Chapter XVIII - England Under Edward the Third

by Charles Dickens

　　Roger Mortimer, the Queen's lover (who escaped to France in thelast chapter), was far from profiting by the examples he had had ofthe fate of favourites. Having, through the Queen's influence,come into possession of the estates of the two Despensers, hebecame extremely proud and ambitious, and sought to be the realruler of England. The young King, who was crowned at fourteenyears of age with all the usual solemnities, resolved not to bearthis, and soon pursued Mortimer to his ruin.

　　The people themselves were not fond of Mortimer - first, because hewas a Royal favourite; secondly, because he was supposed to havehelped to make a peace with Scotland which now took place, and invirtue of which the young King's sister Joan, only seven years old,was promised in marriage to David, the son and heir of RobertBruce, who was only five years old. The nobles hated Mortimerbecause of his pride, riches, and power. They went so far as totake up arms against him; but were obliged to submit. The Earl ofKent, one of those who did so, but who afterwards went over toMortimer and the Queen, was made an example of in the followingcruel manner:

　　He seems to have been anything but a wise old earl; and he waspersuaded by the agents of the favourite and the Queen, that poorKing Edward the Second was not really dead; and thus was betrayedinto writing letters favouring his rightful claim to the throne.This was made out to be high treason, and he was tried, foundguilty, and sentenced to be executed. They took the poor old lordoutside the town of Winchester, and there kept him waiting somethree or four hours until they could find somebody to cut off hishead. At last, a convict said he would do it, if the governmentwould pardon him in return; and they gave him the pardon; and atone blow he put the Earl of Kent out of his last suspense.

　　While the Queen was in France, she had found a lovely and goodyoung lady, named Philippa, who she thought would make an excellentwife for her son. The young King married this lady, soon after hecame to the throne; and her first child, Edward, Prince of Wales,afterwards became celebrated, as we shall presently see, under thefamous title of Edward the Black Prince.

　　The young King, thinking the time ripe for the downfall ofMortimer, took counsel with Lord Montacute how he should proceed.A Parliament was going to be held at Nottingham, and that lordrecommended that the favourite should be seized by night inNottingham Castle, where he was sure to be. Now, this, like manyother things, was more easily said than done; because, to guardagainst treachery, the great gates of the Castle were locked everynight, and the great keys were carried up-stairs to the Queen, wholaid them under her own pillow. But the Castle had a governor, andthe governor being Lord Montacute's friend, confided to him how heknew of a secret passage underground, hidden from observation bythe weeds and brambles with which it was overgrown; and how,through that passage, the conspirators might enter in the dead ofthe night, and go straight to Mortimer's room. Accordingly, upon acertain dark night, at midnight, they made their way through thisdismal place: startling the rats, and frightening the owls andbats: and came safely to the bottom of the main tower of theCastle, where the King met them, and took them up a profoundly-darkstaircase in a deep silence. They soon heard the voice of Mortimerin council with some friends; and bursting into the room with asudden noise, took him prisoner. The Queen cried out from her bed-chamber, 'Oh, my sweet son, my dear son, spare my gentle Mortimer!'They carried him off, however; and, before the next Parliament,accused him of having made differences between the young King andhis mother, and of having brought about the death of the Earl ofKent, and even of the late King; for, as you know by this time,when they wanted to get rid of a man in those old days, they werenot very particular of what they accused him. Mortimer was foundguilty of all this, and was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn. TheKing shut his mother up in genteel confinement, where she passedthe rest of her life; and now he became King in earnest.

　　The first effort he made was to conquer Scotland. The Englishlords who had lands in Scotland, finding that their rights were notrespected under the late peace, made war on their own account:choosing for their general, Edward, the son of John Baliol, whomade such a vigorous fight, that in less than two months he won thewhole Scottish Kingdom. He was joined, when thus triumphant, bythe King and Parliament; and he and the King in person besieged theScottish forces in Berwick. The whole Scottish army coming to theassistance of their countrymen, such a furious battle ensued, thatthirty thousand men are said to have been killed in it. Baliol wasthen crowned King of Scotland, doing homage to the King of England;but little came of his successes after all, for the Scottish menrose against him, within no very long time, and David Bruce cameback within ten years and took his kingdom.

　　France was a far richer country than Scotland, and the King had amuch greater mind to conquer it. So, he let Scotland alone, andpretended that he had a claim to the French throne in right of hismother. He had, in reality, no claim at all; but that matteredlittle in those times. He brought over to his cause many littleprinces and sovereigns, and even courted the alliance of the peopleof Flanders - a busy, working community, who had very small respectfor kings, and whose head man was a brewer. With such forces as heraised by these means, Edward invaded France; but he did little bythat, except run into debt in carrying on the war to the extent ofthree hundred thousand pounds. The next year he did better;gaining a great sea-fight in the harbour of Sluys. This success,however, was very shortlived, for the Flemings took fright at thesiege of Saint Omer and ran away, leaving their weapons and baggagebehind them. Philip, the French King, coming up with his army, andEdward being very anxious to decide the war, proposed to settle thedifference by single combat with him, or by a fight of one hundredknights on each side. The French King said, he thanked him; butbeing very well as he was, he would rather not. So, after someskirmishing and talking, a short peace was made.

　　It was soon broken by King Edward's favouring the cause of John,Earl of Montford; a French nobleman, who asserted a claim of hisown against the French King, and offered to do homage to Englandfor the Crown of France, if he could obtain it through England'shelp. This French lord, himself, was soon defeated by the FrenchKing's son, and shut up in a tower in Paris; but his wife, acourageous and beautiful woman, who is said to have had the courageof a man, and the heart of a lion, assembled the people ofBrittany, where she then was; and, showing them her infant son,made many pathetic entreaties to them not to desert her and theiryoung Lord. They took fire at this appeal, and rallied round herin the strong castle of Hennebon. Here she was not only besiegedwithout by the French under Charles de Blois, but was endangeredwithin by a dreary old bishop, who was always representing to thepeople what horrors they must undergo if they were faithful - firstfrom famine, and afterwards from fire and sword. But this noblelady, whose heart never failed her, encouraged her soldiers by herown example; went from post to post like a great general; evenmounted on horseback fully armed, and, issuing from the castle by aby-path, fell upon the French camp, set fire to the tents, andthrew the whole force into disorder. This done, she got safelyback to Hennebon again, and was received with loud shouts of joy bythe defenders of the castle, who had given her up for lost. Asthey were now very short of provisions, however, and as they couldnot dine off enthusiasm, and as the old bishop was always saying,'I told you what it would come to!' they began to lose heart, andto talk of yielding the castle up. The brave Countess retiring toan upper room and looking with great grief out to sea, where sheexpected relief from England, saw, at this very time, the Englishships in the distance, and was relieved and rescued! Sir WalterManning, the English commander, so admired her courage, that, beingcome into the castle with the English knights, and having made afeast there, he assaulted the French by way of dessert, and beatthem off triumphantly. Then he and the knights came back to thecastle with great joy; and the Countess who had watched them from ahigh tower, thanked them with all her heart, and kissed them everyone.

　　This noble lady distinguished herself afterwards in a sea-fightwith the French off Guernsey, when she was on her way to England toask for more troops. Her great spirit roused another lady, thewife of another French lord (whom the French King very barbarouslymurdered), to distinguish herself scarcely less. The time was fastcoming, however, when Edward, Prince of Wales, was to be the greatstar of this French and English war.

　　It was in the month of July, in the year one thousand three hundredand forty-six, when the King embarked at Southampton for France,with an army of about thirty thousand men in all, attended by thePrince of Wales and by several of the chief nobles. He landed atLa Hogue in Normandy; and, burning and destroying as he went,according to custom, advanced up the left bank of the River Seine,and fired the small towns even close to Paris; but, being watchedfrom the right bank of the river by the French King and all hisarmy, it came to this at last, that Edward found himself, onSaturday the twenty-sixth of August, one thousand three hundred andforty-six, on a rising ground behind the little French village ofCrecy, face to face with the French King's force. And, althoughthe French King had an enormous army - in number more than eighttimes his - he there resolved to beat him or be beaten.

　　The young Prince, assisted by the Earl of Oxford and the Earl ofWarwick, led the first division of the English army; two othergreat Earls led the second; and the King, the third. When themorning dawned, the King received the sacrament, and heard prayers,and then, mounted on horseback with a white wand in his hand, rodefrom company to company, and rank to rank, cheering and encouragingboth officers and men. Then the whole army breakfasted, each mansitting on the ground where he had stood; and then they remainedquietly on the ground with their weapons ready.

　　Up came the French King with all his great force. It was dark andangry weather; there was an eclipse of the sun; there was athunder-storm, accompanied with tremendous rain; the frightenedbirds flew screaming above the soldiers' heads. A certain captainin the French army advised the French King, who was by no meanscheerful, not to begin the battle until the morrow. The King,taking this advice, gave the word to halt. But, those behind notunderstanding it, or desiring to be foremost with the rest, camepressing on. The roads for a great distance were covered with thisimmense army, and with the common people from the villages, whowere flourishing their rude weapons, and making a great noise.Owing to these circumstances, the French army advanced in thegreatest confusion; every French lord doing what he liked with hisown men, and putting out the men of every other French lord.

　　Now, their King relied strongly upon a great body of cross-bowmenfrom Genoa; and these he ordered to the front to begin the battle,on finding that he could not stop it. They shouted once, theyshouted twice, they shouted three times, to alarm the Englisharchers; but, the English would have heard them shout threethousand times and would have never moved. At last the cross-bowmen went forward a little, and began to discharge their bolts;upon which, the English let fly such a hail of arrows, that theGenoese speedily made off - for their cross-bows, besides beingheavy to carry, required to be wound up with a handle, andconsequently took time to re-load; the English, on the other hand,could discharge their arrows almost as fast as the arrows couldfly.

　　When the French King saw the Genoese turning, he cried out to hismen to kill those scoundrels, who were doing harm instead ofservice. This increased the confusion. Meanwhile the Englisharchers, continuing to shoot as fast as ever, shot down greatnumbers of the French soldiers and knights; whom certain slyCornish-men and Welshmen, from the English army, creeping along theground, despatched with great knives.

　　The Prince and his division were at this time so hard-pressed, thatthe Earl of Warwick sent a message to the King, who was overlookingthe battle from a windmill, beseeching him to send more aid.

　　'Is my son killed?' said the King.

　　'No, sire, please God,' returned the messenger.

　　'Is he wounded?' said the King.

　　'No, sire.'

　　'Is he thrown to the ground?' said the King.

　　'No, sire, not so; but, he is very hard-pressed.'

　　'Then,' said the King, 'go back to those who sent you, and tellthem I shall send no aid; because I set my heart upon my sonproving himself this day a brave knight, and because I am resolved,please God, that the honour of a great victory shall be his!'

　　These bold words, being reported to the Prince and his division, soraised their spirits, that they fought better than ever. The Kingof France charged gallantly with his men many times; but it was ofno use. Night closing in, his horse was killed under him by anEnglish arrow, and the knights and nobles who had clustered thickabout him early in the day, were now completely scattered. Atlast, some of his few remaining followers led him off the field byforce since he would not retire of himself, and they journeyed awayto Amiens. The victorious English, lighting their watch-fires,made merry on the field, and the King, riding to meet his gallantson, took him in his arms, kissed him, and told him that he hadacted nobly, and proved himself worthy of the day and of the crown.While it was yet night, King Edward was hardly aware of the greatvictory he had gained; but, next day, it was discovered that elevenprinces, twelve hundred knights, and thirty thousand common men laydead upon the French side. Among these was the King of Bohemia, anold blind man; who, having been told that his son was wounded inthe battle, and that no force could stand against the Black Prince,called to him two knights, put himself on horse-back between them,fastened the three bridles together, and dashed in among theEnglish, where he was presently slain. He bore as his crest threewhite ostrich feathers, with the motto Ich Dien, signifying inEnglish 'I serve.' This crest and motto were taken by the Princeof Wales in remembrance of that famous day, and have been borne bythe Prince of Wales ever since.

　　Five days after this great battle, the King laid siege to Calais.This siege - ever afterwards memorable - lasted nearly a year. Inorder to starve the inhabitants out, King Edward built so manywooden houses for the lodgings of his troops, that it is said theirquarters looked like a second Calais suddenly sprung around thefirst. Early in the siege, the governor of the town drove out whathe called the useless mouths, to the number of seventeen hundredpersons, men and women, young and old. King Edward allowed them topass through his lines, and even fed them, and dismissed them withmoney; but, later in the siege, he was not so merciful - fivehundred more, who were afterwards driven out, dying of starvationand misery. The garrison were so hard-pressed at last, that theysent a letter to King Philip, telling him that they had eaten allthe horses, all the dogs, and all the rats and mice that could befound in the place; and, that if he did not relieve them, they musteither surrender to the English, or eat one another. Philip madeone effort to give them relief; but they were so hemmed in by theEnglish power, that he could not succeed, and was fain to leave theplace. Upon this they hoisted the English flag, and surrendered toKing Edward. 'Tell your general,' said he to the humble messengerswho came out of the town, 'that I require to have sent here, six ofthe most distinguished citizens, bare-legged, and in their shirts,with ropes about their necks; and let those six men bring with themthe keys of the castle and the town.'

　　When the Governor of Calais related this to the people in theMarket-place, there was great weeping and distress; in the midst ofwhich, one worthy citizen, named Eustace de Saint Pierre, rose upand said, that if the six men required were not sacrificed, thewhole population would be; therefore, he offered himself as thefirst. Encouraged by this bright example, five other worthycitizens rose up one after another, and offered themselves to savethe rest. The Governor, who was too badly wounded to be able towalk, mounted a poor old horse that had not been eaten, andconducted these good men to the gate, while all the people criedand mourned.

　　Edward received them wrathfully, and ordered the heads of the wholesix to be struck off. However, the good Queen fell upon her knees,and besought the King to give them up to her. The King replied, 'Iwish you had been somewhere else; but I cannot refuse you.' So shehad them properly dressed, made a feast for them, and sent themback with a handsome present, to the great rejoicing of the wholecamp. I hope the people of Calais loved the daughter to whom shegave birth soon afterwards, for her gentle mother's sake.

　　Now came that terrible disease, the Plague, into Europe, hurryingfrom the heart of China; and killed the wretched people -especially the poor - in such enormous numbers, that one-half ofthe inhabitants of England are related to have died of it. Itkilled the cattle, in great numbers, too; and so few working menremained alive, that there were not enough left to till the ground.

　　After eight years of differing and quarrelling, the Prince of Walesagain invaded France with an army of sixty thousand men. He wentthrough the south of the country, burning and plunderingwheresoever he went; while his father, who had still the Scottishwar upon his hands, did the like in Scotland, but was harassed andworried in his retreat from that country by the Scottish men, whorepaid his cruelties with interest.

　　The French King, Philip, was now dead, and was succeeded by his sonJohn. The Black Prince, called by that name from the colour of thearmour he wore to set off his fair complexion, continuing to burnand destroy in France, roused John into determined opposition; andso cruel had the Black Prince been in his campaign, and so severelyhad the French peasants suffered, that he could not find one who,for love, or money, or the fear of death, would tell him what theFrench King was doing, or where he was. Thus it happened that hecame upon the French King's forces, all of a sudden, near the townof Poitiers, and found that the whole neighbouring country wasoccupied by a vast French army. 'God help us!' said the BlackPrince, 'we must make the best of it.'

　　So, on a Sunday morning, the eighteenth of September, the Princewhose army was now reduced to ten thousand men in all - prepared togive battle to the French King, who had sixty thousand horse alone.While he was so engaged, there came riding from the French camp, aCardinal, who had persuaded John to let him offer terms, and try tosave the shedding of Christian blood. 'Save my honour,' said thePrince to this good priest, 'and save the honour of my army, and Iwill make any reasonable terms.' He offered to give up all thetowns, castles, and prisoners, he had taken, and to swear to makeno war in France for seven years; but, as John would hear ofnothing but his surrender, with a hundred of his chief knights, thetreaty was broken off, and the Prince said quietly - 'God defendthe right; we shall fight to-morrow.'

　　Therefore, on the Monday morning, at break of day, the two armiesprepared for battle. The English were posted in a strong place,which could only be approached by one narrow lane, skirted byhedges on both sides. The French attacked them by this lane; butwere so galled and slain by English arrows from behind the hedges,that they were forced to retreat. Then went six hundred Englishbowmen round about, and, coming upon the rear of the French army,rained arrows on them thick and fast. The French knights, throwninto confusion, quitted their banners and dispersed in alldirections. Said Sir John Chandos to the Prince, 'Ride forward,noble Prince, and the day is yours. The King of France is sovaliant a gentleman, that I know he will never fly, and may betaken prisoner.' Said the Prince to this, 'Advance, Englishbanners, in the name of God and St. George!' and on they presseduntil they came up with the French King, fighting fiercely with hisbattle-axe, and, when all his nobles had forsaken him, attendedfaithfully to the last by his youngest son Philip, only sixteenyears of age. Father and son fought well, and the King had alreadytwo wounds in his face, and had been beaten down, when he at lastdelivered himself to a banished French knight, and gave him hisright-hand glove in token that he had done so.

　　The Black Prince was generous as well as brave, and he invited hisroyal prisoner to supper in his tent, and waited upon him at table,and, when they afterwards rode into London in a gorgeousprocession, mounted the French King on a fine cream-coloured horse,and rode at his side on a little pony. This was all very kind, butI think it was, perhaps, a little theatrical too, and has been mademore meritorious than it deserved to be; especially as I aminclined to think that the greatest kindness to the King of Francewould have been not to have shown him to the people at all.However, it must be said, for these acts of politeness, that, incourse of time, they did much to soften the horrors of war and thepassions of conquerors. It was a long, long time before the commonsoldiers began to have the benefit of such courtly deeds; but theydid at last; and thus it is possible that a poor soldier who askedfor quarter at the battle of Waterloo, or any other such greatfight, may have owed his life indirectly to Edward the BlackPrince.

　　At this time there stood in the Strand, in London, a palace calledthe Savoy, which was given up to the captive King of France and hisson for their residence. As the King of Scotland had now been KingEdward's captive for eleven years too, his success was, at thistime, tolerably complete. The Scottish business was settled by theprisoner being released under the title of Sir David, King ofScotland, and by his engaging to pay a large ransom. The state ofFrance encouraged England to propose harder terms to that country,where the people rose against the unspeakable cruelty and barbarityof its nobles; where the nobles rose in turn against the people;where the most frightful outrages were committed on all sides; andwhere the insurrection of the peasants, called the insurrection ofthe Jacquerie, from Jacques, a common Christian name among thecountry people of France, awakened terrors and hatreds that havescarcely yet passed away. A treaty called the Great Peace, was atlast signed, under which King Edward agreed to give up the greaterpart of his conquests, and King John to pay, within six years, aransom of three million crowns of gold. He was so beset by his ownnobles and courtiers for having yielded to these conditions -though they could help him to no better - that he came back of hisown will to his old palace-prison of the Savoy, and there died.

　　There was a Sovereign of Castile at that time, called Pedro theCruel, who deserved the name remarkably well: having committed,among other cruelties, a variety of murders. This amiable monarchbeing driven from his throne for his crimes, went to the provinceof Bordeaux, where the Black Prince - now married to his cousinJoan, a pretty widow - was residing, and besought his help. ThePrince, who took to him much more kindly than a prince of such fameought to have taken to such a ruffian, readily listened to his fairpromises, and agreeing to help him, sent secret orders to sometroublesome disbanded soldiers of his and his father's, who calledthemselves the Free Companions, and who had been a pest to theFrench people, for some time, to aid this Pedro. The Prince,himself, going into Spain to head the army of relief, soon setPedro on his throne again - where he no sooner found himself, than,of course, he behaved like the villain he was, broke his wordwithout the least shame, and abandoned all the promises he had madeto the Black Prince.

　　Now, it had cost the Prince a good deal of money to pay soldiers tosupport this murderous King; and finding himself, when he came backdisgusted to Bordeaux, not only in bad health, but deeply in debt,he began to tax his French subjects to pay his creditors. Theyappealed to the French King, Charles; war again broke out; and theFrench town of Limoges, which the Prince had greatly benefited,went over to the French King. Upon this he ravaged the province ofwhich it was the capital; burnt, and plundered, and killed in theold sickening way; and refused mercy to the prisoners, men, women,and children taken in the offending town, though he was so ill andso much in need of pity himself from Heaven, that he was carried ina litter. He lived to come home and make himself popular with thepeople and Parliament, and he died on Trinity Sunday, the eighth ofJune, one thousand three hundred and seventy-six, at forty-sixyears old.

　　The whole nation mourned for him as one of the most renowned andbeloved princes it had ever had; and he was buried with greatlamentations in Canterbury Cathedral. Near to the tomb of Edwardthe Confessor, his monument, with his figure, carved in stone, andrepresented in the old black armour, lying on its back, may be seenat this day, with an ancient coat of mail, a helmet, and a pair ofgauntlets hanging from a beam above it, which most people like tobelieve were once worn by the Black Prince.

　　King Edward did not outlive his renowned son, long. He was old,and one Alice Perrers, a beautiful lady, had contrived to make himso fond of her in his old age, that he could refuse her nothing,and made himself ridiculous. She little deserved his love, or -what I dare say she valued a great deal more - the jewels of thelate Queen, which he gave her among other rich presents. She tookthe very ring from his finger on the morning of the day when hedied, and left him to be pillaged by his faithless servants. Onlyone good priest was true to him, and attended him to the last.

　　Besides being famous for the great victories I have related, thereign of King Edward the Third was rendered memorable in betterways, by the growth of architecture and the erection of WindsorCastle. In better ways still, by the rising up of Wickliffe,originally a poor parish priest: who devoted himself to exposing,with wonderful power and success, the ambition and corruption ofthe Pope, and of the whole church of which he was the head.

　　Some of those Flemings were induced to come to England in thisreign too, and to settle in Norfolk, where they made better woollencloths than the English had ever had before. The Order of theGarter (a very fine thing in its way, but hardly so important asgood clothes for the nation) also dates from this period. The Kingis said to have picked 'up a lady's garter at a ball, and to havesaid, honi soit qui mal y pense - in English, 'Evil be to him whoevil thinks of it.' The courtiers were usually glad to imitatewhat the King said or did, and hence from a slight incident theOrder of the Garter was instituted, and became a great dignity. Sothe story goes.