King John kneeling before the Popes legate Following a dispute between King John and Pope Innocent III regarding Johns insistence on his sole right to elect a new Archbishop of Canterbury following the death of Hubert Walter in John was excommunicated in and in Innocent threatened stronger measures unless John submitted The papal terms for submission were accepted in the presence of the papal legate Pandulph in May In addition John offered to surrender the Kingdom of England to God and the Saints Peter and Paul for a feudal service of marks annually for England and for Ireland With this submission John gained the valuable support of his papal overlord in his new dispute with the English barons