Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/25

Edward I siege to the castle. It was defended with extraordinary courage. All efforts to take it proved vain, and the king and his son, who had already been learning a lesson of moderation from the difficulties they had had to encounter, offered terms embodied in the 'Ban of Kenilworth' published on 31 Oct., which, though hard, were nevertheless a relaxation of the sentence of complete forfeiture. The castle was surrenderea on 20 Dec. (, p. 195).

Many of the baronial party were dissatisfied with the Kenilworth articles, and early in 1267 Edward was called on to put down a rising in the north. John de Vescy, one of the rebel lords, had expelled the garrison from Alnwick Castle, which had once belonged to him, and had now been taken from him, had occupied it and his other old possessions, and had gathered round him a considerable number of northern magnates, each bound to help the rest to regain their lands. Edward at once gathered a large force, marched against him, and pressed him so hard that he made an unconditional submission. Edward pardoned him, and the rest of the allied barons gave up their undertaking. It seems likely that he paid the visit to his sister Margaret, the queen of Scotland, spoken of in the 'Chronicle of Lanercost' under 1266, when he was in the north in the early part of this year. He met the queen at Haddington, the object of his visit being to bid her farewell; for he was then contemplating a crusade. But it seems difficult to assign the date of the visit with any certainty. He joined his father at Cambridge, and marched with him to London; for the Earl of Gloucester, who since the publication of the Kenilworth articles had taken the side of the rebel lords, had occupied the city, and was besieging the legate Ottoboni in the Tower. After some weeks the earl made his peace with the king. Meanwhile a strong body of the disinherited were occupying the Isle of Ely, and had done much damage in the eastern counties. Henry had been attempting to blockade them when he was called off to London, and the legate had exhorted them to return to obedience to the church by accepting the Kenilworth articles. All attempts to compel or persuade them to surrender had been made in vain, and they had beaten off the ships that had been sent up the Ouse to attack them. Edward now marched from London against them. Their position seemed almost impregnable; for it was impossible to lead an army through the marshes without a thorough knowledge of the country, and it was easy to hold the few approaches to the island. He made his headquarters at Ramsey Abbey, and by promises and rewards prevailed on the people of the neighbourhood to come to his aid and to act as guides. Moreover, he managed to establish an understanding with Nicolas Segrave, who allowed his men 'to pass the outposts which he guarded'. He also made causeways of wattles, and as it was a dry summer he was able to bring both horse and foot over them in safety, and to take up a position close to the island. Then he made a proclamation that he would either behead or hang any one who attacked any of his men or hindered him in any way; for he made no doubt of his success. This proclamation dismayed the defenders of the island. They submitted on 11 July, and were allowed the terms drawn up at Kenilworth (, pp. 207-10; Liber de Ant Leg, p. 95; Cont. . pp. 199-201). Their surrender brought the struggle to a close. Never, probably, has so long and desperate a resistance to royal authority as that made by the disinherited been put down with the like moderation. And while the self-restraint of the victors must be attributed to some extent to the masterly policy pursued by the Earl of. Gloucester in occupying London, it was also largely due to the wisdom and magnanimity of Edward. By the age of twenty-eight he had not only long outgrown the thoughtlessness of his early youth, but he had taken the chief part in breaking up the powerful combination that had usurped the executive functions of the crown, had saved the royal authority alike by his prudence and his valour, and had succeeded in putting an end to an obstinate rebellion by refraining from acts that would have driven the vanquished to desperation, and by readily admitting them to the terms that had been established by law, no less than by the skill and energy which he displayed as a military leader.

Later in the same year Edward visited Winchester, and went thence to the Isle of Wight, received its submission, and put it in charge of his own officers (Ann. Winton. p. 106). During the autumn, in conjunction with his brother and his cousin, Henry of Almaine, he arranged and engaged in a large number of tournaments, so that though these sports had been forbidden by royal decree (by Henry II, see, v. c. 4) and by papal edict, there had not been so many held in England as there were that autumn for ten years and more (, p. 212). At the parliament held at Northampton on 24 June 1268 Edward, in pursuance of a vow he and his father had made, received the cross, together with his brothers and many nobles, from the hands of the legate Ottoboni. In the November parliament he was made