A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  Band - and said, 'This is the brave Earl Hubert de Burgh, who

  fought at Dover Castle, and destroyed the French fleet, and has

  done his country much good service. You may kill me, if you like,

  but I will never make a chain for Earl Hubert de Burgh!'

  The Black Band never blushed, or they might have blushed at this.

  They knocked the Smith about from one to another, and swore at him,

  and tied the Earl on horseback, undressed as he was, and carried

  him off to the Tower of London. The Bishops, however, were so

  indignant at the violation of the Sanctuary of the Church, that the

  frightened King soon ordered the Black Band to take him back again;

  at the same time commanding the Sheriff of Essex to prevent his

  escaping out of Brentwood Church. Well! the Sheriff dug a deep

  trench all round the church, and erected a high fence, and watched

  the church night and day; the Black Band and their Captain watched

  it too, like three hundred and one black wolves. For thirty-nine

  days, Hubert de Burgh remained within. At length, upon the

  fortieth day, cold and hunger were too much for him, and he gave

  himself up to the Black Band, who carried him off, for the second

  time, to the Tower. When his trial came on, he refused to plead;

  but at last it was arranged that he should give up all the royal

  lands which had been bestowed upon him, and should be kept at the

  Castle of Devizes, in what was called 'free prison,' in charge of

  four knights appointed by four lords. There, he remained almost a

  year, until, learning that a follower of his old enemy the Bishop

  was made Keeper of the Castle, and fearing that he might be killed

  by treachery, he climbed the ramparts one dark night, dropped from

  the top of the high Castle wall into the moat, and coming safely to

  the ground, took refuge in another church. From this place he was

  delivered by a party of horse despatched to his help by some

  nobles, who were by this time in revolt against the King, and

  assembled in Wales. He was finally pardoned and restored to his

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  estates, but he lived privately, and never more aspired to a high

  post in the realm, or to a high place in the King's favour. And

  thus end - more happily than the stories of many favourites of

  Kings - the adventures of Earl Hubert de Burgh.

  The nobles, who had risen in revolt, were stirred up to rebellion

  by the overbearing conduct of the Bishop of Winchester, who,

  finding that the King secretly hated the Great Charter which had

  been forced from his father, did his utmost to confirm him in that

  dislike, and in the preference he showed to foreigners over the

  English. Of this, and of his even publicly declaring that the

  Barons of England were inferior to those of France, the English

  Lords complained with such bitterness, that the King, finding them

  well supported by the clergy, became frightened for his throne, and

  sent away the Bishop and all his foreign associates. On his

  marriage, however, with ELEANOR, a French lady, the daughter of the

  Count of Provence, he openly favoured the foreigners again; and so

  many of his wife's relations came over, and made such an immense

  family-party at court, and got so many good things, and pocketed so

  much money, and were so high with the English whose money they

  pocketed, that the bolder English Barons murmured openly about a

  clause there was in the Great Charter, which provided for the

  banishment of unreasonable favourites. But, the foreigners only

  laughed disdainfully, and said, 'What are your English laws to us?'

  King Philip of France had died, and had been succeeded by Prince

  Louis, who had also died after a short reign of three years, and

  had been succeeded by his son of the same name - so moderate and

  just a man that he was not the least in the world like a King, as

  Kings went. ISABELLA, King Henry's mother, wished very much (for a

  certain spite she had) that England should make war against this

  King; and, as King Henry was a mere puppet in anybody's hands who

  knew how to manage his feebleness, she easily carried her point

  with him. But, the Parliament were determined to give him no money

  for such a war. So, to defy the Parliament, he packed up thirty

  large casks of silver - I don't know how he got so much; I dare say

  he screwed it out of the miserable Jews - and put them aboard ship,

  and went away himself to carry war into France: accompanied by his

  mother and his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who was rich and

  clever. But he only got well beaten, and came home.

  The good-humour of the Parliament was not restored by this. They

  reproached the King with wasting the public money to make greedy

  foreigners rich, and were so stern with him, and so determined not

  to let him have more of it to waste if they could help it, that he

  was at his wit's end for some, and tried so shamelessly to get all

  he could from his subjects, by excuses or by force, that the people

  used to say the King was the sturdiest beggar in England. He took

  the Cross, thinking to get some money by that means; but, as it was

  very well known that he never meant to go on a crusade, he got

  none. In all this contention, the Londoners were particularly keen

  against the King, and the King hated them warmly in return. Hating

  or loving, however, made no difference; he continued in the same

  condition for nine or ten years, when at last the Barons said that

  if he would solemnly confirm their liberties afresh, the Parliament

  would vote him a large sum.

  As he readily consented, there was a great meeting held in

  Westminster Hall, one pleasant day in May, when all the clergy,

  dressed in their robes and holding every one of them a burning

  candle in his hand, stood up (the Barons being also there) while

  the Archbishop of Canterbury read the sentence of excommunication

  against any man, and all men, who should henceforth, in any way,

  infringe the Great Charter of the Kingdom. When he had done, they

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  all put out their burning candles with a curse upon the soul of any

  one, and every one, who should merit that sentence. The King

  concluded with an oath to keep the Charter, 'As I am a man, as I am

  a Christian, as I am a Knight, as I am a King!'

  It was easy to make oaths, and easy to break them; and the King did

  both, as his father had done before him. He took to his old

  courses again when he was supplied with money, and soon cured of

  their weakness the few who had ever really trusted him. When his

  money was gone, and he was once more borrowing and begging

  everywhere with a meanness worthy of his nature, he got into a

  difficulty with the Pope respecting the Crown of Sicily, which the

  Pope said he had a right to give away, and which he offered to King

  Henry for his second son, PRINCE EDMUND. But, if you or I give

  away what we have not got, and what belongs to somebody else, it is

  likely that the person to whom we give
it, will have some trouble

  in taking it. It was exactly so in this case. It was necessary to

  conquer the Sicilian Crown before it could be put upon young

  Edmund's head. It could not be conquered without money. The Pope

  ordered the clergy to raise money. The clergy, however, were not

  so obedient to him as usual; they had been disputing with him for

  some time about his unjust preference of Italian Priests in

  England; and they had begun to doubt whether the King's chaplain,

  whom he allowed to be paid for preaching in seven hundred churches,

  could possibly be, even by the Pope's favour, in seven hundred

  places at once. 'The Pope and the King together,' said the Bishop

  of London, 'may take the mitre off my head; but, if they do, they

  will find that I shall put on a soldier's helmet. I pay nothing.'

  The Bishop of Worcester was as bold as the Bishop of London, and

  would pay nothing either. Such sums as the more timid or more

  helpless of the clergy did raise were squandered away, without

  doing any good to the King, or bringing the Sicilian Crown an inch

  nearer to Prince Edmund's head. The end of the business was, that

  the Pope gave the Crown to the brother of the King of France (who

  conquered it for himself), and sent the King of England in, a bill

  of one hundred thousand pounds for the expenses of not having won

  it.

  The King was now so much distressed that we might almost pity him,

  if it were possible to pity a King so shabby and ridiculous. His

  clever brother, Richard, had bought the title of King of the Romans

  from the German people, and was no longer near him, to help him

  with advice. The clergy, resisting the very Pope, were in alliance

  with the Barons. The Barons were headed by SIMON DE MONTFORT, Earl

  of Leicester, married to King Henry's sister, and, though a

  foreigner himself, the most popular man in England against the

  foreign favourites. When the King next met his Parliament, the

  Barons, led by this Earl, came before him, armed from head to foot,

  and cased in armour. When the Parliament again assembled, in a

  month's time, at Oxford, this Earl was at their head, and the King

  was obliged to consent, on oath, to what was called a Committee of

  Government: consisting of twenty-four members: twelve chosen by

  the Barons, and twelve chosen by himself.

  But, at a good time for him, his brother Richard came back.

  Richard's first act (the Barons would not admit him into England on

  other terms) was to swear to be faithful to the Committee of

  Government - which he immediately began to oppose with all his

  might. Then, the Barons began to quarrel among themselves;

  especially the proud Earl of Gloucester with the Earl of Leicester,

  who went abroad in disgust. Then, the people began to be

  dissatisfied with the Barons, because they did not do enough for

  them. The King's chances seemed so good again at length, that he

  took heart enough - or caught it from his brother - to tell the

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  Committee of Government that he abolished them - as to his oath,

  never mind that, the Pope said! - and to seize all the money in the

  Mint, and to shut himself up in the Tower of London. Here he was

  joined by his eldest son, Prince Edward; and, from the Tower, he

  made public a letter of the Pope's to the world in general,

  informing all men that he had been an excellent and just King for

  five-and-forty years.

  As everybody knew he had been nothing of the sort, nobody cared

  much for this document. It so chanced that the proud Earl of

  Gloucester dying, was succeeded by his son; and that his son,

  instead of being the enemy of the Earl of Leicester, was (for the

  time) his friend. It fell out, therefore, that these two Earls

  joined their forces, took several of the Royal Castles in the

  country, and advanced as hard as they could on London. The London

  people, always opposed to the King, declared for them with great

  joy. The King himself remained shut up, not at all gloriously, in

  the Tower. Prince Edward made the best of his way to Windsor

  Castle. His mother, the Queen, attempted to follow him by water;

  but, the people seeing her barge rowing up the river, and hating

  her with all their hearts, ran to London Bridge, got together a

  quantity of stones and mud, and pelted the barge as it came

  through, crying furiously, 'Drown the Witch! Drown her!' They

  were so near doing it, that the Mayor took the old lady under his

  protection, and shut her up in St. Paul's until the danger was

  past.

  It would require a great deal of writing on my part, and a great

  deal of reading on yours, to follow the King through his disputes

  with the Barons, and to follow the Barons through their disputes

  with one another - so I will make short work of it for both of us,

  and only relate the chief events that arose out of these quarrels.

  The good King of France was asked to decide between them. He gave

  it as his opinion that the King must maintain the Great Charter,

  and that the Barons must give up the Committee of Government, and

  all the rest that had been done by the Parliament at Oxford: which

  the Royalists, or King's party, scornfully called the Mad

  Parliament. The Barons declared that these were not fair terms,

  and they would not accept them. Then they caused the great bell of

  St. Paul's to be tolled, for the purpose of rousing up the London

  people, who armed themselves at the dismal sound and formed quite

  an army in the streets. I am sorry to say, however, that instead

  of falling upon the King's party with whom their quarrel was, they

  fell upon the miserable Jews, and killed at least five hundred of

  them. They pretended that some of these Jews were on the King's

  side, and that they kept hidden in their houses, for the

  destruction of the people, a certain terrible composition called

  Greek Fire, which could not be put out with water, but only burnt

  the fiercer for it. What they really did keep in their houses was

  money; and this their cruel enemies wanted, and this their cruel

  enemies took, like robbers and murderers.

  The Earl of Leicester put himself at the head of these Londoners

  and other forces, and followed the King to Lewes in Sussex, where

  he lay encamped with his army. Before giving the King's forces

  battle here, the Earl addressed his soldiers, and said that King

  Henry the Third had broken so many oaths, that he had become the

  enemy of God, and therefore they would wear white crosses on their

  breasts, as if they were arrayed, not against a fellow-Christian,

  but against a Turk. White-crossed accordingly, they rushed into

  the fight. They would have lost the day - the King having on his

  side all the foreigners in England: and, from Scotland, JOHN

  COMYN, JOHN BALIOL, and ROBERT BRUCE, with all their men - but for

  the impatience of PRINCE EDWARD, who, in his hot desire to have

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  vengeance on the people of Lo
ndon, threw the whole of his father's

  army into confusion. He was taken Prisoner; so was the King; so

  was the King's brother the King of the Romans; and five thousand

  Englishmen were left dead upon the bloody grass.

  For this success, the Pope excommunicated the Earl of Leicester:

  which neither the Earl nor the people cared at all about. The

  people loved him and supported him, and he became the real King;

  having all the power of the government in his own hands, though he

  was outwardly respectful to King Henry the Third, whom he took with

  him wherever he went, like a poor old limp court-card. He summoned

  a Parliament (in the year one thousand two hundred and sixty-five)

  which was the first Parliament in England that the people had any

  real share in electing; and he grew more and more in favour with

  the people every day, and they stood by him in whatever he did.

  Many of the other Barons, and particularly the Earl of Gloucester,

  who had become by this time as proud as his father, grew jealous of

  this powerful and popular Earl, who was proud too, and began to

  conspire against him. Since the battle of Lewes, Prince Edward had

  been kept as a hostage, and, though he was otherwise treated like a

  Prince, had never been allowed to go out without attendants

  appointed by the Earl of Leicester, who watched him. The

  conspiring Lords found means to propose to him, in secret, that

  they should assist him to escape, and should make him their leader;

  to which he very heartily consented.

  So, on a day that was agreed upon, he said to his attendants after

  dinner (being then at Hereford), 'I should like to ride on

  horseback, this fine afternoon, a little way into the country.' As

  they, too, thought it would be very pleasant to have a canter in

  the sunshine, they all rode out of the town together in a gay

  little troop. When they came to a fine level piece of turf, the

  Prince fell to comparing their horses one with another, and

  offering bets that one was faster than another; and the attendants,

  suspecting no harm, rode galloping matches until their horses were

  quite tired. The Prince rode no matches himself, but looked on

  from his saddle, and staked his money. Thus they passed the whole

  merry afternoon. Now, the sun was setting, and they were all going

  slowly up a hill, the Prince's horse very fresh and all the other