READING HALLTHIRD MILLENNIUM LIBRARY |
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THE LIFE OF SIMON DE MONTFORT . EARL OF LEICESTER
CHAPTER IX.
THE BARONS’ WAR.
The year 1263 saw a great change. The confusion in
justice and administration which had so undermined the popularity of the baronial
party a few years before was perhaps lessened to some extent by the
restoration of monarchical unity, but from the popular point of view the state
of things was probably little improved, for the inveterate abuses soon
reappeared. The king had already given indications of a return to the old
foreign policy, with all its consequent oppression; the Roman Curia was
returning to its former trade, and had demanded a subsidy for the banished
Emperor of Constantinople. This the Church refused; England had other things to
do than to restore emperors who could not stand alone. The troubles with the
Welch which had begun in the previous October still continued, with the usual
accompaniment of frequent and resultless forays,
burnings of castles, and the like. Peter de Montfort was on the frontier, and
at first had held the position of commander on the English side; he had been in
great need of men and money, and the dissensions among the barons of the
Marches, which had not been allayed by royal intervention, still further
emboldened the enemy. The restless and lawless spirits of that district were a
mine ever ready to explode; but little was needed to fire it, and that little
was at hand. Prince Edward, who had remained behind after his father’s
departure from Paris, had returned to England early in February 1263,
accompanied by a body of foreign soldiers, and had marched straight to the
border. A little later Simon de Montfort also returned from France, according
to the royalist chronicler, in secret. The jealousy of the English barons was
aroused by Edward’s use of foreign troops against the Welch, and many refused
to help him. He therefore failed to accomplish anything, and the Welch
continued to press the border hard. But not being able to beat the Welch, he
seems, in his annoyance at the refusal of aid, and possibly acting under orders
from the king, to have turned his arms against the recalcitrant barons, and to
have threatened if not actually commenced an attack upon them. Hostilities had
apparently broken out between the Marchers and the hated Bishop of Hereford;
that town had been entered, and the Jews plundered. In this affair the young
Henry de Montfort had distinguished himself, showing already that rashness
which was to be such an obstacle to his father’s success. At this crisis Simon
de Montfort appeared on the field, and at once took up the position of an
almost independent prince.
His first step was to bring about a truce with Edward,
whose hot blood was likely still further to complicate matters. In this he was
partially successful, for though the prince remained to the end of March at
Bristol, in spite of his father’s summons to return, no further hostilities
took place. Perhaps, relying on his former influence, Simon was willing to
negotiate more fully with the prince. His proposals were supported by the
Bishop of Worcester, a man who left no means untried to bring about a peaceable
solution, but when that failed recognised as clearly
as Simon the necessity of war. But nothing satisfactory could be done. A royal
edict ordering an oath of submission to the king and Prince Edward, to be
administered by the sheriffs throughout England, was the only answer vouchsafed
by Henry to these pacific advances. The king indeed professed himself willing
to submit to a committee, but Simon had had enough of committees. Despairing of
success except by force, he now introduced foreign aid, the barons of Dover
giving his troops free entrance, which they had refused to the king’s men two
years before. About Whitsuntide the barons under Simons guidance met at Oxford,
without the kings knowledge or consent. The Earl of Warenne,
the young Earl of Gloucester, even Henry of Almaine were there. King Richard appears to have attended in order to prevent the
outbreak of hostilities. Thence Simon sent his ultimatum : a recognition of the
Provisions of Oxford, and the outlawry of any one who opposed them. This was
modified, according to some authorities, by the proposal that such portions as
were really prejudicial to the country should be omitted, so long as the
Provisions relative to the expulsion of aliens were kept intact, since these
involved “nothing but what was the rule in all countries of the world”. Nothing
was said as to the authority by which the alterations were to be made; but it
can hardly be doubted, since the French arbitration had for the time been
dropped, that Simon contemplated free discussion in Parliament on the matter,
as the only possible way of solution. But the dictatorial tone roused Henry out
of his usual bland hypocrisy; he refused to admit the basis proposed, and Simon
took the law into his own hands.
This decided step produced an enthusiastic response.
The noble youth of England streamed together in great numbers. Simon led them
first of all westward, to the border country where Gloucester’s strength lay,
and where the Welch might form a support in case of need. In the long June days
they marched from one stronghold to another, seized and chastised the Savoyard
Bishop of Hereford, the most obnoxious of the aliens, expelled the royal
sheriffs and castellans, and confiscated the goods of their opponents. Without
doubt much needless violence was done, though Simon issued orders, under
penalty of death, to spare all sacred buildings, which however availed little
to stop the wholesale destruction. Here, as often elsewhere, the intemperance
of his supporters brought de Montfort into trouble. Even his partisans foresaw
that the lawlessness of these proceedings would alienate the friends of law.
Still even the royalists were forced to own that the Bishop of Hereford
deserved his fate, though his holy office rendered the treatment of him
unjustifiable. From the border-counties Simon led his forces eastward. King
Richard attempted to meet him at Wallingford, but the earl refused to see him,
and pressed on towards Dover. He moved with great rapidity; on June 29 he
reached Reading; on the 30th, Guildford; the next day he was to be at Reigate.
Soon after he reached Dover, the castle of which however held out against him.
Meanwhile the king had tried to concentrate his
forces. Prince Edward held Windsor, and Henry withdrew to the Tower. The temper
of the city was so hostile that he failed to obtain a loan of money from the
citizens. Edward therefore seized the treasures in the Temple, the money
deposited there, as in a bank, being the property of private individuals. The
indignation of the Londoners burst forth in open revolt against this
high-handed robbery, which affected not the princes enemies, but those who had
as yet done him no injury. Richard, expecting a general collision, wrote to his
brother, telling of the failure of his attempt at conciliation, and bidding him
prevent Edward from attacking the barons. But Simon, having secured the
sea-ports, opened negotiations while lying at Dover with his victorious army.
The Bishops of Lincoln, London, and Lichfield brought the message of peace, for
which they had, as it appears, been commissioned during Simon’s march. The
Bishop of Worcester had already written to the chancellor, begging him to use
his influence in persuading the king to accept the conditions which the envoys
would propose.
The first stipulation was, that Henry of Almaine, who appears to have been seized by the royalists
abroad on account of his inclination toward de Montfort, should be set at
liberty. The barons also demanded that Dover should be given up to them, and
that the Provisions should be observed, especially that portion which decreed
the expulsion of aliens. In answer to these demands, which it will be observed
go further than those made a month or two before, the king sent ambassadors,
among whom were some citizens of London, to treat with the barons at Dover.
This was a great concession, but his situation was in fact almost desperate at
this moment. He was blockaded in the Tower by the populace of the city, which
in a public assembly declared its assent to Simons proposals of alliance on the
basis of the Provisions. John Mansel, the most
obnoxious of the king’s creatures, by common report the richest man in England,
fled for his life to France. The queen, in trying to make her way up the river,
to Windsor to join her son, was attacked by the populace with vile abuse
and showers of stones while passing under London Bridge, and driven back to the
Tower. King Richard, anxious for the release of his son, pressed the king to
yield, and Henry, “being in a strait”, gave way at last. It meant little enough
that he renewed his promise to observe the Provisions ; but, upon his so doing,
a truce was made, and the king, in accordance with it, called on his wardens to
give up Dover Castle and other strongholds to the barons. It was agreed that
certain portions of the Provisions should be remodelled by a council, “according as the welfare of the king and the realm demanded”.
Simon thereupon marched to London. He entered the town
at once, and was received with all signs of joy by the citizens. But resistance
was not yet at an end. Prince Edward, having made a rapid march on the western
border, and having failed in an attempt to seize Bristol, had returned to
Windsor, and seemed inclined to bid defiance to the barons. Simon marched
against him, and, by the advice of the Bishop of Worcester, whose confidence
Edward appears to have abused, laid hands on him at Kingston, whither he had
come to treat. He was then compelled to take a fresh oath to observe the
Provisions. The Castle of Windsor was delivered up, and the foreign troops in
it sent out of the country. For the moment the baronial party was supreme.
Hugh Despenser was reinstated as justiciar instead of Philip Basset; Nicholas
of Ely was appointed chancellor in the room of Walter de Merton. Powers were
given to eleven commissioners, of whom de Montfort was one, to treat of peace
with Llewelyn. Meanwhile the earl lay at Isleworth,
probably in King Richard’s palace there, through July and August, while Henry
resided at Westminster, and submitted for a time to his rivals undisputed
supremacy.
The autumn Parliament was summoned nearly a month
earlier than usual, at the beginning of September. In the discussions, which
doubtless turned on the supreme question of the Provisions, Simon took the
lead, and spoke of wide and lofty plans of government, which he appeared to
wish to carry into execution. According to one authority it was resolved in
this Parliament to submit the question of the day to the arbitration of the
King of France. Until now, there had been no formal submission of the baronial
party to this tribunal : the private difficulties of the king and the Earl of
Leicester had been the chief subject of discussion, to the partial exclusion of
matters of more general interest. We do not know that Louis had ever yet been
asked to decide distinctly on the subject of the Provisions. The subject of the
arbitration was probably, at any rate, mooted at this Parliament, but was not
settled till some months later.
In the interval the Earl of Leicester was to suffer
from another turn of fortune’s wheel. His haughty attitude and domineering
spirit again offended many. He was too sure of victory, though he was far from
power yet. The north was, and had been throughout, against him; and now the
fickle Marchers, and certain other barons, were induced by Edward, who was
rapidly becoming the centre of the royalists, to
desert their side. Henry of Almaine told Leicester he
could not fight against his father and uncle, but he would not draw his sword
against the earl; whereupon the latter declared it was not Henry’s sword that
he dreaded, but his fickleness, and bade him go and do as he pleased, for he
feared him not. “But I and my four sons”, he continued, “though all should
desert me, will stand fast for the cause I have sworn to defend, for the honour of the Church and the welfare of the realm”. At this
same Parliament many, who had suffered from the random pillage and violence of
the spring campaign, complained of the injustice which they had been treated,
since they had not opposed the Provisions. Even Prince Edward seems to have
found it impossible to recover three castles which the Earl of Derby, the worst
freebooter of all, had seized. In London the mayor, a strong partisan of
Leicester, had alienated many of the upper classes by giving great freedom of
action to the city officials, and thereby causing much confusion. It was more
than Leicester could do to rule at once his open foes and his intractable
allies. His power began to ebb. The monarchical predilections of the great
barons, though they contained but a small element of loyalty, and did not
prevent them from resisting their sovereign whenever it suited them to do so,
were called into life by jealousy of their leader. It was but natural that they
would not brook from a fellow-subject what they submitted to from their king.
With de Montfort now, as it had been before and was to be again, the moment of
victory was the commencement of defeat. How far this was inevitable, for how
much his own character, for how much his followers, were to blame, it is
impossible now to say.
Had Simon been still in a position to prevent it, it
is hardly likely that he would have allowed the king to go again to France. The
proposal that Henry should visit Louis had already been made in August, and the
barons, knowing the danger, insisted on his making a very short stay abroad. He
promised therefore to return before Michaelmas, and,
as soon as Parliament was over, set off, having first summoned Simon de Montfort
and his cousin Peter, with certain others, to meet him and Louis at Boulogne.
Simon, much as his presence was required in England, answered the call, having
possibly obliged the king to summon him, in order to get an excuse for watching
his movements. While at Boulogne he was attacked by the king in the presence of
Louis, and accused of wrongful imprisonment, sacrilege, injustice of all sorts.
He refuted all the charges, to the apparent satisfaction of the French king,
but his vigilance was unable to prevent an arrangement being made between
the two monarchs which well-nigh ruined his cause. It is hardly possible not to
connect, in some way, the sudden change in the policy of Louis with this
meeting at Boulogne. The Mise of Amiens was the immediate result.
Henry returned to England at the end of the month,
while the queen remained in France. He shut himself up in his stronghold of
Windsor, with Prince Edward, and waited for an opportunity of gaining, by a
sudden blow, a position which would enable him to reap to the full the
advantage of the favourable verdict he expected to
get from Louis. All the circumstances of the crisis seem to show that he had
settled matters with the French king, and had secured his aid, but that he
expected to have to fight. For this reason probably he left the queen abroad.
As yet a hollow truce existed; and, though both parties were armed and only
awaited the signal, unusual tranquillity, the ominous
calm before the hurricane, prevailed for two months throughout the country. It
seems probable that it was during this period that the negotiations took place,
which ended in the unanimous agreement to abide by the arbitration of Louis. It
can hardly have been settled later than the end of November. A council of some
kind was held at Reading towards the end of October, at which envoys from
Llewelyn were present. The Earl of Leicester, for unknown reasons, did not
appear. It was probably only a council of the royalists, and the arbitration
and the king’s immediate policy may have been discussed. It was important to
Henry to settle with the Welch in the event of an outbreak of the civil war;
but the absence of Leicester is sufficient to show that the question of
arbitration cannot have been decided finally at this council.
Meanwhile Simon de Montfort, who seems to have
returned from France with the king, had first secured London, and had found
means quietly to get rid of the king’s partisans, Hugh Bigod and others, who retired from the city. He then withdrew to Kenilworth, his own
stronghold, and waited for the reopening of hostilities. They were not long
delayed. The king and Prince Edward, with many of the leading nobles, suddenly
marched on Dover ( December 4), but Simon’s partisans there, under Richard de
Gray, held firm and refused to admit them. The disappointed royalists turned to
London, which some of the leading citizens had offered to give up to them, and
on hoping by a rapid march to surprise the town. Simon moved quickly from
Kenilworth to its rescue, and a trap was laid for him, which nearly proved
successful. He was lying in Southwark when the king’s forces came up, and, not
being strong enough to meet them, he tried to escape into the city. The gates
were shut against him by some royalists inside, and, hemmed in between the
river and the king’s army, he would probably have been taken prisoner, had not
his partisans among the citizens, hearing the disturbance outside, overpowered
all opposition and opened the gates to their protector. Foiled a second time,
the king retreated to Croydon, and thence issued an order to the citizens of
London to expel Simon and his partisans. This was naturally useless : Simon
kept the city and refused the king admittance. The state of things appeared
worse than ever. Simon had gained nothing by the year’s campaign. At one moment
he appeared to be successful; then with bewildering rapidity we find him
deserted, and only just able to hold his own. The state of the kingdom during
this period can better be imagined than described. From such a position any
means of relief were acceptable; and we can well believe that the whole people
consented with joy to the appeal to Louis.
In the middle of December, less than a week after the
attempt on London, the letters were issued, in which it was formally arranged
to submit to the arbitration. The two documents, one giving the signatures of
the royalists, the other those of the national party, to the agreement, show
clearly enough, if need were to prove it, the marvellous fickleness of the men with whom Simon de Montfort had to deal. They also show
why it was that the lower classes of society, and the men who had most memory,
the clergy, looked upon him with an ever-increasing devotion. Of all the men
who had been chosen on that committee to represent the Parliament against the
king in 1244, he and the Bishop of Worcester were the only two who were still
on the same side. Ever since that time he had been before the people, never
once swerving from the course he had taken at the first. He had bred up his sons
to follow in his steps. Three others of his family signed their names on his
side, but besides him not one earl of note appeared. Younger men there were,
staunch adherents to the popular party, Hugh Despenser, young Humphry Bohun, Ralph Basset, Richard de Gray, William Bardulph, and others, men who had made their first
appearance in politics seven years before; but Simon de Montfort was the man
who, by his long experience and by his friendship with the great Bishop of
Lincoln, formed the connecting link with the men who had won the great charter.
On the other side were the two Bigods, the Earl of
Hereford, and Roger Mortimer, all of whom had stood up for the barons seven
years before. Fitz-Geoffrey and Richard Earl of Gloucester were dead, so that
but half of the baronial twelve of 1258 remained true. Of the twelve
representatives of the community not one appears now for the barons, while four
or five, together with James Audley, a royalist member of the Fifteen, are for
the king. Richard of Cornwall had gradually dropped out of the contest, but his
son Henry, and the kings hated brother, William of Valence, reappear among the
royalists; the wild barons of the Scotch and Welch Marches, with several
others, make up the number of the king’s partisans. It is remarkable that the
young Earl of Gloucester appears on neither side. No less than four of those
who had resisted the papal absolution of 1261, and appeared as late as that
time on the list of the king’s nominal foes, had since then accepted the
offered pardon and changed sides. Such was the vacillation, such the want of
purpose and principle which made Simon’s work so hard. Well might he exclaim,
“I have been in many lands and among many nations, pagan and Christian, but in
no race have I ever found such faithlessness and deceit as I have met in
England”.
It is hard at first to see what can have induced the
earl to submit so unconditionally to Louis’ arbitration. Despair of finding any
other solution of the difficulties seems to have driven him to it. He thought
perhaps, owing to his recent successful defence at
Boulogne, and the good-will Louis had always shown him, that the verdict would
turn out to be in his favour. Such a verdict would
have rendered Henry defenceless, and even if so good
fortune were not to be expected, a one-sided decision in favour of the king would be almost equally damaging to him. There were many who
already suspected his eagerness for arbitration to be occasioned by a wish to
introduce active assistance from abroad against his own subjects. He would at
once forfeit the good-will of such persons, since his success would be certain
to prompt him to more arbitrary measures than before. A threat of foreign
interference would reunite Simon’s party and confirm many of the waverers. In
the latter expectation he was not disappointed. Although however he must have
taken both possibilities into account, he does not seem at all to have expected
a decision so completely adverse. Henry was probably better informed as to the
truth. John Mansel had obtained letters from the Pope
bidding Louis decide for the king. Urban had even ordered a crusade to be
preached against the English rebels, and had written a letter to the Earl of
Leicester, threatening him with excommunication, and contrasting his opposition
to the papal see with the enthusiastic devotion of his father. But something
more weighty even than the papal command must have occurred to change Louis’
opinion.
To gain his favour it is
possible that Henry had made a great sacrifice—a sacrifice, that is, from his
point of view. Nearly six months before this the Pope had written finally to
break off the engagement with respect to Sicily. At the same time he had
offered the crown to Louis’ brother, Charles of Anjou. A resignation of all
claims by Henry may possibly have influenced the pious, but not altogether
unworldly, king, and have turned the scale, already heavily weighted by
monarchical feeling. Feudal law, in accordance with which the King of England
was the Pope’s vassal since the pact with John, lent its influence to Urban’s
command. This supposition is urged with much force by Dr. Pauli, and appears
highly probable, but is perhaps hardly sufficient to account for the
extraordinary and sudden change in Louis’ policy. The French king might have
undertaken the conquest of Sicily without any fear of serious opposition from
England. Henry’s resignation of hopes he had no chance of realising,
if he ever made it, was worth little to Louis. On the other hand the king, in
his anxiety to settle once for all with the barons, may have made Louis some great
concession, perhaps of land in the south of France, as of payment for active
aid he hoped to receive, and to which the decision at Amiens would have been
only the first step. The sudden attack made upon Dover seems to show that he
expected shortly to be able to introduce soldiers from France. However this may
be, Louis now completely abandoned the attitude of impartiality which he had
hitherto maintained, at all events in the private quarrel. There was no longer
any hesitation, no hint of the impossibility of bringing about a satisfactory
compromise; the matter was no sooner laid before the judge than he decided,
without any reservation, in favour of one of the
parties.
Shortly after Christmas, 1263, Henry, after first
publishing a manifesto to allay suspicion, in which he declared his willingness
to observe the Provisions of Oxford, and stated that he never had introduced
nor intended to introduce foreign troops into the country, left for Amiens.
Simon de Montfort was detained at home by a fracture of the thigh, caused by a
fall from his horse; but his party was represented by a deputation, consisting
of Humphry Bohun the younger, Peter and Henry de
Montfort, and three other barons, attended by their secretaries. The formal
statement of the case on both sides occupied apparently some days, and on
January 23, 1264, Louis gave his verdict, called, from the place of assembly,
the Mise of Amiens. He cancelled, in accordance with the papal absolution, the
Provisions and the constitution dependent on them, on the ground that they had
done nothing but injury to the Crown, the Church, and the whole kingdom. All
castles were to be restored to the king; he was to have the sole right of
appointing to all offices of State, from justiciar to bailiff, whomsoever he would,
and of removing them at pleasure. A special clause abolished the statute
providing for the government of the country by natives only, and empowered the
king to call aliens to his council. Only the charters granted before 1258 were
to be observed. Finally, a general amnesty was to be proclaimed. The royal
power was therefore restored in all its former supremacy, and the whole labour of the last six years thrown away. And not only
this, but since the Provisions, with the exception of those enactments which
placed the government in the hands of an oligarchy, were, as is evident from an
examination of their contents, only the logical outcome and consequence of
Magna Carta, the latter, though retained, was endangered by the entire removal
of its superstructure. The ecclesiastical power, which three years before had
absolved Henry from his oath, could not but rejoice at so hearty an approval of
its policy; the Mise, as soon as it was announced at Rome, received the papal
confirmation, and a legate was to be sent to England to ensure complete
success. Thus were the three greatest powers of Europe, the Pope and the kings
of France and England, leagued together against Simon de Montfort and the
national party.
We need not ask what was the result of the decision in
England. London and the Cinque Ports, we are told, with almost the whole
community of the middle classes, utterly refused to recognise the verdict. Even the royalist chronicler condemns it as hasty and imprudent.
The people put it down to bribery, or traced it to the influence of the two
Provençal queens. The outbreak which followed can hardly be condemned on the
ground that it involved a distinct breach of faith. It is true that the barons
sworn in the most sacred manner to submit themselves unconditionally to Louis’
arbitration on the whole question of the Oxford Provisions. But it cannot be
doubted that such a proceeding as the complete abrogation of the Provisions was
never contemplated by the baronial party. Only a few months before the king had
sworn to keep the Provisions; the frequent proposals of submission to
arbitration by elected commissioners or otherwise had pointed to a reform or
modification of the Provisions, never to their entire removal. Some portions
had been almost universally condemned; the scheme of government had perished as
it deserved. A practicable compromise on the subject of sheriffs had been
suggested; a similar arrangement might have been made for the appointment of
the high officers of State. On the other hand, some notice might have been
taken of the subject of taxation, so strangely omitted from the Provisions. But
the safeguards against the abuse of power by the royal officers, and the
statutes concerning the government of the land by Englishmen, were points which
touched the root of the whole quarrel. It is as absurd to think that the barons
would have submitted to arbitration, had they thought it possible that their
decision on these points could be reversed, as to think that Henry would have
submitted, had he thought it possible that Louis would reinstate the government
of the baronial oligarchy. There can be no doubt that Louis exceeded his moral
if not his legal right in giving so sweeping a verdict. The barons declared at
once that they had never intended to submit the statutes against aliens to
arbitration. It was doubtless a great mistake not to have stated this
beforehand; but a fact which tends to show the truth of their words is that in
the petition before the opening of the war, and in the terms of peace proposed
in the previous July, the observance of the statutes against aliens was made a
sine qua non, and these seem therefore to have been exempted from the subjects
under discussion. No one can blame the king for resisting the total abolition
of his power decreed by the constitutional enactments at Oxford, in spite of
his oath to abide by what the twenty-four should decide; it can hardly be
imputed as a crime to the barons that they rebelled against the complete
annihilation of their work in the Mise of Amiens, although they had sworn to
abide by the verdict of Louis.
The event was in itself decisive of the future course
of the struggle. The king remained three weeks longer in France, but
hostilities broke out at once. Only a fortnight had elapsed when an order was
sent from Court to destroy the bridges over the Severn, except that at
Gloucester, in order to cut off the barons who had crossed the river, and to
prevent others from crossing to join Llewelyn in an attack on Roger Mortimer.
There was no need of declaring war; both parties had been long prepared. The
northern barons began to move beyond the Trent, and Robert Nevill wrote to offer his assistance to the king in that quarter. The Welch invasion
was all in Simon’s favour, and he was doubtless, as
the king suspected, in communication with Llewelyn. The first collision seems
to have taken place between some of the Marchers and the sons of de Montfort.
Roger Mortimer had ravaged Simon’s lands, whereupon, being as yet unable to
move, owing to his accident, the earl sent his sons to the border. They
besieged and took Radnor Castle, and then entered Gloucester. Prince Edward, in
hot pursuit, attacked them there, on Ash Wednesday, but failed to force his way
into the town, though aided by the royalists in the castle. Foiled on this
side, he nevertheless made his way into the castle by means of a boat, and
repelled all the attacks of the barons until the arrival of the Earl of Derby
with reinforcements obliged him to negotiate. An arrangement was made, through the
mediation of the Bishop of Worcester, in accordance with which the barons left
the city. Edward then seized many of the citizens, and punished them by fines
and imprisonment, after which he made good his escape. Earl Simon was much
annoyed at this mistake, and with good cause, for had he captured Edward—as he
might have done by blockade—he would have had the king at his mercy. The
incompetence shown by de Montfort’s sons, in military no less than in other
matters, is very remarkable, and finally cost their father his life. From
Gloucester Edward proceeded northwards, attacking on his way the earls borough
of Northampton, and Robert Ferrars’ lands in
Derbyshire; but Kenilworth, which Simon’s inventive genius had lately fortified
with all sorts of engines, previously unknown in England, was not to be taken.
Thence he went to join his father at Oxford, in the early part of March, after
burning and pillaging wherever he came. The campaign was carried on with all
the horrors of civil war, for passions were much embittered by this time; the
men of Simon’s rearguard at Rochester were killed and cruelly mutilated a
little later, and the Welch archers, taken in Sussex by the king’s forces, were
beheaded. The wilder elements of Simon’s party were doubtless not far behind
their enemies in ferocity.
Henry had probably chosen Oxford for his rendezvous,
for the same reason as the barons in 1258 and Simon the previous spring, as
being an excellent military centre. The meeting there
was in strong contrast with that of six years before. The spirit of the
University did not look with so much favour on the
object the king now had in view, as on the Provisions which took their name
from the town. The students had given vent to their feelings in a fierce
quarrel with the townsfolk shortly before the kings arrival, and Henry
accordingly dismissed the University, alleging as a pretext the danger to the
students of rough treatment from his soldiery. The students marched out in a
body, it is said, 15,000 strong, and joined the barons. What became of the
senior part of the University we are not told. Roger Bacon perhaps worked on in
his cell, and paid little attention to the clang of arms in the street below.
Meanwhile Simon de Montfort had sufficiently recovered
from his hurt to take the field. He collected his forces, and encamped at Brackley, a few miles north of Oxford. There one more
attempt for peace was made. Negotiations were opened through the medium of
several bishops on the barons’ side, with the French ambassador, then attendant
on the king. It did not however promise well for peace that Henry at the same
time issued a summons to all the magnates of the country, bidding them meet him
in arms within a fortnight. Simon, on the other hand, as was shown by his
repeating the attempt on the eve of Lewes, was earnest in his endeavours to maintain the peace. He declared his willingness
to recognise the Mise of Amiens, if the king would
give up the article admitting foreigners to power in England, and stated that
the barons had never meant to submit this article to arbitration. Some advance
had been made, and a draught at least of the agreement for the return of the
Archbishop of Canterbury made out; but William of Valence was with the king,
and he was certain to uproot any lurking wish for peace which Henry may still
have cherished. The negotiations were broken off, and the bishops bidden by the
king to go about their business.
War was now as good as declared, and de Montfort,
anticipating an attack upon London, marched off to secure the city, leaving a
strong force, under command of his son Simon, to hold Northampton. No sooner
were the royal troops assembled than an attack was made upon that town by the
king in person, accompanied by his eldest son and King Richard. The attempt
would probably have failed but for the stratagem of the Prior of St. Andrews, a
Cluniac monastery, the garden of which abutted on the walls of the town. The
monks, many of whom were French, and had strong royalist proclivities, were in
communication with the king, and had undermined the walls, putting in wooden
props as a temporary support. A feigned assault was made on the other side of
the town, under cover of which the royalists made an easy entrance by the
breach so caused. The baronial force made a gallant resistance, but their
leader, the young de Montfort, having been taken prisoner, the remainder, who
had taken refuge in the castle, surrendered next day, to the number of fifteen
bannerets and sixty knights, with many of lower rank. The Oxford students, who
had fought well on the baronial side, were dispersed. The town was given over
to pillage.
It was a serious blow, but London had meanwhile declared
energetically for Simon. An alliance for twelve years was made between the
barons and the city. On March 31 the citizens, under command of Hugh Despenser,
and other captains chosen from themselves, sallied out and destroyed the house
and property of King Richard at Isleworth, as well as
those of William of Valence and other obnoxious persons. The deposits in the
Temple, or what was left of them after Edward’s raid upon them last year, were
taken, and thus a pernicious example was only too well followed. A fortnight
later, on Palm-Sunday, April 12, the Jews, who were plundered by both parties
indiscriminately whenever any disturbance gave the excuse, were attacked, and
many of them murdered. Much gold was taken from them; and Simon’s enemies
declared he had excited the massacre and shared the spoil. That he had no great
liking for the Jews, his own charter to Leicester proves; but there appears to
be no reason for connecting him with so wantonly cruel an act, while the fact
that after the war he issued special edicts for their protection tends to prove
his innocence on this occasion. On the other hand, the report that the Jews
were going to burn the city with Greek fire, and hand it over to the royalists,
which seems to have occasioned the attack upon them, is utterly absurd and
incredible. They could have had no wish to fall into the clutches of a king who
throughout his reign used them as mere money-bags, and oppressed them
mercilessly on the paltriest excuses. Probably the affair was a mere outburst
of popular suspicion and frenzy; its objects were doubtless more obnoxious to
the popular party, which was composed mainly of the lower classes in London,
and therefore suffered more at the hands of the usurers, than to the other
side. The political struggle was degraded by the admixture of class hatred,
which was intense in the city, and prompted the riotous mob to the seizure of
the Temple treasures, which probably belonged to their wealthier
fellow-citizens. It was but natural to attribute to the violence of leader, as
the royalist chroniclers did, the wild deeds of his partisans; no doubt he must
bear the blame of having been the primary cause. The movement doubtless had in
it as large an element of violence, brutality, and selfishness as popular
movements in all times have been cursed with the question is whether the gain
justifies the price. At this particular time it was quite impossible to check
the outbreak of the evil elements, for fear of losing the whole. Simon was
probably at St. Albans, whither he had gone, on his way to relieve Northampton,
when this outbreak took place. Had he been in London, it might not have
happened.
On hearing of the mishap at Northampton the earl was
much moved, but showed no signs of despondency; he was roused into fury by the
loss of his son and cousin, and, “raging like a lion robbed of his whelps”,
vowed that before the end of May the fortune of war should be reversed.
Returning through London, he first made an attempt on Rochester, the capture of
which would have been of great advantage for the defence of London. He took the town and part of the castle, having destroyed the
water-gate by means of a fire-ship; but the attack on the strong Norman keep
failed, in spite of all the machines which he brought against it. He was
however on the point of forcing this last stronghold, so great was his skill in
the arts of siege, when he was forced to hasten back to London to ward off an
attack on the city, threatened by Prince Edward, which was to have been aided
by the royalists within. The king, after the capture of Northampton, had also
occupied Leicester and Nottingham, and, having been joined by the northern
barons, had sent his son northwards to ravage the lands of the Earl of Derby.
The news that Rochester was in imminent peril caused father and son to move
hastily to its rescue, and Simon was forced to raise the siege at the moment
when success appeared certain. London was too strong for attack : Henry
therefore, taking Kingston on his way, marched on Rochester, and dispersed the
remainder of Simon’s forces there. Thence he moved southwards and took Tunbridge, where he showed magnanimity or policy by
releasing the Countess of Gloucester, who was in the castle. The Cinque Ports,
his next object, contained a small party of royalists; but the other side were
the stronger, and on the kings approach they manned their ships and put to sea,
in order to prevent their being used against London. The population of Kent and
Sussex is said also to have been hostile. The densely-wooded district through
which the king’s army passed supplied no food, and the troops
suffered much privation. The fleet having been the chief thence
to object in the attack on the Cinque Ports, Henry, after the failure of
his attempt, and being unable to seize Dover, left the coast and marched to
Lewes, in the hope perhaps of receiving foreign reinforcements through Pevensey
or Newhaven.
The Earl of Leicester, after consultations held in
London with the leaders of his party, had resolved again to offer peace to the
king, on condition of the observance of the Oxford Provisions, and with the
promise of indemnity to be made for the damage done to royal and other
property. Then with a large force of Londoners he set off on his journey
southward, with the intention, if peace were again refused, of dealing a
decisive blow before foreign assistance arrived. The barons, after a march as
rapid as the number of their foot-soldiers allowed, encamped at Fletching,
about ten miles north of Lewes, in the Weald of Sussex, the dense forests of
which served to conceal their movements. The letter with offers of peace, a
letter worded in submissive and respectful style, not accusing the king but his
evil counsellors, was signed by the Earl of Leicester, and young Gilbert de
Clare, Earl of Gloucester, for the whole army. It was conveyed by those whose
holy office made them the rightful peacemakers, but whom a traditional policy
and a long alliance bound to their leader. Walter de Cantilupe,
Bishop of Worcester, was Simon’s oldest living friend, and Henry of Sandwich,
Bishop of London, was no unworthy follower of his immediate predecessor in that
see. But the offer was indignantly and contemptuously rejected, and the idea of
submitting to an arbitration of prelates laughed to scorn, as unworthy of those
who held their titles by the sword. The king in his answer, and Richard and
Edward in their letter of defiance, did not even deign to give the hostile
earls their titles; they were saluted as lying traitors, and challenged to do
their worst. Richard had put off his old character of mediator, for the
destruction of his property had touched him in his tenderest part. Edward was
not likely to forget or forgive the insult put upon his mother by the
Londoners, and burned with the desire for revenge, which he was enabled to
gratify to his own hurt. The negotiation occupied Monday and Tuesday, May 12
and 13. After the royal answer nothing more was to be done, and the earl
resolved on losing no time. Next day, Wednesday, May 14, the fate of the country
was decided on the battlefield of Lewes.
The soldiers of de Montfort were marked with a white
cross on back and front, as a distinguishing sign, and in token that they
called themselves, like their ancestors in 1215, the army of God. There was in
them a nascent spark of the religious fervour which
animated the armies of Cromwell. Simon himself passed the night in prayer and
in anxious preparation for the morrow, encouraging all around him, and infusing
into them some portion of his own enthusiasm. His troops were shriven by the
Bishop of Worcester, while the royalist army indulged in wine behaviour and pleasure, not scrupling to carry on their
orgies, even on holy ground. The account of the different preparations of the
two armies recalls that given of the night before another battle, fought not
very far from the same place two hundred years before, and must be received
with equal caution. De Montfort’s plans were laid with a care and foresight,
and executed with a combination of resource and decision, which would be
sufficient, even if we knew nothing more of his military prowess, to support
his reputation as the first general of his day. He determined to surprise his
foes; as soon therefore as it was light enough to move, the march began. But,
before we enter upon the details of the march and the battle itself, a brief
description of the locality will be necessary.
The undulating ridges of the South Downs, which form
the natural bulwark of the coast of Sussex, consist, in the neighbourhood of Lewes, of two main ridges running east and west, both of which are cut by
the river Ouse in its course towards the sea at
Newhaven. The northern of these ends abruptly, a short way to the east of the
town, in the height called Mount Caeburn; the
southern runs on eastward till it ends in the cliffs of Beachy Head. In the gap
between the two portions of the northern ridge lies the town of Lewes. On the
eastern or left bank of the Ouse the hill rises
precipitously from the bed of the stream, leaving but scant space for houses on
this side. On the other side of the river this ridge, at a point two miles
north-west of the town, just above the hamlet of Offham,
makes a sudden curve, and is continued in two or three minor ridges, like the
fingers of an outstretched hand, of constantly decreasing elevation, which tend
in a south-easterly direction, till they merge in a broad undulating shelf. On
this shelf the chief portion of the town is built; a picturesque old town,
consisting mainly of one long street, which runs nearly due east and west, and
ends in the open down. In former days the castle, with its double keep, formed
its boundary in this direction. Similarly the western portion of the southern
ridge sends off one long off-shoot towards the north-east, which nearly meets
those from the northern ridge. At the end of this offshoot lies the suburb of Southover, at a lower elevation than the part about the
castle; and at the point where it sinks southward into the marshy flat, which
at no very distant period was covered by the sea, are still to be seen the
ruins of the Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras. A line drawn from the castle to the
priory would cross the intervening depression in a direction almost due north
and south.
The direct road from Fletching to Lewes passes through Offham, and skirts round the bend in the ridge above
mentioned, entering the town near the castle. Had Simon followed this route, he
would have been seen from the castle at least two miles off, and he would have
had to fight on the level, without anything to compensate for his inferiority
of numbers. On arriving therefore at Offham, he
turned sharp off to the right and ascended the great northern ridge of the
downs by one of several tracks which lead slantwise up the steep hill-side,
probably at a depression which marks the top of what is called the Combe, just to the east of Lewes Beacon. Thence he followed
along what may be called the middle finger of the hand above spoken of, passing
close by the present racecourse, and always keeping a little way down the
western side of the ridge so as to avoid being seen from the town. But already
fortune had begun to favour his bold attempt. The
royalists had posted a vedette somewhere on the ridge, probably on the height
above Offham, whence the whole country as far as
Fletching could be commanded. These men however had got weary of waiting, and
in the course of the night had returned to the town, leaving one solitary
watcher behind them. He had naturally fallen asleep, and was roused from his
slumbers by Simon’s men. From him they doubtless gained useful information
about the enemy, and after this piece of good fortune proceeded, we are told,
with great joy. When they reached the point where the Spital Mill now stands,
and the ground sinks gently towards the south and east, they mounted the ridge,
and from its flat top caught sight of the castle to the eastward, and the
bell-tower of the priory below, just tinged by the rays of the rising sun.
Then Simon, knowing that the struggle would not be
long delayed, dismounted from his horse, the rest following his example, and
addressed his troops as follows : “My brethren well-beloved, both peers and
vassals, the battle we fight today we fight for the sake of the realm of
England, to the honour of God and of the blessed
Virgin, and to maintain our oath. Let us pray the King of all men that, if that
is pleasing to Him which we have undertaken, He may grant us strength and aid,
that we may do Him good service by our knightly prowess, and overcome the
malice of all our foes. And since we are His, to Him we commend our souls and
bodies”. Then they all knelt down upon the ground, and, stretching out their
arms, prayed aloud to God for victory that day. After that the order of
the earl knighted young Gilbert de Clare and others, and so arranged in three
bodies they marched down the hill upon the enemy. The left consisted of the
Londoners, under the command of Nicholas de Segrave,
Henry of Hastings, and others. Simon appears to have sent them, knowing they
could hardly stand in the open field against the mounted and well-armed foe, to
enter the town by another way and attack the enemy in the rear. The centre, probably directed against the castle, was commanded
by the young Earl of Gloucester, eager to show himself worthy of his spurs. The
right was led by Henry and Guy, two of Simons sons, the eldest, Simon, having
been taken prisoner at Northampton; it was meant to surprise that portion of
the royal army which was encamped round the priory. This was the important
point, for in the priory lay the prize of victory, the king. The earl himself
seems to have remained with a fourth body in reserve, to go wherever the course
of the struggle should demand his presence.
Even yet the advancing army does not seem to have been
perceived, until it came into collision with a party which had come out in the
early morning to forage, some of whom, rushing back into the town, gave the
alarm. From the point where the barons halted to the castle is about a mile, to
the priory about a mile and a half, so that the royalists had no time to lose.
Prince Edward, who was in the castle, was naturally the first to appear, and
sallying forth fell vigorously upon the first portion of the enemy that he came
across. These happened to be the Londoners, whom he probably took in flank as
they were hurrying past the castle to enter the town, and were doubtless in
very poor order. They were immediately put to flight, and pursued by the
relentless victor for some miles. They appear to have fled along the road to Offham, and their bones have been discovered in pits along
the steep hill-side, up which they hoped that the horses of their pursuers
could not follow them. When he had sufficiently glutted his sword with the
blood of these unwarlike townsmen, and bitterly avenged the insult they had put
upon his mother, the prince was returning towards the battle-field, when he
descried upon the hill where Simon’s army had halted a large vehicle, on the
top of which the earls standard was flying. This was the carroccio, or waggon, on which it was the custom of the time to carry the
standard of a town to battle. On this occasion however it had been made use of
by the earl as a place of confinement for four citizens of the royalist party,
whom he had taken with him as hostages on leaving the city. The waggon was very strong and barred with iron. Round it was
piled what baggage the army had brought with it. The royalists, seeing the
earls standard, and fancying that he was within, as being not yet sufficiently
recovered from his fall to be able to mount on horseback, attacked the waggon with great vehemence. They lost some time in driving
off those who guarded the vehicle, and more in breaking it open, for its strength
defied for a long while all their efforts. In vain they shouted, “Come out,
come out, thou devil Simon! come out, thou basest of traitors!” In vain did
those within declare that not Simon but friends and allies were there. The
royalists, finding all their efforts to burst open the waggon unavailing, at length set fire to it and burnt it with its unfortunate inmates.
By this time the day was far advanced, and Prince Edward, the Rupert of his
day, returned to Lewes, exhausted with his easy but fruitless victory, to find
the main battle lost and won.
For de Montfort no sooner saw the best troops of the
enemy engaged in pursuing the least valuable portion of his own force, than he
hurled the rest of his army upon that body of the royalists which was led by
the two kings in person. The latter were taken completely by surprise, but
speedily ranged themselves in the best order they could, and issued from the
priory enclosure with the royal standard, the dragon of England, flying in
their van. The struggle here was long and stubbornly contested, but eventually
the baronial forces, having the advantage of the position, routed their
adversaries at all points. King Henry, who fought bravely and had his horse
killed under him, was driven back into the priory, round the walls of which for
some time the battle was continued. Many of the vanquished were left on the
field, or were driven into the marshes, where they were smothered. But few of
this body can have made their escape. King Richard, who seems to have fought his
way some distance up the hill-side, was surrounded and compelled to take refuge
in a wind-mill. Here he was assailed with shouts of “Come down, come down, thou
wretched miller! thou who didst so lately defy us poor barons, with thy titles
of King of the Romans and 'Semper Augustus’, come down!” It was no place in
which to stand a long siege, and he therefore soon surrendered. Prince Edward
came back to find his uncle a prisoner, his father surrounded, without a chance
of escape, and the greater part of the royalist forces routed or slain. He was
however about to renew the conflict, when his own followers, seeing it was all
over, took to flight. Among them were the Earl of Warenne and William of Valence, the latter of whom probably expected his small mercy
from de Montfort. They succeeded in cutting their way through the town, and
escaping across the bridge to Pevensey, whence they took ship for France. The
prince, thus deserted, took sanctuary with the few who were left to him in the
church of the Franciscans, or as others say in the priory itself. The victory
of the barons was now complete, and, the priory, the last stronghold of the
royalists, would probably have soon been taken by storm had not wiser counsels
prevailed, or darkness put an end to the conflict. About nightfall a truce was
made. Prince Edward surrendered himself as hostage for his father, while Prince
Henry of Almaine did the same for the King of the
Romans. Simon de Montfort was undisputed lord of England.
CHATER XTHE GOVERNMENT OF SIMON DE MONTFORT
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