him and leave K. Iohn whereby of necessity he would be soon brought to reason and in all probability it would be a very short War Lewis readily accepted their Offer and came over upon the security of 24 of the principal Barons Sons for Hostages and being joyfully received at London by the Barons had Homage and Fealty sworn to him and he himself swore to restore them their good Laws and their lost Inheritances After which he writ to the King of Scotland to come and do him homage and to all the great Men of England to come and do the like or else immediately depart the Kingdom Upon which the Earls of Warren Arundel Salisbury King Iohn's Brother and the Earl Marshal's Son with mnay others readily obeyed this Summons and left King Iohn as did his Foreigners all but the Poitovins some of them returning home with their Spoils and the rest coming over to the Dauphin From the first arrival of Lewis K. Iohn never stood his ground and though he came with his great Army to Dover to hinder his landing yet he durst not trust that Army to engage but leaving a strong Garison in Dover Castle he took a run to Guilford and from thence to Winchester without stopping whereby he both gave Lewis a free Passage to London to join the Barons and also lost most of his new Conquests in less time than he gained them But the King of France undervalued all his Son's Successes swearing that he had not gotten one foot of ground in England till he was possessed of Dover Castle which made him undertake a vigorous tho fruitless Siege of that place where in a short time the King of Scotland came and did him Homage But while the Dauphin was engaged in that Siege there happened an Accident which altered the whole Scene of Affairs The Viscount of Melun a Nobleman of France who came over with Lewis fell very sick at London And finding himself at the point of death he sent for some of the Barons of England who were left to take care of the City to come to speak with him to whom he said I am grieved for you at the thoughts of your desolation and destruction because you are wholly ignorant of the Perils that hang over your heads for Lewis has taken an Oath and sixteen Earls and Barons of France with him That if ever he get England and be crowned King he will condemn all the Barons that are now in Arms with him against K. Iohn to perpetual Banishment as Traytors against their Soveraign Lord and will extirpate the whole Race of them out of the Land And lest you should doubt of the Truth of this I that lie here ready to die do affirm to you upon the peril of my Soul that I my self was one of those that were engaged with Lewis in this Oath Wherefore I now counsel you by all means to look carefully to your selves hereafter and to make the best use of what I have told you and to keep it under the Seal of Secrecy When this Nobleman had thus said forthwith he expired When this dying Secret came to be spread amongst the rest of the Barons they were sadly cast down finding themselves surrounded with Difficulties and perplexed on every side For as a concurrent proof of what Viscount Melun had said Lewis instead of restoring them to their Rights according to his Oath had given all the Lands and Castles of the Barons as fast as he won them to his own Frenchmen and though the Barons grumbl'd at this yet they could not prevent it But what they laid most to heart was that he had branded them as Traytors They were excommunicated every day and despoiled of all terrene Honour and driven to all extremities of Body and Soul In this miserable perplexity many of them thought of returning and reconciling themselves to K. Iohn but that the Breach was too wide They were plainly at their wits end and were willing to do any thing to be rid of this perjur'd and perfidious Foreigner who had thus ungratefully entered into a desperate Conspiracy against them During this tedious Siege of Dover Castle where Lewis and many of his Barons were sure to be detain'd K. Iohn who had been dodging up and down took this opportunity of making a terrible Inroad into the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk where he made his usual Progress Northward as if he had taken up a Resolution to live and die in his Calling For one of the last things he did before he sickned was burning to ashes all the stacks of Corn as he went along in all the Mannors of the Abbot of Croyland which were but just inned that Harvest He was first indisposed at Swinshed Abbey but his illness encreasing he could hardly reach Newark Castle and there by the advice of the Abbot Croestoun he confessed and received the Sacrament After which he appointed his eldest Son Henry his Heir and ordered the Realm to swear to him and sent his Letters under his Seal to all the Sheriffs and Castellans of the Kingdom to be attendant on him Just when he was dying there arrived Messengers from some of the Barons about forty of them with Letters to be reconciled to him but he was not in a condition to mind such Affairs In ten days time after K. Iohn's death that Party which had adhered to him with Guallo the Pope's Legate made haste to crown his Son at Glocester And because he was not yet ten years old and so noways concerned in the hated Cruelties of his Father and might be used as an expedient to drive out an already hated and insolent Foreigner he was presently accepted by the Kingdom while on the other hand upon the first knowledg of K. Iohn's death Lewis had in his own Conceit wholly subdued and swallowed up the Kingdom but he found the contrary in summoning Dover Castle upon this occasion thinking to have had the Castle for his News for he met with such a resolute Denial as he took for an Answer and broke up the Siege Afterwards he took some few places but the young King's Party still encreasing and many of the Barons by degrees falling from him and the Forces he had sent for out of France being utterly defeated at Sea and all sunk or taken and he and the Barons that were with him being closely besieged in the City of London he was forced to come to this Composition That Lewis and all his Foreigners should depart the Kingdom and that he should never lay claim to it hereafter but restore what belonged to the King in France and to have fifteen thousand Marks for his Voyage And on the other hand the King the Legate and the Great Marshal being Protector swore That they would restore to the Barons and all others of the Realm all their Rights and Inheritances with all those Liberties which they had before demanded for which the War had begun betwixt K. Iohn and the Barons This
was walled in and invironed Nor was any thing done in the Kingdom but as the Bishop of Winchester and this Rout of Poitovins ordered it The King then calls a Parliament to meet on Midsummer day at Oxford but the aforesaid associated Lords would not come at his Summons partly for fear of the lying in wait of these Foreigners and partly out of the Indignation which they conceived against the King for calling in Aliens in contempt of them Upon this it was judicially decreed that they should be summoned twice and thrice to try whether they would come or no. Here at this Assembly at Oxford Roger Bacon while he was preaching the Word of God before the King and the Bishops told him roundly That he would never enjoy any settled peace unless he removed the Bishop of Winchester and Peter Rivallis from his Councils And when others who were present protested the same thing the King began a little to recollect himself and encline to Reason and signified to the associated Barons that they should come to a Parliament Iuly 11. at Westminster and there by their advice he would rectify what was fit to be amended But when the Barons had heard that many Freebooters were called in by the King with Horses and Arms and that they had arrived by degrees and but a few at a time and could see no footsteps of Peace but likewise suspected the innate Treachery of the Poitovins they let alone going to the Parliament but they sent him word by solemn Messengers That setting aside all delay he should remove the Bishop of Winchester and all the Poitovins from his Court But in case he would not they all by the Common Council of the Kingdom would expel him and his evil Counsellors out of the Realm and proceed to the Creation of a new King The King was struck with this Message and the Court were very much concerned at it fearing lest the Error of the Son should be worse than his Father's who was very near being driven out of his Kingdom and making good the name which was given him by a kind of Presage of Iohn the Exile But Bishop Peter gave the King advice to make war upon these rebellious Subjects and to bestow their Castles and Lands upon the Poitovins who might defend the Realm of England from his Traitors bragging that he both could and would give deep and not scoundrel Counsel for time was when he had governed the Emperor's Council in the East and that his Wisdom was formidable both to the Saracens and to other Nations So the King returning again to the wrong first wreakt his Anger upon Gilbert Basset whom having seized a Mannor of his and he coming to claim his right he called Traitor and threatned if he did not get out of his Court to have him hang'd And he likewise commanded Richard Seward a warlike Knight that had married this Gilbert's Sister or Neice without his Licence as he said to be taken up And indeed being jealous of all the other noble and powerful Men of the Kingdom he required Hostages of them such and so many as might satisfy him that they would not rebel To the Parliament at Westminster Aug. 1. the Earls and Barons came armed and the Earl Marshal was on his way coming to it but going to lodg at his Sister's House who was Wife to Richard the King's Brother she advertised him of his danger and that he would be seized He being a Man of a noble Breast could not readily believe Woman's talk till she made it out and then night coming on he rid another way and never drew bit till he came well wearied into Wales There were many Earls and Barons at this Parliament but there was nothing done in it because of the absence of the Earl Marshal Gilbert Basset and some other Lords After this the King by the advice of the Bishop of Winchester gave summons to all that held of him by Knights service to be ready with their Horses and Arms at Glocester a week before Assumption day And when the Earl Marshal and many others that were associated with him would not come at that appointed time the King as if they had been Traitors caused their Houses to be set on fire their Parks and Ponds to be destroyed and their Castles to be besieged These that were said to be associated were very noble Persons and there were many others no mean Men that adhered to them All these did King Henry cause to be proclaimed Outlaws and banished Men without the Judgment of his Court and of their Peers and gave their Lands to the Poitovins thereby adding sorrow to sorrow and redoubling their Wounds He gave commandment likewise that their Bodies should be seized wherever they could be found within the Realm In the mean time Bishop Peter does what he can to weaken the Marshal's Party and corrupted the Earls of Chester and Lincoln with a thousand Marks cheap Lords to leave the Marshal and the cause of Justice and to be reconciled to the King and be of his side For as for Richard the King's Brother he was gone off from the Marshal some time before When the Marshal had heard all this he entred into a Confederacy with Lewellin Prince of Wales and other Peers of that Country who swore none of them would make Peace without the other Within a weeks time after the appointed Rendezvouz at Glocester there arrived at Dover many armed men from the parts beyond the Sea and Baldwin de Gysnes with a Force out of Flanders who came to the King at Glocester This Force with what he had before made a numerous Army with which he advanced to Hereford After this the King by the advice of Bishop Peter sends a Defiance to the Marshal by the Bishop of St. Davids and thereupon marches to make war upon him and lays siege to one of his Castles But when he had furiously assaulted it many days in vain and his Army wanted Provisions so that there was a necessity of raising the Siege the King grew ashamed of his Enterprize Whereupon he sent several Bishops to the Earl Marshal to desire him to save the King's Honour and that he might not be thought to have made a Siege to no purpose to surrender him the Castle upon these Conditions First That he would after fifteen days restore to the Earl Marshal the Castle again intire and in the same state it was And Secondly That in the mean time he would reform and amend all things that were amiss in the Kingdom by the advice of the Bishops who were his Sureties for the performance of these things And to perfect and compleat all this the King appointed the Marshal and the banished Lords to come to a Parliament which he meant to hold at Westminster the first Week after Michaelmas When the fifteen days were out from the time of the Marshals surrender of his Castle into the King's hands upon condition that after that Term he should
had not hitherto been kept And because the Aids which had been granted to the King had turned to no profit of the King or Kingdom And because of other Grievances which the King promiseth to redress the Parliament came to this Resolution That there should be a Prorogation of three weeks and that if in the mean time the King should freely chuse himself such Counsellors and order the Rights of the Kingdom as should be to their content they would then give him an Answer about the Aid In these three weeks the Lords drew up a Provision by the King's Consent to this effect Concerning the Liberties at another time bought granted and confirmed that for the time to come they be observ'd For the greater security whereof let a new Charter be made which shall make special mention of these things Let those be solemnly excommunicated by all the Prelates who wittingly oppose or hinder the observation of these Liberties and let all those have reparation made them who have suffered in their Liberties since the last Grant And because neither by virtue of an Oath then taken nor for fear of the holy Man Edmund's Excommunication what was then promised has hitherto been kept to avoid the like Peril for the future lest the latter end be worse than the beginning Let four Nobles and powerful Men of the discretest in the Realm be chosen by Assent of Parliament to be of the King's Council and to be sworn that they will order the Affairs of the King and Kingdom faithfully and do justice to all without respect of Persons These shall follow our Lord the King and if not all two at least shall be present to hear all Complaints that come and to give speedy relief to those that suffer wrong they shall supervise the King's Treasure that the Mony given for Publick Vses be so applied And they shall be Conservators of the Liberties And because the Chancellor and Iusticiar are to be frequently with the King they being chosen in Parliament may be two of the Conservators And as they are chosen by the common Assent so they shall not be removed without the same c. P. 641. And when says Matth. Paris the great Men in that Recess of three weeks had diligently treated of these matters which were so exceedingly profitable for the Commonwealth the Enemy of Mankind the Disturber of Peace and the raiser of Division the Devil thro the Pope's Avarice unhappily put a stop to the whole Business For in this nick of time comes a Legate to raise Mony with new and unheard of Powers and this put all into confusion and made work for a long time after Four years after this A. D. 1248. a Parliament meets the sennight after Candlemas at London that they might treat diligently and effectually with our Lord the King of the Affairs of the Realm which is very much disordered and empoverished and enormously maimed in our days P. 743. The Parliament understanding that the King intended to ask an Aid of Money told him that he ought to be asham'd to demand such a thing especially seeing that in the last Exaction of that kind to which the Nobles of England consented with much difficulty he gave them a Charter that he would never burden nor injure them with the like again He was likewise grievously reprehended and no wonder for calling in Aliens and foolishly squandring the Wealth of the Kingdom upon them marrying them to his Wards without their consent and several other his spendthrift and tyrannous Practices And one and all they grievously reproached him for not having as the Magnificent Kings his Predecessors had a Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer by the Common Council of the Realm and as is fit and expedient but such as follow his will let it be what it will so long as it is for their own Gain and who do not seek the good of the Commonwealth but their own particular profit by gathering Mony and getting the Wards and Revenues to themselves in the first place When our Lord the King heard this being confounded within himself he blush'd knowing that all these things were very true He therefore promised most faithfully that he would readily redress all these things hoping by this humility tho it were feigned to encline all their Hearts to grant him an Aid To whom the whole Parliament which had been often answered with such Promises upon advice made answer That will soon be seen whether the King will reform these things or no and will manifestly appear in a short time We will wait a while with patience and as the King shall carry and behave himself towards us so he shall have us obedient to him in all things Therefore all was adjourned and respited to a fortnight after Midsummer But in the mean time our Lord the King whether it proceeded from his own Spirit or that of his Courtiers who were unwilling to lose any thing of their Power was hardned and more exasperated and never minded to make the least reformation of those Abuses according to his Promise When the day appointed came the Parliament came again to London with a full belief and trust in the King 's firm Promise that leaving his former Errors by the Grace of God bestowed upon him he would encline to more wholesom Advice As soon as they were assembled there came this unhandsom Answer from the King Illepidum responsum All you the Principal Men of England you had a mind to bring the Lord your King to the bent of your uncivil will and pleasure and to impose a very servile Condition upon him That what every one of you may do at pleasure should impudently be denied to him for it is lawful for every body to use whose and what Counsel he will And so it is lawful for every Master of a Family to prefer any one of his House to this or that Office or put him by it or turn him out which you rashly presume to deny even to your Lord the King And this Presumption is still the greater seeing Servants ought by no means to judg their Master nor tie him to their Conditions nor Vassals to do the like by their Prince but all Inferiours whatsoever are to be ordered and directed by the will and pleasure of the Lord and Master For the Servant is not above his Lord as neither the Disciple above his Master and truly he should not be your King but may pass for your Servant if he should thus be brought to your will Wherefore neither will he remove nor Chancellor nor Iusticiar nor Treasurer as you have propounded to order the matter neither will he put any other in their room After the same fashion says M. Paris there was a cavilling Answer to the other wholesom Articles which were sufficiently for the King's Interest But he asks of you an Aid of Mony to recover his Rights in the parts beyond the Seas wherein you your selves are alike concerned
Winchester to restore the good Laws of K. Edward and cause them to be observed by all the Realm And now says he there is likewise found a certain Charter of H. 1 King of England by which if you please you may be able to restore your long lost Liberties to their former state and condition and producing the Charter he caused it to be read all over in their hearing Which the Lords having heard and understood were overjoy'd and swore in the presence of the Archbishop That when they saw it convenient for these Liberties if need were they would spend their Lives The Archbishop for his part promised them his most faithful aid and assistance to the utmost of his power and after this Association was thus entred into the Parliament broke up There had past but 113 years since the Grant of H. 1. Charter and though there were then made as many Charters as there were Shires directed to the Sheriff of every County to proclaim them for this is directed to Hugh de Bocland Sheriff of Herefordshire and by the King 's express Order were to be laid up in the Abbys of the several Counties for a Monument yet because the thing was beyond the memory of Man and that Age not very conversant with Book-learning or Records it seems not to be known to them and the Archbishop says Inventa est quoque nunc Charta quaedam H. 1. But when the Lords had once seen it they were so fond of it that they got it away from the Archbishop and the next year about Michaelmas when the King was returning out of France the Earls and Barons met at St. Edmondsbury it might be thought for Devotion but it was to consult about their Liberties and there the Charter of H. 1. which contained their Laws and Liberties was again produced and treated of amongst them After which they all went to the High Altar and there swore in order beginning at the Greatest That if the King should refuse to confirm by his Charter the said Laws and Liberties being the Rights of the Kingdom they would make War upon him till he did And likewise at last by common consent they came to this Resolution That they would all go together to the King after Christmas and desire him to confirm the said Liberties And in the mean time that they would make such provision of Horses and Arms that in case the King should start from his late Oath wherein he promised it which they had too much reason to believe because of his doubleness they might then compel him to performance by seizing his Castles Accordingly after Christmas they came to the King in a gay military Habit and desired the Confirmation of their antient Liberties as they were contained in writing in the Charter H. 1. and the Laws of K. Edward They affirmed likewise that by his Oath at Winchester he had promised those Laws and Liberties and that he was already bound to keep them by his own Oath The King seeing the Constancy and Resolution of the Barons in their Demand did not think fit to deny them but desired respite and time to consider of it being a weighty business till after Easter and after several Proposals on both sides the King very unwillingly set a day and the Archbishop Bishop of Ely and Lord Marshal were his Sureties that then they should all of them have satisfaction given them in reason Upon this the Lords went home But the King in the mean time by way of precaution caused all the whole Realm to swear fealty to him alone against all Men and to renew their Homages And as a farther Security and Protection more than out of Devotion at Candlemas following he took upon him the Cross. In Easter-week the forementioned Lords met at Stanford who now had drawn together in favour of them almost all the Nobility and principal Gentry of England So that they amounted to a numerous Army and the sooner because K. Iohn had rendered himself universally hated In this Retinue were 2000 Knights besides all others of lower rank Horse and Foot diversly armed The King was then at Oxford expecting the coming of the Parliament On the Monday following these associated Barons came to Brackley which when the King understood he sent to them the Arch-Bishop the Lord Marshal E. of Pembroke and several other sage Persons to know what were the Laws and Liberties they required which they presently delivered in a Schedule to those that came from the King affirming that if he would not forthwith confirm them under his Seal they would compel him by seizing his Castles Lands and Possessions till he gave them competent satisfaction in the Premises Then the Arch-Bishop with the rest of his Company carrying this Schedule to the King rehearsed all the Chapters or Heads of it before him memoritè But when the King understood the Purport of it he laugh'd and said with the utmost Indignation and Scorn And why do not the Barons together with these unjust Demands demand my Kingdom The things they ask said he are idle and superstitious and not supported by any tittle or pretence of Reason And at length in a great rage he affirm'd with an Oath That he would never grant them such Liberties whereby he himself should be made a Servant When therefore the Arch-Bishop and Earl of Pembroke could in no wise gain the King's Consent to these Liberties by his command they returned to the Barons and there reported just what the King had said in order Whereupon the Barons presently chose them a General and flew to their Arms and marcht directly to Northampton to seize that Castle But having spent 15 days in that fruitless Attempt having no Petards nor other warlike Instruments to carry on a Siege somewhat abashed with this Disappointment they marcht to Bedford where they were kindly received and by Messengers sent to them from the principal Citizens were invited to London When they were come thither they sent Letters to all the Earls Barons and Knights that as yet seemed to adhere to the King tho it were but feignedly That as they tender'd their Estates they should leave a perjur'd King and come and join them and effectually engage with them for the Liberties and Peace of the Realm otherwise they threatned to treat them as publick Enemies Upon which most of the Lords who had not as yet sworn to the said Liberties wholly leaving the King came to London and there associated with the Barons King Iohn seeing himself thus generally forsaken so that he had hardly seven Knights remaining with him and fearing lest the Barons should insult his Camp which they might easily have done without opposition he betook himself to fraud and dissembling pretending Peace when he had immortal War in his Heart resolving hereafter to oppress the Barons singly whom he could not all at once He therefore sends to them the E. of Pembroke and other Persons of Credit with this Message That for the Benefit
Composition was made by both Parties in an Island in the Thames near the Town of Stains Septemb. 11. A. D. 1217. So that within two years and three months time M. Charta was granted and destroyed and damnd by the Pope and revived and renewed again by fresh Oaths and even of the Pope's Legate I shall very briefly shew what fate it had in H. 3. time for I do not remember any fighting about the Confirmation of it in any succeeding Reign wherein I shall only recite the matter of Fact reserving the matter of Right till anon In the fifth year of his Reign he was crowned again at Westminster and three years after which was the eighteenth of his age at a Parliament at London he was desired by the Archbishop and the other Lords to confirm the Liberties and free Customs for which the War was first moved against his Father And as the Archbishop evidently shew'd the King could not decline the doing of it because upon the departure of Lewis out of England he himself had sworn and all the Nobility of the Realm with him that they would observe all the said Liberties and have all others observe them Upon which William Brewer who was one of the P. Council made answer in behalf of the King saying The Liberties you desire ought not in justice to be observed because they were extorted by violence Which Speech the Archbishop taking very ill rebuked him saying William quoth he if you loved the King you would not be a hindrance to the Peace of the Kingdom But the King seeing the Archbishop going to be very angry said We have all of us sworn to these Liberties and we are all bound to observe what we have sworn And forthwith taking advice upon it sent his Letters to the Sheriffs of every County to cause twelve Knights or Legal Men to make an Inquisition upon Oath what were the Liberties of England in the time of K. Henry his Grandfather and to make him a return of it by a certain day This vowing and afterwards making inquiry was ill resented and was one of the false Shifts which were so peculiar to that Prince The motion of the Archbishop was so manifestly necessary for the settling the young King in his Throne that our Historian Daniel says it was impiously oppugned by William Brewer Dan. p. 151. and indeed the reflections he makes on the whole passage are very remarkable from the Pen of a Courtier I only observe that William Brewer was the fittest Interpreter of an Arbitrary Prince's mind for he was an old arbitrary Instrument and one of K. Iohn's Generals in his barbarous Invasion and tho he himself had since sworn to M. Charta that made no matter for such false Changes and Conversions always turn Cat again as soon as they find Game and spy a Mouse The next year the King being declared by the Pope's Bull of full age and Lewis being now King of France and keeping possession of all the King's Dominions beyond the Seas at a Parliament at Westminster he desired a Fifteenth for the recovery of them And tho many of the Earls and Barons had thereby lost their Inheritances as well as the King yet the whole Assembly agreed in this Answer That they would freely grant the King what he desired but upon condition if he would grant them their long desired Liberties The King out of covetousness of this Aid has Charters presently written and sealed and sent to all the Counties and an Oath in writing for all Men to swear to them while Richard the King's Brother because they had hitherto been ill kept cried out they were cozening Charters Matt. Paris says he therefore forbears to recite the Tenor of these Charters because he had done it before in K. Iohn's Reign for the Charters of both Kings were alike In nullo inveniuntur dissimiles Two years the Land rested injoying their Liberties which were punctually kept till the King at a Parliament at Oxford declared himself to be of full age and took that occasion to have a new Seal and to cancel the Charter of the Forests as granted in his Minority and to cause all that would enjoy the benefit of that Charter to take out particular Charters under his new Seal for which they paid exorbitant Fines such as his Chief Justiciar pleased Upon this and a great Oppression of his Brother Richard soon after the Earls and Barons were up in Arms and had drawn together a great Body of Men at Stanford from whence they send him a Message in very big words Nimis ampullosis That he forthwith make amends to his Brother for the Injury done him the fault of which they lay upon the Justiciar and that he should immediately restore the Charters of the Forest which he had cancel'd at Oxford and send them to them sealed grievously denouncing That otherwise they would compel him with their Swords Whereupon he called a Parliament to Northampton and gave them full satisfaction to their Demands Six years after the Barons had an outragious Violation of M. Charta to complain of and an intolerable Grievance to the Nation For the King had not only filled the Offices of his Court with Poitovins to the great Oppression of his natural Subjects but also had invited in two thousand Poitovins and Brittons with which he garisoned his Castles Upon this Earl Richard the Marshal of the Kingdom taking several of the Lords along with him went boldly to the King and openly reproved him that because by evil Counsel he had called in Poitovin Foreigners to the Oppression of his Realm and natural born Subjects of the Realm of their Laws likewise and Liberties wherefore he humbly besought the King that he would speedily reform such Abuses as these which were the imminent destruction of his Crown and Realm Moreover he affirmed that if the King refused to amend this Proceeding both he and the rest of the Noblemen of the Kingdom would so long continue to withdraw themselves from his Councils as he consorted with Foreigners To this Peter Bishop of Winchester who was prime Minister made answer That it was very lawful for our Lord the King to call in what Foreigners he pleased for the defence of his Kingdom and Crown and even such and so many as might be able to compel his proud and rebellious Subjects to their Duty The Earl Marshal and the Lords went away very much dissatisfied with this Answer and promised to one another that in this Cause which concerned the whole Nation they would manfully fight it out to the separation of their Souls from their Bodies In the mean while the Bishop of Winchester and his Accomplices had so far perverted the King's heart to hate and despise the English Nation that he studied the extirpation of them all manner of ways and by a few at a time invited over so many Legions of Poitovins that they almost filled all England with Troops of which wherever the King went he still
Counsellors and their Abettors and to the utmost of their Power remove them from the King Which when the King understood he betook himself with his Counsellors into the Tower his Son and the great Men abiding still without The next Christmas we find him still in the Tower with the Queen and his Counsellors that were neither profitable to him nor faithful Which Counsellors fearing to be assaulted got a Guard and kept close in the Tower At length by the Queen's means with much ado P. 991. some of the great Men were reconciled and made Friends with them When this was done the King ventured himself out of the Tower leaving the Command of it to Iohn Mansell his principal Counsellor and the richest Clergy-man in the World and went down to Dover where he entered the Castle which was neither offered him nor denied him And there the King found how he had been imposed upon when he saw a Castle so carefully guarded by a Guard of the Barons ly open to him When he went away he committed the Charge of that Castle to E. de Waleram He went likewise to Rochester Castle and several others and found Ingress and Regress at his Pleasure It is plain they only kept them for the King At that time the King thinking himself secure resolved openly to depart from his Oath of which the Pope had given him a Release He went therefore round about to several Cities and Castles resolving to take them and the whole Kingdom into his hands being encouraged and animated thereto because the King of France together with his Great Men had lately promised to assist him with a great Force Coming therefore to Winchester he turned his Justiciar and Chancellor that were lately instituted by the Parliament out of their Offices and created beneplacito new ones Which when the Barons heard they hastened with a great Power towards Winchester of which Iohn Mansell having timely notice went privately down to the King and sufficiently inform'd him of his Danger and fetcht him hastily back again to the Tower of London There the King kept his next Christmas with the Queen and his Counsellors A. D. 1263. R. 47. At which time it was greatly laboured both by the Bishops of England and the Prelates of France to make peace betwixt the King and his Barons and it came to this issue That the King and the Peers should submit themselves to the determination of the King of France both as to the Provisions of Oxford and the Spoils and Damages which had been done on both sides Accordingly the King of France calls a Parliament at Amiens and there solemnly gives sentence for the King of England against the Barons P. 992. Whereby the Statutes of Oxford Provisions Ordinances and Obligations were wholly annull'd with this Exception That by that Sentence he did in no wise intend to derogate at all from the antient Charter of John King of England which he granted to his Parliament or whole Realm Universitati concessae Which very Exception compelled the Earl of Leicester and all that had their Senses exercised to continue in their Resolution of holding firmly the Statutes of Oxford for they were founded upon that Charter Presently after this they all came home that had been present at the French Parliament the King of England the Queen Boniface Arch-bishop of Canterbury Peter of Hereford and Iohn Mansell who ceased not plotting and devising all the mischief they could against the Barons From that time things grew worse and worse for many great Men left the Earl of Leicester and his righteous Cause and went off perjur'd Henry Son to the King of the Romans having received the Honour of Tickhel which was given him by the Prince came to the Earl and said My Lord Earl I cannot any longer be engaged against my Father King of Germany my Uncle King of England and my other Relations and therefore with your good leave and licence I mean to depart but I will never bear Arms against you To whom the Earl chearfully replied Lord Henry I am not at all troubled about your Arms but for the Inconstancy which I see in you Therefore pray go with your Arms and if you please come back with your Arms for I fear them not At that time Roger de Clyfford Roger de Leibern Iohn de Vallibus Hamon le Estrange and many others being blinded with Gifts went off from their Fidelity which they had sworn to the Barons for the common good In commune If M. Paris had been alive he would have told us a piece of his mind concerning this false step of the Barons in putting their Coat to arbitration and submitting the English Laws to the determination of an incompetent Foreigner But we lost his noble Pen A. D. 1259. that is about 4 Years ago presently after the establishment of the Provisions at Oxford So that what has since follow'd is taken out of the Continuator of his History who out of Modesty has forborn to set his name as being unworthy as he says to unloose the Latchet of that venerable Man's Shoo. But we are told that it was William Rishanger who succeeded Mat. Paris in the same Imployment and prosecuted the History to the end of H. 3. I know not by what misfortune we have lost his Provisions of Oxford which p. 975. he says are written in his Additamenta for certain it was by no neglect or omission of his because he died with them upon his Heart For the last Passage but one that he wrote was the Death of Fulk Basset Bishop of London whom we saw above he taxed formerly upon the same account who says he was a noble Person and of great Generosity and if he had not a little before stagger'd in their common Provision he had been the Anchor and Shield of the whole Realm and both their Stay and Defence It seems his faultring in that main Affair was what Matthew could never forgive him alive nor dead And indeed this could not but come unexpectedly from such a Man who had been always firm and honest to that degree as to tell the King when he arbitrarily threatned him for some incompliance of his to turn him out of his Bishoprick Sir says he when you take away my Mitre I shall put on a Headpiece And therefore the Annals of Burton are a very valuable piece of Antiquity because they have supplied that defect and have given us both a Latin and French Copy of those Provisions It would be too large as well as beside my purpose to set them down In short whereas by M. Charta in K. Iohn's time there were 25 Barons whereof the Lord Mayor of London was one appointed to be Conservators of the Contents of that Charter with full power to distress the King in case Grievances upon notice given were not redressed within 40 days On the other hand in this Provision of Oxford which seems to be the easier as much as
his Heir and gave him and his Heirs the Realm of England Bromton Col. 1â—38 Comites etiam Barones mei Ligium Homagium Duci fecerunt salva mea fidelitate quamdiu vixero regnum tenuero simili lege quod si ego a praedictis recederem omnino a servitio meo cessarent quousque errata corrigerem Their Duty to him ceas'd 'till he mended his Fault and returned again to keep his Covenant Quousque Errata corrigat ad praedictam pactionem observandam redeat Col. 1â—39 Paulo infra There is no need of these words at length at the end of every Charter or Petition of Right in case it be broken which we find in the close of Hen. III's Charter In Archiv London Anno Regni 42. Liceat omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos insurgere ad gravamen nostrum opem operam dare ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur All the men in our Realm may lawfully rise up against us and annoy us with might and main as if they were under no Obligation to us Because in the Polish Coronation Oath which likewise is in words at length we have a plain Hint why they had better be omitted an supprest Quod si sacramentum meum violavero quod absit Incolae hujus Regni nullam nobis obedientiam praestare tenebuntur And in case I break my Oath which God forbid the Inhabitants of this Realm shall not be bound to yield me any Obedience Now this God forbid and the harsh Supposition of breaking an Oath at the very making of it is better omitted when it is for every bodies ease rather to suppose that it will be faithfully kept especially seeing that in case it be unhappily broken the very natural Force and Virtue of a Contract does of it self supply that Omission Neither is it practised in Articles of Agreement and Covenants under Hand and Seal betwixt Man and Man to make a special provision that upon breach of Covenants they shall sue one another either at Common Law or in Chancery because this implies that one of them shall prove a Knave and dishonest but when that comes to pass I am sure Westminster Hall cannot hold them In like manner the Barons after they had born with K. Iohn's Breach of Covenant very much too long swore at last at the High Altar at St. Edmondsbury M. Paris p. 253. That if he refused them their Liberties they would make War upon him so long as to withdraw themselves from their Fidelity to him till such time as he confirm'd their Laws and Liberties by his Charter And afterwards at the Demand of them they say that which is a very good Reason for their Resolve That he had promised them those Antient Laws and Liberties and was already bound to the observation of them by his own proper Oath So that the Pope was quite out when he says the Barons set at nought and broke their Oath of Fidelity to K. Iohn for they only helped him to keep his The next thing objected against the Barons is this That they who were Vassals presumed to raise Arms against their Lord and Knights against their King which they ought not to have done altho he had unjustly oppressed them And that they made themselves both Iudges and Executors in their own Cause All which is very easily answered For 1. It was always lawful for Vassals to make War upon their Lords if they had just Cause So our Kings did perpetually upon the Kings of France to whom they were Vassals all the while they held their Territories in that Kingdom And by the Law of England an inferiour Vassal might fight his Lord in a weighty Cause even in Duell The Pope seems here willing to depress the Barons with low Titles that he may the better set off the Presumption of their Proceedings but before I have ended I shall shew what Vassals the Barons were I should be loath to say that the Kings of England were not all along as good Men as their Lords of France or that the Barons of England were not good enough to assert their Rights against any body but this I do say that it was always lawful for Vassals to right themselves even while they were Vassals and without throwing up their Homage and Fealty For that was never done till they declared themselves irreconcileable Enemies and were upon terms of Defiance Thus the Kings of England always made War in defence of their Rights without throwing up their Homage and Fealty till that last bitter enraged War of Hen. 2. wherein he had that ill success as broke his Heart and forced him to a dishonourable Peace the Conclusion of which he outliv'd but three days Amongst other things he did homage to the King of France because in the beginning of this War he had rendred up his Homage to him M. Paris takes notice of it as an extraordinary thing and I do not remember it done before Quia in principio hujus guerrae homagium reddiderat Regi Franciae p. 151. The same was practised by H. 3. toward that Great Man Richard the Marshal he sent him a Defiance by the Bishop of St. David's into Wales Upon which the Marshal tells Friar Agnellus the King's Counsellor in that long Conference before mentioned Vnde homo suus non fui sed ab ipsius Homagio per ipsum absolutus This was reciprocal from the Lord to the Vassal or from the Vassal to the Lord as he found cause And therefore King Iohn's Vassals who are here represented as if they were food for Tyranny and bound by their places to be unjustly oppressed for so the Pope allows the case I say these Vassals if they had been so minded instead of being contented with a Charter at Running-Mead might soon have been quite off of K. Iohn by resigning their Homage to him This K. Edw. the Second's Vassals did in manner and form by the Mouth of William Trussel a Judg in these words Knyghton col 2549. Ego Willielmus Trussel vice omnium de terrâ Angliae totius Parliamenti procurator tibi Edwarde reddo Homagium prius tibi factum extunc diffido te privo omni potestate regiâ dignitate nequaquam tibi de caetero tanquam Regi pariturus I William Trussel in the name of all men of the Land of England and of the whole Parliament Procurator resign to thee Edward the Homage formerly made to thee and henceforward I defy thee and prive thee of all Royal Power and Dignity and shall never hereafter be tendant on thee as King This was the standing Law long before the time of K. Iohn's Barons for the Parliament in the 10 th of Rich. 2. send the King a solemn Message that * Knyghton col 2683. Habent enim ex Antiquo statuto de facto non longe retroactis temporibus experienter quod dolendum est habito si Rex ex maligno consilio quocunque
Realm and not the Realm for the King And I can shew a hundred places in Antiquity where the Body of this Nation is called a Republick as for instance where Bracton says Laws are made communi reipublicae sponsione tho I confess in relation to a King it oftner goes by the prouder name of Realm But this Constitution of State and Regal Government which is the Constitution of England cannot be so well understood by any other one Book as by my Lord Chancellour Fortescue's which was a Book writ for the Nonce and to instruct the Prince into what sort of Government he was like to succeed As directly opposite to this Government he has painted the French Government Fortescue p. 79. made up of Men at Arms and Edicts The Prince in the conclusion of it P. 130. does not doubt but this Discourse of the Chancellor's will be profitable to the Kings of England which hereafter shall be and I am satisfied that no wise King after he has read that little Book would change Governments with the Grand Seignior And as the Prince has recommended the usefulness of this Discourse to all future Kings so I heartily recommend it to the careful perusal of all Englishmen who having seen a Succession of bad Reigns think there is somewhat in the Mill and that the English Form of Government is amiss whereas the Fault lies only in the Male administration or if there should happen to be any flaw or defect in any of the occasional Laws it may easily and ought to be rectified every Parliament that sits down as the Book says P. 129. I never heard of any that disliked the English Government but some of the Princes Progenitours Kings of England who thinking themselves shackled and manacled by the English Laws endeavoured to throw off this State Yoke P. 78. Moliti sunt hoc jugum politicum abjicere that they might rule or rather rage over their Subjects in Regal wise only not considering that to govern the People by the Laws of the State is not a Yoke but Liberty and the greatest Security not only to the Subject but to the King himself and in great measure ridds him of Care But the same Author p. 88. tells us the Success of his Attempt Qui sic politicum regimen abjicere satagerunt these Progenitours of the Prince who thus endeavoured with might and main to be rid of this State Government not only could not compass that larger Power which they grasp'd at but risqu'd both themselves and their Kingdom As we our selves have likewise seen in the late K. Iames. Or on the other side perhaps it is disliked by some who have seen no other effects of it but what have proceeded from the Scotch King-Craft which is worse than no Government at all and have imputed those Corruptions and Disorders to the English Frame of Government or at least think that it has no Remedy provided against them and so have fallen into the waking Dreams of Oceana's and I know not what for want of understanding the True of the English Government But I can assure these Persons that upon further search they will find it quite otherwise and that the English Frame of Government cannot be mended and the old Land-marks better plac'd than we could have laid them with our own hands and withal that all new Projects come a Thousand Years too late For England has been so long conformed to its own Laws and its Laws to it that we are all of a piece and both in point of Gratitude to our Ancestors who have spent their Lives to transmit them to us and out of love to Posterity to convey them a thing more valuable than their Lives we cannot think much at any time to venture our own I am clearly of Sir Rob. Phillips's mind in the Parliament 4 to Caroli Nothing so endangers us with his Majesty as that Opinion that we are Antimonarchically affected whereas such is and ever hath been our Loyalty if we were to chuse a Government we should Chuse this Monarchy of England above all Governments in the World Which we lately have Actually done when no body could Claim it for they could only Claim under a Forfeited Title and at a time when too much occasion had been given to the whole Nation to be out of conceit with Kings As for the remaining part of the Pope's Trash it is not worth answering That the Barons reduced K. John to those streights that what they dared to ask he dared not to deny For they asked him nothing but their Own which he ought not to have denied them nor have put them to the trouble of coming so hardly by it Nor was the Granting of Magna Charta a foul and dishonourable Composition but Just and Honourable and therefore Honourable because it was Just. As for the Compulsion there was in it a man that must be made to be honest cannot complain of that himself nor any body for him In this whole Affair the Pope's Apostolical Authority went farther than his Arguments It is the lasting Honour of Magna Charta and the Barons that they were run down by a Pope and a General Council which were the first that established Transubstantiation Lateran sub Innocent 3. and the deposing of Kings for Heresy either their own or even that of their Subjects if they suffered them in their Dominions in which case the Pope was to absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance to set up a Crusado against them and to dispose of their Kingdoms to Catholick Free-booters This was a powerful transforming Metamorphosing Council but they that could turn a bit of Bread into a God might more easily turn better Christians than themselves into Saracens I take the Decrees of that General Council to be a standing Declaration of War yea a Holy War against all Protestant Princes and States to the end of the World whereby all Papists are the publick and declared Enemies of that part of Mankind whom they have been pleased to call Hereticks for it is the established Doctrine of their Church Having disprov'd Laud's first Charge against M. Charta That it had an obscure Birth as if it had been base born illegitimate or upstart I proceed to the second That it was foster'd by an Ill Nurse In answer to which it would be sufficient to say that it was fostered by a Succession of Kings and above thirty Parliaments and if that be an ill Nurse let all the World find a better But I shall be somewhat more particular and shew what great care was taken of it in After Ages In Edw. 1. time after it had been continued three times ordered to be twice a year read in Churches was sealed with the Bishops and Barons Seals as well as the King 's own and sworn to by the Barons and others * Knyghton Col. 2523. Et ad ejus observationem consilium sinum auxilium fidele praestabunt in perpetuum