14 - THE FINAL YEARS 1234–1238

Summary

In June 1234 Peter des Roches was toppled from power. His offices as sheriff and constable were taken away from him, and the bishop himself was ordered to return to his diocese, to meddle no more in affairs of state. To begin with at least, he was threatened with an onslaught from his enemies, many of whom were now reintroduced to court. In July 1234 he faced an armed attack upon the precinct of his cathedral, headed by the former rebel Richard Siward. At the Bench, he was fined the quite disproportionate sum of £100 for failing to attend the king's justices. Over the past few years, as sheriff of Hampshire, he had escaped paying any surcharge or increment, beyond the ancient county farm. The Exchequer now set out to remedy this situation, decreeing that des Roches was to answer for Hampshire on the same terms as the sheriff he had replaced in 1232, paying £30 in arrears of an annual surcharge of £20. At the same time, he was made liable for £120, described as an aid for the king's Breton campaign of 1230, and presumably intended as a punitive gesture, to make up for des Roches' failure to contribute to the clerical aid extracted in 1232 from the other English bishops. By the end of 1235 he had paid £80 of this sum. However, of his other obligations, all but £10 of the surcharge for Hampshire was written off against his expenditure as sheriff, whilst the remaining £10 was transferred to the account of his former deputy, Roger Wacelin, who had cleared it by 1238.