was not kept. The French allied with the Scots, and for the next four years France and England were at war; while, to add to Edward's difficulties, the Welsh in 1295 broke out in revolt. It was in the midst of these troubles that Edward, in 1295, summoned what is known as the first complete and model Parliament. To this came, first, the spiritual peers, archbishops, Model Parliament summoned. Barons. bishops, abbots, and the heads of the military orders. Clergy. Each bishop was ordered to bring with him two representatives elected by the dean and chapter of the cathedral, and two representatives from each archdeaconry elected by the clergy. Second, the lay peers, earls and greater barons summoned separately by writ. Third, the knights of the shire, elected in accordance with a Burgesses and writ addressed to the sheriff in the county court, and two burgesses or citizens from each borough or city which the sheriff of the county thought to be of sufficient consequence to send representatives. Knights of the shire. citizens. Thirty years had passed since the citizens and burgesses had been called to Simon de Montfort's Parliament; but since 1295 most Important place of this Parliament in history. Parliaments have in theory included the whole of the lay members mentioned above. Of the clergy, however, the proctors for the chapters and archdeaconries rarely, if ever, came, as they preferred to make their grants in Convocation, while the abbots were abolished by Henry VIII. Invasion of With the money granted by this Parliament Edward was able to act vigorously against his enemies. The Welsh were soon put down. The Earl Warrenne invaded Scotland, and a battle Scotland. was fought in 1296 near Dunbar, where the Scots, descending in disorder from the slopes of the Lammermuir Hills, were overthrown on the plain by the English. Shortly afterwards Balliol surrendered his kingdom, and was allowed to retire to Normandy, while Edward appointed Earl Warrenne as guardian of the Scottish kingdom. France pro Edward next proposed to invade France, and for this purpose Invasion of allied with the Flemings; but he soon met with an unforeseen difficulty. Pressed for money, he had not been scrupulous in his means of getting it, but had unpopularity. taxed the towns, seized the wool of the merchants, posed, but foiled by Edward's ordered his servants to levy supplies by force, and wrung from the clergy one-half of their yearly income. These exactions caused great indignation, and resistance was soon made. and refusal to pay taxes. The first to stir were the clergy, who obtained from the pope a bull called Clericis laicos, which forbade them to grant their goods to a layman without the consent of the pope. Clerical Armed with this, they met the king's next demand remonstrance with a refusal. Edward retaliated by ordering the chief justice to announce that no suit in which a clergyman was plaintiff should be heard, but all against them should be tried as usual. This meant that the clergy might be robbed with impunity, and accordingly the clergy by degrees gave way, some making the king a gift, others leaving money where the king's officers could find it, and others paying large sums for protection. The archbishop, however, was still holding out, when help came from another quarter. Outlawry of the clergy. Victory of nobles to invade France Edward's plan was to attack France from Flanders in person, and to send an army to Guienne under Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, the constable, and Roger Bigod, Earl of Refusal of Norfolk, the marshal. Roger, however, irritated by the exactions, refused to go, saying that he was by themselves. only bound to follow the king's person. "By God," said the king, you shall either go or hang." "By God, sir king, I will neither go nor hang," was the answer; and the earl kept his word. Edward had no time to press the quarrel, so he made terms with Edward goes the clergy, summoned his tenants to London, persuaded to Flanders. them to grant him an aid, and then crossed to Flanders. 46 This was the barons' chance. They marched to London, forbade the collection of the aid, and insisted that the young Prince of Wales, who had been left as regent, should confirm Rebellion of the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest, at the barons. the same time adding a clause forbidding the collection of taxes without the consent of Parliament. This document, which is called the "Confirmation of the Charters," was then signed by Edward at Ghent. Confirmation of the charters. Meanwhile things had gone wrong in Scotland. A gentleman named William Wallace, who had murdered an Englishman, gathered round him a number of Rebellion of enemies to the English side, and, gradually becoming strong enough, attacked the forces of the guardian. With great military skill he conDefeat of Cam- trived to attack the English army at Cambuskenneth, buskenneth. near Stirling, when half of it had crossed the Forth by a long and narrow bridge. Those who had crossed were utterly cut to pieces, and Warrenne had the mortification to see his army ruined. The next year, however, Edward himself invaded Scotland, and Edward invades Scotland. Victory of Falkirk, and fall of Wallace. attacked Wallace at Falkirk. In spite of Wallace's most careful arrangement of his army, in circles of pikemen united by archers and backed by cavalry, Edward succeeded in beating the Scots by attacking their rear, and Wallace's power was completely overthrown. The kingdom, however, was not yet conquered. The districts north of the Forth still held out, and placed at their head John Comyn, the nephew of Balliol. Comyn had some success in 1303, but Edward again invaded the country Suppressed by and forced him to submit. The insurgents were Comyn's rebellion. Edward. allowed to purchase their pardon by fines, and offers were even made to Wallace, but were rejected. Shortly afterwards that leader was captured, taken to London and executed as a traitor. His death made him the martyr of Scottish independence. Robert Bruce. All this time Robert Bruce (the younger), Earl of Carrick, the grandson of the rival of Balliol, had usually been on the English Rebellion of side, and had been consulted by Edward about the management of the kingdom; but in 1306 he determined to try for the crown himself, murdered Comyn, and was crowned at Scone. His chances seemed very poor, as he had against him not only the English, but also the relations of Balliol and the Lord of Lorne. His forces in the field were soon defeated, and he with difficulty maintained himself in the woods and mountains. Though the danger did not seem great, Edward was preparing to crush it himself, when his death near Carlisle, in 1307, brought his reign to a close, and totally changed the prospects of the Scottish king.. Death of Edward was twice married, first to Eleanor of Castile, and then to Margaret, sister of the French king. He left three sons who survived him. CHAPTER II. EDWARD II., 1307-1327 (20 years). Chief Characters of the Reign.-Thomas of Lancaster, Piers Gaveston, Character of EDWARD, Prince of Wales, who succeeded his father at the age of twenty-three, was handsome, accomplished, and engaging; but his reign was one of the most ruinous in English history. The chief causes of his misfortune were his love of pleasure and his attachment to favourites. Meaning of the word "favourite." The word "favourite" is one which may easily be misunderstood. It may mean a man or woman on whom a king lavishes honours and wealth, or it may mean a councillor on whose support the king relies. Favourites of both kinds were hateful to Englishmen of the Middle Ages; the former because the king's grants were rightly thought to increase the weight of taxation by impoverishing the royal estates, the latter because the nobles looked on themselves as the hereditary advisers of the crown, and hated any man who engrossed the king's confidence. No king, therefore, had a chance of success who was not strong enough to stand alone, and so men like Edward II., Richard II., and Henry VI. met with their unfortunate ends. In England the leader of the barons against the favourite was always a younger member of the royal family. Piers Gaveston. The first of Edward's favourites was Piers Gaveston. Gaveston was the son of a Gascon knight, and had been brought up as Edward's companion. He turned out so badly that the late king had dismissed him from court; but when the old king died the young Edward recalled him and made him Earl of Cornwall. He was a brave and able soldier, but he was haughty and vain, and irritated the barons past bearing by the nicknames he gave them. To this man Edward gave his confidence, and loaded him with riches and honour, so that he, a mere upstart, outshone the ancient nobles of the realm. Thomas of Gaveston's antagonist was Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the son of Edmund Crouchback,1 younger brother of Edward I. He was Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Salisbury, and leader of the Derby, and was by far the most powerful subject the king had. This was the man whom Gaveston called "the hog." His friend, the Earl of Warwick, was "the black dog." At his father's death Edward only advanced as far as Ayrshire, and then retired to England to arrange for his marriage and coronation. opposition. Edward's favour to Gaveston rouses the barons. When he sailed to France, to marry Isabella, the sister of the French king, said to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, he left Gaveston as regent, and at his coronation Gaveston walked in the place of honour. Enraged at this, the barons in Parliament demanded the dismissal of Gaveston. Edward had no means to resist, and Gaveston himself was forced to swear that he would never return to England. The king, however, appointed him Lord-Deputy of Ireland, and in 1309 he was ordered by the king, with the consent of a considerable part of the baronage, to come back to court. Meanwhile the disorders arose which always appeared when the king was too weak or too idle to make his power felt; and in 1310 the barons, determined to put a stop to these, came to Westminster in arms, and, following the lead of the Oxford Parliament of 1258, appointed a council of twenty-one bishops and barons, under the name of Lords Ordainers, to regulate the king's household and reform the abuses of the kingdom. Barons appoint the Lords Ordainers to conduct the government. To keep out of the way of the ordainers, the king and Gaveston invaded Scotland, where Bruce was too wary to allow them to bring him to an engagement. In this expedition Gaveston distinguished himself; but the barons were determined to get rid of 1 That is, crossback, or crusader. Cross Hill, near Banbury, is still called Crouch Hill. |