The retirement of the archbishop enabled Otto to carry through his business, and withdraw from England on January 7, 1241.  On August 21 Gregory IX. died, with his arch-enemy at the gates of Rome and all his plans for the time frustrated.  High-minded, able and devout, he wagered the whole fortunes of the papacy on the result of his secular struggle with the emperor.  In Italy as in England, the spiritual hegemony of the Roman see and the spiritual influence of the western Church were compromised by his exaltation of ecclesiastical politics over religion.

The monks of Christ Church won court favour by electing as archbishop, Boniface of Savoy, Bishop-elect of Belley, one of the queen’s uncles.  There was no real resistance to the appointment, though a prolonged vacancy in the papacy made it impossible for him to receive formal confirmation until 1243, and it was not until 1244 that he condescended to visit his new province.  Meanwhile his kinsmen were carrying everything before them.  Richard of Cornwall lost his first wife, Isabella, daughter of William Marshal, in 1240, an event which broke almost the last link that bound him to the baronial opposition.  He withdrew himself from the troubles of English politics by going on crusade, and with him went his former enemy, Simon of Leicester.  Richard was back in England early in 1242, and on November 23, 1243, his marriage with Sanchia of Provence, the younger sister of the queens of France and England, completed his conversion to the court party.

Henry III.’s cosmopolitan instincts led him to take as much part in foreign politics as his resources allowed.  In 1235 he married his sister Isabella to Frederick II., and henceforth manifested a strong interest in the affairs of his imperial brother-in-law.  His relations with France were still uneasy, and he hoped to find in Frederick’s support a counterpoise to the steady pressure of French hostility.  All England watched with interest the progress of the emperor’s arms.  Peter of Savoy led an English contingent to fight for Frederick against the Milanese, and Matthew Paris, the greatest of the English chroniclers, narrates the campaign of Corte Nuova with a detail exceeding that which he allows to the military enterprises of his own king.  Frederick constantly corresponded with both the king and Richard of Cornwall, and it was nothing but solicitude for the safely of the heir to the throne that led the English magnates to reject the emperor’s request that Richard should receive a high command under him.  Even Frederick’s breach with the pope in 1239 did not destroy his friendship with Henry.  The situation became extremely complicated, since Innocent IV. derived large financial support for his crusade from the unwilling English clergy, while Henry still professed to be Frederick’s friend.  The king allowed Otto to proclaim Frederick’s excommunication in England, and then urged the legate to quit the country because the emperor strongly protested against the presence of an avowed enemy at his brother-in-law’s court.  Neither pope nor emperor could rely upon the support of so half-hearted a prince.  Renewed trouble with France explains in some measure the anxiety of Henry to remain in good relations with the emperor despite Frederick’s quarrel with the pope.