Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/32

Edward I dispute ever since the reign of Henry II, and his action in this matter should be compared with the policy of that king as expressed in the Constitutions of Clarendon. Undaunted by previous defeats Peckham evidently instigated the bishops of his province to present a petition to the crown against the summary conclusion of ecclesiastical suits by royal prohibition. Edward, however, limited the sphere of clerical jurisdiction to matrimonial and testamentary cases, and afterwards relaxed this by issuing the writ 'Circumspecte agatis,' which clearly defines the cases which were to be entertained by ecclesiastical courts (Statutes i. 242; Ann, Dunst p. 317;, p. 166; Const. Hist, ii. 119). In the Statute of Winchester, published in the October parliament, the king revived and developed the ancient laws relating to police organisation, and to the obligation of keeping arms for the public service, and applied them to the needs of the time by converting them into a complete system for the protection of persons and property, for the capture of oftenders, and for the establishment of the liability of districts for losses sustained through the failure of their police arrangements (Select Charters p. 459).

In a parliament consisting of ecclesiastical and civil magnates, held on 23 April 1286, Edward announced his intention of going to France. His presence was required in Gascony, though the immediate cause of his departure was to act as mediator in the long quarrel between the French and the Aragonese for the possession of Sicily. Edward had now for some years been looked on as the most fitting arbitrator in this matter. When, in 1282, Charles of Anjou and Peter of Aragon agreed to decide their dispute by a combat, in which each was to be supported by one hundred knights, they fixed the place of meeting at Bordeaux, and selected Edward as judge. On 6 April 1283 Martin IV wrote, forbidding him to allow the encounter, and Edward sent ambassadors with letters to Charles and Peter, declaring that 'if he could gain Aragon and Sicily' by it he would not allow it (Fœdera, ii. 226, 240, 241). Finally, while refusing to have anything to do with the matter, he ordered the seneschal of Bordeaux to put the city at the disposal of the Angevin prince. He mediated unsuccessfully in 1284 between Philip III and Peter, and the king of Aragon hoped to engage him on his side. Edward, however, while anxious to prevent the increase of the power of France at the expense of Aragon, which would have endangered his possession of Gascony, would not be drawn into war beyond the sea. The captivity of Charles the Lame and the deaths of Peter and Philip III opened the way for fresh negotiations, and Philip IV, the sons of Charles, and the nobles of Provence all invoked the interference of the king of England (ib. ii. 317, 818). Edward sailed on 23 May, leaving the kingdom in charge of his cousin Edmund, and taking with him the chancellor and many nobles (Ann, Osen, p. 306). He was honourably received by Philip, did homage to him at Amiens, and then went with him to Paris. After obtaining the settlement of several questions connected with his foreign possessions and rights, he left Paris at Whitsuntide and proceeded to Bordeaux, where he repressed some disaffection among the citizens with considerable sharpness (, ii. 16). He then held a congress at Bordeaux, which was attended by representatives of the kings of Aragon, France, Castile and Majorca, and two legates, and on 25 July arranged a truce between France and Aragon (Fœdera, ii. 330). Finding, however, that it was impossible to make terms which would be acceptable both to Honorius IV and to James of Sicily, he persuaded Alfonso of Aragon to treat apart from his brother James, and on 15 July 1287 met Alfonso at Oléron, and made a treaty for the liberation of Charles and for a future peace. At the same time the project of a marriage between Alfonso and Edward's daughter Eleanor, which had for some years been hindered by papal interference, exercised on behalf of the Angevin interest, was confirmed by the kings. When Edward re-entered Gascony he suffered from a short though severe illness at Blanquefort, and on his recovery returned to Bordeaux, where he again took the cross, was appointed by the legate the captain of the christian army (Ann. War. p, 404), and expelled the Jews from Gascony and his other continental dominions. The treaty of Oléron was pronounced unsatisfactory by Nicolas IV (Fœdera, ii, 358), and in 1288 Edward agreed to a treaty at Campofranco, which secured the liberation of Charles on the payment of twenty thousand marks, of which ten thousand were lent him by Edward, along with his bond for seven thousand more, on the delivery of English hostages and on other conditions (ib. p. 368 sq.) The war, however, was renewed, and in 1289 Edward sent Odo Grandison with a sharp reproof to Nicolas for encouraging warfare among christian kings when the infidels were triumphing over the cause of the cross in Syria. Meanwhile in a parliament held on 2 Feb. the lords refused a grant, and the Earl of Gloucester, speaking for the rest, declared that they would grant no more money 'until they saw the king's face In England again' (, p. 316).