STRATFORD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 275 was beheaded on Lowe Hill, near the town of Warwick. On the 1st of February, 1327, Edward the Third, then in his fifteenth year, was crowned in Westminster Abbey, and the same day he was knighted in the palace by his cousin Henry, Earl of Lancaster; the double ceremony being followed by a magnificent banquet in Westminster Hall. Ten years afterwards, we find the young King knighting, and conferring the Dukedom of Cornwall and the Earldom of Chester on his infant son, Prince Edward, afterwards so celebrated as the Black Prince. The ceremony, which took place in the palace of Westminster, was followed by magnificent banquetings and rejoicings, the King at the same time creating six other earls. Edward himself girded the sword to the side of his child, then only six years old; after which ceremony, the young Prince, in virtue of his becoming possessed of the palatinate of Chester, conferred knighthood on twenty persons of noble family. It may be mentioned that this was the first instance of the creation of a duke in England. In April 1341, a very curious scene took place in Westminster Palace. John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, having fallen under the displeasure of Edward the Third, was summoned to the Exchequer to answer the charges brought against him. Insisting, however, on the exalted rank which he held in the church, he refused to plead before any other tribunal but that of Parliament, and, setting the King's authority at defiance, he flew to the sanctuary at Can terbury, where," with the dreadful ceremony of bell, book, and candle, the bells ringing dolefully, and the candles being suddenly extinguished with a stench," he hurled anathemas at his enemies, and on all those who should dare to violate the sacred privileges of the church. At last, the King having summoned a Parliament to assemble in his palace at Westminster, the Archbishop repaired privately to London, and having prevailed upon the Bishops of London and Chester, and "a great company of clergymen and soldiers" to accompany him, he presented himself, armed with all the terrors of the church, at the gate of the palace. Having formally demanded admittance to the chamber in which the Parliament were assembled, and being forbid to enter, in the King's name, by Sir William Atwood, Captain of the King's Guard, the archbishop took the cross from the hands of an attendant churchman, and, raising it aloft, solemnly protested that he would never stir from the spot till the King admitted him to his seat in Parliament, or explained the reason why he was excluded. Some of the bystanders denouncing him " as a traitor who had deceived the King and betrayed the realm," the Archbishop turned passionately round to them. "The curse of God," he said, "and of his Blessed Mother, and of St. Thomas, and mine also, be upon the heads of those who inform the King so: Amen, Amen!" At this time some of the Barons interfered, and being induced to use their good offices with the King, Edward consented that the Archbishop THE BLACK PRINCE. 277 should be brought into the Parliament chamber. After some discussion, his case was referred to a tribunal, consisting of four bishops, four earls, and four barons. "On the 19th of April following," says Barnes, "being a Thursday, the King came into St. Edward's Chamber, commonly called the Painted Chamber, before whom, in sight of all the Lords and Commons, the Archbishop humbled himself, and required his gracious pardon; which, upon the whole Parliament's general suit and entreaty, his Majesty granted." Within a short time we find the Archbishop entirely restored to the favour of his royal master. In May 1356, John, King of France, who had recently been taken prisoner by the Black Prince at the Battle of Poictiers, was entertained by Edward the Third in Westminster Palace with great splendour. Edward, learning that his gallant son might shortly be expected in London with his august prisoner, sent to the Lord Mayor to prepare the city pageants, and to receive the French monarch with all due honours. Accordingly the triumphal procescession, for such it was, was joined at Southwark by more than a thousand of the principal citizens on horseback, who, uniting with the Prince's cavalcade, passed over London Bridge, and thence,-through streets hung with tapestry and spanned by frequent arches which had been erected for the occasion,rode on to Westminster Palace, where Edward was anxiously expecting the arrival of his illustrious guest. King John," says Barnes, "clothed in 66 royal apparel, was mounted on a cream-coloured charger, with splendid trappings, in token of sovereignty; and, to be more remarkable, the generous Prince of Wales rode by his side on a little black hobby, as one that industriously avoided all suspicion of a triumph." In the meantime, King Edward was seated in great state in Westminster Hall, and the French monarch no sooner entered than he descended from his throne, and, after embracing him with great courtesy and show of affection, led him to a magnificent banquet which had been prepared for him. In 1358, Edward the Third kept his Christmas with great splendour at Westminster, and, on this occasion, it is not a little curious to find his two illustrious captives, John King of France, and David King of Scotland, both seated at table with him at the same time. The English and French monarchs seem to have lived on the most friendly terms; the latter, we are told, during the time he was lodged in the Savoy Palace, "going as often as he pleased, privately by water, to visit King Edward at his palace of Westminster." Were it from no other circumstance, the old Palace of Westminster would be interesting as the spot where Edward the Black Prince breathed his last. He expired, on the 8th of June 1376, in the "Great Chamber," and was buried at Canterbury. Is the sable warrior fled? Thy son is gone: he rests among the dead. The King survived the melancholy event only twelvemonths. He died on the 21st of June 1377, RICHARD THE SECOND. 279 at the Palace of Sheen, or Richmond; abandoned, in his last moments, by his beautiful mistress Alice Piers, and "the other knights and esquires who had served him, allured more by his gifts than his love." Mighty victor, mighty lord, Low on his funeral couch he lies! The unfortunate Richard the Second constantly resided at Westminster, and it was in the chapel of the palace, according to Froissart, that he was married, on the 14th of January 1382, to the Princess Anne of Bohemia, sister of the Emperor Winceslaus. The ceremony was solemnized with extraordinary rejoicings. "At her coming to the city of London," says Holinshed, "she was met on Blackheath by the Mayor and citizens of London in most honourable wise, and so with great triumph conveyed to Westminster, where all the nobility of the realm being assembled, she was joined in marriage to the King, and shortly after crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with all the glory and honour that might be devised. There were also holden, for the more honour of the said marriage, solemn jousts for certain days together, in which, as well the Englishmen as the new Queen's countrymen, shewed proof of their manhood and valiancy, whereby praise and commendation of knightly prowess was achieved, not without damage of both parties." It was in the palace of Westminster, that the famous scene occurred, on the 3rd of May 1389, when Richard, then in his twenty-second year, sud |