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

During the summer Leicester had been harassed with repeated solicitations for the release of the two princes, Edward and Henry. In the winter he pretended to acquiesce, and convoked a parliament to meet after Christmas for the avowed purpose of giving the sanction of the legislature to so important a measure. But the extraordinary manner in which this assembly was constituted provoked a suspicion that his real object was to consolidate and perpetuate his own power. Only those prelates and barons were summoned who were known to be attached to his party; and the deficiency was supplied by representatives from the counties, cities, and boroughs who, as they had been chosen through his influence, proved the obsequious ministers of his will. Several weeks were consumed in private negotiation with Henry and his son. Leicester was aware of the untamable spirit of Edward, nor would he consent that the Prince should exchange his confinement for the company of his father on any other terms than that he should still remain under the inspection of his keepers, and evince his gratitude for the indulgence by ceding to the earl and his heirs the county of Chester, the castle of Pec, and the town of Newcastle-under-Lyne; in exchange for which he should receive other lands of the same annual value. At length the terms were settled, and confirmed by the parliament, with every additional security which the jealousy of the faction could devise. It was enacted "by common consent of the King, his son Edward, the prelates, earls, barons, and commonalty of the realm," that the charters and the ordinances should be inviolably observed; that neither the King nor the Prince should aggrieve the earl or his associates for their past conduct; that if they did, their vassals and subjects should be released from the obligation of fealty till full redress were obtained, and their abettors should be punished with exile and forfeiture; that the barons, whom the King had defied before the battle of Lewes, should renew their homage and fealty; but on the express condition that such homage and fealty should be no longer binding if he violated his promise; that the command of the royal castles should be taken from suspected persons and intrusted to officers of approved loyalty; that the Prince should not leave the realm for three years, under pain of disherison; that he should not choose his advisers and companions himself, but receive them from the council of state; that with his father's consent he should put into the hands of the barons for five years, five royal castles, as securities for his behavior, and should deliver to Leicester the town and castle of Bristol in pledge till a full and legal transfer should be made of Chester, Pec, and Newcastle; that both Henry and Edward should swear to observe all these articles, and not to solicit any absolution from their oath, nor make any use of such absolution, if it were to be pronounced by the Pope; and lastly, that they should cause the present agreement "To be confirmed in the best manner that might be devised, in Ireland, in Gascony, by the King of Scotland, and in all lands subject to the King of England."

These were terms which nothing but necessity could have extorted; and to add to their stability, they were for the most part embodied in the form of a writ, signed by the King, and sent to the sheriffs, with orders to publish them in the full court of each county twice every year.

It is generally supposed that the project of summoning to parliament the representatives of the counties, cities, and boroughs grew out of that system of policy which the earl had long pursued, of flattering the prejudices, and attaching to himself the affections, of the people. Nor had his efforts proved unsuccessful. Men in the higher ranks of life might penetrate behind the veil, with which he sought to conceal his ambition; but by the nation at large he was considered as the reformer of abuses, the protector of the oppressed, and the savior of his country. Even some of the clergy, and several religious bodies, soured by papal and regal exactions, gave him credit for the truth of his pretensions, and preachers were found who, though he had been excommunicated by the legate, made his virtues the theme of their sermons, and exhorted their hearers to stand by the patron of the poor and the avenger of the Church.[64] Within the kingdom no man dared to dispute his authority; it was only at the extremities that a faint show of resistance was maintained. The distant disobedience of a few chiefs on the Scottish borders he despised or dissembled; and the open hostilities of the lords in the Welsh marches were crushed in their birth by his promptitude and decision. He compelled Roger de Mortimer and his associates to throw down their arms, surrender their castles, and abide the judgment of their peers, by whom they were condemned to expatriate themselves, some for twelve months, others for three years, and to reside during their exile in Ireland. They pretended to submit, but lingered on the sea-coast, and amid the mountains of Wales, in the hope that some new event might recall them to draw the sword and fight again in the cause of their sovereign.