CHAP. 11. CHAPTER XI. Historical incidents connected with Derbyshire, continued from the death of EDWARD II. began his reign in a manner that at once lost him all the Edward II. regard which the barons, out of respect to his father, might have been inclined to manifest towards him. In a few days after his accession to the throne, he recalled his favourite Piers de Gaveston, for whom he had conceived an almost unaccountable affection. On him he bestowed the earldom of Cornwall, the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, the High Peak in Derbyshire, with numerous other of the most valuable manors, then in the gift of the crown; giving him, at the same time, the hand of Margaret of Gloucester, his own niece, who was sister and co-heiress of Gilbert de Clare, the son of the great earl of Gloucester. Gaveston. Piers de Gaveston was the son of a knight of Gascony, who, by his at- Piers de tachment to the cause of the king of England, had gained the favour of the late king's brother, Edmund, earl of Lancaster and Derby; and on the death of that prince, at Bourdeaux, he was entrusted with confidential letters to the king. He came accompanied by his son, then a youth, not many years older than prince Edward; so lively in his manners, and so elegant and interesting in his person, that there seemed nothing improper in his being made the page and attendant of the heir of the English throne, in whose studies and sports he was permitted to share. There was an artful obsequiousness in young Gaveston which the brilliancy of his exterior, particularly in early life, concealed. He soon gained an ascendency over the prince, whose sports he speedily seemed to direct, and whose pleasures he afterwards completely controlled. His wit was at once terse and severe; and by his talent in ridicule he kept the sons of the noble barons from rivalling him in the favour of the future sovereign; and, finding that his power increased in proportion as the companions and pursuits of the youthful prince were of the lowest description, he led him to indulge in the vilest courses of ribaldry and debauchery. In the military exercises of that period he excelled, and at the tilt and tournament he suffered none to disarm or unhorse him but prince Edward. Vain of his countenance and figure, it is needless to say he was splendid in his apparel; and he wanted not address nor even valour, to warrant, in some degree, an elevation among the frequenters of the court; but he had no solid accomplishments, and when he aimed at directing the counsels and the public actions of a weak and debased monarch, he paved the way for the destruction of himself and his sovereign. Within six months after the death of his father, the young king sailed Marriage of over to France, to conclude his marriage with Isabella, the daughter of the King. Philip the Fair, to whom he had been betrothed, and during his absence, Gaveston was the regent and guardian of the realm, by his appointment; Gaveston, and his proud conduct. CHAP. 11. and at the coronation, which followed immediately upon the return of the Favours to king with his queen, Gaveston was appointed to carry in the procession the crown of St. Edward, which was to be placed on the sovereign's head. This honour had never before been allowed to any person not of the blood royal, and the young earl of Lancaster and Derby, the king's first cousin, had challenged this office as his right, but he was taunted by Gaveston, who, mimicing some peculiarity in the royal earl's gait, said he would carry it like a stage player: a sarcasm that was never forgiven. With levity like this, equalled only by the pride with which he disgusted the powerful military companions of the late monarch, he was accustomed to designate the brave earl of Pembroke as the Jew, because he was tall, with a sallow, war-worn aspect, and dark eyes: while Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, who had likewise been one of the constant companions in arms of Edward I. and was one of those who received the last injunctions of the dying monarch, the insolent favourite nick-named "the black dog of Ardenne forest," on account of the swarthiness of his complexion.—The queen, a woman of lofty spirit, was also irritated as well at the behaviour of her husband towards one whom he loaded with wealth even to the impoverishment of his private coffers, and could not disguise her indignant feeling, but wrote to the king, her father, that the wretch Gaveston not only treated her contemptuously, but estranged her husband from her bed. Admonition the Earl of Lincoln. Lacy, earl of Lincoln, whom we have already mentioned as holding and death of among his extensive lands and manors, the lordship of Risley in the county of Derby, was then lying on the couch of death. He had accompanied the late king in all his wars, and had shared his confidence on all occasions. He was one of those whom the royal warrior had called around him to hear his dying injunctions, when he breathed his last on the sands of Cumberland. Prince Thomas, the young earl of Lancaster and Derby, had married Alicia, the only daughter, and, indeed, the only surviving child of the earl of Lincoln. The noble earl, sensible that his end was approaching, and aware of the calamities which the government of the abject king and his vile favourite was bringing upon the nation, sent for the prince, his son-in-law, and thus addressed him. "Honour God above all things; but-seest thou, my son, that the church of England, heretofore honourable and free, is now enslaved by Romish oppressions, and by the king's unjust exactions? seest thou the common people, impoverished by tributes and taxes, and from the condition of freemen, reduced to a servitude? seest thou the nobility, formerly venerable through Christendom, vilified by aliens in their own native country? I therefore charge thee, in the name of Christ, to stand up like a man, for the honour of God, and his church, and for the redemption of thy country, associating thyself to that valiant, noble and prudent person, Guy, earl of Warwick, when it shall be proper to discourse of the public affairs of the kingdom; for he is judicious in counsel and mature in judgment. Fear not thy opposers who contest against thee in the truth: and, if thou pursuest this my advice, thou shalt gain eternal honour." Earl of Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, to the guidance of whose counsels the dying earl thus recommended the attention of his royal son-in-law, of Barons the Earl of joined by Lancaster. had already formed a confederacy against the profligate authority of the CHAP. 11. king's favourite; at the head of which was Valence, earl of Pembroke, the Confederacy archbishop of Canterbury and many of the most distinguished earls and barons of the realm. No sooner had Warwick introduced the young prince, who had instantly visited him, to the assembled nobles, than he was received by them with great joy, and declared general of the army they had determined to raise. He was soon at the head of a large body of forces, and with the expectation of surprising the king at York, who was with his favourite indulging in the festivities of that city, he marched thither; but Edward having heard of their approach, and being informed that the first of their demands was the delivery of Piers Gaveston into their hands, he fled before them. Having placed his favourite in the castle of Scarborough, the king withdrew into Warwickshire, where he expected the support of the royalists. He was closely pursued by the earl of Lancaster with the main body of the confederate army, while the earls of Pembroke and Warren carried on the siege of Scarborough. The castle, though well situate and strongly fortified, was ill provided with provisions, and it may very easily be imagined that the luxurious favourite and his attendants were not of that description of men who are best calculated to endure the deprivations of a protracted siege. In a few days they offered to capitulate, and Gaveston, in delivering himself up to his enemies, obtained a promise Capture and that he should speak with the king and be tried by his peers. In conformity to this promise, the earl of Pembroke proceeded to escort his prisoner to Wallingford, but on arriving at Deddington in Oxfordshire, he placed Gaveston under guard for the night, and Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, who was extremely enraged that any terms should have been granted to a man who had been the cause of so much dishonour and vexation to the whole nation, came with a party of armed men and carried him off to the castle of Warwick. On the arrival of the earls of Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel, a consultation was held, and warm disputes ensued whether he should be conducted to the king or put immediately to death. In the midst of this discussion, " sobrius quidam,” says an old historian, which we may translate, "a cool-minded individual of the party," observed, "that after having been at so much trouble and expense to catch this Gaveston, it would be great folly to risk the chance of his getting again under the king's protection: and that it was much better to put Gaveston to death than to continue a civil war." To this intimation the rest of the assembly acceded, and Gaveston was taken to an eminence called Blacklow hill, about a mile north-east of Warwick, where his head was struck off by a Welsh soldier, one of the attendants of the earl of Arundel. death of Gaveston. Such an execution, unwarranted by any previous trial, and in direct Flight of violation of the capitulation entered into at Scarborough, cannot be vindi- the King. cated upon any grounds, but it was not in the power of the king to manifest his indignation and resentment. The army of the barons had marched to London and Edward fled to Canterbury, where he prevailed upon the Archbishop, together with the earl of Gloucester, son of his sister Joanna, to mediate between him and the confederates. Some terms of accommodation were agreed upon, but confidence was not restored, for, says the old CHAP. 11. historian Walsingham, there continued an ill-concealed enmity between Enmity of the king and the barons; the earls of Warwick and Lancaster being more the King and particularly the objects of the king's hatred. The former of these two barons died a short time after these events, and it was generally believed that poison had been given him. Barons. Wars in Edward driven out of Scotland. Famine. Gaveston. The war carried on by Edward II. in Scotland, was a series of dishonourable defeats. The total discomfiture of an immense army, commanded by the king himself, at Bannockburn, re-established the independence of the Scottish crown. Edward fled from the field of battle, closely pursued by the victorious Scots, across the borders of the two kingdoms, and seemed not to consider himself out of danger until he arrived at the city of York. But while Edward was thus driven out of Scotland, he could have little expectation of repose amid the discontents of the people of England, where famine of the severest description, attended by disease, was adding its horrors to the distress and disorder which already prevailed throughout the kingdom. Walsingham assures us, that the most loathsome animals were caten, that even children were stolen to serve as food, and that men were assassinated for the same purpose. The price of a quarter of wheat rose to 20s. which, according to the relative value of money at that time and this, would be little less than £20. of our present currency. It is difficult to imagine the infatuation of a monarch, who in the midst of these disgraces and internal calamities, expended a large sum of money, Obsequies of in a magnificent celebration of the obsequies of his deceased favourite, whose body he caused to be removed, with solemn pomp, from Oxford to King's Langley, near St. Albans, where Edward had founded the church of the friar preachers, for the express purpose of praying for the soul of Gaveston. Nor was he contented with showing these posthumous attentions to the memory of a man hated by the nation, but sought every occasion of displaying his exasperation against those who had been instrumental in causing Gaveston's death. The earl of Lancaster and Derby was, in particular, the object of his vengeance, and he could stoop to any means of annoyance, however despicable, that might afford some vent to the irritation of his mind. In the spring of the year 1317, the king, without any process of law, gave his own warrant to a knight of the train of the earl of The Countess Warren, to seize the wife of the earl of Lancaster, under the pretence that of Lancaster she had been previously betrothed to him, that he had enjoyed all the and Derby seized. freedoms of a husband, and that she was, by the custom of that period, legally his wife. This knight was named Sir Richard de St. Martin: he was very low in stature, lame and hunchbacked. Being possessed of the king's warrant, he went to the residence of the countess in Dorsetshire, attended by a large retinue, and carried her off in great state to the castle of Ryegate in Surrey, which belonged to his patron the earl of Warren. The barons, and indeed the people at large, were astonished at the infliction of so extraordinary an insult as this, by the authority of the king, upon a prince of the blood, high in the esteem of the nation. Expressions of indignation were loud and general, nor were they diminished by the expedient to which the king resorted of having the deposition of the countess herself taken, who was reported to have acknowledged a criminal intimacy Countess. with this deformed knight, and a betrothment to him, before she became CHAP. 11. the wife of the royal earl at the instance of her father. To this deposition Deposition were added charges of adultery alleged by the countess against her husband, of the the earl, whom she was made to accuse of keeping several mistresses and of treating her with cruelty. The public would believe nothing against a prince whom they honoured for his valour and patriotism and loved for his extensive charities and universal benevolence. Edward was, however, not deterred from his purpose of injuring his more popular and public spirited cousin, and being countenanced by his younger brother, Edmund of Woodstock, whom he had created earl of Kent, and by the earl of Warren, who had deserted the party of the royal earl of Lancaster, he countenanced the claims of the decrepit knight to the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury, in the right of the countess, his pretended wife. While Edward was thus increasing the enmity of those on whose sup- Hugh de port his own power depended, he had taken into his intimacy a new fa- Spencer. vourite named Hugh de Spencer, who with his father ruled for some time the king and the national counsels, with more arrogance than even Piers de Gaveston had done. Hugh de Spencer, the elder, was a very aged man, and, during the last reign, had won the estimation of his warlike sovereign by his conduct in numerous battles. His son, Hugh de Spencer, the younger, rose by obsequiousness into the favour of the king: his avarice and ambition were insatiable, and at every accession of power and possessions, his insolence towards the barons of the kingdom increased. of the Barons. A confederacy of the barons was the consequence. They met at Sher- Confederacy borne, and placed themselves again under the authority of Thomas, earl of Lancaster. Having speedily raised an army, they marched, with banners displayed, to St. Albans, proclaiming their purpose to redress the grievances of the realm. From the town of St. Albans, where they remained three days, they sent the bishops of Ely, Hereford and Chichester to the king, calling upon him to banish the Spencers beyond the realm. Edward agreed to refer the matter to a parliament, which was soon assembled at Westminster, and in which the two favourites were sentenced to banishment for life. But this measure, though it allayed the discontent of the nation, and enabled the barons to dismiss their military tenants, served not as an admonition to the infatuated sovereign, but inflamed him with the desire of vengeance. Under pretence of chastising the Scots, who invaded the borders and laid waste the northern counties, he got together a large army, and recalled to his intimacy the younger Spencer, on whom he heaped more honours and possessions than he had previously done. Lancaster deserted by In the meantime, the party of the confederate barons had been weak- The Earl of ened through jealousy and disaffection, and the earl of Lancaster was unable to collect any considerable body of troops to act against the king, who his party. was in great strength in the heart of the kingdom. With those adherents whom he could hastily draw together, he marched first to Gloucester and thence to Burton upon Trent, and so on to his castle of Tutbury, where he intended to remain until he could raise troops from among his military tenants in Derbyshire and the neighbouring counties. For this purpose he |