of Peace and for the Advancement and Honour of his Realm he would willingly grant them the Laws and Liberties which they desired leaving to the Barons to appoint a convenient Time and Place for the Performance They very gladly set the King a day to meet the 15 th of Iune at Running-mead betwixt Stanes and Windsor an antient place for the meeting of Parliaments The King and the Lords accordingly met and their Parties sitting asunder and keeping to their own side treated of the Peace and the Liberties a good while There were present as it were of the King's Party the Arch-bishop and about 30 principal Persons more whom Matthew Paris names but says he they that were on the Barons side were past reckoning seeing the whole Nobility of England gathered together in a Body seem'd not to fall under number At length after they had treated in several sorts the King seeing the Barons were too powerful for him made no difficulty to grant them the Laws and Liberties under-written and to confirm them in his Charter in this manner P. 255. Here follows Magna Charta in Mat. Paris And because there was not room for the Liberties and free Customs of the Forest in the same Parchment they were contained in another Charter de Foresta And then follows the security for them both After this the King sent his Letters Patents to all the Sheriffs in England to cause all persons of what condition soever to swear That they would observe these foresaid Laws and Liberties and to the utmost of their power distress the King by seizing his Castles and otherwise streighten him to the execution and performance of all things contained in the Charter At last the Parliament being ended the Barons returned to London with their Charters Thus have I given you a short view of the noble Conduct of the Barons in their manner of obtaining the Confirmation of their Charter from K. Iohn The restitution of Magna Charta you may call it for the Birth of it you see it was not What I have recited is undoubted History and Record and clear matter of Fact And I have confined my self only to these three last years in which the Barons were in pursuit of this business and took the quickest Steps towards it and above all were put into a right Method by the advice of Stephen Langton the Archbishop to claim their Estate with the Writings of it in their hand For above a dozen years before in the 3 d of this King's Reign upon a Summons of his to the Earls and Barons to attend him with Horse and Arms into Normandy they held a Conference together at Leicester and by general consent they send him word Dan. p. 129. That unless he would render them their Rights and Liberties they would not attend him out of the Kingdom But that impotent demand of their Liberties by the by did them no good but exposed them to still more and more intolerable Oppressions They should have gone to him according to their Summons they should not have sent Not to mention that his Faith was plighted by the Arch-bishop Hubert William Lord Marshal E. of Pembroke Geoffrey Fitz-Peter Chief Justiciar of England whom he sent as his Commissioners to proclaim and keep the Peace immediatly after the death of his Brother Richard That the Earl John would restore all men their Rights Paris p. 196. This was done at an Assembly of the Peers at Northampton before his coming out of Normandy to be crowned Sub tali igitur conventione Comites Barones Comiti Iohanni Fidelitatem contra omnes homines juraverunt Upon these Terms and no otherwise the Earls and Barons swore Fealty to him Which made K. Iohn so much rejoice at Geoffrey Fitz-Peter's Death and swear That then and not before he was King and Lord of England P. 243. Pactis contraire For from thenceforward says Paris he was more at liberty to contravene his Oaths and Covenants which with this Geoffrey he had made sore against his will and loose himself from the Bonds of the Peace he had enter'd into Now these Pacts and Covenants are clearly that before his Coronation which I have just now recited and at this Parliament at St. Albans Anno 1213. not a year before this great Man's Death Where the King's Peace was publickly declared to all his People and it was strictly commanded in the King's behalf That the Laws of his Great Grandfather H. 1. should be kept by the whole Realm and all unjust Laws abolished In both these Affairs he transacted for the King having in this last together with the Bp. of Winchester the Government of the Kingdom committed to him the King being then absent in his way to France Well but now the Barons at last have their long lost Rights restored and confirmed to the universal Joy of the Nation which is soon overcast For K. Iohn immediatly resolves to undo all that he had done being prompted thereto not only by his own arbitrary tyrannical Disposition but also by his foreign Mercenaries whom he had long made his Favourites and Confidents while he look'd upon his own natural Subjects as Abjects The Flanders Ruyters or Cavaliers who now by Magna Charta were expresly and by name order'd to be expelled the Kingdom as a Nuysance to the Realm these being grown his saucy Familiars so followed him with Derision and Reproaches for unkinging himself by these Concessions and making himself a Cypher and our Soveraign Lord of no Dominions a Slave to his Subjects and the like that they made him stark Bedlam And being given over to Rage and Revenge he privatly retires to the Isle of Wight where as Paris says he provides himself of St. Peter's two Swords He sends to the Pope whom he bribes with a large Sum of Money besides his former Surrender of the Kingdom to cancel and annul M. Charta and to confound it with his Apostolical Authority and withal to excommunicate the Barons for it And at the same time he sends the Bp. of Worcester Ld. Chancellor of England the Bp. of Norwich and several other Persons to all neighbouring Countries to gather together all the Foreign Forces they could by promises of Lands and Possessions and if need were to make them Grants under the Great Seal and to bring them all to Dover by Michaelmas That 3 Months he spent Incognito in and about the Isle of Wight coasting and skulking about and sometimes exercising Piracy out at Sea so that it was not then known where he was nor what was become of him but thus he whiled away the time contemplating his Treason and waiting for the incomprehensible Enemy-Friends he had sent for Hostiles amicos amicabiles hostes p. 265. I know not whether this Desertion and not providing for the Government in his Absence and sending the Great Seal of England upon such an Errand out of the Realm may not with some men amount to a modern Abdication But
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
Subjects that are of your own Kingdom For we assure you that unless you speedily redress and reform these Grievances we will proceed to Excommunication both against you and all other Gainsayers staying no longer than for the Consecration of the Archbishop Elect. And when they had thus said the King humbly demanded a short Truce saying That he could not so suddenly amove his Council till he had audited an Account of his Treasure committed to them And so the Parliament broke up with a Confidence that Peace and an Agreement would be had in a short time The 9 th of April there came to Parliament at Westminster the King with the Earls and Barons and the Archbishop lately consecrated with his Suffragans that they might make some wholesom Provision for the Realm which was still in disorder The Archbishop taking to him the Bishops and the other Prelates went to the King and laid before him the bad state and imminent danger of the Kingdom and rehearsed all the Grievances which they had mentioned in the last Parliament and told him plainly that unless he would speedily rectify his Error and make peaceable Agreement with his loyal Subjects he and all the Prelates there would forthwith excommunicate both the King himself and all that should contradict this Peace and Agreement But the pious King hearing the advice of his Prelates lowly answered That he would be governed by their Counsels in all things so that in few days after seeing his Error and repenting of it he dismissed Peter of Winchester and Rivallis and expelling all the Poitovins from his Court and Castles he sent them into their own Country charging them never to see his face more And afterwards being very desirous of Peace sent Edmund the Archbishop with the Bishops of Chester and Rochester into Wales to Leoline and the Marshal to treat of Peace With Leoline they might treat but the Earl Marshal was gone into Ireland as it had been before projected by the evil Counsellors to take care of his Castles and Possessions which he heard were seized and spoiled where as soon as he was arrived he was waited upon by Geofrey Marsh his Leigeman a perfidious old Man who was one of those to whom the Letter was directed and was a sharer in the Lands which were granted by Charter But having been an old Servant to his Father and pretending an extraordinary honour and affection for the Marshal he thereby had that power with him as to lead him into all the Snares and Traps which were laid for him and which at last cost him his life tho he sold it very dear The Story is too long for this place but he fell a noble Sacrifice for the English Liberties though neither the first nor the last in that kind After Easter the King being willing to meet his Archbishop and Bishops whom he had sent into Wales was going to Glocester and lay at his Mannor of Woodstock where Messengers came to him out of Ireland with an account of the Death of the Earl Marshal Whereupon the King breaking forth into weeping and lamentation to the admiration of all that were present made sad moan for the Death of so brave a Knight constantly affirming that he had not left his Peer in the Kingdom And immediately calling for the Priests of his Chappel caused an Obsequy to be solemnly sung for his Soul and on the morrow after Mass bestowed large Alms upon the Poor Blessed therefore is such a King who knows how to love those that offend him and merit with Prayers and Tears for his faithful Subjects whom upon false Suggestions he had sometime hated When he came to Glocester Edmund and the other Bishops met him and told him that Leoline insisted upon it as a Preliminary of the Peace That the banished Barons should be restored Upon this he summons them to a Parliament at Glocester to which they come under the safe Conduct of the Bishops and were restored to all their Rights Afterwards Edmund caused a Copy of the Letter concerning the Treachery prepared for the Earl Marshal to be read in full Parliament at which the King and the whole Assembly wept And the King confessed in truth that being compelled by the Bishop of Winchester and his other Counsellors he had commanded his Seal to be put to some Letters that were presented to him but he affirmed with an Oath that he never heard the Contents of them To whom the Archbishop said King search your Conscience for all those that procured these Letters to be sent or were privy to them are as guilty of the Marshal's death as if they had killed him with their own hands Then the King taking advice summoned his Ministers to answer for his Treasure and the ill use of his Seal when he knew nothing of it Upon which some took Sanctuary others absconded and some fled to Rome Rivallis and Segrave were afterwards tried in the King's Bench where the King himself sitting with the Judges charged them with the Particulars of their evil Counsel and called them wicked Traytors and they were deeply fined And yet the next year these two were received into Grace and Favour again after he had removed many of his new Counsellors and Officers to the admiration of People and had demanded the Great Seal from the Bishop of Chester his Chancellor with a great deal of instance who had unblameably administred his Office and was a singular Pillar of Truth in the Court But the Chancellor refused it saying That having received the Seal by the Common Council of the Realm he could not resign it to any one without the like common Assent The miseries of the Kingdom still go on and no other can be expected from such a Property of a Prince who sets his Seal to destroy his best Subjects blindfold and says his wicked Counsellors compell'd him to it and after he himself has impeached them and publickly blackned them with his own Mouth and threatned to have their Eyes pulled out takes them again into his Bosom And therefore in all the succeeding Parliaments we meet with nothing but their repeated Complaints of the Violations of M. Charta and their ineffectual endeavours to redress them feigned Humiliations and Sorrow on the King's side with promises of amendment but no performance asking for Mony and then being upbraided with what he had had already and that at several times he had wasted 800 thousand pounds since he began to be a Dilapidator and Consumer of the Kingdom they give him Mony once for all and he gives them a Charter never to injure them any more in that kind by requiring any more Aids and such like Transactions as these till we come to A. D. 1244 when again he wants Mony And then upon these following Considerations That because the Charter of Liberties which the King had long since granted and for the observation whereof Edmund the Archbishop had sworn and most faithfully past his Word on the King's behalf
nobiles c. For the Body of the common People of the Realm without the Nobles would besiege them and utterly rase their Castles Whereupon at dinner time they stole away as if it had been to go to Dinner and took their Flight to Winchester When the great Men were advertised that the Poitovins had thus taken their Flight towards the Sea-side fearing lest they might be gone to bring in foreign Aid I suppose they had not forgot how K. Iohn served his Barons they thought all delays dangerous in such a matter and therefore immediately mustered all their Force to look after them P. 973. The Barons on the 15 th of Iuly dismissed the Poitovins and commended them to the Seas in their Passage to France where they met with sorry welcome but at last were sent home with a safe Conduct But the Barons took care to send them from hence as bare as they came for Richard Gray Governor of Dover by their order seized all their Mony and it was appointed to be laid out for the publick Uses of the Realm On the 20 th of the same Month came Commissioners of the Parliament to London and convened all the Citizens otherwise called Barons of the whole City and in the Hall which is called Gildehall P. 974. they asked them if they would faithfully obey the Statutes of the Parliament and immutably adhere to them manfully resisting all Opposers and effectually aiding the Parliament Which when they had all of them freely granted they gave the Commissioners a Charter of this their Grant sealed with the common Seal of the City But they did not as yet make publick Proclamation of these Statutes because they were in confusion about the Earl of Glocester's being poisoned and his Brother as were several others which as appeared afterwards was the Poitovins-Farewel And then in this sollicitous and weighty Affair and in this most happy Renovation and right ordering of the whole Realm P. 974. Fulk Bishop of London was more lukewarm and remiss than became him or was expedient whereby he so much the more smutted and blackned his Fame by how much he had formerly been more generous than others And so the Barons having reposed their hopes in his Breast he provoked many of them to Anger by his falling off when by this means they believed they should set the King right with his People But that which frighted them beyond all things was the King's mutability and unsearchable doubleness which they perceived by a terrible Word he let fall Being one day upon the Thames in his Barge a sudden Storm of Thunder and Lightning arose which he dreaded above all things and therefore immediately ordered to be set ashore which happened to be at Durham-house where the Earl of Leicester then lay Which when the Earl understood he runs joyfully to meet him and reverently saluted him according to his Duty and chearing him said You have no occasion to be concern'd at the Tempest for now it is over To whom the King replyed in the greatest earnest and with a stern Countenance I am indeed afraid of Thunder and Lightning above measure but with an horrid Oath I dread thee more than all the Thunder and Lightning in the World To which the Earl gave a mild and gentle Answer and only let him know he had a wrong opinion of him But all Men did suspect this amazing Expression proceeded from hence that the Earl had been a main Man is establishing the Provisions at Oxford This boded ill to those Provisions and accordingly in a short time the King sent privately to the Pope to be absolved from his Oath whereby he was bound to keep them which he easily obtained not only for himself but for all that had taken it whereby all those that he could any way corrupt were free to be of his Party The next year the King kept his Christmas at the Tower with the Queen and being by the Instigation and wicked Counsel of some about him rendred wholly averse to the Covenant which he had made with his Parliament he contrived how to publish his aversion and indignation against it In order to which he kept his Residence in the Tower and having broke open the Locks to come at the Treasure which was deposited there ab antiquo * Vid. Artic. 24. in depositione R. 2. Thesaurum coronas reliquias alia jocalia videlicet bona regni quae ab antiquo dimissa fuerant in Archivis Regni pro honore Regis conservatione Regni sui in omnem eventum abstulit c. rotulos Recordorum starum gubernationem Regni sui tangentium deleri abradi fecit c. there went Habent enim ex antiquo statuto c. Decem. Scrip. 2752. which I suppose was some antient Heirlome or publick Stock of the Kingdom kept there as a Reserve against some great Emergency for it is plain he had not the Keys of it he brought it out to spend After this he hires Workmen to repair and fortify the Tower and orders the City of London to be put in a posture of Defence and all the Inhabitants of it from twelve years old and upwards to swear Fidelity to him and the common Cryer made Proclamation That whoever was willing to serve the King should come away cheerily and enter into his Pay And then he took his time to publish the Pope's Bull of Absolution from the Oath which was done at the Paul's-Cross Sermon Upon notice of these things there was a great Confluence of the Barons from all parts with a great strength of armed Men who came and lay in the Suburbs for they were not suffered to come within the City But from thence the Barons sent Messengers to the King and humbly besought him That he would inviolably keep the common Oath which all of them had taken and if any thing displeased him that he would shew it to them that they might amend it But he by no means consenting to what they offered answer'd harshly and threatningly That because they had failed in their Agreement he would comply with them no more but that from henceforth every one should prepare for his own Defence At length by the Mediation of some Persons the Business was brought to this Issue That the King should chuse one person and the Barons another which two should chuse a third who having heard the Complaints on both sides should establish a lasting Peace and Agreement betwixt them But this Treaty was allowed to be put off till the Return of Prince Edward who was then beyond Sea The Prince hearing this made haste home that the Peace might not be delayed by his Absence who when he came and found what vain Counsels the King had taken was very angry and absented himself from his Father's Presence adhering to the Barons in this behalf as he had sworn And they entered into a Confederacy with one another That they would seize the King 's evil
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
have it restored to him again the Marshal sent to the King to desire him to deliver him back his Castle according to the Covenant of which he had made the Bishop of Winchester and Stephen Segrave the Justiciar his Sureties which likewise they had confirmed by taking an Oath But the King answered with Indignation That he was so far from restoring him that Castle that he would sooner subdue all the rest he had When therefore the Marshal saw that there was no Faith nor Oath nor Peace kept by the Counsellors of the King he gathered an Army and besieged his own Castle and with a little ado won it The King was at this time holding his Parliament as he had promised his great Men that by their advice he might redress those things which were amiss but the evil Counsel he then followed did not suffer it to be done Though many that were there present humbly besought him for God's sake that he would make peace with his Barons and Nobles And other Persons in favour with the King namely the Friars Predicants and Minorites whom he used to reverence and hearken to these earnestly exhorted him that he would study to carry himself lovingly as he ought to do towards his natural Subjects whom without judgment of their Peers he had driven into banishment burnt their Mannor-Houses cut down their Woods destroyed their Ponds and being led and misled by the bad Counsel of bad Men sets aside his Leiges whose native blood would never suffer them to warp and prefers other whiffling People before them and which is worse calls those Traitors by whom he ought to order the Peace and Counsels of the Realm and settle all Affairs To this the Bishop of Winchester made answer That the Peers of England are not as they are in France and therefore the King may judg and condemn and banish any of them by his own Justices of his own appointing The Bishops hearing this as it were with one voice fell a threatning that they would excommunicate the principal of the King 's evil Counsellors by name and they named the Bishop himself as the Ring-leader of them and his Kinsman Rivallis the Justiciar and the Treasurer To whom the Bishop answering alledged That he was consecrated Bishop at Rome by the Pope and so was exempted from their Power and appealed to the Apostolick See And so the Bishops only excommunicate in general all those that had or should alienate the King's heart from his natural Subjects of the Realm and all that should disturb the Peace of the Realm In this Parliament the King had Tidings that the Earl Marshal had taken his Castle in Wales and killed several of his Knights and Servants At which the King was much incensed and commanded the Bishops to excommunicate him but it was the answer of them all that it would be an unworthy thing to excommunicate a Man for seizing a Castle that was all his own and for taking possession of his own Right But the King still enraged summoned again all his Knights with Horses and Arms to Glocester the morrow after All Saints and there he gathered a numerous Army and entred Wales breathing and panting after the destruction of the Marshal But he like a provident Warriour had beforehand driven away all the Cattle and withdrawn all Provisions so that the King had no subsistence for his Army in those parts but was forced to march another way and came to the Castle of Grosmund Where while he spent some days the Marshal and his Associates sent Scouts to discover the Posture of his Army and on Martinmas night all of them but the Marshal who would not invade the King with a good Army surprized the King's Camp where they fled away almost naked and the Conquerors on the other side would not hurt any of them nor take one Prisoner Indiscretè rebellantes excepting two Knights who indiscreetly making Resistance were killed rather by themselves than by the others But they took away all their Carriages and Provisions Mony and Arms and so retired again into their strong holds I believe such a modest Victory was never read of and Mat. Paris presently calls them for Witnesses of the Truth of this Rout who run away and lost all they had in it The Bishops of Winchester and Chichester Segrave the Justiciar Rivallis the Treasurer the Earls of Norfolk and Salisbury and many more The King who had been left even as good as alone amidst the Enemies when all was over put some of his Poitovin Dragoons into his Welch Garisons to prevent Incursions and so returned to Glocester where he kept his Christmas But in the mean time on St. Katherines day the Marshal made a great Slaughter of the Poitovins at Monmouth and he and the banished Lords watched the King's Castles so narrowly that when any went out of them abroad to prey they took nothing else of them for their Ransom but their Heads insomuch that in a short time there lay dead such a multitude of these Foreigners in the high ways and other places as infected the Air. As for the Discourse which passed betwixt the Marshal and Friar Agnellus who was Familiar to the King and his Counsellors and came into Wales to tell the Marshal what the King and his Counsellors said of him and to make Overtures to him it is too long to be here inserted but is exceeding well worth the reading as it stands in Matt. Paris p. 391 392 393. wherein the Marshal makes such a solid Defence of his whole proceeding and discovers so well grounded a Zeal for the Rights of his Country as is sufficient to inspire every English Breast with the love of a righteous Cause Friar Agnellus tells him that the King's Counsellors would have him submit to the King's mercy and that besides other Reasons it was his Interest so to do because the King was richer and more powerful than he and as for foreign Aid where the Marshal could bring one Stranger the King could bring seven The Marshal replies It is true the King is richer and more powerful than I but he is not more powerful than God who is Justice it self in whom I trust in the maintenance and prosecution of mine and the Kingdom 's Right nor do I trust in Foreigners nor will ever seek their Aid unless which God forbid I shall be compelled to it by some unexpected and immutable necessity And I know full well that the King can bring seven for my one and truly I believe in the way that he is in he will soon bring more into the Realm than he will be able to get out again And after he had answered many other Arguments as that he might confide in the King and his Counsellors and had reckoned up many Instances of the Court's Treachery and breach of their Oaths about M. Charta and in several other Cases he says Neither would it be for the King's Honour that I should consent to his will
which were not supported by Reason nay therein I should do injury both to himself and to that Iustice which he ought to maintain and exercise towards his Subjects And I should give a bad Example to all Men of deserting Iustice and the prosecution of Right for the sake of an erroneous Will against all Iustice and to the injury of the Subject for hereby it would appear that we had more love for our worldly Possessions than for Righteousness it self But I wrong the Discourse by singling any particulars out of it The King kept his Christmas at Glocester with a very thin Court the late Rout at Grosmund Castle having scattered them And the morrow after Iohn of Monmouth a Nobleman one of the King's Warriours in Wales attempting to surprize the Marshal was entirely defeated with the loss of a great number of Poitovins and others himself narrowly escaping which his Estate did not for the Marshal immediately burnt and destroyed it The same did the other exiled Lords by all the King's Counsellors in those parts for they had laid down amongst themselves this laudable general Rule That they would hurt no body nor do them any damage but only the evil Counsellors of the King by whom they had been driven into Banishment and used in the same kind And a week after Twelftide the Marshal and Leoline entered the King's Lands and laid them waste as far as Shrewsbury the King and Bishop Peter being still at Glocester but not having strength to oppose them they retired to Winchester Bnt the King's Heart was so hardned against the Marshal by the evil Counsel that he made use of that when the Bishops admonished him to make peace with the Marshal who fought for the Cause of Iustice he made answer Qui pro Justiciâ decertabat That he never would make peace with him unless he would acknowledg himself a Traitor with a Halter about his neck When the Bishop of Winchester and the other evil Counsellors of the King saw all their measures broken and the Poitovins thus cut off by the Marshal despairing ever to overcome him by force of Arms they fell to plotting and laying a train for his life which was by a Letter sent into Ireland to this effect Whereas Richard late Marshal of the King of England for his manifest Treason was by Judgment of the said King's Court banished the Realm and for ever outed of all the Patrimony and Possessions he had and yet remains in rebellion These are therefore to require you that if he should chance to come into Ireland you take care to seize him and bring him to the King dead or alive and for your care herein the King grants all the Inheritance of all the late Marshal's Lands and Possessions in Ireland which are now fallen to his disposal to be shared amongst you And for this Promise of the King to be made good to you We all by whose Counsel the King and Kingdom are governed do make our selves Sureties provided you fail not in the Premises This Writing was directed to Maurice Fitz Gerald the King's Justiciar in Ireland and several other great Men and some that were Leigemen to the Marshal but faithless And after this Writing of unheard of Treason was framed though the King knew nothing of the Contents of it yet they compelled him to put his Seal and they to the number of eleven put to their Seals and so sent it over This wrought with the Irish great Men according to the wish of the evil Counsellors for out of covetousness they immediately entred into the Conspiracy and privately sent word back That if the King's Promise were confirmed to them under the Great Seal they would do their utmost to effect the business Whereupon the said Counsellors with a treasonable Violence surreptitiously get the Great Seal from the Bishop of Chichester who did not consent to this fraud and so sent a Charter wherein every particular Man's share is exprest under the Great Seal As soon as this damnable Writing arriv'd in Ireland the Conspirators took an Oath to accomplish the thing and in order to it raised an Army wherewith they invaded his Lands and took some of his Castles that by these Injuries they might provoke him and draw him into Ireland While this Irish Plot went on at Candlemas the King held a Parliament at Westminster where he grievously accused several of the Bishops and chiefly Alexander of Chester for holding Correspondence with the Marshal and for endeavouring to depose him from the Throne of the Kingdom The said Bishop to clear himself and the rest of the Bishops immediately excommunicated all those who had any such wicked Thoughts against the King and all those who slandered the Bishops in that sort who were wholly sollicitous for the King's Honour and Safety Afterward in this Parliament Edmund Elect of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops came to the King condoling the Desolation both of him and the Kingdom and as it were with one Heart and Mind and Mouth said Our Lord the King we tell you in the name of God as your Leigemen that the Counsel which you now have and use is neither sound nor secure but cruel and perilous both to you and the Realm of England We mean the Counsel of Peter Bishop of Winchester Peter Rivallis and their Accomplices First because they hate and despise the English Nation calling them Traitors and causing them all to be so termed thereby turning away your Heart from the love of your Nation and our Hearts and the Hearts of the Nation from you as appears by the Marshal than whom there is not a better Man in your Land whom by dispersing their lies on both sides they have perverted and alienated from you And by the same Counsel as theirs is your Father Iohn first lost the hearts of his Country and afterwards Normandy and other Lands exhausted his Treasure and almost lost England and never afterwards had Peace By the same Counsel several Disasters have happened to your Self which they there enumerate P. 369. They likewise tell him by the Faith in which they were bound to him that his Counsel was not for Peace but for breach of Peace and disturbance of the Land that his Counsellors might grow rich by the Troubles of the Nation and the Disherison of others which in peace they could not compass Amongst the Items of their present Grievances which it would be too long here to recite this is one i.e. M. C. That these Counsellors confound and pervert the Law of the Land which has bin sworn and corroborated by Excommunication so that it is very much to be feared that they stand excommunicated and you for intercommuning with them And they conclude These things we faithfully tell you and before God we desire advise and admonish you that you remove this Counsel from you and as the Custom is in other Realms that you manage your Kingdom by your own faithful sworn
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
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