page_title: Bérard de Got
section_title: Peace Mission to France and England
hierarchical_section_title: Bérard de Got / Peace Mission to France and England
caption_attribution_description: English: Edward I of England doing homage to Philip the Fair (1286)
context_page_description: Bérard de Got was a French bishop and Roman Catholic Cardinal. He was the son of Bérard, Lord of Villandraut, and a brother of Bertrand de Got, who became Pope Clement V.
context_section_description: On 18 February 1295, Pope Celestine's successor, Boniface VIII (Benedetto Caetani), appointed Cardinal Bérard de Got and Cardinal Simon de Beaulieu as Nuncios to King Edward I of England and King Philip IV of France to do everything possible to arrange a peace in the conflict that had broken out in the previous year.  Next day the Pope sent a letter to King Edward, advising him of the appointment, and apologizing that he had not done it sooner, due to the dangerous roads between Naples, where he had been elected, and Rome, where he was crowned on January 23, 1295.  King Edward lost no time in securing a friendly hearing at the Papal Court;  on 6 April 1295, he wrote a letter to Cardinal Matthew of Aquasparta, replying to a letter to him from the Cardinal about a peace between England and France. The King's letter requested the Cardinal to use his influence on the King's behalf, since the King had always had peace, concord, and good will in his intentions. The Cardinal was advised to seek detailed information about the King's affairs from his Cleric, Bertrandus de Got, Papal Chaplain.
  The two ambassadors, Bérard de Got and Simon de Beaulieu,  arrived in London around the time of Pentecost, where they awaited the King's return from Wales, which came around August 1.  The Cardinals presented the King with a request for a truce of two years.  The King replied that treaty obligations to the King of the Romans forbade him to make a truce or peace without his consent. The Cardinals asked the King to obtain it, and he agreed to do so.  On 14 August, the King wrote directly to Pope Boniface, rehearsing the same difficulties as well as his immense willingness.  On the same day he signed a document authorizing the two Cardinals to treat for a truce with King Philip. The Cardinals returned to France around September 8, 1295. On 22 June 1295, Pope Boniface mentioned in a letter to his ambassadors to King Adolf that he had ratified a truce (treuga, not a peace) among Edward I, Philip IV, and Adolf, King of the Romans.
  On 13 April 1296, the Pope approved another truce among the three Kings, to begin on 24 June 1296.  On 21 April 1296, Boniface ordered the two cardinals to publish in France and England his Constitution on Ecclesiastical Liberties, Clericis laicos, which he had signed in February. In the Spring of 1296, while King Edward was still at Berwick, Cardinal Bérard returned to England to receive the King's reply as to a truce; the King, without getting the consent of the King of the Romans, could only refuse the Cardinal, who immediately returned to France. On 18 August 1296, the Pope, who had received a suggestion from King Philip IV that negotiations for peace with King Edward might better be conducted at the Papal Court,  eagerly accepted the suggestion that the King send his brother the Comte d'Alençon to him so that they could deal conveniently with confidential matters.  On the same day Boniface warned King Adolf not to be so hostile to Philip IV or his kingdom, and that he should direct his efforts toward peace.  But on 17 September 1296, Pope Boniface seems to have given up on long-distance diplomacy; he advised King Philip and King Edward to send ambassadors (nuntii) to the Papal Court, since his ambassadors had been able to achieve nothing.  In February, 1297, the two cardinals, Bérard and Simon, were still in France, where they were advised that, if King Philip or his officials should obstruct the transfer of funds for the Holy Land, they were to be publicly denounced and notified that they had fallen under the appropriate ecclesiastical censures.  And on 12 February 1297,  King Edward was still sending representatives to discuss a truce or peace with the Cardinals.  At the same time, the King was sending out summonses to his vassals, lay and ecclesiastic, to join in a war against the King of France.
caption: Philip IV and Edward I (1286)
exif: {"Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 7.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:12 11:36:43", "Image ExifOffset": "170", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "31106", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB"}