1314. Battle of burn. Bruce had not half the number, but then he was a host in himself. It might be said of him, as Napoleon said when he saw the Duke of Wellington walking up a hill, "There go 20,000 men." He had too his brave Randolph and Douglas at his side. 25. They met near Stirling Castle, by the side of a brook called Bannockburn. Randolph was set to watch against any of the English army entering Stirling Castle, which they were come to relieve. By some mischance a Bannock troop of English cavalry very nearly made their way in before Randolph perceived them. "See, Randolph,' said the king, "a rose has fallen from your chaplet." Randolph hastened to retrieve his fault; he rushed off with his men to stop the English before it was too late. He had but foot-soldiers to oppose the English horse, and not half so many even of them. Douglas, his friend and rival, saw that he was hard pressed, and rode after with his followers to assist him. But long before they reached the spot Randolph and his infantry had driven off the English, and when Douglas saw the horses, many of them riderless, fleeing away, he called on his men to stop; for, said he, "Randolph has gained the day; since we were not soon enough to help him in the battle, do not let us lessen his glory by approaching the field." This was the true magnanimity of a noble knight. 26. Every one in Bruce's army seemed to have the heart of a hero, and in spite of all the mighty English horsemen, and the far-famed English archers, the Scotch won a triumphant victory. Never before or since have the English been so utterly defeated. The king fled for his life, and escaped safely to England. Those of the English who would not flee, and there were a great many of them, were left dead on the field, or were taken prisoners. 1328. Peace of Northampton. 27. After this great victory Bruce's success was complete. The English could never recover from it, and were scarcely able to defend even their own border. The Scotch made inroads into England, and defeated them on their own ground. At last a treaty was signed at Northampton, fully acknowledging the independence of Scotland and her king. This was the very year before Robert Bruce died; a rich reward to him, and precious fruit of all his toils. He left a glorious name behind him, which is as dear, and deserves to be as dear, almost, to the Scotch nation as that of Alfred is to the English. LECTURE XXVII.-CIVIL WAR AND FOREIGN WAR. Edward II. His father's last commands. Piers Gaveston. The Lords Ordainers. The Despensers. The queen. Deposition of Edward. His murder. Edward III. The French wars. Froissart. The Black Prince. Battle of Crecy. Calais. 1307. Edward II. 1. WE have seen how Edward II. lost all that his father had gained in Scotland. The rest of his reign was quite of a piece with this. We need not blame him for not obeying that order of his father's respecting his bones, which had a cruel and unchristian sound; but he also disobeyed another of his dying commands which he undoubtedly ought to have kept. This was that he should send away a special friend and favourite of his, who, as the old king saw, would be likely to give him bad advice and to bring him into trouble. The favourite was a young Frenchman named Piers Gaveston, who had been brought up with him, and Gaveston. to whom he was deeply attached, but whom the English nobles soon began to hate as deeply. It seems only human nature that they should have done so. Gaveston was quick, brilliant, and frivolous. He came from Gascony, a part of France which was noted for its inhabitants being vain and self-confident; so much so, indeed, that the terms gasconade, gasconading, have become English words meaning boasting and bragging; just the very sort of thing which is most hateful to a proud, solid Englishman. Accordingly, he soon made himself quite detestable to them. 2. He was very accomplished, very skilful in tournaments and in all the things which make a show; he was also very elegant and choice in his dress. He wore beautiful flowered shirts, and embroidered girdles, and was extremely good-looking. In all things he seemed to outshine the nobles of the land. He managed to win all the prizes at the tournaments, and threw a good many of the English lords off their horses. We can fancy it was not very pleasant to them to see themselves eclipsed in this way by an upstart foreigner; and if Gaveston had had any sense or modesty he would have kept more in the background, and not been always showing himself off. 3. But the king was as foolish as he was himself. He seemed to lay himself out to affront the English nobles. At his coronation he put Gaveston above all of them; he made him carry the crown, and walk next to himself and the queen. Not content with empty honours, he gave him great riches, both in lands and money. He made him Earl of Cornwall, which before that had always been a title belonging to a prince of the royal family, and he married him to his own niece. 4. As soon as the parliament met, after the new king had been crowned, the very first thing they did was to demand that Gaveston should be banished. Edward was obliged to give in, and indeed took most solemn oaths that he would never let him come back. But we know oaths did not count for much at that time; and in very little more than a year Gaveston was back again, in high feather. Neither he nor the king had learnt any wisdom. The king made as much of him as ever. He, on his part, affronted the nobles even worse than before. He gave some of them insulting nicknames. The king's own cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, who took part with the lords, he called "an old hog." The Earl of Pembroke he called "Joseph the Jew." We can hardly say, in those days, when every one so hated and despised the Jews, which would be thought the worst, to be called a "hog" or a "Jew." The Earl of Warwick he called "a black dog." 5. The foolish king thought all this very witty, and fine fun. But the nobles did not think it fun. The Earl of Warwick vowed a terrible vow that some day Gaveston should "feel the black dog's teeth." A more important person still was affronted, the queen herself. Edward was married to Isabella, the daughter of the King of France. She was very beautiful, and indeed was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world; but there was not much love between her and her husband even to begin with. She soon became disgusted at Edward's devotion to his favourite, and never, to the end of his life, did she forgive him. 6. All this time Edward was constantly in want of money, which of course gave the lords and the country great power over him. It was thoroughly well settled now that the Resistance. king could get no money without the consent of parliament, and the parliament would never give him any money when he was doing things which offended them. Gaveston had to go away before the barons would even come to parliament at all. Thus we see what good came of Stephen Langton, and the barons' charter, of Simon de Montfort's work, of Humphrey de Bohun's resistance, when he would "neither go nor hang." There was a bad, or, at least, a weak and foolish king now; but he could not govern according to his own will, for there was a way of keeping him in order. We begin to see now the difference between a constitutional king, that is, a king who has to rule according to the settled laws of the nation, and an absolute king, who rules according to his own will. But poor, foolish Edward could not see it. He wanted to have all his own way. The lords were determined to have theirs; they appointed a sort of committee to govern the country, and took all the power, for a time, out of the king's hands. 1310. The Lords Ordainers. 7. The members of this committee or council were called Lords Ordainers, and they made a great many regulations or ordinances intended to keep the king in order, to make his power less, and the power of the parliament greater. The king promised to agree to all this, but he could not do without his favourite. There seemed no way of getting rid of him but one; the lords took up arms, and a civil war began. Gaveston was caught at last, and the great nobles whom he had insulted and ridiculed had their revenge. He was carried off to Warwick Castle; the Earl of Warwick, the "black dog," had his opportunity now of showing his teeth, and Gaveston, without any trial, without any pity, was beheaded. 8. It might have been thought the king had had a lesson now, and would have tried to please and content the lords and the people. Still more so, considering the state of things in Scotland. It was just at this time that Bruce was making such progress, and had got back all the fortresses but one, and when Edward was obliged to go to Scotland to try and save that one. Many of the nobles, and above all, his cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, would not go with him or bring their followers; and it was, perhaps, partly owing to that that he was so disgracefully beaten at Bannockburn. The new favourite. 9. Nevertheless, it was not long before he set up a new favourite. This time it was an Englishman and a nobleman, one Hugh le Despenser, "in all points just such another" (as Gaveston), "equal to him in goodliness of personage, in favour of the king, and in abusing the lords." Again the king heaped riches and honours so recklessly on him and on his father as to offend all the other nobles. They were both as greedy and covetous, as arrogant and overbearing, as Gaveston had been, and it was all the same thing over again. The king and his party got the better at one time, and the head of the nobles, Edward's cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, was beheaded; so were some of the others, and one of the most important, Roger Mortimer, was imprisoned, but contrived to escape. Mortimer. 10. But things went on no better. Hugh le Despenser and his father contrived to make themselves utterly hated and detested by everybody, and from hating the favourites people The queen and soon passed to hating the king. Queen Isabella entirely turned against him now, and took part with his enemies. Her brother, the King of France, began to quarrel with Edward, and Isabella went over to France, as was said, in order to make peace. She soon sent for her eldest son to join her, and then she would not come back. She gave out that she dared not come for fear of Hugh and his father. But, in reality, she had fallen in with that Roger Mortimer who had escaped from his prison, and she and he were joining together to plot against the king. The barons in England sent messages, telling her that if she could collect about 1000 soldiers, and would bring her young son back to England, they would join her, and make him king instead of his father. Though her brother, the King of France, would not take her part, at least openly, she found a very good friend in Sir John de Hainault, whose niece the young Edward afterwards married, and the Princess Philippa turned out as good and faithful a wife as his grandfather's dear Eleanor. Queen Isabella then returned to England, accompanied by her son and Sir John de Hainault, and bringing with her an army of foreign soldiers. She publicly proclaimed that she was come to avenge the death of the Earl of Lancaster, and as the enemy of the Despensers. 11. The lords and bishops joined her at once; there was hardly any one to take the king's part. He had to flee; but he and his friend the younger le Despenser were taken prisoners in Glamorganshire. Hugh Le Despenser was hung on a gibbet fifty feet high, and wearing a crown of nettles; his father was also captured and put to death. But what was to be done with the king? He had no friends left. The people were told shameful and false stories about him that he had deserted his wife; that he was an idiot and a changeling; it was given out that he was a carter's son, changed in his infancy by his nurse. It was almost an unheard-of thing to dethrone a king; and perhaps that was the reason why this story was set afloat; since, though there were abundance of other charges which could be proved |