At the head of the barons, in their resistance and indignation against foreigners, was Simon, earl of Leicester, himself a foreigner. The youngest son of Simon of Montfort, the persecutor of the Albigenses, he had inherited the earldom of Leicester through his mother, and had recovered his property, which had been confiscated in 1232, through the favor of King Henry, who had taken a fancy to the young Provençal, whom he had aided in marrying his sister Eleanor, widow of the Earl of Pembroke, to the great indignation of the royal family and the nobility of England.
The favor of the king was short-lived. Montfort had initiated himself into the good graces of the barons, who had been so violently opposed to him at first; and the king, jealous and uneasy, drove him from England in 1239, scarcely allowing the earl time enough to embark with his wife, who went with her husband to France. He left her, to assume the cross and proceed to Palestine, where he distinguished himself by glorious feats of arms. On his return, the king had forgotten his jealousy and anger. The earl lived peaceably in England, and was even raised to the dignity of Governor of Gascony. He was recalled in 1252, under the pretence of misbehavior, and young Prince Edward was provided with the office thus snatched from the Earl of Leicester, who grew more and more attached to the cause of the refractory barons, of whom he became the real chief.
The king's disorderly habits and want of foresight having at length reduced him to the last extremities, he decided on confronting the Parliament assembled at Oxford on the 11th of June, 1258. The whole town was filled with men-at-arms; all the barons had brought a numerous following with them. They presented to the king the list of the council who were to be entrusted with the administration of the kingdom. Twelve members were to be elected by the king, and twelve by the barons. This assembly, presided over by the Earl of Leicester, was to be invested during twelve years, with the care of the royal castles. No expense could be incurred against their will; they held possession of the great seal, and were to revise the accounts of the chancellor and of the treasurer; the king was to be compelled to convoke Parliament three times a year.
Henry agreed without hesitation to these humiliating conditions, just as his father. King John, had signed Magna Charta. Prince Edward, whose conscience would not allow him to take oaths as lightly as his father had done, at first made a show of resistance, but ended by acceding to the wishes of the barons. His cousin Henry, son of Richard of Cornwall, who was then known as the King of the Romans, declared that his oath would not be valid, if made in the absence of his father. "Let your father have a care," said Leicester, "if he refuse to do the bidding of the barons of England, for, in that case, he shall not remain in possession of one foot of land in the kingdom." The young nobleman accordingly took the oath.
The king's brothers had refused to give up the castles which they occupied. "I will have them, or you shall lose your head," Montfort declared to William of Valence. And he made such formidable accusations against them at the council, that the four brothers took refuge in Wolesham Castle. The barons pursued them, made them prisoners, and sent them out of the kingdom. The acts of the Parliament of Oxford, the "Mad Parliament," as the royalists called it, were strictly observed throughout the kingdom.
The barons had taken every precaution against a feeble or improvident government; but they had not been able to guard against the temptations of triumphant ambition. The offices left vacant after the departure of the king's favorites, were filled up by the favorites of the Earl of Leicester. His allies began to grow alarmed at his great power; the King of the Romans, who had recently returned to England, after having taken the oath of allegiance to the acts of the barons, endeavored to create rivals to the Earl. The barons, violent and haughty, insulted the king and oppressed the people. "Why are you so bold with me, my lord, earl?" said Henry to Roger Bigod; "do you not know that I could order all your corn to be destroyed?" "Indeed, sir king," said the earl, "and could I not send you the heads of the destroyers?"
The dissensions among the barons reawakened the hopes of the king. He had provided himself with a dispensation from the Pope, which relieved him of his oaths, and, in February, 1261, he ventured to announce to the barons that they had greatly abused their power, and that he, the King of England, intended for the future to govern without them. He had at the same time taken possession of London. Prince Edward, who had recently returned from France, had, on the contrary, tendered his support to the barons, out of respect for his oath, as he said. The king saw a certain number of his adversaries drawing nearer to him, and in spite of the rebellion of the nobility, the temporary success of the king compelled Leicester to escape to France, swearing that he would never again trust to the oath of a perjured sovereign.
In 1263, the struggle had just begun afresh. The Great Earl, as Leicester was called, had raised his standard; the king had taken refuge in London, and Prince Edward was at Windsor Castle. Queen Eleanor, who was even more detested in the city than the king her husband, had endeavored to escape by way of the Thames; the people had recognized her, and her bark had been pelted with mud and stones. Cries were heard of, "Let us drown the witch!" The Lord Mayor of London had some difficulty in protecting her. The king had given up everything and agreed to everything, but only to attack his adversaries again in the month of June, arming himself against them with the Earl of Leicester's claim that the authority of the barons in the government was to be continued after Henry's death, under the reign of his successor. Prince Edward's scruples disappeared before this arrogant audacity, and he openly embraced his father's cause.
The bishops made an effort to put an end to the civil war; they proposed to submit the dispute to the arbitration of Louis IX., a noble testimony to the fairness and integrity of a prince who was related to the King of England by family ties. The barons consented at first; but King Louis, although requiring that Henry should respect the Great Charter, decided that the power should be placed in the king's hands, that the sovereign was free to choose his attendants from among his subjects, or from among foreigners, and that the royal castles should be given up. The barons smiled disdainfully at this decision; they had had some experience of the king's good faith, and expected to lose all the liberties acquired after so long a struggle, if they did not hold the tokens of them with a firm hand. The civil war recommenced; after alternate successes and reverses the two armies met on the plains of Lewes in Sussex. Prince Edward violently attacked a body of citizens of London who had followed Leicester to the field of battle. He was anxious to avenge the insult which his mother had suffered. He pursued the unfortunate soldiery, whose lines were soon broken by the king's cavalry. But in his absence, fortune declared itself in favor of the Earl of Leicester. When Edward reappeared upon the field of battle, the king was a prisoner, as well as his brother, the King of the Romans; the prince soon suffered the same fate; the Lusignans fled and again made their escape from England. Leicester was now master of the situation; the sovereign and the heir-apparent served him as hostages. His power soon became greater than that of the king had been at any time. Having been excommunicated by the Pope, he took no notice of the sentence, notwithstanding his sincere piety. Rome had abused its power, and a great number of the English clergy were favorable to Leicester and supported his cause as that of the people, who adored the earl. Strong in his popularity, Leicester thought himself able to triumph over all his rivals. He compelled the barons who had sided with the king to give up their castles to him, causing them to be tried by their peers, and then banishing them to Ireland. On a demonstration being made by a fleet which had been raised in France by Queen Eleanor, he gathered together soldiers from all the boroughs and cities to resist the invaders, while he himself, taking up his position at the head of the English squadron, was cruising in the Channel, awaiting the enemy. The Queen's vessels did not dare to leave port, and Leicester returned in triumph to England.
At the beginning of the year 1265, the earl had convened a Parliament, and, for the first time, the representatives of the counties and the towns had taken their seats beside the barons and prelates. Leicester knew where his real strength lay, and looked for support from the body of the people. All that was decreed by the Parliament as thus constituted, was favorable to the Earl: a certain amount of liberty was, however, granted to Prince Edward, who was, nevertheless, watched closely. He soon learnt to profit by the amelioration in his condition. Issuing forth one day from Hereford Castle, he organized races among his guards, reserving to himself the right of awarding the prize; then, when all the horses were exhausted with the exception of his own, he galloped off until he met Roger Mortimer, one of his friends who was coming from the frontiers of Wales, to join him. The party of resistance to the barons thenceforth had a chief, and after a year of supreme power, Leicester was destined to discover the uncertainty of human affairs.
The earl had five sons; the three eldest were more violent, more tyrannical and more greedy than all the foreigners who had formerly surrounded the king. Henry of Montfort had seized upon all the wool intended for exportation, and sold it for his own benefit. Guy and Simon of Montfort had armed a fleet, and were taking possession of any merchantmen that they chanced to come across, without distinction of parties. They added thus daily to the number of their enemies, and were quietly undermining the power of their father. The Earl of Derby and the young Earl of Gloucester (formerly sincerely devoted to Leicester) embraced the cause of Prince Edward, who, seeing his forces swell rapidly, advanced towards Kenilworth Castle, the hereditary property of the Earls of Leicester. Simon of Montfort, the earl's second son, had just arrived there; he was marching to meet his father, who was endeavoring, with little success, to raise an army; in vain did he summon the king's vassals to come and serve under his standards; his supporters were not many. Prince Edward attacked Simon's camp, just outside Kenilworth, made a large number of prisoners, and captured all the enemy's baggage. Simon had only time to take refuge in the castle, but was unable to join his father, when the latter arrived at Evesham, on the 14th of August, 1265.
A number of banners were perceptible in the distance, and the earl's barber declared that he recognized the arms of Simon. "Go up into the church-steeple, and you will see better," said Leicester. The barber was trembling with fear when he came down; he had seen the lions of England, the red chevron of the Earl of Gloucester, the azure bars of the Mortimers, and innumerable lances glistened underneath the banners.
"We are dead men, my lord," said he. The earl was observing the order of battle of the enemy. "They have learnt from me how to conduct themselves," he said calmly; "may the Lord have mercy on our souls, for, by the arm of St. James, our bodies belong to the prince;" and, re-entering his residence, he prepared, as usual, for the fight by prayer and the sacrament. His son Henry was encouraging him. "I do not despair, my son," said the earl; "your presumption and the pride of your brothers have brought us to this; but I will die for the cause of the Lord and justice."
He had caused the feeble king to be armed, and had taken him about with him everywhere. The standard of England was displayed by both armies. The earl was endeavoring to open up a road towards Kenilworth; his most devoted adherents had formed a circle round him; the prince still pushed forward; in front of him, a horseman had just fallen from his steed. "Save me," cried a plaintive voice; "I am Henry of Winchester!" Edward sprang forward, and, raising up his wounded father, dragged him into a place of safety. In his absence, the voice of the earl resounded upon the field of battle. "Is any quarter given?" he asked. "No quarter for traitors!" cried a royalist triumphantly, and at the same moment, Henry of Montfort fell at his father's feet. "By the arm of St. James, it is time to die!" cried Leicester, who plunged headlong into the surging crowd, holding his sword with both hands, and striking down all who came in his way. He fell at length, as well as the knights who still surrounded him. Scarcely a dozen remained standing, when Prince Edward sent for the body of the earl, his godfather, and that of his cousin Henry, to transport them to the abbey of Evesham. The body of Leicester was decapitated, and his hands were severed from his arms. The head was carried to Lady Mortimer by her husband's savage warriors.
Thus died "Simon the Just," as he was called by the people of England; a sincere man, animated by more noble sentiments than most of his contemporaries; haughty and ambitious without being cruel; a man who had rendered great services to his country before allowing himself to abuse his power by the very thirst for authority and popularity. The remembrance of him remained sacred among the people, who would assemble round his tomb and invoke his protection devoutly, complaining of his not having been canonized. His sons took refuge on the Continent, after having retained possession for some time of Kenilworth Castle. The younger ones remained with their mother, who was generously treated by her nephew Edward; the two eldest, Guy and Simon, accomplished their revenge by murdering, five years later, at Viterbo, their cousin Henry of Almagne, in a church, while mass was being celebrated. They disappeared after this crime—the House of Montfort had fallen forever.
The king had regained his sceptre, delivered the prisoners, and called back the exiles who had been banished by the Great Earl; but the victory gained by Leicester survived his defeat. In the Parliament convened at Winchester, in the month of September, 1265, the king did not dare to repudiate the liberties acquired by England. The City of London alone lost its charter, but the severe sentences pronounced against Leicester's partisans excited a series of insurrections which Prince Edward had great difficulty in quelling. The want was felt of loosing the reins of government, and of restoring some trust to the vanquished; a committee composed of bishops and barons was entrusted to draw up the conditions of peace, and their decision, known under the title of the Dictum of Kenilworth, was confirmed by the king and the parliament. The efforts of the Pope, the uprightness and good sense of Prince Edward, and the weariness of all parties, at length brought about a general cessation of hostilities. On the 18th of November, 1267, more than two years after the battle of Evesham, the Parliament, which had assembled at Marlborough, adopted several of the liberal guarantees formerly proposed by the Earl of Leicester; the last of the "patriots," as they called themselves, who still held the Isle of Ely, laid down their arms; the citizens of London received a fresh charter, and the country was at peace.
Scarcely had peace been secured, when Prince Edward took advantage of it to assume the cross, as did also his wife Eleanor of Castile, and his cousin Henry of Almagne. They made sail in the month of July, 1270; Louis IX. had just set out on his second crusade, and Prince Edward, a great admirer of his uncle of France, was hastening to join him, when Henry of Almagne, who had been sent upon a secret mission to Italy, was assassinated by his cousins, the Montforts. This blow was fatal to the old King of the Romans, who died in the month of December, 1271; eleven months afterwards, on the 16th of November, 1272, his brother. King Henry III., also died. He was interred in Westminster Abbey; but before being lowered into the grave, the Earl of Gloucester, placing his naked hand upon the corpse, took an oath of fidelity to King Edward I.; the other barons followed his example. King Henry was sixty-five years of age, and had reigned fifty-six. King only in name, feeble and frivolous, he had seen the liberties of his people grow greater under his eyes and against his wish; his son, who was still vainly contending against them, was destined to derive from the free support and energetic ardor of the English nation, the strength which served him through his wars and conquests.
The English fleet was speeding towards the coast of Tunis, to which place the policy of Charles of Anjou had taken Louis IX. Prince Edward was already rejoicing at the idea of going back to his uncle, to gain instruction in Christian chivalry. But with the land appearing in the horizon, when approaching the port, the French vessels were seen in mourning, the flag being at half-mast. A feeling of uneasiness spread through the fleet. A little bark put out from shore; she came alongside the prince's vessel. "The holy king is dead," said the sailors, and they burst into tears. Prince Edward was in despair; he landed, but in imagination seemed to be walking among ghosts. The French soldiers, discouraged, sick, and disheartened, resolved to give up an enterprise the commencement of which had been so disastrous. The young King of France, Philip the Bold, urged Prince Edward to return like himself to his country; but Edward was inflexible. "I would go," said he, "even had I only with me Torvac, my equerry." As far as Trapani, in Sicily, he accompanied the funeral procession of King Philip, bearing the coffins of his father and brother. When he reached France the unfortunate young monarch had added to these the biers of his wife, his sister, and his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre.
Prince Edward left Sicily in the spring of 1271, making sail towards Acre, the only place which still remained in the hands of the Christians. He commanded a small band of troops, and the European knights who were in Palestine did not respond very readily to his appeal. An attack on Nazareth, followed by the massacre of the Mussulman garrison, and the repair of the walls round Acre, was the result of the Seventh Crusade, when Edward himself nearly fell a victim. He was in his camp, on the Friday after Whit-Sunday, towards the time of vespers; overcome by the heat, he was resting upon a couch, when a messenger from the Emir of Jaffa presented himself at the door of the tent. He was in frequent communication with the prince, and was, therefore, allowed to enter. The Arab presented his papers; then, suddenly drawing a dagger from his long sleeve, he stabbed the Prince in the region of the heart. Edward sprang up from his couch, and, knocking down the assassin, fractured his skull with a stool. Then, repressing with a sign the violence of his attendants, who had appeared on hearing the commotion, and who were mutilating the assassin's body,—"Of what use is it," he asked, "to strike a dead man?"
The prince's wound was slight, but the idea of poison presented itself to everybody's mind. The Spanish legend relates that Eleanor of Castile kneeled down before her husband, and, applying her lips to the wound, sucked the poison from the wound. This noble instance of conjugal love is disbelieved, however, by some historians. An English surgeon was called, who commenced a cruel operation. Eleanor was very pale, and her brother-in-law dragged her out of the tent. She struggled with him, weeping all the while. "It is better that you should cry," he said abruptly, "than that all England should be in mourning." Edward's wound was soon healed. As soon as his wife had recovered, after the birth of a little girl, called Joan of Acre, in token of her birthplace, the English troops set sail again, promising themselves, as King Richard had done, to come back to the Holy Land with larger forces. But the ardor for the crusades had died out. Saint Louis and Prince Edward of England were the last crusaders, and eighteen years later, in 1291, the last remains of Christian power in the East disappeared in its turn. Acre was retaken from the Templars by the Sultan Keladeen. The Holy Sepulchre thenceforth remained in the hands of the infidels.
Prince Edward passed through Italy and paid a visit at Rome to Pope Gregory X., formerly Archdeacon of Liege, a friend of the prince, and while with him received tidings of the death of the king his father. The grief which this loss caused him was so violent that Charles of Anjou was astonished; a throne would readily have consoled him for the death of the weak Henry of Winchester. "You lost two children," he remarked, "without displaying as much grief." "The Lord who gave me my children, can give me others," rejoined Edward; "but who can give me back a father?"
The new king was in no hurry to return to his kingdom. He stayed in Italy to obtain justice for the murder of Henry of Almagne; but Simon of Montfort was already dead, and Guy was subjected only to a term of imprisonment, but contrived to elude his gaolers. Edward then proceeded to France to do homage for Guienne to King Philip the Bold; he at the same time visited his possessions, being apprehensive, no doubt, that some plot might be on foot to deprive him of them. On his return he was challenged to single combat in a tournament by the Count of Châlons. Edward was warned by the Pope that that nobleman sought his life. He was by nature distrustful, and when he saw at Châlons a larger number of knights than he possessed himself, his suspicions were aroused, and the tournament became a battle. The English gained the victory; the Count of Châlons himself was for a moment in danger; Edward compelling him to save his life by surrendering to a mere man-at-arms.
On the 2nd of August, 1274, the King of England at length landed at Dover, and on the 19th of the same month was crowned at Westminster, to the great delight of the people. The nation was proud of its young king, of his reputation for courage and virtue, of his exploits and perils in the Holy Land. His reign commenced under happy auspices. The Jews alone disliked the accession of a prince so renowned for his austere piety and for his zeal against the infidels. Their instinct had not deceived them; Edward was always violently hostile to them, and one of the first acts of his government, on his return from the crusade, was to hang all the Jews who were in possession of sweated coin. More than two hundred of them perished in London alone for this offence, common among both the Jews and the Christians. It was but the beginning of their grievances. Persecuted, plundered, imprisoned, the unlucky Israelites were finally banished from the country in 1290, and all the property which they were obliged to leave behind them was confiscated.
While the king was hanging the Jews, he was also instituting a commission instructed to inquire into the state of landed property in the kingdom, in order to put to a test the title-deeds of the Christians. When proofs were wanting the king exacted a fine before granting fresh letters patent; but this useful device was not always practicable. When Earl Warren was called upon to produce his documents, he drew his sword. "That is the title by which I hold my lands," he said, "and that will suffice me to defend them. Our fathers who came over with William the Bastard acquired the land with their good lances; he did not conquer the country unassisted; he was supported by others, and his supporters shared the spoil with him." The earl's title deeds were deemed sufficient.
The prosperity of England was great at this time; several years of rest had allowed its commerce to develope itself. The king respected the charters in all important particulars; his zealous judicial administration had diminished the number of robbers who infested the highways, and secured the integrity of the magistrates; and in consequence he was popular among his subjects. But this peaceful glory did not suffice for Edward I. As ambitious as his ancestors, he had a desire to make conquests in other quarters. Instead of looking with an envious eye on the Continent, he had conceived the project of subjecting the whole of Great Britain to his dominion. Scotland was far off, and he could find no pretext for declaring war in that direction. Wales had never recognized anything but a partial authority of the kings of England, and the reigning prince, Llewellyn, had neglected to do homage to Edward I. on his accession to the throne. It was in this direction then that the king turned his attention. He advanced towards the frontiers of Wales towards the end of the year 1276. All attempts at negotiation failed, and Llewellyn was declared a rebel in that part of the year when the snow was beginning to cover the mountains. The war could not possibly begin for several months.
"That is the title by which I hold my lands."
Edward however, did not lose time. David, the younger brother of Llewellyn, had been deprived by the latter of all his property; the King of England conferred many favors upon him, and the prince, out of gratitude, summoned all his partisans under the standard of England. Hostilities began in the summer; Edward entered the enemy's territory, while his fleet took possession of the Isle of Anglesey, and, driving Llewellyn from castle to castle, from retreat to retreat, he reduced him in a short time to famine in the depths of the forests. The Welsh prince was obliged to surrender, hard as were the conditions which were imposed upon him. But Edward was generous, although severe; he remitted his demands one by one, and ended by consenting to the marriage of Llewellyn with Eleanor of Montfort, daughter of the Earl of Leicester; she had for some time been affianced to him, and had been captured at sea in the preceding year, when she was proceeding to Wales. David had received a large gift of property. Edward withdrew his armies, leaving in Wales only some soldiers in the castles, and the Chief Justice, Roger Clifford, who was entrusted with the government of the new conquest.
The King of England had not taken into account the patriotic spirit which endeared their national independence to the Welsh people. In vain had he raised David to the rank of earl; in vain had he given him an English wife; as soon as the Welsh prince found himself in his mountains again, he remembered only that his country was formerly free and that he had contributed towards reducing it to subjection. The civil and military measures ordained by Edward were obnoxious to the people; the highways which were opened up across forests, the executions of criminals for crimes which had formerly been punished by fines, according to the Welsh laws; the encroachments of the king's officers upon the rights of the Welsh nobility; so many grievances easily furnished pretexts for David's new resolve. He persuaded his brother to break all his engagements with Edward. An old prophecy of Merlin began to circulate again throughout the mountains; it was to the effect that the Prince of Wales would be crowned in London when the money in that town should be round, and it was rumored in Wales that it was forbidden to cut in halves the new coin which had recently been struck in England, as had hitherto been the practice. The day of victory seemed at length to have arrived.
It was on Palm Sunday, 1282; dark night had come on, and a violent storm was raging in the forests. David suddenly attacked Hawarden Castle, where the chief justicier resided. The latter was seized in his bed, wounded, and dragged into the mountains. All the country rose; Llewellyn joined his brother and laid siege to the castles of Flint and Rhuddlam; the English settlers were everywhere murdered. All Wales was up in arms when tidings of the insurrection reached the king.
Edward pretended not to believe in the magnitude of the rebellion; but he adopted active measures to repress it. He soon arrived in the mountains; the autumn had come, the bad weather was beginning, and the English suffered greatly from the inclemency of the climate. A portion of the army who tried to make use of the temporary bridge uniting the Isle of Anglesey to the mainland, were attacked by the insurgents and completely destroyed. Edward himself was several times obliged to retreat. Llewellyn, emboldened by his success, entrusted David to defend the defiles of the mountains, and marched to meet the king, who had gathered large forces near Carmarthen. A detachment encountered the Welsh prince in a farm where he had slept, and, without knowing him, an English knight engaged in a combat with him. Llewellyn was killed; the struggle was then carried on between the English and the Welsh who had come to join their prince. When the dead were despoiled after the battle, Llewellyn was recognized, and his head was sent to Edward in token of victory. David still held his position in the mountains; at length he was betrayed, delivered up to the English, and imprisoned in Durham Castle with his wife and children. In the month of September, 1283, the English Parliament condemned him to death as guilty of high treason, while Edward promised a new prince to the country which he had just subdued. Queen Eleanor was at Carnarvon Castle, waiting to be delivered of a child; she gave birth to a son on the 25th of April, 1284. The child was immediately called Edward Prince of Wales; and when he found himself heir presumptive to the throne, by the death of his elder brother Alphonsus, his title became the appanage of the eldest son of the King of England, thus perpetuating the remembrance of the definitive subjection of the Welsh people and the feeble consolation which the conqueror had offered to them.
A few years of peace followed the conquest of Wales. The king had been recalled on the Continent to serve as an arbitrator on the claims of the houses of France, of Arragon, and of Anjou to the crown of Sicily. His English subjects were clamoring for his return, and they ended by refusing him the necessary subsidies. The king then returned to England; but a great misfortune awaited him; Queen Eleanor died on the 29th of November, 1292. With her disappeared the softening influence which had modified the haughty character and ambitious views of the king; and just at this moment a great temptation offered itself to him.
The King of Scotland, Alexander III., had died in 1286, leaving no other heir than his granddaughter Margaret, princess of Norway. She was still a child, and her father had kept her for some time past with him. She at length sailed for Scotland in 1290; but she died during the passage, and Scotland became a prey to all the evils of a contested succession. Thirteen noblemen, descendants of members of the royal family, set up claims to the throne simultaneously; but two of them had prospects very much better than those of any of the others: these were John Baliol and Robert Bruce, grandson and son of two elder daughters of David, earl of Huntingdon, the younger brother of King William the Lion; but no one possessed claims sufficiently strong to impress the people in their favor. The Scotch, troubled by the prospect of anarchy without result, sent an embassy to King Edward to ask him to act as arbitrator in this serious aspect of affairs, and to decide who should be King of Scotland.
Edward received the deputation at Norham on the 10th of May, 1291, and from the first declared that, as liege lord of Scotland, he would settle the question of the succession, insisting, first of all, upon the recognition of his rights of superiority by the pretenders. The Scotch people hesitated; they asked for a delay. "By St. Edward, from whom I hold my crown," cried the King of England, "I will establish my just rights, or perish in the attempt." And the assembly was adjourned until the 2nd of June following. Edward had convoked all the barons.
On the appointed day, eight claimants had met near Norham, in the plain of Hollywell-Haugh, on the Scotch territory. When the Chancellor of England asked the pretenders, among whom was Robert Bruce, whether they were willing to abide by the decision of Edward, king of England, as liege lord of Scotland, Bruce recognized with out hesitation the rights of the powerful monarch who could award the crown to him. His rivals did likewise, and John Baliol, who arrived on the morrow, was the more willing to compromise the safety of his country as he believed he had secured the favor of Edward. The chancellor had taken care to announce, in the name of his master, that the right of the king as liege lord, which had just been recognized, in no way affected the titles to property which he might think proper to proclaim valid thereafter. On the 3rd of June, a commission was appointed to examine the rights of the two great pretenders, and the regents of Scotland consigned all the royal castles to Edward, on condition that he should give them up two months after the decision between Bruce and Baliol. On the 15th of the same month, the pretenders took the oath of allegiance to Edward, as did also a great number of Scotch barons, and peace was proclaimed in his name, as liege lord of Scotland. The first step in the path of dependence had been made.
The second act of the drama was enacted at Berwick Castle, on the 17th of November, 1292. There King Edward, having made a scrutiny of the rights of all the pretenders, and having consulted the Parliament of Scotland, at length declared that the grandson of the elder daughter had a prior claim to that of the son of the younger daughter, thus deciding in favor of Baliol to the exclusion of Bruce. On the 19th the governors of the castles received instructions to give up their keys to the new king, and on the morrow Baliol swore fidelity to Edward at Norham. Having been crowned on the 30th at Scone, he proceeded to England, whither King Edward had been called in consequence of the illness and death of Eleanor of Castile; the new king did homage for the kingdom of Scotland on the 26th of November, at Newcastle. The King of England again reserved his rights of property.
While Edward was laboring to subject the Scotch people, King Philip the Fair was secretly plotting with the intention of driving the English from the French soil and depriving them of Aquitaine. An encounter had taken place between the English and Norman sailors on the coast of Guienne; the merchantmen of the two countries taking sides warmly, had been engaged in several fights with each other. The King of France seized the opportunity, some outrages having been committed on his subjects, to summon King Edward to appear at his court, as Duke of Aquitaine, in order to answer before his peers for the offences committed against his liege lord. Edward sent his brother Edmund, who weakly consented to satisfy the feudal honor of King Philip by placing in the hands of the French officers the duchy of Gascony for a period of forty days. The conditions were agreed to. The question was not one of territorial aggrandisement but of reparation. The English prince waited for forty days. This period of time having elapsed, he came to claim the restoration of his domains; the King of France laughed, and declared that the Duke of Aquitaine had forfeited his rights as a vassal by not presenting himself personally before his liege lord. The grand constable was at once sent to all the towns and castles belonging to King Edward; a large number of them opened their gates to him; the duchy of Aquitaine was returning, it was said, to the crown. Edward I., however, had commenced his preparations for reclaiming his provinces by force of arms. The English ships were about to weigh anchor, when a violent insurrection broke out in Wales. The king despatched a little body of troops into Gascony, sent his fleet to hover round the coasts and seize all the French ships which might come in their way, and despatched the greater portion of his forces to Wales. In spite of the winter, the snow, the mountains, the impenetrable forests, and the obstinacy of the insurgents, Edward pursued his enemies in all directions, and contrived to subdue them. Madoc, the ringleader, laid down his arms; the most intractable chiefs were sentenced to be imprisoned for life, and the king, triumphant, left Wales to embark for France. The Scotch did not allow him time, however, to accomplish his intention.
Since Edward had placed the feeble Baliol upon the throne of Scotland, he had spared him no humiliation. Every time that a petitioner, dissatisfied with the justice of the King of Scotland, thought proper to appeal to the liege lord, Edward would summon Baliol to appear at his court to render an account of his judgment, and this summons was repeated four times during the first year of his reign. At length, in 1293, in the matter of a complaint of the Earl of Fife, Baliol, who was tired of these proceedings, declared that the question concerned his subjects, and that he could not reply to the appeal without consulting his people. "What!" cried Edward; "you are my vassal, you have done homage to me, and it is to answer to me for your acts that you are here." Baliol persisted; the English Parliament condemned his conduct, and King Edward only consented to retard by some months the pronouncing of the sentence. In the interval, the difficulty about Guienne occurred, and King Edward, occupied with his struggles against his own liege lord, soon learnt that his vassal, the King of Scotland, led on by the national movement in his country, had contracted with King Philip an alliance cemented by a promise of marriage between his young son Edward and Jane of Valois, niece of the King of France. A short time before, the Parliament of Scotland had decided on sending back all the Englishmen employed at the court and formed a council consisting of four earls, four bishops, and four barons, who were entrusted with the management of the affairs of the kingdom. Baliol was held by his subjects in a kind of captivity.
The suspicions which King Edward had conceived, and which had kept him in England, while he sent his brother into Guienne, were soon justified. The Scotch invaded the county of Cumberland with a large army, but were easily repulsed. Edward soon advanced towards the frontier, marching first of all against Berwick. He attacked the town by land and sea, and all resistance was useless. The king, mounted upon his horse Bayard, was the first to spring across the dyke which protected the town. A fearful massacre took place; neither age nor sex excited any pity. It was on the 30th of March, 1296. On the 5th of April, the abbot of Arbroath presented himself at the English camp; he brought Baliol's renunciation of all homage towards the King of England. Edward had a short time before addressed a similar communication to Philip, king of France; but this coincidence did not appease his anger. "Ah! then the scoundrel has dared to defy me!" he cried; "if he will not come to us, we will go to him." And he marched forward, taking possession on his way of the castles which resisted him. Dunbar, Roxburgh, Dunbarton, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling, had already fallen into Edward's hands, when a fresh message from Baliol was brought to him. He humbly begged for peace. The king did not do his revolted vassal the honor of treating him as a sovereign and of negotiating personally with him; he ordered Baliol to proceed to the castle of Brechin, to which place he despatched the Bishop of Durham. A few days later, on the 7th of June, 1296, Baliol, deprived of all his regal insignia, with a white rod in his hand, presented himself at the cemetery of Strathkathro, in the county of Angus, acknowledging that he had violated all his obligations towards his liege lord, who had very justly invaded his fief. After this act of self-abasement and renunciation, tired, he said, of the malice and ingratitude of men, he was sent to the Tower in honorable captivity, and subsequently ended his life in his domains of Normandy, forgotten or despised by all.
Robert Bruce at once claimed the crown. "Do you think that I have nothing else to do but to conquer kingdoms for you?" King Edward harshly replied; and he marched towards the north, receiving everywhere the homage of the Scotch nobility. He had convened a Parliament at Berwick; he proceeded there on the 28th of August, in order to arrange the government of his new acquisition. He displayed on this occasion great prudence and moderation; he returned to the Church all property which had been confiscated from it, and left the inferior offices in the hands of the functionaries who occupied them; but the guardianship of the castles was confided to the English. Warren, earl of Surrey, was nominated governor; Hugh de Cressingham, treasurer; and William Ormesby, chief justicier. Scotland was treated as a conquered country. King Edward now thought himself at leisure to devote his attention to his affairs in France and to prepare to cross the Channel.
The allies of England upon the Continent were in urgent need of his help. The Earl of Bar, the son-in-law of Edward, had been defeated and made a prisoner in an attempt against Champagne, and his wife, being unable to regain her liberty, had died of grief. Guy, count of Flanders, had been attracted to Paris under false pretences, together with his wife and his daughter Philippa, who was affianced to Prince Edward of England; all three had been thrown into prison, and, although the count succeeded in buying his freedom, he had been compelled to leave his daughter in the hands of Philip the Fair, who denied the right of vassals to give their daughters in marriage without the authority of their lord.
King Edward would have had great difficulty in helping his foreign allies, for he was engaged in a struggle against his English subjects. The conquest of the countries of Wales and Scotland had required great efforts, and the nation had borne its heavy burdens without murmuring. In 1295, however, on a demand of the king, who required one-half of their revenues, the clergy appealed to Pope Boniface VIII., who issued a bull in their favor. But the ecclesiastical thunders had begun to lose their terrors; Edward had seized upon the property of the clergy, and the bishops had ended by giving in. The merchants and citizens were more obstinate than the priests, and when the king, in 1297, conceived the idea of imposing an enormous tax upon every bale of wool, making at the same time large requisitions for grain, the complaints became loud. From remonstrance, the people had arrived at overt resistance, when the king seized at all the ports the wool and skins intended for exportation, and sold them for his own benefit. The merchants met together, protested against this "evil toll," as they called it, and declared that the Magna Charta ordered that the English people were not to be taxed without their own consent. A certain number of powerful noblemen supported the citizens in this movement.
King Edward had raised two armies: one was to march to Guienne, and the other to Flanders, to help the Count Guy, who was anxious to avenge his injuries on King Philip. Edmund, King Edward's brother, had died in Guienne. The king himself reckoned upon commanding the expedition in Flanders. He summoned to Salisbury Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford and constable of England, and Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, field-marshal, to entrust to them the command of the army of Guienne. Both replied that their offices compelled them to remain near the king's person during the war, and that they would not proceed to Guienne without him. "By the Lord God Almighty, my lord earl!" cried Edward, addressing himself to Bigod, "You shall go, or you shall be hanged." "By the Lord God Almighty, Sire king," replied the proud baron, calmly, "I shall not go, neither shall I be hanged." And both retired to their estates, immediately followed by thirty bannerets and by fifteen hundred knights, who everywhere created an opposition to the levying of the taxes.
The king was in an awkward position. He convoked in London a popular assembly, having taken care first of all to become reconciled with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Winchelsea, who had been the prime mover in the resistance of the clergy, and had found himself deprived of all his revenues in consequence; then, accompanied by the prelate, the Earl of Warwick, and Prince Edward, the king appealed directly to the people, assuring them that nothing was more disagreeable to him than to impose heavy burdens upon his well-beloved subjects; but that he had been compelled to do so in order to defend them against the Scotch, the Welsh, and the French. "I am now going to expose myself for you to the risks of war," said he; "if I return alive, I will repay you for everything; if I should die, there is my son: place him upon the throne, and his gratitude will reward your fidelity." The king was weeping, and all those who were present were profoundly touched. Prince Edward was declared regent amid public acclamation; the Archbishop of Canterbury was nominated as his adviser, and the king marched towards the coast. He had only arrived at Winchester, when he was stopped, on the 12th of August, by a remonstrance from the prelates, the earls, the barons, and the commoners of England, declaring that they were not obliged to accompany him into Flanders, their ancestors not having served the kings of England in that country; and they added that, even were they so disposed, the poverty to which they had been reduced did not allow them to do so. "The king," they said, "had already violated on several occasions the charters which he had solemnly ratified; his 'evil toll' was intolerable, and his absence was about to leave the country a prey to the invasions of the Scotch and the Welsh." The king made an evasive reply to this declaration; reckoning upon the affection of the common people, he made sail with the troops who remained with him, and disembarked at Sluys towards the end of August.
Scarcely had Edward left the coasts of England when Bigod and Bohun entered London, on the 24th of August, at the head of considerable forces. The strictest discipline prevailed in the ranks of their followers. They went straight to the treasury, and deposited their complaints against the arbitrary exactions and the violations of Magna Charta committed by the king; then, proceeding to Guildhall, they exhorted the citizens of London to maintain their rights. The young regent, being alarmed, convoked a Parliament, which abolished the impost upon wool, and decreed that no tax whatever should in future be raised without the consent of the bishops, peers, citizens, and freemen of the kingdom, and that the king should not seize upon any goods without the authority of the owners. Orders were sent out to read the Magna Charta in all the churches once a year, under pain of excommunication against those who should endeavor to prevent it. This law was to be proclaimed every Sunday in all the churches.
The act, signed in London, was sent to Ghent, where King Edward was at the time. They demanded that it should be ratified. The barons undertook to join the king in Flanders, or to march against Scotland, where the people had again risen, according to his pleasure. During three days, the pride of King Edward resisted; at length he signed the document, promising himself to make all his concessions void afterwards. As soon as they were secure in their victory, the barons set out for Scotland.
Edward needed the support and good will of his English subjects, for he had gained but little success in Flanders. After having with difficulty quelled the violent rivalries which had occurred in his fleet between the sailors of the different ports, he had found a great number of Flemish towns occupied by the French, supported by a party powerful in the country itself. The Count Guy had again fallen into the hands of the King of France. The Flemish and English would often engage in struggles against each other, after having fought together against the French; Edward's foreign allies, the Emperor, the Duke of Austria, and the Duke of Brabant, sent no help, believing they had done their share in receiving the subsidies of England. King Edward listened to the overtures of Pope Boniface VIII., who was endeavoring to re-establish peace. He left Guy of Flanders in prison, where the latter, as well as his daughter, afterwards died. He affianced his son Edward to Isabel of France, thus laying the foundation of the misfortune of his lifetime, and himself married Princess Margaret, who was then seventeen years of age, contenting himself with recovering Aquitaine, while Guienne still remained in the hands of Philip the Fair. Peace being thus concluded, Edward started on his return to his kingdom, where the position of affairs imperatively required his presence.
The great Scotch noblemen had taken the oath of allegiance to the King of England, but the less powerful ones had not had the honor of accomplishing that act of submission. Sir Malcolm Wallace, of Ellerslie, had not taken the oath, nor had his second son, William Wallace, who was already outlawed for the murder of an English soldier in consequence of a dispute. He had lived since then in the mountains; but, having one day appeared at the market in Lanark, he was insulted by an Englishman, whom he killed. He found a friendly shelter, and contrived to escape; but the house which had protected him was burnt, and the mistress of it lost her life. Wallace swore to wreak a terrible revenge upon the English.
Soon, all the adventurers, outlaws, and bold spirits, weary of subjection, rallied round Wallace. At the moment when King Edward started for Flanders, the Scottish leader had already become a dangerous partisan, attacking the English when he met them in small numbers, and plundering the country under their authority. His forces were increasing in number; many noblemen had joined him, and were raising their standards in favor of John, king of Scotland. A certain number of powerful noblemen followed them. Robert Bruce himself, grandson of him who had contested the crown against Baliol, had come over to the national party. "The Pope will absolve me from all the oaths which I have involuntarily sworn in favor of King Edward," said the future deliverer of Scotland. The Earl of Surrey was raising forces in the southern part of the kingdom.