XXll PREFACE. exhumation of the body, as being unworthy of Chris- tian bm-ial, as under sentence of excommunication and "tainted with the leprosy of treason" (pp. 176, 177), and of its being thrown into a farther place, hidden and known to very few, is peculiar to this annalist, and there seems no reason to doubt its truth. The way in which the disinherited are spoken of after the loss of their cause (p. 185), is curiously guarded; the account of the sirrrender of Kenil worth is given with very full details, as also the subsequent proceedings : though the writer states his ignorance as to how the earl of Glou- cester and the disinherited came to terms (p. 199). After mentioning the final peace in 1267 (p. 207), he speaks in strong terms of the extortions of the king and prince Edward on both churchmen and laymen, " ita quod " multi plus torquebantur in pacis tranqiiillitate quam " in guerrse perturbatione." There is a remarkable account of the legate Ottoboni, of whose rapacity the writer has evidently a vivid recollection (p. 217), while his affability and agi-eeableness in conversation remind him of the text, " The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the " hands are the hands of Esau" (p. 218). The number of towns placed under an interdict by this legate is given at the astounding number of 27.^ In the later portion of the chronicle, whether due to Thomas Wykes or not, may be mentioned as worthy of remark, the account of the punishment of the judges in 1289 (p. 319), the death and character of the treasurer, John de Kirkeby, bishop of Ely (p. 323), and of the queen dowager Eleanor, of whose apparent renunciation of the world the chronicler speaks in sarcastick terms ; *' quae " licet cucullam monacharum gestaret umbratilem, pos- " sessionibus ssecularibus, quibus non mediocriter abun- " davit, renunciare non curavit " (p. 329) : there is a ' The reading here is somewhat j margin of the MS., and has been doubtful, as the sentence is in the I clipped in the binding..
