FROM THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE BEQUEST OF 
 
 lyibrarian of the University 1868-1883 
 1905 . 
 
 ^.13±%^P. .iiL.>M'-t 
 
THE SCHOLAR'S 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 VOL. V 
 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK 
 TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY 
 
 HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A. 
 
 PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 
GENESIS OF LANCASTER 
 
 OR THE THREE REIGNS 
 OF EDJVARD H, EDl^l^ARD HI, AND RICHARD // 
 
 1307—1399 
 
 Sir JAMES H. RAMSAY of Bamff 
 
 LL.D., LiTT.D. 
 
 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOLUME 1 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 
 J9LS 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088007848 
 
PREFACE 
 
 With these two volumes I offer the fifth and last 
 instalment of my work. I hope that it may be found 
 as useful, and meet with as friendly a reception as the 
 previous issues. I claim at any rate to have laid before 
 the pubhc a fully-referenced general history of England, 
 from the earliest times to the accession of the House of 
 Tudor. Till now a work of that description could only 
 be found in a foreign tongue ; a general history, I say, 
 because for internal affairs the Constitutional History of 
 Bishop Stubbs stands alone. My obligations to him will 
 be found to be acknowledged at every step, with a frank- 
 ness that has not always been shown by those who have 
 borrowed his ideas. My work, however, like his, may lay 
 claim to the advantage of being the product of one single 
 pen, on a consistent and uniform plan throughout, without 
 incongruity of theories, or overlapping of matter. The 
 writer having had the whole story through his hands can 
 take a comprehensive survey, and lead the reader back- 
 wards or forwards, as the case may be, for contrast or 
 comparison, better than one whose attention has been 
 concentrated on a single reign or epoch. 
 
 The scheme of my work, as based throughout on a 
 personal study of the original authorities, while taking 
 full account of all recent sidelights and illustrations, has 
 been explained in Prefaces to previous issues, and may 
 be said to be now too well known to need further explana- 
 tion. I follow, no doubt, a path that has been made 
 plain by the labours of previous investigators ; but, 
 nevertheless, there are interesting facts and touches of life 
 and colour to be picked up by one not too much pinched 
 for room. My aim is to give the reader something of 
 a picture of the times and the people as they were — so 
 closely related to us but yet so different. Under two 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 distinct heads I claim to have brought to light a con- 
 siderable arraj' of drier facts never before communicated 
 to the pubUc ; and, so far, to have laid our knowledge 
 on a firmer basis. I refer, of course, to miUtary affairs 
 and domestic finance. 
 
 In connexion with the former subject I have visited 
 the scenes of all the more important engagements, and 
 I offer plans with details marked on the spot. The sites 
 of Bannockburn and of Crecy have never been in doubt ; 
 the numbers of those engaged, and the tactics of the 
 contending parties, being the points on which writers 
 have differed. The site of the battle of Poitiers had 
 never been determined, except within certain very general 
 limits. My investigations on the spot I found most 
 instructive, enabling me to fix a site in entire accord with 
 the accounts of the day, a site fully accounting for the 
 success of the Enghsh, while doing justice to the chivalry of 
 the French. In the same connexion I continue my attacks 
 on chroniclers' figures ; and I still struggle to bring 
 scholars and the general public to a better appreciation 
 of their untrustworthiness, and a realization of the very 
 modest dimensions of all things mediaeval except the 
 castles and the cathedrals. With our own more recent 
 writers I trace a growing sobriety in their estimates of 
 figures : abroad I find writers of the highest repute still 
 swallowing Froissart's numbers without an effort ; and 
 even at home it is painful to have one Professor thinking 
 that Edward II could have led 60,000 men to the field of 
 Bannockburn ; and another Professor quoting, without 
 comment or note of admiration, the allegation of a 
 chronicler that a Scottish Regent at the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century, hastening to the rehef of a Border Peel 
 under terms of surrender, took with him 50,000 cavalry 
 and ' almost as many foot ' ! 
 
 In the matter of national or rather of royal finance 
 I may also claim to have done substantial work. If I may 
 be allowed to review what I have done, with the reign of 
 Henry I we get the first official return of the King's 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 English income, in the shape of the Pipe Roll of his 
 thirty-first year (1130-1131), the only Pipe Roll of his 
 reign that has come down to us. The sums paid in give 
 a total of £24,000, with blanks, the filhng up of which 
 might bring the Revenue up to £30,000. Of the Norman 
 Revenues little account has been preserved ; but I may 
 say that more money could always be squeezed out of 
 Normandy alone than out of the whole of England. For 
 the ' Anarchy ' no accounts are forthcoming ; for the 
 reign of Henry II the totals of four Pipe Rolls have been 
 taken out, without showing any swelling of the Revenue. 
 For the time of Richard I an examination of the taxes 
 imposed by him hardly suggests a Revenue even of 
 £20,000. For the time of King John one Pipe Roll has 
 been added up, and it gives the handsome total of 
 £34,516 I2S. ^d. Under Henry III we get the benefit of 
 the Pell Rolls and the Wardrobe Accounts, to supplement 
 the original Pipe Rolls ; and from this time to the end of 
 my period Tables giving the totals of all extant years 
 have been printed by me in one form or another. Those 
 for the reign of Henry III will be found in the ' Dawn of 
 the Constitution ' } being partly taken from the Tables 
 printed by Mr. Whitwell in the English Historical Review."^ 
 Unfortunately the accounts of only two years are com- 
 plete, but they may be said to be in substantial accord 
 with the total shown by John's Pipe Roll. For the reign 
 of Edward I the Tables are given in the ' Dawn ' ,^ showing 
 a Revenue that ultimately might rise to £95,000 a year 
 or upwards. For the reigns of Edward II, Edward III, and 
 Richard II the Tables are given in my present issue. 
 It will be seen that under the Second Edward the average 
 Revenue hardly kept up to that of his father ; while 
 under Edward the Third it rises to £140,000 a year, a high 
 level maintained throughout the reign of his grandson. 
 For the time of Richard II I have printed analyses of 
 Issue Rolls, to show the expenditure,* as well as of Receipt 
 
 ' pp. 293-297. - Vol. XVIII, p. 710. 
 
 ^ pp. 538-542. ' Antiquary, iv. 205. 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 Rolls to show the details of the Revenue. For the finance 
 of Henry IV the reader has Tables in the Antiquary, ^ 
 with further figures in ' Lancaster and York ' ,^ where an 
 average income of £106,000 a year is suggested. For the 
 Revenue of Henry V Tables are given. Antiquary,* and 
 ' Lancaster and York ',* showing an average income that 
 might run from ;£i22,ooo to ^£142, 000 a year. For the 
 troubled days of the unfortunate Henry VI the reader 
 has Tables in the Antiquary ^ and further figures and 
 calculations in ' Lancaster and York ' ^ suggesting an 
 effectual income that might run at different times from 
 £70,000 to £80,000 or perhaps even to £90,000 a year. 
 For the reign of Edward IV the Pell Rolls are defective, 
 but in ' Lancaster and York ' ^ grounds will be found for 
 allowing a Revenue not materially differing from that of 
 Henry VI ; while finally I close with Tables for the three 
 years of Richard III with £82,000 accounted for the 
 financial year 1384-1385.^ 
 
 Towards the history of the Customs I claim to have 
 contributed a substantial instalment. This source of 
 Revenue may be said to begin with the reign of Edward I 
 and the year 1275. From that year to the year 1399 the 
 reader has the totals of all the Customs accounts that are 
 extant, year by year. For the reign of Edward II he has 
 in addition the details of the receipts at each individual 
 port for each year of the reign. ^ Later reigns are less fully 
 dealt with. For the reign of Henrj? IV the totals of five 
 years are given, with one borrowed from Mr. Hamilton 
 Wyhe.i" For the reign of Henry V five years again have 
 been taken out : ^^ thirteen for that of Henry VI ; ^^ nine 
 for that of Edward IV ; ^^ and for that of Richard III 
 the whole returns of the period, port by port.^* 
 
 I close a work that I never ventured to hope that 
 
 Vol. VI, p. 104. " Vol. I, p. 155. » Vol. VIII, p. 99. 
 
 ' Vol. I, pp. 315-321. ' Vol. X, p. 194; and Vol. XIV, p. 100 
 
 « Vol. II, p. 262. ' Vol. II, pp. 466, 471. 
 
 ' Lancaster and York, II. 560. ' Engl. Hist. Rev., XXVI. 100-108. 
 '» Lancaster and York, I. 151. " Ibid., 313. '* Ibid. II. 266 
 
 " Ibid., II. 470. " Ibid,, II. 559. 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 I should live to finish with a sense of thankful rehef. 
 The reader will stare if I inform him that it has been my 
 standing occupation since the outbreak of the Franco- 
 German War. My grown-up children do not remember 
 the time when it was not in progress. A change of plan 
 adopted after the work had been carried a considerable 
 length necessitated a re-reading of all the authorities, and 
 a practical re- writing of the text. This must be offered 
 as some explanation of the tardy output. Dealing with 
 original authorities, full of suggestive incidents, one was 
 constantly tempted to follow side-issues — valuable as 
 buttressing — when condensation was the primary law. 
 Anyhow I cannot consider the time devoted to this work 
 to have been wasted or misspent. 
 
 Where the ipsissima verba of an author are given 
 without modification, double turned commas (" ") are 
 used. If the words are translated, transliterated or in any 
 way modified, single commas (' ') are used, as " Lordes 
 Temporals ", ' Lords Temporal '. 
 
 JAMES HENRY RAMSAY. 
 Bamff, 1913. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 AcHERY, L. D'. Veterum Scripiorum Spicilegium. (Paris, 1655.) 
 
 Acts of Parliament of Scotland. (Thomson.) 
 
 Anderson, Adam, Origin of Commerce. (London, 1801.) 
 
 Annates Londonienses, 1194-1330. (Rolls Series, No. 76, Vol. I, 
 Bishop Stubbs.) Original and contemporary 1294-1328; probablj' 
 by Andrew Horn, Chamberlain of London, d. 1328. 
 
 Annates Paulini, 1307-1341. (Rolls Series, No. 76, Vol. I, Bishop 
 Stubbs.) Contemporary work of a canon or canons of St. Paul's ; 
 has much in common with Annals of Murimuth, himself a canon 
 of St. Paul's ; these perhaps later editions. Also printed by 
 IVIr. T. Hog, with a useful continuation to May 1381, for the English 
 Historical Societj'. (1846.) 
 
 Annates Ricardi II, 1392-1406. (Rolls Series, No. 28, Vol. Ill, 
 H. T. Rilej', same vol. as Trokelowe.) The only printed 
 portion as yet of the MS. Reg. 13 E IX, the basis of Walsingham 
 (q. v.), and the leading St. Albans Chronicle of the time. 
 
 Aimats of Loch Ce, 1014-1590. (Rolls Series, No. 54, W. M. 
 Henessey.) Irish text with translation. 
 
 Archaiotogia Cantiana. 
 
 Armitage-Smith, S., Jolm of Gaunt. (London, 1904.) 
 
 AsHMOLE, Elias, Institution of tlie Garter. (London, 1672.) 
 
 Avesbury, Robert of, De Gestis Regis Edwardi Tertii, 1308-1356. 
 (RollsSeries,No. 93, Sir E. M.Thompson.) Registrarof the Court 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury ; probably d. about 1356. 
 Contemporar3', accurate, and rich in documents. 
 
 Ayala, Don Pedro Lopez de, Cronica, 1350-1395. b. about 1332, 
 </. 1407. Grand Chancellor of Castile. (Zurita, Madrid, 1779.) 
 
 Bain, Joseph, Calendar of Scottish Documents preserved in the Record 
 Office in London, 1881-1888. 
 
 Baker, Geoffrey le, of Swinbrook, Chronicon, 1303-1356. Wrote 
 at the request of Thomas de la More, Knight ; at one time 
 supposed to have been a translation from the French. Con- 
 temporary. (Sir E. M. Thompson, 1889.) (Also Rolls Series, 
 No. 76, Vol. II, Stubbs.) 
 
 Chroniculum, Creation to 1336, a bare summary written in 
 
 1347. (Rolls Series, supra, 172.) 
 
 Barbour, John, The Briis, 1286-1332. Archdeacon of Aberdeen 
 
xii LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 and Auditor of the Scotch Exchequer; d. 1395. Metrical history 
 in the vernacular. (C. Innes, Spalding Club, 1856.) 
 Barnes, Joshua, History of Edward III. (Cambridge, 1688.) 
 Beltz, G. F., Memorials of llie Most Noble Order of the Garter. 
 
 (London, 1841.) 
 Blaneford, Henry of, Chronica, 1323-1324. (Rolls Series, No. 28, 
 
 Vol. III.) A St. Albans fragment. 
 BoRDERiE, A. DE La, Hisfoire de Bretagne. (1896.) 
 Bower, or Bowmaker, Walter, Abbot of Inchcolm, b. 1385, d. 1447. 
 Scotichronicon, a continuation of the work of Fordun, with further 
 notes continued to 1455. (Edinburgh, 1747.) 
 BREQUiGNY,Z^//r«sfl'«'^a/s,froniRymer's MS. collections. (1837-1847.) 
 ■' Bridlington," Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon, 1307-1339, with 
 abrief continuation to 1377. (Rolls Series, No. 76, Vol. II, Bishop 
 Stubbs.) Work of a canon of the Augustinian Priory of 
 Bridlington in Yorkshire. Contemporary and full of local detail ; 
 extracts from prophecies by a later John of Bridlington (1361- 
 1372) must be considered interpolations. 
 Burton, John Hill, History of Scotland. (Edinburgh, 1867.) 
 Calendar Patent Rolls, Edward H. (Record Office publication.) 
 Camden, W., Britannia. (London, 1586.) 
 Capgrave, John, De Illiistribus Henricis. (F. C. Hingeston, Rolls 
 
 Series, No. 9.) 
 Chandos Herald, The Black Prince, Ballad on the Life and Deeds of 
 Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward III. (Roxburghe Club, 
 1B42, H. O. Coxe.) Misentitled " Black Prince " by Editor, no 
 such appellation being found in the book, or known to the age. 
 Largely copied from Froissart. 
 Chronicle of London, 1259-1343 ; French. (G. J. Aungier, Camden 
 Soc, 1844.) The next oldest of the London Chronicles after the 
 Annates Londonienses. 
 Chronicles of London, \iQ<)-i^i6. (Kingsford. Oxford, 1905.) 
 Chron. Stow. A Chronicle in French, formerly belonging to St. 
 Mary's, York, transcribed by Stow, and printed by Mr. G. M. 
 Trevelyan, Eng. Hist. Rev. XIII. A primary authority. 
 Chronicon Angliae, 1328-1388. (Rolls Series, No. 64, Sir E. M. 
 Thompson.) St. Albans Chronicle, perhaps by John, Prior of 
 Robert's Bridge. Contemporary, and especially valuable for 
 meetingof Good Parliament ini376. Veryhostile to Johnof Gaunt. 
 Complete Peerage, G. E. C. (London, 1887, &c.) 
 Creighton, Mandell, History of the Papacy. (1892.) 
 Cr^ton, Jean, Histoire dit Roy d'Angteterre Richard, 12^^-1401 
 [Archaeologia, XX, J. Webb.) Metrical history. The writer, 
 a French gentleman, accompanied Richard to Ireland in 1399, and 
 remained with him till he saw- him delivered to Bolingbroke at 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES xiii 
 
 Flint. Intelligent observer and primary authority. Illustrations 
 very correct in details of dress, &c. 
 
 Delpit, Documents Francois. (Documents Ine'dits, Paris, 1847.) 
 
 Devon, Frederick, Issues of Exchequer, Henry Ill-Henry VI. 
 Extracts from Pell Issue Rolls. (London, 1837. Record Comm.) 
 
 Issue Roll, 1^^ Edward III. (London, 1835. Record Comm.) 
 
 DicETO, Ralph of, Creation to 1202. (Rolls Series, No. 68, Bishop 
 Stubbs.) Dean of St. Paul's ; d. circa 1202. 
 
 Doyle, James E., Official Baronage of England. (London, 1886.) 
 
 Eulogium Historiaruni. Creation to 1366, with a continuation to 
 1413. (Rolls Series, No. 9, F. S. Haydon.) The original Chronicle 
 was composed by a Malmesbury monk about 1367 ; but the 
 author of the continuation had access to good materials. 
 
 Excerpta Historica. (London, S. Bentley, n.d.) 
 
 Exchequer Rolls Scotland, G.Burnet. (Scottish Record Commission. 
 Edinburgh, 1878, i&c.) 
 
 Fasciculi Zisaniorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif. (Rolls Series, 
 No. 5, W. W. Shirley.) A compilation by contemporary Oxford 
 Carmelites. 
 
 Florence, Continuation. Second so-called continuation of the 
 Worcester Chronicle, 1266-1296, by J ohn Everesden , a Bury monk 
 of the time. (Eng. Hist. Soc, B. Thorpe.) 
 
 Foedera, T. Rymer. Vols. I-IV, Record Ed. ; Vols. VII and VIII, 
 ed. 1703. 
 
 FoRDUN, John of, Chronica Gentis Scotormn. Beginning of time 
 to 1385 ; d. soon after 1385. (W. E. Skene, 1871.) The primary 
 authority for early Scottish history. 
 
 Foss, Y-uwAB.!), fudges of England. (1851.) 
 
 FovR Masters, Annals of Ireland by. Earliest times to i6i6. Irish 
 text with translation. (John O'Donovan, Dublin, 1851.) Careful 
 digest of old annals, many of them now lost ; compiled in 
 Donegal, 1632- 1636. 
 
 Froissart, Jean, Chroniques, 1325-1400. b. 1333, near Valen- 
 ciennes. Paid his first visit to England in 1361, presented a copy 
 of his work so far as written to Queen Philippa, and remained in 
 her household some five years ; during that period, namely in 
 1365, he paid a visit to Scotland, where he was entertained for 
 fifteen days at Dalkeith by William, first Earl of Douglas ; was in 
 Aquitaine in January 1367 ; sent back to England that year by 
 the Prince of Wales with a message to Queen Phihppa ; paid 
 a third visit to England in 1394 ; d. about 1410. Earlier part 
 of work altogether taken from Le Bel (q.v.). A florid, fluent 
 writer, needing to be tested at every step. Friendly to England 
 in earlier days, sympathizes with the French in latter days. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir John T., Viceroys of Ireland. (Dublin, 1865.) 
 
x-iv LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 GoDEFROv, F., Dictionnaire de V Ancienne Langue Frattfaise. (Paris, 
 
 1880, &C.I 
 GowER, John, Chronica Tripartita, 1387-1401. (Pot. Poems, Wright, 
 
 Rolls Series, No. 14. I, 417-454.) 
 
 Vox Clamanfis. (H. O. Coxa, Roxburghe Club, 1850. j 
 
 Grandes Cbroiiiques de France. Beginning of time to 1380. (Paulin 
 
 Paris, Paris. 1836.) Saint-Denys Chronicle, contemporary from 
 
 1350- 
 
 Green, J. R., History of English People. (London, 1878.J 
 
 Green, M. A. E., Princesses of England. (1855.) 
 
 Hailes, Lord, Annals of Scotland. (Edinburgh, 1797.) 
 
 Hallam, H., Middle Ages. (London, 1853.) 
 
 Hardyng, John, Chronicle. Metrical ; from beginning of time to 
 1 461, with continuation by Grafton to 1539. b. 1378, still writing 
 1465. (Sir H. Ellis, London, 1812.) 
 
 Hartshorne, C. K., Itinerary of Edward II. 
 
 Hemingburgh, Walter of, C/ironicon, 1066-1307, with a con- 
 tinuation to 1346. Canon of Giseburn. Adult in 1275, still 
 writing in 1307, and apparently in 1313. A careful compilation. 
 (English Historical Society, H. E. Hamilton.) 
 
 HiGDEN, Ranulf, Polychronicon, Creation to Christmas 1352, with 
 later continuations. (Rolls Series, No. 41, Babington and Lumby.) 
 Monk of St. Werbergh's, Chester ; took orders 1299. Vol. IX 
 contains also a valuable continuation, i38i:-i394, by John Malvern 
 of Worcester, resident in London. Primary authority, only day- 
 by-day posted up chronicle of the time ; he d. 1415. 
 
 Historic Documents of Ireland, 1172-1320. (Rolls Series, No. 53, 
 Sir John T. Gilbert.) 
 
 Historical Papers and Letters from Northern Registers. (Rolls 
 Series, No. 61, James Raine.) 
 
 Hook, Dr. W. F., Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury. {1865.) 
 
 Irish Council Roll, 16 Rich. II. (Rolls Series, No. 69, J. Graves.) 
 
 Jenckes, a., Staple of England. (Philadelphia, 1908.) 
 
 King, R. J., Handbook to the Cathedrals of England. 
 
 Kington Oliphant, T. L., Old and Middle English. (London, 1891.) 
 
 KiTCHiN, G. W., History of France. (Oxford, 1878.) 
 
 Knighton, Henry, Z)g£j/eM/zAi^s^«^/OT^,957-i366,with a continuation 
 to ^395- Canon of St. Mary's Abbey, Leicester; borrows largely 
 from Higden. (Twysden, Scriptores Decem.) 
 
 Koch, M., Tableau des Revolutions deVEurope. (Strasburg, 1814.) 
 
 Kohler, G., Kriegs-Wesen i. d. Rittereeit. (1886.) 
 
 Lanercost, Chronicle of, 1201-1346. Joseph Stevenson, Bannatyne 
 Club, 1839.) Leading authority for Northern affairs during 
 the reigns of the three Edwards. Latter part by a Franciscan 
 friar of Carlisle. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES xv 
 
 Langtoft, Peter, Earliest times to 1307. (Rolls Series, No. 47, 
 T. Wright.) Metrical chronicle in Yorkshire French. Probably 
 by a Canon of Bridlington who lived under Edwards I and II. 
 Lavisse, E., Histoire de France. (Paris, 1902 sqq.) 
 Le Bel, Jehan, Chroniques, 1326-1361. (Brussels, 1863, M. S. 
 Polain.) Served with Edward III against the Scots in 1327. 
 Basis of corresponding part of Froissart. 
 Lechler, G., Wiclif. (Leipzig, 1873.) Also translated by Lorrimer. 
 Leland, John, Collectanea. (T. Hearne, 1770.) 
 Lewis, John, WicHf. (Oxford, 1820.) 
 Liber Cttsiumariim, Munimenta Gildhalle Londoniensis. (Rolls 
 
 Series, No. 12, Vol. II, H. T. Riley.) 
 Liber de Antiquis Legibiis Londoniarum, 1242-J274. (Camden Soc, 
 
 Stapleton.) Contemporary, and oldest of London Chronicles. 
 Lingard, John, History of England. (London, 1855.) 
 List of Sheriffs. (Record Office publication, i8g8.) 
 LoBiNEAU, G. A., Histoire de Bretagne. (1707 sqq.) 
 London, English Chronicle of, 1089-1483. (H. Nicolas, 1827.) 
 London, English Chronicle of, 1377-1461. (J. S. Davies, Camden 
 
 Society, 1856.) 
 Longman, William, Life and Times of Edward HL (London, 
 
 1869.) 
 Lorrimer, P., Wiclif. Translation of Lechler. (London, 1878.) 
 Louandre, Histoire (f Abbeville. 
 LoWTH, Robert, Bishop of Oxford, Life of William of Wykeham, 
 
 Bishop of Winchester. (Oxford, 1777.) 
 Madox, Thomas, History oj lite Excliequer. (London, 1769.) 
 Mariana, J., De Rebus Hispaniae. (Toledo, 1592.) 
 Marsh, G. P., Lectures on English Language. (London, 1862.) 
 Marteke AND DuRAND, Tkesaurus Anccdotorum. (Paris, 1717.) 
 
 Veterum. Scriptorum Amplissima Collectio. (1724-1733.) 
 
 Martin, Henri, Histoire de France. (Paris, i860.) 
 Maxwell Lyte, Sir H., History of the University of Oxford. 
 Melsa (Meaiix), Chronica Monasterii de, a. d. 1150-1396, with con- 
 tinuation to 1406. (Rolls Series, No. 43, E. A. Bond.) 
 Milman, H. H., History of Latin Christianity. (London, 1855.) 
 Monachus Eveshamiensis. (See Vita Ricardi.) 
 Mon. Malm.,MonachOs Malburiensis. Vita EdwardiSecundi, i^o"]- 
 1325, with a continuation to 1327 taken from Knighton or Higden. 
 A primary authority for the period. (Rolls Series, No. 76, Vol. II, 
 Bishop Stubbs.) 
 Morris, J. E., Welsh Wars of Edivard L (Oxford, 190T.) 
 Murimuth, Adam of, Continuatio Chronicarum, 1303-1346. (Rolls 
 Series, No. 93, Sir E. M. Thompson.) Adam began to keep a diary 
 1305 ; became canon of St. Paul's, and much employed on diplomatic 
 
xvi LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 missions ; d. 1347. Most intelligent and trustworthy authority 
 of the period. 
 Nangis, Guillaume de. Chronicle, a.d. 1113-1303, with three 
 continuations, viz. to 1316, 1340, and 1368. Monk and librarian of 
 Saint-Denys ; there 1289-1299. (See Gerould, Societe de I'His- 
 toire de France, 1843. Also in D'Achery, Spicilegimn, Vol. Ill; 
 and Bouquet, Rectieil des Historiens de la France, Vol. XX.) 
 Nicoi-AS, Sir Harris, Chronology of History. (Lardner's Cabinet 
 Cyclopaedia, 1833.) 
 
 Historic Peerage 0/ England. (Courthope, 1857.) 
 
 Oman, C. W. C, The Great Revolt. (1896.) 
 
 Parliamentary Writs, Sir F. Palgrave, Record Commission, 1827- 
 
 1834.) 
 Pauli, R., Geschichte von England. (1853.) 
 Political Poems relating to English History, Edward IH-Henry VHL 
 
 (Rolls Series, No. 14, T. Wright.) 
 Pollock, Sir F., and Maitland, F. W., History 0/ English Law. 
 
 (Cambridge, 1898.) 
 Powell, Edgar, Rising in East Anglia in 1381. (Cambridge, 
 
 1896.) 
 Prentout, Prise de Caen. (Academie de Rouen, 1904.) 
 Privy Council, Proceedings of. (Record Commission, 1834.) 
 Registriim Palatinmn Dunelmense, 1311-1316. (T. Duffus Hardy, 
 
 Rolls Series, No. 62.) 
 Report of the Lords on the Dignity of a Peer. (Parliamentary 
 
 Paper, 1820 and 1829.) 
 Reville, Le Soulevement des Travailleurs d'Angletcrre en 1381. 
 
 (Paris, 1398.) 
 Ribadieu, Campagnes du Comte dc Derby en Giuenne. (1865.) 
 Riley, H. T., Meniorials of London, 1276-1419. (London, i868.) 
 Rogers, James E. Thorold, History of Agriculture and Prices. 
 
 (Oxford, 1866.) 
 Rotuli Scotiae. (Record Commission, 1814-1819.) Two vols.; 1291- 
 
 1516. 
 RuDiNG, R., Annals of Coinage of Great Britain. (London, 1840.) 
 Saint-Denys, Chronique du Religieux de, a. d. 1382-1:122. (L. 
 Bellaguet, Paris.) Contemporary ; by Secretary to Charles VI ; 
 leading authority. 
 Sandford, Francis, Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens 
 
 of England. (London, 1707.) 
 ScalacroHica. Creation to 1363. In French. By Thomas Grey of 
 Heton, a Northumbrian knight, who, having been taken prisoner 
 by the Scots, began this work while in prison, 1355-1357. (Mait- 
 land Club, J. Stevenson, 1836.) 
 Scotichronicon. See Bower. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES xvii 
 
 Scriptores Decern, R. Twysden. (London, 1552.) 
 
 SiSMONDi, SiMONDE DE, Histoire des Francais. (Paris, 1821.) 
 
 Re'publiques Italiennes. (1826.) 
 
 Statutes of the Realm. (Record Commission, 1810-1828.) 
 
 Stevenson, J., Illustrations of Scottish History. (Maitland Club, 
 1834.) 
 
 Stow, J., Chronicle. Original and strictly contemporary account ot 
 Peasant Rising in 1381 ; possibly written by Walworth the 
 Mayor. A Stow transcript printed by Mr. G. M. Trevelyan, 
 Eng. Hist. Rev., Vol. XIII, 509. 
 
 Transcript of a Chronicle, 1376-1377. (Archaeologia, XXII, 
 
 204.) 
 
 Survey of London. 
 
 Stubbs, W., Bishop of Oxford, Constitutional History of England. 
 (1887.) 
 
 Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum. (1897, 2nd edition.) 
 
 TraisoH et Mori de Richart Deux, 1399-1400. (B. Williams, English 
 Historical Society, 1846.) Writer a foreigner, may have been in 
 England in 1399 ; loose narrative, to be used with caution ; tran- 
 scribes whole passages from Creton. 
 
 Trevet, Nicholas, Annates, 1136-1307. (T. Hog., Eng. Hist. Soc, 
 1845.) Dominican; flourished under Edward I, and contemporary 
 for that reign ; earlier part carefully worked up from French 
 authorities, basis of Rishanger and Walsingham. 
 
 Trokelowe, John of. Annates, 1307-1323. (Rolls Series, No. 28, 
 Vol. Ill, H. T. Riley.) St. Albans monk. Compilation from 
 notes accumulated from time to time, but not put together till 
 long afterwards ; basis of MS. Reg. 13 E IX, and through it of 
 Walsingham. 
 Tytler, p. Eraser, History of Scotland. (Edinburgh, 1828.) 
 Ursins, Jean J. des, Histoire de Charles VI, 1380-1420. Mainly 
 
 taken from the Religieux de Saint-Denys. 
 UsK, Adam of, 1377-1404. (Sir E. M. Thompson, 1876.) Con- 
 temporary ; follower of the Earl of March ; with Bolingbroke after 
 his landing in England, 1399. 
 Vic et Vaissete, Histoire Generate de Languedoc. (1742 and 1872.) 
 ViLLANi, Historia. (Muratori, Rerum Italicaruni Scriptt. XIV, 
 
 1723-1751-) 
 Vita Ricardi II a Monaco de Evesham Consignata, 1377-1399. 
 
 (Hearne, 1729.) Largely copied from Chronicon Angliae, 
 
 Walsingham, and Usk, and therefore later in date. 
 Wake, V/illiam, Archbishop State of the Church of England. 
 
 (London, 1703.) 
 Wallon, H., Richard II. (Paris, 1864.) 
 Walsingham, Thomas of, Historia Anglicana, 1272-1422. (Rolls 
 
 1415.1 b 
 
xviii LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 Series, No. 28, Vols. I and II, H. T. Riley.) St. Albans compilation, 
 based on older St. Albans Chronicle MS. Reg. 13 E IX, which 
 compiled 1377-1392. 
 
 Walsingham, Thomas of, Ypodigma Neustriae. (Rolls Series, 
 No. 28, Vol. XII, H. T. Riley.) Summary compilation to 1418, 
 dedicated to Henry V. 
 
 Westminster, Matthew of, Flores Historiarum, Creation to 
 1327. A revised copy of the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris, 
 made at St. Albans, with a continuation — also made at St. Albans, 
 down to the middle of the year 1265; the MS. was then brought 
 to Westminster, and carried on there to 1325 by Robert of 
 Reading, and thus gained the name of the Westminster (copy of) 
 Matthew of Paris. Later the work was continued by others 
 at Merton, Tintern, and other places. (Rolls Series, No. 95, 
 H. R. Luard.) The title Flores Historiarum is that of the original 
 work of Wendover on which Paris founded. The Westminster 
 copy has Matthew's latest corrections. 
 
 Wharton, Henry, Anglia Sacra. (London, 1691.) 
 
 Wheatley and Cunningham, London Past and Present. (London, 
 1891.) 
 
 WiLKiNS, Concilia. (London, 1737.) 
 
 Worcester, Annals of, a.d. 1-1308. {Monastic Annals, Rolls Series, 
 No. 36, H. R. Luard.) 
 
 Wykes, Thomas, Annals, 1066-1289. Osney monk. (Monastic 
 Annals, Rolls Series, No. 36, H. R. Luard.) 
 
 Wyntoun, Andrew of, Creation to 1409. Metrical Chronicle. 
 Prior of St. Serf's, Loch Leven. Finished 1420-1424. 
 
 ZuRiTA, G., Anales de Aragon. (Saragossa, 1610.) 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 A.D. 
 1307. 
 
 1308. 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Edward of Carnarvon, his appearance and character 
 His especial confidant, Pierre de Gaveston, in exile 
 Accession . 
 Campaign in Scotland 
 
 Recall of Gaveston 
 
 Parliament ; Currency 
 
 Funeral of Edward I 
 
 Betrothal of Gaveston 
 
 A tournament . 
 
 King's marriage 
 
 Coronation ; the rites ; the coronation oath 
 
 Baronial caucus ; Grand Council . 
 
 Disaffection ; threatened breach 
 
 Grand Council ; Gaveston to be dismissed 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1-2 
 2-3 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 9 
 -12 
 12 
 13 
 15 
 
 13- 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 1307. The Templars ; jealousy of them ; movement for 
 
 reform 16-17 
 
 Action of Philip the Fair 17 
 
 Arrest of the Templars 18 
 
 Resolute lying ; judicial investigations ; the Pope cowed 18-19 
 Scepticism in England; pronouncement of the Pope 19-20 
 
 1308. The war with Scotland 20 
 
 Scottish successes 21 
 
 Thomas of Lancaster 22 
 
 1309. Parliament ; Articles ot Petition .... 23-24 
 Gaveston recalled 25 
 
 1310. Grand Council ; demand for reforming committee 26-27 
 
 King consents 27-28 
 
 Interim Ordinances 28 
 
 Appointment of Ordainers 29 
 
 War with Scotland 30 
 
 Edward and the Ordainers — 
 
 A grand Muster ; the campaign .... 31-3S 
 
 b 3 
 
XX 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A.D. 
 I3II 
 
 13II. 
 
 I312. 
 
 1313- 
 
 Death of Earl of Lincoln .... 
 
 Financial efforts 
 
 1310. The English Templars ; Interrogatories exhibited 
 
 Charges repelled 
 
 solution in the North . 
 
 Question of torture 
 
 Southern Province ; confessions extorted 
 
 End of proceedings 
 
 Council of Vienne 
 
 Parliament ; final Ordinances 
 
 Courts of the Verge and Marshalsea 
 
 King recalcitrant ; Gaveston recalled 
 
 Barons arming .... 
 
 Gaveston in custody ; seized and carried off 
 
 Put to death ; Reaction . 
 
 Mediation ; hollow accord 
 
 Deadlock .... 
 
 A trip to France 
 
 Parliament ; kiss of peace at last 
 
 Death of Archbishop Winchelsey 
 
 Walter Reynolds archbishop 
 
 Appendix to Chapter III 
 Gaveston's treasure 
 
 PAGE 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 35 
 
 36 
 37-38 
 39 
 
 39-42 
 41 
 43 
 44 
 45 
 46-47 
 48-49 
 50 
 
 51 
 52 
 53 
 
 54 
 
 1308- 
 1311, 
 1312. 
 I3I3' 
 I3I4' 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 -1310. The vi^ar with Scotland 55 
 
 Scottish raids ; Scottish gains 56 
 
 Raiding and blackmail 57 
 
 Linlithgow won and Isle of Man 58 
 
 Edinburgh Castle ; war measures in England . . 59 
 
 Captious Opposition 60 
 
 The Muster 61 
 
 Cavalry ; Infantry ; Absentees 62 
 
 Bruce's dispositions ; composition of his forces . . 63 
 
 Actions in the Tor Wood 63-64 
 
 Advance to Bannockburn ; Bruce's position there 64-65 
 
 His battle-array 66 
 
 Pitfalls ; breadth of his front ; estimates of his numbers 67 
 
 Feeling in the English camp ; the advance ... 68 
 
 Battle joined ; the archers ; defeat of English cavalry . 69 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi 
 
 A. D. PAGE 
 
 Archers ridden down ; general rout .... 70 
 
 Scottish victory ; Edward's escape .... 71 
 
 Results of the action 72-73 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Change of Ministry 74 
 
 Parliament 75 
 
 Dearth 76 
 
 Clement V and Philippe le Bel — 
 
 1315. Gloomy days 77 
 
 Subsidies voted ; Ordinances confirmed ... 78 
 
 Llewelyn Bren 79 
 
 Adam Banaster 80 
 
 1316. Parliament — 
 
 Lancaster supreme ; Subsidies 81 
 
 Papal Concordat 82 
 
 Famine — 
 
 Incapacity of Lancaster ; his relations with the Scots . 83 
 
 1317. England disorganized 84-85 
 
 Private wars 86 
 
 King reduced to terms, and insulted .... 87 
 Cardinals in hands of brigands .... 87-89 
 
 Papal truce 89 
 
 1318. Conferences 90 
 
 Lancaster losing ground ; the Scots advancing . . 91 
 
 Pacification ; Treaty of Leek 92 
 
 Kiss of peace 93 
 
 Parliament . — 
 
 Loss of Berwick — 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 13E5. Edward Bruce invades Ireland ..... 95 
 
 Advance into Louth ; driven back to Coleraine . . 96 
 
 Proclaimed King of Ireland 97 
 
 Bruce in Leinster — 
 
 1316. The English colony loyal 98 
 
 Affairs of Connaught . . ..... — 
 
 An Easter truce 99 
 
 1317. Scottish raid to the South ; alarm in Dublin . . 100 
 
 Advance to Limerick loi 
 
 Robert Brace's humanity ■ — 
 
 Return to Ulster 102 
 
 1318. Last raid of Edward Bruce ; battle of Dundalk . . 103 
 
xxii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A.D. PAGE 
 
 1319. Parliament 105 
 
 Ineffectual siege of Berwick 106 
 
 " Chapter of Myton " 107 
 
 Edward and Lancaster 108 
 
 Movement for peace ; Truce with Scotland . . 109,110 
 
 1320. Homage to Philip V of France (Ze Zo«^) . . . iii 
 
 Parliament; the Despensers 111-113 
 
 March Lords in arms 114 
 
 1321. Private war ii5j 116 
 
 Lancastrian Parliament ....... 116 
 
 Confederates advancing to London 117 
 
 Parliament 118 
 
 Banishment of the Despensers 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Queen insulted 120, 121 
 
 Richard draws the sword 122, 123 
 
 1322. Marches to the North and wins the battle of Borough- 
 
 bridge 124-126 
 
 Trial and execution of Lancaster 127 
 
 Parliament at York ; Ordinances repealed . . . 128 
 
 Invasion of Scotland 130, 131 
 
 Scottish raid to Cleveland ; flight of Richard . 132, 133 
 
 1323. Parliament 133 
 
 Attempt at private peace-making; execution of Andrew 
 
 Harclay, Earl of Carhsle 134, 135 
 
 Long truce with Scotland 136 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Disaffection 108 
 
 Escape of Mortimer igo 
 
 Relations with France ; Edward cited to render 
 
 homage 140, 141 
 
 Parliament 142, 143 
 
 Aquitaine overrun 144 
 
 1324. Treating for peace ; the Queen to go to Paris . 146, 147 
 
 1325. Earl of Chester invested with Ponthieu and Aquitaine ; 
 
 Queen refuses to come home .... 149, 150 
 Parliament ji-2 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A.D. PAGE 
 
 1326. Engagement of young Edward to Philippa of Hainault 154 
 
 Isabella lands in the Orwell 155 
 
 Flight of the King 156 
 
 Rising in London 157 
 
 King captured and sent to Kenilworth .... 159 
 
 1327. Parliament ; indictment of the King . . . 160-162 
 Abdication of Edward II ; Edward III king . . . 164 
 
 Causes of Edward IPs fall 165, 166 
 
 Successive jailers and places of confinement of the late 
 
 King 166, 167 
 
 Changes of treatment ; Isabelle getting impatient . 168 
 The end 169 
 
 1330. Inquests ; posthumous honours ; Edward not dead 170-171 
 Constitutional importance of reign 172 
 
 1307-1327. Finance ; average revenue 173 
 
 Parliamentary grants 174 
 
 Clerical Tenths 175, 176 
 
 Customs ; Hereditary Crown revenues .... 177 
 
 King's expenditure ; Loans 177, 178 
 
 University foundations, at Oxford 179 
 
 „ ,, at Cambridge .... 180 
 
 Architecture 180, 181 
 
 Tables of revenue 182 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 Edward III 
 
 Dates of birth, accession, and death ; coronation . . 183 
 
 1327. Ceremonies 184 
 
 Parliament ; Regency Council .... 185-187 
 
 City charters ; Political situation ; Foreign affairs . 188 
 
 The Scots ; War 189 
 
 Campaign on Tyne and Wear; Foreign alhes . 190-192 
 King in danger ; end of campaign ; Scottish warfare ; 
 
 firearms first seen in use 193-194 
 
 Parliament 194 
 
 1328. Marriage of the King 195 
 
 Peace with Scotland; Treaty of Northampton . 196,197 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Succession in France ; Edward's pretensions . . 199 
 Phihp VI of Valois king 200 
 
 1329. Homage by Edward to Philip 201 
 
xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 A.D. PAGE 
 
 Death of Robert Bruce . . .... 202 
 
 1328. Ministerial changes 203 
 
 1329. Lancaster and the Government 204 
 
 Edmund, Earl of Kent, tried and executed . . . 205 
 
 1330. Philippa crowned; birth of an Heir-apparent . . 206 
 
 Arrest of Mortimer 207 
 
 His trial and execution 208, 209 
 
 Rule of Mortimer and Isabelle .... 210,211 
 
 Appendix to Chapter XII 
 Pedigree of House of Valois 212 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Relations with France 213 
 
 1331. Liege homage admitted; trip to France . . . 214 
 
 Relations with Scotland 215 
 
 Disinherited Barons 216 
 
 1332. Scotland invaded 218 
 
 Battle of Dupplin 219 
 
 Perth occupied 220 
 
 New Regent for Scotland ; Edward Balliol and 
 
 Edward III 221, 222 
 
 Balliol expelled 222 
 
 A tallage ; Parliament 223, 224 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 '^^ ' i Tournaments 22s 
 
 1332. Parliament 226 
 
 1333. War with Scotland 227 
 
 Siege of Berwick 228, 229 
 
 Battle of Halidon Hill 230, 231 
 
 Fall of Berwick ; Scotland prostrate .... 232 
 
 1334. David II retires from Scotland ; territorial concessions 
 
 to England 233 
 
 Scotland up again 234 
 
 Balliol expelled again 235 
 
 Parliament — 
 
 Abortive Campaign 236 
 
 1335. Fresh invasion of Scotland 237-239 
 
 Parties in Scotland — 
 
 1333-1334. Ecclesiastical affairs; promotion of Prelates . . 240 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxv 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 A-D. PAGE 
 
 1336. Parliament 242 
 
 A ride through the Highlands ; Aberdeen burnt . . 243 
 
 Parliament 244 
 
 Calumnious attacks on Philip 245 
 
 Unprecedented Subsidies ; the King's finance . . 246 
 
 Scots demoUshing their forts 247 
 
 1328-1336. Robert of Artois 248,249 
 
 1337. Parliament ; Titled honours 250 
 
 Parliament ; Supplies 251 
 
 Wool seized 252 
 
 Allies subsidized 252, 253 
 
 Papal intervention 254 
 
 England and France . 255 
 
 Sack of Cadsand ; Cardinals in England ; more wool 
 
 " granted " 256 
 
 1338. Pressure on Clergy 257 
 
 Jacques van Artevelde ; Flemish alliance . . . 258 
 
 Visit to the Netherlands 259 
 
 Royal Progress ; Imperial Royal Diet . . . 260, 261 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 1339. English coasts ravaged 263 
 
 Campaign in the Cambresis 264-267 
 
 Knights of the Hare 267,268 
 
 Treaty with Flanders ; the double style . . . 269 
 
 Parliament; grant of tenth sheaf, fleece, and lamb 270, 271 
 
 1340. Return of the King ; Parliament ; grant of ninth sheaf, 
 
 fleece, and lamb instead of tenth .... 272 
 Grant of Petitions ; No taxation without consent . 273, 274 
 Clerical grievances ; Magnates inclining for peace 274, 275 
 Edward abroad again ; naval action at Sluys . 276-281 
 Parliament ; grant of 20,000 sacks of wool . . . 281 
 
 Fruitless siege of Tournay 282, 283 
 
 Truce of Esplechin 284 
 
 CHAPTER XVn 
 
 Return to England 
 
 Ministers dismissed ; a lay Chancellor 
 The King and Archbishop Stratford 
 1341. Libellus Famosus .... 
 Stratford's answer .... 
 Parliament ; Privileges of Peers . 
 
 285 
 286 
 287 
 288 
 289 
 290 
 
xxviii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 A. D. PAGE 
 
 1355. The Prince of Wales in Gascony 393 
 
 Raiding of Languedoc ; Bordeaux to Carcassonne and 
 
 bacli 394-399 
 
 1356. Minor raids 399 
 
 Affairs of France ; Estates General ; the King of 
 
 Navarre 400, 401 
 
 Duke of Lancaster in Normandy .... 401, 402 
 
 Advance of the Prince of Wales to the Loire . 402-404 
 
 Falling back on Gascony 405-407 
 
 Battle of Poitiers 408-417 
 
 Return to Bordeaux 418 
 
 1357. Truce of Bordeaux and return to England . . . 419 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Pacification 421 
 
 Long truce with Scotland ; liberation of David . . 422 
 
 Parliament 423 
 
 Affairs of Ireland ; Ordinances for Ireland . . 424, 425 
 
 1358. Tournaments 425 
 
 1356-1358. Chaotic state of France; the Free Companies . 426 
 
 The Duke of Normandy, the King of Navarre, and 
 Etienne Marcel 427, 428 
 
 1358. The Jacquerie 429 
 
 End of Marcel 430 
 
 The Companies 431, 432 
 
 1359. Abortive negotiations for peace .... 432, 433 
 
 1359. 1360. War again ; campaign in north-east of France 434-437 
 
 At the gates of Paris 437 
 
 1360. Negotiations 438 
 
 Treaty of Bretigny 439 
 
 Return of the King to England 440 
 
 Modifications of the treaty at Calais .... 441 
 
 King John set free 442 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 Local Parliaments 443 
 
 1361. Full Parliament 443 
 
 Second Plague 444, 445 
 
 Marriage of Prince of Wales 446 
 
 Treaty of Bretigny ; territory ceded .... 447 
 
 The reciprocal renunciations 448 
 
 Edward drawing back 440 
 
 The Companies (49, 4^0 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxix 
 
 A. D. PAGE 
 
 1362. The Prince Duke of Aquitaine 450 
 
 Parliament 
 
 King's Jubilee 
 
 1363. Staple at Calais .... 
 Parliament ; sumptuary regulations 
 Friendly relations with Scotland . 
 
 1364. Offer of union rejected ... 
 King John returns to England and dies 
 
 451. 452 
 
 • 453 
 453> 454 
 454. 455 
 
 • 455 
 456, 457 
 458, 459 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 War in Normandy 460, 461 
 
 End of Breton War of Succession 462 
 
 Recall of English Free Lances 463 
 
 1365. Parliament (Statute of Praemunire ; Papal Rent-charge 
 
 rejected) 463-465 
 
 1366. Wycliffe challenges temporal authority of the Papacy 465, 466 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 1365. Spanish affairs ; Pedro the Cruel and Enrique of 
 
 Trastamare 467, 468 
 
 1366. Enrique king ; Pedro in exile 469 
 
 English succour for Pedro 470 
 
 1367. Prince of Wales in the field 471 
 
 Invasion of Castile 471-474 
 
 Battle of Najera 475-478 
 
 A Court of Honour 479 
 
 Return to Gascony 479, 480 
 
 End of Pedro the Cruel 480-482 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Irish affairs ; Statute of Kilkenny 483 
 
 William of Wykeham, Chancellor and Bishop of 
 
 Winchester 484 
 
 Lionel of Antwerp, his second marriage and death . 485 
 
 Parliament — 
 
 Simon Langham Cardinal ; William of Whittlesey Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury 485, 486 
 
 The Prince in Aquitaine ; unpopular taxation . . 487 
 
 1368. Revolt of Gascon Lords 488, 489 
 
 1369. Prince cited to Paris 490 
 
 Revolt of Ponthieu 491 
 
 Parliament 492, 493 
 
 Third Plague ; Death of Queen Philippa . . . 493 
 Fresh alliances, Netherlands and Scotland . . 494, 495 
 
LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 Plan to illustrate Bannockburn campaign . . . lo face p. 62 
 
 Plan of Battle of Bannockburn to face p. 65 
 
 Plan of Caen to face p. ■^zz 
 
 Plan of Battle of Crecy to face p. 328 
 
 Plan of Battle of Poitiers to face p. ^oZ 
 
 Map of France to illustrate Treaty of Bretigny . to face p. 438 
 
ERRATA 
 
 p. 252, note (5) ; for William VII of Gueldres read of Juliers 
 
 p. 266, note (i) ; for Charles the Bad, grandson of Louis Hutin 
 
 read Philip of Evreux in right of his wife Jeanne, daughter of 
 
 Louis Hutin 
 p. 277, lines 13 and 14 ; for the present text read Robert, who had 
 
 already been his locum tenens, and in the course of the year 
 
 was appointed Bishop of Chichester 
 p. 320, margin ; for French successes read Fresh successes 
 p. 327, litres 22 and 23 ; for Hugh le Despenser IV 7-ead Hugh le 
 
 Despenser HI 
 p. 361, note (3) ; for Earning read Bourchier 
 p. 394, third line from bottom ; for Maurice Berkeley read Thomas 
 
 Berkeley 
 p. 446, lines 2 and 3 ; to Blanche and her husband add namely, 
 
 John of Gaunt, the King's son 
 p. 462, line 20 ; for John IV read John V 
 
I307 
 
 EDWARD II "OF CARNARVON" 
 
 Born 25th April 1284.' — Began to reign 8th July 1307. — Died 21st Sept. 1327. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A. D. I307-I308 
 
 Accession. — Campaign in Scotland. — Parliament. — Ascendancy of Peter of 
 Gaveston. — Marriage and Coronation of the King. — Baronial Opposition. 
 
 At the accession of the First Edward we hailed the advent 
 of a prince whose character and antecedents gave every 
 promise of a glorious and successful reign. The forecast 
 was justified in every respect. At the advent of his son 
 we find ourselves confronted by a dismal contrast. We 
 have before us a young man of three-and-twenty, who The young 
 had already established a reputation for dissipation and ^' 
 extravagance,^ and an utter disregard for the dignity and 
 duties of his station. " Successit Edwardus iunior seniori 
 sed eo modo quo Roboam Salamoni." ' 
 
 Physically he was not unworthy of his sire, being tall, Hisappear- 
 well-made and good-looking. The chronicler thought 
 that had he given himself to martial exercises he might 
 have rivalled the prowess of the mighty Richard.* He 
 
 ' Florence, Continuation, II. 232 ; Wykes, 295. 
 
 ' See Dawn of the Constitution, 505. For the lawless rapine in which Edward's 
 household indulged round Dunstable in 1294 see Annals of Dunstable, 392. Over 
 700 letters written by or for the Prince, A.D. i304-r3o5, are extant (9th Deputy 
 Keeper's Report, Appendix II, 246-249), a most uninteresting collection, mostly 
 begging letters, asking for favours, commonly church preferment, for proteges. 
 Official letters to the clergy are in Latin, the rest in French. In one letter he 
 acknowledges the receipt of the seal of his sister Jeanne, Countess of Gloucester, 
 lent to him— as good as a blank cheque book ! In a nice letter he remembers 
 his nurse Alice Segrave and her daughter. ' Chron. Lanercost, 209. 
 
 * " Virelegans corpore, viribus praestans," Knighton, 2531. " si armorum 
 usibus se exercitaret regis Ricardi probitatem praecederet, . . . cum statura longus 
 sit, et fortis viribus, formosus homo, decora facie," Monachus Malmesburiensis, 
 192 (Rolls Series, No. 76, vol. II ; Bp. Stubbs). " Fust de soun corps un dez plus 
 fortz hom de soun realme," Scalacronica, 136. 
 
 1415.1 B 
 
THE KING 
 
 CHAP. I 
 1307 
 
 and 
 character. 
 
 had shown some spirit in the Scottish campaigns ; ^ but 
 
 it became clear in time that he had no taste for soldiering 
 
 or even for the mimic warfare of the tiltyard. He had 
 
 no aims, " no kingly pride or sense of duty, no industry 
 
 or shame or piety. He is the first King since the Conquest 
 
 who was not a man of business, well acquainted with the 
 
 routine of government."^ The pursuit of pleasure was 
 
 his business ; and as his physique was his strong point he 
 
 devoted himself to outdoor amusements, and athletic and 
 
 manual exercises. He was fond of hunting, of course, 
 
 and devoted to horses and dogs ; but he was also skilful 
 
 in driving and rowing, and could even find vent for his 
 
 energies in such humble work as ditching or thatching. 
 
 Of an evening he could take up mechanical tools, and 
 
 employ himself in metal-work or the like.^ But he was 
 
 also very fond of theatricals.* In a later age he might 
 
 have figured as the President of a Royal Four-in-hand Club ; 
 
 or earned popularity as the Captain of a Boat Club. But 
 
 the Thirteenth Century had no such openings for sporting 
 
 or athletic magnates. Then the unfortunate thing was 
 
 that the only companions with whom Edward cared to 
 
 associate were the men with whom he came into contact 
 
 in connexion with his favourite pursuits, such as coachmen, 
 
 watermen, mechanics, play-actors, minstrels, and buffoons. 
 
 With such as these he could chatter and drink at his ease ; ^ 
 
 the society of men of rank he habitually avoided.® Having 
 
 no self-respect he could stoop to playing rough practical 
 
 jokes on dependants,' and could be free with his hands if 
 
 a servant chanced to offend him. 
 
 One especial confidant he had in the person of Pierre de 
 
 ' Dawn, 474, 480, 512. = Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 328. 
 
 ^ " Dederat enim se in private ab adolescentia sua arti remigandi, et bigam 
 ducendi, foveas faciendi, et domos cooperiendi, ut communiter dicebatur ; arti 
 etiara fabrili de nocte cum suis sodalibus operando et aliis artibus mechanicis ;" 
 Lanercost, 232. ' Mon. Malm. 197. 
 
 '' " II estoit large . . . et mult coumpaignable k sez privez ; " Scalacr. 136. 
 
 " " Parvipenso procerum contubernio adhaesit scurris, cantoribus, tragoedis, 
 aurigis, fossoribus, remigibus, navigiis et caeteris artis mechanicae officiis; 
 potibusindulgens ;" Knighton, sup. See also Fordun, 336. 
 
 ' See Bain, Calendar of Scottish Documents, 269. 
 
AND HIS MAN 3 
 
 Gaveston/ a young man who had been brought up as his chap, i 
 playfellow,^ and exercised a boundless and most unwhole- ~' 
 some influence over him. Peter was " a typical Gascon ", His con- 
 quick-witted, brilliant, accomplished ; of a fine person, '' 
 skilled in martial exercises ; as a social figure he doubtless 
 threw the English barons into the shade : but he was also 
 vainglorious and presumptuous beyond endurance.^ The 
 hold he had gained on Edward he used persistently for his 
 own advancement, " entirely disregarding the interests of 
 his master." He was not a man of exalted birth, and 
 his position had soon excited great jealousy. His pre- 
 sumption may he judged by the fact that he had induced the 
 Prince to beg of his father for him the grant of the county 
 of Ponthieu, the inheritance of Queen Eleanor.* 
 
 Gaveston's influence over the Prince of Wales had been 
 a source of trouble and anxiety to the late King, who as 
 we have seen had twice banished him from his son's court. 
 On the latter occasion both had been sworn in the most Banished 
 solemn manner, the one not to return to England, and the j^^g. 
 other not to recall him, without the King's leave.^ The 
 troubles of Henry HI had been chiefly caused by his 
 partiality for foreigners. But the men whom he patronized, 
 the Lusignans and Savoyards, belonged to the oldest 
 families in Europe. The Baronage of the younger Edward 
 were faced by the prospect of being supplanted by a mere 
 roturier.^ 
 
 Under any circumstances a man succeeding to so suc- 
 cessful a ruler as Edward I would be placed in a position 
 of some difficulty. He would have a high standard to The 
 face. But young Edward had a special point to contend °"'1°°'*^' 
 
 ^ Gabaston, Basses-Pyrenees, Tout. The chroniclers give the name as 
 Caberston. 
 
 ' " Censors ejus in adolescentia sua ;" " camerarius familiarissimus," Mon. 
 Mahn. 155. 
 
 ' "Erat iste Petrus . . . corpore agilis et elegans,ingenio acer,moribus curiosus, 
 in re militari satis exercitatus," G. Baker, 4 (ed. E. M. Thompson). " TresnobUs, 
 largis, et gentil de maner, mais orgillous et sourqidrous en party," Scalacr. 139. 
 " Fastus intolerabilis," Mon. Malm. 168. 
 
 ' Hemingburgh, II. 272 ; Bp. Stubbs. ' See Dawn, 514. 
 
 ° " Alti sanguinis linea carens," Westm. III. 139. 
 
 B 2 
 
1307 
 
 4 INITIAL DIFFICULTIES 
 
 with in the fact that his father's success had been largely 
 gained at the expense of the old feudal Baronage, and that 
 the men of that class might be expected to be on the 
 look-out to recover somewhat of their old privileges and 
 influence. At the late King's death the Earls of Lincoln ^ 
 and Warwick ^ were almost the only native Barons of the 
 first rank that he cared to employ. Then of course there 
 was the terrible Scottish war, to which the country felt 
 pledged, but which had baffled the determination and 
 talents of the great Edward. Here again his son had an 
 uphill prospect before him. 
 
 On the 7th July Edward I had passed away at Burgh-on- 
 Sands, on his way to Scotland to suppress the fresh rising 
 of King Robert Bruce. Young Edward at the time was 
 in the South making arrangements for his marriage to 
 Isabelle of France. On the i8th July he reached Carlisle, 
 and on the morrow paid a due visit of respect to his father's 
 lie . remains, still lying at Burgh. Next day (20 July) he 
 was proclaimed King, and received the homage of the 
 barons assembled for the Scottish campaign. On the 23rd 
 of the month his accession ' by hereditary descent ' {par 
 descente de hiritage) was notified, and orders given for the 
 proclamation of his peace.^ Taking the reins of govern- 
 ment at once into his own hands, he relieved the Chancellor, 
 Ralph Baldock, Bishop of London, of the Great Seal, 
 ordering him to send it to Carlisle.* With the levies in 
 the field all ready, the prosecution of the Scottish campaign 
 appeared to the King and his advisers to be clearly the 
 first thing to be taken in hand. Accordingly the funeral 
 of his father and his own coronation were postponed. 
 The late King's bones were sent to find a temporary 
 resting-place at Waltham, under the charge of his faithful 
 servant Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch 
 of Jerusalem. The young King accompanied them a few 
 
 ' Henry de Lacy, son of Edmund. He succeeded in July 1257. 
 " Guy of Beauchamp, son of William. He succeeded in 1298. 
 ° Lanercost,sup. Parliamentary Writs, II. ii. 3; Foed. II. i. Edward's 
 regnal years begin on the 8th July, the day after the day of his father's death. 
 ' Foss, Judges, III. 180. 
 
 icession. 
 
AND MISTAKES 5 
 
 stages on the way, returning to Carlisle by the 31st July> chap.i 
 On the 2nd August the Seal reached him at Carlisle,^ and Tsoy 
 he crossed the Border. 
 
 By the 6th August Edward had reached Dumfries. Campaign 
 Scotsmen in considerable numbers appeared to render i^nd. 
 homage — the cheapest mode of buying peace. On the 
 1 8th the King moved to Sanquhar, while from the 20th 
 to the 28th he rested at Cumnock in Ayrshire. Aylmer 
 of Valence, Earl of Pembroke, was confirmed as Warden 
 of Scotland, with power of admitting to the peace all who 
 had not been implicated in the murder of Comyn or the 
 late rising. Aylmer, however, a few days later threw up 
 his post, to be replaced by the King's cousin John of 
 Brittany, Earl of Richmond. Detachments were sent out 
 to hunt for Bruce in the North, while Edward himself 
 quietly returned to Carlisle (3rd September).* 
 
 Already he had shown his contempt for the injunctions 
 of his father and the feelings of the nation. Within four Recall of 
 days at the farthest from the time when the Great Seal ^^^^ °^' 
 was delivered into his hands, he had recalled Peter Gaveston 
 and conferred upon him the princely apanage of Cornwall,* 
 reserved by Edward I for one of his younger sons, the 
 King's brothers. In this act of hberality, we are told, the 
 King had the support of the Earl of Lincoln. He had been 
 much employed by the late King, but he had proved 
 a failure both in diplomacy and war. All the other barons 
 protested against such a wanton alienation of Crown 
 property.^ 
 
 The recall of Gaveston was naturally followed by the 
 disgrace of the faithful Treasurer, Walter Langton, Bishop 
 of Chester, Coventry, and Lichfield, the man who had not 
 only resisted the Prince's demands for money, but had 
 
 ' See Dawn, 520 ; and for Beck, Patriarch of Jerusalem, p. 502. For the 
 funeral procession see a letter from the Carlisle archives printed by Sir H. Nicolas, 
 Chron. Hist. 294. ' Foss, sup. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, I. i. 6 ; II. ii. 3-5 ; Foed. II. 1-4 ; Lanercost. 
 
 * Dumfries, 6th August ; Foed. II. 2. Edmund, late Earl of Cornwall, only 
 surviving son of the King of the Romans, died s.p. in September, 1300. Foed. 
 II. 922. 5 Mod. Malm. 155. 
 
LOYAL GRANTS 
 
 1307 
 
 'arlia- 
 nent. 
 
 currency. 
 
 even ventured to lecture him on his habits.^ He was 
 summarily dismissed from office,^ all his property real and 
 personal confiscated, and himself sent to the Tower, in 
 defiance of all episcopal or clerical immunities. The strong 
 boxes deposited by Langton with the Templars, alleged 
 to contain treasure to the amount of ^£50,000, were broken 
 open in the King's own presence, and their contents 
 bestowed on the insatiable Gascon.^ 
 
 On the 13th October the King met a full general ParHa- 
 ment at Northampton. The writs had been issued on the 
 26th of August. At that time Edward had not yet been 
 crowned, nor had his father been buried, but money was 
 needed, and so the assembly had been convened, professedly 
 to advise the King concerning his father's funeral, and 
 his own coronation and marriage, all matters involving 
 expenditure. Recognizing these needs the Estates made 
 liberal grants, the clergy granting a Fifteenth of spirituals 
 and temporals, the barons and counties a Twentieth of 
 movables, and the towns a Fifteenth,* Besides these 
 regular Parliamentary grants the King managed to obtain 
 from the Merchant Vintners of Aquitaine a concession of 
 the Nova Custuma, as yet only exigible from foreigners.^ 
 
 The subjects discussed in the Parliament included the 
 state of the currency, said to be depreciated to the extent 
 of one-half of its value. Proclamations were issued 
 ordering it to be taken at its full face value.® This pro- 
 ceeding probably had reference to the " crockards " and 
 " pollards ", the base coin issued in the late reign, that 
 evidently had not been driven out of circulation by the 
 prohibition issued in 1299. The present effort was seemingly 
 
 ' See Dawn, 505. 
 
 ^ 22 August ; Calendar Patent Roll Edw. II, vol. I. i. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 7, 20 September ; Heming. II. 273, 274 ; ' and the old King was 
 not yet buried.' Langton was eventually restored to his bishopric, 3 October 
 1308, Foed. II. 58, at the instance of the Pope ; Ann. Paul. 264. 
 
 '' Parly. Writs, II. i. 3, 8. For the form of assessment see Rot. Park. II. 442. 
 
 » For the Tariff of 1302 see Table A below. The duties included 25. on the 
 tun of wine, which till then had only been subject to a duty of M. the tun. 
 
 • Parly. Writs, II. i. 14, 15 ; and ii. 4, 5 ; Trevet, Cont., p. 2 (Hall, 1702). 
 
PIOUS RITES 7 
 
 an attempt to rehabilitate them; and the senseless pro- chap.i 
 clamation had to be renewed in 1309 and 1310.'- ^T^ 
 
 The week beginning on the 22nd October was devoted Funeral of 
 to the obsequies of the late King. Twelve weeks he had "" 
 rested at Waltham, " by the grave of Harold." On 
 Tuesday 24th October the corpse was laid in state in the 
 church of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate : on the morrow it was 
 , taken to St. Paul's : the day after that to the churches 
 of the Friars Minors and Preachers successively, and so 
 on to Westminster. On Friday the 27th October the 
 remains were finally entombed in the Abbey, on the North 
 side of the Confessor's shrine, between the resting-places of 
 his father and his brother. Early Mass was celebrated by 
 the Cardinal Peter of Spain : ^ five other episcopal Masses 
 followed, the last offices being chanted by the Patriarch of 
 Jerusalem, Anthony Beck.^ 
 
 The flower of England was there to mourn the great 
 King. But his graceless son had neither thought nor 
 money to waste upon a father's grave. The tomb of 
 Edward the First is simple to rudeness. A plain slab of 
 Purbeck marble resting on Caen stone marks the spot. 
 Even the care of an epitaph was left to a later age. The 
 inscription runs ' ' Edwardus Primus Scotoriim Malleus Hie 
 Est MDCCCVIIl Pactum Serva ", where the wrong year 
 betrays the late date of the writing. The style of the 
 lettering also is pronounced as of the sixteenth century.* 
 
 A fresh social distinction was now conferred upon Gave- 
 ston. On the 29th October Edward betrothed him to his Betrothal 
 niece Margaret, daughter of his sister Jeanne of Acre by her "fo^^^^" 
 late husband, Gilbert II, Earl of Gloucester. This connexion 
 would bring Peter within the circle of the Royal family.^ 
 
 In the elation of his new position Gaveston ventured 
 to proclaim a tournament, to be held at Wallingford, 
 a castle appertaining to the " Honour " of Cornwall. An 
 
 ' Foed. II. 84, 114. See Dawn, 458 ; and Ruding, Annals of Coinage, I. 207. 
 
 " For his presence in England see Dawn, 516. 
 
 * See Heming. II. 267 ; M. Westm. III. 330 (Rolls Series, No. 95). 
 
 ' See Dean Stanley's Memorials of Westminster, 129, 130. 
 
 ° Trevet, Cont. 3 ; Mon. Malm. 156. 
 
8 AIMLESS 
 
 CHAP. I entertainment of so ambitious a ctiaracter, given by so 
 young a man, would require to be managed with the utmost 
 tourna- tact and care to avoid giving offence. But Peter allowed 
 ^"'- matters to be so arranged that all the honours of the day fell 
 to himself and his young friends, discomfiture and humilia- 
 tion being allotted to the Earls of Hereford, of Warenne, 
 and of Arundel, some of the biggest men of the land.^ Such 
 reckless folly could not fail to bring its own Nemesis. 
 
 The Great Seal taken from Ralph of Baldock had been 
 shortly given to John of Langton, Bishop of Chichester, 
 a man who had held the ofhce for nine years in the previous 
 reign. ^ This appointment, coupled with that of John of 
 Brittany, Earl of Richmond,^ as Warden of Scotland, a post 
 that he had held before, shows that Edward had no general 
 purpose of reversing his father's acts or measures, no aim 
 beyond that of indulging his personal likings and dislikings. 
 On the 22nd August Walter Reynolds had been appointed 
 Treasurer. Son of a Windsor baker, and alleged to be 
 a man of no education, he had nevertheless been appointed 
 by Edward I tutor to the Prince, and became Keeper of 
 his Wardrobe. He assisted the youth in his theatricals 
 and other amusements, and in short played his cards so 
 well that he managed to retain the favour both of Royal 
 father and of Royal son.* 
 
 Towards the Scots no change of purpose was evinced. 
 Writs of mihtary summons calling out levies for operations 
 against Bruce, who had reappeared in Galloway, were 
 issued from time to time,^ as under Edward I ; but not 
 
 ^ 2 December, Mon. Malm. 156 ; Trokelowe, 65 (Rolls Series, No. 28, vol. II). 
 The Earl of Hereford was Humphrey Bohun III, who succeeded his father 
 Humphrey II in 1298 ; John of Warenne II succeeded his grandfather John I 
 as Earl of Sussex in 1305. Arundel was Edmund Fitzalan, who succeeded his 
 father Richard as second Earl in 1302. 
 
 ^ Foss, III. 180. The exact date of the appointment does not appear. No 
 connexion has been traced between this Langton and the offending Walter. 
 
 ^ Younger son of John II of Dreux, Duke of Brittany, by the Lady Beatrice, 
 daughter of Henry III. He received the Earldom of Richmond in 1306, his 
 father having died in 1305. 
 
 ' Foss, II. 388 ; D. K. Rept., sup. ; Mon. Mahn. 197. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 6, 7, 8. 
 
POLICY 9 
 
 being followed up, led to nothing. In November the Scots chap.i 
 began to show themselves in Northumberland.^ 130^ 
 
 Meanwhile preparations were being pushed on for the The King's 
 King's marriage. On the 6th November plenipotentiaries '"^"'^se- 
 were named to make final arrangements. Shipping was 
 called to Dover and marquees sent to Boulogne, the place 
 appointed for the ceremony.^ Edward must have contem- 
 plated sending over at least 1,000 horses, as 5,000 horseshoes 
 with their complements of nails were requisitioned.^ On the 
 26th December the King appointed Gaveston Regent in his 
 absence, a fresh insult to the nation.* On the 14th January 
 1308 we find Edward at Dover. From that place he issued 
 writs fixing the i8th February as the day for his coronation, 
 inviting magnates to attend, and ordering suitable men to be 
 sent up as delegates from shires, cities and boroughs.* 
 
 On Monday 22nd January 1308 the King crossed the 
 Channel. On the 24th he did homage to Philip the Fair 
 for Aquitaine and Ponthieu ; ^ and next day married 
 Isabelle, then about twelve years old, in the Church of 
 Notre-Dame. Three Royal personages with their consorts 
 graced the ceremony, namely Philip IV of France ; 
 Charles II " the Lame ", King of Naples ; and Henry of 
 Luxemburg, shortly about to be elected King of the 
 Romans ; the Queen Dowager Marguerite was also there. 
 Strange to say the name of the officiating Prelate has not 
 been recorded. On Wednesday 7th February the Royal 
 couple made out the return passage to Dover.'' From the 
 15th to the 20th of the month they rested at Eltham, 
 
 ' Lanercost, 210 ; Cal. Pat. Rolls, sup. 14. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 12, 14, 22. ^ Cal. Pat. Rolls, sup. 
 
 ' " Ob quam causam murmur immodicus inter proceres regni succrevit ; " 
 Walsingham, 1. 121. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 15, 16, and ii. 9 ; Itinerary Edward II (C. K. Hartshorne). 
 
 " Foed. II. 30 ; Trevet, Cont. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 9. Robert of Avesbury, 279 (E. M. Thompson, Rolls 
 Series, No. 93) ; Trevet, Cont. 3 ; Trokelowe, 65 ; De Nangis, Cont. Bouquet, XX. 
 597 ; Matt. Westm. III. 33r ; Cal. Pat. Roll, 25. For Isabelle's jewels, trousseau, 
 and general outfit see the account from the Paris archives printed by Mr. W. E. 
 Rhodes, Eng. Hist. Rev. XII. 517. The outlay came to nearly 21,000 Livres 
 Parisis=£;, 2^0 sterling. 
 
10 
 
 MARRED 
 
 CHAP. I 
 
 1308 
 Corona- 
 tion. 
 
 The rites. 
 
 advancing to the Tower on the 2ist. The State ride to 
 Westminster took place on the 24th. A hundred French 
 knights graced the train of the Royal pair.^ The Corona- 
 tion itself was celebrated on the next day, Sunday 25th 
 February, a week later than the day originally fixed. 
 The delay was caused perhaps by resistance to the King's 
 wish that the crown should be carried by Gaveston ; ^ per- 
 haps by " a difficulty as to who should crown the King ". 
 Clement V had commissioned the Archbishop of York to 
 perform the office ; ^ but since then Winchelsey had been 
 reinstated, at Edward's urgent request.* He insisted on 
 his rights, but being too ill to attend in person named as 
 his substitute the Bishop of Winchester ; ^ and by him 
 the hallowing unction was imposed.® The Anglophobe 
 Charles of Valois and Louis of Evreux were there to 
 represent their brother Philip ; while the Court circle in- 
 cluded the Dukes of Brittany ' and Brabant,® Amadeus IV 
 (" Ames ") Count of Savoy, and Henry Count of Luxem- 
 burg.^ The Earl of Hereford carried the sceptre with the 
 cross ; Henry of Lancaster, brother of Thomas, carried the 
 rod with the dove, while the Earl of Lancaster himself^" 
 carried the pointless sword Curtana, the other two swords 
 being borne by the Earls of Lincoln and Warwick. A huge 
 table or chequer board [scaccarius) with the robes on it 
 was supported by the Earl of Arundel, Hugh le Despenser, 
 
 ' Itinerary ; Liber de Antiquis, 251. 
 
 ^ Ann. Paul. 260 ; Walsing. I. 121 ; cf. Lanercost, 211. Gaveston did carry 
 the crown. 
 
 ' William of Grenefield, elected in December 1304 ; Hemingburgh, II. 233 ; 
 consecrated in 1306, Registrum Sacrum. 
 
 * 22 January 1308 ; Wilkins, Concilia II. 290, 291. Edward had applied twice 
 for the reinstatement of Winchelsey ; Foed. II. 23. 
 
 ' Henry Woodlock, consecrated 30 May 1305 ; Reg. Sacrum. 
 
 " Mon. Mahn. 157 ; Trevet,Cont.4; Foed. II. 32, 36; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. 
 II. 330. 
 
 ' Arthur, eldest son of Duke John II and elder brother of John Earl of 
 Richmond. 
 
 * John, husband of the King's sister, the Lady Marguerite. 
 
 » Foed. ; Baker, 4 (ed. Thompson) ; Trevet, Cont. 4 ; Ann. Paul. 260. 
 " Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was son of Edmund Crouchback, younger brother 
 of Edward I. 
 
FESTIVITIES II 
 
 Thomas de Vere son of the Earl of Oxford, and Roger chap, i 
 Mortimer of Wigmore.^ The Mayor and aldermen, clad 130S 
 in silk and samite, discharged the functions of the Butlery,^ 
 while the Barons of the Cinque Ports, as of ancient right, 
 supported the canopies over the heads of King and Queen. 
 The appearance of a King's champion at the Coronation 
 must be carried back to this occasion at any rate, as the 
 Castle of Tamworth was held of the Crown in chief, and 
 apparently by Baldwin of Fryville, on the tenure of per- 
 forming this service of Grand Serjeanty.' 
 
 Every preparation had been made to ensure a successful 
 ceremony. A thousand barrels of wine had been ordered 
 from Gascony ; all the magnates in England had been 
 invited, with their ladies, and free quarters bespoken for 
 them in London.* But the nation was not in a mood 
 for rejoicing, and the proceedings were mismanaged. The 
 crowd was immense, but under no control : a brick wall 
 enclosing the choir was thrown down by the pressure of 
 the mob and John of Bakewell, a Knight, crushed to death. 
 The rites in consequence had to be scrambled through with 
 irreverent haste. In the evening again the banquet failed 
 to give satisfaction. There was plenty to eat, but no 
 attendance ; while Gaveston strutted about in purple, 
 embroidered with pearls, eclipsing the very King himself.^ 
 
 But the coronation was chiefly remarkable for the new The 
 and more stringent form of oath introduced, embodying o°th"^"°° 
 all the old obhgations with one distinctly novel ; the oath 
 too had to be tendered to the King in French, another 
 novelty, Edward's command of Latin not being equal to 
 the occasion. Eadgar had promised ' to hold Church and 
 people in good peace ; to put down evil-doing ; and to 
 
 ' Son of Edmund who died in 1303. ^ Ann. Lend. 52. 
 
 = See Cal. Pat. Roll 2 Edw. III. 278, 313. 
 
 ' Foed. 11. 7 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 15. 
 
 ^ See Ann. Paul. 260-262, the account of an eyewitness; Matt. Westm. III. 331. 
 For the state officers and the whole coronation service see Foed. 1. 33-36. The 
 recension, however, would seem to belong to the coronation of Richard I, as the 
 three swords are spoken of as appertaining to the Earls of Chester, Huntingdon, 
 and Warwick. 
 
12 
 
 THREATENED 
 
 1308 
 
 Baronial 
 caucus. 
 
 Grand 
 Council. 
 
 temper justice with mercy '} This formula had been fol- 
 lowed by Henry I, and in substance by Richard and John,^ 
 and by Henry HI with a special reference to the laws of 
 the Confessor superadded.^ The same formula was now 
 tendered to Edward, with the further requirement that 
 he should promise to ' uphold and defend the laws and 
 righteous customs that the community of the realm should 
 choose '.* 
 
 It is impossible not to see in these words a demand 
 for recognition of the constitutional rights, and powers of 
 Parliamentary action, obtained by the nation from the 
 King's father. 
 
 The barons — at whose instigation the new promise must 
 have been inserted — no Government officials of themselves 
 would ever have ventured on such a step — were not slow 
 of putting it to the test. "The Gaveston question had 
 already reached an acute stage." Two days after the 
 coronation the Magnates held a private meeting in the 
 Refectory at Westminster, to concert measures — doubtless 
 as to getting rid of Gaveston. Edward, naturally taken 
 aback at so bold a proceeding, sent a message to the effect 
 that if the barons had anything to propose for the honour 
 of God and the good of the realm he would be happy to 
 meet them.^ The Magnates assenting, a Grand Council 
 or Parhament of Barons was held on the 3rd March.® A 
 general discussion on the condition of the realm, as affecting 
 Church and Crown, and the state of the peace, was the 
 business laid before the assembly. In the previous year 
 the Earl of Lincoln had stood out as Gaveston's friend. 
 
 ' See Foundations of England, I. 319. The oath was 200 years old in the time 
 of Eadgar. 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 33, and Angevin Empire, 268, where I follow the oath as 
 given by Diceto, II. 156. Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 331, follows the oath 
 as given by Benedict of Peterborough, which I regard as a clerical fabrication. 
 See especially Foed., sup., where the oath as taken by Richard I is evidently 
 given. 
 
 " Namely at his second coronation ; Dawn of Constitution, 23. 
 
 ' " Les loys et les custumes droiturels les quels la communaut^ de vostre 
 roiaume aura eslu." Given in French and Latin, Foed. 36. 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 262. » Parly. Writs, I. i. 18. 
 
BREACH 13 
 
 Now, we are told, he had become his bitterest enemy, in chap.i 
 consequence of Peter's ungrateful attitude.^ He rose at 1308 
 once to move that the King be requested to give effect to 
 his coronation oath by pledging himself beforehand to 
 ratify anything that the Barons might resolve upon in 
 connexion with the matters laid before them. The King's Disaffec- 
 response being found unsatisfactory, the Earl proceeded *''°"' 
 to pledge the Council to combined action. All seemingly 
 gave in their assent, except the bearers of the King's 
 messages, namely Lancaster and Hugh le Despenser the 
 elder. Lancaster had not yet broken with the King ; 
 Gloucester held neutral ; but Despenser resisted de Lacy's 
 proposal so openly that the latter threatened him with 
 dire consequences if he should venture to stand apart from 
 the rest.^ A passage in one writer, a writer of special 
 authority, seems to suggest that the King had answered 
 the Barons by forbidding them to discuss anything that 
 had not received his previous sanction.^ 
 
 The Council ended in preparations for war. The barons 
 went home to set their castles in order ; the King did the 
 same ; and a general outbreak was thought imminent.* 
 To such a state of confusion had the King's folly already 
 brought the realm. But matters could not be left in such 
 a state. A week later writs were issued for a full Parlia- 
 ment of Magnates to meet on the Quindene of Easter.^ 
 
 On the 30th May the Council met. The Barons had Grand 
 taken the precaution of coming in arms — of course ' in pure 
 self-defence '.* The banishment of Gaveston was their 
 first demand ; Peter had plundered the Crown, and 
 alienated the King from his proper advisers, the great men 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 158. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm., sup. ; Ann. Paul. 162 ; Heming. II. 270, 271. 
 
 ^ See Ann. Paul. 262. One Baron having urged that it was too much to ask 
 the King to agree to articles that he had not seen, the rest answered, " Nosti quod 
 sine commissione Regis post mandatum suum nichil ordinare possumus de regni 
 negotiis, nee per consequens aliqua depromere in verbo quae nondum concipiuntur 
 in raente." The accounts are not free from confusion. 
 
 * Mon. Malm., sup., &c. ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 15. 
 
 ° " Armata manu,defensionis prorsus non hostilitatis causa," Ann. Paul. 263 ; 
 Mon. Malm. 159. 
 
14 
 
 BARONIAL 
 
 CHAP. I of the land. A bond of confederation was drawn up, 
 ^^ propounding the doctrine that homage and allegiance were 
 due to the Crown itself, not to the person of the wearer of it ; 
 and pledging the signitaries to the use of strong measures 
 [asperti, per asperitatem) to bring the King to ' reason ', i 
 he would not consult the true interests of the Crown and the 
 welfare of the people.^ The drafting of this clause was 
 attributed to the pen of Hugh le Despenser the younger ; 
 and years later was made the ground of a charge of treason 
 against him.^ His father stood by the King. 
 
 Edward struggled hard to evade compliance ; Lancaster 
 was still on his side ; * the young Earl of Gloucester, 
 Gilbert HI of Clare, was kept neutral, partly by royal 
 favours, partly by his connexion with Gaveston, who was 
 Gaveston betrothed to his sister.* But on the i8th May the Earls of 
 missed! " Lincoln, Surrey, Hereford, Warwick, Arundel and Pem- 
 broke met at the Temple, and forced the King to agree 
 to dismiss Gaveston by Midsummer Day, obtaining from 
 him letters patent to that effect. Archbishop Winchelsey, 
 who had come home in March,^ gave the sanction of his 
 authority, declaring Gaveston excommunicate if he should 
 outstay the term.* 
 
 Edward " consoled himself " by conferring fresh bene- 
 factions on his favourite, and by efforts to emancipate 
 himself from his promise. On the 6th June lands in 
 England to the value of ;f2,ooo a year were granted to 
 Peter, with possessions of equal value in Aquitaine. On 
 the i6th June Edward begs the King of France to intervene 
 on behalf of the faithful and trusted Earl of Cornwall, who 
 has received ' scandalous ' treatment at the hands of the 
 
 ' See the document in French, Ann. Lond. 153 ; Bridhngton, 33 (Rolls Series, 
 No. 76, vol. II). 
 
 '' See below under the year 1321. 
 
 ' On the loth May Thomas had received confirmation of the High Stewardship 
 attached to his Earldom of Leicester, Feed. II. 44. 
 
 ♦ Mon. Malm. 158. Gilbert, though a minor, had been admitted to his estates, 
 relieved of Crown debts, and given leave to marry whom he would. Cal. Pat. 
 Rolls, sup., I, 5, 15, so. 
 
 ° Bridlington, 33. 
 
 • Foed., sup. ; Trevet, Cont. 5 ; Mon. Malm. 159 ; Ann. Lond. 154. 
 
COALITION 15 
 
 barons : he applies to the Pope and Cardinals to suspend chap, i 
 the excommunication uttered by the Archbishop ; and 1308 
 lastly he seals patents appointing Gaveston King's Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland.^ These documents were sealed by the 
 King in person, the Chancellor apparently having declined 
 to undertake any responsibility in connexion with them.^ 
 When the appointed time came the King escorted his 
 favourite to Bristol, and sent him over to his new sphere of 
 action with every mark of honour and esteem.^ 
 
 At another Council held at Northampton in August, the 
 Barons renewed their attack ; and pressing their advan- 
 tage, forced the King to dismiss from Court the elder 
 Despenser and Nicholas Segrave the Marshal,* together with 
 two men of minor position, namely William Bereford and 
 William Inge, both of whom, however, lived to become 
 Chief Justices.^ 
 
 ' Foed. II. 48-51. ^ See the Memoranda, Parly. Writs, II. ii. 14, 15. 
 
 ' Murimuth, n. Mon. Malm, and Trevet, Cont. sup. 
 
 ' He had only been appointed ' Marshal of England ' by the King in March ; 
 Parly. Writs, II. ii. 17 (Palgrave). 
 ' Ann. Paul. 264 ; Chron. Angl. 6-15 ; Itinerary, 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Edward II [continued) 
 A.D. 1307-1310 
 
 Suppression of the Temple Order in France and England. — ^The war with Scot- 
 land. — Growing disaffection of the Baronage. — ' Articles ' presented in Parlia- 
 ment. — Recall of Gaveston. — Demand for a Reforming Committee. — Appoint- 
 ment of the Lords Ordainers. — Invasion of Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. II The famous Order of the Temple of Jerusalem had its 
 
 J207 beginning in the year 1118, when its first Master Hugues 
 
 The de Payns established a band of nine poor knights of the 
 
 emp ars. q^-q^^ Jj^ ^ house near the Temple, to police the roads 
 leading to Jerusalem, and act as the gendarmerie of Pales- 
 tine.^ Soldier-monks they were sworn to poverty, chastity 
 and obedience ; their rules pledged them to a simple, 
 hardy, athletic life, with all reasonable comforts, free from 
 asceticism or mysticism of any kind. Under the sheltering 
 wing of the Papacy wealth and numbers " rolled in upon 
 them ". They acquired vast estates in Asia and Europe, 
 while their ranks at the last mustered, between knights 
 and followers [serjeants), some 15,000 men, of whom one- 
 third were established in France.^ The loss of Palestine 
 cut off their proper sphere of action without impairing 
 their organization ; and so the exaltation of the Order and 
 its interests became its chief raison d'etre. Clothed with 
 clerical immunities they enjoyed a practical exemption 
 from spiritual and temporal control. The humble band 
 of poor soldiers of the Cross had become an independent 
 republic, wealthy and formidable. Their houses in Paris 
 
 ' For a short bibliography of the literature connected with the suppression of 
 the Templars, and a summary of the various views that have been held on that 
 much disputed subject, see Lavisse, France, III. 175. The final dispersal of the 
 darkness would seem to be due to H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 ^ Lavisse, 177 ; Milman, Latin Christianity, V. 286. 
 
GROWTH OF THE ORDER 17 
 
 and London, as we have seen, became banks of safe deposit; chap, h 
 and by degrees they embarked on financial operations, q. 
 negotiating loans, arranging remittances and the like, on 
 the strength of the money entrusted to their keeping.^ 
 The simplicity of their lives suffered from the increase of 
 riches, while their detachment and pride excited wide- 
 spread jealousy. But no designs of political action can 
 anywhere be brought home to them.^ Of the charges laid Jealousy 
 against the Order, greed of money was the most common, °""^™- 
 and silly tales were current among the lower classes as to 
 the means to which they resorted for making money. 
 Then the lives of many of the brethren were open to 
 criticism ; while their practice of holding their chapters 
 by night, and with closed doors, excited vulgar suspicion. 
 Men thought that concealment meant something to conceal. 
 Minds less under the influence of suspicion, however, agreed Movement 
 in thinking that the state of the military Orders called °' ^^ °'^'"' 
 for reform, a fusion of the Templars with the Hospitallers 
 being a plan favoured by successive Popes, and much 
 considered by Boniface VHI. In the struggle between 
 him and Philip the Templars had given the King the 
 benefit of their moral support ; and he had requited the 
 obligation by favours conferred on them in 1303 and 1304. 
 ' Why, or how, and at what point of time the scheme of Action of 
 destroying the Order was first conceived at the French p-Jj'^ ' ^ 
 Court no man knows . . . one fact only is certain, that an 
 attack on the Templars was being mooted in the King's 
 circle in 1305 ; and that the subject was mentioned to 
 Clement V at Lyons in that year.' ^ Writing to Philip on 
 the 24th August 1307, he refers to charges against the 
 Templars that had been laid before him by Philip at 
 Poitiers, that seemed to him ' impossible ' ; he had seen 
 the Grand Master, who, on learning the bad opinion of the 
 Order entertained by the King, had demanded an inquiry, 
 which he, Clement, fully intended to institute ; but mean- 
 
 ' For the financial operations of the Templars, Lavisse refers to Delisle, 
 Memoires de I' Academic, vol. XXIII. 
 ^ So Lavisse, 177. ' Lavisse, 180, 181. 
 
 1416.1 C 
 
i8 
 
 RESOLUTE 
 
 CHAP, n 
 
 1307 
 
 Arrest of 
 the Tem- 
 plars. 
 
 Proceed- 
 ings insti- 
 tuted. 
 
 while he begs for time, on the plea of ill health and need of 
 medical treatment. While the Pope was thus shufHing 
 and wriggling Philip was preparing to act. On the 22nd 
 September the Seals were placed in the hands of William 
 of Nogaret. About that time Jacques de Molai, Grand 
 Master of the Order, had been summoned to Avignon to 
 report on the state of affairs in the East : and had left the 
 Papal court satisfied that he had cleared the character of 
 his Order. On the I2th October he rode unsuspectingly 
 alongside of Philip at a state funeral in Paris. On the 
 morrow, by a perfect coup d'etat de Molai and all the 
 Templars in France were arrested at one and the same 
 hour, and all their property seized in the name of the 
 Inquisition, on a charge of heresy. ' Thus the Inquisition 
 instituted for the suppression of heresy had become in 
 France, as in Italy, a mere weapon for crushing the 
 adversaries of autocracy.' ^ On the 14th October a hideous 
 indictment against the Templars was issued in the King's 
 name, in a proclamation prefaced by a sanctimonious 
 and most offensive exordium. The Order were charged 
 with requiring novices to abjure Christ and the Cross at 
 initiation ; with the practice of idolatrous and indecent 
 rites, and habitual indulgence in gross immorality. No- 
 garet's experience had taught him the power of resolute 
 lying. He hastens to add in the King's name that he had 
 shrunk from believing such reports, ascribing them to 
 malice, rather than zeal for justice. But the Pope had 
 been consulted, and he had been forced to give in to the 
 proofs laid before him.^ 
 
 Judicial investigations followed. In the course of a 
 month 138 cases were disposed of in Paris by Wilham 
 of Paris, the Inquisitor of France and his Dominicans. 
 Every device of moral and physical torture was exhausted 
 on the accused to extort confessions. Almost all were 
 brought to confess, only to withdraw their admissions at 
 the first opportunity. One man testified to having seen 
 twenty-five brethren succumb to the effects of torture. 
 ' Lavisse, 182. 2 Id. ig^. 
 
LYING 19 
 
 Similar proceedings were instituted in the Provinces.^ In chap, n 
 one way or another sufficient evidence was procured to j^^^ 
 enable Phihp to demand of Clement the suppression of the 
 Order. 
 
 The Hght derived from the extant proceedings in the 
 case of the Bishop of Pamiers enabled us to gauge the worth 
 of Philip's charges against Boniface VI 11.^ The same test 
 may be safely employed to dispel for all practical purposes 
 his charges against the Templars. Audacious calumny The Pope 
 was the one weapon used in all three cases ; and by the ™ 
 threat of calumny Clement was brought to bend to Philip's 
 will. At the first symptom of recalcitrancy on the Pope's 
 part Nogaret met him with a menace of turning on him 
 the poisonous jet of his lies ; and Clement, cowed by the 
 memory of the fate of Boniface, submitted.* 
 
 Philip must have informed Edward of his proceedings 
 against the Templars very shortly after their arrest ; on 
 the 30th October Edward writes back that he and his Scepticism 
 Council had been astounded at the contents of Philip's Jand"^' 
 letter : as no whisper of the ' heresy ' and other offences 
 imputed to the Templars had ever reached their ears, they 
 have sent to the Seneschal of Gascony for further informa- 
 tion. On the 4th December Edward writes to the Kings 
 of Castile, Portugal, Sicily, and Arragon expressing his 
 entire disbehef in the charges brought against the ' distin- 
 guished Order of the Temple ' and urging the propriety of 
 protecting the brethren. But the Pope had already inter- 
 vened to determine the action of the King of England. 
 On the 22nd November he had dispatched a Bull to 
 Edward, which must have reached London shortly after 
 the 4th December. In this document Clement informs 
 the King that he had long heard, but discredited, reports 
 unfavourable to the Templars, but that ' his dear son 
 Philip ' had been recently assured of their crimes ; and 
 that at the requisition of the Inquisitor appointed for his 
 Kingdom by the Holy See Philip had ordered them to be 
 apprehended ; that the Grand Master and other brothers 
 
 ' Id. 184, 185. ' See Dawn, 483, ' Lavisse, sup. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE POPE A WITNESS 
 
 CHAP. II had made ' a spontaneous confession ',^ as Philip informed 
 1,0,^ him : that he himself had ' personally examined ' one 
 brother of high character, who had confessed the abnegation 
 of Christ : he therefore requests the King to make arrange- 
 ments for the arrest of all the Templars throughout his 
 dominions.^ 
 
 This testimony was irresistible. When the Vicar of 
 Christ himself entered the witness-box scepticism was 
 silenced. The requisite orders were immediately issued. 
 On the loth January 1308 all the Templars in England, 
 Ireland and Scotland were consigned to custody.^ The 
 captures were effected as easily and as silently as in France. 
 The clergy, overawed by the Papal authority, and scared 
 out of their wits by the very whisper of ' heresy ', accepted 
 the fall of the Order as fully justified. 
 
 The war with Scotland went on ; but the operations 
 were in fact operations on paper. During the winter of 
 1307-1308 King Robert was incapacitated by illness 
 
 "And thar him tuk ane sic sekness 
 That put him to full hard distres. 
 He forbar bath drink and met. 
 His men na medicine couth get 
 That evir micht to the King avale ; 
 His strinth so haly can him fale 
 That he ne micht nouther rid na ga." * 
 
 After spending the winter in retreat at Slioch in the 
 Garioch, one of his hereditary possessions,^ he descended 
 in the spring (1308) to Inverury. John Comyn, Earl of 
 Buchan, and John Mowbray of Methven had a mixed force 
 of Scots and English, not far off, at Old Meldrum. Bruce 
 insisted upon being placed on horseback : fortune favoured 
 
 ' " Spontanee confessit corruptionem erroris abnegationis Xti." When 
 de Molai was publicly confronted with the document circulated as his confession, 
 he denounced it as a forgery. He died at the stake proclaiming the innocence of 
 his Order. See Milm., II. 320, 380, 396. 
 
 " Foed. II. 10, 16, 17, 19. 
 
 = Parly. Writs II. ii. 6-8 ; Ann. Worcester, 560 ; Heming. II. 279. 
 
 ' Barbour, Brus, 193 ; Heming. II. 274. The latter thought that Bruce had 
 taken some poison. 
 
 ' Barbour, 195 and 517, note. Aberdeenshire, N.E. of Huntly. 
 
THE WAR 21 
 
 him and the English party were scattered.^ From this chap, n 
 time the tide in the fortunes of the Bruce took a decided ~^ 
 turn, but the first use he made of his victory was to inflict 
 a savage harrying on the lands of his chief opponent 
 Buchan. For fifty years ' the hership of Buchan ' was 
 a household tale of horror. 
 
 " Eftir that wele fifty yher 
 Men menit the herschip of Bouchane." ^ 
 
 The success at Inverury involved the recovery of Aber- Scottish 
 deen ^ and practically that of the allegiance of the East 
 Highlands North of the Grampians. By June Edward 
 Bruce and James Douglas reconquered Galloway, and in 
 August Bruce avenged himself on the Western Highlanders 
 by defeating the men of Lorn and Argyll, and taking 
 Dunstaffnage Castle.* On the 2ist of September the 
 EngHsh are again informed by their King that Bruce is on 
 the borders of Northumberland. On the 3rd December the 
 Earl of Gloucester is sent to raise the siege of Rutherglen, 
 near Glasgow.® To make and unmake appointments of 
 commanders was all that Edward could do ; to him his 
 own subjects were little less formidable than the Scots. 
 
 If Edward I had given to Parliament " more than was 
 consistent with royal despotism " he had also retained in 
 his own hands " more than was consistent with the theory 
 of limited monarchy ".^ At every point the direct and 
 personal intervention of the monarch was still requisite. 
 Edward H had found a body of able and patriotic advisers 
 round his throne ; but their devotion could not make up 
 for his own personal unpopularity.'' 
 
 ' Lord Hailes, Mr. Tytler, and Mr. Innes give the date of this action as the 
 22nd May. It was probably in consequence of this reverse that Edward issued 
 the writs of the 21st June. 
 
 ' Barbour, Brus, 199-203 ; Fordun, I. 344. The district of Buchan is the 
 most northern part of Aberdeenshire. 
 
 ' Hailes ; Rot. Scot. I. 55. 
 
 ' Fordun, I. 345 ; Lanercost, 212 ; Barbour. 
 
 = Parly. Writs, II. i. 378, 379. ' Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 324. 
 
 ' As evidence of the spirit and ability of the King's advisers we may take the 
 manly resistance offered to Papal encroachments. We find the government 
 
22 FRANCE AND 
 
 :hap.ii At the head of the EngHsh baronage stood his cousin, 
 jjg Thomas of Lancaster, also uncle to Queen Isabelle. Grand- 
 son of Henry III and great-grandson of Louis VIII, as 
 son of Blanche of Artois, Queen of Navarre and mother of 
 Queen Jeanne of France, he was brother-in-law to Philip 
 the Fair, and uncle to Queen Isabelle. Possessor of the 
 Earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, he was the 
 most powerful man in the Kingdom, surrounded by vassals 
 quite used to defying the Crown. Rough, coarse and brutal, 
 when brought to the test he was destined to prove as 
 incapable of leading the nation as Edward himself. But 
 his wealth, birth and territorial influence enabled him 
 always to block the way, if so disposed. The idea of 
 deposing the King does not appear to have ever entered 
 his mind, the chief aim of his policy being the petty wish 
 to irritate and annoy his cousin. He did not want to 
 dethrone him, only to snub him and " cut him out ". Any 
 popular cry would serve his purpose, and in particular 
 the complaint of the feeble policy towards Scotland, by 
 which the great Edward's conquests were being lost. 
 Altogether with Lancaster in opposition " the times were 
 out of joint ". 
 
 In summoning a Parliament of magnates for the 20th 
 October Edward had to forbid attendance in arms, ordering 
 all to come " in such manner as was wont under the late 
 King ". Four times in the year he had to forbid tourna- 
 ments. ^ 
 
 Under the existing state of affairs in England Philip 
 began to think that the old Scottish alliance might be 
 worth cultivating. He approached Edward on the subject 
 of a truce, and, at his request, Edward named commis- 
 sioners to negotiate a " sufferance ", not in terms with 
 Bruce, but with ' the people of Scotland ' (29 November 
 
 resisting the Pope in the matter of Walter Jorz, Archbishop of Armagh, whom 
 Clement pretended to institute to the temporahties of his see without the King ; 
 so in the matter of the introduction of Bulls affecting the Crown ; and in the 
 matter of Provisions attempted at Worcester and York ; and again in matters 
 connected with the Statute of Carlisle. See Foed. II. 3, 7, 10, 13, 20-25, 28, 29. 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 22, 23 ; Foed. 11. 36, 43, 60. 
 
THE SCOTS 23 
 
 1308).^ Two days later the Bishop of Glasgow (Robert chap. 11 
 Wishart) was given up to the Pope : Bishop Lamberton of ^^ 
 St. Andrews had been set free in August.^ Early in the 
 ensuing year an envoy came over from Paris who was 
 allowed to communicate with Lamberton and " Robert 
 Bruce ". But Edward was not prepared to recognize 
 Bruce as King of Scotland and so the proposed truce came 
 to nothing.^ 
 
 " Such was the state of affairs at the close of the year 
 1308 ; " towards Scotland a hesitating policy neither peace 
 nor war : at home no public measures passed, nor any 
 proper Parliament held since October 1307. On the 23rd 
 February 1309, however, the King met a Parliament of 
 Magnates. The result of the meeting was that on the 
 4th March writs were issued for a full general Parliament to Parlia- 
 meet at Westminster on the 27th April.* The session was '"^° ' 
 the most important since that held at Lincoln in 1301. 
 The King wanted money and permission to recall Gaveston. 
 The latter request was rejected or ignored.^ The demand 
 for a subsidy was answered by the promise of a Twenty-fifth 
 from the laity,^ if the King would give a favourable answer 
 to certain articles of petition presented in the name of 
 the whole community {communalte). 
 
 The King was given time to consider the articles, and 
 it was arranged that he should give in his answers at an 
 adjourned Parliament to be held at Stamford on the 
 27th July.' 
 
 The Articles were eleven in number, and the grievances Articles of 
 alleged were all infractions of recognized law, and for the ^'■"•'°"' 
 most part matters in which the commons were chiefly 
 interested. The first and seventh Articles complained 
 that persons styling themselves King's officers seized 
 
 ' " Les gentz d'Ecosse : " Foed. II. 63. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 54, 64, 65, 66. Both prelates had been captured in 1306 ; Dawn, 
 510; ' Foed. II. 68, 78, 79. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 24-35. " Heming. II. 275. 
 
 ' " The clergy were not asked to contribute, the pope having granted the 
 King a tenth for three years," Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 339 ; Parly. Writs, 
 II. i. 39. ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 37. 
 
24 SEEMING PROGRESS 
 
 CHAP. II provisions without payment ; and that the ' pernors ' of the 
 ~ King's legitimate ' prises ' took more than was needed for 
 the King's household, disposing of the surplus for their 
 own profit. The answer eventually given by the King 
 to these Articles was that the practices in question were 
 condemned by an Ordinance of his father — viz. the 
 statute of 1300 — and that he intended that Ordinance to 
 be kept.^ 
 
 The second Article condemned the ' New Customs ' 
 obtained by Edward I in 1303 from the foreign merchants, 
 as having received no Parliamentary sanction. The King 
 agreed to suspend these dues for a time, till he saw how 
 matters went. The fourth, fifth and tenth Articles com- 
 plained of the unlawful extension of the jurisdictions of the 
 royal officers of state, the Marshal, Steward and Constable. 
 Again the King referred to the Act of 1300 by which these 
 usurpations were condemned. The remaining Articles 
 made complaint of the depreciated state of the currency, 
 and of defects and irregularities in the administration of the 
 law. There was no means of securing attention to petitions 
 presented to the King in Parliament ; suits were delayed 
 by writs of protection, and guilty criminals were allowed 
 to purchase pardon. On all points the King promised 
 substantial redress.^ 
 
 The Articles, with the above answers to them, were duly 
 pubHshed late in July ; while in August a confirmation of 
 the Act of 1300 against Purveyance was issued, and orders 
 given for the collection of the Twenty-fifth.* The Articles 
 " taken in conjunction with the Bill of twelve Articles 
 presented at Lincoln mark a step in the progress of the 
 commons ".* 
 
 ' By ' ancient prisage ' the King was entitled to take a cask of wine from 
 each ship at 20^. the cask, and he was entitled to take as much corn as he needed 
 for his household at 2d. the quarter below the market rate. See 9 Hen. Ilf. s. 19 
 and Statute Westm. I ; Royal Letters Henry III, V. ii. 95 ; Liber de Antiqq. 39, 
 52, 103 ; Foed. II. 98. 
 
 " See Rot. Parlt. I. 443 ; Ann. Lond. 158. 
 
 » August 20-26 ; Statutes, I. r54-i56 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 22 ; i. 38. 
 Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 339. 
 
FRUSTRATED 25 
 
 But the hopes of a lasting settlement had already been chap. 11 
 dashed by the infatuation of the King. In the interval j^og 
 between the two sessions of Parliament he had recalled Gaveston 
 Gaveston, receiving his ' brother ' at Chester with open 
 arms.^ The Pope had given the sanction that Parliament 
 withheld. Means had been found of breaking the ranks 
 of the Opposition ; Lincoln, Peter's chief opponent in the 
 last year, had been conciliated, and his influence had won 
 over Surrey, who had not ' smiled on Gaveston ' since the 
 Wallingford tournament ; the Earl of Gloucester stood 
 firmly by his brother-in-law, and on the strength of his 
 influence the King ventured to produce Peter at Stamford.^ 
 
 The business transacted at Stamford included resolutions 
 for the prosecution of the war against the Scots who had 
 rejected the truce. Writs of military summons were 
 issued for the 29th September.* But the impertinent 
 behaviour of the favourite towards the magnates again 
 reduced the King to a state of impotence. Peter's lively 
 wit found scope in coining nicknames for his enemies. 
 The Earl of Lancaster was ' The Old Hog ' ; Pembroke 
 ' The Jew ' ; Warwick ' The Black Dog of Arden ' ; while his 
 brother-in-law was stigmatized as ' The Cuckoo's Chick '.* 
 No man could get a word of the King if Gaveston was 
 present ; nor get anything out of the King except through 
 Gaveston.^ Smarting under these slights the Earls of Lan- 
 caster, Lincoln, Warwick, Oxford and Arundel refused to 
 attend a Council at York.^ The levies were successively 
 reduced, adjourned and countermanded.'' In December 
 the Earl of Gloucester had to inform the King that the 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 162. Edward was at Chester 27 June-i July ; Itinerary. 
 
 ' Ann.Lond. 157 ; Heming. II. 275 ; Bridlington, 35 ; Lanercost, 213 ; Foed. 
 II. 88. Gaveston's marriage to Margaret of Clare was celebrated on his 
 return. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, II. i. 381. 
 
 * Chron. Packington (temp. Edw. Ill), Leland, Coll. II. 461 ; Lingard, III. 4 ; 
 Lanercost, 216; Trokelowe, 68 ; Mon. Malm. 161. 
 
 * Mon. Malm. 168. The writers assert with confidence that if Gaveston had 
 behaved suitably towards the men of rank nobody would have quarrelled with 
 him. 
 
 " Heming. II. 275. ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 385-392. 
 
26 
 
 THE BARONS AND 
 
 1309 
 
 Grand 
 Council, 
 
 Articles granted at Stamford were not being observed, 
 and that the collection of the Twenty-fifth must be sus- 
 pended.^ 
 
 In Scotland the King's officers, though still masters of 
 twenty castles,^ found themselves in so helpless a plight 
 that they advised the conclusion of a truce, and the adjourn- 
 ment of active operations till the summer.' Penniless 
 for all other purposes the King could always find something 
 to give to Gaveston, some possession, some Crown perquisite 
 to alienate.* The Barons resolved to bring him to reason 
 by force, the only argument to which he was amenable. 
 They were doubtless aware that a year before Clement had 
 felt bound to remonstrate — however kindly and gently — 
 with Edward on his conduct towards his barons, and they 
 could not fail to know that the young Queen and her 
 father objected to Gaveston just as much as they did.^ 
 A Grand Council had been summoned to London for the 
 8th February 1310.^ In anticipation of this meeting we find 
 the formidable Earl of Lancaster arming the men on his 
 estates. On the 7th February the King warns him and 
 others that they must not come to Parliament in arms ; 
 they need fear no disturbance, as the King's safe-conduct 
 protects them, and the Earls of Gloucester, Lincoln, Surrey 
 and Richmond have been appointed to preserve peace and 
 order in London.' Nevertheless the Barons presented 
 themselves in full military array. The King demanded 
 explanations ; he was told that his lieges could not consent 
 to meet him if Gaveston were to be present. Gaveston, 
 accordingly, was sent into retirement for the time, and the 
 Council commenced its sittings early in March.* 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 41 ; also Id.ii. 22,25. The Twenty-fifth was collected 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 " Among the castles for which provisions are ordered in tlie course of the year 
 we have Berwick, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, 
 Dundee, Banff, Dirleton, Dunbar, Selkirk, Dalswynton, Lochmaben, Bothwell, 
 &c. ; Rot. Scot. II. 63, 80. 
 
 ^ Rot. Scot. II. 63, 77, 80 ; Lanercost, 213 ; Foed. II. 104. 
 
 » Id. 86, 98. ^ See Foed. II. 54, 71 ; Trokelowe, 68. 
 
 « Parly. Writs, II. i. 41, 42. ' Foed. II. 102, 103. 
 
 ' Heming. II. 276 ; Mon. Malm. 162 ; Ann. Paul. 268. 
 
THE KING 27 
 
 The Barons opened fire by presenting a petition in which chap, n 
 they depicted in gloomy colours the state of the realm, or j 
 rather, the state of the King's own position, reduced by 
 ' unsuitable and evil councillors ' to ' great discredit 
 throughout the land ' ; without money for the defence of 
 the country, or even for the support of his household, in 
 spite of the Twentieth and Twenty-fifth granted ; ^ and 
 forced to live by extortions forbidden by the Great Charter. 
 They also pointed to Scotland ' as good as lost' {cum perdue).^ 
 They ended by demanding the appointment of a Committee Reforming 
 of ' the Baronage ' to frame Ordinances of Reform. mittee. 
 
 The Barons were evidently following the precedents of 
 1258. But in truth there was no real parallel between the 
 two situations. In 1258 England was almost in a state of 
 dissolution ; discontent pervaded every class : men and 
 beasts were succumbing to famine and pestilence : there 
 was war with Wales, supported by a threatening Scottish 
 alliance ; while England was being drained of its resources 
 for Papal schemes rejected by the nation. In 1310 the 
 price of wheat, no doubt, was high, and had been high for 
 two or three years ; ' and the winter had been a severe one.* 
 But we do not hear of actual dearth ; while Wales was now 
 incorporated, and Scotland crushed and helpless. The 
 King's action had been weak and irritating ; but in fact 
 there was nothing really wrong in the country but the 
 temper of the offended magnates, and their action was 
 seemingly inspired more by pique than by constitutional 
 zeal. 
 
 Edward, however, was powerless to resist. On the i6th King 
 March he authorized the Barons to appoint such persons '^°"^^" ^■ 
 as they might think fit to regulate the state of the royal 
 
 ' The wardrobe accounts for the early years of the reign are wanting, so that 
 the truth of this allegation cannot be tested ; but the revenue, so far as shown 
 by the Pell Rolls, was ample, much larger than that of the early years of his 
 father's reign. See Table B below. The Household expenditure of later years 
 was moderate. 
 
 ' " Vous estes par noun covenable consail et malveis . . . mys et cheyn en 
 grant esclandre en totez terras ; " Ann. Lond. 168 ; Liber Custumarum, 198 
 (Riley). 
 
 " Rogers, Prices, I. 196, 228. * Ann. Lond. 138. 
 
28 
 
 THE KING 
 
 1310 
 
 Interim 
 Ordi- 
 nances. 
 
 Household and the realm.^ The persons so appointed 
 would retain their authority till Michaelmas in the ensuing 
 year (1311), the King undertaking that whatever they 
 might ordain should be ' held and observed in all points ', 
 provided that such ordinances were made ' to the honour 
 of God, and the honour and profit of the church, the King 
 and the people, according to right and reason, and the oath 
 we took at our coronation ' } 
 
 The Barons had evidently taken their stand on the new 
 clause in the coronation oath.^ On the 17th March the 
 assembled magnates sealed letters patent declaring that 
 the election of the Ordainers should not be treated as a 
 precedent, nor be turned in any way to the disadvantage 
 of the King or of his heirs.* 
 
 On the 19th March the Barons, apparently without 
 waiting for the election of the Ordainers, issued further 
 Ordinances, providing that six of their number should sit 
 in London as a standing committee ; forbidding all ahena- 
 tion of crown property without their sanction ; requiring 
 the issues and profits of the realm to be paid directly into the 
 Exchequer, ' for the profit of the King, and the maintenance 
 of his household, so that he may live off his own, without 
 taking prises, other than those due and accustomed, and 
 that all others do cease.' The foreign merchants, by whom, 
 as under the late reign, the Customs had ostensibly been 
 received, are ordered to be apprehended until they have 
 given in their accounts. The jealousy of foreigners is 
 further shown by a provision requiring the Customs in 
 future to be collected by natives.^ 
 
 The Barons were quite right in forbidding the mischievous 
 system of ' assignments ' ; but in other respects they were 
 not quite posted up in the state of public affairs. As early 
 as the i8th December 1307 the Treasurer had been in- 
 
 ' " Pur ordener et establirl'estat de nostre hotel et de nostra roiaume." 
 ^ Foed. II. 105 ; Rot. Park. I. 445 ; cf. Heming. 11. 276. 
 ^ So too remarks Mon. Malm. 163. 
 ' Rot. Park. I. 443 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 26, 27. 
 
 ^ 19 March, Ann. Lond. 172, 173; confirmed by the King, 2 August, 
 Foed. II. 113. 
 
GIVES IN 29 
 
 structed to audit the accounts of the Frescobaldi,^ while the chap, n 
 reader has been informed that the actual collection of the ^T^ 
 Customs was always in the hands of natives. 
 
 On the 20th March the Ordainers were finally elected, Appoint- 
 and sworn in ; the latter ceremony taking place in the or^ainers. 
 Painted Chamber at Westminster. The election was con- 
 ducted on an indirect plan, similar to that adopted in 1258. 
 The prelates elected two earls ; the earls elected two 
 bishops ; and the four so elected chose two barons ; the 
 six then added by co-optation fifteen others, making a total 
 of twenty- one.^ These were Archbishop Winchelsey ; the 
 Bishops of London, Salisbury, Chichester, Norwich, St. 
 Davids and Llandaff ; * the Earls of Lancaster, Gloucester, 
 Lincoln, Hereford, Warwick, Pembroke, Richmond and 
 Arundel ; Hugh de Vere, and the Barons William Marshal of 
 Hengham, John Grey de Wilton, Robert Fitz Roger, Hugh 
 of Courtenay, and William Martin of Kemys.* Conspicuous 
 by his absence was Hugh le Despenser, banished from 
 Court in 1308. 
 
 Of these Ordainers the Chancellor (Chichester), Lincoln, 
 Gloucester and Richmond (John of Brittany) represented 
 the King's party. Lancaster, Hereford, Warwick, Arundel 
 and Pembroke belonged to the opposition, Pembroke, the 
 Poitevin, being especially bitter against the Gascon Peter. ^ 
 Marshal was a follower of Lancaster ; Martin and Cour- 
 tenay probably belonged to the Royal party.^ The war 
 
 The sittings of the Council over, the King turned his with Scot- 
 
 land. 
 
 ' Cal. Pat. Roll, I. 28. As the result of this audit sums due to the amount of 
 £118,000 were paid to the Frescobaldi ; Archaeol. XXVIII. 207. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, sup. 
 
 ^ The Bishop of London was Ralph Baldock, the ex-chancellor ; Salisbury 
 was Simon of Ghent, consecrated in 1297 ; Chichester was the Chancellor, John 
 Langton, consecrated in 1305 ; Norwich was John Salmon, consecrated in 1299 ; 
 St. Davids was David Martin, consecrated in 1296, while John of Monmouth, 
 consecrated in r297, filled the See of Llandaff. Reg. Sacrum. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, sup. Cf. Ann. Lond. 172, where only five barons are named, 
 with Clifford instead of Fitz Roger. 
 
 ° Trokelowe, 74. 
 
 ' " Martin was father of the second wife of Henry de Lacy ; Courtenay was 
 brother-in-law to Hugh le Despenser ;" Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. IL 343, citing 
 Hon. Malm. 162 ; Trevet, Cent. 8. 
 
30 
 
 ARMED PROGRESS 
 
 1310 
 
 CHAP. II attention to the war with Scotland. Bishop Lamberton 
 {more suo) had requited Edward's confidence by holding 
 a Synod of the Scottish Church, in which the clergy 
 pledged themselves to support Bruce as ' the true heir to 
 the throne '} Writs were issued for a general muster at 
 Berwick on the 8th September ; tournaments were again 
 specially forbidden, and the usual orders given for raising 
 men in Wales, and bringing provisions over from Ireland, 
 together with the necessary sea-transport.^ 
 
 On the 2nd August, as already mentioned, the King pub- 
 lished his ratification of the provisional Ordinances, with 
 a saving clause to prevent mistakes, reserving the legiti- 
 mate Customs on wool, wool fells and leather, with which 
 the Stamford Articles had not affected to meddle.* That 
 was all right ; but at the same time he writes to the collec- 
 tors at the seaports that the collection of the Nova Custuma 
 must be continued. The impost had been suspended at the 
 request of the Stamford Parliament, as an experiment ; 
 but the King is now satisfied that neither he nor his people 
 have derived any benefit from the suspension ; the prices 
 of commodities are as high as ever.* 
 
 In connexion with Edward's attitude towards the 
 Ordainers. Ordinances and the Ordainers we may point out that in 
 May he had taken the Seal from Langton, an Ordainer, and 
 given it to his creature Walter Reynolds, Bishop of Wor- 
 cester,^ while John Sandale replaced Reynolds as Treasurer. 
 No consent of the Ordainers was asked for either appoint- 
 ment : the King was also borrowing money and disposing of 
 crown property as he pleased.* In consequence Winchelsey 
 
 ' Dundee, 24 February 1310 ; Scottish Acts, I. 100 (ed. Thomson) ; Wilkins, 
 Cone. II. 302, from Anderson's Independence of Scotland, Append. 12. The 
 names of the parties to the declaration are not there given, but an earlier 
 document, " almost in the same words," gives the names of twelve bishops, 
 beginning with that of Lamberton ; Hailes, citing Anderson, Append. 14. 
 
 ^ 5,000 footmen were to be raised in Wales, with about 1,000 from England, 
 9th April-i8th July; Parly. Writs, II. i. 393, &c. ; ii. 28; Foed. II. 106-109 5 
 Rot. Scot. I. 82-87. 
 
 " Foed. 113. « Parly. Writs, II. ii. 30. 
 
 ' Consecrated 13 October 1308 ; Reg. Sacrum. 
 
 " See Foed. 1 10-125. Reynolds and Sandale were appointed 6 July. 
 
 Edward 
 and the 
 
THROUGH LOTHIANS 31 
 
 in the autumn thought it necessary to preach strongly chap^ii 
 to the people in London on the duty of supporting the 1310 
 Ordainers, denouncing an excommunication against all who 
 should resist their authority.^ But with the Great Seal in 
 his hands the King was master of the situation ; and so we 
 shall find him throughout. 
 
 • On the loth September and following days the King's A muster, 
 levies were mustered at Tweedmouth by Bartholomew of 
 Badlesmere, locum tenens for the Constable,^ assisted by 
 Nicholas Segrave — the man driven from court by the 
 Barons — as Marshal of the army. The post of course by 
 hereditary right belonged to Hereford. 5,000 footmen from 
 Wales had been ordered, with about 1,000 from England. 
 The military tenants, clerical and lay, proffered 236 knights' 
 fees in all ; of which 51 were represented by an equal number 
 of fully equipped men-at-arms with two barded horses 
 each ; the remaining 185 fees being cleared by the produc- 
 tion of 370 servientes with one, mostly barded, horse each, 
 or 421 mounted men all told.* All the Earls had been 
 summoned, but only Gloucester and Surrey condescended 
 to appear in person. Lincoln had been appointed Regent 
 by the King * — another act of doubtful legality — and had 
 to remain in the South ; while the other Earls found in 
 Gaveston's presence a sufficient reason for discharging their 
 duties by deputy.^ On the i6th September Edward Campaign, 
 crossed the Border, resting at Roxburgh Castle. On the 
 2ist he plunged into the Forest of Selkirk, " a region which 
 would have proved exceedingly dangerous, had there been 
 any enemies to oppose him." On the 29th of the month 
 he emerged at Biggar ; on the 12th October he signs at 
 Lanark ; on the 23rd he reached Linlithgow ; and on the 
 1st November he returned to Berwick, content there to 
 remain inactive till the end of the ensuing month of June.^ 
 
 ' November ; Heming. II. 278. 
 
 ^ Roger Bigod died in 1306, and his honours had fallen to the King's brother 
 Thomas, who was under age ; Foed. in. 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 44-57. The tenants summoned numbered 175. 
 ' Foed. 116. 
 ' Mon. Malm. 164 ; Heming. II. 277. ° Itinerary, 
 
32 SCOTTISH TACTICS 
 
 CHAP. II Throughout the campaign Bruce, true to his tactics, had 
 ■ ■ kept carefully out of reach, leaving the famine-stricken 
 land to protect itself. But we learn from Edward's own 
 proclamations that Bruce was preparing to attack the 
 Isle of Man, and that horses, arms and provisions were 
 being sent to him from friends in England.^ 
 
 ' Foed. II. 120, 122. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Edward II {continued) 
 
 A.D. I308-I313 
 
 Proceedings against the Templars in England. — First application of Torture in 
 England. — Dissolution of the Order. — Council of Vienne. — Parliament. — ^The 
 Ordinances. — Murder of Gaveston. — Breach between King and Barons. 
 
 On Sunday, 7th February 1311/ Henry de Lacy was chap, m 
 gathered to his fathers ; to the King the loss of a friend ; j 
 while he had the further grief of seeing two additional Death of 
 Earldoms, namely Lincoln and Salisbury,^ pass into the L^cota. 
 hands of his chief opponent, Thomas of Lancaster, who 
 now succeeded to these in right of his wife Ahce, heiress both 
 of her father's and her mother's rights. The render of 
 homage for the new possessions involved a curious struggle. 
 The King being at Berwick, the Earl had to go to the 
 Border. He went with an imposing retinue. But he 
 refused to cross the Tweed, or to do homage outside of 
 England. Edward was indignant, but, Thomas standing 
 on his rights, he had to come to Haggerston, six or seven 
 miles from Berwick, and receive the recognition there. 
 Gaveston was present, but the Earl would not speak to 
 him.* The Regency held by Lincoln was conferred on 
 Gloucester,* the King being still in the North. On the 
 3rd March the late King's invaluable factotum, Anthony 
 Beck, Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 passed away at Eltham.^ His loss again, as that of one who 
 might have mediated between the King and the Barons, 
 
 ^ So Ann. Lond. 175. The Pauline Annals, 269, give the 6th February, and 
 Doyle and G. E. C. the sth February. 
 
 " De Lacy had held the Earldom of Salisbury in right of his first wife, Margaret, 
 heiress of William Longsword II, Earl of Salisbury. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 215. ' Foed. II. 129. 
 
 ' Reg. Sacrum ; Ann. Lond. 176. 
 1415.1 D 
 
34 FINANCIAL EFFORTS 
 
 CHAP. Ill was severely felt.^ The King laid hands on the goods both 
 ~ of the Bishop and the Earl. Those of the former, however, 
 had to be restored to his executors.^ 
 
 In his retirement at Berwick Edward was busy devising 
 plans for raising money. We hear of contributions kindly 
 granted by individuals, clerks and laymen, in Norfolk and 
 Suffolk. On the 14th April the King writes to Archbishop 
 Winchelsey, begging him to obtain from Convocation a 
 grant of i2i. on the mark of spiritualities.' A fortnight 
 later Ingelard of Warle, the Keeper of the Wardrobe, is 
 instructed to ' confer ' with divers towns and monasteries on 
 matters relating to the King and the war against Scotland.* 
 The King trusts for favourable answers. These were old and 
 approved modes of raising money : the next measure had an 
 element of novelty in it. Under the late reign the men 
 raised under commissions of array had always been paid 
 and maintained by the King. Edward now writes to the 
 sheriffs that it might suit the counties better if each town- 
 ship were to equip, and maintain at their own expense, one 
 stout serviceable foot-soldier for seven weeks' service in 
 Scotland, instead of providing a larger number at the 
 King's expense.^ 
 
 The King's financial endeavours were rewarded with 
 a moderate, but only a moderate, amount of success. The 
 attempt to raise an army failed utterly. Abandoning for 
 the time his schemes against Scotland, Edward submitted 
 to summon a full general Parliament to meet in London on 
 the 8th August.6 
 
 While the King was at Berwick the case of the Enghsh 
 
 ' See Bridlington, 38, where an interesting account of the Bishop's mediation 
 between Edward I and his Barons in 1297 is given. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 128, 129, 134. 
 
 " Id. 132. The Northern clergy at first refused. But in October the clergy of 
 the Archdeaconry of Durham agreed to a private levy of lod. on the £1 for defence 
 against the Scots. Reg. Pal. Dunelm. 1. 6, 97 (Rolls Series, No. 62). The general 
 accounts of the year are wanting, so that we cannot tell whether the revenue 
 was below the mark or not, but the expenses of the campaign would be heavy. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 35, 36. ' Id. i. 408-410. 
 
 ' i6thjune. Ibid. ii. 37; Men. Malm. 112. " Rex igitur licet quodammodo 
 invite venit Londonias ;" Lanercost, 216. 
 
THE ENGLISH TEMPLARS 35 
 
 Templars was finally disposed of. They had been kept in chap, m 
 strict custody since January 1308. English opinion was j „ 
 much divided on the subject, but Philip and Clement kept 
 the clergy up to the mark, and Edward showed no further 
 disposition to shield the Order. The Pope had summoned 
 an Oecumenical Council to meet at Vienne, to decide on 
 the ultimate fate of the Order, the sittings being eventually 
 fixed for the month of October 1311. Clement required 
 to be provided with evidence from Great Britain and 
 Ireland as well as from other countries. In the autumn 
 of 1309 inquiries were undertaken by his directions in 
 London and elsewhere. The Abbot of Lagny and Sicard 
 de Vaur were deputed to assist as Inquisitors.^ The 
 sittings in London began on the 21st October 1309 and 
 lasted on till March 1310. Forty-seven brethren, some of 
 them Templars of forty years' standing, were examined on 
 eighty-seven interrogatories sent over from France. Not Interroga- 
 a syllable in support of any one charge was extracted from °™^' 
 them.^ Everything was stoutly denied. Further interro- 
 gatories were exhibited from time to time, without better 
 results. Extra-mural witnesses, not of the Order, were then 
 Called in. One man, and one man only, deposed to an act 
 of overt guilt against Guy Forest, Grand Master of England. 
 The Report,^ drawn up by the commission in June 1310, Charges 
 amounted to a complete acquittal of the Order on all the ^^^P^''^^. 
 main points. The only damaging facts which the Inquisi- 
 tors could claim to have established were that the chapters 
 were held in secret, and that lay Grand Masters and 
 Preceptors were in the habit of granting absolution to 
 brethren.* Besides the depositions of the primary wit- 
 nesses, a mass of loose, irrelevant hearsay evidence was 
 published, but the commissioners, to their credit, do not 
 appear to have laid any stress on this testimony.^ Similar 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 55, 88, 90, 91, 93, 94 ; WiUcins, Cone. II. 304, 309 ; Northern 
 Registers, 194. 
 ^ See Cone. II. 331-346. The Bishops of London and Chichester presided. 
 ' Ibid. 347-356. The charge against Forest is given at p. 348. 
 ■■ Ibid. 358. The latter charge was not fully admitted. ' 
 
 * Ibid. 358-365. See also Milman. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 GRENEFIELD 
 
 1310 
 
 Question 
 of torture 
 
 CHAP. Ill inquiries were held at Lincoln, York, Dublin, and Edin- 
 burgh ; with like results. All examined denied the whole 
 as firmly as those arraigned in London.^ The reports of 
 the commissioners were laid before Provincial Synods held 
 at York and in London in May and September 1310. 
 Archbishop Grenefield submitted a paper of questions to 
 his clergy for their consideration, and then adjourned 
 them for a year. The most interesting points are those 
 touching the propriety of having recourse to torture, con- 
 fessedly till then unheard of in England.^ ' Must recourse 
 be had to torture if the Templars will not otherwise 
 confess ? Granting that proper agents and appliances 
 are not to be found in England,' asks the Archbishop, 
 ' must the bishops import these from abroad to clear 
 themselves of the imputation of negligence ? ' * A question 
 so put carried its own answer with it. The adjourned 
 Synod of the Northern Province met early in June 1311 
 and sat till the end of July in troubled debate. The 
 Pope's testimony was before them and could not well 
 be disregarded : yet the Templars examined in England 
 had confessed nothing. The clergy were divided and 
 perplexed ; but there is nothing to show that they appealed 
 to the rack for a solution of their doubts. The end of it 
 was that the Northern clergy adopted a scheme which had 
 been devised by the Canterbury Synod sitting at the same 
 Solution, time. The proposal was in fact a compromise intended to 
 give the Templars as much relief as could be given without 
 impugning the credit of the Pope. They were required to 
 sign a paper admitting that they had been grievously 
 accused * by Clement, and that they could not clear them- 
 selves from his charges. They were further required to 
 abjure all heresy and to beg for absolution as penitents. 
 
 ' December 1309-May 1310 ; Cone. II. 365-383. Cf. T. Stubbs, Decern 
 Script. 1730, who sums up the proceedings by stating that nothing substantial 
 could be elicited. In Scotland only two brethren altogether were found. 
 
 ' "Licet hoc in regno Angliae nusquam visum fuerit vel auditum." Ibid. ; 
 Heming. II. 287. 
 
 * Heming. sup. Cf. Cone. II. 394. 
 
 ' " Se valde diffamatos esse." 
 
AND WINCHELSEY 37 
 
 On these terms they would be relieved from further molesta- chap, in 
 tion. The offer was accepted : the required declarations ~^ 
 were taken, and the northern Templars were forthwith 
 distributed among the monasteries of the Province.^ 
 
 Archbishop Winchelsey and his clergy showed themselves 
 less fastidious in their choice of means for ascertaining the 
 truth. Perhaps they were more amenable to Continental 
 influences. At the outset of the inquiry they had applied 
 for and obtained from the King leave to proceed against 
 the Templars according to ecclesiastical Constitutions, and 
 Edward had given every facility for applying ' The Ques- 
 tion ' as it was termed.^ In September 1310, when the 
 Canterbury Synod received the first reports of the com- 
 missioners, it was agreed that the Templars should be 
 examined again, singly and separately, and that if they 
 still persisted in denying ' the truth ' then that ' the 
 Question ' should be applied, provided always that such 
 application should not involve ' mutilation, or permanent 
 injury to limb, or violent effusion of blood '.* 
 
 The milder treatment having again been tried without 
 success, it would seem that eventually in June 1311 the 
 ' Question ' was finally applied, and that in consequence 
 three substantial confessions were obtained. On the 23rd 
 of that month Stephen Stapelbridge, described on the 
 record as ' an absconded apostate ',* confessed everything. 
 ' There were two forms of initiation, one lawful and good ; Con- 
 the other impious and heretical.' He had been admitted extorted, 
 according to both forms ; at the latter initiation Brian de 
 Jay, late Grand Preceptor of England, had presided ; he 
 had compelled the witness to abjure Christ and His mother 
 Mary, and to spit upon the Crucifix. Thomas Thorold, 
 
 ' 9th June-3oth July ; Cone. II. 394-400. Fourpence a day was allowed by 
 the King to each Templar out of their confiscated estates ; Foed. II. 169. 
 
 ' Cone. II. 413, 414 ; Foed. II. 104. " Quod iidem praelati et Inquisitores de 
 Templariis et eorum corporibus ordinent et faciant, quotiens voluerint." Id., 
 also especially p. 119 : " corpora Templariorum in questionibus et aliis ad hoc 
 convenientibus ponere " ; "ad veritatem super crimine haeresis eliciendara," &c. 
 
 " " Ita quod questiones illae fierent absque mutilatione etdebilitatione perpetua 
 alicuius membri, et sine violenta effusione sanguinis ;" Cone. II. 314. 
 
 ' " Apostata fugitivus ; " Cone. 
 
I3II 
 
 38 END OF 
 
 surnamed " Tocci ", was one of those present on the occasion. 
 The unfortunate creature ended by faUing on his knees and 
 howhng for mercy. He would submit to any penance ; 
 torture he did not mind ; all that he cared for was the 
 salvation of his soul.^ 
 
 Two days later " Tocci " was brought up. He also was 
 an ' apostate ' brother. He had been already examined 
 at Lincoln ; had denied everything, and then absconded.^ 
 When re-examined on the 26th June he again denied 
 all personal knowledge of the alleged malpractices ; he 
 knew of but one form of initiation ; but he was aware that 
 some brothers had confessed ; he had been present at 
 Rome when some confessions had been made ; he had fled 
 from Lincoln in fear for his life, and because the Abbot of 
 Lagny, one of the Inquisitors, had sworn that he would 
 make him confess.^ On the 29th June the unfortunate 
 Templar was again brought before the Bishops of London 
 and Chichester : what had occurred in the interval does not 
 transpire, but the witness now admitted that at his initiation 
 Guy Forest had taken him into a private room and required 
 him to abjure Christ and the Virgin, and to spit upon the 
 Crucifix ; he believed that requirement to be customary ; it 
 had been estabhshed in England for fifty or sixty years.* 
 
 The third approver was John Stoke ; his case stands on 
 all fours with those of the two others. He had been fully 
 examined before, and had confessed nothing. On the 
 1st July he was induced to admit that after his formal 
 initiation in a Chapter of the Order he had been compelled 
 to abjure in private. The man who compelled him was 
 the existing Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molai. 
 De Molai had assured him that all Templars did so. Like 
 Stapelbridge this witness broke down at the end of his 
 interrogatory.^ The three were then brought before the 
 Archbishop and the Synod and were made to repeat their 
 
 ' " Dicendo se non de morte corporis nee de aliquo tormento curare," &c. 
 The words strongly suggest that torture had been either applied or threatened ; 
 Cone. II. 383, 384. 
 
 = Ibid. 367, 384 ; April 1310. = 25th and 26th June. 
 
 * Ibid. 384-386. » Cone. II. 387, 388. 
 
THE ORDER 39 
 
 confessions in public : absolution was awarded to them, chap, hi 
 subject to due penance, and the compromise described j^n 
 above was produced. Within a few days the Templars End of 
 in London subscribed the required declaration and were jjgs"^ 
 absolved — all but the Grand Preceptor WiUiam de la More : 
 he refused to admit that any charges had been brought 
 against him of which he could not clear himself. His case 
 was remitted to the Pope.^ 
 
 At Vienne Clement V found himself in difficulties (Oc- Council of 
 tober 1311). He could only reckon on the support of the '^""^' 
 French clergy. The bishops of Germany, Arragon, Castile 
 and Italy, ' who had mostly acquitted the Templars in 
 their diocesan assemblies,' were inclined to demand a 
 formal inquiry. Nine Templars suddenly appeared to 
 defend the Order. Clement sent them to prison without 
 listening to them. Phihp's advisers then saw that it was 
 time to apply the ultima ratio of force. He assembled an 
 army at Lyons — recently added to his dominions — came 
 to Vienne, and took his seat beside the Pope. Encouraged 
 by this support Clement published the Bull Vox in excelso, 
 drawn up in concert with Philip's agents (3 April 1312). 
 Admitting that he had nothing to justify a ' canonical 
 condemnation ' of the Order, Clement nevertheless took it 
 on himself to suppress it as undefended, not by ' definitive ' 
 sentence, but by ' provisional ' or ' Apostolic ' regulation. 
 ' So perished the Order of the Temple, suppressed, but 
 not condemned ; strangled an unresisting victim.' ^ 
 
 At the end of July Edward at last left Berwick, reaching 
 Westminster on the 13th August. Gaveston, out of regard 
 for his safety, had been left at Bamborough. On the 
 i6th of the month Parliament was opened at Blackfriars, Parlia- 
 the King taking up his quarters with the Preachers. 
 Disturbances had been feared in the known state of politics, 
 and arrangements made by the civic authorities for keeping 
 the City gates by day and night.' Edward so far had 
 
 ' Ibid. 388-393 ; 5-13 July. See also the report Ann. Lond. 176-198. 
 
 ' Lavisse, III. 197. 
 
 ' Itinerary ; Mon. Malm. 170 ; Murimuth, 14 ; Liber de Ant. 251. 
 
40 
 
 FINAL 
 
 1311 
 
 Fresh 
 Articles- 
 
 CHAP. HI systematically ignored his Patent of the i6th March 
 1310, and the provisional Ordinances based thereon. The 
 Barons were determined that their powers should be 
 renewed and enforced ; and they were equally determined 
 that Gaveston should go. The Articles of the previous 
 year were reproduced for the King's acceptance, with a long 
 string of fresh Articles, " conceived in the same spirit but 
 of a more stringent character." Edward struggled hard 
 and long to retain both his prerogative and his friend ; 
 ultimately in the face of civil war he had to surrender both. 
 On the 27th September Archbishop Winchelsey and the 
 Earls of Lancaster, Hereford, Warwick and Pembroke pub- 
 lished their amended scheme at the Cross of St. Paul's: on the 
 5th October the Earl of Gloucester and Hugh le Despenser 
 announced to the people that the King had accepted it ; on 
 the nth October the Great Seal was finally affixed.^ 
 
 Like most mediaeval legislation the Ordinances present 
 a curious j umble of matters dealt with. Many of the articles 
 simply redemand the enforcement of established law, con- 
 demning practices of admitted illegality ; others aim at 
 high-flown schemes of reform quite beyond the age ; others 
 again come down to personal questions and matters of 
 mere detail. The first six Articles are a simple but em- 
 phatic iteration of the former Articles, ' and we ordain them 
 to be held and observed.' ^ The seventh Article annuls 
 the alienations of crown property made since the promulga- 
 tion of the former scheme : the ninth forbids the King to 
 leave the realm, or to engage in operations of war, without 
 the consent of the Barons in Parliament. In case of the 
 King's lawful absence, a Regent to be appointed by the 
 Barons. The tenth Article insists that the King shall 
 abstain from all ' prises ' ' other than the ancient prises due 
 and of right accustomed ' ; no goods to be taken for the 
 King's use except for full payment, as provided by the 
 Great Charter. The eleventh Article entirely abrogates 
 
 • Mon. Malm. 171 ; Rot. Parlt. I. 281-286 ; Statutes, I. 157 ; see also further 
 demands, Ann. Lond. 198. 
 
 ^ " Ordenons que soient tenus et gardees," &c. 
 
ORDINANCES 41 
 
 the Nova Custuma as having been imposed without due chap.iii 
 Parliamentary sanction, and so contrary to Magna Carta} ^7^ 
 Articles 13-16 require the King to consult the Baronage in 
 the choice of all his chief Ministers and Officers, including 
 the two Chief Justices and the Chief Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer. This claim had been advanced for the first time 
 in 1244 and again in 1301, and resisted both times. The 
 17th and 1 8th Articles deal with fresh grievances, providing 
 for inquiry into individual cases of wrongdoing, and 
 requiring Forest officials to be removable for misconduct. 
 The 20th, a long Article, is devoted to Peter Gaveston. He 
 is taxed with having organized a gigantic faction for the 
 exercise of illegal and unconstitutional influence ; already 
 banished twice, he has twice been recalled without proper 
 leave ; he has turned the hearts of the people from their 
 King ; he must leave England by the Feast of All Saints, 
 never again to set foot within the King's dominions. 
 
 Under the 22nd and 23rd clauses Henry of Beaumont is 
 banished from Court for having obtained from the King 
 a grant of the Kingdom of Man with other excessive 
 benefactions, his sister Lady de Vescy also to go into 
 retirement. From the 24th clause we learn the nature of 
 the complaints so often raised against the courts of the Courts of 
 Constable and Marshal. Instituted with jurisdictions tOandMar?^ 
 be exercised within the Verge, i.e. a distance of a league *^'s^^- 
 from the King's residence for the time being, for the settle- 
 ment of disputes among menials, and the maintenance of 
 order in the turbulent mob usually attendant on the court, 
 they had arrogated to themselves the right of hearing 
 causes appertaining to the courts of Common Law, such 
 as pleas of freeholds, and actions of debt, contract or 
 covenant. These usurpations are strictly forbidden for 
 the future. On the other hand the appointment of sheriffs, 
 which had been given by Edward I to the counties, was 
 now restored to the Crown (s. 17).^ 
 
 ' A further Ordinance to this effect was published 9 October ; Parly. Writs, 
 II. ii. 43. The levy had ceased 6 October. 
 ' See Rot. Parlt. I. 281-286 ; Statutes, I. 157-167. 
 
42 NOTHING 
 
 CHAP. Ill On the whole the new Ordinances, with a certain amount 
 of give and take, were in some respects in advance of the 
 times, and in some respects behind them. The abrogation 
 of the Nova Custuma, though technically defensible, was 
 an unkind cut, quite uncalled for ; on the other hand we 
 find even less provision for action by " le commun " than 
 in the Provisions of Oxford.^ The rights of the nation are 
 left under the sole guardianship of the Barons. No such 
 settlement could be lasting. England had outgrown feudal 
 government as much as personal government ; and, 
 strange to say, the neglect of any provision for action on 
 the part of the commons " actually furnished the plea for 
 the reversal of the Ordinances by the hands of the Despen- 
 sers ". But again the restrictions on the King's power of 
 leaving the country or declaring war go beyond the require- 
 ments of the present day. 
 
 On the 8th October the weary Parliament was prorogued. 
 The illegal Customs had already been dropped ; the im- 
 proper grants were revoked, and copies of the Ordinances 
 distributed. The Chancellor, Walter Reynolds, Bishop of 
 Worcester, was dismissed, and the office put into com- 
 mission. The Treasurer, John Sandale, likewise was turned 
 out of office.^ Probably the King and the Barons were 
 unable to agree upon permanent appointments. Gaveston 
 was brought to London under safe escort, and sent by water 
 down the Thames to the King's brother-in-law in Brabant, 
 the ports of France not being open to him. In less than 
 two months' time he was back again.' 
 
 In the first week of January 1312 Edward slipped away 
 to the North.* He complained, naturally enough, of the 
 bondage in which the Barons would keep him ; and the 
 removal of all his personal friends and adherents.^ On 
 
 ' See Dawn of Constitution, 172. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, II. ii. 43 ; Foed. II. 145, 146 ; Foss, III. 183, 184. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 143, 144 ; Ann. Lond. 202 ; Ann. Paul. 271 ; Trokelowe, 68 ; 
 Lanercost, 217. 
 
 ' Edward was at York i8th January, and stayed there till the 8th April, when 
 he moved to Darlington. Itinerary. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 174. 
 
SETTLED 43 
 
 the 7th January the Keepers were ordered to bring the chap.iii 
 Seal to York. On the i8th the King announced that the ^T^ 
 ' good and loyal ' Peter Gaveston, exiled in violation of the 
 laws of the land — which the King was sworn to maintain 
 '—had been recalled by his orders ; on the 2oth of the 
 month Gaveston's estates were once more restored ; while 
 a general Parliament that had been summoned for the 
 13th February was countermanded.^ The King's infatua- The King 
 tion in recalling Gaveston seems extraordinary, as we are tj^nt. ' 
 told that he was puzzled where to put him out of harm's 
 way ; not a place seemed safe in England, Ireland, 
 Wales, Gascony or France. In his extremity he applied 
 to Bruce, offering a truce as the price of a refuge for 
 Peter. But King Robert thought so little of Edward's 
 position that he declined to enter into any engagements 
 with him.^ 
 
 The recall of Gaveston was accepted by the Barons as 
 " a declaration of war ". The King had already proclaimed 
 a virtual state of siege in London by ordering the city to 
 be armed and guarded on his behalf.^ But by way of 
 explaining his position to the nation, he announced that 
 he intended to observe and enforce the old ' laws and 
 customs ' of the realm ; and also such of the recent Ordi- 
 nances as were not ' prejudicial ' to the Crown. Following 
 up this idea he named a commission to treat with the 
 
 ' Foed. II. 153, 154 ; Parly. Writs, I. i. 77, 79. The officials again took care 
 to disclaim all responsibiUty. " Fet a remembrer que la dite forme fu fete par 
 le Roi meismes ;" Foed. sup. 
 
 Public opinion as voiced by ballad song showed no sympathy for the King. 
 "The charter of the Kings word is made of wax; 
 It was holde to neih the fire, and is molten all awey 
 I understond. 
 Ne may no King wel ben in londe 
 
 Under God almihte 
 But he cunne himself rede 
 Hou he shall in londe lede 
 Everi man wid rihte." 
 
 Pol. Songs, 253, 254 (Wright, Rolls Series, No. 14). 
 " Mon. Malm. r74, 175 ; Foed. 155 ; Bruce's Queen was brought to Windsor 
 from Holderness, where she had been kept as a prisoner, 
 ^ Parly. Writs, 11. ii. 44 ; Ann. Lond. 203. 
 
44 THE SWORD 
 
 CHAP. Ill Barons ^ for a modification of the Ordinances ; while to 
 J inspire confidence he fully reinstated Walter Langton, and 
 
 reappointed him to the Treasury.^ 
 
 The proposal for a modification of the Ordinances was 
 received with scorn. Winchelsey excommunicated both 
 Peter and Langton,^ while the Earls of Lancaster, Hereford, 
 Arundel, Warwick and Pembroke met at St. Paul's, and 
 adopted a resolution to the effect that so long as Gaveston 
 was alive and in England the country could have neither 
 The Barons peace nor rest. They took their measures very craftily, 
 arming, dividing their forces, allotting districts to each other, and 
 proclaiming tournaments, in order to mask their purpose 
 of a concentration which they intended to effect in the 
 North. Gloucester was sent into Kent, well out of the 
 way.* The Opposition were thus masters of the country. 
 For troops to face them the King had to write to Gascony ; ^ 
 while for the support of his household he had to plunder 
 right and left.^ 
 
 Leaving York the King retired to Newcastle (nth April). 
 There he was left in peace for three weeks. But on the 
 afternoon of the 4th May Lancaster burst into the city, 
 and almost surprised King, Queen and Gaveston, who had 
 just managed to escape to Tynemouth in the forenoon. 
 They had retained their hold of the Seal,' but had to leave 
 horses, jewels and personal effects behind them. Next day 
 Edward, beside himself with rage,^ took ship for Scar- 
 borough, with Peter, leaving the Queen, who was expecting 
 her confinement, behind him. Having deposited Peter in 
 fancied security within the walls of Scarborough, he went 
 off to Knaresborough and York, endeavouring to raise 
 
 ' Edward's commissioners included John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, John 
 of Cromwell, Hugh of Audley, Henry le Scrope, William D'Eyncourt, &c.; Foed. 
 159- 
 
 ' Foed. 154, 156, 158, 159. January-March. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 175 ; Murimuth, i8 (Rolls Series .No. 93) ; Foed. 167. 
 
 " Mon. Malm. sup. ; Ann. Lond. 203, 204. Foed. 163. 
 
 " " Patriam vastaverunt, quia non habuerunt quid solverent pro expensis ;" 
 Lanercost, 218. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 84; Foed. » " Rex quasi fremens." 
 
DRAWN 45 
 
 men for the relief of Scarborough. He had taken up his chap.iii 
 
 quarters at York on the i6th May ; ^ but Lancaster in ~^ 
 
 force blocked the way to the besieged city.^ Three days 
 
 later the hapless Gaveston was forced to surrender, and 
 
 place himself in the hands of Pembroke, Surrey and Henry Gaveston 
 ' , , f ,. , . in custody; 
 
 Percy, under the terms oi a very complicated convention. 
 
 The three pledged themselves on the Eucharist to produce 
 their captive safe and sound as against all men in York 
 Minster by the ist of August ; he would be brought to the 
 presence of the King and Lancaster, to abide the decision 
 of Parliament. Failing any agreement between the parties 
 as to Gaveston's future, the barons would be bound under 
 penalty of utter forfeiture to the King to replace him within 
 the walls of Scarborough ; the fortress in the meantime to 
 be allowed to remain in statu quo, with all its fortifications, 
 munitions and stores, the garrison moreover being free to 
 introduce supplies.* 
 
 Pembroke and Percy moved southwards by easy stages 
 with their captive, intending to place him for safety in his 
 own castle at WalHngford.* On the evening of Friday 
 9th June the party rested at Deddington in Oxfordshire, 
 between Banbury and Chipping Norton. Aylmer left 
 Gaveston under an insufficient guard in the house of the 
 rector of the parish, himself going off to visit his wife at 
 a manor house of his at Brampton in Northants.^ Warwick, 
 who must have been watching his prey, appeared early in 
 the morning with a powerful following, seized Peter in bed, but seized, 
 and carried him off to Warwick. The Black Dog had vowed 
 to make Peter feel his teeth. Pembroke hastened to inter- 
 vene, but he failed to get any support, even Gloucester now 
 refusing to exert himself on behalf of his brother-in-law.^ 
 An appeal to the University of Oxford for a public protest 
 
 ' Ann. Lond. 204 ; Trokelowe, 75 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 50. 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 176. 
 
 ' 19 May ; Ann. Lond. 204-206 ; Mon. Malm. 177. 
 * Trokelowe, 76. 
 
 ^ Pembroke afterwards charged Percy with the blame of Gaveston's capture ; 
 Foed. 173. Percy's estates were confiscated on that ground. 
 ° Ann. Lond. 206, 207 ; Mon. Malm. 177, 178 ; Murimuth, 17. 
 
46 
 
 THE FUTURE 
 
 CHAP. Ill 
 1312 
 
 and put 
 to death 
 
 failed equally ; neither clergy nor townsfolk caring to 
 intervene. Peter's fate was settled in private conclave 
 between Lancaster, Hereford, and Warwick. On the 
 19th June the latter, as if to wash his hands of further 
 complicity in the matter, handed over Gaveston to the 
 others, who took him to Blacklow Hill, an eminence on 
 the road to Kenilworth, a mile and a half from Warwick. 
 There they delivered him to a couple of Welshmen, who 
 cut off his head without any form of trial.^ Lancaster 
 and Hereford witnessed the deed ; Warwick stayed at 
 home. Four worthy shoemakers carried the body to 
 Warwick on a ladder, for burial. But the Earl would not 
 allow the corpse to rest on his land, and it was taken back 
 to the spot from which it had been removed, there to lie 
 till some Oxford Dominicans {Fratres Jacohini) took it to 
 Oxford. There it lay for a couple of years, when the King 
 removed it to a new Dominican foundation established by 
 him at King's Langley, in memory of his friend.^ 
 
 This gross deed of blood compromised the whole future 
 course of the reign, placing an impassable gulf between the 
 King and Lancaster. In its ulterior consequences " it was 
 the first drop of the deluge which within a century and 
 a half carried away nearly all the ancient baronage, and 
 a great proportion of the royal race of England ".* But 
 the nation at the time had no misgivings. Gaveston's fate 
 was hailed with ferocious joy.* Nevertheless the King's 
 hands for the time were distinctly strengthened. Pem- 
 Reaction. broke and Surrey, indignant at the reflections brought on 
 their honour, joined him at once. Leaving York on the 
 1st July, on the 15th of the month Edward entered London, 
 
 ' Bridlington, 43, asserts that a form of trial was gone through before William 
 Inge and Henry Spigurnel, justices of jail delivery sitting at Warwick. Both 
 at the time held commissions, not of jail delivery, but for trial of special cases, 
 not at Warwick, but in Leicestershire and Notts. See Cal. Pat. Roll, 1. 476, 477. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 179, 180 ; Ann. Lond. 207 ; Bridlington, 44 ; Trokelowe and 
 Murimuth, sup. ; Ann. Paul. 273. 
 
 ° Bp. Stubbs, sup. 332. 
 
 ' " Laetata est terra, gavisi sunt omnes ; " Mon. Malm. 181, a writer inclined to 
 moralize. So too, however, Pol. Songs ; "Sit Benedicta framea. Quae Petrum 
 sic aggreditur," 258, 259. 
 
COMPROMISED 47 
 
 riding from Waltham through the city to Westminster. 
 The Mayor and leading citizens were summoned to meet the 
 King in person at Blackfriars, and asked if they were pre- 
 pared to hold the city on his behalf. Favourable answers 
 having been received,^ the King on the i8th attended a 
 folksmote at the Cross of St. Paul's, when the allegiance of 
 all classes was secured.^ Proclamations were then issued 
 forbidding ' conventicles ' in arms, and ordering all royal 
 castles and borough towns to be held on his, the King's, 
 account.^ His inclinations were altogether in favour of 
 having recourse to arms, and men were found rash enough 
 to encourage him in his madness.* He issued writs for 
 raising forces in the counties, and himself went down to 
 Kent (August 3-20), and collected some men among the 
 Cinque Ports.^ A full general Parliament that had been 
 summoned to meet at Lincoln on the 23rd July was post- 
 poned to the 20th August, to meet at Westminster.^ 
 The confederate Earls Lancaster, Hereford, Warwick and 
 Arundel came forward in overwhelming strength, and took 
 up a position at Ware.' Edward, while still himself 
 endeavouring to raise men, invited the Earls to appear 
 before him unarmed, to discuss a revision of the Ordinances ; 
 the invitation not being accepted, Edward adjourned the 
 Parliament to the 30th September.* 
 
 Gloucester now came forward to act as mediator, the 
 bishops supporting him ; the King's circle, realizing the 
 personal risks involved in hostilities with the Earls, began 
 to favour peaceful methods.^ For help in the work of 
 negotiation apphcation was made to the Court of Paris ; ^^ 
 and at Edward's request Arnaud, Cardinal of St. Prisca, 
 and another Arnaud, Bishop of Poitiers, came over, to be 
 shortly followed by Louis of Evreux.^^ In their train they 
 
 ' Aim. Lond. 208 ; and for the date, the Itinerary. 
 
 ' Liber de Ant. 46. ' Foed. 172, 173, 177. ' Mon. Malm. 182. 
 
 ^ Id. and 184 ; Ann. Lond. 209 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 89, 90. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 85, 86. ' Ann. Lond. 210 ; Mon. Malm. 184, 185. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 53, 54. ' Ann. Lond. and Mon. Malm., sup. 
 
 " 6 August. Foed. III. 175. 
 
 " 29 August-13 September. Ann, Paul. 171 ; Ann. Lond. 210. 
 
 1312 
 
tions. 
 
 48 HOLLOW 
 
 CHAP. HI brought two accomplished French legistes [legistae Franci- 
 ' ■ geni) prepared to challenge any the smallest limitation 
 
 Mediation, of the Royal authority. Not content with pulling the 
 Ordinances to pieces, clause by clause, they insisted that 
 the whole scheme must be held involved in the condemna- 
 tion of the Mise of Lewes uttered by Louis IX and Boni- 
 face VIIL^ But the malcontent camp in Hertfordshire 
 declined to discuss domestic questions with foreigners.^ 
 Negotiations under the joint presidency of the foreign 
 envoys, and of Gloucester and John of Brittany, Earl ot 
 Richmond, were opened on the 28th September, and lasted 
 nearly three months. Hereford, Clifford and John of 
 Bottetourt appeared for Lancaster and Warwick ; ^ while 
 
 Negotia- Pembroke, the elder Despenser and Nicholas Segrave sup- 
 ported the King's cause. The Barons apparently at first, 
 while offering to apologize and make restitution of the 
 articles seized at Newcastle, demanded a confirmation of 
 the Ordinances.* Eventually they had to narrow their 
 demands to one of amnesty, Edward showing himself very 
 stiff, and apparently seeking to wear out his opponents by 
 delay.* On the 13th November a welcome ray of light 
 broke on the troubled waters, when, to the joy of the whole 
 nation, the young Queen gave birth at Windsor to a son and 
 heir, the future Edward HI. All question of a disputed 
 succession at any rate would thus be happily removed.* 
 The King's temper too was mollified' and a transient feeling 
 of loyal sympathy evoked. 
 
 By the accord as finally settled the offending barons 
 would present themselves under proper safe-conduct in 
 Westminster Hall, on a given day, to do humble obeisance 
 
 ' See their elaborate arguments, Ann. Lend. 212-215. 
 
 ^ Trokelowe, 78 ; Ann. Lend. 215. 
 
 ' Safe-conducts, Foed. 180, 182, 186, 191. 
 
 ' See the " Prima Tractatio ", Ann. Lend. 210. ' Mon. Malm. 190. 
 
 " Foed. 187 ; Ann. Lond. 220, 221 ; Mon. Mahn. 188. " Si rex decessisset sine 
 prole pro certo mansisset corona sub lite ; " an anticipation of the Lancastrian 
 question. The Queen and her uncle wished the prince to be named Philip, but 
 the English protested ; Trokelowe, 79. 
 
 ' See G. Baker, 6 (E. M. Thompson, 1889). 
 
ACCORD 49 
 
 to the King, on their knees, swearing that in all the matters chap.iii 
 concerning which he felt aggrieved they had intended no ^T^ 
 despite to him. Full restitution to be made of the jewels 
 and horses found at Newcastle, with compensation for the 
 value of any horses lost : the Barons to use their best 
 endeavours to obtain from Parliament a subsidy for the 
 Scottish war. On tender of the apology a free pardon to 
 be delivered to the Barons, remitting to them, their ' sup- 
 porters households and allies ',^ all manner of action suit 
 or complaint in respect of the capture detention or death 
 of Peter Gaveston, or of any matters connected therewith. 
 Minor articles stipulated for the issue of writs of summons 
 to Parliament in due form, irregular writs having been 
 addressed to Lancaster and Warwick, and for the reinstate- 
 ment of Henry Percy ; while the Barons undertook not to 
 come to Parliament in arms. The original draft of the 
 treaty provided for the ratification of the pardon in a full 
 ParHament to be held on the third Sunday in Lent, in the 
 ensuing year. But, strange to say, Lancaster and Warwick 
 preferred to rest on the King's patent, without the inter- 
 vention of any statute.^ 
 
 This arrangement by ignoring the Ordinances gave a 
 certain moral victory to the King ; but, as a matter of fact, 
 he had trampled on them from the first, and simply con- 
 tinued to do so. In October he had reinstated Sandale as 
 locum tenens of the Treasurer, and Bishop Reynolds as 
 Keeper of the Seal.^ By their advice he issued writs for 
 the collection of an unauthorized tallage of a tenth of rents 
 and a fifteenth of movables from all cities, boroughs and 
 Crown demesnes, a gross violation of Confirmatio Cartarum, 
 and one for which no excuse could be pleaded. The 
 revenue bequeathed to the King by his father was ample 
 for all ordinary purposes, if properly managed ; and 
 Edward had come in for a substantial windfall in the 
 
 ' " Aerdantz, mesnage et alies." 
 
 " 20 December, Foed. 191, 192 ; Ann. Lond. 221-229. The Commons had 
 been dismissed on the i6th December, Parly. Writs, I. i. 79. What part they can 
 have played does not appear. " Parly. Writs, II. ii. 56 ; October 4-6. 
 
 1415.1 E 
 
i3'3 
 
 50 TARDY 
 
 confiscated possessions of the Templars.'- A strenuous 
 resistance to the tax was offered by London, Bristol and 
 other cities, and apparently it was never raised.^ On the 
 1st January 1313 all private charters were called in for 
 resealing ; ^ an obj ectionable proceeding but one not without 
 precedent. 
 
 In the course of the month of February a mass of plate, 
 jewels and effects described as ' late the property of Peter 
 Gaveston ' were duly dehvered to the King,* but in other 
 respects the work of reconciliation made no progress. The 
 
 Deadlock. King held aloof from the Baronage ; ^ and kept the country 
 in a state of alarm by constant proclamations, and pro- 
 hibitions of tournaments.^ A full general Parliament met 
 on the 1 8th March as provided by the accord, and sat to 
 the 7th April, but the King did not appear.' Another 
 Parliament was summoned in May, and then the leaders 
 of the Opposition were absent. After three days of session 
 the Commons were dismissed.* Another ill-timed and 
 unpopular step now taken by the King was a visit to 
 France to assist at the knighting of the three sons of 
 Philip the Fair, The barons protested, as the English 
 holds in Scotland were falling one by one, while Bruce's 
 raiders after levying blackmail on Northumberland, Cumber- 
 land and Durham, were now threatening York. But the 
 perverse King clung to his pleasure-trip. He appointed 
 
 A trip to Gloucester Regent, and on the 25th or 26th May crossed 
 from Dover to Boulogne, with the Queen, Pembroke, 
 Richmond, Despenser and an immense retinue. i^20,ooo 
 were borrowed from a Genoese firm for the expenses of 
 the journey.^ On Whit-Sunday (3rd June) the young 
 
 ' These, however, had eventually to be surrendered to the Hospitallers ; see 
 below. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, 59, 84 ; Trevet, Cont. II. 18 ; Foed. 210 ; Mon. Malm. 219. 
 No accounts of the tax are forthcoming. 
 
 '' Foed. 193. ' For these see Appendix to this chapter. 
 
 ' Trokelowe, 80 ; Mon. Malm. 190 ; Walsing. I. 135. 
 
 " See Foed. 196, 198, &c. ; Northern Registers, 214 (Rolls Series, No. 61), Stubbs. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm., sup. The King was at Windsor or in London all the time. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 80, 91, 92 ; Foed. 2ri. 
 
 ° Mon. Malm. 190, 191 ; Foed. II. 212-217. 
 
 France. 
 
PERFORMANCE 51 
 
 Princes Louis, Philip and Charles, destined to reign succes- chap, in 
 sively as Kings of France, were duly dubbed, with Hugh V, 1313 
 Duke of Burgundy, and a host of other young magnates.^ 
 After festivities on a scale of unprecedented splendour in 
 Paris, the two courts adjourned to Pontoise. While there 
 Edward and Isabelle ran some risk of losing their lives : 
 a fire broke out by night in their quarters, and the Royal 
 pair had to escape in their night-clothes.^ Edward was 
 again induced by Philip to offer a truce ' to such of the 
 people of Scotland as we are at war with '. But as Bruce 
 was not named, nothing came of it.^ 
 
 On the i6th July the King landed at Sandwich. A Par- 
 liament summoned before he went abroad had been sitting 
 at Westminster since the 8th of the month. But nothing 
 had been done in consequence of the King's absence, and 
 much discontent had been expressed thereat. A third full 
 Parliament was immediately summoned for the 23rd Parlia- 
 September.* ™™'- 
 
 This time the Opposition appeared in force, and insisted 
 upon a settlement of their affair. The King had had his 
 jewels restored, but not a step towards the stipulated 
 pardon had been taken. But Edward was as stiff and unfor- 
 giving as ever ; only after repeated warnings from within 
 his circle, and open threats from without, was he prevailed 
 upon to carry out the terms formally accepted the year 
 before. At last, however, Lancaster, Warwick, Hereford, 
 Arundel, Percy, and Clifford were admitted to make their 
 obeisance in Westminster Hall, and received the kiss of Kiss of 
 peace (14 October).^ Two days later a full amnesty wasig^^f"^ 
 granted to them and one hundred and sixty-seven followers, 
 mostly North country men. The pardon extended to all 
 transactions since the date of the King's marriage.® As 
 
 ^ Martin, France, IV. 501. 
 
 ^ Grandes Chroniques, v. 198 ; Lavisse, sup. ' Foed. 214, 215. 
 
 • * Parly. Writs, II. i. 94, 100 ; ii. 64 ; Mon. Malm. 193, 194 ; see also 191 for 
 comments on the inglorious course of the reign so far. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 194, 195 ; Liber de Ant. 252 ; Trokelowe, 80. 
 
 * Statutes, I. 169 ; Foed. II. 230-233. A counter-pardon, so to speak, was 
 
 anted to all responsible for Gaveston's return to England. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 A GREAT PRELATE 
 
 CHAP.m a further token of goodwill the King invited Lancaster to 
 1313 dinner, and condescended to accept a return entertainment 
 from him. Pembroke made friends with Lancaster ; not 
 so with the elder Despenser, round whom a considerable 
 mass of odium was beginning to gather, partly on his own 
 account, partly on the King's.^ 
 
 In consideration of the pacification the Parliament was 
 induced to make a grant. The barons and counties gave 
 a Twentieth, and the cities and boroughs a Fifteenth.^ 
 The Convocation of Canterbury had already voted four- 
 pence on the mark (135. 4d.) of their Spiritualities (May). 
 But that did not satisfy the King. In July the bishops 
 and conventual churches were called upon for ' benevo- 
 lences ', varying in amount from 100 marks to 150 marks 
 each.* The total exacted reached the sum of 13,000 marks 
 (;^8,666 13.J. 4d.). William Testa, now a Cardinal of the 
 Church, had lent the King 2,000 marks in France ; Clement 
 had advanced 169,000 gold florins on a mortgage of the 
 revenues of Gascony.* Both were pressing for repayment. 
 It may have been in connexion with these liabilities that 
 Edward between the 15th and the 20th December paid 
 a hasty visit to France, a trip that escaped the notice of 
 the chroniclers.^ 
 
 On the nth May Archbishop Winchelsey closed his great 
 career, passing away full of years at his manor of Otford in 
 Kent.^ His health had been broken from the beginning of 
 the reign ; and the want of vigour in the proceedings of 
 the Ordaining party may partly be ascribed to his infirmity. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm., sup. As a further concession to Lancaster, Edward now 
 appointed the younger Despenser his Chamberlain in succession to Gaveston ; 
 G. Baker, 6, 7. The writer lauds the father but not the son, bringing against 
 him the charges of rapacity brought by the Malmesbury writer against the elder 
 Hugh. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 116; Trokelowe, 81. The Houses rose on the 15th Novem- 
 ber ; Parly. Writs. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II, ii. 64-66 ; Wilkins,Conc. II.426. The Northern clergy were 
 convened at York on the 3rd September to grant 4J. on the mark ; Reg. Pal. 
 Dunehn. I. 430. On the 23rd November the Durham clergy granted 2od. on the 
 £1 for defence ; Id. 469. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 229, 23t. ' Itinerary; Foed. 238. 
 
 ' Reg. Sacr. ; Angl. Sacr. I. 17 ; Trokelowe, 81. 
 
 Death of 
 Arch- 
 bishop 
 Winchel- 
 sey. 
 
AND HIS SUCCESSOR 53 
 
 We cannot but lament the fact that the name of this chap, m 
 patriotic prelate should be associated with the introduc- j^is 
 tion of torture into England. As a Churchman he could 
 not but protest against the arbitrary incarceration of the 
 Bishop of Lichfield/ little as he loved him ; but in fact he 
 took the first opportunity of excommunicating him afresh. 
 The See being vacant, the monks having obtained the due 
 licence at once elected Thomas of Cobham, a distinguished 
 scholar and a man of birth, who had been Chancellor of 
 the University of Cambridge.^ But the King wanted the 
 appointment for his creature Walter Reynolds, Keeper of 
 the Seal and Bishop of Worcester. The Pope at the time 
 was anxious for the support of England as against an anti- 
 Papal feeling gaining ground in France, while Edward, 
 after a struggle, had given in to Clement in the matter of 
 the Templar possessions, which the Council of Vienne had 
 assigned to the Hospitallers.^ The election of Cobham, 
 therefore, was cancelled and Reynolds appointed by Papal Walter 
 Bull of Provision.* " <? quanta inter electum et praefectum ^^^° 
 eratdijferentia ".^ A man of humble origin and no education, bishop, 
 as already mentioned, he had as Keeper of the Prince of 
 Wales' Wardrobe gained Edward's entire confidence before 
 his accession to the Throne, and had been systematically 
 favoured and promoted by him ever since. He was a 
 courtier and time-server ; one who knew how to make 
 friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness. His influence 
 at the Papal Court was almost equal to his influence with 
 Edward. By the English clergy his elevation to the 
 Primacy was regarded as little better than an insult.* But 
 his most emphatic condemnation will be found in his 
 eventual desertion and betrayal of his friend and patron.' 
 
 ' Hook, Archbishops, III. 452. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 196 ; Angl. Sacr. I. 533. 
 
 ^ For the struggle on this point see Foed. II. r53, 167, 168, 171, 174, 182, 235- 
 237, 243. Cobham became Bishop of Worcester. 
 
 ' I October 1313 ; Id. 228. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 197. 
 
 " " Quod talis homo totius Angliae foret primas " ; Lanercost, 222. 
 
 ' Foss, III. 290. 
 
'313 
 
 54 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III 
 
 Gaveston's Treasure 
 
 As a further illustration of the habit that mediaeval 
 Royalties and magnates had of carrying all their valuables 
 in their campaigns and peregrinations, the list of the articles 
 found in Gaveston's possession when he was taken may 
 be given. The inventory signed by Edward on the 27th 
 February (Foedera, II. 203) specifies nearly two hundred 
 lots ; many of the articles must have been Crown heirlooms 
 and personal gifts and keepsakes such as ' The cup be- 
 queathed to the King by his mother with her blessing ' ; 
 the list includes reliquaries of crystal, ivory and enamel ; 
 cups, ' hanapers ', brooches, rings without number; dia- 
 monds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets, amethysts, 
 pearls, peridots, &c., &c. ; a Gaulish torque (" un anel 
 entour le col de un home " — without the neck, surely !). Of 
 special interest are ' the King's great ruby the Cherry ' ; 
 another unset ruby valued at ;£^i,ooo, and above all ' a gold 
 ring with a sapphire the work of St. Dunstan '. For carry- 
 ing about such articles the reader may compare the treasures 
 lost by King John at the crossing of the Wash (Angevin 
 Empire, 500) ; or the spoils found in the tent of Charles the 
 Bold at Nancy ; or the things lost by Edward himself at 
 Bannockburn (below). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Edward II (continued) 
 A.D. 1308-1314 
 
 Course of the War with Scotland. — Battle of Bannockburn. 
 
 In the distracted state of English politics Bruce and the chap, iv 
 national party in Scotland had been making steady pro- 1,08-1310 
 gress. In May 1308 Edward could still reckon on the The war 
 support of an array of Scottish Earls, viz. David of Atholl,^ Scotland. 
 William of Ross, Patrick Dunbar of the March, John 
 Comyn of Buchan, and Robert Umfraville of Angus, 
 besides other leading barons.^ But about that very time 
 Buchan was expelled from Scotland and sent to end his 
 days in England.' AthoU lived there. The recovery of 
 the East Highlands, the overrunning of Lorn, and the 
 conquest of Galloway were further achievements of the 
 year, which ended with the first appearance of Bruce on 
 the borders of Northumberland. The Scots also ventured 
 to reject a truce negotiated by Philip, because Bruce was 
 not recognized as King. A substantial moral gain was 
 the Dundee declaration of the clergy of Scotland in favour 
 of Robert as ' true heir ' to the Crown (February 1309) 
 and especially important in view of his excommunicate 
 position. All this has been already told, also that 
 the Englishj though unable to extend their sphere of 
 influence, still had twenty of the strongest towns and 
 fortresses of Scotland in their hands. In 1310 Edward, 
 having come to terms with the Ordainers, was able to march 
 from Berwick to Linlithgow and back without opposition, 
 as we have seen ; * and in the spring of 1311 Gaveston led 
 a moderate force to Perth, and beyond, as he was supposed 
 to have reduced all the country from the Forth to the 
 
 ' David of Strathbogie, son of John executed in 1306. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 372. " Complete Peerage, and above. 
 
 ' Above, pp. 8, 9, 26, 30. 
 
56 ONE-SIDED 
 
 CHAP. IV Mountains {ad monies), while Gloucester and Surrey once 
 '^^ more subjugated ' the Forest ' (i.e. Ettrick and Selkirk).^ 
 As long as Edward was content to remain keeping guard 
 on the Border Bruce was held in check. On the ist 
 August 1311, however, the King left Berwick, moving 
 southwards,^ as we have seen. On the 12th Robert 
 Scottish crossed the Solway, and for eight days ravaged Gillsland, 
 Haltwhistle, and great part of the South Tyne, About 
 the 8th September he crossed the Carter Fell from Jedburgh, 
 and came down on Redesdale and Harbottle, burning the 
 North Tyne down to Corbridge. On the i6th September 
 he entered the Palatinate of Durham, committing similar 
 ravages there. Richard Kellaw, however,' Beck's succes- 
 sor, barred any further advance South, and so the Scots 
 returned home via the North Tyne, destroying whatever 
 they had spared before.* The Northumbrians, however, 
 fearing a third inroad, were content to give ^^2,000 for a 
 truce to the 2nd February 1312. Such of the men of 
 Berwickshire and East Lothian as held to the English 
 alliance^ followed their example. In the divided state of 
 Scotland we are told that the father could be on the one 
 side, the son on the other side ; brother might be arrayed 
 against brother, but the hearts of all at bottom would beat 
 together.® But the subdivision of families in times of 
 trouble was not peculiar to Scotland or the Middle Ages. 
 
 From the Border Bruce went back to complete the reduc- 
 tion of the country between the Forth and the Grampians. 
 Scottish The first gain, apparently, was that of the castle of Forfar, 
 gains. recovered by a local partisan, one Philip ' Forester of 
 Platter '.' On the 8th January 1312 Perth was carried 
 by a nocturnal escalade, after a siege of some six weeks' 
 duration. Bruce himself, ladder in hand, led his men 
 through the moat — a relic of the Roman camp — with 
 
 ' Lanercost, 214. itinerary. '' Consecrated 30 May 131 1 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 ' Lanercost, 215, 216 J Northern Registers, 204, a letter from Kellaw to the 
 Pope begging to be excused attendance at the Council of Vienne ; Fordun. 
 " " Qui adhuc erant ad pacem Regis Angliae ; " Lanercost. 
 " So Lanercost, sup., an English writer. 
 ' Parbour, 203, 204. The Forest of Platter lay between Forfar and Kirriemuir. 
 
WARFARE 57 
 
 water up to his neck. In conformity with his settled chapjv 
 practice the fortifications were at once dismantled.^ 1312 
 
 The reduction of Perth was followed by an attack on 
 Dundee, Bruce having declined the truce offered by Edward, 
 After a siege of several weeks the Constable William Mount- 
 fitchet signed a capitulation and gave hostages ; but 
 Edward refused to ratify the convention, and so Dundee 
 had to hold out.^ Minor gains of the year were the captures 
 of the fortresses of Bute, Dumfries and Dalswynton.^ 
 
 Of far greater importance for the national cause was the 
 recovery of the support of Thomas Randolf. This man, 
 taken prisoner at Methven in 1306, had purchased freedom 
 by turning English. Having fallen into the hands of 
 James Douglas he was shortly induced to return to the 
 side of his uncle.* The Scottish magnates, as a rule, had 
 by no means as yet thrown in their lot with Bruce. At 
 the siege of Perth Malis, Earl of Strathearn, was on the 
 English side ; the younger Malis with Bruce. ^ 
 
 In August, while England was wholly taken up with the 
 death of Gaveston, Bruce reappeared on the Border. 
 He rested three days at Lanercost, and again visited 
 Hexham and Corbridge, sacked Hartlepool, and burned Raiding 
 the town of Durham. On the i6th of the month Bishop mail. 
 Kellaw signed a private truce for the lands between the 
 Tyne and Tees, to hold good to Midsummer 1313 ; for this 
 protection 450 marks were to be paid.® The same humili- 
 ating course was again adopted by Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, Westmoreland, and ' the English ' of the 
 South of Scotland.' The year ended with an attempt to 
 take Berwick by nocturnal escalade ; the place was only 
 saved by the timely barking of a dog.* 
 
 ^ Fordun, 346 ; Barbour, 204-208 ; and for the date, Lanercost, 221. Perth 
 was known to be in danger in October 131 1 ; the name now disappears from the 
 English records, communications being still kept up with Dundee, Edinburgh, 
 Stirling, and the peel at Linlithgow. ' Rot. Scot. I. 108, 109. 
 
 ' Fordun, 346. ' Barbour, 216-218 ; cf. Rot. Scot. L no. 
 
 '^ Id. 207. " Reg. Pal. Dunelm. I. 191, 204. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 218-220 ; Heming. IL 294 ; Fordun, sup. ; Rot. Scot. in. 
 
 ' 5-6 December, Lanercost, 220, 221 ; Mon. Malm. 200. 
 
58 
 
 SCOTTISH 
 
 Linlith- 
 gow 
 
 and the 
 Isle of 
 Man. 
 
 One gain of the year 1313 was the capture of the 
 peel of Linlithgow/ Edward I's fortification. This again 
 was the work of a local partisan, a worthy "husband" 
 (i.e. husbandman), by name William Bannok or Binning. 
 Being in the habit of supplying the fort with hay, he 
 managed to secrete eight armed men in a wagon-load 
 of hay ordered by the garrison. When the wain was in 
 the "cheeks" of the gateway he cut the trace or treck- 
 tow, loosing the oxen and blocking the gate. Friends 
 waiting in ambush rushed up in support, and the place 
 was won.^ 
 
 At Midsummer when the local truces expired Bruce again 
 put in an appearance ; the men of the Northern counties, 
 still left to their own resources, deemed it expedient to 
 purchase a fresh truce to take them to Michaelmas 1314.' 
 But the hostile demonstration was only a feint to cover 
 an attack on the Isle of Man, which Bruce overran and 
 annexed in the course of June.* 
 
 The year 1314 witnessed great things, establishing the 
 Bruce dynasty, and placing the relations of Scotland to 
 England on a new footing. Early in the year both Rox- 
 burgh and Edinburgh fell. The great Border fortress was 
 captured by James Douglas on Shrove Tuesday, 19th 
 February ; while Edinburgh succumbed to Thomas Randolf 
 Escalades, on the 14th March. Roxburgh was taken by night escalade, 
 the favourite mode of attack, the Scots creeping up the 
 bank to the foot of the wall on hands and knees with black 
 frocks over their armour. Most of the garrison were in 
 hall, keeping Carnival 
 
 " at thar dansing 
 Singing and othirwais playing. 
 As upon Fastryn eve it is 
 The custum to mak joy and blis." 
 
 ' " Pele ; " Barbour, 224 ; " Pro pelo de Lynliscu ; " Rot. Scot. 
 
 ^ ' Harvest tide ; ' Barbour, 224-228. Of course the gateway blocked must 
 have been that of an outwork. Linlithgow is not named in the Scotch Rolls 
 after February r3i3. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 222 ; cf. Parly. Writs, IL i. 98 ; May. 
 
 * Chron. Man ; Camden, Britannia, 1057 ; Hailes ; Scotichron. 
 
GAINS 59 
 
 The few left on duty on the walls saw the crawling forms chap.iv 
 below, but ' weend they had been oxen ' — stray beasts. ^^ 
 They paid dearly for their mistake. The assailants hooked 
 their rope ladder to a battlement, and crept up one by 
 one ; the watch was overpowered; and the merry-making 
 in hall quenched in blood. The ' great tower ' held out 
 for a day or two, and then the Constable Gillemin Fiennes, 
 a Gascon, surrendered. All the works were carefully 
 levelled.^ 
 
 Edinburgh Castle was taken by another night attack 
 of a still more amazing character. A party of thirty men 
 found a guide to lead them up the steep face of the rock 
 on the north side, while the attention of the garrison 
 was diverted by a feigned attack on the gate leading to 
 the High Street.^ From Edinburgh the Scots marched 
 to the siege of Stirhng, one of the few strongholds still 
 retained by the Enghsh,* Bruce's surviving brother Edward 
 directing the attack. 
 
 King Edward had already promised his adherents that 
 he would be in Scotland by the month of June.* With 
 March 1314 active preparations were begun, and carried on War-mea- 
 for three months without intermission ; horses and arms Englami. 
 were bought, shipping bespoke, and stores of fodder and 
 corn accumulated.® On the 24th of March 5,700 footmen 
 from the Northern counties and the Welsh March, with 
 4,000 men from Ireland, were ordered. Richard de Burgh, 
 Earl of Ulster, would have charge of ' the Irishry ', the 
 
 ' Lanercost, 223 ; Barbour, 232-237 ; Scalacr. 140 ; Fordun, sup. ; where the 
 year is given as 1313, but Roxburgh was in the hands of the English in November 
 1313 ; Rot. Scot. I. 114. The ladder used was evidently just such a one as that 
 described by the Lanercost writer in connexion with the attempt on Berwick 
 (p. 221), namely, a ladder of rope with flat wooden rungs, a cleek or hook at the 
 top, made to catch on to a battlement, and fenders to keep the ropes clear enough 
 of the wall to allow of a foothold. The cleek had a hole for the point of a spear 
 with which it could be hoisted up. 
 
 ■^ Lanercost, sup. ; Barbour, 238-242 ; Fordun, sup., again under 1313. Mon. 
 Malm. 199, 200. Note that again the garrison were Gascon mercenaries; 
 Scalacr., sup. ' Jedburgh also still held out. 
 
 * November, December 1313 : Foed. II. 237, 238. 
 
 ' Rot. Scot. 1. 114-128. 
 
6o ENGLAND 
 
 CHAP. IV actual raising of the men being committed to native 
 ^ chiefs — O'Connor, O'Donnel and O'Neil — seven-and-twenty 
 in number.^ The clergy and infirm were directed to com- 
 pound by payingscutage at the rate of 20 marks(;^i3 8s. 6d.), 
 the knight's fee.^ In April 10,000 extra foot were ordered, 
 while final commissions of array issued on the 27th May 
 called for a total of 20,500 men from England and Wales. 
 By way of accounting for the need of such numbers the King 
 explained that he was informed that the Scots had taken 
 up a position among morasses where cavalry could not 
 act.^ In short all the resources at the King's command 
 were called into requisition. But Edward was not happy 
 in his treatment of his subjects, and their hearts were not 
 Captious with him. When the writs to the military tenants were 
 ' issued the Opposition Barons protested that under the 
 Ordinances Parliament ought to have been consulted 
 as to the war with Scotland. The objection must be 
 pronounced captious and unwarranted. An application 
 to Parliament for a subsidy for the war with Scotland was 
 an express stipulation of the pacification as settled in 1312 ; 
 and the grant of the Parliament of 1314 must be regarded 
 as a fulfilment of that agreement, involving a distinct 
 sanction of the expedition. If Edward had had the 
 political instincts of his father he would have thrown himself 
 upon the loyalty of the nation, and would without doubt' 
 have received ample support. Instead, of that, as if to 
 show his contempt for any appeal to the lieges, he actually 
 countermanded a session previously summoned for the 
 2ist April* Both sides must be pronounced in the wrong ; 
 a dismal judgement, but one probably applicable to the 
 whole current of domestic politics throughout the reign. 
 
 From the Canterbury clergy the King received a deserved 
 rebuff. Wanting money he called for a Convocation. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 425. Shipping to bring the Irish to Skinburnness, with 
 pay and provisions for them, were ordered ; Rot. Scot. 122 ; but how many came 
 over does not appear. 
 
 = Parly. Writs, II. i. 426. = Parly. Writs, II. i. 425. 
 
 •' Mon. Malm. 200, 201 ; Trokelowe, 83 ; Lanercost, 225 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 
 119, 121. 
 
GETTING READY 6i 
 
 But instead of leaving the place of meeting and the conduct chap, iv 
 of business to the Archbishop, he directed the clergy to meet j^i^ 
 at Westminster — an absolute novelty — inviting them to 
 come to terms with Royal commissioners as to the amount 
 to be given. In consequence the clergy declined to answer 
 till they had received a proper summons.^ 
 
 On the 17th May, being at Newminster, Edward gave his 
 final orders for meeting at Wark on the loth June. Philip 
 Mowbray, the Constable of Stirling, had agreed to yield if 
 not relieved by the Feast of St. John.^ On the nth June 
 the King appeared at Berwick. The muster rolls of the 
 campaign do not appear to have been preserved. But 
 those of 1310 supply us with data for an estimate of the 
 numbers of the cavalry. In that year 175 tenants in chief, 
 liable for 236 knights' fees, were summoned, and cleared 
 themselves by producing 51 fully equipped men-at-arms 
 {milites), and 370 servientes, light horse, making 421 mounted 
 men in all.^ On the present occasion only 95 tenants The 
 had been called upon for attendance in the field, the 
 bishops being required to compound by money-payments. 
 For the debitum servitium we do not see how we could allow 
 more than 300 men. A passage in a leading authority of 
 the time suggests that though tenants could not be com- 
 pelled to produce more than their due quotas, loyal sup- 
 porters might come in much stronger force.* This opens 
 up an indefinite field for conjecture. To produce more than 
 the due number, however, would be contrary to all the 
 evidence of the muster rolls, which show that the tenants 
 were very jealous of exceeding their liability by even 
 a fraction of a fee. As we have seen; the King was not 
 looking to his cavalry, as he understood that the Scots 
 
 ' See Parly. Writs, II. i. iig, 121 ; and the protest of the clergy, 123, 124. 
 Convocation of York met 26th June, and granted is. on the mark ; Reg. Pal. 
 I. 636, Stubbs. Canterbury met 17th July, and were saddled with loans in an- 
 ticipation of future grants to the amount of 10,000 marks (£6,666 13s. 4d.) ; 
 Parly. Writs, II. ii. 74, 78, 79. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 248. Above, p. 31. 
 
 ' " Omnes hii (i.e. the King's party) venient cum suis militibus ,non est magna 
 cura de reliquis comitibus ;" Mon. Malm. loi. 
 
62 OVER 
 
 CHAP. IV occupied a position unassailable by that arm. Even if we 
 should allow 500 horse, or double that again for his cavalry, 
 
 Cavalry, we should Still havc a paltry force in comparison with the 
 1,500 or 2,000 horse we suggested for the Falkirk campaign.^ 
 
 Infantry. Of the numbers of the infantry brought to Berwick it is 
 impossible to offer any trustworthy estimate. We have 
 seen that as a rule only a small proportion of those called 
 for were taken into pay. Edward I had 7,000 foot at 
 Worcester in 1282 for the Welsh campaign ; ^ so that 
 10,000 or 12,000 men would make a large army; and a 
 large army no doubt Edward had gathered round him. 
 Possibly he may have had 15,000 or even 20,000 foot. The 
 baggage train with grooms, tent-men, sutlers and supplies 
 was said to cover 20 miles of road.^ 
 
 The contingents, however, came in rather slowly, and 
 Edward was detained some days at Berwick in consequence. 
 
 Absentees. Neither Lancaster, Warenne, Arundel nor Warwick appeared 
 in person. But the King was quite content. He had 
 with him Gloucester and Pembroke, also Hereford and 
 Chfford, now ranked on his side, besides his own especial 
 confidants, Despenser, Henry of Beaumont, Edmund de 
 Mauley, Nicholas Segrave. 
 
 Satisfied that with his numbers he could crush the Scots, 
 Edward set out from Berwick ' with as light a heart ' as if he 
 were bound on a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella.* 
 
 Bruce's Bruce's task was to bar the access to Stirling. For that 
 
 tions. purpose he mustered his forces in the Tor Wood, a strong 
 position on a hilly ridge, on the old Roman road from 
 Falkirk to Stirling, situate about eight miles from the latter 
 place. But Robert did not intend to make his stand in 
 
 ' Dawn of Constitution, 460. The Malmesbury writer has the men-at-arms 
 as 2,000 (p. 201). On the next page he asserts twice that Gloucester had 500 men 
 in his own pay (suis sumptibus) in the battle. But that would be his servitium 
 debitum ; as such the number is quite incredible. I would read it as 500 men 
 with him in the charge. 
 
 " Morris, Welsh Wars, 159, 160 ; and Dawn, 339. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 201, 202. Mr. Oman, not content with taking it for granted that 
 the levies summoned all came forward to a man, assumes writs to the counties 
 not summoned, and so brings out a total of 50,000 foot with 10,000 horse ; Art 
 of War, 573, 575. 4 Uo^. Malm., sup. 
 
Plan to Illustrate 
 
 BANNOCKBURN CAMPAIGN 
 
 June 23'^-24"^i3i4. 
 
I3I4 
 
 THE BORDER 63 
 
 the thickets of the Tor Wood, where he would have had no 
 room to act, and might be surrounded and starved out. 
 For the necessary battle he had selected a more suitable 
 site, on the same Roman road, nearer to Stirling. 
 
 Of the numbers of his forces we will endeavour later to 
 give an estimate based on their formation, and the ground 
 that we believe them to have occupied in the action. Of 
 their composition we can point out that the higher Scottish 
 nobility were conspicuous by their absence. Of Bruce's 
 men only five could boast of names thought worthy of 
 mention ; and these were his brother Edward ; his nephew 
 Thomas Randolf, now spoken of as Earl of Moray ; Walter 
 the young High Stewart of Scotland ; James Douglas, 
 popularly known as ' The Good Lord James ' ; and Robert 
 Keith the Marshal.^ On the other hand, Edward had with 
 him in the field Robert of Umfraville, Earl of Angus, and 
 John Comyn, son of the victim of the tragedy of Dumfries.^ 
 Thus it will be seen that the strength of the national party Composi- 
 still lay with the clergy, the minor barons and middling fo^^^g^ 
 gentry, and the burghers and better class of yeomen, two 
 of whom had already distinguished themselves by special 
 services. 
 
 After a hasty advance of 86 miles from Berwick, ' leaving 
 little time for sleep and less for food, with horses and men 
 alike fatigued,' on the afternoon of Sunday 23rd June 
 Edward appeared before the Tor Wood.* Skirmishing Actions 
 
 , , ,- , r ^ ,^ in the Tor 
 
 ensued, leadmg to some personal encounters 01 a truly wood. 
 Homeric character. Bruce with his centre held the 
 narrow Roman road that passed through the heart of the 
 wood. Gloucester, who had been associated with Hereford 
 the Constable in command of the van, attempting to press 
 Bruce too closely, was repulsed and unhorsed.* Henry of 
 
 ' Barbour, 257, 266. ' Lanercost, 224. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm., sup. ; Lanercost, 225 ; Trokelowe, 87. Edward still signs at 
 Berwick on the i8th (Itinerary) ; if he started that day he would have to march 
 an average of 14 to 15 miles a day ; if he did not start till the 19th he would have 
 had to march over 17 miles a day. Barbour, 262, has it that the English came 
 from Edinburgh that day ; if so they must have marched 30 miles. 
 
 ■* Scalacr. 141. The writer had his facts from his father, who was present. 
 
64 
 
 OUTPOSTS 
 
 1314 
 
 Advance 
 to Ban- 
 nockburn. 
 
 Bohun, ' cousin to the Earl,' scouring the wood with some 
 Welshmen, got too far ahead of his men. Bruce, mounted 
 on a little palfrey, hastened to cut off his retreat. Bohun 
 rode at him full tilt. But the lance missed its mark. 
 Bruce, rising in his stirrups, as his adversary swept past 
 him, brained him with his battle-axe.^ 
 
 On the English left Clifford and Henry of Beaumont 
 thought to outflank the Scots by making a circuit round 
 lower ground and open fields ^ to the west of the Scottish 
 position. Randolf, in the Scottish van,' corresponding to 
 the right in line of battle, watching their movements from 
 the shelter of the wood, allowed them to push on till they 
 had lost touch with their supports, and then, coming down 
 from the wood, took them in the rear. Beaumont sug- 
 gested a retreat. Thomas Grey of Heton, father of the 
 author of the Scalacronica, venturing to differ, Beaumont 
 rudely said " Si tu eiez poour fuez " (Flee if thou art afraid). 
 Grey, a veteran who for years on garrison duty in Scotland 
 — the most dangerous service imaginable* — had carried 
 his life in his hands, answered proudly, " Pour poour ne 
 fueray ieo huy " (For fear will not I flee to-day). Setting 
 spurs to his horse he charged, William D'Eyncourt,- 
 another knight, keeping him company. Both immediately 
 fell, D'Eyncourt killed. Grey unhorsed and taken prisoner.' 
 Chfford's force was scattered, and had to rejoin head- 
 quarters as best it could. 
 
 Meanwhile Bruce was executing an orderly retreat. The 
 Enghsh followed, much irritated {exacerbati) and dis- 
 couraged by the course of the day's events ; and eventually, 
 on reaching the Httle Bannockburn stream pitched their 
 
 • Mon. Malm, and Scalacr., sup. The latter gives the name of the man killed 
 as Peter de Montfort. See Barbour, 274, 275. But the latter places the skirmish 
 not in the Tor Wood, but at Bannockburn, quite wrongly, and most modern 
 writers follow him. 
 
 " " As beaux chaumps," Scalacr. ; " Beneth the Park," and, on " the plane ", 
 Barbour, 269. As already mentioned he places these encounters on the Bannock- 
 burn site ; but the lie of the ground would be much the same in either case. 
 
 ' Barbour, 260 ; Scalacr., sup. 
 
 ' See what Grey had to face in going back to his post at Coupar Fife, of which 
 he was constable, after attending Edward's coronation ; Scalacr. 138. 
 

 1^-^ 
 
 
 sStl 
 
 a- 
 
 
 
 
ENGAGED 65 
 
 tents there in ground described as somewhat swampy, chap.iv 
 being as we take it the slopes on the right bank of the ~ 
 burn, facing the Scottish position, and at some distance 
 above the village of Bannockburn.^ An uncomfortable 
 bivouac under arms ensued, a night attack being feared, 
 as the Scots in fact were established on a height in front 
 not a mile off.^ 
 
 Bruce was bivouacking on the other side of the burn. Brace's 
 pretty much on the ground on which he intended to abide P°'^'"°"' 
 the English attack. The site is not open to doubt.^ Care- 
 fully cherished tradition points to the Bore Stone, hard by 
 the Roman road, as the place where Bruce's standard was 
 set up : that shows his centre to have been established on 
 the rounded crest of a little ridge, extending at most some 
 1,000 or 1,100 yards from N.W. to S.E., across the Roman 
 road, with the ground falling away on every side.* To the 
 front and South-East there was the valley of the burn, 
 which becomes very deep as it approaches the village of 
 Bannockburn ; to the East, beyond the modern road from 
 Stirling to Denny, come the slopes running down towards 
 the lowlands of the " Carse " ; while to the West and 
 North again the declivities are decidedly steep. In fact the 
 easiest slope was that in front, along the road, from the 
 burn upwards, where the gradient only amounts to one in 
 forty-six. The battlefield and all the surrounding area 
 formed part of a royal chase, known as the New Park, all 
 under grass, but thickly studded with trees, ^ and so far, not 
 favourable to the evolutions of cavalry. But how far the 
 presence of trees affected the course of the battle does not 
 appear. 
 
 At the Bore Stone, the highest point of the little ridge, 
 
 ' " En un plain devers leau de Forth oultre Bannockburn ; " Scalacr. See Map. 
 
 ' Lanercost, sup. ; Scalacr. 141, 142 ; Barbour, 268-271, 287 ; Mon. Malm, and 
 Trokelowe, sup. Barbour, who talks of the English spending the night in drink 
 with " wassayl " and " drink hail ", must have been reading the accounts of the 
 battle of Senlac in the Roman de Rou. See Foundations, II. 25. 
 
 ° On the Ordnance Survey Map (1897) the battlefield is placed three-quarters 
 of a mile away to the West, a position that would leave the road to Stirling 
 quite open. The older Survey had it as I have it. 
 
 ' See Plan of battlefield. " Barbour, 260. 
 
 1415.1 F 
 
array. 
 
 66 SCOTTISH 
 
 CHAP. IV not quite i,ooo yards from the burn, Bruce would have 
 J . a commanding view all round. Another protection to his 
 front he may perhaps have had in the mill-lead noticed on 
 our map. No reference to it is made by any of the writers ; 
 but it probably existed at the time ; and it would explain 
 the statement of one chronicler that the night was partly 
 spent by the English in searching for timber and planks 
 for bridging a stream. The Bannock Burn itself would 
 not require bridging ; but the mill-lead with its steep 
 banks and deep bed would certainly require bridging for 
 heavy cavalry. 
 His battle- When the short June night had run its course Bruce 
 proceeded to draw up his men, all on foot, men-at-arms 
 and all, in three " schiltrums ", or solid circular corps of 
 pikemen, the best and most approved formation for resisting 
 cavalry. This arrangement was that adopted by Reginald 
 of Boulogne for his footmen at Bouvines, by Wallace at 
 Falkirk, and by the Welsh at Maesmadog.^ The three 
 corps were not arranged in one line, the two wings being 
 thrown forward, on a line with each other, but in advance 
 of the centre body, the whole arrangement forming three 
 sides of a square so to speak.^ The central or King's 
 corps would be formed on the road, the wings on each side 
 of it. With respect to equipment, the Scottish pike is said 
 to have been six " elns " or nineteen feet six inches long ; * 
 
 ' " En schiltrome ; " Scalacr. Barbour does not use the term " schiltrum " with 
 reference to the formation at Bannockburn, but he clearly describes Randolf's 
 formation in the action of the previous day as circular, with spears all pointed 
 outwards, 270 ; and again he likens them to a prickly hedgehog, " hyrcheoun," 
 285. It would seem that prima facie " schiltrum" was understood to mean a 
 circular formation, and is so defined by Holinshed in connexion with his account 
 of the Scots at Falkirk, " round battels." See also Jameson, Scottish Diet. 
 
 " " In tres turmas divisit ut nuUus eorum equum ascendit ; " Mon. Malm. 202. 
 " Ordinaverat sic exercitum suum quod duae acies eius praeirent tertiam, una 
 ex latere alterius ; ita quod neutra aliam praecederet, et tertia sequeretur in 
 qua erat Robertus ; " Lanercost, sup. " Trois battailis a pee ;" Scalacr. Barbour 
 rightly has the two wings on a line ; " a little space apart," with the King in the 
 rear ; i6r, 162. But apparently for the sake of finding a command for Edward 
 Bruce he introduces a fourth corps to the front, making a lozenge arrangement, 
 where the outstanding " schiltrum" would receive the whole brunt of the attack. 
 As a matter of fact the English fell on the Scottish left, as we shall see. 
 
 " Cosmo Innes, note to Barbour, 5r8 ; Jameson, Diet. 
 
TACTICS 67 
 
 each man also had a battle-axe and a padded jacket or chap. iv 
 acton said to be sword-proof ^ like the second class in the 
 English Assizes of Arms. 
 
 Not content with the natural defences of the site, Bruce 
 had spent the night enclosing the ground to be occupied 
 by his men with an inner line of protection against cavalry, 
 by covering the whole of his front,^ on either side of the Pitfalls. 
 Roman road, with a series of little pits, three feet deep and 
 as many broad, carefully concealed by turf laid on hurdles,* 
 absolute pitfalls for cavalry, though men on foot could pass 
 lightly over them. The pits were dug so closely together 
 as almost to form a continuous ditch, and so they are 
 described by one writer.* 
 
 With respect to Bruce's numbers we have said that the Breadth of 
 
 • • • Bruce s 
 
 ridge occupied by him in its fullest extent from the low front, 
 ground at the one end to the low ground at the other end 
 might measure 1,000 yards or 1,100 yards. If Bruce had 
 had to face a direct frontal attack at the centre of the ridge 
 he would have had a considerable length of front to defend. 
 But the Roman road takes the hill obliquely, and so Bruce 
 had to post his men athwart the slope with a considerable 
 reduction of front. If we measure the ground from the 
 Roman road at the Bore Stone as a central point, with 
 troops aligned at a right angle to it, we shall find that while 
 to the East some 400 or 500 yards might have to be de- 
 fended, to the West there would be barely 150 yards avail- 
 able for the formation of troops in a mass, the ground 
 beyond being too steep. ^ But the strength of the three schil- Estimates 
 trums, at any rate that of the wing-corps, must be assumed numbers. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 203. ^ " A dextro in sinistrum cornu ; " Baker. 
 
 = See Plan. 
 
 " On ather sid the way wel brad 
 It was potted as I haf tald ; " Barbour, 263. 
 He makes the pits deep " up till ane man's knee," but only " ane fut-bred round ", 
 which surely would be too small. " Plebs foveas fodit ut per eas labantur 
 equestres;" R. Baston, Scotichronicon, II. 252, a song composed immediately 
 after the battle. ^ Baker, 7, 8. 
 
 ' See Plan. It should be noticed that the cross-road to Chartershall makes 
 a zigzag outside the position I assign to the Scottish right ; that is due to the 
 steepness of the declivity. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 BATTLE 
 
 CHAP. IV to have been equal; any disparity of numbers would 
 ~ throw an unfair burden on the weaker arm : we must 
 therefore limit the total width of front covered by Bruce's 
 three corps at some 300 yards, 150 yards on each side of the 
 road. Allowing to each corps the full possible diameter 
 of 100 yards each, say five rows deep, we should get some 
 2,300 men for each, or 6,900 men in all. But the schil- 
 trums had probably a good deal less than 100 yards 
 diameter, and they need not have had five rows of men. 
 Altogether in our opinion, 4,000 or 4,500 men would be 
 a large army for Bruce's Scotland to turn out. A total 
 of 4,500 foot would allow 1,500 men to each schiltrum. 
 Bruce commanded the centre from his view-point at the 
 Bore Stone. Randolf had the right wing, and Douglas 
 and the young Stewart the left wing. Edward Bruce 
 probably assisted his brother. A small force of light 
 cavalry, under Robert Keith the Marshal, was kept in the 
 rear, to act as might be required. The camp followers and 
 baggage were sent off to a " vale ", probably the depression 
 at the back of the ridge. 
 Feeling in In the morning, on the English side, the older and more 
 camp?^'^ experienced commanders {veterani) urged ' a keeping of 
 the Feast ', the Nativity of St. John, to rest the troops, after 
 their heavy day of marching and their broken night. 
 The younger men protested against the faint-hearted pro- 
 posal. Gloucester, however, though one of the youngest, 
 supported the ' veterans ', only to be stigmatized by the 
 King as a traitor and a shuffler.^ Boiling with indignation 
 the Earl hurried off to prepare for action, while the foot- 
 The soldiers were set in motion. The burn, a shallow stream 
 
 advance. . . 
 
 even m wmter, with gravelly bottom and low grassy banks, 
 would offer little obstacle. The mill-lead, likewise, if 
 extant, was safely crossed. Archers of course led the way,^ 
 then came the cavalry in glittering array, ' shining like 
 angels ' ; ^ and after them the remaining thousands of foot, 
 
 ' IMon. Malm., " Proditionem et praevaricationem imponens." 
 
 ' Lanercost ; Trokelowe. 
 
 ^ " That richt as angelis schane brichtly ; " Barbour, 288. 
 
JOINED 69 
 
 huddled together, with little appearance of organization, chap.iv 
 and presenting, as seen from the Scottish side, the appear- ' 
 
 ance of one huge confused schiltrum.^ About ' the third 
 hour ', i.e. nine o'clock a.m., the action began. We are 
 told that the English had the sun in their faces,^ and so 
 they would, advancing by the Roman road to the Bore 
 Stone.* At their approach we are told that the Scots 
 knelt and offered a short Pater Noster. Edward seeing 
 the act of devotion called out ' They kneel ! they kneel ! 
 they ask for mercy ! ' ' Sooth Sire,' answered Ingelram 
 of Umfraville, ' they ask for mercy, but not of thee.' * 
 
 Bruce, apparently, had covered his front with a line of The 
 archers, but the English bowmen soon disposed of them.^'"^'^ "^' 
 Had they been allowed to continue to play their arrowy hail 
 on the serried ranks of the schiltrums Bannockburn might 
 have witnessed another Falkirk. But the English chivalry 
 could not bear to see the honours of the day fall to mere 
 footmen. There had been some friction between Hereford 
 and Gloucester ; the latter was smarting under the sense of 
 the King's hard words, and anxious to distinguish himself. 
 He hurried the cavalry across the burn and up the road, 
 making for the Scottish left.^ The reason for selecting this 
 wing for attack seems clear. To the left of the position 
 assigned by us to the Scots the ground would offer some 
 scope for a flanking attack. To the right of the Scottish 
 position there was a perilous steep, not to be faced by 
 cavalry. For the Scottish left, therefore, Gloucester made. Defeat of 
 but only to tumble into the treacherous pits, and if any Cavalry 
 man did manage to surmount the hazard it was only to 
 encounter an impenetrable forest of pikes. The whole line 
 was speedily broken up and discomfited. But the masses 
 of infantry still remained intact. The archers again coming 
 forward endeavoured to help the cavalry with arrows, shot 
 over their heads, but with little effect, and in fact we are 
 
 ^ Barbour, 288. ' Baker, 8. 
 
 ' Advancing to the site of battle indicated on the Ordnance maps they would 
 have had the sun in their backs. 
 * Barbour, 290 ; Lanercost, sup. 
 ° Lanercost ; Trokelowe. ° Mon. Malm. 
 
70 
 
 SCOTTISH 
 
 1314 
 
 Archers 
 
 ridden 
 
 down. 
 
 CHAP. IV told that they did as much harm as good.^ But, with their 
 numbers, they could in time easily have surrounded the 
 entire Scottish force. But Bruce was prepared for them. 
 Letting loose his light horse under Keith he took them in 
 flank, and swept them downhill towards the village of 
 Bannockburn and the gully below the crossing of the burn.^ 
 Pembroke and Giles of Argentine, a distinguished Hos- 
 pitaller, who had recently come to England from the 
 East,3 had charge of the King's person, one at each bridle- 
 rein. Matters beginning to look ugly they hastened to 
 remove him, making for Stirling. When they seemed to 
 be out of danger Giles took his leave ; he was not wont, 
 he said, to flee from battlefields. Gallantly he hastened 
 back to lose his hfe in the melee. 
 
 " He was the thrid best Knight perfay 
 That men wist lifand in his day." * 
 
 With respect to the way by which the King was taken 
 from the battlefield, we would suggest that skirting the 
 Scottish right at a safe distance, they made their way round 
 to the old Roman road, and so reached Stirling in safety. 
 The disappearance of the Royal Standard must have been 
 a grievous blow to the English, and not a few began to 
 follow the pitiful example thus set.^ Meanwhile we suppose 
 that the schiltrums had opened their ranks, wheeling into 
 line, carrying all before them, and driving the Enghsh 
 down towards the Carse, as we are told that many were 
 drowned in the tidal waters of the burn.^ That could 
 only happen below the village of Bannockburn ; above 
 the village the httle stream could drown no one. The battle 
 ended with a curious incident, that helped to complete the 
 
 General 
 rout. 
 
 ' Baker, 8, 9 ; Lanercost, sup. 
 
 ^ Barbour, 296. I introduce this incident where the writer, the only one who 
 records it, introduces it. Most modern writers bring it in before the advance of 
 the cavalry. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter to ' the Emperor ' on Giles's behalf ; Foed. II. 229. 
 
 ' Scalacr. 142 ; Barbour, 304, 305. ' Mon. Malm. 
 
 ° " Foveam magnam in quam intrat fluxus maris, nomine Bannokeburne," 
 Lanercost ; also Barbour, 306 ; Fordun, 346. 
 
VICTORY 71 
 
 English rout. The despised camp-followers, " poverale," 
 sent out of the way to the rear of the battlefield, had been 
 watching the course of events from the height.^ When 
 the Enghsh began to give way, the " gillies ", overpowered 
 by the excitement of battle or thirst for plunder, hoisted 
 extemporized banners and poured down the hill to take 
 their part in the struggle. The motley crew, taken in the 
 distance for a reinforcement, started a final panic. Scottish 
 greed of loot and ransom probably saved the Enghsh from 
 a slaughtering pursuit ; ^ but the losses among the chivalry 
 were terrible. Among the fallen were the Earl of Gloucester, 
 Clifford, de Mauley, John and Edward Comyn, Payn 
 Tiptoft, WiUiam and Anselm Marshall, John de Montfort, 
 John de Grey, thirty-seven names given. ^ Gloucester 
 would have been spared for ransom, if he had been recog- 
 nized ; but unfortunately he went into action without his 
 coat-armour, and so was sacrificed. Among those taken 
 prisoner were John of Brittany, the Earls of Hereford and 
 Angus (Robert of Umfraville), his brother Ingelram of 
 Umfraville, and the barons John of Segrave, Ralph of 
 Monthermer, William le Latimer, John Giffard, Maurice 
 Berkeley, Anthony Lucy.* 
 
 The King made his way to Stirling, as already mentioned. 
 But Mowbray pointed out that the place could offer him no 
 sure refuge, as he would have to surrender on the morrow ; 
 so, taking Edward by the " Round Table", he sent him off 
 to make the best of his way to Linhthgow. The " Round 
 Table " is identified with the King's Knot, an old earthwork 
 to the west of the Castle rock. From this we may gather 
 that the King was taken back much as he had come, namely 
 to the west of the battlefield, but at a safer distance from 
 the sphere of action. At Linlithgow he would fall in with 
 
 ' See Map. Tradition identifies tlie height with the Gillies' Hill, but this 
 seems much too remote ; opinion is divided on the subject. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 206. For the spoils see Hill Burton, II. 385. Edward lost his 
 Privy Seal. Mary Queen of Scots had jewels which had been taken at Bannock- 
 burn. 
 
 * Ann. Lond. 231 ; Bridlington, 46, 47. 
 
 ' Baker, 8 ; Mon. Malm. 206 ; Lanercost, 228, 229. 
 
 1314 
 
I3I4 
 
 73 MOMENTOUS 
 
 his retreating forces. From Linlithgow he made his way 
 to Dunbar. Earl Patrick received him as in duty bound, 
 and provided him with a vessel with which he made his 
 way to Berwick. He signs there on the 27th June.^ 
 Hereford, Angus, Ingelram of Umfraville and Segrave were 
 captured at Bothwell, while making for Cariisle.^ Robert 
 Baston, a Carmelite Friar brought by Edward to chronicle 
 his deeds, " paid a poet's ransom " by singing the triumph 
 of the Bruce.^ 
 
 On the Scottish side only two knights fell, William Vipont 
 and Walter Ross.* 
 
 The battle calls for no further comment. Like Lewes it 
 was an exhibition of blind presumption and self-confidence 
 on one side, as against caution, forethought and military 
 skill on the other side. But the consequences of the day 
 were momentous. England had received a lesson in the art 
 of war that, duly taken to heart, was destined to lead her 
 to victory on many a future field of glory. The heavy 
 cavalry that had been thought invincible since the day of 
 Senlac must now dismount to fight on foot. 
 
 For Scotland, her independence was now assured. It 
 has been said that " the triumph of Bannockburn bore no 
 better fruits than the uncontrolled licence of a rude aristo- 
 cracy . . . and the profound misery of the people . . . Scotland 
 bought her independence at the cost of inconceivable 
 material wretchedness, the loss of constitutional liberty . . . 
 and the arrest for four hundred years of any real progress 
 of civihzation." ^ As a picture of the results of the estrange- 
 ment of Scotland from England this passage is probably 
 no exaggeration. Scotland suffered more than can be told 
 by the struggle with England : but is the responsibility for 
 all that misery to be laid to the charge of the victors of 
 Bannockburn, or of the arbiter of Norham } By all the laws 
 and instincts of human nature the Scots were bound to 
 
 ' Barbour, 307 ; Lanercost, sup. ; Mon. Malm. 205 ; Foed. 249. 
 
 ' Barbour, 308-311. 
 
 ° See Scotichron. II. 250-253, and Baston's poem there. 
 
 * Barbour, sup. ' Essays and Reviews, by H. H. Lancaster. 
 
CONSEQUENCES 73 
 
 resist Edward I's aggression under penalty of loss of self- 
 respect. Had Bannockburn never been fought, or had 
 it seen another issue, Scotland would have become a 
 second Ireland, with the Forth for its Pale. After the 
 lapse of five hundred years we may safely ascribe the 
 cordial relations of the two countries to the victory of 
 the Bruce. 
 
 1314 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CHAP.V 
 1314 
 
 Change of 
 Ministry. 
 
 Edward II {continued) 
 A.D. 1314-1318 
 
 Question of the Ordinances. — Struggles between the King and liincaster. — 
 Scottish inroads. — Lancaster invested with chief civil and miUtary authority. — 
 Years of Dearth. — ^Lancaster found wanting. — Reconciled to King on condition 
 of confirmation of Ordinances. 
 
 A BEATEN and fugitive King, Edward returned to his 
 dominions. The inevitable Parliament was now summoned 
 for the 9th September ; but the King felt his humiliation 
 too deeply to show himself to the Londoners, or anywhere 
 else in public. The session was held at York, and opened 
 by commission, the commissioners being Pembroke and 
 Henry of Beaumont, the latter a man banished in 1311. 
 The selection was not judicious. Still, in his present distress 
 Edward appealed to the barons, asking for counsel and 
 advice. But Lancaster was obdurate, and at once answered 
 that matters had gone wrong because the Ordinances had 
 not been observed. The King had sworn to observe them, 
 and Archbishop Winchelsey had excommunicated all 
 infringers. How could anything succeed under the lead 
 of men virtually excommunicate ? Edward was ready 
 with every promise ; but Thomas insisted on performance ; 
 the Ministry must be reformed. Reynolds therefore had 
 to surrender the Great Seal to John Sandale " a protege of 
 the late Archbishop " ; Walter of Norwich, a Baron of the 
 Exchequer, became Treasurer, while sweeping changes were 
 made in the sheriffdoms. Despenser and Beaumont were 
 threatened with impeachment ; the prosecution however 
 was dropped at the King's instance, but Hugh found it 
 prudent to go into retirement for a while.^ 
 
 1 Mon. Malm. 208 ; Ann. Paul. 276 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 81 ; List of Sheriffs ; 
 Stubbs. 
 
PRISONERS EXCHANGED 75 
 
 The course to be held towards Scotland was also discussed 
 in the York Parliament. Bruce had followed up his victory 
 by invading England (ist August). The ravages of his 
 followers had been pushed across the Tees, and up to the 
 gates of Richmond (Yorkshire).^ We may fully believe 
 that Bruce desired peace with England ' beyond every- 
 thing ' ; ^ Edward was willing to treat for an exchange of 
 prisoners, or even for a ' sufferance ', but not for a peace 
 upon the only possible basis, namely that of the recognition 
 of Bruce as King of Scotland. All that Parliament therefore 
 could do was to arrange for an exchange of prisoners. The 
 Scots stood out for good terms and got them. For the 
 liberation of the Earl of Hereford they obtained the sur- 
 render of Bruce's Queen, Elizabeth, of his daughter Marjory, 
 his sister Christina Seton, and his nephew Donald, the 
 young Earl of Mar, together with the final release of Wishart 
 the veteran Bishop of Glasgow. Again five Scottish barons 
 were not thought too much to give for the freedom of John 
 Segrave. Minor personages had to make arrangements 
 with their captors.^ 
 
 No question of any money grant was raised in the 
 Parliament. 10,000 marks had been exacted from the 
 clergy in July by way of loan.* Futile efforts were now 
 made to get in arrears of old scutages from the time of the 
 late reign, and to enforce the illegal tallage of 1312. More 
 effectual supplies were obtained by borrowing on the 
 Continent.^ 
 
 The Northern counties, and through them, eventually, 
 the whole Kingdom suffered from Edward's obstinacy in 
 refusing peace. The autumn and winter were marked by 
 a series of devastating Scottish inroads. The local authori- 
 
 ' Lanercost, 228 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 431. 
 
 " "La chose du monde qu'ilplus desire;" Foed. II. 254. 
 
 " Foed. II. 251, 253, 255, 257 ; Lanercost, 229 ; Trokelowe, 87. The other 
 captive ladies, Mary Bruce and the Countess of Buchan, had been already released ; 
 Foed. 105, 209. ^ ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 78. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 256, 258, 259 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 83-85. For the failure of the 
 attempt to get in old scutages see the long list of writs of exoneration, Parly. 
 Writs, II. i. 437, &c. 
 
 1314 
 
76 
 
 DEATHS 
 
 1314 
 
 Dearth. 
 
 ties, left entirely to their own resources, were obliged to 
 pay heavily for mercy. The See of Durham gave Randolf 
 a bond for 800 marks, for a truce to the 20th January 1315 ; 
 Cumberland yielded a tribute of 600 marks ; Tynedale 
 submitted bodily, and did homage to the King of Scots. 
 English bandits joined the invaders for the sake of plunder.^ 
 The destruction caused by these ravages was, after all, only 
 local. But the whole of England was now beginning to 
 suffer from a failure of crops caused by the advent of a cycle 
 of rainy years. Prices which had begun to rise in 1313, rose 
 rapidly towards the close of 1314, while with 1315 famine 
 rates were reached.^ 
 
 Three personages of royal rank passed away within the 
 year (1314), John BaUiol,* Clement V, and his austere 
 master Philippe le Bel. The first, a distinct political failure, 
 left the fairest fame of the three. Not an unworthy act 
 was ever brought home to King John. Clement died * a 
 man of lax life, rich in gold but poor in everything else.* 
 Rather than face a struggle with Philip and Nogaret he 
 
 Philip died on 
 at the age of 
 
 forty-six, after nine-and-twenty years of a reign the hardest 
 and most oppressive that as yet had weighed on the land 
 of France.'' The acquisitions of Bigorre, Montpellier, 
 Valenciennes and Lyons were no doubt great gains for the 
 kingdom ; but his centralizing policy and fiscal exactions 
 had destroyed the national life ; while his triumphs over 
 Boniface and the Templars had been obtained by the 
 
 ' Northern Registers, 232, 237, 239 ; Lanercost, sup. ; Walsing. I. r42. 
 
 ^ Professor Rogers gives the average price of wheat for r3i3 as 55. 6d. ; for 
 1314 as nearly &s. $d., and for I3r5 as nearly 155. the quarter ; Prices, 1. 196, 230. 
 
 ^ On the 4th January 1315 Edward writes to Louis X, " Hutin," the new King 
 of France, to pray for the admission of Edward Balliol, then in England, to the 
 ancestral estates in Normandy ; Foed. 11. 260. In 1310 Edward Balliol appeared 
 in England, and was kept as a state prisoner; Foed. 116. Louis succeeded in 
 December 1314. 
 
 '' 20 April ; the Holy See remained vacant two years and four months ; 
 H. Nicolas. 
 
 " See Milman, V. 398. Clement was able to lend Edward 169,000 florins. 
 
 " On this point see Lavisse, 186, and above. 
 
 ' Martin, France, IV. 511. 
 
 Philippe le had dehberately sacrificed the Templars, 
 the 29th November " a worn out man 
 
IN HIGH PLACES 77 
 
 vilest and most execrable methods. He passed away in chap.v 
 difficulty anxiety and disgrace. His last act had been to ^ 
 expose his three sons to the cynical contempt of Europe by 
 blackening the reputations of their wives, princesses of 
 the highest rank. All three had been suddenly arrested 
 on charges of misconduct, based on confessions of com- 
 phcity extorted by torture, the men who " confessed " 
 being afterwards tortured to death with every refinement 
 of cruelty. But France could stand him no longer ; his 
 last hours were harassed by the uprising of a league of 
 barons and burghers united in opposition to his tyranny.^ 
 
 The year 1315 opened under circumstances more gloomy Gloomy 
 perhaps than any that had been witnessed since the days ^^^' 
 of the Barons' War. The Scots, not content with ravaging 
 the North, were preparing to invade Ireland. Troubles were 
 again brewing in Wales ; while the famine had fairly set in, 
 leading to sickness and mortahty among men and beasts.^ 
 
 On the 2oth January a full general Parliament met at 
 Westminster, and sat till the 9th March.* An attempt was 
 made to relieve the general distress by fixing a maximum 
 for prices of meat. The highest allowed for the best fat ox, 
 not fed on grain is i6.y. ; 245. if fattened on grain. Forty 
 pence is the most that may be charged for a pig two years 
 old ; twenty pence for a fat sheep with its wool, fourteen 
 pence for one without its wool* 
 
 In the wretched personal struggle — for such it was — 
 Lancaster was still " top dog ". Accordingly Despenser 
 was again removed from the Council, and Walter Langton 
 with him. Regulations for the King's household were also 
 drawn up and he was put on a paltry allowance of ii^io 
 a day.^ In consideration of these ' reforms ', subsidies voted. 
 
 ' Martin, 508-513 ; also Lavisse, III. 212, who would ascribe the initiative 
 in the attack on the princesses to Queen Isabelle, but she has enough to answer 
 for without that. 
 
 " Lanercost, 230 ; Foed. II. 260, 262 ; Mon. Malm. 211, 214 ; Ann. Lond. 236; 
 Ann. Paul. 278 ; Bridlington, 48 ; Trokelowe, 91, 92. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 137, 139, 149. 
 
 ' Rot. Park. I. 295 ; Foed. 263, 266. 
 
 ° Mon. Malm. 209. The late King's expenditure was £i4,ooo-£r5,ooo a year, 
 and he was an economical man. See Dawn. 
 
I3I5 
 
 78 OPPOSITION 
 
 were voted, on terms. - The counties gave a Twentieth, the 
 boroughs a Fifteenth, the clergy a Tenth. The grant of 
 the clergy was made upon the express condition that the 
 money should be collected by ecclesiastics, and applied 
 under the direction of Parliament to the needs of the 
 Ordinances Commonwealth. The laity joined in requiring a confirma- 
 tion of Magna Carta and of the Ordinances ; they also 
 demanded a perambulation of the Forests.^ 
 
 The Petitions to Parliament were very numerous, and 
 interesting as showing the national assembly as a supreme 
 court of appeal, open to all suffering from injustice or op- 
 pression.^ But again we hear of prevalent confederacies for 
 interference with the course of justice^ — somewhat like the 
 outrages that provoked the Trailbaston Ordinances of 1305. 
 The spring and summer were spent in efforts to raise 
 forces to resist the Scots, the exertions of the government 
 being baffled by the pressure of the famine, and the sullen 
 opposition of the Earl of Lancaster, whose influence was 
 still in the ascendant. In June Bruce and Douglas again 
 sacked Hartlepool ; a month later they laid an unusually 
 vigorous siege to Carlisle (July 22-August 1). Every day 
 a regular assault was made on one or other of the three 
 gates of the city, and some days on all the three at once. 
 All known modes of attack were resorted to ; bombard- 
 ment, attempts at escalade, mining, and the building of 
 a wooden tower [berefrai) on wheels ; but the ponderous 
 machine stuck in the mud, and could not be brought to 
 bear on the walls. On the eleventh day the approach of a 
 relieving force sent the Scots flying homewards. But 
 meanwhile Allerdale and Copeland had been ravaged.* 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 89, 92. Orders for a perambulation were issued loth May; 
 Id. 90. See also a proclamation of the nth June against Purveyance and 
 requisitions of goods and cartage in general ; and especially confirming the pro- 
 visions of the Statute of Westminster the First (3 Edw. I) for the protection of the 
 clergy from the quartering of persons on them, with remedial measures ; Ann. 
 Lond. 234. 2 Rot. Parlt. I. 287-333. 
 
 = Id. 289. For a private war in Powys between John of Charlton and Gruffudd 
 son of Gruffudd, son of Gwenwynwyn, see Rot. Parlt. I. 355. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 230-232 ; Heming. II. 294. 
 
I3IS 
 
 TO GOVERNMENT 79 
 
 Under the alarm created by the attack on Carhsle, Edward, 
 still unable to help himself, was driven to appoint Lancaster 
 Chief Captain of the forces in the North, ^ recalling the 
 appointment of Pembroke, who had been named Chief 
 Warden [Ciistos] only in June. Lancaster's position had 
 been enhanced by the break-up of the Gloucester estates. 
 Earl Gilbert III left no issue, and the great inheritance fell 
 to his three sisters as co-heiresses.^ Then in August, just 
 after Thomas's advancement to the supreme command, 
 Guy Earl of Warwick passed away,^ young in years but 
 a man of culture and weight in public estimation ; * his 
 disappearance left Lancaster without a rival among the lay 
 baronage. 
 
 The Welsh disturbance did not come to much, though it 
 gave a good deal of trouble. It arose out of the refusal of Llewelyn 
 one Llewelyn Bren, an influential Welshman, who had held 
 high office in Glamorgan under the late Gloucester, to sur- 
 render his authority to Payn Turberville, the man appointed 
 by the King to take charge of the district which was still 
 in hand. " Bren " laid his case before the King, but 
 Edward would not listen to him ; whereupon he flew to 
 arms ; attacked Caerphilly Castle, burned the outer ward, 
 and committed extensive ravages, retiring with his booty 
 to the Brecknock hills. The affair was a fire of straw, but 
 the nervousness on the subject of Welsh risings was such 
 that all the March lords from the Earl of Hereford to the 
 Justiciar of Chester were called out to reduce the doughty 
 chief to submission.^ 
 
 ' 8 August, Parly. Writs, II. i. 454, 457. 
 
 ^ Gloucester's sisters were (i) Eleanor, married to the younger Despenser ; 
 (2) Margaret, widow of Gaveston, remarried to Hugh of Audley ; (3) Elisabeth, 
 widow of John de Burgh (son of the Earl of Ulster), remarried to Theobald of 
 Verdon. He was destined to pass away in 1316, and in 1317 Elisabeth would 
 finally have to marry Roger of Amory. Complete Peerage, " Gloucester" and 
 " Clare ". The estates were not apportioned till 1317. 
 
 ' 10 August, Complete Peerage ; 12 August, Doyle, Official Baronage. 
 
 ' " Homo discretus et bene litteratus per quem regnum Angliae sapientia 
 praefulgebat." Chron. London, 236 ; Mon. Malm. 212. 
 
 ° I3r5-i3i6. Parly. Writs, II. ii. 460; Mon. Malm. 215. Glamorgan was 
 eventually assigned to the younger Despenser in right of his wife, Eleanor of 
 Clare ; Dugdale, Baronage. 
 
8o LANCASTER 
 
 cHAP.v All-powerful as the Earl of Lancaster seemed to be, he 
 had suddenly to contend with a domestic rising, directed 
 Adam / against himself. Adam Banaster, one of his household 
 Banaster. i^^jghts, being under a charge of homicide, and despairing 
 of obtaining pardon in the ordinary course of things, as a 
 desperate expedient to earn the King's favour rose against 
 his lord the Earl, ravaging his possessions in Lancashire. 
 Banaster was said to have gone the length of displaying the 
 Royal Standard, calling out men. Thomas, however, took 
 prompt measures. A pitched battle was fought between 
 his men and Banaster's following, in which the latter were 
 defeated and scattered. Adam sought for concealment in 
 a barn, where he was discovered. Refusing to surrender he 
 was cut down and killed, and his head sent to the Earl.^ 
 Parliament. Qn the 28th January 1316 a general Parliament met at 
 Lincoln ; when Lancaster, carrying all before him, fairly 
 " wrested the reins altogether from Edward's hands ".^ 
 The session was opened by the King in person. He called 
 the attention of the lieges to the state of relations with 
 Scotland ; but as the great Earl had not yet appeared, 
 pending his arrival he directed them to busy themselves 
 with private petitions and matters of secondary importance. 
 Articuli cleri presented by the clergy, and complaints from 
 the people of Wales were taken in hand, and conciliatory 
 answers given to both.^ 
 
 On the I2th February Lancaster at length made his 
 appearance. After three days of overt debate and two 
 more of covert intrigue, John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, 
 addressing the Earl in Parliament in the King's name, said 
 that ' to remove doubts ' it was the King's will that he, 
 Thomas, should be the Chief of his Council [Chief de son 
 conseil), and in the name of the King and that of the 
 bishops and magnates there present he begged of him to 
 undertake the burden of the office. Lancaster took time 
 to consider, and then accepted upon the following condi- 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 214, 215 ; November, Ann. Lond. 236 ; Bridlington, 49. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs. 
 
 = Parly. Writs, II. ii. 156 ; Rot. Parlt. I. 350 ; Ngrthern Registers, 253. 
 
SUPREME 8i 
 
 tions. First, that if the King should neglect the advice of chap.v 
 the Council in matters touching his household or the realm, ~~ 
 the Earl should be at liberty to ' discharge himself ' without 
 incurring ill-will ; secondly, that the Council should be 
 consulted in all matters touching the realm; and lastly, 
 that any members of the Council who should give advice 
 ' prejudicial ' to the realm should be removed at the 
 next Parliament, ' by the advice of the King and the 
 Earl.' 1 
 
 With the control of the civil and military administration 
 of the country in his hands, Thomas now occupied a more 
 commanding position even than that enjoyed by de Mont- 
 fort in 1265. Simon was only one of Three, and besides 
 them he had a Chief Justiciar as partner in authority. 
 Lancaster had neither co-triumvir nor joint Justiciar to 
 consult ; nor was he exposed to the odium of being seen 
 dragging about a captive King, while he had his own King 
 just as effectually bound in constitutional fetters. 
 
 Bishop Salmon was further commissioned to announce 
 that the King, confirming the concessions of the previous 
 year, would cause the Ordinances to be duly kept, and 
 would respect the perambulations of his father's time.^ 
 In the hope that the affairs of the country had at last been Subsidies, 
 placed on a sound basis Parliament made liberal grants ; 
 the burgesses gave a Fifteenth, while the magnates and 
 knights of the shire {communitas) granted the service of one 
 ' defensible ' man from each rural township [villa), to be 
 equipped and maintained for sixty days of actual service 
 in the field against the Scots, at the cost of the 
 township.* 
 
 On the 29th July an adjourned session of county knights 
 was held, also at Lincoln, when the grant of the defensible 
 men was commuted for a Sixteenth.* The clergy had 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 157 ; Rot. Parlt. I. 351, 352. The appointment of Lan- 
 caster was not entered on the regular roll, but only on a schedule tacked to it. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt., sup. For the Ordinances see the proclamation of the 6th May, 
 Foed. II. 287 ; and for the perambulations, Parly. Writs, II. i. 158, 160, and ii. 
 99 ; Reg. Pal. Dunelm. 1114, 1183. 
 
 ^ Rot. Park., sup. * Parly. Writs, II. i. 169 ; ii. 104. 
 
 1416.1 G 
 
82 FAMINE 
 
 cHAP.v intimated their willingness to n:iake a grant if they were 
 j,;g allowed to vote the money in Convocation. Under some 
 pressure, and after the issue of repeated writs, the clergy of 
 the Southern Province granted a Tenth on the nth October, 
 and their brethren of the Northern Province followed suit 
 on the 23rd November.^ In return for this bounty, on the 
 very next day, November the 24th, the King passed the 
 Articuli Cleri ; answers to these had already been given 
 in Parliament, they were now confirmed by way of a 
 
 Concordat. Charter. By this Concordat between Church and State 
 the relations of the spiritual and temporal courts were 
 finally settled, the exemption of the clergy from civil 
 jurisdiction in criminal cases being fully recognized.^ 
 
 Famine. , In the course of the year (1316) the famine reached its 
 height. The mistaken ordinance of the previous year 
 limiting the price of meat was withdrawn in the Lincoln 
 Parliament, the effect of the measure having simply been 
 to prevent supplies being brought to market.^ Another 
 futile ordinance issued in August 1315 was one regulating 
 the number of dishes to be allowed at table in different 
 ranks of society.* But all households had already been 
 reduced to a minimum, and hall and castle cleared of useless 
 mouths. Disbanded retainers roamed through the land 
 like beasts of prey. In the same month of August when the 
 King paid a visit to St. Albans suflficient bread for his 
 retinue could hardly be bought.^ After harvest some 
 relief was experienced, but the grain was imperfectly ripened 
 and innutritious. By Easter 131 6 the distress reached its 
 height and the mortality with it. Horses and dogs were 
 said to be eaten in Northumbria.* Prices of course ruled 
 very high, wheat averaging 16 shilhngs the quarter. " But 
 the averages fail to give a true impression of the scarcity ; 
 as in places as much as 20 shillings and 26 shillings was 
 paid for a quarter of wheat." " Altogether ... at no time 
 
 \ Parly. Writs, II. i. rs8 ; ii. 107, 109 ; Wake, State of the Church, 269 ; 
 Mon. Mahn. 225. 
 " Wake, sup. ; Statutes, I. 171-176 ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 356. 
 ' Feed. II. 286 ; Ann. Lond. 237. " Foed. 274 ; Trokelowe, 93. 
 
 ' Trokelowe, 92, 93. » Mon. Malm. 219. 
 
RAGING 83 
 
 in English history has a dearth of such magnitude occurred ' ' ^ chap, v 
 as during the two years 1315 and 1316, nor was there g 
 
 much rehef till the autumn of the following twelvemonth. 
 The scarcity was not local but universal, Ireland and France 
 being similarly affected. 
 
 Hitherto Lancaster had had the simple part of opposition 
 and obstruction to play. Now he had to take the lead, 
 and his utter unfitness to profit by the opportunity at once 
 became manifest. His backwardness was such as to 
 lay him open to the imputation of actual treason to his 
 country. On the other hand Edward could now block his 
 way just as he hitherto had blocked Edward's way. In 
 June the Scots had made their usual invasion, penetrating 
 as far as Richmond, and thence making their way across the 
 whole North Riding to wreck the ironworks of Furness, a 
 district hitherto unvisited.^ The forces of the country, 
 originally summoned for the 8th July, are adjourned to 
 the loth August. On the 20th of the month Edward, being 
 at York, announces an intention of pushing farther North 
 (the Scots having gone home) ; and orders the Earl ' on 
 his fealty and homage ', and under penalty of utter for- 
 feiture, to present himself at Newcastle by the 6th October.* 
 Bowing to this threat Lancaster appeared at Newcastle. 
 But when the King was called on to join forces with a view 
 to a further advance, Edward, standing on his dignity, 
 said that he could not be expected to follow the lead of 
 a subject, and so remained at York. Lancaster, afraid of 
 leaving the King free to act behind his back, at once turned 
 southwards. ' Neither would trust the other.' * 
 
 Again it was noticed that the Scots in their incursions Lancaster 
 had made a point of sparing Lancaster's estates, evidently scots. "^ 
 regarding him as a covert or possible ally, while in England 
 it was suspected that he would rather connive at their 
 incursions than do anything that might strengthen the 
 
 ' See Rogers, Prices, I. 198, 230. Salt rose more than any other article, viz. 
 from 4d. to is. nd. the bushel. 
 " Lanercost, 232, 233. ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 46r, 466, 476, 478. 
 
 ' " Neuter enim de alio confidebat ; " Lanercost, 233. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ENGLAND 
 
 cHAP.v King's hands towards exacting the inevitable penalty for 
 j^ig the blood of Gaveston.^ 
 
 The year 1317 exhibits the same disorganization, with 
 aggravated features. Whatever the King wishes to do 
 the Earl's men oppose ; whatever Lancaster suggests the 
 King's followers denounce as rank treason. But the 
 ultimate responsibility for this state of affairs in the writer's 
 view plainly lay with the King and his advisers.^ 
 
 In March writs were issued for a Grand Council to meet 
 at Westminster ; the King having intimated that he could 
 not be present, and that the Council would be opened by 
 commissioners, Lancaster withheld his attendance also.^ In 
 May the usual writs of mihtary summons began to be 
 issued, to be renewed, with successive adjournments, from 
 time to time, down to the 24th September, when under 
 the most humiliating circumstances the King was forced 
 to disband his men,* as we shall see. 
 
 In his distress Edward had been turning to the Papacy, 
 the usual resource of a weak King. Clement V had lent 
 him 169,000 florins (.^56,333 6s. 8d.)^ on a mortgage of 
 all the revenues of Aquitaine.^ Addressing himself to 
 Clement's successor John XXII,' Edward, as the most 
 effectual mode of appeahng to Papal sympathy, suggested 
 the possibility of his embarking on another Crusade, and 
 was at once rewarded with a grant of a subsidy from the 
 pockets of the English clergy, viz. the proceeds of the first 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 222, 224. The writer thought the Earl half justified " jure 
 naturali propriae saluti consulere." Bishop Stubbs suggests that probably 
 " both parties intrigued with Robert Bruce" ; Const. Hist. II. 357. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 223, 224. See also the incident given by Trokelowe, 98, an 
 actress riding into Westminster Hall during the Whitsun banquet, and presenting 
 to the King a letter of remonstrance on his unworthy favourites. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, II. i. 170 ; Mon. Malm. 228. 
 
 ' See Parly. Writs, II. i. 487-500 ; and below. 
 
 'The florin was = half a mark, 6s. 8d., with as much gold as a modern half- 
 sovereign. 
 
 ° Foed. II. 303, 309, 322. 
 
 ' Cardinal Jacques d'Euse, a native of Cahors, of humble origin, was elected 
 Pope on the 7th August 1316, and crowned on the 5th September, under the style 
 of John XXII ; H. Nicolas. 
 
DISORGANIZED 85 
 
 of six years' Crusade Tenths voted by the Council of 
 Vienna. ■*- An embassy commissioned to congratulate the 
 new Pope on his accession, and laden with gifts,^ was 
 instructed to ask for help against Bruce on the one hand, 
 and for help against the King's own subjects — i.e. a Bull to 
 reheve him of his oaths to the Ordinances — on the other 
 hand.' The Pope withheld the dispensation, but issued 
 letters proclaiming a two years' cessation of hostilities 
 between Edward and ' Robert Bruce styling himself King 
 of Scotland ' ; * all infringing the truce to incur the penalty 
 of excommunication.^ The duty of enforcing the truce, 
 and of negotiating for an ulterior peace, was entrusted to 
 the Cardinals Gaucelin d'Euse and Luca dei Fieschi ; with 
 special powers for dealing with Bruce.* The Eminent pair 
 having duly reached England, writs were issued for a 
 Grand Council, to be held at Nottingham on the i8th July, 
 for their due reception in audience.' Lancaster again 
 refused to attend, the plea this time being that the questions 
 to be discussed involving peace or war were matters for the 
 consideration of a full Parliament.* 
 
 ' Foed. II. 303, 319, 320. 
 
 " The embassy included the Bishops of Ely (John Hotham) and Norwich 
 (John Salmon), the Earl of Pembroke and Bartholomew of Badlesmere ; Pembroke 
 on his return was arrested at Etampes by a French knight who had pecuniary 
 claims on Edward. See Edward's letter of complaint to Philip V {Le Long), 
 Foed. II. 329 ; Scalacr. 144 ; Louis X, Hutin (i. e. quarrelsome, " rowdy "), died 
 5 June 1316, leaving a daughter, Jeanne. His brother Philip seized the crown, 
 proclaiming the so-called Salique Law, and got himself hallowed at Rheims 
 9 January 1318. By the letter above cited Edward recognized Philip as King, 
 an important fact in connexion with later pretensions to the French Crown. See 
 Martin, France, IV. 529-534. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 227. 
 
 ' " Se gerentem pro Rege Scotiae." 
 
 ' January r3i7, Foed. II. 308, and again 320, 321. 
 
 ^ Foed. 317, 318. About the same time the Archbishops of Canterbury and 
 Dublin were directed to deal with Edward Bruce for his attack on Ireland ; 320, 
 32r. Of Edward Bruce in Ireland we tell below. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 171. 
 
 ° See his remarkable letter to the King in Latin, Bridlington, 50 ; in French, 
 Murim. 271. To the King's complaint as to the number of retainers that he 
 kept, Thomas has the apparently simple answer that the men had been armed 
 in obedience to the King's writs ; he adds that he will be ready to march when 
 the King marches. See also Mon. Malm. 228. 
 
 13I/ 
 
I3I7 
 
 86 KING'S FORCES 
 
 Profiting by the Earl's absence Edward obtained from 
 the Magnates a grant for a year of extra Customs duties on 
 all commodities. Three weeks later the order had to be 
 rescinded.^ But the King was not baffled after all. A 
 little later he obtained from an assembly of merchants, 
 native and foreign, leave to exact a double duty on wool 
 for one year, to be treated as an advance {mutuum).^ 
 
 Lancaster's contumacy in refusing to obey the King's 
 summons to the Council was hotly taken up by the King's 
 advisers, who insisted that the contempt amounted to 
 high treason, and should be dealt with accordingly. Prudent 
 men pointed to the practical difficulties in the way of laying 
 hands on a man who could command the resources of five 
 earldoms, and moreover reckon on support from Scotland, 
 and possibly from Wales also. As a final attempt at an 
 understanding a personal meeting was suggested.* The 
 proposal, like others of the same sort, came to nothing. 
 Scandal in In fact the situation had been embittered by a scandal 
 life'". which led to a private war between Thomas and the Earl 
 of Surrey, and nearly ripened into war between Thomas 
 and the King. On the 6th May the Countess of Lancaster, 
 nie Ahce de Lacy, had " eloped from her unfaithful hus- 
 band ", to find a protector at Reigate in Earl Warenne. 
 The abduction was supposed to have been arranged " by 
 the contrivance or with the connivance of the King ".* 
 Of course the two Earls went to war at once.^ When the 
 personal meeting was proposed Lancaster's followers 
 insisted that foul play was to be feared ; and he himself 
 refused to come except under safe-conduct.® The King 
 was at York waiting for forces ordered to meet him there ; 
 
 ' Nottingham, 24 July ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. ir5, 117. 
 
 " See H. Hall, Customs, II. 183, and below. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 229. 
 
 ^ Bp.Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 358; Trevet, Cont. 20. The latter writer thought 
 that the elopement had been arranged at a Council, apparently one held at 
 Clarendon, on the 9th February; Parly. Writs. See also Bridlington, 54; and 
 Mon. Malm. 228. 
 
 ' Congregations in arms forbidden, 28 May, Foed. II. 332. See also above 
 Edward'o complaint of the number of Lancaster's retainers. 
 
 " Mon. Malm. 228, 229. 
 
13" 
 
 ARRESTED 87 
 
 the Earl was at Pontefract ; he had just captured Surrey's 
 Yorkshire castles, while a force in his interest had actually 
 seized Knaresborough, a royal castle.^ His command of 
 the fords and bridges over the Aire and Calder enabled him 
 to arrest the passage of troops and munitions from the 
 South. ^ Thus the King at York found himself in a position King 
 of complete isolation, with Lancaster posted in his rear, to terms, 
 and the North Country overrun by Lancastrian guerrillas, 
 in whose hands even a Papal mission proved not to be safe. 
 Once more the King was forced to swallow his mortification 
 and make ' peace '. On the 24th of September he dis- 
 banded his levies, as already mentioned, agreed to call 
 a Parliament to Lincoln for the 27th January 1318 ; and in 
 the meantime issued letters of protection for the Earl and 
 all his followers to last over the session of Parliament. 
 The Earl withdrew his guards from Pontefract Bridge ; 
 and the King was allowed to commence his march to the 
 South. On nearing Pontefract the sight of his enemy's flag 
 proved too much for him : he called his men to arms and 
 would have led them to an immediate assault. Pembroke 
 and the Cardinals held him back. Lancaster, from the 
 Castle wall, witnessed the incident. Amidst the jeers of 
 the Lancastrians the baffled monarch rode through the 
 streets of Pontefract.' Thomas had already sinned beyond 
 forgiveness ; but if there had been any chance of recon- 
 ciliation in the future, after this incident it was gone. 
 
 Ill had it fared with the Cardinals in their efforts to The 
 accomplish their mission of peace. Feehng their way ;„ the 
 cautiously about the end of August they sent forward North. 
 Peter Bishop of Corbeil and one Master Aymery, to see 
 King Robert and arrange for an audience for the Cardinals. 
 On the question of peace Bruce expressed himself most 
 willing, and anxious to see it estabhshed. With respect 
 
 1 Foed. II. 345. 
 
 ^ Mon. Malm. 230 ; Trevet, Cont. 23. The war between the two Earls was 
 still going on in November ; Foed. 345. 
 
 ^ I or 2 October. See Parly. Writs, II. i. 171 ; Mon. Malm. 230 ; Trevet, Cont. 
 23 ; Foed. II. 479. The hooting of the King formed a special count in Lancaster's 
 later indictment. 
 
I3I7 
 
 88 BRIGANDAGE 
 
 to the audience he said that he could give no answer 
 without consulting his Barons, inasmuch as he was not 
 addressed by his proper regal style ; his Barons were in 
 various quarters, and he could not hold out any prospect 
 of an answer before Michaelmas. Meanwhile he listened 
 to the Pope's open letters exhorting to peace, but refused 
 to receive or notice closed letters addressed to ' Robert 
 Bruce holding rule in Scotland ' ; there were several men 
 of the name holding rule there, he said, and he could not 
 decide which of them was meant. In vain the envoys 
 offered to explain. Bruce dismissed them with a gracious 
 smile, and expressions of all due reverence towards the 
 Holy See.^ 
 
 Hoping, perhaps, somewhat against hope for an audience 
 at Michaelmas, the Cardinals left the court at York, to per- 
 form on the way to Scotland a minor duty confided to 
 them, viz. that of consecrating Louis of Beaumont, brother 
 of the" King's favourite Henry of Beaumont, who had been 
 appointed to the See of Durham.^ But the North country 
 was overrun with gentlemen brigands who kept the land 
 in terror. On the ist September the mission was arrested 
 at Ferryhill, between Darlington and Durham, by Gilbert 
 of Middleton, a knight of good position and a leading 
 brigand. The two Beaumonts were carried off to Mitford 
 Castle, Middleton's seat, for ransom, but the Cardinals were 
 allowed to "pay their footing", and go on to Durham 
 with a reduced escort. The outrage created an immense 
 sensation. Proclamations to all the sheriffs in England 
 for the arrest of the offenders were immediately issued. 
 
 ^ See the Cardinals' report to the Pope, dated 7 September ; Foed. II. 340. 
 
 " Beaumont had been 'provided' by John XXII (Foed. II. 313). He is 
 described as an unprincipled spendthrift, a layman, a cripple, and wholly illiterate. 
 He was eventually consecrated in March 1318 (Reg. Sacr.). After careful 
 preparation in the passages in the service that he had to read, the word " melro- 
 politicae " proved too much for him ; ' Take it as read ' (Sett pour dil), he said 
 gracefully to the Chapter. " In aenigmate " gave him equal trouble ; he almost 
 lost his temper. ' No gentleman would write such words ' {Par seynt Louis il 
 ne fu pas curteis qui cesle parole id escrit), Greystanes, Angl. Sacr. I. 757, 761. 
 In 1321 Edward writes to the Pope to pay Louis' debts, incurred no doubt in 
 part by the Scottish inroads ; Foed. 441. 
 
I3I7 
 
 IN NORTHUMBERLAND 89 
 
 Private revenge supplemented the resources of the law. chap.v 
 The friends of men whom Middleton had seized for ransom 
 put their heads together, captured him, and sent him up 
 to London, where he was executed as a traitor.^ 
 
 The Cardinals' efforts to bring Bruce to terms failed 
 utterly ; he was as willing and anxious for ' firm peace ' as 
 ever, but could not treat till he was duly recognized as King.^ 
 Under these circumstances, the Cardinals being unable to 
 induce the parties to accept their mission had to fall back 
 upon spiritual coercion and Church censures. On the Papal 
 27th November they proclaimed their Papal truce at the 
 Cross of St. Paul's ; while next day Archbishop Reynolds 
 and his suffragans, in full pontificals, fulminated an excom- 
 munication against all who should venture to infringe it.^ 
 An attempt to serve notice of the Papal truce through 
 Adam of Newton, Warden of the Franciscans at Berwick, 
 failed equally. Bruce refused to receive the Bulls and 
 letters tendered to him, as not being properly addressed. 
 Adam then made a desperate attempt to proclaim the truce 
 by word of mouth, whereupon he was attacked, his Bulls 
 and letters taken from him, and he himself stripped of his 
 clothing and sent back to Berwick in sorry plight.* 
 
 The winter of 1318 again opened amid general helpless- 
 ness, confusion and intrigue. In November Roger of 
 Amory, the husband of one of the Gloucester heiresses, 
 signed a bond of confederacy under a penalty of ^10,000, 
 binding him to act with Pembroke and Bartholomew of 
 Badlesmere, " a bitter enemy of Lancaster ", for establish- 
 ing their ascendancy in the royal council-chamber.^ Ap- 
 parently they hoped to establish a middle party between 
 
 ' Foed. II. 338, 341, 342, 344 ; Northern Registers, 265 ; Trokelowe, 99-101 ; 
 Scalacr. r44. The latter describes Middleton as master of all Northumberland, 
 except Bamborough, Alnwick, and Norham, the latter held by the writer's father, 
 Thomas Grey the elder. Middleton suffered 2r January 1318 ; Ann. Paul. 
 
 ''' See the Cardinals' report to the Pope, 7 September, Foed. 340 ; and the 
 Pope's rehearsal of the facts, 362, 407. 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 281. 
 
 ■■ 16, 17 December. See Adam's report, Foed. 351, and the Pope's recapitula- 
 tion, 362, 407. 
 
 ' London, 24 November. Parly. Writs, II. ii. 120. 
 
90 
 
 LANCASTER 
 
 1318 
 
 Confer- 
 ences. 
 
 Lancaster and his adherents on the one hand, and the 
 King, Despenser and his other favourites on the other hand.-^ 
 They would oppose Lancaster without making themselves 
 responsible for the King's unpopular conduct. As for this, 
 we find the Pope, well informed and deeply interested in 
 English affairs, scolding Edward for his incurable folly, and 
 telling him plainly that he was ' a mere Rehoboam '? 
 
 Mutual distrust again rendered the meeting of Parliament 
 impossible. A session summoned for the 27th January was 
 adjourned to the i2th March.^ In anticipation of this 
 latter session conferences were held at Leicester between 
 the parties, the King being represented by the archbishop 
 and others, and Lancaster by those ' of his council '. Sundry 
 demands were put forward by Edward ; but the Earl per- 
 sisted in requiring ' full observance ' {plenaria ohservatio) 
 of the Ordinances ; and in the face of his obstinacy the 
 King's advisers took it on them to concede the point ; 
 Lancaster in return promising due fealty and submission 
 to the King {debitam fidelitatem et securitatem) ; ' saving his 
 complaint against Earl Warenne for the abduction of 
 his wife '.* To allow of the adjustment of details, at the 
 special request of the mediating clergy the Parliament was 
 again adjourned to the 19th June.* 
 
 Meanwhile in the course of April conferences were held 
 at Leicester. A detailed report that has been handed 
 down exhibits Lancaster as in the most intransigent 
 attitude. He insists on effect being given to every line 
 of the Ordinances in their fullest issue. Not only does he 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, sup., 359. 
 
 " " Cum juvenibus et imprudentibus tractas regni negocia, et consilium 
 venerandae maturitatis abjiciens per viam Roboam consilia juvenum secutus 
 incedis," 21 December 1317. Epp. I. 460, Pauli. Later in the year John wrote 
 to William of Melton, the newly appointed Archbishop of York, in perfect despair 
 as to the state of England ; ' he can only have recourse to prayer to God ,' Northern 
 Registers, 271, May 25, 1318. Melton was elected, at the King's request, and 
 consecrated at Avignon 26 September 1216 ; T. Stubbs, Decern Script. 1730 ; 
 Reg. Sacrum. William Grenefeld, Melton's predecessor, died 6 December 
 1315; lb. 
 
 = Mon. Malm. 233 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 172, 175. " Mon. Malm., sup. 
 
 = March, Parly. Writs, II. i. 178. Renewal of protection for Lancaster. 
 
INTRANSIGENT 91 
 
 insist on the resumption of all grants of Crown lands made chap, v 
 without the assent of Parliament, but he also demands ~^ 
 the punishment of the recipients. To the protest of the 
 bishops he calmly answers, ' The Ordinances require such 
 to be punished.' ^ Coming to the practical question of 
 his safe-conduct for a meeting with the King he is, naturally, 
 very suspicious and exacting.^ 
 
 But Thomas was reckoning without his host. The Lancaster 
 tide had turned. He had been tried and found wanting ; g°ound. 
 he was no longer at the head of a strong baronial opposition. 
 The baronage, ecclesiastical and lay, were rallying round 
 the King. But Lancaster could not be brought to realize 
 the fact all in a day, and his dull obstinacy could still 
 bar the way. A few days before the last of the Leicester 
 conferences the Scots had made themselves masters of 
 Berwick, but not an attempt was made to retrieve the loss. 
 Encouraged by this apathy they pressed on and on, and The Scots 
 by the month of June were running riot in Yorkshire. '^ ^^"""S- 
 Then the Government woke up ; the Parhament summoned 
 for the 19th was countermanded ; and a general muster 
 called for instead.' 
 
 But a more fruitful measure was a change of Chancellor. 
 Edward, dissatisfied with the management of the Lancaster 
 affair by John Sandale the Bishop of Winchester,* a man 
 originally appointed by the Earl, took the Seal from him, 
 giving it to John Hotham, Treasurer and Bishop of Ely,^ 
 a tried diplomat. He was immediately sent down to 
 confer with the Earl. A series of interviews followed, Pacifica- 
 leading at last to a definite pacification, such as it was. 
 
 ' " Les ordinaunces voilent que ceux soient punis en parlement." 
 
 " See the full report, evidently authoritative, but undated, Knighton, Decern 
 Script. 2535-2538. The conference should be identified with that given by 
 Bridlington, 54, as of the 12th April. On the 29th March the Chancellor, Bishop 
 Sandale, was going down to Leicester ; Parly. Writs, IL ii. 122. 
 
 ' 8-10 June ; Parly. Writs, III. i. i8r, 501. 
 
 * Consecrated 31 October r3i6. He had previously been Treasurer, and later 
 in the year became Treasurer again ; Stubbs. 
 
 ' Consecrated 3 October 1316 ; Reg. Sacr. Hotham had been a protege of 
 Gaveston, and held office in his household. He had been on missions to the 
 Court of France, and again to Ireland ; Foss, Judges, III. 444. 
 
92 PARDONS 
 
 cHAP.v Lancaster had been brought to reahze that an amnesty for 
 g himself and his followers for their treasonable acts would 
 be the most important concession that he could expect. 
 The Ordinances, of course, would be confirmed, and effect 
 given to them by the appointment of a standing Council 
 mostly of the King's supporters, Lancaster's own weapon 
 being thus turned against him. The terms must have 
 been settled by the 31st July, when a pardon to Lancaster 
 and his followers for all offences against the peace was 
 proclaimed.^ The final compact took the form of an 
 indenture executed at Leek on the gth August between the 
 Earl as an independent potentate on one side, and the 
 assembled Baronage on the other side. A standing Council 
 to be appointed consisting of the Bishops of Norwich, Ely, 
 Chichester, Salisbury, St. David's, Hereford, Worcester, 
 and Carlisle ; the Earls of Pembroke, Arundel, Richmond, 
 and Hereford ; and the Barons Hugh Courtenay, Roger 
 Mortimer, John Segrave and John de Grey of Wilton, with 
 a single banneret to be named by Lancaster ; four of these 
 with the Lancastrian banneret to be always in attendance : 
 an absolute pardon to be granted to Lancaster and his 
 followers for all felonies and trespasses committed down 
 to the 25th July then past : the Earl in return to remit to 
 such of the King's followers as should desire it all personal 
 grounds of complaint, except as to Earl Warenne and those 
 concerned with him in a certain trespass against the Earl : 
 finally the Ordinances to be held and observed in all 
 respects.^ Among the guarantors for the King's observance 
 of the treaty, besides the prelates and barons already 
 named, we have the Archbishops of Canterbury and Dublin, 
 the King's two half-brothers Thomas and Edmund, the 
 younger Despenser, Richard Grey of Codnor, Bartholomew 
 of Badlesmere, and Ralph Basset of Drayton, all joining in.^ 
 Of course nothing was said as to any resumption of grants 
 or punishment of offenders. Five days later Lancaster met 
 the King on a bridge over the river Soar, at Hathern near 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 123, 124, 125. ^ Rot. Parlt. I. 453. 
 
 ' Leek ; 9 August ; Rot. Parlt. I 453. 
 
AND PEACE 93 
 
 Loughborough, and received the kiss of peace.^ The two chap.v 
 dined together, and the Earl gave a friendly reception to j 3 
 all the King's circle except Earl Warenne and the elder Kiss of 
 Despenser.^ The pacification received a final confirmation 
 by Parliament in a session held atYork on the 20th October; 
 and, in the course of the autumn, full pardons were made 
 out for some 700 of Lancaster's followers, with David of 
 Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl, at their head.^ Edward kept 
 calhng for men and talking of war all October : on the 
 8th November he gave up the idea, and disbanded his men. 
 We may note that in many cases he had only kept with him 
 half the number of men originally called for.* 
 
 The York Parhament sat to the gth December, and Legisla- 
 passed an Act for the reform of judicial procedure, besides 
 transacting a considerable amount of general business.^ 
 The younger Despenser became Chamberlain, and Badles- 
 mere Steward of the Household, while provisions made by 
 the King for them and Audley and Amory and others were 
 confirmed.^ Lastly a general muster for the war against 
 the Scots was agreed upon, the men to meet at Newcastle 
 on the loth June 1319.' 
 
 As already intimated the Scots had been very active Loss of 
 during the year. Early on the morning of the 2nd April """^ ' 
 Randolf and Douglas effected an entrance to the town of 
 Berwick. Six days later the castle fell. Wark, Harbottle, 
 and Mitford shared the same fate. Apart from a few 
 outstanding castles, Northumberland to the very gates of 
 Newcastle was at their mercy.^ In the course of May they 
 pushed an even bolder inroad than any yet attempted. 
 
 ' 14 August ; Ann. Paul. 283 ; Bridlington, 55 ; and Knighton, c. 2534. 
 
 " Mon. Malm. 236. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, 11. i. 182, 184 ; ii. 126 ; Foed. II. 375. 
 
 • Parly. Writs. II. i. 508, sro, &c. 
 
 ' Statute of York, Statutes, I. l^^ ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. r26. The roll of the 
 Parliament, omitted in the Rot. Parlt., is printed by Cole, Records, 1-54. Muni- 
 cipal officials holding " assizes " of bread and wine are forbidden to trade in 
 the same articles. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, sup., II. 360, citing Cole, sup. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 197, 210, 2r3. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 234, 235 ; Barbour, 385-392 ; Scalacr. 145. 
 
94 SCOTTISH RAIDS 
 
 cHAP.v Their march reached as far South as Knaresborough. 
 j,j3 Northallerton and Boroughbridge were burnt on the way ; 
 while the hberty of Ripen paid ;^i,ooo for protection 
 (i June). From Knaresborough the raiders turned west- 
 ward up Wharvedale, plundering Otley, Bolton, and Skip- 
 ton in Craven.^ The course of Edward Bruce's expedition 
 to Ireland must be reserved for another chapter. 
 
 ' Lanercost, sup. ; Northern Registers, 274-277. The assessment of the York- 
 shire benefices had to be largely reduced ; Id. 279-282. "The retaxation marks 
 the line of Scottish progress accurately " ; Stubbs. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Edward II {continued) 
 
 A.D. I315-I318 
 Invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce. 
 
 A DISMAL episode, except as an exhibition of buccaneering chap, vi 
 adventure, was the attempt of Edward Bruce on Ireland. j^jj 
 In May 1315, fired with the ambition of estabhshing himself The Scots 
 as King of Erin, he sailed from Ayr with a considerable '" 
 force, which included Thomas Randolf the Earl of Moray, 
 Philip Mowbray, John of Menteith, the Stewart, and other 
 men of renown. A landing was effected at Carrickfergus 
 in the Lough of Belfast.^ The King of Scots had doubtless 
 been induced to sanction an enterprise of so hazardous 
 a character partly in order to harass England in a vulnerable 
 quarter, partly to find employment at a safe distance for 
 a restless spirit whom he had created Earl of Carrick, and 
 declared his heir, failing male issue of his own.^ There 
 always had been a considerable amount of intercourse 
 between Scotland and Ireland ; King Robert's Queen was 
 a daughter of Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. After the 
 reduction of the Isle of Man in 1313 Bruce had opened 
 negotiations not only with O'Neill, Prince of Tir-Owen 
 and other Ulster chiefs, but also with the Bissets, and the 
 de Lacys of Meath, who were dissatisfied with their terri- 
 torial position, and had not only offered the crown of 
 Ireland to Edward Bruce, but actually written to the Pope 
 on his behalf.* 
 
 * Annals of Loch Ce, I. 563 (Rolls Series, No. 54, Henessy). The Annales 
 Hiberniae in Camden's Britannia give the day of Bruce's landing as 26 May ; 
 Barbour, 321, &c. 
 
 ' 26 April 1315. See Tytler, Hist. Scot. I. 329 ; Complete Peerage. 
 
 ' See J. T. Gilbert, Viceroys of Ireland, 132. The bulk of the old de Lacy 
 inheritance had passed away through female successions to other families. 
 
96 
 
 WHOLESALE 
 
 131S 
 
 Advance 
 
 into 
 
 Louth. 
 
 Driven 
 back to 
 Coleraine. 
 
 On landing Bruce effected a junction with O'Neill, dis- 
 pelled an attack by the English settlers of East Ulster, and 
 occupied the town of Carrickfergus, the castle holding out. 
 The allies then fought their way South, through the counties 
 of Armagh and Down to the Moyry Pass on the borders of 
 Louth, and through it to Dundalk, which they took after 
 a desperate resistance. Another successful engagement 
 was fought at Carrickmacross (Monaghan), after which 
 they took up a position at Ardee on the river Dee.^ Hitherto 
 they had only encountered Edmund Butler, the Justiciar 
 of Ireland, with the forces at his command ; and their 
 successes were doubtless due partly to the fact that Butler 
 was not an able commander, and that the real leader was 
 Richard, a scion of the noble house of Clare ; ^ partly also 
 to the further fact that the Earl of Ulster disdained to 
 serve under or co-operate with the King's chief officer. 
 At last, however, realizing the gravity of the situation, 
 ' the Red Earl,' as the Irish writers style him, came forward 
 with an army recruited in Roscommon by the help of 
 Phelim O'Connor (Phedhilm O'Conchobhair) King of 
 Connaught (July). Advancing by Athlone through West 
 Meath they drove Bruce back, step by step, to the extreme 
 North of the Island. There the latter is described as 
 halting on the West side of the river Bann, and breaking 
 down the bridge at Coleraine, to check the advance of the 
 English. ' And the Foreigners (Gaill) on this hosting 
 spared neither Saint nor shrine, however sacred, nor 
 territory nor termon, without wasting and completely 
 destroying . . . from Sinainn in the South to Coleraine in 
 the North.' ' With ' the rapid fierce Bann between them ', 
 the armies for a while were reduced to skirmishing, ' so 
 that both parties left neither wood, nor plain, nor field, nor 
 
 ' Annals of Loch Ce, 1. 563 ; Annals of Four Masters, 505 ; Barbour, 325-330. 
 
 ' See Barbour, 326, &c., who throughout treats Richard of Clare as the English 
 commander, styling him King's Lieutenant, but wrongly of course. See also 
 the King's thanks to the Irish, where he places Richard at the head of the list, 
 before Butler, though by that time Edmund had been raised to the earldom of 
 Carrick. Foed. II. 327. 
 
 " Loch Ck, 565 ; Four Masters, sup. ; Barbour, 333. 
 
DEVASTATION 97 
 
 corn-crop, nor residence, nor barn nor church without chap.vi 
 burning and wholly destroying.' ^ 
 
 But when in Celtic history did foreign invader ever fail 
 to obtain encouragement and support from native faction ? 
 Phelim had a younger brother, Roderic (Ruaidhri). At the 
 first suggestion of a Scottish alliance Roderic rose against 
 Phelim — the ally of the English^ran riot through all the 
 county from Sligo to Athlone, and finally got himself 
 crowned King of Connaught, namely, at Carnfree, near 
 Tulsk, in the county of Roscommon, " where the O'Conors 
 were usually inaugurated as Kings" (August?).^ Phelim 
 and his chiefs hurried home to look after their interests. 
 Deserted by their ally the English fell back on Connor 
 (Lower Antrim) ; suffered a defeat there at the hands of the 
 Scots (10 September) ; and then evacuated Ulster. Edward Edward 
 Bruce was then proclaimed King of Ireland, with his head- claimed"" 
 quarters at Carrickfergus ; but the citadel, with its access King- 
 to the sea, still held out.^ 
 
 Ireland did not escape her share of the general famine, 
 caused there, as elsewhere, by ' destructive bad weather '. 
 Emboldened by the accession of reinforcements, or pressed 
 by hunger, we find Bruce again making his way down into 
 Meath to spend Christmas with his friends the de Lacys, 
 burning Kells on the way.* On the 26th January 1316 
 they inflicted another defeat on Edmund Butler at Ardscull, 
 in County Kildare.^ The Leinster natives now came for- 
 ward openly to make common cause with the invaders. 
 The O'Tooles, O'Briens, and O'Carrols took the field, and Bmcein 
 laid the three coast towns of Arklow, Newcastle and Bray Lemster. 
 in ashes. Bruce himself, having sacked the castle of Ley, 
 
 ' Loch C6, 567 ; cf . Barbour, 334, 336. 
 
 " Loch Ce, 567, 569 note Henessy, 554, 583. 
 
 ^ Loch Ce, 669, 671 ; Four Masters, 1. 505-507 ; Camden,sup., 511 ; Barbour, 
 335~344' Supplies for Carrickfergus ordered in Dublin 7 October. Historic 
 Docts. Ireland, 334 (Gilbert). 
 
 ' Camden, Britannia, 810, 811. 
 
 ' Id. ; Hist. Docts. 373, 374. The more important victims were buried at 
 Athy. The Leinster men had been in communication with the Scots since 
 October ; Hist. Docts. 354, 372. 
 
 1415.1 H 
 
98 
 
 DESPERATE 
 
 The 
 English 
 colony 
 loyal. 
 
 CHAP. VI and beleaguered that of Kildare, turned Northwards to 
 
 ^J^ encounter Roger Mortimer, who, having large estates in 
 
 Meath, had come over on his own account to defend his 
 
 property.^ They met at Kells on the Black-water, where 
 
 Roger was defeated and forced to fall back on Dublin.^ 
 
 At home between the war with the Scots and the struggle 
 with Lancaster, the hands of the Government were fully 
 occupied ; and the only step taken for the support of the 
 loyal settlement in Ireland was the appointment of John 
 Hotham, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, on a mission 
 to confer with the natives, and to exhort the English to 
 loyal and combined action.^ Of any success with the 
 natives we hear nothing ; but Hotham had a meeting in 
 Dublin with a number of the leading settlers, and obtained 
 from them a written declaration of unshaken allegiance to 
 King Edward.* 
 
 The spread of the insurrection in the East of Ireland 
 must be viewed in connexion with the state of affairs in the 
 West, where the English, or those more particularly in- 
 terested in the affairs of Connaught, were busy reinstating 
 their friend Phelim O'Connor. At the battle of ' The 
 causeway of Cainneadha's Bog ', in the parish of Temple- 
 togher. County Galway, Roderic and the nationalists 
 suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of Phelim and his 
 mailclad auxiliaries. So Roderic fell and Phelim reigned 
 again. 5 Within six months' time we find Phehm vowing 
 to expel all Foreigners from Erin, and slaughtering the 
 very men to whose swords he owed his restoration. Doubt- 
 less he found the impulses of his subjects too strong to be 
 controlled, and he himself was but a youth, three and 
 
 ' Roger held a moiety of Meath in right of his wife, Joan, daughter and heiress 
 of Peter de Geneville of Trim. 
 
 " Camden, sup. ; Gilbert, Viceroys, 136. 
 
 = September 1315 ; Foed. 11. 276. Hotham had been on a similar mission 
 in 13T4; Id. 252. 
 
 ' 4 February 1316 ; Foed. 283. The man whose name stood at the head of 
 the signatories, John Fitz Gerald, son of Thomas, and lord of Offaly, was imme- 
 diately rewarded with the Earldom of Kildare ; Gilbert, Viceroys, 137 ; Com- 
 plete Peerage. 
 
 ' 24 February. Loch Ce, I. 583 ; Four Masters, I. 510, 511. 
 
 Affairs 
 of Con- 
 naught. 
 
FIGHTING 99 
 
 twenty years old. Anyhow he paid dearly for his change chap.-vi 
 of policy. Richard Bermingham led an army into Galway, ,,jg 
 and on the field of Athenry inflicted sanguinary punishment 
 on the fickle Gaeidhel. Thirty chieftains of name from 
 Connaught, Munster, and Meath, with Phelim at their head, 
 were left on the field.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the English were keeping up the struggle 
 with the Scots and O'Neal in the North, the citadel of 
 Carrickfergus holding out with a determination worthy 
 of Ulster. From his raid in Kildare Bruce had returned 
 to his head-quarters in the town of Carrickfergus, where he 
 held a royal court " and administered justice". A truce An Easter 
 was taken to last over Eastertide.^ But in fact desperate 
 fighting ensued notwithstanding. On Holy Thursday 
 (8 April) reinforcements from Dublin reached the castle by 
 sea. Profiting by this opportunity the garrison sallied, and 
 fought the Scots in the streets of the town both on that 
 day and again on Easter Eve, inflicting serious losses on 
 their adversaries without improving their own position. 
 The sanguinary episode ended with the fall of the English 
 leader, Thomas Mandeville,^ a very gallant knight — • 
 
 "Ane knicht that of all Ireland 
 Was caUit best and of maist bounte." 
 
 The mischance did not break the spirit of the garrison ; 
 they held on for five more months, and at the last only 
 yielded to absolute starvation.* 
 
 By that time the Scottish King had come over to assist 
 his brother. But the English appear to have scored a 
 distinct success over them in Ulster (25th October ^) ; which 
 kept them on the defensive during the rest of the autumn. 
 
 Towards the close of the year if the reader should again 
 inquire what of succour from the home Government, the 
 answer would seem to be simply the publication of Papal 
 
 ' 10 August. Loch Ce, 585-589 ; Four Masters, 51 1-515. 
 
 ' Barbour, 344, 
 
 . ' See the account in Camden's Annals from notes supplied by some one residing 
 in Dublin at the time. See also Hist. Docts. 350 ; and the romantic tale in 
 Barbour. ■■ 12 September; Camden, sup., 813. 'Id. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 FRUITLESS 
 
 1316 
 
 CHAP. VI Bulls against all persons giving trouble to ' our dear son 
 Edward '.^ So again the King could appeal to John XXII 
 not to allow of the promotion of a native to the vacant 
 archbishopric of Cashel, but to ' provide ' an Englishman 
 named by himself ; or he could address himself to the 
 Minister-General of the Franciscans calling on him to 
 punish friars found guilty of urging the people to support 
 the Scots.^ At the very last, however, Edward and his 
 Council were able to bestir themselves to the length of 
 appointing Roger Mortimer to be warden [custos) and 
 King's Lieutenant of Ireland, with the widest powers, so 
 as to supersede the authority of Edmund Butler, Earl of 
 Carrick.^ In the first week of January 1317 all English- 
 men holding lands in Ireland were ordered to be ready at 
 Haverford by the 2nd February to sail with Roger.* 
 
 But before that day came the Bruces had mustered their 
 forces for another grand raiding march to the South. The 
 dreaded Moyry Pass was again crossed without molestation ; 
 but between that point and the river Boyne the invaders 
 seem to have fought an action which was represented to 
 Barbour as the ' hardest fichting ' of all the war.^ Again 
 victorious the Scots pushed on to Slane, where they crossed 
 the river. On the 23rd February they occupied Castle 
 Knock, within five miles of Dublin. At their approach the 
 city had been thrown into a state of the greatest excitement. 
 The walls were repaired, suburbs destroyed ; even the 
 church of the Friars Minors with its tower, which seemed 
 to dominate the castle, was demolished. But the most 
 signal act of civic vigour, and one which excited almost as 
 much commotion in London as in Ireland, was the forcible 
 seizure by orders of the Mayor of Dublin of the Red Earl, 
 the great Earl of Ulster.^ He was arrested at St. Mary's 
 Abbey near the city, after a desperate resistance, and 
 carried off to the Castle, for fear of any collusive action 
 
 Scottish 
 raid to 
 the South 
 
 Alarm in 
 DubHn. 
 
 ' Gilbert, Viceroys, 137. ' Feed. II. 294, 295. 
 
 ' Id. 3or ; 23 November. ' Id. 309 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 484. 
 
 ° pp. 362-366. But he misdates the action, placing it in May. 
 
 ° See Foed. 326, 327, Edward's demand for explanation, 23 April. 
 
RAIDING loi 
 
 between him and his son-in-law, Robert Bruce.^ But to chap.vi 
 lay siege to Dublin was an undertaking quite beyond the j,j. 
 strength of the Scots. On the 25th February they moved 
 up the Liffey to Leixlip ; four days later they marched to 
 Naas, while on the 12th March they reached Callan in the 
 modern county Kilkenny. From Callan they moved by Advance 
 Cashel and Nenagh (Tipperary) to Limerick, " invited and Limerick 
 conducted by their ally, Donagh O'Brien, King of Thomond, 
 who had been expelled by a section of his clan." ^ Through- 
 out their march the Scots and their allies spared nothing ; 
 they burned churches and houses of religion, and were even 
 accused of violating the sepulchres of the dead in quest of 
 treasures.^ The Shannon proved the turning-point of the 
 expedition. Finding that the passage of the river at 
 Castle Connell, near Limerick, would be disputed by an 
 Enghsh force, supported by Mortogh O'Brien, Donogh's 
 rival, the Bruces resolved to turn Northwards again. 
 After two or three days' stay at Limerick, being advised 
 of an intended attempt to intercept their retreat, a night 
 march was resolved upon ; the troops were beginning to 
 move, when the Scottish King heard the cries of a woman Robert 
 in distress. He was told that a poor washerwoman, a Bru<=«'5 
 camp-follower, had been seized with labour pains, and was 
 in terror at being left behind. Robert at once " arestit 
 his host " ; ordered a tent to be pitched, and would not 
 move on till arrangements had been made for the safety 
 and comfort of the woman.* 
 
 From Limerick the Scots marched to Kells (County 
 Kilkenny). The English were posted at Kilkenny ; 
 but they were unable to agree upon any plan of opera- 
 tions. Roger Mortimer had not yet come out ; and he 
 had sent orders in advance that nothing was to be done 
 till he came. When he did land, a week later (7 April), it 
 was to disembark at Youghal (County Cork), well out of 
 the way. The invaders, therefore, were allowed to pass on 
 
 ' Ann. Camden, sup., 8r4 ; Hist. Docts. 404-409. 
 
 Gilbert, sup., 140. 
 ' Ann. Camden, sup., Hailes. 
 
 Barbour, 370. 
 
102 HOPELESS 
 
 CHAP. VI unmolested to Kildare. At Trim they halted a few days, 
 
 '^ finally reaching Ulster early in May.^ 
 Return to If we keep in mind the fact that- the famine was still 
 ^'^'^" raging, this three months' raid, extending over 450-500 
 miles as the crow flies, must be pronounced a great per- 
 formance, and a wonderful exhibition of endurance and 
 hardihood. If the invaders had inflicted terrible ravages 
 on the country, they too had suffered severely ; many 
 died of hardships and want : those who fared best lived 
 on horseflesh.^ On the other hand, the raid had done 
 nothing to extend Bruce's sphere of influence ; not a castle 
 or town had been won.* The natives, though loathing the 
 presence of the English settlers, were still unable to com- 
 bine in any really national movement for their expulsion, 
 even when provided with such able leaders as Scotland 
 had sent them. 
 
 ■ The campaign over. King Robert returned to Scotland,* 
 his brother remaining in Ulster, content, presumably from 
 sheer exhaustion, to keep to his own borders. Meanwhile 
 Mortimer was exerting himself successfully to refit and 
 , repair damages. The Earl of Ulster was set free on con- 
 dition of seeking no revenge against the men of Dublin ; 
 the de Lacys were summoned to answer for their trea,son- 
 able conduct ; failing to appear they were subjected to 
 utter forfeiture, and driven into Connaught ; sundry 
 Leinster clans were reduced to subjection ; while friendly 
 relations were re-established with Connaught. In South 
 Leinster and North Munster, however, reverses were 
 iBuffered, the gallant Richard of Clare being defeated and 
 killed by the O'Briens. But Mortimer was not allowed 
 to remain in Ireland, being summoned to attend the 
 autumn Parliament at York. At his departure the 
 
 ' Ann. Camden, sup., 315 ; Gilbert, sup., 141, 142 ; Barbour, 371. 
 
 ' Fordun, 347. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter of thanks of the 28th April 1317 to the municipal towns 
 of Dubhn, Waterford, Cork, Ross, and Drogheda ; to Uriel (Louth) and the 
 royal boroughs of Trim and Kilkenny; Foed. II. 327. The other towns in 
 Ireland were private property, governed by the lords to whom they belonged. 
 
 ' Circa 22 May ; Lanercost, 234. 
 
STRUGGLE 103 
 
 government of the Dominion was placed in the hands of chap.vi 
 Alexander Bicknor, the newly appointed Archbishop of ^^ 
 Dublin, with the title of Justiciar.^ 
 Encouraged, perhaps, by Mortimer's recall, Edward Bruce Last raid 
 
 T • rJ, -r^ f of Edward 
 
 undertook a fresh descent upon Lemster. The Enghsh took Bruce. 
 up a position to meet him " at the entrance of the pass from 
 Ulster ", between Dundalk and Faughard. They were 
 probably superior in numbers and certainly in equipment, 
 and commanded by John of Bermingham, a descendant 
 of a family settled in Kildare. He had just been knighted 
 by Mortimer for his services against the de Lacys. Bruce's 
 advisers, Scottish and native, deprecated action, urging 
 that he ought at least to await the arrival of reinforcements 
 from Scotland, reported to be on the way. With charac- 
 teristic recklessness he said that whatever the odds he 
 would fight that day. The Irish allies declined to follow 
 him. At the first charge Bruce's ranks were broken, the Battle of 
 men fled, the leaders stood and died. Bruce was singled ™ ^ 
 out by John Malpas of Drogheda. When the turmoil was 
 over there lay Bruce and Malpas side by side, each killed 
 by the other's hand ; there also lay John of Soules and 
 John Stewart.^ The remnants of the Scottish force were 
 taken home by a subordinate, one John Thomasson of 
 Carrick.* Bruce's corpse was not treated with the respect 
 due to a fallen enemy ; the head was sent to London ; the 
 four quarters were distributed in Ireland.* 
 
 Ulster was again left to its own devices. 
 
 Devastation on such a scale carried on at intervals over 
 a period of nearly three and a half years could not fail 
 of leaving their mark on the country. An ecclesiastical 
 assessment of Ossory (Queen's County and most of Kilkenny) 
 shows the tithes to have fallen in places to one-third of 
 
 ' See Gilbert, Viceroys, 142, 143 ; and Hist. Docts. 435. 
 
 " 14 October. Ann. Camden, 817 ; Fordun, 348 ; Barbour, 417-423 ; Four 
 Masters, I. 520, 521 ; Gilbert, Viceroys, 143, T47. For his services on the day 
 Bermingham was created Earl of Louth ; Foed. II. 393. 
 
 ^ Barbour, 423-425. 
 
 * Lanercost, 238. The fullest list of the slain is that given by the Continuator 
 of Trevet, 29. 
 
104 NATIVE RECOVERY 
 
 CHAP. VI their former value. The prestige and influence of the 
 ~^ English government were greatly reduced ; while the 
 losses suffered by the settlers enabled the native clans 
 to reassert themselves. In Ulster, Leinster, and North 
 Munster the Irish began to recover lands formerly wrested 
 from them, while Connaught prepared to follow the 
 movement.^ 
 
 ' See Gilbert, 148, 149. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Edward II [continued) 
 A.D. 1319-1321 
 
 The War. — Ineffectual siege of Berwick. — " Chapter of Myton." — ^Truce. — • 
 Homage rendered for French possessions. — Banishment of the Despensers. 
 
 The year 1319 seemed to open in England under auspices chap.vii 
 more favourable than any that the reign had yet seen. An 
 abundant harvest had once more brought cheap bread to 
 the people.^ With the attack on Ireland repelled, the 
 Scots excommunicated, the King and Lancaster reconciled, 
 and certain measures of reform promised and to a certain 
 extent taken in hand, the country began to hope for better 
 things in the future.^ On the 6th May a general Parliament Parlia- 
 met at York, and sat till the 25th of the month. In con- ™™'" 
 sideration of the reconciliation of the autumn, and of the 
 reforms in progress, the barons and counties gave an Subsidies 
 Eighteenth, and the boroughs a Twelfth.^ In the previous ^^"'^'^• 
 Parliament the clergy had been asked for a grant, but had 
 refused to give except in Convocation. The Southern 
 Province had been convened accordingly. But the bishops 
 reported that even so the clergy could not give without the 
 leave of the Pope. Adam Murimuth the historian therefore 
 was sent to Avignon and obtained from John the requisite 
 sanction for the grant of a Tenth.* 
 
 ' See Rogers, Prices, 1. 199, 230. 
 
 ^ Bridhngton, 56 ; Mon. Malm. 237, 238. In November fresh Perambulation 
 Commissions had been issued ; and again between January and April Commis- 
 sioners for inquiring into cases of venality and oppression on the part of Judges 
 and Royal Officers ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 133, 135 ; see also the instructions of the 
 2nd February to the sheriffs ; Foed. II. 385 ; Mon. Malm. 389. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 197, 210, 213. 
 
 ■" See Parly. Writs, II. i. 196 ; Murimuth, 30. The Convocation was originally 
 summoned for the 3rd February, but was adjourned, and only met on the 20th 
 April. Wake, State of Church, 271. 
 
I3I9 
 
 io6 INEFFECTUAL 
 
 The same apparent concord was exhibited when the 
 levies agreed upon in the autumn gathered round Newcastle 
 about the 22nd July. The proffers of service were satis- 
 factory, even Lancaster condescending to appear.^ 
 Siegeof In the course of August the troops were marched to 
 
 the siege of Berwick. The recovery of Berwick was 
 obviously a matter of primary importance, if only for the 
 protection of the Northern counties. The town had been 
 carefully armed and victualled for a siege, under the charge 
 of Bruce's son-in-law, Walter Stewart, the future father of 
 a long line of Kings. Besides his native troops, Stewart 
 had the services of a Flemish free lance, John Crab, 
 a military engineer of great repute.^ 
 
 The English encampment on the landward side of 
 Berwick covered, we are told, more ground than " baith 
 town and castell " put together. " On the other half " the 
 whole haven was " stoppit " with their shipping. On the 
 7th September the Enghsh gave their first assault.^ The 
 height of the walls not exceeding a spear's length, they 
 attempted to carry the place by direct escalade. The 
 dramatic feature of the day was the advance of a ship with 
 a boat and drawbridge slung mid-mast-high. Unfortunately 
 the vessel grounded before she came within reach of the 
 wall, and the whole assault failed.* After a breathing space 
 of five days, another vigorous assault was made, but without 
 better success. The interest on this occasion, apparently, 
 centred round the working of a huge ' Sow ', that was 
 pushed up to the walls as a cover for mining operations. 
 
 ' See Parly. Writs, II. i. 5x5-525 ; Lanercost, 239 ; Barbour, 395 ; Mon. Malm. 
 The King proclaimed free plunder at the expense of the Scots. 
 
 '' Barbour, 393. English relations with Flanders had not been cordial for 
 some years. Edward had complained of John Crab in 13x3, and Count Robert 
 had formally recognized Bruce within this year. See Foed. II. 202, 2x0, 389, 394. 
 It is interesting to note that Barbour remarks that Berwick was not provided 
 with " gynis for crakis ", guns or cannon. 
 
 ," For in Scotland than but wene 
 
 The us of them had nocht bene seen." 
 
 = Barbour, 4x0 ; cf. a letter from Hugh le Despenser to an agent in Glamorgan- 
 shire, printed by Mr. Stevenson in his notes to the Lanercost Chron., p. 422. 
 
 ' Barbour, 395-400 ; Lanercost, 239. 
 
OPERATIONS 107 
 
 But the back of the machine was broken by the " vertical chap, vii 
 fire " of huge stones projected upwards from a catapult, like ~^ 
 bomb shells, and dropped upon it. Amid the cheers of 
 the Scots ' the sow farrowed ', and her armed progeny 
 bolted in all directions.^ 
 
 With the numerical superiority of the English, a con- 
 tinuance of such ' f eloun fichting ' would soon have brought 
 the garrison to extremities ; at the last assault every man 
 was engaged on the walls. Women and children brought 
 them food and supplies.^ 
 
 But the concentration of forces round Berwick had left 
 the Western Marches undefended. No sooner were the 
 English fairly established round Berwick, than Randolf 
 and Douglas once more crossed the Border, and without 
 let or hindrance reached Boroughbridge, nearly capturing Counter- 
 the Queen. She was removed to Nottingham only just in "^ ' ' 
 time.^ 
 
 On the 4th September Edward had word of the inroad, 
 and issued writs for all Yorkshire to turn out under Arch- 
 bishop Melton and the Chancellor, Hotham, now Bishop of 
 Ely.* The orders were obeyed with only too great alacrity. 
 Emulous, perhaps, of the fame won by his great predecessor 
 Thurstan on Cuttenmoor, Melton led a " lay " force of 
 mingled citizens, priests, and men of rehgion, with very 
 few military men among them, to intercept the Scottish 
 veterans. On the afternoon of the 20th September the "The 
 Archbishop found the Scots at Myton-on-Swale, in the of jiyton." 
 angle at the junction of that river with the Ure, the two 
 together forming the- York Ouse, The English advancing 
 by the main North road from York, on the East side of the 
 Ouse, would have the Swale to ford. At the report of the 
 advance of an enemy the Scots took post in two solid 
 circular schiltrums, their usual formation to resist attack. 
 When the motley character of the attacking force, was 
 
 ' Barbour, 407-412. ' lb. 413- 
 
 ' Trokelowej 103 ; Mon. Malm. 242. These writers assert that the Scots 
 
 had treacherous information of the Queen's whereabouts ; Ann. Paul. 287. 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 125 ; Hotham was consecrated Bishop of Ely, 3 October 
 
 1316 ; Reg. Sacrum. 
 
io8 MUTUAL 
 
 CHAP. VII descried they kindled fires of hay, to give the impression 
 ^7^ that they were in retreat, and so encourage the English 
 to . come on. When they were fairly across the ford the 
 Scots broke their ranks, and springing to their horses, 
 charged wildly, and all was over. The Mayor of York 
 was left on the field : many were drowned in the Swale. 
 Among the prisoners taken was William Ayreminne, 
 Master of the Rolls, often called upon to act as a Keeper 
 of the Seal.^ The action gained the name of the ' White 
 Battle ' or the ' Chapter of Myton '.^ 
 The news of the reverse brought the siege of Berwick 
 Edward to a close. Edward himself, to do him justice, wished to 
 Lancast r ^^ick to the work, but was turned from his purpose by the 
 insidious counsels of Lancaster and his followers.* To 
 please them he divided his forces, leading part in one 
 direction in pursuit of the raiders, while the Earl hunted 
 for them with the rest of the army in another quarter. 
 Between them the Scots got away safely by Brough and 
 Stanmore. Public discontent at the whole fiasco became 
 very bitter, and Lancaster's conduct was loudly denounced ; 
 men pointed to the fact that his estates were still being 
 spared by the Scots ; there could be but one explanation 
 of his action ; he must be in collusion with the enemy and 
 probably in their pay.* 
 
 If Thomas's action was disloyal and treacherous, as 
 beyond doubt it was, it may be said for him that he was 
 acting in self-defence ; and that he realized that he never 
 had been and never could be forgiven ; especially if, as 
 was rumoured, the King during the siege had been ill- 
 
 ^ See Lanercost, 239 ; Trokelowe, 103 ; Mod. Malm. 243 ; Barbour, 403-405 ; 
 Raine, Northern Registers, XXVIII ; Ann. Paul. 287. 
 
 ^ Foss, Judges, II. 317, from Weaver, and Barbour, sup. 
 
 = So both the Malmesbury writer and Barbour, 414. On the other hand 
 " Bridhngton " speaks of mischief-making in the camp during the siege, and lays 
 the whole blame on the King's inner circle, p. 57. 
 
 * Lanercost, 239 ; Mon. Malm. 244-249 ; Barbour, sup. See especially the 
 letter of the time from the younger Despenser to an agent in Glamorgan, in which 
 he lays the whole blame of the abandonment of the siege on the Earl ; Lanercost, 
 notes, 422. Late in the century we shall find that the Scots considered that they 
 owed something to the House of Lancaster. 
 
DISTRUST 109 
 
 advised enough to hint that when Berwicic was won, his chap, vii 
 hands would be free for another job.^ i^ig 
 
 Not content with the spoils gathered in Yorkshire the 
 Scots returned to the charge by the ist November, destroy- 
 ing the winter's supply of food in the parts of Westmoreland 
 and Cumberland that they had not been able to harry 
 earlier in the autumn. Between the two visitations eighty 
 townships were said to have been burnt or pillaged.^ 
 
 But bona fide negotiations for a truce had at last been 
 opened. Both Kings had special reasons for wishing for 
 a suspension of hostilities. Bruce, with all his staunchness, Movement 
 evidently felt the weight of the ecclesiastical censures under 
 which he laboured, and appreciated the risks to which they 
 exposed him. The capture of Berwick, and other acts of 
 war committed since the pubHcation of the Papal truce 
 in November 1317, had added fresh counts to the indict- 
 ment against him, already sufficiently heavy ; and in 
 compliance with further orders from Avignon, the Cardinals 
 Gaucelin and Luke, on the 3rd of September 1318, had 
 proclaimed at St. Paul's that Bruce had incurred final 
 sentence of excommunication for disregard of the Papal 
 orders.* Nor would it be too much to suppose that the 
 shade of the stricken Comyn haunted Bruce even in his 
 hours of prosperity. The Pope alone could conjure that 
 spectre. Edward in opening negotiations had been obliged 
 to ask for Papal leave even to treat with a man under ban 
 of excommunication.* As for the King's special motives, 
 he had been summoned to render homage for Aquitaine 
 and Ponthieu to his brother-in-law, Philip V, " Le Long," 
 no homage having been rendered either to him or to his 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 350 ; Bridlington, 57, blames the Royal circle. 
 
 ' See the exemptions from the Eighteenth of the previous year, granted in 
 consideration of the destruction. Parly. Writs, II. ii. 143. In the previous year 
 Bishop Halton of Carlisle represented himself as almost destitute ; Northern 
 Registers, 282. See also the piteous letter from the men of Cumberland to the 
 King, printed by Mr. Stevenson with the Lanercost Chronicle, p. 537. 
 
 ' Feed. II. 362, 408 ; Ann. Paul. 283. 
 
 ' Foed. 388, 391. See also Northern Registers, 309, for absolution of men who 
 had held intercourse with Scotsmen. 
 
no THE SCOTS 
 
 cHAP.vn short-lived elder' brother Louis " HuHn." A journey to 
 1319 France would be needed, as Philip refused to accept of 
 homage by proxy ; ^ and the King could hardly leave the 
 country if war was raging. On the 24th October negotia- 
 tions were opened, Bruce apparently making the first 
 overture, and askiilg for a truce on behalf of the men of 
 Scotland, thus waiving the question of his recognition. 
 Bishop Hotham, Pembroke, the younger Despenser, and 
 
 A truce Badlesmere were the plenipotentiaries named by Edward.^ 
 On the 2lst December a truce was agreed upon, to last for 
 two years from Christmas, the " sufferance ", as proclaimed 
 by Edward, being taken between himself on the one part, 
 and " Sire Robert Bruce " and his supporters [ses aerdauntz) 
 on the other part. To provide for the observance of the 
 armistice Conservators of the truce or Wardens of the 
 Marches were appointed, the first instance of the institution 
 of such officers.^ But while sheathing the carnal weapon, 
 Edward, rather meanly, at this very time was pressing 
 Bruce underhand with the sword of St. Peter. On the 
 8th January 1320 John orders the excommunication of 
 ' Robert Earl of Carrick' for the murder of the Comyn, to 
 be repubhshed continually, and with every formahty, 
 until he shall have made amends — all at the request of 
 King Edward.* 
 
 But the laity of Scotland now came forward to press for 
 the recognition of their King as a national question, taking 
 their stand on the recognition given by Boniface VIII in 
 1299.5 In April a Scottish Parliament was held at Ar- 
 broath, and on the 6th of the month a spirited but deferen- 
 tially worded address to the Pope, worthy of comparison 
 with the suppressed protest of the Lincoln Parliament of 
 1301, was drawn up, in the name of the lay community of 
 Scotland. They appealed to the long hst of favours justly 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 249. Louis X died in June 1316 ; see above, p. 85, note. 
 ^ Foed. II. 404, 409-411. 
 ^ Foed. 412, 416 ; Lanercost, 240. 
 
 ' Foed. 412. See also the Papal indictment already referred to of the 17th 
 November 1319 ; Id. 407. 
 ' See Dawn of Constitution, 471, 
 
AND THE PAPACY iii 
 
 extended by Popes to Scotland, as to a land under the chap.vii 
 special protection of the brother of St. Peter ; they insisted j^j^ 
 on Bruce's position as a lawful King by right of succession 
 and assent of the people, and as the chosen supporter of 
 national rights ; finally they prayed that his HoHness 
 would be pleased to admonish and exhort the King of 
 England to suffer them to live in peace ' in that narrow 
 spot of Scotland, beyond which we have no habitation '} 
 
 The Pope was so far moved by the appeal that he 
 suspended the process against Bruce to the ist April 1321, 
 and also wrote confidentially to Edward urging the ex- 
 pediency of agreeing to a lasting peace.^ 
 
 To make arrangements for the King's visit to France a 
 Grand Council was held at York in January (1320). Lan- 
 caster was summoned, but again declined to appear, 
 objecting, he said, to Parliaments held 'in chambers'.^ 
 Several ministerial changes were made ; John Hotham 
 the Bishop of Ely was relieved of the Great Seal, being 
 reserved for diplomatic missions, and John Salmon Bishop 
 of Norwich became Chancellor instead ; while Walter 
 Stapledon Bishop of Exeter became Treasurer, vice Walter 
 of Norwich.* 
 
 On the 19th June Edward embarked at Dover, met Philip Homage to 
 at Amiens, rendered homage, was reinvested with Ponthieu, ' '^ ' 
 which had been taken into hand for delay in performance 
 of homage, and after a month of feasting and revelry with 
 his brother-in-law, returned to the port from whence he 
 had sailed.^ 
 
 On the 6th October a full Parliament was opened by the Parlia- 
 King at Westminster.^ The session lasted till the 25th 
 October ; a considerable amount of judicial business was 
 
 ^ Scotichron. II. 275; Anderson, Independency of Scotland, Append, ii. 
 The apparent abstention of the clergy would be due to Bruce's excommunication. 
 In August (1320) a conspiracy in favour of William of Soules, grandson of an 
 outside competitor of i29r, was discovered ; Fordun ; Barbour, 438. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 43r, 432. ^ " In cameris " ; Mon. Malm., sup. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 115 ; ii. r44. 
 
 ° 22 July, Foed. 426, 428 ; Murimuth, 32 ; Baker, lo. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 219. 
 
1320 
 
 112 MISCHIEVOUS 
 
 CHAP, vii transacted and a statute was enacted, namely, that of 
 Westminster the Fourth, " touching juries and sheriffs." ^ 
 Jealousy of the Papacy was manifested by the refusal of 
 Parliamentary sanction to gifts in perpetuity proposed to 
 be made by the King to the brother and two nephews of 
 the Pope.2 No subsidy was asked for ; the grant of another 
 Crusade Tenth by the Pope having relieved the King of 
 the need of asking for money .^ 
 
 Under Henry III we were always in presence of the 
 King ; we found him perpetually intervening, and generally 
 with mischievous results. Of his grandson we never hear 
 anything, till from time to time an outburst of popular 
 feeling brings to light what has been happening under- 
 ground. Since the autumn of 1318 he had been his own 
 master, affairs being managed for him by Pembroke, 
 The two Badlesmere, and the two Despensers, and all seemed quiet 
 Despen- ^^^ happy. But Edward was incapable of profiting by 
 the lessons of experience. He had placed himself in the 
 hands of the younger Despenser, who had taken Gaveston's 
 place in his favour, and exercised the same mysterious 
 The influence over him that Peter did.* The elder Hugh had 
 
 been the King's steady supporter, and as such had been 
 repeatedly denounced by Lancaster. The son had followed 
 Lancaster till the autumn of 1318, when he was appointed 
 Chamberlain, an ofhce that he had held under the Lancaster 
 administration ; * his reappointment therefore might be 
 considered a concession to the Earl ; but from that time 
 Hugh appears as siding with the King. Till then father 
 and son had kept in opposite camps, on the old baronial 
 system. The son's change of politics evidently coincides 
 in point of time with the declension of the Lancastrian 
 star, and the King's recovery of power. As to the merits 
 
 * Parly. Writs, II. i. 219-221, 229 ; Rot. Park. I. 365, &c. ; Statutes, I. 180. 
 
 " Foed. II. 438. 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 290 ; Murimuth, 32. The assessments of the Northern clergy 
 had to be reduced in consequence of the ravages of the Scots ; Parly. Writs, II. 
 "• 153- 
 
 ' " Regis rector ad instar Petri de Geveston ; " Baker, 10 ; also Murimuth, 33. 
 
 ' Baker, 6. 
 
 Father. 
 
FAVOURITES 113 
 
 or demerits of the two Despensers the writers of the time chap, vii 
 are not quite agreed. With respect to the father however ~ 
 the only special charges brought against him, even by 
 a writer disposed to be critical, are severity as Chief Forester, 
 and a greed {cupidus) of money and influence only too 
 common to the statesmen of the time.^ Others again 
 extol him as ' one of the first men of the day in sense and 
 probity ',^ and again, as a brave soldier and prudent states- 
 man, brought down by over-attachment to a worthless 
 son.^ On the facts the hostility to the father appears to 
 have been purely political. Not so with regard to the son. The Son. 
 The complaints of his conduct show that he had grossly 
 abused the extraordinary hold he had gotten on the weak- 
 ness of the King ; that he had taken the management of 
 affairs into his own hands,* and unscrupulously used his 
 influence for the furtherance of his own ends. His rapacity 
 involved the crisis of the reign. He was, as already men- 
 tioned, husband of Eleanor, eldest of the Gloucester 
 heiresses ; Margaxet the second sister, Gaveston's relict, 
 being married to Hugh of Audley, while Isabella or Eliza- 
 beth, the youngest, was married to Roger of Amory. In 
 1317 partition of the great inheritance was made by 
 arrangement among the parties, when Glamorgan fell to 
 Despenser's share, while Audley received the town and 
 castle of Newport, and the ' county ' of Gwynllwg in our 
 Monmouthshire, as part of his wife's " purparty " ; some 
 lands on the Wye being assigned to Amory, on account of his 
 spouse's share. ^ Despenser invaded the rights of both his He attacks 
 brothers-in-law, and eventually made himself master of brothers- 
 Newport and Gwynllwg ; also of Thornbury in Gloucester- in-law. 
 shire which likewise had been assigned to Audley.^ But 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 260. 
 
 ' Bridlington, 87 ; Bp. Stubbs, Preface, Iv. ' Baker, 67. 
 
 * See his letter of the 21st March 1321, printed by Mr. W. H. Stevenson, 
 Eng. Hist. Rev. XII. 760, where Hugh writes as ' We ' ; also the reports from 
 Gascony, all addressed to him ; Delpit, Documents Fran^ais, 54-59. 
 
 The partition is given Chancery Miscellanea, Bundle 3, Nos. 7 (Audley), 8 
 (Despenser), 9, 10 (Amory) ; cited W. H. Stevenson, Eng. Hist. Rev. XII. 756. 
 For the marriages of the three ladies see above, p. 79, note. 
 
 " See Hugh's letter above, 761, and note. 
 1415.1 I 
 
114 MARCH 'CUSTOMS' 
 
 CHAP. VII he failed to oust Amory from Tintern. Again he induced 
 ^ the King to revoke in his favour grants made to Roger 
 Mortimer.^ A greater disturbance however was caused 
 by proceedings in connexion with the palatine lordship of 
 Gower, also coveted by Despenser, the possession of which 
 would have placed him in a very commanding position 
 in South Wales. Gower belonged to William of Braose, 
 a man who, having outrun his means, had negotiated at 
 different times for the sale of Gower to his son-in-law 
 John Mowbray, to the Earl of Hereford, and to the two 
 Mortimers. Despenser was said to have thwarted all these 
 proposals. All this was sufficiently calculated to raise up 
 enemies. But in 1319 Hugh ventured on a still rasher 
 step. He obtained the King's consent to an inquest as 
 to alienations of land made by de Braose or his ancestors 
 without royal licence ; thereby starting the doctrine that 
 March lands, no more than other lands, could be ahenated 
 without the King's leave. In 1320 Mowbray took posses- 
 sion of Gower, under the arrangement with his father-in- 
 law, whereupon Despenser ordered the lordship to be taken 
 into hand, on the ground that Mowbray had entered without 
 leave. The execution of the order was resisted by force, 
 and successive commissions had to be appointed to inquire 
 concerning lands alienated by de Braose without leave. 
 March This bold attack on the cherished ' March Customs ' at 
 
 arms! ^" ^^^^ brought all the March lords into line in self-defence ; 
 while Lancaster was understood to lend them covert 
 support, without openly committing himself to their pro- 
 ceedings.^ Had he boldly joined them he might once more 
 have got the better of Edward ; as it was his conduct was 
 at once base and weak. 
 
 The first " sough " of the coming storm might perhaps 
 be traced in a petition presented in the October Parliament 
 by the knights and burgesses complaining of illegal ' con- 
 federacies ' for the disturbance of peace and justice.' On 
 
 "■ M. Westm. III. 342 (Tintern MS.) ; Mon. Malm. 254. 
 
 " " Erat manus comitis Lancastriae cum illis " ; Mon. Malm. 255. 
 
 ' Rot. Park. I. 371. 
 
INVADED 115 
 
 the 20th January 1321 a commission based on this petition chap, vn 
 was appointed to inquire as to unlawful assemblies in ^^21 
 Gower ; while ten days later writs were issued to the Earls 
 of Hereford, Arundel, and Surrey, with twenty-six others, 
 forbidding them to attend a meeting at which matters 
 touching the Crown were to be discussed.^ In March the 
 King found it necessary to pay a visit to the scene of the 
 disturbances, the Despensers going with him, the end ob- 
 viously being to enforce a forfeiture for Despenser's benefit.^ 
 On their way they heard that there was war on the March ; 
 and, from the letter of the younger Hugh already cited, we 
 learn that he was preparing for hostilities with Hereford, 
 Audley, and John Giffard of Brimfield.^ On the 28th of 
 the month Hereford, the Mortimers, Giffard, and Thomas 
 and Maurice of Berkeley were summoned to appear at 
 Gloucester. Hereford answered the writ by a verbal 
 message to the effect that he could not appear at Court 
 so long as the younger Despenser was there. A further 
 message suggested that Hugh should be placed in the 
 keeping of the Earl of Lancaster. Edward refused to 
 beheve that such a message had been sent, till it was 
 authenticated in writing ; and then he gave the very 
 proper answer that Hugh had been appointed Chamberlain 
 in full Parliament at York, at which Hereford himself had 
 been present ; that no complaint had ever been preferred 
 against him, and that it would be a very bad precedent to 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 155 ; Foed. II. 442. 
 
 ^ Itinerary ; Mon. Malm. 256. See the whole story with the references to 
 the public records given in Mr. Stevenson's article, sup. Despenser eventually 
 became lord of Gower, but not till July 1322 ; Id. Another illustration of 
 Despenser's modes of acquiring property may be gathered from the letter of 
 the 2ist March 1321, above cited. In it Hugh expresses his satisfaction at 
 hearing that an inquest just held at Exeter had found that Herbert du Marais 
 or Marsh had been wrongly ousted from Lundy Isle by John of Wylyngton, as he, 
 Hugh, wished to ' purchase ' it. The next thing that appears is that in June 
 1322 Lundy is granted to Despenser on the forfeiture of John of Wylyngton, 
 a rebel ; p. 760. But what had become of Marsh and his rights ? M. Westm. III. 
 344 gives de Braose as dying this year ; but he was alive and negotiating with 
 Despenser in 1324 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 253. He died in 1325 or 1326. 
 
 " Eng. Hist. Rev., sup., 761 and 569. Breaches of the peace began in March ; 
 Parly. Writs, II. ii. 163. 
 
 I 2 
 
II 6 PRIVATE 
 
 CHAP. VII remove a minister without cause shown.^ On the 9th 
 April sentence of forfeiture was issued against Audley, 
 while a little later the castle of St. Briavels was taken from 
 Amory.2 On the 13th April Hereford and others were 
 again forbidden to muster in arras.^ The King advanced 
 as far as Bristol. He would have drawn the sword if he 
 could have reckoned on a sufficient following.* Unable to 
 quell the disturbances, he resigned himself to meeting his 
 Estates ; and from Bristol on the 23rd April issued writs 
 for a Council to be held at Oxford on the loth May to 
 arrange for holding a Parliament ; the Council was subse- 
 quently adjourned to the 15th May, at Westminster, and 
 then the 15th July was fixed for the meeting of the session.^ 
 War. No sooner was the King's back turned than the confederate 
 barons began to wreak their spite on the favourite, ravaging 
 his Welsh estates in the King's name, storming his castles, 
 and compelling his vassals to abjure all their obligations 
 to him (May). 6 
 Lancas- On the 24th of the month Lancaster took a remarkable 
 
 Hament''^" Step, namely that of holding a private Parliament of his 
 adherents at Pontefract, at which the Barons Multon, 
 Furnival, Fitz Hugh, Percy, Fitz William, Fauconberge, 
 and others sealed a league for mut;ual defence ' in view of 
 the troubled state of the country '. To give greater weight 
 to their proceedings Lancaster adjourned the assembly to 
 meet again at Sherburn in Elmet on the 28th June, request- 
 ing the clergy of the Province to attend. Archbishop 
 Melton duly came, with Louis of Beaumont, Bishop of 
 Durham, and John Halton of Carlisle. The Earl of 
 Hereford appeared to represent the March lords. Articles 
 were produced in which Lancaster promised to co-operate 
 in getting rid of evil counsellors and improper ministers, 
 who had invaded the privileges of the magnates through 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 231, 232. '- Id. 11. ii. 158 ; Mon. Malm. 246. 
 
 = Parly. Writs, sup., 159. ■■ Mon. Malm. 258. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, 11. i. 231, 232, 234. 
 
 » See Rot. Parlt. III. 361; Ann. Paul. 293; Mon. Malm. 256, 257; Murimuth, 33. 
 The ravages began on the 4th May, when Glamorgan was invaded ; Parly. Writs, 
 sup., i5i. 
 
PARLIAMENTS 117 
 
 novel doctrines of forfeiture, special commissions against chap.vii 
 confederacies, commissions of quo warranto and the like. 1321 
 The clergy were specially requested to endorse the Articles. 
 They retired to the house of the rector to consider their 
 answer ; returning to the church they said that in any 
 measures for the defence of the land against the Scots they 
 would gladly concur, on all other points they advised a 
 reference to the impending Parliament.^ The lay barons 
 however committed themselves to an indenture pledging 
 them to support the Earl of Hereford against the two 
 Despensers.^ Lancaster stipulated for the proscription of 
 the elder Hugh, his old enemy, as the price of his support.* 
 Beyond this compact Lancaster gave no help to the 
 confederates.* With his usual selfish policy of isolation 
 he remained in the North, allowing the others to prosecute 
 the work of devastating the English estates of the De- 
 spensers. Altogether estates situate in sixty-nine townships 
 and eighteen counties were alleged to have been plundered.* 
 Converging on London, about the 22nd July, the con- 
 federates reached St. Albans, where they halted for three 
 days. The Bishop of London ^ with his brethren of 
 Salisbury,' Hereford,^ Ely, and Chichester, had come 
 forward to mediate ; they were sent to the King with 
 demands for the banishment of the Despensers and an 
 amnesty for themselves.® The next advance was to 
 Waltham, where the barons remained four days, treating 
 with the Londoners for admission to the City. The 
 citizens consulted the King, and then sent a polite letter 
 
 ' Bridlington, 61-64. 
 
 ^ " See the Indenture printed in Tyrell, III. 280 " ; Bp. Stubbs, Chron., Edw. I 
 and Edw. II, II. Ixxxviii. 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 257. * See Parly. Writs, II. ii. 178. 
 
 ' See Parly. Writs, II. ii. 186-190; Ann. Paul. 293; Rot. Park. III. 362. 
 Lingard gives the damages returned by the elder Despenser as 2,200 oxen and 
 cows, 28,000 sheep, 160 carthorses, 40 tuns of wine, arms for 200 men, &c. Rot. 
 Park. III. 36r. 
 
 ° Stephen Segrave, commonly called Stephen of Gravesend, consecrated 
 14 January 1319. 
 
 ' Roger Mortival, consecrated 28 September 1315 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 ' Adam Orleton, consecrated 22 May 131 7 ; Id. 
 
 ° Trokelowe, 108, 109. 
 
I32I 
 
 raent. 
 
 ii8 THE KING 
 
 to say that without wishing to support the Despensers or 
 any other pubHc enemies they must be allowed to keep 
 their gates closed. The Confederates therefore had to 
 establish themselves in the suburbs ; Hereford took up 
 his quarters in Lancaster's inn in Holborn ; Mortimer at 
 St. John's, Clerkenwell ; Audley at St. Bartholomew's, 
 Smithfield, and Amory in the Temple (29 July).^ The 
 proceedings against the Despensers were being taken 
 Parlia- with all due formality. A full Parliament had been 
 sitting since the 15th July. Eleven articles were preferred 
 against the pair. They were charged with ' accroaching ' 
 to themselves royal authority, with estranging the heart 
 of the King from his people, with keeping the magnates 
 from having proper access to the King, with removing 
 ministers appointed by the great men of the realm, and in 
 every way hindering and perverting justice. One special 
 charge laid against the younger Hugh was that he had 
 taught that homage and allegiance were due to the Crown 
 rather than to the person of the King ; and that if he would 
 not be guided by reason in exercising his prerogatives, his 
 subjects were bound by their oaths to bring him to reason 
 by force. ^ This charge certainly came with ill grace from 
 the mouths of the Opposition, but it would seem that they 
 blamed Despenser not so much for promulgating this 
 doctrine, as for applying it wrongfully to his personal ends. 
 A fortnight and more the King twisted and turned, 
 submitting one day and drawing back the next. But he 
 was powerless to resist. Even Warenne had gone over to 
 the Confederates. The bishops, with Pembroke and John 
 of Brittany, the Earl of Richmond, mediated or affected to 
 mediate,^ but the two latter would not be loth to be rid of 
 the younger Hugh. He was irritating the Confederates by 
 sailing up and down the Thames in a big armed vessel 
 belonging to the King, till they threatened to retaliate by 
 firing the palace and all other royal buildings at West- 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 293-296. 
 
 ' Statutes, I. 181, &c. ; Bridlington, 65-69. See also above, p. 14. 
 
 ^ Murimuth, 33 ; Mon. Malm. 259. 
 
GIVING WAY 119 
 
 minster, from Charing Cross to the Abbey. Then at last chap.vi 
 Edward, at the instance of Pembroke and Richmond, with "■ 
 the Queen on her knees imploring him to have mercy on 
 his people,^ gave way, and agreed to meet the Barons. 
 On the 14th August he was led into Westminster Hall by 
 the two friendly Earls, the building being crowded to the 
 door with men on horseback and on foot ; with very ill 
 grace {austero vultu) the King accepted the obeisances of 
 his subjects and bowed to their terms. ^ 
 
 On the 19th of the month sentence was passed on the Banish- 
 two Despensers, in the name of the Lords, the King being ^™Des- 
 present and assenting. Both were condemned to for- pensers. 
 feiture and exile, not to be recalled without the consent of 
 prelates, earls and barons, and that in full Parliament duly 
 summoned.^ On the following day full pardons were 
 issued to the Confederate Barons and their followers, for 
 all ' felonies ' committed in ' pursuing ' the Despensers 
 from the ist March to the 19th August. Two days later 
 the Parhament broke up.* 
 
 The elder Despenser submitted calmly to his sentence, 
 retiring to the Continent. Edward escorted him to 
 Harwich.^ The son was placed by the King in charge of 
 the Cinque Ports' shipping, and at once turned the com- 
 mand to account by embarking on a piratical career, plun- 
 dering all foreign vessels. His crowning achievement was 
 the capture of a big Genoese dromon or coche (Old French), 
 laden with Eastern wares. The whole of the crew were 
 sacrificed. For this gross crime Edward HI, five years 
 later, consented to pay 8,000 marks.* 
 
 ' " Pro populo genu flecto orante." 
 
 '^ Ann. Paul. 296, 297 ; Mon. Malm. 258, 259 ; Trokelowe, no. 
 = Statutes, I. 181 ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 365. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, II. ii. 163, &c. The pardons numbered 302 ; in the course of the 
 following six weeks 146 more were issued. 
 * Murimuth, 33 ; Mon. Malm. 261 ; 12 September, Itinerary. 
 ' Mon. Malm., sup. ; Foed. II. 941. 
 
122 DRAWING 
 
 CHAP, vm on the 29th November.^ Edward was prompt in forbidding 
 ~ the illegal meeting (12 November). Three days later he 
 authorizes Rhys ap Gruffudd to raise men for ' the defence 
 of Wales both West and South ' ; ^ and again five days 
 after that he calls for a miscellaneous force to meet at 
 Cirencester on the 13th December. On the 30th November 
 he writes to Archbishop Reynolds with reference to a 
 meeting of Convocation summoned to meet at St. Paul's 
 next day. The King begs the clergy to pay attention to 
 certain matters to be laid before them by the Earls of 
 Arundel and Richmond.* The attendance in Convocation 
 was meagre, although the matters to be laid before the 
 assembly were of a very delicate and important character. 
 The Despensers had presented a petition for the reversal 
 of their sentence as unconstitutional and unjust ; Edward 
 desired to have the candid opinion of his ' Spiritual Fathers ' 
 on the subject. The few who were present advised the 
 King that the proceedings were illegal, and exhorted him 
 to quash them.* A month later Reynolds, as if to save 
 the King trouble, issued a proclamation at St. Paul's 
 declaring the sentences illegal.^ 
 
 Edward did not wait for this sanction. He had only 
 been driven to dismiss the Despensers by the pressure of 
 an armed demonstration, amounting to war. The Con- 
 federates had again ventured to come forward in arms, 
 illegally, in quasi-support of Badlesmere. Treating them 
 therefore as simple rebels Edward was preparing to draw 
 
 War. the sword without any prehminary ' defiance ' or declara- 
 
 tion of war. He kept a Christmas in arms at Cirencester, 
 a considerable army having rallied to his standard ; his 
 brothers the Earls of Norfolk,^ and Kent,' Pembroke, 
 
 * See his letter printed by Mr. Stevenson, Lanercost, 423. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. ii. 169 ; i. 540 ; Foed. II. 459. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. ii. 172, and i. 540. 
 
 ' See the letter of the King of the 4th January 1322 to the ten bishops who 
 had not been present ; Foed. II. 470 ; Concilia, II. 509. Bishop Stapledon of 
 Exeter answered that the sentences should be reversed, but reversed in Parlia- 
 ment. See also Murimuth, 35. ' Ann. Paul. 301 ; i January 1322. 
 
 ' Thomas of Brotherton, created in December 1312 ; Doyle. 
 
 ' Edmund of Woodstock, created 26 July I32r ; Ann. Paul. 292. 
 
THE SWORD 123 
 
 Arundel, Surrey, Richmond were all there ; also a body of chap.viii 
 500 men from the City of London.^ 1321 
 
 On the 28th December he broke up from Cirencester 
 to attack the Confederates in their strongholds beyond 
 the Severn. Gloucester being held by John Giffard, he 
 marched by Winchcombe and Pershore to Worcester, 
 where he remained eight days endeavouring to cross, but 
 unable to do so in the face of the enemy. Moving up the 
 river to Bridgenorth he again found himself confronted 
 by Giffard, who fired the town to prevent his crossing. At 
 Shrewsbury at last the King found the way clear.^ The 
 Mortimers were laying down their arms. They saw that 
 the odds were turning against them. Lancaster had not 
 taken a step towards them, while the King's army barred 
 their access to him. Despairing of succour they yielded. The Mor- 
 On the 17th January the King signed a safe-conduct for submit. 
 Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and any forty men that he 
 might bring with him, except Badlesmere. On the 22nd 
 January the two Mortimers made their submission. They 
 were sent to the Tower.* Hugh of Audley followed their 
 example, and was sent to WaUingford. Hereford, Badles- 
 mere, the younger Audley, Amory, and others fled to the 
 North.* On the 25th January the King left Shrewsbury, 
 crossed the Severn, and marching by Stretton and Ludlow 
 came round to Hereford (29 January-4 February) and 
 Gloucester (February 7-18). At Gloucester Maurice of 
 Berkeley yielded the keys of Berkeley Castle, that gloomy 
 stronghold destined so soon to became the scene of a 
 revolting tragedy. Every hostile fortress in the West had 
 now made its submission, and the whole March been reduced 
 to order.^ 
 
 Under these circumstances Edward felt himself strong 
 enough to recall his favourites — always his first preoccupa- 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 263 ; Foed. II. 470 ; Ann. Paul. 301. 
 
 ^ Edward signs at Worcester 1-8 January 1322 ; at Droitwich 9th, at Newport 
 I2th, 13th, and at Shrewsbury 14th January ; Itinerary, &c. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 471, 472 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 175, 176 ; Mon. Malm. 264 ; Ann. 
 Paul. 3or ; Bridlington, 74. 
 
 ' Baker, 14 ; Murimuth, 35. * Mon. Malm. 264, 265. 
 
124 COURSE 
 
 CHAP, viii tion. Following up the archbishop's proclamation of the 
 ~^ 1st January, the King six days later formally extended his 
 peace to the younger Despenser/ while on the nth February 
 he announced that both father and son would accompany 
 him on an expedition against the Scots. The forces of the 
 Kingdom had already been warned to be in readiness to 
 turn out at call.^ 
 
 In spite of continuous negotiations, in spite of mediations 
 by the Papacy and France, the truce concluded in Decem- 
 ber 1319 with the Scots had not been prolonged beyond 
 the two years originally agreed upon.^ Early in January 
 1322 Randolf and Douglas crossed the Border ; the foray 
 extended to Hartlepool in the East and to Richmond in 
 the West, and lasted full fifteen days.* 
 
 Lancaster Lancaster had probably intrigued with the Scots before. 
 
 s"mg ^ But a treasonable correspondence is now at last clearly 
 brought home to him. On the i6th December 1321 a safe- 
 conduct for an agent of the Earl's was sealed by Douglas ; 
 on the 15th January 1322 a fresh protection for the same 
 agent was given by Randolf, he being then at Corbridge. 
 In February John Mowbray and Roger Clifford were 
 invited to confer with Randolf in Scotland ; a correspon- 
 dence ensues with Lancaster in which at first he is covertly 
 addressed as ' King Arthur ', while finally a formal treaty 
 of offensive and defensive alliance was executed as between 
 the Scots on the one hand, and Lancaster, Hereford, Badles- 
 mere, Amory, the younger Hugh of Audley, Roger Clifford, 
 John Giffard, and others, on the other hand ; the Scots 
 to espouse their alHes' quarrels in England, Wales, and 
 Ireland, without claiming any territorial cessions for 
 themselves.* 
 
 On the 13th February the King named the 28th of the 
 month as the day for a general muster of levies at Coventry.* 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 301. ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 145, &c. 6 February. 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 438-441, 464, &c. 
 
 " Lanercost, 242. The men of Richmond again paid blackmail. 
 * Foed. II. 463, 472, 479 ; the last passage — Lancaster's indictment — is also 
 given by Trokelowe, 118. 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 547, 548. 
 
OF THE CAMPAIGN 125 
 
 Encouraged by the Scottish alliance, and provoked by the chap, vm 
 recall of the favourites, the Northern Barons had broken ^ 
 into open revolt, and were laying siege to Tickhill ; ^ while 
 Lancaster was preparing for a march to the South, just 
 when the time for effective action was past, the March 
 Confederacy having been broken up and disarmed. We 
 are told that Andrew Harclay, the gallant Constable of 
 Carlisle, naturally taking his own view of the situation, had 
 urged the King to turn his first attention to the Scots ; but 
 that Edward very wisely had declared that so long as 
 there was a rebel subject in the field he would not care what 
 the Scots did.^ 
 
 Edward appeared at Coventry by the appointed day. 
 Leaving the city on the 2nd March, and advancing by Meri- 
 vale and Drayton Basset, on the 6th he reached Elford in 
 Staffordshire, three miles East of Lichfield, and ten miles 
 South of Burton-upon-Trent. Lancaster, after wasting 
 three weeks on the siege of Tickhill,' had advanced to 
 Burton, and was preparing to hold the bridge there against 
 the King advancing from the South. Three days' skirmish- 
 ing ensued (March 8-10), the Lancastrians being favoured 
 by a flood in the river, the King meanwhile advancing to 
 Cauldwell in Derbyshire, four miles from Burton. The 
 waters having subsided the Royal army crossed the Trent 
 by a ford, and then advanced on Burton by the high road 
 from Lichfield. Lancaster came out to meet them in battle- 
 array, and then suddenly losing heart " turned and fled ". Flight of 
 The King pressing on in pursuit rested that night at Tutbury ^■^<^^^'^'^- 
 (11 March).* Amory was found there mortally wounded. 
 He was immediately arraigned and condemned, but respited 
 out of regard for his marriage with the King's niece, and 
 ' because the King had loved him much '. Three days 
 later he died.^ Proclamations of outlawry were then 
 issued against Lancaster and his supporters, while the King, 
 
 ' Bridlington, 74. ' Mon. Malm. 265. '' Bridlington, sup. 
 
 * See Lancaster's indictment, Foed. and Trokelowe, sup. ; Mon. Malm. 267; 
 Baker, 13 ; Lanercost, 242 ; Itinerary. 
 ' Mon. Malm. 268 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 261. 
 
126 
 
 END 
 
 1322 
 
 Action at 
 Borough- 
 bridge. 
 
 CHAP. VIII advancing to Derby, issued writs for a Parliament to meet 
 at York on the 2nd May.^ 
 
 Meanwhile Lancaster was pressing his retreat North- 
 wards, not daring to halt even at Pontefract — his own 
 chief castle. On the i6th March he reached Borough- 
 bridge. There he found Harclay with a body of Cumber- 
 land and Westmoreland men facing him on the North bank 
 of the Ure, and prepared to hold the crossing against him. 
 Adopting Scottish tactics Andrew had dismounted all his 
 men ; posting the men-at-arms with some spearmen to 
 hold the end of the foot-bridge, a long narrow timber struc- 
 ture, while the bulk of his men were arrayed as a circular 
 Scottish " schiltrum ", with archers in support, to hold 
 the adjacent ford against the cavalry. Hereford and his 
 son-in-law Clifford gallantly undertook to force the passage 
 of the bridge on foot, while Lancaster and the cavalry would 
 attack the ford. Both assaults failed utterly. Hereford, 
 his standard-bearer, and three other knights fell promptly, 
 speared to death on the bridge ; ^ while Clifford was 
 dragged away severely wounded. Lancaster and his 
 knights quailed before the shower poured upon them from 
 the river bank and never entered the water. Helpless and 
 dismayed Thomas asked for a truce till the morrow, and 
 Harclay granted it. If the Great Earl was not absolutely 
 besotted in his self-importance, he must have known that 
 if he fell into his cousin's clutches his life would not be 
 worth six hours' purchase. Under the circumstances one 
 would expect to find the precious hours conceded by Har- 
 clay utilized for instant flight to Scotland. Not a bit of it. 
 Lancaster and his barons sat still till the morning, then to 
 find themselves alone, their more prudent followers having 
 vanished in the course of the night. The Sheriff of York- 
 Lancaster shire then appeared in force, cutting off all possibility of 
 escape. Surrender at discretion followed of a necessity.^ 
 
 taken, 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 181, 182 ; i. 245. 
 ^ See the names of the knights, Parly. Writs, II. ii. 200. 
 
 ^ Lanercost, 242-245 ; Bridlington, 75, 76 ; Mon. Malm. 268, 269 ; Ann. 
 Paul. 302. 
 
OF THE 'GREAT EARL' 127 
 
 Among those who yielded were CHfford, Giffard, Mowbray, chap, vm 
 the younger Audley, some hundred bannerets and 1322 
 " bachelors " in all.^ They were taken by Harclay and 
 the Sheriff to York for safe keeping.^ 
 
 On the 19th March the King reached Pontefract.^ 
 Burning to avenge the mortifications and humihations of 
 fifteen years he ordered the arch- offender to be brought 
 before him. Six days after his capture the Earl was put 
 on trial in his own castle. The King presided in person ; Tried, 
 the Earls of Kent, Surrey, Arundel, Richmond, Pembroke, 
 Atholl, and Angus sat as his assessors. The indictment 
 began at Newcastle in 1312 and ended at Boroughbridge. 
 The treaty with the Scots was set out at length, the in- 
 criminating documents having been found in Hereford's 
 baggage at Boroughbridge ; especial stress was laid on the 
 personal insults offered to the King at Pontefract in 1317. 
 Without being allowed one word in self-defence Lancaster 
 was condemned as a rebel taken in arms. Execution 
 followed forthwith. Amid the jeers of the RoyaHst 
 spectators, ' King Arthur,' the lord of five earldoms, was 
 carried to the gallows knowe and beheaded, the other and 
 incidents of a traitor's doom being spared out of regard ^''^'^"^^ • 
 for his Royal descent. Six barons taken with him shared 
 his fate.* Young Audley's connexion with the Royal 
 family saved his life. The other leaders found little 
 mercy. Clifford and Mowbray were drawn and hung at 
 York ; Giffard at Gloucester. Badlesmere was taken at 
 Stow Park and hanged at Canterbury (14 April). Some 
 five and twenty barons and knights suffered ; fifteen were 
 released at once ; seventy-two remained in prison.^ The 
 proscription was unparalleled. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. ii. 200, 201. 
 
 ^ Bridlington, Mon. Malm., sup. ^ Foed. II. 478. 
 
 * Monday, 22 March ; Foed. II. 478, 493 ; Lanercost, 244 ; Bridlington, 77 ; 
 Mon. Malm. 270, 271 ; Ann. Paul. 302. Leland, Coll. II. 465, gives details of the 
 execution of the Earl. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 245; M. West. III. 207; Trokelowe, 124; Murimuth, 36; 
 Knighton, Decern S., c. 2S4r ; Leland, sup. ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 264. On the 
 nth July 138 men compounded by payment of fines ; Id. II. ii. 202. The 
 recorded amount comes to about £15,000 ; Stubbs. 
 
128 REACTION 
 
 CHAP. VIII The death of Earl Thomas " closes the second act of the 
 Z^ great tragedy ". The flight from Burton and the helpless 
 surrender at Boroughbridge made a fitting ending to so 
 feeble a career. But a fall so sudden and so great ' touched 
 men's hearts ', while the King's merciless severity shocked 
 their moral sense. ^ Petty, selfish and incapable as the Earl 
 had always shown himself, he had nevertheless been able to 
 pose as the champion of freedom and constitutional rights ; 
 moreover he had been liberal in his gifts to the clergy and 
 
 Post- the poor. Saintly honours were immediately conferred 
 
 honours upon him — as they had been conferred, with more reason, 
 on Simon of Montfort — a chapel rose on the spot on which 
 he had been ' martyred ' ; pilgrimages were made to it, 
 and miracles wrought there.^ 
 
 From Pontefract the King went to York, for the Parha- 
 ment summoned to meet there on the 2nd May. The 
 session was marked by the presence of representatives from 
 Wales — their first appearance in Parliament, and " with 
 one exception " their only appearance before the reign of 
 Henry VIII.* The great business of the session was the 
 
 Ordinances repeal of the Ordinances, the work of the Lancastrian party. 
 
 repea e . jj^^ whole were cancelled at one stroke, as ' blemishing ' the 
 Royal sovereignty and estate of the Crown. By implication 
 we gather that further justification for the repeal was 
 claimed in the fact that the Ordinances had been drafted, 
 not in full Parliament, but by a commission appointed by 
 the barons, because the statute goes on to enact that, for the 
 future, no manner of Ordinances made by subjects, by any 
 power or authority whatsoever, concerning the Royal power 
 or estate of the King, or the estate of the realm and people, 
 shall be of any effect unless ' treated accorded and established 
 in Parliaments by our lord the King, and by the assent of 
 
 See Bridlington, 77 ; Mon. Malm. 271 ; and especially Lanercost, 244, 245, 
 " per crudelem regem ", a most outspoken utterance for a mediaeval writer. 
 
 ' Lanercost, sup. ; Northern Registers, 323, 325. For miracles wrought at 
 a tablet set up by Lancaster at St. Paul's to commemorate the King's acceptance 
 of the Ordinances see Chron. Lond. 46 ; Foed. II. 525 (r323). For miracles in 
 honour of other " martyrs " to the cause, Id. 536, 537, 547. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 369. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL ORDINANCES 129 
 
 the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the chap, vm 
 realm, according as it hath been heretofore accustomed,' ^ 
 The objection was untenable, as the Ordinances had 
 received the sanction of Parliament in 1311 ; but Edward, 
 while seeking to score off his adversaries, had enunciated 
 " a more elaborate formula of constitutional law " than had 
 yet been known. In fact the Despensers while hastening 
 to get rid of the trammels of the Ordinances were anxious 
 to disclaim on the part of the King any intention of ruling 
 tyrannically. A further set of Ordinances of the King's Fresh Dr- 
 own, duly made with the assent of the prelates, earls, barons '"'^"*^'^^- 
 and commons, were published, in which Edward declared 
 his recognition of the rights of the Church ' as contained in 
 the Great Charter ' ; ordered the observance of his peace 
 ' according to law and custom ', and proclaimed a confirma- 
 tion of sundry popular measures, and in particular the 
 important Statutes of 1300 touching Purveyance, Prises, 
 and the jurisdictions of the Steward and the Marshal, 
 burning questions on which the King had been repeatedly 
 pressed.^ The law concerning appeals and outlawry was 
 reformed in the very words of the Ordinance of 1311.^ 
 
 It will thus be seen that the fall of Lancaster did not 
 involve any serious blow to the Constitution. Edward 
 was not distinctively a tyrant. His crying sins were 
 neglect of business and contempt for the duties and 
 responsibilities of his station. 
 
 The Parhament was also naturally called upon to reverse 
 the Acts passed against the Despensers, a special dispensa- 
 tion from the Pope being thought to remove all difficulty.* 
 The elder Hugh was rewarded for his services by promotion 
 to the Earldom of Winchester, the spoils of the fallen 
 Lancastrians being heaped upon him.^ In like manner 
 Andrew Harclay became Earl of Carlisle.® The grant of Money 
 one man-at-arms from each township for the war against ^ 
 
 ' 19 May ; Statutes, I. 189 ; Bp. Stubbs, sup., 369. 
 " See Rot. Parlt. 1. 444. ' Rot. Parlt. 456. 
 
 ' Feed. II. 484 ; Statutes, I. 185. 
 
 " For a list o£ these estates see Dugdale, Baronage, I. 391. 
 * Bridlington, 79 ; Lanercost, 245. 
 1415.1 K 
 
1322 
 
 130 METHODS 
 
 CHAP. VIII the Scots makes up the total of business transacted.^ The 
 Canterbury clergy attending the Parliament had agreed to 
 the grant of 5^. on the mark of Spirituals, but were allowed 
 to make a more formal grant in Convocation duly summoned 
 for the purpose (9 June).^ No further grant was needed, 
 as in April John XXII had granted Tenths for two more 
 years.^ 
 
 The repeal of the Ordinances was held to revive the right 
 to levy the Nova Custuma, remitted by the King himself 
 in February 1310, and abrogated by the Ordinances in 
 131 1. The King also obtained from the foreign merchants 
 for one year an advance on wool corresponding to that 
 obtained in 1317.* 
 
 Parliament over the King turned his attention to the 
 Scottish war. The energetic fit being still on him, he was 
 preparing for another serious effort to recover lost ground. 
 
 The war. Active preparations had begun in March. The military 
 tenants had been bidden to be ready at Newcastle by the 
 13th of June. Commissions of array for raising 38,000 
 men in England had been issued. 1,300 horse and 6,000 
 foot had been required from Ireland. Even Aquitaine had 
 been called upon to contribute.^ Compositions for personal 
 service, and the ransoms of the imprisoned Lancastrians 
 helped to supply funds.® The muster was eventually 
 adjourned to the 24th July, and the King himself did not 
 appear at Newcastle till the ist of August. 
 
 With less fuss of preparation Bruce was first in the field. 
 On the 19th June he had swept past the walls of Carlisle, 
 
 J, . , pushing on to burn the bishop's manor house at Rose. He 
 
 raid. then raided Allerdale and Copeland, put Furness Abbey 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 573 ; ii. 186. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, i. 259 ; Wake, State of Church, 274 ; Stubbs. 
 
 " Ann. Paul. 303, 304 ; Wilkins, Cone. II. 514. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, ii. 193, 214. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, i. 558-568, 570 ; Foed. II. 481, 482, &c. It seems likely that 
 these extravagant numbers were demanded in order to frighten the counties into 
 compounding by money payments. See Parly. Writs, II. i. 563, 575. These 
 levies were counter-ordered when the Parliamentary grant of men-at-arms was 
 made ; lb. 572. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, ii. 202, &c. ; i. 601. 
 
OF WARFARE 131 
 
 to the ransom, crossed the sands to Cartmel, and again chap.viii 
 those of Morecambe Bay on to Lancaster, which was burnt. 1322 
 At Lancaster he was joined by Randolf and Douglas with 
 an independent force, and the three pushed on to lay 
 Preston in ashes. By the 12th July they had returned to 
 the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and on the 24th July they 
 recrossed the Border.^ 
 
 A month later (19 August) Edward began his advance, invasion 
 resting at Melrose, and two days later in Edinburgh, his Scotland. 
 turning point, from whence he moved to Leith and Mussel- 
 burgh. Bruce had not thought it incumbent on him to 
 give the English an opportunity of reversing the issue of 
 Bannockburn. He had retired behind the Forth, having 
 previously cleared the low country of everything movable. 
 Edward, or those responsible for his actions, had utterly 
 failed to make any proper commissariat arrangements. 
 It would seem that his levies were in straits before they 
 began their advance,^ and were soon reduced to the utmost 
 distress, as foul winds prevented such shipping as had been 
 provided from entering the Forth ; while their foraging 
 parties found nothing to pick up. According to the Scots 
 an old cow found in a field of corn at Tranent was the only 
 prize. The Earl of Surrey declared that it was the dearest 
 beef he had ever seen ; it had cost him ;^i,ooo.^ Within 
 a fortnight hunger and sickness forced the English to fall 
 back in calamitous retreat. On their way as a parting 
 shot they fired Dryburgh Abbey.* 
 
 From writs of Parliamentary summons issued a fortnight 
 later (18 September) we learn that the King purposed 
 remaining at Newcastle during the autumn and winter, to 
 guard the frontier ; with the summer he would once more 
 attack the Scots ' to make a final end of their presumption '.^ 
 Two days later he has to write to the barons that the Scots 
 
 ' Lanercost, 246 ; Fordun, 349. 
 
 ^ So Trokelowe, 124. ' Barbour, 427. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 247 ; Trokelowe, sup. ; Scalacr. 149 ; Barbour, sup. There is 
 an absolute consensus as to the sickness and mortality. Edward signs at Fenham 
 (Newcastle) ist September ; Itinerary. 
 
 "■ Parly. Writs, II. i. 261, &c. ; Foed. II. 496. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE KING 
 
 CH AP, v iii g^j.g attacking Norham, and begs for a muster at Newcastle 
 1322 by the 17th October.^ But long before that day, namely 
 Fresh raid. ^^^ ^^^ ^q^j^ September, Bruce had again crossed the Solway, 
 moving on to Beaumont, 4 miles west of Carlisle, where he 
 remained five days. From Beaumont the bulk of his force 
 was sent on an audacious expedition, right across England, 
 to ravage the Cleveland hills ^ on the East coast, Edward 
 himself being at the time actually quartered in that neigh- 
 Scots in bourhood. Cleveland was evidently selected for attack 
 eve an . ^^ being virgin soil, hitherto untouched, where a rich 
 harvest might be expected. The King, who had fallen 
 back from Newcastle to Durham and Barnard Castle, 
 issued writs from the latter place on the 2nd October calling 
 on the Earl of Carlisle and others to meet him in force with 
 all speed on Blackhow Moor, to resist the Scots. ^ From 
 Barnard Castle Edward went on again to Yarm, remaining 
 there from the 6th to the I2th October, as if on the look-out 
 for the enemy, who, at the time, must have been running 
 riot in the Northern parts of Cleveland. 
 
 On the 13th October the King apparently went from 
 Yarm to Thirsk, and next day on to Rievaulx Abbey.* In 
 1319 the country had been much agitated because the 
 Queen had been in some slight danger of falling into the 
 hands of the Scots. Now the King himself was only saved 
 from that fate by hasty and ignominious flight. The Scots 
 were suddenly reported as approaching Rievaulx, pre- 
 sumably by Bilsdale and Byland ; because we are told 
 that Edward to meet them sent out his men to occupy an 
 eminence on the road leading from Rievaulx to Byland. 
 The position was a strong one, but the Scottish attack was 
 so resolute, or the English resistance so feeble,^ that the 
 latter were driven from it with heavy loss. John of 
 Brittany the Earl of Richmond, who was in command, and 
 Henri de Sully, a French envoy who happened to be in 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 640 ; 20 September. 
 
 ^ " Blakehou Mor," I take it, may be identified with Blaclchow Tipping, 9 miles 
 north-east of Pickering. 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 606. ■■ Itinerary ; Ann. Paul. 304. 
 
 * Both according to the Scalacronica. 
 
AGAIN A FUGITIVE 133 
 
 England, were taken prisoners ; while Edward with the chap, vin 
 Earl of Kent, the younger Hugh, John Cromwell, and ~^ 
 John de Ros had to save themselves by precipitate flight 
 from Rievaulx to the Priory of Bridlington on the sea-coast. 
 But for the attractions of the rich spoil he left behind him 
 Edward would probably have been captured.^ Bruce that 
 night occupied the quarters prepared for his rival ; while 
 next day it was thought prudent to take the King from 
 Bridlington to Burstwick in the remotest corner of Holder- 
 nesse for safety. The Queen, who had been left at Tyne- 
 mouth Priory, was in equal peril, and had to face an 
 uncomfortable sea-voyage in a coasting vessel.^ By the 
 i8th October, however, Edward was able to return to 
 York. Harclay pressed him to join in taking steps to 
 expel the Scots, but the King did not feel equal to the 
 exertion.^ 
 
 Bruce remained in the neighbourhood five days more, 
 ravaging all the wold [le wold). A ransom of ^400 was 
 exacted from Beverley Minster, his farthest point. He 
 then moved to Malton ; on the 23rd October he dis- 
 appeared, to plunder Ripon on the way home, and finally 
 recrossed the Border on the 2nd November. From the 
 accounts of this foray we gain the interesting fact that 
 each Scottish trooper, as a properly equipped scout, had 
 two horses.* 
 
 The Parhament, summoned to meet at Ripon, was held 
 perforce at York ; the session lasted 14-29 November ; the 
 counties gave a Tenth, the boroughs and ancient demesnes 
 a Sixth.* The Clergy were requested to make grants in 
 Convocation. Canterbury met in January (1323) and 
 refused, on the plea of the biennial Tenth already granted 
 
 ' Lanercost, 247 ; Bridlington, 79 ; Scalacr. 149 ; Trokelowe, 125 ; Muri- 
 muth, 37. As after Bannockburn, so again now Edward's Privy Seal fell into 
 Brace's hands ; Foed. II. 498. It is clear that the flight was from Rievaulx, not 
 as commonly stated from Byland. 
 
 '^ So the Indictment of the younger Despenser, Knighton, Decern S., c. 2548. 
 
 ^ Lanercost, 247, 248. 
 
 " Bridlington, 280; Murimuth, 38 ; Lanercost, sup. ; Baker, 14, 15. For 
 the devastation of Cleveland see Northern Registers, XXIX, 318-323. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 261, 263, 277, 278, 280 ; Rot. Parlt. I. 457, 
 
1323 
 
 134 PRIVATE 
 
 by the Pope, and also on the further plea of the 
 prevalent dearth and distress.^ In their grounds of 
 refusal given in writing they prayed that the King and 
 Magnates would commend themselves to the prayers of 
 the Church, and abstain from extortion and oppression 
 of the people.^ 
 
 The broad result of the year 1322 with all its varied 
 incidents was to leave Edward II almost without a trust- 
 worthy friend among his subjects. 
 
 The deplorable state of the Northern counties, left year 
 after year at the mercy of the Scots, prompted Harclay 
 the hero of Boroughbridge to venture on the bold step of 
 attempting to force the King's hand by contracting a 
 private league of peace with Bruce. The circumstances 
 might seem to make the scheme possible. A year or two 
 earlier the men of Cumberland, while protesting unalterable 
 loyalty to Edward, had implored him to remove them to 
 some quarter where they could live in peace till he should 
 be able to protect them in their original homes. For eight 
 years they had been at the mercy of the Scots, they said, 
 and were reduced to destitution.^ Harclay had probably 
 lost all patience with the King after the flight from Rievaulx. 
 On the 3rd January 1323 he had an interview with King 
 Robert at Lochmaben, and entered into a treaty with him 
 for securing peace between the two countries on the footing 
 of the complete independence of Scotland ; the terms to 
 be settled by a committee of twelve, six to be named by 
 the King of Scotland and six by the Earl of Carlisle ; the 
 signatories to be bound not only to help and defend all 
 willing to concur, but also to ' confound ' all not so disposed. 
 If the King of England would give his assent within a year 
 
 ' Wheat had been excessively dear in 1321, and was still dear in 1322-1324. 
 Rogers, Prices, I. 200, 230. 
 
 = Lincoln, 14 January 1323 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 280-283 ! W. Dene, Angl. Sacr. 
 I. 363 ; Stubbs. The King endeavoured to get hold of the authors of the 
 remonstrance, but Convocation boldly adhered to it as their collective act. 
 
 " See the letter, printed by Mr. Stevenson, Lanercost, 537. The document 
 refers to Harclay as Warden of the March, and therefore must have been written 
 after 6th April 1319, when he received the appointment. Parly. Writs. 
 
TREATY-MAKING 135 
 
 Bruce undertook to found a monastery for the good of the chap.viii 
 souls of those who had fallen in the war, and further to ^323 
 pay Edward 40,000 marks by instalments.^ The under- 
 taking to help and defend persons joining the league was 
 all right ; but the stipulation for ' confounding ' all 
 opponents would involve war against the King of England 
 if he should refuse to concur. Harclay, however, full of 
 faith in his scheme, convened a general meeting of Cumber- 
 land magnates, clerical and lay, and with difficulty obtained 
 a few reluctant promises of support.^ He also wrote to 
 the mayor and citizens of Newcastle, urging them to join.^ 
 The common folk welcomed a scheme that promised 
 deliverance from their sufferings.* Edward, however, very 
 naturally, regarded Harclay's proceedings as mere treason. 
 On the 1st February an order was given for the Earl's arrest.^ Arrest of 
 The task of executing the writ was craftily committed to 
 Anthony Lucy of Cockermouth, a young baron recently 
 summoned to Parliament, a friend and confidant of the 
 Earl's.® He took to him other three neighbours, namely 
 Hugh of Lowther, Hugh of Moresby, and Richard of Denton, 
 men who, Hke himself, would be received at Carlisle as 
 friends. Choosing a time when they knew that Harclay's 
 retinue happened to be dispersed, they quietly entered the 
 hall of Carlisle Castle, as if on some friendly errand, and 
 arrested the Earl as he was sitting at table, unarmed, and 
 busy with his correspondence. Edward, not content with 
 appointing a special political commission to try the Earl, 
 with characteristic contempt for legal and constitutional 
 formahties, sent the judges, cut and dry, the exact words 
 of the sentence that they were to pass on Harclay. He 
 would be first degraded and then executed ; stripped of 
 his earl's belt, with his spurs hacked off his heels, he would 
 be drawn to the gallows, hung, and there beheaded and 
 
 His pxpf*ii* 
 
 quartered. He met his fate with the utmost fortitude, tion. 
 
 * See the treaty, Bridlington, 82 ; summarized, Lanercost, 248. 
 " Id. 249. ^ Bridlington, 83. 
 
 ' Lanercost, sup. ' See Foed. II. 504, 506, 507. 
 
 ° Murimuth, 39 ; Scalacr. 149. Lucy was first summoned in 1320 ; Historic 
 Peerage. 
 
136 MOVEMENT 
 
 CHAP.vni justifying his action and declaring that he meant no 
 ^^ disloyalty to the King (3 March) .^ 
 
 But the unfortunate Earl had not thrown away his Hfe 
 in vain. The movement in favour of peace became irresis- 
 tible. The Despensers had shown themselves not less 
 incapable of defending the country than Thomas of Lan- 
 caster. On the 14th March Edward signed a truce to last 
 over Trinity Sunday (22nd May),^ to allow of negotiations. 
 De Sully, the captive of Byland, was employed by Bruce as 
 his agent. But the question of the recognition still barred 
 the way to the conclusion of formal peace. On the 5th 
 May a conference was held at Newcastle, attended by 
 Pembroke and the younger Despenser on the one side, and 
 by Lamberton the Bishop of St. Andrews and Randolf on 
 the other side.^ After some haggling, Edward, on the 
 30th May, at the request of " Sire Robert de Brus ", con- 
 Truce for sented to sign a truce for thirteen years, as between his 
 yearsT" subjects and supporters on the one side, and those of ' the 
 said Robert ' on the other side. Bruce, however, in ratifying 
 the treaty was careful to sign as " Nous Robert roi d'Escoce "; 
 and with that wording the document was entered on the 
 rolls,* Bruce seemingly being allowed ' to take what 
 England refused to give '.^ The treaty was expressed to 
 be made with the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons 
 of either country ; all territorial occupations {purprises) 
 to be reciprocally surrendered ; all questions of breach of 
 truce to be referred to Wardens of the Marches, a newly 
 created office ; no fortresses to be built or re-established 
 within a neutral zone, defined as comprising Cumberland 
 withNorthumberland to the line of the South Tyne andTyne, 
 and so down to the sea, on the one side, and the ' counties ' 
 of Roxburgh, Jedburgh, and Dumfries, on the other side. 
 A special clause provided that the English should offer no 
 impediment to the reconciliation of the Scots with the 
 
 ^ Lanercost, 249-251 ; Foed. II. 509. The other chroniclers take an unfavour- 
 able view of Barclay's conduct. The Earl of Kent was appointed King's 
 Lieutenant of the March to succeed him ; Foed. 506. 
 
 ' Foed. 510. ' Lanercost, 252. 
 
 " 7 June ; Foed. 524. " Hill Burton. 
 
FOR PEACE 137 
 
 Papacy, a stipulation violated by Edward before the year chap.viii 
 was out.^ The reader must not suppose that free intercourse 
 between the two nationalities would ensue. It was 
 expressly forbidden ; merchant strangers might come and 
 go, but no native might cross the frontier without a pass.^ 
 
 With the Truce of Newcastle the Scottish war of inde- Conquest 
 pendence comes to an end. When hostilities are resumed knd 
 it will be for the furtherance not of national but of private 'i^'^"" 
 
 '^ doned. 
 
 ends and interests. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 609, 613 ; and especially Murimuth, the King's agent in resisting 
 the Scots' efforts, 40, 4r. 
 
 ^ Foed. 521. The withholding of praliqiie between the countries was evidently 
 Edward's own doing; lb. and 518. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 CHAP. IX 
 
 Unpopu- 
 larity of 
 the De- 
 spensers. 
 
 Disloyal 
 Bishops, 
 
 Edward II [continued) 
 A.D. 1323-1326 
 
 Increasing disaffection at Home. — ^Troubles in Gascony. — Edward summoned 
 to render homage due to Charles IV. — Guienne invaded. — ^The Queen sent over 
 to make terms. — Pro Forma surrender of Guienne. — King's son sent to render 
 homage. — Isabelle and Mortimer. 
 
 The Scottish inroads had ceased, but the difficulties of 
 the government had not been dissipated. Opposition to 
 the Despensers, cowed for a moment by the triumph of 
 Boroughbridge, soon began to gather strength in secret. 
 The severities against the Lancastrians, especially the 
 pecuniary mulcts and forfeitures, were regarded as their 
 work rather than that of the King.^ Men hked to believe 
 that the King was not unmerciful. The jealousy excited 
 by the unique position of the favoured pair only waited an 
 opportunity for declaring itself. A King, men said, was 
 all right, but three kings were intolerable.^ Towards 
 Edward himself probably the chief feeling entertained 
 was one of irritation mingled with contempt. During the 
 discussions as to granting the truce, his pet, Bishop Louis of 
 Beaumont, scornfully refused to offer the King any advice, 
 and behaved so cavalierly that Edward ordered him to 
 prison.^ Edward seemed to earn no gratitude for favours 
 shown. Three prelates had distinctly sided with the 
 Barons in 1322 ; namely, John Drokensford Bishop of Bath 
 and Wells ; Henry Burghersh Bishop of Lincoln ; and 
 Adam of Orleton Bishop of Hereford. Drokensford had 
 been Keeper of the Wardrobe under Edward I. At the 
 accession of the son he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 
 ' So Scalacr. 150. 
 
 " See all this clearly brought out, Baker, 16, 17. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 506. 
 
DISLOYAL SERVANTS 139 
 
 but failed to retain the office for any length of time.^ Per- chap, ix 
 haps he was offended at having been superseded. Burghersh 1223 
 was nephew to the late Badlesmere, and through his influ- 
 ence had been ' forced ' into the See of Lincoln when under 
 canonical age.^ During the late troubles his sympathies 
 of course had been entirely on the side of his uncle. Orle- 
 ton, a very able man, was attached to the Queen ; he had 
 originally been appointed by the Pope in direct opposition 
 to the King's wishes, and had naturally allied himself 
 with his neighbours the March Lords.^ The King had 
 sent to Avignon to complain of the conduct of these 
 bishops. The envoy chosen was John Stratford, a clerk 
 of the Council.* While he was at Avignon Winchester 
 fell vacant. Stratford was told to press for the appoint- 
 ment of Robert Baldock, Keeper of the Privy Seal, 
 Stratford, moreover, being proctor for Baldock at the 
 time.^ But, regardless of his obligations to either patron, 
 he sought for and obtained Winchester for himself.^ Edward 
 was most indignant, and made every effort to induce 
 John XXII to cancel the appointment of the ' Traitor 
 envoy ' {Pseudo-nuncium). For a whole year he refused to 
 admit the new Bishop to his temporahties.'' 
 
 Till now the King's chief safeguard had been the lack 
 of any fitting leader for the Opposition. On the night of 
 the ist-2nd August Roger Mortimer of Wigmore escaped Escape of 
 from the Tower.^ Very complete arrangements had been 
 made beforehand by the care of Adam Orleton. The 
 Deputy Constable had been secured ; ^ the warders were 
 stupefied with drugged liquor. Breaking out of his cell, 
 most hkely through the ceihng, Mortimer reached the roof 
 of the kitchen. With the help of a ladder of ropes he 
 
 ' Foss, III. 86 ; Madox, Excheq. II. 30. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 405, 425 ; Mon. Malm. 251 ; Murimuth, 31. 
 
 ' Foed. 338 ; Mon. Malm. 264. 
 
 ' Foed. 504, 510, 515. ' Foed. 543. 
 
 " Foed. 517, 518, 520, 525, 531-535; Blaneford, 14s ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. 
 II. 373. Stratford was consecrated by the Pope himself 23 June 1323 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 ' Foed., sup., and 541. 
 
 ' Chron. Lond. 46 ; Murimuth, 40 ; Blaneford, 145 (St. Alban's Chronicle, 
 Rolls Series, No. 28, vol. III). " Knighton, c. 2543. 
 
140 
 
 FRESH 
 
 1323 
 
 Relations 
 
 with 
 
 France. 
 
 CHAP. IX and a companion let themselves down first into the inner 
 bailey, then into the outer bailey, and from that again to 
 a boat in readiness in the Thames. Crossing the river they 
 found horses and attendants ready at Bermondsey ; with 
 these they rode down to Netley, where again a row-boat 
 was in waiting to take them off to a ship. Before the King 
 heard of the " effraction " Mortimer had safely landed in 
 Flanders.^ 
 
 By an ominous coincidence, the week that brought 
 Edward the news, of Roger's escape also introduced an 
 embassy whose errand clearly pointed to possible troubles 
 from another quarter. On the 3rd January 1322 Philip V, 
 " Le Long," of France, second son of Philip the Fair, died, 
 leaving four daughters. His brother Charles IV, " Le 
 Bel," putting aside Philip's daughters, as Philip had put 
 aside Louis Hutin's daughter, ascended the throne, and 
 was duly hallowed on the 2nd February.^ Edward's 
 government in Gascony was as weak and regarded with 
 as much contempt as his rule at home. Presuming on his 
 weakness the seneschals of Toulouse, Cahors and Perigueux 
 had been freely invading the jurisdiction of the English 
 Seneschal of Bordeaux, claiming the primary cognizance 
 of causes that ought not to have come before them except 
 by way of appeal, a grievous hardship to Gascon litigants. 
 Remonstrance after remonstrance had been addressed by 
 Edward to his brother-in-law without result.^ The present 
 embassy came from France, and the envoy Hugh de Boville 
 was charged to deliver a letter couched in most friendly 
 language, but in fact summoning Edward to appear at 
 Amiens by Easter (15 April) 1324 to render the homage 
 due for Aquitaine and Ponthieu. The homage was due, 
 of course ; but the summons, it appears, was irregular, 
 
 ' Cliron. Lond. and Blaneford, sup. ; Ann. Paul. 305, 306, and the inquest 
 there. Nicholas Segrave, the Constable of the Tower, was tried for negligence 
 but acquitted; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 239. 
 
 ^ Martin, France, IV. 550 ; Ann. Paul. 
 
 ^ Martin, sup., 558 ; Sismondi, France, IX. 447 ; Foed. II. 488, 512-515 ; and 
 for the interference with the Gascon Courts, 548. For the relations of Edward 
 and Philip V Professor Tout cites Lelengeur, Hist, de Philippe le Long, 240. 
 
 Edward 
 cited. 
 
COMPLICATIONS 141 
 
 being uttered on foreign soil, not on soil subject to the chap.ix 
 French crown, as it ought to have been.^ We are told 
 accordingly that the younger Despenser and Baldock did 
 their utmost to avoid accepting service of the irregular 
 citation, endeavouring to treat the communication as 
 merely friendly and not official. Boville, however, before 
 leaving England had the citation formally proclaimed, 
 and took away a notarial instrument certifying the fact 
 that it had been proclaimed.^ 
 
 As the summons could not be ignored, Edward, after due 
 consideration, sent envoys (16 November) to beg for time, 
 pointing out that the state of England made it very unde- 
 sirable for the King to leave the country. At the same 
 time the ambassadors were instructed to press for a cessa- 
 tion of French inroads on English rights in the Agenais, 
 and specially in the matter of a hastide or fort being built 
 or occupied by the French at Saint-Serdos, a place claimed 
 by them as an enclave within English territory. Conflicting 
 legal decisions on the territorial question had been rendered, 
 the last being in favour of the French, who thereupon 
 hoisted Charles' flag and took formal possession. It would 
 seem that out of regard for Edward's remonstrances Charles 
 was desiring his people at Saint-Serdos to hold their hands, 
 when a crisis was precipitated by the hot-headed action of 
 Raymond Bertrand of Montpezat, who, doubtless, was 
 the immediate lord of Saint-Serdos. Rallying a host of 
 brother barons, and enlisting the support of Ralph Basset 
 the Seneschal of Gascony, Bertrand, without further ado. Collision 
 attacked and plundered the hastide, pulled down the cascony. 
 French flag, and hung the French King's representative 
 {procureur). Charles in a fury summoned all the guilty 
 parties to appear before his " Parlement " at Toulouse. 
 The majority submitted and made terms ; Bertrand and 
 others held aloof, and were subjected to decrees of utter 
 
 ' See the Memoir by Brequigny, Academie des Inscriptions, vol. XLI, p. 643. 
 
 ^ Foed. II. 563 ; Murimuth, 39, 40. He tells us that the embassy found Edward 
 at Pickering. He was there ist August, and again 7-21 August. Murimuth 
 must have been there, as he was appointed at the time to replace Stratford as 
 King's Proctor at Avignon ; Foed. 531. 
 
1323 
 
 142 ' LIBERTY ' 
 
 forfeiture {bannitio). Further correspondence ensued be- 
 tween the Kings in which Charles, while pressing for satis- 
 faction as to the affair of Saint-Serdos, adjourned the time 
 for the homage-render to the ist July.^ 
 
 The state of relations with France, and the answers to be 
 given to the French demands furnished the most urgent 
 matter for the consideration of a Parliament that met at 
 Westminster on the 23rd February 1324.^ Charles' demands 
 had to be met, one way or another ; while the Pope as a 
 friend urged the King to settle everything and render 
 homage.^ As a sop to Charles, Basset was superseded, 
 and envoys appointed with various instructions. William 
 Negotia Weston, Canon of Lincoln, would argue the legal points 
 with the Parliament of Paris ; while Alexander Bicknore, 
 Archbishop of Dublin, and the Earl of Kent would discuss 
 the time and place to be appointed for the homage-render.* 
 They were also directed to investigate outrages alleged by 
 the King of France to have been committed at Saint- 
 Serdos, or elsewhere, and to set right any matters calling 
 for reformation.^ On the gth April they left London.^ 
 
 To go back to the Parhament. No other business of 
 much importance was transacted in the session. A Statute 
 was passed transferring the Templar estates to the Hos- 
 pitallers, in accordance with Papal decrees and the Council 
 of Vienne ; ' Henry of Lancaster (" Wryneck ") was ad- 
 mitted to the Lancastrian Earldom, with that of Leicester 
 to follow.^ But a request by the King for a contribution 
 towards the ransom of the Earl of Richmond met with 
 a blank refusal.^ Edward's own energies were still absorbed 
 in the persecution of individual opponents.^" The applica- 
 
 ' See Brequigny, sup., from English official records not printed by Rymer, but 
 left by him in his MS. collections. 
 
 " Parly. Writs, II. i. 289, 290. The lower clergy attended under the Praemu- 
 nientes clause. 
 
 ' March ; Foed. II. 547. •■ February ; id. 545. 
 
 " March ; id. 547. « Ann. Paul. 207. 
 
 ' Statutes, 1. 194. For the transfer of the Templars' estates see Foed. II. 167, 
 &.C., and above. ' Ann. Paul. 306 ; Complete Peerage, Doyle. 
 
 ° Murimuth, 43 ; Blaneford, 140. 
 
 '" For proceedings against subordinates see Parly. Writs, II. i. 242, 245-248. 
 
OF THE CHURCH 143 
 
 tions to the Pope against the offending Bishops of Winches- chap, ix 
 ter, Lincoln, and Bath having entirely failed,^ the King ~~ 
 resolved to redress his own grievances himself. Stratford, Edward 
 who had returned to England, was summoned to give an ^^^^^\ 
 account of his mission before the Court of King's Bench. 
 He demurred to the jurisdiction ; but gave in a written 
 defence of his conduct.^ Hereford was arraigned of high 
 treason in his seat in Parliament, the overt acts assigned 
 being assistance given to the insurgents in 1322, and the 
 making of the arrangements for Mortimer's escape from 
 the Tower.^ The Bishop appealed to his clerical brethren, 
 and the clergy rising as one man took him under their 
 protection. The King, however, a few days later had Orleton 
 brought before him. The three Archbishops of Canterbury, 
 York, and Dublin, with ten suffragans, marched at once to 
 the palace in full pontificals, with crosses erect, and rescued 
 their brother. Not to be beaten, the King summoned 
 a common jury from Herefordshire ; obtained a verdict 
 against the Bishop ; seized his estates ; and confiscated 
 or scattered all his goods, chattels, and stores.* 
 
 The difficulties with France, however, were rapidly in- 
 creasing. The English envoys on reaching Paris had been 
 met with formal demands for (i) the cession of Montpezat ; French 
 (ii) the surrender of the men against whom decrees had been ^^^^ ^' 
 passed ; (iii) an undertaking to give no harbour to any 
 further persons against whom decrees might thereafter be 
 uttered. The envoys were inclined to yield, and the Pope 
 urged the same course ; but Edward refused ; the surrender 
 of an integral part of the Duchy under such circumstances, 
 he said, would expose him to be stripped of his dominions 
 piecemeal.® The King's argument was sound enough ; 
 unfortunately it lacked the support of that material basis 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 540. 
 
 " Foed. 541-544 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 241. Stratford came home in November 
 1323- ' Baker, 16. 
 
 ' Blaneford, sup. ; Murimuth, 42 ; Baker, 16. The proceedings against 
 Lincoln and Winchester were stayed, and both were shortly admitted to their 
 temporalities ; Blaneford, r42 ; Foed. 557. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter to the Pope of the 28th May ; Foed. 554. 
 
1323 
 
 144 AQUITAINE OVERRUN 
 
 CHAP. IX on which all reasoning in matters political must rest. 
 Charles at once laid an embargo on English shipping, seized 
 Ponthieu, and sent an army to the South under his Anglo- 
 phobe uncle Charles of Valois.^ Edward, while attempting 
 to shuffle and negotiate,^ found himself called upon to raise 
 forces for an immediate expedition to Aquitaine, which 
 was in no position to defend itself (4 June). All the usual 
 measures were taken ; shipping ordered, commissions of 
 array sent round, writs for distraint of knighthood issued.^ 
 On the i6th July commanders-in-chief were named ; John 
 Segrave and Fulk Fitz Warine would lead the soldiery, 
 while John Cromwell would be ' Admiral ' of the fleet.* On 
 the i8th September an armament was finally sent off to 
 support the Earl of Kent, who had been appointed King's 
 Lieutenant of Aquitaine. But the relief came all too late. 
 Aquitaine was already lost. The Count of Valois began 
 his march about the 19th July ; on the 8th August he 
 entered Cahors ; while on the 15th of the month Agen 
 opened its gates to him. Port-Sainte-Marie, Tonneins, 
 La Marmande followed suit. The Earl of Kent then fell 
 back on the historic fortress of La Reole, situate on a pro- 
 montory washed on two sides by the waters of the Garonne, 
 and girt with double and triple works. For five weeks 
 the Earl held Charles and his engines at bay ; at last under 
 threat of a storming assault he capitulated (22 September), 
 signed a truce to Easter (7 April) 1325, and retired to 
 Bordeaux.^ Once more Bordeaux with Bayonne and Saint- 
 Sever represented the English Dominion. 
 
 '- Edward to the Pope, 28 July ; Foed. II. 563. 
 
 " Id. 55S-562. Edward sent envoys to render vicarious homage at Amiens, 
 but Charles never appeared ; Brequigny, sup., 660. 
 
 ' All holding land over £40 a year to be knighted. 
 
 ' Foed. 552-562. From the sheriffs' returns to writs issued in conne.xion 
 with the preparations for this war we find that there were resident in 34 counties 
 1,142 knights {milites ?) with 935 men-at-arms {armigeri ?). Cheshire, Durham, 
 and Oxford are wanting, and the list of the men-at-arms is defective. See the 
 returns printed by Sir F. Palgrave, Parly. Writs, II. i. 637-657, from the Cott. MS. 
 Claudius, C. 2. It is a pity, however, that the Latin designations of the different 
 classes are not given. 
 
 ' SiZK J. VAit, Charles deValois, 211-214,; Murimuth,42; Blaneford, r49, 150. 
 
PETTY VENGEANCE 145 
 
 A loss of a different kind sustained by Edward in the chap.ix 
 summer was the death of his cousin and best friend Aylmer ~~ 
 of Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who, having been sent over 
 to Paris to assist in the negotiations, died suddenly in 
 France on his way home (23 June).^ 
 
 Edward, infuriated at his reverses, found vent for his Persecu- 
 wrath in a general persecution of all French people to be pr^nch. * 
 found in England, beginning with the Queen. Her native 
 attendants were dismissed, and all her estates taken into 
 hand (i8th September). We are also told that she was 
 put on an allowance of £1 a day ; and as a crowning 
 humiliation placed under the surveillance of Lady le 
 Despenser, who had the keeping of her seal. All other 
 French were put under arrest, and made to find security 
 for good conduct.^ The estates of the Priories Alien were 
 seized, and kept in hand for six months.* The public, 
 anxious to shield the King, were disposed to ascribe the 
 attack on the Queen to the Despensers, that is to say to 
 the younger Hugh,* who was all-powerful, his father having 
 retired into the background since 1322, and no doubt the 
 King acted at Hugh's instigation. But he shirked no re- 
 sponsibihty in the matter. The writs of confiscation run 
 " Teste Rege ", and " Per Ipsiim Regem et consilium ".^ 
 
 By these ungracious and discreditable proceedings 
 Edward sealed the fate of his minions and his own. 
 
 Intent on the recovery of his lost provinces the King, in 
 his feeble way, pottered away during the autumn with his 
 preparations, endeavouring to form alliances with Aragon 
 and Brittany, appeahng to the Pope for support as against 
 France, and talking of final peace with Scotland.® A 
 
 ^ M. Westm. III. 223 ; Blaneford, 150 ; Ann. Paul. 307. 
 " Foed. II. 569 ; Chron. Meaux, II. 348 ; Chron. Lond. 48 ; Lanercost, 254; 
 Baker, 17. 
 " 28th September. Foed. 570, 574, 575 ; Ann. Paul. 307, 308 ; Blaneford, 
 
 151- 
 
 " So the French Chronicle of London, and Baker, sup. ; also Mon. Malm. 299. 
 Contra the Meaux Chron., which charges the King with the whole persecution of 
 Isabella and her countrymen. 
 
 ' Foed. 569, 570. The writs are dated 18 September at Dorchester, where 
 the King was. ° Foed. 565, 572-577. 
 
 1415.1 L 
 
146 
 
 TO GO 
 
 1324 
 
 Treating 
 for peace. 
 
 general Parliament, summoned to meet at Salisbury, 
 eventually was held in the Tower (24 October), a novel 
 place of meeting.! Under Henry III the barons had 
 refused to trust themselves within its walls. No records 
 of the proceedings have come down, and no supply was 
 voted. But the King claimed to have obtained sanction 
 for military preparations ; and, accordingly, issued writs 
 for some 16,000 men of all arms to meet at Portsmouth on 
 the 17th March 1325, always of course at his ' wages '? 
 In the meantime, however, out of respect for Papal envoys 
 sent to mediate for peace,* he gave grudging orders for a 
 truce — but a truce at sea only — while naming John Salmon, 
 Bishop of Norwich, Stratford of Winton, the Earl of Rich- 
 mond and Henry of Beaumont as ambassadors to treat of 
 peace.* To these William of Ayreminne, Master of the Rolls 
 and Canon of York, was subsequently added. ^ 
 
 About this time ecclesiastical jealousy involved the King 
 in a petty trouble that was not without its bearing on his 
 fate. He had appointed William Melton, the Archbishop 
 of York, Treasurer, an excellent appointment ; but the 
 Archbishop's presence in London in the discharge of his 
 duties raised the terrible question of his right to carry his 
 cross in the Southern Province. Melton insisted on it, and 
 Edward had to threaten Reynolds with dire consequences if 
 he should molest his rival, or any of his suite. The sheriffs 
 were ordered to give Melton special protection on his 
 journey South.® 
 
 The negotiations in France making little progress, it was 
 
 The Queen suggested at the French court that if Isabelle were allowed 
 
 Paris'" *-° ^ome over the prospect of a satisfactory solution would 
 
 be greatly facilitated, and that Charles would certainly 
 
 grant good terms of peace.' Both the Papal and the royal 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 317 ; the session rose on the loth November, 325 ; Ann. 
 Paul. 308. 2 pogj jj_ 580-583. 
 
 " William of Loudun, Archbishop of Vienne, and Hugh, Bishop of Orange ; 
 Toed. 567 ; they reached London on the 8th November, and left on the 21st of 
 the month ; Ann. Paul. 308. " Foed. 578, 579. 
 
 ' Id. 598. » Foed. 574 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 318, 319. 
 
 ' " Firmae pacis tractatibus consentiret." 
 
OR NOT TO GO? 147 
 
 envoys pressed Edward to consent, and Stratford came chap, ix 
 over in person to urge their recommendations with greater " 
 
 force. John XXII, himself a Frenchman, was altogether 
 favourable, if in fact the suggestion in the first instance 
 had not originated with him.^ Confident that Edward 
 would have to consent, he writes to congratulate the Queen 
 before ever the King had given his consent.^ The Queen 
 herself was only too ready to escape from the humiliations 
 to which she was exposed in her husband's court. We are 
 told that in the hope of getting away she condescended 
 to lavish unwonted smiles on Edward and his favourites. 
 The opposition prelates Orleton and Burghersh, and all 
 the opposition backed her up. They saw that in Paris she 
 might be made the pivot of a combination for getting rid 
 of the Despensers at any rate.* Edward did not care a 
 button for Isabelle, and was understood to be intriguing at 
 Avignon for a divorce ; ^ but he saw the danger of entrusting Edward's 
 his wife to the enemy's camp. Of course he might have <i™<="lt'^s. 
 gone over in person to render the homage, as he had done 
 before, under different circumstances, and had enjoyed the 
 trip. But the Despensers were afraid either to go with 
 him or remain without him.^ Driven into a corner, and 
 forced to reap as he had sown, the wretched monarch, with 
 undisguised reluctance, gave his consent.'' Isabelle took an 
 affectionate leave of her husband and his court, and sped Isabella 
 across the Channel blithe as a bird escaped from the net of ^°^^' 
 the fowler (9 March). ^ 
 
 ' So Edward to the Pope, 8 March 1325 ; Foed. II. 595. 
 
 " On the 2nd July I324hehad urged Isabelle to mediate; Epp. VIII. 794; Pauli. 
 
 ' 5 March 1325 ; Epp. IX. 178 ; Pauli. 
 
 ■* Baker, 17, 18; Mon. Malm. 279. For Isabelle's friendly leave-taking with her 
 husband and Despenser see Edward's letter to her ; Foed. 615. 
 
 ' So Lanercost, sup. ; and Ann. Paul. 337. Cf. the King's conversation with 
 Haymo Heath, Bishop of Rochester, Dene, Angl. Sacr. I. 365. Thomas Dun- 
 head, a royalist Dominican, was understood to be acting in the matter at Avignon. 
 
 " Baker, sup. ; Mon. Malm. 284 ; Murimuth, 44. 
 
 ' " Licet grave et difficile videtur," &c. Edward to the Pope; Foed. 595; 
 and again, 599. 
 
 ' So Edward to the Pope, Foed. 615 ; and again addressing Parliament, 
 " omnes salutavit, abiit iocosa," Mon. Malm. 287. The Ann. Paul. 308, give 
 the date. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 A SEEMING 
 
 CHAP. IX 
 1325 
 
 French 
 require- 
 ments. 
 
 Question 
 of the 
 King's 
 going. 
 
 But the negotiations in her hands seemed to make no 
 better progress than before. An extension of the truce 
 to the 9th June was the only concession that she could 
 obtain from her brother.^ 
 
 It was clear that Charles Le Bel understood his advan- 
 tages, and meant to make the most of them. Edward was 
 required to make a virtual surrender of his possessions in 
 ' the Duchy of Guienne ' to the King of France by authoriz- 
 ing him to appoint a seneschal to rule in the province in his 
 name : all English troops to withdraw to Bayonne : Edward 
 to appear at Beauvais on the 15th August to render homage 
 in person, and, apparently, in unrestricted terms. That 
 done, Charles would reinstate the King of England, save 
 as to the territories recently occupied by the French. The 
 right to these would be submitted to judicial investigation 
 in the- French courts. If adjudicated to Edward, they 
 would be delivered to him subject to the payment of an 
 indemnity for Charles' expenses in the war : if adjudicated 
 to Charles, he would retain them without demanding any 
 indemnity. These hard terms were accepted by the 
 English envoys in Paris on the 31st May, and ratified by 
 Edward on the 13th June.^ 
 
 The reader will see that the scheme of the treaty was 
 a simple repetition of the snare with which Edmund of 
 Lancaster and Edward I had been beguiled in 1293. 
 
 The personal render of homage by the King was the basis 
 of the whole treaty. Nevertheless the objections of the 
 Despensers to Edward's going were such that the point 
 whether he ought or ought not to go was submitted as an 
 open question to a Grand Council specially summoned for 
 the purpose.^ In spite of private threats and brow-beating 
 by the younger Hugh the assembly rightly gave it as their 
 opinion that the King ought to go.* 
 
 The King's departure being thus apparently settled, a 
 
 ' Feed. II. 597. 
 
 ^ Foed. 599, 601. On tlie ist June the day for the homage-render was 
 enlarged to tlie 29th August. . 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 328. 
 " 26 June ; Mon. Malm. 282 ; Ann. Paul. ; Itinerary. 
 
SOLUTION 149 
 
 question arose as to the appointment of a regent. One chap, ix 
 party proposed the elder Despenser, Earl of Winchester ; 
 the Opposition suggested Henry of Lancaster, now also 
 Earl of Leicester.^ But he was regarded with great 
 suspicion by the King ; a motion had been made to impeach 
 him on the strength of a pious letter of condolence addressed 
 to Adam Orleton, the Bishop of Hereford, in his tribulations.^ 
 An attempt had also been made to involve the Earl in a 
 charge of witchcraft practised against the King.^ The 
 difficulty was solved by the appointment of three neutral 
 men, Henry Percy, John Clavering and Ralph Neville, to 
 act as Joint Wardens.* Preparations for the King's jour- 
 ney were kept up as if in earnest till the latter part of 
 August.^ On the 24th of the month Edward writes to 
 Charles that a sudden attack of illness will prevent his 
 coming to Beauvais ; the Bishop of Winchester is charged 
 to make fresh arrangements. Oddly enough the treaty 
 had specially provided that either King would be excused 
 attendance in case of illness.® Driven to extremity the 
 favourites had bethought them of a plan. The King 
 might confer Gascony and Ponthieu on his son Edward 
 Earl of Chester ; and Charles might be induced to accept 
 the homage of his nephew. The Queen of course welcomed 
 the proposal, and Charles readily acceded to it. But in The King's 
 England it was viewed with great disfavour. Charles ™"j'e° j^e 
 might entangle the Heir Apparent in some undesirable homage, 
 marriage, or otherwise utilize him for his own ends. But 
 the Despensers were not to be turned, their lives were at 
 stake ; and Edward, out of concern for their safety, to his 
 credit be it said, stood by them.'' On the 2nd September 
 
 • Mon. Malm. 284. 
 
 ^ Id. 280, 281, where the letter is given. 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, 11. ii. 269 ; 4 November 1324 ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 376, 
 note. " This is the earliest trial for witchcraft entertained ... it shows that 
 necromancy was then considered as an offence at common law, not as a heresy ; " 
 Palgrave. 
 
 ' 20, 27 July ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 730 ; ii. 274. 
 
 " Foed. II. 604, 605. 
 
 ° Id. 606. 
 
 ' Baker, 19 ; Murimuth, 43, 44 ; Mon. Malm. 285. 
 
150 
 
 TREACHERY 
 
 1325 
 
 CHAP. IX the young Earl of Chester, not quite thirteen years old, 
 was invested with Ponthieu. Two days later Charles 
 agreed to accept his homage. On the loth September, 
 probably on the receipt of his letters of consent, Aquitaine 
 was made over to young Edward ; on the 12th he sailed 
 from Dover,^ and about the 21st September the homage 
 was rendered, in the Bois de Vincennes near Paris.^ 
 
 The homage rendered, and all the requirements of the 
 treaty complied with on Edward's part, he began to press 
 for the return of his wife and son. He had begun ordering 
 Isabelle to come home even before the homagewas rendered; 
 her obvious answer then was that she must wait to see the 
 indispensable ceremony performed.^ Walter Stapledon, 
 Bishop of Exeter, ex-Treasurer,* who had gone over in 
 charge of young Edward, found Isabelle surrounded by 
 exiles, his master's enemies. Unable to fall in with their 
 designs he had to fly for his life by night. ^ Any remaining 
 doubt as to the Queen's attitude must have been dispelled 
 when John Stratford, the Bishop of Winchester, came over 
 with a letter from her, informing the King that she would 
 not return to his court as long as Despenser was there. 
 Meanwhile she had been offered a home by her brother ; 
 the Prince would remain with her. In his answer insisting 
 on her return the King wonders how she could object to the 
 younger Hugh, who had never done her any harm, but had 
 always been her friend. ' How could there be any ill-feeling 
 between two persons who so recently had parted in such 
 friendly manner ? ' ^ 
 
 Isabelle 
 refuses to 
 come 
 home. 
 
 ' Foed. 11. 606-609. The chroniclers notice anxious discussions over the whole 
 matter at Langdon and Dover ; 1-4 September ; Itinerary. 
 
 ^ Baker, 20 ; Walsing. I. 177. On the 2nd November the King refers to 
 he homage as having been rendered ; Foed. 610. 
 
 ^ Edward's letter to her, i December ; Foed. 625. 
 
 ' Stapledon was relieved of his office in the June Grand Council ; and William 
 Melton, Archbishop of York, was appointed to succeed him ; Mon. Malm. 283. 
 Stapledon's dismissal must have been the work of the Council. 
 
 " Mon. Malm. 285, 286 ; Baker, 20 ; Murimuth, 46 ; and Edward's letter, 
 Foed., sup. 
 
 ° See her letter to Archbishop Reynolds, Scriptores Decern, c. 2767, and 
 Edward's letter to her, Foed., sup., also one to Charles, ibid. The Papal envoys 
 
ALL ROUND 131 
 
 The fact was that Isabelle had found in Paris a lover and chap.ix 
 a champion in Roger Mortimer ; ^ and that plans were being 
 laid for the overthrow of the government at home. All the 
 King's agents, except Stapledon, had given in to the plot, more 
 or less. Among the deserters were the King's half-brother Disloyal 
 the Earl of Kent, his cousin the Earl of Richmond, and 
 the former pet, Henry of Beaumont. Bishop Stratford, of 
 course, owed the see of Winchester not to the King, but to 
 a Papal Provision, granted to please the Queen, and in 
 defiance of Edward's wishes. He could not be considered 
 one specially attached to the King's service. Not so his 
 co-negotiator, William of Ayreminne, newly appointed 
 Bishop of Norwich. As Master of the Rolls he had re- 
 peatedly had the keeping of the Seal under successive 
 Chancellors,^ and so must have had much personal inter- 
 course with the King. On the 6th July 1325 John Salmon, 
 Bishop of Norwich, died. The Chapter, at the King's 
 request, elected Robert Baldock the Chancellor, but 
 Ayreminne, taking advantage of his position at the French 
 court as one of Edward's agents, obtained a Papal ' Pro- 
 vision ' for himself ; and so the luckless Baldock was 
 supplanted for the second time.^ 
 
 Wrong-headed and unworthy as Edward was, it is impos- 
 sible not to feel for him under the circumstances. Deserted 
 by his wife, robbed of his son, surrounded by self-seeking 
 servants and treacherous advisers, the unfortunate King 
 had not one true friend left. Nevertheless, it does not seem 
 too much to say that had he even now, at the eleventh hour, 
 been capable of learning wisdom, had he had the resolution 
 to dismiss the Despensers and' take ministers acceptable 
 to his subjects, Edward would probably have been able 
 
 had the audacity to suggest that Isabelle could not come to England with safety. 
 So Edward complains to the Pope ; Foed. II. 625, 15 April 1326. The Pope's 
 conduct throughout had been altogether one-sided and treacherous. 
 
 ' For Isabelle's relations with Roger see Murimuth (a man in the King's service 
 at the time), 46 ; Baker, 20 ; Lanercost, 266 ; Avesbury, 281. 
 
 ' See Foss, III. 187, 188. 
 
 " Reg. Sacrum ; Men. Malm. 284, 285 ; Parly. Writs, II. ii. 284. Of course 
 Ayreminne had received large preferment, six canonries, &c. Foss, 218. 
 
152 
 
 KING UNYIELDING 
 
 1325 
 
 Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 to save both his friends and himself. The loyalty of the 
 nation would have risen in answer to a frank apology. But 
 the obstinate booby was wedded to his own dull head- 
 strong way. 
 
 The Queen's refusal to come home was communicated 
 to a full Parhament that sat at Westminster from the i8th 
 November to the 5th December.^ The King addressed the 
 assembly, and repeated the childish assurance that the 
 Queen could not possibly have had any reason to complain 
 of the younger Hugh, as she had taken so pleasant and 
 friendly a leave of him.^ All that the lieges could suggest 
 was a joint letter by the bishops to the Queen urging her 
 to return.' Authority however was taken for arming the 
 coasts in view of impending invasion.* The Opposition 
 took advantage of the moment to raise constitutional 
 questions. A petition presented in the name of the ' com- 
 monalty ' complained of manifold grievances ; the illegal 
 Forests had not been disafforested ; cases of imprisonment 
 of persons without due process of law were constantly 
 occurring ; the rights of tenants on estates forfeited to the 
 Crown were disregarded. The question as to the Forests 
 was met by the appointment of a special commission to 
 inquire into the subject ; as for other grievances persons 
 having complaints to raise were told to lay them before the 
 Chancellor.^ 
 
 The Commons while they were about it might have 
 complained of the general paralysis of law. We hear 
 of repeated escapes of prisoners from jail ; we hear of an 
 Usher of the King's Chamber and a Baron of the Exchequer 
 being assaulted and killed ; we hear of a pitched battle in 
 the streets between two parties among the students of 
 Law, divided as North and South. ^ 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 334-346. 
 
 " " NuUi alii, me excepto, tam iocundam se exhibuit." 
 
 ' Mon. Malm. 287, 288. * Parly. Writs, II. i. 735. 
 
 ■* Rot. Parlt. I. 430. 
 
 " Ann. Paul. 308-313 ; Chron. Lond. 48, A.D. 1324-1326. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Edward II {continued) 
 A.D. 1326, 1327 
 
 The Queen refuses to return to Edward's Court. — Contracts alliance with Hain- 
 ault. — Lands in Orwell. — Flight of King. — Execution of the Despensers. — 
 King captured in Wales and sent to Kenilworth. — Proclamation of Edward III. 
 — Abdication of Edward II. — His end and character. — Review of Reign.— 
 Financial Summary. 
 
 Throughout the spring and summer of 1326 England chap.x 
 was kept in a state of irritation and alarm by the King's 1325 
 measures for guarding against the invasion that now Uneasy 
 seemed no longer doubtful. Intercourse with the Continent ?^^'^ °^ 
 
 ° England. 
 
 cut off (except to merchants) ; export of horses, arms, and 
 money forbidden ; all ships coming to Dover searched for 
 letters ; Frenchmen put under arrest. Commission after 
 commission of array is issued calling on men to be ready 
 to turn out, but they never are called out. The bishops 
 are specially appealed to, but the baronial retainers are 
 left in peace.^ The King could not trust them. 
 
 Across the Channel Isabelle was prosecuting her schemes. 
 On the 5th February (1326) she writes to Archbishop 
 Reynolds, in answer to the letter drafted in Parliament, 
 that her sole cause for refusing to return is the ' bodily 
 peril ' in which she would find herself under the rule of the 
 younger Hugh,^ who has the King and whole country in his Isabelle 
 hands : ' she could wish for nothing better than to live abroad 
 and die in the company of her dear lord.' ' 
 
 The precious document is dated in Paris. But Isabelle 
 shortly had to find other quarters. Her desertion of her 
 husband, and her relations with Mortimer were becoming 
 
 ' Parly. Writs, II. i. 735-749. 
 
 ' " Pur le peril de nostre corps eschuver." 
 
 ' Script. Decern, sup., 2768. 
 
156 
 
 POPULAR 
 
 1326 
 
 Queen's 
 progress. 
 
 King's 
 flight. 
 
 his cousin Henry "Wryneck" Earl of Lancaster, and a 
 whole string of Bishops, including Orleton of Hereford, the 
 King's old enemy, and Ayreminne of Norwich, the King's 
 old servant, Hotham of Ely, a former chaplain, and Louis 
 of Beaumont of Durham, the old protegi. Other prelates 
 assisted with underhand supplies of money.^ From Walton 
 Castle the Queen moved to Bury, and from that again to 
 Cambridge, Baldock, Dunstable, and Hertford, her march 
 becoming a triumphal procession.^ 
 
 On the 30th September Archbishop Reynolds, with 
 Stephen Segrave the Bishop of London and Stratford of 
 Winchester, made a feeble attempt to stay the flowing tide, 
 by solemnly publishing Bulls of excommunication against 
 disturbers of the peace ; Bulls, by the way, obtained from 
 the Pope years before for use against the Scottish raiders. 
 But the proceeding was received with loud murmurs by the 
 Londoners, and the King found it prudent to leave Town 
 altogether, making his way by Acton and Wycombe to 
 Wallingford (October 2-7). The Queen made a dash to 
 catch him at Wallingford, but, warned in time, he escaped 
 to Gloucester, and never halted till he had crossed the 
 Severn. On the 14th October he signs at Tintern.^ Of 
 the higher baronage only the Earls of Surrey and Arundel 
 kept with him. 
 
 On the 15th October Isabelle issued a proclamation at 
 WaUingford, calling on the nation to support her against 
 the misgovernment of Despenser and Baldock, by whom ' the 
 estate of church and realm had notoriously been blemished 
 and abased '.* No reference was made to the King, but 
 some timid steps towards mediation having been taken by 
 the clergy ^ to nip the movement in the bud, Orleton was put 
 up to expound from the pulpit the monstrous pretence that 
 Isabelle's life would not be safe in her husband's court.® 
 
 ' Murimuth, 46. " Ann. Paul., sup. 
 
 ' Ann. Paul., sup. ; Itinerary. * In French, Foed. II. 645. 
 
 ' For a meeting of bishops at Lambeth to endeavour to find a man who would 
 venture to approach the Queen, see Dene, Anglia Sacra, I. 266. 
 
 " Apologia Orleton, sup., c. 2766. Cf. Bridlington, 86, where the facts appear 
 to be exactly inverted. 
 
RISING 157 
 
 Some days earlier handbills from the Queen had been chap.x 
 circulated in London, calling on the people to rise against ^,^6 
 Despenser and other enemies of the land. Under this 
 instigation on the 15th October the mob rose, and com- Londoners 
 pelled the helpless mayor ^ Hamond Chigwell to proclaim 
 the expulsion of all enemies of ' King, Queen and their son '. 
 The house of one John Marshal, one of Despenser's under- 
 lings, was attacked ; he was dragged out and beheaded 
 in Cheapside. Bishop Stapledon of Exeter was caught 
 riding through the streets, he was unhorsed, carried to the 
 cross in Cheapside, and likewise beheaded. Haymo Heath 
 the Bishop of Rochester, sitting in his palace in Southwark 
 heard the uproar, and fled for his life into Kent. The 
 Archbishop had already retired from Lambeth, without 
 warning his suffragan of impending dangers. He had 
 evidently come to terms with the Queen. Next day the 
 Tower was attacked, and the Constable John Weston forced 
 to deliver John of Eltham, the King's younger son, who 
 had been left in nominal charge of the place. He was 
 sworn to make common cause with le commune ; all 
 hostages and prisoners were set free on the same condition.^ 
 From WaUingford Isabelle advanced to Oxford. Orleton 
 preached before the University taking his text from 
 Genesis iii. 15 ; 'I will put enmity between thee and the 
 woman, and between thy seed and her seed ' ; the allusion, 
 as Orleton subsequently explained, being obviously to 
 Despenser, and not to the King.* Following the tracks of 
 her husband, Isabelle went on to Gloucester, where her forces Pursuit of 
 were strengthened by the accession of Percy, Wake, and other *^ ^"S- 
 lords from the Marches and the North. Leaving Gloucester 
 she moved to Berkeley Castle, where she reinstated the 
 rightful owner, Thomas of Berkeley, who had been ousted 
 by Despenser. The next stage took her to Bristol, which 
 she reached on the 26th October. The elder Hugh Earl 
 
 ' " Mercy criant k jointes meyns." 
 
 ' Chron. Lond. 51-54; Mon. Malm. Cont. 289; from Higden, VII. 43; 
 Murimuth, 48. 
 " Apologia Orleton, Twysden, c. 2765 ; Murimuth, 47. 
 
1326 
 
 158 THE KING 
 
 of Winchester, had been left in command. To a man of 
 ninety summers resistance and flight were equally hopeless. 
 He opened his gates and the Queen took possession (26 
 October).! 
 
 From Tintern, where we left him on the 14th October, 
 Edward had moved to Striguil, otherwise Chepstow, where 
 he remained till the 2ist of the month, when he took ship 
 with the younger Hugh and Baldock, endeavouring 
 apparently to escape to Ireland, or Lundy Island recently 
 acquired by Hugh. The Queen was told that when last 
 seen the King was off Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel.^ 
 The King having thus deserted his post, the way was open 
 for the promotion of his son. The young Duke of Aquitaine 
 was immediately proclaimed Warden [Custos) of the Realm, 
 to hold office so long as his father should be absent. The 
 Archbishop of Dublin, Alexander Bicknore, the Bishops of 
 Winchester, Ely, Lincoln, Hereford and Norwich, with the 
 Earls of Norfolk, Kent and Lancaster attested the act in 
 the name of the assembled Baronage.* By this proceed- 
 ing the Queen had shown her hand, and the ultimate ends 
 of the expedition were indicated. On the morrow the Earl 
 of Winchester was arraigned before a Commission of 
 magnates, with WiUiam Trussel as presiding Judge,* and 
 condemned as a traitor, who had been banished by Parlia- 
 ment, but recalled without due leave ; a robber of the land, 
 and one who had advised the King to deprive the Church 
 of her franchises. As Thomas of Lancaster had not been 
 allowed to open his mouth in self-defence, so neither would 
 he be allowed to speak. From judgement he was sent 
 straightway to execution.^ 
 
 The King's attempt at escape failed. Driven back by 
 
 ' Murimuth, 48, 49. ^ Baker, 22 ; Itinerary. 
 
 ' 26 October ; Foed. II. 646 ; Parly. Writs, II. i. 349. 
 
 * Trussel was not a judge of either of the higher courts at Westminster, nor 
 a regular justice of assize. He was a Lancastrian and taken prisoner at Borough- 
 bridge ; he made his escape, and in 1323 was busy ravaging the estates of the 
 Despensers. He joined the Queen in France and came back with her. Foss, 
 Judges, III. 307. 
 
 ' Ann. Paul., q.v. for the indictment ; Murimuth, 49. 
 
APPREHENDED 159 
 
 foul winds he landed at Cardiff on the 26th October, where chap, x 
 he remained till the 29th, when he moved to Caerphilly. In 1326 
 Glamorgan he would be among the retainers of the younger 
 Hugh. To the last he kept issuing frantic calls to arms to 
 which nobody listened.^ On the 3rd and 4th November 
 Edward rested at the Abbey of Margan or Margam ; and 
 on the 5th he moved to Neath, where he continued to sign 
 till the loth, when apparently he left the Abbey to seek 
 for shelter among the native Welsh, and for six days was 
 lost to the outer world.^ In the meantime the Queen had 
 advanced to Hereford ; determined to run her husband King 
 down, she sent out Henry of Lancaster and William de la ^^^^ 
 Zouche with one Rhys ap Howel, a Welsh clerk, supplied 
 with means for negotiating with the natives with whom 
 the King had taken refuge. The result was that on the 
 i6th November he was delivered to Lancaster at Llantris- 
 saint. The younger Despenser, Robert Baldock and one 
 Simon of Reading were taken with him ; minor attendants 
 were dismissed in peace.^ 
 
 The King having returned to his ' dominions ' the 
 authority of the Warden would be at an end ; and all orders 
 would have to run in the King's name. It was necessary 
 therefore to get possession of the Great Seal that Edward 
 had kept in his own hands. Accordingly the unblushing 
 Orleton was sent to Monmouth, where the King was, to 
 reheve him of the talisman. Of course the helpless monarch 
 had no option but to surrender it, to be used by his wife and 
 son at their discretion (20th November).* From Monmouth and sent 
 Edward was sent under the charge of his cousin Henry °q^^_^ 
 to Kenilworth, a Leicester possession.^ 
 
 On the 2nd November the younger Despenser had been 
 arraigned before a high commission, as his father had been, 
 with William Trussel again as presiding judge. The first 
 count in the indictment, as in his father's case, charged that, 
 
 ' See Foedera and Parly. Writs, passim. ' Itinerary. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 49 ; Baker, 25 ; Ann. Paul. 319. 
 
 ' See the memorandum, Foed. II. 646. The Seal was placed under the charge 
 of Ayreminne, the Bishop of Norwich, an old Keeper. 
 ° Murimuth, sup. ; Itinerary. 
 
i6o 
 
 FATHER 
 
 1326 
 
 Retalia- 
 tion. 
 
 Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 being a condemned traitor banished by Parliament, he had 
 returned without due leave. After that every miscarriage 
 and calamity that had befallen England since his return, 
 including the flight from Rievaulx, was laid on his head, 
 with the grossest perversion of facts. But the retaliatory 
 spirit of the proceedings is shown by the prominence given 
 to the executions of Earl Thomas and his followers as 
 crimes of which Hugh was specially guilty. Again like 
 his father he was forbidden to speak because Thomas had 
 been forbidden to speak.^ In the same spirit Arundel, at 
 Mortimer's request, had been executed on the 17th of the 
 month, his crime being the fact that he was one of those 
 who sat in judgement on Thomas.^ Fifty feet high 
 Despenser was hung, his follower Reading, who had ven- 
 tured to speak lightly of the Queen's conduct, being hung 
 on the same gallows, only ten feet lower down.^ 
 
 Baldock as an ecclesiastic was not amenable to the same 
 treatment ; he was placed under the charge of the Bishop 
 of Hereford, who early in February sent him up to his 
 London house, but under insufficient guard, so that the 
 Londoners seized him and thrust him into Newgate, where 
 he died of hardships and ill-treatment (28 May, 1327).* 
 
 The first use of the Great Seal made by Isabelle was to 
 summon a Parliament to ratify and complete the work of 
 the revolution. On the 3rd December writs were issued 
 for a session to meet on the 7th January (1327).^ London 
 since the outbreak of the 15th October had been in a 
 state of complete anarchy, the authorities being unable 
 
 ' See the lengthy indictment, Knighton, 2547. Among other counts we may 
 notice that Hugh is made responsible not only for the King's attack on the 
 Bishop of Hereford's property, of which we have heard, but also for similar 
 proceedings against the other opposition Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, and Norwich, 
 of which we have not heard ; c. 2548. 
 
 ^ Chron.Xond. 56. Arundel, however, had married his son to Hugh's daughter ; 
 Knighton, 2546. 
 
 ^ Walsingham, II. 185 ; Ann. Paul. 320 ; Chron. Lond. sup. 
 
 " Ann. Paul. 320 ; Murimuth, 50 ; Baker, 25, 26 ; Foss, Judges, III. 225. 
 
 ° Parly. Writs, II. i. 350. Irregular writs, not under the Seal, for a Parliament 
 to meet on the 15th December had been issued at Bristol on the 28th October. 
 These were now superseded. 
 
OR SON i6i 
 
 to maintain order ; ^ and when Parliament met on the 
 appointed day an unbidden crowd of citizens poured in to 
 watch the proceedings.^ Considering the delicate nature 
 of the matters to be dealt with it is not surprising to find 
 that no official report of the proceeding was drawn up, and 
 that the Parliament Rolls content themselves with recording 
 the private petitions presented during the session. 
 
 When business was opened it would seem that the King's 
 absence was commented on. Bishop Orleton, who, as the 
 Queen's right-hand man, and the soul of the conspiracy, 
 led the proceedings, answered with the old calumny that 
 the Queen's life would not be safe in her husband's hands. 
 Finally, coming to the point, he put it to the assembly, 
 whether they would have the father or the son to reign 
 over them. With that he adjourned them to the morrow 
 to think over the matter. Next day he repeated the 
 question ; the King's friends, overawed by the mob, held 
 their peace ; only the Queen's partisans ventured to speak. 
 A general declaration in favour of the son was thus obtained. 
 The young Duke was then brought in ; homage was 
 rendered to him, and he was shown to the people in 
 Westminster Hall, ' Behold your King.' Only four prelates 
 had the courage to refuse allegiance to him, namely, William 
 of Melton Archbishop of York, Nicholas Segrave Bishop of 
 London, Haymo Heath of Rochester, and John of Ross of 
 Carlisle.^ The servile judges in attendance on the Parlia- 
 ment endeavoured to bully them into compliance, and 
 threatened them with consequences, but the loyal ecclesi- 
 astics held firm. 
 
 The son had thus been set up, but the father " had neither 
 resigned nor been deposed ".* It was therefore agreed that 
 a deputation of bishops should be sent to request the 
 
 ' Bands of young ruffians went about looting the houses of unpopular charac- 
 ters, and even laying hands on hoards deposited in sanctuaries ; the counting- 
 house of the Bardi was broken into, the younger Hugh having money there ; the 
 Courts were all closed ; the marauders were known as " riffleres ", and their 
 proceedings as " rifflinge " ; Ann. Paul. 321. 
 
 ^ " Et praecipue cives Londinienses cum magno strepitu ad Parliamentum con- 
 venerunt;" Dene, 367. ^ Dene, sup. ' Lingard. 
 
 1415.1 M 
 
 1327 
 
l62 
 
 ABDICATION 
 
 CHAP. X 
 1327 
 
 Indict- 
 ment of 
 the King. 
 
 Beating 
 tne drum. 
 
 King's attendance in Parliament to concur in some ' just 
 and suitable arrangement with respect to the Crown ' ; ^ 
 i. e. some act of abdication in favour of his son. Stratford 
 and Orleton went to Kenilworth, and saw the King. Dull 
 and slow of comprehension, even now he failed to realize 
 his position. He refused to listen to the bishops' reasoning ; 
 cursed them as traitors, and drove them from his presence. 
 
 On the i2th January the two reported to Parliament the 
 failure of their mission.^ More vigorous action on the 
 Queen's part thus became necessary. On the 13th Stratford 
 boldly pubhshed as a resolution of the Parliament a self- 
 styled ' Accord ' for crowning young Edward, and placing 
 the government of the country in his hands.^ Six articles 
 of impeachment against the father were appended as 
 justification for the act ; he was unfit to govern, he himself 
 had always been led and governed by others, evil counsellors 
 who led him astray ; he had refused to listen to the advice 
 of the great and wise men of the realm ; he had neglected 
 public business, giving himself up to unseemly {nient 
 covenahles) pursuits ; he had caused the loss of Scotland, 
 Gascony and Ireland ; he had ' destroyed ' the Church, 
 imprisoning some churchmen, and reducing others to utter 
 distress ; * he had also put to death, imprisoned, exiled, 
 and disinherited many great and noble laymen ; he had 
 broken his coronation oath by failing to render justice to 
 all ; finally he had done his best to bring the realm to 
 ruin, and had been found ' incorrigible ' beyond all hope 
 of amendment.* 
 
 Orleton followed with a sermon on the text " Rex insipiens 
 perdet populum suum", dwelling on Edward's deficiencies 
 till the excited audience cried ' Away with him '.^ In the 
 
 ^ " Ad ordinandum pro corona . . . cum suis ligiis quod deceret et quod justicia 
 suaderet." 
 
 " Lanercost, 267 ; also the Canterbury letter given Parly. Writs, II. i. 457. 
 
 ' " Accorde est que sire Edward le fiz aisne du Roy ait le governement," &c. 
 
 ' See above, pp. 143 and 160 note, for attacks on the opposition prelates. 
 
 ° See the account in French as subsequently produced in self-defence by 
 Orleton, Twysden, sup., c. 2765. The Chron. Lond. 57 gives the date. 
 
 " Lanercost, sup. 
 
RESISTED 163 
 
 afternoon, as we may suppose, a grand demonstration was 
 held in the City. As if to get up a cry for the young King 
 and our old franchises, Roger Mortimer went down to the 
 Guildhall with the Archbishops of Canterbury and Dublin 
 and a string of prelates, when a preposterous (and insidious) 
 oath was administered to all, pledging them to stand by 
 Isabelle Queen of England and ' Edward now (ore) King of 
 England in their quarrel against Hugh le Despenser and 
 Master Robert Baldock ' ; — as if those men had not already 
 been got rid of. The oath then went on to bind all to save 
 and keep the franchises of the City of London.^ Hammer- 
 ing away. Bishop Stratford preached on the 14th on the 
 text " Caput meum doleo " ; ^ while finally on the next 
 day again, popular feeling having been brought to the proper 
 pitch, " the wretched Archbishop Reynolds " summed up 
 with a discourse on the theme Vox populi vox Dei ; dwelling 
 on Stratford's ' Accord ', and proclaiming the fact that by 
 ' universal consent ' the elder Edward had been deposed, 
 and his son appointed to succeed him.* The reader will 
 see the amount of beating up found necessary. He need 
 not be reminded that this same Archbishop Reynolds 
 was the man who took it on him to proclaim that the 
 condemnation of the Despensers by Parliament was illegal. 
 
 But still, to secure the position of the chief actors in the 
 dangerous game, and avoid reaction, it was held advisable 
 to obtain by whatever means the abdication of the actual 
 King. For that purpose a fresh deputation comprising 
 bishops, earls, barons, abbots, justices, friars, and repre- 
 sentatives of the counties and boroughs, twenty-four men 
 in all, was sent to Kenilworth.* 
 
 For the scenes that ensued we have a report derived from 
 
 ' See Ann. Paul. 322, 323. An extract from the Canterbury Registers given 
 Parly . Writs, II.i.457,referstothis oath as taken onthefirst day of the Parliament , 
 which is clearly wrong. Reynolds, in spite of his taking the oath, was very 
 unpopular in the city, and only escaped being mobbed by promising a gift of 
 fifty casks of wine ; Ann. Paul. 
 
 ' 2 Kings iv. 19. ' Lanercost, sup. 
 
 ' Id. ; Chron. Lond. 57 ; Parly. Writs, sup. The Kriais Minors begged to be 
 excused, and the Queen, who favoured them, assented. The Preachers were 
 supporters of the King and were forced to go. 
 
 M 2 
 
 1327 
 
1327 
 
 i64 ABDICATION 
 
 CHAP. X one who was on the deputation.^ Stratford and Burghersh 
 of Lincoln had a prehminary interview with Edward in his 
 inner chamber, in the presence of Henry " Wryneck ", his 
 keeper. They coaxed him on the one hand with promises 
 of undiminished respect and honour, if he would abdicate 
 in favour of his son ; while on the other hand they pressed 
 him with threats of rejecting his line entirely, and taking 
 some one not of his blood, if he still held out. Weeping 
 and sobbing,^ for the sake of his son, and the peace of the 
 realm, Edward gave in. Robed in sable* he was then taken 
 to face the deputation, arranged in the outer chamber, in 
 due order of precedence, each man according to his dignity. 
 At the sight of the hostile array, without one friendly face 
 among them, the King broke down, sinking in a fainting fit.* 
 Stratford and Leicester hastened to his assistance. When 
 he had sufficiently recovered himself, Orleton took up his 
 parable again, propounding the dismal alternatives of 
 resignation or deposition. With fresh groans and tears ^ 
 at the thought that the people should so hate and reject him, 
 Edward ended by saying that if his son was more acceptable, 
 they might have him for their King. Next day William 
 Trussel, in the name of the delegation and those whom they 
 represented, renounced their homages, and Thomas Blount, 
 the Steward of the Household, broke his staff of office, as 
 a token that the reign of the Second Edward had come to 
 an end.8 The deputation then went back to London, 
 carrying the Insignia of Royalty with them.' On the 25th 
 January, being presumably the day of their return, the new 
 Ed- King's Peace was proclaimed, and the reign of Edward son 
 
 wana III Qf Edward son of Edward was held to have begun.^ The 
 1st of February had already been fixed for the coronation, 
 
 ^ See Baker, 27, who tells us that he translates an account of the proceedings 
 penned in French by his patron, Thomas de la More. 
 
 ^ " Non sine singultibus lacrimis et suspiriis." 
 
 " " Togam nigram indutus." 
 
 " " Impos effectus corruit expansus." ^ " Cum fletu et ejulatu." 
 
 ' 20, 21 January ; Baker, 27, 28 ; Murimuth, sup. The date and words of 
 Trussel's renunciation are given by Knighton, Twysden, 1550 ; see also Ann. 
 Paul. 324 ; and Chron. Lond., sup. 
 
 ' Walsingham, I. 187. » Chron. Lond., sup. 
 
EXTORTED 165 
 
 and persons claiming to perform ceremonial functions had chap.x 
 been ordered to send in their pretensions.^ ^ 
 
 A big, dull, unmannerly oaf, a spoilt grown-up child. The ex- 
 of low tastes, without dignity or sense of duty, short- ^'"2" 
 sighted, but obstinate and vindictive, Edward was, in 
 Stratford's words, 'incorrigible', and 'unfit to reign'. 
 The charge of having caused the loss of Scotland, Ireland 
 and Gascony was somewhat far-fetched, but in other 
 respects the Bishop's indictment must be considered in the 
 main sufficiently well founded, from his point of view, 
 namely, that of the territorial magnate. Edward had 
 systematically neglected his duties, and disregarded the 
 wishes of his subjects ; he had refused to listen to those 
 best entitled to offer advice ; he had put himself in the 
 hands of favourites distasteful to the nation, and had 
 indulged them in gross illegalities. But again it must be 
 pointed out that the class most aggrieved by Edward's short- 
 comings were the magnates. He had fallen out with them 
 from the beginning. They were the men who were shocked 
 by his bad manners and low company ; who found them- 
 selves elbowed out of his presence by petted favourites, 
 they were the men plundered by the Despensers. The 
 commonalty under Edward were not oppressed. They 
 would echo the complaints of their lords, no doubt, but 
 apart from the ravaging of the Northern counties, for 
 which the King, no doubt, was responsible, and the famines 
 for which he was not responsible, the people were said to be 
 well off,^ much better off than under the glorious rule of his 
 father. There was far less taxation, no extortions of 
 Fifths or Moieties, far less conscription, no foreign service, 
 no winter campaigns in Scotland. But the king who 
 
 " There has been some difference between the authorities as to the date of the 
 beginning of the reign. In Foed. II. 683, the 24th January is given ; so too the 
 Red Book of the Exchequer, III. 1067, " Data . . . mutatur singulis annis xxiiii 
 die mensis Januarii." But the Customs Accounts and other records show that 
 the reign began on the 25th January. See below. 
 
 ^ See the remarkable passage in the Scalacr. 150. " Les comunes de soun 
 realme furont en soun temps riches, et maintenuz en reudes (qy. reules, strict) 
 loys, mes lez grantz ly avoint countre quer pur crualte et desordene vie qil 
 menoit, et par cause du dit Hugh," &c. 
 
i66 
 
 THE EX-KING 
 
 1327 
 
 Ultimate 
 cause of 
 his fall. 
 
 A 
 Threnody. 
 
 Successive 
 jailers. 
 
 cannot get on with the leaders of the nation is unfit to rule, 
 and for the deposition of an unworthy king no justification 
 need be sought. Anyhow England could show the prece- 
 dents of Eadwig, rejected by Mercia and Northumbria in 
 957, and that of the " unredy " ^thelred expelled in 
 1014. Still many princes little better fitted to rule than 
 Edward have lived out their days in peace, if not in honour. 
 But, with the whole Baronage alienated, Edward, at the 
 last, undoubtedly succumbed to a coalition between his 
 offended wife and the Lancastrians. The reign might be 
 described as the epic, the dismal epic, of the contentions 
 of two very uninteresting characters, Edward of Carnarvon 
 and Thomas of Lancaster. Their differences assumed 
 a personal character from the very first. Thomas, if not 
 better fitted to direct the helm of the State than Edward, 
 had nevertheless stuff enough in him to keep a loyal party 
 together. Edward owed his fall to the impolitic severities 
 indulged in after Boroughbridge, and, perhaps almost in 
 an equal degree, to the insult offered to Isabelle by placing 
 her under the surveillance of Lady Despenser. 
 
 Uncultured as Edward seems to have been, it is somewhat 
 singular that we should have some touching lines of his 
 composition written, of course in French, while he was in 
 captivity at Kenilworth. A certain childishness is betrayed 
 by the lament that his misfortunes should have befallen 
 him about Christmas, the time of mirth, as if that was the 
 unkindest cut of all.^ 
 
 But we must follow Edward's life to its tragic ending. 
 His doom was sealed from the day of his deposition. So 
 long as he hved none of his enemies could be safe ; any 
 chance incident might lead to an outburst of loyal feeling, 
 and if by any chance he could manage to escape, a counter- 
 revolution would at once be started. For three months 
 more, however, Edward was left at Kenilworth, under the 
 charge of his cousin Lancaster.^ But Henry Au tort col 
 (Wryneck) as he was called treated his prisoner too well. 
 
 ' See at the end of the chapter. 
 
 " This arrangement was sanctioned by Parliament ; Rot. Parlt. II. i. 52. 
 
IN CAPTIVITY 167 
 
 The comforts of the ex-King were attended to ; at any 
 rate, it was clear that the Earl would never stoop to the 
 requisite depths of infamy. On the night of the 3rd-4th 
 April, therefore, Edward was removed from Kenilworth 
 under the charge of Thomas of Berkeley, the man re- 
 instated by the Queen, and John Maltravers the younger ; ^ 
 the arrangement apparently being that they should have 
 the keeping of him on alternate months, with power to move 
 him about as they thought fit. Thomas was son-in-law to 
 Mortimer, being married to his daughter Margaret, while 
 Maltravers was brother-in-law to Thomas, being husband 
 of his sister Eva.^ Thomas, and probably Maltravers also, 
 had been active in harrying the Despenser estates in 1321. 
 
 On the 5th April Edward came to Lantony Abbey, near 
 Gloucester, under the charge of Maltravers and a strong 
 guard ; ^ and the same day, " then beinge palmsunday," 
 reached Berkeley Castle " at supper time ".* From 
 Berkeley the fallen king was taken to Corfe, then to 
 Bristol, then back again finally to Berkeley. He was 
 usually made to travel at night; while the place of his 
 detention as far as possible was kept a secret : the object 
 being to keep him out of sight and out of mind, till he had 
 disappeared for ever.^ 
 
 Isabelle was especially afraid that the clergy might 
 refuse to connive at her intercourse with Mortimer ; that 
 they might even insist upon her returning to cohabit with 
 her husband. To guard against this danger, and also provide 
 against the possibihty of finding herself by some means or 
 other brought face to face with him, she summoned a Grand 
 Council to meet at Stamford, and obtained from them a de- 
 claration that they would never sanction such an interview.® 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II i. 57. ^ Complete Peerage. ' Ann. Paul. 333. 
 
 * Berkeley Accounts, cited Smyth, Lives of Berkeleys, I. 293 (1883). 
 
 ° Murimuth, 53, 54 ; Baker, 28-30 ; Walsingham, I. 188. £5 a day were now- 
 allowed for Edward's keep. But Thomas of Berkeley received in all from the 
 Exchequer £1,200 for Edward's custody. That would include the wages of the 
 guard. Berkeley Accounts, sup. and 294 ; and Foed., sup. According to Baker, 
 100 marks = £66 r3^. 8d. per month had been allowed. 
 
 ° Apol. Orleton, sup., c. 2767 ; Foed. II. 703, 704. The writs for the Council 
 were issued on the isth April. Edward III was at Stamford 23rd and 24th April. 
 
 1327 
 
1 68 
 
 THE EX-KING 
 
 CHAP. X 
 
 1327 
 Changes 
 of treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Isabella 
 getting 
 impatient, 
 
 With this assurance to encourage them, Mortimer and 
 Isabelle could now direct the keepers to proceed with their 
 horrible work. Their instructions seemingly were to kill 
 their victim by inches, or at all events to drive him mad. 
 He was never to see or be seen by anybody that they could 
 help. He was obliged to ride bareheaded and thinly clad ; 
 he was deprived of his proper sleep ; he was given unwhole- 
 some or unpalatable food. Everything that he said was 
 contradicted ; he was constantly told that he was out of his 
 mind. Approaching Bristol, on their way from Corfe to 
 Berkeley, some hostile movement in the city being feared, 
 the party took up their quarters in a grange outside. When 
 the time to depart came, the guard plaited a crown of hay, 
 put it on Edward's head, and then told him mockingly to 
 go on. " Avant Sire Kyng ! " Finally, coming to Berkeley, 
 they turned to the left, to approach the castle through 
 swampy ground by the Severn ; it then occurred to them 
 to disguise the ex-King, by shaving his head and beard. 
 They dismounted him, placed him on a mole-hill, and 
 brought him ditch-water to shave with ; ' Cold water,' they 
 said, ' was good enough for him '. Bursting into tears he 
 answered, ' I shall have hot water whether ye will or not.' ^ 
 
 But the constitution of an athletic man of forty-three 
 does not break down under such petty assaults. In spite 
 of physical and moral annoyances Edward lived on. With 
 the prolongation of his existence dangers began to thicken 
 round Mortimer and Isabelle. The Scots broke the truce, 
 and invaded the Northern counties.^ Thomas Dunhead 
 and other Dominicans openly preached the cause of the 
 dethroned monarch.* Troubles were reported from Ireland ; 
 while disorders broke out in London (July).* Towards the 
 
 ^ So Baker, 30, 3r. He tells us that he had the story some twenty-two years 
 later from William Bishop, Captain of Edward's guard. 
 
 ^ June- July ; Foed. II. 708. 
 
 ^ June; Ann. Paul. 337; Lanercost, 260; Chron. Lond. 58; Cal. Pat. Roll 
 I Edw. Ill, 156. Dunhead continued his efforts on behalf of Edward after the 
 death of the latter. He was used to ensnare the Earl of Kent in 1330, and 
 himself died in prison ; Lanercost, 260, 265. 
 
 ' Foed. 709-711. 
 
DONE TO DEATH 169 
 
 end of August an attempt on Berkeley Castle was reported.^ chap, x 
 Half-measures having failed, and delays being dangerous, 1327 
 the word was given to cut short the end. We must only 
 hope that Mortimer, rather than Isabelle, gave the word.^ 
 A last attempt to get rid of Edward by suffocating him 
 with the efHuvia of putrid meat having failed, recourse 
 was had to violence. On the night of the 2ist September^ The end. 
 screams of agony from Edward's chamber told the con- 
 science-stricken inmates of the castle that some hideous 
 deed was being wrought. When dayhght came the 
 dethroned King was found dead in his bed. The clergy 
 and gentry of the neighbourhood were called in to attest 
 the fact, and the further circumstance that the body bore 
 no marks of violence. It was, however, understood that 
 death had been brought about by the forcible intrusion of 
 a red-hot iron through a drenching-horn into the bowels of 
 the victim.* Thomas of Gurney was at once sent by 
 Berkeley, with letters to Isabelle and the young King at 
 Nottingham, to report the ex-King's death.^ The corpse 
 remained at Berkeley for a month, Thomas still drawing the 
 £5 a day for the custody of it. At the end of the month it 
 was taken by Abbot Thokey in his own chariot covered 
 with black canvas, and escorted by " the lord Berkeley's 
 family ", to St. Peter's, Gloucester, to await a final inter- 
 ment on the 20th December. Other monasteries had re- 
 fused to receive the remains. The heart had been removed, 
 as commonly done, and enclosed in a silver vase.^ A few 
 years later the existing tomb, with its elegant pinnacled 
 canopy, was erected by the care of Edward III. The shrine 
 became highly popular ; and it was said that the offerings 
 supplied the funds for encasing the Norman walls of the 
 church with Perpendicular tracery.'' 
 
 ' Foed. 11. 714. See also Mon. Malm. 290 ; Walsingham, II. 189. 
 
 " In 1331 it was alleged in Parliament by Edward III that Mortimer had 
 confessed that the late King had been murdered by his " procurement " ; Rot. 
 Parlt. II. 62. ^ Berkeley Castle Accounts, sup. ; Foed. 708. 
 
 ' Baker, 33, 34 ; Murimuth, 55 ; Knighton, sup., 2552 ; Walsingham, I. 189; 
 Hemingburgh, II. 297. ' Berkeley Accounts, sup., 293. 
 
 « Id. ' J. R. King, Handbook to Cathedrals. 
 
170 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL 
 
 1330 
 
 Inquests. 
 
 No inquiries were instituted as to the circumstances 
 attending the ex-King's death so long as Isabelle and 
 Mortimer remained in power. In fact only a few months 
 before Mortimer's fall Maltravers was called to Parliament 
 as a Peer.i For the sake of convenience we may be here 
 allowed to anticipate events. The next Parliament, held 
 later in that same year (1330), witnessed Roger's fall, and 
 proceedings were at once instituted against Maltravers, 
 Gurney, Wilham of Ogle and Berkeley. 
 
 Maltravers was simply charged with having lured the 
 Earl of Kent to destruction by tehing him that Edward 
 was alive, well knowing him to be dead. It is probable that 
 he was not at Berkeley Castle at the time of the murder. 
 He was, however, condemned for the deceptions practised 
 on the unfortunate Edmund, who wished to beheve that his 
 brother might still be alive.^ Having absconded, fifteen 
 years later Maltravers surrendered to the King in Flanders, 
 was pardoned,^ and served both at Crecy and Poitiers : he 
 died in 1364. 
 
 Gurney and Ogle were charged with the actual murder,* of 
 which they were doubtless guilty. Bothfled to the Continent. 
 Ogle is not heard of again, and presumably died abroad. 
 Gurney was traced to Spain, and from thence to Italy. He was 
 arrested at Naples, and died at Bayonne on the way home.® 
 
 Berkeley was arraigned before the King in Parliament 
 (1330) and asked how he could clear himself of complicity 
 in the murder of the late King, perpetrated at his castle, 
 and while the King was under his charge, and that of John 
 Maltravers. Thomas had the effrontery to say that he 
 had never been a ' consenting aiding or procuring ' party 
 to the late King's death ; in fact he had never heard any- 
 thing about it till the then Parliament, as he could prove.^ 
 
 ' 25 January 1330 ; Complete Peerage. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. 11. 53, 55. For Kent's affair, see below. 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 56, 146. The pardon was confirmed by Parliament ; Rot. Parlt. 
 II. 243. ■■ Rot. Parlt. 54. 
 
 ' Ju'y 1333- See Mr. Hunter's article, Archaeologia, XXXVI. 274. Gurney 
 was a Lancastrian, who forfeited after Boroughbridge. 
 
 " Nee usquam solvit de morte sua usque in praesenti Parliamento." 
 
JUSTICE 171 
 
 (Very likely !) Pressed for his evidence, he said that at the chap, x 
 time when the late King was alleged to have been ' murdered ,330 
 and killed ', he was not at Berkeley but at Bradley, so ill 
 that he could remember nothing ; ^ and for the truth of that 
 he ' put himself upon his country ', i.e. claimed an Inquest. 
 The damning testimony of the Berkeley domestic accounts 
 shows that Thomas did not leave Berkeley Castle for 
 Bradley till a week after the event.^ Nevertheless a jury 
 of knights, accepting his word, foUnd that he was not at 
 Berkeley at the time, but at Bradley, and so was innocent 
 of the death of the King. The question of negligence in 
 leaving him under the care of Gurney and Ogle, however, 
 remained, and on that account he was placed under the 
 charge of the Steward of the Household, to be shortly let 
 out on bail (1331). In the next Parliament he was reheved 
 of his bail ; and in 1333 summoned to Parliament.^ But 
 though attending Parliaments he was not finally absolved 
 till 16 March 1337.* He was in high command at Crecy, 
 and finally died in 1361. Thus the subordinates suffered ; 
 the principals got off scot-free. 
 
 Of course popular f eehng for the dethroned King sprang up Post- 
 after his death. The question began to be mooted whether hoJX'rs. 
 he might not be as well entitled to saintly honour as Thomas 
 of Lancaster.^ The next thing was to assert that he was not 
 dead but alive, and that he had escaped from Berkeley.® 
 
 The reign is a dismal one, unrelieved by any bright spot. 
 The King's want of moral tone seems to have infected the 
 
 ' " In tanta infirmitate quod nichil ei currebat memorie." 
 
 ' Smyth, sup., 296. " Rot. Park. 57, 62 ; Smyth, sup. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 960. ' Walsingham and Mon. Malm. sup. 
 
 ° A few years ago a letter addressed to Edward III, and purporting to be 
 written by Manuel Fieschi, Canon of York, was found in the archives of the 
 department of the Herault. The document professes to give a ' confession ' made 
 by Edward II, detailing the circumstances of his escape from Berkeley Castle, 
 and of his wanderings up and down the Continent, till he settled as a pious recluse 
 in Lombardy. A tablet on the wall of the castle of Melazzo in Piedmont, a 
 place named in the letter (castri Melasci), professes to bear witness to Edward's 
 sojourn there. The Cartulary in which the letter is found was drawn up in 1365. 
 See Bp. Stubbs, Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II, vol. II, ciii ; and Macmillan's Mag. 
 XLI. 393. One might suggest that the letter was a pious fraud, written to relieve 
 Edward's conscience of compunctions as to the circumstances of his accession. 
 
172 CONSTITUTIONAL 
 
 cHAP.x whole aristocracy, and the aristocracy was still the nation. 
 1330 The reign however has considerable interest from the 
 Constitu- constitutional point of view. However revolutionary their 
 I'mportance a-ction, all parties are careful to use constitutional language, 
 of the and, as far as possible, observe constitutional forms. The 
 leaders of the nation were evidently resolved to make good, 
 and, if possible, improve upon the advantages gained under 
 Edward I. The reign opens with a coronation oath of 
 novel stringency, followed immediately by an effort to give 
 effect to its requirements. Then we have the Ordinances, 
 enacted and re-enacted in earnest endeavour to curtail 
 the Royal authority. Their significance will not be done 
 away with even if we should consider the leaders of the 
 movement to have been actuated, quite as much by per- 
 sonal pique against the King, as by honest zeal for reform. 
 The close of the struggle, at any rate, marks a most impor- 
 tant constitutional gain. The Baronial Ordinances had 
 been sanctioned by Parliament, but they had not been 
 initiated in Parliament. This, Edward held, was a fatal 
 defect. For the future, whatever is to be established for 
 Nolegis- the estate of King, realm and people must be ' treated 
 ex'cept accorded and estabhshed in Parhament, by the Kmg and by 
 through the consent of the prelates earls and barons and the com- 
 ^gjjt monalty of the realm, as hath been heretofore accus- 
 tomed '. The necessity of popular co-operation for all 
 valid legislation is here laid down, and by implication the 
 right of legislating by Ordinance is finally renounced. Thus, 
 as we have already observed, for the sake of picking a hole 
 in the objectionable Ordinances, Edward enunciates " a 
 more elaborate formula of constitutional law " than any 
 yet known.^ 
 
 Throughout the reign we are constantly hearing of 
 Parliamentary action. Every revolution is sanctioned 
 and ratified by a Parliament. By Parliaments Gaveston 
 is banished, and the Despensers are successively banished 
 and recalled ; Parliament is asked to sanction the confisca- 
 tion of the estates of the fallen Lancastrians ; finally 
 ' Statutes, I. 190 ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 369. 
 
GAINS 173 
 
 Parliament sets up a new King, if it does not formally chap, x 
 depose the old one. Each political party as it gains the 1307-1327 
 upper hand uses Parhament as its instrument. This 
 enduring feature of our system may be said to date from 
 the reign of the Second Edward. 
 
 The finance of the reign need not detain us long. The Finance, 
 taxation was on the same lines as under Edward I, and 
 presents no features of novelty. The chief point to be 
 noticed is that our researches do not support the view of 
 previous writers that Edward's difficulties were chiefly 
 financial, and that his revenue was insufficient. In fact he 
 had no reason to complain of any want of liberahty on the 
 part of his subjects. He enjoyed a handsome revenue, not 
 quite equal to that of his father, but still very sufficient. 
 If the reader will look at the totals paid in through the 
 Pell Rolls during the early years of the reign, as shown on 
 our Table B, comparing them with the corresponding totals 
 for the previous reign, as shown in a previous work,^ he 
 will see that the former totals greatly exceed the latter. 
 In fact the Pell receipts alone of Edward II for the first 
 eight years exceed the combined Pell and Wardrobe receipts 
 of the corresponding years of his father's reign. But the 
 Wardrobe receipts for those eight years of Edward IPs 
 reign are wanting,^ so that we cannot say what his total 
 income for that period was, and so no real comparison can 
 be drawn. On the other hand if we take the six years 
 between 1316 and 1322 for which the accounts are complete, 
 we shall find an income running in round numbers from 
 £60,111 to £112,664 a year, the latter being a sum greater Average 
 than any that we found for any single year of the reign of 
 Edward I. But his son's average only comes to £86,387 
 a year ; whereas we found £95,000 as the average revenue 
 of the prior reign.^ The reader may rest assured that our 
 estimate of the Revenue is not above the mark. But it 
 
 ' Dawn of the Constitution, Appendix, Table A. 
 
 ' For the Wardrobe Accounts and their relation to the Pell Rolls, see Dawn, 
 29!) 531. The revenue was paid in partly through the one channel and partly 
 through the other. 
 
 ' See Dawn, 538. 
 
I307-I327 
 
 174 FIFTEENTHS 
 
 may be below it, owing to the mischievous practice of 
 granting ' assignments '. An assignment was an order by 
 the King to a receiver of some branch of the Revenue to 
 pay a certain sum to a named individual. The payment 
 would figure in the receiver's special accounts, but not in 
 either Pell or Wardrobe accounts.^ But with a man who 
 troubled himself so little with public affairs as the Second 
 Edward the amount of these may not have been very 
 considerable. His extravagance was in the way of whole- 
 sale grants of perfect appanages of land and titles. 
 
 The frequent calls for large bodies of men for abortive 
 expeditions, at the King's expense, must, no doubt, have 
 weighed heavily on the Exchequer ; but Edward was not 
 left without means for all reasonable purposes, at least so 
 long as he kept on decent terms with his subjects. The 
 grants made by Parliament and Convocation were distinctly 
 liberal, the grants by the clergy being in fact grants by 
 Parlia- Avignon Popes. In the year of his accession (1307) 
 mentary Edward received a Twentieth from the counties and a 
 
 grants. 
 
 Fifteenth from the boroughs, with a Fifteenth of Spirituals 
 and Temporals from the clergy : ^ in 1309 he had a Twenty- 
 fifth from the laity, with Tenths from the clergy, granted 
 for three years by Clement V.* In 1311 he had from 
 Canterbury j.2d. on the mark (135. ^d.) from Spiritualities. 
 In 1313 he had a Twentieth and Fifteenth from the laity ; 
 with 4^. on the mark of Spiritualities ; from Canterbury ; 
 and the same from York in the following year.* But he had 
 also managed to 'borrow' £Sfi66 135. 4^. from Canterbury 
 in 1313.^ In 1314 again he extracted £6,666 145. from the 
 Southern Province. In 1315 the King had a Twentieth 
 and Fifteenth from the laity, with a Tenth from the clergy. 
 In January 1316 we have a Sixteenth granted by the 
 counties, but nothing from the towns ; ^ in the following 
 
 ' See Dawn of Constitution, 532. For a signal case of assignment see below 
 under Edward III. 
 
 ^ Parly. Writs, II. i. 8, 9. The clerical grant does not appear on the Enrolled 
 Accounts cited below ; probably it figured on an earlier roll that I did not get. 
 
 = Foed. II. 87. ■■ Reg. Pal. Dunelm. I. 636. » Parly. Writs. 
 
 " So the Enrolled Accounts ; the Parly . Writs have a Fifteenth from the boroughs. 
 
AND TENTHS 175 
 
 October the clergy gave another Tenth. In 1317 the King chap, x 
 had a clerical Tenth to which Scotland, Wales and Ireland 1307-1327 
 were required to contribute, but with httle gain. In 1319 
 the York Parliament granted an Eighteenth from the 
 counties, with a Twelfth from the boroughs, while the 
 Canterbury clergy under orders from John XXII gave 
 another Tenth. In 1321-1322 we have 5^. on the mark of 
 Spiritualities, while lastly in 1322-1323 we have a Tenth 
 from the counties, and a Sixth from the boroughs and 
 demesnes, with two more Tenths from the clergy, and there 
 the supphes of the reign seem to end.^ A mysterious entry 
 on the Pell Receipt Roll for Easter 18 (1325) speaks of 
 a Fifteenth and Tenth as having been granted that year. 
 We must question if it was collected, if granted. The 
 Enrolled Accounts know nothing of it. The Tenth and 
 Sixth of 1322 is immediately followed on the Rolls by the 
 first grant of the reign of Edward III. 
 
 The details of the sums paid in under the more important Yield of 
 of these grants, are given by the Enrolled Accounts, but * ^ ^"^ ^' 
 without the totals, involving a laborious process of addition. 
 With respect to the five clerical Tenths prior to the year 
 1317 these were taken on the assessment of Pope Nicholas IV 
 of the year 1291, amounting to £210,644 gs. gd} From 
 1317 onwards, in consequence of the ravages of the Scots 
 the assessment was reduced to £191,903 2s. ^\d. and the 
 York Tenth lowered from £4,000, in round numbers, to 
 £2,384 10s. Under the old valuation the Tenth of 1309 on 
 the Enrolled Accounts comes to about £20,000, in round 
 numbers, so that the five Tenths prior to 1317 may be 
 taken together as making £100,000, besides £5,778 of arrears 
 got in from earlier grants. But the Tenth granted in 1317, 
 with Scotland, Wales and Ireland included, comes only to 
 £19,229 zos. jd., the assessment of the Northern Province 
 having been ' relaxed ' as above mentioned. The Tenth 
 of 1319 again might be taken as £19,000. The three 
 
 ' See L. T. R. Enrolled Accounts, namely, for the Clerical Subsidies, No. 3, 
 and for the Lay Subsidies, No. r4. 
 " See Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 5S0, 581. 
 
176 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY 
 
 Yield of 
 Lay Sub 
 sidies. 
 
 CHAP. X remaining Tenths appear to have yielded £18,000 each, or 
 
 1307-1327 £54,000 in all. The grants of i2d. and 4d. on the mark of 
 
 Spirituals being given for defence need hardly figure in the 
 
 Royal accounts, the i2d. on the mark from Canterbury 
 
 might bring in £2,687 ^os} 
 
 For the lay subsidies we find the Fifteenth and Twentieth 
 of 1307 producing £38,000 in round numbers, and we 
 take the same amount for the like subsidies granted in 
 1313 and 1315. The Twenty-fifth of 1309 yielded £33,000, 
 while the Sixteenth of 1316 from the counties gave £35,407. 
 The Fifteenth from the demesnes exacted in 1317 produced 
 £4,000, while the Eighteenth and Twelfth granted in 1319 
 furnished £36,396, and the Tenth and Sixth of 1322-1323 
 £41,510.^ 
 
 For the sake of clearness we append a Table of these 
 grants : 
 
 Lay 
 
 (i) 1307. Fifteenth and Twen- 
 tieth .... 38,000 
 
 (2) 1309. Twenty-fifth, Coun- 
 
 ties and Boroughs . 33,000 
 
 (3) 1313. Fifteenth and Twen- 
 
 tieth .... 38,000 
 
 (4) 1315. Same . . . 38,000 
 
 (5) 1316. Sixteenth from 
 
 counties . . . 35,407 
 
 (6) 1317. Fifteenth from de- 
 
 mesnes . . . 4,000 
 
 (7) 1319. Eighteenth and 
 
 Twelfth . . . 36,396 
 
 (8) 1322. Tenth and Sixth . 41,510 
 
 
 Clerical 
 
 £ 
 
 (I) 
 
 1307. Fifteenth, say 
 
 . 15,000 
 
 (=) 
 
 1309-1316. Five Tenths on 
 
 
 old Valuation 
 
 100,000 
 
 (3) 
 
 1313. Benevolences 
 
 8,666 
 
 (4) 
 
 1314. Same . 
 
 6,666 
 
 (5) 
 
 1317. Crusade Tenth 
 
 r9,229 
 
 (6) 
 
 1319. Same, say 
 
 19,000 
 
 (7) 
 
 r320-r322. Three Tenths 
 
 
 
 say . 
 
 54,000 
 
 
 £222,561 
 
 £264,313 
 
 Spread over the i6 years in course of which these grants 
 would be collected we get an average for the clerical grants 
 of £13,910 and for the lay grants one of £16,519, together 
 providing £30,429 a year towards an average revenue of 
 £86,387. 
 
 ' L. T. R. Enrolled Accounts, Subsidies, Clerical, No. 3. 
 ^ Id., Lay, No. 14. 
 
GRANTS 17^ 
 
 For the Customs we append a Table of the returns, chap, x 
 year by year throughout the reign so far as extant. The 
 duties were levied at the rates established in 1303, except Customs, 
 from the 6th October 1311 to the end of November 1322, 
 during which period the Nova Custuma was suspended by 
 order of Parliament on the constitutional plea that the 
 Carta Mercatoria of Edward I, under which those duties were 
 imposed, had not been sanctioned by Parliament, but only 
 by an assembly of merchants.^ Our Table A will give a fair 
 view of the amounts raised, but it must be said that the 
 accounts of some of the years given are not quite complete ; 
 and again that we hear nothing of any wine duty till the 
 year 1322 : our accounts, however, include the anticipations of 
 duty exacted as forced loans in some years. The reader will 
 notice the extraordinary fluctuations in the returns, varying, 
 even with the full duties, from £11,783 to £24,285 for the 
 year. For the years when the New Customs were sus- 
 pended the totals are much the same as under the early 
 years of Edward I, or £io,ooo-£i2,ooo a year. But at 
 the last under him we had as much as £28,462 ^ in one year, 
 while £24,285 is the maximum of his son's reign. 
 
 For the six years for which full returns of the revenue Hereditary 
 are forthcoming the average yield of the Customs comes ^e'venues. 
 to £14,000 in round numbers ; we found that the Parliamen- 
 tary grants averaged over £30,000 a year; putting these 
 two together, namely £44,000, and deducting that from the 
 average revenue of £86,000, we get the balance of £42,000 
 as representing the yield of the hereditary, non-Parliamen- 
 tary revenues of the Crown, including loans and sundries. 
 
 Edward as a young man had certainly been extravagant. King's 
 £28,000 of debt incurred by him as Prince of Wales was ^''P'^"'^'" 
 paid off early in the reign, with £118,000 left owing by his 
 father.* But, according to the accounts that have come 
 down to us, he did not as King keep an extravagant house- 
 hold, the domestic expenditure averaging only £10,000 a 
 
 ' See Dawn of Constitution, 485. 
 
 ^ See Id. 534. For further details of the Customs' accounts of the reign see 
 my Article Engl. Hist. Rev. XXVI. 1-97. " Archaeol., sup. 248. 
 
 1416-1 N 
 
178 HOUSEHOLD 
 
 CHAP. X year. Thus for the five months from the ist February to 
 i3o7i327 the 7th July anno IX (1316) we have £7,307 spent : for the 
 whole year July 1316 to July 1317 we have £12,392 ex- 
 pended, besides £842 the pay of the King's Foot Guards. 
 For the nth and 12th years 1317-1318 and 1318-1319 the 
 amounts sink to £10,437 and £8,310 respectively. ^ To the 
 weekly bills, however, should be added the sums paid for 
 clothing and arms stored at the Great Wardrobe. Between 
 April and October 1316 the money paid under this head 
 came to £7,951 os. 6^d. For later years from £900 to £1,000 
 a year seems to have sufficed ; but even with this addition 
 the expenditure of Edward's household would not approach 
 that of his father, which we found to average £15,000 a year 
 and upwards.^ 
 
 It is not so clear that the Queen was ecenomical in her 
 habits. A memorandum on a Roll of Accounts of the loth 
 year^ tells us that on the 1st December 1316 the King 
 at Scroby gave the Queen a charge for 11,000 marks 
 (£7,333 6s. 8d.) a year for her household expenses and 
 otherwise ; and we find £2,526 6.?. 8d. paid on account 
 during the half-year. On the other hand we hear that 
 apart from the Queen the King could live for five weeks 
 on £135 6s. 6d. or £27 is. 3d. a week,* less than the sum 
 , allowed to Berkeley for his keep as a prisoner. 
 Loans. Edward, however, at times had to borrow considerable 
 
 sums of money. Thus we have commissions to Antonio 
 Pessagno of Genoa to raise £20,000 for the King's use at 
 one time ; and again at another time to raise 20,000 marks 
 for him in Gascony.^ So again we heard of the 169,000 
 gold florins advanced by Clement V on a mortgage of 
 Gascony. As the gold florin of the time contained about 
 the same weight of gold as our half-sovereign, in mere 
 bullion, apart from all question of purchasing power, the 
 
 ' L. T. R. Enrolled Accounts, Wardrobe and Household, No. 2. 
 
 ' Dawn, 540. 
 
 ^ The Roll is catalogued as a Pell Issue Roll, but wrongly. It is a miscellaneous 
 account. 
 
 * 4 May-29 June anno VIII (1315) ; Exchequer Q. R., Wardrobe and House- 
 hold ; Bundle No. 18. ° Archaeol., sup. 
 
EXPENDITURE 179 
 
 loan would be equal to ^^56,333 6^. 8d. of our money. But chap.x 
 
 on the whole the borrowings were on a much smaller scale ' 
 
 . 1307-1327 
 
 than during the previous reign, and the sums borrowed 
 
 appear for the most part to have been duly repaid. In 
 fact the King's extravagance lay not in his personal ex- 
 penditure — grooms and watermen could be entertained 
 at moderate expense — but in reckless alienation of Crown 
 property, as already mentioned. Still Edward did leave 
 debts to a not inconsiderable extent. His son, however, 
 was too busy accumulating habihties on his own account 
 to trouble himself with his father's owings.^ 
 
 The Universities continued to flourish, the expansion The Uni- 
 always taking the form of the indigenous collegiate system, ■^"^'t"^^- 
 At Oxford two fresh Halls were founded, in addition to 
 the three existing foundations, Merton Hall, Balliol Hall, 
 and University Hall. Exeter College, originally Stapledon 
 Hall, dates from April 1314, by the grant of the unfortunate 
 Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, with an endowment for twelve 
 scholars, derived, however, not from private funds, but from 
 tithes, Church property. Originally settled in tenements 
 in St. Peter's-in-the-East, the Hall in October 1315 was 
 transferred to the site of the present Exeter College. Oriel 
 College dates from 1324, when Edward hcensed his almoner 
 Adam of Brome to found ' a House of Scolars of St. Mary at 
 Oxford.' Under this permission Adam established a Hall on 
 the South side of the High Street. Shortly afterwards for 
 the sake of obtaining Royal protection, he surrendered his 
 foundation to the King, who issued a foundation Charter 
 and code of Statutes, all dated 26 January 1326, with himself 
 as Head under the title of Praepositus or Provost. In 
 December 1327 the scholars of St. Mary Hah received from 
 Edward III the grant of the reversion of a house called 
 " Le Oriole ", on the site from which Oriel College takes its 
 name.^ St. Mary Hall, originally the parsonage of the 
 rectors of St. Mary's Church, was also given by Edward to 
 Oriel College, and was estabhshed by them as a separate Hall 
 
 ' See a letter of Archbishop Islip remonstrating with Edward III on this very 
 point ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 394 note. 
 ' Cal. Pat. Roll i Edw. Ill, 195. 
 
 N 2 
 
l82 
 
 TABLE A 
 Customs, Edward II 
 
 From L. T. R. Enrolled Customs' Accounts Nos. i and 2. 
 
 Rates of Duty. 
 Antigua or Magna Custuma (from natives and foreigners). 
 Sack of Wool and 300 Woolfells 
 Last of Leatlier ...... 
 
 s. d. 
 
 6 8 
 
 13 4 
 
 Nova or Parva Custuma (from foreigners). 
 
 Sack of wool and 300 Woolfells ..... 
 
 (in addition to old duty) 
 Last of Leather ......... 6 8 
 
 (in addition to old duty) 
 Scarlet cloth full grain, the piece (pannus) . . . .20 
 
 Cloth half grain, the piece .......16 
 
 Cloth not in grain, the piece .......10 
 
 Wax, the quintal ......... 2 c 
 
 Wine, the tun .......... 2 c 
 
 All other articles, cattle, horses, grain, groceries, &c., 3d. on the £1 value, 
 
 3 4 
 
 Years. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 I 
 
 14,434 S 3 
 
 II 
 
 9,172 14 S 
 
 2 
 
 19,172 3 2 
 
 12 
 
 19,939 4 
 
 3 
 
 14,062 3 II 
 
 13 
 
 10,620 9 3 
 
 4 
 
 16,240 7 3 
 
 14 
 
 10,313 19 3 
 
 S 
 
 13,094 4 II* 
 
 15 
 
 6,324 8 II 
 
 6 
 
 12,218 16 6 
 
 16 
 
 24,285 3 lit 
 
 7 
 
 10,724 16 9 
 
 17 
 
 11,985 3 4 
 
 8 
 
 10,780 8 7 
 
 18 
 
 11,783 19 8 
 
 9 
 
 7,102 6 4 
 
 19 
 
 8,741 9 3 
 
 10 
 
 9,331 8 10 
 
 
 
 * Nova Custuma suspended by Order of Parliament, 6th October 1311. 
 t Nova Custuma again levied. London Accounts swelled by £555 17.?. od. 
 from Wine Duties, not found before — also by forced Loan of £4,763 6s. iid. 
 
. Wardrobe 
 Acco unts, Ward- 
 jusehold). 
 
 Regno 
 Year. 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 18 
 
 19 
 20 
 
 s. d. 
 Wanting 
 
 16 II 
 
 7 I 
 
 19 8 
 
 6 o 
 
 13 5 
 2 8 
 
 4 3 
 Wanting 
 
 Grand Totals. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 60,1 u 6 II 
 
 112,664 s oj 
 
 88,269 2 li 
 
 104,058 8 iii 
 
 65,873 6 0-5 
 
 78,011 12 6i 
 
EDWARD III "OF WINDSOR" 
 
 Born 13th November 1312 ; began to reign 25th January 1327 ; 
 d. 2ist June 1377. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A. D. I327-I328 
 
 Domestic affairs. — Accession. — Coronation. — Parliament. — ^Treaty with France. 
 — War with Scotland. — Parliament. — Money Grants. — Peace with Scotland.— 
 Parliament. — ^Treaty ratified. — Marriage of the King. 
 
 On the 20th January (1327) the unfortunate Edward II, chap.xi 
 a prisoner at Kenilworth, had been forced to give a reluctant j^j^ 
 abdication in favour of his son. On the 24th of the month 
 the peace of the new King was proclaimed, but his reign 
 somehow was not held to have begun till the morrow. 
 On the 26th again a new Seal was produced, and placed 
 in the trusty hands of John of Hotham, Bishop of Ely.^ 
 John had already held the offices both of Treasurer and 
 Chancellor, and had also been employed on important 
 diplomatic missions abroad. Throughout his career he 
 had managed to be faithful to the late King without incur- 
 ring the hostihty of the Opposition. On the other hand, 
 the indispensable Adam of Orleton, Bishop of Hereford, 
 a man with a very different record, was appointed to the 
 Treasury.* 
 
 Sunday ist February was the day chosen for the corona- Corona- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Enrolled Customs Account, passim. So when Edward assumed the style of 
 King of France in 1340 the change was made on the 25th January. See below. 
 
 " See Foss, Judges, III. 444. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 683, 684. On the 24th March, however, Orleton was accredited 
 on an embassy to Avignon ; and on the 28th Bishop Burghersh of Lincoln 
 succeeded him at the Treasury ; Pell Issue Roll in die ; Foed. 698. 
 
1327 
 
 i84 CORONATION 
 
 tion. As an indispensable preliminary the boy-monarch 
 had to be dubbed knight. The honour was conferred 
 by the sword of his cousin Henry of Lancaster, surnamed 
 ' Wryneck ',^ Earl of Lancaster and Leicester. The like 
 distinction was then imparted by John of Hainault to a 
 batch of young magnates headed by John of Bohun, Earl 
 of Hereford, son of Humphrey VH killed at Boroughbridge, 
 and the three sons of Roger Mortimer.^ These youths, 
 with other hostages, had been released from custody in the 
 Tower through the instrumentality of the London mob on 
 the 15th October.^ The coronation rites of course took 
 place in Westminster Abbey, and the hallowing unction, 
 equally of course, was imposed by the hands of the renegade 
 Archbishop Walter Reynolds. William Ayreminne of 
 Norwich and Haymo Heath of Rochester chaunted the 
 The Oath. Litany.* The coronation oath followed the formula intro- 
 duced in the late reign, the King swearing to maintain ' the 
 laws and righteous customs which the community ^ [com- 
 munaute) of the realm should choose ', in addition to the 
 primary obligations of the original oath. A formal record 
 was attested by the Bishops of Ely and Hereford, by John 
 Stratford of Winchester, John Langton of Chichester, 
 Thomas Cobham of Worcester, Louis of Beaumont of 
 Durham, Henry Burghersh of Lincoln, John Egglescliffe of 
 Llandaff and William Ayreminne of Norwich. The memo- 
 randum is also subscribed by the King's uncles Thomas 
 of Brotherton Earl of Norfolk, and Edmund of Woodstock 
 Earl of Kent ; by John of Warenne H Earl of Surrey, 
 
 ' " Au tort col," J. Le Bel, I. 16. 
 
 ^ So Doyle and Complete Peerage. Bridlington, 95, however, has it that the 
 King himself was knighted by John. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 53; Chron. Lond. 57 ; Walsingham, 1. 18S ; Barnes, Edward III, 
 p. 4. 
 
 ' So Dene, Angl. Sacr. I. 360. Rochester's name, however, does not appear 
 among the list of those present given in Foedera ; nor do we find the names of 
 the sturdy prelates who had ventured to protest against the deposition of the late 
 King, namely William Melton of York, Stephen Segrave of London, and John 
 Ross of Carlisle. 
 
 ' This seems the proper rendering, the original clearly comprising the three 
 estates. See Foed. II. 684 ; Lanercost, 258. 
 
RITES 185 
 
 John of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex, Roger Mortimer, chap, xi 
 and Henry of Beaumont.^ Baldwin of Fryville, pre- 7327 
 sumably, appeared as King's champion, his mother's right The 
 to the office, by virtue of the possession of Tamworth ^^^^P'o"- 
 Castle, having been recognized in 1325.^ 
 
 The morrow of the coronation, being Candlemas or the 
 Feast of the Purification, was kept as a holiday; on the 
 3rd February Parliament resumed its sittings, no fresh Parlia- 
 writs being issued. We have seen that the revolution was "'™'" 
 the work of a coalition between the offended Queen, 
 Mortimer as representing the Confederates of 1321, and the 
 Lancastrians ; a final impulse being given to the hesitation 
 of Parliament by the intervention of the London mob, 
 worked up to the requisite pitch of excitement by the 
 oratory of Stratford, Orleton, and Reynolds. The claims 
 of all these parties would have to be recognized. The first 
 measure was to appoint a standing Council of Regency to Regency 
 advise the King. Four prelates, four earls, and six barons 
 were named ; of these it was agreed that a bishop, an earl, 
 and two barons should be in constant attendance upon the 
 sovereign.* The Presidency was given to Lancaster, sup- 
 ported by the three Earls of royal blood, namely Norfolk, 
 Kent and Surrey. The prelates were the two Archbishops, 
 the faithless Reynolds and the faithful Melton, with, of 
 course, the two ' indispensables ', Orleton and Stratford. 
 Of the barons the names of only four have been handed 
 down ; three of them Wake, Percy, de Ros, were clearly 
 Lancastrians ; while Oliver Ingham, the fourth, was an 
 ally of Mortimer, and at the time Seneschal of Gascony.* 
 Roger himself did not think it necessary to invite criticism 
 by figuring on the Council ; his name is most emphatically 
 conspicuous by its absence. Concurrently with the 
 appointment of the Council appeared a string of petitions Party 
 for the reversal of the proceedings against Earl Thomas '^^^=""^^5- 
 
 ' Foed. sup. ' Calendar Close Roll i Edw. Ill, and above, p. 11. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 52 ; Knighton, c. 2556. 
 
 ' See Leland, Coll. II. 476 ; Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 387 ; and for Ingham 
 Cal. Pat. Roll i Edw. Ill, p. 6. 
 
i86 CHARTERS CONFIRMED 
 
 CHAP. XI and all those ' of his quarrel '. All were reinstated in their 
 j,j_ possessions, and, apparently, with all the benefits of ' mesne 
 profits ' and ' waste '} Not content with these concessions 
 ' the good Commons ' [la bone gent de la commune) prayed 
 for a confirmation of all decrees against the Despensers, and 
 for the canonisation of Earl Thomas, grotesquely coupled 
 with Archbishop Winchelsey.^ 
 
 But there were other matters on which the ' good Com- 
 mons ' could address the King and Council in a sterner and 
 Grievances, more practical spirit. There were points, they said, in 
 the Great Charters that needed clearing up, and that 
 without delay. The rights of the Church had been invaded ; 
 the Forest Charter had been left a dead letter ; the peram- 
 bulations, ' so dearly bought ', had never been honestly 
 carried out ; the revenues of vacant sees were still im- 
 pounded ; clergy were appointed to benefices on condition 
 of sharing emoluments with the King.^ They further 
 complained of men being ' distrained ' for mihtary service 
 beyond the requirements of their tenures ; of men being 
 required to provide themselves with weapons beyond the 
 demands of the Statute of Winchester ; of men compelled 
 to serve outside their counties at their own expense ; of 
 attempts by the King's Justices to overrule and surcharge 
 the equitable assessments of Fifteenths and other subsidies 
 made by the commissioners appointed to levy the taxes. 
 Coming down to detail, they brought to light endless cases 
 of trickery and chicane committed by sheriffs, stewards of 
 manors, and others in connexion with the administration 
 of justice. Of wider scope were the demands that lands 
 held in chief alienated without licence should not be 
 subjected to forfeiture, but be redeemable by fines ; that 
 widows of men forfeited for felony should not lose their 
 dower. In a less praiseworthy spirit they demanded the 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 3-7 ; Foed. II. 689-692, 704. Even Lady Badlesmere, badly 
 as she had behaved to the Queen, was reinstated. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. 7. For the appUcation to the Pope see Foed. 695, 696. 
 
 ' John of Egglescliff, appointed Bishop of Llandaff in 1323, had to pay 
 Edward II 1,000 marks to be admitted to his temporalities ; Cal. Pat. Roll 
 2 Edw. Ill, 265. 
 
GRIEVANCES CONSIDERED 187 
 
 enforcement of the law requiring merchant-strangers to chap, xi 
 dispose of their goods within forty days of their landing, ^TZ 
 a relaxation of the rule having been sanctioned by the 
 prelates and barons. Finally they demanded the rigid 
 exclusion from the country of all 'Provisors', i.e. persons 
 introducing Papal Bulls of Provision.^ 
 
 On most points satisfactory answers were given. Both Conces- 
 Charters were fully confirmed, and the perambulations 
 promised afresh.^ The petition with regard to vacant Sees 
 was evaded, the King only undertaking to abstain from 
 laying hands on the goods of living prelates (s. 5). With 
 regard to military service, he claimed to retain the right of 
 sending men to serve outside their counties in case of 
 foreign invasion (s. 9). The dower of felons' widows was 
 refused, as contrary to law (s. 13). With respect to 
 Provisors the matter was suspended till the King should 
 come of age (s. 26). Probably it was thought inexpedient 
 to involve the new reign in a struggle with the Papacy. 
 The concessions involving permanent law were embodied 
 in a statute, regulations of a temporary character would be 
 enrolled in Chancery.^ " The Act is on the whole creditable 
 both to the Parliament and to the government ; " * but no 
 subsidy was asked for or offered. 
 
 According to the chroniclers the Queen received a settle- 
 ment that hardly left the King one-third of his revenue.^ 
 Certain it is, however, that she, or the Bardi on her account, 
 now received sums amounting to £22,360 for debts incurred 
 by her abroad and at home. Much of this money would 
 go to John of Hainault and his men ; but the exceptional 
 character of his services was thought to justify a further 
 grant, namely that of an ' assignment ' on the wool duties 
 of the Port of London for a life-pension of 1,000 marks 
 (£666 135. 4^.) a year.^ 
 
 ' Rot. Park. II. 7-10. 
 
 " Windsor Forest for one was actually perambulated ; Manwood, Forest 
 Laws, 135. 
 
 ' Rot. Park. II. II, 12 ; Statutes, I. 251-255. The session lasted to the 
 6th March ; Parly. Writs. ' Bp. Stubbs, II. 388. 
 
 ' So Murimuth, 52 ; Baker, 28. " Foed. II. 686, 691 ; February 7-19. 
 
STORMY 
 
 CHAP. XI 
 
 1327 
 
 City 
 charters. 
 
 Political 
 situation. 
 
 Foreign 
 affairs. 
 
 France. 
 
 Of the co-partners in the revolution the Londoners still 
 remained to be rewarded for their assistance. On the gth 
 March Andrew Horn, the well-known City Chamberlain, 
 read out and expounded a fresh series of Royal Charters, 
 conferring the largest possible measure of civic franchise.^ 
 
 In spite of the seeming good understanding between 
 King and Parliament, the look-out for Mortimer and Isabelle 
 was far from hopeful ; dangers surrounded them on every 
 side. The dethroned King was alive, and might at any 
 moment break his bonds. The treaty of 1323 with the 
 Scots had involved no recognition of the independence of 
 Scotland. It was doubtful if English opinion could be 
 brought as yet to abandon the cherished dream of conquest. 
 Yet without that concession it was certain that the Scots 
 would never keep quiet. Across the Channel matters were 
 in a still worse plight. Guienne and Gascony had been over- 
 run by the French in 1324, under circumstances already 
 detailed ; and the late King had been forced to recognize 
 the state of affairs there, subject to an adjudication in the 
 French courts as to the validity of the French territorial 
 claims (21 May 1325). Both these matters received prompt 
 attention. On the 15th February, Parliament being still 
 sitting, strict observance of the truce with ' Robert Bruce 
 and his adherents ' was proclaimed ; ^ while on the 22nd 
 of the month Bishops Stratford and Ayreminne and the 
 Earl of Richmond were sent back to Paris as plenipoten- 
 tiaries, to arrange for the execution of the treaty originally 
 negotiated by them, with powers to settle everything.' 
 Mortimer was not in a position to make difficulties, and so 
 Charles proved pretty peremptory in his terms. He insisted 
 on retaining the Agenais and Bazadais,* apparently without 
 any legal investigation ; but he was prepared to agree to 
 a mutual restitution on either side of all ' conquests ' made 
 since the treaty of May 1325, in consideration of a war- 
 
 ' Ann. Paul. 325-332 ; Chron. Lond. 59. 
 
 ' Feed. 689. The truce was formally ratified by Edward, 6 March ; 696. 
 
 ' Id. 693, 694. 
 
 ' Martin, V. 10. See Lavisse, III. ii. 301 ; Tout, 324. 
 
HORIZON 189 
 
 indemnity of 50,000 marks sterling. The English were also chap, xi 
 required to banish Oliver Ingham the Seneschal of Gascony, ^^ 
 the Seneschal of the Landes, and some other Gascon lords 
 who had fallen under Charles's ban. On these terms a 
 treaty was signed in Paris on the 31st March.^ 
 
 In their dealings with Bruce the Government were even 
 less successful, perhaps because they were less complying. 
 In fact the confirmation of the truce was a mere challenge, 
 being addressed to ' Robert Bruce and his adherents '. 
 Bruce may have received from Isabelle the fugitive assur- 
 ances that Isabelle the Regent was unable to redeem,^ at 
 any rate the situation in England proved too tempting for 
 Scottish virtue. On the very night of the coronation an The Scots, 
 attempt had been made on Norham Castle.' On the 5th 
 April Edward informs the military tenants that Bruce, after 
 having agreed to a friendly meeting, to arrange for a final 
 peace, had ordered all the forces of Scotland to attend the 
 conference ; the King therefore requests a corresponding 
 muster of his lieges for the 19th May at Newcastle.* Con- 
 tinued efforts for a friendly meeting testify to the reality 
 of the English desire for peace ; but the Scots were bent 
 on war, and so Edward was obliged to call on the boroughs War. 
 to provide him with contingents of men, the numbers being 
 left to their discretion, to serve in his pay.^ A less judicious 
 step was an invitation to John of Hainault to return with 
 a fresh body of auxiliaries. The liberal scale of ' wages ' 
 offered made the service only too popular, and more men 
 came forward than John cared to keep. But already on 
 one occasion English pride had revolted at the suggestion 
 that in dealing with the Scots they might be the better 
 for a little foreign help ; and so again now the allies proved 
 a mere hindrance and source of trouble. On the 29th May 
 the Hainaulters joined the Royal headquarters at York, 
 500 strong, splendid troops, but for the purposes of Border 
 warfare totally useless. Among them came Jehan Le Bel, 
 
 ' Foed. II. 700 ; ratified by Edward at Peterborough n April; Id. 703. 
 ^ So Knighton, c. 2551. ^ Lanercost, 258. ' Foed. II. 702. 
 
 ' Id. 704, 705 ; Rot. Scot. I. 206, &c. ; Chron. Lend. 60. 
 
I go 
 
 A VANISHING 
 
 Foreign 
 allies. 
 
 HAP. XI the historian, to whose graphic pen we owe details of the 
 1327 campaign.! 
 
 On Trinity Sunday (7 June) Edward gave a grand enter- 
 tainment in honour of the strangers at the Friars Minors, 
 where he was lodged. Six hundred knights sat down at 
 table with the King, while sixty ladies dined with the Queen 
 in her bedchamber.^ The mirth of the evening was rudely 
 interrupted by a furious turmoil in the streets ; a dicer's 
 quarrel had provoked a brawl between the foreigners' 
 servants and some of the Enghsh archers. The Hainault 
 knights hastening out to protect their men found the 
 streets swept with flights of arrows from English bows. 
 With difficulty some hundred of them got together in full 
 armour in a backyard, then sallying out they cleared 
 the main street [la grande Rue). It was said that in the 
 morning three hundred and sixteen bodies were picked up. 
 The consequence was that during the rest of their stay the 
 foreigners lived in fear for their lives, keeping constant 
 watch against attempts at retaliation by their allies.^ 
 
 With picturesque incidents, the campaign proved a 
 miserable failure. In the course of June the Scots were 
 to the fore with a preliminary inroad. Edward called for 
 further levies, and sent the Northern lords under Lancaster 
 and Kent on to Newcastle. On the 26th June the Earl of 
 Kent reported that the enemy was at Appleby. But they 
 never ventured within striking distance, and the English 
 were content to remain on the defensive.* About the 
 The loth July the King moved from York, and three days later 
 
 campaign. j.gj^£;]-^g(j Northallerton. There he gave orders for opposing 
 a fresh muster of the Scots, reported as appointed to be 
 held at Carlisle about that very time. On the 15th July 
 he signs at Durham.^ The Earl Marshal (Norfolk), in charge 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 33-35. ^ " Au dortoir." 
 
 * See Le Bel, I. 40-43 ; the extract from the Wardrobe Accounts given in 
 Eulogium Historiarum, III. xvii ; and Murimuth, 53, &c. On the 14th June 
 an inquiry was directed as to disturbances between the Hainaulters and men 
 from Lincoln and Northants ; Foed. IL 707. 
 
 * Foed. 708 ; Scalacr. 153 ; and Lanercost, Appendix, 159. 
 " Foed. 709, 710. 
 
ENEMY 191 
 
 of the Intelligence department, was there already, but could chapjci 
 give no word of the whereabouts of the Scots. The army 1327 
 was not long kept waiting. Within three days or so 
 columns of smoke from blazing homesteads indicated the 
 whereabouts of the enemy. Their numbers were incon- 
 siderable, but they were led by the veteran raiders Thomas 
 Randolf Earl of Moray, and James Douglas, assisted by 
 Donald Earl of Mar. Bruce, being afflicted with leprosy, 
 had staid at home. Earl Donald, son of Gratney who died 
 in 1305, had been brought up at the English court, was 
 devoted to Edward II, and had joined the Scots in the 
 hope of creating a diversion in his favour.^ The English 
 were at once called to arms, and marched out in three 
 battalions of foot-soldiers, with cavalry on either flank of 
 each, ready for immediate action (18 July). The Scots had 
 evidently got to the rear of the English position, as we find 
 the King signing at Tudhoe, four miles to the South of 
 Durham, on the 20th July.^ Another day's march brought 
 his men, hot and tired, to Stanhope on the Upper Wear.^ 
 The futility of endeavouring to overtake the enemy by a 
 stern chase having become apparent, a council of war was 
 held, and a forced march to the Upper Tyne resolved upon, Forced 
 in the hope of intercepting the Scottish retreat. For pro- "^^^ch. 
 visions each man was told to take a loaf of bread with him, 
 as the enemy would certainly be brought to action on the 
 morrow. At midnight the force was mustered ; and, after 
 a desperate scrambling day, over Wolsingham Common, 
 and down Allerdale, through woods and quaking bogs, 
 reached Heydon Bridge on the South Tyne.* A night of 
 discomfort, without fire or lights, was followed by days 
 of continuous rain, destructive to arms, and accoutre- 
 ments, and horses' backs.^ Twenty-four hours elapsed 
 before scanty supplies, offered at famine rates, came from 
 
 ^ Le Bel, I. 46 ; Lanercost, 259 ; Bridlington, 96 ; Scalacr. 154. 
 '' Cal. Pat. Roll. 
 ^ Le Bel, 49, 50 ; Lanercost. 
 
 * Le Bel, 49-53 ; Scalacr. 154 ; Lanercost, 259 ; Rot. Scot. I. 219. Edward 
 signs at Haydonbridge on the 22nd July, and so on to the 26th of the month. 
 ' " Nos chevaulx ^taient tous blessiez sur le dos." 
 
193 
 
 SCOTTISH 
 
 1327 
 
 A bold 
 stroke. 
 
 Newcastle. Edward in despair offered land to the value of 
 £100, and the honour of Knighthood to any man who would 
 bring him within sight of the Scots. After four days' 
 scouting, the army in the meantime having moved to 
 Blanchland on the Derwent, nine miles south-east of 
 Hexham, one Thomas of Rokeby came forward to claim 
 the reward. He had just escaped from the hands of the 
 Scots, leaving them at Stanhope, not eight miles from the 
 English situation.^ There, sure enough, they were found 
 safely posted on a hill on the other, i. e. the South side ^ of 
 the river Wear. The English drew out their forces on foot, 
 on their own side of the river. The Scots, keeping on the 
 defensive, declined to cross the water to engage them ; the 
 English, "longing to be at them", did not feel equal to 
 making the advance, so there they all remained.* For three 
 days the two armies confronted each other, the Scots 
 keeping the English in a constant state of alarm at nights 
 by blowing of horns and shouting. On the fourth morning 
 they had vanished. It turned out, however, that they had 
 merely removed a distance of two miles * up the river, to a 
 more convenient camping ground within a wood. The 
 English executed a corresponding movement, again taking 
 up their position on a height confronting the Scots, across 
 the river. That same night Douglas beat up the English 
 quarters with a bold attempt to carry off the boy-King from 
 the midst of his men. Crossing the Wear at a safe distance, 
 with two hundred mounted men-at-arms, he crept up to 
 the English camp, and fell upon it shouting "Douglas! 
 Douglas ! You are all dead men ! " Thus spurring and 
 hacking, and shouting " Douglas ! Douglas ! " he fought 
 his way to the King's tent, and cut the ropes. The devotion 
 of a chaplain saved Edward's life at the cost of his own. 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 54-61 ; Foed. II. 717 ; Scalacr. 
 
 ^ Barbour places the Scots on the "north half" of the Wear, but with the 
 English advancing from Blanchland on the North, the Scots must have posted 
 themselves on the South side of the river. They had to make a circuit to get 
 away at the last. 
 
 ' 31 July, Le Bel, 64. Edward signs at Stanhope i August. 
 
 ' " A deux petites lyeues " ; " twa mile " ; Barbour, 455. 
 
SOLDIERING 193 
 
 Baulked of their prey the Scots beat a hasty retreat and chap, xi 
 escaped.^ 1327 
 
 For yet another three days the hosts faced each other 
 across the river, operations being hmited to independent 
 skirmishing, as each man thought fit, in true Homeric 
 style. " Escarmouchait qui escarmoucher vouloit." On the 
 fourth day the Scots had again disappeared, having 
 executed during the night a circuitous march ^ round the 
 EngUsh position. Explorers found nothing on the aban- 
 doned camping ground but carcases of slaughtered cattle, 
 camp cauldrons of raw hide, worn out brogues of the same 
 material, and five poor prisoners bound naked to trees. 
 Once more Edward's advisers decided that pursuit would 
 be useless. With tears of bitter mortification the young 
 King turned homewards.^ On the qth August he signs End of 
 
 T^ 1 • campaign. 
 
 agam at Durham, and the twenty-two days campaign was 
 brought to an end.* Meanwhile young Archibald Douglas 
 with the Scottish foragers had overrun most of the diocese 
 of Durham, and cut up a local force met at Darlington.^ 
 
 Le Bel was much impressed with what he saw and heard 
 of the hardihood, the daring, and we might add the general 
 savagery of the Scots. They could march twenty and 
 thirty miles at a stretch, by day or by night ; the knights 
 and esquires riding good useful chargers, lesser men mounted 
 on little ponies, while troops of attendant " gillies " ran 
 after them on foot.® No transport train clogged their 
 movements ; the only commissariat arrangement was that 
 each man carried a wallet of meal on his back, and a broad 
 fiat stone under his saddle-flap, on which he baked his 
 cake. Otherwise they lived on the country, mainly on 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 65-67 ; Scalacr. 155; Lanercost, 260 ; Barbour, 455-460 ; Heming. 
 Cont. II. 298. 
 
 ^ " Per nocturnes circuitus," Fordun, 352 ; " Circueundo," Lanercost. 
 
 ' "Le roy, un innocent, plora des oils," Scalacr.; "Rex doluit ut fleret," 
 Lanercost. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 67-71 ; Lanercost, sup. ' Lanercost, sup. ; Scalacr. 154, 155. 
 
 " In the eighteenth century gentlemen privates in the Highland Companies 
 (Black Watch) had a gillie to carry their firelock and knapsack on the march ; 
 Milty. Hist. Perthshire, 1. 55. Above, p. 133, we saw that each Scottish trooper 
 had two horses. 
 
 1415-1 
 
194 
 
 OVERTURES 
 
 1327 
 
 Firearms 
 
 CHAP. XI meat, with plain water for their sole drink> On the other 
 hand we might add that the writer was struck with the 
 abundance and cheapness of provisions in the York market, 
 even with the influx of mouths brought by the army. 
 
 From the Scottish rhymer we learn that during this 
 foray his countrymen first saw firearms, or as he calls 
 them ' crakis of war ',^ brought into use, and that much 
 were the Scots astonished at the marvellous novelty. The 
 question might be raised whether the pieces in question 
 were of native make, or had been introduced by the 
 Hainaulters; but anyhow the use of gunpowder in the 
 English army must certainly be carried back to the year 
 
 1327- 
 
 From Durham the Court moved to York. On the 20th 
 August the Hainaulters were dismissed. Their leader had 
 been promised £14,000 of which £7,000 had already, been 
 paid on account. ;^4,ooo extra were now paid for loss of 
 horses and the like ; the balance of £7,000 stood over for 
 nine months but was then fully and honestly paid up.' 
 
 For the expenses of the war the Government turned to 
 the nation. A Parliament had been summoned to meet at 
 Lincoln, and sat there from the 15th to the 23rd September. 
 The counties and boroughs granted a Twentieth.* The 
 clergy again declined to vote money except in Convocation. 
 The Northern Province accordingly was called to York for 
 the i2th October and voted a Tenth ; ^ Canterbury made 
 a like grant at Leicester ' at the request of the Earl of 
 Leicester '.^ 
 
 During the sitting of the Lincoln Parliament the unfor- 
 tunate ex-King met his horrible end. No notice was taken 
 of the event. A matter that could not be ignored was the 
 continuance of active hostilities by the Scots. The untiring 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 47. = Barbour, 452. 
 
 = June r328, Foed. II. 708, 713, 745 ; Le Bel. The money was transmitted, 
 perhaps advanced, by the Bardi ; Cal. Pat. Roll, 164. 
 
 " Foed. 712 ; Rot. Park. 11. 425 ; Lords' Report on Dignity of a Peer, I. 492. 
 A scutage also was levied ; 3rd Deputy-Keeper's Report, Appendix II. 143. 
 
 ° Northern Registers, 344, 349. 
 
 ° Wilkins, Cone. II. 538 ; Knighton, c. 2552. 
 
 Parlia 
 ment. 
 
FOR PEACE 195 
 
 Bruce dragged himself from his bed of sickness for a last chap.xi 
 campaign. Norham was again besieged, Alnwick assaulted, j„ 
 Coquetdale wasted, and Northumberland more or less over- 
 run, till, once more, the unhappy Marchers were forced to 
 buy a private truce.'- Mortimer and Isabelle, perhaps not 
 realizing the danger of making themselves responsible for 
 an unpopular treaty, came to the conclusion that peace 
 was a necessity — as in truth it was — and made up their 
 minds to pay the price. On the gth October negotiations 
 were opened on the basis of the abandonment of the English 
 claims ; in the course of the next two months the terms 
 were settled in outline ; a truce was signed and a Parlia- 
 ment summoned to sanction the treaty.^ 
 
 Concurrently with these negotiations preparations were 
 being hastened for the King's marriage. On the 15th of 
 August Edward had written to press the Pope for the 
 necessary dispensation, the bride being related to him in 
 the third degree.* On the 30th August the dispensation 
 was sealed at Avignon. In October the Count of Holland 
 was invited to England, and Roger Northburgh, Bishop of 
 Coventry, commissioned to pledge the King's troth. In 
 December Philippa came to London, under the escort of the 
 Bishops and her uncle John ; * after a brief festive stay in 
 the metropolis the girl bride was taken on to York, and King's 
 there married in St. Peter's Minster, on Sunday 24th ™^™^se- 
 January 1328.^ The ceremony, doubtless, was held at York 
 for the convenience of William Melton the Archbishop, by 
 whom the marriage knot was tied. Canterbury was 
 vacant, Reynolds having passed away at Mortlake " con- 
 science-smitten and despised " on the i6th November.* 
 
 ' Barbour, 466 ; Fordun, 352 ; Lanercost, and Scalacr., sup. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 723-725 ; Rot. Scot. I. 223, &c. 
 
 ' Jeanne of Valois, the mother of Philippa, was daughter of Charles of Valois, 
 the brother of Philip the Fair, the father of Queen Isabelle ; Edward III and 
 Philippa were therefore second cousins. See Buchon's note to Froissart, I. i, 
 ch. 46, and the pedigree in Longman's Edward III, I. 21. 
 
 ' Foed. 714, 718, 724 ; Le Bel, I. 76 ; Chron. Lond. 6r ; Ann. Paul. 339. 
 
 ' Bridlington, 99; Lanercost, 26r ; Walsing. I. 192. The bride only reached 
 York on the 23rd January. Issue Rolls, Devon, 140, q. v. for the journey. 
 [ ° Reg. Sacrum ; Hook. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 ACTUAL 
 
 CHAP. XI Melton would not be at liberty to carry his cross in the 
 1328 Southern Province ; without it he would not come to 
 London, and so as a compromise the Court had to be taken 
 to York in mid-winter. 
 
 One young countryman remained with Philippa to wait 
 upon her and carve at table, Watelet de Mauny,^ destined 
 to live in English history as Sir Walter Manny. 
 
 The Parliament that had been summoned to consider 
 the propriety of making peace with Scotland met at York 
 on the 7th February 1328. One hundred Scottish knights 
 had been invited to be present.^ On the 15th February 
 the Scottish envoys sent home for final instructions. On 
 the 1st March the King of England was made to proclaim 
 his recognition of ' our dear friend and ally Robert by the 
 grace of God King of the Scots'. The proclamation stated 
 that the recognition was granted ' by the assent and consent 
 of the prelates, earls, barons and commonalty in Parliament ', 
 and in order to put an end to the countless woes brought 
 upon both nations by the attempts of former Kings of 
 England to establish rights of overlordship over Scotland. 
 The old frontier line as established in the reign of Alex- 
 Peace with ander III would be restored, and all obligations or treaties 
 involving any subjection on the part of Scotland were 
 cancelled at one stroke.^ 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Isabelle and Mortimer did the 
 thing handsomely, disclaiming not only the novel preten- 
 sions advanced by Edward I, but also dropping old questions 
 dating from the times of Eadward the Elder, Eadgar and 
 Cnut. 
 
 Other instruments of the same date renounced all interest 
 in suits pending in the Roman courts against the King 
 of Scots; and appointed envoys to treat for a marriage 
 between David of Scotland, Bruce's son, and " Johane" or 
 Joan, the sister of the English King.* The formal treaty of 
 peace was sealed by King Robert at Edinburgh on the 
 
 ^ Le Bel, 77. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 725, 728. The session lasted till the 5th March ; Stubbs. 
 
 ' Foed. 730 ; Lanercost, 262. ' Foed., sup. 
 
PEACE 197 
 
 17th March. To obtain the fullest sanction for a step chap, xi 
 involving so marked a change of national pohcy, Isabella 1328 
 and Mortimer, before affixing the young King's seal, took the 
 precaution of laying the actual treaty before yet another Another 
 Parliament, summoned to Northampton for the purpose ; ^ ment. 
 sufficient sanction apparently having been obtained, the 
 treaty was ratified by Edward at Northampton on the 
 4th May. The compact is one of full offensive and defensive Treaty of 
 aUiance as against all parties except France. Robert j^" °'™^" 
 undertakes to support the English government in Ireland ; 
 they undertake to support him in Man, ' and the other Isles 
 of Scotland '. Bruce agrees to pay 30,000 marks (£20,000) 
 by three yearly instalments ; the English undertake to 
 restore all writings, obligations, instruments and muniments 
 touching the subjection of the people or land of Scotland.^ 
 This clause was held to include all trophies carried away 
 by Edward I. But the pledge was not to be fulfilled. The 
 Abbot of Westminster was induced to surrender the Black 
 Rood of Scotland, but declined to part with the Stone of 
 Scone,* while the Ragman's Roll, and the records of the 
 proceedings in the Great Cause Hkewise, have remained in 
 London to the present day. It would also seem that the 
 negotiations included an agreement for the reinstatement, 
 on the one hand, of Englishmen to lands formerly held in 
 Scotland, and on the other hand, of Scotsmen to lands 
 formerly held in England,* a great future source of trouble. 
 By the day named in the treaty (15 July) Queen Isabelle 
 appeared at Berwick with her daughter, aged seven years ; 
 four and a half months earlier the bridegroom had com- 
 pleted his fourth year.^ On Sunday 17 July ^ the baby pair 
 were formally betrothed. Neither King was present; Robert 
 was too ill, Edward too much opposed to the treaties 
 
 ' The ParHament sat 24 April-14 May and passed an Act aboHshing all the 
 staples, proclaiming unrestricted trade, and providing for the 'aulnage ', i.e. the 
 standard admeasurement of cloth and Norfolk worsteds, the latter already an 
 industry of some standing ; Statutes, I. 257 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 28. 
 
 " Foed. II. 734, 740. ' Lanercost, 261 ; Baker, 4r. 
 
 '' Scalacr. r56. ° 5 March ; Fordun, 350 ; Hailes. 
 
 ° Fordun, 353 ; Lanercost, 26r. 
 
igS A BABY-WEDDING 
 
 :hap. XI signed in his name.^ Wise and salutary as the pacification 
 J, 28 "was, it is clear that it was most unpopular. The attendance 
 of magnates both at York and Northampton had been 
 meagre ; ^ the chroniclers with one voice condemn the 
 disgraceful peace ; ^ while the poor little Queen of Scots lived 
 to be stigmatized as " Joan Make-peace ".* 
 
 ' " Regis nomine sed non ingenio " ; Baker, 40 ; Scalacr. 156. 
 
 ' See Lingard, III. 47. 
 
 ^ " Pacem turpem;" Avesbury, 283; Murimuth, 57 ; Scalacr. 156 ; Baker, 
 40. " Pessimo consilio," says the Lanercost writer, who years before described 
 the longings of the Northern folk for peace. 
 
 * Barnes, Edward III, 30. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Edward III {coyitinned) 
 A.D. 1328-1330 
 
 Death of Charles IV of France. — French succession. — Homage by Edward III. — 
 Opposition to the Government of Isabelle and Mortimer. — ^Trial and execution 
 of the Earl of Kent. — Fall of Mortimer. 
 
 On the night of the 31st January 1328 Charles IV of chap.xii 
 France, ' Le Bel,' passed away, leaving a daughter Marie, 1328 
 aged fourteen, and a widow in the family way. Pending 
 her confinement a Regent had to be appointed. The choice 
 made would virtually determine the succession. It would The Suc- 
 
 •' , cession m 
 
 seem that Isabelle sent agents to attend the Council held France. 
 in Paris for the appointment of a Regent, claiming the post 
 for her son as heir.^ Here we have the first suggestion of 
 the pretensions destined shortly to involve France and 
 England in the Hundred Years' War. But the assembled 
 magnates had no hesitation in appointing Philip of Valois, 
 son of the Anglophobe Charles, the brother of Philip the 
 Fair, thus in fact deciding in favour of male succession. 
 But young Edward did not drop his claims all at once. On 
 the 28th March he writes to his officers and friends in 
 Aquitaine, to inform them that he intends to ' recover ' his 
 dear mother's ' rights and heritages ', meaning apparently 
 the Kingdoms of France and Navarre.^ This pretension was 
 utterly untenable. Isabelle could not possibly herself claim 
 the crown ; even if the so-called Salique Law should be 
 rejected by the French, there were at the time living 
 daughters of all the three late Kings, Louis Hutin, Philippe 
 le Long, and Charles le Bel, each one of whom would stand 
 between her and the throne. But none of these princesses Edward's 
 had a son ; the Queen, therefore, could contend that though H^^^' 
 she herself could not inherit, she could transmit a right to 
 
 " So Lavisse, France, IV. 3. ° Foed. II. 736, 737. 
 
200 HOMAGE 
 
 CHAP. XII her son, and that he could succeed, as the male nearest in 
 ^ degree to the late King.^ This rule of succession had 
 obtained to some extent in early days ; but it was quite out 
 of date, and might be said to have been disposed of by the 
 discussions in the Great Scottish Cause. Lastly, we must 
 point out that four years later, even this semblance of title 
 was wiped out by the birth of a grandson to Louis Hutin, 
 the future King of Navarre ' Charles le Mauvais '.^ 
 
 On the 1st April (1328) the widowed Queen of Charles IV 
 gave birth to a daughter, whereupon Philip, without further 
 ado, proclaimed himself King of France. In vain were 
 Orleton, now Bishop of Worcester, and Roger of Northburgh 
 the Bishop of Lichfield instructed to demand the Kingdom 
 of France in Edward's name.^ On Trinity Sunday (29 May) 
 Philip VI Phihp VI was hallowed at Rheims with the greatest possible 
 lois". splendour.* The reign opened with a brilliant success. 
 A tyrannical Count, Louis I, had driven the Flemish cities 
 into rebellion. He appealed to his cousin the King of 
 France. Philip invaded Flanders, and inflicted a terrible 
 defeat on the burghers at Cassel, thus wiping out the stain 
 of the disgrace of Courtrai.* 
 
 Edward's pretensions had now to be dropped ; ^ while he 
 was called upon to render the homage due by him. An 
 informal invitation was entrusted in the first instance to 
 Pierre Roger, afterwards Pope Clement VI, a man who, as 
 Abbot of Fecamp, had relations with England, and had 
 recently done homage to Edward for the English possessions 
 attached to his House.'' A fresh summons was sent in the 
 spring of 1329, while a French army was ordered to muster 
 
 ' So Scalacr. 156. See Lavisse, IV. 2, and the pedigree there given. Isabella 
 would serve as a plank or bridge over which her son would have access to the 
 crown. 
 
 ^ See Pedigree at the end of the chapter. Charles stood to the crown of France 
 in the same relation as Edward III, but by an elder branch. 
 
 = r6 May ; Foed. II. 743. « D'Achery, Spicilegium, III. 87-89 ; Lavisse. 
 
 '^ 23 August r328 ; Chron. Flanders ; Buchon, note to Froissart, I. 40 ; 
 Sismondi, France, X. 20-22. ' Scalacr. 156. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 42, note Buchon ; De Nangis, Cont. ; Foed. 684 ; Cal. Pat. 
 Roll, 22. Pierre was leaving England on his way home 28 November (1328) ; 
 Id. 338. 
 
QUESTION 201 
 
 at Bergerac in Perigord. With the events of 1325 fresh in cHAPjin 
 memory the English Government could not ignore a second 1329 
 citation. On the 14th April Edward promised early atten- 
 tion to ' his duty '} On the 25th May the King's brother, 
 John of Eltham, was appointed Warden to act in England 
 during his absence ; next day Edward sailed from Dover, 
 Burghersh and Orleton going with him. On the 6th June 
 he did homage in the beautiful choir of Amiens cathedral.^ 
 The delicate diplomatic act was attended by unusual 
 complications owing to the unrecognized conquests of the 
 French in Guienne. The English tendered a formula by 
 which Edward would render homage for all the lands that 
 he ' claimed ' to hold as Duke of Guienne. But Philip told 
 his feudatory that he would receive no homage for any lands 
 in Gascony or the Agenais that he, Philip, held and ought 
 to hold as King Charles had held them. Edward protested 
 that he could renounce no right that he had, or ought 
 to have, in Guienne or its dependencies. The homage 
 therefore was rendered in somewhat indefinite terms. 
 The Viscount of Melun, Chamberlain of France, address- 
 ing Edward said ' Sire, you become the man of my 
 lord the King of France for the Duchy of Guienne and 
 its appurtenances that you recognize to hold of him as 
 Duke of Guienne and Peer of France, according to the 
 form of the treaties made between his ancestors. Kings of 
 France, and your ancestors. Kings of England and Dukes of 
 Guienne '. The Duke then by the mouth of the Bishop 
 of Lincoln said " Voire " (True), placed his hands between 
 those of his lord, and received the kiss of peace. According 
 to the formula tendered by Burghersh Edward would 
 declare himself Philip's man for all the lands that he 
 ' claimed ' to hold as Duke of Guienne.* 
 
 The further question whether the homage due was liege 
 homage or not, was reserved for further investigation ; 
 ultimately Edward had to admit that it was,* as we shall 
 
 ' " Deveria nostra ; " Foed. II. 760. 
 
 ' Foed. 763, 764. ' See the record in Foed. 765. 
 
 ' Foed. 31 March 1331, 813. See also 778, 797. 
 
202 THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 CHAP. XII see. The homage was accompanied by an agreement for 
 j,2q mutual satisfaction for all damages inflicted on either side 
 during the last five years.^ On the nth June the King 
 recrossed the Channel.^ 
 Death of While Edward was away in France, Robert " the Brus ", 
 King Robert I of Scotland, closed his arduous career. He 
 died at Cardross on the 7th June.^ Aristotle might have 
 pronounced him happy. After three and twenty years of 
 incessant struggle he had attained the end of his ambition ; 
 he had vindicated Scotland's right to be considered a nation, 
 and established his own dynasty. With his dying breath he 
 commended to his countrymen the systems of defensive 
 warfare and guerilla tactics illustrated by his own career. 
 For himself, unable to purchase relief from his excommuni- 
 cate position by a personal pilgrimage to Holy Land,* he 
 directed his heart to be carried for him to Jerusalem, and 
 laid before the Sepulchre of Christ. The Earl of Moray 
 would be required at home to guard the throne of the 
 infant heir, the pious task therefore was committed to the 
 prince of Paladins the Black Douglas.^ 
 
 Young as it was, the government of Isabelle already 
 showed signs of disruption.^ Reynolds was dead. Orleton 
 had treated his patrons exactly as Stratford and Ayreminne 
 had treated their patron Edward H. As royal agent at 
 the court of Avignon Adam had advanced himself to the 
 See of Worcester in direct opposition to the nominee of the 
 English crown. After a short angry snarl the Government 
 
 ' Foed. II. 768, 769, 772. 
 
 ^ Foed. 763-765, q.v. for the retinue taken by the King. ' Fordun, 353. 
 
 * For Randolf's mission to Avignon in 1324 offering an expedition to Holy 
 Land in ' return for absolution ' see Foed. 541, Hill Burton. The Pope insisted 
 on a prior settlement with England. 
 
 ' Barbour, 472-475 ; Le Bel, I. 80 ; Baker, 41, 42. Douglas allowed himself 
 to be turned from his pilgrimage to Holy Land to join Alphonso XI in a Crusade 
 against the Moors. He received from Edward a safe-conduct to pass through 
 England (i September 1329 ; Foed. 778). On the 25th August 1330 he fell 
 in battle outside the walls of Theba, a castle in Andalusia, on the borders of 
 Granada (Fordun, 353 ; Le Bel, 84 ; Baker, 4r ; Mariana, De Rebus Hisp. 744). 
 The Bruce's heart and Douglas's bones were brought home by William Keith ; 
 the former to be laid in Melrose Abbey, and the latter in the church at Castle 
 Douglas ; Barbour, 482, 483. ' Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 389. 
 
SHAKEN 203 
 
 submitted.^ Isabelle and Mortimer, however, kept every- chap, xii 
 thing as much as possible in their own hands. ^ At the death jj^g 
 of Reynolds an attempt was made " to force Burghersh into 
 the Primacy ". This was resisted, and the Queen had to Ministerial 
 content herself with Simon of Mepeham, a Merton man 
 and canon of Chichester. But he " was more of an 
 ecclesiastic than a statesman ".^ On the ist March the Seal 
 was taken from Hotham, a man of independent character, 
 and placed in the hands of Henry of Cliff and William of 
 Herlaston as Keepers, while two months later the trusty 
 Burghersh was appointed Chancellor.* Stratford " the 
 most powerful adviser of the constitutional party " was 
 kept out of ofhce, and Lancaster the President of the 
 Council allowed no intercourse with the King.^ Nor did 
 Mortimer strengthen his position by holding a series of 
 Round Tables at Bedford,^ an ostentatious proceeding ; or 
 by getting himself raised to an earldom in company with 
 two men of Royal connexions, namely, the King's brother 
 John of Eltham, and James Butler, married to a grand- 
 daughter of Edward I. John was created Earl of Cornwall, 
 Butler Earl of Ormond, and Mortimer Earl of March.' 
 These titles were conferred in a Parliament held at Salisbury, 
 the fourth of the year.^ 
 
 ' Foed. II. 715, 726, 733. August 1327-March 1328. 
 
 '' See Cal. Pat. Roll, passim. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, II. 390 ; Foed. 727 ; Wilkins, Cone. II. 544. Mepeham was 
 consecrated at Avignon 5 June 1328. 
 
 * Foss, Judges, III. 320. Previously he had been Treasurer. Northburgh 
 of Lichfield succeeded him at the Treasury ; Cal. Pat. Roll, 244, 249. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2553 ; Heming. Cont. II. 300. 
 
 ' 20-30 September ; Knighton, sup. ; Barnes. These entertainments were 
 held in honour of the marriages of two daughters, wedded one to Edward son 
 of the Earl of Norfolk, the other to Lawrence Hastings of Abergavenny, after- 
 wards Earl of Pembroke. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 58 ; Knighton, sup. Butler was married to Eleanor daughter 
 of the late Earl of Hereford by the Lady Elizabeth ; Complete Peerage. 
 
 ■ The first Parliament sat at York, 7 February-5 March ; the second at 
 Northampton, 24 April-14 May ; the third at York again, 31 July-6 August ; 
 and the fourth at Salisbury, October r6-3r ; Lords' Report, I. 492. Convoca- 
 tions met in April, but were relieved of the trouble of voting money as John XXII 
 had granted four years of Crusade Tenths, half for the King, half for the Curia ; 
 Wake, 280 ; Foed. II. 786. 
 
204 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 1328 
 
 Bolstered 
 up. 
 
 Lancaster now resolved to assert himself. He had no 
 personal spite against the late King, and must have been 
 shocked at his treatment and death. He refused to appear 
 at the Salisbury ParHament, taking up a position at 
 Winchester. The prelates who did attend the Parliament 
 showed a disposition to sympathize with him. Mortimer, 
 invading the chamber where they were sitting, dared them 
 at their peril to interfere with him. Stratford went off in 
 open opposition.! Mortimer then marched out to challenge 
 Lancaster. Friendly parties, however, succeededf or the time 
 in averting a coUision, and the Parhament was adjourned 
 to the 9th February to meet at Westminster.^ 
 
 But the parties were not at one yet. Lancaster had the 
 support of the Earls of Norfolk and Kent, as well as that of 
 the new Primate, Archbishop Simon of Mepeham, also that 
 of the Bishops of Winchester and London, and the Barons 
 Wake, Beaumont and Audley. The party established them- 
 selves in London. On the 2nd January 1329 Lancaster 
 held a meeting at St. Paul's, and passed resolutions for 
 getting the young King out of Mortimer's hands, and 
 establishing the authority of the Council nominated at 
 the coronation. Taking advantage of the unpopularity of 
 the peace with Scotland, he proposed to impeach those 
 responsible for the treaty.* While Lancaster was deliber- 
 ating, Mortimer drew the sword, ravaging the lands of his 
 opponents in the King's name. On the 4th January he 
 occupied the Earl's town of Leicester. Henry advanced 
 from the South as far as Bedford, intending to give battle. 
 At the last moment he found himself deserted by Norfolk and 
 Kent. Yielding to the advice of the prelates he made his sub- 
 mission, and was fined to the value of half his estate ; Wake, 
 Beaumont and other " minor offenders " fled the kingdom.* 
 Isabelle and Mortimer were thus reinstated in power. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 58 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 52 ; Foed. II. 753 ; Angl. Sacr. I. 19, 29 ; 
 Ann. Paul. 342. " Foed. 756. 
 
 ^ Ann. Paul. 343, 344 ; Dene, Angl. Sacr. I. 368 ; Barnes, 3r, " where the 
 articles are given from a C.C.C.C. MS." 
 
 ' See Knighton, c. 2554; Scalacr. 156 ; Rot. Parlt. 256; Heming. Cont. II. 300. 
 For support to Lancaster given by the Londoners see Foed. 755 ; Ann. Lond. 241. 
 
BOLSTERED UP 205 
 
 The rumours that the late King was alive, of which we chap.xii 
 have spoken, were now becoming rife. Their prevalence 1329 
 proved "almost as great a source of embarrassment" to 
 Mortimer and Isabelle as Edward's actual existence had 
 been two years before.^ Edmund of Kent had not pur- Edmund 
 chased pardon by his submission. Smitten, probably, with y^J^°_ 
 compunction at the part he had taken against his brother, 
 he had lent too ready an ear to the suggestions of Dunhead 
 and the other Dominicans who maintained that Edward II 
 was not dead but alive, and, apparently, he had worked 
 with them to some extent for Edward's restoration. Mal- 
 travers was used as an agent provocateur to confirm him in 
 his treasonable delusion.^ A Parliament had been sum- 
 moned to Winchester for the nth March.' On the 13th 
 Edmund was arrested by the orders of Mortimer.* On the 
 i6th of the month an inquest was held before the coroner 
 of the King's Household, when the wretched Earl put in 
 a confession, a long rambling document, incriminating a 
 host of persons, from Dunhead to the Pope (John XXII). 
 Melton of York, Segrave of London, William de la Zouche, 
 Henry of Beaumont, Hugh le Despenser IV, all had shared 
 his belief in Edward's existence, and promised to aid him in 
 his efforts ; Donald of Mar would introduce troops through 
 Scotland.^ The confession ended with an abject prayer 
 for mercy ; Edmund would present himself to the King as 
 a penitent, barefooted, in his shirt, with a rope round his 
 neck, at any place that Edward might be pleased to appoint. 
 But Mortimer had no mercy. The confession was laid before 
 the Peers in Parliament, and Edmund condemned as a Tried and 
 traitor. On the 19th March he was beheaded at Winchester. ^^"^"'^ • 
 It was said that for a time no man would act as executioner, 
 and that the unfortunate Earl was kept for hours awaiting 
 his doom. 
 
 ' So Professor Tout remarks, Polit. Hist. III. 304. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. II. 53, 55. ' Lords' Report. 
 
 ' Heming. Cont. II. 301. Tlie Countess and her children were arrested on 
 the 14th March ; Foed. II. 472. 
 
 ° See the confession in the original French; Murimuth, Appendix, 253. A fair 
 summary is given by the Lanercost writer, 265. 
 
206 
 
 MORTIMER 
 
 1330 
 
 CHAP. XII The employment of Maltravers, whose testimony on the 
 matter in question would be incontrovertible, to delude 
 Edmund, was a proceeding inexpressibly disgraceful to 
 Mortimer and Isabelle ; but it cannot be denied that the 
 facts admitted by the Earl amounted to treason. Person- 
 ally he was not regretted, as he kept a lawless household, 
 which had been specially complained of in Parliament. 
 At the same time everybody regarded him as the victim of 
 a plot.^ 
 
 The execution of the Earl of Kent sealed Mortimer's 
 doom. Nobody could feel safe. Suspects were required 
 to give security for good conduct.^ Mortimer's airs were 
 intolerable ; his elevation to an Earldom gave great offence ; 
 he kept a larger retinue than the King, and almost took 
 precedence of him.' Edward naturally hated him as his 
 mother's paramour, and chafed at the tutelage in which he 
 was kept.* Phihppa too might well be dissatisfied with 
 her position. On the 28th February she had been crowned 
 at Westminster.^ 1,000 marks was the modest sum found 
 available for her Chamber ; ® while 10,000 marks from the 
 Scottish tribute could be spared for the Queen mother, 
 with all her vast possessions.' On the 15th June Philippa 
 Apparent, g^ve birth to a son, England's future hero, Edward of 
 Woodstock.^ A man old enough to be a father might fairly 
 think himself old enough to rule. Edward took counsel 
 with " the young men who stood before him " and resolved 
 to shake off the irksome yoke. Plans were laid for getting 
 rid of Mortimer during the sittings of a Grand Council 
 summoned to meet at Nottingham on the 15th October ; ^ 
 
 ' See Lanercost, sup. and Knighton, 2555 ; Avesbury, 284 ; Baker, 43, 44. 
 On the 24th March a report based on extracts from the Earl's confession was 
 forwarded to the Pope ; Foed. II. 783. 
 
 '^ Knighton, sup. Eble L'Estrange, titular Earl of Lincohi in right of his 
 wife Alice de Lacy, was one of these. Alice was daughter of Henry Earl of 
 Lincoln, and widow of Thomas of Lancaster ; Complete Peerage. 
 
 ' Baker, 45 ; Rot. Park. ■■ Scalacr. 157 ; Avesbury, 285. 
 
 " Ann. Paul. 349. = Cal. Pat. Roll, 1329, p. 389. ' Foed. 777. 
 
 ' Baker, 45 ; Murimuth, 61 ; Heming. Cont. II. 302. The Pauline Annals 
 give the i6th June, p. 349. The reader may be warned that the sobriquet Black 
 Prince was a late invention, unknown to the prince's century or the next. 
 
 ° Lords' Report, IV. 395. 
 
 Philippa 
 crowned. 
 
 An Heir 
 
ARRESTED 207 
 
 all the peers would be there. The secret, however, was not chap, xn 
 very well kept. When the Council met, Isabella being ^^ 
 present, Mortimer at once taxed the young King and his 
 friends with hostile designs. All disclaimed any such 
 purpose ; William Montagu of Shepton Montagu springing 
 to his feet, dared any man to accuse him of treason.^ For 
 the moment Mortimer was silenced, but as his suspicions 
 had been excited not a moment was to be lost. ' Better eat 
 the dog than be eaten of him ' was Montagu's word. A 
 desperate coup de main was resolved upon for that very 
 night (19 October) .2 Isabelle, Mortimer, and the young 
 King were established in the castle, which was most care- 
 fully guarded, day and night. The others were lodged in 
 the town, all but Lancaster, to whom quarters were assigned 
 still farther off. Montagu had got at Robert Holland, the 
 constable of the castle, and had learned from him of the 
 existence of a cavern or underground passage through the 
 sandy rock on which the castle was built, unknown to Mortimer 
 Mortimer, by which access to the interior could be gained =i"^<^''^<^- 
 from without.^ At midnight* Montagu mustered his 
 high-born band, twenty-four strong, which included such 
 men as Edward Bohun, brother of the Earl of Hereford, 
 Ufford of Ufford, Neville of Hornby, Stafford of Stafford, 
 Clinton of Maxtoke.^ Threading the mazes of the unsus- 
 pected tunnel they reached the castle enclosure, but access 
 to the royal apartments was not gained without a san- 
 guinary struggle with the attendants, in which Hugh of 
 Trumpington, the Steward of the Household, and Richard of 
 Monmouth, one of the King's yeomen, were killed,^ several 
 others being wounded. Edward in full armour was waiting 
 for them upstairs at the door of his mother's chamber. 
 Mortimer was found in an adjoining room in consultation 
 with Burghersh the Chancellor. Isabelle, rushing in, 
 implored her son to have mercy on her favourite. " Beal 
 
 ' Scalacr. 157 ; Rot. Parlt. 11. 53. 
 
 ^ Scalacr. ; Rot. Parlt. ; Men. Malm. 
 
 ^ Knighton, 2556 ; Baker, 46 ; Avesbury, 285. 
 
 ' " A la minuyt ; " Rot. Parlt. 
 
 ' Rot Parlt. 56 ; Scalacr., sup. ; Barnes, 47. ' Feed. II. 830. 
 
2o8 MORTIMER TRIED 
 
 CHAP. XII £tz^ beal fitz, eiez pitie de gentil Mortymer." Vainly she 
 1330 pleaded. Roger was seized and bound.^ Next day 
 Edward proclaimed the fact to the nation, announcing 
 that he had taken the reins of government into his own 
 hands.^ Roger was sent to the Tower, his old quarters, 
 his two sons Geoffrey and Edmund, Oliver Ingham and 
 Simon of Bereford accompanying him. Their fate was 
 reserved for a Parliament which was summoned for the 
 26th November.* 
 
 The charges against the Earl of March were laid before 
 the temporal peers, the earls and barons of the realm. 
 Neither prelates nor commoners could interfere in such 
 
 His trial, a matter. The indictment, preferred in the name of the 
 King as prosecutor, extended to fourteen counts of a 
 miscellaneous character. The main charge, of which the 
 several counts were but illustrations and instances, was that 
 Roger had 'accroched', i.e. usurped, royal authority, 
 ousting the Regency Council appointed by Parliament, 
 and taking the government of the Kingdom and Household 
 into his own hands, as of course he had done. The primary 
 overt acts assigned were those of compassing the deaths of 
 Edward II and the Earl of Kent. Whereas ' the father of 
 our lord the King ' (delightful euphemism) had been 
 established at Kenilworth by ordinance of the peers, Roger 
 caused him to be sent to Berkeley Castle, where he was 
 feloniously ' murdered and killed ' by his, Roger's, men : he 
 had led the Earl of Kent to believe that the ' father of our 
 lord the King ' was alive, and then had him condemned and 
 put to death by the Winchester Parliament. Then Roger had 
 procured for himself, his children and friends, lavish grants 
 of Crown lands, property, and rights ; had been a main 
 cause of the estrangement between ' the father of our lord 
 the King ' and his consort ; had appropriated the 20,000 
 marks paid by the Scots (Isabelle had half of this, as we 
 
 ^ Baker, sup. ; Murimuth, 6i,-62 ; Knighton, sup. ; Bridlington, loi. The 
 underground passage gained the name of Mortimer's Hole. 
 
 ^ Foed. n. 799 ; 20 October. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2556. The party reached London on the 27th October ; Ann. 
 Paul. 352. 
 
AND EXECUTED 209 
 
 have seen) ; had taken ' prises ' Hke a king,i keeping double chap, xh 
 the retinue that the King did. Lancaster's grievances 1330 
 also came in for notice. Roger had attended the Salis- 
 bury Parliament in arms, after forbidding others to do 
 so, whereby the Earl had been kept at a distance. Mortimer 
 had then led the King to attack him as an enemy, ravaging 
 his estates, finally mulcting him of half his estate, and 
 banishing some of his friends. The final count is an amazing 
 one, even for the times : he had ventured to question the 
 King's word at the Council on the Friday when he assured 
 him that he and his private friends meant Roger and 
 the Queen no harm (!). After a short deliberation the 
 peers, returning, found that all the matters charged were 
 notorious, ' especially the article touching the death of 
 Sir Edward the father of our lord the King '. Sentence 
 followed, and Roger was condemned to be drawn and 
 hung as an enemy of King and country.^ Mortimer was 
 not confronted with his judges,^ the case thus going 
 beyond the precedents of the cases of Thomas of Lan- 
 caster and the two Despensers, who were produced, but 
 not allowed to speak. On the 29th November Roger was 
 drawn on an ox-hide to the Elms at Tyburn, and hung on 
 the common gallows there.* 
 
 The King then requested a like ' true and loyal ' judge- 
 ment against Bereford, Maltravers, Thomas Gurney and 
 Wihiam Ogle. Bereford was charged with having been 
 a general accomplice of the Earl of March ; Maltravers 
 with having been the main instrument in deluding the 
 Earl of Kent ; Gurney and Ogle were denounced as the 
 perpetrators of the murder of the late King. All were 
 condemned ; but the lords entered a protest against being 
 called upon to judge men who were not their peers, and 
 requested that the case might not be made a precedent.^ 
 
 ^ For cases of extortion and illegal purveyance see Rot. Parlt. II. 34, 40, 51. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. 52, 53. ' Murimuth, 65. 
 
 ' Rot, Parlt. sup. " Apud Elmes, super communi furca latronum;" "ad 
 ulmos prope Tyborne ; " Murimuth, sup. and note ; " usque furcas apud Elmes ; " 
 Avesbury, 285. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. 53, 54. 
 
 1415-1 p 
 
2to GRASPING 
 
 CHAP. XII Bereford being in custody suffered at Tyburn.i Maltravers, 
 1330 Gurney and Ogle saved themselves by flight.^ Berkeley, 
 as already mentioned, was called on to explain how the late 
 King came to be murdered when under his charge. He 
 cleared himself by an alibi, accepted as a fact by a jury of 
 knights, but disproved by the damning evidence of his own 
 domestic accounts when brought to light. 
 
 No reference to Isabelle had been made in the proceedings 
 against Mortimer and his associates. In hasty alarm at the 
 proceedings against them she took the habit of the Poor 
 Claires, a sister Order of the Franciscans.* She was 
 required to surrender her ill-gotten possessions, and 
 restricted to her original dower of £3,000 a year.* But she 
 was not subjected to any further molestation ; she was 
 allowed freely to move about the country at will, and 
 regularly received dutiful visits from her son. She died 
 in 1358 at her castle at Hertford.^ 
 
 Isabelle and Mortimer must be given credit for their 
 pacific policy towards Scotland and France ; on the 
 Scottish question their views were distinctly in advance of 
 public opinion. But the rule of two persons situated as 
 they were could not long be endured ; and they did little 
 to reconcile the country to it. Both were greedy and 
 rapacious, both in spite of their excessive wealth freely 
 indulged in illegal purveyance.* Instances of Mortimer's 
 doings have already been given. On the Patent Rolls we 
 have writs of aid for strings of men appointed purveyors for 
 the Queen's household, ' except in the fee of the Church ', 
 a tell-tale reservation. In addition to her original dower- 
 lands we find her invested with Ponthieu, Cornwall, the 
 High Peak, the farm of Winchelsea,' the borough of 
 
 ' Knighton, 2558. Mr. Aungier, Chron. Lond. 64 note, gives the date as 
 24 December. 
 
 ^ See the order for their arrest, only dated 3rd December, four days after 
 Mortimer's execution. For their subsequent history see above, p. 170. The 
 dilatoriness of the proceedings suggest that the Government was not too anxious 
 to produce them. ' Lanercost, 266. ' Foed. 11. 835. 
 
 ' Knighton ; Sandford, Genh Hist. 
 
 « Cal. Pat. Roll, Edw. Ill, I. 385, 451, &c. 
 
 ' Foed. 728, 771, 835 ; Cal. Pat. Roll, 399, 491. 
 
RULERS 211 
 
 Tewkesbury, the manor and castle of Henley, Malvern chap, xii 
 Chase, the Honour of Pontefract, the Earl of Kent's house 1330 
 at Westminster, &c., &c.^ Mortimer aspired to building 
 up a palatinate that would have made him the dominant 
 power in Wales and on the Welsh March. He had succeeded 
 to his uncle's estate of Chirk,^ was appointed Justiciar of 
 Wales for life, and also Justiciar of the bishoprics of St. 
 Davids and Llandaff, separate offices.* Besides minor 
 grants he had Denbigh, Oswestry, Clun and other March 
 lands, late of Despenser and the Earl of Arundel, to the 
 value of £1,000 a year ; * he was Warden of Glamorgan and 
 Morgannoc.^ In Ireland he had the liberty of Trim, in 
 right of his wife Jeanne de Geneville ; ® also full palatine 
 franchises over Meath and Uriel (Louth).' In addition to 
 all these he had the profitable wardships of Nicholas of 
 Audley, of Laurence Hastings, of Thomas Beauchamp, 
 Earl of Warwick, of Richard Fitz-Gerald, Earl of Kildare,* 
 with finally the ' marriage,' i.e. the right of selling the hand 
 of Marie of Saint Pol, widow of Aylmer of Valence, late Earl 
 of Pembroke.^ 
 
 The rehabihtation and reward of injured or deserving Rehabili- 
 parties now came on for consideration, with necessary '^'^°"- 
 ministerial changes ; Melton of York was replaced in the 
 Treasury, while Burghersh handed over the Seal to Strat- 
 f ord.-"-" The young Earls of Kent and Arundel were admitted 
 to their estates. The Lancastrian exiles Wake and Beaumont 
 were recalled ; and the fines imposed at Bedford remitted. 
 Montagu was liberally endowed with lands forfeited by 
 Mortimer, while Edward Bohun, Ufford, and Neville also 
 received grants of land.^ In the confused state of politics 
 men who had sided with the King found it expedient to take 
 out pardons, as well as those who had sided against him. 
 
 ' Cal. Pat. Roll, 511, 512, 519, 521. " Id. 141. ' Id. 207, 311, 327. 
 
 Md.328. Md.i2S. « Id.isg. 'Id. 538, Md. 225, 311, 377, 484. 
 
 ' Id. 166. The Countess does not appear to have been remarried ; she lived 
 . to found Pembroke College, Cambridge, " Aula Mariae de Valentia." 
 
 " 28 November ; Foed. II. 800 ; Foss, III. 463. 
 
 " Rot. Parlt. II. 54, 56. Kent was Edmund, son of late Edmund, a boy two 
 years old ; he died in 1333. Arundel was Richard FitzAlan, son of Edmund 
 beheaded in 1 326 ; Complete Peerage. 
 
 P 2 
 
214 
 
 PEACEFUL 
 
 1331 
 
 Liege 
 homage 
 admitted 
 to be due. 
 
 CHAP. XIII a renewed summons was issued on the ist September.^ 
 Mortimer was then still at the head of affairs in England, 
 and he seemed inclined to take a gloomy view of the 
 situation. On the 20th September he writes in the King's 
 name to the Pope informing him that Philip seems bent on 
 war. On the same day he writes to the Seneschal of 
 Gascony instructing him to be forbearing in his dealings 
 with the agents of the King of France, but if need be to 
 resist force by force.^ After the fall of Mortimer Edward 
 exerted himself to cultivate a better understanding with 
 France, with decided success.* On the 30th March 1331 he 
 sealed a declaration that the homage rendered for Guienne 
 and Ponthieu was, and ought to be, ' liege ' homage, involv- 
 ing the oath of fealty.* As Edward was now his own 
 master no question could be raised as to the validity of his 
 recognition of Philip's title. 
 
 But another difficulty had suddenly cropped up. In 
 pursuance, apparently, of Mortimer's last instructions the 
 English had garrisoned the castle of Saintes on the Charente. 
 Philip sent his brother the Count of Alengon to watch the 
 frontier. Alengon, exceeding his orders, attacked Saintes 
 and took it.^ War might easily have broken out ; but 
 Edward took prompt measures to avert the evil. Having 
 set himself right by the admission of liege homage, he was 
 in a position to demand satisfaction. Crossing the Channel 
 on the 4th April, he paid an unostentatious visit to the 
 court of France, met Philip at Pont St. Maxence, and 
 obtained the restitution of Saintes with the promise of 
 30,000 livres Tournois as damages.^ 
 
 The state of relations with France was laid before the 
 peers in a Parliament which met at Westminster on the 
 
 Trip to 
 France. 
 
 » Foed. II. 797. 2 Foed. 798. 
 
 ' See Id. 80s, 806, 813. 4 Id. 813. 
 
 ^ See De Nangis, Cont. D'Achery, III. 94 ; Grandes Clironiques, V. 342 ; 
 Foed. 821. No date is given, but the seizure of Saintes by Alenjon apparently 
 happened early in 1331. 
 
 ° Edward returned on the 20th April. The documents agreeing to the restitu- 
 tion of Saintes are dated 13th April, St. Christofle, in the neighbouring forest 
 of Halatte ; Foed. 8r5-8i8 ; cf. 821, S32. 
 
DEMEANOUR 215 
 
 30th September.^ Their attention was specially directed chap.xiii 
 to the non-restitution of the Agenais ; and the King begged 1331 
 for their advice on the point whether he ought to proceed 
 by way of peaceable negotiation, or by arms. The lords 
 one and all agreed in deprecating war. The condition of 
 Ireland was also taken into consideration, and the suggestion 
 was thrown out that the King should pay an early visit 
 to the dominion.^ In this Parliament the King granted 
 petitions for the enlargement of Hugh le Despenser III, and 
 Thomas Berkeley ; and promised to take the case of 
 Edmund son of the late Mortimer into gracious considera- 
 tion.^ Nothing was said about Scottish affairs ; and the 
 omission, under the circumstances, was somewhat signifi- 
 cant. The relations of the two countries were really in Relations 
 a very critical state. Edward's primary ambition at this Scotland, 
 time undoubtedly was to resume the abortive undertaking 
 of his grandfather, at any rate to the extent of establish- 
 ing an overlordship. He had never affected to conceal his 
 aversion to the treaty of Northampton ; * and it so hap- 
 pened that matters connected with the treaty might in 
 a manner be made to furnish an excuse for an indirect or 
 unofficial war with Scotland. The actual clauses of the 
 treaty had, so far as we can trace, been honourably fulfilled 
 on both sides.^ But the negotiators, as so often happens 
 in such cases, had found it necessary to supplement the 
 provisions of the formal compact by other stipulations not 
 
 ' Rot. Park. II. 60 ; Lords' Report, I. 492. The writ " De expensis" is dated 
 the gth October. 
 
 ' Cf. Foed. II. 825, 828. In March William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, had 
 been appointed King's Lieutenant, and a code of ordinances published ; the 
 extreme moderation of their requirements is significant : felons and outlaws 
 must not be appointed to offices of trust; crown rights must not be jobbed; 
 sheriffs must account for their receipts ; faith must be kept with the Irish ; Id. 
 811, 812. De Burgh was the grandson of Richard the ' Red Earl' ; he left an 
 only daughter, Elizabeth, who lived to marry Edward Ill's son Lionel. The 
 Ulster estates, however, were broken up — a great blow to the English dominion. 
 
 " See Rot. Parlt. 60-63. For a statute passed (5 Edw. Ill) see Statutes, 
 I. 265 ; Purveyance again figures. ■* Knighton, 2560. 
 
 ^ The 30,000 marks which Robert had agreed to pay under the marriage treaty 
 had been duly paid ; Foed. 775, 795, 804 ; the last is a receipt in full. So too, 
 Excheq. Rolls, Scotland, I. 403. 
 
2i6 UNBALANCED 
 
 CHAP. XIII committed to paper. Chief of these was an understanding 
 ~ or agreement for the reinstatement on either side of persons 
 The Dis- dispossessed through the late wars. The Hst of the English 
 B^Ton's'"^ " Disherited " or claimants as they might perhaps be more 
 justly termed {Les Querellours)^ included the names of 
 Henry Percy, Henry of Beaumont, Thomas Wake, WiUiam 
 de la Zouche, Henry Ferrers, John Mowbray : also those 
 of Richard Talbot, Gilbert of Umfraville Earl of Angus, 
 Walter Comyn, and David of Strathbogie Earl of Atholl. 
 The last-named, grandson of Earl John who suffered in 1306, 
 besides the regular Atholl Estates, laid claim, in right of his 
 mother Joan Comyn, to one-half of the estates of Red John 
 Comyn, slain by Bruce at Dumfries.^ The other half of the 
 same estates was claimed by Richard Talbot of Goodrich 
 Castle, in right of his wife Ehzabeth, the other daughter of 
 John Comyn. Henry of Beaumont claimed the Earldom 
 of Buchan in right of his wife Joan, heiress of John 5th Earl 
 of Buchan.^ Another old antagonist of the Bruce, Wake, 
 claimed Liddesdale, the key to the Western Marches, in 
 right of his grandmother Joan D'Estuteville. Gilbert of 
 Umfraville demanded the lands forfeited by his father 
 Robert. Henry Ferrers and William de la Zouche had pre- 
 tensions to lands in Galloway and elsewhere, formerly held 
 by Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester. Galloway it may 
 be remembered had long sided with Balliol. Roger the 
 father of John Mowbray had estates at Eckford in Rox- 
 burghshire, Kelly in Fife, and Methven in Perthshire. 
 These had all passed to the Stewarts. Walter Comyn 
 was in all likelihood the son or representative of William 
 Comyn of Kilbride in Lanarkshire.* 
 
 To have demanded the reinstatement of all these men 
 would have been tantamount to demanding the restoration 
 of the Comyn-BalHol party in Scotland. No Scottish 
 
 ' Scalacr. . 
 
 ^ Hailes, II. 159 ; Hill Burton, II. 312 (2nd ed.) ; Complete Peerage. David 
 also claimed through his grandmother, Jeanne of Valence, half the Pembroke 
 estates ; Id. and Foed. II. 791. 
 
 ^ "Johanna Comyn", Countess Buchan, Rot. Scot. I. 399. 
 
 ' See Hailes, 159-162, and the authorities cited by him. 
 
CLAIMS 217 
 
 government could have listened to such a suggestion, and chap, xin 
 the English, apparently, limited their request to the resti- 7«i 
 tution of the lands of Percy, Wake and Beaumont.^ The 
 obligation on the English side was a light one, and readily 
 complied with. In May 1329 Douglas had been admitted 
 to the estates in Northumberland formerly held by his 
 father ; and the abbeys of Arbroath and Jedburgh replaced 
 in the enjoyment of English patronage appertaining to 
 them.^ 
 
 Had Edward been ever so anxious to remain on friendly 
 terms with Scotland he must have found it difficult to 
 withstand the pressure of such a body of men as the 
 claimants, belonging for the most part to the party to 
 which he was indebted for deliverance from the hands of 
 Mortimer. Mortimer himself had evidently been obliged to 
 humour them. In July and again in October 1330 Edward 
 Balliol, son and heir of King John, had been invited to 
 come to England.* Two months later Edward, now his own 
 master, writes to complain that whereas Percy, Wake and 
 Beaumont were to be restored, only Percy had been restored.* 
 So again in 1331 and 1332, the names of the Bishop of 
 Durham and that of Thomas or third Beaumont are added 
 to the list of those whose claims should be attended to.^ 
 
 But Edward while proclaiming his entire regard for the 
 treaty, and forbidding armed men to leave the kingdom or 
 to cross the Scottish March without leave,^ could shut his 
 eyes to the equipment of a little armament in the remote 
 waters of the Humber. Edward Balliol and his Disin- 
 herited followers had resolved to try their luck in Scotland ; 
 the circumstances of the time were eminently favourable. 
 Bruce and Douglas were gone, the King was a child, and 
 the Regent Moray was sinking to his grave. In fact he died 
 before BaUiol made his start.' On the 31st July the force, 
 
 ' Foed. II. 804 ; Scalacr. 156. 
 ^ Cal. Pat. Roll, II. 394, 496 ; Foed. 762. 
 
 ' Foed. 795, 799. Early in the previous reign Edward Balliol had been in 
 England apparently as somewhat of a State prisoner. 
 ' Foed. 804. = Id. 806, 807, 809, 837. » Id. 810, 837. 
 
 ' He died on the 20th July ; Fordun, 354 ; Complete Peerage. 
 
2i8 UNOFFICIAL 
 
 cHAP.xm estimated at some 300-400 men-at-arms, or 500 all told, 
 
 '^2 sailed from Ravenspur, a site no longer existing, and six 
 
 days later anchored under the rocky cliffs of Kinghorn in 
 
 Scotland the Forth. An attempt by Duncan Macduff the Earl of Fife 
 
 '"™ ^ ' to resist their landing was repulsed with loss, and the force 
 
 after two days' rest at Kinghorn advanced to Dunfermline 
 
 (8th August). Making for Perth, on the nth August they 
 
 encamped at Forteviot, on ' The Miller's Acre ' with the 
 
 river Earn in front of them.^ 
 
 As already mentioned the Regent Moray had just passed 
 away, an irreparable loss to the Scots. He died at Mussel- 
 burgh in his harness, on the look-out for the adventurers. 
 The appointment of a new Regent was not effected without 
 a keen struggle between Scottish parties. At last the 
 magnates were brought to agree upon Donald Earl of Mar, 
 a man doubly connected with the Royal family, being son 
 of Christina Bruce, King Robert's sister, while King 
 Robert's first wife had been Isabel of Mar, Donald's aunt. 
 He himself was a young man of no military experience. 
 He had lived in England till he joined his countrymen in 
 1327 ; till then his sympathies, of course, had been all with 
 Balliol and the Disinherited, and they had looked for 
 support from him. But now as Regent he espoused the 
 national cause. ^ 
 
 At Forteviot the Disinherited soon found themselves in 
 danger of being placed between two fires. The levies from 
 the North, having gathered at Perth under the Regent, 
 moved up to the heights of Dupplin, and took up their 
 position there, facing the English position at the ford of 
 the Earn ; while the Southern contingent, under Patrick 
 Dunbar Earl of March, had reached Auchterarder, only 
 eight miles from Forteviot.^ In this predicament Beau- 
 mont, who had the military command, resolved to take the 
 enemy singly, and to dispose of Mar by a night attack, before 
 Dunbar could come up to co-operate.* The Earn, accord- 
 
 ' Bridlington, 104 ; Lanercost, 267 ; Fordun, sup. ; Avesbury, 296 ; Scotichr. 
 II. 304 ; Chron. Meaux, II. 362. ^ Bridlington, 104, 105. 
 
 ' Scotichr. sup. ; Wyntoun, II. 150. « Scalacr. 160. 
 
WAR 219 
 
 ingly, was forded at dead of night; a Scottish camp was chap.xiii 
 then encountered, and havoc made of the helpless sleeping 1332 
 occupants. The English, indulging in wild indiscriminate 
 pursuit, got scattered in the darkness, and lost all touch of 
 each other, till the flames of a blazing cottage gave them 
 a rallying point, when we are told that they all ran in, ' like 
 partridges '} Daylight disclosed the fact that the camp 
 that had been stormed was only that of the grooms and 
 camp followers, and that the real enemy was coming down 
 upon them in force. The men-at-arms fell in hastily, and Battle of 
 formed line, with a frontage of about 200 yards,^ with the ^"PP''"- 
 archers on their flanks.* The Scots came on in two divisions, 
 the van commanded by young Thomas Randolf Earl of 
 Moray, and Murthac * or Murdoch Earl of Menteith, while the 
 main body followed the Regent. All on either side fought on 
 foot, except some 40 Flemish Auxiliaries, with the English. 
 The Scottish van, consisting of the flower of their force, 
 namely the men-at-arms or gentlemen, being in strength 
 apparently about equal to that of the English line, charged 
 home, and with the advantage of a slope of about one foot 
 in eight ^ in their favour, began driving the adventurers 
 down the hill. Ralph Lord Stafford gained great credit 
 for his presence of mind in ordering the English to turn 
 their shoulders and not their breasts to the enemy, so as to 
 offer a better resistance to the pressure from above. ^ The 
 survivors of the Scottish van used to say that if they had 
 been left to themselves, they would have done well enough ; 
 as it was, however. Mar thought it incumbent on him to 
 overwhelm them with assistance. He had the whole of 
 the light-armed irregular levies massed in one big battalion, 
 presumably in the usual' circular " schiltrum " formation, 
 though the word is not used ; but anyhow the men were 
 so closely packed that they could scarcely breathe. 
 
 ' Scalacr. i6o. 
 
 ' " In longitudine unius stadii ; " Avesbury, 297. 
 
 ' Chron. Meaux, II. 364. ' So Wyntoun spells it. 
 
 ^ The Ordnance Survey Map shows a fall of 265 feet in 660 yards. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 268 ; Wyntoun, 152. 
 
 ' " More suo ;" Bridlington, 106. 
 
222 VASSAL KING 
 
 CHAP. XIII to have acted with full sanction, but only by the kind 
 ^ ' sufferance ' ^ of his lord the King, and by the help of some 
 of his subjects. In return for these obligations he under- 
 takes to serve the King of England with 200 men-at-arms 
 on demand, and to cede the town and county of Berwick, with 
 2,000 ' liverees ' of land on the Scottish March, to be annexed 
 to the crown of England. He also expressed a willingness 
 to take over the young queen Johane as an appurtenance 
 of the Scottish Crown, if her betrothal to David should 
 not ripen into holy wedlock.^ Plainly, Edward Balliol was 
 prepared to stoop to concessions to which his father, honest 
 John, never would have stooped. Of course the Roxburgh 
 agreement was kept a profound secret, even from the Pope. 
 On the 15th December Edward writes to the Holy Father 
 to put him on his guard against unfavourable reports of 
 recent events in Scotland ; the King will tell him exactly 
 what has happened. While holding a Parliament at 
 Westminster on the state of Ireland, he received intelligence 
 that Edward Balliol, son of the late King John, had landed 
 in Scotland with a party of Englishmen of rank, who laid 
 claim to certain estates in Scotland ; Balliol had defeated 
 the Scots, and caused himself to be crowned King ; and a 
 certain number of the Scottish magnates had declared for 
 him. By the advice of his ParHament, he (Edward) had 
 moved to the North, to protect his frontier, and watch the 
 course of events.^ It should also be pointed out that 
 all this time Edward was keeping up friendly communica- 
 tion with the Scottish national government.* In less than 
 Balliol a month from the date of the treaty of Roxburgh Balliol 
 expelled. ^^^^ driven helter-skelter out of Scotland. He had taken 
 up his quarters at Annan, intending to keep his Christmas 
 there ; his force had been weakened by the retirement of 
 some of his chief supporters, called to attend an English 
 Parliament. On the night of the i6th-i7th December 
 
 ' " Suffrance." In later documents Balliol declared that he had recovered 
 the crown by the ' toleration and aid ' (per toUerantiam et auxilium) of Edward ; 
 Foed. II. 876. 2 id_ g^^_ 
 
 " Id. See also Rot. Park. II. 66. ' Foed. 847, 849. 
 
EXPELLED 223 
 
 John Randolf the young Earl of Moray, Archibald Douglas, ™*^- '''" 
 and Simon Eraser, having gathered a band of men at 1332 
 Moffat, fell on the party at Annan, slew some of Balliol's 
 chief supporters in their beds, and sent him and the 
 survivors to find a refuge with the Friars Minors at 
 Carlisle.^ 
 
 Down to September (1332) no supply had been voted 
 by Parliament since the Twentieth granted at Lincoln for 
 the Scottish campaign in 1327. The Pope in 1330 had 
 granted Crusade Tenths for four years, but half of the 
 proceeds were to be reserved to the Curia? The Govern- 
 ment being thus left without sufficient funds, the old 
 expedients had to be resorted to. On the i8th June all 
 private charters were called in for resealing ; while on the 
 25th of the month a tallage of one-fourteenth of movables, 
 and one-ninth of rents was imposed on Crown demesnes 
 by the King's mere authority.^ On the following day, again, 
 commissioners were named to treat with the clergy for an 
 ' Aid ' for the recent marriage of the King's sister Eleanor 
 with Reginald II Count of Gueldres* The matter of the 
 tallage was taken up in a Parliament which sat at West- 
 minster 9th-i2th September. The King agreed to accept 
 a Fifteenth and Tenth, and revoked the order for the unlaw- 
 ful tallage, the last probably ever demanded by an English 
 King.^ From the Customs' Accounts of the year we learn 
 that another illegality was committed in the shape of an 
 unauthorized imposition of a surtax on wool, in addition to 
 the existing Old and New Customs ; the amount of the 
 surtax, however, is not stated.* 
 
 ' Fordun, 356 ; Scalacr. sup ; Lanercost, 271. The writer — a Carlisle 
 Franciscan — probably had the story from Edward or one of his followers. 
 
 2 Foed. II. 786 ; Wake, State of Church, 280. 
 
 = Foed. 839, 840. Cf. Issue Rolls, Devon, 142. 
 
 " For this marriage, which was celebrated this year about this time, see 
 Foed. 832, 833, 836 ; and especially Green, Princesses, III. 73-81. Eleanor 
 sailed from England early in May (r332). The subsidies from the clergy were 
 extorted in the following spring ; Foed. 851-853. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 66 ; Bp. Stubbs, sup. 395 ; Foed. 845. 
 
 " "Subsidium ultra antiquam custumam;" L. T. R. Enrolled Customs 
 Accounts, No, 5, m. 2. 
 
^332 
 
 224 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 The proceedings of the Parliament, short as it was, offer 
 several points of interest. A fixed assessment for the levy 
 of lay subsidies, like that established for clerical subsidies 
 in 1291, was agreed upon.^ Then the session may be taken 
 to mark the era of the final arrangement of Parliament, as 
 two Houses, Lords and Commons, the Burgesses sitting 
 with the Knights of the Shire. This conjunction may be 
 attributed partly to the growing wealth and importance of 
 the towns and commercial population, partly to the 
 ' reality ' of the deliberations in Parliament, and the 
 growing sphere of action allotted to the Commons ; the King 
 appeals to them as well as to the Barons, on questions of 
 public policy, such as his relations with France, or the 
 propriety of joining Philip in a proposed Crusade.^ The 
 importance of the conjunction of the county and borough 
 representatives can hardly be over-estimated. Divided as 
 four orders, clergy, baronage, knights and burgesses the 
 influence of Parliament " would have been neutralized at 
 every great crisis by the jealousies and difj&culty of co- 
 operation among its component parts ". The knights, by 
 their connexion with the baronage as landed gentry on the 
 one hand, and their political conjunction with the burgesses 
 on the other hand, " really welded the three orders into one, 
 and gave that unity of feeling and action to our ParHament 
 on which its power has ever since mainly depended ".* 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 66, 67. 
 
 ^ Id. 65 ; Stubbs, sup. 
 
 ^ Green, Hist. Eng. People, I. 394. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1330-1335 
 
 War with Scotland. — Battle of Halidon Hill. — Scotland prostrate. — Again in 
 arms. — Church Affairs. 
 
 Since the Stanhope Park campaign Edward had been chap, xiv 
 compelled to find scope for his martial tastes in tournaments 
 enlivened with the grotesque pageants in which the age Tourna- 
 delighted. Ostensibly forbidden/ these ticklish encounters 'n™'^- 
 were greatly patronized and encouraged by the King. In 
 May 1330, on his return from France, he took a manly part, 
 and received some shrewd blows ^ in a tournament held at 
 Dartford ' under the banners ' ^ of William Lord Clinton. 
 But, with all his courage, Edward was not destitute of 
 proper prudence. Returning from the lists he insisted on 
 dismounting an unruly charger ; and well it was for him 
 that he did so. The river Darent had to be forded on their 
 way to their quarters ; on reaching the ford the animal 
 plunged into deep water, and Edward in his armour would 
 certainly have been drowned.* Then in the following June 
 we have another tournament, given by Robert Lord Morley 
 in front of the Bishop's palace at Stepney. On the previous 
 Sunday the intending tilters — the King and his uncle of 
 Norfolk among them — marched in masquerading procession 
 to offer at St. Paul's.^ But the most gorgeous affair of all 
 was the tournament held in Cheapside between the Eleanor 
 Cross and the Great Conduit ^ at the charges of Lord 
 
 ' Foed. II. 794-797. 
 
 ' " Egregie verberatus ictus fortes sustinuit ; " Ann. Paul. 352. 
 
 ' " Sub vexillis." ' Ann. Paul. sup. 
 
 ° " Omnes erant larvati tarn milites quam armigeri." 
 
 ° The Eleanor Cross faced the present Wood Street. The Great Conduit 
 stood between Queen Street and the Poultry ; the Little Conduit faced Foster 
 Lane at the west end of Cheapside. See Wheatley and Cunningham, " London". 
 1415-1 Q 
 
226 PEERS 
 
 CHAP. XIV Montagu in September 1331. On the preceding Sunday 
 1331 (22 September) Montagu, the King, and a select band of 
 knights rode the streets, dressed up as Tartars ; each knight 
 had a lady on his right hand, robed in ruby velvet, and led 
 by a silver chain ; the King had his sister, the Lady Eleanor, 
 a beautiful girl, married not long afterwards to the Count of 
 Guelders, and so they rode two and two, amid the clang of 
 trumpets and all kinds of music. The chargers, superbly 
 caparisoned, closed the procession. For three days sixteen 
 challengers held the lists against all comers (September 23- 
 25). But the jousting of the first day was marred by an 
 accident that might have had serious consequences ; a stand 
 or gallery set up for the accommodation of the Queen and 
 her ladies — apparently across the street — collapsed ; several 
 people were hurt, but fortunately no lives were lost.^ 
 
 With an opening for an attack on Scotland Edward could 
 now turn his attention to war in earnest. To advise the 
 King on the course to be pursued towards the Scots another 
 
 Parlia- Parliament, the third of the year ^ 1332, was summoned to 
 York for the 5th December. The King inquired of his 
 lieges if they would advise him to lay claim to the direct 
 dominion * of Scotland, or to the overlordship of it, ' as his 
 ancestors had it ' ; or again to the value thereof.* With 
 reference to the treaty of 1328, he called their attention 
 to the fact that it had been negotiated when he was under 
 age, and in the hands of others. An excuse for avoiding 
 a direct answer was found in the absence of the majority 
 of the bishops, and the Parliament, at its own request, was 
 prorogued to the 20th January 1333.^ The adjourned 
 session duly met at York, but after six days of ' diligent ' 
 discussion the Houses were unable to agree upon an answer 
 
 ^ See Ann. Paul. 352-355 ; Murimuth, 60 ; Avesbury, 286 ; Baker, 48 ; 
 Heming. Cont. II. 303. 
 
 ^ The first session was held at Westminster 17-21 March (Lords' Report). 
 Great complaint was raised of brigandage, persons being carried ofS for ransom 
 and the like. An increase in the Commissioners of the Peace was agreed upon ; 
 Rot. Parlt. II. 64. The second session was that of 9-12 September above noticed, 
 p. 223. " " le demeigne de mesme la terre." 
 
 * " ou la value." * Rot. Parlt. 67. 
 
URGING PEACE 227 
 
 that the King cared to accept. Strong as was the party of ci'ap^iv 
 the Disinherited, with all the weight of Royal influence 1333 
 behind them, they were unable to commit the nation to a 
 rupture with Scotland. The King dismissed his lieges, and, in 
 thanking them for their kind attendance, told them that he 
 would take counsel with the King of France and the Pope.^ 
 
 Edward of course consulted neither, and began to prepare 
 for war without further delay. The sums ' promised ' by 
 individual clergy for the marriage of the King's sister were 
 exacted with great severity, the King admitting ' no 
 excuses '.^ Distraint for knighthood was enforced against 
 all landowners to the value of £40 a year.* 
 
 About the loth March, if not before, Balliol, now openly 
 supported by the King of England, recrossed the Border ; * 
 and, after capturing a small peel belonging to Robert of 
 Colville, " probably Oxnam in Teviotdale ", marched to 
 the siege of Berwick. The Earls of Lancaster and Arundel, 
 William Montagu and Ralph Neville, were said to be with him. 
 On the 2oth March Edward orders supplies to be sent to 
 Northumberland for the use of his lieges engaged in defend- 
 ing his borders against ' the hostile aggressions ' of the 
 Scots ; while next day he boldly announces that the Scots 
 have broken the recent peace, and orders a muster of the 
 military tenants for the 30th May.^ As a matter of fact War with 
 Northumberland was not touched till after Balliol had 
 crossed the Border, while on the Western Marches the first 
 bands only passed Carlisle on the 23rd March. ^ Archibald 
 Douglas, elected Warden in succession to the captured 
 Murray, inflicted a fresh harrying on devoted Gillsland ; 
 while the English retaliated to better effect by invading 
 Annandale, where they defeated and carried off William 
 
 ' 26 January 1333 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 68. 
 
 ^ See the order, 12 February ; Foed. II. 851-853, 859, 864. The sums paid by 
 individuals varied from 50^. to £100. ' Id. 855. 
 
 * Heming.Cont.il. 306; Lanercost, 272. Knighton, II. 562 and the Scalacr. 
 place BaUioI's advance a fortnight earlier. 
 
 ' Foed. 855-857. For further preparations, hobelers, archers, shipping, 
 victuals, &c., see Rot. Scot. I. 225. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 272. Cf. Heming. Cont., sup., and Bridlington, 11 1. 
 
 Q2 
 
Berwick. 
 
 228 OFFICIAL 
 
 CHAP. XIV Douglas, a kinsman of the Black Douglas, known in 
 ^ Scottish history as the Knight of Liddesdale, a noted 
 Border hero.^ 
 
 Edward did not keep his levies waiting. On the 22nd 
 April he appeared at Newcastle. From thence he writes 
 to Flanders insisting that no succour must be sent to the 
 Scots ; to the King of France he explains that the Scots 
 have been the first to break the truce. ^ By the 14th May 
 he reached the banks of the Tweed,' bent on giving effect 
 to the cession made by Balliol. The latter and Montagu 
 had invested Berwick six weeks before ; * while an English 
 fleet blockaded the harbour. A grand assault was imme- 
 Siegeof diately given in honour of the King's arrival.^ But the 
 fortifications of Edward I were too strong to be carried 
 by assault, and the siege again became a mere blockade. 
 Towards the end of June, however, it became apparent that 
 unless speedily relieved Berwick must fall. Accordingly, 
 Dunbar the Earl of March and Alexander Seton, who were 
 in command, verbally agreed to a convention of the usual 
 sort, namely that they would surrender if not relieved 
 within fifteen days, and gave hostages.® 
 
 This treaty by luring the Scots to risk a pitched encounter 
 proved a fatal snare to them. On the nth July,' within 
 the appointed time, a Scottish army having crossed the 
 Tweed at a place given as " Yarforde " advanced to Tweed- 
 mouth, and succeeded in throwing some sort of relief into 
 Berwick.^ After remaining within sight of the English 
 army for twenty-four hours they marched off to harry 
 Northumberland, and make a diversion by attacking Bam- 
 borough, where Queen Philippa was estabhshed.^ 
 
 ' Dornock, 24 March ; Lanercost ; Scotichr. II. 319 ; Foed. II. 856. 
 " Id. 858-860 ; 862. 
 ' Tweedmouth, Rot. Scot. I. 238. 
 
 ' 31 March ; Fordun. The Lanercost writer notices fighting near Berwick 
 on the 25th March. 
 
 '"' 18 May ; Heming. Cont. II. 307 ; Lanercost, 273 ; Scalacr. 162. 
 
 " Scalacr. 163; Fordun, 359 ; Scotichr. II. 309, 311 ; Bridlington, 112. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2563 ; Heming. 308. 
 
 ' Knighton, Heming. Scalacr. sup. 
 
 " Higden, VIII. 328 ; Mon. Malm. Cont. 291. 
 
WAR 229 
 
 The fifteen days having now elapsed the English de- 
 manded the surrender of Berwick ; but the Scots contended 
 that the place had been duly relieved, and appointed a new 
 governor, William Keith, to carry on an obstinate defence. 
 Edward retorted by hanging Seton's son, one of the 
 hostages ; and the Scots, to save the lives of the rest, then 
 made a fresh convention ; which, to prevent misunder- 
 standing, was reduced to writing (15th July).^ Edward 
 granted a truce till daybreak on the 20th July, with a safe- 
 conduct in the meantime for Keith, to allow him to com- 
 municate with his countrymen in the field : the town to 
 be yielded at daybreak on the 20th July if not effectually 
 reheved by sunset on the 19th July. An ' effectual ' relief 
 was defined as being the entry of a body of not less than 
 200 soldiers into Berwick, by land and not by sea.^ At the 
 report of this convention the Scottish army evacuated 
 Northumberland and made for Berwick.^ Crossing the 
 Tweed, most likely at Coldstream, they encamped on the 
 night of the i8th July within the park at Dunse,* 
 some fifteen miles from Berwick. Next day, about 
 noon,^ they appeared on a little eminence on the North 
 side of Berwick known as Halidon Hill.^ The English, 
 ready prepared for their coming, confronted them on the 
 slopes of another little hill. Edward had disposed of his 
 forces in such fashion as to command all access to Berwick 
 from without, while a force was told off to guard against 
 a possible sally from within the place, that might take him 
 in the rear. Of the English array we have valuable notes. 
 
 ' Bridlington, 112, 113, the best account ; see also Scalacr. Lanercost, and 
 Fordun, sup., and Foed. '^ Feed. II. 864 ; Rot. Scot. I. 253. 
 
 ' Keith found them at Morpeth ; Bridlington. 
 
 * Scotichr. II. 310 ; A. Wyntoun, II. 168. Sunnyside, near Dunse, is also 
 mentioned. 
 
 ' " circa horam diei nonam ; " Bridlington, 115. " Hora nona, pelago pleno ; " 
 Higden, VIII. 328. 
 
 ° The Bridlington writer, who gives by far the best account, says that the 
 Scots ascended ' monticulum Halyndounhill vocatum"; p. 115. So too, 
 apparently, Baker, 51 ; Scotichr. 311 ; and Wyntoun. Higden places them 
 at " Bothulle juxta Halidoun " ; and Avesbury at "Huntenemoor", 298. "Haly- 
 doun is the south end of a ridge of small hills which extend northward about three 
 miles and terminate in Ross Point ; " D. Macpherson, note to Wyntoun. 
 
 1333 
 
230 BATTLE 
 
 CHAP. XIV The army was arranged in triple formation as usual ; but 
 1333 we also hear that each corps had wings, with archers again 
 flanking the wings. Profiting by the lessons learned from 
 the Scots/ and already illustrated at Dupplin, the men-at- 
 arms dismounted to fight on foot.^ The right wing next 
 to the sea was commanded by Norfolk the Earl Marshal, the 
 Earl of Cornwall the King's brother, Henry of Beaumont, 
 and Edward Bohun representing his brother Henry, the 
 Constable, who was infirm. The Earl of Atholl had charge 
 of the right wing of this corps, and Umfraville of Angus 
 that of the left wing ; Edward himself commanded the 
 centre and Edward Balliol the left divisions, both being 
 marshalled with wings and archers like the right division.* 
 These arrangements might be attributed to Montagu, who 
 had the military command at the siege, and might be 
 regarded as Chief of the Staff. The Scots likewise were 
 arranged in three bodies, doubtless in their usual " schil- 
 trum " formation, their horses being picketed in a wood at 
 the back of the hill ; while a chosen body of 200 men-at- 
 arms was charged with the desperate duty of endeavouring 
 at whatever cost to cut their way into Berwick. Under the 
 convention if with the loss of only ten of their number they 
 should get into Berwick that would count as an ' effectual 
 relief. A list of the names of the chief Scotsmen in the 
 action, preserved by an English writer,* assigns 300 men-at- 
 arms with perhaps 2,200 foot-soldiers to each of the Scottish 
 divisions, say 7,000 or 8,000 men in all; but chroniclers' 
 numbers must always be taken with reservation. 
 
 To get at the English in their position on their height 
 the Scots would have not only to abandon their own 
 defensive position at Hahdon, but also to cross a line of 
 swampy hollows between them and the English.* To 
 
 ^ So expressly Baker, sup. = Id. 
 
 ^ Bridlington, 214. John of Eltham was created Earl of Cornwall October 
 1328 ; above, p. 203. 
 
 * Knighton, 2564. The Continuator of Hemingburgh copies some of the 
 names. The figures as to the numbers of the soldiers are very confused. 
 
 ' Scotichr. II. 311; Wyntoun, II. 169; "loco ab incolis Hevyside nuncu- 
 pate," Bridlington, 116. 
 
OF HALIDON HILL 231 
 
 attack such an enemy in such a position was an act of the chap.xiv 
 wildest temerity. But when was Scottish pugnacity ever '^ 
 deterred by any consideration of odds or disadvantages ? 
 Their leaders faced the risk without apparent hesitation. 
 Vesper- time was drawing near, and Berwick must be relieved 
 before nightfall. Gallantly they plunged down-hill into 
 the swampy bottom, and there they stuck, overwhelmed 
 by the showers of arrows poured on them " as thick as 
 motes on the sonne beam "} The Scottish right made 
 a vigorous attack on Balliol on the English left, but were 
 defeated before the other divisions could get into action, 
 and all three were shortly " clubbed " and rolled into one 
 helpless mass. The devoted Two Hundred ' fought like 
 lions ' but utterly failed to cut their way through the 
 English right. When the Scots began to give way the 
 Enghsh mounted their horses, and pursued them wildly 
 till nightfall.^ The slaughter was terrible, especially among 
 the gentry. Archibald Douglas the Regent was taken 
 prisoner mortally wounded. On the field lay the six Earls 
 Hugh of Ross, Kenneth of Sutherland, Murdoch Stewart 
 of Menteith, Malcolm of Lennox, John Campbell the anti- 
 Earl of Atholl, and Alexander Bruce of Carrick, natural 
 Bon of Edward Bruce. ^ Besides these, 72 barons and 
 knights, 500 horsemen in all, were said to have fallen.* 
 Between Dupplin and Halidon the national party seemed 
 to have been pretty well wiped out. ' With none left to 
 lead or govern the Scottish wars must surely now have 
 come to an end.' So men said in England.^ This signal 
 victory was gained at a price inconceivably small. The 
 loss admitted was one knight, one esquire, and twelve 
 archers.® 
 As a matter of course the town and castle of Berwick 
 
 * Harleian MS., cited Fraser Tytler. 
 
 ^ See Bridlington, ii6; and the other authorities already cited. 
 
 ' See Lord Hailes and Complete Peerage. 
 
 ' Bridlington, sup. For names see Knighton, sup. and Barnes, Edward III, 
 ■jg, ' Murimuth, 68. 
 
 " Higden, sup. " Absque laesione magna gentis nostrae," is the King's descrip- 
 tion of his loss ; Foed. 11. 866. 
 
1333 
 
 232 SCOTLAND 
 
 were delivered on the morrow. The terms of the conven- 
 tion were honourably observed. Life and Hmb and pro- 
 perty were guaranteed to all within the walls. Those who 
 were disposed to remain as the subjects of the King of 
 England were at once admitted to the ' peace ' ; those who 
 were not willing were given forty days to dispose of their 
 possessions and depart.^ From this time Berwick with 
 occasional changes of hands became substantially part of 
 England, but with the organization of a petty kingdom. 
 The old heading of our statutes enacted for England 
 Scotland and Berwick-upon-Tweed "preserves the memory 
 of its peculiar position ".^ The only other permanent 
 acquisition of the war was the Isle of Man, and that Edward 
 at once made over to Montagu.^ 
 
 The Earl of March promptly made his peace with Edward, 
 and the King without demur allowed him to re-fortify his 
 castle, another weak concession.* 
 
 The victory of Halidon Hill may fairly be compared with 
 that of Dunbar ; but we fail to trace in the Third Edward 
 the energy and moral purpose of his great ancestor. Ten 
 days after the battle the King turned southwards in pursuit 
 of his favourite feats of the tilt-yard,^ the task of subjugat- 
 ing and reorganizing Scotland being left to Balliol. At the 
 same time we must remember that Edward was evidently 
 not aiming at anything beyond the cessions promised by 
 the Roxburgh convention, if convention it can be called ; 
 and that it was Balliol's business to win and make over 
 these territories. He swept through the Lowlands without 
 encountering an enemy.^ The young King and Queen had 
 found a temporary refuge on the rock of Dumbarton. That 
 Scotland fastness with the scattered castles of Loch Leven, Kil- 
 prostrate. jjj-unimy, Urquhart, and the Peel of Loch Down on the 
 
 ^ See Foed. II. 865, 867 ; Fordun, 337. Native men of religion, however, were 
 required to leave ; Rot. Scot. I. 258 ; Lanercost. 
 
 ' Green, Short Hist. 209. = Foed. 868 ; Hill Burton, III. 12. 
 
 ' Lanercost and Scalacr. sup. ; Foed. 867. 
 
 " " Faits d'armes de pece." So the Scalacr. 163, with an evident touch of 
 contempt for mimic war. 
 
 " Scalacr. sup. ; Knighton, 2565 ; Scotichr. sup. 
 
LAID LOW 233 
 
 borders of Carrick, were the only places still flying the chap, xiv 
 national flag.^ Possibly they were the only fortresses that 1333 
 had escaped dismantling. 
 
 In the latter part of September Balliol held a Parliament 
 of his supporters at Perth. With questionable policy he 
 reversed all the acts and grants of the rival dynasty.^ 
 Five months later (February 1334) Balliol held another 
 Parliament, namely in Holyrood Chapel, and by the 
 ' counsel and assent ' of the bishops, earls, barons, and 
 other ' men ' of Scotland there assembled, sealed a formal 
 ratification of the obligations undertaken at Roxburgh. 
 Seven Scottish bishops were present ; the Querellours were 
 represented by Henry of Beaumont Earl of Buchan, David 
 of Strathbogie Earl of Atholl, and Henry Talbot lord of 
 Mar. Dunbar and Keith did duty for the indigenous laity.* 
 
 The prospects of the national party seemed so bad 
 that even the Rock of Dumbarton was no longer deemed 
 a safe retreat for the young King and Queen. Philip sent 
 £1,000 for their journey : sailing from the Clyde about the 
 beginning of May they reached France by the middle of 
 the month. Philip gave them a handsome reception and 
 established them at Chateau Gaillard on the Seine, the 
 proud stronghold of Richard Coeur de Lion.* 
 
 The cession of Berwick was only taken as a grant " on 
 account " of the full measure of 2,000 liver ees or librates 
 of land promised at Roxburgh. Satisfaction for the balance 
 due was arranged by the two Kings at Newcastle in the 
 month of June. Without the intervention of any Scottish 
 Parliament, Balliol of his own mere authority made over 
 to the King of England the eight counties of Berwick, Territorial 
 Roxburgh, Selkirk, thethree Lothians, Peebles and Dumfries, 
 
 ' Scotichr. Wyntoun, II. 172 ; Hailes. 
 
 ^ Lanercost, 276; Murimuth, 71. On the ist October Edward appointed 
 Henry Percy and Ralph Neville to attend the Scots Parliament which had 
 already been summoned ; Foed. II. 870. 
 
 ' 10-12 February ; see the notarial record, Foed. 876. For estates granted 
 to Englishmen see Rot. Scot. I. 282 ; Tytler, II. 32. Edward insisted on the 
 grant of Strathearn to the Earl Warenne ; Foed. 878. 
 
 * Excheq. Rolls, Scotland, I. 449, 464, 467 ; Lanercost, 278 ; De Nangis, 
 Cont. sup. 
 
234 SCOTLAND 
 
 CHAP. XIV with all their towers and castles, rights and appurtenances, 
 in absolute dominion, freed and discharged from all 
 subjection to the Scottish crown> For the rest of his 
 dismembered kingdom Balliol did due homage.^ English 
 sheriffs were named by Edward to rule the ceded districts — ■ 
 as a concession perhaps to Scottish nationality a Scotsman 
 conversant with business, Robert Lauder, was named 
 Justiciar of Lothian : he was instructed to do all things 
 in accordance with the laws and customs of Scotland.^ 
 These arrangements concluded Edward returned to the 
 South. On the 27th July he signs at Windsor.* 
 
 But again Scotland had risen in ' chaotic ' strife, dissen- 
 sions in the Balliol party having given the opportunity. 
 Kings and Kingmakers seldom agree, and Balliol and the 
 Querellours were not long of falUng out. A petty squabble 
 over a division of the spoils led to a serious split in the 
 party. One Mowbray had died, leaving daughters, but no 
 male issue.^ His brother Alexander laid claim to the 
 estates as heir male, and Balliol accepted him. But 
 Beaumont, Atholl and Talbot objected, and when their 
 objections were overruled, broke into open revolt.* But 
 the national party were already up in arms. Robert 
 Stewart, Andrew Murray, and William Douglas — the last 
 two just ransomed out of English dungeons — had renewed 
 the struggle, attacking the men of Galloway and other 
 southern adherents of the House of Balliol.'' Balliol, 
 sensible of his mistake, recalled his decision in favour of 
 
 ' 12 June ; Foed. II. 888 ; cf. Lanercost, 277. On the i8th June Edward 
 re-granted to Balliol his family estates in Dumfriesshire. 
 
 ^ 19 June; Lanercost, sup. and Mon. Malm. 18 June; Heming. Cont. II. 309. 
 
 = Foed. 889, 890. 
 
 '' Rot. Scot. I. 276. Edward left Newcastle on the 20th or 21st June ; lb. 275. 
 Between the 21st February and the 2nd March Edward had held a Parliament at 
 York in which the newly established staples for leather and wool were abolished ; 
 Lords' Report ; Rot. Parlt. II. 376 ; Foed. 879. 
 
 " Probably it was John Mowbray who was slain in Annandale in December 
 1332 ; " see Hailes and Fordun, 1. 356. This John Mowbray must be distinguished 
 from the great English baron John Mowbray of Gower. His name still appears 
 in the Parliamentary Writs. 
 
 « Perth, late in August ; Fordun, 357; Scalacr. 164; Lanercost, 278; 
 24 August, Bridlington, irg. ' Circa 22nd July ; Lanercost, sup. 
 
'UP' AGAIN 235 
 
 Alexander Mowbray; and, as an immediate consequence, chap. xiv 
 drove him and his brother Geoffrey, the EngHsh sheriff of 1234 
 Roxburgh, into the arms of the Bruce party .^ John Randolf 
 Earl of Moray, who had been on a mission to France, 
 returned with promises of speedy succour;^ Atholl, driven 
 into a corner, made his peace with the Scots.* By Michael- 
 mas Balliol was again driven clean out of Scotland, and a 
 new Regency was estabhshed in the joint hands of the 
 Earl of Moray and Robert Stewart, the heir to the crown. 
 
 Intelligence of the new rising had reached Edward at 
 Windsor on the 3rd August.* To provide immediate suc- 
 cour for the English party in Scotland all ' robbers felons 
 and homicides ' who had received pardons on condition of 
 serving at the siege of Berwick were immediately ordered 
 to rejoin the colours at Newcastle by the 6th October.^ 
 Edward, though inclined to take things easily when fortune 
 smiled upon him, was not usually backward in the hour of 
 danger. A Parliament, the second of the year, had already 
 been summoned to Westminster for the 19th September. 
 The King made a request for money, and the lieges did not 
 withhold it. The counties gave a Fifteenth, the boroughs 
 a Tenth ; the clergy in their assemblies likewise agreed to 
 grants of Tenths.^ 
 
 In the first week of October Edward left London. On 
 the 1st of November he was at Newcastle. Levies of 
 archers and hobelers had been demanded, and the military 
 tenants had been called out. But even Edward I had 
 found it next to impossible to enforce attendance in a winter 
 campaign ; the levies came to nothing ; the barons did 
 not appear.'' An early winter offered a final bar to 
 
 ' So Hailes ; Fordun, I. 357 ; Scotichr. II. 312 ; cf. Foed. II. 902. Geoffrey 
 Mowbray was married to Isabella, Countess of Mar. 
 
 ^ Fordun and Lanercost, sup. Ships of war laden with men and supplies 
 appeared off the Scottish coast in September ; Rot. Scot. I. 279. 
 
 ^ 27 September ; Fordun, 358. * Rot. Scot. 276 ; cf. 299. ° Foed. 892. 
 
 ° Foed. 897 ; Wilkins, Cone. II. 576, 578 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 447. The session 
 lasted September 19-23; Lords' Report, I. 492. 
 
 ' See Rot. Scot. I. 279-293, and Lords' Report, Appendix IV, 431. Fresh 
 writs were issued to 57 barons. 100 hobelers, and as many archers were sent by 
 London ; Riley, Memorials, 187. 
 
236 ABORTIVE CAMPAIGN 
 
 CHAP. XIV campaigning. The result was that Edward, after spending 
 ~ most of November at Newcastle, spent the whole of Decem- 
 ber and January at Roxburgh, begging for support ; ^ in the 
 second week of February (i335), dropping the campaign, 
 he went back somewhat hurriedly to the South.^ 
 
 Opinions were divided as to the cause of the King's 
 return. Some thought that it was due to disturbances 
 caused by a revival of the rumours that the Second Edward 
 was not dead but alive; * a more likely reason for a call to 
 London wpuld be found in the presence of French envoys, 
 commissioned to press for a truce with the Scots.* That 
 Philip would give the Scots as much underhand support 
 as he could was hardly open to doubt ; and in fact he had 
 been subsidizing David before he took refuge in France. 
 But Edward had been doing his best to disarm him by 
 studied diplomatic friendliness. Embassy after embassy 
 had been named in the previous year to discuss questions, 
 some of them going back to the days of Simon of Montfort. 
 At one time a joint Crusade is talked of, as a matter on 
 which the French King's heart was bent, and for which 
 he was making great preparations ; at another time a 
 personal interview is solicited. Efforts are made to patch 
 up some matrimonial alliance ; blank powers are given 
 to marry John Earl of Kent to any French lady of position, 
 no matter whom ; the King's own brother John is offered 
 first to a daughter of Blois, then to Mary of Coucy.^ 
 To please the French envoys Edward allowed them to 
 confer with delegates from Scotland; beyond that he 
 would grant nothing, except a truce to last from Easter 
 to Midsummer.® 
 
 ^ See Lanercost, 278, 279; Heming. Cont. II. 310 ; Scalacr. 164; Knighton, 
 2565 ; Foed. II. and Rot. Scot. For the severity of the winter see Bridlington, 
 120. Whitby Church was blown down. ^ Rot. Scot. 
 
 ^ Cf. Lanercost, 279, and Foed. 904. He was alleged to be at Melazzo in 
 ^333 ; above, p. 171. ' Foed. 900 ; Knighton, 2565. 
 
 ' April-September 1334 ; Foed. 880-895. John Earl of Kent was about three 
 years old ; younger brother of Edmund who died the year before ; Complete 
 Peerage. 
 
 " Foed. 904 ; Murimuth, 75. 
 
FRESH EFFORTS 237 
 
 Preparations for a more effectual campaign were pressed chap, xiv 
 on without intermission ; the mihtary tenants were ordered 77« 
 to be at-Newcastle by the nth June ; supplies of men and 
 money were requisitioned from Ireland.^ A grant of 
 hobelers and archers was obtained from the counties in 
 Parliament, with an arrangement for substituting money 
 payments for personal service.^ 
 
 In the first week of July Edward mustered his forces on 
 the Border ; his brother-in-law the Count of Guelders was 
 present, with a body of German mercenaries.^ The King 
 divided his forces, himself marching up Annandale with one 
 army, while Balliol was sent along the East coast, where 
 the fleet was co-operating. Both armies destroyed every- 
 thing they could find to destroy, the Welshmen paying no 
 respect even to church property. Crossing the Forth the 
 English reunited their forces at Perth.* 
 
 The cause of the House of Bruce again for the time seemed 
 desperate. Even their momentary successes seemed to 
 entail eventual loss. Guy Count of Namur, marching from 
 Berwick to join the King of England, was surrounded at 
 Edinburgh* and forced to surrender (30 July). His captor 
 the Regent Moray, anxious to cultivate relations with 
 Flanders, dismissed him without ransom ; and for greater 
 courtesy escorted him in person to the Border. On his 
 way back Moray was taken prisoner by William Prestfen, 
 the governor of Jedburgh Castle.* 
 
 ' Rot. Scot. I. 328, &c. ; Lords' Report, Appendix, I. 442 ; Foed. II. 905. 
 
 ^ lb. 911. The Parliament sat at York from the 26th May to the 3rd June 
 Lords' Report ; for the statutes passed, 9 Edw. Ill, i and 2, see Statutes, I. 269 
 the first granted {inter alia) unrestricted right of trading to all foreign merchants 
 the other was a currency Act. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 281 ; Knighton, 2566 ; Scalacr. 16$ ; Foed. 912. 
 
 * Fordun, Scalacr., and Lanercost, sup. The English fleet burnt part of 
 Dundee and carried off the bell of the Friars Minors ; the trophy was purchased by 
 the Carhsle Dominicans, a great grief to the Lanercost writer, who was a Minorite. 
 
 ' The castle was still in a dismantled state. Namur endeavoured to stop the 
 breaches with bodies of dead horses. See Scotichronicon for traditional details 
 of the affair ; II. 319. 
 
 ' Bridlington, 123 ; Scotichr. sup. ; Issue Rolls, Devon, 145 ; Foed. 914, 917, 
 918. Namur took ship again at Berwick, and escorted Queen Philippa to Perth 
 to join the King there ; Scalacr. 165. 
 
238 DAVID OF STRATHBOGIE 
 
 CHAP. XIV This was a serious blow to the national party, already 
 1335 weak enough in point of leaders ; the Earl of Atholl had 
 been as successful in sowing discord among the followers of 
 Bruce as among the followers of Balliol. He had disturbed 
 the proceedings at a Scottish Parliament held in the spring ; 
 yet had managed to gain the confidence of the Stewart, 
 a foolish boy of twenty ; he himself being a man of the 
 ripe age of twenty-four years.^ At his instigation Stewart 
 commissioned the Mowbrays to negotiate a treaty of peace 
 with Edward and Balliol. The two Kings agreed to respect 
 the ' franchises ' of the Scottish Church, and the ' usages and 
 customs ' of the people of Scotland ; they also agreed to 
 extend a full pardon to all Scotsmen who should accept the 
 treaty, ' except such as should be excepted by common 
 assent '.^ This pacification proved a mere dead letter. 
 The Scots, regarding the conduct of the Stewart as tanta- 
 mount to an abdication of his functions, again placed 
 themselves in the hands of Andrew Murray of Bothwell.' 
 On the other side AthoU's services were rewarded by the 
 restitution of his English estates and the grant of the 
 Lieutenancy of Scotland North of the Forth.* 
 The King Leaving Perth in the first week of September Edward 
 North. divided the next eight weeks between Edinburgh and 
 Berwick. Sensible that there was yet plenty of work in 
 Scotland to be done, he took up his quarters for the winter 
 at Newcastle (November). ^ The attempt to establish 
 friendly relations with France had failed. Philip and the 
 new Pope Benedict XII ^ kept pressing Edward to grant a 
 truce to the Scots ; their instances were backed up by 
 
 ' Fordun, 358 ; Scotichr. II. 259 and note. 
 
 ^ See the treaty in French, Perth, iSth August; Avesbury, 298; Knighton, 2566. 
 
 ' Murray was appointed Regent at Dumbarton on the 21st September ; 
 Fordun, 359. 
 
 » Heming. Cont. II. 311 ; Fordun, sup. ; Scalacr. 166 ; Foed. II. 920. 
 
 * See Rot. Scot, and Foed. 
 
 " John XXII died 4th December 1334 ; on the 20th December the cardinals 
 elected the Cistercian abbot Jacques Fournier, " to his own surprise and to 
 that of all Christendom." He took the name of Benedict XII and proved an 
 honest man, shrewd and anxious to reform abuses, but deficient in political 
 courage ; he resigned himself to the French yoke ; Milman ; H. Nicolas. 
 
EARL OF ATHOLL 239 
 
 piratical attacks on the South coast.^ Yielding to this chap.xiv 
 double pressure Edward gave in to a truce, granted in the ^77^ 
 first instance only till Michaelmas, but eventually carried A truce, 
 on, by successive prolongations, to the 5th May 1336.^ 
 
 But in such warfare truces count for little. David of 
 Strathbogie in his anxiety to distinguish himself in his new 
 post had succeeded in imparting something of an agrarian 
 character to a war already sufficiently bitter. By way of 
 tearing up the Bruce party by the roots he waged a war of 
 wholesale eviction and imprisonment against the small 
 freeholders and lesser gentry,* the backbone of the 
 national party. He also laid siege to Kildrummy Castle 
 in Aberdeenshire, held by the Lady Christian Bruce, wife 
 of the Regent Murray.* The evicted Highlanders found 
 allies and avengers in the South. Bothwell hastened to 
 succour his wife ; Douglas and the Earl of March, who had 
 already changed sides, ^ it was said with the connivance of 
 Montagu, Edward's representative in Lothian, joined him in 
 raising an army. Atholl, dropping the siege of Kildrummy, 
 hastened to meet them, and was defeated and killed in the 
 forest of Culblean in Braemar.^ Murray kept the field all Action at 
 the winter laying siege to Cupar in Fife and Lochindorb 
 (Inverness-shire).' 
 
 Some changes in the ecclesiastical world of recent occur- 
 rence may here be noticed. A new Pope had been en- 
 throned as already mentioned : then on the 24th September 
 1333 Louis of Beaumont the courtly Bishop of Durham 
 died.^ The chapter, regardless of Royal hints, elected their 
 Sub-prior Robert of Greystanes, the Durham historian. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 919 ; Lanercost, 283. ^ 29 October ; Rot. Scot. I. 385. 
 
 ' "Omnes libera tenentes delete de terra finaliter ordinavit ;" Fordun, 359; 
 Scotichr. II. 320. 
 
 ' Wyntoun, II. 196. 
 
 " Dunbar turned Scotch again at the end of 1334. He had been plundered by 
 Northumbrian brigands on his return from Newcastle in the previous November ; 
 having failed to obtain satisfaction from the King he renounced his homage ; 
 Heming. Cont. II. 310 ; Scalacr. 
 
 " 30th November, 1335 ; Fordun and Scotichr. sup. Bridlington gives the 
 day as the 29th November. 
 
 ' See Foed. 933. ' Reg. Sacr. 
 
CHAP. XIV 
 1333 
 
 Stratford 
 Arch- 
 bishop. 
 
 Orleton 
 Bishop of 
 Winches- 
 ter. 
 
 240 ECCLESIASTICAL 
 
 Greystanes then presented himself at court to ask for 
 the Royal assent to his election. Edward received him 
 kindly, but told him that the Pope had already made an 
 appointment in favour of Richard Aungerville of Bury, 
 the King's old tutor.^ Nothing daunted Robert turned to 
 his metropolitan William Melton, and actually obtained 
 confirmation and consecration from him (York, 10 and 14 
 November). The rival Bishop Richard then made his 
 appearance, armed with Papal Bull and Royal warrant, and, 
 of course, had to be consecrated, installed, and enthroned ; 
 and poor Greystanes went back to his cloister ' a bishop 
 without a bishopric '.^ On the I2th October 1333 Arch- 
 bishop Mepeham died, a man " in all things respectable, in 
 nothing great". But his position required something 
 more than " respectable mediocrity ". Suffragans and 
 chapters worried him to death.^ The Canterbury Chapter, 
 ' making a virtue of necessity,' postulated John Stratford 
 of Winchester (3rd November) ; * the King wrote to Avignon 
 for confirmation, but the Pope had already issued a ' Pro- 
 vision ' in Stratford's favour (i December), and in virtue of 
 that mandate he was translated and enthroned.^ On the 
 same day on which he promoted Stratford to the Primacy, 
 John translated Adam Orletonfrom Worcester to Winchester. 
 This kind act was done, not to please the King of England, but 
 to please the King of France, who had written to Avignon 
 on behalf of Orleton. Orleton as ambassador in Paris had 
 again found opportunities for advancing his own interests. 
 Edward was naturally indignant to find the patronage 
 of the English church played against him as trump cards 
 
 ' See the Bull dated Avignon 14th October ; Northern Registers, 369. 
 
 ^ See Greystanes' account, Angl. Sacr. I. 762 ; and Melton's account, Northern 
 Registers, sup. ; also Lanercost, 276, and Murimuth, 71. Proceedings against 
 Melton were taken by the King, but were not carried far ; Foed. II. 882 ; 
 Murimuth. ' Birchington, Angl. Sacr. I. 18 ; Hook, III. 315. 
 
 ' See Birchington, sup., 19 ; Foed. 873 ; Murimuth, 69. 
 
 ' See Wilkins,Conc. II. 564, &c. Stratford was not enthroned till the 9th October 
 1334. He kept the Great Seal till the 28th September preceding, when it was 
 given to Aungerville of Bury, the newly appointed Bishop of Durham ; but 
 he only held it till the 6th June r335, when it was again entrusted to Stratford. 
 See Ann. Paul. 362 ; Angl. Sacr. 320 ; Foss, III. 321, 322. 
 
AFFAIRS 241 
 
 by his rival the King of France. He refused to admit chap, xiv 
 Orleton to his temporahties ; he preferred an ' appeal ' i^^^ 
 against him at the court of Avignon for his share in the 
 dethronement of the late King (April 1334). 
 
 In answer to the charges thus brought against him 
 Orleton published his well-known Apologia. The Pope 
 declined to recall his mandate. The matter, apparently, 
 was brought up in the September Parliament. Stratford 
 and the bishops rallied round their brother. Edward was 
 anxious to obtain a vote of money for his operations in 
 Scotland, and so abandoned his proceedings against Orleton, 
 and admitted him to his new See.^ Adam on the other hand 
 deemed it prudent to retire from politics and to content 
 himself with the affairs of his well-endowed See. 
 
 ' Angl. Sacr. I. 317, 533 ; Murimuth, 70 ; Baker, 54. 
 
 1415.1 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 1336 
 
 Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Edward 
 at Perth. 
 
 Edward III [continued) 
 A.D. 1336-1339 
 
 Parliaments. — The war with Scotland. — Breach with France. — Robert of Artois. 
 — The French Crown claimed. — Sack of Cadsand. — Jacques van Artevelde. — 
 Visit of the King to the Low Countries. — Treaty with the Emperor Ludwig. 
 
 The spring Parliament of the year 1336 was held at 
 Westminster, opening on the nth March. As it was clear 
 that the war with Scotland had to be carried on, supplies 
 were voted ungrudgingly. The counties gave a Fifteenth, 
 the boroughs a Tenth ; the clergy of the Southern Province 
 likewise gave a Tenth, and apparently made the grant in 
 Parliament,'- an unusual circumstance. The York clergy 
 voted their Tenth later in the year.^ 
 
 In May the truce was allowed to expire, and all England 
 was again set in motion towards the North. In fact the 
 stream of preparation had never failed. Writ followed 
 upon writ as fast as they could be sealed. Henry of 
 Lancaster, the son of the Earl, was sent on to take the 
 command at Perth, with a string of young magnates to 
 help him ; while further levies were ordered to be at 
 Newcastle by Midsummer.^ 
 
 About the ist July the King suddenly appeared at Perth, 
 having ridden from Berwick in two days, with an escort 
 of not more than five-score men-at-arms. Unfounded 
 reports of the gathering of a Scottish army on the Tay 
 had reached him.* All was quiet in the parts of Perth 
 but as he had gone so far Edward resolved to go a little 
 farther, and crush the hostile movement in the Highlands 
 
 ' March 11-20; Lords' Report, Appendix; Murimuth, 77; Wake, 285 
 Wilkins, Cone. II. 581 ; Statutes, I. 276. ' Wilkins, 584 ; 6 May. 
 
 ' April ; Foed. II. 936, &c. ; Rot. Scot. I. 417-428. 
 ' So Scalacr. 166. 
 
DEVASTATION 243 
 
 accordingly he started on a tour of devastation, like those chap.xv 
 undertaken by his grandfather. Leaving Perth on the j^^g 
 I2th July he slept next night in Blair Castle ; from thence 
 he crossed the Atholl hills, evidently along the line of the 
 present road and railway, to a place in Badenoch given as 
 " Tythawyn ". Next day (15 July) hearing of a Scottish 
 army at Kincardine on the Spey Edward forced a march of 
 twenty miles without slacking rein. But Andrew Murray, 
 mindful of the teaching of Robert Bruce, had betaken him 
 to the forests and the mosses. The King, however, pushing 
 on a little farther raised the siege of Lochindorb, an island 
 fort near Dava, in which the widowed Countess of Atholl^ 
 was beleaguered. A short day across country brought Through 
 the force to Braemar, and a long day after that took them i^ndg.'^ 
 to Forres and Kinloss, the King's turning-point (17 July) ; 
 practically the turning-point of his grandfather, and 
 apparently that of Septimius Severus also. Both Kinloss 
 and Forres were destroyed ; Elgin was spared, out of 
 regard for the church, which was dedicated to the Holy 
 Trinity, but all the surrounding country was devastated, 
 the unripe crops being trodden underfoot by the horses.^ 
 Marching past Cullen, and apparently up Strathbogie, 
 Edward reached Aberdeen on the 21st July. The Aberdon- 
 ians had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious by 
 slaughtering the crews of English shipping in the harbour 
 laden with supplies for the King. To punish them he 
 staid three days at Aberdeen to satisfy himself ' by personal 
 inspection ' that not a single house there or in Old Aberdeen 
 had been spared. We are told that the buildings were 
 among the best and most substantial in Scotland. On the 
 26th July the King rested at Forfar ; and there our diarist 
 brings his narrative to a close. Jie tells us that the King's 
 force consisted of 400 men-at-arms, and as many hobelers 
 and archers.* Edward apparently remained in Angus and 
 
 ' Catherine of Beaumont, daughter of Henry the claimant of the earldom 
 of Buchan. ° Lanercost. 
 
 ^ See the diary, EUis, Letters, 3rd Series, I. 35, dated York, 3 August, being a 
 copy of a report sent to the Queen the day before. A hobeler, French hobelier, 
 was a man mounted on a hohin or ambling pony ; Stratman ; Godefroy. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 AUDACIOUS 
 
 CHAP. XV the Mearns for a whole month, superintending the building 
 ^ or repairing of fortifications at Dunottar, Kinneff and 
 Fortifica- Lauriston. Similar works were also being carried on at 
 ''™' Leuchars and St. Andrews in Fife, and of course at Perth. 
 
 Edinburgh, Stirling and Roxburgh had already been 
 refortified.^ On the 24th August Edward is again found 
 at Perth.2 
 Parlia- From Perth Edward hurried back to Nottingham, to hold 
 
 '"'^"'' another Parhament, and lay before the Houses the unsatis- 
 factory issue of conferences with French envoys just held 
 at Perth, under his own eye. The King's agents. Bishops 
 Bury and Orleton, had been directed to open the negotia- 
 tions by discussing the question of the joint Crusade, 
 which was still in the air, and by suggesting a personal 
 interview between the two Kings. They would then open 
 the more delicate questions of the non-restitution of the 
 Agenais, and the support given to the Scots ; the French 
 would also be invited to give their views as to certain 
 friendly offers made by Edward to King David.^ He had 
 been invited to settle in England on the ancestral estates, 
 the suggestion apparently being that the Scots should 
 accept Balliol as tenant for life in possession of the Crown, 
 the reversion being settled on David, if Balliol should die 
 without issue.* But Philip was not prepared either to 
 restore the Agenais, or to abandon the Scots ; neither was 
 David prepared to abdicate. 
 
 But Edward did not wait for the meeting of Parliament 
 
 to tell his story. In the writs of summons, issued on the 
 
 24th August, he informed the lieges of the proposals laid 
 
 before the French envoys, and of their rejection by them. 
 
 Mse From that he went on boldly to accuse Philip of raising 
 
 ^ Fordun, 361 ; Scotichr. II. 323 ; Knighton. The systematic manner in 
 which all fortifications had been destroyed by the Scots should be noted 
 by archaeologists and persons ascribing to Scottish castles dates anterior to 
 these wars. 
 
 ^ Delpit, Documents Franfais, 66. 
 
 = See the instructions dated Perth, 6 July ; Foed. II. 940, 941. The King 
 announced the failure of the negotiations on the 24th August. 
 
 " Id. 930, 935, 938 ; Knighton, 2568. 
 
CALUMNY 245 
 
 armaments in various parts of Europe for the invasion of chap, xv 
 England ; a gross calumny, as Edward must have well i^^g 
 known, as the armaments in question were undoubtedly 
 being raised for the Crusade, which had just received formal 
 Papal sanction. During the previous Lent Philip had held 
 lengthy interviews with Benedict at Avignon, and on Good 
 Friday the Pope in person had preached the Crusade.-"- From 
 Avignon Philip had gone to Marseilles, to inspect his shipping 
 getting ready to sail to the Levant. Needless to add that by 
 the end of the year the whole scheme had been quashed in 
 consequence of the attitude of the King of England. Nothing 
 could be farther from Philip's intentions than any direct 
 attack on England ; but, no doubt, he was endeavouring 
 to form alliances to guard against a possible renewal of 
 Edward's pretensions, from which he could never feel safe. 
 Thus, no doubt, he was doing his best to detach Count Louis 
 of Flanders from the old ties with England. Edward had 
 had to complain of ill-treatment of English merchants in 
 Flanders,^ and he had been inviting Flemish weavers to 
 settle in England.* This measure has been usually regarded 
 as prompted by the wish to develop native industry ; but 
 it should rather be considered a threat to Flemish in- 
 terests. If the English wool could be worked up at 
 home, the Flemish looms would be reduced to idleness. 
 The same purpose of putting pressure on the Flemings 
 is shown by an ordinance of the 3rd December trans- 
 ferring the wool-staple, previously established in Flanders, 
 to Brabant.* 
 
 In short, the relations of France and England, seldom 
 very cordial, were not in the autumn of 1336 in any par- 
 ticular state of crisis. Edward's allegations must have 
 come upon the nation as a bolt out of the blue. But with 
 his story before them the lieges could not help coming 
 to Nottingham prepared to make considerable sacrifices. 
 The laity agreed to the grant of a second Fifteenth and Unprece- 
 Tenth within the year, the clergy likewise doubling their subsidies. 
 
 ' La-vfisse, IV. 12. ° Foed. II. q48. 
 
 ' Id. 823 ; A. D. 1331 ; so again in 1337 ; id. 969. '' Foed. 
 
246 SUBSIDIES 
 
 CHAP. XV contributions, concessions altogether without precedent.^ 
 J g Further it would seem that sanction was obtained, appar- 
 ently, not from Parliament, but from a delegation of 
 merchants, to a war-tax on wool of 40s. the sack from 
 natives and 605. from foreigners,^ but only to be levied 
 for a year and a half. Merchants had been summoned to 
 attend a Grand Council at Nottingham at Midsummer. On 
 the I2th August all exportation of wool was forbidden. 
 This strong step may have been taken in order to drive the 
 merchants to the point of the desired concession.^ With 
 regard to the treating with merchants it will be remembered 
 that the Carta Mercatoria, under which the Nova Custuma 
 was originally levied, was merely based on a private agree- 
 ment between the King and a body of merchants. To coun- 
 teract the depressing effect of the new war-taxes a scale 
 of minimum prices of wool for the different counties was 
 published,* a futile measure of course. 
 
 As Edward defrayed all Balliol's expenditure as well as his 
 own the charges on him no doubt were very great. The Pell 
 Issue Roll for the half-year ending at Michaelmas (Easter 
 10 Edw. Ill) shows an expenditure exceeding £73,762. 
 The King's In this State of need the King was plunging into that 
 reckless course of borrowing for which the reign is notorious. 
 On the i2th July, when at Perth, he sealed patents autho- 
 rizing agents to contract loans up to a total of £200,000.^ 
 The moiety of the clerical Tenths specially reserved for the 
 Papal Curia had no sanctity in his eyes : he laid hands on 
 it all." 
 
 ' September 23-26 ; 3rd D. K. Report, Appendix II. 147 ; Stubbs ; Lanercost, 
 289 ; Wilkins, Cone. II. 584. The Canterbury clergy made their grant in 
 convocation at Leicester, 3otli September ; the Northern clergy made theirs in 
 Parliament at Nottingham ; Wake, 285. 
 
 ' Knighton and Scalacr., sup. The latter says that the duties were granted 
 for a time, but kept on afterwards. The Parliament Rolls do not notice them ; 
 and in 1339 it was asserted in Parliament that no consent of Lords or Commons 
 had been given ; Rot. Parlt. II. 104. 
 
 ' Lords' Report, Appendix, 458 ; Foed. II. 493. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 120 ; cf. 138. A Sumptuary Act was also passed restricting 
 all persons of whatsoever state or condition to two courses of two dishes each 
 at all meals ; Statutes, I. 278. 
 
 ' Foed. 942. " Bridlington, 128 ; Murimuth, 78. 
 
AND LOANS 247 
 
 Meanwhile the war-scare so cleverly started by Edward chap, xv 
 was being assiduously fanned.^ The sea-ports are fortified ; 1336 
 fleets equipped ; signal beacons are set up on every down ; 
 the entire male population is ordered to be in readiness.^ 
 To do Edward justice he certainly gave no rest either to 
 himself or his enemies. The operations against the Scots 
 were steadily pressed. At the beginning of August his 
 brother John of Eltham Earl of Cornwall was sent with 
 levies raised in the Northern counties to ravage Carrick, 
 and the South-west of Scotland. The exertions of the 
 campaign brought on a fever, of which the Earl died at 
 Perth in October, unmarried and in his twentieth year.^ 
 Early in November the King himself returned to the charge, 
 having been assured that nothing short of continuous 
 operations would keep down the Scots. He spent six weeks 
 in Scotland, superintending the erection of "peels" at 
 Bothwell and Stirling. For Christmas he went back to 
 Doncaster ; Balliol was left at Perth, with a very humble 
 retinue.* 
 
 But faster than the King could build the Scots could pull Scottish 
 down. The Kincardineshire forts were demolished before 
 the mortar had time to dry (October 1336). To push on 
 this work the Regent Murray kept in the neighbourhood 
 all winter, although the districts of Mearns, Angus and 
 Gowry had been reduced to ' an almost hopeless wilderness '.^ 
 Early in 1337 he retook and destroyed Kinclaven on the 
 Tay. Entering Fife in February, by the end of the month 
 he had levelled the new forts at Falkland, Leuchars and 
 St. Andrews. His own castle at Bothwell was recovered in 
 March. These achievements were largely due, we are told, 
 to the action of a new and formidable engine known as 
 "Le Boustour" (Fr. bouteur, butter?), probably a mighty 
 
 ' See the letter from some one in the court circle evidently echoing the 
 approved note of panic ; EUis, Letters, 3rd Series, I. 30. 
 
 ' Rot. Scot. 1. 402-407, 420-428 ; Foed. II. 940, &c. 
 
 ' Fordun, Lanercost, and Ellis, sup. For the date Murimuth, sup., and 
 Heming. Cont. II. 312. John's tomb, with his effigy in alabaster, may be seen 
 on the south side of the choir in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 ' Scalacr. 166 ; Lanercost, sup. ; Foed. ° Fordun, 362. 
 
248 AN INSIDIOUS 
 
 CHAP. XV battering -ram.i From Bothwell Murray marched to 
 ^ Stirling and besieged the place (April-June). Once more 
 Edward hastened to the rescue, and in an interval between 
 two Councils forced the Regent to abandon his undertaking.^ 
 It is probable that Edward in his heart had never 
 made up his mind to drop his pretensions to the Crown 
 of France. He had rejected the matrimonial alliances 
 with France proposed by his mother,^ preferring a con- 
 nexion with Guelders and other princes of the Nether- 
 lands, " jealous neighbours " whose support as against 
 France might be relied on. In 1334 he was simply 
 striving to detach Philip from his Scottish alliance, and his 
 tone was studiously pacific. The allegations laid before 
 the Nottingham Parliament in 1336 might almost have 
 been taken as a declaration of war. On the Continent this 
 sudden change was ascribed to the influence of a distin- 
 guished guest, a refugee of high birth and connexions.* 
 Robert of Robert of Artois Count of Beaumont was great-great- 
 grandson of Louis VIII of France ; great-grandson of 
 Robert I Count of Artois, the brother of Saint Louis, killed 
 at Mansourah (1260). He was the grandson and heir male 
 of Robert II of Artois who fell at Courtrai in 1302. On 
 coming of age in 1302 Robert demanded admission to the 
 fief, but his claims were postponed to those of his aunt 
 Mahault, his father's younger sister, on the strength of an 
 alleged local custom, the fief as a matter of fact having 
 descended in the strict male line since its creation by 
 Louis VIII. But two of the sons of the then King of 
 France, the redoubted Philip the Fair, namely Philip and 
 Charles, both afterwards kings, were married to daughters 
 of Mahault by her husband Otho IV Count of Burgundy 
 and Franche-Comte. At the accession of Philip of Valois 
 Robert flattered himself that his time had come. He had 
 helped to bring Philip to the throne ; had commanded the 
 
 ' " Metu et violentia potissime cujusdam ingenii sive machinae quae vocabatur 
 Boustour ; " Scotichr. II. 324. " A gyne men callyd Boustowre ; " Wyntoun, II. 
 214 ; Lanercost, 288 ; Scalacr. and Fordun, sup. 
 
 ^ June 8-20 ; Fordun, sup. ; Lanercost, 290 ; Rot. Scot. I. 489 ; Foed. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 76s, 777. ' De Nangis, II. 157 (ed. G6raud). 
 
COUNSELLOR 249 
 
 rear-guard at Cassel, and was married to the King's sister, chap, xv 
 During the festivities at Amiens in June 1329, when Edward 1328-1336 
 rendered homage, Robert, still full of hope, once more 
 brought forward his claims. But the King, a weak, hasty, 
 headstrong man, was governed by his wife,^who was sister 
 to Eudes IV Duke of Burgundy, husband of Jeanne, 
 grand-daughter and heiress of Mahault. When Robert 
 produced witnesses and documents in support of his claims 
 the Crown lawyers taxed his witnesses with perjury, and 
 declared his documents forgeries. Mahault, who had come 
 to Paris to defend her cause, died in November (1329) ; her 
 daughter Jeanne, widow of Philippe le Long, and mother 
 of the Duchess of Burgundy, passed away in January 
 1330. Such a coincidence was thought to leave little 
 room for doubt. Both Mahault and Jeanne must have been 
 poisoned by Robert. Proceedings were instituted against 
 him. At last in 1332 Philip pronounced a final sentence of 
 banishment and confiscation against him. He had already 
 found safety in flight. Hunted from one Flemish court to 
 another, he took refuge in England, where protection was 
 given him, covertly at first, out of respect for the liege 
 homage due to Philip, which would be infringed by har- 
 bouring an enemy of the suzerain.^ In October 1336 we 
 find Robert at Court, and the King arranging for a loan of 
 500 marks to enable him to accompany the King on his 
 expedition to Scotland.^ Courtly, versatile and distin- 
 guished, hewas the veryman to take the fancy of Edward III. 
 Eventually, when all disguise had been thrown away, a 
 pension of 1,200 marks (£900) a year and other honours were 
 conferred upon him.* 
 
 ' " La Reine male." 
 
 ' See Le Bel, I. 93, 103 ; Sismondi, France, X. 39 ; Martin, V. 15 ; Lavisse, 
 IV. 6, and the authorities there cited. Robert was in Brabant in July 1332 
 and at Namur at Christmas 1333. He might have come to England in 1334 
 or 1335. See Froissart, L 47, 49, notes Buchon. 
 
 ' Cal. Pat. Roll, 10 Edw. Ill, p. 322. 
 
 ■■ April 1337 ; Foed. II. 967, 969. For the supposed influence of Robert in 
 urging Edward to revive his pretensions to the Crown see De Nangis, Cont. II. 
 187 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 367, 369 ; and 'Vows of the Heron', a song composed 
 by some follower of Robert in the autumn of 1340 ; Wright, Pol. Poems, I. i. 
 
250 PREPARING 
 
 CHAP. XV Still, to the end of November 1336 the Scottish war 
 1336 seemed the primary affair. On the 29th of that month 
 York had been named as the place for holding a winter 
 Parliament ; on the 14th January 1337 the King writes 
 that in consequence of alarming news from abroad he must 
 ask his lieges to meet him at Westminster. A few days 
 later intercourse with the Continent is suspended.^ But 
 war was not yet formally declared. Edward needed time 
 
 Parlia- " to form his alliances and raise funds ".^ On the 3rd March 
 the session was opened, and lasted till the 14th of the 
 month.^ Consent to the continuation of the war with 
 Scotland was obtained, and also a consent to the fitting 
 out of an expedition for the recovery of the Agenais,* 
 practically war with France. The exportation of wool was 
 again forbidden, and the wearing of foreign-made cloth 
 • interdicted. These measures, coupled with the renewed 
 invitations to foreign weavers to settle in England, must 
 be clearly regarded as intended to put pressure upon the 
 Flemings.^ The rising of ParHament was immediately 
 
 Titled followed by an unprecedented distribution of titled honours, 
 intended to attach the younger Baronage, and secure 
 their hearty support for the King's warlike policy. The 
 reader will compare the knighting of the future Edward II 
 in 1306, and the great pageant of the Swans to pledge the 
 nation to the prosecution of the war with Scotland.* On 
 the second Sunday in Lent (16 March), four and twenty 
 new knights were dubbed, and six barons raised to earldoms. 
 The King's especial favourite, the able and energetic 
 Montagu, became Earl of Salisbury ; Henry of Lancaster 
 the younger received the Earldom of Derby, one of Earl 
 Thomas's former Earldoms ; Hugh of Audley became 
 Earl of Gloucester, in right of his wife Margaret of Clare ; 
 
 1 Foed. II. 958. " Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 397. 
 
 ^ Lords' Report, Appendix, 470. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 2S8. 
 
 ^ Statutes, I. 280 ; Foed. 969 ; IWurimuth, 79. For earlier invitations to 
 weavers see Foed. 823, 849. They were mostly settled in Norfolk, Suffolk, and 
 Essex ; Longman. 
 
 ' Dawn of Constitution, 509. 
 
FOR WAR 251 
 
 Clinton became Earl of Huntingdon ; William Bohun ^ chap, xv 
 became Earl of Northampton ; and Robert Ufford Earl of j^^i 
 Suffolk. Lastly, the Heir Apparent, already Earl of Chester, 
 was created Duke of Cornwall — the ducal title being new 
 to English history — while the Duchy of Cornwall and its 
 stannaries were declared for ever annexed to the Crown.^ 
 The lesser gentry were not overlooked. They were 
 treated with great apparent consideration. Provincial 
 Parliaments were convened to hear the result of the 
 deliberations of the central Councils, and, the plan being 
 found popular, special county courts were summoned to hear 
 the King's intentions.^ The end of all this friendly dealing, 
 of course, was money. But money for the moment was not 
 forthcoming. The spring Parliament gave nothing; doubtless Padia- 
 the Estates thought that the subsidies voted in the previous '"^ ' 
 year ought to suffice. In the autumn, however, grants for 
 a third year were obtained from clergy and laity.* But 
 the King could not wait. The old plan of direct negotiation Supplies, 
 with individuals and local bodies was revived : the leading 
 merchants especially were again and again requested to 
 confer with agents deputed by the King,^ but apparently 
 without any very satisfactory results. The King then had 
 recourse to a bold financial operation, if such it could be 
 called. A scale of minimum prices for the wools of the 
 different counties had been fixed at Nottingham in 1336.^ 
 
 ' Younger brother of John the Earl of Hereford, and youngest son of 
 Humphrey III by the Lady Elisabeth, daughter of Edward I. 
 
 " Murimuth, 81; Knighton, 2568; Heming. Cont. II. 312; Foed. II. 961. 
 The new earls received pensions in lieu of the old ' third pennies ' . In February 
 r335 the earldom of Devon had been revived in favour of Hugh, Baron Courtenay 
 of Okehampton, who traced descent in the female line from the old de Redvers 
 family ; Complete Peerage ; Doyle. 
 
 ' Foed. 963, 979, 989, 994 ; Wilkins, Cone. II. 622. See also Mr. Willard, 
 Eng. Hist. Rev. XXI. 707. 
 
 ' A Tenth was voted by the clergy and boroughs, a Fifteenth by the counties ; 
 the Parliament sat at Westminster 26 September-4 October ; the Canter- 
 bury clergy made their grant at St. Bride's about the ist October, the Northern 
 clergy at York on 19 September and 12 November. See Lords' Report, Appendix ; 
 3rd D. K. Report, Appendix IL r48; Murimuth, 80; Walsing. I. 222 ; Wake, 287. 
 
 ' See Rot. Scot. I. 474,478; Lords' Report, Appendix III. 477 ; and Bp. Stubbs, 
 sup. 398. The King met with a direct refusal from the Cinque Ports. 
 
 " Lords' Report, IV. 464 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 120. 
 
252 FOREIGN 
 
 CHAP. XV Edward requisitioned 30,000 sacks, giving tallies for pay- 
 
 ^ ment at the Nottingham prices, which were quite inade- 
 
 Wool quate. Then,addressinghimself to a syndicate of merchants, 
 
 seized. j^g requested them first to indemnify the owners, and then 
 
 to negotiate the sale of the wool on his account, allowing 
 
 him to draw on them at once for £200,000. As a security 
 
 for the repayment of this sum he gave them a charge on 
 
 all the Customs of the realm — of course in priority to all 
 
 existing charges ; and, as remuneration for their trouble, 
 
 a commission of half a mark the sack.^ The King's rapacity 
 
 knew no limits. The year before he had seized the Papal 
 
 share of the clerical Tenths ; now the estates of the Priories 
 
 Alien are confiscated.^ 
 
 In the matter of allies Edward, to all appearance, had 
 a goodly show of supporters to set against Philip's alliance 
 with the Scots. Brittany had almost always clung to 
 England. The support of the existing Duke, John III, 
 had been secured by the renewal of the grant of Richmond, 
 promptly conferred on him in 1334 at the death of his 
 uncle John.^ William II of Hainault, the newly succeeded 
 Count of Holland, was Edward's brother-in-law ; * the 
 Emperor Ludwig or Louis of Bavaria, and William of 
 Juliers, were married to his sisters-in-law; and Reginald of 
 Guelders to his own sister.^ 
 
 But the hypothetical services of these family friends had 
 to be paid for, and paid for in advance. Philip could 
 depend on the Scots for action, effective action rendered 
 
 '■ Foed. II. 988, 989. According to Knighton, 2570, the wool mostly taken at 
 £6 the sack could be sold in Flanders for £20 the sack. A further grievance was 
 a general detention of shipping for the transport of the wool ; Murimuth, 80 ; 
 Ann. Paul. 366. The entries on the Receipt Rolls show that in some cases money 
 was taken instead of wool, the owners preferring to compound. 
 
 ' Foed. 957, 982 ; Murimuth, sup. The Priories were not reinstated till 1361, 
 after the Peace of Bretigny. 
 
 ^ Foed. 882, 886, 890. John the uncle had married the Lady Beatrice, 
 daughter of Henry III ; he was brother to Arthur II, the father of John III. 
 
 ' William I, ' the Good,' died 7 June 1337, and was succeeded by his son, 
 William II ; Foed. 984. 
 
 ° Ludwig or Louis of Bavaria had married as his second wife Margaret, elder 
 sister of Queen Philippa ; William VII of Guelders was married to a younger 
 sister, Jeanne. 
 
ALLIES 253 
 
 gratis, or for next to nothing ; little subvention would be chap.x 
 needed to keep them on the war-path. In April the 1337 
 Bishop of Lincoln and the newly created Earls of Salisbury 
 and Huntingdon had been sent abroad to enlist recruits. 
 The Court of Valenciennes was made their first head- 
 quarters,^ from whence they moved on to Frankfort and 
 Cologne. Within a short space of time conventions were 
 signed with Hainault, Guelders, Limberg, Juliers. The 
 Archbishop of Cologne had already been secured ; and 
 a matrimonial alliance arranged with Austria ; ^ but the 
 place of honour in the confederacy was given to Brabant.* 
 Special leave to purchase wool was granted to the Bra- 
 banters, and a retaining fee of £60,000 was promised to their 
 Duke, John III, Edward's cousin.* 16,000 florins were 
 promised to Reginald the Count Palatine of the Rhine. 
 Finally, a formal treaty was signed with Louis of Bavaria, 
 for mutual support against ' Philip styling himself King of 
 France ' : 2,000 galleys were hired from the Emperor at the 
 rate of 200 gold florins per galley, or 400,000 florins in all. 
 By his reference to ' Philip styling himself King of France ' 
 Edward had now shown his hand. His operations extended 
 from Brussels to Vienna, from Brandenburg to Dauphine. 
 Every adventurer who could bring a few men-at-arms into 
 the field was welcome at his own price.^ 
 
 These alliances sealed and ratified, Edward issued a 
 manifesto to his subjects, addressed to the archbishops, 
 bishops, earls, sheriffs, and others, and to be publicly 
 read out in every county court in the Kingdom. Philip 
 had rendered war inevitable by rejecting all reasonable 
 offers, and finally had refused even to treat ; he had 
 
 ' They were there 1-12 May ; Froissart, I. 58, note. 
 
 " Foed. II. 915, 929, 940. 
 
 ^ Foed. 966-972. Overtures to all these princes had been made in 1335, and 
 to some in 1332 and r33r ; Foed. 
 
 ' Son of John II by the Lady Marguerite, fourth daughter of Edward I. 
 
 ' See Foed. 926, 952, 966-996 ; Pauli, II. 346. In the words of Le Bel 
 Edward's agents spent money 'as if it rained down from the clouds', p. 131. 
 The expenditure for the half-year ending at Easter 1337 rose to the enormous sum 
 of £i37.46r ; and that for the following half-year to £r 30,094 ; Pell Issue Rolls. 
 For the further Wardrobe expenses see below, Financial review at end of reign. 
 
1337 
 
 Interven 
 tion 
 
 254 INVASION OF FRANCE 
 
 declared Guienne forfeit, and waged wanton war on 
 England by sea and land. The whole story of the King's 
 pacific efforts was detailed in a schedule. ' If any man 
 knew of a better way, he, Edward, would be ready and glad 
 to follow it.' On the same day the 30th September was 
 fixed for a muster at Canterbury .^ 
 
 Suddenly, however, Edward had to change his purpose of 
 invading France. On the 24th September he writes to 
 the authorities in Wales that the Welsh soldiers need not 
 be sent.^ The Pope had announced an intention of sending 
 Papal Cardinals to mediate ; in the face of such an intimation 
 it was impossible to draw the sword. Edward, however, 
 did worse ; he laid public claim to the style of King of 
 France, appointing his cousin the Duke of Brabant his 
 Vicar-General to take possession on his behalf.^ 
 
 With the Enghsh established in Guienne the relations 
 of the two countries could never be really cordial. The 
 position of an English King owing liege homage to the King 
 of France created ' a false situation '.* A tolerable entente 
 could only be maintained by the most scrupulous dealing 
 on either side. The French had always been aggressive, 
 perhaps not unnaturally. Edward was suffering from the 
 mismanagement of his father, and the hard terms imposed 
 by the treaty of 1327, on which the relations of the two 
 countries were still based. A tithe of the money wasted 
 on the German aUiances would have enabled Edward to 
 settle the required indemnities, and place himself in the 
 right with Philip. By assuming the style of King of France 
 he made the quarrel "irreconcileable". Again, as regards 
 the support given by Philip to the Scots, Edward really had 
 himself to blame. Had he respected the Treaty of North- 
 ampton, and left the Scots in peace, he would have had no 
 
 ' Foed. II. 993, 995. The main charges against Philip were the detention of 
 the Agenais and the support given to the Scots. Edward alleges that he had 
 tendered an indemnity, which in fact by the existing treaties he was bound to do. 
 But I would like further evidence of this alleged tender. 
 
 ^ Foed. 997. • 3 7 October ; id. i,ooo, i,ooi. 
 
 ' So the Lavisse writer, IV. 39 ; he traces the false situation back to the 
 Norman Conquest. 
 
POSTPONED 255 
 
 troiiJjle from Philip in that quarter. Philip could show chap^xv 
 excuses for his breaches of strict neutrahty. For his 1337 
 hg,ir-brained ambition Edward could show none. On his 
 ■shoulders must be laid the responsibility for that huge crime, 
 the Hundred Years' War, the most unjustifiable and 
 mischievous war that ever was waged. 
 
 At first sight for England to challenge France to a England 
 life-and-death struggle would seem madness. To conquer p-jance. 
 France of course was impossible. But the disparity for 
 the purposes of mere warfare was not so great as might 
 be thought. Edward had a more united kingdom at his 
 back, and much better military and financial systems.^ 
 The English had learned much by their wars with Scotland. 
 The French had had no such bracing experiences. They 
 clung to an antiquated system of warfare that the English 
 had discarded. The superiority of the English archer, 
 based on the better conditions of life enjoyed by the 
 English agricultural population, was in itself a considerable 
 factor. 
 
 As for the view of Edward's claims and conduct taken 
 by his own age, the times were too much accustomed to 
 war to be disposed to find fault with any man for drawing 
 the sword in defence of anything that he might conceive to 
 be his right. The English writers as a whole stand loyally 
 by their King ; but Murimuth, the Canon of St. Paul's 
 and diplomatist, after discussing the question, decides 
 against him.^ We shall find many others questioning 
 Edward's policy. 
 
 Notwithstanding the King's respect for the Papal mission 
 excuse was found for a high-handed act of aggression, one, 
 however, not without parallel in the later annals of the 
 EngHsh Navy. A last attempt had been made to coax the 
 Count of Flanders into friendship with England, the hand of 
 the Lady Jeanne being offered for his eldest son.* But Louis 
 stood by Philip, and had established a strong garrison in 
 
 ^ For a sketch of the military ^nd financial systems of France see Lavisse, 
 IV. 16-18. 
 ' See pp. 100, loi. ' Foed. II. 998 ; 3 October. 
 
256 NAVAL 
 
 CHAP. XV the little island of Cadsand at the mouth of the harbcxir of 
 1337 Zwyn, below Sluys, and that for the express purpose 0. 
 
 harassing intercourse between England and the Lo^v 
 Countries.! The Earl of Derby and Walter Manny, nof/ 
 Admiral of the Fleet, were sent to destroy the offensive out- 
 Attack on post. On the nth November they effected a landing, 
 drove in the Flemish garrison, and finally sacked and 
 destroyed the whole settlement. Guy, a natural brother of 
 the Count, was taken prisoner, but Edward set him free 
 at once.^ 
 Cardinals Shortly before Christmas the Cardinals Pedro Gomez de 
 land"^" Barroso and Bertrand de Montfavez appeared at West- 
 minster. Edward gave them a most ceremonious reception. 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury and the City authorities 
 met them at Shooter's Hill. The young Duke of Cornwall 
 met them a mile out of town, while the King himself received 
 them at the door of the Lesser Hall at Westminster, conduct- 
 ing them to the Painted Chamber. In deference to their 
 mission he agreed to make no attack on France till after 
 the 1st March ; and in the meantime summoned Parlia- 
 ment for the 3rd February 1338.* Parliament was of 
 opinion that peace with France could not be maintained 
 unless the Agenais were restored ; and they allowed the 
 More wool King to repeat his financial operation of the last year, by 
 grante . gjying him leave to take at his own price half the wool in 
 the kingdom, estimated at 20,000 sacks.* " Quibus tamen 
 nihil solvit." On the other hand he agreed to remit certain 
 outstanding arrears of scutage, and to postpone all attacks 
 on France till Midsummer. But, while proclaiming these 
 arrangements, he gave orders for the immediate levy of 
 two bodies of troops — one to be sent to Gascony for the 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 61. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 62 ; Lanercost, 294 ; De Nangis, Cont. sup. 100. Edward, 
 however, had to give Manny £8,000 as the value of Guy's ransom ; Foed. II. 1123. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 81 ; Knighton, 2570 ; Foed. II. 1007, 1009. The cardinals staid 
 in England till Saturday, 11 July ; Murimuth, sup. ; Baker, 60, 61. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 82 ; Lanercost, 294 ; Foed. II. 1022. That the wool was seized 
 twice is clear from the expressions "utraque vice", and " par deux aunz"; 
 Lanercost sup. and Chron. Lond. 7r. Murimuth, 82, distinctly asserts that 
 nobody was paid for his wool this time. The session lasted 3rd-i4th February. 
 
OPERATIONS 257 
 
 defence of the province, the other to accompany himself on chap, xv 
 a personal expedition to the Continent.^ ^^^s^ 
 
 A suspension of hostilities so palpably hollow was not 
 worth much. Philip kept up his operations in the Agenais, 
 while the French cruisers continued their attacks on English 
 shipping. In March Portsmouth was burnt, and the Isle 
 of Wight ravaged ; Guernsey suffered likewise. The con- 
 sequence was that on the 6th May Edward recalled his 
 promise to suspend hostilities.^ 
 
 But the day on which he could take the field in earnest . 
 was still distant. In spite of the liberality of Parliament 
 he was in difficulties ; the sums sent abroad had drained 
 the country of specie. Provision had to be made for the 
 defence of the coasts at home, and for the prosecution of 
 the War in Scotland.* The King laid his hands on all Pressure 
 the available tin in Devon and Cornwall ; sold charters of 
 freedom to the ' natives ' on the Crown demesnes ; and 
 for the expenses of his passage, pressed the clergy for 
 ' loans ' of sacramental plate, jewels, reliquaries, vestments, 
 anything that would sell.* Yielding to his instances 
 the Canterbury Convocation agreed to grant a Tenth for 
 the third year running, besides shortening the terms of 
 payment.^ 
 
 It must not be supposed that Edward's proceedings, 
 and his system of subsidizing allies met with universal 
 approbation. Salisbury, the leading baron of the time, 
 who had been one of the negotiators of the treaties, and 
 therefore had opportunities for judging of their worth, 
 protested against them ; he also protested against the 
 King's proposed journey abroad ; and finally went off, in 
 declared opposition, to join in the siege of Dunbar, the Earls 
 of Arundel and Gloucester going with him. At the siege 
 
 ' Foed. 11. 1013-1024. 
 
 " Vic et Vaissette, IV. 225 ; Foed. 1027, 1034, 1042 ; Knighton, 2570 ; 
 Heming. Coht. II. 315 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 369. 
 
 ^ See Foed. 1025, and Rot. Scot, passim. 
 
 ' Foed. 1038, 1039 ; Knighton, 2571. 
 
 ' St. Bride's, i October ; Wilkins, II. 625 ; Wake, 287 ; Murimuth, 85. The 
 clergy, however, refused to part with their wool. 
 
 Ut5-1 S 
 
258 
 
 FLEMISH 
 
 CHAP. XV 
 
 '338 
 
 Jacques 
 
 van 
 
 Artevelde. 
 
 Alliance 
 with the 
 Flemings . 
 
 they remained till they received peremptory orders to 
 rejoin the King.^ 
 
 In Flanders the cutting off of the supply of English 
 wool had produced the desired effect; and offers of 
 alliance had been received from the commercial cities, 
 through the instrumentality of the celebrated Jacques 
 van Artevelde, then rising to the height of his " perilous 
 popularity ". 
 
 Van Artevelde came of a good old burgher family. Like 
 his father, he dealt in cloth, and was a member of the 
 Weavers' Gild of Ghent. In his youth he had travelled 
 and seen something of the world, in the suite of Charles of 
 Valois. His enemies stigmatized him as a brewer, because 
 he had married the daughter of a brewer of mead ; ^ but 
 for his second wife he had taken a lady of gentle or noble 
 birth. Able and eloquent, he was essentially a man of 
 action, but rough and dictatorial. The industrial classes 
 worshipped him, but he was not really a demagogue, or a 
 firebrand ; his policy was essentially commercial ; a trader, 
 he primarily wanted what was good for trade ; but he also 
 aimed at a federation of the Flemish towns under the 
 hegemony of Ghent. In the previous month of December 
 the weavers, reduced to utter distress for want of English 
 wool, had turned to him for light and leading. He very 
 sensibly told them to make friends with Edward, without 
 committing themselves to any breach with France or their 
 Count ; he assured them that Hainault, Brabant, Holland, 
 and Zealand would be with them ; from France they need 
 fear nothing.^ These suggestions were promptly acted on ; 
 negotiations with England were opened, and in June (1338) 
 treaties were sealed between the King and ' the men of the 
 towns and territories of the common land [le comun pais) 
 
 ' Scalacr. i68, and Lanercost. For condemnation of the subsidizing system 
 see Grey's own view, Scalacr. 167. For the siege of Dunbar, January- June 
 (1338) see Rot. Scot., Heming. Cont., and Fordun. In June a truce was 
 granted to ' Michaelmas ' year. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 59, 60, and notes. 
 
 ^ Lavisse, IV. 40-42. citing Kervyn de Lettenhove, " Jacques d' Artevelde" ; 
 and Pirenne, " Histoire de Belgique." 
 
AFFAIRS 259 
 
 of Flanders '. Edward, forgetful of native industry, threw chap. xv 
 open his ports to the Flemings, with the fullest liberty j^^g 
 of buying wool ; the Flemings in return only pledged them- 
 selves to give no support to the Scots ; and not to intermeddle 
 in the war between Edward and Philip ' styling himself 
 King of France ' : Edward again bound himself to respect 
 the neutrality of Flemish territories and waters to the 
 fullest extent. Even the English fleets were not to anchor 
 in Flemish waters for more than one tide, except under 
 stress of weather.^ 
 
 Fully confirmed in his purpose of a Continental tour, on Visit to 
 
 the Nether- 
 Thursday i6th of July Edward sailed from the Orwell j^nds. 
 
 for Antwerp, with a numerous fleet. Queen Philippa and 
 
 their second daughter the little Lady Jeanne, already 
 
 betrothed to Frederic son of the Duke Otho of Austria, 
 
 accompanied him ; also Archbishop Stratford, and the 
 
 Earls of Derby, Northampton, Salisbury, and Suffolk. 
 
 On the morrow they landed in the Scheldt.^ 
 
 The burgher population received them joyfully. They 
 
 were on the look-out for trade privileges in England ; and 
 
 Edward, again forgetful of native industry and recent 
 
 legislation, freely gave them all that they asked for. Fresh 
 
 commercial treaties were speedily sealed with Ghent, 
 
 Bruges, Louvain, Diest, Brussels, Mechlin, and Cologne.^ 
 
 The Flemish lords, however, showed little stomach for 
 
 Edward's work. They were ready enough to be entertained 
 
 at his table, ' after the manner of England ' ; but when he 
 
 ventured to touch upon business, they drew back. They 
 
 took their cue from the Duke of Brabant, who carefully 
 
 trimmed between France and England, but in fact played 
 
 entirely into Philip's hand ; he knew that he had more 
 
 to fear from him than he could possibly hope to gain 
 
 from Edward. Then the princes who were feudatories 
 
 ' Sealed by Edward's agents at Antwerp, loth June, and ratified by Edward 
 himself 23rd June ; Eoed. 11. 1043, 1045. 
 
 '^ Foed. 1044, 1049, &c. ; Murimuth, 83 ; Heming. Cont. II. 315 ; Knighton, 
 2571- 
 
 = Feed. 1055-1059; Pauli, II. 358. 
 
 S 2 
 
26o IMPERIAL 
 
 CHAP. XV of the Empire discovered that they could not properly 
 ~T^ declare war on France without the sanction of their 
 over-lord. This warrant therefore would have to be 
 obtained.^ 
 
 Edward had already taken steps to arrange for an interview 
 with his august brother-in-law.^ For sixteen years Louis or 
 Ludwighad been struggling with French Pontiffs and French 
 influences;^ from him at any rate hearty co-operation might 
 be expected. An appointment was soon made for a meeting 
 Royal at Coblentz. Leaving Brabant on the i8th August the 
 
 rogress, j^Qy^j party travelled by way of Herenthals, Breda, Sittard 
 and Juliers to Cologne. Sunday 23rd August was devoted 
 to visits to the far-famed shrines of the Three Kings and 
 St. Ursula, while a fitting contribution was given to the 
 building-fund of the grand Domkirche then building, and 
 only completed within recent memory. On the 25th of 
 the month the King was entertained at Bonn by Archbishop 
 Waleram ; from Bonn Edward moved to Andernach, 
 turning back to the island of Nonnenwerth for a grand 
 entertainment prepared for him by the German magnates. 
 Lavish presents were distributed in return ; in fact through- 
 out the progress Edward's magnificence was only equalled 
 by the extravagance of his expenditure.* On the 30th or 
 31st August he reached Coblentz by water, the Grand 
 Falconer, with a band of Imperial minstrels, going out to 
 meet him in the Emperor's barge. ^ 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 136-141. In the writer's words Brabant wanted to ' swim between 
 two waters'. 
 
 ' Feed. II. 1046. 
 
 ^ The death of Henry of Luxemburg (r3r3) had been followed by a contested 
 election, four votes (one of them disputed) being cast for Louis and three for 
 Frederic of Austria. For the best part of eight years the two contended in arms 
 till the battle of Miihldorf (28 September 1322) gave Louis a decisive victory. 
 But that at once made him a mark for Papal attacks, and on the 2rst March 1324 
 John XXII excommunicated him, proposing to set up Charles le Bel. Louis, 
 however, managed to get himself crowned Emperor at Rome by Italian bishops 
 (17 January 1328). To complete his offending against the Holy See he set up 
 an anti-pope, one Pietro di Corvara, a ' Spiritual Franciscan ', who took the 
 style of Nicholas V. See Milman, Latin Christianity, V. 448-474. 
 
 * See below, Vol. II, under Financial Review. 
 
 ' Wardrobe Account, cited Pauli, II. 359. 
 
AFFAIRS 261 
 
 Germany at the moment was boiling with indignation at chap, xv 
 the rejection of the amicable, the almost humble overtures j 3 
 made by Louis to Benedict XII. Two warlike Diets had 
 been held within the last six months ; a third was sum- 
 moned to meet the King of England at Coblentz. On Imperial 
 Saturday 7th September the Emperor, superbly robed, ^°J^^ 
 with all his regalia on him, took his seat in the market-place, 
 on a throne twelve feet high ; a knight with a drawn sword 
 stood behind him ; slightly lower sat the King ; electors and 
 high functionaries stood in due order before them, while 
 glittering ranks of men-at-arms held the arena. After the 
 transaction of some formal business Edward rose, and 
 arraigned Philip for withholding the throne of France, his 
 maternal heritage. Louis in turn denounced Philip for 
 withholding homage for sundry fiefs held of the Empire, 
 and withdrew all Imperial protection from him until he 
 should have done due homage, and restored the kingdom 
 of France to its rightful owner, the King of England. 
 Lastly, he appointed Edward Imperial Vicar for all the 
 provinces West of the Rhine. Next day, homage was 
 done to Edward as such, and pledges of mutual support 
 against King Philip exchanged by all.^ 
 
 But all the big talk was but " a feeble echo of the old 
 war between Empire and Papacy ". Louis was an old man 
 worn out with strife. His real wish was for reconciliation 
 with the Church. The fear of dying the death of the 
 excommunicate haunted him ; to save his soul he was ready 
 to accept almost any terms that Philip might dictate.^ In 
 less than a month he was again negotiating with the King 
 of France.^ 
 
 Edward returned to Antwerp but half satisfied with the 
 results of the conference. The season for campaigning 
 was over, and all the sums spent in hope of an immediate 
 attack upon France had been spent in vain. 
 
 ' Sismondi, X. 136; Knighton, 2571 ; Pauli, II. 359, and authorities there 
 cited ; also Buchon, note to Froissart, I. 66. 
 ' Mihnan, V. 489. 
 ^ Pauli, II. 361, citing Bohmer, Reg. Imp. 265. 
 
262 EDWARD IN BRABANT 
 
 :hap.xv "Edward oure cumly king, 
 
 g In Brabant has his woning, 
 
 With mani cumly knight ; 
 And in that land, trewly to tell, 
 Ordains he still for to dwell 
 
 To time he think to fight. 
 Now God that es of mightes maste, 
 Grant him grace of the Haly Gaste 
 
 His heritage to win ! 
 And Mary moder of mercy fre, 
 Save oure king and his menze 
 
 Fro sorow and sehame and syn." ^ 
 
 ' Minot, Wright sup. I. 66. The poem seems to have been written before 
 November 1340. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 
 A.D. I339-I34O 
 
 Channel Coasts ravaged by French. — Fruitless Campaign in Cambresis and 
 Vermandois. — Opposition in Parliament. — Enactment of Reforming Statute 
 14 Edward III. — ^No Taxation without Consent. — King abroad again. — 
 Battle of Sluys. — Fruitless Siege of Tournay. — Truce of Esplechin. 
 
 ' While the King was thus jousting and leading an idle ch.^p.xvi 
 life,' ^ Philip was waging war in earnest on the English j„g 
 coasts. Squadrons manned by Normans, Spaniards, 
 Bretons and Genoese swept the Channel, the Genoese being 
 led by a Doria and a Grimaldi. In spite of the vigilance of 
 the home authorities the Channel Islands had been over- The coasts 
 run in 1337, while Portsmouth, Portsea, and Southampton "^^^^e 
 were burnt at different times in 1338.^ About the 23rd May 
 1339 the greater part of Hastings was burnt ; late in July 
 an imposing fleet appeared off Sandwich, and effected a 
 landing at Rye ; but the men of the Cinque Ports rallied 
 and drove them off, and pursued them with considerable loss 
 into Boulogne harbour.' In Guienne operations against 
 La Penne in the Agenais had been maintained since the 
 month of April 1338 ; in January 1339 the place fell.* 
 
 All through the winter and the spring of 1339 Edward 
 kept endeavouring to enlarge the circle of his alliances, 
 living at a most extravagant rate,^ and getting deeply into 
 debt. Creditors began to ask for security. In January 
 
 ' " Le roy . . . a Andewerp ou il gisoit XV moys sanz rien faire de guerre fors a 
 jouster et a demener iolif vie " ; Scalacr. 168. Again the sturdy Northumbrian 
 warrior shakes his head at the light-hearted ways of his King. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 1. 151 ; Foed. II. 989, 1042, 1067, 1070 ; Knighton, 2572 ; Murimuth, 
 87 ; Heming. Cont. II. 315 ; Rogers, Prices, II. 614 ; Lavisse, IV. 46. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2573. Admiral Lord Motley retaliated on the coast of Nor- 
 mandy, 2574. 
 
 • Vic et Vaissette, IV. 225-229. " Le Bel, I. 151. 
 
264 TARDY 
 
 CHAP. XVI Reginald of Guelders was required to put his name as surety 
 7^ to a bond for 600 marks borrowed by Edward of one Simon 
 of Halle. In February the royal crown of England was 
 deposited with the Archbishop of Treves as security for 
 a monthly 'wage' of 11,000 gold florins, besides 25,000 
 florins already spent on preliminary expenses. In May 
 three bishops and four earls gave their joint and several 
 guarantees for 150,000 florins borrowed of Nicolo Bartolomei 
 of Lucca ; and again for 54,000 florins borrowed of three 
 citizens of Mechlin. In June a matrimonial alliance was 
 arranged with Brabant, the Duke of Cornwall being engaged 
 to the Duke's daughter Margaret. John gave an earnest 
 of £50,000 to bind the King to his bargain, but thirty 
 English magnates had to guarantee the repayment of the 
 money if the marriage should not take place.^ At home 
 Edward ordered a general suspension of Crown payments, 
 directing even the salaries of the judges to be stopped.^ 
 
 On the i6th July the King issued a fresh declaration of 
 war, in the shape of an elaborate argument addressed to the 
 Pope and Cardinals, setting forth his title to the crown of 
 France as the nearest male relative of the late King.^ That 
 done he marched to Vilvoorden to meet his tardy alhes. 
 Ample as the warning had been they were not ready yet. 
 Brabant especially kept hanging back.* At last, however, 
 after another urgent appeal, Guelders and Juliers, the 
 former now raised to a dukedom, the latter to a margravate,* 
 the young Count of Hainault, his uncle John of Hainault, 
 and a few minor lords were set in motion.^ Last in point 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 1069, 1072, 1076, 1080, 1083, 1085. The Florence gold florin 
 would be worth about 6s. 8d. sterling. 
 
 " Id. 1049, 1081. Exceptions were made in favour of the Bardi and Perucci, 
 and in the case of debts incurred for the war in Scotland. 
 
 ' Foed. ro86. Edward was related to Charles IV in the second degree ; the 
 Count of Evreux, the grandson of Louis Hutin, was only related in the third 
 degree ; Philip of Valois in a very remote degree. See Pedigree above, p. 212. 
 
 ' See Le Bel, I. r49. 
 
 ' Froissart, 1. 66. Mrs. Green gives the date of Guelders' promotion as 19 March 
 1339 ; Princesses, III. 85. 
 
 ' Mrs. Green gives the date of Edward's final departure from Antwerp as the 
 8th September, III. 86. 
 
ALLIES 265 
 
 of time, and not till after the opening of the campaign, chap.xvi 
 appeared the Duke of Brabant.^ ^TT^ 
 
 With respect to Edward's numbers, the careful Canon Estimate 
 of Leicester tells us that of English troops the King had ^erT"" 
 1,200 men-at-arms, 800 viros armatos, i.e. hobelers, or light 
 horse, and 2,000 archers,^ 4,000 men in all, a very probable 
 estimate. In a message to Parliament the King represented 
 himself as having 15,000 men.^ That figure must be taken 
 as including his allies. Knighton's estimate of the English 
 men-at-arms does not differ much from that of Le Bel, who 
 gives them as " seize cents armures de fer de tres noble 
 chevalerie ".* Too much trust, however, should not be 
 placed in these estimates. We have the bill sent in by 
 Juliers, and the amount claimed was only for 1,000 armures 
 de fer.^ If we should allow the same number for Guelders, 
 and twice as much for Hainault and Brabant each, we 
 should only have some 7,000 or 8,000 men-at-arms, a most 
 formidable host. 
 
 An indispensable preliminary to actual hostilities would 
 be the formal ' defiance ' of the French King, Edward's 
 over-lord. The delicate task of renouncing the feudal 
 bond was entrusted to the Bishop of Lincoln, who held 
 a command in the army. Walter Manny had vowed to be War 
 the first man over the border. As soon as he judged that 
 the homage had been renounced, he started from Brussels 
 with 40 lances ; and, riding night and day, endeavoured 
 to surprise the town and castle of Mortagne.* The 
 attack failed, but he managed to surprise and garrison the 
 little castle of Thun-l'Eveque near Cambrai.' 
 
 Philip had not been prepared for a September campaign ; 
 the word, however, was promptly passed for a muster at 
 Saint-Quentin ; his barons turned out in strength; while the French 
 attendant banners of Bohemia, Scotland, and Navarre shed 
 
 ^ Le Bel, I. 51, 55 ; Froissart, I. 70. 
 
 * Knighton, c. 2576 ; also Bridlington, 147. On the Pell Receipt Rolls " viros 
 armatos " are identified with hobelers. 
 ' Rot. Parlt. 11. 103. 'p-S3- ' Foed. II. 1108. 
 
 ' Dept. Nord, junction of the Scarpe and Scheldt. 
 ' Froissart, I. 71. 
 
266 LA GRANDE 
 
 CHAP, xvi unprecedented lustre on the host. The Dauphin de 
 Viennois and the Counts of Savoy and Geneva appeared as 
 independent allies.^ 
 
 On Monday 20th September, Edward, moving from 
 Valenciennes, entered the Cambresis. The work of destruc- 
 Thc tion commenced at once ; far and wide the country was 
 
 campaign, j.^^^^^^ . -^hatever could not be carried off was burnt or 
 destroyed. On the 25th September the King entered 
 France proper at Marcoing.^ There the Count of Hainault 
 took his leave. Allegiance to the Emperor, he said, might 
 necessitate the invasion of an Imperial fief in wrongful hands, 
 but not that of the territories of his dear uncle of France.^ 
 The place left vacant by the retirement of the Hainaulters 
 was filled by the appearance of the Margrave of Branden- 
 burg and Misnia ; the Emperor, as if ashamed of being any 
 longer cajoled by Philip, had sent his son with some 100 
 lances.* 
 
 Philip was then established at Peronne ; but on the left 
 bank of the Somme, with the river between himself and 
 the English. Edward advanced towards Peronne, in the 
 hopes of bringing his adversary to action ; but Philip 
 declined to cross the river in the face of the enemy ; nor did 
 Edward on his part show himself more venturesome ; keep- 
 ing to his own side of the river he quietly wasted the whole 
 country from Bapaume to St. Ouentin.^ On the i6th 
 October he crossed the Oise near Origny, entering the 
 district of the Thierache (Aisne). The work of destruction 
 was followed up on that new field, and the whole country 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 272 ; De Nangis, Cont. sup. loi. The King of Navarre was 
 Charles the Bad, grandson of Louis Hutin ; the King of Bohemia was John of 
 Luxemburg, the bUnd son of the Emperor Henry VII ; his sister had been 
 married to Charles IV, ' le Bel,' and he himself lived at the French court. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Avesbury, 303 ; cf. 
 Foedera for the dates. 
 
 " Le Bel, I. 155 ; Froissart, I. 77. The count withdrew to Quesnoy ; later in 
 the campaign he offered to join his uncle at Buironfosse, but met with such a cool 
 reception that he went home again ; Le Bel, 160. William's mother was Philip's 
 sister. 
 
 ' 6 October ; Heming. Cont. II. 341 ; Pauli, II. 364, citing Bohmer. 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 158 ; Froissart, I. 76, 77. 
 
GUERRE 267 
 
 wasted up to the line of St. Quentin and Laon> But the chap, xvi 
 alHes were getting weary of destroying farm produce, sack- ~ 
 ing nunneries, and skirmishing before the gates of fenced 
 cities. They were beginning to urge a return home when on 
 Monday the i8th October a challenge to a pitched battle 
 came in from the French camp.^ Philip, who had been 
 following the English at an easy distance, offered to meet A dial- 
 them on the Thursday or Friday following, on any fair field ^"^^ ' 
 of battle, unencumbered by river, swamp or wood. The 
 English answered that Philip would find them ready when- 
 ever he chose to attack. On the Wednesday a further 
 communication was received from the King of Bohemia ; 
 and on the Thursday Edward retired to La Flamengerie, 
 near La Capelle, and established himself in a strong position 
 there ; while Philip made a corresponding advance to 
 Buironfosse. On Friday prisoners were brought in who 
 declared that Philip really meant fighting, and that he 
 would certainly attack on the morrow. On the morrow 
 (Saturday 23 October), both armies were astir before sunrise. 
 Masses were sung in each camp, and many confessed and 
 communicated. The English removed their horses to the 
 rear, carefully surrounding them with a " lager " of carts 
 and waggons ; they themselves took post in three divisions, 
 all on foot, with a fourth in reserve. The German allies 
 under the Duke of Guelders formed the right division, 
 corresponding to the van ; the Brabanters under their Duke 
 formed the left or rear division ; the English supplied the 
 centre and the reserve.^ The French likewise adopted a 
 threefold division ; but their brilliant chivalry did not 
 condescend to fight on foot. Four thousand French knights, 
 it was said, mounted the saddle that day. But neither side But no 
 advanced to give battle. Hour after hour passed away, ^sht- 
 yet nothing happened. At mid-day a hare got up among 
 the French ranks. The soldiers shouted. In the rear the 
 
 ' Avesbury, sup. ; Froissart, 77-80 ; Le Bel, I. 159- 
 
 " See the challenge and the answer, Foed. II. 1093. The writer of the Grandes 
 Chroniques admits that Philip was spurred to action by the murmurs of the 
 French ; V. 378. ' Le Bel, I. t6o ; Froissart, I. 82. 
 
268 KNIGHTS OF THE HARE 
 
 CHAP. XVI cry was raised that the battle had begun. The great lords 
 ; — began to confer the honours of knighthood on their chief 
 retainers, doomed, alas! to be known afterwards as 'Knights 
 of the Hare '} That was the only opportunity of distinction 
 afforded to them that day. The French were divided in 
 their minds; and Phihp's advisers pointed out to him that 
 the chances of the battle offered no advantages commen- 
 surate with the risks. The question was finally settled by 
 the production of a letter from King Robert of Naples, 
 ' reputed a great savant and consequently a great astrologer ' . 
 He pronounced the conjunction of the stars unfavourable 
 to Philip. At vesper time the English mounted their horses 
 and retired towards Avesnes. The French attempting to 
 pursue lost i,ooo men in a bog. On the Monday (25th 
 
 End of October) Edward dismissed his allies ; on the ist November 
 he was back at Brussels.^ 
 
 The campaign may be taken as one typical of la grande 
 guerre as waged at the time, a vast expenditure incurred, 
 great disturbance of affairs, a certain amount of territory 
 wasted and numbers of people rendered homeless, without 
 any one question being advanced a single point nearer to 
 solution. 
 
 The ravaging of the Cambresis and Vermandois were the 
 sole achievements so far effected by Edward. For this 
 he had incurred £300,000 of debt, and forfeited the good- 
 will of the Pope.^ In Gascony the French had gained 
 considerable advantages. They had captured Bourg and 
 Blaye, and almost taken Bordeaux.* 
 
 ' Chevaliers du Lievre. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter, Avesbury, sup. ; Le Bel, I. i6o ; Froissart, I. 8i, &c. ; 
 Heming. Cont. II. 340, &c. ; Sismondi, X. 151, &c. The Grandes Chroniques and 
 Flemish chroniclers assert that the English position was so protected by swamps 
 that the French could not attack with prudence. This assertion receives support 
 from Edward's own narrative. But ct. De Nangis, Cont. lor, against Phihp. 
 
 ' See the Bull of the 13th November, threatening Edward with spiritual censures 
 for his attack on the Cambresis, Foed. II. 1092 ; Rot. Parlt. 1. 103. On the 31st 
 December Benedict offered to mediate in person. Edward answered that Philip's 
 attitude made all negotiations hopeless, but that if any decent offer of satisfaction 
 were yet made he would not reject it, &c. ; Foed. II. 1103, 1107. 
 
 ' De Nangis, Cont. loi ; Walsinghani, I. 1225. 
 
THE DOUBLE STYLE 269 
 
 The unfortunate results of his efforts so far did not shake chap, xvi 
 Edward's purpose. Still clinging to his foreign alliances ~" 
 he held a Diet at Brussels to concert operations for the 
 ensuing year, Van Artevelde was specially invited to be 
 present.^ His talents had gained for him almost as great 
 an ascendancy over the King of England as over the people 
 of the Netherlands ; and he succeeded in carrying, through 
 Edward's influence, a treaty of confederation between 
 Brabant and Flanders, or rather between the free com- 
 mercial cities of the two states.^ Working steadily towards 
 his end, he had been in no hurry to break either with Philip A com- 
 or the Count. He had invited Philip to restore to Flanders treaty, 
 the cities of Lille, Douai and Bethune seized by Philip the 
 Fair. He had pointed out to Count Louis the greatness 
 of his opportunity. But Philip was obdurate, and the 
 Count, who was bound to him by the French fiefs of Nevers 
 and Rethel, refused to stir.^ Then Artevelde threw himself 
 heartily into the English alliance, and pointed out to the 
 King that the definite assumption of the Crown of France 
 might remove a difi&culty. Homage was due by the 
 Flemings to the Crown of France, and they were bound 
 under a penalty of 2,000,000 florins to the Apostolic 
 Chamber not to engage in hostilities against that Crown. 
 But, as between two competitors for the Crown, they might 
 be excused if they made a mistake. Edward took the hint, 
 and on the 25th January 1340 assumed the double style. 
 The Lilies were quartered with the Lions,* and a new Seal 
 struck.^ To follow up the new alliance a grand conference 
 was held at Ghent ; representatives of all the Flemish 
 towns were in attendance. On the 28th January (1340) 
 
 ' Froissart. 
 
 '' Ghent, 3rd December ; Sismondi, X. 156, citing Meyer ; Pauli, II. 368, citing 
 Kervyn de Lettenhove, Hist. Fland. III. 586. 
 
 " Down to the 4th January 1340 Edward was endeavouring to win the Count 
 to his side ; Foed. II. 11 16. 
 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 44 ; Froissart, I. 84, &c. ; Le Bel, I. 163. Edward had not 
 followed up his manifesto of the 7th October, 1337, by using the style of King of 
 France. But from the beginning of his fourteenth year, 25 January 1340, he 
 regularly uses the double regnal year, and so down to 1361. 
 
 ' For the Seal see Foss, III. 316 ; Barnes, 154. 
 
270 PARLIAMENT 
 
 CHAP. XVI treaties were sealed by which the re-estabhshment of the 
 1339 wool-staple in Flanders and other commercial advantages 
 were conferred on the Flemings by Edward, who further 
 undertook to win back for them Lille, Douai, Orchies and 
 the county of Artois besides guaranteeing their financial 
 and judicial independence.-'- In return he received formal 
 recognition as King of France by the Flemings.^ 
 
 In the previous month of December the King had 
 obtained from the Duke of Brabant, as the representative 
 of his foreign creditors, leave to visit England on special 
 business. Edward undertook to return by the Feast of 
 St. John, meanwhile leaving the Earls of Derby and Salis- 
 bury as bail for his return.* His presence in Parliament 
 was urgently desired ; a session had been held at West- 
 minster in October,* during the campaign ; and a letter 
 from the King had been produced, in which he frankly 
 stated that the amount of his liabilities could not be less 
 than /^3oo, 000. For the first time ' ' symptoms appeared of a 
 disposition to make conditions before consenting to a grant." 
 All admitted that the King's needs were great. After 
 consideration the Magnates suggested the grant of the tenth 
 sheaf, fleece and lamb from all demesne lands, but not from 
 bond-land ; * the proceeds to be paid over in such manner 
 as tithes to the church were usually paid, and the liquida- 
 tion to be spread over two years. In return they asked 
 for the following concessions, namely, the abrogation of 
 the " maletotes ", i.e. the surtaxes of 405. on the sack of 
 
 ' Lavisse, sup. ; Feod. II. 1106, 1107. In August 1341 the wool-staple was 
 fixed at Bruges ; Foed. 
 
 ^ Froissart and Le Bel, sup. ; Knighton, 2576 ; Lanercost, 332. On the 
 5th March the Pope wrote to Edward in kindly terms, but rejecting his pretensions, 
 and pointing out the hopelessness of an attempt to conquer France ; Foed. Iir7. 
 
 ' Foed. 1 100. ' October i3th-28th ; Lords' Report. 
 
 ' " De leur demesne terres, sauf la terre leur bondes." These important words 
 should be compared with the passage in Murimuth, p. 80, where, with reference 
 to the Fifteenth from the Counties in 1337, he notes that it was only granted " de 
 forinsecis ". That would seem to be the ordinary grant, the present one being 
 exceptional. The indisposition of the Lords towards laying further burdens 
 on the servile tenants clearly would be connected with the difficulty beginning 
 to be experienced in getting men to stay on the land on base tenures. 
 
MAKING TERMS 271 
 
 wool and 60^. on the last of leather obtained from the mer- chap, xvi 
 chants in August 1336 or the more recent imposition of 405. 
 and 80s. obtained on the 27th November 1337 ; ^ also the 
 prohibition of death-bed alienations of land in fraud of the 
 rights of over-lords ; they also asked that the wardship of 
 minors should be given to the nearest blood relative — the old 
 English rule.^ The Commons were more reserved. While 
 expressing heartfelt sentiments of loyalty and sympathy for 
 the King in his straits, they doubted whether they could 
 assent to such a grant without consulting their constituents ; 
 they begged therefore that another Parliament might be 
 summoned ; only knights ' of the best class ' ^ to be returned, 
 but not men serving as sheriffs, or filling other royal offices. 
 They also presented four points of grace, namely, the abro- 
 gation of the maletote, imposed without assent of Commons 
 or Great Men ' as we understand ' : an amnesty for Forest 
 offences : an abandonment of claims for ' murder ' and 
 felons' chattels : also of the customary Aids for knighting 
 the King's son and marrying his daughter. Finally they 
 went the length of asking what manner of ' surety ' would 
 be given them in these matters. The demand for a fresh 
 Parliament was granted, and the 20th January 1340 fixed 
 as the day for meeting.* 
 
 When the session was opened, and business entered upon, 
 the Commons asked for time to consider their position. 
 On the 19th February they made an offer of 30,000 sacks Fresh 
 of wool, on condition of the King's acceptance of a schedule ° ^^' 
 of Articles, which had been endorsed both by prelates and 
 barons. How the Commons proposed to deal with the 
 owners of the wool to be seized does not appear. The 
 Lords for themselves renewed their offer of the tenth sheaf, 
 fleece and lamb from their demesnes ; but they pressed 
 the Commons for the grant of something immediate to meet 
 
 ' Customs' Accounts. " Rot. Parlt. II. 103, 104. 
 
 ' "Des mielz vanez" (lit. best winnowed). 
 
 * Rot. Parlt. II. 104-106 ; Feed. II. 1098. At the same time writs were issued 
 for Convocations, that of Canterbury for the 27th January, and that of York 
 for the 2nd February. The former granted a Tenth, the latter two Tenths, not 
 having contributed in 1338 ; Wake, 287, 288 ; Foed. 1069. 
 
272 THE KING 
 
 CHAP. XVI the urgent wants of the navy, required for the defence of 
 ~ the coasts. The Commons answered by grantmg 2,500 
 sacks of wool, as either on account of a larger grant to be 
 made on terms, or otherwise as a free gift. 
 
 The demands put forward by the Articles were con- 
 sidered by the King's Ministers too important to be dealt 
 with without his personal concurrence ; the session there- 
 fore was adjourned to give him time to come over. In the 
 mean time stringent orders were issued for the impressment 
 of shipping and the arming of the coasts ; while 700 men- 
 at-arms, 2,010 horse archers, and 2,000 hobelers were sent 
 to the Scottish March, operations there having now assumed 
 a defensive character.^ 
 Return of On the 2ist February the King landed in the Orwell.^ 
 On the 29th March he at last brought himself to the point 
 of meeting his lieges at Westminster, face to face. A large 
 number of merchants had been summoned to attend. The 
 picture of their King a possible prisoner for debt at Brussels 
 was more than the loyal Houses could bear to contemplate. 
 Instead of a tenth the ninth sheaf, fleece and lamb were 
 granted by peers and knights, for themselves and their 
 tenants, for two years ; the burgesses giving a ninth of their 
 goods, with a fifteenth from petty traders not living in 
 towns ; and from small flock-masters ' living in forests and 
 wastes ' ; cottars and labourers, and they alone, would be 
 exempted.* By a further grant the condemned " maletote " 
 was legalized and continued, at the rates of 405. on the 
 sack of wool and 300 wool fells, and 80s. on the last of 
 leather, but only till Whitsunday 1341, the King promising 
 after that neither to take nor ask for more than two marks 
 {£z 6s. 8d.) on the sack of wool.* 
 
 In return Edward accepted the Articles or petitions of 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 104-107. The ships, called for or offered, would be of loo tons 
 burden or upwards. 
 
 " Foed. II. 1115. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. 112. The clergy refused to concur in this grant, except as to 
 lands not assessed to the taxation of Nicholas, pleading the Tenths recently 
 granted ; Murimuth, 104 ; Heming. Cont. II. 354. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2576 ; Statutes, I. 289. 
 
YIELDING 273 
 
 the previous year, only referring them for consideration to chap, xvi 
 a committee of prelates, barons, and judges, with twelve ^ 
 
 elected representatives of the counties, and six of the 
 boroughs. Temporary matters would be left in the hands 
 of the King and Council, permanent alterations of the law 
 would be formally enacted. Their labours resulted in the 
 compilation of the four acts or statutes of the 14th year of 
 Edward III. 
 
 The first grants the desired amnesty and remission of 
 Crown debts, and abolishes Murdrum fines. Presentment 
 of Englishry,^ and the old customary Aids for knighting the 
 King's eldest son, and marrying his eldest daughter (chap- 
 ters 2, 3, 4) ; the last an amazing concession, considering 
 the antiquity and undoubted legality of the impost. 
 Various measures follow to facilitate the course of justice, 
 and the administration of the counties by the sheriffs and 
 other royal officers (c. 5). Next-of-kin, to whom the inheri- 
 tance cannot descend, to have the option of taking charge 
 of the lands of a minor during nonage, on condition of 
 rendering the value thereof to the King (c. 13). Purvey- 
 ance for the royal household not to be taken except by 
 duly authorized purveyors, and by agreement between the 
 parties — a very old, in fact a stereotyped undertaking; 
 provision for the King's horses and hounds to be made by 
 the sheriffs out of their issues, a very proper arrangement 
 (c. 19). The second statute declares that the present 
 subsidies shall not be made a precedent for future grants ; 
 and that no charge or aid shall henceforth be made but by No 
 the common assent of the prelates, earls, barons and other ^^t^Ju" 
 great men, and the commons of the realm, and that in consent. 
 Parliament.^ All fresh taxation except by consent of 
 Parliament is thus declared illegal, a most important consti- 
 tutional gain, which was held to do away with the claim 
 to assess tallages on boroughs and demesnes to which the 
 
 ' " Murdrum " was the fine imposed on a Hundred for the death of a French- 
 man, if the slayer was not brought to justice ; and every man found slain was 
 assumed to be a Frenchman, unless the contrary was established by " Present- 
 ment of Englishry " ; Pollock and Maitland, I. 91 ; II. 488. 
 
 ' Statutes, I. 289. 
 
 I«l5t T 
 
274 CONSTITUTIONAL 
 
 CHAP. XVI King like his father and his grandfather had clung.^ The 
 IJ40 act therefore has been regarded as the supplement to 
 Confirmatio Cartarum, ' ' the real act De Tallagio non conce- 
 dendo." ^ But the reader must not suppose that the practice 
 of levying money by illegal means had passed away for 
 ever. In the constitutional struggle the difficulty was 
 not to obtain pledges, but to bind the Crown down to 
 observing them. We shall shortly find the King readily 
 obtaining leave to reimpose the disclaimed Aids ; and 
 we shall find him first, boldly assessing men, according to 
 their estates, to find men-at-arms, hobelers, or archers for 
 service abroad ; and then commuting the service for fines 
 according to a scale,^ a simple repetition of the illegal fines 
 ne transfretent of Richard and John. 
 
 The third statute provides in answer to a special petition 
 that no ' subjection or obedience ' shall be due from the 
 realm of England, or the people thereof, to Edward, or 
 his successors, as Kings of France in consequence of the 
 devolution of the Crown of France on him as rightful heir 
 to the same. Without this very necessary provision the 
 English might have been called upon for service abroad, 
 under their allegiance to the Crown of France as vested in 
 their King. 
 Clerical The fourth statute deals with the grievances of which the 
 
 grievances, clergy had still to complain, in spite of all the -declarations 
 in favour of the ' liberty of the Church ', its rights and 
 franchises, enunciated by Magna Carta and its numerous 
 confirmations. No purveyance either in goods or transport 
 to be taken of spiritual persons ; no guests [ostages] or 
 sojourners from Scotland or elsewhere to be quartered on 
 them. The Act also limits the time within which the Crown 
 might exercise rights of patronage enjoyed in connexion 
 with lands in hand, either through vacancy of sees, or the 
 
 ' For the present reign see above, under June, 1 2,^2, when the King endeavoured 
 to impose a tallage of a fourteenth, p. 223. Only in March of the present year 
 he had proposed to assess a practical tallage of £20,000 on the citizens of London, 
 but ultimately accepted a 'loan' of 5,000 marks ; Riley, Memorials of London, 209. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 402. 
 
 ' Pell Receipt Roll, Mich., 21 Edw. III. 
 
GAINS 275 
 
 nonage of lay patrons ; the King must present within three chap, xvi 
 years ; existing clerks having been in possession for a year ,^^0 
 to have indefeasible right ; escheators in charge of the 
 temporalities of vacant sees not to commit waste, or take 
 fines for renewal from tenants, or sell underwood ; but to 
 be bound to maintain everything in good order ; Chapters 
 to have the option of farming vacant temporalities on 
 rendering full value to the King.^ 
 
 To finish with the Parliament ; the Peers gave a ready 
 consent to the promotion of the King's brother-in-law, 
 William of Juhers,^ to the Earldom of Cambridge, with 
 a pension of £1,000 a year to him and his heirs in fee simple. 
 But they addressed an earnest, almost a peremptory, request 
 that at whatsoever hour the King, while abroad, might get 
 an offer of good and suitable terms of peace, acceptable to 
 his allies and counsellors, then that he should close with the 
 same.* The last word of the Magnates is for peace. Seventy- The 
 four years hence we shall find the Baronage again struggling, j^^ Peace, 
 but in vain, to curb the ambition of a King bent on stirring 
 up the slumbering embers of the great war. 
 
 Parliament done with, Edward was free to return to the 
 Continent where his friends were anxiously looking for his 
 coming. In his absence Philip had assumed the offensive 
 and attacked his allies. He had not forgiven the Count of 
 Holland for his share in the ravaging of the Cambresis, and 
 had sent parties to burn Chimay and Haspre, towns in 
 Hainault. William II then ' defied ' his uncle and burned 
 Auberton, a rich manufacturing town (Aisne).* Regular 
 war ensued ; all the garrisons of Lille, Tournay and Douai The war 
 were let loose to plunder ; the Earls of Salisbury and 
 Suffolk endeavouring to check these ravages were taken 
 prisoners near Lille.^ After Easter (16 April) Philip's 
 son the Duke of Normandy entered Hainault in force ; an 
 attack on Le Quesnoy was repulsed by the help of ' canons 
 
 ' Statutes, I. 292, &c. 
 
 ■ Married to Jeanne, Queen Philippa's sister. 
 " Rot. Park. II. 114. 
 
 ' April ; Le Bel, I. i66 ; Froissart, I. 87-92 ; De Nangis, Cont. sup. 
 ' Knighton, 2557 ; De Nangis, 103 ; Foed. II. 1170. 
 T 2 
 
1340 
 
 276 NAVAL 
 
 and bombardes ' planted on the walls ; ^ pushing on, the 
 Duke wasted the country as far as Valenciennes and Bavay. 
 All Brabant lay at his mercy, but, instead of following 
 up his advantage, he turned back to reduce Escandeuvre 
 on the Scheldt. After a spell of rest within the walls of 
 Cambrai, he returned to the charge for an attack on Thun- 
 r6veque, the fort recently won by Manny. But meanwhile 
 the Flemings had been roused to a sense of their danger. 
 The Pope at Philip's request had laid their country under 
 Interdict.^ In this crisis the Flemish lords condescended 
 to concert measures with Van Artevelde. A combined 
 army was marched to the frontier. Thun fell, but the 
 Edward Wave of French invasion was stayed. The two armies were 
 s™"S , confronting one another on the Scheldt when Edward sailed 
 
 abroad ° 
 
 again. from England.^ 
 
 Philip had not neglected measures for hindering the return 
 of his adversary ; a powerful fleet under three captains, 
 Hue Quieret, Pierre Behuchet, and the famed Genoese 
 rover Barbanero of Porto Venere, had been watching the 
 English coasts. Behuchet, at one time Treasurer, was a man 
 of humble birth, and of course a landsman ; Quieret was 
 an admiral, but not a seaman ; Barbanero was thus the 
 only sailor of the three.* The fleet, mostly Norman, was 
 formidable from its numbers ; but Behuchet was taxed 
 with having, from motives of economy, filled his fighting 
 ranks with men of inferior class, while the English men-at- 
 arms, knights and esquires, were all ' gentlemen '.* 
 
 At home the reports of the armaments prepared to 
 dispute the King's passage, and, if possible, effect his 
 capture, made men uneasy at the thought of his going. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 98. The cannon are described as throwing heavy crossbow-bolts, 
 so that probably they were hand-guns. The use of gunpowder is not spoken of 
 as a novelty, Buchon cites an order for gunpowder of the year 1338, and we 
 had it in 1327. 
 
 * Froissart, I. 94 ; Sismondi, X. 164, citing Meyer. 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 169 ; Froissart, I. loi, &c. The Grandes Chroniques place the 
 attack on Le Quesnoy after the sieges of Escandeuvre and Thun. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 93, 105-107, and Buchon's notes ; Sismondi, X. 167 ; De 
 Nangis, Cont. 102 ; ViUaiil. 
 
 So the Grandes Chroniques, and Villani ; " gentili uomini." 
 
PREPARATIONS 277 
 
 Archbishop Stratford, who was probably altogether opposed chap, xvr 
 to the King's warlike policy, took up a strong line on 1,40 
 the subject, and Edward, to please his subjects, agreed 
 to postpone his voyage for some days, to give time for 
 strengthening his force ; eventually more ships and men- 
 at-arms and archers offered themselves than he wanted, 
 and many had to be sent back.^ But still Stratford was 
 not satisfied. On the 20th June, the King being in the 
 Orwell, on board the "cog" Thomas, only waiting for a 
 fair wind to sail, he made his appearance, and begged to 
 be allowed to resign the Great Seal. His resignation was 
 immediately accepted, and the Seal given to his brother 
 Robert, Bishop of Chichester, who had already been both 
 Chancellor, and his brother's locum tenens? 
 
 On Thursday 22nd June, the west wind blowing, the King 
 at last got under way. The fleet comprised three squadrons; 
 one from the East coast under Robert Lord Morley, as 
 Admiral of the Northern fleet ; one from the Thames and 
 the Cinque Ports, under the Earl of Huntingdon as Warden 
 of the Cinque Ports ; and the third from the Western ports 
 under the Earl of Arundel, the last two commanders having 
 been specially appointed in the January Parliament. The 
 King of course held the supreme command over all. As 
 naval expert he had beside him the veteran John Crab, who 
 having quarrelled with the Scots in 1332 ^ had taken 
 service with England. The trusty Bishop of Lincoln and 
 the Earls of Derby, Hereford, Northampton, Gloucester, 
 and Pembroke * were in attendance with suitable contin- 
 
 ' Avesbury, 311; Rot. Scot. I. 592. Chroniclers' estimates of shipping are 
 not usually more trustworthy than their estimates of men or money. The best 
 datum for an estimate of Edward's fleet seems to be found in the fact that in the 
 January Parhament the men of the Cinque Ports undertook to find 30 ships of 
 100 tons and upwards for themselves and the Thames ; the men of the western 
 ports to find 70 such. With a fair allowance for the ports of the East and North 
 we should get something very Hke the 147 vessels specifically alleged by the well- 
 informed Franciscan Chronicler, Lanercost, 333. Villani only gives the English 
 "120 cocche armate" with 2,000 men-at-arms, " gentili uomini, cavalieri"; 
 the latter figure probably too high. 
 
 ^ Foss, III. 322, 323. ^ See above, p. 220. 
 
 ' Lawrence Hastings, married to Agnes Mortimer, and created 12th October 
 1339 J Doyle. 
 
278 CONTRASTED 
 
 CHAP. XVI gents ; we also hear of Walter Manny and John Chandos of 
 "^ future fame ; the last had been knighted by the King in 
 the campaign of the previous year. The fleet also conveyed 
 a bevy of fair dames and damsels, a reinforcement for the 
 court of Queen Philippa, who had been left at Ghent.^ The 
 party included the King's eldest daughter, the Lady 
 Isabella, eight years old. The Flemings, we are told, had 
 begged Edward to bring over a competent number of 
 priests prepared to ignore the Interdict, and minister to 
 their spiritual wants ; whether their request was complied 
 with does not appear.^ 
 
 Towards mid-day on Friday the 23rd June the English 
 on nearing the Flemish coast descried the French fleet, as 
 ' a very forest of masts ', in the then harbour of Sluys. This 
 roadstead, now mostly silted up, and reduced to a sandy 
 flat, with the river Zwyn trickling through it, was then a 
 commodious haven, protected on the North by the island 
 of Cadsand.^ As to the numbers of the enemy's shipping 
 the King subsequently writing to his son gives them as 
 ' nine score ships, galleys, and great barges '.* 
 
 As the day was still young Edward might have gone into 
 action at once. But we are told that he refused to shed 
 blood on the day of the week on which Christ was put to 
 death ; ^ and so the fleet was brought to an anchor off 
 Blankenberg, ten miles to the West of Sluys. A mounted 
 party was at once sent out to reconnoitre the enemy's 
 position.* 
 
 At daybreak on the morrow both sides began to prepare 
 for action. The French Admirals, in spite of Barbanero's 
 remonstrances, insisted upon taking up a purely defensive 
 position within the harbour. In vain he urged that by 
 
 ' Froissart, I, 106, 107. For more names see Barnes, 183. 
 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 45 ; Martin, V. 47. 
 
 ' Prof. Tout, Pol. Hist. III. 346, refers to the map in the Oxford Atlas, 
 PI, LVI. 
 
 ' See the letter dated 28th June ; Nicolas, Hist. Navy, II. 501 ; Villani gave 
 the numbers as 200 " cocche " besides 30 Genoese galleys. 
 
 ' So Chron. Lond. 76. The King himself only says that the tide did not suit. 
 
 ° Knighton, 2577. 
 
TACTICS 279 
 
 fighting in such a position they were throwing away the chap, xvi 
 advantage of their superior numbers and bigger ships. As ~~ 
 a compromise they moved out to the harbour mouth, by 
 the island of Cadsand.^ There they estabhshed themselves, 
 with their vessels arranged three or four ranks deep, the 
 tallest and biggest ships in front, all linked together with 
 chains and cables.^ Thus they thought that the alternative 
 risks of being outflanked or cut in two were both met. 
 The French chivalry having no partiahty for the sea were 
 resolved to reduce the action as much as possible to one on 
 dry land. The topcastles were filled with men armed with 
 stones and missiles.^ Barbanero refusing to be thus 
 hampered kept out in the open. 
 
 The English also put their biggest ships to the front. 
 To profit by their superiority in archery they arranged 
 their line so as to have two ships manned with archers to 
 one manned with men-at-arms ; a flying squadron manned 
 exclusively with archers was told off to act as circumstances 
 might suggest ; while a rear squadron with men-at-arms 
 guarded the ladies.* 
 
 As the initiative was left to the English they were able The 
 to manoeuvre till wind and water and the direction of the ^("^^^ 
 sun's rays were favourable. At last 'well after mid-day',^ 
 the tide suiting, the engagement began. With sound 
 of trumpet, naker (kettle-drum), viol, tabor, and all kinds of 
 music the EngHsh steered their ships full sail for the 
 harbour mouth, and crashed into the Frenchmen at their 
 
 ' Id. 2578 ; " versus Catat," De Nangis, Cont. cited Nicolas : " quasi in Ostio 
 fluvii de Sclusa decurrentis ad mare se statuerunt " ; Heming. Cont. II. 
 356. This movement to the mouth of the harbour must be the basis of the 
 allegation by some writers that the French at the last came out to meet the 
 English (Avesbury, 312 ; Murimuth, 106) ; the King's statement that he had to 
 enter the harbour to attack the enemy is quite decisive : " entrames en le dit 
 port sur nos dits enemys." 
 
 " Knighton, sup. ; Chron. Lond. 76 ; Avesbury, 312. 
 
 = Baker, 68. ' Froissart, 106. 
 
 ' " Bien apres houre de noune a la tyde nous entrames en le dit port sur nos dits 
 enemys ; " Edward's letter, sup. Astronomical calculations show that on that 
 coast on the 24th June high tide would be at 11.23 a.m. ; Nicolas, sup. 51. The 
 sun in the West presumably would serve the English best. The Continuator of 
 Hemingburgh says that the action began a little before vespers ; II. 356. 
 
282 SIEGE 
 
 CHAP. XVI Ninths for the second year, at the prices fixed at Notting- 
 ~~ ham, the proceeds of these Ninths not to be charged or 
 anticipated, but strictly appHed to repayment for the wool. 
 Merchants were found who agreed to take the King's wool 
 at one mark the sack below the Nottingham rates, and to 
 account to him at once for the same, plus the duty at 
 40s. the sack.^ 
 
 On the 23rd July Edward established his head-quarters 
 between Courtrai and Tournay. The Dukes of Brabant and 
 Guelders, the Count of Hainault, and the Margraves of Juliers 
 Brandenburg and Misnia again brought contingents, while 
 Van Artevelde appeared at the head of an imposing force of 
 Flemish burghers.^ Tournay was invested as previously 
 arranged, while Robert of Artois was sent with a Flemish 
 army to establish himself near Cassel, to watch the French 
 garrisons at Saint-Omer, Aire and Saint- Venant. This cam- 
 paign soon came to an end. Robert, perhaps dreaming of 
 recovering Artois, ventured to attack Saint-Omer, advancing 
 apparently in two divisions. The garrison came out to meet 
 him. The men of Ypres, one of his divisions, were at once 
 defeated and fled. Robert himself with the other division 
 gained some advantage over his old adversary the Duke of 
 Burgundy, and penetrated a suburb ; but the city gates 
 barred his progress, and the French closing round his rear, 
 he found himself obhged to fallback on his baggage, which 
 had been left at Arques, some three miles distant. But the 
 camp was found empty, the Flemings having fled in panic, 
 and Robert had to follow them back to Cassel, a beaten and 
 discredited leader.^ 
 
 Edward was probably beginning to realize the truth of the 
 Pope's warning that he would find himself a mere dupe in 
 the hands of his allies.* At any rate he felt that time was 
 
 ' See Rot. Parlt. II. 117-122 ; cf. 133, 140. It does not appear that the mer- 
 chants had to account for the full price eventually realized. Probably they 
 made a good thing of it. 
 
 ^ Grandes Chroniques, V. 388 and notes ; Froissart, I. no ; Le Bel, I. 176. 
 
 ? See the long story, Grandes Chroniques, V. 392-397 ; and Le Bel, 1. 177, 178 ; 
 Murimuth, 108, and the Chron. Lond. 78 give Robert a complete victory ; contra 
 Scalacr. 171. « See Foed. II. 1097, 13 November 1339. 
 
OF TOURNAY 283 
 
 against him. To hasten matters he sent a challenge to chap, xvi 
 ' Philip of Valois ' offering to meet him either single- "~ 
 handed, or with 100 men aside, or with his entire army, Edward 
 within ten days. Edward protested that he made the offer challenges, 
 in sober earnest to shorten the sufferings entailed by the 
 campaign. But Phihp was not to be lured into risking 
 a general action. Securely entrenched at an easy distance 
 among the swamps of the Lys,^ on the old battlefield of 
 Bouvines, he answered that he would make ' no response ' 
 to letters addressed to ' Philip of Valois ' ; he taunted PWljp 
 Edward with having done homage and sworn fealty to 
 him, and informed him confidentially that he would expel 
 him from French soil as and when he should find it con- 
 venient to do so.^ In fact Philip had no reason to be in 
 any hurry. Events were working for him all round. In 
 Gascony his Lieutenant the Count of Lille-Jourdain was 
 making rapid headway ; besieging Bordeaux and Condom, 
 and finding no one to withstand him ; ^ while the Scots, who 
 had recovered Perth in the previous autumn, were once 
 more beginning to visit England.* 
 
 For nearly two months allies continued to press Tournay 
 by blockade and bombardment. In the bombardment 
 cannon were used side by side with the springals and 
 mangonels of earlier warfare : ^ churches and dwelling- 
 houses ahke were demolished, but no assault was attempted. 
 Provisions inside the walls rose to famine prices ; the 
 country for leagues around was devastated ; but no offer 
 of surrender came in ; the Brabanters allowed non-com- 
 batants to pass out, and occasionally allowed provisions 
 to pass in.^ The Duke was grumbling for arrears of pay 
 but Edward had nothing to give him.' Philip on the other 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. i8i ; Froissart, I. 115 ; Heming. Cont. II. 360. 
 
 ^ July 27 and 30; Grandes Chroniques, V. 397; July 26 and 30, Foed. 11. 1131, 
 a less correct copy. ' Froissart, I. 112 ; Sismondi, X. 171 ; Martin, V. 34. 
 
 " Murimuth, 109; Scalacr. 172; Froissart, sup.; Rot. Scot. I. 592, 603. 
 Perth surrendered to Robert Stewart on the 17th August 1339. 
 
 ' " Engyns oue poudres, feu rosee ; " Chron. Lond. 79. 
 
 " Froissart, I. 114, 120 ; Le Bel, I. iSi. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2578 ; Heming. Cont. II. 360. Le Bel finds fault with the 
 burghers of Brabant for their charitable action. 
 
286 KING 
 
 cHAP.xvn hours later Robert Stratford, Bishop of Chichester, was 
 ^T~ reheved of the Great Seal, and Roger Northburgh, Bishop 
 
 Ministers of Coventry, turned out of the Treasury.^ The Archbishop 
 
 dismissed. ^^ hearing of the arrest of the judges and the disgrace of 
 his brother took sanctuary at Canterbury.^ No such 
 ministerial crisis had been seen since 1289, when Edward I 
 came home from the Continent discontented and in debt.^ 
 The two Stratfords between them had held the Seal most 
 of the time since Edward became his own master. Adam 
 Orleton had retired from public life since his promotion 
 to the See of Winchester ; and Richard Aungerville likewise 
 had declined ministerial appointments since he became 
 Bishop of Durham ; a bookish man, he most likely was not 
 in favour of the war. Henry Burghersh of Lincoln, the 
 leader of the war party, had been Treasurer from I334 to 
 1337 ; but since then had been mostly abroad in attendance 
 on the King, and in fact died, still abroad, on the 4th 
 December.* The Stratfords therefore had been responsible 
 for the internal administration of the country during most 
 of the reign. The Archbishop was commonly called ' The 
 King's Major Dorao '.^ The Seal was now committed to 
 
 May Robert Bourchier, a mihtary man, and the first layman 
 
 who ever was chancellor of England, the Treasury being 
 committed to Robert Parning, Chief Justice of the King's 
 Bench.® By their orders searching inquests as to the acts 
 and accounts of all Crown officials high and low, and all 
 persons in any way connected with the collection of the 
 taxes, or the dealings in wool, were instituted. Against 
 
 ' Murimuth, 117; Cliron. Lond. 84; Barnes, 212; Foss. The De la Poles 
 were sons of a rich merchant of Hull, and had given pecuniary aid to Edward 
 and his father. William had been Pincerna Regis, and was the general agent 
 of the Crown in dealings with mercantile men ; he was commonly called " the 
 King's Merchant"; Foss, III. 478. Pulteney also had been employed in 
 transactions in wool; Foed. II. 1139. Sheriffs and minor officials were also 
 extensively attacked ; Chron. Lond. 87-89 ; Murimuth, 118. 
 
 ^ Birchington, Ang!. Sacr. I. 21. 
 
 ' See Dawn of the Constitution, 361. * Reg. Sacr., 4 December 1340. 
 
 ' " Domini Regis Patricius." For the term sec Ducange. 
 
 ' 14 December ; Foed. ir42; Foss. The St. Albans writer, Hemingburgh, 
 Cont. II. 363, evidently thought the appointment of laymen scandalous. 
 
 Chancellor. 
 
OUT OF TEMPER 287 
 
 some proceedings in Trailbaston and summary criminal chap, xvn 
 proceedings were actually taken, a most unwarrantable 13^0 
 course.^ 
 
 The Judges and officials arrested by the King's orders 
 were not hardly dealt with. Nothing apparently was 
 found against any of them, and, the King having recovered 
 his temper, all were shortly more or less reinstated. Pro- 
 ceedings were also instituted against William de la Pole, 
 but they were soon suspended, and he remained high in 
 favour during the rest of his life.^ 
 
 With the Archbishop a struggle ensued that for months 
 engrossed the attention of the nation to the exclusion of 
 all other matters. For his attack on the ex-chancellor the Kingf. 
 King selected a most ungenerous weapon. Stratford was bishop, 
 one of those who in 1339 had given personal guarantees to 
 foreign creditors for payment of the King's debts. Edward 
 required the Archbishop to betake himself to Flanders, and 
 place himself in the hands of those persons.'^ Declining all 
 invitations to a personal interview,* the Primate answered 
 with a paternal exhortation to the King to observe his 
 coronation oath, and hold his church and people in good 
 peace. On the 29th December, St. Thomas of Canterbury's 
 day, Stratford preached a violent sermon in the spirit of the 
 Saint, bewailing his past attention to worldly matters, and 
 holding himself out for the future as a champion of eccle- 
 siastical and constitutional rights. By way of a beginning, 
 and with evident reference to the recent arrests, he excom- 
 municated all infringers of Magna Carta.^ Three days later, 
 as the King's spiritual father, he addressed a long homily 
 to him, making pointed reference to the cases of Rehoboam 
 and Edward II, and, more covertly, to that of Mortimer : he 
 begged Edward to summon a Parliament, offering to stand by 
 the judgement of his Peers in all things, ' saving the rights of 
 the Church and his Order '." Pressing his attack he delivered 
 
 ' See Chron. Lond. 88, 89. ' See Foss. 
 
 ' The Earl of Derby was actually abroad detained for the King's liabilities ; 
 Foed. sup. 
 ' Heming. Cont. II. 3S4, 385. " Angl. Sacr. I. 2r, 23. 
 
 ' ist January 1341. In the original French, Avesbury, 324. 
 
288 A STURDY 
 
 CHAP. XVII three further utterances in the same spirit : he wrote to 
 ~ Bourchier the new Chancellor complaining that the clergy 
 were being called on to pay both Tenths and Ninths, and 
 demanding redress, under threat of ecclesiastical censures ; ^ 
 he wrote to the King and Council requesting the immediate 
 liberation of the Chancery clerks, and other persons illegally 
 arrested, under penalty of a sentence ' from which he could 
 only excuse the King, the Queen and their children, so far 
 as they could rightly be excused from it ' ; ^ he wrote to the 
 new Bishop of London ^ ordering him to prevent the double 
 exaction of Tenths and Ninths ; while finally he directed 
 his suffragans to promulgate the excommunications pre- 
 viously threatened. He ended with a very apposite refer- 
 ence to the original Charter of Henry I, the actual words 
 being quoted.* 
 
 Stratford's boldness shows the estimate of Edward's 
 strength of character formed by his subjects. Of course 
 he was furious. He put forth in answer " a sort of 
 pamphlet " addressed to the bishops and chapters of the 
 
 Libeiius Province of Canterbury, and known as the Libellus Famosus. 
 In this he audaciously laid the whole responsibility for the 
 war and its failure on the Archbishop ; Stratford had 
 ' talked him into it ',^ assuring him that the available means 
 would be ample, and ample they would have proved, said 
 Edward, if only they had been faithfully administered. 
 Disappointed of the supplies that he had been led to expect, 
 the King had been obliged to borrow at usurious interest ; 
 and finally to abandon a most promising undertaking, and 
 sign an ignominious truce. His friends, the sharers of his 
 tribulations, had insisted on the dismissal of those guilty 
 negligent servants. Waxing abusive, Edward continued; 
 ' the Archbishop, that wily serpent, that cunning fox, that 
 notorious hireling,' nefariously pretending to have dis- 
 covered attacks on the rights of the Church, attacks 
 
 ' 28th January, Heming. C. II. 367 ; Walsingham, I. 234. 
 
 " Heming. 369 ; Walsingham, 235. 
 
 ^ Ralph Stratford, elected 28th January and not yet consecrated. 
 
 ' Heming. 371, 375 ; Walsingham, 237, 240. 
 
 ' " Importuna instantia persuasit." 
 
PRIMATE 289 
 
 probably invented by himself, had been reviving old ciup. xvii 
 excommunications in order to blacken the King's fair ^^T^ 
 fame. In self-defence therefore the King proposed to 
 publish details of the extravagance, malversation and cor- 
 ruption, through which, during his minority, the Crown 
 revenues had been dissipated and reduced to nothing.^ 
 Here the King threatens to call for accounts, the weapon 
 with which Henry II had attacked Becket, On the whole 
 the Lihellus is a mere tissue of calumny and misrepresenta- 
 tion disgraceful to the King, 
 
 Stratford pubhshed an elaborate and conclusive answer. Stratford's 
 He had not led the King into his difficulties : he had not ^"^^^'^' 
 received his money : the proceeds of the last grant had 
 been assigned to the King's creditors before ever it was 
 voted. ' Saving his Estate and Order ' he was ready to 
 answer every charge brought against him.^ The King 
 failed to adduce any new facts in support of his charges, 
 merely replying with a weak abusive letter.^ 
 
 On Monday 23rd April a Parliament met at Westminster ; * 
 to witness a most amusing game of hide-and-seek between 
 King and Archbishop. 
 
 The Archbishop left his sanctuary under royal safe- Parlia. 
 conduct and came to Lambeth. On the 24th April, the "^ " ' 
 first day of actual business, he presented himself at West« 
 minster ; the Bishops of London and Chichester, with an 
 array of clergymen and esquires, supported him. At the 
 door of Westminster Hall he was met by the Steward of the 
 Household, Ralph Lord Stafford, who informed him that he 
 must first appear before the Court of Exchequer, to answer 
 the King's charges. With some demur he complied. After 
 hearing the charges, he made his way to the Painted Cham- 
 ber, where the Peers would meet, but found only two bishops 
 to whom he explained his views of the situation. The King 
 
 ' 10 February, Avesbury, 330 ; where we are told that the document was 
 attributed to Adam Orleton, who hated Stratford ; Foed. 11. ri47. 
 
 ' Angl. Sacr. I. 27-36. The document is most vigorous and incisive, quite 
 refreshing to read. 
 
 ^ 31 March, Angl. Sacr. I. 36, &c. ; Foed. 1154. 
 
 * Lords' Report, Rot. Parlt. 
 1415-1 U 
 
290 LIGHTLY 
 
 cHAi>.-xvii withholding his presence the sitting was adjourned to the 
 7^ morrow. On the 25th Edward again declined to meet the 
 Archbishop, and nothing was done ; on the 26th the Primate 
 was engaged in the Court of Exchequer, putting in his 
 answer,, and the King allowed business to begin. ; Parlia- 
 ment was informed that the King intended to carry on the 
 war, and begged that the Ninth for the second year might 
 be collected at once. On Friday the 27th April the Arch- 
 bishop again forced his way into the Painted Chamber, 
 and the course of business was again suspended. Adam 
 
 /:,. '- Orleton and the Chancellor brought a message from the 
 King advising Stratford to submit, and the Bishop took the 
 opportunity of explaining that he was -not the author of the 
 ' Lihellus Famosus'. So matters went on for another week, 
 the Archbishop persisting in taking his place, and business 
 in consequence being kept at a standstill. " The barons 
 watched the contest with sympathetic interest." ^ Sunday 
 29th April being a day of rest, the King's agents endeavoured 
 to raise a movement against the Archbishop in the City. 
 On the Monday articles were exhibited against him in the 
 House of Commons. On Tuesday and Wednesday (ist and 
 2nd May) Stratford offered to ' purge ' himself in Parlia- 
 ment, but the King's friends would not let him speak. 
 On the 3rd May a committee of twelve lords spiritual and 
 temporal^was chosen to advise the King on the pointwhether 
 Peers were liable to answer out of Parliament or not.^ On 
 
 Privileges Monday 7th May the lords reported that on no account 
 
 of Peers. , , , V. , , ■ ■ , , , • i 
 
 should Peers, whether mmisters or not, be brought to trial, 
 lose their possessions, ' or be bound to answer, or be judged, 
 except in full Parliament, and before their peers.' ^ With 
 this declaration in his favour the Archbishop " could 
 afford to be humble " ; and the King, " aware that unless 
 he temporised he would get no money, determined to be 
 gracious." A formal reconciliation ensued. Stratford 
 asked to be allowed to clear his character before Parhament ; 
 
 ' See the strong language attributed to Earl Warenne ; Chron. Lond. 90. 
 " Birchington, sup. 38-41 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 126, &c. 
 = Rot. Park. 127. 
 
GRANTED 291 
 
 the King assented ; ^ and there the personal struggle ended, chap, xvu 
 The Archbishop, however, had not only got the best of it, but ^ 
 he had been the means of securing for the Peers an important 
 privilege that events had shown to be necessary.^ More- 
 over Parliament felt encouraged to improve the opportunity. 
 The King having asked for advice as to the collection of 
 the second year of the Ninths, each Estate presented a bill 
 of conditions. The commons complained of recent arrests, 
 and the special commissions of ' trailbaston ', as infringe- 
 ments of the Charter ; they required that the judges and Constitu 
 officers of the Crown should be sworn to observe the Charter demands 
 and other statutes ; and that the old Crown debts remitted 
 in the previous year should not be exacted. The Lords and 
 Commons joined in demanding that commissioners should 
 be appointed to audit the public accounts ; that the 
 Chancellor, Treasurer and Chief Justices should be appointed 
 in Parliament ; and that all the concessions made in return 
 for the Ninths should be observed point for point. The 
 clergy likewise had their demands to make.' The King 
 sent answers which were returned to him as insufficient ; 
 eventually he gave way on all points, consenting to confirm 
 the privilege of Peers, even granting the petition of the 
 Commons. "The two chief points, the examination of granted, 
 accounts, and the nomination of ministers, are distinctly 
 granted." * In return for those concessions 30,000 sacks of 
 wool were granted as an equivalent for the Ninths of the 
 second year.* 
 The Parliament of 1341 is of importance rather as giving 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt., sup. 
 
 ^ Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 408. The reader may compare the result of the 
 struggle between Edward I and Archbishop Winchelsey ; Dawn, 437, 474, 502. 
 
 = Rot. Parlt. II. 128, 129. 
 
 ' Id. 129-133; Statutes, I. 295, 15 Edw. Ill, st. i ; Stubbs, I. 409. The appoint- 
 ments of Justices of the superior courts and Barons of the Exchequer were excepted. 
 Murimuth, a very accurate writer, considered that the King had granted responsi- 
 bihty to Parhament, but not appointment by Parhament ; p. ri3 : the article 
 relating to the examination of accounts is not enrolled among the statutes. 
 
 ^ Orders were issued for raising 30,000 sacks of wool rateably: but it would seem 
 he 20,000 sacks raised in the previous year were to be taken into account, so that 
 the new grant only amounted to 10,000 sacks. See Rot. Parlt. II. 131, 133, ss. 55, 
 56, and r4o, s. 27 ; Statutes, I. 297, 15 Edw. Ill, st. 3. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 LIGHTLY 
 
 CHAP. XVII a fresh enunciation of the rights claimed by the nation, than 
 as marking an era of definite progress won. What Edward 
 had so lightly granted he could as lightly withdraw. As 
 a necessary formality, the Articles demanded by Parliament 
 and granted by the King had to be reduced to the shape of 
 a statute ; to that statute the King gave his formal assent ; ^ 
 but the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Justices pretended 
 to withhold theirs ; on the ground that the new concessions 
 were inconsistent with the laws that they had sworn to 
 observe. " Under the shadow of this protest " Edward four 
 months later informed the nation that the ' pretended 
 Concession statute' must be cancelled, as inconsistent with 'the customs 
 cance e . ^^ ^^^ realm and the royal prerogative ' ; in allowing the so- 
 called statute to be sealed he had in fact but ' dissembled, as 
 was fitting, to avoid the dangers attendant on a refusal '.^ 
 John, Henry HI, Edward I, and Edward H each in his 
 turn had broken his word under similar circumstances : but 
 not one of them proclaimed the fact with such easy effron- 
 tery as the Third Edward. " He did not even wait for 
 Papal absolution for he had taken no oath." ^ 
 
 The constitutional struggle at home made the resumption 
 of hostilities with France impossible. The King had to 
 submit to an extension of the truce for another year.* 
 Philip, Philip had succeeded in detaching the Emperor from 
 
 and Louis, his English alliance by the offer of his good offices at 
 Avignon towards obtaining the desired absolution. The 
 petition to the Pope was addressed in such a cavalier style 
 that Benedict felt bound to refuse the absolution that other- 
 wise he would gladly have given.^ But Philip's ends were 
 doubly served : the grant of the Imperial Vicarship to 
 
 ' Statutes, I. 295 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 132. 
 ist October ; " Ad evitandum pericula quae ex ipsius (sc. statuti) denegatione 
 
 tunc timebantur . . . dissimulavimus, sicut oportuit et praetensuin statutum 
 
 sigillari permisimus ilia vice," &c ; Foed. II. 1177 ; Statutes, I. 297, 15 Edw. Ill, 
 
 St 2. 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, sup., and 411. ■■ Foed. II. 1165, 1175, 1177, 
 
 ' A treaty was made between Philip and the Emperor on the 24th January 
 
 1341 ; Pauli, II. 383, citing Bbhmer, Reg. Imp. 134. See Sismondi, X, 181 ; 
 
 Milman, V, 496. 
 
WITHDRAWN 293 
 
 Edward had been recalled ; ^ while the unshriven Emperor chap.xvii 
 was still kept " tied and bound with the chain of his sins ". ^T^ 
 Foir the purpose of war against France the recall of the 
 Vicarship deprived the Netherlandish alliances of all value 
 for the King of England. 
 
 But if Edward's alhes fell off his foes remained. Three 
 weeks before the Imperial Vicarship was recalled David 
 Bruce and his consort Jeanne had returned to Scotland, 
 landing at Inverbervie in Kincardineshire.^ Bit by bit Scottish 
 the Scots had recovered the command of their country. 
 Edinburgh had been won in April ; something like order — 
 some semblance of peace and plenty — had been restored to 
 the weary land. The Scottish Estates therefore thought 
 themselves justified in recalling their King, and he came at 
 their bidding. Philip doubtless gave his entire consent. 
 But for some months the young King again had to be kept 
 in the North. 
 
 Since 1337 the course of the struggle had been very 
 similar to that during the three years preceding the 
 battle of Bannockburn. When the Regent Andrew Murray 
 of Bothwell died in 1338, he had reduced the effectual 
 domain of the English to the strongholds of Perth, 
 Coupar-Fife, Stirling, Edinburgh, and Roxburgh. In the 
 struggle to achieve that result he had reduced the land to 
 a wilderness. Those who fell by the sword were as nothing 
 to those who succumbed to hunger. Dark tales of canni- 
 balism were told. Herds of wild deer ventured to approach 
 the walls of Perth.^ The great event of the year (1338) was 
 the defence of Dunbar, besieged by the Earls of Salisbury 
 and Arundel, as already mentioned. From January to Defence of 
 June the castle was defended by its countess ' Blak Annas ', Dunbar. 
 
 ' 25th June 1341 ; Foed. II. 1166 ; Avesbury, 336, 337, with Edward's answer 
 declining Louis's offer of mediation. 
 
 ' 2nd June ; Fordun ; of. H. Knighton, 2580 ; Lanercost, 335 ; Excheq. 
 Rolls Scotland, I. 482, 506. 
 
 ' Fordun ; Wyntoun, II. 216, 236 ; Scotichr. II. 331. From the 14th March 
 to the 14th December 1331 the receipts of the Chamberlain of Scotland amounted 
 '0 £3>774 ; itom the 22nd May 1341 to the nth June 1342 they only amounted 
 to £1,198 ; Excheq. Rolls Scotland, I. 393, 499. 
 
294 SCOTTISH 
 
 cHAP.xvii with a spirit worthy of a daughter of Thomas Randolf. 
 
 Z^ We cannot enter on the chivalrous incidents of the struggle/ 
 
 or stop to tell how Montagu hurled stony ' love tokens ' at 
 
 his fair foe ; and how the Countess wiped off the dust of 
 
 the crumbling battlements with her ' napkin '. 
 
 " I wowe to God scho mais gret store 
 The Scottis wenche ploddere 
 Come I are, com I late 
 I fand Annot at the yhate." ^ 
 
 Occasional supplies introduced by sea enabled the 
 Countess to hold out.^ With a heavy heart Salisbury 
 relinquished his prize, to carry his sword to an undertaking 
 which he foresaw would be ' very costly and of small profit '.* 
 Balliol had been allowed to act as English commander-in- 
 chief, with his head-quarters at Perth. In August (1338) 
 Perth was placed in the hands of a stout Yorkshire knight, 
 Thomas Uhtred, in whom Edward felt greater confidence.^ 
 But Uhtred, with all his gallantry, could not maintain his 
 position in so distant an outpost. On the 17th August 
 
 Scots 1339 he surrendered to the new Regent Robert Stewart. 
 
 PertI" French auxiliaries assisted in the siege.® About the same 
 time William Bullock, Balliol's Chamberlain, was induced 
 to betray Coupar.' All these three years (1338, 1339, 1340) 
 the English were obliged to import the commonest neces- 
 saries for their slender garrisons, and the garrisons them- 
 selves were only kept up by impressing felons, ' grithmen ', 
 and other ruffians.^ 
 
 The last achievement before the King's return was the 
 recovery of Edinburgh Castle. The capture was effected 
 by William Douglas and William Bullock, by a stratagem 
 similar to that by which Linlithgow had been taken in 
 
 ' See Scotichr. II. 324 ; Wyntoun, II. 207, &c. 
 
 " Wyntoun, 213. Plodder=fighter. 
 
 ° See Fordun ; Heming. Cont. II. 315 ; Lanercost, 295 ; Scotichr. II. 324 ; 
 Rot. Scot. I. 522, 526, 533. 
 
 ' So Grey, Scalacr. 168. ^ Foed. II. 1053. 
 
 " Fordun ; Scotichr. II. 330. Cf. Foed. 1094 ; Excheq. Rolls Scotland, 
 I- S°7- 
 
 ' Fordun. " See Rot. Scot, passim ; Foed. 1203, &c. 
 
RECOVERY 295 
 
 1313. Walter Curry, the captain of a Dundee merchant- chap.xvii 
 man, was sent to the castle by night,, off ering! wine and . . 
 other supplies from England ; an appointment was made 
 with the garrison for the introduction of the goods at day- 
 break on the morrow. While the gate-way was obstructed 
 by a couple of pack-animals, Douglas and his men rushed Edinburgh 
 in and the place was taken. ^ This success was followed |".'^,- 
 some months later by the surrender of Stirling.^ The 
 English government, however, was now stirred to action. 
 Balliol was appointed to take measures of defence on the 
 Marches, while the Earl of Derby was authorized to treat : 
 later still, in December, the King himself, leaving his 
 hunting and his tournaments, betook himself once more 
 to the scene of action.^ Christmas was spent at Melrose, invasion 
 The feast over, the King rode through part of the Forest of ^ ^, , 
 Ettrick ' in a very ill season '. The Scots, however, persisted 
 in keeping out of reach. Edward was much mortified, 
 and his attendants, to console him, arranged an amicable 
 joust, that was held, in his presence between the Earl of 
 Derby and the Douglas (William). ' So deftly in all gentle 
 deeds djd the Earl of Derby ever bear himself that all men 
 blessed his name.' * Douglas was wounded in the hand by a 
 splinter from his own lance, but no other casualty occurred ; 
 and the King turned homewards ' half in a melancholy 
 with those who had advised him upon that jorney'.^ 
 
 Negotiations for a truce were opened, but the Scots 
 
 ' 17 April 1341 ; Fordun ; Wyntoun, II. 239 ; Scotichr. II. 332 ; Le Bel, 
 I. 253 ; Froissart ; Excheq. Rolls Scotland, I. clvii. 
 
 " Scotichr. II. 331 ; Rot. Scot. I. 609. The last succours for Stirling were 
 ordered on the ist June ; the place must have fallen between May 1341 and 
 June 1342 ; Excheq. Rolls Scotland. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 123; Foed. Rot. Scot. For tournaments see Murimuth, 117 
 margin. 
 
 ■" " Ita gratiose in omnibus operibus humanitatis se gerebat, quod omnes de eo 
 audientes gloriam et honorem differebant ; " Knighton. 
 
 " Scalacr. 299 (Leland's translation) ; Knighton, 2580 ; Scotichr. II. 329 ; 
 Foed. A return tournament was held at Berwick in which two knights on each 
 side were killed ; Scotichr. sup., and especially Wyntoun, 11. 220, the fullest 
 account, but given as under the year 1338. The King's ' melancholy ' may have 
 been partly due to the rejection of his suit by the Countess of Salisbury. See 
 Lc Bel, I. 263. 
 
296 AFFAIRS OF BRITTANY 
 
 CHAP. XVII persisted in hostilities. About Candlemas 1342 they made 
 
 1342 ^ ' roS'd ' into Northumberland ' and brent much corn and 
 
 houses '} On Easter morn, at daybreak, the liberation of 
 
 Scottish territory was consummated by Alexander Ramsay 
 
 of Dalhousie, who crowned a brilliant career by taking 
 
 Fall of Roxburgh castle by escalade.^ The freedom of Scotland 
 
 ' was now secured. " From a war of conquest and patriotic 
 
 resistance the struggle died into a petty strife between 
 
 angry neighbours, a mere episode in the larger contest 
 
 between England and France." ^ 
 
 ; So far the English had never thought of attacking France 
 except from Flanders or Guienne. Ponthieu, which was 
 theirs, did not seem to offer a sufi&cient basis of operations. 
 The passage to Bordeaux was long and dangerous ; while 
 the attack from Flanders had signally failed. Suddenly 
 a "new and most desirable door was opened into the very 
 heart of France". Of all the great French feudatories 
 none had maintained so independent a position as the Dukes 
 of Brittany. Peers of France by virtue of their duchy, 
 linked with England by the earldom of Richmond, they 
 had succeeded to a certain extent in playing off the one 
 allegiance against the other. John III had supported 
 Philip in the campaigns of 1339 and 1340 but Edward had 
 not ventured to take offence.* On his return from the 
 campaign of 1340 the Duke died.^ A disputed succession 
 ensued. Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, was twice married. 
 By his first wife, Marie of Limoges, he had two sons, 
 John III and Guy Count of Penthievre. By his second 
 wife, Yolande of Dreux, he left another son, also named 
 John, who became Count of Montfort I'Amauri in right of 
 his mother. John III had no child : his brother Guy died 
 
 ' Rot. Scot. I. 621 ; Scalacr., sup! Cf. Le Bel, II. 9. 
 
 ' 31 March 1342 ; Fordun. David gave the sheriffdom of Teviotdale to 
 Alexander as a reward. William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, thought 
 the office due to himself ; he seized the unfortunate Ramsay in full county court 
 at Hawick, carried him off to Hermitage Castle, and starved him to death ; 
 Scotichr. 11. 334. 3 J. R. Green, I. 402. 
 
 ' See Sismondi, X. 184 ; Foed. II. 1149 ; Lobineau, Brclagne, I. 310. 
 
 " 30 April r34i ; Froissart, I. 117 note. 
 
DISPUTED SUCCESSION 297 
 
 before him, namely in 1331, leaving a daughter, Jeanne chap, xvii 
 Countess of Penthievre.^ John III to keep the succession ^77^ 
 from going to his half-brother, whom he hated, married his 
 niece Jeanne to Charles of Blois, nephew to Philip VI, so as 
 to secure the King's interest against the de Montfort.^ At 
 the death of Duke John both de Montfort and Charles laid 
 claim to the duchy .^ According to clear precedents, female 
 succession and representation had both been recognized 
 in Brittany. But the " Salique " law, and PhiHp's decisions 
 had thrown everything into confusion. De Montfort 
 asserted the principle by which Philip held the crown. 
 Charles of Blois cited the precedent in the case of Artois. 
 De Montfort was the first in the field : he seized his brother's 
 treasures : the clergy and people were on the whole in his 
 favour : Brest, Rennes, Hennebont, Vannes and Auray 
 yielded to his arras.* Charles on the other hand appealed 
 to the Parliament of Paris, and obtained a decree without 
 difficulty.^ 
 
 De Montfort then turned to the King of England, who 
 immediately gave him the investiture of Richmond, 
 receiving in return recognition as King of France.^ 
 
 With truly comic inconsistency Phihp supported the 
 man who challenged the Salic law ; Edward backed the 
 man who resisted female succession. 
 
 A deplorable war of more than twenty years' duration 
 between the competitors ensued ; promptly merged in the 
 great struggle between England and France, it made the 
 Hundred Years' War possible. Phihp took no ' official ' The Bre- 
 part in the war ; but his son John of Normandy and his '°" ^"• 
 
 ' See Lobineau, I. 281, 296, 300, 305 ; Grandes Chroniques, Y. 412. 
 
 ' Lobineau, 309 ; De Nangis, Cont. sup., 105. Charles was younger sou 
 of Guy, Count of Blois, by Marguerite of Valois, sister to the King ; Froissart, 
 I. 128 note. See Sismondi, X. 107. 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 227 ; Froissart, 128. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 228-237 ; Froissart, 128-130 ; De Nangis, Cont. ; Lobineau, 
 309, 311, &c. 
 
 " 7 September 1341 ; Lobineau, 314, 315 ; Le Bel, 239, &c. See Lavisse, 
 IV. 48-50. 
 
 ' 24 September 1341 ; Foed. IL 1176. For the disposition of parties in 
 Brittany, see Lavisse, sup. 
 
298 , KING OF ENGLAND 
 
 CHAP. XVII brother the Count of Alengon joined de Blois ; reduced 
 13^ Ancenis, and then laid siege to the good city of Nantes on the 
 Loire, where de Montfort was estabhshed (2 November). 
 A bold attempt by the garrison to cut off a convoy of 
 supplies for the besiegers resulted in the loss of some 
 200 prisoners left in the hands of the French. The burghers, 
 to rescue their friends, signed a convention. The details 
 are involved in doubt ; all that is certain is that the place 
 surrendered before the 2ist November, and that de Mont- 
 fort was carried off a prisoner to the Louvre.-*- But this 
 was far from ending the war. John's Countess, Margaret of 
 Flanders, sister to Count Louis, a woman who had ' the 
 courage of a man and the heart of a lion ',^ donned her 
 husband's armour and became " the head and soul of the 
 war ". She encouraged the men of Rennes by exhibiting 
 to them her infant son, two years old, and then established 
 herself at Hennebont (Morbihan) to await succour from 
 England.^ 
 
 Edward began to talk of sending succour as soon as he 
 had sealed his treaty with de Montfort.* But the winter 
 campaign in Scotland came in the way. After his return 
 from the North serious preparations were begun. Levies 
 were ordered from Wales and Ireland. England was invited 
 to send volunteers, the King doubtless hesitating to im- 
 press Englishmen for a mere private war between two 
 competitors for a foreign duchy .^ At last, late in March 
 1342, Walter Manny was appointed to take over a relief 
 force. Wind and weather detained him nearly two months ; 
 arriving in May, he found that Rennes had already fallen, 
 and that the heroic Countess was reduced to the last 
 extremity at Hennebont. Negotiations for a surrender 
 had been opened ; the Countess was begging for delay from 
 hour to hour, when from her window in the castle she 
 descried the white sails of the English fleet. Joyfully she 
 proclaimed the fact. ' Le secours ! Le secours ! ' 
 
 ' Le Bel, I. 243-247 ; Froissart, I. 136-138 ; Lavisse, IV. 51. 
 
 ' Le Bel. ' Le Bel, 248 ; Kitchin, France. 
 
 ' Foed. n. 1177, 1181. = Id. 1187-1193, &c. 
 
INTERVENES 299 
 
 Manny landed and raised the siege, but he was too weak chap.xvii 
 to venture far into the interior. He signed a truce till ~~ 
 All Saints' Day, subject to Edward's approval, and returned 
 home^ (July). But the King was not at all inchned for 
 peace, the Erplechin truce, renewed for a year, having 
 expired at Midsummer. Another expedition under the 
 Earl of Northampton and Robert of Artois was at once sent 
 out to keep the flames alive.^ The King's own departure 
 underwent the usual delay. After expressing a firm purpose 
 of sailing in August, he did not appear on the coast of Kent 
 till the 5th October ; ^ and then he found no shipping ready. 
 He marched down the coast to Portsmouth, and eventually 
 sailed on the 23rd October, entering the harbour of Brest Edward in 
 on the fourth day.* With his arrival the balance was 
 sensibly turned. 
 
 Northampton was there to receive him. After scoring 
 considerable successes, he had been obliged to fall back on 
 his landing-place. On the i8th August he had landed 
 near Brest, to find the Duchess of Brittany closely besieged 
 by Charles of Blois. The place was relieved, and the French 
 driven off with heavy loss ; in their retreat they abandoned 
 La Foret (between Brest and Landerneau), which was 
 immediately occupied by the English. Northampton then 
 advanced to Morlaix, which he attempted to carry by 
 storm, but was repulsed. He remained there, however, 
 blockading the place till the 30th September, when, being 
 apprised of the coming of Charles of Blois, with an imposing Action at 
 force of men-at-arms, Genoese crossbowmen and footmen Morlaix. 
 
 ' See Foed. II. 1187 ; Murimuth, 125 ; Le Bel, I. 279-317 ; Froissart, I. 147- 
 163 ; Lobineau, I. 322. 
 
 ^ The force sailed on the 14th August; Murimuth, sup. ; Foed. 1201, 1204, 
 1209; Knighton, 2581. ^ Foed. 1203, 1212. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 128 ; and Wardrobe Accounts cited Pauli. In the course of the 
 weekending i9thOctober, £61,000 were drawn from the Exchequer for the mihtary 
 chest, the money being found by William de la Pole and Company ; Pell Issue 
 Roll, Mich., 17 Edw. III. As the item does not appear in the corresponding place 
 on the Receipt Roll I could not ascertain whether the money was ever repaid or 
 not. £3,000 each were paid to Juliers and Guelders. The Lavisse writer, still 
 believing in chroniclers' figures, gives Edward 13,000 men, and the French 50,000 
 men, p. 53 ; 13,000 men in one body were never shipped by any King of England 
 in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. 
 
300 KING OF FRANCE 
 
 CHAP. XVII he went out to meet him, and took up a defensive position 
 ZT^ between Morlaix and Lanmeur, in front of a wood, on foot : 
 he even found time to protect his front with hidden pitfalls, 
 a la Bannockburn. These proved fatal to the charge of 
 the French mounted men-at-arms ; but the other corps, 
 encouraged by their superior numbers, kept up a desperate 
 conflict, and three successive assaults had to be sustained 
 before the enemy was disposed of. The battle was held 
 one of the hardest fought actions of Edward's reign.^ In 
 spite of this success, however, Northampton had to retreat 
 and fall back on Brest. 
 
 With Edward's appearance affairs assumed a new aspect. 
 Ploermel, Rohan and Malestroit yielded to him. Simul- 
 taneous sieges were laid to Rennes, Vannes and Nantes. 
 Vannes had been taken by Robert of Artois, and again lost 
 by him : on the latter occasion he received a wound of 
 which he died — " the stormy petrel of the Hundred Years' 
 War." ^ The King kept revolving round the leading 
 points of attack, encouraging his men. Striking north 
 from Rennes he attacked and stormed Dinan, and then 
 returned again to the siege of Vannes. An English writer 
 claims for the King the unusual merit of having abstained 
 from wanton destruction.^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Duke of Normandy had gathered a great 
 host at Angers. Edward called in his troops from all sides, 
 and entrenched himself round Vannes, to await the French 
 attack. Philip had joined his son, so that the conflict was 
 no longer a Breton affair, but full-dress Anglo-French war. 
 The French, however, did not venture to attack the English 
 in their position ; but their superiority in numbers enabled 
 them practically to blockade them, in a cramped position 
 on the coast. The weather was most inclement ; it rained 
 day and night ; provisions were scarce ; foraging parties 
 could not venture out except in force ; supplies by sea were 
 
 ^ Murimuth, 126, 127 ; Knighton, 2581, 2582 ; Baker, 76 (under 1345) ; A. de 
 la Borderie, Hist. Bretagne, III. 466. 
 
 ' Froissart, 1. 171 ; Le Bel, II. 17, 22 ; Knighton, 2582 ; Kitchin, France. 
 
 " See the letter of the 5th December from Edward to his son, Avesbury, 340 ; 
 also Murimuth, 129 ; Froissart, 171-176 ; Le Bel and Knighton, sup. 
 
INTERVENES 301 
 
 cut off by a French fleet under a Doria, a Grimaldi and chap, xvii 
 Louis de la Cerda. The disciphned endurance of a modern ,,^2 
 army would undoubtedly have inflicted a signal disaster on 
 the English ; but the French noblesse could not stand the 
 discomfort, and the cold, and the losses of horseflesh. The 
 voice of Papal mediation could thus make itself heard.^ On 
 the 25th of April 1342 Benedict XII had died. On the 5th Anew 
 May a successor was elected — of course a Frenchman. The 
 choice of the Cardinals fell on Pierre Roger, now Archbishop 
 of Rouen ; he was crowned on the 19th May, Whitsunday, 
 and took the name of Clement VI. ^ Opposed to his pre- 
 decessor on almost every other point, he had nevertheless, 
 like him, striven to maintain peace between England and 
 France. Since the beginning of December the Cardinals 
 Pierre des Prez and Annibale Cecano had been hovering 
 on the flanks of the contending armies. On the 19th 
 January 1343 a treaty was signed at Malestroit (Morbihan) Truce of 
 — a place chosen by the King of England.' The Kings of 
 England and France agreed to a truce, to last till Michaelmas, 
 and for three years from thence. In the meantime they 
 undertook to send envoys to argue all questions before the 
 Pope ' but not for his sentence or decision '.* The truce 
 was arranged to extend to Scotland, Hainault and Flanders 
 and all allies ; as far as possible the status quo was to be 
 maintained in Brittany and Gascony ; while de Montfort 
 would be set free on condition of keeping out of Brittany. 
 As it was morally certain that the partisans of the two 
 claimants would not abstain from hostilities, it was added, 
 very wisely, that breaches of the truce in Brittany should 
 not involve war elsewhere.^ 
 
 ^ Froissart, I. 177. 
 
 " H. Nicolas. Murimuth, 124, gives the date of the election as the 6th May, and 
 the day of the death of Benedict as 24th April. For Pierre Roger see above, p. 200. 
 
 ' See Edward's letter, Avesbury, sup. As early as the 8th August 1342 the 
 advent of the cardinals had been threatened ; Foed. II. 1208, 1215. 
 
 ' "Noun pas a fin de decisioun, et de doner sentence, mais pur fairemeillour pees 
 et tretee." 
 
 ' See the treaty in French, Avesbury, 244 ; in Latin, Murimuth, 129 ; Laner- 
 cost, 335 ; Lavisse, IV. 53. The truce was proclaimed in London, 20th February ; 
 Foed. 1219. 
 
1343 
 
 302 A TRUCE 
 
 With the truce of Malestroit ended the first and most 
 spirited part of the Breton war. Charles of Blois held 
 Rennes and Nantes, with the control of Upper Brittany or 
 the more Frenchified part of the Duchy ; de Montfort's 
 followers being masters of the districts of Leon and La Cor- 
 nouaille, and the greater part of Lower Brittany, Bretagne 
 Bretonnante. These positions in the main were retained 
 throughout the rest of the war.^ 
 
 Edward's forces were at once disbanded. Most of the 
 men preferred the overland route ' through France '. The 
 King, however, committed himself to the sea, to encounter 
 Return to a lengthy, stormy, and dangerous passage. On the 2nd 
 "g ^" • March he landed at Weymouth ; his fleet had been scattered, 
 and one vessel lost. The Duchess of Brittany and her 
 son, who accompanied the King, landed at Exmouth. 
 On the 4th March Edward reached the Tower, where the 
 Queen was staying.^ In his peril Edward had vowed 
 a pilgrimage to Canterbury, on foot, with pious visits to 
 Wolsingham and other shrines. These pledges were now 
 scrupulously redeemed.^ 
 
 ' Lavisse, sup. 
 
 ^ Murimuth, 135 ; Avesbury, 352 ; Lanercost, 340. According to Knighton, 
 2582, Edward was actually driven away southwards at first. 
 ^ Murimuth, sup. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1343-1345 
 
 Parliament. — Constitutional struggles. — Papal aggression. — Order of the Garter 
 Parliament. — Clerical immunities. — The King's indebtedness. — Fall of Philip 
 van Artevelde. — Campaigns of Earl of Derby in Gascony. 
 
 On the 28th April 1343 a session of Parliament was chap, xviii 
 opened at Westminster. Stratford had been fully restored ~~ 
 to favour, and entered the Painted Chamber in confidential Parlia- 
 attendance on the King. The treaty of Malestroit was laid '"™'' 
 before the Houses, the King pointing out that the reference 
 to the Pope was made as to a common friend [meen amy), 
 and not to a judge or arbiter. Both Lords and Commons 
 signified their approval ; the Commons adding that if the 
 reference should not lead to an honourable and durable * 
 peace, they would give the King their aid in maintaining 
 his ' quarrel '} Home questions were then introduced, 
 such as the administration of justice, brigandage, wool trans- 
 actions, taxation of foreign merchants, and the currency. 
 
 A petition of thirty-five articles was presented by the 
 Commons embracing a great range of subjects legal and con- 
 stitutional.^ As might be anticipated thefirst demand was for 
 the re-enactment of the cancelled Act of 1341. The second 
 article requests the King to withdraw the surtax of 405. on 
 the sack of wool granted in 1336 by the merchants, without 
 the concurrence of the Commons, and still levied, without 
 their consent, in addition always to the legitimate Antiqiia 
 Custuma of 6s. 8d. the sack.^ Other articles prove that 
 the Commons had lost sight of none of the ends towards Fruitless 
 which the Act of 1341 was directed. The King, however, 5'™gg'^- 
 held firm. The price of wool he said was now fixed by 
 statute, and therefore could not be affected by the maletote;* 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 135, 136. ' Id. 139-143- ' Id. 140. 
 
 * Id. 138, 140 ; Feed. II. 1225. The minimum rates fixed at Northampton 
 
304 PAPAL 
 
 cHAP.xvm the Act of 1341 had been revoked because the King found 
 it in several points inconsistent with his coronation oath, 
 and ' blemishing ' to the Crown ; any points that were 
 profitable and good he would willingly see re-enacted. 
 The result was, that a formal repeal of the Act, and a Par- 
 liamentary grant of the surtax for three and a half years 
 were published.^ It is probable that if in either case the 
 Commons gave any consent at all, they gave it ' very 
 reluctantly ', and only to save the appearance of defeat. 
 
 Resolutions were adopted for the issue of a gold coinage, 
 
 as a basis for trade with Flanders ; and for a reissue of 
 
 silver coin of the old standards, for home circulation.^ The 
 
 proceedings against Archbishop Stratford were formally 
 
 quashed, and the Heir Apparent created Prince of Wales.^ 
 
 One point there was on which the King and his Estates 
 
 could heartily agree ; and that was the necessity of resisting 
 
 Papal inroads on ecclesiastical patronage. The usurpations 
 
 that had provoked the remonstrances of all England one 
 
 Papalag- hundred years before, had not diminished. Nay, the evil 
 
 g e ion. ,, j^^j vastly increased since the beginning of the century ". 
 
 Clement VI threatened to outdo all his predecessors. He 
 
 had offered to find preferment for all poor clergy who should 
 
 present themselves at Avignon within two months.* The 
 
 in 1336 were now raised from £20 to £100 per cent. ; Rot. Park. II. 138. The 
 merchants next year petitioned against the fixing of prices, and the attempt 
 was abandoned. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. 138, r39. The merchants begged to be excused half of this 
 tax till they had been repaid for wool seized by the King at Dordrecht, a fresh 
 piece of iniquity that has yet to be cleared up ; Id. 143. We now find the 
 opprobrious term maleiote applied to a legal impost. 
 
 ' Id. 137 ; Statutes, I. 299. The King carried out the latter suggestion 
 by subjecting the silver penny, already debased in 1300, to a further loss, 
 making in all a reduction of about ro per cent.; Rogers, Prices, I. 174. In 
 accordance with the former suggestion, gold pieces, the first struck since the 
 Conquest, except the abortive issue of 1257, were produced, rated at 6s., 3s., 
 and IS. 6d. respectively, and known as ' Noble' pence, halfpence, and farthings. 
 But these coins were recalled and fresh 'nobles' worth 6s. 8d., y. ^d., and 
 IS. Sd. issued in 1344; Ruding, Annals of Mint, I. 217, 218. See below, 
 II. 240, 
 
 ° Rot. Park. 129 ; Murimuth, 136. 
 
 ' Milman, V. 498 ; compare the King's protest of the 5th July 1342 ; Foed. 
 II. 1208. 
 
AGGRESSION 305 
 
 intimate connexion of the Court of Avignon with that of chap.xviii 
 Paris made these encroachments doubly gaUing and doubly ,3^^ 
 dangerous. Stratford and the clergy, however, kept in 
 the background, doubtless from prudential considerations.^ 
 Possibly the Archbishop remembered that he and half the 
 existing Episcopate had been indebted for promotion to 
 Papal ' Provisions '. But the Commons spoke out vigor- Protest 
 ously. By the bestowal of English patronage upon commons, 
 foreigners the flow of charity at home was impeded, they 
 said ; English money was exported for the support of the 
 King's enemies ; and the ' nakedness of the landMn general 
 made known to all the world : two Cardinals had already 
 received preferment to the value of 2,000 marks. The 
 King declared his entire concurrence in the sentiments of 
 his lieges, and suggested that a remonstrance should be 
 addressed to the Pope, in the name of the laity .^ At the 
 request of another petition on the same subject the Statute 
 of Carlisle of 1307 was produced and read aloud.* In 
 accordance with the King's suggestion a petition,, very 
 respectful in language, but firm in tone, was addressed to 
 Avignon, complaining of the evil ' now more prevalent than 
 formerly ' of the intrusion of strangers, ignorant of the 
 language and the habits of the people. The. petitioners 
 dwell on the consequent evils and scandals, ' which evils 
 very holiest father {tres sentisme pere) we neither can nor 
 ought to suffer and endure ' ; they insist upon a cessation 
 of all reservations, provisions, or collations ; and they 
 request a speedy answer,' as on no account will they rest till 
 they have obtained due remedy and correction in such 
 cases.'* Clearly the day could not be far distant when the 
 
 ' Murimuth, 138. Clement, however, regarded Stratford as the originator of 
 the outcry ; Id. (ed. Hog), 153 ; Foed. II. 1232. But there can be no doubt as 
 to the feehngs of the Enghsh clergy on the subject. See the letter of Bishop 
 Bury to Clement, Northern Registers, 382 ; Knighton, 2583 ; and the careful 
 review, Murimuth, 173-176 (ed. Thompson). " Rot. Parlt. II. 141. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. 144. The statute as there given seems to condemn Provisions 
 much more distinctly than the original text in the Statute Book does. Hallam 
 suggests either " wilful suppression " in the one case, or " wilful interpolation " 
 in the other case ; Mid. Ages, II. 236. Presumably the former. 
 
 ' Given in full Parliament, 18 May ; Murimuth, 138 ; Avesbury, 353 ; Hcming. 
 1415-1 X 
 
3o6 FOUNDATION OF 
 
 CHAP. XVIII nation would take effectual measures for stopping the evil, 
 ~ but for the moment the Pope treated its remonstrances with 
 supreme contempt. A series of further usurpations followed, 
 King and ambitious clergymen alike iinding it convenient 
 to invoke the aid of the supreme spiritual authority. 
 Tourna- No English king ever encouraged tournaments to such 
 '"^"'^' an extent as Edward III ; still forbidden without Royal 
 leave/ the Royal leave and the Royal presence could be 
 secured whenever a tournament could be got up.^ The old 
 moral and poUtical objections seemed to have died out. In 
 the eyes of the King tournaments were simply legitimate 
 opportunities for chivalrous display, and courtly revelry. 
 The year 1344 opened with a tournament of unusual 
 splendour held at Windsor. All the ladies of England of 
 any position, including the wives of the chief citizens of 
 London, had been invited. The festivities began on 
 Sunday i8th January with a grand banquet, at which the 
 ladies, headed by Queens Philippa and Isabelle, dined with 
 the King in hall. Of all the assembled men only two 
 French knights had seats found for them in the hall ; the 
 Prince of Wales and the rest of the male sex being enter- 
 tained in a marquee outside. A ball followed in the evening. 
 For three days Edward with nineteen others held the lists 
 against all the world. On the side of the challengers the 
 palm of distinction, naturally, was adjudged to the King. 
 Of the all-comers Miles Stapleton, Philip Despenser, and 
 John Blount were held each to have done best on one of 
 
 Cont. II. 401. On the 15th June the King ordered the Sheriff of Yorkshire to 
 arrest the proctors of the two Cardinals, who were armed with Bulls of Provision ; 
 Foed. II. 1226, 1230 ; Murimuth, 142. The Pope wrote to complain, 28 August ; 
 Murimuth, r49. Edward wrote backing up the petition of the Commons, and 
 praying Clement to abstain from Provisions ; 30 August and 10 and 26 September; 
 Foed. 1232, 1233 ; Murimuth, 143. On the 20th October he ordered all Papal 
 Bulls to be seized; Id. 1237. Further orders were issued in January and February 
 1344 ; Foed. III. 2 ; Murimuth, 153. 
 
 ' Foed. I, 4, 5. 
 
 ' E.g. Three are recorded in the spring of 1342 ; viz. one at Dunstable in 
 February ; one in London in April, in which John of Beaumont was killed ; 
 and one at Eltham in May, in which the Count of Hainault was wounded ; 
 Murimuth, 123 ; Baker, 75. 
 
THE GARTER 307 
 
 the days. But the tournament did not pass off without chap, xvm 
 casualty. WilHam Montagu, the Earl of Salisbury, received ^^ 
 injuries of which he died on the last day of the month.^ 
 On Thursday 22 January the gathering was brought to Founda- 
 a close, with proceedings of historic interest, which must be Q°ft°r 
 regarded as the first step towards the institution of the 
 Most Noble the Order of the Garter. After Mass, which 
 all were required to attend in full court dress, the King, 
 taking the Gospels in hand, vowed to restore the Round 
 Table of King Arthur in all its pristine glory. A certain 
 number of barons and knights were then sworn in as 
 Companions of the Round Table, in conformity with certain 
 laws and regulations drawn up for observance by the 
 Brotherhood {sub certa forma). Whitsunday (23rd May) 
 was then fixed for the next meeting. To provide a suitable 
 banqueting hall for the future use of the fellowship orders 
 were given for crowning the old Saxon " mote " at Windsor 
 with a tower of solid masonry.^ The existing Round 
 Tower was the result. 
 
 It may be pointed out that an oath to observe the 
 statutes of the Order has always formed part of the rites 
 attending the installation of a new knight.' 
 
 As the Pope had not been allowed to decide anything, 
 the missions to Avignon stipulated at Malestroit led to 
 nothing but fresh condemnation of Edward's pretensions.* 
 
 In Brittany hostilities between the rival factions had 
 never ceased ; brigandage of the sort had been anticipated 
 and provided for. But Philip had taken advantage of the 
 
 ' Murimuth (Hog), 156 ; Barnes, 295. 
 
 ' See Murimuth, 155 ; and the further details in Mr. Hog's edition of the 
 chronicle, 155. The date of the foundation of the Garter is uncertain, owing to 
 the loss of the annals of the Order prior to the time of Henry V. Le Bel, II. 26, 
 places the foundation on Whitsunday 1344, the very day named by Edward for 
 the first formal meeting. Froissart, taking the day from later custom, places it 
 on St. George's Day, but also in r344 ; 1. 179. Polydore Vergil, a writer of the 
 time of Henry VIII, is the first to connect the badge of the Order with a lady's 
 garter ; he mentions it as an accepted tradition passed over by earlier writers 
 from prudential considerations. If accepted the incident should be connected 
 with the festivities of January 1344. ' Ashmole, Garter, 355. 
 
 ' Foed. II. 1224, 1231 ; Murimuth, 156, 157. 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 GRANTS AND 
 
 CHAP, xviii truce to lay treacherous hands on a whole series of leading 
 i^ Breton barons of whom he was jealous, putting several of 
 Philip them to death, without any form of trial. Philip's conduct 
 Bretons. ^^^ ^^ impolitic as it was wicked. His cue should have 
 been to avoid giving Edward any excuse for resuming active 
 hostilities. Perhaps he flattered himself that he had acted 
 cleverly, because, for the moment, Brittany was terrorized.^ 
 But Edward promptly called attention to these infractions 
 Parlia- of the truce, laying them before a Parliament held at 
 ""^^ ■ Westminster in June (1344). The Scots, too, he said, 
 made no secret of their intentions of rejecting the armistice 
 as soon as the French should give them the word. The 
 Estates were in friendly mood ; but their answers betrayed 
 a certain uneasiness at the ' apparent prospect of fruitless 
 campaigns, alternating with ' feigned truces '.^ On the 
 express condition that the King would either fight a decisive 
 battle, or make peace, liberal grants were made. The 
 Magnates pledged themselves to serve abroad in person ; 
 the counties gave a Fifteenth for two years ; and the 
 boroughs a Tenth for the like period. These grants, how- 
 ever, were not formally sanctioned till the King had given 
 satisfactory answers to sundry Articles of petition. In 
 compliance with these the wool tariff was abandoned, the 
 price being left to be settled between vendor and purchaser : 
 a royal mint was established at York : the new gold cur- 
 rency was declared legal tender only for sums over twenty 
 shillings : and the King undertook to find the ' wages ' of 
 all soldiers to be impressed for foreign service.^ The clergy 
 of both Provinces also were ready with their grants. A 
 Tenth for three years, previously voted in Convocation, was 
 now " reported to the King by the Parliamentary proctors, 
 Liberty which was the usual course ". But the grants were not 
 Church, finally passed till the King had set his seal to a clerical 
 petition, praying for relief in sundry respects from the 
 jurisdiction of the secular tribunals. By the statute thus 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 178 ; Sismondi, X. 234 ; Lavisse, IV. 56. 
 
 " Rot. Park. II. 148. 
 
 ' Statutes, I. 100 ; Rot. Park. 14S-151 ; Knighton, 2584 ; Foed. III. 16. 
 
GRIEVANCES 309 
 
 obtained the power of the lay courts of issuing prohibitions chap, xvni 
 interfering with the action of Courts Christian, was greatly .. 
 curtailed; the prelates were relieved from secular juris- 
 diction in criminal cases ; and the like exemption given to 
 all the clergy in cases of ' bigamy '} 
 
 One article of complaint the clergy and the laity had 
 in common, and that was the never-ending grievance of 
 Purveyance. The law on the subject had been clear 
 enough since the time of Magna Carta. Provisions and 
 cartage taken for the King's use must be paid for ; Magna 
 Carta even fixed the rates to be paid for cartage. By 
 ancient custom, however, the King was entitled to take as 
 much corn as he wanted from the markets at 2d. the 
 quarter below the current rate ; ^ that trifling deduction 
 might have been endured well enough, if the rest of the 
 price had been forthcoming. The Articuli super Cartas 
 of 1300 gave minute regulations for the adjustment of 
 accounts between the royal ' pernors and purveyors ' and 
 the husbandmen. But when the accounts had been stated 
 and adjusted how was payment to be enforced ? The Purvey- 
 migratory habits of the Court carried the grievance into ^"'^^' 
 the remotest corners of the land. "Every old woman 
 trembled for her poultry, the archbishop in his palace 
 trembled for his household and stud, until the King had 
 gone by " ? The answer given on this occasion was the 
 stereotyped one ; the King would order the statutes 
 against Purveyance to be republished, with strict injunc- 
 tions to the Steward of the Household to observe them 
 ' in all points '. 
 
 The supplies voted in this session enabled the King to 
 carry on his preparations at leisure ; and for two years 
 he was able to dispense with summoning a Parliament. 
 
 The French finances as well as those of England had felt 
 
 ' 18 Edw. Ill, St. 3 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 151-153 ; Murimuth, 156 ; Bp. Stubbs, 
 sup., II. 414 ; Wake, 293. For prohibitions see Lingard, III. 127. 
 
 " Liber de Antiqq. Legg. 52 (from ships only ?). 
 
 " See Bp. Stubbs, 423, and the manuscript letter of Archbishop Islip to 
 Edward III there cited ; also on the whole subject, p. 567. The accounts 
 printed by Mr. Rogers abound in entries of fines paid to escape ' purveyance '. 
 
310 ROYAL 
 
 CHAP. XVIII the strain of the war. But Philip's exchequer had also 
 1344 been affected by expenditure under other heads, such as 
 subventions to the King of Castile for the siege of Alge- 
 ciras; the purchase of the reversion of Dauphine ; and the 
 French maintenance of a luxurious and ostentatious Court. The 
 taxation, expedients devised for replenishing the King's purse inflicted 
 probably a greater amount of national suffering than the 
 war as yet had done. First came the celebrated ' gabelle ^ 
 or salt monopoly, a tax intended to reach the pockets of 
 the very poorest. This gained for the King the name of 
 the true author of the Salique Law.'^ The next impost 
 was the atrocious alcavala — borrowed from Spain — and a 
 truly Spanish device — five per cent, levied on the purchase 
 money of all goods bought and sold in open market.^ 
 Lastly, to enhance the produce of these taxes, the currency, 
 which had been debased during the war, when the King 
 had large payments to make, was suddenly raised to its 
 former level. By a sweeping ordinance the King directed 
 that the silver denier {blanc denier a la fleur de lys), then 
 current for fifteen deniers of account, should, from and 
 after certain stated days, be accepted first as equivalent 
 to nine, then as equivalent to six, and finally as equivalent 
 to only three deniers of account.^ 
 
 It would seem, however, that prior to the outbreak of 
 the Hundred Years' War France was a flourishing country ; 
 waste and forest lands were being extensively reclaimed ; 
 in some districts the population would be as great as at 
 the present day ; in many districts quite as great as at the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century. We are assured 
 that a fourteenth-century Norman peasant coming back 
 to his own land in the middle of the nineteenth century, 
 
 ' 20th March 1343 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 424 ; Martin, V. 67-70. 
 
 " August (?) 1343. Edward, following Philip's lead, attempted to impose this 
 tax in Gascony ; September T443 ; Foed. II. 1235. The alcavala was just the 
 old Roman vicesima rerum venalium. 
 
 ^ 22 August 1343 ; Sismondi, X. 229. Philip's frauds on the currency were 
 incessant. See Le Bel, II. 62. In 1346 three changes were made in the course 
 of the year ; Sismondi, 271. " En marchandise on ne se povait cognoistre ;" 
 Le Bel, sup. For the financial state of France later in the century see Lavisse, 
 IV. 200-217. 
 
FINANCE 3" 
 
 before recent improvements in agricultural implements, chap.xvih 
 would have noticed on the whole little change except in the 5^44 
 kinds of crop under cultivation. Fallowing would have 
 disappeared. Colza and green crops would have replaced 
 the vine and flax.^ 
 
 Between the two Kings a semblance of diplomatic inter- 
 course was kept up ; but on all sides it was felt that the 
 lull in the storm was but transitory. 
 
 Edward by this time had brought himself to believe that 
 he really had a right to the crown of France. Philip, a 
 man intolerant of the smallest opposition, tingled with rage 
 at the mere name of the man who denied his kingship.^ 
 The military classes on both sides were acquiring a taste for 
 campaigning licence ; the French peasantry had no one 
 to speak for them ; the English commons, who might have 
 made their voices heard, were not seriously affected by 
 the war. 
 
 The grants obtained from the nation since 1336, liberal 
 as they were thought to be at the time, had been altogether 
 incommensurate with the rate of Edward's expenditure ; 
 he had been able to spend as he did, only because he had 
 been able to borrow ; and he had been able to borrow English 
 because the rapid expansion of Italian trade had led to an 
 accumulation of capital seeking investment. The Italians 
 had probably found their dealings with the first two 
 Edwards profitable, and so had been led to trust a third of 
 the name. The King's foreign allies had been hired with 
 Florentine gold ; and the leading Florentine houses were 
 now reduced to a state of hopeless insolvency. 
 
 In January 1345 the great historic firm of the Bardi 
 became bankrupt, " a catastrophe which plunged all 
 Florence in distress." The King owed them 900,000 gold 
 florins (£300,000); he owed the Peruzzi 600,000 florins; 
 and they likewise failed. The Acciaiuoli, Bonaccursi, 
 Cocchi, Antellesi, Corsini and others succumbed likewise.^ 
 
 '■ So M. Coville, Lavisse, IV. 19-21. ^ Sismondi, X. 245. 
 
 = Bp. Stubbs, II. 416 ; Villani, XI. 291 (Muratori Scriptt, XIII. 819, 820, 934), 
 Cf. Rot. Parlt. II. 240. See Archaeol. XXVIII. 259 ; also a letter to Edward 
 
312 FALL OF 
 
 cHAP.xvm The year 1345 like its predecessor was taken up with 
 'ZZ seeming negotiations for peace and real preparations for 
 war. Two Cardinals, Nicolo Canali and Pedro Alfonso, 
 came over in February, to discuss the peace question, and 
 the patronage question. On both points Edward turned 
 a deaf ear to their representations. To deprive them of 
 any opportunity of lengthening their stay in England he 
 received them in Kent. At the end of a fortnight they 
 were off.^ 
 
 After Easter a stimulus was given to the war movement 
 by the appearance of de Montfort who had succeeded in 
 making his escape from the Louvre. On the 20th May he 
 did homage to Edward as King of France.^ His example 
 was shortly followed by Geoffrey de Harcourt, Viscount of 
 Saint-Sauveur in the Cotentin, whose lands had been 
 sequestrated by Philip. Philip's treatment of the French 
 nobility was fast raising up allies for the King of England ; ^ 
 
 The War. and Edward, taking advantage of the opportunity, resolved 
 to renew operations as soon as possible. He had been 
 laying plans for simultaneous attacks on France from 
 Brittany and Guienne. During the Windsor tournament 
 of the previous year the Gascons had succeeded in drawing 
 the King's attention to the state of their much neglected 
 province, and the Earl of Derby, Henry of Grossmont, son 
 of the Earl of Lancaster, had been appointed King's 
 Lieutenant.* Arrangements were now made for carrying 
 out these plans. On the 26th May the Pope was informed 
 that the truce was at an end ; Philip had cut it short by 
 his outrages on the Bretons.^ In the first week of June 
 
 from the Priors of the Arts of Florence on behalf of the Bardi, dated apparently 
 30 January 1342 ; Ellis, Original Letters, 1. 42, 3rd Series. In 1347 the Bardi still 
 held the King's bonds for £50,493; Liberate Roll, cited Ellis, sup., p. 40. Thegold 
 florin was worth 6s. 8d., as already mentioned. 
 
 ^ Murimuth, 160-162 j Foed. IIL 28, 29, &c. The King signs at Teynham, near 
 Sittingbourne, between 20th February and ist March. 
 
 ' Foed. 39. ' Froissart, I. 202 ; Foed. IIL 44 ; Sismondi. 
 
 * Froissart, I. 182 ; Foed. III. 9, 34. 
 
 '-Murimuth, 165; Foed. 41. War was declared 14 June; see the 
 proclamation, Murimuth, 165 ; Foed. 38. Edward wrote to the Pope at 
 weary length denouncing 'Philip of Valois ' ; Foed. and Murimuth, 165; 
 
VAN ARTEVELDE 313 
 
 de Montfort and the Earl of Northampton -were sent to chap.xviii 
 Brittany ; a Httle later the Earl of Derby was shipped off 134^ 
 to Bordeaux. Edward himself undertook a personal trip to Preparing 
 Flanders, to keep up his connexions there ; and possibly 
 to support Van Artevelde, whose position was seriously 
 shaken, and in fact tottering to its fall. 
 
 For eight years PhiHp van Artevelde had managed the 
 affairs of the Netherlands with signal success. The English 
 alliance he had turned to particularly good account. By 
 persuading Edward to fix the English wool staple at Bruges 
 he had gained for his countrymen the entire command of the 
 English wool market.^ English subsidies had filled Flemish 
 purses ; English produce had supplied the Flemish markets 
 in times of dearth.^ But Artevelde's manners were rough 
 and unpopular ; at the same time he lived like a prince, 
 and among princes, in a style offensive to the democracy, 
 on whose support he had to depend. The municipal life of 
 Europe at the time was convulsed by trade factions ; the 
 lesser artisan gilds were battling with the older merchant 
 gilds. The Flemish weavers turned against Van ArteVelde, 
 accusing him of misappropriating public funds. Count 
 Louis, having returned to his dominions, was making 
 tempting offers to the burghers ; Philip intrigued inces- 
 santly against England's ally ; the prospect of the renewal 
 of the war kept the country in a state of unrest ; and 
 markets in consequence were falling.^ 
 
 On the 3rd July Edward sailed from Sandwich, the Prince 
 of Wales going with him,* his first trip across the Channel. 
 It was whispered that Van Artevelde in his strait had 
 suggested the expulsion of Louis of Nevers and his whole 
 House, and the adoption of the young Prince as Count.^ 
 
 Clement on the 21st July answered at still greater length, defending Philip ; 
 Murimuth, 177-188. 
 
 ' See the complaint of Parliament that the Flemings kept out the Genoese, 
 Lombards, Catalans, and Spaniards, who used to buy wool from England ; 
 Rot. Park. II. 149. 
 
 '^ See Wardrobe Accounts and Close Rolls cited by Pauli, II. 392, 393. 
 
 ' See Lavisse, IV. 54, 55. - * Foed. IV. 50. 
 
 ° Le Bel, II. 35 ; Froissart, I. 204. 
 
314 GAIN OF A LOSS 
 
 CHAP, xviii But a proposal so shocking to national feeling could do its 
 n^ author little good. On the 7th July Van Artevelde had 
 an interview with the King on board his ship at Sluys. 
 What passed between them did not transpire. Van 
 Artevelde escorted by a few English soldiers returned to 
 Ghent, to find the city in a state of commotion. At night 
 a howling mob of weavers surrounded his mansion, calling 
 on him to come down, and render an account of all the 
 public money that he had spent. He endeavoured to 
 parley with them ; finding them intractable he endeavoured 
 to escape through some stabling at the back. He was 
 intercepted and brutally murdered. Gerard Denis, Dean 
 of the weavers' gild, who aspired to succeed Van Artevelde, 
 felled him with a hatchet.^ 
 
 Edward returned to England deploring the loss of his 
 ally.^ Within a couple of months' time he found himself 
 bereft of another friend, through the death of his brother- 
 in-law William H of Hainault.* As he left no issue the 
 husbands of his three sisters laid rival claims to the inheri- 
 tance, and so Edward was at once brought into direct 
 collision with the Emperor and the Margrave of Juhers. 
 The great alliance was thus finally broken up, but for the 
 purposes of the King of England the loss of such allies was 
 solid gain.* 
 
 The campaign in Brittany bore little fruit, possibly in 
 consequence of the sudden death of de Montf ort, who passed 
 away on the 26th September.^ Northampton took two 
 minor strongholds, and then went into winter quarters, 
 while de Montfort's little son was hailed by the party as 
 Duke John. He had already been betrothed to the Lady 
 Mary born within the year.^ 
 
 ' 24 July ; Froissart, I. 204-206 and notes ; Chron. Fland., Smet, Receuil, 1. 329, 
 cited Pauli ; Villani, XII, c. 47. Lavisse, sup., gives the date as 17 July ; so 
 too Murimuth, 170, q.v. ' 26 July ; Foed. III. 53, 55. 
 
 ' The Count fell on the 26th or 27th September, in an expedition against the 
 Frisians ; Sismondi, X. 265, citing Villani ; Froissart, I. 207. 
 
 ' See Sismondi, sup. Louis of Bavaria managed to secure the succession for 
 his second son, William. For the claims put in by Edward on behalf of Philippa, 
 see Foed. 61, 80, &c. = Lobineau, I. 337 ; D'Achery, Spicileg. III. 106. 
 
 ' Id. ; Green, Princesses, III. 273 ; Murimuth, 189. 
 
CAMPAIGN IN GASCONY 315 
 
 Derby was more successful in the South. He had the chap, xvih 
 support of the Earls of Oxford ^ and Pembroke and Walter j.^, 
 Manny. Landing at Bayonne he marched to Bordeaux 
 to organize his forces. The operations of the autumn took 
 the shape of three petty campaigns. The first opened with 
 the siege of Bergerac on the Dordogne, the headquarters 
 of the Count of Lille- Jourdain. Philip, as usual, had done 
 nothing for his Lieutenant beyond authorizing him to call 
 out the feudal levies of his district.^ The English found 
 the enemy posted on the south side of the river, to defend 
 a suburb which covered the access to the bridge, the 
 town being situate on the north side of the river. The 
 French had placed their despised foot-soldiers in the van. 
 The first volley of arrows drove them in ; the French 
 cavalry, hampered by the flying mob, were forced to retreat 
 also ; the whole force was driven pell-mell into Bergerac. 
 Two days later the Enghsh crossed the river with shipping 
 brought from Bordeaux ; a breach was effected in the pali- 
 sades ; and the townsmen surrendered. Lille- Jourdain Bergerac 
 and his knights had galloped off by night to La Reole.^ ^°"" 
 The Earl then overran P6rigord advancing as far North as 
 Bourdeille ; Lalinde, Saint-Louis, Montagrier and Perigueux 
 were said to have been taken ; the main force was then 
 brought back to Bordeaux for a rest.* 
 
 The second campaign was undertaken at a moment's 
 notice to relieve Auberoche,^ a place that had been suddenly 
 attacked by Lille- Jourdain with all the forces of Perigord 
 and French Gascony. Starting with 300 lances and 600 
 archers the Earl of Derby fell on the enemy's camp at 
 supper-time. The French were cut down right and left relieved. 
 
 * John I de Vera ; he succeeded his uncle Robert III in 1331 ; Doyle. 
 
 ° Sismondi, X. 250. 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 39 ; Froissart, I. 183-187. The English entered Bergerac 
 26 August ; note Buchon, from a local MS. chronicle. The capitulation was 
 signed on the 24th August ; Vic et Vaissete. 
 
 ' Avesbury, 356 ; Froissart, 187-190. 
 
 ' This place, which belonged to the diocese of Perigueux, is given as being near 
 Callandre in the North of Cantal. The English therefore must have still retained 
 some of the much disputed positions in the three Dioceses, the conquests of 
 Richard I. See Dawn of Constitution, 183, 277, 329. 
 
3i6 A NOBLE EARL 
 
 CHAP, xviii in their tents ; those who tried to rally outside were 
 ~IZ dispersed by the archers ; Lille- Jourdain and some eight 
 other counts and viscounts were taken, besides barons, 
 bannerets, and knights untold. For the numbers engaged 
 the noblesse of Languedoc never had a more costly day ; 
 whole families were impoverished by the payment of the 
 ransoms then incurred.^ Yet it was asserted that the 
 Duke of Normandy had an army within ten leagues of 
 Auberoche that very day. Philip himself was at Angouleme, 
 but not one effectual step had he taken for protecting his 
 subjects from invasion.^ 
 
 After another due interval of repose Derby made his 
 
 La Reole third Start from Bordeaux, and with astonishing ease carried 
 
 captured, j^^ r^qIc, Monts^gur, Aiguillon, Roche, Millon, Montpezat, 
 
 Villefranche ; ^ even Angouleme opened its gates to him. 
 
 His gentle treatment of the vanquished did quite as much 
 
 for him as his military skill.* 
 
 ' 23rd October; Froissart, I. 192, &c., and notes ; Avesbury, sup. ; Sismondi, 
 X. 254 ; Vic et Vaissete, IV. 255 (ed. 1742). 
 
 ' Sismondi, 251, 256. The Duke at any rate was at Limoges on the 13th 
 October, and the King at Angouleme on the 23rd October ; Vic et Vaissete, 
 257- 
 
 ^ Most of these places are in Lot et Garonne. 
 
 ' Froissart, 195-202 ; Le Bel, II, 40 ; Sismondi. For the earl's honourable 
 character see Walsingham, I. 265, and Baker, 77. The latter notes that he con- 
 ferred the honours of knighthood on Gascons as well as on Englishmen. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 
 A.D. I345-I346 
 
 Renewal of the war with France. — Campaigns of the Earl of Derby in Gascony. — 
 Campaign and Battle of Cr^cy. — Siege laid to Calais. 
 
 Clement VI, to do him justice, was untiring in his efforts chap, xix 
 on behalf of peace. In November (1345) the Cardinal i^^j 
 Nicolo Canali, Archbishop of Ravenna, who had been so Papal 
 curtly dismissed by Edward in February, returned to p^™^ ""^ 
 England with credentials to the King. But Edward, who 
 had devoted the latter half of the year to field sports and 
 other pastimes,^ was at the moment far away on the 
 Scottish March, and declined to hasten his movements out of 
 regard for the Papal envoy. On the 17th December, at last, 
 he came to Town, and next day gave audience to Canali. 
 The latter had been instructed to beg the King to allow the 
 truce to run its appointed course, namely to Michaelmas, 
 29 October 1346 ; and in the meantime to issue safe- 
 conducts to two Cardinals instructed to treat for peace or 
 a truce. After one day given to seeming deliberation the 
 King sent Bartholomew Burghersh, the Chamberlain of the 
 Household, to inform the Cardinal that the truce had been 
 so grossly violated by the King's adversary that he could 
 not possibly pay any regard to it. As for the suggested 
 conference, the King could not name either time or place 
 for meeting the Cardinals without consulting his numerous 
 allies. As the rights which through God's mercy had 
 devolved on the King by hereditary descent could not be 
 made good except by the strong hand, he was preparing with 
 the help of his allies to assert these rights ; when he had 
 done so he would be glad to receive any envoys that His 
 
 ' Murimuth, 170. 
 
3i8 ENGLAND 
 
 CHAP. XIX Holiness might please to send; and with that the envoy 
 ^TTZ received his conge. The other Cardinals, on whose behalf 
 he had crossed the Channel, were waiting at Arras. Early 
 in 1346 they made a renewed application for leave to come 
 over, but met with no better answer than before.^ Still 
 Clement would not relax his efforts. On the 2oth April 
 the King was obliged to depute Master Andrew Offord, 
 Professor of Civil Law, to meet the Cardinals in France. 
 Offord having brought back a request for a personal inter- 
 view with the King, Edward made no reply till he was ready 
 to sail. On the 2nd July, being at Dorchester, about to step 
 on board ship, he gave the off-hand answer that he could 
 make no appointment, as he was ' on his passage, ready to 
 sail whithersoever God might lead him '.^ 
 
 Preparation for the campaign had begun early in the 
 year. As a preliminary Edward called for a return from 
 the counties South of the Trent of the names of all persons 
 owning 100 shillings' worth of land or upwards; persons 
 worth 100 shillings to provide an archer ; those worth 
 ;{io to provide a hobeler, and those worth £25 a year to 
 provide a man-at-arms, and so on at the same rate for higher 
 incomes.* From the Exchequer records we learn that these 
 returns were demanded, not for the purpose of actually 
 raising men for service, but for extorting compositions in 
 lieu of men. The scale of these was fixed at 20 shillings 
 for an archer, £3 6.?. 8d. for a hobeler, and £6 135. 4J. for 
 Fines Kc a man-at-arms. The whole proceeding of course was 
 iau. grossly illegal, a mere repetition of the fines ne transfretent 
 
 of Richard and John ; while the King had specially 
 promised the last Parliament that he would find the pay of 
 all men serving abroad. Great opposition was encountered. 
 Probably in consequence the scheme was not pushed very 
 far, the total money raised only amounting to £3,000.* 
 
 ' Murimuth, 190-192. ' Foed. III. 80, 84. 
 
 ' See the writ on the French Roll ; 20 Edw. Ill, printed by General Wrottesley , 
 T. Salt Arch. Soc. XVIII. 66. 
 
 ' See Pell Receipt Roll, Mich. 21 Edw. Ill ; Murimuth, 192, 198. In conse- 
 quence of the outcry the King declared that the thing should not be repeated. 
 For previous proceedings ol the same sort see Baker, 75, 76. 
 
ARMING 319 
 
 For the forces actually raised, 3,580 archers had been chap.xix 
 enlisted in the counties South of the Trent, with 100 from ^T^ 
 the county Palatine of Chester, and 3,500 Welshmen, half of The King's 
 these to be bowmen and half spearmen.^ In the matter ^™y" 
 of men-at-arms, a nominal return of the military tenants 
 and their retainers makes them about 800 strong ; to these 
 we have to add 100 men provided by the Londoners, and 
 also 241 men of those assessed to find men-at-arms who 
 preferred to serve in person, say, some 1,200 lances in all. 
 For hobelers or light horse we have 500 from London, with 
 1,243 sent by 144 other towns. South of the Trent, making 
 a total of 1,743 of this arm.^ The whole force with miners 
 and supernumeraries might come to 10,100 men. Financial 
 and commissariat arrangements were carried out in generally 
 high-handed fashion. The clear revenues of all benefices held 
 by foreigners were ' borrowed ' ; Benevolences to the tune of 
 £15,000 were exacted from the native clergy and others ; 
 quantities of wheat, malt, oats, bacon, and salt-beef were 
 requisitioned, but not without indignant protests.^ 
 
 The King had been at Porchester since the beginning 
 of June, superintending the fitting out of the armament. 
 He had in attendance on him the Prince of Wales, the Earls 
 of Warwick and Northampton, holding the offices of 
 Marshal and Constable respectively ; the Earls of Oxford, 
 Arundel, liuntingdon, Suffolk, with WiUiam Montagu II, 
 the young Earl of Salisbury ; also Thomas Hatfield the 
 new Bishop of Durham ; * the Barons Despenser, Burghersh, 
 Cobham, Grey of Ruthyn, Talbot, Willoughby, Mortimer, 
 Berkeley, Hastings, Poynings, the whole flower of the 
 English Baronage.^ Among other preparations, to rouse 
 
 ' For these see Foed. III. 67 and 79, the last only a mere repetition of the 
 other ; the order to the Prince of Wales to superintend the levy {praejala 
 anaiatio) is a mere writ of assistance, not an extra levy. 
 
 ' See the lists, French Roll, and Foed. sup. 
 
 ' Foed. 66-81 ; Knighton, 2585. 
 
 ' Consecrated 10 July 1345. His predecessor, Richard Aungerville of Bury 
 (Philohihlon), died the previous 15th April, leaving a library estimated as five 
 waggon-load of books ; Murimuth, 171. If the King had only seized the Bishop's 
 books, instead of his money, as he probably did, what a valuable foundation for 
 a Royal Library it would have made ! ' French Roll, sup. 
 
320 THE SWORD 
 
 cHAP.xix his people to the proper pitch of animosity against the 
 ^ French, Edward issued a fresh manifesto, a most audacious 
 composition, denouncing Philip as threatening ' to root 
 out the English tongue'. The document was addressed 
 to the Provincial of the Friars Preachers for circulation 
 through the pulpit.^ 
 
 Philip was noways ignorant of the corning storm. On 
 the 20th June he wrote to King David of Scotland informing 
 him that Edward was preparing to invade France, and 
 begging him not to miss the opportunity of striking an 
 effective blow at England.^ But as Edward could choose 
 his own point of attack the difficulty was how to guard 
 against his coming; and so Philip did nothing to meet 
 a possible landing in the North, concentrating his atten- 
 tion on the actual war in the South. Perhaps he thought 
 as many in England did that Gascony was the King's 
 objective. 
 
 During the autumn, the Earl of Derby, or rather Earl of 
 Lancaster as he should now be called, his father the respected 
 Henry Wryneck having passed away,^ had carried his 
 successes still farther, capturing sundry places on the 
 Garonne and Lot, and notably Aiguillon, a place strongly 
 situated at the junction of those two rivers. To retrieve 
 these and other losses, in March (1346) a fine French army 
 was gathered in Poitou under the lead of the Duke of 
 French Normandy. The main enterprise contemplated was the 
 recovery of Aiguillon ; * but preliminary operations resulted 
 in the reduction of Miramont, Port-Sainte-Marie, Damazan, 
 Ville-France-d'Agenais, and Tonneins. By way of con- 
 trasting himself with the Earl of Derby the Duke sacked 
 the towns and put the garrisons to the sword. A detached 
 force laid siege to Angouleme, and pressed their attack so 
 vigorously that the garrison were fain to beg a truce for 
 
 " Foed. III. 72 ; cf. 78. 
 
 ^ Heming. Cont. II. 421 ; on the 22nd July Philip wrote more pressingly, 
 Edward having landed in the Cotentin ; Id. 424. A raid into Cumberland 
 followed ; Lanercost, 341. 
 
 " 23 September 1345 ; Doyle, Complete Peerage. 
 
 ' Vic et Vaissclc, IV. 258, 259 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 446. 
 
 successes. 
 
DRAWN 321 
 
 one clear day, which was granted, the morrow being a high chap, xix 
 Feast, namely the Annunciation (25 March) ; and the j^^g 
 English took advantage of it to scamper off to Aiguillon.'- 
 The Duke following them sat down before Aiguillon, shortly 
 after Easter (16 April). The place was attacked by land 
 and by water ; the newest and most formidable battering 
 engines were brought to bear, with day and night shifts of 
 men to work them, so as to give the garrison no rest. 
 Nevertheless Ralph Lord Stafford held the Duke at bay 
 till the 20th August, when alarming news from the North 
 caused John to break up his camp and depart. '•^ 
 
 On the 2nd July the King crossed over to the Isle of 
 Wight,^ the Great Seal having been delivered to him that 
 day by the Chancellor John of Offord : the King's second 
 son Lionel of Antwerp had already been appointed Warden 
 to act during his absence. But Edward was detained 
 for nine days more. His intentions to a certain extent 
 had been kept secret ; * but the general belief was that 
 he was bound for Gascony, to reinforce his cousin the 
 gallant Lancaster. On the nth July Edward sailed at Sailing of 
 last, and then it turned out that his destination was ^^ '"^' 
 Normandy. Again had he lent too ready an car to 
 the insidious counsels of an exile. Geoffrey de Harcourt 
 had persuaded him to try a landing in that quarter. In 
 Gascony the King had a province being seriously attacked, 
 and loyal subjects calling for protection. Even if he had 
 chosen Brittany for his field of operations he might have 
 assured the success of the House of Dreux, and established 
 a friendly power on the Loire. By listening to de Harcourt 
 he was plunging into a country where he could meet with 
 nothing but opposition, and accomplish nothing but 
 devastation, a mere raid. All that can be said for him 
 is that he was no longer hampered by any allies, and free 
 to work out his own ends with his own resources. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 11. 45-50 ; Froissart, I. 209-211, where for the date we must read 
 'Annunciation' for 'Purification'. ^ Id.; Avesbury, 357 ; Baker, 78. 
 
 ' Foed. III. 84, 85. Offord became Chancellor 26 October 1345, in succession 
 to Robert of Sadington, Chief Baron of the Exchequer ; Foss, III. 324. 
 
 ' Murimuth, 199 ; Baker, 79. 
 
 1415-1 Y 
 
grants. 
 
 322 SACK 
 
 AP. XIX On the i2th July a landing was effected at La Hogue in 
 ^ the Cotentin.i Edward staid six days there, and took the 
 opportunity of knighting the Prince, who had entered on his 
 seventeenth year, and with him, of course, a number of 
 others.^ He also held a Grand Council, and obtained from 
 the complaisant Magnates a re-grant of the old Aid for 
 knighting the eldest son, renounced by himself in 1340; the 
 Lords voted the tax without asking for any concurrence of 
 
 Illegal the Commons, and voted it at 40 shillings the knight's fee, 
 twice the old rate;^ they were also liberal enough to grant 
 extra customs' duties of 2 shillings on the sack of wool, and 
 6d. on the pound of general merchandise,* altogether signal 
 breaches of the statute of 1340. Meanwhile detached 
 parties sacked and burned Barfleur and other places.^ 
 
 On Tuesday 18 July the King advanced to Valognes ; 
 on the 20th he rested at Carantan ; on the 22nd at Saint- 
 L6 ; and on the 25th July the army encamped round 
 Fontenay le Pesnel,^ near Tilly, and about 12 miles from 
 Caen. Nowhere on the line of their march had they found 
 any friends ; everywhere the bridges were broken down 
 against them ; everywhere they pillaged and destroyed 
 for leagues around them.'' On Wednesday 26 July the 
 English continuing their advance found themselves ' about 
 
 City of the hour of nones ' outside Caen. The place is described 
 as being ' larger than any city in England except London '. 
 Rich and populous, the town was conveniently situated at 
 the junction of the Odon and the Orne, their waters 
 enclosing several islands. The original town or Grand 
 
 ' See the official report of Michael Northburgh, Clerk of the Privy Council ; 
 Avesbury, 358 ; and another report to the Archbishop of York, Lanercost, 342. 
 For the King's movements see the Itinerary compiled by Sir E. Maunde Thomp- 
 son, G. Baker, notes, 252, &c., and the map there. 
 
 * See Barnes, 341. 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 90 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 200 ; Statutes, I. 35. 
 
 ' L. T. R. Enrolled Customs' Accounts, Edw. Ill, No. 12, m. 3. The dues 
 were only levied one year. 
 
 '' See the letter of Bartholomew Burghersh, Murimuth, 200. 
 
 " Dept. Orne ; Prentout. 
 
 ' See the report, Avesbury, sup. ; also Lanercost, 342 ; for the Itinerary 
 compare Archaeol. XXXII. 383. 
 
 Caen 
 
REFERENCE 
 
 ine of English Approach 
 'orte au Bergers. 
 
 t. Stephen's Abbey, 
 loly Trinity. 
 
OF CAEN 323 
 
 Bourg, with the castle, stood on the north-westerly side of chap.xix 
 the united streams ; a suburb of almost equal dimensions ^ 
 occupying the /le Saint- Jean to the South-East ; thus 
 Caen consisted of two nearly equal halves separated by a 
 river, with one fortified bridge as the only means of com- 
 munication between them. The castle stood at the extreme 
 north end of the Grand Bourg, which apparently was not 
 otherwise fortified : the fie Saint- Jean of course had its 
 watery defences. Outside the town were estabhshed the 
 conqueror's two foundations, St. Stephen's Abbey and 
 Matilda's Nunnery of the Holy Trinity, besides numerous 
 other churches. Philip had sent down Robert of Brienne 
 the Constable and Tancarville the Chamberlain to make a 
 stand at Caen ; beyond that he had done nothing for the 
 defence of the place ; ^ the Bishop of Bayeux, however, was 
 established in the Castle. At the approach of the English 
 the two abbeys were evacuated ; ^ as was the Grand Bonrg, 
 the French commanders removing the entire population to 
 the island. The castle was left to defend itself. For the 
 defence of the island some preparation had been made ; 
 the bridge had been barricaded, and the bridge-house filled 
 with armed men. Boats manned with cross-bowmen were 
 established in the Odon to guard the water-front. 
 
 Advancing from the north-west and wheeling round the 
 Castle, the Prince with the van entered the Grand Bourg, 
 ' probably by the Porte aux Bergers ', and quietly took posses- 
 sion, while Warwick and Northampton pressed on to lead an 
 irregular attack, ' without orders or array ' on the crowded 
 island. The men on the bridge made a stout defence, but 
 the archers succeeded in silencing the cross-bowmen in the 
 boats, and, laying hold of their vessels began to cross ; then 
 the Welsh plunged into the river, the waters being at a very 
 low ebb, and, getting a footing on the uninhabited fie des Pres, 
 turned the flank of the bridge. The Constable and Chamber- 
 lain, who were in the bridge-house, were glad to surrender 
 their swords to English knights whom they recognized in the 
 tnelee. Some 140 knights and esquires were taken prisoners, 
 ' Froissart, I. 222. For the town see Plan. ' So Avesbury, 359. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 ADVANCE 
 
 CHAP. XIX while the townspeople were subjected to all the horrors 
 g of a mediaeval sack.^ Among the spoils that fell into 
 Edward's hands was a real or pretended compact between 
 Philip and the people of Normandy, purporting to have 
 been executed eight years before, for a joint invasion of 
 England. The mass of miscellaneous booty seized at 
 Caen would have been a considerable encumbrance to the 
 army. Fortunately the attendant fleet under the Earl of 
 Huntingdon, that had been ravaging the coast, had put in 
 at the mouth of the Orne in a mutinous condition. Edward 
 took the opportunity of sending home the captives and the 
 plunder, not forgetting the incriminating treaty, to be pub- 
 lished at home and utilized to fan the feeling for the war.^ 
 On the 31st July Edward moved on, leaving the castle 
 and the Bishop in peace. His object, apparently, was to 
 effect a junction with a mixed body of English and Flemish 
 troops appointed to operate on the Flemish border.^ At 
 Lisieux (2, 3 August) he was confronted by the mediating 
 Cardinals, Etienne Aubert (afterwards Pope Innocent VI) 
 and Annibale Ceccano. They were dismissed with the old 
 answer that the King always had been and still was ready 
 to accept any reasonable terms of peace. Taking him at 
 his word, they waited on him again a few days later at his 
 A hand- quarters at Gaillon, with the handsome offer of the Aqui- 
 some offer, tanian dominion as held by Edward II. Had this offer 
 been accepted, the King would have retrieved all the losses 
 incurred through the mismanagement of his father ; but 
 he was as obdurate and intractable as ever ; and Philip, 
 probably, was not very sorry that his offer had been rej ected.* 
 
 ^ " Ad nudos parietes villa spoliata est." See Avesbury, Murimuth, and 
 Lanercost, sup. ; Delpit, Documents Inedits, 71 ; Le Bel, I. 72 ; Froissart, 
 1. 223 and notes ; De Nangis,io7 ; and especially M. Prentout's " Prise de Caen", 
 Acad^mie de Rouen, 1904. 
 
 ' The treaty purports to have been executed at Vincennes, 23 March," I'an du 
 grace xxxvili"; Avesbury, 364-7; Rot. Parlt. II. 158. Stratford preached 
 on it at St. Paul's ; Avesbury, 363. 
 
 " See Knighton, 2586 ; Feed. III. 83. 
 
 * See the report by the King's confessor ; Avesbury, 362 ; Murimuth, 215 ; 
 Eulogium Historiarum, III. 207 (Rolls Series, Haydon) ; Baker, 80 ; cf. Villani, 
 XII. 64 ; and for the place, Barnes, 346, citing Ashmole. 
 
TO THE SEINE 325 
 
 Continuing his march through Brionne to Elbceuf (7 chap, xix 
 August), Edward found the bridge at Rouen broken down, ,^^5 
 Philip himself being there in force.'^ Obliged to ascend the 
 left bank of the Seine in quest of a crossing-place, on 
 Sunday 13 August Edward reached Poissy, almost within 
 sight of Paris. Along the line of his march a belt of terri- 
 tory, twenty miles in width, had been laid waste,^ while 
 the French, watching his movements from the right bank, 
 had destroyed all the bridges. As the advance up the 
 Seine could not well be pushed any farther, Edward resolved 
 to force the crossing at Poissy ; and ordered the bridge 
 there to be repaired. The work did not detain him long, 
 as neither piers nor abutments had been destroyed ; foot- 
 soldiers could soon cross. In two days' time the Earl of 
 Northampton was sent over, and drove some local forces 
 back as far as Pontoise, while skirmishing parties on the 
 other side of the river pushed their ravages as far as Saint- 
 Germain, Saint-Cloud, Rueil and Nanterre. On the i6th 
 August Edward himself crossed the Seine, advancing 
 fourteen miles to Grisy.^ 
 
 Philip's inaction seems extraordinary. His chief forces Inaction 
 were in Aquitaine, no doubt, but one army would not ° ' '''' 
 exhaust the resources of France, and men were flocking to 
 him every day. From Rouen he had moved to Paris, as if 
 following Edward's movements. On the 13th August, 
 when Edward reached Poissy, he marched bravely through 
 Paris from Saint-Denis to Saint-Germain, and halted there. 
 Next day hearing that the English were establishing com- 
 munications across the bridge at Poissy, he fell back on 
 Saint-Denis, and addressed another ridiculous challenge to 
 Edward, offering to meet him any day after the i6th inst.* 
 
 ' Avesbury, 363 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 454. 
 
 ' Avesbury and Baker, sup. ; Le Bel.II. 75. Baker and the Grandes Chroniques 
 give the 12th August as the day of the arrival at Poissy ; that must have been 
 the date of the arrival of the van, as the Kitchen Accounts, printed Baker, 252, 
 are decisive as to the King's arrival on the 13th August. 
 
 ' See the reports, Avesbury, 367 ; Murimuth, 215 ; also Baker, 8r, the 
 Itinerary, Id. 256 ; and Martin, France, V. 84. 
 
 ' See Grandes Chroniques, V. 456 ; De Nangis, Cont. ro7 ; and Heming. Cont. 
 !!■ 433i for the challenge, and Edward's answer dated the 15th. 
 
326 FROM THE SEINE 
 
 CHAP. XIX Afraid of treachery, afraid of an assault on Paris from the 
 ~Q South, he could form no plan. The Parisians were becoming 
 loud in their indignation, when their spirits were revived by 
 the appearance of a body of German men-at-arms, headed 
 by John the bhnd King of Bohemia, and his son Charles 
 of Moravia, recently set up as King of the Romans by 
 Clement VI, in opposition to the unfortunate Louis of 
 Bavaria. The Emperor with all his penitence and self- 
 abasement had failed to gain pardon or peace.'- 
 
 Meanwhile Edward was making the best of his way across 
 the plains of Picardy by forced marches, apparently with 
 the simple object of getting safely out of France. Skirting 
 the walls of Beauvais, the English captured Poix, scattering 
 with equal ease either local forces that confronted them, or 
 German riders hanging on their rear. On the 2ist August 
 Edward reached the small town of Airaines,^ some ten 
 miles from the Somme. Scouting parties sent out reported 
 that all the bridges and fords of the river above Abbeville 
 were either broken down or held in force. The King 
 looked rather blank at the receipt of this intelligence ; 
 Philip was close at hand, at or near Amiens,^ with an army 
 that grew more formidable every day ; while his own 
 supplies were running short. It seemed as if the whole 
 English host was in danger of being " entangled in the 
 land " and cut off.* The passage above Abbeville being 
 barred, the question was whether the river could be crossed 
 at or below the town. On the 22nd August the King him- 
 self made a reconnaissance of Abbeville, advancing as far 
 as the heights of Caubert, while Warwick and de Harcourt 
 rode up to the very gates of the city. Finding the place 
 fully prepared, Edward moved on to Acheux in search of 
 a crossing below Abbeville (23 August).* Advance parties 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 76 ; Froissart, I. 227 ; De Nangis, and Grandes Chroniques, sup. 
 
 ^ Avesbury, 368 ; Murimutli, sup. ; Itinerary. 
 
 ' Froissart, 229. According to the chronicle of Giles li Muisis, Philip reached 
 Amiens on the 20th August, De Smet, I. 243. General Kohler takes him 
 there on the 21st August. 
 
 ' Lc Bel, II. 79-81 ; Froissart, 227-229 ; Li Muisis, 244. 
 
 ° See Louandrc, Ilistoire d' Abbeville, 117, 118; and the Itinerary, sup. 
 
TO THE SOMME 327 
 
 were sent out ; an action with natives ensued near Saint- chap, xix 
 Valery, and a number of prisoners were brought in. Large g 
 
 rewards were offered to any man who would point out a 
 ford. Yielding to the temptation, one of the prisoners, by 
 name Gobin Agache, a native of the neighbouring village 
 of Mons-en-Vimeu, offered to guide the army to the ford 
 of Blanque Taque,^ situate about a mile below Port, and 
 ten miles below Abbeville. Near the sea the Sommo 
 widens out, growing at the same time shallower. At that 
 particular spot, so the man assured the King, a bed of firm 
 chalky gravel would afford a safe crossing-place for horse 
 and man at low water ; at ebb the water would not be 
 above a man's knee.^ Not a moment could be lost, as 
 Philip was at hand with an overpowering army. Soon 
 after midnight the army resumed its march, and reached 
 the ford early on the morning of the 24th August. The 
 tide was not yet out ; while they were watching the course 
 of the ebb, Godemar du Faye, a Norman Baron, appeared on 
 the opposite bank with troops sent by Philip to defend the 
 line of the Somme. There was but one thing to be done. 
 As soon as the ford was practicable Edward ordered 
 the archers to the front, under Northampton, Hugh le 
 Despenser IV and Reginald Cobham. After a smart engage- 
 ment Godemar was defeated and driven down the river 
 towards Noyelles, a line of bluffs cutting off his retreat 
 inland ; at Sailly-Braie he made his last stand ; meanwhile 
 Le Crotoy had been given to the flames. The way being 
 clear the whole English army then crossed.^ 
 
 Edward at first thought of halting for the night at 
 Noyelles; but on hearing that the Countess of Aumale, sister 
 of the late Robert of Artois, was living there, he pushed 
 
 Froissart, I. 230, brings the King to "Oisemont". This must be read Boismont, 
 a place near Acheux. 
 
 ^ ' The White Spot ; ' Louandre and De Nangis give this, the local spelhng. 
 
 * Le Bel, II. 82 ; Louandre, 120. 
 
 ' See Baker, 81 ; Avesbury, 368 ; Le Bel, 81-84, 86 ; Louandre. According 
 to a Valenciennes chronicle, printed by Kervyn de Lettenhove in his Froissart, 
 V. 472, the English archers went over first, then came the Welsh and a detach- 
 ment of men-at-arms, then the baggage-train, the King, Prince of Wales and 
 Bishop of Durham, bringing up the rear. 
 
328 A STAND 
 
 CHAP. XIX on towards the Forest and village of Crecy. Whether 
 ^ he took a short cut by a path through the Forest, or 
 wheeled round it by Le Titre and Marcheville, we are not 
 told. All that is certain is that he encamped in the open, 
 in or on the borders of the Forest, a little to the South 
 of Crecy .1 
 Philip Phihp, following hard on the English tracks, had reached 
 
 again slow. ^jj.^j^gg a few hours after they left it (23 August). The 
 French were said to have profited by dinners prepared for 
 their enemies.^ A prompt advance might have involved 
 the EngHsh in disaster. Philip, however, was content to 
 leave further action to the morrow. His sluggishness saved 
 the Enghsh. Early next morning he advanced to the 
 Blanque Taque in time to see the last of the English crossing. 
 The rise of the tide soon made the ford impassable. For 
 the night he was content to remain at Mons-Boubers, near 
 Saint-Valery, and next day (Friday 25 August) returned 
 to Abbeville.^ 
 
 Edward had got across the Somme, and placed that 
 obstacle between himself and the enemy. But continuous 
 retreat destroys the morale of an army, and Edward's raid 
 Edward had now ceased to be anything but a retreat. He declared 
 fi"ht. that he would ' go no farther ' ; he would take his stand 
 on the land of Ponthieu, his own inheritance, and give 
 battle to the French.* 
 
 On the Friday (25 August), while Philip was taking his 
 army from Mons to Abbeville, Edward was preparing for 
 action, reconnoitring the country, and choosing a battle- 
 field. Next day (Saturday 26 August), after an anxious 
 night, he rose early, attended Mass and communicated, 
 the Prince doing likewise. Edward then led his army from 
 their camping-place across the little river Male, through 
 the village of Crecy, to the battle-field selected by his 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 232 ; " Sub foresta de Cressy," Kitchen Accounts, cited Thomp- 
 son, Baker, 257. 
 
 " Froissart, 230 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 459. 
 
 ' Louandre, sup. The French chroniclers make Philip return to Abbeville on 
 the 24lh August, which seems very improbable. 
 
 ' Froissart, 223. 
 
AT LAST 329 
 
 officers, alongside of the road from Crecy to Wadicourt.^ chap, xix 
 The men were posted along the slopes of an elevated ,^^5 
 plateau, with a commanding view all round. In front the 
 ground fell away with a considerable declivity to the little 
 Vallee des Clercs, the drainage falling into the Male. Their 
 right and right-rear would be covered by the village of 
 Crecy, with a sharp fall in the ground between them and 
 the village. At their backs to the South, beyond Crecy, they 
 had all the Forest as cover, with an outlying wood again in 
 their rear across the Wadicourt Road. The French coming 
 from Abbeville would have to skirt the Forest and deliver 
 a direct frontal attack from the low ground of the valley. 
 The English left was unprotected, being commanded by 
 the rise of the ground towards Wadicourt. On the other 
 hand as the slopes on which they were aligned fell away 
 at an angle from the line along which the French would 
 have to advance they would be the least exposed to attack. 
 The attack would fall directly on the right division.^ 
 
 The army of course was marshalled in three divisions, and, Formation 
 in accordance with a practice now fully established with army. 
 the English, all took part on foot. The right division was 
 under the nominal command of the Prince of Wales, but 
 the real command of Warwick the Earl Marshal, the Earl 
 of Oxford, and Harcourt ; their extreme right wing would 
 rest on the brink of the bank overlooking Crecy. The left 
 division, on a line with the right, was commanded by 
 Northampton the Constable and the Earl of Arundel ; the 
 main or centre division under the King himself was appa- 
 rently posted on the crest of the hill, to the rear of the 
 other two divisions,^ the whole formation to a certain 
 extent representing three sides of a square, an arrangement 
 evidently borrowed from Bannockburn. We know that 
 the divisions of a mediaeval army in action acted very 
 independently of one another, and were organized as little 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 233, 234 ; Avesbury, 368. " In su uno colletto avendo a passare 
 una picola riviera ; " Villani, XII. 163. Knighton gives the place as " in campo 
 de Wateglise iuxta Cressy " (Rolls ed.). 
 
 "■ See Plan. ^ 
 
 " " Lc roy Edouart sc tcnoit tout quoy dcrricre ; " Chron. Valcn. sup. 475. 
 
330 ENGLISH 
 
 CHAP. XIX corps d'armee. At Halidon Hill we heard that each division 
 1^46 had its complement of archers on either flank, and now we 
 learn from Froissart that, at Crecy at any rate, these archers 
 on the wings were arrayed " en herse ",^ ' like a harrow ', 
 or as another writer has it, " en la maniere d'un escut," 
 'like a shield,' i.e. a kite-shaped shield; that is to say, in 
 triangular formation, broad at the base and pointed at the 
 apex, as shields then were and French harrows still are 
 made. That the archers were projected forwards from the 
 line of the men-at-arms again appears from the fact that 
 to come to blows with the men-at-arms in the background, 
 aufond de la bataille, the enemy had to ' coast ' the line of 
 archers, and run the gauntlet of their fire.^ But the archers 
 would have to be protected from the cavalry. Probably 
 the Welsh spearmen were intermingled with them for the 
 purpose. If not we must suppose the archers to have 
 carried stakes, as we shall find them doing at Agincourt. 
 On the other hand it would seem that the French gentry 
 scorned to attack the archers, pressing on to meet foemen 
 worthy of their steel. Another hint obviously taken from 
 Bannockburn was that of filling the slopes of the hill with 
 little concealed pitfalls to impede the cavalry.^ 
 
 Edward himself took post at the foot of a windmill * on 
 the English extreme right, overlooking the whole field ; the 
 foundation tracks of the windmill still remain. Beside 
 the King fluttered the Dragon of Wessex, the old national 
 standard, now draped with newly assumed French lilies.^ 
 
 All the horses were removed to the rear and picketed 
 in a strong laager of carts and wagons, with only one 
 
 ' Vol. 1. 237, 239. 
 
 ' " Sagittariis sua loca designarunt ut . . . quasi alae astarcnt, et sic non im- 
 pcdirent annates, neque inimicis occurrent in fronte, sed in latere sagittas fulmi- 
 narent;" p. 84. See also p. 9. This disposes of the view of those who like General 
 Kohler place the archers in a line, covering the front of the men-at-arms. The 
 Valenciennes Chronicle also places the archers on the wings, but alleges that 
 there were but two bodies of them in all. If half the archers were massed on the 
 left of the Enghsh left they would play little part in the action. M. Kervyn says 
 that the base of such a triangle should be five times its height. 
 
 ' Baker, 83. « Froissart. 
 
 " " Draco armis suis togalus ; " Baker. 
 
ARRAY 331 
 
 entrance.^ The Florentine historian tells us, as a wonderful chap, xix 
 novelty, that the English brought cannon into play ; but j^^g 
 the reader is aware that gunpowder was no novelty either 
 to English or French. The guns, three in number, were 
 placed under the charge of the archers.^ Little efficacy 
 need be attributed to their shooting. 
 
 Edward rode round the ranks on a palfrey with a white 
 staff in his hand, encouraging the men ; he had a ready 
 word for all, and his bright cheerful tone inspired general 
 confidence. As midday had come, and there was no word 
 of the French, the men were dismissed to their dinners. 
 At the first note of alarm they were recalled to their ranks, 
 and then allowed to sit down in patient expectation, each 
 man with his helmet or his bow before him.^ 
 
 Philip had gathered a magnificent army round Abbeville. Philip's 
 Among his followers and allies were found his standing 
 guest. King John of Bohemia, and his son Charles the 
 Papalist King of the Romans, with James III King of 
 Majorca, who, having been expelled by Peter IV of Arragon, 
 had taken refuge in France ; the list also included Charles 
 of Alengon Philip's brother, Louis of Blois Philip's nephew, 
 Louis of Flanders, John of Hainault, Rodolf Duke of 
 Lorraine, who had changed sides, the Counts of Plarcourt 
 (brother of Geoffrey), Namur, Aumale, Forez, Auxerre, 
 Sancerre, Nevers, Bar, and Saint-Pol ; the Dauphin of 
 Auvergne ; and the German Counts of Saarbrlicken, 
 Blamont, and Salm.* The presence of sundry French 
 prelates lent a hallowing sanction to the national cause. 
 If we must notice popular numbers, 12,000 is the lowest 
 estimate of the French men-at-arms given by any one.^ 
 
 - ' Le Bel, 11. 90. 
 
 ^ ,' " Borabarde che saettano palottc di ferro con fuoco ;" Villani, Hist. Flor. 
 .XII. 163. The Grandes Chroniques, V. 460, give the English just three "canons". 
 Tor payments for gunpowder during this campaign, see Archaeol. XXXII. 381. 
 For guns in the navy, and breech-loaders, in 1338, see H. Nicolas, R. Navy, 
 II. 186. For cannon in France and the Low Countries see Lavisse, IV. 221 ; also 
 above, pp. 195, 275. " Froissart, I. 235. 
 
 ' See the chroniclers generally, and Kohler, II. 402. 
 
 * See the letter of Edward's confessor, Richard Winkeley, where he gives this 
 number as the general estimate ; it may be considered as the King's estimate 
 
332 MOVEMENTS 
 
 CHAP. XIX Philip also had an effective body of Genoese cross-bowmen, 
 ~^ led of course by a Doria and a Grimaldi.^ Of indefinite 
 numbers, but little fighting value, were the troops of foot- 
 men, " serfs, half-armed and unorganized, dragged by force 
 from their hovels to the field, mere food for the sword." ^ 
 But even leaving these out of account it is clear that the 
 disparity of forces between the two armies was enormous. 
 Froissart calls the English ' a mere handful of men ' in 
 comparison, " Une poignee de getis." 
 
 The French were evidently marshalled in three divisions, 
 each with wings, the normal arrangement, with the Genoese 
 as a fourth covering division in advance.^ The first or 
 van division was commanded by the King of Bohemia, 
 and the Counts of Alengon and Flanders ; the second by 
 the Duke of Lorraine, the Count of Blois, and the German 
 Counts ; while the third, or rear division as it seems to 
 have been, was led by Philip and the King of the Romans. 
 As Edward had his draped Dragon, so Phihp had his 
 Oriflamme and his Lilies.* 
 His line of The chroniclers give us no details as to Phihp's line of 
 advance, ^larch ; but local tradition asserts that having lost touch 
 of the English at Blanque Taque, but having heard of their 
 halting at Noyelles — where in fact Edward had thought of 
 resting — he inferred that they must have taken Abbe- 
 ville-Montreuil road, and so started in pursuit, on that line, 
 and that it was not till he got to Le Titre, or thereabouts, 
 that he found his mistake, and took to cross-country roads 
 to gain the main Abbeville-Hesdin road, and so reach Crecy. 
 This extra marching would account for the fact that with 
 only fourteen miles to cover Philip failed to reach the field 
 of battle till the afternoon. A further probable cause of 
 delay might be found in the circumstance that, owing to 
 their numbers, many of his men had to be quartered at 
 
 also, Murimuth, 216 ; also Villani, sup. 164. Le Bel and Froissart go up to 
 20,000 armures. 
 
 ' Villani, sup. » Goldwin Smith. 
 
 ' Northburgh says four " battles " ; that would be with the Genoese ; Baker 
 subdividinf; the main divisions makes nine corps. 
 
 ' Froissart. 
 
OF THE FRENCH 333 
 
 a distance from Abbeville, and that a considerable time chap, xix 
 elapsed in getting them together in the morning. 1346 
 
 Following the Abbeville-Hesdin road the French in due 
 course reached Marcheville ; but it would seem that they 
 did not take the direct road from thence to Crecy, but 
 that they held on a little farther to the cross-road from 
 Brailly-Cornehotte to Crecy,^ advancing by it. This 
 enabled them to get clear of the Maie. Between this 
 Brailly and Cr^cy lay ' a fair open field ',^ with the Forest 
 to the left or West of it. 
 
 The position of the English having now been located, 
 Philip sent out a party to reconnoitre and report. Returning, 
 they advised a halt, to collect and refresh the scattered troops, 
 and give time for a fuller survey of the situation. The 
 soundness of the advice was beyond question. Phihp should 
 have encamped on the heights of Estrees, with the Vallee des 
 Clercs between him and the English ; when a glance at the 
 situation would have suggested the expediency of detaching 
 a force — possibly in the night — to make the circuit of the 
 horse-shoe line of high ground round the head of the valley, 
 from Estrees to Wadicourt, and so turn the Enghsh left.* 
 Philip, who, so far, had not been precipitate in his action, 
 accepted the advice as soon as offered. But he failed to 
 get his men to listen to him.* Not a seigneur would obey 
 orders. The lords in front refused to remain halted, unless 
 those behind ceased to press on ; those behind thought 
 it shame not to be as much to the front as those before 
 them. Moreover the mixture of nationalities in the army 
 would intensify the rivalry between the different corps. 
 
 ' So the Chron. Valenciennes, printed by Kervyn de Lettenhove, Froissart, 
 V. 474. Froissart again gives the battle as fought between Crecy and " La 
 Broye ". This must be identified with Brailly-Cornehotte. That the action was 
 fought on this line is proved by the spot where the King of Bohemia fell, a few 
 yards from the road leading from Brailly-Cornehotte and Fontaine-sur-Maie to 
 Cr&y. "" Une belle plaine ; " Chron. Valenc. sup. ' See Map. 
 
 ■■ Both General Kohler and Mr. Oman take Philip up to Estrfe to set his 
 battle in order there. But I don't believe that he ever got much off the line of 
 the road from Brailly-Cornehotte and Fontaine-sur-Maie to Crecy. Mr. Oman 
 further makes Philip advance by the Marcheville road, on the left side of the 
 Maie, which he would have to cross. 
 
334 BATTLE 
 
 HAP. XIX ' Thus ever struggling onwards, through pride and conten- 
 Z^ tion,' they found themselves face to face with the English, 
 and then it seemed greater shame than ever to turn back.' ^ 
 Meanwhile a thunderstorm came on with drenching rain ; 
 the storm over, the sun shone out full in the faces of the 
 French, who were advancing in a north-westerly direction. 
 Filled with fury at the sight of the English, Philip ordered 
 the Genoese to the front. They went in rather reluctantly ; 
 they were tired and wet, and, according to some authorities, 
 the strings of their crossbows had been relaxed by the rain.^ 
 But Philip was imperative, and so perforce they advanced 
 to exchange shots with the archers. But the conditions 
 of the conflict were too unequal. Apart from the vantage 
 of their position, the English bows carried farther than the 
 weapons of their adversaries, and could be discharged three 
 times as fast. When the Genoese came within the area of 
 the projecting herses, they would be swept by a flanking 
 fire on either side. Fairly overwhelmed by the arrowy hail, 
 they fell back in some confusion.^ The French lords, vying 
 with one another to get to the front, and infuriated at the 
 repulse of the sharp-shooters, refused to open their ranks 
 to let them pass. ' Ride down the rascals ' was the cry.* 
 The unfortunate Italians struggling for their lives became 
 a mere stumbling-block to the cavalry. Still the archers 
 poured their volleys into the thickest of the press, where 
 every shot told, especially on the horseflesh ; the wounded 
 struggling animals soon made the confusion complete. 
 Then the Welsh ' slipping among the fallen or helplessly 
 jammed horsemen found the joints of the armour with 
 their knives ' ; ^ thus making havoc of precious lives, 
 usually saved for ransom. But the French were not staved 
 off with one repulse nor yet with two or three. Fifteen 
 
 ' " Ainsy chevauchant par orgeuil et envie, sans ordonnance, I'ung devent 
 I'auttre, ils chevaucherent tant qu'ilz virent les Angles rengiezen trois batailles 
 ... qui les attendoient. Adonque fut le honte plus grant, &c. ;" Le Bel, II. 88. 
 
 ' De Nangis, Cont. D'Achery Sp. III. io8 ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 460. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 237 ; Baker, 84 ; Villani, 165. 
 
 " Le Bel, II, 88 ; " Or tfit, tuez toute cette ribaudaille ; " Froissart, sup. 
 
 ' Goldwin Smith, United Kingdom, I. 216. 
 
OF CRliCY 335 
 
 several assaults were reckoned by the English, as wave chap, xix 
 after wave came forward, without concert or co-operation, ^TT^ 
 to break on the stubborn lines of grounded spears, while 
 battle-axe, sword and arrow did their deadly work.^ 
 Scorning to attack the archer pedaille, the French gentry 
 pressed forward to exchange blows with the men-at-arms. 
 The brunt of these successive attacks fell on the Prince's 
 division, which directly faced the enemy's line of approach. 
 The bodies of the fallen at the end of the day were said to 
 be piled up high in front. At one time he felt constrained 
 to appeal to the King for reinforcements. But Edward, 
 who, from his post of observation above his son's head, 
 could better see the course of events, refused to interfere. 
 ' Let the boy win his spurs,' he said.^ Probably the King 
 saw the left division under Northampton descending from 
 their height, and wheeling to the right, to take the enemy 
 in flank, as they safely might. That the French reserves 
 were brought into action is shown by the fact that Philip 
 was wounded in the face with an arrow, and had his horse 
 killed under him. The King of Bohemia, while retiring, 
 fell mortally wounded by the side of the road to Fontaine- 
 sur-Maie, about two miles from the English position.* 
 
 From first to last no attempt was made by the French 
 to deploy into line, or arrange a continuous attack on the 
 whole English front. Each contingent apparently went in 
 on its own account. 
 
 The French were beaten off. But there was no question 
 of any pursuit. The English hardly knew how complete 
 their victory was : Edward kept his men under arms on 
 the field all night. When day dawned a fresh host came 
 in sight. These were contingents from Beauvais and 
 Rouen, coming on in happy ignorance of what had hap- 
 pened. This supplemental battle — reckoned the sixteenth 
 
 ' Baker, sup. ; Knighton, 2588. 
 
 ' " Qu'ils laissent k I'enfant gagner ses eperons;" Froissart, I. 239, 240. 
 According to Baker, 84, the King did send twenty men-at-arms. (Note the 
 strength of the alleged reinforcement.) 
 
 ^ See Plan. John died in the course of the night. His body was sent to 
 Luxemburg for burial ; Baker. 
 
336 CALAIS BELEAGUERED 
 
 SAP. XIX assault — was easily disposed of, and then the English were 
 ^^ free to strip the dead, and to count their losses and their 
 gains. The French chivalry had paid the forfeit of their 
 insubordination. The list of the fallen included besides 
 the King of Bohemia, two archbishops, one duke (Lorraine) 
 and at least seven counts^Louis of Flanders one of them, 
 The bodies of 1,542 knights and esquires were counted. 
 On the English side a total loss of only 40 men was admitted, 
 three or four of them being men-at-arms.^ 
 
 On Monday 28 August the English moved from Crecy, 
 advancing towards Montreuil ; next day they entered the 
 town ; and so, moving by easy stages, took up their position 
 in front of Calais on the 4th September. Edward had 
 resolved by all means to crown his raid by making a con- 
 quest of that important landing-stage.^ Reports of the 
 great victory were sent home, with requests for supplies ; 
 the army having so far been simply living on the country.^ 
 Calais was a very strong place, well walled, and girt with 
 a double foss, filled at every tide ; it had an inner citadel, 
 and was commanded by a brave and determined soldier, 
 Jean de Vienne ; while the soil outside, loose and sandy, 
 was quite unfit to support heavy battering engines. 
 Edward therefore made up his mind not to waste his 
 resources in fruitless assaults, but to put his trust in the 
 slow but sure process of blockade. Substantial huts were 
 erected for the army; a wooden town soon sprang up 
 protected by earthworks, and provided with ships, and 
 stalls, and a market twice a week. " Villeneuve-la-Hardie" 
 Edward named it in his pride.* The only thorn in his 
 side were the Genoese rovers, whose maritime ascendancy 
 had not been crushed by the battle of Sluys, and who 
 now interfered with the maritime blockades of the town. 
 
 ' See the reports, Murimuth,2i5; Avesbury, 36S ; Baker and Knighton, sup. ; 
 Le Bel. II. 93 ; Froissart, I. 239-243. 
 
 ' Archaeol. XXXII. 384 ; Avesbury, 372 ; Le Bel, II. 93 ; and especially 
 Baker, 86. " " Sour le pais," Avesbury, sup. ; Foed. III. 89-91. 
 
 * Baker, 89, 90, and Buchon, note to Froissart, I. 245 ; the encampment was 
 placed between the town and a small stream that flows eastwards along the 
 south side of the town, covering the English position. 
 
THE GOOD EARL AGAIN 337 
 
 To return to Gascony. John of Normandy had been chap, xix 
 obHged to drop the siege of Aiguillon about the 20th ~~^ 
 August, as we have seen. The Earl of Lancaster at once 
 resumed the offensive. After reinforcing the garrisons in 
 the Agenais he entered Saintonge (12 September) ; took 
 Taillebourg and Saint- Jean-d'Angely. There he found a 
 party of Enghshmen who had been treacherously seized 
 by Philip while travelling homewards under a formal safe- 
 conduct fromTiis son.^ Niort withstood the Earl's assaults ; 
 pushing Northwards he took the castle of Lusignan, and 
 finally carried Poitiers by storm (4 October). After a stay 
 of eight days he returned to Saint- Jean-d'Angely, and 
 finally to Bordeaux. About the close of the year he sailed 
 for England to take up his title and estates.^ 
 
 The English, however, continued to press their advan- 
 tages ; they captured Realville and Mirabel in Quercy, and 
 threatened all Languedoc. Their actual inroads came 
 within six leagues of Albi.^ 
 
 ' Manny was the leader of the party ; the Duke had high words with his 
 father on the subject. 
 
 ' See the Earl's report, Avesbury, 373 ; Le Bel, II. 99-107 ; Froissart, I. 246. 
 Henry landed in London 13 January 1347. At his own request he was relieved 
 of the Lieutenancy of Aquitaine ; Avesbury ; Foed. III. 104. 
 
 ' See Vic et Vaissete, IV. 260-263. 
 
 1416-1 
 
1346 
 Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Edward III [continued) 
 A.D. 1346-1347 
 
 Parliament. — Scottish affairs. — Battle of Neville's Cross. — Financial extor- 
 tions. — Capture of Calais. — The war in Brittany. — Return of the King 
 to England. 
 
 On the nth September (1346) a Parliament was opened 
 at Westminster by the Regent, the King's son Lionel of 
 Antwerp.^ No session had been held since June 1344 ; the 
 liberal supplies then voted were now exhausted, and the 
 King was in need of money. 
 
 The Commons had their grumble, to which they were 
 quite entitled ; but they granted a Fifteenth from counties 
 and boroughs for two years, if the war should last so long. 
 The grievances of which complaints were made included the 
 continued exaction of the 405. duty on wool ; the seizure of 
 provisions without payment ; the exaction of fines as 
 commutation for service abroad. This last abuse suggested 
 the constitutional demand that in future commissions of 
 array should not be issued without consent of Parliament. 
 On the other hand the lieges fully approved of the seizure 
 of all ecclesiastical revenues held by foreigners ; and 
 suggested that alien monks and friars should be required 
 to ' avoid ' the realm by Michaelmas. 
 
 The ' grant ' of the 405-. Aid for the knighting of the 
 Prince of Wales, made by the Magnates at La Hogue, for 
 the time escaped comment,^ so did the unwarranted extra 
 customs then given. 
 
 In connexion with matters of finance we may notice 
 changes both in the gold and silver currency made this 
 
 ' Lords' I^eport. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 157-163. The clergy in their Convocation, held in October 
 and January following, granted Tenths for two years; Wilkins, Cone. II. 728 ; 
 Knighton, 2592 ; Wake, 294. 
 
CURRENCY. 339 
 
 autumn. The gold coinage issued in 1343, as well as a chap, xx 
 further issue struck shortly afterwards, had both failed, in ^ 
 consequence of the excessive deductions made for the 
 King's seignorage and mintage dues. These charges were 
 now reduced, and the number of 'nobles' to be struck 
 from the pound Tower of gold fixed at forty-two, weighing 
 ten grains each, and to pass for 6s. 8d. sterling. " At the 
 same time the penny was reduced to twenty grains (Tower), 
 or the pound of silver was to be shorn into twenty-two 
 shillings and sixpence by tale." New " mailles " (halfpence) 
 and farthings of silver also were struck. " The mailles to 
 be of the weight of the standard of the Tower, and twenty- 
 three shillings and three pence in number to the pound. 
 The King to have for his seignorage of each pound of mailles 
 six pence by weight ; and the master, for all expenses &c., 
 eleven pence by number ; and the merchant the remainder. 
 The master to have for the ' ferlinges ' thirteen pence by 
 number for each pound." ^ 
 
 The year 1346 was destined to prove no less disastrous Scottish 
 to the Scots than to their ally King Philip, foreshadowing A^ff»"^s. 
 the series of calamities, unrelieved by the smallest counter- 
 vailing benefit, in which the unfortunate French alliance 
 was destined to involve Scotland for two hundred years 
 and more. Obedient to the King's call, raiders burst into 
 Cumberland about the ist August, and laid all waste 
 from Derwent Water to Alston Moor.^ About Michaelmas, 
 King David, understanding that England had been drained 
 of its resources for the siege of Calais, summoned a more 
 regular army to meet him at Perth. The loose allegiance 
 of a Scottish host was rudely shaken by the outburst of 
 a furious quarrel between Ranald MacRuari, Lord of the 
 Isles, and William Earl of Ross, when the former was 
 assassinated in the neighbouring monastery of Elcho, with 
 seven of his followers, by the orders of the Earl. As a 
 necessary consequence the partisans of both factions 
 
 ' Rudiiig, I. 222 ; Focd. III. 93. Down to 1300 the penny had contained 
 22.5 grains Troy or 24 Tower of silver. 
 ' Northern Registers, 386 ; Lanercost, 341 ; Focd. 89. 
 
 Z 2 
 
340 A^FATEFUL 
 
 HAP. XX hastened back to their strongholds.^ David, however, 
 ^TT^ persevering in his purpose, began by laying siege to the 
 Peel of Liddel, defended by Walter Selby. Walter, it 
 will be remembered, was the accomplice of Gilbert 
 Middleton in the celebrated outrage on the Cardinals near 
 Ferryhill. Since that time his sword had been at the 
 disposal of the highest bidder. Of late he had espoused 
 the quarrel of Edward Balliol, from whom he received a 
 grant of lands in Roxburghshire.^ On the fourth day the 
 walls were stormed ; the garrison was put to the sword ; 
 and Selby beheaded as a traitor.^ It is said that the 
 Knight of Liddesdale * advised David to rest on his laurels 
 and return home, the temper of the army not having 
 recovered the shock of the recent dissensions. David, 
 however, and his youthful advisers insisted upon marching 
 on.^ They advanced to Lanercost and Naworth. Having 
 wasted Cumberland in the summer, they now turned by 
 Haydon to Hexham, remaining there three days. On the 
 15th October they marched from Hexham to Ebchester, and 
 next evening halted at Beaurepair, now Bearpark, within 
 sight of Durham,^ again venturing to stay in one place 
 two whole days. The defence of the English Border had 
 been entrusted to the Archbishop of York,' in conjunction 
 with the northern Lords Percy and Neville.^ Mustering 
 their forces at Richmond on the 15th October they marched 
 that day to Castle Barnard, and next day pitched 
 their tents in the park at Bishop Auckland. On the 
 morrow (Thursday 17 October) the Scots at Bearpark awoke 
 in happy ignorance of the fact that an English army had 
 spent the night within six miles of their' quarters. Wilham, 
 
 ' Wyntoun, II. 258 ; Scotichr. II. 340 ; Knighton, 2590. 
 
 " Tytler, II. 81 ; Rot. Scot. I. 820. 
 
 ' 9th or loth October, Lanercost, 344 ; Baker, 86 ; Northern Registers, 387 ; 
 Scalacr. 301 (Leland's transcript) ; Hist. Dun. Scriptt. Tres, ccccxxxiv. 
 
 ' William Douglas, a cadet of the family, to be distinguished from William, 
 the head of the family. ' A. Wyntoun ; Scotichr. 
 
 ' Lanercost, 346 ; Northern Registers, sup. ; Scotichr. II. 341 ; Wyntoun, 
 II. 260 ; Scriptt. Tres, sup. 
 
 ' William de la Zouche ; consecrated at Avignon 7 July 1342 ; Stubbs, Reg. 
 i>acrum. » Toed. III. 89 ; Rot. Scot. 670. 
 
ALLIANCE 341 
 
 Lord Douglas was astir betimes with a band of men to chap, x 
 ravage tiie south bank of the Wear. Near Merington, 1346 
 during a blinding storm of mist and rain, they ran against 
 the English on their march from Auckland to Bearpark. 
 Taken by surprise, the Scots were speedily routed, but 
 Douglas got back to head-quarters with the loss of half his 
 men.i Undeterred by this reverse, David, forgetful of his 
 father's precepts, calmly prepared to engage the English, 
 leading his men to the crest of some high ground overlooking 
 the city of Durham, and known as Durham Moor, or the 
 Red Hills, near a monument known as Neville's Cross.^ 
 The actual site of the action is now intersected by a deep 
 cutting of the North-Eastern Railway. The Scots arrayed 
 themselves in three bodies, in the usual circular " schiltrum " 
 formation ; ^ the first was under John Randolf Earl of 
 Moray and the Douglas ; the second under the King in 
 person ; and the third under Dunbar Earl of March and 
 Robert Stewart. It would seem that with their thoughts 
 concentrated on resistance to cavalry, and forgetful of the 
 advent of the long-bow on the theatre of war, the Scots 
 posted their schiltrums one behind the other, on a roadway, 
 or in some such cramped position, between banks and 
 hedges and ditches.* 
 
 The English van was led by Henry Percy, Ralph Neville 
 and Gilbert of Umfraville, Earl of Angus ; the main body 
 was under the charge of the Archbishop and John 
 Kirkby Bishop of Carlisle ; ® while Thomas of Rokeby and 
 John, Lord Mowbray brought up the rear. The Earldom 
 of Lancaster furnished the archery. We are told that the 
 armies confronted one another about nine or ten o'clock, 
 but that the action did not take place till the afternoon.^ 
 
 ' Lanercost, 347, 348 ; Wyntoun and Scotichr. sup. 
 
 ' Baker, 88; Avesbury, 377. The foundations of the Cross exist. Mr. Raine, 
 " St. Cuthbert," 106, is cited for proof of the existence of the Cross long before 
 the time of the battle ; Archaeol. JLliana, I. 279. 
 
 ^ " In modum rotunde turris glomerati ; " Baker, sup. 
 
 * " Inter fossata et sepes ... rex inter fossata irretitus ; " Scotichr. " At hey 
 dykes assembled thai ; " Wyntoun, II. 263. 
 
 ° Consecrated 19 July 1332 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 " " Circa horam tertiam ; " Lanercost. 
 
342 BATTLE 
 
 CHAP. XX The delay might be attributed to a praiseworthy effort of 
 ^^ the Durham clergy to effect a truce. Their overtures 
 having been rejected with contempt, they were free to 
 bring their spiritual artillery to bear upon the enemy.^ " On 
 a little hillock in the depth of Shaw Wood, called the Maiden 
 Bower, the Prior with his attendants knelt round the holy 
 corporax cloth of St. Cuthbert, which was elevated on the 
 point of a spear within sight of both armies." ^ 
 
 Action being imminent, John Graham, Earl of Menteith 
 in right of his wife, noting the deficiencies in the Scottish 
 arrangements, begged to be trusted with loo horsemen 
 to ride down the archers, but not a trooper could he get. 
 Left free to act the archers surrounded the leading schiltrum, 
 pouring their volleys into the helpless mass, and when that 
 was disposed of they dealt likewise with the second division ; 
 apparently not a man in the two leading corps escaped 
 death or capture. Dunbar and Stewart in the rear, seeing 
 the turn that matters were taking, retreated in time, and 
 so got away in safety. David was wounded in the face 
 with an arrow and taken prisoner. John Coupland, a 
 stout Northumbrian " chevaldour ", secured him after 
 a hand-to-hand struggle, in which the King managed to 
 knock out two of his captor's teeth.^ The Scots must 
 have made a retrograde fight of it, as David was taken in 
 a thicket by the; bridge over the Browney, on the road to 
 Esk and Hexham ; while the struggle finally ended at 
 Findon Hill, further on, and about two miles from Neville's 
 Cross. At least fifty men of rank, including Duncan Macduff 
 Earl of Fife, John Graham Earl of Menteith, Malcolm 
 Fleming Earl of Wigton, the Knight of Liddesdale and a 
 bastard brother John Douglas were taken prisoners. Among 
 the fallen were the Earls of Moray and Strathearn, David 
 de la Haye the Constable, Robert Keith the Marshal and 
 Thomas Charteris the Chancellor of Scotland.* Most precious 
 
 ' Lanercost, 351 ; Knighton, 2590. '■ Surtees, Genl. Hist. Durham, 1. 1. 
 
 ' See Lanercost, 348-351 ; Northern Registers, Baker, and Knighton, sup. 
 
 ' For the casualties see Knighton, sup. ; for the prisoners, Foed. III. 95, and 
 Baker, with Sir E. M. Thompson's notes, p. 265. See also the contemporary ballad 
 in Stevenson's Illustrations of Scottish History, 63 (Maitland Club). 
 
OF NEVILLE'S CROSS 343 
 
 of the trophies won on the Red Hills was the Black Rood chap, x 
 from that day forth for ever lost to Scotland. Presented g 
 
 as an offering to St. Cuthbert, it was hung up in Durham 
 Cathedral, side by side with the national flag of Scotland 
 and other banners captured on the same fatal day.^ 
 Percy and Neville gave chase, and received the submission 
 of Roxburgh and Hermitage castles.^ 
 
 But England could never rest satisfied with such paltry 
 acquisitions as the sole fruits of a signal victory. In the 
 course of the ensuing spring an efficient little army of 480 
 men-at-arms and as many horse-archers was raised to 
 serve in Scotland for a year, with Percy, Neville, Umfraville 
 and other Norman barons, all under Edward Balliol.^ 
 Robert Stewart had been appointed Regent by the Scots, 
 but he made no attempt to resist the English, and allowed 
 them to occupy the Southern parts of Scotland as ceded 
 by the Roxburgh document. The counties of Berwick, 
 Roxburgh and Dumfries; the districts of Carrick and 
 Galloway, with the Forests of Ettrick and Selkirk ' came to 
 King Edward's peace '. The new March was understood 
 to run from Cockburnspath on the Berwickshire coast, 
 along the line of the Lammermuirs and Pentlands, through 
 Corse Cryne near Biggar in Lanarkshire, and so to the 
 Ayrshire coast.* 
 
 According to feudal laws of war prisoners taken in battle 
 were the property of their captors, and so the English 
 leaders had shared the men taken at Neville's Cross, as 
 lawful spoils — -'to each man a Scot or two'. But the 
 political influence and value of these Scotsmen was such 
 that the Regent insisted upon their being brought to 
 
 ' Hill Burton, Hist. Scotland, III. 26. 
 
 ' Fordun, 347 ; Knighton, 2591. 
 
 ' Foed. III. 109. The men received pay in advance for a quarter, the horse- 
 archers at 6d., the esquire men-at-arms at is., and the knights at as. a day. The 
 quarter came to £3,223 ^s. 4d. ; Knighton gives Balliol's force as 300,000 men 
 besides 20,000 under Percy (!), c. 2592. 
 
 ' Scotichr.II.346 ; Rot. Scot. I. 679-706; Scalacr. (Leland's translation), 103. 
 The French original is wanting from 1340 to 1355 ; Hill Burton, III. 28; From 
 his base in Carrick, however, John Kennedy of Dunmure waged steady war on 
 the Balliol faction in Galloway. 
 
346 SIEGE 
 
 CHAP. XX At last on the 25th March (1347) he held a council of notables 
 J, . and burgher deputies, and begged for help to avenge the 
 defeat of Cr6cy. Supplies were voted, and an early day 
 named for a muster. Very little notice, however, was taken 
 of the King's writs, and fresh orders had to be issued for 
 the 20th May.^ Edward heard of this movement and made 
 the most of it in his appeals to England (14 May). The 
 ever ready Henry of Lancaster, who, at his own request, had 
 been recently relieved of his command in Aquitaine, hastened 
 to the rescue. 2 But the Duke of Normandy did not appear 
 in the field till the 8th June, when he made sundry attempts 
 to approach Calais from the East. But he found the English 
 position unassailable, while his own flank and rear were 
 exposed to the attacks of an Anglo-Flemish garrison estab- 
 lished at Cassel.^ On the 25th June the blockading 
 squadron scattered a flotilla advancing from the West, to 
 the relief of Calais ; next morning, at daybreak, a boat was 
 intercepted in the attempt to convey a letter from the 
 Governor to Philip, informing him that ' dogs and cats and 
 horses were no longer to be found in Calais', and that 
 cannibalism or a sally stared him in the face.* The last 
 access for supplies had been cut off by the English, who 
 had run a jetty of piles down into deep-water, so that small 
 boats could no longer get in by "hugging the shore", out 
 of reach of the blockading squadron.^ Edward politely 
 forwarded the letter to its destination ; but a whole month 
 elapsed before PhiHp came within sight of Calais. At last, 
 on the 27th July the French army was seen approaching 
 from Guines.^ The hopes of the starving city began to 
 rise, but the Oriflamme halted on the heights of Sangatte. 
 The English position was not more open to assault from the 
 West than from the East. Philip had but two approaches 
 
 ' Sismondi, X. 117, 125 ; Le Bel, II. 127. ^ Focd. III. 104, 120, 121. 
 
 " Avesbury, 384 ; Knighton, 2592, 2593. 
 
 * See de Vienna's letter and the covering report to England ; Avesbury, 386 
 Knighton, 2593 ; Pol. Poems, I. 82. » Baker, 90. 
 
 " Baker, 90, gives 23rd July as the day of their arrival at Guines.. From the 
 17th to the 2ist July an advance of the French from Hesdin was expected in the 
 English camp ; Delpit, Documents Fran^ais, 74. 
 
OF CALAIS 347 
 
 to choose between ; one bya causeway beset with swamps, chap, xx 
 and leading up to a bridge, the bridge of Nieulay ; the other 
 over sandhills exposed to a flank fire from the English ships 
 anchored along the beach. The French Marshals declared 
 either way equally impracticable. The army pitched its 
 tents, and the mediating Cardinals^ once more came to the 
 front.^ Negotiations were opened, Philip being anxious to 
 save Calais, or at all events to rescue the garrison. The 
 English were ready to discuss any point except Calais ; the 
 French would talk of nothing but Calais ; three days of talk 
 left them exactly where they were before. Then, as a last 
 resource, Philip made an offer of battle — if the Enghsh 
 would come out of their stronghold. Edward accepted 
 the challenge, in terms, but gave no sign of sacrificing his 
 vantage-ground, while an Anglo-Flemish army was ad- 
 vancing to support him. On Thursday the 2nd August, at 
 daybreak, Philip fired his camp and retired in despair.^ 
 
 Satisfied that hope of succour there was none, John de 
 Vienne now lowered his flag and asked to treat.* Life and 
 limb for all within the walls was all that he asked. But 
 Edward affected to be very indignant at the prolonged 
 resistance offered to his ' rights ' ; he talked about reprisals, 
 and insisted upon surrender at discretion. Now we may 
 take it for, granted that anything like a massacre of the 
 chivalry would not have been tolerated by Edward's own 
 followers, if he himself had ever thought of such a thing.^ 
 If the leaders were to be spared, the soldiers must be spared ; 
 and if all the combatants were allowed to go free, how could 
 the non-combatants be sacrificed ? ^ Slaughter in cold 
 
 ' Annibale Ceccano, Bishop of Tusculum ; and Etienne Aubert, Cardinal of 
 St. John and St. Paul ; Froissart, I. 267, note Buchon. 
 
 ' Avesbury, 390, 391 (Edward's dispatch) ; Le Bel, II. 129 ; Froissart, I. 264. 
 
 ' See the King's account, Baker, 90. Cf. Le Bel and Froissart, sup., and 
 Knighton, 2594, 2595. The King's letter was written before Calais had opened 
 its gates. ' Baker, 91 ; Knighton, 2594. 
 
 ^ See the speech attributed by Le Bel, II. 134, to Walter Manny ; and compare 
 the attitude of Savary de Mauleon towards King John in 1215, after the capture 
 of Rochester Castle. 
 
 ' i.e. in the case of a capitulation ; in the case of a place taken by storm the 
 reverse often happened ; the leaders being spared and their followers sacrificed. 
 
1347 
 
 348 FALL OF CALAIS 
 
 blood was out of the question ; but, to soothe the ruffled 
 feelings of the King, a solemn pageant was arranged. A 
 deputation taken equally from the leaders of the garrison 
 and the bourgeoisie, with de Vienne at their head, were 
 required to bring the keys of the town and castle, and to 
 lay them at the King's feet, with every mark of humblest 
 submission ; they were required to come ungirt, bareheaded, 
 and barefooted, with halters round their necks. De Vienne, 
 who was suffering from gout, was allowed to ride a humble 
 palfrey. In such fashion they came, and presented first 
 ' a sword of war ', secondly the keys, and thirdly ' a sword 
 of peace '. Edward affected to frown. But Philippa, who 
 must have joined him when Calais fell, falling on her 
 knees, begged for mercy for Christ's sake. The King 
 relented, at once received the men to his peace, and ordered 
 provisions to be sent into the town. But a full meal taken 
 after long privation proved fatal to many.^ 
 
 With this dole the King's grace began and ended. In 
 June he had refused to allow 500 useless mouths expelled 
 from the town to pass through his lines, condemning them 
 to perish miserably of hunger.^ Now de Vienne, with fifteen 
 other knights, and as many citizens, were sent as prisoners 
 of war to England ; while the bulk of the population were 
 provisionally turned out of house and home, and sent 
 forth into the world, with nothing more than they could 
 carry in their hands.* 
 
 But Crecy, Neville's Cross, and Calais did not " exhaust " 
 the triumphs of the twelvemonth. Yet another gallant 
 deed of arms must be added to the list. In December 
 1345 La Roche-Derrien in Brittany* had been wrested 
 
 ' 4 August ; see Baker, 91 ; also Knighton, sup. ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 
 482. Avesbury, 395, 396, gives the date as the 3rd August. Philippa's presence 
 is introduced by Le Bel, II. 138, expanded by Froissart, I. 268-272. In May 
 or June 1348 the Queen gave birth to a son ; see below, p. 353. 
 
 ' So Knighton, 2593. Le Bel, II. 96, places the incident at the beginning of 
 the siege, and represents Edward as giving the people leave to pass, together 
 with a meal and 3J. apiece ; Froissart, II. 245, raises the number to 1,700 souls. 
 
 ' See the Ordinance, Foed. III. 139 ; Baker, sup. ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 109 ; 
 Le Bel, 140. Eustace de Saint-Pierre, the leader of the burgher deputation, 
 however, received a pension Foed. 138. ' C6tes-du-Nord. 
 
THE WAR IN BRITTANY 349 
 
 from the House of Penthievre by the Earl of Northampton, chap, xx 
 who garrisoned it with Enghshmen, on behalf of the young ^T^ 
 de Montfort. About the end of May 1347 Charles of 
 Blois, the rival Duke of Brittany, laid siege to the place 
 with battering engines and a considerable army. Prepared 
 to be attacked, he entrenched himself in a fortified camp, 
 clearing the country all round of any hedges or fences that 
 might offer cover to Enghsh archers. Thomas Dagworth, 
 " one of the ablest of the English soldiers," appointed 
 King's Lieutenant of Brittany in succession to Northamp- 
 ton,^ came promptly to the rescue. On the afternoon of 
 the 19th June, coming from the South, he halted at Begard, 
 ten miles from La Roche. Two roads were open to him : 
 one, apparently the more frequented, down the left bank 
 of the river Jaudy ; the other, more circuitous, down the 
 right bank of the river on which the town and Charles's 
 camp stood. Charles had persuaded himself that the 
 English would come down the left bank, and so had 
 detached a part of his force to meet them there, with orders 
 not to move till they were attacked. But Dagworth, 
 shunning the risk of crossing the river in face of the enemy 
 by a narrow bridge, wisely took the roundabout route down 
 the right bank of the Jaudy, and so ' about a quarter before 
 dawn ' on the morning of the 20th June fell on de Blois' 
 camp. In the darkness a confused melee ensued, the 
 French having no watchword, and endeavouring to clear 
 the situation by lighting torches. When day dawned the 
 tide was turned ; the garrison sallying in force took the 
 French in the rear, and gave a complete victory to the 
 English. De Blois fought heroically with his back to a 
 wall, and only yielded his sword after he had been wounded 
 in seventeen places. His whole force was cut up and 
 dispersed, the losses including the most influential men 
 of his party. He himself was detained in Brittany for 
 a year and more, till his injuries were healed, and then 
 sent to England to keep company with David II in the 
 
 ^ January ; Foed. III. loo, 102. Dagworth took out 80 meu-at-arms, 120 
 archers, 40 servants ; 240 all told. K. R. Excheq., " Army," Bundle 25, No. 18. 
 
1347 
 
 350 TRUCE OP CALAIS -• 
 
 Tower.i The French cause in Brittany was thus at the 
 lowest ebb. 
 
 Edward now felt that he could rest on his laurels, and 
 listen to the voice of the peace-maker. The Cardinals were 
 there ready to reopen negotiations at the first hint. On 
 the 28th September a truce was signed to last till the 
 9th July 1348 ; all possible allies on either side would be 
 comprised, including Castile, Arragon, Brittany, the Low 
 Countries, Burgundy, Lorraine, the Genoese, and the Scots — 
 if they cared to come in. But it was again agreed that 
 their refusal to accept the truce should not affect its validity 
 as affecting all others.^ 
 
 Since the capture of Bergerac by Henry of Lancaster in 
 August 1345 Edward's enterprises had met with a success 
 that seemed astonishing to the men of his time. The 
 military capacity and personal prowess of his subjects had 
 been signally illustrated. On the other hand the actual 
 gains were not very great. The King, no doubt, had re- 
 established his position in Aquitaine, and secured in Calais 
 an important stepping-stone for future attacks on France. 
 But, after all, the bulk of the warring had been on defenceless 
 peasantry. Among the triumphs for which the devout 
 chronicler thought that thanks were due to God * were the 
 ' wasting and exiling ' of Gascony to the borders of Toulouse, 
 of all Poitou, and ' the great county of Brittany '. In his 
 own person Edward had ' wasted and exiled ' * the Cotentin ; 
 the county of Evreux up to Paris ; the Amienois, the Beau- 
 vaisis, and the county of Ponthieu, his own possession— 
 in all the greater part of six modern Departments. The 
 chronicler goes on : ' I hold that honour cannot be withheld 
 from the very noble King whom God has so evidently been 
 
 ^ See Lavisse, IV. 65 ; A. de la Borderie, Hist. Bretagne, III. 502 ; and 
 Dagwurth's report, Avesbury, 388. He gives his force as 300 men-at-arms and 
 400 archers. His estimate of tlic Frencli force is very large. Strange to say 
 La Roche was recovered in two months' time by a sudden assault ; La Borderie, 
 506. 
 
 ' See the lengthy document, in the original French, Foed. III. 136 ; in Latin , 
 Avesbury, 396. 
 
 ' " A srande grace de Dieu." 
 
 ' " gastc et exillic ; " properly cssihe= ruined. 
 
CALAIS STAPLE 35i 
 
 pleased to help.' ^ At home, the war, being waged on foreign chap, xx 
 soil, had not been very onerous to the people-; but it had . 
 
 demorahzed the baronage, whose policy and tastes, since .. . 
 the days of John Lackland, had been uniformly domestic 
 and pacific.^ 
 
 Edward remained some days more in Calais organizing Return to 
 a government for his new acquisition. Covering forts ^"g'^nd. 
 were established at Merck and Oye. Englishmen were 
 invited to settle ; the place was declared a free port, and 
 received a confirmation of all its old ' customs and fran- 
 chises ', a fact which suggests that perhaps the expulsion 
 of the old population was not so complete as the chroniclers 
 would lead us to believe.^ Calais would thus become not 
 only "a strong place of arms", but a commercial centre; 
 and in pursuance of this policy, in the following month of 
 April, Calais was declared the sole Staple for all tin, lead, 
 feathers, cloth and worsted to be exported from England 
 for seven years ; merchants before leaving England to be 
 sworn to carry such goods to Calais and nowhere else.* 
 
 On the i2th October Edward landed at Sandwich,* after 
 an absence of just fifteen months. Short as the crossing 
 was, he managed again to encounter very bad weather ; 
 ships and men were lost. ' Holy Mary,' said he, ' why is it 
 that when I go abroad the weather ever smiles on me, and 
 frowns when I return ? ' ^ 
 
 Humbler individuals have experienced this seeming 
 fatality. 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 142 ; one of the passages omitted by Froissart out of regard for 
 the French. 
 
 ' For French spoils in England see Walsingham, I. 272. 
 
 = Foed. III. 130, 138, 143. 
 
 * Foed. r58. For the full list of all the men with Edward at any time from 
 the 4th June 1346 to the 12th October 1347, and the amount of their wages, 
 see Appendix on next page. ' Foed. 139. 
 
 ' Murimuth, Cent. 177 (ed. Hog) ; Mon. Malm. Cont. 294 ; Baker, 96. 
 
352 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XX 
 
 CHAP. XX Account of Walter Wetewang, Treasurer of the House- 
 
 ~ hold, for wages of war in the retinue of King Edward III 
 
 in the parts of Normandy, France and round Calais, 4th 
 
 June 20 Edw. Ill (1346) to 12th October 21 Edw. Ill (i347), 
 
 namely for one year and 131 days.^ 
 
 Rates of pay 
 
 At 20s. orf. a day 
 
 6s. Sd. 
 
 45. od, 
 2S. od. 
 
 od. 
 
 6d. 
 
 3d- 
 
 At from 3d. to i2d. a day 
 
 Number of persons. 
 The Prince. 
 
 The Bishop of Durham. 
 Earls, 15. 
 
 Barons and Bannerets, 44. 
 Knights (miliies), 1,046. 
 Esquires (scutiferi), Constables, Hundreders 
 
 {centenarii) and Leaders (Ductores), 4,022. 
 Twentymen (vigintenarii) and horse-archers, 5,104. 
 Pauncenarii, 355. 
 Hobelers, 500. 
 Archers on foot, 15,480. 
 
 Cementarii, Carpentarii, Fabri, Ingeniatores, Pavi- 
 lionarii, Minarii, Armatores, Gunnatores, and 
 Artillarii, 314. 
 At 4(f. vinteners, rest at 2d., Welsh foot, 4,474. 
 Masters, constables, mariners, and pagelti of 700 ships, barges, balingers and 
 
 victualling ships (vitalUarianim), 16,000. 
 Total of men without the Domini, 31,294. 
 Total of wages, £127,201 2s. gd. 
 
 Here it may be pointed out that the total wages at the 
 given rates for the given number of soldiers, if all had been 
 employed for the 496 days, without any allowance for the 
 sailors, would come to £349,651 15. ^d., little more there- 
 fore than a third of the 31,294 men, say 11,000 men, can 
 have been employed on the average during the whole 
 time. If the £127,201 2s. gd. includes pay for the sailors, 
 as it presumably did, the average number would only come 
 to 7,000 men. For the organization of the army by twenties 
 and hundreds, commanded by Twentymen and Hundreders 
 or Constables, see Dawn, p. 342, and Chancery Miscell. 
 Bundle 3, No. 18. 
 
 ' Printed by Brady, Hist. England, II, Appendix 86, from a manuscript in his 
 possession. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 
 A.D. I348-I350 
 
 Peace Rejoicings. — The Order of the Garter. — Parliament. — Constitutional 
 Remonstrances. — The First Plague. — Attempt on Calais. — Naval action off 
 Winchelsea. 
 
 The return to England under such circumstances, and chap, xxi 
 after so prolonged an absence, was followed, naturally 1348 
 enough, by a period of triumphant carousal. The festivi- Rejoicings, 
 ties, of course, took the shape of tilts and tournaments, the 
 tilt-yard being the race-course of the period. Between 
 the date of the King's return and the end of January 1348 
 jousts were held at Bury, Eltham and Windsor ; after that 
 at Canterbury, Lichfield, and Lincoln. Down to the ist 
 May nineteen were appointed to be held— eight of them at 
 Westminster. On the 24th June an especially grand 
 tournament was held at Windsor for the churching or 
 Relevailles of the Queen, who had recently given birth to 
 a son, William.^ The court ladies paraded their charms in 
 the spoils of Caen and Calais, and shocked the public by 
 the extravagance of their fashions, and affectations of 
 masculine attire.^ The enduring outcome of these social 
 gatherings was the final establishment of the Most Noble 
 
 ' Knighton; Baker, roi (given as underi349) ; Nicolas, Orders of Knighthood, 
 I. 15. The little Prince died in 1349 ; Devon, Issues, p. 153. The King of Scots 
 appeared at one of these tournaments and tilted ; the armour worn by him is 
 preserved at Windsor ; Green, Princesses, III. 141. 
 
 ^ Knighton, 2597 ; Walsingham, I. 272. Outre X.s.%X.e in dress was an especial 
 feature of this period of history. All Europe was infected with a passion for 
 extravagant shoes, extravagant head-dresses, harlequin suits, &c. ; see Grandes 
 Chroniques, V. 463 ; James, " Black Prince," I. 292 ; also a picture in the 
 Academia delle Belle Arti at Florence of a Florentine wedding ; cf . below, 
 p. 455. For fancy dresses worn at the King's plays at Guildford at Christmas, 
 1347, see Nicolas, Orders of Knighthood, I. 15. At Christmas or the Epiphany 
 next year the King appeared in a suit of white, with an English motto on his 
 shield, " Hay, Hay, the Wythe Swan ; By Gode's soule I am thy man" ; Archaeol. 
 XXXI. 43. On another occasion he wore a doublet embroidered with, " It is as it 
 is " ; Warton, Hist. Poetry, II. 86. 
 
 1415 1 A a 
 
334 UNCONSTITUTIONAL 
 
 CHAP. XXI the Order of the Garter, which had been passing through 
 7^ a process of incubation since the beginning of I344- Mantles 
 Order of and gartcrs with the motto " Honi soit qui mal y pense " 
 the Garter. ^gj.g ordered for the King and twelve Companions for the 
 Eltham tournament in January. Nine of the original 
 Knights jousted on that occasion. " There is strong almost 
 conclusive evidence that the foundation was complete before 
 August.! xhe King and Prince of Wales, 24 canons, 24 
 knights companions, and 24 poor knights made up the 
 complete order." ^ 
 Parlia- Meanwhile business had not been neglected. On the 
 
 '"'^"'' 14th January a Parliament had met at Westminster.^ 
 The proceedings were opened in the King's presence by 
 William Thorpe, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The 
 King, he said, wished for the advice of his lieges upon 
 two points : first as to the conduct of the war against 
 his adversary, ' which had been undertaken by common 
 assent of all, given in divers Parliaments; ' and secondly 
 as to the better maintenance of the peace at home. The 
 latter request, which was thrown in by way of testifying 
 to the King's interest in domestic concerns, amounted to 
 an admission that the government was unequal to the 
 discharge of its primary functions ; while the first request 
 was an ingenious device for throwing the responsibility 
 of the war upon the Commons, and obtaining a supply 
 without seeming to ask one. The Commons took the King 
 at his word. They made no offer of any subsidy ; and they 
 disclaimed giving any advice upon so great a matter as war. 
 ' Whatever His Highness and the Great Men of his Council 
 would please to ordain that the Commons would hold as 
 firm and established.' * Upon the subject of the peace of 
 
 ^ See the extracts from the Wardrobe Accounts given b}' Nicolas, sup., 1. 13 ; 
 and Archaeol. XXXI. i ; cf . Ashmole's Garter. The founder's statutes are dated 
 in April, 1349, which Ashmole accepts as the date of the institution ; but this 
 seems almost an impossible date as the Plague was then at its height. 
 
 " The number of the canons and poor knights was afterwards raised to 26, to 
 bring their respective numbers up to that of the Companions, plus the King and 
 Prince of Wales. ^ Lords' Report, 14 January-12 February. 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 164, 165. The King had specially sent the Earl of Lancaster 
 to say that he did not ask for any grant ; lb. 200. 
 
PRACTICES 355 
 
 the realm the Commons had plenty to say. Brigandage chap, xxi 
 flourished under the sheltering protection of magnates ; ^ j^^g 
 powerful criminals could purchase royal pardons at will 
 (Articles 6, 53, 62) ; new forms of treason were daily elabo- 
 rated by the ingenuity of the royal judges (15) ; the course 
 of justice was paralysed by the extension of the private 
 franchises (17) ; commissions of array were still being issued; 
 prisage and purveyance were indulged in as freely as ever ; 
 the King's ' men ' quartered themselves on private houses 
 without proper billets from the marshal, and went off in the 
 morning without making payment ; the King's studs were 
 driven from parish to parish, eating up the country (16, 33, 
 37i 57)- Complaint was also made of the impressment of 
 shipping — a grievance hitherto passed over with little notice 
 (57). Fresh protests were entered against the exaction of 
 loans by the Privy Council ; and the continuance of old and 
 new surtaxes on wool, wine, cloth and tin — all without 
 due sanction (11, 28, 29, 31). The extortions practised by 
 the farmers of the customs, and the purchasers of the 
 wool ' borrowed ' from the counties, were dragged to light 
 (38, 49, 54, 58, 61). Again, the government had undertaken 
 to provide convoy to Flanders, on receiving an insurance 
 premium of is. a sack. The shillings had been taken, but 
 no convoy provided, whereby some merchants lost their 
 wool, others their wool and their lives (58, cf. 68). To 
 crown all, such parcels of wool as succeeded in making their 
 way to Bruges found the market there destroyed by differ- 
 ential dues levied by the Flemings (10, 58). On two points 
 the Commons prayed for statutory enactments. They 
 begged, first for a definition of the crime of treason, and 
 secondly for a prohibition of Papal ' Provisions ' (15, 50, 63). 
 The complaint under this last head was especially full and 
 emphatic.^ With every allowance made for exaggeration 
 ample grounds for complaint will still remain. 
 
 ' Cf. G. Baker, 179. In the previous year John Dalton carried off Dame 
 Margery de la Beche and committed two murders in doing so ; Foed.III. ir4, ir8. 
 For disorders near Bristol, see lb. 126. 
 
 2 Rot. Parlt. II. 165-174. 
 
 A a 2 
 
356 CONDITIONAL 
 
 CHAP. XXI The Parliament having proved a failure the King within 
 g two days of its rising issued writs for a fresh session for the 
 31st March. 1 On this occasion he wasted no time in beating 
 about the bush, but told the Commons at once that he must 
 have a subsidy. The Commons, after noticing the general 
 satisfaction caused by the intimation conveyed to them in 
 the last Parliament that the King did not wish to take 
 anything from his lieges, proceeded to recapitulate the 
 burdens to which they had been subjected, not forgetting 
 the Aid for knighting the Prince of Wales, ' taken without 
 the assent of the Commons, contrary to the Statute of 1340, 
 and at double the customary rate.' Nevertheless, on condi- 
 tion that the grant to be made should not be anticipated 
 or ' turned into wool ' ; that the eyres of the justices at 
 nisi prills, justices of trailbaston, and Forest justices should 
 cease ;^ that the ^os. duty on wool should cease at the 
 expiration of the current ' grant ', that was to say at 
 Michaelmas ; that no such ' grant ' should ever again be 
 made by the merchants ; that no tallage or loan should 
 again be imposed by the Privy Council without consent 
 of Parliament ; that the Aid for marrying the King's 
 daughter should be suspended in the meantime ; that 
 proper answers should be given to the petitions presented 
 in the last Parliament ; and that the conditions of the 
 grant should be entered of record on the Parliament Rolls, 
 they agreed to give Fifteenths and Tenths for three years 
 more, if the war should last so long.^ " The King accepted 
 the grant, and accorded most of the petitions, but no new 
 statute was founded upon them, a fact which seems to prove 
 that the oppressions complained of were recognized as 
 illegal." * 
 The reference to the Aid for marrying the King's daughter 
 
 ' Lords' Report. 
 
 " In connexion with this we may notice that the jurisdiction of the justices of 
 the peace, or wardens of the peace, as they were called, was at this time more 
 popular than that of the King's justices, probably because the former had no 
 fiscal work to do ; see e. g. Rot. Parlt. II. 174-202. 
 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. 200 ; Knighton, 2596 ; Foed. III. 187. 
 
 * Bp. Stubbs. 
 
GRANTS 357 
 
 was occasioned by the fact that the King was arranging chap.xxi 
 to marry his second daughter, Jeanne or Joan of the ~^ 
 Tower, to the Infante Pedro, eldest son of Alphonso XI of 
 Castile. The little Princess, however, died on the way to 
 Spain.^ 
 
 One ' great ' matter on which neither Parliament had The 
 been consulted was an offer of the Imperial Crown made crow™ 
 to Edward. On the day before Edward landed in the 
 autumn Louis of Bavaria died, and died excommunicate — ■ 
 " the last Emperor excommunicated by the Pope " ? 
 Louis's party, rather than submit to ' the priests' King ' as 
 they called him, offered the crown to Edward. The King 
 took time to consider ; but all classes of his subjects joined 
 in deprecating the proposal. The Margrave of Juliers came 
 over with concihatory offers from Charles IV ; he would 
 support Philippa's claim in Hainault — he might possibly 
 give some aid against France — &c., &c. On the loth May 
 1348 Edward wrote finally to decline.* 
 
 The King was in no mood for further adventures, and in 
 fact inclined towards peace in general. In April negotia- 
 tions had been opened for the liberation of David II. 
 Scottish envoys had been invited to London, and the King 
 of Scots had been allowed to take part in some of the 
 Court festivities at Windsor. But Edward demanded 
 a larger ransom than the envoys were prepared to promise. 
 An extension of the truce therefore was the only arrange- 
 ment effected. Queen Joan then resolved to try the effect 
 of personal influence with her brother. She applied for 
 a safe-conduct, which was granted in very cordial terms 
 (loth October). She was allowed to see her husband " but 
 not to share his imprisonment ". After a few months she 
 returned to Scotland.* 
 
 It will be noticed that for a little money Edward was 
 
 '■ Foed. III. 147, 150, 152, 171, 176. 
 
 ' II October; Pauli, II. 415 ; Milman. 
 
 ^ Foed. 144, i6i ; cf. 181 ; Baker, 97 ; Sismondi, X. 348, citing Olenschlager, 
 p. 387. Knighton mentions the Queen as being specially averse, 2597. 
 
 * Foed. 158, 163, &c. ; Knighton, sup. ; Green, Princesses, III. 138 ; 
 Baker, sup. 
 
358 THE BLACK 
 
 CHAP. XXI prepared to sacrifice the hold on the Scots obtained by the 
 '^TZ custody of their King, and by the same token to sacrifice 
 his ' man ' Balliol, also. 
 
 Towards France Edward showed himself equally disposed 
 for peace. Some difficulty occurred in connexion with 
 forts round Calais recently built by the French, counter- 
 works, as the English contended, and infringements of 
 the peace. ^ But eventually a fresh truce was signed to 
 last to the ist September 1349. Edward watched the 
 proceedings with anxious interest, and held himself for 
 three weeks at Sandwich, ready to cross at a moment's 
 notice.^ 
 
 The peace-making of the autumn closed with a tripartite 
 treaty between the King of England, Louis II of Flanders, 
 surnamed de Mael, and the three cities of Ghent, Bruges 
 and Ypres.^ True to the memory of his father the young 
 Count had fled from the hands of his subjects, rather than 
 wed the English princess pressed upon him.* 
 The first The time indeed was one to bury the hatchet and make 
 ^^"^' peace, when the Destroying Angel was knocking at each 
 man's door. From the far East, from time-honoured 
 " centres of faith and pilgrimage ",^ the Black Death, 
 or bubonic plague, came rolling over the Western world. 
 Infectious and contagious in the highest degree, this 
 malignant form of typhus, having reached Cyprus at the 
 
 ' Baker, 98. ' Foed. III. 166, 170-178. 
 
 ' 10 December ; Foed. 178. 
 
 ' In March 1347 during the siege of Calais the young Count was brought face 
 to face with Edward at Bergues, and was made to sign an agreement to marry 
 the King's eldest daughter Isabelle. On his return to Ghent he gave the slip to 
 his attendants and escaped to France; see Foed. in; Le Bel, II. 115; 
 Froissart, I. 258 ; Sismondi, X. 320, &c. 
 
 ' According to a report published by the Imperial German Government the 
 chief cradle of the disease is to be found in the North- West corner of the Persian 
 Empire, in the highlands of Azerbijan, between Mount Ararat and the Caspian ; 
 and the disease itself is probably connected with the immemorial practice of 
 carrying dead bodies in caravans, without any regard to sanitation, for burial 
 in holy places in the upper Euphrates valley. If all outbreaks of the plague 
 are to be attributed to these death-diffusing pilgrimages, the practice must be far 
 older than the time of Mahomet. For a history of these outbreaks see Petermann, 
 Mittheilungen, July 1879, cited Tout. 
 
DEATH 359 
 
 end of 1347, appeared during the following month of chap.xxi 
 January in Provence, where " Narbonne was ruined for ^^ 
 ever", and Avignon almost depopulated. From Provence 
 it spread to Guienne, where the Lady Jeanne or Joan fell 
 a victim to it on her way to Castile, as already mentioned.^ 
 By that time it had devastated Italy, and thoroughly pene- 
 trated France and Germany. On the 7th July it made its 
 appearance at Melcome on the Dorsetshire coast,^ having 
 evidently been brought by sea. Westwards and north- 
 wards it travelled through Devonshire and Somersetshire 
 to Bristol, where it committed great ravages. The 
 Gloucestershire authorities endeavoured to cut off com- 
 munication with Bristol, but in vain : the plague soon 
 entered Oxfordshire. In the North on the 28th July 
 Archbishop de la Zouche ordered public prayers for deliver- 
 ance from the threatened scourge, offering Indulgences on 
 the usual conditions.* The mortality was such as to 
 interfere seriously with the harvest operations of the 
 autumn ; women and children had to be put to field-work.* 
 By the ist November the plague had made its way down 
 the Thames to London ; it appeared at Norwich in January 
 (1349), and thence spread Northwards.' On the ist 
 January a Parliament that had been summoned for the 
 19th of the month was prorogued, and eventually counter- 
 manded.^ The courts of law were closed; the King " threw 
 everything on the Chancellor ", and retired to Langley.' 
 The extent of the mortality, and the rapidity with which 
 the sickness carried off its victims " bewildered and appalled 
 the writers of the time ". Fresh burial grounds had to be 
 provided, the existing graveyards being insufficient. Two 
 new places of sepulture were established in London, one 
 upon thirteen acres of ground in Smithfield, bought by 
 Walter Manny, on part of which land he subsequently 
 
 ' 2 September 1348 ; Jeanne had been originally affianced to Albert of Austria, 
 but Edward broke off the match in 1340 ; Green, Princesses, III. 339, 357. 
 ^ Eulogium Hist. III. 213. 
 
 ^ Northern Registers, 395. * Eulogium, 215. 
 
 ' Baker, 99 ; Knighton, 2599 ; Eulogium, 214. 
 » Foed. III. 180; Lords' Report. ' Foed. 18:. 
 
36o SPREAD AND RAVAGES 
 
 CHAP. XXI founded a Carthusian monastery (1371), to become later 
 77Z the site of Charter House School. The other graveyard 
 was provided by the liberality of the Bishop of London, 
 Ralph Stratford, ' in a croft called Nomansland ', after- 
 wards known as Pardon Church Yard, about a quarter of 
 a mile from Smithfield.^ 
 
 The malady seldom ran more than two or three days ; 
 a swelling under the arm-pit, a black spot on the skin, and 
 the man knew that he was doomed. The young and 
 vigorous suffered most, while the old and weakly were 
 spared. But of course the pestilence essentially made 
 havoc of the poor, the wealthier classes suffering little. As 
 usually happens in great crises men were affected in various 
 ways. Some sought for distraction in dissipation, others 
 took refuge in self-immolation and mystic devotion, as 
 with the Flagellants of Germany, some of whom visited 
 London late in the year. About Whitsuntide the plague 
 had spent its fury in London, and was raging at York.^ 
 There it had done its work by July.^ Lancashire was not 
 reached till the autumn.* A Scottish raid undertaken 
 on the strength of the report that England was "smitten 
 of God and afflicted" served to carry "the foul dethe of 
 Engelond " over the Border.^ Ireland was visited in 
 August, the mortality at first attacking the English, 
 though eventually it spread to the natives.® 
 
 Not many men of rank are found among the sufferers. 
 Wulstan Bransford Bishop of Worcester, the Abbot of 
 Westminster, Thomas, Lord Wake of Liddel, John, Lord 
 Falconberg, Robert, Lord Bourchier, with John Montgomery, 
 
 ' Baker ; Wheatley and Cunningham, " London " . " The memory of Pardon 
 Churchyard was till recently preserved in Pardon Passage and Pardon Court in 
 St. John St., Clerkenwell." 
 
 ' Avesbury, 407, 408. See generally Knighton and Baker, sup. ; De Nangis, 
 Cont. D'Achery, III. no; Le Bel, I. 203. Froissart dismisses the subject in 
 three lines. See also Kitchin, France, 407. 
 
 ^ Avesbury, sup. ; W. Thorne, Decern X, 1732; Birchington, Angl. Sacr. I. 42. 
 
 ■" Tout, citing Engl. Hist. Rev., V. 524. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2600; Scotichr. II. 347 ; Wyntoun, II. 271. 
 
 ' For details Professor Tout refers to J. Clyn, Irish Archaeol. Soc, 1849. 
 See also F. A. Gasquet, Black Death, 81-224. 
 
OF THE PLAGUE 361 
 
 Governor of Calais, and John Pulteney four times Mayor chap, xxi 
 of London are among the chief victims that have been ~~ 
 identified.^ In addition to these men three Archbishops Three 
 of Canterbury passed away within twelve months' time. ?"t'^elve 
 John Stratford, the King's old adviser, died full of years months, 
 on the 23rd August 1348. As a reward of his services 
 Edward " seized all his property, just as Henry II would 
 have done ".^ The Canterbury Chapter, without waiting 
 for the conge d'elire, elected Thomas Bradwardine the 
 Oxford scholar, mathematician and theologian, distin- 
 guished among Schoolmen as Doctor Profundus, who, 
 withal, was military chaplain to the King at the time. 
 But Edward preferred his chancellor, John of Offord ; ^ and 
 Clement at his request ' provided ' him (24 September). 
 Offord, a delicate man, afflicted with paralysis, succumbed 
 to the double strain thus thrown upon him. He took the 
 plague and died (20 May 1349).* All parties then concurred 
 in the promotion of Bradwardine. The monks elected 
 him, the King accepted him, the Pope ' provided ' him ; 
 he went to Avignon for confirmation ; returning hastily 
 to the sphere of his duties he landed at Dover on the 19th 
 August. On the 26th of the month he fell a victim to the 
 pestilence at Lambeth, one of the last of its victims.^ 
 
 Of the total mortality it is impossible to form an estimate. 
 Chroniclers' numbers in such a connexion are not more 
 trustworthy than on other subjects. Thus one writer 
 alleges that from the 2nd February to the 12th April (1349) 
 two hundred corpses a day, or 140,000 in all, were buried 
 in Manny's cemetery alone. ^ We would ask whether 
 there were 140,000 souls, or anything like that number, 
 to live or die in all the London of the time ? ' Even the 
 
 ' Barnes, 439. It is not clear, however, that the Bishop of Worcester did 
 die of the plague. 
 
 ^ Birchington, Angl. Sacr. I. 41, 42 ; Dene, lb. 375; Bp. Stubbs, II. 422,note. 
 
 * Appointed in 1345, in succession to Robert of Sadington ; Foss, III. 473 ; 
 he again had succeeded Parning, the first lay chancellor. 
 
 ' Feed. III. 173, 179. 
 
 ' Reg. Sacr. ; Angl. Sacr. I. 43, 376. For Bradwardine's writings see Hook, 
 Archbishops, IV. 80, &c., and Lechler, Wiclif, I. 229. ° Avesbury, 407. 
 
 ' For an estimate as to the possible population of London see below, II. 94. 
 
364 ATTEMPT 
 
 CHAP. XXI With good day's wages to be earned elsewhere they threw 
 up their holdings, absconded, and so bought their freedom 
 by severing their connexion with the land.-' 
 
 At such a period no thought of active war could be 
 entertained. On the 3rd May the truce with France had 
 been extended to the i6th May 1350.^ During the year 
 1350 England was still in°a state of collapse ; no Parliament 
 was held ; but preliminary ordinances against the rise in 
 wages were issued, forbidding servants to demand or 
 employers to give more than the rates current in 1346.^ 
 Few salient incidents happened, but on two occasions 
 the King's energy and love of fighting were again made 
 manifest. 
 
 The first was in connexion with a plot laid by the French 
 to recover Calais, in violation of the truce. Geoffrey de 
 Chargny, governor of Saint-Omer, offered money to one 
 Amerigo of Pavia, a Free Lance in Edward's service, who 
 was stationed in the castle.* Amerigo agreed to take the 
 money and then sent word to Edward. A careful plan was 
 arranged to entrap de Chargny, and the King and Prince 
 of Wales went over quietly to see to its execution. When 
 the day for admission of the French came, de Chargny was 
 taken over the castle, to satisfy himself that the coast was 
 clear, and no foul play to be feared. But Edward had 
 built in a body of men behind a mock-wall that escaped 
 detection ; he had also weakened the drawbridge, and posted 
 a man on the gate-house with a huge stone, to crush the 
 drawbridge at the proper moment. The first detachment 
 of the French were then admitted in the dark, and at once 
 overpowered by the men in ambush, while the destruction 
 of the drawbridge cut off help from outside. Then the 
 King and the Prince, sallying from gates on opposite sides 
 of the town, fell on the main body coming up along 
 a narrow causeway and surrounded them. De Chargny 
 
 ' See Mr. Seebohm's article, Fortnightly Review, II. 272. 
 " Foed. III. 182, 184. '' Id. 198. 
 
 ' Amerigo received a naval appointment in April r348 ; Foed. 159. No 
 appointment to Calais has been found. 
 
ON CALAIS 365 
 
 himself and thirty men of rank were taken prisoners. The chap, xxi 
 King was in the thick of the fight, laying about him and ^^ 
 shouting " Ha ! Edward St. George, Ha ! Edward St. 
 George," ^ and had the satisfaction of overcoming one 
 Eustace de Ribaumont, a distinguished French knight, in 
 single combat. He was so pleased with the affair that he 
 set Eustace free and gave him a handsome chaplet of 
 pearls.^ 
 
 The other incident of the year was a naval engagement 
 off Winchelsea, a new sphere of action into which the King, 
 by way of a change, plunged fearlessly. An armed Spanish 
 fleet, trading with the Low Countries for cloth, was charged 
 with having committed piratical ravages on English ship- 
 ping in various quarters,^ under the lead of Don Carlos 
 de la Cerda, younger brother of Don Louis of Spain, who 
 fought with the French in Brittany in 1342.* Edward, 
 determined to punish the offenders, made careful prepara- 
 tion against their return.^ On the loth August they were 
 reported as shortly about to loose from Sluys on their 
 way homewards. A few days later the King went down to 
 Winchelsea accompanied by two of his sons, the Prince of 
 Wales, and John of Gaunt — the latter a boy ten years old — 
 the Earls of Lancaster, Northampton, Warwick, Salisbury, 
 Suffolk, Arundel and Hereford, and in short by the whole 
 court circle.^ According to the rather florid account given 
 by Froissart, they went down piping and dancing, as if 
 bound on a yachting party, and not on a very serious and 
 almost desperate adventure. Robert, Lord Morley was 
 again in command of the Northern fleet ; while the flotilla 
 included twenty ships with crews varying from 30 to 80 and 
 
 ^SoAvesbury. Was Edward speaking English or French ? The words might 
 be either. 
 
 " December 31, 1349-1 January 1350 ; Baker, 103-107, and notes ; Avesbury, 
 408-410 ; Le Bel, II. 147 ; Froissart, I. 276-281. 
 
 ^ Knighton, 2602 ; Avesbury, 412 ; Baker, 109 ; Froissart, I. 284. 
 
 * Sismondi, X. 239, 379. The Infantes de la Cerda were the great-grandsons 
 of Alphonso X and, according to ordinary rules of succession, rightful heirs to 
 the throne of Castile. Their claims were always supported by France. 
 
 ° Foed. III. 195, r96 ; H. Nicolas, Royal Navy, II. 102. 
 
 ° Baker, sup. ; Nicolas, 104, 112, q.v. for further names. 
 
366 NAVAL 
 
 CHAP. XXI 100 men each, besides barges and pinnaces, some fifty sail 
 ~~r in all.^ About the 28th August the King established 
 himself on board his favourite "cog", the Thomas. In 
 high spirits, he sat in the prow dressed ' in a black velvet 
 jacket and a beaver hat that well became him '.^ About 
 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday 29th August the 
 approach of the enemy was signalled. With the wind in 
 their favour they might easily have declined action, but 
 the proud Dons scorned to do so. Fighting being the 
 order of the day, the King and his knights ' drank a cup of 
 wine and donned their armour '. The Spaniards are stated 
 to have had but forty or forty-four ships in all, but of much 
 heavier build, and their big ' busses ' ibuscee) fairly towered 
 over the Enghsh vessels.^ They had castles on their 
 poops, and men in crows' -nests in the tops, provided with 
 stones for throwing (Balearian slingers ?). But again the 
 archers with their greater range soon silenced the stone- 
 throwers and cross-bowmen, driving them to hide their 
 heads behind their bulwarks ; the English then came 
 forward with ladders for boarding, and a series of desperate 
 hand-to-hand encounters ensued.* According to Froissart, 
 who tells us that he had his facts from men who were 
 engaged,^ the King ordered his steersman to lay him 
 aboard of a leading Spaniard. The man obeyed, and the 
 royal cog was nearly sunk by the impact ; her mast 
 snapped in two, and all the men in the top were drowned. 
 Before the King's knights could grapple the enemy she had 
 forged ahead ; they managed, however, to lay hold of another 
 vessel, and fought desperately to win her, as their own ship 
 was making water fast. After an arduous struggle, carried 
 on at several points at once, they succeeded ; and thereupon 
 transferred the King and crew to the prize. The Prince 
 of Wales found himself in even greater danger; his vessel 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 200 ; Baker, 109. For names of the ships see Foed. 195, and 
 Nicolas, 120, from the Rolls. 
 
 ' Froissart. 
 
 ^ " Quasi castra casellis supereminebant," ' towered over them as castles to 
 cottages ; ' Baker. 
 
 ' Baker, no. ' p. 286. 
 
ACTION 367 
 
 was on the point of sinking when he was rescued by the Earl chap, xxi 
 of Lancaster.^ Seventeen ships had been taken by the ~~ 
 Enghsh when night came on. They anchored, hoping to 
 follow up their advantage in the morning ; but the remain- 
 ing seven-and-twenty Spaniards were no longer to be seen. 
 No less than eighty young men of birth were said to have 
 been raised to the honours of knighthood on the occasion,^ 
 an unprecedented number. 
 
 * Froissart, I. 185-187. 
 
 ' Baker, no, in ; Avesbury, 412. One good result of the action was that 
 a truce for twenty years with the maritime cities of Castile and Biscay was con- 
 cluded in the following month of August ; Foed. III. 328. 
 
Philip VI. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1350-1354 
 
 Death of Philip VI of France ; accession of John II. — Lapse of Truce of Calais. — 
 The Breton War. — Battle of the Thirty. — Battle of Mauron. — Hostilities in 
 Aquitaine. — Scottish affairs. — ^Domestic affairs. — Statutes of Labourers and 
 Provisors. — Church affairs. — Statute of Treasons. — Staple Regulations. — 
 Statute of Praemunire. — Failure of the peace negotiations. 
 
 CHAP. XXII Just a week before the naval action off Winchelsea, 
 1350 namely on Sunday 22 August, Philip of Valois, the sixth 
 
 Death of of the name, died, aged fifty-eight years. In the month of 
 January he had married a lovely girl of eighteen, his cousin, 
 Blanche of Navarre, sister to Charles the Bad.^ Blanche 
 had been promised to John of Normandy — both father and 
 son having lost their wives in the plague. But the King, 
 on seeing the damsel, fell violently in love with her and 
 took her to himself.^ His reign, calamitous and disgraceful 
 as it was, had nevertheless contributed something to the great 
 work of the unification of France. In the spring of 1349 
 
 His acqui- he had made the final arrangements for the acquisition of 
 Montpellier, with the Roussillon and Dauphine. Montpellier 
 and the Roussillon were purchased from the Arragonese 
 Prince, James, King of Majorca. Dauphine was bought 
 from Humbert II, the last " Dauphin de Vienne ", who 
 retired to a convent. The principality was conveyed to 
 the King's grandson, Charles the Dauphin, afterwards 
 Charles V. From the time of his accession to the throne 
 
 ^ Charles and his sister were children of Jeanne, daughter and heiress of Louis 
 Hutin by Philip of Evreux ; Jeanne had the crown of Navarre in right of her 
 mother Jeanne of Champagne, wife of Hutin. See pedigree above, p. 212. 
 
 ^ See Sismondi, X. 364-367, and the authorities there cited ; also Grandes 
 Chroniques, V. 490-495. Queen Jeanne died 11 December 1349. Philip married 
 again ir January T350. 
 
 sitions. 
 
JOHN II KING OF FRANCE 369 
 
 of France the title of ' Dauphin ' became the recognized style chap, xxu 
 of the heir apparent.^ ~^ 
 
 France, however, had gained httle by the accession of john II 
 her new King Jean le Bon. The epithet in his case was not ^'"2- 
 applied in any high sense, it merely meant ' John the Good 
 Fellow ', the light-hearted lover of mirth and glee. He 
 was in many respects like his father King Philip, but a more 
 interesting character, with more sense of personal honour ; 
 but otherwise not a better man, and certainly not a better 
 king. He was a man of undoubted personal courage, but 
 dull, obstinate, and ignorant of all that a king should know. 
 He gave free rein to unworthy advisers, men of low caste 
 and no character, who abused his confidence, and betrayed 
 him with impunity. Revelling in pomp and show, living 
 for feasts and tournaments, his only ambition was to shine 
 as a gallant knight. Yet the coronation festivities ended 
 with the execution of the Constable, the Count of Eu, just 
 released from captivity in England, under circumstances 
 amounting to judicial murder.^ 
 
 The truce between England and France was held to have Lapse of 
 lapsed by the death of Philip. He had offered to extend ™'^'^' 
 the armistice to the ist of August 1351, and Edward in 
 November signed an authority to confirm the arrangement. 
 But King John apparently refused his consent ^ — an initial 
 piece of folly — which might be put down to braggadocio, and 
 wish to pose as being afraid of nothing. In consequence 
 hostilities were resumed after the New Year (1351). In 
 Brittany the predatory warfare carried on in the names of 
 the two Ducal competitors had never ceased. About July, 
 Dagworth, Edward's representative and general manager 
 in Brittany, had been defeated and killed at Auray* by a 
 Free Lance of the name of Croquart. With Dagworth 
 apparently had been initiated that horrible system of 
 making money out of the war, and maintaining bodies of 
 
 ' See Lavisse, IV. 83-86 ; Sismondi, X. 354-359. 
 * See Sismondi, 370-379 ; Lavisse, 90-92, 170 ; Kitchin, France, 422. 
 ' Feed. III. 197, 207 ; compare 214, 225. 
 
 " Dept. Morbihan ; Grandes Chroniques, V. 494 ; Knighton, 2602 ; Avesbury, 
 411. 
 
 1415.x B b 
 
370 A FIGHTING 
 
 CHAP. XXII mercenaries, in well-being and comfort, by the systematic 
 ~~ levy of ' ransoms ' or patis, protection money — ^just the 
 tenserie of Stephen's anarchy — from the peasantry of the 
 country districts. Later we shall find Edward farming 
 Brittany to his lieutenants at heavy rents, the lessees being 
 endowed with all the powers of government, and a ' free 
 hand as regards choice of agents and measures ' to enable 
 them to pay the rent.^ Irritation at the loss of Dagworth, 
 or remonstrances at the cruelty of the English — the accounts 
 differ — led to a desperate duel fought by appointment 
 
 Battle of within lists between thirty Bretons of the de Blois faction 
 and an equal number of the English side. These being 
 unable to muster more than twenty of their countrymen 
 had to make up their number with Bretons, Germans, and 
 Flemings. The parties met halfway between Ploermel and 
 Josselin on Mid-Lent Sunday (27 March) 1351. After a 
 lengthy struggle, broken by an interval for breathing time, the 
 English were beaten ; eight men and the captain were killed ; 
 the rest then surrendered.^ Among the latter were Hugh 
 Calverley and his kinsman and comrade Robert Knowles, 
 the great future Free Lance, and master of the art of war. 
 
 Battle of A year and a half later, however, namely, in August 1352, 
 
 Mauron. Walter Bentley, the new English commander,^ and Robert 
 Knowles had their revenge, defeating a considerable army 
 brought by Gui de Nesle the French Marshal to support the 
 cause of Charles of Blois. The action was fought at Mauron, 
 between Rennes and Ploermel. It would seem that de Nesle, 
 adopting English tactics, dismounted his men-at-arms for 
 the action.* But that did not save him, as Bentley gained 
 a complete victory. Among the fallen were some fourteen 
 knights of the new Order of the Star, just founded by King 
 John, to rival, and, if possible, eclipse Edward's Order of the 
 
 ' La Borderie, sup. 507 ; Tout, Pol. Hist. III. 381 ; Food. III. 427, 431 (1359). 
 
 '^ See Lobineau, I. 343 ; Le Bel, II. 163 ; Froissart, I. 293. The Battle oj the 
 Thirty became a great theme of Breton song. One ballad on the subject has been 
 printed ; Crapelet, 1835. The reader will compare the battle fought on the 
 North Inch of the city of Perth on the 25th September 1396 by two sets of 
 Highland clansmen, oddly enough, again thirty a side ; Scotichr. II. 240 ; 
 Wyntoun, II. 375. = Appointed 8 September 1350 ; Foed. 204. 
 
 ' Tout, Engl. Hist. Rev. XXI. 
 
TRUCE 371 
 
 Garter. The new-fledged institution, however, succumbed chap, xxn 
 
 under this blow.^ 
 
 1352 
 
 With the battle of Mauron ended the second period of 
 the Breton war ; the struggle, however, continues, with 
 fewer incidents, and broken by frequent truces.^ 
 
 In Picardy, in April 1351 Robert Herle, newly appointed 
 Captain of Calais, sallied out and ravaged the district.^ 
 After Easter (17 April) Henry of Lancaster came out. The War 
 He had just been created Duke, the second in Enghsh 
 history, and was on his way to join a Crusade in Prussia 
 against the heathen. Having set foot in France he felt 
 bound to do something. He attacked Boulogne, burned 
 the lower town, and attempted to escalade the fortified 
 upper town, the former camp of Caesar's lieutenant, 
 Labienus. The scahng ladders, however, were too short, 
 and the attack failed. To make up for this disappointment 
 Lancaster wasted the whole country from Etaples to 
 Therouanne and Saint-Omer, and burned all the shipping in 
 the harbours.* Later in the year Herle was superseded in 
 favour of John Beauchamp, brother of the Earl of Warwick- 
 Beauchamp in turn went out to plunder and to harry ; but 
 his enterprise proved less successful ; he was defeated and 
 taken prisoner by the French.^ By the month of Septem- 
 ber, however, both parties were so weary of the war that 
 a truce was signed, to last to the 12th September 1352 ; 
 but, as the Leicester chronicler very fairly puts it, on the 
 understanding that either king should be at liberty to 
 disregard it if it suited him.^ Accordingly in January 1352 
 we find a party from Calais surprising Guisnes.' 
 
 The French likewise had resumed operations in the South. 
 Early in 1351 they laid siege to Montreal in the Agenais, 
 
 ' 14 August. See Avssbury, 315, and Bentley's report to the Chancellor, 
 Id. 316; Baker, 120; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 6. For the Order of the Star see 
 Froissart, I. 299 and notes. " La Borderie, 422. 
 
 ' Baker, 114. Herle's command began ist April ; Foed. III. 193. 
 
 ' Baker, 114; Northern Registers, 402 ; Knighton, 2602. 
 
 " 6 June ; Baker, 115; Froissart, 295 ; Foed. 236. 
 
 ° Foed. 227, 232 ; Knighton, 2603. 
 
 ' Baker, 116 ; Avesbury, 414 ; Le Bel, II. 167 ; Froissart, 298, 299. 
 
 B b 2 
 
374 A " MAXIMUM WAGE " 
 
 CHAP. XXII 4th of the year were the really interesting measures, being 
 ^73 the celebrated Acts respectively known as the Statute of 
 Labourers and the First Statute of Provisors.^ The resolu- 
 tions of the Parliament of 1343 had denounced sweeping 
 penalties of imprisonment and forfeiture against all persons 
 introducing Papal Bulls for ' prejudicial ' purposes, or for 
 getting possession of Church preferment by virtue of the 
 same. But no definite mode of procedure was prescribed. 
 The present measure seems to grapple more vigorously 
 
 Provisors '^^^h the evil. It ' estabhshes and ordains ' that the rights 
 of canonical electors, and of spiritual and lay patrons shall 
 be respected ; it orders all Provisors (i.e. persons availing 
 themselves of Papal Bulls), or their proctors, to be arrested, 
 and kept in prison, until they shall make ' fine and redemp- 
 tion' to the King's satisfaction ; it declares all presentations 
 made by Papal ' Provisions ' or ' Reservations ' to be wholly 
 void, and confers the right of filling up such vacancies 
 upon the King, at least in all cases where the invaded 
 patronage belonged to spiritual patrons.^ It will be 
 seen that the party who gained most by the Act was 
 the party most to blame for the continuance of Provisions, 
 namely, the King, a point to which we shall refer more 
 fully below. 
 
 Statute of The Statute of Labourers gave Parliamentary sanction 
 a ourer . ^^ ^j^^ ordinances already published by the King in Council 
 against the ' malice of servants ', who refused to serve ' Great 
 Men and others ' for the wages accustomed before the 
 Plague. Labourers must hire themselves out by the year, 
 and not by the day ; hay must be mown for $d. the acre, 
 the current prices being from 6d. to X2d. ; a quarter of 
 wheat or rye must be threshed for 2^d., ' if so much was 
 given before,' the current rates being ^d. and ^d. the quarter.^ 
 The regulations extended to all descriptions of handworkers, 
 carpenters, stone-masons, tilers, bargemen, shoemakers, 
 
 ^ Statutes, I. 311, 316. 
 
 ' 25 Edw. Ill, St. 4 ; Statutes, I. 316 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 232. The preamble of 
 the Act recites the Statute of Carlisle as prohibiting ' Provisions'. So also Rot. 
 Parlt. II. 144. The penalties appointed by the present Act were supplemented 
 in the next session. 3 Rogers, II. 312. 
 
PAPAL PROVISIONS 375 
 
 jewellers, tailors, and the like. All kinds of servants, artificers chap, xxii 
 and workmen must be sworn before justices to lend their j^j; 
 services for rates of pay below those obtainable in the open 
 market. " Ceppes " (stocks) must be set up in every town 
 for the punishment of ' rebels '.^ Altogether the Act was 
 a vigorous attempt to make water flow uphill. 
 
 Nosubsidy was voted, probably because the triennial grants 
 made in 1348 were not yet exhausted, but the 405. duty on 
 wool was at last voted, and voted for two years.^ Weary of 
 protesting against unconstitutional grants obtained from 
 magnates or merchant assemblies, the Commons probably 
 came to the conclusion that if they submitted to vote the 
 tax themselves they might eventually obtain a substantial 
 control over it. The day that Parliament rose the King 
 issued writs for Convocations, and obtained from the clergy 
 grants of Tenths for two years.' 
 
 The Statute of Provisors marks a double era in the End of 
 history of the English Church ; it marks the beginning of e'l^c't^ons 
 the breach with Rome, and it marks the practical end of 
 the capitular election of bishops. Both clergy and laity 
 had realized the fact that if they would put an end to Papal 
 interference they must make it worth the King's while to 
 co-operate with them. The laity probably cared but little 
 for the rights of canonical electors, but even the clergy 
 thought that of two evils, they would rather have their 
 bishops named by the King than by the Pope ; and 
 accordingly the Act was so worked as to make over all " the 
 reality of the appointments" to the Crown. When a See 
 fell vacant the Chapter received, together with the conge 
 d'elire, the name of the person that the King was prepared 
 to accept. " He also, by letter to the Pope, requested that 
 the same person might be appointed by Provision. With 
 equal subserviency the Chapters elected and the Pope 
 provided." * The eventual position of the Crown of 
 
 ' 25 Edw. Ill, St. 2 ; Statutes, I. 311 ; Rot. Parlt. 11. 233. 
 " Rot. Parlt. 229. ' Foed. III. 214 ; Wake, 296. 
 
 * Hook, Archbishops, IV. 115. See a proclamation issued by the King in 
 March 1353 ; Foed. 256. 
 
376 STATUTE 
 
 CHAP. XXII England as the heir of the Papacy is thus already fore- 
 
 ^^ shadowed. 
 New The passing of the Act must be associated with the policy 
 
 Primate. ^^ ^-^q new Primate, big Simon of Islip> An Oxford man 
 and a Fellow of Merton College, he had worked his way 
 up in the official school under the auspices of Archbishop 
 Stratford and Bishop Burghersh ; the latter made him 
 Canon of Lincoln, the former made him Dean of Arches. 
 He was introduced to the King ; " he rose rapidly in the 
 royal favour " : he became one of the King's confidential . 
 clerks, and Keeper of the Privy Seal. Stratford looked to 
 him as his natural successor.^ Stratford, however, as we 
 have seen, was succeeded first by Offord and then by 
 Bradwardine ; after that came Simon's turn ; the Canter- 
 bury Chapter elected him, and the Pope, again ignoring 
 the fact of the election, ' provided ' him. On the 2oth 
 December 1349 he was consecrated at St. Paul's.^ 
 
 On Friday the 13th January 1352 a session of Parliament 
 
 was again opened at Westminster.* On the 17th of the 
 
 month the Commons were summoned to the Royal presence 
 
 Pariia- in the White Chamber. William of Shareshill, Chief 
 
 ™ ' Justice of the King's Bench, opened the proceedings. He 
 
 dwelt on the King's ' succession by inheritance ' ^ to the 
 
 crown of France ; on the war ; the repeated infractions 
 
 of the truce ; and the continued resistance to the King's 
 
 ' rights ' offered by ' John the son of his late adversary '. 
 
 The King thanked the Commons for their past ' aids ', and 
 
 requested them to be ready, prepared ' to advise on the 
 
 said matters, in the Painted Chamber, next morning, 
 
 directly after sunrise '. Still further to expedite matters, 
 
 Shareshill suggested that the Commons should delegate 
 
 twenty-four or thirty of their number, to meet some of the 
 
 ' Great Men ' in the Painted Chamber, the rest of the Com- 
 
 * His supposed coffin, opened at Canterbury in 1787, measured 6 feet 10 inches 
 in length inside ; Hook, sup. 112. 
 ^ Id. 113 ; Birchington, Angl. Sacr. I. 41, 43 ; Foed. III. 139. 
 " Reg. Sacr. ; Angl. Sacr. sup. 43. 
 ' Lords' Report. The session rose on the nth February. 
 ' ' Succession de heritage.' 
 
OF TREASONS 377 
 
 mons retiring to the Chapter House, to receive the report chap, xxii 
 of the delegates, and so come to a final accord. The kind ^^ 
 suggestion was not acted on. On the Friday — not on the 
 Wednesday — " the whole House presented itself." The 
 Prince of Wales received them, and the Chief Justice delivered 
 another speech ; but no immediate agreement was effected. 
 The upshot of several conferences was that the Commons 
 again voted Fifteenths and Tenths for three years, and the 
 King agreed to pass several acts, of which the most important 
 was the so-called Statute of Treason.^ The recent multi- 
 plication of " constructive " treasons had already been 
 matter of complaint ; the King therefore agreed that for 
 the future the legal offence should be limited to the following 
 
 cases : (i) Compassing the death of the King, his Queen, Statute of 
 1 • , / , f T^ , , ■ , ^ , , , ! Treasons, 
 
 or his eldest son ; (2) Debauchmg the Cjueen, the eldest 
 
 unmarried daughter of the King, or the wife of his eldest 
 
 son ; (3) Levying war against the King within the realm ; 
 
 (4) Adhering to the King's enemies within the realm, or 
 giving them comfort or aid within or without the realm ; 
 
 (5) Counterfeiting the Great Seal, or the King's money ; 
 
 (6) Importing base coin knowing the same to be base ; 
 
 (7) Slaying the Chancellor, the Treasurer, or any one of the 
 King's Justices, being in his ' place ' and doing his office. 
 To establish a conviction under either of the first four 
 heads the Act requires an overt act to be alleged, and proved 
 to the satisfaction of a jury of persons of the same condition 
 in life as the accused.^ 
 
 The fifth and sixth heads have been repealed to make 
 way for more suitable enactments : ^ the other sections 
 remain the law of the land to this day. It may be noticed 
 that conspiracy to levy war against the King is not specified 
 as a treasonable act, a clear omission, which has been met 
 in practice by charging such acts as cases of ' compassing ' 
 the King's death. The miscellaneous provisions of the Act 
 
 » Rot. Parlt. II. 236-242. 
 
 ^ 25 Edw. Ill, St. 5, c. 2 ; Statutes, I. 319 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 239. On the 
 Act see Stephen's Blackstone, IV. 210. 
 =■ II Geo. IV and i Will. IV. c. 66, and 2 Will. IV. c. 34. 
 
378 ORDINANCES 
 
 CHAP. XXII included one declaring all persons who should purchase 
 7777 a ' Provision ' to an abbey or priory liable to the penalties 
 of outlawry and forfeiture, penalties subsequently known 
 by the dread name of Praemunire} 
 
 The quiet resistance offered by the Commons to the 
 insidious suggestion of the Chief Justice shows how fully 
 on their guard they were in their dealings with the King. 
 In July an innovation of a disquieting appearance was 
 introduced. Writs were issued directing the return of one 
 knight from each shire, and one burgess from nine seaport 
 towns, with two from London and one from York. The 
 assembly, however, appears merely to have acted in aid of 
 the Council. " It was not, in fact, so dangerous as were 
 the conferences with the merchants; " and no complaint 
 of its proceedings was raised in Parliament.^ 
 
 On the 23rd September 1353 another anomalous assembly 
 met at Westminster ; the lay and spiritual peers were sum- 
 moned, with one belted knight from each shire, and two 
 burgesses from each of thirty-eight towns. " This body 
 acted very much as a parliament ", but it is described on 
 the Rolls as a ' Council ' and its acts were not at first enrolled 
 as Statutes.^ It was in fact an expanded merchant 
 assembly, summoned to sanction a change of mercantile 
 policy. 
 
 The attitude of the government with regard to Staples, 
 fixed marts to which traders were compelled to resort for 
 the sale or purchase of certain kinds of goods, had always 
 fluctuated according to the political or economic views 
 prevalent from time to time at Court, or the influences that 
 might be brought to bear upon the King. For the ad- 
 ministration the concentration of traffic would facilitate the 
 collection of dues ; while local interests would be keenly 
 alive to the importance of securing a monopoly of important 
 business. " The growth of the system must date from the 
 reign of Edward I, who had bought the town of Antwerp 
 
 ' 25 Edw. Ill, St. s, c. 22 ; Stephen's Blackstone, IV. 240. 
 " Bp. Stubbs, II. 428 ; Lords' Report, IV. 593, &c. 
 ° Bp. Stubbs, sup. 429. 
 
OF THE STAPLE 379 
 
 from the Duke of Brabant, and established there the chap, xxn 
 foreign centre for the wool trade." ^ Here the purpose of ~ 
 developing his new acquisition is obvious. Edward H 
 established domestic Staples in sixteen of the principal 
 towns at home, the foreign Staple being removed from 
 Antwerp to Saint-Omer. The home Staples were all abolished 
 by the Northampton Parliament of 1328 ; having been 
 re-established, they were again put down by the York 
 Parliament of 1334.^ In 1341, to secure the Flemish alliance, 
 Edward had set up a foreign Staple at Bruges ; in 1347 it 
 was transferred to Calais. Now the King had been per- 
 suaded to re-establish Staples of wool, leather and lead at 
 home, keeping on Calais as the foreign Staple.^ The 
 Council gladly gave its assent, and the details of the new 
 arrangement were settled between the peers and the 
 commoners. Ten Staple towns were named for England, 
 one for Wales, and four for Ireland ; but the curious thing 
 is that natives were prohibited under the severest penalties 
 from exporting Staple goods, or being in the smallest degree 
 interested, directly or indirectly, in the sale of them 
 abroad, or even receiving payment abroad for what they 
 had sold at home. On the other hand every encouragement 
 was offered to foreign merchants to visit England with 
 their goods. The prior rules forced the English wool- 
 grower to send his wool to Bruges, for the benefit of the 
 Flemings : now the idea was to force the foreign buyer to 
 come to England for his wool, the avowed object of the 
 measure being to replenish the realm with gold, silver, and 
 foreign merchandise.* The regulations as subsequently 
 confirmed by a regular Act of ParHament amount to a code 
 of Staple law, and became the foundation on which all 
 subsequent legislation on the subject was based. The 
 ordinances show that the merchants attending a Staple 
 
 ^ Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 431, citing Foed. II. 206. A foreign Staple had 
 existed previously at Dordrecht ; A. L. Jenckes, Staple of England (Philadelphia, 
 1908). ' Foed. 879. ^ Statutes, I. 332. 
 
 ' 27 Edw. Ill, St. 2 ; Statutes, I. 332 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 246-253. For the prin- 
 ciples of the "Mercantile System" and the " Balance of Trade" see A. Smith, 
 "Wealth of Nations," Book IV. 
 
38o " PRAEMUNIRE " 
 
 CHAP. XXII were treated as a community apart, living in quarters 
 7771 appointed for them, electing their own mayors and consta- 
 bles, who governed and judged them, not according to 
 Common Law, but according to Law Merchant, usages that 
 had grown to have the force of laws, which the merchants 
 were sworn to maintain. In some cases the Merchants of 
 a Staple had already obtained corporate recognition, with 
 a seal of their own.^ Thus it would seem that the system 
 involved the establishment of a gild, or close corporation 
 of men authorized to deal in the Staple articles in each 
 Staple town, these men being known as the Merchants of the 
 Staple. Thus the system put limits not only on the places 
 where, but also on the persons by whom, the Staple article 
 might be dealt in. For these Staple gilds, however, we might 
 compare the modern Stock Exchanges or Coal Exchanges. 
 
 In consideration of the passing of these popular measures 
 the assembly took on itself to grant a continuance of the 
 surtaxes on wool, leather and lead for three years from 
 Michaelmas.^ 
 
 But the assembly did not confine itself to mercantile 
 affairs. It also passed an Ordinance subjecting all persons 
 who should sue in foreign courts for matters cognizable in 
 the King's Courts to the penalties of outlawry and forfeiture.^ 
 This measure when enrolled as an Act of Parliament became 
 known as the First Statute of Praemunire, a title that 
 might more correctly have been applied to the Statute of 
 Provisors of 1351. Both measures of course were entirely 
 directed against the Papacy. 
 
 New days were at hand, and old things were passing away. 
 The year that saw the First Statute of Praemunire enacted 
 The Cross- also witnessed the end of the terrible question of the cross- 
 earing- bearing, that for ages had practically kept the Northern 
 Primate out of the sphere of politics. The happy settlement 
 of the question was in great part due to the good sense and 
 moderation of the two Archbishops, Simon of IsHp and 
 
 ' So at York as early as 1327 ; Jenckes, sup. 14, 15. See also Bp. Stubbs, 
 
 n. 431- 
 
 ' Rot. Parlt. II. 252. ^ 27 Edw. Ill, st. i, c. i. 
 
ARCHBISHOPS' CROSSES 381 
 
 John of Thoresby/ both of whom were men of the world chap.xxh 
 and men of business. But it was also largely due to the j 
 fact that churchmen were beginning to reahze that in face 
 of the growing alienation of the laity it was time to close 
 their ranks in self-defence. The arrangement took the 
 form of an arbitration, the King being the arbiter.^ On 
 the 20th April 1353 the two Primates met in the Palace at 
 Westminster ; Islip agreed that the Archbishop of York 
 should be at liberty to carry his cross erect within the 
 Province of Canterbury ; and Thoresby agreed to bind his 
 successors within the space of two months after their 
 consecration to present at the Shrine of St. Thomas a gold 
 image or jewel of the worth of £40. In Councils and 
 Parliaments the Archbishop of Canterbury would sit on 
 the King's right hand, the Archbishop of York on his left, 
 both with crosses erect. In procession they would walk 
 abreast ; if the narrowness of the way made that impossible 
 precedence would be given to Canterbury.^ 
 
 The year closed with the death of one Pope, and the A new 
 installation of a successor. Clement VI died on the 6th ^ ' 
 December. On the 30th of the month Etienne Aubert, 
 a Limousin and distinguished canon lawyer, was crowned at 
 Avignon under the style of Innocent VI. A quiet conscien- 
 tious man, he did his best to purify the Papal Court, and 
 reform the abuses prevalent under his predecessors.* Of 
 the Avignon Popes he was probably the best. 
 
 On the 28th April 1354 a full, formal ParHament met at Parlia- 
 Westminster.^ The Ordinances of the Staple were laid before 
 the Houses, and duly confirmed and enacted, with some 
 emendations.® A fair amount of general business was also 
 
 ' John of Thoresby (Thursby in Wensleydale), an Oxford man, being Keeper 
 of the Privy Seal, was consecrated Bishop of St. Davids in September 1347 ; in 
 June 1349 he succeeded Offord as Chancellor ; in the following November he was 
 translated to Worcester ; and again to York on the 22nd October, 1352. In the 
 Northern Province Thoresby came after William de la Zouche, who had been 
 consecrated 7 July 1342 in succession to Melton, who died in 1340 ; Foss, Judges, 
 III. 523 ; Reg. Sacr. ' " Mediante Rege." 
 
 ^ Angl. Sacr. I. 75. The compact was confirmed by the new Pope Innocent VI. 
 
 ' H. Nicolas ; Milman, V. 498, 547. 
 
 " The session lasted till the 20th May ; Lords' Report. 
 
 ' Rot. Park. II. 254-257 ; 28 Edw. Ill, cc. 12-15 > Statutes, I. 347, &c. 
 
382 
 
 EXAGGERATED 
 
 CHAP. XXII 
 1354 
 
 Commons 
 
 alitor 
 
 Peace. 
 
 Negotia- 
 tions. 
 
 transacted. The Crown was forbidden to reappoint 
 sheriffs after the expiration of their year of ofi&ce — an 
 effectual blow to the influence of these functionaries — and 
 the King agreed that goods taken by way of purveyance 
 under 20s. in value should be paid for in ready money. 
 The exportation of iron was forbidden, the price having 
 risen from ^d. to I2d. the stone since the Plague. The 
 Commons would have liked some further measures against 
 the labourers, who refused to take wages in corn ; who 
 refused to engage by the half year or the quarter ; and who 
 took to renting small farms as an excuse for not taking 
 service by the half year. The King, however, thought that 
 the existing legislation might suffice for a while.^ 
 
 Of the general feeling with respect to the war this Parlia- 
 ment gave "unmistakable evidence". After the petitions 
 had been read and answered, Bartholomew Burghersh, the 
 Lord Chamberlain, explained the state of the negotiations 
 with France, stating that there were good hopes of a final 
 peace, but that the King would settle nothing without the 
 assent of Lords and Commons. The Commons answered that 
 whatever might be pleasing to the King and the Great Men 
 would be acceptable to them. Pressing for a more explicit 
 answer the Chamberlain said : 
 
 " Donques vous voillez assentir au Tretee de pees per- 
 petuele si homme la puisse avoir ? 
 
 Et les dites communes responderent entierement et unie- 
 ment, 'Oil, Oil'."^ 
 
 The state of the peace negotiations was as follows. 
 On the 6th April (1354) a truce for another year had been 
 arranged. In giving his instructions to the plenipotentiaries 
 Edward had authorized them to treat for a final peace on 
 the basis of his renouncing his pretensions to the Crown 
 of France.^ The concessions expected in return were to 
 include, it would seem, the absolute cession of Guienne, 
 Ponthieu, and Normandy, with all recent conquests in 
 Brittany or France, the whole in absolute dominion. 
 
 '■ See 28 Edw. Ill ; Statutes, I. 345-349 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 254-262. 
 ^ Rot. Parlt. 262. = Feed. III. 275-277. 
 
EXPECTATIONS 383 
 
 Edward hinted that he might not insist upon Normandy, chap, xxh 
 but he asked for the overlordship of Flanders — terms that ^^ 
 no King of France could have listened to for one moment.^ 
 But the English did not at all realize that fact, and the 
 national expectations had been wound up to the highest 
 pitch.^ The new Pope Innocent VI had shown himself 
 quite as zealous in the cause of peace as his predecessors.^ 
 Accordingly it was agreed that the terms of the treaty should 
 be finally settled at Avignon, with the Pope as arbiter, but 
 ' extra-judicially,' and ' in a private capacity only.' The 
 1st October was the day fixed for the meeting of the con- 
 ference y the Bishops of Norwich * and London ^ and the 
 Duke of Lancaster were the English plenipotentiaries, while 
 the Peers spiritual and lay appointed special delegates to 
 bind their private interests, so far as they might be specially 
 affected.* To make the pacification complete a treaty was 
 sealed for the liberation of David of Scotland, in considera- 
 tion of a money ransom of 90,000 marks, to be paid by 
 nine annual instalments.' 
 
 The hopes of all were doomed to be equally disappointed. Their 
 When the English embassy reached Avignon on Christmas "^" 
 Eve they found that the Duke of Bourbon, the French 
 plenipotentiary, was not prepared to surrender the homage 
 due for any particle of French soil ; the French refused to 
 dismember France, and the conference broke up in January 
 1355 an utter failure.^ As a necessary consequence the 
 Scottish treaty broke down also, and the unfortunate David 
 remained in his bonds. 
 
 ' See the statement of Burghersh to the Grand Council or anomalous Parlia- 
 ment of 1353 ; Rot. Parlt. II. 251 ; Avesbury,42i ; Baker, 123 ; Knighton, 2607. 
 
 ' Avesbury ; Murimuth, Cont. 183 (Hog) ; Foed. III. 303. 
 
 ' See Foed. 254-269. 
 
 ' William Bateman, consecrated 23 May 1344 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 ^ Michael Northburgh, Bishop Elect ; he was not consecrated till the 12th July 
 1355; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 ' 28th August; Foed. 283-285. On the 30th October the King signed a 
 special authority to settle boundaries. 
 
 ' Foed. 281, 285-293 ; Rot. Scot. I. 766-773. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2607, 2608 ; Avesbury and Murimuth, Cont., sup. ; Baker, 124. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1355, 1356 
 
 Charles of Navarre and the Kings of France and England. — Resumption of the 
 War. — Prince of Wales in Gascony. — ^Ten days' campaign in Picardy. — 
 Parliament. — Scottish affairs. — Berwick lost and recovered again. — Devasta- 
 tion of the Lothians. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII With the breakdown of the negotiations at Avignon an 
 ~~" early renewal of the war became once more a certainty ; and 
 
 Prospect a^gairi Edward had a useful ally holding out his hand to him 
 
 of War. from his adversary's camp. Since the marriage of Phihp 
 the Fair of France with Jeanne of Champagne, Queen of 
 Navarre, the two crowns had been closely linked. At 
 Jeanne's death (1305) her son Louis X (Hutin) succeeded 
 to Navarre. At his death his daughter Jeanne II ought 
 undoubtedly to have succeeded to Navarre ; but his 
 brother Philip V [Le Long) laid hands on both crowns ; so 
 did Charles IV {Le Bel) : at his death, however, tardy 
 justice was done to Jeanne II, who was allowed to ascend 
 the throne of Navarre, in conjunction with her husband, 
 Philip, Count of Evreux, son of Louis of Evreux, the youngest 
 brother of Philip the Fair. To the counties of Champagne 
 and Brie, Jeanne's family lands, she was not allowed to 
 succeed, possessions in Angouleme and La Marche being 
 allotted to her instead.^ In 1349 Jeanne II died, her 
 husband having passed away before her, whereupon their 
 
 Charles son Charles, aged 17, became King of Navarre. The Salique 
 Law apart, he was heir to the Crown of France, a fact that 
 could never be absent from his thoughts ; and, if only he 
 had been born in or before January 1328 he would have 
 
 ' See Sismondi, IX. 289, 299, 339, 350, and X. 8, 13, 403 ; Kitchin, I. 424; 
 and Genealogical Table above, p. 212. 
 
 the Bad. 
 
CHARLES LE MAUVAIS 385 
 
 completely cut the ground from under Edward's feet, as chap.xxiii 
 being the nearest male heir to the last King.^ Lord of ^T77 
 himself, Charles made a bad start, and in the year of his 
 accession gained the unenviable name of Charles the Bad 
 through the cruelty that he exhibited in suppressing a 
 supposed conspiracy at Pampeluna.^ He is described as 
 a little man, quick-witted, intelligent and well read, gifted 
 with ready speech, and plausible winning manners ; but 
 utterly false, selfish, and unprincipled. King of Navarre, 
 a Peer of France, Count of Mortain and Evreux, lord of 
 Longueville, Mantes, Nogent-le-Roi and other lands in 
 Normandy and the valley of the Seine, he was altogether 
 a personage enjoying considerable opportunities for giving 
 trouble. As early as the ist August 1353 we find him 
 sealing a treaty with Edward for the recovery of Cham- 
 pagne and Brie.^ King John felt the importance of securing 
 his kinsman ; he declared him of age, put him into pos- 
 session of all his estates, invited him to Paris, and gave 
 him his daughter eight years old in marriage. But there 
 John's kindness began and ended. He withheld the 
 dowry promised with his daughter, and also divers lands 
 claimed by Charles. Angouleme, formerly held by Charles's 
 mother, the King conferred on his prime favourite, the 
 other Charles, the Constable, Charles de la Cerda. A deadly 
 quarrel between the two ensued ; and the whole court was 
 filled with their contentions.* The King of Navarre made 
 short work of his rival. On the night of the 8th January 
 1354 he came down upon Laigle in Normandy, where the 
 Constable happened to be quartered, and had him brutally 
 murdered in his bed. John's rage knew no bounds ; but 
 Charles was too much for him. He boasted of the deed, and 
 threw himself into the arms of the King of England.^ John 
 bowed to necessity. On the 28th February a treaty was 
 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 93. ^ Sismondi, X. 402. 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 228. ' Le Bel, II. 169 ; Froissart, I. 301. 
 
 ° Grandes Chroniques, VI. 7; DeNangis, Cont. III. 113 ; and Charles's letter 
 to Edward of the i8th January ; MS. Caligula, D. Ill, printed by Mr. James, 
 " Black Prince," Appendix ; " Je I'ai avouee plainement " (i.e. the murder) " je 
 . . . I'ai fait faire." 
 
 1415-1 C C 
 
388 A TEN DAYS' 
 
 cHAP.xxin too, Charles may have been more anxious to secure terms for 
 7^ himself, than to bring over the English hordes to devour 
 his substance. An independent expedition to Brittany that 
 was to have sailed under the Duke of Lancaster was also 
 given up ; but Edward intimated that at Michaelmas he 
 would take an army over to Calais.^ 
 
 Sailing of About the 26th October he landed there. ^ His army 
 ■^mg- j^g^^ heen swelled by Northern levies under Percy and the 
 Bishop of Durham,^ who, rashly trusting to an armistice 
 concluded with the Douglas, had ventured for once to 
 leave their proper sphere of duty on the Border. A further 
 body of mercenaries from Flanders, Brabant and Germany 
 also joined him at Calais,* making altogether a formidable 
 army, but no trustworthy estimate can be given of their 
 numbers.^ On the 2nd November the King marched out 
 of Calais ; King John was understood to be lying somewhere 
 between Saint-Omer and Amiens ; Edward accordingly 
 took the road to Saint-Omer, laying all waste around him. 
 The first night the English encamped between Guisnes and 
 Ardres ; the next day they swept past the walls of Saint- 
 Omer, and so advancing by easy stages came to Blangy 
 on the river Ternoise. There the advanced guard met 
 a French knight, Jehan le Maingre or Maigre, surnamed 
 Boucicault, a future Marshal of France and father of 
 another and a more celebrated Marshal. Boucicault had 
 been taken prisoner by the English on some former occasion, 
 and was out on his parole.® John had sent him as if to 
 surrender to his parole ; but in reality to spy out the English 
 camp. Edward let him see all that he wished to see, and 
 then sent him back to his master, free of ransom, with 
 a message to the effect that the King of England would 
 await the King of France for three days 'on French soil. 
 John, however, kept close under the walls of Amiens, and 
 even wasted the country beforehand to check the Enghsh 
 
 ' Foed. III. 312 ; Avesbury, sup., and 327. - Le Bel, II. 180. 
 
 ' Thomas of Hatfield, consecrated 10 July 1345 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 " Scalacr. 303 ; Avesbury, 427, 428 ; Knighton, sup. 
 
 " Knighton gives Edward the very likely force of 2,000 archers ; but appends 
 15,000 men-at-arms (!). ' " H alait sur sa foi ; " Le Bel. 
 
CAMPAIGN 389 
 
 advance. The result was that when the three days were chap.xxiii 
 out, Edward wheeled round by Hesdin towards Boulogne, j, 
 and so brought a most fruitless ten days' campaign to a 
 close. On the nth November he returned to Calais. Next 
 day French envoys appeared with a challenge for the 17th 
 November. Edward declined the 17th, but offered to give 
 battle on the 13th, or the 14th at the very latest. According 
 to the English writers he eventually accepted the 17th ; but 
 we may take it that neither King had any serious intention of 
 fighting. Edward had just received badnews from home. The 
 Scots, taking advantage of the defenceless state of the Border, 
 had recovered the town of Berwick, and were laying close 
 siege to the castle.-"- Edward paid off his foreign auxiliaries at 
 once, and returned home in time to open a session of Parlia- 
 ment, which met at Westminster on the 23rd November.^ 
 
 The Issue Rolls of the preceding year show good cause for 
 the summoning of Parliament. From Michaelmas 1354 to 
 Michaelmas 1355 the expenditure had risen to the un- 
 equalled sum of £222,000, the receipts only amounting to 
 £178,000.^ The proceedings of the session were opened by 
 Walter, Lord Manny, who gave a sketch of the diplomatic 
 and military efforts of the past year ; and then asked for 
 a subsidy for the war against the Scots. A prolongation for Parlia- 
 six years of the extra duties on leather and wool was granted; "* ° ' 
 and the King moved off to the North without waiting for 
 the close of the session. 
 
 In the spring of the year, when a renewal of the war 
 with England was seen to be imminent, the French had 
 sent over to Scotland one Eugene de Garencieres, an agent 
 already known in that country.* De Garencieres brought 
 with him a small body of men-at-arms ; and " which was 
 of more importance " 40,000 " moutons d'or "^. The Scottish 
 
 ' Avesbury, 428, 431 ; Le Bel, II. 177-183 ; Froissart, I. 304-310 ; De Nangis, 
 Cont. III. 113; Knighton, 2610; Murimuth, Cent. 186; Grandes Chroniques, 
 VI. 18. * Lords' Report ; Rot. Parlt. 11. 264, 265. 
 
 ' Pell Rolls, Mich, and Easter, 29 Edw. III. 
 
 ■' Exchequer Rolls Scot. I, cxlix. 
 
 " French gold crowns or ' escus', also called ' moutons' from the impress of the 
 Agnus Dei. 
 
390 
 
 RASH 
 
 1355 
 Move- 
 ments in 
 Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII magnates took the money thankfully, and promised to 
 make war without delay .^ Communications were opened 
 with the independent Irish, for a combined attack on the 
 common foe : but the English government was not caught 
 napping. The Irish rose and suffered a severe defeat.^ The 
 Scots advanced to the Border, but found the Northern levies 
 ready for them. William Douglas (afterwards the ist Earl) 
 then signed the truce that enabled the English Marchers 
 to follow Edward to Calais. The Scots had little reason to 
 stir up hostilities, because it is clear that by far the greater 
 part of the territory won by the English after the battle of 
 Neville's Cross had been recovered.^ But, unfortunately for 
 Scotland, the Regent, Robert Stewart, and Dunbar the Earl 
 of March found themselves unable to accept the truce. 
 They had taken the Frenchman's money, and he insisted 
 upon action. As soon as they had word that Edward had 
 crossed the Channel, they gathered a force of shipping, 
 landed at Berwick, and carried the town by nocturnal 
 escalade (6th November).* 
 
 A previous skirmish that happened in the month of 
 October deserves notice, perhaps, because to it we seem to 
 be indebted for the Scalacronica, the interesting Border 
 chronicle composed in rather Northumbrian French by 
 Thomas Grey of Heton. Grey came of a good old stock ; 
 he was Constable of Norham, and " sunne to Thomas Gray 
 that had beene 3 tymes besegid by the Scottes in Norham 
 castel yn King Edwarde the secunde dayes " ; ^ and 
 apparently grandson of a man who was wounded in the 
 
 Berwick 
 won, 
 
 ' Fordun ; Scalacr. 303. Scotichr. II. 350 ; Wyntoun. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2609 ; cf. Foed. III. 326, 327 ; Four Masters, I. 607. 
 
 ^ Knighton, sup.; Scalacr. 304. Cf. Rot. Scot. I. 775-777. As a matter of 
 fact the English holds in Scotland at this time were simply Berwick, Roxburgh, 
 Jedburgh, Dumfries, and Lochmaben, with garrisons of 40 to 60 ' plated ' horse 
 each. Stevenson, Illustrations Scottish Hist. 60. 
 
 ' Avesbury, 431. Cf. Scalacr. 304 ; Fordun; A. Wyntoun, 11. 272 ; Scotichr. 
 II. 35r ; Rot. Scot. I. 782. The Regent was not actually present : the assault 
 was led by Thomas Stewart, Earl of Angus, but the Regent took possession of 
 Berwick as soon as it was won. 
 
 '' Scalacr. 304. Leiand's abstract, also given by Stevenson in an Appendix to 
 the French text, 303, 304. 
 
TRUCE-BREAKING 391 
 
 Wallace rising in 1297.^ Grey was enticed into an ambus- chap.xxiii 
 cade by the Eari of March, who sent a party across the ^777 
 Tweed to plunder round Norham; the Constable came to 
 the rescue, as in duty bound ; the Scots retired, and drew 
 him on to Nesbit muir, between Kelso and Roxburgh, where 
 their main body was posted. After a stout fight Grey was 
 captured, and, taking to the pen until he was again free 
 to wield the sword, sat down to write history in the quiet 
 seclusion of Edinburgh castle.^ 
 
 But the hand of the avenger came down swiftly and surely and lost, 
 on the heads of the offending Scots. Before the end of 
 December Edward was at Durham, caUing for general levies. 
 Manny was sent on to relieve the garrison of Berwick castle; 
 on the 13th January 1356 the townsmen opened their gates 
 and begged for mercy.* 
 
 The Scottish Regent at once took steps to reopen negotia- 
 tions ; * but Edward was resolved to press his advantage. 
 He had been endeavouring for some time to get rid of his 
 puppet king, Balliol, who hampered all his negotiations 
 with the Scots. But Balliol clung to his shadowy crown, 
 and kept carefully aloof from the English court.^ The 
 advance of the King's army cut short his hesitation. On Abdication 
 the 20th January he made over his kingdom, and all his Ballio™ 
 property and rights, public and private, to the King of 
 England, in consideration of a sum of 5,000 marks and a 
 life pension of £2,000 a year.^ 
 
 ' See the pedigree in Raines, North Durham, copied by Stevenson, XXXIV, 
 and Id. XV. 
 
 ^ See Fordun, Wyntoun, the Scotichr., and Scalacr., sup., and Prologue to the 
 last, p. 2. 
 
 ^ Avesbury, 432, 450 ; Fordun; Murimuth, Cont.i86; Knighton, 2611 ; Foed. 
 III. 314. 
 
 * 17th January ; Foed. 317. C£. Knighton, 2611. 
 
 ^ See Rot. Scot. I. 763, 766 ; Foed. 279, 280. 
 
 ° Signed by Balliol at Roxburgh, 20-25 January, and by Edward at 
 Bamborough, 20 January ; Foed. 317-321, also 325, a proclamation for the 
 observance of Scottish laws and customs ; Avesbury, 451 ; Rot. Scot. I. 787, 799. 
 Balliol was established at Hatfield (' Haytefield,' Foed.) in Yorkshire, with 
 personal liberty to shoot and fish, but Edward evidently owed him considerable 
 sums for war expenditure ; Foed. 341, 345. Balliol died at Doncaster in the 
 latter half of 1363 ; Knighton. 
 
wasted. 
 
 392 THE PENALTY 
 
 cHAP.xxin Edward halted some days on the Border to see if his new 
 
 ^71^ subjects would recognize his authority; he even granted 
 
 a short truce to enable them to consider their position ; 
 
 but, finding that they were merely taking advantage of the 
 
 truce to remove their goods, he advanced to ' take seisin ' 
 
 Scotland by force. Marching in three columns the English reduced 
 to ashes every farm-house and village within twenty miles 
 of the coast.-^ At Haddington they were detained for ten 
 days, the fleet on which they depended for provisions being 
 kept at North Berwick by northerly gales — a visitation sent, 
 as the Scots believed, at the special intercession of the 
 Virgin Mary, whose shrine at Whitekirk ^ had been outraged. 
 When Haddington was evacuated the whole town was 
 given to the flames, including the church of the Friars 
 Minors, known for its beautiful choir as the Lantern of 
 Lothian.^ Edinburgh was the King's turning point ; * 
 after two days' stay there he took the road to the Border, 
 probably by Galashiels and Melrose ; the line of the modern 
 railway. The Scots hung on his rear, and made cruel havoc 
 of the sick, the wounded and the weary. The inroad was 
 one of the severest experienced in Southern Scotland. 
 For many a day the horrors of "Le Burnt Candlemas " 
 marked an epoch in the national memory ; ^ and for it 
 Scotland had again to thank the French alliance. 
 
 ' ' Per viginti leucas,' Avesbury ; ' per VIII leucas,' Knighton. 
 
 ' " Albam-Ecclesiam apud Baroniam de Hamyr ;" "Quhyt Kirk." 
 
 ' " Cujus chorus ob singularera pulchritudinem et luminis claritatem Lucerna 
 Laudoniae vocabatur ; " Scotichr. 
 
 * A list of the English garrison in Scotland in the 29th year (1355) gives John 
 Kingston as Constable of Edinburgh with 30 plated horsemen ; Illustrations 
 Scottish History, p. 60. Perhaps the garrison was left there at this time, but the 
 first payment of wages is due 13 December. 
 
 ' Avesbury, 454-456 ; Knighton, sup. ; Fordun, 374 ; Scotichr. 11. 354 ; 
 Scalacr. sup. ; cf. Froissart, I. 311. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1355-1357 
 
 The Prince of Wales in Gascony. — Raiding of Languedoc. — March to the Loire. — 
 Campaign and Battle of Poitiers. — ^Truce of Bordeaux. — Return to England. 
 
 We must now go back to follow the doings of the Prince chap, xxiv 
 of Wales in Gascony. In January (1356) great news had ^ 
 been received in London. The Prince had ridden for The Prince 
 seven weeks'- on French soil without finding an enemy to^^^^J^^^'" 
 cross swords with him. Out of eight weeks of campaigning 
 only eleven days had been given to rest ; he had led an 
 army that may be taken as, at most, between 4,000 and 
 5,000 men strong ^ from Bordeaux to the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, and back, with the loss of only one com- Raiding of 
 batant of knightly rank ; he had burned the suburbs of Languedoc. 
 Carcassonne and Narbonne, and altogether done an 
 amount of destruction unprecedented in the war. In fact 
 the districts raided corresponded to the greater part of 
 three Departments^ of modern France. So the Prince and 
 his secretary John Wingfield could boast.* 
 
 But young Edward, now twenty-four years old, had 
 under his orders a well-organized army of the best possible 
 material, led by experienced commanders, trained in long 
 years of warfare at home and abroad. There was abso- 
 
 ^ Including the marches on English territory the campaign lasted eight weeks 
 and two days. 
 
 " Above, p. 387, we saw that the Prince might have brought out 3,400 men. 
 For the Gascon contingent we must now add 1,000 men, making 4,400 men. 
 Baker, no doubt, p. 139, gives the total as 6,000 men ; so at least I venture to 
 render his " sexagesies mille ", because in the next campaign with some reinforce- 
 ments he has only 7,000 men. Sixty thousand men would pass even chroniclers' 
 estimates. 
 
 " Gers, Haute-Garonne, and Aude. 
 
 * See the reports, Avesbury, 434, 442 ; addressed to the Treasurer, William 
 of Edington, Bishop of Winchester (consecrated May 1346). 
 
394 FROM BORDEAUX 
 
 CHAP. XXIV lutely no army to face him in the field, and no attempt was 
 made to raise one. Everywhere at his coming the people 
 fled from their homes, and took refuge in their strongholds. 
 The story of the campaign is simply one' of devastation, 
 like that of the campaign of 1346. The reader need not 
 be troubled with too much detail of such work. The 
 Prince had reached Bordeaux by the 20th September,^ 
 eager for action. The Gascon lords urged an attack on 
 Armagnac, and an invasion of Languedoc, virgin soil. 
 The Count of Armagnac was the French King's Lieutenant 
 in the South, and Toulouse had been the starting-point of 
 many an expedition against Gascony.^ No further back 
 than the two preceding years Count Jean had led a furious 
 raid through the Agenais, Quercy, and Rovergue, advancing 
 defiantly to Aiguillon on the Garonne.^ All that we can 
 say therefore for the English is that the French were no 
 better. 
 
 On Monday 5 October the Prince marched out of Bor- 
 deaux, ascending the left bank of the Garonne ; seven 
 days' advance over friendly soil by Langon, Bazas and 
 Castelnau, brought him on the nth to Arouille in the 
 Landes, near Roquefort, and at no distance from La 
 Bastide d'Armagnac* Strict marching order was now 
 enforced, the army being arranged in three divisions, as 
 usual. The van was led by Warwick, the Earl Marshal, with 
 Cobham as Constable,^ and comprised the contingents of 
 the lords Beauchamp of^ Somerset and Roger Clifford, with 
 that of Thomas Hampton, Seneschal of the Landes and 
 Standard-bearer, and those of seven Gascon barons. The 
 Prince commanded the main body with the Earl of Oxford 
 and the Lords Burghersh, de Lisle, Willoughby d'Eresby, 
 De la Warr, Bourchier, de Ros, Maurice Berkeley, the Captal 
 de Buch, the Sire d'Albret, and other Gascon barons under 
 him. Suffolk and Salisbury brought up the rear with the 
 
 ' Roll of Expenses, printed, Beltz, Garter, 391. ' Avesbury, 434. 
 
 ' r352-i354. See Moisant, Le Prince Noir en Aquitaine, 29. 
 * See the Itinerary in Baker, by far the best, p. 128, with Sir E. M. Thompson's 
 identifications, 293 ; and map, 296. 
 
 ° Baker inverts the functions of these two officers. 
 
TO TOULOUSE 395 
 
 Gascon lord of Pommiers in command of the B6arnais.^ chap, xxiv 
 Edward le Despenser and Basset of Drayton are also named.^ ^7Z 
 At Arouille the Prince halted for a day ; continuing on the 
 13th he marched past the Bastide d'Armagnac, not without 
 some skirmishing, and on through hilly country to Monclar 
 (near Cazaubon) ; ^ on the 14th de Lisle received a wound 
 at Estang of which he died next day. Halting outside 
 Nogaro on the i6th October, the force on the 17th reached 
 Plaisance on the river Arros. In the morning the town 
 was burnt, as were all places within reach of the army on 
 its daily march. Advancing to Bassoues and Montesquieu, 
 the Prince on the 21st took up his quarters in the Cistercian 
 monastery of Berdoues two miles to the South of Mirande, 
 a place too strong to be attacked. Finding himself con- 
 fronted by ' the Pyrenees of Arragon ' Edward now turned 
 eastwards, and, passing from Armagnac into Asterac, 
 crossed successive spurs of the hills to Seissan, which was 
 burnt — contrary to the Prince's orders — and so on to 
 Simorre on the Gimone, and again across that river past 
 Sauveterre and Lombez to Samatan on the Save, which 
 place was reached on the 25th October. The town boasted 
 of a convent of Franciscans, but that did not save it ; both 
 town and convent were given to the flames. On the 26th 
 October the army marched through ' a fair open country ' 
 by Sainte-Foy to Saint-Lys.* At the latter place the Enghsh 
 halted on Tuesday 27th October, in the hope that the Count 
 of Armagnac and the Constable Jacques de Bourbon might 
 come out of Toulouse to fight. But the French kept within 
 their walls, so on the 28th October the army boldly crossed 
 both the Garonne and the Ariege in one day, at a point a 
 little above their confluence. The passage of the Garonne 
 is described as rocky, rough and dangerous, and that 
 of the Ariege as even worse. But a season of exceptional 
 drought made the feat possible. For twenty years, it was 
 said, the peasants had not seen the rivers so low.^ Drawing 
 
 '■ Baker, 129 ; Chandos Herald, 45. For the Gascon names see Froissart, 
 I. 314. ' Id. 304. ' Gers. * Haute-Garonne. 
 
 ' Baker and Avesbury, sup. ; Froissart, 314. 
 
396 FROM TOULOUSE 
 
 CHAP. XXIV still nearer to Toulouse the army halted at La Croix-Fal- 
 ,j garde, at the prudent distance of seven miles from the walls 
 of Toulouse. It was a fixed rule with the English com- 
 manders in their wars in France never to encamp within 
 striking distance of a fortified town. They were now in 
 a rich populous country, that probably had seen little war 
 since the days of the Albigensian Crusades, and the work 
 of devastation was pressed with renewed ardour. Turning 
 south-eastwards, within the next three days they succes- 
 sively occupied and destroyed Montgiscard, Baziege, Ville- 
 franche, Avignonet and Castelnaudary, thus entering the 
 modern department of Aude. Within that time thirty-two 
 windmills alone were destroyed. Castelnaudary was rich 
 in ecclesiastical foundations, having a collegiate church, 
 Franciscan and Carmelite convents, and a hospital dedicated 
 to St. Anthony. The army rested there on the ist November, 
 to keep the Feast, All Saints' Day ; but, at their leaving on 
 the morrow, town and convents alike were laid in ashes. 
 Continuing by Villepinte and Alzonne, on the 3rd November 
 they reached the suburbs of Carcassonne, a rich populous city 
 described as larger than London 'within the walls'. The forces 
 were drawn out in battle array, and knights were dubbed; but 
 no effectual resistance was offered, the whole population 
 having retired to the upper town or citadel, an impregnable 
 fortress, cut off by the waters of the Aude. The whole 
 army therefore entered, and took possession of the bourg 
 or lower town, comfortable and in fact luxurious quarters, 
 with cellars well filled with muscat wine.-"- An offer of 
 ransom to save the city was scornfully rejected by the 
 Prince, who said that he wanted not gold, but 'justice', i.e. 
 submission. The French refusing that, the fourth day, 
 6th November, was devoted to firing the lower town, which 
 in fact was ' clean destroyed ', all but the sacred buildings. 
 Two days of painful marching through stony country, amid 
 wind and dust, brought the army by Marseillette and Lesi- 
 gnan, across the river Orbieu, to the suburbs of Narbonne 
 (8 November). These are described as even larger than the 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 315. 
 
TO NARBONNE 397 
 
 bourg of Carcassonne . The bourg had to be stormed, while chap, xxiv 
 a " sniping " fire of cross-bow bolts and other missiles was ., 
 kept up night and day from the citadel. A messenger came Insight 
 in asking for a safe-conduct for Papal envoys. Rumours Mediter- 
 of the King's landing at Calais had reached the army ; the ranean. 
 Prince therefore kept the messenger waiting two days, and 
 then told him that he could do nothing without instructions 
 from his father.^ 
 
 By this time, however, the enemy were reported to be 
 gathering in force in the rear. The Prince held a council 
 of war, and decided to move northwards across the Aude, in 
 the hope, as he said, of bringing the enemy to an action, and 
 so advanced eight miles to Aubian on the Etang de Cobes- 
 tang, as if making for Besiers. But the move was apparently 
 a feint to put the enemy on a wrong scent, and cover his 
 retreat,^ as on the morrow and two following days he held 
 westwards and northwards through difficult country to 
 Homps and AziUe (Herault) ; and again across the Aude to 
 Comigne (near Copendu) ; ^ past Marseillette, thus leaving 
 Carcassonne at a safe distance to the right ; and so on to 
 Saint-Hilaire and Preixan, thus for the third time crossing 
 the Aude, and, of course, destroying everything as he went 
 (November 11-14). The next day took the army to the 
 neighbourhood of Fanjeaux, and the next again to that of 
 Belpech ; while on the 17th November, crossing either 
 the Vixiege or the Hers or both, the Prince, entering the 
 department of Ariege, rested at the convent of Boulbonne 
 near Mazeres. There the young Count of Foix, recently 
 escaped from a French prison, greeted him warmly. Next 
 day, descending the Hers to Calmon* and Auterive, accom- 
 panied by the Count, the English crossed their old friend 
 the Ariege to Miremont, and so to Montaut on the Garonne, 
 which they forded to the great astonishment of the natives, 
 who had removed all the ferry-boats. The day ended with 
 
 ' Avesbury, 435 ; and the summary report by Wingfield ; Id. 441. 
 ^ Vic et Vaissete, IV. 283, assert that the Prince retreated to the hills of 
 Cabardez and Miriervois to avoid being surrounded. 
 " Dept. Aude again. * Haute-Garonne. 
 
398 BACK TO BORDEAUX 
 
 CHAP. XXIV the storm of the fortified town of Carbonne. Next day, 
 ~ Thursday, 19 November, the army was indulged with a day 
 of much needed and very grateful rest.^ On the 20th, 
 however, they were marched out betimes in fighting trim. 
 Reports had come in through the night' that the Count of 
 Armagnac, with the Constable de Bourbon and Marshal de 
 Clermont, were coming down upon them from Toulouse. 
 Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh, with John Chandos and James 
 of Audley were sent out to reconnoitre ; they caught up the 
 tail of the rear-guard, the enemy having fallen back ; but 
 the main body kept out of reach, and the Prince at night 
 rested at Mauvesin near 1' Isle-en-Dodon, with the fires of the 
 enemy in sight, between Sauveterre and Lombez, but with 
 the waters of the river Save and a broken bridge between the 
 two armies. Descending the river the army had a heavy 
 march in rain to Aurade,^ near 1' Isle-en- Jourdain. There 
 it would seem that they crossed the Save, and then it 
 became a race which army should get first to Gimont, a 
 place of considerable strength ; but thanks to their start 
 the French scraped in with some loss, the English having to 
 camp out in neighbouring villages (22 November). Next 
 day the Prince had his men out in battle array by daybreak, 
 in faint hope that the French might yet come forward to 
 give battle. In fact they had taken advantage of the night 
 to effect a strategic retreat. On the 24th therefore the 
 homeward march was resumed.^ The second day brought 
 the army to the banks of the Gers ; a last hope that an 
 enemy might be found to dispute their progress was doomed 
 to disappointment, and the force was allowed to effect a 
 difficult passage without molestation ; leaving Fleurance 
 to the right they rested at Rejaumont near La Sauvetat 
 (25 November). The next day took them across the 
 swollen waters of the Baise to La Gardere beyond Valence, 
 between that place and Gondrin, while one more march 
 brought them out of Armagnac to friendly soil at Mezan.* 
 
 1 Baker. " Gers. 
 
 ^ Baker, 136, 137 ; the Prince's report ends here, Avesbury, 437. See also 
 Wingfield's report, 439. ' Lot-et-Garonne. 
 
MINOR RAIDS 399 
 
 There the Gascons and Bearnais were dismissed, and the chap, xxiv 
 standards furled. On the 2nd December the Prince rested „,_ 
 at La Reole ; by the gth he had returned to Bordeaux.^ 
 The want of spirit and incapacity of the French for guerilla 
 warfare was again made manifest. Not an attempt had 
 been made to cut off a single waggon-load of plunder, or 
 to rescue any one of the long train of prisoners with which 
 the army was encumbered.^ 
 
 When campaigning meant plunder and free quarters, hands 
 to do the work would seldom be wanting. After Christmas 
 the Prince sent out detached bands to operate in different 
 quarters. On the 22nd January 1356 Wingfield was able 
 to report a fresh list of five or six towns and seventeen 
 castles taken in the basin of the Garonne and its affluents. 
 The work of destruction extended to the cutting down of 
 vine trees.^ The English dominion, however, kept expand- 
 ing in all directions.* In February the Count of Perigord 
 found himself so pressed that he wrote to Avignon to beg 
 for help. 
 
 The Pope, it is said, made liberal offers to the Prince ; 
 but Edward, with that cool contempt for Church authority 
 that we have already noticed, answered that his father, 
 thanks to God, was not in want of money, but that he was 
 resolved to carry out his mission of chastising all rebels 
 in Aquitaine.^ Within a few days Perigueux opened its 
 gates to Jean de Greilly, the Captal de Buch. By the end 
 of May thirty more towns and castles had surrendered.^ 
 
 Before ever the war had recommenced in the autumn 
 
 ' Baker, 138 ; and Sir E. M. Thompson's notes and map, 296. Ten to fifteen 
 miles a day was the average march, with some shorter, a few of twenty miles 
 and more. 
 
 '' Le Bel, II. 187 ; Froissart, I. 321 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 19. 
 
 ^ Avesbury, 445-447. 
 
 '' Id. 449. See also Moisant, Le Prince Noir, 44. 
 
 " Avesbury, 456, 457. Early in March Innocent sent Simon of Sudbury, 
 afterwards Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, to London with 
 offers of mediation. Edward refused even to see him for five weeks, and eventu- 
 ally dismissed him on the 2nd May ; Id. 458 ; Foed. III. 328. 
 
 ° Avesbury, 449. For an act of sacrilege alleged to have been committed by 
 the Prince on Good Friday (22nd April), see Scotichr. II. 358, a hostile witness, 
 no doubt. 
 
400 
 
 FRENCH 
 
 Affairs of 
 France. 
 
 Estates 
 General. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV John had found himself in a state of insolvency, and obliged 
 777^ to order a suspension of all treasury payments till Easter.i 
 The outbreak of the war drove him to face the Estates 
 General, the last extremity of a King of France. On the 
 2nd December 1355 the Estates of Langue d'Oll met at 
 Paris. The assembly was not wanting in spirit. It voted 
 a subsidy deemed sufficient for the maintenance of 30,000 
 men-at-arms for a year ; the grant was made on condition 
 that the King should play no more tricks with the currency, 
 and give up the right of ' prisage ' — an abuse carried to 
 far greater lengths in France than in England ; a further 
 and most necessary condition was this, namely, that the 
 money should be raised and administered by the Estates 
 themselves. The taxes agreed upon to raise the money 
 were a gdbelle on salt ; and an alcavala of eight sous on 
 the livre of all goods sold.^ This last was a most crushing 
 impost ; inquisitorial and destructive to trade, an impossible 
 tax in fact. Normandy and Picardy rose against it, and 
 the King of Navarre at once placed himself at the head of 
 the malcontents, declaring that the new taxes should not 
 be raised on his estates.^ Thus John's energies had to be 
 directed in the first instance against his contumacious 
 subjects and his irrepressible son-in-law. Towards the 
 former conciliatory measures were adopted ; the impossible 
 taxes were withdrawn, and a progressive income tax 
 substituted ; but the income tax was progressive in the 
 wrong direction ; the smaller incomes were taxed at the 
 higher, the larger incomes at the lower rates.* With his 
 son-in-law John dealt somewhat as Charles had dealt with 
 his enemy, Charles of Spain. The King of Navarre had 
 accepted an invitation to dine at Rouen with John's eldest 
 son, Charles the Dauphin, who had been created Duke of 
 
 The King 
 of Navarre. 
 
 ' 26 September 1355 ; Sismondi, X. 426 ; citing Ordonnances de France, 
 III. rs. 
 
 ' Sismondi, 429 ; for the alcavala which ' the House of Valois had been 
 striving to establish since r343', see pp. 230, 445; Grandes Chroniques, 
 VI. 19, &c. 
 
 ' See Sismondi, 447 ; Lavisse, IV. 98-102 ; Froissart, I. 322. 
 
 ' ist March, 1356 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 22 ; Sismondi, 448. 
 
AFFAIRS 401 
 
 Normandy. John made a hasty march to Rouen, entered chap, xxiv 
 the banqueting hall, and seized Charles of Navarre, the "Tg 
 Count of Harcourt and some others. The minor offenders 
 were beheaded on the spot ; the King of Navarre was sent 
 to the Louvre.^ 
 
 PhiHp of Navarre, Charles's brother, and Geoffrey of 
 Harcourt, the Count's uncle, had kept clear of the insidious 
 banquet. They declared immediate war against King John 
 (17 April), and sent over agents to arrange a league with 
 Edward.^ 
 
 John dismissed Aquitaine from his thoughts, and plunged 
 into petty warfare in Normandy. Edward, still reckless in 
 his assertions, in answer to a manifesto in which John had 
 accused the King of Navarre of intriguing with England,'^ 
 published a declaration that the King of Navarre had 
 never intrigued with him, had never been held by him , 
 as anything but an enemy.* 
 
 The Duke of Lancaster had been under orders for 
 Brittany ; ^ he was now directed to go to Normandy, to Campaign 
 succour the Navarrese garrisons threatened by the French, ^^^g^^^' 
 On the i8th June he landed at La Hogue, with the young 
 Duke, John of Montfort. Philip of Navarre and Geoffrey 
 of Harcourt were there to receive him. Robert KnoUes 
 brought a reinforcement from the garrisons of Brittany ; 
 between them they made up a force of some 900 men-at- 
 arms and 1,400 archers. Their march was first directed to 
 Pont-Audemer, a friendly castle, which was being besieged 
 by the French ; they reheved it on the 29th June, the 
 enemy retiring at their approach. Evreux had already 
 
 '■ Tuesday, 5th April, being Tuesday after Mid-Lent; Avesbury,46o; Grandes 
 Clironiques, VI. 26, wlrere the Tuesday is given as the 6th April, wrongly ; Le 
 Bel, II. 191. 
 
 ^ Avesbury, 461 ; Le Bel, 193 ; Froissart, I. 325. Philip's envoys had 
 transacted their business in London and were ready to return home on the 12th 
 May ; Foed. III. 328. 
 
 ^ So Villani ; Muratori, XII. 369 ; Pauli, III. 434- 
 
 * See the document, sent to all the Courts of Europe, Foed. 329. For the 
 real facts see the statement previously made by the King in ParUament ; Rot. 
 Parlt. II. 264 ; November 1355. 
 
 ° Foed. 335, 
 
 1415-1 D d 
 
402 ANOTHER 
 
 CHAP. XXIV f alien,! but the Duke succeeded in saving or recovering 
 ^"^ Conches, Breteuil and Verneuil. Having thus accomplished 
 as much as he could expect to do with so small a force, on the 
 8th July Lancaster began a retrograde movement, faUing 
 back on Laigle. By so doing he just escaped being cut off 
 by John, who, that same day, reached Chandai on the road 
 from Verneuil to Laigle, with an overpowering force. The 
 King sent a challenge for the morrow ; the Duke made 
 a show of accepting it, but decamped in the night, marched 
 five and thirty miles to Argentan, and so got back to the 
 Cotentin, the stronghold of the Harcourt interest.^ After 
 a few days' rest Lancaster passed on to Brittany, his original 
 appointment ; Philip and Harcourt went over to England 
 to do homage to Edward, and arrange plans with him,^ while 
 King John sat down to the siege of Breteuil. Breteuil 
 was a strong place of the kind, but only a feudal fortahce 
 after all ; not till that petty conquest had been achieved 
 could the indignant clamours of the South reach the ears 
 of the King of France (August).* 
 
 While John was wasting his time at Breteuil the Prince of 
 Wales was preparing for, if he had not actually started on, 
 a fresh raiding march through the heart of France.^ On 
 Thursday 4th August he crossed the Dordogne at Bergerac' 
 The army must have been very much that of the previous 
 autumn. The only measures in the way of reinforcement 
 that we can trace at home are orders for providing shipping 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques, VI. 30. 
 
 ^ See the Itinerary preserved, Avesbury, 462 ; Grandes Chroniques, sup. ; Le 
 Bel, II. 193. 
 
 " Avesbury, 46S ; Foed. III. 332-340. Negotiations for the liberation of 
 Charles of Blois, for the prodigious ransom of 700,000 gold ecus, at 3^. ^d. 
 sterling the ecu, Foed. 336. 
 
 * Froissart, I. 330, 334 ; De Nangis, d'Achery, III. 115. 
 
 '■ The date of the end of the siege of Breteuil does not appear. But as John 
 went first to Paris calling for a muster at Chartres, and was at Chartres before the 
 29th August, it seems doubtful if the news of the Prince's crossing the Dordogne 
 could have reached him at Breteuil. 
 
 ' i)ept. Dordogne. For the Prince's movements see the Itinerary preserved 
 in the Eulog. H. III. 315. Edward had left Bordeaux, 6 July ; Murimuth, Cont. 
 187 ; and the Prince's own letter to the Bishop of Worcester, Reginald Brian ; 
 Archacol. I. 233 ; also in Sir II. Nicolas' Chron. Lond. Append. 206. 
 
RAIDING MARCH 403 
 
 for horses, with 60 flitches of bacon, and letters of protec- chap, xxiv 
 tion for the Earls of Warwick and Oxford, 37 knights, and 73 
 84 esquires and others, 121 men in all. As to the retinues 
 of these gentlemen, the only indication that we have is this, 
 that whereas for shipping the Prince's horses in the autumn 
 2,500 hurdles {cleiae) and fifteen bridges were required, now 
 only 400 hurdles, and no bridges at all, are needed for the 
 reinforcements taken out by Warwick.^ As we supposed 
 the Prince to have taken out at the first some 3,400 men, he 
 might now have received 500 or 600 recruits in addition. 
 Such a number could hardly do more than supply the 
 vacancies of men discharged or invahded since the beginning 
 of the campaign, but if we do add them to the original force 
 we shall have 4,000 Englishmen. To these the 1,000 
 Gascons that we have allowed before would have to be 
 added. But in fact a large proportion of these had to be 
 sent back for home defence ; ^ so that a total of between 
 4,000 and 5,000 men is the most that we can accept. At 
 the same time we must admit that estimates of SjOoo men, 
 6,000 men, and even 7,000 men ^ are given by the writers. 
 With that force — whatever its strength may have been — 
 Edward proposed to fight his way through France, to join 
 hands with his father, who was reported to be again 
 preparing to invade Normandy.* The events of the autumn 
 gave the Prince confidence; but they had also taught him 
 the need of caution. The advance therefore was covered 
 by active skirmishers, led by Chandos and Audley ; the 
 stages were mapped out beforehand ; the night quarters 
 were fortified, and the outposts kept on the alert by frequent 
 visits from the chief commanders.^ 
 
 On the 26th August the Prince was at Perigueux ; on 
 the 9th at Brantome, while on the i6th he rested at Bellac 
 [Haute-Vienne). Marching by way of Saint-Benoit-du- 
 
 ' Foed. III. 323-326. ^ Baker, 140. 
 
 ' So Baker, 143 ; viz. 4,000 men-at-arms, 2,000 archers, and 1,000 " servientes " 
 or light footmen. 
 
 ' So the Prince's own letter, above ; also one to the Mayor of London, given 
 in the original French by Nicolas in his Chron. Lond. 204 ; and translated, Riley, 
 Memorials, 285. ' Id. 
 
 D d 2 
 
404 BORDEAUX 
 
 CHAP. XXIV Sault/ Argenton and Chateauroux, he stayed three days at 
 Z^ Issoudun,^ his skirmishers overrunning the country up to the 
 walls of Bourges (25-27th August). On the 28th August he 
 crossed the Cher — the old reputed Northern limit of Aquitaine 
 - — resting at Vierzon. For three days before his arrival the 
 vanguard had been busy ravaging the neighbourhood, while 
 on the day of his coming Chandos and Audley had sacked 
 Aubigny, five-and-twenty miles as the crow flies from head- 
 quarters. By this time the Prince had wasted most of 
 Berry, the hne of devastation having previously traversed 
 Perigord, Angoumois, Limousin, and La Marche. Some- 
 times, but not always, the churches were spared, but nothing 
 else was spared at all.^ 
 
 On the 29th August the English scouts encountered an 
 old friend, Boucicault, who, in company with the Sire de 
 Craon, had pushed a reconnaissance from the French head- 
 quarters at Chartres. Boucicault was again unfortunate ; 
 he lost several men, and had to flee for refuge to Romorantin 
 {Loir-et-Cher). The Prince followed him up, and, after 
 a brisk siege of five days' duration, again made him his 
 prisoner.* One day was allowed for rest, and then the army 
 continued its march, crossing the Cher, and descending it 
 to its junction with the Loire. There for four nights the 
 Prince halted, directly opposite the city of Tours, while his ' 
 men ran cruel riot in the garden of Touraine (September 
 7th-ioth),5 
 
 With ah the bridges on the Loire carefuUy broken down, 
 or held in force, the situation was becoming critical. Ed- 
 ward's hope was that his father might be bringing an army 
 from Normandy to co-operate on the Loire ; at all events 
 he trusted to hear something of Lancaster, who was in 
 Brittany at the time ; finally he cherished the secret hope 
 that the good fortune that had brought his father across the 
 Somme, and himself across the Ariege and the Garonne, 
 
 ' Indre. ^ = Cher. 
 
 ' See Denifle, Desolation de I'Eglisc pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans. 
 ' Eulogium, III. 215-220 ; Baker, 140, 141 ; Avesbury, 47r ; Scalacr. 172. 
 Cf. I.e Bel, II. 196 ; Riley, 286. 
 ' Id. and Grandes Cliruniques, VI. 31. 
 
TO THE LOIRE 405 
 
 might appear once more to point out some unsuspected chap, xxiv 
 crossing-place on the Loire. But the weather had been ^~Z 
 rainy and the river was in high flood.^ Finding that the 
 river was impassable, and that support from the North was 
 not to be expected, the Prince on Sunday 11 September 
 began his return march towards Gascony. The French 
 columns at last had begun to move, and were pouring down 
 upon him in earnest. King John was at Blois, and his men 
 were preparing to cross the Loire, some at Blois, some at 
 Orleans, some at Tours, and some at Saumur.^ The Prince 
 advanced to the Indre ; crossed it, and then halted at 
 Montbazon.^ The next day, Monday 12th, he was detained 
 giving audience to the Cardinal Tallyrand-P^rigord, who 
 brought an embassy of bishops to plead the cause of 
 humanity and mercy.* The Prince's answer again was that 
 he had no authority to treat of peace, and that, in his 
 opinion, his circumstances did not warrant his agreeing to 
 a truce.^ 
 
 Meanwhile John advanced from Blois to Amboise ; and 
 the belief among the English at Montbazon was that they 
 would be attacked on the Wednesday. The Cardinal 
 having had his answer, the army on the 13th September 
 again took up their carriages, and made a forced march of 
 30 miles through Sainte-Maure to La Haye on the Creuse ; 
 John again advancing along a parallel line from Amboise 
 to Loches. The word now was that he meant to outmarch 
 the English, and get between them and Bordeaux ; * and 
 sure enough, as it turned out, so he did. On Wednesday 
 14th September the Prince marched to Chatellerault on the 
 Vienne, and remained there all Thursday and Friday, as if 
 not quite knowing what to do. Froissart asserts that the 
 
 ' Baker, 141, 142 ; the Prince's letter, Riley, Memorials, 286 ; and Scalacr. 
 173. Lobineau, Hist. Bret. I. 351, asserts that Lancaster did attempt to cross the 
 Loire at Pont-de-C6, a place that I cannot find. 
 
 ^ Froissart, I. 338. ^ Indre et Loire. 
 
 * " Venerunt ad principem praedicando de pietate et misericordia" ; Eiilogiiim. 
 
 ' See the letter, Riley, 286. 
 
 " Eulogium, III. 221 ; Froissart, sup. Bnchon (note) asserts that John was 
 certainly at Loches on 13 September. 
 
4o6 FALLING 
 
 CHAP. XXIV country along the line of his expected advance had been 
 ^ effectually ' exiled ', and that he failed to obtain proper 
 information as to the movements of the enemy.^ Whatever 
 the reason of their inaction, the result was that on the 
 Thursday evening John reached Chauvigny on the Vienna, 
 some twenty miles to the South of the English position at 
 Chatellerault ; not however on the direct line of their 
 march to Bordeaux, which would pass through Poitiers, but 
 some sixteen miles to the East of that city. On Friday the 
 i6th John and the bulk of his army crossed the Vienne, and 
 began to move slowly westwards towards Poitiers, to be ready 
 for the coming of the Prince. The news that John had 
 reached Chauvigny was brought that same evening (Friday) 
 to Chatellerault, thus at last informing the English of the 
 position of the enemy. The Prince at once sent his baggage- 
 train across the Vienne,^ to leave the bridge clear for the 
 march of the troops on the morrow. Early in the morning 
 he made his start — taking the road to Poitiers ; but, after 
 a while, he changed his direction, turning eastwards, 
 crossed the river Clain, perhaps at Dissay, where a ford is 
 marked on the maps, and struck across the fields towards 
 Chauvigny, hoping to arrest King John before he could 
 cross the Vienne.^ Towards evening the head of the English 
 van came suddenly upon a body of soldiers on the outskirts 
 of a wood, on the road from Chauvigny to Poitiers.* They 
 proved to be the tail of the French rear-guard, on their 
 march to Poitiers, across the English front. The skirmish 
 that ensued went altogether in favour of the English. 
 Two Counts and the Steward of the King's Household fell 
 into their hands. But the Prince was not disposed to bring 
 on a general action at the end of a long day's march; he 
 called in his men, and encamped for the night in the wood. 
 The site was not very favourable, being deficient in water, 
 
 ' Froissart, I. .339. Cf. the letter in Riley, 287. 
 
 ^ Both Chatellerault and Chauvigny stand on the right or east bank of the 
 Vienne. 
 
 ' " Ultra campos ad inimicos suos festinando ; nee habendo respectum ad 
 cariagium siuim", Eulogium ; " i travers du pays", Scalacr. 
 
 ' " In via ducente de Chaveny versus Poyters " ; Avcsbury, 255 (ed. Hearne). 
 
BACK 407 
 
 and the army suffered in consequence.'- Both parties were chap, xxiv 
 now fully enlightened as to the position of their adversaries, 5 
 
 and took their measures accordingly. John ordered an im- 
 mediate change of front, and the movement was executed 
 in the course of the night.^ The Prince, next morning 
 (Sunday i8th September), made a corresponding movement, 
 advancing to La Chabotrie, about three miles from Poitiers,* 
 and setting his army in array to face the French. As the 
 French were encamped outside Poitiers the two armies 
 must have confronted each other within easy striking dis- 
 tance,* perhaps not a mile apart. 
 
 ■ While the Prince was considering the situation and 
 preparing his men for immediate action, the Cardinal 
 Talleyrand again made his appearance,^ accompanied by 
 another Cardinal, Niccola Capoccio, Bishop of Urgel. The 
 two ' earnestly begged for a little respite, that so attempt 
 might be made to bring about an understanding, and good 
 peace '. The Prince took counsel with his followers, and 
 then sent forward envoys to discuss the terms of peace or 
 a truce.^ He was willing to restore all the ' conquests ' of 
 the campaign, and all his prisoners ; he was also prepared 
 to pledge himself not to serve against France for seven 
 years. But John wanted a general surrender at discretion ; 
 at all events he insisted that the Prince and one hundred 
 chosen knights should place themselves in his hands.'' 
 Clearly the situation of the English must have been 
 
 ' Eulogium, III. 221, 222 ; Baker, 142 ; Scalacr. 173 ; Froissart, I. 338, 340*; 
 Grandes Chroniques, VI. 31 ; and the Prince's letter, sup. 
 
 " Froissart, sup. 
 
 ' " Chabutorie," so Lord Burghersh's letter printed by Mr. Coxe in his edition 
 of Chandos Herald. The castle stands there still, on the road from Poitiers to 
 Chauvigny. 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 198, states that the French were quartered " a lieue et demy de 
 Poitiers". Chandos Herald, 58, 60 (Roxburghe Club) places the French head- 
 quarters at " Brimos". I cannot identify the place. 
 
 ' Eulogium, 222 ; Baker, 142-144. 
 
 ° Riley, sup. ; Scalacr. 174 ; Sismondi, X. 463 ; Pauli, II. 437, citing Vita 
 Innocent. VI, Baluze, Vitae Pontt. Avign. I. 329, 770, 898 ; Froissart, 338. 
 
 ' Le Bel, sup. ; and especially Froissart, 343 ; he states that he had his 
 information from some of the Cardinal's people who were present. Cf. Villani,. 
 411. The Prince himself does not give the actual terms demanded of him. 
 
4o8 TURNING 
 
 caAP. XXIV thought desperate. The Prince, however, did not take that, 
 ~c, view of the case, and refused to accede to demands so 
 outrageous. ' And in such manner was that day delayed, 
 and the battalions on one side and the other remained all- 
 night each in his own place.' ^ 
 
 At sunrise on the morning of Monday 19 September the 
 untiring Cardinals were again astir. For the English, time 
 was of the utmost importance; their provisions were 
 running short ; reinforcements for the enemy were coming 
 up every hour ; ^ but the odds against them were so for- 
 midable that the Prince, it would seem, did not feel himself 
 justified in rejecting any chance of an honourable escape; 
 again he expressed a willingness to treat. 
 
 But the French were not all of one mind as to the recep- 
 tion to be given to this overture. The Marshal Arnoul 
 d'Audrehem was for shunning action ; Marshal de Clermont 
 and Geoffrey de Chargny were all for fighting. William, 
 afterwards first Earl of Douglas, being bound on a pilgrim- 
 age, had attached himself to the court of King John, and 
 had acquired considerable influence with him.* As to 
 which way the Douglas's advice would point there could 
 be little doubt. The mortified Cardinals sent back word 
 to the Prince ' to do his best as fight he must '.* 
 
 The English leaders now held a hasty council of war. 
 ' Lack of victual ' made it imperative for them to bring 
 matters to a speedy issue. But with the fuller information 
 that they now possessed of the enemy's strength they were 
 not quite so eager to fight as before. Accordingly, they re- 
 solved to execute what the Prince euphemistically describes 
 as a ' flank ' movement. They would steal away in a 
 southerly direction, through country broken and wooded 
 even at the present day, where their movements would be 
 
 Riley, sup. 
 ' Riley, 288. For the French reinforcements see Eulogium, III. 223. 
 ^ Douglas had joined the French at the siege of Breteuil ; Froissart. He had 
 passed through England under safe-conduct ; Rot. Scot. I. 793. 
 
 ' Baker, 144 ; Scalacr. 174. Cf. the long rambling story of Froissart, I. 340- 
 . 345, where these negotiations are given as carried on on the actual field of 
 battle (!). The Prince is silent as to this offer to treat. 
 
TO BAY 409 
 
 much concealed. If the French were not very prompt to chap, xxiv 
 follow they might get away unmolested. 'About half prime' ^ 
 (half -past seven o'clock) the army was set in motion.^ The 
 Earls of Warwick and Oxford commanded the van ; Salis- 
 bury and Suffolk the rear, while the Prince had charge of 
 the centre.^ After a march of three or four miles from 
 La Chabotrie, by cross-country roads that we cannot 
 presume to identify, it would seem that the army struck 
 the road leading from Poitiers to Nouaill6, by which they 
 must have hoped to get away to Villedieu, and so to 
 Vivonne, on the great high road to Angouleme and Bordeaux. 
 The road to Nouaille would bring them in due course to 
 a farm-house on the roadside, then known as Maupertuis,^ 
 but now as La Cardinerie ; and by the time that they had 
 reached the place it had become apparent that the French 
 were in pursuit. What was to be done ? A running 
 retrograde action, with the superior numbers of the enemy, 
 would involve risks not to be faced ; to say nothing of the 
 offence to English pride and traditions. But, as it hap- 
 pened, the enclosures of La Cardinerie confronting the 
 Prince offered a site, on which, as he mildly put it, a pitched 
 battle might be offered ' without great disadvantage '.* 
 Approaching the place, as he would do, from a slight eleva- 
 tion, Edward would see before him across a swampy hollow 
 on the opposite hill-side a big field, partly in grass, partly 
 planted as a vineyard, and surrounded with a quickset 
 hedge with bank and ditch. ^ Alongside this fence ran a 
 road, with a gateway (Hpzet) through the hedge, to give 
 
 ' Riley, sup., and Baker, 146, 147, the account of another eye-witness, who 
 describes the movement very clearly. See also Scalacr. 174 ; Chandos Herald, 
 84, 86 ; and Fordun, 376. 
 
 ' Baker, r43 ; Chandos Herald, 82 ; Froissart. 
 
 ' Froissart, 1. 353. But he places the battle between Maupertuis and Beauvoir, 
 say between La Cardinerie and the railway, and Mr. Oman follows him. Unfor- 
 tunately there is no road there, and the battle was certainly fought on a road ; 
 see Froissart, 342, and below. 
 
 * Riley, sup., and Chron. Lond. 206. 
 
 ° " Mons quidam sepibus et fossis ad extra redimitus ... ad intra ex una 
 parte pascuus . . . exaliavero vineisconsitus" ; Baker, 146. " Nemus densum 
 per undiquefossatum et super foveam una haiaaltaet spineta" ; Eulog. III. 224. 
 Every writer notices the hedge. 
 
410 TACTICAL 
 
 CHAP. XXIV access to the close, the opening being at the upper or farther 
 
 ^T3 end of the field from the farm-house. It is not clear whether 
 
 the road was fenced on both sides or not.^ Down the 
 
 hollow across which the Prince was surveying the ground 
 
 ran a little stream.^ 
 
 It seems impossible not to identify the road so described 
 with the existing cross-road from La Cardinerie to Bernon 
 and Les Bordes.^ From the ford of the little stream 
 and the low ground by the farm-house it runs obliquely 
 upwards across the slope of the hill. At the present day 
 the hedges and ditches are not much to look at ; nor is the 
 ascent from the low ground steep or formidable ; while the 
 little stream has disappeared, doubtless under the action of 
 modern cultivation. But a hedge and ditch even such as 
 they are now would form a very useful breastwork, while the 
 ascent from the low ground to attack it would seriously 
 tax the breath of men in plated armour. To cross spears 
 with the English ensconced in the vineyard behind hedge 
 and bank, the French coming from Poitiers would have to 
 leave the high road at some distance from La Cardinerie, 
 deploy to the right through open fields, plunge down into 
 the little valley, and then march manfully uphill to the 
 assault. Taking in the opportunity of the site at a glance, 
 the Prince turned to bay, called a halt, dismounted his 
 men — all but a detachment left to encounter the French 
 skirmishers — and set the rest in array within the vineyard 
 and behind the sheltering hedge.* Warwick held the low 
 ground on the right ; the Prince held the centre, and 
 
 ' " Ont pris le long d'un chemin fortifie malement de haies etdebuissons . . . 
 En cette haie n'a que une seule entree " ; Froissart,I.342, the report of the English 
 position put in the mouth of Eustace of Ribeaumont. " Fuit ibi una porta quae 
 vocatur in lingua Anglicana lipzet" ; Eulog. sup. " In superiori parte sepis, a 
 declivo bene remota, fuit temesis quedam patula " ; Baker, sup. 
 
 " " Inter nostros et montem erant ampla profundaque vallis et mariscus 
 torrente quodam irriguus " ; Id. 
 
 ' See Map. It is clear that the action was fought in the fields of La Cardinerie, 
 along a hedge, bordering on a road. The only other road answering to these 
 conditions is the road from La Cardinerie to Nouailld, but that would not offer 
 nearly as favourable a situation to the EngUsh,as their flank would be exposed 
 to the French direct attack. Anyhow the choice of sites lies between these two 
 roads. » Cf. Froissart, 344. 
 
DISPOSITIONS 411 
 
 Salisbury the left. The latter had the advantage of occupy- chap, xxiv 
 ing the highest ground, but on the other hand he had to face '^7^ 
 the gap, said to be wide enough to admit four or five men 
 abreast. The reader referring to our plan will see that the 
 EngHsh position did not face the French advance by the 
 road from Poitiers at all squarely, but at a very open 
 angle. For the protection of the extreme right, the exposed 
 flank, the horses and baggage were parked round the farm 
 buildings,^ while the extreme left would rest on the houses 
 at Bernon. An invaluable account of a mediaeval battle 
 handed down by a writer capable of giving a really graphic 
 picture tells us that in an engagement on a fair field between 
 dismounted men-at-arms the spears on either side would be 
 laid evenly against the breast-plates of the opposing enemy, 
 and that in the push-of-war — so to speak — that ensued, it 
 was a matter of distinct advantage for one side to have all 
 its spears laid on the top of the spears of the other side, who 
 would thus have a double weight of spears to hold up.^ Of 
 course the slightest advantage in the ground would tell still 
 more. With these facts before us we can more fully appre- 
 ciate the advantages enjoyed by the English men-at-arms 
 standing or kneehng behind a bank, with their lances per- 
 haps laid on it, the spear-heads peeping through the thorn- 
 bushes, and presenting veritable chevaux de frise. That 
 the men-at-arms were aligned along the hedge is implied in 
 the fact that in the case of those facing the gap they were 
 posted a stone's throw to the rear.^ As for the archers they 
 of course lined the bank. Froissart in one edition represents 
 them as posted in front of the men-at-arms, along the hedge 
 and en herse,^ a statement hard to accept. The protection 
 
 ^ Froissart, I. 345 ; Eulog. sup. 
 
 ' See the account of the battle of Langside (13 May 1568) given by Sir James 
 Melvi!le,the well-known soldier and statesman of the time of Mary Queen of Scots 
 and James VI ; Memoirs, 201 (Bannatyne Club, 1827). He tells us that the 
 spears lay so close that big sticks, bottles, and other missiles that had fallen short, 
 could be seen lying on them as on a platform. Though Langside was fought 
 200 years after Poitiers the conditions as regarding men-at-arms would not be 
 very different. ^ Baker, l^^ ; Eulog. III. 224. 
 
 * I. 342 ed. Buchon. The writer must have been thinking of the battle of 
 Crecy. 
 
414 BATTLE 
 
 CHAP. XXIV another. D'Audrehem was content to attack Warwick, 
 i2j6 the nearest enemy ; while Clermont, more ambitious, swept 
 round the slopes of the hill hoping to outflank the English 
 by gaining the gap, but only to find Sahsbury there ready 
 for him. The Earl of Oxford, leaving his position with the 
 Prince, took a party of archers to support Warwick, by 
 a flanking movement round the right, through marshy 
 ground, where cavalry could not act. He specially directed 
 the men to aim at the horses rather than their riders.^ After 
 a smart action the French cavalry were defeated and driven 
 off, de Clermont being killed, and d'Audrehem taken 
 prisoner.^ The Prince apparently had thought it incumbent 
 on him to take part in this encounter, as we hear that he 
 leaped his charger over the hedge and ditch.^ All three 
 divisions of the English had taken part, more or less, in this 
 preliminary encounter. The men were now re-formed and 
 kept in hand to await further events.* 
 
 But the real battle had not yet begun. A more serious 
 struggle was ushered in by the advance of the first of the 
 three French battalions of dismounted men-at-arms, a mighty 
 phalanx, described as ' broad and deep ' but probably not 
 more broad than deep.^ Advancing up the hill they closed 
 with the Prince's division in the centre.^ A desperate hand- 
 to-hand encounter ensued for the command of the hedge,' 
 but the English held their ground, the archers meanwhile 
 playing on the serried ranks of the phalanx. Unable to 
 carry the breastwork — for such it was — the Duke fell back 
 and retired ; the Prince's men, too glad to obtain a moment's 
 breathing space, to recruit their strength and attend to the 
 wounded, again refrained from all pursuit.^ 
 
 But now the Duke of Orleans had brought his division 
 into action ; incHning to the right, in the rear of the leading 
 division, he singled out the Earl of Salisbury for attack. 
 
 ' Baker, 148. 
 
 ' Id. 147, 148 ; Froissart, I. 346, 347 ; Le Bel, II. 199 ; Chandos Herald, 86-90. 
 
 I ^"'"g- II^J- 224- " Baker, 149. 
 
 " "A pied"; Froissart, 345 ; " grand et espaisse " ; Id. 345, 347. 
 
 ° Scalacr. 174. 
 
 ' " A pas d'une hayette " ; Chandos Herald, 94. ' Baker, 149, 150, 
 
OF POITIERS 415 
 
 No details of this part of the battle have been handed down, chap, xxiv 
 insomuch that some have supposed that Orleans never came ~Z 
 forward at all ; ^ but it seems more correct to say that he 
 did come forward, and was defeated, because we are told 
 that in ' retiring ' he caused some confusion by coming into 
 contact with the King's big battahon in its advance.^ 
 
 But the worst of the struggle was yet to come. The 
 King's huge battalion, a perfect army in itself, had not yet 
 appeared. When it hove in sight, on the crest of the 
 opposite down, making for the English centre, many a stout 
 heart began to quail. The day had opened with a march and 
 pitching of camp ; every man had been engaged, except 
 a reserve of 400 men with the Prince's standard ; many 
 were wounded ; even some of the leaders thought that all 
 was lost, while the men showed a disposition to slink away 
 to the right and left, to join the divisions not immediately 
 threatened.^ The Captal de Buch had obtained leave to 
 take 60 men-at-arms and 100 archers on a flanking expedi- 
 tion ; his retirement being misinterpreted, added to the 
 dismay. The Prince rose splendidly to the occasion. 
 Cursing the faint-hearted, and teUing them to put their 
 trust in God, he resolved to abandon his defensive position, 
 assume the offensive, and boldly grapple with the unwieldy 
 phalanx while they were stih struggling with the swamp. 
 He saw that the French were bringing up their last 
 reserves, and that if these could be disposed of there 
 would be nothing more to be feared.* The Prince judged 
 rightly, but to propose to attack a solid phalanx with 
 a thin hne of hand-to-hand fighters implied a wonderful 
 confidence in the moral of his men. Ordering his banner 
 to the front, he led the way with his httle bodyguard, his only 
 
 ' So Froissart, I. 349, and the Lavisae writer, IV. 106. 
 
 " Scalacr. 174. ' Scalacr. sup. 
 
 ' So Mr. Oman pertinently remarks; Art of War, 631. His account of the 
 battle, however, I cannot otherwise follow ; he brings the Prince to Maupertuis 
 on the i8th September, takes him safely across the stream of the Miausson, 
 beyond Les Bordes, on the way to Bordeaux, on the 19th, and then brings him 
 back to fight a gratuitous action at Maupertuis. He seems ignorant of the 
 Prince's letters and of the Itinerary in the Eulogium. Mr. Tout follows him. 
 
4i8 TRIUMPHAL 
 
 CHAP. XXIV For his success in the field the Prince may have been 
 g indebted to the generalship of his chief of the staff, John 
 Chandos.^ The credit of his courteous treatment of the 
 vanquished must be reckoned all his own. That same day 
 he entertained King John and his chief barons at his own 
 table, placing himself below the royal captive, and treating 
 him with the utmost ceremony. He apologized to him for 
 leaving the table to visit Audley, who was reported to be 
 in a sinking condition.^ In his deahngs with his own 
 followers, however, Edward had an eye to business ; he 
 took all the prisoners into his own hands, compounding 
 with their captors, of course.^ 
 
 On the day after the battle the Prince moved his quarters 
 to the neighbouring village of Les Roches-Marie, remaining 
 
 Return to there over the following day. On the 23rd September he re- 
 sumed his march towards Bordeaux, resting at Couhe-Verac* 
 on the main high road. Embarrassed with prisoners, and 
 laden with spoil, the army advanced by easy stages to Ruffec ; 
 then leaving the high road they crossed the Charente to 
 Mouton and Rochefoucault, and so, leaving Angouleme on 
 their right, held south to Saint-Emilion on the Dordogne, 
 which was reached on the 30th September. On the 2nd 
 October the army entered Bordeaux.^ It is refreshing to 
 be able to add that we no longer hear of wanton destruction 
 on the march. The English were only anxious to get back 
 safely to Bordeaux with their booty and their captives.* 
 Not a foot even of nominal sovereignty had either of the 
 Prince's raids added to the English dominion ; but the 
 possession of the French King's person was no doubt in itself 
 a valuable political asset. 
 
 Wild was the Saturnaha of rejoicings in which the dis- 
 banded soldiery indulged at Bordeaux, and hot were the 
 
 ' For his services on this day Chandos received a grant of two-thirds of the 
 manor of Kirkton in Lindsay for liis life ; Focd. III. 343. Audley received an 
 annuity of £400 ; Barnes, 516, from Patent Roll, 33 Edw. 111. 
 
 ' Balcer, 153, 154. Cf. the more highly coloured accounts of Le Bel, II. 201, 
 and Froissart, I. 360. 
 
 ' ^^ker, 155. . Charente. 
 
 See the Itmerary, Eulog. 111. 225, 226, » Froissart, 361. 
 
REJOICINGS : 419 
 
 disputes over the claims to participate in the King's ransom, chap, xxiv 
 
 Eventually the Prince decided in favour of de Morbeque and ^ 
 
 gave him 2,000 nobles (£666 13.?. 4^;.) for his rights, which he 
 
 was required to surrender as to the King in toto} The news 
 
 of the great victory reached England on the loth October. 
 
 The jubilation there was not less fervid than at Bordeaux. 
 
 " Men were almost beside themselves with joy ; " bonfires 
 
 flared, while the conduits ran with wine. With pardonable 
 
 self-complacency the King pointed to the victory as evidence 
 
 that Heaven recognized the justice of his cause.^ His son 
 
 who had fought the fight was able to take a more sober view 
 
 of the situation. At the request of the Pope* he allowed Truce of 
 
 Cardinal Talleyrand to negotiate a truce. On the 23rd 
 
 March 1357 a truce was signed at Bordeaux, to last over two 
 
 years from Easter Day (9th April).* On behalf of France 
 
 the treaty was signed by the Duke of Normandy, who, as 
 
 a matter of course, had taken the reins of government into 
 
 his hands with the style of King's Lieutenant. 
 
 The truce settled, the Prince made ready to return to 
 England with all his prisoners.* On the 24th April he sailed 
 from Bordeaux ; on the 5th May he landed at Plymouth ; 
 on Wednesday the 24th of the month he entered London.^ 
 More than a thousand of the chief citizens met him on 
 horseback in Southwark. All the city Gilds appeared in 
 their respective liveries. As a martial greeting for a martial 
 Prince, the streets were decked with weapons of war.' 
 King John rode a tall white charger, superbly caparisoned ; 
 
 Id. and Foed. III. 385. It would seem that the unsuccessful claimants were 
 pacified with licences to wear straps and buckles on their shields ; AthenEeum, 
 4 March 1904. 
 ^ Barnes, 517 ; Foed. 340, 341. See also the popular couplet : 
 
 " Ore est le Pape devenu Franceys, et Jesu devenu Engleys. 
 Ore sera vu que fera plus, Pape ou Jesu;" 
 
 Knighton, 2615. 
 ' For the Pope's action see Barnes, 518, 523 ; Pauli, II. 440. 
 ' Foed. 348. 
 
 ' For names of prisoners brought to England, see Foed. 357, 358. For sums 
 paid to the captors, Devon, Issues, 168-177. The Prince trafficked in the 
 prisoners, re-selling them to the King. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2615 ; Barnes, 525. A due visit to Canterbury was paid on the 
 way. ' Knighton, 2615. 
 
 E e 2 
 
420 ROYAL COURTESY 
 
 EHAP. XXIV the Prince attended him on a small black palfrey. Hours 
 ~~ elapsed before the procession could make its way from 
 London Bridge to Westminster Hall.^ Edward III 
 received the Royal prisoner in state, rising graciously from 
 his throne to welcome him, and embracing him as a cousin 
 and a guest.^ 
 
 ' Walsingham, I. 283. 
 
 ^ Barnes, sup., from Mezeray ; and the other authorities above. John was 
 shortly estabhshed for a time in the Savoy, the inheritance of the House of 
 Lancaster, derived through Edmund Crouchback and Eleanor of Provence 
 from her uncle Peter of Savoy. For the watch kept on the river see Devon, 
 Issues, 168. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1357-1360 
 
 Pacification. — Liberation of the King of Scots. — Parliament. — State of Ireland. — 
 Chaotic State of France. — The Free Companies. — Troubles in Paris. — The 
 Dauphin, the King of Navarre and Etienne Marcel.— The Jacquerie.— khoxtivs 
 Treaty with France. — Renewal of the War and fresh invasion of France by 
 Edward. — Submission of the Dauphin and execution of Treaty of Bretigny. 
 
 Pacification was now the order of the day. A truce chap, xxv 
 
 for six months was signed with the Scots,^ and orders sent ~ 
 
 ° . ' . 1357 
 
 to the Duke of Lancaster in Brittany to raise the siege of Pacifica- 
 
 Rennes. The raising of the siege was a point specially "°"- 
 
 stipulated in the truce. The Duke had been blockading 
 
 the town since the 2nd October 1356 ; and it was said 
 
 that he had vowed to take the place. Anyhow the King's 
 
 orders were slow of reaching his ears, as on the 4th July 
 
 a fresh and more peremptory mandate had to be issued. 
 
 But by that time the town had come to terms. The citizens 
 
 had paid Lancaster 60,000 ecus (£10,000) ; the English had 
 
 taken formal possession ; and then restored the place to 
 
 Charles of Blois.^ Charles in the previous year had been 
 
 allowed to go home on terms.^ But the young de Montfort 
 
 had been established as Duke by Lancaster. " Thus 
 
 Brittany got back both her Dukes." * 
 
 But the conclusion of the armistice brought small relief 
 from suffering to the hapless land of France. Truce or no 
 . truce her woes never ceased. " The four years from 
 Poitiers to the Peace of Bretigny were years of disaster." 
 
 Scotland fared better. Five-and-twenty years of warfare 
 had convinced Edward that the Scots were not to be 
 
 ' 8th May 1357 ; Foed. III. 354. 
 
 " Foed. 353, 359 ; Le Bel, 11. 207. See also La Borderie, III. 551. 
 
 » Foed. 335, 336. " Tout. 
 
422 TEN YEARS' 
 
 CHAP. XXV subdued by force : one of the very first things that he had 
 
 ~~7 done on his return from the Candlemas raid of 1356 was 
 1357 
 
 to make an offer of a treaty of ' perpetual amity ' with 
 Scotland.^ His attention was now more than ever engrossed 
 by his schemes in France, but he was not prepared to 
 abandon any of his ' rights ' over Scotland ; no English 
 king could well discard the hope of incorporating the 
 Northern portion of the Island. . He, therefore, made no 
 offer of a formal peace, which would have involved a fresh 
 recognition of Scottish independence ; but he offered to 
 conclude a truce for ten years, and to liberate King David 
 for a money ransom, as proposed in 1354. The Scottish 
 Regent made no difficulties. The commissioners named 
 by the Scottish Estates in January 1356 were ready to 
 reopen negotiations.^ In December of that year, and again 
 in March 1357, letters of safe-conduct were transmitted to 
 them. On the 8th May a short truce was signed in London.^ 
 The bases of the pacification having been settled, on the 
 i6th August the English commissioners received their final 
 instructions, and arrangements were made for sending David 
 down to Berwick, the place chosen for the conclusion of 
 the treaty. On the 26th September the Scottish Estates 
 authorized their envoys to bind them individually and 
 collectively, singuli in solidmn, for the payment of 100,000 
 marks sterling. On the 3rd October the treaty was sealed 
 on behalf of England, and two days later on behalf of 
 Scotland. Ten years were allowed for the payment of the 
 ransom ; " twenty Scottish youths, of the first families in 
 the kingdom, were delivered as hostages ; in the event of 
 failure in the payment of any instalment the King of 
 Scotland to return to his bonds."* On these terms 'Sir 
 
 » Foed.m. 325; Rot.Scot. I.791. 
 
 ' See above, p. 391, and Foed. 317. ' Foed. 344, 352 ; Rot. Scot. 803. 
 
 ' Foed. 365, 369-379 ; Rot. Scot. 809-814. For further details see Tytler, II. 
 112. The counties of Berwick and Roxburgh and the castle of Lochmaben re- 
 mained in the hands of the English ; Rot. Scot. 794, 795, 801. The Universities 
 of Oxford and Cambridge were again thrown open to Scottish students, and rights 
 of trading in England granted to Scottish merchants ; Id. 815, 816, 820, 822. 
 David, on his part, in pursuance of a secret stipulation, dismantled the castles 
 of Dalswynton, Dumfries, Morton, and Durrisdeer ; Scotichr. II. 359. 
 
TRUCE 423 
 
 David King of Scotland ' regained his freedom after eleven chap, xxv 
 years of captivity. liis faithful Queen returned with him. ^^ 
 
 Once more the Scots hailed a King at Scone.^ The boon 
 ' long desired long deferred ' did not answer the expectations 
 either of King or people. The ransom threw a heavy 
 burden on the resources of a poor country, and the Pope 
 made difficulties about allowing the clergy to contribute." 
 Then David's private life did not command the respect of his 
 subjects ; * and he took no pains to consult their feelings. 
 He quarrelled with the ex- Regent, revoking all his acts.* 
 He soon found pretexts for sending his wife to England on 
 business. Joan Make-peace took the hint, and left the 
 Scottish court never to return.^ She passed away in 
 England six years later, namely on the 14th August 1362. 
 From the 17th April to the i6th May (1357) a Parliament had Parlia- 
 
 merit. 
 
 sat at Westminster. With the enthusiasm kindled by the 
 victory of Poitiers still at its height, a Fifteenth and Tenth 
 were granted for one year,^ although the prolongation of 
 the subsidy on wool for six years had been granted in 1355 
 " on the understanding that no other tax should be imposed 
 during the period ". A miscellaneous Act of some importance 
 was also passed ; the Statute of Labourers and the Ordi- 
 nance of the Staple were confirmed and amended ; native 
 merchants were allowed to export wool for a period of six 
 months ; the right of the next of kin to administer to the 
 effects of persons dying intestate was recognized,' and the 
 appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer Chamber 
 was formally established.^ 
 
 ■■ David held a Parliament there on the 6th November, and re-ratified the 
 treaty ; Acts of Parliament of Scotland, I. 491 ; Foed. III. 382. For the 
 expedients adopted for raising the ransom, see Excheq. Rolls Scot. II. xxxviii. 
 
 ^ Fordun, 366 ; Foed. 396, 407. 
 
 ' See Scalacr. 17s ; Scotichr. II. 345. ' Robertson, Scot. Acts, sup. 
 
 ° December; Foed. 385; Fordun 380. For David's liaison with Katherine 
 Mortimer, see Green, Princesses, III. 151, and Scalacr. and Scotichr., sup. 
 
 ' Lords' Report ; ■3rdD.K.Rep.AppendixII.i67; Bp.Stubbs; Statutes, 1. 352. 
 
 ' Down to this time the administration of such estates had been vested in the 
 Ordinary, who could apply the clear residue, after the debts and the portions of 
 the widow and children (two thirds) had been satisfied, to such purposes as he 
 thought fit. See Stephen's Blackstone, II. 177. 
 
 ' 31 Edw. Ill, Statutes, I. 352 ; 3rd D. K. Report, sup. ; Bp. Stubbs. The 
 
424 AFFAIRS 
 
 CHAP. XXV The legislative work of the year also included an ' Ordi- 
 ~ nance for the land of Ireland ' issued on the 25th October; 
 The measure has found its way into the statute book, but 
 there is nothing to show that it was anything more than an 
 Ordinance issued by the King in Council, in the exercise 
 of his lawful prerogative over a crown colony. 
 
 The hold of the English government on the Dominion 
 in the sister Isle was so frail, the means of controlling its 
 own officers so imperfect, that no trust could be placed in 
 any who had a settled stake in the country. Edward felt 
 himself obliged to send over born Englishmen — " Castle- 
 men " in the phrase of a later age — to counteract the in- 
 fluence of the domesticated settlers, who showed a strong 
 disposition to ally themselves with the Irish. At the death 
 of the last Earl of Ulster in 1333,^ considerable portions of 
 the de Burgh estates (which comprised " nearly one-fourth 
 of the territory nominally subject to the Crown of England ") 
 were seized and appropriated by the heads of the junior 
 branches of the family, William and Edmund de Burgh, 
 " ancestors respectively of the Earls of Clanricarde and 
 Mayo." They divided between them the present 
 counties of Galway and Mayo. " Confederating with the 
 native clans of these districts, they renounced their alle- 
 giance to England, and adopted the Irish language, apparel, 
 and laws." In Ulster, already much weakened and depopu- 
 lated by Bruce's war, a sept of the O'Neills, known as the 
 Clan Aedha Buidhe, or tribe of Aed the Yellow, crossed 
 the river Bann, expelled most of the settlers from Antrim, 
 and established in this district a principality which thus 
 acquired the name of " Clannabuy ", or " Clandeboye".^ 
 By 1341 the natives had succeeded in regaining more than 
 a third of the territories which had recognized English 
 rule. The three royal fortresses of Athlone, Roscommon, 
 and Randoun were in their hands. To counteract these 
 
 formal jurisdiction evidently grew out of the practice at the Exchequer audits, 
 as old as the Dialogus, of referring difficult questions to the Barons sitting in 
 a private chamber behind the teller's office. 
 
 ' See above, p. 215, 'note. ' Gilbert, Viceroys, 182, 185. 
 
OF IRELAND 425 
 
 mischiefs Edward in 1338 decreed that none but EngHsh- chap, xxv 
 men should be admitted to any legal offices under the ,,._ 
 Crown.^ Again in 1341 he ordered all officers married' to 
 Irishwomen, or holding lands in Ireland only, to be removed, 
 requiring their places to be filled by bona fide Englishmen 
 holding land in England.^ This was followed up by a 
 sweeping revocation of grants made since the time of his 
 father, the confiscated lands being conferred on born 
 Englishmen. The feuds between the old and the new 
 holders became so deadly that " in the words of a colonial 
 chronicler the King's land in Ireland was on the point of 
 passing away from the crown of England".^ The Irish 
 raised loud complaints of the ignorance of the needy adven- 
 turers who were sent over to rule them ; Edward gave them 
 fair words, but adhered to his new policy. The measure ol 
 the present year * was entirely conceived in that spirit ; so 
 strongly was the King opposed to any amalgamation of the 
 races that the Ordinance prohibits all intermarriage between 
 the English resident on the Marches and the native Irish. 
 Even the fostering of an English child by an Irish nurse 
 was thought worthy of statutory prohibition, as likely to 
 create a bond of sympathy between a settler and a native.^ 
 
 The presence of the captive King of France was held to Touma- 
 call for a series of princely justs and tournaments to be 
 held all in his honour. On New Year's Day 1358 a tilt 
 was held at Bristol, by torchhght : further carousals went 
 on during a session of Parliament that was held at West- 
 minster from the 5th to the 27th February. The martial 
 sports reached their height on St. George's Day (23rd April), 
 when a tournament was opened at Windsor which was 
 pronounced to transcend anything on record since the days 
 of King Arthur. Knights from the Continent were freely 
 invited to appear ; at the head of those who came was the 
 Duke of Brabant. King John submitted to play his part 
 
 ' Gilbert, i88, 190 ; cf. Foed. 11. 1075, 1087, &c. 
 
 ' " Omnes ministros in terra praedicta beneficiatos, maritatos et possessionatos 
 amoveri faciatis ; " Foed. 1171. 
 ^ Gilbert, 191. •■ 3T Edw. III., st. 4, s. 18. 
 
 ' Section 8, see Statutes, I. 357, &c. 
 
426 CPIAOTIC STATE 
 
 CHAP. XXV in the show with quiet dignity ; well knowing that the costs 
 
 ^ of the entertainment would fall to be defrayed by him. For, 
 
 as he was said to have remarked, " he had never seen or 
 
 known of such Royal Shews and Feastings without some 
 
 after Reckoning for Gold and Silver." ^ 
 
 But the more serious attention of the two sovereigns was 
 given to the negotiations for the redemption of King John. 
 Three Cardinals ^ were in London attending to French 
 interests ; but they were not long of ascertaining that 
 Edward's terms would be pretty stiff, and that he would 
 accept of nothing less than the Avignon conditions of 1354, 
 with a heavy ransom to boot. These terms were approved 
 by Parliament, but the Commons, we are told, suggested 
 a further stipulation ; namely, that the Pope should release 
 King John's rent charge.^ The mere suggestion of such 
 a demand shows how completely the Pope was regarded as 
 the tool of France. 
 
 But France was in a state of chaos, socially and politically. 
 The peasants had their substance wrung from them to pay 
 for the ransoms of their lords on the one hand, while on the 
 other hand they were left victims to a novel evil, namely 
 the exactions of the Companies of Adventure, or "Fellow- 
 ships " as they were termed, disbanded soldiery, mostly 
 English, but including Gascons, Bretons and Spaniards, 
 who, faUing in under chosen leaders, roamed through the 
 defenceless land, levying contributions, living at ease, and 
 amassing money. John Griffith, a Welsh Captain, was 
 master of the country between Paris and the Loire ; 
 Knolles and James Pipe, who had been left by the Duke of 
 Lancaster in Brittany, preyed on Normandy, under the 
 banner of Navarre ; * Arnaud de Cervole, a Gascon, ironically 
 called ' The Archdeacon ' [U Archipretre), ravaged Provence, 
 
 ' Eulog. Hist. in. 227 ; Knighton, 2617 ; Scalacr. 176 ; Barnes, 536, &c. ; 
 cf. Foed. III. 392, and Devon, Issues, 169. 
 
 - Namely, Talleyrand, Cappoccio and Peter, Archbp. of Rouen ; Foed. 388, 
 39°. 391. &c. 
 
 '' So the Scalacr. 177. According to Knighton, 2617, Innocent had been 
 pressing for the arrears of his rent in terrorem. 
 
 ' Pipe, however, still held Epernon for Edward in 1358 ; Foed. 391. 
 
OF FRANCE 427 
 
 and levied blackmail, even on the Pope at Avignon (July chap, xxv 
 
 1357).' .... ^ 
 
 ■ The political situation was not less gloomy. From the The Dau- 
 field of Poitiers the Duke of Normandy, or Dauphin as he P*^'"" 
 should be called, had gone to Paris, to hold Estates, in order 
 to obtain money to carry on the war. He found himself at 
 once confronted by an open opposition of the bourgeoisie of 
 Paris, led by Etienne Marcel, Provost of the Merchants ; 
 and a covert opposition of the friends of the King of Navarre, 
 headed by Robert le Coq, Bishop of Laon. As the price of 
 a subsidy for the wages of 30,000 men for a year, the com- 
 bined Opposition put forward a drastic scheme of reform, 
 amounting to the establishment of strict constitutional 
 government, with ministerial responsibility and control of 
 the finances (November 1356). For months, the Dauphin, 
 a sickly, timid lad of nineteen, biit possessed of a pertinacity 
 and an acumen that gained for him the title of " Le Sage", 
 shuffled and evaded. But when the Estates met again in 
 March 1357 he found himself obhged to concede all their 
 demands. By the Ordinances then passed the new state 
 of things was proclaimed, a state of things for which France 
 was in no way ripe.^ In less than a month (5 April) came 
 amandatefrom King John announcingthetruceof Bordeaux, 
 dissolving the Estates, and forbidding the collection of the 
 subsidy. But the Estates refused to be dissolved. After 
 months of deadlock they met again in November, to demand 
 the liberation of the King of Navarre. Before the Dauphin 
 could give an answer, Charles the Bad had been set free by ^('^^^^^'"^.1 
 a party from Amiens, who stormed the castle at Arleux 
 where he was kept under insufficient guard. Hailed by the 
 Parisians, he harangued them in an eloquent ' sermon ', 
 delivered from a platform, in which he dwelt on his private 
 wrongs and the misdeeds of the government. Making the 
 best of a bad business, the Dauphin gave Charles a friendly 
 reception, and granted sundry requests. Charles then, 
 
 ' Arnaud was lay impropriator of the Archdeaconry of Vergnes ; Le Bel, II. 
 215, 2r6 ; Scalacr. 184 ; Sismondi, X. 507. He had fought on the English side at 
 Poitiers ; Froissart. ■ ^ See Lavisse, IV. 110-121, and documents there cited. 
 
1358 
 
 430 THE DAUPHIN AND NAVARRE 
 
 CHAP. XXV From slaughtering the Jacques the King of Navarre had 
 returned to Paris. The confidence of the Parisians in him 
 had been greatly shaken by his last acts, but Marcel, who 
 could not do without him, induced the people for a time to 
 take him as their Captain-General. He led a bourgeois 
 force to Compiegne, hoping to seize the Dauphin ; the coup 
 having failed, he fell back on Senhs. In fact the Dauphin 
 now had round him all the chivalry that had turned out 
 to suppress the Jacquerie. On the 29th June he occupied 
 Vincennes, Charenton and Conflans. Navarre, who had 
 already been deprived of the Captain-Generalship, and 
 who no longer felt safe in the city, kept at Saint-Denis. 
 Paris seemed in a state of siege. The parties, however, 
 remained at arm's length, negotiating and intriguing. At 
 last, Marcel, in his extremity, ventured to introduce some of 
 Charles's Enghsh Free Lances, the most hated and hateful 
 of men. The mob attacked them, killed some, and drove 
 others to take refuge in the Louvre.^ The feeling excited in 
 Paris proved fatal to Marcel. On the 31st July a Royalist 
 party ventured to raise their heads, displaying the royal 
 banner, and shouting " Montjoie ! Saint Denis ! Au roi et 
 
 End of au due." Marcel, who was going the round of the gates 
 endeavouring to get hold of the keys — probably in order to 
 admit the King of Navarre — was mobbed and killed.^ 
 
 Charles had been scheming to get himself proclaimed 
 King of France by Marcel. The cup was snatched from 
 his hand when almost within reach of his lips. For months 
 he had been negotiating secretly with Edward. Unfor- 
 tunately neither he nor Edward would forgo the crown of 
 France; both wanted it. Champagne and Brie, the old 
 Navarrese inheritance, was the utmost that the English 
 would offer. 
 
 With respect to Etienne Marcel opinion has been much 
 divided. He was evidently a man greatly in advance 
 
 by the Jacques, accepts the chroniclers' estimates of those hung by the gentry 
 without question. See also Grandes Clironiques, and Froissart, sup., and Le 
 Bel, II. 219-226 ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 119. 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 137-139 ; Sismojidi, France, X. 533-536. 
 Lavissc, 140, 141 . The Dauphin was still best known as Duke of Normandy. 
 
 Marcel. 
 
THE FREE COMPANIES 431 
 
 of his age, inspired by a noble and laudable purpose of chap, xxv 
 reform. Unfortunately his schemes went far beyond any- '~Z 
 thing that the country was at all prepared for, and so, 
 being excessive, were foredoomed to failure. 
 
 On the 2nd August the Dauphin entered Paris ; two days 
 later he met the citizens at the Hotel de Ville — Marcel's 
 foundation — and gratified them by issuing politic letters of 
 remission and amnesty. Nevertheless numerous executions 
 followed shortly.^ Baulked of his prey the King of Navarre 
 went back to his petty warfare in Normandy.^ 
 
 A central government was now re-established ; but the 
 timid Dauphin kept within the walls of Paris, leaving 
 France at the mercy of the Navarrese and the Companies. 
 John Fotheringay held Creil ; no man could enter Paris 
 from Noyon, Laon, or Soissons without his safe-conduct, 
 duly paid for.^ Jean de Picquigny and the Navarrese 
 leaders were lords of La Herelle and Saint-Valery, and so 
 had the control of Picardy.* Eustace of Aubrecicourt, a 
 Hainaulter, Albrecht a German and Peter Audley occupied 
 Brie and Champagne ; Epernay and Rosnay were taken 
 by them.^ But Robert KnoUes was the ablest and most 
 successful of these partisan leaders. He was said to have 
 3,000 men under his orders, an inconvenient and excessive 
 number, we should think. His head-quarters are given as 
 being on the borders of Champagne and Burgundy; but his 
 raids extended to the suburbs of Orleans, and southwards into 
 Berry and Auvergne ; he would seem to have operated in 
 various quarters, according to circumstance. In the spring 
 of 1359 we find him assisting Philip of Navarre in Picardy ; 
 on the loth March he took Auxerre.® He had learned his 
 business in Brittany, administering districts on Edward's 
 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 142 ; Sismondi, X. 541 ; Martin, V. 211, 212. 
 
 ' Sismondi, 542 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 137. 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 241 ; Froissart, I. 337, 393 ; Scalacr. 184. 
 
 ' Froissart, 386 ; Sismondi, 542 ; Scalacr. sup. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 237, 242 ; Froissart, 392. This composite band was especially 
 distinguished for its misconduct, and it became the nucleus of the ' Great 
 Fellowship ' of which we hear later. 
 
 ' Le Bel, 237, 244 ; Froissart, 395 ; Sismondi, 549 ; Knighton, 2619 ; Grandes 
 Chroniques, r47. 
 
432 EXORBITANT 
 
 CHAP. XXV atrocious system, and he still held castles under him there. 
 Z7^ The South of France fared no better. The Company of the 
 Rose after devastating Provence for seventeen months 
 broke up towards the close of 1358 ; but ' The Archdeacon ' 
 immediately reappeared to take their place : the capture of 
 Aix was his principal achievement.^ In Brittany and on 
 the borders of Aquitaine steady warfare was kept up.^ 
 The desolation of the land must have been something 
 appalling. The roads were deserted ; tillage was impossible ; 
 dearth and famine were universal. Forced to act for them- 
 selves, the districts, at last, began to make their own 
 arrangements, either for resisting or buying off their foes ; ^ 
 their slowness to do so would imply that even then France 
 was too dependent on its centre. 
 
 With France in such a state of anarchy the conclusion 
 of a treaty of peace seemed hopeless. The Pope recalled 
 the Cardinals from England, sending them to mediate 
 between the Dauphin and the King of Navarre ; the recon- 
 ciliation of the two appeared a necessary preliminary to 
 the estabhshment of peace with England.* King John was 
 removed from the Savoy to Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire ; 
 and Edward, determined to let the French see that he was 
 not to be trifled with, ordered shipping to be got ready for 
 a passage to France in the spring.® 
 
 Edward's firmness, however, had its effect on King John ; 
 perhaps the confinement of Somerton pinched him. On 
 the i8th March 1359 he signed an extension of the truce on 
 his own authority, ' in the hope,' as it was put, ' of obtaining 
 good peace ; ' that is to say to give the Regent time and 
 opportunity of obtaining ratification of a treaty already 
 settled in private between the two kings." The actual text 
 
 ^ Sisraondi, X. 548, citing Villani and Vic et Vaissete. 
 
 " See Scalacr. 180-183. The third period of the Breton War (1362-1371) was 
 still running. 
 
 " See De Nangis, Cont. III. i2r, r25. ' Foed, III. 405, 406. 
 
 Id. 4ir-4i4. Envoys from Languedoc came over, with offers of money, but 
 Edward refused them ; Id. ; Knighton, 2618. 
 
 ° Foed. 422. John signed the truce in -London ; according to Knighton 
 he had accepted Edward's terms in January ; for his acceptance of them see 
 Foed. 442. 
 
DEMANDS 433 
 
 of the treaty has not been preserved but its substance can chap, xxv 
 be given. In the true spirit of a French King John ~~ 
 evidently thought that no price could be too high for his 
 subjects to pay for his personal comfort and liberation. 
 The Archbishop of Sens was sent to Avignon to sound the 
 Papal Curia. The Pope seeing no objection, the treaty was 
 transmitted to France in May, under the charge of the 
 Archbishop and other Poitiers captives.^ The Regent sum- 
 moned the States General to Paris for the 19th May. The 
 war with the King of Navarre was still raging ; and very 
 few deputies appeared. After waiting some days for a 
 fuller gathering, the Dauphin on the 25th May propounded 
 the treaty. The terms, we are told, included the absolute 
 cession of Gascony and Guienne, in their widest acceptation, 
 with Poitou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Normandy, in 
 all about two-thirds of France with the overlordship of 
 Brittany to boot. The French were in terrible straits, 
 but they had not yet been brought so low as to lose their 
 sense of national honour. Taking their cue from the 
 Dauphin, the deputies rejected the treaty with scorn. 
 Rather than consent to the dismemberment of their noble 
 realm, they declared that they would endure their present 
 ills, and leave King John in prison, till such time as it should 
 please God to find means for his deliverance.^ 
 
 John was sent back to Somerton, and Edward resumed 
 his preparations.* Archers mounted and on foot were 
 levied, of course without any form of sanction from Parlia- 
 ment ; arrangements were made for procuring extra ship- 
 ping and supplies from the Low Countries ; while foreign War again, 
 mercenaries were invited to enlist at Calais. The wasted 
 state of France made it necessary to provide stores of an 
 unusual character, such as hand mills for grinding corn, and 
 portable ovens for baking, things till then unheard of in 
 campaigning. Even sporting appliances were not forgotten , 
 
 ' Foed. III. 423, 425 ; cf. Le Bel, II. 245 ; Froissart, I. 409 ! Knighton, 2620. 
 
 ^ 25 May, Sismondi, X. 555, citing Secousse, Preface des Ordonn., 86 ; Grandes 
 Chroniques, VI. 151 ; Le Bel, 246 ; Froissart, 410, and Buchon's notes. 
 
 ' On the 5th July all Frenchmen were ordered to leave London ; Delpit, Docu- 
 ments Fran^ais, 82. 
 
 1415-1 F f 
 
436 CHAMPAGNE AND BURGUNDY 
 
 CHAP, XXV Opposition was offered to them. The only difficulties with 
 ~ which they had to contend were the weight of their baggage- 
 train, the devastated state of the country, and continuous 
 downpours of rain and snow, making their march one of 
 unusual hardship. December was well advanced before the 
 whole force was gathered round the walls of Reims.^ 
 
 In view of the impending invasion the Dauphin had 
 come to terms with Charles le Mauvais, making him the 
 largest concessions in land and money,^ and the two had 
 returned to Paris in apparent friendship ; the King of 
 Navarre to carry on his underhand intrigues, and the 
 Regent to follow the enforced policy of passive resistance, 
 allowing the fire of English devastation to burn itself out.^ 
 
 Reims, like all other towns of any consequence, was fully 
 prepared for a siege ; but the English were not strong 
 enough to attempt any regular siege operations ; their 
 achievements in that sphere being limited to the capture 
 of such petty fortresses as Attigny, Cormicy, Cernay and 
 Autry. Having reached Reims, they merely established 
 themselves in the neighbouring villages, blockading the 
 place, while their foraging parties scoured the country 
 from Soissons and Laon to Mezieres and Donchery. One 
 band forced its way to the very suburbs of Paris, the Great 
 Company of Champagne co-operating.* After a month of 
 devastating but fruitless warfare round Reims,^ Edward in 
 January 1360 broke up his camp, and, marching south- 
 wards past the walls of Chalons-sur-Marne and Troyes, 
 crossed the Seine at Mery ; from whence he held on towards 
 Sens and Cerisiers (Yonne, near Joigny).^ From Cerisiers 
 he turned his steps eastwards towards Burgundy, and 
 extending his forces so as to cover the country between the 
 
 ' Scalacr. 187 ; Knighton, 2621; Walsingham, sup. ; De Nangis, Cont., III. 
 125 ; cf. Froissart, I. 418, &c. ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 165. 
 
 ' Pontoise, 19 August. a Lavisse, IV. 151. 
 
 ' Froissart, 422 ; Scalacr. 188 ; Knighton 2621,2622; Le Bel, II. 256. 
 
 ' " Un moys en temps de Noel," Scalacr. " Nihil omnino profecithac mora," 
 Walsingham ; cf . Froissart, 423, 426. The date of the King's departure is given 
 by the Grandes Chroniques, 167, as 11 January 1360 ; Walsingham gives the 
 13th January. « Scalacr. 189 ; Grandes Chroniques, 167. 
 
ISLE DE FRANCE 437 
 
 Arman^on and the Yonne, stormed the town of Tonnerre/ chap, xxv 
 
 rich in stores of old Burgundy wine. Short stages to Nyers ~^ 
 
 and Montreal followed, and then Edward sat down for 
 
 Lent at Guillon-sur-Serain (Yonne, Ash-Wednesday, ig 
 
 February, 1360).^ Philip de Rouvre, Duke of Burgundy, 
 
 fearing a further advance into his territory, hitherto spared, 
 
 sent agents to Guillon to buy a private truce. Edward 
 
 made him pay smartly for it, requiring the enormous ransom 
 
 of 200,000 moutons d'pr as the price of a truce for three 
 
 years, the Duke further undertaking to recognize Edward 
 
 as King of France, if he should succeed in getting himself 
 
 hallowed King of France, at Reims, and with the consent 
 
 of a majority of the other peers.* Well pleased at having 
 
 so far secured the support of the leading peer of France, 
 
 Edward left Burgundy, crossed the Yonne at Coulanges, 
 
 and held straight for Paris. On the 31st March he halted 
 
 at Chant-de-Loup, nowArpajon, near Montlhery, remaining 
 
 there over Easter Day (5th April).* His men employed the 
 
 Holy Week in ravaging and burning as usual. ^ Two days 
 
 before, envoys had come in from Paris, but their terms were 
 
 not acceptable ; Edward then advanced to Bourg-la-Reine 
 
 (7th and 8th April), while the divisions of the Prince and 
 
 the Duke of Lancaster established themselves in the suburbs Under Hit 
 
 of Chatillon, Issy, Vanves and Vaugirard. The Dauphin ™'j^^ °^ 
 
 was always wiUing to negotiate, but nothing would provoke 
 
 him to action. In vain Lord Manny brought his lances 
 
 up to the very barriers ; not a French knight was allowed 
 
 to stir (Sunday 12th April).® Paris was so crowded with 
 
 refugees that ten priests from the country had to celebrate 
 
 in one church for their several flocks.' 
 
 BafHed but not defeated Edward fell back on Montlhery 
 
 ' So Froissart. 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques and Scalacr., sup. ; Froissart, I. 426. 
 ' Guillon, 10 March ; Foed. III. 473 ; Lavisse, IV. 152. 
 ' Grandes Chroniques, VI. 168 ; Froissart, 427, 428, notes ; Le Bel, II. 261 ; 
 Scalacr. 191. 
 ° See De Nangis, Cont., III. 126. The writer saw the smoke from Paris. 
 ' " Assez prcs de St. Marcel " ; Grandes Chroniques. 
 ' Lavisse, 153. 
 
438 TREATY 
 
 CHAP. XXV and Chartres, encountering an extraordinary spell of cold 
 
 ^7^ weather, with hail, rain, wind and snow. His declared 
 
 intention was to descend the basin of the Loire, to refresh 
 
 his troops in Brittany, and then return for the siege of 
 
 Paris in summer.^ 
 
 But the French were beginning to feel that at whatever 
 price a respite must be bought. Edward again saw that 
 his numbers were shrinking daily, and he was receiving 
 bad news from home. The Scots had concluded a treaty 
 with the Dauphin ; while a fleet raised by local efforts 
 in Normandy and Picardy had assumed the offensive, 
 burned Winchelsea, and thrown all England into a state 
 of panic.^ 
 Negotia- The Pope had never ceased his pious efforts in the cause 
 of peace, and had already named mediators.' 
 
 On the 27th April the Dauphin sent out his plenipoten- 
 tiaries ; on the ist of May the conference began at Bretigny, 
 a hamlet about six miles from Chartres. The French were 
 represented by Jean de Dormans, Chancellor of Normandy, 
 the Count of Tancarville and Marshal Boucicault. The Duke 
 of Lancaster, the friend of peace, took the leading part on 
 the English side. The discussions lasted eight days, a short 
 time if we consider the importance of the questions involved. 
 Edward made a stand for the crown, or, at all events for 
 Normandy. Lancaster, with his usual good sense and 
 moderation, induced him to give way. On the 7th May 
 a truce to Michaelmas 1361 was sealed ; and next day the 
 Treaty of Bretigny was published. Edward, as a King, 
 could not treat with any personage less than a King ; the 
 treaty therefore was expressed to be made merely as 
 between the Dauphin and the Prince of Wales. Edward 
 renounced his pretensions to the Crown of France, and 
 all claim of overlordship over Normandy, Anjou, Maine, 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques, VI. 170 ; Scalacr. 193 ; De Nangis, Cont., III. 126, 
 127 ; Froissart, sup., and notes. 
 
 ' Walsingham, I. 287 ; De Nangis, 125 ; Foed. III. 468-477. 
 
 ' Andouin, Abbot of Clugny, and Hugh of Geneva were accredited to the 
 English court, while Simon of Langres, General of the Dominicans, was accredited 
 to the French Regency ; Foed. 472, 505, 527 ; Froissart, I. 431. 
 
OF BRfiTIGNY 439 
 
 Touraine, Brittany and Flanders. On the other hand he chap, xxv 
 received, besides Guyenne in its widest acceptation, Poitou, ~^ 
 Saintonge, Aunis {La Rochelle), the Agenais, Perigord, 
 Limousin, Quercy, Bigorre, Gaure, Angoumois, and 
 Rouergue, all on the footing on which the same were pre- 
 viously held by the King of France. The cession carried 
 with it the right to the homages of the Counts of Foix, 
 Armagnac, Lille- Jourdain, Perigord and other feudatories 
 who held lands within the limits of the ceded territory. 
 In the North, Ponthieu and Montreuil, with a small district 
 round Calais, comprising the county of Guisnes, and all from 
 Sangatte to Gravelines, were granted in like sovereignty, 
 as also all islands adjacent to the ceded territories, and all 
 islands then held by the English. King John's ransom 
 was fixed at the prodigious sum of three miUion crowns of 
 gold at 35. 4^. the crown (£500,000). He would be taken 
 forthwith to Calais ; but 600,000 crowns (£100,000) would 
 have to be paid down before he would be allowed to leave 
 that place ; the balance to be paid by annual instalments 
 of 400,000 crowns. Forty-one hostages of the highest rank, 
 and forty-two leading bourgeois of the chief cities of France 
 to be given up as hostages. The delivery of the hostages, 
 and the surrender of La Rochelle, to precede the liberation 
 of the King. The question of the Breton succession was 
 not decided, the rival claims of John of Montfort and 
 Charles of Blois being reserved for further consideration. 
 Lastly France renounced the Scottish alliance, and England 
 the Flemish alliance.-*- 
 
 Of this compact the only remark that need be made is 
 that it was impossible of execution. No earthly power 
 could ever have compelled the French to acquiesce per- 
 manently in such a scheme. Edward had utterly overshot 
 the mark. 
 
 On the loth May the treaty was sworn by the Dauphin 
 on the altar of Notre- Dame ; a thankful Te Deum was 
 sung, processions were formed at all the churches, the 
 streets were decorated, and the whole city began to recover 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 487, &c., and 514 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 175. 
 
440 THE TREATY 
 
 CHAP. XXV something of its wonted life and gaiety, so great was the 
 
 ~7"" sense of rehef, hard as the terms were.-^ 
 1300 ' 
 
 As soon as the signature of the treaty was reported to 
 Edward, the army was started for the coast, as previously 
 agreed upon. All towns and markets were thrown open 
 to them, a French escort keeping them company. On the 
 i6th May the treaty was sworn by the Prince at Louviers.^ 
 The King himself pushed on to Honfleur, with such diligence, 
 that he landed at Rye on the i8th of the month. The Earl 
 of Warwick was left as Guardian of the Truce in Normandy, 
 M'hile Lancaster with the relics of the weary army was sent 
 by Pont-de-l'Arche to Calais.^ 
 
 The mortality of the long campaign had been very great. 
 Among the losses were Roger Mortimer 2nd Earl of March ; 
 Guy eldest son of the Earl of Warwick ; and Robert, Lord 
 Morley, the Admiral, and his son. In the auturnn of 1359, 
 263 personal safe-conducts had been issued ; only 105 were 
 issued in April 1360.* 
 
 King John heard of the conclusion of the treaty with 
 undisguised satisfaction. All that he asked for was to be 
 set at liberty ; and for that he had been wiUing to give as 
 much, if not more, than was now demanded. After a 
 suitable interchange of Royal courtesies, and hollow pledges 
 of good faith and amity, with a formal leave-taking of the 
 court at Eltham, on the 8th July John was taken from 
 Dover to Calais.'' For three years and two months he had 
 been detained in England. But before he could fairly be 
 set at liberty a good deal had yet to be done ; the first 
 instalment of the ransom had to be paid ; hostages had to 
 be delivered ; and La Rochelle and other places surrendered. 
 But the Rochellais refused stubbornly to change their 
 
 ' De Nangis, Cont., III. 128 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 200. 
 
 ^ Grandes Chroniques, 199, 202 ; Scalacr. 196. 
 
 " Le Bel, II. 271 ; Froissart, I. 439 ; Scalacr. sup. ; Foed. III. 494. 
 
 ' See Knighton, 2624 ; Walsingham, I. 288 ; Foed. ; Barnes, 583. 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 272 ; Froissart, 439 ; Foed. 504. On the 27th June John pre- 
 sented a thank-offering at St. Paul's, at the shrine of St. Earconwald ; and on 
 his way to the coast he paid ?. visit to that of St. Thomas ; Barnes, 293 ; Pauli, II. 
 452. For parting gifts of jewellery presented by Edward to John, sec Devon, 
 Issues, 156. 
 
MODIFIED 441 
 
 allegiance, and in fact held out till December. To raise chap, xxv 
 the 600,000 ecus, commissioners had been sent round the ^360 
 chief cities to negotiate loans ; but the money came in 
 very slowly, and Edward at the last had to be content with 
 400,000 icus. The gathering of the hostages was another 
 difficulty. John overcame the reluctance of the French 
 magnates by tendering his brother the Duke of Orleans, 
 and his two sons Louis and John, now respectively Dukes 
 of Anjou and Berry. Philip his youngest, the brave boy of 
 Poitiers, he was allowed to take home with him.^ The other 
 prisoners were also set free clear of ransom, except as to 
 engagements entered into prior to the 3rd May, but always 
 under obligation of returning into captivity if Rochelle was 
 not duly surrendered, and the balance of the 600,000 ecus 
 paid.^ 
 
 Matters having made a certain progress, on the 9th 
 October Edward went over to Calais, the Dauphin being 
 estabhshed at Saint-Omer.^ Fifteen days were spent in 
 engrossing the endless parchments ; on the 24th October 
 the treaty of Bretigny was finally ratified by the two 
 Kings in person, with one most important modification. 
 At the suggestion of the French the clause of the original 
 treaty, stipulating for the renunciation by Edward of the 
 claim to the Crown of France, and by John of the over- 
 lordship of the ceded districts, was struck out ; and in lieu 
 thereof identical letters tnutatis mutandis were exchanged 
 between the two Kings, each promising ' as soon as possible, 
 and at the latest before the 30th November year', the one to 
 surrender all rights of overlordship over the ceded districts, 
 the other to renounce all claim to the Crown of France, and 
 all user of the style of King of France ; and for the execu- 
 tion of these mutual covenants each King pledges himself to 
 deliver the renunciations to be made on his part ' at Bruges 
 if our said brother shall have delivered to our people at the 
 said place the renunciations to be made on his side '.* As 
 
 ' Le Bel, II. 273 ; Froissart, I. 440. ' Foed. III. 537-542- 
 
 ^ Barnes ; Grandes Chroniques. 
 
 ' " En cas que notrc dit frerc nous cnvoicra ses rcnoncialions qui sont affaire 
 desa partie." 
 
444 THE SECOND 
 
 CHAP. XXVI fresh measures being found necessary ; lastly the exporta- 
 gj tion of corn was forbidden, on account of the heavy demand 
 for France.^ 
 
 The rejoicings over the victory of Crecy had been fol- 
 lowed at no great interval by the first and worst outbreak 
 of the plague. By a curious coincidence a second visitation 
 of the same calamity followed hard on the execution of the 
 treaty of Bretigny. The pestilence broke out in the wasted 
 districts of Picardy and Flanders in the autumn of 1360 ; 
 in the following spring it spread northwards and south- 
 wards with all the well-known symptoms. At Avignon 
 eight Cardinals died ; the Pope could not spare an auditor 
 to fill an Enghsh bishopric.^ In England the first note 
 of alarm may perhaps be traced in a sanitary ordinance of 
 the 25th February 1361, requiring all animals for the 
 London markets to be slaughtered at Stratford or Knights- 
 bridge. On the loth May the law courts were closed, and 
 were not reopened till Michaelmas.* Travelling north, 
 by February 1362 the plague was raging in Scotland, and 
 continued to rage there till Christmas.* As on the former 
 occasion, so now, the pestilence was followed by a grievous 
 murrain among cattle. But the notices of the Second Plague 
 to be found in the writers are scanty ; the extent of its 
 ravages must be inferred from indirect sources, such as 
 the lists of men of rank and position who fell victims to it. 
 Chief of these was ITenry of Lancaster, the Good Duke, the 
 most interesting personage of the reign. Brave, humane 
 and upright, a friend of the clergy, the scholars and the 
 poor, he might be taken as the living original of Chaucer's 
 " verray perfight gentil knight ".^ The enduring popularity 
 of his name stood his son-in-law John of Gaunt in good 
 
 ' Statutes, sup. Foed. III. 603, 613. 
 
 ^ See Sismondi, X. 585 ; Foed. 628. " Foed. 604, 616, 621. 
 
 * Fordun, 380 ; Scotichr. II. 364 ; Wyntoun. 
 
 '' " qi Henry estoit sage, glorious, et prus, et en sa juvent revaillous en 
 honour et armys, et devaunt soun decesse dureraent bon Cristien." Scalacr. 200 ; 
 cf. Knighton, 2625 ; Barnes, 617. Chaucer had already written his Assembly 
 of Fowls or Parliament of Birds, in honour of the marriage of Lancaster's 
 daughter Blanche with John of Gaunt celebrated 19 Jlay 1359. Lancaster died 
 oiuhc ijlh March 1362 ; Complete Peerage ; Doyle. 
 
PLAGUE 445 
 
 stead ; and undoubtedly helped to raise his grandson to the chap, xxvi 
 
 throne. Among the other notabihties who died within the ~r 
 
 1301 
 
 year were Reginald Lord Cobham, and John, Lord Mowbray 
 of Gower; Thomas Murray of Bothwell and the eldest 
 son of the Earl of Sutherland, Scottish hostages ; the Count 
 of Saint-Pol, a French hostage ; and five bishops, namely 
 Thomas de Lisle, Bishop of Ely ; Thomas Falstolf of 
 St. David's; John Pascal of Llandaff ; Michael Northburgh 
 of London and Reginald Brian of Worcester.^ On the 
 country in general the effect of the second plague was to 
 neutralize all recovery of population effected since 1348, 
 and to accentuate the rise in wages inaugurated at that 
 time. In spite of King and Parliament the rates of wages 
 kept steadily rising. Between 1360 and 1370 the advance 
 was very marked.^ The ranks of the lower clergy were 
 not less seriously thinned than those of the Prelacy. Arch- 
 bishop Islip endeavoured to meet the dearth of labour on 
 the one hand, by curtailing the number of Church hohdays ; 
 and to facilitate the filling of vacant cures on the other 
 hand, by lowering the legal stipends of priests.^ 
 
 The losses of the years 1360 and 1361 made a considerable 
 gap in the circle of Edward's friends and advisers ; but 
 they gave him an opportunity of maturing " his scheme 
 for the settlement of his family ", and for making those 
 arrangements from which sprang the strifes " that make 
 up the history of the next century ".* 
 
 Henry of Grosmont, the Duke of Lancaster, left two 
 daughters, Maud the elder married to William of Bavaria, 
 younger son of the late Emperor Louis or Ludwig IV, and 
 Blanche the younger married to John of Gaunt [Gand), 
 third surviving son of the King. At her father's death 
 Maud came to England to claim her rights, but, dying 
 
 ' Murimuth, Cont. 195 ; Walsingham, I. 296 ; Bp. Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. ; 
 Scotichr. sup. ; Hailes' Annals. Birchington includes among the bishops who 
 died of the plague John Trilleck of Hereford, who died 30 November 1360 ; 
 Anglia Sacra, I. 45. 
 
 ^ SeeRogers, Prices, I. 320; II. 316; e.g. for threshing the decennial average 
 rises from sJi. to uli. 
 
 ' Walsingham, 297. * Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 436. 
 
446 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY 
 
 CHAP. XXVI 
 I361 
 
 Marriage 
 of the 
 Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 suddenly, and perhaps unaccountably (1362), left the whole 
 of the vast inheritance to descend to Blanche and her 
 husband.^ 
 
 Lionel of Antwerp, the King's second surviving son, had 
 been married in 1342 to Elizabeth de Burgh, heiress of 
 William, ' the Brown Earl ' {Jarla donn) of Ulster.^ From 
 her grandmother Elizabeth of Clare she derived one-third 
 of the great Gloucester inheritance, besides her father's 
 Irish property.^ Lionel, being now twenty-three years old, 
 was sent over to Ireland as King's Lieutenant, to try his 
 hand at governing the Irish.* 
 
 But the great event of the year 1361 in the Court circle 
 was the marriage of the Prince of Wales to his cousin Joan of 
 Kent, under circumstances, it must be said, not altogether 
 creditable to the parties. The lady had the double attrac- 
 tion of being a beauty and an heiress, being daughter of 
 Earl Edmund of Kent, and so grand-daughter of Edward I. 
 Her personal charms had gained her the name of the Fair 
 Maid of Kent. But her reputation was not unblemished. 
 She had been married twice and divorced once ; ^ the Prince 
 had stood godfather to one of her children, in itself a bar to 
 the marriage in the eyes of the Church, and her second 
 husband, Thomas Holland, had not been buried nine months 
 when a private marriage with the Prince of Wales was 
 announced. The Pope confessed some doubts as to the 
 propriety of granting the necessary dispensation, but as 
 he was assured that great scandal would ensue if he with- 
 held his consent, he gave way ; the private marriage was 
 annulled, and a dispensation for a new marriage granted ; 
 
 '■ Scalacr. 200 ; Knighton, the staunch partisan of the old House of Lancaster, 
 broadly hints that Maud met with foul play ; Cont. 2626 ; Barnes, 617. 
 
 ' 15 August 1342 ; Murimuth, 125 ; Knighton, 2584. 
 
 ^ Gilbert, Viceroys, 182, 215. 
 
 * July-September 1361 ; Foed. III. 606, 609, &c. ; Gilbert, 218. 
 
 ° The first husband was WiUiam Montacute II, Earl of Salisbury, who was still 
 living. The second was Thomas Holland, Steward of the Household to the Earl, 
 who asserted that he had been contracted to the lady before she was contracted 
 to the Earl ; the matter was referred to Clement VI, and, the Earl acquiescing, 
 the lady was adjudged to Holland ; Foed. 627. Compare Sandford, 184; and 
 Complete Peerage, " Kent ". 
 
TERRITORIES DULY CEDED 447 
 
 the Royal pair were put through a form of penance, and chap, xxvi 
 then publicly re-married by Archbishop Islip (Windsor, ~7~ 
 20 October). The King and Queen were present with their 
 sons John and Edmund, and their daughter Isabelle. The 
 Queen of Scots, Matilda Countess of Hainault, and all the 
 Baronage, as in duty bound, were there,^ but the marriage 
 was very unpopular with the country. 
 
 When the 30th November, the day appointed for the The Treaty 
 final ratifications and surrenders came, much yet remained ° ^^^'S^y- 
 to be done. Edward had dropped the style of King of 
 France, but not the quartering of the Lilies ; ^ he had 
 surrendered the castles held in France in his own name, but 
 had not succeeded in recalling the EngHsh Free Lances 
 who were preying on the land. The French Government 
 on the other hand had apparently done their best. In 
 December (1360) the resistance of the Rochellais was over- 
 come, as already mentioned. In October John had sealed 
 orders for the surrender of Guisnes and Ponthieu ; but the 
 people submitted slowly and reluctantly. The Constable, 
 Robert of Fiennes, holding lands in the county of Guisnes, 
 refused to recognize Edward.^ On the 12th April 1361 
 Edward was complaining that Ponthieu had not yet been 
 delivered.* On the ist July Chandos and others were 
 commissioned to receive the transfers of the Southern 
 provinces, on behalf of King Edward. On the 27th of the 
 month John sealed documents making full transfer of these 
 territories, saving the sovereignty and the " dernier ressort " 
 ' till due renunciation of the crown of France made by 
 Edward '} This was in strict accordance with the treaty 
 of Calais, by which the renunciations were to be tendered 
 at Bruges simultaneously. After some shuffling and delay, 
 on the 22nd September the keys of Poitiers were delivered 
 to Chandos by the Mayor of the city and Marshal Bouci- 
 cault.^ The attornment of the other towns of Poitou, with 
 
 ^ Foed. III. 626, 633. ^ See the engraving of the Great Seal, Foed. 607. 
 
 ^ Lavisse, IV. 157. ' Foed. 608, 714. 
 
 ' Foed. 624, 631 ; see also Vic et Vaissete, IV. 313. 
 
 ' It seems that possession of the keep-tower of Poitiers carried with it the 
 right to the homage of all Poitou. 
 
448 RENUNCIATION WITHHELD 
 
 CHAP. XXVI that of Limousin, Angoumois, Saintonge and Perigord, fol- 
 '^ lowed shortly ; but the surrenders of Quercy and Rouergue 
 were not obtained till January and February 1362. The 
 great feudatories, such as the Counts of Perigord, Armagnac 
 and Rodez protested not less energetically against the 
 transfer of their homages than the lesser folk.^ 
 
 But the raising of the money for the King's ransom 
 proved the greatest difficulty of all. The 200,000 ecus in 
 arrear from the first instalment were paid up in December 
 and February ; but the remaining instalments of 400,000 
 ecus each became the standing difificulty of the rest of the 
 reign. A windfall in the shape of a dowry of 600,000 ecus 
 that Galeazzo Visconti, the rich Lord of Milan, was content 
 to pay for the honour of obtaining the hand of John's 
 daughter Isabelle for his son Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, 
 gave some relief ; ^ but crushing taxation had to be im- 
 posed, the situation being aggravated by the ' incorrigible 
 frivolity ' of King John, who squandered the treasure 
 needed for so many purposes as if it had been pocket 
 money.^ 
 
 On the 15th November Edward named commissioners to 
 receive the renunciations of the King of France, authoriz- 
 ing them ' if necessary, and if the French agents should 
 require it ', to tender on his behalf all ' reasonable ' letters 
 of acquittance.* Thus it would seem that the statement of 
 the French writers that when the envoys met at Bruges the 
 French were ready with due letters of renunciation, but 
 that the English were not, was perfectly correct.* A few 
 days later (13th January 1362) the Pope wrote to Edward 
 complaining of sudden difficulties which had arisen, and 
 begging him earnestly to remove all doubts as to the honesty 
 of his intentions.^ Edward complained of the reservation 
 
 1 Foed. in. 555, 654-665 ; Lavisse, IV. 157-159. 
 
 - Froissart, I. 440 ; Villani, IX. 617. ' Lavisse, 159-161. 
 
 * Foed. 629 : " De faire a nostre dit frere de France suffisantes lettres de 
 qviitance et de absolucion sur la recepcion des lettres devantdites, et tantes et 
 teles qui li devront suffire par raison." 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques, VI. 254, and Juvenal des Ursins, cited Hallam, Middle 
 Ages, I. 59. " " Quaelibet ex parte tua dubia removendo ; " Foed. 634. 
 
STATE OF FRANCE 449 
 
 of " le dernier ressort" , and declared that he would tender chap. xxvi 
 a full renunciation when that clause was struck out.^ But gj 
 as the reservation was so worded as only to hold good until 
 the English renunciation should be made,^ if Edward had 
 only tendered a transfer couched in the same terms as that 
 of John it would seem that the renunciations on both sides 
 would have been complete.* Edward apparently when Edward 
 he accepted the original treaty at Bretigny had made up i,ack'"^ 
 his mind to renounce the Crown of France in return for 
 large territorial cessions. The unfortunate modifications, 
 as we consider them, introduced at Calais, gave him time 
 to think over the matter again, and now, having got posses- 
 sion of the lands, he drew back. 
 
 But the transfer of the ceded districts did not better the 
 position of the rest of France. The " Fellowships " had 
 yet to be got rid of. Edward for the most part had 
 procured the surrender of the castles held in his name, but 
 not the retirement of the unruly garrisons, who remained 
 on their own account, swelling the ranks of the marauders. 
 Well disciplined and mobile, these locust bands could shift 
 their quarters at a moment's notice, and pounce down on 
 districts previously supposed to be safe. Brittany was 
 still held debatable land. Edward, as the self-constituted 
 guardian of young John of Montfort, could still farm out 
 castles there. Robert Knolles had three castles of him, 
 for which he paid a rent of 1,000 marks a year.* But we 
 note with some satisfaction that the English were said to 
 treat the peasantry with more consideration than their own 
 native lords did.^ When King John was set free a concen- 
 tration of Free Lances took place in Brie and Champagne ; 
 but even before that the " Great Fellowship ", and one 
 known as Les Tard Venus (The Late-comers), had been 
 terrorizing the country between Auxerre, Dijon and Lyons. 
 On the 1st January 1361 the ' Late-comers ' seized Pont 
 
 1 See Foed. III. 68i. 
 
 ^ " Jusques les renonciacions soient faites." 
 
 '■ Compare three papers by MM. Secousse, Salier and Bonamy in the 
 Academie des Inscriptions, vol. XV. ' Foed. 498. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 452, note ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 128. 
 1415-1 G g 
 
450 THE FREE COMPANIES 
 
 CHAP. XXVI Saint-Esprit on the Rhone, about 25 miles from Avignon, 
 ^ to the great terror of the Pope. Bought out of Saint-Esprit, 
 some, under Hawkwood, retired into Italy to wage profitable 
 war on the Visconti, under the banner of Montserrat. Others 
 moved into Languedoc, where they plundered the country 
 from Nimes to Albi, even pushing raids into Auvergne. 
 At last, however, Languedoc was roused to self-defence. 
 A Spanish band, under Don Enrique of Trastamare, a 
 claimant to the throne of Castile, was taken into pay. At 
 their approach the brigands moved to Brignais, on the 
 Rhone, about 8 miles from Lyons, where they established 
 themselves in the castle. The great barons turned out in 
 force to crush the band, but Jacques de Bourbon, Count of 
 La Marche, was rash enough to attack the marauders in 
 a strong position, before the whole of the national forces 
 had come up. The Lances delivered a crushing flank 
 attack and overwhelmed him. Bourbon and his son Peter, 
 and the Counts of Forez and Joigni were killed, or died 
 of their wounds (6 April, 1362).^ In the North the Breton 
 Du Guesclin had distinguished himself by his activity in 
 fighting the Companies ; but it was not till the end of 1362 
 that he was able to rid Normandy of James Pipe.^ 
 
 Trusty Seneschals had been appointed by Edward to 
 rule the ceded provinces.^ But a Dominion of such extent 
 could not be safely left in the hands of mere subjects. Per- 
 haps Edward also thought that the attractions of a Pro- 
 vincial Court might mollify the hostility of his new subjects. 
 The Prince On the 19th July (1362) the Prince of Wales was invested 
 taine?"'' with the Duchy of Aquitaine ; all regalian rights over the old 
 and new provinces were conferred upon him to their fullest 
 extent, saving only the feudal superiority of the King of 
 England, who reserved a special right to raise Aquitaine 
 to the dignity of a kingdom, if he should think fit.* In 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques, VI. 225. ^ See Lavisse, IV. 162-165. 
 
 ^ See Delpit, Documents Fran^ais, 86-121, and Vic et Vaissete, sup. These 
 posts, however, were not all filled up till r363. 
 
 ' Foed. III. 667-670. Shipping was immediately ordered for the Prince's 
 voyage, but he did not sail till the spring of 1363 ; Id. 685 ; Murirauth, Cont. 197 ; 
 he landed at La Rochelle and proceeded to Bordeaux by land, entering the city 
 
PARLIAMENT 451 
 
 contemplation of the establishment of the Prince as ruling chap, xxvi 
 Duke of Aquitaine Edward had thought fit to revive the '^T^ 
 old ties with Spain. On the 22nd June a treaty of defensive 
 aUiance was arranged with Pedro the Cruel of Castile and 
 his son Alphonso ; the two crowns became bound to support 
 each other ' as against all men who could live or die ' 
 excepting the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of France.-" 
 On the 13th October a Parliament met at Westminster.^ 
 The proceedings were opened in the Painted Chamber by 
 Henry Green, Chief Justice of England, who addressed the 
 assembly in English,^ a memorable incident, foreshadowing 
 an enactment of the same session. The King wanted a con- 
 tinuance of the subsidy on wool, and spoke of sending the 
 wool Staple back again to Calais. This latter measure was 
 suggested by way of enhancing prices, which were said to be 
 low. He also invited the special attention of the Magnates 
 to certain proposals recently put forward by the Scots.* 
 The Peers condemned the Scottish suggestions — whatever 
 they may have been — while the Commons declined to 
 sanction the transfer of the wool Staple. But they granted 
 a subsidy, a reduced subsidy or surtax, for three years, 
 namely 205. on the sack of wool and 300 wool fells, and 405. 
 on the last of leather. But, as during the most, if not the 
 whole of the reign, the King had been drawing these sur- 
 taxes at 405. and 805. respectively, the so-called " grant " 
 was in fact a cutting down of the existing revenue for three 
 years. Then, as if to ensure the permanence of the reduc- 
 tion, the King was made to give an explicit assent to a 
 declaration that for the future no subsidy should be set 
 on wool without the assent of Parliament.^ Within four 
 months Edward found an excuse for breaking his word, as 
 the very next Parliament had to complain. 
 
 Several other measures of interest were included in the 
 statute passed by this Parliament. Another blow was 
 
 on the nth June ; Eulog. Hist. III. 231. Between the 9th July 1363 and the 
 4th April 1364 he received the homages of 1,047 barons and gentlemen, repre- 
 senting every province from Poitou to Beam ; Delpit, Documents Franfais, &c., 
 86-i2r. 1 Foed. III. 606,-672, 687. " Lords' Report. 
 
 ' " En Englois." * See Foed. 645, 659. " Rot. Parlt. II. 273. 
 
 Gg 2 
 
452 THE ENGLISH TONGUE 
 
 CHAP. XXVI struck at the custom of Purveyance ; the right was to be 
 ^ exercised only on behalf of the households of the King or 
 Queen ; even the heinous name of ' Purveyor ' was changed 
 for that of ' Buyer '. Buyers were required to produce com- 
 missions under the Great Seal, renewable half-yearly, and 
 all payments were to be made ' by ready money in hand '} 
 To remedy the ' dearness ' of spiritual ministrations caused 
 by the ravages of the pestilence, the archbishops agreed that 
 no one should be allowed to give a parish priest more than 
 six marks (£4) a year ; chaunters of ' annuals ', not having 
 cure of souls, to be cut down to five marks (£3 6s. 8d.), 
 or if boarded in the house to two marks {£1 6s. 8d.), " Quod 
 plures furari coegit / " ^ Lastly — a praiseworthy effort was 
 made to restore to the people the use of the native language 
 in the law-courts. The reasons alleged for this wholesome 
 reform were that French was then ' too little known in the 
 realm ' ; ^ and that ' people who impleaded or were im- 
 pleaded in the courts knew not what was said for or against 
 them by their Serjeants or pleaders ' ; and, ' because in 
 divers countries, where the King and other of the Realm had 
 been, good governaunce and full right was done to every 
 person, because their laws and customs were learned and 
 used in the tongue of the country.' Thus it appears that 
 one good outcome of Edward's foreign wars was to call the 
 attention of his subjects to the anomalous position held 
 by their mother tongue at home. But " use and wont " 
 proved stronger than statute law, and French maintained 
 its position as the language of the courts for some centuries ; 
 while for writs and records Latin was retained. 
 
 With regard to the development of the native tongue we 
 would invite special attention to the fact that this first 
 attempt to assert itself followed hard upon a period of con- 
 tinuous campaigning abroad, because on future occasions 
 we shall find distinct stages in the evolution of modern 
 
 ' For a proclamation giving effect to the new rules, see Foed. III. 686, 695. 
 
 ^ Statute, c. 9 ; Walsingham, I. 297. These regulations were ratified by 
 Convocation, December 1363 ; Barnes, 363. A more creditable remedy for the 
 same evil, also due to Archbishop Islip, was the foundation of Canterbury Hall, 
 Oxford, the nucleus of Christ Church ; Foed. 703. ' "trop desconue." 
 
KING'S JUBILEE 453 
 
 English appearing after like periods of foreign warfare, chap, xxvi 
 the assimilation and absorption of the Romance elements 7^ 
 being evidently due to the closer and more intimate 
 relations between the French-speaking gentry and their 
 native followers brought about by the rough camaraderie 
 of the camp. 
 
 The session lasted till the 17th November, but the 
 royal assent was given to the above measures on the 13th 
 of the month, the King's fiftieth birthday. In honour of 
 that day of Jubilee a charter of pardon for minor trespasses 
 and misprisions was issued, and fresh honours accumulated 
 on the heads of the King's sons. Lionel was created Duke Courtly 
 of Clarence ; ^ John created Duke of Lancaster ; and Ed- ^°"°"''^- 
 mund Earl of Cambridge. Lionel was in Ireland ; the 
 other two received their charters and investiture at the 
 hands of their Royal father ; Edmund was presented with 
 his sword, John with his sword and ducal cap.^ 
 
 The delivery of the first King's Speech in Enghsh, and 
 the order for the resumption of the native tongue in the 
 law-courts, mark the year 1362 as an epoch in the history 
 of our language ; the year is remarkable in the annals of 
 our literature as that of the appearance of the first edition 
 of the celebrated poem of WiUiam Langland or Langley, 
 " The Vision Concerning Piers the Plowman," the Pilgrim's 
 Progress of the age. 
 
 In spite of the opposition of the Commons ^ the King held 
 to his purpose of transferring the Staple to Calais.* It was 
 established there on the ist March 1363. To regulate the 
 course of trade there, and generally to govern the town and 
 its inhabitants, a close corporation of twenty-six named 
 men was embodied ; with a common seal ; the right to 
 
 ' The title Clarence was a glorification of Clare, the family name of the Earls 
 of Gloucester, part of whose inheritance was held by Lionel in right of his wife, 
 Elisabeth de Burgh, granddaughter and heiress of Elisabeth of Clare, sister of 
 Earl Gilbert III. 
 
 ' " Une cappe fourree, et desus un cercle d'or et de peres ; " Rot. Parlt. II. 
 268-273 > Statutes, I. 371 ; Walsingham, I. 297. 
 
 ' Walsingham says " non obstante sacramento suo ". 
 
 ' On the 29th September the exportation of wool had been forbidden, perhaps 
 to put pressure on the Commons. 
 
454 THE CALAIS STAPLE 
 
 CHAP. XXVI purchase and hold land ; jurisdiction not only to hear and 
 '^ determine suits of debt, contract or account, according to 
 law merchants, but also to hear and determine all cases of 
 crime, felony or trespass, without appeal ; and, incidentally 
 to receive all fines, amerciaments and issues of court, a 
 franchise verging on a palatinate. They were further 
 authorized to levy a surtax of 40 pence on the sack of wool, 
 by way of market dues. Vacancies in the corporation to 
 be filled by co-optation ; the mayor or mayors to be 
 annually elected by themselves. For these privileges they 
 were to pay the King a " ferm " of 500 marks (£333 6s. M.) 
 a year. Practically, all articles of English growth or 
 manufacture intended for export were required to be taken 
 to Calais, except lead and tin, with a further exception in 
 favour of the Gascons and Germans, who were allowed to 
 ship cloth and herrings direct from English ports.^ The 
 considerations that weighed with the King for establishing 
 the Staple out of England, now, as on previous occasions, 
 were mainly political, the aim being to attach Calais to 
 England by commercial ties ; but the petty rent may have 
 had some influence too. The imposition of the illegal extra 
 forty pence in the teeth of the recent enactment created 
 great dissatisfaction ; and the extortions of the Merchants 
 of the Staple, as the corporation was called, soon made the 
 Calais market a scene of strife and confusion.^ The oppo- 
 sition became such that within less than two years' time 
 the monopoly had to be suppressed, and the system 
 established by the Ordinance of 1353 revived, Calais being 
 retained as the foreign Staple, with ten Staple towns for 
 England, one for Wales, and three for Ireland. At Calais, 
 with occasional intermissions, a Staple remained till the 
 year of grace 1558.^ 
 
 Parlia- From the 6th to the 30th October another Parliament 
 
 sat at Westminster. An ineffectual protest was made 
 against the illegal surtax imposed at Calais, and the legis- 
 
 1 Foed. III. 688-693, 698, 74S. ' Foed. 723. 
 
 ' See the table, A. Jenckes, Staple of England, 79 (Philadelphia, 1908), and 
 generally Anderson's Origin of Commerce. 
 
 ment. 
 
SUMPTUARY LAWS 453 
 
 lature had to content itself with efforts to keep down the chap, xxvi 
 prices of commodities, enhanced by war, pestilence, gales,^ ^TZ 
 and floods. Trade regulations and sumptuary edicts were 
 passed : maximum prices were fixed for poultry ; mer- 
 chants were restricted to dealings in one sort of merchandise; 
 craftsmen to the exercise of one craft ; and the competition 
 of women was expressly encouraged. In the matter of 
 dress, knights, esquires, clergymen, merchants, craftsmen 
 and labourers, each in their several rank and station, had 
 suitable apparel prescribed for them. The possession of 
 £200 a year in land or rent gave the right to rank as a 
 knight, £100 a year the right to rank as an esquire. A 
 merchant worth £1,000 was on a level with the landowner 
 of £200 a year. Men not worth forty shillings would rank 
 as labourers. These were forbidden to wear anything but 
 "blanket" or "russet", at i2d. the yard, with linen to 
 correspond. Suitable attire is prescribed for the different 
 classes up to £1,000 a year. Above that persons might 
 dress as they pleased.^ 
 
 With the period that we have reached — that of the long 
 truce — a time of more friendly intercourse with Scotland has 
 to be recorded. King David himself received invitations to 
 visit England most years.^ The presence of Scottish envoys Relations 
 in London had always been a matter of common occurrence ; '^^^^ ^°^' 
 but now we also find a readiness to encourage private inter- 
 course. Scottish merchants ; Scottish students ; pilgrims 
 to Canterbury ; pilgrims to Walsingham ; Crusaders bound 
 for Prussia ; all persons accredited by the Scottish govern- 
 ment are free and welcome.* Edward was making a fresh 
 
 ' A most destructive hurricane swept over these Islands on the evening of 
 Saturday, 15th January 1362 ; Eulog. Hist. III. 229 ; " Piers Plowman," V. 14 
 (ed. Morris). 
 
 ' See Rot. Park. II. 275-282 ; Statutes, I. 378. For strictures on the extrava- 
 gance and effeminacy of current fashions see Eulog. Hist. III. 230 ; cloaks 
 either very loose and short, or down to the heels, with long sleeves (gouns) ; 
 silken " paltoks ", like cassocks ; long pointed shoes, " crakows " ; also derided 
 in France as " poulaines " ; De Nangis, III. Cont. 138. 
 
 ' See safe-conducts for the years r362-i365. Foed. III. 645, 723, 765. 
 
 * See Rotuli Scotiae for these years, passim. Safe-conducts are made out in 
 batches of ten, twenty, and fifty at a time. 
 
456 OFFER OF UNION 
 
 CHAP. XXVI push for union with Scotland ; and David was quite willing 
 rZ to play into his hands. He was childless ; he hated the 
 Stewarts, the heirs to his crown ; and the payment of the 
 ransom pinched him. Only two instalments of 10,000 
 marks had been paid,^ and he might be summoned to return 
 into captivity at any moment. Undeterred by a formidable 
 rebellion that broke out against him David himself came 
 to London in the autumn of 1363.^ On the 27th November 
 a secret conference was held at Westminster in the presence 
 of the two Kings ; and a Minute was drawn up recording 
 a proposal for the union of the two crowns at the death 
 of David, if he should die without issue.^ The suggestion 
 was that the Scottish Estates {Communaltes) should agree 
 to take the then King of England, whoever he might be, 
 as their King. David undertook to lay the thing before 
 his Parliament, and Edward made most liberal offers : 
 he would forgo the unpaid balance of ransom, restore the 
 old boundaries of Scotland, settle the troublesome demands 
 of the " Disinherited Barons ", which had not yet been 
 finally disposed of ; Scotland would be allowed to retain 
 her own Parliament, her own laws and taxation, her owp 
 administration ; every guarantee was offered and every 
 inducement held out. And, without doubt, the arrange- 
 ment would have been most favourable to Scotland if the 
 Scots could have been induced to listen to such a proposal — 
 and if any means could have been devised for securing 
 observance of the compact.* Sensible, however, that the 
 chances of the acceptance of such a scheme were small, the 
 English negotiators put forward a secondary plan, of 
 a more covert character, by which the Scots would be 
 
 ' See Acts Parlt. Scotland, I. 496 ; c£. Exchequer Rolls Scotland, II. xlii ; 
 Foed. III. 397, 453, 465. The payment of a third instalment, apparently, is 
 noticed at p. 500 of Foed., but the records of the Scottish Parliaments prove 
 that no third instalment had yet been paid. 
 
 ' Rot. Scot. I. 872 ; Exchequer Rolls, sup. 184. 
 
 ' The scheme was carefully put as a mere open proposal, " non pas comme de 
 chose profferte, assentue ne affermee dune part ne dautre . . . mais conrnie de 
 chose touchiee," &c. David had lost his wife Joan in the previous September 
 (Eulog.), but was now married to Margaret Drummond (Hailes). 
 
 * Foed. 715. 
 
WITH SCOTLAND 457 
 
 asked to elect as heir to their crown the eldest of the King's chap, xxvi 
 sons who should not be ' heir apparent ' to the crown of ^ g 
 England.^ Early in 1364 David returned to Scotland ; held 
 a Parliament at Scone on the 4th March ; and propounded 
 his scheme. The three Estates answered with one voice that 
 for the sake of peace they would make any sacrifices consistent 
 with the honour and integrity of Scotland, but that the 
 King's proposals could not be entertained for one moment.^ 
 
 It was impossible for the Scots to forget the Treaty of 
 Brigham and what became of it. But for all that they were 
 not insensible to the benefits of peace with England, and 
 they were prepared to show their appreciation of it by paying 
 liberally for it. They offered to forfeit the 20,000 marks 
 already paid on account of David's ransom, and to execute 
 a fresh treaty by which they would purchase a truce for A long 
 five-and-twenty years for the sum of £100,000.* The offer 
 was practically accepted, payment to be made by annual 
 instalments of £4,000 ; but the truce in the first instance 
 was only signed for four years, to run from the 2nd February 
 1366, the existing truce, signed in October 1357, being carried 
 on to that date.* 
 
 Three years and three months had not yet run from the 
 time when King John had recovered his long wished for 
 liberty, when he resolved to place himself once more in 
 Edward's hands. Opinion as to the motives of a man so 
 shallow and light-hearted as Jean le Bon was naturally Jean k 
 much divided. He had taken on himself the payment of 
 the balance of the Burgundy ransom, left owing at the death 
 of Duke Philip of Rouvre (21 November 1361) ; * but his 
 
 ' Printed in Acts of Parliament of Scotland, I. 94. The document is undated, 
 but the language of the Scotichronicon seems to identify this proposal with the 
 one laid before the Scots Parlament in 1364, inf. 
 
 ^ Acts of Parliament of Scotland, I. 93 ; Scotichr. II. 366. 
 
 ' 13 January 1365 ; Acts of Parliament of Scotland, I. 495. 
 
 * London, 20 May, 1365 ; Foed. III. 766, 770. 
 
 ' Philip having left neither child nor any near relative, King John laid claim 
 to the duchy, and gave it to his son Philip the Bold, ignoring the claims of the 
 King of Navarre, a fresh ground of war with Charles ; Lavisse, IV. 167. Only 
 10,000 crowns of the Burgundy debt still remained due, and that was paid up in 
 March 1364 ; Foed. 727. 
 
458 KING JOHN BACK AGAIN 
 
 CHAP. XXVI own ransom was in hopeless arrear. Little more than the 
 ■^ first instalment had been paid ; nearly 1,700,000 ecus were 
 owing.i Another point touched John's knightly sense of 
 honour still more keenly. In November 1362 Edward 
 had agreed to liberate the four French Princes of the Blood, 
 or Seigneurs des Fleurs de Lys, on further pecuniary and 
 territorial conditions disastrous to France.^ Pending the 
 satisfaction of these requirements they were allowed to live 
 easy lives at Calais on parole. The Duke of Anjou, John's 
 second son, took advantage of an opportunity to escape to 
 Boulogne, and refused to return. John was deeply morti- 
 fied by his son's conduct, and declared that he himself was 
 bound to make amends to Edward. Some even thought 
 that a Crusading project entered into John's inducements 
 to visit England. Late in 1362 he had gone to Avignon 
 to pay his respects to the new Pope, Urban V.^ Staying 
 on at Avignon over the winter, in March 1363 he came 
 into contact with Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, 
 who enlisted him for a Crusade on behalf of the Kingdom 
 of Jerusalem. A wilder or more unseasonable project was 
 never started ; but John persuaded himself that it might 
 prove a means of ridding France of the Companies. It 
 was said that he had undertaken to canvass the King of 
 England on the subject.* Those who took the least 
 favourable view of the King's character declared that he 
 was hankering after the flesh-pots of Egypt,^ the squalor 
 
 ' 400,000 crowns had been paid at Calais in October 1360. Early in 1361 
 Edward signed receipts for 200,000 crowns, only 160,000 apparently having been 
 paid ; Foed. III. 598. In May 1362 an instalment of 200,000 was paid ; but 
 90,000 crowns of this was taken out of a subsidy voted by the English clergy for 
 the Pope; Id. 647, 714; Wake. In February 1364 a final instalment of 107,000 
 crowns was paid. Id. 721, and there the payments ended. 
 
 - See the treaty, Foed. III. 681, 695, 700. 
 
 " Innocent VI died 12 September 1362. After some delay the Cardinals elected 
 another Frenchman, the si.xth in succession, and a Benedictine, Guillaume Abbot 
 of St. Victor at Marseilles ; he took the style of Urban V and was consecrated 
 and crowned on the 6th November ; H. Nicolas ; Froissart, I. 461, note. 
 
 * Froissart, 461, 464 ; Sismondi, X. 597. On Good Friday, 31st March 
 1363) Urban preached the Crusade, and John and his barons took the Cross ; 
 Grandes Chroniques. 
 
 ' " Joci causa j " De Nangis, Cont. III. 131. 
 
HIS DEATH 459 
 
 and misery of France being intolerable after the gay chap, xxvi 
 luxury of the English Court. Lastly we might suggest that j g 
 John had an inkling that he might with advantage leave 
 the work of governing to his son. Whatever his motives, 
 in defiance of all opposition, John appointed the Dauphin 
 Regent and crossed the Channel. On the 4th January Back in 
 1364 he landed at Dover.^ Edward gave him a magnificent ^"s'^""- 
 reception. The King of Cyprus had come over before him ; 
 the King of Scots had not yet gone home. Such a concourse 
 of Royalties gave every excuse for feasts and shows and 
 gorgeous hospitality, all to console John for his return to 
 nominal captivity.^ He was again established in the 
 Savoy, and there he died on Monday 8th April : ^ 4,000 Dies, 
 torches and 4,000 wax tapers were lighted at the obsequies 
 at St. Paul's.* Edward had the remains conveyed in state 
 at his expense to Dover ; there they were received by the 
 French ; on Tuesday 7th May they were finally buried at 
 Saint-Denis.* 
 
 ' Grandes Chroniques. 
 
 ' Knighton, 2627 ; Eulog. III. 233. A fifth King, Waldemar III of Denmark, 
 came to England a little later. 
 ^ Id., and Grandes Chroniques, VI. 229. 
 ' De Nangis, Cent. III. 133. ° Grandes Chroniques, VI. 231. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1364-1366 
 
 End of the Breton War of Succession. — Battles of Cochereland Auray. — ^Triumph 
 of Jean de Montfort. — Settlement between France and Navarre. — Parliaments. 
 — Pro visors and Praemunire. — John Wycliffe and the Papacy. 
 
 CH. XXVII The death of King John sounded the knell of the treaty 
 ^~^ of Bretigny. Ere the breath had left his body his son 
 War in the Dauphin-Regent had commissioned Bertrand Du 
 Brittany. GuescHn to attack the Norman strongholds of the King of 
 Navarre. The reputed scion of a gentle house of modest 
 means, Du Guesclin was in manners and outward appear- 
 ance a very peasant, short, stout, coarse-featured, unscru- 
 pulous, and illiterate. But he was endowed with marvel- 
 lous strength and courage, and had an instinct amounting 
 to genius for the ruses and tricks of mediaeval war. Hither- 
 to, among the French, war had been the sport of the noble. 
 Du Guesclin made it a business in which success justified 
 all expedients.^ He taught his countrymen to adopt from 
 the English that determined style of fighting which more 
 than a century later amazed and shocked the Italians, when 
 they came into coUision with the fighting men of Charles VIII.^ 
 Du Guesclin had learned the art of war in Brittany as a 
 staunch follower of the House of Blois. He had first risen 
 into notice during the siege of Rennes (1356-7). Two years 
 later he caught the eye of the Dauphin during a siege of 
 Melun, his first service under the French flag.* In 1361 he 
 was allowed to visit England as the confidential agent of 
 the hostage Princes.* In his present undertaking he proved 
 eminently successful ; he recovered Mantes and Meulan 
 
 ' See Sismondi, X. 504 ; Martin, V. 243 ; Lavisse, IV. 172. 
 
 ' Kitchin, I. 456. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 47i,note. * Foed. III. 599. 
 
BATTLES OF COCKEREL AND AURAY 461 
 
 by stratagem, 'which might be designated as treachery.' ch.xxvii 
 The inhabitants were slaughtered without mercy, but the 7^ 
 free navigation of the Seine was secured.^ 
 
 Within a week of these events the Captal de Buch landed 
 at Cherbourg with reinforcements from Navarre.- Troops 
 were speedily sent from Paris to Du Guesclin at Rouen, 
 while de Grailly enlisted the services of John Jewel and 
 a band of English adventurers established at Rolleboise.^ 
 On Thursday the i6th May the two forces met in pitched 
 battle on the plain of Cocherel* After an obstinate fight 
 Du Guesclin won the day by a flank manoeuvre. Jewel 
 was killed and the Captal taken.^ The news of this success, 
 the most important yet achieved by the French since the 
 beginning of the war, reached Reims just in time to shed 
 a ray of hopeful light on the coronation of Charles V. On 
 Trinity Sunday (19th May) ^ the rite was duly performed, 
 and the new King as his first act conferred the county of 
 Longueville, vacant by the death of Philip of Navarre, 
 upon the victorious Du Guesclin.' 
 
 The negotiations between the two competitors for the 
 Ducal throne had come to nothing. Charles in 1363 had 
 signed a treaty of partition (Evran, 12th July), but his 
 ambitious wife, Jeanne de Penthievre, refused to share her 
 inheritance with de Montfort.^ As the French sent succour 
 to the one side, the Enghsh were at liberty to support the 
 other side. Accordingly John Chandos was sent to the 
 rescue, with a powerful following, which included Robert 
 Knolles, Hugh Calverley, Eustache d'Aubrecicourt and 
 Walter Hewit. OnSunday, Michaelmas Day (29 September), 
 the two armies joined battle outside Auray.® The star of 
 England was once more in the ascendant : the French party 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 471, note. 
 
 ^ Froissart, 473 ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 133 ; Sismondi, XI. 8. 
 ' Seine-et-Oise,near Bonnieres. 
 ^ Seine-et-Marne, near Chateau-Thierry. 
 
 ' De Nangis, Cont. sup. ; Froissart, 475-482 ; Eulog. ; Grandes Chroniques. 
 See also Lavisse, IV. 173. There were Gascons fighting on each side. 
 ' Id. ' Froissart, 483 and note. 
 
 ' Lobineau, I. 362 ;. Sismondi, 18 ; Froissart, 490. 
 " Morbihan. 
 
462 END OF BRETON WAR 
 
 CH. XXVII were completely beaten ; Charles of Blois was slain, and 
 TTT Du Guesclin taken. Chandos had chosen a defensive 
 position, on an eminence, now occupied by a Carthusian 
 church, leaving the offensive to the French, and allowing 
 them to ford the river Loch in front of him without opposi- 
 tion. The victory apparently was due, partly to the advan- 
 tage of the ground, partly to the superior discipline of the 
 English, partly to the services of a supernumerary body 
 under Calverley, who moved along the rear, setting fallen 
 men upon their feet again, sending them in to continue the 
 struggle, and generally giving support wherever it was 
 needed. All being on foot and fully armed, the archer fire 
 counted for little. ■■• 
 
 The Duke of Anjou, who was married to a daughter of 
 Blois, would fain have carried on the struggle. Charles V 
 knew better. Accepting the verdict of the day of Auray, 
 he offered to recognize de Montfort as Duke.^ Jeanne of 
 Penthievre was forced to accept of a pension; on the 
 i2th April 1365 the treaty of Guerande was signed ; de 
 Montfort ascended the ducal throne as John IV, Jean le 
 Conquerant, and the civil war that had wasted Brittany 
 for five-and-twenty years was brought to a close.* 
 
 About the same time Charles V had the good fortune 
 to get rid of another thorn in his side, Charles the Bad. 
 Hemmed in at home between Peter the Cruel of Castile and 
 Peter IV ' the Ceremonious ' of Arragon — " two of the 
 most perfidious and ferocious monarchs that ever graced 
 a throne "■ — the King of Navarre found himself helpless 
 to prosecute his quarrels with the King of France. Invok- 
 ing once more the mediation of the two Queens-dowager 
 of France — Jeanne his aunt and Blanche his sister* — 
 Charles placed his interests in the hands of the Captal. On 
 the 6th March 1365 the treaty was signed in Paris. Navarre 
 
 ' See the long story, Froissart, I. 489-497 ; De Nangis, Coiit. III. 135 ; and 
 La Borderie, III. 584. 
 
 ^ See a virtual recognition dated 3rd November 1364 ; Foed. III. 753. 
 
 ^ See Lobineau, I. 378, &c. ; Sismondi, XI. 24 ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 
 136; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 236 ; Froissart, 498-501. . 
 
 * Widows respectively of Charles IV and Philip VI (Valois). 
 
RECALL OF ENGLISH FREE LANCES 463 
 
 abandoned the lost lordships of Mantes, Meulan and ch. xxvii 
 Longueville ; receiving in exchange the far-off border 31 
 town of Montpellier ; his claims on Burgundy and the 
 crown of France were reserved for the arbitration of 
 the Pope.^ 
 
 The Navarrese and Breton difficulties were thus disposed 
 of ; a sensible relief ; but the supreme evil of the Companies 
 while decreasing still remained. Loud complaints were 
 raised in France of the conduct of the King of England, 
 who had taken no effectual steps for relieving France of this 
 incubus.^ On the other hand Charles V had again shown 
 his contempt for the treaty of Bretigny by appointing the 
 Duke of Anjou Lieutenant- General of Languedoc. Edward 
 protested, insisting on the return of the forsworn Duke into 
 captivity. To clear his right to make this demand he had 
 at last issued tardy orders to all his subjects, requiring them 
 to leave the dominions of the King of France.^ 
 
 On the 20th January 1365 a Parliament met at West- Parlia- 
 minster.* On the morrow the proceedings were opened in the ""^^ ' 
 Painted Chamber, by the Chancellor Simon Langham, 
 Bishop of Ely,* who addressed the Estates in French ; the 
 proceedings, however, being entered in Enghsh. The Bishop 
 took as his text a passage from the Psalms, ' Justice and 
 Judgement adorn the King's throne.' ® This was meant 
 as an indication of the special points to which the King 
 desired to call the attention of the assembly ; those points 
 being the continued exercise of jurisdiction by the Papal 
 court over English subjects ; and the continued invasion 
 by the Papacy of Enghsh rights of patronage. The King's 
 views were afterwards more fully expounded, first to the 
 Peers, and then to the Commons in the White Chamber : the 
 
 ' Sismondi, XI. 26 ; Froissart, I. 501 and note ; De Nangis, Cont. III. 138 ; 
 Grandes Chroniques. 
 
 ^ Froissart, I. 502 ; cf.De Nangis, Cont. 138. 
 
 ' November-December 1364 ; Feed. III. 754, 755 ; Delpit, Documents 
 Frangais, 121. 
 
 * Lords' Report. * Consecrated 20 March 1362, Reg. Sacr. 
 
 ' "Verroi Justice et droiturel Juggement aournent e See du Roi;" 
 Ps. Ixxxix. 14. 
 
464 STATUTE OF PRAEMUNIRE 
 
 CH. XXVII result was a Statute expressly confirming the Statutes of 
 J ge Provisors and Praemunire of the 25th and 27th years. Any 
 persons procuring or purchasing from the court of Rome 
 any personal citation against the King, or any of his 
 subjects, or purchasing or procuring any preferment in 
 derogation of the rights of any lay or spiritual patron, was 
 declared ' out of the King's protection '. The prelates 
 gave their assent, ' saving the rights of their Order ' ; a 
 reservation already expressed in the body of the act. It 
 is curious to notice that the measure is expressed to be 
 passed in the interests of the Holy Father himself, and to 
 protect him from the mischievous suggestions of interested 
 advisers. We need not again remark that the King him- 
 self figured prominently in the condemned category. At 
 the request of the Commons the monopoly of the Calais 
 Staple was suspended, as already mentioned, and the 
 Staple arrangements of the year 1353 were restored with 
 some modifications. The sumptuary and mercantile regu- 
 lations of 1363 were also repealed ; the public being left free 
 to deal in such goods, and wear such clothes and ornaments, 
 as they should think fit.^ In return the subsidies on wool 
 and leather were renewed for three years at the old rates, 
 namely 40 shillings on the sack of wool, and 80 shillings 
 on the last of leather.^ 
 
 The Commons were not lacking in common sense, if only 
 they had enjoyed greater power of giving effect to their 
 views. On the 12th May 1366 Parliament again met at 
 Westminster.* Resistance to Rome was again the order of 
 the day. Urban V had taken alarm at the Statute of the 
 previous year, which he regarded as " a declaration of war ". 
 By way of retaliation he had issued a formal demand for 
 the arrears of the Papal rent, threatening to take proceed- 
 
 1 Rot. Park. II. 283 ; 38 Edw. III. st. 2 ; Statutes, I. 385 ; cf . 25 Edw. III. 
 St. I, c. 22, and 27 Edw. III. st. i, c. i. 
 
 " See38Edw. III. St. 2, cc. 2, 6, 7; Statutes, I. 383; Rot. Park. II. 285, &c.; 
 English merchants were again forbidden to export wool, but not under penalty 
 of death, as in 1353 ; " a fact almost impossible to believe were it not beyond 
 doubt ; " Longman, II. 84. 
 
 ^ Lords' Report. 
 
THE PAPAL RENT-CHARGE 465 
 
 ings in his own courts.^ Edward laid the matter before ch. xxvii 
 the Peers, who took a day to deUberate. On the morrow ~q. 
 the Lords Spiritual and Temporal answered that neither Parlia- 
 John nor any other person could place the realm under ™^"'' 
 such subjection without their assent. The Commons con- 
 curred, and a formal declaration was drawn up to the effect 
 that John's act was against the tenor of his coronation oath, 
 and that if the Pope attempted to enforce his claim by 
 process of law, or otherwise, the Lay Estates would join in 
 resisting him to the utmost.^ " This solemn declaration 
 set the question at rest for ever."' " Even Peter's pence, 
 the old Romescot, which dated from the days of Offa and 
 Ethelwulf, was withheld for a time." * 
 
 By a significant coincidence the Parhament that rejected 
 the Papal rent-charge introduces John Wycliffe on the John Wy- 
 stage of Enghsh history, and in connexion with this very '^ ' ''' 
 matter. Ex-Master of Balliol Hall,^ Warden of the recently 
 founded Canterbury Hall at Oxford,^ and apparently a 
 Royal Chaplain,' Wycliffe doubtless attended the Parlia- 
 ment in connexion with the quarrel between the University 
 and the Mendicant Orders that had been brought before the 
 King in Parhament.^ A nameless monk having subsequently 
 questioned the right of Parliament to reject the Papal 
 claim, and having specially challenged Wycliffe to justify 
 the action of Parliament, Wycliffe took up the gauntlet, 
 
 ' The Pope's demand was dated 13th June 1365 ; Barnes, 667, citing Rainaldus ; 
 the last payment was alleged to have been made on the 7th July 1333 ; Id. The 
 last payment noticed in Foedera was on the 28th April 1330, when the rent 
 (1,000 marks per annum) was stated to be thirty-three years in arrear. 
 
 " Rot. Parlt. II. 290. ' Lingard. 
 
 ' Bp. Stubbs, Const. Hist. II. 435 ; Barnes, 670. 
 
 ' See Fasciculus Zizaniorum, xiv (W. W. Shirley, Rolls Series, No. 5), and 
 Lorimer's Wycliffe, I. 157. 
 
 ' Appointed by Archbishop Islip, the founder, 9th December 1365 ; Fasc. 
 Ziz. 515, 517, 518 ; Lewis's Wycliffe, 9-15 ; Chron. Angliae, ris. WycUffe 
 was deprived of Canterbury Hall by Archbishop Langham. The Reformer must 
 be distinguished from John Wycliffe of Merton, vicar of Mayfield and strictly 
 orthodox. Canon Shirley identified this man with the Warden of Canterbury, 
 but that seems clearly wrong. 
 
 ' He styles himself " peculiaris Regis clericus " in connexion with the proceed- 
 ings in this Parliament ; Lewis, 349. " R°t- Parlt. 290. 
 
 1415-1 H h 
 
466 ,THE PRIMACY 
 
 H.'xxvii and very subtly and ingeniously published his defence of 
 '^~Z the national rights in the shape of a pretended report of 
 speeches that he alleged to have heard delivered by seven 
 lay Lords in Parhament. The arguments boldly traverse 
 the temporal authority of the Pope, and, virtually, his 
 infallibility in matters spiritual.^ To have given such 
 views as expressly his own would have brought Wycliffe 
 into trouble ; but the fact that such a challenge had been 
 addressed to him clearly shows that he was already known 
 as an opponent of Papal pretensions. At the same time it 
 does not appear that in his theological teaching he had as 
 yet passed the hmits of the strict orthodoxy of the day.^ 
 
 A few days before the Parliament met Simon of Islip 
 had passed away, an old man and paralytic (26th April 1366).^ 
 The Canterbury monks then postulated William Edendon, 
 Bishop of Winchester, but he declined the nomination. 
 The Pope then, at the King's request, translated the 
 Chancellor, Simon Langham, Bishop of Ely, a man of high 
 character and a reformer. On the 5th November he was 
 admitted by the King to his temporalities, after renouncing 
 anything in the Papal Bulls ' prejudicial ' to the Royal 
 prerogative.* 
 
 ' " Cum Christus sit Dominus capitalis et Papa peccabilis, qui dum fuerit in 
 peccato mortali secundum theologos caret dominio," &c. This is the foundation 
 of the famous doctrine that dominion is founded on grace. See the tract, Lewis, 
 349; 354 ; Lechler, Wiclif , I. 322 (Leipzig, 1873). 
 
 " On this point see Fasc. Ziz. xv. 
 
 ° Angl. Sacr. L 46 ; Reg. Sacr. 
 
 * Angl. Sacr. sup. Langham, however, was not enthroned till the 25th March 
 1367. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A.D. 1365-1369 
 
 Spanish affairs . — Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare .• — Invasion of Castile 
 by the Prince of Wales on behalf of Pedro. — Campaign and Battle of Najera. — 
 End of Pedro. 
 
 Assuredly the good King Edward and his sons had the ch. xxvm 
 love of war deeply seated in their hearts. Six years of ~Z 
 peaceful rest had not passed over their heads when an 
 opportunity for further adventure offered itself, and was 
 eagerly seized. 
 
 Pedro, known in history as the Cruel, and, if remorseless 
 shedding of blood be cruelty, justly so called, ascended the 
 throne of Leon and Castile at the age of fifteen, at the 
 death of his father Alphonso XI in 1350.^ The first life 
 taken by or in the name of the young Pedro was that of his 
 father's mistress, Leonora de Guzman. For sixteen years Spanish 
 her position at the Spanish court had been a standing insult 
 to Pedro's mother Maria of Portugal.^ Leonora's numerous 
 offspring, headed by the spirited Don Enrique, Count of 
 Trastamare, were the objects of Pedro's deadliest jealousy.^ 
 In 1353 Pedro married Blanche, daughter of the Duke of 
 Bourbon who fell at Poitiers, and sister of Jeanne, the wife 
 of Charles V of France. Two days after the marriage Pedro 
 discarded his wife for the more congenial society of Maria 
 de Padilla.* After languishing in prison for some years 
 
 ' See Pedro Lopez de Ayala, I. g-ii (Madrid, 1779, with Zurita's notes); 
 Mariana, De Rebus Hispanicis (Toledo, 1592). The facts of Pedro's life, no 
 doubt, are chiefly known "from the pen of his inveterate enemy, Ayala". 
 
 * In negotiations for the marriage of the Lady Joan to Pedro in 1345 Edward 
 addressed special letters to ' the noble lady Leonora, concubine of the King of 
 Spain ', but none to Queen Maria ; Foed. II. 46, 59. 
 
 ^ Ayala, p. 36 ; Sismondi, XI. 38 ; Mariana, 76, 77. 
 
 * Monday, 3rd June, to Wednesday, 5th June, 1353 ; Ayala, 94, 95 ; Maria de 
 Padilla is described as small, clever, and pretty, 84 ; " muy fermosa, e de buen 
 entendimiento e pequefia de cuerpo." 
 
 H h 2 
 
468 PEDRO THE CRUEL 
 
 CH. XXVIII the hapless Blanche was removed by poison in 1361.1 
 ^^ Maria de Padilla having survived her by a year, Pedro 
 declared that he had been lawfully married to her, and 
 proclaimed her son Alphonso his heir ; ^ this was the 
 Alphonso recognized by Edward in the treaty of 1362. 
 Charles V and the Bourbon connexion were burning to 
 avenge the wrongs of their kinswoman. In 1365, after the 
 settlement of affairs in Brittany and Navarre, a plan was 
 arranged for getting rid of the Companies by sending them 
 into Castile, to avenge the family insult, and harass the ally 
 of the King of England — a triple stroke of policy. The 
 scheme found favour at Avignon, where Pedro was in bad 
 odour.^ Du Guesclin was announced as the leader of the 
 expedition, and to set him free 40,000 francs d'or were 
 paid to John Chandos.* The adventurers " flocked hke 
 vultures " to the standard of du Guesclin : Hugh Calverley, 
 Walter Hewit, Matthew Gurney^ joined the French camp. 
 From Chalons-sur-Saone the force marched to Avignon ; 
 absolution from their sins was the first demand ; 200,000 
 crowns the next. The Pope remonstrated. " But it was 
 ill arguing with Free Lances." Urban paid the money 
 and reimbursed himself by a tax on the French clergy.^ 
 Edward issued a peremptory order forbidding any of his 
 subjects to bear arms against the King of Castile,' but the 
 prohibition came too late. The army held on its way, and, 
 marching through Catalonia, reached Barcelona on the ist 
 January 1366. There Henry of Trastamare joined them, 
 and, Arragon still opening the way for them, they crossed 
 the Ebro into Castile at Alfaro. On the i6th March 
 Calahorra received Don Henry, and proclaimed him King. 
 
 ' Ayala, I. 328 ; Froissart, I. 503, note Euchon. 
 
 ' Ayala, 349 ; Mariana, 104. 
 
 ' Froissart, 504 ; Knighton, 2629. The idea of sending off the Companies 
 with Henry of Trastamare was started in 1362 ; see Vic et Vaissete, IV. 316, 329. 
 
 * Tr^sor des Chartes, 303 ; Lingard. The money was found by Charles V, 
 Urban, and Don Henry ; Id. 
 
 ' This Gurney was the fourth son of the murderer of Edward II. See Coxe,note 
 to Chandos Herald, 375. 
 
 ' FroissartjSup. and note ; Sismondi,XI.40 ; citing Vic et Vaissete, IV. 329 ; 
 Vitae Rom. Pontt. 632 ; Kitchin. ' 6th December 1365 ; Foed. III. 779. 
 
VERSUS ENRIQUE OF TRASTAMARE 469 
 
 Pedro was at Burgos ; losing heart, on the 28th March he ch. xxvm 
 fled to Andalusia. On Easter Day (5th April) the Count 7^ 
 of Trastamare was crowned King of Castile at Las Huelgas, Enrique of 
 near Burgos, under the style of Henry II.^ This remarkable ^rasta- 
 
 . ■' mare pro- 
 
 revolution was the sole work of the Castilian people ; the claimed, 
 foreigners gave them no help " beyond the mere fact 
 of their presence ". The dethroned monarch found no 
 greater support among his southern subjects ; he applied 
 to Portugal. Pedro the Justiciar declined to see him, 
 but allowed him to make his way round through his 
 dominions into Galicia. The murder of an archbishop 
 and a dean soon raised the western provinces against 
 Pedro. Setting sail from Corunna with his three daughters 
 Beatrice, Costanza, and Isabel, he found at last a refuge '^^Axo in 
 and a welcome at Bayonne.^ Pedro had not failed to sound 
 the ground beforehand ; he had promptly applied to the 
 Prince not merely for hospitality, but for active support 
 in the field, asking to be reinstated. Of course he could 
 appeal to the treaty of 1362. Parchment obligations might 
 weigh somewhat with the Prince, and something might 
 be said for the policy of securing an ally in Castile ; but we 
 take it that in the Prince's view of the obligations of 
 chivalry, a call to reinstate a crowned anointed monarch, 
 dispossessed by a bastard upstart and a popular movement, 
 would seem an appeal to the highest sense of duty ; the wish 
 to thwart a scheme favoured by France would be a further 
 incentive. Altogether the undertaking was one on which 
 he could embark with all his heart. His best advisers, 
 Chandos and Thomas Felton, the Seneschal of Aquitaine, 
 protested as openly as they dared in a Provincial Parliament 
 against the wild scheme, so did the Gascon gentry when 
 consulted ; but the Prince would not listen to reason.^ The 
 matter was referred to London, and the Prince's purpose 
 approved of both by his Royal father and his ambitious 
 brother John of Gaunt, who proposed to join him. The 
 
 ' Ayala, I. 402-409 ; Froissart, I. 506, note ; du Guesclin was made Count 
 of Trastamare and Hugh Calverley Count of Carrion. 
 
 ^ Ayala, 412-420, 430 ; Mariana, 811-816 ; Chandos Herald, 154; Froissart, 
 509. ' Froissart, 507-511 ; Chandos Herald, 148, 150. 
 
470 THE PRINCE OF WALES 
 
 CH. XXVIII new Duke of Lancaster was beginning to take an active 
 j,g6 part in public affairs. Men were at once ordered for active 
 service in Aquitaine, the writs apparently being issued 
 before ever Pedro had landed.^ 
 
 The first point urged upon the Prince in connexion with 
 the proposed expedition was the necessity of securing the 
 King of Navarre, who held the keys of the Pyrenean 
 " Ports "^ The Prince took Charles to Bayonne to meet 
 Succour the exiled King. Pedro having lost all was ready to 
 for Pedro. p^Qp^jgg anything. To the King of Navarre he offered the 
 provinces of Guipuzcoa and Alava, with the Castilian towns 
 of Logrofio, Calahorra, Alfaro and Tudela — also 180,000 
 gold florins (£60,000), besides the wages of 2,000 men, half 
 horse and half foot, for two months. But as the King had 
 no money the zealous Prince agreed to find 20,000 fibrins 
 at once, besides the wages of the 2,000 men for one month.^ 
 The Royal party then adjourned to Bordeaux, and the 
 treaty was ratified, the Prince receiving for himself the 
 promise of Biscay, with 550,000 florins for the maintenance 
 of himself and his following for six months.* 
 
 The Duke of Lancaster was placed in command of the 
 reinforcements for his brother, on condition of paying his 
 own expenses. Sailing about the end of the year he landed 
 in Brittany, and from thence made his way by land, finally 
 entering Bordeaux on the 13th January 1367.^ His force 
 is given as 400 men-at-arms and as many archers.® 
 
 ' July, Foed. III. 797, a call for 940 horse-archers. In August 800 such were 
 ordered to serve under John of Gaunt at his expense ; p. 799. The date of 
 Pedro's landing at Bayonne does not appear. 
 
 '^ The local term for the passes ; Chandos Herald, sup. 
 
 " September ? See the preliminary treaty in Spanish, executed at Bayonne, 
 but without date ; Foed. 800 ; on the Sth September Charles the Bad had 
 appointed commissioners at " Bastelle ", La Bastide, near Bayonne ; Id. 802. 
 
 " Libourne, 23rd September ; Foed. 802, &c. ; Ayala, I. 433. The Duke of 
 Lancaster appears as a signatory, but I think that his name found its way in 
 when the treaties were re-ratified on the irth February 1367. Lancaster was in 
 England on the 20th October (Foed.), and 5th November (Delpit, Documents 
 Fran5ais, 124), raising money for the campaign. 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 521 ; Chandos Herald, i67-i7r ; cf. Foed. 809-812. 
 
 ° So Froissart, 519 ; for once giving a total that seems acceptable. TheChron. 
 de Flandres II. 102 has 600 archers ; Armitage Smith, " John of Gaunt," 43. 
 
TO THE RESCUE 471 
 
 The Prince's ranks were quickly filled. At his beck the ch. xxvm 
 Free Lances threw up their commands under Enrique, and ^TZ 
 flocked to his standard, the standard of their natural chief. 
 The lawless camp was established round Dax, a grievous 
 burden to the country, adding greatly to the unpopularity 
 of the Prince's rough military government, already little 
 loved.-"^ The Prince soon found that he had more men 
 than he wanted. The contingent singled out for reduction 
 was that of the Sire d'Albret, who in a very spirited manner 
 had undertaken to raise 1,000 lances at his own cost. At 
 the last moment he was told that he need not bring more 
 than 200 lances.^ D'Albret was much affronted, and wrote 
 a pretty strong letter to the Prince, who in return cursed 
 his presumption in pretty plain Enghsh. The quarrel was 
 patched up for the moment, but the jar now created between 
 the English and the Gascon parties was afterwards held 
 one of the distinct causes of the loss of the Province.^ On 
 the 6th January the Princess of Wales gave birth to her 
 second son, Richard of Bordeaux, the future Richard II. 
 That event safely over the Prince advanced to Dax, where 
 Lancaster and the home contingent joined him.* 
 
 With regard to the strength of his army, the only official 
 datum that we have to set against the wild figures of the 
 chroniclers, accepted with too great readiness by modern 
 writers, is the fact that the force agreed upon between the 
 Prince, Pedro and Charles of Navarre, as sufficient for the 
 purpose in hand, was just 2,000 lances, half mounted and 
 half on foot, partly Free Lances and partly Gascons, as we 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 506, 513, 514, 520 ; Chandos Herald, 155-161 ; see also Vic et 
 Vaissete, IV. 331. In May 1365 we hadEdward writing to the Prince on the sub- 
 ject of the increase of crime and delays of justice in Aquitaine, authorizing 
 him to appoint judges, and begging him to court legitimate popularity by attend- 
 ing to the administration of justice ; Foed. III. 766. 
 
 ^ The figures are only Froissart's, of course. 
 
 ' Froissart, 520, 521. He was at Bordeaux at the time. "Car le prince 
 etoit grand et haut de courage et cruel en son air, et vouloit, fflt a tort ou k droit, 
 que tons seigneurs auxquels pouvait commander tinssent de lui." Note that the 
 writer expressly states that the Prince spoke in English. 
 
 ' Froissart, 521 ; Chandos Herald, 166, &c. ; Barnes, 696, from a C.C.C.C. IMS. 
 The Prince left Bordeaux loth January. 
 
472 ACROSS 
 
 CH. XXVIII may suppose. In our opinion 2,000 Free Lances well led 
 ZZ would be an army in itself. But Lancaster's 800 men must, 
 of course, be added ; with, presumably, some further con- 
 tingent of footmen, making, say, 3,000-3,500 men in all. 
 The Castilian army must have been stronger in numbers 
 than the invaders could be ; but their leading authority, who 
 was present, only claims for his side 4,500 really effective 
 men, for cavalry and infantry combined. To the Prince's 
 men, such odds would be of no account. 
 
 But the question still remained whether after all the 
 slippery Charles le Mauvais would give the Prince a passage 
 through his dominions. Don Enrique had opened com- 
 munications with him, and persuaded him to close the 
 all-important " port " of Roncesvalles against the invaders.^ 
 While the troops were waiting, in weary uncertainty, word 
 was brought that Calverley had seized Miranda and Puente- 
 la-Reyna, on the river Arga, in the heart of Navarre. Sir 
 Hugh had not thrown up his engagement to the King of 
 Castile till he was satisfied that the English were really 
 coming. The appearance of this dread freebooter with 
 400 veteran lances created a mighty stir in the little kingdom 
 of Navarre. Charles wrote to demand explanations; the 
 Prince answered him very curtly, telling him to explain 
 his own conduct, and taxing him with treachery. Charles 
 smothered his wrath, and consented to meet the Prince at 
 Peyrehorade on the Gave de Pau. On Thursday the nth 
 February the treaties were re-sealed.^ 
 Invasion Four days later the Prince's army began its march 
 o as 1 e. (-j^j-ough the romantic gorges of Roncesvalles. The cold 
 was intense, and the army suffered cruelly from wind 
 and snow and hail. 
 
 " Puis qe Dieux le droturer 
 Suffri mort pur nous en la crois 
 Ne fuist passage si estrois." * 
 
 ' Ayala, I. 434 ; Froissart, I. 522. 
 
 ' Froissart, sup. ; Chandos Herald, 174 ; Ayala, 437 ; Foed. III. 804, 806. 
 
 ' Chandos Herald, 182. The writer may have been present, but there is not 
 a suggestion of it in his narrative, which follows Froissart as closely as possible. 
 The names of men engaged, however, differ somewhat. 
 
THE PYRENEES 473 
 
 Marching by divisions on successive days, by the end ch. xxvm 
 of the week the whole army found itself in the valley of ^ 
 Pampeluna.^ 
 
 Enrique on hearing of the movements of the invaders 
 had left Burgos, to concentrate at San Domingo de la 
 Calzada, on the road by which the Prince might be expected 
 to advance from Pampeluna, namely by Estella and the 
 bridge of the Ebro at Logrono. By the King's biographer, 
 who carried his standard, we are told that the fighting 
 power of his army was represented by 4,500 men-at-arms.^ 
 
 The Prince remained some days at Pampeluna to locate 
 the enemy and arrange his plans. Unprepared to cross 
 the Ebro at Logrono in face of the enemy, he turned west- 
 wards by Alsasua across the Pass of Arruiz^ to Salvatierra, 
 making for Burgos by the alternative road by Vittoria 
 and Miranda, on the upper Ebro. Salvatierra offered no 
 resistance, opening its gates to Don Pedro : he would have 
 rewarded the inhabitants by putting them all to death 
 if the English had allowed him to have his own way.* 
 
 Du Gueschn and the Marshal d'Audrehem, who were 
 both with Enrique, had urged him in the strongest manner 
 not to risk an engagement with the Prince's troops, the 
 pick and flower of the chivalry of all Christendom : ^ they 
 had fortified their advice with messages from the sagacious 
 King of France, who assured him that the English would 
 soon tire of Spanish fare. But the Castilian lords thought 
 that an appearance of timidity would be very prejudicial 
 to Enrique's cause, and that the well-disposed population 
 must be protected from Pedro's vengeance. Acting to 
 a certain extent on this view, with political as well as 
 miHtary considerations before him, Enrique broke up from 
 San Domingo as soon as he heard that the English were 
 
 ' Froissart, I. 523, 524 ; followed by Chandos Herald, who doubles his estimates 
 of the numbers, and misquotes the date. See Ayala, 1. 438, 442. A document 
 cited in a note to the last proves that the passage took more than the three days 
 allotted to it by the others, as Pedro had not yet crossed on the 19th February. 
 
 2 Ayala, 442. ' " Le Pas de Sarris ; " Froissart. 
 
 * Froissart, sup. ; Chandos Herald, 198, 200 ; Barnes. 
 
 ' " La fior de la caballeria de la christiandad ... del mundo." 
 
474 MARCHING 
 
 cH. xxviii entering Castile, crossed the Ebro, and established himself 
 J g in a strong hilly position at Aiiastro near Trevino, some ten 
 miles to the South of Vittoria,^ blocking that road to Burgos. 
 When the Prince heard that the enemy had crossed the Ebro 
 he advanced from Salvatierra to Vittoria ; but Enrique was 
 content to remain on the defensive, so long as the English 
 staid where they were. The Spanish skirmishers, however, 
 were very active, and one morning they surprised and over- 
 whelmed an outpost of 200 men-at-arms under Felton the 
 Seneschal of Gascony.^ The English were soon in straits 
 for want of provisions ; a loaf cost a florin, and not a big 
 loaf either. 
 
 " Car maint y ot par Seint Martin 
 Qui n'avoient ne pain ne vin." 
 
 On Monday 28th March the Prince moved his camp, to get 
 into better quarters, and if possible bring the enemy to 
 action. Inclining south-eastwards towards the Navarrese 
 frontier he skirted the Spanish position at a safe distance, 
 and, crossing over some high ground near La Guardia, came 
 down upon Viana ; there he halted two days ; on the 31st 
 March he crossed the Ebro by the bridge at Logroiio, and 
 established himself comfortably at Navarette, among 
 orchards and oliveyards.' Don Enrique immediately 
 executed a corresponding movement ; leaving the heights 
 of Anastro and Zaldiaran, he crossed the Ebro at San 
 Vincente, and again threw himself across the line of the 
 Prince's advance on Burgos, establishing himself at Najera, 
 about six miles from Navarette, with the river Najarilla 
 between him and the English.* 
 
 To goad the foe to action the Prince now aimed a cunning 
 shaft at the Castilian pride of the Don. On the ist of April 
 he addressed a letter to the noble Prince, " Don Enrique 
 Conde de Trastamara " ; informing him that he, Edward, 
 
 ' Ayala, I. 439, 443. 
 
 ^ Froissart, I. 527-530 ; Chandos Herald, 202, 204-228 ; Ayala, 445, 447. 
 
 ' Chandos Herald, 228, 230 ; Froissart, 
 
 ' Id. ; Ayala, 448. 
 
AND COUNTERMARCHING 475 
 
 was come to replace his friend and ally King Pedro on his ch. xxvm 
 throne ; expressing astonishment that the son of a King ^ 
 should have been guilty of such a shameful act as rebellion 
 against his lawful lord ; and offering mediation between 
 the brothers to save the shedding of Christian blood. 
 Enrique answered that Pedro was a tyrant dethroned for 
 his crimes ; the wonder was that he had been endured so 
 long ; but the voice of God and of the people of Leon and 
 Castile had declared against him ; he, Enrique, as a duly 
 elected king, would defend the realms entrusted to his 
 charge, against all men, as in duty bound (2nd April) .^ 
 After such an interchange there could be no thought of 
 anything but war ; both armies prepared for battle on the 
 morrow. In the excitement of the moment Enrique threw 
 all prudential considerations to the winds, and, to the 
 dismay of his best advisers, insisted upon taking his army 
 across the Najarilla to engage the Prince 'on a fair field 
 without advantage '.^ To meet the English dismounted 
 men-at-arms he placed his French auxiliaries, by far the 
 best of his troops, to fight in the van on foot. His brother 
 Sancho, with du Guesclin and the Marshal d'Audrehem, had 
 the command of this force, ' which might number 1,000 men- 
 at-arms '.* To the right and left of this force, but somewhat 
 in the rear, were drawn up wings of cavalry, some fully armed, 
 but a large proportion evidently lightly armed, "geneteurs", 
 anglice hobelers, men mounted on little genets or palfreys. 
 Each wing again is given by the Spanish writer as about 1,000 
 men strong. Further back again, in the direct rear of the 
 dismounted men-at-arms, came Enrique, with some 1,500 
 horse, and a large but undefined multitude of footmen from 
 the hill country, Guipuzcoa, Biscay and the Asturias. 
 
 ' Ayala, I. 449, &c., in Spanish ; given also, but less accurately, in Spanish 
 and Latin, Foed. III. 823 ; Froissart, who had heard of the correspondence, but 
 not seen it, composes two letters of his own, the first being from Henry to the 
 Prince, and the second from the Prince in p.nswer, I. 525, 531 ; Chandos Herald, 
 as usual, follows him, 192, 230. 
 
 " " En plaza liana sin aventaja alguna ; " Ayala, 454. 
 
 ' Id. 441. Ayala was with this division, and carried the pennon of the Order 
 of "la Vanda ", ' the Scarf, the Castilian Garter. 
 
476 BATTLE 
 
 cH.xxvm Many of these were armed with slings, an old Iberian 
 ;^ weapon.i 
 
 These dispositions were altogether different from those 
 that we have seen introduced by the English, and, to a certain 
 extent, adopted by the French. The hidalgos had not yet 
 come down to fighting on foot ; the Prince therefore had 
 to shape his array to meet that of the enemy. Lancaster 
 and Chandos led the van, being all dismounted men-at- 
 arms, English and Breton Free Lances, with Lancaster's 
 personal contingent. The Gascon noblesse under the Captal, 
 the Sire d' Albret and the Count of Armagnac supplied cavalry 
 for the two wings, to face those of the enemy ; the rear or 
 reserve included Don Pedro and his personal supporters, 
 James of Arragon, titular King of Majorca,^ the banner of 
 Navarre, and some more English and Gascon men-at-arms, 
 the whole under the chief command of the Prince of Wales. 
 With regard to the absence of the King of Navarre, that 
 cunning fox, determined not to commit himself too deeply 
 to either side, had very cleverly allowed himself to be taken 
 prisoner by du Guesclin, while out on a hunting party, and 
 was being safely guarded till the hurly-burly should be 
 over, and all danger past and gone.^ 
 
 Enrique advanced without looking for any vantage- 
 ground. Not so the more experienced Prince. We are 
 told that he inclined to the left, so as to secure a little hill, 
 evidently to guard his flank.* The day (Saturday 3rd 
 April) began with a desertion on the Spanish side, a bad 
 omen. Their slingers covered the advance, giving con- 
 
 ^ Ayala, I. 441 ; Froissart, I. 553, has cavalry only on the left ; Chandos 
 Herald, more correctly, has them both on left and right, 242. 
 
 " Third husband of Jeanne I, Queen of Naples, granddaughter of Robert the 
 Good, King of Naples. 
 
 " Grandes Chroniques, VI. 245 ; Froissart, 526, and notes. 
 
 ' " Un bien petit montaigne 
 
 Avoit desoubz le main senestre ;" 
 
 Chandos Herald, p. 262. 
 
 At p. 242 the careless writer had " a la droit main un montaigne ". There can 
 be no question as to which is right, as the English were on the right bank of the 
 Navarilla flowing down to the Ebro. This detail, not given by Froissart, is one 
 of the few passages that suggest that the writer may have been present. At 
 any rate he wrote twenty years later and with Froissart's work before him. 
 
OF NAJERA 477 
 
 siderable annoyance to the English until the archers drove ch. xxvm 
 them off. Then the two dismounted divisions joined issue g 
 with levelled spears, each side trying to break up the iron 
 wall that faced it; " Guienne ! Saint George ! " as usual, 
 was the cry on the English side; " Castillal Santiago 1 " 
 on the other side. When lances failed the combatants ham- 
 mered at each other with daggers, swords and battle-axes. 
 The struggle was maintained most gallantly, du Guesclin 
 fully holding his ground. But the Spanish cavalry failed 
 to come up. They hung back, and when the Gascons 
 charged on the English right they broke and fled. On the 
 English left the cavalry on either side seem to have faced 
 each other for a time, the Spaniards eventually retiring 
 or being driven off. The English left then joined hands 
 with their comrades on the right in surrounding the devoted 
 Spanish van. Every man of the force was either taken or 
 killed. Don Enrique rode up two or three times succes- 
 sively on his charger, in the hopes of inspiring his main 
 body to make an effort, but without success. The Prince Defeat of 
 came on with his division, and the rout was complete. ^^^^ 
 Enrique got back to Najera and escaped ; ^ but the bridge 
 over the Najarilla was soon choked, and numbers were 
 drowned in the river. In the evening the English heralds 
 reported 560 men-at-arms killed on the side of the enemy, 
 with four knights and sixty archers and footmen on their 
 own side.^ Of the Spanish footmen killed no account was 
 taken. Chandos had run considerable risks in the action. 
 He was borne down in the melee, and thrown on his back 
 by a huge Castilian champion, Martin Fernandez by name, 
 who wounded him in the face, and did his best to kill him. 
 But Sir John managed to draw a knife from a breast-pocket, 
 and stabbed his assailant till he got rid of him.* 
 
 One word more with regard to the numbers of the 
 Enghsh. Ayala, the only writer whose estimate of the 
 numbers can be taken into any consideration, the figures 
 
 ^ Ayala, I. 461. 
 
 ' So Froissart and Chandos Herald ; Ayala gives 400 as the number of those 
 slain of the Spanish van ; a substantial agreement. ° Ayala, 451. 
 
478 A PRECIOUS 
 
 CH. xxvui of the others being simply ludicrous/ while reckoning the 
 Z^ dismounted men-at-arms on his own side as one thousand 
 strong, attributes thrice that number to the English van.^ 
 The stubborn and protracted character of the struggle 
 between the two vans, the two main bodies of the armies, 
 with equal quality on either side, proves that there could 
 not have been any . material disparity in the numbers. 
 Ayala could speak with authority of the numbers on his 
 own side. We therefore accept his estimate of his own. 
 side, and apply it to the English van also, taking it as 
 1,000 strong of men-at-arms, plus Lancaster's archers. 
 500 cavalry would fall to each wing, and the balance, say, 
 of 1,500, horse and foot, to the reserve under the Prince. 
 The 3,000 men-at arms that Ayala attributes to our van 
 may be taken as a hberal estimate of the total strength of 
 the men-at-arms on our side. 
 
 This third brilliant success raised the military reputation 
 of the Prince throughout Europe to the highest pitch ; but 
 at what cost we shall see. 
 
 Among the taken were Don Sancho, du Guesclin, the 
 Marshal d'Audrehem, and Ayala the historian. Pedro, 
 disappointed at not finding his brother among the slain, 
 immediately began cutting off the heads of prisoners ; but 
 the Prince promptly put a stop to the bloodywork.* 
 
 Next day, Sunday, the prisoners were paraded before 
 Don Pedro and the Prince, and some curious scenes ensued. 
 Pedro asked that all the prisoners of note should be placed 
 in his hands, he undertaking to account to their captors for 
 the ransoms. He also suggested that for the satisfaction of 
 the captors the Prince might join in the guarantee. Edward, 
 who was beginning to understand his friend's character, 
 refused to allow a single prisoner to be given up, except men 
 already under sentence of condemnation, as previously 
 agreed between himself and Pedro. When the prisoners 
 appeared the Prince fell foul of d'Audrehem, taxing him 
 
 ' As instances take 7,000 Free Lances, Froissart, I. 519; 10,000 in the van alone 
 at Roncesvalles, 524 ; this figure is doubled by Chandos Herald, p. 186 ; again 
 we are told of 27,000 men-at-arms alone, with 40,000 foot and 60,000 foot, 
 Froissart, 532, 533. " " Tres mil omes de armas ; " Ayala, I. 442. - 
 
 ^ Ayala, 458, 471 ; cf. Froissart, 539. 
 
PR0T£G£ 
 
 479 
 
 roundly with breach of faith, inasmuch as he had not yet ch. xxvm 
 paid up the ransom stipulated for his liberation after the 7367 
 battle of Poitiers ; and he had sworn that till that ransom 
 was paid he would not bear arms against Edward III, or 
 his son, except under the banner of the Fleur de Lys. The 
 Marshal boldly rejecting the imputation, the Prince offered 
 to prove his case before a jury of knights, and d'Audrehem 
 accepted the challenge. After dinner the Prince named 
 a jury of twelve ; four Englishmen, four Gascons, and four 
 Bretons, and then stated his case. The Marshal admitted 
 the facts, but pleaded that he had not taken up arms against 
 the Prince or his father, but against Don Pedro, who was 
 the ' head and captain of that host ' ; ^ the Prince being a 
 mere 'soldier' and hireling in Pedro's service.^ The jury 
 at once admitted the plea, to the great relief of all parties, 
 including the Prince, who had no wish to deal hardly with 
 a Marshal of France and a gallant knight of sixty years' 
 standing and upwards.^ 
 
 From Najera the allies removed to Burgos. After a due 
 interval of feasting the Prince began to ask for a settlement 
 of accounts, and for the delivery of Biscay as promised. 
 Lengthy palavers ensued ; at last, Pedro, who was in no 
 hurry to part with his auxiliaries, gave a promise that 
 he would pay up within a year — the Infantas Beatrice, 
 Costanza and Isabel to remain at Bayonne as hostages. 
 Pedro then took his leave of the Prince, explaining that 
 his presence in the South was needed to hasten the collection 
 of the taxes that he had imposed.* Left to support his men 
 as best he could, the Prince was obliged to move on and on, 
 by stages, from Burgos to Amusco, from Amusco to Medina 
 del Campo, from Medina to Madrigal. Spanish heat, Spanish 
 fruit and wines, coupled with a great deficiency of proper 
 food soon told on the Northern constitutions ; fever and 
 dysentery decimated the ranks ; even the Prince and the 
 King of Majorca were attacked.^ Months passed away 
 
 ' " Capitan e cabo desta batalla." 
 
 ^ " Asoldado e gagero." ' Ayala, I. 458. 
 
 * Ayala, 473-483 ; Foed. III. 825 ; Froissart, I. 540. The treaties were 
 again ratified on the 2nd May. 
 ° Ayala, 495, 505, 507, 511. 
 
48o FRUITS 
 
 cH. xxvin but not a ducat could be extracted from Don Pedro. 
 g Meanwhile Enrique had turned the tables on the English, 
 and was waging war on Gascony by the help of the Duke 
 of Anjou. At last, however reluctantly, the Prince had 
 to turn homewards. He marched to Soria : there he was 
 detained for some time in doubt whether a passage would 
 be granted either through Arragon or Navarre. Eventually 
 a treaty was concluded at Tarrazona, on the borders of 
 Old Castile, with Pedro of Arragon,^ by which Edward not 
 only obtained leave for the passage of his troops, but also 
 effected a fresh alliance between Arragon and Castile, a 
 very forgiving act on his part. Then Charles of Navarre 
 came forward to offer the Prince a passage by the more 
 commodious route of Roncesvalles. The permission was 
 accepted, the main body of the army being left to cross by 
 some of the rougher Arragonese " ports''.^ Financially 
 involved and broken in health the Prince returned to 
 Bordeaux. No sooner was he out of Spain than Don 
 Enrique re-entered it.* 
 
 End of The end of the Castilian drama must be shortly told. 
 
 Crud. ^ ^^^ Enrique's cause made steady progress. By November 
 he had been again received at Burgos. Early in 1368 he 
 laid siege to Leon and took it. On the 30th April he was 
 strong enough to attack Toledo, and he kept it beleaguered 
 for ten months and a half. The strength of Pedro's party 
 was in Murcia and Andalusia, but even there Cordova was 
 against him.* On the 2oth November Enrique signed a 
 treaty with France, a renewal of the war with England 
 being contemplated.^ At last, early in 1369, Pedro made 
 a supreme effort to relieve Toledo, his friends the Moors of 
 Granada lending him help. Enrique heard of his coming, 
 and, determined to anticipate him, took the road to Seville. 
 
 ^ This treaty was apparently ratified by Edward III in January 1369 ; Foed. 
 III. 855. 
 
 ^ See Ayala, I. 493-511 ; Froissart, I. 540-545, and notes ; Chandos Herald, 
 286-298. 
 
 ^ Enrique passed over in September ; he signs near Huesca 24th September ; 
 Ayala, 513, note. ' Ayala, 516-527, and notes ; Mariana, b. XVII, ch. 12. 
 
 ' Foed. III. 850, 869 ; Ayala, 534, note. 
 
OF VICTORY 481 
 
 Pedro was reported to be halting at Montiel, in La Mancha, ch. xxviit 
 near the source of the Guadiana. On the night of Tuesday 37 
 13th March 1369 Enrique bivouacked among the hills, 
 within two leagues of Montiel. Strange fires were reported 
 to Pedro, and he sent out orders for his outlying detach- 
 ments to draw in on the morrow. But before daylight 
 Enrique was again on the march. ' At prime ' (6 a.m.) he 
 fell on Pedro's troops before they were half collected, and 
 scattered them at the first onset. Pedro fled into the castle. 
 To make sure of him Enrique built a wall of stones ^ round 
 the place. Food and water failing, Pedro opened a negotia- 
 tion with Du Guesclin, who had again taken service with 
 Enrique. Du Guesclin refused to connive at Pedro's escape. 
 Pressed to think the matter over, he said that he would 
 consult his friends ; he did so, and by their advice told 
 Enrique. The result was that a trap was laid to secure 
 Don Pedro. At dead of night he left his stronghold, placed 
 himself in the hands of Du Guesclin's men, and was taken 
 to Du Guesclin's quarters. Next moment the figure of 
 Enrique, armed cap-d-pie, darkened the threshold of the 
 dim " posada". Another moment the two brothers eyed 
 each other in silence, and then Enrique, as if maddened 
 by vindictive passions, sprang upon his victim and gashed 
 him in the face. Pedro, a tall powerful man of active 
 habits, closed with his puny ^ assailant ; threw him, and, 
 if left to himself, would speedily have dispatched him : 
 but Pedro was but one man against many ; a dozen 
 blades were drawn upon him, and he fell a helpless victim 
 (23rd March).' 
 
 Don Pedro had his good points ; he was active, tem- 
 perate and abst'emious, except in the matter of women ; he 
 enforced justice and kept good peace : but his friendly rela- 
 tions with Moors and Jews added to his unpopularity, while 
 his sanguinary disposition caused his fall. Chaucer places 
 
 ' " Una pared de piedra seca " ; Ayala ; " formaceis parietibus circumvallata 
 moenia"; Mariana. 
 
 ' For Enrique's stature, which was under the average, see Ayala, I. 544. 
 
 ' Ayala, 537, 544, &c., comparing for the final catastrophe another con- 
 temporary account given in a note by Zurita, p. 555, and Mariana, 821-824. 
 
 1415-1 I i 
 
482 A TRAGEDY 
 
 CH. xxvm his fate among the great tragedies of the world, on a par 
 J g with the endings of Samson and Belshazzar. 
 
 " O noble Petro, the glori of Spain, 
 Whom fortune held so heigh in mageste, 
 Wei oughte men thy piteous deth complayne; 
 Thy bastard brother made the to fie. 
 And after, at a sege, by subtilte 
 Thow were bytrayed, and lad to his tent 
 Wher as he with his oughne hond slough the 
 Succeedyng in thy lond and in thy rent." ^ 
 
 ' Menkes Tale, II. 199, ed. Skeat, 1878. Chaucer had intimate relations with 
 the House of Lancaster, and eventually received a pension of £10 from John of 
 Gaunt (1374 ; Register, I. p. 232) ; his wife's sister Katherine was in the service 
 of Duchess Blanche ; and his own wife Philippa, after being in th,e service of 
 the Queen, entered that of Pedro's daughter Costanza, John of Gaunt's second 
 wife. Chaucer evidently gives their views in connecting Du Guesclin with the 
 death of Pedro. The Lavisse writer, IV. iSr, leaves Du Guesclin out, and 
 implicates another Breton, one Yvain Lakouet, and the Viscount of Roccaberti, 
 an Arragonese. He gives no reference. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Edward III {continued) 
 A,D. 1367-1369 
 
 Domestic Affairs. — Statute of Kilkenny.— William of Whittlesey, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. — Difficulties of the Prince of Wales in Aquitaine. — Appeal of 
 Gascon Lords against him. — Citation to Paris.^ — Declaration of War. — Parlia- 
 ment.— The Third Plague. 
 
 The year 1367 -was not fertile in domestic incidents oi '^^^^■'^^^^ 
 importance. The Scots sent their tribute with exemplary 1367 
 punctuality.^ The French also paid up handsomely, 
 192,000 crowns being received from Charles on account of 
 the second million of his father's ransom.^ With minor 
 sums from the Dukes of Brittany and Bourbon the extra- 
 ordinary receipts of the year must have been considerable.^ 
 No Parliament was held in England ; but an important 
 local Parliament was held in Ireland, in the first week of 
 March, as the crowning act of the viceroyalty of Lionel 
 Duke of Clarence, who was under recall.* The Statute of Statute of 
 Kilkenny enacted by that Assembly was " long regarded ^ "^" 
 as a masterpiece of colonial legislation ". It carries the 
 separatist policy to the greatest lengths ; forbidding every 
 sort of connexion by marriage, fostering of children, or 
 otherwise, between English and Irish. All loyal subjects 
 must use the English language, follow EngHsh customs, 
 ' and not ride otherwise than in saddles, after the English 
 fashion ' ; Irishmen not to be admitted to any benefice 
 
 1 See Foed. III. 785, 818, 841, 858 ; also Exchequer Rolls Scotland, II. 
 225, 263, 291, 305. 
 
 ^ May-November ; Foed. 826, 834. The last of the first million, and a first 
 instalment of 6,200 crowns on the second million,had been paid in January 1366; 
 Id. 784. 
 
 ' Id. 837 ; Duke John TV was paying for his former maintenance in England, 
 and Bourbon for having been allowed to visit France on parole. See Pell Receipts. 
 
 ' Lionel was succeeded by Gerald Fitz-Maurice, fourth Earl of Desmond ; 
 Gilbert, Viceroys, 227 ; Foed. 822. 
 
 I i 2 
 
484 WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM 
 
 CHAP. XXIX or religious House: Englishmen to be admitted, whether 
 ^Z born in Ireland or not : the EngHsh to hold no intercourse 
 with Irish musicians, story-tellers, or rhymers, who might 
 act as spies or agents : dwellers on the borders not to hold 
 parleys or make treaties with any hostile Irish or English, 
 without legal permission : the native games of hurling and 
 quoits are forbidden. The only scrap of sound legislation 
 in the whole Act is the appointment of Wardens of the 
 Peace for each county, with power to assess the inhabitants 
 for horsemen, hobeJers and foot-soldiers.^ 
 
 Few names in our history have left more enduring 
 associations than that of William Longe of Wykeham. 
 Born in the year 1334 of a family of middling position, his 
 industry and talents commended him at an early age to 
 the notice of William Edendon, his predecessor in the See 
 of Winchester. Architecture was his original vocation ; he 
 was first employed at Winchester ; in 1356 he was ap- 
 pointed Surveyor of all the King's works at Windsor;^ in 
 1362 he took priest's Orders, being already in the enjoyment 
 of considerable preferment. But if his means were ample 
 his liberality and turn for spending were not less. In 1364 
 he appears as Keeper of the Privy Seal. Active, energetic, 
 and discreet, he held for a time quite the first place in the 
 Royal councils.* At the death of Bishop Edendon (7th 
 October 1366) the Chapter readily postulated him as 
 bishop ; but Urban took offence at something, and with- 
 held his sanction till the 13th July 1367. In the following 
 month William was appointed Chancellor, in the place of 
 Simon Langham ; on the loth October he was finally 
 consecrated Bishop of Winchester.* 
 
 In 1363 Lionel of Antwerp had lost his wife Elisabeth de 
 
 ' See Gilbert, 224. The Act has been printed with notes by Mr. James 
 Hardiman ; Irish Archaeol. Soc, 1842, q.v. 
 
 ^ His duties must have been miscellaneous, as he had the charge of ' the King's 
 eight dogs there ', receiving for each three farthings a day, and id. for a ' boy ' 
 to mind them ; Issues, Devon, 163, 176. 
 
 ^ Froissart says of him : " En ce temps r^gnoit en Angleterre un prgtre qui 
 s'appeloit messire Guillaume Wikans," I. 562. 
 
 "■ SeeFoss.IV. ii2,&c.,Reg.Sacr. ; Foed. III. 797, 817,827. 
 
LIONEL OF ANTWERP 485 
 
 Burgh. A second marriage was now being arranged for chap, xxix 
 him. Galeazzo Visconti, the ambitious lord of Milan, '^ 
 having secured the hand of a French princess for his son 
 Giovanni, now aspired to a connexion with the royal House 
 of England, offering to settle lands in Piedmont to the 
 value of 24,000 gold florins (£8,000), with a dowry of 
 100,000 florins down (£33,333 6s. M.), on his second daughter 
 Violante and the Duke of Clarence. The settlements were 
 arranged in the course of 1366 and 1367 ; the dowry was 
 apparently received by Edward, and expended on an 
 extravagant outfit for Lionel, who was sent across the 
 Channel in April 1368 with a retinue of 457 men and 1,280 
 horses.'- On the i6th of the month he entered Paris ; on 
 Whit-Monday (5 June) the marriage ceremony was performed 
 in Milan Cathedral. The poet Petrarch sat as an honoured 
 guest at the wedding-feast. Four months of English living 
 on Italian soil finished poor Lionel. On the 17th October 
 1368 he died aged 29 years and 11 months.^ By Elisabeth 
 de Burgh he left an only daughter, Philippa, married shortly 
 after his death to Edmund Mortimer, third Earl of March, 
 a fateful union, the root-stem of the future Plantagenet 
 House of York, the bugbear of the House of Lancaster.* 
 
 The grants of 1365 having expired, the renewal of the 
 surtaxes on wool was the chief business of a Parliament 
 that sat at Westminster 1-21 May 1368.* The duties were Parlia- 
 renewed, but only for two years, and at slightly different '"^"'' 
 rates, namely 385. (>d. on the sack and the twelve score wool 
 fells, the duty on the last of leather remaining at d>os? 
 
 The Parliament of 1368 was the last attended by Simon 
 Langham as Archbishop. In the course of the autumn, in 
 the quiet retirement of his favourite residence at Otford, 
 he received an intimation that in the previous month of 
 
 ' Foed. III. 842-845 ; Devon, Issues, 192. 
 
 " Froissart, I. 546, note ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 251 ; Barnes, 719. Lionel 
 was deeply in debt when he died ; Foed. 887. ' He astonished the Italians by the 
 excess of his intemperance ' ; Sismondi, XI. 129. 
 
 ' Complete Peerage. The reader will bear in mind that " Plantagenet " as 
 a family name was invented by the Duke of York about 1450. 
 
 ' Lords' Report. ' Rot. Parlt. II. 294, &c. 
 
486 WILLIAM OF WHITTLESEY 
 
 CHAP. XXIX September he had been raised to the dignity of Cardinal 
 7^ Presbyter of St. Sixtus.^ Ninety years had elapsed since 
 The an Enghsh Primate, namely Robert Kilwardly, had been 
 
 Primacy, raised to the like honour. Like his predecessor, Simon 
 bowed to the Papal mandate, and apphed to the King for 
 leave to go to Rome, at the same time resigning the Primacy. 
 Edward, provoked at an arrangement in which he had not 
 been consulted, refused the leave to travel, but accepted 
 the resignation, seizing every penny of the archiepiscopal 
 revenues. In solitude and disgrace Simon went back to 
 Otford. Meanwhile a successor had been found for him 
 in William of Whittlesey, Bishop of Worcester, who had 
 been ' provided ' by the Pope. Edward was induced to 
 accept of this nomination, and eventually allowed Langham 
 to depart in peace. On the last day of February or the 
 1st of March 1369 he left England.^ A few years later we 
 shall find him coming back to his native land as a mediator. 
 Whittlesey was a near relation, perhaps a nephew, of 
 Archbishop Islip, by whom he had been brought up; he 
 was sent to Peterhouse, Cambridge ; was appointed Bishop 
 of Rochester in 1362, under Islip ; and translated to Worcester 
 in 1364. " All that can be said of him is that he was a man 
 of commanding presence, eloquent and discreet." But he 
 soon became incapacitated through bad health.* 
 
 The Spanish campaign proved the turning-point in the 
 fortunes of Edward III. " From that time the swelHng 
 tide of prosperity was found to ebb apace." * A policy so 
 inflated could only be sustained by continuous success ; 
 at the first check the hollow fabric was bound to collapse. 
 Pedro's default had not released the Prince of Wales from 
 his personal liability to the men who had crossed the 
 Pyrenees under his banner ; he hastened to recognize the 
 fact, assuring the " Fellowships " that they should not be 
 losers by the bad faith of the King of Spain.^ Edward was 
 
 ' 23 September 1368 ; Birchington, Angl. Sacr. I. 47 ; 27 September, Foss ; 
 Hook ; 21 September, Barnes, from Godwine, De Praesulibus. 
 " Birchington, sup. 48 ; Foed. III. 849, 857. 
 ' Hook, Archbishops, IV. 221-228 ; Angl. Sacr. I. 378, 535. 
 * Barnes. ' Froissart, I. 545, 547 ; Chandos Herald, 297. 
 
FORTUNE TURNING 487 
 
 rich in his private and public means, and in the means of chap, xxix 
 his wife ; but he was extravagant — his court at Bordeaux ^31 
 being one of the most ostentatious in Europe.^ He had The Prince 
 already spent largely on the expedition, having, we are told, taine'"'' 
 sacrificed even his private plate ; and was quite unable to 
 meet the further sums due. But the inability to pay off 
 the Free Lances entailed the burden of providing for their 
 subsistence, and the Prince provided for them by quarter- 
 ing them partly on Gascony, and partly on France.^ The 
 Gascons refused to submit to this iniquity ; and the Prince 
 therefore early in 1368 was obliged to send the Companies 
 to seek a livelihood elsewhere.* Early in February they 
 crossed the Loire and betook themselves to their old 
 hunting grounds in North-Eastern France, their ' chamber ' 
 as they called it. Charles V addressed no further com- 
 plaints to the King of England. The time for that was past ; 
 he was quietly getting ready. In the meantime he sent 
 men to watch the marauders and cut off stragglers, but 
 he still persisted in forbidding general actions.* 
 
 The Prince's current expenditure had been reduced, but 
 the outstanding debt remained. Provincial Estates were 
 held by him at Saint-Emilion in October 1367, and the 
 expedient suggested by his Chancellor, John Harewell, Bishop 
 of Bath, was a "fouage ", or hearth tax, of ten Uvres tournois 
 to be levied for five years. The impost was by no means 
 new in France. In Languedoc it had been cheerfully 
 voted again and again for the war against the Enghsh.^ 
 Even now the lowland districts of Poitou the Limousin 
 
 ' In some of the accounts of Aquitaine, printed by Delpit, Documents Franfais, 
 p. 176, we find a sum of 445,849 shillings Guienne (£20,000 ?) accounted for 
 as follows: Prince's household, 211,772 ; Wages of war, 171,305 ; Pensions and 
 sundry, 22,000. 
 
 ' On the i6th November 1367 the King wrote to the Prince to stop depreda- 
 tions on the French committed by EngUsh subjects, of which the King of France 
 was complaining ; cf . Vic et Vaissete, IV. 335. 
 
 ' " Aller ailleurs pour chasser et vivre." 
 
 * Froissart, I. 546 ; Sismondi, XI. 84 ; cf. Knighton, 2629. For details of the 
 doings of these Companies see Grandes Chroniques, VI. 249. For local efiorts 
 to get rid of them, Lavisse, IV. 181. 
 
 ' " Du temps de Charles V cette taxe etait de quatre livres tournois " ; Buchon. 
 See Vic et Vaissete, 317. 
 
488 GASCONY 
 
 aiAP.xxix and Saintonge were prepared to submit, if the Prince would 
 7^ only pledge himself not to tamper with the currency for 
 seven years. But the warlike Pyrenean lords of Armagnac 
 Albret and Comminges refused to allow the money to be 
 levied on their estates, alleging that under the French Kings 
 their lands had never been subject to toll tribute or custom,^ 
 and that the Prince had sworn to maintain them in these 
 immunities.^ When Armagnac ventured to point out 
 further that the Prince owed him 200,000 florins, Edward, 
 whose temper had not been improved by loss of health, 
 again gave him rough words. For redress the Count 
 turned to the King of France, as his natural overlord, and 
 the other leading Gascons agreed to act with him. In April 
 Appeal 1368 an appeal against the claim of the Duke of Aquitaine 
 hfm.° to tax them was lodged with Charles ; and in May the 
 malcontents went up to Paris to press th«ir case. Of course 
 they met with a great reception ; and Armagnac's nephew, 
 Arnaud Amanieu, the Sire d'Albret, was immediately 
 married to Marguerite de Bourbon, sister to the Queen.* 
 On the 1st June Arnaud promised to support the King 
 against his enemies, and received large subventions in 
 money. On the 30th June a secret treaty between the King, 
 Armagnac and his adherents was signed, by which Charles 
 extended his protection to those who had appealed to his 
 court ; confirmed all the immunities of Guyenne ; guaran- 
 teed them against any fouage for ten years ; and pledged 
 himself never to divest himself of that overlordship for 
 which the Gascons were prepared to fight. They in return 
 swore to recognize his overlordship, and fight for him in or 
 out of Guyenne. On the morrow Armagnac received a grant 
 of Bigorre and other lands, to be won from the Enghsh.* 
 
 A sense of French nationality was the last thing to be 
 looked for in the Gascons. From Roman times downward 
 the men of Southern Gaul had retained a distinctive 
 
 ' " Di nul subside, impositions, fouages ni gabelles." 
 ' Froissart, I. 547. 
 ^ Id. ; Lavisse, IV. 228. 
 
 ' See Froissart, 558, note Buchon ; Martene and Durand, Thes. I. 1507 ; 
 Lavisse, sup. ; Du Tillet, Recueil des Traitfe, 291. 
 
REVOLTING 489 
 
 character. From the days of Eleanor of Guyenne the chap, xxix 
 great feudatories had retained a large measure of indepen- ~^ 
 dence by playing off the English against the French. The 
 Southern provinces won from England by Philip Augustus 
 and St. Louis had gained little by the change ; their rights 
 had been systematically violated by the French ; while 
 Guyenne had thriven under English rule. The English 
 rule was just, but the English rule had ceased to be popular. 
 The English barons who attended the Prince had failed 
 to make friends of the French barons ; their cold insular 
 manners were intolerable ; the Prince gave everything to 
 Enghsh officers, and the native lords found that they were 
 of no account in their own land.^ 
 
 The revolt of Gascony might be said to have begun.^ 
 But Charles was careful to keep the matter very quiet. 
 When Lionel came to Paris on his way to Italy about this 
 time, he was received with open arms.* Charles was in no 
 hurry, and in fact wanted to gain time, and to clear his 
 position legally and morally. A council having decided in 
 favour of entertaining the appeal of the Gascons (30 June), 
 the resolution was kept secret, while a lengthy memorandum 
 was drawn up, detailing the infractions of the peace of which 
 the King of England had been guilty, and justifying Charles's 
 conduct in entertaining the appeal, on the ground that the 
 pledge not to exercise rights of overlordship was only to 
 hold good to the 30th November 1361, when the reciprocal 
 renunciations were to be delivered.* It was not till the 
 28th December that a meeting of Notables proclaimed that 
 Charles was entitled, and in fact bound, to accept the 
 appeal of the Gascon lords. A formal citation to appear 
 in Paris on the 1st May 1369 was then addressed to the 
 Prince of Wales, and presented at Bordeaux, in January 
 1369. The Prince shook his head wrathfully when the 
 
 • Sismondi,XI.93; Froissart, 1.558. The Prince's Seneschals were all English; 
 see Chandos Herald, 335, 381. Guichard d' Angle, who was Marshal of Aquitaine, 
 and the Captal de Buch, were the only natives in positions of confidence. 
 
 " The receipts from Querci, P&igord, and the Agenais cease from the year 
 1367; Delpit, Documents Fr., 158 etc. See also Lavisse, IV. 229. 
 
 * Grandes Chroniques, VI. 251. ' Id. 283. See above, p. 441- 
 
490 VACILLATING 
 
 CHAP. XXIX summons was tendered to him. ' We will go to Paris if 
 g the King wishes it, but it shall be bassinet on head, and with 
 60,000 men.'i Fine words (if uttered) which the Prince 
 no longer had the power to make good. His ailments 
 were increasing ; dropsical symptoms had begun to appear, 
 and he could no longer mount his horse. In his fury he 
 ordered the bearers of the offensive citation — a lawyer and 
 a knight — to be thrown into prison.^ 
 
 It would seem that the Prince had warned his father' 
 of impending danger ; but the King, " weary of war and old 
 before his time, shut his eyes to the impending storm." 
 The courtiers agreed with him in thinking that the Prince 
 believed in war because he wished for war ; * and an 
 order recalling him was issued ; but that purpose was 
 soon abandoned.* Edward's alarm, however, must have 
 been excited before the date assigned to the citation; as 
 War im- on the i6th January he appointed John of Hastings, the 
 pen '"g- young Earl of Pembroke,* to take reinforcements to Aqui- 
 taine ; a few days later Guy Brian, the Admiral, was 
 instructed to raise sailors and fighting men in the southern 
 counties to resist ' the malice ' of the French, who were 
 ' already on the sea '.* In February the Earl of Cambridge 
 was appointed to command the reinforcements that were 
 going to Bordeaux; while £22,000 in cash were sent to 
 the Prince of Wales.'' But the preparations lacked vigour, 
 the thoughts of the government being mostly directed 
 towards measures for the defence of Calais and the home 
 coasts, so completely had the tide turned. At any rate 
 the reliefs ordered for Aquitaine were altogether inade- 
 quate ; Pembroke was apparently given 60 men-at-arms 
 
 '■ Lavisse, IV. sup.; Froissart, I. 560, gives the citation in extenso, but 
 Froissart's documents are often concocted, cf. Rot. Park. 11. 299. 
 
 ^ Froissart, 561. ^ Walsingham, I. 306 ; Kitchin. 
 
 * Feed. III. 845 ; 25 March 1368. 
 
 ° Son o£ Laurence of Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, who was grandson of Isabelle, 
 daughter of William of Valence, Nicolas, Historic Peerage. John had been 
 married in 1359 to the Lady Margaret, neither of them being fourteen years old, 
 but she died in I36r ; Green, Princesses, III. 298. John's mother was Agnes, 
 daughter of Roger Mortimer, first Earl of March. 
 
 ' Foed. 857, 858, 862. ' Pell Issue Roll, Mich. 43 Ed. Ill, 3rd February. 
 
MEASURES 491 
 
 and 80 archers ; ^ but we do hear of a further body of 900 chap, xxix 
 
 archers ordered for Aquitaine.^ The officers in Ponthieu ^ 
 
 were told to be on the look-out, but no help was sent to 
 
 them. Charles, however, kept carefully postponing any 
 
 declaration of war, or any admission that the treaty of 
 
 Bretigny had been infringed. In October and November 
 
 he had notified the appeals to the Seneschals of Gascony as 
 
 mere matters of law ; and he had written to the men of 
 
 Montauban that in receiving the appeals of the Gascon 
 
 lords he had committed no breach of the treaty.* He 
 
 was content to let time work in his favour. Without 
 
 neglecting naval or mihtary preparations he was working 
 
 for a national movement, and a general uprising for the 
 
 expulsion of the English. In the meantime, in March, 
 
 he sent over the Count of Saarebriick and Guillaume de 
 
 Dormans to amuse Edward with negotiations.* On the 
 
 6th April the King issued writs for a Parliament, to meet on 
 
 the 8th June ; on the 26th of the month he ordered a present 
 
 of fifty pipes of wine from the King of France, that had just 
 
 been accepted, to be sent back.^ The French envoys went 
 
 home to consult their master, promising that a final answer 
 
 to Edward's demands should be given by Whitsunday 
 
 (20 May).^ On landing they were greeted with the news 
 
 that the fat was in the fire, and the rising begun. On 
 
 the 29th April the citizens of Abbeville had opened their Revolt of 
 
 gates to the Count of Saint-Pol. In eight days Rue, Crotoy, 
 
 Saint- Valeri, all Ponthieu save Noyelle, was in the hands of 
 
 the French.'' From the 9th to the nth May Charles held 
 
 Estates General in Paris. Edward's letters complaining 
 
 of the reception of the Gascon appeals were laid before the 
 
 Assembly, with the draft of an elaborate answer in which 
 
 the French King reasserted his right to receive the appeals, 
 
 on the ground that the dernier ressort had not definitely 
 
 passed out of his hands by reason of Edward's default in 
 
 ' Issue Roll, 44 Ed. Ill, p. 406 (Devon). = Foed. III. 863-865, 874. 
 
 ' Vic et Vaissete, IV. 337, 338 ; Sismondi, XI. 99. 
 
 * Froissart, I. 564. 
 
 » Lords' Report ; Foed. 864. ' Foed. 883. 
 
 ' Lavisse, IV. 230. Dormans the envoy had been fomenting the rising. 
 
492 FRANCE 
 
 CHAP. XXIX not tendering a proper renunciation of the crown of France. 
 7^ The question, no doubt, was a very nice one, as already- 
 mentioned, namely, whether under the wording of the Calais 
 additions to the treaty of Bretigny the pledge not to 
 exercise rights of overlordship was to hold good till Edward 
 delivered his renunciation of the Crown, whenever that 
 might be — or only to the 30th November 1361, the day 
 appointed for the renunciations. Even if the literal 
 wording of the clause were not held to favour the former 
 view, it was not to be supposed that the French king could 
 be kept indefinitely under disability, because his adversary 
 failed to perform his share of the compact. Naturally, and 
 probably rightly, the Estates gave their entire approval to 
 their King's conduct, and also to the letters to be sent 
 to the King of England which were read out. Prayers and 
 processions were ordered, and finally on the 24th and 25th 
 May letters tantamount to a declaration of war were sent 
 to Edward.^ When the terms of the French answers to 
 Edward's complaints became known, John of Gaunt was 
 reported to have said, ' Charles is not a wise king but a 
 mere lawyer.' Charles retorted, ' If we are lawyers we will 
 draw them a plea that will weary their ears to hear.' ^ 
 
 The renunciation of the treaty of Bretigny was laid before 
 ■ Parliament as soon as it met ; but the only retaliation that 
 Edward could suggest was the resumption of the double 
 style. The lieges thought that the King, would be fully 
 justified in taking that step. On the nth June Edward 
 resumed the style of King of France ; the French arms he 
 had never laid aside.* 
 
 The Commons did not urge any vigorous prosecution 
 of the war abroad — they never had urged it at any time — 
 but they were anxious that effectual measures should be 
 taken for defence of the coasts at home, as rumours of 
 impending invasion were rife, and in fact large armaments 
 were being fitted out in the Seine. For supply they sug- 
 gested that the King might again lay hands on the Priories 
 
 • See the documents, Grandes Chroniques, VI. 272-306 ; Lavisse, IV. 231. 
 " Lavisse, 228. ^ Rot. Park. II. 299, 300. 
 
DECLARES WAR 493 
 
 Alien ; while for themselves they offered to renew the wool chap, xxix 
 duties on condition of the abohtion of the objectionable ^ 
 Calais Wool-Staple. The King, as usual, conceded every- 
 thing that was asked ; a remedial statute was passed, and 
 the surtaxes on wool and leather renewed for three years, the 
 duty on the sack and twelve score fells being raised to 
 435. 4d., that on the last remaining at 805., in addition always 
 to the old Magna Custuma from natives and both Magna 
 and Parva from aliens.^ The clergy intimated that if they 
 were consulted in their clerical assembhes they might make 
 a grant. Diocesan Synods and provincial Convocations 
 were accordingly summoned, and Tenths for three years 
 granted both by Canterbury and York.^ 
 
 The year witnessed another outbreak of the pestilence, Third 
 " the Third Plague," besides a failure of crops, caused by ^^"'^' 
 excessive rains in the autumn ; in the following summer 
 wheat rose to JOs. and 20s., rates not seen since 1316.3 An 
 order of the 8th June for removing all shambles from the 
 City may mark the beginning of the epidemic* On the 
 22nd July Archbishop Whittlesey ordered public prayers, 
 the pestilence then raging.^ The clergy as usual suffered 
 severely ; we have the deaths recorded of Louis Charlton, 
 Bishop of Hereford ; John Grandison, Bishop of Exeter ; 
 Thomas Percy, Bishop of Norwich ; and among lay folk 
 those of Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk ; and the amiable 
 and popular Blanche of Lancaster, the Duke's wife. But 
 the greatest loss of all was that of Edward's faithful Queen 
 Philippa of Hainault, " the moost gentyU moost lyberall Death of 
 moost courtesse that ever was quene in her dayes." She phihppa. 
 died at Windsor on the 15th August.® Her removal left 
 the way open for " the reign of Alice Ferrers ", one of 
 Philippa's ladies, who was now raised in everything but 
 the name to the dignity of a Queen. A few years later, the 
 
 1 Rot. Parlt. sup. ; Statute, 43 Ed. III. 
 
 ' Wake, 301 ; Issue Roll, 44 Ed., p. 137 (Devon). 
 
 ' Murimuth, Cont. 205 ; Walsingham ; Rogers, Prices, I. 213, II. 147. 
 
 * Memorials London, Riley. 
 
 = Wilkins, Cone. III. 238. 
 
 « Froissart, I. 593 (Berner's translation) ; Murimuth, sup. 
 
494 FRESH 
 
 CHAP. XXIX very robes and jewels worn by Philippa were transferred 
 ^ to her.i 
 
 Neither side had failed to cast about for alliances. The 
 Dukes of Juliers and Gueldres were still attached to the 
 English court by family ties. Edward of Gueldres was 
 the son of Eleanor of England, and Juliers was the son of 
 Philippa's sister. Both of them received money. ^^5,000 
 were paid to the Duke of Gueldres as a gift, other German 
 princes divided £8,000 among them.^ Negotiations were 
 opened with Flanders and Navarre. Charles the Bad 
 waited to see which side would offer the most.' The 
 Flemish burghers had always held by England. Louis of 
 Mael, recognizing what the French alliance had cost his 
 father, had sought for friendship with England, and at the 
 death of King John had engaged his sole daughter and 
 heiress Margaret to Edmund of Langley.* But at the 
 instance of Charles le Sage the betrothal was quashed and 
 the marriage forbidden by Urban V. Charles then put 
 forward his youngest brother Philip, Duke of Burgundy, as 
 a suitor for the hand of the great heiress. As she was 
 widow of the late Duke, Phihp of Rouvres, by this arrange- 
 ment she would simply retain her position in Burgundy 
 with a fresh Duke. Louis' consent had to be bought with 
 large pecuniary and territorial concessions, but finally on 
 the 19th June 1369 the marriage was celebrated at Ghent.® 
 The policy of endowing Burgundy with the wealth of 
 Flanders might well be questioned ; and in fact the 
 marriage proved altogether disastrous to France. With 
 the Emperor Charles IV and Henry of Trastamare friendly 
 relations were maintained. 
 
 Both sides made overtures to Scotland. But the 
 
 ' 1373, Green, Princesses, III. 210 ; Foed. III. 989. The name of Alice Peirers 
 figures in the Rolls from 1366 onwards ; Pauli, II. 290. Blanche of Lancaster 
 left an only son, Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV ; also two daughters, 
 Philippa and Ehzabeth. See the pedigree, "John of Gaunt," Armitage Smith, 
 p. 94. 
 
 " Pell Issue Rolls, Easter 43 Ed. ' Foed. 871, 879. 
 
 * See the contract, Foed. 750 ; 19 October 1364. 
 
 ° See Lavisse, IV. 232 ; Grandes Chroniques, VI. 271, 307. 
 
ARRANGEMENTS 495 
 
 English were first in the field ; when French envoys landed chap, xxix 
 in Scotland they found that David was in England making j g 
 terms. On the i8th June an extension of the truce for Treaty 
 fourteen years was proclaimed ; on the 20th July a formal j^'^jj_ '^°^' 
 treaty was sealed in Edinburgh, and ratified in London 
 on the 24th of August. Edward agreed to give time for 
 the payment of the balance of the ransom, which was put 
 down as £34,000, to be liquidated by annual instalments 
 of 4,000 marks( £2,666 135. 4^.) each, instead of £4,000 as 
 originally stipulated. But the most interesting provision 
 of the new compact was the proclamation of unrestricted 
 intercourse between the two countries without requirement 
 of leave or licence.^ 
 
 The King's original intention had been to send the 
 Duke of Lancaster as well as the Earl of Cambridge to 
 Aquitaine. The revolt of Ponthieu led to a change of 
 plan. The Duke was sent to Calais, with the Earls of 
 Hereford and Salisbury, and a force of 100 men-at-arms 
 and 600 archers,^ while Cambridge went to Aquitaine to 
 join his friend and former playmate the Earl of Pembroke.* 
 
 > Exchequer Rolls, Scotland, II. 345, 348 ; Feed. III. 873, 877, 878. 
 ' Feed. 864-873 ; June 1369. 
 
 ' See Green, Princesses, III. 297. Edmund took out 400 men-at-arms, and as 
 many archers ; K. R. Excheq. " Army," Bundle 25, No. 18. 
 
 END OF VOLUME I 
 
OXFORD : HORACE HART M.A. 
 PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY