Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/277

 ceived the castles of Shrewsbury and Bridgenorth with their shires. Ordered on 5 June (1216) to destroy Richmond if untenable, he stormed and plundered Worcester in conjunction with Fulk de Bréauté, 17 July (Ann. Wig. p. 400; Tewk. p. 62). John died on 19 Oct., and the earl, who was one of his executors (Fœdera, i. 144), was present at Henry's coronation (28 Oct.) at Gloucester (Ann. Wav. 286; Burt. 224), and at the Bristol council (11 Nov.), where he was one of the witnesses to Hemys 'First Charter.' He now, like many others, fought as a crusader against the aliens at home (Contin. Hoved. in, xviii. p. 183) : Bajulosque crucis crux alba decorans Instabiles statuit fidei fundamine turmas. (Pol. Song. p. 23.)

Placing himself at the head of the king's forces at Easter 1217 he laid siege to Mountsorrel (Leicestershire), which was held for Louis, out on the latter's return to England (26 April) he despatched a French force with the barons (Ann. Dunst. p. 49) under Robert Fitzwalter, who raised the siege early in May. The earl, retiring before him, withdrew to Nottingham, and joined the regent (Pembroke) in his critical advance on Lincoln, where ne shared in the royalist victory ('The Fair of Lincoln') on 20 May (1217). A highly mythical account of his conduct on this occasion, by Walter de Wittlesey, is reproduced by Dugdale. His services were rewarded (23 May) with the earldom of Lincoln, forfeited by Gilbert de Gant, his cousin and rival, to which he had a claim through his great-grandfather, jure uxoris earl of Lincoln. He then, with Earl Ferrers of Derby, led the royalists against Moimtsorrel (Ann. Burt. p. 224), and, finding it abandoned, razed it (Ann. Dunst p. 50). The honour of Lancaster was now entrusted to him; he was granted (6 June) the lands of all the king's enemies within the fief of Lincoln, and on 8 July 1217 it was proposed to the pope that he should share the regency with Pembroke (Royal Letter, i. 532). The honour of Brittany was now again entrusted to him, but, free at length to discharge his vow, he left for the Holy Land ( ii. 241) at Whitsuntide (May 1218) with Earl Ferrers of Derby (Ann. Wav. 289, Dunst. 54), after granting a charter to his barons of the Palatinate, and reached Jerusalem 'peregre' (Ann. Burt. 225, Wint. 83). In the autumn, with his constable and following, he joined the besiegers of Damietta (, ii. 230), and distinguished himself greatly at its capture, 6 Nov. 1219 (Ann, Dunst. p. 55), 'ubi, dux Christianæ cohortis, præstitit gloriâ' (Mon. Angl.) He subsequently returned to England, which he reached about 1 Aug. 1220 (Ann. Dunst. p. 60 ; ii. 246).

It is from this point that we begin to trace the change in his policy. He found on his return that the regent, his old ally, had been dead for a year, and that Hubert de Burgh was now supreme. He had thus lost his chance of succeeding to the regency himself. 'The peculiar jurisdiction of his palatine earldom, and the great accumulation of power which he received as custos of the earldom of Leicester, made his position in the kingdom uniaue, and fitted him for the part of a leader of opposition to royal or mmisterial tyranny ' (Const Hist. ii. 46). At first, however, his royalist sympathies blinded him to the state of the case, and on the outbreak of the Earl of Aumale, who had surprised the castle of Fotheringhay, which he had happened to leave unguarded ( ii. 248), he attended his excommunication at St. Paul's, 25 Jan. 1221 (Ann. Dunst. p. 64), and assisted to besiege him in Biham, which fell 8 Feb. (Matt. Paris, ii. 244). The fief of Leicester had now again been committed to him. But early in the following year he appears as 'the spokesman of the malcontents' (Const. Hist. ii. 34), the primate intervening between Hubert and himself at a stormy interview in London, January 1222 ( ii. 251 ; Royal Letters, i. 174). An appeal was sent him from Palestine this year by Philip de Albini (, iv. 75).

Hubert's demand for the restoration of the royal castles bv the earl and his other opponents in 1228 brought matters to a crisis. The earl, with Aum&le and De Bréauté, planned to surprise the Tower, as a counter-blow to Hubert's coup d'état, but at Henry's approach withdrew with them to Waltham (Ann. Dunst. p. 83). Thence they came to the king at London and violently demanded Hubert s dismissal. Failing to obtain it, they departed to Leicester, where the earl held his court at Ghrist mas, while the king held bis at Northampton (ib. p. 84 ;, ii. 260). But finding the king's party the stronger, and threatened by the primate with excommunication, they came to Northampton (30 Dec.), and surrendered their castles. Shrewsbury and Bridgenorth were transferred from the earl to Hugh le Despenser, and Lancaster to Earl Ferrers of Derby. The primate, however, was accused of duplicity in the matter by the earl and his allies, who sent envoys to lay their case before the pope ( ii. 262). On the outburst of DeBréauté against the justiciar in 1224, Fulk fled for refuge to the earl as the chief opponent of Hubert (, ii. 261), and the earl wrote to Henry 