seen (says one') that the life of man was as the grass of the earth; a great multitude, unknown to me, was slain." As the numbers stated by various authors vary from 2700 to more than 20,000, we may turn aside from so distasteful an enquiry, glad to believe in the smallest amount of destruction, and may adopt at once the conclusions of Robert Brune:

"Many faire ladie lese hir lord that day,

And many gode bodie slayn at Leaus lay.

The nombre none wrote, for telle tham mot no man,

But He thut alle wote, and alle thing ses and can."

The traces of the battle are deeply stamped on the history and constitution of the country, legible as those of Magna Charta, but the only local record of the vanquished monarch is the simple name of "Mount Harry," ever since popularly affixed to the lofty point of the Downs near the field of battle. This is so distant from Lewes (nearly two miles) that it was probably in the rear of de Montfort's army; but it may, indeed, have been where his car and standard were placed, or where the King had posted his negligent watch overnight. The low mounds caused by the

1 Oxenede's Chr.

2 MS. Cleop. D. IX. says that 600 of the slain were buried by the monks, according to their account, but many others were killed and drowned; the Lewes Chr. 2700 slain, more or less; Waverley Chr., MS. Cleop. B. xiv. MS. Bodl., and Chr. Lanercost, more than 3000; Rob. Glouc. 4500; Chr. Winton MS. D. IX. makes 4514 in all, that is 2070 besides the Londoners; and with this number agree Worcest. Chr. and MS. Nero, Chr. P. de Ickham; Walt. Heming., W. Rish., Mat. Westm., 5000 slain: T. Wyke states nearly 5000 slain, "many of them fallen by the just judgment of God in retribution for the sack of Northampton" (non habentes jus querela). "Ex utraque parte numerati per manus sepelientum 2730," besides

the drowned, the wounded, the citizens of London, and the fugitives.— Chr. Wigorn. "10,000 ex parte regis interfectis.-xv. barones interfecti." Cotton MS. Nero, A. IV. Fabyan and Rastall: "Over 20,000 slain, as sayth myn auctours."

3 A beacon was established near this spot in the late war when a French invasion was expected. Two miles more to the westward, on the escarpment of the hill, there is a large cross cut out on the turf, which is now only visible under peculiar circumstances of light. This may, possibly, have been a pious device of the times to excite the prayers of distant travellers for the repose of the souls of those slain at Lewes, but it cannot be accepted as evidence of the barons having made their ascent at so distant a spot, contrary to the

heaps of bodies interrupting the smoothness of the turf, a decayed bone, or a broken weapon occasionally found, alone recall the memory of the angry thousands once assembled there.

express words of Will. Rishanger: "Cunctis igitur montem qui distat

a Lewes duobus milliaribus summo mane ascensis."

CHAPTER XI,

THE MISE OF LEWES.

“A proper title of a peace, and purchased

At a superfluous rate."-HEN. VIII. Act 1. Scene 1.

THERE was much of wise policy as well as forbearance in de Montfort's suspension of hostilities, proposed at the very moment when his sovereign lay a defenceless prey before him. As a mere soldier he might have pushed the issue to a violent extremity, but as a statesman his arm was arrested. Had the Priory—which the opinions of the age and the authority of a jealous Church invested with the privileges of sanctuary-been taken by storm that night, the horrors that might have ensued, the violence to the King's person, perhaps even his death, would have deeply perilled the cause of constitutional liberty. The inherent attachment to monarchy which has ever distinguished the English character-that loyalty, which has been truly described as "scarcely less refining and elevating in a moral point of view than patriotism, and exciting as disinterested energies"—would have been outraged by so undisguised a collision. To obviate such feelings, the constitutional fiction, since so often and well employed, of casting blame and responsibility on others rather than the King, ad even

'Hallam, Mid, Ages,

in these early times, been found expedient, and had throughout been put forward to justify the barons. While their war was directed against his bad advisers, they appeared to respect "the divinity that doth hedge a king," and were still able to vaunt themselves as his true liegemen. To carry on this convenient fiction was obviously the most politic course, and accordingly all the subsequent arrangements were founded on this basis, the appearance of free agency being studiously preserved to the King.

De Montfort, during the night, so strengthened the blockade of the Priory and castle as to render escape hopeless; and on the following day, Thursday, May 15, the commissioners of each side met to fix the terms on which the future government of the kingdom was to depend.

The King is said' to have appointed two monks of the order of preachers (Dominicans) to the office, but it is more probable that they were Cluniac monks of the Priory, the confusion easily arising from the similarity of dress and the common appellation of Black Monks. The barons were also represented by ecclesiastics, stated on the same authority to have been two Grey Friars (Franciscans); but it is much more probable that the two bishops of London and Worcester, already employed on such missions, should have resumed that duty. There was, indeed, an establishment of Grey Friars near the bridge at Lewes, but they are not at all likely to have been trusted by the barons with so important a charge. Prince Edward has even been represented as flying to them and being there taken, but this must have arisen from mistaking the Priory for a convent of that order :

:

1 Walt. Heming.

It is possible that John Peckham, said to be a native of Lewes and educated by the monks of S. Pancras, was in the town and employed. He was a Franciscan, and rose by his own talents to the archbishopric of Canterbury, 1279 to

1294. Adam de Marisco, in one of his letters [speaks of John de Pescham as "a scholar honourably distinguished for correct habits and proficiency in learning, who kindled by a divine yearning has just entered the religious order of Minor Friars." A. de Mar. Epist. p. 256. Ed. Brewer.]

"And to the Frere Menors in to toun Sir Edward flew vaste, And ther as he nede moste, yeld him at laste."-ROB. GLOUC. Simon de Montfort is said1 to have influenced the treaty by threatening to advance upon the Royalists with the heads of the King of the Romans, Basset, and his other prisoners fixed upon his pennons; but so needless an insult is not to be believed. When the natural terror of the one party and the confidence of the other are considered, there was plainly an unquestioned power of dictating terms, and under such circumstances the conditions of an agreement are soon discussed and settled. On the same Thursday, accordingly, the articles were drawn up and assented to of the treaty of peace, which has ever since been known as the mise of Lewes2.

The deed itself, though frequently referred to in authentic documents, not being extant, its substance must be collected from the statements of the chroniclers, which, however, do not vary materially. The fullest account professes to sketch out the written form of the articles agreed upon, and appears consistent with known facts, though from a royalist bias it calls the barons "accomplices of the Earl of Leicester3," a term which certainly would not be used in a deed dictated by them.

The mise stipulated that "the King and his adherents on the one side, and the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester, with their adherents (accomplices) on the other side, should procure two Frenchmen to be chosen in the presence of the illustrious King of France, by means of three prelates and three nobles of France, to be named and summoned by the said King; and that the two, when chosen, should come to England, and associate with themselves a third per

1 Mat. Westm.

2 Tunc nullo renitente quidquid voluit potuit ordinare, extorto a Rege et Domino Edward quodam sacramento, quod et ipse Comes etiam cum suis præstitit, statutum quod

dam quod Misam Lewensem inusitato nomine nuncupabat."-T. Wyke. It was, however, not an unusual term at the time.

3 Mat. Westm. following T. Wyke.