‘TO THE MOST POWERFUL and excellent Seigneur Guillaume, Count of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland.
‘My very dear and beloved Brother, I salute you in the name of God.
‘We were still in process of organizing our banners round the port of Harwich, and the Queen was staying in Walton Abbey, when the good news reached us that Monseigneur Henry of Lancaster, who is cousin to King Edward and commonly called here Lord Crouchback, because his neck is all askew, was marching to meet us with a whole army of barons, knights and men-at-arms raised on their lands, and also with the Bishops of Hereford, Norwich and Lincoln, all to place themselves at the service of the Queen, my Lady Isabella. And Monseigneur of Norfolk, Marshal of England, has also declared his intention of doing the same together with his valiant troops.
‘Our banners and those of the Lords of Lancaster and Norfolk met at a place called Bury St Edmunds, where there happened to be a market in the streets that day.
‘The meeting took place amid indescribable joy. The knights leapt from their horses, welcomed each other and embraced, Monseigneur of Kent and Monseigneur of Norfolk held each other breast to breast and shed tears like real brothers who had been separated for a long time, and my lord Mortimer was doing the same with my lord Bishop of Hereford, and Monseigneur Crouchback was kissing Prince Edward on both cheeks, and all running to the Queen’s horse to welcome her and place their lips to the hem of her dress. Had I come to the Kingdom of England merely to see so much love and joy surrounding my Lady Isabella, I should have felt sufficiently repaid for my trouble. All the more since the people of Bury St Edmunds, abandoning their stalls of poultry and vegetables, joined in the general rejoicing, while people were continually arriving from the neighbouring countryside.
‘The Queen presented me with great kindness and many compliments to all the English lords; and I had the distinction of having our thousand Dutch lances behind me, and I was proud, my much loved Brother, of the noble appearance our knights made before the foreign lords.
‘Nor did the Queen fail to declare to all the members of her family and party that it was thanks to Lord Mortimer that she had been able to return so strongly supported; she praised his services highly and ordered that Lord Mortimer’s opinion should prevail in all things. Besides, my Lady Isabella herself never issues a decree without having first consulted him. She loves him and shows it; but it can be only a chaste love, whatever the ready tongue of scandal may say, for she would take more care to dissimulate were it otherwise, and I also know full well, from the way she looks at me, that she could not make eyes at me as she does if her troth were plighted. I was rather afraid at Walton that their friendship, for some reason I do not know, had grown somewhat colder; but everything goes to show that it was nothing and that they are as united as ever, for which I am glad, since it is natural to love my Lady Isabella for all the good and fine qualities she has, and I would wish everyone to have the same love for her as I have myself.
‘My lords Bishop brought sufficient funds with them, and promised that more would be collected in their dioceses, and this has reassured me as to the pay for our Hennuyers, for I feared that Lord Mortimer’s Lombard subsidies would be too quickly exhausted. This all happened on the twenty-eighth day of September.
‘From that place we set out on the march again, and it was a triumphal advance through the town of Newmarket, where there are many inns and lodgings, and the noble city of Cambridge, where everyone speaks Latin so that you wonder at it, and where there are as many priests in a single college as you could assemble in the whole of your Hainaut. The welcome of the people, as that of the lords, is everywhere sufficient proof that the King is not loved, and that his wicked councillors have made him hated and despised. Our banners are greeted with the cry of “Deliverance!”
‘“Nos Hennuyers ne s’ennuient pas,” as Messire Henry Crouchback said and, as you can see, he speaks a graceful French. When this remark was repeated to me, I roared with laughter for a quarter of an hour on end, and I still laugh whenever I think of it. The English girls are gracious to our knights, which is a good thing to keep them in the proper humour for war. As for me, if I indulged in dalliance, I would be setting a bad example and lose the power a leader needs if he is to call his troops to order when necessary. Besides, the vow I made to my Lady Isabella forbids it, and if I broke it, the fortunes of our expedition might be imperilled. And if the nights fret me a little, our daily rides are nevertheless so long that sleep does not fail me. I think I shall get married when I return from this adventure.
‘Talking of marriage, I must tell you, my dear Brother, and also my dear Sister, the Countess your wife, that my lord the young Prince Edward is still similarly disposed towards your daughter Philippa, that no single day goes by without his asking me for news of her, that all the leanings of his heart seem still to be directed towards her, that the betrothal which has been arranged is sound and advantageous, and that your daughter will, I am sure, always be happy. I have become very friendly with the young Prince Edward, who seems to admire me very much, though he speaks but little; he often remains silent as you have told me did the mighty King Philip the Fair, whose grandson he is. It may well be that he will one day become as great a sovereign as King Philip was, and perhaps even before the time he would normally have had to await his crown from God, if I am to believe what is said in the Council of the English barons.
‘For King Edward has cut a sorry figure in face of these happenings. He was at Westminster when we disembarked, and at once took refuge in his Tower of London to put himself in safety; and he had the following announcement cried by all his sheriffs, who are governors of counties, throughout his kingdom, in all public places, squares, fairs and markets:
‘“In view of the fact that Roger Mortimer and other traitors of the King and his Realm have made an armed landing at the head of foreign troops with the intention of destroying the Royal power, the King hereby commands his subjects to oppose them by every means in their power and to destroy them. Only the Queen, his son, and the Earl of Kent are to be spared. Everyone taking up arms against the invader will receive a high reward, and anyone bringing the body of Mortimer, or merely his head, to the King shall receive a reward of one thousand pounds sterling.”
‘No one has obeyed King Edward’s orders; but they have been of great service to my lord Mortimer’s authority by showing the high price that is set upon his life and designating him as our leader even more than he was before. The Queen has replied by promising two thousand pounds sterling to anyone bringing her the head of Hugh Despenser the Younger, placing that price upon the wrong that lord has done to her husband’s love for her.
‘The people of London have shown indifference to the safety of their King, who has remained stubborn in his errors to the end. It would have been wise of him to dispense with his Despenser, who bears such a suitable name, but King Edward has determined to keep him, saying that he has learnt from past experience, for similar circumstances once arose concerning Piers Gaveston, whom he agreed to send away, but that this had not prevented him being killed, while he, the King, had imposed on him a charter and a Council of Commissioners, of whom he had had great difficulty in ridding himself. Despenser encouraged him in this opinion and, so it is said, they wept many tears on each other’s breast, and Despenser even cried that he preferred to die on the breast of his King rather than live in safety and apart from him. And, indeed, it is to his advantage to say so, for that breast is his only rampart.
‘And so, abandoned by everyone to their wicked love, their entourage consists now only of Despenser the Elder, the Earl of Arundel, who is a relation of Despenser, the Earl of Warenne, who is Arundel’s brother-in-law, and finally of the Chancellor Baldock, who has no alternative but to remain loyal to the King for he is so generally hated that he would be torn to pieces wherever he might go.
‘The King ceased to be satisfied with the safety of the Tower, and fled with his small following to raise an army in Wales after publishing, on the thirtieth day of September, the Bulls of excommunication the Holy Father the Pope had given him against his enemies. Do not be disturbed, beloved Brother, by this announcement if the news should have reached you; for the Bulls do not concern us; King Edward asked for them against the Scots, and no one has been taken in by this misuse of them. We are admitted by everyone to Communion as before, and the bishops are the first to do so.
‘On flying so ignominiously from London, the King left the Government in the hands of Archbishop Reynolds, Bishop John de Stratford and Bishop Stapledon, Diocesan of Exeter and Treasurer to the Crown. But, faced with our rapid advance, Bishop Stratford came to make submission to Queen Isabella, while Archbishop Reynolds sent to ask for pardon from Kent where he had taken refuge. Only Bishop Stapledon remained therefore in London, thinking that by means of his thefts he could bribe a sufficient number of defenders. But the anger of the city rose against him and, when he did decide to fly, the populace pursued him, caught him, and killed him in the suburb of Cheapside, trampling his body till it was no longer recognizable.
‘This happened on the fifteenth day of October while the Queen was at Wallingford, a town surrounded by ramparts of earth, where we delivered Messire Thomas de Berkeley who is brother-in-law to my lord Mortimer. When the Queen heard the news of Stapledon’s end, she said there was no cause to weep the death of so wicked a man who had done her great wrong; and my lord Mortimer declared that all their enemies would be treated in the same manner.
‘Two days before, in the city of Oxford, which has even more priests than the city of Cambridge, Messire Orleton, Bishop of Hereford, went into the pulpit before my Lady Isabella, the Duke of Aquitaine, the Earl of Kent and all the other lords, to deliver a great sermon on the text “Doleo caput meum”, from the sacred Book of Kings, to signify that the body of the kingdom of England suffered in its head and that it was there the remedy must be applied.
‘This sermon made a profound impression on the whole congregation. It heard all the evils and harsh sufferings of the realm described and enumerated. And though, in an hour’s sermon, Messire Orleton did not once mention the King by name, he was in everyone’s mind as the cause of these misfortunes, and at the end the Bishop cried that both the lightning of Heaven and the swords of men must fall on the proud disturbers of the peace and the corrupters of kings. The said Monseigneur of Hereford is an extremely intelligent man, and I often have the honour of talking with him, though he generally seems to be in a hurry when he converses with me; but I always cull some clever remark from his lips. For instance, he said to me the other day: “Each one of us has his shining hour in the events of his century. On one occasion it may be Monseigneur of Kent, on another Monseigneur of Lancaster, some other on a previous occasion and yet another on a later, whom the event illumines because of the decisive part he plays in it. Thus is made the history of the world. And this actual moment, Messire de Hainaut, may well be your shining hour.”
‘Two days after the sermon, and as the result of the great effect it had on everyone, the Queen issued from Wallingford a proclamation against the Despensers, accusing them of having despoiled the Church and the Crown, unjustly put to death a great number of loyal subjects, disinherited, imprisoned and banished some of the greatest lords of the realm, oppressed widows and orphans, and crushed the people by taxes and extortions.
‘At the same time we learnt that the King, who had first fled to take refuge in the town of Gloucester which belongs to Despenser the Younger, had gone to Westbury, and that his escort had split up. Despenser the Elder had retired to his city and castle of Bristol, to hold up our advance there, while the Earls of Arundel and Warenne had gone to their domains in Shropshire; this was so as to hold the Welsh Marches both in the north and the south, while the King, with Despenser the Younger and his Chancellor Baldock, went to raise an army in Wales. To tell the truth, we no longer know what has become of him. There is a rumour even of his having embarked for Ireland.
‘While several English banners under the command of the Earl of Charlton set out for Shropshire to defy the Earl of Arundel, yesterday, the twenty-fourth day of October, precisely a month after our leaving Dordrecht, we entered without difficulty the town of Gloucester amid great acclamations. Today we are going to advance on Bristol, in which Despenser the Elder has shut himself up. I am to take command of the assault on this fortress and shall at last have the opportunity, which has so far been denied me owing to the fact that our advance has hardly been opposed, of doing battle for my Lady Isabella and of displaying my valour before her eyes. I shall kiss the pennant of Hainaut which floats from my lance before going into the attack.
‘I confided my will to you, my dear and beloved Brother, before leaving, and I know of nothing which I wish to add to it or to alter. If I must die, you will know that I have done so without displeasure or regret, as a knight should in the noble defence of ladies and the unfortunate and oppressed, and for the honour of you and Madame, my dear sister, your wife, and of my nieces, your beloved daughters, whom God keep.
‘Given at Gloucester the twenty-fifth day of October 1326.
‘Jean.’
But Messire Jean de Hainaut had no need to display his valour the next day, and his very proper preparation of spirit was vain.
When he presented himself before Bristol in the morning, banners flying and helms laced, the city had already decided to surrender and you could have taken it with a stick. The notables hurriedly sent envoys who were concerned only to know where the knights wished to be lodged, protested their attachment to the Queen and offered to surrender their lord, Hugh Despenser the Elder, on the spot, for he alone was to blame for the fact that they had not shown their good intentions earlier.
As soon as the gates of the city were opened, the knights took up their quarters in the fine houses of Bristol. Despenser the Elder was arrested in his castle and placed under the guard of four knights, while the Queen, the heir to the throne, and the principal barons took possession of his apartments. The Queen found there her three other children, whom Edward, when in flight, had left in Despenser’s care. She was astonished to see how they had grown in twenty months and could not stop gazing at them and kissing them. She suddenly looked at Mortimer, as if this excess of joy might offend him, and murmured: ‘I wish, my love, that God had granted they were born of you.’
At the instigation of the Earl of Lancaster, a Council was immediately assembled round the Queen, which included the Bishops of Hereford, Norwich, Lincoln, Ely and Winchester, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Earls of Norfolk and Kent, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, Sir Thomas Wake, Sir William La Zouche d’Ashby, Robert de Montalt, Robert de Merle, Robert de Watteville and the Sire Henry de Beaumont.38
The Council derived its legal justification from the fact that King Edward was beyond the frontiers; whether he was in Wales or Ireland made no difference. It decided to proclaim young Prince Edward guardian and keeper of the realm in the sovereign’s absence. The principal administrative posts were immediately redistributed and Adam Orleton, who was the intellectual leader of the rebellion, took most of them, in particular that of Lord Treasurer.
And, indeed, it was high time to make provision for the reorganization of the central authority. It was remarkable that during the whole month, when the King was in flight, his ministers dispersed, and England at the mercy of the Queen’s and the barons’ great expedition, the excise had continued functioning normally, the tax-collectors had gone on collecting taxes, the watch, in spite of everything, had maintained order in the towns and, taken all in all, ordinary life had pursued its normal course from a sort of habit of the social body.
And now the guardian of the realm, the provisional holder of sovereignty, was fifteen years old less one month. The decrees he would promulgate would be sealed with his private seal, since the seals of the realm had been carried away by the King and Chancellor Baldock. The young Prince’s first act of government was to preside at the trial of Hugh Despenser the Elder that very day. The prosecution was in the hands of Sir Thomas Wake, a rugged old knight, who was Marshal of the Army.39 He accused Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester, of being responsible for the execution of Thomas of Lancaster, for the death in the Tower of London of Roger Mortimer the Elder (for the old Lord of Chirk had not lived to see his nephew’s triumphal return but had died in his dungeon a few weeks earlier), for the imprisonment, banishment, or death of many other lords, for the sequestration of the Queen’s and the Earl of Kent’s property, for the bad management of the affairs of the kingdom, for the defeats by the Scots and in the war in Aquitaine, all of which had been due to his disastrous advice and counsel. The same charges were later to be brought against all King Edward’s councillors.
Wrinkled and bowed, his voice feeble, Hugh the Elder, who for so many years had feigned a tremulous self-effacement before the King’s desires, now showed the energy of which he was capable. He had nothing more to lose and defended himself inch by inch.
Lost wars? They had been lost by the cowardice of the barons.40 Executions and imprisonments? They had been punishments, decreed for traitors and rebels against the royal authority, lack of respect for which brought kingdoms to disaster. Sequestrations of fiefs and revenues had been decided on only to prevent enemies of the Crown raising men and money. And if he were to be accused of some plundering and spoliation, were the twenty-three manors, either his own property or that of his son, which Mortimer, Lancaster, Maltravers and Berkeley, all here present, had pillaged and burnt in 1321, before their defeat either at Shrewsbury or Boroughbridge, to count for nothing? He had merely reimbursed himself for the damage he had suffered and which he valued at forty thousand pounds, apart from the violence and cruelty of every kind committed against his people.
He finished his defence with these words addressed to the Queen: ‘Oh, Madame, God owes us justice, and if we cannot have it in this age, He will owe it to us in the next world!’
Young Prince Edward raised his long lashes and listened attentively. Hugh Despenser the Elder was condemned to be dragged through the streets, beheaded and his body hanged, to which he replied contemptuously: ‘I see, my lords, that beheading and hanging are two different things for you, but for me they amount to but a single death!’
His behaviour, which much surprised those who had known him in other circumstances, went far to explain the great influence he had exercised. The obsequious courtier was no coward, nor the detestable minister a fool.
Prince Edward confirmed the sentence; but he was reflecting deeply and beginning silently to form views as to how a man destined to great responsibilities should behave. To listen before speaking, to inform yourself before judging, to understand before deciding, and to remember always that there were to be found in every man the springs both of the highest as well as the lowest actions: these, for a sovereign, were the first steps towards wisdom.
It was unusual to have to condemn a fellow-man to death before the age of fifteen. On his first day of power Edward of Aquitaine was receiving good training.
Old Despenser was tied by the feet to a horse’s traces and dragged through the streets of Bristol. His tendons torn and his bones fractured, he was taken to the square in front of the castle and made to kneel before the block. His white hair was pulled forward to free his neck, and the executioner, wearing a red hood, raised the great sword and cut his head off. His body, spurting blood from the great arteries, was suspended by the armpits from a gibbet. The wrinkled, bloodstained head was placed beside it on a pike.
And all the knights who had sworn by Monseigneur Saint George to defend ladies, maids, orphans and the oppressed, rejoiced with much laughter and gay talk at the spectacle of an old man’s death.