PETER

See also:

• DES

DES ROCHES (d. 1238)  , bishop of Winchester under John and Henry III., and conspicuous among the foreign favourites to whom these sovereigns owed much of their unpopularity, was a Poitevin by extraction . He received the office of chamber-lain towards the close of Richard's reign, and under Richard's successor became an influential counsellor . In 1205, doubtless through John's influence, he was elected to the see of Winchester . His election was disputed but, on appeal, confirmed by Pope Innocent III., who honoured Peter by consecrating him in person . None the less, the new bishop stood by his royal patron during the whole period of the interdict . In 1213 he was made justiciar in succession to Geoffrey Fitz Peter . This promotion was justified by the fidelity with which Peter supported the king through the barons' war . At the battle of Lincoln (1217) Peter led a division of the royal army and earned some distinction by his valour; but he played a secondary part in the government so long as William Marshal held the regency . After Marshal's death (1219) Peter led the baronial opposition to Hubert de 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 measures; in 1227 was himself dismissed from his office and turned his back on England to join the crusade of the emperor 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

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

(

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