The Plantagenets: The Three Edwards Part 13

Despite the bad conditions which prevailed throughout the country after twenty years of misrule, London had gone on growing in population and wealth. The stretch of river front which ran from Ludgate Hill to Westminster was being rapidly filled with the London houses of the great n.o.bles. But they, the n.o.bility, did not const.i.tute London. The real London lay in the city, that close huddle of small parishes where the tradesmen had organized themselves into guilds on such a broad basis that each guild had its own hall, its own church, its own streets, its own laws and regulations, its own ceremonial uniform. Some had their own patron saint, as for instance St. Crispin, to whom the shoemakers bowed.

It had all started in London with the weavers. Then the goldsmiths had followed suit, then the saddlers, the fishmongers, the bakers, the cordwainers, the lorimers, even the law clerks. In France the law clerks were called the Basoche and were so powerful that most lawyers graduated from their ranks. The worthy burghers deserved the prosperity which had followed the careful cultivation of their respective fields. Proverbs 22:29 tells the story in a few words: Seest thou a man diligent in his business: He shall stand before kings. There was an anecdote that was often repeated with great pride when they met in their halls. It came from the Welsh Red Book of Hergest and was in dialogue form.

"Open the door."

"I will not open it."

"Wherefore not?"

"The knife is in the meat, and the drink is in the horn, and there is revelry in Arthur's Hall, and none may enter therein but the son of a king of a privileged country, or a craftsman bringing his craft."

In addition to the guilds and the wealth they produced, London was the great port of the islands. The wool and tin, which const.i.tuted the greatest part of the country's exports, came down the river to be s.h.i.+pped overseas from London. It was no wonder that London could lend the most effective support to king or popular leader or general of an army. It was not as fully recognized then as it became later that in all civil conflict the side which London took became the winning side. The kings of the red rose, Charles I, the exiled Stuarts, would all learn the strength and stubbornness of London.

It was not surprising, therefore, that Edward entertained the hope that London could be won over, even though he expressed it with a dubious frown. He knew how partial London had always been to Isabella.

The first step he took in this crisis was to issue a proclamation that all who had taken part in the invasion would be treated as traitors, save the queen and his son Edward. A price of one thousand pounds was set on the head of "the black traitor" Mortimer. Then he summoned to the Tower a party made up of the mayor, the aldermen, and the heads of the guilds. It was in his mind clearly that he would have one advantage in his dealings with them. Hamo de Chigwell, who was serving his sixth term as mayor, had always been favorably disposed to him.

The king raised the point of the dangers which might be expected from the presence of foreign troops and asked, Would it be a case of the Norman invasion over again? This did not carry as much weight as he had hoped. The Flemish people were the natural allies of London because they bought practically all of England's wool. They had always been found honest and fair in their dealings.

The result was a compromise. The citizens agreed that no foreign force would be allowed to enter the city, but they stipulated also that no London troops would be permitted to serve more than a mile from the city walls. In reality, this was a defeat for Edward, who needed active support.

The king made up his mind to retire into the west, where he believed the sentiment of the people was more favorable to him. Leaving the Tower and his second son, John of Eltham, in the hands of the wife of the younger Despenser, he betook himself to Bristol.

The Londoners dropped the mask of neutrality at once. Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, the stout prelate who had come back from Paris to warn Edward of the queen's designs and of her conduct, had remained in the city. He was seized by the mobs and beheaded. His body was buried under a pile of rubbish and his head was sent on to Gloucester, where it was presented to Isabella as evidence that, in spite of everything, the heart of London was still with her. Lady Despenser, alarmed by the rioting in the streets, surrendered the Tower to the mobs.

2.

Queen Isabella had shown great courage in bringing her small army across the North Sea. The baronial strength had been crushed before she left England and there was no evidence that it had been reviving. She had been in correspondence with some of the barons and could count on the aid of a few. Would there be enough to give her the strength to meet the king's army?

She was not left long in doubt. The landing had been made on the domain of Thomas of Brotherton, half brother to the king and her own blood cousin. He greeted her with bells ringing and bonfires blazing. The common people turned out in cheering mobs to welcome back the injured wife and queen. Women strewed her path with flowers.

Henry of Lancaster, called Wryneck, came galloping down from the north with a body of men. He was the brother of Thomas, who had been so summarily disposed of, and had succeeded to the huge family estates. Burning with the desire for vengeance, which he had been compelled to suppress for four years, he threw in his lot with the invaders. The army grew with every mile as baron after baron appeared to join them. Three bishops came as well, Ely, Lincoln, and Hereford. By the time the invaders reached Wallingford, the queen's confidence had grown so great that she issued a declaration, setting forth the mistakes the king had made and the iniquities of the favorites, and incidentally putting an offer of two thousand pounds on the head of the younger Despenser, twice the amount that Edward had offered for Mortimer.

When they reached Oxford, the Bishop of Hereford preached an incendiary sermon from 2 Kings 4:19, My head, my head acheth. It may be in order to pause here and have something to say about this bitter and savage churchman. He has already been mentioned, Adam of Orleton, as having aided Mortimer in his escape from the Tower. If Mortimer is the villain of this story, the bishop must be considered as second in that category. He had been advising Isabella from the beginning, it is believed, and it was always the violent course he proposed. In his sermon on the Bible story of Elisha and the woman whose son had died, he drew this conclusion, "When the head of a kingdom becometh sick and diseased, it must of necessity be taken off." It was evidence of the high feeling in the land that the sermon was received with approval.

In the meantime, the king, finding that no one came to join him, had been retreating toward the west. It was his intention, if his fortunes took no better turn, to hide among the Welsh people who had always displayed affection for him. He paused at Gloucester to summon all loyal men to his banner, getting no response whatever. Then he spent a day in the Forest of Dean, where in the shadow of the great oaks he could commune with his inner being and take stock of his resources. The result was a temporary gain in resolution and the sending of the elder Despenser to Bristol in the hope that he could hold that strong city in the king's interest.

But Bristol was filled with fervor for the cause of the queen and, when the invading army arrived before the gates, they surrendered the castle and everything in it, including the senior Despenser. Isabella's two young daughters had been sent to Bristol for safety, and the queen had an affectionate reunion with them. After embracing them, Isabella turned to sterner matters. Despenser, clad in his armor, was brought before her. The doddering old man realized that there was no hint of mercy in her handsome eyes. He had still enough courage to say to her, "Ah, Madame, G.o.d grant us an upright judge and a just sentence." His sentence may not have been just, but it was exceptionally speedy. He was immediately taken out and hanged in his armor.

It is said the two young princesses were allowed to look at what was happening from a window of the castle and were frightened almost into hysterics by the sight of the steel-clad figure turning slowly at the end of a stout rope.

The king's party continued to dwindle until he was left with no one but the younger Despenser and Chancellor Baldock and, of course, some servants. They took s.h.i.+p for Lundy Island, to which supplies had been sent; an indication that it probably had been Lundy where Nephew Hugh had served his brief second exile in piratical operations. The winds made it impossible for them to reach this notorious isle and they had to put back to land. Edward is next heard of at Caerphilly Castle, where he again endeavored, with no response, to set up his standard and summon all loyal men to his aid. By November 10 he was at Neath Abbey and still seemed to have some small remnants of hope left, for he again sent out commissions of array. From Neath, where his standard had flapped in the wind as dismally and as unnoticed as everywhere else, he sent a company with the old Abbot of Neath to start negotiations in his behalf with the queen. It is not likely that they secured an audience with her; at any rate, nothing came of it.

There are stories told of some adventures the king was supposed to have had on his wanderings. Leaving Caerphilly at night in the disguise of a peasant, he is said to have reached a farmhouse where he was put to work at digging. He proved so clumsy with the spade that his ident.i.ty was discovered and he escaped with considerable difficulty. This anecdote, a favorite one, can be discarded. He had some of his company still with him at Caerphilly, and his handling of a spade would have deceived the most critical eye. Edward, in fact, was skilled with tools and was always happy when working on the land.

On November 16 the king was captured with the sorry remnants of his following and conducted to the castle of Llantrissant. Nephew Hugh and Baldock were taken to Bristol and surrendered into the hands of the queen.

3.

Through the earlier stages of the history of these violent days it has not been difficult to regard Isabella with some favor. Considered the most beautiful princess in Europe, she had been married for reasons of state and for nearly twenty years had been subject to her husband's abnormalities and eccentricities. But now a different Isabella appears. She shows that she is indeed her father's daughter, that implacable monarch who trampled the Templar order into dust like a flesh-and-blood golem. Flushed with her success, she proceeded to give full rein to a l.u.s.t for power as well as an appet.i.te for revenge. Later she would display other serious flaws of character and, moreover, would demonstrate an inability to wield the responsibility she was so determined to possess.

With victory in her hands and her husband safely locked up in Llantrissant, Isabella collected her people about her and led her army to London. It was a triumphal procession. All the young knights-errant from the Low Countries were with her, including Sir John of Hainaut. Mortimer was more in evidence than before, and Adam of Orleton was also much in the fore. The head of Walter Stapledon was still in the queen's possession, but she had a praiseworthy object in keeping it: she wanted it honorably buried in his own cathedral with the rest of his body, which had been rescued from under a pile of rubbish in London.

There was one partic.i.p.ant in the first stages of this triumphant journey who did not display the enthusiasm of the others, Hugh le Despenser the younger. The marshal of the queen's forces saw to it that the captive favorite rode on the back of a small and mean specimen of a horse. In every town and village they reached, trumpets sounded and heralds called attention to the pa.s.sing through of this once powerful man perched on his mangy steed; a form of derision to which Despenser paid little heed. He was refusing food and drink. As a result he grew steadily weaker, and when they reached Hereford it was feared he had not much longer to live. Not to be cheated of their revenge in this way, they quickly placed him on trial before Sir William Trussell, a member of the justiciary. He was charged with many offenses, among others that of urging the execution of Thomas of Lancaster, of conspiring against the queen, and of mismanagement of the affairs of the realm. He was even blamed for the defeat at Bannockburn and for the steps taken to conceal miracles at the tomb of Lancaster. Trussell, who was to gain for himself a reputation for unnecessary severity on the bench, sentenced the deposed favorite in the following terms: Hugh, all the good people of the kingdom, great and small, rich and poor, by common a.s.sent do award that you are found as a thief and therefore shall be hanged, and are found as a traitor, and therefore shall be drawn and quartered; and for that you have been outlawed by the king and by common consent, and returned to the court without warrant, you shall be beheaded; and for that you abetted and procured discord between king and queen, and others of the realm, you shall be embowelled and your bowels burned; and so go to your judgment, attainted, wicked traitor.

Accordingly the unfortunate man was attired in a black gown with his escutcheon upside down and a crown of nettles on his brow. He was dragged to the place of execution, a gallows fifty feet high, and here all the grim and savage ritual was carried out. It is said that he died patiently, but it may have been that his weakened condition brought about a loss of consciousness. The queen was present.

Before leaving the younger Despenser to the almost unanimous verdict which his acquisitiveness had made inevitable, it should in fairness be pointed out that he had striven during his days of power to make improvements in the administrative departments. There was nothing of the stand-still conservative officeholder in him. Realizing that Westminster functioned with leaden slowness and muddle-headedness, he undertook to improve procedure with changes which were called radical. This admirable effort accomplished no more than to increase the enmity of his ill-wishers.

Robert Baldock would have been executed at the same time, but on account of his priesthood he was sent on to London instead, to be held in the palace of Adam of Orleton for punishment later. Perhaps by design the word of his arrival was spread through London. He was so unpopular that the citizens stormed the palace and dragged him out. So sorely was he abused that when he was taken to Newgate Prison he died almost immediately of his injuries. The feeling against Baldock seems to have been due to the perversion of justice he had permitted in the courts.

The people of London did not wait for the usual ceremonial of entry at Temple Bar when it became known that Isabella and her troops were nearing the city. They poured out into the open to welcome her, bearing costly gifts and hailing her as the savior of England.

A writ was at once issued for a meeting of Parliament at Westminster for the purpose of treating with the king, if he were present. In the absence of the king the house was to treat with the queen-consort and the king's son, who was designated as guardian of the realm. Edward, needless to state, was absent, although not of his own wish. He had been taken to Kenilworth Castle, which was owned by his kinsman, Henry of Lancaster. The latter welcomed him kindly and treated him throughout with due respect. Here he was to remain until a decision was reached as to the future occupancy of the throne.

CHAPTER XI.

The Deposition and Death of the King

1.

THE deputation sent to see Edward on January 20, 1327, reached Kenilworth after a cold and arduous trip. It was made up of men who did not enjoy rough roads and wintry weather, bishops and judges and a parliamentarian or two. They arrived at the castle with blue noses and heads sunk deep into their hoods and they flailed their arms about them as they waited in the courtyard. Kenilworth was not then the luxurious castle it became a half century later when John of Gaunt built his great hall and the graceful quarters surrounding it. It was to Caesar's Tower, with its ma.s.sive walls, that they were escorted.

Inside the tower there was a warm fire blazing in the room selected for the audience. Orleton was there as the spokesman, a stout ecclesiastic with uneasy eyes and an insensitive jowl. Trussell stood beside him, always ready to jibe at misfortune. None of the great magnates had come, being glad to turn this shabby task over to lesser men.

A door at the end of the apartment opened and Edward entered silently. He was robed in black serge, a cloth regarded in those days as cheap and suitable only for casual use. All the a.s.surance that sits so easily on the shoulders of royalty had left him. His eyes went from one fleshy face to another, seeking an answer. What were they here to do? To p.r.o.nounce a sentence of death on him? Or to show mercy and propose terms?

He had been told something of the proceedings of Parliament a fortnight before. His bitterest enemy, Orleton (for so the defeated king had come to regard the sharp-tongued churchman, fearing him more than Mortimer), had demanded his deposition, contending that the lives of the queen and the prince would be endangered if he were left in power. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Reynolds, had agreed with this (he had been in Edward's household when the prince was young and owed his high post to the king), but most of the members had shown disturbed faces, realizing the serious nature of the step proposed. A London mob howled about the building, crying for death or deposition, but some of the bishops had summoned up enough courage to speak for the king. One of them, Rochester, was seized by the mob when he emerged and barely escaped with his life. Accordingly, deposition had been decided upon and the measure duly pa.s.sed. Then Isabella began to weep, whether in sudden repentance or to conceal her real feelings, no one knew; and the conscience of the young prince began to whisper in his ear. The result was that the prince finally refused the proffered crown unless his father's consent to deposition were first received.

The White Tower, Tower of London Constable Tower and Moat, Dover Castle Kenilworth Castle Caernarvon Castle Conway Castle The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone in Westminster Abbey Edinburgh Castle The "Eleanor Cross" at Waltham Cross, Herts Stirling Castle, Scotland Aerial view of Windsor Castle Berkeley Castle The Chamber above the entrance to the Keep of Berkeley Castle, where Edward II is said to have been put to death.

Castle Rising, Norfolk Corfe Castle, Dorset This was the business which had brought a hostile deputation to wait on the king. The latter, knowing himself on trial, turned quickly when Orleton began to speak. He listened for a few moments while the shrill invectives of his enemy a.s.sailed his ears, then he was seen to turn pale. His knees began to tremble and then folded under him and he rolled to the floor in a faint.

When he had been raised to his feet by the Earl of Leicester and the Bishop of Winchester, he had to listen to the balance of the unsparing Orleton's diatribe with something of the mien of a schoolboy under the lash of a master's tongue. At the finish he wept again and then spoke in a weak voice.

"I am in your hands. You must do what seems right."

This was what the young prince had demanded, his father's consent. Briskly, then, Sir William Trussell stepped forward as proctor of Parliament to make the customary declaration, managing to inject into it a lack of decency and honorable feeling. Raising a forefinger in the air, he broke the bonds of fealty which bound the members. "I do make this protestation in the name of all those that will not, for the future, be in your fealty or allegiance, nor claim to hold anything of you as king"-his voice raised scornfully-"but account you as a private person, without any manner of royal dignity."

The king, who was no longer king and no greater now than plain Sir Edward of Caernarvon, seemed to shrink inside his shoddy serge. But his humiliation was not yet complete. Sir Thomas Blount, the steward of the royal household, came forward and broke his white staff of office, which was done only on the deposition or death of a royal master.

Edward strove to accept these cruel rites in good spirit, but when he spoke, desiring to do so with dignity, he could frame only the plainest of words. "I am aware," he said, "that for my many sins I am thus punished. Have compa.s.sion on me." Then he looked about him with a faint smile, keeping his eyes away, no doubt, from his two chief tormentors, Orleton and Trussell. "Much as I grieve at having incurred the ill will of the people, I am glad they have chosen my oldest son to be their king."

Thus ended his reign. It had been as inglorious as might have been expected in view of his unfitness for the role of king. His back bowed in shame under his threadbare robe, he turned and stumbled from the room, a humble knight, with not a real friend left, not an inch of land he could claim, and not a coin in his purse. His continued existence, he knew, would depend on one thing only: the will of the beautiful wife he now called the she-wolf of France.

2.

When the news spread through London that Queen Isabella was leaving the Tower to ride through to Westminster, the worthy guild members donned hats and cloaks and came out to the streets to see, and did not object when their apprentices deserted counter and bench and followed on the heels of their masters. The queen was worth seeing this morning. No longer was she under the necessity of dressing simply in her role of lady in distress. She wore an ermine cloak, white and virginal and costly, and under it her tight sleeves, of the richest silk from the East, were lined with gold b.u.t.tons. Her skirts had been pleated and flared until they achieved a bouffant extreme. She looked lovely; her eyes sparkled and her cheeks had a high color, and her hair showed not a single traitorous white strand. Not only did she raise her hand in greeting as she pa.s.sed, she waved to her friends, the Londoners, and smiled and even laughed.

"Our fair lady is happy. She must have made a good notch," said the merchants among themselves. Most of them still used the notched stick as a daybook.

But it was different when Isabella returned as the shades of evening were falling. Already in the streets the heralds were making their proclamation: When Sir Edward, late king of England, of his own good will and with the common advice and a.s.sent of the prelates, earls, barons and other n.o.bles, and all the commonality of the realm, has put himself out of government of the realm, and has granted and willed that the government of the said realm should come to Sir Edward, his oldest son and heir ...

This should have been a welcome sound in her ears. It was what she had fought for. But there was no smile on her face as she made her way through the crowded streets. The Londoners were out in force and cheering for the young king. They gave her a boisterous welcome, but she did not respond. Occasionally she raised a hand in acknowledgment, but that was all.

A word they had used that morning came again into the comments of the good merchants and the trained band captains, but this time in a quite different sense. "This is out of all scotch and notch," they said, an expression which meant they were completely at sea.

This is what had happened at Westminster: a standing Council of Regency had been appointed, made up of four bishops, four earls, and six barons, it being stipulated that one bishop, one earl, and two barons would be in constant attendance on the king. Henry of Lancaster was named head of the council, the post once held by the late Earl Thomas.

Now Isabella had wanted to be regent. She had fully expected it, and the action of Parliament had been a bitter blow to her.

Why, she asked herself as she rode back to the Tower, had she been pa.s.sed over? Had not Blanche of Castile been made regent of France nearly a century before when her son Louis IX was twelve years old? Although her son had grown up to be the great king called St. Louis, Blanche had maintained her ascendancy over him to the very end. Indeed, Blanche had been so reluctant to have him marry that she had kept the young king on the same floor she occupied in the royal palace and had arranged the bride's rooms on the floor above. Whenever she heard his step on the stairs on the way to pay his young queen a visit, she would be out of the door in a wink, with papers to be signed and other affairs of state which could not wait for a minute.

Did these clods, these a.s.sertive bishops and barons, think that she, Isabella of France, could not rule as well as Blanche of Castile? Did they not realize that she had succeeded in ousting Edward from power when they had failed, that the credit for everything which had happened belonged to her?

The stage has now been reached when some attention should be paid to the fifteen-year-old boy who had become the King of England. Edward was a true Plantagenet. He had the fair hair and blue eyes of the family and was perhaps the handsomest of them all. One description which has been handed down is that his face was like an angel's. He would grow to be tall, although he would lack the commanding stature of his grand-sire and the ma.s.siveness of frame which had contributed so much to Richard Coeur-de-Lion's reputation as a great fighting man.

Behind that angelic countenance a cool and clear mind was already at work. Edward would never be willingly a tool of anyone. He had allowed himself to tag behind his mother's skirts about Flanders and had let her take full command of the invasion which had been so successful; and this raises the question as to why he was willing to aid in his father's undoing. The answer must be that young Edward had already become convinced that the poor weak reign of his father must come to an end for the good of the country. Isabella had not read his mind aright. She undoubtedly thought that his acquiescence was the result of her influence. It never entered her mind that the boy who had agreed to the removal from power and honor of one parent might be prepared later to do the same for the other, if he perceived equally good reasons. She could not see beyond the present and the fact that he was bound to her by bonds of grat.i.tude as well as filial affection.

Edward lacked the n.o.ble sense of kingly responsibility which had animated Edward I and which could be traced back to the first great Plantagenet, Henry II, but he was to become such a wise and resourceful monarch that it would be wrong to a.s.sume him incapable at fifteen of forming his own conclusions. He was still a rather quiet boy (in fact, he seems to have had nothing in common with his shabbily endowed father), but he was an observant one. It may be taken for granted that he was fully conscious of his mother's relations.h.i.+p with Mortimer and of the evil effect this would have on the country. He must have seen that Isabella's determination to elevate her lover to almost a full partners.h.i.+p with herself was certain in the end to lead to another national upheaval. His opinion of this upstart who had dared to cuckold a king could not have continued favorable for long. Mortimer's silky dark good looks and his masterful ways might be irresistible to a neglected wife, but they did not offer any subst.i.tute for sound vision and administrative ability, in both of which the Marcher baron was lacking. Edward III, watching intently and moving slowly, would not be held for long on such leading strings as these.

Isabella decided that she would exercise the duties of a regent, even though the t.i.tle and recognition had been withheld. Mortimer and Adam of Orleton had been given places on the council and she felt certain that, with their collaboration, she could make the functions of the board purely nominal. The young king, who showed a strain of shrewdness early, must have seen that the council, made up of inert bishops and land-proud barons, would be no more effective than it had been when Cousin Lancaster was head of the Ordainers. He seemed content, at any rate, to let his mother proceed with her theft of authority.

In the unofficial regency that Isabella proceeded to form, she made Mortimer her chief minister and selected Adam of Orleton as her first adviser. That snarling churchman, whose malice seemed always at the boiling point, was as necessary to her as the diabolical Nogaret had been to her father: someone to read the purpose in the royal mind and put it into words for the first time, thereafter acting as the unscrupulous sword arm in carrying it out.

Never had there been such prodigal peculation, such insatiable seizure of honors and lands as when Roger Mortimer, given almost absolute power by his royal mistress, began to gather in the fruit from the medlar trees of Westminster. Here are a few of the benefits he conferred on himself: Knighthoods for four of his sons the day of the king's coronation.

The return of all of his confiscated estates and those of his uncle of Chirk.

Granted the custody of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, for the term of his minority. (How badly gutted the estates would be when young Thomas came of age!) Obtained the lands in Glamorgan which had belonged to the wife of the younger Despenser.

Was appointed justiciar of the diocese of Llandaff.

Granted lands worth a thousand pounds a year which had belonged to the elder Despenser, including the castle of Denbigh.

In Ireland given complete palatine rights in the liberty of Trim and in the counties of Meath and Uriel.

Had transferred to him the castle of Montgomery and the Hundred of Chirbury.

Allowed four hundred marks a year in addition to his full fees as justice in Wales.

His barony raised to the earldom of March.

Granted the manor of Church Stretton in Shrops.h.i.+re as a return for his services to Queen Isabella and the young king.

Granted the justices.h.i.+p of Wales for life.

Two chantry priests were paid ten marks a year to say prayers for him. This was in the nature of a foundation in honor of St. Peter. He had not forgotten that it was on the feast day of St. Peter that he escaped from the Tower of London.

And so it went, lands, honors, wards.h.i.+ps, t.i.tles, offices. Hardly a week pa.s.sed that he did not see something his greed craved; and the queen, in the grip of her middle-aged pa.s.sion for him, could not say him nay. Was it any wonder that soon the wave of enthusiasm with which Isabella had been received began to shrivel into suspicion and resentment? That soon a large part of the people of England would have preferred to have Edward back, with his careless rule, his stupidities and weaknesses, even his favorites?

In the meantime Isabella gave a pension of four hundred marks a year to the faithful Sir John of Hainaut and found means of rewarding the rest of her foreign troops before re-embarking them for Flanders. This was just as well, for on Trinity Sunday the queen and her son held a great court at Blackfriars. To start the proceedings the young king knighted fifteen young candidates and the queen gave a splendid dinner for the Netherland n.o.bles. A ball was to follow, but unfortunately it was interrupted by a furious battle that broke out in town between a party of English archers and the grooms of the foreign n.o.blemen. The party broke up before the first minstrel could tootle a note on his horn or the goliards had yet raised their voices in song.

The foreign troops went home after this. They had been in England long enough.

3.

In considering the tragic event that followed, it must be borne in mind that a deposed monarch is a menace to const.i.tuted authority, a rallying point for all discontent. It was not often possible to deal as leniently with a defeated ruler as in the case of Cra.s.sus (the Fat) in Gueldres. In England, as elsewhere, a violent solution had always been found. Henry I kept his older brother Robert in prison until he died and had his eyes burned out with a red-hot iron as an extra precaution. John lost no time in disposing mysteriously of Prince Arthur. There would be other cases later.

Before the coronation of the young prince on January 29, a sermon was preached at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the turncoat Walter Reynolds, who had been foisted on the Church by the hand he now proceeded to bite. He took as his text Vox populi vox Dei. It soon became apparent, however, that the voice of the people was not being raised as one in favor of the change. There was a growing sympathy for the deposed king throughout the land, a sentiment which could easily be fanned into a great blaze. The desire to be rid of Edward was not confined, therefore, to the queen and her paramour. All who had been actively against him, who had flocked to the standard of Isabella, felt a need to be safe from the ex-king. Remembering the hasty trial of Thomas of Lancaster and the block set up on the hill of St. Thomas, they had no inclination to allow him any chance to regain control. There were many eyes fixed on the not too secure prison provided for him at Kenilworth and many anxious ears pressed to the ground.