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of as he should please. And, if he found the
King of England courteous and liberal as to his ransom, he was
very willing that Wykeham should have this bishopric. The Duke,
upon this, returned to France, and afterwards to England, where
he entered into a treaty with the King for his ransom, showing
at the same time his Bull from the Pope. The King, who loved
"Wykeham very much, did whatever he desired. The Duke had
his liberty on paying twenty thousand francs,1 and
Sir William Wykeham was made Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor
of England."2
The latter portion of this narrative will receive
still further elucidation from the following short extract from
Lowth (p. 46), which shows more fully the issue of the rival
pretensions of. the Pope and the King:—"However, in the
present case it seems to have been agreed that each party should
in some measure allow the pretensions of the other. Accordingly
the Pope's Bull of July 14, 1367, before mentioned, in which he
refers to the Bull of Provision, is nevertheless directed to
William, Bishop elect of Winchester; and on the other hand, the
King, in his Letters Patent of the 12th of October, 1367, by
which he grants him the temporalities of the bishopric,
acknowledges him Bishop of Winchester by the Pope's provision,
without mentioning his election. He was enthroned in the
Cathedral church of Winchester, by William de Askeby, Archdeacon
of Northampton, by commission from the Cardinal-Archdeacon of
Canterbury's Procurator-General, on the 9th of July, 1368, who
acknowledges him Bishop of Winchester by election, confirmation,
and consecration, without any mention at all of the Pope's
provision."
This brief sketch of the transactions of which the
letter from William of Wykeham to Lord Cobham
1 This is not
correct; the sum was forty thousand crowns, as will be
seen afterwards.
2 Johnes's Froissart, iii. 385
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