was thence privately removed to Windsor Castle, where Prince Edward was at the head of a military force. He never forgave the Londoners the insult they had offered to his mother. CHAP. 1265. She flies In the civil wars that took place at the close of her husband's reign, Eleanor often showed great determination and courage, and after repeated disasters still made head against the impetuous Earl of Leicester. At last, when the 4th Aug. confederated barons were triumphant and Henry was made a prisoner, she took refuge with her younger children in France; but after the battle of Evesham she returned to England and had her revenge upon the citizens of London, who for their ill behaviour to her were fined 20,000 marks to her use. She continued to act a conspicuous part during the remainder of this reign. re Soon after the accession of her son to the she crown, nounced the world and retired to the monastery of Ambresbury, where, in the year 1284, she actually took the veil. She had the satisfaction of hearing of the brilliant career of her son, abroad. Returns to Takes the veil. and she died in 1292, when he was at the height of his glory, Her death, having subdued Wales, pacified Ireland, reduced Scotland to feudal subjection, and made England more prosperous and happy than at any former period. Although the temper and haughty demeanour of Eleanor Her chawere very freely censured in her own time, I believe no im- racter, putation was cast upon her virtue till the usurper Henry IV., assuming to be the right heir of Edmund her second son, found it convenient to question the legitimacy of Edward her firstborn, and to represent him as the fruit of an adulterous intercourse between her and the Earl Marshal. Then was written the popular ballad representing her as confessing her frailty to the King her husband, who, in the garb of a friar of France, has come to shrive her in her sickness, accompanied by the Earl Marshal in the same disguise. CHAP. "Oh, do you see yon pale-faced boy * But she was a very different person from her successor, Isabella of France, Queen of Edward II., and there is no reason to doubt that she was ever a faithful wife and a loving mother to all her children. Although none of her judicial decisions, while she held the Great Seal, have been transmitted to us, we have very full and accurate information respecting her person, her career, and her character, for which we are chiefly indebted to Matthew Paris, who often dined at table with her and her husband, and composed his history of those times with their privity and assistance. † *Prince Edmund. † Mat. Par. 562. 654. 719. 799. 884. 989. 1172, 1200, 1202. CHAPTER IX. LORD CHANCELLORS FROM THE RESIGNATION OF LADY KEEPER IX. ON Queen Eleanor's resignation of the office of Lady Keeper, CHAP. William de KILKENNY, who had been employed by her to seal writs while she held the Great Seal*, was promoted to WILLIAM the office of Chancellor. DE KIL- to the He did not continue in it long, and in his time nothing Chancellor. memorable occurred, except the representation from the clergy A. D. 1254. respecting alleged encroachments by the Crown upon their order. A deputation, consisting of the Primate and the Bishops of Winchester, Salisbury, and Carlisle, came to the King with an address on the frequent violation of their privileges, the oppressions with which he had loaded them and all his subjects, and the uncanonical and forced elections which were made to vacant ecclesiastical dignities. Lord Chancellor Kilkenny is said to have written the King's celebrated answer," It Reprimand is true I have been faulty in this particular: I obtruded you, clergy. my Lord of Canterbury, on your see: I was obliged to employ both entreaties and menaces, my Lord of Winchester, to have you elected. My proceedings, I confess, were very irregular, my Lords of Salisbury and Carlisle, when I raised you from the lowest stations to your present dignities. I am determined henceforth to correct these abuses; and it will also become you, in order to make a thorough reformation, to resign your present benefices, and try again to become successors of the Apostles in a more regular and canonical manner."† On St. Edward's day, in the year 1255, William de Kil- Kilkenny's resignation. Mandamus * Rex dilectæ consorti suæ A, eadem gratia Reginæ salutem. vobis quod cum delectus clericus noster W. de Kilkenni, Archidiaconus Coventrensis ad vos venerit, liberatis ei sigillum scaccarii nostri bajulandum et custodiendum usque ad reditum nostrum de partibus Wasconiæ, &c.-Pat. 37. H. 3. m. 5. † Mat. Par. A. d. 1253. VOL. I. IX. CHAP. kenny✶ resigned his office of Chancellor, but he was still in such favour, that, though suspected of having misapplied funds that came officially into his hands, the King granted him letters patent whereby he declared that William, having long served him diligently and acceptably, should be quit of all reckonings and demands for the whole time that he had been Keeper of the King's Seal in England. He was afterwards sent on an embassy to Spain, where he died on the 21st of September, 1256. He is said to have been a very handsome person, eloquent, prudent, and well skilled in the municipal laws of the realm, as well as in the civil and canon law. Embassy to Spain. Death. HENRY DE On the day of his resignation, the Great Seal was delivered to HENRY DE WENGHAM, afterwards Bishop of London,and, with William de Merton for his deputy, he remained Chancellor till he was removed by the mutinous Barons who for some time established an oligarchy in England. † The ill-humour of the nation was manifested at a General Council called to meet in London at Easter, 1255, when the attempt was renewed that the Chancellor and other great officers should be appointed by the Prelates and Barons, as was said anciently to have been the custom, and that those officers might not be removed, except upon notorious faults, without the common assent. The King refusing these demands, a resolution was carried to postpone the further consideration of supply till Michaelmas. ‡ Simon de Montfort was now taking advantage of the unpopularity of the government for his own aggrandisement, and attempting successfully to wrest the sceptre from the Mad Par feeble hand which held it. In June, 1258, met "the Mad liament. "Provisions of Oxford." Parliament," where, notwithstanding the resistance of the Chancellor and the King's other ministers, were passed the famous" Provisions of Oxford," by which twenty-four Barons were appointed with unlimited power, to reform the Commonwealth, and annually to choose the Chancellor and other great officers of state. § The King for the time submitted, Rot. Pat. 39 Hen. 3. m. 16. +1 Parl. Hist. 29. and even Prince Edward was obliged to take an oath to obey CHAP. their authority. 1260. IX. NICHOLAS made Chancellor De Wengham was for some time permitted by them to retain the office of Chancellor, having made oath that he would duly keep the King's Seal under their control. * However, to give full proof of their prerogative, they sub- Oct. 18. sequently removed him, and elected in his place NICHOLAS DE ELY, Archdeacon of Ely †, a mere creature of their own. DE ELY The old Great Seal, surrendered up by De Wengham, was broken in pieces, and a new one was delivered to the Chan- by the cellor of the Barons. We have a very circumstantial account of this ceremony, showing that the King was present as a mere puppet of the twenty-four. After relating the oath of the new Chancellor, and that he forthwith sealed with the new seal, it says that "the King delivered the pieces of the old broken seal to Robert Wallerand, to be presented to some poor religious house of the King's gift."‡ But the nation was soon disgusted by the arbitrary and capricious acts of Montfort and his associates: there was a strong reaction in favour of the King, and for a time he recovered his authority. Before proceeding to resume the full exercise of his royal functions, he applied to Rome for a dispensation from "the Provisions of Oxford," which he had very solemnly sworn to observe. This was readily promised him; but, unluckily, Alexander the Pope died before the dispensation was sealed, and considerable delay was likely to arise before a successor could be elected. Barons. King re covers his authority. ment. Henry or his advisers, to take advantage of the present A parliafavourable state of the public mind, called a Parliament to meet in the castle of Winchester. There he openly declared The oath made by the Chancellor was to this effect: "That he would not seal writs without the command of the King and his Council, and in the presence of some of them, nor seal the grant of any great wardship, great marriage, or escheat, without the assent of the Council or the major part of it, nor would seal any thing contrary to the ordinances made or to be made by the twenty-four, or the greater part of them, nor would take any reward but only such as other Chancellors have formerly received; and if he should appoint a deputy, it should be only according to the power to be provided by the council."Burton, 413. Annal. |