Peter Des Roches

Peter Des Roches (died June 1238, Farnham, Hampshire, Eng.) was a Poitevin diplomat, soldier, and administrator, one of the ablest statesmen of his time, who enjoyed a brilliant but checkered career, largely in England in the service of kings John and Henry III. As bishop of Winchester from 1205 to 1238, he organized and added to the financial resources of his see. He held ecclesiastical appointments in Touraine and Poitou and afterward went to England,...