Note 358 — Chapter II · THE REGENCY OF WILLIAM THE MARSHAL 1216–1219

This fact is too self-evident to need illustration, but it is well illustrated by an incident of the late spring or early summer of 1217. Some person or persons unnamed “urgently entreated” Honorius to take measures for the appointment of Earl Ranulf of Chester as colleague to the Earl Marshal, whom they represented as being too old to fulfil the duties of his office, “especially in these times.” The proposal did not commend itself to the Pope; but he remitted the matter to Gualo’s judgment (Roy. Letters, vol. i. p. 532, Honorius to Gualo, 8th July, 1217), and it seems to have been heard of no more. How or with whom the suggestion originated there is nothing to show. That it had not come from the Legate is clear from the wording of the Pope’s letter to him. It evidently did not come from the Marshal himself, although, as has been seen, he had originally proposed that the regency should be given to Chester. There is no sign that it was the outcome of any intrigue on the part of Chester, whose conduct seems never to have in any way belied the assurance of loyal support which he had given to the Marshal in October, 1216.