Edwd. II. เ “Bishop. Sir, will you preserve to God, to Holy A.D.1308. Church, to the clergy and people, the peace of God, fully and to the utmost of your power?' Liberties derived from Ed "King. I will.' "Bishop. Sir, will you cause to be observed in all your judgements, right and justice with discretion, in mercy and in truth, as far as you are able?' King. I will.' 66 Bishop. Sir, will you promise to keep, and cause to be kept, the laws and statutes that the community of your kingdom shall judge fit to enact, and will you defend and protect them to the utmost of your power?' "King. 'I do promise it.'" From this oath it will be seen that the liberties of the nation were not supposed to be derived from ward the Magna Carta, but from the laws of Edward the Confessor, and that they were therefore only confirmed by Magna Carta. Confessor. The barons exasperated. Gaveston flees from The barons now, having no belief in the King's promises, determined to seize Gaveston, and they hunted him over half the kingdom. The only one among them, who still adhered to the King, was Hugh le Despenser, the father of the King's future favourite.18 Gaveston went first to his castle at Wallingford, their fury. and then, fearing he was not safe there, fled to the King at Windsor. The barons, being unable to find him, held a great meeting at Northampton to consider the affairs of the kingdom, "threatening those who should neglect to come in to them, with no less than the plundering and destroying of their houses and estates." 38 Here it was agreed that "if the King does not govern according to reason, the barons are bound by their oath to bring him back to reason." 19 Edwd. II. Edward now got frightened, and summoned a Par- A.D.1309. liament, which met at Westminster in the spring. The King still tried to protect his favourite, but the Parliament decreed, that he should be banished from the kingdom for ever. Edward obtained leave how- Gaveston ever for Gaveston to go to Ireland, of which he appointed him Governor, and such was the infatua- but goes tion of this wretched King, that he went with Gaveston to Bristol, from whence the minion embarked for Ireland. banished, on May 18, to Ireland. misgov and its conse During this period the whole government of the The king's kingdom went on badly. Bruce, as you will shortly ernment hear, continued to gain more and more power in Scotland, the crown property in England was being wasted, quences. and the course of justice was interfered with. The barons complained, among other things, that the King's purveyors took all kinds of provisions without payment; that additional duties had been laid on wine, on cloth, and on other foreign produce; that the coin was debased; that the King's officers held pleas which did not fall under their cognizance, and exercised authority beyond the "verge," that is, a circuit of twelve leagues round the King's person. The meaning of this grievance was, that the King's own personal officers usurped the settlement of complaints, and the granting or withholding relief, which belonged properly to the Law Officers, and the Law Courts of the Crown. But Edward paid no attention to such matters. All he cared for was the society of Gaveston, and at a Parliament held in the spring he tried to get leave for his return from exile. But the Parliament would agree neither to this, nor to Gaveston's retaining the A.D. 1309. Edwd. II. Earldom of Cornwall, and it was only on the confirmation of the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forests, that Parliament consented to grant the King "the 25th penny of all their personal estates."39 Shortly afterwards (on July 26th), Edward held a Council or Parliament, at Stamford, to consider what should be done to resist Bruce's progress in Scotland, and at this Parliament the King contrived, by promising redress of the barons' grievances, to obtain leave for Gaveston to remain Earl of Cornwall. Gaveston had now been living in banishment for more than a year, but in great splendour and power. The King could bear his absence no longer, and, without consulting his Parliament, he sent to him to return, and Gaveston's even went to Chester to meet him. On his return, "Edward received him with transports, which convinced all the world that he loved him to distraction, and carried him to Langley in Hertfordshire, where he kept him some time to himself; not caring to be diverted by the Queen, his ministers, or others, a moment from enjoying his company."8 This greatly disgusted the barons, who appointed tournaments in different places, in order to get their partisans together, and concert measures for wreaking their vengeance on Gaveston. The King, fearing the barons would thereby gain too great power over him, put down these tournaments by proclamation." return. His presence at a council the barons. Soon after Gaveston's return, on October the 18th, the King held a Council at York, at which Gaveston displeases was present as Earl of Cornwall, in consequence of which the Earls of Warwick, Lancaster, Oxford, Lincoln and Arundel 40 refused to attend. These barons were probably absent from the council at Stamford, at which it had been agreed that Gaveston might A.D. 1309. lavishes remain Earl of Cornwall, but, granting even that they Edwd. II. were bound by the act of the barons who were present, Gaveston's unauthorised return to England, was a sufficient justification of their refusal to attend a council, at which he was present. The King, how- The King ever, still continued his depraved affection for this money on favourite, who abused the King's weakness to such Gaveston, an extent, that "he had not sometimes wherewithal duces the to defray the usual expenses of his family, and the absolute Queen herself was so straitened for her necessary allowance, that she was forced to write letters of complaint to her father the King of France.""1 and re Queen to need. threaten The barons now became so enraged, that they The barons threatened to rise in rebellion against the King, if he rebellion. did not banish Gaveston. The King, however, instead of yielding to their just complaints, consulted Gaveston as to what he should do, and, by his advice, he sent over to his dominions in Gascony for soldiers. Three hundred horse were accordingly sent forth from thence, to march through France on their way to England. But the King of France, moved doubtless by his daughter's complaints, refused to allow them to pass through his kingdom, and they were therefore obliged to return. At length, the King was forced to The King yield, and, at a Parliament held on the 16th of March, yields. in the following year, he agreed to the appointment of a Committee of "Ordainers," to reform the kingdom. The oath which they took to the King was pointed. "that their ordinances should be made to the honour of God, to the honour and profit of his holy Church, and to the honour of us, and to our profit, and to the profit of our people, according to right and reason, and the oath which we took at our coronation." 20 BB A.D. 1310. "Ordain ers" ap Edwd. II. The ordainers consisted of one archbishop, six bishops, The King invades Scotland, It may be thought that this appointment of a Committee of Ordainers, was a violent means of redressing the grievances under which the barons were suffering, but experience had shown that no less resolute measures would be of any avail, and it was more reasonIn principle it was able than an appeal to arms. similar to the proceedings which resulted in Magna Carta; and, indeed, the Reform Bill of A.D. 1830, may be looked on as a modern result of a 'Committee of Ordainers.' The Ordinances of A.D. 1311 do not lay down general principles, such as are to be found in Magna Carta, for their object was rather to compel obedience to existing, than establish new principles for the security of liberty, nor do they, like the Reform Bill of A.D. 1830, attempt to adapt the admitted principles of government to the exigences of advancing civilisation; but they are, nevertheless, entitled to our approval, as the result of peaceable measures to counteract the tyrannic folly of the King. In September the King invaded Scotland; but Bruce utterly despised him, and said "that he was more afraid of the bones of his father, even when dead, than he was of the son, though living; and it was much more difficult to get half a foot of land from Edward the First, than a kingdom from his successor." 10 Edward had some trifling successes, but gained no lasting victory. When winter came on, early in November, he retired to Berwick, and the Scots, at once, regained all they had lost during the previous two months. |