Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/134

 whole of which he regarded as his own. In 1312 Gruffudd, with the assistance of his kinsfolk the L'Estranges, raised a great force of Welshmen and regularly besieged Charlton and his wife in the castle of Pool. Hawyse's energy in the defence gave her among the Welsh the epithet of 'Gadarn,' or 'mighty.' But the siege was only raised by the intervention of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, the justice of Wales, and in a few months later Gruffudd again broke the peace by taking forcible possession of Mercneyn Iscoed. The general pacification after Gaveston's death in 1313 included, however, both Gruffudd and Charlton; but the latter now received royal charters confirming him in the possession of his lands in North Wales, South Wales, and Powys. His confirmation of his predecessor's charters to Welshpool, and obtaining from the crown license to hold markets there and at Machynlleth, may show a desire to gain the support of his subjects against his rival.

In 1313 Charlton's position as one of the magnates of the middle marches was permanently secured by a writ of summons to parliament. Though frequently loosely spoken of as 'lord of Powys' and 'lord of Pool,' the writ summoned him as 'J. de Charlton,' so that the barony thus created more properly bears the name of Charlton than Powys (, Historic Peerage, 101).

The chronic confusion of the marches soon gave Gruffudd fresh opportunities of attacking Charlton. In 1315 the peace was again disturbed by their feuds, and at the parliament of Lincoln both parties were enjoined to keep the peace and attend before king and council to justify their claims. The non-appearance of Gruffudd led to a decision in Charlton's favour; but many years later the Welshman's complaints fill the rolls of parliament. After Edward III's accession he sent in a fresh petition, and in 1330 both parties were solemnly forbidden by the king in parliament to violate the peace. This is the last heard of Gruffudd, whose death without heirs transferred such title as he had to his niece. Besides his Welsh estates, Charlton acquired extensive properties in Shropshire, and received in 1316 license to crenellate and surround with a wall his castle at Charlton, though its condition at his death suggests that he took little pains to make it really a strong place. In 1325 he received leave to fortify his house in Shrewsbury.

During the whole of Edward II's reign Charlton was occupied in affairs of state. Besides sending or accompanying his feudal levies to the Scotch war, he constantly busied himself in raising large bodies of Welsh mercenaries for the king's service in Scotland. In 1316 he commanded the troops raised by the justice of Chester to put down a Welsh revolt, and in the same year was present at the siege of Bristol (Vita Ed. II auct Malmesb. in, Chron. Ed, I and II, ii. 222). About the same time he became governor of Builth Castle. His appointment as chamberlain must have kept nim a good deal about the court. It is somewhat startling to find him wavering in his allegiance to Edward in 1321, being ordered in vain to keep the peace in his lordships, quarrelling with the king about the right of presentation to the church of Welshpool, attending on 29 Nov. the meeting of the 'good peers summoned by Lancaster at Doncaster, and ultimately fighting under Lancaster's banner at Boroughbridge (1322). After the battle he surrendered to the king, and his immediate restoration to favour IS even more mysterious than his former disloyalty. A week after he was summoned to serve against the Scots in person, and his recognisances for the good behaviour of several Lancastrian partisans were accepted. He made a bad return for Edward's clemency by holding intercourse with his old ally Roger Mortimer as early as the time of the latter's escape from the Tower, and by materially assisting in the king's overthrow by the capture of his faithful partisan Arundel at Shrewsbury in 1326 (, Chron. Ed. I and II, ii. 87). For the rest of his life Charlton kept on good terms with the government. The marriage of his son to a daughter of Mortimer's did not prevent him continuing in the favour of Edward III after Mortimer's fall. In the new reign he served and levied troops for the French and Scottish wars as diligently as he had done in the previous period. He soon got over the renewed difficulties with Grufiudd de la Pole, and a feud in 1330 with Arundel on account of his father's death. At last in 1337 he was appointed viceroy or 'custos' of Ireland. That country was then in more than its chronic state of anarchy. The death of William de Burgh had lost Connaught and Ulster to the colonists. The corruption of the officials made the government of Dublin as contemptible as it was weak. The despatch of Charlton, accompanied by his brother Bishop Thomas of Hereford as chancellor, a Welsh 'doctor in decretals' named John ap Rhys as treasurer, and with a force of two hundred Welsh footmen, suggests a definite attempt to apply to Ireland through experienced Welsh officials the system of government which had at least partially pacified Wales. Charlton landed on 13 Oct. 1337. But within six months of his arrival he was deposed from office on an accu-