Part 6

The King, being informed of the approach of the Barons, soon set himself in motion with his army, and went forward to meet them with unfurled banners, preceded by the royal ensign, which bore on it a dragon, as if announcing itself the messenger of death. His army was divided into three bodies; the first division was under the command of his eldest son Edward, accompanied by William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and John de Warrenne, Earl of Surrey and Sussex. The second was commanded by the King of Germany and his son Henry; whilst King Henry himself commanded the third division. The army of the Barons was in four divisions; the first of which was under the command of Henry de Montfort and the Earl of Hereford; the second under Gilbert Clare, John Fitz John, and William de Monchesnil; the third, composed of Londoners, was commanded by Nicholas Segrave; and Earl Simon and Thomas Pelvedon led the fourth division. Edward with his division rushed on the enemy with such impetuosity that he forced them to retreat, many of them--report stated the number of knights to amount to sixty--being drowned. The Londoners were soon put to flight, and Edward, who thirsted for their blood owing to the insult lately offered to his mother, pursued them for the distance of four miles, and made a dreadful slaughter of them; but, by his absence, he much weakened the King's forces. In the meantime, some of the chiefs of the King's army, seeing the Earl's standard on the hill, and thinking that the Earl himself was there, hastened thither suddenly and slew the citizens of London who were shut up in the car, not knowing that they were friendly to their cause. During all this time, however, the Earl and Gilbert Clare were by no means idle, but struck down and slew all who opposed them, directing their utmost endeavours to take the King alive; and great numbers of the King's adherents fell before them. John, Earl Warrenne, William de Valence, and Guy de Lusignan, all uterine brothers of the King, Hugh Bigod, and about three hundred armed knights, turned their backs and fled before the fierce attacks of the Barons. Richard, King of Germany, Robert Bruce, and John Comyn, who had brought a number of Scots with them, were made prisoners. King Henry, also, after having his horse killed under him, surrendered himself to Simon de Montfort, and was shortly afterwards placed in the priory under a guard. Many of the Barons of Scotland were slain on the spot on that day, and the foot-soldiers who had come with them were slaughtered in great numbers. There were, moreover, made prisoners, Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford; John Fitzallan, Earl of Arundel; William Bardolf, Robert Tateshull, Roger Somerey, Henry Percy, and Philip Basset. On the side of the King were slain the Justiciaries, William Wilton and Fulk FitzWarren, the one falling in battle, the other being drowned in the river. On the side of the Barons there fell Ralph Hornigande, a Baron, and William Blund, the Earl's standard-bearer. It was stated that the loss on both sides put together amounted to five thousand men.

Edward, on returning with his companions in arms from the slaughter of the Londoners, not knowing what had happened to his father, went round the outside of the town and reached the Castle of Lewes; but not finding his father there, he entered the priory, where he met with him and learned what had passed. The Barons, in the meantime, made an assault on the castle, but as the garrison made a vigorous defence, they withdrew; Edward, on hearing of the daring bravery of the garrison, was much inspirited, and, reassembling his troops, wished to try his fortune in another battle. The Barons, on learning his determination, sent persons to mediate for a peace, promising to come to some definite arrangement to that effect on the morrow. On the morrow, therefore, by the intervention of the Preacher and Minorite brethren, it was arranged that on the sixth day following, Edward and Henry should deliver themselves up to Earl Simon, in exchange for their fathers the Kings of England and Germany, in the hope of obtaining peace and tranquillity, on condition that due deliberation should be taken as to which of the statutes and provisions ought to be observed to benefit the kingdom, and which ought to be annulled, and that the spoil taken on both sides should be given up without any ransom. On the Saturday following the King gave permission to all who had joined his cause to return to their homes.... As for Edward, he was sent to the Castle of Wallingford for safety.

THE VIEWS OF THE KING AND OF THE BARONS CONCERNING THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND (1264).

+Source.+--_The Song of Lewes._ (_Political Songs of England from the Reign of John to that of Edward II._, Camden Society, 1839.)

We are touching the root of the perturbation of the kingdom of which we are speaking, and of the dissension of the parties who fought the said battle. The objects at which these two parties aimed were different. The King, with his, wished thus to be free; and so (it was urged on his side) he ought to be; and he must cease to be King, deprived of the rights of a King, unless he could do whatever he pleased. It was no part of the duty of the magnates of the kingdom to determine whom he should prefer to his earldoms, or on whom he should confer the custody of castles, or whom he would have to administer justice to the people, and to be Chancellor and Treasurer of the kingdom. He would have everyone at his own will, and counsellors from whatever nation he chose, and all ministers at his own discretion; while the Barons of England are not to interfere with the King's actions, the command of the Prince having the force of law, and what he may dictate binding everybody at his pleasure. For every Earl also is thus his own master, giving to everyone of his own men both as much as he will, and to whom he will; and although he be a subject, the King permits it all. Which, if he do well, is profitable to the doer; if not, he must himself see to it; the King will not hinder him from injuring himself. Why is the Prince worse in condition, when the affairs of the Baron, the knight, and the freeman, are thus managed? Therefore they aim at making the King a slave, who wish to diminish his power, to take away his dignity of Prince; they wish by sedition to reduce captive into guardianship and subjection the royal power, and to disinherit the King, that he shall be unable to reign so fully as hitherto have done the Kings who preceded him, who were in no respect subjected to their people, but administered their own affairs at their will, and conferred what they had to confer according to their own pleasure. This is the King's argument, which has an appearance of fairness, and this is alleged in defence of the right of the kingdom.

Now let my pen turn to the other side:--let me describe the object at which the Barons aim.... The adversaries of the King are enemies who make war upon him, and counsellors who flatter the King, who seduce their Prince with deceitful words, and who lead him into error by their double tongues; these are adversaries worse than those who are perverse; it is these who pretend to be good whilst they are seducers, and procurers of their own advancement; they deceive the incautious, whom they render less on their guard by means of things that please them, whereby they are not provided against, but are considered as prudent advisers.... And if such, by their conduct, should change the state of the kingdom; if they should banish justice to put injustice in its place; if they should call in strangers and trample upon the natives; and if they should subdue the kingdom to foreigners; if they should not care for the magnates and nobles of the land, and should place contemptible persons over them; and if they should overthrow and humiliate the great; if they should pervert and turn upside down the order of things; if they should leave the measures that are best to advance those that are worst;--do not those who act thus devastate the kingdom?...

A wise Prince will never reject his people, but an unwise one will disturb the kingdom. Wherefore, if a King is less wise than he ought to be, what advantage will the kingdom gain by his reign? Is he to seek by his own opinion on whom he should depend to have his failing supplied? If he alone choose, he will be easily deceived, who is not capable of knowing who will be useful. Therefore let the community of the kingdom advise; and let it be known what the generality thinks, to whom their own laws are best known. Nor are all those of the country so uninstructed as not to know better than strangers the customs of their own kingdom, which have been bequeathed from father to son. They who are ruled by the laws know these laws best; they who experience them are best acquainted with them; and since it is their own affairs which are at stake, they will take more care, and will act with an eye to their own peace. They who want experience can know little; they will profit little the kingdom who are not stedfast. Hence it may be deduced that it concerns the community to see what sort of men ought justly to be chosen for the unity of the kingdom; they who are willing and know how, and are able to profit it, such should be made the counsellors and coadjutors of the King; to whom are known the various customs of their country; who feel that they suffer themselves when the kingdom suffers; and who guard the kingdom, lest, if hurt be done to the whole, the parts have reason to grieve while they suffer along with it; which rejoice, when it has cause to rejoice, if they love it....

From all that has been said, it may appear evident that it becomes a King to see, together with his nobles, what things are convenient for the government of the kingdom, and what are expedient for the preservation of peace; and that the King have natives for his companions, not foreigners nor favourites for his counsellors or for the great nobles of the kingdom.

THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR (1264).

+Source.+--_Chronicon Thomæ Wykes_, pp. 157-159. (_Annales Monastici_, vol. iv.--Rolls Series.)

But to return to the course of events in England, we must not pass over in a feigned silence the wickedness or madness of the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports, and the many hardships which they brought upon the English people. For they gathered together a large fleet of pirate vessels, with which they constantly scoured the seas, to prevent by force the bringing of provisions to England; all those whom they were able to capture on the seas, natives as well as foreigners, they cruelly slew, and, casting the bodies into the deep, put to their own use the ships and all they contained; they became crueller, in their destruction, than the whirlpool of Scylla or Charybdis, for they despoiled of all their goods and slew, without respect of persons, the merchants who were accustomed to bring us stores. Wherefore the supply of foodstuffs, which generally had been more plentiful in England than in all other regions, so diminished, that wine, previously sold at forty shillings, easily fetched ten marks; and wax, which generally did not exceed forty shillings, was worth eight marks and more; and a pound of pepper, formerly scarcely worth sixpence, was sold for three shillings. To be brief, there was such a scarcity of salt, iron, steel, cloth, and all manner of goods, that the people suffered terribly from want, and even divers merchants were forced to beg, for the people could not send their goods out of the kingdom; wherefore, had not Divine Providence come quickly to succour the country in its misery, the supply of money would have failed, as well as that of goods. And the Earl--_i.e._, Simon de Montfort--wishing to soothe the popular ear by foolish fancies, announced and caused it to be proclaimed abroad that the inhabitants could easily be provided for out of the produce of the country itself, without bringing in provisions from abroad--an idea which is clearly absurd: for, indeed, the interchange of goods between two countries brings divers benefits to each in turn; nevertheless, some, wishing to please the Earl, wore garments of white cloth, refusing to put on coloured ones, lest they should be seeming to seek for necessaries from abroad.

The lord Henry de Montfort, too, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester, to fill up the cup of his greed, greatly tarnished his honour as a soldier by seizing and applying to his own purposes all the wool of the kingdom, which the merchants, not only of Flanders, but of England and other parts, had brought down to the harbours to ship each to his own country; for which dishonourable act, instead of a good soldier, he was known, for a byword, as "the woolcarder." By these and other distresses the kingdom of England was so weakened that, wounded by irreparable losses, it became a most miserable instead of a flourishing country, and, in the words of the Prophet, we were "a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us."

SIMON DE MONTFORT'S SCHEME OF GOVERNMENT (1264).

+Source.+--_Rymer's Fœdera_, vol. i., p. 443.

For the amendment of the state of the kingdom of England there shall be elected and nominated three discreet and faithful men of the realm, who shall receive authority and power from the lord King to elect or nominate, in the King's place, nine counsellors. Of these, three at least, in turn, shall always be present at the Court; and the lord King, by advice of the aforesaid nine, shall ordain and dispose of the wardenship of castles and all other business of the kingdom. The lord King, also, acting on the advice of the same nine, shall appoint the Justiciar, Chancellor, Treasurer, and other greater and lesser officials who have to do with any matters pertaining to the government of Court and kingdom. The first electors or nominators shall swear that, obeying the dictates of conscience, they will elect or nominate counsellors whom they believe to be useful and faithful to the honour of God and the Church, and to the lord King and kingdom. Further, the counsellors and all officials, greater and lesser, shall swear on appointment that they will faithfully carry out their duties, so far as they can, to the honour of God and the Church, and the good of the lord King and kingdom, taking no gifts, except the meat and drink commonly presented for the table. But if the aforesaid counsellors, or any one of them, in carrying out the duties entrusted to them, shall be found guilty of malversation, or for any other cause shall require to be changed, the lord King, by the advice of the first three electors or nominators, shall dismiss those requiring dismissal, and in their place, by advice of the same three, appoint and substitute other faithful and suitable men. If the greater or lesser officials shall be found guilty of malversation in their offices, the lord King, on the advice of the aforesaid nine, shall remove them, and by the same advice substitute others without delay. If the first three electors or nominators, in the election or nomination of counsellors, or the counsellors in the appointment of officials, or in carrying out or accomplishing other business pertaining to the King or kingdom, shall disagree, whatever is determined on or ordained by two-thirds shall be firmly observed; provided that among these two-thirds shall be a prelate of the Church in all ecclesiastical matters. And if it should happen that two-thirds of the aforesaid nine do not agree about any matter, the dispute shall be referred to the determination of the first three electors or nominators, or the greater part thereof. And should it seem fitting to the general body of prelates and Barons together that some person or persons should be appointed in the place of, or be substituted for any of the first three nominators, the lord King, on the advice of the general body of prelates and Barons, shall do so. The lord King (or the counsellors themselves, in place of, and by authority of the King), shall carry out all the aforesaid matters by advice of the nine in the form above described; the present ordinance being intended to hold good until the provisions of the Mise drawn up at Lewes, and afterwards signed by both sides, be jointly carried out, or other provisions approved of by both parties be substituted.

Given in Parliament at London, in the month of June, 1264.

THE EVESHAM CAMPAIGN (1265).

+Source.+--Continuation of _Matthew Paris_ (attributed to William Rishanger), vol. iii, pp. 353-354. (Bohn's Libraries.)

About this time the King's son Edward, who was detained in custody in the Castle of Hereford, obtained permission from his guards to take exercise in a field outside the city, and to amuse himself with trying the speed of their horses. On one occasion, after trying several horses and tiring them out, he at length chose a good one, which he mounted, and, urging him to speed with his spurs, he bade farewell to his guards, and, crossing the River Wye, he directed his course, accompanied by two knights and four esquires who were aware of his design, to the Castle of Wigmore. His guards gave pursuit to him, but seeing the banners of Roger Mortimer and Roger de Clifford, who were come to assist Edward in his escape, they were out-manœuvred, and so returned to Hereford. These occurrences took place on the eve of the Trinity, and were arranged with the counsel and assistance of the aforesaid knights. Thus released from his imprisonment, Edward assembled a large army, as numbers flocked to join him, and the counties of Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and Chester entered into an alliance with him, the towns and villages, cities and castles pouring forth their inhabitants to join his standard. He at once besieged and took the city of Gloucester, of which the Earl had lately gained possession, the garrison left therein taking flight to the castle; but after fifteen days they surrendered the castle also, and on giving their oath not to bear arms against Edward for the future, they were allowed to depart at liberty. The Earl of Leicester in the meantime attacked the Castle of Monmouth, which the Earl of Gloucester had lately taken and fortified, and having compelled the garrison to surrender, rased the castle to the ground. He then entered Glamorganshire, the territory of the said Earl of Gloucester, and being met by the Prince of Wales with assistance, the two chiefs together ravaged the whole country with fire and sword. Edward in the meantime, hearing that many of the partisans of Earl Simon had flocked together to the Castle of Kenilworth, joined his forces with those of the Earl of Gloucester, and, setting forth from Worcester in the evening, reached that place by forced marches. Coming on the place suddenly, he made prisoner of the Earl of Oxford, and about thirteen knights bannerets, before they could enter the castle, in which Simon, the son of Earl Simon, had already shut himself up. Simon, Earl of Leicester, always keeping the King in his company, returned from the south of Wales, and on the Festival of S. Peter ad Vincula, arrived at Kempsey, a manor of the Bishop of Worcester, and stayed there on the day following. Edward then returned from Kenilworth to Worcester, which is only three miles distant from the above-named manor; and Simon, on hearing of his arrival there, went away with the King at nightfall, and took up his quarters in the town of Evesham, where he awaited his unhappy destiny. For, on the morrow, which was the day of the finding of S. Stephen, Edward moved from Worcester, crossed the river near the town of Claines, and cut off the approach of the Earl to his son, who was in the Castle of Kenilworth, and prevented all chance of the father and son meeting. On the following day he drew near the town of Evesham on one side, and the Earl of Gloucester and Roger Mortimer came up with their respective forces in two other directions; thus the Earl of Leicester was hemmed in on all sides, and was under the necessity either of voluntarily surrendering or of giving them battle. On the fifth of August, which fell on the third day of the week, both armies met in a large plain outside the town, where a most severe conflict ensued, till the partisans of the Earl began to give way, and, the whole weight of the battle falling on him, he was slain on the field of battle. At the time of his death a storm of thunder and lightning occurred, and darkness prevailed to such an extent that all were struck with amazement. Besides the Earl, there fell in that battle twelve knights bannerets ... and a great number of others of inferior rank, such as esquires and foot-soldiers, the greatest loss being among the Welsh.

CHARACTER OF SIMON DE MONTFORT.

+Source.+--Continuation of _Matthew Paris_ (attributed to William Rishanger), vol. iii., p. 355. (Bohn's Libraries.)

Thus ended the labours of that noble man Earl Simon, who gave up not only his property, but also his person, to defend the poor from oppression, and for the maintenance of justice and the rights of the kingdom. He was distinguished for his learning; to him an assiduous attention to divine duties was a pleasure; he was moderate and frugal; and it was a usual practice of his to watch by night, in preference to sleeping. He was bold in speech and of a severe aspect. He put great confidence in the prayers of religious men, and always paid great respect to ecclesiastics. He endeavoured to adhere to the counsels of S. Robert, surnamed Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, and entrusted his children to him to be brought up when very young. On that prelate's counsel he relied when arranging matters of difficulty, when attempting dubious enterprises, and in finishing what he had begun, especially in those matters by which he hoped to increase his merits. It was reported that the same Bishop had enjoined on him, in order to obtain remission of his sins, to take up this cause, for which he fought even to the death, declaring that the peace of the Church of England could not be firmly established except by the sword, and positively assuring him that all who died for it would be crowned with martyrdom. Some persons, moreover, stated that on one occasion the Bishop placed his hand on the head of the Earl's eldest son, and said to him: "My well-beloved child, both thou and thy father shall die on one day, and by one kind of death; but it will be in the cause of justice and truth." Report goes that Simon, after his death, was distinguished by the working of many miracles, which, however, were not made publicly known, for fear of Kings.

THE DISINHERITED IN THE ISLE OF ELY (1266-1267).

+Source.+--_Chronicon Thomæ Wykes_, pp. 192-193, 204, 207-210. (_Annales Monastici_, vol. iv.--Rolls Series.)