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THE 


H  I  ST'O  R  Y 

OF     "'"""'a.,. 


FROM 

THE  INVASION  OF  JULIUS  CiESAR 

TO 

THE  REVOLUTION  IN  1688. 


EMBELLISHED    WITH 


€ngra\3tngs  on  Copper  anti  Wiotib, 


FROM  ORIGINAL  DESIGNS. 


Bij   DAVID    HUME,    Esq. 


VOLUME  THE  SECOND. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED    FOR    J.  WALLIS,   46,    PATERNOSTER-ROW, 

T.  DAVISON,  ff^HITEFRlKKS. 

1803. 


t>'j^' 


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i  ; 


THE 


HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


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The  concession  of  the  Great  Charter,  or  rather  its  full  establishment 
(for  there  was  a  considerable  interval  of  time  between  the  one  and  the 
other),  gave  rise,  by  degrees,  to  a  new  species  of  government,  and  mtro- 
duced  some  order  and  justice  into  the  administration.  Apr.  II. 


VOLUME    II. 


CONTENTS 

OF 

VOLUME    THE    SECOND. 

CHAP.    VIII. 

HENRY      n. 

State  of  Europe. ...  of  France. . . .  First  acts  of  Henry's 

government Disputes  between  the  civil    and 

ecclesiastical  powers ....  Thomas  a  Becket,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  . .  .  Quarrel  between  the  king 
and  Becket. . . .  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  ....  Ba- 
nishment of  Becket. . . .  Compromise  with  him. . . , 

His  return  from  banishment His  murder. . , . 

Grief. . , .  and  submission  of  the  king Page  1 


CHA.P.    IX. 

State  of  Ireland Conquest  of  that  island. . . .  Tlie 

king's  accommodation  witli  the  court  of  Rome. . . . 
Revolt  of  young  Henry  and  his  brothers. . .  .Wars 
and  insurrections, ,  .War  with  Scotland. , .  Penance 


ir  CONTENTS. 

of  Henry  for  Becket's  murder ....  William  king 

of  Scotland  defeated  and  taken  prisoner The 

king's  accommodation  with  his  sons. . .  .The  king's 
equitable  administration, . . .  Crusades, . . .  Revolt  of 
prince  Richard. . . .  Death  and  character  of  Henry 
«...  Miscellaneous  transactions  of  his  reign 73 


CHAP.    X. 

RICHARD    r. 

The  king's  preparations  for  the  Crusade Sets  out 

on  the  Crusade, . . .  Transactions  in  Sicily. . . .  King's 
arrival  in  Palestine State  of  Palestine Dis- 
orders in  England. . . .  The  king's  heroic  actions  in 
Palestine. . .  His  return  from  Palestine. . . .  Captivity 

in  Germany War  with  France The  king's 

delivery. . . .  Return  to  England. . .  War  with  France 
, . , ,  Death. . , .  and  character  of  the  king. . . .  Mis- 
cellaneous transactions  of  this  reign, ,.   137 


CHA.P.  XI. 

JOHN. 

Accession  of  the  king, . , ,  His  marriage. . . .  War  with 
France, . . .  Murder  of  Arthur  duke  of  Britanny, , . . 
The  king  expelled  the  French  provinces, ,.,  The 


CONTENTS.  Y 

king's  quarrel  with  the  court  of  Rome Cardinal 

Langton  appointed  archbishop  of  Canterbury. . . . 
Interdict  of  the  kingdom. . . .  Excommunication  of 
the  king. . . .  The  king's  submission  to  the  pope. , , , 
Discontents  of  the  Barons.. .  .Insurrection  of  the 
Barons. . . .  Magna  charta. . . .  Renewal  of  tlie  civil 

Wars Prince  Lewis  called  over, . . .  Death. . . . 

and  character  of  the  king 1 S8 


CONTENTS. 


APPENDIX    11. 

THE  FEUDAL  AND  ANGLO-NORMAN  GOVERN- 
MENT AND  MANNERS. 

Origin  of  the  feudal  law. ...  Its  progi'ess. . . .  Feudal  go- 
vernment of  England. . . .  The  feudal  parliament. . . . 

The  commons Judicial  power Revenue  of 

the  crown. . . .  Commerce. . . .  The  church. . . .  Civil 
laws ....  Manners Page  271 


CHAP.  xn. 

H  E  N  R  Y    IIL 

Settlement  of  the  government. . . .  General  pacification 
....  Death  of  the  protector. . . .  Some  commotions 
....  Hubert  de  Burgh  displaced. . . .  The  bishop  of 
Winchester  minister King's  partiality  to  fo- 
reigners. . . .  Grievances. . ..  Ecclesiastical  grievances 
....  Earl  of  Cornwall  elected  king  of  the  Romans 
Discontent  of  the  barons Simon  de  Mount- 
fort  earl  of  Leicester Provisions  of  Oxford. . . . 

Usurpation    of  the  barons Prince  Edward 

Civil  wars  of  the  barons Reference  to  the  kins 


o 


CONTENTS.  vU 

of  France. . . .  Renewal  of  the  civil  w  ai-s. . . .  Battle  of 
Lewes. .  .Hou&e  of  commons. . . .  Battle  of  Evesham 
and  death  of  Leicester. . . .  Settlement  of  the  govern- 
ment  Death. » . .  and  Character  of  the  king 

Miscellaneous  transactions  of  this  reign 321) 


CHAP.    XIII. 

EDWARD     I. 

Civil  administration  of  the  king. . . .  Conquest  of  Wales 

. .  .Affairs  of  Scotland Competitors  for  the  crow^n 

of  Scotland. . . .  Reference  to  Edward. . . .  Homage  of 
Scotland. . . .  Award  of  Edward  in  favour  of  Baliol 
....  War  with  France. . , .  Digression  concerning  the 
constitution  of  parliament. . . .  War  with  Scotland 
....  Scotland  subdued War  with  France. . .  Dis- 
sensions with  the  clergy Arbitrary  measures 

Peace  with  France Revolt  of  Scotland That 

kingdom  again  subdued. . .  again  revolts. ...  is  again 
subdued Robert  Bruce Third  revolt  of  Scot- 
land. . . .  Death  and  character  of  the  king Mis- 
cellaneous transactions  of  this  reign 4 ay 


r^l'/.jhed  Ju/j:  Z.J6V4    ly  JrrtVaU•^46J•al^-n^/lt'■J<o 


lenrj)  tf)e  ^econti* 


Chap.  VIII.    p.  64. 

They  followed  him  to  St.  Benedict's  church,  whither  he  went 
to  hear  vespers,  attacked  him  before  the  altar,  and  having  cloven 
his  head  with  many  blows,  retired  without  meeting  any  oppo- 
sition. 


THE 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


State  of  Europe  ....  of  France  ....  First  Acts  of  Henry's  Go- 
vernment ....  Disputes  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
Powers  ....  Thomas  a  Beckett  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  .... 
Quarrel  between  the  King  and  Becket ....  Constitutions  of 
Clarendon  ....  Banishment  of  Becket ....  Compromise  with 
him  ....  His  Return  from  Banishment ....  Hi&  Murder  .... 
Grief ....  and  Submission  of  the  King. 


STATE  OF  EUROPE.      1154. 

The  extensive  confederacies,  byM^liich  tlie  Euro- 
pean  potentates  are  now  at  once  united  and  set  in 
opposition  to  each  other,  and  which,  though  they 
are  apt  to  diffuse  the  least  spark  of  dissension 
throughout  the  whole,  are  at  least  attended  with 
this  advantage,  that  they  prevent  any  violent  re- 
volutions or  conquests  in  particular  states,  were 
totally  unknown  in  ancient  ages  ;  and  the  theory 
of  foreign  politics  in  each  kingdom  foiTned  a  spe- 
culation much  less  complicated  and  invohcd  than 
at  present.     Commerce  had  not  yet  bound  toge- 

VOL.  II.  h 


2  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  U54. 

ther  the  most  distant  nations  in  so  close  a  chain : 
wars,  finished  in  one  campaign,  and  often  in  one 
battle,  were  little  affected  by  the  movements  of 
remote  states :  the  imperfect  communication 
among  the  kingdoms,  and  their  ignorance  of  each 
other's  situation,  made  it  impracticable  for  a  great 
number  of  them  to  combine  in  one  project  or  ef-^ 
fort :  and  above  all,  the  turbulent  spirit  and  inde- 
pendent situation  of  the  barons  or  great  vassals  in 
each  state  gave  so  much  occupation  to  the  sove- 
reign, that  he  was  obliged  to  confine  his  attention 
chiefly  to  his  own  state,  and  his  own  system  of 
government,  and  Avas  more  indifferent  about  what 
passed  among  his  neighbours.  Rehgion  alone, 
not  politics,  carried  abroad  the  views  of  princes ; 
while  it  either  fixed  their  thoughts  on  the  Holy 
Land,  whose  conquest  and  defence  v/as  deemed  a 
point  of  common  honour  and  interest,  or  engaged 
them  in  intrigues  with  the  Roman  pontiff,  to 
whom  they  had  jaelded  the  direction  of  ecclesi- 
astical affairs,  and  Avho  was  every  day  assuming 
more  authority  than  they  were  willing  to  allow 
him. 

Before  the  conquest  of  England  by  the  duke  of 
Normandy,  this  island  was  as  much  se^parated  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  in  politics  as  in  situation  • 
and  except  from  the  inroads  of  the  Danish  pirates, 
the  Enghsh,  happily  confined  at  home,  had  neither 
enemies  nor  aUies  on  the  continent.  The  foreign 
dominions  of  William  connected  them  with  the 
kmg  and  great  vassals  of  France ;  and  while  the 


1154.  HENRY    11.  3 

opposite  pretensions  of  the  pope  and  emperor  in 
Italy  produced  a  continual  intercourse  between 
Germany  and  that  country,  the  tAvo  great  mo- 
narchs  of  France  and  England  formed,  in  another 
part  of  Europe,  a  separate  system,  and  carried  on 
their  wars  and  negociations,  Avithout  meeting  either 
with  opposition  or  support  from  the  others. 

STATE  OF  FRANCE. 

On  the  decline  of  the  Carlovingian  race,  the  no- 
bles in  every  province  of  France,  taking  advantage 
of  the  weakness  of  the  sovereign,  and  obliged  to 
provide,  each  for  his  own  defence,  against  the  ra- 
vages of  the  Norman  freebooters,  had  assumed, 
both  in  civil  and  military  affairs,  an  authority  al- 
most independent,  and  had  reduced  within  very 
narrow  limits  the  prerogative  of  their  princes. 
The  accession  of  Hugh  Capet,  by  annexing  a  great 
iief  to  the  crown,  had  brought  some  addition  to  the 
royal  dignity ;  but  this  fief,  though  considerable 
for  a  subject,  appeared  a  narrow  basis  of  power  for 
a  prince  mIio  was  placed  at  the  head  of  so  great  a 
community.  The  royal  demesnes  consisted  only 
of  Paris,  Orleans,  Estampes,  Compiegne,  and  a  iew 
places  scattered  over  the  northern  provinces:  in 
the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  the  prince's  authority  was 
rather  nominal  than  real  :  the  vassals  were  accus- 
tomed, nay  entitled,  to  make  Avar  Avithout  his  per- 
mission, on  each  other :  they  Avere  even  entitled, 
if  they  conceived  themselves  injured,  to  turn  their 
arms  against  their  soA'ereign  :  they  exercised  all 
2 


4  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1154, 

civil  jurisdiction,  without  appeal,  over  their  tenants 
and  inferior  vassals  :  their  common  jealousy  of  the 
crown  easily  united  them  against  any  attempt  on 
their  exorbitant  privileges ;  and  as  some  of  them 
had  attained  the  power  and  authority  of  great 
princes,  even  the  smallest  baron  was  sure  of  im- 
mediate and  effectual  protection.  Besides  six  ec- 
clesiastical peerages,  which,  with  the  other  immu- 
nities of  the  church,  cramped  extremely  the  ge- 
neral execution  of  justice;  there  were  six  lay  peer- 
ages. Burgundy,  Normandy,  Guienne,  Flanders, 
Toulouse,  and  Champagne,  which  formed  very  ex- 
tensive and  puissant  sovereignties.  And  though 
the  combination  of  all  those  princes  and  barons 
could,  on  urgent  occasions,  muster  a  mighty  power, 
yet  was  it  very  difficult  to  set  that  great  machine 
in  movement ;  it  was  almost  impossible  to  preserve 
harmony  in  its  parts  ;  a  sense  of  common  interest 
alone  could,  for  a  tune,  unite  them  under  their 
sovereign  against  a  common  enemy ;  but  if  the 
king  attempted  to  turn  the  force  of  the  commu- 
nity against  any  mutinous  vassal,  the  same  sense 
of  common  interest  made  the  others  oppose  them- 
selves to  the  success  of  his  pretensions.  Lewis  the 
Gross,  the  last  sovereign,  marched  at  one  time  to 
his  frontiers  against  the  Germans  at  the  head  of 
an  army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men ;  but  a 
petty  lord  of  Corbeil,  of  Puiset,  of  Couci,  was 
able,  at  another  period,  to  set  that  prince  at  defi- 
ance, and  to  maintain  open  war  against  him. 
The  authority  of  the  English  monarch  was  much 


1154.  HENRY    II.  5 

more  extensive  witliin  \m  kingdom,  and  the  dis- 
proportion much  greater  between  him  and  the  most 
poM-erful  of  his  vassals.  His  demesnes  and  reve- 
nue were  large,  compared  to  the  greatness  of  his 
state  :  he  Mas  accustomed  to  levy  arbitrary  exac- 
tions on  his  sul)jects  :  his  courts  of  judicature  ex- 
tended their  jurisdiction  into  every  part  of  the 
kingdom  :  he  could  crush  l)y  his  power,  or  by  a 
judicial  sentence,  well  or  ill  founded,  any  obnox- 
ious baron:  and  though  the  feudal  institutions 
which  prevailed  in  his  kingdom  had  the  same  ten- 
dency as  in  other  states,  to  exalt  the  aristocracy 
and  depress  the  monarchy,  it  required,  in  England, 
according  to  its  present  constitution,  a  great  com- 
bination of  the  vassals  to  oppose  their  sovereign 
lord,  and  there  liad  not  hitherto  arisen  any  baron  so 
pOM'erful  as  of  himself  to  levy  war  against  the 
prince,  and  to  afford  protection  to  the  inferior 
barons. 

While  such  Averc  the  different  situations  of 
France  and  England,  and  the  latter  enjoyed  so 
many  advantages  above  the  former;  the  accession 
of  Henry  II.  a  prince  of  great  abilities,  possessed 
of  so  many  rich  provinces  on  the  continent,  might 
appear  an  event  dangerous,  if  not  fatal,  to  the 
French  monarchy,  and  sufiicient  to  break  entirely 
the  balance  between  the  states.  He  was  master, 
in  the  right  of  his  father,  of  Anjou  and  Touraine  ; 
in  that  of  h^s  mother,  of  Normandy  and  ]Maine ; 
in  that  of  his  wife,  of  Guienne,  Poictou,  Xaintogne, 
Auvergne,    Perigord,    Angoumois,    the   Limosin. 


0  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND,  1154. 

He  soon  after  annexed  Britanny  to  his  other  states, 
and  was  already  possessed  of  the  superiority  over 
that  province,  which,  on  the  first  cession  of  Nor- 
mandy to  RoUo  the  Dane,  had  been  granted  by 
Charles  the  Simple  in  vassalage  to  that  formidable 
ravager.  These  provinces  composed  above  a 
third  of  the  whole  French  monarchy,  and  were 
much  superior  in  extent  and  opulence  to  those 
territories  which  were  subjected  to  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  and  government  of  the  king.  The 
vassal  was  here  more  powerful  than  his  liege  lord: 
the  situation  which  had  enabled  Hugh  Capet  to 
depose  the  Carlovingian  princes,  seemed  to  be  re- 
newed, and  that  with  much  greater  advantages  on 
the  side  of  the  vassal :  and  when  England  was  add- 
ed to  so  many  provinces,  the  French  king  had 
reason  to  apprehend  from  this  conjuncture,  some 
great  disaster  to  himself  and  to  his  family :  but, 
in  reality,  it  was  this  circumstance,  which  ap- 
peared so  formidable,  that  saved  the  Capetian  race, 
and  by  its  consequences  exalted  them  to  that  pitch 
of  grandeur  which  they  at  present  enjoy. 

The  limited  authority  of  the  prince  in  the  feudal 
constitutions,  prevented  the  king  of  England  from 
employing  with  advantage  the  force  of  so  many 
states,  which  were  subjected  to  his  government; 
and  these  different  members,  disjoined  in  situa- 
tion, and  disagreeing  in  laws,  language,  and  man- 
ners, were  never  thoroughly  cemented  into  one 
monarchy.  He  soon  became,  both  from  his  di- 
stant place  of  residence,  and  from  the  incompati- 


1154.  HENRY    11.  f 

bility  of  interests,  a  kind  of  foreigner  to  his  French 
dominions;  and  his  subjects  on  the  continent  con- 
sidered their  allegiance  as  more  naturally  due  to 
their  superior  lord,  who  lived  in  their  neighbour- 
hood, and  who  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  su- 
preme head  of  their  nation.  He  was  always  at 
hand  to  invade  them  ;  their  immediate  lord  was 
often  at  too  great  a  distance  to  protect  them ; 
and  any  disorder  in  any  part  of  his  dispersed  do- 
minions 2;ave  advantaoes  ao-ainst  him.  The  other 
powerful  vassals  of  the  French  crown  were  rather 
pleased  to  see  the  expulsion  of  the  EngHsh,  and 
were  not  affected  with  that  jealousy  which  would 
have  arisen  from  the  oppression  of  a  co-vassal  who 
was  of  the  same  rank  with  themselves.  By  this 
means,  the  king  of  France  found  it  more  easy  to 
conquer  those  numerous  provinces  from  England, 
than  to  subdue  a  duke  of  Normandy  or  Guienne, 
a  count  of  Anjou,  Maine,  or  Poictou.  And  after 
reducing  such  extensive  territories,  which  imme- 
diately incorporated  with  the  body  of  the  mo- 
narchy, he  found  greater  facility  in  uniting  to 
the  crown  the  other  great  ficfs  which  still  remain- 
ed separate  and  independent. 

But  as  these  important  consequences  could  not 
be  foreseen  by  human  wisdom,  the  king  of  France 
remarked  with  terror  the  rising  grandeur  of  the 
house  of  Anjou  or  Plantagenet ;  and,  in  order  to 
retard  its  progress,  he  had  ever  maintained  a  strict 
union  with  Stephen,  and  had  endeavoured  to  sup- 
port the  tottering  fortunes  of  that  bold  usurper. 


8  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1154. 

But  after  this  prince's  death  it  was  too  late  to 
think  of  opposing  the  succession  of  Henry,  or 
preventing  the  performance  of  those  stipulations 
which,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  nation, 
he  had  made  with  his  predecessor.  The  EngHsh, 
harassed  with  civil  wars,  and  disgusted  with  the 
bloodshed  and  depredations  which,  during  the 
course  of  so  many  years,  had  attended  them,  were 
little  disposed  to  violate  their  oaths,  by  excluding 
the  lawful  heir  from  the  succession  of  their  mo- 
narchy \  Many  of  the  most  considerable  fortresses 
Avere  in  the  hands  of  his  partisans ;  the  whole  na- 
tion had  had  occasion  to  see  the  noble  qualities 
with  which  he  was  endowed'',  and  to  compare 
them  with  the  mean  talents  of  William,  the  son  of 
Stephen ;  and  as  they  were  acquainted  with  his 
great  power,  and  were  rather  pleased  to  see  the 
accession  of  so  many  foreign  dominions  to  the 
crown  of  England,  they  never  entertained  the  least 
thought  of  resisting  them.  Henry  himself,  sensi- 
ble of  the  advantages  attending  his  present  situa- 
tion, was  in  no  hurry  to  arrive  in  England ;  and 
being  engaged  in  the  siege  of  a  castle  on  the 
frontiers  of  Normandy,  when  he  received  intelH- 
gence  of  Stephen's  death,  he  made  it  a  point  of 
honour  not  to  depart  from  his  enterprise,  till  he 
had  brought  it  to  an  issue.  He  then  set  out  on 
his  journey,  and  was  received  in  England  with 
the  acclamations  of  all  orders  of  men,  who  swore 

*  Matth.  Paris,  p.  65.  "  Gul.  Neubr.  p.  381. 


1155.  HENRY   II.  9 

with  pleasure   tlie  oatli  of  fealty  and  allegiance 
to  him. 


riRST  ACTS  OF  HENRY'S  GOVERNMENT. 

The  first  acts  of  Henry's  government  corre- 
sponded to  the  high  idea  entertained  of  his  abili- 
ties, and  {prognosticated  the  re-estal)lishment  of 
justice  and  tranquillity,  of  which  the  kingdom 
had  so  long  been  bereaved.  He  immediately  dis- 
missed all  those  mercenary  soldiers  who  had  com- 
mitted great  disorders  in  the  nation ;  and  he  sent 
them  abroad,  together  with  William  of  Ypres, 
their  leader,  the  friend  and  confident  of  Stephen ^ 
He  revoked  all  the  grants  made  by  his  predeces- 
sor'^, even  those  which  necessity  had  extorted 
from  the  empress  Matilda ;  and  that  princess, 
M'ho  had  resigned  her  rights  in  fa^'Our  of  Henry, 
made  no  opposition  to  a  measure  so  necessary  for 
supporting  the  dignity  of  the  crown.  He  repaired 
the  coin,  which  had  been  extremely  debased  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  his  predecessor;  and  he  took 
proper  measures  against  a  return  of  the  like 
abuse  ^  He  was  rigorous  in  the  execution  of 
justice,  and  in  the  suppression  of  robbery  and 
violence ;  and  that  he  might  restore  authority  to 
the  laws,  he  caused  all  the  new  erected  castles  to 
be  demolished,  A\'hich  had  proved  so  many  sanc- 


•^  Fitz-Stcph.  p.  13.     M.  Paris,  p.  6.5.     Neubr.  p.  3S1.     Chron. 
T.  Wykes,  p,  30,        **  Neubr.  p.  382.  *=  Hoveden,  p.  491. 


JO  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1157^ 

tuaries  to  freebooters  and  rebels  ^  The  earl  of 
Albemarle,  Hugh  IMortimer,  and  Roger  the  son 
pf  ]\Iilo  of  Glocester,  were  inclined  to  make  some 
resistance  to  this  salutary  measure ;  but  the  ap* 
proach  of  the  king  with  his  forces  soon  obliged 
them  to  submit. 

Every  thing  being  restored  to  full  tranquillity 
in  England,  Henry  went  abroad  in  order  to  op- 
pose the  attempts  of  his  brother  Geoifrey,  who, 
during  his  absence,  had  made  an  incursion  into 
Anjou  and  Maine,  had  advanced  some  preten- 
sions to  those  provinces,  and  had  got  possession 
of  a  considerable  part  of  them  *.  On  the  king's 
appearance,  the  people  returned  to  their  allegiance  ; 
and  Geoffrey,  resigning  his  claim  for  an  annual  pen- 
sion of  a  thousand  pounds,  departed  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  county  of  Nantz,  which  the  inhabit- 
ants, who  had  expelled  count  Hoel  their  prince, 
had  put  into  his  hands.  Henry  returned  to  Eng- 
land the  following  year:  the  incursions  of  the 
Welsh  then  provoked  him  to  make  an  invasion 
upon  them;  where  the  natural  fastnesses  of  the 
country  occasioned  him  great  difficulties,  and  even 
brought  him  into  danger.  His  vanguard,  being 
engaged  in  a  narrow  pass,  was  put  to  rout :  Henry 
de  Essex,  the  hereditary  standard-bearer,  seized 
Avith  a  panic,  threw  down  the  standard,  took  to 
flight,  and  exclaimed   that  the    king  was    slain: 

'  Hoveden,  p.  491.  Fitz-Steph.  p.  13,   M.  Paris,  p.  65.  Neubr. 
p.  381.     Brompton^  p.  1043, 

*  See  note  O,  vol.  x. 


1158.  HENRY    II.  U 

and  had  not  the  ])iincc  immediately  appeared  in 
person,  and  led  on  his  tioojjs  with  great  gallantry, 
the  consequence  might  ha\e  proved  fatal  to  the 
v/hole  army  ^  For  this  misheha^•iour,  Essex  ^'v•as 
afterM-ards  accused  of  felony  ])y  Rohcrt  de  Mont- 
fort;  was  vanquished  in  single  combat;  his  estate 
was  confiscated  ;  and  he  himself  Avas  thrust  into 
a  convent".  The  submissions  of  the  Welsh  pro- 
cured them  an  accommodation  with  England. 

The  martial  disposition  of  the  princes  in  that 
ao-e  eno-ap-ed  them  to  head  their  own  armies  in 
every  enterprise,  even  the  most  frivolous;  and 
their  feeble  authority  made  it  commonly  imprac- 
ticable for  them  to  delegate,  on  occasion,  the 
command  to  their  generals,  Geoffrey,  the  king's 
brother,  died  soon  after  he  had  acquired  pos- 
session of  Nantz :  though  he  had  no  other  title 
to  that  country  than  the  voluntary  submission  or 
election  of  the  inhabitants  two  years  before,  Henry- 
laid  claim  to  the  territory  as  devolved  to  him  by 
hereditary  right,  and  he  went  o\er  to  support  his 
pretensions  by  force  of  arms.  Conan,  duke  or 
earl  of  Britanny  (for  these  titles  are  given  indif- 
ferently by  historians  to  those  princes),  pretended 
that  Nantz  had  been  lately  separated  by  rebellion 
from  his  principality,  to  Mhich  of  right  it  be- 
longed ;  and  immediately  on  Geoffrey's  death  he 
took  possession  of  the  disputed  territory.      Lest 

«  Nenbr.  p.  383,     Chron,  W.  Heming.  p.  -iy?. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  ;o.     Ncubr.  p.  3S3. 


12  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1150. 

Lewis  the  French  king  should  interpose    in  the 
controversy,  Henry  paid  him  a  visit ;  and  so  al- 
lured him  by  caresses  and  civilities,  that  an  alli- 
ance was    contracted    between   them;  and   they 
agreed  that  young  Henry,    heir  to    the  Enghsh 
monarchy,    should  be  affianced  to  INlargaret    of 
France ;  though  the  former  was  only  five  years  of 
age,  and  the  latter  was  still  in  her  cradle.   Henry, 
now  secure  of  meeting  with  no  interruption  on  this 
side,  advanced  with  his  army  into  Britanny  ;  and 
Conan,  in  despair  of  being  able  to  make  resist- 
ance, delivered  up  the  county  of  Nantz  to  him. 
The  able  conduct  of  the  king  procured  him  far- 
ther and  more  important  advantages  from   this 
incident.   Conan,  harassed  with  the  turbulent  dis- 
position of  his  subjects,  was  desirous  of  procuring 
to  himself  the  support  of  so  great  a  monarch; 
and  he  betrothed    his  daughter  and  only  child, 
yet  an  infant,  to  Geoffrey  the  king's  third  son, 
who  was  of  the  same  tender  years.     The  duke  of 
Britanny  died  about  seven  years  after ;  and  Henry, 
being  mes7w  lord,  and  also   natural    guardian  to 
his  son  and  daughter-in-law,  put  himself  in  pos- 
session of  that  principality,    and  annexed  it  for 
the  present  to  his  other  great  dominions. 

The  king  had  a  prospect  of  making  still  farther 
acquisitions ;  and  the  activity  of  his  temper  suf- 
fered no  opportunity  of  that  kind  to  escape  him. 
Philippa,  duchess  of  Guienne,  mother  of  queen 
Eleanor,  was  the  only  issue  of  William  IV.  count 
of  Toulouse ;  and  would  have  inherited  his  domi- 


1159.  HENRY    II.  13 

iiioiis,  had  not  that  prince,  desirous  of  preserving 
the   succession  in  the    male  hne,    conveyed  tlie 
principahty  to  his  brother  Raymond  de  St.  Gilles, 
by  a  contract  of  sale  ^vllich  was  in  that  age  re- 
garded as  fictitious  and  illusory.     By  thi§  means 
tlie  title  to  the  county  of  Toulouse  came  to  be 
disputed  between  the  male  and  female  licirs ;  and 
the  one  or  the  other,  as  opportunities  favoured 
them,  had  obtained  possession.   Raymond,  grand- 
son of  Raymond  de  St.  Gilles,  was  the  reigning 
sovereign ;    and    on  Henry's    reviving   his  wife's 
claim,  this  prince  had  recourse  for  protection  to 
the  king  of  France,  who  was  so  much  concerned 
in  policy  to  prevent  the  farther  aggrandisement  of 
the  English  monarch.      Lewis  himself,  "when  mar- 
ried to  Eleanor,  had  asserted  the  justice  of  her 
claim,  and  had  demanded  possession  of  Toulouse'; 
but  his  sentiments  changing  with  his  interest,  he 
now  determined  to  defend  by  his  power  and  au- 
thority the  title  of  Raymond.     Henry  found  that 
it  would  be   requisite  to  support  his   pretensions 
against  potent  antagonists ;  and  that  nothing  but 
a  formidable  army  could  maintain  a  claim  which 
he  had  in  vain  asserted  by  arguments  and  mani- 
festos. 

An  army,  composed  of  feudal  vassals,  was  com- 
monly very  intractable  and  undisciplined,  both 
because  of  the  independent  spirit  of  the  persons 
who  served  in  it,  and  because  the  commands  were 

'  Neubr.  p.  ".S;.     Chroa.  W.  Homing,  p,  404% 


14  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1159, 

not  given,  either  by  the  choice  of  the  sovereign,- 
or  from  the  mihtary  capacity  and  experience  of 
the  officers.  Each  baron  conducted  his  own  vas- 
sals :  his  rank  was  greater  or  less,  proportioned  to 
the  extent  of  his  property:  even  the  supreme 
command  under  the  prince  was  often  attached  to 
birth :  and  as  the  military  vassals  were  obliged  to 
serve  only  forty  days  at  their  own  charge ;  though, 
if  the  expedition  were  distant,  they  were  put  to 
great  expence;  the  prince  reaped  little  benefit 
from  their  attendance.  Henry,  sensible  of  these 
inconveniences,  levied  upon  his  vassals  in  Nor- 
mandy, and  other  provinces  which  were  remote 
from  Toulouse,  a  sum  of  money  in  lieu  of  their 
service ;  and  this  commutation,  by  reason  of  the 
great  distance,  was  still  more  advantageous  to  his 
English  vassals.  He  imposed,  therefore,  a  scu- 
tage  of  180,000  pounds  on  the  knight's  fees,  a 
commutation  to  v>hich,  though  it  was  unusual, 
and  the  first  perhaps  to  be  met  with  in  history*, 
the  military  tenants  Avillingly  submitted ;  and 
with  this  money  he  levied  an  army  Avhich  was 
more  under  his  command,  and  whose  service  was 
more  durable  and  constant.  Assisted  by  Berenger 
count  of  Barcelona,  and  Trincaval  count  of  Nis- 
mes,  whom  he  had  gained  to  his  party,  he  in- 
vaded the  county  of  Toulouse ;  and  after  taking- 
Verdun,  Castlenau,  and  other  places,  he  besieged 
the  capital  of  the  province,  and  was  likely  to  pre- 

*  Madox,  p.  435.    Geivase,  p.  1381.     SeQ  cote  P,  vol.  x. 


1160.  HENRY    il.  13 

vail  in  the  enterprise ;  ^vllen  Lewis,  advancini^  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  his  main  body,  threw  himself 
into  tlie  place  with  a  small  reinforcement.  Henry 
was  urged  by  some  of  his  ministers  to  prosecute 
the  siege,  to  take  Lewis  prisoner,  and  to  impose 
his  own  terms  in  the  pacification ;  but  he  either 
thought  it  so  much  his  interest  to  maintain  the 
feudal  principles,  by  which  his  foreign  dominions 
were  secured,  or  bore  so  much  respect  to  his  su- 
perior lord,  that  he  declared  he  would  not  attack 
a  ^jlace  defended  by  him  in  person ;  and  he  im- 
mediately raised  the  siege  ^.  lie  marched  into 
Normandy  to  protect  that  province  against  an  in- 
cursion which  the  count  of  Dreux,  instigated  by 
king  Lewis  his  brother,  had  made  upon  it.  War 
was  now  openly  carried  on  l^etwecn  the  two  mo- 
narchs,  but  produced  no  memorable  event :  it  soon 
ended  in  a  cessation  of  arms,  and  that  followed 
by  a  peace,  A\liich  was  not,  howe\er,  attended 
with  any  confidence  or  good  correspondence  be- 
tween those  rival  princes.  The  fortress  of  Gisors, 
being  part  of  the  dowry  stipulated  to  Margaret  of 
France,  had  been  consigned  by  agreement  to  the 
knights  templars,  on  condition  that  it  should  be 
delivered  into  Henry's  hands  after  the  celebration 
of  the  nuptials.  The  king,  that  he  might  have  a 
pretence  for  immediately  demanding  the  place, 
ordered  the  marriaoe  to  be  solemnized  betv.een 

o 

the   prince  and  princess,   though  both   infants'; 

•^  Fitz-Steph.  p.  22.     Diceto,  p.  531. 
'  Hoveden,  p,  492.    Neubr.  p.  400.    Diceto,  p.  532.    Bromp- 
ton,  p.  1450, 


Id  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  n6i. 

and  he  engaged  the  grand  master  of  the  templars, 
by  large  presents,  as  was  generally  suspected,  to 
put  him  in  possession  of  Gisors"".  Lewis,  resent- 
ing this  fraudulent  conduct,  banished  the  tern- 
plars,  and  woukl  have  made  war  upon  the  king  of 
Endand,  had  it  not  been  for  the  mediation  and 
authority  of  pope  Alexander  III.  who  had  been 
chased  from  Rome  by  the  anti-pope  Victor  IV. 
and  resided  at  that  time  in  France.  That  we  may 
form  an  idea  of  the  authority  possessed  by  the 
Roman  pontiff  during  those  ages,  it  may  be  pro- 
per to  observe  that  the  two  kings  had,  the  year 
before,  met  the  pope  at  the  castle  of  Torci  on  the 
Loir ;  and  they  gave  him  such  marks  of  respect, 
that  both  dismounted  to  receive  him,  and  hold- 
ing each  of  them  one  of  the  reins  of  his  bridle, 
walked  on  foot  by  his  side,  and  conducted  him  in 
that  submissive  manner  into  the  castle ".  A  spec- 
tacle, cries  Baronius  in  an  ecstacy,  to  God,  angels, 
and  men ;  and  such  as  had  never  before  been  e.vhibit- 
ed  to  the  world  ! 

Henry,  soon  after  he  had  accommodated  his 
differences  with  Lewis  by  the  pope's  mediation, 
returned  to  England ;  where  he  commenced  an 
enterprise,  which,  though  required  by  sound  po- 
licy, and  even  conducted  in  the  main  with  pru- 
dence, bred  him  great  disquietude,  involved  him 

"■  Since  the  first  publication  of  this  history.  Lord  Lyttleton  has 
published  a  copy  of  the  treaty  between  Henry  and  Lewis,  by 
which  it  appears,  if  there  was  no  secret  article,  that  Henry  was 
not  guilty  of  any  fraud  in  this  transaction. 
"  Trivet,  p.  'IS. 


1162.  HENRY    II.  i7 

in  danger,   and  was  not  concluded  without  some 
loss  and  dishonour. 


DISPUTES  BETWEEN  THE  CIVIL  AND 
ECCLESIASTICAL  PO^\'ERS. 

The  usurpations  of  the  clergy,  which  liad  at 
first  been  gradual.  Mere  no\r  become  so  rapid,  and 
had  mounted  to  such  a  height,  that  the  contest 
between  the  regale  and  pontificale  was  really  ar- 
rived at  a  crisis  in  England ;  and  it  became  ne- 
cessary to  determine  whether  the  king  or  the 
priests,  particularly  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
should  be  sovereign  of  the  kingdom  °.  The  as- 
piring spirit  of  Henry,  which  gave  inquietude  to 
all  his  neighbours,  was  not  likely  long  to  pay  a 
tame  submission  to  the  encroachments  of  subjects ; 
and  as  nothing  opens  the  eyes  of  men  so  readily 
as  their  interest,  he  was  in  no  danger  of  falling,  in 
this  respect,  into  that  abject  superstition  Avhich 
retained  his  people  in  subjection.  From  tho  com- 
mencement of  his  reign,  in  the  government  of 
his  foreign  dominions,  as  well  as  of  England,  he 
had  shown  a  fixed  purpose  to  repress  clerical 
usurpations,  and  to  maintain  those  prerogatives 
which  had  been  transmitted  to  him  by  his  pre- 
decessors. During  the  schism  of  the  papacy  be- 
tween Alexander  and  Victor,  he  had  determined, 
for  some  time,   to  remain  neuter :  and  when  in 

°  Fitz-Stephen,  p.  2/. 
VOL.    II.  C 


18  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  life. 

formed  that  the  archbishop  of  Rouen  and  the 
bibhop  of  Mans  liad,  from  their  own  authority, 
acknowledged  Alexander  as  legitimate  pope,  he 
was  so  enraged,  that  though  he  spared  the  arch- 
bishop on  account  of  his  great  age,   he  immedi- 
ately issued  orders  for  overthrowing  the  houses  of 
the  bishop  of  Mans  and  archdeacon  of  Roiien  * ; 
and  it  was  not  till  he  had  deliberately  examined 
the  matter,   by  those  views  which  usually  enter 
into  the  councils  of  princes,  that  he  allowed  that 
pontiif  to  exercise  authority  over  any  of  his  do- 
minions.    In  England,    the  mild  character  and 
advanced  years  of  Theobald,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, together  with  his   merits  in  refusing  to 
put  the  crown  on  the  head  of  Eustace,    son  of 
Stephen,  prevented  Henry,  during  the  hfe-time  of 
that  primate,  from  taking  any  measures  against 
the  multiplied  encroachments  of  the  clergy :  but 
after  his  death,  the  king  resolved  to  exert  himself 
with  more  activity ;  and  that  he  might  be  secure 
against  any  opposition,  he  advanced  to  that  dig- 
nity Becket  his  chancellor,   on  whose  compliance- 
he  thought  he  could  entirely  depend. 

THOMAS  A  BECKET,   ARCHBISHOP  OF 
CANTERBURY.     June  3. 

Thomas  a  Becket,  the  first  man  of  English  de- 
scent who,    since   the  Norman   conquest,    had, 

*  See  Note  Q.  vol.  x. 


Ii62.  HENRY    II.  19 

during  the  course  of  a  wliolc  century,  risen  to  any 
considerable  station,  was  horn  of  reputable  parents 
in  the  city  of  London ;  and  being  endoAved  both 
with  industry  and  capacity,    he  early  insinuated 
himself  into  the  favour  of  archbishop  Theobald, 
and  obtained  from  that  prelate  some  preferments 
and  offices.      By  their  means  he  was  enabled  to 
travel  for  improvement  to  Italy,  where  he  studied 
the  civil  and  canon  law  at  Bologna;  and  on  his 
return  he  appeared  to  have  made  such  proficiency 
in  knowledge,  that  he  was  promoted  by  his  pa- 
tron to  the  archdeaconry  of  Canterbury,  an  office 
of  considerable  trust  and  profit.     He  was  after- 
wards  employed   with    success    by  Theobald    in 
transacting   business   at  Rome ;  and    on  Henry's 
accession  he  was  recommended  to  that  monarch 
as  worthy   of  farther  preferment.     Henry,   who 
knew  that  Becket  had  been  instrumental  in  sup- 
porting that  resolution  of  the  archbishop,  which 
had  tended  so  much  to  facilitate  his  q>\\\\  advance- 
ment to  the  throne,  was  already  prepossessed  in  his 
favour;  and  finding,  on  farther  ac([uaintancej  that 
his  spirit  and  abilities  entitled   him  to  any  trust, 
he  soon  promoted  him  to  the  dignity  of  chancel- 
lor, one  of  the  first  civil  offices  in  the  kingdom. 
The  chancellor,   in  that  age,  besides  the  custody 
of  the  great  seal,  had  possession  of  iijl  vacant  pre- 
lacies and  abbies ;  he  Mas  the  guardian  of  all  sucli 
minors  and  pupils  as  were  the  king's  tenants ;  all 
baronies  which  escheated  to  the  crown  were  un- 
der his  administration ;  he  w  as  entitled  to  a  place 
Q 


20 


HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  II62.. 


in  council,  even  though  he  were  not  particularly 
sunnuoned;  and  as  he  exercised  also  the  office  of 
secretary  of  state,  and  it  belonged  to  him  to  coun- 
tersign all  commissions,  writs,  and  letters-patent, 
he  Av^as  a  kind  of  prime  minister,  and  was  con- 
cerned in  the  dispatch  of  every  business  of  im- 
portance p.  Besides  exercising  this  high  office, 
Becket,  by  the  favour  of  the  king  or  ai'chbishop, 
was  made  provost  of  BcAerley,  dean  of  Hastings, 
and  constable  of  the  ToAver :  he  was  put  in  pos- 
session of  the  honours  of  Eye  and  Berkham,  large 
baronies  that  had  escheated  to  the  crown :  and  to 
complete  his  grandeur,  he  was  entrusted  with  the 
education  of  prince  Henry,  the  king's  eldest  son, 
and  heir  of  the  monarchy  "i.  The  pomp  of  his  re- 
tmue,  the  sumptuousness  of  his  furniture,  the 
luxury  of  his  table,  the  munificence  of  his  pre- 
sents, corresponded  to  these  great  preferments; 
or  rather  exceeded  any  thing  that  England  had 
ever  before  seen  in  any  subject.  His  historian 
and  secretary,  Fitz- Stephens  "■,  mentions,  among 
other  particulars,  that  his  apartments  were  every 
day  in  Avinter  covered  Avith  clean  straAV  or  hay, 
and  in  summer  Avith  green  rushes  or  boughs ;  lest 
the  gentlemen  Avho  paid  court  to  him,  and  Avho 
could  not,  by  reason  of  their  great  number,  find 
a  place  at  table,  should  soil  their  fine  cloaths  by 
sittmg   on  a  dirty  floor  \     A    great  number  of 

P  Fitz-Steph.  p.  13.     ^  Ibid.  p.  15.  Hist.  Quad.  p.  91 -k     T.IS. 

'  John  Baldwin  held  the  manor  of  Oterasfee  in  Aylesbuxy  of 

the  king  in  soccage,  by  the  service  of  finding  litter  for  the  king's 


1162.  HENRY    II.  21 

knights  were  rctainefl  in  his  service  ;  tlie  greatest 
barons  were  proud  of  being  received  at  liis  table; 
his  house  was  a  place  of  education  for  the  sons  of 
the  chief  nobility;  and  the  king  himself  frequent- 
ly \'ouchsafed  to  partake  of  his  entertainments. 
As  his  way  of  life  was  splendid  and  opulent,  his 
amusements  and  occupations  Avere  gay,  and  par- 
took of  the  cavalier  spirit,  which,  as  he  had  only 
taken  deacon's  orders,  he  did  not  think  unbefit- 
ting his  character.  He  employed  himself  at  lei- 
sure hours  in  hunting,  hawking,  gaming,  and  horse- 
manship ;  he  exposed  his  person  in  several  mili- 
tary actions';  he  carried  over,  at  his  own  charge, 
seven  hundred  knights,  to  attend  the  king  in  his 
wars  at  Toulouse ;  in  the  subsequent  wars  on  the 
frontiers  of  Normandy  he  maintained,  during 
forty  days,  twelve  hundred  knights,  and  four 
thousand  of  their  train";  and  in  an  embassy  to 
France,  with  which  he  was  entrusted,  he  astonish- 
ed that  court  by  the  number  and  magnificence  of 
his  retinue, 

Henry,  besides  committing  all  his  more  im- 
portant business  to  Becket's  management,  ho- 
noured him  with  his  friendship  and  intimacy  ; 
and  M'henever  he  Aras  disposed  to  relax  himself  by 

bedj  viz.  in  summer,  grass  or  herbs,  and  two  grey  geese  ;  and  in 
winter,  straw,  and  three  eels,  thrice  in  the  year,  if  the  king 
should  come  thrice  in  the  year  to  Aylesbury.  Madox,  Ear. 
Anglica,  p.  247. 

'  Fitz-Steph.  p.  23,     Hist.  Quad.  p.  Q. 

"  Fitz-Steph.  p.  ip,  20,  22,  23. 


22  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1162^ 

sports  of  any  kind,  he  admitted  his  chancellor  to  - 
the  party ''.  An  instance  of  their  familiarity  is  men- 
tioned hy  Fitz-Stephens,  which,  as  it  shews  the 
manners  of  the  age,  it  may  not  he  improper  to 
relate.     One  day,  as  the  king  and  the  chancellor 
were   riding  together  in  the  streets  of  London, 
they  observed  a  beggar  who  was  shivering  with 
cold.     Would  it  not  be  very  praise-worthy,  said 
the  king,  to  give  that  poor  man  a  warm  coat  in 
this  severe  season  ?  It  would,  surely,  replied  the 
chancellor ;  and  you  do  well,  sir,   in  thinking  of 
such  good  actions.     Then  he  shall  have  one  pre- 
sently, cried  the  king :  and  seizing  the  skirt  of  the 
chancellor's  coat,  which  was  scarlet,  and  lined  with 
ermine,  began  to  pull  it  violently.  The  chancellor 
defended  himself  for  some  time ;  and  they  had 
both  of  them  like  to  have  tumbled  off  their  horses 
in  the  street,  when  Becket,  after  a  vehement  strug- 
gle, let  go  his  coat ;  which  the  king  bestowed  on 
the  beggar,  who,  being  ignorant  of  the  quality  of 
the  persons,  was  not  a  little  surprised  at  the  pre- 
sent y. 

Becket,  who  by  his  complaisance  and  good-hu- 
mour had  rendered  himself  agreeable,  and  by  his 
industry  and  abilities  useful  to  his  master,  appear- 
ed to  him  the  fittest  person  for  supplying  the  va- 
cancy made  by  the  death  of  Theobald.  As  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  king's  intentions'-  of 


^  Fitz-Steph.  p.  16.     Hist.  Quad.  p.  8. 
'  Ibid.  p.  16.        ^  Ibid.  p.  17. 


1162.  HENRY    II.  23 

retrenching,  or  ratlier  confining- within  the  ancient 
bounds,  all  ecclesiastical  privileges,  and  always 
showed  a  ready  disposition  to  comply  M'ith  them', 
Henry,  who  never  expected  any  resistance  from 
that  (|uarter,  immediately  issued  orders  for  elect- 
ing him  archbishop  of  Cantcrlniry,  But  this  re- 
solution, M'hich  was  taken  contrary  to  the  opinion 
of  Matilda,  and  many  of  the  ministers",  drew  after 
it  very  unhappy  consequences  ;  and  never  prince 
of  so  great  penetration  appeared  in  the  issue  to 
have  so  little  understood  the  genius  and  character 
of  his  minister. 

^o  sooner  was  Becket  installed  in  this   high 
dignity,  which  rendered  him  for  life  the   second 
person  in  the  kingdom,  with  some  pretensions  of 
aspiring  to  be  the  first,  than  he  totally  altered  his 
demeanor  and  conduct,   and  endeavoured   to  ac- 
quire the  character  of  sanctity,  of  ^\  hich  his  for- 
mer busy  and  ostentatious  course  of  life  might,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  people,  have  naturally  bereaved 
him.     Without  consulting  the  king,  he  immedi- 
ately returned  into  his  hands  the  commission  of 
chancellor ;  pretending  that  he  must  thenceforth 
detach  himself  from  secular  affairs,  and  be  solely 
employed  in  the  exercise  of  his  spiritual  function; 
but  in  reality,   that  he  might  break  off^"  all  con- 
nections with  Henry,  and  apprise  him  that  Becket, 
as  primate  of  England,  was  now  become  entirely  a 
new  personage.  He  maintjiined,  in  his  retinue  and 

="  Fitz-Steph.  p.  23,     Epist  St.  Thorn,  p.  232. 
•"  Epist.  St,  Thorn,  p.  167. 


24  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  ll62. 

attendants  alone,  his  ancient  pomp  and  lustre, 
which  was  useful  to  strike  the  vulgar:  in  his  own 
person  he  affected  the  greatest  austerity  and  most 
rigid  mortification,  which  he  was  sensible  would 
have  an  equal  or  a  greater  tendency  to  the  same 
end.  He  wore  sack-cloth  next  his  skin,  which,  by ' 
his  affected  care  to  conceal  it,  was  necessarily  the 
more  remarked  by  all  the  world :  he  changed  it  so 
seldom,  that  it  was  filled  with  dirt  and  vermin  :  his 
usual  diet  was  bread  ;  his  drink  water,  which  he 
even  rendered  farther  unpalatable  by  the  mixture 
of  unsavoury  herbs  :  he  tore  his  back  with  the  fre- 
quent discipline  which  he  inflicted  on  it :  he  daily 
on  his  knees  Avashed,  in  imitation  of  Christ,  the 
feet  of  thirteen  beggars,  whom  he  afterAv^ards  dis- 
missed with  presents '':  he  gained  the  affections  of 
the  monks  by  his  frequent  charities  to  the  con- 
vents and  hospitals  :  every  one  who  made  profes- 
sion of  sanctity  was  admitted  to  his  conversation, 
and  returned  full  of  panegyrics  on  the  humility, 
as  well  as  on  the  piety  and  mortification,  of  the 
holy  primate :  he  seemed  to  be  perpetually  em- 
ployed in  reciting  prayers  and  pious  lectures,  or 
in  perusing  religious  discourses :  his  aspect  wore 
the  appearance  of  seriousness  and  mental  recollec- 
tion, and  secret  devotion  :  and  all  men  of  penetra- 
tion plainly  saw  that  he  was  meditating  some  great 
design,  and  that  the  ambition  and  ostentation  of 
his  character  had  turned  itself  towards  a  new  and 
more  dangerous  object. 

«=  Fitz-Steph.  p.  25.    Hist.  Quad.  p.  19. 


1163.  HENRY    II.  25 


QUARREL  BETWEEN  THE  KING   AND 
BECKET. 

Becket  Maitccl  not  till  Henry  should  connnence 
those  projects  against  the  ecclesiastical  jjoMcr, 
which  he  kne^-  had  heen  formed  by  that  prince : 
he  was  himself  the  aggressor,  and  endeavoured  to 
ovcraAve  the  king  hy  the  intrepidity  and  boldness 
of  his  enterprises.  He  sunnnoned  the  earl  of  Clare 
to  surrender  the  barony  of  Tunbridge,  which 
ever  since  the  conquest  had  remained  in  the  fa- 
mily of  that  nobleman;  but  Mhich,  as  it  had  for- 
merly belonged  to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  Becket 
pretended  his  predecessors  were  prohibited  by  the 
canons  to  alienate.  The  carl  of  Clare,  besides  the 
lustre  which  he  derived  from  the  greatness  of  his 
own  birth,  and  the  extent  of  his  possessions,  was 
allied  to  all  the  principal  families  in  the  kingdom; 
his  sister,  who  Mas  a  celebrated  beauty,  had  far- 
ther extended  his  credit  among  the  nobility,  and 
Avas  even  supposed  to  have  gainetl  the  king's  af- 
fections ;  and  Becket  could  not  better  discover, 
than  by  attacking  so  powerful  an  interest,  his  re- 
solution of  maintaininor  with  vii^our  the  rio-hts. 
real  or  pretended,  of  his  see"*. 

William  de  Eynsford,  a  military  tenant  of  the 
crown,  was  patron  of  a  living  M'hich  belonged  to 
a  manor  that  held  of  the  archbishop  of  Canter- 

*  Fitz-Steph.  p.  28.     Gervase,  p.  1384. 


2d  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  ll6S. 

bury :  but  Becket,  witliout  regard  to  William's 
right,  presented,  on  a  new  and  legal  pretext,  one 
Laurence  to  tliat  living,  who  was  violently  ex- 
pelled by  Eynsford.  The  primate  making  himself, 
as  was  usual  in  spiritual  courts,  both  judge  and 
party,  issued  in  a  summary  manner  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  Eynsford,  who  com- 
plained to  the  king  that  he  who  held  in  capite  of 
the  croM^n  should,  contraiy  to  the  practice  esta- 
blished by  the  Conqueror,  and  maintained  ever 
since  by  his  successors,  be  subjected  to  that  terri- 
ble sentence,  without  the  previous  consent  of  the 
sovereign".  Henry,  who  had  now  broken  off  all 
personal  intercourse  with  Becket,  sent  him,  by  a 
messenger,  his  orders  to  absolve  Eynsford ;  but 
received  for  answer,  that  it  belonged  not  to  the 
king  to  inform  him  whom  he  should  absolve  and 
whom  excommunicated  and  it  was  not  till  after 
many  remonstrances  and  menaces,  that  Becket, 
though  with  the  worst  grace  imaginable,  was  in- 
duced to  comply  with  the  royal  mandate. 

Henry,  though  he  found  himself  thus  grievous- 
ly mistaken  in  the  character  of  the  person  whom 
he  had  promoted  to  the  primacy,  determined  not 
to  desist  from  his  former  intention  of  retrenchino- 
clerical  usurpations.  He  was  entirely  master  of 
his  extensive  dominions:  the  prudence  and  vigour 
of  his  administration,  attended  with  perpetual 
success,  had  raised  his  character  above  that  of 

•  M.  Paris,  p.  7.     Diceto,  p.  536.      '  Fitz-Steph.  p.  28. 


llGs.  HENRY    II.  27 

liis  predecessors^:  the  papacy  seemed  to  l)e  weak- 
ened by  a  schism,  which  thvided  all  Europe :  and 
he  rightly  judged,  that  if  the  present  favourable 
opportunity  were  neglected,  the  crown  must,  from 
the  prevalent  superstition  of  the  people,  be  in 
danger  of  fallin<»:  into  an  entire  subordination 
under  the  mitre. 

The  union  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  power 
serves  extremely,  in  every  civilized  government, 
to  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  order ;  and  pre- 
vents those  mutual  encroachments  which,  as  there 
can  be  no  ultimate  judge  between  them,  are  often 
attended  with  the  most  dangerous  consequences. 
Whether  the  supreme  magistrate,  who  unites  these 
powers,   receives  the  appellation  of  prince  or  pre- 
late,  is  not  material :  the  superior  weight  which 
temporal  interests  commonly  bear  in  the  apprehen- 
sions of  men  above  spiritual,  renders  the  civil  part 
of  his  character  most  prevalent;  and  in  time  pre- 
vents those  gross  impostures  and  bigotted  perse- 
cutions,   Avhich  in  all  false  religions  are  the  chief 
foundations  of  clerical  authority.     But  during  the 
progress  of  ecclesiastical  usurpations,  the  state,  by 
the  resistance  of  the  civil  magistrate,  is  naturally 
thrown    into    convulsions ;    and   it   behoves   the 
prince,  both  for  his  own  interest,  and  for  that  of  the 
public,  to  provide  in  time  sufticient  barriers  against 
so  dangerous  and  insidious  a  rival.     This  precau- 
tion had  hitherto  been  much  neglected  in  Eng- 

«  Epist.  St.  Thoxn.  p.  130. 


28  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  Il63. 

land,  as  well  as  in  other  catholic  countries  ;  and 
affairs  at  last  seemed  to  have  come  to  a  dangerous 
crisis :  a  sovereign  of  the  greatest  abiUties  was 
now  on  the  throne  :  a  prelate  of  the  most  inflexi- 
ble and  intrepid  character  was  possessed  of  the 
primacy  :  the  contending  powers  appeared  to  be 
armed  with  their  full  force,  and  it  was  natural  to 
expect  some  extraordinary  event  to  result  from 
their  conflict. 

Among  their  other  inventions  to  obtain  money, 
the  clergy  had  inculcated  the  necessity  of  penance 
as  an  atonement  for  sin;  and  having  again  intro- 
duced the  practice  of  paying  them  large  sums  as 
a  commutation,  or  species  of  atonement  for  the 
remission  of  those  penances,  the  sins  of  the  peo- 
ple, by  these  means,  had  become  a  revenue  to  the 
priests  ;  and  the  king  computed,  that  by  this  in- 
vention alone  they  levied  more  money  upon  his 
subjects  than  flowed,  by  all  the  funds  and  taxes, 
into  the  royal  exchequer ''.  That  he  might  ease 
the  people  of  so  heavy  and  arbitrary  an  imposi- 
tion, Henry  required  that  a  civil  officer  of  his  ap- 
pointment should  be  present  in  all  ecclesiastical 
courts,  and  should  for  the  future  give  his  consent 
to  every  composition  which  was  made  with  sinners 
for  their  spiritual  offences. 

The  ecclesiastics  in  that  age  had  renounced  all 
immediate  subordination  to  the  magistrate  :  they 
openly  pretended  to  an  exemption  in  criminal  ac- 

^  Fitz-Steph.  p,  32. 


ll(>3.  HENRY    JI.  29 

cusations  tVoin  a  trial  bctbrc  courts  of  justice  ; 
and  were  gradually  introducing  a  like  exemption 
in  ci\  il  causes  :  spiritual  })enalties  alone  could  be 
inflicted  on  their  oflences  :  and  as  tlie  clero;v  had 
extremely  multiplied  in  England,  and  many  of 
them  MTre  consequently  of  very  low  characters, 
crimes  of  the  deepest  dye,  murders,  robI)erics, 
adulteries,  rapes,  Mere  daily  committed  M'ith  im- 
punity by  the  ecclesiastics.  It  had  been  found, 
for  instance,  on  cncpiiry,  that  no  less  than  a  hun- 
dred nuirders  had,  since  the  king's  accession,  been 
perpetrated  by  men  of  that  profession,  who  had 
never  been  called  to  account  for  these  offences'; 
and  holy  orders  were  become  a  full  protection  for 
all  enormities.  A  clerk  in  Worcestershire,  liav- 
ing  debauched  a  gentleman's  daughter,  had  at 
this  time  proceeded  to  murder  the  father;  and 
the  general  indication  ai>;ainst  this  crime  moved 
the  king  to  attempt  the  remedy  of  an  abuse  which 
was  become  so  palpable,  and  to  require  that  the 
clerk  should  be  delivered  up,  and  recci\  e  condign 
punishment  from  the  magistrate''.  Becket  in- 
sisted on  the  privileges  of  the  church ;  confined 
the  criminal  in  the  bishop's  prison,  lest  he  sliould 
be  seized  by  the  king's  officers ;  maintained  that 
no  greater  punishment  could  be  inflicted  on  him 
than  degradation :  and  when  the  king  demanded, 
that  immediately  after  he  was  degraded  he  should 
be  tried  by  the  civil  power,  the  primate  asserted 

'  Keubr.  p.  394.        "  fitz-Steph.  p.  33,     Hist.  Qiiad.  p.  32, 


pO  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  il63. 

that  it  was  iniquitous  to  try  a  man  twice  upon  the 
same  accusation,  and  for  the  same  offence '. 

Henry  laying  hold  of  so  plausihie  a  pretence, 
resoh^ed  to  push  the  clergy  with  regard  to  all  their 
privileges,  which  they  had  raised  to  an  enormous 
height,  and  to  determine  at  once  those  controver- 
sies which  daily  multiplied  between  the  civil  and 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions.     He  summoned  an 
assembly  of  all  the  prelates  of  England ;  and  he 
put  to  them  this  concise  and  decisive  question, 
Whether  or  not  they  were  willing  to  submit  to  the 
ancient  laws  and  customs  of  the  kin2:dom?  The 
bishops  unanimously  replied,  that  they  Avere  will- 
ing,  saving  their  own  order"":  a  device  by  which 
they  thought  to  elude  the  present  urgency  of  the 
king's  demand,  yet  reserve  to  themselves,  on  a  fa- 
vourable opportunity,   the  power  of  resuming  all 
their  pretensions.     The  king  was  sensible  of  the 
artifice,  and  was  provoked  to  the  highest  indigna- 
tion.    He  left  the  assembly  Avith  visible  marks  of 
his  displeasure  :  he  required  the  primate  instantly 
to  surrender  the  honours  and  castles  of  Eye  and 
Berkham :  the  bishops  were  terrified,  and  expect- 
ed still  farther  effects  of  his  resentment.     Becket 
alone  was  inflexible  ;  and  nothing  but  the  inter- 
position of  the  pope's  legate  and  almoner,   Philip, 
who  dreaded  a  breach  with  so  powerful  a  prince  at 

'  Fitz-Steph.  p.  29.  Hist.  Quad.  p.  33,  45.  Hoveden,  p.  492. 
M.  Paris,  p.  72.  Diceto,  p.  536,  537-  Brompton,  p.  1058. 
Gervase,  p.  1384.     Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  208,  209, 

■"•  Pitz-Steph.  p.  31.    Hi§.t.  Quad.  p.  34.    Hoveden,  p.  492. 


11C3.  HENRY    II.  Q\ 

bO  unseasonable  a  juncture,  cbukl  have  prevailed 
on  liini  to  retract  the  saving  clause,  and  give  a 
general  and  absolute  promise  of  observing  the 
ancient  customs". 

But  Henry  was  not  content  with  a  declaration 
in  these  general  terms:  he  resolved,  ere  it  was  too 
late,  to  define  expressly  those  customs,  with  Avhicli 
he  recjuired  compliance,   and  to  put  a  stop  to  cle- 
rical  usurpations  before  they  were  fully  consoli- 
dated, and  could  plead  antiquity,  as  they  already 
did  a  sacred  authority,  in  their  favour.   The  claims 
of  the  church  were   open  and  visible.     Alter  a 
gradual  and  insensible  progress  during  many  cen- 
turies,  the  mask  had  at  last  been  taken  off,  and 
several   ecclesiastical   councils,    by  their   canons, 
which  Mere  pretended  to  be  irrevocable  and  infal- 
lible,  had  positively  defined  those  privileges  and 
imnumitics,  v,  Inch  gave  such  general  oftence,  and 
appeared   so  dangerous  to   the   civil  magistrate. 
Henry   therefore  deemed   it  necessary  to   define 
with  the  same  precision  the  limits  of  the  civil 
power ;  to  oppose  his  legal  customs  to  their  divine 
ordinances ;  to  determine  the  exact  boundaries  of 
the  rival  jurisdictions ;  and  for  this  purpose  he 
summoned  a  general  council  of  the  nobility  and 
prelates  at  Clarendon,  to  whom  he  submitted  this 
great  and  important  question. 

"  Hist.  Quad.  p.  37.     Hoveden,  p.  493.     Gervase,  p.  1385. 


32  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1164. 


CONSTITUTIONS  OF  CLARENDON. 

January  25. 

The  barons  were  all  gained  to  the  king's  party, 
either  by  the  reasons  which  he  urged,  or  by  his 
superior  authority :  the  bishops  were  overawed  by 
the  general  combination  against  them  :  and  the 
following  laws,  commonly  called  the  Constitutions 
of  Clarendon,  were  voted  without  opposition  by 
this  assembly".  It  Av^as  enacted,  that  all  suits 
concerning  the  advowson  and  presentation  of 
churches  should  be  determined  in  the  civil  courts: 
that  the  churches  belonging  to  the  king's  see 
should  not  be  granted  in  perpetuity  without  his 
consent :  that  clerks  accused  of  any  crime  should 
be  tried  m  the  civil  courts :  that  no  person,  parti- 
cularly no  clergyman  of  any  rank,  should  depart 
the  kingdom  without  the  king's  licence:  that  ex- 
communicated persons  should  not  be  bound  to 
give  security  for  continuing  in  their  present  place 
of  abode  :  that  laics  should  not  be  accused  in 
spiritual  courts,  except  by  legal  and  reputable 
promoters  and  witnesses  :  that  no  chief  tenant  of 
the  crown  should  be  excommunicated,  nor  his 
lands  be  put  under  an  interdict,  except  with  the 
king's  consent:  that  all  appeals  in  spiritual  causes 
should  be  carried  from  the  archdeacon  to  the 
bishop,  from  the  bishop  to  the  primate,  from  him 

"  Fitz-Steph.  p.  33. 


1164.  HENRY    11.  8» 

to  the  king;    and  slioukl  be  carried   no  farther 
A\ithout  the  king's  consent :  That  if  any  law-suit 
arose  between  a  layman  and  a  clergyman  concern- 
ing a  tenant,  and  it  be  (hsputed  whether  the  land 
be  a  lay  or  an  ecclesiastical  fee,  it  should  first  be 
determined  by  the  verdict  of  twelve  lawful  men 
to  M'hat  class  it  belonged ;  and  if  it  be  found  to 
be  a  lay-fee,  the  cause  should  finally  be  determined 
in  the  civil  courts  :  That  no  inhabitant  in  demesne 
should  be  excommunicated  for  non-appearance  in 
a  spiritual  court,  till  the  chief  officer  of  the  place 
where  he  i-esides  be  consulted,  that  he  may  compel 
him  by  the  civil  authority  to  give  satisfaction  to 
the  church:  That  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and 
other  spiritual  dignitaries,  should  be  regarded  as 
barons  of  the  realm ;  should  possess  the  privileges 
and  be  subjected  to  the  burthens  belonging  to  that 
rank  ;  and  should  be  bound  to  attend  the  king  in 
his  great  councils,  and  assist  at  all  trials,  till  the 
sentence,  either  of  death  or  loss  of  members,  be 
given  against  the  criminal :  That  the  revenue  of 
vacant   sees   should   belong    to    the    king  ;    the 
chapter  or  such  of  them  as  he  pleases  to  summon, 
should  sit  in  the  king's  chapel  till  they  made  the 
■new  election  with  his  consent,  and  that  the  bishop- 
elect  should  do  homage  to  the  crown:  That  if 
.any  baron  or  tenant  in  cap'ite  should  refuse  to 
submit  to  the  spiritual   courts,  the  king  should 
employ  his  authority  in  obliging  him  to  make 
such  submissions  ;  if  any  of  tliem  throw  off  his 
allegiance  to  the  king,  the  prelates  should  assist 

VOL.  II.  D 


34  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  li&i. 

the  king  Avith  their  censures  in  reducing  him  : 
That  goods  forfeited  to  the  king  should  not  be 
protected  in  churches  or  churchyards :  That  the 
clergy  should  no  longer  pretend  to  the  right  of 
enforcing  payment  of  debts  contracted  by  oath 
or  promise ;  but  should  leave  these  law-suits, 
equally  with  others,  to  the  determination  of  the 
civil  courts  :  And  that  the  sons  of  villains  shoidd 
not  be  ordained  clerks,  without  the  consent  of 
their  lord  p. 

These  articles,  to  the  number  of  sixteen,  Av^ere 
calculated  to  prevent  the  chief  abuses  which  had 
prevailed  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  to  put  an 
effectual  stop  to  the  usurpations  of  the  church, 
w^hich,  gradually  stealing  on,  had  threatened  the 
total  destruction  of  the  civil  power.  Henry,  there- 
fore, by  reducing  those  ancient  customs  of  the 
realm  to  Avriting,  and  by  collecting  them  in  a 
body,  endeavoured  to  prevent  all  future  dispute 
with  regard  to  them ;  and  by  passing  so  many 
ecclesiastical  ordinances  In  a  national  and  civil 
assembly,  he  fully  established  the  superiority  of 
the  legislature  above  all  papal  decrees  or  spiritual 
canons,  and  gained  a  signal  victory  over  the  ec- 
clesiastics. But  as  he  knew,  that  the  bishops, 
though  overawed  by  the  present  combination  of 
the  crown  and  the  barons,  Avould  take  the  first 
favourable  opportunity  of  denying  the  authority 

P  Hist.  Quad.  p.  163.   M.  Paris,  p.  70,  71,    Spelm.  Cone.  vol. 
ii.  p.  63.    Gervase,  p.  1386,  1387.     Wilkins,  p.  321. 


1164.  HENRY   II.  35 

M'hicli  had  enacted  these  constitutions,  he  resolved 
that  they  should  all  set  their  seal  to  them,  and 
give  a  promise  to  ohserve  them.  None  of  the 
prelates  dared  to  oppose  his  will ;  except  Becket, 
who,  though  urged  by  the  earls  of  Cornwal  and 
Leicester,  the  barons  of  principal  authority  in  the 
kingdom,  obstinately  withheld  his  assent.  At 
last,  Richard  de  Hastings,  grand  prior  of  the 
templars  in  England,  threw  himself  on  his  knees 
before  him ;  and  with  many  tears  entreated  him, 
if  he  paid  any  regard  either  to  his  own  safety 
or  that  of  the  church,  not  to  provoke,  by  a  fruit- 
less opposition,  the  Indignation  of  a  great  mo- 
narch, who  was  resolutely  bent  on  his  purpose, 
and  who  was  determined  to  take  full  revenge  on 
every  one  that  should  dare  to  oppose  him''. 
Becket,  finding  himself  deserted  by  all  the  world, 
even  by  his  own  brethren,  was  at  last  obliged  to 
comply  ;  and  he  promised,  legally,  with  good  faith, 
and  without  fraud  or  reserve^,  to  observe  the  con- 
stitutions; and  he  took  an  oath  to  that  purpose^ 
The  king,  thinking  that  he  had  now  finally  pre- 
vailed in  this  great  enterprise,  sent  the  consti- 
tutions to  pope  Alexander,  who  then  resided  in 
France  ;  and  he  required  that  pontiflp's  ratifica- 
tion of  them :  but  Alexander,  who,  though  he 
had  owed  the  most  important  obligations  to  the 

■i  Hist.  Quad.  p.  38.     Hoveden,  p.  493.       *■  Fitz-Steph.  p.35. 
Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  25.  '  Fitz-Steph.  p.  45.    Hbt.  Quad, 

p.  39.    Gervase,  p.  1386. 
2 


36  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  il64. 

king,  plainly  saw  that  these  laws  were  calculated 
to  estabhsh  the  independency  of  England  on  the 
papacy,  and  of  the  royal  power  on  the  clergy, 
condemned  them  in  the  strongest  terms  ;  abro- 
gated, annulled,  and  rejected  them.  There  were 
only  six  articles,  the  least  important,  which,  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  he  was  willing  to  ratify. 

Becket,  when  he  observed  that  he  might  hope 
for  support  in  an  opposition,  expressed  the  deepest 
sorrow  for  his  compliance ;  and  endeavoured  to 
engage  all  the  other  bishops  in  a  confederacy  to 
adhere  to  their  common  rights^  and  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical privileges,  in  which  he  represented  the  in- 
terest and  honour  of  God  to  be  so  deeply  con- 
cerned. He  redoubled  his  austerities,  in  order  to 
punish  himself  for  his  criminal  consent  to  the  con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon  :  he  proportioned  his  dis- 
cipline to  the  enormity  of  his  supposed  oifence  : 
and  he  refused  to  exercise  any  part  of  his  archie- 
piscopal  function,  till  he  should  receive  absolution 
from  the  pope  ;  which  was  readily  granted  him. 
Henry,  informed  of  his  present  dispositions,  re- 
solved to  take  vengeance  for  this  refractory  be- 
haviour, and  he  attempted  to  crush  him,  by  means 
of  that  very  power  which  Becket  made  such  merit 
in  supporting.  He  applied  to  the  pope,  that  he 
should  grant  the  commission  of  legate  in  his  do- 
minions to  the  archbishop  of  York  ;  but  Alex- 
ander, as  politic  as  he,  though  he  granted  the 
commission,  annexed  a  clause,  that  it  should  not 


11G4.  HENRY    II.  37 

impower  the  legate  to  execute  any  act  in  prejndice 
of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury':  and  the  king, 
finding  liow  fruitless  such  an  autliority  would 
prove,  sent  back  the  commission  by  the  same 
messenoer  that  brou«ht  it". 

The  primate,  however,  who  tbund  himself  still 
exposed  to  the  king's  indignation,  endeavoured 
twice  to  escape  secretly  from  the  kingdom  ;  but 
was  as  often  detained  by  contrary  winds  :  and 
Henry  hastened  to  make  him  feel  the  effects  of  an 
obstinacy  which  he  deemed  so  crimmal.  He  in- 
stigated John,  mareschal  of  the  exchequer,  to  sue 
Becket  in  the  archiepiscopal  court  for  some  lands, 
part  of  the  manor  of  Pageham  ;  and  to  appeal 
thence  to  the  king's  court  for  justice"..  On  the 
day  appointed  for  trying  the  cause,  the  primate 
sent  four  knights  to  represent  certain  irregularities 
in  John's  appeal ;  and  at  the  same  time  to  excuse 
himself,  on  account  of  sickness,  for  not  appearing 
personallv  that  day  in  the  court.  This  slio-ht 
offence  (if  it  even  deserve  the  name)  was  repre- 
sented as  a  grievous  contemjit ;  the  four  knights 
were  menaced,  and  m  ith  difficulty  escaped  being- 
sent  to  prison,  as  offering  falsehoods  to  the  court*; 
and  Henry,  heing  determined  to  prosecute  Becket 
to  the  utmost,  summoned,  at  Northampton,  a 
great  council,  which  he  purposed  to  make  the  in- 
strument of  his  vengeance  against  the  inflexible 
prelate. 

•  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  13,  14.  "  Hovcden,  p  493,  Gervase, 
p.  1388.  "  Hoveden,  p.  4()4.  M.  Paris,  p.  72.  Diccto,  p. 
537.  *  See  note  [R]  vol.  X. 


38  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  Il64. 

The  king:  had  raised  Becket  from  a  low  station 
to  the  hio-hest  offices,  had  honoured  him  with  his 
countenance  and  friendship,  had  trusted  to  his 
assistance  in  forwarding  his  favourite  project 
against  the  clergy  ;  and  when  he  found  him  be- 
come of  a  sudden  his  most  rigid  opponent,  Avhile 
every  one  beside  complied  with  his  will,  rage  at 
the  disappointment,  and  indignation  against  such 
signal  ingratitude,  transported  him  beyond  all 
bounds  of  moderation;  and  there  seems  to  have 
entered  more  of  passion  than  of  justice,  or  even 
of  policy,  in  this  violent  prosecution  y.  The  barons, 
notwithstanding,  in  the  great  council,  voted  what- 
ever sentence  he  was  pleased  to  dictate  to  them  ; 
and  the  bishops  themselves,  who  undoubtedly  bore 
a  secret  favour  to  Becket,  and  regarded  him  as  the 
champion  of  their  privileges,  concurred  with  the 
rest,  in  the  design  of  oppressing  their  primate. 
In  vain  did  Becket  urge  that  his  court  was  pro- 
ceeding with  the  utmost  regularity  and  justice  in 
trying  the  mareschal's  cause  ;  which,  however,  he 
said,  Avould  appear  from  the  sheriff's  testimony  to 
be' entirely  unjust  and  iniquitous:  that  he  himself 
had  discovered  no  contempt  of  the  king's  court ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  by  sending  four  knights  to 
excuse  his  absence,  had  virtually  acknowledged 
its  authority :  that  he  also,  in  consequence  of  the 
king's  summons,  personally  appeared  at  present 
in  the  great  council,  ready  to  justify  his  cause 

^  Neubr.  p,  394.         ' 


1164.  HENRY    II.  39 

against  the  iiiarcsclial,  and  to  submit  his  conduct 
to  tlieir  enquiry  and  juriscHction  :  tliat  even 
should  it  be  found  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  non- 
appearance, the  la^vs  had  affixed  a  very  slight 
penalty  to  that  offence :  and  that,  as  he  was  an 
inhabitant  of  Kent,  where  his  archiepiscopal  palace 
was  seated,  he  was  by  law  entitled  to  some  greater 
indulgence  than  usual  in  the  rate  of  his  fine''. 
Notwitlistanding  these  pleas,  he  was  condemned 
as  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  the  king's  court,  and 
as  wanting  in  the  fealty  which  he  bad  sworn  to 
his  sovereign  ;  all  his  goods  and  chattels  were 
conf^scr.ted '  ;  and  that  this  triumph  over  the 
church  might  be  carried  to  the  utmost,  Henry 
bishop  of  Winchester,  the  prelate  who  had  been 
so  powerful  in  the  former  reign,  was,  in  spite  of 
his  remonstrances,  obliged,  by  order  of  the  court, 
to  pronounce  the  sentence  against  him''.  The 
primate  submitted  to  the  decree ;  and  all  the  pre- 
lates, except  Folliot,  bishop  of  London,  who  paid 
court  to  the  king  by  this  singularity,  became 
sureties  for  him^  It  is  remarkable,  that  several 
Norman  barons  voted  in  this  council ;  and  we 
may  conclude,  with  some  probability,  that  a  hke 
practice  had  prevailed  in  many  of  the  great 
councils  summoned  since  the  conquest.  For  the 
contemporary  historian,  mIio  has  given  us  a  full 
account  of  these  transactions,  does  not  mention 


'  Fitz-Steph.  p.  37,  42.  '  Hist.  ^uad.  p.  4/.     Hovetlen, 

p.  494.     Gervase,  p.  ISSy.  **  Fitz-Steph.  p.  3/.  '  Ibid. 


40  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND,  1164. 

this  circumstance  as  any  wise  singular"^;  and 
Becket,  in  all  his  subsequent  remonstrances,  \yith 
regard  to  the  severe  treatment  which  he  had  met 
with,  never  founds  any  objection  on  an  irregu- 
larity, which  to  us  appears  very  palpable  and 
flagrant.  So  little  precision  was  there  at  that  time 
in  the  government  and  constitution  ! 

The  king  was  not  content  with  this  sentence, 
however  violent  and  oppressive.  Next  day,  he 
demanded  of  Becket  the  sum  of  three  hundred 
pounds,  which  the  primate  had  levied  upon  the 
honours  of  Eye  and  Berkham,  while  in  his  pos- 
session. Becket,  after  premising  that  he  was  not 
obliged  to  answer  to  this  suit,  because  it  was  not 
contained  in  his  summons  ;  after  remarking  that 
he  had  expended  more  than  that  sum  in  the  re- 
pairs of  those  castles,  and  of  the  royal  palace  at 
London ;  expressed  however  his  resolution,  that 
money  should  not  be  any  ground  of  quarrel  be- 
tween him  and  his  sovereign :  he  agreed  to  pay 
the  sum  ;  and  immediately  gave  sureties  for  it  ^. 
In  the  subsequent  meeting,  the  king  demanded 
five  hundred  marks,  which,  he  affirmed,  he  had 
lent  Becket  during  the  war  at  Toulouse  ^;  and 
another  sum  to  the  same  amount,  for  which  that 
prince  had  been  surety  for  him  to  a  Jew.  Im- 
mediately after  these  two  claims,  he  preferred  a 
third  of  still  greater  importance :  he  required  him 
to  give  in  the  accounts  of  his  administration  while 

^  Fitz-Steph,  p.  3(3.        ^  Ibid,  p.  38.        '  Hist.  Quad.  p.  47. 


11()1.  HENRY    TI.  41 

chancellor,  and  to  pay  the  balance  due  from  the 
revenues  of  all  the  prelacies,  abbies,  and  baronies, 
which  had,  during  that  time,  been  subjected  to 
his  management^.  Becket  observed,  that,  as  this 
demand  was  totally  unexpected,  he  had  not  come 
prepared  to  answer  it ;  but  he  required  a  delay, 
and  promised  in  that  case  to  give  satisfaction. 
The  king  insisted  upon  sureties ;  and  Becket  de- 
sired leave  to  consult  his  suffragans  in  a  case  of 
such  importance''. 

It  is  apparent,  from  the  known  character  of 
Henry,  and  from  the  usual  vigilance  of  his  go- 
vernment, that,  when  he  promoted  Becket  to  the 
see  of  Canterbury,  he  was,  on  good  grounds,  well 
pleased  with  liis  administration  in  the  former  high 
office  with  AS  Inch  he  had  entrusted  him;  and  that, 
even  if  that  prelate  had  dissipated  money  beyond 
the  income  of  his  place,  the  king  Mas  satisfied 
that  his  expences  Avere  not  blameable,  and  had  in 
the  main  been  calculated  for  his  service '.  Tavo 
years  had  since  elapsed  ;  no  demand  had,  during 
that  time,  been  made  upon  him  ;  it  Avas  not  till 
the  quarrel  arose  concerning  ecclesiastical  privi- 
leges, that  the  claim  Avas  started,  and  the  primate 
Avas,  of  a  sudden,  required  to  produce  accounts  of 
such  intricacy  and  extent  before  a  tribunal  Avhicli 
had  sheA\-n  a  determined  resolution  to  ruin  and 
oppress   him.     To  find  sureties,  that  he  should 

*  Hoveden,  p.  494,     Diceto,  p.  537.  ''  Fitz-Steph.  p.  38. 

'  Hovcden,  p.  495 . 


42  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  11^4. 

answer  so  boundless  and  uncertain  a  claim,  whicli 
in  the  king's  estimation  amounted  to  44,000 
marks  \  was  impracticable ;  and  Becket's  suf- 
fragans were  extremely  at  a  loss  what  counsel  to 
give  him  in  such  a  critical  emergency.  By  the 
advice  of  the  bishop  of  Winchester  he  offered  two 
thousand  marks  as  a  general  satisfaction  for  all 
demands  :  but  this  offer  was  rejected  by  the  king'. 
Some  prelates  exhorted  him  to  resign  his  see,  on 
condition  of  receiving  an  acquittal :  others  were 
of  opinion,  that  he  ought  to  submit  himself 
entirely  to  the  king's  mercy  *" :  but  the  primate, 
thus  pushed  to  the  vitmost,  had  too  much  courage 
to  sink  under  oppression :  he  determined  to  brave 
all  his  enemies,  to  trust  to  the  sacredness  of  his 
character  for  protection,  to  involve  his  cause  with 
that  of  God  and  religion,  and  to  stand  the  utmost 
efforts  of  royal  indignation. 

After  a  few  days  spent  in  deliberation,  Becket 
went  to  church,  and  said  mass,  where  he  had  pre- 
viously ordered,  that  the  introitto  the  communion 
service  should  begin  with  these  words,  Princes 
sat  and  spake  against  me;  the  passage  appointed 
for  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Stephen,  whom  the  pri- 
mate thereby  tacitly  pretended  to  resemble  in  his 
sufferings  for  the  sake  of  righteousness.  He  went 
thence  to  court,  arrayed  in  his  sacred  vestments : 
as  soon  as  he  arrived  within  the  palace-gate,  he 
took  the  cross  into  his  own  hands,  bore  it  aloft  as 

*  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  315.  '  Fitz-Steph.  p.  38. 

■"  Fitz-Steph.  p.  39.     Gervase,  p.  1390. 


11G4.  HENRY    II.  43 

liis  protection,  and  maicJiccl  in  that  posture  into 
the  royal  apartments".     The  kino-,  who  was  in  an 
inner  room,    was   astonished  at  this   parade,    hy 
which  tlie  primate   scemctl  to  menace  him  and 
his  court  with  the  sentence  of  excommunication; 
and  he  sent  for  some  of  tlie  prelates  to  remonstrate 
wdth  him  on  account  of  such  audacious  hehaviour. 
These  prelates   complained   to   Becket,   that,    hy 
subscribing  himself  to  the  constitutions  of  Claren- 
don, he  had  seduced  them  to  imitate  his  example; 
and  that  now,  when  it  was  too  late,  he  pretended 
to  shake  off  all  subordination  to  the  civil  power, 
and  appeared  desirous  of  involving  them  in  the 
guilt  Avhich  must  attend  any  violation  of  th().s€ 
laws,  established  by  their  consent,  and  ratified  by 
their  subscriptions".     Becket  replied,  that  he  had 
indeed  subscribed  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
kgally,    with  good  J'aitli^   and  without  fraud  o)' 
reacrte  ;  but  in  these  words  Avas  virtually  implied 
a  salvo  for  the  rights  of  their  order,  which,  being 
connected  with  the  cause  of  God  and  his  church, 
could  never  be  relinquished* by  their  oaths  and 
engagements :  that  if  he  and  they  had  erred  in 
jesigning   the    ecclesiastical  privileges,   the    best 
atonement  they  could  now  make  was  to  retract 
their  consent,  which,  in  such  a  case,  could  ne\  er 
be  obligatory,  and  to  follow  the  pope's  authority, 
who  had  solemnly  annulled  the  constitutions  of 

"Fitz.Steph.  p.  40.      Hist.  Quad.  p.  53.      Hovcden,  p.  -104. 
1^'eubr.  p.  394.    Epist.  St.  TUom.  p.  43.        *  Fitz-Step!i.  p.  35. 


U  HISTORY    OF  ENGLAND.  1164. 

Clarendon,  and  had  absolved  them  from  all  oaths 
which  they  had  taken  to  observe  them  :  that  a 
determined  resolution  was  evidently  embraced  to 
oppress  the  church  ;  the  storm  had  first  broken 
upon  him  ;  for  a  slight  offence,  and  which  too 
Avas  falsely  imputed  to  him,  he  had  been  tyran- 
nically condemned  to  a  grievous  penalty  ;  a  new 
and  unheard-of  claim  was  since  started,  in  which 
he  could  expect  no  justice  ;  and  he  plainly  saw, 
that  he  was  the  destined  victim,  who,  by  his  ruin, 
must  prepare  the  way  for  the  abrogation  of  all 
spiritual  immunities  :  that  he  strictly  inhibited 
them  who  were  his  suffragans  from  assisting  at 
any  such  trial,  or  giving  their  sanction  to  any 
sentence  against  him ;  he  put  himself  and  his  see 
under  the  protection  of  the  supreme  pontiff;  and 
appealed  to  him  against  any  penalty  which  his 
iniquitous  judges  might  think  proper  to  inflict 
upon  him :  and  that  however  terrible  the  indig- 
nation of  so  great  a  monarch  as  Henry,  his  sword 
could  only  kill  the  body ;  while  that  of  the  church, 
entrusted  into  tlie  kands  of  the  primate,  could 
kill  the  soul,  and  throw  the  disobedient  into 
infinite  and  eternal  perdition  p. 

Appeals  to  the  pope,  even  in  ecclesiastical  causes, 
had  been  abolished  by  the  constitutions  of  Claren- 
don, and  were  become  criminal  by  law;  but  an 
appeal  in  a  civil  cause,  such  as  the  king's  demand 

P  Fitz-Steph.  p.  42, 44,  45,  46.     Hist.  Quad.  p.  5?.  Hoveden, 
p.  495.     M.  Paris,  p.  72.     Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  45,  195.  . 


Jl64,  HENRY   II.  Ai 

upon  Becket,  was  a  practice  altooether  new  and 
unpiecedentetl  ;  it  tcndcn  directly  to  the  sub- 
version of  the  government,  and  could  receive  no 
colour  of  excuse,  except  from  the  determined  re- 
solution, which  was  but  too  apparent  in  Henry 
and  the  great  council,  to  effectuate,  without 
justice,  but  under  colour  of  law,  the  total  ruin  of 
the  inflexible  primate.  The  king,  having  now 
obtained  a  pretext  so  much  more  plausible  for  his 
violence,  would  probably  have  pushed  the  affair 
to  the  utmost  extremity  against  him;  but  Becket 
gave  him  no  leisure  to  conduct  the  prosecution. 
He  refused  so  much  as  to  hear  the  sentence, 
which  the  barons,  sitting  apart  from  the  bishops, 
and  joined  to  some  sheriffs  and  barons  of  the 
second  rank^,  had  given  upon  the  king's  claim: 
he  departed  from  the  palace;  asked  Henry's  im- 
mediate permission  to  leave  Northampton ;  and 
upon  meeting  with  a  refusal,  he  withdrew  secretly ; 
wandered  about  in  disguise  for  some  time ;  and 
at  last  took  shipping,  and  arrived  safely  at  Grave- 
lines. 

The  violent  and  unjust  prosecution  of  Becket 
had  a  natural  tendency  to  turn  the  public  favour 
on  his  side,  and  to  make  men  overlook  his  fonner 

1  Fitz-Steph.  p.  46.  This  historian  is  supposed  to  mean  the 
more  considerable  vassals  of  the  chief  barons  :  these  had  no  title 
to  sit  in  the  great  council,  and  the  giving  them  a  place  there  was 
a  palpable  irregularity  ;  which  however  is  not  insisted  on  in  any 
of  Becket's  remonstrances.  A  farther  proof  how  little  fixed  the 
constitution  was  at  that  time. 


46  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  11^. 

ingratitude  towards  the  king,  and  his  departure 
from  all  oaths  and  engagements,  as  well  as  the 
enormity  of  those  ecclesiastical  privileges,  of  which 
he  affected  to  be  the  champion.  There  were 
many  other  reasons  which  procured  him  counten- 
ance and  protection  in  foreign  countries.  Philip 
earl  of  Flanders'',  and  Lewis  king  of  France', 
jealous  of  the  rising  greatness  of  Henry,  were  well 
pleased  to  give  him  disturbance  in  his  govern- 
ment ;  and  forg'ettina;  that  this  was  the  common 
cause  of  princes,  they  affected  to  pity  extremely 
the  condition  of  the  exiled  primate;  and  the  latter 
even  honoured  him  with  a  visit  at  Soissons,  in 
which  city  he  had  invited  him  to  fix  his  residence*. 
The  pope,  Avdiose  interests  were  more  immediately 
concerned  in  supporting  him,  gave  a  cold  reception 
to  a  magnificent  embassy  which  Henry  sent  to 
accuse  him ;  while  Becket  himself,  who  had  come 
to  Sens  in  order  to  justify  his  cause  before  the 
sovereign  pontiff',  was  received  with  the  greatest 
marks  of  distinction.  The  king,  in  revenge,  se*- 
questered  the  revenues  of  Canterbury ;  and  by  a, 
conduct  which  might  be  esteemed  arbitrary,  had 
there  been  at  that  time  any  regular  check  on  royal 
authority,  he  banished  all  the  primate's  relations 
and  domestics,  to  the  number  of  four  hundred, 
whom  he  obliged  to  swear,  before  their  departure, 
that  they  would  instantly  join  their  patron.  But 
this    policy,    by   which    Henry   endeavoured   to 

■•Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  3G.      =  Ibid.  p.  36,  37.        '  Hist.  Quad., 
p.  76' 


1164.  HENRY    II.  4/ 

reduce  Becket  sooner  to  necessity,  lost  its  effect: 
the  pope,  A\'lien  tlicy  arrived  beyond  sea,  absolved 
them  from  their  oath,  and  distributed  them  among 
the  convents  in  France  and  Flanders:  a  residence 
was  assigned  to  Becket  himself  in  the  convent  of 
Pontigny,  where  he  lived  for  some  years  in  great 
magnificence,  partly  from  a  pension  granted  him 
on  the  revenues  of  that  abbey,  partly  from  le- 
mittances  made  him  by  the  French  monarch. 

The  more  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  pope, 
Becket  resii^ned  into  his  hands  the  see  of  Canter- 
bury,  to  M'hich,  he  affirmed,  he  had  been  unca- 
nonically  elected  by  the  authority  of  the  royal 
mandate  ;  and  Alexander,  in  his  turn,  besides  in- 
vesting him  anew  with  that  dignity,  pretended 
to  abrogate,  by  a  bull,  the  sentence  which  the 
great  council  of  England  had  passed  against  him. 
lienry,  after  attempting  in  vain  to  procure  a  con- 
ference Avith  the  pope,  who  departed  soon  after 
for  Rome,  whitlier  the  prosperous  state  of  his 
affairs  now  invited  him,  made  provisions  against 
the  consequences  of  that  breach  which  impended 
between  his  kingdom  and  the  apostolic  see.'  lie 
issued  ordojs  to  his  justiciaries,  inhibiting,  under 
severe  penalties,  all  appeals  to  the  pope  or  arch- 
bishop ;  forbidding  any  one  to  receive  any  man- 
dates from  them,  or  apply  in  any  case  to  their 
authority;  declaring  it  treasonable  to  bring  from 
either  of  them  an  interdict  upon  the  kingdom, 
and  punishable  in  secular  clergymen  by  the  loss 
gf  their  eyes   and  by  castration,  in  regulars   by 


48  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND,  11(34. 

amputation  of  their  feet,  and  in  laics  with  death; 
and  menacing  with  sequestration  and  banishment 
the  persons  themseh'es,  as  well  as  their  kindred, 
who  should  pay  obedience  to  any  such  interdict: 
and  he  farther  obliged  all  his  subjects  to  SAvear  to 
the  observance  of  those  orders".  These  were 
edicts  of  the  utmost  importance,  affected  the 
lives  and  properties  of  all  the  subjects,  and  even 
changed,  for  the  time,  the  national  religion,  by 
breaking  off  all  communication  with  Rome  :  yet 
were  they  enacted  by  the  sole  authority  of  the 
king,  and  were  derived  entirely  from  his  will  and 
pleasure. 

The  spiritual  powers,  which,  in  the  primitive 
Church,  were,  in  a  great  measure,  dependant  on 
the  civil,  had  by  a  gradual  progress  reached  an 
equahty  and  independence;  and  though  the  limits 
of  the  two  jurisdictions  were  difficult  to  ascertain 
or  define,  it  was  not  impossible,  but  by  moderation 
on  both  sides,  government  might  still  have  been 
conducted  in  that  imperfect  and  irregular  manner 
which  attends  all  human  institutions.  But  as  the 
ignorance  of  the  age  encouraged  the  ecclesiastics 
dady  to  extend  their  privileges,  and  even  to  ad- 
vance maxims  totally  incompatible  with  civil  go- 
vernment ^  Henry  had  thought  it  high  time  to 
put  an  end  to  their  pretensions,  and  formally,  in 

"Hist  Quad.  p.  88,  I67.  Hoveden,  p.  496.  M.  Paris,  p.  73. 
'  "  Quia  dubitet,  says  Becket  to  the  king,  sacerdotes  Christi  regum 
et  prhicipiim  omniumquejiddmn  pat  res  et  magistros  censeri  ?  Epist. 
St.  Thom.  p.  97,  148. 


1165.  HENRY  II.  49 

a  public  council,  to  fix  those  powers  Avliieh  be- 
longed to  tlie  magistrate,  and  which  he  was  for 
the   iViture  determined  to  maintain.     In  this  at- 
tempt he  was  led  to  re-establish  customs,  which, 
thougli  ancient,  were  beginning  to  be  abolished 
by  a  contrary  practice,  and  a\  liich  were  still  more 
strongly  opposed  by  the  prevailing  opinions  and 
sentiments  of  the  age.    Principle,  therefore,  stood 
on  the  one  side,  power  on  the  other  ;  and  if  the 
English  had  been  actuated  by  conscience  more 
than   by  present  interest,  the  controversy  must 
soon,   by  the  general  defection  of  Henry's  sub- 
jects, have  been  decided  against  him.    Becket,  in 
order  to  forward  this  event,  filled  all  places  with 
exclamations  against  the  violence  which  he  had 
suffered.      He  compared  himself  to  Christ,  who 
liad  been  condemned  by  a  lay  tribunal,  and  was 
crucified  anew  in  the  present  oppressions  under 
which  his  church  laboured :  he  took  it  for  granted, 
as  a  point  incontestable,  that  his  cause  was  the 
cause   of  God*:    he   assumed   the   character   of 
champion  for  the  patrimony  of  the  Divinity :  he 
pretended  to  be  the  spiritual  father  of  the  king 
and  all   the  people  of  England'':    he  even  told 
Henry,  that  kings  reign  solely  by  the  authority 
of  the  church'' :  and  though  he  had  thus  torn  off 

''Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  63,  105,  I94.       '  Ibid.  p.  29,  30,  31,  226. 

"  Fitz-Steph.  p.  46.     Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  52,  14S, 
••  Brady's  Append.  N^  56.   Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  94,  QS,  97,  gg, 
197.     Hoveden,  p.  497. 

VOL.    II.  E 


50  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  U66. 

the  veil  more  openly  on  the  one  side,  than  that 
prince  had  on  the  other,  he  seemed  still,  from  the 
general  favour  borne  him  by  the  ecclesiastics,  to 
have  all  the  advantage  In  the  argument.  The 
king,  that  he  migh  employ  the  weapons  of 
temporal  power  remaining  in  his  hands,  suspended 
the  payment  of  Peter's-pence;  he  made  advances 
towards  an  alliance  with  the  emperor,  Frederic 
Barbarossa,  who  was  at  that  time  engaged  in 
violent  wars  with  pope  Alexander;  he  discovered 
some  intentions  of  acknowledging  Pascal  III.  the 
present  anti-pope,  who  was  protected  by  that 
emperor;  and  by  these  expedients  he  endea- 
voured to  terrify  the  enterprising  though  prudent 
pontiff  from  proceeding  to  extremities  against 
him. 

But  the  violence  of  Becket,  still  more  than  the 
nature  of  the  controversy,  kept  affairs  from  re- 
maining long  in  suspence  between  the  two  parties. 
That  prelate,  instigated  by  revenge,  and  ani- 
mated by  the  present  glory  attending  his  situa- 
tion, pushed  matters  to  a  decision,  and  issued  a 
censure,  excommunicating  the  king's  chief  mi- 
nisters by  name,  and  comprehending  in  general 
all  those  mIio  favoured  or  obeyed  the  constitutions 
of  Clarendon :  these  constitutions  he  abrogated 
and  annulled  ;  he  absolved  all  men  from  the  oaths 
which  they  had  taken  to  observe  them  ;  and  he 
suspended  the  spiritual  thunder  over  Henry  him- 


I16G.  HENRY   11.  31 

self,   only  that  the  prince  might  avoid  the  blow 
by  a  timely  repentance '. 

The  situation  of  Henry  was  so  unhappy,  that 
he  could  employ  no  expedient  for  saving  his  mi- 
nisters from  this  terrible  censure,  but  by  appeal- 
ing to  the  pope  himself,  and  having  recourse  to  a 
tribunal  whose  authority  he  had  himself  attempted 
to  abridge  in  this  very  article  of  appeals,  and 
which,  he  knew,  Avas  so  deeply  engaged  on  the 
side  of  his  adversary.  But  even  this  expedient 
was  not  likely  to  be  long  effectual.  Becket  had 
obtained  from  the  pope  a  legantine  'commission 
over  England ;  and  in  virtue  of  that  authority, 
which  admitted  of  no  appeal,  he  summoned  the 
bishops  of  London,  Salisbury,  and  others,  to  at- 
tend him,  and  ordered,  under  pain  of  excommu- 
nication, the  ecclesiastics,  sequestered  on  his  ac- 
count, to  be  restored  in  two  months  to  all  their 
benefices.  But  John  of  Oxford,  the  king's  agent 
with  the  pope,  had  the  address  to  procure  orders 
for  suspending  this  sentence  ;  and  he  gave  the 
pontiff  such  hopes  of  a  speedy  reconcilement  be- 
tween the  king  and  Becket,  that  tM'o  legates, 
William  of  Pavia  and  Otho,  were  sent  to  Nor- 
mandy, where  the  king  then  resided,  and  they 
endeavoured  to  find  expedients  for  that  purpose. 
But  the  pretensions  of  the  parties  were,  as  yet, 
too  opposite  to  admit  of  an  accommodation :   the 

'  Fitz-Steph.  p.  56.     Hist.  Quad.  p.  g3.     M.  Paris,  p  74. 
Beaulieu,  Vie  de  St.  Thorn,  p.  213.     Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  I4g, 
229.  Hoveden,  p.  4gg. 
2 


52 


HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1167. 


king  required,  that  all  the  constitutions  of  Cla- 
rendon should  be  ratified :  Becket,    that,   previ- 
ously to  any  agreement,  he  and  his  adherents 
should  be  restored  to  their  possessions  :  and  as  the 
leo-ates  had  no  power  to  pronounce  a  definitive 
sentence  on  either  side,  the  negotiation  soon  after 
came   to  nothing.     The  cardinal  of  Pavia  also, 
being  much  attached  to  Henry,  took  care  to  pro- 
tract the  negotiation  ;  to  mitigate  the  pope,   by 
the  accounts  which  he  sent  of  that  prince's  con- 
duct ;  and  to  procure  him  every  possible  indulg- 
ence from  the  see  of  Rome.     About  this  time  the 
king  had  also  the  address  to  obtain  a  dispensation 
for  the  marriage  of  his  third  son  Geoffrey,  with 
the  heiress  of  Britanny  ;  a  concession  which,  con- 
sidering Henry's   demerits   towards  the   church, 
s-ave  ffreat  scandal  both  to   Becket,   and   to  his 
zealous  patron  the  king  of  France. 

The  intricacies  of  the  feudal  law  had,   in  that 
age,  rendered  the  boundaries  of  power  between 
the  prince  and  his  vassals,  and  between  one  prince 
and  another,   as  uncertain  as  those  between  the 
crown  and  the  mitre  ;  and  all  wars  took  their  ori- 
gin from  disputes,   which,   had  there  been  any  tri- 
bunal possessed  of  power  to  enforce  their  decrees, 
ought  to  have  been  decided  only  before  a  court 
of  judicature.      Henry,   in  prosecution  of  some 
controversies,   in  which  he  Avas  involved  with  the 
count  of  Auvergne,  a  vassal  of  the  dutchy  of 
Guienne,  had  invaded  the  territories  of  that  no- 
bleman ;  who  had  recourse  to  the  king  of  France, 


11(57.  HENRY   II.  53 

his  superior  lord,  for  protection,  and  thereby 
kindled  a  war  between  the  two  monarchs.  But 
this  war  was,  as  usual,  no  less  feeble  in  its  opeia- 
tions,  than  it  was  frivolous  in  its  cause  and  ob- 
ject; and  after  occasioning  some  mutual  depreda- 
tions*', and  some  insurrections  among  the  barons 
of  Poictou  and  Guienne,  ^\as  terminated  by  a 
peace.  The  terms  of  this  peace  were  rather  dis- 
advantageous to  Henry,  and  proxe  that  that 
prince  had,  by  reason  of  his  contest  with  the 
church,  lost  the  superiority  which  he  had  hitherto 
maintained  over  the  cro\vn  of  France:  an  addi- 
tional motive  to  him  for  accommodating  those 
differences. 

The  pope  and  the  king  began  at  last  to  perceive, 
that,  in  the  present  situation  of  affairs,  neitlicr 
of  them  could  expect  a  final  and  decisive  victory 
over  the  other;  and  that  they  had  more  to  fear 
than  to  hope  from  the  duration  of  the  controversy. 
Though  the  vigour  of  Henry's  government  had 
confnmed  his  authority  in  all  his  dominions,  his 
throne  might  be  shaken  by  a  sentence  of  excom- 
munication ;  and  if  England  itself  could,  by  its 
situation,  be  more  easily  guarded  against  the 
contagion  of  superstitious  prejudices,  his  French 
provinces  at  least,  whose  communication  was 
open  with  the  neighbouring  states,  would  be 
much  exposed,   on  that  account,    to  some  great 

^  Hoveden,  p,  51/.  M.  Paris,  p.  75.  Diceto^  p.  54/.  Ger- 
vase,  p.  1402^  1403.     Robert  de  Monte. 


54  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  ll68. 

revolution  or  convulsion  ^  He  could  not,  there- 
fore, reasonably  imagine  that  the  pope,  while  he 
retained  such  a  check  upon  him,  would  formally 
recognise  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  which 
both  put  an  end  to  papal  pretensions  in  England, 
and  would  give  an  example  to  other  states  of  ex- 
erting a  like  independency  ^  Pope  Alexander, 
on  the  other  hand,  being  still  engaged  in  dan- 
gerous wars  with  the  emperor  Frederic,  might 
justly  apprehend,  that  Henry,  rather  than  relin- 
quish claims  of  such  importance,  would  join  the 
party  of  his  enemy ;  and  as  the  trials  hitherto 
made  of  the  spiritual  weapons  by  Becket  had  not 
succeeded  to  his  expectation,  and  every  thing 
had  remained  quiet  in  all  the  king's  dominions, 
nothing  seemed  impossible  to  the  capacity  and  vi- 
gilance of  so  great  a  monarch.  The  disposition 
of  minds  on  both  sides,  resultrag  from  these  cir- 
cumstances, produced  frequent  attempts  towards 
an  accommodation  ;  but  as  both  parties  knew  that 
the  essential  articles  of  the  dispute  could  not  then 
be  terminated,  they  entertained  a  perpetual  jea- 
lousy of  each  other,  and  were  anxious  not  to  lose 
the  least  advantage  in  the  negotiation.  The 
nuncios,  Gratian  and  Vivian,  having  received  a 
commission  to  endeavour  a  reconciliation,  met 
with  the  king  in  Normandy  ;  and  after  all  differ- 
ences seemed  to  be  adjusted,  Henry  offered  to 
sign  the  treaty,  with  a  salvo  to  his  royal  dignity  ; 

'  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  230.  ^  Ibid.  p.  276. 


llCp.  HENRY   II.  5*. 

Avhich  gave  such  umbrage  to  Bccket,  that  the 
negotiation,  in  the  end,  became  fruitless,  and 
the  excommunications  were  rencMTd  against  the 
king's  ministers.  Another  negotiation  was  con- 
ducted at  Montmirail,  in  presence  of  the  king  of 
France,  and  the  French  prelates  ;  where  Becket 
also  offered  to  make  his  submissions,  Avith  a  salvo 
to  the  honour  of  God,  and  the  liberties  of  the 
church;  which,  for  a  like  reason,  was  extremely 
offensive  to  the  king,  and  rendered  the  treaty 
abortive.  A  third  conference,  under  the  same 
mediation,  was  broken  off,  by  Becket's  insisting 
on  a  like  reserve  in  his  submissions  ;  and  even  in  a 
fourth  treaty,  when  all  the  terms  were  adjusted, 
and  when  the  primate  expected  to  be  introduced 
to  the  king,  and  to  receive  the  kiss  of  peace, 
whicli  it  was  usual  for  princes  to  grant  in  those 
times,  and  which  was  regarded  as  a  sure  pledge 
of  forgiveness,  Henry  refused  him  that  honour; 
under  pretence,  that,  during  his  anger,  he  had 
made  a  rash  vow  to  that  purpose.  This  formality 
served,  among  such  jealous  spirits,  to  prevent  the 
conclusion  of  the  treaty ;  and  though  the  diffi- 
culty was  attempted  to  be  overcome  by  a  dispen- 
sation which  the  pope  granted  to  Henry  from  his 
vow,  that  prince  could  not  be  prevailed  on  to  de- 
part from  the  resolution  which  he  had  taken. 

In  one  of  these  conferences,  at  which  the 
French  king  was  present,  Henry  said  to  that  mo- 
narch: "  There  have  been  many  kings  of  Eng- 
"  land,   some  of  greater,  some  of  less  authority 


56  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  II70. 

"  than  myself:  there  have  also  been  many  arch- 
'*  bishops  of  Canterbury,  holy  and  good  men, 
"  and  entitled  to  every  kind  of  respect:  let 
*'  Becket  but  act  towards  me  with  the  same  sub- 
*'  mission  which  the  greatest  of  his  predecessors 
*'  have  paid  to  the  least  of  mine,  and  there  shall 
"  be  no  controvers}'-  between  us."  Lewis  was  so 
struck  with  this  state  of  the  case,  and  with  an 
offer  which  Henry  made  to  submit  his  cause  to  the 
French  clergy,  that  he  could  not  forbear  con- 
demning the  primate,  and  withdrawing  his  friend- 
ship from  him  during  some  time  :  but  the  bigot- 
ry of  that  prince,  and  their  common  animosity 
against  Henry,  soon  produced  a  renewal  of  their 
former  good  correspondence. 

COMPROMISE  WITH  BECKET. 
July   22. 

All  difficulties  were  at  last  adjusted  between  the 
parties;  and  the  king  allowed  Becket  to  return, 
on  conditions  which  may  be  esteemed  both  ho- 
nourable and  advantageous  to  that  prelate.  He 
Avas  not  required  to  give  up  any  rights  of  the 
church,  or  resign  any  of  those  pretensions  which 
had  been  the  original  ground  of  the  controversy. 
It  was  agreed  that  all  these  questions  should  be 
buried  in  oblivion  ;  but  that  Becket  and  his  adher- 
ents should,  without  making  further  submission, 
be  restored  to  all  their  livings  ;  and  that  even  the 
possessors  of  such  benefices  as  depended  on  the 


1170.  HENRY   II.  «7 

see  of  Canterbury,  and  had  been  filled  during  the 
primate's  absence,  should  be  expelled,  and  Bcc- 
ket  have  liberty  to  supply  the  vacancies  ^  In  re- 
turn for  concessions  which  entrenched  so  deeply 
on  the  honour  and  dignity  of  the  crown,  Henry 
reaped  only  the  advantage  of  seeing  his  ministers 
absolved  from  the  sentence  of  excommunication 
pronounced  against  them,  and  of  preventing  the 
interdict,  which,  if  these  hard  conditions  had  not 
been  complied  with,  was  ready  to  be  laid  on  all 
his  dominions  ''.  It  was  easy  to  see  how  much  he 
dreaded  that  event,  when  a  prince  of  so  high  a 
spirit  could  submit  to  terms  so  dishonourable  in 
order  to  prevent  it.  So  anxious  was  Henry  to 
accommodate  all  differences,  and  to  reconcile 
himself  fully  with  Eecket,  that  he  took  the  most 
extraordinary  steps  to  flatter  his  vanity,  and  even, 
on  one  occasion,  humiliated  himself  so  far  as  to 
hold  the  stirrup  of  that  haughty  prelate  while  he 
mounted  '. 

But  the  king  attained  not  even  that  tempo- 
rary tranquillity  \\  hich  he  had  hoped  to  reap  from 
these  expedients.  During  the  heat  of  his  quarrel 
with  Becket,  while  he  was  every  day  expecting 
an  interdict  to  be  laid  on  his  kingdom,  and  a 
sentence  of  excommunication  to  be  fulminated 
against  his  person,   he  had  thought  it  prudent  to 

s  Fitz-Stcph.  p.  6s,  Gg.     Hoveden,  p.  520. 
•"  Hist.   Quad.  p.    104.     Erompton,  p.    1062.      Gervase,  p. 
1408.      Epist.   St.   Thom.  p    704,  705,.  706,    707,  7y2,  793, 
794.     Benedict.  Abbas^  P- 70.         '  Epist.  45;  lib.  5. 


58  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  II70. 

have  his  son,  prince  Henry,  associated  with  him 
in  the  royalty,  and  to  make  him  be  crowned  king 
by  the  hands  of  Roger  archbishop  of  ^York.  By 
this  precaution  he  both  ensured  the  succession  of 
that  prince,  which,  considering  the  many  past 
irregularities  in  that  point,  could  not  but  be  es- 
teemed somewhat  precarious  ;  and  he  preserved 
at  least  his  family  on  the  throne,  if  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  should  have  the  effect  which 
he  dreaded,  and  should  make  his  subjects  re- 
nounce their  allegiance  to  him.  Though  this  de- 
sign was  conducted  with  expedition  and  secrecy, 
Becket,  before  it  was  carried  into  execution,  had 
got  intelligence  of  it ;  and  being  desirous  of  ob- 
structing all  Henry's  measures,  as  well  as  anxious 
to  prevent  this  affront  to  himself,  who  pretended 
to  the  sole  right,  as  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to 
officiate  in  the  coronation,  he  had  inhibited  all 
the  prelates  of  England  from  assisting  at  this  ce- 
remony, had  procured  from  the  pope  a  mandate 
to  the  same  purpose  ^,  and  had  incited  the  king 
of  France  to  protest  against  the  coronation  of 
young  Henry,  unless  the  princess,  daughter  of 
that  monarch,  should  at  the  same  time  receive 
the  royal  unction.  There  prevailed  in  that  age 
an  opinion,  which  was  a-kin  to  its  other  super- 
stitions, that  the  royal  unction  was  essential  to 
the  exercise  of  royal  power  ^ :  it  was  therefore  na- 
tural both  for  the  king  of  France,   careful  of  his 

"  Hist.  Quad.  p.  103.    Epist.  St.  Thom.  p.  682.     Gervase, 
p.  1412.  '  Epist.  St.  Thom.  p.  708. 


1170.  HENRY    IT.  59 

daugliter's  establishment,  and  for  Becket,  jealous 
of  his  own  dignity,  to  demand,  in  the  treaty  with 
Henry,  some  satisfaction  in  this  essential  point. 
Henry,  after  apologising  to  Lewis  for  the  omis- 
sion with  regard  to  ]\Iargaret,  and  excusing  it  on 
account  of  the  secrecy  and  dispatch  requisite  for 
conducting  that  measure,  promised  that  the  ce- 
remony should  be  renewed  in  the  persons  both  of 
the  prince  and  princess :  and  he  assured  Cecket, 
that  besides  receiving  the  acknowledgements  of 
Roger  and  the  other  bishops  for  the  seeming  af- 
front put  on  the  see  of  Canterbury,  the  primate 
should,  as  a  farther  satisfaction,  recover  his  rights 
by  officiating  in  this  coronation.  But  the  violent 
spirit  of  Becket,  elated  by  the  power  of  the 
church,  and  by  the  victory  which  he  had  already 
obtained  over  his  sovereign,  was  not  content  with 
this  voluntar}^  compensation,  but  resolved  to 
make  the  injury,  which  he  pretended  to  have 
suffered,  a  handle  for  taking  revenge  on  all  his 
enemies.  On  his  arrival  in  England  he  met  the 
archbishop  of  York,  and  the  bishops  of  London 
and  Salisbury,  who  were  on  their  journey  to  the 
king  in  Normandy  :  he  notified  to  the  archbishop 
the  sentence  of  suspension,  and  to  the  two  bi- 
shops that  of  excommunication,  which  at  his  so- 
licitation the  pope  had  pronounced  against  them. 
Reginald  de  Warenne,  and  Gervase  de  Cornhill, 
two  of  the  king's  ministers  who  were  employed 
pn  their  duty  in  Kent,  asked  him,  on  hearing  of 


60  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  I170. 

this  bold  attempt,  whether  he  meant  to  bring  fire 
and  sword  into  the  kingdom  ?  But  the  primate, 
heedless  of  the  reproof,  proceeded,  in  the  most 
ostentatious  manner,  to  take  possession  of  his 
diocese.  In  Rochester,  and  all  the  towns  through 
which  he  passed,  he  was  received  with  the  shouts 
and  acclamations  of  the  populace.  As  he  ap- 
proached Southwark,  the  clergy,  the  laity,  men 
of  all  ranks  and  ages,  came  forth  to  meet  him, 
and  celebrated  with  hymns  of  joy  his  triumphant 
entrance.  And  though  he  was  obliged,  by  order 
of  the  young  prince,  who  resided  at  Woodstoke, 
to  return  to  his  diocese,  he  found  that  he  was  not 
mistaken  when  he  reckoned  upon  the  highest  ve- 
neration of  the  public  towards  his  person  and  his 
dignity.  He  proceeded,  therefore,  with  the  more 
courage,  to  dart  his  spiritual  thunders  :  he  issued 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  against  Robert 
de  Broc  and  Nigel  de  Sackville,  with  many 
others,  who  either  had  assisted  at  the  coronation 
of  the  prince,  or  been  active  in  the  late  persecu- 
tion of  the  exiled  clergy.  This  violent  measure, 
by  which  he  in  effect  denounced  war  against  the 
king  himself,  is  commonly  ascribed  to  the  vin- 
dictive disposition  and  imperious  character  of 
Becket ;  but  as  this  prelate  was  also  a  man  of  ac- 
knowledged abilities,  Ave  are  not,  in  his  passions 
alone,  to  look  for  the  cause  of  his  conduct,  when 
he  proceeded  to  these  extremities  against  his  ene- 
mies.    His  sagacity  had  led  him  to  discover  all 


i];o.  IIENRV    II.  61 

Henry's  intentions;  and  he  proposed,  l)y  this 
bold  and  unexpected  assault,  to  prevent  the  exe- 
cution of  tlu-m. 

The  king,  from  his  experience  of  the  dispo- 
sitions of  his  people,  was  become  sensible  that 
his  enterprise  had  been  too  bold  in  establishing 
the  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  in  delining  all  the 
branches  of  royal  power,  and  in  endeavouring  to 
extort  from  the  church  of  England,  as  well  as 
from  the  pope,  an  express  avowal  of  these  disputed 
prerogatives.  Conscious  also  of  his  own  violence 
in  attempting  to  break  or  subdue  the  inflexible 
primate,  he  was  not  displeased  to  undo  that 
measure  which  had  given  his  enemies  such  advant- 
age against  him  ;  and  he  was  contented  that  the 
controversy  should  terminate  in  that  ambiguous 
manner,  which  was  the  utmost  that  princes  in 
those  ages  could  hope  to  attain  in  their  disputes 
with  the  see  of  Rome.  Though  he  dropped,  for 
the  present,  the  prosecution  of  Becket,  he  still 
reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  maintaining, 
that  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  the  original 
ground  of  the  quarrel,  were  both  the  ancient 
customs  and  the  present  law  of  the  realm :  and 
though  lie  knew  that  the  papal  clergy  asserted 
them  to  be  impious  in  themselves,  as  well  as  ab- 
rogated by  the  sentence  of  the  sovereign  pontiif, 
he  intended,  in  spite  of  their  clamours,  steadily 
to  put  those  lav.'s  in  execution  ",   and  to  trust  to 

"  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  837,  889. 


62  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  liro. 

his  own  abilities,  and  to  the  course  of  events, 
for  success  in  that  perilous  enterprise.  He  hoped 
that  Becket's  experience  of  a  six  years'  exile 
would,  after  his  pride  v/as  fully  gratified  by  his 
restoration,  be  sufficient  to  teach  him  more 
reserve  in  his  opposition  ;  or  if  any  controversy 
arose,  he  expected  thenceforth  to  engage  in  a 
more  favourable  cause,  and  to  maintain  with 
advantage,  while  the  primate  was  now  in  his 
power",  the  ancient  and  undoubted  customs  of 
the  kingdom  against  the  usurpations  of  the 
clergy.  But  Becket  determined  not  to  betray 
the  ecclesiastical  privileges  by  his  connivance", 
and  apprehensive  lest  a  prince  of  such  profound 
policy,  if  allowed  to  proceed  in  his  own  way, 
might  probably  in  the  end  prevail,  resolved  to 
take  all  the  advantage  which  his  present  victory 
gave  him,  and  to  disconcert  the  cautious  mea- 
sures of  the  king,  by  the  vehemence  and  rigour 
of  his  own  conduct  p.  Assured  of  support  from 
Rome,  he  was  little  intimidated  by  dangers, 
which  his  courage  taught  him  to  despise,  and 
which,  even  if  attended  with  the  most  fatal  con- 
sequences, would  serve  only  to  gratify  his  ambi- 
tion and  thirst  of  glory  \ 

"  Fitz-Steph.  p.  65.  "  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  345. 

P  Fitz-Steph.  p.  74.  ^  Epist.  St.  Thorn,  p.  818,  848. 


1170.  HENRY   II.  63 

JMURDER  OF  THOMAS  A  BECKET. 

December  2^. 

WiiEN^thc  suspended  and  excommunicated 
prelates  arrived  at  Baieux,  where  the  kinp;  then 
resided,  and  complained  to  liim  of  the  violent 
proceedings  of  Becket,  he  instantly  perceived 
the  consequences ;  was  sensible  that  his  whole 
plan  of  operations  was  overthroM'n;  foresaw  that 
the  dangerous  contest  between  the  civil  and  spi- 
ritual poM'ers,  a  contest  which  he  himself  had  first 
roused,  but  which  he  had  endeavoured,  by  all 
his  late  negotiations  and  concessions,  to  appease, 
must  come  to  an  immediate  and  decisive  issue; 
and  he  was  thence  thrown  into  the  most  violent 
commotion.  The  archbishop  of  York  remarked 
to  him,  that  so  long  as  Becket  lived,  he  could 
never  expect  to  enjoy  peace  or  tranquillity:  the 
king  himself,  being  vehemently  agitated,  burst 
forth  into  an  exclamation  against  his  servants, 
whose  want  of  zeal,  he  said,  had  so  long  left  liim 
exposed  to  the  enterprises  of  that  ungrateful  and 
imperious  prelate  ^  Four  gentlemen  of  his  house- 
hold, Reginald  Fitz-Urse,  William  de  Traci, 
Hugh  de  jMorevillc,  and  Richard  Brito,  taking 
these  passionate  expressions  to  be  a  hint  for 
Becket's  death,  immediately  communicated  their 
thoughts  to  each  other ;  and  swearing  to  avenge 

'  Gervase^  p.  1414.    Parker,  p.  20/. 


64  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1170. 

their  prince's  quarrel,  secretly  withdrew  from 
court".  Some  menacing  expressions  which  they 
had  dropped,  gave  a  suspicion  of  their  design ; 
and  the  king  dispatched  a  messenger  after  them, 
charging  them  to  attempt  nothing  agajinst  the 
person  of  the  primate  * :  but  these  orders  arrived 
too  late  to  prevent  their  fatal  purpose.  The  four 
assassins,  though  they  took  different  roads  to 
England,  arrived  nearly  about  the  same  time  at 
Saltwoode  near  Canterbury ;  and  being  there 
joined  by  some  assistants,  they  proceeded  in 
great  haste  to  the  archiepiscopal  palace.  They 
found  the  primate,  who  trusted  entirely  to  the 
sacredness  of  his  character,  very  slenderly  at- 
tended ;  and  though  they  threw  out  many  me- 
naces and  reproaches  against  him,  he  was  so  in- 
capable of  fear,  that,  without  using  any  precau- 
tions against  their  violence,  he  immediately  went 
to  St.  Benedict's  church  to  hear  vespers.  They 
followed  him  thither,  attacked  him  before  the 
altar,  and  having  cloven  his  head  with  many 
blows,  retired  without  meeting  any  opposition. 
This  was  the  tragical  end  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  a 
prelate  of  the  most  lofty,  intrepid,  and  inflexible 
spirit,  who  was  able  to  cover  to  the  world,  and 
probably  to  himself,  the  enterprises  of  pride  and 
ambition,  under  the  disguise  of  sanctity,  and  of 
zeal  for  the  interests  of  religion  :  an  extraordinary 

*M.  Paris,  p.  66.  Brompton,p.  1065.  Benedict.  Abbas,  p.  10. 
'  Hist,  Quad.  p.  144.    Trivet,  p.  55. 


H/O.  ,    HENRY   II.  6JS 

personage,  surely,  had  he  been  allowed  to  remain 
in  his  first  station,  and  had  directed  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  character  to  tlie  support  of  law  and 
justice;  instead  of  being  engaged,  by  the  preju- 
dices of  the  times,  to  sacrilice  all  private  duties 
and  public  connexions  to  ties  which  he  imagined 
or  represented  as  superior  to  every  civil  and  poU- 
tical  consideration.  But  no  man  who  enters  into 
the  genius  of  that  age  can  reasonably  doubt  of 
this  prelate's  sincerity.  The  spirit  of  superstition 
was  so  prevalent,  that  it  infallibly  caught  every 
careless  reasoner,  much  more  every  one  whose 
interest,  and  honour,  and  ambition,  were  en- 
gaged to  support  it.  All  the  wretched  literature 
of  the  times  was  inlisted  on  that  side  :  some  faint 
glimmerings  of  common  sense  might  sometimes 
pierce  through  the  thick  cloud  of  ignorance,  or, 
what  was  worse,  the  illusions  of  perverted  science, 
which  had  blotted  out  the  sun,  and  enveloped 
the  face  of  nature  :  but  those  who  preserved  them- 
selves untainted  by  the  general  contagion,  pro- 
ceeded on  no  principles  which  they  could  pretend 
to  justify :  they  were  more  indebted  to  their  total 
want  of  instruction,  than  to  their  knowledge,  if 
they  still  retained  some  share  of  understanding: 
folly  was  possessed  of  all  the  schools  as  well  as 
all  the  churches ;  and  her  votaries  assumed  the 
garb  of  philosophers,  together  with  the  ensigns 
of  spiritual  dignities.  Throughout  that  large 
collection  of  letters  which  bears  the  name  of 
St.  Thomas,  we  find,  in  all  the  retainers  of  that 

VOL.  II.  F 


66  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1170- 

aspiring  prelate,  no  less  than  in  himself,  a  most 
entire  and  absolute  conviction  of  the  reason  and 
piety  of  their  own  party,  and  a  disdam  of  their 
antagonists  :  nor  is  there  less  cant  and  grimace  in 
their  style,  when  they  address  each  other,  than 
when  they  compose  manifestos  for  the  perusal  ot 
the  pubhc.  The  spirit  of  revenge,  violence,  and 
ambition,  which  accompanied  their  conduct,  in- 
stead of  forming  a  presumption  of  hypocrisy,  are 
the  surest  pledges  of  their  sincere  attachment  to  a 
cause,  which  so  much  flattered  these  domineering 
passions. 

Henry,  on  the  first  report  of  Becket's  violent 
measures,  had  purposed  to  have  him  arrested,  and 
had  already  taken  some  steps  towards  the  execu- 
tion of  that  design :  but  the  inteUigence  of  his 
murder  threw  the  prince  into  great  consternation ; 
and  he  was  immediately  sensible  of  the  dangerous 
consequences  which  he  had  reason  to  apprehend 
from  so  unexpected  an  event.  An  archbishop  of 
reputed  sanctity  assassinated  before  the  altar,  in 
the  exercise  of  his  functions,  and  on  account  of 
his  zeal  in  maintaining  ecclesiastical  privileges, 
must  attain  the  highest  honours  of  martyrdom  ; 
while  his  murderer  would  be  ranked  among  the 
most  bloody  tyrants  that  ever  were  exposed  to  the 
hatred  and  detestation  of  mankind.  Interdicts 
and  excommunications,  weapons  in  themselves  so 
terrible,  would,  he  foresaw,  be  armed  with  double 
force,  when  employed  in  a  cause  so  much  calcu- 
lated to  work  on  the  human  passions,  and  so  pe- 


1170.  HENRY   II.  6f 

culiaily  adapted  to  the  eloquence  of  pojjular 
preachers  and  declainicrs.  In  vain  would  he 
plead  his  own  innocence,  and  even  his  total  igno- 
rance of  the  fact:  ho  was  sufficiently  guilty,  if 
the  church  thought  proper  to  esteem  him  such : 
and  his  concurrence  in  Becket's  martyrdom,  be- 
coming a  religious  opinion,  would  be  received 
with  all  the  implicit  credit  which  belonged  to  the 
most  established  articles  of  faith.  These  consi- 
derations gave  the  king  the  most  unaffected  con- 
cern ;  and  as  it  was  extremely  his  interest  to  clear 
himself  from  all  suspicion,  he  took  no  care  to 
conceal  the  depth  of  his  affliction".  He  shut 
himself  up  from  the  light  of  day,  and  from  all 
commerce  Avith  his  servants :  he  even  refused, 
during  three  days,  all  food  and  sustenance'*':  the 
courtiers,  apprehending  dangerous  effects  from 
his  despair,  were  at  last  obliged  to  break  in  upon 
his  solitude  ;  and  they  employed  every  topic  of 
consolation,  induced  him  to  accept  of  nourish- 
ment, and  occupied  his  leisure  in  taking  precau- 
tions against  the  consequences  which  he  so  justly 
apprehended  from  the  murder  of  the  primate. 


SUBMISSION  OF  THE  KING,    1171. 

The  point  of  chief  importance  to  Henry  was  to 
convince  the  pope  of  his  innocence  ;  or  rather,   to 

"  Ypod.  Neust.  p.  447-     M.  Paris,  p.  87.     Diceto,  p.  556. 
Gen-ascj  p.  141 9.  *  Hist.  Quad.  p.  143. 


§8  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  l]^!. 

persuade  him  that  he  would  reap  greater  advant- 
ages from  the  submissions  of  England,  than  from 
proceeding  to  extremities  against  that  kingdom. 
The  archbishop  of  Rouen,  the  bishops  of  Wor- 
cester and  Evreux,  with  five  persons  of  inferior 
quality,  were  immediately  dispatched  to  Rome% 
and  orders  were  given  them  to  perform  their 
journey  with  the  utmost  expedition.  Though 
the  name  and  authority  of  the  court  of  Rome 
were  so  terrible  in  the  remote  countries  of  Europe 
which  were  sunk  in  profound  ignorance,  and 
were  entirely  unacquainted  with  its  character  and 
conduct ;  the  pope  was  so  little  revered  at  home, 
that  his  inveterate  enemies  surrounded  the  gates 
of  Rome  itself,  and  even  controlled  his  govern- 
ment in  that  city  ;  and  the  ambassadors  who,  from 
a  distant  extremity  of  Europe,  carried  to  him  the 
humble  or  rather  abject  submissions  of  the  greatest 
potentate  of  the  age,  found  the  utmost  difficulty 
to  make  their  way  to  him,  and  to  throw  them- 
selves at  his  feet.  It  was  at  length  agreed  that 
Richard  Barre,  one  of  their  number,  should  leave 
the  rest  behind,  and  run  all  the  hazards  of  the 
passage'',  in  order  to  prevent  the  fatal  conse- 
quences which  might  ensue  from  any  delay  in 
giving  satisfaction  to  his  holiness.  He  found,  on 
his  arrival,  that  Alexander  was  already  wrought 
up  to  the  greatest  rage  against  the  king ;  that 
Becket's  partisans  were  daily  stimulating  him  to 

"  Hoveden,  p.  526.     M.  Paris,  p.  87. 
'''Hoveden,  p.  526.    Epist.  St.  Thoiu.  p.  863. 


ll/I.  HENRY   IL  ei 

revenge;  that  the  king  of  France  had  exhorted 
him  to  fulminate  the  most  dreadful  sentence 
against  England,  and  that  the  very  mention  of 
Henry's  name  hefore  the  sacred  college  was  re- 
ceived M'ith  every  expression  of  horror  and  exe- 
cration. The  Thursday  hefore  Easter  was  now 
approaching,  when  it  is  customary  for  the  pope 
to  denounce  annual  curses  against  all  his  enemies; 
and  it  was  expected  that  Henry  should,  with  all 
the  preparations  peculiar  to  the  discharge  of  that 
sacred  artillery,  be  solemnly  comprehended  in 
the  number.  But  Barre  found  means  to  appease 
the  pontiff,  and  to  deter  him  from  a  measure 
which,  if  it  failed  of  success,  could  not  after- 
wards be  easily  recalled  :  the  anathemas  were  only 
levelled  in  general  against  all  the  actors,  ac- 
complices, and  abettors  of  Becket's  murder.  The 
abbot  of  Valasse,  and  the  archdeacons  of  Salis- 
bury and  Lisieux,  with  others  of  Henry's  mi- 
nisters, who  soon  after  arrived,  besides  asserting 
their  pjince's  innocence,  made  oath  before  the 
whole  consistory,  that  lie  would  stand  to  the 
pope's  judgment  in  the  affair,  and  make  every 
submission  that  should  be  required  of  him.  The 
terrible  blow  was  thus  artfully  eluded  ;  the  car- 
dinals Albert  and  Theodin  were  appointed  legates 
to  examine  the  cause,  and  were  ordered  to  pro- 
ceed to  Normandy  for  that  purpose  ;  and  though 
Henry's  foreign  dominions  were  already  laid 
under  an  interdict  by  the  archbishop  of  Sens, 
Becket's  great  partisan,  and  the  pope's  legate  in 


?0  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  I171. 

France,  the  general  expectation,  that  the  mo- 
narch would  easily  exculpate  himself  from  any- 
con  currence  in  the  guilt,  kept  every  one  in  sus- 
pense, and  prevented  all  the  bad  consequences 
wllich  might  be  dreaded  from  that  sentence. 

The  clergy,  meanwhile,  though  their  rage  was 
happily  diverted  from  falling  on  the  king,   were 
not  idle  in  magnifying  the  sanctity  of  Becket ;  in 
extolling  the  merits  of  his  martyrdom  ;  and  in  ex- 
alting him  above  all  that  devoted  tribe   who  in 
several  ages  had,  by  their  blood,   cemented  the 
fabric   of  the   temple.      Other   saints  had   only 
borne  testimony  by  their  sufferings  to  the  general 
doctrines  of  Christianity  ;  but  Becket  had  sacri- 
ficed his  life  to  the  power  and  privileges  of  the 
clergy ;  and  this  peculiar  merit  challenged,   and 
not  in  vain,   a  suitable  acknowledgment  to  his 
memory.     Endless  were  the  panegyrics  on  his 
virtues  ;  and  the  miracles  wrought  by  his  reliques 
were  more  numerous,  more  nonsensical,  and  more 
impudently  attested,  than  those  which  ever  filled 
the  legend   of  any   confessor   or  martyr.     Two 
years  after  his  death  he  was  canonized   by  pope 
Alexander;  a  solemn  jubilee  was  established  for 
celebrating  his  merits ;  his  body  was  removed  to 
a  magnificent  shrine,   enriched  with  presents  from 
all  parts  of  Christendom ;  pilgrimages  m  ere  per- 
formed to  obtain  his  intercession  with  heaven  ; 
and  it  was  computed,   that  in  one  year  above  a 
hundred  thousand  pilgrims  arrived  in  Canterbury, 
and  paid  their  devotions  at  his  tomb.      It  is  indeed 


11/1.  HENRY    II.  n 

a  mortifying  reflection  to  those  who  are  actuated 
by  the  love  of  fame,  so  justly  denominated  the 
last  infirmity  of  noble  minds,  that  the  wisest  le- 
gislator, and  most  exalted  genius  that  ever  re- 
formed or  enlightened  the  world,  can  never  ex- 
pect such  tributes  of  praise  as  are  lavished  on  the 
memory  of  pretended  saints,  Nvhose  mIioIc  conduct 
was  probably  to  the  last  degree  odious  or  con- 
temptible, and  whose  industry  Avas  entirely  di- 
rected to  the  pursuit  of  objects  pernicious  to  man- 
kind. It  is  only  a  conqueror,  a  personage  no  less 
entitled  to  our  hatred,  who  can  pretend  to  the 
attainment  of  equal  renown  and  gloiy. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  remark,  before  we  con- 
clude the  subject  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  that  the 
king,  during  his  controversy  with  tbat  prelate, 
was  on  every  occasion  more  anxious  than  usual  to 
express  his  zeal  for  religion,  and  to  avoid  all  ap- 
pearance of  a  profane  negligence  on  that  head. 
He  gave  his  consent  to  the  imposing  of  a  tax  on 
all  his  dominions  for  the  delivery  of  the  Holy 
Land,  now  threatened  by  the  famous  Saladine  : 
this  tax  amounted  to  two-pence  a  pound  for  one 
year,  and  a  penny  a  pound  for  the  four  subse- 
quent ^  Almost  all  the  princes  of  Europe  laid  a 
like  imposition  on  their  subjects,  which  received 
the  name  of  Saladine's  tax.  During  this  period, 
there  came  over  from  Germany  about  thirty  here- 
tics of  both  sexes,  under  the  direction  of  one  Ge- 
rard ;  simple  ignorant  people,   Avho  could  give  no 

^  Chron.  Gervasc,  p.  1399.     M.  Paris,  p.  74. 


72  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  II71. 

account  of  their  faith,  but  declared  themselves 
ready  to  suffer  for  the   tenets  of  their  master. 
They  made  only  one  convert  in  England,  a  wo- 
man as  ignorant   as  themselves;  yet  they  gave 
such  umbrage  to  the  clergy,   that  they  were  de- 
livered over  to  the  secular  arm,  and  were  punished 
by  being  burned  on  the  forehead,  and  then  whip- 
ped through  the  streets.     They  seemed  to  exult 
in  their  sufferings,   and  as  they  went  along,  sung 
the  beatitude,  Blessed  are  ye,  xohen  men  hate  you 
and  persecute  you  ^      After  they  were   whipped, 
th  y  were  thrust  out  almost  naked  in  the  midst 
of  winter,   and  perished  through   cold  and  hun- 
ger;  no  one  daring  or  being  willing  to  give  them 
the  least  relief     We  are  ignorant  of  the  particular 
tenets  of  these  people  :  for  it  would  be  imprudent 
to  rely  on  the  representations  left  of  them  by  the 
clergy,  who  afhrm  that  they  denied  the  efficacy 
of  the  sacraments,   and  the  unity  of  the  church. 
It  is  probable  that  their  departure  from  the  stand- 
ard of  orthodoxy  was  still  more  subtle  and  mi- 
nute.    They  seem  to  have  been  the  first  that  ever 
suffered  for  heresy  in  England. 

As  soon  as  Henry  found  that  he  was  in  no  im- 
mediate danger  from  the  thunders  of  the  Vatican, 
he  vmdertook  an  expedition  against  Ireland ;  a 
design  which  he  had  long  projected,  and  by 
which  he  hoped  to  recover  his  credit,  some- 
what impaired  by  his  late  transactions  with  the 
hierarchy. 

»  Neubr.  p.  39I.    M,  Paris,  p.  74.     Hem<ng.  p.  494. 


1172.  HENRY    II.  73 


CHAPTER    IX. 

State  of  Ireland  ....  Conquest  of  that  Island  ....  Tlie  king's 
accommodation  with  the  court  of  Rome  ....  Revolt  of  young 
Henry  and  his  brothers  .  .  .  .Wars  and  insurrections ....  War 
with  Scotland  ....  Penance  of  Henry  for  Becket's  murder .... 
William  king  of  Scotland  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  ....  The 
king's  accommodation  witli  his  sons  ....  The  king's  equitable 
administration  ....  Crusades  ....  Revolt  of  prince  Richard. . . . 
Death  and  character  of  Henry  ....  Miscellaneous  transactions 
of  his  reign. 

STATE  OF  IRELAND.     l]7i>. 

As  Britain  was  first  peopled  from  Gaul,  so  M'as 
Ireland  probably  from  Britain;  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  all  these  countries  seem  to  have  been  so 
many  tribes  of  the  Celta?,  who  derive  their  origin 
from  an  antiquity  that  lies  far  beyond  the  records 
of  any  history  or  tradition.  The  Irish  from  the 
beginning  of  time  had  been  buried  in  the  most 
profound  barbarism  and  ignorance  ;  and  as  they 
were  never  conquered,  or  even  invaded,  b}^  the 
Romans,  from  Mhom  all  the  western  world  de- 
rived its  civility,  they  continued  still  in  the  most 
rude  state  of  society,  and  were  distinguished  by 
those  vices  alone  to  Avhich  human  nature,  not 
taPK'd  by  education,  or  restrained  by  laws,  is  for 
ever  subject.     Tlie  small  principalities  into  which 


74  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1173. 

they  were  divided,  exercised  perpetual  rapine  and 
violence  against  each  other ;  the  uncertain  suc- 
cession of  their  princes  was  a  continual  source 
of  domestic  convulsions  ;  the  usual  title  of  each 
petty  sovereign  was  tlie  murderer  of  his  prede- 
cessor; courage  and  force,  though  exercised  in 
the  commission  of  crimes,  were  more  honoured 
than  any  pacific  virtues  ;  and  the  most  simple  arts 
of  life,  even  tillage  and  agriculture,  were  almost 
wholly  unknown  among  them.  They  had  felt  the 
invasions  of  the  Danes  and  the  other  northern 
tribes ;  but  these  inroads,  which  had  spread  bar- 
barism in  other  parts  of  Europe,  tended  rather  to 
improve  the  Irish ;  and  the  only  towns  which 
were  to  be  found  in  the  island,  had  been  planted 
along  the  coast  by  the  freebooters  of  Norway  and 
Denmark.  The  other  inhabitants  exercised  past- 
urage in  the  open  country ;  sought  protection 
from  any  danger  in  their  forests  and  morasses ; 
and  being  divided  by  the  fiercest  animosities 
against  each  other,  were  still  more  intent  on  the 
laieans  of  mutual  injury,  than  on  the  expedients 
for  common  or  even  for  private  interest. 

Besides  many  small  tribes,  there  were  in  the 
age  of  Henry  II.  five  principal  sovereignties  in 
the  island,  Munster,  Leinster,  Meath,  Ulster,  and 
Connaught ;  and  as  it  had  been  usual  for  the  one 
or  the  other  of  these  to  take  the  lead  in  their 
wars,  there  was  commonly  some  prince,  who 
seemed,  for  the  time,  to  act  as  monarch  of  Ireland. 
Roderic  O'Connor,  king  of  Connaught,  was  then 


1172.  HENRY    II.  75 

advanced  to  this  dignity  ^;  but  his  government, 
ill  obeyed  even  within  his  own  territory,  could 
not  unite  the  people  in  any  measures  either  for 
the  establishment  of  order,  or  for  defence  against 
foreigners.     The  amljition  of  Henry  had,    very 
early  in  his  reign,  been  moved  by  the  prospect 
of  these  advantages,  to  attempt  the  subjecting  of 
Ireland ;  and  a  pretence  was  only  wanting  to  in- 
vade a  people  who,  being  always  confined  to  their 
own  island,  had  never  given  any  reason  of  com- 
plaint to  any  of  their  neighbours.     For  this  pur- 
pose, he  had  recourse  to  Rome,  which  assumed  a 
right  to  dispose  of  kingdoms  and  empires;  and 
not  foreseeing  the  dangerous  disputes,  which  he 
was  one  day  to  maintain  with  that  see,  he  helped, 
for  present,  or  rather  for  an  imaginary  conveni- 
ence, to  give  sanction  to  claims  which  weie  now 
become  dangerous  to  all  sovereigns.     Adrian  III, 
who  then  filled  the  papal  chair,  was  by  birth  an 
Englishman  ;    and    being   on   that   account   the 
more  disposed  to  oblige  Henry,  he  was  easily  per- 
suaded to  act  as  master  of  the  world,  and  to  make, 
without  any  hazard  or  expence,  the  acquisition 
of  a  great  island  to  his  spiritual  jurisdiction.  The 
Irish  had,  by  precedent  missions  from  the  Britons, 
been  imperfectly  converted  to  Christianity  ;  and, 
what  the  pope   regarded  as  the  surest  mark   of 
their   imperfect   conversion,    they    followed    the 
doctrines  of  their  first  teachers,  and  had  never 

^  Hovedeiij  p.  527. 


/5  filSTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  II72. 

acknowledged  any  subjection  to  the  see  of  Rome. 
Adrian,  therefore,  in  the  year  1156,  issued  a  bull 
in  favour  of  Henry;  in  which,  after  premising 
that  this  prince  had  ever  shewn  an  anxious  care 
to  enlarge  the  church  of  God  on  earth,  and  to 
increase  the  number  of  his  saints  and  elect  in 
heaven ;    he   represents   his  design  of  subduing 
Ireland  as  derived  from  the  same  pious  motives : 
he  considers  his  care  of  previously  applying  for 
the  apostolic  sanction  as  a  sure  earnest  of  success 
and  victory  ;  and  having  established  it  as  a  point 
incontestable,    that   all   christian  kingdoms    be- 
long to  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  he  acknow- 
ledges it  to  be  his  own  duty  to  sow  among  them 
the  seeds  of  the  gospel,  which  might  in  the  last 
day  fructify  to  their  eternal  salvation:  he  exhorts 
the  king  to  invade  Ireland,  in  order  to  extirpate 
the  vice  and  wickedness  of  the  natives,  and  oblige 
them  to  pay  yearly,  from  every  house,  a  penny  to 
the  see  of  Rome :  he  gives  him  entire  right  and 
authority  over  the  island,  commands  all  the  in- 
habitants to   obey  him  as   their  sovereign,    and 
invests  with  full  power  all  such  godly  instruments 
as  he  should  think  proper  to  employ  in  an  enter- 
prise thus  calculated  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
salvation  of  the  souls  of  men^     Henry,  though 
armed  with  this  authority,  did  not  immediately 
put  his  design  in  execution  ;  but  being  detained 

*^M.  Paris,  p.  67.  Girald.  Cambr.  Spelm.  Concil.  vol.  ii.  p.  51. 
Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  15. 


J 1 72.  HENRY   II.  77 

by  more  interesting  business  on  the  continent, 
waited  for  a  favourable  opportunity  of  invading 
Ireland. 

Dermot  Macmorrogh,  king  of  Leinster,  had, 
by  his  licentious  tyranny,  rendered  himself  odious 
to  his  subjects,  who  seized  with  alacrity  ihe  first 
occasion  that  offered  of  throwing  off  the  yoke, 
which  was  become  grievous  and  oppressive  to 
them.  This  prince  had  formed  a  design  on 
Dov^rgilda,  Avife  of  Ororic  prince  of  Breffny  ; 
and  taking  advantage  of  her  husband's  absence, 
who,  being  obliged  to  visit  a  distant  part  of  his 
territory,  had  left  his  wife  secure,  as  he  thought, 
in  an  island  surrounded  by  a  bog  ;  he  suddenly 
invaded  the  place  and  carried  off  the  princess**. 
This  exploit,  though  usual  among  the  Irish,  and 
rather  deemed  a  ])roof  of  gallantry  and  spirit*, 
provoked  the  resentment  of  the  husband  ;  who, 
having  collected  forces,  and  being  strengthened 
by  the  alliance  of  Roderic  king  of  Connaught, 
invaded  the  dominions  of  Dermot,  and  expelled 
him  his  kingdom.  The  exiled  prince  had  recourse 
to  Plenry,  who  Mas  at  this  time  in  Guienne,  craved 
his  assistance  in  restoring  him  to  his  sovereignty, 
and  oflf^ered,  on  that  event,  to  hold  his  kingdom  in 
vassalage  under  the  crown  of  England.  Henry, 
whose  views  were  already  turned  towards  making 
acquisitions  in  Ireland,  readily  accepted  the  offer-; 
but  being  at  that  time  embarrassed  by  the  re- 

'Girald.  Cambr.  p.  7^0.  'Spencer,  vol.  vi. 


J?8  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1172. 

bellions  of  his  French  subjects,  as  well  as  by  his 
disputes  M'ith  the  see  of  Rome,  he  clechned  for  the 
present  embarking  in  the  enterprise,  and  gave 
Dermot  no  farther  assistance  than  letters  patent, 
by  which  he  empowered  ail  his  subjects  to  aid 
the  Irish  prince  in  the  recovery  of  his  dominions  ^ 
Dermot,  supported  by  his  authoiity,  came  to 
Bristol ;  and  after  endeavouring,  though  for  some 
time  in  vain,  to  engage  adventurers  in  the  enter- 
prise, he  at  last  formed  a  treaty  with  Richard, 
surnamed  Strongbow,  earl  of  Strigul.  This  noble- 
man, who  was  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Clare, 
had  impaired  his  fortune  by  expensive  pleasures  ; 
and  being  ready  for  any  desperate  undertaking, 
he  promised  assistance  to  Dermot,  on  condition 
that  he  should  espouse  Eva  daughter  of  that 
prince,  and  be  declared  heir  to  all  his  domini- 
ons^. While  Richard  was  assembling  his  succours, 
Dermot  went  into  Wales  ;  and  meeting  with 
Robert  Fitz-Stephens,  constable  of  Abertivi,  and 
Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  he  also  engaged  them  in 
his  service,  and  obtained  their  promise  of  invading 
Ireland.  Being  now  assured  of  succour,  he  re- 
turned privately  to  his  own  state;  and  lurking  in 
the  monastery  of  Fernez,  which  he  had  founded 
(for  this  ruffian  was  also  a  founder  of  monasteries), 
he  prepared  every  thing  for  the  reception  of  his 
Eno-lish  allies''. 

^Glrald.  Camb.  p.  760.        « Ibid.  p.  76! .         '' Ibid.  p.  76I. 


11/2.  HENRY    II.  79 


CONQUEST  OF  THAT  ISLAND.     1172. 

The  troops   of   Fitz-Stephens   were    first  ready. 
That    gentleman   landed   in   Ireland   M'ith   thirty 
knights,  sixty  esijiiires,  and  tlnee  hundred  archers: 
but  this  small  body,  being  brave  men,  not  unac- 
quainted with  discipline,  and  completely  armed, 
a  thing  almost  unknown  in  Ireland,  struck  a  great 
terror  into  the  barbarous  inhabitants,  and  seemed 
to  menace    them    with   some    signal   revolution. 
The  conjunction  of  Maurice  de  Pendergast,  who, 
about  the  same  time,  brought  over  ten  knights 
and  sixty  archers,   enabled  Fitz-Stephens   to  at- 
tempt the  siege  of  Wexford,  a  town  inhabited  by 
the  Danes;  and  after  gaining  an  adv^antagc,  h» 
made  himself  master  of  the  place'.   Soon  after,  Fitz- 
Gerald  arrived  with  ten  knights,  thirty  esquires, 
and  a  hundred  archers'^;  and  being  joined  by  the 
former  adventurers,  composed  a  force  which  no- 
thing in  Ireland  was  able  to  withstand.     Roderic, 
the  chief  monarch  of  the  island,   was  foiled   in 
different    actions ;    the    prince    of    Ossory    Aras 
obliged  to  submit,  and  give  hostages  for  his  peace- 
able behaviour ;    and  Dermot,   not  content  Mith 
being  restored  to  his  kingdom  of  Leinster,  pro- 
jected the  dethroning  of  Roderic,   and  aspired  to 
the  sole  dominion  over  the  Irish. 

In  prosecution  of  these  views,  he  sent  over  a 

*  Girald.  Cambr.  p.  r6 1 ,  ;62.  ^  Ibid.  p.  76Q 


.80  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1172. 

messenger  to  the  earl  of  Strigul,  challenging  the 
performance  of  his  promise,  and  displaying  the 
mighty  advantages  Mhich  might  now  be  reaped 
by  a  reinforcement  of  warlike  troops  from  Eng- 
land. Richard,  not  satisfied  with  the  general 
allowance  given  by  Henry  to  all  his  subjects, 
went  to  that  prince,  then  in  Normandy ;  and 
having  obtained  a  cold  or  ambiguous  permission, 
prepared  himself  for  the  execution  of  his  designs. 
He  first  sent  over  Raymond,  one  of  his  retinue, 
with  ten  knights  and  seventy  archers,  who,  land- 
ing near  Waterford,  defeated  a  body  of  three 
thousand  Irish  that  had  ventured  to  attack  him'; 
and  as  Richard  himself,  who  brought  over  two 
hundred  horse,  and  a  body  of  archers,  joined,  a 
few  days  after,  the  victorious  Englisli,  they  made 
themselves  masters  of  Waterford,  and  proceeded 
to  Dublin,  which  was  taken  by  assault.  Roderic, 
in  revenge,  cut  off  the  head  of  Dermot's  natural 
son,  who  had  been  left  as  a  hostage  in  his  hands  ; 
and  Richard,  marrying  Eva,  became  soon  after, 
by  the  death  of  Dermot,  master  of  the  kingdom 
of  Leinster,  and  prepared  to  extend  his  authority 
qver  all  Ireland.  Roderic  and  the  other  Irish 
princes  were  alarmed  at  the  danger ;  and  combin- 
ing together,  besieged  Dublin  with  an  army  of 
thirty  thousand  men :  but  earl  Richard,  making 
a  sudden  sally  at  the  head  of  ninety  knights, 
with  their  followers,  put  this  numerous  army  to 

'Girald.  Cambr.  p.  70?. 


li;2.  HENRY    ir.  81 

rout,  cliasod  them  off  the  field,  and  pursued  them 
with  s:i'eat  slau"htcr.  None  in  Ireland  now  dared 
to  oppose  themselves  to  the  English '". 

Henry,  jealous  of  the  progress  made  by  his 
own  subjects,  sent  orders  to  recal  all  the  English, 
and  he  made  preparations  to  attack  Ireland  in 
person":  but  Richard,  and  the  other  adventurers, 
found  means  to  appease  him,  by  making  him  the 
most  humble  submissions,  and  offering  to  hold 
all  their  acquisitions  in  vassalage  to  his  crown  ^ 
That  monarch  landed  in  Ireland  at  the  head  of 
five  hundred  knights,  besides  other  soldiers  :  he 
found  the  Irish  so  dispirited  by  their  late  mis- 
fortunes, that,  in  a  progress  which  he  made 
through  the  island,  he  had  no  other  occupation 
than  to  receive  the  homage  of  his  new  subjects. 
He  left  most  of  the  Irish  chieftains  or  princes  in 
possession  of  their  ancient  territories ;  bestowed 
some  lands  on  the  English  adventurers ;  gave 
earl  Richard  the  commission  of  seneschal  of  Ire- 
land ;  and  after  a  stay  of  a  few  months,  returned 
in  triumph  to  England.  By  these  trivial  exploits, 
scarcely  worth  relating,  except  for  the  import- 
ance of  the  consequences,  was  Ireland  subdued, 
and  annexed  to  the  English  crown. 

The  low  state  of  commerce  and  industry  during 
those  ages  made  it  impracticable  for  princes  to 
support  regular  armies,  M'hich  might  retain  a  con- 
quered country  in  subjection ;  and  the  extreme 

"  Girald.  Cambr,  p.  773.  " Ibid.  p.  770.          •Ibid.  p.  775. 

VOL.  ir.  « 


82  HISTOPxY    OF    ENGLAND.  I172. 

barbarism  and  poverty  of  Ireland  could  still  less 
afford  means  of  bearing  the  expence.  The  only 
expedient,  by  which  a  durable  conquest  could 
then  be  made  or  maiutained,  was  by  pouring  in  a 
multitude  of  new  inhabitants,  dividing  among 
them  the  lands  of  th.e  vanquished,  establishing 
them  in  all  offices  of  trust  and  authority,  and 
thereby  transforming  the  ancient  inhabitants  into 
a  new  people.  By  this  policy,  the  northern  in- 
vaders of  old,  and  of  late  the  duke  of  Normandy, 
had  been  able  to  fix  their  dominion,  and  to  erect 
kingdoms,  which  remained  stable  on  their  found- 
ations, and  were  transmitted  to  the  posterity  of  the 
first  conquerors.  But  the  state  of  Ireland  rendered 
that  island  so  little  inviting  to  the  English,  that 
only  a  few  of  desperate  fortunes  could  be  per- 
suaded, from  time  to  time,  to  transport  themselves 
thither P;  and  instead  of  reclaiming  the  natives 
from  their  uncultivated  manners,  they  were  gra- 
dually assimilated  to  the  ancient  inhabitants,  and 
degenerated  from  the  customs  of  their  own  nation. 
It  was  also  found  requisite  to  bestow  great  military 
and  arbitrary  powers  on  the  leaders,  who  com- 
manded a  handful  of  men  amidst  such  hostile 
multitudes;  and  law  and  equity,  in  a  little  time, 
became  as  much  unknown  in  the  English  settle- 
ments, as  they  had  ever  been  among  the  Irish 
tribes.  Palatinates  were  erected  in  favour  of  the 
new  adventurers;  independent  authority  conferred; 
the  natives,  never  fully  subdued,  still  retained  their 
"Brompton^  p.  1069.    Neubrig.  p.  403. 


1172.  HENRY    11.  8d 

animosity  against  tlie  conquerors;  tlieir  hatred 
was  retaliated  by  like  injuries  ;  and  from  these 
causes,  the  Irish,  during  the  course  of  four  cen- 
turies, remained  still  savage  and  untractable :  it 
Avas  not  till  the  latter  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
that  the  island  was  fully  subdued  ;  nor  till  that  of 
her  successor,  that  it  gave  hopes  of  becoming  a 
useful  concjuest  of  the  English  nation. 


THE   KING'S    ACCOMMODATION   WITH 
THE  COURT  OE  ROME. 

Besides  that  the  easy  and  peaceable  submission 
of  tlie  Irish  left  Henry  no  farther  occupation  in 
that  island,  he  was  recalled  from  it  by  another 
incident,  which  was  of  the  last  importance  to  his 
interest  and  safety.  The  two  legates  Albert  and 
Theodin,  to  whom  was  committed  the  trial  of  his 
conduct  in  the  murder  of  archbishop  Becket,  were 
arrived  in  Normandy ;  and  being  impatient  of 
delay,  sent  him  frequent  letters,  full  of  menaces, 
if  he  protracted  any  longer  making  his  appearance 
before  them''.  He  hastened  therefore  to  Nor- 
mandy, and  had  a  conference  with  them  at  Sa- 
vigny,  where  their  demands  were  so  exorbitant, 
that  he  broke  off  the  negotiation,  threatened  to 
return  to  Ireland,  and  bade  them  do  their  worst 
against  him.  They  perceived  that  the  season  was 
now  past  for  taking  advantage  of  that  tragical 
'  Girald.  Caiob  ,  p.  778. 
S 


84  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1172. 

incident ;  which,  had  it  been  hotly  pursued  by 
interdicts  and  excommunications,  was  capable  of 
throwing  the   whole  kingdom   into  combustion. 
But  the  time  which  Henry  had  happily  gained  had 
contributed  to  appease  the  minds  of  men :  the 
event  could  not  now  have  the  same  influence  as 
when  it  was  recent ;  and  as  the  clergy  every  day 
looked  for  an  accommodation  with  the  king,  they 
had  not  opposed  the  pretensions  of  his  partisans, 
who  had  been  very  industrious  in  representing  to 
the    people  his  entire  innocence  in  the   murder 
of  the  primate,   and  his  ignorance  of  the  designs 
formed  by  the  assassins.     The  legates,   therefore, 
found  themselves  obliged  to  lower   their  terms ; 
and  Henry  was  so  fortunate  as  to  conclude  au 
accommodation  with  them.     He   declared  upon 
oath,  before  the  reliques  of  the  saints,   that,  so 
far  from  commanding  or  desiring  the  death  of  the 
archbishop,  he   was  extremely  grieved  when  he 
received  intelligence  of  it:   but  as  the  passion, 
which  he  had  expressed  on  account  of  that  pre- 
late's conduct,  had  probably  been  the  occasion  of 
his  murder,  he   stipulated  the  following  condi- 
tions, as  an  atonement  for  the  oifence.     He  pro- 
mised, that  he  should  pardon  all  such  as  had  been 
banished  for  adhering  to  Becket,  and  should  restore 
them  to  their  livings ;  that  the  see  of  Canterbury 
should  be  reinstated  in  all  its  ancient  possessions ; 
that  he  should  pay  the  templars  a  sum  of  money 
for  the  subsistence  of  two  hundred  knights  during 
a  year  in  the  Holy  Land;  that  he  should  himse.lf 


n;2.  HENRY    II.  85 

take  the  cross  at  the  Christmas  following,  and,  if 
tlie  pope  required  it,  serve  three  years  against  the 
infidels  either  in  Spain  or  Palestine  ;  that  he  should 
not  insist  on  the  ohservance  of  such  customs,  de- 
rogatory to  ecclesiastical  privileges,  as  had  been 
introduced  in  his  own  time  ;  and  that  he  should 
not  obstruct  appeals  to  the  pope  in  ecclesiastical 
causes,  but  should  content  himself  with  exacting 
sufficient  security  from  such  clergymen  as  left 
his  dominions  to  prosecute  an  appeal,  that  they 
should  attempt  nothing  against  the  rights  of  his 
crown  ^  Upon  signing  these  concessions,  Henry 
received  absolution  from  the  legates,  and  was 
confirmed  in  the  grant  of  Ireland  made  by  pope 
Adrian";  and  nothing  proves  more  strongly  the 
great  abilities  of  this  monarch,  than  his  extricating 
himself  on  such  easy  terms,  from  so  difficult  a 
situation.  He  had  always  insisted,  that  the  laws 
established  at  Clarendon  contained  not  any  new 
claims,  but  the  ancient  customs  of  the  kingdom; 
and  he  was  still  at  liberty,  notwithstanding  the 
articles  of  this  agreement,  to  maintain  his  pre- 
tensions. Appeals  to  the  pope  were  indeed  per- 
mitted by  that  treaty ;  but  as  the  king  was  also 
permitted  to  exact  reasonable  securities  from  the 
parties,  and  might  stretch  his  demands  on  this 
head  as  far  as  he  pleased,  he  had  it  virtually  in  his 
power  to  prevent  the  pope  from  reaping  any  ad- 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  88.     Benedict.  Abb.  p.  34.     Hoveden,  p.  539. 
Diceto,  p.  060.     Chron.  Gerv.  p,  1422. 

'  Bromptoiij  p.  10/1.     Liber  Nig.  Scac.  p.  4", 


86  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1172. 

vantage  by  this  seeming  concession.  And  on  the 
whole,  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon  remained 
still  the  law  of  the  realm  :  though  the  pope  and 
his  legates  seem  so  little  to  have  conceived  the 
king's  power  to  lie  under  any  legal  limitations, 
that  they  were  satisfied  with  his  departing,  by 
treaty,  from  one  of  the  most  momentous  articles 
of  these  constitutions,  without  requiring  any  re- 
peal by  the  states  of  the  kingdom. 

Henry,  freed  from  this  dangerous  controversy 
with  the  ecclesiastics,  and  with  the  see  of  Rome, 
seemed  now  to  have  reached  the  pinnacle  of  hu- 
man grandeur  and  felicity,  and  to  be  equally 
happy  in  his  domestic  situation  and  in  his  political 
government.  A  numerous  progeny  of  sons  and 
daughters  gave  both  lustre  and  authority  to  his 
crown,  prevented  the  dangers  of  a  disputed 
succession,  and  repressed  all  pretensions  of  the 
ambitious  barons.  The  king's  precaution  also,  in 
establishing  the  several  branches  of  his  family, 
seemed  well  calculated  to  prevent  all  jealousy 
among  the  brothers,  and  to  perpetuate  the  great- 
ness of  his  family.  He  had  appointed  Henr^^,  his 
eldest  son,  to  be  his  successor  in  the  kingdom  of 
England,  the  duchy  of  Normandy,  and  the  coun- 
ties of  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine ;  territories 
which  lay  contiguous,  and  which,  by  that  means, 
might  easily  lend  to  each  other  mutual  assistance 
both  against  intestine  commotions  and  foreign 
invasions.  Richard,  his  second  son,  was  invested 
in  the  dutchy  of  Guienne  and  county  of  Poictou  ; 


li;2.  HENRY    ir.  8> 

Geoftrey,  his  third  sou,  inherited,  in  riglit  of  liis 
Avife,  the  diitchy  of  Biitanny;  and  the  new^  con- 
quest of  Irchmd  was  destined  for  the  appanage  of 
John,  his  fourth  son.  lie  liad  also  negotiated,  in 
favour  of  tliis  hist  prince,  a  marriage  witli  Ade- 
hiis,  the  only  daughter  of  IJnuihert  count  of  Sa- 
voy and  Maurienne  ;  and  was  to  receive  as  her 
do  May  considerable  demesnes  in  Piedmont,  Savoy, 
Bresse,  andDauphiny^  Ikit  this  exaltation  of 
his  family  excited  the  jealous}^  of  all  his  neigh- 
bours. Mho  made  those  \ery  sons,  M'liose  fortunes 
he  had  so  anxiously  estahlisiied,  the  means  of 
embittering  his  future  life,  and  disturbing  his 
government. 

Young  Henry,  M'ho  Avas  rising  to  man's  estate, 
began  to  display  his  character,  and  aspire  to  in- 
dependence :  brave,  ambitious,  liberal,  muni- 
ficent, affable ;  he  discovered  (jualities  M'hicli 
gave  great  lustre  to  youth  ;  prognosticate  a  shin- 
ing fortune;  but,  unless  tempered  in  mature  age 
with  discretion,  are  the  forerunner  of  the  greatest 
calamities".  It  is  said,  that  at  the  time  M'hen 
this  prince  received  the  royal  unction,  his  father, 
in  order  to  give  greater  dignity  to  the  ceremony, 
officiated  at  table  as  one  of  the  retinue ;  and 
observed  to  his  son,  that  never  king  Mas  more 
royally  servetl.  It  is  nothing  e.vtraordinari/,  said 
young  Henry  to  one  of  his  courtiers,  if  the  son  oj 

'  Ypod.  Neust.  p.  448.    Bened.  Abb.  p.38.    Hoveden,p.  502, 
Diceto,  p.  5()?.     Brompton,  p.  1081.     Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  33, 
"  Chron.  Gerv.  p.  1403, 


88  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1173. 

a  count  should  serve  the  son  of  a  king.  This  saying, 
which  might  pass  only  for  an  innocent  pleasantry, 
or  even  for  an  oblique  compliment  to  his  father, 
was  however  regarded  as  a  symptom  of  his  aspir- 
ing temper ;  and  his  conduct  soon  after  justified 
the  conjecture. 

REVOLT   OF  YOUNG   HENRY   AND  HIS 
BROTHERS.     1173. 

Henry,  agreeably  to  the  promise  which  he 
had  given  both  to  the  pope  and  French  king,  per- 
mitted Tiis  son  to  be  cro\vned  anew  by  the  hands 
of  the  archbishop  of  Roiien,  and  associated  the 
princess  Margaret,  spouse  to  young  Henry,  in 
the  ceremony  \  He  afterwards  allowed  him  to 
pay  a  visit  to  his  father-in-law  at  Paris,  who  took 
the  opportunity  of  instilling  into  the  young  prince 
those  ambitious  sentiments  to  which  he  was  na- 
turally but  too  nmch  inclined  y.  Though  it  had 
been  the  constant  practice  of  France,  ever  since 
the  accession  of  the  Capetian  line,  to  crown  the 
son  during  the  lifetime  of  the  father,  without 
conferring  on  him  any  present  participation  of 
royalty  ;  Lewis  persuaded  his  son-in-law,  that,  by 

"Hoveden^  p.  529.  Diceto,  p.  560.  Brompton,  p/l080. 
Chron.  Gervas.  p.  1421.  Trivet,  p,  58.  It  appears  from  Ma- 
dox's  History  of  the  Exchequer,  that  silk  garments  were  then 
known  in  England,  and  that  the  coronation  robes  of  the  young 
king  and  queen  cost  eighty-seven  pounds  ten  shillings  and  four- 
pence,  money  of  that  age.  ='  Girald.  Cambr.  p.  782. 


li;3.  HENRY    II.  89 

this  ceremony,  which  in  those  ages  was  deemed  so 
important,  he  liad  acquired  a  title  to  sovereignty, 
and  that  the  king  could  not,  without  injustice, 
exclude  him  from  immediate  possession  of  the 
whole,  or  at  least  a  part  of  his  dominions.  In 
consequence  of  these  extravagant  ideas,  young 
Henry,  on  his  return,  desired  the  king  to  resign 
to  him  either  the  crown  of  England,  or  the  dutchy 
of  Normandy  ;  discovered  great  discontent  on  the 
refusal ;  spake  in  the  most  undutiful  terms  of  his 
father ;  and  soon  after,  in  concert  with  Lewis, 
made  his  escape  to  Paris,  where  he  was  protected 
and  supportetl  by  that  monarch. 

While  Henry  was  alarmed  at  this  incident,  and 
had  the  prospect  of  dangerous  intrigues,  or  even 
of  a  war,  which,  M'hether  successful  or  not;  must 
be  extremely  calamitous  and  disagreeable  to  him, 
he  received  intelligence  of  new  misfortunes, 
which  must  have  affected  him  in  the  most  sensible 
manner.  Queen  Eleanor,  who  had  disgusted  her 
first  husband  by  her  gallantries,  was  no  less  of- 
fensive to  her  second  by  her  jealousy ;  and  after 
this  manner  carried  to  cxtremit}-,  in  the  different 
periods  of  her  life,  every  circumstance  of  female 
weakness.  She  communicated  her  discontents 
against  Henry  to  her  two  younger  sons,  Geoffiey 
and  Richard  ;  persuaded  them  that  they  Avere  also 
entitled  to  present  possession  of  the  territories 
assigned  to  them  ;  engaged  them  to  fly  secretly  to 
the  court  of  France  ;  and  Mas  meditating,  her- 
self, an  escape  to  the  same  court,   and  had  even 


so  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1373. 

put  on  man's  apparel  for  that  purpose ;  when  she 
was  seized  by  orders  from  her  husband,  and 
thrown  into  confinement.  Thus  Europe  saw  with 
astonishment  the  best  and  most  indulgent  of  pa- 
rents at  war  with  his  whole  family ;  three  boys, 
scarcely  arrived  at  the  age  of  puberty,  required  a 
great  monarch,  in  the  full  vigour  of  his  age  and 
height  of  his  reputation,  to  dethrone  himself  in 
their  favour  ;  and  several  princes  not  ashamed  to 
support  them  in  these  unnatural  and  absurd  pre- 
tensions. 

Henry,  reduced  to  this  perilous  and  disagree- 
able situation,  had  recourse  to  the  court  of  Rome: 
though  sensible  of  the  danger  attending  the  in- 
terposition of  ecclesiastical  authority  in  temporal 
disputes,  he  apphed  to  the  pope,  as  his  superior 
lord,  to  excommunicate  his  enemies,  and  by  these 
censures  to  reduce  to  obedience  his  undutiful 
children,  whom  he  found  such  reluctance  to  punish 
by  the  sword  of  the  magistrate  ^  Alexander,  well 
pleased  to  exert  his  power  in  so  justifiable  a  cause, 
issued  the  bulls  required  of  him:  but  it  was  soon 
found,  that  these  spiritual  weapons  had  not  the 
same  force  as  when  employed  in  a  spiritual  con- 
troversy ;  and  that  the  clergy  were  very  negligent 
in  supporting  a  sentence,   which  was  nowise  cal- 

''Epist.  Petri  Bles.  epist.  136.  in  Biblioth.  Patr,  torn.  xxiv. 
p.  1048.  His  words  are,  Vestrcc  jurisdictionis  est  regiivm  Apglice, 
ct  quantum  ad  fevdatorii juris  obligationeni,  lobis  duiitaxat  obnoxiiis 
teneor.  The  same  strange  paper  is  in  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  35.  and 
Trivet,  vol.  i,  p.  62. 


1173.  HENRY    II.  91 

ciliated  to  promote  the  immediate  interests  of 
their  order.  The  king,  after  taking  in  ^•ain  tliis 
humiliating  stej),  was  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
arms,  and  to  enlist  such  auxiliaries,  as  are  the 
usual  resource  of  tyrants,  and  have  seldom  heen 
employed  by  so  wise  and  just  a  monarch. 

The  loose  government  which  prevailed  in  all 
the  states  of  Europe,  the  many  private  wars  car- 
ried on  among  the  neighbouring  nobles,  and  the 
impossibility  of  enforcing  any  general  execution 
of  the  laws,  had  encouraged  a  tribe  of  banditti  to 
disturb  every  where  the  public  peace,  to  infest 
the  highways,  to  pillage  the  open  country,  and  to 
brave  all  the  efforts  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and 
even  the  excommunications  of  the  church,  which 
were  fulminated  against  them^  Troops  of  them 
were  sometimes  enlisted  in  the  service  of  one 
prince  or  baron,  sometimes  in  that  of  another: 
they  often  acted  in  an  independent  manner,  under 
leaders  of  their  ow  n  :  the  peaceable  and  industri- 
ous inhabitants,  reduced  to  poverty  by  their  ra- 
vages, were  frequently  obliged,  for  subsistence, 
to  betake  themselves  to  a  like  disorderly  course 
of  life:  and  a  continual  intestine  war,  pernicious 
to  industry,  as  well  as  to  the  execution  of  justice, 
was  thus  carried  on  in  the  bowels  of  every  king- 
dom ^  Those  desperate  ruthans  received  the 
name  sometimes  of  Braban^ons,  sometimes  of 
Routiers  or  Cottereaux  ;  but  for  what  reason  is 

*  Neubrig.  p.  413.  "  Chron.  Gorv.  p.  Ubl. 


gt  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1173. 

not  agreed  by  historians  :  and  they  formed  a  kind 
of  society  or  government  among  themselves, 
Avhich  set  at  defiance  the  rest  of  mankind.  The 
greatest  monarchs  were  not  ashamed,  on  occasion, 
to  have  recourse  to  their  assistance ;  and  as  their 
habits  of  war  and  depredation  had  given  them  ex- 
perience, hardiness,  and  courage,  they  generally 
composed  the  most  formidable  part  of  those 
annies,  which  decided  the  political  quarrels  of 
princes.  Several  of  them  were  enlisted  among 
the  forces  levied  by  Henry's  enemies'";  but  the 
great  treasures  amassed  by  that  prince  enabled 
him  to  engage  more  numerous  troops  of  them  in 
his  service ;  and  the  situation  of  his  affairs  ren- 
dered even  such  banditti  the  only  forces  on  whose 
fidelity  he  could  repose  any  confidence.  His  li- 
centious barons,  disgusted  with  a  vigilant  govern- 
ment, were  more  desirous  of  being  ruled  by  young 
princes,  ignorant  of  public  affairs,  remiss  in  their 
conduct,  and  profuse  in  their  grants'";  and  as  the 
king  had  ensured  to  his  sons  the  succession  to 
every  particular  province  of  his  dominions,  the 
nobles  dreaded  no  danger  in  adhering  to  those  who, 
they  knew,  must  sometime  become  their  sovereigns. 
Prompted  by  these  motives,  many  of  the  Norman 
nobility  had  deserted  to  his  son  Henry  ;  the  Bre- 
ton and  Gascon  barons  seemed  equally  disposed  to 
embrace  the  quarrel  of  Geoffrey  and  Richard. 
Disaffection  had  creeped  in  among  the  English ; 

'  Petr.  Bles.  epist.  47.  ^Diceto,  p.  570, 


1173.  HENRY    IL  93 

and  the  earls  of  Leicester  and  Chester  in  particular 
had  openly  declared  against  the  king.  Twenty 
thousand  Eraban<;"ons,  therefore,  joined  to  some 
troops  which  he  })rought  over  from  Ireland,  and 
a  tew  barons  of  approved  fidelity,  formed  the 
sole  force  with  which  he  intended  to  resist  his 
enemies. 

•Lewis,  in  order  to  bind  the  confederates  in  a 
closer  union,  summoned  at  Paris  an  assembly  of 
the  chief  vassals  of  the  croM'n,  received  their  ap- 
probation of  his  measures,  and  engaged  them  by 
oath  to  adhere  to  the  cause  of  young  Henry. 
This  prince,  in  return,  bound  himself  by  a  like  tie 
never  to  desert  his  French  allies  ;  and  having  made 
a  new  great  seal,  he  lavishly  distributed  among 
them  many  considerable  parts  of  those  territories 
which  he  purposed  to  conquer  from  his  father. 
The  counts  of  Flanders,  Boulogne,  Blois,  and  Eu, 
partly  moved  by  the  general  jealousy  arising  from 
Henry's  power  and  ambition,  partly  allured  by  the 
prospect  of  reaping  advantage  from  the  inconsi- 
derate temper  and  the  necessities  of  the  young 
prince,  declared  openly  in  favour  of  the  latter. 
William,  king  of  Scotland,  had  also  entered  into 
this  great  confederacy ;  and  a  plan  was  concerted 
for  a  general  invasion  on  different  parts  of  the 
king's  extensive  and  factious  dominions. 

Hostilities  Av^re  fust  commenced  by  the  counts 
of  Flanders  and  Boulogne  on  the  frontiers  of 
Normandy.  Those  princes  laid  siege  to  Aumale, 
which  was  delivered  into  their  hands  by  the  trea- 


94  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1173. 

cilery  of  the  count  of  that  name  :  this  nobleman 
surrendered  himself  prisoner;  and,  on  pretence 
of  thereby  paying  his  ransom,  opened  the  gates 
of  all  his  other  fortresses.  The  two  counts  next 
besieo-ed  and  made  themselves  masters  of  Drin- 
court :  but  the  count  of  Boulogne  was  here  mor- 
tally wounded  in  the  assault ;  and  this  incident 
put  some  stop  to  the  progress  of  the  Flemish 
arms. 

WARS  AND   INSURRECTIONS.     1173. 

In  another  quarter,  the  king  of  France,  being 
strongly  assisted  by  his  vassals,  assembled  a  great 
army  of  seven  thousand  knights  and  their  follow- 
ers on  horseback,  and  a  proportionable  number  of 
infmtry  :  carrying  young  Henry  along  with  him, 
he  laid  siege  to  Verneiiil,  which  was  vigorously 
defended  by  Hugh  de  Lacy  and  Hugh  de  Beau- 
champ,  the  governors.  After  he  had  lain  a  month 
before  the  place,  the  garrison,  being  straitened 
for  provisions,  were  obliged  to  capitulate ;  and 
they  engaged,  if  not  relieved  within  three  days, 
to  surrender  the  town,  and  to  retire  into  the  cita- 
del. On  the  last  of  these  days,  Henry  appeared 
with  his  army  upon  the  heights  above  Verneiiil. 
Lewis,  dreading  an  attack,  sent  the  archbishop  of 
Sens  and  the  count  of  Blois  to  the  English  camp, 
and  desired  that  next  day  should  be  appointed  for 
a  conference,  in  order  to  establish  a  general  peace, 
and  terminate  the  difference  between  Heniy  and 


1173.  HENRY   II.  99 

liis  sons.  The  king,  avIio  passionately  desired  this 
accommodation,  and  suspected  no  fraud,  gave 
his  consent ;  but  Lewis,  that  morning,  obliging 
the  garrison  to  surrender,  according  to  the  capi- 
tulation, set  fire  to  the  place,  and  began  to  retire 
with  his  army.  Ilcnry  provoked  at  this  artifice, 
attacked  the  rear  with  vigour,  put  them  to  rout, 
did  some  execution,  and  took  several  prisoners. 
The  French  army,  as  their  time  of  ser\'ice  was  now 
expired,  immediately  dispersed  themselves  into 
their  several  provinces ;  and  left  Henry  free  to  pro- 
secute his  advantages  against  his  other  enemies. 

The  nobles  of  Brittany,  instigated  by  the  earl 
of  Chester  and  Ralph  de  Fourgeres,  were  all  in 
arms ;  but  their  })rogress  was  checked  by  a  body 
of  Braban^ons,  which  the  king,  after  Lewis's  re- 
treat, had  sent  against  them.  The  two  armies 
came  to  an  action  near  Dol ;  where  the  rebels 
were  defeated,  fifteen  hundred  killed  on  the  spot, 
and  the  leaders,  the  earls  of  Chester  and  Fourgeres, 
obliged  to  take  shelter  in  the  town  of  Dol.  ilenry 
hastened  to  form  the  siege  of  that  place,  and  car- 
ried on  the  attack  with  such  ardour,  that  he  ob- 
liged the  governor  and  garrison  to  surrender  them- 
selves prisoners.  By  these  vigorous  measures  and 
happy  successes,  the  insurrections  were  entirely 
quelled  in  Britanny  ;  and  the  king,  thus  fortunate 
in  all  quarters,  willingly  agreed  to  a  conference 
Avith  Lewis,  in  hopes  that  his  enemies^  finding  all 
their  mighty  efforts  entirely  frustrated,  would  ter- 


96  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1173. 

minate  hostilities  on  some  moderate  and  reason- 
able conditions. 

The  two  monarchs  met  between  Trie  and  Gi- 
sors ;  and  Henry  had  here  the  mortification  to  see 
his  three  sons  in  the  retinue  of  his  mortal  enemy. 
As  Lewis  had  no  other  pretence  for  war  than  sup- 
porting the  claims  of  the  young  princes,  the  king 
made  them  such  offers  as  children  might  be  asham- 
ed to  insist  on,  and  could  be  extorted  from  him 
by  nothing  but  his  parental  affection,  or  by  the 
present  necessity  of  his  affairs  ^  He  insisted  only 
on  retaining  the  sovereign  authority  in  all  his  do- 
minions ;  but  offered  young  Henry  half  the  reve- 
nues of  England,  with  some  places  of  surety  in 
that  kingdom ;  or,  if  he  rather  chose  to  reside  in 
Normandy,  half  the  revenues  of  that  dutchy,  with 
all  those  of  Anjou.  He  made  a  like  offer  to 
Richard  inGuienne;  he  promised  to  resign  Bri- 
tanny  to  Geoffrey  ;  and  if  these  concessions  were 
not  deemed  sufficient,  he  agreed  to  add  to  them 
whatever  the  pope's  legates,  who  were  present, 
should  require  of  him  ^  The  earl  of  Leicester  was 
also  present  at  the  negotiation ;  and  either  from 
the  impetuosity  of  his  temper,  or  from  a  view  of 
abruptly  breaking  off  a  conference  which  must 
cover  the  allies  with  confusion,  he  gave  vent  to 
the  most  violent  reproaches  against  Henry,  and 
he  even  put  his  hand  to  his  sword,  as  if  he  meant 

"Hoveden,  p.  539.        ^  Ibid.  p.  536.    Brompton^  p.  1088. 


11/3.  HENRY    IL  gr 

to  attempt  sonic  violence  against  him.  This  fu- 
rious action  threw  the  whole  company  into  con- 
fusion, and  put  an  end  to  the  treaty  ^ 

The  chief  hopes  of  Henry's  enemies  seemed 
now  to  depend  on  the  state  of  affairs  in  England, 
where  his  authority  was  cxj)osed  to  the  most  im- 
minent danger.     One   article  of  prince  Henry's 
agreement  M-ith  his  foreign  confederates  was,   that 
he  should  resign  Kent,  with   Dover,  and  all  its 
other  fortresses,  into  the  hands  of  the  earl  of  Flan- 
ders'*:  yet  so  little  national  or  puhlic  spirit  pre- 
vailed among  the  independent  English  nohility,  so 
Mdiolly  hent  were  they  on   the  aggrandizement 
each  of  himself  and  his  own  family,   that,  not- 
withstanding this  pernicious  concession,    which 
must  have  produced  the  ruin  of  the  kingdom,  the 
greater  part  of  them  had  conspired  to  make  an 
insurrection,  and  to  support  the  prince's  preten- 
sions.    The  king's  principal   resource  lay  in  the 
church  and  the  bishops,  with  whom  he  Avas  now 
in  perfect  agreement;  whether  that  the  decency 
of  their  character  made  them  ashamed  of  support- 
ing so  unnatural  a  rebellion,  or  that  they  were  en- 
tirely satisfied  with   Henry's  atonement  for  the 
murder  of  Becket,  and  for  his  former  invasion  of 
ecclesiastical  immunities.     That  prince,   however, 
had  resigned  none  of  the  essential  rights  of  his 
crown  in  the  accommodation  ;  he  maintained  still 
the  same  prudent  jealousy  of  the  court  of  Rome; 

"  Hoveden,  p.  536. 
^  Ibid,  p.  533.     Brompton,  p.  1084.     Neub.  p   508. 
VOL.    II,  H 


c)8  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  II73. 

admitted  no  legate  into  England,  without  his 
swearing  to  attempt  nothing  against  the  royal  pre- 
rogatives ;  and  he  had  even  obliged  the  monks  of 
Canterbury,  who  pretended  to  a  free  election  on 
the  vacancy  made  by  the  death  of  Becket,  to 
chuse  Roger,  prior  of  Dover,  in  the  place  of  that 
turbulent  prelate'. 

WAR  WITH  SCOTLAND.     1173. 

The  king  of  Scotland  made  an  irruption  into 
Northumberland,  and  committed  great  devasta- 
tions ;  but  being  opposed  by  Richard  de  Lucy, 
whom  Henry  had  left  guardian  of  the  realm,  he 
retreated  into  his  own  country,  and  agreed  to  a 
cessation  of  arms.  This  truce  enabled  the  guard- 
ian to  march  southward  with  his  army,  in  order  to 
oppose  an  invasion,  which  the  earl  of  Leicester, 
at  the  head  of  a  great  body  of  Flemings,  had  made 
upon  Suffolk.  The  Flemings  had  been  joined  by 
Hugh  Bigod,  who  made  them  masters  of  his 
castle  of  Framlingham ;  and  marching  into  the 
heart  of  the  kingdom,  where  they  hoped  to  be 
supported  by  Leicester's  vassals,  they  were  met 
by  Lucy,  who,  assisted  by  Humphry  Bohun,  the 
constable,  and  the  earls  of  Arundel,  Glocester, 
and  Cornwall,  had  advanced  to  Farnham,  with  a 
less  numerous,  but  braver  army,  to  oppose  them. 
The  Flemings,  who  were  mostly  weavers  and  ar- 

'  Hovedeu,  p.  537. 


11/4,  HENRY  II.  g(j 

tificers  (for  iiuinufuctuics  were  now  beginning  to 
be  establislied  in  Flanders),  were  broken  in  an 
instant,  ten  thousand  of  tlieni  were  put  to  tlie 
sword,  tlie  eail  of  Leicester  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  the  lemains  of  the  invaders  M'erc  glad  to  com- 
pound for  a  safe  retreat  into  their  own  country. 

PENANCE  OF  HENRY  FOR  BECKET'S 
MURDER.     July  8,   1174. 

This  great  defeat  did  not  dishearten  the  mal- 
contents ;  who,  being  supported  by  the  alliance 
of  so  many  foreign  princes,  and  encouraged  by 
the  king's  own  sons^  determined  to  persevere  in 
their  enterprise.  The  earl  of  Ferrars,  Roger  de 
Moubray,  Architel  de  jMallory,  Richard  de  Mor- 
reville,  Hamo  de  Mascie,  together  with  many 
friends  of  the  earls  of  Leicester  and  Chester,  rose 
in  arms :  the  fidelity  of  the  earls  of  Clare  and 
Glocester  was  suspected;  and  the  guardian, 
though  vigorously  supported  by  Geoffrey  bishop 
of  Lincoln,  the  king's  natural  son  by  the  fair  Ro- 
samond, found  it  difficult  to  defend  himself  on  all 
quarters,  from  so  many  open  and  concealed  ene- 
mies. The  more  to  augment  the  confusion,  tlie 
king  of  Scotland,  on  the  expiration  of  the  truce, 
broke  into  the  northern  provinces  with  a  great 
army ^  of  80,000  men;  v/hich,  though  undisci- 
plined and  disorderly,   and  better  fitted  for  con* 

^  Heming.  p.  501 . 


100  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1174. 

mitting  devastation,  than  for  executing  any  mi- 
litary enterprise,  was  become  dangerous  from  the 
present  factious  and  turbulent  spirit  of  the  king- 
dom. Henry,  who  had  baffled  all  his  enemies  in 
France,  and  had  put  his  frontiers  in  a  posture  of 
defence,  now  found  England  the  seat  of  danger  ; 
and  he  determined  by  his  presence  to  overawe  the 
malcontents,  or  by  his  conduct  and  courage  to 
subdue  them.  He  landed  at  Southampton ;  and 
knowing  the  influence  of  superstition  over  the 
minds  of  the  people,  he  hastened  to  Canterbury, 
in  order  to  make  atonement  to  the  ashes  of  Tho- 
mas a  Becket,  and  tender  his  submissions  to  a 
dead  enemy.  As  soon  as  he  came  within  sight  of 
the  church  of  Canterbury,  he  dismounted,  walk- 
ed barefoot  towards  it,  prostrated  himself  before 
the  shrine  of  the  saint,  remained  in  fasting  and 
prayer  during  a  whole  day,  and  watched  all  night 
the  holy  reliques.  Not  content  with  this  hypo- 
critical devotion  towards  a  man,  whose  violence 
and  ingratitude  had  so  long  disquieted  his  go- 
vernment, and  had  been  the  object  of  his  most 
inveterate  animosity,  he  submitted  to  a  penance 
still  more  singular  and  humiliating.  He  assem- 
bled a  chapter  of  the  monks,  disrobed  himself 
before  them,  put  a  scourge  of  discipline  into  the 
hands  of  each,  and  presented  his  bare  shoulders 
to  the  lashes  which  these  ecclesiastics  successively, 
inflicted  upon  him.  Next  day  he  received  abso- 
lution ;  and  departing  for  London,  got  soon  after 
the  agreeable  intelligence  of  a  great  victory  which 


11/4.  HENRY    II,  101 

his  generals  had  obtained  over  the  Scots,  and 
which  being  gained,  as  was  reported,  on  tlic  \  cry 
day  of  his  absohition,  was  regarded  as  the  earnest 
of  his  final  reconcihation  witli  Heaven  and  witli 
Thomas  a  Jlecket. 


WILLIAM  KING  OF  SCOTLAND  DEFEAT- 
ED AND  TAKEN  PRISONER.     July  13. 

William  king  of  Scots,  though  repulsed  be- 
fore the  castle  of  Prudhow,  and  other  fortified 
places,  had  committed  the  most  horrible  depreda- 
tions upon  the  northern  provinces  :  But  on  the 
approach  of  Ralph  de  Glanville,  the  famous  just- 
iciary, seconded  by  Barnard  de  Baliol,  Robert  de 
Stuteville,  Odonel  de  Umfreville,  William  de 
Vesci,  and  other  northern  barons,  together  Avith 
the  gallant  bishop  of  Lincoln,  he  thought  proper 
to  retreat  nearer  his  own  country,  and  he  fixed 
his  camp  at  Alnwic.  He  had  here  weakened  his 
army  extremely,  by  sending  out  numerous  de- 
tachments in  order  to  extend  his  ravages  ;  and  he 
lay  absolutely  safe,  as  he  imagined,  from  any  at- 
tack of  the  enemy.  But  Glanville,  informed  of 
his  situation,  made  a  hasty  and  fatiguing  march 
to  Newcastle ;  and  alloM'ing  his  soldiers  only  a 
small  interval  for  refreshment,  he  immediately  set 
out  towards  evening  for  Alnwic.  He  marched 
that  night  above  thirty  miles ;  arrived  in  the 
morning,  under  cover  of  a  mist,  near  the  Scottish 
camp;    and  regardless  of  the  great  numbers  of 


102  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  U74. 

the  enemy,  he  began  the  attack  with  his  small 
but  determined  body  of  cavalry.  William  was 
living  in  such  supine  security,  that  he  took  the 
English,  at  first,  for  a  body  of  his  own  ravagers, 
who  were  returning  to  the  camp :  but  the  sight 
of  their  banners  convincing  him  of  his  mistake, 
he  entered  on  the  action  Math  no  greater  body 
than  a  hundred  horse,  in  confidence  that  the  nu' 
merous  army  Avhich  surrounded  him  would  soon 
hasten  to  his  relief.  He  was  dismounted  on  the 
first  shock,  and  taken  prisoner  ;  while  his  troops, 
hearing  of  this  disaster,  fled  on  all  sides  with 
the  utmost  precipitation.  The  dispersed  ravagers 
made  the  best  of  their  way  to  their  own  country  ; 
and  discord  arising  among  them,  they  proceeded 
even  to  mutual  hostilities,  and  suffered  more 
from  each  other's  sword,  than  fi-om  that  of  the 
enemy. 

This  great  and  important  victory  proved  at  last 
decisive  in  favour  of  Henry,  and  entirely  broke 
the  spirit  of  the  English  rebels.  The  bishop  of 
Durham,  who  was  preparing  to  revolt,  made  his 
submissions ;  Hugh  Bigod,  though  he  had  re- 
ceived a  strong  reinforcement  of  Flemings,  was 
obliged  to  surrender  all  his  castles,  and  throw 
himself  on  the  king's  mercy ;  no  better  resource 
was  left  to  the  earl  of  Ferrars  and  Roger  de 
Moubray ;  the  inferior  rebels  imitating  the  ex- 
ample, all  England  was  restored  to  tranquillity  in 
a  few  weeks;  and  as  the  king  appeared  to  lie 
under  the  immediate  protection  of  Heaven,  it  was 


1174.  HENRY    II.  103 

deemed  impious  any  longer  to  resist  liim.  The 
clergy  exalted  anew  the  merits  and  powerful  in 
tercession  of  Becket ;  and  Henry,  instead  of  op- 
posing- tliis  superstition,  plumed  himself  on  the 
new  friend sliip  of  the  saint,  and  propagated  an 
opinion  which  was  so  favourahlc  to  his  interests^ 

Prince  Henry,  ^v\\o  was  ready  to  cmhark  at 
Gravelines,  with  the  carl  of  Flanders  and  a  great 
army,  hearing  that  his  partisans  in  England  were 
suppressed,  ahandoned  all  thoughts  of  the  enter- 
prise, and  joined  the  camp  of  Lewis,  M'ho,  during 
the  absence  of  the  king,  had  made  an  irruption 
into  Normandy,  and  had  laid  siege  to  lloiien'". 
The  place  was  defended  with  great  vigour  by  the 
inhabitants";  and  Lewis,  despairing  of  success 
by  open  force,  tried  to  gain  the  town  by  a  stra- 
tagem, v^hich,  in  that  superstitious  age,  Mas 
deemed  not  very  honourable.  He  proclaimed  in 
his  own  camp  a  cessation  of  arms,  on  pretence  of 
celebrating  the  festival  of  St.  Laurence;  and  m  hen 
the  citizens,  supposing  themselves  in  safety,  M'cre 
so  imprudent  as  to  remit  their  guard,  he  purposed 
to  take  advantage  of  their  security.  Happily, 
some  priests  had,  from  mere  curiosity,  mounted 
a  steeple,  where  the  alarm-bell  hung ;  and  observ- 
ing the  French  camp  in  motion,  they  immediately 
rang  the  bell,  and  gave  warning  to  the  inhabit- 
ants,   who  ran  to  their  several  stations.      The 

'Hoveden,  p.  539.  ""Bromptonj  p.  I0g6. 

"Dlceto,  p.  578. 


104  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1174. 

French,  who,  on  hearing  the  alarm,  hurried  to 
the  assault,  had  already  mounted  the  walls  in  se- 
veral places  ;  but  being  repulsed  by  the  enraged 
citizens,  were  obliged  to  retreat  with  considerable 
loss".  Next  day  Henry,  Avho  had  hastened  to  the 
defence  of  his  Norman  dominions,  passed  over 
the  bridge  in  triumph ;  and  entered  Roiien  in 
sight  of  the  French  army.  The  city  was  now  in 
absolute  safety ;  and  the  king,  in  order  to  brave 
the  French  monarch,  commanded  the  gates, 
which  had  been  walled  up,  to  be  opened  ;  and  he 
prepared  to  push  his  advantages  against  the  enemy, 
Lewis  saved  hinT^elf  from  this  perilous  situation 
by  a  new  piece  of  deceit  not  so  justifiable.  He 
proposed  a  conference  for  adjusting  the  terms  of 
a  general  peace,  which  he  knew  would  be  greedily 
embraced  by  Henry  ;  and  while  the  king  of  Eng- 
land trusted  to  the  execution  of  his  promise,  he 
made  a  retreat  with  his  army  into  France. 

There  was,  however,  a  necessity  on  both  sides 
for  an  accommodation.  Henry  could  no  longer 
bear  to  see  his  three  sons  in  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
my ;  and  Lewis  dreaded,  lest  this  great  monarch, 
victorious  in  all  quarters,  crowned  with  glory, 
and  absolute  master  of  his  dominions,  might  take 
revenge  for  the  many  dangers  and  disquietudes 
which  the  arms,  and  still  more  the  intrigues  of 
France,  had,  in  his  disputes  both  with  Becket 
and  his  sons,  found  means  to  raise  him.     After 

"  Brorapton,  p.  1096.     Neubrig.  p.  411 .     Heming.  p.  503. 


M75.  IIENR^'    11.  105 

making"  a  cessation  of  arms,  a  conference  was 
agreeil  on  near  Tours ;  wliere  Henry  granted  his 
sons  much  less  advantageous  terms  than  he  had 
formerly  offered  ;  and  he  received  tlieir  suhmis- 
sions.  The  most  niaterial  of  his  concessions  were 
some  pensions  which  he  stipulated  to  pay  them, 
and  some  castles  whicli  he  granted  them  for  the 
place  of  their  residence  ;  together  with  an  indem- 
nity for  all  their  adherents,  m  ho  were  restored  to 
their  estates  and  honours''. 

Of  all  those  who  had  emhraced  the  cause  of 
the  young  prince,  William  king  of  Scotland  was 
the  only  considerable  loser  by  that  invidious  and 
unjust  enterprise.  Henry  delivered  from  confine- 
ment, without  exacting  any  ransom,  about  nine 
Imndred  knights  M'hom  he  had  taken  prisoners  ; 
but  it  cost  A\'iUiam  the  ancient  independency  of 
his  crown  as  the  price  of  his  liberty.  He  stipu- 
lated to  do  homage  to  Ilenr}'  for  Scotland  and  all 
his  other  possessions ;  he  engaged  that  all  the 
barons  and  nobility  of  his  kingdom  should  also  do 
homage  ;  that  the  bishops  should  take  an  oath  of 
fealty  ;  that  both  should  swear  to  adhere  to  the 
king  of  England  against  their  native  prince,  if  the 
latter  should  break  his  engagements  ;  and  that  the 
fortresses  of  Edinburgh,  Stirling,  Berwick,  Rox- 
borough,  and  Jedborough,  should  be  delivered 
into  Henry's  hands,   till   the  performance  of  ar- 

P  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  35.  Bened,  Abb.  p.  88.  Hoveden,  p.  540, 
Biceto,  p.  563.  Biompton,  p.  IO98.  Heming.  p.  505.  Chron. 
Dunst.  p.  36, 


m'  HISTORY    OF  ENGLAND.  1175. 

tides  "I,  This  severe  and  humiliating  treaty  M'as 
executed  in  its  full  rigour.  William,  being  re- 
leased, brought  up  all  his  barons,  prelates,  and 
abbots ;  and  they  did  homage  to  Henry  in  the  ca- 
thedral of  York,  and  acknowledged  him  and  his 
successors  for  their  superior  lord^  The  English 
monarch  stretched  still  farther  the  rigour  of  the 
conditions  which  he  exacted.  He  enoao-ed  the 
king  and  states  of  Scotland  to  make  a  perpetual 
cession  of  the  fortresses  of  Berwick,  and  Roxbo- 
rough,  and  to  allow  the  castle  of  Edinburgh  to 
remain  in  his  hands  for  a  limited  time.  This  was 
the  first  great  ascendant  which  England  obtained 
over  Scotland  ;  and  indeed  the  first  important 
transaction  which  had  passed  between  the  king- 
doms. Few  princes  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to 
gain  considerable  advantages  over  their  weaker 
neighbours  with  less  violence  and  injustice  than 
was  practised  by  Henry  against  the  king  of  the 
Scots,  whom  he  had  taken  prisoner  in  battle,  and 
who  had  wantonly  engaged  in  a  war,  in  which 
all  the  neighbours  of  that  prince,  and  even  his 
own  family,  were,  without  provocation,  combined 
agairvs't  him^ 

1  M.  Paris,  p.  91.  Chron.  Dunst.  p.  36,  Hoveden,  p.  545. 
M.  West.  p.  251.  Diceto,p.  584.  Brompton^  p.  1103.  Rymer, 
vol.  i.  p.  39.     Liber  Niger  Scaccarii,  p.  36. 

"^Bened.  Abb.  p.  113. 

^  Some  Scotch  historians  pretend,  that  William  paid,  besides, 
300,000  pounds  of  ransom,  which  is  quite  incredible.  The  ran- 
som of  Richard  L  who,  besides  England,  possessed  so  many  rich, 


1176.  HENRY    ir.  K)7 

KINGS  EQUITABLE  ADMINISTRATION. 

1 1 7(). 

Henry  having-  tluis,  contrary  to  expectation,  ex- 
tricated himself  M'ith  honour  from  a  situation  in 
which  his  throne  was  exposed  to  great  danger, 
was  employed  for  several  years  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  in  the  execution  of  the  laws,  and 
in  ouardino-  against  those  inconveniencies,  which 
either  the  past  convulsions  of  his  state,  or  the 
political  institutions  of  that  age,  unavoiduhly  oc- 
casioned. The  provisions  which  he  made,  show 
such  largeness  of  thought  as  qualified  him  for  heing 
a  legislator ;  and  they  were  commonly  calculated 
as  well  for  the  future  as  the  present  happiness 
of  his  kingdom. 

He  enacted  severe  penalties  against  rohbery, 
murder,  false  coining,  arson ;  and  ordained  that 
these  crimes  should  be  punished  by  the  amputa- 
tion of  the  right  hand  and  right  foot'.  The 
pecuniary  commutation  for  crimes,  which  has  a 
false  appearance  of  lenity,  had  been  gradually 
disused ;  and  seems  to  have  been  entirely  abolished 
by  the  rigour  of  these  statutes.  The  superstitious 
trial  by  water  ordeal,  though  condemned  by  the 


territories  in  France,  was  only  J  50,000  marks,  and  yet  was 
levied  with  great  difficulty.  Indeed,  two  thirds  of  it  only  could 
he  paid  before  his  deliverance. 

'  Bened.  Abb.  p.  132.     Hoveden,  p.  549. 


108  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1176. 

church",  still  subsisted  ;  but  Henry  ordained,  that 
any  man  accused  of  murder,  or  any  heinous  felony, 
by  the  oath  of  the  legal  knights  of  the  county, 
should,  even  though  acquitted  by  the  ordeal,  be 
obliged  to  abjure  the  realms 

All  advances  towards  reason  and  good  sense 
are  slo^y  and  gradual.  Henry,  though  sensible  of 
the  great  absurdity  attending  the  trial  by  duel  or 
battle,  did  not  venture  to  abolish  it :  he  only  ad- 
mitted either  of  the  parties  to  challenge  a  trial  by 
an  assize  or  jury  of  twelve  freeholders^.  This  latter 
method  of  trial  seems  to  have  been  very  ancient 
in  England,  and  was  fixed  by  the  laws  of  king 
Alfred  :  but  the  barbarous  and  violent  o-enius  of 
the  age  had  of  late  given  more  credit  to  the  trial  by 
battle,  which  had  become  the  general  method  of 
deciding  all  important  controversies.  It  was  never 
abolished  by  law  in  England  ;  and  there  is  an  in- 
stance of  it  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth:  but 
the  institution  revived  by  this  king,  being  found 
more  reasonable  and  more  suitable  to  a  civilized 
people,  gradually  prevailed  over  it. 

The  partition  of  England  into  four  divisions, 
and  the  appointment  of  itinerant  justices  to  go  the 
circuit  in  each  division,  and  to  decide  the  causes 
in  the  counties,  was  another  important  ordinance 
of  this  prince,  which  had  a  direct  tendency  to 
curb  the  oppressive  barons,  and  to  protect  the  in- 
ferior gentry  and  common  people  in  their  pro- 

"  Seld.  Spicileg.  ad  Eadm.  p.  204.  "Bened.  Abb.  p.  132. 

'^  Glanv.  lib,  ii.  cap.  T^ 


1i;G.  henry    II.  109 

perty^  Those  justices  were  either  prehites  or 
considerahlc  noblemen ;  m  ho,  besides  carrying 
the  authority  of  the  king's  commission,  were  a])le, 
by  the  dignity  of  their  own  character,  to  give 
weio-lit  and  credit  to  tlie  hiws. 

Tliat  there  might  be  fewer  obstacles  to  the  ex' 
ecution  of  justice,  the.  king  was  vigihut  in  demo- 
hsliing  all  the  new-erected  castles  of  the  nobility, 
in  England  as  well  as  in  his  foreign  dominions; 
and  he  permitted  no  fortress  to  remain  in  the 
custody  of  those  whom  he  found  reason  to  su- 
spect ^ 

But  lest  the  kingdom  should  be  weakened  by 
this  demolition  of  the  fortresses,  the  king  fixed 
'an  assize  of  arms,  l)y  which  all  his  subjects  were 
obliged  to  put  themselves  in  a  situation  for  de- 
fending themselves  and  the  realm.  Every  man 
possessed  of  a  knight's  fee  was  ordained  to  have 
for  each  fee  a  coat  of  mail,  a  helmet,  a  shield,  and 
a  lance ;  every  free  layman,  possessed  of  goods 
to  the  value  of  sixteen  marks,  was  to  be  armed  in 
like  manner  ;  every  one  that  possessed  ten  marks 
was  obliged  to  have  an  iron  gorget,  a  cap  of  iron, 
and  a  lance ;  all  burgesses  were  to  have  a  cap  of 
iron,  a  lance,  and  a  wambais ;  that  is,  a  coat  quilted 
with  wool,  tow,  or  such-like  materials ^  It  ap- 
pears that  archery,  for  which  the  English  were 
afterwards  so  renowned,   had  not,  at  this  time. 


*^Hoveden,  p.  5f)0.  ^Bencd.  Abb.  p.  202.  Diceto,  p.  5S5. 

''lieiied.  Abb.  p.  305.     Annal,  Waved,  p.  161. 


110  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1170. 

become  very  common  among  them.     The  spear 
was  the  chief  weapon  employed  in  battle. 

The  clergy  and  the  laity  were,  during  that  age, 
in  a  strange  situation  with  regard  to  each  other, 
and  such  as  may  seem  totally  incompatible  with 
a  civilized,  and  indeed  with  any  species  of  govern- 
ment. If  a  clergyman  were  guilty  of  murder,  he 
could  be  punished  by  degradation  only:  if  he  were 
murdered,  the  murderer  was  exposed  to  nothing 
but  excommunication  and  ecclesiastical  censures; 
and  the  crime  was  atoned  for  by  penances  and 
submission^  Hence  the  assassins  of  Thomas  a 
Becket  himself,  though  guilty  of  the  most  atroci- 
ous wickedness,  and  the  most  repugnant  to  the 
sentiments  of  that  age,  lived  securely  in  their  own 
houses,  without  being  called  to  account  by  Henry 
himself,  who  was  so  much  concerned,  both  in 
honour  and  interest,  to  punish  that  crime,  and 
who  professed,  or  affected  on  all  occasions,  the 
most  extreme  abhorrence  of  it.  It  was  not  till 
they  found  their  presence  shunned  by  every  one 
as  excommunicated  persons,  that  they  were  in- 
duced to  take  a  journey  to  Rome,  to  throw  them- 
selves at  the  feet  of  the  pontiif,  and  to  submit  to 
the  penances  imposed  upon  them :  after  which, 
they  continued  to  possess,  without  molestation, 
their  honours  and  fortunes,  and  seem  even  to 
have  recovered  the  countenance  and  good  opinion 
of  the  pubhc.  But  as  the  king,  by  the  consti- 
tutions of  Clarendon,  which  he  endeavoured  still 
'^  Petri  Blessen.  epist.  73.  apud  Bibl.  Patr.  torn  xxiv.  p.  P92. 


lira.  HENRY    11.  Ill 

to  iiKiiiitain'',  had  subjected  the  clergy  to  u  trial 
by  tlie  civil  magistrate,  it  seemed  but  just  to  give 
them  tlie  protection  of  that  power  to  which  they 
owed  obedience:  it  Mas  enacted,  that  tlie  mur- 
derers of  clergymen  should  be  tried  before  the 
justiciary,  in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  or  his 
official ;  and  besides  the  usual  punishment  for 
murder,  should  be  subjected  to  a  forfeiture  of  their 
estates,  and  a  confiscation  of  their  goods  and 
chattels*". 

The  king  passed  an  equitable  law,  that  the 
goods  of  a  vassal  should  not  be  seized  for  tjie  debt 
of  his  lord,  unless  the  vassal  be  surety  for  the 
debt ;  and  that  the  rents  of  vassals  should  be  paid 
to  the  creditors  of  the  lord,  not  to  the  lord  him- 
self. It  is  remarkable  that  this  law  was  enacted 
by  the  king  in  a  council  which  he  held  at  Verneiiil, 
and  which  consisted  of  some  prelates  and  barons 
of  England,  as  well  as  some  of  Normandy,  Poictou, 
Anjou,  Maine,  Touraine,  and  Britanny ;  and  the 
statute  took  place  in  all  these  last-mentioned 
territories^,  though  totally  unconnected  with  each 
otlier^;  a  certain  proof  how  irregular  the  ancient 

•^  Chron.  Gen'ase,  p.  1433.  '^Diceto,  p.  5g2.     Chron. 

Gervase,  p.  1433.  ^  Bened.  Abb.  p.  248.     It  was  usual 

for  the  kings  of  England,  after  tlie  conquest  of  Ireland,  to  summon 
barons  and  members  of  tliat  country  to  the  English  parliament. 
Molineux's  Case  of  Ireland,  p.  b'4,  65,  66, 

"  Spelman  even  doubts  wlietlier  the  law  were  not  also  extended 
to  England.  If  it  were  not,  it  could  only  be  because  Henr)'  did 
not  chuse  it ;  for  his  authority  was  greater  in  that  kingdom  than 
in  hi«  transmarine  dumiuion*. 


112  HISTORY    OP    ENGLAND.  117a 

feudal  government  was,  and  how  near  the  sove- 
reigns, in  some  instances,  approached  to  despot- 
ism, though  in  others  they  seemed  scarcely  to 
possess  any  authority.  If  a  prince  much  dreaded 
and  revered,  like  Henry,  obtained  but  the  appear- 
ance of  general  consent  to  an  ordinance  which 
was  equitable  and  just,  it  became  immediately  an 
established  law,  and  all  his  subjects  acquiesced  in 
it.  If  the  prince  m  as  hated  or  despised ;  if  the 
nobles  who  supported  him  had  small  influence ;  if 
the  humours  of  the  times  disposed  the  people  to 
question  the  justice  of  his  ordinance ;  the  fullest 
and  most  authentic  assembly  had  no  authority. 
Thus  all  was  confusion  and  disorder;  no  regular 
idea  of  a  constitution  ;  force  and  violence  decided 
every  thing. 

The  success  which  had  attended  Henry  in  his 
Avars  did  not  much  encourage  his  neighbours  to 
form  any  attempt  against  him ;  and  his  trans-* 
actions  with  them,  during  several  years,  contain 
little  memorable.  Scotland  remained  in  that  state 
of  feudal  subjection  to  which  he  had  reduced  it, 
and  gave  him  no  farther  inquietude.  He  sent 
over  his  fourth  son,  John,  into  Ireland,  with  a  view 
of  making  a  more  complete  conquest  of  the  island; 
but  the  petulance  and  incapacity  of  this  prince, 
by  which  he  enraged  the  Irish  chieftains,  obliged 
the  king  soon  after  to  recal  him^  The  king  of 
France  had  fallen  into  an  abject  superstition ;  and 
was  induced,  by  a  devotion  more  sincere  than 
"  Bened.  Abb.  p.  437,  &^* 


il/O.  HENRY    II.  113 

that  of  Henry,  to  make  a  pilgTimage  to  tlie  toinb 
of  liecket,  in  order  to  obtain  his  intercession  for 
the  cure  of  Philip,  his  eldest  son.  He  probably 
thought  himself  well  entitled  to  the  favour  of  that 
saint,  on  aecount  of  their  ancient  intimacy ;  and 
hoped  that  Bccket,  whom  he  had  protected  while 
on  earth,  would  not  now,  when  he  was  so  highly 
exalted  in  heaven,  forget  his  old  friend  and  bene- 
factor. The  monks,  sensible  that  their  saint's 
lionour  was  concerned  in  the  case,  failed  not  to 
publish  that  Lewis's  prayers  were  answered,  and 
that  the  young  prince  was  restored  to  health  by 
Becket's  intercession.  That  king  himself  was  soon 
after  struck  with  an  apoplexy,  which  deprived 
liim  of  his  understanding:  Philip,  though  a  youth 
of  fifteen,  took  on  him  the  administration,  till  his 
father's  death,  which  happened  soon  after,  opened 
liis  way  to  the  tlirone ;  and  he  proved  the  ablest 
and  tjreatest  monarch  that  had  o;o\'erned  that  kin<>- 
dom  since  the  age  of  Charlemagne.  The  supeiior 
years,  however,  and  experience  of  Henry,  while 
they  moderated  his  ambition,  gave  him  such  an  as- 
cendant over  this  prince,  that  no  dangerous  riv;d- 
ship,  for  a  long  time,  arose  between  them.  The 
English  monarch,  instead  of  taking  advantage  of 
liis  own  situation,  rather  employed  his  good  offices 
in  composing  the  quarrels  which  arose  in  the 
royal  family  of  France  ;  and  he  was  successful  in 
mediating  a  reconciliation  between  Philip  and  his 
mother  and  uncles.  These  services  Mere  but  ill 
requited  by  Philip,  who,  when  he  came  to  nian'$ 

VOL.  II.  I 


114  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1180. 

estate,  fomented  all  the  domestic  discords  in  the 
royal  family  of  England,  and  encouraged  Henry's 
sons  in  their  unQ-ratetul  and  undutifid  behaviour 
towards  him. 

Prince  Henry,  ecjually  impatient  of  obtaining 
power,  and  incapable  of  using  it,  renewed  to  the 
king  the  demand  of  his  resigning  Normandy ; 
and  on  meeting  with  a  refusal,  he  fled  with  his 
consort  to  the  court  of  Trance :  but  not  finding 
Philip  at  that  time  disposed  to  enter  into  war  for 
his  sake,  he  accepted  of  his  father's  offers  of  re- 
conciliation, and  made  him  submissions.  It  was 
a  cruel  circumstance  in  the  king's  fortune,  that  he 
could  hope  for  no  tranquillity  from  the  criminal 
enterprises  of  his  sons  Init  by  their  mutual  discord 
and  animosities,  A\'hich  disturbed  his  family,  and 
threw  his  state  into  convulsions.  Richard,  whom 
he  had  made  master  of  Guienne,  and  who  had 
displayed  his  valour  and  military  genius  by  sup- 
pressing the  revolts  of  his  mutinous  barons,  re- 
fused to  obey  Henry's  orders,  in  doing  homage 
to  his  elder  brother  for  that  dutchy ;  and  he  de- 
fended himself  against  young  Henry  and  Geoffrey, 
who,  uniting  their  arms,  carried  war  into  his  terri- 
tories'.  The  king,  with  some  difficulty,  com- 
posed this  difference ;  but  immediately  found  his 
eldest  son  engaged  in  conspiracies,  and  ready  to 
take  arms  against  himself.  While  the  young 
prince  was  conducting  these  criminal  intrigues,  he 
was  seized  with  a  fever  at  Martel,  a  castle  near 

"'  Ypod.  Neust,  p,  45 1 .    Bened.  Abb.  p.  383.    Diceto,  p.  6J  7. 


11S3.  HENRY    II.  115 

Tureniie,  tu  which  he  liad  rctu'cd  in   (hscontcnt; 
and  seeino;  the  approaches  of  death,  he  was  at  last 
struck  witli  remorse  for  liis  nndutiful  behaxiour 
toM.-irds   his   father.      lie   sent  a  message  to  the 
king,  wlio  was  not  far  distant;  expressed  his  con- 
trition for  his  faults;  and  entreated  the  favour  of 
a  visit,  that  he  might  at  least  die  with  the  satis- 
fliction  of  having  obtained  his  forgiveness.  Henry, 
who  had  so  often  experienced  the  prince's  ingrati- 
tude and  violence,  apprehended  that  his  sickness 
was  entirely  feigned,  and  he  durst  not  entrust  liim- 
self  into  his  son's  hands  :  but  when  he  soon  after 
received  intelligence  of  young  Henry's  death,  and 
the  ])roofs  of  liis  sincere  repentance,   tliis  good 
prince  was  affected  Avith  the  deepest  sorrow ;  he 
thrice  fainted  away ;  he  accused  his  own  hard- 
Iieartedness  in  refusing  the  dying  request  of  his 
son  ;  and  he  lamented  that  he  had  deprived  that 
prince  of  the  last  opportunity  of  making  atone- 
ment for  his  offences,  and  of  pouring  out  his  soul 
in   the    bosom   of  his   reconciled   father  ^     This 
prince  died  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age. 
The  behaviour  of  his  surviving  children  did 
not  tend  to  give   the   king  any  consolation  for 
the  loss.     As  prince  Henry  had  left  no  posterity, 
Richard  was  become  heir  to  all  his  dominions  ; 
and  the  king  intended  that  John,  his  third  sur- 
viving son  and  favourite,  should  inherit  Guienne 
as  his  appanage  :  but  Richard  refused  his  consent, 
fled  into  that  dutchy,  and  even  made  preparations 

""  Bened.  Abb.  p.  393.    Hoveden,  p.  621.    Trivet^  vol.  i.  p.  84. 
2 


no  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1185. 

for  carrying  on  war,  as  well  against  his  father  as 
against  his  brother  Geoffrey,  who  was  now  put  in 
possession  of  Britanny.  Henry  sent  for  Eleanor 
his  queen,  the  heiress  of  Guienne,  and  required 
llichard  to  deliver  up  to  her  the  dominion  of 
these  territories ;  which  that  prince,  either  dread- 
ing an  insurrection  of  the  Gascons  in  her  favour, 
or  retaining  some  sense  of  duty  towards  her, 
readily  performed  ;  and  he  peaceably  returned  to 
his  father's  court.  No  sooner  was  this  quarrel 
accommodated,  than  Geoffrey,  the  most  vicious 
perhaps  of  all  Henry's  unhappy  family,  broke  out 
into  violence;  demanded  Anjou  to  be  annexed  to 
his  dominions  of  Britanny ;  and  on  meeting  with 
a  refusal,  fled  to  the  court  of  France,  and  levied 
forces  against  his  father  ^  Henry  was  freed  from 
this  danger  by  his  son's  death,  who  was  killed  in 
a  tournament  at  Paris".  The  widow  of  Geoffrey, 
soon  after  his  decease,  was  delivered  of  a  son, 
who  received  the  name  of  Arthur,  and  was  in- 
vested in  the  dutchy  of  Britanny,  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  grandfather,  who,  as  duke  of 
Normandy,  Avas  also  superior  lord  of  that  territory. 
Philip,  as  lord  paramount,  disputed  some  time  his 
title  to  this  wardship  ;  but  was  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  inclinations  of  the  Bretons,  who  preferred 
the  government  of  Henry. 

,.  'Neubrig.  p.  422. 
"  Bened.  Abb.  p.  451.    Cron.  Gervase,  p.  1480. 


11S5.  HENRY   II.  117 


CRUSADES.     1185. 

But  the  rivalship  between  these  potent  princes, 
and  all  their  interior  interest,  seemed  now  to  have 
given  place  to  the  general  passion  for  tlie  relief  of 
the  Holy  Land,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Saracens. 
Those  inlidels,  though  obliged  to  yield  to  the  im- 
mense inundation  of  Christians  in  the  first  crusade, 
had  recovered  courage  after  the  torrent  was  past ; 
and  attacking  on  all  quarters  the  settlements  of 
the  Europeans,  had  reduced  these  adventurers  to 
great  difficulties,  and  obliged  them  to  apply  again 
for  succours  from  the  West.  A  second  crusade, 
under  the  Emperor  Conradc,  and  Lewis  VIL  king 
of  France,  in  which  there  perished  above  200,000 
men,  brought  them  but  a  temporary  relief;  and 
those  princes,  after  losing  such  immense  armies, 
and  seeing  the  flower  of  their  nobility  fall  by  their 
side,  returned  with  little  honour  into  Europe. 
But  these  repeated  misfortunes,  which  drained 
the  western  world  of  its  people  and  treasure,  were 
not  yet  sufficient  to  cure  men  of  their  passion  for 
those  spiritual  adventures;  and  a  new  incident 
rekindled  with  fresh  fury  the  zeal  of  the  ecclesi- 
astics and  military  adventurers  among  the  Latin 
Christians.  Saladin,  a  prince  of  great  generosity, 
bravery,  and  conduct,  having  fixed  himself  on  the 
throne  of  Egypt,  began  to  extend  his  conquests 
over  the  east ;  and  finding  the  settlement  of  the 


118  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1187. 

Christians  in  Palestine  an  invincible  obstacle  to 
the  progress  of  his  arms,  he  bent  the  whole  force 
of  his  policy  and  -s'alour  to  subdue  that  small  and 
barren,  but  important  territory.  Taking  advant- 
age of  dissensions  which  prevailed  among  the 
champions  of  the  cross,  and  having  secretly  gained 
the  count  of  Tripoli,  who  commanded  their  armies, 
he  invaded  the  frontiers  with  a  mighty  power; 
and,  aided  by  the  treachery  of  that  count,  gained 
over  them  at  Tiberaide  a  complete  victory,  which 
utterly  annihilated  the  force  of  the  already  lan- 
guishing kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  The  lioly  city 
itself  fell  into  his  hands,  after  a  feeble  resistance; 
the  kingdom  of  Antioch  was  almost  entirely  sub- 
dued ;  and,  except  some  maritime  towns,  nothing- 
considerable  remained  of  those  boasted  conquests, 
which,  near  a  century  before,  it  had  cost  the 
efforts  of  all  Europe  to  acquire ". 

The  western  Christians  were  astonished  on 
receiving  this  dismal  intelligence.  Pope  Urban 
III.  it  is  pretended,  died  of  grief;  and  his  suc- 
cessor, Gregory  VIII.  employed  the  whole  time 
of  his  short  pontificate  in  rousing  to  arms  all  the 
Christians  who  acknowledged  his  authority.  The 
general  cry  was,  that  they  were  unworthy  of 
enjoying  any  inheritance  in  heaven,  who  did  not 
vindicate  from  the  dominion  of  the  infidels  the 
inheritance  of  God  on  earth,  and  deliver  from 
slavery  that  country  which  had  been  consecrated 
by  the   footsteps  of  their   Redeemer.      William 

"  M.  Parisj,  p.  100. 


IISS.  HKXRV    n,  J!9 

archbisliop  of  Tyre,  havinu;  procured  a  eoutcrciK-f^ 
between  Henry  and  Philij)  near  CJisors,  enforced 
all  these  topies ;  j^ave  a  pathetic  de.scrij)tion  of 
the  nii.serahle  state  of  the  eastern  Cliristians;  aiul 
employed  every  argument  to  excite  the  ruling 
passions  of  the  age,  superstition,  and  jealousy  of 
military  honour".  The  two  monarchs  immediately 
took  the  cross  ;  many  of  their  most  considerable 
vassals  imitated  the  examjileP;  and  as  tlie  emperor 
Frederic  I.  entered  into  the  same  confederacy, 
some  well-grounded  hopes  of  success  were  enter- 
tained ;  and  men  flattered  themselves,  that  an 
enterprise  which  had  failed  under  the  conduct  of 
many  independent  leaders,  or  of  imprudent  princes, 
might  at  last,  hy  the  efforts  of  such  potent  and 
able  monarchs,  be  brought  to  a  happy  issue. 

The  kings  of  France  and  Kngland  imposed  a 
tax  amounting  to  the  tenth  of  all  moveable  goods, 
on  such  as  remained  at  liome*^;  but  as  they  ex- 
empted from  this  burden  most  of  the  regular 
clergy,  the  secular  aspired  to  the  same  innnunity; 
pretended  that  their  duty  obliged  them  to  assist 
the  crusade  with  their  prayers  alone ;  and  it  was 
with  some  difficulty  they  were  constrained  to 
desist  from  an  opposition,  \\hich  in  them,  wlio 
had  been  the  chief  promoters  of  those  pious  enter- 
prises, appeared  M'ith  the  worst  grace  imaginable ^ 
This  backwardness  of  the  clergy  is  ])erhaps  a 
symptom,  that  the  enthusiastic  ardoui-  which  had 

"  Bened.  Abb.  p.  531.         ''  Xeubrig.  p.  435.   Homing,  p.  512. 
"  Bened,  Abb.  p.  498.  '  Petri  Blessen.  epist.  112. 


120  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  II89. 

at  first  seized  the  people  for  crusades,  was  now 
by  time  and  ill  success  considerably  abated  ;  and 
that  the  frenzy  was  chiefly  supported  by  the 
military  genius  and  love  of  glory  in  the  monarchs. 


REVOLT  OF  PRINCE  RICHARD.     11 89. 

But  before  this  great  machine  could  be  put  in 
motion,  there  were  still  many  obstacles  to  sur- 
mount. Philip,  jealous  of  Henry's  power,  entered 
into  a  private  confederacy  with  young*  Richard ; 
and,  working  on  his  ambitious  and  impatient 
temper,  persuaded  him,  instead  of  supporting  and 
aggrandising  that  monarchy  which  he  Avas  one 
day  to  inherit,  to  seek  present  power  and  inde- 
pendence by  disturbing  and  dismembering  it.  In 
order  to  give  a  pretence  for  hostilities  between 
the  two  kings,  Richard  broke  into  the  territories 
of  Raymond  count  of  Toulouse,  who  immediately 
carried  complaints  of  this  violence  before  the  king 
of  France  as  his  superior  lord.  Philip  remon- 
strated with  Henry  ;  but  received  for  answer, 
that  Richard  had  confessed  to  the  archbishop  of 
Dublin  that  his  enterprise  against  Raymond  had 
been  undertaken  by  the  approbation  of  Philip 
himself,  and  was  conducted  by  his  authority. 
The  king  of  France,  who  might  have  been  covered 
with  shame  and  confusion  by  this  detection,  still 
prosecuted  his  design,  and  invaded  the  provinces 


lisy,  HENRY    II.  121 

of  Belli  and  Aii\eru,nc,  under  colour  of  reveng- 
ing the  quarrel  of  the  count  of  Toulouse*.  Henry 
retaliated,  by  making  inroads  upon  the  frontiers 
of  France,  and  burning  Dreux.  As  this  war, 
M'hich  destroyed  all  hopes  of  success  in  the  pro- 
jected crusade,  ga\'e  great  scandal,  the  two  kings 
held  a  conference  at  the  accustomed  place  be- 
tween Gisors  and  Trie,  in  order  to  find  means  of 
accommodating  their  differences  :  they  separated 
on  worse  terms  than  before  ;  and  Philip,  to  shew 
liis  disgust,  ordered  a  great  elm,  under  which  tlic 
conferences  had  usually  been  held,  to  be  cut 
down*^;  as  if  he  had  renounced  all  desire  of  ac- 
commodation, and  was  determined  to  carry  the 
war  to  extremities  against  the  king  of  England. 
But  his  own  vassals  refused  to  serve  under  him  in 
so  invidious  a  cause";  and  he  was  obliged  to  come 
anew  to  a  conference  with  Henry,  and  to  offer 
terms  of  peace.  These  terms  were  such  as  entirely 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  king  of  England,  and  fully 
convinced  him  of  the  perfidy  of  his  son,  and  his 
secret  alliance  with  Philip,  of  which  he  had  before 
only  entertained  some  suspicion.  The  king  of 
France  required  that  Richard  should  be  crowned 
king  of  England  in  the  lifetime  of  his  father, 
should  be  invested  in  all  his  transmarine  domi- 
nions, and  should  immediately  espouse  Alice, 
Philip's   sister,    to   whom  he  had  formerly  been 

'JBened.  Abb,  p.  508.  'Ibid,  p.  51/,  532. 

"Ibid.  p.  519. 


122  HISTOTxY   OF    ENGLAND.  llSg. 

affianced,  and  wlio  had  already  been  conducted 
into  England"^.  Henry  had  experienced  such  fatal 
efllscts,  both  from  the  crowning  of  his  eldest  son, 
and  from  that  prince's  aUiance  v/ith  the  royal 
family  of  France,  that  he  rejected  these  terms  ; 
and  Richard,  in  consequence  of  his  secret  agree- 
ment with  Philip,  immediately  revolted  from  hhii% 
did  homao-e  to  the  kino-  of  France  for  all  the 
dominions  which  Henry  held  of  that  crown,  and 
received  the  investitures  as  if  he  had  already  been 
the  lawful  possessor.  Se\eral  historians  assert, 
that  Henry  himself  had  become  enamoured  of 
young  Alice,  and  mention  tliis  as  an  additional 
reason  for  his  refusing  these  conditions :  but  he  had 
so  many  other  just  and  equitable  motives  for  his 
conduct,  that  it  is  superfluous  to  assign  a  cause, 
which  the  great  prudence  and  advanced  age  of 
that  monarch  render  somewhat  improbable. 

Cardinal  Albano,  the  pope's  legate,  displeased 
with  these  increasing  obstacles  to  the  crusade,  ex- 
communicated Richard,  as  the  chief  spring  of 
discord :  but  the  sentence  of  excommunication, 
which,  when  it  was  properly  prepared,  and  was 
Zealously  supported  by  the  clergy,  had  often  great 
influence  in  that  age,  proved  entirely  ineffectual 
in  the  present  case.  The  chief  barons  of  Poictou, 
Guienne,  Normandy,  and  Anjou,  being  attached 
to  the  young  prince,  and  finding  that  he  had  now 
received  the  investiture  from  their  superior  lord, 

''Bened.  Abb.  p.  521.     Hoveden,  p.  652. 
''Brompton,  p.  1149.    Neubrig.  p.  437. 


1169.  HENRY    IT.  123 

declared  for  liim,  and  iiiadc  inroads  into  the  terri- 
tories of  such  as  still  adhered  to  the  king.  Henry, 
disquieted  by  the  daily  revolts  of  his  mutinous 
subjects,  and  dreading  still  -worse  effects  from 
their  turbulent  disposition,  had  again  recourse 
to  papal  authority  ;  antl  engaged  the  cardinal 
Anagni,  who  had  succeeded  Albano  in  the  legate- 
ship,  to  threaten  Philip  w  ith  laying  an  interdict 
on  all  his  dominions.  But  Philip,  who  was  a 
prince  of  great  vigour  and  capacity,  despised  the 
menace,  and  told  Anagni,  that  it  belonged  not 
to  the  pope  to  interpose  in  the  temporal  disputes 
of  princes,  much  less  in  those  between  him  antl 
his  rebeUious  vassal.  He  even  proceeded  so  far  as 
to  reproach  him  witli  partiality,  and  m  ith  receiv- 
ing bribes  from  tlie  king  of  England  y;  while 
Richard,  still  more  outrageous,  offered  to  draw  his 
sword  against  the  legate,  and  was  hindered  by 
the  interposition  alone  of  the  company,  from  com- 
mitting violence  upon  him^ 

The  kino-  of  Knsi'land  Mas  now  obliged  to  de- 
fend  his  dominions  by  arms,  and  to  engage  in  a 
war  with  France,  and  with  his  eldest  son,  a  prince 
of  great  valour,  on  such  disadvantageous  terms. 
Ferte-Bernard  fell  first  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy :  Mans  was  next  taken  by  assault ;  and 
Henry,  who  had  throw  n  himself  into  that  place, 
escaped   with  some  difliculty":   Amboisc,    Chau- 

''M.  Paris,  p.  1(^4.      Bencd.  Abb.  p.  542.      Hovcden,  p.  652. 
^M.  Paris,  p.  104.  '  M.  Paris,  p.  105.     Bencd.  Abb. 

p.  543.     Hoveden,  p.  65:i. 


124  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1189. 

mont,  and  Chateau  de  Loire,  opened  their  gates 
on  the  appearance  oF  PhiHp  and  Richard :  Tours 
was  menaced ;  and  the  king,  who  had  retired  to 
Saumur,  and  had  daily  instances  of  the  cowardice 
or  infidehty  of  his  governors,  expected  the  most 
dismal  issue  to  all  his  enterprises.  While  he  was 
in  this  state  of  despondency,  the  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, the  earl  of  Flanders,  and  the  archbishop 
of  Rheims,  interposed  with  their  good  offices; 
and  the  intelligence  which  he  received  of  the 
taking  of  Tours,  and  which  made  him  fully  sensi- 
ble of  the  desperate  situation  of  his  affairs,  so 
subdued  his  spirit  that  he  submitted  to  all  the 
rigorous  terms  m  hich  were  imposed  upon  him.  He 
agreed,  that  Richard  should  marry  the  princess 
Alice  ;  that  that  prince  should  receive  the  homage 
and  oath  of  fealty  of  all  his  subjects  both  in  Eng- 
land and  his  transmarine  dominions;  that  he  him- 
self should  pay  twenty  thousand  marks  to  the 
king  of  France  as  a  compensation  for  the  charges 
of  the  war ;  that  his  own  barons  should  engage 
to  make  him  observe  this  treaty  by  force,  and  in 
case  of  his  violating  it,  should  promise  to  join 
Philip  and  Richard  against  him ;  and  that  all  his 
vassals  who  had  entered  into  confederacy  with 
Richard,  should  receive  an  indemnity  for  the 
offence  ^ 

''M.  Paris,  p.  106,     Bened.  Abb.  p.  545.    Hoveden,  p.  653. 


118Q.  HENRY    II.  125 


DEATH.     6th  July. 

l^UT  the  mortification  which  Henry,  wlio  liad 
been  accustomed  to  give  the  law  in  most  treaties, 
received  from  these  disadvantageous  terms,  was 
the  least  that  he  met  with  on  this  occasion.  When 
he  demanded  a  list  of  those  barons  to  M-hom  he 
was  bound  to  grant  a  pardon  for  their  connections 
wath  Richard,  he  w^as  astonished  to  find  at  the 
head  of  them  the  name  of  his  second  son  John'; 
who  had  always  been  his  favourite,  whose  interests 
he  had  ever  anxiously  at  heart,  and  who  had  even, 
on  account  of  his  ascendant  over  him,  often 
excited  the  jealousy  of  Richard  ^.  The  unhappy 
father,  already  overloaded  with  cares  and  sorrows, 
finding  his  last  disappointment  in  his  domestic 
tenderness,  broke  out  into  expressions  of  the 
utmost  despair,  cursed  the  day  in  which  he  re- 
ceived his  miserable  being,  and  bestowed  on  his 
ungrateful  and  undutiful  children  a  malediction 
which  he  never  could  be  prevailed  on  to  retract". 
The  more  his  heart  was  disposed  to  friendship  and 
affection,  the  more  he  resented  the  barbarous 
return  which  his  four  sons  had  successively  made 
to  his  parental  care ;  and  this  finishing  blow,  by 
depriving  him  of  every  comfort  in  life,  quite 
broke  his  spirit,  and  threw  him  into  a  lingering 

"Hoveden,  p.  654.  ''Bened.  Abb.  p.  541. 

*■  Hoveden^  p.  654. 


126  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1189. 

fever,  of  which  he  expired  at  the  castle  of  Chinon 
near  Saumiir.  His  natural  son  Geoffrey,  who 
alone  had  behaved  dutifLUly  towards  him,  attended 
his  corpse  to  the  nunnery  of  Fontervrault;  where 
it  lay  in  state  in  the  abbey-church.  Next  day 
Richard,  who  came  to  visit  the  dead  body  of  his 
father,  and  who,  notwithstanding  his  criminal  con- 
duct, was  not  wholly  destitute  of  generosity,  was 
struck  with  horror  and  remorse  at  the  sio-ht ;  and 
as  the  attendants  observed,  that  at  that  very  in- 
stant, blood  gushed  from  the  mouth  and  nostrils 
of  the  corpse^,  he  exclaimed,  agreeably  to  a  vulgar 
superstition,  that  he  was  his  father's  murderer; 
and  he  expressed  a  deep  sense,  though  too  late, 
of  that  undutiful  beliaviour  which  had  brought 
his  parent  to  an  untimely  graved 


CHARACTER  OF  HENRY. 

Thus  died,  in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age, 
and  thirty-fifth  of  his  reign,  the  greatest  prince  of 
his  time  for  wisdom,  virtue,  and  abilities,  and  the 
most  powerful  in  extent  of  dominion  of  all  those 
that  had  ever  filled  the  throne  of  England.  His 
character,  in  private  as  well  as  in  pubHc  life,  is 
almost  without  a  blemish ;  and  he  seems  to  have 
possessed  every  accomplishment,  both  of  body 
and  mind,  which  makes  a  man  either  estimable 

•^Bened.  Abb.  p.  547.     Brompton,  p.  I15L 
^M.  Paris,  p.  107. 


liey.  UEKllY    II.  12/ 

or  amiable.  lie  was  of"  a  inidcUe  stature,  strong 
and  well  proportioned;  his  countenance  was  lively 
and  engaging;  bis  conversation  atlable  and  enter- 
taining ;  bis  elocution  easy,  persuasive,  and  ever 
at  command.  He  lo\'ed  peace,  but  possessed  both 
bravery  and  conduct  in  war;  was  provident  with- 
out timidity ;  severe  in  the  execution  of  justice 
^\ithout  rigour;  and  temperate  without  austerity. 
He  preser\ed  health,  and  kept  himself  from  cor- 
pulency, to  which  he  was  somewhat  inclined,  by 
an  abstemious  diet,  and  by  frequent  exercise, 
particularly  hunting.  When  he  could  enjoy 
leisure,  he  recreated  himself  either  in  learned  con- 
versation or  in  reading;  and  he  cultivated  his  na- 
tural talents  by  study,  above  any  prince  of  his  time. 
His  aifections,  as  well  as  his  enmities,  were  warm 
and  durable  ;  and  his  long  experience  of  the  in- 
gratitude and  infidelity  of  men  never  destroyed  the 
natural  sensibility  of  his  temper,  which  disposed 
liim  to  friendship  and  society.  His  character  has 
been  transmitted  to  us  by  several  writers  who 
were  his  contemporaries*';  and  it  extremely  re- 
sembles, in  its  most  remarkable  features,  that  of 
liis  maternal  grandfather  Henry  I.  :  excepting 
only,  that  ambition,  which  was  a  ruling  passion 
in  both,  found  not  in  the  first  Henry  such  unex- 
ceptionable means  of  exerting  itself,  and  pushed 
that  prince  into  measures,  which  were  both  crimi- 
nal in  themselves,  and  were  the  cause  of  farther 

"'Petri  Bles,  epist.  46,  47.  in  Bibliotheca  Patrura,  vol.  xxiv.  p. 
985,  986,  &c.  Girald.  Camb.  p.  783,  &c. 


128  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  nsg, 

crimes,  from  which  his   grandson's  conduct  was 
happily  exempted. 


MISCELLANEOUS  TRANSACTIONS  OF 
THIS  REIGN.     1189. 

This  prince,- hke  most  of  his  predecessors  of  the 
Norman  hne,  except  Stephen,  passed  more  of 
his  time  on  the  continent  than  in  this  island :  he 
was  surrounded  with  the  English  gentry  and 
nobility,  when  abroad :  the  French  gentry  and 
nobility  attended  him  when  he  resided  in  Eng- 
land :  both  nations  acted  in  the  government  as  if 
they  were  the  same  people  ;  and,  on  many  oc- 
casions, the  legislatures  seem  not  to  have  been 
distinguished.  As  the  king  and  all  the  English 
barons  were  of  French  extraction,  the  manners 
of  that  people  acquired  tlie  ascendant,  and  were 
regarded  as  the  models  of  imitation.  All  foreign 
improvements,  therefore,  such  as  they  Avere,  in 
hterature  and  politeness,  in  laws  and  arts,  seem 
now  to  have  been,  in  a  good  measure,  transplanted 
into  England ;  and  that  kingdom  was  become 
little  inferior  in  all  the  fashionable  accompHsh- 
ments,  to  any  of  its  neighbours  on  the  continent. 
The  more  homely  but  more  sensible  manners  and 
principles  of  the  Saxons,  were  exchanged  for  the 
affectations  of  chivalry  and  the  subtilties  of  school 
philosophy  :  the  feudal  ideas  of  civil  government, 
the   Romish  sentiments  in  religion,    had   taken 


1189.  HENRY  11.  129 

entire  possession  of  the  people :  by  the  former, 
the  sense  of  submission  towards  princes  was  some- 
Avhat  diminished  in  the  barons ;  by  tlie  latter,  the 
devoted  attachment  to  papal  authority  was  much 
augmented  among  the  clergy.  The  Norman  and 
other  foreign  families  established  in  England,  had 
now  struck  deep  root ;  and  being  entirely  incor- 
porated with  the  people,  whom  at  first  they  op- 
pressed and  despised,  they  no  longer  thought  that 
they  needed  the  protection  of  the  crown  for  the 
enjoyment  of  their  possessions,  or  considered  their 
tenure  as  precarious.  They  aspired  to  the  same 
liberty  and  independence  which  they  saw  enjoyed 
by  their  brethren  on  the  continent,  and  desired 
to  restrain  those  exorbitant  prerogatives  and  arbi- 
trary practices,  which  the  necessities  of  war  and 
the  violence  of  conquest  had  at  first  obliged  them 
to  indulge  in  their  monarch.  That  memory  also  of 
a  more  equal  government  under  the  Saxon  princes, 
which  remained  with  the  English,  diffused  still 
farther  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  made  the  barons 
both  desirous  of  more  independence  to  themselves, 
and  willing  to  indulge  it  to  the  people.  And  it 
was  not  long  ere  this  secret  revolution  in  the  senti- 
ments of  men  produced,  first  violent  convulsions 
in  the  state,  then  an  evident  alteration  in  the 
maxims  of  government. 

The  history  of  all  the  preceding  kings  of 
England  since  the  conquest,  gives  evident  proofs 
of  the  disorders  attending  the  feudal  institutions; 
the  licentiousness  of  the  barons,   their  spirit  of 

VOL.    II.  K 


130  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1I89. 

rebellion  against  the  prince  and  laws,  and  of  ani- 
mosity against  each  other:   the  conduct  of  the 
barons   in  the   transmarine   dominions   of   those 
monarchs,    afforded    perhaps   still   more   flagrant 
instances  of  these  convulsions  ;  and  the  history 
of  France,   during   several  ages,   consists  almost 
entirely  of  narrations  of  this  nature.     The  cities, 
during  the  continuance  of  this  violent  govern- 
ment, could  neither  be  very  numerous  nor  popul- 
ous ;   and  there  occur  instances  which   seem  to 
evince,  tbat,  though  these  are  always  the  first  seat 
of  law  and  liberty,   their  police  v/as  in  general 
loose  and  irregular,  and  exposed  to  the  same  dis- 
orders with  those  by  which  the  country  was  gene- 
rally infested.     It  was  a  custom  in  London  for 
great  numbers,  to  the  amount  of  a  hundred  or 
more,    the    sons    and    relations    of   considerable 
citizens,    to   form    themselves    into   a   licentious 
confederacy,  to  break  into  rich  houses  and  plun- 
der them,  to  rob  and  murder  the  passengers,  and 
to  commit  with  impunity  all  sorts  of  disorder. 
By  these  crimes,  it  had  become  so  dangerous  to 
walk  the  streets  by  night,  that  the  citizens  durst 
no   more  venture   abroad  after  sun-set,   than  if 
they  had  been  exposed  to  the   incursions   of  a 
public  enemy.    The  brother  of  the  earl  of  Ferrars 
had  been  murdered  by  some  of  those  nocturnal 
rioters;  and  the  death  of  so  eminent  a  person, 
which  was  much  more  regarded  than  that  of  many 
thousands  of  an  inferior  station,  so  provoked  the 
king  that  he  swore  vengeance  against  the  criminals. 


n&(j.  HENRY    II.  131 

and  became  tlieiicefoith  more  rigorous  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  Laws'. 

There  is  anotlier  instance  given  by  historians, 
Avliich  proves  to  what  a  height  such  riots  had  pro- 
ceeded, and  how  open  these  criminals  were  in 
committing  their  robberies.  A  band  of  them  had 
attacked  the  house  of  a  rich  citizen,  witli  an  in- 
tention of  plundering  it ;  had  broken  through  a 
stone-wall  with  hannners  and  wedges ;  and  had 
already  entered  the  house  sword  in  hand  ;  when 
the  citizen,  armed  cap-a-pee,  and  supported  by 
his  faithful  servants,  appeared  in  the  passage  to 
oppose  them  :  he  cut  off  the  right  hand  of  the  first 
robber  that  entered  ;  and  made  such  stout  resist- 
ance, that  his  neighbours  had  leisure  to  assemble, 
and  come  to  his  relief.  The  man  who  lost  his 
hand  was  taken  ;  and  was  tempted  by  the  promise 
of  pardon  to  reveal  his  confederates ;  among 
whom  was  one  John  Senex,  esteemed  among  the 
richest  and  best-born  citizens  in  London.  Lie  was 
convicted  by  the  ordeal ;  and  though  he  offered 
five  hundred  marks  for  his  life,  the  king  refused 
the  money,  and  ordered  him  to  be  hanged  ^.  It 
appears  from  a  statute  of  Edward  L  that  these 
disorders  were  not  remedied  even  in  that  reiffn. 
It  was  then  made  penal  to  go  out  at  night  after 
the  hour  of  the  curfew,  to  carry  a  weapon,  or  to 
walk  without  a  light  or  lanthorn  ^  It  is  said  in 
the  preamble  to  this  law,  that,  both  by  night  and 

'Bened.  Abb.  p.  I96.  "  Bened.  Abb.  p.   igy,  I98. 

'  Observatioiw  on  the  ancient  Statutes,  p.  2 16. 
O. 


132  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  lisg. 

by  clay,  there  were  continual  frays  in  the  streets 
of  London. 

Henry's  care  in  administering  justice  had  gain- 
ed him  so  great  a  reputation,  that  even  foreign 
and  distant  princes  made  him  arbiter,  and  sub- 
mitted their  differences  to  his  judgment.  San- 
chez king  of  Navarre,  having  some  controversies 
with  Alfonso  king  of  Castile,  was  contented, 
though  Alfonso  had  married  the  daughter  of 
Henry,  to  chuse  this  prince  for  a  referee ;  and 
they  agreed,  each  of  them  to  consign  three  castles 
into  neutral  hands,  as  a  pledge  of  their  not  de- 
parting from  his  award.  Henry  made  the  cause 
be  examined  before  his  great  council,  and  gave  a 
sentence,  which  was  submitted  to  by  both  parties. 
These  two  Spanish  kings  sent  each  a  stout  cham- 
pion to  the  court  of  England,  in  order  to  defend 
his  cause  by  arms,  in  case  the  way  of  duel  had 
been  cho'sen  by  Henry"'. 

Henry  so  far  abolished  the  barbarous  and  ab- 
surd practice  of  confiscating  ships  which  had  been 
Avrecked  on  the  coast,  that  he  ordained,  if  one 
man  or  animal  were  alive  in  the  ship,  that  the 
vessel  and  goods  should  be  restored  to  the  owners". 

The  reign  of  Henry  was  remarkable  also  for 
an  innovation  which  was  afterwards  carried  farther 
by  his  successors,  and  was  attended  with  the  most 
important  consequences.  This  prince  was  dis- 
gusted with  the  species  of  military  force  which  was 

•"  Rymer,  vol.  iv.  p.  43.     Bened.  Abb.  p.  172.     Diceto,  p.  5Q7, 
Brompton,  p.  1120.  "  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  36. 


1169.  HENRY    II.  133 

establislicd  l)y  the  feudal  institutions,  and  m  liicli, 
thougli  it  M'as  extremely  burdensome  to  the  sub- 
ject, yet  rendered  very  little  service  to  the  so- 
vereign. The  barons,  or  military  tenants,  came 
late  into  the  field ;  they  Mere  obliged  to  serve 
only  forty  days ;  they  were  unskilful  and  disor- 
derly in  all  their  operations  ;  and  they  were  apt  to 
carry  into  the  camp  the  same  refractory  and  in- 
dependent spirit,  to  which  they  were  accustomed 
in  their  civil  government.  Henry,  therefore,  in- 
troduced the  practice  of  making  a  commutation 
of  their  military  service  for  money  ;  and  hedevied 
scutages  from  his  baronies  and  knights  fees,  in- 
stead of  requiring  the  personal  attentlance  of  his 
vassals.  There  is  mention  made,  in  the  history 
of  tlie  exchequer,  of  these  scutages  in  his  second, 
fifth,  and  eighteenth  year";  and  other  writers 
give  us  an  account  of  three  more  of  them^.  When 
the  prince  had  thus  obtained  money,  he  made  a 
contract  with  some  of  those  adventurers  in  which 
Europe  at  that  time  abounded  :  they  found  him 
soldiers  of  the  same  character  with  themselves, 
who  Mere  bound  to  serve  for  a  stipulated  time : 
the  armies  were  less  numerous,  but  more  useful, 
than  when  composed  of  all  the  military  vassals  of 
the  croM'ii :  the  feudal  institutions  began  to  relax : 
the  kings  became  rapacious  for  money,  on  M'hich 
all  their  power  depended :  the  barons,  seeing  no 
end  of  exactions,  sought  to  defend  their  property: 

"Madox,  p.  435,  436,437,  438. 
P  Tyrrel,  vol.  ii,  p.  466.  from  the  records. 


134  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  HSg. 

and  as  the  same  causes  had  nearly  the  same  eifects 
in  the  different  countries  of  Europe,  the  several 
crowns  either  lost  or  acquired  authority,  accord- 
ing to  their  different  success  in  the  contest. 

This  prince  was  also  the  first  that  levied  a  tax 
on  the  moveables  or  personal  estates  of  his  sub- 
jects, nobles  as  well  as  commons.  Their  zeal  for 
the  holy  wars  made  them  submit  to  this  innova- 
tion ;  and  a  precedent  being  once  obtained,  this 
taxation  became,  in  following  reigns,  the  usual 
method  of  supplying  the  necessities  of  the  crown. 
The  tax  of  Danegelt,  so  generally  odious  to  the 
nation,  was  remitted  in  this  reign. 

■  It  was  a  usual  practice  of  the  kings  of  England, 
to  repeat  the  ceremony  of  their  coronation  thrice 
every  year,  on  assembling  the  states  at  the  three 
great  festivals.  Henry,  after  the  first  years  of  his 
reign,  never  renewed  this  ceremony,  which  was 
found  to  be  very  expensive  and  very  useless.  None 
of  his  successors  revived  it.  It  is  considered  as  a 
great  act  of  grace  in  this  prince,  that  he  miti- 
gated the  rigour  of  the  forest  laws,  and  punished 
any  transgressions  of  them,  not  capitally,  but  by 
fines,  imprisonments,  and  other  more  moderate 
penalties. 

Since  we  are  here  collecting  some  detached 
incidents,  which  show  the  genius  of  the  age,  and 
which  could  not  so  well  enter  into  the  body  of 
our  history,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  mention 
the  quarrel  between  Roger  archbishop  of  York, 
and  Richard  archbishop  of  Canterbury.     We  may 


118g.  HEXRY    II.  135 

judge  of  the  violence  of  military  men  and  laymen, 
M-hcn  ecclesiastics  could  proceed  to  such  extremi- 
ties. Cardinal  Haguezun  being  sent,  in  II76,  as 
legate  into  Britain,  summoned  an  assembly  of  the 
clergy  at  London ;  and  as  both  the  archbishops 
pretended  to  sit  on  his  right  hand,  this  question 
of  precedency  begat  a  controversy  iietwecn  them. 
The  monks  and  retainers  of  archbishop  Richard 
fell  upon  Roger,  in  the  presence  of  the  cardinal 
and  of  the  synod,  threw  him  to  the  ground, 
trampled  him  under  foot,  and  so  bruised  him  with 
blows,  that  he  was  taken  up  half  dead,  and  his 
life  was,  with  difficulty,  saved  from  their  violence. 
The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  obliged  to  pay 
a  large  sum  of  money  to  the  legate,  in  order 
to  suppress  all  complaints  with  regard  to  this 
enormity*". 

We  are  told  by  Gyraldus  Cambrensis,  that 
the  monks  and  prior  of  St.  Swithun  threw  them- 
selves, one  day,  prostrate  on  the  ground  and  in 
the  mire  before  Henry,  complaining,  with  many 
tears  and  much  doleful  lamentation,  that  the  bi- 
shop of  Winchester,  who  Mas  also  their  abbot, 
had  cut  oif  three  dishes  from  their  table.  Plow 
many  has  he  left  you  ?  said  the  king.  Ten  only, 
replied  the  disconsolate  monks.  I  myself,  ex- 
claimed the  king,  never  have  more  than  three ; 

''Bened.  Abb.  p.  138,  139.      Brompton,  p.  IIO9.     Cliron. 
Gerv.  p.  1433.     Neubrig.  p.  413. 


136  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1I89. 

and  I  enjoin  your  bishop  to  reduce  you  to  the 
same  number  *^. 

This  king  left  only  two  legitimate  sons,  Ri- 
chard who  succeeded  him,  and  John  who  inherited 
no  territory,  though  his  father  had  often  intended 
to  leave  him  a  part  of  his  extensive  dominions. 
He  was  thence  commonly  denominated  Lack- 
land. Henry  left  three  legitimate  daughters ; 
Maud,  born  in  1  \56,  and  married  to  Henry  duke 
of  Saxony;  Eleanor,  born  in  \\62,  and  married 
to  Alphonso  king  of  Castile ;  Joan,  born  in  11 65, 
and  married  to  William  king  of  Sicily". 

Henry  is  said  by  ancient  historians  to  have 
been  of  a  very  amorous  disposition :  they  men- 
tion two  of  his  natural  sons  by  Rosamond,  daugh- 
ter of  lord  Clifford  ;  namely,  Richard  Longespee, 
or  Longs  word  (so  called  from  the  sword  he  usually 
wore),  who  was  afterwards  married  to  Ela,  the 
daughter  and  heir  of  the  earl  of  Salisbury ;  and 
Geoffrey,  first  bishop  of  Lincoln,  then  arch- 
bishop of  York.  All  the  other  circumstances  of 
the  story,  commonly  told  of  that  lady,  seem  to 
be  fabulous. 

"^  Gir.  Camb.  cap.  5.  in  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  ii, 
'  'Diceto^  p.  Q\6. 


rutlUlitd  JiifiiuT ji'! niot  t,  JamesWMh.  i^.l-aurnona-rim 


mtbnvtj  tf)e  first 


CiiAP.X.   p.  181. 
He  sent  for  Gourdon,  and  asked  him,  '  Wretch,  what  have  I 
ever  done  to  yon,  to  oblige  you  to  seek  my  life  :  — '  What  have 
you  done  to  me?'  replied  coolly  the  prisoner.     '  You  killed  .ah 
j-onr  own  hands  my  father  and  my  two  brothers ;  and  you  intended 
to  have  hanged  myself:  I  am  now  in  your  power,  and  you  may 
take  revenge,  by  inflicting  on  me  the  most  severe  torments:  but 
I  shall  endure  them  all  with  pleasure,  provided  I  can  th.nk  that 
I  Inve  been  so  happy  as  to  rid  the  world  of  such  a  nuisance.' 


USg.  Tx  I  CHARD    L  i37 


CHAPTER    X. 


Tlie  King's  Preparations  fortlie  Crusade  ....  Sets  out  on  tlie  Cru- 
sade ....  Transactions  in  Sicily  ....  King's  Arrival  in  Palestine 
....  State  of  Palestine  ....  Disorders  in  England  ....  The 
King's  heroic  Actions  in  Palestine  ....  His  Return  from  Pales- 
tine ....  Captivity  in  Germany  ....  War  witli  France  ....  The 
King's  Delivery  ....  Return  to  England  ....  War  with  France 
....  Death  ....  and  Character  of  the  King  ....  Miscellane- 
ous Transactions  of  this  Reign. 

RICHARD    I. 

iHE  compunction  of  Richard  for  his  iindutiful 
beliaviour  towards  liis  father  Avas  chirable,  and 
influenced  him  in  the  choice  of  his  ministers  and 
servants  after  his  accession.  Those  M'ho  had  se- 
conded and  favoured  his  rebelhon,  instead  of 
meeting  with  that  trust  and  honour  wliich  tlicy 
expected,  were  surprised  to  find  tliat  they  lay 
under  disgrace  with  the  new  king,  and  were  on 
all  occasions  hated  and  despised  by  him.  The 
faithful  ministers  of  Henry,  who  had  vigorously 
opposed  all  the  enterprises  of  his  sons,  were  re- 
ceived with  open  arms,  and  were  continued  in 
those  offices  which  they  had  honourably  dis- 
charged to  their  former  master*.     This  prudent 

*  Hoveden,  p,  655.     Bened.  Abb.  p.  547.     M,  Paris,  p.  107. 


133  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1189- 

conduct  might  be  the  result  of  reflection  ;  but  in 
a  prince,  like  Richard,  so  much  guided  by  pas- 
sion, and  so  little  by  policy,  it  was  commonly  as- 
cribed to  a  principle  still  more  virtuous  and  more 
honourable. 

Richard,  that  he  might  make  atonement  to 
one  parent  for  his  breach  of  duty  to  the  other, 
immediately  sent  orders  for  releasing  the  queen- 
dowager  from  the  confinement  in  which  she  had 
long  been  detained ;  and  he  entrusted  her  with 
the  a:overnment  of  Enoland  till  his  arrival  in  that 
kingdom.  His  bounty  to  his  brother  John  was 
rather  profuse  and  imprudent.  Besides  bestow- 
ing on  him  the  county  of  JMortaigne  in  Norman- 
dy, granting  him  a  pension  of  four  thousand 
marks  a  year,  and  marrying  him  to  Avisa  the 
daughter  of  the  earl  of  Glocester,  by  whom  he 
inherited  all  the  possessions  of  that  opulent  fa- 
mily, he  increased  his  appanage,  which  the  late 
king  had  destined  him,  by  other  extensive  grants 
and  concessions.  He  conferred  on  him  the  mIioIc 
estate  of  William  Peverell,  which  liad  escheated 
to  the  crown  :  he  put  him  in  possession  of  eight 
castles,  with  all  the  forests  and  honours  annexed 
to  them  :  he  delivered  over  to  him  no  less  than 
six  earldoms,  Cornwall,  Devon,  Somerset,  Not- 
tingham, Dorset,  Lancaster,  and  Derby :  and 
endeavouring,  by  favours,  to  fix  that  vicious 
prince  in  his  duty,  he  put  it  too  much  in  his 
power,  whenever  he  pleased,  to  depart  from  it. 


1189.  RICHARD    1.  139 

THE  KING'S  PREPARATION  FOR  THE 
CRUSADE.     1189. 

The  king,  impelled  more  by  the  love  of  military 
glory  than  by  superstition,  acted,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  reign,  as  if  the  sole  purpose  of  his 
government  had  been  the  relief  of  the  Holy 
Land,  and  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem  from  the 
Saracens.  This  zeal  against  infidels,  being  com- 
municated to  his  subjects,  broke  out  in  London 
on  the. day  of  his  coronation,  and  made  them  fmd 
a  crusade  less  dangerous,  and  attained  m  ith  more 
immediate  profit.  The  prejudices  of  the  age  had 
made  the  lending  of  money  on  interest  pass  by 
the  invidious  name  of  usury  :  yet  the  necessity 
of  the  practice  had  still  continued  it,  and  ihe 
greater  part  of  that  kind  of  dealing  fell  every 
^\  here  into  the  hands  of  the  Jews ;  who,  being 
already  infamous  on  account  of  their  religion, 
had  no  honour  to  lose,  and  were  apt  to  exercise  a 
profession,  odious  in  itself,  by  every  kind  of  ri- 
gour, and  even  sometimes  by  rapine  and  extor- 
tion. The  industry  and  frugality  of  this  people 
had  put  them  in  possession  of  all  the  ready  mone\', 
which  the  idleness  and  profusion  common  to  the 
English  with  other  European  nations,  enabled 
them  to  lend  at  exorbitant  and  unequal  interest. 
The  monkish  writers  represent  it  as  a  great  stain 
on  the  wise  and  ecpiitable  government  of  Henry 
that  he  had  carefully  protected   this  infidel  race 


140  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  \isg. 

from  all  injuries  and  insults ;   but  the  zeal  of  Ri- 
chard afforded  the  populace  a  pretence  for  vent- 
ing their  animosity  against  them.     The  king  had 
issued  an  edict  prohibiting  their  appearance  at 
his  coronation,   but  some  of  them  bringing  him 
large  presents  from   their  nation,    presumed,   in 
confidence  of  that  merit,  to  approach  the  hall  in 
which  he  dined :  being  discovered,  they  were  ex- 
posed to  the  insults  of  the  bystanders  ;  they  took 
to  flight ;  the  people  pursued  them ;  the  rumour 
was  spread,   that  the  king  had  issued  orders  to 
massacre  all  the  Jews ;   a  command  so  agreeable 
was  executed  in  an  instant  on  such  as  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  populace  ;  those  who  had  kept  at 
home  were  exposed  to  equal  danger  ;  the  people, 
moved  by  rapacity   and  zeal,    broke   into   their 
houses,   M'hich  they  plundered,  after  having  mur- 
dered the   owners;    where   the   Jews  barricaded 
their  doors  and  defended  themselves  with  vio-our, 
the  rabble  set  fire  to  the  houses,   and  made  way 
through  the  flames  to  exercise  their  pillage  and 
violence ;    the  usual   licentiousness    of   London, 
which   the   sovereign   power   with   difficulty  re- 
strained,    broke  out   with  fury,    and    continued 
these  outrages  ;  the  houses  of  the  richest  citizens, 
though  Christians,   were  next  attacked  and  plun- 
dered ;  and  weariness  and  satiety  at  last  put  an 
end  to  the  disorder:    yet,    when  the  king   im- 
powered  Glanville,  the  justiciary,   to  inquire  into 
the  authors  of  these  crimes,   the  guilt  was  found 
to  involve  so  many  of  the  most  considerable  citi- 


1189.  RICHARD    I.  141 

zens,  that  it  was  deemed  more  prudent  to  drop 
the  prosecution ;  and  very  few  suffered  the  pu- 
nishment (kie  to  this  enormity.  But  the  disorder 
stopped  not  at  London.  The  inhabitants  oftlie 
other  cities  of  England,  hearing  of  this  slaughter 
of  the  Jews,  imitated  the  example  :  in  York,  five 
hundred  of  that  nation,  who  had  retired  into  the 
castle  for  safety,  and  found  themselves  unable  to 
defend  the  place,  murdered  their  own  wives  and 
children,  threw  the  dead  bodies  over  the  m  alls 
upon  the  populace,  and  then  setting  fire  to  the 
houses,  perished  in  the  flames.  The  gentry  of 
the  neighbourhood,  who  were  all  indebted  to  the 
Jews,  ran  to  the  cathedral,  where  their  bonds 
were  kept,  and  made  a  solemn  bonfire  of  the 
papers  before  the  altar.  The  compiler  of  the  An- 
nals of  Waverley,  in  relating  these  events,  blesses 
the  Almighty  for  thus  delivering  over  this  impious 
race  to  destruction". 

The  ancient  situation  of  England,  when  the 
people  possessed  little  riches  and  the  public  no 
credit,  made  it  impossible  for  sovereigns  to  bear 
the  cxpence  of  a  steady  or  durable  war  even  on 
their  frontiers;  much  less  could  they  find  regular 
means  for  the  support  of  distant  expeditions  like 
those  into  Palestine,  which  were  more  the  result 
of  popular  frenzy  than  of  sober  reason  or  delibe- 
rate policy.  Richard,  therefore,  knew  that  he 
must  carry  with  him  all  the  treasure  necessary  for 

"  Gale's  Collect,  vol.  iii.  p.  \65. 


142  HlSTOFxY   OF   ENGLAND.  1I89. 

Iiis  enterprise;  and  that  both  the  remoteness  of 
his  own  country  and  its  poverty  made  it  unable 
to  furnish  him  with  those  continued  supplies 
which  the  exigencies  of  so  perilous  a  war  must 
necessarily  require.  His  father  had  left  him  a 
treasure  of  above  a  hundred  thousand  marks ;  and 
the  king,  negligent  of  every  consideration  but 
his  present  object,  endeavoured  to  augment  this 
sum  by  all  expedients,  how  pernicious  soever  to 
the  public,  or  dangerous  to  royal  authority.  He 
put  to  sale  the  revenues  and  manors  of  the  crown  ; 
the  offices  of  greatest  trust  and  power,  even  those 
of  forester  and  sheriff,  Avhich  anciently  were  so 
important,  became  venal;  the  dignity  of  chief 
justiciary,  in  whose  hands  was  lodged  the  whole 
execution  of  the  laws,  was  sold  to  Hugh  de  Pu- 
zas,  bishop  of  Durham,  for  a  thousand  marks ; 
the  same  prelate  bought  the  earldom  of  Northum- 
berland for  life'';  many  of  the  champions  of  the 
cross,  who  had  repented  of  their  vow,  purchased 
the  liberty  of  violating  it ;  and  Richard,  who 
stood  less  in  need  of  men  than  of  money,  dis- 
pensed, on  these  conditions,  with  their  attend- 
ance. Elated  with  the  hopes  of  fame,  which  in 
that  age  attended  no  wars  but  those  against  the 
infidels,  he  was  blind  to  every  other  consider- 
ation;  and  when  some  of  his  wiser  ministers  ob- 

"  The  sheriff  had  anciently  both  the  administration  of  justi  c& 
and  the  management  of  the  king's  revenue  committed  to  him  in- 
the  county.     See  Hale,  of  Sheriffs  Account. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  IO9. 


USg.  RICH  AH  D    I.  143 

jectecl  to  this  dissipation  of  the  revenue  and  power 
of  the  crown,  he  replied,  that  lie  Mould  sell  Lon- 
don itself,  could  he  find  a  purchaser  ^  Nothiuij^ 
indeed  could  he  a  stronger  proof  how  negligent 
he  wasof  all  future  interests  in  comparison  of  the 
crusade,  than  his  selling,  for  so  small  a  sum  as 
10,000  marks,  the  vassalage  of  Scotland,  together 
with  the  fortresses  of  Roxburgh  and  Berwick,  the 
greatest  acquisition  that  had  been  made  by  his 
father  during  the  course  of  his  victorious  reign  ; 
and  his  accepting  the  homage  of  William  in  the 
usual  terms,  merely  for  the  territories  Avhich  that 
prince  held  in  England  ^  The  English,  of  all 
ranks  and  stations,  were  oppressed  by  numerous 
exactions  :  menaces  were  employed,  both  against 
the  innocent  and  the  guilty,  in  order  to  extort 
money  from  them :  and  where  a  pretence  Avas 
wanting  against  the  rich,  the  king  obliged  them, 
by  the  fear  of  his  displeasure,  to  lend  him  sums 
which,  he  knew,  it  Mould  never  be  in  his  power 
to  repay. 

But  Richard,  though  he  sacrificed  every  in- 
terest and  consideration  to  the  success  of  this 
pious  enterprise,  carried  so  little  the  appearance 
of  sanctity  in  his  conduct,  that  Eulk,  curate  of 
Neuilly,  a  zealous  preacher  of  the  crusade,  who 
from  that  merit  had  acquired  the  privilege  of 
speaking  the  boldest  truths,  advised  him  to  rid 

"W,  Heming,  p.  5ig.     Knyghton,  p.  24('2. 
^ Hoveden,  p.  662.     Rymer,  vol.  i,  p.  64.     M.  West,  p.  25/. 


144  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  II89. 

himself  of  his  notorious  vices,  particularly  his 
pride,  avarice,  and  voluptuousness,  which  he 
called  the  king's  three  favourite  daughters.  Yoit 
counsel  zvell,  replied  Richard,  and  I  hereby  dispose 
of  the  first  to  the  Templars,  of  the  second  to  the  Be- 
nedictines, and  of  the  third  to  my  prelates. 

Richard,  jealous  of  attempts  which  might  be 
made  on  England  during  his  absence,  laid  prince 
John,  as  well  as  his  natural  brother  Geoifrey 
archbishop  of  York,  under  engagements,  con- 
firmed by  their  oaths,  that  neither  of  them  should 
enter  the  kingdom  till  his  return;  though  he 
thought  proper,  before  his  departure,  to  withdraw 
this  prohibition.  The  administration  was  left  in 
the  hands  of  Hugh  bishop  of  Durham,  and  of 
Longchamp  bishop  of  Ely,  whom  he  appointed 
justiciaries  and  guardians  of  the  realm.  The  lat- 
ter was  a  Frenchman  of  mean  birth,  and  of  a  vio- 
len,t  character;  who  by  art  and  address  had  insi- 
nuated himself  into  favour,  whom  Richard  had 
created  chancellor,  and  whom  he  had  engaged 
the  pope  also  to  invest  with  the  legantine  author- 
ity, that,  by  centering  every  kind  of  power  in 
his  person,  he  might  the  better  ensure  the  public 
tranquilhty.  All  the  military  and  turbulent  spirits- 
flocked  about  the  person  of  the  king,  and  were 
impatient  to  distinguish  themselves  against  the 
infidels  in  Asia ;  whither  his  incHnations,  his  en- 
gagements led  him,  and  whither  he  was  impelled 
by  messages  from  the  king  of  France,  ready,  to 
embark  in  this  enterprise. 


]189.  RICHARD    I.  14S 

The  emperor  Frederick,  a  prince  of  great  spirit 
and  conduct,  liad  already  taken  the  road  to  Pa- 
lestine at  the  head  of  150,000  men,  collected  from 
Germany  and  all  the  northern  states.  Having 
surmounted  every  obstacle  thrown  in  his  way  by 
the  artifices  of  the  Greeks  and  the  power  of  the 
infidels,  he  had  penetrated  to  the  borders  of  Syria; 
when  bathing  in  the  cold  river  Cydnus  during  the 
greatest  heat  of  the  summer  season,  he  was  seized 
with  a  mortal  distemper,  which  put  an  end  to  his 
life  and  his  rash  enterprise  ^  His  army,  under 
the  command  of  his  son  Conradc,  reached  Pa- 
lestine;  but  M'as  so  diminished  by  fatigue,  famine, 
maladies,  and  the  sword,  that  it  scarcely  amount- 
ed to  eight  thousand  men ;  and  was  unable  to 
make  any  progress  against  the  great  power,  va- 
lour, and  conduct  of  Saladin.  These  reiterated 
calamities  attending  the  crusades  had  taught  the 
kings  of  France  and  England  the  necessity  of 
trying  another  road  to  the  Holy  Land  ;  and  they 
determined  to  conduct  their  armies  thither  by  sea, 
to  carry  provisions  along  with  them,  and  by 
means  of  their  naval  power,  to  maintain  an  open 
communication  M'ith  their  own  states,  and  with 
the  western  parts  of  Europe.  The  place  of  ren- 
dezvous was  appointed  in  the  plains  of  Vezelay  on 
the  borders  of  JBurgundy^:  Philip  and  Richard, 
on  their  arrival  there,  found  their  combined  army 
amount  to   100,000  men*^;  a  mighty  force,  ani- 

'  Bcned.  Abb.  p.  556. 
^  Hoveden^  p.  66o.  "  Vinisauf,  p.  Z05. 

VOL.   11.  L 


146  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  ligo. 

mated  with  glory  and  religion,  conducted  by  two 
Warlike  monarchs,  provided  with  every  thing 
which  their  several  dominions  could  supply,  and 
not  to  be  overcome  but  by  their  OAvn  misconduct, 
or  by  the  unsurmountable  obstacles  of  nature. 

KING  SETS  OUT  ON  THE  CRUSADE. 

The  French  prince  and  the  English  here  reite- 
rated their  promises  of  cordial  friendship,  pledged 
their  faith  not  to  invade  each  other's  dominions 
during  the  crusade,  mutually  exchanged  the  oaths 
of  all  their  barons  and  prelates  to  the  same  effect, 
and  subjected  themselves  to  the  penalty  of  inter- 
dicts and  excommunications,  if  they  should  ever 
violate  this  public  and  solemn  engagement.  They 
then  separated;  Philip  took  the  road  to  Genoa, 
Richard  that  to  Marseilles,  with  a  view  of  meet- 
ing their  fleets,  which  were  severally  appointed 
to  rendezvous  in  these  harbours.  They  put  to 
sea;  and,  nearly  about  the  same  time,  were  ob- 
liged, by  stress  of  weather,  to  take  shelter 
in  Messina,  where  they  were  detained  during 
the  whole  winter.  This  incident  laid  the  found- 
ation of  animosities  which  proved  fatal  to  their 
enterprise. 

Richard  and  Philip  were,  by  the  situation  and 
extent  of  their  dominions,  rivals  in  power ;  by 
their  age  and  inclinations  competitors  for  glory ; 
and  these  causes  of  emulation  which,  had  the 
princes  been  employed  in  the  field  against  the 


IIQQ.  RICHARD    I.  147 

common  enemy,  mi<>lit  have  stimulated  them  to 
martial  enterprises,  soon  excited,  during  the  pre- 
sent leisure  and  repose,  quarrels  between  mo- 
narchs  of  such  a  fiery  character.  Equally  haughty, 
ambitious,  intrei)id,  and  inflexible,  they  were  ir- 
ritated with  the  least  appearance  of  injury,  and 
were  incapable,  by  mutual  condescensions,  to  ef- 
face those  causes  of  comphiint  wliich  unavoidably 
arose  between  them.  Richard,  candid,  sincere, 
undesigning,  impolitic,  violent,  laid  himself  open, 
on  every  occasion,  to  tlie  designs  of  his  an- 
tagonist ;  who,  provident,  interested,  intriguing, 
failed  not  to  take  all  advantages  against  him  :  and 
thus,  both  the  circumstances  of  their  disposition 
in  M'hich  they  were  similar,  and  those  in  which 
they  differed,  rendered  it  impossible  for  them  to 
persevere  in  that  harmony  which  was  so  necessarj 
to  the  success  of  their  undertaking. 

TRANSACTIONS  IN  SICILY.     II90. 

The  last  king  of  Sicily  and  Naples  was  William 
II.  who  had  married  Joan,  sister  to  Richard,  and 
who,  dying  without  issue,  had  bequeathed  his 
dominions  to  his  paternal  aunt  Constantia,  the 
only  legitimate  descendant  surviving  of  Roger, 
the  first  sovereign  of  those  states  who  had  been 
honoured  with  the  royal  title.  This  princess  had, 
in  expectation  of  that  rich  inheritance,  been  mar- 
ried to  Henry  VI.   the   reigning  emperor'*;   but 

■'  Bcncd.  Abb.  p.  580. 


148  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  IIQO. 

Tancred,  her  natural  brother,  had  fixed  such  an 
interest  among  the  barons,   that,  taking  advant- 
age of  Henry's  absence,  he  had  acquired  posses- 
sion of  the  throne,   and  maintained  his  claim,  by 
force  of  arms,   against  all  the  efforts  of  the  Ger- 
mans^.    The  approach  of  the  crusaders  naturally 
gave  him  apprehensions  for  his  unstable  govern- 
ment ;  and  he  was  uncertain,  whether  he  had  most 
reason  to  dread  the  presence  of  the  French  or  of 
the  English  monarch.     Philip  was  engaged  in  a 
strict  alliance  M'ith  the  emperor  his  competitor ; 
Richard  was  disgusted  by  his  rigours  towards  the 
queen  dowager,    whom  the  Sicilian  prince  had 
confined  in  Palermo ;  because  she  had  opposed 
with  all  her  interest  his  succession  to  the  crown. 
Tancred,   therefore,   sensible  of  the  present  ne- 
cessity,  resolved  to  pay  court  to  both  these  form- 
idable princes ;  and  he  was  not  unsuccessful  in 
his  endeavours.     Pie  persuaded  Philip  that  it  was 
highly  improper  for  him  to  interrupt  his  enter- 
prise against  the  infidels,  by  any  attempt  against  a 
Christian  state  :  he  restored  queen  Joan  to  her  li- 
berty ;  and  even  found  means  to  make  an  alUance 
with  Richard,  who  stipulated  by  treaty  to  marry 
his  nephew,  Arthur,  the  young  duke  of  Britanny, 
to  one  of  the  daughters  of  Tancred^.     But  before 
these  terms  of  friendship  were  settled,   Richard, 
jealous  both  of  Tancred  and  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Messina,  had  taken  up  his  quarters  in  the  suburbs, 

'Hoveden,  p.  663. 
*^Hoveden,  p.  676,677.    Bened.  Abb.  p.  6J5. 


ligo.  RICHARD   I.  140^ 

.and  had  possessed  himself  of  a  small  fort,   which 
commanded  the  harbour  ;   and  he  kept  himself  ex- 
tremely  on  his  guard  against   their  enterprises. 
The  citizens  took  umbrage.      ]\Iutual  insults  and 
attacks  passed   between  them  and   the   English: 
Philip,  who  had  quartered  his  troops  in  the  town, 
endeavoured   to  accommodate  the   quarrel,    and 
held  a  conference  M'ith  Richard  for  that  purpose. 
While  the  two  kings,   meeting  in  the  open  lields, 
were  engaged  in  discourse  on  this  subject,  a  body 
of  those  Sicilians  seemed  to  be  drawing  towards 
them  ;  and  Richard  pushed  forwards,   in  order  to 
inquire  into  the  reason  of  this  extraordinary  move- 
ment^     The  English,   insolent  from  their  power, 
and  inflamed  with  former  animosities,  wanted  but 
a  pretence  for  attacking  the  Messinese  :  they  soon 
chased  them  off  the  field,  drove  them   into  the 
town,   and  entered  with  them  at  th-e  gates.     The 
king  employed  his  authority  to  restrain  them  from 
pillaging  and  massacring  the  defenceless  inhabit- 
ants ;    but  he  gave  orders,   in  token  of  his  vic- 
tory,   that  the  standard  of  England   should  be 
erected  on  the   walls.     Philip,    who    considered 
that  place  as  his  quarters,    exclaimed  against  the 
insult,  and   ordered  some  of  his  troops   to  pull 
down  the  standard  :  but  Richard  informed   him 
by  a  messenger,   that,   though  he  himself  Mould 
willingly  remove  that  ground  of  offence,  he  would 
not  permit  it  to  be  done  by  others ;  and  if  the 
French  king  attempted  such  an  insult  upon  him 

«  Bened.  Abb.  p.  608. 


J50  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  iigi. 

he  should  not  succeed  but  by  the  utmost  effusion 
of  blood.  Philip,  content  with  this  species  of 
haughty  submission,  recalled  his  orders'' :  the 
difference  was  seemingly  accommodated;  but 
still  left  the  remains  of  rancour  and  jealousy  in 
the  breasts  of  the  two  monarchs. 

Tancred,  Mdio,  for  his  own  security,  desired 
to  inflame  their  mutual  hatred,  employed  an  arti- 
fice which  might  have  been  attended  with  conse- 
quences still  more  fatal.  He  shoAved  Richard  a 
letter,  signed  by  the  French  king,  and  delivered 
to  him,  as  he  pretended,  by  the  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy ;  in  which  that  monarch  desired  Tancred 
to  fall  upon  the  quarters  of  the  English,  and  pro- 
mised to  assist  him  in  putting  them  to  the  sword, 
as  common  enemies.  The  unwary  Richard  gave 
credit  to  the  information  ;  but  was  too  candid  not 
to  betray  his  discontent  to  Philip,  who  abso- 
lutely denied  the  letter,  and  charged  the  Sicilian 
prince  with  forgery  and  falsehood.  Richard  either 
was,   or  pretended  to  be,   entirely  satisfied'. 

Lest  these  jealousies  and  complaints  should 
multiply  between  them,  it  was  proposed,  that 
they  should,  by  a  solemn  treat}^  obviate  all  fu- 
ture differences,  and  adjust  every  point  that  could 
possibly  hereafter  become  a  controversy  between 
them.  But  this  expedient  started  a  new  dispute, 
which  might  have  proved  more  dangerous  than 
any  of  the  foregoing,  and  which  deeply  concerned 

""  Hoveden,  p.  6/4. 
'  Ibid.  p.  688.    Bened.  Abb.  p.  642,  643.  Brompton,  p.  1  \Q5. 


ligi,  RICHARD    I.  151 

the  honour  of  Philip's  family.  When  Ricliard, 
in  every  treaty  Avith  the  late  king,  insisted  so 
strenuously  on  being  allowed  to  marry  Aliee  of 
France,  he  had  only  sought  a  pretence  for  quar- 
relling;  and  never  meant  to  take  to  his  bed  a 
princess  suspected  of  a  criminal  amour  w  ith  liis 
own  father.  Alter  he  became  master,  he  no 
longer  spake  of  that  alliance  :  he  even  took  mea- 
sures for  espousing  Berengaria,  daughter  of  San- 
chez king  of  Navarre,  with  whom  he  had  become 
enamoured  during  his  abode  in  Guienne'^ ;  Queen 
Eleanor  was  daily  expected  with  that  princess  at 
INIessina':  and  when  Philip  rencMcd  to  him  his 
applications  for  espousing  his  sister  Alice,  Richard 
was  obliged  to  give  him  an  absolute  refusal.  It  is 
pretended  by  Iloveden,  and  other  historians'",  that 
he  was  able  to  produce  such  convincing  proofs  of 
Alice's  infidelity,  and  even  of  her  having  born  a 
child  to  Henry,  that  her  brother  desisted  from  his 
applications,  and  chose  to  wrap  up  the  dishonour 
of  his  family  in  silence  and  oblivion.  It  is  cer- 
tain, from  the  treaty  itself,  which  remains ^  that, 
whatever  v/ere  his  motives,  he  permitted  Richard 
to  give  his  hand  to  Berengaria;  and  having  set- 
tled all  other  controversies  with  that  prince,  he 
immcdiatel}'  set  sail  for  the  Holy  Land.  Richard 
awaited  some  time  the  arrival  of  his  mother  and 
bride ;   and  m  hen  they  joined  him,   he  separated 

'Vinisauf,  p.  3l6.  '  M,  Paris,  p.  112.     Trivet,  p.  102. 

W.  Heming.  p.  5 1 9.         ""  Hoveden,  p.  688.         "  Rymer,  vol.  i. 
p.  69.     Chrou.  de  Dunst.  p.  44. 


152  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1191. 

his  fleet  into  two  squadrons,  and  set  forward  on 
his  enterprise.  Queen  Eleanor  returned  to  Eng- 
land; but  Berengaria,  and  the  queen  dowager 
of  Sicily,  his  sister,  attended  him  on  the  ex- 
pedition". 

The  EngHsh  fleet,  on  leaving  the  port  of  Mes- 
sina, met  with  a  furious  tempest;  and  the  squa- 
dron on  which  the  two  princesses  were  embarked, 
was  driven  on  the  coast  of  Cyprus,  and  some  of 
the  vessels  were  wrecked  near  Limisso,  in  that 
island.  Isaac,  prince  of  Cyprus,  who  assumed 
the  magnificent  title  of  emperor,  pillaged  the 
ships  that  were  stranded,  threw  the  seamen  and 
passengers  into  prison,  and  even  refused  to  the 
princesses  liberty,  in  their  dangerous  situation,  of 
entering  the  harbour  of  Limisso.  But  Richard, 
who  arrived  soon  after,  took  ample  vengeance  on 
him  for  the  injury.  lie  disembarked  his  troops ; 
defeated  the  tyrant,  who  opposed  his  landing; 
entered  Limisso  by  storm ;  gained  next  day  a  se- 
cond victory;  obliged  Isaac  to  surrender  at  dis- 
cretion ;  and  established  governors  over  the  island. 
The  Greek  prince,  being  thrown  into  prison  and 
loaded  with  irons,  complained  of  the  little  regard 
with  which  he  was  treated  :  upon  Avhich,  Richard 
ordered  silver  fetters  to  be  made  for  him ;  and  this 
emperor,  pleased  with  the  distinction,  expressed 
a  sense  of  the  generosity  of  his  conqueror  p.     The 

°  Bened,  Abb.  p.  644. 
"Bened.  Abb,  p.  650.    Ann.  Waverl.  p.   l64.     Vinisauf, 
p,  328.     W.  Heming.  p.  523. 


ligi.  RICHARD    I.  153 

king  here  espoused  Berengaria,  who,  immediately 
emharking,  carried  along  with  her  to  Palestine 
the  daughter  of  the  Cvpriot  prince  ;  a  dangerous 
rival,  who  was  helieved  to  have  seduced  the  af- 
fections of  her  husband.  Such  were  the  libertine 
character  and  conduct  of  the  heroes  engaged  in 
this  pious  enterprise  ! 


THE  KING'S  ARRIVAL  IN  PALESTINE, 

The  English  army  arrived  in  time  to  partake  in 
the  glory  of  the  siege  of  Acre  orPtolemais,  which 
had  been  attacked  for  above  two  years  by  the 
united  force  of  all  the  Christians  in  Palestine, 
and  had  been  defended  by  the  utmost  efforts  of 
Saladin,  and  the  Saracens.  The  remains  of  the 
German  army,  conducted  by  the  emperor  Fre- 
deric, and  the  separate  bodies  of  adventurers  who 
continually  poured  in  from  the  West,  had  enabled 
the  king  of  Jerusalem  to  form  this  important  en- 
terprise"^: but  Saladin,  having  thrown  a  strong 
garrison  into  the  place  under  the  command  of  Ca- 
racos,  his  own  master  in  the  art  of  war,  and  mo- 
lestino;  the  besieoiers  with  continual  attacks  and 
sallies,  had  protracted  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise, and  wasted  the  force  of  his  enemies.  The 
arrival  of  Philip  and  Richard  inspired  new  life 
into  the  Christians;  and  these  princes,  acting  by 
concert,   and  sharing  the  honour  and  danger  of 

"Vinisauf,  p.  269,  2/1^  279, 


154  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1191. 

every  action,  gave  hopes  of  a  final  victory  over 
the  infidels.  They  agreed  on  this  plan  of  opera- 
tions :  when  the  French  monarch  attacked  the 
town,  the  English  guarded  the  trenches:  next 
day,  when  the  English  prince  conducted  the  as- 
sault, the  French  succeeded  him  in  providing  for 
the  safety  of  the  assailants.  The  emulation  be- 
tween those  rival  kings  and  rival  nations  produced 
extraordinary  acts  of  valour :  Richard  in  parti- 
cular, animated  Avdth  a  more  precipitate  courage 
than  Philip,  and  more  agreeable  to  the  romantic 
spirit  of  that  age,  drew  to  himself  the  general  at- 
tention, and  acquired  a  great  and  splendid  repu- 
tation. But  this  harmony  was  of  short  duration ; 
and  occasions  of  discord  soon  arose  between  these 
jealous  and  haughty  princes. 

STATE  OF  PALESTINE. 

The  family  of  Bouillon,  which  had  first  been 
placed  on  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  ending  in  a 
female,  Fulk,  count  of  Anjou,  grandfather  to 
Henry  II.  of  England,  married  the  heiress  of  that 
kingdom,  and  transmitted  his  title  to  the  younger 
branches  of  his  family,  The  Anjevin  race  ending 
also  in  a  female,  Guy  de  Lusignan,  by  espousing 
Sibylla,  the  heiress,  had  succeeded  to  the  title; 
and  though  he  lost  his  kingdom  by  the  invasion 
of  Salad  in,  he  was  still  acknowledged  by  all  the 
Christians  for  king  of  Jerusalem  ^     But  as  Sibylla 

■■  Vinisauf,  p.  281. 


J 191.  RICHARD    I.  15* 

died  without  issue,  during  the  siege  of  Acre,  Isa- 
bella, her  younger  sister,  put  in  her  claim  to  that 
titular  kingdom,   and  required  Lusignan  to  resign 
his  pretensions  to  her  luisband  Conrade  marquis 
of  Montferrat.      Lusignan,  maintaining  that  the 
royal  title  was  unalienable  and  indefeazable,  had 
recourse  to  the  protection  of  Richard,   attended 
on  him  before  he  left  Cyprus,  and  engaged  him 
to  embrace  his   cause".     There  needed  no  other 
reason  for  throwing  Philip  into  the  party  of  Con- 
rade;  and  the  opposite  views  of  these  great  mo- 
iiarchs  brought  faction   and  dissension   into  the 
Christian  army,   and   retarded  all  its  operations. 
The  Templars,  the   Genoese,   and   the  Germans, 
declared  for  Philip  and   Conrade;  the  Flemings, 
the  Pisans,  the  knights  of  the  hospital  of  St.  John, 
adhered  to  Richard  and  Lusignan.     But  notwith- 
standing these  disputes,  as  the  length  of  the  siege 
had  reduced  the  Saracen  garrison  to  the  last  ex- 
tremity, they  surrendered  themselves  prisoners; 
stipulated,  in  return  for  their  lives,  other  advant- 
ages to  the  Christians,  such  as  the  restoring  of  the 
Christian  prisoners,   and  the  delivery  of  the  wood 
of  the  true  cross' ;  and  this  great  enterprise,  which 

'  Trivet,  p.  134.     Vinisauf,  p.  342.     \V.  Hcming.  p.  524. 

'This  true  cross  was  lost  in  the  battle  of  Tiberiade,  to  wliicli 
It  had  been  carried  by  the  crusaders  for  their  protection.  \Vi- 
gord,  an  author  of  that  age,  says,  that  after  tliis  dismal  e\  ent, 
all  the  children  who  were  born  throughout  all  Christendom,  had 
only  twenty  or  twenty-two  teetli,  instead  of  thirty  or  tliirty-two, 
which  was  tlieir  former  complement^  p.  14. 


156  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  I191. 

had  long  engaged  the  attention  of  all  Europe  and 
Asia,  was  at  last,  after  the  loss  of  300, 000  men, 
brought  to  a  happy  period. 

But  Philip,  instead  of  pursuing  the  hopes  of 
farther  conquest,  and  of  redieming  the  holy  city 
from  slavery,  being  disgusted  with  the  ascendant 
assumed  and  acquired  by  Richard,  and  having 
views  of  many  advantages  which  he  might  reap 
by  his  presence  in  Europe,  declared  his  resolution 
of  returning  to  France ;  and  he  pleaded  his  bad 
state  of  heahh  as  an  excuse  for  his  desertion  of 
the  common  cause.  He  left,  however,  to  Ri- 
chard, ten  thousand  of  his  troops,  under  the 
command  of  the  duke  of  Burgundy ;  and  he  re- 
newed his  oath  never  to  commence  hostilities 
against  that  prince's  dominions  during  his  absence. 
But  he  had  no  sooner  reached  Italy  than  he  ap- 
plied, it  is  pretended,  to  pope  Celestine  III.  for 
a  dispensation  from  this  vow ;  and  when  denied 
that  request,  he  still  proceeded,  though  after  a 
covert  manner,  in  a  project,  which  the  present 
situation  of  England  rendered  inviting,  and  which 
gratified,  in  an  eminent  degree,  both  his  resent- 
ment and  his  ambition. 

DISORDERS  IN  ENGLAND.     II9I. 

Immediately   after  Richard  had  left  England, 
and  begun  his  march  to  the  Holy  Land,   the  two 
prelates,    whom  he  had  appointed  guardians  of 
the  realm,  broke  out  into  animosities  against  each 


1191.  RICHARD    I.  157 

Other,  and  thrcM^  the  kingdom  into  combustion. 
Longchamp,  presumptuous  in  his  nature,  elated 
by  the  favour  which  he  enjoyed  with  his  master, 
and  armed  with  the  legantine  commission,  could 
not  submit  to  an  equality  with  the  bishop  of  Dur- 
ham :  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  arrest  his  col- 
league, and  to  extort  from  him  a  resignation  of 
the  earldom  of  Northumberland,  and  of  his  other 
dignities,  as  the  price  of  his  liberty".  The  king, 
informed  of  these  dissensions,  ordered,  by  letters 
from  INIarseilles,  that  the  bishop  should  be  rein- 
stated in  his  offices ;  but  Longchamp  had  still  the 
boldness  to  refuse  compliance,  on  pretence  that 
he  himself  was  better  acquainted  with  the  king's 
secret  intentions ''.  He  proceeded  to  govern  the 
kingdom  by  his  sole  authority ;  to  treat  all  the 
nobility  with  arrogance ;  and  to  display  his  power 
and  riches  with  an  invidious  ostentation.  He 
never  travelled  without  a  strong  guard  of  fifteen 
hundred  foreign  soldiers,  collected  from  that  li- 
centious tribe  with  which  the  age  was  generally 
infested:  nobles  and  knights  M^ere  proud  of  being 
admitted  into  his  train  :  his  retinue  wore  the  as- 
pect of  royal  magnificence  :  and  when,  in  his  pro- 
gress through  the  kingdom,  he  lodged  in  any  mo- 
nastery, his  attendants,  it  is  said,  weie  suihcicnt 
to  devour,  in  one  night,  the  revenue  of  several 
years  ^.     The  king,   who  was  detained  in  Europe 

"Hoveden,  p.  665.     Knyghton,  p.  2403.        *W.  Heming. 
p.  528.  "  Hoveden,  p.  680.     Bened.  Abb.  p.  626,  /OO, 

■oniptonj  p.  1193. 


Broniptonj  p. 


15S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  ligi. 

longer  than  the  hauglity  prelate  expected,  hear- 
ing of  tills  ostentation,  which  exceeded  even 
Arhat  the  habits  of  that  age  indulged  in  ecclesi- 
astics ;  being  also  informed  of  the  insolent  tyran- 
nical conduct  of  his  minister  ;  thought  proper  to 
restrain  his  power :  he  sent  new  orders,  appoint- 
ing Walter  archbishop  of  Roiien,  William  Mare- 
shal  earl  of  Strigul,  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter,  William 
Briewere,  and  Hugh  Bardoh^,  counsellors  to  Long- 
champ,  and  commanding  him  to  take  no  measure 
of  importance  without  their  concurrence  and  ap- 
probation. But  such  general  terror  had  this  man 
impressed  by  his  violent  conduct,  that  even  the 
archbishop  of  Roiien  and  the  earl  of  Strigul  durst 
not  produce  this  mandate  of  the  king's;  and 
Longchamp  still  maintained  an  uncontrolled  au- 
thority over  the  nation.  But  when  he  proceeded 
so  far  as  to  throw  into  prison  Geoffrey  archbishop 
of  York,  who  had  opposed  his  measures,  this 
breach  of  ecclesiastical  privileges  excited  such  an 
universal  ferment,  that  prince  John,  disgusted 
with  the  small  share  he  possessed  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  personally  disobliged  by  Longchamp, 
ventured  to  summon,  at  Reading,  a  general  coun- 
cil of  the  nobility  and  prelates,  and  cite  him  to 
appear  before  them.  Longchamp  thought  it  dan- 
gerous to  entrust  his  person  in  their  hands,  and 
he  shut  himself  up  in  the  Tower  of  London ;  but 
being  soon  obliged  to  surrender  that  fortress,  he 
fled  beyond  sea,  concealed  under  a  female  habit, 
and  was  deprived  of  his  offices  of  chancellor  and 


1192.  RICHARD    L  15D 

chief  justiciary  ;   tlic  last  of  wlilcli  was  conferred 
on  the  arclibishop  of  lloiien,  a  prelate  of  prudence 
and    moderation.      Tlic    commission  of  legate, 
however,   M'hich  had  been  renewed  to  Longchamp 
by  pope  Celestine,   still  gave  him,   notwithstand- 
ing his  absence,   great  authority  in  the  kingdom, 
enabled  him  to  disturb  the  government,  and  for- 
warded the  views  of  Philip,  m  ho  watched  every 
opportunity    of  annoying   Richard's   dominions. 
That  monarch  first  attempted  to  carry  open  war 
into  Normandy ;  but  as  the  French  nobility  re- 
fused to  follow  him  in  an  invasion  of  a  state  Mhich 
they  had  sworn  to  protect,  and  as  the  pope,  who 
was  the  general  guardian  of  all  princes  that  had 
taken  the  cross,  threatened  him  with  ecclesiastical 
censures,    he   desisted   from   his    enterprise,   and 
employed  against  England  the  expedient  of  secret 
policy  and  intrigue.     lie  debauched  prince  John 
from  his  allegiance;  promised  him  his  sister  Alice 
in  marriage ;  offered  to  give  him  possession  of  all 
Richard's  transmarine  dominions ;    and  had  not 
the  authority  of  queen  Eleanor,  and  the  menaces 
of  the  English  council,  prevailed  over  the  inclina- 
tions  of  that  turbulent  prince,    he  was  ready  to 
have  crossed  the  seas,  and  to  have  put  in  exe- 
cution his  criminal  enterprises. 


160  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  II92. 

THE  KING'S  HEROIC  ACTIONS  IN  PALES- 
TINE.    1192. 

The  jealousy  of  Philip  was  every  moment  excited 
by  tlie  glory  which  the  great  actions  of  Richard 
were  gaining  him  in  the  East,  and  which,  being 
compared  to  his  own  desertion  of  that  popular 
cause,  threw  a  double  lustre  on  his  rival.  His 
envy,  therefore,  prompted  him  to  obscure  that 
fame  which  he  had  not  equalled ;  and  he  em- 
braced every  pretence  of  throwing  the  most  vio- 
lent and  most  improbable  calumnies  on  the  king 
of  England.  There  was  a  petty  prince  in  Asia,  com- 
monly called  The  old  man  of  the  mountain,  who  had 
acquired  such  an  ascendant  over  his  fanatical  sub- 
jects, that  they  paid  the  most  implicit  deference  to 
his  commands;  esteemed  assassination  meritorious, 
when  sanctified  by  his  mandate;  courted  danger, 
and  even  certain  death,  in  the  execution  of  his 
orders;  and  fancied,  that  when  they  sacrificed 
their  lives  for  his  sake,  the  highest  joys  of  paradise 
were  the  infallible  reward  of  their  devoted  obedi- 
ence ^  It  was  the  custom  of  this  prince,  when 
he  imagined  himself  injured,  to  dispatch  secretly 
some  of  his  subjects  against  the  aggressor,  to 
charge  them  with  the  execution  of  his  revenge, 
to  instruct  them  in  every  art  of  disguising  their 
purpose ;    and   no   precaution   was   sufficient   to 

y  W.  Heming.  p.  532,     Brompton,  p.  1243, 


1192.  RICHARD    I.  ICI 

guard  any  man,  however  powerful,  against  tiie 
attempts  of  tliose  subtle  and  determined  rulfians. 
The  greatest  monarchs  stood  in  awe  of  this  prince 
of  the  Assassins  (For  that  Avas  the  name  of  his 
people  ;  whence  the  word  has  passed  into  most 
European  languages),  and  it  was  the  highest  in- 
discretion in  Conrade  marquis  of  Montferrat  to 
offend  and  affront  him.  The  inhabitants  of  Tyre, 
who  were  governed  by  that  nobleman,  had  put 
to  death  some  of  this  dangerous  people :  the 
prince  demanded  satisfaction ;  for,  as  he  piqued 
himself  on  never  beginning  any  offence*,  he  had 
]]is  regular  and  established  formalities  in  requir- 
ing atonement :  Conrade  treated  his  messengers 
with  disdain :  the  prince  issued  the  fatal  orders  : 
two  of  his  subjects,  who  liad  insinuated  themselves 
in  disguise  among  Conrade's  guards,  openly,  in 
the  streets  of  Sidon,  wounded  him  mortally;  and 
when  they  Mere  seized  and  put  to  the  most  cruel 
tortures,  they  triumphed  amidst  their  agonies,  and 
rejoiced  that  they  had  been  destined  by  Heaven 
to  suffer  in  so  just  and  meritorious  a  cause. 

Every  one  in  Palestine  knew  from  what  hand 
the  blow  came,  Richard  Mas  entirely  free  from 
suspicion.  Though  that  monarch  had  formerly 
maintained  the  cause  of  Lusignan  against  Con- 
rade, he  had  become  sensible  of  the  bad  effects 
attending  those  dissensions,  and  had  voluntarily 
conferred  on  the  former  the  kingdom  of  Cyprus, 

•  Rymer^  vol.  i.  p.  71. 
VOL.   II.  M 


162  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1192. 

on  condition  that  he  should  resicrn  to  his  rival  all 
pretensions  to  the  crown  of  Jerusalem^.  Conrade 
himself,  with  his  dying  hreath,  had  recommended 
his  widow  to  the  protection  of  Richard *";  the 
prince  of  the  Assassins  avowed  the  action  in  a 
formal  narrative  which  he  sent  to  Europe  '^ ;  yet 
on  this  foundation  the  kino-  of  France  thouo-ht  fit 
to  huild  the  most  egregious  calumnies,  and  to 
impute  to  Richard  the  murder  of  the  marquis  of 
Montferrat,  whose  elevation  he  had  once  openly 
opposed.  He  filled  all  Europe  Avith  exclamations 
against  the  crime  ;  appointed  a  guard  for  his  own 
person,  in  order  to  defend  himself  against  a  like 
attempt*^ ;  and  endeavoured,  hy  these  shallow 
artifices,  to  cover  the  infamy  of  attacking  the 
dominions  of  a  prince,  whom  he  himself  had  de- 
serted, and  who  was  engaged  with  so  much  glory 
in  a  war,  universally  acknowledged  to  he  the  com- 
mon cause  of  Christendom. 

But  Richard's  heroic  actions  in  Palestine  were 
the  best  apology  for  his  conduct.  The  Christian 
adventurers  under  his  command  determined,  ou 
opening  the  campaign,  to  attempt  the  siege  of 
Ascalon,  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  that  of 
Jerusalem  ;  and  they  marched  along  the  sea-coast 
with  that  intention.  Saladin  purposed  to  intercept 
their  passage ;  and  he  placed  himself  on  the  road 
with  an  army  amounting  to  300,000  combatants. 

"Virilsauf,  p.  391.  ''Brompton,  p.  1243. 

•Rymer,  vol.  i,  p.  71.     Trivet,  p.  124.     W.  Heming.  p.  544. 
DicetOj  p.  680.  ^  W.  Heming.  p,  532.  Brompton^  p.  1245. 


liga.  RICHARD    I.  l6t 

On  this  occasion  was  fbiight  one  of  the  greatest 
battles  of  that  age  ;  and  the  most  celebrated  for 
the  military  genius  of  the  commanders,  for  the 
number  and  valour  of  the  troops,  and  for  the  great 
variety  of  events  which  attended  it.  Both  the 
right  wing  of  the  Christians,  commanded  by 
d'Avesnes,  and  the  left,  conducted  by  the  duke 
of  Burgundy,  M'ere,  in  the  beginning  of  the  day, 
broken  and  defeated ;  M'hen  Richard,  who  led  on 
the  main  body,  restored  the  battle ;  attacked  the 
enemy  with  intrepidity  and  presence  of  mind  ; 
performed  the  part  both  of  a  consummate  general 
and  gallant  soldier;  and  not  only  gave  his  two 
wings  leisure  to  recover  from  their  confusion,  but 
obtained  a  complete  victory  over  the  Saracens,  of 
whom  forty  thousand  are  said  to  have  perished  in 
the  field ^.  Ascalon  soon  after  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Christians :  other  sieges  were  carried  on 
with  equal  success :  Richard  was  even  able  to 
advance  within  sight  of  Jerusalem,  the  object  of 
his  enterprise ;  when  he  had  the  mortification  to 
find,  that  he  must  abandon  all  hopes  of  imme- 
diate success,  and  must  put  a  stop  to  his  career 
of  victory.  The  crusaders,  animated  with  an 
enthusiastic  ardour  for  the  holy  wars,  broke  at 
first  through  all  regards  to  safety  or  interest  in 
the  prosecution  of  their  purpose;  and  trusting  to 
the  immediate  assistance  of  Heaven,  set  nothing 

•  Hoveden,  p.  698.       Bened.  Abb.  p.  677-      Diceto,  p.  66i. 
Rrompton,  p.  1214. 
2 


164  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  lig2. 

before  their  eyes  but  fame  and  victory  in  this 
world,  and  a  crown  of  glory  in  the  next.  But 
long  absence  from  home,  fatigue,  disease,  want, 
and  the  variety  of  incidents  which  naturally 
attend  war,  had  gradually  abated  that  fury,  which 
nothing  was  able  directly  to  withstand;  and  every 
one,  except  the  king  of  England,  expressed  a 
desire  of  speedily  returning  into  Europe.  The 
Germans  and  the  Italians  declared  their  resolution 
of  desisting  from  the  enterprise  :  the  French  M'Cre 
still  more  obstinate  in  this  purpose :  the  duke  of 
Burgundy,  in  order  to  pay  court  to  Philip,  took 
all  opportunities  of  mortifying  and  opposing  Ri- 
chard^: and  there  appeared  an  absolute  necessity 
of  abandoning  for  the  present  all  hopes  of  farther 
conquest,  and  of  securing  the  acquisitions  of  the 
Christians  by  an  accommodation  with  Saladin. 
Richard,  therefore,  concluded  a  truce  with  that 
monarch,  and  stipulated  that  Acre,  Joppa,  and 
other  sea-port  towns  of  Palestine,  should  remain 
in  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  and  that  every 
one  of  that  religion  should  have  liberty  to  per- 
form his  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  unmolested. 
This  truce  was  concluded  for  three  years,  three 
months,  three  weeks,  three  days,  and  three  hours; 
a  magical  number,  which  had  probably  been  de- 
vised by  the  Europeans,  and  which  was  suggest- 
ed by  a  superstition  well  suited  to  the  object  of 
the  war. 

^Vinisauf,  p.  38a. 


1192.  RICHARD    I.  165 

Tlie  liberty,  in  which  Saladin  iiululged  the 
Christians  to  perform  their  j)iigTimages  to  Jeru- 
salem, was  an  easy  sacrifice  on  his  part ;  and  the 
furious  wars  which  he  waged  in  defence  of  tlie 
barren  territory  of  Judea,  were  not  with  him,  as 
with  the  European  adventurers,  the  result  of 
superstition,  but  of  policy.  The  advantage  indeed 
of  science,  moderation,  humanity,  was  at  that 
time  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  Saracens;  and 
this  gallant  emperor,  in  particular,  displayed, 
during  the  course  of  the  M'ar,  a  spirit  and  gene- 
rosity, which  even  his  bigotted  enemies  Mere 
obliged  to  acknowledge  and  admire.  Richard, 
equally  martial  and  brave,  carried  with  him  more 
of  the  barbarian  character ;  and  Mas  guilty  of 
acts  of  ferocity,  which  thrcM'  a  stain  on  his  cele- 
brated victories.  When  Saladin  refused  to  ratify 
the  capitulation  of  Acre,  the  king  of  England 
ordered  all  his  prisoners,  to  the  number  of  five 
thousand,  to  be  butchered ;  and  the  Saracens 
found  themselves  obliged  to  retaliate  upon  the 
Christians  by  a  like  cruelty  £.  Saladin  died  at 
Damascus  soon  after  concluding  this  truce  M'ith 
the  princes  of  the  crusade :  it  is  memorable,  that 
before  he  expired,  he  ordered  his  winding-sheet 
to  be  carried  as  a  standard  through  every  street 
of  the  city  ;  M'hile  a  crier  Ment  before,  and  pro- 
claimed M'ith  a  loud  voice,  This  is  all  that  reina'uis 
to  the  might  If  Saladin^  the  coyiqucror  of  the  East. 

•  Hovedcn,  p.  697.     Bencd.  Abb.  p.  673.     M.  Taris,  p.  115. 
Vinisauf,  p.  340".     W.  Heming.  p.  531. 


165  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1192. 

By  his  last  will  he  ordered  charities  to  be  distri- 
buted to  the  poor,  without  distinction  of  Jew, 
Christian,  or  Mahometan. 


THE  KING'S  RETURN  FROM  PALESTINE. 

There  remained  after  the  truce,  no  business  of 
importance  to  detain  Richard  in  Palestine ;  and 
the  intelligence  which  he  received,  concerning 
the  intrigues  of  his  brother  John,  and  those  of 
the  king  of  France,  made  him  sensible,  that  his 
presence  was  necessary  in  Europe.  As  he  dared 
not  to  pass  through  France,  he  sailed  to  the  Adri- 
atic ;  and  being  shipwrecked  near  Aquileia,  he 
put  on  the  disguise  of  a  pilgrim,  with  a  purpose 
of  taking  his  journey  secretly  through  Germany, 
Pursued  by  the  governor  of  Istria,  he  was  forced 
out  of  the  direct  road  to  England,  and  w^as  obliged 
to  pass  by  Vienna ;  where  his  expcnces  and  libe- 
ralities betrayed  the  monarch  in  the  habit  of  the 
pilgrim  ;  and  he  was  arrested  by  orders  of  Leopold 
duke  of  Austria.  This  prince  had  served  under 
Richard  at  the  siege  of  Acre;  but  being  disgusted 
by  some  insult  of  that  haughty  monarch,  he  was 
so  ungenerous  as  to  seize  the  present  opportunity 
of  gratifying  at  once  his  avarice  and  revenge ; 
and  he  threw  the  king  into  prison.  The  emperor 
Henry  VI.  who  also  considered  Richard  as  an 
enemy,  on  account  of  the  alliance  contracted 
by  him  with  Tancred  king  of  Sicily,  dispatched 


1193.  RICHARD    I.  \9f 

messengers  to  the  duke  of  Austria,  required  the 
royal  captive  to  be  deUvered  to  him,  and  stipulated 
a  large  sum  of  money  as  a  reward  for  this  ser\  ice. 
Thus  the  king  of  England,  \\\io  had  filled  the 
Mhole  world  with  his  renown,  found  himself, 
during  the  most  critical  state  of  his  affiiirs,  con- 
fined in  a  dungeon,  and  loaded  with  irons,  in  the 
heart  of  Germany",  and  entirely  at  the  mercy 
of  his  enemies,  the  basest  and  most  sordid  of 
mankind. 

The  English  council  was  astonished  on  receiv- 
ing this  fatal  intelligence;  and  foresaw  all  the 
dangerous  consequences  which  might  naturally 
arise  from  that  event.  The  queen-dowager  wrote 
reiterated  letters  to  pope  Celestine,  exclaiming 
aoainst  the  injury  which  her  son  had  sustained; 
representing  the  impiety  of  detaining  in  prison 
the  most  illustrious  prince  that  had  yet  carried 
the  banners  of  Christ  into  the  Holy  Land;  claim- 
ing the  protection  of  the  apostolic  see,  which  was 
due  even  to  the  meanest  of  those  adventurers  ; 
and  upbraiding  the  pope,  that,  in  a  cause  Avhere 
justice,  religion,  and  the  dignity  of  the  church, 
were  so  much  concerned,  a  cause  which  it  might 
well  befit  his  holiness  himself  to  support  by  taking 
in  person  a  journey  to  Germany,  the  spiritual 
thunders  should  so  long  be  suspended  over  those 
sacrilegious   ofienders'.      The   zeal  of   Celestine 


">  Chron.T.  Wykes,  35. 
Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  72,  73,  74.  75>  7Q>  &c- 


Ids  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1193.- 

corresponded  not  to  the  impatience  of  the  queen- 
mother  ;  and  the  regency  of  England  were,  for 
a  long  time,  left  to  struggle  alone  with  all  their 
domestic  and  foreign  enemies. 


WAR  WITH  FRANCE.     1193. 

The  king  of  France,  quickly  informed  of  Richard's 
confinement  by  a  message  from  the  emperor'', 
prepared  himself  to  take  advantage  of  the  inci- 
dent ;  and  he  employed  every  means  of  force  and 
intrigue,  of  war  and  negotiation,  against  the  do- 
minions and  the  person  of  his  unfortunate  rival. 
He  revived  the  calumny  of  Richard's  assassinating 
the  marquis  of  Montferrat ;  and  by  that  absurd 
pretence  he  induced  his  barons  to  violate  their 
oaths,  by  which  they  had  engaged  that,  during 
the  crusade,  they  never  would,  on  any  account, 
attack  the  dominions  of  the  king  of  England. 
He  made  the  emperor  the  largest  offers,  if  he 
would  deliver  into  his  hands  the  royal  prisoner, 
or  at  least  detain  him  in  perpetual  captivity :  he 
even  fonned  an  alliance  by  marriage  with  the 
king  of  Denmark,  desired  that  the  ancient  Danish 
claim  to  the  crown  of  England  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  him,  and  soHcited  a  supply  of  shipping 
to  maintain  it.  But  the  most  successful  of  Philip's 
negotiations  was  with  prince  John,  who,  forget- 

*  Rymer,  vol.  i,  p.  yo. 


1193.  RICHARD    I.  i6y 

ting  every  tye  to  his  brother,  liis  sovereign,  and 
his  benefactor,  thouglit  of  nothing  but  liow  to 
make  his  own  advantage  of  the  public  calamities. 
That  traitor,  on  the  first  invitation  from  the  court 
of  France,  suddenly  went  abroad,  had  a  con- 
ference with  Philip,  and  made  a  treaty,  of  wliich 
the  object  was  the  perpetual  ruin  of  his  unhapj)y 
brother.  He  stipulated  to  deliver  into  Plii lip's 
hands  a  great  part  of  Normandy';  he  received, 
in  return,  the  investiture  of  all  Richard's  trans- 
marine dominions ;  and  it  is  reported  by  several 
historians,  that  he  even  did  homage  to  the  French 
kino'  for  the  croMm  of  Enii^land. 

In  consequence  of  this  treaty,  Philip  invaded 
Normandy;  and  by  the  treachery  of  John's  emis- 
saries, made  himself  master,  without  opposition, 
of  many  fortresses,  Nenf-chatel,  Neautlle,  Gisors, 
Pacey,  Ivre^ :  he  subdued  the  counties  of  Eu 
and  Aumale  ;  and  advancing  to  form  the  siege  of 
Roiien,  he  threatened  to  put  all  the  inhabitants 
to  the  sword  if  they  dared  to  make  resistance. 
Happily,  Robert  earl  of  Leicester  appeared  in  that 
critical  moment ;  a  gallant  nobleman,  ^\•ho  had 
acquired  great  honour  during  the  crusade,  and 
who,  being  more  fortunate  than  his  master  in 
finding  his  passage  homewards,  took  on  him  the 
command  in  Roiien,  and  exerted  himself,  by  his 
exhortations  and  example,  to  infuse  courage  into 
the  dismayed  Normans.      Philip  was  repulsed  in 

'Rymcr,  vol.  i.  p.  85. 


1^?0  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  ligj. 

every  attack ;  the  time  of  service  from  his  vassals 
expired ;  and  he  consented  to  a  truce  with  the 
English  regency,  received  in  return  the  promise 
of  20,000  marks,  and  had  four  castles  put  into 
his  hands,  as  security  for  the  payment™. 

Prince  John,  who,  with  a  view  of  increasing 
the  general  confusion,  went  oxer  to  England,  was 
still  less  successful  in  his  enterprises.  lie  was 
only  able  to  make  himself  master  of  the  castles  of 
Windsor  and  Wallingford  ;  but  when  he  arrived 
in  London,  and  claimed  the  kingdom  as  heir  to 
his  brother,  of  uhose  death  he  pretended  to  have 
received  certain  intelligence,  he  was  rejected  by 
all  the  barons,  and  measures  were  taken  to  oppose 
and  subdue  him".  1  he  justiciaries,  supported  by 
the  general  affection  of  the  people,  provided  so 
well  for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom,  that  John 
was  obliged,  after  some  fruitless  efforts,  to  con- 
clude a  truce  m  ith  them ;  and  before  its  expira- 
tion, he  thought  it  prudent  to  return  to  France, 
where  he  openly  avowed  his  alliance  with  Philip". 

Meanwhile  the  high  spirit  of  Richard  suffered 
in  Germany  every  kind  of  insult  and  indignity. 
The  French  ambassadors,  in  their  master's  name, 
renounced  him  as  a  vassal  to  the  crown  of  France, 
and  declared  all  his  fiefs  to  be  forfeited  to  his 
liege-lord.  Ihe  Emperor,  that  he  might  render 
him  more  impatient  for  the  recovery  of  his  liberty, 

""  Hoveden,  p.  730>  731.     Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  81. 
"  Hoveden,  p.  724.  "  W.  Heming.  p.  536, 


1193.  RfCHARD    I.  I7f 

and  make  him  submit  to  the  payment  of  a  larger 
ransom,  treated  liim  with  the  greatest  severity, 
and  reduced  him  to  a  condition  worse  than  that 
of  the  meanest  malefactor.  He  was  even  produced 
before  the  diet  of  tlie  empire  at  Worms,  and  ac- 
cused by  Henry  of  many  crimes  and  misdemeanors: 
of  making  an  alhance  with  Tancred,  the  usurper 
of  Sicilv  ;  of  turning;  the  arms  of  the  crusade 
against  a  Christian  prince,  and  subduing  Cyprus; 
of  affronting  the  duke  of  Austria  before  Acre; 
of  obstructing  the  progress  of  the  Christian  arms 
by  his  quarrels  Avith  the  king  of  France;  of  assas- 
sinating Conrade  marquis  of  Montferrat ;  and  of 
concluding  a  truce  witli  Saladin,  and  leaving 
Jerusalem  in  the  hands  of  the  Saracen  emperor  p. 
Kicliard,  whose  spirit  Mas  not  broken  by  his  mis- 
fortunes, and  whose  genius  v/as  rather  roused  by 
these  frivolous  or  scanchUous  imputations  ;  after 
premising  that  his  dignity  exempted  him  from 
answering  before  any  jurisdiction,  except  that  of 
Heaven ;  yet  condescended,  for  the  sake  of  his 
reputation,  to  justify  his  conduct  before  that  great 
assembly.  He  observed,  that  he  had  no  hand  in 
Tancred's  elevation,  and  only  concluded  a  treaty 
with  a  prince  whom  he  found  in  possession  of  th.e 
throne :  that  the  king,  or  rather  tyrant  of  Cyprus, 
had  provoked  his  indignation  by  the  most  un- 
generous and  unjust  proceedings;  and  though  he 
chastised  this  aggressor,   he  had  not  retarded  a 

■»  M.  Paris,  p.  121.     Y/.  Heming.  p.  536, 


m  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  llpS. 

moment  the  progress  of  his  chief  enterprise  :  that 
if  he  had  at  any  time  been  wanting  in  civihty  to 
the  duke  of  Austria,  he  had  aheady  been  suffici- 
ently punished  for  tliat  sally  of  passion ;  and  it 
better  became  men,  embarked  together  in  so  holy 
a  cause,  to  forgive  each  other's  infirmities,  than 
to  pursue  a  slight  offence  M'ith  such  unrelenting 
vengeance  :  that  it  had  sufficiently  appeared  by 
the  event,  Avhether  the  king  of  France  or  he  were 
most  zealous  for  the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land, 
and  were  most  likely  to  sacrifice  private  passions  and 
animosities  to  that  great  object :  that  if  the  whole 
tenor  of  his  life  had  not  shewn  him  incapable  of 
a  base  assassination,  and  justified  him  from  that 
imputation  in  the  eyes  of  his  very  enemies,  it  was 
in  vain  for  him,  at  present,  to  make  his  apology, 
or  plead  the  many  irrefragable  arguments  which 
he  could  produce  in  his  own  favour :  and  that, 
however  he  might  regret  the  necessity,  he  was  so 
far  from  being  ashamed  of  his  truce  with  Saladin, 
that  he  ratlier  gloried  in  that  event ;  and  thought 
it  extremely  honourable,  that,  though  abandoned 
by  all  the  world,  supported  only  by  his  own 
courage,  and  by  the  small  remains  of  his  national 
troops,  he  could  yet  obtain  such  conditions  from 
the  most  pov/erfui  and  most  warlike  emperor  that 
the  East  had  ever  yet  produced.  Richard,  after 
thus  deigning  to  apologise  for  his  conduct,  burst 
out  into  indignation  at  the  cruel  treatment  which 
he  had  met  Avith ;  that  he,  the  champion  of  the 
cross,  still  w^earing  that  honourable  bad^e,  should, 


UC>3.  RICHARD    I.  1/3 

after  expending-  the  blood  and  tieasiire  of  his  suh- 
jects  in  the  common  cause  of  Christendom,  be 
intercepted  by  Christian  princes  in  his  return  to 
his  own  countr}',  be  thrown  into  a  dungeon,  be 
loaded  M'ith  irons,  be  obliged  to  plead  his  cause, 
as  if  he  were  a  subject  and  a  malefactor;  and, 
what  he  still  more  regretted,  be  thereby  prevented 
from  making  preparations  for  a  new  crusade, 
which  he  had  ])rojected,  after  the  expiration  of 
the  truce,  and  from  redeeming  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ,  which  had  so  long  been  profaned  by  the 
dominion  of  infidels.  The  spirit  and  eloquence  of 
Richard  made  such  impression  on  the  German 
princes,  that  they  exclaimed  loudly  against  the 
conduct  of  the  emperor ;  the  pope  threatened  him 
Mith  excommunication  ;  and  Henry,  who  had 
hearkened  to  the  proposals  of  the  king  of  France 
and  prince  John,  found  that  it  would  be  im- 
practicable for  him  to  execute  his  and  their  base 
purposes,  or  to  detain  the  king  of  England  any 
longer  in  captivity.  He  therefore  concluded  with 
him  a  treaty  for  his  ransom,  and  agreed  to  restore 
him  to  his  freedom  for  the  sum  of  150,000  marks, 
about  300,000  pounds  of  our  present  money;  of 
which  100,000  markjs  were  to  be  paid  before  he 
received  his  liberty,  and  sixty-seven  hostages 
dehvered  for  the  remainder''.  The  emperor,  as 
if  to  gloss  over  the  infamy  of  this  transaction, 
made  at  the  same  time  a  present  to  Richard  of 

*•  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  84 


174  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1193, 

the  kingdom  of  Aries,  comprehending  Provence, 
Dauphiny,  Narbonne,  and  other  states,  over  which 
the  empire  had  some  antiquated  claims;  a  present 
which  the  king  very  wisely  neglected. 

The  captivity  of  the  superior  lord  was  one  of 
the  cases  provided  for  by  the  feudal  tenures ;  and 
all  the  vassals  were  in  that  event  oblio-ed  to  give 
an  aid  for  his  ransom.  Twenty  shillings  were 
therefore  levied  on  each  knight's  fee  in  England ; 
but  as  this  money  came  in  slowly,  and  was  not 
sufficient  for  the  intended  purpose,  the  voluntary 
zeal  of  the  people  readily  supplied  the  deficiency. 
The  churches  and  monasteries  melted  down  their 
plate,  to  the  amount  of  30,000  marks  ;  the  bishops, 
abbots,  and  nobles,  paid  a  fourth  of  their  yearly 
rent ;  the  parochial  clergy  contributed  a  tenth  of 
their  tithes  :  and  the  requisite  sum  being  thus 
collected,  queen  Eleanor,  and  AValter  archbishop 
of  Roiien,  set  out  with  it  for  Germany;  paid  the 
money  to  the  emperor  and  the  duke  of  Austria  at 
Mentz  ;  delivered  them  hostages  for  the  re- 
mainder ;  and  freed  Richard  from  captivity.  His 
escape  was  very  critical.  Henry  had  been  de- 
tected in  the  assassination  of  the  bishop  of  Liege, 
and  in  an  attempt  of  a  like  nature  on  the  duke  of 
Louvaine  ;  and  finding  himself  extremely  obnoxi- 
ous to  the  German  princes  on  account  of  these 
odious  practices,  he  had  determined  to  seek  sup- 
port from  an  alliance  with  the  king  of  France  ;  to 
detain  Richard,  the  enemy  of  that  prince,  in  per- 
petual captivity ;  to  keep  in  his  hands  the  money 


Iig3.  RICHARD    I.  175 

which  he  liad  already  received  for  his  ransom; 
and  to  extort  fresh  sums  from  Philij)  and  prince 
John,  who  were  very  hheral  in  their  olfers  to  him. 
He  therefore  o-ave  orders  that  llicliard  should  he 
pursued  and  arrested  ;  but  tlie  king,  making  ail 
imaginai)lc  haste,  had  already  endiarkcd  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Schelde,  and  was  out  of  sight  of 
land,  when  the  messengers  of  the  emperor  reached 
Antwerp. 


KING'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND, 
Makch   20. 

The  joy  of  the  Enghsh  was  extreme  on  the  ap- 
pearance of  their  monarch,  who  had  suffered  so 
many  calamities,  who  had  acquired  so  much  glory, 
and  who  had  spread  the  reputation  of  their  name 
into  the  farthest  East,  whither  their  fame  had 
never  before  been  able  to  extend.  He  gave  them, 
soon  after  his  arrival,  an  opportunity  of  publicly 
displaying  their  exultation,  by  ordering  himself 
to  be  crowned  anew  at  Winchester;  as  if  he  in- 
tended, by  that  ceremony,  to  reinstate  himself  in 
his  throne,  and  to  wipe  off  the  ignominy  of  his 
captivity.  Their  satisfaction  was  not  damped, 
even  when  he  declared  his  purpose  of  resuming 
all  those  exorbitant  grants,  which  he  had  been 
necessitated  to  make  before  his  departure  for  the 
Holy  Land.  The  barons,  also,  in  a  great  council, 
confiscated,  on  account  of  his  treason,  all  prince 


176  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1194. 

John's  possessions  in  England  ;  and  they  assisted 
the  king  in  reducing  the  fortresses  which  still  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  his  hrother's  adherents '. 
Richard,  having  settled  every  thing  in  England, 
passed  over  with  an  army  into  Normandy;  being 
impatient  to  make  war  on  Philip,  and  to  revenge 
himself  for  the  many  injuries  which  he  had  re- 
ceived from  that  monarch".  As  soon  as  Philip 
heard  of  the  king's  deliverance  from  captivity,  he 
wrote  to  his  confederate  John,  in  these  terms  : 
Take  care  of  yourself :  the  devil  is  broken  loose^. 


WAR  WITH  FRANCE.     1194. 

When  we  consider  such  powerful  and  martial  mo- 
narchs,  inflamed  Avith  personal  animosity  against 
each  other,  enraged  by  mutual  injuries,  excited 
by  rivalship,  impelled  by  opposite  interests,  and 
instigated  by  the  pride  and  violence  of  their  own 
temper  ;  our  curiosity  is  naturally  raised,  and  we 
expect  an  obstinate  and  furious  war,  distinguished 
by  the  greatest  events,  and  concluded  by  some 
remarkable  catastrophe.  Yet  are  the  incidents, 
which  attend  those  hostilities,  so  frivolous,  that 
scarce  any  historian  can  entertain  such  a  passion 
for  military  descriptions  as  to  venture  on  a  detail 
of  them :  a  certain  proof  of  the  extreme  weakness 

^  Hoveden,  p.  737.  Ann.  Waverl,  p.  l65.  W.  Heming.  p.  540. 
'  Hoveden,  p.  740.  '  Ibid.  p.  739. 


11.04.  RICHARD    I.  ^77 

of  princes  in  those  uij^es,  and  ol"  the  Uttlr  authority 
tliey  possessed  over  their  refractory  vassals  !  The 
whole  amount  of  tlie  exploits  on  both  sides  is,  the 
takini;-  of  a  castle,  the  surprise  of  a  straogling  party, 
a  rencounter  of  liorse,  Avhich  resembles  more  a 
rout  than  a  battle.  Richard  obliged  Philij)  to  raise 
the  siege  of  V^erneiiil ;  he  took  Loches,  a  small 
toM  n  in  Anjou  ;  he  made  himself  master  of  Beau- 
mont, and  some  other  places  of  little  consequence; 
and  after  these  trivial  exploits,  the  two  kings 
began  already  to  hold  conferences  for  an  accom- 
modation. Philip  insisted  that,  if  a  general  peace 
Arere  concluded,  the  barons  on  each  side  should, 
for  the  future,  be  prohibited  from  carrying  on 
private  wars  against  each  other :  but  Richard  re- 
j)lie(l,  that  this  was  a  right  claimed  l)y  his  vassals, 
and  he  could  not  debar  them  from  it.  After  this 
fruitless  negotiation,  there  ensued  an  action  be- 
tween the  French  and  English  cavalry  at  Fretteval, 
in  M'hich  the  former  were  routed,  and  the  king  of 
France's  cartulary  and  records,  M'hich  commonl)' 
at  that  time  attended  his  person,  were  taken.  But 
this  victory  leading  to  no  important  advantages, 
a  truce  for  a  year  was  at  last,  from  mutual  weak- 
ness, concluded  between  the  two  monarchs. 

During  this  war  prince  John  deserted  from 
Philip,  threw  himself  at  his  brother's  feet,  craved 
pardon  for  his  offences,  and  by  the  intercession  of 
queen  Eleanor  was  received  into  favour.  I  forgive 
him,  saitl  the  king,  and  hope  I  shall  as  easily /urget 
his  if/Jaries,  as  he  icill  lui)  pardon.     John  was  ui- 

VOL.  II.  N 


178  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1I95. 

capable  even  of  returning  to  his  duty  without 
committing  a  baseness.  Before  he  left  Phflip's 
party,  he  invited  to  dinner  all  the  officers  of  the 
garrison  Avhich  that  prince  had  placed  in  the 
citadel  of  Evreux;  he  massacred  them  during  the 
entertainment ;  fell,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
townsmen,  on  the  garrison,  ^\'hom  he  put  to  the 
sword ;  and  then  dehvered  up  the  place  to  his 
brother. 

The  king  of  France  was  the  great  object  of 
Richard's  resentment  and  animosity :  the  conduct 
of  John,  as  well  as  that  of  the  emperor  and  duke 
of  Austria,  had  been  so  base,  and  was  exposed  to 
such  general  odium  and  reproach,  that  the  king 
deemed   himself  sufficiently    revenged  for   their 
injuries;  and  he  seems  never  to  have  entertained 
any  project  of  vengeance  against  any  of  them. 
The  duke  of  Austria,    about  this   time,   having 
crushed  his  leg  by  the  fall  of  his  horse  at  a  tourna- 
ment, was  thrown  into  a  fever ;  and  being  struck, 
on  the  approaches  of  death,  with  remorse  for  his 
injustice  to  Richard,  he  ordered,  by  will,  all  the 
English  hostages  in  his  hands  to  be  set  at  liberty, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  debt  due  to  him  to  be 
remitted  :  his  son,  who  seemed  inclined  to  disobey 
these  orders,  was  constrained  by  his  ecclesiastics 
to  execute  them".     The  emperor  also  made  ad- 
vances for  Richard's   friendship,   and  offered  to 
give  him    a   discharge  of  all   the   debt  not   yet 

"  Rymer,  vol,  i.  p.  88,  102. 


I\g6.  RICHARD    I.  179 

paid  to  liim,  ))rovidccl  he  would  enter  into  an  ot- 
fensive  alliance  against  the  king  of  France  ;  a  pro- 
posal which  was  very  acceptable  to  Richard,  and 
was  greedily  end)raced  by  him.  The  treaty  w  ith 
the  emperor  took  no  effect ;  but  it  served  to  re- 
kindle the  war  between  France  and  England  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  the  truce.  This  war  was 
not  distinguished  by  any  more  remarkable  inci- 
dents thau  the  foregoing.  After  mutually  ra- 
vaging the  open  country,  and  taking  a  few  insig- 
nilicant  castles,  the  two  kings  conchuled  a  peace 
at  Louviers,  and  made  an  exchange  of  some  ter- 
ritories with  each  other'''.  Their  inability  to  wage 
war  occasioned  the  peace  :  their  mutual  antipathy 
engaged  them  again  in  war  before  two  months 
expired.  Richard  imagined,  that  he  had  now 
found  an  opportunity  of  gaining  great  advantages 
over  his  rival,  by  forming  an  alliance  with  the 
counts  of  Flanders,  Toulouse,  Boulogne,  Cham- 
pagne, and  other  considerable  vassals  of  the 
crown  of  France  \  But  he  soon  experienced  tliG 
insincerity  of  those  princes  ;  and  Mas  not  able  to 
make  any  impression  on  that  kingdom,  while  go- 
verned by  a  monarch  of  so  much  vigour  and  ac- 
tivity as  Philip.  The  most  remarkable  incident 
of  this  war  was  the  taking  prisoner  in  battle  the 
bishop  of  Beauvais,  a  martial  prelate,  Mho  was  of 
the  family  of  Dreux,  and  a  near  relation  of  the 
French  king's.      Richard,   who  hated  that  bishop, 

"  Rymer,  p.  Ql.  "  W.  Heming.  p.  54g.     Brompton, 

p.  12/3.     Rymcr,  vol.  i.  p.  94. 
o  . 


180  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1199. 

threw  lilm  into  prison,  and  loaded  him  with  irons ; 
and  when  the  pope  demanded  his  Hberty,  and 
claimed  him  as  his  son,  the  king  sent  to  his  holi- 
ness the  coat  of  mail  which  the  prelate  had  worn 
in  battle,  and  which  was  all  besmeared  with 
blood :  and  he  replied  to  him,  in  terms  employed 
by  Jacob's  sons  to  that  patriarch.  This  have  we 
found :  know  now  zohether  it  be  thy  son's  coat  orno^. 
This  new  war  betw^een  England  and  France,  though 
carried  on  M'ith  such  animosity  that  both  kings 
frequently  put  out  the  eyes  of  their  prisoners, 
was  soon  finished  by  a  truce  of  five  years ;  and 
immediately  after  signing  this  treaty,  the  kings 
were  ready,  on  some  new  offence,  to  break  out 
again  into  hostilities  ;  when  the  mediation  of  the 
cardinal  of  St.  Mary,  the  Pope's  legate,  accom- 
modated the  difference*.  This  prelate  even  en- 
gaged the  princes  to  commence  a  treaty  for  a 
niore  durable  peace  ;  but  the  death  of  Richard  put 
an  end  to  the  negotiation. 

Vidomer,  viscount  of  Limoges,  a  vassal  of  the 
king's,  had  found  a  treasure,  of  which  he  sent 
part  to  that  prince  as  a  present.  Richard,  as  su- 
perior lord,  claimed  the  whole ;  and  at  the  head 
of  some  Brabancons,  besieged  the  viscount  in  the 
Castle  of  Chalos,  near  Limoges,  in  order  to  make 
him  comply  with  his  demand  ^  The  garrison  of- 
fered to  surrender;   but  the  king  rephed,  that, 

^  GenesiSj  chap,  xxxvii.  ver.  32.     M.  Paris,  p.  128.     Bromp^ 
ton,  p.  1273.  ^  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  109,  110. 

*Hoveden,  p.  79'-     Knyghton,  p.  2413; 


1199-  RICHARD    I.  J8l 

since  he  had  taken  the  pains  to  conic  tliithcrand 
besiege  the  place  in  person,  lie  would  take  it  by 
force,  and  would  hang  every  one  of  thcni.  The 
same  day  Richard,  accompanied  l)y  IVIarcadce, 
leader  of  his  Ihabancons,  approached  the  castle  in 
order  to  survey  it;  mIicu  one  Eertrand  dc  Gour- 
don,  an  archer,  took  aim  at  him,  and  pierced  his 
shoulder  with  an  arroM'.  The  king,  hoMc\cr, 
gave  orders  for  the  assault,  took  the  place,  and 
hanged  all  the  garrison,  except  Gourdon,  who 
had  wounded  him,  and  whom  he  reserved  for  a 
more  deliberate  and  more  cruel  execution  ^ 


DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  TI^E  KING. 
April  6, 

The  wound  was  not  in  itself  dangerous;  but 
the  unskilfulness  of  the  surgeon  made  it  mortal : 
he  so  rankled  Richard's  shoulder  in  pulling  out  the 
arrow,  that  a  gangrene  ensued ;  and  that  prince 
was  now  sensible  that  his  life  Avas  drawing  towards 
a  period.  He  sent  for  Gourdon,  and  asked  him, 
TFretch,  what  have  I  ever  done  to  you,  to  oblige  you 
to  seek  my  life  ? JVhat  have  you  done  to  me  ?  re- 
plied coolly  the  prisoner  :  you  killed  with  your  own 
hands  my  J  at  her  and  my  tico  brothers  ;  and  you  in- 
tended to  have  hanged  myself :  I  am  nozv  in  your 
power,  and  you  may  take  revenge,  by  injlicting  on 
me  the  most  severe  torments :  but  I  shall  endure 


Ibid. 


182  HISTORY    OF  ENGLAND.  1199. 

them  all  with  pleasure,  provided  I  can  think  that  I 
have  heen  so  happy  as  to  rid  the  world  of  such  a 
nuisance  ^  Richard,  struck  with  the  reasonable- 
ness of  this  reply,  and  humbled  by  the  near  ap- 
proach of  death,  ordered  Gourd  on  to  be  set  at  li- 
berty, and  a  sum  of  money  to  be  given  him;  but 
Marcad^e,  unknown  to  him,  seized  the  unhappy 
man,  flayed  him  alive,  and  then  hanged  him. 
Richard  died  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign,  and 
the  forty-second  of  his  age ;  and  he  left  no  issue 
behind  him. 

The  most  shining  part  of  this  prince's  charac- 
ter are  his  military  talents.  No  man,  even  in  that 
romantic  age,  carried  personal  courage  and  in- 
trepidity to  a  greater  height;  and  this  quality 
gained  him  the  appellation  of  the  lion-hearted, 
cmir  de  lion.  He  passionately  loved  glory,  chiefly 
military  glory  ;  and  as  his  conduct  in  the  field  was 
not  inferior  to  his  valour,  he  seems  to  have  pos- 
sessed every  talent  necessary  for  acquiring  it.  His 
resentments  also  were  high  ;  his  pride  unconquer- 
able ;  and  his  subjects,  as  well  as  his  neighbours, 
had  therefore  reason  to  apprehend,  from  the  con- 
tinuance of  his  reign,  a  perpetual  scene  of  blood 
and  violence.  Of  an  impetuous  and  vehement 
spirit,  he  was  distinguished  by  all  the  good,  as 
well  as  the  bad  qualities,  incident  to  that  charac- 
ter :  he  was  open,  frank,  generous,  sincere,  and 
brave ;  he  was  revengeful,  domineering,  ambitious, 

"  Hoveden,  p.  79I.   Brompton,  p.  1277.   Knyghton^p.  2413. 


ligg.  RICHARD    I.  183 

liauglity,  and  cruel ;  and  was  thus  better  calcu- 
lated to  dazzle  men  by  the  splendour  of  his  en- 
terprizes,  than  either  to  promote  their  happiness 
or  his  own  grantleur,  by  a  sound  and  well-regu- 
lated policy.  As  military  talents  make  great  im- 
pression on  the  people,  he  seems  to  have  been 
much  beloved  by  his  English  subjects  ;  and  he  is 
remarked  to  have  been  the  first  prince  of  the  Nor- 
man line  that  bore  any  sincere  regard  to  them. 
He  passed  however  only  four  months  of  his  reign 
in  that  kingdom  :  the  crusade  emplo}'ed  him  near 
three  years ;  he  m  as  detained  about  fourteen 
months  in  captivity ;  the  rest  of  his  reign  Mas 
spent  either  in  war,  or  preparations  for  war,  against 
France ;  and  he  was  so  pleased  ^ith  the  fame 
which  he  had  acquired  in  the  East,  that  he  deter- 
mined, notwithstanding  his  past  misfortunes,  to 
have  farther  exhausted  his  kingdom,  and  to  have 
exposed  himself  to  new  hazards,  by  conducting 
another  expedition  against  the  infidels. 


MISCELLx\NEOUS   TRANSACTIONS   OF 
THIS  REIGN. 

Though  the  English  pleased  themselves  with  the 
glory  which  the  king's  martial  genius  procured 
them,  his  reign  was  very  oppressive  and  somewhat 
arbitrary,  by  the  high  taxes  m  hicli  he  levied  on 
them,  and  often  without  consent  of  the  states  or 
great-council.     In  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign,  he 


184  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  II99. 

levied  five  shillings  on  each  hyde  of  land ;  and 
because  the    clergy   refused  to   contribute  their 
share,  he  put  them  out  of  the  protection  of  lav/, 
and  ordered  the  civil  courts  to  give  them  no  sen- 
tence  for  any  debts  which   they  might  claim  ^ 
Twice  in  his  reign  he  ordered  all  his  charters  to 
be  sealed  anew,   and  the  parties  to  pay  fees  for  the 
renewal  ^     It  is  said  that  Hubert,   his  justiciary, 
sent  him  over  to  France,  in  the  space  of  two  years, 
no  less  a  sum  than  1, 100,000  marks,  besides  bear- 
ing; all  the  charo;es   of  the  "-overnment  in  Enp'- 
land.     But  this  account  is  quite  incredible,  unless 
we  suppose  that  Richard  made  a  tliorough  dilapi- 
dation of  the  demesnes  of  the  crown,   which  it  is 
not  likely  he  could  do  with   any  advantage  after 
his  former  resumption  of  all  grants,     A  king,  Avho 
possessed  such  a  revenue,    could  never  have  en- 
dured fourteen  months  captivity,   for  not  paying 
150,000  marks  to  the  emperor,   and  be  obliged  at 
last  to  have  hostages  for  a  third  of  the  sum.     The 
prices  of  commodities  in  this  reign  are  also  a  cer^ 
tain  proof  that  no  such  enormous  sum  could  be 
levied  on  the  people.     A  hyde  of  land,  or  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty  acres,   was  commonly  let  at 
twenty  shillings  a  year,   money  of  that  time.     As 
there  were  £43,600  hydes  in  England,  it  is  easy  to 
compute  the  amount  of  all  the  landed  rents  of  the 
kingdom.     The  general  and  stated  price  of  an  ox 
was  four  shillings  ;  of  a  labouring  horse  the  same  ; 

^  Hoveden,  p.  743.     Tyrrel,  vol.  ii.  p.  503. 
*  Prynne's  Chronol.  Viiidic.  torn.  i.  p.  1 133. 


1199.  RICHARD    I.  186 

of  a  sow,  one  shilling-;  of  a  sliccp  ^\ith  fine  mooI, 
ten  pence  ;  •with  coarse  wool,  bix  pence'.  Those 
commodities  seem  not  to  have  advanced  in  their 
prices  since  the  conquest  *,  and  to  have  still  heen 
ten  times  cheaper  than  at  present. 

Richard  renewed  the  severe  laws  against  trans- 
gressors in  his  forests,  whom  he  punished  hy  cas- 
tration, and  putting  out  their  eyes,  as  in  the  reign 
of  his  great-grandtather.  He  established  by  law 
one  weight  and  measure  throughout  his  king- 
dom^: a  useful  institution,  which  the  mercenary 
disposition  and  necessities  of  his  successor  en- 
gaged him  to  dispense  with  for  money. 

The  disorders  in  London,  derived  from  its  bad 
police,  had  risen  to  a  great  height  during  this 
reign  ;  and  in  the  year  1  ip6",  there  seemed  to  be 
fonned  so  regular  a  conspiracy  among  the  numer- 
ous malefactors,  as  threatened  the  city  with  de- 
struction. There  was  one  V/illiam  Fitz-Osbert, 
commonly  called  Longhcard,  a  lawyer,  who  had 
rendered  himself  extremely  popular  among  the 
lower  rank  of  citizens;  and,  by  defending  them 
on  all  occasions,  had  acquired  the  appellation  of 
the  advocate  or  saviour  of  the  poor.  lie  exerted 
his  authority,  by  injuring  and  insulting  the  more 
substantial  citizens,  with  M'hom  he  lived  in  a  state 
of  hostility,  and  who  were  every  moment  ex])ose(l 
to  the  most  outrageous  violences  from  him  and 

^Hoveden,  p.  "45.  *  See  note  [A]  vol.  x. 

'M.  Paris,  p.  IO9,  134.      Trivet,  p.  127.       Ann.  Waverl. 
p.  1G5.     Hoveden,  p.  /74. 


186  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  I199. 

his  licentious  emissaries.  Murders  were  daily 
committed  in  the  streets  ;  houses  were  broken 
open  and  pillaged  in  day  light ;  and  it  is  pretend- 
ed, that  no  less  than  fifty-two  thousand  persons 
had  entered  into  an  association,  by  which  they 
bound  themselves  to  obey  all  the  orders  of  this 
dangerous  ruffian.  Archbishop  Hubert,  who  was 
then  chief  justiciary,  summoned  him  before  the 
council  to  answer  for  his  conduct ;  but  he  came 
so  well  attended,  that  no  one  durst  accuse  him, 
or  give  evidence  against  him ;  and  the  primate, 
finding  the  impotence  of  law,  contented  himself 
with  exacting  from  the  citizens  hostages  for  their 
good  behaviour.  He  kept,  however,  a  watchful 
eye  on  Fitz-Osbert ;  and  seizing  a  favourable  op- 
portunity, attempted  to  commit  him  to  custody- 
but  the  criminal,  murdering  one  of  the  public  of- 
ficers, escaped  with  his  concubine  to  the  church 
of  St.  Mary  le  Bow,  where  he  defended  himself 
by  force  of  arms.  He  was  at  last  forced  from  his 
retreat,  condemned,  and  executed  amidst  the  re- 
grets of  the  populace,  who  were  so  devoted  to  his 
memory,  that  they  stole  his  gibbet,  paid  the  same 
veneration  to  it  as  to  the  cross,  and  were  equally 
zealous  in  propagating  and  attesting  reports  of 
the  miracles  Avrought  by  it ''.  But  though  the 
sectaries  of  this  superstition  were  punished  by 
the  justiciary',  it  received  so  little  encourage- 
ment from  the  established  clergy,  whose  property 

*  Hoveden^  p.  7^5.     Diceto,  p.  6qI.    Newbrig.  p.  492,493. 
*  Gervase,  p.  1551. 


119D.  RICHARD    I.  187 

was  endangered  by  such  seditious  practices,  tliat 
it  suddenly  sunk  and  vanislicd. 

It  was  during  the  crusades,  that  the  custom 
of  using  coats  of  arms  was  first  introduced  into 
Europe.  The  kniglits,  cased  up  in  armour,  liad 
no  way  to  make  themselves  be  known  and  distin- 
guished in  l)att!e,  but  by  tlie  devices  on  their 
shiehls  ;  and  these  were  gradually  adopted  by 
their  posterity  and  families,  who  were  proud  of 
the  pious  and  military  enterprizes  of  their  an- 
cestors. 

King  Richard  was  a  passionate  lover  of  poetry: 
there  even  remain  some  poetical  works  of  his  com- 
position :  and  he  bears  a  rank  among  tlie  Proven- 
9al  poets  or  Trobadore.s,  who  Avere  tlie  first  of  the 
modern  Europeans  that  distinguished  themselves 
by  attempts  of  that  nature. 


^t-actttte^^ 


z/'     _  jiw{ji^^^^'^^^;;^-:^jaa/(i^^d-^^^^^  mT^^ 


r,a>^,:.<-A^,f  i'>,-fj-:u<9os  h'J<^''i'f'^^f<'->;4(ii'c> 


tei-?i  od-terjir 


folm. 


Chap.  XII.   p.  201. 

The  king  coming  in  a  boat,  during  the  night-time,  to  that 
place,  commanded  Arthur  to  be  brought  forth  to  him.  The  young 
prince,  aware  of  his  danger,  and  now  more  subdued  by  the  con- 
tinuance of  his  misfortunes,  and  by  the  approach  of  death,  threw 
himself  on  his  knees  before  his  uncle,  and  begged  for  mercy :  but 
the  barbarous  tyrant,  making  no  reply,  stabbed  him  with  his  own 
hands  J  and  fastening  a  stone  to  the  dead  body,  threw  it  into  the 
Seine. 


1190.  JOHN.  ip9 


CHAPTER    XI. 


JOHN. 

Accession  of  the  King  ....  His  Marriage  ....  War  with  France 
....  Murder  of  Arthur  Duke  of  Britanny  ....  The  King  ex- 
pelled the  French  Provinces  ....  The  King's  Quarrel  with  the 
Court  of  Rome  ....  Cardinal  Langton  appointed  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  ....  Interdict  of  the  Kingdom  ....  Excommu- 
nication of  the  King ....  The  King's  Submission  to  the  Pope 
....  Discontents  of  the  Barons ....  Insurrection  of  the  Baron.s 
....  Magna  Charta  ....  Renewal  of  the  Civil  Wars .... 
Prince  Lewis  called  over  ....  Death  ....  and  Character  of  tlic 
King. 

ACCESSION  OF  THE  KING.     1199. 

The  noble  and  free  genius  of  the  ancients,  wliich 
made  the  government  of  a  single  person  be  al- 
ways regarded  as  a  species  of  tyranny  and  usurpa- 
tion, and  kept  them  from  forming  any  concep- 
tion of  a  legal  and  regular  monarchy,  had  ren- 
dered them  entirely  ignorant  both  of  the  rights  of 
primogeniture  and  a  representation  in  succession ; 
inventions  so  necessary  for  preserving  order  in 
the  lines  of  princes,  for  obviating  the  evils  of  civil 
discord  and  of  usurpation,  and  for  begetting  mo- 
deration in  that  species  of  government,  by  giving 
security  to  the  ruling  sovereign.     These  innova- 


igo  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  ugg, 

tions  arose  from  the  feudal  law ;  which,   first  in- 
troducing the  right  of  primogeniture,  made  such 
a  distinction  between  the  famihes  of  the  elder  and 
younger  brothers,  that  the  son  of  the  former  was 
thought  entitled   to  succeed  to  his  grandfather, 
preferably  to  his  uncles,   though  nearer  allied  to 
the  deceased  monarch.     But  though  this  progress 
of  ideas  was  natural,  it  was  gradual.     In  the  age 
of  which  we  treat,   the  practice  of  representation 
was  indeed  introduced,  but  not  thoroughly  esta- 
blished ;  and  the  minds  of  men  fluctuated  between 
opposite  principles.     Richard,  when  he  entered 
on  the   holy  war,    declared  his  nephew,  Arthur 
duke  of  Britanny,   his  successor ;  and  by  a  formal 
deed,  he  set  aside,   in  his  favour,   the  title  of  his 
brother  John,   who  was  younger  than  Geoffrey, 
the  father  of  that  prince  ^.      But  John  so  Httle  ac- 
quiesced in  that  destination,   that  when  he  gained 
the  ascendant  in  the  English  ministry,    by  ex- 
pelling Longchamp,    the   chancellor,    and   great 
justiciary,  he  engaged  all  the  English  barons  to 
swear,     that    they  Avould  maintain    his   right   of 
succession ;  and  Richard,  on  his  return,  took  no 
steps    towards    restoring   or   securing   the    order 
which  he  had  at  first  established.      He  was  even 
careful,    by  his  last  will,  to   declare  his  brother 
John  heir  to  all  his  dominions  ^ ;  whether,  that  he 
now  thought  Arthur,  who  was  only  twelve  years 

"  Hoveden,  p.  677.     M.  Paris,  p.  112.     Chron.  de  Dun»t. 
p.  43.     Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  66,  68.     Bened.  Abb.  p.  619. 
»  Hoveden^  p.  791.     Trivet,  p.  138. 


1199.  JOHN.  101 

of  ai>'e,  incapalilc  of  asserting  his  claim  against 
John's  faction,   or  was  inthienced  by  Eleanor,   the 
queen-mother,  who  hated  Constantia,  mother  of 
the  young  duke,    and   who  dreaded   the   credit 
which  that  princess  would  naturally  acquire  if  her 
-«on  should  mount  the  throne.     The  authority  of  a 
testament  M^as  great  in  that  age,  even  where  the 
succession  of  a  kingdom  was  concerned  ;  and  John 
had  reason  to  hope   that  this  title,  joined  to  his 
plausible  right  in   other  respects,    would   ensure 
him  the  succession.      But  the  idea  of  representa- 
tion seems   to   have  made,   at  this  time,   greater 
progress  in  France  than   in  England  :  the  barons 
of  the  transmarine  provinces,  Anjou,   jMaine,  and 
Touraine,   immediately  declared  in  favour  of  Ar- 
thur's  title,    and   applied   for   assistance    to   the 
French  monarch  as   their  superior  lord.     Philip, 
who  desired  only  an  occasion  to  embarrass  John, 
and  dismember  his  dominions,  embraced  the  cause 
of  the  young  duke  of  Britanny,  took  him  under 
his  protection,  and  sent  him  to  Paris  to  be  edu- 
cated,  along  Mnth  his  own  son  Lewis'".     In  this 
emergence,   John  hastened  to  establish  his  autho- 
rity in  the  chief  members  of  the  monarchy;  and 
after  sending  Eleanor  into  Poictou  and  Guiennc, 
where  her  riglit  was  incontestible,  and  was  readi- 
ly acknowledged,  he  hurried  to  Roiien,  and  hav- 
ing secured  the  dutchy  of  Normandy,  he  passed 
over,   without  loss  of  time,   to  England.     Hubert 

"*  Hoveden,  p.  792.     M.  Paris,  p,  137.     M.  West,  p.  263. 
Knyghton,  p.  2414. 


192  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  ugg. 

archbisliop  of  Canterbury,  William  Mareschal, 
earl  of  Strigul,  who  also  passes  by  the  name  of 
earl  of  Pembroke,  and  Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter  the 
justiciary,  the  three  most  favoured  ministers  of 
the  late  king,  were  already  engaged  on  his  side " ; 
and  the  submission  or  acquiescence  of  all  the 
other  barons  put  him,  without  opposition,  in  pos- 
session of  the  throne. 

The  king  soon  returned  to  France,  in  order  to 
conduct  the  war  against  Philip,  and  to  recover 
the  revolted  provinces  from  his  nephew  Arthur. 
The  alliances  Avhich  Richard  had  formed  with  the 
earl  of  Flanders  °,  and  other  potent  French  princes, 
though  they  had  not  been  very  effectual,  still 
subsisted,  and  enabled  John  to  defend  himself 
against  all  the  efforts  of  his  enemy.  In  an  action 
between  the  French  and  Flemings,  the  elect  bi- 
shop of  Cam  bray  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  form- 
er ;  and  when  the  cardinal  of  Capua  claimed  his 
liberty,  Philip,  instead  of  complying,  reproached 
him  with  the  weak  efforts  which  he  had  employed 
in  favour  of  the  bishop  Of  Bcauvais,  who  was  in  a 
like  condition.  The  legate,  to  shew  his  impartial- 
ity, laid  at  the  same  time  the  kingdom  of  France 
and  the  dutchy  of  Normandy  under  an  interdict ; 
and  the  two  kings  found  themselves  obhged  to 
make  an  exchange  of  these  military  prelates. 

Nothing  enabled  the  king  to  bring  this  war  to 
a  happy  issue  so  much  as  the  selfish  intriguing 

"  Hoveden,  p.  793.     M.  Paris,  p.  137- 
*  Rymei-j  vol.  i.  p.  1 14.     Hoveden,  p.  794.     M.  Paris,  p.  138. 


1200.  JOHN.  ^  igs 

character  of  Pliilip,  wlio  acted  in  the  provinces 
tliat  had  declared  for  Arthur,   without  any  regard 
to  the  interests  of  that  prince.      Constantia,  seized 
with  a  violent  jealousy  that  he  intended  to  usurp 
the  entire  dominion  of  themP    found  means  to 
carry  off  her  son  secretly  from  Paris  :  she  put  him 
into  the  hands  of  his  uncle ;  restored  the  provinces 
which  had  adhered  to  the  young  prince ;  and  made 
him  do  liomage  for  the  dutchy  of  Britanny,  which 
was  regarded  as  a  rere-fief  of  Normandy.     From 
tliis  incident,   Philip  saw  that  he  could  not  hope 
to  make  any  progress  against  John ;  and  being 
threatened   with  an  interdict  on  account  of  his 
irregular  divorce  from    Ingelburga,   the    Danish 
princess  whom  he  had  espoused,  he  became  de- 
sirous of  concluding  a  peace  with  England.     After 
some  fruitless  conferences,  the  terms  were  at  last 
adjusted ;  and  the  two  rrionarchs  seemed  in  this 
treaty  to  have  an  intention,  besides  ending  the  pre- 
sent quarrel,   of  preventing  all  future  causes  of 
discord,  and  of  obviating  every  controversy  which 
could  [hereafter  arise  betM^een  them.      They  ad- 
justed the  limits  of  all  their  territories ;  mutually 
secured  the  interests  of  their  vassals;  and,  to  ren- 
der the  union  more  durable,  John  gave  his  niece, 
Blanche  of  Castile,  in  marriage  to  prince  Lewis, 
Philip's  eldest  son,  and  with  her  the  baronies  of 
Issoudun  and   Gra9ai,    and  other  fiefs  in  Berri. 
Nine  barons  of  the  king  of  England,  and  as  many 

p  Hoveden,  p.  7Q5. 
VOL.    II.  O 


194  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1200. 

of  the  king  of  Fiance,  were  guarantees  of  this 
treaty ;  and  all  of  them  swore,  that,  if  the  sove- 
reign violated  any  article  of  it,  they  would  declare 
themselves  against  him,  and  embrace  the  cause  of 
the  injured  monarch  ^. 


THE  KING'S  MARRIAGE.     1200. 

John,  now  secure,  as  he  imagined,  on  the  side 
of  France,  indulged  his  passion  for  Isabella,  the 
daughter  and  heir  of  Aymar  Tailleffer  count  of 
Angouleme,  a  lady  with  whom  he  had  become 
much  enamoured.  His  queen,  the  heiress  of  the 
family  of  Gloucester,  was  still  alive  :  Isabella  was 
married  to  the  count  de  la  IVIarche,  and  was  al- 
ready consigned  to  the  care  of  that  nobleman ; 
though,  by  reason  of  her  tender  years,  the  mar- 
riage had  not  been  consummated.  The  passion  of 
John  made  him  overlook  all  these  obstacles :  he 
persuaded  the  count  of  Angouleme  to  carry  off 
his  daughter  from  her  husband ;  and  having,  on 
some  pretence  or  other,  procured  a  divorce  from 
his  own  wife,  he  espoused  Isabella;  regardless 
both  of  the  menaces  of  the  pope,  who  exclaimed 
against  these  irregular  proceedings,  and  of  the 
resentment  of  the  injured  count,  who  soon  found 
means  of  punishing  his  powerful  and  insolent 
rival. 

'' Norman  Duchesnii,  p.  1055.     R/mer,  vol.  i.  p.  11 7,  118, 
lip.    Hoveden,  p.  814.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i,  p.  47. 


1201.  JOHN.  lOfl 

Jolin  had  not  the  art  of  attaching  his  l:»arons 
eitlier  by  affection  or  by  fear.  The  count  tie  la 
Marchc,  and  his  brother  the  count  d'Eu,  taking 
advantage  of  the  general  discontent  against  him, 
excited  commotions  in  Poictou  and  Normandy ; 
and  obHged  the  king  to  have  recourse  to  arms,  in 
order  to  suppress  the  insurrection  of  his  vassals. 
He  summoned  together  the  barons  of  England, 
and  required  them  to  pass  the  sea  under  his  stand- 
ard, and  to  quell  the  rebels :  he  found  that  he 
possessed  as  little  authority  in  that  kingdom  as  in 
his  transmarine  provinces.  The  English  barons 
unanimously  replied,  that  they  would  not  attend 
him  on  this  expedition,  unless  he  would  promise 
to  restore  and  preserve  their  privileges  ^ :  the  first 
symptom  of  a  regular  association  and  plan  of  liber- 
ty among  those  noblemen  1  but  affairs  were  not 
yet  fully  ripe  for  the  revolution  projected.  John, 
by  menacing  the  barons,  broke  the  concert ;  and 
both  engaged  many  of  them  to  follow  him  into 
Normandy,  and  obliged  the  rest,  who  staid  be- 
hind, to  pay  him  a  scutage  of  two  marks  on  each 
knight's  fee,  as  the  price  of  their  exemption  from 
the  service. 

The  force  which  John  carried  abroad  with  him, 
and  that  which  joined  him  in  Normandy,  render- 
ed him  much  superior  to  his  malcontent  barons; 
and  so  much  the  more  as  Philip  did  not  publicly 
give  them  any  countenance,  and  seemed  as  yet 
determined  to  persevere  steadily  in  the  alliance 

'  Annal.  Burtou,  p,  262. 
2 


196  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1201. 

which  he  had  contracted  Avith  England.     But  the 
king,  elated  with  his  superiority,  advanced  claims 
which  eave  an  universal  alarm  to  his  vassals,  and 
diffused   still  wider  the  general  discontent.     As 
the  jurisprudence  of  those  times  required,   that 
the  causes  in  the  lord's  court  should  chiefly  be 
decided  by  duel,  he  carried  along  with  him  cer- 
tain bravos,  whom  he  retained  as  champions,  and 
whom  he  destined  to  fight  with  his  barons,    in 
order  to   determine    any   controversy  which   he 
miffht  raise   against    them'.      The   count   de  la 
Marche,  and  other  noblemen,  regarded  this  pro- 
ceeding as  an  affront,  as  well  as  an  injury ;  and 
declared,  that  they  would  never  draw  their  sword 
against  men  of  such  inferior  quality.     The  king- 
menaced  them  with  vengeance ;  but  he  had  not 
vigour  to  employ  against  them  the  force  in  his 
hands,  or  to  prosecute  the  injustice,   by  crushing 
entirely  the  nobles  who  opposed  it. 

WAR  WITH  FRANCE.     1201. 

This  government,  equally  feeble  and  violent, 
gave  the  injured  barons  courage  as  well  as  inclina- 
tion to  carry  farther  their  opposition :  they  ap- 
pealed to  the  king  of  France  ;  complained  of  the 
denial  of  justice  in  John's  court ;  demanded  re- 
dress from  him  as  their  superior  lord ;  and  en- 
treated him  to  employ  his  authority,  and  prevent 

'  Annal.  Burton,  p.  262. 


1203.  JOHN.  197 

their  final  ruin  and  oppression.  Philip  perceived 
his  advantage,  opened  his  mind  to  great  projects, 
interposed  in  behalf  of  the  French  barons,  and  be- 
gan to  talk  in  a  high  and  menacing  style  to  the 
king  of  England.  John,  who  could  not  disavow 
Philip's  authority,  replied,  that  it  belonged  to 
himself  first  to  grant  them  a  trial  by  their  peers 
in  his  own  court ;  it  was  not  till  he  failed  in  this 
duty,  that  he  was  answerable  to  his  peers  in  the 
supreme  court  of  the  French  king  ' ;  and  he  pro- 
mised, by  a  fair  and  equitable  judi<:ature,  to  give 
satisfaction  to  his  barons.  When  the  nobles,  in 
consequence  of  this  engagement,  demanded  a 
safe-conduct,  that  they  might  attend  his  court, 
he  at  first  refused  it ;  upon  the  renewal  of  Philip's 
menaces,  he  promised  to  grant  their  demand  ;  he 
violated  this  promise ;  fresh  menaces  extorted 
from  him  a  promise  to  surrender  to  Philip  the 
fortresses  of  Tillieres  and  Boutavant,  as  a  secur- 
ity for  performance ;  he  again  violated  his  en- 
gagement ;  his  enemies,  sensible  both  of  his  weak- 
ness and  want  of  faith,  combined  still  closer  in 
the  resolution  of  pushing  him  to  extremities  ;  and 
a  new  and  powerful  ally  soon  appeared  to  encour- 
asce  them  in  their  invasion  of  this  odious  and 
despicable  government. 

The  young  duke  of  Britanny  who  was  now 
rising  to  man's  estate,  sensible  of  the  dangerous 
character  of  his  uncle,  determined  to  seek  both 
his  security  and  elevation  by  an  union  with  Philip 

'  Philipp.  lib.  vi. 


198  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1203. 

and  the  malcontent  barons.  He  joined  the  French 
army,  which  had  begun  hostiUties  against  the 
king  of  England :  he  was  received  with  great 
marks  of  distinction  by  Philip  ;  was  knighted  by 
him ;  espoused  his  daughter  Mary ;  and  was  in- 
vested not  only  in  the  dutchy  of  Britanny,  but 
in  the  counties  of  Anjou  and  Maine,  which  he 
had  formerly  resigned  to  his  uncled  Every  at- 
tempt succeeded  with  the  allies.  TiHieres  and 
Boutavant  were  taken  by  Philip,  after  making  a 
feeble  defence  :  Mortimar  and  Lyons  fell  into  his 
hands  almost  without  resistance.  That  prince 
next  invested  Gournai ;  and  opening  the  sluices  of 
a  lake  which  lay  in  the  neighbourhood,  poured 
such  a  torrent  of  water  into  the  place  that  the  gar- 
rison deserted  it,  and  the  French  monarch,  with- 
out striking  a  blow,  made  himself  master  of  that 
important  fortress.  The  progress  of  the  French 
arms  was  rapid,  and  promised  more  considerable 
success  than  usually  in  that  age  attended  military 
enterprises.  In  answer  to  every  advance  which 
the  king  made  towards  peace,  Philip  still  insisted, 
that  he  should  resign  all  his  transmarine  domi- 
nions to  his  nephew,  and  rest  contented  with 
the  kingdom  of  England  ;  when  an  event  happen- 
ed, which  seemed  to  turn  the  scales  in  favour  of 
John,  and  to  give  him  a  decisive  superiority  over 
his  enemies. 

Young  Arthur,  fond  of  mihtary  renown,  had 
broken  into  Poictou  at  the  head  of  a  small  army  ; 

*>  Trivet,  p.  142. 


1203.  JOHN.  199 

and  passing  near  IMiraheau,  he  heanl  that  his 
grandmother  queen  Eleanor,  who  had  always  op- 
posed his  interests,  was  lodged  in  that  place,  and 
was  protected  by  a  weak  garrison  and  ruinous  for- 
tifications^, lie  innnediately  determined  to  lay 
siege  to  the  fortress,  and  make  himself  master  of 
her  person  :  but  John,  roused  fiom  his  indolence 
by  so  pressing  an  occasion,  collected  an  army  of 
Englisli  und  Braban9ons,  and  advanced  from  Nor- 
mandy with  hasty  marches  to  the  relief  of  the 
queen-mother.  He  fell  on  Arthur's  camp  before 
that  prince  was  aware  of  the  danger;  dispersed 
his  army ;  took  him  prisoner,  together  witli  the 
count  de  la  Marche,  Geoffrey  de  Lusignan,  and 
the  most  considerable  of  the  revolted  barons  ;  and 
returned  in  triumph  to  Normandy  ".  Philip,  who 
was  lying  before  Arques  in  that  dutchy,  raised 
the  siege  and  retired,  upon  his  approach  f.  The 
greater  part  of  the  prisoners  were  sent  over  to 
England  ;  but  Arthur  was  shut  up  in  the  castle  of 
Falaise. 

MURDER  OF  ARTHUR  DUKE  OF  BRITANNY. 

1203. 

The  king  had  here  a  conference  with  his  ne- 
phew ;  represented  to  him  the  folly  of  his  preten- 
sions ;  and  required  him  to  renounce  the  French 
alliance,  which  had  encouragetl  him  to  live  in  a 

*  Ann.  Waved,  p.  167.     M.  West.  p.  264. 
"  Ann.  Mare.  p.  213.    iM.  West.  p.  2(54.       '  M.  West,  p.  264. 


200  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1203. 

state  of  enmity  with  all  his  family :  but  the  brave, 
though  imprudent  youth,  rendered  more  haughty 
from  misfortunes,  maintained  the  justice  of  his 
cause ;  asserted  his  claim,  not  only  to  the  French 
provinces,   but  to  the  crown  of  England  ;  and,  in 
his  turn,   required  the  king  to  restore  the  son  of 
his  elder  brother  to  the  possession  of  his  inherit- 
ance ^     John,  sensible,    from  these  symptoms  of 
spirit,  that  the  young  prince,  though  now  a  pri- 
soner, might  hereafter  prove  a  dangerous  enemy, 
determined  to  prevent  all  future  peril  by  dispatch- 
ing his  nephew ;  and  Arthur  was  never  more  heard 
of.     The  circumstances  which  attended  this  deed 
of  darkness  were,  no  doubt,  carefully  concealed 
by  the  actors,  and  are  variously  related  by  histo- 
rians :  but  the  most  probable  account  is  as  fol- 
lows :  the  king,  it  is  said,  first  proposed  to  Wil- 
ham  de  la  Bray,  one  of  his  servants,   to  dispatch 
Arthur ;  but  William  replied,  that  he  was  a  gen- 
tleman,  not  a  hangman ;  and  he  positively  refus- 
ed compliance.     Another  instrument  of  murder 
was  found,  and  was  dispatched  with  proper  orders 
to  Falaise  ;  but  Hubert  de  Bourg,   chaml^erlain  to 
the  king,  and   constable  of  the   castle,   feigning 
that  he  himself  would  execute   the  king's  man- 
date,  sent  back  the  assassin,    spread   the  report 
that  the  young  prince  was  dead,  and  pubhcly  per- 
formed all  the  ceremonies  of  his  interment :  but 
finding  that  the  Bretons  vowed  revenge  for  the 
murder,  and  that  all  the  revolted  barons  perse- 

'  M.  West.  p.  264, 


1203.  JOHN.  201 

vcred  more  obstinately  in  their  rebellion,  he 
thought  it  prudent  to  reveal  the  secret,  and  to  in- 
form the  world  that  the  duke  of  Britanny  was  still 
alive,  and  in  his  custody.  This  discovery  proved 
fatal  to  the  young  prince :  John  first  removed 
him  to  the  castle  of  lloiien  ;  and  coming  in  a  boat, 
during  the  night-time,  to  that  place,  commanded 
Artluir  to  be  brought  forth  to  him.  The  young 
prince,  aware  of  his  danger,  and  now  more  sub- 
dued by  the  continuance  of  his  misfortunes,  and 
by  the  approach  of  death,  threw  himself  on  his 
knees  before  his  uncle,  and  begged  for  mercy : 
but  the  barbarous  tyrant,  making  no  reply,  stab- 
bed him  with  his  own  hands  ;  and  fastening  a  stone 
to  the  dead  body,   threw  it  into  the  Seine. 

All  men  were  struck  with  horror  at  this  inhu- 
man deed  ;  and  from  that  moment  the  king,  de- 
tested by  his  subjects,  retained  a  very  precarious 
authority  over  both  the  people  and  the  barons  in 
his  dominions.  The  Bretons,  enraged  at  this  dis- 
appointment in  their  fond  hopes,  Avaged  impla- 
cable war  against  him  ;  and  fixing  the  succession 
of  their  government,  put  themselves  in  a  posture 
to  revenge  the  murder  of  their  sovereign.  John 
had  got  into  his  power  his  niece,  Eleanor,  sister 
to  Arthur,  ,pomnionly  called  the  Damsel  of  Bri' 
tanmj ;  and  carrying  her  over  to  England,  de- 
tained her  ever  after  in  captivity^:  but  the  Bre- 
tons, in  despair  of  recovering  this  princess,  chose 
Alice  for  their  sovereign  ;  a  younger  daughter  of 

*  Trivet,  p.  145.    T.  Wykes,  p.  36.     Ypod.  Ntust.  p.  A5Q. 


202  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1203. 

Constantia,  by  her  second  marriage  with  Gui  de 
Thouars ;  and  they  entrusted  the  government  of 
the  dutchy  to  that  nobleman.  The  states  of  Bri- 
tanny,  meanwhile,  carried  their  complaints  before 
Philip  as  their  liege  lord,  and  demanded  justice 
for  the  violence  committed  by  John  on  the  person 
of  Arthur,  so  near  a  relation,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing the  homage  which  he  did  to  Normandy,  was 
always  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  vassals  of  the 
crown.  Philip  received  their  application  with 
pleasure  ;  summoned  John  to  stand  a  trial  be- 
fore him  ;  and  on  his  non-appearance  passed  sen- 
tence, Avith  the  concurrence  of  the  peers,  upon 
that  prince ;  declared  him  guilty  of  felony  and 
parricide  ;  and  adjudged  him  to  forfeit  to  his  su- 
perior lord  all  his  seignories  and  fiefs  in  France  ^ 


THE  KING  EXPELLED  FROM  THE  FRENCH 
PROVINCES. 

The  king  of  France,  whose  ambitious  and  active 
spirit  had  been  hitherto  confined,  either  by  the 
sound  policy  of  Henry,  or  the  martial  genius  of 
Richard,  seeing  now  the  opportunity  favourable 
against  this  base  and  odious  prince,  embraced  the 
project  of  expelling  the  English,  or  rather  the 
English  king,  from  France,  and  of  annexing  to 
the  croAvn  so  many  considerable  fiefs,  which,  dur- 
ing several  ages,   had  been  dismembered  from  it. 

*"  W.  Heming.  p.  455.  M.  West,  p,  264.   Knyghton,  p.  2420. 


120  J.  JOHN.  203 

Many  of  tlic  other  o-rcat  vassals,  wliosc  jealousy 
might  have  interposed,  and  have  ohstriieted  the 
execution  of  this  project,  were  not  at  present  in 
a  situation  to  oppose  it ;  and  the  rest  either  look- 
ed on  with  indifference,  or  gave  their  assistance 
to  this  dangerous  aggrandizement  of  their  supe- 
rior lord.  The  carls  of  Flanders  and  Blois  were 
engaged  in  the  holy  war  :  the  count  of  Champagne 
Avas  an  infant,  and  under  the  guardianship  of  Phi- 
lip :  the  dutchy  ofBritanny,  enraged  at  the  mur- 
der of  their  prince,  vigorously  promoted  all  his 
measures :  and  the  general  defection  of  John's 
vassals  made  every  enterprise  easy  and  successful 
against  him.  Philip,  after  taking  several  castles 
and  fortresses  beyond  the  Loire,  which  he  either 
garrisoned  or  dismantled,  received  the  submissions 
of  the  count  Alen^on,  Avdio  deserted  John,  and 
delivered  up  all  the  places  under  his  command  to 
the  French  :  upon  which  Philip  broke  up  his  camp, 
in  order  to  give  the  troops  some  repose  after  the 
fatigues  of  the  campaign.  John,  suddenly  col- 
lecting some  forces,  laid  siege  to  Alencon ;  and 
Philip,  whose  dispersed  army  could  not  be  brought 
together  in  time  to  succour  it,  saw  himself  expos- 
ed to  the  disgrr-ce  of  suffering  the  oppression  of 
his  friend  and  confederate.  But  his  active  and 
fertile  genius  found  an  expedient  against  this  evil. 
There  was  held  at  that  very  time  a  tournament  at 
Moret,  in  the  Gatinois  ;  whither  all  the  chief  no- 
bility of  France  and  the  neighbouring  countries 
had  resorted,   in  order  to   signalize   their  process 


204  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1203. 

and  address.  Philip  presented  himself  before 
them  ;  craved  their  assistance  in  his  distress  ;  and 
pointed  out  the  plains  of  Alen^on,  as  the  most  ho- 
nourable field  in  which  they  could  display  their 
generosity  and  martial  spirit.  Those  valorous 
knights  vovv^ed,  that  they  would  take  vengeance 
on  the  base  parricide,  the  stain  of  arms  and  of 
chivalry :  and  putting  themselves,  with  all  their 
retinue,  under  the  command  of  Philip,  instantly 
marched  to  raise  the  siege  of  Alen^on.  John, 
hearing  of  their  approach,  fled  from  before  the 
place ;  and  in  the  hurry  abandoned  all  his  tents, 
machines,   and  baggage,   to  the  enemy. 

This  feeble  effort  A\^as  the  last  exploit  of  that 
slothful  and  cowardly  prince  for  the  defence  of 
his  dominions.  He  thenceforth  remained  in  total 
inactivity  at  Roiien  ;  passing  all  his  time,  with  his 
young  wife,  in  pastimes  and  amusements,  as  if  his 
state  had  been  in  the  most  profound  tranquillity, 
or  his  affairs  in  the  most  prosperous  condition.  If 
he  ever  mentioned  war,  it  was  only  to  give  him- 
self vaunting  airs,  which,  in  the  eyes  of  all  men, 
rendered  him  still  more  despicable  and  ridiculous. 
Let  the  French  go  on,  said  he,  /  ivill  retake  in  a  day 
what  it  has  cost  them  years  to  acquire''.  His  stu- 
pidity and  indolence  appeared  so  extraordinary, 
that  the  people  endeavoured  to  account  for  the 
infatuation  by  sorcery,  and  believed  that  he  was 
thrown  into  this  lethargy  by  some  magic  or  witch- 
craft.    The  English  barons,     finding   that  their 

*^  M.  Paris,  p.  140.    M.  West.  p.  266. 


1204.  JOHN.  205 

time  was  wasted  to  no  i^iirposc,  and  that  they 
must  suffer  tlie  disgrace  of  seeing,  witliout  resist- 
ance, the  progress  of  the  French  arms,  ^ithihew 
from  their  colours,  and  secretly  returned  to  their 
own  country  ^.  No  one  thought  of  defending  a 
man,  Mho  seemed  to  iiave  deserted  himself;  and 
his  suhjects  regarded  his  fate  with  the  same  indif- 
ference, to  which,  in  this  pressing  exigency,  they 
saw  him  totally  abandoned. 

John,    while   he    neglected    all  domestic   re- 
sources, had  the  meanness  to  betake  himself  to  a 
foreign  power,  whose  protection  he  claimed :  he 
applied  to  the  pope,   Innocent  III.  and  entreated 
him  to  interpose  his  authority  between   him  and 
the  French  monarch.     Innocent,  pleased  with  any 
occasion  of  exerting  his  superiority,  sent  Philip 
orders  to   stop  the  progress  of  his  arms,   and  to 
make  peace  with  the  king  of  England.     But  tliQ 
French  barons  received  the  message  with  indigna- 
tion ;  disclaimed  the  temporal  authority  assumed 
by  the  pontiff';  and  vowed,  that  they  would,  to 
the  uttermost,  assist  their  prince  against  all  his 
enemies :    Philip,     seconding  their  ardour,    pro- 
ceeded, instead  of  obeying  the  pope's  envoys,  to 
lay  siege  to  Chateau  Gaillard,  the  most  consider- 
able fortress  which  remained  to  guard  the  fron- 
tiers of  Normandy. 

Chateau  Gaillard  was  situated  partly  on  an 
island  in  the  river  Seine,  partly  on  a  rock  oppo- 
site to  it;  and  was  secured  by  every  advantage 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  146.     M.  West.  p.  264. 


206  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1204. 

which  either  art  or  nature  could  bestow  upon  it. 
The  late  king,  having  cast  his  eye  on  this  favour- 
able situation,  had  spared  no  labour  or  expence 
in  fortifying  it ;  and  it  was  defended  by  Roger  de 
Laci,   constable  of  Chester,   a  determined  officer, 
at  the  head  of  a  numerous  garrison.     Philip,  who 
despaired  of  taking  the  place  by  force,   purposed 
to  reduce  it  by  famine  ;  and  that  he  might  cut  off 
its  communication  with  the  nei<>hbourino;  coun- 
try,   he  threw  a  bridge  across  the  Seine,  while  he 
himself  with  his  army  blockaded  it  by  land.     The 
earl  of  Pembroke,  the  man  of  greatest  vigour  and 
capacity  in  the  English  court,  formed  a  plan  for 
breaking  through  the  French  entrenchments,  and 
throwing  relief  into  the  place.      He   carried  with 
him  an  army  of  4000  infantry  and  3000  cavalry, 
and  suddenly  attacked,  with  great  success,  Phi- 
lip's camp  in  the  night-time ;  having  left  orders, 
that  a  fleet  of  seventy  flat-bottomed  vessels  should 
sail  up  the  Seine,   and  fall  at  the  same  instant  on 
the  bridge.      But  the  wind  and  the  current  of  the 
river,   by  retarding  the  vessels,   disconcerted  this 
plan  of  operations  ;  and  it  was  morning  before  the 
fleet  appeared  ;  when  Pembroke,  though  success- 
ful in  the  beginning  of  the  action,   was  already 
repulsed  with   considerable  loss,   and  the  king  of 
France  had  leisure  to  defend  himself  a"-ainst  these 
new  assailants,  who  also  met  with  a  repulse.     After 
this  misfortune,  John  made  no  farther  efforts  for 
the  relief  of  Chateau  Gaillard  ;  and  Philip  had  all 
the  leisure  requisite  for  conducting  and  finishing 


1204.  JOHN.  20; 

the  siege.  Roger  de  Laci  detcnded  himselt'  for  a 
twelvemonth  m  ith  great  obstinacy  ;  and  having 
bravely  repelled  every  attack,  and  patiently  borne 
all  the  hardships  of  famine,  he  was  at  last  over- 
powered by  a  sudden  assault  in  the  night-time, 
and  made  prisoner  of  war,  Mitli  his  garrison*^. 
Philip,  who  knew  how  to  respect  valour  even  in 
an  enemy,  treated  him  with  civility,  and  gave 
him  the  whole  city  of  Paris  for  the  place  of  his 
confinement. 

When  the  bulwark  of  Normandy  was  once 
subdued,  all  the  province  lay  open  to  the  inroads 
of  Phihp;  and  the  king  of  England  despaired  of 
being  any  longer  able  to  defend  it.  He  secretly 
prepared  vessels  for  a  scandalous  flight ;  and  that 
the  Normans  mi<>ht  no  Ioniser  doubt  of  his  resohi- 
tion  to  abandon  them,  he  ordered  the  fortifica- 
tions of  Pont  de  TArchc,  iVloulineaux,  and  Mont- 
fort  TAmauri,  to  be  demolished.  Not  daring  to 
repose  confidence  in  any  of  his  barons,  whom  ho 
believed  to  be  universally  engaged  in  a  conspiracy 
against  him,  he  entrusted  the  government  of  the 
province  to  Archas  jNIartin  and  Lupicaire,  two 
mercenary  Brabancons,  whom  he  had  retained  in 
his  service.  Philip,  now  secure  of  his  prey,  push- 
ed his  conquests  with  vigour  and  success  against 
the  dismayed  Normans.  Palaise  was  first  besieg- 
ed ;  and  Lupicaire,  who  commanded  in  this  im- 
pregnable fortress,  after  surrendering  the  place, 
inhsted  himself  with  his  trftops  in  the  service  of 

'  Trivet,  p.  144,     Gul.  Eritto,  lib.  ;.     Ann.  Wavcrl,  p.  iGS. 


208  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1205. 

Philip,  and  carried  on  hostilities  against  his  an- 
cient master.      Caen,   Coutance,    Seez,  Evreux, 
Baieux,  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French 
monarch,  and  all  the   lower  Normandy  was  re- 
duced under  his  dominion.     To  forward  his  en- 
terprises on  the  other  division  of  the  province,  Gui 
de  Thouars,   at  the  head  of  the  Bretons,   broke 
into  the  territory,  and  took  Mount  St.  Michael, 
Avranches,    and  all  the   other  fortresses  in  that 
neighbourhood.      The  Normans,    who   abhorred 
the  French  yoke,   and  who  would  have  defended 
themselves  to  the  last  extremity  if  their  prince  had 
appeared  to  conduct  them,  found  no  resource  but 
in  submission  ;  and  every  city  opened  its  gates  as 
soon  as  Philip  appeared  before  it.     Roiien  alone, 
Arques,    and  Verneiiil,    determined  to  maintain 
their  liberties  ;  and  formed  a  confederacy  for  mu- 
tual defence.      Philip  began  Avith  the  siege   of 
Rouen :  the   inhabitants  were   so  inflamed  with 
hatred  to  France,   that,   on  the  appearance  of  his 
army,   they  fell  on  all  the  natives  of  that  country, 
whom  they  found  within  their  walls,  and  put  them 
to  death.     But  after  the  French  king  had  begun 
his  operations  with  success,  and  had  taken  some 
of  their  outworks,  the   citizens,    seeing  no   re- 
source, offered  to  capitulate;  and  demanded  only 
thirty  days  to  advertise  their  prince  of  their  dan- 
ger, and  to  require  succours  against  the  enemy. 
Upon  the  expiration  of  the  term,  as  no  supply  had 
arrived,  they  opened  their  gates  to  Philip^;  and 

^Trivet,  p.  147.     Ypod.  Neust.  p.  459. 


1205.  JOHN.  209 

the  M'liole  province  soon  after  imitated  tlic  ex- 
ample, and  submitted  to  the  victor.  Thus  was 
this  important  territory  re-united  to  tlie  crown  of 
France,  about  three  centuries  after  the  cession  of 
it  by  Charles  the  Simple  to  Uollo,  the  first  duke  : 
and  the  Normans,  sensible  that  this  conquest  was 
probably  fmal,  demanded  the  privilege  of  being 
governed  by  French  laws ;  which  Philip,  making 
a  few  alterations  on  the  ancient  Norman  customs, 
readily  granted  them.  But  the  French  monarcli 
had  too  much  ambition  and  genius  to  stop  in  his 
present  career  of  success.  He  carried  his  vic- 
torious army  into  the  western  provinces  ;  soon 
reduced  Anjou,  JNIaine,  Touraine,  and  part  of 
Poictou^;  and  in  this  manner,  the  French  crown, 
during  the  reign  of  one  able  and  active  prince, 
received  such  an  accession  of  power  and  grandeur, 
as,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things,  it  would  have 
required  several  ages  to  attain. 

John,  on  his  arrival  in  England,  that  he  might 
cover  the  disgrace  of  his  own  conduct,  exclaimed 
loudly  against  his  barons,  who,  he  pretended,  had 
deserted  his  standard  in  Normandy;  and  he  arbi- 
trarily extorted  from  them  a  seventh  of  all  their 
moveables,  as  a  punishment  for  the  offence  ^ 
Soon  after  he  forced  them  to  grant  him  a  scutage 
of  two  marks  and  a  half  on  each  knight's  fee  for 
an  expedition  into  Normandy ;  but  he  did  not 

*  Trivet,  p.  149.  ••  M.  Paris,  p.  146.    M.  West.  p.  265. 

VOL.    II.  P 


210  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1206. 

attempt  to  execute  the  service  for  which  he  pre- 
tended to  exact  it.  Next  year  he  summoned  all 
the  barons  of  his  realm  to  attend  him  on  his 
foreign  expedition,  and  collected  ships  from  all 
the  sea-ports ;  but  meeting  with  opposition  from 
some  of  his  ministers,  and  abandoning  his  design, 
he  dismissed  both  fleet  and  army,  and  then  re- 
newed his  exclamations  ajj-ainst  the  barons  for 
deserting  him.  He  next  put  to  sea  with  a  small 
army,  and  his  subjects  believed,  that  he  was  re- 
solved to  expose  himself  to  the  utmost  hazard 
for  the  defence  and  recovery  of  his  dominions; 
but  they  were  surprised,  after  a  few  days,  to  see 
him  return  again  into  harbour,  without  attempt- 
ing any  thing.  In  the  subsequent  season,  he  had 
the  courage  to  carry  his  hostile  measures  a  step 
farther.  Gui  de  Thouars,  who  governed  Britanny, 
jealous  of  the  rapid  progress  made  by  his  ally,  the 
French  king,  promised  to  join  the  king  of  Eng- 
land with  all  his  forces  ;  and  John  ventured 
abroad  with  a  considerable  army,  and  landed  at 
Rochelle.  He  marched  to  Angers ;  which  he 
took  and  reduced  to  ashes.  But  the  approach  of 
Philip  with  an  army  threw  him  into  a  panic ;  and 
he  immediately  made  proposals  for  peace,  and 
fixed  a  place  of  interview  with  his  enemy :  but 
instead  of  keeping  his  engagement,  he  stole  off 
with  his  army,  embarked  at  Rochelle,  and  re- 
turned, loaded  with  new  shame  and  disgrace,  into 
England.     The  mediation  of  the  pope  procured 


1207.  JOHN.  2U 

him  at  last  a  truce  for  two  years  witli  the  French 
monarch';  ahnost  all  the  transmarine  provinces 
were  ravished  from  him  ;  and  liis  EngHsh  barons, 
tliough  liarassed  Avith  arbitrary  taxes  and  fruit- 
less expeditions,  saw  themselves  and  their  country 
baffled  and  atlronted  in  every  enterprise. 

In  an  age  when  personal-  valour  was  regarded 
as  the  chief  accomplishment,  such  conduct  as  that 
of  John,  always  disgraceful,  must  be  exposed  to 
peculiar  contempt;  and  he  must  thenceforth  have 
expected  to  rule  his  turbulent  vassals  Avith  a  very 
doubtful  authority.  But  the  government  exer- 
cised by  the  Norman  princes  had  wound  up  the 
royal  power  to  so  high  a  pitch,  and  so  much  be- 
yond the  usual  tenour  of  the  feudal  constitutions, 
that  it  still  behoved  him  to  be  debased  by  new 
affronts  and  disgraces,  ere  his  barons  could  enter- 
tain the  view  of  conspiring  against  him,  in  order 
to  retrench  his  prerogatives.  The  church,  which, 
at  that  time,  declined  not  a  contest  M'ith  the  most 
powerful  and  most  vigorous  monarciis,  took  first 
advantage  of  John's  imbecility ;  and,  Avith  the 
most  aggravating  circumstances  of  insolence  and 
scorn,  fixed  her  yoke  upon  him. 

THE  KING'S  QUARREL  WITH  THE  COURT  OF 
ROME.     1207. 

The  papal  chair  Avas  then  filled  by  Innocent  III. 
Avho,  having  attained  that  dignity  at  the  age  of 

'  Rynicr,  vol.  i.  p.  Ml. 


512  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1207. 

thirty-seven  years,  and  being  endowed  with  a 
lofty  and  enterprising  genius,  gave  full  scope  to 
his  ambition,  and  attempted,  perhaps  more  openly 
than  any  of  his  predecessors,  to  convert  that 
superiority  which  was  yielded  him  by  all  the 
European  princes,  into  a  real  dominion  over 
them.  The  hierarchy,  protected  by  the  Roman 
pontiff,  had  already  carried  to  an  enormous  height 
its  usurpations  upon  the  civil  power ;  but  in  order 
to  extend  them  farther,  and  render  them  useful 
to  the  court  of  Rome,  it  was  necessary  to  reduce 
the  ecclesiastics  themselves  under  an  absolute 
monarchy,  and  to  make  them  entirely  dependent 
on  their  spiritual  leader.  For  this  purpose,  Inno- 
cent first  attempted  to  impose  taxes  at  pleasure 
upon  the  clergy,  and  in  the  first  year  of  this 
century,  taking  advantage  of  the  popular  frenzy 
for  crusades,  he  sent  collectors  over  all  Europe, 
who  levied,  by  his  authority,  the  fortieth  of  all 
ecclesiastical  revenues  for  the  relief  of  the  Holy 
Land,  and  received  the  voluntary  contributions 
of  the  laity  to  a  like  amount  ^  The  same  year, 
Hubert,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  attempted  an- 
other innovation,  favourable  to  ecclesiastical 
and  papal  power :  in  the  king's  absence,  he  sum- 
moned, by  his  legantine  authority,  a  synod  of  all 
the  English  clergy,  contrary  to  the  inhibition  of 
Geoffrey  Fitz-Peter,  the  chief  justiciary ;  and  no 
proper  censure  was  ever  passed  on  this  encroach- 

"Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  lip. 


1207.  JOHN.  213 

merit,  the  first  of  the  kind,  upon  the  royal  j)o\\  or. 
But  a  favourable  incident  soon  after  happened, 
which  enabled  so  aspiring  a  pontiftas  Innocent  to 
extend  still  farther  his  usurpations  on  so  con- 
temptible a  prince  as  John. 

Hubert,  the  primate,  died  in  1£05  ;  and  as 
the  monks  or  canons  of  Christ-church,  Canter- 
bury, possessed  a  right  of  voting  in  the  election 
of  their  archbishop,  some  of  the  juniors  of  the 
order,  who  lay  in  wait  for  that  event,  met  clan- 
destinely the  very  night  of  Hubert's  death  ;  and, 
Avithout  any  cong6  d'elire  from  the  king,  chose 
Reginald,  their  sub-prior,  for  the  successor  ;  in- 
stalled him  in  the  archiepiscopal  throne  before 
midnight;  and,  having  enjoined  him  the  strictest 
secrecy,  sent  him  immediately  to  Rome,  in  order 
to  solicit  the  confumation  of  his  election  '.  The 
vanity  of  Reginald  prevailed  over  his  prudence  ; 
and  he  no  sooner  arrived  in  Flanders,  than  he 
revealed  to  every  one  the  purpose  of  his  journey, 
which  was  innnediately  known  in  England  *". 
The  king  was  enraged  at  the  novelty  and  temerity 
of  the  attempt,  in  filling  so  important  an  office 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent:  the  suffragan 
bishops  of  Canterbury,  who  were  accustomed  to 
concur  in  the  choice  of  their  primate.  Mere  no 
less  displeased  at  the  exclusion  given  them  in 
this  election  :  the  senior  monks  of  Christ-church 
were  injured  by  the  irregular  proceedings  of  their 

'M.  Paris,  p.  IIS.     M.  West.  p.  20(5.  "  Ibid, 


214  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1207. 

juniors  :  the  juniors  themselves,  ashamed  of  their 
conduct,  and  disgusted  with  the  levity  of  Reginald, 
who  had  broken  his  engagements  with  them, 
were  willing  to  set  aside  his  election " :  and  all 
men  concurred  in  the  design  of  remedying  the 
false  measures  which  had  been  taken.  But  as 
John  knew  that  this  affair  would  be  canvassed 
before  a  superior  tribunal,  where  the  interposi- 
tion of  royal  authority  of  bestowing  ecclesiastical 
benefices  was  very  invidious  ;  where  even  the 
cause  of  suffragan  bishops  was  not  so  favourable 
as  that  of  monks ;  he  determined  to  make  the 
new  election  entirely  unexceptionable :  he  sub- 
mitted the  affair  wholly  to  the  canons  of  Christ- 
church  ;  and  departing  from  the  right  claimed  by 
his  predecessors,  ventured  no  farther  than  to  in- 
form them  privately,  that  they  would  do  him  an 
acceptable  service  if  they  chose  John  de  Gray, 
bishop  of  Norwich,  for  their  primate  °.  The 
election  of  that  prelate  was  accordingly  made 
without  a  contradictory  vote ;  and  the  king,  to 
obviate  all  contests,  endeavoured  to  persuade  the 
suffragan  bishops  not  to  insist  on  their  claim  of 
concurring  in  the  election :  but  those  prelates, 
persevering  in  their  pretensions,  sent  an  agent  to 
maintain  their  cause  before  Innocent ;  while  the 
king,  and  the  convent  of  Christ-church,  dispatch- 
^ed  twelve  monks  of  that  order  to  support,  before 


"  M.  West.  p.  266. 
» M.  Paris,  p.  149.    M.  West.  p.  266. 


Ii07.  JOHX.  215 

the  same  tribunal,  the  election  of  the  bishop  of 
Norwich. 

Thus  there  lay  three  different  claims  before 
the  pope,  whom  all  parties  allowed  to  be  the 
supreme  arbiter  in  the  contest.  The  claim  of  the 
suffragans,  being  so  opposite  to  the  usual  maxims 
of  the  papal  court,  was  soon  set  aside :  the  elec- 
tion of  Reginald  was  so  ob\'iously  fraudulent  and 
irregular,  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  defend- 
ing it:  but  Innocent  maintained,  that  though 
this  election  was  null  and  invalid,  it  ought  pre- 
viously to  have  been  declared  such  by  the  sove- 
reign pontiff,  before  the  monks  could  proceed  to 
a  new  election :  and  that  the  choice  of  the  bishop 
of  Norwich  was  of  course  as  uncanonical  as  that 
of  his  competitor  P.  Advantage  was  therefore 
taken  of  this  subtlety  for  introducing  a  precedent, 
by  which  the  see  of  Canterbury,  the  most  import- 
ant dignity  in  the  church  after  the  papal  throne, 
should  ever  after  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  court 
of  Rome. 

While  the  pope  maintained  so  many  fierce 
contests,  in  order  to  wrest  from  princes  the  right 
of  granting  investitures,  and  to  exclude  la}'men 
from  all  authority  in  conferring  ecclesiastical 
benefices,  he  was  supported  by  the  united  influ- 
ence of  the  clergy,  who,  aspiring  to  independ- 
ence, fought,  with  all  the  ardour  of  ambition,  and 
all  the  zeal  of  superstition,  under  his  sacred  banners. 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  155.     Chron.  de  Mail.  p.  1S2. 


216  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1207- 

But  no  sooner  was  this  point,  after  a  great  effusion 
of  blood  and  the  convulsions  of  many  states, 
established  in  some  tolerable  degree,  than  the 
victorious  leader,  as  is  usual,  turned  his  arms 
against  his  own  community,  and  aspired  to  centre 
all  power  in  his  person.  By  the  invention  of  re- 
serves, provisions,  commendams,  and  other  de- 
vices, the  pope  gradually  assumed  the  right  of 
filling  vacant  benefices  ;  and  the  plenitude  of  his 
apostolic  power,  which  was  not  subject  to  any 
limitations,  supplied  all  defects  of  title  in  the 
person  on  whom  he  bestowed  preferment.  The 
canons  which  regulated  elections  were  purposely 
rendered  intricate  and  involved  :  frequent  dis- 
putes arose  among  candidates :  appeals  were  every 
day  carried  to  Rome  :  the  apostolic  see,  besides 
reaping  pecuniary  advantages  from  these  contests, 
often  exercised  the  power  of  setting  aside  both 
the  Htigants,  and,  on  pretence  of  appeasing  faction, 
nominated  a  third  person,  who  might  be  more 
acceptable  to  the  contending  parties. 


CARDINAL  LANGTON  APPOINTED  ARCHBISHOP 
OF  CANTERBURY. 

The  present  controversy  about  the  election  to 
the  see  of  Canterbury  afforded  Innocent  an  op- 
portunity of  claiming  this  right;  and  he  failed 
not  to  perceive  and  avail  himself  of  the  advantage. 
He  sent  for  the  twelve  monks  deputed  by  the 


1207.  JOHN.  217 

convent  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  bishop  of 
Norwich  ;  and  commanded  tliem,  under  the 
penalty  of  excommunication,  to  choose  for  their 
primate,  cardinal  Langton,  an  Englishman  by 
birtli,  but  educated  in  France,  and  connected,  by 
his  interest  and  attachments,  with  the  see  of 
Romei.  In  vain  did  the  monks  represent,  that 
they  had  received  from  their  convent  no  authority 
for  this  purpose;  that  an  election,  without  a  previ- 
ous M  rit  from  the  king,  would  be  deemed  highly 
irregular;  and  that  they  were  merely  agents  for 
another  ])erson,  whose  right  they  had  no  power 
or  pretence  to  abandon.  None  of  them  liad  the 
courage  to  persevere  in  this  opposition,  except 
one,  Elias  de  Brantefield :  all  the  rest,  overcome 
by  the  menaces  and  authority  of  the  pope,  com- 
plied with  his  orders,  and  made  the  election  re- 
quired of  them. 

Innocent,  sensible  that  this  flagrant  usurpation 
would  be  hio-hlv  resented  by  the  court  of  Eng- 
land,  wrote  John  a  mollifying  letter;  sent  him 
four  golden  rings  set  with  precious  stones  ;  and 
endeavoured  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  present, 
by  informing  him  of  the  many  mysteries  implied 
in  it.  He  begged  him  to  consider  seriously  the 
form  of  the  rings,  their  number,  their  matter,  and 
their  colour.  Their  form,  he  said,  being  round, 
shadowed  out  Eternity,  which  liad  neither  begin- 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  155.     Ann.  Waved,  p.  \Qq.      W.  Hcmlng.  p. 
553.     Knyghton,  p.  24 1 5 . 


218  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1207. 

ning-  nor  end ;  and  he  ought  thence  to  learn  his 
duty  of  aspiring  from  earthly  objects  to  heavenly, 
from  things   temporal  to   things   eternal.      The 
number  four,  being  a  square,  denoted  Steadiness 
of  Mind,  not  to  be  subverted  either  by  adversity 
or  prosperity,  fixed  for  ever  on  the  firm  basis  of 
the  four  cardinal  virtues.     Gold,    which  is  the 
matter,  being  the  most  precious  of  metals,  signified 
Wisdom,  which  is  the  most  valuable  of  all  accom- 
plishments, and  justly  preferred  by  Solomon  to 
riches,  power,  and  all  exterior  attainments.     The 
blue  colour  of  the  saphire  represented  Faith ;  the 
verdure   of  the   emerald,   Hope ;   the  redness  of 
the  ruby,    Charity ;    and  the   splendour   of  the 
topaz.  Good  Works ^     By  these  conceits.  Inno- 
cent endeavoured  to  repay  John  for  one  of  the 
most  important  prerogatives  of  his  crown,  which 
he  had  ravished  from  him  ;  conceits  probably  ad- 
mired by  Innocent  himself:  for  it  is  easily  possible 
for  a  man,  especially  in  a  barbarous  age,  to  unite 
strong  talents  for  business  with  an  absurd  taste 
for  literature  and  the  arts. 

John  was  inflamed  with  the  utmost  rage  when 
he  heard  of  this  attempt  of  the  court  of  Rome*; 
and  he  immediately  vented  his  passion  on  the 
monks  of  Christ-church,  whom  he  found  inclined 
to  support  the  election  made  by  their  fellows  at 
Rome.     He  sent  Fulke  de  Cantelupe  and  Henry 

'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  139.    M.  Paris,  p.  155. 
'  Rymer^  vol,  i.  p.  143. 


i2c;.  JOHN.  219 

dc  Cornlmlle,  two  knights  of  liis  retinue,  men  of 
violent  tempers  and  rude  manners,  to  expel  them 
the  convent,  and  take  possession  of  their  revenues. 
These  knio-hts  entered  the  monasterv  ^^  ith  drawn 
swords,  commanded  the  prior  and  the  monks  to 
depart  the  kinodom,  and  menaced  them,  that  in 
case  of  (lisohedicncc,  they  Mould  instantly  hurn 
them  with  the  convent*.  Innocent  prognosticat- 
ing, from  the  violence  and  imprudence  of  these 
measures,  that  John  Av^ould  finally  sink  in  the 
contest,  persevered  the  more  vigorously  in  his 
pretensions,  and  exhorted  the  king  not  to  oppose 
God  and  the  church  any  longer,  nor  to  prosecute 
that  cause  for  which  the  holy  martyr  St.  Thomas 
had  sacrificed  his  life,  and  which  had  exalted  him 
equal  to  the  highest  saints  in  heaven":  a  clear 
hint  to  John  to  profit  by  the  example  of  his 
father,  and  to  remember  the  prejudices  and  esta- 
blished principles  of  his  subjects,  who  bore  a  pro- 
found veneration  to  that  martyr,  and  regarded 
his  merits  as  tjic  subject  of  their  chief  glory  and 
exultation. 

Innocent,  finding  that  John  was  not  sufficiently 
tamed  to  submission,  sent  three  prelates,  the 
bishops  of  London,  Ely,  and  Worcester,  to  inti- 
mate that  if  he  persevered  in  his  disobedience, 
the  sovereign  pontiff  would  be  obliged  to  lay  the 
kingdom  under  an  interdict'^     All  the  other  pre- 

'M.  Paris,  p.  1.06.     Trivet,  p.  151.     Ann.  Waverl.  p.  169. 
"  M.  Paris,  2,.  157.  "  Ibid. 


220  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1207. 

lates  threw  themselves  on  their  knees  before  him, 
and  entreated  him,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  to 
prevent  the  scandal  of  this  sentence,  by  making 
a  speedy  submission  to  his  spiritual  father,  by 
receiving  from  his  hands  the  new-elected  primate, 
and  by  restoring  the  monks  of  Christ-church  to 
all  their  rights  and  possessions.  He  burst  out 
into  the  most  indecent  invectives  against  the 
prelates;  swore  by  God's  teeth  (his  usual  oath), 
that  if  the  pope  presumed  to  lay  his  kingdom 
under  an  interdict,  he  would  send  to  him  all  the 
bishops  and  clergy  in  England,  and  would  con- 
fiscate all  their  estates ;  and  threatened,  that  if 
thenceforth  he  caught  any  Romans  in  his  do- 
minions, he  would  put  out  their  eyes  and  cut  off 
their  noses,  in  order  to  set  a  mark  upon  them 
which  might  distinguish  them  from  all  other 
nations  ^  Amidst  all  this  idle  violence,  John 
stood  on  such  bad  terms  with  his  nobility,  that 
he  never  dared  to  assemble  the  states  of  the  king- 
dom, who,  in  so  just  a  cause,  would  probably 
have  adhered  to  any  other  monarch,  and  have 
defended  with  vigour  the  liberties  of  the  nation 
against  these  palpable  usurpations  of  the  court  of 
Rome.  Innocent,  therefore,  perceiving  the  king's 
weakness,  fulminated  at  last  the  sentence  of  inter- 
dict, which  he  had  for  some  time  held  suspended 
over  himy. 

"  M,  Paris,  p.  157. 
y  Ibid.  Trivet,  p.  1.52.  Ann.  Waverl.  p.  170.  M.  West.  p.  258. 


1207.  JOHN.  221 

The  sentence  of  interdict  was  at  that  time  the 
great  instrument  of  vengeance  and  policy  employ- 
ed by  the  court  of  Rome;  was  denounced  against 
sovereigns  for  the  hglitest  offences  ;  and  made  the 
guilt  of  one  person  involve  the  ruin  of  millions, 
even  in  their  spiritual  and  eternal  Mclfare.  The 
execution  of  it  m  as  calculated  to  strike  the  senses 
in  the  highest  degree,  and  to  operate  with  irrc- 
sistahle  force  on  the  superstitious  minds  of  the 
people.  The  nation  Mas  of  a  sudden  deprived  of 
all  exterior  exercise  of  its  religion  :  the  altars 
were  despoiled  of  their  ornaments :  the  crosses, 
the  reliques,  the  images,  the  statues  of  the  saints, 
were  laid  on  the  ground;  and,  as  if  the  air  itself 
Avere  profaned,  and  might  pollute  them  by  its 
contact,  the  priests  carefully  covered  them  up, 
even  from  their  own  approach  and  veneration. 
The  use  of  bells  entirely  ceased  in  all  the  churches: 
the  bells  themselves  were  removed  from  the 
steeples,  and  laid  on  the  ground  Mith  the  other 
sacred  utensils.  iMass  Avas  celebrated  with  shut 
doors,  and  none  but  the  priests  were  admitted  to 
that  holy  institution.  The  laity  partook  of  no 
religious  rite,  except  baptism  to  new-born  infants, 
and  the  communion  to  the  dying :  the  dead  were 
not  interred  in  consecrated  ground :  they  were 
thrown  into  ditches,  or  buried  in  common  fields ; 
and  their  obsequies  were  not  attended  with  prayers 
or  any  hallowed  ceremony.  Marriage  was  cele- 
brated in  the  church-yards''-;  and  that  every  action 
^  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  51. 


222  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1207. 

in  life  might  bear  the  marks  of  this  dreadful  situ- 
ation, the  people  were  prohibited  the  use  of  meat 
as  in  Lent,  or  times  of  the  highest  penance;  were 
debarred  from  all  pleasures  and  entertainments, 
and  even  to  salute  each  other,  or  so  much  as  to 
shave  their  beards,  and  give  any  decent  attention 
to  their  person  and  apparel.  Every  circumstance 
carried  symptoms  of  the  deepest  distress,  and  of 
the  most  immediate  apprehension  of  divine  venge- 
ance and  indignation. 

The  king,  that  he  might  oppose  his  temporal 
to  their  spiritual  terrors,  immediately,  from  his 
own  authority,  confiscated  the  estates  of  all  the 
clergy  who  obeyed  the  interdict^;  banished  the 
prelates,  confined  the  monks  in  their  convent, 
and  gave  them  only  such  a  small  allowance  from 
their  own  estates  as  would  suffice  to  provide  them 
with  food  and  raiment.  He  treated  with  the 
utmost  rigour  all  Langton's  adherents,  and  every 
one  that  showed  any  disposition  to  obey  the  com- 
mands of  Rome :  and  in  order  to  distress  the 
clergy  in  the  tenderest  point,  and  at  the  same 
time  expose^  them  to  reproach  and  ridicule,  he 
threw  into  prison  all  their  concubines,  and  requir- 
ed high  fines  as  the  price  of  their  liberty  ^ 

After  the  canons  which  established  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy  were,  by  the  zealous  endeavours  of 
archbishop  Anselm,  more  rigorously  executed  in 

*  Ann.  Waverl.  p.  170. 
^  M.  Paris,  p.  158.     Ann.  Waverl,  p.  170. 


1207.  JOHN.  223 

England,  the  ecclesiastics  gave,  almost  universally 
and  avowedly,  into  the  use  of  concubinage ;  and 
the  court  of  Rome,  M'hich  had  no  interest  in  pro- 
hibiting this  practice,  made  very  slight  opposition 
to    it.     The   custom    was   become   so  prevalent, 
that,  in  some  cantons  of  Switzerland,  before  the 
reformation,  the  laws  not  only  permitted,  l)ut,  to 
avoid  scandal,  enjoined  the  use  of  concubines  to 
the  younger  clergy  ;  and  it  was  usual  every  where 
for  priests  to  apply  to  the  ordinary,  and  obtain 
from  him  a  formal  liberty  for  this  indulgence. 
The  bishop  commonly  took  care  to  prevent  the 
practice  from  degenerating  into  licentiousness : 
he  confined  the  priest  to  the  use  of  one  woman, 
required  him  to  be  constant  to  her  bed,  obliged 
him   to  provide  for  her  subsistence  and  that  of 
her  children ;  and  though  the  offspring  was,  in 
the    eye   of  the   law,  deemed   illegitimate,    this 
commerce  was  really  a  kind  of  inferior  marriage, 
such  as  is  still  practised  in  Germany  among  the 
nobles '';  and  may  be  regarded  by  the  candid  as 
an  appeal  from  the  tyranny  of  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical institutions,  to  the  more  virtuous  and  more 
unerring  laws  of  nature. 

The  quarrel  between  the  king  and  the  see  of 
Rome  continued  for  some  years ;  and  though 
many  of  tlie  clergy,  from  the  fear  of  punishment, 
obeyed  the  orders  of  John,  and  celebrated  divine 
service,  they  complied  with  the  utmost  reluct- 
ance, and  M'ere  regarded,  both  by  themselves  and 
"  Padre  Paolo,  Hist.  Cone.  Trid.  lib.  1. 


224  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1207. 

the  people,  as  men  who  betrayed  their  principles, 
and  sacrificed  their  conscience  to  temporal  re- 
gards and  interests.  During  this  violent  situation, 
the  king,  in  order  to  give  a  lustre  to  his  govern- 
ment, attempted  military  expeditions  against  Scot- 
land, against  Ireland,  against  the  Welsh '^;  and  he 
commonly  prevailed,  more  from  the  weakness  of 
his  enemies,  than  from  his  own  vigour  or  abilities. 
Meanwhile,  the  danger  to  which  his  government 
stood  continually  exposed  from  the  discontents 
of  the  ecclesiastics,  increased  his  natural  pro- 
pension  to  tyranny ;  and  he  seems  to  have  even 
wantonly  disgusted  all  orders  of  men,  especially 
his  nobles,  from  whom  alone  he  could  reasonably 
expect  support  and  assistance.  He  dishonoured 
their  families  by  his  licentious  amours ;  he  pub- 
lished edicts,  prohibiting  them  from  hunting- 
feathered  game,  and  thereby  restrained  them  from 
their  favourite  occupation  and  amusement  *";  he 
ordered  all  the  hedges  and  fences  near  his  forests 
to  be  levelled,  that  his  deer  might  have  more 
ready  access  into  the  fields  for  pasture ;  and  he 
continually  loaded  the  nation  with  arbitrary  im- 
positions. Conscious  of  the  general  hatred  which 
he  had  incurred,  he  required  his  nobility  to  give 
him  hostages  for  security  of  their  allegiance  ;  and 
they  were  obliged  to  put  into  his  hands  their  sons, 
nephews,  or  near  relations.  When  his  messengers 

^  W.  Heming,  p.  556.     Ypod.  Neust.  p.  460.     Knyghton, 
p.  2420.  «  M.  West.  p.  268. 


came  witli  like  orders  to  the  castle  of  William  dc 
Biaouse,  a  baron  of  great  note,  the  lady  of  that 
nobleman  replied,  That  she  would  never  entrust 
her  son  mto  the  hands  of  one  who  had  murdered 
his  own  nepheM^  M'hile  in  his  custody.     Her  hus- 
hand  reproved  her  for  the  severity  of  this  speech- 
but,  sensible  of  his  danger,   he  immediately  fled 
M'ith  Ins  Avife  and  son  into  Ireland,  where  he  en- 
deavoured  to   conceal   himself.     The   kiim^   dis- 
covered   the   unhappy   family   in   their   retreat  • 
seized  the  wife  and  son,  whom  he  starved  to  death 
"1  prison;  and  the  baron  himself  narrowly  escaped 
by  flying  into  France. 

The  court  of  Rome  had  artfully  contrived  a 
gradation  of  sentences;  by  which  she  kept  of- 
fenders  in  awe;  still  afforded  them  an  opportunity 
of  preventing  the  next  anathema  by  submission  • 
and,  in  case  of  their  obstinacv,  was  able  to  refresh 
the  horror  of  the  people  against  them,  by  new 
denunciations   of  the    wrath  and   vengeance    of 
Heaven.    As  the  sentence  of  interdict  had  not  pro- 
c  uced  the  desired  effect  on  John,  and  as  his  people 
though  extremely  discontented,  had  hitherto  been 
restrained  from  rising  in  open  rebellion  a-ainst 
him,  he  was  soon  to  look  for  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication :  and  he  had  reason  to  apprehend 
that,  notwithstanding  all  his  precautions,  the  most 
dangerous   consequences   might   ensue   from    it 
He  was  witness  of  the  other  scenes  which  at  that 
vcM-y  time  were  acting  in  Europe,  and  which  dis- 
played the  unbounded  and  uncontrolled  power  of 
VOL.  ir.  Q 


22(5  HISTORY   O^  ENGLAND.  12og. 

the  papacy.      Innocent,  far  from  being  dismayed 
at  his  contests  ^\^th  the  king  of  England,  had 
excommunicated  the  emperor  Otho,   John's  ne- 
phew ^ ;    and   soon    brought    that   powerful   and 
haughty  prince  to  submit  to  his  authority.     Pie 
published   a  crusade    against   the   Albigenses,    a 
species   of  enthusiasts   in   the  south   of  France, 
whom   he   denominated   heretics ;    because,    like 
other  enthusiasts,   they  neglected  the  rights  of 
the  church,  and  opposed  the  power  and  influence 
of  the  clergy  :  the  people  from  all  parts  of  Europe, 
moved  by  their  superstition  and  tbeir  passion  for 
wars  and   adventures,    flocked  to  his   standard  : 
Simon  de  IMontfort,  the  general  of  the  crusade, 
acquired  to  himself  a  sovereignty  in  these  pro- 
vinces :   the  count  of  Toulouse,   who  protected, 
or   perhaps   only   tolerated  the    Albigenses,   was 
stripped   of  his  dominions :    and   these  sectaries 
themselves,    though  the  most  innocent  and   in- 
oifensive  of  mankind,  were  exterminated  with  all 
the  circumstances  of  extreme  violence  and  bar- 
barity.    Here  were  therefore  both  an  army  and  a 
general,   dangerous  from  their  zeal  and   valour, 
who  might  be  directed  to  act  against  Jolm ;  and 
Innocent,   after    keeping  the   thunder  long  sus- 
pended, gave  at  last  authority  to  the  bishops  of 
London,    Ely,    and   Worcester,   to  fulminate  the 
sentence  of  exconuuunication  against  him^  These 

^M.  Paris,  p.  l60.     Trivet,  p.  1.54.     M.  West.  p.  269. 
«  M.  Paris,  p.  159.     M.  West.  p.  270. 


1209.  JOHN.  22/ 

prelates  obeyed  ;  thoiigli  tlieir  biethrtii  M'eie 
deterred  from  publishing,  as  the  pope  required  of 
them,  the  sentence  in  the  several  churches  of 
their  dioceses. 

No  sooner  was  the  excommunication  known, 
than  the  effects  of  it  api)eare(l.  Geoffrey,  arch- 
deacon of  Norwich,  who  Mas  entrusted  with  a 
considerable  olhce  in  the  court  of  the  exchequer, 
being  informed  of  it  while  sitting  on  the  bench, 
observed  to  his  colleagues  the  danger  of  serving 
under  an  excomnmnicated  kintr:  and  he  imme- 
diately  left  his  chair,  and  departed  the  court. 
John  gave  orders  to  seize  him,  to  throw  him  into 
prison,  to  cover  his  head  with  a  great  leaden  cope; 
and  by  this  and  other  severe  usage  he  put  an  end 
to  his  life'':  nor  was  there  any  thing  Avanting  to 
Geoffrey,  except  the  dignity  and  rank  of  Becket, 
to  exalt  him  to  an  equal  station  in  heaven  with 
that  great  and  celebrated  martyr.  Hugh  de  ^Vells, 
the  chancellor,  being  elected,  by  the  king's  ap- 
pointment, bishop  of  Lincoln^  upon  a  vacancy  in 
that  see,  desired  leave  to  go  abroad,  in  order  to 
receive  consecration  from  the  archbishop  of  Roiien; 
but  he  no  sooner  reached  France  than  he  hastened 
to  Pontigny,  where  Langton  then  resided,  and 
paid  submissions  to  him  as  his  primate.  The 
bishops,  finding  themselves  exposed  either  to  the 
jealousy  of  the  king  or  hatred  of  the  people, 
gradually  stole  out  of  the  kingdom ;  and  at  lait 

'■  M.  I'aris,  p.  159, 


228  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1212. 

there  remained  onl}^  three  prelates  to  perform  the 
functions  of  tlie  episcopal  office'.  Many  of -the 
nobihty,  terrified  by  John's  tyranny,  and  obnoxi- 
ous to  him  on  different  accounts,  imitated  the 
example  of  the  bisliops ;  and  most  of  the  others 
Avho  remained  were,  with  reason,  suspected  of 
having  secretly  entered  into  a  confederacy  against 
him  ^.  John  was  alarmed  at  his  dangerous  situ- 
ation ;  a  situation  which  prudence,  vigour,  and 
popularity  might  formerly  have  prevented,  but 
which  no  virtues  or  abilities  were  now  sufficient 
to  retrieve.  He  desired  a  conference  with  Langton 
at  Dover;  offered  to  acknowledge  him  as  primate, 
to  submit  to  the  pope,  to  restore  the  exiled  clergy, 
even  to  pay  them  a  limited  sum  as  a  compensation 
for  the  rents  of  their  confiscated  estates.  But 
Langton,  perceiving  his  advantage,  was  not  satis- 
fied with  these  concessions  :  he  demanded  that 
full  restitution  and  reparation  should  be  made  to 
all  the  clergy ;  a  condition  so  exorbitant  that  the 
king,  who  probably  had  not  the  power  of  fulfill- 
ing it,  and  who  foresaw  that  this  estimation  of 
damages  might  amount  to  an  immense  sum,  finally 
broke  off  the  conference  ^ 

The  next  gradation  of  papal  sentences  was  to 
absolve  John's  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  fidelity 
and  allegiance,  and  to  declare  every  one  excom- 
municated who  had  any  commerce  with  him  in 

'  Ann.  Waved,  p.  170.     Ann.  Marg.  p.  14. 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  l62.  "^M.  West.  p.  270,  271. 

'  Ann.  Waverl.  p,  171, 


1213.  JOHN.  229 

public  or  ill  private ;  ut  liis  tabic,  in  his  council, 
or  even  in  private  conversation":  and  this  sentence 
was  accordingly,  whh  all  imaginable  solemnity, 
pronounced  against  him.  But  as  John  still  per- 
severed in  his  contumacy,  there  remained  nothing 
but  the  sentence  of  deposition ;  which,  though 
intimately  connected  with  the  former,  had  been 
distinguished  from  it  by  the  artifice  of  the  court 
of  Rome ;  and  Innocent  determined  to  dart  this 
last  thunderbolt  against  the  refractory  monarch. 
But  as  a  sentence  of  this  kind  required  an  armed 
force  to  execute  it,  the  pontiff,  casting  his  eyes 
around,  fixed  at  last  on  Philip  king  of  France,  as 
the  person  into  whose  po\verful  hand  he  could  most 
properly  entrust  that  Mcapon,  the  ultimate  resource 
of  his  ghostly  authority.  And  he  oifered  the 
monarch,  besides  the  remission  of  all  his  sins  and 
endless  spiritual  benefits,  the  property  and  pos- 
session of  the  kingdom  of  England,  as  the  regard 
of  his  labour  ". 

It  was  the  common  concern  of  all  princes  to 
oppose  these  exorbitant  pretensions  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  by  which  they  themselves  were  rendered 
vassals,  and  vassals  totally  dependent  of  the  papal 
crown :  yet  even  Philip,  the  most  able  monarch 
of  the  age,  was  seduced  by  present  interest,  ami 
by  the  prospect  of  so  tempting  a  prize,  to  accept 
this  liberal  offer  of  the  pontiflt',  and  thereby  to  ra- 
tify that  authority  which,   if  he  ever  opposed  its 

•"  M.  Paris,  p.  161.     M.  West.  p.  270. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  jOJ.     M.  West.  p.  271. 


230  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1213, 

boundless  usurpations,    might  next  day  tumble 
him  from  the  throne.     He  levied  a  great  army ; 
summoned  all  the  vassals  of  the  crown  to  attend 
him  at  Roiien;  collected  a  fleet  of  1700  vessels, 
great  and  small,   in  the  sea-ports  oF  Normandy 
and  Picardy ;  and  partly  from  the  zealous  spirit 
of  the  age,   partly  from  the  personal  regard  uni- 
versally paid  him,  prepared  a  force,  which  seemed 
equal  to  the  greatness  of  his   enterprise.      The 
king,   on  the  other  hand,  issued  out  writs,  requir- 
ing the  attendance  of  all  his  military  tenants  at 
Dover,   and  even  of  all  able-bodied  men,  to  de^ 
fend  the  kingdom   in  this  dangerous  extremity. 
A  great  number  appeared  ;   and  he   selected  an 
army  of  60,000  men;    a  power  invincible,   had 
they  been  united  in  affection  to  their  prince,   and 
animated  with  a  becoming  zeal  for  the  defence  of 
their  native  country  °.     But  the  people  were  sway- 
ed by  superstition,   and  regarded  their  king  with 
horror,   as  anathematised  by  papal  censures :  the 
barons,  besides,   lying  under  the  same  prejudices, 
were  all  disgusted  by  his  tyranny,  and  were,  many 
of  them,  suspected  of  holding  a  secret  correspondr 
ence   with  the  enemy:   and  the  incapacity  and 
cowardice  of  the  king  himself,   ill  fitted  to  con- 
tend with  those  mighty   difficulties,   made  men 
prognosticate    the   most    fatal    effects   from  the 
French  invasion. 

Pandolf,   whom  the  pope  had  chosen  for  his 
legate,   and  appointed  to  head  this  important  ex- 

°  M,  Paris,  p.  l63.     M.  West.  p.  271. 


1213.  JOHN.  2J1 

pcdition,  had,  ])eforc  lie  left  Rome,  a]j[)lie(l  iur  a 
secret  conference  witli  his  master,  and  had  asked 
liim,  Mhether  if  th<n<ing  of  England,  in  this  de- 
sperate situation,  were  willing  to  suhmit  to  the 
apostolic  see,  tlie  chinch  should,  without  the 
consent  of  Philip,  giant  iiim  any  terms  of  accom- 
modation*'? Innocent,  expecting  from  his  agree- 
ment with  a  prince  so  ahject  lioth  in  character  and 
fortune,  more  advantages  than  from  his  alliance 
■witli  a  great  and  victorious  monarch,  m  ho,  after 
sucli  mighty  acquisitions,  might  hecome  too 
liaughty  to  he  hound  by  spiritual  chains,  explain- 
ed to  Pandolf  the  conditions  on  which  he  was  will- 
in"-  to  be  reconciled  to  the  kinji"  of  Eni»land.  The 
legate,  therefore,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  the 
north  of  France,  sent  over  two  knights  templars 
to  desire  an  interview  with  John  at  Dover,  which 
was  readily  granted  :  he  there  represented  to  him, 
in  such  strong,  and  probably  in  such  true  colours, 
liis  lost  condition,  the  disaffection  of  his  subjects, 
the  secret  combination  of  his  vassals  against  him, 
the  mighty  armament  of  France,  that  John  yield- 
ed at  discretion  \  and  subscribed  to  all  the  con- 
ditions M'liich  Pandolf  was  pleased  to  impose  upon 
liim.  He  promised,  among  other  articles,  that  he 
would  submit  liimself  entirely  to  the  judgment  of 
the  pope  ;  that  he  would  acknowledge  Langton 
for  primate  ;  that  lie  would  restore  all  the  exiled 
clergy  and  laity  M'ho  had  been  banished  on  ac- 
count of  the  contest ;  that  he  would  make  them 

"M.  Paris,  p.  102.  ^M.  West,  p,  271. 


232  HISTORt    OF   ENGLAND.  1213. 

fall  restitution  of  their  goods,  and  compensation 
for  all  damages,  and  instantly  consign  eight  thou- 
sand pounds  in  part  of  payment ;  and  that  every 
one  outlawed  or  imprisoned  for  his  adherence  to 
the  pope,  should  immediately  be  received  into 
grace  and  favour  ^  Four  barons  swore,  along  with 
the  king,  to  the  observance  of  this  ignominious 
treaty  \ 

But  the  ignaminy  of  the  king  was  not  yet  car- 
ried to  its  full  height.  Pandolf  required  him,  as 
the  first  trial  of  obedience,  to  resign  his  kingdom 
to  the  church  ;  and  he  persuaded  him,  that  he 
could  nowise  so  effectually  disappoint  the  French 
invasion,  as  by  thus  putting  himself  under  the 
immediate  protection  of  the  apostolic  see.  John, 
lying  under  the  agonies  of  present  terror,  made 
no  scruple  of  submitting  to  this  condition.  He 
passed  a  charter,  in  which  he  said,  that  not  con- 
strained by  fear,  but  of  his  own  free  will,  and  by 
the  common  advice  and  consent  of  his  barons,  he 
had,  for  remission  of  his  own  sins,  and  those  of 
his  family,  resigned  England  and  Ireland  to  God, 
to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  to  pope  Innocent 
and  his  successors  in  the  apostolic  chair:  he 
agreed  to  hold  these  dominions  as  feudatory  of 
the  church  of  Rome,  by  the  annual  payment  of  a 
thousand  marks ;  seven  hundred  for  England, 
three  hundred  for  Ireland :  and  he  stipulated, 
that  if  he  or  his  successors  should  ever  presume  to 

■'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  l66.    M.  Paris,  p.  l63.   Annal.  Burt.  p.  268. 
*  Rymer,  vol.  i,  p..  170.     M.  Paris,  p.  l63, 


1213.  JOHN.  i33 

revoke  or  inliingc  this  cliaitcr,  they  sliould  in- 
stantly, except  upon  admonition  tliey  repented 
of  their  offence,  forfeit  all  right  to  their  do- 
minions'. 

In  consequence  of  this  agreement,   John  did 
homage  to  Pandolfas  the  pope's   legate  M'ith  all 
the  submissive  rites  M'hich  the  feudal  law  required 
of   vassals   before  their  liege-lord   and  superior. 
He  came  disarmed  into  the  legate's  presence,  a\  h.o 
was  seated  on  a  throne  ;  he  flung  himself  on  his 
knees  before  him  ;  he  lifted  up  his  joined  hands, 
and  put  them  within  those  of  Pandolf ;  he  sAvore 
fealty  to  the  poj)e  ;  and  he  paid  part  of  the  tribute 
which  he  owed  for  his  kingdom  as  the  patrimony 
of  St.  Peter.     The  legate,   elated  by  this  supreme 
triumph  of  sacerdotal  power,   coidd  not  forbear 
discovering  extravagant  symptoms  of  joy  and  ex- 
ultation :  he  trampled  on  the  money,  -which  was 
laid  at  his  feet,  as  an  earnest  of  the  subjection 
of  the  kingdom  :   an  insolence  of  which,  however 
offensive  to  all  the  English,  no  one  present,  except 
the  archbishop  of  Dublin,  dared  to  take  any  no- 
tice.     But  thouHi  Pandolf  had  brought  the  kins: 
to  submit  to  these  base  conditions,  he  still  refused 
to  free  him  from  the  excomnuinication  and  inter- 
dict,  till  an  estimation   should   be  taken  of  the 
losses  of  the  ecclesiastics,   and  full  compensation 
and  restitution  should  be  made  them. 

John,  reduced  to  this  abject  situation  under  a 
foreign  power,   still  shewed  the  same  disposition  to 

'  Rymci;,  vol.  i.  p.  176.     M.  Talis,  p,  l65. 


234  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  iai3. 

tyrannise  over  his  subjects,  which  had  been  the 
chief  cause  of  all  his  misfortunes.  One  Peter  of 
Pomfret,  a  hermit,  had  foretold  that  the  king, 
this  very  year,  should  lose  his  crown  ;  and  for 
that  rash  prophecy  he  had  been  thrown  into  pri- 
son in  Corfe-castle.  John  now  determined  to 
bring  him  to  punishment  as  an  impostor;  and 
though  the  man  pleaded,  that  his  prophecy  was 
fulfilled,  and  that  the  king  had  lost  the  royal  and 
independent  crown  which  he  formerly  wore,  the 
defence  was  supposed  to  aggravate  his  guilt :  he 
was  dragged  at  horses  tails,  to  the  town  of  War- 
ham,  and  there  hanged  on  a  gibbet  with  his  son  ". 
When  Pandolf,  after  receiving  the  homage  of 
John,  returned  to  France,  he  congratulated  Philip 
on  the  success  of  his  pious  enterprise  ;  and  inform- 
ed him,  that  John,  moved  by  the  terror  of  the 
French  arms,  had  now  come  to  a  just  sense  of  his 
guilt;  had  returned  to  obedience  under  the  apos- 
tolic see,  and  even  consented  to  do  homage  to 
the  pope  for  his  dominions  ;  and  having  thus  made 
his  kingdom  a  part  of  St.  Peter's  patrimony,  had 
rendered  it  impossible  for  any  Christian  prince, 
without  the  most  manifest  and  most  flagrant  im- 
piety, to  attack  him'*'.  Philip  was  enraged  on 
receiving  this  intelligence :  he  exclaimed,  that 
having,  at  the  pope's  instigations,  undertaken  an 
expedition,  which  had  cost  him  above  60,000 
pounds  sterling,  he  was  frustrated  of  his  purpose, 

"  M,  Paris,  p.  165.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol,  i.  p.  56, 
*  Trivet,  p.  160. 


1213.  JOHN".  235 

at  tlic  time  w lien  its  success  Mas  become  infallible  : 
he  complained,   that  all   tlie  expence  liad   fallen 
iil)on  him  ;  all  the  advantages  had  accrned  to  In- 
nocent:   he  threatened  to  be  no  lonuer  the  dupe 
of  these  hypocritical  pretences :  and   assembling 
liis  vassals,   he  laid  before  them   the  ill-treatment 
which   he  had  received,    exposed  the  interested 
and  fraudulent  conduct  of  the  pope,  and  recjuired 
their  assistance  to  execute  his  enterprise  against 
England,   in  which  he  told  them,   that,   notwith- 
standing the  inhibitions   and  menaces  of  the  le- 
gate,    he    was    determined    to    persevere.       The 
French  barons  were,   in  that  age,   little  less  igno- 
rant and  superstitious  than  the  English  :  yet,   so 
much    does    the    influence    of    religious    princi- 
ples depend  on  the  present  dispositions  of  men  ! 
they  all  vowed   to  follow  their  prince  on  his   in- 
tended expedition,    and  were  resolute  not  to  be 
disappointed  of  that  glory  and  those  riches  Mhich 
they  had  long  expected  from  this  enterprise.    The 
earl  of  Flanders  alone,  wlio  had  previously  formed 
a  secret  treaty  with  John,   declaring  against  the 
injustice  and  impiety  of  the  undertaking,   retired 
with  his  forces^;  and   Philip,    that  he  might  not 
leave  so  dangerous   an  enemy  behind   him,    first 
turned   his   arms  against  the  dominions   of  that 
prince.      Meanwhile,  the  Englibh  fleet  was  assem- 
bled under  the  earl  of  Salisbury,   the   king's   na- 
tural brother  ;  and,   though  inferior  in  number, 
received  orders  to  attack  the  French  in  their  liar- 

"  M.  Paris  p.  iCd. 


236  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  J213. 

bours.  Salisbury  performed  this  serv^ice  with  so 
much  success,  that  he  took  three  hundred  ships  ; 
destroyed  a  hundred  more  ^  :  and  PhiHp,  finding- 
it  impossible  to  prevent  the  rest  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy,  set  fire  to  them  himself, 
and  thereby  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to 
proceed  any  farther  in  his  enterprise. 

John,  exulting  in  his  present  security,  insen- 
sible to  his  past  disgrace,  was  so  elated  with  his 
success,  that  he  thought  of  no  less  than  invading 
France  in  his  turn,  and  recovering  all  those  pro- 
A^inces  which  the  prosperous  arms  of  Philip  had 
formerly  ravished  from  him.  He  proposed  this 
expedition  to  the  barons,  who  were  already  as- 
sembled for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom.  But 
the  English  nobles  both  hated  and  despised  their 
prince  :  they  prognosticated  no  success  to  any 
enterprise  conducted  by  such  a  leader :  and  pre- 
tending that  their  time  of  service  was  elapsed,  and 
all  their  provisions  exhausted,  they  refused  to  se- 
cond his  undertaking  ^  The  king  however,  re- 
solute in  his  purpose,  embarked  with  a  few  fol- 
lowers, and  sailed  to  Jersey,  in  the  foolish  ex- 
pectation that  the  barons  would  at  last  be  ashamed 
to  stay  behind  ^  But  finding  himself  disappoint- 
ed, he  returned  to  England  ;  and  raising  some 
troops,  threatened  to  take  vengeance  on  all  his 
nobles  for  their  desertion  and  disobedience.  The 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  in  a  confe- 

5  M.  Paris,  p.  166.   Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  59.   Trivet^  p.  157, 
'M.  Paris,  p.  I66.  ^Ibid. 


1213.  JOHN.  237 

(leracy  with  the  barons,  licie  interposed  ;  strictly 
inliil)ite(l  the  king  from  thinking  of  sncli  an  at- 
tempt ;  and  threatened  him  ^s  ith  a  renew  al  of  the 
sentence  of  exconmmnieation,  if  he  pretended  to 
levy  war  upon  any  of  Ifis  subjects,  before  the 
kingdom  were  freed  from  the  sentence  of  inter- 
dict\ 

The  church  liad  recalled  tlie  several  anatlicmas 
pronounced  against  John,  by  the  same  gradual 
progress  with  which  she  had  at  first  issued  them. 
By  receiving  his  homage,  and  admitting  him  to 
the  rank  of  a  vassal,  his  deposition  had  been  vir- 
tually annulled,  and  his  subjects  were  again  bound 
by  their  oaths  of  allegiance.  The  exiled  prelates 
had  then  returned  in  great  triumph,  with  Lang- 
ton  at  their  head  ;  and  the  king,  hearing  of  their 
approach,  Avent  forth  to  meet  them,  and  thro\v  - 
ino-  himself  on  the  "Tound  before  tliem,  he  en- 
treated  them,  with  tears,  to  ha\'e  compassion  on 
him  and  the  kingdom  of  England ".  The  primate, 
seeing  these  marks  of  sincere  penitence,  led  him 
to  the  chapter-house  of  Winchester,  and  there 
udministered  an  oath  to  him,  by  Avhich  he  again 
SArore  fealty  and  obedience  to  pope  Innocent  and 
his  successors;  promised  to  love,  maintain,  and 
defend  holy  church  and  the  clergy  ;  engaged  that 
he  would  re-establish  the  good  laws  of  his  prede- 
cessors, particularly  those  of  St.  Edward,  and 
would  abolish  the  wicked  ones ;  and  expressed  his 
resolution  of  maintaining  justice  and  right  in  all 

••M.  Paris,  p.  167.  '  Ibid.  p.  166.    Ann.  Waverl.  p.  I78. 


^38  HISTOPxY   OF  ENGLAND.  1213. 

his  dominions  '^.     The  primate  next  gave  him  ah- 
sohition  in  the  requisite  forms,  and  admitted  him 
to  dine  with  him,  to  the  great  joy  of  all  the  people. 
The  sentence  of  interdict,  however,   was  still  up- 
held against  the  kingdom.     A  new  legate,  Nicho- 
las hishop  of  Frescati,   came  into  England  in  the 
room  of  Pandolf ;  and  he  declared  it  to  be  the 
pope's  intentions  never  to  loosen  that  sentence  tiR 
full  restitution  were  made  to  the  clergy  of  every 
thing  taken  from  them,  and  ample  reparation  for 
all  damages  which  they  had  sustained.     He  only 
permitted  mass  to  be  said  with  a  low  voice  in  the 
churches,  till  those  losses  and  damages  could  be 
estimated  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  parties.     Cer- 
tain barons  were  appointed  to  take  an  account  of 
the  claims  ;  and  John  was  astonished  at  the  great- 
ness of  the  sums  to  which  the  clergy  made  their 
losses  to  amount.     No  less  than  twenty  thousand 
marks  were  demanded  by  the  monks  of  Canter-- 
bury  alone  ;  twenty-three  thousand  for  the  see  of 
Lincoln  ;  and  the  king,   finding  these  pretensions 
to  be  exorbitant  and  endless,  offered  the  clergy 
the  sum  of  a  hundred  thousand  marks  for  a  final 
acquittal.     The  clergy  rejected  the  offer  with  dis- 
dain; but  the  pope,  willing  to  favour  his  new 
vassal,  whom  he  found  zealous  in  his  declarations 
of  fealty,  and  regular  in  paying  the  stipulated  tri- 
bute to  Rome,   directed  his  legate  to  accept  of 
forty  thousand.     The  issue  of  the  whole  was,  that 
the  bishops  and  considerable  abbots  got  repara- 

^  M.Pat-is,  p.  166, 


1213.  JOHN.  239 

tion  beyond  what  they  had  any  title  to  demand  : 
tlic  inferior  cleroy  were  obliged  to  sit  down  con- 
tented Avitii  their  losses :  and  the  king,  after  the 
iiiterdiet  was  taken  off,  renewed,  in  the  most  so- 
lemn manner,  and  by  a  new  charter,  sealed  with 
gold,  his  professions  of  homage  and  obedience  to 
the  see  of  Rome. 

Wlien  this  vexatious  aftair  was  at  last  brought 
to  a  conclusion,  the  king,  as  if  he  had  nothing- 
farther  to  attend  to  but  triumphs  and  victories, 
went  over  to  Poictou,  w  liich  still  acknowledged 
his  authority  ^ ;  and  he  carried  war  into  Philip's 
dominions.  He  besieged  a  castle  near  Angiers ; 
but  the  approach  of  prince  Lewis,  Philip's  son, 
obliged  him  to  raise  the  siege  with  such  precipi- 
tation, that  he  left  his  tents,  machines,  and  bag- 
gage behind  him  ;  and  he  returned  to  England 
with  disgrace.  About  the  same  time,  he  heard 
of  the  great  and  decisive  victory  gained  by  the 
king  of  France  at  Bovines  over  the  emperor  Otho, 
who  had  entered  France  at  the  head  of  150,000 
Germans;  a  victory  which  established  for  ever 
the  glory  of  Philip,  and  gave  full  security  to  all 
his  dominions.  John  could,  therefore,  think 
henceforth  of  nothing  larther,  than  of  ruhng 
peaceably  his  own  kingdom ;  and  his  close  con- 
nexions with  the  pope,  which  he  was  determined 
at  any  price  to  maintain,  ensured  him,  as  he  ima- 
gined, the  certain  attainment  of  that  object.  But 
the  la^t  aiitl  most  grievous  scene  of  this  prince's 

'Queen  Eleanor  died  in  1203  or  120L 


240  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1214. 

misfortunes  still  awaited  him ;  and  he  was  de- 
stined to  pass  through  a  series  of  more  humiliating 
circumstances  than  had  ever  yet  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  any  other  monarch. 


DISCONTENTS  OF  THE  BARONS.     1214. 

The  introduction  of  the  feudal  law  into  England 
by  William  the  Conqueror  had  much  infringed 
the  liberties,  however  imperfect,  enjoyed  by  the 
Anglo-Saxons  in  their  ancient  government,  and 
had  reduced  the  whole  people  to  a  state  of  vassal- 
age under  the  king  or  barons,  and  even  the  greater 
part  of  them  to  a  state  of  real  slavery.  The  ne- 
cessity also  of  entrusting  great  power  in  the  hands 
of  a  prince,  who  was  to  maintain  military  domi- 
nion over  a  vanquished  nation,  had  engaged  the 
Norman  barons  to  submit  to  a  more  severe  and 
absolute  prerogative,  than  that  to  which  men  of 
their  rank,  in  other  feudal  governments,  were 
commonly  subjected.  The  power  of  the  crown, 
once  raised  to  a  high  pitch,  was  not  easily  reduc- 
ed ;  and  the  nation,  during  the  course  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  was  governed  by  an  authority 
unknown,  in  the  same  degree,  to  all  the  kingdoms 
founded  by  the  northern  conquerors.  Henry  I. 
that  he  might  allure  the  people  to  give  an  ex- 
clusion to  his  elder  brother  Robert,  had  granted 
them  a  charter,  favourable  in  many  particulars  to 
their  liberties ;  Stephen  had  renewed  the  grant ; 


1214.  JOHN.  0.11 

llcnry  II.  had  contirnicd  it :  but  the  concessions 
of  all  these  princes  had  still  remained  without 
effect ;  and  the  same  unlimited,  at  least  irrcoular 
authority,  continued  to  be  exercised  both  by  them 
and  their  successors.  The  only  happiness  was, 
that  arms  were  never  yet  ravished  from  the  hands 
of  the  barons  and  people  :  the  nation,  by  a  great 
confederacy,  might  still  vindicate  its  liberties ; 
and  nothing  was  more  likely,  than  the  character, 
conduct,  and  fortunes  of  the  reigning  prince,  to 
produce  such  a  general  combination  against  him. 
Equally  odious  and  contemptible,  both  in  public 
and  private  life,  he  affronted  the  barons  by  his  in- 
solence, dishonoured  their  families  by  his  gallant- 
ries, enraged  them  by  his  tyranny,  and  gave  dis- 
content to  all  ranks  of  men  by  his  endless  exac- 
tions and  impositions^.  The  effect  of  these  law- 
less practices  had  already  appeared  in  the  general 
demand  made  by  the  barons  of  a  restoration  of 
their  pri^•ilcges  ;  and  after  he  had  reconciled  him- 
self to  the  pope,  by  abandoning  the  independence 
of  the  kingdom,  he  appeared  to  all  his  subjects  in 
80  mean  a  light,  that  they  universally  thought 
they  might  with  safety  and  honour  insist  upon 
their  pretensions. 

But  nothing  forwarded  this  confederacy  so 
much  as  the  concurrence  of  Langton  archbishop 
of  Canterbury ;  a  man  whose  memory,  though 
he  was  obtruded  on  the  nation  by  a  palpable  en- 

^Cbron,  Mailr.  p.  1 88.      T.  Wykes,  p.  3';.      Ann.  Waved. 
p.  181.     W.  Heming.  p.  55/. 

VOL.  II.  R 


242  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1214. 

croachment  of  the  see  of  Rome,  ought  always  to 
be  respected  by  the  English.  This  prelate,  whe- 
ther he  was  moved  by  the  generosity  of  his  na- 
ture, and  his  affection  to  public  good  ;  or  had  en- 
tertained an  animosity  against  John  on  account  of 
the  long  opposition  made  by  that  prince  to  his 
election  ;  or  thought  that  an  acquisition  of  liberty 
to  the  people  would  serve  to  increase  and  secure 
the  privileges  of  the  church ;  had  formed  the  plan 
of  reforming  the  government,  and  had  prepared 
the  way  for  that  great  innovation,  by  inserting 
those  singular  clauses  above  mentioned  in  the  oath 
which  he  administered  to  the  king,  before  he 
would  absolve  him  from  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication. Soon  after,  in  a  private  meeting  of 
some  principal  barons  at  London,  he  showed  them 
a  copy  of  Henry  I.  's  charter,  which,  he  said,  he 
had  happily  found  in  a  monastery ;  and  he  exhort- 
ed them  to  insist  on  the  renewal  and  observance 
of  it :  the  barons  swore,  that  they  would  sooner 
lose  their  lives  than  depart  from  so  reasonable  a 
demand  ^.  The  confederacy  began  now  to  spread 
wider,  and  to  comprehend  almost  all  the  barons 
in  England  ;  and  a  ncAv  and  more  numerous  meet- 
mg  was  summoned  by  Langton  at  St.  Edmonds- 
bury,  under  colour  of  devotion.  He  again  pro- 
duced to  the  assembly  the  old  charter  of  Henry ; 
renewed  his  exhortations  of  unanimity  and  vigour 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  purpose ;  and  repre- 
sented in  the  strongest  colours  the  tyranny  to 

•M.Paris,  p.  167. 


1215.  JOHN.  243 

which  they  had  so  long  been  subjected,  and  from 
whicli  it  now  behoved  them  to  free  themselves 
and  their  posterity''.  The  barons,  inflamed  by 
his  eloquence,  incited  by  the  sense  of  their  own 
wrongs,  and  encouraged  by  the  appearance  of 
tlieir  power  and  numl)ers,  solemnly  took  an  oatli, 
before  tlie  high  altar,  to  adhere  to  each  other,  to 
insist  on  their  demands,  and  to  make  endless  war 
on  the  king,  till  he  should  submit  to  grant  them*. 
They  agreed,  that,  after  the  festival  of  Christmas, 
they  would  prefer  in  a  body  their  common  peti- 
tion ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  they  separated,  after 
mutually  engaging,  that  they  would  put  them- 
selves in  a  posture  of  defence,  would  enlist  men 
and  purchase  arms,  and  Avould  supply  their  castles 
with  the  necessary  provisions. 


January  6,  1215. 

The  barons  appeared  in  London  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed ;  and  demanded  of  the  king,  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  own  oath  before  the  primate,  as 
well  as  in  deference  to  their  just  rights,  he  should 
grant  them  a  renewal  of  Henry's  charter,  and  a 
confirmation  of  the  laws  of  St.  Edward.  The 
king,  alarmed  with  their  zeal  and  unanimity,  as 
well  as  with  their  power,  required  a  delay ;  pro- 
mised that,  at  the  festival  of  Easter,  he  Mould 
give  them  a  positive  ansA\  er  to  their  petition  ;  and 

''M.Paris,  p.  175.  'Ibid,  p.  170, 


244  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1215. 

offered  them  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
bishop  of  Ely,  and  tlie  earl  of  Pembroke,  the 
mareschal,  as  sureties  for  his  fulfilling  this  en- 
gagement ^.  The  barons  accepted  of  the  terms, 
and  peaceably  returned  to  their  castles. 

During  this  interval,   John,   in  order  to  break 
or  subdue  the  league  of  his  barons,   endeavoured 
to  avail  himself  of  the    ecclesiastical   power  of 
whose  influence  he  had,  from  his  own  recent  mis- 
fortunes, had  such  fatal  experience.      He  granted 
to  the  clergy  a  charter,  relinquishing  for  ever  that 
important  prerogative  for  which  his  father  and  all 
his  ancestors  had  zealously  contended;  yielding 
to  them  the  free  election  on  all  vacancies,   reserv- 
ing only  the  power  to  issue  a  conge  d'elire,   and 
to   subjoin   a  confirmation  of  the  election ;  and 
declaring  that,  if  either  of  these  were   withheld, 
the  choice  should  nevertheless  be  deemed  just  and 
valid '.     He  made  a  vow  to  lead  an  army  into  Pa- 
lestine against  the  infidels,   and  he  took  on  him 
the  cross ;  in  hopes  that  he  should  receive  from 
the  church  that  protection  which  he  tendered  to 
every  one  that  had  entered  into  this  sacred  and 
meritorious  engagement  '^     And  he  sent  to  Rome 
his  agent,  Wihiam  de  JVIauclerc,  in  order  to  ap- 
peal to  the  pope  against  the  violence  of  his  barons, 
and  procure  him  a  favourable  sentence  from  that 


"M.  Paris,  p.  176.     M.  West.  p.  273. 
'  Rymei%  vol.  i.  p.  197,  ""  Rymer,  vol.  i,  p.  200. 

Trivet,  p.  1^2,    T.  Wykes,  p.  37.     M.  West,  p.  273. 


1215.  JOHN.  2-15 

powerful  tribunal  '*.  Tlie  l)arons  also  ^vere  not 
negligent  on  their  part  in  endeavouring  to  engage 
the  pope  in  their  interests  :  they  dispatched  Eu- 
stace (le  Vescie  to  Rome;  laid  their  case  before 
Innocent  as  their  feudal  lord  ;  and  petitioned  him 
to  interpose  his  authority  M'ith  the  king,  and  ob- 
lige him  to  restore  and  conlirm  all  their  just  and 
undoubted  privileges ". 

Innocent  beheld  m  ith  regret  the  disturbances 
which  had  arisen  in  England,  and  was  much  in- 
clined to  favour  John  in  his  pretensions.  He  had 
no  hopes  of  retaining  and  extending  his  newly  ac- 
quired superiority  over  that  kingdom,  but  by  sup- 
porting so  base  and  degenerate  a  prince,  who  was 
"wiUing  to  sacrifice  every  consideration  to  his  pre- 
sent safety  :  and  he  foresaw,  that  if  the  adminis- 
tration should  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  gallant 
and  high-spirited  barons,  they  would  vindicate 
the  honour,  liberty,  and  independence  of  the  na- 
tion, M'ith  the  same  ardour  which  they  now  exert- 
ed in  defence  of  their  own.  He  Avrotc  letters 
therefore  to  the  prelates,  to  the  nobility,  and  to 
the  king  himself  He  exhorted  the  first  to  employ 
their  good  offices  in  conciliating  peace  between 
the  contending  parties,  and  putting  an  end  to  ci- 
vil discord  :  to  the  second,  he  expressed  his  dis- 
approbation of  their  conduct  in  employing  force 
to  extort  concessions  from  their  reluctant  sove- 
reign :  the  last,  he  advised  to  treat  his  nobles  with 
grace   and   indulgence,  and  to  grant  them  such 

"  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  184.  "  Ibid. 


HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1215. 

of  their  demands  as  should  appear  just  and  rea- 
sonable P. 

The  barons  easily  saw,  from  the  tenor  of  these 
letters,  that  they  must  reckon  on  having  the  pope, 
as  well  as  the  king,  for  their  adversary  ;  but  they 
had  already  advanced  too  far  to  recede  from  their 
pretensions,  and  their  passions  were  so  deeply  en- 
gaged, that  it  exceeded  even  the  power  of  super- 
stition itself  any  longer  to  control  them.  They 
also  foresaw,  that  the  thunders  of  Rome,  when 
not  seconded  by  the  efforts  of  the  English  eccle- 
siastics, would  be  of  small  avail  against  them ; 
and  they  perceived,  that  the  most  considerable  of 
the  prelates,  as  well  as  all  the  inferior  clergy,  pro- 
fessed the  highest  approbation  of  their  cause.  Be- 
sides that  these  men  were  seized  with  the  national 
passion  for  laws  and  liberty ;  blessings  of  Avhich 
they  themsehes  expected  to  partake ;  there  con- 
curred very  powerful  causes  to  loosen  their  de- 
voted attachment  to  the  apostolic  see.  It  ap- 
peared, from  the  late  usurpations  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  that  he  pretended  to  reap  alone  all  the 
advantages  accruing  from  that  victory,  which, 
under  his  banners,  though  at  their  own  peril,  they 
had  every  where  obtained  over  the  civil  magis- 
trate. The  pope  assumed  a  despotic  power  over 
all  the  churches  :  their  particular  customs,  privi- 
leges, and  immunities,  were  treated  with  disdain ; 
even  the  canons  of  general  councils  were  set  aside 
\)y  his  dispensing  power :  the  whole  administration 

T  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  196,  J  97. 


1215.  JOHN.  247 

of  the  church  was  centered  in  the  court  of  Rome  : 
all  preferments  ran  of  course  in  the  same  channel : 
and  the  provincial  clergy  saw,  at  least  felt,  that 
there  M'as  a  necessity  for  limiting  these  preten- 
sions. The  legate,  Nicholas,  in  iilling  those  nu- 
merous vacancies  which  had  fallen  in  England 
during  an  interdict  of  ;>ix  years,  had  proceeded  in 
the  most  arhitrary  manner ;  and  had  paid  no  re- 
gard in  conferring  dignities  to  personal  merit,  to 
rank,  to  the  inclination  of  the  electors,  or  to  the 
customs  of  the  country.  The  English  church 
was  universally  disgusted ;  and  Langton  himself, 
though  he  owed  his  elevation  to  an  incroachment 
of  the  Romish  see,  Mas  no  sooner  established  in 
his  high  office,  than  he  became  jealous  of  the 
privileges  annexed  to  it,  and  formed  attachments 
with  the  country  subjected  to  his  jurisdiction. 
These  causes,  though  they  opened  slowly  the 
eyes  of  men,  failed  not  to  produce  their  effect : 
they  set  bounds  to  the  usurpations  of  the  papacy  : 
the  tide  first  stopped,  and  then  turned  against  the 
sovereign  pontiff:  and  it  is  otherwise  inconceiv- 
able, how  that  age,  so  prone  to  superstition,  and 
so  sunk  in  ignorance,  or  rather  so  devoted  to  a 
spurious  erudition,  could  have  escaped  falling 
into  an  absolute  and  total  slavery  under  the  court 
of  Rome. 


248  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1215. 


INSURRECTION  OF  THE  BARONS. 

About  the  time  that  the  pope's  letters  arrived  in 
England,  the  malcontent  barons,  on  the  approach 
of  the  festival  of  Easter,  when  they  were  to  ex^ 
pect  the  king's  answer  to  their  petition,   met  by 
agreement   at  Stamford ;    and  they  assembled  a 
force,   consisting  of  above  2000  knights,   besides 
their  retainers  and  inferior  persons  without  num^ 
ber.     Elated  with  their  power,   they  advanced  in 
a  body  to  Brackley,  w  ithin  fifteen  miles  of  Ox^ 
ford,    the  place  where  the  court  then   resided ; 
and  they  there  received  a  message  from  the  king, 
by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  earl  of 
Pembroke,  desiring  to  know  what  those  liberties 
were  which  they  so    zealously  challenged  fi'om 
their  sovereign.     They  dehvered  to  these  mes- 
senoers  a   schedule  containing  the  chief  articles 
of  their  demands  ;  which  was  no  sooner  shown  to 
the  king,   than  he   burst  into  a  furious  passion, 
and  asked,  why  the  barons  did  not  also  demand 
of  him  his    kingdom;    swearing  that  he   would 
never  grant  them  such  liberties  as   must  reduce 
himself  to  slavery  \ 

No  sooner  were  the  confederated  nobles  In- 
formed of  John's  reply,  than  they  chose  Robert 
Fitz-Walter  their  general,  whom  they  called  the 
mareschal  of  the  army  of  God  and  of  holy  church  ; 
and  they  proceeded  without  farther  ceremony  to 

"M.  Paris,  p.  XjQ. 


1215.  JOHN,  249 

levy  war  upon    the  king.       Tliey   besieged   tlie 
castle  of  Northampton  during  lifteen  days,  thougli 
without  success^:  the  gates  of  Bedford  castle  were 
willingly  opened  to  them  by  William  Beauchanip, 
its  owner :   they  advanced  to  Ware   in  their  M\iy 
to   London,   where    they  held  a  correspondence 
with  the   principal  citizens :  they  were  received 
without  opposition  into  that  capital;  and  finding 
uow  the  great   superiority  of  their  force,    they 
issued  j)roclamations,   requiring  the  other  barons 
to  join  them  ;  and  menacing  them,   in  case  of  re- 
fusal or  delay,   with  committing  devastation  on 
their  houses  and  estates'.     In  order  to  shew  what 
might  be  expected  from   their  prosperous  arms, 
they  made    incursions   from   London,     and   laid 
waste  the  king's  parks  and  palaces;  and  all  the 
barons,   who  had  hitherto  carried  the  semblance 
of  supporting  the  royal  party,   were  glad  of  this 
pretence  for  openly  joining  a  cause  which  they 
always  had  secretly  favoured.     The  king  was  left 
at  Odiham  in  Hampshire,   A\'ith  a  poor  retinue  of 
only  seven  knights  ;  and  after  trying  several  ex- 
pedients to  elude  the  blow,   after  offering  to  refer 
all   differences   to    the   pope  alone,   or    to  eight 
barons,   four  to  be    chosen  by  himself,   and  four 
by  the  confederates',    he  found   himself  at  last 
oblioed  to  submit  at  discretion. 


'O 


'M.  Paris,  p.  177.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  71. 
'  M.  Paris,  p.  \TJ,  '  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  200, 


250  niSTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1215. 


MAGNA  CHARTA.    June  15. 

A  CONFERENCE  between  the  king  and  the  barons 
was  appointed  at  Runnemede,  between  Windsor 
and  Staines ;  a  place  which  has  ever  since  been 
extremely  celebrated,  on  account  of  this  great 
event.  The  two  parties  encamped  apart,  like 
open  enemies ;  and  after  a  debate  of  a  few  days, 
the  king,  with  a  facility  somewhat  suspicious, 
signed  and  sealed  the  charter  which  was  recjuired 
of  him  (June  19).  This  famous  deed,  commonly 
called  the  Great  Charter,  either  granted  or 
secured  very  important  liberties  and  privileges  to 
every  order  of  men  in  the  kingdom  ;  to  the  clergy, 
to  the  barons,   and  to  the  people. 

The  freedom  of  elections  was  secured  to  the 
clergy  :  the  former  charter  of  the  king  was  con- 
firmed, by  which  the  necessity  of  a  royal  cong6 
d'elire  and  confirmation  was  superseded  :  all  check 
upon  appeals  to  Rome  was  removed,  by  the  allow- 
ance granted  every  man  to  depart  the  kingdom  at 
pleasure :  and  the  fines  to  be  imposed  on  the  cler- 
gy, for  any  oifence,  were  ordained  to  be  propor- 
tional to  their  lay  estates,  not  to  their  ecclesiasti- 
cal benefices. 

The  privileges  granted  to  the  barons  were 
either  abatements  in  the  rigour  of  the  feudal  law, 
or  determinations  in  points  which  had  been  left 
by  that  law,  or  had  become,  by  practice,  arbi- 
trary and  ambiguous.     The  reliefs  of  heirs  sue- 


1215.  JOHN.  '251 

cceding  to  a  military  fee  were  ascertained  ;  an 
earrs  and  baron's  at  a  hundred  marks,  a  kni^iits 
at  a  hundred  sliillings.  It  was  ordained  by  the 
charter,  that,  if  the  heir  be  a  minor,  lie  shall, 
immediately  upon  his  majority,  enter  upon  his 
estate,  without  paying  any  relief:  the  king  shall 
not  sell  his  wardship  :  he  shall  levy  only  reason- 
able profits  upon  the  estate,  without  committing 
waste,  or  hurting  the  property :  he  sliall  uphold 
the  castles,  houses,  mills,  parks,  and  ponds :  and 
if  he  commit  the  guardianship  of  the  estate  to  the 
sheriff  or  any  other,  he  shall  previously  oblige 
them  to  find  surety  to  the  same  purpose.  During 
the  minority  of  a  baron,  while  his  lands  are  in 
wardship,  and  are  not  in  his  own  possession,  no 
debt  which  he  owes  to  the  Jews  shall  bear  any  in- 
terest, licirs  sliall  be  married  without  disparage- 
ment ;  and  before  the  marriage  be  contracted,  the 
nearest  relations  of  the  person  shall  be  informed 
of  it.  A  widow,  without  paying  any  relief,  shall 
enter  upon  her  dower,  the  third  ])art  of  her  hus- 
band's rents  :  she  shall  not  be  compelled  to  marry, 
so  long  as  she  chuses  to  continue  single  ;  she  shall 
only  give  security  never  to  marry  without  her 
lord's  consent.  The  king  shall  not  claim  the 
wardship  of  any  minor  who  holds  lands  by  mili- 
tary tenure  of  a  baron,  on  pretence  that  he  also 
holds  lands  of  the  crown,  by  soccage  or  any  other 
tenure.  Scutages  shall  be  estimated  at  the  same 
rate  as  in  the  time  of  Henry  I.  ;  and  no  scutagc 
or  aid,  except  in  the  three  general  feudal  cases, 


252  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1215. 

the  king's  captivity,  the  knighting  of  his  eldest 
son,  and  the  marrying  of  his  eldest  daughter,  shall 
be  imposed  but  by  the  great  council  of  the  king- 
dom ;  the  prelates,  earls,  and  great  barons,  shall 
be  called  to  this  great  council,  each  by  a  particu- 
lar ^vrit ;  the  lesser  barons  by  a  general  summons 
of  the  sheriff.  The  king  shall  not  seize  any  ba- 
ron's land  for  a  debt  to  the  crown,  if  the  baron 
possesses  as  many  goods  and  chattels  as  are  suffi- 
cient to  discharge  the  debt.  No  man  shall  be  ob- 
liged to  perform  more  service  for  his  fee  than  he 
is  bound  to  by  his  tenure.  No  governor  or  con- 
stable of  a  castle  shall  oblige  any  knight  to  give 
money  for  castle-guard,  if  the  knight  be  willing 
to  perform  the  service  in  person,  or  by  another 
able-bodied  man ;  and  if  the  knight  be  in  the 
field  himself,  by  the  king's  command,  he  shall  be 
exempted  from  all  other  service  of  this  nature. 
No  vassal  shall  be  allowed  to  sell  so  much  of  his 
land  as  to  incapacitate  himself  from  performing 
his  service  to  his  lord. 

These  were  the  principal  articles,  calculated 
for  the  interest  of  the  barons  ;  and  had  the  charter 
contained  nothing  farther,  national  happiness  and 
liberty  had  been  very  little  promoted  by  it,  as  it 
would  only  have  tended  to  increase  the  power  and 
independence  of  an  order  of  men  who  were  al- 
ready too  powerful,  and  whose  yoke  might  have 
become  more  heavy  on  the  people  than  even  that 
of  an  absolute  monarch.  But  the  barons,  who 
alone  drew  and  imposed  on  the  prince  this  memo- 


1215,  JOHN.  253 

ral)le  charter,  were  necessitated  to  insert  in  it 
other  causes  of  a  more  extensive  and  more  hene- 
ficent  nature  :  they  could  not  expect  tlie  concur- 
rence of  the  people,  without  comprehending, 
together  with  their  own,  the  interests  of  inferior 
ranks  of  men;  and  all  provisions  which  the  harons, 
for  their  own  sake,  were  obliged  to  make,  in  order 
to  ensure  the  free  and  equitable  administration  of 
justice,  tended  directly  to  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
community.  The  following  were  the  principal 
clauses  of  this  nature. 

It  was  ordained,  that  all  the  privileges  and  im- 
munities above  mentioned,  granted  to  the  barons 
against  the  king,  should  be  extended  by  the  barons 
to  their  inferior  vassals.  The  king  bound  himself 
not  to  grant  any  writ,  empowering  a  baron  to  levy 
aid  from  his  vassals,  except  in  the  three  feudal 
cases.  One  weight  and  one  measure  shall  be 
established  throughout  the  kingdom.  Merchants 
shall  be  allowed  to  transact  all  business,  without 
being  exposed  to  any  arbitrary  tolls  and  impo- 
sitions :  they  and  all  free  men  shall  be  allowed  to 
go  out  of  the  kingdom  and  return  to  it  at  plea- 
sure: London,  and  all  cities  and  burghs,  shall  pre- 
serve their  ancient  liberties,  immunities,  and  tree 
customs  :  aids  shall  not  be  required  of  them  but 
by  the  consent  of  the  great  council :  no  towns  or 
indi^'iduals  shall  be  obliged  to  make  or  support 
bridges  but  by  ancient  custom :  the  goods  of 
every  freeman  shall  be  disposed  of  according  to 
his  will:  if  lie  die  intestate,  his  heirs  shall  succeed 


154  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1215. 

to  them.  No  officer  of  the  crown  shall  take  any 
horses,  carts,  or  wood,  without  the  consent  of 
the  owner.  The  king's  courts  of  justice  shall  be 
stationary,  and  shall  no  longer  follow  his  person : 
They  shall  be  open  to  every  one;  and  justice  shall 
no  longer  be  sold,  refused,  or  delayed  by  them. 
Circuits  shall  be  regularly  held  every  year :  the 
inferior  tribunals  of  justice,  the  county  court, 
sheriff's  turn,  and  court-leet,  shall  meet  at  their 
appointed  time  and  place :  the  sheriffs  shall  be 
incapacitated  to  hold  pleas  of  the  crown ;  and 
shall  not  put  any  person  upon  his  trial,  from 
rumour  or  suspicion  alone,  but  upon  the  evidence 
of  lawful  witnesses.  No  freeman  shall  be  taken 
or  imprisoned,  or  dispossessed  of  his  free  tene- 
ment and  liberties,  or  outlawed,  or  banished,  or 
any  wise  hurt  or  injured,  unless  by  the  legal  judg- 
ment of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land  ;  and 
all  Avho  suffered  otherwise,  in  this  or  the  two 
former  reigns,  shall  be  restored  to  their  rights  and 
possessions.  Every  freeman  shall  be  fined  in  pro- 
portion to  his  fault ;  and  no  fine  shall  be  levied 
on  him  to  his  utter  ruin  :  even  a  villain  or  rustic 
shall  not,  by  any  fine,  be  bereaved  of  his  carts, 
ploughs,  and  implements  of  husbandry.  This  was 
the  only  article  calculated  for  the  interests  of  this 
body  of  men,  probably  at  that  time  the  most 
numerous  in  the  kingdom. 

It  must  be  confessed,  that  the  former  articles 
of  the  Great  Charter  contain  such  mitigations  and 
explanations  of  the  feudal  law  as  are  reasonable 


1215.  JOHN.  25S 

and  equitable  ;  and  that  the  latter  involve  all  the 
chief  outlines  of  a  legal  government,  and  provide 
for  the  equal  distribution  of  justice  and  free  en- 
joyment of  property  ;  the  oreat  objects  for  uhich 
political  society  was  at  first  founded  by  men, 
which  the  people  have  a  perpetual  and  unalienable 
right  to  recal,  and  which  no  time,  nor  precedent, 
nor  statute,  nor  positive  institution,  ought  to 
deter  them  from  keeping  ever  uppermost  in  their 
thoughts  and  attention.  Though  the  provisions 
made  by  this  charter  might,  conformably  to  the 
genius  of  the  age,  be  esteemed  too  concise,  and 
too  bare  of  circumstances,  to  maintain  the  exe- 
cution of  its  articles,  in  opposition  to  the  chicanery 
of  lawyers,  supported  by  the  violence  of  power ; 
time  gradually  ascertained  the  sense  of  all  the  am- 
biguous expressions  ;  and  those  generous  barons, 
who  first  extorted  this  concession,  still  held  their 
swords  in  their  hands,  and  could  turn  them  against 
those  wlio  dared  on  any  pretence  to  depart  from 
the  original  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  grant.  We 
may  now,  from  the  tenor  of  this  charter,  con- 
jecture what  those  laws  were  of  king  Edward 
which  the  English  nation,  during  so  many  gene- 
rations, still  desired,  with  such  an  obstinate  per- 
severance, to  have  recalled  and  established.  They 
were  chiefly  these  latter  articles  oi  Magna  Chart  a  ; 
and  the  barons  who,  at  the  beginning  of  these  com- 
motions, demanded  the  revival  of  the  Saxon  laws, 
undoubtedly  thought  that  they  had  sufficiently  sa- 
tisfied the  people  by  procuring  them  this  concession, 


258  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1215. 

which  comprehended  the  principal  objects  to  which 
they  had  so  long  aspired.  But  what  we  are  most 
to  admire  is,  the  prudence  and  rhoderation  of  those 
haughty  nobles  themselves,  who  were  enraged  by 
injuries,  inflamed  by  opposition,  and  elated  by  a 
total  victory  over  their  sovereign.  They  were 
content,  even  in  this  plenitude  of  poM^er,  to  de- 
part from  some  articles  of  Henry  I. 's  charter, 
Avhich  they  made  the  foundation  of  their  demands, 
particularly  from  the  abolition  of  wardships,  a 
matter  of  the  greatest  importance  ;  and  they  seem 
to  have  been  sufficiently  careful  not  to  diminish 
too  far  the  power  and  revenue  of  the  crown.  If 
they  appear,  therefore,  to  have  carried  other  de- 
mands to  too  great  a  height,  it  can  be  ascribed 
only  to  the  faithless  and  tyrannical  character  of 
the  king  himself,  of  which  they  had  long  had  ex- 
perience, and  Mdiich,  they  foresaw,  would,  if  they 
provided  no  farther  security,  lead  him  soon  to 
infringe  their  new  liberties,  and  revoke  his  own 
concessions.  This  alone  gave  birth  to  those  other 
articles,  seemingly  exorbitant,  which  were  added 
as  a  rampart  for  the  safe -guard  of  the  Great 
Charter. 

The  barons  obliged  the  king  to  agree  that 
London  should  remain  in  their  hands,  and  the 
Tower  be  consigned  to  the  custody  of  the  pri- 
mate, till  the  15th  of  August  ensuing,  or  till  the 
execution  of  the  several  articles  of  the  Great 
Charter".    The  better  to  ensure  the  same  end,  he 

"  Rymer,  vol,  i.  p.  201.     Chron,  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  73. 


12IJ.  JOHN.  257 

allowed  them  to  chuse  iive-and-twenty  members 
from  their  own  body,  as  conservators  of  the  pul)lic 
liberties  ;  and  no  bounds  were  set  to  the  authority 
of  these  men  either  in  extent  or  duration.    If  any 
complaint  were  made  of  a  violation  of  the  charter, 
whether  attempted  by  the  king,  justiciaries,  sheriffs 
or  foresters,  any  four  of  these  barons  might  ad- 
monish the  king  to  redress  the  grievance  :  if  satis- 
faction were  not  obtained,  they  could  assemble 
the  whole  council  of  twenty-five  ;  who,  in  con- 
junction with  the  great  council,  were  empowered 
to  compel  him   to  observe   the  charter ;  and,   in 
case  of  resistance,  might  levy  Avar  against  him, 
attack    his    castles,    and    employ   every    kind    of 
violence,  except  against  his  royal  person,  and  that 
of  his  queen  and  children.     All  men  throughout 
the  kingdom  Mere  bound,  under  the  penalty  of 
confiscation,  to  swear  obedience  to  the  twenty- 
five  barons;  and  the  freeholders  of  each  county 
were  to  chuse  twelve  knights,  who  were  to  make 
report  of  such  evil  customs  as  required  redress, 
conformably  to  the  tenor  of  the  Great  Charter"*. 
The  names  of  those  conservators  were,  the  Earls 
of    Clare,    Albemarle,    Gloucester,    Winchester, 
Jlereford,    Roger  Bigod  earl  of  Norfolk,   Robert 
de  Vere  earl  of  Oxford,  William  Mareschal  the 


*  This  seems  a  very  strong  proof  that  the  house  of  commoni 
was  not  then  in  being  5   otherwise  the  knights  and  burgesse* 
from  the  several  countries  could  have  given  in  to  the  lords  a  list 
oi"  grievances,  ^vithout  so  unusual  an  election. 
VOL.    II.  S 


258  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1215. 

younger,  Robert  Fitz-Walter,  Gilbert  de  Clare, 
Eustace  de  Vescey,  Gilbert  Delaval,  William  de 
Moubray,  Geoffrey  de  Say,  Roger  de  Mombezon, 
William  de  Iluntingfield,  Robert  de  Ros,  the 
constable  of  Chester,  William  de  Aubenie,  Ri- 
chard de  Perci,  William  Malet,  John  Fitz-Robert, 
William  de  Lanvalay,  Hugh  de  Bigod,  and  Roger 
de  Montfichet^  These  men  were,  by  this  conven- 
tion, really  invested  with  the  sovereignty  of  the 
kingdom  :  they  were  rendered  co-ordinate  with 
the  king,  or  rather  superior  to  him,  in  the  exercise 
of  the  executive  power :  and  as  there  was  no  cir- 
cumstance of  government  M'hich,  either  directly 
or  indirectly,  might  not  bear  a  relation  to  the 
security  or  observance  of  the  Great  Charter,  there 
could  scarcely  occur  any  incident  in  which  they 
might  not  lawfully  interpose  their  authority. 

John  seemed  to  submit  passively  to  all  these 
regulations,  however  injurious  to  majesty:  he  sent 
writs  to  all  the  sheriffs,  ordering  them  to  con- 
strain every  one  to  swear  obedience  to  the  twenty- 
five  barons  y:  he  dismissed  all  his  foreign  forces  : 
he  pretended  that  his  government  was  thence- 
forth to  run  in  a  new  tenor,  and  be  more  indulgent 
to  the  liberty  and  independence  of  his  people.  But 
he  only  dissembled,  till  he  should  find  a  favour- 
able opportunity  for  annulling  all  his  concessions. 
The  injuries  and  indignities  which  he  had  formerly 
suffered  from  the  pope  and  the  king  of  France,  as 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  181.  ''  Ibid.  p.  182. 


1215.  JOHN.  r5() 

they  came  from  equals  or  superiors,  seemed  to 
make  but  small  impression  on  him  :  but  the  sense 
of  this  perpetual  and  total  subjection  under  his 
own  rebellious  vassals,  sunk  deep  in  his  mind,  and 
he  was  determined,  at  all  hazards,  to  tlirow  ofl'  so 
ignominious  a  slavery  \  He  grew  sullen,  silent, 
and  reserved  :  he  shunned  the  society  of  his 
courtiers  and  nobles :  he  retired  into  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  as  if  desirous  of  hiding  his  shame  and 
confusion ;  but  in  this  retreat  he  meditated  the 
most  fatal  vengeance  against  all  his  enemies  ^ 
He  secretly  sent  abroad  his  emissaries  to  inlist 
foreign  soldiers,  and  to  invite  the  rapacious  Bra- 
ban9ons  into  his  service,  by  the  prospect  of  shar- 
ing the  spoils  of  England,  and  reaping  the  for- 
feitures of  so  many  opulent  barons,  who  had 
incurred  the  guilt  of  rebellion  by  rising  in  arms 
against  him  ^  :  and  he  dispatched  a  messenger  to 
Rome,  in  order  to  lay  before  the  pope  the  Great 
Charter,  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  sign, 
and  to  complain,  before  that  tribunal,  of  the 
violence  which  had  been  imposed  upon  him*^. 

Innocent,  considering  himself  as  feudal  lord 
of  the  kingdom,  was  incensed  at  the  temerity  of 
the  barons,  who,  though  they  pretended  to  appeal 
to  his  authority,  had  dared,  without  waiting  for 
his  consent,   to  impose  such  terms  on  a  prince, 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  183.  •  ibid. 

*  Ibid.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  72.     Chroo.  Mailr.  p.  188. 
'  M.  Paris,  p.  183.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  '3, 


360  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1315. 

who,  by  resigning  to  the  Roman  pontiff  his  crown 
and  independence,  had  placed  himself  immediately 
under  the  papal  protection.   He  issued  therefore,  a 
bull,  in  Avhich,  from  the  plenitude  of  his  apostolic 
power,   and  from  the  authority  which  God  had 
committed  to  him,   to  build  and  destroy  king- 
doms,  to  plant  and  overthrow,  he  annulled  and 
abrogated  the  whole  charter,  as  unjust  in  itself, 
as  obtained  by  compulsion,  and  as  derogatory  to 
the  dignity  of  the  apostolic  see.     He  prohibited 
the  barons  from  exacting  the  observance  of  it : 
he  even  prohibited  the  king  himself  from  paying 
any  regard  to  it:  he  absolved  him  and  his  subjects 
from  all  oaths  which  they  had  been  constrained  to 
take  to  that  purpose :  and  he  pronounced  a  gene- 
ral sentence  of  excommunication  against  every 
one  who   should  persevere  in  maintaining  such 
treasonable  and  iniquitous  pretensions  ^ 


RENEWAL  OF  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

The  king,  as  his  foreign  forces  arrived  along 
with  this  bull,  now  ventured  to  take  off  the 
mask;  and,  under  sanction  of  the  pope's  decree, 
recalled  all  the  liberties  which  he  had  granted  to 
his  subjects,  and  wdiich  he  had  solemnly  sworn  to 
observe.  But  the  spiritual  weapon  was  found, 
upon  trial,  to  carry  less  force  with  it  than  he  had 

'Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  203,  204,  205,  208.     M.  Paris,  p.  3  84, 
185,187. 


1215.  JOHN.  261 

reason  from  liis  own  experience  to  appreheniJ. 
The  primate  refused  to  obey  the  pope  in  publish- 
ing  the  sentence  of  excommunication  against  the 
barons ;  and  though  he  was  cited  to  Rome,  that 
he  mi  "lit  attend  a  oencral  council  there  assem- 
bled,  and  was  suspended  on  account  of  his  dis- 
obedience to  the  pope,  and  his  secret  correspond- 
ence with  the  king's  enemies";  though  a  new  and 
particular  sentence  of  excommunication  m  as  pro- 
nounced by  name  against  the  principal  barons^; 
John  still  found  that  his  nobility  and  people,  and 
even  his  clergy,  adhered  to  the  defence  of  their 
liberties,  and  to  their  combination  against  bim  : 
the  sword  of  his  foreign  mercenaries  was  all  he 
had  to  trust  to  for  restoring  his  authority. 

The  barons,  after  obtaining  the  Great  Charter, 
seem  to  have  been  lulled  into  a  fatal  security,  and 
to  have  taken  no  rational  measures,  in  case  of  the 
introduction  of  a  foreign  force,  for  re-assembling 
their  armies.  The  king  was,  from  the  first,  master 
of  the  field ;  and  immediately  laid  siege  to  the 
eastlc  of  Rochester,  which  was  obstinately  defended 
by  William  de  Aubenie,  at  the  head  of  a  hundred 
and  forty  knights  with  their  retainers,  but  was  at 
last  reduced  by  famine.  John,  irritated  with  the 
resistance,  intended  to  have  hanged  the  governor 
and  all  the  garrison ;  but,  on  the  representation 
of  William  de  Mauleon,   who  suggested  to  bim 


•  M.  Paris,  p.  I89. 
•Rvmer  vol.  i.  p.  211.     M.  Paris,  102. 


262  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND,  1215. 

the  danger  of  reprisals,  he  was  content  to  sacri- 
fice, in  this  barbarous  manner,  the  inferior  prisoners 
only^  The  captivity  of  WilhamdeAubenie,  the  best 
officer  among  the  confederated  barons,  was  an  irre- 
parable loss  to  their  cause  ;  and  no  regular  opposi- 
tion was  thenceforth  made  to  the  progress  of  the 
royal  arms.  The  ravenous  and  barbarous  mercen- 
aries, incited  by  a  cruel  and  enraged  prince,  were 
let  loose  against  the  estates,  tenants,  manors,  houses, 
parks  of  the  barons,  and  spread  devastation  over  the 
face  of  the  kingdom.  Nothing  was  to  be  seen  but 
the  flames  of  villages  and  castles  reduced  to  ashes, 
the  consternation  and  misery  of  the  inhabitants, 
tortures  exercised  by  the  soldiery  to  make  them 
reveal  their  concealed  treasures,  and  reprisals  no 
less  barbarous  committed  by  the  barons  and  their 
partisans  on  the  royal  demesnes,  and  on  the  estates 
of  such  as  still  adhered  to  the  crown.  The  king, 
marching  through  the  whole  extent  of  England, 
from  Dover  to  Berwic,  laid  the  provinces  waste 
on  each  side  of  him  ;  and  considered  every 
state,  which  was  not  his  immediate  property,  as 
entirely  hostile,  and  the  object  of  military  exe- 
cution. The  nobility  of  the  north,  in  particular, 
who  had  shewn  greatest  violence  in  the  recovery 
of  their  liberties,  and  who,  acting  in  a  separate 
body,  had  expressed  their  discontent  even  at  the 
concessions  made  by  the  Great  Charter,  as  they 
could  expect  no  mercy,  fled  before  him  with  their 

'M.  ?ariB,  p.  187. 


1215.  JOHN.  '20i» 

wives  and  families,  and  j)iirchascd  the  t'liundsliip 
of  Alexander,  the  young  king  of  Scots,  by  doing 
homage  to  him. 


PRINCK  LEWIS  CALLED  OVER. 

The  barons,  reduced  to  this  desperate  extremity, 
and  menaced  with  the  total  loss  of  their  liberties, 
tlieir  properties,  and  their  lives,  employed  a 
remedy  no  less  desperate  ;  and  making  applica- 
tions to  the  court  of  France,  they  offered  to  ac- 
knowledge Lewis,  the  eldest  son  of  Philip,  for 
their  sovereign,  on  condition  that  he  would  afford 
them  protection  from  the  violence  of  their  enraged 
prince.  Though  the  sense  of  the  common  rights 
of  mankind,  the  only  rights  that  are  entirely  inde- 
feasible, might  have  justified  them  in  the  depo- 
sition of  their  King,  they  declined  insisting  before 
Philip  on  a  pretension  which  is  commonly  so  dis- 
agreeable to  sovereigns,  and  which  sounds  harshly 
in  their  royal  ears.  They  affirmed  that  John  was 
incapable  of  succeeding  to  the  crov/n,  by  reason  of 
the  attainder  passed  upon  liim  during  his  brother's 
reign  ;  though  that  attainder  had  been  reversed, 
and  Richard  had  even,  by  his  last  will,  declared 
liim  his  successor.  They  pretended  that  he  Avas 
already  legally  deposed  by  sentence  of  the  peers 
of  France,  onaccount  of  the  murder  of  his  nephew; 
though  that  sentence  could  not  possibly  regard 
any  thing  but  his  transmarine  dominions,  which 
alone  he  held  in   vassalage  to  tliat  crown.      On 


2(J4  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1215. 

more  plausible  grounds  they  affirmed,  that  he 
had  already  deposed  himself  by  doing  homage  to 
the  pope,  changing  the  nature  of  his  sovereignty, 
and  resigning  an  independent  crown  for  a  fee 
under  a  foreign  power.  And  as  Blanche  of  Castile, 
the  wife  of  Lewis,  was  descended  by  her  mother 
from  Henry  II.  they  maintained,  though  many 
other  princes  stood  before  her  in  the  order  of 
succession,  that  they  had  not  shaken  off  the  royal 
family,  in  chusing  her  husband  for  their  sovereign. 
Philip  was  strongly  tempted  to  lay  hold  on 
the  rich  prize  which  was  offered  to  him.  The 
legate  menaced  him  with  interdicts  and  excom- 
munications if  he  invaded  the  patrimony  of  St. 
Peter,  or  attacked  a  prince  who  was  under  the 
immediate  protection  of  the  holy  see  ^ :  but  as 
Philip  was  assured  of  the  obedience  of  his  own 
vassals,  his  principles  were  changed  with  the 
times,  and  he  now  undervalued  as  much  all  papal 
censures,  as  he  formerly  pretended  to  pay  respect 
to  them.  His  chief  scruple  was  with  regard  to  the 
fidehty  which  he  might  expect  from  the  English 
barons  in  their  new  engagements,  and  the  danger 
of  entrusting  his  son  and  heir  into  the  hands  of 
men  who  might,  on  any  caprice  or  necessity,  make 
peace  with  their  native  sovereign,  by  sacrificing  a 
pledge  of  so  much  value.  He  therefore  exacted 
from  the  barons  twenty- five  hostages  of  the  most 
noble  birth  in  the  kingdom';  and  having  obtained 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  194.     M.  West.  p.  275. 
'  M.  Paris,  p.  ipS.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  74. 


12U.  JbllN.  265 

this  security,  lie  sent  over  first  a  small  army  to 
the  relief  of  the  confederates;  then  more  numer- 
ous forces,  which  arrived  with  Lewis  himself  at 
their  head. 

The  first  effect  of  tlie  young  prince's  appearance 
in  England  was  the  desertion  of  John's  foreign 
troops,  who,  being  mostly  levied  in  Flanders,  and 
other  provinces  of  France,  refused  to  serve  against 
the  heir  of  their  monarchy'^.  The  Gascons  and 
Poictevins  alone,  who  were  still  John's  subjects, 
adhered  to  his  cause ;  but  they  were  too  weak  to 
maintain  that  superiority  in  the  field  which  they 
had  hitherto  supported  against  the  confederated 
barons.  iVIany  considerable  noblemen  deserted 
John's  party,  the  earls  of  Salisbury,  Arundel, 
Warrenne,  Oxford,  Albemarle,  and  William  Mare- 
schal  the  younger :  his  castles  fell  daily  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy ;  Dover  was  the  only  place 
which,  from  the  valour  and  fidelity  of  Hubert  de 
Burgh  the  governor,  made  resistance  to  the  pro- 
gress of  Lewis  ^ :  and  the  barons  had  the  melan- 
choly prospect  of  finally  succeeding  in  their  pur- 
pose, and  of  escaping  the  tyranny  of  their  own 
king,  by  imposing  on  themselves  and  the  nation  a 
foreign  yoke.  But  this  union  was  of  short  duration 
between  the  French  and  English  nobles;  and  the 
imprudence  of  Lewis,  who  on  every  occasion 
showed  too  visible  a  preference  to  the  former, 
increased  that  jealousy  which  it  Mas   so  natural 

"M.  Paris,  p.  195. 
'  Ibid.  p.  198.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  7^,  76. 


266  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1215. 

for  the  latter  to  entertain  in  their  present  situa- 
tion ".  The  viscount  of  Melun  too,  it  is  said, 
one  of  his  courtiers,  fell  sick  at  London,  and  find- 
ing the  approaches  of  death,  he  sent  for  some  of 
his  friends  among  the  English  barons,  and,  warning 
them  of  their  danger,  revealed  Lewis's  secret  in- 
tentions of  exterminating  them  and  their  families 
as  traitors  to  their  prince,  and  of  bestowing  their 
estates  and  dignities  on  his  native  sul)jects,  in 
whose  fidelity  he  could  more  reasonably  place 
confidence":  this  story,  whether  true  or  false,  w^as 
universally  reported  and  believed  ;  and,  concur- 
ring with  other  circumstances  which  rendered  it 
credible,  did  great  prejudice  to  the  cause  of  Lewis. 
The  earl  of  Salisbury,  and  other  noblemen,  de- 
serted again  to  John's  party";  and  as  men  easily 
change  sides  in  a  civil  war,  especially  where 
their  power  is  founded  on  an  hereditary  and  in- 
dependent authority,  and  is  not  derived  from  the 
opinion  and  favour  of  the  people,  the  French 
prince  had  reason  to  dread  a  sudden  reverse  of 
fortune.  The  king  was  assembling  a  considerable 
army,  with  a  view  of  fighting  one  great  battle  for 
his  crown;  but  passing  from  Lynne  to  Lincoln- 
shire, his  road  lay  along  the  sea-shore,  which  was 
overflowed  at  high  water;  and  not  chusing  the 
proper  time  for  his  journey,  he  lost  in  the  inun- 
dation all  his  carriages,   treasure,    baggage,   and 

"  W.  Heming.  p.  55g. 

"M.  Paris,  p.  199.     M.  West.  p.  277. 

°  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  j>.  78, 


1215.  JOHN.  2U7 

regalia.  The  affliction  for  lliis  disaster,  and  vex- 
ation from  the  distracted  state  of  his  affairs,  in- 
creased the  sickness  under  which  he  then  laboured; 
and  though  he  reached  the  castle  of  Newark, 
he  M'as  obliged  to  halt  there,  and  his  distemper 
soon  after  j)ut  an  end  to  his  life,  17th  Oct.  in  the 
forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and  eighteenth  of  his 
reign ;  and  freed  the  nation  from  the  dangers  to 
which  it  was  equally  exposed  by  his  success  or  by 
his  misfortunes. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  KING. 

The  character  of  this  prince  is  nothing  but  a 
complication  of  vices,  equally  mean  and  odious  ; 
ruinous  to  himself,  and  destructive  to  his  people. 
Cowardice,  inactivity,  folly,  levity,  licentiousness, 
ingratitude,  treachery,  tyranny,  and  cruelty ;  all 
these  qualities  appear  too  evidently  in  the  several 
incidents  of  his  life,  to  give  us  room  to  suspect 
that  the  disagreeable  picture  has  been  anywise 
over-charged  by  the  prejudices  of  the  ancient 
historians.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  his  conduct 
to  his  father,  his  brother,  his  nephew,  or  his  sub- 
jects, was  most  culpable ;  or  whether  his  crimes, 
in  these  respects,  were  not  even  exceeded  by  the 
baseness  which  appeared  in  his  transactions  with 
the  king  of  France,  the  pope,  and  the  barons. 
His  European  dominions,  when  they  devolved  to 
him  by  the  death  of  his  brother,  were  more  ex- 


2(58  HISTORY    OF  ENGLAND.  1215. 

tensive  than  have  ever,  since  his  time,  been  ruled 
by  an  English  monarch :  but  he  first  lost,  by  his 
misconduct,  the  flourishing  provinces  in  France, 
the  ancient  patrimony  of  his  family:  he  subjected 
his  kingdom  to  a  shameful  vassalage  under  the  see 
of  Rome  :  he  saw  the  prerogatives  of  his  crown 
diminished  by  law,  and  still  more  reduced  by 
faction  :  and  he  died  at  last,  M'hen  in  danger  of 
being  totally  expelled  by  a  foreign  power,  and  of 
either  ending  his  life  miserably  in  prison,  or  seek- 
ing shelter  as  a  fugitive  from  the  pursuit  of  his 
enemies. 

The  prejudices  against  this  prince  were  so 
violent,  that  he  was  believed  to  have  sent  an  em- 
bassy to  the  Miramoulin  or  emperor  of  Morocco, 
and  to  have  offered  to  change  his  religion  and  be- 
come Mahometan,  in  order  to  purchase  the  pro- 
tection of  that  monarch.  But  though  this  story  is 
told  us,  on  plausible  authority,  by  Matthew  Paris p, 
it  is  in  itself  utterly  improbable ;  except  that  there 
is  nothing  so  incredible  but  may  be  believed  to 
proceed  from  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  John. 

The  monks  throw  great  reproaches  on  this 
prince  for  his  impiety  and  even  infidelity  ;  and  as 
an  instance  of  it,  they  tell  us,  that  having  one  day 
caught  a  very  fat  stag,  he  exclaimed,  How  plump 
and  well  fed  is  tins  animal !  and  yet  I  dare  swear  he 
never  heard  massX  This  sally  of  wit,  upon  the 
usual  corpulency  of  the  priests,  more  than  all  his 

"P.  169-  ^M.  Pai-is,  p.  170. 


121  J.  JOHN.  26() 

enormous  crimes  and  iniquities,  made  him  pass 
with  them  for  an  atheist. 

John  left  two  legitimate  sons  behind  him, 
Henry,  born  on  the  first  of"  October  1207,  and 
now  nine  years  of  age  ;  and  Richard,  born  on  the 
sixth  of  January  1209  :  and  three  daughters,  Jane, 
afterwards  married  to  Alexander  king  of  Scots; 
Eleanor,  married  first  to  William  Mareschal  the 
younger,  earl  of  Pembroke,  and  then  to  Simon 
]\Iountfort,  earl  of  Leicester;  and  Isabella,  married 
to  the  emperor  Frederic  II.  All  these  children 
were  born  to  him  by  Isabella  of  Angoulesme  his 
second  wife.  His  illegitimate  children  Avere 
numerous  ;  but  none  of  them  were  anywise  di- 
stinguished. 

It  was  this  king  who,  in  the  ninth  year  of  his 
leign,  first  gave  by  charter  to  the  city  of  London, 
the  right  of  electing  annually  a  mayor  out  of  its 
own  body,  an  office  which  was  till  now  held  for 
life.  He  gave  the  city  also  power  to  elect  and 
remove  its  sheriff^s  at  pleasure,  and  its  connnon- 
council-men  annually.  London-bridge  was  finish- 
ed in  this  reign :  the  former  bridge  was  of  wood. 
Maud  the  empress  was  the  first  that  built  a  stone 
bridge  in  England. 


APPENDIX    II. 


THE  FEUDAL  AND  ANGLO-NORMAN   GOVERN- 
MENT AND  MANNERS. 

Origin  of  the  Feudal  Law  ....  Its  Progress  ....  Feudal  Govern- 
ment of  England  ....  The  Feudal  Parliament The  Com- 
mons ....  Judicial  Power  ....  Revenue  of  tlie  Crown  . .  .  . 
Commerce The  Church  ....  Civil  Laws Manners. 

1  HE  feudal  law  is  the  cliief  foundation,  both  of 
the  poHtical  government  and  of  the  jurisprudence 
estabhshed  by  the  Normans  in  EngL^nd.  Our 
subject  tlierefore  requires  tliat  we  should  form  a 
just  idea  of  this  law,  in  order  to  ex])lain  the  state 
as  well  of  tliat  kingdom  as  of  all  other  kingdoms 
of  Europe,  which  during  those  ages  were  govern- 
ed by  similar  institutions.  And  though  I  am  sen- 
sible that  I  must  here  repeat  many  observations 
and  reflections  which  have  been  communicated 
by  others ' ;  yet,  as  every  book,  agreeably  to  the 
observation  of  a  great  historian*,  should  be  as 
complete  as  possible  within  itself,  and  should 
never  refer  for  any  thing  material  to  other  books, 
it  will  be  necessary  in  this  place  to  deliver  a  short 

'^  L'Esprit  de  Loix.     Dr.  Robertson's  History  of  Scotland. 
'  Padre  Paolo  Hist,  Cone.  Trid. 


272  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

plan  of  that  prodigious  fabric  which  for  several 
centuries  preserved  such  a  mixture  of  liberty  and 
oppression,  order  and  anarchy,  stability  and  re- 
volution, as  was  never  experienced  in  any  other 
age,  or  any  other  part  of  the  world. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  FEUDAL  LAW. 

After  the  northern  nations  had  subdued  the 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  they  were  ob- 
liged to  establish  a  system  of  government  which 
might  secure  their  conquests,  as  m'cU  against  the 
revolt  of  their  numerous  subjects  who  remained  in 
the  provinces,  as  from  the  inroads  of  other  tribes, 
who  might  be  tempted  to  ravish  from  them  their 
new  acquisitions.  The  great  change  of  circum- 
stances made  them  here  depart  from  those  institu- 
tions Mdiich  prevailed  among  them  while  they 
remained  in  the  forests  of  Germany ;  yet  was  it 
still  natural  for  them  to  retain,  in  their  present 
settlement,  as  much  of  their  antient  customs  as 
was  compatible  with  their  new  situation. 

The  German  governments,  being  more  a  con-v 
federacy  of  independent  warriors  than  a  civil  sub- 
jection, derived  their  principal  force  from  many 
inferior  and  voluntary  associations,  which  indivi- 
duals formed  under  a  particular  head  or  chieftain, 
and  which  it  became  the  highest  point  of  honour 
to  maintain  with  inviolable  fidelity.  The  glory 
of  the  chief  consisted  in  the  number,  the  bravery, 


APPENDIX    II.  273 

and  the  zealous  attachment  of  his  retainers  :  tlic 
duty  of  the  retainers  retjuired  that  they  shoukl 
accompany  their  chief  in  all  wars  and  dangers, 
that  they  should  light  and  perish  hy  his  side,  and 
that  they  should  esteem  his  renown  or  his  favour 
a  sufficient  recompence  for  all  their  services*. 
The  prince  himself  was  nothing  hut  a  great  chief- 
tain, who  was  chosen  from  among  the  rest  on 
account  of  his  superior  valour  or  nohility ;  and 
who  derived  his  power  from  the  voluntary  asso- 
ciation or  attachment  of  the  other  chieftains. 

When  a  tribe,  governed  by  these  ideas,  and 
actuated  by  these  principles,  subdued  a  large  ter- 
ritory, they  found  that  though  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  themselves  in  a  military  posture,  they  could 
neither  remain  united  in  a  body,  nor  take  up 
their  quarters  in  several  garrisons,  and  that  their 
manners  and  institutions  debarred  them  from 
using  these  expedients  ;  the  obvious  ones,  which 
in  a  like  situation  would  have  been  employed  by  a 
more  civilized  nation.  Their  ignorance  in  the 
art  of  finances,  and  perhaps  the  devastations  in- 
separable from  such  violent  conquests,  rendered 
it  impracticable  for  them  to  levy  taxes  sufficient 
for  the  pay  of  numerous  armies  ;  and  their  repug- 
nance to  subordination,  with  their  attachment  to 
rural  pleasures,  made  the  life  of  the  camp  or  gar- 
rison, if  perpetuated  during  peaceful  times,  ex- 
tremely odious  and  disgustful  to   them.     They 

»  Tacit,  de  Mor.  Germ. 
VOL,   II.  T 


274  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

seized,  therefore,  such  a  portion  of  the  conquered 
lands  as  appeared  necessary ;  they  assigned  a  share 
for  supporting  the  dignity  of  their  prince  and  go- 
vernment; they  distributed  other  parts,  under 
the  title  of  fiefs,  to  the  chiefs ;  these  made  a  new 
partition  among  their  retainers  ;  the  express  con- 
dition of  all  these  grants  was,  that  they  might  be 
resumed  at  pleasure,  and  that  the  possessor,  so 
long  as  he  enjoyed  them,  should  still  remain  in 
readiness  to  take  the  field  for  the  defence  of  the 
nation.  And  though  the  conquerors  immediately 
separated,  in  order  to  enjoy  their  new  acquisi- 
tions, their  martial  disposition  made  them  readily 
fulfil  the  terms  of  their  engagement :  they  assem- 
bled on  the  first  alarm  ;  their  habitual  attachment 
to  the  chieftain  made  them  willingly  submit  to 
his  command  ;  and  thus  a  regular  military  force, 
though  concealed,  was  always  ready  to  defend, 
on  any  emergence,  the  interest  and  honour  of  the 
community. 

We  are  not  to  imagine  that  all  the  conquered 
lands  were  seized  by  the  northern  conquerors ;  or 
that  the  whole  of  the  land  thus  seized  was  sub- 
jected to  those  military  services.  This  supposi- 
tion is  confuted  by  the  history  of  all  the  nations 
on  the  continent.  Even  the  idea  given  us  of  the 
German  manners  by  the  Roman  historian,  may 
convince  us  that  that  bold  people  would  never  have 
been  content  with  so  precarious  a  subsistence,  ar 
have  fought  to  procure  establishments  which  were 
only  to  continue  during  the  good  pleasure  of  theii* 


APPENDIX    II.  275 

sovereign.  Though  the  northern  ehieftauis  ac- 
cepted of  lands  whicl],  heing  considered  us  a  kind 
ot*  military  ])ay,  might  he  resumed  at  the  will  of 
the  king  or  general ;  they  also  took  possession  of 
estates  wliich,  behig  hereditary  and  independent, 
enabled  them  to  maintain  their  native  liberty,  and 
support,  without  court-favour,  the  honour  of 
their  rank  and  family. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FEUDAL  LAW. 

But  there  is  a  great  difference,  in  the  conse- 
quences, between  the  distribution  of  a  pecuniary 
subsistence,  and  the  assignment  of  lands  burthen- 
ed  with  the  condition  of  military  service.  The 
delivery  of  the  former  at  the  weekly,  monthly,  or 
annual  terms  of  payment,  still  recalls  the  idea  of 
a  voluntary  gratuity  from  the  prince,  and  reminds 
the  soldier  of  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  he 
holds  his  commission.  But  the  attachment,  na- 
turally formed  with  a  fixed  portion  of  land,  gra- 
dually begets  the  idea  of  something  like  property, 
and  makes  the  possessor  forget  his  dependent 
situation,  and  the  condition  which  was  at  first  an- 
nexed to  the  grant.  It  seemed  equitable,  that 
one  who  had  cultivated  and  sowed  a  field  should 
reap  the  harvest :  hence  fiefs,  which  were  at  first 
entirely  precarious,  were  soon  made  annual.  A 
man  who  had  employed  his  money  in  building, 
planting,    or  other  improvements,    expected  to 


2/6  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND. 

reap  the  fruits  of  his  labour  or  expence :  hence 
they  were  next  granted  during  a  term  of  years. 
It  would  be  thought  hard  to  expel  a  man  from  his 
possessions  who  had  always  done  his  duty,  and 
performed  the  conditions  on  which  he  originally 
received  them  :  hence  the  chieftains,   in  a  subse- 
quent period,   thought  themselves  entitled  to  de- 
mand the  enjoyment  of  their  feudal  lands  during 
life.     It  was  found,  that  a  man  would  more  will- 
ingly expose  himself  in  battle,  if  assured  that  his 
family  should  inherit  his  possessions,  and  should 
not  be  left  by  his  death  in  want  and  poverty  : 
hence  fiefs  were  made  hereditary  in  famiUes,  and 
descended,   during  one  age,  to  the  son,  then  to 
the  grandson,    next  to  the  brothers,  and  after- 
wards to  more  distant  relations  ^      The  idea  of 
property  stole  in  gradually  upon  that  of  military 
pay ;  and  each  century  made  some  sensible  ad- 
dition to  the  stability  of  fiefs  and  tenures. 

In  all  these  successive  acquisitions,  the  chief 
was  supported  by  his  vassals ;  who,  having  ori- 
ginally a  strong  connection  with  him,  augmented 
by  the  constant  intercourse  of  good  offices,  and 
by  the  friendship  arising  from  vicinity  and  depend- 
ence, were  inclined  to  follow  their  leader  against 
all  his  enemies,  and  voluntarily,  in  his  private 
quarrels,  paid  him  the  same  obedience  to  which, 
by  their  tenure,  they  were  bound  in  foreign  wars. 
While  he  daily  advanced  new  pretensions  to  se- 

"  Lib.  Feud.  lib.  1.  tit.  1. 


APPENDIX    II.  277 

cure  tlic  possession  of  liis  superior  licf,  they  ex- 
pected to  find  tlie  same  advantage,  in  acquiring 
stability  to  their  subordinate  ones  ;  and  they  zeal- 
ously opposed  the  intrusion  of  a  new  lord,  mIio 
would  be  inclined,  as  lie  Mas  fully  intitlcd,  to  be- 
stow the  possession  of  their  lands  on  his  own  fa- 
vourites and  retainers.  Thus  the  authority  of  the 
sovereign  gradually  decayed ;  and  each  noble, 
fortified  in  his  own  territory  by  the  attachment  of 
his  vassals,  became  too  powerful  to  be  expelled 
by  an  order  from  the  throne ;  and  he  secured  by 
law  wliat  he  had  at  first  accpiired  by  usurpation. 

During  this  precarious  state  of  the  supreme 
power,  a  difference  Mould  innnediately  be  expe- 
rienced between  those  portions  of  territory  which 
Mere  subjected  to  tlie  feudal  tenures,  and  those 
M'liich  Mere  possessed  by  an  allodial  or  free  title. 
Though  the  latter  possessions  had  at  first  been 
esteemed  mucli  preferable,  they  M'ere  soon  found, 
by  the  progressive  changes  introduced  into  public 
and  private  law,  to  be  of  an  inferior  condition  to 
the  former.  The  possessors  of  a  feudal  territory, 
united  by  a  regular  subordination  under  one  chief, 
and  by  the  mutual  attachments  of  the  vassals,  had 
the  same  ad\antages  over  the  jjroprietors  of  tlie 
other,  that  a  disciplined  army  enjoys  over  a  dis- 
persed nmltitude  ;  and  were  enabled  to  commit 
M'ith  impunity  all  injuries  on  their  defenceless 
neighl)ours.  Every  one,  therefore,  hastened  to 
seek  that  protection  M'hich  he  found  so  necessary ; 
and  each  allodial  ))roprietor,   resigning  his  posses- 


278  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

sions  Into  the  hands  of  the  king,  or  of  some  no- 
bleman respected  for  power  or  valour,  received 
them  back  with  the  condition  of  feudal  services^, 
which,  though  a  burden  somewhat  grievous, 
brought  him  ample  compensation,  by  connecting 
him  with  the  neighbouring  proprietors,  and  plac- 
ing him  under  the  guardianship  of  a  potent  chief- 
tain. The  decay  of  the  political  government 
thus  necessarily  occasioned  the  extension  of  the 
feudal :  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  were  universally 
divided  into  baronies,  and  these  into  inferior  fiefs  : 
and  the  attachment  of  vassals  to  their  cKief,  which 
was  at  first  an  essential  part  of  the  German  man- 
ners, was  still  supported  by  the  same  causes  from 
which  it  at  first  arose ;  the  necessity  of  mutual 
protection,  and  the  continued  intercourse,  be- 
tween the  head  and  the  members,  of  benefits  and 
services. 

But  there  was  another  circumstance  which 
corroborated  these  feudal  dependencies,  and  tend- 
ed to  connect  the  vassals  with  their  superior  lord 
by  an  indissoluble  bond  of  union.  The  northern 
conquerors,  as  well  as  the  more  early  Greeks  and 
Romans,  embraced  a  policy,  which  is  unavoid- 
able to  all  nations  that  have  made  slender  ad- 
vances in  refinement :  they  every  where  united 
the  civil  jurisdiction  with  the  military  power. 
Law,  in  its  commencement,  was  not  an  intricate 
science,  and  was  more  governed  by  maxims  of 
equity,  which  seem  obvious  to  common  sense, 

"  Marculf.  Form.  47-  apud  Lindenbr.  p.  1238. 


APPENDIX    II.  27^ 

than  by  numerous  and  subtile  j)rinciplcs,  applied 
to  a  variety  of  cases  by  profound  reasonings  from 
analogy.  An  olficer,  tliough  he  had  passed  liis 
life  in  the  field,  was  able  to  determine  all  legal 
controversies  which  could  occur  within  the  dis- 
trict committed  to  his  charge  ;  and  his  decisions 
were  the  most  likely  to  meet  with  a  prompt  and 
ready  obedience,  from  men  who  respected  his 
person,  and  Avcre  accustomed  to  act  under  his 
command.  The  profit  arising  from  punishments, 
which  were  then  chiefly  pecuniary,  was  another 
reason  for  his  desiring  to  retain  the  judicial  power; 
and  when  his  fief  became  hereditary,  this  au- 
thority, which  was  essential  to  it,  was  also  trans- 
mitted to  his  posterity.  The  counts  and  other  ma- 
gistrates, Mhose  power  was  merely  official,  were 
tempted  in  imitation  of  the  feudal  lords,  whom 
they  resembled  in  so  many  particulars,  to  render 
their  dignity  perpetual  and  hereditary ;  and  in  the 
dechne  of  the  regal  power,  they  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  making  good  their  pretensions.  After 
this  manner  the  vast  fal)ric  of  feudal  subordina- 
tion became  quite  solid  and  comprehensive;  it 
foiTued  every  where  an  essential  part  of  the  poli- 
tical constitution  ;  and  the  Norman  and  other 
barons,  who  followed  the  fortunes  of  William, 
were  so  accustomed  to  it  that  they  could  scarcely 
form  an  idea  of  any  other  species  of  civil  go\ern- 
ment\ 

'  The  ideas  of  the  feudal  government  were  so  rooted,  that  even 
lawyers^  in  those  ages,  could  not  form  a  notion  of  any  other  con  • 


28Q  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

The  Saxons  who  conquered  England,  as  they 
exterminated  the  ancient  inhabitants,  and  thouoht 
themselves  secured  by  the  sea  against  new  invad- 
ers, found  it  less  requisite  to  maintain  themselves 
in  a  military  posture  :  the  quantity  of  land  Avhich 
they  annexed  to  offices  seems  to  have  been  of  smal! 
value ;  and  for  that  reason  continued  the  longer 
in  its  original  situation,  and  was  always  possessed 
during  pleasure  by  those  who  were  intrusted  with 
the  command.  These  comHtions  were  too  preca- 
rious to  satisfy  the  Norman  barons,  who  enjoyed 
more  independent  possessions  and  jurisdictions  in 
their  own  country ;  and  William  was  obliged,  in 
the  new  distribution  of  land,  to  copy  the  tenures, 
which  were  now  becoire  universal  on  the  conti- 
nent. England  of  a  sudden  became  a  feudal 
kingdom y;  and  received  all  the  advantages,  and 
was  exposed  to  all  the  inconveniencies,  incident 
to  that  species  of  civil  polity. 


THE  FEUDAL  GOVERNMENT  OF  ENGl-AND. 

According  to  the  principles  of  the  feudal  law, 
the  king  was  the  supreme  lord  of  the  landed  pro- 
perty :  all  possessors  who  enjoyed  the  fruits  or 
revenue  of  any  part  of  it,  held  those  privileges, 
either  mediately  or  immediately,    of  him ;    and 

stitution.  Regnum  (says  Bracton^  lib.  2,  cap.  34);,  quod  ex  comi- 
tatihtts-et  baronibus  dicitur  esse  constitutum. 

.  y  Coke  Comm.  on  Lit.  p.  I,  2.  ad  sect.  l. 


APPENDIX    II.  281 

their  property  was  coneeived  to  be,  in  some  de- 
gree, conditionaP.  The  land  was  still  appre- 
hended to  be  a  species  of  benefice  which  was  the 
original  conception  of  a  feudal  proj)erty ;  and  the 
vassal  OM'ed,  in  return  for  it,  stated  services  to 
his  baron,  as  the  baron  himself  did  for  his  land 
to  the  crown.  The  vassal  was  oblioed  to  defend 
his  baron  in  war ;  and  the  baron,  at  the  head  of 
his  vassals,  was  bound  to  fight  in  defence  of  the 
king  and  kingdom.  But  besides  these  military 
services,  which  were  casual,  there  were  others  im» 
posed  of  a  civil  nature,  which  were  more  constant 
and  durable. 

The  northern  nations  had  no  idea,  that  any 
man,  trained  up  to  honour,  and  inured  to  arms, 
was  ever  to  be  gov^erned,  without  his  own  consent, 
by  the  absolute  will  of  another ;  or  that  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  was  ever  to  be  exercised  by 
the  private  opinion  of  any  one  magistrate,  without 
the  concurrence  of  some  other  persons,  whose 
interest  might  induce  them  to  check  his  arbitrary 
and  iniquitous  decisions.  The  king,  therefore, 
when  he  found  it  necessary  to  demand  any  service 
of  his  barons  or  chief  tenants,  beyond  what  was 
due  by  their  tenures,  was  obliged  to  assemble 
them,  in  order  to  obtain  their  consent :  and  when 
it  was  necessary  to  determine  any  controversy 
which  might  arise  among  the  barons  themselves, 
the  question  must  be  discussed  in  their  presence, 

"  Somuer  of  Gavclk,  p.  109.     Smith  de  Rep.  lib.  3.  cap.  10. 


2S2  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND, 

and  be  decided  according  to  their  opinion  or 
advice.  In  these  two  circumstances  of  consent 
and  advice,  consisted  chiefly  the  civil  services  of 
the  ancient  barons  ;  and  these  impHed  all  the  con- 
siderable incidents  of  government.  In  one  view 
the  barons  regarded  this  attendance  as  their  ^nn- 
cip-d\  privilege ;  in  another,  as  a  grievous  burden. 
That  no  momentous  affairs  could  be  transacted 
without  their  consent  and  advice,  was  in  general 
esteemed  the  great  security. of  their  possessions 
and  dignities  :  but  as  they  reaped  no  immediate 
profit  from  their  attendance  at  court,  and  were 
exposed  to  great  inconvenience  and  charge  by  an 
absence  from  their  OA\'n  estates,  every  one  was 
glad  to. exempt  himself  from  g'ac\\ particular  exer- 
tion of  this  ])()\\er;  and  was  pleased  both  that  the 
call  for  that  duty  should  seldom  return  upon  him, 
and  that  others  should  undergo  the  burden  in  his 
stead.  The  king,  on  the  other  hand,  was  usually 
anxious,  for  several  reasons,  that  the  assembly  of 
the  barons  should  be  full  at  every  stated  or  casual 
meeting :  this  attendance  was  the  chief  badge  of 
their  subordination  to  his  crown,  and  drew  them 
from  that  independence  which  they  were  apt  to 
affect  in  their  own  castles  and  manors  ;  and  where 
the  meeting  Avas  thin  or  ill  attended,  its  determin- 
ations had  less  authority,  and  commanded  not 
so  ready  an  obedience  from  the  whole  community. 
The  case  was  the  same  with  the  barons  in  their 
courts,  as  with  the  king  in  the  supreme  council  of 
the  nation.     It  was  requisite  tq  assemble  the  vas- 


APPENDIX    II.  283 

sals,  in  order  to  detcniiine  by  their  vote  any  <jiies- 
tion  t\'hich  regarded  tlie  barony  ;  and  the>  .sat 
alono- with  the  chief  in  all  trials,  whether  eivilor 
criminal,  Mhich  occurred  within  the  limits  of  their 
jurisdiction.  They  Mere  bound  to  pay  suit  and 
service  at  the  court  of  their  baron  ;  and  as  their 
tenure  was  military,  and  conse(iuently  honour- 
able, they  were  admitted  into  his  society,  and 
partook  of  his  friendship.  Thus,  a  kingdom  was 
considered  only  as  a  great  barony,  and  a  barony 
as  a  small  kingdom.  The  barons  were  peers  to 
each  other  in  the  national  council,  and,  in  some 
degree,  companions  to  tlie  king  :  the  vassals  were 
peers  to  each  other  in  the  court  of  barony,  and 
companions  to  their  baron  ^ 

But  though  this  resemblance  so  far  took  place, 
the  vassals,  by  the  natural  course  of  tbings,  uni- 
versall}',  in  the  feudal  constitutions,  fell  into  a 
greater  subordination  under  the  baron,  than  the 
baron  himself  under  his  sovereign  ;  and  these  go- 
vernments had  a  necessary  and  infallible  tendency 
to  augment  the  power  of  the  nobles.  The  great 
chief,  residing  in  his  country-seat,  which  he  Avas 
commonly  allowed  to  fortify,  lost,  in  a  great 
measure,  his  connection  or  acquaintance  with  the 
prince ;  and  added  every  day  new  force  to  his 
authority  over  the  vassals  of  the  barony.  They 
received  from  him  education  in  all  military  exer- 
cises :    his  hospitahty  invited   them    to   live   and 

'  Du  Cang.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Par.     Cujac.  Commun.  in  Lib. 
Feud.  lib.  i.  tit.  p.  18.     Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verb. 


2S4  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

enjoy  society  in  his  hall :  their  leisure,  which 
was  great,  made  them  perpetual  retainers  on  his 
person,  and  partakers  of  his  country  sports  and 
amusements :  they  had  no  means  of  gratifying 
their  an^lntion  but  by  making  a  figure  in  his 
train :  his  favour  and  countenance  was  their 
greatest  honour :  his  displeasure  exposed  them 
to  contempt  and  ignominy :  and  they  felt  every 
moment  the  necessity  of  his  protection,  both  in 
the  controversies  which  occurred  with  other  vas- 
sals, and,  v/hat  was  more  material,  in  the  daily 
inroads  and  injuries  wliich  were  conmiitted  by  the 
neighbouring  barons.  During  the  time  of  general 
war,  the  sovereign,  m  ho  marched  at  the  head  of 
liis  armies,  and  was  the  great  protector  of  the 
state,  always  acquired  some  accession  to  his  au- 
thority, which  he  lost  during  the  intervals  of 
peace  and  tranquillity  :  but  the  loose  police,  inci- 
dent to  the  feudal  constitutions,  maintained  a 
perpetual,  though  secret  hostility,  between  the 
several  members  of  the  state ;  and  the  vassals 
found  no  means  of  securing  themselves  against 
the  injuries  to  which  they  were  continually  ex- 
posed, but  by  closely  adhering  to  their  chief,  and 
falling  into  a  submissive  dependence  upon  him. 

If  the  feudal  government  was  so  little  favour- 
able to  the  true  liberty  even  of  the  military  vassal, 
it  was  still  more  destructive  of  the  independence 
and  security  of  the  other  members  of  the  state,  or 
what,  in  a  proper  sense,  we  call  the  people.  A 
great  part  of  them  were  serfs,  and  lived  in  a  sta^e 


APPENDIX    II.  288 

of  absolute  slavery  or  villainaG^e  :  tlic  other  inha- 
bitants  of  the  country  paid  their  rent  in  services, 
wliich  were  in  a  oreat  measure  arbitrary ;  and 
they  could  expect  no  redress  of  injuries,  in  a  court 
of  barony,  from  men  M^ho  thought  tiiey  had  a 
right  to  oppress  and  tyrannise  over  them  :  the 
towns  were  situated  either  w  ithin  the  demesnes  of 
the  king  or  the  lands  of  the  great  barons,  and 
Mere  almost  entirely  subjected  to  the  absolute  will 
of  their  master.  The  languishing  state  of  com- 
merce kept  the  inhabitants  poor  and  contemptible; 
and  the  political  institutions  were  calculated  to 
render  that  poverty  perpetual.  The  barons  and 
gentry,  living  in  rustic  plenty  and  hosi)itality, 
gave  no  encouragement  to  the  arts,  and  had  no 
demand  for  any  of  the  more  elaborate  manufac- 
tures :  every  profession  was  held  in  contempt  but 
that  of  arms  :  and  if  any  merchant  or  manufacturer 
rose  by  industry  and  frugality  to  a  degree  of  opu- 
lence, he  found  himself  but  the  more  exposed  to 
injuries,  from  the  envy  and  avidity  of  the  military 
nobles. 

These  concurring  causes  gave  the  feudal  go- 
vernments so  strong  a  bias  to\vards  aristocracy, 
that  the  royal  authority  was  extremely  eclipsed 
in  all  the  European  states  ;  and,  instead  of  dread- 
ing the  growth  of  monarchical  power,  we  might 
rather  expect  that  the  conmumity  would  every 
where  crumble  into  so  many  independent  baronies, 
and  lose  the  political  union  by  which  they  were 
cemented.     In  elective  monarchies,  the  event  was 


286  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

commonly  answerable  to  this  expectation ;  and  the 
barons,  gaining  ground  on  every  vacancy  of  the 
throne,  raised  themselves  almost  to  a  state  of  so- 
vereignty, and  sacrificed  to  their  power  both  the 
rights  of  the  crown  and  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
But  hereditary  monarchies  had  a  principle  of  au- 
thority which  was  not  so  easily  subverted  ;  and 
there  were  several  causes  which  still  maintained  a 
degree  of  influence  in  the  hands  of  the  sovereign. 
The  Greatest  baron  could  never  lose  view  en- 
tirely  of  those  principles  of  the  feudal  constitu- 
tion which  bound  him,  as  a  vassal,  to  submission 
and  fealty  towards  his  prince  ;  because  he  was? 
every  moment  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  those 
principles,  in  exacting  fealty  and  submission  from 
his  own  vassals.  The  lesser  barons,  finding  that 
the  annihilation  of  royal  authority  left  them  ex- 
posed, without  protection,  to  the  insults  and  in- 
juries of  more  potent  neighbours,  naturally  ad- 
hered to  the  crown,  and  promoted  the  execution 
of  general  and  equal  laws.  The  people  had  still  a 
stronger  interest  to  desire  the  grandeur  of  the 
sovereign  ;  and  the  king,  being  the  legal  magis- 
trate, who  suffered  by  every  internal  convulsion 
or  oppression,  and  who  regarded  the  great  nobles 
as  his  immediate  rivals,  assumed  the  salutary  of- 
fice of  general  guardian  or  protector  of  the  com- 
mons. Besides  the  prerogatives  with  which  the 
law  invested  him,  his  large  demesnes  and  numer- 
ous retainers  rendered  him,  in  one  sense,  the 
greatest  baron  in  his  kingdom ;  and  where  he  was 


APPENDIX    II.  28/ 

possessed  of  personal  vigour  and  abilities  (for  his 
situation  required  tliese  advantages),  lie  was  com- 
monly al)lc  to  preserve  his  authority,  and  main- 
tain his  station  as  head  of  the  community,  and 
the  chief  fountain  of  law  and  justice. 

The  first  kings  of  the  Norman  race  were  fa- 
voured by  another  circumstance  which  preserved 
them  from  the  encroachments  of  their  barons. 
They  were  generals  of  a  conquering  ami}',  which 
was  obliged  to  continue  in  a  military  posture,  and 
to  maintain  great  subordination  under  their  lead- 
er, in  order  to  secure  themselves  from  the  revolt 
of  the  numerous  natives,  whom  they  had  bereaved 
of  all  their  properties  and  privileges.  But  though 
this  circumstance  supported  the  authority  of  Wil- 
liam and  his  immediate  successors,  and  rendered 
them  extremely  absolute,  it  was  lost  as  soon  as 
the  Norman  barons  began  to  incorporate  with  the 
nation,  to  acquire  a  security  in  tlicir  possessions, 
and  to  fix  their  influence  over  their  vassals,  ten- 
ants, and  slaves.  i\nd  the  immense  fortunes 
which  the  Conqueror  had  bestowed  on  his  chief 
captains,  served  to  support  their  independence, 
and  make  them  formidable  to  the  sovereign. 

lie  gave,  for  instance,  to  Hugh  de  Abrincis, 
his  sister's  son,  tlie  whole  county  of  Chester, 
which  he  erected  into  a  palatinate,  and  rendered 
by  his  grant  almost  independent  of  the  crown  ^ 
Kobert  earl  of  JMortaigue  had  Q73  manors  and 

*Camd.  in  Cheih.     Spel.  Glosi,  in  verb.  Cotnes  Palatinus, 


288  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND. 

lordships  :  Allan  earl  of  Britanny  and  Richmond 
442  :  Odo  bishop  of  Baieux  439  *" '-  Geoffrey  bi- 
shop of  Coutance  280 "*:  Walter  Giffard  earl  of 
Buckingham  107:  William  earl  Warrenne  298, 
besides  28  towns  or  hamlets  in  Yorkshire:  Tode- 
nei  81  :  Roger  Bigod  123  :  Robert  earl  of  Eu  1 19: 
Roger  Mortimer  1 32,  besides  several  hamlets : 
Robert  de  Stafford  1 30 :  Walter  de  Eurus  earl  of 
Salisbury  46:  Geoffrey  de  Mandeville  118:  Ri- 
chard de  Clare  171:  Hugh  de  Beauchamp47: 
Baldwin  de  Ridvers  164:  Henry  de  Ferrars  222: 
Wilham  de  Percy  119':  Norman  d'Arcy  33^. 
Sir  Henry  Spelman  computes,  that  in  the  large 
county  of  Norfolk,  there  were  not,  in  the  Con- 
queror's time,  above  sixty-six  proprietors  of  lands. 
Men,  possessed  of  such  princely  revenues  and  ju- 
risdictions, could  not  long  be  retained  in  the 
rank  of  subjects.  The  great  earl  of  Warrenne.  in 
a  subsequent  reign,  when  he  was  questioned  con- 
cerning his  right  to  the  lands  which  he  possessed, 
drew  his  sword,  which  he  produced  as  his  title ; 
adding  that  William  the  Bastard  did  not  conquer 
the  kingdom  himself;  but  that  the  barons,   and 

•^Brady's  Hist.  p.  I98,  200.  ''  Order.  Vital. 

^  Dugdale's  Baronage,  from  Domesday  Book,  vol.  i.  p.  60,  74. 
iii.  112,  132,  136,  138,  156,  174,  200,  207,  223,  254,257,  269. 
^  Ibid.  369.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  family  of  d'Arcy  seems 
to  be  the  only  male  descendants  of  any  of  the  conqxieror's  barons 
now  remaining  among  the  peers.  Lord  Holdernesse  is  the  heir 
of  that  family. 

e  Spel.  Gloss,  in  verb,  Domesday. 


APPENDIX    II.  289. 

his  ancestor  ainon<>;  the  rest,   were  joint  atlveu- 
turersin  tlie  ciiterpusc ''. 


TIIR  FKUDAL  PARLIAMENT. 

The  supreme   Icg-islativc  power  of  England  was 
lodged  in  the  king  and  great  council,  or  what  was 
afterwards  called  the  parliament.   It  is  not  douhted 
but  the  archbishops,   bishops,  and  most  consider- 
able  abbots,    were  constituent  members  of  this 
council.     They  sat  by  a   double  title :  by  pre- 
scription, as  having  always  possessed  that  privi- 
lege, through  the  whole  Saxon  period,  from  the 
first  estabhshment  of  Christianity  ;  and  by  their 
right  of  baronage,   as  holding  of  the  king  in  ca~ 
pitc  by  military  service.     These  two  titles  of  the 
prelates    were    never    accurately    distinguished. 
When  the  usurpations  of  the  church  had  risen  to 
such  a  height,  as  to  make  the  bishops  affect  a 
separate  dominion,   and  regard  their  seat  in  par- 
liament as  a  degradation   of  their  episcopal  dig- 
nity; the   king  insisted  that  they  were  barons, 
and,    on  that  account,    obliged   by   the   general 
principles  of  tlie  feudal  law,   to  attend  on  him  in 
his  great  councils '.    Yet  there  still  remained  some 
practices,  which  supposed  their  title  to  be  derived 
merely  from  ancient  possession :  when  a  bishop 
was  elected,  he  sat  in  parliament  before  the  king 

*  Dug.  Bar.  vol.  i.  p.  79.     Ibid,  Origines  Jtirldicales,  p.  13. 

'  Spel.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Baru. 
VOL.  11.  U 


290  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

had  made  him  restitution  of  his  temporalties ;  and 
during  the  vacancy  of  a  see,  the  guardian  of  the 
spirituahies  was  summoned  to  attend  along  with 
the  bishops. 

The  barons  were  anotlier  constituent  part  of 
the  great  council  of  the  nation.  These  held  im- 
mediately of  the  crown  by  a  military  tenure  :  they 
were  the  most  honourable  members  of  the  state, 
and  had  a  right  to  be  consulted  in  all  public  deli- 
berations :  they  were  the  immediate  vassals  of  the 
crown,  and  owed  as  a  service  their  attendance  in 
the  court  of  their  supreme  lord.  A  resolution 
taken  without  their  consent  was  likely  to  be  but 
ill  executed :  and  no  determination  of  any  cause 
or  controversy  among  them  had  any  vahdity, 
where  the  vote  and  advice  of  the  body  did  not 
concur.  The  dignity  of  earl  or  count  was  official 
and  territorial,  as  well  as  hereditary ;  and  as  all 
the  earls  were  also  barons,  they  were  considered 
as  military  vassals  of  the  crown,  were  admitted  in 
that  capacity  into  the  general  council,  and  formed 
the  most  honourable  and  powerful  branch  of  it. 

But  there  was  another  class  of  the  immediate 
military  tenants  of  the  crown,  no  less,  or  pro- 
bably more  numerous  than  the  barons,  the  tenants 
in  capite  by  knights  service ;  and  these,  however 
inferior  in  power  or  property,  held  by  a  tenure 
which  was  equally  honourable  with  that  of  the 
others.  A  barony  was  commonly  composed  of 
several  knights  fees  :  and  though  the  number 
seems  not  to  have  been  exactly  defined,  seldona 


APPENDIX    ir.  291 

consisted  of  less  than  fifty  liydes  of  land  ^ :  but 
where  a  man  held  of  tiic  king-  only  one  or  two 
knights  fees,  he  was  still  an  immediate  vassal  of 
the  C40wn,  and  as  such  had  a  title  to  have  a  seat 
in  the  general  councils.  But  as  this  attendance 
was  usually  esteemed  a  burthen,  and  one  too  great 
for  a  man  of  slender  fortune  to  bear  constantly ; 
it  is  probable  that,  though  he  had  a  title,  if  he 
pleased  to  be  admitted,  he  was  not  obliged,  by 
any  penalty,  like  tne  barons,  to  pay  a  regular  at- 
tendance. All  the  immediate  military  tenants 
of  the  crown  amounted  not  fully  to  700,  when 
Domesday-book  a\  as  framed ;  and  as  the  members 
were  well  pleased,  on  any  pretext,  to  excuse 
themselves  from  attendance,  the  assembly  was 
never  likely  to  become  too  numerous  for  the  dis- 
])atch  of  public  business. 


THE  COMMONS. 

So  far  the  nature  of  a  general  council,  or  an- 
cient parliament,  is  deteiTnined  Avithout  any  doubt 
or  controversy.  The  only  question  seems  to  be 
with  regard   to  the  commons,  or  the  rcpresent- 

"^  Four  hydes  made  one  knight's  fee  :  the  relief  of  a  barony  was 
twelve  times  greater  than  tliat  of  a  knight's  fee}  whence  we  may 
conjecture  its  usual  value,  Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Feodum.  There 
were  243,600  hydes  in  England,  and  (30,215  knights  fees  j 
whence  it  is  evident  that  there  were  a  littje  more  than  four  hyd«3 
in  each  knight's  fee. 
2 


292  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

atives  of  counties  and  boroughs ;  wlietlier  tliey 
were  also,  in  more  early  times,  constituent  parts 
of  parliament  ?  This  question  was  once  disputed  in 
England  with  great  acrimony :  but  such  is  the 
force  of  time  and  evidence,  that  they  can  some- 
times prevail  even  over  faction  ;  and  the  question 
seems,  by  general  consent  and  even  by  their  own, 
to  be  at  last  determined  against  the  ruling  party. 
It  is  agreed,  that  the  commons  were  no  part  of 
the  great  council,  till  some  ages  after  the  Con- 
quest ;  and  that  the  military  tenants  alone  of  the 
crown  composed  that  supreme  and  legislative 
assembly. 

The  vassals  of  a  baron  were  by  their  tenure  im- 
mediately dependant  on  him,  owed  attendance  at 
his  court,  and  paid  all  their  duty  to  the  king, 
through  that  depcndance  which  their  lord  was 
obliged  by  his  tenure  to  acknowledge  to  his  so- 
vereign and  superior.  Their  land,  comprehended 
in  the  barony,  was  represented  in  parliament  by 
the  baron  himself,  who  Avas  supposed,  according 
to  the  fictions  of  the  feudal  law,  to  possess  the 
direct  property  of  it,  and  it  would  have  been 
deemed  incongruous  to  give  it  any  other  repre- 
sentation. They  stood  in  the  same  capacity  to 
him,  that  he  and  the  other  barons  did  to  the  king: 
the  former  were  peers  of  the  barony ;  the  latter 
were  peers  of  the  realm :  the  vassals  possessed  a 
subordinate  rank  m  ithin  their  district ;  the  baron 
enjoyed  a  superior  dignity  in  the  great  assembly : 
they  were  in  some   degree  his    companions   at 


APPENDIX    11.  2f)3 

home ;  lie  tlie  king's  companion  at  court :  aiul 
nothing  can  be  more  evidently  repugnant  to  all 
feudal  ideas,  and  to  that  gradual  subordination 
Avhich  was  essential  to  those  ancient  institutions, 
than  to  imagine  that  the  king  would  appl}'  either 
for  the  advice  or  consent  of  men,  who  were  of  a 
rank  so  much  inlcrior,  and  w  hose  duty  was  im- 
mediately paid  to  the  7ne.s)ic  lord  tliat  was  inter- 
posed between  them  and  the  throne '. 

If  it  be  unreasonable  to  think  that  the  vassals 
of  a  barony,  though  their  tenure  was  military  and 
noble  and  honourable,  were  ever  summoned  to 
give  their  opinion  in  national  councils,  nmch  less 
can  it  be  supposed,  that  the  tradesmen  or  inhabit- 
ants of  boroughs,  whose  condition  was  so  much 
inferior,  Vvould  be  admitted  to  that  privilege.  It 
appears  from  Domesday,  that  the  greatest  bo- 
roughs were,  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  scarcely 
more  than  country  villages;  and  that  the  inhabit- 
ants lived  in  entire  dependance  on  the  king  and 
great  lords,  and  were  of  a  station  little  better  than 
servile™.  They  were  not  then  so  much  as  incor- 
porated ;  they  formed  no  community  ;  were  not 
regarded  as  a  body  politic  ;  and  being  really  no- 
thing but  a  number  of  low  dependent  tradesmen, 
living  M  ithout  any  particular  civil  tie,  in  neigh- 
bourhood together,  they  were  incapable  of  being 
represented  in  the  states  of  the  kingdom.     }L\c\\ 

'  Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Baro. 
"  Liber  homo  anciently  signified  a  gentleman  :  for  scarce  any 
one  beside  was  entirely  free,     Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verbo. 


294!  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND. 

in  France,  a  country  which  made  more  early  ad- 
vances in  arts  and  civility  than  in  England,  the 
first  corporation  is  sixty  years  posterior  to  the 
conquest  imder  the  duke  of  Normandy ;  and  the 
erecting  of  these  communities  was  an  invention 
of  Lewis  the  Gross,  in  order  to  free  the  people 
from  slavery  under  the  lords,  and  to  give  them 
protection  by  means  of  certain  privileges  and  a 
separate  jurisdiction ".  An  ancient  French  writer 
calls  them  a  new  and  M'icked  device,  to  procure 
hberty  to  slaves,  and  encourage  them  in  shaking 
off  the  dominion  of  their  masters  °.  The  famous 
charter,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  Conqueror  to  the 
city  of  London,  though  granted  at  a  time  when 
he  assumed  the  appearance  of  gentleness  and  le 
nity,  is  nothing  but  a  letter  of  protection,  and  a 
declaration  that  the  citizens  shouk^  not  be  treated 
as  slaves  p.  By  the  English  feudal  law,  the  supe- 
rior lord  was  prohibited  from  marrying  his  female 
ward  to  a  burgess  or  a  villain i;  so  near  were 
these  two  ranks  esteemed  to  each  other,  and  so 
much  inferior  to  the  nobility  and  gentry.  Be- 
sides possessing  the  advantages  of  birth,  riches, 
civil  powers  and  privileges,  the  nobles  and  g-entle- 
men  alone  were  armed,  a  circumstance  which 
gave  them  a  mighty  superiority,  in  an  age  when 
nothing  but  the  military  profession  was  honour- 

"  Du  Gauge's  Gloss,  in  verb.  Commune,  Communitas, 

"  Guiburtus  de  vita  sua  lib.  ii,  cap.  7. 

p  Stat,  of  Merton,  1235.  cap.  6. 

^  HoUiugshedj  vol.  iii.  p.  15. 


APPENDIX    n.  2()5 

able,  and  Avlicn  the  loose  execution  of  laMs  gave 
so  nuich  encouragement  to  open  violence,  and 
rendered  it  so  decisive  in  all  disputes  and  con- 
troversies \ 

The  great  similarity  among  the  feudal  govern- 
ments of  Euroj)e  is  well  knoM  n  to  every  man  that 
has  any  acquaintance  nith  ancient  history  ;  and 
the  antiquaries  of  all  foreign  countries,  where  the 
question  Mas  never  embarrassed  l)y  party  disputes, 
have  allowed,  that  the  commons  came  very  late 
to  be  admitted  to  a  share  in  the  legislative  power. 
In  Normandy  particularly,  whose  constitution 
was  most  likely  to  be  William "s  model  in  raising 
his  new  fabric  of  English  government,  the  states 
were  entirely  composed  of  the  clergy  and  nobi- 
lity ;  and  the  first  incorporated  boroughs  or  com- 
munities of  that  dutchy  were  Roiicn  and  Falaise, 
M'hicli  enjoyed  their  privileges  by  a  grant  of  Phi- 
lip Augustus  in  the  year  \W7^-  All  the  ancient 
English  historians,  M-hcn  tliey  mention  the  great 
council  of  the  nation,  call  it  an  assembly  of  the 
baronage,  nobility,  or  great  men  ;  and  none  of 
their  expressions,  though  several  hundred  pas- 
sages might  be  produced,  can,  without  the  ut- 
most violence,  be  tortured  to  a  meaning  which 
will  admit  the  commons  to  be  constituent  mem- 
bers of  that  body  \     If  in  the  long  period  of  200 

""  Madox's  Baron.  Angl.  p.  ig.  '  Norman.  Du  Chesnii^ 

p.  1066.     Du  Cange,  Gloss,  in  verb.  Commune. 

'  Sometimes  the  historians  mention  the  people,  piqmlus,  as  a 
part  of  the  parliament ;  but  they  always  mean  tlie  laity,  in  oppo- 


396  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND. 

:^'ears,  wliicli  elapsed  betMeen  the  Conquest  and 
the  latter  end  of  Henry  III.  and  which  abounded 
-in  factions,  revolutions,  and  convulsions  of  all 
kinds,  the  house  of  commons  never  performed 
one  single  legislative  act  so  considerable  as  to  be 
once  mentioned  by  any  of  the  numerous  histo- 
rians of  that  age,  they  must  have  been  totally  in- 
significant :  and  in  that  case,  what  reason  can  be 
assio-ned  for  their  ever  beino-  assembled?  Can  it 
be  supposed,  that  men  of  so  little  weight  or  im- 
portance possessed  a  negative  voice  against  the 
king  and  the  barons  ?  Every  page  of  the  subse- 
quent histories  discovers  their  existence  ;  though 
these  histories  are  not  written  with  greater  accu- 
racy than  the  preceding  ones,  and  indeed  scarcely 
■equal  them  in  that  j)articular.  The  i\Iagua  Qiiurta 
of  king  John  provides,  that  no  scutage  or  aid 
should  be  imposed,   either  on  the  land  or  towns, 

sition  to  the  clergy.  Sometimes  tlie  word  comwunitas  is  found : 
but  it  always  means  commmdtas  haronagu.  These  points  are 
clearly  proved  by  Dr.  Brady.  There  is  also  mention  sometimes 
made  of  a  crowd  or  multitude  that  thronged  into  the  great  coun- 
cil on  particular  interesting  occasions  ;  but  as  deputies  from  bo- 
roughs are  never  once  spoke  of,  the  proof  that  they  had  not  then 
any  existence,  becomes  the  more  certain  and  undeniable.  These 
never  could  make  a  crowd,  as  they  must  have  had  a  regular  place 
assigned  them,  if  they  had  made  a  regular  part  of  the  legislative 
body.  There  were  only  130  boroughs  who  received  writs  of 
summons  from  Edward  I.  It  is  expressly  said  in  Gesta  Reg. 
Steph.  p.  932.  that  it  was  usual  for  the  populace,  vvlgiis,  to 
crowd  into  the  great  councils ;  where  they  were  plainly  mere 
spectators,  and  could  only  gratify  their  curiosity. 


APPENDIX    II.  -297 

but  by  consent  of  the  great  council  ;  antl  tor  more 
security,  it  enumerates  the  i)ersons  entitled  to  a 
seat  in  that  jisscnibly,  the  prelates  and  innnediate 
tenants  ot' the  crown,  without  any  mention  of  the 
connnons  ;  an  authority  so  full,  certain,  and  ex- 
plicit, that  notliingbut  the  zeal  of  party  could  ever 
liave  procured  credit  to  any  contrary  hypothesis. 

It  was  probably  the  example  of  the  French 
barons  which  first  emboldened  the  English  to  re- 
quire greater  independence  from  their  sovereign: 
it  is  also  ])robablc,  that  the  boroughs  and  corpo- 
rations of  England  were  established  in  imitation 
of  those  of  France.  It  may,  therefore,  be  pro- 
posed as  no  unlikely  conjecture,  tiiat  both  the 
chief  privileges  of  tlie  peers  in  England  and  the 
liberty  of  the  commons  were  originally  the  growth 
of  that  forei"T.  country. 

In  ancient  times,  men  were  little  solicitous  to 
obtain  a  place  in  the  legislative  assemblies ;  and 
rather  regarded  their  attendance  as  a  burden, 
Avhicli  was  not  compensated  by  any  return  of  ])ro- 
fit  or  honour  proportionate  to  the  trouble  and  ex- 
pence.  The  only  reason  for  instituting  those  pub- 
lic councils  Mas,  on  the  part  of  the  subject,  that 
they  desired  some  security  from  the  attempts  of 
arbitrary  power  ;  and  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign, 
that  he  despaired  of  governing  men  of  such  inde- 
pendent spirits  without  their  own  consent  and 
concurrence.  Cut  the  commons,  or  the  inhabit- 
ants of  borout>hs,  had  not  as  vet  reached  such  a 
degree  of  consideration  as  to  desire  stcurlti/  against 


298  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

their  prince,  or  to  imagine,  that  even  if  they  were 
assembled  in  a  representative  body,  they  had 
power  or  rank  sufficient  to  enforce  it.  The  only 
protection  which  they  aspired  to,  was  against  the 
immediate  violence  and  injustice  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  ;  and  this  advantage  each  of  them  looked 
for  from  the  courts  of  justice,  or  from  the  author- 
ity of  some  great  lord,  to  whom,  by  law  or  his 
own  choice,  he  was  attached.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  sovereign  was  sutTiciently  assured  of  obedience 
in  the  M'hole  community,  if  he  procured  the  con- 
currence of  the  nobles  ;  nor  had  he  reason  to  ap- 
prehend that  any  order  of  the  state  could  resist 
his  and  their  united  authority.  The  mihtary  sub- 
vassals  could  entertain  no  idea  of  opposing  both 
their  prince  and  their  superiors :  the  burgesses 
and  tradesmen  could  much  less  aspire  to  such  a 
thought:  and  thus,  even  if  history  were  silent  on 
the  head,  we  have  reason  to  conclude,  from  the 
known  situation  of  society  during  those  ages,  that 
the  commons  were  never  admitted  as  members  of 
the  leo-islative  bodv. 

The  eTeciitive  power  of  the  Anglo-Norman  go- 
vernment was  lodged  in  the  king.  Besides  the 
stated  meetings  of  the  national  <;ouncil  at  the 
three  great  festivals  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and 
Whitsuntide ",  he  was  accustomed,  on  any  sud- 
den exigence,  to  summon  them  together.  He 
could  at  his  pleasure  command  the  attendance  of 

"  Dugd.  Orig.  Jurid.  p.  15.     Spelra.  Gloss,  in  verbo  Far^ 
liamentum. 


APPENDIX    If.  299 

his  barons  and  their  vassals,  in  Avliich  consistc<l 
the  mihtary  force  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  could 
employ  them,  during  forty  days,  eitlier  in  resisting 
a  foreign  enemy,  or  reducing  his  rebellious  sub- 
jects. And,  A\  hat  was  of  great  importance,  the 
M'holc  judicial  power  Avas  ultimately  in  his  hands, 
and  Mas  exercised  by  officers  and  ministers  of  his 
appointment. 


JUDICIAL  POWER. 

The  general  plan  of  the  Anglo-Norman  govern- 
ment was,  that  the  court  of  barony  was  appointed 
to  decide  such  controversies  as  arose  between  the 
several  vassals  or  subjects  of  the  same  barony  ;  the 
hnndred-court  and  county-court,  which  were  still 
continued  as  during  the  Saxon  times''',  to  judge 
between  the  subjects  of  different  baronies  " ;  and 
the  curia  regis,   or  king's  court,   to  give  sentence 

*  Ang.  Sacra,  vol,  i.  p.  334,  kc.  Dugd.  Orig.  Jurid.  p.  27, 
29.  Madox.  Hist,  of  Exch.  p.  75,  76.  Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verbo 
Jltunlred. 

"  None  of  the  feudal  governments  in  Europe  had  such  institu- 
tions as  the  county  courts,  which  the  great  authority  of  the  Con- 
queror still  retained  from  tlie  Saxon  customs.  All  the  freeholders 
of  the  county,  even  tlie  greatest  barons,  were  obliged  to  attend 
the  sheriff's  in  these  courts,  and  to  assist'them  in  tlie  administra- 
tion of  justice.  By  these  means  they  received  frequent  and  sen- 
sible admonitions  of  their  dependance  on  the  king  or  supreme 
magistrate  :  they  formed  a  kind  of  community  with  their  fellow 
barons  and  freeholders :  they  were  often  drawn  from  tlieir  indi- 
vidual and  independent  state,  peculiar  to  the  feudal  system  3  aiid 


3m  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

among  the  barons  themselves  y.  But  this  plan, 
though  simple,  was  attended  with  some  circum- 
stances which,  being  derived  from  a  very  exten- 
sive authority  assumed  by  the  Conqueror,  con- 
tributed to  increase  the  royal  prerogative  ;  and  as 
long  as  the  state  was  not  disturbed  by  arms,  re- 
duced every  order  of  the  community  to  some  de- 
gree of  dependance  and  subordination. 

The  king  himself  often  sat  in  his  court,  which 
always  attended  his  person*:  he  there  lieard 
causes  and  pronounced  judgement*  ;  and  though 
he  was  assisted  by  the  advice  of  the  other  mem- 
bers, it  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  a  decision  could 
easily  be  obtained  contrary  to  his  inch  nation  or 
opinion.  In  his  absence  the  chief  justiciary  ])re- 
sided,  who  Avas  the  first  magistrate  in  the  state, 
and  a  kind  of  viceroy,  on  whom  depended  all  the 
civil  affairs  of  the  kingdom  \  The  other  chief 
officers  of  the  cro^\'n,  tlie  constable,  mareschal, 
seneschal,  chamberlain,  treasurer,  and  chancellor", 

\rere  made  members  of  a  political  body  :  and,  perhaps,  this  in- 
stitution of  county  courts  in  England  has  had  greater  effects  on 
tlie  government  than  has  yet  been  distinctly  pointed  out  by  histo- 
rians, or  traced  by  antiquaries.  The  barons  were  never  able  to 
free  tliemselves  from  tliis  attendance  on  the  sheriffs  and  itinerant 
justices  till  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  ^  Brady,  Pref  p.  143. 

"  Madox  Hist,  of  Exch.  p.  103. 
^  Bracton,  lib.  iii.  cap.  Q.  §  1.  cap.  10.  §  1. 
^  Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verbo  Justiciarii. 
«=  Madox  Hist.  Exch.  p.  27,  29,  33,  38,  41,  54.     The  Nor- 
mans introduced  the  practice  of  sealing  charters  :  and  the  chan- 
cellor's office  was  to  keep  the  Great  Seal.    Ingulf  h.  Dugd.  p.  33, 
34* 


APPENDIX    II.  30J 

were  ineiiibers,  together  \\\\h  sncli  feudal  barons 
as  tlionght  proper  to  attend,  .nul  the  barons  of  the 
Exchequer,  wlio  at  fust  were  also  feudal  barons 
appointed  by  the  king*'.  This  court,  which  was 
sometimes  called  the  king's  court,  sometimes  tlie 
court  of  Exchequer,  judged  in  all  causes,  civil 
and  criminal,  and  comprehended  tlie  mIioIc  busi- 
ness which  is  noM^  shared  out  among  f(nir  courts, 
the  Chancery,  the  King's  13euch,  the  Common 
Picas,  and  tlie  Exchequer ^ 

Such  an  accumulation  of  powers  was  itself  a 
jrveat  source  of  authority,   and  rendered  the  juris- 
diction  of  the  court  formidable  to  all  the  suiijects; 
but  the  turn  which  judicial  trials  took  soon  after 
the   Conquest,    served  still  more  to  increase  its 
authority,  and  to  augment  the  royal  prerogatives. 
"William,   among  the  other  violent  changes  which 
he  attempted   and  effected,  had   introduced   tlu; 
Norman  laM'  into  England  \  had  ordered  all  the 
pleadings  to  be  in  that  tongue,   and  had  inter- 
woven with  the  English  jurisprudence,    all  the 
maxims  and  principles  which  the  Normans,  more 
advanced  in  cultivation,  and  naturally  litigious, 
were  accustomed  to  observe  in  the  distribution  of 
justice.     Law  now  became  a  science,    which  at 
first  fell  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  Normans  ; 
and  which,  even  after  it  was  coninumicatcd  to  the? 
English,   required  so  much  study  and  application,- 

■•^Mailox  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  134,  135.  Gerv.  Durob.  p.  135/ . 

•  Madox  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  50",  /O. 
'  Dial  df  Scac.  p.  30.  apud  Madox  Hist,  of  Uie  Exchequec. 


303  HISTORY-  OF   ENGLAND. 

that  the  laity,  in  those  ignorant  ages,  were  inca- 
pable of  attaining  it,  and  it  was  a  mystery  almost 
solely  confined  to  the  clergy,  and  chiefly  to  the 
monks  ^  The  great  officers  of  the  crown,  and 
the  feudal  barons,  who  were  mihtary  men,  found 
themselves  unfit  to  penetrate  into  those  obscuri- 
ties ;  and  though  they  were  entitled  to  a  seat  in 
the  supreme  judicature,  the  business  of  the  court 
was  wholly  managed  by  the  chief  justiciary  and 
the  law  barons,  who  were  men  appointed  by  the 
king,  and  entirely  at  his  disposal  ^  This  natural 
course  of  things  was  forwarded  by  the  multiplicity 
of  business  which  fiowed  into  that  court,  and 
which  daily  augmented  by  the  appeals  from  all 
the  subordinate  judicatures  of  the  kingdom. 

In  the  Saxon  times,  no  appeal  was  received  in 
the  king's  court,  except  upon  the  denial  or  delay 
of  justice  by  the  inferior  courts;  and  the  same 
practice  was  still  observed  in  most  of  the  feudal 
kingdoms  of  Europe.  But  the  great  power  of  the 
Conqueror  established  at  first  in  England  an  au- 
thority which  the  monarchs  in  France  were  not  able 
to  attain  till  the  reign  of  St.  Eewis,  who  lived  near 
two  centuries  after :  he  empowered  his  court  to 
receive  appeals  both  from  the  courts  of  barony 
and  the  county-courts,  and  by  that  means  brought 
the  administration  of  justice  ultimately  into  the 
hands  of  the  sovereign'.     And  lest  the  expence 

«  Malmes.  lib.  4.  p.  123.  ^  Dugd.  Orig.  Jurid.  p.  25. 

'Madox  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  65.  Glanv.  lib.  12.  cap.  1,  /. 
LL.  Hen.  I.  §  31.  apud  Wilkins,  p.  248.  Fitz-Stephens,  p.  S^. 
Coke's  Comment  on  the- statute  of  Marlbridge,  cap.  20. 


APPENDIX    11.  303 

or  trouble  of  a  journey  to  court  should  discourage 
suitors,  and  make  tiicni  acquiesce  in  the  decision 
of  the  inferior  judicatures,  itinerant  judges  Mere 
afterwards  established,  who  made  their  circuits 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  tried  all  causes  that 
were  brought  before  them''.  By  this  expedient 
the  courts  of  barony  were  kept  in  u.\vc  ;  and  if 
they  still  preserved  some  influence,  it  was  only 
from  the  apprehensions  which  the  vassals  might 
entertain  of  disobliging  their  superior,  by  ap- 
pealing from  his  jurisdiction.  But  the  county- 
courts  were  much  discredited  ;  and  as  the  free- 
holders were  found  ignorant  of  the  intricate  prin- 
ciples and  forms  of  the  new  law,  the  lawyers 
gradually  brought  all  business  before  the  king's 
judges,  and  abandoned  the  ancient  simple  and 
popular  judicature.  After  this  manner  the  form- 
alities of  justice,  which,  though  they  appear  te- 
dious and  cumbersome,  are  found  requisite  to  the 
support  of  liberty  in  all  monarchical  governments, 
proved  at  lir-^t,  by  a  combination  of  causes,  very 
advantageous  to  royal  authority  in  England. 

"  Madox  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  83,  84,  100.  Gerv.  Dorob. 
p.  1410,  What  made  the  Anglo-Norman  barons  more  readily 
submit  to  appeals  from  tlieir  court  to  the  king's  court  of  Exche- 
quer, was  their  being  accustomed  to  like  appeals  in  Normandy  to 
the  ducal  court  of  Exchequer.  See  Gilbert's  History  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, p.  1,  2;  though  the  author  thinks  it  doubtful  whether 
the  Norman  court  was  not  father  copied  from  tlie  English,  p.  6. 


J04  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 


REVENUE  OF  THE  CROWN. 

The  power  of  tlie  Norman  kings  was  also  mucli 
supported  by  a  great  revenue  ;  and  by  a  revenue 
that  was  fixed,  perpetual,  and  independent  of  the 
subject.  The  people,  without  betaking  them- 
selves to  arms,  had  no  check  upon  the  king,  and 
no  regular  security  for  the  due  administration  of 
justice.  In  those  days  of  violence,  many  instances 
of  oppression  passed  unheeded  ;  and  soon  after 
were  openly  pleaded  as  precedents,  which  it  was 
unlawful  to  dispute  or  control.  Princes  and  mi- 
nisters were  too  ignorant  to  be  themselves  sen- 
sible of  the  advantages  attending  an  equitable  ad- 
ministration ;  and  there  was  no  established  coun- 
cil or  assembly  which  could  protect  the  people, 
and,  by  withdrawing  supplies,  regularly  and  peace- 
ably admonish  the  king  of  his  duty,  and  ensure 
the  execution  of  the  laws. 

The  first  branch  of  the  king's  stated  revenue 
was  the  royal  demesnes  or  crown  lands,  which 
were  very  extensive,  and  comprehended,  beside 
a  great  number  of  manors,  most  of  the  chief  cities 
of  the  kingdom.  It  was  established  by  law,  that 
the  king  could  alienate  no  part  of  his  demesne, 
and  that  he  himself  or  his  successor  could  at  any 
time  resume  such  donations  * :  but  this  law  wa§ 

'Fleta,  lib.  1.  «ap.  8.  §  17.  lib.  3.  cap.  6.  §  8.    Eracton^  lib.  2. 
cap.  5, 


APPENDIX    II.  30* 

never  regularly  observed ;  which  happily  rendered 
in  time  the  crown  someM'hat  more  dependant. 
The  rent  of  the  crown  lands,  considered  merely 
as  so  much  riches,  was  a  source  of  power  :  the  in- 
fluence of  the  king-  over  his  tenants  and  the  in- 
habitants of  his  towns,  increased  this  power  :  but 
the  other  numerous  branches  of  his  revenue,  be- 
sides supplying  his  treasury,  gave,  b}'  their  very 
nature,  a  great  latitude  to  arbitrary  authority, 
and  were  a  support  of  the  prerogative  ;  as  will  ap- 
pear from  an  enumeration  of  them. 

The  king  was  never  content  with  the  stated 
rents,  but  levied  heavy  talliages  at  pleasure  on  the 
inhabitants  both  of  town  and  country,  avIio  li\cd 
within  his  demesne.  All  bargains  of  sale,  in  order 
to  prevent  theft,  being  prohibited,  except  in  bo- 
roughs and  pubhc  markets "",  he  pretended  to  ex- 
act tolls  on  all  goods  Avhich  were  there  sold  ".  He 
seized  two  hogsheads,  one  before  and  one  behind 
the  mast,  from  every  vessel  that  imported  wine. 
All  goods  paid  to  his  customs  a  proportionable 
part  of  their  value  ° :  passage  over  bridges  and  on 
rivers  was  loaded  with  tolls  at  pleasure  "^ :  and 
though  the  boroughs  by  degrees  bought  the  li- 
berty of  farming  these  impositions,  yet  the  reve- 
nue profited  by  these  bargains ;  new  sums  were 
often  exacted  for  the  renewal  and  confirmation  of 

"  LL.  Will.  I.  cap.  61.  "  Madox,  p.  530. 

'Ibid.  p.  529.     This  author  says  a  titleenth.     But  it  is  not 
easy  to  reconcile  tliis  account  to  other  autliorities. 
p  Madox,  p.  529. 
VOL.    II.  X 


305  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

their  charters  %  and  the  people  were  thus  held  in 
perpetual  dependance. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  the  inhabitants 
within  the  royal  demesnes.  But  the  possessors 
of  land,  or  the  military  tenants,  though  they  were 
better  protected  both  by  law,  and  by  the  great 
privilege  of  carrying  arms,  were,  from  the  nature 
of  their  tenures,  much  exposed  to  the  inroads  of 
power,  and  possessed  not  what  we  should  esteem, 
in  our  age,  a  very  durable  security.  The  Con- 
queror ordained  that  the  barons  should  be  obliged 
to  pay  nothing  beyond  their  stated  services  ^,  ex- 
cept a  reasonable  aid  to  ransom  his  person  if  he 
were  taken  in  war,  to  make  his  eldest  son  a  knight, 
and  to  marry  his  eldest  daughter.  What  should 
on  these  occasions  be  deemed  a  reasonable  aid, 
was  not  determined ;  and  the  demands  of  the 
crown  were  so  far  discretionary. 

The  king  could  require  in  war  the  personal 
attendance  of  his  vassals,  that  is,  of  almost  all 
the  landed  proprietors ;  and  if  they  declined  the 
service,  they  were  obliged  to  pay  him  a  composition 
in  money,  which  was  called  a  scutage.  The  sum 
was,  during  some  reigns,  precarious  and  uncer- 
tain; it  was  sometimes  levied  without  allowing 
the  vassal  the  liberty  of  personal  service  * ;  and  it 
was  a  usual  artifice  of  the  king's  to  pretend  an 
expedition,  that  he  might  be  entitled  to  levy  the 
scutage  from  his  miUtary  tenants.     Danegelt  was 

1  Madox's  Hist.  Qf  the  Exch.  p.  275,  276,  277,  &c. 
^LL.  Will.  Conq.  §  55.  '  Gervase  de  Tilbury,  p.  25. 


APPENDIX    ir.  307 

another  species  of  land-tax  levied  by  the  early 
Kornian  kings,  arbitrarily,  and  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  conqueror'.  Moneyage  was  also  a 
general  land-tax  of  the  same  nature,  levied  by 
the  two  first  Norman  kings,  and  abolished  by  the 
charter  of  Henry  I".  It  was  a  shilling  paid  every 
three  years  by  each  hearth,  to  induce  the  king 
not  to  use  his  prerogative  in  debasing  the  coin. 
Indeed  it  appears  from  that  charter,  that  though 
the  Conqueror  had  granted  his  military  tenants 
an  immunity  from  all  taxes  and  tailiages,  he  and 
his  son  William  had  never  thought  themselves 
bound  to  observe  that  rule,  but  hud  levied  impo- 
sitions at  pleasure  on  all  the  landed  estates  of  the 
kingdom.  The  utmost  that  Henry  grants  is,  that 
the  land  cultivated  by  the  military  tenant  himself 
shall  not  be  so  burdened ;  but  he  reserves  the 
power  of  taxing  the  farmers :  and  as  it  is  known 
that  Henry's  charter  Avas  never  observed  in  any 
one  article,  we  may  be  assured  that  this  prince 
and  his  successors  retracted  even  this  small  in- 
dulgence, and  levied  arbitrary  impositions  on  all 
the  lands  of  all  their  subjects.  These  taxes  were 
sometimes  very  heavy ;  since  Malmesbury  tells 
us,  that  in  the  reign  of  William  Rufus,  the  farm- 
ers, on  account  of  them,  abandoned  tillage,  and 
a  famine  ensued  ^. 

The  escheats  were  a  great  branch  both  of  power 

'  Madox-8  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  475.         "  Matth.  Paris,  p.  38. 
*  SoalsoChron.  Abb.  St.  Petri  de  Burgo,  p.  55.    Knyghton;, 
p.  2366. 
o. 


308  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

and  of  revenue,  especially  during  the  first  reigns 
after  the  Conquest.     In  default  of  posterity  from 
the  first  baron,  his  land  reverted  to  the  crown, 
and  continually  augmented  the  king's  possessions. 
The  prince  had  indeed  by  law  a  power  of  alienat- 
ing these  escheats ;  but  by  this  means  he  had  an 
opportunity  of  establishing  the   fortunes  of  his 
friends  and  servants,   and  thereby  enlarging  his 
authority.      Sometimes  he  retained  them  in  his 
own  hands ;  and  they  were  gradually  confounded 
with  the  royal  demesnes,  and  became  difficult  to 
be  distinguished  from  them.     This  confusion  is 
probably  the  reason  why  the  king  acquired  the 
right  of  alienating  his  demesnes. 

But  besides   escheats  from  default  of  heirs, 
those  which  ensued  from  crimes,   or  breach  of 
duty  towards  the  superior  lord,  were  frequent  in 
ancient  times.     If  the  vassal,  being  thrice  sum- 
moned to  attend  his  superior's  court,  and  do  fealty, 
neglected  or  refused  obedience,  he  forfeited  all 
me  to  his  land  \     If  he  denied  his  tenure,  or  re- 
fused his  service,  he  was  exposed  to  the  same  pe- 
nalty y.     If  he  sold  his  estate  without  Ucence  from 
his  lord^  or  if  he  sold  it  upon  any  other  tenure 
or  title  than  that  by  which  he  himself  held  it%  he 
lost  all  right  to  it.     The  adhering  to  his  lord's 
enemies  ^  deserting  him  in  war^  betraying  his  se- 

■^  Hottom.  de  Feud.  Disp.  cap.  36.  col.  886. 

y  Lib.  Feud.  lib.  3.  tit.  1.  4.  tit.  lib.  21.  39. 
^  Id.  lib.  1.  tit.  21,  Md.  lib.  4.  tit.  44. 

"Id.  lib.  3.  tit.  I.  «^  Id.  lib.  4.  tit.  14.  2U 


Appendix  ir.  309 

crets^  debauching  liis  wile  or  liis  near  relations  % 
or  even  using  indecent  freedoms  a\  ith  them  \ 
might  be  punislied  by  forfeiture.  The  liighcr 
crimes,  rapes,  rol)l)(MT,  murder,  arson,  &c.  were 
called  felony ;  and  being  interpreted  Mant  of  fi- 
delity to  his  lord,  made  him  lose  his  fief  ^.  Even 
where  the  felon  was  vassal  to  a  baron,  though  his 
immediate  lord  enjoyed  the  forfeiture,  the  king- 
might  retain  possession  of  liis  estate  during  a 
tAvelvemonth,  and  had  the  right  of  spoiling  and 
detroying  it,  unless  the  baron  paid  him  a  reason- 
able composition''.  We  have  not  here  enumerat- 
ed all  the  species  of  felonies,  or  of  crimes  by 
which  forfeiture  was  incurred :  Ave  have  said 
enough  to  prove,  that  the  possession  of  feudal 
property  was  anciently  somewhat  precarious,  and 
that  the  primary  idea  was  never  lost,  of  its  being 
a  kind  of  fee  or  benefice. 

When  a  baron  died,  the  king  immediately  took 
possession  of  the  estate  ;  and  the  heir,  before  he 
recovered  his  right,  was  obliged  to  make  appli- 
cation to  the  croM'u,  and  desire  that  he  might  be 
admitted  to  do  homage  for  his  land,  and  pay  a 
composition  to  the  king.  This  composition  Mas 
not  at  first  fixed  by  law,  at  least  by  practice  :  the 
king  was  often  exorbitant  in  his  demands,  and 
kept  '[)ossession  of  the  land  till  they  were  com- 
plied with. 

•"  Lib,  Feud,  lib.  4.  tit,  14.  *  Id.  lib,  i.  tit.  14.  21. 

'  Id.  lib.  1.  tit,  1.  «  Spclm.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Fduuia, 

''Idem.     Glanville,  lib.  7.  t-'^p.  17. 


310  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

If  the  heir  were  a  minor,  the  king  retained  the 
whole  profit  of  the  estate  till  his  majority ;  and 
might  grant  what  sum  he  thought  proper  for  the 
education  and  maintenance  of  the  young  baron. 
This  practice  was  also  founded  on  the  notion  that 
a  fief  was  a  benefice,  and  that  while  the  heir  could 
not  perform  his  military  services,  the  revenue  de- 
volved to  the  superior,  who  employed  another  in 
his  stead.  It  is  obvious,  that  a  great  proportion 
of  the  landed  property  must,  by  means  of  this  de- 
vice, be  continually  in  the  hands  of  the  prince, 
and  that  all  the  noble  families  were  thereby  held 
in  perpetual  dependance.  When  the  king  granted 
the  Avardship  of  a  rich  heir  to  any  one,  he  had  the 
opportunity  of  enriching  a  favourite  or  minister  : 
if  he  sold  it,  he  thereby  levied  a  considerable  sum 
of  money.  Simon  de  Mountfort  paid  Henry  III. 
10,000  marks,  an  immense  sum  in  those  days,  for 
the  wardship  of  Gilbert  de  Umfreville '.  Geoffrey 
de  Mandeville  paid  to  the  same  prince  the  sum  of 
20,000  marks,  that  he  might  marry  Isabel  coun- 
tess of  Glocester,  and  possess  all  her  lands  and 
knights  fees.  This  sum  would  be  equivalent  to 
300,000,   perhaps  400,000  pounds  in  our  timeK 

If  the  heir  were  a  female,  the  king  was  entitled 
to  offer  her  any  husband  of  her  rank  he  thought 
proper;  and  if  she  refused  him,  she  forfeited  her 
land.  Even  a  male  heir  could  not  marry  without 
the  royal  consent ;  and  it  was  usual  for  men  to 

'  Madox's  Hist,  of  tlie  Exch.  p.  223,  ^  Id.  p.  322. 


APPENDIX    II.  311 

pay  large  sums  for  the  liberty  of  making  tlicii 
own  choice  in  marriage'.  No  man  could  dispose 
of  his  land,  cither  by  sale  or  will,  without  the 
consent  of  his  superior.  The  possessor  was  never 
considered  as  full  proprietor :  he  was  still  a  kind 
of  beneficiary ;  and  could  not  oblige  his  superior 
to  accept  of  any  vassal  that  A\as  not  agreeable 
to  him. 

Fines,  amerciaments,  and  oblatas,  as  they 
were  called,  were  another  considerable  branch  of 
the  royal  poM'er  and  revenue.  The  ancient  re- 
cords of  the  exchequer,  which  are  still  preserved, 
give  surprising  accounts  of  the  numerous  fines 
and  amerciaments  levied  in  those  days'",  and  of 
the  strange  inventions  fallen  upon  to  exact  money 
from  the  sul^ject.  It  appears  that  the  ancient 
kings  of  England  put  themselves  entirely  on  the 
foot  of  the  barbarous  eastern  princes,  A\diom  no 
man  must  approach  without  a  present,  who  sell  all 
their  sood  offices,  and  who  intrude  themselves 
into  every  business  that  they  may  have  a  pretence 
for  extorting  money.  Even  justice  was  avowedly 
bought  and  sold ;  the  king's  court  itself,  though 
the  supreme  judicature  of  the  kingdom,  was  open 
to  none  that  brought  not  presents  to  the  king ; 
the  bribes  given  for  the  expedition,  delay ",  sus- 
pension, and,  doubtless,  for  the  perversion  of 
justice,  were  entered  in  the  public  registers  of  the 
royal  revenue,   and  remain  as  monuments  of  the 

'  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  320.  "'  Id,  p.  272. 

"  Id.  p.  274.  309. 


312  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND. 

perpetual  iniquity  and  tyranny  of  the  times.  The 
barons  of  the  exchequer,  for  instance,  the  first 
nobility  of  the  kingdom,  were  not  ashamed  to  in- 
sert, as  an  article  in  their  records,  that  the  county 
of  Norfolk  paid  a  sum  that  they  might  be  fairly 
dealt  with";  the  borough  of  Yarmouth,  that  the 
king's  charters,  which  they  have  for  their  liber- 
ties, might  not  be  violated  P;  Richard,  son  of 
Gilbert,  for  the  king's  helping  him  to  recover  his 
debt  from  the  Jews  ^ ;  Serlo,  son  of  Terlavaston, 
that  he  might  be  permitted  to  make  his  defence, 
in  case  he  were  accused  of  a  certain  homicide " ; 
Walter  de  Burton,  for  free  law,  if  accused  of 
wounding  another*;  Robert  de  Essart,  for  hav- 
ing an  inquest  to  find  whether  Roger  the  Butcher, 
and  Wace  and  Humphrey,  accused  him  o^  rob- 
bery and  theft  out  of  envy  and  ill-will  or  not*; 
William  Buhurst,  for  having  an  inquest  to  find 
whether  he  were  accused  of  the  death  of  one  God- 
win, out  of  ill-v/ill,  or  for  just  caused  I  have 
selected  these  few  instances  from  a  great  number 
of  a  like  kind,  which  IMadox  had  selected  from  a 
still  greater  number,  preserved  in  the  ancient  rolls 
of  the  exchequer  \ 

Sometimes  the  party  litigant  offered  the  king 
a  certain  portion,  a  half,  a  third,  a  fourth,  pay- 
able out  of  the  debts  which  he,  as  the  executor  of 

"  Madox's  Hist,  of  tlie  Exch.  p.  295.  ^  Id.  Ibid. 

'Id.  p.  296.     He  paid  200  marks,  a  great  sum  in  those  days, 
'  Id.  p.  206.         '  Id.  ibid.         '  Id.  p.  298.         "  Id.  p.  302. 
"Id.  chap.  12. 


APPENDIX    11.  S13 

justice,  should  assist  him  in  recovering'.  Thco- 
phania  de  Westland  agreed  to  pay  the  half  of  212 
marks,  that  she  might  recover  that  sum  against 
James  de  Fughlestony;  Solomon  the  Jew  engag- 
ed to  pay  one  mark  out  of  e\ery  seven  that  he 
should  recover  against  Hugh  de  la  Hose^;  Ni- 
cholas Morrel  promised  to  pay  sixty  pounds,  that 
the  earl  of  Flanders  might  he  distrained  to  pay 
him  343  pounds,  which  the  earl  had  taken  from 
him ;  and  these  sixty  pounds  were  to  be  paid  out 
of  the  first  money  that  Nicholas  should  recover 
from  the  earP. 

As  the  king  assumed  the  entire  poMcr  over 
trade,  he  was  to  be  paid  for  a  permission  to  exer- 
cise commerce  or  industry  of  any  kind  ^  Hugh 
Oisel  paid  400  marks  for  liberty  to  trade  in  Fug- 
land*^:  Nigel  de  llavene  gave  fifty  marks  for  the 
partnership  in  merchandise  which  he  had  vith 
Gervase  de  Hanton*^:  the  men  of  Worcester  paid 
100  shillings,  that  they  might  have  the  liberty  of 
selling  and  bu3'ing  dyed  cloth  as  formerly " :  seve- 
ral other  towns  paid  for  a  like  liberty  ^  Tlic  com- 
merce indeed  of  the  kinirdom  was  so  much  under 

O 

the  controul  of  the  king,  that  he  erected  gilds, 
corporations,  and  monopolies  wherever  he  pk\is- 
ed ;  and  levied  sums  for  these  exclusive  pri- 
vileges 8. 


"  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  311.  '"  Id.  ibid. 

'  Id.  p.  79,  312.         '  Id.  p.  312.         ''  Id.  p.  323.         "  Id.  ibid. 
''Id.  ibid.       '  Id.  p.  324.      '  Id.  ibid.       '  Id.  p.  232,  233,  &c. 


314  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

There  were  no  profits  so  small  as  to  be  below 
the  king's  attention.  Henry,  son  of  Arthur,  gave 
ten  dogs  to  have  a  recognition  against  the  coun- 
tess of  Copland  for  one  knight's  fee**.  Roger, 
son  of  Nicholas,  gave  twenty  lampreys  and  twenty 
shads  for  an  inquest,  to  find  whether  Gilbert,  son 
of  xA-lured,  gave  to  Roger  200  muttons  to  obtain 
his  confirmation  for  certain  lands,  or  whether  Ro- 
ger took  them  from  him  by  violence':  Geofirey 
Fitz-Pierre,  the  chief  justiciary,  gave  two  good 
Norway  hawks,  that  Walter  de  Madine  might 
have  leave  to  export  a  hundred  weight  of  cheese 
out  of  the  king's  dominions  K 

It  is  really  amusing  to  remark  the  strange  bu- 
siness in  which  the  king  sometimes  interfered, 
and  never  without  a  present :  the  wife  of  Hugh 
de  Neville  gave  the  king  200  hens,  that  she  might 
lie  with  her  husband  one  night ' ;  and  she  brought 
with  her  two  sureties,  who  answered  each  for  a 
hundred  hens.  It  is  probable  that  her  husband 
was  a  prisoner,  which  debarred  her  from  having 
access  to  him.  The  abbot  of  Rucford  paid  ten 
marks  for  leave  to  erect  houses  and  place  men 
upon  his  land  near  Welhang,  in  order  to  secure 
his  wood  there  from  being  stolen " :  Hugh  arch- 
deacon of  Wells  gave  one  tun  of  wine  for  leave  to 
carry  600  sums  of  corn  whither  he  would":  Peter 

*"  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  2g8.  '  Id.  p.  305. 

"Idip.  325.  'Id.  p.  326. 

»  Id.  ibid.  "  Id.  p.  320. 


APPENDIX    11.  315 

de  Peraris  gave  twenty  marks  for  leave  to  salt 
iishcs,  as  Peter  Chevalier  used  to  do  °. 

It  was  usual  to  pay  high  fines,  in  order  to  gain 
the  king's  good-will,  or  mitigate  his  anger.  In 
the  reign  of  Henry  II.  Gilbert,  the  son  of  TergLis, 
fines  in  919  ])ounds  9  shillings  to  obtain  that 
prince's  favour ;  William  de  Chataignes  a  thou- 
sand marks,  that  he  would  remit  his  displeasure. 
In  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  the  city  of  London 
fines  in  no  less  a  sum  than  20.000  pounds  on  the 
same  account. 

The  king's  protection  and  good  offices  of  every 
kind  were  bought  and  sold.  Robert  Grislet  paid 
twenty  marks  of  silver,  that  the  king  would  help 
him  against  the  earl  of  Mortaigne  in  a  certain 
jjlea*! :  Robert  de  Cundet  gave  thirty  marks  of 
silver  that  the  king  would  bring  him  to  an  accord 
with  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  ^ :  Ralph  de  Breckham 
gave  a  hawk,  that  the  king  would  protect  him*; 
and  this  is  a  very  frequent  reason  for  payments : 
John,  son  of  Ordgar,  gave  a  NorAvay  hawk  to 
have  the  king's  request  to  the  king  of  Norway  to 
let  him  have  his  brother  Godard's  chattels' :  Ri- 
chard de  Neville  gave  twenty  palfrejs  to  obtain 
the  king's  request  to  Isolda  Bisset,  that  she  should 
take  him  for  a  husband  "  :  Roger  Fitz-Walter  gave 
three  good  palfreys  to  have  the  king's  letter  to 
Roijer  Bertram's  mother,  that  she  shoidd  marrv 

°  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  326. 
"  Id.  p.  329.  "  Id.  ibid.  '  Id.  p.  330. 

'  Id.  p.  332.         '  Id.  ibid.         "  Id.  p.  333. 


^itS  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

him'^:  Eling,  the  dean,  paid  100  marks,  that  lii^ 
M'hoie  and  his  children  might  be  let  out  upon 
bail  ^  :  the  bishop  of  Winchester  gave  one  tun  of 
good  wine  for  his  not  putting  the  king  in  mind  to 
give  a  girdle  to  the  countess  of  Albemarle  ^ :  Ro- 
bert de  Veaux  gave  five  of  the  best  palfreys,  that 
the  king  would  hold  his  tongue  about  Henry  Pi- 
nel's  wife  ^  There  are,  in  the  records  of  the  ex- 
chequer, many  other  singular  instances  of  a  like 
nature  ^     It  will  however  be  just  to  remark,   that 

*  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  333. 
*  Id.  p.  342.  Pro  hahenda  arnica  sua  etjillis,  ^c.  ^  Id.  p.  352. 
*  Id.  ibid.  Uf  rex  taceret  de  uxore  Henrici  PineL 
'  Wc  ahull  gralify  the  reader's  curiosity  by  subjoining  a  fexo  more 
instances  from  Madox,  p.  332.  Hugh  Oisel  was  to  give  the  king 
two  robes  of  a  good  green  colour,  to  have  the  king's  letters  pa- 
tent to  the  merchants  of  Flanders,  with  a  request  to  render  him 
1000  marks,  which  he  lost  in  Flanders.  The  abbot  of  Hyde 
paid  thirty  marks,  to  have  the  king's  letters  of  request  to  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  remove  certain  monks  that  were 
against  the  abbot.  Roger  de  Trihanton  paid  twenty  marks  and  a 
palfrey,  to  have  the  king's  request  to  Richard  de  Umfreville  to 
give  him  his  sister  to  wife,  and  to  the  sister  that  she  would  ac- 
cept of  him  for  a  husband.  William  de  Cheveringworth  paid 
live  marks,  to  have  the  king's  letter  to  the  abbot  of  Persore,  to 
let  him  enjoy  peaceably  his  tythes  as  formerly.  Matthew  de  Here- 
ford, clerk,  paid  ten  marks  for  a  letter  of  request  to  the  bishop 
of  LandafF,  to  let  him  enjoy  peaceably  his  church  of  Schenfrith. 
Andrew  Neulun  gave  three  Flemish  caps  for  the  king's  request 
to  the  prior  of  Chikesand,  for  performance  of  an  agreement  made  ' 
between  them.  Henry  de  Fontibus  gave  a  Lombardy  horse  of 
value  to  have  the  king's  request  to  Henry  Fitz-Harvey,  that  he 
would  give  him  his  daughter  to  wife.  Roger,  son  of  Nicholas, 
promised  all  the  lampreys  lie  could  get,  to  have  the  king's  re- 
tjuest  to  earl  William  Marshal,  that  he  would  grant  him  the  ma- 


APPENDIX    ir.  317 

the  same  ridiculous  practices  and  dangerous  abuses 
prevailed  in  Normandy,  and  i)rol)ably  in  all  the 
other  states  of  Europe  ^ :  England  was  not,  in  this 
respect,  more  barbarous  than  its  neighbours. 

These  iniquitous  practices  of  the  Norman  kings 
were  so  well  known,  that  on  the  death  of  Hugh 
Bigod,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  H.  the  best  and  most 
just  of  these  princes,  the  eldest  son  and  the  widow 
of  this  nobleman  came  to  court,  and  strove,  by 
offering  large  presents  to  the  king,  each  of  them 
to  acquire  possession  of  that  rich  'inheritance. 
The  king  was  so  equitable  as  to  order  the  cause 
to  be  tried  by  the  great  council !  But  in  the  mean 
time  he  seized  all  the  money  and  treasure  of  the 
deceased".  Peter  of  Blois,  a  judicious  and  even 
an  elegant  writer  for  that  age,  gives  a  pathetic  de- 
scription of  the  venality  of  justice,  and  the  op- 
pressions of  the  poor  under  the  reign  of  Henry : 
and  he  scruples  not  to  complain  to  the  king  him- 
self of  these  abuses  ^  We  may  judge  Mhat  the 
case  would  be  under  the  government  of  \\orsc 

nor  of  Langcford  at  Firm.  The  burgesses  of  Glocester  promised 
300  lampreys,  that  they  might  not  be  distrained  to  find  tlie  pri- 
soners of  Poictou  with  necessaries,  unless  tliey  pleased.  Id.  p. 
352.  Jordan,  son  of  Reginald,  paid  twenty  marks  to  have  the 
king's  request  to  William  Paniel,  tliat  he  would  grant  him  the 
land  of  Mill  Nierenuit,  and  the  custody  of  his  heirs ;  and  if  Jor- 
dan obtained  tlie  same,  he  was  to  pay  tlie  twenty  marks,  other- 
wise not.     Id.  p.  333. 

^  Madox's  Hist,  of  tlie  Exch.  p.  359. 

"^Bened.  .-^bb.  p.  ISO,  ISI. 

^  Petri  Bles.  Epist.  gs.  apud  Bibl.  Patxura,  torn.  2^^  p.  2014. 


318  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

princes.  The  articles  of  enquiry  concerning  the 
conduct  of  sheriffs,  which  Henry  promulgated  in 
1170,  show  the  great  power,  as  well  as  the  licen- 
tiousness of  these  officers  ^ 

Amerciaments  or  fines  for  crimes  and  trespasses 
were  another  considerable  branch  of  the  royal  re- 
venue ^  Most  crimes  were  atoned  for  by  money ; 
the  fines  imposed  were  not  limited  by  any  rule  or 
statute ;  and  frequently  occasioned  the  total  ruin 
of  the  person,  even  for  the  slightest  trespasses. 
The  forest-laws,  particularly,  were  a  great  source 
of  oppression.  The  king  possessed  sixty-eight 
forests,  thirteen  chases,  and  seven  hundred  and 
eighty-one  parks,  in  different  parts  of  England^; 
and,  considering  the  extreme  passion  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  Normans  for  hunting,  these  were  so  many 
snares  laid  for  the  people,  by  M'hich  they  were  al- 
lured into  trespasses,  and  brouy:ht  within  the 
reach  of  arbitrary  and  rigorous  laws,  which  the 
king  had  thought  proper  to  enact  by  his  own 
authority. 

But  the  most  barefaced  acts  of  tyranny  and 
oppression  were  practised  against  the  Jews,  who 
were  entirely  out  of  the  protection  of  law,  were 
extremely  odious  from  the  bigotry  of  the  people, 
and  were  abandoned  to  the  immeasurable  rapacity 
of  the  king  and  his  ministers.  Besides  many 
other  indignities  to  which  they  were  continually 
exposed,  it  appears  that  they  were  once  all  thrown 

'  Hoveden,  Chron.  Gerv.  p,  1410. 
^  Madox,  chap.  xiv.  «  Spelm.  Gloss,  in  verbo  Foresta. 


APPENDIX   ir.  art) 

into  prison,  and  the  si-im  of  66,000  marks  exacted 
for  their  liberty'' :  at  another  time,  Isaac  the  Jew 
paid  alone  5100  marks';  Brun,  3000  marks ''; 
Jurnet,  2000 ;  Bennet,  500 :  at  another,  Lico- 
rica,  widow  of  David  the  Jew  of  Oxford,  m  as 
required  to  pay  6000  marks  ;  and  she  Avas  deli- 
vered over  to  six  of  the  richest  and  discreetest 
Jews  in  England,  who  were  to  answer  for  the 
sum  *.  Henry  III.  borrowed  5000  marks  from  the 
earl  of  Cornwall ;  and  for  his  repayment  con- 
signed over  to  him  all  the  Jews  in  England ". 
The  revenue  arising  from  exactions  upon  this 
nation  was  so  considerable,  that  there  A\'as  a 
particular  court  of  exchequer  set  apart  for  ma- 
naging it ". 


COMMERCE. 

We  may  judge  concerning  the  low  state  of  com- 
merce among  the  English,  when  the  Jews,  not- 
Avithstanding  these  oppressions,  could  still  find 
their  account  in  trading  among  them,  and  lend- 
ing them  money.  And  as  the  improvements  of 
agriculture  were  also  much  checked  by  the  im- 
mense possessions  of  the  no])ility,  by  the  disor- 
ders of  the  times,  and  by  the  precarious  state  of 

^  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  151.     This  happened  in  the 
jreign  of  king  John. 

'Id.  p.  151.  'Id.  p,  153.  'Id.  p.  168. 

"Id.  p.  156.  "Id.  ch.  vii. 


320  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

feudal  property,  it  appears  that  industry  of  no 
kind  could  then  have  place  in  the  kingdom  **. 

It  is  asserted  by  Sir  Harry  Spelman  p,  as  an  un- 
doubted truth,  that,  during  the  reigns  of  the  first 
Norman  princes,  every  edict  of  the  king,  issued 
with  the  consent  of  his  privy  council,  had  the  full 
force  of  law.  But  the  barons,  surely,  were  not 
so  passive  as  to  entrust  a  pOAver,  entirely  arbitrary 
and  despotic,  into  the  hands  of  the  sovereign.  It 
only  appears,  that  the  constitution  had  not  fixed 
any  precise  boundaries  to  the  royal  power ;  that 
the  right  of  issuing  proclamations  on  any  emer- 
gence, and  of  exacting  obedience  to  them,  a  right 
which  was  always  supposed  inherent  in  the  crown, 
is  very  difficult  to  be  distinguished  from  a  legisla- 
tive authority ;  that  the  extreme  imperfection  of 
the  ancient  laws,  and  the  sudden  exigencies  which 
often  occurred  in  such  turbulent  governments, 
obliged  the  prince  to  exert  frequently  the  latent 
powers  of  his  prerogative ;  that  he  naturally  pro- 
ceeded, from  the  acquiescence  of  the  people,  to 
assume,   ill  many  particulars  of  moment,   an  au- 

°  We  learn  from  the  extracts  given  vis  of  Domesday  by  Brady, 
in  his  Treatise  of  Boroughs,  that  almost  all  the  boroughs  of  Eng- 
land had  suffered  in  the  shock  of  the  Conquest,  and  had  ex- 
tremely decayed  between  the  death  of  the  Confessor,  and  the 
time  when  Domesday  was  framed. 

''  Gloss,  in  verb.  Judicium  Dei.  The  author  of  the  Mirror  des 
Justices  complains,  tliat  ordinances  are  only  made  by  the  king 
and  his  clerks,  and  by  aliens  and  others,  who  dare  not  contradict 
the  king,  but  study  to  please  him.  "Whence,  he  concludes, 
laws  are  oftener  dictated  by  will,  than  founded  on  right. 


APPENDIX    ir.  321 

thority  from  which  he  had  cxckidcd  himself  by 
express  statutes,  cliarters,  or  concessions,  anci 
which  was,  in  the  main,  repugnant  to  the  gene-* 
ral  genius  of  the  constitution ;  and  that  the  Hves, 
the  personal  hberty,  and  the  properties  of  all  his 
subjects,  were  less  secured  by  law  against  the  ex- 
ertion of  his  arbitrary  authority,  tlian  by  the  in- 
dependent power  and  private  connections  of  each 
individual.  It  appears  from  the  Great  Charter 
itself,  that  not  only  John,  a  tyrannical  prince, 
and  Richard,  a  violent  one,  but  their  father 
Henry,  mider  M'hose  reign  the  prevalence  of  gross 
abuses  is  the  least  to  be  suspected,  were  accustom- 
ed, from  their  sole  authority,  Avithout  process  of 
law,  to  imprison,  banish,  and  attaint  the  freemen 
of  their  kingdom. 

A  great  baron,  in  ancient  times,  considered 
himself  as  a  kind  of  sovereign  within  his  territory; 
and  was  attended  by  courtiers  and  dependants 
more  zealously  attached  to  him  than  the  ministers 
of  state  and  the  great  officers  were  commonly  to 
their  sovereign.  He  often  maintained  in  his  court 
the  parade  of  royalty,  by  establishing  a  justiciary, 
constable,  mareschal,  chamberlain,  seneschal,  and 
chancellor,  and  assigning  to  each  of  these  officers 
a  separate  province  and  connnand.  He  was  usually 
very  assiduous  in  exercising  his  jurisdiction  ;  and 
took  such  delight  in  that  image  of  sovereignty, 
that  it  was  found  necessary  to  restrain  his  activity, 
and  prohibit  him  by  law  from  holding  courts  too 

VOL.    II.  Y 


32?  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND. 

frequently  \     It  is  not  to  be  doubted,  but  the  ex- 
ample set  him  by  the  prince,  of  a  mercenary  and 
sordid  extortion,  would  be  faithfully  copied  ;  and 
that  all  his  good  and  bad  offices,  his  justice  and 
injustice,   were  equally  put  to  sale.     He  had  the 
pOAver,  with  the  king's  consent,  to  exact  talliages 
even  from  the  free  citizens  who  lived  within  his 
barony ;  and  as  his  necessities  made  him  rapacious, 
his  authority  was  usually  found  to  be  more  op- 
pressive and   tyrannical  than  that   of  the  sove- 
reign ^ :  he  was  ever  engaged  in  hereditary  or  per- 
sonal animosities  or  confederacies  with  his  neigh- 
bours, and  often  gave  protection  to  all  desperate 
adventurers  and  criminals  who  could  be  useful  in 
serving  his  violent  purposes.     lie  was  able  alone, 
in  times  of  tranquillity,   to  obstruct  the  execution 
of  justice  within  his  territories  ;  and  by  combining 
with  a  few  mal-content  barons  of  high  rank  and 
power,  he  could  throw  the  state  into  convulsions. 
And,  on  the  whole,   though  the  royal  authority 
was  confined  within  bounds,  and  often  within  very 
narrow  ones,  yet  the  check  was  irregular,  and  fre- 
quently the  source  of  great  disorders ;  nor  was  it 
derived  from  the  liberty  of  the  people,   but  from 
the  mihtary  power  of  many  petty  tyrants,  who 
were  equally  dangerous  to   the  prince,  and   op- 
pressive to  the  subject. 

■^  Dngd.  Jurid.  Orig.  p.  16. 
'•Madox,  Hist.  ofExch.  p.  .520. 


APPENDIX    II.  929 


THE  CHURCH. 


The  power  of  tlie  cliuich  Mas  another  rampalfe 
against  royal  autliority  ;  but  this  defence  was  also 
tlie  cause  of  many  mischiefs  and  inconveniences. 
The  dignified  clergy,  perhaps,  were  liJot  so  j>rone 
to  innnediatc  violence  as  the  barons ;  but  as  they 
pretended  to  a  total  independence  on  the  state, 
and  could  always  cover  themselves  with  the  ap- 
pearances of  religion,  they  proved,  in  one  respect, 
an  obstruction  to  the  settlement  of  the  kingdom, 
and  to  the  regular  execution  of  the  laws.  The 
policy  of  the  conqueror  was  in  this  particular  liable 
to  some  exception.  He  augmented  the  supersti- 
tious veneration  for  Rome,  to  m  hich  that  age  was 
so  much  inclined ;  and  he  broke  those  bands  of 
connection,  which,  in  the  Saxon  times,  had  pre- 
served an  union  between  the  lay  and  the  clerical 
orders.  He  prohibited  the  bishops  from  sitting 
in  the  county  courts ;  he  allowed  ecclesiastical 
causes  to  be  tried  in  spiritual  courts  only ' ;  and  he 
so  much  exalted  the  power  of  the  clergy,  that  of 
60,215  knights  fees,  into  which  he  divided  Eng- 
land, he  placed  no  less  than  28,015  under  ther 
church  *. 

'  Charl.  WiU.  apud  Wilkins,  p.  230.     Spel.  Cone.  vol.  ii.  p.  14. 

'  Spel.  Gloss,  in  verb.  j\Ianus  Mortiia,    We  are  not  to  imagine, 
as  some  have  done,  tliat  tlie  church  possessed  lands  in  this  propor- 
tion, but  only  that  they  and  their  vassals  enjoyed  such  a  propor- 
tionable part  of  the  landed  property. 
2 


324  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 


CIVIL  LAWS, 

The  right  of  primogeniture  was  introduced  with 
the  feudal  law  :  an  institution  which  is  hurtful,  by 
producing  and  maintaining  an  unequal  division  of 
private  piiftperty  ;  but  is  advantageous  in  another 
respect,  by  accustoming  the  people  to  a  prefer- 
ence in  favour  of  the  eldest  son,  and  thereby  pre- 
venting a  partition  or  disputed  succession  in  the 
monarchy.  The  Normans  introduced  the  use  of 
sirnames,  which  tend  to  preserve  the  knowledge 
of  families  and  pedigrees.  They  abolished  none 
of  the  old  absurd  methods  of  trial  by  the  cross  or 
ordeal ;  and  they  added  a  new  absurdity,  the  trial 
by  single  combat ",  m  Inch  became  a  regular  part 
of  jurisprudence,  and  was  conducted  with  all  the 
order,  method,  devotion,  and  solemnity  imagin- 
able^^. The  ideas  of  chivalry  also  seem  to  have 
been  imported  by  the  Normans :  no  traces  of 
those  fantastic  notions  are  to  be  found  among  the 
plain  and  rustic  Saxons. 

MANNERS. 

The  feudal  institutions,  by  raising  the  military 
tenants  to  a  kind  of  sovereign  dignity,  by  render- 

"  LL.  Will,  cap.  68. 
•    *  Spel.  Gloss,  in  verb.  Campus.    The  last  instance  of  these 
tluels  was  in  the  15th  of  EUis..    So  long  did  that  absurdity  remain. 


APPENDIX    II.  325 

iiig  personal  strengtli  and  valour  requisite,  and  by 
niakini>- every  kniglit  and  haron  his  own  protector 
and  avenger,  begat  tliat  martial  pride  and  sense  of 
lionour,  which,  being  cultivated  and  embellished 
by  the  poets  and  romance-writers  of  the  age,  end- 
ed in  chivalry.  The  virtuous  knight  fought  not 
only  in  his  own  quarrel,  but  in  that  of  the  inno- 
cent, of  the  helpless,  and,  above  all,  of  the  fair, 
whom  he  supposed  to  be  for  ever  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  valiant  arm.  The  uncourte- 
ous  knight  who,  from  his  castle,  exercised  rob- 
bery on  travellers,  and  committed  violence  on 
virgins,  M'as  the  object  of  his  perpetual  indigna- 
tion ;  and  he  put  him  to  death,  without  scruple, 
or  trial,  or  appeal,  wherever  he  met  with  him. 
The  great  independence  of  men  made  personal 
honour  and  lidelity  the  chief  tie  among  them; 
and  rendered  it  the  capital  virtue  of  every  true 
knight,  or  genuine  professor  of  chivalry.  The 
solemnities  of  single  combat,  as  established  by 
law,  banished  the  notion  of  every  thing  unfair  or 
unequal  in  rencounters ;  and  maintained  an  ap- 
pearance of  courtesy  between  the  combatants,  till 
the  moment  of  their  engagement.  The  credulity 
of  the  age  grafted  on  this  stock  the  notion  of 
giants,  enchanters,  dragons,  spells",  and  a  thou- 
sand  wonders,   which  still  multiplied  during  the 

"  In  all  leg;il  single  combats,  it  was  part  of  the  champion's 
oath,  that  he  carried  not  about  him  any  herb,  spell,  or  inchant- 
ment,  by  which  he  might  procure  victory.  Dugd.  Orig.  Jurid. 
p.  62. 


326  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND. 

times  of  the  Crusades;  when  men,  returning  from 
so  great  a  distance,  used  the  liberty  of  imposing 
every  fiction  on  their  believing  audience.  These 
ideas  of  chivalry  infected  the  writings,  conversa" 
tion,  and  behaviour  of  men,  during  some  ages ; 
and  even  after  they  were,  in  a  great  measure,  ba- 
nished by  the  revival  of  learning,  they  left  mo- 
dern gallantry  and  the  point  of  honour,  which  still 
maintain  their  influence,  and  are  the  genuine  off- 
spring of  those  ancient  affectations. 

The  concession  of  the  Great  Charter,  or  ra- 
ther its  full  establishment  (for  there  was  a  consi- 
derable interval  of  time  between  the  one  and  the 
other),  gave  rise,  by  degrees,  to  a  new  species  of 
government,  and  introduced  some  order  and  jus- 
tice into  the  administration.  The  ensuing  scenes 
of  our  history  are  therefore  somewhat  different 
from  the  preceding.  Yet  the  Great  Charter  con- 
tained no  establishment  of  new  courts,  magis- 
trates, or  senates,  nor  abolition  of  the  old.  It 
introduced  no  new  distribution  of  the  powers 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  no  innovation  in  the 
political  or  public  law  of  the  kingdom.  It  only 
guarded,  and  that  merely  by  verbal  clauses, 
against  such  tyrannical  practices  as  are  incompa- 
tible with  civilized  government,  and,  if  they  be- 
come very  frequent,  are  incompatible  with  all  go- 
vernment, The  barbarous  licence  of  the  kings, 
and  perhaps  of  the  nobles,  was  thenceforth  some- 
what more  restrained :  men  acquired  some  more 
security  for  their  properties  and  their  hberties : 


APPENDIX    Jl.  327 

and  o-ovcinnient  approached  a  little  nearer  to  that 
end  for  mIhcIi  it  was  originally  instituted,  the 
distribution  of  justice,  and  the  equal  protection 
of  the  citizens.  Acts  of  violence  and  iniquity  in 
the  crown,  ^liich  before  were  only  deemed  in- 
jurious to  individuals,  and  were  hazardous  chiefly 
in  proportion  to  the  number,  power,  and  dignity 
of  the  persons  affected  by  them,  were  noM^  re- 
garded, in  some  degree,  as  public  injuries,  and 
as  infringements  of  a  charter  calculated  for  gene- 
ral security.  And  thus  the  establishment  of  the 
Great  Charter,  without  seeming  anywise  to  inno- 
vate in  tlie  distribution  of  political  power,  became 
a  kind  of  epoch  in  the  constitution. 


■"•Wi 


-^, 


Xlf.Deiaxrt,   iciUp. 


r,:H,/li,,1  Ji,r 


H'nllit  to'/ivrj-iu 


imrj)  tl^e  %Uttj. 


Chap.  Xll.   p.  3/6. 

The  ecclesiastical  order  sent  a  deputation,  consisting  of  four 
prelates,  the  primate,  and  the  bishops  of  Winchester,  Salisbury, 
and  Carlisle,  in  order  to  remonstrate  with  him  on  his  frequent 
violations  of  their  privileges,  the  oppressions  with  which  he  had 
loaded  them  and  all  his  subjects,  and  the  uncanonical  and  forced 
elections  which  were  made  to  vacant  dignities.  "  It  is  true,"  re- 
plied the  king,  "  I  have  been  somewhat  faulty  in  this  particular : 
I  obtruded  you,  my  lord  of  Canterbury,  upon  your  see :  I  was 
obli'^cd  to  employ  both  entreaties  and  menaces,  my  lord  of  Win- 
chester, to  have  you  elected  :  my  proceedings,  I  confess,  were 
very  irregular,  my  lords  of  Salisbury  and  Carlisle,  when  I  raised 
you  from  the  lowest  stations  to  your  present  dignities :  I  am 
determined  henceforth  to  correct  these  abuses  3  and  it  will  also 
become  you,  in  order  to  make  a  thorough  reformation,  to  resign 
your  present  benefices)  and  try  to  enter  again  in  a  more  regular 
and  canonical  manner." 


1210,  HENRY    lU,  ^2g 


CHAPTER   XII. 
HENRY    III. 

Settlement  of  Uie  Government ....  General  Pacification  .... 
Death  of  the  Protector  ....  Some  Commotions  ....  Hubert  de 
Burgh  displaced  ....  The  Bishop  of  Winchester  Minister  .... 

Kuig's  Partiality  to  Foreigners Grievances  ....  Ecclesiastical 

Grievances  ....  Earl  of  Cornwal  elected  King  of  the  Romans 

....  Discontent  of  the  Barons Simon  de  Moujitfort  earl  of 

Leicester  ....  Provisions  for  Oxford  ....  Usurpation  of  tlie 
Barons  . '.  .  .  Prince  Edward  ....  Civil  Wars  of  the  Barons  .... 
Reference  to  the  King  of  France  ....  Renewal  of  tlie  Civil  Wars 
....  Battle  of  Lewes  ....  House  of  Commons ....  Battle  of 
Evesham  and  Deatli  of  Leicester  ....  Settlement  of  the  Govern- 
ment ....  Death  ....  and  Character  of  the  King  ....  Miscel- 
laneous Transactions  of  this  Reign. 

JMost  sciences,  in  proportion  as  they  increase 
and  improve,  invent  methods  by  whicli  they 
facilitate  their  reasonings ;  and,  employing  ge- 
neral theorems,  are  enabled  to  comprehend,  in  ^ 
few  propositions,  a  great  number  of  inferences 
and  conclusions.  History  also,  being  a  collection 
pf  facts  which  are  multiplying  Avithout  end,  is 
obhged  to  adopt  sucli  arts  of  abridgment,  to  re- 
tain the  more  material  events,  and  to  drop  all  the 
minute  circumstances,  which  are  only  interesting 
during  tlie  tjme,  or  to  the  persons  engaged  in  the 


330  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  I2l6. 

transactions.  This  truth  is  no  Avhere  more  evident 
than  V,  ith  regard  to  the  reign  upon  which  we  are 
going   to  enter.     What  mortal   could   have   the 
patience  to  write  or  read  a  long  detail  of  such 
frivolous  events  as  those  with  whicli  it  is  filled, 
or  attend   to   a  tedious   narrative    which   would 
follow,   through   a  series  of  fifty-six  years,    the 
caprices  and  weaknesses  of  so  mean  a  prince  as 
Henry  ?    The  chief  reason  why  protestant  writers 
have  been  so  anxious  to  spread  out  the  incidents 
of  this  reign  is,  in  order  to  expose  the  rapacity, 
ambition,  and  artifices  of  the  court  of  Rome  ;  and 
to  prove  that  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  catholic 
church,  while  they  pretended  to  have  nothing  in 
view  but  the  salvation  of  soids,  had  bent  all  their 
attention  to  the  acquisition  of  riches,  and  Mere 
restrained  by  no  sense  of  justice  or  of  honour  in 
the  pursuit  of  that  great  object  ^      But  this  con- 
clusion Avould  readily  be  allowed  them,  though 
it  were  not  illustrated  by  such  a  detail  of  unin- 
teresting incidents  ;   and  follows,    indeed,    by  an 
evident   necessity,    from    the    very   situation    in 
which  that  church  was  placed  with  regard  to  the 
rest  of  Europe.     For,  besides  that  ecclesiastical 
power,  as  it  can  always  cover  its  operations  under 
a  cloak  of  sanctity,  and  attacks  men  on  the  side 
where  they  dare  not  employ  their  reason,  lies  less 
under  controul  than  civil  government ;    besides 
this  general  cause,  1  say,  the  pope  and  his  courtiers 

V  '^  M.  Paris,  p.  623. 


1216.  HENRY  III.  331 

were  foreigners  to  most  of  tlie  churches  Avhich 
they  governed;  they  could  not  possibly  have  any 
other   object   tlian   to   |)illage   the   provinces   for 
present  gain  ;   and  as  they  hved  at  a  distance, 
they  would  be  little  awed  by  shame  or  remorse, 
in  employing  every  lucrative  expedient  which  was 
suggested  to  them.     England  being  one  of  the 
most  remote  provinces   attached  to  the  Romish 
hierarchy,  as  well  as  the  most  prone   to  super- 
stition, felt  severely,  during  this  reign,  while  its 
patience   was   not  yet  fiUly   exhausted,    the   in- 
fluence of  these  causes  ;  and  we  shall  often  have 
occasion  to  touch  cursorily  upon  such  incidents. 
But  we  shall  not  attempt  to  comprehend  every 
transaction  transmitted  to  us ;  and  till  the  end  of 
the  reign,  Av^hen  the  events  become  more  memor- 
able, we  shall  not  always  observe  an  exact  chro- 
uoloirical  order  in  our  narration. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.     1216. 

The  earl  of  Pembroke,  who,  at  the  time  of  John's 
death,  M^as  mareschal  of  England,  was  by  his  olhce 
at  the  head  of  the  armies,  and  consequently, 
during  a  state  of  civil  wars  and  convulsions,  at 
the  head  of  the  government ;  and  it  happened 
fortunately  for  the  young  monarch  and  for  the 
nation,  that  the  power  could  not  have  been  in- 
trusted into  more  able  and  more  faithful  hands. 
This  nobleman,  who  had  maintained  his  loyalty 
unshaken  to  John  during  the  lowest  fortune  of 


333  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  }2l6* 

that  monarch,  determined  to  support  the  au- 
thority of  the  infant  prince ;  nor  was  he  dismayed 
at  the  number  and  violence  of  his  enemies.  Sen- 
sible that  Henry,  agreeable  to  the  prejudices  of 
the  times,  would  not  be  deemed  a  sovereign  till 
croAvned  and  anointed  by  a  churchman,  he  im- 
mediately carried  the  young  prince  to  Glocester, 
where  the  ceremony  of  coronation  was  performed 
[28th  Oct.],  in  the  presence  of  Gualo  the  legate 
and  of  a  few  noblemen,  by  the  bishops  of  Win- 
chester and  Bath^  As  the  concurrence  of  the 
papal  authority  was  requisite  to  support  the  totter- 
ing throne,  Henry  was  obliged  to  swear  fealty  to 
the  poj)e,  and  renew  that  homage  to  which  his 
father  had  already  subjected  the  kingdom'':  and 
in  order  to  enlarge  the  authority  of  Pembroke, 
and  to  give  him  a  more  regular  and  legal  title  to 
it,  a  general  council  of  the  barons  was  soon  after 
summoned  at  Bristol,  where  that  nobleman  was 
chosen  protector  of  the  realm,   [llth  Nov.] 

Pembroke,  that  he  might  reconcile  all  men  to 
the  government  of  his  pupil,  made  him  grant  a 
new  charter  of  liberties,  which,  though  mostly 
copied  from  the  former  concessions  extorted  from 
John,  contains  some  alterations,  which  may  be 
deemed  remarkable^  The  full  privilege  of  elec- 
tions in  the  clergy,  granted  b}^  the  late  king,  was 
not  confirmed,   nor  the  liberty  of  going  out  of 

""  M.  Paris,  p.  200.     Hist,  Croyl.  Cont.  p.  474.     W.  Heming. 
p.  562.     Trivet,  p.  l68.  "  M.  Paris,  p.  200. 

""  Rymerj  vol.  i.  p.  215. 


1216,  '  tfENRY   lit.  $3» 

tlic  kingdom  witlioiit  tlic  royal  consent :  whence 
^ve  may  conclude,  that  l^enihroke  and  the  harons, 
jealous  of  tlie  ecclesiastical  power,  both  were 
desirous  of  renewing  the  king's  claim  to  issue  a 
■cong6  d'clire  to  the  monks  and  chapters,  and 
thought  it  requisite  to  pnt  some  check  to  the 
frequent  appeals  to  Rome.  But  what  may  chiefly 
■surprise  us  is,  that  the  obligation  to  wliich  John 
had  subjected  himself,  of  obtaining  the  consent 
t)f  the  great  council  before  he  levied  any  aids  or 
scutages  upon  the  nation,  A\as  omitted  ;  and  thi.^ 
article  was  even  declared  hard  and  severe,  and 
was  expressly  left  to  future  deliberation.  But  we 
•must  consider,  that,  though  this  limitation  may 
perhaps  appear  to  us  the  most  momentous  in 
•the  whole  charter  of  John,  it  was  not  regarded  in 
that  lii>ht  bv  the  ancient  barons,  who  were  more 
jealous  in  guarding  against  particular  acts  of 
violence  in  the  crown,  than  against  such  general 
impositions,  which,  unless  they  were  evidently 
r-easonable  and  necessary,  could  scarcely,  without 
general  consent,  be  levied  upon  men  mIio  had 
arms  in  their  hands,  and  who  could  repel  any  act 
of  oppression,  by  which  they  were  all  immediately 
affected.  We  accordingly  find  that  Henry,  in 
the  course  of  his  reign,  while  he  gave  frequent 
occasions  for  complaint,  with  regard  to  his  vio- 
lations of  the  Great  Cliarter,  never  attempted,  by 
his  mere  will,  to  levy  any  aids  or  scutages;  though 
he  was  often  reduced  to  great  necessities,  and  was 
refused  supply  by  liis  |)eople.    So  much  easier  was 


334  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1216- 

it  for  him  to  transgress  the  law,  when  individuals 
alone  were  affected,  than  even  to  exert  his  ac- 
knowledged prerogatives,  where  the  interest  of  the 
whole  body  was  concerned. 

This  charter  was  again  confirmed  by  the  king 
in  the  ensuing  year,  with  the  addition  of  some 
articles  to  prevent  the  oppressions  by  sheriifs :  and 
also  with  an  additional  charter  of  forests,  a  cir- 
cumstance of  great  moment  in  those  ages,  when 
hunting  was  so  much  the  occupation  of  the 
nobility,  and  when  the  king  comprehended  so 
considerable  a  part  of  the  kingdom  within  his 
forests,  which  he  governed  by  peculiar  and  arbi- 
trary laws.  All  the  forests,  which  had  been  in- 
closed since  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  were  dis- 
aforested  ;  and  new  perambulations  were  ap- 
pointed for  that  purpose  :  offences  in  the  forests 
Avere  declared  to  be  no  longer  capital;  but  punish-' 
able  by  fine,  imprisonment,  and  more  gentle  penal- 
ties :  and  all  the  proprietors  of  land  recovered 
the  power  of  cutting  and  using  their  own  wood 
at  their  pleasure. 

Thus  these  famous  charters  were  brought  nearly 
to  the  shape  in  which  they  have  ever  since  stood ; 
and  the}^  were,  during  many  generations,  the 
peculiar  favourites  of  the  English  nation,  and 
esteemed  the  most  sacred  rampart  to  national 
liberty  and  independence.  As  they  secured  the 
rights  of  all  orders  of  men,  they  were  anxiously 
defended  by  all,  and  became  the  basis,  in  a  manner, 
of  the  Enarlish  monarch v,  and  a  kind  of  orioinal 


1216.  HENRY  III.  3a5. 

contract,  wliicli  both  limited  the  authority  of  tlic 
king,  and  ensured  the  conditional  allegiance  of 
his  subjects.  Though  often  violated,  they  wer« 
still  claimed  by  the  nobility  and  people  ;  and  a^ 
no  precedents  were  supposed  valid  that  infringed 
them,  they  rather  acquired  than  lost  authority, 
from  the  frecjuent  attempts  made  against  them  in 
several  ages  by  regal  and  arbitrary  power. 

While  Pembroke,  by  renewing  and  connrming: 
the  Great  Charter,  gave  so  much  satisfaction  and 
security  to  the  nation  in  general,  he  also  apjjlicd 
himself  successfully  to  individuals:  he  wrote  letters, 
in  the  king's  name,  to  all  the  malcontent  barons  ; 
in  which  he   represented  to  them,  that,  whatever 
jealousy  and   animosity   they  might  have  enter- 
tained against  the  late  king,  a  young  prince,  tlm 
lineal  heir  of  their   ancient   monarchs,   had   now 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  without  succeeding  either 
to  the  resentments  or  principles  of  his  predecessor; 
that   the    desperate   expedient,    which   they   had 
employed,   of  calling  in  a  foreign  potentate,  had, 
happily  for  them,  as  well  as  for  the  nation,  failed 
of  entire  success ;  and  it  M'as  still  in  their  power, 
by  a  speedy  return  to  their  duty,  to  restore  the 
independence  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  secure  that 
liberty,  for  which  they  so  zealously  contended  : 
that  as  all  past  oftences  of  the  barons  Mere  now 
buried  in  oblivion,  Uiey  ought,  on  their  part,  to 
forget  their  complaints  against  their  late  sovereign, 
who,  if  he  had  been  anywise  blameable  in  his  con- 
duct, had  left  to  his  son  the  salutaiy  warning,  to 


HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1216. 

avoid  the  paths  which  had  led  to  such  fatal  extre- 
mities :  and  that  having  now  obtained  a  charter 
for  their  liberties,  it  was  their  interest  to  shew,  by 
their  conduct,  that  this  acquisition  was  not  in- 
compatible with  their  allegiance,  and  that  the 
rights  of  king  and  people,  so  far  from  being  hostile 
and  opposite,  might  mutually  support  and  sustain 
each  other  ^ 

These  considerations,  enforced  by  the  charac- 
ter of  honour  and  constancy,  which  Pembroke 
had  ever  maintained,  had  a  mighty  influence  on 
the  barons ;  and  most  of  them  began  secretly  to 
negociate  with  him,  and  many  of  them  openly 
returned  to  their  duty.  The  diffidence  which 
LcAvis  discovered  of  their  fidelity,  forwarded  this 
general  propension  towards  the  king;  and  when 
the  French  prince  refused  the  government  of  the 
castle  of  Hertford  to  Robert  Fitz-Walter,  M'ho 
had  been  so  active  against  the  late  king,  and  who 
claimed  that  fortress  as  his  property,  they  plainly 
saw  that  the  English  were  excluded  from  every 
trust,  and  that  foreigners  had  engrossed  all  the 
confidence  and  affection  of  their  new  sovereign  ^. 
The  excommunication,  too,  denounced  by  the 
legate  against  all  the  adherents  of  Lewis,  failed 
not,  in  the  turn  which  men's  dispositions  had 
taken,  to  produce  a  mighty  effect  upon  them  ;  and 
they  were  easily  persuaded  to  consider  a  cause  as 


Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  215.     Brady's  App,  N'  143. 
*  M.  Paris,  p.  200,  202, 


1216.  HENRY  III.  337 

impious,  for  Avbicli  they  had  already  entertained 
an  unsunnoiintable  aversion ^  Thoui^li  Lewis 
made  a  journey  to  Trance,  and  brought  over 
succours  from  that  kingdom^,  he  found  on  his 
return,  tliat  his  party  was  still  more  M-eakencd  by 
tlie  d(!scrtion  of  his  English  confederates,  and  tjiat 
the  death  of  John  had,  contrary  to  his  expecta- 
tions, given  an  incurable  wound  to  his  cause. 
The  carls  of  Salisbury,  Arundel,  and  Warrenne, 
together  with  William  Mareshal,  eldest  son  of 
the  protector,  had  embraced  Henry's  party;  and 
every  English  nobleman  was  plainly  watching  for 
an  opportunity  of  returning  to  his  allegiance. 
Pembroke  was  so  much  strengthened  by  these 
accessions,  that  he  ventured  to  infest  Mount- 
sorel;  though,  upon  the  approach  of  the  count  of 
Perche  M'ith  the  French  army,  he  desisted  from 
his  enterprise,  and  raised  the  sieged  The  count, 
elated  with  this  success,  marched  to  Lincoln  ;  and 
being  admitted  into  the  town,  he  began  to  attack 
the  castle,  which  he  soon  reduced  to  extremity. 
The  protector  summoned  all  his  forces  from  every 
quarter,  in  order  to  relieve  a  place  of  such  import- 
ance ;  and  he  appeared  so  much  superior  to  the 
French,  that  they  shut  themselves  up  within  the 
city,  and  resolved  to  act  upon  the  defensive''.  But 
the  garrison  of  the  castle,  having  received  a  strong 
reinforcement,   made  a  vigorous  sally  upon   the 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  200.     M.  West.  p.  277. 
'  Chron.  Dun^.  vol.  i.  p.  79.      M.  West.  p.  277. 
*  M.  Paris,  p.  203.  ''  Chron,  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  81. 

VOL.  II.  Z 


338  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  121^ 

besiegers ;  while  the  English  army,  by  concert, 
assaulted  them  in  the  same  instant  from  without, 
mounted  the  walls  by  scalade,  and  bearing  down 
all  resistance,  entered  the  city  sword  in  hand. 
Lincoln  was  deliv'ered  over  to  be  pillaged ;  the 
French  army  was  totally  routed ;  the  count  of 
Perche,  with  only  two  persons  more,  was  killed  ; 
but  many  of  the  chief  commanders,  and  about  400 
knights,  were  made  prisoners  by  the  English',  So 
little  blood  was  shed  in  this  important  action, 
which  decided  the  fate  of  one  of  the  most  powerful 
kingdoms  in  Europe ;  and  such  wretched  soldiers 
were  those  ancient  barons,  who  yet  were  unac- 
quainted with  every  thing  but  arms  ! 

Prince  Lewds  was  informed  of  this  fatal  event 
while  employed  in  the  siege  of  Dover  which  was 
still  valiantly  defended  against  him  by  Hubert  de 
Burgh.  He  immediately  retreated  to  London,  the 
centre  and  life  of  his  party ;  and  he  there  received 
mtelligence  of  a  new  disaster,  which  put  an  end 
to  all  his  hopes.  A  French  fleet  bringing  over 
a  strong  reinforcement,  had  appeared  on  the  coast 
of  Kent,  where  they  were  attacked  by  the  English 
under  the  command  of  Philip  d'Albiney,  and 
were  routed  with  considerable  loss.  D'Albiney 
employed  a  stratagem  against  them,  which  is  said 
to  have  contributed  to  the  victory :  having  gained 
the  wind  of  the  French,  he  came  down  upon  them 
with  violence;  and  throwing  in  their  faces  a  great 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  204,  205.     Chron.  de  Mailr.  p.  195, 


1216.  HENTxY  Iir.  339 

quantity  of  quick-lime  wliich  he  purposely  carried 
on  board,  he  so  blinded  tlicni,  that  they  were  dis* 
abled  from  defending  themselves ''. 

After  this  second  misfortune  of  the  French, 
the  English  barons  hastened  every  M'here  to  make 
peace  witli  the  protector,  and  by  an  early  sub^ 
mission  to  prevent  those  attainders  to  Mhich  they 
Mere  exposed  on  account  of  their  rebellion.  Lewis, 
M  hose  cause  was  now  totally  desperate^  began  to 
be  anxious  for  the  safety  of  his  person,  and  was 
glad,  on  any  honourable  conditions,  to  make  his 
escape  from  a  country  w  here  he  found  every  thing 
Mas  noM^  become  hostile  to  him.  He  concluded  a 
peace  M^ith  Pembroke,  promised  to  evacuate  the 
kingdom,  and  only  stipulated,  in  return,  an  in- 
demnity to  his  adherents,  and  a  restitution  of 
their  honours  and  fortunes,  together  M'ith  the  free 
and  equal  enjoyment  of  those  liberties  M'hich  had 
been  o;ranted  to  the  rest  of  the  nation'.  Thus 
Mas  happily  ended  a  civil  war,  Mhich  seemed  to 
be  founded  on  the  most  incurable  hatred  and 
jealousy,  and  had  threatened  the  kingdom  M'ith 
the  most  fatal  consequences. 

The  precautions  Mhich  the  king  of  France 
used  in  the  conduct  of  this  Avhole  afllair  are  re- 
markable, lie  pretended  that  liis  son  had  accepted 
of  the  offer  from  the  English  barons  without  his 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  206.   Ann.  Waved,  p.  183.   \V.  Heming.  p.  563. 
Trivet,  p.  169.    M.  West.  p.  277.    Knyghton,  p.  2428, 

'Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  221.     M.  Paris,  p.  207.     Chron,  Dunst. 
vol.  i.  p.  83.    M.  West.  p.  278.    Knyghton,  p.  2422, 
2 


340  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  121(3. 

advice,  and  contrary  to  his  inclination :  tlie  armies 
sent  to  England  were  levied  in  Lewis's  name : 
when  that  prince  came  over  to  France  for  aid,  his 
father  publicly  refused  to  grant  him  any  assist- 
ance, and  would  not  so  much  as  admit  him  to  his 
presence  :  even  after  Henry's  party  acquired  the 
ascendant,  and  Lewis  was  in  danger  of  falling 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  it  was  Blanche  of 
Castile  his  wife,  not  the  king  his  father,  who 
raised  armies  and  equipped  fleets  for  his  succour"*. 
All  these  artifices  Avere  employed,  not  to  satisfy 
the  pope ;  for  he  had  too  much  penetration  to  be 
so  easily  imposed  on :  nor  yet  to  deceive  the 
people  ;  for  they  were  too  gross  even  for  that 
purpose  :  they  only  served  for  a  colouring  to 
Philip's  cause ;  and  in  public  affairs,  men  are 
often  better  pleased  that  the  truth,  though  known 
to  every  body,  should  be  wrapped  up  under  a 
decent  cover,  than  if  it  were  exposed  in  open 
daylight  to  the  eyes  of  all  the  world. 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  French,  the  prud- 
ence and  equity  of  the  protector's  subsequent  con- 
duct contributed  to  cure  entirely  those  wounds 
which  had  been  made  by  intestine  discord.  He 
received  the  rebeUious  barons  into  favour :  ob- 
served strictly  the  terms  of  peace  which  he  had 
granted  them  ;  restored  them  to  their  possessions; 
and  endeavoured,  by  an  equal  behaviour,  to  bury 
all  past  animosities  in  perpetual  oblivion.     The 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  256,     Chron.  Dunst,  vol.  i.  p.  82. 


1216.  HENRY  III.  341 

clergy  alone,  who  had  adhered  to  Lewis,  were  suf- 
ferers in  this  revolution.  As  they  had  rebelled 
against  their  spiritual  sovereign,  by  disregarding 
the  interdict  and  excommunication,  it  was  not  in 
Pembroke's  power  to  make  any  stipulations  in 
their  favour;  and  Gualo  the  legate  prepared  to 
take  vengeance  on  them  for  their  disobedience". 
]\Iany  of  them  were  deposed;  many  suspended; 
some  banished ;  and  all  who  escaped  punishment 
made  atonement  for  their  offence  by  paying  large 
sums  to  the  legate,  who  amassed  an  immense 
treasure  by  this  expedient. 

DEATH  OF  THE  PROTECTOR. 

Thf.  earl  of  Pembroke  did  not  long  survive  the 
pacification,  which  had  been  chiefly  owing  to  his 
wisdom  and  valour  ° ;  and  he  was  succeeded  in 
the  government  by  Peter  des  Roches,  bishop  of 
Winchester,  and  Hubert  de  Burgh  the  justiciary. 
The  counsels  of  the  latter  were  chiefly  followed  ; 
and  had  he  possessed  equal  authority  in  the  king- 
dom with  Pembroke,  he  seemed  to  be  every  way 
worthy  of  filling  the  place  of  that  virtuous  noble- 
man. But  the  licentious  and  })Owerful  barons, 
who  had  once  broken  the  reins  of  subjection  to 
their  prince,  and  had  obtained  by  violence  an 
enlargement  of  their  liberties  and  independence, 
could  ill  be  restrained  by  laws  under  a  minority  ; 

"  Brady's  Ap.  N°  144.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  83. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  210. 


342  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1310. 

and  the  people,  no  less  than  the  king,  suffered 
from  their  outrages  and  disorders.  They  retained 
by  force  the  royal  castles,  which  they  had  seized 
during  the  past  convulsions,  or  Avhich  had  been 
committed  to  their  custody  by  the  protector  ^ : 
they  usurped  the  king's  demesnes  i:  they  op- 
pressed their  vassals  :  they  infested  their  weaker 
neighbours :  they  invited  all  disorderly  people  to 
enter  in  their  retinue,  and  to  live  upon  their  lands: 
and  they  gave  them  protection  in  all  their  rob- 
beries and  extortions. 

No  one  was  more  infamous  for  these  violent 
and  illegal  practices  than  the  earl  of  Albemarle  ; 
who,  though  he  had  early  returned  to  his  duty, 
and  had  been  serviceable  in  expelling  the  French, 
augmented  to  the  utmost  the  general  disorder, 
and  committed  outrages  in  all  the  counties  of  the 
North.  In  order  to  reduce  him  to  obedience, 
Hubert  seized  an  opportunity  of  getting  possession 
of  Rockingham  castle,  which  Albemarle  had  garri- 
soned with  his  licentious  retinue  :  but  this  noble- 
man, instead  of  submitting,  entered  into  a  secret 
confederacy  with  Fawkes  de  Breaute,  Peter  de 
Mauleon,  and  other  barons,  and  both  fortified 
the  castle  of  Biham  for  his  defence,  and  made 
himself  master,  by  surprise,  of  that  of  Fotheringay. 
Pandulf,  who  was  restored  to  his  legateship,  was 
active  in  suppressing  this  rebellion  ;  and  with  the 
concurrence  of  eleven  bishops,  he  pronounced  the 

"  Trivet,  p.  174.       '  '^  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  276. 


1216.  HENRY  ITI.  343 

sentence  of  excommunication  against  Albemarle 
and  his  adherents'':  an  army  was  levied  :  a  scutage 
of  ten  shilhngs,  a  knight's  fee,  was  imposed  on 
all  the  military  tenants:  Albemarle's  associates 
gradually  deserted  him  :  and  he  himself  was 
obliged  at  last  to  sue  for  mercy.  He  received  a 
pardon,  and  was  restored  to  his  whole  estate. 

This  impolitic  lenity,  too  frequent  in  those 
times,  was  probably  the  result  of  a  secret  combina- 
tion among  the  barons,  who  never  could  endure 
to  see  the  total  ruin  of  one  of  their  own  order : 
but  it  encouraged  Fawkes  deBreaut<^%  a  man  whom 
king  John  bad  raised  from  a  low  origin,  to  persevere 
in  the  course  of  violence  to  M'hich  he  had  owed  his 
fortune,  and  to  set  at  nought  all  law  and  justice. 
AVhen  thirty-five  verdicts  were  at  one  time  found 
against  him,  on  account  of  his  violent  expulsion 
of  so  many  freeholders  from  their  possessions  ;  he 
came  to  the  court  of  justice  with  an  armed  force, 
seized  the  judge  M^ho  had  pronounced  the  verdicts, 
and  imprisoned  him  in  Bedford  castle.  He  then 
levied  open  war  against  the  king;  but  being  sub- 
dued and  taken  prisoner,  his  life  Mas  granted 
him ;  but  his  estate  was  confiscated,  and  he  was 
banished  the  kingdom". 

Justice  was  executed  with  greater  severity 
against  disorders  less  premeditated  which  broke 
out  in  London.    A  frivolous  emulation  in  a  match 

•■  Chron,  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  102. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  198.    M.  Paris,  p.  221,  224.    Ann.  Waved, 
p.  188.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  141,  146.    M.  West.  p.  283. 


344  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1222. 

of  wrestling,  between  the  Londoners  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Westminster  and 
those  of  the  neighbouring  villages  on  the  other, 
occasioned  this  commotion.  The  former  rose  in 
a  body,  and  pulled  down  some  houses  belonging 
to  the  abbot  of  Westminster :  but  this  riot,  which, 
considering  the  tumultuous  disposition  familiar 
to  that  capital,  would  have  been  httle  regarded, 
seemed  to  become  more  serious  by  the  symptoms 
which  then  appeared,  of  the  former  attachment  of 
the  citizens  to  the  French  interest.  The  popu- 
lace, in  the  tumult,  made  use  of  the  cry  of  war 
commonly  employed  by  the  French  troops; 
Mountjoy,  mountjoy,  God  help  iis  and  our  lord 
Leivis.  The  justiciary  made  enquiry  into  the  dis- 
order ;  and  finding  one  Constantine  Fitz-Arnulf 
to  have  been  the  ringleader,  an  insolent  man,  who 
justiiied  his  crime  in  Hubert's  presence,  he  pro- 
ceeded against  him  by  martial  law,  and  ordered 
him  immediately  to  be  hanged,  Avithout  trial  or 
form  of  process.  Fie  also  cut  off  the  feet  of  some 
of  Constantine's  accomphces  \ 

This  act  of  power  was  complained  of  as  an  in- 
fringement of  the  Great  Charter :  yet  the  justi- 
ciary, in  a  parliament  summoned  at  Oxford,  (for 
the  great  councils  about  this  time  began  to  receive 
that  appellation,)  made  no  scruple  to  grant  in 
the  king's  name  a  renewal  and  confirmation  of 
that  charter.     When  the  assembly  made  applica- 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  217,  218,  259.     -Ann.  Waverl.  p.  187.     Chron. 
Dunst,  vol.  i.  p.  129. 


1222.  HENRY    III.  345 

tion  to  tlie  crown  for  this  favour,  as  a  law  in  tho.se 
times  seemed  to  lose  its  validity  if  not  frequently 
renewed,  William  dc  Briewere,  one  of  the  coun- 
cil of  regency,  was  so  bold  as  to  say  openly,  that 
those  liberties  were  extorted  by  force,  and  ought 
not  to  be  observed  :  but  he  was  reprimanded  by 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  was  not  coun- 
tenanced by  the  king  or  his  chief  ministers ".  A 
new  confirmation  was  demanded  and  granted  two 
years  after;  and  an  aid,  amounting  to  a  fifteenth 
of  all  moveables,  was  given  by  the  parliament,  in 
return  for  this  indulgence.  The  king  issued  writs 
anew  to  the  sheriffs,  enjoining  the  observance  of 
the  charter  ;  but  he  inserted  a  remarkable  clause 
in  the  writs,  that  those  who  payed  not  the  fif- 
teenth should  not  for  the  future  be  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  those  liberties"'. 

The  low  state  into  which  the  crown  was  fallen 
made  it  requisite  for  a  good  minister  to  be  atten- 
tive to  the  preservation  of  the  royal  prerogatives, 
as  well  as  to  the  security  of  public  liberty.  Hu- 
bert applied  to  the  pope,  who  had  always  great 
authority  in  the  kingdom,  and  was  now  consider- 
ed as  its  superior  lord  ;  and  desired  him  to  issue  a 
bull,  declaring  the  king  to  be  of  full  age,  and  en- 
titled to  exercise  in  person  all  the  acts  of  royal  ty\ 
In  consequence  of  this  declaration,  the  justiciary 
resigned  into  Henry's  hands  the  two  important 
fortresses  of  the  Tower  and  Dover  castle,   which 

"  M.  West.  p.  262.  *  Clause  9  H.  3,  m.  g.  and  m,  6.  d. 

*  M.  Paris^  p.  220. 


M6  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1222. 

had  been  entrusted  to  his  custody ;  and  he  re- 
quired the  other  barons  to  imitate  his  example. 
Tliey  refused  comphance :  the.  earls  of  Chester 
and  Albemarle,  John  Constable  of  Chester,  John 
de  Lacy,  Brian  de  I'Isle,  and  William  de  Cantel, 
with  some  others,  even  formed  a  conspiracy  to 
surprise  London,  and  met  in  arms  at  Waltham 
with  that  intention:  but  finding  the  king  pre- 
pared for  defence,  they  desisted  from  their  enter- 
prise. When  summoned  to  court,  in  order  to  an- 
swer for  their  conduct,  they  scrupled  not  to  ap- 
pear, and  to  confess  the  design  :  but  they  told  the 
king,  that  they  had  no  bad  intentions  against  his 
person,  but  only  against  Hubert  de  Burgh,  whom 
they  were  determined  to  remove  from  his  office^ 
They  appeared  too  formidable  to  be  chastised  ; 
and  they  were  so  little  discouraged  by  the  failure 
of  their  first  enterprise,  that  they  again  met  in 
arms  at  Leicester,  in  order  to  seize  the  king,  who 
then  resided  at  Northampton :  but  Henry,  in- 
formed of  their  purpose,  took  care  to  be  so  M^ell 
armed  and  attended,  that  the  barons  found  it 
dangerous  to  make  the  attempt ;  and  they  sat 
down  and  kept  Christmas  in  his  neighbourhood  ^ 
The  archbishop  and  tbe  prelates,  finding  every 
thing  tending  towards  a  civil  war,  interposed  with 
their  authority,  and  threatened  the  barons  Avith 
the  sentence  of  excommunication,  if  they  persist- 
ed in  detaining  the  king's  castles.     This  menace 

y  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  137- 
'  M.  PaiiSj  p.  221.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  138. 


1222.  HENRY    III.  3'J7 

at  last  prevailed  :  most  of  the  ibitresses  were  sur- 
rendered ;  though  the  barons  complained,  that 
Hubert's  castles  were  soon  after  restored  to  him, 
^\'hile  the  king  still  kept  theirs  in  his  own  custo- 
dy. There  are  said  to  have  been  1 1 IJ  castles  at 
that  time  in  England  \  • 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  tliat  the  influence 
ef  the  prelates  and  the  clergy  m  as  often  of  great 
service  to  the  puldic.  Though  the  religion  of 
that  aoe  can  merit  no  better  name  tlian  tliat  of 
superstition,  it  served  to  unite  together  a  body  of 
men  who  had  great  sway  over  the  people,  and  who 
kept  the  connnunity  from  falling  to  pieces  by  the 
faQtions  and  independent  power  of  the  nobles. 
And  what  was  of  great  importance,  it  threw  a 
mighty  authority  into  the  hands  of  men,  who,  ])y 
their  profession,  were  averse  to  arms  and  violence; 
who  tempered  by  their  mediation  the  general  dis- 
position towards  military  enterprises  ;  and  who 
still  maintained,  even  amidst  the  shock  of  arms, 
those  secret  links,  without  which  it  is  impossible 
for  human  society  to  subsist. 

Notwithstanding  these  intestine  commotions 
in  England,  and  the  precarious  authority  of  the 
crown,  Henry  was  obliged  to  carry  on  war  in 
France;  and  he  employed  to  that  purpose  the 
fifteenth  which  had  been  granted  him  by  parlia- 
ment. Eewis  VIII.  who  had  succeeded  to  his  f  i- 
ther  Philip,   instead  of  complying  with  Henry's 

*  Coke's  Comment,  on  Magna  Charta^  chap.  J/. 


348  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1222. 

claim,  Avho  demanded  the  restitution  of  Norman- 
dy, and  tlie  other  provinces  wrested  from  Eng- 
land, made  an  irruption  into  Poictou,  took  Ro- 
chelle^,  after  a  long  siege,  and  seemed  deter- 
mined to  expel  the  English  from  the  few  pro- 
vinces which  still  remained  to  them.  Henry  sent 
over  his  uncle,  the  earl  of  Salisbury,  together 
with  his  brother  prince  Richard,  to  whom  he  had 
granted  the  earldom  of  Cornwal,  which  had  es- 
cheated to  the  croMm.  Salisbury  stopped  the  pro- 
gress of  Lewis's  arms,  and  retained  the  Poictevin 
and  Gascon  vassals  in  their  allegiance  :  but  no 
military  action  of  any  moment  was  performed  on 
either  side.  The  earl  of  Cornwal,  after  two  years' 
stay  in  Guienne,   returned  to  England. 

This  prince  Avas  nowise  turbulent  or  factious 
in  his  disposition  :  his  ruling  passion  was  to  amass 
money,  in  which  he  succeeded  so  well  as  to  be- 
come the  richest  subject  in  Christendom  :  yet  his 
attention  to  gain  threw  him  sometimes  into  acts 
of  violence,  and  gave  disturbance  to  the  govern- 
ment. There  was  a  manor,  which  had  formerly 
belonged  to  the  earldom  of  Cornwal,  but  had 
been  granted  to  Waleran  de  Ties,  before  Richard 
had  been  invested  with  that  dignity,  and  while 
the  earldom  remained  in  the  crown.  Richard 
claimed  this  manor,  and  expelled  the  proprietor 
by  force :  Waleran  complained  :  the  king  ordered 
his  brother  to  do  justice  to  the  man,   and  restore 

-  ^  Rymei-y  vol.  i.  p.  16q.     Trivet,  p.  279. 


1222.  HENRY    III.  349 

him  to  his  rights :  the  carl  said,  that  lie  wouUl 
not  submit  to  these  orders,  till  the  cause  should  be 
decided  against.him  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers  : 
Henry  rcpHcd,  that  it  was  first  necessary  to  rein- 
state W'aleran  in  possession,  before  the  cause 
could  be  tried  ;  and  he  reiterated  liis  orders  to  the 
earP.  We  may  judge  of  the  state  of  the  govern- 
ment, when  this  affair  had  nearly  produced  a  civil 
war.  The  carl  of  Cornwal,  finding  Henry  per- 
emptory in  his  commands,  associated  himself 
with  the  young  earl  of  Pembroke,  who  had  mar- 
ried his  sister,  and  who  was  displeased  on  account 
of  the  king's  recpiiring  him  to  deliver  up  some 
royal  castles  Vv  hich  m  ere  in  his  custody.  These 
two  malcontents  took  into  the  confederacy  the 
earls  of  Chester,  Warrenne,  Clocester,  Hereford, 
AVarwic,  and  Ferrers,  who  were  all  disgusted  on 
a  hke  account**.  They  assembled  an  army,  M'hich 
the  king  had  not  the  power  or  courage  to  resist ; 
and  he  was  obliged  to  give  his  brother  satisfac- 
tion, by  grants  of  much  greater  importance  than 
the  manor,  M'hich  had  been  the  first  ground  of 
the  quarrels 

Thji  character  of  the  king,  as  he  grew  to  man's 
estate,  became  every  day  better  known ;  and  he 
was  found  in  every  respect  unqualified  for  main- 
taining a  proper  sway  among  those  turbulent 
barons,  whom  the  feudal  constitution  subjected 
to  his  authority.     Gentle,  humane,  and  merciful, 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  233.  ">  Ibid.  « Ibid. 


350  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1227. 

even  to  a  fault,  he  seems  to  have  been  steady  in 
no  other  circumstance  of  his  character ;  but  to 
have  received  every  impression  from  those  mIio 
surrounded  him,  and  whom  he  loved,  for  the 
time,  with  the  most  imprudent  and  most  unreserv- 
ed affection.  Without  activity  or  vigour,  he  was 
unfit  to  conduct  war;  without  policy  or  art,  he 
was  ill  fitted  to  maintain  peace  :  his  resentments, 
though  hasty  and  violent,  were  not  dreaded,  while 
he  was  found  to  drop  them  with  such  facilit}' ;  his 
friendships  were  little  valued,  because  they  were 
neither  derived  from  choice,  nor  maintained  with 
constancy.  A  proper  pageant  of  state  in  a  regular 
monarch}^,  where  his  ministers  could  have  con- 
ducted all  affairs  in  his  name  and  by  his  autho- 
rity; but  too  feeble  in  those  disorderl}^  times  to 
sway  a  sceptre,  whose  weight  depended  entirely 
on  the  firmness  and  dexterity  of  the  hand  which 
held  it. 


HUBERT  DE  BURGH  DISPLACED.     1227. 

The  ablest  and  most  virt^ious  minister  that-Henry 
ever  possessed,  was  Hubert  de  Burgh  ^;  a  man 
who  had  been  steady  to  the  crown  in  the  most 
difhcult  and  dangerous  times,  and  who  yet  show- 
ed no  disposition,  in  the  height  of  his  power,  to 
enslave  or  oppress  the  people.     The  only  excep- 

'  Ypod,  NeubtriciC;,  p.  464. 


1231.  HENRY  III.  351 

tionable  part  of  liis  coiuUict  is  tliat  M-hich  is  men- 
tioned by  Matthew  Paris  s  ;  if  the  faet  be  really 
true,  and  proeeeded  from  Hubert's  advice,  name- 
ly, the  recalling-  publicly  and  the  annulling  of 
the  charter  of  forests,  a  concession  so  reasonable 
in  itself,  and  so  passionately  claimed  both  by  the 
nobility  and  people  :  but  it  must  be  confessed  that 
this  measure  is  so  unhkely,  both  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times  and  character  of  the  minis- 
ter, that  there  is  reason  to  doubt  of  its  reality, 
especially  as  it  is  mentioned  by  no  other  historian. 
Hubert,  while  he  enjoyed  his  authority,  had  an 
entire  ascendant  over  Henry,  and  was  loaded  with 
honours  and  f uours  beyond  any  other  subject. 
Besides  acquiring  the  property  of  many  castles 
and  manors,  he  married  the  eldest  sister  of  the 
king  of  Scots,  was  created  earl  of  Kent,  and,  by 
an  unusual  concession,  was  miide  chief  justiciary 
of  England  for  life  :  yet  Henry,  in  a  sudden  ca- 
price, threw  off  this  faithful  minister,  and  exposed 
him  to  the  violent  persecutions  of  his  enemies. 
Among  other  frivolous  crimes  objected  to  him,  he 
was  accused  of  gaining  the  king's  affections  by  en- 
chantment, and  of  purloining  from  the  ro}'al  trea- 
sui-}-,  a  gem,  which  had  the  virtue  to  render  the 
wearer  invulnerable,  and  of  sending  this  valuable 
curiosity  to  the  prince  of  Wales  ^  The  nobility, 
who  hated  Hubert  on  account  of  his  zeal  in  re- 
suming the  rights  and  possessions  of  the  crown, 

'  P.  232.  M.  West,  p,  2 1 6.  ascribes  this  counsel  to  Peter  bishop 
of  Winchester.  ''  M.  Paris^  p.  259. 


352  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1231. 

no  sooner  saw  the  opportunity  favourable,  than 
they  inflamed  the  king's  animosity  against  him, 
and  pushed  him  to  seek  the  total  ruin  of  his  mi- 
nister. Hul)ert  took  sanctuary  in  a  church  :  the 
kino:  ordered  him  to  be  drao-oed  from  thence : 
he  recalled  those  orders :  he  afterwards  renewed 
them  :  he  was  obliged  by  the  clergy  to  restore  him 
to  the  sanctuary :  he  constrained  him  soon  after 
to  surrender  himself  prisoner,  and  he  confined 
him  in  the  castle  of  the  Devizes.  Hubert  made 
his  escape,  was  expelled  the  kingdom,  Avas  again 
received  into  favour,  recovered  a  great  share  of 
the  king's  confidence,  but  never  shewed  any  in- 
clination to  reinstate  himself  in  power  and  au- 
thority '. 


BISHOP  OF  WINCHESTER  MINISTER. 

The  man  who  succeeded  him  in  the  government 
of  the  king  and  kingdom,  was  Peter  bishop  of 
Winchester,  a  Poictevin  by  birth,  who  had  been 
raised  by  the  late  king,  and  who  was  no  less  dis- 
tinguished by  his  arbitrary  principles  and  violent 
conduct,  than  by  his  courage  and  abilities.  This 
*  prelate  had  been  left  by  king  John  justiciary  and 
regent  of  the  kingdom  during  an  expedition  which 
that  prince  made  into  France;  and  his  illegal  ad- 

'  M,  Paris,  p.  259,  260,  26l,  266.  Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  41, 
42.  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  220,  221.  M.  West.  p.  29I, 
301. 


1231.  HENRY    III.  353 

nnnistnition  Avas  one  chief  cause  of  that  great 
combination  among  tlie  batons^  ^^llich  finally  ex- 
torted from  the  crown  the  charter  of  liberties,  and 
laid  the  foundations  oF  the  English  constitution. 
Henry,  though  incapable,  from  his  character,  of 
pursuing  the  same  violent  maxims  M'hich  had  go- 
verned his  father,  had  imbil^ed  the  same  arbitrary 
principles  :  and  in  prosecution  of  Peter's  advice, 
he  invited  over  a  great  number  of  Poictevins,  and 
other  foreigners,  who,  he  believed,  could  more 
safely  be  trusted  than  the  English,  and  who  seem- 
ed useful  to  counterbalance  the  great  and  inde- 
pendent power  of  the  nobility  ^.  Every  office  and 
command  was  bestowed  on  these  strangers ;  they 
exhausted  the  revenues  of  the  crown,  already  too 
much  impoverished';  they  invaded  the  rights  of 
the  people ;  and  their  insolence,  still  more  pro- 
voking than  their  power,  drew  on  them  the 
hatred  and  envy  of  all  orders  of  men  in  the 
king-dom"". 

The  barons  formed  a  combination  against  this 
odious  ministry,  and  withdrew  from  parliament, 
on  pretence  of  the  danger  to  which  they  were  ex- 
posed from  the  machinations  of  the  Poictevins. 
When  again  summoned  to  attend,  they  gave  for 
answer,  that  the  king  should  dismiss  liis  foreign- 
ers, otherwise  they  would  drive  both  him  and 
them  out  of  the  kingdom,  and  })ut  the  crown  on 
another  head  more  worthy  to  wear  it":  such  wa<* 

''  M.  Paris,  p,  263.  '  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  151. 

■"  M.  Paris,  p.  258,  "  Ibid.  p.  205. 

VOL.    II.  A  A 


354  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1231- 

the  style  they  used  to  their  sovereign  !  They  at 
last  came  to  parliament,  but  so  Avell  attended,  that 
they  seemed  in  a  condition  to  prescribe  laws  to  the 
king  and  ministry.  Peter  des  Roches,  however, 
had  in  the  interval  found  means  of  sowing  dissen- 
sion among  them,  and  of  bringing  over  to  his 
j)arty  th«  earl  of  Cornwal,  as  well  as  the  earls  of 
Lincoln  and  Chester.  The  confederates  were  dis- 
concerted in  their  measures  :  Richard,  earl  mare- 
schal,  who  had  succeeded  to  that  dignity  on  the 
death  of  his  brother  WilHam,  was  chased  into 
Wales ;  he  thence  withdrew  into  Ireland  where 
he  was  treacherously  murdered  by  the  contriv- 
ance of  the  bishop  of  Winchester".  The  estates 
of  the  more  obnoxious  barons  were  confiscated, 
Avithout  legal  sentence  or  trial  by  their  peers'', 
and  were  bestowed  with  a  profuse  liberality  on 
the  Poictevins,  Peter  even  carried  his  insolence 
so  far  as  to  declare  publicly,  that  the  barons  of 
England  must  not  ])rctend  to  put  themselves  on 
the  same  foot  with  those  of  France,  or  assume  the 
same  liberties  and  privileges  :  the  monarch  in  the 
former  country  had  a  more  absolute  power  than  in 
the  latter.  It  had  been  more  justifiable  for  him 
to  have  said,  that  men,  so  unwilling  to  submit  to 
the  authority  of  laws,  could  with  the  worse  grace 
claim  any  shelter  or  protection  from  them. 

When  the  king  at  any  time  was  checked  in  hh 
illegal  practices,   and  v»dien  the  authority  of  the 

•  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  219.  ,  ^  M.  Paris,  p.  2(55. 


1238.  HENRY     III.  353 

Great  Charter  was  ohjectcd  to  him,  he  was  Mont 
to  reply;  '*  ^Vh}-  should  I  ohserve  this  cliarter, 
M'hicli  is  neglected  by  all  my  grandees,  both  |>ie- 
latcs  and  nobility?"  It  was  Very  reasonably  said 
to  him  ;  "  You  ought,  sir,  to  set  them  the  ex- 
ample'!." 

So  violent  a  ministry  as  that  of  the  bishop  of 
Winchester  could  not  be  of  long  duration ;  but 
its  fall  proceeded  at  last  from  the  influence  of  the 
church,  not  from  the  efforts  of  the  nobles.  Ed- 
mond,  the  primate,  came  to  court,  atiended  by 
man}^  of  the  other  prelates,  and  represented  to 
the  king  the  pernicious  measures  embraced  by 
Peter  des  Roches,  the  discontents  of  his  people, 
the  ruin  of  his  affairs  ;  and,  after  requiring  the 
dismission  of  the  minister  and  his  associates, 
threatened  him  with  excommunication  in  case  of 
liis  refusal.  Henry,  who  knew  that  an  excom- 
munication so  agreeable  to  the  sense  of  the  people, 
could  not  fail  of  producing  the  most  dangerous 
effects,  was  obli<2:ed  to  submit :  forei<>:ners  Mere 
banished  :  the  natives  were  restored  to  their  place 
in  council ' :  the  primate,  who  was  a  man  of  pru- 
dence, and  who  took  care  to  execute  the  laws, 
and  observe  the  charter  of  liberties,  bore  the  chief 
sway  in  the  government. 

"^  M.  PariSj  p.  6og.  ""M.  Paris,  p.  2?!,  273. 


356  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1236, 


KING'S  PARTIALITY  TO  FOREIGNERS.     1236> 

But  the  English  in  vain  flattered  themselves  that 
they  should  be  long  free  from  the  dominion  of 
foreigners.  The  king,  having  married  Eleanor 
daughter  of  the  count  of  Provence",  was  surround- 
ed by  a  great  number  of  strangers  from  that 
country,  whom  he  caressed  with  the  fondest  affec- 
tion, and  enriched  by  an  imprudent  generosity  ^ 
The  bishop  of  Valence,  a  prelate  of  the  house  of 
Savoy,  and  maternal  uncle  to  the  queen,  was  his 
chief  minister,  and  employed  every  art  to  amass 
wealth  for  himself  and  his  relations.  Peter  of  Sa- 
voy, a  brother  of  the  same  family,  was  invested 
in  the  honour  of  Richmond,  and  received  the 
rich  wardship  of  earl  Warrenne  :  Boniface  of  Sa- 
voy was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Canterbury:  many 
young  ladies  were  invited  over  from  Provence, 
and  married  to  the  chief  noblemen  in  England, 
who  were  the  king's  wards  ".  And  as  the  source 
of  Henry's  bounty  began  to  fail,  his  Savoyard  mi- 
nistry applied  to  Rome,  and  abtained  a  bull ;  per- 
mitting him  to  resume  all  past  grants ;  absolving 
him  from  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  to  main- 
tain them ;  even  enjoining  him  to  make  such  a 
resumption,,  and  representing  those  grants  as  in- 

'  Rymer,  vol.  1 .  p.  448.     M.  Paris,  p,  286. 
'  M.  Paris,  p.  236, 301,  30^,  3  l6,  541.     M.  West.  p.  302,  304. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  484.     M.  West.  p.  338. 


1236.  HENRY    Iir.  357 

valid,  on  account  of  the  prejudice  w]iic]i  ensued 
from  them  to  the  Roman  pontiff,  in  M'hom  the 
superiority  of  the  kingdom  A\'as  vested"^.  The 
opposition  made  to  the  intended  resumption  pre- 
vented it  from  taking  place  ;  hut  the  nation  saw 
the  indionitics  to  which  the  kins:  was  willing;  to 
suhmit,  in  order  to  gratify  the  avidity  of  Ids  fo- 
reign favourites.  Ahout  the  same  time  lie  pub- 
lished in  England  the  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion j)ronounccd  against  the  emperor  Frederic, 
his  brotlier-in-law" ;  ami  said  in  excuse,  that, 
being  the  pope's  vassal,  he  was  obliged  by  his 
allegiance  to  obey  all  the  commands  of  his  holi- 
ness. In  this  weak  reign,  when  any  neighbouring- 
potentate  insulted  the  king's  dominions,  instead 
of  taking  revenge  for  the  injury,  lie  complained 
to  the  pope  as  his  superior  lord,  and  begged  him 
to  gi\'c  protection  to  his  vassal  y. 


GRIEVANCES. 

The  resentment  of  the  Eno-Hsh  ])arons  rose  ]ii<rli 
at  the  preference  given  to  foreigners;  ])ut  no  re- 
monstrance or  complaint  could  ever  prevail  on  the 
king  to  abandon  them,  or  even  to  moderate  his 
attachment  towards  them.  After  the  Proven9als 
and  Savoyards  might  have  been  supposed  pretty 
well  satiated  with  the  dignities  and  riches  which 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  2()5,  301 .  "  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  383. 

"  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  150. 


3^8  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1247- 

they  liad  acquired,  a  new  set  of  luingry  foreign- 
ers were  invited  over,  and  shared  among  tliein 
those  favours,  which  the  king  ought  in  pohcy  to 
have  conferred  on  tlie  English  nobility,  by  whom 
his  government  could  have  been  supported  and 
defended.  His  mother,  Isabella,  who  had  been 
unjustly  taken  by  the  late  king  from  the  count 
de  la  Marche,  to  whom  she  was  betrothed,  was  no 
sooner  mistress  of  herself  b}^  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, than  she  married  that  nobleman*  ;  and  she 
had  born  him  four  sons,  Guy,  William,  Geof- 
frey, and  Aymer,  whom  she  sent  over  to  Eng- 
land in  order  to  pay  a  visit  to  their  brother.  The 
good-natured  and  affectionate  disposition  of  Henry 
was  moved  at  the  sight  of  such  near  relations  ;  and 
he  considered  neither  his  own  circumstances,  nor 
the  inclinations  of  his  people,  in  the  honours  and 
riches  which  he  conferred  upon  them  ^  Com- 
plaints rose  as  high  against  the  credit  of  the  Gas- 
con, as  ever  they  had  done  against  that  of  the 
Poictevin  and  of  the  Savoyard  favourites  ;  and  to 
a  nation  prejudiced  against  them,  all  their  mea- 
sures appeared  exceptionable  and  criminal.  Vio- 
lations of  the  Great  Charter  were  frequently  men- 
tioned ;  and  it  is  indeed  more  than  probable,  that 
foreigners,  ignorant  of  the  laws,  and  relying  on 
the  boundless  affections  of  a  weak  prince,  would, 
in  an  age  when  a  regular  administration  was  not 
any  where  known,   pay  more  attention  to  their 

"Trivet,  p.  174. 
"M.  Paris,  p,  491.     M.  West.  p.  338,     Knyghton,  p.  2436. 


1247.  HENRY    III.  359 

present  interest  tlian  to  the  liberties  of  the  people. 
It  is  reported,  that  tlic  Poictevins  and  other 
strangers,  "when  the  laws  were  at  any  time  appeal- 
ed to,  in  oj)positi()n  to  their  oppressions,  scrupled 
not  to  rej)ly,  /f/iat  did  the  Kifgli.s-h  hnrs  f<ignifij  to 
tlicm  ?  Ihexf  minded  them  not.  And  as  words  aie 
often  more  ofllcnsive  than  actions,  this  open  con- 
tempt of  tlie  English  tended  much  to  aggravate 
the  general  (hscontcnt,  and  made  every  act  of 
violence  committed  by  the  foreigners  appear  not 
only  an  injury,   but  an  affront  to  them^ 

I  reckon  not  among  the  violations  of  the  Great 
Charter  some  arbitrary  exertions  of  prerogative 
to  which  Henry's  necessities  pushed  him,  and 
^rhich,  Mitliout  ])roducing  any  discontent,  were 
uniformly  continued  by  all  his  successors,  till  the 
last  century.  As  the  parliament  often  refused  him 
supplies,  and  that  in  a  manner  somewhat  rude  and 
indecent*^,  he  obliged  his  opulent  subjects,  par- 
ticularly the  citizens  of  I^ondon,  to  grant  him 
loans  of  money  ;  and  it  is  natural  to  imagine,  that 
the  same  want  of  oeconomy  which  reduced  him  to 
the  necessity  of  borrowing,  would  prevent  him 
from  being  very  punctual  in  the  repayment  ^  He 
demanded  benevolences,  or  pretended  voluntary 
contributions,  from  his  nobility  and  j)relates*. 
lie  was  the  iirst  king  of  England  since  the  con- 
quest,  that   could   fairly  be  said  to  lie  under  tlie 

"M.  Paris,  p.  5G6,  666,     Ann.  Wavcrl.  p.  214.     Cbron. 
Diinst.  vol.  i.  p.  33.5.  "  M.  Paris,  p.  301 . 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  406.  •  M.  Paris,  p.  507. 


360  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1247. 

restraint  of  law ;  and  he  was  also  the  first  that 
practised  the  dispensing- power,  and  employed  the 
clause  of  non  obstante  in  his  grants  and  patents. 
When  objections  were  made  to  this  novelty,  he 
replied,  that  the  pope  exercised  that  authority ; 
and  why  might  not  he  imitate  the  example  ?  But 
the  abuse  which  the  pope  made  of  his  dispensing 
power,  in  violating  the  canons  of  general  coun- 
cils, in  invading  the  privileges  and  customs  of  all 
particular  churches,  and  in  usurping  on  the  rights 
of  patrons,  was  more  likely  to  excite  the  jealousy 
of  the  people,  than  to  reconcile  them  to  a  similar 
practice  in  their  civil  government.  Roger  de 
Thurkesby,  one  of  the  king's  justices,  was  so  dis- 
pleased with  the  precedent,  that  he  exclaimed, 
Alas  !  'what  times  are  xve  fallen  into  ?  Behold,  the 
civil  court  is  corrupted  in  imitatio?i  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical,  and  the  river  is  poisoned frotn  that  fountain. 

The  king's  partiality  and  profuse  bounty  to 
his  foreign  relations,  and  to  their  friends  and  fa- 
vourites, would  have  appeared  more  tolerable  to 
the  Enghsh,  had  any  thing  been  done  meanwhile 
for  the  honour  of  the  nation  ;  or  had  Henry's  en- 
terprises in  foreign  countries  been  attended  with 
any  success  or  glory  to  himself  or  to  the  public  : 
at  least,  such  military  talents  in  the  king  would 
Jiave  served  to  keep  his  barons  in  awe,  and  have 
given  weight  and  authority  to  his  government. 
But  though  he  declared  war  against  Lewis  IX.  in 
1242,  and  made  an  expedition  into  Guienne,  upon 
the  invitation  of  his  father-in-law,   the  count  de 


1253.  HENRY    III.  36l 

la  IMarche,  who  promised  to  join  liim  ^ith  all  liis 
forces  ;  he  was  unsuccessful  in  his  attempts  against 
that  great  monarch,  was  worsted  at  Taiilebouro-, 
M-as  deserted  by  his  allies,  lost  m  hat  remained  to 
him  of  Poictou,  and  Mas  obliged  to  return,  with 
loss  of  honour,  into  England  ^  The  Gascon  no- 
bility were  attached  to  the  English  government  ; 
because  the  distance  of  their  sovereign  allowed 
them  to  remain  in  a  state  of  almost  total  inde- 
pendence :  and  they  claimed,  some  time  after, 
Henry's  protection  against  an  invasion  which  the 
king  of  Castile  made  upon  that  territory.  Henry 
returned  into  Guienne,  and  Mas  more  successful 
in  this  expedition  ;  but  he  thereby  involved  him- 
self and  his  nobility  in  an  enormous  debt,  M'hich 
both  increased  their  discontents,  and  exposed  him 
to  greater  danger  from  their  enterprises^. 

Want  of  oeconomy,  and  an  ill-judged  liberal- 
ity, Mere  Henry's  great  defects  ;  and  his  debts, 
even  before  thisexpedition,  had  become  so  trouble- 
some, that  he  sold  all  his  plate  and  jcMcl-s,  in  or- 
der to  discharge  them.  When  this  expedient  Mas 
first  proposed  to  him,  he  asked,  M'here  he  should 
find  purchasers  ?  It  was  replied,  the  citizens  of 
London.  On  my  zvord,  said  he,  //"  the  treasury  of 
Augustus  were  brought  to  sale,  the  citizens  are  able 
to  be  the  purchasers :  these  cloxvns,  who  assume  to 
themselves  the  name  of  barons,  abound  in  exery  things 

^  M.  Paris,  p.  393,  394,  398,  399,  405.     W.  Heming.  p.  5/4. 
Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  153. 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  61 4. 


362  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAN-D.  1253. 

while  we  are  reduced  to  necessities^.  And  he  was 
thenceforth  observed  to  be  more  forward  and 
greedy  in  his  exactions  ujDon  the  citizens '. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  GRIEVANCES. 

But  the  grievances  which  the  Englisli  during  this 
reign  had  reason  to  complain  of  in  tlie  civil  go- 
vernment, seem  to  have  been  still  less  burthen- 
some  than  those  which  they  suffered  from  the 
usurpations  and  exactions  of  the  court  of  Rome. 
On  the  death  of  Langton  in  12^8,  the  monks  of 
Chi  ist-church  elected  Walter  de  Hemesbam,  one 
of  their  own  body,  for  his  successor :  but  as  Henry 
refused  to  confirm  the  election,  the  pope,  at  liis 
desire,  annulled  it*^;  and  immediately  appointed 
Richard  chancellor  of  Lincoln,  for  archbishop, 
V,  ithout  waiting  for  a  new  election.  On  the  death 
of  Richard  in  l!231,  the  monks  elected  Ralph  de 
Neville  bishop  of  Cbichestcr  ;  and  though  Henry 
Avas  much  pleased  with  tbe  election,  the  pope, 
wiio  thought  that  prelate  too  much  attached  to 
the  crown,  assumed  the  power  of  annulling  his 
election  \  He  rejected  two  clergymen  more, 
Avhom  the  monks  had  successively  chosen  ;  and  be 
at  last  told  tliem,  tliat,  if  tliey  would  elect  Ed- 
mond  treasurer  of  the   church  of  Salisbury,  he 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  501. 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  501,  507,  518,  5/8,  606,  625,  648. 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  244.  '  Ibid.  p.  254. 


W53.  HENRY    III.  303 

would  confirm  their  choice  ;  aiul  his  nomination 
"\\\is  compHed  w  ith,  TJie  pope  liad  the  j))  udcnce 
to  appoint  hotli  times  very  wortliy  primates  ;  hut 
men  could  not  for])ear  observino-  his  intention  of 
thus  d^a^^•in^•  oraduallv  to  himself  the  rio-ht  of 
bestowing  that  important  dignity. 

The  avarice,  however,   more   than  the  ambi- 
tion,  of  the  see  of  Rome,   seems  to  have  been  in 
this  age  the  ground  of  general  com])laint.     The 
papal  ministers,    finding  a   vast  stock  of  power 
amassed  by  their   predecessors,   were  desirous  of 
turning  it  to  immediate  profit,   wliich  they  enjoy- 
ed at  home,   rather  than  of  enlarging  their  author- 
ity in  distant  countries,  where  they  never  intend- 
ed to  reside.      Every  thins;  was  become  venal  in 
the  Romish  tribunals ;   simony  was  openly  prac- 
tised;  no  favours,   and  even  no  justice,   could  be 
obtained  v.ithout  a  bribe,   the  highest  bidder  Mas 
sure  to  have  the  preference,  Mithout  regard  either 
to  the  merits  of  the  person  or  of  the  cause  ;  and 
besides  the  usual  per\'ersions  of  right  in  the  deci- 
sion of  controversies,   the  pope  openly  assumed  an 
absolute   and    uncontrolled   authority  of  setting 
aside,   by  the  plenitude  of  his  apostolic  power,  all 
particular  rules,    and    all   privileges  of  patrons, 
churches,   and  convents.     On  pretence  of  reme- 
dying  these    abuses,    pope   Honorius,    in    12*26. 
complaining  of  the  poverty  of  his  see  as  the  source 
of  all  grievances,   demanded  from  every  cathedral 
two  of  the  best  prebends,  and  from  every  convent 
two  monks' portions,  to  beset  apart  as  a  perpetual 


364  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1253. 

and  settled  revenue  of  the  papal  crown  :  but  all 
men  being  sensible  that  the  revenue  would  con- 
tinue for  ever,  the  abuses  immediately  return,  his 
demand  was  unanimously  rejected.  About  three 
years  after,  the  pope  demanded  and  obtained  the 
tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  revenues,  which  he  le- 
vied in  a  very  oppressive  manner;  requiring  pay- 
ment before  the  clergy  had  draMai  their  rents  or 
tythes,  and  sending  about  usurers,  who  advanced 
them  the  money  at  exorbitant  interest.  In  the 
ye:ir  1240,  Otho  the  legate,  having  in  vain  at- 
tempted the  clergy  in  a  body,  obtained  separ-ately, 
by  intrigues  and  menaces,  large  sums  from  the 
prelates  and  convents,  and  on  his  departure  is  said 
to  have  carried  more  money  out  of  the  kingdom 
than  he  left  in  it.  This  experiment  was  renewed 
four  years  after  with  success  by  IVJartin  the  nun- 
cio, who  brought  from  Rome  powers  of  suspend- 
ing and  excommunicating  all  clergymen  that  re- 
fused to  comply  with  his  demands.  The  king, 
who  relied  on  the  pope  for  the  support  of  his 
tottering  authorit}^  never  failed. to  countenance 
those  exactions. 

Meanwhile,  all  the  chief  benefices  of  the 
kingdom  were  conferred  on  Italians  ;  great  num- 
bers of  that  nation  were  sent  over  at  one  time  to 
be  provided  for;  non-residence  and  pluralities 
were  carried  to  an  enormous  height;  Mansel, 
the  king's  chaplain,  is  computed  to  have  held  at 
once  seven  hundred  ecclesiastical  livings  ;  and  the 
abuses  became  so  evident  as  to  be  palpable  to  the 


1253.  HENRY    III.  365 

blindness  of  superstition  itself.  The  people,  en- 
tering into  assoeiations,  rose  against  the  Italian 
clergy  :  j)illagc(l  their  barns  ;  wasted  their  lands  ; 
insulted  the  persons  of  such  of  them  as  they  found 
in  the  kingdom"" ;  and  when  the  justice  made  in- 
quiry into  the  authors  of  this  disorder,  the  guilt 
was  found  to  involve  so  many,  and  those  of  such 
liigh  rank,  that  it  passed  unpunished.  At  last, 
when  Innocent  IV.,  in  1245,  called  a  general 
council  at  Lyons,  in  order  to  excommunicate  the 
emperor  Frederic,  the  king  and  nobility  sent  over 
agents  to  complain  before  the  council  of  the  ra- 
pacity of  the  Romish  church.  They  represented, 
among  many  other  grievances,  that  the  benefices 
of  the  Italian  clergy  in  England  had  been  esti- 
mated, and  were  found  to  amount  to  6(),()(K) 
marks"  a  year,  a  sum  which  exceeded  the  annual 
revenue  of  the  crown  itself".  They  obtaiued  only 
an  evasive  answer  from  the  pope  ;  but  as  mention 
had  been  made  before  the  council,  of  the  feudal 
subjection  of  England  to  the  see  of  Rome,  the 
English  agents,  at  whose  head  was  Roger  Bigod 
earl  of  Norfolk,  exclaimed  against  the  pretension, 
and  insisted,   that  king  John  had  no  right,   with- 

"  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  323.     M.  Paris,  p.  255,  25^. 

"  Innocent's  bull  in  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  4/1,  says  only  50,000 
marks  a  year. 

°  M.  Paris,  p.  45 1 .  The  customs  were  part  of  Henry's  reve- 
nue, and  amounted  to  5000  {Tfjunds  a  year  :  they  were  at  first 
small  sums  paid  by  the  nlcrchants  for  the  use  of  the  king's  ware- 
houses, measures,  weights,  Sec.  See  Gilbert's  IIi5t(iry  of  the 
Excheq.  p.  214. 


366  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1255, 

out  the  consent  of  his  barons,  to  subject  the  king- 
dom to  so  ignominious  a  servitude^'.  The  popes 
indeed,  afraid  of  can ying  matters  too  far  against 
England,  seem  thenceforth  to  have  httle  insisted 
on  that  pretension. 

This  check,  received  at  the  council  of  Lyons, 
was  not  able  to  stop  the  court  of  Rome  in  its  ra- 
pacity: Innocent  exacted  the  revenues  of  all  va- 
cant benefices,  the  twentieth  of  all  ecclesiastical 
revenues  without  exception  ;  the  third  of  such  as 
exceeded  a  hundred  marks  a  year,  and  the  half  of 
such  as  were  possessed  by  non-residents ''.  He 
claimed  the  goods  of  all  intestate  clergymen  ^ ;  he 
pretended  a  title  to  inherit  all  money  gotten  by 
usury ;  he  levied  benevolences  ujjon  the  people ; 
and  when  the  king,  contrary  to  his  usual  practice, 
prohibited  these  exactions,  he  threatened  to  pro- 
nounce against  him  the  same  censures  which  he 
had  emitted  against  the  emperor  Frederic*. 

But  the  most  oppressive  expedient  employed 
by  the  pope,  was  the  embarking  of  Henry  in  a 
project  for  the  conquest  of  Naples,  or  Sicily  on 
this  side  the  Fare,  as  it  was  called;  an  enterprise 
which  threw  much  dishonour  on  the  king,  and 
mvolved  him,  during  some  years,  in  great  trouble 
and  expence.  The  Romish  church  taking  ad- 
vantage of  favourable  incidents,  had  reduced  the 
kingdom  of  Sicily  to  the  same  state  of  feudal  vas- 

p  M.  Paris,  p.  460. 
•i  M.  Paris,  p.  480.     Ann.  Burt.  p.  305,  373. 
'M.  Paris,  p.  4;4.  '  M.  Paris,  p.  476". 


]255.  HENRY    III.  307 

salagc  M'hicli  slie  pretended  to  extend  on  er  Eng- 
land, and  Mhicli,  by  reason  ot"  the  distance  as 
well  as  liioh  sj)irit  of  this  hitter  kingcloni,  slie  was 
not  able  to  maintain.  After  the  deatli  of  the  eni- 
j)eror  Frederic  II,,  the  succession  of  Sicily  de- 
volved to  Conradine,  grandson  of  that  monarch  ; 
and  Mainfroy,  his  natural  son,  under  pretence  of 
governing  the  kingdom  during  the  minority  of  the 
prince,  had  formed  a  scheme  of  establishing  his 
own  authority.  Pope  Innocent,  who  had  carried 
on  violent  Avar  against  the  emperor  Frederic,  and 
liad  endeavoured  to  dispossess  him  of  his  Itafian 
dominions,  still  continued  hostilities  against  his 
grandson  ;  but  being  disappointed  in  all  his 
schemes  by  the  activity  and  artifices  of  INIainfroy, 
he  found,  that  his  owm  force  alone  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  bring  to  a  liappy  issue  so  great  an  enter- 
prise. He  pretended  to  dispose  of  the  Sicilian 
crown,  both  as  superior  lord  of  that  particular 
kingdom,  and  as  vicar  of  Christ,  to  whom  all 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  were  subjected  ;  and  he  made 
a  tender  of  it  to  Richard  earl  of  Cornwal,  wliose 
immense  riches,  he  flattered  liimself,  would  be 
able  to  support  the  niilitary  operations  against 
Mainfroy.  As  Richard  had  tlie  prudence  to  re- 
fuse the  present',  he  applied  to  the  king,  Avhose 
levity  and  thoughtless  disposition  gave  Innocent 
more  hopes  of  success  ;  and  he  offered  him  the 
crown  of  Sicily   for   his  second   son   Edmond ". 

'M.  Paris,  p.  650. 
"  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  502,  512,  530,     i\I.  Paris,  p.  5gQ,  Gift. 


358  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1255. 

Heniyj  allured  by  so  magnificent  a  present,  Avith- 
out  reflecting  on  the  consequences,  without  con- 
sulting either  with  his  brother  or  the  parliament, 
accepted  of  the  insidious  proposal ;  and  gave  the 
pope  unlimited  credit  to  expend  whatever  sums  he 
thought  necessary  for  completing  the  conquest  of 
Sicily.  Innocent,  who  was  engaged  by  his  own 
interests  to  M^age  v/ar  with  Mainfroy,  was  glad  to 
carry  on  his  enterprises  at  the  expence  of  his  ally; 
Alexander  IV.  who  succeeded  him  in  the  papal 
throne,  continued  the  same  policy :  and  Henry 
was  surprised  to  find  himself  on  a  sudden  involved 
in  an  immense  debt,  which  he  had  never  been 
consulted  in  contracting.  The  sum  already 
amounted  to  135,541  marks,  beside  interest ''; 
and  he  had  the  prospect,  if  he  answered  this  de- 
mand, of  being  soon  loaded  with  more  exorbitant 
expences;  if  he  refused  it,  of  both  incurring  the 
pope's  displeasure,  and  losing  the  crown  of  Sicily, 
which  he  hoped  soon  to  have  the  glory  of  fixing 
on  the  head  of  his  son. 

He  applied  to  the  parliament  for  supplies  ;  and 
that  he  might  be  sure  not  to  meet  with  opposition, 
he  sent  no  writs  to  the  more  refractory  barons  :  but 
even  those  who  were  summoned,  sensible  of  the 
ridiculous  cheat  imposed  by  the  pope,  determined 
not  to  lavish  their  money  on  such  chimerical  pro* 
jects ;  and  making  a  pretext  of  the  absence  of 
their  brethren,  they  refused  to  take  the  king's  de- 

""  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  587.    Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  31,Q. 


1255.  HENRY    m.  369 

iiinnds  into  consideration  \  In  this  extreniity 
tlic  clergy  were  his  only  lesonrce  ;  and  as  both 
their  temporal  and  spiritual  sovereign  concurred 
in  loading  them,  they  were  ill  able  to  deiend 
themselves  against  this  united  authority. 

The  pope  publi.slied  a  crusade  for  the  conquest 
of  Sicily  ;  and  required  every  one  who  had  taken 
the  cross  against  the  infidels,  or  had  vowed  to  ad- 
vance money  for  that  service,  to  support  the  war 
against  IVfainfroy,  a  more  terrible  enemy,  as  he 
pretended,  to  the  Christian  faith  tlian  any  Sara-» 
cen^.  He  levied  a  tenth  on  all  ecclesiastical  be- 
nefices in  England  for  three  years ;  and  ga\'e  or- 
ders to  excommunicate  all  bishops  who  made  not 
punctual  payment,  lie  granted  to  the  king  the 
goods  of  intestate  clergymen  ;  the  revenues  of  va- 
cant benefices;  the  revenues  of  all  non-residents^ 
J3ut  these  taxations,  being  levied  by  some  rule, 
were  deemed  less  grievous  than  another  imposi- 
tion, which  arose  from  the  suggestion  of  the  bi- 
shop of  Hereford,  and  which  might  have  opened 
the  door  to  endless  and  intolerable  abuses. 

This  prelate,  who  resided  at  the  court  of  Rome 
by  a  deputation  from  the  English  church,  dre\y^ 
bills  of  different  values,  but  amounting  on  the 
whole  to  150,540  marks,  on  all  the  bishops  and 
abbots  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  granted  these  bills 
to  Italian  merchants,  mIio  it  was  pretended  had 
^advanced  money  for  the  service  of  the  war  against 

"  M.  Paris,  p.6l4.  »  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  547,  •548,  &c. 

'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  5Q7,  5(}S. 
VOL.    II.  B    B 


370  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1255. 

Mainfroy  ^     As  there  was  no  likelihood  of  the 
English  prelates  submitting,   without  compulsioBj 
to  such  an  exj:raorclinary  demand,   Rustand  the 
legate  Avas  charged  with  the  commission  of  em- 
ploying authority  to  that  purpose ;  and  he  sum- 
moned an  assembly  of  the  bishops  and  a])bots, 
whom  he  ac(}uainted  with  the  pleasure  of  the  pope 
and  of  the  king.     Great  were  the  surprise  and  in- 
dignation of  the  assembly :  the  bishop  of  Wor- 
cester exclaimed,  that  he  would  lose  his  life  rather 
than  comply  :  the  bishop  of  London  said,  that  the 
pope  and  king  were  more  powerful  than  he ;  but 
if  his  mitre  Av^ere  taken  oif  his  head,  he  would  chij) 
on  a  helmet  in  its  place  ^     The  legate  Avas  no  less 
violent  on  the  other  hand  ;  and  he  told  the  assem- 
bly in  plain  terms,  that  all  ecclesiastical  benefices 
were  the  property  of  the  pope,   and  he  might  dis- 
pose of  them,  either  in  Avhole  or  in  part,  as  he  saAV 
proper  ^     In  the   end,   the  bishops   and  abbots, 
being  threatened  Avith  excommunication,   Avhicli 
made  all  their  rcA^enues  fall  into  the  king's  hands, 
were  obliged  to  submit  to  the  exaction  :  and  the 
only  mitigation  Avhich  the  legate  alloAved   them 
Avas,  that  the  tenths  already  granted  should  be 
accepted  as  a  partial  payment  of  the  bills.     But 
the  money  Avas  still   insufficient  for  the  pope's 
purpose  :  the  conquest  of  Sicily  Avas  as  remote  as 
ever :  the  demands  which  came  from  Rome  Avere 
endless  :  Pope  Alexander  became  so  urgent  a  cre- 

^  M.  Paris,  p.  612,  628.    Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  54. 
*M.  Paris,  p.  614:  •=  Ihid.  p.  619. 


1255.  *  HENRY    III.  3^1 

clitor,  that  he  sent  over  a  legate  to  England  ; 
threatening  the  kingdom  Avith  an  interdict,  an^ 
tlie  king  with  excommunication,  if  the  arrears 
MJiicli  lie  pretended  to  be  due  to  him  Mere  not  in- 
stantly remitted  ^  And  at  last  Henry,  sensible 
of  the  clieat,  began  to  think  of  breaking  off  the 
agreement,  and  of  resigning  into  the  ])0pc's  hands 
that  crown  wliich  it  was  not  intended  by  Alex- 
ander that  he  or  his  family  should  ever  enjoy  ^ 


EARL  OF  CORKU^\L  ELECTED  KING  OF  THE 
ROMANS. 

The  earl  of  Cornwal  had  now  reason  to  value 
himself  on  his  foresight,  in  refusing  the  fraudulent 
bargain  with  Konic,  and  in  preferring  the  solid 
honours  of  an  opulent  and  powerful  prince  of  the 
blood  of  England,  to  the  empty  and  ])recariou9 
glory  of  a  foreign  dignity.  But  he  had  not  always 
fumnesssullficient  to  adhere  to  this  resolution  :  his 
vanity  and  ambition  prevailed  at  last  over  his  pru- 
dence and  his  a:varice ;  and  he  was  engaged  in  an 
enterprise  no  less  extensive  and  vexatious  than 
that  of  his  brother,  and  not  attended  with  much 
greater  probability  of  success.  The  immense  opu- 
lence of  Richard  having  made  the  German  princes 
cast  their  eve  on  him  as  a  candidate  for  the  em- 
pire,    he   was  tempted   to   expend   vast  sums  of 

r 
*Rymer^  vol.  i.  p.  G24.     M.  Paris,  p.  64«. 

'.Rymer,  vol,  i.  p.  630. 


zn  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1235. 

money  on  his  election ;  and  he  succeeded  so  far  aa 
to  be  chosen  king  of  the  Romans,  Avhich  seemed 
to  render  his  succession  infalhble  to  the  Imperial 
throne.  He  went  over  to  Germany,  and  carried 
out  of  the  kingdom  no  less  a  sum  than  seven 
hundred  thousand  marks,  if  we  may  credit  the 
account  given  by  some  ancient  authors^,  which 
is  probably  much  exaggerated  ^  His  money, 
while  it  lasted,  procured  him  friends  and  ])ar- 
tizans :  but  it  was  soon  drained  from  him  by  the 
avidity  of  the  German  princes ;  and  having  no 
personal  or  family  connections  in  that  country, 
and  no  solid  foundation  of  power,  he  found  at  last 
that  he  had  lavished  away  the  frugality  of  a  whole 
life,  in  order  to  procure  a  splendid  title  ;  and  that 
his  absence  from  England,  joined  to  the  weakness 
of  his  brother's  government,  gave  reins  to  the 
factious  and  turbulent  dispositions  of  the  English 

'M.  Paris,  p.  638.  The  same  authoi",  a  few  pages  before, 
makes  Richard's  treasures  amount  to  little  more  tlian  half  the 
sum,  p.  634.  The  king's  dissipations  and  expences,  throughout 
his  whole  reign  according  to  the  same  author,  had  amounted  only 
to  about  940,000  marks,  p.  638. 

*  The  sums  mentioned  by  ancient  authors,  who  were  almost 
all  monks,  are  often  improbable,  and  never  consistent.  But  we 
know,  from  an  infallible  authority,  the  public  remonstrances  to 
the  council  of  Lyons,  that  the  king's  revenues  were  below  60,000 
marks  a  year.  His  brother  therefore  could  never  have  been  ma- 
ster of  700,000  marks  ;  especially  as  he  did  not  sell  his  estates  in 
England,  as  we  learn  from  the  same  autlior  :  and  we  hear  after- 
Wards  of  his  ordering  all  his  woods  to  be  cut,  in  order  to  satisfy 
the  rapacity  of  the  German  princes :  his  son  succeeded  to  the 
earldom  of  Comwal  and  his  other  revenues. 


1255.  PIENRY    lir.  373- 

barons,  and  Involved  his  own  country  and  family 
in  great  calamities. 


DISCONTENTS  OF  THE  BARONS. 

The  successful  revolt  of  the  nobility  from  king 
John,   and  their  imposing  on  him  and  his  success- 
ors limitations  of  their  royal  power,    had  made 
them  feel  their  own  weight  and  importance,  had 
seta  dangerous  precedent  of  resistance,  and  being 
followed  by  along  minority,  had  impoverished  as 
w^ll  as  weakened  that  crown,  which  they  w^ere  at 
last  induced  from  the  fear  of  worse  consequences, 
to  replace  on  the  head  <jf  young  Henry.     In  the 
king's  situation,   either  great  abilities  and  vigour 
A\ere   requisite   to  overawe  the  barons,   or  great 
caution  and  reserve  to  give  them  no  pretence  for 
complaints  ;   and  it  must  be  confessed  that  this 
prince  was  possessed  of  neither  of  these  talents. 
He  had  not  prudence  to  chuse  right  measures ; 
he  wanted  even  that  constancy  which  sometimes 
gives  weight  to  Avrong  ones  ;  lie  was  entirely  de- 
voted to  his  favourites,  who  were  alwavs  foreifrn- 
ers ;  he  lavished  on  them  without  discretion  his 
diminished  revenue ;  and  finding  that  his  barons 
indulged  their  disposition  towards  tyranny,   and 
observed  not  to  their  own  vassals  the  same  rules 
which  t|iey  had  imposed  on  the  crown,  he  was  apt^ 
in  his  administration,   to  neglect  all  the  salutary 
articles  of  the  GreaJ:  Charter;  which  he  remarked 


374  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1255, 

to  be   so  little  regarded  by  his  nobility.     This 
conduct  had  extremely  lessened  his  authority  in 
the  kingdom ;  had  multiplied  complaints  against 
him  ;  and  had  frequently  exposed  him  to  affronts, 
and  even  to  dangerous  attempts  upon  his  prerO" 
gative.      In  the  year   1244,    when  he  desired  a 
supply  from  parliament,   the  barons,   complaining 
of  the  frequent  breaches  of  the  Great   Charter, 
and  of  the  many  fruitless  applications  which  they 
had  formerly  made  for  the   redress   of  this  and 
other   grievances,    demanded   in  return   that  he 
should  give  them   the  nomination  of  the   great 
justiciary  and  of  the  chancellor,   to  whose  hands 
chiefly  the  administration  of  justice  was  commit-p 
ted:  and,   if  we  may  credit  the  historian'*,   they 
had  formed  the  plan  of  other  limitations,  as  well 
as  of  associations  to  maintain  them,  which  would 
have  reduced  the  king  to  be  an  absolute  cypher, 
and  have  held  the  crown  in  perpetual  pupillage  and 
dependance.     The  king,   to  satisfy  them,   would 
agrees  to  nothing  but  a  renewal  of  the  charter, 
and  a  general  permission  to  excommunicate  all 
the  violaters  of  it :  and  he  received  no  supply,  ex- 
cept ascutage  of  twenty  shillings' on  each  knight's 
fee  for  the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter  to  the 
king  of  Scotland  ;  a  burthen  which  was  expressly 
annexed  to  their  feudal  tenures. 

Four  years  after,   in  a  full  parliament,  when 
Henry  demanded  a  new  supply,  he  was  openly 

*■  M.  Paris,  p.  432. 


1255.  HENRY  irr.  3{'i 

reproached  with  a  breacli  of  his  wonl,  and  the 
frequent  violations  of  the  charter.  He  was  asked 
wliether  lie  did  not  hlush  to  desire  any  aid  froiTi 
liis  people  whom  he  professedly  hated  and  despis- 
ed, to  whom  on  all  occasions  he  preferred  aliens 
and  foreig'ners,  and  M'ho  groaned  under  the  op- 
pressions which  he  either  permitted  or  exercised 
over  them.  He  was  told  that,  besides  disparaging 
his  nobility  by  forcing  them  to  contract  unequal 
and  mean  marriages  with  strangers,  no  rank  of 
men  was  so  low  as  to  escape  \exations  from  him 
or  his  ministers  ;  that  even  the  victuals  consumed 
in  his  household,  the  clothes  which  himself  and 
his  servants  wore,  still  more  the  wine  which  they 
used,  were  all  taken  by  violence  from  the  lawful 
owners,  and  no  compensation  was  ever  made  them 
for  the  injury ;  that  foreign  merchants,  to  the  great 
prejudice  and  infamy  of  the  kingdom,  shunned 
the  English  harbours,  as  if  they  were  possessed  by 
pirates,  and  the  commerce  with  all  nations  was 
thus  cut  off  by  these  acts  of  violence ;  that  loss 
was  added  to  loss,  and  injury  to  injury,  Avhile  the 
merchants,  Avho  had  been  despoiled  of  their  goods, 
were  also  obliged  to  carry  them  at  their  own  charge 
to  whatever  place  the  king  was  pleased  to  appoint 
them ;  that  even  the  poor  fishermen  on  the  coast 
could  not  escape  his  oppressions  and  those  of  his 
courtiers  ;  and  finding  that  they  had  not  full  li- 
berty to  dispose  of  their  commodities  in  the  Eng- 
lish market,  were  frequently  constrained  to  carry 
them  to  foreign  ports,  and  to  hazard  all  the  perils 


t}7^  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1255. 

of  the  ocean,  rather  than  those  which  awaited 
them  from  his  oppressive  emissaries ;  and  that  his 
very  religion  was  a  ground  of  complaint  to  his 
subjects,  Avhile  they  observed  that  tlie  waxen  ta- 
pers and  splendid  silks,  employed  in  so  many 
useless  processions,  were  the  spoils  which  he  had 
forcibly  ravished  from  the  true  owners '.  Through-, 
out  this  remonstrance,  in  which  the  complaints 
derived  from  an  abuse  of  the  ancient  right  of  pur^ 
veyance  may  be  supposed  to  be  somewhat  exag- 
gerated, there  appears  a  strange  mixture  of  regal 
tyranny  in  the  practices  which  gave  rise  to  it,  and 
of  aristocratical  liberty,  or  rather  licentiousness, 
in  the  expressions  employed  by  the  parliament. 
But  a  mixture  of  this  kind  is  observable  in  all  the 
ancient  feudal  governments;  and  both  of  them 
proved  equally  hurtful  to  the  people. 

As  the  Jking,  in  answer  to  their  remonstrance, 
gave  the  parliament  only  good  words  and  fair  pro- 
mises, attended  with  the  most  humble  submissions, 
which  they  had  often  found  deceitful,  he  obtained 
at  that  time  no  supply  ;  and  therefore  in  the  year 
Vi53,  when  he  found  himself  again  under  the  ne- 
cessity of  applying  to  parliament,  he  had  provided 
a  new  pretence,  which  he  deemed  infallible,  and 
taking  the  vow  of  a  crusade,  he  demanded  their 
assistance  in  that  pious  enterprise  K  The  parlia- 
ment however  for  some  time  hesitated  to  com- 
ply ;  and  the  ecclesiastical  order  sent  a  deputa- 

'  M,  Paris,  p.  498.     See  farther,  p.  5/8.     IVI.  West.  p.  348. 
"  M.  Paris,  p.  518,  558,  568.     Chron.-Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  293.  ' 


1255.  HENRY    in.  377 

tion,  consisting  of  four  prelates,  the  primate,  and 
the   bisliops  of  Winchester,   Salisbury,   and  Car- 
lisle,  in  order  to  remonstrate  with  him  on  his  fre- 
quent violations  of  their  ])ri\ileu;es,  the  oppressions 
with  which  he  had  loaded  them  and  all  his  sub- 
jects', and  the  uncanonical  and  forced  elections 
which  were  made   to  vacant  dignities.      "It  is 
*'  true,"  replied  the  king,    "  I  have  been  some- 
*'  what  faulty  in  this  particular:  I  obtruded  you, 
"  my  lord  of  Canterbury,  upon  your  see  :   I  was 
''  obhged  to  employ  both  entreaties  and  menaces, 
*'  my  lord  of  Winchester,   to  have  }  ou  elected  ; 
'^  my  proceedings,  I  confess,  were  very  irregular, 
"  my  lords  of  Salisbury  and  Carlisle,  when  I  rais- 
*'  ed  you  from  the  lowest  stations  to  your  present 
"  diirnities:  I  am  determined  henceforth  to  cor- 
"  rect  these  abuses ;  and  it  will  also  become  you, 
*'  in  order  to  make  a  thorough  reformation,  to 
'^  resign  your  present  benefices  ;  and  try  to  enter 
"  asain  in  a  more  regular  and  canonical   man- 
*'  ner""."      The   bishops,    surprised  at  these  un- 
ex])ected  sarcasms,   replied,  that  the  question  was 
not  at  present  how  to  correct  past  errors,   but  to 
avoid  them  for  the  future.     The  king  promised 
redress  both  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  grievances  ; 
and  the  parliament  in  return  agreed  to  grant  him 
a  supply,  a  tenth  of  the  ecclesiastical  benefices, 
and  a  scutage  of  three  marks  on   each  knight's 
fee :    but  as  they  had  experienced  his  frequent 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  5(5S.  "  Ibid.  p.  579. 


S78  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1255. 

breach  of  promise,  they  rcqiiired  that  he  should 
ratify  the  Great  Charter  in  a  manner  still  more 
authentic  and  more  solemn  than  any  which  he 
had  hitherto  employed.  All  the  prelates  and  ab- 
bots were  assembled  :  they  held  burning  tapers  in 
their  hands:  the  Great  Charter  was  read  before 
them  :  they  denounced  the  sentence  of  exconi"- 
munication  against  every  one  who  should  thence- 
forth violate  the  fundamental  law  :  they  threw 
their  tapers  on  the  ground,  and  exclaimed,  3Iai/ 
the  soul  of  every  one  who  incurs  this  sentence  so  stink 
and  corrupt  in  hell  I  The  king  bore  a  part  in  this 
ceremony;  and  subjoined:  "So  help  me  God,  I 
"  will  keep  all  these  articles  inviolate,  as  I  am  a 
*'  man,  as  I  am  a  christian,  as  I  am  a  knight,  and 
"  as  I  am  a  king  crowned  and  anointed"."  Yet 
was  the  tremendous  ceremony  no  sooner  finished 
than  his  favourites,  abusing  his  Aveakness,  made 
him  return  to  the  same  arbitrary  and  irregular  ad- 
ministration ;  and  the  reasonable  expectations  of 
his  people  were  thus  perpetually  eluded  and  dis- 
appointed °. 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  .580.   Ann.  Burt,  p.  323.   Ann.  Waverl.  p.  210. 
W.  Heming.  p.  571.     M.  West.  p.  353. 

°  M.  Paris,  p.  b^T,  608. 


I 


1258.  HKXRY    III.  379 


SIMON  DK  MOUNTI  CRT,  KARL  OF  LEICESTER. 

All  these  inipriulcnt  aiul  illegal  measures  afford- 
ed  Q.  pretence  to  Simon  de  Mountt'ort,    earl  of 
Leicester,    to  attempt  an  innovation  in  the  go- 
vern^jient,    and   to   M'rest  the   sceptre   from    the 
feeble  and   iiresohitc  liand  mIucIi  hold  it.     This 
nobleman  was  a  younger  son  of  that  Simon  de 
Mountfort,   wlio  had  conducted  with  such  valour 
and  renoMU  the  crusade  against  the  Albigenses, 
and  who,  though  he  tarnished  his  famous  exploits 
by  cruelt}''  and  ambition,   had  left  a  name  very 
precious  to  all  the  bigots  of  that  age,   particularly 
to  the  ecclesiastics.     A  large  inheritance  in  Eng- 
land fell  by  succession  to  this  family ;  but  as  the 
elder  brother  enjoyed  still  more  opulent  posses- 
sions in  France,   and  could  not  perform  fealty  to 
two  masters,  he  transferred  his  right  to  Simon  his 
younger  brother,  who  came  o\er  to  England,  did 
homage  for  his  lands,   and  was  raised  to  the  dig- 
nity of  earl  of  Leicester.     Li  the  year  1238,  he 
espoused  Eleanor  dowager  of  William  earl  oK  Pem- 
broke,  and  sister  to  the  king^;  but  the  marriage 
of  this  princess  with  a  subject  and  a  foreigner, 
though    contracted   with   Henry's   consent,    was 
loudly  complained  of  by  the  earl  of  CornM  al  and 
all  the  barons  of  England  ;  and  Leicester  was  sup- 
ported against  tlieir  riolence  by  the  king's  favour 

.  P  M.  Paris,  p.  314.     . 


'S?SO  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1258. 

and  autliority  alone  "i.     But  he  had  no  sooner  es- 
tablished himself  in  his  possessions  and  dignities, 
than  he  acquired,   by  insinuation  and  address,  a 
strong  interest  with  the  nation,  and  gained  equally 
the  affections  of  all  orders  of  men.     He  lost,  how- 
ever,  the  friendship  of  Henry  from  the  usual  le- 
vit}^  and  fickleness  of  that  prince ;  he  was  banish- 
ed the  court ;  he  was  recalled ;  he  was  entrust- 
ed with  the  command  of  Guienne'',  where  he  did 
good  service  and  acquired  honour ;  he  was  again 
disgraced  by  the  king,  and  his  banishment  from 
court  seemed  now  final  and  irrevocablo.     Henry 
called  him  traitor  to  his  face;  Leicester  gave  him 
the  lie,  and  told  him  that  if  he  were  not  his  sove- 
reign he  would  soon  make  him  repent  of  that  in- 
sult.    Yet  was  this  quarrel  accommodated,  either 
from  the  good-nature  or  timidity  of  the  king;  and 
Lei<:ester  was  again  admitted  into  some  degree  of 
favour  and  authority.     But  as  this  nobleman  was 
become  too  great  to  preserve  an  entire  complais- 
ance to  Henry's  humours,   and  to  act  in  subser- 
viency to  his  other  minions ;  he  found  more  ad- 
vantage in  cultivating  his  interest  with  the  public, 
and  in   enflaming  the  general  discontents  which 
prevailed  against  the  administration.     He  filled 
every  place  with  complaints  against  the  infringe- 
ment of  the  Great  Charter,   the  acts  of  violence 
committed  on  the  people,  the  combination  be- 
tYr^een  the  pope  and  the  king  in  their  tyrauny  an4 

''M.  Paris,  p.  315. 
'  IXymer,  vol.  i.  p.  459,  513. 


3259.  HENRY    III.  Ml 

extortions,  Henry's  neglect  of  liis  native  siil^jccts 
and  barons;  and  though  himself  a  foreigner,  he 
was  more  loud  than  any  in  representing  the  indig- 
nity of  submitting  to  the  dominion  of  foreigners. 
By  his  hypocritical  pretensions  to  devotion  he 
gained  the  favour  of  the  zealots  and  clergy :  by 
his  seeming  concern  for  public  good  lie  acquired 
the  affections  of  the  public  :  and  besides  the  pri- 
vate friendships  which  he  had  cultivated  with  the 
barons,  his  animosity  against  the  favourites  creat- 
ed an  union  of  interests  between  him  and  that 
powerful  order. 

A  recent  quarrel  which  broke  out  between  Lei- 
cester and  William  de  Valence,  Henry's  half-bro- 
ther, and  chief  favourite,  brought  matters  to  ex- 
tremity ',  and  determined  the  former  to  give  full 
scope  to  his  bold  and  unbounded  ambition,  which 
the  laws  and  the  king's  authority  had  hitherto 
with  difficulty  restrained.  He  secretly  called  a 
meeting  of  the  most  considerable  barons,  parti- 
cularly Humphrey  de  Bohun  high  constabI(^,  Ro- 
ger Bio-od  earl  mareschal,  and  the  earls  of  War- 
wic  and  Glocester;  men  who  by  their  family  and 
possessions  stood  in  the  first  rank  of  the  English 
nobility.  He  represented  to  this  com])any  the 
necessity  of  reforming  the  state,  and  of  putting 
the  execution  of  the  laws  into  other  hands  than 
those  Avhich  had  hitherto  appeared,  from  repeated 
experience,  so  unfit  for  the  charge  with  which 

'  M.  pjwi.s  p.  040. 


382  HISTORY    OP   ENGLAND.  .1258. 

they  were  entrusted.  He  exaggerated  tl)e  op- 
pressions exercised  against  the  lower  orders  of  the 
state,  the  violations  of  the  barons'  privileges,  the 
continued  depredations  made  on  the  clergy,  and, 
in  order  to  aggravate  the  enormity  of  his  conduct, 
he  appealed  to  the  Great  Charter,  which  Henry 
had  so  often  ratified,  and  which  was  calculated  to 
prevent  for  ever  the  return  of  those  intolerable 
grievances.  He  magnified  the  generosity  of  their 
ancestors,  who,  at  a  great  expence  of  blood,  had 
extorted  that  famous  concession  from  the  crown  ; 
but  lamented  their  own  dee'eneracv,  who  allowed 
SO  important  an  advantage,  once  obtained,  to  be 
wrested  from  them  by  a  weak  prince  and  by  in- 
solent strangers.  And  he  insisted  that  the  king's 
word,  after  so  many  submissions  and  fruitless  pro- 
mises on  his  part,  could  no  longer  be  relied  on ; 
and  that  nothing  but  his  absolute  inability  to  vi- 
olate national  privileges  could  thenceforth  ensure 
the  regular  observance  of  them. 

These  topics,  which  were  founded  in  truth, 
and  suited  so  well  the  sentiments  of  the  company, 
had  the  desired  effect ;  and  the  barons  embraced 
a  resolution  of  redressing  the  public  grievances, 
by  taking  into  their  own  hands  the  administra- 
tion of  government.  Henry  having  summoned  a 
parliament,  in  expectation  of  receiving  supplies 
for  his  Sicilian  project,  the  barons  appeared  in 
.  Jthe  hall,  clad  in  complete  armour,  and  with  their 
swords  by  their  side :  the  king  on  his  entry, 
struck  with  the  unusual  appearance,  asked  them 


1258.  HENRY    III.  393 

"wliat  Avas  tlicir  purpose,  aiul  m lictlicr  they  pre- 
tended to  make  him  tlicir  prisoner'?  Ko;2;er  Li- 
god  rephed  in  tlie  name  of  the  rest,  tliat  he  v/as 
not  tlieir  prisoner,  hut  their  sovereign  ;  that  they 
even  intended  to  grant  him  large  supplies,  in  or- 
der to  fix  his  son  on  the  throne  of  Sicily  ;  tliat 
they  only  expected  some  return  for  this  ex  pence 
and  ser\*ice  ;  and  that,  as  he  had  frequently  made 
submissions  to  the  parliament,  had  acknowledged 
liis  pasf  errors,  and  had  still  allowed  himself  to  be 
carried  into  the  same  path,  which  gave  them  such 
just  reason  of  complaint,  he  must  now  yield  to 
more  strict  regulations,  and  confer  authority  ou 
those  who  Avere  able  and  willing  to  redress  the 
national  grievances.  Henry,  partly  allured  by  the 
hopes  of  supply,  partly  intimidated  by  the  union 
and  martial  appearance  of  the  barons,  agreed  to 
their  demand ;  and  promised  to  summon  another 
parliament  at  Oxford,  in  order  to  digest  the 
new  plan  of  government,  and  to  elect  the  per- 
sons A\ho  were  to  be  entrusted  with  the  chief 
avithority. 


PROVISIONS  OF  OXFORD.     June  11. 

This  parliament,  which  tlie  royalists,  and  even 
the  nation,  from  experience  of  the  confusions  that 
attended  its  measures,    afterwards  denominated 

'Annnl.  Tlieokesbury. 


384-  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  125S. 

the  mad  parliament^  met  on  the  clay  appointed  ; 
and  as  all  the  barons  brought  along  with  them 
their  military  vassals,  and  appeared  with  an  armed 
force,  the  king,   who  had  taken  no  precautions 
against  them,  was  in  reality  a  prisoner  in  their 
hands,  and  was  obliged  to  submit  to  all  the  terms 
which  they  were  pleased   to   impose  upon  him. 
Twelve  barons    were   selected    from  among  the 
king's  ministers,    twelve  more  were   chosen   by 
parliament :   to  these  twenty-four,  unHmited  au- 
thority was  granted  to  reform  the  state ;  and  the 
king  himself  took  an  oath,  that  he  would  main- 
tain whatever  ordinances  they  should  think  pro- 
per to  enact  for  that  purpose  ".     Leicester  was  at 
the  bead  of  this  supreme  council,  to  which  the 
legislative  power  was  thus  in  reality  transferred  ; 
and  all  their  measures  were  taken  by  his  secret 
influence  and  direction.    The  first  step  bore  a  spe- 
cious appearance,  and  seemed  well  calculated  for 
the  end  which  they  professed  to   be  the  object 
of  all  these  innovations  :   they  ordered  that  four 
knights  should  be  chosen  by  each  county ;  that 
they   should   make  inquiry  into  the   grievances 
of  which  their  neighbourhood  had  reason  to  com- 
plain, and  should  attend  the  ensuing  parliament, 
in  order  to  give  information  to  that  assembly  of 
the  state  of  their  particular  counties  "^ :  a  nearer 
approach  to  our  present  constitution   than  had 

"  Rymer,  vol.   i.  p.  Q55.     Chron.    Dunst.  vol.   i,  p.  334. 
Knyghtou,  p,  2445. 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  65/.     Addit,  p.  140.    Ana.  Burt.  p.  412. 


1258.  HENRY    III.  3S5 

been  made  by  the  barons  in  the  reign  of  king 
John,  wlicn  the  kniglits  were  only  appointed  to 
meet  in  their  several  counties,  and  there  to  draw 
up  a  detail  of  their  grievances.  iMeanwhile  the 
twenty-four  barons  proceeded  to  enact  some  re- 
gulations, as  a  redress  of  such  grievances  as  were 
supposed  to  be  sufficiently  notorious.  They  order- 
ed that  three  sessions  of  parliament  should  be  re- 
gularly held  every  year,  in  the  months  of  Fe- 
bruary, June,  and  October  ;  that  a  new  sheriff 
should  be  annually  elected  by  the  votes  of  the 
freeholders  in  each  county  "^ ;  that  the  sheriffs 
should  have  no  power  of  fining  the  barons  who 
did  not  attend  their  courts,  or  the  circuits  of  the 
justiciaries  ;  that  no  heirs  should  be  committed  to 
the  Avardship  of  foreigners,  and  no  castles  intrust- 
ed to  their  custody  ;  and  that  no  new  warrens  or 
forests  should  be  created,  nor  the  revenues  of 
any  counties  or  hundreds  be  let  to  farm.  Such 
were  the  regulations  Avhich  the  twenty-four  ba- 
rons established  at  Oxford,  for  the  redress  of 
public  grievances. 

But  the  earl  of  Leicester  and  his  associates, 
having  advanced  so  far  to  satisfy  the  nation,  in- 
stead of  continuing  in  this  popular  course,  or 
granting  the  king  that  supply  which  they  had 
promised  him,  immediately  provided  for  the  ex- 
tension and  continuance  of  their  own  authority. 
They  roused  anew  the  popular  clamour  which  had 

*  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p  336, 
VOL.  II.  c    c 


SS6  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1258. 

long  prevailed  against  foreigners :  and  they  fell 
with  the  utmost  violence  on  the  kmg's  half-bro- 
thers who  were  supposed  to  be  the  authors  of  all 
national  grievances,  and  whom  Henry  had  no 
longer  any  poM  er  to  protect.  The  four  brothers, 
sensible  of  their  danger,  took  to  flight,  with  an 
intention  of  making  their  escape  out  of  the  king- 
dom ;  they  were  eagerly  pursued  by  the  barons  ; 
Aymer,  one  of  the  brothers,  who  had  been  elect- 
ed to  the  see  of  Winchester,  took  shelter  in  his 
episcopal  palace,  and  carried  the  others  along  with 
him  ;  they  were  surrounded  in  that  place,  and 
threatened  ta  be  dragged  out  by  force,  and  to  be 
punished  for  their  crimes  and  misdemeanors  ;  and 
the  king,  pleading  the  sacredness  of  an  ecclesias- 
tical sanctuary,  was  glad  to  extricate  them  from 
this  danger  by  banishing  them  the  kingdom.  In 
this  act  of  violence,  as  well  as  in  the  former  usurp- 
ations of  the  barons,  the  queen  and  her  uncles 
were  thought  to  have  secretly  concurred  ;  being 
jealous  of  the  credit  acquired  by  the  brothers, 
which,  they  found,  had  eclipsed  and  annihilated 
their  own. 


USURPATIONS  OF  THE  BARONS. 

But  the  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  twenty- 
four  barons  were  sufficient  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
nation,  and  to  prove  their  intention  of  reducing, 
for  ever,  both  the  king  and  the  people  under  the 


1258.  HENRY    in.  387 

aibitiary  poMer  of  a  very  narrow  aristocracy, 
wliich  must  at  last  have  terminated  eitlier  in 
anarcliy,  or  in  a  violent  usurpation  and  tyranny. 
They  pietcnded  that  they  had  not  yet  digested  all 
the  regulations  necessary  for  the  reformation  of 
tlie  state  and  for  the  redress  of  grievances  ;  and 
they  must  still  retain  their  power,  till  that  great 
purpose  were  thoroughly  effected  :  in  other  words, 
that  they  must  be  perpetual  governors,  and  must 
continue  to  reform,  till  they  were  pleased  to  abdi- 
cate their  authority.  They  formed  an  association 
among  themselves,  and  swore  that  they  Mould 
stand  by  each  other  with  thc-ir  lives  and  fortunes  : 
they  displaced  all  the  chief  officers  of  the  crown, 

•■;  the  justiciary,  the  chancellor,  the  treasurer  ;  and 
advanced  either  themselves  or  their  OMm  creatures 

■  in  their  place  :  even  the  olHices  of  the  king's  hous- 
liold  were  disposed  of  at  their  pleasure  :  the  go- 
vernment of  all  the  castles  was  put  into  hands  in 
whom  they  found  reason  to  confide :  and  the 
wliole  poAver  of  the  state  being  thus  transferred  to 
them,  they  ventured  to  impose  an  oath,  by  which 
all  the  subjects  were  obliged  to  swear,  under  tlie 
penalty  of  being  declared  public  enemies,  that 
they  would  obey  and  execute  all  the  regulations, 
both  known  and  unknown,  of  the  twenty-four 
barons  :  and  all  this,  for  the  greater  glory  of  CJod, 
the  honour  of  the  church,  the  service  of  the  king, 
and  the  advantage   of  the  kingdom  y.      No  one. 

'  ChroH.  T.  Wykes,  p.  52. 


388  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  125^. 

dared  to  withstand  tliis  tyrannical  authority : 
prince  Edward  himself,  the  king's  eldest  son,  a 
youth  of  eighteen,  who  began  to  give  indications 
of  that  great  and  manly  spirit  which  appeared 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  his  Hfe,  was,  after 
making  some  opposition,  constrained  to  take  that 
oath,  which  really  deposed  his  father  and  his  fa- 
mily from  sovereign  authority  ^  Earl  Warrenne 
was  the  last  person  in  the  kingdom  that  could  be 
brought  to  give  the  confederated  barons  this  mark 
of  submission. 

But  the  twenty-four  barons,  not  content  with 
the  usurpation  of  the  royal  power,  introduced  an 
innovation  in  the  constitution  of  parliament  Avhich 
was  of  the  utmost  importance.  They  ordained, 
that  this  assembly  should  chuse  a  committee  of 
twelve  persons,  who  should,  in  the  intervals  of  the 
sessions,  possess  the  authority  of  the  whole  par- 
liament, and  should  attend,  on  a  summons,  the 
person  of  the  king,  in  all  his  motions.  But  so 
powerful  were  these  barons,  that  this  regulation 
was  also  subnfiitted  to  ;  the  whole  government 
was  overthrown,  or  fixed  on  new  foundations ; 
and  the  monarchy  was  totally  subverted,  without 
its  being  possible  for  the  king  to  strike  a  single 
stroke  in  defence  of  the  constitution  against  the 
newly-elected  oligarchy. 

The  report  that  the  king  of  the  Romans  in- 
tended to  pay  a  visit  to  England,  gave^  alarm  to 

^  Ann.  Burt.  p.  4J1. 


125Q.  HENRY    III.  389 

tlie  ruling  barons,  wlio  droaded  lest  the  extensive 
influence  and  established  authority  of  that  prince 
Avould  be  employed  to  restore  tlie  prerogatives 
of  his  family,  and  overturn  their  plan  of  govern-. 
nientS  They  sent  over  the  bishop  of  Worcester, 
who  met  him  at  St.  Omars;  asked  him,  in  the 
name  of  the  barons,  the  reason  of  liis  journey, 
and  how  long  he  intended  to  stay  in  England ; 
and  insisted  that,  before  he  entered  the  kingdom, 
he  should  swear  to  observe  the  regulations  esta- 
blished at  Oxford.  On  Richard's  lefusal  to  take 
this  oath,  they  prepared  to  resist  him  as  a  public 
enemy  ;  they  fitted  out  a  fleet,  assembled  an  army, 
and  exciting  the  inveterate  prejudices  of  the  people 
against  foreigners,  from  M'hom  they  had  suffered 
so  many  oppressions,  spread  the  report,  that  Ri- 
chard, attended  by  a  number  of  strangers,  meant 
to  restore  by  force  the  authority  of  his  exiled 
brothers,  and  to  \iolate  all  the  securities  provided 
for  public  libeity.  The  king  of  the  Romans  Avas 
at  last  obliged  to  submit  to  the  terms  required 
of  him  \ 

But  the  barons,  in  ])roportion  to  their  conti- 
nuance in  power,  began  gradually  to  lose  that  po- 
pularity which  had  assisted  them  in  obtainino'  it: 
and  men  repined,  that  regulations,  which  were 
occasionally  established  for  the  reformation  of  the 
state,  were  likely  to  become  perpetual,  and  to 
subvert  entirely  the  ancient  constitution.     They 

^M.  Paris,  p.  66l. 
^  Ibid.  p.  6Ql,  662.    Cliron.  T.  \Vj'k«9,  p.  53. 


sga  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1259. 

were  apprehensiv^e  lest  the  po\ver  of  the  nobles, 
always  oppressive,  should  now  exert  itself  without 
control,  by  removing  the  counterpoise  of  the 
crown  ;  and  their  fears  were  increased  by  some  new 
edicts  of  the  barons,  which  M^ere  plainly  calculated 
to  procure  to  themselves  an  impunity  in  all  their 
violences.  They  appointed  that  the  circuits  of 
the  itinerant  justices,  the  sole  check  on  their  ar- 
bitrary conduct,  should  be  held  only  once  in 
seven  years ;  and  men  easily  saw  that  a  remedy, 
which  returned  after  such  long  intervals,  against 
an  oppressive  power,  which  was  perpetual,  would 
prove  totally  insignificant  and  useless  ^  The  cry 
became  loud  in  the  nation,  that  the  barons  should 
finish  their  intended  regulations.  The  knights  of 
the  shires,  who  seem  now  to  have  been  pretty 
regularly  assembled,  and  sometimes  in  a  separate 
house,  made  remonstrances  against  the  slowness 
of  their  proceedings.  They  represented  that, 
though  the  king  had  performed  all  the  conditions 
required  of  him,  the  barons  had  hitherto  done 
nothing  for  the  public  good,  and  had  only  been 
careful  to  promote  their  own  private  advantage, 
and  to  make  inroads  on  the  royal  authority  ;  and 
they  even  appealed  to  prince  Edward,  and  claimed 
his  interposition  for  the  interests  of  the  nation  and 
the  reformation  of  the  government  ^.  The  prince 
replied,  that  though  it  was  from  constraint,  and 
contrary  to  his  private  sentiments,   he  had  sworn 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  667.    Trivet,  p.  209,         "  Annal.  Burt.  p.  427. 


i 


I25p.  HENRY    III.  391 

to  maintain  tlic  provisions  of  Oxford,  he  was  de- 
termined to  oljscrve  his  oath  :  hut  he  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  tlie  harons,  recjuirino;  tlicm  to  hring  their 
undertaking  to  a  speedy  conchision,  and  fulfil 
their  engagements  to  tlie  pul)Hc  :  otherwise,  he 
menaced  them,  tliat  at  the  expencc  of  his  Hfe  he 
AV'ould  obHge  them  to  do  their  duty,  and  would 
shed  the  hist  droj)  of  liis  bh)0(l  in  promoting  the 
interests,  and  satisfying  the  just  A\'ishes  of  the 
nation  ^ 

The  harons,  urged  hy  so  pressing  a  necessity, 
pubhslied  at  last  a  new  code  of  ordinances  for  the 
reformation  of  the  state  ^ :  but  tlie  expectations  of 
the  people  M'^ere  extiemely  disaj^pointed,  when 
they  found  that  these  consisted  only  of  some  tri- 
\ial  alterations  in  the  municipal  law  ;  and  still 
more,  m  hen  the  harons  pretended  that  the  task  was 
•  not  yet  finished,  and  tlrat  they  must  farther  pro- 
long their  authority,  in  order  to  bring  the  M'ork 
of  reformation  to  the  desired  period.  The  current 
of  popularity  was  now  much  turned  to  the  side  of 
the  crown  ;  and  the  barons  had  little  to  rely  on 
for  their  support,  besides  the  private  influence  and 
power  of  their  families,  Ashich,  though  exorbi- 
tant, A\'as  likely  to  prove  inferior  to  the  combina- 
tion of  king  and  ])eoj)le.  K\en  this  basis  of  power 
was  daily  weakened  by  their  intestine  jealousies 
and  animosities ;  their  ancient  and  inveterate 
(juarrels  broke  out  when  they  came  to  share  the 

'  Annal.  Burt.  p.  42/.  '  Ibid.  p.  428,  43p. 


392  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1259. 

spoils  of  the  crown ;  and  the  rivalship  between  the 
earls  of  Leicester  and  Glocester,  the  chief  leaders 
among  them,  began  to  disjoint  the  whole  confede- 
racy. The  latter,  more  moderate  in  his  preten- 
sions, was  desirous  of  stopping  or  retarding  the 
career  of  the  barons'  usurpations;  but  the  former, 
enraged  at  the  opposition  which  he  met  with  in 
his  own  party,  pretended  to  throw  up  all  concern 
in  English  affairs;  and  he  retired  into  France^. 

The  kingdom  of  France,  the  only  state  with 
which  England  had  any  considerable  intercourse, 
was  at  this  time  governed  by  Lewis  IX.  a  prince 
of  the  most  singular  character  that  is  to  be  met 
with  in  all  records  of  history.  This  monarch  united, 
to  the  mean  and  abject  superstition  of  a  monk, 
all  the  courage  and  magnanimity  of  the  greatest 
hero ;  and,  what  may  be  deemed  more  extra- 
ordinary, the  justice  and  integrity  of  a  disinter- 
ested patriot,  the  mildness  and  humanity  of  an 
accomplished  philosopher.  So  far  from  taking- 
advantage  of  the  divisions  among  the  English,  or 
attempting  to  expel  those  dangerous  rivals  from 
the  provinces  which  they  still  possessed  in  France, 
he  had  entertained  many  scruples  with  regard  to 
the  sentence  of  attainder  pronounced  against  the 
king's  father,  had  even  expressed  some  intention 
of  restoring  the  other  provinces,  and  was  only 
prevented  from  taking  that  imprudent  resolution 
by  the  united  remonstrances  of  his  own  barons, 

'  Chron.  Dunst.  vol,  i,  p.  348. 


1259.  HENRY    III.  393 

M'ho  represented  tlie  extreme  danger  of  such  a 
measure'',  and,  M'hat  had  a  greater  influence  on 
Lewis,  the  justice  of  punisliing,  by  a  legal  sen- 
tence, the  barbarity  and  felony  of  Jolin.  When- 
ever this  prince  interposed  in  English  aifairs,  it 
was  always  with  an  intention  of  composing  the 
differences  between  the  king  and  his  nobility;  he 
recommended  to  both  parties  every  peaceable  and 
reconciling  measure ;  and  he  used  all  his  autliority 
with  the  earl  of  Leicester,  his  native  subject,  to 
bend  him  to  a  compliance  with  Henry-  He  made 
a  treaty  v/itli  England,  at  a  tinje  v.hen  the  distrac- 
tions of  that  kingdom  were  at  the  greatest  height, 
and  when  the  king's  authority  was  totally  anni- 
hilated ;  and  the  terms  which  he  granted  might, 
even  in  a  more  prosperous  state  of  their  affairs, 
be  deemed  reasonable  and  advantageous  to  the 
English,  He  yiekled  up  some  territories  which 
had  been  conquered  from  Poictou  and  Guienne  ; 
he  ensured  the  peaceable  possession  of  the  latter 
province  to  Henry ;  he  agreed  to  pay  that  prince 
a  large  sum  of  money  ;  and  he  only  required  that 
the  king  should,  in  return,  make  a  final  cession  of 
Normandy,  and  the  other  provinces,  which  he 
could  never  entertain  any  hopes  of  recovering  by 
force  of  arms'.  The  cession  Mas  ratified  by  Henry, 
by  his  two  sons  Si\<i  two  daughters,  and  by  the 
ki«g  of  the  Romans  and  his  three  sons:   Leicester 

•■  M.  Paris,  p.  604. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  G75.     M.  Paris,  p.  566.    Chrwi.  T.  Wyke*, 
p.  53.     Trivet,  p.  208.     M.  W^st.  p.  371. 


394  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1261. 

alone,  either  moved  by  a  vain  arrogance,  or  desir- 
ous to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  English  populace, 
protested  against  the  deed,  and  insisted  on  the 
right,  however  distant,  which  might  accrue  to  his 
consort  ^  Lewis  saw,  in  this  obstinacy,  the  un- 
bounded ambition  of  the  man  ;  and  as  the  barons 
insisted  that  the  money  due  by  treaty  should  be 
at  their  disposal,  not  at  Henry's,  he  also  saw,  and 
probably  with  regret,  the  low  condition  to  M'hich 
this  monarch,  who  had  more  erred  from  weakness 
than  from  any  bad  intentions,  was  reduced  by  the 
turbulence  of  his  own  subjects. 

But  the  situation  of  Henry  soon  after  Avore  a 
more  favourable  aspect.  The  twenty-four  barons 
had  now  enjoyed  the  sovereign  poM'er  near  three 
years ;  and  had  visibly  employed  it,  not  for  the 
reformation  of  the  state,  ^\'hich  was  their  first  pre- 
tence, but  for  the  aggrandisement  of  themselves 
and  of  their  families.  The  breach  of  trust  was 
apparent  to  all  the  Avorld  :  eveiy  oider  of  men 
felt  it,  and  murmured  against  it :  the  dissensions 
among  the  barons  themselves,  which  increased  tlie 
evil,  made  also  the  remedy  more  obvious  and  easy: 
and  the  secret  desertion,  in  particular,  of  the  earl 
of  Glocester  to  the  crown,  seemed  to  promise 
Henry  certain  success  in  any  attempt  to  resume 
his  authority.  Yet  durst  he  not  take  that  step, 
so  reconcileable  both  to  justice  and  policy,  with- 
out making  a  previous  application  to  Rome,  and 

><  Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  53. 


1261.  HENRY    III.  395 

desiring  an  absolution  from  his  oatlis  and  engage- 
ments'. 

The  pope  was  at  this  time  nuicli  dissatisfied 
with  the  conduct  of  the  barons;  who,  in  order  to 
gain  the  favour  of  tlie  people  and  clergy  of  Eng- 
land, had  expelled  all  the  Italian  ecclesiastics,  had 
confiscated  their  benefices,  and  seemed  determined 
to  maintain  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  the 
Englisli  church,  in  which  the  rights  of  patronage, 
belono-ino;  to  their  ov/n  families,  were  included. 
The  extreme  animosity  of  the  English  clergy 
against  the  Italians  was  also  a  source  of  his  disgust 
to  this  order ;  and  an  attempt  which  had  been  made 
by  them  for  farther  liberty  and  greater  independ- 
ence on  the  civil  pov.er,  was  therefore  less  accept- 
able to  the  court  of  Rome'".  About  the  same 
time  that  the  barons  at  Oxford  had  annihilated 
the  prerogatives  of  the  monarchy,  the  clergy  met 
in  a  synod  at  Merton,  and  passed  several  ordin- 
ances, which  were  no  less  calculated  to  promote 
their  om'u  grandeur  at  the  expence  of  the  crown. 
They  decreed,  that  it  was  unlawful  to  tiy  ecclesi- 
astics by  secular  judges  ;  that  the  clergy  were  not 
to  regard  any  prohibitions  from  civil  courts;  that 
lay-patrons  had  no  right  to  confer  spiritual  be- 
nefices ;  that  the  magistrate  M'as  obliged,  without 
farther  enquiry,  to  imprison  all  excommunicated 
persons  ;  and  that  ancient  usage,  without  any 
p.iiticular  grant  or  charter,    Mas  a  sufficient  au- 

'  Ann.  Biirt.  p.  389.  *"  Il3mer,  vol.  i.  p.  755. 


396  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1261. 

thority  for  any  clerical  possessions  or  privileges". 
About  a  century  before,  these  claims  m'ouIcI  have 
been  supported  by  the  court  of  Rome  beyond  the 
most  fundamental  articles  of  faith  :  tliey  were 
the  chief  points  maintained  b}'  the  great  martyr, 
Becket;  and  his  resolution  in  defending  them  had 
exalted  him  to  the  high  station  which  he  held  in 
the  catalogue  of  Romish  saints.  But  principles 
were  changed  with  the  times  :  the  pope  was  be- 
come somewhat  jealous  of  the  great  independence 
of  the  English  clergy,  which  made  them  stand 
less  in  need  of  his  protection,  and  even  emboldened 
them  to  resist  his  authority,  and  to  complain  of  the 
preference  given  to  the  Italian  courtiers,  whose 
interests,  it  was  natural  to  imagine,  were  the 
chief  object  of  his  concern.  He  was  ready,  there- 
fore, on  the  king's  application,  to  annul  these  new 
constitutions  of  the  church  of  England".  And, 
at  the  same  time,  he  absolved  the  king  and  all  his 
subjects  from  the  oath  which  they  had  taken  to 
observe  the  provisions  of  Oxford  p. 


PRINCE  EDWARD. 

Prince  Edward,  whose  liberal  mind,  though  in 
such  early  youth,  had  taught  him  the  great  pre- 
judice which  his  father  had  incurred,  by  his  levity, 

"  Ann.  Burt,  p.  389-  °  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  755. 

p  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  722.     M.  Paris,  p.  666.     W.  Heming,  p. 
5.80.     Ypod.  Neust.  p.  468.     Knyghton,  p.  2446. 


12fll.  HENRY  III.  397 

inconstancy,  and  frequent  breacli  of  promise,  re- 
fused for  a  long*  time  to  take  advantage  of  this 
absolution  ;  and  declared  that  the  provisions  of 
Oxford,  how  unreasonable  soever  in  themselves, 
and  how  mucli  soever  abused  by  the  barons,  ought 
still  to  be  adhered  to  by  those  who  had  sworn  to 
observe  them'^.  He  himself  had  been  constrained 
by  violence  to  take  that  oath;  yet  he  A\'as  de- 
termined to  keep  it.  By  this  scrupulous  fidelity, 
the' prince  acquired  the  confidence  of  all  parties, 
and  was  afterwards  enabled  to  recover  fully  the 
r  roya,l  authority,  and  to  perform  such  great  actions, 
both  during  his  own  reign  and  that  of  his  father. 
The  situation  of  England,  during  this  period, 
as  well  as  that  of  most  European  kingdoms,  Mas 
somewhat  peculiar.  There  was  no  regular  military 
force  maintained  in  the  nation  :  the  sword,  how- 
ever, was  not,  properly  speaking,  in  the  hands  of 
the  people :  the  barons  were  alone  entrusted  with 
the  defence  of  the  community ;  and  after  anv 
effort  which  tliey  made,  either  against  their  own 
prince  or  against  foreigners,  as  the  military  re- 
tainers departed  home,  the  armies  Avere  disbanded, 
and  could  not  speedily  be  re-assembled  at  pleasure. 
It  was  easy,  therefore,  for  a  few  barons,  by  a  com- 
bination, to  get  the  start  of  the  other  partv,  to 
collect  suddenly  tlieir  troops,  and  to  appear  im- 
expectedly  in  the  field  with  an  army,  which  tlieir 
antagonists,    though    equal,    or  even  superior  ii^ 

'  M,  Paris,  p.  667. 


39S  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  126l. 

power  and  interest,  would  not  dare  to  encounter. 
Hence  the  sudden  revolutions,  which  often  took 
place  in  those  governments  :  hence  the  frequent 
victories  obtained  without  a  blow  by  one  faction 
over  the  other :  and  hence  it  happened,  that  the 
seeming  prevalence  of  a  party  was  seldom  a  pro- 
gnostic of  its  long  continuance  in  power  and 
authority. 

The  king,  as  soon  as  he  received  the  pope's  ab- 
solution from  his  oath,  accompanied  with  menaces 
of  excommunication  against  all  opponents,  trust- 
ing to  the  countenance  of  the  church,  to  the 
support  promised  him  by  many  considerable  barons, 
and  to  the  returning  favour  of  the  people,  im- 
mediately took  off  the  mask.  After  justifying  his. 
conduct  by  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  set  forth 
the  private  ambition,  and  the  breach  of  trust, 
conspicuous  in  Leicester  and  his  associates,  he 
declared,  that  he  had  resumed  the  government, 
and  was  determined  thenceforth  to  exert  the  royal 
authority  for  the  protection  of  his  subjects.  He 
removed  Hugh  le  Dcspenser  and  Nicholas  de  Ely, 
the  justiciary  and  chancellor  appointed  by  the 
barons ;  and  put  Philip  Basset  and  Walter  de 
Merton  in  their  place.  He  substituted  new  sheriffs 
in  all  the  counties,  men  of  character  and  honour: 
he  placed  new  governors  in  most  of  the  castles  : 
he  changed  all  the  officers  of  his  household :  he 
summoned  a  parliament,  in  which  the  resumption 
of  his  authority  was  ratified,  with  only  hve  dissent- 
ing voices :    and   the  barons,   after  making  one 


1203.  HENRY  III.  Sijg 

fruitless  effort  to  take  the  king  by  surprise  at 
Winchester,  were  ohhged  to  acquiesce  in  those 
new  regukitions '. 

The  king,  in  order  to  cut  off  every  ohjection 
to  his  conduct,  offered  to  refer  all  the  differences 
between  him  and  the  earl  of  Leicester,  to  Margaret 
queen  of  France  \  The  celebrated  integrity  of 
Lewis  gave  a  mighty  influence  to  any  decision 
Avhicli  issued  from  his  court;  and  Henry  probably 
hoped  that  the  gallantry,  on  which  all  barons, 
as  true  knights,  valued  themselves,  would  make 
them  ashamed  not  to  submit  to  the  award  of  that 
princess.  Lewis  merited  the  confidence  reposed 
ill  him.  By  an  admirable  conduct,  probably  as 
political  as  just,  he  continually  interposed  his 
good  offices  to  allay  the  civil  discords  of  the  Eng- 
lish :  he  forNsarded  all  healing  measures,  which 
might  give  security  to  both  parties :  and  he  still 
endeavoured,'  though  in  vain,  to  sooth  by  per- 
suasion the  fierce  ambition  of  the  earl  of  Leicester, 
and  to  convince  him  how  much  it  was  his  duty  to 
submit  peaceably  to  the  authority  of  his  sovereign. 

CIVIL  WARS  OF  THE  BARONS. 

That  bold  and  artful  conspirator  was  nowise  dis- 
couraged by  the  bad  success  of  his  past  enterprises. 
The  death  of  Richard  earl  of  Glocester,  who  was 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  668.     Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  55. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  724. 


40O  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1263. 

his  chief  rival  in  power,  and  who,  before  his  de- 
cease, had  joined  the  ro3^al  party,  seemed  to  open 
a  new  field  to  his  violence,  and  to  expose  the 
throne  to  fresh  insidts  and  injuries.  It  was  in 
vain  that  the  king  professed  his  intentions  of  ob- 
serving strictly  the  Great  Charter,  even  of  main- 
taining all  the  regulations  made  by  the  reforming 
barons  at  Oxford  or  afterwards,  except  those  which 
entirely  annihilated  the  royal  authority  :  these 
powerful  chieftains,  now  obnoxious  to  the  court, 
could  not  peaceably  resign'  the  hopes  of  entire 
independence  and  uncontrolled  power,  with  which 
they  had  flattered  themselves,  and  which  they 
had  so  long  enjoyed.  Many  of  them  engaged  in 
Leicester's  views ;  and  among  the  rest,  Gilbert 
the  young  earl  of  Glocester,  who  brought  him  a 
mighty  accession  of  power,  from  the  extensive 
authority  possessed  by  that  opulent  family.  Even 
Henry,  son  of  the  king  of  the  Romans,  commonly 
called  Henry  d'AUmaine,  though  a  prince  of  the 
blood,  joined  the  party  of  the  barons  against  the 
king,  the  head  of  his  own  family.  Leicester  him- 
self, who  still  resided  in  France,  secretly  formed 
the  links  of  this  great  conspiracy,  and  planned 
the  whole  scheme  of  operations. 

The  princes  of  Wales,  notwithstanding  the 
great  pov/er  of  the  monarchs,  both  of  the  Saxon 
and  Norman  line,  still  preserved  authority  in  their 
own  country.  Though  they  had  often  been  con- 
strained to  pay  tribute  to  the  crown  of  England, 
they  were  with  difficulty  retained  in  subordina- 


1263.  HENRY  III.  '101 

tion,  or  even  in  peace ;  and  almost  tlirough  every 
reign  since  tlie  concjnest,  they  had  infested  the 
English  frontiers  with  such  ])etty  incursions  and 
sudden  inroads,  as  seldom  merit  to  have  place  in 
a  general  history.    The  English,  still  content  with 
repelling  their  invasions,  and  chasing  them  hack 
into  their  mountains,  had  never  pursued  the  ad- 
vantages obtained  over  them,  nor  been  able,  even 
under  their  greatest  and  most  active  princes,  to 
fix  a  total,  or  so  much  as  a  feudal  subjection  on 
the  country.    This  advantage  Avas  reserved  to  the 
present  king,  the  weakest  and  most  indolent.    In 
the  year  1237,  Lewellyn  prince  of  Wales,  declin- 
ing in  years  and  broken  with  infirmities,  but  still 
more  harassed  with  the  rebellion  and   undutiful 
behaviour  of  his  youngest  son  Grifl^in,   had  re- 
course to  the  protection  of  Henry  ;  and  consent- 
ing to  su-bject  his  principality,  which  had  so  long- 
maintained,  or  soon  recovered,  its  independence, 
to  vassalage  under  the  crown  of  England,   had 
purchased  security  and  tranquillity  on  these  dis- 
honourable terms.   His  eldest  son  and  heir,  David, 
renewed  the  homage  to  England  ;    and   having 
taken   his   brother  prisoner,    deli\ered   him    into 
Henry's  hands,  Avho  committed  him  to  custody  in 
the  Tower.     That  prince,  endeavouring  to  make 
his  escape,  lost  his  life  in  the  attempt;  and  the 
prince  of  Wales,  freed  from  the  apprehensions  of 
so  dangerous  a  rival,  paid  thenceforth  less  regard 
to  the  English  monarch,  and  even  renewed  those 
incursions,  by  M'hich  tlic  Welsh,  dining  so  m;an\' 

AOL.    11.  i)  JD 


402  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1263. 

ages,  had  been  accustomed  to  infest  the  English 
borders.  Lewellyn,  however,  the  son  of  Griffin,  who 
succeeded  to  his  uncle,  had  been  obliged  to  renew 
the  homage,  which  was  now  claimed  by  England 
as  an  established  right ;  but  he  was  well  pleased 
to  inflame  those  civil  discords,  on  which  he  rested 
his  present  security,  and  founded  his  hopes  of 
future  independence.  He  entered  into  a  confe- 
deracy with  the  earl  of  Leicester,  and  collecting- 
all  the  force  of  his  principality,  invaded  England 
with  an  army  of  30,000  men.  He  ravaged  the 
lands  of  Roger  de  Mortimer,  and  of  all  the  barons 
Avho  adhered  to  the  crown';  he  marched  into 
Cheshire,  and  committed  like  depredations  on 
prince  Edward's  territories  ;  every  place  where  his 
disorderly  troops  aj)peared  was  laid  waste  with  fire 
and  sword  ;  and  though  Mortimer,  a  gallant  and 
expert  soldier,  made  stout  resistance,  it  was  found 
necessary  that  the  prince  himself  should  head 
the  army  against  this  invader.  Edward  repulsed 
prince  Lewellyn,  and  obliged  him  to  take  shelter 
in  the  mountains  of  North  Wales :  but  he  was 
prevented  from  making  farther  progress  against 
the  enemy,  by  the  disorders  which  soon  after 
broke  out  in  England. 

The  Welsh  invasion  was  the  appointed  signal 
ibr  the  malcontent  barons  to  rise  in  arms  ;  and 
Leicester,  coming  over  secretly  from  France,  col- 
lected all  the  forces  of  his  party,  and  commenced 

'  Ckron.  Dun.  vol.  i.  p.  354. 


1263.  HENRY  III.  403 

an  open  rebellion.  He  seized  the  ])crsoH  of 
the  bishop  of  Hereford  ;  a  prelate  obnoxious  to 
all  the  inferior  clergy,  on  account  of  his  devoted 
attachment  to  the  court  of  Rome ".  Simon  bishop 
of  NorM'ich,  and  John  JVIansel,  because  they  had 
published  the  pope's  bull,  absolving  the  king  and 
kingdom  from  their  oaths  to  observe  the  pro- 
visions of  Oxford,  were  made  prisoners,  and  ex- 
posed to  the  rage  of  the  party.  The  king's  de- 
mesnes were  ravaged  with  unbounded  fury '"^ ; 
and  as  it  was  Leicester's  interest  to  allure  to  his 
side,  by  the  hopes  of  plunder,  all  the  tlisorderly 
ruffians  in  England,  he  gave  them  a  general  licence 
to  pillage  the  barons  of  the  opposite  part}-,  and 
even  all  neutral  persons.  But  one  of  the  principal 
resources  of  his  faction  was  the  populace  of  the 
cities,  particularly  of  London  ;  and  as  he  had, 
by  his  hypocritical  pretensions  to  sanctity,  and 
his  zeal  against  Rome,  engaged  the  monks  and 
lower  ecclesiastics  in  his  party,  his  dominion  over 
the  inferior  ranks  of  men  became  uncontrollable. 
Thomas  Fitz-Richard  mayor  of  London,  a  furious 
and  licentious  man,  gave  the  countenance  of  au- 
thority to  these  disorders  in  the  capital ;  and 
having  declared  war  against  the  substantial  citi- 
zens, he  loosened  all  the  bands  of  government,  by 
which  that  turbulent  city  was  commonly  but  ill 
restrained.     On  the  approach  of  Eastei-,  the  zeal 


"  Trivet,  p.  21 1.     M.  West.  p.  382,  392. 
^'  Trivet,  p.  21 1.     M.  West.  p.  382. 
o 


404  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  126S. 

of  superstition,  the  appetite  for  plunder,  or  what  is 

often  as  prevalent  with  the  populace  as  either  of 

these  motives,  the  pleasure  of  committing  havoc 

and  destruction,    prompted  them  to  attack  the 

unhappy  Jews,   who  were  first  pillaged  without 

resistance,  then  massacred  to  the  number  of  five 

hundred  persons ".     The  Lombard  bankers  were 

next  exposed   to   the  rage  of  the  people ;    and 

though,  by  taking  sanctuary  in  the  churches,  they 

escaped  with  their  lives,  all  their  money  and  goods 

became  a  prey  to  the  licentious  multitude.     Even 

the  houses  of  the  rich  citizens,  though  English, 

were  attacked  by  night ;  and  Avay  was  made  by 

sword  and  by  fire  to  the  pillage  of  their  goods,  and 

often  to  the  destruction  of  their  persons.     The 

queen,  who,  though  defended  by  the  Tower,  was 

terrified  by  the  neighbourhood  of  such  dangerous 

commotions,  resolved  to  go  by  water  to  the  castle 

of  Windsor ;  but  as  she  approached  the  bridge,  the 

populace  assembled  against  her :  the  cry  ran,  drown 

the  imtch ;  and  besides  abusing  her  with  the  most 

opprobrious  language,  and  pelting  her  with  rotten 

eggs  and  dirt,  they  had  prepared  large  stones  to 

sink  her  barge,  when  she  should  attempt  to  shoot 

the  bridge ;  and  she  was  so  frightened,  that  she 

returned  to  the  Tower  y. 

The  violence  and  fury  of  Leicester's  faction 
had  risen  to  such  a  height  in  all  parts  of  England, 
that  the  king,  unable  to  resist  their  power,  was 

Ciiron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  5p.  ^  Ibid.  p.  57. 


1263.  HENRY  III.  405 

obliged  to  set  on  foot  a  treaty  of  peace ;  and  to 
make  an  accommodation  with  the  barons  on  the 
most  disadvantageous  terms'",  lie  agreed  to  confirm 
anew  the  provisions  of  Oxford,  even  those  whicli 
entirely  annihilated  the  royal  authority ;  and  the 
barons  Mere  again  re-instated  in  the  sovereignty 
of  the  kingdom.   They  restored  Hugh  le  Despenser 
to  the  office  of  chief  justiciary  ;  they  appointed 
their  own  creatures  sheriffs  in  every  county  of 
England  ;  they   took  possession  of  all  the  royal 
castles  and  fortresses ;  they  even  named  all  the 
officers  of  the  king's  household ;  and  they  sum- 
moned a  parliament  to  meet  at  Westminster,  in 
order  to  settle  more  fully  their  plan  of  government. 
They  here  produced  a  new   list  of  twenty-four 
barons,  to  whom  they  proposed  that  the  admini- 
stration should  be  entirely  committed ;  and  they 
insisted  that  the  authority  of  this  junto  should 
continue  not  only  during  the  reign  of  the  king, 
but  also  during  that  of  prince  Edward. 

This  prince,  the  life  and  soul  of  the  royal  party, 
had  unhappily,  before  the  king's  accommodation 
Avith  the  barons,  been  taken  prisoner  by  Leicester 
in  a  parley  at  Windsor*;  and  that  misfortune, 
more  than  any  other  incident,  had  determined 
Henry  to  submit  to  the  ignominious  conditions 
imposed  upon  him.  But  EdM'ard,  having  recovered 
his  hberty  by  the  treaty,  employed  his  activity  in 

'  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  358.     Trivet,  p.  21 1 . 
»  M.  Paris,  p.  669.    Trivet,  p.  2 1 :5 . 


4G6  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1263. 

defending  the  prerogatives  of  his  family ;  and 
he  gained  a  great  party  even  among  those  who 
had  at  first  adhered  to  the  cause  of  the  barons. 
His  cousin  Henry  d'AUmaine,  Roger  Bigod  earl 
marslial,  earl  Warrenne,  Humjjhrey  Bohun  earl  of 
Hereford,  John  lord  Basset,  Ralph  Basset,  Hamond 
I'Estrange,  Roger  Mortimer,  Henry  de  Piercy, 
Robert  de  Brus,  Roger  de  Leybourne,  with  almost 
all  the  lords  marchers,  as  they  were  called,  on  the 
borders  of  Wales  and  of  Scotland,  the  most  warlike 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  declared  in  favour  of  the 
royal  cause  ;  and  hostilities,  which  A\^ere  scarcely 
well  composed,  were  again  renewed  in  every  part 
of  England.  But  the  near  balance  of  the  parties, 
joined  to  the  universal  clamour  of  the  people, 
obliged  the  king  and  barons  to  open  anew  the 
negotiations  for  peace  ;  and  it  was  agreed  by  both 
sides  to  submit  their  differences  to  the  arbitration 
of  the  king  of  France  ^ 


REFERENCE  TO  THE  KING  OF  FRANCE. 

This  virtuous  prince,  the  only  man  who,  in  like 
circumstances,  could  safely  have  been  intrusted 
Yvdth  such  an  authority  by  a  neighbouring  nation, 
had  never  ceased  to  interpose  his  good  offices 
between  the  English  factions ;  and  had  even, 
during  the  short  interval  of  peace,  invited  over 

^  M.  Paris,  p.  608.     Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p,  58.     W.  Heming. 
p.  580.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  363. 


1264,  HENRY  lit.  407 

to  Paris  botli  the  king-  and  the  earl  of  Leicester, 
in  order  to  accommodate  the  differences  hctwccn 
them  ;   ])ut  found,  tliat  tiic  fears  and  animosities 
on  both  sides,  as  well  as  the  ambition  of  Leicester, 
were  so  violent,  as  to  render  all  his  endeavours 
ineffectual.    But  -when  this  solemn  appeal,  ratified 
by  the  oaths   and   subscri|)tions    of  the    leaders 
in   both  factions,  was  made  to  his  judgment,  he 
was  not  discouraged  from  pursuing  his  honourable 
purpose :  he  summoned  the  states  of  France  at 
Amiens ;   and  there,  in  the   presence  of  that  as- 
sembly, as  well  as  in  that  of  the  king  of  England 
and  Peter  de  Montfort,  Leicester's  son,  he  brought 
this  ffreat  cause  to  a  trial  and  examination.      It 
appeared  to  him,  that  the  provisions  of  Oxford, 
even  had  they  not  been  extorted  by  force,  had 
they  not  been  so  exorbitant  in  their  nature,  and 
subversive  of  the  ancient  constitution,  were  ex- 
pressly established  as  a  temporary  expedient,  and 
could  not,  without  breach  of  trust,  be  lendered 
perpetual  by  the  barons.     He  therefore  annulled 
these   provisions  ;    restored  to  the  king  the  pos- 
session of  his  castles,  and  the  power  of  nomina- 
tion to  the  great  offices ;  allowed  him  to  retain 
what  foreigners  he  pleased  in  his  kingdom,  and 
even  to  confer  on  them  places  of  trust  and  dignity, 
and,  in  a  word,  re-established  the  royal  ])o\\er  in 
the  same  condition  on  m  hich  it  stood  before  the 
meeting  of  the  parliament  at  Oxford.      Lut  while 
he   thus  sui)pressed   dangerous   innovations,    and 
preserved    unimpaired    the    prerogatives    of    the 


408  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1264. 

English  crown,  he  was  not  negUgent  of  the  rights 
of  the  people ;  and  besides  ordering  that  a  general 
amnesty  should  be  granted  for  all  past  offences, 
he  declared,  that  his  award  was  not  any  wise 
meant  to  derogate  from  the  privileges  and  liberties 
which  the  nation  enjoyed  by  any  former  con- 
cessions or  charters  of  the  crown ''. 


RENEWAL  OF  THE  CIVIL  WARS. 

This  equitable  sentence  was  no  sooner  known  in 
England,  than  Leicester  and  his  confederates  de- 
termined to  reject  it,  and  to  have  recourse  to  arms, 
in  order  to  procure  to  themselves  more  safe  and 
advantageous  conditions'*.  Without  regard  to 
his  oaths  and  subscriptions,  that  enterprising  con- 
spirator directed  his  two  sons,  Richard  and  Peter 
de  Montfort,  in  conjunction  with  Robert  de  Ferrars 
earl  of  Derby,  to  attack  the  city  of  Worcester; 
Avhile  Henry  and  Simon  de  Montfort,  two  others 
of  his  sons,  assisted  by  the  prince  of  Wales,  were 
ordered  to  lay  waste  the  estate  of  Roger  de  Morti- 
mer. He  himself  resided  at  London  ;  and  em- 
ploying as  his  instrument  Fitz-Richard  the  sedi- 
tious mayor,  Avho  had  violently  and  illegally  pro- 
longed his  authority,  he  wrought  up  that  city  to 
the  highest  ferment  and  agitation.    The  populace 

"  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  776,  777,  &c.     Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  58. 
Knyghton,  p.  2446.  *•  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  363. 


1264.  HENRY  III.  409 

formed  themselves  into  bands  and  companies ; 
chose  leaders  ;  practised  all  military  exercises ; 
committed  violence  on  the  royalists :  and  to  give 
them  ofreater  countenance  in  their  disorders,  an 
association  was  entered  into  between  the  city  and 
eighteen  great  barons,  never  to  make  peace  with 
the  king  but  by  common  consent  and  approbation. 
At  the  head  of  those  who  swore  to  maintain  this 
association,  were  the  earls  of  Leicester,  Glocestcr, 
and  Derby,  with  le  Despenser  the  chief  justiciary ; 
men  who  had  all  previously  sworn  to  submit  to 
the  award  of  the  French  monarch.  Their  only 
pretence  for  this  breach  of  faith  A\as,  that  the 
latter  part  of  Lewis's  sentence  was,  as  they  athrmed, 
a  contradiction  to  the  former :  he  ratified  the 
charter  of  liberties,  yet  annulled  the  provisions 
of  Oxford ;  which  were  only  calculated,  as  they 
maintained,  to  preserve  that  charter;  and  without 
which,  in  their  estimation,  they  had  no  security 
for  its  observance. 

The  king  and  prince,  finding  a  civil  Avar  inevi- 
table, prepared  themselves  for  defence;  and  sum- 
moning their  military  vassals,  from  all  (quarters,  and 
being  reinforced  by  Baliol  lord  of  Galloway,  Brus 
lord  of  Annandale,  Henry  Piercy,  John  Comin% 
and  other  barons  of  the  north,  they  composed  an 
army,  formidable,  as  well  from  its  numbers  as  its 
military  prowess  and  experience.    The  first  enter- 

'  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  7/2.     M.  West.  p.  385.     Ypod.  Ncust. 
p.  46y. 


410  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1264. 

prise  of  the  royalists  was  the  attack  of  Northamp- 
ton, whicli  was  defended  by  Simon  de  Montfort, 
with  many  of  the  principal  barons  of  that  party : 
and  a  breach  being  made  in  the  walls  by  Philip 
Basset,  the  place  Avas  carried  by  assault,  and  both 
the  governor  and  the  garrison  were  made  prison- 
ers. The  royalists  marched  thence  to  Leicester 
and  Nottingham ;  both  which  places  having 
opened  their  gates  to  them,  prince  Edward  pro- 
ceeded with  a  detachment  into  the  county  of 
Derby,  in  order  to  ravage  with  fire  and  sword  the 
lands  of  the  earl  of  that  name,  and  take  revenge 
on  him  for  his  disloyalty.  Like  maxims  of  war 
prevailed  with  both  parties  throughout  England  ; 
and  the  kingdom  was  thus  exposed  in  a  moment 
to  greater  devastation,  from  the  animosities  of  the 
rival  barons,  than  it  would  have  suffered  from 
many  years  of  foreign  or  even  domestic  hostilities, 
conducted  by  more  humane  and  more  generous 
principles. 

The  earl  of  Leicester,  master  of  London,  and 
of  the  counties  in  the  south-east  of  England, 
formed  the  siege  of  Rochester,  which  alone  de- 
clared for  the  king  in  those  parts,  and  which, 
besides  earl  Warrenne,  the  governor,  was  garri- 
soned by  many  noble  and  powerful  barons  of  the 
royal  party.  The  king  and  prince  hastened  from 
Nottingham,  where  they  were  then  quartered,  to 
the  relief  of  the  place ;  and  on  their  approach, 
Leicester  raised  the  siege,  and  retreated  to  Lon- 
don, which,  being  the  centre  of  his  power,  he  was 


1264.  HENRY    III.  4il 

afraid  miglit,  in  his  absence,  fall  into  tlic  king's 
hands,  either  by  force  or  by  a  correspondence 
with  the  principal  citizens,  ^\ho  were  all  secretly 
inclined  to  the  royal  cause.  Reinforced  by  a  great 
body  of  Londoners,  and  having  summoned  his 
partisans  from  all  quarters,  lie  thought  himself 
stronj'"  cnoujih  to  hazard  a  oeneral  battle  with  the 
royalists,  and  to  determine  the  fate  of  the  nation 
in  one  great  engagement ;  which,  if  it  proved 
successful,  must  be  decisive  against  the  king, 
who  had  no  retreat  for  his  broken  troops  in  those 
parts  ;  while  Leicester  himself,  in  case  of  an}"- 
sinister  accident,  could  easily  take  shelter  in  the 
city.  To  give  the  better  colouring  to  his  cause, 
he  previously  sent  a  message  with  conditions  of 
peace  to  Henry,  submissive  in  the  language,  but 
exorbitant  in  the  demands  f;  and  when  the  mes- 
sensrer  returned  with  the  lie  and  defiance  from  the 
king,  the  prince,  and  the  king  of  the  Romans,  he 
sent  a  new  messas^e  renouncintr,  in  the  name  of 
himself  and  of  the  associated  barons,  all  fealty  and 
allegiance  to  Henry.  He  then  marched  out  of 
the  city  with  his  army,  divided  into  four  bodies : 
the  first  commanded  by  his  two  sons  Henry  and 
Guy  de  I\Iontfort,  together  with  Humphrey  de 
Bohun  earl  of  Hereford,  who  had  deserted  to  the 
barons  ;  the  second  led  by  the  earl  of  Glocester, 
with  A\'iHiam  de  jNIontchesney  and  John  Fitz- 
John  ;  the  third,  composed  of  Londoners,  under 

^  M.  Paris,  p.  669.     W.  Hcmin^.  p.  583. 


412  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1264. 

the  command  of  Nicholas  de  Segrave  :  the  fourth 
headed  by  himself  in  person.  The  bishop  of  Chi- 
chester gave  a  general  absolution  to  the  army, 
accompanied  with  assurances  that,  if  any  of  them 
fell  in  the  ensuing  action,  they  would  infallibly 
be  received  into  heaven,  as  the  reward  of  their 
suffering  in  so  meritorious  a  cause. 


BATTLE  OF  LEWES.     May  1  i. 

Leicester,  who  possessed  great  talents  for  war, 
conducted  his  march  with  such  skill  and  secrecy, 
that  he  had  well  nigh  surprised  the  royalists  in 
their  quarters  at  Lewes  in  Sussex :  but  the  vigil- 
ance and  activity  of  prince  Edward  soon  repaired 
this  negligence ;  and  he  led  out  the  king's  army 
to  the  field  in  three  bodies.  He  himself  conducted 
the  van,  attended  by  earl  Warrenne  and  William 
de  Valence :  the  main  body  was  commanded  by  the 
king  of  the  Romans  and  his  son  Henry  :  the  king 
himself  was  placed  in  the  rear  at  the  head  of  his 
principal  nobility.  Prince  Edward  rushed  upon 
the  Londoners,  who  had  demanded  the  post  of 
honour  in  leading  the  rebel  army,  but  who,  from 
their  ignorance  of  discipline  and  want  of  experi- 
ence, were  ill  fitted  to  resist  the  gentry  and  military 
men,  of  whom  the  prince's  body  was  composed. 
They  were  broken  in  an  instant ;  were  chased  off 
the  field;  and  Edward,  transported  by  his  martial 
ardour,  and  eager  to  revenge  the  insolence  of  the 


,1264.  HENRY  III.  413 

Londoners  against  his  mothci  ^  put  them  to  the 
sword  for  the  length  of  four  miles,  without  giving 
tliem  any  quarter,  and  without  reflecting  on  the  fate 
which  in  the  mean  time  attended  the  rest  of  the 
amiy.  The  earl  of  Leicester,  seeing  the  royalists 
thrown  into  confusion  by  their  eagerness  in  the 
pursuit,  led  on  his  remaining  troops  against  the 
bodies  commanded  by  the  two  royal  brothers  :  he 
defeated  with  great  slaughter  the  forces  headed 
by  the  king  of  the  Romans  ;  and  that  prince  was 
obliged  to  yield  himself  prisoner  to  the  earl  of 
Glocester :  he  penetrated  to  the  body  where  the 
king  himself  was  placed,  threw  it  into  disorder, 
pursued  his  advantage,  chased  it  into  the  town  of 
Lewes,  and  obliged  Henry  to  surrender  himself 
prisoner  ^ 

Prince  Edward,  returning  to  the  field  of  battle 
from  his  precipitate  pursuit  of  the  Londoners, 
was  astonished  to  find  it  covered  with  the  dead 
bodies  of  his  friends,  and  still  more  to  hear,  that 
his  father  and  uncle  were  defeated  and  taken 
prisoners,  and  that  Arundel  Comyn,  Brus,  Ilamond 
I'Estrange,  Roger  Leybourne,  and  many  consider- 
able barons  of  his  party,  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
victorious  enemy.  Earl  Warrenne,  Hugh  Bigod, 
■and  William  de  Valence,  struck  with  despair  at 
this  event,  immediately  took  to  flight,  hurried  to 


«  M.  Paris,  p.  67O.  Chroa.  T.  Wykes,  p.  62.  W.  Heming. 
p.  583,  M.  West.  p.  38".  Ypod.  Neust.  p.  46g.  H.  Knyghton, 
p.  2450,  ''  M.  Paris,  p.  OjO.     M.  Wen.  p.  387- 


414  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1264. 

Pevencey,  and  made  their  escape  beyond  sea': 
but  the  prince,  intrepid  amidst  the  greatest  dis- 
asters, exhorted  his  troops  to  revenge  the  death 
of  their  friends,  to  relieve  the  royal  captives,  and 
to  snatch  an  easy  conquest  from  an  enemy  dis- 
ordered by  their  own  victory  ^.  He  found  his 
followers  intimidated  by  their  situation  ;  while 
Leicester,  afraid  of  a  sudden  and  violent  blow 
from  the  prince,  amused  him  by  a  feigned  negoti- 
ation, till  he  was  able  to  recal  his  troops  from  the 
pursuit,  and  bring  them  into  order  ^  There  now 
appeared  no  farther  resource  to  the  royal  party  ; 
surrounded  by  the  armies  and  garrisons  of  the 
enemy,  destitute  of  forage  and  provisions,  and 
deprived  of  their  sovereign,  as  Avell  as  of  their 
principal  leaders,  who  could  alone  inspirit  them  to 
an  obstinate  resistance.  The  prince,  therefore, 
was  obliged  to  submit  to  Leicester's  terms,  which 
were  short  and  severe,  agreeably  to  the  suddenness 
and  necessity  of  the  situation :  he  stipulated,  that 
he  and  Henry  d'AUmaine  should  surrender  them- 
selves prisoners  as  pledges  in  lieu  of  the  two  kings ; 
that  all  other  prisoners  on  both  sides  should  be 
released"";  and,  that  in  order  to  settle  fully  the 
terms  of  agreement,  application  should  be  made 
to  the  king  of  France,  that  he  should  name  six 
Frenchmen,  three  prelates,  and  three  noblemen  : 


'  Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  6:3.  "  W.  Heming.  p.  584. 

'  W.  Heming.  p,  534. 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  O'/i.     KnyghtoHj  p.  2451. 


11G4.  HENRY  III.  415 

these  six  to  chuse  two  others  of  tlieir  own  country : 
and  these  two  to  chuse  one  Englislimiin,  m  ho,  in 
conjunction  with  themselves,  were  to  be  invested 
by  hotli  parties  M'ith  full  powers  to  make  what 
regulations  they  thouL;ht  proper  for  the  settlement 
of  the  kingdom.  The  prince  and  young  Henry 
accordingly  delivered  themselves  into  Leicester's 
hands,  who  sent  them  under  a  guard  to  Dover 
castle.  Such  arc  the  terms  of  agreement  com- 
monly called  the  Jllise  of  Lewes,  from  an  obsolete 
Trench  term  of  that  meaning  :  for  it  appears,  that 
all  the  gentry  and  nobility  of  England,  who  valued 
themselves  on  their  Norman  extraction,  and  who 
disdained  the  language  of  their  native  country, 
made  familiar  use  of  the  French  tongue,  till  this 
period,  and  for  some  time  after. 

Leicester  had  no  sooner  obtained  this  i>rcat 
advantage,  and  gotten  the  whole  royal  family  in 
his  power,  than  he  openly  violated  every  article 
of  the  treaty,  and  acted  as  sole  master,  and  e\  en 
tyrant  of  the  kingdom.  He  still  detained  the  king 
in  effect  a  prisoner,  and  made  use  of  that  prince's 
authority  to  .purposes  the  most  prejudicial  to  his 
interests,  and  the  most  oppressive  of  his  people  ". 
He  every  where  disarmed  the  royalists,  and  kept 
all  his  own  partizans  in  a  military  posture  ° :  hv. 
observed  the  same  partial  conduct  in  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  captives,  and  even  threw  many  of  the 

"  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  7gO,  7g\,  kc. 
°  Ibid.  p.  7Q5.     Brady's  Appeals,  No.  211,  212.     Chron.  T. 
Wykes,  p.  63. 


416  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1204. 

royalists  into  prison^  besides  those  who  were  taken 
in  the  battle  of  Lewes  :  he  carried  the  king  from 
place  to  place,  and  obliged  all  the  royal  castles, 
on  pretence  of  Henry's  commands,  to  receive  a 
governor  and  garrison  of  his  own  appointment : 
all  the  officers  of  the  crown  and  of  the  household 
were  named  by  him ;  and  the  whole  authority,  as 
well  as  arms  of  the  state,  was  lodged  in  his  hands : 
he  instituted  in  the  counties  a  new  kind  of  magi- 
stracy, endowed  with  new  and  arbitrary  powers, 
that  of  conservators  of  the  peace  p  :  his  avarice 
appeared  barefaced,  and  might  induce  us  to  ques- 
tion the  greatness  of  his  ambition,  at  least  the 
largeness  of  his  mind,  if  we  had  not  reason  to 
think,  that  he  intended  to  employ  his  acquisitions 
as  the  instruments  for  attaining  farther  power  and 
grandeur.  He  seized  the  estates  of  no  less  than 
eighteen  barons,  as  his  share  of  the  spoil  gained 
in  the  battle  of  Lewes :  he  engrossed  to  himself 
the  ransom  of  all  the  prisoners;  and  told  his  barons, 
with  a  wanton  insolence,  that  it  was  sufficient  for 
them,  that  he  had  saved  them  by  that  victory 
from  the  forfeitures  and  attainders  which  hung 
over  them*!:  he  even  treated  the  earl  of  Glocester 
in  the  same  injurious  manner,  and  applied  to  his 
own  use  the  ransom  of  the  king  of  the  Romans, 
who  in  the  field  of  battle  had  yielded  himself 
prisoner  to  that  nobleman.  Henry,  his  eldest 
son,  made  a  monopoly  of  all  the  wool  in  the  king- 

^  Rymer,  vol,  i.  p.  792.  "  Knyghton,  p.  245 1. 


J 264.  HENRY   III.  41/ 

(lorn,  the  only  valuable  commodity  for  foreign 
markets  whicli  it  at  that  time  produced'.  The 
inliabitants  of  the  cinque-ports,  during  the  pre- 
sent dissolution  of  government,  betook  them- 
selves to  the  most  licentious  piracy,  preyed  on 
the  ships  of  all  nations,  threw  the  mariners  into 
the  sea,  and  by  these  practices  soon  banished  all 
merchants  from  the  English  coasts  and  harbours. 
Every  foreign  commodity  rose  to  an  exorbitant 
price  ;  and  woollen  cloth,  which  the  English  had 
not  then  the  art  of  dying,  was  worn  by  them, 
white,  and  without  receiving  the  last  hand  of  the 
manufacturer.  In  answer  to  the  complaints  which 
arose  on  this  occasion,  Leicester  replied,  that  the 
kingdom  could  well  enough  subsist  within  itself, 
and  needed  no  intercourse  with  foreigners.  And 
it  was  found,  that  he  even  combined  with  the  pi- 
rates of  the  cinque-ports,  and  received  as  his  share 
the  third  of  their  prizes'. 

No  farther  mention  was  made  of  the  reference 
to  the  king  of  France,  so  essential  an  article  in 
the  agreement  of  Lewes  ;  and  Leicester  summon- 
ed a  parliament,  composed  altogether  of  his  own 
partisans,  in  order  to  rivet,  by  their  authority, 
that  poMcr  M'hich  he  had  acquired  by  so  much 
violence,  and  which  he  used  with  so  much  tyran- 
ny and  injustice.  An  ordinance  was  there  passed, 
to  which  the  king's  consent  had  been  previously 
extorted,  that  every  act  of  royal  power  should  be 

■■  Chron.T.Wykes,  p.  65.  'Ibid. 

VOL.    II.  K    T. 


418  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1264. 

exercised  by  a  council  of  nine  persons,  who  were 
to  be  chosen  and  removed  by  the  majority  of 
three,  Leicester  himself,  the  earl  of  Glocester, 
and  the  bishop  of  Chichester  ^  By  this  intricate 
plan  of  government,  the  sceptre  was  really  put  into 
Leicester's  hands ;  as  he  had  the  entire  direc- 
tion of  the  bishop  of  Chichester,  and  thereby 
commanded  all  the  resolutions  of  the  council  of 
three,  who  could  appoint  or  discard  at  pleasure 
every  member  of  the  supreme  council. 

But  it  was  impossible  that  things  could  long 
remain  in  this  strange  situation.  It  behoved  Lei- 
cester either  to  descend  with  some  peril  into  the 
rank  of  a  subject,  or  to  mount  up  with  no  less  into 
that  of  a  sovereign;  and  his  ambition,  unrestrain- 
ed either  by  fear  or  by  principle,  gave  too  much 
reason  to  suspect  him  of  the  latter  intention. 
Meanwhile,  he  was  exposed  to  anxiety  from  every 
quarter :  and  felt  that  the  smallest  incident  was 
capable  of  overturning  that  immense  and  ill-ce- 
mented fabric  which  he  had  reared.  The  queen, 
whom  her  husband  had  left  abroad,  had  collected 
in  foreign  parts  an  army  of  desperate  adventurers, 
and  had  assembled  a  great  number  of  ships,  with 
a  view  of  invading  the  kingdom,  and  of  bringing 
relief  to  her  unfortunate  family.  Lewis,  detest- 
ing Leicester's  usurpations  and  perjuries,  and  dis- 
gusted at  the  English  barons,  who  had  refused  to 
submit  to  his  award,  secretly  favoured  all  her  en- 

'Ilyraer,  vol.  i.  p.  793.    Brady's  App.  No.  213. 


12(54.  HENRY  III.  419 

terprises,  and  was  gcncM'ally  believed  to  be  making 
])ie|)arations  for  the  same  purpose.  An  English 
army,  by  tlic  pretended  authority  of  the  captive 
king,  was  assembled  on  the  sea-coast  to  oppose 
tliis  projected  invasion";  l)iit  Leicester  owed  his 
safety  more  to  cross  winds,  which  long  detained 
and  at  last  dispersed  and  ruined  the  queen's  fleet, 
than  to  any  resistance  M-fRch,  in  their  present 
situation,  could  have  been  expected  from  the 
English. 

Leicester  found  himself  better  able  to  resist  the 
spiritual  thunders  which  were  levelled  against  him. 
The  pope,  still  adhering  to  the  king's  cause  against 
the  barons,  dispatched  cardinal  Guido  as  his  le- 
gate into  England,  with  orders  to  excommuni- 
cate, by  name,  the  three  earls,  Leicester,  Glo- 
cester,  and  Norfolk,  and  all  others  in  general, 
M  ho  concurred  in  the  oppression  and  captivity  of 
their  sovereign  ^^  Leicester  menaced  the  legate 
A\  ith  death,  if  he  set  foot  within  the  kingdom ; 
but  Guido,  meeting  in  France  the  bishops  of  \yin- 
chestcr,  London,  and  Worcester,  who  had  been 
sent  thither  on  a  negotiation,  commanded  them, 
under  the  penalty  of  ecclesiastical  censures,  to 
carry  his  bull  into  England,  and  to  publish  it 
against  the  barons.  When  the  prelates  arrived  off 
the  coast,  they  were  boarded  by  the  piratical  ma- 
riners of  the  cinque-ports,  to  whom  probably  they 

"  Brady's  App.  No.  2l6,  21/.     Cliron.  Dnust.  vol.  i.  p.  3/3. 
M,  West.  p.  315. 

*  Rymcr,  vol.  i,  p,  79S.     Chron.  Dna^t,  vul,  i,  p,  373. 
2 


420  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1265. 

gave  a  hint  of  the  cargo  which  they  hroiight  along 
Avith  them  :  the  bull  Avas  torn  and  thrown  into  the 
sea ;  Avhich  furnished  the  artful  prelates  with  a 
plausible  excuse  for  not  obeying  the  orders  of 
the  legate.  Leicester  appealed  from  Guido  to  the 
pope  in  person  ;  but,  before  the  ambassadors  ap- 
pointed to  defend  his  cause  could  reach  Rome^  the 
pope  Avas  dead ;  and  they  found  the  legate  him- 
self, from  Avhom  they  had  appealed,  seated  on  the 
papal  throne,  by  the  name  of  Urban  IV.  That 
daring  leader  Avas  no  Avise  dismayed  Avith  this  in- 
cident ;  and  as  he  found  that  a  great  part  of  his 
popularity  in  England  Avas  founded  on  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  court  of  Rome,  which  was  now  become 
odious,  he  persisted  with  the  more  obstinacy  in 
the  prosecution  of  his  measures. 

That  he  might  both  increase  and  turn  to  ad- 
vantage his  popularity,  Leicester  summoned  a 
new  parliament  in  London,  where  he  knew  his 
power  Avas  uncontrollable ;  and  he  fixed  this  as- 
sembly on  a  more  democratical  basis  than  any 
Avhich  had  CA^er  been  summoned  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  monarchy.  Besides  the  barons  of  his 
own  party,  and  several  ecclesiastics,  who  Avere 
not  immediate  tenants  of  the  crown ;  he  ordered 
returns  to  be  made  of  two  knights  from  each  shire, 
and,  Avhat  is  more  remarkable,  of  deputies  from 
the  boroughs,  an  order  of  men,  Avhich  in  former 
ages,  had  always  been  regarded  as  too  mean  to 
enjoy  a  place  in  the  national  councils  \     This  pe- 

''  Rymer,  vol.  i,  p.  802. 


1265.  HENRY    III.  421 

riod  is  commonly  esteemed  the  epoch  of  the  house 
of  commons  in  England  ;  and  it  is  certainly  the 
fust  time  that  historians  speak  of  any  representa- 
tives sent  to  parliament  hy  the  boroughs.  In  all 
the  general  accounts  given  in  preceding  times  of 
those  assemblies,  the  prelates  and  barons  only  are 
mentioned  as  the  constituent  members  ;  and  even 
in  the  most  particular  narratives  delivered  of  par- 
liamentary transactions,  as  in  the  trial  of  Thomas 
a  Eecket,  uhere  the  events  of  each  day,  and  al- 
most of  each  hour,  are  carefully  recorded  by  con- 
temporary authors  y,  there  is  not,  throughout  the 
whole,  the  least  appearance  of  a  house  of  com- 
mons. But  though  that  house  derived  its  exist- 
ence from  so  precarious,  and  even  so  invidious, 
an  origin  as  Leicester's  usurpation,  it  soon  proved, 
when  summoned  by  the  legal  princes,  one  of  the 
most  useful,  and,  in  process  of  time,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  members  of  the  national  constitu- 
tion ;  and  gradually  rescued  the  kingdom  from 
aristocratical  as  well  as  from  regal  tyranny.  But 
Leicester's  policy,  if  we  must  ascribe  to  him  so 
great  a  blessing,  only  forwarded  by  some  years  an 
institution,  for  which  the  general  state  of  things 
had  already  prepared  the  nation;  and  it  is  other- 
wise inconceivable,  that  a  plant,  set  by  so  inaus- 
picious a  hand,  could  have  attained  to  so  vigor- 
ous a  growth,  and  have  flourished  in  the  midst 
of  such  tempests  and  convulsions.     The  feudal 

^  Fltz-StepheD,  Hi»t.  Quadrip.  Iloveden,  8cc. 


422  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1265. 

system,  with  which  the  Hberty,  much  more  the 
power,  of  the  commons  was  totally  incompatible, 
began  gradually  to  decline  ;  and  both  the  king 
and  the  commonalty,  M'ho  felt  its  inconveniences, 
contributed  to  favour  this  new  power,  which  was 
more  submissive  than  the  barons  to  the  regular 
authority  of  the  crown,  and  at  the  same  time  af- 
forded protection  to  the  inferior  orders  of  the 
state. 

Leicester,  having  thus  assembled  a  parliament 
of  his  own  model,  and  trusting  to  the  attachment 
of  the  populace  of  London,  seized  the  opportunity 
of  crushing  his  rivals  among  the  powerful  barons. 
Robert  de  Ferrars  earl  of  Derby  was  accused  in 
the  king's  name,  seized,  and  committed  to  cus- 
tody, without  being  brought  to  any  legal  triaP. 
John  Gifford,  menaced  with  the  same  fate,  fled 
from  London,  and  took  shelter  in  the  borders  of 
Wales.  Even  the  earl  of  Glocester,  whose  power 
and  influence  had  so  much  contributed  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  barons,  but  Avho  of  late  was  extremely 
disgusted  with  Leicester's  arbitrary  conduct,  found 
himself  ill  danger  from  the  prevailing  authority  of 
liis  ancient  confederate  ;  and  he  retired  from  par- 
liament ^  This  known  dissension  gave  courage 
to  all  Leicester's  enemies  and  to  the  king's  friends, 
who  were  now  sure  of  protection  from  so  potent  a 
leader.  Though  Roger  ]\Jortimer,  Hamond  L'Es- 
trange,   and  other  powerful   marchers  of  Wales, 

^  Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  66.     Ann.  Waved,  p.  21 6. 
»  M.  Paris,  p.  6/1 .     Ann.  Waverl.  p.  216. 


lti65.  HENRY    IIT.  4'1* 

had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  kino'doni,  their  au- 
thority still  remained  o\er  the  territories  sub- 
jected to  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  there  were  many 
others  who  were  disposed  to  give  disturbance  to 
the  new  government.  The  animosities,  insepa- 
rable from  the  feudal  aristocracy,  broke  out  with 
fresh  violence,  and  threatened  the  kingdom  with 
new  convulsions  and  disorders. 

The  earl  of  Leicester,  surrounded  witli  these 
difiiculties,  embraced  a  measure,  from  wliich  he 
hoped  to  reap  some  present  advantages,  but  which 
proved  in  the  end  the  source  of  all  his  future  ca- 
lamities. The  active  and  intrepid  i)rince  Edward 
had  languished  in  prison  ever  since  the  fatal  bat- 
tle of  Lewes ;  and  as  he  was  extremely  popular  in 
the  kingdom,  there  arose  a  general  desire  of  see- 
ing him  again  restored  to  liberty ''.  Leicester, 
finding  that  he  could  with  dit'liculty  oppose  the 
concurring  wishes  of  the  nation,  stipulated  with 
the  prince,  that,  in  return,  he  should  order  his 
adherents  to  deliver  up  to  the  barons  all  their 
castles,  particularly  those  on  the  borders  of  Wales ; 
and  should  swear  neither  to  depart  the  kingdom 
during  three  years,  nor  introduce  into  it  any  fo- 
reiii'n  forces  ^  The  kino*  took  an  oath  to  the  same 
effect,  and  he  also  passed  a  charter,  in  which  he 
confirmed  the  agreement  or  jUisc  of  Lewes;  and 
even  permitted  his  subjects  to  rise  in  arms  against 
him,  if  he  should  ever  attempt  to  infringe  it*^.    So 

**  Knyghton,  p.  2451.  "  Ann.  Waved,  p.  2lG. 

■*  Blackiston's  Mag.  Charta.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  378. 


424  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1265. 

little  care  did  Leicester  take,  though  he  constantly 
made  use  of  the  authority  of  this  captive  prince, 
to  preserve  to  him  any  appearance  of  royalty  or 
kingly  prerogatives  ! 

In  consequence  of  this  treaty,  prince  Edward 
was  brought  into  Westminster-hall,  and  was  de- 
clared free  by  the  barons :  but  instead  of  really 
recovering  his  liberty,  as  he  had  vainly  expected, 
he  found  that  the  whole  transaction  was  a  fraud 
on  the  part  of  Leicester  ;  that  he  himself  still  con- 
tinued a  prisoner  at  large,  and  was  guarded  by 
the  emissaries  of  that  nobleman ;  and  that,  while 
the  faction  reaped  all  the  benefit  from  the  per- 
formance of  his  part  of  the  treaty,  care  was  taken 
that  he  should  enjoy  no  advantage  by  it.  As 
Glocester,  on  his  rupture  with  the  barons,  had 
retired  for  safety  to  his  estates  on  the  borders  of 
Wales ;  Leicester  followed  him  with  an  arnjy  to 
Hereford  ^  continued  still  to  menace  and  neao- 
tiate  ;  and  that  he  might  add  authority  to  his 
cause,  he  carried  both  the  king  and  prince  along 
with  him.  The  earl  of  Glocester  here  concerted 
with  young  Edward  the  manner  of  that  prince's 
escape.  lie  found  means  to  convey  to  him  a 
horse  of  extraordinary  swiftness ;  and  appointed 
Roger  Mortimer,  who  had  returned  into  the  king- 
dom, to  be  ready  at  hand  with  a  small  party  to 
receive  the  prince,  and  to  guard  him  to  a  place  of 
safety.     Edward  pretended  to  take  the  air  with 

*  Chron.  T,  Wykes,  p.  67.     Ann.  Waverl.  p.  218.     W.  He- 
ming.  p.  585.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  383,  384. 


n65.  HENRY    III.  425 

some  of  Leicester's  retinue,  avIio  were  his  guards  ; 
and  making  matclies  between  their  horses,  after 
he  thought  he  luid  tired  and  blown  them  suffi- 
ciently, he  suddenly  mounted  Glocester's  horse, 
and  called  to  his  attendants,  that  he  had  long 
enough  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  their  company, 
and  now  bid  them  adieu.  They  followed  him  for 
some  time,  without  being  able  to  overtake  him  ; 
and  the  appearance  of  Mortimer  \\'ith  his  company 
put  an  end  to  their  pursuit. 

The  royalists,  secretly  prepared  for  this  event, 
immediately  flev\^  to  arms;  and  the  joy  of  this 
gallant  prince's  deliverance,  the  oppressions  under 
which  the  nation  laboured,  the  expectation  of  a 
new  scene  of  affairs,  and  the  countenance  of  the 
earl  of  Glocester,  procured  Edward  an  army  which 
Leicester  was  utterly  unable  to  withstand.  This 
nobleman  found  liimsclf  in  a  remote  quarter  of 
the  kingdom;  surrounded  by  his  enemies;  barred 
from  all  communication  with  his  friends  by  the 
Severne,  whose  bridges  Edward  had  broken  down ; 
and  obliged  to  fight  the  cause  of  his  party  under 
these  multiplied  disadvantages.  In  this  extremity 
he  wrote  to  his  son  Simon  de  jMountfort,  to  hasten 
from  London  with  an  army  for  his  relief;  and 
Simon  had  advanced  to  Kenilworth  with  that  view, 
where,  fancying  that  all  Edward's  force  and  atten- 
tion were  directed  against  his  father,  he  lay  se- 
cure and  unguarded.  But  the  prince,  making  a 
sudden  and  forced  march,  surprised  him  in  his 
camp,  dispersetl  his  army,  and  took  the  earl  of 


426  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1255. 

Oxford  and  many  other  noblemen  prisoners,  al- 
most without  resistance.  Leicester,  ignorant  of 
his  son's  fate,  passed  the  Severne  in  boats  during 
Edward's  absence,  and  lay  at  Evesham,  in  expec- 
tation of  being'  every  hour  joined  by  his  friends 
from  London :  when  tlie  prince,  who  availed 
himself  of  every  favourable  moment,  appeared  in 
the  field  before  liim. 


BATTLE  OF  EVESHAM  AND  DEATH   OF   LEI- 
CESTER.    August  4. 

Edward  made  a  body  of  his  troops  advance  from 
the  road  which  led  to  Kenilwortb,  and  ordered 
them  to  carry  the  banners  taken  from  Simon's 
army  ;  M'hile  he  himself,  making  a  circuit  with  the 
rest  of  his  forces,  purposed  to  attack  the  enemy 
on  the  other  quarter.  Leicester  Avas  long  de- 
ceived by  this  stratagem,  and  took  one  division 
of  Edward's  army  for  his  friends  ;  but  at  last,  per- 
ceiving his  mistake,  and  observing  the  great  su- 
periority and  excellent  disposition  of  the  royalists, 
he  exclaimed  that  they  had  learned  from  him  the 
art  of  war;  adding,  "The  Lord  have  mercy  on 
"  our  souls,  for  I  see  our  bodies  are  the  prince's  !" 
The  battle  immediately  began,  though  on  very 
unequal  terms.  Leicester's  army,  by  living  on 
the  mountains  of  Wales  without  bread,  which  was 
not  then  much  used  amone*  the  inhabitants,  had 
feeen  extremely  weakened  by  sickness  and  deser- 


J265.  HENRY  III.  427 

tion,  and  was  soon  broken  by  tbo  victorious 
rovalists  ;  M'hilc  bis  Welsli  allies,  accustomed 
only  to  a  desultory  kind  oFwar,  immediately  took 
to  fligbt,  and  Avcre  pursued  m  itb  great  slaugbter. 
Leicester  bimself,  asking-  for  quarter,  was  slain  in 
the  beat  of  tbe  action,  m  itb  bis  eldest  son  Henry, 
Hugb  le  Despenser,  and  about  an  liundred  and 
sixty  knights,  and  many  other  gentlemen  of  bis 
])arty.  Tbe  old  king  had  been  purposely  placed 
by  the  rebels  in  tbe  front  of  the  battle  ;  and  being- 
clad  in  armour,  and  thereby  not  known  by  his 
friends,  he  received  a  wound,  and  was  in  danger 
of  his  life  :  but  crying  out,  /  am  Henry  of  fVin- 
chester,  your  king,  he  M'as  saved  ;  and  put  in  a 
place  of  safety  by  his  son,  mIio  ilew  to  his  rescue. 
Tbe  violence,  ingratitude,  tyranny,  rapacity, 
and  treachery  of  tbe  earl  of  Leicester,  give  a  very 
bad  idea  of  his  moral  character,  and  make  us  re- 
gard his  death  as  tbe  most  fortunate  event  whicli 
in  this  conjuncture  could  have  happened  to  the 
English  nation  :  yet  must  we  allow  ^the  man  to 
have  possessed  great  abilities,  and  tbe  appearance 
of  great  virtues,  mIio,  though  a  stranger,  could 
at  a  time  when  strangers  Merc  the  most  odious 
and  the  most  universally  decried,  have  acquired 
so  extensive  an  interest  in  the  kingdom,  and  have 
so  nearly  paved  his  way  to  tbe  throne  itself.  His 
military  capacity,  and  bis  political  craft,  were 
equally  eminent :  be  possessed  tbe  talents  both  of 
o-overninsi'  men  and  conductins;  business :  and 
though  his  ambition  was  boundless,   it  seems  nei- 


428  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1165. 

tlier  to  have  exceeded  his  courage  nor  his  genius ; 
and  he  had  the  happiness  of  making  the  low  po- 
pulace, as  well  as  the  haughty  barons,  co-operate 
towards  the  success  of  his  selfish  and  dangerous 
purposes.  A  prince  of  greater  abilities  and  vi- 
gour than  Henry  might  have  directed  the  talents 
of  this  nobleman  either  to  the  exaltation  of  his 
throne,  or  to  the  good  of  his  people  :  but  the  ad- 
vantages given  to  Leicester,  by  the  Aveak  and  va- 
riable administration  of  the  king,  brought  on  the 
ruin  of  royal  authority,  and  produced  great  con- 
fusions in  the  kingdom,  which,  however,  in  the 
end  preserved  and  extremely  improved  national 
liberty,  and  the  constitution.  His  popularity, 
even  after  his  death,  continued  so  great,  that 
though  he  was  excommunicated  by  Rome,  the 
people  believed  him  to  be  a  saint ;  and  many  mi- 
racles were  said  to  be  wrought  upon  his  tomb  ^ 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 

The  victory  of  Evesham,  with  the  death  of 
Leicester,  proved  decisive  in  favour  of  the  royal- 
ists, and  made  an  equal  though  an  opposite  im- 
pression on  friends  and  enemies  in  every  part  of 
England.  The  king  of  the  Romans  recovered  his 
liberty :  the  other  prisoners  of  the  royal  party 
were  not  only  freed  but  courted  by  their  keepers; 

'  Chron.  de  Mailr.  p.  232. 


1266.  HENRY  11 F.  429 

Fitz-Richard,    the  seditious    mayor   of  London, 
who  had  marked  out  forty  of  the  most  wealthy  citi- 
zens for  slaughter,   immediately  stopped  his  hand 
on  receiving  intelligence  of  this  great  event :  and 
almost  all  the  castles,   garrisoned  by  the  barons, 
hastened  to  make  their  submissions,  and  to  open 
their  gates  to  the  king.     The  isle  of  Axholme 
alone,   and  that  of  Ely,   trusting  to  the  strength 
of  their  situation,  ventured  to  make  resistance ; 
but  were  at  last  reduced,  as  well  as  the  castle  of 
Dover,  by  the  valour  and  activity  of  prince  Ed- 
A\^ard  s.     Adam  dc  Gourdon,  a  courageous  baron, 
maintained  himself  during  some  time  in  the  forests 
of  Hampshire,    committed    depredations  in   the 
neighbourhood,  and  obliged  the  prince  to  lead  a 
body  of  troops   into   that  country  against  him. 
Edward  attacked  the  camp  of  the  rebels  ;    and 
being  transported  by  the  ardour  of  battle,  leaped 
over  the  trench   with  a  few  followers,   and  en- 
countered Gourdon  in  single  combat.     The  vic- 
tory M'as  long  disputed  between  these  vahant  com- 
batants ;  but  ended  at  last  in  the  prince's  favour, 
who  wounded  his  antagonist,   threw  him  from  his 
horse,   and  took  him  prisoner.      He  not  only  gave 
him  his  life;  but  introduced  him  that  very  night 
to  the  queen  at  Guildford,   procured  him  his  par- 
don, restored  him  to  his  estate,  received  him  into 
favour,  and  was  ever  after  faithfully  served  by 
him". 

»  M.  Paris,  p.  676.     W.  Heming.  p.  5S8. 
"-M.  Paris,  p.  675. 


430  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1266. 

A  total  victory  of  the  sovereign  over  so  ex- 
tensive a  rebellion  commonly  produces  a  revolu- 
tion of  government,  and  strengthens,  as  well  as 
enlarges,  for  some  time  the  prerogatives  of  the 
crown :  yet  no  sacrifices  of  national  liberty  were 
made  on  this  occasion ;  the  Great  Charter  remain- 
ed still  inviolate  ;  and  the  king,  sensible  that  his 
own  barons,  by  whose  assistance  alone  he  had 
prevailed,  were  no  less  jealous  of  their  independ- 
ence than  the  other  party,  seems  thenceforth  to 
have  more  carefully  abstained  from  all  those  ex- 
ertions of  power  which  had  afforded  so  plausible 
a  pretence  to  the  rebels.  The  clemency  of  this 
victory  is  also  remarkable  :  no  blood  was  shed  on 
the  scaffold  :  no  attainders,  except  of  the  Mount- 
fort  family,  were  carried  into  execution:  and 
though  a  parliament  assembled  at  Winchester  at- 
tainted all  those  who  had  borne  arms  against  the 
king,  easy  compositions  were  made  with  them  for 
their  lands  * ;  and  the  highest  sum  levied  on  the 
most  obnoxious  offenders  exceeded  not  five  years 
rent  of  their  estate.  Even  the  earl  of  Derby, 
who  again  rebelled,  after  having  been  pardoned 
and  restored  to  his  fortune,  was  obliged  to  pay 
only  seven  years  rent,  and  was  a  second  time  re- 
stored. The  mild  disposition  of  the  king,  and 
the  prudence  of  the  prince,  tempered  the  inso- 
lence of  victory,  and  gradually  restored  order  to 
the  several  members  of  the  state,  disjointed  by 

'  M.  Paris,  p.  675, 


126;.  HENRY    III.  431 

so  long  a  continuance  of  civil  wins  and  com- 
motions. 

The  city  of  London,  ^vhich  had  carried  farthest 
the  rage  and  animosity  against  the  king,  and  whicli 
seemed  determined  to  stand  upon  its  defence  after 
almost  all  the  kingdom  had  suhmitted,  was,  after 
some  interval,  restored  to  most  of  its  liberties  and 
privileges  ;  and  Fitz-Richard  the  mayor,  who  had 
heen  guilty  of  so  much  illegal  violence,  was  only 
punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  The  count- 
ess of  Leicester,  the  king's  sister,  mIio  had  been 
extremely  forward  in  all  attacks  on  the  royal  fa- 
mily, was  dismissed  the  kingdom,  Avith  her  two 
sons,  Simon  and  Guy,  ^v]\o  proved  \'ery  ungrate- 
ful for  this  lenity.  Five  years  afterwards  they 
assassinated,  at  Viterho  in  Italy,  their  cousin 
Henry  d'Allmaine,  who  at  that  very  time  was  en- 
deavouring to  make  their  peace  with  the  king ; 
and  by  taking  sanctuary  in  the  church  of  the 
Franciscans,  they  escaped  the  punishment  due  to 
so  great  an  enormity  ^. 

The  merits  of  the  earl  of  Glocester,  after  he 
returned  to  his  allegiance,  had  beeu  so  great  in 
restoring  the  prince  to  his  libert}',  and  assisting 
liim  in  his  victories  against  the  rebellious  barons, 
that  it  v.as  almost  impossible  to  content  him  in 
liis  deniiuuls  ;  and  his  youth  and  temerity  as  well 
as  his  great  power  tempted  him,  on  some  new  dis- 
gust,  to  raise  again  the  flames  of  rel)ellion  in  the 

^  Rynier,  vol,  i.  p.  S/P  ;   vol.  ii.  p.  4,  5.     Chrun.  T.  Wykcs, 
p.  94.     W.  Ilcmiiiij.  p.  58ij.     Trixct,  p.  'HO. 


432  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1270. 

kingdom.  The  mutinous  populace  of  London  at 
his  instigation  took  to  arms ;  and  the  prince  was 
obliged  to  levy  an  army  of  30,000  men,  in  order 
to  suppress  them.  Even  this  second  rebellion  did 
not  provoke  the  king  to  any  act  of  cruelty  ;  and 
the  earl  of  Glocester  himself  escaped  with  total 
impunity.  He  was  only  obliged  to  enter  into  a 
bond  of  20,000  marks  that  he  should  never  again 
be  guilty  of  rebellion  :  a  strange  method  of  en- 
forcing the  laws,  and  a  proof  of  the  dangerous  in- 
dependence of  the  barons  in  those  ages  !  These 
potent  nobles  were,  from  the  danger  of  the  pre- 
cedent, averse  to  the  execution  of  the  laws  of 
forfeiture  and  felony  against  any  of  their  fellows ; 
though  they  could  not,  with  a  good  grace,  refuse 
to  concur  in  obliging  them  to  fulfil  any  volun- 
tary contract  and  engagement  into  which  they 
had  entered. 

The  prince,  finding  the  state  of  the  kingdom 
tolerably  composed,  was  seduced  b}^  his  avidity 
for  glory,  and  by  the  prejudices  of  the  age,  as 
•well  as  by  the  earnest  solicitations  of  the  king  of 
France,  to  undertake  an  expedition  against  the 
infidels  in  the  Holy  Land';  and  he  endeavoured 
previously  to  settle  the  state  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  dread  no  bad  effects  from  his  absence.  As  the 
formidable  power  and  turbulent  disposition  of  the 
earl  of  Glocester  gave  him  apprehensions,  he  in- 
sisted on  carrying  him  along  with  him,  in  conse- 

^M.  PariSj  p.  677. 


1272.  HENRY    III.  433 

quence  of  a  vow  wliich  tliat  nobleman  had  made 
to  undertake  the  same  voyage:  in  tlic  mean  time, 
lie  obliged  him  to  resign  some  of  his  castles,  and 
to  enter  into  a  new  bond  not  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  kinirdom"".      He  sailed  from  En^-land  with 
an  army  ;  and  arrived  in  Lewis's  camp  before  Tu- 
nis in  Africa,   M'here  he  found  that  monarch  al- 
ready deatl,  from  the  intemperance  of  the  climate 
and  the  fatigues  of  his  enterprise.     The  great,   if 
not  only,  weakness  of  this  prince  in  his  govern- 
ment,  was  the  imprudent  passion  for  crusades ; 
but  it  was  his  zeal  chiefly  that  procured  him  from 
the  clergy  the  title  of  St.  Lewis,   by  a\  hich  he  is 
known  in  the  French  history ;  and  if  that  appel- 
lation had  not  been  so  extremely  prostituted  as 
to  become  rather  a  term  of  reproach,   he  seems 
by  his  uniform  probity  and  goodness,   as  well  as 
his  piety,   to  have  fully  merited  the  title.     He  was 
succeeded   by  his  son   Philip,    denominated  the 
Hardy ;  a  prince  of  some  merit,    though  much 
inferior  to  that  of  his  father. 


KING'S  DEATH.     November  1G,  1272.. 

Prince  Edward,  not  discouraged  by  this  event, 
continued  his  voyage  to  the  Holy  Land,  where  he 
signalized  liimsclf  by  acts  of  valour ;  revived  the 
glory  of  the  English  name  in  those   parts ;  and 

»  Chron.  T.  Wykes,  p.  90. 
VOL.   ir.  F  F 


*34  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1272. 

struck  such  terror  into  the  Saracens,  that  they 
employed  an  assassin  to  murder  him,  who  wound- 
ed him  in  the  arm,  but  perishecl  in  the  attempt". 
Meanwhile,  his  absence  from  England  was  at- 
tended with  many  of  those  pernicious  conse- 
quences which  had  been  dreaded  from  it.  The 
laws  were  not  executed  :  the  barons  oppressed  the 
common  people  with  impunity  ° :  they  gave  shelter 
on  their  estates  to  bands  of  robbers,  whom  they 
employed  in  committing  ravages  on  the  estates  of 
their  enemies  :  the  populace  of  London  returned 
to  their  usual  licentiousness :  and  the  old  king, 
unequal  to  the  burthen  of  public  affairs,  called 
aloud  for  his  gallant  son  to  return  p,  and  to  assist 
him  in  swaying  that  sceptre  which  was  ready  to 
drop  from  his  feeble  and  irresolute  hands.  At  last, 
overcome  by  the  cares  of  government  and  the 
infirmities  of  age,  he  visibly  declined,  and  he  ex- 
pired at  St.  Edmondsbury,  in  the  64th  year  of  his 
age,  and  56th  of  his  reign  ;  the  longest  reign  that 
is  to  be  met  with  in  the  English  annals.  His 
brother,  the  king  of  the  Romans  (for  he  never 
attained  the  title  of  emperor),  died  about  seven 
months  before  him. 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  6/8,  6/9-     W.  Heming.  p.  520. 

°  Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  i.  p.  404. 

p  Rymer,  vol.  i.  p.  869.      M.  Paris,  p.  6/8. 


1-72.  HENRY    III.  435 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  KING. 

The  most  obvious  circumstance  of  Henry's  cha- 
racter is,  liis  incapacity  for  government,  M'liich 
rendered  him  as  much  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
his  own  ministers  and  fLivourites,  and  as  little  at 
liis  own  disposal,  as  ^vhen  detained  a  captive  in 
tlie  hands  of  his  enemies.  From  this  source,  ra- 
ther than  from  insincerity  or  treachery,  arose  his 
negligence  in  observing  his  promises  ;  and  he  was 
too  easily  induced,  for  the  sake  of  present  con- 
venience, to  sacrifice  the  lasting  advantages  aris- 
ing from  the  trust  and  confidence  of  his  people. 
Hence  too  Mere  derived  his  profusion  to  favour- 
ites, his  attachment  to  strangers,  the  variable- 
ness of  his  conduct,  his  hasty  resentments,  and 
his  sudden  forgiveness  and  return  of  affection. 
Instead  of  reducing  the  dangerous  power  of  his 
nobles,  by  obliging  them  to  observe  the  laws  to- 
wards their  inferiois,  and  setting  them  the  salu- 
tary example  in  his  own  government ;  he  was  se- 
duced to  imitate  their  conduct,  and  to  make  his 
arbitrary  will,  or  rather  that  of  his  ministers,  the 
rule  of  his  actions.  Instead  of  accommodating 
himself,  by  a  strict  frugality,  to  the  embarrassed 
situation  in  Avhich  his  revenue  had  been  left,  by 
the  military  expeditions  of  his  uncle,  the  dissipa- 
tions of  his  father,  and  the  usurpations  of  the 
barons  ;  he  was  tempted  to  levy  money  by  irre- 
gular exactions,   whicli,   without  enriching  him- 


436  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1272. 

self,  impoverished,  at  least  disgusted,  his  people. 
Of  all  meu  nature  seemed  least  to  have  fitted  him 
for  being  a  tyrant;  yet  are  there  instances  of  op- 
pression in  his  reign  which,  though  derived  from 
the  precedents  left  him  by  his  predecessors,  had 
been  carefully  guarded  against  by  the  Great 
Charter,  and  are  inconsistent  with  all  rules  of 
good  government.  And  on  the  whole  we  may  say, 
that  greater  abilities  with  his  good  dispositions, 
would  have  prevented  him  from  falling  into  his 
faults ;  or,  with  worse  dispositions,  would  have 
enabled  him  to  maintain  and  defend  them. 

This  prince  was  noted  for  his  piety  and  devo- 
tion, and  his  regular  attendance  on  public  wor- 
ship ;  and  a  saying  of  his  on  that  head  is  much  ce- 
lebrated by  ancient  writers.  He  was  engaged  in 
a  dispute  with  Lewis  IX.  of  France,  concerning 
the  preference  between  sermons  and  masses :  he 
maintained  the  superiority  of  the  latter,  and  af- 
firmed that  he  would  rather  have  one  hour's  con- 
versation with  a  friend,  than  hear  twenty  the  most 
elaborate  discourses  pronounced  in  his  praise'^. 

Henry  left  two  sons,  Edward  his  successor, 
and  Edmond  earl  of  Lancaster ;  and  two  daugh- 
ters, Margaret  queen  of  Scotland,  and  Beatrix 
dutchess  of  Britanny.  He  had  five  other  child- 
ren, who  died  in  their  infancy. 

9  Wabing.  Edw.  X.  p.  43^ 


1272.  HENRY    III.  437 


MISCELLANEOUS  TRANSACTIONS  OF  THIS 
REIGN. 

The  folIoM'ing  are  tlie  most  remarkable  laws  en- 
acted durinq*  this  reio-n.  There  had  been  i>reat 
disputes  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts 
concerning  bastardy.  The  common  law  had 
deemed  all  those  to  be  bastards  mIio  were  born 
before  wedlock :  by  the  canon  law  they  were  le- 
gitimate :  and  when  any  dispute  of  inheritance 
arose,  it  had  formerly  been  usual  for  the  civil 
courts  to  issue  writs  to  the  spiritual,  directing 
them  to  inquire  into  the  legitimacy  of  the  person. 
The  bishop  always  returned  an  answer  agreeable 
to  the  canon  law,  though  contrary  to  the  muni- 
cipal law  of  the  kingdom.  For  this  reason  the 
civil  courts  had  changed  the  terms  of  their  writ; 
and  instead  of  requiring  the  spiritual  courts  to 
make  inquisition  concerning  the  legitimacy  of  the 
person,  they  only  projjosed  the  simple  question 
of  fact,  A\'hether  he  were  born  before  or  after  wed- 
lock ?  The  prelates  complained  of  this  practice  to 
tlie  parliament  assembled  at  Merton  in  the  twen- 
tieth of  this  king,  and  desired  that  the  municipal 
law  might  be  rendered  conformable  to  the  canon  : 
but  received  from  all  the  nobility  the  memorable 
reply,  Nolumus  leges  Jj?ig/ia  viutare,  We  m  ill  not 
change  the  laws  of  England '. 

'  Statute  of  lylertonj  chap.  J). 


438  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1272. 

After  the  civil  wars  the  parHament  summoned 
at  Marlebridge  gave  their  approbation  to  most  of 
the  ordinances  which  had  been  estabhshed  by  the 
reforming  barons,  and  which,  though  advantage- 
ous to  the  security  of  the  people,  had  not  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  a  legal  authority.  Among 
other  laws  it  was  there  enacted,  that  all  appeals 
from  the  courts  of  inferior  lords  should  be  carried 
directly  to  the  king's  courts,  without  passing 
through  the  courts  of  the  lords  immediately  supe- 
rior ^  It  was  ordained  that  money  should  bear 
no  interest  during  the  minority  of  the  debtor '. 
This  law  was  reasonable,  as, the  estates  of  minors 
were  always  in  the  hands  of  their  lords,  and  the 
debtors  could  not  pay  interest  where  they  had  no 
revenue.  The  charter  of  king  John  had  granted 
this  indulgence  :  it  was  omitted  in  that  of  Henry 
III.  for  what  reason  is  not  known  ;  but  it  was 
renewed  by  the  statute  of  Marlebridge.  Most  of 
the  other  articles  of  this  statute  are  calculated  to 
restrain  the  oppression  of  sheriffs,  and  the  vio- 
lence and  iniquities  committed  in  distraining  cat- 
tle and  other  goods.  Cattle  and  the  instruments 
of  husbandry  formed  at  that  time  the  chief  riches 
of  the  people. 

In  the  35th  year  of  this  king  an  assize  was 
fixed  of  bread,  the  price  of  which  was  settled, 
according  to  the  different  prices  of  corn,  from 
one  shilling  a  quarter,  to  Seven  shillings  and  six- 

'  Statute  of  Marleb.  chap.  20.  *^Ibid.  chap.  16. 


12/2.  HENRY    III.  43y 

pence",  money  of  that  aoc.  These  great  varia- 
tions are  alone  a  proof  of  bad  tillage  "^i  yet  did 
the  prices  often  rise  niuch  higher  than  any  taken 
notice  of  by  the  statute.  The  Chronicle  of  Dun- 
stable tells  us,  that  in  this  reign  wheat  Avas  once 
sold  for  a  mark,  nay,  for  a  pound  a  quarter;  that 
is,  three  pounds  of  our  present  money ".  The 
same  law  affords  us  a  proof  of  the  little  connnuni- 
cation  between  the  parts  of  the  kingdom,  from 
the  very  different  prices  A\hich  the  same  commo- 
dity bore  at  the  same  time.  A  brewer,  says  the 
statute,  may  sell  two  gallons  of  ale  for  a  penny  in 
cities,  and  three  or  four  gallons  for  the  same  price 
in  the  country.  At  present  such  commodities, 
by  the  great  consumption  of  the  ])eople,  and  the 
great  stocks  of  the  brewers,  are  rather  cheapest  in 
cities.  The  Chronicle  aUovementioned  observes, 
that  Avheat  one  year  was  sold  in  many  places  for 
eight  shillings  a  quarter,  but  never  rose  in  Dun- 
stable above  a  crown. 

Though  commerce  was  still  very  low,  it  seems 
rather  to  have  increased  since  the  Conquest ;  at 
least  if  we  may  judge  of  the  increase  of  money  by 
the  price  of  corn.      The  medium   between   the 

"  Statutes  at  Large,  p.  6. 
"  We  learn  from  Cicero's  Orations  against  Verres,  lib.  iii.  cap. 
84,  92,  that  the  price  of  corn  in  Sicily  was,  during  the  praetor- 
ship  of  Sacerclos,  five  Denarii  a  Modus;  during  that  of  Verres, 
\viiicb  immediately  succeeded,  only  two  Sesterces  :  that  is,  ten 
times  lower  ;  a  presumption,  or  rather  a  proof,  of  the  very  bad 
state  of  tillage  in  ancient  times. 

■■*  So  also  Knyghton,  p.  2144. 


440  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1272. 

-highest  and  lowest  prices  of  wheat  assigned  by 
the   statute  is  four   shillings  and  three-pence  a 
quarter,  that  is,  twelve  shillings  and  nine-pence  of 
our  present  money.     This  is  near  half  of  the  mid- 
dling price  in  our  time.     Yet  the  middling  price 
of  cattle,  so  late  as  the  reign  of  king  Richard,  we 
find  to  be  above  eight,  near  ten,  times  lower  than 
the  present.      Is  not  this  the  true  inference,   from 
comparing  these  facts,    that,    in  all  uncivilized 
■nations,   cattle,    which  propagate  of  themselves, 
hear  always  a  lower  price  than  corn,   which  re- 
quires more  art  and  stock  to  render  it  plentiful 
than  those  nations  are  possessed  of?  It  is  to  be 
remarked,   that  Henry's  assize  of  corn  was  copied 
from  a  preceding  assize  established  by  king  John  ; 
consequently,  the  prices  which  we  have  here  com- 
pared of  corn  and  cattle  may  be  looked  on  as  con- 
temporary ;  and  they  Avere  drawn,   not  from  one 
particular  year,    but  from  an  estimation  of  the 
middling  prices  for  a  series  of  years.      It  is  true, 
the   prices,    assigned   by   the  assize  of  Richard, 
A\ere  meant  as  a  standard   for  the  accompts  of 
sheriffs  and  escheators ;  and  as  considerable  pro- 
fits were  allowed  to  these  ministers,  we  may  na- 
turally suppose,   that  the  common  value  of  cattle 
was  somewhat  higher:  yet  still,   so  great  a  dif- 
ference between  the  prices  of  corn  and  cattle  as 
that  of  four  to  one,  compared  to  the  present  rates, 
affords  important  reflections  concerning  the  very 
different  state  of  industry  and  tillage  in  the  two 
periods. 


12/2.  HENRY    III.  'Ml 

Interest  had  in  tliat  a'L»:e  amounted  to  an  en- 
ormous height,  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
])arharism  ot"  the  times  and  men's  is^norance  of 
commerce.  Instances  occur  of  lifty  per  cent, 
paid  for  moneys  There  is  an  eflict  of  Phihp 
Augustus  near  this  period,  hmiting  tlic  Je\vs  in 
France  to  48  per  cent*.  Sucli  profits  tempted 
the  Jews  to  remain  in  the  kingdom,  notwithstand- 
ing tlie  grievous  oppressions  to  which,  from  tlie 
prevalent  bigotry  and  rapine  of  the  age,  they  were 
continually  exposed.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  how 
precarious  their  state  must  have  hcen  under  an 
indigent  prince,  somewhat  restrained  in  his  ty- 
ranny over  his  native  subjects,  hut  Mho  possessed 
an  unlimited  authority  over  the  Jews,  the  sole 
proprietors  of  money  in  the  kingdom,  and  hated, 
on  account  of  their  riches,  their  religion,  and 
their  usury :  yet  will  our  ideas  scarcely  come  up 
to  the  extortions  which,  in  fact,  we  find  to  have 
heen  practised  upon  them.  In  the  year  124-], 
£0,000  marks  were  exacted  from  them'':  two 
years  after,  money  was  again  extorted ;  and  one 
Jew  alone,  Aaron  of  York,  was  obliged  to  pay 
above  4000  marks'':  in  1250,  Henry  renewed  his 
oppressions ;  and  the  same  Aaron  Mas  condemned 
to  pay  him  30,000  marks  upon  an  accusation  of 
forgery'':  the  high  penalty  imposed  upon  him,  and 


'  M.  Paris,  p.  586. 

'  Brassel,  Traitc  des  Fiefs,  vol.  i,  p.  5/6. 

M.  Paris,  p.  3/2.  ''  Ibid.  410.  '-  Ibid.  p.  o2S. 


442  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1272. 

which,  it  seems,  he  was  thought  able  to  pay,  is  rather 
a  presumption  of  his  innocence  than  of  his  guilt. 
In  1255,  the  king  demanded  8000  marks  from 
the  Jews,  and  threatened  to  hang  them  if  they 
refused  compliance.  They  now  lost  all  patience, 
and  desired  leave  to  retire  with  their  effects  out 
of  the  kingdom.  But  the  king  replied  :  "  How 
"  can  I  remedy  the  oppressions  you  complain  of? 
*'  I  am  myself  a  beggar.  I  am  spoiled,  I  am 
*'  stripped  of  all  my  revenues:  I  owe  above  200,000 
"  marks  ;  and  if  I  had  said  300,000,  I  should  not 
*'  exceed  the  truth :  I  am  obliged  to  pay  my  son 
"  prince  Edward  15,000  marks  a  year:  I  have 
"  not  a  farthing ;  and  I  must  have  money,  from 
"  any  hand,  from  any  quarter,  or  by  any  means." 
He  then  delivered  over  the  Jews  to  the  earl  of 
Cornwal,  that  those  whom  the  one  brother  had 
flayed,  the  other  might  embowel,  to  make  use  of 
the  words  of  tlie  historian  ^  King  John,  his 
father,  once  demanded  10,000  marks  from  a  Jew 
of  Bristol ;  and  on  his  refusal,  ordered  one  of  his 
teeth  to  be  drawn  every  day  till  he  should  comply. 
The  Jew  lost  seven  teeth  ;  and  then  paid  the  sum 
required  of  him".  One  talliage  laid  upon  the  Jews 
in  1243  amounted  to  6'0,000  marks  ^;  a  sum  equal 
to  the  whole  yearly  revenue  of  the  crown. 

To  give  a  better  pretence  for  extortions,  the 
improbable  and  absurd  accusation,  Avhich  has  been 

"  M.  Paris,  p.  606.  ^  Ibid.  p.  160. 

'  Madox,  p.  152. 


1272.  HENRY    III..  443 

at  different  times  advanced  against  that  nation, 
was  revived  in  England,  that  they  had  crucified 
a  cliild  in  derision  of  the  sufferin2:s  of  Christ. 
Eighteen  of  them  were  hanged  at  once  for  this 
crime  8;  thougli  it  is  noM^ise  crcdil)le,  that  even 
the  antipatiiy  born  them  by  the  Cliristians,  and 
the  oppressions  under  which  they  laboured,  would 
ever  have  pushed  them  to  be  guilty  of  that  danger- 
ous enormity.  But  it  is  natural  to  imagine,  that 
a  race,  exposed  to  such  insults  and  indignities, 
both  from  king  and  people,  and  who  had  so  un- 
certain an  enjoyment  of  their  riches,  would  carry 
usury  to  the  utmost  extremit}^  and  by  tlieir  great 
profits  make  themselves  some  compensation  for 
their  continual  perils. 

Though  these  acts  of  violence  against  the  Jews 
proceeded  much  from  bigotry,  they  were  still 
more  derived  from  avidity  and  rapine.  So  far 
from  desiring  in  that  age  to  convert  them,  it  was 
enacted  by  law  in  France,  that  if  any  Jew  em- 
braced Christianity,  he  forfeited  all  his  goods, 
without  exception,  to  the  king  or  his  superior 
lord.  These  plunderers  were  careful,  lest  the 
profits  accruing  from  their  dominion  over  that 
unhappy  race  should  be  diminished  by  their  con- 
version ''. 

Commerce  must  be  in  a  wretched  condition, 
Avhcre   interest  was  so  high,   and  where  the  sole 


"  M.  Paris,  p.  6l3. 
''  Brussels  vol.  i.  p.  622.     Du  Cange,  veibo  Jiuhei 


4^t4  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1272. 

proprietors  of  money  employed  it  in  usury  only^ 
and  were  exposed  to  such  extortion  and  injustice. 
But  the  bad  pohce  of  the  country  was  another 
obstacle  to  improvements  ;  and  rendered  all  com- 
munication dangerous,  and  all  property  precarious. 
The  Chronicle  of  Dunstable  says',  that  men  were 
never  secure  in  their  houses,  and  that  whole 
villages  were  often  plundered  by  bands  of  rob 
bers,  though  no  civil  wars  at  that  time  prevailed 
in  the  kingdom.  In  1249,  some  years  before  the 
insurrection  of  the  barons,  two  merchants  of 
Brabant  came  to  tlie  king  at  Winchester,  and  told 
him  that  they  had  been  spoiled  of  all  their  goods 
by  certain  robbers,  whom  they  knew,  because 
they  saw  their  faces  every  day  in  his  court ;  that 
like  practices  prevailed  all  over  England,  and 
travellers  were  continually  exposed  to  the  danger 
of  being  robbed,  bound,  wounded,  and  murdered; 
that  these  crimes  escaped  with  impunity,  because 
the  ministers  of  justice  themselves  were  in  a  con- 
federacy with  the  robbers;  and  that  they,  for  their 
part,  instead  of  bringing  matters  to  a  fruitless  trial 
by  law,  were  willing,  though  merchants,  to  decide 
their  cause  M'ith  the  robbers  by  arms  and  a  duel. 
The  king,  provoked  at  these  abuses,  ordered  a 
jury  to  be  inclosed,  and  to  try  the  robbers:  the 
jury,  though  consisting  of  twelve  men  of  property 
in  Hampshire,  were  found  to  be  ajso  in  a  con- 
federacy with  the   felons,    and  acquitted   them. 

'Vol.  i-  p,  155. 


1272.  HENRY    III.  44^ 

Henry,  in  a  rage,  connnitted  the  jury  to  prison, 
tlircatcned  them  \vith  severe  punishment,  and  or- 
dered a  new  jnry  to  be  inclosed,  mIio,  (heading  tlic 
fate  of  their  fellows,  at  last  found  a  verdict  against 
the  criminals.  INIan}'  of  the  king's  own  household 
were  discovered  to  have  participated  in  the  guilt; 
and  they  said,  for  their  excuse,  that  they  received 
no  A\  ages  from  him,  and  were  obliged  to  rob  for  a 
maintenance  ^.  Knights  and  csquircf^,  says  the 
Dictum  of  Kenelworth,  xvho  were  rohbcrs,  if  tlieif 
have  no  lamU  shall  pay  the  half  of  their  goods  and 
find  sufficient  security  to  keep  henceforth  the  peace 
of  the  kingdom.  Such  ^\'ere  the  manners  of  the" 
times  ! 

One  can  the  less  repine,  during  the  prevalence 
of  such  manners,  at  the  frauds  and  forgeries  of 
the  clergy  ;  as  it  gives  less  disturbance  to  society, 
to  take  men's  money  from  them  with  their  own 
consent,  though  by  deceits  and  lies,  than  to  ravisli 
it  by  open  force  and  violence.  During  this  reign 
the  papal  power  was  at  its  summit,  and  was  even, 
beginning  insensibly  to  dechne,  by  reason  of  the 
immeasurable  avarice  and  extortions  of  the  court 
of  Home,  which  disgusted  the  clergy  as  well  as 
Jaity,  in  every  kingdom  of  Europe.  England 
itself,  though  sunk  in  the  deepest  abyss  of  ignor- 
ance and  superstition,  had  seriously  entertained 
thoughts  of  shaking  off  the  papal  yoke';  and  the 
Roman  pontiff  was  obliged  to  think  of  new  ex- 

"  M.  P.iris,  p.  509.  '  Ihid.  p.  .121. 


44(5  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1272. 

pedients  for  rivetting  it  faster  upon  the  Christian 
world.  For  this  purpose  Gregory  IX.  published 
his  decretals'"  ;  which  are  a  collection  of  forgeries, 
favourable  to  the  court  of  Rome,  and  consist  of 
the  supposed  decrees  of  popes  in  the  first  centuries. 
But  these  forgeries  are  so  gross,  and  confound 
so  palpably  all  language,  history,  chronology,  and 
antiquities ;  matters  more  stubborn  than  any 
speculative  truths  whatsoever ;  that  even  that 
church,  which  is  not  startled  at  the  most  mon- 
strous contradictions  and  absurdities,  has  been 
obliged  to  abandon  them  to  the  critics.  But  in 
the  dark  period  of  the  thirteenth  century  they 
passed  for  undisputed  and  authentic ;  and  men, 
entangled  in  the  mazes  of  this  false  literature, 
joined  to  the  philosophy,  equally  false,  of  the 
times,  had  nothing  wherewithal  to  defend  them- 
selves, but  some  small  remains  of  common  sense, 
Avhich  passed  for  profaneness  and  impiety,  and 
the  indelible  regard  to  self-interest,  which,  as  it 
was  the  sole  motive  in  the  priests  for  framing 
these  impostures,  served  also,  in  some  degree,  to 
protect  the  laity  against  them. 

Another  expedient,  devised  by  the  church  of 
Rome,  in  this  period,  for  securing  her  power,  was 
the  institution  of  new  rehgious  orders,  chiefly  the 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  who  proceeded  with 
all  the  zeal  and  success  that  attend  novelties ;  were 
better  qualified  to  gain  the  populace  than  the  old 

"  Trivet,  p.  igi. 


1272.  HENRY    III.  417 

orders,  now  become  rich  and  indolent;  maintained 
a  perpetual  rivalship  witli  each  other  in  promoting 
their  gainful  superstitions ;  and  acquired  a  great 
dominion  over  the  minds,  and  consequently  over 
the  purses  of  men,  by  pretending  a  desire  of 
poverty  and  a  contempt  for  riches.  The  (juarrels 
which  arose  between  these  orders,  lying  still  under 
the  controul  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  never  dis- 
turbed the  peace  of  the  church,  and  served  only 
as  a  spur  to  their  industry  in  promoting  the  com- 
mon cause;  and  though  the  Dominicans  lost  some 
popularity  by  their  denial  of  the  immaculate  con- 
ception, a  point  in  which  they  unwarily  engaged 
too  far  to  be  able  to  feccde  M'ith  honour,  they 
counterbalanced  this  disadvantage  by  acquiring 
more  solid  establishments,  by  gaining  the  con- 
fidence of  kings  and  princes,  and  by  exercising 
the  jurisdiction  assigned  them,  of  ultimate  judges 
and  punishers  of  heresy.  Thus,  the  several  orders 
of  monks  became  a  kind  of  regular  troops  or  gar- 
risons of  the  Romish  church  ;  and  though  the 
temporal  interests  of  society,  still  more  the  cause 
of  true  piety,  were  hurt,  by  their  various  devices 
to  captivate  the  populace,  they  proved  the  chief 
supports  of  that  mighty  fabric  of  superstition,  and, 
till  the  re\ival  of  true  learning,  secured  it  from 
any  dangerous  invasion. 

The  trial  by  ordeal  was  abolished  in  this  reign 
by  order  of  council :  a  faint  mark  of  improvement 
in  the  age ". 

"  Rymcr,  vol.  i.  p.  228.     Spclman,  p  326. 


448  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1272. 

Henry  granted  a  charter  to  the  town  of  New- 
castle, in  v/hich  he  gave  the  inhabitants  a  licence 
to  dig  coal.  This  is  the  first  mention  of  coal  in 
England. 

We  learn  from  Madox°,  that  this  king  gave 
at  one  time  100  shillings  to  master  Henry,  his 
poet :  also  the  same  year  he  orders  this  poet  ten 
pounds. 

It  appears  from  Selden,  that  in  the  47th  of 
this  reign,  a  hundred  and  fifty  temporal,  and  fifty 
spiritual  barons  were  summoned  to  perform  the 
service  due  by  their  tenures  p.  In  the  35th  of 
the  subsequent  reign,  eighty-six  temporal  barons, 
twenty  bishops,  and  forty-eight  abbots,  were  sum- 
moned to  a  parliament  convened  at  Carlisle  % 


•  Page  268.  P  TitiefJ  of  Honour,  part  2,  chap.  3. 

''  Parliamentary  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  151. 


TtiiUthcd  TTovrj".  jSot  fy  Jarmt  WaJUt  46 TaZ^n 


etituarti  t\ft  ^mt 


Chap.  XIII.    p.  108. 

The  king,  sensible  that  nothing  kept  alive  the  ideas  of  military 
valour  and  of  ancient  glory  so  much  as  the  traditional  poetry  of 
the  people,  which,  assisted  by  the  power  of  music  and  the  jollity 
of  festivals,  made  deep  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  youth, 
gathered  together  all  the  Welsh  bards,  and,  from  a  barbarous 
though  not  absurd  policy,  ordered  them  to  be  put  to  death. 


i272.  EDWARD   I.  A4^ 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

EDWARD  I. 

Civil  Administration  of  tlie  King ....  Conquest  of  Wales  .... 
Affairs  of  Scotland ....  Competitors  for  the  Crown  of  Scotland 
....  Reference  to  Edward  ....  Homage  of  Scotland  .... 
Award  of  Edward  in  Favour  ofBaliol  .  .  .  .War  wiiii  France 
....  Digression  concerning  the  Constitution  of  Parliament .... 
War  with  Scotland  ....  Scotland  subdued  ....  War  witli  France 
....  Dissensions  with  the  Clergy ....  Arbitrary  Measures , . . , 
Peace  with  France  ....  Revolt  of  Scotland ....  That  Kingdom 
again  subdued ....  again  revolts  ....  is  again  subdued  .... 
Robert  Bruce  ....  Third  Revolt  of  Scotland  ....  Death  and 
Character  of  the  King  ....  Miscellaneous  Transactions  of  thi$ 
Reign. 

1 H  E  English  were  as  yet  so  little  enured  to 
obedience  under  a  regular  government,  that  the 
death  of  almost  every  king,  since  the  Conquest, 
had  been  attended  with  disorders ;  and  the  coun- 
cil, reflecting  on  the  recent  civil  wars,  and  on 
the  animosities  which  naturally  remain  after  these 
great  convulsions,  had  reason  to  apprehend  danger- 
ous consequences  from  the  absence  of  ihe  s'n  and 
successor  of  Henry.  They  therefore  hastened  to 
proclaim  prince  Edward,  to  swear  allegiance  to 
him,  and  to  summon  the  states  of  the  kingdom, 
in  order  to  provide  for  the  public  peace  in  this 

VOL.   n.  G  G 


450  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1272. 

important  conjuncture  ^  Walter  Gifford  arch- 
bishop of  York,  the  earl  of  Cornwal,  son  of 
Richard  king  of  the  Romans,  and  the  earl  of 
Glocester,  were  appointed  guardians  of  the  realm, 
and  proceeded  peaceably  to  the  exercise  of  their 
authority,  without  either  meeting  with  opposition 
from  any  of  the  people,  or  being  disturbed  with 
emulation  and  faction  among  themselves.  The 
high  character  acquired  by  Edward  during  the  late 
commotions,  his  mihtary  genius,  his  success  in 
subduing  the  rebels,  his  moderation  in  settling 
the  kingdom,  had  procured  him  great  esteem, 
mixed  Avith  affection,  among  all  orders  of  men; 
and  no  one  could  reasonably  entertain  hopes  of 
making  any  advantage  of  his  absence,  or  of  raising 
disturbance  in  the  nation.  The  earl  of  Glocester 
himself,  whose  great  power  and  turbulent  spirit 
had  excited  most  jealousy,  was  forward  to  give 
proofs  of  his  allegiance ;  and  the  other  malcon- 
tents, being  destitute  of  a  leader,  were  obliged  to 
remain  in  submission  to  the  government. 

Prince  Edward  had  reached  Sicily  in  his  return 
from  the  Holy  Land,  when  he  received  intelli'* 
gence  of  the  death  of  his  father;  and  he  dis- 
covered a  deep  concern  on  the  occasion.  At  the 
same  time  he  learned  the  death  of  an  infant  son, 
John,  whom  his  princess,  Eleanor  of  Castile,  had 
born  him  at  Acre  in  Palestine ;  and  as  he  ap- 
peared much  less  affected  with  that  misfortune, 
tlie  king  of  Sicily  expressed  a  surprise  at  this. 

'Hyiiier,  vol.  ii.  p.  1.     Walsing,  p.  43.    Trivet,  p.  230. 


1273.  KDWARD  I.  45J 

difference  of  sentiment:  but  \va.  told  by  Edward, 
that  the  death  of  a  son  was  a  loss  Mhich  he  might 
hope  to  repair;  the  death  of  a  father  was  a  loss 
irreparable  ^ 

Edward  proceeded  homeward;  but  as  he  soon 
learned  the  quiet  settlement  of  the  kingdom,  he  was 
in  no  hurry  to  take  possession  of  the  throne,  but 
spent  near  a  year  in  France,  before  he  made  his  ap- 
pearance in  England.  In  his  passage  by  Chalons 
in  Burgundy,  he  was  challenged  by  the  prince  of 
the  country  to  a  tournament  which  he  was  pre- 
paring;  and  as  Edward  excelled  in  those  martial 
and  dangerous  exercises,  the  true  image  of  war, 
he  declined  not  the  opportunity  of  acquiring 
honour  in  that  great  assembly  of  the  neighbour- 
ing nobles.  But  the  image  of  war  was  here  un- 
fortunately turned  into  the  thing  itself  Edward 
and  his  retinue  Mere  so  successful  in  the  jousts, 
that  the  French  knights,  provoked  at  their  superi- 
ority, made  a  serious  attack  upon  them,  which 
was  repulsed,  and  much  blood  was  idly  shed  in  the 
quarrel'.  This  rencounter  received  the  name  of 
the  petty  battle  of  Chalons. 

Edward  went  from  Chalons  to  Paris,  and  did 
homage  to  Philip  for  the  dominions  which  he  held 
in  France".  He  thence  returned  to  Guienne,  and 
settled  that  pro\ince,  which  was  in  some  con- 
fusion.    He  made  his  journey  to  London  through 

'  Walslng.  p.  44.     Trivet,  p.  240. 

'  Waking,  p.  44.     Trivet,  p.  241.     M.  West.  p.  402, 

*  Walsing.  p.  45. 


452  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1274. 

France  ;  in  his  passage  he  accommodated  at  Mont- 
reuil  a  difference  with  Margaret  countess  of  Flan- 
ders, heiress  of  that  territory  ^  ;  he  was  received 
with  joyful  acclamations  by  his  people,  and  was 
solemnly  crowned  at  Westminster  by  Robert  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury. 


CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  KING. 

The  king  immediately  applied  himself  to  the  re- 
establishment  of  his  kingdom,  and  to  the  correct- 
ing of  those  disorders  which  the  civil  commotions 
and  the  loose  administration  of  his  father  had  in- 
troduced into  every  part  of  government.   The  plan 
of  his  policy  was  equally  generous  and  prudent. 
He  considered  the  great  barons  both  as  the  imme- 
diate rivals  of  the  crown,  and  oppressors  of  the 
people ;  and  he  purposed,  by  an  exact  distribu- 
tion of  justice,   and  a  rigid  execution  of  the  laws,, 
to  give  at  once  protection  to  the  inferior  orders  of 
the  state,  and  to  diminish  the  arbitrary  power  of 
the  great,  on  which  their  dangerous  authority  was 
chiefly  founded.     Making  it  a  rule  in  his  own 
conduct  to  observe,  except  on  extraordinary  oc- 
casions,   the  privileges  secured  to  them  by  the 
Great  Charter,  he  acquired  a  right  to  insist  upoji 
their  observance  of  the  same  charter  towards  their 

"  Rymer^  vol.  ii.  p.  32,  33. 


1375.  EDWARD    I.  453 

vassals  and  inferiors;  and  he  made  the  crown  be 
regarded  by  all  the  gentry  and  commonalty  of 
the  kingdom,  as  the  fountain  of  justice,  and  the 
general  asylum  against  oppression.  Besides  en- 
acting several  useful  statutes,  in  a  parliament 
•which  he  summoned  at  Westminster,  he  took  care 
to  inspect  the  conduct  of  all  his  magistrates  and 
judges,  to  displace  such  as  were  either  negligent 
or  corrupt,  to  provide  them  with  sufficient  force 
for  the  execution  of  justice,  to  extirpate  all  bands 
and  confederacies  of  robbers,  and  to  repress  those 
more  silent  robberies  which  were  committed  either 
by  the  power  of  the  nobles,  or  under  the  counten- 
ance of  public  authority.  By  this  rigid  admini- 
stration, the  face  of  the  kino-dom  was  soon  chanar- 
ed  ;  and  order  and  justice  took  place  of  violence 
and  oppression  :  but  amidst  the  excellent  institu- 
tions and  public-spirited  plans  of  Edward,  there 
still  appears  somewhat  both  of  the  severity  of 
his  personal  character,  and  of  the  prejudices  of 
the  times. 

As  the  various  kinds  of  malefactors,  the  mur- 
derers, robbers,  incendiaries,  ravishers,  and  plun- 
derers, had  become  so  numerous  and  powerful, 
that  the  ordinary  ministers  of  justice,  especially 
in  the  western  counties,  were  afraid  to  execute 
the  laws  against  them,  the  king  found  it  necessary 
to  provide  an  extraordinary  remedy  for  the  evil; 
and  he  erected  a  new  tribunal  wliich,  however 
useful,  would  have  been  deemed,  in  times  of  more 
regular  liberty,  a  great  stretch  of  illegal  and  ar- 


454  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1275. 

bitrary  power.      It  consisted  of  commissioners, 
who  were  empowered  to  inquire  into  disorders 
and  crimes  of  all  kinds,  and  to  inflict  the  proper 
punishments  upon   them.     The  officers,  charged 
with  this  unusual  commission,  made  their  circuits 
throughout  the  counties  of  England  most  infested 
Avith  this  evil,   and  carried  terror  into   all  those 
parts  of  the  kingdom.     In  their  zeal  to  punish 
crimes,   they  did  not  sufficiently  distinguish  be- 
tween the  innocent  and  guilty ;  the  smallest  su- 
spicion became  a  ground  of  accusation  and  trial ; 
the  slightest  evidence  was  received  against  crimi- 
nals ;  prisons  were  crouded  with  malefactors,  real 
or  pretended  ;  severe  fines  were  levied  for  small 
offences ;    and   the   king,  though  his  exhausted 
exchequer  was  supplied  by  this  expedient,  found 
it  necessary  to  stop  the  course  of  so  great  rigour ; 
and  after  terrifying  and  dissipating,   by  this  tri- 
bunal, the  gangs  of  disorderly  people  in  England, 
he  prudently  annulled  the  commission ",  and  never 
afterwards  rencAved  it. 

Among  the  various  disorders  to  Avhich  the 
kingdom  was  subject,  no  one  was  more  univer- 
sally complained  of  than  the  adulteration  of  the 
coin ;  and  as  this  crime  required  more  art  than 
the  English  of  that  age,  who  chiefly  employed 
force  and  violence  in  their  iniquities,  were  pos* 

"  Spelman's  Gloss,  in  verbo  Trailbaston.  But  Spelqaan  wasj 
feithef  mistaken  in  placing  this  commission  in  the  fifth  year  of 
the  king,  or  it  was  renewed  in  1305.  See  Hymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  9OO. 
Trivet,  p.  saa.     M.  West.  p.  450. 


1275.  EDWARD    I.  455 

sessed  of,  the  imputation  tell  upon  tlie  Jews'. 
Edward  also  seems  to  have  indulged  a  strong  pre- 
possession against  tliat  nation  ;  and  this  ill-judged 
zeal  for  Christianity  being  naturally  augmented 
by  an  expedition  to  the  Holy  Land,  he  let  loose 
the  whole  rigour  of  his  justice  against  that  un- 
happy people.  Two  hundred  and  eighty  of  them 
were  hanired  at  once  for  this  crime  in  London 
alone,  besides  those  who  suffered  in  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom  \  The  houses  and  lands  (for  the 
Jews  had  of  late  ventured  to  make  purchases  of 
that  kind),  as  well  as  the  goods  of  great  multi- 
tudes, were  sold  and  confiscated:  and  the  king, 
lest  it  should  be  suspected  that  the  riches  of  the 
sufferers  were  the  chief  part  of  their  guilt,  ordered 
a  moiety  of  the  money  raised  by  these  confisca- 
tions to  be  set  apart  and  bestowed  upon  such  as 
were  willing  to  be  converted  to  Christianity.  But 
resentment  was  more  prevalent  M'ith  them  th.an 
any  temptation  from  their  poverty ;  and  very  i'ow 
of  them  could  be  induced  by  interest  to  embrace 
the  religion  of  their  persecutors.  The  miseries  of 
this  people  did  not  here  terminate.  Though  the 
arbitrary  talliages  and  exactions  levied  upon  them 
had  yielded  a  constant  and  considerable  revenue 
to  the  crown  ;  Edward,  prompted  by  his  zeal  and 
his  rapacity,  resolved  some  time  after ''to  purge 
the  kingdom  entirely  of  that  hated  race,  and  to 
seize  to  himself  at  once  their  whole  property  as  the 

'  Walsing.  p.  48.     Homing,  vol.  i.  p.  6. 
'  T.  Wykes,  p.  107.  '  I"  liie  year  129O. 


456  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1275. 

rcAyard  of  his  labour ''.     He  left  them  only  money 
sufficient  to  bear  their  charges  into  foreign  coun- 
tries,   where   new    persecutions    and    extortions 
awaited  them :  but  the  inhabitants  of  the  cinque 
ports,   imitating  the  bigotry  and  avidity  of  their 
sovereign,   despoiled  most  of  them  of  tbis  small 
pittance,   and  even  threw  many  of  them  into  the 
sea :  a  crime  for  which  the  king,   who  was  deter- 
mined to  be  the  sole  plunderer  in  his  dominions, 
inflicted  a  capital  punishment  upon  them.     No 
less  than  fifteen  thousand  Jews  were  at  this  time 
robbed  of  their  effects,  and  banished  the  king- 
dom :   very  few  of  that  nation  have  since  lived 
in  England  :  and  as  it  is  impossible  for  a  nation 
to  subsist  without  lenders  of  money,  and  none 
will  lend  without  a  compensation,  the  practice  of 
usury,  as  it  was  then  called,  was  thenceforth  ex- 
ercised by  the  English  themselves  upon  their  fel- 
low-citizens, or  by  Lombards  and  other  foreigners. 
It  is  very  much  to  be  questioned,  whether  the 
dealings  of  these  new  usurers  were  equally  open, 
and  unexceptionable  with  those  of  the  old.     By  a 
law  of  Richard  it  was  enacted,   that  three  copies 
should  be  made  of  every  bond  given  to  a  Jew  j 
one  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  a  public  magis- 
trate, another  into  those  of  a  man  of  credit,   and 
a  third  to  remain  with  the  Jew  himself  ^     But  as 
the  canon  law,   seconded  by  the  municipal,  per- 
mitted no  christian  to  take  interest,   all  transac-, 

^  Walsing.  p.  54.     Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  20.     Trivet,  p.  266. 
"^  Trivet,  p.  128.  , 


1275.  EDWARD    I.  457 

tions  of  this  kind  must,  after  the  banislimcnt  of 
the  Jews,  have  become  more  secret  and  clandes- 
tine ;  and  the  lender  of  consequence  be  paid  both 
for  the  use  of  his  money,  and  for  the  infamy  and 
danger  which  he  incurred  by  lending  it. 

The  great  poverty  of  the  crown,   though  no 
excuse,   was  probably  the  cause  of  this  egregious 
tyranny  exercised  against  the  Jews;  but  Edward 
also  practised  other  more  honourable  means  of  re* 
medying  that  evil.    He  employed  a  strict  frugality 
in  the  management  and  distribution  of  his  reve- 
nue :  he  engaged  the  parliament  to  vote  him  a 
fifteenth  of  all  moveables;   the  pope  to  grant  hiin 
the  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  revenues  for  three 
years ;  and  the  merchants  to  consent  to  a  perpe- 
tual imposition  of  half  a  mark  on  every  sack  of 
wool  exported,  and  a  mark  on  three  hundred  skins. 
He   also   issued  commissions  to  inquire  into   all 
encroachments  on   the  royal  demesne ;   into   the 
value  of  escheats,  forfeitures,  and  wardships  ;  and 
into  the  means  of  rei)airing  or  improving  every 
branch  of  the  revenue  ^     The  commissioners  in 
the  execution  of  their  office  began  to  carry  mat- 
ters too  far  against  the  nobihty,  and  to  (juestion 
titles  to  estates  which  had  been  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  for  several  generations.     Earl  ^Var- 
renne,   who  had  done  such  eminent  service  in  the 
late  reign,   being  required  to  show  his  titles,   drew 
his  swor4 ;  and  subjoined  that  William  the  Bastard 

*  Ann.  "Waverl.  p.  235. 


4.58  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  127^. 

had  not  conquered  the  kingdom  for  himself  alone: 
his  ancestor  was  a  joint  adventurer  in  the  enter- 
prise ;  and  he  himself  was  determined  to  maintain 
what  had  from  that  period  remained  unquestioned 
in  his  family.  The  king,  sensible  of  the  dan- 
ger, desisted  from  making  farther  inquiries  of 
this  nature. 


CONQUEST  OF  WALES. 

But  the  active  spirit  of  Edward  could  not  long 
remain  without  employment.  He  soon  after  un- 
dertook an  enterprise  more  prudent  for  himself, 
and  more  advantageous  to  his  people.  Lewellyn, 
prince  of  Wales,  had  been  deeply  engaged  with 
the  Mountfort  faction ;  had  entered  into  all  their 
conspiracies  against  the  crown ;  had  frequently 
fought  on  their  side ;  and  till  the  battle  of  Eve- 
sham, so  fatal  to  that  party,  had  employed  every 
expedient  to  depress  the  royal  cause,  and  to  pro- 
mote the  success  of  the  barons.  In  the  general 
accommodation  made  with  the  vanquished,  Lew- 
ellyn  had  also  obtained  his  pardon  ;  but  as  he  was 
the  most  powerful,  and  therefore  the  most  ob- 
noxious vassal  of  the  crown,  he  had  reason  to  en- 
tertain anxiety  about  his  situation,  and  to  dread 
the  future  effects  of  resentment  and  jealousy  in 
the  English  monarch.  For  this  reason,  he  deter- 
mined to  provide  for  his  security  by  maintaining 
a  secret  correspondence  with  his  former  associates ; 


12;7.  EDWARD    I.  45g 

and  he  even  made  his  addresses  to  a  dauiijlitcr  of 
tlie  earl  of  Leicester,  M'ho  was  sent  to  him  from 
beyond  sea,  but  being  intercepted  in  her  j)assa<»c 
near  the  isles  of  Scilly,  was  detained  in  the  court 
of  England*.  This  incident  increasing  the  nni- 
tual  jealousy  between  Edward  and  Lewellyn,  the 
latter,  when  required  to  come  to  England,  and  do 
homage  to  the  ncM-  king,  scrupled  to  ])ut  himself 
into  the  hands  of  an  enemy,  desired  a  safe-conduct 
from  Edward,  insisted  upon  having  the  king's 
son  and  other  noblemen  delivered  to  him  as  host- 
ages, and  demanded  that  his  consort  should  pre- 
viously be  set  at  liberty  \  The  king,  having 
now  brought  the  state  to  a  full  settlement,  Mas 
not  displeased  with  this  occasion  of  exercising  his 
authority,  and  subduing  entirely  the  principality 
of  A\'ales.  He  refused  all  Lewellyn's  demands, 
except  that  of  a  safe-conduct;  sent  him  repeated 
summons  to  perform  the  duty  of  a  vassal ;  levied 
an  army  to  reduce  him  to  obedience  ;  obtained  a 
new  aid  of  a  fifteenth  from  parliament;  and  march- 
ed out  with  certain  assurance  of  success  against 
the  enemy.  Besides  the  great  disproportion  of 
force  between  the  kingdom  and  the  principality, 
the  circumstances  of  the  two  states  were  entirely 
reversed  ;  and  the  same  intestine  dissensions 
which  had  formerly  weakened  England,  now  prcr 
vailed  in  Wales,  and  had  even  taken  place  in  the 
reigning  family.     David  and  lloderic,  brothers  to 

•  Walsing,  p.  46,  4/,     Heming,  vol.  i.  p.  5.     Trivet,  p.  2-18. 
•^Ryraer,  vol.  ii.  p.  68.      Walsing.  p.  40.     Trivet,  p.  247. 


460  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1277. 

Lewellyn,    dispossessed   of  their  inheritance    by 
that  prince,  had  been  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
the  protection  of  Edward,  and  they  seconded  with 
all  their  interest,    which  was   extensive,  his   atr 
tempts  to    enslave   their  native   country.       The 
Welsh  prince  had  no  resource  but  in  the  inacces- 
sible situation  of  his  mountains,  which  had  hitherto 
through  many  ages  defended  his  forefathers  against 
all  attempts  of  the  Saxon  and  Norman  conquer- 
ors ;  and  he  retired  among  the  hills  of  Snowdun, 
resolved  to  defend  himself  to  the  last  extremity. 
But  Edward,   equally  vigorous  and  cautious,  en- 
tering  by   the   north  with   a   formidable    army, 
pierced  into  the  heart  of  the  country  ;  and  having 
carefully  explored  every  road  before  liim,    and 
secured  every  pass  behind  him,   approached  the 
Welsh  army  in  its  last  retreat.     He  here  avoided 
the  putting  to  trial  the  valour  of  a  nation  proud 
of  its   ancient  independence,   and  inflamed  with 
animosity  against  its  hereditary  enemies ;  and  he 
trusted  to  the  slow  but  sure  effects  of  famine  for 
reducing  that  people  to  subjection.      The  rude 
and  simple  manners  of  the  natives,  as  well  as  the 
mountainous  situation  of  their  country,  had  made 
them  entirely  neglect  tillage,  and  trust  to  pastur- 
age alone  for  their  subsistence  :  a  method  of  life 
which  had  hitherto  secured  them  against  the  irre- 
gular attempts  of  the  English,  but  exposed  them 
to  certain  ruin,  when  the  conquest  of  the  country 
was  steadily  pursued,   and  prudently  planned   by 
Edward.     Destitute  of  magazines,  cqopedupina 


1277-  EDVrARD    I.  4*1 

narroM''  corner,  they,  as  well  as  their  cattle,  suf- 
fered all  the  rigours  of  famine  ;  and  Lewellyn, 
without  being  able  to  strike  a  stroke  for  his  in- 
dependence, was  at  last  obliged  to  submit  at  dis-i 
cretion,  and  receive  the  terms  imposed  upon  him 
by  the  victor  ^  lie  bound  himself  to  pay  to  Ed- 
ward 50,000  pounds,  as  a  reparation  of  damages; 
to  do  homage  to  the  crown  of  England ;  to  per- 
mit all  the  other  barons  of  Wales,  except  four 
near  Snowdun,  to  swear  fealty  to  the  same  crown; 
to  relinquish  the  country  between  Cheshire  and 
the  river  Conway ;  to  settle  on  his  brother  Rode- 
ric  a  thousand  marks  a  year,  and  on  David  fu^e 
hundred  ;  and  to  deliver  ten  hostages  as  security 
for  liis  future  submission  '\ 

Edward,  on  the  performance  of  the  other 
articles,  remitted  to  the  prince  of  Wales  the  pay- 
ment of  the  50,000  pounds',  which  were  stipulat- 
ed by  treaty,  and  which  it  is  probable  the  poverty 
of  the  country  made  it  absolutely  impossible  for 
him  to  levy.  But  notwithstanding  this  indulg- 
ence, complaints  of  iniquities  soon  arose  on  the 
side  of  the  vanquished:  the  English,  insolent  on 
their  easy  and  bloodless  victory,  oppressed  the 
inhabitants  of  the  districts  which  were  yielded  to 
them :  the  lords  marchers  committed  with  impu- 
nity all  kinds  of  violence  on  their  Welsh  neigh- 
bours :  new  and  more  severe  terms  were  imposed 

«T.  Wykes,  p.  105, 
''  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  88.     Walsing.  p.  7.     Trivet,  p.  251.     T. 
Wykes,  p.  106.  '  Rymer,  p.  92. 


452  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  12;7. 

on    Lewellyn    himself;    and  Edward,    when  the 
prince  attended  him  at  Worcester,  exacted  a  pro- 
mise that  he  would  retain  no  person  in  his  prin- 
cipality who  should  be  obnoxious  to  the  English 
monarch'^.      There  were   other  personal   insults 
which  raised  the  indignation  of  the  Welsh,  and 
made  them  determine  rather  to  encounter  a  force 
which  they  had  already  experienced  to  be  so  much 
superior,  than  to  bear  oppression  from  the  haughty 
victors.     Prince  David,   seized  with  the  national 
spirit,  made  peace  with  his  brother,  and  promised 
to  concur  in  the  defence  of  public  liberty.     The 
Welsh  fled  to  arms ;  and  Edward,   not  displeased 
with  the  occasion  of  making  his  conquest  final 
and  absolute,   assembled  all  his  military  tenants, 
and  advanced  into  Wales  with  an  army  which  the 
inhabitants  could  not  reasonably  hope  to  resist. 
The  situation  of  the  country  gave  the  Welsh  at 
first  some  advantage  over  Luke  de  Tany,  one  of 
Edward's  captains,   who  had  passed  the  Menau 
Avith  a  detachment':  but  Lewellyn,    being  sur- 
prised by  Mortimer,  was  defeated  and  slain  in  an 
action,  and  2000  of  his  followers  were  put  to  the 
sword".     David,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  prin- 
cipality,  could  never  collect  an  army  suihcient  to 
face  the  English ;  and  being  chased  from  hill  to 
hill,   and  hunted  from  one  retreat  to  another,  was 

^  Dr.  Powel's  Hist,  of  Wales,  p.  344,  345. 
'  Walsing.  p.  50.     Heming.  vol.  i.   p.  11.     Trivet,  p.  258. 
T.Wykes,  p.  110. 

"  Hemiag.  vol.  i.  p.  11.  Trivet,  p.  25/.  Aiin.  Waverl,  p,  235. 


I 


12S4.  EDWARD    I,  4()3 

obliged  to  conceal  himself  iiiider  various  disguises, 
and  was  at  last  betrayed  in  his  lurking-place  to  the 
enemy.  Edward  sent  him  in  chains  to  Shrews- 
bury ;  and  bringing  him  to  a  formal  trial  before 
all  the  peers  of  England,  ordered  this  sovereign 
prince  to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered,  as  a 
traitor,  for  defending  by  arms  the  liberties  of  his 
native  country,  together  with  his  own  hereditary 
authority".  All  the  Welsh  nobility  submitted  to 
the  conqueror;  the  laMs  of  England,  .with  the 
sheritis,  and  other  ministers  of  justice,  were  esta- 
blished in  that  principality ;  and  though  it  was 
long  before  national  antipathies  were  extinguish- 
ed, and  a  thorough  union  attained  between  the 
people;  yet  this  important  conquest,  which  it  had 
required  eight  hundred  years  fully  to  eifect,  was 
at  last,  through  the  abilities  of  Edward,  completed 
by  the  English. 

The  king,  sensible  that  nothing  kept  alive  the 
ideas  of  military  valour  and  of  ancient  glory  so 
much  as  the  traditional  poetry  of  the  people, 
which,  assisted  by  the  power  of  music  and  the 
jollity  of  festivals,  made  deep  impression  on  the 
minds  of  the  youth,  gathered  all  the  Welsh  bards, 
and,  from  a  barbarous  though  not  absurd  policy, 
ordered  them  to  be  put  to  death  °. 

There  prevails  a  vulgar  stor}^,  which,  as  it  well 
suits  the  capacity  of  the  monkish  writers,  is  care- 

°  Heming.  vol.   i.   p.   12.     Trivet,  p.  25g.     Ann.  Waverl. 
p.  238.     T.  Wykes,  p.  111.     M.  West.  p.  411. 
•  Sir  J.  Wynne,  p.  15. 


46^1  .HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1286. 

fully  recorded  by  them :  that  Edward,  assembling 
the  Welsh,  promised  to  give  them  a  prince  of  un- 
exceptionable iiianners,  a  Welshman  by  birth,  and 
one  who  could  speak  no  other  language.  On  their 
acclamations  of  joy,  and  promise  of  obedience,  he 
invested  in  the  principaHty  his  second  son  Edward, 
then  an  infant,  who  had  been  born  at  Carnarvon. 
The  death  of  his  eldest  son  Alphonso  soon  after 
made  young  Edward  heir  of  tliC  monarchy :  the 
principality  of  Wales  was  fully  annexed  to  the 
crown  ;  and  henceforth  gives  a  title  to  the  eldest 
son  of  the  kings  of  England. 

The  settlement  of  Wales  appeared  so  complete 
to  Edv/ard,  that  in  less  than  two  years  after  he 
went  abroad,  in  order  to  make  peace  between  Al- 
phonso king  of  Arragon,  and  Philip  the  Fair,  who 
had  lately  succeeded  his  father  Philip  the  Hardy 
on  the  throne  of  France  p.  The  difference  between 
these  two  princes  had  arisen  about  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily,  which  the  pope,  after  his  hopes  from 
England  failed  him,  had  bestowed  on  Charles, 
brother  to  St.  Lewis,  and  which  was  claimed  on 
other  titles  by  Peter  king  of  Arragon,  father  to 
Alphonso.  Edward  had  powers  from  both  princes 
to  settle  the  terms  of  peace,  and  he  succeeded  in 
his  endeavours ;  but  as  the  controversy  nowise  re- 
gards England,  we  shall  not  enter  into  a  detail  of 
it.  He  stayed  abroad  above  three  years  ;  and  on 
his  return  found  many  disorders  to  have  prevailed, 

»  Rjrmer,  vol.  ii.  p.  149,  150,  1/4. 


\ 


lf86.  EDWARD    I.  4o5 

l)()tli  iVoni  open  violence,  and  from  the  conuplioii 
oKjusticc. 

Thomas  Cluim])crlain,  a  gentleman  of  some 
note,  had  assembled  several  of  his  associates  at 
Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  under  pretence  ofhohling 
a  tonrnament,  an  exercise  practised  by  the  gentry 
only  ;  bnt  in  reality  with  a  \  iew  of  phinderingthe 
rich  fair  of  Boston,  and  robbing  the  merchants. 
To  facilitate  his  purpose,  he  privately  set  lire  to 
the  town  ;  and  while  the  inhabitants  -svere  em- 
ployed in  quenching  the  flames,  the  conspirators 
broke  into  the  booths,  and  carried  off  the  goods. 
Chamberlain  himself  was  detected  and  hanged ; 
but  maintained  so  steadily  the  point  of  honour  to 
his  accomplices,  that  he  could  not  be  prevailed 
on,  b}' ofiers  or  promises,  to  discover  any  of  them. 
Many  other  instances  of  robbery  and  violence 
broke  out  in  all  parts  of  England ;  though  the 
singular  circumstances  attending  this  conspiracy 
have  made  it  alone  be  particularly  recordcxl  by 
liistorians  X 

But  the  corruption  of  the  judges,  by  which 
the  fountains  of  justice  Avere  poisoned,  seemed  of 
still  more  dangerous  consequence.  Edward,  in 
order  to  remedy  this  prevailing  abuse,  summoned 
a  parliament,  and  brought  the  judges  to  a  trial; 
Mhereall  of  them,  except  two  who  were  clergy- 
men, were  convicted  of  this  flagrant  iniquity, 
Mere  fined  and  deposed.     The  ahiouut  of  the  fines 

'  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  l6,   l". 
VOL.  ir.  n   ][ 


406  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  i28p. 

levied  upon  tliem  is  alone  a  sufficient  proof  of 
their  guilt ;  being  above  one  hundred  thousand 
marks,  an  immense  sum  in  those  days,  and  suffi- 
cient to  defray  the  charges  of  an  expensive  Avar 
between  two  great  kingdoms.  The  king  after- 
wards made  all  the  new  judges  swear  that  they 
would  take  no  bribes ;  but  his  expedient,  of  de- 
posing and  fining  the  old  ones,  was  the  more 
effectual  remedy. 

We  now  come  to  give  an  account  of  the  state 
of  affairs  in  Scotland,  which  gave  rise  to  the  most 
interesting  transactions  of  this  reign,  and  of  some 
of  the  subsequent ;  though  the  intercourse  of  that 
kingdom  with  England,  either  in  peace  or  war, 
had  hitherto  produced  so  few  events  of  moment, 
that,  to  avoid  tediousness,  we  have  omitted  many 
of  them,  and  have  been  very  concise  in  relating 
the  rest.  If  the  Scots  had  before  this  period  any 
real  history  worthy  of  the  name,  except  what  they 
glean  from  scattered  passages  in  the  English  his- 
torians, those  events,  however  minute,  yet  being 
the  only  foreign  transactions  of  the  nation,  might 
deserve  a  place  in  it. 


AFFAIRS  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Though  the  government  of  Scotlantl  had  been 
continually  exposed  to  those  factions  and  convul- 
sions which  are  incident  to  all  barbarous,  and 
to  many  civilized  nations ;  and  though  the  sue- 


1289.  EDWARD    I.  467 

cessions  of  tlicir  kings,   the  only  part  of  their  his- 
tory which  deserves  any  credit,   liad  often  been 
disordered  by  irregularities  and  usurpations,   the 
true  heir  of  the  ro}id  family  liad  still   in  the  end 
pre\aiicd,   and  Alexander  III.  who  had  espoused 
the  sister  of  I'd  ward,   probably  inherited,   after  a 
period  of  about  eight  hundred  years,  and  through 
a  succession  of  males,   the  sceptre  of  all  the  Scot- 
tish princes  who  had  governed  the  nation  since  its 
first  establishment  in  the  island.     This  prince  died 
in    1286  by  a  fall  from  his  horse  at  Kinghorn'', 
without    leaving  any  male    issue,     and    without 
any  descendant,  except  Margaret,   born  of  Eric, 
king  of  Norway,  and  of  Margaret,   daughter  of 
the  Scottish  monarch.     This  princess,   commonly 
called  the  IMaid  of  Norway,  though  a  female,  and 
an  infant,  and  a  foreigner,   yet  being  the  lawful 
lieir  of  the*  kingdom,   had,  through  her  grand- 
father's care,   been    recognised  successor  by  the 
states  of  Scotland';  and   on  Alexander's  death, 
the  dispositions  which  had  been  previously  made 
against  that  event,  appeared  so  just  and  prudent, 
that  no  disorders,   as  might  naturally  be   appre- 
liended,   ensued  in  the  kingdom.      Margaret  was 
acknowledged  queen  of  Scotland ;   live  guardians, 
the  bishops   of  St.    Andrews  and   Glasgow,   the 
earls  of  Fife  and  Buchan,   and  James,   steward  of 
Scotland,  entered  peaceably  upon  the  administra- 
tion;  and  the  infant  princess,   under  the  protec- 

' Homing,  vol.  i.  p,  29.     Trivet,  p,  267. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  ii,  p.  266. 
2 


458  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND,  1290, 

tion  of  Edward  her  great  uncle,   and  Eric  her  fa- 
ther,  who  exerted  themselves   on  this  occasion, 
seemed  firmly  seated  on  the  throne  of  Scotland. 
The  English  monarch  was  naturally  led  to  build 
mighty  projects   on  this  incident ;    and  having 
lately  by  force  of  arms  brought  Wales  under  sub- 
jection, he  attempted,   by  the  marriage  of  Mar- 
garet with  his  eldest  son  Edward,   to  unite  the 
whole  island  into  one  monarchy,   and  thereby  to 
give  it  security  both  against  domestic  convulsions 
and  foreign  invasions.     The  amity  which  had  of 
late  prevailed  between  the  tvfo  nations,  and  which, 
even  in  former  times,  had  never  been  interrupted 
by   any  violent  wars   or  injuries,    facilitated  ex- 
tremely the  execution  of  this  project,   so  favour- 
able to  the  happiness  and  grandeur  of  both  king- 
doms ;  and  the  states  of  Scotland  readily  gave 
their  assent  to  the  English  proposals,   and  even 
agreed  that  their  young  sovereign  should  be  edu- 
cated in  the  court  of  Edward.    Anxious,  however, 
for  the  liberty  and  independency  of  their  country, 
they  took  care  to  stipulate  very  equitable  condi- 
tions, ere  they  entrusted  themselves  into  the  hands 
of  so  great  and  so  ambitious  a  monarch.     It  was 
agreed  that  they  should  enjoy  all  their  ancient 
laws,  liberties,   and  customs  ;  that  in  case  young 
Edward  and  Margaret  should  die  without  issue, 
the  crown  of  Scotland  should  revert  to  the  next 
heir,  and  should  be  inherited  by  him  free  and  in- 
dependent ;  that  the  military  tenants  of  the  crown 
should  never  be  obliged  to  go  out  of  Scotland,  iii 


1291.  EDWARD    I.  469 

order  to  do  homage  to  the  sovereign  of  tlic  united 
kingdoms,  nor  the  chapters  of  cathedral,  colleg- 
iate, or  conventual  churches,  in  order  to  make 
elections ;  that  the  parliaments  summoned  for 
Scottish  aifairs  should  always  he  held  within  the 
bounds  of  that  kingdom  ;  and  that  Edward  should 
bind  himself  under  the  penalty  of  100,000  marks, 
payable  to  tlie  ])ope  for  the  use  of  the  holy  wars, 
to  observe  all  these  articles'.  It  is  not  easy  to 
conceive  that  two  nations  could  luive  treated  more 
on  a  foot  of  equality  than  Scotland  and  Engknd 
maintained  during  the  whole  course  of  this  trans- 
action :  and  though  Edward  gave  his  assent  to 
the  article  concerning  the  future  independency 
of  the  Scottish  crown,  with  a  saving  of  his  former 
rights  ;  this  reserve  gave  no  alarm  to  the  nobility 
of  Scotland,  both  because  these  rights,  having 
hitherto  been  little  heard  of,  had  occasioned  no 
disturbance,  and  because  the  Scots  had  so  near  a 
prospect  of  seeing  them  entirely  absorbed  in  the 
rights  of  their  sovereignty. 


COMPETITION  FOR  THE  CROWN  OF  SCOT- 
LAND. 

But  this  project,  so  happily  formed,  and  so  ami- 
cably conducted,  failed  of  success,  by  the  sud- 
den death  of  the  Norwegian  princess,  who  expired 


'  Rymer^  vol.  ii,  p.  •^82. 


470  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  129I. 

on  her  passage  to  Scotland  "*,  and  left  a  very  dis- 
mal prospect  to  the  kingdom.  Though  disorders 
were  for  the  present  ohviated  by  the  authority  of 
the  regency  formerly  established,  the  succession 
itself  of  the  crown  was  now  become  an  object  of 
dispute ;  and  the  regents  could  not  expect  that  a 
controversy,  which  is  not  usually  decided  by  rea- 
son and  argument  alone,  would  be  peaceably  set- 
tled by  them,  or  even  by  the  states  of  the  king- 
dom, amidst  so  many  powerful  pretenders.  The 
posterity  of  William  king  of  Scotland,  the  prince 
taken  prisoner  by  Henry  II.  being  all  extinct  by 
the  death  of  JNIargaret  of  Norway ;  the  right  to 
the  crown  devolved  on  the  issue  of  David  earl  of 
Huntingdon,  brother  to  William,  whose  male  line 
heing  also  extinct,  left  the  succession  open  to  the 
posterity  of  his  daughters.  The  earl  of  Hunting- 
don had  three  daughters ;  Margaret,  married  to 
Alan  lord  of  Galloway,  Isabella,  wife  of  Robert 
Brus  or  Bruce,  loM  of  Annandale,  and  Adam  a, 
who  espoused  Henry  lord  Hastings.  Margaret, 
the  eldest  of  the  sisters,  left  one  daughter,  Dever- 
gilda,  married  to  John  Baliol,  by  whom  she  had 
a  son  of  the  same  name,  one  of  the  present  com- 
petitors for  the  crown  :  Isabella,  the  second,  bore 
a  son,  Robert  Bruce,  who  was  now  alive,  and  who 
also  insisted  on  his  claim :  Adama,  the  third,  left 
a  son,  John  Hastings,  who  pretended  that  the 
kingdom  of  Scotland,  like  many  other  inherit- 

"  Heming.  vol.  i,  p.  30.     Trivet^,  p.  268. 


1291.  EDWARD    I.  471 

anccs,  was  divisihlc  among  the  tlirec  daughters  of 
tlie  earl  of  Huntingdon,  and  that  he,  in  right  of 
his  mother,  had  a  title  to  a  third  of  it.  lialiol 
and  Bruce  united  against  Hastings,  in  maintain- 
ing that  the  kingdom  Mas  indivisible;  but  each 
of  them,  supported  by  ])lausible  reasons,  asserted 
the  preference  of  his  own  title.  Baliol  M'as  sprung 
from  the  elder  branch  :  Bruce  was  one  degree 
nearer  the  common  stock  :  if  the  principle  of  re- 
presentation was  regarded,  the  former  had  tlie 
better  claim :  if  propinquity  was  considered,  the 
latter  was  entitled  to  the  preference"^:  the  senti- 
ments of  men  Mere  divided  :  all  the  nobility  had 
taken  part  on  one  side  or  the  other :  the  people 
followed  implicitly  their  leaders :  the  two  claim- 
ants themselves  had  great  power  and  numerous 
retainers  in  Scotland :  and  it  is  no  M^onder  that, 
among  a  rude  people,  more  accustomed  to  arms 
than  enured  to  laM's,  a  controversy  of  this  nature, 
which  could  not  be  decided  by  any  former  pre- 
cedent among  them,  and  which  is  capable  of  ex- 
citino-  commotions  in  the  most  le^al  and  best 
established  governments,  should  threaten  the  state 
with  the  most  fatal  convulsions. 

Each  century  had  its  peculiar  mode  in  con- 
ducting business;  and  men,  guided  more  by 
custom  than  by  reason,  folloM^,  m  ithout  enquiry, 
the  manners  M'hich  arc  prevalent  in  their  own 
time.     The  practice  of  that  age,  in  controversies 

"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  36. 


473  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1291. 

between  states  and  princes,  seems  to  have  been 
to  chuse  a  foreign  prince,  as  an  equal  arbiter, 
by  whom  the  question  was  decided,  and  whose 
sentence  prevented  those  dismal  confusions  and 
disorders,  inseparable  at  all  times  from  war,  but 
which  were  multiplied  a  hundred  fold,  and  dis- 
persed into  every  corner,  by  the  nature  of  the 
feudal  governments.  It  was  thus  that  the  Eng- 
lish king  and  barons,  in  the  preceding  reign,  had 
endeavoured  to  compose  their  dissensions  by  a 
reference  to  the  king  of  France  ;  and  the  cele- 
brated integrity  of  that  monarch  had  prevented 
all  the  bad  effects  M'hich  might  naturally  have 
been  dreaded  from  so  perilous  an  expedient.  It 
was  thus  that  the  kings  of  France  and  Arragon, 
and  afterwards  other  princes,  had  submitted  their 
controversies  to  Edward's  judgment;  and  the  re- 
moteness of  their  states,  the  great  power  of  the 
princes,  and  the  little  interest  which  he  had  on 
either  side,  had  induced  him  to  acquit  himself 
with  honour  in  his  decisions.  The  parliament  of 
Scotland,  therefore,  threatened  with  a  furious 
civil  war,  and  allured  by  the  great  reputation  of 
the  English  monarch,  as  Avell  as  by  the  present 
amicable  correspondence  between  the  kingdoms, 
agreed  in  making  a  reference  to  Edward;  and 
Fraser,  bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  with  other  depu- 
ties, was  sent  to  notify  to  him  their  resolution, 
and  to  claim  his  good  offices  in  the  present  dan- 
gers to  which  they  were  exposed  \     His  inclina- 

^Hetning.  vol.  i.  p.  31. 


1291.  EDWARD    I.  47:1 

tion,  they  flattercti  tlicmsclves,  led  him  to  picvent 
their  dissensions,  and  to  interpose  witli  a  power 
which  none  of  the  eonipetitors  wouhl  dare  to 
AHthstand  :  when  tliis  expedient  was  proposed  by 
one  party,  the  other  deemed  it  (Uingerous  to  oi)- 
ject  to  it:  iiuhfferent  ])cisons  tliought  that  the 
imminent  [)erils  of  a  civil  Mar  would  thereby  be 
prevented  :  and  no  one  reflected  on  the  ambitious 
character  of  Edward,  and  the  almost  certain  ruin 
which  must  attend  a  small  state,  divided  by  fac- 
tion, when  it  thus  implicitly  submits  itself  to  the 
will  of  so  powerful  and  encroaching-  a  neiglibour. 


HOMAGE  OF  SCOTLAND. 

The  temptation  was  too  strong  for  the  virtue  of 
the  English  monarch  to  resist.  He  purposed  to 
lay  hold  of  the  present  favourable  opportunity, 
and  if  not  to  create,  at  least  to  revive,  his  claim 
of  a  feudal  superiority  over  Scotland ;  a  claim 
which  had  hitherto  lain  in  the  deepest  obscurity, 
and  which,  if  ever  it  had  been  an  object  of  atten- 
tion, or  had  been  so  much  as  suspected,  would 
have  effectually  prevented  the  Scottish  barons 
from  chusing  him  for  an  umpire.  He  mcU  knew, 
that,  if  this  pretension  were  once  submitted  to, 
as  it  seemed  dilhcult,  in  the  present  situation  of 
Scotland,  to  oppose  it,  the  absolute  so^ereignty 
of  that  kingdom  (which  had  been  the .^ase  with 
Wales)   would  soon  follow  ;  and  that  one  great 


474  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  1291. 

vassal,  cooped  up  in  an.  island  with  his  liege  lord, 
without  resource  from  foreign  powers,  without 
aid  from  any  fellow  vassals,  could  not  long  main- 
tain his  dominions  against  the  efforts  of  a  mighty 
kingdom,  assisted  by  all  the  cavils  which  the  feu- 
dal law  afforded  his  superior  against  him.  In  pur- 
suit of  this  great  object,  very  advantageous  to 
England,  perhaps  in  the  end  no  less  beneficial 
to  Scotland,  but  extremely  unjust  and  iniquitous 
in  itself,  Edward  busied  himself  in  searching  for 
proofs  of  his  pretended  superiority ;  and  instead 
of  lookino:  into  his  own  archives,  which,  if  his 
claim  had  been  real,  must  have  afforded  him  nu- 
merous records  of  the  homages  done  by  the  Scot- 
tish princes,  and  could  alone  yield  him  any  authen- 
tic testimony,  he  made  all  the  monasteries  be 
ransacked  for  old  chronicles  and  histories  written 
by  Englishmen,  and  he  collected  all  the  passages 
which  seemed  anywise  to  favour  his  pretensions  y. 
Yet  even  in  this  method  of  proceeding,  which 
must  have  discovered  to  himself  the  injustice  of 
his  claim,  he  was  far  from  being  fortunate.  He 
began  his  proofs  from  the  time  of  Edward  the 
elder,  and  continued  them  through  all  the  subse- 
quent Saxon  and  Norman  times;  but  produced 
nothing  to  his  purpose  ^  The  whole  amount  of 
his  authorities  during  the  Saxon  period,  when 
stripped  of  the  bombast  and  inaccurate  style  of 
tlie  monkish  historians,    is,    that  the  Scots  had 

^  Walsing.  p.  55.  ^  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  559. 


l^ipl.  EDWARD    I.  475 

soinctinics  been  defeated  by  the  English,  had  re- 
ceived {)eace  on  disadvantageous  terms,  had  made 
submissions  to  tlie  Knghsh  monarcli,  and  had  even 
perliaps  fallen  into  some  dependence  on  a  power 
which  was  so  much  superior,  and  Mliich  they  had 
not  at  that  time  sufficient  force  to  resist.  His 
authorities  from  the  Norman  period  m  ere,  if  pos- 
sible, still  less  conclusive:  the  historians  indeed 
make  frequent  mention  of  homage  done  by  the 
northern  potentate  ;  but  no  one  of  them  says  that 
it  was  done  for  his  kingdom  ;  and  several  of  them 
declare,  in  express  terms,  that  it  was  relative  only 
to  the  fiefs  M  Inch  he  enjoyed  south  of  the  Tweed  ^'; 
in  the  same  manner,  as  the  king  of  England  him- 
self swore  fealty  to  the  French  monarch,  for  the 
fiefs  which  he  inherited  in  France.  And  to  such 
scandalous  shifts  Mas  Edward  reduced,  that  he 
quotes  a  passage  from  Ilovedcn'',  where  it  is 
asserted,  that  a  Scottish  king  had  done  homage 
to  England ;  but  he  purposely  omits  the  latter 
part  of  the  sentence,  which  expresses  that  this 
prince  did  homage  for  the  lands  which  he  held 
in  England. 

AV'hen  William,  king  of  Scotland,  was  taken 
prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Alnwic,  he  was  obliged, 
for  the  recovery  of  his  liberty,  to  SMcar  fealty  to 
the  victor  for  his  crown  itself  The  deed  was 
performed  according  to  all  the  rites  of  the  feudal 
law  :    the   record   was  preserved   in   the  English 

'  Hoveden,  p.  492,  662.     M.  Paris,  p.  109.     M.  West,  p  256. 
•^  P.  6(52. 


470  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  129I. 

archives,  and  is  mentioned  by  all  the  historians  : 
hut  as  it  is  the  only  one  of  the  kind,  and  as  histo- 
rians speak  of  this  superiority  as  a  great  acquisi- 
tion gained  by  the  fortunate  arms  of  Henry  11.  % 
there  can  remain  no  doubt,  that  the  kingdom  of 
Scotland  was,  in  all  former  periods,  entirely  free 
and  independent.  Its  subjection  continued  a  very 
few  years :  king  Richard,  desirous,  before  his 
departure  for  the  Holy  Land,  to  conciliate  the 
friendship  of  William,  renounced  that  homage, 
which,  he  says  in  express  terms,  had  been  extort- 
ed by  his  father ;  and  he  only  retained  the  usual 
homage  Avhich  had  been  done  by  the  Scottish 
princes  for  the  lands  which  they  held  in  England. 
But  thou2:h  this  transaction  rendered  the  in- 
dependence  of  Scotland  still  more  unquestionable, 
than  if  no  fealty  had  ever  been  sworn  to  the  Eng- 
lish crown;  the  Scottish  kings,  apprized  of  the 
point  aimed  at  by  their  powerful  neighbours, 
seem  for  a  long  time  to  have  retained  some  jea- 
lousy on  that  head,  and  in  doing  homage,  to  have 
anxiously  obviated  all  such  pretensions :  Avhen 
WiUiamin  1200  did  homage  to  John  at  Lincoln, 
he  was  careful  to  insert  a  salvo  for  his  royal  dig- 
nity'^ :  when  Alexander  IIL  sent  assistance  to  his 
father-in-law  Henry  HL  during  the  wars  of  the 
barons,  he  previously  procured  an  acknowledg- 
ment, that  this  aid  was  granted  only  from  friend- 
s-hip,  not  from  any  right  claimed  by  the  English 

'  Neubr,  lib.,  ii.  cap.  4.     Knyghton,  p.  239^. 
*  Hoveden,  p,  811. 


129i:  EDWARD    L  A-l 

monarch* :  and  when  rhc  same  prince  was  invited 
to  assist  at  the  coronation  of  this  very  Edward,  he 
declined  attendance,  till  he  received  a  like  ac- 
knowledg-mcnt  *. 

Bat  as  all  these  reasons   (and  stronger  could 
jiot  he  produced)  were  hut  a  feehle  rampart  against 
the  power  of  the  sword,   Edward,   carrying  \\\\\\ 
him  a  great  army,  wliicli  was  to  enforce  liis  jfff^iU^ 
advanced  to  the  frontiers,   and  invited  the  vScot* 
tish  parliament,   and  all   the   competitors,  to  at- 
tend him  in  the  castle  of  Norham,  a  place  situated 
on  the  southern  hanks  of  the  Tweed,  in  order  to 
determine  that  cause  which  had  been  referred  to 
his  arbitration.     But  though  tliis  deference  seem- 
ed due  to  so  great  a  monarch,   and  was  no  more 
than  what  his  father  and  the  English  barons  had, 
in  similar  circumstances,  paid  to  Lewis  IX.,   the 
king,   careful  not  to  give  umbrage,    and  deter- 
mined never  to  produce  his  claim,  till  it  should  be 
too  late  to  think  of  opposition,   sent  the  Scottish 
•barons  an  acknowledgment,   that,   though  at  that 
time  they  passed  the  frontiers,  this  step  should  never 
be  drawn  into  precedent,  or  afford  the  English 
kings  a  pretence  for  exacting  a  like  submission  in 
ajiy  future  transaction  ^      When  the   whole  Scot- 
tish nation  had  thus  unwarily  put  tbemselves   in 
his   power,    Edward   opened   the    conferences  at 
Norham :    he   informed   the   parliament,     by   the 
mouth  of  Roger  le  Brabancon,  his  chief  justiciary, 

•  irtymer,  vol.  il.  p.  844.  *  S^e  note  [P.]  vol.  X. 

'   Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  539,  ^45.     \V .-rising;,  p.  !jQ. 


478  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  129I. 

that  he  was  come  thither  to  determine  the  right 
among  the  competitors  to  their  crown ;  that  he 
was  determined  to  do  strict  justice  to  all  parties; 
and  that  he  was  entitled  to  this  authority,  not  in 
virtue  of  the  reference  made  to  him,  but  in  qua- 
lity of  superior  and  liege  lord  of  the  kingdom  ^ 
He  then  produced  his  proofs  of  this  superiority, 
which  he  pretended  to  be  unquestionable,  and  he 
required  of  them  an    acknowledgment  of  it ;   a 
demand  which  was  superfluous  if  the  fact  were 
already  known  and  avowed,  and  which  plainly  be- 
trays Edward's  consciousness  of  his  lame  and  de- 
fective title.     The  Scottish  parliament  was  aston- 
ished at  so  new  a  pretension,  and  answered  only 
b}'  their  silence.      But  the  king,  in  order  to  main- 
tain the  appearance  of  free  and  regular  proceed- 
ings, desired  them  to  remove  into  their  own  coun- 
try,  to  deliberate  upon  his  claim,  to  examine  his 
proofs,   to  propose  all  their  objections,   and  to  in- 
form him  of  their  resolution:  and  he  appointed  a 
plain  at  Upsettleton,   on  the  northern  banks  of 
the  Tweed,  for  that  purpose. 

When  the  Scottish  barons  assembled  in  this 
place,  though  moved  with  indignation  at  the  in- 
justice of  this  unexpected  claim,  and  at  the  fraud 
with  which  it  had  been  conducted,  they  found 
themselves  betrayed  into  a  situation,  in  which  it 
was  impossible  for  them  to  make  any  defence  for 
the   ancient  liberty   and   independence    of  their 

*  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  543.     See  note  [C]  vol.  X. 


1291.  EDWARD    I.  479 

country.  The  king  of  England,  a  martial  and 
politic  prince,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army, 
lay  at  a  very  small  distance,  and  was  only  separ- 
ated from  tliem  hy  a  river  fordable  in  many 
places.  Though  by  a  sudden  flight  some  of  them 
might  themselves  be  able  to  make  tlieir  cscajjc, 
\vhat  hopes  could  they  entertain  of  securing  the 
kingdom  against  his  futui^e  enterprises?  Without 
a  head,  without  union  among  themselves,  attached 
all  of  them  to  different  competitors,  whose  title 
they  had  rashly  submitted  to  the  decision  of  this 
foreign  usurper,  and  who  were  thereby  reduced 
to  an  absolute  dependence  upon  him  ;  they  could 
only  expect,  by  resistance,  to  entail  on  them- 
selves and  their  posterity  a  more  grievous  and 
more  destructive  servitude.  Yet,  even  in  this 
desperate  state  of  their  affairs,  the  Scottish  barons, 
as  we  learn  from  Walsingham'',  one  of  the  best 
historians  of  that  period,  had  the  courage  to  re- 
ply, that,  till  they  had  a  king,  they  could  take 
no  resolution  on  so  momentous  a  point :  the  jour- 
nal of  king  Edward  says,  that  tJiey  made  no  an- 
swer at  all':  that  is,  perhaps,  no  particular  an- 
swer or  objection  to  Edward's  claim  :  and  by  this 
solution  it  is  possible  to  reconcile  the  journal  Anth 
the  historian.  The  king  therefore,  interpreting 
their  silence  as  consent,  addressed  himself  to  the 

'•  Page  56.     M.  West.  p.  436.     It  is  said  by  Hemingford,  voL  i. 
p.  33.  that  the  king  menaced  violently  the  Scotch  barons,  and 
forced  them  to  compliance,  at  least  to  silence. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  54S. 


480  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  I2gi. 

several  competitors,  and  previously  to  his  pro- 
nouncing sentence,  required  their  a<;knowledg- 
ment  of  his  superiority. 

It  is  evident  from  the  genealogy  of  the  royal 
family  of  Scotland,  that  there  could  only  be  two 
questions  about  the  succession,  that  between  Ba- 
liol  and  Bruce  on  the  one  hand,  and  lord  Hastings 
on  the  other,  concerning  the  partition  of  the' 
crown  ;  and  that  between  Baliol  and  Bruce  them- 
selves concerning  the  preference  of  their  respect- 
ive titles,  supposing  the  kingdom  indivisible :  yet 
there  appeared  on  this  occasion  nO  less  than  nine 
claimants  besides  ;  John  Comyn  or  Cummin  lord 
of  Badenoch,  Florence  earl  of  Holland,  Patric 
Dunbar  earl  of  March,  William  de  Vescey,  Ro- 
bert de  Pynkeni,  Nicholas  de  Soules,  Patric  Ga- 
lythly,  Roger  de  ?vlandcville,  Robert  de  Ross  ; 
not  to  mention  the  king  of  Norway,  mIio  claimed 
as  heir  to  his  daughter  Margaret  K  Some  of  these 
competitors  were  descended  from  more  remote 
branches  of  the  royal  family ;  others  were  even 
sprung  from  illegitimate  children;  and  as  none 
of  them  had  the  least  pretence  of  right,  it  is  na- 
tural to  conjecture,  that  Edward  had  secretly  en- 
couraged them  to  appear  in  the  list  of  claimants, 
that  he  might  sow  the  more  division  among  the 
Scottish  nobility,  make  the  cause  appear  the  more 
intricate,  and  he  able  to  chuse,  among  a  great 
number,  the  most  obsequious  candidate. 

^  Walsing.  p.  5B. 


r2[)l.  EDWARD    I.  481 

Uiit  lie  found  them  all  e(|ually  obsequious  on 
this  occasion  '.      Robert  Ihucc  m as  the  lirst   that 
acknowleclged  Edward's  right  of  superiority  o\cr 
Scotland  ;  and  he  had  so  far  foreseen  the  king's 
pretensions,   that  even  in  liis  petition,  Avhere  he 
set  forth  liis  claim  to  the   crown,   he  had  previ- 
ously aj)plicd  to  him  as  liege  lord  of  the  kingdom; 
a  step  w  hicli  was  not  taken  by  any  of  the  other 
competitors'".     They  all,   however,  with  seeming 
Avillingness,   made  a  like  acknowledgment  A\hen 
required ;   though  Baliol,   lest  he  should  give  of- 
fen(?e  to  the  Scottish  nation,  had  taken  care  to  be 
absent  during  the  first  days;  and  he  was  the  last 
that  recognized  the  king's  title ".     Edward  next 
deliberated  concerning  the  method  of  proceeding 
in  the  discussion  of  this  great  controversy.      He 
gave  orders,   that  Baliol,  and  such  of  the  compe- 
titors as  adhered  to  him,   should  chuse  forty  com- 
missioners ;   Bruce  and  his  adherents  forty  more  : 
,to  these  the  king  added  twenty-four  Englishmen  : 
he  ordered  these  hundred  an<l  four  commissioners 
to  examine  the  cause  deliberately  among  them- 
selves,  and  make  their  report  to  him°:  and  he 
promised  in  the  ensuing  year  to  give  his  determi- 
nation.    Mean  while  he  pretended  that  it  was  re- 
quisite to  have  all  the  fortresses  of  Scotland  deli- 
vered into  his  hands,  in  order  to  enable  him,  Mith- 

"  Rymer,  vol,  ii.  p,  529,  545.      Wal^-iiic;.  p.  56.      Heming. 
vol.  i.  p.  33,  34.     Trivet,  p.  260.     M.  West.  p.  415. 
"  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  5/7,  578,  57Q. 
"  Ibid.  p.  546.  "  Ibid.  p.  555,  556. 

VOL.   TI.  II 


482  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  129K 

out  opposition,   to  put  the  true  heir  In  possession 
of  the   crown ;  and  this  exorbitant  demand  was 
compHed  with  both  by  the  states  and  by  the  claim- 
ants p.     The    governors    also    of  all    the    castles 
immediately   resigned    their    command;     except 
Umfreville  earl  of  Angus,  who  refused,  without  a 
formal  and  particular  acquittal  from  the  parlia- 
ment and  the  several  claimants,  to  surrender  his 
fortresses  to  so  domineering  an  arbiter,   who  had 
given  to  Scotland  so  many  just  reasons  of  suspi- 
cion %     Before  this  assembly  broke  up,  which  had 
fixed  such  a  mark  of  dishonour  on  the  nation,  all 
the  prelates  and  barons  there  present  swore  fealty 
to  Edward;  and  that  prince  appointed  commis- 
sioners to  receive  a  like  oath  from  all  the  other 
barons  and  persons  of  distinction  in  Scotland''. 

The  king  having  finally  made,  as  he  imagined, 
this  important  acquisition,  left  the  commissioners 
to  sit  at  Berwic,  and  examine  the  titles  of  the 
several  competitors  who  claimed  the  precarious 
crown,  which  Edward  v/as  willing  for  some  time 
to  allow  the  huvful  heir  to  enjoy.  He  went  south- 
wards, both  in  order  to  assist  at  the  funeral  of  his 
mother  queen  Eleanor,  who  died  about  this  time, 
and  to  compose  some  differences  which  had  arisen 
among  the  principal  nobility.  Gilbert  earl  of 
Glocester,  the  greatest  baron  of  the  kingdom, 
had  espoused  the  king's  daughter;  and  being- 
elated  by  that  alliance,  and  still  more  by  his  own 

p  Rymerj  vol.  ii.  p.  52g.     Walsing.  p.  56,  57. 
'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  53 1 .  '  Ibid.  p.  573. 


12.02,  EDWARD    I.  483 

power,  which,  lie  tliought,  set  him  al)ovc  tlic 
laws,  he  permitted  his  bailift's  and  vassals  to  com- 
mit violence  on  tlie  lands  of  Humphry  Bohun  earl 
of  Hereford,  whf)  retaliated  the  injury  by  like 
violence.  Ihit  this  was  not  a  reign  in  Mhich  such 
illegal  proceedings  could  pass  with  impunity. 
Edward  procured  a  sentence  against  the  two  carls, 
committed  them  both  to  j)rison,  and  m  ould  not 
restore  them  to  their  liberty  till  be  exacted  a  fine 
of  1000  marks  from  Hereford,  and  one  of  10,000 
from  his  son-in-law. 

During  this  interval,  the  titles  of  John  Baliol 
and  of  Robert  Bruce,  whose  claims  appeared  to  be 
the  best  founded  among  the  competitors  for  the 
crown  of  Scotland,  were  the  subject  of  general 
disquisition,  as  M'ell  as  of  debate  among  the  com- 
missioners. Edward,  in  order  to  give  greater 
authority  to  his  intended  decision,  proposed  this 
general  question  both  to  the  commissioners  and 
to  all  the  celebrated  lawyers  in  Europe ;  Whether 
a  person  descended  from  the  eldest  sister,  but 
farther  removed  by  one  degree,  were  preferable, 
in  the  succession  of  kingdoms,  fiefs,  and  otliei- 
indivisible  inheritances,  to  one  descended  from 
the  younger  sister,  but  one  degree  nearer  to  the 
common  stock  ?  This  was  the  true  state  of  the 
case  ;  and  the  principle  of  representation  had  now 
gained  such  ground  every  where,  that  a  uniform 
ansM  er  was  returned  to  the  king  in  the  allirmative. 
He  therefore  i)ronounced  sentence  in  favour  of 
Ibliol ;  and   when  Brucc^    upon  tliis  disappoint- 


484  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  1293. 

ment,  joined  afterwards  lord  Hastings,  and  claim- 
ed a  third  of  the  kingdom,  which  he  now  pretend- 
ed to  be  divisible,  Edward^  though  his  interest 
seemed  more  to  require  the  partition  of  Scotland^ 
again  pronounced  sentence  in  favour  of  Baliol. 
That  competitor,  upon  renevv'ing  his  oath  of  fealty 
to  England,  was  put  in  possession  of  the  king- 
dom"; all  his  fortresses  were  restored  to  him*; 
and  the  conduct  of  Edward,  both  in  the  deli- 
berate solemnity  of  the  proceedings,  and  in  the 
justice  of  the  award,  was  so  far  unexceptionable. 
Had  the  king  entertained  no  other  view  than 
that  of  establishing  his  superiority  over  Scotland,, 
though  the  iniquity  of  that  claim  w^as  apparent, 
and  was  aggravated  by  the  most  egregious  breach 
of  trust,  he  might  have  fixed  his  pretensions,  and 
have  left  that  important  acquisition  to  his  poste- 
rity :  but  he  immediately  proceeded  in  such  a 
manner,  as  made  it  evident,  that,  not  content 
with  this  usurpation,  he  aimed  also  at  the  abso- 
lute sovereignty  and  dominion  of  the  kingdom. 
Instead  of  gradually  inuring  the  Scots  to  the  yoke, 
and  exerting  his  rights  of  superiority  with  mode- 
ration, he  encouraged  all  appeals  to  England; 
required  king  John  himself,  by  six  different  sum- 
mons on  trivial  occasions,  to  come  to  Loudon"; 
refused  him  the  privilege  of  defending  his  cause 
by  a  procurator ;  and  obliged  him   to  appear  at 

'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  5gO,  5gi,  5g3,  6OO. 

'  Ibid.  p.  590. 

"  Rymer,  voL  ii.  p.  603,  005,  606,  608,  615,  616. 


12f)3.  EDWARD    L  485 

the  bar  of  his  pailiamcnt  as  a  private  person"^. 
These  huniiHating  demands  Mere  Ivitherto  quite 
unknown  to  a  king*  of  Scotland :  tliey  arc,  how- 
ever, tlie  necessary  consequence  of  vassalage  by 
the  feudal  law ;  and  as  there  Mas  no  preceding  in- 
stance of  such  treatment  submitted  to  by  a  prince 
of  that  country,  Edward  must,  from  that  circum- 
stance alone,  had  there  remained  any  doubt,  have 
been  himself  convinced  that  his  claim  was  alto- 
gether an  usurpation  *.  But  his  intention  plainly 
was,  to  enrage  Baliol  by  these  indignities,  to  en- 
gage him  in  rebellion,  and  to  assume  the  domi- 
nion of  the  state,  as  a  punishment  of  his  treason 
and  felony.  Accordingly  Baliol,  though  a  prince 
of  a  soft  and  gentle  spirit,  returned  into  Scotland 
highly  provoked  at  this  usage,  and  determined  at 
all  hazards  to  vindicate  his  liberty;  and  the  war 
which  soon  after  broke  out  between  France  and 
England  gave  him  a  favourable  opportunity  of 
executing  his  purpose. 


WAR  WITH  FRANCE. 

The  violence,  robberies,  and  disorders,  to  which 
that  age  was  so  subject,  were  not  confmed  to 
the  licentious  barons  and  their  retainers  at  land  : 
the  sea  was  equally  infested  with  piracy :  the 
feeble  execution  of  the  laws  had  given  license 

*"  Ryley's  Placit.  Pari.  p.  152^  153. 
*  See  note  [D]  vol,  X. 


486  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  1293. 

to  all  orders  of  men :  and  a  general  appetite  for 
rapine  and  revenge,  supported  by  a  false  point  of 
honour,  had  also  infected  the  merchants  and  ma-- 
riners  ;  and  it  pushed  them,  on  any  provocation, 
to  seek  redress  by  immediate  retaliation  upon  the 
aggressors.  A  Norman  and  an  English  vessel  met 
off  the  coast  near  Bayonne ;  and  both  of  them 
having  occasion  for  water,  they  sent  their  boats 
to  land,  and  the  several  crews  came  at  the  same 
time  to  the  same  spring :  there  ensued  a  quarrel 
for  the  preference :  a  Norman,  drawing  his  dag- 
ger, attempted  to  stab  an  Englishman  ;  who  grap- 
pling  with  him,  threw  his  adversary  on  the  ground ; 
and  the  Norman,  as  was  pretended,  falling  on  his 
own  dagger,  was  slain  \  This  scuffle  between 
two  seamen  about  water,  soon  kindled  a  bloody 
war  between  the  two  nations,  and  involved  a  great 
part  of  Europe  in  the  quarrel.  The  mariners  of 
the  Norman  ship  carried  their  complaints  to  the 
French  king :  Philip,  without  inquiring  into  the 
fact,  without  demanding  redress,  bade  them  take 
revenge,  and  trouble  him  no  more  about  the  mat- 
ter y.  The  Normans,  vdio  had  been  more  regular 
than  usual  in  applying  to  the  crown,  needed  but 
this  hint  to  proceed  to  immediate  violence.  They 
seized  an  English  ship  in  the  channel ;  and  hang- 
ing along  with  some  dogs,  several  of  the  crew  on 
the  yard-arm,  in  presence  of  their  companions, 

*  Walsing.  p.  58.     Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  HO/l 
y  Walsing.  p.  58. 


12()S.  EDWARD    J.  48/ 

dismissed  the  vessel  * ;  and  bade  the  mariners  in- 
form tlieir  countrymen,  that  vengeance  was  now 
taken  for  the  blood  of  the  Norman  killed  at  Bay- 
onne.  This  injury,  accompanied  with  so  general 
and  deliberate  an  insult,  was  resented  by  the  ma- 
riners of  the  cinquc-ports,  Avho,  without  carrying 
any  complaint  to  the  king,  or  waiting  for  redress, 
retahated,  by  committing  like  barbarities  on  all 
French  vessels  without  distinction.  The  French, 
provoked  by  their  losses,  preyed  on  the  ships  of 
all  Edward's  subjects,  whether  English  or  Gas- 
con: the  sea  became  a  scene  of  piracy  hetween 
the  nations :  the  sovereigns,  without  either  se« 
conding  or  repressing  the  violence  of  their  sub- 
jects, seemed  to  remain  indiflerent  spectators ; 
the  English  made  private  associations  with  the 
Irish  and  Dutch  seamen  ;  the  French  with  the 
Flemish  and  Genoese  " :  and  the  animosities  of  the 
people  on  both  sides  became  every  day  more  vio- 
lent and  barbarous.  A  fleet  of  two  hundred  Nor- 
man vessels  set  sail  to  the  south  for  wine  ami  other 
commodities;  and  in  their  passage  seized  all  the 
English  ships  which  they  met  with ;  hanged  the 
seamen,  and  seized  the  goods.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  English  sea-ports,  informed  of  this  inci- 
dent, fitted  out  a  fleet  of  sixty  sail,  stronger  and 
better  manned  than  the  others,  and  awaited  the 
enemy  on  their  return.    Afte^'  an  obstinate  battle, 


"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  40.     M.  West,  p,  41;). 
*  Heminj.  vol.  i.  p.  40. 


48P  HISTORY    OP   EISi GLAND.  I2g3. 

tliey  put  them  to  rout,  and  sunk,  destroyed,  or 
took  the  greater  part  of  them  ^  No  quarter  was 
given ;  and  it  is  pretended  that  the  loss  of  the 
French  amounted  to  fifteen  thousand  men  :  which 
is  accounted  for  by  this  ch'cumstance,  that  the 
Norman  fleet  was  employed  in  transporting  a  con- 
siderable body  of  soldiers  from  the  south. 

The  aflair  was  now  become  too  important  to 
be  an V  longer  overlooked  bv  the  soverei<ins.  On 
Philip's  sending  an  envoy  to  demand  reparation 
and  restitution,  the  king  dispatched  the  bishop 
of  London  to  the  French  court,  in  order  to  ac- 
commodate the  quarrel.  He  first  said,  that  the 
English  courts  of  justice  were  open  to  all  men ; 
and  if  any  Frenchman  were  injured,  he  might  seek 
reparation  by  course  of  law^  He  next  offered 
to  adjust  the  matter  by  private  arbiters,  or  by  a 
personal  interview  with  the  king  of  France,  or  by 
a  reference  either  to  the  pope  or  the  college  of 
cardinals,  or  any  particular  cardinals  agreed  on  by 
both  parties''.  The  French,  probably  the  more 
disgusted  as  they  \vere  hitherto  losers  in  the  quar- 
rel, refused  all  these  expedients :  the  vessels  and 
the  goods  of  merchants  were  confiscated  on  both 
sides ;  depredations  were  continued  by  the  Gas- 
cons on  the  western  coast  of  France,  as  A\'ell  as  by 
the  English  in  the  channel :  Philip  cited  the  king, 
as  duke  of  Guienne,  to  appear  .in  his  court  at 


'■  Walsing.  p.  60.  Trivet,  p.  274.   Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  ii.  p.  60^. 
'  Trivet,  p.  275.  ^  Ibid. 


^294.  EDWARD    I.  4Sr| 

Paris,  and  answer  for  tliese  offences:  and  Ed- 
t^'ard,  apprchcnsiNe  of  danger  to  that  province, 
sent  John  St.  John,  an  experienced  soldier,  to 
Bourdeaux,  and  gave  liini  (hrections  to  put  Giii- 
enne  in  a  posture  of  defence  ^ 

That  lie  might,   however,   prevent  a  final  rup- 
ture hetMTen   the  nations,    the   kin-  dispatched 
his  brother,   Edmond  earl  of  Lancaster,   to  Paris; 
and  as  this  prince  had  espoused  the  queen  of  Na- 
varre,  niotiier  to  Jane  queen  of  France,  he  seem- 
ed, on  account  of  that  alliance,   the  most  proper 
person  for  finding  expedients  to  accommodate  the 
difference.     Jane  pretended  to  interpose  with  her 
good  offices :   .Maiy,   the  queen-dowager,   feigned 
the   same   amicable  dispo.sition :    and   these^v-o 
princesses  told   Edmond,    that  the  circumstance 
the  most  difiicult  to  adjust  Mas  the  point  of  ho- 
nour with  Piiilip,   who  thought  himself  affronted 
by  the  injuries  committed  against  him  by  his  sub- 
vassals  in  Guieniie:  but  if  Edward  would   once 
consent  to  give  him  seizin  and  possession  of  that 
province,   he  Mould  think  his  honour  fully  repair- 
ed,  would  engage  to  restore  Guienne  immediatelv 
and  would  accept  of  a  ^ery  easy  satisfaction  for 
all  the  other  injuries.     The  king  M'as  consulted  on 
the  occasion;   and  as  he  then  found   himself  in 
immediate  danger  of  M-ar  M^ith  the  Scots,  which  he 
regarded  as  the  more  important  concern,   this  no- 
htic  prince,   blinded  by  his  favourite  passion  for 


'  Trivet,  p,  2/(5. 


490  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1294. 

subduing  that  nation,  allowed  himself  to  be  de- 
ceived by  so  gross  an  artifice  ^  lie  sent  his  bro- 
ther orders  to  sign  and  execute  the  treaty  with  the 
two  queens  ;  Philip  solemnly  promised  to  execute 
his  part  of  it;  and  the  king's  citation  to  appear  in 
'the  court  of  France  was  accordingly  recalled  :  but 
the  French  monarch  was  no  sooner  put  in  posses- 
sion of  Guienne,  than  the  citation  was  renewed; 
Edward  was  condemned  for  non-appearance  ;  and 
Guicnne,  by  a  formal  sentence,  was  declared  to 
be  forfeited  and  annexed  to  the  crown  ^. 

Edward,  fallen  into  a  like  snare  with  that 
which  he  liimself  had  spread  for  the  Scots,  was 
enraged  ;  and  the  more  so,  as  he  was  justly 
ashamed  of  his  own  conduct,  in  being  so  egre- 
giously  over-reached  by  the  court  of  France. 
Sensible  of  the  extreme  difficulties  which  he 
should  encounter  in  the  recovery  of  Gascony, 
where  he  had  not  retained  a  single  place  in  his 
hands,  he  endeavoured  to  compensate  that  loss, 
by  forming  alliances  M'ith  several  princes,  who  he- 
projected  shoukl  attack  France  on  all  quarters^ 
and  make  a  diversion  of  her  forces.  Adolphus  de 
Nassau,  king  of  the  Romans,  entered  into  a  treaty 
Avith  him  for  that  purpose'' ;  as  did  also  Amadeeus 
count  of  Savoy,  the  archbishop  of  Cologne,  the 
counts  of  Gueldre  and  Luxembourg,   the  duke  of 

^llymer,   vol.  ii.  p.  6ig,  620.     Walsing,  p.  61.     Heming. 
vol,  i.  p.  42,  43.     Trivet,  p.  277. 
«  Rj'mer,  vol.  ii.  p.  620^  6"22.    Walsing.  p.  61.    Trivet,  p.  27S. 
^  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  51, 


lip.';.  EDWARD    I.  491 

Brabant  and  count  of  Baire,  who  had  married  hh 
two  daughters,  Margaret  and  Eleanor :  Init  these 
alliances  Ave-c  extremely  burdensome  to  liis  nar- 
row revenues,  and  proved  in  the  issue  entirely 
ineffectual.  More  imj)ression  was  made  on  Gui- 
enne  by  an  Englisji  army,  wliich  he  con]j)leted 
by  emptying  the  jails  of  many  thousand  thieves 
and  robbers,  who  liad  been  conlined  there  for 
tlieir  crimes.  So  low  had  the  profession  of  arms 
fallen,  and  so  mueli  liad  it  degenerated  from  the 
estimation  in  which  it  stood  durina:  the  vio'our  of 
the  feudal  system  ! 

The  king  liimself  was  detained  in  England, 
first  by  contrary  winds',  then  by  his  apprehen- 
sion of  a  Scottish  invasion,  and 'by  a  rebellion  of 
the  Welsh,  whom  he  repressed  and  brought  again 
under  subjection  ^  The  army  M'hich  he  sent  to 
Guienne,  was  commanded  by  his  neplicM',  John 
de  Bretagne  earl  of  Richmond,  and  under  him  by 
St.  John,  Tibetot,  de  \'cre,  and  other  officers  of 
reputation ' ;  wlio  made  tliemselves  masters  of  the 
town  of  Bayonne,  as  Ave II  as  of  Bourg,  Blaye, 
Reole,  St.  Severe,  and  other  places,  which  strait- 
ened Bourdcaux,  and  cut  off  its  connnunication 
both  by  sea  and  land.  The  favour  which  tlie  Gas- 
con nobility  bore  to  the  English  government  faci- 
litated these  conquests,  and  seemed  to  promise 
.still  greater  successes ;    but  this  advantage  was 

'  Chron.  Diinst.  vol.  ii.  p.  622. 
*  Walsing.   p.  62.     Heming,  vol.  i.  p.  55.     Trivet,  p.  282. 
Chron.  Dunst.  vol.  ii.  p.  622.  '  Trivet,  p.  2/g. 


492  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1:^55. 

soon  lost  by  the  misconduct  of  some  of  the  offi- 
cers.    Phihp's   brother,    Charles  de  \^alois,   Avho 
commanded  the  French  armies,  having  laid  siege 
to  Podensac,   a  small  fortress  near  Reole,   obliged 
Giffard  the  governor  to  capitulate ;  and  the  ar- 
ticles,  though  favourable  to  the  English,  left  all 
the   Gascons   prisoners   at    discretionj  ^of  whom 
above  fifty  were  hanged  by  Charles  as  rebels :  a 
policy  by  which  he  both  intimidated  that  people, 
and  produced  an  irreparable  breach  between  them 
and  the  English  "".     That  prince  immediately  at- 
tacked Reole,   M'here  the  earl  of  Richmond  him- 
self commanded  ;  and  as  the  place  seemed  not  te- 
nable, the  English  general  drew  his  troops  to  the 
water-side,   with  an  intention  of  embarking  with 
the  greater  part  of  the  army.     The  enraged  Gas- 
cons  fell  upon  his  rear,    and   at   the   same  time 
opened  their  gates  to  the  French,  who,   besides 
making  themselves  masters   of  the  place,    took 
many  prisoners   of  distinction.     -St.    Severe  was 
more  vigorously  defended  by  Hugh  de  Vere,  son 
of  the  earl  "of  Oxford  ;  but  was  at  last  obliged  to 
capitulate.     The  French  king,  not  content  with 
these  successes  in  Gascony,   threatened  England 
with  an  invasion  ;   and,   by  a  sudden  attempt,  his 
troops  took  and  burnt  Dover",   but  were  obliged 
soon  after  to   retire.     And  in  order  to  make  a 
greater  diversion  of  the  English  force,  and  en- 

"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  4g. 
"  Trivet,  p.  2S4.     Chron.  Dunst.  vol,  ii.  p.  642. 


.1205.  EDWARD    I.  493 

gage  Edward  in  dangerous  and  important  wars, 
lie  formed  a  secret  alliance  with  John  Baliol  king 
of  Scotland  ;  the  commencement  of  that  strict 
union  ^vhich  during  so  many  centuries  was  main- 
tained l)y  mutual  interests  and  necessities  hetween 
the  French  and  Scottish  nations.  John  confirm- 
ed this  alliance,  by  stipulating  a  marriage  between 
his  eldest  son  and  the  daughter  of  Charles  de 
Valois". 


DIGRESSION   CONCERNING  THE    CONSTITU- 
TION OF  PARLLVIVIENT. 

The  expences  attending  these  multiplied  M'ars  of 
Ed^'ard,  and  his  preparations  for  war,  joined  to 
alterations  which  had  insensibly  taken  place  in 
the  general  state  of  ati'airs,  obliged  liim  to  have 
frequent  recourse  to  parliamentary  supplies,  intro- 
duced the  lower  orders  of  the  state  into  the  public 
councils,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  great  and 
important  changes  in  the  government. 

ThouGfh  nothin":  could  be  worse  calculated 
for  cultivating  the  arts  of  peace,  or  maintaining 
peace  itself,  than  the  long  subordination  of  vas- 
salage from  the  kin'g  to  the  meanest  gentleman, 
and  the  consequent  slavery  of  the  low  er  people ; 
evils  inseparable  from  the  feudal  system  ;  that 
system  was  never  able  to  fix  the  state  in  a  proper 

"  Rymer,  vol,  ii.  p.  680^  t>81,  0c)5,  Op".    Ilcming.  vol.  i.  p.  70. 
Trivet,  p.  2B5. 


494  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1295. 

warlike  posture,  or  give  it  the  full  exertion  of  its 
powerfor  defence,  and  still  less  for  offence,  against 
a  public  enemy.  The  military  tenants,  unac- 
quainted with  obedience,  unexperienced  in  war^ 
held  a  rank  in  the  troops  by  their  birth,  not  by 
their  merits  or  services ;  composed  a  disorderly, 
and  consequently  a  feeble  anny ;  and  during  the 
few  days  which  they  were  obliged  by  their  tenures 
to  remain  in  the  field,  were  often  more  form- 
idable to  their  own  prince  than  to  foreign  powers, 
against  whom  they  were  assembled.  The  sove- 
reigns came  gradually  to  disuse  this  cumbersome' 
and  dangerous  machine,  so  apt  to  recoil  upon  the 
hand  which  held  it ;  and  exchanging  the  military 
service  for  pecuniary  supplies,  inlisted  forces  by 
means  of  a  contract  with  particular  officers  (such 
as  those  the  Italians  denominate  Condottkri)^ 
whom  they  dismissed  at  the  end  of  the  war^ 
The  barons  and  knights  themselves  often  entered 
into  these  engagements  with  the  prince ;  and 
were  enabled  to  fill  their  bands,  both  by  the  au- 
thority which  they  possessed  over  their  vassals 
and  tenants,  and  from  the  great  numbers  of  loose 
disorderly  people,  whom  they  found  on  their 
estates,  and  who  willingly  embraced  an  oppor- 
tunity of  gratifying  their  appetite  for  war  and 
rapine. 

Meanwhile  the  old  Gothic  fabric,  being  neg- 
lected,  went  gradually  to   decay.      Though  the 

''Cotton's  Abr.  p.  11. 


1295.  EDWARD    r.  495 

Conquci-or  luid  divided  all  tlio  lands  of  Eno-laiid 
into  sixty  tliousand  knights'  fees,  the  number  of 
tlicse  was  insensibly  diminished  by  various  arti- 
fices ;  and  the  king  at  last  found,  that  by  putting 
the  law  in  execution,  he  could  assemble  a  small 
part  only  of  the  ancient  force  of  the  kingdom.  It 
was  an  usual  expedient  for  men  who  held  of  the 
king  or  great  barons  by  n:iilitary  tenure,  to  trans- 
fer their  land  to  the  church,  and  receive  it  back 
by  another  tenure,  calletl  frankalmoigne,  by  which 
they  were  not  bound  to  j)erform  any  service  "i.  A 
law  was  made  against  this  practice  ;  but  the  abuse 
bad  probably  gone  far  before  it  Mas  attended  to, 
and  probably  was  not  entirely  corrected  by  the 
new  statute,  which,  like  most  laws  of  that  age, 
we  may  ccmjccture  to  have  been  but  feebly  exe- 
cuted by  the  magistrate  against  the  perpetual  in- 
terest of  so  many  individuals.  The  constable  and 
maresclial,  when  they  mustered  the  armies,  often 
in  a  hurry,  and  for  want  of  better  information,  re- 
ceived the  service  of  a  baron  for  fewer  knights' 
fees  than  were  due  by  liim  ;  and  one  precedent  of 
this  kind  was  held  good  against  the  king,  and  be- 
came ever  after  a  reason  for  diminishing  the  ser- 
vice '.  The  rolls  of  knights'  fees  were  inaccurately 
kept;  no  care  was  taken  to  correct  them  before 
the  armies  were  summoned  into  the  lield";  it  was 
then  too  late  to  think  of  examining  records  and 

*"  Madox's  Baronia  Angliia,  p.  1  14.  ""Ibid.  p.  11.5. 

'  We  hear  only  of  one  king,   Henry  II.  who  toi'k  this  pains; 
and  the  record,  called  Liber  nigor  Sc.ictarii,  was  the  result  of  it. 


496  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1295. 

charters ;  and  the  service  was  accepted  on  the  foot- 
ing which  the  vassal  himself  was  pleased  to  ac- 
knowledge, after  all  the  various  subdivisions  and 
conjunctions  of  property  had  thrown  an  obscurity 
on  the  nature  and  extent  of  his  tenure'.  It  is 
easy  to  judge  of  the  intricacies  which  would  attend 
disputes  of  this  kind  with  individuals;  when  even 
the  number  of  military  fees  belonging  to  the 
church,  whose  property  was  fixed  and  unalien- 
able, became  the  subject  of  controversy  ;  and  we 
find  in  particular,  that  when  the  bishop  of  Dur- 
ham was  charged  with  seventy  knights'  fees  for 
the  aid  levied  on  occasion  of  the  marriage  of 
Henry  II.  "s  daughter  to  the  duke  of  Saxony,  the 
prelate  acknowledged  ten  and  disowned  the  other 
sixty ".  It  is  not  known  in  ^\'hat  manner  this 
difference  was  terminated  ;  but  had  the  question 
been  concerning  an  armament  to  defend  the  king- 
dom, the  bishop's  service  would  probably  have 
been  received  without  opposition  for  ten  fees; 
and  this  rate  must  also  have  fixed  all  his  future 
payments.  Pecuniary  scutages,  therefore,  dimi- 
nished as  much  as  military  services"' :  Other  me- 

*  Madoxj  Bar.  Ang.  p.  116. 
"  Ibid,  p.  122.  Hist,  of  Exch.  p.  404. 
*  In  order  to  pay  tlie  sum  of  100,000  marks,  as  king  Richard's 
ransom,  t'vventy  shillings  were  imposed  on  each  knight's  fee. 
Had  the  fees  remained  on  the  original  footing  as  settled  by  the 
Conqueror,  this  scutage  would  have  amounted  to  90,000  marks, 
which  was  nearly  tlie  sum  required.  But  we  find  that  other 
grievous  taxes  were  imposed  to  complete  it :  a  certain  proof  that 
many  frauds  and  abuses  had  prevailed  in  the  roll  of  knights'  fees. 


J2()5.  EDWARD    r.  49^ 

tliods  of  filling  the  cxcheciiicr,  as  well  as  the  armies, 
iiiiist  be  devised  :  new  situations  produced  new 
laws  and  institutions  ;  and  the  great  alterations  in 
the  finances  and  military  power  of  tlic  croMii,  as 
well  as  in  private  property,  were  the  source  of 
e(p.ial  innovations  in  every  part  of  the  legislature 
or  civil  government. 

The  exorbitant  estates  conferred  by  the  Nor- 
man on  his  barons  and  chieftains,  remained  not 
long  entire  and  unimpaired.  The  landed  pro- 
perty was  gradually  shared  out  into  more  hands ; 
and  those  immense  baronies  were  divided,  either 
by  provisions  to  younger  children,  by  partitions 
among  co-heirs,  by  sale,  or  by  escheating  to  the 
king,  who  gratified  a  great  number  of  his  court- 
iers, by  dealing  them  out  among  them  in  smaller 
portions.  Such  moderate  estates,  as  they  requir-- 
ed  oeconomy,  and  confined  the  proprietors  to  live 
at  home,  were  better  calculated  for  duration;  and 
the  order  of  knights  and  small  barons  grew  daily 
more  numerous,  and  Ijegan  to  form  a  very  re- 
spectable rank  or  order  in  the  state.  As  they 
were  all  immediate  vassals  of  the  crown  by  mili- 
tary tenure,  they  were,  by  the  principles  of  the 
feudal  law,  equally  intitled  A\ith  the  greatest 
barons  to  a  seat  in  the  national  or  general  coun- 
cils ;  and  this  right,  though  regarded  as  a  })rivi- 
lege  which  the  owners  would  not  entirely  relin- 
quish, was  also  considered  as  a  burthen,  which 
they  desired  to  be  subjected  to  on  extraordinary 
occasions   only.     Hence  it  was  provided  in  the 

VOL.  11.  K   K 


4f>8>  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  i2§5. 

charter  of  king  John,  that  m  hile  the  great  barons 
were  summoned  to  the  national  council  by  a  par- 
ticular Avrit,  the  small  barons,  under  which  ap- 
pellation the  knights  were  also  comprehended^, 
should  only  be  called  by  a  general  summons  of 
the  sheriff.  The  distinction  between  great  and 
small  barons,  like  that  between  rich  and  poor^ 
was  not  exactly  defined ;  but  agreeably  to  the  in- 
accurate genius  of  that  age,  and  to  the  simplicity 
of  ancient  government,  was  left  very  much  to  be 
determined  by  the  discretion  of  the  king  and  his 
ministers.  It  wa&  usual  for  the  prince  to  require, 
by  a  particular  summons,  the  attendance  of  a 
baron  in  one  parliament,  and  to  neglect  him  in 
future  parliaments  "^ ;  nor  was  this  uncertainty 
ever  complained  of  as  an  injury.  He  attended 
when  recjuired  :  he  was  better  pleased,  on  other 
occasions,  to  be  exempted  from  the  burthen  :  and 
as  he  was  acknowledged  to  be  of  the  same  order 
with  the  greatest  barons,  it  gave  them  no  surprise 
to  see  him  take  his  seat  in  the  great  council, 
whether  he  appeared  of  his  ovv^n  accord,  or  by  a 
particular  summons  from  the  king.  The  barons 
by  zvrif,  therefore,  began  gradually  to  intermix 
themselves  with  the  barons  by  tenure;  and  as 
Camden  tells  us^,  from  an  ancient  manuscript 
now  lost,  that  after  the  battle  of  Evesham  a  po- 
sitive law  was  enacted,   prohibiting  every  baron 

'^  Chancellor  West's  Enquiry   into   the   Manner   of  creating 
Peers,  p.  43,  40,  4^,  55.  ^  In  Britann.  p.  122. 


1295.  EDWARD    I.  499 

from  appearing-  in  parliament  wlio  M'as  not  invited 
thither  by  a  particular  summons,  tlie  whole  ba- 
ronage of  England  held  thenceforward  their  seat 
by  writ,  and  this  important  privilege  of  their 
tenures  Mas  in  effect  abolished.  Only  where 
writs  had  been  regularly  continued  for  some  time 
in  one  great  family,  the  omission  of  them  Mould 
ha\e  been  regarded  as  an  affront,  and  even  as 
an  injury. 

A  like  alteration  gradually  took  place  in  the 
order  of  earls,  mIio  M'ere  the  highest  rank  of 
barons.  The  dignity  of  an  earl,  like  that  of  a 
baron,  was  anciently  territorial  and  olficiaP:  he 
exercised  jurisdiction  M'ithin  his  county:  he  levied 
the  third  of  the  fines  to  his  OMii  prolit :  he  was 
at  once  a  civil  and  a  military  magistrate ;  and 
though  his  authority,  from  the  time  of  the  Nor- 
man conquest,  Mas  hereditary  in  England,  the 
title  M'as  so  much  connected  M'ith  the  office,  that 
M'here  the  king  intended  to  create  a  ncM'  earl,  he 
had  no  other  expedient  than  to  erect  a  certain 
territory  into  a  county  or  earldom,  and  to  bestow 
it  upon  the  person  and  his  family  ^  But  as  the 
sheriffs,  mIio  M'ere  the  vicegerents  of  the  earls, 
were  named  by  the  king,  and  removcable  at  jjlea- 
sure,  he  found  them  more  dej)endent  upon  him  ; 
and  endeavoured  to  throw  the  mIioIc  authority 

'  Spclm.  Gloss,  in  voce  Comes. 
'  Essays  on  British  Antiquities.    I'his  practice,  however,  seems 
to  have  been  more  familiar  in  Scotland,  and  tlie  kingdoms  on  the 
continent,  than  in  England, 

2 


500  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  12gS. 

and  jurisdiction  of  the  office  into  their  hands. 
This  magistrate  Avas  at  the  head  of  the  finances, 
and  levied  all  the  king's  rents,  within  the  county : 
he  assessed  at  pleasure  the  talliages  of  the  inhabit- 
ants in  royal  demesne  :  he  had  usually  committed 
to  him  the  management  of  wards,  and  often  of 
escheats  :  he  presided  in  the  lower  courts  of  judi- 
cature :  and  thus,  though  inferior  to  the  earl  in 
dignity,  he  was  soon  considered,  by  this  union 
of  the  judicial  and  fiscal  powers,  and  by  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  him  by  the  king,  as  much  su- 
perior to  him  in  authority,  and  undermined  his 
intluence  within  his  own  jurisdiction ''.  It  became 
usual,  in  creating  an  earl,  to  give  him  a  fixed 
salary,  commonly  about  twenty  pounds  a  year,  in 
lieu  of  his  third  of  the  fines :  the  diminution  of 
his  power  kept  pace  Avith  the  retrenchment  of  his 
profit :  and  the  dignity  of  earl,  instead  of  being- 
territorial  and  official,  dwindled  into  personal  and 
titular.  Such  were  the  mighty  alterations  which 
already  had  fully  taken  place,  or  were  gradually 
advancing  in  the  house  of  peers ;  that  is,  in  the 
parliament :  for  there  seems  anciently  to  have 
been  no  other  house. 

13ut  though  the  introduction  of  barons  by  writ, 
and  of  titular  earls,  had  given  some  increase  to 
royal  authority,  there  were  other  causes  which 
counterbalanced  those  innovations,  and  tended  in 


^  There  are  instances  of  the  princes  of  the  blood  who  accepted 
of  the  office  of  sheriff.     Spelman  in  voce  Vicccomcs. 


1295.  EDWARD    I.  SOI 

a  higher  degree  to  diminish  tlie  power  of  llie  so- 
vereign. The  disuse  into  ^vhich  the  feudal  mi- 
litia had  in  a  great  measure  fallen,  made  the  harons 
almost  entirely  forget  their  dependence  on  the 
crown :  hy  the  diminution  of  the  numher  of 
kniirht's  fees,  tlie  kins;  had  no  reasonahle  com- 
pensation  Mhcn  he  levied  scutages,  and  exchang- 
ed their  service  for  money  :  the  alienations  of  the 
crown  lands  had  reduced  him  to  poverty  :  and 
ahove  all,  the  concession  of  the  Great  Charter 
had  set  hounds  to  royal  power,  and  had  rendered 
it  more  ddticult  and  dangerous  for  the  prince  to 
€xert  any  extraordinary  act  of  ai  bitrary  author- 
ity. In  this  situation,  it  was  natural  for  the  king 
to  court  the  friendship  of  the  lesser  barons  and 
knights,  whose  influence  M'as  noM-ays  dangerous 
to  him,  and  who,  being  exposed  to  oppression 
from  their  powerful  neighbours,  sought  a  legal 
protection  under  the  shadow  of  the  throne.  He 
desired,  therefore,  to  have  their  presence  in  par- 
liament, where  they  served  to  control  the  tur- 
bulent resolutions  of  the  great.  To  exact  a  re- 
o'ular  attendance  of  the  whole  body  would  have 
produced  confusion,  and  would  have  imposed  too 
heavy  a  burden  upon  them.  To  summon  only  a 
few^  by  \\rit,  though  it  Mas  practised,  and  had  a 
crood  effect,  served  not  entirely  the  king's  pur-** 
pose;  because  these  members  had  no  farther  au- 
thority than  attended  their  personal  character, 
and  were  eclipsed  by  the  appearance  of  the  more 
powerful  nobility,     lie  therefore  dispensed  with 


502  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1295. 

the  attendance  of  most  of  the  lesser  barons  in  par- 
liament;  and  in  return  for   this  indulgence   (for 
such  it  was  then  esteemed),    required  them  to 
chuse  in  each  county  a  certain  number  of  their 
own   body,   Avhose  charges  they  bore,   and  who, 
having  gained  the  confidence,   carried  with  them 
of  course  the  authorit}',  of  the  whole  order.    Thisi 
expedient  had  been  practised  at  different  times  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  III. '^j   and   regularly  during 
that  of  the  present  king.     The  numbers  sent  up 
"by  each  county  varied  at  the  will  of  the  prince  ^ : 
they  took  their  seat  among  the  other  peers ;  be- 
cause   by   their   tenure    they    belonged   to    that 
order  ^:   the  introducing  of  them  into  that  house 
scarcely  appeared  an   innovation  :  and  though  it 
was  easily  in  the  king's  power,   by  varying  their 
number,  to  command  the  resolutions  of  the  whole 
parliament,   this  circumstance  was  little  attended 
to  in  an  age  when  force  was  more  prevalent  than 
laws,   and  when  a  resolution,    though  taken  by 
the  majority  of  a  legal  assembly,   could  not  be 
executed  if  it  opposed  the  will  of  the  more  poAver- 
ful  minority. 

But  there  were  other  important  consequences 
which  followed  the  diminution  and  consequent 
disuse  of  the  ancient  feudal  militia.  The  king's 
expence  in  levying  and  maintaining  a  military 

'  Rot.  Claus.  38  Hen.  III.  m.  7.  and  12.  d.:  Asalso  Rot.  Claus. 
42  Hen.  III.  m.  1.  d.     Prynne's  Pref.  to  Cotton's  Abridgment. 
''  Brady's  Answer  to  Petyt,  from  the  records^  p.  151. 
^  Brady's  Treatise  of  Boroughs^  App.  N"  13. 


12.1J3.  EDWARD    I.  505 

force  for  every  enterprise  Mas  increased  beyond 
M'luit  his  narrow  revenues  were  able  to  bear  :  as 
tlie  scutages  of  his  military  tenants,  ^^■hich  \\erc 
accepted  in  lieu  of  their  personal  service,  had 
fallen  to  nothing,  there  were  no  means  of  supply 
but  from  ^■oluntar3''  aids  granted  him  by  the  par- 
liament and  cleigy  ;  or  from  the  talliages  which 
lie  might  levy  upon  the  towns  and  inhabitants  iu 
royal  demesne.  In  the  preceding  year  Edward 
liad  been  obliged  to  exact  no  less  than  the  sixth 
of  all  moveables  from  the  laity,  and  a  moiety  of 
all  ecclesiastical  benefices^,  for  his  expedition  into 
Poictou,  and  the  suppression  of  the  Welsh  :  and 
this  distressful  situation,  which  M'as  Hkcly  often  to 
return  upon  him  and  his  successors,  made  him 
tliink  of  a  new  device,  and  summon  the  repre- 
sentatives of  all  the  boroughs  to  parliament. 
This  period,  which  is  tlie  twenty-third  of  liis 
r€ign,  seems  to  be  the  real  and  the  true  epoch 
of  the  house  of  commons,  and  the  faint  dawn  of 
popular  government  in  England.  For  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  counties  were  only  deputies  from 
the  smaller  barons  and  lesser  nobility :  and  the 
former  precedent  of  the  representatives  from  the 
boroughs,  M'ho  M'ere  summoned  by  the  earl  of 
Leicester,  Avas  regarded  as  the  act  of  a  violent 
usurpation,  had  been  discontinued  in  all  the  sub- 
sequent parliaments ;   and  if  such  a  measure  had 

^  Brady's  Treatise  of  Boroughs,  App.  N"  13.  p.  31,  from  die 
records,  Heming.  vol.  i.  p,  52.  M.  West.  p.  422.  Ryley^ 
p.  402. 


504  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1295. 

not  become  necessary  on  other  accounts,  that 
precedent  was  more  likely  to  blast  than  give  cre- 
dit to  it. 

During"  the  course  of  several  years,  the  kings 
of  England,  in  imitation  of  other  European 
princes,  had  embraced  the  salutary  pohcy  of  en- 
couraging and  protecting  the  lower  and  more  in- 
dustrious orders  of  the  state;  whom  they  found 
Avell  disposed  to  obey  the  laws  and  civil  magis- 
trate, and  whose  ingenuity  and  labour  furnished 
commodities  requisite  for  the  ornament  of  peace 
and  support  of  war.  Though  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country  were  still  left  at  the  disposal  of  their 
imperious  lords ;  many  attempts  were  made  to 
give  more  security  and  liberty  to  citizens,  and 
make  them  enjoy  unmolested  the  fruits  of  their 
industry.  Boroughs  were  erected  by  royal  pa- 
tent within  the  demesne  lands :  liberty  of  trade 
Avas  conferred  upon  them :  the  inhabitants  were 
allowed  to  farm  at  a  fixed  rent  their  own  tolls  and 
customs  ^ :  they  were  permitted  to  elect  their  own 
magistrates  :  justice  was  administered  to  them  by 
these  magistrates,  without  obliging  them  to  at- 
tend the  sheriff  or  county-court :  and  some  sha^ 
dow  of  independence,  by  means  of  these  equitable 
privileges,  was  gradually  acquired  by  the  people''. 
The  king,  hoM^ever,  retained  still  the  power  of 
Jevylng  taliiages   or   taxes  upon  them   at  plea- 

'  Madox.  Firraa  Burgi,  p.  21. 
*"  Brady  of  j^oroughs,  App.  No.  i,  2,  3. 


i295.  EDWARD    r.  50,5 

sure';  and  though  tlieir  poverty,  and  the  customs 
of  the  age,  made  these  demands  neither  frequent  nor 
exorbitant,   sucli  unhmited  authority  in  the  sovc- 
reig-n  was  a  sensible  check  upon  commerce,  and 
was  utterly  incompatible  M-ith  all  the  princii)les  of 
a  free  government.      P.ut  Mhen  the  multiplied  ne- 
cessities of  the  croM-n  produced  a  greater  avidity 
for  supply,   tlie  king,   whose  prerogative  entitled 
]iim  to  exact  it,  found  that  he  had  not  power  sutii- 
cient  to  enforce  his  edicts,   and  that  it  Mas  neces- 
sary,  before  he  imposed  taxes,  to  smootli  the  way 
for  his  demand,   and  to  obtain  the  previous  con- 
sent  of  the   boroughs,    by   solicitations,   remon- 
strances,  and   authority.     The  inconvenience  of 
transacting  this  business  with  every  particular  bo- 
rough was  soon  felt;  and  Edward   became  sen- 
sible   that  the  most  expeditious  way  of  obtainino- 
supply  was,   to  assemble  the  deputies  of  all  the 
borouglis,   to  lay  before  them  the  necessities  of 
the  state,   to  discuss  the  matter  in  their  presence, 
and  to  require  their  consent  to  the  demands  of 
their  sovereign.     For  this  reason  he  issued  writs 
to  the  sheriffs,  enjoining  them  to  send  to  parlia- 
ment,  along  with  two  knights  of  the  shire,   twa 
deputies  from  each  borough  Mithin  their  county  \ 

'  The  king  had  not  only  the  power  of  talliating  the  inhabitants 
within  his  own  demesnes,  but  that  of  granting  to  particular  ba- 
rons the  power  of  talliating  the  inhabitants  within  theirs.  See 
Brady's  Answer  to  Petyt,  p.  lis.  Madox's  Hist,  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, p.  518. 

"  Writs  were  issued  to  about  ]20  cities  and  borou<^lis. 


^o5  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  i2g5: 

and  these  provided  with  sufficient  powers  from 
their  community  to  consent,  in  their  name,  to 
what  he  and  his  council  should  require  of  them. 
j!^s  it  is  a  most  equitable  rule,  says  he,  in  his  pre- 
amble to  this  writ,  that  lohat  concerns  all  should  be 
approved  of  by  all ;  and  common  dangers  be  repelled 
hy  united  efforts^ ;  a  noble  principle,  which  may 
seem  to  indicate  a  liberal  mind  in  the  king,  and 
which  laid  the  foundation  of  a  free  and  an  equi- 
table government. 

After  the  election  of  these  deputies  by  the  al- 
dermen and  common  council,  they  gave  sureties 
for  their  attendance  before  the  king  and  parlia- 
ment :  their  charges  were  respectively  borne  by 
the  borough  which  sent  them ;  and  they  had  so 
little  idea  of  appearing  as  legislators,  a  character 
extremely  wide  of  their  low  rank  and  condition™, 
that  no  intelligence  could  be  more  disagreeable  to 
any  borough,  than  to  find  that  they  must  elect, 
or  to  any  individual  than  that  he  was  elected  to  a 
trust  from  which  no  profit  or  honour  could  pos- 
sibly be  derived".     They  composed  not,  properly 

'  Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  25,  33,  from  the  records.  The  writs 
©f  tlie  parliament  immediately  preceding  remain  ;  and  the  return 
of  knights  is  there  required,  but  not  a  word  of  the  boroughs  ;  a 
■demonstration  that  this  was  the  very  year  in  which  they  com- 
menced. In  the  year  immediately  preceding,  the  taxes  were  le- 
vied by  a  seeming  free  consent  of  each  particular  borough,  be- 
ginning with  London.  Id,  p.  31,  32,  33,  from  the  records. 
Also  his  Answer  to  Petyt,  p.  40,  41. 

'"  Reliquia  Spelm,  p.  0'4.  Prynne's  Pref.  to  Cotton's  Abridg. 
and  the  Abridg.  passim.  "  Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  5Q,  60. 


1295.  EDWARD    I.  507 

speaking,  aii}-  essential  ])ait  of  the  parliament  : 
they  sat  apart  both  tVoni  the  barons  and  knights", 
A\  ho  disthiined  to  mix  with  sucli  mean  personages  : 
after  they  liad  given  their  consent  to  the  taxes 
required  of  them,  their  business  being  then 
finislied,  they  separatetl,  even  thougii  the  parHa- 
ment  still  continued  to  sit,  and  to  canvass  the 
national  business  P;  and  as  they  all  consisted  of 
men  who  were  real  burgesses  of  the  place  from 
Avhich  they  were  sent,  the  sheriff,  a\  hen  he  found 
no  person  of  abilities  or  M^ealth  sufficient  for  the 
office,  often  used  the  freedom  of  omitting  parti- 
cular boroughs  in  his  returns  ;  and  as  he  received 
the  thanks  of  the  jjeople  for  this  indulgence,  he 
gave  no  displeasure  to  the  court,  mIio  levied  on 
all  the  boroughs,  Avithout  distinction,  the  tax 
agreed  to  by  the  majority  of  deputies  *i. 

The  union,    however,    of  the   representatives 
from  the  boroughs  gave  gradually  more  weight  to 

°  Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  3/,  38,  from  the  records,  and  Append. 
p,  19.  Also  his  Append,  to  his  Answer  to  Petyt,  Record.  And 
his  Gloss,  in  verb,  Communitas  Rign.  p,  33. 

P  Ryley's  Placit.  Pari.  p.  241, 242,  &c.    Cotton's  Abridg.  p.  14. 

*>  Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  52,  from  the  records.  There  is  even 
an  instance  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  when  the  king  named  all 
the  deputies.  Id.  Ans.  to  Petyt,  p.  1(5.  If  he  fairly  named  the 
most  considerable  and  creditable  burgesses,  little  exception  would 
be  taken  :  as  their  business  was  not  to  check  the  king,  but  to 
reason  with  him,  and  consent  to  his  demands.  It  was  not  till  the 
reign  of  Richard  II.  that  the  sheriffs  were  deprived  of  the  pow  er 
of  omitting  boroughs  at  pleasure.  See  Stat,  at  Large,  5tli  Ri- 
chard II.  cap.  4. 


im  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND,  12()5. 

the  whole  order ;  and  it  became  customary  for 
them,  in  return  for  the  suppUes  which  they  grant- 
ed, to  prefer  petitions  to  the  crown  for  the  re- 
dress of  any  particular  grievance  of  which  they 
found  reason  to  complain.  The  more  the  king's 
demands  multiplied,  the  faster  these  petitions  in- 
creased both  in  number  and  authority ;  and  the 
prince  found  it  difficult  to  refuse  men  whose 
grants  had  supported  his  throne,  and  to  Avhose 
assistance  he  might  so  soon  be  again  obliged  to 
have  recourse.  The  commons,  hoMCver,  were 
still  much  below  the  rank  of  legislators  *.  Their 
petitions,  though  they  received  a  verbal  assent 
from  the  throne,  were  only  the  rudiments  of  laws  : 
the  judges  were  afterwards  entrusted  A\dth  the 
power  of  putting  them  into  form:  and  the  king, 
by  adding  to  them  the  sanction  of  his  authority, 
and  that  sometimes  without  the  assent  of  the 
nobles,  bestowed  validity  upon  them.  The  age 
did  not  refine  so  much  as  to  perceive  the  danger 
of  these  irregularities.  No  man  was  displeased 
that  the  sovereign,  at  the  desire  of  any  class  of 
men,  should  issue  an  order  which  appeared  only 
to  concern  that  class ;  and  his  predecessors  were 
so  near  possessing  the  whole  legislative  power,  that 
he  gave  no  disgust  by  assuming  it  in  this  seem- 
ingly inoffensive  manner.  But  time  and  farther 
experience  gradually  opened  men's  eyes,  and  cor- 
rected these  abuses.     It  was  found  that  no  laws 

*  See  note  [E]  vol.  X. 


1295,  EDWARD    I.  509 

could  be  fixed  for  one  order  of  men,  ^vitllout  af- 
fecting the  whole  ;  and  that  the  force  and  elficacy 
of  huvs  depended  entirely  on  the  terms  cni])loyed 
in  Mordingthcni.  The  house  of  peers,  therefore, 
the  most  powerful  order  in  the  state,  with  reason 
expected  that  their  assent  should  jje  expressly 
granted  to  all  public  ordinances  ':  and  in  the  reign 
of  IJcnry  V.  the  commons  required  that  no  laws 
should  be  framed  merely  upon  their  petitions,  un- 
less the  statutes  were  worded  by  themselves,  and 
had  passed  their  house  in  the  form  of  a  bill '. 

But  as  the  same  causes  which  had  produced  a 
partition  of  property  continued  still  to  operate, 
the  number  of  kni""hts  and  lesser  barons,  or  what 
the  English  call  the  gentry,  perpetually  increased, 
and  they  sunk  into  a  rank  still  more  inferior  to  the 
great  nobility.  The  equality  of  tenure  was  lost 
in  the  great  inferiority  of  power  and  property  ; 
and  the  house  of  representatives  from  the  counties 
Avas  gradually  separated  from  that  of  the  peers, 
and  formed  a  distinct  order  in  the  state*.  The 
orowth  of  commerce  meanwhile  auo-mented  the 

*■  In  those  instances  fonnd  in  Cotton's  Abridgment,  where  the 
kins;  appears  to  answer  to  himsclt"  the  petitions  of  the  eommons, 
he  probably  exerted  no  more  tlian  that  power  which  was  long  in- 
herent in  the  crown,  of  regulating  niatteri  by  royal  edicts  or  pro- 
clamations. But  no  durable  or  general  statute  seems  ever  to 
have  been  made  by  tlie  king  from  the  petition  of  the  commons 
alone,  without  the  assent  of  the  peers.  It  is  more  likely  that  die 
peers  alone,  without  the  commons,  would  enact  statutes. 
•  Brady's  Answer  to  Petyt,  p.  85,  from  the  records. 
'Cotton's  Abridgment,  p,  18. 


510  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  12Q5. 

private  wealth  and  consideration  of  the  hurgesses  ; 
the  frequent  demands  of  the  crown  increased  their 
pubhc  importance ;  and  as  they  resembled  the 
knights  of  shires  in  one  material  circumstance, 
that  of  representing  particular  bodies  of  men;  it 
no  longer  appeared  unsuitable  to  unite  them  to- 
gether in  the  same  house,  and  to  confound  their 
rights  and  privileges*.  Thus  the  third  estate, 
that  of  the  commons,  reached  at  last  its  present 
form  ;  and  as  the  countrA/  gentlemen  made  thence* 
forwards  no  scruple  of  appearing  as  deputies  from 
the  boroughs,  the  distinction  between  the  mem- 
bers was  entirely  lost,  and  the  lower  house  ac- 
quired thence  a  great  accession  of  weight  and  im- 
portance in  the  kingdom.  Still,  hov/ever,  the 
office  of  this  estate  was  very  different  from  that 
which  it  has  since  exercised  with  so  much  advan- 
tage to  the  public.  Instead  of  checking  and  con- 
trolling the  authority  of  the  king,  they  were  na- 
turally induced  to  adhere  to  him  as  the  great  foun- 
tain of  law  and  justice,  and  to  support  him  against 
the  power  of  the  aristocracy,  which  at  once  was 
the  source  of  oppression  to  themselves,  and  disturb- 
ed him  in  the  execution  of  the  laM^s.     The  kins* 

o 

in  his  turn  gave  countenance  to  an  order  of  men, 
so  useful  and  so  httle  dangerous :  the  peers  also 
were  obliged  to  pay  them  some  consideration:  and 
by  this  means  the  third  estate,  formerly  so  abject 
in  England,  as  well  as  in  all  other  European  na- 
tions, rose  by  slow  degrees  to  their  present  im- 

*  See  note  [F]  vol.  X. 


I2g3.  EDWARD    I.  «U 

poTtaiicc ;  and  in  their  j)iogrc,ss  made  arts  and 
commerce,  the  necessary  attendants  of  liberty  and 
eqiiahty,    flourish  in  the  kingdom  *. 

Wliat  sufficiently  proves  that  the  commence* 
ment  of  the  house  of  burgesses,  who  are  the  tru© 
commons,  Mas  not  an  affair  of  chance,  but  aros# 
from  the  necessities  of  the  present  situation,  is, 
that  Ildward  at  the  ver}-  same  time  summoned 
deputies  from  the  inferior  clergy,  the  first  that 
ever  met  in  England",  and  he  required  them  ta 
impose  taxes  on  their  constituents  for  the  publick 
service.  Formerly  the  ecclesiastical  benefices 
bore  no  part  of  the  burthens  of  the  state  :  the  pope 
indeed  of  late  had  often  levied  impositions  upon 
them  :  he  had  sometimes  granted  this  power  to 
the  sovereign'':  the  king  himself  had  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  exacted,  by  menaces  and  violence,  a 
very  grievous  tax  of  half  the  revenues  of  the 
clergy  :  but  as  this  precedent  was  dangerous,  and 
could  not  easily  l)e  repeated  in  a  government 
which  required  the  consent  of  the  subject  to  any- 
extraordinary  resolution,  Edward  found  it  more 
prudent  to  assemble  a  lower  house  of  convocation, 
to  lay  before  them  his  necessities,  and  to  ask 
some  supply.  But  on  this  occasion  he  met  -svith 
difficult'cs.  Whether  that  the  clergy  thought 
themselves   the   most   independent  body  in    the 

*  See  note  [G]  vol.  X. 
"  Archbishop  Wake's  State  of  the  Church  of  England,  p.  2:^5. 
Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  34.     Gilbert's  Hist,  of  the  Exch.  p.  40'. 
"  Ann.  \Yaveil   p.  227,  228.     T.  Wyhci,  p.  gg,  120. 


512  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  I2Q3. 

kingdom,  or  were  disgusted  by  the  former  exor- 
bitant impositions,  they  absolutely  refused  their 
assent  to  the  king's  demand  of  a  fifth  of  their 
moveables ;  and  it  was  not  till  a  second  meeting 
that,  on  their  persisting  in  this  refusal,  he  was 
willing  to  accept  of  a  tenth.  The  barons  and 
knights  granted  him,  without  hesitation,  an  ele- 
venth ;  the  burgesses  a  seventh.  But  the  clergy 
still  scrupled  to  meet  on  the  king's  writ,  lest  by 
such  an  instance  of  obedience  tbey  should  seem 
to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  temporal 
power:  and  this  compromise  was  at  last  fallen 
upon,  that  the  king  should  issue  his  writ  to  the 
archbishop  ;  and  that  the  archbishop  should,  in 
consequence  of  it,  summon  the  clergy,  who,  as 
they  then  appeared  to  obey  their  spiritual  supe- 
rior, no  longer  hesitated  to  meet  in  convocation. 
This  expedient,  however,  was  the  cause  why  the 
ecclesiastics  were  separated  into  two  houses  of 
convocation  under  their  several  archbishops,  and 
formed  not  one  estate,  as  in  other  countries  of 
Europe;  which  was  at  first  the  king's  intention  ^ 
We  now  return  to  the  course  of  our  narration. 

Edward,  conscious  of  the  reasons  of  disgust 
which  he  had  given  to  the  king  of  Scots,  inform- 
ed of  the  dispositions  of  that  people,  and  expect- 
ing the  most  violent  effects  of  their  resentment, 
Avhich  he  knew  he  had  so  well  merited  ;  employed 
the  supplies  granted  him  by  his  people,  in  making 

"  Gilbert's  Hist,  of  Exch.  p.  51,  54. 


1255.  EDWARD    r.  513 

preparations  against  the  hostilities  of  liis  northern 
neighbour.  AMumi  in  this  situation,  he  received 
intelhgence  of  the  treaty  secretly  concluded  be- 
tween John  and  Philip  ;  and  though  uneasy  at 
this  concurrence  of  a  French  and  Scottish  war,  he 
resolved  not  to  encourage  his  enemies  by  a  pusil- 
lanimous behaviour,  or  by  yielding  to  their  united 
efforts.  Resummoned  John  to  perform  the  <luty 
of  a  vassal,  and  to  send  him  a  supply  of  forces 
against  an  invasion  from  France,  with  M'hich  he 
was  then  threatened  :  he  next  required  that  the 
fortresses  of  Berwic,  Jedborough,  and  Rox bo- 
rough should  be  put  into  his  hands  as  a  security 
during  the  war*:  he  cited  John  to  appear  in  an 
English  parliament  to  be  held  at  Newcastle :  and 
when  none  of  these  successive  demands  were  com- 
plied with,  lie  marched  northward  Avith  numer- 
ous forces,  30,000  foot  and  4-OUO  horse,  to  chiis- 
tise  his  rebellious  vassal.  The  Scottish  nation, 
who  had  little  reliance  on  the  vigour  and  abilities 
of  their  prince,  assigned  him  a  council  of  twelve 
noblemen,  in  Avliose  hands  the  sovereignty  was 
really  lodged'',  and  who  put  the  country  in  the 
best  posture  of  which  the  present  distractions 
would  admit.  A  great  army,  composed  of  40,000 
infantry,  though  supported  only  by  500  cavalry, 
advanced  to  the  frontiers ;  and  after  a  fruitless 
attempt  upon  Carlisle,   marched  eastwards  to  dc- 

'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  6Q2.     Walsujg.  p,  6-1.     Heming.  vol.  i. 
p.  84.     Trivet,  p.  286. 

'  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  75. 
YOL.    II.  L  L 


514  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  I2g6» 

fend  those  provinces  which  Edward  was  preparing 
to  attack.  But  some  of  the  most  considerable  of 
the  Scottish  nobles,  Robert  Bruce  the  father  and 
son,  the  earls  of  March  and  Angus,  prognosticat- 
ing the  ruin  of  their  country,  from  the  concur- 
rence of  intestine  divisions  and  a  foreign  invasion, 
endeavoured  here  to  ino^ratiate  themselves  with 
Edward,  by  an  early  submission ;  and  the  king, 
encouraged  by  this  favourable  incident,  led  his 
army  into  the  enemies  country,  and  crossed  the 
Tweed  without  opposition  at  Coldstream.  He 
then  received  a  message  from  John,  by  which 
that  prince,  having  now  procured  for  himself  and 
his  nation  pope  Celestine's  dispensation  from 
former  oaths,  renounced  the  homage  which  had 
been  done  to  England,  and  set  Edward  at  defi- 
ance "".  This  l)ravado  was  but  ill  supported  by  the 
military  operations  of  the  Scots.  Berwic  was  al- 
ready taken  by  assault :  sir  William  Douglas,  the 
governor,  was  made  prisoner ;  above  7000  of  the 
garrison  were  put  to  the  sword:  and  Edward, 
elated  by  this  great  advantage,  dispatched  earl 
Warrenne  with  12,000  men,  to  lay  siege  to  Dun- 
bar, which  was  defended  by  the  flower  of  the  Scot- 
tish nobility. 

The  Scots,  sensible  of  the  importance  of  this 
place,  which,  if  taken,  laid  their  whole  country 
open  to  the  enemy,   advanced  with  their  main 

'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  607.    Walsing.  p.  QQ.    Hemrng.  vol.  i. 
p.  92. 


12()6.  EDWARD    I.  6li 

army,  under  the  command  of  tlie  earls  of  Buclian, 
Lenox,  and  Marie,  in  order  to  rc'lie\c  it.  \\  ar- 
renne,  not  dismayed  at  the  great  snperiority  of 
their  numher,  marclied  out  to  give  them  battle. 
He  attacked  them  Avith  great  vigour;  and  as  un- 
disciplined troops,  when  numerous,  are  but  the 
more  exposed  to  a  panic  upor..  any  alarm,  he  soon 
threw  them  into  confusion,  and  chased  them  oif 
the  field  with  great  slaughter.  The  loss  of  the 
Scots  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  20,000  men  :  the 
castle  of  Dunbar,  with  all  its  garrison,  surrender- 
ed next  day  to  Edward,  who,  after  the  battle,  had 
brought  up  the  main  body  of  the  English,  and 
who  now  proceeded  with  an  assured  confidence  of 
success.  The  castle  of  Roxborough  was  yielded 
by  James,  steward  of  Scotland  ;  and  that  noble- 
man, from  whom  is  descended  the  royal  family  of 
Stuart,  was  again  obliged  to  swear  fealty  to  Ed- 
ward. After  a  feeble  resistance,  the  castles  of 
Edinburgh  and  Stirling  opened  their  gates  to  the 
enemy.  All  the  southern  parts  were  instantly 
su])dued  by  the  English  ;  and,  to  enable  them 
the  better  to  reduce  the  northern,  whose  inacces- 
sible situation  seemed  to  give  them  some  more 
security,  Edward  sent  for  a  strong  reinforcement 
of  Welsh  and  Irish,  who,  being  accustomed  to  a 
desultory  kind  of  war,  were  the  best  fitted  to  pur- 
sue the  fugitive  Scots  into  the  recesses  of  their 
lakes  and  mountains.  13ut  the  spirit  of  the  nation 
was  already  broken  by  their  misfortunes ;  and  the 
feeble  and  timid  Baliol,  discontented  with  his  own 


516  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1296. 

subjects,  and  overav/ed  by  tbe  English,  abandon- 
ed all  those  resources  which  his  people  might  yet 
have  possessed  in  this  extremity.  He  hastened 
to  make  his  submissions  to  Edward  ;  he  expressed 
the  deepest  penitence  for  his  disloyalty  to  his  liege 
lord  ;  and  he  made  a  solemn  and  irrevocable  re- 
signation of  his  crown  into  the  hands  of  that  mo- 
narch ^  Edward  marched  northwards  to  Aber- 
deen and  Elgin,  without  meeting  an  enemy ;  no 
Scotchman  approached  him  but  to  pay  him  sub- 
mission and  do  him  homage  :  e\'en  the  turbulent 
Highlanders,  ever  refractory  to  their  own  princes, 
and  averse  to  the  restraint  of  laws,  endeavoured 
to  prevent  the  devastation  of  thelv  countiy,  by 
giving  him  early  proofs  of  obechence :  and  Ed- 
ward, having  brought  the  whole  kingdom  to  a 
seeming  state  of  tranquillity,  returned  to  the 
south  with  his  army.  There  was  a  stone,  to  which 
the  popular  superstition  of  the  Scots  paid  the 
hio-hest  veneration  :  all  their  kino's  were  seated 
on  it,  when  they  received  the  rite  of  inaugura- 
tion :  an  ancient  tradition  assured  them,  that, 
wherever  this  stone  was  placed,  their  nation 
should  always  govern :  and  it  was  carefully  pre- 
served at  Scone,  as  the  true  palladium  of  their 
monarchy,  and  their  ultimate  resource  amidst  all 
their  misfortunes.  Edward  got  possession  of  it; 
and  carried  it  with  him  to  England"*.     He  gave 

*  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  7I8.     Walsing,  p.   67.     Heming.  vol.  i. 
p.  99.     Trivet,  p.  292. 

*  Walsing.  p.  GS.    Trivet,  p.  299, 


1296.  EDWARD    I.  51/ 

orders  to  destroy  the  records,  and  all  those  mo- 
numents ot"aiUi(|iiity,  Avhich  iiiij^ht  preserve  the 
memory  of  the  iridependence  of  the  kingdom,  and 
refute  the  English  claims  of  superiority.  The 
Scots  pretend,  that  he  also  destroyed  all  the  an- 
nals preserved  in  their  convents  :  but  it  is  not 
probable,  that  a  nation,  so  rude  and  unpolished, 
should  be  possessed  of  any  history  m  hie  h  deserves 
much  to  be  regretted.  The  great  seal  of  Baliol 
was  broken;  and  that  prince  himself  was  carried 
prisoner  to  London,  and  committed  to  custody  in 
the  Tower.  Two  years  after,  he  was  restored  to 
liberty,  and  submitted  to  a  voluntary  banishment 
in  France;  where,  without  making  any  farther 
attempts  for  the  recovery  of  his  royalty,  he  died 
in  a  private  station.  Earl  Warrenne  was  left  go- 
vernor of  Scotland  *  :  Englishmen  were  entrusted 
with  the  chief  offices :  and  Edward,  flattering 
himself  that  he  had  attained  the  end  of  all  his 
wishes,  and  that  the  numerous  acts  of  fraud  and 
violence,  which  he  had  practised  against  Scot- 
land, had  temiinated  in  the  final  reduction  of  that 
kingdom,  returned  with  his  victorious  army  into 
England. 


WAR  WITH  FRANCE. 

An  attempt,  mIucIi  he  made  about  the  same  time, 
for  the  recovery  of  Guienne,  was  not  equally  suc- 

*  Rymcr,  vol.  ii.  p.  '}1Q.     Trivet,  p.  2y5. 


51S  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND,  129G. 

cessfu].  He  sent  thither  an  army  of  7000  men, 
under  the  command  of  his  brother  the  earl  of 
Lancaster.  That  prince  gained  at  first  some  ad- 
vantages over  the  French  at  Bourdeaux ;  but  he 
was  soon  after  seized  with  a  distemper,  of  which 
he  died  at  Bayonne.  The  command  devolved  on 
the  earl  of  Lincoln,  who  was  not  able  to  perform 
any  thing  considerable  during  the  rest  of  the 
campaign  ^ 

But  the  active  and  ambitious  spirit  of  Edward, 
while  his  conquests  brought  such  considerable  ac- 
cessions to  the  English  monarchy,  could  not  be 
satisfied,  so  long  as  Guienne,  the  ancient  patri- 
mony of  his  family,  was  wrested  from  him  by  the 
dishonest  artifices  of  the  French  monarch.  Find- 
ing that  the  distance  of  that  province  rendered 
all  his  efforts  against  it  feeble  and  uncertain,  he 
purposed  to  attack  France  in  a  quarter  Avhere  she 
appeared  ijiore  vulnerable  ;  and  with  this  view  he 
married  his  daughter  Ehzabeth  to  John  earl  of 
Holland,  and  at  the  same  time  contracted  an  al- 
liance with  Guy  earl  of  Flanders,  stipulated  to 
pay  him  the  sum  of  75,000  pounds,  and  projected 
an  invasion,  with  their  united  forces,  upon  Phi- 
lip, their  common  enemy  s.  He  hoped  that,  v/hen 
he  himself,  at  the  head  of  the  English,  Flemish, 
and  Dutch  armies,  reinforced  by  his  German 
allies,  to  whom  he  had  promised  or  remitted  con- 


*■  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  72,  73,  74. 
«  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  76.    Walsing.  p.  68. 


1296.  EDWARD    L  Sig 

siderable  sums,  should  enter  the  frontiers  of 
France,  and  threaten  tlie  capital  itself,  Philip 
Avould  at  last  be  obliged  to  relinquish  his  acqui- 
sitions, and  purchase  peace  by  the  restitution  of 
Guienne.  But,  in  order  to  set  this  great  machine 
in  movement,  considerable  supi)lies  were  requi- 
site from  the  parliament ;  and  Edward,  without 
much  difficulty,  obtained  from  the  barons  and 
knio-hts  a  new  grant  of  a  twelfth  of  all  their  move- 
ables,  and  from  the  boroughs,  that  of  an  eighth. 
The  great  and  almost  unlimited  power  of  the  king 
over  the  latter,  enabled  him  to  throw  the  heavier 
part  of  the  burthen  on  them  ;  and  the  prejudices 
which  he  seems  always  to  have  entertained  against 
the  church,  on  account  of  the  former  zeal  of  the 
clergy  for  the  IMountfort  faction,  made  him  re- 
solve to  load  them  with  still  more  considerable 
impositions ;  and  he  required  of  them  a  fifth  of 
their  moveables.  But  he  here  met  with  an  oppo- 
sition, which  for  some  time  disconcerted  all  his 
measures,  and  engaged  him  in  enterprises  that 
Avere  somewhat  dangerous  to  h'nn  ;  and  would 
have  proved  fatal  to  any  of  his  predecessors. 


DISSENSIONS  WITH  THE  CLERGY. 

Boniface  VIII.  who  had  succeeded  Celestine  in 
the  papal  throne,  was  a  man  of  the  most  lofty 
and  enterprising  spirit;  and,  though  not  endow- 
ed with  that  severity  of  manners  which  commonly 


520  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  isgf). 

accompanies  ambition  in  men  of  his  order,  he  was 
determined  to  carry  the  authority  of  the  tiara, 
and  his  dominion  over  the  temporal  power,  to  as 
great  a  height  as  it  had  ever  attained  in  any  former 
period.  Sensible  that  his  immediate  predecessors, 
by  oppressing  the  church  in  every  province  of 
Christendom,  had  extremely  alienated  the  affec- 
tions of  the  clergy,  and  had  afforded  the  civil  ma- 
gistrate a  pretence  for  laying  like  impositions  on 
ecclesiastical  revenues,  he  attempted  to  resume 
the  former  station  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  and  to 
establish  himself  as  the  common  protector  of  the 
spiritual  order  against  all  invaders.  For  this  pur- 
pose, he  issued  very  early  in  his  pontificate  a  ge- 
neral bull,  prohibiting  all  princes  from  levying, 
without  his  consent,  any  taxes  upon  the  clergy, 
and  all  clergymen  from  submitting  to  such  impo- 
sitions ;  and  he  threatened  both  of  them  M'ith  the 
penalties  of  excommunication  in  case  of  disobe- 
dience''. This  important  edict  is  said  to  have 
been  procured  by  the  solicitation  of  Robert  de 
Winchelsey,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  in- 
tended to  employ  it  as  a  rampart  against  the  vio- 
lent extortions  which  the  church  had  felt  from 
Edward,  and  the  still  greater,  which  that  prince  s 
multiplied  necessities  gave  them  reason  to  appre- 
hend. When  a  demand,  therefore,  was  made  on 
the  clergy  of  a  fifth  of  their  moveables,  a  tax 
which  Avas  probably  much  more  grievous  than 

*"  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  706.     Heniing.  vol,  i.  p.  104. 


129/.  EDWARD  I.  .VJl 

a  fifth  of  tlieir  revenue,  as  tlicir  lands  were  most]}'- 
stocked  with  their  cattle,  and  cultivated  l)y  their 
villains  ;  the  clergy  took  shelter  under  the  bull  of 
pope  Boniface,  and  pleaded  conscience  in  refusing 
compliance'.  The  king  came  not  iiimiediately  to 
extremities  on  this  repulse ;  but,  after  locking 
up  all  their  granaries  and  barns,  and  prohibiting 
all  rent  to  be  paid  tliem,  he  appointed  a  new 
synod,  to  confer  \\ith  him  upon  his  demand. 
Tlie  primate,  not  dismayed  by  these  proofs  of 
Edward's  resolution,  here  plainly  told  him,  that 
the  clergy  owed  obedience  to  two  sovereigns, 
their  spiritual  and  their  temporal ;  but  their  duty 
bound  them  to  a  nuich  stricter  attachment  to  the 
former  than  to  the  latter  :  they  could  not  comply 
Avith  his  commands  (for  sucli,  in  some  measure, 
the  requests  of  the  crown  Mere  then  deemed),  in 
contradiction  to  the  express  prohibition  of  the 
sovereign  pontiti"*^. 

The  elergy  had  seen,  in  many  instances,  that 
Edward  paid  little  regard  to  those  nunierous  pri\i- 
leges,  on  \\hicli  they  set  so  high  a  value.  He 
liad  formerly  seized,  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  all 
the  money  and  plate  belonging  to  the  churches 
and  convents,  and  had  a])pliedthem  to  the  publick 
service';    and  they  could  not  but  expect   more 


*  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  I07.       Trivet,   p.  2q6.      Chrou.  Dunst. 
vol,  ii,  p.  652. 

"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  107. 
'  Walking,  p.  (io.     Hcmiiig.  vol.  i,  p.  51. 


522  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1297. 

violent  treatment  on  this  sharp  refusal,  grounded 
on  such  dangerous  principles.  Instead  of  applying 
to  the  pope  for  a  relaxation  of  his  bull,  he  resolved 
immediately  to  employ  the  power  in  his  hands; 
and  he  told  the  ecclesiastics,  that,  since  they 
refused  to  support  the  civil  government,  they 
were  unworthy  to  receive  any  benefit  from  it;  and 
he  would  accordingly  put  them  out  of  the  protec- 
tion of  the  laws.  This  vigorous  measure  Mas  im- 
mediately carried  into  execution*".  Orders  were 
issued  to  the  judges  to  receive  no  cause  brought 
before  them  by  the  clergy;  to  hear  and  decide 
all  causes  in  which  they  were  defendants :  to  do 
every  man  justice  against  them ;  to  do  them 
justice  against  no  body  ".  The  ecclesiastics  soon 
found  themselves  in  the  most  miserable  situation 
imaginable.  They  could  not  remain  in  their  own 
houses  or  convents  for  want  of  subsistence :  if 
they  went  al/road  in  quest  of  maintenance,  they 
were  dismounted,  robbed  of  their  horses  and 
clothes,  abused  by  eveiy  ruffian,  and  no  redress 
could  be  obtained  by  them  for  the  most  violent 
injury.  The  primate  himself  was  attacked  on 
the  highAvay,  was  stripped  of  his  equipage  and 
furniture,  and  was  at  last  reduced  to  board  himself, 
with  a  single  servant,  in  the  house  of  a  country 
clergyman".  The  king,  meanwhile,  remained  an 
ind  liferent  spectator  of  all  these  violences ;  and, 


'"  Walsing.  p.  Qg,     Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  10/. 
*  M.  West.  p.  429.  "  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  lOg. 


1297-  EDWARD    I.  523 

without  employing  liis  ofiicers  in  committing  any 
immediate  injury  on  the  priests,  ^hich  might 
have  appeared  invidious  and  oppressive,  he  took 
ample  vengeance  on  them  lor  their  ohstinate 
refusal  of  his  demands.  Though  the  archbishop 
issued  a  general  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  all  mIio  attacked  the  persons  or  property 
of  ecclesiastics,  it  was  not  regarded:  while 
Edward  enjoyed  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
people  become  the  voluntary  instruments  of  his 
justice  against  them,  and  enure  themselves  to 
throw  off  that  respect  for  the  sacred  order,  by 
which  they  had  so  long  been  overawed  and 
governed. 

The  spirits  of  the  clergy  were  at  last  broken 
by  this  harsh  treatment.  Besides  that  the  whole 
province  of  York,  Avhich  lay  nearest  the  danger 
that  still  hung  over  them  from  the  Scots,  vo- 
Juntariiy,  from  the  first,  voted  a  fifth  of  their 
moveables;  the  bishops  of  Salisbury,  Ely,  and 
some  others,  made  a  composition  for  the  secular 
clergy  within  their  dioceses  ;  and  they  agreed  not 
to  pay  the  fifth,  which  would  have  been  an  act 
of  disobedience  to  Boniface's  bull,  but  to  deposit 
a  sum  equivalent  in  some  church  appointed  tiiem; 
whence  it  was  taken  by  the  king's  officers  p. 
Many  particular  convents  and  clergymen  made 
payment  of  a  like  sum,  and  recei\ed  the  king's 
protection''.     Those  who   had  not  ready  money, 

P  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  108,   lOfj.  Chron   Dr.nst.  p.  653. 
''  Chron.  Duiist.  vol.  ii.  p.  654. 


524  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1297. 

entered  into  recognizances  for  the  j3ayment.  And 
there  was  scarcely  found  one  ecclesiastic  in  the 
kingdom,  who  seemed  willing  to  suifei-,  for  the 
sake  of  religious  privileges,  this  new  species  of 
martyrdom,  the  most  tedious  and  languishing  of 
any,  the  most  mortifying  to  spiritual  pride,  and 
not  rewarded  by  that  crown  of  glory,  which  the 
church  holds  up,  with  such  ostentation,  to  her 
devoted  adherents. 


ARBITRARY   MEASURES. 

But  as  the  money  granted  by  parliament,  though 
considerable,  Avas  not  sufficient  to  supply  the 
king's  necessities,  and  that  levied  by  compositions 
with  the  clergy  came  in  slowly,  Edward  was 
obliged,  for  the  obtaining  of  farther  supply,  to 
exert  his  arbitrary  power,  and  to  lay  an  oppressive 
hand  on  all  orders  of  men  in  the  kingdom.  He 
limited  the  merchants  in  the  quantity  of  wool 
allowed  to  be  exported ;  and  at  the  same  time 
forced  them  to  pay  him  a  duty  of  forty  shillings 
a  sack,  which  was  computed  to  be  above  the  third 
of  the  value  ^  He  seized  all  the  rest  of  the  wool, 
as  well  as  all  the  leather  of  the  kingdom,  into  his 
bands,  and  disposed  of  these  commodities  for  his 
own  benefit  ^     He  required  the  sheriffs  of  each 

■■  Walsing.  p.  6g.     Trivet,  p.  296. 
'  Healing,  vol.  i.  f).  53,  110. 


139;.  EDWARD    I.  525 

county  to  supply  him  with  i2()00  quarters  of  M'hcat, 
and  as  nuuiy  of  oats,  wliicii  he  permitted  tliem  to 
seize  wherever  they  could  find  them  :  the  cattle 
and  other  commodities  necessary  for  suj)plying 
liis  army  were  laid  hold  of  m  ithout  the  consent  of 
the  owners'.  And  though  he  promised  to  pay 
afterM'ards  the  equivalent  of  all  these  goods,  men 
saw  but  little  probability  that  a  prince,  who 
submitted  so  little  to  the  limitations  of  law,  could 
ever,  amidst  his  multiplied  necessities,  be  reduced 
to  a  strict  observance  of  his  engagements.  He 
showed,  at  the  same  time,  an  equal  disregard  to 
the  principles  of  the  feudal  law,  by  m  hich  all  the 
lands  of  his  kingdom  Avere  held;  in  order  to  in- 
crease his  army,  and  enable  liim  to  support  that 
great  eftbrt  Mhich  he  intended  to  make  against 
France,  he  required  the  attendance  of  every 
proprietor  of  land  possessed  of  twenty  pounds  a 
year,  even  though  he  held  not  of  the  crown,  and 
was  not  obliged  by  his  tenure  to  perform  any- 
such  service  ". 

These  acts  of  violence  and  of  arbitrary  poMcr, 
notwithstanding  the  great  personal  regard  ge- 
nerally borne  to  the  king,  bred  nmrnuirs  in 
every  order  of  men  ;  and  it  Mas  not  long  ere  some 
of  the  great  nobility,  jealous  of  their  own 
privileges  as  well  as  of  national  liberty,  gave 
countenance  and  authority  to  these  complaints : 
Edward  assembled  on  the  sea-coast  an  army,  which 

'  Heniing.  vol.  1.  p.  111.  "*  Wiilsing.  p.  69. 


S26  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  I2g7. 

he  purposed  to  send  over  to  Gascony,  while  he 
himself  should  in  person  make  an  impression  on 
the  side  of  Flanders ;  and  he  intended  to  put 
these  forces  under  the  command  of  Humphrey 
Bohun  earl  of  Hereford,  the  constable,  and  Roger 
Bigod  earl  of  Norfolk,  the  mareschal  of  England. 
But  these  two  powerful  earls  refused  to  execute 
liis  commands,  and  afth'med,  that  they  were  only 
obliged  by  their  office  to  attend  his  person  in  the 
wars.  A  violent  altercation  ensued ;  and  the 
king,  in  the  height  of  his  passion,  addressing 
liimself  to  the  constable,  exclaimed,  Sir  earl,  by 
God,  you  shall  either  go  or  hang.  By  God,  Sir 
kin^,  replied  Hereford,  /  7cill  neither  go  nor 
hang"^.  And  he  immediately  departed,  with  the 
mareschal,  and  above  thirty  other  considerable 
barons. 

Upon  this  opposition,  the  king  laid  aside  the 
project  of  an  expedition  against  Guienne ;  and 
assembled  the  forces  which  he  himself  purposed 
to  transport  into  Flanders.  But  the  two  earls, 
irritated  in  the  contest  and  elated  by  impunity, 
pretending  that  none  of  their  ancestors  had  ever 
served  in  that  country,  refused  to  perform  the 
duty  of  their  office  in  mustering  the  army  *.  The 
king,  now  finding  it  adviseable  to  proceed  with 
moderation,  instead  of  attainting  the  earls,  who 
possessed  their  dignities  by  hereditary  right,  ap- 


"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  1 13. 
^  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  783.     Walsing.  p.  70. 


I 


12y7.  EDWARD    I.  527 

pointed  Thomas  de  Berkeley,  and  Geoffrey  dc 
Geyneville,  to  act,  in  that  emergence,  as  con- 
stable and  marcschal  y.  He  endeavoured  to  recon- 
cile himself  M'ith  the  church ;  took  the  ])rimata 
again  into  favour^;  made  him,  in  conjunction 
with  Reginald  de  Grey,  tutor  to  the  prince, 
whom  he  intended  to  appoint  guardian  of  the 
kingdom  during  his  absence  ;  and  he  even 
assembled  a  great  number  of  the  nobility  in 
Westminster-hall,  to  m  hom  he  deigned  to  make 
an  apology  for  his  past  conduct,  lie  pleaded 
the  urgent  necessities  of  the  crown ;  his  extreme 
want  of  money  ;  his  engagements  from  honour  as 
well  as  interest  to  support  his  foreign  allies  :  and 
he  promised,  if  ever  he  returned  in  safety,  to 
redress  all  their  grievances,  to  restore  the  exe- 
cution of  the  laws,  and  to  make  all  his  subjects 
compensation  for  the  losses  which  they  had 
sustained.  IMeanwhile,  he  begged  them  to  sus- 
pend their  animosities;  to  judge  of  him  by  his 
future  conduct,  of  which,  he  hoped,  he  should 
be  more  master ;  to  remain  faithful  to  his  govern- 
ment, or,  if  he  perished  in  the  present  war,  to 
preserve  their  allegiance  to  his  son  and  successor*. 
There  were  certainly,  from  the  concurrence  of 
discontents  among  the  great,  and  grievances  of 
the  people,  materials  suflicient  in  any  other  period 
to  have  kindled  a  civil  war  in  Ens-land  :   but  the 


&' 


';  M.  West.  p.  430.  '  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  1 13. 

"  Heming.  vol  i.  p.  114.     M.  W«,st.  p.  430. 


528  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  129/' 

vigour  and  abilities  of  Edward  kept  every  one  in 
awe ;  and  his  dexterity,  in  stopping  on  the  brink 
of  danger,  and  retracting  the  measures  to  which 
he  liad  been  pushed,  by  his  violent  temper  and 
arbitrary  principles,  saved  the  nation  from  so 
great  a  calamity.  The  tv.  o  great  earls  dared  not 
to  break  out  into  open  violence  :  they  proceeded 
no  farther  than  framino-  a  remonstrance,  Avhich 
was  delivered  to  the  king  at  "^Yinchelsea,  when  he 
was  ready  to  embark  for  Flanders.  They  there 
complained  of  the  violations  of  the  Great  Charter 
and  that  of  forests  ;  the  violent  seizures  of  corn, 
leather,  cattle,  and  above  all,  of  wool,  a  com- 
modity which  they  affirmed  to  be  equal  in  value 
to  half  the  lands  of  the  kingdom ;  the  arbitrary 
imposition  of  forty  shillings  a  sack  on  the  small 
quantity  of  wool  allowed  to  be  exported  by  the 
merchants;  and  they  claimed  an  immediate  redress 
of  all  these  grievances  ^  The  king  told  them, 
that  the  greater  parts  of  his  council  were  now  at 
a  distance,  and  without  their  advice  he  could  not 
deliberate  on  measures  of  so  great  importance ", 


DISSENSIONS  WITH  THE  BARONS. 

But  the  constable  and  mareschal,  with  the  barons 
of  their  party,  resolved  to  take  advantage  of  Ed- 

^  Walslng.  p.  72.     Heming.  vol.  i,  p.  1 15.     Trivet,  p.  302. 
"  Walsing.p.  72.     Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  317.     Trivet,  p.  304- 


i2(j7.  EDWARD    r.  52(J 

ward's  absence,  and  to  obtain  an  explicit  assent 
to  their  demands.  M'hen  snnmioned  to  attend  the 
parliament  at  London,  the\'  came  with  a  o-rcat 
body  of  cavalry  and  inlantry;  ajid  before  tliey 
would  enter  the  city,  required  that  the  gates 
should  be  put  into  their  custody'^.  The  primate, 
Avho  secretly  favoured  all  their  pretensions,  ad- 
vised the  council  to  comply  ;  and  thus  they  be- 
came masters  both  of  the  youns;-  prince  and  of 
the  resolutions  of  parliament.  Their  demands, 
liOAvever,  M^ere  moderate  ;  and  such  as  suificicntly 
justify  the  purity  of  their  intentions  in  all  their 
past  measures :  they  only  required,  that  the  two 
charters  should  receive  a  solemn  confirmation; 
that  a  clause  should  be  added  to  secure  the  nation 
for  ever  against  all  impositions  and  taxes  M^ithout 
consent  of  parliament ;  and  that  they  themselves 
and  their  adherents,  Avho  had  refused  to  attend 
the  king  into  Flanders,  should  be  pardoned  for 
the  oftence,  and  should  be  again  received  into 
favour*^.  The  prince  of  \\'alcs  and  his  council 
assented  to  these  terms ;  and  the  charters  Mere 
sent  over  to  the  king  in  Flanders  to  be  there  con- 
firmed by  him.  Edward  felt  the  utmost  reluctance 
to  this  measure,  which,  he  apprehended,  would 
for  tlie  future  impose  fetters  on  his  conchirt,  and 
set  limits  to  his  lawless  authority.  On  xaiious 
pretences  he  delayed  three  days  giving  any  answer 

''  Heming.  \ul.  i.  ji.  138. 
'Walsing.   p.  73.      Hejning.  vol.  i.   p.  136,   130,    MO,   Ml, 
Trivet,  p.  308. 

VOL.  II.  :m  -M 


530  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1297. 

to  the  deputies ;  and  when  tlie  pernicious  con- 
sequences of  his  refusal  Avere  represented  to  hiiUy 
he  was  at  last  obliged,  after  many  internal  strug- 
gles, to  affix  his  seal  to  the  charters,  as  also  to 
the  clause  that  bereaved  him  of  the  power,  which 
he  had  hitherto  assumed,  of  imposing  arbitrary 
taxes  upon  the  people '. 

That  we  may  finish  at  once  this  interest- 
ing transaction  concerning  the  settlement  of  the 
charters,  we  shall  briefly  mention  tbe  subsequent 
events  M'hich  relate  to  it.  The  constable  and 
niareschal,  informed  of  the  king's  compliance, 
were  satisfied;  and  not  only  ceased  from  disturb- 
ing the  government,  but  assisted  the  regency  with 
their  power  against  the  Scots,  who  had  risen  in 
arms,  and  had  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  England^. 
But  being  sensible,  that  the  smallest- pretence 
would  suffice  to  make  Edward  retract  these  de- 
tested laws,  which,  though  they  had  often  re- 
ceived the  sanction  both  of  king' and  parliament, 
and  had  been  acknowledged  during  three  reigns, 
were  never  yet  deemed  to  hav^e  sufficient  vahdity ; 
they  insisted  that  he  should  again  confirm  them 
on  his  return  to  England,  and  should  thereby 
renounce  all  plea  which  he  might  derive  from  his 
residing  in  a  foreign  country  M'hen  he  formerly 
affixed  his  seal  to  them\  It  appeared  that  they 
judged  aright  of  Edward's   character  'and  inten- 


'"Walsing.  p.  74.     Heming.  vol.  i,  p.  143. 

'  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  Vi^i.  ''  Ibid.  p.  I5g. 


I 


129;.  EDWARD    r.  tftfl 

tions :  he  delaved  his  confirmation  as  lonq;  as 
possible;  and  when  tlie  fear  of  worse  consecjucnces 
obliged  him  again  to  comply,  he  exi)iessly  added 
a  salvo  for  his  royal  dignity  or  prerogative,  which 
in  effect  enervated  the  Avhole  force  of  the  char- 
ters'. The  two  earls  and  their  adherents  left  the 
parliament  in  disgust ;  and  the  king  was  con- 
strained, on  a  future  occasion,  to  grant  to  the 
people,  without  any  subterfuge,  a  pure  and  ab- 
solute confirmation  of  those  laws  ^,  which  were  so 
much  the  object  of  their  passionate  affection. 
Even  farther  securities  were  then  provided  for 
the  establishment  of  national  privileges.  Three 
knights  were  appointed  to  be  chosen  in  each 
county,  and  were  invested  M'itli  the  power  of 
punishing,  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  every  trans- 
gression or  violation  of  the  charters  ' :  a  jjrecau- 
tion,  which,  though  it  was  soon  disused,  as  en- 
croaching too  much  on  royal  prerogative,  proves 
the  attachment  which  the  English,  in  that  age, 
bore  to  liberty,  and  their  well-grounded  jealousy 
of  the  arbitrary  disposition  of  Edward. 

The  work,  however,  was  not  yet  entirely 
finished  and  complete.  In  order  to  execute  the 
lesser  charter,  it  was  requisite,  by  new  perambula- 
tions, to  set  bounds  to  the  royal  forests,  and  to 
disafforest  all  land  Mhich  former  encroachments 
had  comprehended  within  tlieir  limits.      Edward 

'  Hcming.  vol.  i.  p.  107,  1G8.  *  Ibid.  p.  168. 

'ibui.  p.  i;o. 
2 


532  HISTOHY   OF    ENGLAND.  1207. 

fliscovered  tlie  same  leluctance  to  comply  with 
this  equitable  demand ;  and  it  was  not  till  aftei* 
many  delays  on  his  part,  and  many  solicitations 
and  requests,  and  even  menaces  of  war  and 
violence "",  on  the  part  of  the  barons,  that  the 
perambulations  were  made,  and  exact  boundaries 
fixed,  by  a  jury  in  each  county,  to  the  extent  of 
his  forests".  Had  not  his  ambitious  and  active 
temper  raised  him  so  many  foreign  enemies,  and 
obho-ed  him  to  have  recourse  so  often  to  the 
assistance  of  his  subjects,  it  is  not  likely  that 
those  concessions  could  ever  have  been  extorted 
from  him. 

But  Vidiile  the  people,  after  so  many  successful 
struggles,  deemed  themselves  happy  in  the  secure 
possession  of  their  privileges,  they  were  surprised 
in  1305  to  find  that  Edward  had  secretly  applied 
to  Rome,  and  had  procured  from  that  merccnaiy 
court,  an  absolution  from  all  the  oaths  and  engage- 
ments, which  he  had  so  often  reiterated,  to  observe 
both  the  charters.  There  are  some  historians  °  so 
credulous  as  to  imagine,  that  this  perilous  step 
was  taken  by  him  for  no  other  purpose  than  to 
acquire  tlie  merit  of  granting  a  new  confirmatioo 

"  Walsing.  p.  80.  We  are  told  by  Tyrrel,  vol.  ii.  p.  145,  from 
the  chronicle  of  St.  Albans,  that  the  barons,  not  content  with 
the  execution  of  the  charter  of  forests,  demanded  of  Edward  as 
hio-h  terms  as  had  been  imposed  on  his  father  by  the  earl  o£ 
Leicester:  but  no  other  historian  mentions  this  particular. 
"  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  171.  M.  West,  p.  431,  433. 
"  Brady,  vol.  ii.  p.  B-i.     Carte,  vol.  ii.  p.  292- 


12g7.  EDWARD    I.  533 

of  the  cliartcrs,  as  he  (hd  soon  after;  and  a  con- 
firmation so  nuic'li  the  more  un(|ucstioiiahle,  as  it 
could  never  after  be  invalidated  by  his  successors, 
on  j)retence  of  any  force  or  \iolence  A\]rK]i  had 
been  imposed  upon  him.  But  besides  that  tliis 
might  have  been  done  wilh  a  better  grace,  if  he 
had  never  applied  for  any  such  absolution,  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  conduct  ])roves  liim  to  he  little 
susceptible  of  such  rehnements  in  patriotism  ;  and 
this  very  deed  itself,  in  m  hieh  he  anew  confirm- 
ed the  charters,  carries  on  the  face  of  it  a  very 
opposite  presumption.  Though  lie  ratilied  tJie 
charters  in  general,  he  still  took  advantage  of  the 
papal  bull  so  far  as  to  invalidate  the  late  perambu- 
lations of  the  forests,  which  had  been  nuule  with 
such  care  and  attention,  and  to  reserve  to  himself 
the  pOMcr,  in  case  of  favourable  incidents,  to 
extend  as  much  as  formerly  those  arbitrary 
jurisdictions.  If  the  power  was  not  in  fact  made 
use  of,  Ave  can  only  coi.iclude  that  the  fayourjiblc 
incidents  did  not  offer. 

Thus,  after  the  contests  of  near  a  Ti\hole 
century,  acd  these  ever  accompanied  with  violent 
jealousies,  often  with  public  convulsions,  the 
Great  Charter  was  finally  established;  and  the 
Kngiish  nation  have  the  honour  of  extorting,  by 
their  perseverance,  this  concession  from  the  ablest, 
tlie  most  warlike,  and  the  n.iost  ambitious  of  all 
their  princes  ^      It  is  computed,  that  above  thirty 

^  It  must,  liouever,  be  reinarkeil,  tliat  the  king  never  forgave 
ihe  chief  actors  in  this  Uansaction  }  and  he  found  means  after- 


534  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1297. 

confirmations  of  the  cliarter  were  at  different 
times  required  of  several  kings,  and  granted  by 
them,  in  full  parliament;  a  precaution  which, 
while  it  discovers  some  ignorance  of  the  true 
nature  of  law  and  government,  proves  a  laudable 
jealousy  of  national  privileges  in  the  people,  and 
an  extreme  anxiety  lest  contrary  precedents 
should  ever  be  pleaded  a,s  an  authority  for  infring- 
ing them.  Accordingly  we  find,  that,  though 
arbitrary  practices  often  prevailed,  and  were  even 
able  to  establish  themselves  into  settled  customs, 
the  validity  of  the  Great  Charter  was  never  after- 
wards formally  disputed  ;  and  that  grant  was  still 
regarded  as  the  basis  of  English  government,  and 
the  sure  rule  by  which  the  authority  of  every 
custom  was  to  be  tried  and  canvassed.  The  juris- 
diction of  the  Star-chamber,  martial  law,  impri- 
sonment by  warrants  from  the  privy-council,  and 
other  practices  of  a  like  nature,  though  established 
for  several  centuries,  were  scarcely  ever  allowed 
"by  the  English  to  be  parts  of  their  constitution : 
the  affection  of  the  nation  for  liberty  still  pre- 
vailed over  all  precedent,  and  even  all  pohtical 
reasoning:  the  exercise  of  these  powers,  after 
"being  long  the  source  of  secret  murmurs  among 
the  people,    was,    in   fulness  of  time,   solemnly 


wards  to  oblige  both  the  constable  and  raareschal  to  resign  their 
offices  into  his  hands.  The  former  received  a  new  grant  of  it : 
But  the  otlice  of  mareschal  was  given  to  Thomas  of  BrothertoOj 
the  king's  second  son. 


1297.:  EDWARD    I.  535 

ai)')lis]icd  as  illegal,  at  least  as  oppressive,  by  the 
M  hole  legislative  authority. 

To  return  to  the  period  from  uhich  this  ac- 
count of  the  charters  has  led  us  :  though  the 
king's  impatience  to  appear  at  the  head  of  his 
iirmies  in  rhmders  made  him  oNcrlook  all  con- 
siderations, eitlier  of  domestic  discontents  or  of 
commotions  among  the  Scots  ;  his  emharkation 
IkuI  been  so  long  retarded  by  the  various  obstruc- 
tions thrown  in  his  May,  that  he  lost  the  proper 
season  for  action,  and  after  his  arrival  made  no 
nrooress  against  the  enemv.  The  kin"-  of  France, 
taking  advantage  of  his  absence,  had  broken  into 
the  Low  Countries  ;  had  defeated  the  Flemings 
in  the  battle  of  Furnes;  had  made  himself  master 
of  Lisle,  St.  Omer,  Courtrai,  and  Ypres ;  and 
seemed  in  a  situation  to  take  full  vengeance  on 
the  earl  of  Flantlers,  his  rebellious  vassal.  Lut 
Edward,  seconded  by  an  English  army  of  50,000 
men  (for  this  is  the  number  assigned  by  his- 
torians *i),  Mas  able  to  stop  the  career  of  his 
victories;  and  Philip,  finding  all  the  weak  re- 
sources of  his  kingdom  already  exhausted,  began 
to  dread  a  reverse  of  fortune,  and  to  apprehend 
an  invasion  on  France  itself.  The  king  of  England 
on  the  other  hand,  disappointed  of  assistance  from 
Adolpli  king  of  the  Romans,  Mhich  he  had  pur- 
chased at  a  very  high  price,  and  finding  many 
urgent   calls   for   his   presence  in   England,   Avas 

^  Hemiiig.  vol.  i.  p.  146. 


530  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1298. 

desirous  of  ending,  on  any  honourable  terms,  a 
war  which  served  only  to  divert  his  force  from  the 
execution  of  more  hnportant  projects.  This  dis- 
position in  both  monarchs  soon  produced  a  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities  for  two  years ;  and  engaged 
them  to  submit  their  differences  to  the  arbitration 
of  pope  Boniface. 

Boniface  Avas  amono^  the  last  of  the  sovereio-n 
pontiffs  that  exercised  an  authority  over  the  tem- 
poral jurisdiction  of  princes;  and  these  exorbitant 
pretensions,  which  he  had  been  tempted  to  assume 
from  tlie  successful  example  of  his  predecessors, 
but  of  which  the  season  was  now  past,  involved 
him  in  so  many  calamities,  and  were  attended 
with  so  unfortunate  a  catastrophe,  that  they  have 
heen  secretly  abandoned,  though  never  openly 
relinquished,  by  his  successors  in  the  apostolic 
chair.  Edward  and  Philip,  equally  jealous  of 
papal  claims,  took  care  to  insert  in  their  reference, 
that  Boniface  was  made  judge  of  the  difference 
Toy  their  consent,  as  a  private  person,  not  by  any 
Tight  of  his  pontificate ;  and  the  pope,  without 
seeming  to  be  offended  at  this  mortifying  clause, 
proceeded  to  give  a  sentence  between  them,  in 
which  they  both  acquiesced "".  He  brought  them 
to  agree  that  their  union  should  be  cemented  by 
a  double  marriage ;  that  of  Edward  himself,  who 
was  now  a  widower,  with  I\largaret,  Philip's  sister. 


■"Rymer,  vol.  ii,  p.  817,     Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  UQ.    Trivet^, 
J),  310. 


1298.  EDWARD   L  537 

aiul  tliat  of  tlie  prince  of  'Wales  A\itli  Tsahclia, 
<laug]iter  of  tlmt  monarcli  *.  Philip  was  likewise 
Milling  to  restore  Guiennc  to  the  English,  whieh 
he  had  indeed  no  good  pretence  to  detain  ;  hut 
he  insisted  that  the  Scots,  and  their  king  John 
Baliol,  should,  as  his  allies,  ])e  comprehended  in 
the  tfcaty,  and  should  he  restored  to  their  liherty. 
Their  difference,  after  several  disputes,  was  com- 
promised, hy  their  making  mutual  sacrifices  to 
each  other.  Edward  agreed  to  abandon  his  ally 
the  carl  of  Flanders,  on  condition  that  Philip 
should  treat  in  like  manner  his  ally  the  king  of 
Scots.  The  prospect  of  conquering  these  two 
countries,  whose  situation  made  them  so  commo- 
dious an  acquisition  to  the  respective  kingdoms, 
prevailed  over  all  other  considerations;  and 
though  they  were  hoth  finally  tlisappointed  in 
their  hopes,  their  conduct  was  very  reconcileahle 
to  the  princii)les  of  an  interested  policy.  'J  his 
M'as  the  first  specimen  which  the  Scots  had  of  the 
French  alliance,  and  which  Mas  exactly  conform- 
able to  M  hat  a  smaller  power  must  alw  ays  expect, 
Avhen  it  hlindly  attaches  itself  to  the  Mill  and  for- 
tunes of  a  greater.  That  unhappy  people,  now 
engaged  in  a  brave  though  une(jual  contest  for 
their  liberties,  M'cre  totally  abandoned  hy  the  ally 
in  Mhoni  they  reposed  their  linal  confidence,  to 
the  will  of  an  imperious  coiKjiieror. 

'  Hymcr^  vol.  ii.  p  b23. 


53S  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  I2(j8. 


REVOLT  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Though  Eng'land  as  well  as  other  European  coun- 
tries was,  in  its  ancient  state,  very  ill  qualified 
for  making,  and  still  worse  for  maintaining,  con- 
quests, Scotland  was  so  much  inferior  in  its  in- 
ternal force,  and  was  so  ill  situated  for  receiving- 
foreign  succours,  that  it  is  no  wonder  Edward,  an 
ambitious  monarch,  sliould  have  cast  his  eye  on 
so  tempting  an  acquisition,  which  brought  both 
security  and  greatness  to  his  native  country.  Cut 
the  instruments  whom  he  employed  to  maintain 
his  dominion  over  the  northern  kingdom  Mere 
not  happily  chosen  ;  and  acted  not  with  the  re- 
quisite prudence  and  moderation  in  reconciling 
the  Scottish  nation  to  a  yoke  which  they  bore 
with  such  extreme  reluctance.  Warrenne,  retir- 
ing into  England  on  account  of  his  bad  state  of 
health,  left  the  administration  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  Ormesby,  who  was  appointed  justiciary 
of  Scotland,  and  Cressingham,  who  bore  the  of- 
fice of  treasurer ;  and  a  small  military  force  re- 
mained to  secure  the  precarious  authority  of  those 
ministers.  The  latter  had  no  other  object  than 
the  amassing  of  money  by  rapine  and  injustice : 
the  former  distinguished  himself  by  the  rigour 
and  severity  of  his  temper :  and  both  of  them 
treating  the  Scots  as  a  conquered  people,  made 
them  sensible  too  early  of  the  grievous  servitude 
into  which  they  had  fallen.     As  Edward  required 


1298:  EDWARD    r.  53^ 

tliat  all  tlie  proprietors  of  land  should  swear  fealty 
to  him,  every  one  M'ho  refused  or  dela}  ed  giving 
this  testimony  of  suhmission,  was  outlawed  and 
imprisoned,  and  punished  without  mercy ;  and 
the  bravest  and  most  generous  spirits  of  the  na- 
tion were  tluis  exasperated  to  the  highest  degree 
against  the  English  government'. 

There  Avas  one  William  Wallace,  of  a  small 
fortune,  but  descended  of  an  ancient  family  in 
tlie  west  of  Scotland,  whose  courage  prompted 
liim  to  undertake,  and  enabled  him  liually  to  ac- 
complish, the  desperate  attempt  of  delivering  his 
native  country  from  the  dominion  of  foreigners. 
This  man,  whose  valorous  exploits  are  the  object 
of  just  admiration,  but  have  been  much  exagge- 
rated by  the  tiaditions  of  his  countrymen,  had 
been  provoked  by  the  insolence  of  an  English  of- 
ficer to  put  him  to  death  ;  and  finding  himself  ob- 
noxious on  that  account  to  the  severity  of  the  ad- 
ministration, he  fled  into  the  woods,  and  offered 
himself  as  a  leader  to  all  those  Mhom  their  crimes, 
or  bad  fortune,  or  avowed  hatred  of  the  Enu-lish. 
liad  reduced  to  a  like  necessity.  lie  was  endowed 
with  gigantic  force  of  body,  Mith  heroic  courage 
of  mind,  with  disinterested  magnanimit}',  Mith 
incredible  patience,  and  ability  to  bear  hunger, 
fatigue,  and  all  the  severities  of  the  seasons ;  and 
he  soon  acquired  among  those  des})erate  fugitives 
tliat  authority  to  which  his  \  irtues  so  justly   en- 

*  Walsing.  p.  70.     Heniing.  vol.  1.  p.  1 18.     Trivet^  p.  299. 


^40  HISTOEY  OF   ENGLAND.  1298. 

titled  him.     Beginning  with  small  attempts,  in 
which  he  was  always  successful,  he  gradually  pro- 
ceeded to  more  momentous  enterprises ;  and  he 
discovered  equal  caution  in  securing  his  follow- 
ers, and  valour  in  annoying  the  enemy.     By  his 
knowledge  of  the  country  he  M'as  enabled,  when 
pursued,  to  ensure  a  retreat  among  the  morasses, 
or  forests,   or  mountains  ;  and  again  collecting  his 
dispersed  associates,   he  unexpectedly  a])peared  in 
another  quarter,  and  surprised,  and  routed,  and 
put  to  the  SM'ord  the  unwary  English.     Every  day 
brought  accounts  of  his  great  actions,  which  were 
received  with  no  less  fuvour  by  his  countrymen 
than  terror  by  the  enemy  :  all  those  who  thirsted 
after  military  fame  w€re  desirous  to  partake  of  his 
renov/n  :  his  successful  valour  seemed   to  vindi- 
cate the  nation  from  the  ignominy  into  which  it 
had  fallen,  by  its  tame  submission  to  theEnghsh: 
and  though  no  nobleman  of  note  ventured  as  yet 
to  join  his  party,   he  had  gained  a  general  confid- 
ence and  attachment,    which  birth  and  fortune 
are  not  alone  able  to  confer. 

Wallace  having,  by  many  fortunate  enter- 
prises, brought  the  valour  of  his  followers  to  cor- 
respond to  his  own,  resolved  to  strike  a  decisive 
blow  against  the  English  government;  and  he 
concerted  the  plan  of  attacking  Ormesby  at 
Scone,  and  of  taking  vengeance  on  him  for  all 
the  violence  and  tyranny  of  which  he  had  been 
guilty.  The  justiciary,  apprised  of  his  intentions, 
tied  hastily  into  England  :  all  the  other  officers  of 


\ 


J 2.08.  EDWAPvD    I.  «4I 

that  nation  imitated  liis  example:  their  tc.rrov 
added  alacrity  and  courag'c  to  tlie  Scots,  who 
took  themselves  to  arms  in  every  quarter:  many 
of  the  principal  barons,  and  anionj^  tlie  rest  sir 
William  Douglas ",  openly  cmmtcnanced  M'al- 
lace's  party :  Robert  Bruce  secretly  favoured  and 
promoted  the  same  cause  :  and  the  Scots,  shaking 
off  their  fetters,  prepared  themselves  to  defend, 
by  an  united  effort,  that  liberty  which  they  had 
so  unexpectedly  recovered  from  the  hands  of 
their  oppressors. 

But  Warrennc,  collecting  an  army  of  40,000 
men  in  the  north  of  England,  determined  to  re- 
establish his  authority  ;  and  he  endeavoured,  by 
the  celerity  of  his  armament  and  of  his  march,  to 
compensate  for  his  past  negligence,  which  had 
enabled  the  Scots  to  throw  off  the  Ijiglish  govern- 
ment, lie  suddenly  entered  Annandalc,  and 
came  up  w  ith  the  enemy  at  Irvine,  before  their 
forces  were  fully  collected,  and  before  they  had 
put  themselves  in  a  posture  of  defence.  j\Iany  of 
the  Scottish  nobles,  alarmed  with  their  danger- 
ous situation,  here  sulnnitted  to  the  English,  re- 
newed their  oaths  of  fealty,  promised  to  deliver 
hostages  for  their  irood  behaviour,  and  received 
a  pardon  for  past  offences  ^^  Others  who  had  not 
yet  declared  themselves,  such  as  the  steward  of 
Scotland   and  tlie  earl  of  Lenox,  j(jined,    (hough 


Walsing.  p.  70.     Homing,  vol.  i.  p.  US. 
•  fleraing  vol.  i.  p.  121,  122. 


542  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  I29Q. 

Avith  reluctance,  the  English  army  ;  and  waited 
a  favourable  opportunity  for  embracing  the  cause 
of  their  distressed  countrymen.  But  Wallace, 
whose  authority  over  his  retainers  was  more  fully 
confirmed  by  the  absence  of  the  great  nobles, 
persevered  obstinately  in  his  purpose  ;  and  find- 
ing himself  unable  to  give  battle  to  the  enemy, 
he  marched  northwards,  with  an  intention  of  pro- 
longing the  war,  and  of  turning  to  his  advant- 
age the  situation  of  that  mountainous  and  barren 
country.  When  Warrenne  advanced  to  Stirling, 
he  found  Wallace  encamped  at  Cambuskenneth, 
on  the  opposite  banks  of  the  Forth  ;  and  being 
continually  urged  by  the  impatient  Cressingham, 
who  was  actuated  both  by  personal  and  national 
animosities  against  the  Scots  ",  he  prepared  to  at- 
tack them  in  that  position,  which  Wallace,  no 
less  prudent  than  courageous,  had  chosen  for  his 
army  ^  In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  sir  Ri- 
chard Lundy,  a  Scotchman  of  birth  and  family, 
who  sincerely  adhered  to  the  English,  he  ordered 
his  army  to  pass  a  bridge  which  lay  over  the 
Forth  ;  but  he  was  soon  convinced,  by  fatal  ex- 
perience, of  the  error  of  his  conduct.  Wallace, 
allowing  such  numbers  of  the  English  to  pass  as 
he  thought  proper,  attacked  them  before  they 
were  fully  formed,  put  them  to  rout,  pushed  part 
of  them  into  the  river,   destroyed  the  rest  by  the 


"  Hemlng.vol.  i.  p.  127. 
»  On  the  nth  of  September  1297. 


1298.  EDWARD    T.  343 

edge  of  llic  sword,  and  gained  a  com|dcte  victory 
ovel•tl1Cln^  Among  the  slain  was  Crcssingliam 
liiniself,  whose  memory  was  so  extremely  odious 
to  the  Scots,  tliat  tliey  flayed  his  dead  hody,  and 
made  saddles  and  girths  of  his  skin  '.  Warrenne, 
finding  the  remainder  of  his  army  much  dismayed 
by  this  misfortune,  was  obliged  again  to  evacuate 
the  kingdom,  and  retire  into  England.  The  castles 
of  Roxborough,  and  Bcrwic,  illfortifierl  and  feebly 
defended,  fell  soon  after  into  the  hands  of  the 
Scots. 

Wallace,  universally  revered  as  the  deliverer 
of  his  country,  now  received  from  the  hands  of 
his  followers  the  dignity  of  regent  or  guardian 
imder  the  captive  Baliol ;  and  finding  that  the 
disorders  of  Mar,  as  well  as  the  unfavourable 
seasons,  had  produced  a  famine  in  Scotland,  he 
urged  his  army  to  march  into  England,  to  sub- 
sist at  the  expence  of  the  enemy,  and  to  revenge 
all  past  injuries,  by  retaliating  on  that  hostile  na- 
tion. The  Scots,  who  deemed  every  thing  pos- 
sible under  such  a  leader,  joyfully  attended  lii* 
call,  ^^'allace,  breaking  into  the  northern  coun- 
ties during  the  Avinter  season,  laid  every  place 
Avaste  with  fire  and  sword  ;  and  after  extending 
on  all  sides,  m  ithout  opposition,  the  fury  of  his 
ravages  as  tar  as  the  bishopric  of  Diirliam,  he 
returned,   loaded  Avith  spoils,    and  crowned  with 


'  Walsing.  p.  73.     Hcming.  vol.  i.  p.  12/,  128,  I29.     Trivet, 
p.  307.  *  Hcming.  vol.  i.  p,  130. 


544  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  12g8, 

gloiy,  into  his  own  country''.  The  disorders 
which  at  that  time  prevailed  in  England,  from  the 
refractory  behaviour  of  the  constable  and  mares- 
chal,  made  it  impossible  to  collect  an  army  suf- 
ficient to  resist  the  enemy,  and  exposed  the  nation 
to  this  loss  and  dishonour. 

But  Edward,  who  received  in  Flanders  intelli- 
gence of  these  events,  and  had  already  concluded 
a  truce  with  France,  now  hastened  over  to  Eng- 
land, in  certain  hopes,  by  his  activity  and  valour, 
not  only  of  wiping  off  this  disgrace,  but  of  re- 
covering the  important  concjuest  of  Scotland, 
Avhich  he  always  regarded  as  the  chief  glory  and 
advantage  of  his  reign.  He  appeased  the  mur- 
murs of  his  people  by  concessions  and  promises : 
he  restored  to  the  citizens  of  London  the  election 
of  their  own  magistrates,  of  which  they  had  been 
l)ereaved  in  the  latter  part  of  his  father's  reign  :  he 
ordered  strict  inquiry  to  be  m.ade  concerning  the 
corn  and  other  goods  which  had  been  violently 
seized  before  his  departure,  as  if  he  intended  to 
pay  the  value  to  the  owners  '^ :  and  making  public 
professions  of  confirming  and  observing  the  char- 
ters, he  regained  the  confidence  of  the  discon- 
tented nobles.  Having,  by  all  these  popular  arts, 
rendered  himself  entirely  master  of  his  peo])le,  he 
collected  the  whole  military  force  of  England, 
Wales,  and  Ireland,  and  marched  with  an  army 

^  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  131,  132,  133. 
'  Rymer^  vol,  ii,  p.  813. 


1208.  EDWARD    L  545 

of  near  a  huiulred  thousand   combatants  to  the 
northern  frontiers. 

Nothing  could  have  enal^lcd  tlic  Scots  to  re- 
sist but  for  one  season  so  mighty  a  power,  except 
an  entire  union  among  themselves ;  but  as  they 
were  depinved  of  their  king,  wliose  personal  (jikl- 
lities,  even  when  he  was  j)r(?sent,  appeared  so 
contemptible,  and  had  left  among  hi>.  subjects 
no  principle  of  attachment  to  liim  or  his  family, 
factions,  jealousies,  and  animosities,  unavoidably 
arose  among  the  great,  and  distracted  all  th.eir 
councils.  The  elevation  of  Wallace,  thoiigh  pur- 
chased by  so  great  merit  and  such  eminent  ser- 
vices, was  the  object  of  envy  to  the  nobility,  who 
rej)ined  to  see  a  private  gentleman  raised  above 
them  by  his  rank,  and  still  more  by  his  glory  and 
reputation.  Wallace  himself,  sensible  of  their 
jealousy,  and  dreading  the  ruin  of  his  country 
from  those  intestine  discords,  voluntarily  resign- 
ed his  authority,  and  retained  only  the  conmiaud 
over  that  body  of  his  followers,  who,  being  ac- 
customed to  victory  under  his  standard,  refused 
to  follow  into  the  field  any  other  leader.  The 
chief  power  devolved  on  the  steward  oi"  Scotland, 
and  Cummin  of  Badenock  ;  men  of  eminent  birth, 
under  v.hom  the  great  chieftains  were  more  will- 
ing to  ser^'e  in  defence  of"  their  country.  The 
two  Scottish  commanders,  collecting  their  several 
forces  from  every  quarter,  fixed  their  station  at 
Falkirk,  and  purposed  there  to  abide  the  assault 
of  the  English.     Wallace  Mas  at  the  head  of  a 

o 
VOL.    II.  N  N 


546  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  12^. 

third  body,  which  acted  under  his  command. 
The  Scottish  army  placed  their  pikemen  along 
their  front :  lined  the  intervals  between  the  three 
bodies  with  archers  :  and  dreading  the  great  su- 
periority of  the  English  in  cavalry,  endeavoured 
to  secure  their  front  by  pallisadoes,  tied  together 
with  ropes  '^.  In  this  disposition  they  expected  the 
approach  of  the  enemy. 


BATTLE  OF  FALKIRK.     July  22. 

The  king,  Avhen  he  arrived  in  sight  of  the  Scots> 
was  pleased  with  the  prospect  of  being  able,  by 
one  decisive  stroke,  to  determme  the  fortune  o-f 
the  war;  and  dividing  his  army  also  into  three 
bodies,  he  led  them  to  the  attack.  The  English 
archers,  who  began  about  this  time  to  surpass 
those  of  other  nations,  first  chased  the  Scottish 
bowmen  off  the  field ;  then  pouring  in  their  ar- 
rows among  the  pikemen,  who  were  cooped  up 
within  their  intrenchments,  threw  them  into  dis- 
order, and  rendered  the  assault  of  the  English 
pikemen  and  cavalry  more  easy  and  successful. 
The  M^hole  Scottish  army  was  broken,  and  chased 
off  the  field  with  great  slaughter;  which  the  his- 
torians, attending  more  to  the  exaggerated  rela- 
tions of  the  populace  than  to  the  probability  oF 
things,  make  amount  to  fifty  or  sixty  thousand 

^  Walsing.  p,  75,     Heming .  vol,  i,  p.- 16^% 


1208:  It D WARD    I.  /547 

men*.  It  is  only  certain  that  tlic  Scots  never  suf- 
fered a  greater  loss  in  any  action,  nor  one  wliich 
seemed  to  threaten  more  inevitahlc  ruin  to  their 
country. 

In  this  general  rout  of  the  army,  Wallace's 
military  skill  and  presence  of  mind  enabled  him  to 
keep  his  troops  entire  ;  and  retiring  behind  the 
Carron,  he  n]arcr.ed  leisurely  along  the  banks  of 
that  small  river,  which  protected  him  from  the 
cnemv.  Yonno'  Bruce,  Avho  had  alrcadv  jiiven 
many  proofs  of  his  aspiring  genius,  but  who  serv- 
ed hitherto  in  the  English  army,  appeared  on  the 
opposite  banks;  and  distinguishing  the  Scottish 
chief,  as  well  by  h.s  majestic  port,  as  by  the  in- 
trepid activity  of  his  behaviour,  called  out  to  him, 
and  desired  a  sliort  conference.  He  here  repre- 
sented to  Wallace  the  fruitless  and  ruinous  enter- 
prise in  which  he  was  engaged  ;  and  endeavoured 
to  bend  his  inflexible  spirit  to  submission  under 
superior  power  and  superior  fortune  :  he  insisted 
on  the  unequal  contest  between  a  weak  state, 
deprived  of  its  head  and  agitated  by  intestine 
discord,  and  a  mighty  nation,  conducted  by  the 
ablest  and  most  martial  monarch  of  the  age,  and 
possessed  of  every  resource  either  for  protracting 
the  war,  or  for  pushing  it  uith  vigour  and  acti- 
vity: if  the  love  of  his  country  were  his  motive 
for  perseverance,    his  obstinacy  tended   only  to 

^  Walsing.  p.  76.    T,  Wykes,  p.  127.    Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  l63, 
164,  lt>5.     Tnvet,  p.  313,  says  only  20^000.     M.  West.  p.  431, 
says  40,000. 
2 


54S  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  I298. 

prolong  her  misery ;  if  he  carried  his  views  to 
private  grandeur  and  ambition,  he  might  reflect 
that,  even  if  Edward  should  withdraw  his  armies, 
it  appeared  from  past  experience,  that  so  many 
haughty  nobles,    proud   of  the  pre-eminence  of 
their  families,    would  never  submit   to  personal 
merit,  whose  superiority  they  were  less  inclined 
to  regard  as  an  object  of  admiration,   than  as  a 
reproach  and  injury  to  themselves.     To  these  ex- 
hortations Wallace  replied,  that,  if  he  had  hitherto 
acted  alone  as  the  champion  of  his  country,  it  was 
solely  because  no  second  or  competitor,  or,  what 
he  rather  wished,   no  leader,  had  yet  appeared  to 
place  himself  in  that  honourable  station :  that  the 
blame  lay  entirely  on  the  nobiHty,  and  chiefly  on 
Bruce  himself,   who,    uniting  personal  merit  to 
dio-nity  of  family,  had  deserted  the  post  which 
both  nature  and  fortune,   by  such  powerful  calls, 
invited  him  to  assume :  that  the  Scots,  possessed 
of  such  a  head,   \voukl,   by  their  unanimity  and 
•concord,    have   surmounted  the  chief  difficulty 
under  which  they  now  laboured,  and  might  hope, 
notwithstanding  their  present  losses,    to  oppose 
successfully  all  the  powers  and  abilities  of  Ed- 
ward :  that  Heaven  itself  could  not  set  a  more 
o-lorious  prize  before  the  eyes  either  of  virtue  or 
ambition,  than  to  join,  in  one  object,   the  acqui- 
sition of  royalty  with  the   defence  of  national 
independence  :  and  that  as    the  interests  of  his 
country,  more  than  those  of  a  brave  man,  could 
never  be  sincerely  cultivated  by  a  sacrifice  of  li- 


12Q9,  EDWARD    I.  5-1.0 

berty,  he  himself  was  (Icterniiiicd,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  prolong  not  her  niiseiy  hut  her  freedom, 
and  was  desirous  that  his  own  life,  as  w  ell  as  the 
existence  of  the  nation,  might  terminate,  when 
they  could  no  otherwise  be  preserved  than  by  re- 
ceiving the  chains  of  a  haughty  victor.  The  gal- 
lantry of  these  sentiments,  though  delivered  by 
an  armed  enemy,  struck  the  genertnis  mind  of 
Bruce :  the  flame  was  conveyed  from  the  breast 
of  one  hero  to  that  of  another  :  he  repented  of  his 
engagements  with  EdM-ard  ;  and  opening  his  eyes 
to  the  honourable  path  pointed  out  to  him  by  W'al- 
lace,  secretly  determined  to  seize  the  first  oppor- 
tunity of  embracing  the  cause,  however  desperate, 
of  his  oppressed  country  ^ 

The  subjection  of  Scotland,  notwithstanding 
this  great  victory  of  Edward,  was  not  yet  entirely 
completed.  The  English  army,  after  reducing 
the  southern  provinces,  was  obliged  to  retire  for 
want  of  provisions  ;  and  left  the  northern  coun- 
ties in  the  hands  of  the  natives.  The  Scots,  no 
less  enraged  at  their  present  defeat,  than  elated  by 
their  past  victories,  still  maintained  the  contest 
for  liberty;  but  being  fully  sensible  of  the  great 
inferiority  of  their  force,  they  endeavoured,  by 
applications  to  foreign  courts,  to  procure  to  them- 
selves some  assistance.  The  supplications  of  the 
Scottish  ministers  Mere   rejected  by  Philip;  but 

f  This  story  is  told  by  all  the  Scotch  writers  ;  tliough  it  must 
be  owned  that  Tvivct  and  H<-mingford,  authors  of  good  credit, 
both  asrree  that  Bruce  was  not  at  that  time  in  Edward's  army. 


550  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAKD.  nOQ. 

were  more  successful  with  the  court  of  Rome. 
Boniface,  pleased  with  an  occasion  of  exerting  his 
authority,   wrote  a  letter  to  Edward,  exhorting 
him  to  put  a  stop  to  his  oppressions  in  Scotland, 
and  displaying  all  the  proofs,  such  as  they  had 
probably  been  furnished  him  by  the  Scots  them- 
selves, for  the  ancient  independence  of  that  king- 
dom ^     Among  other  arguments,  hinted  at  above, 
he  mentioned  the  treaty  conducted  and   finished 
hy  Edward  himself,  for  the  marriage  of  his  son 
with  the  heiress  of  Scotland ;  a  treaty  which  would 
liave  been  absurd,   had  he  been  superior  lord  of 
the  kingdom,  and  had  possessed,   by  the  feudal 
law,  the  right  of  disposing  of  his  ward  in  mar- 
riage.    Pie  mentioned  several  other  striking  facts, 
which  fell  within  the  compass  of  Edward's  own 
knowledge ;    particularly  that  Alexander,    when 
he  did  homage  to  the  king,   openly  and  expressly  . 
declared  in  his  presence,  that  he  swore  fealty  not 
for  his  crown,   but  for  the  lands  which  he  held  in 
England  :  and  the  pope's  letter  might  have  passed 
for  a  reasonable  one,  had  he  not  subjoined  his 
own  claim  to  be  liege  lord  of  Scotland;  a  claim 
which  had  not  once   been  heard  of,   but  which, 
w^ith  a  singular  confidence,   he  asserted  to  be  full, 
entire,  and  derived  from  the  most  remote  anti- 
quity.    The  aflfirmative  style,  which  had  been  so 
successful  with  him  and  his  predecessors  in  spi- 
ritual contests,   was  never  before  abased  after  a 
more  egregious  manner  in  any  civil  controversy. 

«  Rymei-j  vol.  ii.  p.  844. 


I 


JJOl.  KDV.'ARD     I.  551 

The  reply,  which  Ed  ward  made  to  Boniface's 
letter,  contains  particulars  no  less  singular  and  re- 
markable ^  He  there  proves  the  superiority  of 
England  by  historical  facts,  deduced  from  the 
peiiod  of  Brutus,  the  Trojan,  who,  he  said,  found- 
ed the  British  monarchy  in  the  age  of  Eli  and 
Samuel :  he  supports  his  position  by  all  the  events 
which  passed  in  the  island  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Romans :  and  after  laying  great  stress  on  the  ex- 
tensive dominions  and  heroic  victories  of  king- 
Arthur,  he  vouchsafes  at  last  to  descend  to  the 
time  of  Edward  the  elder,  with  which,  in  liis 
speech  to  the  states  of  Scotland,  he  had  chosen 
to  begin  his  claim  of  superiority.  He  asserts  it 
to  be  a  fact,  notorious  (uid  conjirmed  by  the  records 
of  antiquity^  that  the  Englisli  monarchs  had  often 
conferred  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  on  tlieir  own 
subjects  ;  had  dethroned  these  vassal  kings  when 
unfaithful  to  them  ;  and  had  substituted  others  in 
their  stead.  He  displays  with  great  pomp  the  full 
and  complete  homage  which  William  had  done  to 
Henry  H.,  without  mentioning  the  formal  aboli- 
tion of  tliat  extorttd  deed  by  k'ng  Ricliard,  and 
tlie  renunciation  of  all  future  claims  of  the  same 
nature.  Yet  thi.».  paper  he  begins  with  a  solemn 
appeal  to  the  Almighty,  the  searcher  of  hearts, 
for  his  o\rn  firm  persuasion  of  the  justice  of  his 
i;laim  )  and  no  less  than  a  hundred  and  four  barons 

•■  Kymcr^  vol.  ii,  p.  863, 


552  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1302. 

assembled  in  parliament  at  Lincoln,  concur  in. 
maintaining  before  the  pope,  under  their  seals,  the 
validity  of  these  pretensions  \  At  the  same  time, 
however,  they  take  care  to  inform  Boniface,  that, 
though  they  had  justified  their  cause  before  him, 
they  did  not  acknowledge  him  for  their  judge ; 
they  had  sworn  to  maintain  all  its  royal  preroga- 
tives, and  ^vould  never  permit  the  king  himself, 
were  he  willing,   to  relinquish  its  independence. 

That  neglect,  almost  total,  of  truth  and  just- 
ice, which  sovereign  states  discover  in  their  trans- 
actions ,with  each  other,  is  an  evil  universal  and 
hiveterate ;  is  one  great  source  of  the  misery  to 
which  the  human  race  is  continually  exposed ; 
and  it  may  be  doubted  whether,  in  many  in- 
stances, it  be  found  in  the  end  to  contribute  to 
the  interests  of  those  princes  themselves,  who 
thus  sacrifice  their  integrity  to  their  politics.  As 
few  monarchs  have  lain  under  stronger  tempta- 
tions to  violate  the  principles  of  equity,  than  Ed- 
ward in  his  transactions  with  Scotland,  so  never 
were  they  violated  with  less  scruple  and  reserve : 
yet  his  advantages  were  hitherto  precarious  and 
uncertain ;  and  the  Scots,  once  roused  to  arms 
and  enured  to  war,  began  to  appear  a  formidable 
enemy,  even  to  this  military  and  ambitious  mo- 
narch. They  chose  John  Cummin  for  their  re- 
gent ;  and  not  content  with  maintaining  their  in- 

'  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  8/3.     Walsing.  p,  85.     Heming.  vol.   i, 
p.  186.     Trivet;,  p.  330.     M.  West.  p.  443. 


1303.  EDWARD    I.  553 

depciulcncc  in  tlie  norlhcrn  parts,  they  made  in- 
cursions into  tlie  southern  counties,  v  hich  Edward 
imagined  lie  liad  totally  subdued.  John  de  Se- 
gravc,  M  horn  he  had  Iclt  guai(han  of  Scotland, 
led  an  army  to  oppose  them  ;  and  lying  at  Roslin, 
near  Edinburgh,  sent  out  his  forces  in  three  divi- 
sions, to  provide  themselves  Asith  forage  and  sub- 
sistence from  the  neighbourhood.  One  party 
was  suddenly  attacked  by  the  regent  and  sir  Si- 
mon Eraser ;  and  being  unprepared,  was  imme- 
diately routed  and  pursued  m  ith  great  slaughter. 
The  few  that  escaped,  flying  to  the  second  divi- 
sion, gave  M  arning  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy  : 
the  soldiers  ran  to  their  arms ;  and  m  ere  imme- 
diately led  on  to  take  revenge  for  tlie  death  of 
their  countiymen.  The  Scots,  elated  with  the 
advantage  already  obtained,  made  a  vigorous  im- 
pression upon  them  :  the  English,  animated  with 
a  thirst  of  vengeance,  maintained  a  stout  resist- 
ance :  the  victory  was  long  undecided  between 
them  ;  but  at  last  declared  itself  entirely  in  favour 
of  the  former,  who  broke  the  English  and  chased 
them  to  the  third  division,  no\v  adAancing  with  a 
hasty  march  to  support  their  distressed  compa- 
nions. ^Nlany  of  the  Scots  had  fallen  in  the  two 
first  actions ;  most  of  them  were  wounded ;  and 
all  of  them  extremely  fatigued  by  the  long  con- 
tinuance of  the  combat :  yet  were  they  so  trans 
ported  with  success  and  military  rage,  that,  hav- 
ing suddenly  rccovcretl  their  order,  and  arming 
the  lollowcrs  of  their  camp  with  the  spoils  of  the 


S54  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  1303-. 

slaugliteretl  enemy,  they  diove  with  fury  upon 
the  ranks  of  the  dismayed  Enghsh.  The  favour- 
able moment  decided  tlie  battle  ;  which  the  Scots, 
had  they  met  with  a  steady  resistance,  were  not 
long  able  to  maintain:  the  English  were  chased 
off  the  field  :  three  victories  were  thus  gained  in 
one  day  ^  :  and  the  renown  of  these  great  exploits, 
seconded  by  the  ftivourable  dispositions  of  the 
people,  soon  made  the  regent  master  of  all  the 
fortresses  in  the  south ;  and  it  became  necessary 
for  Edward  to  begin  anew  the  conquest  of  the 
kingdom. 

The  king  prepared  himself  for  this  enterprise 
with  his  usual  vigour  and  abilities.  He  assembled 
both  a  great  fleet  and  a  great  army;  and  entering 
the  frontiers  of  Scotland,  appeared  with  a  force 
which  the  enemy  could  not  think  of  resisting  in 
the  open  field ;  the  English  navy,  which  sailed 
along  the  coast,  secured  the  army  from  any  dan- 
ger of  famine  :  Edward's  vigilance  preserved  it 
from  surprises :  and  by  this  prudent  disposition 
they  marched  victorious  from  one  extremity  of 
the  kingdom  to  the  other,  ravaging  the  open 
country,  reducing  all  the  castles',  and  receiving 
the  submissions  of  all  the  nobility,  even  those  of 
Cummin  the  regent.  The  most  obstinate  resist- 
ance was  made  by  the  castle  of  Brechin,  defended 
by  sir  Thomas  Maule;  and  the  place  opened  not 
its  gates,   till  the  death  of  the  governor,   by  di&r. 

•''  Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  197.  '  Ibid.  p.  205. 


1304.  EDWARD    1.  S5S 

couragino;  the  garrison,  obliged  tlicin  to  submit 
to  the  late  M'hich  had  ovcrw  hehiicd  the  rest  of 
the  kins:dom.  Wallace,  thoutih  he  attended  the 
English  army  in  their  march,  tbund  but  ivw  oj)- 
portunities  of  signalizing  that  \al()ur  w  liich  had 
formerly  made  him  so  terrible  to  his  enemies. 

Edward,  having  completed  his  conquest,  which 
employed  him  during  the  space  of  near  two  years, 
now  undertook  tlie  more  dilhcult  work  of  settling: 
the  countiy,  of  establishing  a  ncM'  form  of  go- 
vernment, and  of  making  his  acquisition  durable 
to  the  crown  of  England.  He  seems  to  have  car- 
ried matters  to  extremity  against  the  nati\es  :  he 
abrogated  all  the  Scottish  laws  and  customs  ™  :  he 
endeavoured  to  substitute  the  English  in  their 
place;  he  entirely  rased  or  destroyed  all  the  mo- 
numents of  antiquity  :  such  records  or  bistories 
as  had  escaped  his  former  search  were  now  burnt 
or  dispersed  :  and  he  hastened,  by  too  precipitate 
steps,  to  abolish  entirely  the  Scottish  name,  and 
to  sink  it  finally  in  the  English. 

Edward,  however,  still  deemed  his  favourite 
conquest  exposed  to  some  danger,  so  long  as 
Wallace  was  alive ;  and  being  prompted  both  by 
revenge  and  policy,  he  cmplo}cd  every  art  to  dis- 
cover his  retreat,  i^nd  become  master  of  his  per- 
son. At  last,  that  hardy  warrior,  mIio  Mas  de- 
termined, amidst  the  universal  slavery  of  his  coun- 
trymen, still  to  maintain  his  independency,   was 

•"  Ryley,  p.  506. 


556  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  i305, 

betrayed  into  Edu^ard's  hands  by  sir  John  Mon-^ 
teith,  his  friend,  whom  he  had  made  acquainted 
with  the  place  of  his  concealment.  The  king, 
whose  natural  bravery  and  magnanimity  should 
have  mduced  him  to  respect  like  qualities  in  an 
enemy,  enraged  at  some  acts  of  violence  commit- 
ted by  Wallace  during  the  fury  of  war,  resolved 
to  overawe  the  Scots  by  an  example  of  severity  : 
he  ordered  Wallace  to  be  carried  in  chains  to 
London  ;  to  be  tried  as  a  rebel  and  traitor,  though 
he  had  never  made  submissions,  or  sworn  fealty 
to  England ;  and  to  be  executed  on  Tower-hill. 
This  was  the  unworthy  fate  of  a  hero,  who, 
through  a  course  of  many  years,  had,  with  signal 
conduct,  intrepidity,  and  perseverance,  defended, 
against  a  public  and  oppressive  enemy,  the  liber- 
ties of  his  native  country. 

But  the  barbarous  policy  of  Edward  failed  of 
the  purpose  to  which  it  was  directed.  The  Scots, 
already  disgusted  at  the  great  innovations  intro- 
duced by  the  sword  of  a  conqueror  into  their  laws 
and  government,  were  ftirther  enraged  at  the  in- 
justice and  cruelty  exercised  upon  Wallace ;  and 
all  the  envy  which,  during  his  life-time,  had  at- 
tended that  gallant  chief,  being  now  buried  in 
his  grave,  he  was  universally  regarded  as  the 
champion  of  Scotland,  and  the  patron  of  her  ex- 
piring independency.  The  people,  inflamed  with 
resentment,  were  every  where  disposed  to  rise 
against  the  English  government ;  and  it  was  not 
long  ere  a  new  and  more  fortunate  leader  pre- 


1306.  EDWARD    I.  Sj; 

sen  ted  himself,  -svlio  conducted  them  to  libeitv, 
to  victory,  and  to  vengeance. 


ROBERT  BRUCE. 

lloEERT  Bruce,  grandson  of  that  Robert  wlio 
had  been  one  of  the  competitors  for  the  croMii, 
had  succeeded  by  his  grandfather's  and  fatlier's 
death,  to  all  their  rights  ;  and  the  demise  of  Jolm 
Baliol,  together  with  the  captivity  of  EdMard, 
eldest  son  of  that  prince,  seemed  to  open  a  full 
career  to  the  genius  and  ambition  of  this  young 
nobleman.  He  saw  that  the  Scots,  when  the  title 
to  their  crown  had  expired  in  the  males  of  their 
ancient  royal  family,  had  been  divided  into  parties 
nearly  equal  betMcen  the  houses  of  Bruce  and 
Baliol ;  and  that  every  incident,  which  had  since 
happened,  had  tended  to  wean  them  from  any 
attachment  to  the  latter.  The  slender  capacity 
of  John  had  proved  unable  to  defend  them  against 
their  enemies  :  he  had  meanly  resigned  his  crown 
into  the  hands  of  the  conqueror :  he  had,  before 
his  deliverance  from  captivity,  reiterated  that  re- 
signation in  a  manner  seemingly  voluntary;  and 
had  in  that  deed  thrown  out  many  reflexions  ex- 
tremely dishonourable  to  his  ancient  subjects, 
whom  he  publicly  called  tiaitois,  ruffians,  and 
rebels,  and  wilh  Mhom  he  dechued  he  was  de- 
termined to  maintain  no  farther  correspondence": 

"  Brady's  Hist.  vol.  ii,  App.  No.  2/. 


556  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1306. 

he  liad,  during  the  time  of  his  exile,  adhered 
strictly  to  that  resokition ;  and  his  son,  being  a 
prisoner,  seemed  ill  qualified  to  revive  the  rights, 
now  fully  abandoned,  of  his  family.  Bruce  there- 
fore hoped  that  the  Scots,  so  long  exposed  from 
the  want  of  a  leader  to  the  oppressions  of  their 
enemies,  would  unanimously  fly  to  his  standard, 
and  would  seat  him  on  the  vacant  throne,  to 
which  he  brought  such  plausible  pretensions.  His 
aspiring  spirit,  inflamed  by  the  fervour  of  youth, 
and  buoyed  up  by  his  natural  courage,  saw  the 
glory  alone  of  the  enterprise,  or  regarded  the  pro- 
digious difficulties  which  attended  it,  as  the  source 
only  of  farther  glory.  The  miseries  and  oppres- 
sions which  he  had  beheld  his  countrymen  suflPer 
in  their  unequal  contest ;  the  repeated  defeats  and 
misfortunes  which  they  had  undergone;  proved 
to  him  so  many  incentives  to  bring  them  relief, 
and  conduct  them  to  vengeance  against  the 
haughty  victor.  The  circumstances  which  at- 
tended Bruce's  first  declaration  are  variously  re- 
lated ;  but  we  shall  rather  follow  the  account 
given  by  the  Scottish  historians ;  not  that  their 
authority  is  in  general  anywise  comparable  to  that 
of  the  English,  but  because  they  maybe  supposed 
sometimes  better  informed  concerning  facts  which 
so  nearly  interested  their  own  nation. 

Bruce,  who  had  long  harboured  in  his  breast 
the  design  of  freeing  his  enslaved  country,  ven- 
tured at  last  to  open  his  mind  to  John  Cummin,  a 
powerful  nobleman,   with  whom  he  lived  in  strict 


130(3.  EDVv'ARD    I.  i^5(f 

intimacy.  lie  fouiifl  his  tViciid,  iis  lie  imai^ined, 
fully  possessed  with  tiie  bume  sentiments  ;  and  lie 
needed  to  enij)loy  no  arts  of  persuasion,  to  make 
him  embrace  the  resolution  of  th,rov\  ing  oif,  ou 
the  first  favourable  opportunity,  ihe  usurped  do 
minion  of  the  Eni>;lis]i.  Jjut  on  the  departure  of 
Bruce,  who  attended  Echvard  to  London,  Cum- 
min, o  lu)  either  had  all  along  dissembled  w  ith  h-m, 
or  began  to  redect  more  coolly  in  his  absence  on 
the  desperate  nature  of  his  undertaking,  lesolved 
to  atone  for  his  crime  in  assenting  to  this  rebel- 
lion, by  the  merit  of  revcahng  the  secret  to  the 
king  of  England.  Edward  did  not  immediately 
conanit  Bruce  to  custody ;  because  lie  intended 
at  the  same  tune  to  seize  his  three  brothers,  who 
resided  in  Scotland  ;  and  he  contented  himself 
with  secretly  setting  spies  upon  him,  and  ordering 
all  his  motions  to  be  strictly  watched.  A  noble- 
man of  Edward's  court,  Bruce's  intimate  IViend, 
was  apprized  of  his  danger ;  but  not  daring,  amidst 
so  many  jealous  eyes,  to  hold  any  conversation 
with  him,  he  fell  on  an  expedient  to  give  him 
warninu',  that  it  was  full  time  he  should  make  his 
escape,  lie  sent  him  by  his  servant  a  pair  of  gilt 
spurs,  and  a  purse  of  gold,  v^hich  he  j)retended  to 
have  borrowed  from  him;  and  left  it  to  the  saga- 
city of  his  friend  to  discover  the  meaning  of  the 
present.  Bruce  immediately  contrived  the  means 
of  his  escape ;  and  as  the  ground  Mas  at  that  time 
covered  with  snow,  he  had  the  ])recaution,  it  is 
said,  to  order  his  horses  to  be  shod  with  their 


5€0  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  1306. 

shoes  inverted,  that  he  might  deceive  those  who 
should  track  his  path  over  the  open  fields  or  cross 
roads,  through  which  he  purposed  to  traveL  He 
arrived  in  a  few  days  at  Dumfries  in  Annandale, 
the  chief  seat  of  his  family  interest ;  and  he  hap- 
pily found  a  great  number  of  the  Scottish  nobility 
there  assembled,  and  among  the  rest,  John  Cum- 
min, his  former  associate. 

The  noblemen  were  astonished  at  the  appear- 
ance of  Bruce  among  them ;  and  still  more  when 
he  discovered  to  them  the  object  of  his  journey. 
He  told  them  that  he  was  come  to  live  or  die  with 
them  in  defence  of  the  hberties  of  his  country, 
and  hoped,  with  their  assistance,  to  redeem  the 
Scottish  name  from  all  the  indignities  which  it 
had  so  long  suffered  from  the  tyranny  of  their 
imperious  masters  :  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  rights 
of  his  family  was  the  first  injury  which  had  pre- 
pared the  v/ay  for  their  ensuing  slavery ;  and  by 
resuming  them,  which  was  his  firm  purpose,  he 
opened  to  them  the  joyful  prospect  of  recovering 
from  the  fraudulent  usurper  their  ancient  and  he- 
reditary independence :  that  all  past  misfortunes 
had  proceeded  from  their  disunion  ;  and  they 
would  soon  appear  no  less  formidable  than  of  old 
to  their  enemies,  if  they  now  deigned  to  follow 
into  the  field  their  rightful  prince,  who  knew  no 
medium  between  death  and  victory :  that  their 
mountains,  and  their  valour,  which  had,  during 
so  many  ages,  protected  their  liberty  from  all  the 
eiForts  of  the  Roman  empire,  would  still  be  suf- 


13t)6.  EDWARD    f.  Jffi 

iicient,  were  tlicy  wortliy  of  tlicir  geiurous  an- 
cestors, to  defend  them  against  the  utmost  vio- 
lence of  tlie  Enghsh  tyrant:  that  it  Mas  unhe- 
coming  men,  born  to  tlie  mo^t  ancient  independ- 
ence Ivnown  in  Europe,  to  suhmit  to  tlie  will  of 
any  masters  ;  but  fatal  to  receive  those  who,  being 
irritated  by  such  persevering  resistance,  and  in- 
flamed M'ith  the  hrgliest  animosity,  would  never 
deem  themselves  secure  in  their  usurped  dominion, 
but  by  exterminating  all  the  ancient  nobility,  and 
even  all  the  ancient  inhabitants :  and  that,  being 
reduced  to  this  desperate  extremity,  it  were  bet- 
ter for  them  at  once  to  perish,  like  brave  men, 
with  swords  in  tlieir  hands,  than  to  dread  long, 
and  at  last  undergo,  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate 
Wallace,  Avhose  merits,  in  the  brave  and  obsti- 
nate defence  of  his  country,  were  finally  rew  ard- 
ed  by  the  hands  of  an  English  executioner. 

The  spirit  with  which  this  discourse  was  de- 
livered, the  bold  sentiments  which  it  conveyed, 
the  novelty  of  Bruce's  declaration,  assisted  by  the 
graces  of  his  youth  and  manly  deportment,  made 
deep  impression  on  the  minds  of  his  audience,  and 
roused  all  those  principles  of  indignation  and  re- 
venge with  which  they  had  long  been  secretly 
actuated.  The  Scottish  nobles  declared  their 
unanimous  resolution  to  use  the  utmost  elforts  in 
delivering  their  country  from  l)ondage,  and  to 
second  the  courage  of  Bruce,  in  asserting  his  and 
their  un(lou])te(l  rights  against  their  common  op- 
pressors. Cunmiin  alone,  who  had  secretly  taken 
VOL.  ir.  o   o 


5§2  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1306. 

his  measures  with  the  king,  opposed  this  general 
determination  ;    and    hy    i  epresenting    the  great 
power  of  England,  governed  by  a  prince  of  such 
uncommon  vigour  and  abilities,  he  endeavoured 
to  set  before  them  the  certain  destruction  wliich 
they  must  expect,  if  they  again  violated   their 
oaths  of  fealty,   and  shook  off  tlieir  allegiance  to 
the  victorious  Edvv^ard  °.     Bruce,  already  apprised 
of  his  treachery,   and  foreseeing  the  certain  fail- 
ure of  ail  his  own  schemes  of  ambition  and  glory 
from  the  opposition  of  so  potent  a  leader,   took 
immediately  his  resolution;  and  moved  partly  by 
resentment,  partly  by  policy,   followed  Cimnnin 
on  the  dissolution  of  the  assembly,   attacked  him 
in  the  cloysters  of  the  Grey  Friars,  through  which 
he  passed,   and  running  him  through  the   body, 
left  him  for  dead.     Sir  Thomas  Kirkpatric,  one  of 
Bruce's  friends,  asking  him  soon  after  if  the  traitor 
was    slain  ;  /  believe  so,  replied   Bruce,      ^rid  is 
that  a  matter,  cried  Kirkpatric,  to  be  lej't  to  con- 
jecture ?  I  will  sccia^e  him.     Upon  v/hicli  he  drew 
his  dagger,   ran  to  Cummin,   and  stabbed  him  to 
the  heart.     This  deed  of  Bruce  and  his  associates, 
which  contains  circumstances  justly   condemned 
by  our  present  manners,  was  regarded  in  that  age 
as  an  effort  of  manly  vigour  and  just  policy.    The 
family  of  Kirkpatric  took  for  the  crest  of  their 
arms,  which  they  still  wear,  a  hand  with  a  bloody 
dagger;  and  chose  for  their  motto  these  words, 

•  M.  West.  p.  453, 


i:K)0".  EDWARD    I.  563 

/  ivill  secure  him  ;  llie  expression  cnii)loye(l  by 
tlieir  ancestor  when  lie  executed  that  violent 
action. 


THIRD  REVOLT  OF  SCOTLAND. 

The  murder  of  Cummin  allixcd   tlic  seal   to  tlie 
conspiracy  of  the  Scottish  nobles:  they  bad  now 
no  resource  left  but  to  shake  oft"  the  yoke  of  Eng- 
land,  or  to  perish  in  the  attempt :  the  genius  of 
tlie  nation  roused  itself  from  its  present  dejection: 
and  Bruce,  flying  to  diiierent  (juarters,  excited  his 
partisans  to  arms,   attacked  with  success  the  dis- 
persed bodies  of  the  English,   got  possession  of 
many  of  the  castles,  and  having  made  his  author- 
ity be  acknowledged  in  most  parts  of  the   king- 
dom, was  solemnly  crowned  antl  inaugurated  in     | 
the  abbey  of  Scone  by  the  bishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
v.ho  had  zealously  embraced  his  cause.     The  Eng- 
lish v.ere  again  chased  out  of  the  kingdom,   ex- 
cept such  as  took  shelter  in  the  fortresses  that  still 
remained  in  their  hands;  and  Edward  found  that 
the  Scots,  twice  conquered  in  his  reign,  and  often 
defeated,   must  yet  be  anew  subdued.      Not  dis- 
couraged with  these  unexpected   difficulties,   he 
sent  Aymcr  de  Valence  \\\{\\  a  considerable  force 
into  Scotland,   to  check  the  ])rogress  of  the  mal- 
contents ;  and  that  nobleman  falling  unexj^ectedly 
upon  Bruce  at  JNiethvcn  in  Perthshire,   threw  his 
9. 


56i  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND.  1307. 

army  into  such  disorder  as  ended  in  a  total  defeat^. 
Bruce  fought  with  the  most  heroic  courage,  was 
thrice  dismounted  in  the  action,  and  as  often  re- 
covered himself,  hut  was  at  last  ohliged  to  yield 
to  superior  fortune,  and  take  shelter,  with  a  i'ew 
followers,  in  the  western  isles.  The  earl  of  Athole, 
sir  Simon  Fraser,  and  sir  Christopher  Seton,  Avho 
had  been  taken  prisoners,  were  ordered  by  Ed- 
ward to  be  executed  as  rebels  and  traitors  %  Many 
other  acts  of  rigour  Avere  exercised  by  him ;  and 
that  prince,  vowing  revenge  against  the  M'hole 
Scottish  nation,  whom  he  deemed  incorrigible  in 
their  aversion  to  his  government,  assembled  a  great 
army,  and  Avas  preparing  to  enter  the  frontiers, 
secure  of  success,  and  determined  to  make  the  de- 
fenceless Scots  the  victims  of  his  severity ;  when 
he  unexpectedly  sickened  and  died  near  Carlisle ; 
enjoining  with  his  last  breath  his  son  and  successor 
to  prosecute  the  enterprise,  and  never  to  desist 
till  he  had  finally  subdued  the  kingdom  of  Scot- 
land. He  expired  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  his 
age,  and  the  thirty-fifth  of  his  reign,  hated  by 
his  neighbours,  but  extremely  respected  and  re- 
vered by  his  own  subjects. 


''  Walsing.  p.  91,    Heming.  vol.  i.  p.  222,  223.   Trivet,  p.  344. 
"  Hemiog.  vol.  i.  p.  223.    M.  West.  p.  456. 


no;.  EDWARD    I.  565 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  KING. 

The  enterprises  finished  1)}-  this  prince,  and  the 
projects  wliich  he  formed,  and  brought  near  to  a 
conchision,  were  more  prudent,  more  regularly 
conducted,  and  more  advantageous  to  the  solid 
interests  of  his  kingdom,  than  those  Avhich  were 
undertaken  in  any  reign,  either  of  liis  ancestors 
or  his  successors.  He  restored  authority  to  the 
government,  disordered  by  the  weakness  of  his. 
father;  he  maintained  the  laws  against  all  the 
eiforts  of  his  turbulent  barons;  he  fully  annexed 
to  his  crown  the  principality  of  Wales ;  he  took 
many  wise  and  vigorous  measures  for  reducing 
Scotland  to  a  like  condition  ;  and  though  the 
equity  of  this  latter  enterprise  ma}'  reasonably  be 
questioned,  the  circumstances  of  the  two  king- 
doms promised  such  certain  success,  and  the  ad- 
vantage was  so  visible  of  uniting  the  whole  island 
under  one  head,  that  those  who  give  great  indulg- 
ence to  reasons  of  state  in  the  meabures  of  princes 
will  not  be  apt  to  regard  this  part  of  his  conduct 
with  much  severity.  Ijut  Edward,  however  ex- 
ceptionable his  character  may  appear  on  the  head 
of  justice,  is  the  model  of  a  politic  and  warlike 
king :  he  possessed  industry,  penetration,  courage, 
vigilance,  and  enterprise  :  lie  was  frugal  in  alibis 
expences  that  were  not  necessary;  he  knew  how 
to  open  the  pul)lic  treasures  on  a  proper  occasion; 


566  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1307. 

he  punished  criminals  -with  severity  ;  he  Avas  gra- 
cious and  affable  to  his  servants  and  courtiers;  and 
being  of  a  majestic  figure,  expert  in  all  military 
exercises,  and  in  the  main  well-proportioned  in 
his  limbs,  notwithstanding  the  great  length  and 
the  smallness  of  his  legs,  he  was  as  well  qualified 
to  captivate  the  populace  by  his  exterior  appear- 
ance, as  to  gain  the  approbation  of  men  of  sense 
by  his  more  solid  virtues. 


MISCELLANEOUS  TRANSACTIONS  OF   THIS 
KEIGN. 

But  the  chief  advantage  which  the  people  of  Eng- 
land reaped,  and  still  continue  to  reap,  from  the 
reign  of  this  great  prince,  was  the  correction, 
extension,  amendment,  and  establishment,  of  the 
laws,  which  Edward  maintained  in  great  vigour, 
and  left  much  improved  to  posterity  :  for  the  acts 
of  a  wise  legislator  commonly  remain,  while  the 
acquisitions  of  a  conqueror  often  perish  with  him. 
This  merit  has  justly  gained  to  Edward  the  appel- 
lation of  the  English  Justinian.  Not  only  the 
numerous  statutes  passed  in  his  reign  touch  the 
chief  points  of  jurisprudence,  and,  according  to 
sir  Edward  Coke  %  truly  deserve  the  name  of  es- 
tablishments, because  they  were  more  constant, 
standing,  and  durable  laws  than  any  made  since ; 

*■  Institute,  p.  156. 


130/.  KDW'AKD     I.  567 

but  the  regular  order  maintaiiu-d  in  his  adinini- 
stration  gave  an  opportunity  to  the  conmion  law 
to  refine  itself,  and  brought  tlic  judges  to  a  cer- 
tainty in  their  dcternnnations,  and  tl.e  lawycis  to 
a  precision  in  their  pleadings.  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
has  remarked  the  sudden  improvement  of  English 
law  during  this  reign;  aiul  \cntures  to  assert, 
that  till  his  own  time  it  had  never  reeei\cd  any 
considerable  increase".  Edward  settled  the  juris- 
diction of  the  several  courts ;  first  established  the 
office  of  justice  of  peace  ;  abstaii^.ed  from  the  prac- 
tice, too  common  before  him,  of  interrupting  jus- 
tice by  mandates  from  the  j)rivy-councii ' ;  re- 
pressed robberies  and  disorders";  encouraged 
trade,  by  giving  merchants  an  easy  method  of 
recovering  their  debts'*' ;  and  in  short,  introduced 
a  new  face  of  thinii-s  bv  tlie  vii>'our  and  wisdom  of 
liis  administration.  As  law  began  now  to  be  mcU 
established,  the  abuse  of  that  blessing  began  also 
to  be  remarked.  Instead  of  their  former  associa- 
tions for  robbery  and  violence,   men  entered  into 

'  History  of  the  English  Law,  p.  158,  l63. 
'  Articuli  super  Cart.  cap.  6.  Edward  enacted  a  Inw  to  this 
purpose ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  observed  it.  We 
are  sure  that  scarcely  any  of  his  successors  did.  The  multitude 
of  these  letters  of  protection  were  the  ground  of  a  complaint  by 
the  commons  in  3  Edward  II.  See  Ryley,  p.  525.  Tliis  prac- 
tice was  declared  illegal  by  the  statute  of  Northampton,  passed  in 
the  second  of  Edward  III.,  but  it  still  continued,  like  many  other 
abuses.  There  arc  instances  of  it  so  late  as  the  reign  of  queen 
Elizabeth. 

"  Statute  of  Wiulon.  *  Statute  of  Acton  Burnel. 


568  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND.  130;. 

formal  combinations  to  support  each  other  in  law- 
suits; audit  was  found  requisite  to  check  this 
iniquity  by  act  of  parliament  \ 

There  happened  in  this  reign  a  considerable 
alteration  in  the  execution  of  the  laws  :  the  king 
abolished  the  office  of  chief  justiciary,  which  he 
thought  possessed  too  much  power,  and  was  dan- 
gerous to  the  crown  ^ :  he  completed  the  division 
of  the  court  of  exchequer  into  fur  distinct  courts, 
which  managed  each  its  several  branch,  without 
dependence  on  any  one  magistrate ;  and  as  the 
lawyers  afterwards  invented  a  method,  by  means 
of  their  fictions,  of  carrying  business  from  one 
court  to  another,  the  several  courts  became  rivals 
and  checks  to  each  other ;  a  circumstance  which 
tended  much  to  improve  the  practice  of  the  law 
in  England. 

But  though  Edward  appeared  thus,  through- 
out his  whole  reign,  a  friend  to  law  and  justice, 
it  cannot  be  said  that  he  was  an  enemy  to  arbi- 
trary poM'er ;  and  in  a  government  more  regular 
and  legal  than  was  that  of  England  in  his  age, 
such  practices  as  those  which  may  be  remarked  in 
his  administration,  would  have  given  sufficient 
ground  of  complaint,  and  sometimes  were,  even 
in  his  age,  the  object  of  general  displeasure.  The 
violent  plunder  and  banishment  of  the  Jews;  the 
putting  of  the  whole  clergy  at  once,  and  by  an 

*  Statute  of  Conspirators. 
^  Spelman  Gloss,  in  verbo  Justiciarius.     Gilbert's  Hist,  of  the 
Exchequer,  p.  8. 


1307.  EDWARD    I.  SGg 

arbitrary  edict,  out  of  the  j)i()tcctic)n  of  the  law; 
the  seizing-  of  all  the  mooI  and  leather  of  the 
kingdom  ;  the  heightening  of  the  iii'po-^itions  on 
tlie  former  valuable  commodity ;  the  new  and 
illegal  commission  of  Trailbaston  ;  the  taking  of 
all  the  money  and  plate  of  monasteries  and 
churches,  even  before  he  had  any  quairel  with  the 
clergy  ;  the  subjecting  of  every  man  possessed  of 
twenty  pounds  a  year  to  military  service,  tliough 
not  bound  to  it  by  his  tenure  ;  his  ^■isible  re- 
luctjnce  to  confirm  the  Great  Charter,  as  if  that 
concession  had  no  validity  from  the  deeds  of  his 
predecessors;  the  captious  clause  which  he  at  last 
annexed  to  his  confirmation  ;  his  procuring  of  the 
pope's  dispensation  from  tlie  oaths  mIiIcIi  he  had 
taken  to  observe  the  charter;  and  his  le\ying  of 
talliages  at  discretion  even  after  the  statute,  or 
rather  charter,  by  which  he  had  renounced  that 
prerogative  ;  these  are  so  many  demonstrations  of 
his  arbitrary  disposition,  and  prove  Mitli  what  ex- 
ception and  reserve  \vc  ought  to  celebrate  liis  love 
of  justice.  He  took  care  that  his  subjects  should 
do  justice  to  each  other;  but  he  desired  ahvays 
to  have  his  own  hands  free  in  all  his  transactions, 
both  with  them  and  with  his  neighbours. 

The  chief  obstacle  to  the  execution  of  justice 
in  those  times  was  the  poMcr  nf  the  great  barons  ; 
and  Edward  was  perfectly  {jualified,  by  his  eha- 
racter  and  abilities,  for  keeping  these  tyrants  in 
awe,  and  restraining  their  illegal  practices.  This 
salutary  purpose  \\'as  accordingly  the  great  object 


570  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1307- 

of  his  attention  ;  yet  was  he  imprudently  led  into 
a  measure  which  tended  to  increase  and  confirm 
their  dangerous  authority.  He  passed  a  statute 
which,  by  allowing  them  to  entail  their  estates, 
made  it  impracticable  to  diminish  the  property  of 
the  great  families,  and  left  them  every  means  of 
increase  and  acquisition '. 

Edward  observed  a  contrary  policy  with  regard 
to  the  church :  he  seems  to  have  been  the  first 
Christian  prince  that   passed   a  statute  of  mort- 
main ;    and    prevented    by  law  the   clergy  from 
making  new  acquisitions  of  lands,   which  by  the 
ecclesiastical  canons  they  Mere  for  ever  prohibited 
from  alienating.      The  opposition    between    his 
maxims  with  regard  to   the  nobility  and  to  the 
ecclesiastics,  leads  us  to  conjecture   that  it  was 
onlv  by  ciiance  he  passed  the  beneficial  statute  of 
mortmain,  and  that  his  sole  object  was  to  maintain 
the  number  of  knight's  fees,  and  to  prevent  the 
superiors  from  being  defrauded  of  the  profits  of 
wardship,    marriage,     livery,    and    other   emolu- 
ments arising  from  the  feudal   tenures.     This  is 
indeed   the  reason  assigned  in  the  statute  itself, 
and  appears  to  have  been  his  real  object  in  enact- 
ing it.     The   author  of  the  Annals  of  Waverly 
ascribes  this  act  chiefly  to  the  king's  anxiety  for 
maintaining  the   military  force  of  the  kingdom ; 
but  adds,   that  he  was  mistaken  in  his  purpose  ;  for 
that  the  Amalekiles  were  overcome  more  by  the 

^  Brady  of  Boroughs,  p.  25,  from  the  Records. 


U07.  EDWARD    1.  3;i 

prayers  of  I\fo.scs  than  by  the  sword  ot"  the 
Israelites*.  Tlic  statute  of  mortmain  was  often 
evaded  afterwards  I)y  the  inscntion  o\'  u.scs. 

Edward  was  active  in  restraining'  the  usurpa- 
tions of  the  church  ;  and,  excepting  his  aidour 
for  crusades,  which  adliered  to  him  during  his 
•whole  life,  seems  in  other  respects  to  have  heeu 
little  infected  with  superstition,  the  vice  chiefly 
of  weak  minds.  But  the  passion  for  crusades  was 
really  in  that  age  the  passion  for  glory.  As  the 
pope  now  felt  himself  somewhat  more  restrained 
in  his  former  practice  of  pillaging  tlie  several 
churches  in  Europe,  by  laying  impositions  upon 
them,  lie  permitted  the  generals  of  particular 
orders,  who  resided  at  Rome,  to  levy  taxes  on 
the  convents  subjected  to  their  jurisdiction  ;  and 
Edward  was  obliged  to  enact  a  law  against  this 
new  abuse.  It  was  also  become  a  practice  of  the 
court  of  Rome  to  provide  successors  to  benefices 
before  they  became  vacant :  Edward  found  it 
likewise  necessary  to  prevent  by  hnv  this  sj)ecies 
of  injustice. 

The  tribute  of  1000  marks  a  year,  to  which 
king  John,  in  doing  homage  to  the  pope,  had  sub- 
jected the  kingdom,  had  been  pretty  regularly 
paid  since  his  time,  though  the  vassalage  was 
constantly  denied,  and,  indeed,  for  fear  of  giving 
offence,  had  been  but  little  insisted  on.  The 
paj'ment  was  called  by  a  new  name  nWc/i.sus^  not 

*  P.  234.     Sec  also  M.  West.  p.  409. 


57'1  HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND.  1307- 

by  that  of  tribute.  King  Edward  seems  to  have 
always  paid  this  money  with  great  reluctance, 
and  he  suifered  the  arrears  at  one  time  to  run  on 
for  six  years ^,  at  another  for  eleven'':  but  as 
princes  in  that  age  stood  continually  in  need  of 
the  pope's  good  offices,  for  dispensations  of  mar- 
riage and  for  other  concessions,  the  court  of  Rome 
always  found  means,  sooner  or  later,  to  catch  the 
money.  The  levying  of  first  fruits  was  also  a 
new  device  begun  in  this  reign,  by  which  hi^ 
holiness  thrust  his  fingers  very  frequently  into  the 
purses  of  the  faithful ;  and  the  king  seems  to  have 
unwarily  given  way  to  it. 

In  the  former  reign  the  taxes  had  been  partly 
scutages,  partly  such  a  proportional  part  of  the 
moveables  as  was  granted  by  parliament :  in  this 
scutages  Avere  entirely  dropped ;  and  the  assess- 
ment on  moveables  was  the  chief  method  of 
taxation.  Edward  in  his  fourth  year  had  a 
fifteenth  granted  him  ;  in  his  fifth  year  a  twelfth ; 
in  his  eleventh  year  a  thirtieth  from  the  laitj^,  a 
twentieth  from  the  clergy  ;  in  his  eighteenth  year 
a  fifteenth ;  in  his  twenty-second  year  a  tenth 
from  the  laity,  a  sixth  from  London  and  other 
corporate  towns,  half  of  their  benefices  from  the 
clergy ;  in  his  twenty-third  year  an  eleventh  from 
the  barons  and  others,  a  tenth  from  the  clergy, 
a  seventh  from  the  burgesses ;  in  his  twenty- 
fourth  year  a  twelfth  from  the  barons  and  others, 

*  Rymor,  vol.  ii.  p.  77,  I07.  «  Ibid.  p.  8^2. 


130/.  ED-.VAUD    1.  573 

ail  eighth  from  tlu;  burgesses,  iVoni  tlie  cU'igy 
notliiiig,  because  of  the  pope's  inhibition  ;  in  liis 
twcnty-lifth  year  an  eightli  from  tlie  laity,  a  tentli 
from  the  clergy  of  Canterbury,  a  fiftli  from  tlio.>o 
of  York ;  in  his  twenty-nintli  year  a  fifteenth 
from  the  laity,  on  account  of  his  confirming  the 
perambulations  of  the  forests  ;  the  clergy  granted 
nothing;  in  his  thirty-third  year,  first  a  thirtieth 
from  the  barons  and  others,  and  a  twentieth 
from  the  burgesses,  then  a  fifteenth  from  all  his 
subjects;  in  his  thirty-fourth  year  a  thirtieth  from 
all  his  subjects  for  knighting  his  eldest  son. 

These  taxes  were  moderate  ;  but  the  king  had 
also  duties  upon  exportation  and  importation 
granted  him  from  time  to  time  :  the  heaviest  were 
commonly  upon  wool.  Poundage,  or  a  shilling 
a  pound,  was  not  regularly  granted  the  kings  for 
life  till  the  reign  of  Henry  V. 

In  1296  the  famous  mercantile  society,  called 
the  Merchant  Adventurers^  had  its  fust  origin : 
it  was  instituted  for  the  improvement  of  the 
woollen  manufacture,  and  the  vending  of  the 
cloth  abroad,  particularly  at  Antwerp '^.  For  the 
English  at  this  time  scarcely  thought  of  any  more 
distant  commerce. 

This  king  granted  a  charter  or  declaration  of 
protection  and  privileges  to  foreign  merchants, 
and  also  ascertained  the  customs  or  duties  \\hich 
those  merchants  were  in  return  to  pa}'  on  mer- 

*  Anderson's  History  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.  p.  1^7. 


574  HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND.  I3t)^. 

cliandise  imported  and  exported.  He  promised 
tliem  security;  allowed  them  a  jury  on  trials, 
consisting  half  of  natives,  half  of  foreigners;  and 
appointed  them  a  justiciary  in  London  for  their 
protection.  But  notwithstanding  this  seeming 
attention  to  foreign  merchants,  Edward  did  not 
free  them  from  the  cruel  hardship  of  making  one 
answerable  for  the  debts,  and  even  for  the  crimes, 
of  another  tliat  came  from  the  same  country''. 
We  read  of  such  practices  among  the  present 
barbarous  nations.  The  king  also  imposed  on 
them  a  duty  of  two  shillings  on  each  tun  of  wine 
imported,  over  and  above  the  old  duty  ;  and  forty 
pence  on  each  sack  of  w  ool  exported,  besides  half 
a  mark  the  former  duty^. 

In  the  year  1303  the  Exchequer  was  robbed, 
and  of  no  less  a  sum  than  100,000  pounds,  as  is 
pretended  ^  The  abbot  and  monks  of  West- 
minster were  indicted  for  this  robbery,  but  ac- 
quitted. It  does  not  appear  that  the  king  ever 
discovered  the  criminals  with  certainty ;  though 
his  indignation  fell  on  the  society  of  Lombard 
merchants,  particularly  the  Erescobaldi,  very 
opulent  Florentines. 

The  pope  having  in  1307  collected  much  mo- 
ney in  England,  the  king  enjoined  the  nuncio  not 
to  export  it  in  specie,  but  in  bills  of  exchange  \ 

•"  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.  p.  140. 
^Rymer,  vol.  iv.  p.  36l.     It  is  the  charter  of  Edw.  I.  which 
is  tliere  confirmed  by  Ed\v.  III. 

*  Rymer,  vol.  ii.  p.  930.  '^  Ibid.  p.  1092. 


1307.  EDWARD     I.  57  J 

A  proof  tluit  commerce  ums  but  ill  iiiKlcrslood  at 
that  time. 

Edward  liad  by  his  first  wifc,Elcaiior  of  Castile, 
four  sons;  but  Edward,  his  heir   and  succes.s(;r, 
was  the  only  one  that   survived   liim.     She  also 
bore  him  eleven  daughters,  most  of  whom  died  in 
their  in faiic}':   of  the  surviving,  Joan  Masmariicd 
first  to  the  earl  of  Glocester,   and  after  his  death 
to   Ralpli   de    Monthermer :    Margaret    espoused 
John  duke  of  Brabant:  Elizabeth   espoused  fust 
John  earl  of  liolland,   and  afterwards  the  earl  of 
Hereford  :   INIary  was  a  nun  at  Ambresbury.      He 
had  by  his  second  wife  Margaret  of  France,   two 
sons   and  a  daugh.ter ;    Thomas    created   carl   of 
Norfolk,   and   Alareschal   of  England  ;  and  Ed- 
mond,    who   was   created   earl   of   Kent   by   his 
brother  when    king.     The   princess  died  in  her 
infancy. 


i:nd  of  the  second  volume. 


Thomas  Davison,  Printer, 
White-friars. 


BINDING  LIST 


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Hume ,   David 

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