History of England, Part I For the use of Middle Forms of Schools
Tout, T. F. --Powell, F. York
1898
CHAPTER I: Edward I of Westminster 1272-1307
1. [1] After visiting the King of Sicily, went to see the Pope at Orvieto, and thence passing through North Italy, he came over Mont Cenis on his way into France. As he was travelling by Chalons, the earl of that place challenged him and his men to a tournament. Nothing loath, the prince agreed, and on the day set the struggle began between the English and Burgundian knights. The earl charged through the English array till he reached , when, dropping his sword, he clasped the prince round the neck with his right arm, and tried to pull him from his seat. But sat still without moving till he felt that the earl had got firm hold, and then he clapped spurs to his horse, and dragging the unlucky Burgundian out of his saddle, shook him off by main force, so that he fell head-long to the ground. The Burgundians grew angry when they saw their lord's overthrow, and the game turned to earnest. Ere long the English knights were hard pressed, and many men were wounded and slain. And now the English archers, who stood outside the lists looking on, drew their bows and shot down the foreign knights' horses. The earl set upon again, but the prince handled him so roughly that he was glad to surrender himself his prisoner, whereupon the fighting ceased, but not before good knights had fallen on either side. | |
After this little battle of Chalons went to meet | |
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Philip the French king, and did homage to him He then passed into Gascony to put down a rising which was headed by Gaston of Beam. Next autumn, having made an agreement with the Countess of Flanders on behalf of English traders to the Flemish towns, he crossed to England, August 2, , and was crowned at Westminster, with his wife, amid great rejoicings. The Duke of Brittany, and , the King of Scots, with their consorts, 's sisters, his brother Edmund (called the King of Sicily), and his mother, Eleanor, were all at the feast. There were great halls of timber built for the guests, who were many more than could be seated in Westminster Hall, the fountains at Cheapside ran all day with red and white wine instead of water, and two hundred fine horses were turned loose among the crowd to be scrambled for. |
2. But soon turned his mind to his royal duties. While he was away, the regents, Walter, Archbishop of , Roger Lord Mortimer, and Robert Burnel, had ruled well and kept the peace. By the help of Burnel, whom he made chancellor, of John Kirkby the treasurer, and of Francis Accursi the counsellor, son of the famous Italian lawyer, now set about devising new laws for the common good of the whole realm, awaking old Acts which had fallen asleep during the troubles of the realm, putting right those things which had gone wrong through misuse, and making clear those rules and customs which had grown dark and hard to understand. Year after year till King and Parliament laboured for the commonwealth, for it was 's pride and pleasure to follow the example of his great kinsmen, S. Louis of France, Alfonso the Wise of Castile, and the the Wonder of the World, all of whom were famous for their wise laws and the good order they kept in their kingdoms. And it was in 's reign that the English constitution, which had been fixed by , was finally put into the shape in which it remained unaltered for two centuries. | |
's reforms, .In an inquiry into the rights of the feudal lords and of the counties was ordered. In was passed the First Statute of Westminster, which re-enacts many of the best clauses of the Great Charter, fixes the amount of the feudal burdens, aids, and reliefs, declares that common justice shall be done without respect of persons, and ordains that elections shall be free, forbidding any man to trouble them by force, craft, or | |
184 | threat. In the Rageman Statute appointed judges to settle all suits touching encroachments made on the land or rights of private persons since . In the Statute of Gloucester regulated the private courts of justice and the lords' rights in the hundred and manor courts, and an order was given to the judges to inquire, under a writ called Quo Warranto, by what right the lords held the private jurisdictions which they claimed. For the king wished to bring the whole land as far as possible under his own courts and judges. But the great lords did not like to lose their power over their tenants, and when the Earl of Warenne was called before the judges to prove the rights he claimed, he pulled out an old rusty sword, saying, And many of the other nobles said that the earl had spoken well, so that the king when he came to hear of it, fearing their displeasure, let this matter drop. But in the same year all gentlemen who had land to the value of £20 a year were ordered to receive knighthood or pay a heavy fine. The nobles did not like this measure either, for it brought their tenants into contact with the king, and showed them that meant to rule for the good of all rather than for the benefit of a few great folks. One day as the king went out of Parliament to hear evening service there were some of the nobles' sons waiting on him as pages, and he began talking to them. The boys looked at each other and did not speak, till one, bolder than the rest, answered, said . |
In Pope Nicholas III. sent for the Archbishop of to Rome and made him a cardinal, and the king had the chancellor, Robert Burnel, Bishop of Bath, chosen to fill his place; but the Pope did not wish to have one who was mixed up with State affairs as head of the English Church, | |
185 | so he quashed the election, and set John of Peckham, a Grey Friar, a pupil of Adam Marsh, a Doctor of Theology of Paris, and a Reader of , in Robert's room. Brother John was kindly, generous, hard-working, zealous for his order and for his see, a lover of peace, a good scholar, and a famous hymn-writer. He tried to strengthen the power of the Church courts by certain Articles passed at a Church Council at Reading, . But made him give up these Articles, and passed the , which forbade persons granting or receiving lands so that they came into [the dead hand], i.e. became the property of corporations as endowments. This Act was especially aimed against the clergy, who were now the owners of more than a quarter of the land of England. For not only did pious people willingly give their estates to monasteries or churches, but many who wished to escape from feudal obligations would surrender their lands to a religious body, bargaining to get it back to be held of the new owners on easier terms. However, the archbishop held another Church Council at Lambeth, , and there declared that all cases touching Church patronage, or property held by Churchmen, belonged solely to the Church courts. But the king, justly angry at this encroachment on the rights of his royal courts, compelled him to drop these claims also. |
In the , giving traders easier means of getting their debts, was put forth, and in the Statute of Rhuddlan, which settled what kind of cases were to be tried in the Exchequer Court. In the two important Statutes of Westminster the Second and of were passed. The first made great alterations in the land law, enabling estates to be settled in a family from parent to child for ever, by the clause [of Gifts on Condition] amending the law of dower, of Church patronage, of mortmain, and making great improvements in the assize and manor courts. The second was meant to put down the lawless bands of clubmen, old soldiers, outlaws, and sturdy beggars who had taken to robbing in gangs, and living upon the country. It makes the Hundred responsible for robberies committed within it, deals with the keeping of watchmen in towns and villages, the pursuit of thieves, the safety of the highroads, provides for the proper arming and calling out of the militia, and forbids markets to be held in churchyards. In the same year by his decree and the writ of settled the proper province of the Church courts, confining them, as of old, to cases touching | |
186 | wills of goods, marriages, perjury, libel, tithes, Church matters, and wrongs done to clergymen. In , in consequence of complaints against the judges for bribery, they were tried before a commission under Burnel, and all save two found guilty, turned from the bench, fined, and banished. Next year the Statute of Westminster the Third was passed, by a clause of which () every freeman is allowed to sell his land, or part of it, as he likes, but the man to whom he sells it is to hold of the seller's lord and not of the seller. This Act stopped the making of new manors, and tended to bring most landholders bit by bit into direct tenancy from the Crown. |
But with this wise measure was passed a cruel and unrighteous one, namely, the expulsion of the Jews from England. They were given three months to leave the realm, they were allowed to take all their movables with them, and had free passes to France at the king's expense. More than 16,000 left the country. A number of the rich London Jews were treacherously drowned on the shoals at the mouth by the captain of the ship that was to take them over sea. But his wickedness was found out, and he was tried and hanged. The people were glad that the Jews had gone, for they did not see that it was unwise to drive away clever and wealthy merchants who added to the riches of the country, and only remembered the high prices they had paid to them, and the strict law of debt which the Jews had used against them. It was more than 350 years ere the Jews were allowed to set foot in England again. With this Act the first period of 's reign closes, and he was now called away to do other work no less important, however, his greatest and most needful reforms had been successfully carried out, and were working well. The deaths of those who had gone through the burden and heat of the day with him-his beloved wife Eleanor (died ), the his trusty and far-sighted minister Burnel (died ), and his faithful treasurer Kirkby (died )-left him to face his new troubles almost alone, for of all his old friends only Anthony Beck was left, the rich and wise Bishop of Durham, whom the Pope in made Patriarch of Jerusalem, because of his wealth and power. | |
3. While engaged upon his reforms, had also been much taken up with the troubles which ended with the death of the last North Welsh princes and the resettlement of their conquered country. How this came about must be | |
187 | briefly told. Since the death of Cadwalla in the Welsh had never been able to cope with the English, and the sovereignty which that king had for a time wielded' over the whole Welsh race was broken up. [2] The Northumbrian kings soon pushed the Northern Welsh of Cumberland and Strathclyde so hard that the princes and noblemen sought refuge in Wales, leaving their land to sink into a dependency of the North English or Scottish kings. Its after history has been noticed. After suffering from the inroads and settlement of the Northmen, it was given as a fief by Edmund to Malcolm I., was the cause of war between Ethelred and his vassal Malcolm II., was for a while almost independent under Thorfin and other earls of Northern blood, was seized by , and finally cut in two by , the southern part, south of Solway, becoming English, while the northern, Strathclyde, Galloway, and the Dales, became part of the Lowlands of the new Scottish kingdom which David had organized after the plans of Henry of England. |
The kingdom of the Corn-Welsh had been lessened step by step by the bands of armed West Saxon colonists who settled Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, one after another, till (circa 700), who himself (probably through intermarriages of the West Saxon and South Welsh royal families) had Welsh blood in his veins, fixed the Tone as the frontier between the two races. The great West Saxon kings finally subdued the little Celtic kingdom, 's expedition to the Scilly Isles () being almost the last notice of the series of victories by which it was achieved. On the whole, the people seem to have been content with their new rulers. For though there was hard fighting in 's days, when the Corn-Welsh called in the Danes to help them against the English kings, yet it was from the men of Devon that got succour in his sorest need, while the Welsh favourites and the Welsh alliances of 's descendants down to 's days, and the marked preference the West Saxon princes showed for the western part of their realm, prove that there was sympathy between them and their Celtic subjects, a sympathy which was tested in the struggle of the house of against the Conqueror in . | |
Wales proper was the strongest Celtic state in Britain, even after (circa ) had bounded it by his dyke, which runs from Chester to Chepstow behind the Wye, Severn, and Dee. For a brief while King Roderick the Great (circa ) united | |
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the country under his head-kingship, but at his death his three sons became each independent in his own little tribal realm, and there were kings of North Wales at Aberfraw, of South Wales at Cardigan, and of Powys or Mid-Wales at
Mathraval; while the smaller princedoms of Brecon, Gwent
[Monmouth], and Morganwg [Glamorgan] were practically ruled by their own lords. As in Ireland, these states were continually at war with each other, or with foes from without-Irish pirates from Leinster and Munster, Northern sea-rovers from Waterford and Dublin and the Orkneys and
Man, and English forays led by West Saxon or aldermen and kings. Sorely pressed by the Danes, the
Welsh princes of North Wales, Brecon, and South Wales chose King as their patron And this relationship between the Welsh kinglets and the English head-kings was kept up to the very days of The hereditary friendship and alliance which seems to have existed between some of the South Welsh families and churches and the West Saxon kings may have had something to do with bringing this about. In the next reign we hear of Ethelfleda taking the Welsh Queen of Brecon prisoner and storming her town, and driving Ingimund the Northman (whom the North Welsh had called in to help them against her) out of Chester, the waste Roman city which he had made his stronghold, back to Ireland again. Yet
ransoms the South Welsh bishop from the Danes, and the Welsh princes bind themselves to him as they had to his father. For another short space (circa ) there was a head-king in Wales. Howel the Good, the grandson of
Roderick, a peaceful ruler and a wise lawgiver, who drew up a set of rules for the court and laws for the people, which were passed by a great moot of the clergy and freemen of Wales at White House by the Tav in South Wales. Howel is said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome to get these laws approved by the Pope. However, after Howel's death the peace he had kept was broken, and there were deadly wars between North Wales, South Wales, and Gwent just as before. |
During the next century the North Welsh princes were closely allied to the house of Leofric for two generations, but this alliance brought the Welsh high-king, Gruffydd, the son of , into a war in which he was defeated by 's son, and slain by his own subjects, his successors hastening to acknowledge the overlordship of | |
189 | . Gruffydd's widow, Earl Ælfgar's daughter, was married to in , a match meant to bind the rival houses of Leofric and together. |
After the progress of William to S. Davids in , when he received the homage of the Welsh princes, the complete subjection of the Welsh Church to under , and the death of Rhys, the last prince who bore the name of king, , the native rulers of Wales sink to the state of powerful and troublesome border barons. The Constable of Chester and the Earl of Shrewsbury were the perpetual foes of the princes of Snowdonia (North Wales) and Powys; while South Wales was conquered piece by piece by Norman knights, adventurers, who, intermarrying with the Welsh nobles, and profiting by their feuds, soon got a hold upon the land, which they made good by building strong castles, and filling them with hired soldiers, Flemings and Normans and English. These Lords Marchers, amongst whom the houses of Clare, Braos, and Mortimer were the most powerful and renowned, formed a distinct part of the English baronage, having full feudal rights over their land, which no lords in England ever had. The settlement of the Flemish soldiers of I. by Milford Haven, the expedition of , Fitz-Stephen, Fitz-Gerald, and the knight of Barry to Ireland from South Wales, and the part played by Mortimer in the Barons' War, are perhaps the most striking features of the March history down to 's coronation. | |
The princes of North Wales also had a fixed course of their own, they were the firm allies of the barons' party against the English suzerain, who favoured their eager enemies, the Lords Marchers. Only the difficulty of carrying on a campaign in the roadless, hilly, thickly-wooded Land of Snowdon, and the skilful use the Welsh made of the political differences between the English kings and their barons, could, however, have saved them from complete overthrow. One after another, , , and , baffled by the obstacles of mountain warfare, were glad to accept their poor and restless vassals' submission and homage on easy terms. | |
The last three lords of North Wales deserve more than bare mention. Llewelyn Jorwerth's son, though he married a daughter of , yet joined the army of God and the Church, and is, like , the King of Scots, another of 's sons-in-law, specially named in the Great Charter. As the ally of de Burgh and the Marshals in the next reign, he played the same wise part. His son and successor, | |
190 | David (), had to buy the help of the English king against his brother Gruffydd by the surrender of the Four Cantreds or Hundreds, a district on his north-eastern border, . In , however, he tried to establish the independence of his principality by giving Wales up to the Pope, agreeing to hold it as his vassal at an annual rent of 500 marks. But the Pope would not risk his friendship with the English kings for the sake of Wales, and did little to help the Welsh in their struggles for freedom. On David's death, his nephew, Gruffydd's son, had to make good his claim to the throne against his three brethren. Owen he imprisoned, but Roderick and David fled to the English court, where they were well received. had granted the Four Hundreds to his son , and as allied himself, according to his foregoers' wont, with the Montforts and Despensers, he became opposed to his kinsman the king, and was soon brought into conflict with young , who was at this time the companion in arms and fast friend of Lord Mortimer and the Marchers, the Welsh prince's rivals. A revolt in the Four Hundreds against English misrule, a bitter border war year after year, increased the feud between them, which was not lessened by the presence of Welsh troops in Montfort's army at Lewes and Evesham. However, a peace was made in , to which agreed, by which the Four Hundreds were given back to , who was to pay 25,000 marks and do homage to the English king, who acknowledged him as Prince of Wales, and liege lord of all Welsh barons save Meredydd, the son of Rhys, who claimed to hold straight of Henry as Prince of South Wales. |
4. [3] At the beginning of 's reign was called upon six times to come to England to do homage; but he would not leave Wales unless the English king sent his brother, Earl Edmund of Gloucester, and the Chief-Justice into Wales as hostages for his life. For he said that his open enemies, David and Roderick (his exiled brothers), and Gruffydd, Prince of Powys (whom he had thrust from his land), were ever at King 's table and sometimes in his Council in defiance of him. Neither prince would give way on this point; but matters were made worse in , when Thomas Archer, a merchant, took a French ship off the Scillies, which was bearing to Wales 's betrothed, Eleanor, daughter of . placed Eleanor at his court with his own queen, | |
191 | in vain offered a ransom, insisted on homage being paid before any other matter was settled. In the English king having marched into North Wales with a great host, while a second force entered Powys, and the Cinque Ports fleet guarded the Menai Straits, was starved into surrender, and set his seal to the Treaty of Conway, by which he gave up the Four Hundreds, promised to do homage every year, forgave and took back his three brethren, and paid a heavy fine to the king, who acknowledged him Prince of Wales for his life, gave him up his bride, and made him a marriage feast at London. |
But in the faithless David quarrelled with his English neighbours, was reconciled with , and managed to get him to rise against . On Palm Sunday, , in the midst of a thunder-storm, David burst into Hawarden Castle, took prisoner the Chief-Justice of Wales, Roger Clifford, and slew many of the unarmed garrison. This signal of revolt was followed by a fierce raid into the Marches, the siege and capture of several of 's castles, and the raising of 's standard. was angered by the princes' treason, but while he made ready for war, called out his knights, and got large grants of money from the clergy and barons, he did not stop the archbishop, John of Peckham, from going to Wales to try and settle a peace. Twice the good archbishop journeyed to Wales and back to lay the Welsh grievances before , who listened to them patiently, but insisted upon instant submission, at the same time offering as fair terms to the two princes as their continual breaches of faith would allow of--to a thousand a year and an English earldom to him and his heirs for ever, in exchange for Snowdonia; to David a pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the king's pleasure, at the king's expense. But the Welsh barons answered, The archbishop in grief now excommunicated and David; and invaded Wales at once with a host, in which Scottish horsemen, Gascon men-at-arms, Bask foot-soldiers (under Gaston of Beam, now the English king's faithful vassal), and Irish kernes served beside English knights and yeomen. After a check near Hope, the king was defeated at the bridge of boats he had made at the Menai Straits. But he sent summons for fresh troops. | |
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The Earl of Gloucester having beaten the South Welsh army, left David to guard Snowdon, and with a small force went south to raise his friends for a flank attack upon the English. But Red Madoc Muckle-Mouth, the smith of Aberedwy, betrayed his path to his foes, and the traitors of Builth refused him help. He therefore crossed the river Irvon, 10th December , and posting a guard at the bridge, waited for fresh troops at a barn in a little dingle. he said. But the party sent in pursuit by found a ford, and crossing it fell suddenly upon the surprised Welshmen. hurried out to help his followers, but was thrust through and slain by the lance of Sir Adam of Frankton, who did not know whom he had overthrown. His head was cut off and sent to England, where it was borne through Cheapside on a spear, with a crown of silver upon it, in mockery of the Welsh prophecy that should ride crowned through London; and finally set up on the Tower wreathed in ivy. David now took the title of Prince of Wales, but he got scant help from the panic-stricken Welsh, and was soon driven an outlaw to the woods. In he was betrayed by two of his own men to the English, and a Parliament was called at which he was to be tried, in these words :- | |
David was accordingly tried at Shrewsbury, September 30, , for treason, murder, and sacrilege, condemned, and drawn, hanged, disembowelled, and quartered. | |
5. [4] now ordered commissioners to look into the laws of Wales and see how they might bebettered, and upon their report the was passed at Rhuddlan, by which the succession to land was settled, sheriffs and coroners appointed, and three High Courts, Chancery, Exchequer, and King's Bench, under Chancellor, Chamberlain, and Chief-Justice, set up in North and South Wales respectively. The royal rents were greatly lessened, and Welshmen were to keep all the rights, freedom, and estates they had formerly enjoyed under their own princes. In the king promised to make his second son , born at Cærnarvon, Prince of Wales. In made a grand entry into London, carrying in his own hands the famous Welsh relic, the cross of S. Neot, which he had taken from David, and which he now laid on the High Altar of Westminster. | |
All Wales was now under English law, save the lands of the Lords Marchers, who for fifty years longer kept up their feudal rights. On the whole, the change was not greatly disliked; the people found that the peace was better kept, and that they were less at the mercy of the nobles than they had been before. But the noblemen and gentry were not content to lose their former power, and they rebelled more than once. In Rhys, son of Meredydd, disappointed at his claims to the South Welsh crown being disregarded, | |
194 | rose in arms, and in spite of the fair offers of , refused to make peace. He was driven out of the country, but raised an army in Ireland, and in fought a pitched battle against the Chief-Justice Tiptoft, by whom he was defeated and taken prisoner. He was tried at for treason, condemned, and hanged. |
In there was a more general rising, 's son Madoc in North Wales, Mælgwn Vychan in Cardigan, and Morgan in Glamorgan. They hanged the Chief-Justice, drove the Earl of Gloucester out of his land, and sent for help to France. However, Mælgwn was soon taken and hanged, Morgan surrendered, but Madoc beat the Earl of , blockaded himself in Conway, and overthrew two English armies before he was beaten and taken at Mynydd Digoll, . He died in the Tower. | |
In of Cærnarvon came to Chester, and there, wearing the gold wreath and ring, and holding the silver rod of his principality, received the homage of the freeholders of Wales. The prince was much beloved in Wales all his life; his nurse had been a Welshwoman, and his foster-brother, Howel the Strong, was a famous Welsh knight. | |
Gerald of Barri, a Welshman himself on the mother's side, gave a close and careful picture of Wales in 's day which still held good in his grandson's time. He speaks of the fruitful corn-fields of Anglesea, the rich pastures of Snowdon, the deep woods of Mid-Wales full of deer, and the pleasant bay of Cardigan with its noble fisheries. He describes the handsome, active men with long hair and moustache, but shaven chin, clad in coarse kirtle and cloak, bare-kneed, shod with brogues of raw hide, and the fair women with their linen wimples and dark gowns. He tells of their simple fare, dampers cooked on a girdle, buttermilk, and boiled or broiled meat; of their rude dwellings, bracken-thatched huts with walls of daub and wattle, where they sleep under a rug round an open fire in the old fashion of their British forefathers. He talks of the skilled spearmen of Snowdonia armed in short mail-coats and light helms and targets, and admires the mighty archers of South Wales, whose arrows smote through hides and mail like the bolts from a war-engine. He notes the skill of the Welsh on harp and pipe and viol, and their love of poetry and singing. He praises their hospitality, their wit, their hardiness, their piety and charity, but blames their faithlessness and lack of perseverance, their cruel family quarrels and monstrous family pride. He shows, too, how their disunion and lack of discipline open the way to their conquest | |
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by their steadier and more united neighbours. John of
Peckham's witness is also to be given.
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6. [5] For the rest of his reign it is round Scotland that 's policy centres, his home affairs and even his relations with the French king depend on it. In died III., the last heir-male of the Anglo-Scottish house that had sprung from , the ward of Earl Siward, and the sainted Margaret, the Etheling's sister and the Confessor's niece, a house which had found Scotland a Gælic principality, half conquered by the Earls of Orkney and far less civilized than Ireland or Wales, and left it a flourishing kingdom with well-to-do towns, a thriving population, a court which was a centre of French and English culture, and a government which bid fair to establish lasting peace under a powerful Church and a popular and talented king. Among the noblest rulers of this line was the wise and holy David, who had been brought up by and had fostered ; his grandsons, Malcolm the Maiden, Henry's faithful ally, and William the Lion, who paid so heavily for his faithlessness to his brother's friend; , who had married John's daughter and stood up for the Charter; and III., 's son-in-law, in whose days the last Northern Armada, under Hacon, King of Norway, was defeated at the outset by a panic at Largs, , and a terrible gale which led its aged and invalid leader to give up his cherished but bootless plans. | |
When was killed by a fall from his horse on the rocks at Kinghorn, on the Fife coast, his granddaughter, the , was chosen queen, and a marriage arranged between her and her cousin, of Cærnarvon, at Brigham; but she died in the Orkneys on her way to Scotland in . Thirteen claimants put forward their rights, and the dispute was finally referred to as overlord by nine of them. After looking into the matter, two of the claimants, and , were held to have good titles, and the case between them was tried at Norham | |
196 197 | and Berwick, on the Scottish border, by a board of 104, of which each rival chose forty and twenty-four members. After full hearing, the kingdom was adjudged to Balliol at Berwick, November 30, , who did homage for it at once to the English king. So far all had gone well, but trouble was ahead. By the Treaty of Amiens in had given up all claims to Normandy, and got quiet possession of Aquitaine and Ponthieu from Philip III. He had done homage to Philip IV., and had acted as umpire between the French princes and the King of Aragon in the quarrel over the crown of Sicily; but in spite of his good offices he found that the French king, who had beguiled him into giving up Gascony for a while, was eagerly seeking some means by which to overreach and despoil him. In a quarrel broke out at S. Mahe in Brittany between the mariners of the Cinque Ports and the Norman shipmen, who took some English sailors and, by the order of Charles, brother of the French king, hanged them to their yard-arms with dogs tied to their bodies. The result was a sea-fight in which English, Gascons, and Irish fought against the Normans, French, Flemings, and Germans, and after great slaughter took most of their ships. Next year the English merchant fleet took sixty French ships laden with wine and threw their crews overboard. was summoned to Paris to answer for his subjects' behaviour in Philip's Court of Peers. In vain he offered to submit the whole matter to umpires. Philip refused all terms, and after a brief delay declared his fiefs forfeited. allied himself with the Emperor Adolphus, the King of Aragon, the Earls of Flanders and Holland, called out the English knights and yeomen, and named three Admirals, one for Yarmouth and the east coast, one for Portsmouth and the south coast, one for and the Irish coast. An army was sent to defend Gascony. The French fleet began the war by burning , while the English laid waste Cherbourg. |
7. [6] But it was his enemies in Britain that gave the greatest trouble. Morgan's rising was encouraged by the French king, and now Philip had managed to win over the Scottish nobles to appoint a standing Council of Twelve to advise and control their king, and force him into a treaty with France. John, angered at being obliged to answer the appeals of his subjects against him in 's court, gave way to their wishes, and a match was secretly made up between his son | |
198 | and Philip's daughter Joan, upon John's promise to attack the English king. |
Always willing to seek help and advice from his subjects in his difficulties, had called the , which was afterwards acknowledged as the model for such gatherings, as the three Estates were all present regularly summoned according to what henceforth was held to be the lawful and necessary form. In his summons to the archbishop, Robert of Winchelsea (John of Peckham was dead), he writes:- | |
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Ere this Parliament met, 's treason became known to , who thereupon sent his brother in his stead to Gascony, and resolved to set out early next spring to Scotland. The Scottish earls began the war with a cruel raid into Cumberland, but went up the east coast, crossed the Tweed, and attacked Berwick. The townsfolk, who had slain some English merchants in cold blood, were desperate, and mocked the king's offers. But the castle surrendered, and though thirty brave Flemings held out in the Red Hall till it was burned over their heads, the English burst in, March 30, . The rich trading town was sacked, and the hapless burgesses massacred, so that The Scottish king now sent formally to withdraw his homage, refusing to appear at 's court. said the English prince. April 27, the Earls of and Warwick defeated the Scottish earls with great slaughter at Dunbar; and having taken Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling, and sent home his English foot-soldiers, for the light-armed Welsh and Irish infantry had now joined him, passed on north And John, seeing that he had no power to resist, begged peace of him, | |
199 | and being kindly received, gave back to the kingdom of Scotland, owning that he had forfeited it, July 10, at Brechin. , seeing that all was now quiet, turned back from Elgin, and passing by Scone, took away the holy stone upon which the Scottish kings were wont to be crowned, the cross of S. Margaret, and all the royal ornaments of Scotland, and sent them to Westminster, where the stone was set into a chair for the mass-priest at the high altar, and the crown, sceptre, and cross laid at the shrine of . In twenty-one weeks he had won a new kingdom. |
8. [7] now turned his whole mind to the recovery of Gascony from Philip, but was hampered by unlooked-for hindrances. The clergy under Robert of Winchelsea refused to vote him any money at the Parliament of Bury, , because of Pope VIII.'s Bull De Clericis Laicos, which forbade Churchmen to pay or princes to levy taxes on Church pro- and Statute of perty. But met this as and had done, by outlawing those who would not pay until they did so. | |
At a Parliament at Salisbury, , the king spoke: But the Marshal and Constable, the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford, refused to serve abroad unless the king himself went with them. said the king. answered the Marshal. Then the king grew angry, replied Norfolk, He and his friends then left the court and gathered their party to them, 1500 knights, forbidding the king's officers to levy any taxes on their land. For seeing the time slipping by, and determined to go to Flanders, where the towns had promised to help him against Philip, now seized all the wool at the seaports, forcing the merchants to pay a new and heavier duty, which they called male-tote, before he would let it pass. He also sent for grain and meat from the sheriffs of the English counties, and all this without right, for he had not got the leave of Parliament. Before he sailed, however, he spoke to the people from a stage put up outside Westminster Hall, his son and Archbishop Robert standing by his side. With | |
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tears in his eyes he begged them to forgive him for having ruled them less well than he ought, but assured them that what he had taken from them he had taken in order that he might defend them with it against those who were thirsting for their blood. And the people wept, and held up their right hands, and swore to obey him. But the earls sent him a list of grievances, and when he sailed they summoned their friends in arms to a Parliament at London, where by the good offices of Robert of Winchelsea it was agreed that the king should confirm the Charters, levy no new kind of tax, or duty, or tallage save by consent of Parliament, and give up the male-tote of wools. This agreement, called the Confirmatio Cartarum or Articuli de Tallagio non concedendo, was sent over to
Ghent, where the king set his seal to it, November 5, , to the joy of all. For the times were hard, and the people suffering a good deal, as the song of the time shows:-
By this Act the king was bound not to levy indirect taxes without consent of Parliament, but he might still lay tallages on the towns and the Crown estates. In the Parliament of London, , it was supplemented by the Articuli super Cartas [fresh clauses to the Charters], which stopped the wrongdoing of the royal officers, settled the choice and duties of the sheriff, and ordered a survey of the forests. In , at the Parliament of , where the report of the survey was made, the barons begged the king to discharge his treasurer, Walter of Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, and demanded a final confirmation of the Charter, the carrying out of the forest reforms, the abolition of purveyance [forced purchase of goods for the king's use], the exact settlement of the judges' duties, and declared that these requests must be granted before they voted any money. imprisoned the knight who brought up the bill, refused to change his treasurer, saying he had a right to order his household as he would, but gave way on the other points and confirmed the Charters again. However, in he got Clement V. to free him from all the oaths he had lately taken as against the royal rights, though in spite of this he did not break his word. |
The same year he ordered the sheriffs to take up all the gangs of Clubmen who were black-mailing and robbing in the country, and he further sent judges under Commission of Trail-baston [club-bearing] to try these evil-doers. The outlaws did not relish these stern laws, and one of them is made to say in a French poem of the day :-
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The last Act of 's reign was the Statute of , , forbidding the clergy to send money abroad without the king's leave. The barons in Parliament at the same time complained that the Pope pillaged the kingdom, treating it as Nebuchadnezzar did Jerusalem, that he had removed the good shepherd (the archbishop whom he had sent for to Rome to answer the king's complaints against him), and had put dumb, lazy, greedy hirelings in his room. They renewed the Complaints of , and warned the Pope's officers to keep within the law. | |
9. [8] Meanwhile things were going badly in Scotland. An outlawed squire of Galloway, [, i.e. the Welshman], who had been ill-used by the sheriff of Lanark, rose with a band of followers against the English ministers, to kidnap the Chief-Justice of Scotland, and failing, made a cruel raid into England, in which churches and abbeys were plundered, and helpless prisoners drowned. The king sent the Warden of Scotland, John of Warenne Earl of against them, and the Scottish nobles who had joined at once gave in, and begged the earl to wait till they could pacify their countrymen. However, grew stronger by the delay, and when sent two black friars to him at Stirling, September 10, , to bid him surrender he answered, The river that ran between the two armies was high, and the bridge was so narrow that but two knights could pass abreast on it: the Warden was therefore advised to wait before he attacked the Scots. But the Treasurer of Scotland, Canon Hugh of Cressingham, could not brook any delay and pushed across the bridge with the vanguard. let them cross quietly and then dashed down to the bridge before the main body could follow, cutting off Hugh and his knights, who were soon slain, while their friends across the river looked | |
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on helplessly. The Warden and the rest of the English army fled in terror when crossed the bridge. Cressingham was so hateful to the Scots for his greed and cruelty that they made saddle-girths and sword-belts out of his skin.
was now joined by many Scottish nobles, and he and Andrew of Moray, the Seneschal of Scotland, called themselves A truce having been made with Philip (which ended in the , , and 's marriage in with the French king's sister Margaret), the king came home to England and hastened north to punish the rebels. As the two armies lay encamped face to face at Falkirk the morning before the battle, the king had two ribs broken by a kick from his horse, but he mounted another and rode forward to the field. had skilfully planted his spearmen in thick squares behind a stockade of pales and ropes. Between these squares were his archers, and on the flank his knights. said he to his men when he had set them in array, However, the English cavalry scattered his archers, his knights treacherously fled without a blow, and the squares of pikemen, broken by the thick flights of English arrows, were ridden down and swept away. himself was forced to flee, turning, however, it is said, and slaying with his own hand the Prior of the Templars, who pursued him too closely. His power was destroyed by this defeat, and he escaped to France, where he lay in hiding for seven years. |
The Scots now chose the Red as regent for his uncle, King John, and the war lingered on, for they did not dare meet in the field, and they were afraid to surrender after their repeated faithlessness. In , claiming to be overlord of Scotland, sent his bull to bidding him withdraw his troops from that country at once. But at the Parliament of , , the English king and his nobles wrote two letters to the Pope denying his claims and upholding 's rights. So the Scots got little help by this, and next year , their best friend, gave them up, for he had been defeated by the Flemish townsfolk of Bruges at Cambray, to the huge delight of the English merchants, who sang how there came , therefore, in , finding he had as much on his hands as he could manage, at last gave up Gascony to , promised that he would give his daughter Isabel to 's son to wife, and swore to meddle no more with the Scots if the English king would not help the Flemings. The Scottish nobles, finding that was slowly but surely winning back castle after castle, now began to give in one by one. met the king at Dunfermline, and it was agreed that none of the Scottish barons should be disinherited, but that fines should be paid to the king (as had been done in the case of the Disinherited at Kenilworth in ). After the fall of Stirling in , the whole of Scotland was at peace again, and sent back his treasury and courts from (where they had been for seven years) to Westminster, and took steps for the settlement of Scotland. A Scottish Parliament met at Perth and sent ten deputies -two bishops, two abbots, two earls, two barons, two commoners-half from the north, half from the south of Forth, to meet ten English deputies at London. This board of twenty, with the king and the judges, drew up a New Scottish Constitution. | |
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In , , who had come back to Scotland and was in hiding, holding out for a free pardon, was taken by 's sheriff, Sir John Menteith, near Glasgow:- | |
205 | was brought to London, and though he protested that he had never been the king's subject, and that what he had done had been done in fair war, was tried and condemned for murder, sacrilege, and treason, and punished as Prince David had been, August 24. His brother John soon after met the same fate. |
10. In the winter of the same year , grandson of the Claimant, left the English court and took secret counsel with the Bishops of Glasgow and St. Andrews, who like himself had sworn fealty over and over again to . [9] To further his plans he hoped to win over his cousin and the two met early in at the Greyfriars' Kirk at Dumfries. But would not agree to his wishes, saying, With that drew his sword in a rage and, leaning over the altar, struck his unarmed cousin a deadly blow, while Seton, ' brother-in-law, stabbed Robert, 's uncle. then rode into the town on 's own black charger, leaving his two kinsmen dying in the chancel. After this crime he had only two paths open, to flee the land at once or to make a bold bid for a kingdom. He chose the latter course, and was hastily crowned at Scone, March 25. was furious at the murder of , the perjury of and his abettors, and the fresh breach of the union he had worked so hard to bring about. At a great feast at London, where he knighted his son and two hundred squires with him, he took a great oath according to the wont of knights in that day, to win back Scotland and avenge the blood of or die in the quarrel. With Aymery of Valence his nephew, and Prince , who had joined in his vow, he moved north, and , as he was called in jest, was driven in deadly peril of his life a wanderer to the Western Isles. The pursuit was hot after him: his three brothers, Nigel, Alexander the Dean of Glasgow, and Thomlin; his brother-in-law Christopher Seton; and his friends Simon Fraser and the Earl of Athole, were | |
206 | taken and hanged; his wife and sister imprisoned. But though he was tracked by bloodhounds and hunted by Highlanders, Robert himself managed not only to keep out of the hands of his foes, but even to make head against them. In made up his mind to put down the rebellion at all hazards, and started with a huger host than before on a campaign which must have ended in complete success. , terrified, sent to Prince begging him to get terms for him; but the old king would not hear of anything but submission at mercy, and , despairing, resolved to hold out to the death. However, was taken ill and died at Burgh-on-Sands, by Solway Water, Friday, July 7. He sent his last wishes to his son, bidding him go on with the army, bearing his bones with him till Scotland was thoroughly subdued, ordering him to use the treasure of £32,000 to keep sevenscore knights for a crusade to the Holy Land, where he would have his heart buried, praying him to cherish his stepmother and his half-brothers, and forbidding him to recall (who had lately been banished) without leave of Parliament. All which things the Prince promised under pain of his father's curse. |
's form and looks are often spoken of by the chroniclers. He was stronger, bigger, and taller than most men, deep-chested, thin-flanked, with long limbs, which gave him great power in swordsmanship, riding, and tilting. His face was handsome and stern, only blemished by the falling eyelid which he inherited from his father; his hair was flax- fair in his childhood, dark brown in his manhood, and silver-white in his old age. He was a good and ready speaker, in spite of a slight stammer, and his voice was deep and strong. He kept his full health and strength till within a few days of his death, though his life had been rough and restless. He was as pious and duteous to his kinsfolk as his father had been, as good a knight and as quick a general as Richard Lion-heart, and as wise and hard-working a king as of Anjou. He was truthful, holding ever to his device, pitiful, boasting that no man had ever prayed him for mercy and been refused; careful of his money, his time, and his servants, and proud of his strict justice to evil-doers. He was never afraid of confessing his mistakes, and he took pains to show his people that he trusted and cared for them, and sought their love and trust in return. There are many stories that set forth his dutifulness, courage, and princely heart. How he fought Adam of Gordon, a tried and stalwart knight of Montfort's party, | |
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single-handed, overcame him, and gave him his life, after
Evesham. How he swam a river to get at and chastise an insolent groom, whom he forgave when the fellow in great terror begged pardon for his rudeness. How at Stirling, when his horse was slain by a bolt from an arblast, he turned round to hismen, who begged him to withdraw out of range of the castle, with the words, He had indeed had many narrow escapes from death. Once a huge stone fell from the roof of the room on the very place where he had just been sitting; another time the lightning struck his bedroom and killed two pages that were standing before him; a third time, his horse, frightened by the sails of a mill, leapt over the wall at Winchelsea, falling many feet down to the road beneath, which luckily happened to be a muddy one, without hurting himself or his rider. But though he believed himself to be specially guarded by God, did not give way to superstition nor let his feelings mislead his reason. When a beggar pretended that his eyes had been opened by praying at King 's tomb, he drove the man away, to his mother's displeasure, saying, Yet he held his father in deep love and respect. A knight once came to him and complained that a Jewish usurer had refused to do him justice, saying that he had leave by charter from King Henry not to appear before any judge but the king himself. Said , When the Jew heard this he at once agreed to forego King Henry's charter and do justice to his creditor. |
What 's people thought of him is shown in their deep grief for his death and the way in which they looked back to his reign as a time of peace and good laws. One song says:- And his dirge runs:-
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Footnotes: [1] King Edward's home-coming, 1272-1274. [] 1274.] [] [1276-1285] [] [1289. [] 688.] [2] The Welsh kingdoms- Cumberland, Cornwall, and Wales-688-1272. [] [840-1240.] [] [l240-1282] [3] The conquest of Wales, 1283. [4] The settlement of Wales, 1283-1301. [] [1290-1292] [5] John Balliol made King of Scots, 1292-1296. [] 1293.] [6] Scotland given up to Edward, 1296. [] [1295-1297.] [7] De Clericis Laicos, 1296; Confirmatio Cartarum Carlisle, 1307. [] [1297-1305] [8] Revolts in Scotland under Wallace and John Comyn, 1297-1304. [9] Robert Brus' revolt and Edward's death, 1306-1307. [] [1307. |