The priory became an important centre of learning and diplomacy. Thomas Becket briefly studied there around 1130, and later was wont to wear the habit of a Merton canon – as was a successor of his, Hubert Walter. It is thought that Walter de Merton studied there in the 1230s; he established a house for Merton scholars in Old Malden, and this eventually was moved to Oxford, becoming Merton College. Edmund Rich wrote some of his Oxford lectures in the peace of the Priory. In 1205, King John sent a canon of Merton as an ambassador to Normandy; Prince Louis of France did penance there after a series of peace conferences culminating in the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217.