IV. gentlemen were beheaded. They had remained CHAP. neutral during the invasion; but were accused of having consented to the death of the earl of Lancaster. In the opinion of the public, their chief crime was the contiguity of their possessions to those of the queen's favourite, to whom they were granted.109 The prince is declared king. 1327. From Hereford Isabella with Mortimer and her son proceeded by slow journeys to meet the parliament at Westminster. The session was opened by a long speech from that crafty politician, the bishop of Hereford. The removal of the Spensers from the person of the king, the only ostensible object of the party, had now been effected: and it was natural to ask why Edward, in whose name the parliament had been summoned,110 was not restored to the exercise of the royal authority. To obviate this difficulty, Jan. 7. he painted in strong colours the vindictive disposition which it suited him to ascribe to the captive monarch, and solemnly declared that to liberate him now would be to expose to certain death the princess, who by her wisdom and courage had so lately freed the realm from the tyranny of the royal favourites. He therefore requested them to retire, and to return the next day, prepared to answer this important ques 109 Knyght. 2546-2549. Moor, 600. Wals. 125. Lel. Coll. ii. 468. 110 It had at first been summoned in the name of the prince as guardian of the realm: but as this supposed Edward to be absent, a second summons had been issued in the king's own name. CHAP. tion, whether it were better that the father IV. should retain the crown, or that the son should Jan. 8. reign in the place of his father. At the appointed hour the hall was filled with the most riotous of the citizens of London, whose shouts and menaces were heard in the room occupied by the parliament. Not a voice was raised in the king's favour. His greatest friends thought it a proof of courage to remain silent. The young Edward was declared king by acclamation, and presented in that capacity to the approbation of the populace. The temporal peers, with many of the prelates, publicly swore fealty to the new sovereign: the archbishop of York, and the bishops of London, Rochester, and Carlisle, though summoned by the justiciaries, had the resolution to refuse.111 The king is deposed. These irregular proceedings had probably been pursued to extort from the members an assent, from which they could not afterwards recede. Though the prince was declared king, his father had neither resigned, nor been deposed. Jan. 13. To remedy the defect, a bill of six articles was exhibited against Edward by Stratford bishop of Winchester, charging him with indolence, incapacity, the loss of the crown of Scotland, the violation of the coronation oath, oppression of the church, and cruelty to the barons. In the presence of the young prince seated on the 111 Ang. Sac. i. 367. IV. throne, these charges were read and approved: CHAP. and it was resolved that the reign of Edward of Carnarvon had ceased, and that the sceptre should be intrusted to the hands of his son, Edward of Windsor. And made to resign: When this resolution was reported to the queen, she acted a part which could deceive no one. With the most violent expressions of grief, she lamented the misfortune of her husband, declared that the parliament had exceeded its legitimate powers, and exhorted her son to refuse a crown which belonged to his father. To silence her pretended scruples, a deputation was appointed consisting of prelates, earls, and barons, with two knights from each county, and two representatives from each borough. They were instructed to proceed to Kenilworth, to give notice to Edward of the election of his son, to procure from him a voluntary resignation of the crown, and if he refused, to give him back their homage, and to act as circumstances might suggest. The bishops of Winchester and Lincoln, a secret and an open Jan. 20. enemy, were the first who arrived. They employed arguments, and promises, and threats, to obtain the consent of the unfortunate king; spoke of the greatness of mind he would display, and of the reward he would deserve, by renouncing the crown to restore peace to his people; promised him, in the event of his compliance, the enjoyment of a princely revenue IV. CHAP. and establishment; and threatened, if he refused, not only to depose him, but to pass by his son, and choose a sovereign from another family. When they had sufficiently worked on his hopes and fears, they led him, dressed in a plain black gown, into the room, in which the deputation had been arranged to receive him. At the sight of Orleton his mortal enemy, who advanced to address him, he started back, and sank to the ground: but recovered in a short time sufficiently to attend to the speech of that prelate. His answer has been differently reported by his friends and opponents. According to the former he replied that no act of his could be deemed free, as long as he remained a prisoner: but that he should endeavour to bear patiently whatever might happen. By the latter we are told that he expressed his sorrow for having given such provocation to his people; submitted to what he could not avert; and thanked the parliament for having continued the crown in his family. Sir William Trussel immediately addressed him in these words: "I, William Trussel, procurator "of the earls, barons, and others, having for this "full and sufficient power, do render and give "back to you Edward, once king of England, "the homage and fealty of the persons named "in my procuracy: and acquit and discharge "them thereof, in the best manner that law and "custom will give. And I now make protesta"tion in their name that they will no longer be in 66 IV. your fealty or allegiance, nor claim to hold CHAP. any thing of you as king, but will account you "hereafter as a private person, without any "manner of royal dignity." The distressing ceremony was closed by the act of sir Thomas Blount, the steward of the household, who, as was always done at the king's death, broke his staff of office, and declared that all persons engaged in the royal service were discharged.112 In three days the deputation returned from Jan 24 Kenilworth, and the next morning the accession of the new sovereign, who was in his fourteenth year, was proclaimed by the heralds in the following unusual form: "Whereas sir Ed"ward late king of England, of his own good "will, and with the common advice and assent "of the prelates, earls, barons, and other nobles, "and all the commonalty of the realm, has put "himself out of the government of the realm, "and has granted and willed that the govern"ment of the said realm should come to sir "Edward, his eldest son and heir, and that he "should govern the kingdom, and should be "crowned king, on which account all the lords "have done him homage; we cry and publish "the peace of our said lord sir Edward the son,. "and on his part strictly command and enjoin,. "under pain and perils of disherison, and loss of "life and member, that no one break the peace 112 Moor, 600, 601. Wals. 126. Knyght. 2549. |