subjected to his insolence, encroachment, and injustice. Arbitrary tallages and. capricious fines had been repeatedly extorted from them on frivolous occasions: in 1227, twelve years after their support of Prince Louis, a penalty of 5000 marcs (£3333. 6s. 8d.) was imposed for that remote offence; a fine of 3000 marcs (£2000) was laid upon the city, because a priest charged with murder had escaped to sanctuary, though he had been in fact the Bishop of London's prisoner, having been claimed as an ecclesiastic. Their petition, too, on this subject was not only rejected, but the petitioners were reviled by Henry as "slaves," and some of them even imprisoned'. The customary gifts which they had offered him on joyful occasions had been received ungraciously as debts, without even the courtesy of thanks being returned. Often had they been heavily taxed to pay for the fortification of their city and the Tower, though obviously intended to be used against their own freedom: their military exercises had been discouraged and scoffed at as unfit for such mechanics, and when, in 1253, some of the young citizens resisted and beat off the courtiers, who had rudely interrupted their game of the Quintain, the city was immediately punished by a fine of 1000 marcs (£666. 13s. 4d.)3, this mimic war being claimed as exclusively by the nobles and gentry at that time as the aristocratical privilege of duels has since been.

2

The noble edifice of Westminster Abbey had risen under King Henry's liberality, and in order to bestow fresh marks

1 Mat. Par. Queen Eleanor, when Lady Keeper, had rigorously enforced her dues at Queenhithe, and also claimed from London a large sum as "aurum Reginæ" owing; that is, every tenth mark paid to the King on renewal of leases, crown lands, or renewal of charters. On non-payment, she in a summary manner committed to the Marshalsea prison the sheriffs, Richard Picard and John de Northampton (1253).—Ld. · Campbell's Chancellors, 1. 142.

In 1243, 1246, 1249, 1258.-Fabyan. 3 Mat. Par.

4 They could fight in earnest, however, at times. A quarrel having

arisen between the Guilds of the Goldsmiths and the Tailors, they met to fight it out with 500 armed men on each side on an appointed night. Many were killed and wounded before the authorities of the city could interfere. This was in 1226.—S. M. 754. 5 The amount of his expenses on

of his favour upon it, he did not scruple to infringe upon the rights of others, On an occasion of this sort, in 1250, the city of London had adroitly interested Simon de Montfort and other nobles to procure them redress by exciting a kindred alarm for the security of their own chartered rights. A fair of fifteen days at the feast of Edward the Confessor was held by royal proclamation in Tothill Fields, and to ensure its success all the shops in the city of London were compelled to be closed'. A rainy October made the bad roads of approach worse, while bridges were broken down and fords became impassable, so that no buyers arrived to console the involuntary booth-keepers, who remained exposed. to cold and mud amidst a dearth of provisions. Grievances such as these, coming home to every bosom, and directly interfering with the personal comfort and profit of every shopkeeper in London, were more calculated to exasperate them than even the arbitrary maxims of Government which might lessen their political power. Nor were their retail dealings only thus interfered with, for their commercial intercourse with France was often subjected to the plunder and violent forestalling of the King's officers, while the rigid exaction by the Queen of every tenth marc on goods landed in London was also much complained of. The most recent and most daring wrong which the court had inflicted was in the preceding year, when Prince Edward

the building down to Michaelmas 1261, was £29,345. 19s. 8d.; among other marks of his zeal he adorned the forehead of the Virgin Mary's image with an emerald and ruby, taken out of rings bequeathed to him by Ralph de Neville, Bishop of Chichester.

1 Mat. Par.

2 The city subsequently bought off the fair by a payment of £200 to the abbey.-Dart's Westm.

3 In Madox Hist. Exch. p. 690, reference is made to a suit against the citizens John Travers and Andrew Bukerell (v. pp. 106-277) by Ralph

3

de Dicton, bailiff of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, because the citizens did not bring all their boats of fish to Queen Hithe (Ripa Reginæ), as they ought and used (sicut debent et solent), on which the citizens claimed the King's warrant, inasmuch as the King had granted leave for their fishboats to land where they pleased (quod naves piscem deferentes applicarent ubi vellent).-Mich. 14° Henry III. [Andrew Bukerel was mayor from 1232 to 1238. John Travers had been sheriff with him in 1224 and 1225. Lib. de Ant. Leg. pp. 5, 6.]

had come suddenly with an armed force to the Temple, in the dusk of the evening, and, under pretence of wishing to see his mother's jewels, had broken open the chests of treasure in deposit there, and had carried off £10,0001 to Windsor for the purpose of the coming war.

It is no wonder that these and similar insults had estranged their loyalty, and they had now for four successive years elected as their popular mayor Thomas Fitz-Thomas3, affronting the King on the last occasion by not even presenting him, as usual, for royal approval. So attached, indeed, were they to this chief, that they persevered in their choice of him, even when he was a prisoner under royal displeasure in 1266. A convention was now signed by him with the Earls of Leicester, Gloucester, and Derby, Hugh le Despenser and twelve barons3. Many thousands of eager partisans, specified by some as 15,000, by Rob. Brune as "sixti thousand of London armed men full stoute," now answered the appeal of Simon de Montfort, and came forward ready to advance with him under the standard of the barons against the royal army,

CHAPTER VIII.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ROYALISTS AT LEWES.

"We see which way the stream of time doth run,
And are enforced from our most quiet sphere,
By the rough torrent of occasion."-HEN. IV. 11.

BEFORE leaving London, the Earl of Leicester, "faithfully sweating in the cause, and zealous for justice," had called together the bishops, clergy, and other discreet men of his party, to consult on the crisis of affairs, and it was resolved by them that peace, and the observance of the Oxford Statutes, should be purchased, even by an offer of money if possible, but in case of such terms being rejected, that the decision should be left to arms'. In pursuance of this policy the army, now reinforced, began their march from London May 63, in order to arrest the King's progress in the south. It is not known by what route the barons reached Sussex, but it is probable that de Clare, who had been in Kent, proceeded by a concerted plan to meet them, and when they had ascertained that the King was at Lewes they pitched their camp about nine miles north from that town at the village of Fletching3, then surrounded by a dense forest.

1 W. Rish. de Bello Lew.

On the feast of S. John Port. Latin.-W. Rish.

3 Barones cum suo exercitu ad dictam villam (Lewes) approperantes intra villam quæ vocatur Flechinge

tentoria sua figebant."-Chr. Wigorn. MS. "Flexemge or Flexingge, about six miles from Lewes."-W. Rish. Chr. and de bello Lew. "Flexinge sexto circa mille a prioratu de Lewes." -Chr. Roff. Mat. Westm. T. Wyke

Before the final appeal to arms, the barons despatched from hence, on a mission of peace, two eminent prelates, who had steadily adhered to them-Richard de Sandwich, Bishop of London, and Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, both well qualified for their office.

Richard de Sandwich was a worthy successor to Fulk Basset, before noticed, in his zeal for ecclesiastical liberty. From a prebendary of St Paul's he had risen, in 1262, to his present rank, which he retained till 1273. Soon after his elevation he was successful with his present colleague in urging to a conclusion the hasty armistice of June 1263, at a desperate crisis of the King's affairs, and in the following month the uncharacteristic duty of the custody of Dover Castle was assigned to him and two other bishops, distinguishing them thereby as neutrals and mediators. He had been an attesting party to the recent mise in France, and retained his fortitude and love of his Church' during the disgrace and exile, which overtook him in consequence of the part he was now playing.

The birth, station, and character of Walter de Cantilupe added dignity to his experience and courage. He had already occupied the see of Worcester twenty-eight years, having been elected during the lifetime of his father, a nobleman who had borne the high office of steward to Kings John and Henry, and had been sheriff at various times of Warwickshire and Leicestershire. Early deaths in rapid succession had carried off three generations of the family chief: his brother had conveyed the protest of England to

says, "the earl pitched his camp at seven or eight miles from where the King's army was." "Barones in abditis sylvarum latentes cum exercitu." The letter of the barons is dated "in bosco juxta Lewes."-Chr. Dover.

1 Besides bequeathing 40s. for an anniversary obit on Sept. 12 in St Paul's, "for the good of his soul," he gave several church ornaments and vestments: some of these were curi

ously embroidered, "with wheels, griffons, and elephants," a brocade cope "with knights templars riding about below, and birds above."Dugd. St Paul's. The brass monument of this prelate remained in honour in old St Paul's, until involved in the common destruction of so many works of art by the fanaticism of Edward VI.'s time.

2 He died 1239.