and Prince Edward and Earl Richard's | epoch. Only eleven prelates and son Henry confined at Dover. A council of nine prelates and nine laymen named by De Montfort for the government of the realm, June 23. Mortimer and other marchers, who had escaped from the battle, renew the war in Wales, but are compelled to surrender their castles and give hostages to De Montfort and Llewelyn. The queen prepares a foreign force to invade England, September. De Montfort forms a great camp on Barham Down, near Canterbury, to oppose them. The queen's fleet, being closely watched in the Flemish harbours by the Cinque Ports mariners, is unable to put to sea, and the troops disperse. The pope (Urban IV.) pronounces a sentence of excommunication against all who adhere to the Provisions of Oxford, October. His legate (Cardinal bishop of Sabina") not being allowed to land in England, summons some of the bishops to Boulogne to receive the document, but on their return it is seized at Dover and torn to pieces. The marchers break the truce. They are declared outlaws, and De Montfort marches against them, taking the king with him. They attempt to prevent his passing the Severn, but are defeated, and obliged to surrender many of their castles. De Montfort, now “in all but name a king," keeps his Christmas in regal state at Kenilworth. A.D. 1265. The parliament assembles, Jan. 28. This assembly was differently constituted from any former one, and its meeting is an important constitutional twenty-three peers were summoned in the ordinary way by writs, but to them were added more than one hundred of the inferior dignified clergy, two knights from each county, and two representatives from each city, borough, and cinque port. The whole appear to have formed but one house. This innovation was apparently too popular to be set aside when the king resumed his authority, and the three estates of parliament, lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, have ever since continued an integral part of the constitution. Prince Edward is released from his confinement at Wallingford, on surrendering his castles, and promising not to leave England for three years, nor to plot against the barons, March 8. He is sent to reside, in "free custody," at Hereford. The earl of Gloucester quarrels with De Montfort, and joins his forces to those of the marchers; William de Valence also lands in South Wales with a body of foreign crossbowmen. Prince Edward escapes from his guards, May 28, and joins Mortimer. De Montfort, taking the king with him, marches against them. He is successful at first, but is surprised, defeated, and killed by Prince Edward at Evesham, August 4, and the king set at liberty. Prince Edward captures Dover, and releases many of his partisans. He then reduces the other Cinque Ports; Winchelsea makes a stout defence, but is taken by assault, "and at his entrance much blood was shed." The pope (Clement IV.) writes (Sept. 13) to the clergy, warning them to forsake the barons' party. He also writes to the king (Oct. 4) and to the prince disgracefully from the field. Of this number was John, earl of Warrenne and Surrey. Arms of Earl Warrenno. He was grandson of the great earl of Pembroke, and had married, when very young, Eliza, the king's halfsister. His character was fierce and turbulent, and on one occasion he stood a siege in his castle of Reigate against Prince Edward. He was afterwards employed against the Scots, with considerable variety of fortune, and sustained a great defeat from them at Stirling in 1297: one of his daughters was the wife of John Baliol. He died Sept. 27, 1304. Guy Foulquois, who in the next year became pope (Clement IV.); he died in 1268. P Gilbert de Clare, the son of Richard, who died in 1262. (Oct. 8), exhorting them to use their victory with moderation, and to incline to clemency. A parliament held at Winchester, early in September, at which severe measures are taken against the vanquished barons, and the Londoners. declares that there shall be no disherison, but instead, fines of from seven years' to half a year's rents. The family of De Montfort and the earl of Derby are excluded from this benefit, and all persons are forbidden, under both civil and spiritual penalties, to circulate "vain and foolish miracles" regarding Simon de Montfort, who was currently spoken of by his adherents as a saint and martyr. The Hebrides and the Isle of Man ceded by the Norwegians to the Scots'. These violent measures did not close the contest. The dispossessed knights and nobles spread themselves as a banditti all over the country; the earl of Derby (Robert Ferrers 9) held the Many of the defenders of Kenilcastle of Chesterfield; Simon de Mont- worth refuse the terms offered, and fort the younger seized the isle of Ax- | join their friends in Ely. holme, and was not reduced until the end of the year, his resistance producing this benefit, that his adherents were allowed to redeem their forfeited estates by heavy fines; but many were unwilling or unable to do this, and they retired, some to the castle of Kenilworth, some to the isle of Ely, and continued to defy the power of both the king and the legate. A.D. 1266. The castle of Kenilworth is besieged by the king for several months without effect; it is at last surrendered through famine, in November. Whilst the siege was proceeding an assembly of clergy and laity was held at Coventry, which drew up the terms of accommodation known as Dictum de Kenilworth. This document, which is one of the Statutes of the Realm, is dated Oct. 15, 1266. It provides that the liberties of the Church shall be preserved, as also the Great Charters, "which the king is bound expressly by his own oath to keep ;" it also A.D. 1267. The king marches against the isle of Ely. In his absence the earl of Clare seizes London, and besieges the legate in the Tower", who defends himself there until relieved, and places London under an interdict. Many of the nobles from Ely join the earl of Gloucester in London; they are welcomed by the Londoners, and together plunder the palace at Westminster. The king sells the jewels of the church of Westminster, and hires forces both from France and Scotland, May. Prince Edward at length reduces the isle of Ely, and grants the terms of the edict of Kenilworth to its defenders, July 25. Peace is made with Llewelyn, who acknowledges that he holds his principality of the king, Sept. 29. He imprisoned for a while, and so heavy a ransom was laid on him that he was unable to raise it, when his lands were forfeited, and granted to the king's son Edmund. He tried to recover them by legal process, but was unsuccessful, and died in poverty in 1278. See A.D. 1253 The reason for this is given in the document itself:-"Because the king is bound to many that helped him and faithfully stood by him, for whom he hath provided no lands, and some have more than they should have, let the king provide that he largely reward them of the ransoms to be taken, lest it turn to a matter of new war." The people of Man resisted the transfer, and, though subdued in 1270, never became reconciled to the Scottish rule. In 1290 they were taken under the protection of Edward I. A number of the Jews, with their wives and families, took refuge with him, "and one quarter of the castle was committed to them, which, being in desperate circumstances, they defended vigorously." promised to pay a sum of money, and was to receive in return the district called the Four Barriers, which had been seized by the English in the time of Prince David *. The earl of Gloucester is reconciled to Mortimer and the other marchers, and gives security for his future conduct. A parliament held at Marlborough, in November, at which various provisions are made to preserve the peace, and curb the excesses of the victorious royalists. A.D. 1268. The legate holds a council at London, April 16, which publishes a decree to remedy the evils of the civil war. He holds another at Northampton, at which Prince Edward and his brother Edmund, together with the earl of Gloucester and many other nobles, assume the cross. John, earl of Warrenne, having wounded Alan de la Zouche, the king's justiciary, in Westminster Hall, is besieged in his castle of Reigate by Prince Edward, and obliged to surrender. The earldom of Richmond granted to John, duke of Britanny, July 15. A.D. 1269. A treaty of amity and commerce made with Magnus VII. king of Norway, Aug. 21. Prince Edward agrees to go on the crusade with the king of France (Louis IX.), May 27. A.D. 1270. The charters of the city of London are restored, July 16. Prince Edward sails from Dover for his crusade, Aug. 19. King Louis dies before Tunis, Aug.. 25. Tunis is taken shortly after, when the French abandon the crusade, but Prince Edward proceeds with the English to Palestine. The Scots complete the conquest of the Isle of Man. A.D. 1271. Henry, son of the king of Germany, is killed at Viterbo in March, by Guy and Simon de Montfort. Prince Edward captures Nazareth, in May, and gains several battles against the Saracens. A.D. 1272. An attempt made to assassinate Prince Edward at Acre, June 17a. He soon after makes a truce with the Mohammedans, and sails for Italy, Aug. 15. The king dies at Bury St. Edmund's, Nov. 16. He is buried at Westminster, Nov. 20, fealty being at once sworn to his son Edward, "though men were ignorant whether he was alive, for he had gone to distant countries beyond the sea, warring against the enemies of Christ." NOTE. THE JEWS IN ENGLAND. THE reign of Henry III. is remarkable | which testify to their imprisonment there. for the systematic oppression of the Jews (see A.D. 1239, 1241, 1243, 1250, 1255, 1264), which seems then to have reached a higher pitch than under any of the preceding kings, and their expulsion from England was effected by his successor. This, therefore, seems the suitable place for a brief notice of their condition during the six or seven centuries that they were allowed to remain in the land. Probably the earliest mention of the Jews in connexion with English history occurs in the Penitential wrongly ascribed to Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 668 to 690), but which may fairly be taken to reflect the feeling of Anglo-Saxon times. Speaking of them as "the perfidious Jews," the writer, whoever he may be, shews that they must have been well known in his time; he forbids, under a heavy penance, any Christian to accept food or drink from them, or to sell any Christian into slavery to them; he also forbids their burial in consecrated ground. In the next century, the Penitential which bears the name of Egbert, archbishop of York (A.D. 734 to 766), not only repeats most of these prohibitions, but adds a remarkable denunciation, against Christians who embrace Judaism. The Jews, however, were not deterred from repairing to England as well as other European countries, and remaining there; and the laws ascribed to Edward the Confessor expressly state them to be under the king's safeguard. They were looked on with deep distrust, if not absolute hatred, by the people, but their wealth enabled them to gain the favour of the Norman kings, who, however, sold their protection at a heavy price, and at best only shielded them from any other oppression than their own. The early Plantagenets pursued the same policy, and we find Richard I., in a writ issued from Rouen, March 22, 1190, expressly confirming all the privileges that his father had granted to the Jews in England and in Normandy. King John, of whose rapacity towards them many stories are told, in a letter from Montfort, July 29, 1203, blames the Londoners for their ill usage of them; but in another document, April 15, 1204, he speaks of Jews imprisoned by himself, who are not to have any benefit from a pardon then granted. The public records abound in instances of oppression practised towards the Jews, and in the Castle of Canterbury are still to be seen many inscriptions in Hebrew Yet they maintained their ground, and most of the great abbeys appear to have been their debtors. The term "Jewry," still existing, shews that they had something like a separate quarter in London and many other towns, and the stone mansions at Lincoln and Bury St. Edmund's, called Jews' houses, prove that they were allowed to build dwellings almost resembling small fortresses for the protection of their treasures. The kings, from the time of John, if not before, appear occasionally as their patrons, regulating their ecclesiastical affairs, confirming, if not appointing their high priests, and lending the assistance of the civil power to enforce excommunication of Jews by their own masters of the Law. Thus John (Jan. 5, 1207) confirms a certain Josce as high priest; and Henry III. (July 20, 1257) allows them to choose whom they will for the office; but Edward L. (May 5, 1281) appoints Hagin, the son of Deulaeres, to be high priest for life. Such favour, however, was no protection against popular fury, for whenever this was roused they seem to have been put to death without mercy, and without any attempt on the part of the government to save them. The ordinary complaints against them were usury, and clipping the coin, and, as the public records shew, large numbers of them were usually in confinement on these grounds; but now and then the horrible charge of murdering Christian children was made, and St. William and Little St. Hugh of Lincoln were believed to have been put to death by the Jews, as a parody of the sufferings of Our Lord. The practice of magic arts was also laid to their charge, and to the apprehension of this is usually ascribed the tumult at the coronation of Richard I., which was followed by massacre at York and other places. In 1218 (March 30) the Jews were ordered to wear two white tablets on their breasts to distinguish them from Christians, and all through the reign of Henry III. the exactions to which they were exposed were so severe, that they repeatedly solicited permission to leave the kingdom, but this indulgence was not allowed them. The hope of converting them was entertained by the king, and accordingly, in 1233 (April 19) he granted the forfeited house and garden of a Jew, in the New Street (now Chancery Lane) to the Friars Preachers, who were to labour for the conversion of Jews and infidels; the establishment was placed under a warden, and was styled the House of Converts, a certain number of whom were to receive support therein. Edward I. bestowed on it deodands and forfeitures, with the direction that the converts were diligently to attend the preaching of the Friars (Jan. 2, 1280). The project of conversion, however, had little success, and the whole body of Jews was driven from England ten years later. Edward III. gave the House of Converts as a repository for the rolls of his chancery, and the site is now occupied by the Public Record Office. The Jews remained a proscribed race until the time of the Commonwealth, when, in 1655, a proposition for their re-admission to England was often discussed by the council, and by committees of lawyers and divines, but nothing was formally concluded. The matter had been recommended by both Blake and Monk during the Dutch war, as a means of damaging the commerce of Holland, and Cromwell appeared favourable to it. Its chief promoter, Manasseth ben Israel, had a pension of £100 a-year allowed him by the Protector (March 23, 1657), commencing Feb. 20, 1657; and the Jews, encouraged by this, began again to settle in England in small numbers. At first this seems to have been little noticed, but soon after the Restoration we find among the State Papers loud complaints on the subject. Thus a remonstrance, dated Nov. 30, 1660, charges them, not only with injuring the trade of the kingdom by their usurious practices, but asserts that they had offered to buy St. Paul's for a synagogue from Cromwell, and begs that they may be banished. The Levant Company also complained (May 18, 1661) that Jews' goods ⚫ Some few converts are mentioned in the public records: as John the Convert, who gave information about the death of Hugh of Lincoln, and received a pardon, Jan. 10, 1256; and Henry the Convert, who had been knighted by Henry III.; were fraudulently brought in ("coloured," it is termed, i.e., represented as belonging to Englishmen, and so escaping heavy duties,) and they order their agents abroad to endeavour to check the practice. No notice appears to have been taken by the Government of these complaints, any more than of some applications by professed converts (Peter Samuel and Paul Jacob, July, 1660) for a share of the benefits of the House of Converts founded by Henry III. The dislike to the Jews, however, continued, and the farmers of the customs charged them with frauds, beside alleging that both their lives and estates were forfeit under the edict of Edward I. There is in the Public Record Office a petition to the king, dated Aug. 22, 1664, from Emanuel Martinez Dormido and others, in behalf of the Jews trading in and about London, saying that the earl of Berkshire (Thomas Howard ) alleges that he has the king's verbal order to prosecute them (apparently for residing in England without licence) and seize their estates, unless they come to an agreement with him. The answer is, that the king has given no such order, and they may remain so long as they demean themselves peaceably and obey the laws. Henceforth they seem to have been allowed to remain on the same legal footing as other aliens, except that by a statute of 1702 [1 Ann. c. 24] they were compelled to support any of their children who might become Christians. In 1753 an act was passed for the naturalization of Jews, but it gave rise to much popular clamour, and was repealed in the following year; and it was not until 1858 that the privileges of British-born subjects were conceded to them. number of Jews in Great Britain is roughly estimated at 50,000. The he had bought clippings of silver coin, but his offence was pardoned May, 1278. d He had a grant of power to enforce the observance of the statutes respecting the import and export of goods, and was entitled to a share of any penalties incurred. |