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Barons.

mencement, many of those barons who had hitherto remained neutral, CHAP. 10. declared in their favour and brought them assistance; even some of the Confederate king's friends began to urge the justice of their claims. The king, thus situate, entered into a negociation with the besiegers, and it was agreed that he should meet them in an open plain between Staines and Windsor, called Runnymede, where in ancient times public councils relative to the internal affairs of the nation had occasionally been held; from which circumstance the appellation of Runnymede, or Meadow of Council, is supposed to be derived. On the 15th of June, 1215, the parties met. The king was accompanied by Pandulph, the pope's legate, seven bishops and fifteen barons, who remained attached to him, the principal of whom was William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. The party of the insurgent barons was numerous and splendid: they were attended by multitudes of armed retainers. The cardinal, archbishop Langton, acted as mediator. The consultation was short. John, with an appearance of frankness and sincerity which he Magna well knew how to assume, signed the Great Charter and the Charter of Charta Forests, without offering any objection to the articles which circumscribed the excess and prevented abuse of his presumed prerogatives.

But John, although he had yielded submissively to the court of Rome, and felt little reluctance at being the agent of an extortionate foreign power over his subjects, was not easy under those restraints upon his habitual tyranny, which his subjects had laid upon him. He grew melancholy, and pondered upon the most violent methods of recovering his absolute power over his barons. As he was without money he could not draw together a sufficient number of those hireling troops with which Europe then abounded; but he came to a determination to promise to such leaders of Flemish and other brigands as would join his standard, the estates of the barons who had opposed his pretended prerogatives. Numerous men of high birth, whose maintenance depended upon their swords, and who headed bands composed of fugitives and desperadoes, were easily induced to aid him in his design. Deeds were actually executed in writing and signed by John, in which estates, still in possession of the barons, were granted to adventurers of this description. Troops raised in this manner were ordered to be landed at Dover by the ensuing Michaelmas, and the wardens of the king's castles were commanded to receive them and furnish them with arms and provisions. The sanction of the pope to these proceedings was easily obtained, and to assist the views of his vassal, he published an ordinance commanding the barons to lay down their arms on pain of his indignation. The cardinal, archbishop Langton, encouraged them to treat these threats of the papal see with the contempt they merited, and delivered up to them the town and castle of Rochester, where they found a large quantity of arms.

signed.

John

re

pents having signed the

Charter.

John, who had retired into the Isle of Wight, hastened at the appointed time to Dover, where numbers of greedy and ambitious adventurers arrived in rapid succession. With these he undertook the siege of Rochester. Siege of That town and castle was defended by William de Albini, one of the illus- Rochester. trious ancestors of the Rutland family, with a chosen body of the baronial troops. The siege was carried on with great vigour, and the country in every direction was laid waste by parties of foreign soldiers, who were

CHAP. 10. never satisfied with the plunder they obtained. Albini was continually at Siege of the head of the besieged, who made many sallies with desperate valour, Rochester. but the quantities of John's hireling allies increased daily, and cut off all communication with the barons assembled at London. It was not, however, until the outer walls of the castle were undermined and the provisions were completely exhausted, that the brave William de Albini and his followers surrendered. He, with some others, was sent to Corfe castle: all the ordinary soldiers, with the exception of the cross-bow-men, were hanged. It was during this siege that William de Albini refused permission to one of the cross-bow-men, an unerring archer, to launch his arrow at the king, who, with some of the foreign commanders, was surveying the outside of the castle. "He would not spare us," said the bow-man, " if he had the like advantage."—" Let be,” replied the worthy baron, "both he and we are in the disposal of a greater than he."

The Dauphin of France invited by the Barons.

After the siege of Rochester, the king divided his foreign troops into two portions, with one of which he marched to Northampton, Derby and Nottingham, while the other he placed under the command of his natural brother, William, earl of Salisbury. Dreadful was the condition of the country at that period: two armies of foreign marauders ravaged without mercy the lands and mansions of the barons, who in vain attempted to meet these swarms of free-booters in open warfare. The papal edict of excommunication added, in those superstitious days, to the general misery. Under these circumstances the leading barons resorted to London, which they fortified; and having appointed a council, they came to the desperate resolution of sending an embassy to the king of France, with the offer of the crown of England to his son, prince Lewis. Philip received the embassy with much pleasure, and in the following May, the Dauphin, prince Lewis, arrived at the isle of Thanet with a fleet of nearly seven hundred ships, full of troops, which landed at Sandwich. Rochester was speedily retaken by the baronial forces assisted by the French. Upon this the French prince marched to London, where the citizens swore fealty to him, and he took upon himself the government of the realm, having appointed the cardinal archbishop to be his chancellor. Among the French nobility who attended upon the Dauphin in this expedition were several who became connected with the baronial families; and we may particularly mention William de Beaumont, whose lineal representative still holds estates in Derbyshire.

The party and power of the Dauphin increased: he became master of all the southern and many of the northern counties: the baronial troops under Fitzwalter compelled the king to retreat, and laid siege to Windsor and Dover: the king of Scotland, in consequence of the summons of Lewis, did homage to him for the lands he held of the crown of England, and the northern barons, with aid from Scotland, reduced the city of York. The French adventurers in the army of John refused to fight against the son of their own monarch and deserted the standard of the unhappy king, who fled from place to place, suspicious even of his warmest and most faithful adherents. At the small town of Lynn, in Norfolk, he deposited his crown, sceptre, and other jewellery, which from that circumstance received the name of Lynn Regis; but on the approach of the baronial forces he re

treated into Lincolnshire. In attempting to cross the wash, the tide rushing CHAP. 10. up the streams laid the country under water, and it was not without extreme difficulty that he escaped to the abbey of Swineshead; from thence he was conveyed to Newark, where he died of a severe fever with which he was seized; but not without the suspicion of having been poisoned by the priests with whom he had taken refuge.

On the death of king John, the barons who had adhered to his cause Henry III. held a meeting, at which some of the adverse party attended, who had become suspicious of the designs of the Dauphin and were willing to hope that the counsels of the new reign would be favourable to their liberties. To this assembly, the earl of Pembroke presented the young king, a boy, who was only in the tenth year of his age. The character of the noble earl had insured him the respect of the confederates, for while he condemned their connexion with a foreign prince, he admitted the justice of those claims which they sought to establish, and for which they had obtained the sanction of a Charter which his patriotism and integrity told him ought to be held inviolable. This he avowed in his address to the meeting, as he lifted up the royal child in his arms, and called upon them for their voices in favour of Henry the Third. The unanimous shout of "We will have Henry for our king," was the echo to this appeal. At this assembly the county of Derby may be said to have possessed considerable influence, for we find among the leading members, William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, Philip de Albini and William de Briwere. These eminent barons also assisted at the coronation of young Henry, which took place within a few days; and strenuously supported the appointment of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, to be the guardian of the king and the protector of the kingdom.

When this appointment was known to the confederate barons, the interest of Lewis rapidly declined. He was obliged to raise the siege of Dover, and although he became master of the castles of Hertford and Berkhamstead with considerable loss, those of Marlborough, Farnham, Winchester and several others, together with the Cinque ports, declared for Henry. Under these circumstances he reluctantly consented to a truce, which gave the Protector time to arrange the affairs of the crown, to correspond with the discontented barons, and to prepare for the military operations of the spring of 1217, on which would probably depend the fate of the throne. On the conclusion of the truce, the earl of Pembroke, de- Siege of sirous of striking some effective blow, resolved to besiege the castle of Mount Mount Sorrel in Leicestershire, which was then held by Henry de Braibraque, with ten French knights and a strong garrison. As the cbject was important even as a trial of strength and influence between the conflicting parties, the regent placed a select body of troops under the command of Ranulph, earl of Chester, who was joined by William, earl of Albemarle, William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, William de Cantelupe, lord of Ilkeston, and other barons with their armed tenants and retainers. The siege was commenced with great spirit, but the Dauphin, being aware of the consequences that would inevitably follow the surrender of a place on which the eyes of the neutral barons were then fixed, sent to its relief

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Sorrel.

CHAP. 10. the count de Perche, with twenty thousand men. The count marched Henry III. from London on the 1st of May, and on his approach, the earl of Chester with the other barons, finding themselves too weak to venture upon a pitched battle, withdrew to the regent, who had posted himself at Nottingham.

Siege of
Lincoln.

Elated with this success the French troops marched to Lincoln, ravaging the country on each side of their route. The castle of Lincoln held out for Henry, but the city, under the command of Gilbert de Gant, whom the Dauphin had created earl of Lincoln, was in the power of the confederated barons. The regent perceived that the fate of the kingdom depended upon his promptitude. The castle of Lincoln was reduced to the lowest extremity, and he, being now at the head of a considerable force, advanced, by hasty marches, upon the enemy, who expected to take the castle before the regent could call together the barons and their retainers. Astonished at the sudden approach of the royal army, the count de Perche called a council of war, in which it was resolved to defend the city within the walls, contrary to the opinion of many who were for hazarding a general engagement. The regent invested the town, and immediately opened a communication with the brave garrison in the castle, where during the night a chosen body of troops under the command of Faulk de Breant entered, in order to be ready to attack the enemy in the city as soon as the main army should commence the assault upon the walls. Ranulph, earl of Chester, who was short of stature, also entered the castle, the garrison of which had expected his coming, and in some communications with their besiegers had promised to surrender if they were not relieved by the gallant earl within a certain period. The earl, with his accustomed eagerness, could not refrain from announcing his arrival, by the sound of a trumpet and a challenge addressed to the French general, from the turrets of the castle. The count de Perche instantly presented himself in front of the battlements on horseback; and, observing the diminutive stature of the challenger, he shouted out, " What, have we tarried from seizing our prey, in order to be frighted from it, by such a pigmy as that?" The earl disdainfully replied-" I vow to God, and to our lady, whose church stands before me, that before to-morrow evening, I will seem to thee to be stronger, and greater and taller than yonder steeple." With these words he descended from the turrets into the castle.

Before day-break, the next morning, the royal army stormed the great gates of the city, of which they soon became masters, while Foulk de Breant, with his followers, made a sally upon the French troops in the city. The count de Perche, though aware of this double attack, was unable to resist the impetuosity of his assailants. The cavalry, in which his army abounded, were of no service, and his troops, which were attacked before and behind in the narrow streets, were quickly slain or put to confusion. The count de Perche was slain in the cathedral by Ranulph, earl of Chester, who instantly proclaimed king Henry; and the young king, who was then at a farm house, belonging to a monastery westward of the city, was carried in triumph in the arms of the principal royal leaders, and, being placed on the high altar, a white wand was put into his hand instead of a sceptre,

and homage was done him by the barons present, amid the shouts of the CHAP. 10. victorious soldiery. The slaughter, in the meantime was dreadful, and as Siege of the city of Lincoln had sided with the confederated barons from the first Lincoln. assertion of their rights, it was abandoned to plunder, and the booty was so great, that the sacking of the city has been called "Lincoln Fair." The riches of the cathedral must have been immense, for the precentor, Geoffrey de Drapinges alone was despoiled of eleven thousand marks. All the leading barons of the confederacy were either slain or taken prisoners in this battle; and shortly afterwards a treaty was made with the Dauphin, in consequence of which he withdrew from the kingdom.

No sooner was the nation delivered from the French troops, who had become a terror even to those who had called them in to aid their cause, than new sources of internal troubles arose. To the royalist barons had been granted many estates, seized and confiscated as the property of the insurgent confederates. The regent, who perceived both the policy and justice of making restoration to those whose only crime had been their resistance of tyranny, called together a large body of troops and speedily silenced the complainants. Robert de Gangi, the friend and companion of Ranulph, earl of Chester, held the castle of Newark in Nottinghamshire against the regent during a siege of eight days. The earl of Pembroke was anxious that the two important Charters obtained from king John by the insurgent barons should be strictly observed, and for that purpose a meeting of the nobility, clergy and of others who held lands as freemen, took place at London about the Michaelmas of 1218, and confirmed the Great Charter and the Charter of Forests.

the Earl of Pembroke.

But before these wise measures could be carried into effect, the illustri- Death of ous earl, whose united firmness and liberality had at once delivered the kingdom from foreign invaders and confirmed the freedom of the nation, died, and was succeeded as regent by Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester; Hubert de Burg being, at the same time, made chief justiciary of England. These two powerful men were jealous of each other, and the latter contrived to gain a complete sway in the counsels of the king, and to rouse the indignation of the barons by his total disregard of the Charters which had been sworn to both by the young king and his father. By the advice of the justiciary, Henry had no sooner been declared of age, than he annulled the Charters by a proclamation, in which he insisted that he was not bound by any acts or promises done or made in his name during his minority.

Barons.

A dispute relative to a manor in Cornwall, in which Richard, duke of Confederacy Cornwall and brother of the king, appealed to the provisions of Magna of the Charta, roused the barons again to form a confederacy in defence of their rights; relying particularly on the countenance of the young prince Richard. One of the most forward on this occasion was Ferrers, earl of Derby, and with him were conjoined one of the sons of the great earl marshall Pembroke, together with the earls of Gloucester, Chester, Warren, Warwick and Hereford. These confederates met at Stamford, and resolved to enforce the observance of the Charters, but Hubert de Burg, the justiciary, who was aware of the danger in which his counsels had involved himself and his

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