96 quillity of his mind in consequence of the death of the Pope who had granted the first, the King wrote, Jan. 1, 1262, from Westminster, to petition the Pope to cancel his oath, as his predecessor had done', and found the new Pontiff, Urban IV., as pliant as his predecessor, so that his emissaries, John de Hemyngford and John Lovell, soon brought back another "solemn revocation of all the statutes, ordinances and restrictions which the barons of England had devised in diminution of the King's authority, even though he should have consented and sworn to them, denouncing at the same time the penalties of excommunication on all recusants." Some of the King's party, the Archbishop, Simon de Waltone, Bishop of Norwich, John Mansell and others, were enjoined to publish this in all churches with ringing of bells and lighted tapers*. Louis IX. had in the meanwhile been anxiously assisting Henry's agents at Paris, John de Cleyshill and John de Montferrant, in their endeavours to detach Simon de Montfort from the party of the barons, but he was obliged to report with deep regret his inability to find any method by which the Earl of Leicester might return to the peace and favour of his Sovereign, having been assured by the earl indeed just before Lent, that "though he had confidence in the good intentions of King Henry, yet he had none in his advisers, and therefore did not think it comported with his honour to agree to any terms, for certain reasons which he should only give by word of mouth." Even after this answer, which fixes the integrity of de Montfort on the highest testimony, the French King detained the agents at Paris, in the vain hope of ultimate success. 1 Rymer. 2 Urban IV., Jacobo Pantaleon, Patriarch of Jerusalem, elected Aug. 29, 1261; crowned Sept. 4; died Oct. 2, 1264. The absolution is dated "Viterbo, 5 Kal. Mar. (Feb. 5);" and its proclamation in Westminster, May 2, 1262. Rymer. "John Lovell," clerk and proctor to the King of England at the Roman court, writes relative to the Bull of Absolution which he had procured from Viterbo, 14th May.-956 Chanc. Rec. 5th Rep. 4 Rymer. Chr. W. Thorn. Another attempt at accommodation had been made in England by Commissioners' jointly appointed by both parties, and when these could not agree the disputed questions had been referred to the arbitration of Prince Richard. This decision, however, which pronounced in favour of the King's unlimited right of appointing any one he pleased to command his castles, obtained but little general acceptance, however much it encouraged the King to persevere in his unpopular course. Again Henry went to Paris, where he was always treated with the utmost courtesy, and was there so stricken with illness that for some time he could not attend to business; he described himself in a letter to his brother from St Germain, Sept. 30, 1262, "so depressed and broken down by his fever, that he could even then scarcely get out of bed, and walk a little; regretting also that he could not yet pay him the money he had borrowed' of him through Peter de Savoy, but thanking him for his labours and vexations on his account." Finding the negotiations with de Montfort now broken off, he cautioned his English adherents to guard against 1 Philip Basset, Walter de Merton the Chancellor, and Robert Waleran, by the King; John de la Haye, Richard Folyot and Richard de Middleton, by the barons. Walter de Merton received the Great Seal "without the consent of the barons," as stated in his Patent (Rot. Pat. 45° Hen. III., m. 8), on the King's requiring its unwilling surrender from Nicholas de Ely, on the Tuesday after the Translation of St Thomas the Martyr (July 7), 1260-1 (Pat. Rot. 45° Hen, III. m. 8). A salary of 400 marcs a year was appointed him. He continued Chancellor till displaced by the barons, when Nicholas de Ely succeeded him, 1263, on the Thursday before S. Margaret the Virgin (Jan. 28), in presence of Simon de Montfort, &c., at Westminster. During the king's absence abroad, both under Merton and Ely, the Seal was always to be attested by H. le De spenser, Justiciary. Walter de Merton was Bishop of Rochester, 1274–77, and founder of Merton College. He was again Chancellor on the death of Henry III. in K. Edward's absence, until Robert Burnel was appointed, Sept. 21, 1274. 2 In the Latin letters both of the Commissioners and Prince Richard (Rymer) the word "misa" occurs in the sense of reference to arbitration, which was afterwards affixed to the agreement of Lewes; it was, in fact, in common use, as also the term "compromissum:" "de quibus Rex et Barones sui posuerunt se in misam," per formam misæ supradictæ," "compromissum inter nos et Comitem non processit." 3 Rymer. 4 He had borrowed 10,000 marcs of his brother in 1247.-Cal. Rot. Pat., 31° H. III. Н his seditious intrigues'; but as after his recovery, though still feeble, he unnecessarily prolonged his journey homeward by a visit to Rheims, contrary to the advice of Mansel, he found on his return in December that Simon de Montfort had secretly preceded him early in October2, and under circumstances well calculated to give him increased importance. Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, the jealous compeer of de Montfort, was lately dead (July, 1262)3, and had left open to him the undisputed leadership of his party: the common danger had indeed already reconciled' these chiefs, and the survivor, "the key of England, who had locked out the aliens for three years," as was said of de Montfort, now seeing all his policy put in jeopardy, when the barons pressed him to assume the guidance of their somewhat weakened party, at once assented, "with a declaration of his equal readiness either to die among bad Christians, fighting for Holy Church, or among pagans as a sworn crusader"." He returned, therefore, at this period to take that decided part in the constitutional struggle, which has made his name famous. His talents well fitted him for the duties he undertook: "he was a man," says a friendly chronicler', "of wonderful forethought and circumspection, pre-eminent in preparing and vigorously carrying on war, himself a complete soldier, abounding in excellent stratagems, not degenerate from his high ancestry, and gifted with divine wisdom." There can be no doubt that his influence over the minds of others was powerful: a royalists of this period well 1 In an order to P. Basset, from St Germain, Oct. 8, 1262.-Rymer. 2 Oct. 3, 1263; according to T. Wyke his return was secret, "clanculo rediit." 3 Richard de Clare died at Eschemerfield, in Kent, and was buried at Tewkesbury, his funeral being attended by the bishops of Worcester and Llandaff, 12 abbots, and numerous barons and knights. Numerous indulgences were granted by the bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury to those who should pray for his soul.-Dugd. Mon. 11. 55. His son Gilbert was also buried at Tewkesbury, 1295, having died at Monmouth. "Prius per verba indecentia discordes."-MSS. Add. 5444. 5 W. de Rish. Chr. describes him, "as moulding the barons with his own deepcut impression, especially the younger ones, who, being ductile as soft wax, followed him not from any love of justice, but from greediness of gain." Associated with him-though, on account of his youth, unable to command the same deference which had been readily yielded to his father-was Gilbert de Clare; he was indeed married to the king's niece, but the death-bed injunctions of his father, and the wishes of his mother', the widowed Countess of Gloucester, secured his important adherence to the barons, and he played a conspicuous, though not a consistent part, in the coming troubles. 1 Matilda de Lacy, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln. "Gilbertum novitium instigante matre suâ blan ditiis allectum, qui prius Regi devotus extiterat, resilire coegit." — T. Wyke. CHAPTER V. WAR AND TRUCE. "The hearts Of all his people shall revolt from him, And kiss the lips of unacquainted change." THE first actual hostilities, after both parties stood thus in presence, hopeless of amicable compromise, seem to have arisen on the distant frontier of Wales, at the end of 1262. Prince Llewellyn, probably in concert with the barons, if we may judge from their subsequent alliance, attacked the lands of his kinsman Roger de Mortimer, who had openly renounced the authority of the twenty-four councillors, and those of the Savoyard Bishop of Hereford. The disorder soon spread, and in order to remedy it, the King sent the most pressing summons to his son, who kept aloof from court. at Bristol, "urging him to make no delay under any pretext of indolence or puerile wantonness1;" a strange reproach to so enterprising a Prince of twenty-four years old, but indicating probably an expected unwillingness of mind rather than of body. Whether by the danger of his Welsh estates or by the persuasion of the Queen, Prince Edward was at any 1 "Sub pretextu alicujus otiositatis vel lasciviæ puerilis."-Rymer. The Prince had written to his father, March 31, 1263, promising to come at Easter. 2 "Blanditiis per matrem suam tenuit ex parte patris, et extraneos fovebat et consanguineos."-MSS. Add. 5444. |