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PETER DES ROCHES (d. 1238)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 293 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PETER See also:DES ROCHES (d. 1238)  , See also:bishop of See also:Winchester under See also:John and See also:Henry III., and conspicuous among the See also:foreign favourites to whom these sovereigns owed much of their unpopularity, was a Poitevin by extraction . He received the See also:office of chamber-lain towards the See also:close of See also:Richard's reign, and under Richard's successor became an influential counsellor . In 1205, doubtless through John's See also:influence, he was elected to the see of Winchester . His See also:election was disputed but, on See also:appeal, confirmed by See also:Pope See also:Innocent III., who honoured See also:Peter by consecrating him in See also:person . None the less, the new bishop stood by his royal See also:patron during the whole See also:period of the See also:interdict . In 1213 he was made See also:justiciar in See also:succession to See also:Geoffrey Fitz Peter . This promotion was justified by the fidelity with which Peter supported the See also:king through the barons' See also:war . At the See also:battle of See also:Lincoln (1217) Peter led a See also:division of the royal See also:army and earned some distinction by his valour; but he played a secondary See also:part in the See also:government so See also:long as See also:William See also:Marshal held the regency . After Marshal's See also:death (1219) Peter led the baronial opposition to See also:Hubert de See also:Burgh, with varying success . At first the justiciar was successful . In 1221 Peter meditated going on crusade; 1223-1224 saw his party broken up by Hubert's energetic See also:measures; in 1227 was himself dismissed from his office and turned his back on See also:England to join the crusade of the See also:emperor See also:Frederick II . He was absent from England until 1231; but in the meantime enhanced his reputation both as a soldier and diplomatist .

After the fall of De Burgh he kept in the back-ground, but offices and honours were heaped on his dependants, especially on his See also:

nephew, Peter See also:des See also:Rievaulx, and other Poitevins . This foreign party triumphed over the revolt which was headed by Richard Marshal in 1233 . But the See also:primate, See also:Edmund See also:Rich, voiced the See also:general feeling when he denounced Peter as a See also:mischief maker, and demanded that he should be dismissed from See also:court . The king complied, and threatened the bishop with charges of malversation . Peter was how-ever permitted to leave the See also:country with a See also:pardon (1235); he conciliated See also:Gregory IX. by rendering efficient aid in a war with the citizens of See also:Rome (1235); and in the next See also:year returned without molestation to his see . He was invited to go as the king's See also:envoy to the court of Frederick II., but refused apparently on the See also:score of See also:ill See also:health . His public reconciliation with De Burgh (1236), effected through the See also:mediation of the papal See also:legate, provided a dramatic close to their long rivalry, but had no See also:political significance, since both were now living in retirement . Peter died in 1238, and was buried at Winchester . He was undoubtedly a See also:man of a winning See also:personality, a See also:good diplomat and financier, a statesman whose unpopularity was due in some measure to his freedom from the insularity of the Englishmen, against whom he matched himself . But his name is associated with a worthless clique of favourites, and with the first steps which were taken by Henry III. to establish a feeble and corrupt See also:autocracy . See C . See also:Petit Dutaillis, See also:Vie et regne de See also:Louis VIII .

(See also:

Paris, 1894) ; Lecointre See also:Dupont, See also:Pierre des Roches (See also:Poitiers, 1868) ; See also:Stubbs's Constitutional See also:History of England, vol. ii . ; H . W . C . See also:Davis, England under the See also:Normans and Angevins (19o5) ; T . F . Tout in the Political History of England, vol. iii . (1905) . (H . W . C .

End of Article: PETER DES ROCHES (d. 1238)
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