ess a sum than twenty thousand pounds on
the same account [y].
[FN [y] Id. p. 327, 329.]

The king's protection and good offices of every kind were bought and
sold. Robert Grislet paid twenty marks of silver, that the king would
help him against the Earl of Mortaigne, in a certain plea [z]: Robert
de Cundet gave thirty marks of silver, that the king would bring him
to an accord with the Bishop of Lincoln [a]: Ralph de Breckham gave a
hawk, that the king would protect him [b]; and this is a very frequent
reason for payments: John, son of Ordgar, gave a Norway hawk, to have
the king's request to the king of Norway to let him have his brother
Godard's chattels [c]: Richard de Neville gave twenty palfreys to
obtain the king's request to Isolda Bisset, that she should take him
for a husband [d]: Roger Fitz-Walter gave three good palfreys to have
the king's letter to Roger Bertram's mother, that she should marry him
[e]: Eling, the dean, paid one hundred marks, that his whore and his
children might be let out upon bail [f]: the Bishop of Winchester gave
one tun of good wine for his not putting the king in mind to give a
girdle to the Countess of Albemarle [g]: Robert de Veaux gave five of
the best palfreys, that the king would hold his tongue about Henry
Pinel's wife [h]. There are in the records of exchequer, many other
singular instances of a like nature [i]. It will, however, be just to
remark, that the same ridiculous practices and dangerous abuses
prevailed in Normandy, and probably in all the other states of Europe
[k]: England was not, in this respect, more barbarous than its
neighbours.
[FN [z] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 329. [a] Id. p. 330. [b] Id.
p. 332. [c] Id. ibid. [d] Id. p. 333. [e] Id. ibid. [f] Id. p.
342. PRO HABENDA AMICA SUA ET FILIIS, &c. [g] Id. p. 352. [h] Id.
ibid. UT REX TACERET DE UXORE HENRICI PINEL. [i] WE SHALL GRATIFY
THE READER'S CURIOSITY BY SUBJOINING A FEW MORE INSTANCES FROM MADOX,
p. 332. Hugh Oisel was to give the king two robes of a good green
colour, to have the king's letters patent to the merchants of
Flanders, with a request to render him one thousand marks, which he
lost in Flanders. The Abbot of Hyde paid thirty marks, to have the
king's letters of request to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to remove
certain monks that were against the abbot. Roger de Trihanton paid
twenty marks and a palfrey, to have the king's request to Richard de
Umfreville to give him his