The poet has himself described his meeting with the Englishman travelling
in such splendid fashion to lay before his Holiness his master's claims
upon France. 'It was at the time,' says Petrarch, 'when the seeds of war
were growing that produced such a blood-stained harvest, in which the
sickles are not laid aside nor as yet are the garners closed.' He found
in his visitor 'a man of ardent mind and by no means unacquainted with
literature.' He discovered indeed that Richard was on some points full of
curious learning, and it occurred to him that one born and bred in
Britain might know the situation of the long-lost island of Thule. 'But
whether he was ashamed of his ignorance,' says Petrarch, 'or whether, as
I will not suspect, he grudged information upon the subject, and whether
he spoke his real mind or not, he only answered that he would tell me,
but not till he had returned home to his books, of which no man had a
more abundant supply.' The poet complains that the answer never came, in
spite of many letters of reminder; 'and so my friendship with a Briton
never taught me anything more about the Isle of Thule.'
Richard was consecrated Bishop of Durham in 1333, after an amicable
struggle between the Pope and the King as to the hand that should bestow
the preferment. A few months afterwards he became High Treasurer, and in
the same year was appointed Lord Chancellor. Within the next three years
he was sent on several embassies to France to urge the English claims,
and he afterwards went on the same business to Flanders and Brabant.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47