wife of the detested king. All the Lancastrian party found their way to Paris, and foremost among them in a short time was the still beautiful and always courageous queen, carrying with her the Prince of Wales, and proving her aversion to her husband by too great an attachment to his enemy, the young and handsome Mortimer. Animated by these sentiments, she professed to be the mediator between the kings of France and England-being wife of one, and sister of the other. When she had obtained the necessary powers, she submitted to many things on Edward's behalf, which added to the disgust of his subjects. In fulfilment of her treaty he resigned Ponthieu and Guienne to his eldest son, who did homage for them to Philip. But, not knowing what more she might yield, he bribed the French King, the pope, and cardinals to order the return of his wife and heir. They pocketed the money, and Philip contented himself with sending them to Hainault;―a fortunate move for all concerned, for Philippa, the heiress of the land, and daughter of William of Holland, was betrothed to Edward of Wales. The death of Thomas of Lancaster was becoming rapidly avenged. There was a gathering of half the great names of England round the queen and the prince in the Low Countries. Bishops and abbots supported the same cause at home, and at last an expedition landed at Orwell, in Suffolk. It was like the march of a returning conqueror. All along the road the troops sent to oppose their progress tossed their caps in the air when they came within sight of their banners, and shouted for the prince and queen. They stopped three days in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, and received the adhesion of numerous lords and gentlemen, and of the two brothers of the king, the Earls of Kent and Norfolk. In this extremity, the king had nowhere to look for aid. The general remorse had seized on London, and the citizens shut their gates in his face, crying, "God save the king," but adding in a louder voice, "and the queen, and the prince!" A.D. 1325–1326.] DEPOSITION OF THE KING. 289 There was nothing further to be hoped, and the dastard fled from the city he had disgraced. He clung to his favourite, young De Spenser, to the last, and embarked with him at Bristol to go to Lundy Isle, or Wales, or Ireland, or France-anywhere, out of the reach of his enemies, who were now the whole of his people. The old De Spenser, in the meantime, tried to defend himself in Bristol, but the townsmen turned their arms against him. When he was taken, the fiendish nature of an oppressed population was shown in the vengeance they took on their oppressor. They heaped every indignity on the body of their foreign tyrant, whose eighty years of life neither gave him protection against their wrath, nor had diminished his own passions of avarice and ambition. But higher objects were still before the queen and her adherents. Edward was reported to be obscurely hiding in the fastnesses of Wales. A fit pursuer was found in the person of Henry, the brother of the martyred Earl of Lancaster; and the avenger of blood was speedily on his track. Young De Spenser and Baldock, the chancellor, were delivered to their enemies by their own attendants, and Edward was now left alone. § 7. The queen held high festival at Hereford, and the joys of the feast of All Saints were further enhanced by the execution of the hated favourite on a gallows which, with an evident allusion to the fate of Haman, was fifty feet high. Baldock, the chancellor, was a priest, and safe from the vengeance of the civil law, but he died in prison in a suspiciously short period of time. The greatest was behind. A parliament met in January 1327, and pronounced the king's deposition. He was by this time in the hands of the new Earl of Lancaster, and in safe custody at Kenilworth. The sentence of his dismissal from the throne was received with unanimous approbation. Gentle and humble, noble and serf, were tired out with so much unmanly weakness and so base a life. A deputation of certain lords and bishops went U to him to announce what had been done. He threw himself on the ground at the feet of the prelates, and thanked them for the parliament's leniency, and their loyalty to his son. The Speaker of the Commons was the official organ of making this communication. On the conclusion of his speech, the Lord-Steward broke the white wand of his office-as is done over the graves of kings-and thenceforth Edward of Carnarvon was virtually dead. Edward III. was formally proclaimed on the 24th of January, and on the 29th was solemnly crowned at Westminster, though only in his fourteenth year. The Castle of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, has borne the evil fame of being the scene of the deep tragedy which followed the dethronement of the king. For five hundred years its grey walls have been pointed to as having rung with the shrieks of an agonizing king; and the neighbouring peasantry have shuddered as they fancied strange sounds of pain and lamentation were occasionally audible even now. The unhappy man was removed from Kenilworth, and immured in an underground dungeon in this feudal tower. There he was kept from sleep and food for many days, and finally put to a dreadful death, which, however, left no outward mark of violence. He was laid in state, and visited by many of the neighbouring gentry; and the dark story closes with his burial in the Abbey Church of Gloucester, unwept, unhonoured, and unsung, at the age of forty-three. A.D. LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY. 1307. Accession of Edward II. 1314. The Grand Master executed in Battle of Bannockburn, in which army. A.D. 1317. The Salic law confirmed in France. 1322. The Earl of Lancaster defeated, 1326. England invaded by Isabella, CHAPTER VII. Ꭼ Ꭰ Ꮃ Ꭺ Ꭱ Ꭰ THE THIRD. A.D. 1327 to A.D. 1377. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. FRANCE.-Charles IV. (the Fair); Philip VI. (of Valois); John II.; Charles V. (the Wise). SCOTLAND. Robert I. (Bruce); David II.; Edward Baliol; Robert II. (Stuart). POPES.-Peter de Corbario (anti-pope); Benedict XII.; Cle ment VI.; Innocent VI.; Urban V. (all at Avignon); Gregory XI. (returned to Rome in 1377.) § 1. Accession of EDWARD III. During his minority the power of the State usurped by the queen and Mortimer. Execution of the Earl of Kent. § 2. Mortimer seized as a traitor, and executed.§ 3. Ardent qualities of Edward. Characteristics of the age. Military tactics changed.-§ 4. Contests with Scotland. Edward Baliol.§ 5. War with France. -§ 6. State of the Low Countries. Their assistance to Edward.-§ 7. The French armaments.-§ 8. The Fief of Brittany. The Low Countries, and murder of Van Arteveldt.§ 9. Edward effects a landing at La Hogue. Battle of Crecy, in which the French are worsted. The Scots defeated by Queen Philippa at Neville's Cross, and King David taken prisoner.§ 10. Siege of Calais. Its surrender. Generous conduct of Queen Philippa to the prisoners.-§ 11. Prosperous career of the English arms.- 12. A great pestilence. -§ 13. "Statute of Labourers." Salutary laws enacted. § 14. Position of the English in France. Victory over the French at Poictiers. The French king and his son taken prisoners.-§ 15. Courtesies paid to them.-§ 16. Treaty of Calais, and peace concluded with France. Civil war in France. Invasion of France. Peace of Bretigni.-§ 17. Charles V. of France. 18. Victories over the Spaniards gained by the Black Prince. § 19. War with France renewed. Death of the Black Prince.— § 20. Alice Perrers. Troubles of the king. His death -§ 21. Reflections on the reign of Edward III. and the spirit of the age. § 1. A BOY of fifteen upon the throne, and all the power of the State usurped by Queen Isabella and Mortimer, were temptations too great to be resisted by Robert Bruce. He made an inroad into England, which gave Edward the opportunity of showing his personal courage, and frightened Mortimer into agreeing to a peace. One of the articles was the marriage of the Prince of Scotland, David Bruce, then in his fifth year, with the Princess Joanna of England, then in her seventh, and about the same time Edward himself was married to Philippa of Hainault, to whom he had been several years betrothed. Little was known yet of what mettle the young king was made-whether he was selfish and irresolute as his father, or had the fiery blood of his grandfather, Edward I. In this state of doubtfulness his mother and her lover grew regardless of appearances in all their actions. They accused the Earl of Kent, son of the conqueror of Wales and Scotland, of raising, or rather of believing, a report that his brother of Carnarvon had not been buried in Gloucester Abbey, but was alive in Corfe Castle. Letters were found from the pope, which are supposed to have been forged, encouraging this belief, and Kent was tried for treason. It was easier to pack the judg ment seat than to find an executioner, and the condemned prince was kept four hours upon a scaffold at Winchester till a headsman could be found. A ruffian under sentence of death was at last discovered, who struck the earl's head off with an axe, on condition of receiving a pardon for his crimes, and people began to look to the king as their natural protector from a tyranny which soared so high. § 2. Edward apparently took no heed of the public indignation. He celebrated the birth of his son, afterwards so well known as the Black Prince, and held a tournament in Cheapside, where the youthful father (he was only eighteen) distinguished himself by his knightly prowess. With great appearance of cordiality he accompanied his mother and Mortimer to Nottingham, where a parliament was to be held. The castle was occupied by the royal and noble personages of the court, and if the insane ostentation of the favourite |