by the formal condemnation, by successive archbishops at their visitations, of the same gross grammatical errors1.

King Henry had not always been unpopular at Oxford. He had many years previously founded a noble hospital, and had been welcomed there soon after his marriage with festivals and illuminations. His present visit was marked by an incident characteristic of him as "a most devout worshipper of rusty nails and rotten bones." His zealous devotion to the relics of saints, emboldened him, with more strength of mind than usual, to break through the trammels of an ancient superstition, which had for five centuries forbidden the approach of a King to the shrine of Saint Frideswide. That noble lady had, in the eighth century, seen the insults of a Mercian prince, Algar, punished by a sudden blindness, as he was entering Oxford in close pursuit of her— an affliction as suddenly removed afterwards by her prayers". Universal opinion expected the coy virgin to resent the intrusion of royalty even to her tomb, and Henry accordingly made all befitting preparations for such an arduous enterprise. After a liberal distribution of alms, high mass, and a day's fast, he ventured on foot into the forbidden sanctuary, and there paid his devotions:

"The King hadde then to gode wille, thoru freren rede,

And hii masson at orisons vast vor him bede,

So that vastinde a day a vote he dude this dede."-Rob. Brune."

Though he was not stricken by blindness on the spot, yet those who clung to the pious prejudice of ages probably looked upon his early defeat at Lewes as a sufficient fulfilment of the omen.

Both parties were now prepared for the struggle, and

each had so much to dread and so much to hope, holding principles long discordant, and so recently proved to be irreconcileable, that the chances of an amicable treaty were indeed slender. It was however attempted, and very nearly succeeded.

The King appointed (March 13') the Bishop of Lichfield, and Nicholas de Plumpton, Archdeacon of Norwich, to meet the agents of the barons at Brackley (a few miles. from Oxford), under the mediation of the French ambassador, John de Valentia. Their credentials" commissioned them to treat concerning the security and tranquillity of the kingdom, so as to strengthen the general peace, promising to assent to what they should arrange.

An earnest summons was, however, issued on the same day by the King, now fully conscious of the extreme peril of circumstances, calling on all his lieges to hasten, by MidLent at latest (March 30), "with their horses and arms to his help, as being necessary to keep his state undamaged by the very serious commotion, which might easily put in imminent danger (though God forbid) both the kingdom and crown of England." The Earl de Warenne, too, at this juncture, repaired, by the King's permission, to Ryegate and Rochester, in order the better to defend his estates there.

It is difficult to suppose that either party could sincerely expect a peaceful solution of their dispute at this crisis, but it would seem that the Bishops of London, Winchester, Worcester, and Chichester, were sent by the barons with the offer of submitting to all the other articles of the French award, provided the King would remit the one single article as to the employment of aliens'. This exclusion of alien influence

1 Rymer, in Latin. The safe conduct of the barons appointed to treat was to be in force till Saturday before Mid-Lent, March 29, and was dated Oxford, March 17.-Rymer.

2 Roger de Meyland, bishop from 1258 to 1295.

3 Dated March 20.-Rymer.

4 "Ratum habituri et gratum." 5 Rymer.

6 W. de Rish. de bello Lew. 7 MSS. Add. 5444. They humbly prayed "quod saltem unicum et solum remittat articulum, videlicet quod alienigenis ab Anglia remotis, per indigenas gubernetur, et omnibus

seems to have been indeed, throughout these troubles, the vital point of the baronial policy. An agreement' was even drawn up in presence of the King to regulate the return of Archbishop Boniface, on five conditions:-1. That he should recall the excommunications which he had fulminated from Boulogne, in 1263, against several barons, and two of the younger de Montforts, for their plunder of church property. 2. That the damages done to churches or clergy should be assessed by a council of his suffragans. 3. That no other aliens than his own immediate household should accompany him. 4. That other aliens might return to their benefices on condition of spending all their income at home. And, 5. That the prelate should neither bring with him, nor procure by others, any writings in damage of the King, or any person in the kingdom. This latter clause must have had reference to the many briefs of the Pope, who had proportioned the activity of his spiritual arms to the increasing peril of the King, his client. By the quick succession of his threats, indeed, we learn the zeal of the pontiff, on the receipt of each additional alarm from England; and he soon afterwards sent a legate with fresh excommunications; but it would be idle to blame this busy meddling as unauthorized, for it was, most probably, invited by the royal emissaries.

3

The tide of war was, however, now setting in too strongly to heed such obstacles. The city of London seems never to have assented to the mise of Amiens, and, like the barons of the Cinque Ports and nearly all the middle classes', refused to obey the award. On the first Monday after Mid-Lent

statutis, provisionibus et ordinationibus regis Franciæ adquiescant."

1 Dated March, 1264.-Rymer. 2 MS. Bodl., in notes to Chr. W. de Rish. de bello Lew.

3 By a Brief from Viterbo, 17 Kal. Apr. (March 16), 1264, the award was confirmed; by another, 12 Kal. Apr. (March 21), the Pope forbad the barons and clergy to conspire. By a third, 10 Kal. Apr. (March 23), he

again cancelled the Oxford Statutes, and absolved all from their oaths.Rymer.

4 6

Et fere omnis communitas mediocris populi regni Angliæ, qui vero non posuerunt se super Regem Franciæ, prædictum arbitrium suum contracixerunt."-Lib. de Ant. Leg. [Mr Stapleton reads "penitus" instead of prædictum.]

(March 31), the citizens rose in tumultuous violence against the royal cause, and the anger caused by the tidings of this outbreak put an abrupt end to all negotiation. The King dismissed the bishops with a caution to depart quickly and never return to talk of peace unless they were sent for1, announcing at once his resolve to maintain the award in all particulars to the best of his power.

There was indeed much to irritate the King and his party in the riots and ravages of the Londoners. The bell of St Paul's was rung as the concerted signal for their assembling in arms, and they were directed by two eminent citizens, Thomas de Puvelesdon and Stephen Buckerell3, under whom they proceeded to destroy the property of all opposed to them, not exempting even the private dwellings of the King and his brother. All was wantonly laid waste at the country-house of the latter in Isleworth, near the Thames, his fences levelled, his orchards uprooted, and the head of a large fishpond, lately made at a vast expense, cut through. These private injuries naturally embittered the hostility of the parties, but the King had himself unhappily set the example of them long ago, having in 1233 caused the property of Gilbert Basset and Richard Siward, followers of Richard, the Earl Marshal, in his rebellion, to be so treated, ordering their houses to be pulled down, their parks, gardens, and woods to be destroyed, their fish-ponds to be filled, and their meadows ploughed up3.

1 Add. MSS. 5444.

2 The name is Puvelesdon as witness to a grant.-Rot. Pat. 1265. It is Pilvesdon in W. Hem., Piluesdon in H. Knight, Pyweldon in Fabyan, Piulesdona in Househ. Exp. He will be mentioned again.

The body of a person of the same name, of South Streatham, perhaps his father, was found by the King in his way to London, at Merton, Jan.

10, 1258, drowned in a ditch, owing to drunkenness.-Cal. Rot. Pat. 48 Hen. III.

4 On this land, afterwards in possession of the Crown, Henry V. founded the monastery of S. Bridget, a community of English nuns, which is said to have survived to the present times, though often driven to residence in foreign countries.

6 T. Wyke.

CHAPTER VII.

WAR RENEWED.

"Fright our native peace with self-born arms."-RICH. II.

BOTH armies appear from this time' to have been put into immediate action without further parley. While the royalists in one quarter were harassed, so that not even their wives' escaped captivity, de Montfort appointed a general meeting of the barons at Northampton, on the walls of which town, in order to display his alliance with the clergy3, the banner of St Peter's keys' was displayed in conjunction with those of the barons. Before the assembly of the chiefs could be accomplished, the military spirit of Prince Edward led the

1 Plac. de Quo Warr. fo. 766. In 8° Edw. I. an action was brought at the suit of the Crown against Reginald FitzPeter to recover some lands "extra civitatem Wintonia"-the defendant pleaded a grant from Henry III. in 48°-to this the King's attorney replied that the King was then under durance, and the grant therefore void. Proof however was given of the date being previous to April 4, 1264, when the war began, and it was therefore adjudged to be good.

2 Those of R. de Leyburne, R. de Cliffort, and others, were thus seized at Gloucester.

3 1263, major pars cleri fuit cum Baronibus.-Contin. of Chr. Guil. Neubr. 1199 to 1299, by a monk of Furneux Abbey.-Hearne, III. p. 814. 4 The arms of the Abbey of Peter

borough (gules, 2 keys saltireways between 4 crosses patée potencée) were displayed on the walls (vexillum cum clavibus Santi Petri cum vexillis Baronum) by the tenants and monks of the abbey, "licet quibusdam invitis," which made the King swear to destroy the abbot and monastery.On the capture of the town, "mediante pecuniâ cum donis et amicis in curia regis procurantibus idem Abbas (Robertus de Sutton) fecit plures fines," paying 300 marcs for contempt of the King's summons. In return a letter of protection was given by the King, which seems to have been of no use, "nullus enim de parte regis deferre voluit literis suis, cum sibi fuissent porrectæ, sed unusquisque pro se deprædebatur et cepit redemptionem." Chr. Walt. de Whittlesey.