CHAPTER XII. GOVERNMENT OF THE BARONS. "It is to your ancestors, my Lords, it is to the English Barons, that we are indebted for the laws and constitution we possess; their virtues were rude and uncultivated, but they were great and sincere; their understandings were as little polished as their manners, but they had hearts to distinguish right from wrong, they had heads to distinguish truth from falsehood; they understood the rights of humanity, and they had spirit to maintain them." Lord Chatham's Speech, Jan. 9, 1770. "HAIL to the Earl, inspirited and puffed up by success, glorying beyond measure in the prowess of himself and his sons whom he so tenderly loved, that in his anxiety to promote them he blushed not to attempt the most daring enterprises!" Thus ironically exclaims a royalist chronicler1, whose indignation is particularly excited at the King being made to travel about with Simon de Montfort, crying out upon it as "unheard-of wantonness of guilt, exceeding in arrogance even the very pride of Lucifer." That de Montfort exercised the power which his victory gave him, is certain; but as the proceedings subsequent to the mise have been much misrepresented, it will be worth while to note down with some detail the facts authenticated by public documents, and to watch how far he may be liable to the charge of self-aggrandisement. This appeal, indeed, to 1 T. Wyke. facts, is but a repetition of one made for him by a contemporary1. Provisions had been already failing in the King's army, it may be remembered, before the battle; and, as the providence of an extensive commissariat did not then accompany armies, de Montfort was probably as little prepared to support his own troops long at Lewes. A speedy removal, therefore, became a necessity to both; and the route chosen towards the east enabled him to secure the fortresses of the Cinque Ports, especially Dover, which a few days subsequently (May 28) the King ordered to be entrusted "to his beloved nephew, Henry de Montfort?," the jailor of his son. On the day of leaving Lewes the King reached Battle, and dated from thence, May 17, the appointment of Drogo de Barantin, as Governor of Windsor Castle, and other orders for the immediate release of the Northampton prisoners, particularly the relations of the Earl of Leicester, his son Simon de Montfort, and Peter, a veteran ever active and stanch to the cause of his great kinsman, with his two sons Peter and Robert. Their discharge appears studiously disguised under the courteous pretext inserted in the royal order, which requires their advice, because "according to the form of peace, made between us and the barons, it is necessary that we should take counsel'." Only a fortnight had elapsed since the King's troops had been at Battle, flushed with their recent successes, and committing ravages and extortions at the Abbey there, and at 1 "Seductorem nominant Simo- Polit. S. from MS. Harl. 978. 2 Rymer. 3 Rot. Pat. 48° Hen. III. "Cum per formam pacis inter nos et barones initam et firmatamdeliberare debeamus."-Rymer. "Namque monasterium quod Bellum vocatur, Turba sævientium, quæ nunc conturbatur, Immisericorditer bonis spoliavit. Monachi Cistercii de Ponte Roberti A furore gladii non fuissent certi, Si quingentas Principi marcas non dedissent, Quas Edwardus accipi jussit vel perissent." Polit. S. from MS. Harl. 978. the neighbouring one of Robertsbridge. The monks must have relished the spectacle of speedy retribution, which now brought the wrong-doer humiliated and harmless again to their door. Similar orders were now issued with the King's authority, transferring to the barons the custody of all the royal castles; and it must have forcibly evinced to distant counties the entire prostration of the royalists, when they received the royal proclamation, "forbidding all hostilities, and commanding the arrest of all disturbers of the peace, which had been made by the disposition of Divine grace';" and this was dated (May 25) from Rochester, the very point whose resistance had so lately baffled de Montfort. Like terms of contentment and pious gratitude appear in several other proclamations at this period: the King referring to the peace as "made by the inspiration of Divine grace;" "by the cooperation of Divine favour." Strong words, not fit to be lightly used, but fearfully contrasting with his furious denunciations of the same transaction subsequently. On the 28th of May we find the King in London3. The palace of Westminster had been accidentally burnt two years before, in consequence of which he now became a guest under the roof of the bishop, whose proffer of peace he had rejected at Lewes. The loss of his usual residence was an additional mortification to Henry, whose taste had induced him to adorn all 1 Rymer, Latin proclam. to co. Derby. 2 Rymer. St Paul's, June 2, 1264; St Paul's, June 4. 3 He arrived on the day before the Ascension.- Fabyan. The fire at the palace was on Feb. 7, 1262.-Add. MSS. 5444." Combusta sunt proprio igne suo parva aula Dom. Regis apud Westmonasterium camera et capella et receptorium et aliæ plures domus officinales."-MS. Harl. 690. There is a charge for scindulæ (shingles) for the King's Palace in Westminster in 1163; so that probably it was roofed with that combustible material. Brayley's Westm. p.19. The King immediately after the fire ap plied to the Bishop of London, then recently elected, for timber to repair his loss. The bishop in his reply, Feb. 19, 1262, regrets the calamity, but states that his woods had been so destroyed during the vacancy of the see, that little or nothing was left to repair his own houses. His steward should report thereon, before he made any promise to the King. No. 511 Chanc. Rec. 5th Rep.; Rymer, new edit. 1. 424. his palaces by every embellishment in his power. The best artists, including some Italians, were thus employed by his directions, and there seems some powerful evidence of oil colours being used by them in their paintings, though long before the acknowledged period of such an invention'. Green, sometimes with golden stars, seems to have been a favourite colour for the walls of his rooms; but besides the representations of "pretty" cherubim with cheerful and merry countenance," and of several saints, especially his royal predecessor, Edward the Confessor, there were also some series of scriptural and historical subjects, which must have called forth skill in art. A Florentine painter, in 1256, was de 1 In 1239, Edward, the son of Odo, was paid £117. 10s. for oil, varnish, and colours bought, and for pictures in the Queen's chamber, made during fifteen days' work. Sir F. Palgrave, in his "Truths and Fictions," quotes from Liber Horne an order of the painters of the guild of St Luke, that "no craftsman shall employ other colours than such as shall be good and fine, good synople, good azure, good verdigrease, and good vermillion, or other good body colours mixed and tempered with oil (autres bonnes couleurs destemprés d'huile).” Odo, son of John, the Fusour in the Exchequer, granted to Edward, son of Odo the goldsmith, his office of Fusour for twelve marcs silver on going to the Holy Land, 24° Hen. III. 1240. In 1267 the King allowed Odo to depute Hamon de Wroxhull for two years to his office. It was finally surrendered to Edward I. in his 13o. Madox, Hist. Excheq. p. 201. 2 Duos cherubinos cum hilari vultu et jocoso," ordered to be painted in the tower of London, 1236. 3 William, a monk of Westminster. He was also employed at Windsor, in 1260. [The following notices are probably taken from the Close Rolls. Sir T. Duffus Hardy has mentioned several of them in his Introduction, pp. xlv. xlvi:] 1228. 20s. for painting the great Exchequer Chamber. 1232. June 3, Kidderminster. King's chamber wainscot in Winchester to be painted with the same pictures as formerly. Woodstock chapel to be painted with the Saviour, four Evangelists, S. Edmund and S. Edward. 1236. Great chamber at Westminster to be painted of a fine green to resemble a curtain. Sides of St Stephen's chapel to be green with crucifix, Mary and John. Three glass windows in chapel of S. John, to represent the Virgin Mary, the Trinity, St John, and two images of S. Edward delivering ring to S. John. April 7. St Peter's church in Tower to be painted with the Virgin, SS. Peter, Nicholas, Catherine, St Peter as an archbishop; image also S.Christopher; histories of SS. Nicolas and Catherine to be painted at their altars with two cherubin. 1237. August, £4. 11s. to Odo for painting pictures in King's chamber at Westminster. 1238. Chamber at Winchester to be painted green with stars of gold and compartments containing Histories from the Old and New Testament. 1239. To Odo for oil, &c. 1241. Two windows in the hall to be filled with pictures. 1248. In Queen's chapel, Winchester, S. Christopher to be painted, and S. Edward. sired to paint "in the wardrobe where the King washes his head," a man rescued from his enemies by his own dogs. A political enigma may lie hidden in this device', though occurring before the civil troubles began, and at any rate the subject harmonised with the King's situation on many occasions. Other subjects of a nature less congenial to his spirit, however, seem also to have been favourite ones, as the history of Alexander (taken probably from the romance written 1200), in the Queen's chamber at Nottingham, and the history of Antioch, with the single combat of his uncle Cœur de Lion, in Palestine. The King's adopted motto, which was inscribed profusely in Latin and French on the walls, and even on his chess-board, seems characteristic enough of his prodigal bounty to favourites: "Ke ne dune ke ne tine ne pret ke desire." "Qui non dat quod habet non accipit ille quod optat." "He who gives not what he has, His chief desire lets slip pass." To have loved the fine arts, in the midst of ignorance and barbarism, is no mean honour to the English King, and by such encouragement he fulfilled a duty, which has been 1249. John de S. Omer to paint Wardrobe at Westminster. 1250. In S. Stephen's Chapel, be painted the Apostles round the wall, Day of Judgment on West, and Virgin on a panel. 1251. Exploits of Richard I. to be painted in Tower (as at Clarendon 1237), by Th. Espernir. 1252. Queen's Chamber in Nottingham Castle to be painted with history of Alexander; window in Northampton Castle to be painted with Dives and Lazarus; five statues of Kings, carved in freestone, gift to St. Martin's ch., London. 1262. Windsor Castle paintings to be restored; paintings in Great Hall at Guildford to be repaired, and paintings to altar made. 1270. Twenty marcs to Master Walter for painting our chamber in Westminster. 2 1 Rot. Claus. 40° Hen. III. The Chamber of Antioch we wish it called," adds the King in his order for Westminster. The same subject was also painted at Clarendon, 1237, and in the Tower, 1251. John de S. Omer and Walter de Colchester, sacristan of S. Albans, were eminent painters at this time.-See Walpole's Anec. and Mad. Exch. In 1292 appears the name of Walter, painter, and Thomas his son; and about the same time, passim, there occur among the payments of the King's household artists, John of Soningdon, John of Carlisle, Roger of Winchester, Thomas of Worcester, Roger of Ireland, John of Nottingham, William of Ross, William of Oxford, Godfrey of Norfolk, &c.-Brayley's Westm. 91. Q |