Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/151

Rh damage done by his sailor subjects. At first, he sent the Bishop of London as his representative, and then his brother, who was married to the French Queen's mother. I am afraid Edmund was an easy man, and allowed himself to be talked over by his charming relations, the French court ladies; at all events, he was induced to give up his brother's dukedom for forty days—as a mere form, the French king said, to satisfy his honor—and he was so very much astonished, when the time was out, to find that the French King had no idea of giving it up again, that I should not wonder if it hastened his death: which soon took place.

King Edward was a King to win his foreign dukedom back again, if it could be won by energy and valor. He raised a large army, renounced his allegiance as Duke of Guienne, and crossed the sea to carry war into France. Before any important battle was fought, however, a truce was agreed upon for two years; and, in the course of that time, the Pope effected a reconciliation. King Edward, who was now a widower, having lost his affectionate and good wife Eleanor, married the French King's sister ; and the Prince of Wales was contracted to the French King's daughter.

Out of bad things, good things sometimes arise. Out of this hanging of the innocent merchant, and the bloodshed and strife it caused, there came to be established one of the greatest powers that the English people now possess. The preparations for the war being very expensive, and King Edward greatly wanting money, and being very arbitrary in his ways of raising it, some of the Barons began firmly to oppose him. Two of them, in particular,, Earl of Hereford, and , Earl of Norfolk, were so stout against him, that they maintained he had no right to command them to lead his forces in Guienne, and flatly refused to go there. "By Heaven, Sir Earl," said the King to the Earl of Hereford, in a great passion, "you shall either go or be hanged!"—" By Heaven, Sir King," replied the Earl of Hereford, "I will neither go nor yet will I be hanged!" and both he and the other Earl sturdily left the court, attended by many Lords. The King tried every means of raising money. He taxed the clergy in spite of all the Pope said to the contrary; and when they refused to pay, reduced