Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/22

Edward I was effected in the chapter-house of St. Swithun's (Ann. Winton, p. 97). During 1259 a reaction took place; men found that the provisional government did not bring them all they hoped for, and a split arose in the baronial party between Simon, earl of Leicester, who was believed to be in favour of popular reforms, and the Earl of Gloucester, the head of the oligarchical section. Edward appears to have acted with Earl Simon at this period, for on 13 Oct., while the parliament was sitting at Westminster, a petition was presented to him by the 'community of the bachelorhood of England,' that is by the knights, or the class of landholders immediately below the baronage, pointing out that the barons had done nothing of all they had promised, and had merely worked 'for their own good and the hurt of the king.' Edward replied that, though he had taken the oath unwillingly, he would abide by it, and that he was ready to die for the commonalty and the common weal, and he warned the barons that if they did not fulfil their oaths he would take part against them (Ann. Burt. p. 471). The result of this movement was the publication of the provisions of Westminster. One of these renews a clause in the provisions of Oxford, in virtue of which four knights were to be appointed in each shire to remedy any injustice committed by the sheriff (ib. p. 477; Const. Hist. ii. 81). Thus Edward skilfully used the lesser tenants in chief to check the baronage in their attempt to control the executive, and began a policy founded on the mutual jealousy of his opponents, which he was afterwards able to pursue with great effect. In return for the check he had received Gloucester appears to have persuaded Henry, who was in France early in 1260, that his son was plotting with Earl Simon to dethrone him. The king of the Romans (Richard of Cornwall) held a meeting of barons in London, and a letter was sent to the king denying the rumour, and urging his return(,p.124; Ann. Dunst. p. 214), He came back on 23 April, and shut himself up in London, refusing to see his son, who lodged in company with Simon between the city and Westminster (Liber de Ant. Leg. p. 45). At the same time his love for him was unabated. 'Do not let my son Edward appear before me,' he said, 'for if I see him I shall not be able to refrain myself from kissing him' (Ann. Dunst. p. 215). At the end of a fortnight they were reconciled, and the queen was generally held to have caused their disagreement. The foremost part that Edward was thus taking put him, we are told, to vast expense. He now went off to France to a great tournament, where he met with ill success(ib.p.217). Although from this time he seems to have ceased to act in concert with Earl Simon, he kept up his quarrel with Gloucester until the earl's death in 1262. In that year he was again in France and Burgundy, in company with two of Leicester's sons, his cousins, was victorious in several tournaments, and badly beaten and wounded in one (ib. p. 219).

Early in February 1263 Edward, who was then in Paris, received a letter from his father urging him to return to England, for Llewelyn had taken advantage of the unsettled state of the country to renew his ravages. Edward hired a fine body of troops in France, and brought them over with him. Stopping only to put a garrison into Windsor, he advanced to Oxford, where the gates were shut against him. He then marched to Gloucester, and attacked the town, but though aided by a force from the castle was beaten off; he made his way into the castle by the river, using a ship belonging to the abbot of Tewkesbury. Some fighting took place, and on the approach of Earl Ferrers, Edward, finding himself overmatched, offered terms, and agreed to the barons' demands. On the retirement of their army he pillaged the town. (The order of events from this point almost down to the battle of Lewes is uncertain, and that adopted here must only be taken as an attempt to form a consecutive narrative.) Hoping to use Bristol as a basis of operations against the Welsh, and as a means of checking the new Earl of Gloucester, Gilbert of Clare, who was wholly on Leicester's side, he marched thither, and began to victual the castle. The townsmen came to blows with his foreign soldiers; he was forced to retreat into the castle, and was in some danger. Accordingly at the end of March he called [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, one of the baronial party, to help him, and the bishop undertook to bring him safely to London. On the way Edward, without giving him any warning, entered Windsor Castle on the plea of providing for the safety of his wife. He came up to London to the parliament held on 20 May. There Leicester and his party declared that he would be perjured if he did not abide by the provisions of Oxford, for they were indignant at his having brought a foreign force into the kingdom. He took up his quarters at the hospital at Clerkenwell, and, as he and his party were sorely in need of money, broke into the treasury of the Temple on 29 June, and took thence 1,000l. He made an attempt to relieve Windsor, which was threatened by Leicester, but the earl met him and, though he offered terms, detained him for a while by the advice of the Bishop of Worcester who remembered the trick that had