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 POLITICAL HISTORY the Marchers, and shortly afterwards Prince Edward himself appeared on the scene and drove Llywelyn back into Gwynedd.^^* In the same year open hostilities began between the baronage and the king. Leicester took arms in concert with the young earl of Gloucester, and in May succeeded in capturing Hereford, carrying off the bishop, Peter of Aigueblanche, one of the king's Savoyard proteges, and confining him in the castle of Eardisley."' In February, 1263-4, his two eldest sons, Henry and Simon, ravaged Mortimer's lands and with the assistance of the Welsh took the castle of Radnor. Prince Edward again made his appearance, and, taking the castles of Hay, Huntington, and Brecknock, handed them over to Mortimer.'^^ At this time the house of Bohun was divided, for while the earl of Hereford supported Henry, his son Humphrey sided with Leicester, whom he represented at the Mise of Amiens."'' At the battle of Lewes on 14 May they fought on opposite sides. Hereford was taken prisoner and his son was wounded."^ After the battle Leicester marched to the west to overawe the Marchers, who murmured at his autocratic rule. He took the castles of Hereford, Hay, and Ludlow, and for the time enforced submission.'" But the hard conditions which he imposed produced a breach with the earl of Gloucester, who resented any attempt to coerce the baronage. In April, 1265, Gloucester was openly allied with the Marchers, and Simon returned to Hereford carrying Prince Edward with him for greater security. On 28 May Edward escaped, while riding in the meadows outside the walls of the city, and took refuge with Mortimer at Wigmore,'*" where he was joined by the levies of the counties of Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and Chester.'*' In the campaign that ensued Leicester made Hereford his head quarters,''^ cut off as he was from central England by the forces of Gloucester and Edward. He retreated thither after his fruitless attempt to cross the Bristol Channel and reach Bristol, and finally left the city at the beginning of August to be trapped and slain at Evesham, where young Humphrey de Bohun was taken prisoner.'*^ The close of the Barons' War left Herefordshire in a very lawless state. In 1266 Leominster was plundered and burnt by raiders."* The families of Bohun and Mortimer were supreme in the county. The earl of Hereford was one of the council appointed in 1266 by the Dictum de Kenilworth.''* Lord Mortimer of Wigmore held the castle of Hereford by a grant made in 1259,''° and was sheriff of the county from 1255 to 1257.'" Another branch of the family had been established at Richard's Castle from the time '" Foedira, i, 423 ; Rishanger, Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 13. '" Rishanger, Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 17 ; flor. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 479-80 ; Liber de Antiquis Legibus, 53 '■« Rishanger, Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 13 ; Flor. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 486. '" Foedera (i8i6), i, 434. '" Rishanger, Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 27-8 ; Annals of Dunstable (Rolls Ser.), 232. '" Trevet, ^«»<z/« (Engl. Hist. Soc), 261 ; Flor. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 498-9 ; Rishanger, Chronica (Rolls Ser.), 31. '«" Ibid. 33 ; Chron. Walt, de Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 320-1 ; Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 67-8. '" Rishanger, Chronica {RoXh. Ser.), 34; Trevet, Annales (Engl. Hist. Soc), 264. "' Cf. Letters of the Reign of Hen. Ill (Rolls Ser.), ii, 288. '*■ Ann. Wav. (Rolls Ser.), 365 ; Worcester Annals (Rolls Ser.), 455. "* G. F. Townsend, Hist, of Leominster, 26. ^^ Ann. JVav. (Rolls Ser.), 372 ; Annals of Dunstable (Rolls Ser.), 243. "^ Rot. Pat. 44 Hen. Ill, m. 10. "' Dugdale, Baronage, i, 142. 365