Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/37

  in less than twenty-one weeks (, Documents, ii. 37). On the 28th he held a parliament at Berwick, where he received the fealty of the clergy, barons, and gentry, the names filling the thirty-five skins of parchment known as Ragman Roll. All the lands of the clergy were restored, very few lords were dispossessed, the ancient jurisdictions were not interfered with, 'no wanton or unnecessary act of rigour was committed, no capricious changes were introduced', and the king, having appointed a guardian, treasurer, and other officers for Scotland, returned to England, and held a parliament at Bury St. Edmunds on 3 Nov.

At this parliament, while the laity made their grants, the clergy, after thoroughly discussing the matter, authorised Archbishop Winchelsey to inform the king that it was impossible for them to grant him anything (Ann. Dunst. p. 405;, p. 314). The cause of this refusal was that in the previous February Boniface VIII had issued the bull 'Clericis laicos,' forbidding on pain of excommunication the clergy to grant, or the secular power to take, any taxes from the revenues of churches or the goods of clerks. Edward would not accept this answer, and bade the clergy let him know their final decision on the following 14 Jan. Meanwhile he ordered the lay subsidy to be collected, and, after staying some time at St. Edmund's, went to Ipswich and kept Christmas there. While he was there he married his daughter Elizabeth to John, count of Holland, and then made a pilgrimage to Walsingham. On 14 Jan. 1297 he sent proctors to the clergy, who were met in council at St. Paul's to decide the Question of the subsidy. After setting forth the dangers that were threatening the kingdom, these proctors declared that unless the clergy granted a sufficient sum for the defence of the country the king and the lords of the realm would treat their revenues as might seem good to them. The king, who was then at Castle Acre in Norfolk, received a deputation sent by the synod on the 20th, who declared that the clergy found themselves unable to make any grant. Edward merely answered the Bishop of Hereford, the spokesman of the deputation: 'As you are not bound by the homage and fealty you have done me for your baronies, I am not bound in any way to you.' He was exceedingly wroth, for he was in great need of money for the defence of the kingdom, and on the 30th he declared he would outlaw the whole body of the clergy, and take their lay fees into his own hand (ib, p. 318). The clergy of the province of York submitted, made a grant, and received letters of protection, and the writ was issued against the clergy of the southern province on 12 Feb. (Ann. Wigorn. p. 630). Two days before this the archbishop excommunicated all who should act contrary to the papal decree.

Meanwhile the king's army was defeated in Gascony, and Edward, who had on 7 Jan. made alliance with Guy, count of Flanders, determined to send a fresh force to Gascony, while he made an expedition in person to Flanders, in order to act against Philip in the north. With this view he held a parliament at Salisbury on 25 Feb., to which only the baronage of the kingdom was summoned, without the clergy or the commons. He asked the lords, one after another, to go to the war in Gascony. Every one of them refused, and he declared that those who would not go should give up their lands to those who would. Then he appealed to, third earl of Hereford [q. v.], the constable, and fifth earl of Norfolk [q. v.], the marshal; both excused themselves, not, as they might have done, on the ground that the king 'had strained his rights every possible way' (Const. Hist. ii. 131-3, which should be consulted for a full account of the crisis of this year), but simply because they were only bound to serve with the king. Ihey persisted in their refusal [for Bigod's well-known altercation with the king see Bigod, Roger]. The council broke up, and the two earls forthwith gathered a force, which was joined by several lords, and numbered fifteen hundred men. Edward was uneasy, though he kept his feelings to himself (, ii. 121). He was obliged to carry out his plans and engagements, and as his lords refused to help him he seized the wool of all those who had more than five sacks, obliged the other merchants to redeem theirs by paying a heavy toll or 'maletote,' and ordered the sheriffs to furnish supplies of provisions from their several counties. The lords who held with the two earls would not allow the royal officers to take anything from their lands. Meanwhile Edward had an interview with the arch-bishop at Salisbury on 7 March, and pointed out that he was acting from necessity, and that it was useless to attempt to resist. At a synod held on the 26th the archbishop, while refusing himself to yield, allowed the clergy to follow their own consciences, and almost all of them purchased their peace of the king by the grant of a fifth (, p. 323). Edward then issued writs for a 'military levy of the whole kingdom' to meet at London, though constitutionally the national force could not be compelled to serve out of the kingdom (Const. Hist. ii. 135). When 7 July, the day appointed for the meeting of