War and Misrule (1307-1399). Various

great perils and damages which from day to day will appear, unless there is some hasty redress, both destruction of the freedom of holy Church and the disinheritance and dishonour of yourself and your royal power, and the disinheritance of your crown and the damage of all the people of your kingdom both rich and poor: from which perils neither you nor the good men of your kingdom may escape unless some immediate remedy be ordained by the advice of the prelates, earls and barons and the most wise of your realm:—

      To begin with, while you are ruler of this land and sworn to maintain peace in your land, you are led by unworthy and bad council and are held in great slander in all lands; and so poor are you and so devoid of all manner of treasure that you have nothing wherewith either to defend your land or keep up your household, except by extortions, which your officers make from the goods of holy Church and your poor people, without paying anything, against the form of the great charter; which charter they pray may be held and maintained in all its force.

      Further, Sire, whereas our lord the King your father, whom God assoil, left you all your lands entire, England, Ireland and all Scotland, in good peace, you have lost Scotland and grievously dismembered your crown in England and Ireland etc. without the assent of your baronage and without pretext.

      Again, Sire, showing you that whereas the commonalty of your realm give you the 20th penny from their goods in aid of your Scotch war and the 24th penny, in order to be freed of prises and other grievances; the which pennies are all levied and foolishly spent and wasted by unworthy counsel, and your wars do not advance, nor are your poor people freed from prises and other grievances, but they are more oppressed from day to day, than before. For which cause, Sire, your said good people pray you humbly, for the salvation of yourself and of them and of the crown, which they are bound to maintain, by virtue of their allegiance, that you will consent to this, that these and other perils may be wiped out and redressed by ordinances of your baronage.

      [This bill was followed by the appointment of the Lords Ordainers.]

THE SUCCESSES OF KING ROBERT BRUCE (1311).

       Table of Contents

      Source.—The Book of Pluscarden in Historians of Scotland, x. 182.

      In the year 1311, after having routed and vanquished all his foes everywhere he went, and, for the most part, taken and levelled to the ground the castles and forts which offered him resistance, King Robert Bruce twice invaded and ravaged England, making great havoc with fire and sword, and bringing untold plunder back to Scotland. And thus, by the power of God, that faithless English nation, which had again and again unjustly tortured many a man, was now by God's righteous judgment made to undergo scourgings; and whereas it had once been victorious over other kingdoms, it now sank vanquished and groaning and became a gazing stock to others. The following year, in 1312, the then very strong walled town of Perth was taken, and all in it were put to the sword, some drawn, some beheaded, some slain in the fight, and the rest hanged on the gallows. But the King was moved to compassion for the guiltless rabble, and forgave them and received their submission. And thus:

      "Did England drink the gall itself had brewed."

      And the same year Edward, called of Windsor, the eldest son of the King of England, was born at Windsor, of the daughter of Philip, King of France; and he was the source of many wars. Through this Edward, that most cruel and most heinous war with France broke out.

PETER GAVESTON AND THE FRIARS PREACHERS (1312).

       Table of Contents

      Source.—Adam Murimuth, Continuatio Chronicarum (Rolls Series), 17–18.

This year, about the feast of St. John the Baptist [June 24], the King desired Peter Gaveston for his safety's sake to be brought to him by Adomar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. When they were at Danyntone (Deddington), near Banbury, the said Earl left him in the night and went on to another place, for no apparent reason. And on the morrow at dawn came Guy, Earl of Warwick, with a small, noisy following, and surprised the said Peter, and carried him off with him to his Castle of Warwick. There, having held counsel with the chief men of the kingdom, especially with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, he finally dismissed him from prison to go where he would. And when he had gone out of the town of Warwick and had come to a place called, as though prophetically, Gaveressich (Gaversike), he found there many men raising hue and cry after him with voices and horns, as they would after one of the enemies of the King and kingdom lawfully outlawed or exiled; and finally they beheaded him, as though he were one of these, on the 19th day of June. And one of the Friars Preachers carried away Gaveston's head in his hood (and brought it to the King). Afterwards the friars of the same order found the body[1] and kept it at Oxford with solemn vigils for a year and more. But finally it was buried at Langley, where the King founded a religious house of Friars Preachers for the salvation of his own soul; and there establishing a large number of student friars, he provided for their sufficient sustenance from his treasury in London.

      FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to the Annales Londonienses in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. (Rolls Series), i. 207, the body was carried to Warwick by four shoemakers, but the Earl of Warwick sent it back to the place where the beheading had taken place, outside his fief, and "the Jacobin Friars carried the body to Oxford, and guarded it with much honour; wherefore they were held in great odium by the aforesaid earl."

AN UNWORTHY KING (1313).

       Table of Contents

      Source.—Vita Edwardi II. [possibly by a monk of Malmesbury] in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward II. and Edward III. (Rolls Series), ii. 191–192.

      Behold now our King Edward had reigned six whole years, nor had he accomplished anything praiseworthy or fit to be remembered; except that he married royally and raised for himself a fine heir to his kingdom. … Oh! would that our King Edward had borne himself well at the beginning of his reign, and had not followed the counsel of pernicious men, he should in truth have been more renowned than any of his ancestors. Then God had enriched him with the gifts of all virtues and had made him equal to, nay, more excellent than, other Kings. For if anyone had wished to describe those things which ennobled our King, they could not have found his peer in the land. His ancestral fathers handed him down his generosity; those fathers whose successions now extend themselves to the tenth degree. He had riches, the most in his kingdom; an opulent country, and the favour of the people.

      He was kinsman to the King of France; near relative to the King of Spain. If he had adhered to the counsel of his barons he would have humiliated the Scots with no loss. Oh! if he had employed himself in the pursuit of arms, and excelled the valour of King Richard [I.]. Indeed, his make-up was fitted to this; he was tall of stature and a finely formed man of great strength, with a handsome face. But why delay to describe him? If he had given as much energy to the pursuit of arms as he spent in rustic pursuits, England would have prospered well; his name would have resounded throughout the land. O what things were hoped of him as Prince of Wales! All hope vanished when he became King of England. Peter of Gaveston ruled the King in an unseemly way, disturbed the land, consumed the treasure, submitted three times to exile, and, afterwards returning, lost his head. But still some of Peter's companions and his own family remain in the King's court, and they disturb the peace of the whole country, and urge on the King to seek vengeance. Give peace, O Lord, in our days, and make the King of one mind with his barons.

CORRUPTION IN THE PAPAL COURT (1313).