The Great Events by Famous Historians [Volumes 1-14]

The King of the Romans now appeared again on the scene in the quality of mediator. The negotiation lasted three weeks: but Henry was compelled to yield to the increasing power of his adversaries; and it was agreed that the royal castles should once more be intrusted to the custody of the barons, the foreigners be again banished, and the Provisions of Oxford be confirmed, subject to such alterations as should be deemed proper by a committee appointed for that purpose. Henry returned to his palace at Westminster; new officers of state were selected; and the King's concessions were notified to the conservators of the peace in the several counties.

The King now found himself sufficiently strong to take the field. He was disappointed in an attempt to obtain possession of Dover; but nearly succeeded in surprising the Earl of Leicester, who with a small body of forces had marched from Kenilworth to Southwark. Henry appeared on one side of the town, the Prince on the other; and the royalists had previously closed the gates of the city. So imminent was the danger that the Earl, who had determined not to yield, advised his companions to assume the cross, and to prepare themselves for death by the offices of religion. But the opportunity was lost by a strict adherence to the custom of the times. A herald was sent to require him to surrender; and in the mean while the populace, acquainted with the danger of their favorite, burst open the gates and introduced him into the city.

The power of the two parties was now more equally balanced, and their mutual apprehensions inclined them to listen to the pacific exhortations of the bishops. It was agreed to refer every subject of dispute to the arbitration of the King of France; an expedient which had been proposed the last year by Henry, but rejected by Leicester. Louis accepted the honorable office, and summoned the parties to appear before him at Amiens. The King attended in person; the earl, who was detained at home in consequence of a real or pretended fall from his horse, had sent his attorneys. Both parties solemnly swore to abide by the decision of the French monarch. Louis heard the allegations and arguments of each, consulted his court, and pronounced judgment in favor of Henry. He annulled the Provisions of Oxford as destructive of the rights of the crown and injurious to the interests of the nation; ordered the royal castles to be restored; gave to the King the authority to appoint all the officers of the state and of his household, and to call to his council whomsoever he thought proper, whether native or foreigner; reinstated him in the same condition in which he was before the meeting of the "Mad Parliament," and ordered that all offences committed by either party should be buried in oblivion. This award was soon afterward confirmed by Pope Urban; and the Archbishop of Canterbury received an order to excommunicate all who, in violation of their oaths, should refuse to submit to it.

The barons had already taken their resolution. The moment the decision was announced to them they declared that it was, on the face of it, contrary to truth and justice, and had been procured by the undue influence which the Queen of Louis, the sister-in-law to Henry, possessed over the mind of her husband. Hostilities immediately recommenced; and as every man of property was compelled to adhere to one of the two parties, the flames of civil war were lighted up in almost every part of the kingdom. In the North, and in Cornwall and Devon, the decided superiority of the royalists forced the friends of the barons to dissemble their real sentiments; the midland counties and the marches of Wales were pretty equally divided: but in the Cinque Ports, the metropolis, and the neighboring districts Montfort ruled without opposition. His partisan, Thomas Fitz-Thomas, had been intruded into the office of mayor of London; and a convention for their mutual security had been signed by that officer and the commonalty of the city on the one part, and the earls of Leicester, Gloucester, and Derby, Hugh le Despenser, the grand justiciary, and twelve barons on the other. In the different wardmotes every male inhabitant above twelve years of age was sworn a member of the association: a constable and marshal of the city were appointed; and orders were given that at the sound of the great bell at St. Paul's all should assemble in arms and obey the authority of these officers. The efficacy of the new arrangements was immediately put to the test. Despenser, the justiciary, came from the Tower, put himself at the head of the associated bands, and conducted them to destroy the two palaces of the King of the Romans, at Isleworth and Westminster, and the houses of the nobility and citizens known or suspected to be attached to the royal cause. The justices of the king's bench and the barons of the exchequer were thrown into prison; the moneys belonging to foreign merchants and bankers, which for security had been deposited in the churches, were carried to the Tower; and the Jews, to the number of five hundred, men, women, and children, were conducted to a place of confinement. Out of these, Despenser selected a few of the more wealthy, that he might enrich himself by their ransom; the rest he abandoned to the cruelty and rapacity of the populace, who, after stripping them of their clothes, massacred them all in cold blood. Cock ben Abraham, who was considered the most opulent individual in the kingdom, had been killed in his own house by John Fitz-John, one of the barons. The murderer at first appropriated to himself the treasure of his victim; but he afterward thought it more prudent to secure a moiety, by making a present of the remainder to Leicester.[61]