in the aid of Frederick II, King of Germany in the north of Italy in 1238. Frederick II was married to Henry's sister Isabella in 1235. He fought alongside Henry III in the Battle of Taillebourg during the Saintonge War (20–24 July 1242) and took Peter Orige, seneschal of the Count of Boulogne, prisoner. He was reckoned not least among brave men in this unsuccessful venture against Louis IX of France. He was seriously wounded while leading an assault in siege of the Verines monastery. During 1246 and 1247 he served as Lord Chancellor of England. John Maunsell established the Augustinian priory at Bilsington, near Romney in 1253 prudently reflecting that "the king's favour is not hereditary or worldly prosperity of lasting duration." He is however spoken of disparagingly by the chronicling monk Matthew Paris, of St Albans Abbey, for unfairly denying legal judgment in the Abbey's favour after a monk had been attacked and robbed by his protégé Geoffrey of Childwick. He enjoyed great secular power; the 1258 Provisions of Oxford gave four men the power to elect a council of fifteen to govern the treasury and the chancery. These four men were the Earl Marshal (the Earl of Norfolk), Hugh Bigod, John Maunsell, and the Earl of Warwick (John du Plessis). Not only did he arrange the marriage of Henry III daughter, Margaret of England to Alexander III of Scotland in 1249, but he entertained the courts of England and Scotland on King Alexander's visit to London in 1256. Such a feat would not have been possible but for the income from his pluralities. He was named Seneschal of Gascony in 1243 a post later held by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and subsequently by Prince Edward. Alfonso of Castile had his eyes on Gascony and John Maunsell helped to defuse the situation by arranging the marriage of Edward to Alfonso's half-sister, Eleanor in 1254. Sedgwick castle came into his hands in 1249. In 1261 he was named Constable of the Tower of London. He was mediator along with Simon de Montfort in arranging the marriage of Henry's daughter Beatrice with John of Brittany in 1259. John Maunsell was in France with Queen Eleanor and Edmund when Simon de Montfort vanquished Henry III at the Battle of Lewes, 14 May 1264. Shortly thereafter, Simon de Montfort took possession of Maunsell's estates in August 1264. John Maunsell