appearance. Edward I. hood and grizzly grey in his old age. In one thing, A.D. 1272. he was much like his father. His left eyelid drooped, and almost covered the eye; yet his face, and his whole bearing, bespoke him a man of wisdom, and of courage. He so much despised all outward pomp, that from the day of his coronation he never again wore his crown; and, except on great occasions, he never used purple, scarlet, or rich fur in his garments; but generally appeared in a plain coat, lined in winter with some common fur.9 Came to the throne Henry the Third died on November 16th, A.D. 1272, on Nov. 16, and his eldest son Edward the First reigned in his A.D. 1272. Great events of stead.* The great events of Edward's reign are, the Conthe reign. quest of Wales, and the wars with Scotland. The troubles of the realm tend to its future weal. Lle wellyn, Prince of Wales, the last Welshman who bore that title; William Wallace, the ill-used hero of Scotland; and Robert Bruce, who became the King of Scotland, are the men whose names belong to these events. But there were other matters worthy of note in Edward's reign. There were wars with France; struggles against the Pope, who was always meddling with English affairs; constant quarrels with the clergy, who were always siding with the Pope-in order to escape from taxation; and oft-returning resistance of the Barons to the King's despotic will, compelling his repeated confirmation of the Charters, and wresting from him an unwilling obedience to the Forest Laws. All these struggles, between the King and the King's subjects, tended to the growth of freedom; helped men on to know their own rights and their own * See Genealogical Table, p. 337. interests; taught them to join together for their pro- Edward I. tection; and thus prepared the way for that best of A.D. 1272. all governments-self-government, under the rule of a monarch, taught by English history, that, a just regard for the subject's good is the surest prop of the sovereign's throne. giving a All these events will be related in their due order; Reasons but I have thought it well, thus to sketch out before- for first hand, the matters you will now hear in detail; and general thus, to give you a general notion of what happened during this reign. But, before I begin the continuous story, I am tempted to try to bring before your minds a picture of the state of England when Edward came to the throne.10 Picture of the State of England in the 13th Century. sketch. wooded. When the Romans came, and when, after some State of centuries, the Saxons arrived in England, and still, England in when the Danes invaded our shores, England was century. one vast forest; ground that was tilled being the exception, and not, as now, the rule. Even when Densely the Normans came, and conquered, the land was densely wooded; and later still, in the times of these Plantagenets, forest and fen, moorland and heathland, and chalky downs, were far more common than plough and pasture. In many parts, these forests were so thick, and so large, that they were as shields, provided by nature for the protec- Armies tion of the country beyond. Thus, when Edward invaded North Wales, he was forced to cut his way through a great wood, before he could reach the Welshmen. In Domesday-book, there are five great Royal Royal Forests named; these were, The New Forest, in could not get through the woods. Forests. Edward I. Hampshire; Windsor Forest, in Berkshire; WhichA.D. 1272. wood, in Oxfordshire; Wimborne, in Dorsetshire, and Gravelinges in Wiltshire. Of these, the first two still remain; the third was, even within this century, uncultivated ; the fourth is still a wild tract, but of the last, even the memory is long gone by. About twenty years before Edward became King, more than seventy woods and forests belonged to the Crown; and this was one of the great grievances of the people. These woods were full of game of all kinds: wolves were far from uncommon; wild cattle were found so near London as in Osterly Wood in Middlesex; and the fens and marshes were the abode of cranes, storks, and bitterns. Woods full of wild beasts and game; and of robbers; Beside these woods belonging to the Crown, the whole land was scattered over with forest. Between London and St. Albans, the country was so thickly wooded, and the woods were so much frequented by lawless freebooters, who robbed the passing travellers, that the Abbots of St. Albans kept armed men to guard the road to London. Throughout the whole country indeed, the woods were so much the haunts of robbers, that, in A.D. 1285, a law* was passed, ordering, that all highways, leading from one market town to anlest robbers other should be widened, so that there might be no bushes, woods, or dikes within 200 feet on each side of the road; and those owners of land, who refused to cut down underwoods close to the high roads, were held answerable for all crimes committed by men lurking in them. Even the boundaries of parks were to be set further back, when they approached too near the highway. roads widened should shelter in the side thickets, This was the state of the high-roads; but there Statute of Winchester, 13 Edward I. wanted for cross were cross-roads, from one town to another, so little Edward I. known, that guides,- shepherds and men of like A.D. 1272. degree, were hired to show the way to travellers. guides Thus, in the year A.D. 1265, the Countess of Leicester, Henry the Third's sister, was guided on the road from roads, Odiham in Hampshire, to Porchester in the same county, by "Dobbe the shepherd." There were but few bridges; and guides, therefore, were needed to and to show the fords across the streams and rivers. show the fords. Way of travelling: Such were the roads; let us now see how men travelled on them. There were no carriages in those days; or, at least, they were so uncommon, and their very few use so completely confined to ladies of rank, that they cannot be looked on as the means by which people got from one place to another. Such as were to be found, carriages; Royal Carriage. (From Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi. pl. 20, fig. 9.) described. were a kind of covered car, fitted with a weather-tight roof, from which hung curtains of leather, or of heavy silk; the wood-work was painted, and the nailheads and wheels were often gilt; there were plenty carriages of cushions inside, but there were no springs. Edward's Queen, Eleanor of Castile, and his daughter, the Duchess of Brabant, each had a carriage of this kind. Henry the Third, had "a house of deal" made for him, which ran on six wheels, and was roofed Edward I. with lead. In all likelihood this was meant for A.D. 1272. travelling, but it must have been ill-suited to the roads of those days. Litters, or covered couches, Men travelled on out by hackneymen; Litter. (From Royal MS. Brit. Mus., 16 G. vi. page 32.) supported by horses, were also made use of, and must have been more convenient than wagons on wheels, on most of the roads. The usual mode of travelling, therefore, was on horsehorseback. back, and the number of horses wanted by the nobles was very great. Thus, in the year 1265, when Simon de Montfort was at Odiham, with his wife, the Countess of Leicester, he had the surprising number of 334 Horses let horses in his stables, for himself and his retinue, and not for military purposes. Those who had no horses of their own, hired horses of 'hackney-men.' Thus, a traveller, going from London to Dover, hired one horse as far as Rochester, for which he paid 1s. 4d., being about 16s. of our money; the same from Rochester to Canterbury, and so on in like proportion to Dover. It was far from uncommon for travellers to steal these hired horses, and to cut off their ears and tails to prevent their being recognised. This practice hackhorses often stolen. |