THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND
Edward the Second
EDWARD the second of that name, now succeeded to the throne, and his first measures went to show how little he regarded the dying counsels of his sagacious predecessor. He recalled his favorite, Gaveston loading him with wealth and honours, abandoned the conduct of the Scottish war, dismissed some of the best and wisest servants of the throne, and even buried his father's bones at Westminster in defiance of the solemn injunction that he should carry them with the army to the remotest parts of Scotland. It then became necessary that he should go to France, that he might do homage for Guienne and Ponthieu, and marry Isabella the French king's daughter, to whom he had been contracted four years before, but in the meanwhile he left Gaveston regent, and invested him with extraordinary powers.
The stay of Edward in France was short, and upon his return his coronation was celebrated with much magnificence and outward show of joy, though with. little real satisfaction amongst the more powerful of his nobles. In the arrangements of this ceremony no regard had been paid either to former precedents or the claims of inheritance this was more particularly the case in favour of Gaveston, to whom was assigned the post of honour in the procession; he carried the crown, and walked immediately before the monarch on his way to his coronation. Nor did the favourite at all attempt to soothe the wounded pride of the nobles by bearing his honours meekly; his dress was more splendid, his retinue more numerous than theirs, and, while he was the sole dispenser of the royal favours, he rendered himself yet more odious by showing that he despised them. The nobles then assembled in the refectory of the monks at Westminster; whence they sent a petition to the king, demanding a redress of abuses and the immediate banishment of Gaveston, and though this was evaded at the time, yet in the first meeting of parliament, the same demand was repeated in terms that admitted of no denial. Gaveston was compelled to swear that he would leave the country never to return. Yet even then, Edward could not he persuaded to abandon. him, and his enemies had scarcely time to rejoice in his exile from England, when they found to their surprise and indignation that he had assumed by royal authority the government of Ireland.
Necessity now compelled the king to solicit the aid of his parliament, but they had determined that the redress of grievances should precede any granting of supplies. The abuses complained of, may be classed under eleven heads. They complained,- 1st. That the king's purveyors took all kinds of provisions without giving any security for the payment. 2ndly. That he had imposed additional duties on wine, on cloth, and on other foreign imports, which had raised the price one third to the consumer. 3rd. That by the debasement of the coin, the value of all commodities had been advanced. 4th. That the stewards and marshals of the king's household, held pleas which did not fall under their cognizance. 5th. That they exercised their authority beyond the verge, that is, a circuit of twelve leagues round the king's person. 6th. That no clerks were appointed, as they had been under the last monarch, to receive the petitions of the commons in parliament 7th, That officers appointed to take articles for the king's use in fairs and markets took more than they ought, and made a profit of the surplus. 8th. That in civil suits men were prevented from obtaining their right by writs under the privy seal. 9th. That felons eluded the punishment of their crimes by the case with which charters of pardon were obtained. 10th. That the constables of the castles hold common pleas at their gates without any authority. 11th. That the escheators ousted men of their inheritances, though they had appealed to the king's courts.
Unpleasant this petition must have been to Edward, he did not dare to refuse it, but, promising to take it into consideration, dismissed the commons. and ordered the lords to attend him, three months later, at Stamford. In the meanwhile, he contrived to win over some of the nobles; when no longer able to bear the separation from his favourite, he ventured to recall him, and even conducted him to Stamford, to the meeting of the nobles. By their advice he assented to every article of the petition, obtaining from the parliament in return the grant of a twenty-fifth, and, what he probably valued yet more, their consent that Gaveston should remain in England, " provided he should demean himself properly,"—a condition that was not long attended to ; the old abuses were renewed, and the dissatisfaction of the nobles broke out again more violently than ever, and when Gaveston announced his intention of holding a tournament, none of the great lords would accept his invitation To mark yet more the public feeling, when the king's necessities again compelled him to convoke a council at York, the nobles pleaded fear of Gaveston, and refused to attend so that Edward found it advisable to send his favourite to some secret asylum, while he called a parliament at Westminster. Even then, with a real or pretended fear of designs against their safety, they appeared, with their retainers, in arms, and the king at length found himself obliged to sanction the appointment of a committee of peers under the name of ordainers, to regulate his household and redress the national grievances. The naming of this committee was, by royal permission, assigned to the archbishop, who had resumed the administration of his diocese, to seven bishops, eight earls, and thirteen barons ; and they immediately chose seven prelates, eight earls, and six barons, to be ordainers; but, with a written agreement and declaration that their power should expire on the feast of Saint Michael, in the following year.
The ordainers sate in the capital, and Edward, glad to withdraw from the presence of those who, in fact, were his masters, summoned his military retainers to follow him into Scotland. Of ten earls, only three joined him; these turbulent nobles being much more anxious for their own aggrandisement, than for the honour or welfare of their country. Yet the king advanced as far as the Forth without meeting an enemy, and having passed the winter at Berwick, ordered Gaveston, in the spring, to resume the war at the head of the army. Nor did the favourite show himself unequal to his high office, though the caution of Bruce prevented him from gaining any splendid triumphs; and when at length it was necessary for the king to meet his parliament, Gaveston shut himself up in the strong castle of Bamborough in Northumberland.
While affairs had been thus progressing in the north, the ordainers had employed themselves in framing their articles of reform. The first six had been published before Edward proceeded to Scotland, and regarded the rights of the church, the king's peace, the payment of his debts, the forming of the customs, and the observance of the great charter. The principal of the others annulled all grants made since the commission, forbade the making of any for the future, without the consent of the barons, in parliament assembled, prohibited the king from levying war, or quitting the kingdom unless by their allowance, gave to them the right of choosing a guardian in his absence, abolished all purveyances except such as were ancient and lawful, repealed the new taxes on wine, wool, cloth, and other merchandize, and made it imperative on the king to elect all the great officers of the crown, the wardens of the Cinque Ports, and the governors of his foreign possessions by their advice and as sent. Had the barons even gone no farther they would not have left much substantial power in the hands of their monarch; but they did not rest here; they insisted upon the banishment of Gaveston, and that parliaments should be held once a year, or, if need should be, yet oftener. The king, however, found him self obliged to yield to these hard conditions, though he did it under reserve of the just rights of the crown, which seemed a sufficient warning that he was as little sincere as his adversaries were moderate or even just. And so it proved. He soon called a new parliament, and then suddenly retired into the north, where he was less under the control of the barons, and while they were yet rejoicing that they had separated him from his favourite for ever, they heard with no less indignation than surprise, that Gaveston had joined him at York. This produced a fresh conspiracy of the nobles, who, placing the Earl of Lancaster at their head, marched to York, and when they did not find him there, hastened on to Newcastle with so much speed, as well as secrecy, that Edward escaped them only by a few hours in his flight to Tynemouth. From this last place, regardless of the queen's entreaties, he took ship with Gaveston for Scarborough, where for greater security he left the favourite behind him in the castle, and proceeding himself to York unfurled the royal banner. But the confederates were not slow in following him, and Lancaster encamped between York and Scarborough while Surrey and Pembroke laid seige to the castle. In vain he ordered them to retire, and Gaveston finding the place untenable, surrendered with the king's consent, to the earl of Pembroke, on condition that if no accommodation took place before the end of August he should be reinstated in the possession of Scarborough. To this contract the Lord Henry Percy also be came a party ; both the nobles binding themselves to the king in the penalty of life and limb for the safety of his favourite, who was to be confined in his own castle of Wallingford. But though Pembroke did not openly violate his pledged word, he seems to have done so by connivance; at Dedington on his way to Wallingford, he left the captive in the custody of his servants, while he himself spent the night with his countess in the neighbourhood, and a little before day-break, the earl of Warwick made his appearance upon the scene. Gaveston, hastily summoned from his bed, was mounted on a mule and conducted to Warwick castle, where Lancaster and the other chiefs of the party sat in judgment upon him. No attention was paid to the terms of the capitulation; he was condemned to death, and beheaded at Blacklow Hill, near Gaversike, in the presence of the earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and Surrey.
The whole nation was horror struck at the news of this murder. The king, filled alike with grief and indignation, set out for London, and was joined on his way by Pembroke, who contrived to persuade him of his innocence. But the principal offenders assumed a bolder attitude; the papal legate and the envoys of France offered their mediation; and the birth of a son and heir diverting the king's thoughts from the loss of his favourite, a peace, for the time at least, was concluded between Edward and the confederate nobles. On that point, however, he showed more firmness than might have been expected; for their own security, and perhaps also to gratify their hatred, the barons would fain have extorted from him a declaration that Gaveston had been a traitor, but this he indignantly refused, and they were obliged to abandon their demand.
We must now return to Scotland, where Bruce had been slowly, but surely, winning back all that had been conquered by the valour or the wisdom of the preceding monarch. The castle of Linlithgow was gained by the artifice of a peasant, Perth was surprised at night by Bruce himself, Roxburgh was taken by escalade, and Edinburgh was the last that yielded, while the weak Edward and his traitor nobles, were each intent only on their own selfish purposes. Even now, when it would seem that there was no farther ground for strife between them, and the king summoned the barons to assist in recovering what had been so basely lost, all his projects were defeated by civil dissention; the clergy refused an aid, while the earls of Lancaster, Surrey, Warwick, and Arundel, disobeyed the summons, and many others were probably influenced by their example. Edward, however, although thus abandoned by those who should have supported him, marched from Berwick a week before the time fixed for the surrender of Stirling; but Bruce had not been idle; his army consisting of thirty thousand picked men, stretched from the burn of Bannock on the right, to the neighborhood of the castle on the left, while in front it was protected by narrow pits, concealed by sods and hurdles, sufficiently strong to bear a man on foot, but which would give way under a mailed knight on horseback. The centre was commanded by Douglas and Stuart, the right wing by Edward Bruce, and the left by Randolph.
It is difficult to understand the details of this battle, in the conflicting accounts of Scottish and English historians; of its result there can be no doubt; the English army, deprived by domestic feuds of three parts of its chivalry, was completely defeated, and Edward, after having shown himself a gallant knight, though not perhaps an experienced general, fled to Dunbar, whence he proceeded by sea to England. Bruce thought this a favourable opportunity for giving permanency to his power by the establishment of peace with England; but the views of the contending parties were too much opposed to be thus easily reconciled; Edward refused to Bruce the title of king, and the latter breaking off all treaty in high indignation, called his parliament and proceeded to settle the succession, when, as his only child was a daughter, and there might be danger in a female reign, it was agreed with Marjory's own consent, that if he died without a son, the crown should devolve to his brother Edward; if he also deceased without heirs male, then it was to revert to Marjory and her descendants.
Having thus settled their own affairs, the Scotch took upon themselves to interfere in those of Ireland, which was at this time divided between two races, differing totally in laws, language, and habits, and animated with a mutual hatred. The greater part of Connaught and Ulster, as well as the more wild and mountainous districts, were still held by the natives; the southern and eastern coasts, with all the principal towns and cities were occupied by the English, under which name must be understood a mass of adventurers from England, Wales, and Guienne, professing a nominal fealty to the English crown, but in reality, paying little obedience either to the monarch or his laws. At pleasure they levied war upon each other, or upon the natives ; the entire pale, except in the vicinity of Dublin, being subjected to a multitude of petty tyrants, who were the more dangerous as they united to the ferocity of barbarism the advantages of a partial civilization. The natives suffered dreadfully from their misrule; those within the pale were reduced to a most abject state of vigilance, while those without were harassed by military incursions, and all Irishmen were included under the sweeping denomination of enemies and robbers; they seem however in some measure to have deserved the name by their lawless and vindictive habits, for wherever they appeared in arms, murder and conflagration were sure to follow upon their footsteps. Nor did they at all hesitate to avail themselves of the aid of the English in their domestic feuds; indeed it may be said that they wrought fully as much mischief upon each other, as they experienced at the hands of their common enemy. But, for once, a better or a more prudent spirit would appear to have animated them. When Edward summoned the chiefs of the septs with their retainers to assist him in his wars with Scotland, they neglected his request, and after the battle of Bannockburn had broken the spell of English invincibility, the men of Ulster carried on a secret correspondence with the Scottish monarch. This was discovered by Edward, who immediately dispatched the escheator, Lord Ufford, to treat with the Irish leaders; but before he could execute his commission, Edward Bruce had landed in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus, with an army of six thousand men, and was joined by the O'Nials. They burnt Dundalk, laid waste the greater part of Louth, and at Athlec, the inhabitants, men, women and children, who had crowded into the church, perished in the flames. At the approach of the lord deputy Butler and the earl of Ulster, they retired to Conyers, leaving their banners flying in their camp, and. then making a circuit unperceived, they fell upon the rear of their pursuers. A bloody battle ensued, and the English suffered so severely, that the confederates were now able to continue their retreat unmolested, and Bruce sent to Scotland for reinforcements.
The attention of Edward was now fully roused to the precarious state of his power in Ireland, and he sent John de Hotham, afterwards bishop of Ely, to treat with the natives, and reconcile the barons, whose dissensions had prevented them from joining the royal forces, if indeed, as was suspected in the case of many of them, they had not even been in secret and treacherous communication with the Scots. With much difficulty the negotiator formed an association amongst the tenants of the crown; with the native chiefs, he was less successful ; without even waiting for an answer to their own propositions they recommenced the war, in conjunction with Bruce, who had now received a reinforcement from Scotland, and carried fire and the sword through out the unhappy country.
But though we read of nothing but victories on the part of the rebels and their Scotch allies, yet it would seem as if the latter must have suffered almost as much loss as they inflicted; for in the midst of these apparent triumphs, we find them again retreating, and sending to Scotland for fresh succours. Neither does the aid of Bruce appear to be altogether disinterested; he had evidently been shedding the blood of his countrymen in a quarrel that did not concern them, for the sake of gaining a throne for himself, and the time was now come to reap the harvest vest. O'Nial, who claimed to himself to be hereditary king of Ireland, transferred his rights to Edward Bruce, and the latter was immediately crowned, and entered upon the full exercise of the royal power. Even if the crown were thus fairly obtained, it was worn with little glory to the monarch, and with less profit to the people; by his inactivity, the new monarch abandoned the different septs, that had joined him, to destruction, and after many thousands of the natives had perished in different battles, the whole was wound up on the field of Athenree; in that sanquinary action the sept of the O'Connors was almost destroyed, and the hopes of Ireland might well have seemed to be extinguished . But the news that Robert Bruce had arrived in Ulster with a numerous army, tended to revive the spirits of the defeated. The face of affairs again changed, for the Scottish king had on his side all the advantage which belongs to previous success, and which makes even moderate talent invincible, unless when opposed to superior genius. The garrison of Carrickfergus surrendered, though not without a gallant defence, and the two brothers, at the head of twenty thousand men, penetrated as far as Limerick, having as usual ravaged the country in their progress. The winter, by its severity, now gave a check to this war of devastation. Numbers of the barbarian invaders perished by want, fatigue, and the inclemency of the season, and it was with difficulty they eluded the vigilance of the English army that had assembled at Kilkenny, to intercept their return. Unwilling to peril his name any longer on a field so hazardous, Robert Bruce hastened back to Scotland.
These severe defeats would in all probability have tamed the fierce spirit of the natives, had it not been for the interference of the clergy, who employed their religious weapons to defend their temporal interests. Edward on his part complained to the pope, who commissioned the archbishops of Dublin and Cashel, to admonish them and to threaten the disobedient with excommunication. The clergy in reply, put forth a long statement invalidating the rights of Edward, which would seem not to have been without its effect on the pontiff, since we find him interfering with the English monarch in favour of his Irish subjects. In the meanwhile, the skill and prudence of Sir Roger Mortimer, who had been intrusted with the government, confirmed the English superiority, though the year of his administration had not been distinguished by any signal victory. Soon after his departure, Edward Bruce advanced to Dundalk, where he was met by John, Lord Birmingham, and fell with the greater part of his forces. With him sank the hopes of the Irish, and had Edward made a proper use of his victory, there would have been little cause in the eyes of philosophy for regret. But this was far from being the case; if some of the more crying abuses were removed, enough still remained to justify the national hatred of their conquerors. We must now revert to England, which, so far as chronological arrangement is concerned, has been for some time neglected in order not to interrupt the course of events.
For three years the English had groaned under the twofold calamity of pestilence and famine. So scanty was the supply of food either at home or from abroad, that wheat, peas, and beans, were sold at twenty shillings the quarter, and even at the king's table, bread was not always to be seen. The parliament had recourse to a maximum in defiance of which the price of every article advanced. The next season proved wet and stormy so that the early crops were destroyed, while the latter never ripened at all, and by Christmas the scarcity of the preceding year had been doubled. Then came a pestilential disease among the cattle, followed by dysenteries and other epidemic diseases amongst the people, the natural consequences of insufficient or unwholesome food. The parliament repealed their maximum, and the king suspended the breweries, but the prices still continued to advance, till wheat had reached a tenfold value, and the poor were reduced to feed on roots, dogs, horses, and it is said, upon the dead bodies of their companions. In self defence the nobles began expelling from their castles the herd of retainers, whose resort, in more prosperous times they had encouraged, as adding to their dignity and power. The crowds that were thus driven forth without food or shelter, in their turn obeyed the first law of nature, and rather than lie down and starve, plundered their former patrons, and their innocent neighbours without distinction. Hence arose associations amongst all classes of those who had anything to lose, with a view of putting down this system of pillage and spoliation; blood was freely shed on all sides, till society was like a vessel wrecked upon the rocks, when subordination ceases and the crew becomes a horde of plunderers.
The Scots did not hesitate to avail themselves of this opportunity , and pouring over the borders, ravaged the northern counties with impunity. On the eastern coast they advanced with little opposition as far as the Humber; on the western, they penetrated to the river Lune, the king and his barons persisting all the while, in their disgraceful contentions, and neither party regretting the sufferings of the people, in their eagerness to attain their own selfish objects. It was in the full reliance upon these domestic feuds, that Bruce had ventured to leave his own kingdom, and sail, as we have seen, for Ireland, to assist his brother. Nor was he disappointed. Edward did indeed hasten to York, and summoned his retainers to meet him at Newcastle, but the factious barons paid no attention to his commands, and after an inglorious campaign, in which he suffered more injury than he inflicted, he returned to the south to receive the two cardinals, Joscelin d'Ossat and Luca de Fieschi, the legates of the new pope, John XXII.
On this occasion, we see the pontiff conscientiously discharging that office, which of all others most became him-the office of peace-maker amongst kings and people. The legates bore with them a bull, in which, of his own authority, the pope proclaimed a two years truce preparatory to a general peace. By Edward this bull was respected, and orders given for the immediate suspension of hostilities; by Bruce it was evaded, because the letters from the legates were addressed to "The noble Lord, Robert de Burs, the ruler of Scotland ;" nor would he listen to the very obvious reply, that it became not the holy see, while the controversy was pending, to give to either party a title which might prejudice the right of the other. The most the legates could get from him, was a promise to consult his council, and that they should hear from him after the feast of Saint Michael. With this answer they returned to London, and long after the appointed time, they received a final announcement, signed by Bruce, his earls, and barons, that till he was acknowledged king of Scotland, he should decline entering into any negotiation either with them or their messengers. They however published the papal truce with due solemnity in London, and commanded Adam Newton, guardian of the friars miners in Berwick, to notify it to the Scots. This he managed to do, in the midst of the assembled army, and in defiance of Bruce, who immediately desired him to depart, and having refused him passports, allowed, if he did not order, that the friar should be stopt, and plundered on his way home.
Without paying the slightest attention to the papal mandates, the Scottish ruler carried on the war with vigour; by the help of a traitor in the town, he took Berwick; reduced Wark, Harbottle, and Mitford; and burnt Northahlerton, Borougbbridge, Scarborough, and Skipton; Ripon saved itself from a similar fate by the payment of a thousand marks. Irritated by such contumacy, the cardinals declared that Bruce, with his associates, had incurred the sentence of excommunication previously fulminated against those who should violate the truce, and then returned to the papal court at Avignon.
Whatever may be thought of Edward, and there is little in his character for admiration, it is impossible not to feel indignant at the selfish and treacherous conduct of the barons, who thus exposed the country to be ravaged by a horde of barbarians. Never, even by the Goths and Vandals, had war been carried on with more unsparing ferocity. But, at length, both the king and his nobles were roused by a sense of the common danger, or rather it should be said that the king gave way to his opponents; he agreed that the ordinances should be maintained in their pristine form without any qualification, that all offences on either side should be forgiven, that many of the grants should be reduced in amount, and many other points were conceded by him, but more to party interests than the claims of justice. The nobles then accompanied him with their retainers to Berwick, which they immediately invested. Bruce attempted to raise the siege, and finding himself foiled, despatched fifteen thousand men to surprise queen Isabella. In this, too, the Scotch failed, but their devastations were so extensive that the archbishop put himself at the head of the posse of the county, and opposed them at Boroughbridge, when he was defeated. The news of this disaster revived the evil spirit among the barons, and while those of the south proposed to continue the siege, Lancaster with his friends departed. Fortunately Bruce himself now began to be tired of the war, or he wished to be reconciled to the court of Rome; from one or other, or perhaps both, of these motives, he made proposals for a negotiation, waiving his former demand of the regal title, and a truce of two years was concluded between "Edward King of England, and Sir Robert de Brus for himself and his adherents."
This temporary respite was employed by Bruce in endeavouring to effect a reconciliation with the holy see, and so effectual were his remonstranees, that the Pope suspended the process against him for twelve months, and afterwards for an additional six months. So completely changed indeed were the Pontiff’s feelings that he wrote a letter of advice to the English king, exhorting him to conclude a peace, a counsel which was readily received, and commissioners from the papal court as well as from the French monarch were appointed to attend the congress.
Fresh discords had by this time arisen between Edward and his nobles. Lancaster had formerly obtruded upon him Hugh Spenser, one of his own followers, to fill the place of chamberlain. ; by his talents and assiduity the young man gradually at attained to so high a degree of favour with the king that he loaded him with wealth, and gave to him in marriage the daughter of the late earl of Gloucester. But the more he thus advanced in royal regard, the more he lost the goodwill of his former superious, till at last he became as odious to them as ever Gaveston had been. His defence of the royal rights against their encroachments was visited upon him as a crime, and the ease of John de Mowbray set the long smothered anger of the barons in a full blaze. This noble had taken possession, without asking the king’s license, of an estate belonging to his wife’s father, pleading in excuse the liberty of the marches; Spencer maintained that the fief became forfeited to the crown, upon which the lords of the marches associated under the earl of Hereford for the defence of what they deemed to he their common rights. To prevent, if possible, the farther spreading of this new dissension, Edward forbade them to commit any breach of the peace, and ordered their leader to attend the council. This was refused, unless the favourite was first committed to the custody of the earl of Lancaster ‘till the next parliament, and upon the king’s declining to comply with so unreasonable a demand, Hereford with his associates fell upon the lands of Spenser, reducing ten castles, and burning, destroying, or carrying off, all the property on his twenty-three manors. They then marched into Yorkshire, where they made a covenant with Lancaster and thirty-four barons and knights, to prosecute the two Spensers ‘till they should be driven into banishment, though it would be hard to say what was the offence of the elder of them, unless it were his being the father of the favourite and one of the most powerful of the nobles, Lancaster, in his way to the capital with the confederates, allowed his troops to live at free quarters, and to plunder the estates of the aged baron, and on reaching Saint Albans sent a message to Edward, demanding the banishment both of father and son, as well as an act of indemnity for himself and his associates. To this Edward replied that the elder Spenser was abroad in his service, that the younger was guarding the Cinque ports with his fleet, and that he would neither punish the accused unheard, nor would he violate his coronation oath by pardoning the disturbers of the public peace.
The measures of the confederates, if not just, were vigorous. Cantoning his troops about Holborn and Clerkenwell, Lancaster proceeded to Westminster where the parliament was sitting, filled the hall with armed men, and read a paper of accusation against the Spensers, concluding with a demand that they should be banished from the kingdom for ever. The king and his party gave way in terror, and though the prelates showed a more determined spirit, and protested in writing against the sentence, the banishment of the two Spensers was duly entered on the rolls, and a general pardon granted to the earl and his associates.
Nothing is more surprising in the history of these times, or so difficult to be understood, as the constantly recurring vicissitudes in the possession of power. We have just seen Edward completely prostrate at the feet of his barons; we shall now find him executing summary vengeance for a much less transgression. The queen on her way to Canterbury wished to pass the night in the royal castle of Leeds. This was refused by the Lady Badlesmere in the absence of her husband, and a dispute arising in consequence, several of the royal attendants were killed. Badlesmere avowed the act of his wife, and the lords of the marches advanced to support him in his rebellion; but Edward took the castle, hanged the governor with eleven of his knights, imprisoned others, and sent the Lady Badlesmere and her female attendants to the Tower. So far from injuring his cause by this act of vigour, it raised up a general feeling in his favour; many came forward to their king’s aid who had held themselves aloof during his hour of’ weakness; the Spensers ventured to return.
The sufferings of the people in the north in consequence of the Scottish inroads, tended much to the decrease of Lancaster’s popularity, for all men now began to see that Bruce’s success was entirely owing to the earl’s factious opposition of every defensive measure attempted by the government. They suspected too, what was afterwards proved by his acts, that he held a traitorous intelligence with the Scots. A treaty, of which the evidence still remains, was entered into between himself, Hereford and Bruce, by which the earls agreed to maintain the latter’s claim to the Scottish throne, receiving his promise in return that he would live and die with them in their quarrel. These matters had not been carried on so secretly but that Edward gained a knowledge of them. In consequence he marched to Gloucester, which had been taken by the lords of the marches, but they fled, on his approach, to Lancaster, and were at once received under the earl’s protection. The royalists followed up their first successes with a vigour, till now, unusual to them; and Lancaster having burnt Burton upon Trent, found himself compelled to fall back upon Pontefract, whence he wrote to the king of Scots, and then continued his retreat, with seven hundred cavalry, in the hope of meeting his allies. At Boroughbridge his farther advance was stopped by the governors of York and Carlisle, who were posted on the opposite side of the river, when Hereford was slain in attempting to pass the bridge, and he himself was foiled by the enemies’ archers in his efforts to cross over by a ford. One hope alone remained to him ; the Scots might perhaps come up during the night. But the morning broke, and, no allies appearing, he fell into the hands of the royalists, who conducted him to Pontefract, where he met the just reward of a long life of turbulence and treachery. He was condemned to be drawn, hanged, and beheaded, and though Edward remitted the more ignominious part of the punishment, the people could not forget that by his means their houses had been burnt and their lands ravaged, and they loaded him with insults on his way to execution.
The king had now the whole party at his mercy, and might have restored lasting peace and quiet to his kingdom had he been possessed of judgment and resolution. All the bannerets and fourteen of the knights, taken in open war, were executed, a degree of severity which seems barbarous because it was useless, while on the other hand, by a mistaken lenity, the two Mortimers— , the very heads of the offence, and who had justly been condemned to death, obtained a commutation of their sentence for perpetual imprisonment. Others compounded for their estates, or swore allegiance; the greater part were discharged “for charity and the love of God.”
The parliament assembled at York, and the members being now as subservient as they were before factious, the court measures were carried without opposition. Of the ordinances some were declared beneficial, and retained ; others were found unconstitutional and abolished ; provisions were made against future attempts similar to those of the ordainers ; upon the petition of the Spensers, the award against them was struck off the rolls; and while the father was created earl of Winchester, with a gift of several forfeited estates, the son recovered all his former ascendency. Inspired by these successes, Edward arrayed a numerous army against the Scots. But unfortunately he was altogether deficient in the military skill requisite to the wielding of so large a host, and, what was worse, his discontented nobles lent him no more aid than was necessary to keep up the show of loyalty. The Scots, too, played a safe and wary game, sweeping the country as they retired before their enemy, and carefully avoiding a battle, so that having advanced as far as the Forth, Edward found himself compelled, ‘from want of subsistence, to return. Nor did his disgrace end here. He had appointed guardians of the marches, disbanded his army, and retired in fancied security to the abbey of Biland, in Yorkshire, when the Scots suddenly appeared before it, in the hope of surprizing him. With some difficulty he escaped, by a precipitate flight to York, followed even there by his indefatigable pursuers, who defied the garrison, and ravaged the country around with their usual barbarity. But they did so with great safety to themselves. Treason was again busy in the royal ranks, and it was soon discovered, that Harclay, who, for his services at Boroughbridge, had been created earl of Carlisle, and made warden of the western marches, was in friendly communication with the Scots, and had facilitated their entrance across the borders. He was, in consequence, soon after arrested by Sir Henry Fitz Hugh, at the king’s command, and suffered the punishment of a traitor in all its rigour.
If England suffered thus severely, Scotland also had reaped its full share of misery during this destructive war, which, with few intermissions, had continued for three and twenty years. Even Bruce found it expedient to buy a suspension of arms, by waiving in the treaty, the title for which he had so long contended. That it was equally politic and humane to do so, no one will deny; but we must not forget that it was to maintain this very title, he had involved the two countries in fire, famine, and bloodshed, for so many years; if he were wise and humane now, what must be have been before? the praise awarded to the concession is the severest condemnation of his previous obstinacy.
Had Edward been possessed of common prudence, he would now have restored domestic quiet, and fixed his throne in security. By wholesome reforms, he might have secured the affections of his people; by a judicious union of clemency and firm firmness, he might have tamed the stubborn spirit of his nobles; but it is plain that he had none of the higher qualities demanded by his situation, and in being weak, was quite as fatal to himself and the nation as if he had been vicious. Under his feeble rule, past events were soon forgotten. Bands of armed men appeared in several counties, Wallingford castle was surprised by a knight, of the name of Walton, an association to murder the elder Spenser was discovered, and Roger Mortimer, who had twice been convicted of treason, and twice been saved from the scaffold by the misjudging clemency of the king, made his escape from the Tower Once again free, he embarked for France; here he entered into the service of Charles de Valois, who had now succeeded his brother Philip, on the throne, and by his obstinate rejection of every proposition made by Edward, however reasonable, seemed determined to provoke a war between the two countries. Probably he thought this was a favourable time for conquest, while England was distracted by internal dissensions, under a weak prince, and it might be that he was yet farther urged on by the counsels of the traitor, Mortimer, or by the instigations of his sister, Isabella, the queen of England, whom subsequent events prove to have been as heartless as she was profligate. At all events, his army overran the Agenois, and it was only by the surrender of Reoles, that the king’s brother, the duke of Kent, obtained a truce for a few months. The pope then endeavoured to mediate a peace between the belligerents. Edward, though be had prepared for an expedition to Guienne, expressed his readiness to listen to the pope’s councils; Charles on the contrary, breathed nothing but war, yet he artfully insinuated to the papal envoys that if Isabella would visit Paris, he might grant to his sister, what he refused to more indifferent negotiators. Edward was the dupe of this shallow artifice ;—lsabella was allowed to go to France, and a deceptive peace was then proposed, on which his council, fearing for themselves, would not venture an opinion. A week only had been allowed Edward to decide, and thus abandoned on all sides, he consented, though with reluctance, and set out for France, to do homage for his French possessions. Detained by sickness at Dover, he sent a message of apology to Charles. The treason that had been a long time in embryo, now began to show its first fruits in a demand that Edward should transfer the possession of Guienne and Ponthieu, to his son, upon which, Charles, at the prayer of Isabella, would receive the young prince’s homage. The feeble monarch consented. This son, a boy of twelve years of age, left England with a promise to hasten his return, and not to marry during his absence. But week after week passed, the ceremony of homage had been performed, yet neither mother nor son made their appearance; amid it soon became something more than rumor, that a daughter of France and queen of England, was living in open adultery with a thrice-dyed traitor. In vain the king commanded her to return. She paid no attention to his mandates, pleading in excuse her fears of Hugh Spenser, though it is abundantly evident from Edward’s still extant letters to the pope and to the king and peers of France, as well as to herself and son, that these fears were mendacious pretenses. If any one could have been blind to the truth thus far, her subsequent actions soon proved beyond a doubt which party was to be believed. Troops were levied in her name, the Lancastrian faction was invited to join her on her arrival in England, and reports, the most injurious to Edward, were circulated both at home and abroad.
So little restrained by any ties of morality or religion was the “she-wolf of France,” as the poet most aptly styled her, that she attempted by her agents to murder the bishop of Exeter, the king’s envoy to the French, and one of the most able and upright of the royal adherents. Feeling his utter insecurity on French ground, this prelate hastened back to England, and was followed by the majority of those who had composed the queen and prince’s retinue, but whom it was now found convenient to dismiss, lest they should be used as spies upon the projected treason. Yet farther to distract the attention of the English monarch, Charles fell upon Guienne, and even when a severe letter of reproach from the pope compelled him to dismiss his infamous sister from Paris, he secretly provided an asylum for her in the court of his vassal, William, Count of Hainault. Here, under Mortimer’s direction, she signed a contract of marriage between her son, Edward, and Philippa, the second daughter of the count, who placed at her disposal more than two thousand men, while all the exiles of the Lancastrian faction, crowded to her standard. A yet more dangerous adviser was Adam Orleton, bishop of Hereford; he had been deprived of his temporalities for his share in Lancaster’s conspiracy. By his counsels a plan was formed to unite all parties against Edward, and to invade England under the fair mask of righting an injured woman, and expelling an upstart favourite. On the twenty-fourth of September, Isabella landed with her followers at Orwell in Suffolk.
Edward seems to have had early notice of what was intended, yet derived little benefit from the knowledge. Turn which way he would, he was surrounded by traitors. Both the king’s brothers, his cousin, the earl of Richmond, Lord Beaumont, the earl of Norfolk, and the bishop of Norwich, with three other spiritual lords, went over to the party of Isabella; the primate supplied her with money to pay her followers; the fleet, which he had ordered to assemble at Orwell three days before the arrival of the enemy, was treacherously directed to another quarter Robert de Watteville, who bad been despatched to oppose the enemy, joined the queen and Mortimer with all his forces; never was every principle of honour or morality more generally or recklessly disregarded, unless, indeed, we are to suppose that the conduct of Edward and his friends was in reality much worse than appears upon the record. There is certainly something to stagger us in the fact of a disaffection so widely spread, and yet when we consider, both public and private chronicle affords too many instances of the majority taking up false opinions and persecuting innocence, for us to draw from it any reliable conclusion.
As some relief to this dark picture, it must be confessed that many who joined Isabella were not actuated by the same motives, nor sought the same objects, as the original concocters of the revolt. These, while they professed themselves hostile to the Spensers, talked of restoring the queen to her husband and compelling him to govern by the advice of his parliament. The conspirators took the alarm. A council was summoned, in which, by the queen’s command, Orleton inveighed against Edward, declaring that her life was in danger from his brutality, and a proclamation was issued, studiously silent as to the intended form of government, and professing that the queen had come with the young prince to redress grievances, and expel the Spensers. To give yet greater force to this proclamation, the emnissaries who distributed it, pretended that the pope absolved the king’s vassals from their allegiance, and had excommunicated all who should bear arms against the queen.
Thus deserted, Edward, as the queen approached London, made an appeal to the loyalty of the citizens, but so little satisfactory was their answer, that he deemed it expedient to withdraw, with the chancellor Baldock, the two Spensers, and a slender retinue. No sooner had he gone than the populace murdered Walter Stapleton, the bishop of Exeter, took possession of the Tower, and set the prisoners at liberty. In the meanwhile, the king reached the marches of Wales, gave Bristol to the custody of the Earl of Winchester, and at Caerfilly attempted to raise the men of Glamorgan. Here again he was unsuccessful, and in consequence embarked for Lundy, an islet in the mouth of the British channel, where he might hope to wait in safety for better times, as it had been previously fortified, and abundantly stored with provisions. But his usual ill-fortune pursued him; he was driven back by contrary winds, and obliged to land at Swansea, whence be retired to the monastery of Neath, and concealed himself from time to time, in various places between that and the castle of Caerfilly, then held by his partizan, John de Felton. At length, the new Earl of Lancaster, who had taken that title on the attainder of his brother, found means to corrupt the fidelity of the natives, who betrayed to him the hiding-place of Spenser and Baldock, in the woods near the castle of Lantressan. On the capture of his friends, Edward voluntarily gave himself up, and was conducted to Kenilworth, while Baldock and Spenser, after a short delay, were arraigned at Hereford, condemned without the slightest show of justice, and executed with as little humanity in the details. A few yards below, suffered Spenser’s servant, Simon de Reading, for no other crime than fidelity to his master; at the same time, the Earl of Arundel, with two other gentlemen was beheaded, because, if the public opinion was correct—their estates were coveted by the queen’s favourite to whom they were immediately granted.
The ostensible objects for which Isabella’s faction had shed so much blood, were thus accomplished; their real purposes now remained to be unfolded, so as not to excite discontent amongst the people. With this view the bishop of Hereford, as artful as he was profligate, solemnly assured the new parliament that to liberate the captive monarch would be to expose Isabella to certain death, a bad return for her having freed them with so much wisdom and courage, from the tyranny of favourites. This pretence, though it could deceive no one, was admitted. The young Edward was declared king by acclamation, the archbishop of York, and the bishops of Rochester and Carlisle, alone having the virtue to refuse their concurrence.
With all this outward show of success, the building of the Lancastrians still rested on an insecure foundation. Edward the Second still lived, and had not resigned the throne. To cure this defect, a bill of six articles was exhibited against him by Stratford, bishop of Winchester, amongst which, strangely enough, figures the accusation that he had lost the crown of Scotland; when it was notorious to all men, that the barons by their treachery as well as negligence, had given victory after victory to Bruce. The charges, however, were admitted; the king was formally deposed; his son elected in his place; and the queen, adding hypocrisy to crime, received the news with tears and lamentations. To silence her pretended scruples, a deputation of lords and commoners was sent to Kenilworth to procure from Edward his voluntary resignation, or, if he refused, to withdraw their homage. According to some writers, they were successful ; others maintain that he protested against such violence, declaring that no act of his was valid, so long as he remained a prisoner. The queen’s party adopted the version of the matter most favourable to their own views, and publicly announcing that he had voluntarily resigned the throne, they proclaimed his son.
The regal tragedy darkens as we proceed. The Earl of Lancaster, to whose charge Edward had been committed, was now considered by the queen and her favourite, as too indulgent a jailor, and he was given over to the custody of Sir John de Maltravers. Even then they felt themselves insecure. To conceal the place of his confinement, Edward was successively removed to Corfe, Bristol, and Berkeley, every means of severity being used to drive him mad, or, if possible, destroy him. Nor were the apprehensions of the queen and her paramour without good foundation. A considerable change had taken place in the feelings of men. Associations had been formed in several parts of the kingdom for the captive’s liberation, and the better portions of the clergy denounced in their sermons the queen’s scandalous connection with Mortimer. There was even reason to fear that they might by their censures compel her to return to her husband; to prevent which, while her son led an army against the Scots, she called an assembly of prelates and barons at Stamford, and pleading, as usual, dread of her husband’s cruelty, prevailed so far over their imbecility or baseness, as to make them declare that even if she wished it, they would not allow of her return to his society.
The same fears that had led to this disgraceful measure, in all probability brought about the last act of the tragedy. In the absence of Thomas, Lord Berkeley, who as the owner of Berkeley castle, had been joined with Maltravers in guarding the king, two of his officers, Thomas Gourlay and William Ogle, succeeded to his office. Whether his absence was the result of chance, and he was really detained by illness at his manor of Bradley, as is generally believed, or whether he purposely removed himself from assisting at a crime which yet he had not virtue enough to hinder, seems somewhat doubtful; however this may be, the queen availed herself of the opportunity to murder the husband she had betrayed and imprisoned. In the dead of night, the castle was alarmed by shrieks proceeding from the king’s chamber, and the next morning the citizens of Bristol and the neighbouring gentry were invited with suspicious eagerness to view his corpse. No marks of violence appeared upon the body, but his face by its horrible distortions betrayed too plainly that he had not died the death of nature, and the report of the day was, that he had been cruelly killed by the introduction of a red hot iron into his bowels. This tale, if not confirmed, is at least rendered probable, by the total absence of all farther investigation, and by the secret haste with which the body was interred in the abbey church of Saint Peters, Gloucestershire.
Edward, though he might be a good man, was most assuredly a bad king—if not positively, at least negatively, by the absence of all those qualities which were requisite to his situation. Among the important events that happened in his reign, though he himself had no share in it, was the abolition of the order of knights templars, whose wealth and power had gone on increasing till they drew upon them the hatred of the ecclesiastical as well as the civil authorities. Philip le Bell had frequently denounced them to Clement the Fifth, and after much deliberation, that pontiff published a bull for their suppression, but rather as a matter of expediency than of justice. In his history of England, Dr. Lingard denies that the crimes with which they were charged by their enemies, were sufficiently proved against them; but it seems to have escaped the learned and eloquent historian, that the templars had an esoteric as well as an exoteric doctrine—an avowed faith for those who loved virtue and religion, and a secret code for the bolder spirits among them, who believed in neither. The subject has been ably treated by Von Hammer.