last fulfilled the conditions, the interdict was removed (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. ii. 575). On 4 March 1215 John, together with many magnates of England, took the cross at the hands of William of London (Walter od Coventry, ii. 219). On 1 Nov. 1214 William was one of those counsellors of the king who advised him to grant freedom of election to churches (Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 288), and on 15 June 1215 to grant Magna Carta (ib. p. 296). Under Henry III William continued to be entrusted with delicate diplomatic business. On 16 Jan. 1217 he was commissioned to enforce the provisions of the agreement made between Queen Berengaria and John as to her dower (Cal. Papal Registers, i. 43). On 2 June he assisted in the dedication ceremonies of Worcester Cathedral (Ann. Worcester, iv. 409). In 1217 he was among those who counselled the issue of Henry III's second charter and the charter of the forests (Select Charters, pp. 345–8), and on 5 Oct. 1220 the king appointed him, with Ralph Pincerne, to receive all lands surrendered by Llewelyn of Wales (Fœdera, i. 109).
On 25 Jan. 1221 William resigned in St. Paul's his bishopric to the legate Pandulf on account of old age (Walter of Coventry, ii. 248). The Waverley annalist praises him as a man of no little authority and great humility, who endured much during the interdict to preserve the liberties of the church (Ann. Wav. ii. 294). He retained to himself 100l. (Ann. Dunstaple, iii. 65), and ‘took upon himself the habit of a canon-regular of St. Osyth's,’ an Austin priory in Essex (Newcourt, Rep. Eccl. i. 12). On 6 May 1221 the pope confirmed to William the assignment of the manors of Clacton, Southminster, and Witham, with the consent of the dean and chapter of London, on a mandate to the cardinal-archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of Winchester and Rochester, to receive his resignation, and to make a grant to him out of the goods of his former see (Cal. Papal Registers, i. 81). He died at St. Osyth's on 27 March 1224 (Ann. Wav. ii. 299; Newcourt, Rep. Eccl. i. 12). He founded a chantry of one priest in the church of St. Paul, to ‘pray for the souls of himself and his successors’ (ib.)
[Annals of Waverley, Burton, Dunstaple, in Annales Monastici; Memorials of Walter of Coventry, Roger of Hoveden, Benedict of Peterborough; Ralph Diceto's Opera Historica, vol. ii.; Coggeshall's Chron. Anglicanum; Flores Historiarum, vol. ii.; Chron. Johannis de Oxenedes; Gervase of Canterbury, vol. ii.; Matt.
