Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/175

Rh themſelves irreconcilable enemies, and were upon terms of defiance. Thus the Kings of England always make war in defence of their rights, without throwing up their homage and fealty, till that laſt bitter enraged war of II. wherein he had that ill ſucceſs as broke his heart, and forced him to a diſhonourable peace, the concluſion of which he out-lived but three days. Amongſt other things, he did homage to the King of France, becauſe, in the beginning of this war, he had rendered up his homage to him. Matt. Paris takes notice of it as an extraordinary thing, and I do not remember it done before. Quia in principio hujus guerræ homagium reddiderat regi Franciæ, p. 151. The ſame was practiſed by III. towards that great man, the marſhal; he ſent him a defiance by the biſhop of St. David’s into Wales. Upon which, the marſhal tells friar, the King’s counſellor in that long conference before mentioned, Unde homo ſuus non fui, ſed ab ipſus homagio per ipſum abſolutus. This was reciprocal from the lord to the vaſſal, or from the vaſſal to the lord, as he found cauſe. And therefore, K. ’s vaſſals, who are here repreſented as if they were food for tyranny, and bound by their places to be unjuſtly oppreſſed, for ſo the pope allows