132
��BATH AND WELLS.
��by a letter dated the Friday before Palm Sunday ( loth April) 1264, pray the King to issue a conge d'elire, vice bishop William deceased"^, and his majesty ac- ceded to their petition ]4th ApriP^; and Walter Giffaud, canon of Wells and archdeacon, and chaplain to the Pope, was elected 22nd May 12647^^, and on the 28th of the same month he obtained the royal assent to his election 7^^, and had the temporalities restored to him ist Sept. following 7 ^ He was con- secrated 1st Feb. 1264-576, At the close of the year 1266 he was translated to York 77; and the dean and chapter write to the King 28th Dec. 1266, beseeching him to issue his license for the election of a bishop in the room of A^alter Giffard translated to York78, and the royal license thereupon issued 2nd Jan. 1266779^ and 1267 William de Bitton or Button^^^ the second of that SiHen.lII. name, also archdeacon of Wells^^, was elected 10th Feb. and the temporalities restored to him 4th March 1266-7^'^. He died 4th Dec. 1274, and was buried at Wells ^3^ between two pillars on the south side of the choir, under a very sumptuous monument, with his effigies in full proportions habited in his pontificals. The prior and chapter of Bath, by their letter dated 13th Dec. 1274, and the dean and chapter of Wells on the same day, inform the King of the death of William their late bishop, and pray his majesty to issue the royal license for the election of another pre-
��71 Lett, in Tower of Lond. N. 478 and 479.
72 Pat. 48 Hen. III. m. 15.
73 Reg. Wellens.
74 Pat. 48 Hen. HI. m. 13.
75 Ibid. m. 5.
7 MSS. Baker and Hutton.
7'^ Pat. 51 Hen. III. rn. 32. Bishop GiiFard, on 21st Dec, wrote a letter to the prior and convent of Bath, in \vhich he says, "Vobis deiiunciamus nos
��cessisse, et curam Ebor. ecclesia? recepisse." Cart.Bathon.in Bibl. Hospit. Line. fol. 96.
78 Lett, in Tower of Lond. No. 481.
79 Pat. 51 Hen. III. m. 31.
80 He was the nephew of his predecessor of that name.
81 Matt. Paris.
82 Pat. 51 Hen. III. m. 24.
83 Angl. Sacra, pars i. p. ^66.
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