[Illustration: 1_207_edward3.jpg EDWARD III.]
EDWARD III.
{1327.} The violent party which had taken arms against Edward II., and
finally deposed that unfortunate monarch, deemed it requisite for their
future security to pay so far an exterior obeisance to the law, as to
desire a parliamentary indemnity for all their illegal proceedings; on
account of the necessity which, it was pretended, they lay under, of
employing force against the Spensers and other evil counsellors, enemies
of the kingdom. All the attainders, also, which had passed against
the earl of Lancaster and his adherents, when the chance of war turned
against them, were easily reversed during the triumph of their
party;[*] and the Spensers, whose former attainder had been reversed by
parliament, were now again, in this change of fortune, condemned by the
votes of their enemies.
* Rymer, vol. iv. p. 245, 267, 258, etc.
A council of regency was likewise appointed by parliament, consisting of
twelve persons; five prelates, the archbishops of Canterbury and York,
the bishops of Winchester, Worcester, and Hereford; and seven lay peers,
the earls of Norfolk, Kent, and Surrey, and the lords Wake, Ingham,
Piercy, and Ross. The earl of Lancaster was appointed guardian and
protector of the king’s person. But though it was reasonable to
expect that, as the weakness of the former king had given reins to the
licentiousness of the barons, great domestic tranquillity would not
prevail during the present minority; the first disturbance arose from an
invasion by foreign enemies.
The king of Scots, declining in years and health, but retaining still
that martial spirit which had raised his nation from the lowest ebb of
fortune, deemed the present opportunity favorable for infesting England.
He first made an attempt on the Castle of Norham, in which he was
disappointed; he then collected an army of twenty-five thousand men on
the frontiers, and having given the command to the earl of Murray and
Lord Douglas, threatened an incursion into the northern counties. The
English regency, after trying in vain every expedient to restore
peace with Scotland, made vigorous preparations for war; and besides
assembling an English army of near sixty thousand men, they invited back
John of Hainault, and some foreign cavalry whom they had dismissed, and
whose discipline and arms had appeared superior to those of their own
country. Young Edward himself, burning with a passion for military fame,
appeared at the head of these numerous forces; and marched from Durham,
the appointed place of rendezvous, in quest of the enemy, who had
already broken into the frontiers, and were laying every thing waste
around them.
Murray and Douglas were the two most celebrated warriors, bred in
the long hostilities between the Scots and English; and their forces,
trained in the same school, and inured to hardships, fatigues, and
dangers, were perfectly qualified, by their habits and manner of life,
for that desultory and destructive war which they carried into England.
Except a body of about four thousand cavalry, well armed, and fit
to make a steady impression in battle, the rest of the army were
light-armed troops, mounted on small horses, which found subsistence
every where, and carried them with rapid and unexpected marches, whether
they meant to commit depredations on the peaceable inhabitants, or to
attack an armed enemy, or to retreat into their own country. Their whole
equipage consisted of a bag of oatmeal, which, as a supply in case of
necessity, each soldier carried behind him; together with a light plate
of iron, on which he instantly baked the meal into a cake in the open
fields. But his chief subsistence was the cattle which he seized;
and his cookery was as expeditious as all his other operations. After
flaying the animal, he placed the skin, loose and hanging in the form of
a bag, upon some stakes; he poured water into it, kindled a fire below,
and thus made it serve as a caldron for the boiling of his victuals.[*]
* Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 18.
The chief difficulty which Edward met with, after composing some
dangerous frays which broke out between his foreign forces and the
English,[*] was to come up with an army so rapid in its marches, and so
little encumbered in its motions. Though the flame and smoke of burning
villages directed him sufficiently to the place of their encampment, he
found, upon hurrying thither, that they had already dislodged; and he
soon discovered, by new marks of devastation, that they had removed to
some distant quarter. After harassing his army during some time in this
fruitless chase, he advanced northwards, and crossed the Tyne, with
a resolution of awaiting them on their return homewards, and taking
vengeance for all their depredations.[**] But that whole country was
already so much wasted by their frequent incursions, that it could
not afford subsistence to his army; and he was obliged again to return
southwards, and change his plan of operations. He had now lost all track
of the enemy; and though he promised the reward of a hundred pounds a
year to any one who should bring him an account of their motions, he
remained inactive some days before he received any intelligence of
them.[***] He found at last that they had fixed their camp on the
southern banks of the Were, as if they intended to await a battle; but
their prudent leaders had chosen the ground with such judgment, that the
English, on their approach, saw it impracticable, without temerity,
to cross the river in their front, and attack them in their present
situation. Edward, impatient for revenge and glory, here sent them a
defiance, and challenged them, if they dared, to meet him in an equal
field, and try the fortune of arms. The bold spirit of Douglas could ill
brook this bravado, and he advised the acceptance of the challenge; but
he was overruled by Murray, who replied to Edward that he never took the
counsel of an enemy in any of his operations. The king, therefore,
kept still his position opposite to the Scots; and daily expected that
necessity would oblige them to change their quarters, and give him an
opportunity of overwhelming them with superior forces. After a few days,
they suddenly decamped, and marched farther up the river; but still
posted themselves in such a manner as to preserve the advantage of the
ground if the enemy should venture to attack them.[****]
* Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 17.
** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19.
*** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 312. Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19.
**** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19.
Edward insisted that all hazards should be run, rather than allow these
ravagers to escape with impunity; but Mortimer’s authority prevented the
attack, and opposed itself to the valor of the young monarch. While the
armies lay in this position, an incident happened which had well nigh
proved fatal to the English. Douglas, having gotten the word, and
surveyed exactly the situation of the English camp, entered it secretly
in the night-time, with a body of two hundred determined soldiers, and
advanced to the royal tent, with a view of killing or carrying off the
king in the midst of his army. But some of Edward’s attendants, awaking
in that critical moment, made resistance; his chaplain and chamberlain
sacrificed their lives for his safety; the king himself, after making
a valorous defence, escaped in the dark; and Douglas, having lost the
greater part of his followers, was glad to make a hasty retreat with the
remainder.[*] Soon after, the Scottish army decamped without noise in
the dead of night; and having thus gotten the start of the English,
arrived without further loss in their own country. Edward, on entering
the place of the Scottish encampment, found only six Englishmen, whom
the enemy, after breaking their legs, had tied to trees, in order to
prevent their carrying any intelligence to their countrymen.[**]
* Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19. Heming. p. 265. Ypod. Neust.
p. 509. Knyghton, p 2552.
** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 19.
The king was highly incensed at the disappointment which he had met
with in his first enterprise, and at the head of so gallant an army.
The symptoms which he had discovered of bravery and spirit gave extreme
satisfaction, and were regarded as sure prognostics of an illustrious
reign: but the general displeasure fell violently on Mortimer, who was
already the object of public odium; and every measure which he pursued
tended to aggravate, beyond all bounds, the hatred of the nation both
against him and Queen Isabella.
When the council of regency was formed, Mortimer, though in the
plenitude of his power, had taken no care to insure a place in it; but
this semblance of moderation was only a cover to the most iniquitous and
most ambitious projects. He rendered that council entirely useless, by
usurping to himself the whole sovereign authority; he settled on the
queen dowager the greater part of the royal revenues; he never consulted
either the princes of the blood or the nobility in any public measure;
the king himself was so besieged by his creatures, that no access could
be procured to him; and all the envy which had attended Gavaston and
Spenser fell much more deservedly on the new favorite.
{1328.} Mortimer, sensible of the growing hatred of the people, thought
it requisite on any terms to secure peace abroad; and he entered into
a negotiation with Robert Bruce for that purpose. As the claim of
superiority in England, more than any other cause, had tended to inflame
the animosities between the two nations, Mortimer, besides stipulating a
marriage between Jane, sister of Edward, and David, the son and heir of
Robert, consented to resign absolutely this claim, to give up all the
homages done by the Scottish parliament and nobility, and to acknowledge
Robert as independent sovereign of Scotland.[*] In return for these
advantages, Robert stipulated the payment of thirty thousand marks
to England. This treaty was ratified by parliament;[**] but was
nevertheless the source of great discontent among the people, who,
having entered zealously into the pretensions of Edward I., and deeming
themselves disgraced by the successful resistance made by so inferior a
nation, were disappointed, by this treaty, in all future hopes both of
conquest and of vengeance.
The princes of the blood, Kent, Norfolk, and Lancaster, were much united
in their councils; and Mortimer entertained great suspicions of their
designs against him. In summoning them to parliament, he strictly
prohibited them, in the king’s name, from coming attended by an armed
force; an illegal but usual practice in that age. The three earls, as
they approached to Salisbury, the place appointed for the meeting of
parliament, found, that though they themselves, in obedience to the
king’s command, had brought only their usual retinue with them, Mortimer
and his party were attended by all their followers in arms; and they
began with some reason to apprehend a dangerous design against their
persons. They retreated, assembled their retainers, and were returning
with an army to take vengeance on Mortimer; when the weakness of Kent
and Norfolk, who deserted the common cause, obliged Lancaster also to
make his submissions.[***]
* Rymer, p. 837. Heming. p. 270. Anon. Hist p. 392.
** Ypod, Neust. p. 510.
*** Knyghton, p. 2554.
The quarrel by the interposition of the prelates, seemed for the present
to be appeased.
{1329.} But Mortimer, in order to intimidate the princes, determined to
have a victim; and the simplicity, with the good intentions of the earl
of Kent, afforded him soon after an opportunity of practising upon him.
By himself and his emissaries he endeavored to persuade that prince that
his brother, King Edward, was still alive, and detained in some secret
prison in England. The earl, whose remorses for the part which he had
acted against the late king probably inclined him to give credit to
this intelligence, entered into a design of restoring him to liberty, of
reinstating him on the throne, and of making thereby some atonement for
the injuries which he himself had unwarily done him.[*]
{1330.} After this harmless contrivance had been allowed to proceed a
certain length, the earl was seized by Mortimer, was accused before the
parliament, and condemned, by those slavish though turbulent barons, to
lose his life and fortune. The queen and Mortimer, apprehensive of young
Edward’s lenity towards his uncle, hurried on the execution, and the
prisoner was beheaded next day: but so general was the affection borne
him, and such pity prevailed for his unhappy fate, that, though peers
had been easily found to condemn him, it was evening before his enemies
could find an executioner to perform the office.[**]
* Avesbury, p. 8. Anon. Hist. p. 395.
** Heming. p. 271. Ypod. Neust. p. 510. Knyghton, p. 2555.
The earl of Lancaster, on pretence of his having assented to this
conspiracy, was soon after thrown into prison: many of the prelates and
nobility were prosecuted: Mortimer employed this engine to crush all his
enemies, and to enrich himself and his family by the forfeitures. The
estate of the earl of Kent was seized for his younger son, Geoffrey:
the immense fortunes of the Spensers and their adherents were mostly
converted to his own use: he affected a state and dignity equal or
superior to the royal: his power became formidable to every one: his
illegal practices were daily complained of: and all parties, forgetting
past animosities, conspired in their hatred of Mortimer.
It was impossible that these abuses could long escape the observation of
a prince endowed with so much spirit and judgment as young Edward,
who, being now in his eighteenth year, and feeling himself capable of
governing, repined at being held in fetters by this insolent minister.
But so much was he surrounded by the emissaries of Mortimer, that it
behoved him to conduct the project for subverting him with the same
secrecy and precaution as if he had been forming a conspiracy against
his sovereign. He communicated his intentions to Lord Mountacute, who
engaged the Lords Molins and Clifford, Sir John Nevil of Hornby, Sir
Edward Bohun, Ufford, and others, to enter into their views; and the
Castle of Nottingham was chosen for the scene of the enterprise. The
queen dowager and Mortimer lodged in that fortress: the king also was
admitted, though with a few only of his attendants: and as the castle
was strictly guarded, the gates locked every evening, and the keys
carried to the queen, it became necessary to communicate the design to
Sir William Eland, the governor, who zealously took part in it. By his
direction, the king’s associates were admitted through a subterraneous
passage, which had formerly been contrived for a secret outlet from the
castle, but was now buried in rubbish; and Mortimer, without having it
in his power to make resistance, was suddenly seized in an apartment
adjoining to the queen’s.[*] A parliament was immediately summoned for
his condemnation. He was accused before that assembly of having usurped
regal power from the council of regency appointed by parliament; of
having procured the death of the late king; of having deceived the earl
of Kent into a conspiracy to restore that prince; of having solicited
and obtained exorbitant grants of the royal demesnes; of having
dissipated the public treasure; of secreting twenty thousand marks
of the money paid by the king of Scotland; and of other crimes and
misdemeanors.[**] The parliament condemned him from the supposed
notoriety of the facts, without trial, or hearing his answer, or
examining a witness; and he was hanged on a gibbet at the Elmes, in the
neighborhood of London. It is remarkable, that this sentence was near
twenty years after reversed by parliament, in favor of Mortimer’s son;
and the reason assigned was, the illegal manner of proceeding.[***] The
principles of law and justice were established in England, not in such a
degree as to prevent any iniquitous sentence against a person obnoxious
to the ruling party; but sufficient, on the return of his credit, or
that of his friends, to serve as a reason or pretence for its reversal.
* Avesbury, p. 9.
** Brady’s App. No. 83. Anon. Hist. p. 397, 398. Knyghton,
p. 2556.
*** Cotton’s Abridg. p. 85, 86.
{1331.} Justice was also executed by a sentence of the house of peers on
some of the inferior criminals, particularly on Simon de Bereford: but
the barons, in that act of jurisdiction, entered a protest, that though
they had tried Bereford, who was none of their peers, they should not
for the future be obliged to receive any such indictment. The queen
was confined to her own house at Risings, near London: her revenue was
reduced to four thousand pounds a year:[*] and though the king, during
the remainder of her life, paid her a decent visit once or twice a year,
she never was able to reinstate herself in any credit or authority.
Edward, having now taken the reins of government into his own hands,
applied himself, with industry and judgment, to redress all those
grievances which had proceeded either from want of authority in the
crown, or from the late abuses of it. He issued writs to the judges,
enjoining them to administer justice, without paying any regard to
arbitrary orders from the ministers: and as the robbers, thieves,
murderers, and criminals of all kinds, had, during the course of public
convulsions, multiplied to an enormous degree, and were openly protected
by the great barons, who made use of them against their enemies, the
king, after exacting from the peers a solemn promise in parliament,
that they would break off all connections with such malefactors,[**] set
himself in earnest to remedy the evil. Many of these gangs had become so
numerous as to require his own presence to disperse them; and he
exerted both courage and industry in executing this salutary office. The
ministers of justice, from his example, employed the utmost diligence
in discovering, pursuing, and punishing the criminals; and this disorder
was by degrees corrected, at least palliated; the utmost that could be
expected with regard to a disease hitherto inherent in the constitution.
* Cotton’s Abridg. p. 10
** Cotton’s Abridg. p. 10.
In proportion as the government acquired authority at home, it became
formidable to the neighboring nations; and the ambitious spirit of
Edward sought, and soon found, an opportunity of exerting itself.
The wise and valiant Robert Bruce, who had recovered by arms the
independence of his country, and had fixed it by the last treaty of
peace with England, soon after died, and left David his son, a minor,
under the guardianship of Randolph, earl of Murray, the companion of
all his victories. It had been stipulated in this treaty, that both the
Scottish nobility who, before the commencement of the wars enjoyed lands
in England, and the English who inherited estates in Scotland, should be
restored to their respective possessions:[*] but though this article
had been executed pretty regularly on the part of Edward, Robert, who
observed that the estates claimed by Englishmen were much more numerous
and valuable than the others, either thought it dangerous to admit so
many secret enemies into the kingdom, or found it difficult to wrest
from his own followers the possessions bestowed on them as the reward
of former services; and he had protracted the performance of his part of
the stipulation. The English nobles, disappointed in their expectations,
began to think of a remedy; and as their influence was great in the
north, their enmity alone, even though unsupported by the King of
England, became dangerous to the minor prince who succeeded to the
Scottish throne.
{1332.} Edward Baliol, the son of that John who was crowned king of
Scotland, had been detained some time a prisoner in England after his
father was released; but having also obtained his liberty, he went over
to France, and resided in Normandy, on his patrimonial estate in that
country, without any thoughts of reviving the claims of his family to
the crown of Scotland. His pretensions, however plausible, had been so
strenuously abjured by the Scots and rejected by the English, that he
was universally regarded as a private person; and he had been thrown
into prison on account of some private offence of which he was accused.
Lord Beaumont, a great English baron, who, in the right of his wife,
claimed the earldom of Buchan in Scotland,[**] found him in this
situation; and deeming him a proper instrument for his purpose,
made such interest with the king of France, who was not aware of the
consequences, that he recovered him his liberty, and brought him over
with him to England.
* Rymer, vol. iv. p. 384.
** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 251.
The injured nobles, possessed of such a head, began to think of
vindicating their rights by force of arms; and they applied to Edward
for his concurrence and assistance. But there were several reasons which
deterred the king from openly avowing their enterprise. In his treaty
with Scotland he had entered into a bond of twenty thousand pounds,
payable to the pope, if within four years he violated the peace; and as
the term was not yet elapsed, he dreaded the exacting of that penalty by
the sovereign pontiff, who possessed so many means of forcing princes to
make payment. He was also afraid that violence and injustice would every
where be imputed to him, if he attacked with superior force a minor
king, and a brother-in-law, whose independent title had so lately been
acknowledged by a solemn treaty. And as the regent of Scotland, on every
demand which had been made of restitution to the English barons, had
always confessed the justice of their claim, and had only given an
evasive answer, grounded on plausible pretences, Edward resolved not to
proceed by open violence, but to employ like artifices against him. He
secretly encouraged Baliol in his enterprise; connived at his assembling
forces in the north; and gave countenance to the nobles who were
disposed to join in the attempt. A force of near two thousand five
hundred men was enlisted under Baliol, by Umfreville, earl of Angus,
the lords Beaumont, Ferrars, Fitz-warin, Wake, Stafford, Talbot, and
Moubray. As these adventurers apprehended that the frontiers would be
strongly armed and guarded, they resolved to make their attack by sea;
and having embarked at Ravenspur, they reached in a few days the coast
of Fife.
Scotland was at that time in a very different situation from that in
which it had appeared under the victorious Robert. Besides the loss
of that great monarch, whose genius and authority preserved entire the
whole political fabric, and maintained a union among the unruly barons,
Lord Douglas, impatient of rest, had gone over to Spain in a crusade
against the Moors, and had there perished in battle:[*] the earl of
Murray, who had long been declining through age and infirmities, had
lately died, and had been succeeded in the regency by Donald, earl of
Marre, a man of much inferior talents: the military spirit of the Scots,
though still unbroken, was left without a proper guidance and direction:
and a minor king seemed ill qualified to defend an inheritance, which
it had required all the consummate valor and abilities of his father to
acquire and maintain.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 21.
But as the Scots were apprised of the intended invasion, great numbers,
on the appearance of the English fleet, immediately ran to the shore,
in order to prevent the landing of the enemy. Baliol had valor and
activity, and he drove back the Scots with considerable loss.[*] He
marched westward into the heart of the country; flattering himself
that the ancient partisans of his family would declare for him. But
the fierce animosities which had been kindled between the two nations,
inspiring the Scots with a strong prejudice against a prince supported
by the English, he was regarded as a common enemy; and the regent found
no difficulty in assembling a great army to oppose him. It is pretended
that Marre had no less than forty thousand men under his banners; but
the same hurry and impatience that made him collect a force, which, from
its greatness, was so disproportioned to the occasion, rendered all
his motions unskilful and imprudent. The River Erne ran between the two
armies; and the Scots, confiding in that security, as well as in their
great superiority of numbers, kept no order in their encampment.
Baliol passed the river in the night-time; attacked the unguarded and
undisciplined Scots; threw them into confusion, which was increased by
the darkness, and by their very numbers, to which they trusted; and he
beat them off the field with great slaughter.[**] But in the morning,
when the Scots were at some distance, they were ashamed of having
yielded the victory to so weak a foe, and they hurried back to recover
the honor of the day. Their eager passions urged them precipitately to
battle, without regard to some broken ground which lay between them
and the enemy, and which disordered and confounded their ranks. Baliol
seized the favorable opportunity, advanced his troops upon them,
prevented them from rallying, and anew chased them off the field with
redoubled slaughter. There fell above twelve thousand Scots in this
action; and among these the flower of their nobility; the regent
himself, the earl of Carrick, a natural son of their late king, the
earls of Athole and Monteith, lord Hay of Errol, constable, and the
lords Keith and Lindsey. The loss of the English scarcely exceeded
thirty men; a strong proof, among many others, of the miserable state of
military discipline in those ages.[***]
* Heming. p. 272. Walsing. p. 131. Knyghton, p. 2560.
** Knyghton, p. 2561.
*** Heming. p. 273. Walsing. p. 131. Knyghton, p. 2561.
Baliol soon after made himself master of Perth; but still was not able
to bring over any of the Scots to his party. Patric Dunbar, earl of
Marche, and Sir Archibald Douglas, brother to the lord of that name,
appeared at the head of the Scottish armies, which amounted still to
near forty thousand men; and they purposed to reduce Baliol and the
English by famine. They blockaded Perth by land; they collected some
vessels with which they invested it by water; but Baliol’s ships,
attacking the Scottish fleet, gained a complete victory, and opened the
communication between Perth and the sea.[*] The Scotch armies were then
obliged to disband for want of pay and subsistence: the nation was in
effect subdued by a handful of men: each nobleman who found himself most
exposed to danger, successively submitted to Baliol: that prince was
crowned at Scone: David, his competitor, was sent over to France with
his betrothed wife Jane, sister to Edward: and the heads of his party
sued to Baliol for a truce, which he granted them, in order to assemble
a parliament in tranquillity, and have his title recognized by the whole
Scottish nation.
* Heming p. 273. Knyghton, p. 2561.
{1333.} But Baliol’s imprudence, or his necessities, making him dismiss
the greater part of his English followers, he was, notwithstanding the
truce, attacked of a sudden near Annan, by Sir Archibald Douglas and
other chieftains of that party; he was routed; his brother, John Baliol,
was slain; he himself was chased into England in a miserable condition;
and thus lost his kingdom by a revolution as sudden as that by which he
had acquired it.
While Baliol enjoyed his short-lived and precarious royalty, he had been
sensible that, without the protection of England, it would be impossible
for him to maintain possession of the throne; and he had secretly sent a
message to Edward, offering to acknowledge his superiority, to renew the
homage for his crown, and to espouse the princess Jane, if the pope’s
consent could be obtained for dissolving her former marriage, which
was not yet consummated. Edward, ambitious of recovering that important
concession, made by Mortimer during his minority, threw off all
scruples, and willingly accepted the offer; but as the dethroning of
Baliol had rendered this stipulation of no effect, the king prepared to
reinstate him in possession of the crown; an enterprise which appeared
from late experience so easy and so little hazardous. As he possessed
many popular arts, he consulted his parliament on the occasion; but
that assembly, finding the resolution already taken, declined giving any
opinion, and only granted him, in order to support the enterprise, an
aid of a fifteenth from the personal estates of the nobility and gentry,
and a tenth of the movables of boroughs. And they added a petition, that
the king would thenceforth live on his own revenue, without grieving his
subjects by illegal taxes, or by the outrageous seizure of their goods
in the shape of purveyance.[*]
As the Scots expected that the chief brunt of the war would fall upon
Berwick, Douglas, the regent, threw a strong garrison into that place,
under the command of Sir William Keith, and he himself assembled a great
army on the frontiers, ready to penetrate into England as soon as Edward
should have invested that place. The English army was less numerous,
but better supplied with arms and provisions, and retained in stricter
discipline; and the king, notwithstanding the valiant defence made by
Keith, had in two months reduced the garrison to extremities, and had
obliged them to capitulate: they engaged to surrender, if they were not
relieved within a few days by their countrymen.[**] This intelligence
being conveyed to the Scottish army, which was preparing to invade
Northumberland, changed their plan of operations, and engaged them
to advance towards Berwick, and attempt the relief of that important
fortress. Douglas, who had ever purposed to decline a pitched battle,
in which he was sensible of the enemy’s superiority, and who intended
to have drawn out the war by small skirmishes, and by mutually ravaging
each other’s country, was forced, by the impatience of his troops, to
put the fate of the kingdom upon the event of one day. He attacked the
English at Halidown Hill, a little north of Berwick; and though his
heavy-armed cavalry dismounted, in order to render the action more
steady and desperate, they were received with such valor by Edward, and
were so galled by the English archers, that they were soon thrown into
disorder and on the fall of Douglas, their general, were totally routed.
The whole army fled in confusion, and the English, but much more the
Irish, gave little quarter in the pursuit: all the nobles of chief
distinction were either slain or taken prisoners: near thirty thousand
of the Scots fell in the action; while the loss of the English amounted
only to one knight, one esquire, and thirteen private soldiers; an
inequality almost incredible.[***]
* Cotton’s Abridg.
** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 564, 565, 566
*** Heming. p. 275, 276, 277. Knyghton, p. 2559. Otterborne,
p 115.
After this fatal blow, the Scottish nobles had no other resource than
instant submission; and Edward, leaving a considerable body with Baliol
to complete the conquest of the kingdom, returned with the remainder
of his army to England. Baliol was acknowledged king by a parliament
assembled at Edinburgh;[*] the superiority of England was again
recognized; many of the Scottish nobility swore fealty to Edward; and to
complete the misfortunes of that nation, Baliol ceded Berwick, Dunbar,
Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and all the south-east counties of Scotland, which
were declared to be forever annexed to the English monarchy.[**]
* Rymer vol. v. p. 590.
** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 614.
{1334.} If Baliol on his first appearance was dreaded by the Scots, as
an instrument employed by England for the subjection of the kingdom,
this deed confirmed all their suspicions, and rendered him the object
of universal hatred. Whatever submissions they might be obliged to
make, they considered him not as their prince, but as the delegate and
confederate of their determined enemy: and neither the manners of the
age, nor the state of Edward’s revenue, permitting him to maintain a
standing army in Scotland, the English forces were no sooner withdrawn,
than the Scots revolted from Baliol, and returned to their former
allegiance under Bruce. Sir Andrew Murray, appointed regent by the party
of this latter prince, employed with success his valor and activity in
many small but decisive actions against Baliol; and in a short time had
almost wholly expelled him the kingdom.
{1335.} Edward was obliged again to assemble an army, and to march into
Scotland: the Scots, taught by experience, withdrew into their hills
and fastnesses: he destroyed the houses and ravaged the estates of those
whom he called rebels: but this confirmed them still further in their
obstinate antipathy to England and to Baliol; and being now rendered
desperate, they were ready to take advantage, on the first opportunity,
of the retreat of their enemy, and they soon reconquered their country
from the English.
{1336.} Edward made anew his appearance in Scotland with like success:
he found every thing hostile in the kingdom, except the spot on which he
was encamped: and though he marched uncontrolled over the low countries,
the nation itself was farther than ever from being broken and subdued.
Besides being supported by their pride and anger, passions difficult
to tame, they were encouraged, amidst all their calamities, by daily
promises of relief from France; and as war was now likely to break out
between that kingdom and England, they had reason to expect, from this
incident, a great diversion of that force which had so long oppressed
and overwhelmed them.
{1337.} We now come to a transaction on which depended the most
memorable events, not only of this long and active reign, but of the
whole English and French history during more than a century; and it will
therefore be necessary to give a particular account of the springs and
causes of it.
It had long been a prevailing opinion, that the crown of France could
never descend to a female; and in order to give more authority to this
maxim, and assign it a determinate origin, it had been usual to derive
it from a clause in the Salian code, the law of an ancient tribe among
the Franks; though that clause, when strictly examined, carries only
the appearance of favoring this principle, and does not really, by the
confession of the best antiquaries, bear the sense commonly imposed
upon it. But though positive law seems wanting among the French for the
exclusion of females, the practice had taken place; and the rule was
established beyond controversy on some ancient as well as some modern
precedents. During the first race of the monarchy, the Franks were so
rude and barbarous a people, that they were incapable of submitting to
a female reign; and in that period of their history there were frequent
instances of kings advanced to royalty, in prejudice of females who
were related to the crown by nearer degrees of consanguinity. These
precedents, joined to like causes, had also established the male
succession in the second race; and though the instances were neither so
frequent nor so certain during that period, the principle of excluding
the female line seems still to have prevailed, and to have directed the
conduct of the nation. During the third race, the crown had descended
from father to son for eleven generations, from Hugh Capet to Lewis
Hutin; and thus, in fact, during the course of nine hundred years, the
French monarchy had always been governed by males, and no female, and
none who founded his title on a female, had ever mounted the throne.
Philip the Fair, father of Lewis Hutin, left three sons, this Lewis,
Philip the Long, and Charles the Fair, and one daughter, Isabella, queen
of England. Lewis Hutin, the eldest, left at his death one daughter, by
Margaret, sister to Eudes, duke of Burgundy; and as his queen was then
pregnant, Philip, his younger brother, was appointed regent, till it
should appear whether the child proved a son or a daughter. The queen
bore a male, who lived only a few days: Philip was proclaimed king: and
as the duke of Burgundy made some opposition, and asserted the rights of
his niece, the states of the kingdom, by a solemn and deliberate decree,
gave her an exclusion, and declared all females forever incapable of
succeeding to the crown of France. Philip died after a short reign,
leaving three daughters; and his brother Charles, without dispute or
controversy, then succeeded to the crown. The reign of Charles was also
short; he left one daughter; but as his queen was pregnant, the next
male heir was appointed regent, with a declared right of succession
if the issue should prove female. This prince was Philip de Valois,
cousin-german to the deceased king; being the son of Charles de Valois,
brother of Philip the Fair. The queen of France was delivered of a
daughter: the regency ended; and Philip de Valois was unanimously placed
on the throne of France.
The king of England, who was at that time a youth of fifteen years of
age, embraced a notion that he was entitled, in right of his mother,
to the succession of the kingdom, and that the claim of the nephew
was preferable to that of the cousin-german. There could not well be
imagined a notion weaker or worse grounded. The principle of excluding
females was of old an established opinion in France, and had acquired
equal authority with the most express and positive law: it was supported
by ancient precedents: it was confirmed by recent instances, solemnly
and deliberately decided: and what placed it still farther beyond
controversy, if Edward was disposed to question its validity, he thereby
cut off his own pretensions; since the three last kings had all left
daughters, who were still alive, and who stood before him in the order
of succession. He was therefore reduced to assert that, though his
mother Isabella was, on account of her sex, incapable of succeeding, he
himself, who inherited through her, was liable to no such objection,
and might claim by the right of propinquity. But, besides that this
pretension was more favorable to Charles, king of Navarre, descended
from the daughter of Lewis Hutin, it was so contrary to the established
principles of succession in every country of Europe,[*] was so repugnant
to the practice both in private and public inheritances, that nobody in
France thought of Edward’s claim.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 4.
Philip’s title was universally recognized;[*] and he never imagined
that he had a competitor, much less so formidable a one as the king of
England.
But though the youthful and ambitious mind of Edward had rashly
entertained this notion, he did not think proper to insist on his
pretensions, which must have immediately involved him, on very unequal
terms, in a dangerous and implacable war with so powerful a monarch.
Philip was a prince of mature years, of great experience, and at that
time of an established character both for prudence and valor; and by
these circumstances, as well as by the internal union of his people, and
their acquiescence in his undoubted right, he possessed every advantage
above a raw youth, newly raised, by injustice and violence, to the
government of the most intractable and most turbulent subjects in
Europe. But there immediately occurred an incident which required that
Edward should either openly declare his pretensions, or forever renounce
and abjure them. He was summoned to do homage for Guienne: Philip was
preparing to compel him by force of arms: that country was in a very bad
state of defence: and the forfeiture of so rich an inheritance was, by
the feudal law, the immediate consequence of his refusing or declining
to perform the duty of a vassal. Edward therefore thought it prudent
to submit to present necessity: he went over to Amiens, did homage to
Philip, and as there had arisen some controversy concerning the terms
of this submission, he afterwards sent over a formal deed, in which
he acknowledged that he owed liege homage to France;[**] which was in
effect ratifying, and that in the strongest terms, Philip’s title to the
crown of that kingdom. His own claim indeed was so unreasonable, and so
thoroughly disavowed by the whole French nation, that to insist on it
was no better than pretending to the violent conquest of the kingdom;
and it is probable that he would never have further thought of it, had
it not been for some incidents which excited an animosity between the
monarchs.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 22.
** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 477, 481. Froissard, liv. i. chap. 25.
Anon, Hist. p. 394. Walsing. p. 130. Murimuth, p. 73. 195
Robert of Artois was descended from the blood royal of France, was a man
of great character and authority, had espoused Philip’s sister, and by
his birth, talents, and credit was entitled to make the highest figure,
and fill the most important offices in the monarchy. This prince had
lost the county of Artois, which he claimed as his birthright, by a
sentence, commonly deemed iniquitous, of Philip the Fair; and he was
seduced to attempt recovering possession by an action so unworthy of his
rank and character as a forgery.[*] The detection of this crime covered
him with shame and confusion: his brother-in-law not only abandoned him,
but prosecuted him with violence: Robert, incapable of bearing disgrace,
left the kingdom, and hid himself in the Low Countries: chased from that
retreat by the authority of Philip, he came over to England; in spite of
the French king’s menaces and remonstrances, he was favorably received
by Edward; [**] and was soon admitted into the councils and shared the
confidence of that monarch. Abandoning himself to all the movements of
rage and despair, he endeavored to revive the prepossession entertained
by Edward in favor of his title to the crown of France, and even
flattered him that it was not impossible for a prince of his valor and
abilities to render his claim effectual.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 29.
** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 747. Froissard, liv. i. chap. 27.
The king was the more disposed to hearken to suggestions of this nature,
because he had, in several particulars, found reason to complain of
Philip’s conduct with regard to Guienne, and because that prince had
both given protection to the exiled David Bruce, and supported, at
least encouraged, the Scots in their struggles for independence. Thus
resentment gradually filled the breasts of both monarchs, and made them
incapable of hearkening to any terms of accommodation proposed by the
pope, who never ceased interposing his good offices between them. Philip
thought that he should be wanting to the first principles of policy
if he abandoned Scotland: Edward affirmed that he must relinquish all
pretensions to generosity if he withdrew his protection from Robert.
The former, informed of some preparations for hostilities which had been
made by his rival, issued a sentence of felony and attainder against
Robert, and declared that every vassal of the crown, whether within
or without the kingdom, who gave countenance to that traitor, would
be involved in the same sentence; a menace easy to be understood: the
latter, resolute not to yield, endeavored to form alliances in the Low
Countries and on the frontiers of Germany, the only places from which
he either could make an effectual attack upon France, or produce such
a diversion as might save the province of Guienne, which lay so much
exposed to the power of Philip.
The king began with opening his intentions to the count of Hainault, his
father-in-law; and having engaged him in his interests, he employed the
good offices and councils of that prince in drawing into his alliance
the other sovereigns of that neighborhood. The duke of Brabant was
induced, by his mediation, and by large remittances of money from
England, to promise his concurrence;[*] the archbishop of Cologne, the
duke of Gueldres, the marquis of Juliers, the count of Namur, the lords
of Fauquemont and Baquen, were engaged by like motives to embrace the
English alliance.[**] These sovereign princes could supply, either
from their own states or from the bordering countries, great numbers of
warlike troops; and nought was wanting to make the force on that quarter
very formidable but the accession of Flanders; which Edward procured by
means somewhat extraordinary and unusual.
As the Flemings were the first people in the northern parts of Europe
that cultivated arts and manufactures, the lower ranks of men among them
had risen to a degree of opulence unknown elsewhere to those of their
station in that barbarous age; had acquired privileges and independence,
and began to emerge from that state of vassalage, or rather of slavery,
into which the common people had been universally thrown by the
feudal institutions. It was probably difficult for them to bring their
sovereign and their nobility to conform themselves to the principles of
law and civil government, so much neglected in every other country: it
was impossible for them to confine themselves within the proper bounds
in their opposition and resentment against any instance of tyranny: they
had risen in tumults: had insulted the nobles: had chased their earl
into France; and delivering themselves over to the guidance of a
seditious leader, had been guilty of all that insolence and disorder
to which the thoughtless and enraged populace are so much inclined,
wherever they are unfortunate enough to be their own masters.[***]
* Rymer, vol. iv. p. 777.
** Froissard, liv. iv. chap. 29, 33, 36.
*** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 30. Meyerus.
Their present leader was James d’Arteville, a brewer in Ghent, who
governed them with a more absolute sway than had ever been assumed by
any of their lawful sovereigns: he placed and displaced the magistrates
at pleasure: he was accompanied by a guard, who, on the least signal
from him, instantly assassinated any man that happened to fall under his
displeasure: all the cities of Flanders were full of his spies: and it
was immediate death to give him the smallest umbrage: the few nobles who
remained in the country, lived in continual terror from his violence: he
seized the estates of all those whom he had either banished or murdered;
and bestowing part on their wives and children, converted the remainder
to his own use.* Such were the first effects that Europe saw of popular
violence, after having groaned, during so many ages, under monarchical
and aristocratical tyranny.
James d’Arteville was the man to whom Edward addressed himself for
bringing over the Flemings to his interests; and that prince, the most
haughty and most aspiring of the age, never courted any ally with so
much assiduity and so many submissions as he employed towards this
seditious and criminal tradesman. D’Arteville, proud of these advances
from the king of England, and sensible that the Flemings were naturally
inclined to maintain connections with the English who furnished them
the materials of their woollen manufactures, the chief source of their
opulence, readily embraced the interests of Edward, and invited him
over into the Low Countries. Edward, before he entered on this great
enterprise, affected to consult his parliament, asked their advice,
and obtained their consent.[*] And the more to strengthen his hands, he
procured from them a grant of twenty thousand sacks of wool; which might
amount to about a hundred thousand pounds: this commodity was a good
instrument to employ with the Flemings; and the price of it with his
German allies. He completed the other necessary sums by loans, by
pawning the crown jewels, by confiscating or rather robbing at once all
the Lombards, who now exercised the invidious trade formerly monopolized
by the Jews, of lending on interest;[**] and being attended by a body
of English forces, and by several of his nobility, he sailed over to
Flanders.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 30. * Cotton’s Abridg.
** Dugd. Baron, vol. ii. p. 146.
{1338.} The German princes, in order to justify their unprovoked
hostilities against France, had required the sanction of some legal
authority; and Edward, that he might give them satisfaction on this
head, had applied to Lewis of Bavaria, then emperor, and had been
created by him “vicar of the empire;” an empty title, but which
seemed to give him a right of commanding the service of the princes of
Germany.[*] The Flemings, who were vassals of France, pretending like
scruples with regard to the invasion of their liege lord; Edward, by the
advice of d’Arteville, assumed, in his commissions, the title of king
of France; and, in virtue of this right, claimed their assistance for
dethroning Philip de Valois, the usurper of his kingdom.[**]
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 35.
** Heming. p. 303. Walsing. p. 143.
This step, which he feared would destroy all future amity between the
kingdoms, and beget endless and implacable jealousies in France, was not
taken by him without much reluctance and hesitation: and not being in
itself very justifiable, it has in the issue been attended with many
miseries to both kingdoms. From this period we may date the commencement
of that great animosity which the English nation have ever since
borne to the French, which has so visible an influence on all future
transactions, and which has been, and continues to be, the spring of
many rash and precipitate resolutions among them. In all the preceding
reigns since the conquest, the hostilities between the two crowns had
been only casual and temporary; and as they had never been attended
with any bloody or dangerous event, the traces of them were easily
obliterated by the first treaty of pacification. The English nobility
and gentry valued themselves on their French or Norman extraction:
they affected to employ the language of that country in all public
transactions, and even in familiar conversation; and both the English
court and camp being always full of nobles who came from different
provinces of France, the two people were, during some centuries, more
intermingled together than any two distinct nations whom we meet with
in history. But the fatal pretensions of Edward III. dissolved all these
connections, and left the seeds of great animosity in both countries,
especially among the English. For it is remarkable, that this latter
nation, though they were commonly the aggressors, and by their success
and situation were enabled to commit the most cruel injuries on the
other, have always retained a stronger tincture of national antipathy;
nor is their hatred retaliated on them to an equal degree by the French.
That country lies in the middle of Europe, has been successively engaged
in hostilities with all its neighbors, the popular prejudices have been
diverted into many channels, and, among a people of softer manners, they
never rose to a great height against any particular nation.
Philip made great preparations against the attack from the English,
and such as seemed more than sufficient to secure him from the danger.
Besides the concurrence of all the nobility in his own populous and
warlike kingdom, his foreign alliances were both more cordial and more
powerful than those which were formed by his antagonist. The pope,
who, at this time, lived in Avignon, was dependent on France; and being
disgusted at the connections between Edward and Lewis of Bavaria, whom
he had excommunicated, he embraced with zeal and sincerity the cause of
the French monarch. The king of Navarre, the duke of Brittany, the count
of Bar, were in the same interests; and on the side of Germany, the king
of Bohemia, the Palatine, the dukes of Lorraine and Austria, the bishop
of Liege, the counts of Deuxpont, Vaudemont, and Geneva. The allies of
Edward were in themselves weaker; and having no object but his money,
which began to be exhausted, they were slow in their motions and
irresolute in their measures.
{1339.} The duke of Brabant, the most powerful among them, seemed even
inclined to withdraw himself wholly from the alliance; and the king was
necessitated both to give the Brabanters new privileges in trade, and to
contract his son Edward with the daughter of that prince, ere he
could bring him to fulfil his engagements. The summer was wasted in
conferences and negotiations before Edward could take the field; and he
was obliged, in order to allure his German allies into his measures, to
pretend that the first attack should be made upon Cambray, a city of the
empire which had been garrisoned by Philip.[*] But finding, upon
trial, the difficulty of the enterprise, he conducted them towards the
frontiers of France; and he there saw, by a sensible proof, the vanity
of his expectations: the count of Namur, and even the count of Hainault,
his brother-in-law (for the old count was dead,) refused to commence
hostilities against their liege lord, and retired with their troops.[**]
So little account did they make of Edward’s pretensions to the crown of
France!
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 39. Heming. p. 305.
** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 29.
The king, however, entered the enemy’s country, and encamped on the
fields of Vironfosse, near Capeile, with an army of near fifty thousand
men, composed almost entirely of foreigners: Philip approached him with
an army of near double the force, composed chiefly of native subjects;
and it was daily expected that a battle would ensue. But the English
monarch was averse to engage against so great a superiority: the French
thought it sufficient if he eluded the attacks of his enemy, without
running any unnecessary hazard. The two armies faced each other for
some days: mutual defiances were sent: and Edward, at last, retired into
Flanders, and disbanded his army.[*]
Such was the fruitless and almost ridiculous conclusion of Edward’s
mighty preparations; and as his measures were the most prudent that
could be embraced in his situation, he might learn from experience in
what a hopeless enterprise he was engaged. His expenses, though they
had led to no end, had been consuming and destructive; he had contracted
near three hundred thousand pounds of debt;[**] he had anticipated all
his revenue; he had pawned every thing of value which belonged either
to himself or his queen; he was obliged in some measure even to pawn
himself to his creditors, by not sailing to England till he obtained
their permission, and by promising on his word of honor to return in
person, if he did not remit their money.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 41, 42, 43. Heming, p. 307.
Walsing p. 143.
** Cotton’s Abridg. p. 17.
But he was a prince of too much spirit to be discouraged by the first
difficulties of an undertaking; and he was anxious to retrieve his honor
by more successful and more gallant enterprises. For this purpose
he had, during the course of the campaign, sent orders to summon
a parliament by his son Edward, whom he had left with the title of
guardian, and to demand some supply in his urgent necessities. The
barons seemed inclined to grant his request; but the knights, who often,
at this time, acted as a separate body from the burgesses, made some
scruple of taxing their constituents without their consent; and they
desired the guardian to summon a new parliament, which might be properly
empowered for that purpose. The situation of the king and parliament
was for the time, nearly similar to that which they constantly fell into
about the beginning of the last century; and similar consequences began
visibly to appear. The king, sensible of the frequent demands which he
should be obliged to make on his people, had been anxious to insure to
his friends a seat in the house of commons, and at his instigation the
sheriffs and other placemen had made interest to be elected into that
assembly; an abuse which the knights desired the king to correct by the
tenor of his writ of summons, and which was accordingly remedied. On
the other hand, the knights had professedly annexed conditions to their
intended grant, and required a considerable retrenchment of the royal
prerogatives, particularly with regard to purveyance, and the levying
of the ancient feudal aids for knighting the king’s eldest son,
and marrying his eldest daughter. The new parliament, called by the
guardian, retained the same free spirit; and though they offered a large
supply of thirty thousand sacks of wool, no business was concluded;
because the conditions which they annexed appeared too high to be
compensated by a temporary concession. But when Edward himself came over
to England, he summoned another parliament, and he had the interest
to procure a supply on more moderate terms. A confirmation of the two
charters, and of the privileges of boroughs, a pardon for old debts and
trespasses, and a remedy for some abuses in the execution of common law,
were the chief conditions insisted on; and the king, in return for his
concessions on these heads, obtained from the barons and knights an
unusual grant for two years, of the ninth sheaf, lamb, and fleece on
their estates, and from the burgesses a ninth of their movables at their
true value. The whole parliament also granted a duty of forty shillings
on each sack of wool exported, on each three hundred woolfells, and
on each last of leather for the same term of years, but dreading the
arbitrary spirit of the crown, they expressly declared, that this grant
was to continue no longer, and was not to be drawn into precedent. Being
soon after sensible that this supply, though considerable, and very
unusual in that age, would come in slowly, and would not answer the
king’s urgent necessities, proceeding both from his debts and his
preparations for war, they agreed that twenty thousand sacks of wool
should immediately be granted him, and their value be deducted from the
ninths which were afterwards to be levied.
But there appeared at this time another jealousy in the parliament,
which was very reasonable, and was founded on a sentiment that ought
to have engaged them rather to check than support the king in all
those ambitious projects, so little likely to prove successful, and
so dangerous to the nation if they did. Edward, who, before the
commencement of the former campaign, had, in several commissions,
assumed the title of king of France, now more openly, in all public
deeds, gave himself that appellation, and always quartered the arms of
France with those of England in his seals and ensigns. The parliament
thought proper to obviate the consequences of this measure, and to
declare that they owed him no obedience as king of France, and that
the two kingdoms must forever remain distinct and independent.[*] They
undoubtedly foresaw that France, if subdued, would in the end prove
the seat of government; and they deemed this previous protestation
necessary, in order to prevent their becoming a province to that
monarchy: a frail security if the event had really taken place!
* 14 Edward III.
{1340.} As Philip was apprised, from the preparations which were making
both in England and the Low Countries, that he must expect another
invasion from Edward, he fitted out a great fleet of four hundred
vessels, manned with forty thousand men: and he stationed them off
Sluise, with a view of intercepting the king in his passage. The English
navy was much inferior in number, consisting only of two hundred and
forty sail; but whether it were by the superior abilities of Edward, or
the greater dexterity of his seamen, they gained the wind of the enemy,
and had the sun in their backs: and with these advantages began the
action. The battle was fierce and bloody: the English archers, whose
force and address were now much celebrated, galled the French on their
approach: and when the ships grappled together, and the contest became
more steady and furious, the example of the king, and of so many gallant
nobles who accompanied him, animated to such a degree the seamen and
soldiery, that they maintained every where a superiority over the enemy.
The French also had been guilty of some imprudence in taking their
station so near the coast of Flanders, and choosing that place for the
scene of action. The Flemings, descrying the battle, hurried out of
their harbors, and brought a reënforcement to the English; which, coming
unexpectedly, had a greater effect than in proportion to its power and
numbers. Two hundred and thirty French ships were taken: thirty thousand
Frenchmen were killed, with two of their admirals: the loss of the
English was inconsiderable, compared to the greatness and importance of
the victory.[*] None of Philip’s courtiers, it is said, dared to inform
him of the event; till his fool or jester gave him a hint, by which he
discovered the loss that he had sustained.[**]
The lustre of this great success increased the king’s authority among
his allies, who assembled their forces with expedition, and joined the
English army. Edward marched to the frontiers of France at the head of
above one hundred thousand men, consisting chiefly of foreigners, a more
numerous army than either before or since has ever been commanded by any
king of England.[***] At the same time the Flemings, to the number of
fifty thousand men, marched out under the command of Robert of Artois,
and laid siege to St. Omer; but this tumultuary army, composed entirely
of tradesmen unexperienced in war, was routed by a sally of the
garrison, and notwithstanding the abilities of their leader, was thrown
into such a panic, that they were instantly dispersed, and never more
appeared in the field. The enterprises of Edward, though not attended
with so inglorious an issue, proved equally vain and fruitless. The
king of France had assembled an army more numerous than the English; was
accompanied by all the chief nobility of his kingdom; was attended by
many foreign princes, and even by three monarchs, the kings of Bohemia,
Scotland, and Navarre:[****] yet he still adhered to the prudent
resolution of putting nothing to hazard; and after throwing strong
garrisons into all the frontier towns, he retired backwards, persuaded
that the enemy, having wasted their force in some tedious and
unsuccessful enterprise, would afford him an easy victory.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 51. Avesbury, p. 56. Heming. p.
321.
** Walsing. p. 148.
*** Rymer, vol. v. p. 197
**** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 57.
Tournay was at that time one of the most considerable cities of
Flanders, containing above sixty thousand inhabitants of all ages,
who were affectionate to the French government: and as the secret of
Edward’s designs had not been strictly kept, Philip learned that the
English, in order to gratify their Flemish allies, had intended to open
the campaign with the siege of this place: he took care therefore to
supply it with a garrison of fourteen thousand men, commanded by the
bravest nobility of France; and he reasonably expected that these
forces, joined to the inhabitants, would be able to defend the city
against all the efforts of the enemy. Accordingly Edward, when he
commenced the siege about the end of July found every where an obstinate
resistance: the valor of one side was encountered with equal valor by
the other: every assault was repulsed, and proved unsuccessful: and the
king was at last obliged to turn the siege into a blockade, in hopes
that the great numbers of the garrison and citizens, which had enabled
them to defend themselves against his attacks, would but expose them to
be the more easily reduced by famine.[*] The count of Eu, who commanded
in Tournay, as soon as he perceived that the English had formed this
plan of operations endeavored to save his provisions by expelling all
the useless mouths; and the duke of Brabant, who wished no success
to Edward’s enterprises, gave every one a free passage through his
quarters.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 54.
After the siege had continued ten weeks, the city was reduced to
distress; and Philip, recalling all his scattered garrisons, advanced
towards the English camp at the head of a mighty army, with an intention
of still avoiding any decisive action, but of seeking some opportunity
for throwing relief into the place. Here Edward, irritated with the
small progress he had hitherto made, and with the disagreeable prospect
that lay before him, sent Philip a defiance by a herald and challenged
him to decide their claims for the crown of France either by single
combat, or by an action of a hundred against a hundred, or by a general
engagement. But Philip replied, that Edward having done homage to him
for the duchy of Guienne, and having solemnly acknowledged him for his
superior, it by no means became him to send a defiance to his liege
lord and sovereign: that he was confident, notwithstanding all Edward’s
preparations, and his conjunction with the rebellious Flemings, he
himself should soon be able to chase him from the frontiers of France:
that as the hostilities from England had prevented him from executing
his purposed crusade against the infidels, he trusted in the assistance
of the Almighty, who would reward his pious intentions, and punish the
aggressor, whose ill-grounded claims had rendered them abortive: that
Edward proposed a duel on very unequal terms, and offered to hazard only
his own person against both the kingdom of France and the person of the
king: but that, if he would increase the stake, and put also the kingdom
of England on the issue of the duel, he would, notwithstanding that the
terms would still be unequal, very willingly accept of the challenge.[*]
It was easy to see that these mutual bravadoes were intended only to
dazzle the populace, and that the two kings were too wise to think of
executing their pretended purpose.
* Du Tillet, Recueil de Traités, etc. Heming. p. 325, 326.
Walsing, p. 149.
While the French and English armies lay in this situation, and a general
action was every day expected, Jane, countess dowager of Hainault,
interposed with her good offices, and endeavored to conciliate peace
between the contending monarchs, and to prevent any further effusion of
blood. This princess was mother-in-law to Edward, and sister to Philip;
and though she had taken the vows in a convent, and had renounced the
world, she left her retreat on this occasion, and employed all her pious
efforts to allay those animosities which had taken place between persons
so nearly related to her and to each other. As Philip had no material
claims on his antagonist, she found that he hearkened willingly to the
proposals; and even the haughty and ambitious Edward, convinced of his
fruitless attempt, was not averse to her negotiation. He was sensible,
from experience, that he had engaged in an enterprise which far exceeded
his force; and that the power of England was never likely to prevail
over that of a superior kingdom, firmly united under an able and
prudent monarch. He discovered that all the allies whom he could gain
by negotiation were at bottom averse to his enterprise; and though
they might second it to a certain length, would immediately detach
themselves, and oppose its final accomplishment, if ever they could be
brought to think that there was seriously any danger of it. He even
saw that their chief purpose was to obtain money from him; and as his
supplies from England came in very slowly, and had much disappointed his
expectations, he perceived their growing indifference in his cause,
and their desire of embracing all plausible terms of accommodation.
Convinced at last that an undertaking must be imprudent which could only
be supported by means so unequal to the end, he concluded a truce,
which left both parties in possession of their present acquisitions,
and stopped all further hostilities on the side of the Low Countries,
Guienne, and Scotland, till midsummer next.[*] A negotiation was soon
after opened at Arras, under the mediation of the pope’s legates; and
the truce was attempted to be converted into a solid peace. Edward here
required that Philip should free Guienne from all claims of superiority,
and entirely withdraw his protection from Scotland: but as he seemed
not anywise entitled to make such high demands, either from his past
successes or future prospects, they were totally rejected by Philip, who
agreed only to a prolongation of the truce.
The king of France soon after detached the emperor Lewis from the
alliance of England, and engaged him to revoke the title of imperial
vicar, which he had conferred on Edward.[**] The king’s other allies on
the frontiers of France, disappointed in their hopes, gradually withdrew
from the confederacy. And Edward himself, harassed by his numerous and
importunate creditors, was obliged to make his escape by stealth into
England.
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 64. Avesbury, p. 65.
** Heming, p. 352. Ypod. Neust. p. 514. Knyghton, p. 2580.