SIMON DE MONTFORT, EARL OF LEICESTER.
From a window in Chartres Cathedral.

was his ability, that he caused people to over- | tary service to attend in arms on the occasion. look the anomaly of his position, and to forget Thus secured from the attack of the foreigners that he himself was a foreigner. He not only in the king's pay, they proceeded to their object captivated the good-will of the English nobles, with great vigour and determination. The combut endeared himself in an extraordinary de- mittee of government was appointed without a

murmur on the part of the timid Henry: it consisted of twenty-four members, twelve of whom were chosen by the barons and twelve by the king. The king's choice fell upon his nephew Henry, the son of Richard, the titular King of the Romans; upon Guy and William, his own half-brothers; the Bishops of London and Winchester; the Earls of Warwick and Warenne; the abbots of Westminster and St. Martin's, London; on John Mansel, a friar; and Peter of Savoy, a relation of the queen's. The members appointed by the barons were the Bishop of Worcester; the Earls Simon of Leicester, Richard of Gloucester, Humphrey of Hereford, Roger of Norfolk, earlmarshal; the Lords Roger Mortimer, John Fitz- | Geoffrey, Hugh Bigod, Richard de Grey, William Bardolf, Peter de Montfort, and Hugh Despencer. The Earl of Leicester was at the head of this supreme council, to the maintenance of whose ordinances the king, and afterwards his son Edward, took a solemn oath. The parliament then proceeded to enact that four knights should be chosen by the votes of the freeholders in each county, to lay before the parliament all breaches of law and justice that might occur; that a new sheriff should be annually chosen by the freeholders in each county; and that three sessions of parliament should be held regularly every year; the first, eight days after Michaelmas; the second, the morrow after Candlemas Day; and the third, on the first day of June.

the whole authority of government in the hands of their council of state, and a standing committee of twelve persons. This great power was abused, as all unlimited power, whether held by a king, or an oligarchy, or a democracy, ever will be, and the barons soon disagreed among themselves.'

A.D. 1259.

About six months after the meeting at Oxford, Richard, King of the Romans, having spent all his money among the Germans, was anxious to return to England that he might get more. At St. Omer he was met by a messenger from Leicester, who told him that he must not set foot in the kingdom unless he swore beforehand to observe the provisions of Oxford. Richard finally gave an ungracious assent: he took the oath, joined his brother, and immediately commenced organizing an opposi tion to the committee of government. Soon after his arrival it was seen that the barons disagreec more than ever. The Earl of Gloucester started up as a rival to Leicester, and a violent quarrelthe first of many--broke out between these two powerful lords. Then there was presented a petition from the knights of shires or counties, complaining that the barons had held possessioL of the sovereign authority for eighteen months, and had done no good in the way of reform. A few improvements, chiefly regarding the adminis tration of justice, were then enacted; but their slender amount did not satisfy the nation, and most of the barons were more anxious for the prolongation of their own powers and profits than for anything else. By degrees two factions were formed in the committee: when that of Gloucester obtained the ascendancy, Leicester withdrew into France. Then Gloucester would have reconciled himself with the king, but as soon as Prince Edward saw this, he declared for Leicester, who returned. The manœuvres and intrigues of party now become almost as unintelligible as they are uninteresting-reconciliations and breaches between the Leicester and Glouces ter factions, and then between the barons generally and the court-a changing and a changing again of sides and principles, perplex and disgrace a scene where nothing seems fixed except Leicester's dislike and distrust of the king, and a general but somewhat vague affection among the barons of both parties for the provisions of Magna Charta.

The benefits derived from the acts of this parliament were prospective rather than immediate, for the first consequences were seven or eight years of anarchy and confusion, the fruits of insincerity and discontent on the part of the court, and of ambition and intrigue on the part of the great barons. Prince Edward, the heir to the throne, the Earl of Warenne, and others, took the oaths to the statutes or provisions of Oxford with unconcealed reluctance and ill-humour. Though their leaders were liberally included among the twenty-four guardians of the kingdom, the foreign faction was excessively dissatisfied with the recent changes, and said openly, and wherever they went, that the acts of Oxford ought to be set aside as illegal and degrading to the king's majesty. Irritated by their opposition and their secret intrigues, Leicester and his party scared the four half-brothers of the king and a herd of their relations and retainers out of the kingdom. The departure of these foreigners increased the popularity of the barons with the English people; but they were seduced by the temptations of ambition and an easy triumph over all opposition; they filled up the posts vacated in the committee of government with their own adherents, leaving scarcely a member in it to represent the king; and they finally lodged 1 Rymer; Annal. Burt.; Matt. West.

A.D. 1261.

Henry, who had long rejoiced at the division among the barons, now thought the moment was come for escaping from their authority. He had a Papal dispensation in his pocket for the oaths he had taken at Oxford, and this set his conscience quite at ease.

2 Rymer.

On the 2d of February he ventured to tell the | seem favourable. It is true his subjects had committee of government that, seeing the abuse they had made of their authority, he should henceforward govern without them. He then hastened to the Tower, which had recently been repaired and strengthened, and seized all the money in the mint. From behind those strong walls he ordered that the gates of London should be closed, and that all the citizens should swear fresh fealty to him. The barons called out their vassals and marched upon the capital. Prince Edward was amusing himself in France at a tournament, and it was agreed by both parties to await his arrival. He came in haste, and, instead of joining his father in the Tower, joined the barons. In spite of this junction—or perhaps we ought rather to say, in consequence of itmany of the nobles went over and joined the king, who published the pope's bull of dispensation, together with a manifesto in which he set forth that he had reigned forty-five years in peace and according to justice, never committing such deeds of wrong and violence as the barons had recently committed. For a time he met with success, and Leicester returned once more to France, vowing that he would never trust the faith of a perjured king.'

Another change and shifting of A.D. 1263. parts now took place in this troubled drama: the Earl of Gloucester was dead, and his son, a very young man, instead of being the rival, became for a while the bosom friend of Leicester. Prince Edward, on the other hand, veered round to the court, and had made himself unpopular by calling in a foreign guard. In the month of March young Gloucester called his retainers and confederates together at Oxford, and the Earl of Leicester returned to England in the month of April, and put himself at their head. The great earl at once raised the banner of war; and after taking several royal castles and towns, marched rapidly upon London, where the mayor and the common people declared for him. The king was safe in the Tower; Prince Edward fled to Windsor Castle; and the queen, his mother, attempted to escape by water in the same direction; but, when she approached London bridge, a cry ran among the populace, who hated her, of "Drown the witch!" and filth and stones were thrown at the barge. The mayor took pity on her, and carried her for safety to St. Paul's.2

The King of the Romans contrived to effect a hollow reconciliation between the barons and his unwarlike brother, who yielded everything, only reserving to himself the usual resource of breaking his compact as soon as circumstances should

1 Matt, West.; Wykes.; Carte.

2 Wakes.; West.; Trivet.; Chron. Dunst.

repeatedly exacted too much, but it is equally
certain that he never made the smallest conces-
sion to them in good faith, and with a determina-
tion to respect it. Foreigners were once more
banished the kingdom, and the custody of the
royal castles was again intrusted to Leicester and
his associates. This was done, and peace and
amity were sworn in July; but by the month of
October the king was in arms against the barons,
and nearly succeeded in taking Leicester pri-
soner. This new crisis was mainly attributable
to a condition exacted by that great earl, that
the authority of the committee of government
should not only last for the lifetime of the king,
but be prolonged during the reign of his succes-
sor. Up to this point Prince Edward had pre-
tended a great respect for his oath, professing to
doubt whether an absolution from Rome could
excuse perjury, and he had frequently protested
that, having sworn to the provisions of Oxford, he
would religiously keep that vow; but this last mea-
sure removed all his scruples, and denouncing the
barons as rebels, traitors, and usurpers, he openly
declared against them and all their statutes.
To stop the horrors of a civil war,
A.D. 1264.
some of the bishops induced both
parties to refer their differences to the arbitra-
tion of the French king. The conscientious and
justice-loving Louis IX. pronounced his award
in the beginning of February. He insisted on
the observance of the Great Charter; but other-
wise his decision was in favour of the king, as
he set aside the provisions of Oxford, ordered
that the royal castles should be restored, and
that the sovereign should have full power of
choosing his own ministers and officers, whether
from among foreigners or natives. The barons,
who were better acquainted than Louis with the
character of their king, well knew that if the se-
curities they had exacted (with too grasping a
hand, perhaps) were all given up, the provisions
of the national charters would be despised, as
they were previously to the parliament of Oxford;
and they therefore resolved not to be bound by
the award, which, they insisted, had been ob-
tained through the unfair influence of the wife
of Louis, who was sister-in-law to King Henry.
The civil war was therefore renewed with more
fury than ever. The strength of the royalists
lay in the counties of the north and the extreme
west; that of the barons in the midland counties,
the south-east, the Cinque ports, and, above all,
in the city of London and its neighbourhood. Át
the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's the citi-
zens of London assembled as an armed host,
animated by one daring spirit. In the midst of
this excitement they fell upon the unfortunate
Jews, and, after plundering them, massacred

above 500-men, women, and children-in cold | Londoners, who had gladly followed Leicester blood. In other parts of the kingdom the royalists robbed and murdered the Jews under pretext of their being friends to the barons; and the barons' party did the like, alleging that they were allied with the king, and that they kept Greek fire hid in their houses in order to destroy the friends of liberty.'

The opening of the campaign was in favour of the royalists; but their fortunes changed when they advanced to the southern coast and endeavoured to win over the powerful Cinque ports. Leicester, who had remained quietly in London organizing his forces, at length marched from the capital with the resolution of fighting a decisive battle. He found the king at Lewes, in Sussex -a bad position, in a hollow-which Henry, relying on his superiority of numbers, did not quit on the earl's approach. Leicester encamped on the downs about two miles from Lewes. On the following morning, the 14th of May, leaving a strong reserve on the downs, he descended into the hollow. The two armies soon joined battle. On the king's side were the great houses of Bigod and Bohun, all the foreigners in the kingdom, the Percys with their warlike borderers, and from beyond the Borders, John Comyn, John Baliol, and Robert Bruce-names that were soon to appear in a very different drama. On the earl's side were Gloucester, Derby, Warenne, the Despensers, Robert de Roos, William Marmion, Richard Grey, John

to the field. This burgher militia could not stand against the trained cavalry of the prince, who chased and slew them by heaps. Eager to take a bloody vengeance for the insults the Londoners had offered his mother, Edward spurred forward, regardless of the manoeuvres of the other divisions of the royalist army. He was as yet a young soldier, and the experienced and skilful leader of the barons made him pay dearly for his mistake. Leicester made a concentrated attack on the king, beat him most completely, and took him prisoner, with his brother the King of the Romans, John Comyn, and Robert Bruce, before the prince returned from his headlong pursuit. When Edward arrived at the field of battle, he saw it covered with the slain of his own party, and learned that his father, with many nobles besides those just mentioned, were in Leicester's hands, and shut up in the priory of Lewes. Before he could recover himself he was

Fitz-John, Nicholas Seagrave, Godfrey de Lucy, John de Vescy, and others of noble lineage and great estates. Prince Edward, who was destined to acquire the rudiments of war in the slaughter of his own subjects, began the battle by falling desperately upon a body of

1 Wykes.; West.; Dunst.

2 "The great Cluniac priory at Southover, commenced in 1072 and completed in 1078, owes its origin to the piety or superstition of William, the first Earl de Warren, and his lady Gundreda, fifth daughter of William the Conqueror. Its walls embraced an area of 32 acres, 2 roods, and 11 perches; and from the only description of it that remains in the letter of Portmarus (published in Brown Willis' History of Mitred Abbeys, vol. ii. p. 26), addressed to his employer in the work of its destruction-it is evident that the building was not less remarkable for its magnificence than for its extent. The length of the church was 150 ft., having an altitude of 63 ft.; its circumference 1558 ft. It was supported by thirty-two pillars, standing equally from the walls, eight of which were very lofty, being not less than 42 ft. high, 13 ft. thick, and 45 ft. in circumference; the remaining twenty-four were 10 ft. thick, 25 ft. in circumference, and 23 ft. in height. The belfry was placed over the centre of the church at an elevation of 105 ft., and was supported by eight lofty pillars above mentioned. The roof

charged by a body of horse, and made prisoner. The Earl Warenne, with the king's half-brothers, who were again in England, fled to Pevensey, whence they escaped to the Continent. The victory of the barons does not seem to have been disgraced by cruelty, but it is said to have cost

over the high altar was 93 ft. high. The steeple stood at the front of the church, and was 90 ft. high; its walls were 10 ft. thick. On the right of the high altar was a vault, supported by four pillars, and from this recess there branched out five chapels, which were bounded by a wall 70 yards in length. A higher vault, supported by four massy pillars, 14 ft. in diameter and 45 ft. in circumference, was probably on the left side of the high altar, and correspondent with the one just mentioned, from which branched out other chapels or cells of the monks. The chapter house and the church were by far the most splendid portions of this stately pile. In the former were interred the remains of the founder of the monastery and of his countess, several of his successors in the Larony, and some distinguished nobles, more or less connected with the establishment. The latter was richly adorned by the painter and the sculptor, and was distinguished by the magnificence of the funeral monuments by which it appears to have been crowded."-Susz Ga land, by James Taylor.

3 Matt. Par.; Wykes.; West.: Chron. Duns.

the lives of more than 5000 Englishmen, who | entire confidence in the good-will of the nation, fell on the field. On the following morning a treaty, or the "Mise of Lewes," as it was called, was concluded. It was agreed that Edward and his cousin Henry, the son of the King of the Romans, should remain as hostages for their fathers, and that the whole quarrel should be again submitted to a peaceful arbitration. But Leicester, who had now the right of the strongest, kept both the king and his brother prisoners as well as their sons, and, feeling his own greatness, began to be less tractable. Although the pope excommunicated him and his party, the people regarded the sentence with indifference; and many of the native clergy, who had long been disgusted both with pope and king, praised him in their sermons as the reformer of abuses-the protector of the oppressed-the father of the poor -the saviour of his country-the avenger of the church. Thus supported, and indeed carried forward by a boundless popularity, he soon forced all such barons as held out for the king to surrender their castles, and submit to the judgment of their peers. These men were condemned merely to short periods of exile in Ireland; not one suffered death, or chains, or forfeiture. Every act of government was still performed in the name of the king, whose captivity was made so light as to be scarcely apparent, and who was treated with every outward demonstration of respect. The queen had retired to the Continent before the battle of Lewes, and having busied herself in collecting a host of foreign mercenaries, she now lay at Damme, in Flanders, almost ready to cross over and renew the civil war. The steps taken by Leicester show at once his

and his personal bravery and activity. He summoned the whole force of the country-from castles and towns, cities and boroughs—to meet in arms on Barham Downs, and having encamped them there, he threw himself among the mariners of England, and, taking the command of a fleet, cruised between the English and Flemish coasts to meet the invaders at sea. But the queen's fleet never ventured out of port, her land forces disbanded, and that enterprise fell to the ground.

"The year 1265 was one of the most memorable in the annals of England. The barons, indignant at an award which imposed obedience on all English subjects, without affording them safety, again turned their arms against the recreant king. Two of the unhappy and inglorious victories of civil war were achieved by the vigorous genius of Prince Edward; while, on the other hand, Simon de Montfort, at the very moment of his fall, set the example of an extensive reformation in the frame of parliament, which, though his authority was not acknowledged by the punctilious adherents to the letter and forms of law, was afterwards legally adopted by Edward, and rendered the parliament of that year the model of the British parliament, and in a considerable degree affected the constitution of all other representative assemblies. It may, indeed, be considered as the practical discovery of popular representation. The particulars of the war are faintly discerned at the distance of six or seven centuries. The reformation of parliament, which first afforded proof from experience, that liberty, order, greatness, power, and wealth, are capable of being blended together in a degree of harmony which the wisest men had not before believed to be possible, will be held in everlasting remembrance."-Sir James Mackintosh, Hist. of Eng., vol. i. p. 286.

Of the cities and towns of England, M. Guizot remarks:"Previous to the Norman conquest, many were rich, populous, important; their inhabitants were seen taking part in national events; the citizens of Canterbury appeared, under Ethelred II., in the county court, and those of London concurred in the election of several kings. Nevertheless it is almost certain that the

The ruin of Leicester was effected by very different means. Confident in his talents and popularity, he ventured to display too marked a superiority above his fellows in the same cause; this excited hostile feelings in several of the barons, whose jealousies and pretensions were skilfully worked upon by Prince Edward, who had by this time been removed from Dover Castle, into which he had been thrown after the battle of Lewes, and placed, with his father, in the enjoyment of considerable personal liberty, by the order of a parliament which Leicester had summoned expressly to consider his case, in the beginning of the present year (1265);' and which is memorable in the history of the constitution as the first in which we have certain evidence of the appearance of representatives from the cities and boroughs. The Earl of Derby opened a correspondence with the prince, and the Earl of Gloucester set himself up as a rival to Montfort, and then, by means of his brother, Thomas de Clare, who had been placed about the prince's person, concerted a plan for releasing Edward. This plan was successful; and on Thursday in Whitsunweek the prince escaped on a fleet horse

towns never sent deputies to the Saxon Witenagemot; their rights were confined within the circuit of their walls, and when they mingled in public affairs, it was in a casual and irregular way, without having a place assigned to them in the government by any institution-any permanent custom.

"After the Conquest, the decline of the towns was great; commerce, the source of their wealth, suffered most of all by the disorder and oppression that followed; York fell in a short time from 1607 houses to 967; Oxford from 720 to 243; Chester from 487 to 282; Derby from 243 to 140, &c. In losing their importance they lost also their rights; and the lord, whether the king or some other, within whose domain they were situate, disposed almost at his absolute will of the property and fortunes of their inhabitants.

'Dating from the reign of Henry I. they gradually recovered; from that prince the city of London received its first charter, and some articles prove that it had not lost all its ancient liberties. Under Henry II.-a prince who applied himself to the establishment of order-the towns advanced more rapidly: in several the inhabitants acquired from their lord the ownership of the ground on which they stood, and redeemed the individual tributes he arbitrarily imposed on them by a fixed impost, and by holding their town in fee-farm, a kind of tenure analogous to that of socage. They then formed themselves into a corporation, sometimes received a charter, and thus entered into possession of the municipal government. Grants of charters became frequent, dating from the reign of King John."-Essais sur l'Histoire de France.