1322-01-04, Worcester

To J. Bishop of Norwich. Whereas Hugh le Despenser, the elder, and Hugh le Despenser, the younger, were lately, at the pursuit of certain magnates of this realm, exiled from the realm and disinherited by a consideration made by the said magnates, and the said Hugh and Hugh have suggested by petition before the king that there were many errors in the aforesaid consideration, by reason whereof it ought to be annulled, and they have prayed the king to do them justice in this matter, as the king is bound to do justice by his coronation oath and by Magna Carta and by the ordinances ; which petition the king caused to be delivered to W. archbishop of Canterbury and the other prelates and clergy of the province of Canterbury then assembled in provincial council at London, and he enjoined them to examine its contents and to advise him what he ought to do of right in the matter; and they replied that it seemed to them that the consideration as to the exile and disinheritance of the-said Hugh and Hugh was wholly erroneous and unjust, wherefore the said archbishop and bishops, as spiritual fathers, advised and prayed the king, and consented and agreed, as peers of the realm, that the king should cause the consideration to be revoked and annulled, adding that neither they nor any of them ever consented to the consideration, but that each of them protested in writing at the time that they would not and could not consent thereto; and the king afterwards caused the petition and the above answer to be recited publicly before him . 511 presence of the prelates and clergy aforesaid and of Edmund, earl of John de Britannia, earl of Richmond, Aymer de Valencia, earl of Edmund, earl of Arundel, and of other proceres of the realm by assent, and the earls and proceres agreed with the said reply in and prayed the king, with the aforesaid prelates, to cause the conto be revoked and annulled, and consented to this being done, and aforesaid earls of Richmond, Pembroke and Arundel asserted that they their consent to the consideration through fear of the undue power that said magnates suddenly caused to be brought without their knowledge ; the king likewise having treated of the matter with the justices and of his council, the said justices and others asserted that the had been made contrary to the law and custom of the realm ; king, because the bishop of Norwich was absent from the aforesaid wishing to be certified whether it seems to him that the answers, request, and consent made by the aforesaid archbishop and prelates present in the council and by the aforesaid earls and proceres and of the king's council were rightly made, and whether the bishop would to the same, orders the bishop to consider the premises and to write king without delay what he thinks of the matter and what he would do what he would advise to be done by the king. By K. Parl. Writs. like to the bishops of Lincoln, Bath and Wells, St. Davids, Exeter, Worcester, Llandaff, St. Asaph, and Bangor. [Jdid.]