been drawn Swords to their known Den at London This scoffing Reason is all that M. Paris will give for their shameful Retreat and deserting their Companions but no doubt it was some panick Fright from the Reports of the Country concerning the Numbers and Conditions of the King's Army for he himself elsewhere tells us That they were such as struck a Terror into every body that beheld them This piece of Cowardice makes the King insult and push on the Siege with the greater fury which only lost him the more men for they defended themselves to a miracle and lost but one Knight during the whole Siege But at last their Provision failing them when they had not one Morsel left on St. Andrew's day they all went out and surrendred themselves to mercy The King immediately ordered them Barons and all to be hang'd up But in this Savaricus de Malloleone who was himself a Nobleman withstood him to the face and told him that as yet it was but a young War and no body knew what the Chances of it might be It might be his hap or any Noblemans else to fall into the hands of the Barons who would be taught by this example of his how to use them and that no body would serve him upon those Terms With much ado the King yielded to his Advice tho it was likewise the opinion of all the wisest about him and so he sent William Albinet and many others to be kept close Prisoners in Corf Castle others to Nottingham and other Prisons but gratify'd his Cruelty in hanging up their Servants One day during this Siege the King and Savaric were viewing the Castle to discover where it was weakest The best Marksman that William Albinet had knew him and said My Lord may it please you shall I now kill the King our bloody Enemy with this Dart which I have here ready No no says he you wicked Gluutton God forbid that we should procure the Death of the Lord 's Anointed Says the other If it were your case he would not spare you says William God's Will be done God shall dispose of that not he Herein says M. Paris he was like David sparing Saul when he could have killed him This Passage was not unknown to the King and yet for all that he would not spare him when he was his Captive but would have hang'd him if he had been suffer'd to do it After the Siege of Rochester Castle where the Flower of the Barons was lost King Iohn notwithstanding did not think fit to attempt London where tho the Barons did not judg themselves able to take the field yet were desperately resolved to live and die together but he march'd to St. Albans and the 20 th of December divided his Army into two one of which he himself led to lay waste with Fire and Sword Northwards the other he left to do as much for all the neighbouring Counties about London and to be sure to keep that place blockt up He with his Army lay the first night at Dunstaple but after a little rest he was so intent upon his business that before day he march'd towards Northampton and carried such a Christmas into those parts as they had never seen For besides his plundering and destroying all the Houses Parks and Possessions of the Barons his manner was still as he went along to order his Incendiaries to fire the Hedges and Villages which could not be turn'd into Plunder That he might refresh his sight with the Damages of his Enemies M. Paris recals that word if says he they are to be called his Enemies who were only willing to introduce him into the way of Iustice and Humanity They were indeed his best friends in it but they paid very dear for that good Office For before this the spiritual Sword likewise came brandishing out against them and they were run through and through with the Pope's Excommunications He first issued out a general Excommunication against them which they did not mind nor think themselves concerned as being not named in it nor indeed described For they were none of the disturbers of the Peace that were there mentioned who turned the Kingdom upside down and were worse than the Saracens for endeavouring to expel their Cross-bearing King from his Realm which they had never attempted nor intended who as he had engaged himself so it was to be hoped he would accordingly go and succour the Holy Land And therefore the Pope was forced to curse them over again by Name and reciting some of the principal of them he involved all their Partakers and Adherents in the same Condemnation and to make sure work he laid the City of London under an Interdict As for their poor Charter that was very short-liv'd for it bears date the 15 th of Iune and was made void and disannul'd by the Pope the Bartholomew-day following The Barons indeed despised all these swaggering Proceedings of the Pope against them as knowing that the causeless Curse will never come and alledging that it was all upon false suggestions and that he usurped an Authority in Matters which did not lye before him For who made him a Iudg or Divider of Inheritances A Power which St. Peter never had and which his humble Master declined when it was offered him But tho this Pontifical Ware was regarded at London as it deserved where the Prelates likewise did not think fit to publish it yet in that superstitious Age it could not fail to influence weak Minds when all the Subjects of England were enjoined to be aiding to K. Iohn against the Barons for the Remission of their Sins For who that had a Soul to save would not kill a Baron if he could It was K. Iohn's holy War And it must needs strangely heighten and animate his insolent Crew to see themselves thus backt with Divine Authority and would make them play the Devil a God's name Thus the Sword helpt the Sword and the spiritual one whetted and set an Edg upon the material It was the misery of the Barons to have their Country over-run in this manner and not be in a condition to help it As for their own losses they did not mind them When Messengers came thick with bad Tidings that their Castles and Possessions were gon and destroyed they only look'd upon one another and said The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away When they heard how their Wives and Daughters were abused they vented themselves by inveighing bitterly against the Pope and his most dearly beloved Son in Christ John But when they thought of England England then they lamented indeed and laid the ruin of it deeply to heart And resolving to have done with such a barbarous Tyrant and to choose a new King after some debate they unanimously agreed upon Lewis the Dauphin of France Their main Reason was because the most of K. Iohn's Army being Subjects of France upon the first appearance of Lewis they would be apt to join
Writer's Pen So that it is not to be expected we shall hear any more of the Welsh And yet the same Summer when they baffled the King's Expedition against them he rejoices that their Martial Business prospered in their hands For he says that their Cause seemed to be a just Cause even to their Enemies And that which heartned them most was this that they were resolutely fighting for their antient Laws and Liberties like the Trojans from whom they were descended and with an original Constancy P. 952. Wo to the wretched English that are trampled upon by every Foreigner and suffer their antient Liberties of the Realm to be pufft out and extinguished and are not ashamed of this when they are taught better by the Example of the Welsh O England thou art justly reputed the Bondwoman of other Countries and beneath them all What thy Natives earn hardly Aliens snatch away and carry off It is impossible for an honest Man ever to hate his Country but if it will suffer it self to be oppressed it justly becomes at once both the pity and scorn of every understanding Man and of them chiefly that love it best But as we cannot hate our Country so for the same reason we cannot but hate such a Generation of Men as for their own little ends are willing to enslave it to all posterity wherein they are worse than Esau for he only sold his own Birthright for a mess of Pottage but not other Folk's too In the year 1258 a Parliament was called to London the day after Hoke Tuesday for great and weighty Affairs for the King had engaged and entangled himself in great and amazing Debts to the Pope about the Kingdom of Apulia and he was likewise sick of his Welsh War But when the King was very urgent for an Aid of Mony the Parliament resolutely and unanimously answered him That they neither would nor could bear such Extortions any longer Hereupon he betakes himself to his shifts to draw in the rich Abbys to be bound for him for Sums of Mony but though it was well managed he failed in it And that Parliament was prolonged and spent in Altercations between the King and the great Men till the week after Ascension day For the Complaints against the King were so multiplied daily and the Grievances were so many by the breach of M. Charta and the Insolence of the Foreigners P. 968. that M. Paris says it would require special Treatises to reckon up the King's Miscarriages And the King being reproved for them and being convinced of the justness of the Reproof bethought and humbled himself tho it were late first and said That he had been too often bewitcht by wicked Counsel but he promised which he likewise confirmed by an Oath taken upon the Altar and Shrine of St. Edward That he would plainly and punctually correct his former Errors and graciously comply with his natural born Subjects But his former frequent breach of Oath rendered him incredible and neither fit to be believed nor trusted And because the great Men knew not as yet how to hold fast their Proteus which was a hard and difficult business to do the Parliament was put off to Barnaby day to be held without fail at Oxford In the mean time the chief Men of England namely the Earls of Glocester Leicester and Hereford the Earl Marshal and other eminent Men out of a provident Precaution for themselves associated and because they were vehemently afraid of the Treachery of the Foreigners and much suspected the little Plots of the King they came armed and with a good Retinue to Oxford There the great Men in the very beginning of the Parliament confirmed their former Purpose and immutable Resolution to have the Charter of the Liberties of England faithfully kept and observed P 970. which the King had often granted and sworn and had caused all the Bishops of England to excommunicate in a horrible manner all the Breakers of it and he himself was one of the Excommunicators They demanded likewise to have a Justiciar that should do equal Justice and some other publick things which were for the common Profit of the King and Realm and tended to the Peace and Honour of them both And they frequently and urgently asked and advised the King to follow their Counsels and the necessary Provisions they had drawn up swearing with pledging their Faiths and giving one another their hands That they would not cease to pursue what they had propounded for the loss either of Mony or Lands or for the Life or Death of Themselves or Theirs Which when the King understood he solemnly swore That he would comply with their Counsels and agree to them And Prince Edward took the same Oath But Iohn Earl of Warren was refractory and refused it and the King 's half Brothers William of Valence and others Then the Sea-ports were order'd to be strictly guarded and the Gates of London to be close kept anights for fear the Foreigners should surprize it And when they had spent some days in deliberating what was to be done in so weighty an Affair as repairing the State of a broken shattered Kingdom was they confirmed their purpose with renewing their Covenants and Oaths That neither for Death nor Life nor Free-hold for Hatred or Affection or any other way they would be biass'd or slackned from purging the Realm of which they and their Progenitors before them were the native Offspring and clearing it of an Alien-born Brood nor from the procuring and obtaining good and commendable Laws And if any man whoever he be should be refractory and oppose this they would compel him to join with them whether he would or no. And tho the King and Prince Edward had both sworn before yet Prince Edward as he could refused this Oath and so did Iohn Earl of Warren But Henry Son to Richard King of the Romans was doubtful and unresolved saying That he could not take such an Oath unless it were with his Father's Leave and Advice To whom the Barons publickly made answer That if his Father himself would not agree to it he should not hold one Furrow of Land in England The Kings half Brothers were very positive and swore bloodily that they would never part with any of the Castles Revenues and Wards which their Brother had freely given them as long as they breathed But while they were asserting this and multiplying Oaths not fit to be rehearsed the Earl of Leicester made answer to William de Valence who was more swoln and haughty than the rest Know for certain that either you shall give up the Castles which you have from the King or you shall lose your Head And the other Earls and Barons firmly attested the same The Poitovins therefore were in a great Fright not knowing what to do For if they should retire to some Castle wanting Provisions they would soon be starved out Universitas enim Regni popularis etsi non
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
prevention of Grievances is better than the cure of them there were 24 of the greatest Men in England ordained 12 by the King himself and 12 by the Parliament to be a standing Council without whose Advice nothing was to be done These were to have Parliaments three times a year where the Barons might come but the Commons were excused from coming to save Charges No wise Man will say that this was the English Constitution but these were necessary Alterations by way of Remedy till they should be able to bring the Government into the right Channel again For the Provisions of Oxford were only provisional like the Interim in Germany before the Reformation and to continue no longer than as so many Scaffolds till the Ruins of the Realm were repaired Accordingly the utmost Provision that I find was but for 12 years as we have it in the Oath of the Governours of the Kings Castles in these words Ceo est le serment ke les gardens des Chastels sirent Ann. Burton p. 413. Ke il les Chastels le Rei leaument e en bone fei garderunt al oes le Rei et ses heyrs E ke eus les rendrunt al Rei u a ses heyres et a nul autre et par sun cunseil et en nul autre manere Ceo est a saver par prodes homes de la terre esluz a sun Cunseil u par la greinure partie E ceste furme par escrit dure deske a duze ans E de ilokes en avant per cest establement et cest serment ne seint constreint ke franchement ne les pussent rendre al Rei u a ses heirs So that the Barons of England were certainly in the right when they said that the Provisions of Oxford were founded upon the Magna Charta which the French King and Parliament allowed for every greater contains in it the less and the Power of the 25 Conservators of M. Charta is visibly greater than that of the 24 Counsellors at Oxford as much as the Power of Coercion and punishing is above that of directing The French King and Parliament were so far Parties P. 991. that as we saw before they had promised the King a powerful Assistance which gave him encouragement so openly to break his Oath and undo what he had done Which certainly the Barons did not then know or else they would have bin very far from submitting to their determination especially when they could get nothing by it For if it had proceeded in favour of them they only had been where they were before a foreign Confirmation adding no Authority to English Laws and that Determination that was made only served to puzzle the Cause and to bring a War upon them which it must be intended this unwise Expedient was to prevent The first Aggressor in this War was Roger Mortimer who invaded and ravaged the Lands of Simon Monfort but he was soon even with him P. 992 The Prince likewise took several Castles and Robert Ferrars E. of Derby who was of neither side took that opportunity to seize and plunder the City of Worcester and do a deal of mischief for which he was afterwards sent Prisoner to the Tower The Barons Army easily retook what was taken and marched towards London where Iohn Mansell Lieutenant of the Tower fearing he should be severely handled by the Barons for he was the most special Counsellor the King and Queen had run away by stealth The King likewise fearing lest the Barons Army should besiege him in the Tower by the mediation of some that were afraid as well as he yielded to an Agreement with the Barons tho it afterwards prov'd to be but short-liv'd and promis'd to keep the Provisions of Oxford But the Queen instigated with a Feminine Malice oppos'd it all she could The Form of this Peace betwixt the King the Earl and Barons was upon these Conditions P. 993. 1. That Henry Son of the King of the Romans who was then the King's Prisoner should be releas'd 2. That all the King's Castles throughout England should be delivered up to the Custody of the Barons 3. That the Provisions of Oxford be inviolably kept 4. That all Foreigners by a set time should evacuate the Kingdom excepting those whose stay here should be allowed by common Consent as trusty to the Realm perhaps not a quarter of the number which we have in one Naturalization Act. That for the time to come the Natives of England who are faithful and profitable to the Realm may have the ordering of all Affairs under the King These things being thus covenanted in a little while after Pacts Promises Oaths notwithstanding several Knights on the King's part stored Windsor Castle with a great quantity of Provisions and Arms and they and the Prince begun a new War This War lasted with great variety of strange Successes on both sides for several years till the Earl of Leicester was overthrown and slain in the Battle of Evesham Upon which the Historian says And thus ended his Labours that great Man Earl Simon who spent not only his but himself in behalf of the oppressed in asserting a just Cause and maintaining the Rights of the Realm He undertook this Cause P. 998. in which he fought to the death by the advice and at the instance of the Blessed Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln who constantly affirmed that all that died for it were crowned with Martyrdom After this deciding Battle the Prince follow'd his Blow by advising his Father to call a Parliament forthwith before his Victory cool'd which accordingly met at Winchester 8. Sept. whereas the Fight was 5. Aug. before In this Parliament they did what they would with the Earl's broken and dispers'd Party P. 999. The chief of them were imprisoned to be punished at the King's will the City of London disfranchised for their Rebellion all that took part with E. Simon disinherited whose Lands the King presently bestowed upon those that had stuck faithfully to him as a reward of their Merit Ottobon the Legat also call'd a Council at Northampton and there excommunicated all the Bishops and Clergy that had aided and favoured E. Simon against the King namely the Bishops of Winchester London Worcester and Chichester Of whom the Bishop of Worcester poorly died viliter in few days after this Sentence P. 1001. but the other three went to Rome to make their Peace with the Pope In short he excommunicated all others whatsoever that had been against the King The disinherited Barons thought never the worse of their Cause for this Overthrow but still continued in Arms for three years after And tho they were forc'd to fly from place to place and live as they could yet they seem to be the Conquerors For their Answer to the Legates Message to them in the Isle of Ely shews them to be Men of great Wisdom P. 1004. Integrity and Constancy and their Demands likewise are
THE SECOND PART OF THE CONFUTATION OF THE Ballancing Letter CONTAINING AN Occasional Discourse In Vindication of Magna Charta LONDON Printed for A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane M. DCC The PREFACE I Have seen several Objections published against the Former Part wherein if that Author could have shewn me any one Fault I would have thank'd him and mended it but I do not write Books for such as after a long search to find a Knot in a Bullrush make one That I may not give him nor any body else any Offence by my false Inferences cloudy Reasonings Mistakes or Misapplications whatsoever I shall barely set down two or three Quotations which are able to speak dispute argue and answer for Themselves The first is to shew that for a King of England to have standing Forces or Men at Arms is contrary to the English Constitution or else Mr. Bacon who has given us an excellent Book of it collected out of Mr. Selden's Manuscript Notes has strangely mistaken it For his own words upon Henry the Seventh's instituting a Guard of 50 Archers are these Bacon of the Laws and Government of England Part 2. p. 114. That Guard of his Person he only pretended as a Ceremony of State brought from the French Court and yet it is strange that it went so well down with a free People For that Prince that will keep Guards about his Person in the midst of his own People may as well double them into the pitch of an Army whensoever he pleases to be fearful and so turn the Royal Power of Law into Force of Arms. But it was the French Fashion and the King 's good hope to have all taken in the best sense This is so well known that the very Author himself of the Ballancing Letter has these words Page 3. lin 15. Any Man who would pretend to give a Iealousy of the Nation to the King and suggest that he could not be safe among them without he were environ'd with Guards and Troops as it was in the late Reigns ought to be abhorred by every true English man by every Man who loves Liberty and his Country My other Quotations are about an incidental Point which fell into my former Discourse concerning the Admission of Foreigners into England This according to the sense of all Antiquity is giving them our Country The words in K. John's Charter at Runningmead concerning them are these M. P. p. 261. Et nos amovebimus omnes alienigenas à terra Parentes omnes Girardi de Athies Engelardum scilicet Andream Petrum Gyonem de Chanceles Gyonem de Cigvini uxorem praedicti Girardi cum omnibus liberis suis Gaufridum de Martenni fratres ejus Philippum Marc fratres ejus G. nepotem ejus Falconem Flandrenses omnes ruptarios qui sunt ad nocumentum Regni Here K. John is to amo ve Aliens out of the Land both all and some as a Nusance to the Realm And to conclude my last Quotation is one of the Statutes made at Oxford 42 H. 3. founded upon K. John's Charter Knyghton Col. 2445. l. 50. and in pursuance of it Statuerunt etiam Quod omnes alienigenae cujuscunque conditionis existerent seu nationis confestim repatriarent sub poena membrorum vitae That all Aliens of whatsoever Condition they were or Nation should forthwith repair home under the penalty of Life and Limb. The Act is General but no body can say that it is an Act for a General Naturalization A VINDICATION OF Magna Charta IN order to this I shall first shew That Magna Charta is much elder than King Iohn's time and consequently that its Birth cannot be blemished with any thing that was done in his time tho his Confirmation of it had been really extorted by Rebellion Secondly That the Confirmations which were had and procured to it in King Iohn's and H. 3. time were far from being gained by Rebellion First of all The Contents of Magna Charta is the undoubted Inheritance of England being their Antient and Approved Laws so antient that they seem to be of the same standing with the Nation and so well approved De Laud. Leg. Aug. that Fortescue applauding our Laws triumphs in this That they passed thro all the British Roman Danish Saxon and Norman times with little or no alteration in the main Now says he if they had not been liked by these People they would have been altered Accordingly in this last Norman Revolution King William the First falsely and flatteringly called the Conqueror swore to the inviolable Observation of them under this Title of the Good Antient and Approved Laws of the Realm and particularly and by name K. Edward's Laws So antient is the Matter and Substance of Magna Charta Secondly Nor was the manner and form of granting these Laws by Charter or under Hand and Seal with the Confirmation of an Oath over and above the Coronation Oath any new Invention or Innovation at all for as William 1. began it so I am sure that H. 1. and K. Stephen and H. 2. did the same before And therefore if the obscure Birth of M. Charta was in K. Iohn's time it was then born with a grey Beard for it was in being in his Great Grandfather's Reign For thirdly That very Charter of his Great Grandfather H. 1. was the Ground and Reason of the Parliament's insisting upon having the like Confirmation of their Liberties by K. Iohn and was the Copy by which they went A. D. 1213. Reg. 15. For tho K. Iohn at his Absolution at Winchester from the Pope's Sentence and Excommunication had solemnly sworn to restore the good Laws of his Predecessors and particularly those of K. Edward and tho presently after at a Parliament at St. Albans the Laws of K. H. 1. were ordained to be observed throughout all England and all bad Laws to be abolished yet contrary to both these late Engagements he was marching an Army in all haste to fall upon several of his Barons who had lately failed in following him in an intended Expedition into France But the Archbishop stopt him in this Career by following him to Northampton and there telling him that it would be a breach of his Oath at his late Absolution to make war upon his Subjects without Judgment in Parliament The King huft him and told him That this was Lay business and that he would not delay the Business of the Kingdom for him and by break of day next morning marches hastily towards Nottingham The Archbishop still follows him assuring him that he would excommunicate all his followers if they proceeded any further in this hostile way and never left him till he had set a day for a Parliament that the Barons might there answer it This Parliament was held at London at St. Paul's Church where before it ended the Archbishop took some of the Lords apart and put them in mind how he made the King swear at
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