IV.

CHAP. vantage of the church and of the realm. But the emissaries, who distributed this proclamation, were instructed to inform the people, that the pope had excommunicated all who should bear arms against the queen, had absolved the king's vassals from their allegiance, and had sent two cardinals to give to the undertaking the sanction of the apostolic see. 104

Edward is forced to flee.

Oct. 15.

Oct. 16.

Oct. 19.

At the queen's approach towards the capital, Edward, as a last resourse, threw himself on the loyalty and pity of the citizens. Their answer was cold but intelligible. The privileges of the city would not, they observed, permit them to follow the king into the field: but they would shut their gates to the foreigners, and would on all occasions pay due respect to their sovereign, his queen, and his son. Edward immediately departed with the two Spensers, the chancellor Baldock, and a slender retinue: and the moment he was gone, the populace rose, murdered the bishop of Exeter, took forcible possession of the Tower, and liberated the prisoners. The fugitive monarch hastened to the marches of Wales, where lay the estates of his favourite. Bristol was given to the custody of the elder Spenser, earl of Winchester: and at Caerfilly an attempt was made to raise the men of Glamorgan. But the Welshmen were equally indifferent to the distress of their lord, and of

104 Rym. iv. 236. Moor, 598.

I V.

their sovereign: and Edward with his favourite CHAP. took shipping for Lundy, a small isle in the mouth of the Bristol channel, which had been previously fortified, and plentifully stored with provisions. 105

The queen was not slow to pursue her fugi- The elder tive consort. As she passed through Oxford, taken and Spenser is she commanded Orleton to preach before the executed. university. The bishop selected for his text that passage in Genesis: "I will put enmity "between thee and the woman, and between

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thy seed and her seed. She shall bruise thy "head." These words he applied to Isabella and the Spensers; but many thought that they discovered in the sermon dark and prophetic allusions to the fate which afterwards befel the unfortunate Edward. From Oxford she hastened to Bristol and the earl of Winchester, un- Oct. 26. able to master the disaffection of the burghers, surrendered the town and castle on the third day. His grey hairs (he had passed his ninetieth year) were not respected by his enemies : and he was accused before sir William Trussel, one of the exiles raised by Isabella to the office of judge, of having assumed an undue influence over the king, exercised the royal power, widened the breach between the sovereign and the people, and advised the execution of the earl

105

Ang. Sac. i. 366. Wals. 123, 124. Moor, 598–600. Rym. iv. 238.

CHAP. of Lancaster. In these tumultuous times the IV. liberty of defence was seldom allowed to a political prisoner: but the notoriety of the facts charged in the indictment was assumed as a justification of the sentence which immediately followed. The earl was drawn from the court to the place of execution, where his enemies glutted their revenge with the sight of his sufferings. He was embowelled alive: his body was afterwards hung on a gibbet for four days, and then cut into pieces and thrown to the dogs.106

Edward is taken.

At Bristol it was ascertained that Edward had put to sea; and a proclamation was immediately made through the town, summoning him to return and resume the government. This farce was preparatory to an important decision of the prelates and barons in the queen's inOct. 26. terest. terest. Assuming the powers of parliament, they resolved that by the king's absence the realm had been left without a ruler: and therefore appointed the young prince guardian of the kingdom in the name and by the right of his father.107 Edward's evil fortune pursued him by sea as well as land. He was unable to reach the isle of Lundy and after contending for some days with a strong westerly wind, he Nov. 10. landed at Swansea, retired to Neath, and sought to elude the search of his enemies by conceal

106 Apolog. Ad. Orlet. 2765. Wals. 125. Lel. Coll. ii. 468. Rym. iv. 237.

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IV,

ing himself in different places between that CHAP. monastery and the castle of Caerfilly. At length, Henry earl of Leicester, who had lately taken the title of his attainted brother the earl of Lancaster, corrupted the fidelity of the natives, and got possession of Spenser and Bal- Nov. 17. dock, who were secreted in the woods near the castle of Lantressan. Edward, it is said, immediately came forward, and voluntarily surrendered to his cousin, by whom he was sent to the strong fortress of Kenilworth. His fate was postponed to answer the purposes of his wife: the other captives were sacrificed without mercy to the resentment of their enemies. Baldock, as a clergyman, was confined first in the prison of the bishop of Hereford, and afterwards in that of Newgate, where he sank under the rigours of his captivity: Spenser was arraigned Execution at Hereford before the same judge, whose hands younger were still reeking with the blood of his father. Spenser. The offences laid to his charge form the best proof of his innocence. According to Trussel he had been the cause of every calamity which had befallen the kingdom since his return from banishment, of the failure of the king's expedition into Scotland, and of the success of the Scottish incursions into England. He had not only persecuted the earl of Lancaster and his adherents to death, but when God had demonstrated the virtue of that nobleman by the supernatural cures wrought at his tomb, he had

of the

Nov. 24.

IV.

CHAP. placed guards to prevent the afflux of the people, and to suppress the knowledge of the miracles:108 he had constantly fomented the dissension between Edward and his consort; had hired assassins to murder the queen and the prince when they were in France; and at their return had conveyed away the king and the royal treasures against the provisions of the great charter. "Therefore," continues this upright judge," do all the good men of this realm, "lesser and greater, poor and rich, award with "common assent that you, Hugh Spenser, as a " robber, traitor, and outlaw, be drawn, hanged, "embowelled, beheaded, and quartered. Away

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then, traitor: go, receive the reward of your tyranny, wicked and attainted traitor!" He was drawn in a black gown with the arms of his family reversed, and a wreath of nettles on his head and was hanged on a gallows fifty feet high, amidst the acclamations and scoffs of the populace. A few yards below him suffered Simon de Reading, a faithful servant, who had always adhered to the fortunes of his master. Besides these the earl of Arundel and two other

108 It was pretended that miracles had been wrought at his tomb, and on the hill, where he was beheaded. In consequence, a guard of fourteen men at arms, was appointed to prevent all access to the place. Lel. Coll. ii. 466. Soon after the coronation of the young king, a letter was written at the request of the commons in parliament to the pope, to ask for the canonization of Lancaster, and of his friend, Robert archbishop of Canterbury. The request was not noticed. Rym.iv. 268 Rot. Parl. ii. 7.