n, and enriched by an imprudent generosity.[******]

* Chron. Dunst. vol. i p. 219.

** M. Paris, p. 265.

*** M. Paris, p. 608.

**** M. Paris, p. 271, 272

***** Rymer, vol. i. p. 448.

****** M. Paris, p. 286.

The bishop of Valence, a prelate of the house of Savoy, and maternal
uncle to the queen, was his chief minister, and employed every art to
amass wealth for himself and his relations. Peter of Savoy, a brother of
the same family, was invested in the honor of Richmond, and received the
rich wardship of Earl Warrenne; Boniface of Savoy was promoted to the
see of Canterbury: many young ladies were invited over to Provence, and
married to the chief noblemen of England, who were the king's wards.
[*] And, as the source of Henry's bounty began to fail, his Savoyard
ministry applied to Rome, and obtained a bull, permitting him to resume
all past grants; absolving him from the oath which he had taken to
maintain them; even enjoining him to make such a resumption, and
representing those grants as invalid, on account of the prejudice which
ensued from them to the Roman pontiff, in whom the superiority of the
kingdom was vested.[**] The opposition made to the intended resumption
prevented it from taking place; but the nation saw the indignities to
which the king was willing to submit, in order to gratify the avidity of
his foreign favorites. About the same time he published in England the
sentence of excommunication, pronounced against the emperor Frederic,
his brother-in-law;[***] and said in excuse, that, being the pope's
vassal, he was obliged by his allegiance to obey all the commands of his
holiness. In this weak reign, when any neighboring potentate insulted
the king's dominions, instead of taking revenge for the injury, he
complained to the pope as his superior lord, and begged him to give
protection to his vassal.[****]

* M. Paris, p. 236, 301, 305, 316, 541.

**M. West. p. 302, 304.

*** M. Paris, p. 484.

****M. West.p. 338.

{1247.} The resentment of the English barons rose high at the preference
given to foreigners; but no remonstrance or complaint could ever prevail
on the king to abandon them, or even to moderate his attachment towards
them. After the Provencals and Savoyards might have been supposed pretty
well satiated with the dignities and riches which they had acquired, a
new set of hungry foreigners were invited over, and shared among th