poem' written a few months after the battle of Lewes, the condensed spirit of which is worthy of remark.

It urged "that the barons intended no prejudice to the royal honour, but that they felt as much bound by duty to come forward and reform the state, as if the kingdom had been attacked by an enemy; for if the King's real enemies, the wretched false flatterers around him, strove to pervert the prerogatives of the crown to their own pomps, trampling on the native nobles, while contemptible aliens were advanced to high places, did not this amount to an attack by enemies, and if the King, seduced by them or by his own. evil will, should do wrong, was it not the duty of the barons to reform it? Nor could the analogy of God being a single and supreme governor at all warrant a weak fallible King to claim uncontrolled power. The King might, indeed, urge that he should have the power of selecting whom he pleased to assist his own weakness; such freedom would not, however, be interfered with by restrictions on his doing wrong, to which children and even angels submit. Let him be free then to do all that is good, but let him not dare to do ill; such is God's charter. He, himself, was but the servant of Heaven, and could claim no allegiance from others, unless he owned his to his God; let him feel that the people belong to God, not to himself; he who may be set over a people for a time is soon laid low under his marble tomb, while God's power remains

1 Polit. Songs, from Harl. MS., 978, in Latin rhyme. The inscription on an old tile from Great Malvern (in Gent. Mag., May 1844, pl. 1, fig. vii.) is said to have been anciently used as a talisman against fire, and is found also on a bell at Kenilworth: "Mentem sanctam, spontaneum honorem Deo, patriæ liberationem." It would have been no bad exposition of the professed principles of the barons' party at this period.

2 "Seu rex ex malitiâ faceret nociva."-V. 590.

3 44 Ergo regi libeat omne quod est bonum,

for ever. If a prince, instead of loving his people, should despise and strip them, it would be difficult not to despise and resist in return; for freemen cannot be expected to submit to such treatment. As a King, therefore, depending on his own judgment may readily err, it is very fit that the Commons of the realm should be consulted, to whom the laws and customs are best known, and who can best express public opinion. Men should be chosen as counsellors to the King, who have both the will, knowledge, and courage' to be useful, who would feel themselves hurt when the kingdom suffered, and would rejoice when the nation was glad. If the King cannot choose such men, others must, for as the safety or ruin of all must depend on the guidance of the vessel of state, the choice of a competent pilot concerns all. To permit fools in their ignorance to govern cannot be called true liberty, which should ever be bounded by the limits of the law, beyond which all is error; for the law is paramount even to the King's dignity3; it is the light without which he who guides others must go astray."

After the lapse of six centuries little could be well added to the force and clearness of this argument, which singularly tallies with the soundest constitutional doctrine of the present day, and it may serve as an answer to the reproach of a modern historian' upon the revolution effected by the Oxford Statutes, "that its tendency was to a very narrow aristocracy, the end of which would be anarchy or tyranny." By the general concurrence of evidence it is manifest that the people of England judged the reasons sufficient at the time to justify the innovation on the usual forms of their government; and he only, who is ready, in the present day, to avow his passive

obedience under similar provocation, may presume to reverse their judgment.

King Henry, who, like Proteus, as he was called by a contemporary', had so often evaded all the ties of faith and honour, now felt his power effectually restrained by sterner bonds. Though the only means of defence left him were a false heart and a bitter tongue, yet with both these did he continue the struggle. To relieve his conscience from the pressure, however slight, of his oath, he applied at once to the Pope for absolution from it, while he betrayed the vexation of his reduced position by ill-advised speeches.

Going down the Thames one day he was overtaken by so violent a thunderstorm, of which he had a great dread, that he was put on shore at the Bishop of Durham's palace, which was opposite. De Montfort, who was residing there, came out to meet him with all due respect, observing, "What do you fear now, Sire, the tempest has passed?" The King, however, who continued to evince alarm, openly confessed, "I do, indeed, dread thunder and lightning much, but, by the head of God, I tremble before you more than for all the thunder in Heaven." It was in vain that the earl calmly pointed out to him "how unjust and incredible it would seem that he should fear one who had ever been a true friend to him, his family, and the kingdom, when he ought rather to fear his enemies and deceivers." Such hatred of those who now held sway, thus overpowering even his hypocrisy, was not likely to conciliate them.

The barons were, at this time, embarrassed by the expected return of the titular King of the Romans from Germany, whose influence they feared might upset their new arrangements. The Bishop of Worcester, Peter of Savoy, John Mansel, and the Abbot of Bury, were sent over to

1 M. Par.

2 In after times it was given by Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn, and was the residence of Elizabeth, while Princess. The site is now occupied

by the Adelphi.

3 King John had adopted for his habitual oath, "by God's feet."

4 M. Par.

require his oath to the Oxford Statutes before he landed, and the King, who had hastened to Canterbury to meet him, also exhorted him, by letter', not to introduce the exiled aliens by force, which he was evidently expected to do. Though the prince, at first, not only declined the oath, but refused any explanation of his visit, insisting on his right as an earl and prince to be consulted in the reform of abuses, he soon learnt that the barons now in power were not to be trifled with. Troops and ships lined the coast to resist his approach on any terms, and finding all animated with a hearty goodwill to maintain the new state of things, he yielded, and was, at length, permitted to land, with his wife, his second son Edmund, and a very limited suite. Even then he was not allowed to enter the castle of Dover, but, on the following day, was called forward as Earl of Cornwall in the Chapter House at Canterbury by the Earl of Gloucester, who took no notice of his foreign title, and he then publicly and solemnly swore to be a faithful and active helper in reforming the government on pain of forfeiting all his lands.

The Londoners, when they saw him return thus peaceably without his Poictevin brothers contrary to their fears, honoured his entry with unusual welcome (Feb. 2), and he seems to have attended principally to his own affairs and the management of his enormous wealth during his residence. It was soon after this that he obtained the grant of a Guildhall for his German subjects in London, where they might import grain, ropes, linen, steel, &c.*

After thus maintaining domestic peace, and disentangling England from the ties of the Sicilian crown3, the barous exhibited another proof of wiser counsels by a treaty with France, in which the formal resignation was made of Nor

1 Dated Jan. 18, 1259.-Rymer. 2 Stow's London. Grant dated Westminster, June 15, 1259.

3 The King had authorized proxies, one of whom was Simon de Montfort, to renounce the crown of Sicily,

"si viderint expedire."-Windsor, June 18. Rymer. There are many Papal briefs pressing for money on account of Sicily, May 30, Dec. 18, 1258.-Rymer.

mandy and other French provinces, long lost indeed, but to which the title had never been disclaimed until now; some territories (Perigord Limousin), long estranged from the English crown, were in return restored, by the conscientious French monarch, and also such a sum of money, as the maintenance of 500 knights for two years ought reasonably to cost, was to be paid to the King of England, to be expended only for the service of God, the Church, or the kingdom, to the satisfaction of the twenty-four councillors'. Notwithstanding any precaution, this article to supply the means of keeping on foot a standing army appears a singular, and as the event proved, dangerous device. Commissioners were appointed to settle the amount due under this clause, and as 134,000 livres Tournois (at 2s., £13,400) were subsequently agreed upon, payable by six instalments, we may learn from this, that each horseman was calculated to cost 335 livres Tournois (£33. 108.)3 a year, or 28 livres Tournois (£2. 16s.) a month, about 18. 10d. a day.

The French treaty was throughout negotiated and concluded by the principal barons in person: the earls of Hereford and Albemarle witnessed King Henry's act of renunciation; Simon de Montfort, Peter de Savoy, and Hugh le Bigot acted as his proctors at its ratification in

1 Rymer. The text of the treaty is in French, the preamble and conclusion in Latin. The 5th article runs thus: "Derechef i Roi de France donra al Roi d'Angleterre ce que cinc cenz chevalers devroient coster reisnablement a tenir deux anz a lésgard de prodes homes qui seront nomé d'une part et autre * et li Rois d'Angleterre ne doit ces deniers despendre forsque el service Dieu ou d'Eglise ou al profit del roiaume de Angleterre, et ce par la veue des prodes homes de la terre, esleuz par le Roi d'Angleterre et par les hauz homes de la terre."

2 Rymer, Westminster, May 20. 3 Spelman values the livre Tournois at this period at 2s., Lingard at 58. The Abbot of Bury St. Ed

mund's seems to have paid his four knights in 1198 about 3s. a day each, during their forty days of service. "Abbas autem in instanti eis (quatuor militibus) 36 marcas dedit ad expensas 40 dierum."-Chr. Jocelin. p. 63.

4 Rymer. In Archives du Royaume, Carton, 629, 4 (Tresor des Chartes, p. 7), there are several seals appended to the original treaty of peace, 1258. 1. Simon de Montfort's arms on a heater escutcheon within a circular seal. 2. Peter de Savoy, a lion rampart (broken). 3. Guy de Lusignan (perfect) Secretum Sigillum, "barry, a lion rampant." 4. Geoffry de Lusignan, a large seal representing him on horseback with his horn, a dog on the saddle behind him. 5. Bigot (is