Peter des Roches: An Alien in English Politics, 1205–1238

by Nicholas Vincent

• ISBN13: 9780521522151
• ISBN10: 0521522153
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first biography of one of the wealthiest and most influential bishops of medieval Europe, who for a period of over thirty years exercised a degree of power over the thirteenth-century Plantagenet court second only to that of the king. The career of Peter des Roches and the activities of his fellow aliens are fundamental to an understanding of the process by which England and France developed as two separate kingdoms. The book also sheds new light on such hotly-debated issues as the role of aliens in English politics, the reception of Magna Carta, the loss of Normandy, and the constitutional and administrative developments of the reign of Henry III.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. An alien abroad

2. The reign of King John

3. The Justiciarship

4. Magna Carta and civil war

5. The king's guardian 1216-1219

6. Decline and disgrace 1219-1227

7. Des Roches and the Crusade 1227-1231

8. The fall of Hubert de Burgh

9. The coalition

10. Des Roches in power

11. The gathering storm

12. The Marshal's war

13. The fall of Peter des Roches

14. The final years

Bibliography.