A letter from the convent of Canterbury ()

Translated letter:

We give all the thanks we can to your excellency for the love you have hitherto had for us and our church and the pious sollicitude you have shown to our state and our church. Since, from your exhibition of previous goodnesses, we repose complete faith in your grace, we have confidently brought our needs and the troubles of our church to you, hoping from your goodness to have a merciful hearing as usual and to obtain the hoped for aid. Your excellency must know that our lord archbishop persists in his same position about the work of the chapel of Lambeth, begun by his predecessor of good memory, Baldwin. He wished to do nothing about its demolition, begun at the urgent mandate of our lord pope, following the example of his predecessors. But what afflicts us more and vehemently, he moves our lord king against us, striving to wrest his grace from us and twist his indignation and wrath against us. We beg your serenity, together and individually with tears and sighs, that in the sight of God and the glorious martyr Thomas, you strive to preserve the grace of our lord king towards us whole and unimpaired; that by letter, if it please you, you beseech for us and for the salvation of his soul that he provide for the peace and security of our church and not let it be disturbed by undue vexations; that similarly you beseech by letter your son lord John of Mortain that he interpose his support for us with our lord king, so that we may be even more devoted to you and your salvation with God and the saints of our church.

Original letter:

Excellentiae vestrae quantas possumus gratiarum referimus actiones, super amore quem ad nos et ecclesiam nostram hactenus habuistis, et quod de statu nostro et ecclesiae nostrae piam geritis sollicitudinem. Unde, quia ex praecedentium exhibitione bonorum plenam de gratia vestra reportamus fiduciam, necessitates nostras et ecclesiae nostrae vexationes vobis confidentius duximus insinuandas, sperantes a vestra bonitate clementer more solito exaudiri, et speratum per vos reportare subsidium. Noverit igitur excellentia vestra, dominum nostrum archiepiscopum in opere capellae de Lamhee, a bonae memoriae Baldewino praedecessore suo inceptae, eadem persistere voluntate; super cujus demolitione jam a domino nostro papa, exemplo praedecessorum suorum, suscepto urgenti mandato, nihil omnino facere voluit, sed, unde magis et vehementius affligimur, dominum nostrum regem adversum nos movet, ipsius gratiam nobis curans surripere, et ejus indignationem et iram in nos retorquere. Supplicamus itaque serenitati vestrae omnes et singuli cum lacrymis et gemitu, quatenus intuitu Dei et gloriosi martyris Thomae, filii vestri domini nostri regis gratiam nobis integram et illaesam curetis conservare; litteris vestris, si placet, pro nobis supplicantes, ut pro salute animae suae, paci et indemnitati ecclesiae nostrae provideat, nec eam indebitis vexationibus perturbari sustineat. Filio etiam vestro, domino Johanni de Moretonio, similiter litteris vestris supplicare velitis, ut pro nobis apud dominum nostrum regem partes suas interponat, ut nos pro vobis et incolumitate vestra apud Deum et sanctos ecclesiae nostrae teneamur devotiores existere.

Historical context:

The convent asks Eleanor's (and through her her son John's) help in winning the king to their side in their dispute with archbishop Hubert over rebuilding the chapel of Lambeth. They also wrote to Richard thanking him for his devotion and concern, but refusing his offer of arbitration, since all the bishops he names have gone over to the side of the archbishop, see ep.471.

Printed source:

Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, v.2, Epistolae Cantuarienses, ed. William Stubbs in series Regnum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages (London: Longman, Green, 1865), ep.472.