January 1479 and he vacated the other ecclesiastical offices which he had accumulated. It was during this period that Morton was mentioned by the visiting Italian observer, Dominic Mancini, as being, along with Archbishop Thomas Rotherham and William, Lord Hastings, “of no small influence” with the king. Mancini wrote that “these men being in age mature, and instructed by long experience of public affairs, helped more than other councillors to form the king’s policy, and besides carried it out”. As Bishop of Ely, Morton initiated various building works, including rebuilding the Bishop’s Palace at Hatfield in Hertfordshire which had been in the possession of the Bishops of Ely since 1109. Morton rebuilt it in about 1480 as a stately manor house, all in brick. He was also responsible for the construction of Morton’s Leam, a cut or ditch twelve miles in length, forty feet broad and four feet deep, from Stanground near Peterborough to Guyhirn, by which water was channelled from the River Nene to Wisbech. Morton had a tower built to monitor the works. Exile under Richard III Edward IV died unexpectedly on 9 April 1483 and Morton was involved in making arrangements for the coronation of his elder son as Edward V. However, on 13 June he was arrested at a council meeting along with Lord Hastings and Archbishop Rotherham. They were accused of treason by the king’s uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Hastings was beheaded. Morton and Rotherham were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Gloucester was crowned as Richard III on 6 July 1483. Rotherham was soon restored to favour but Morton was committed to the custody of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who sent him to his castle at Brecon in Wales. Morton was involved in the failed uprising known as Buckingham’s Rebellion but he subsequently escaped to Flanders from where he continued to coordinate opposition to Richard III. In particular, when Richard III was seeking the return of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, from Brittany, Morton sent Christopher Urswick to alert him, and Henry was able to escape over the border into France. Morton was included in the Acts of Attainder passed by Richard III’s first (and only) parliament which met at Westminster in January 1484 and he once again lost all his temporal possessions. He was granted an unsolicited pardon on 11 December 1484 but he nevertheless refused to return to England.