THE very curious Letter of which a facsimile is subjoined (see page 62a) is an autograph of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, to John Lord Cobham. It has no date, but from its contents, coupled with other evidences, was written either in the last days of the year 1366, when Cobham was sent on a special mission to the Duke of Bourbon, or more probably in June, 1367, when he was sent on a subsequent mission to the Pope.
   It is curious, not only from its antiquity, but also as confirming a portion of the narrative of Froissart with reference to the mode in which Edward III. overcame some of the difficulties attending the appointment of Wykeham to the bishopric of Winchester. These difficulties arose, not from any reluctance on the part of Pope Urban V. to the selection of Wykeham for the vacant See, but from the contest then going on between
him and Edward III. with respect to Bulls of Provision.The See of Rome had been endeavouring, from the time of Henry III., to grasp the patronage of the higher ecclesiastical preferments, by issuing appointments to Sees not yet vacant, on pretence of a singular regard to the interests of those Sees, which, as was alleged, might suffer damage in the event of a vacancy; and the King was determined not to acquiesce in any such claim. Accordingly there was a struggle, not whether Wykeham should be Bishop of Winchester or not, but by