ARTICLES OF ACCUSATION AGAINST HUBERT DE BURGH (1232).
Source.—State Trials, vol. i., coll. 13-22.
Articles of accusation against Hubert de Burgh:
I. That his lord the King requires of him an account of all the revenue of the kingdom, for the fourteen years next following the death of King John his father, from which time he took upon him the keeping and management of the same, without any authority....
II. Concerning the collection of the whole fifteenth, which, according to the Great Council of the whole kingdom, ought to have been kept and held in deposit, so that no part of it should have been taken until the arrival at age of our lord the King, unless under the inspection of six Bishops and six Earls specially appointed for the purpose; nor so but for the defence of the kingdom; the amount of which was about 89,000 marks of silver.
III. Concerning the territory in Poitou, of which King John died seised, and of which our lord the King that now is had seisin when the said Earl took upon him the custody of the realm; to wit, the territory of Rochelle, Niort, and St. John; who, when he ought, for the rescue of these territories, to have sent treasure and corn, sent barrels filled with stones and sand, so that when the Barons and great men of our lord the King, and the burgesses, perceived that default, they abandoned the homage and service of our lord the King, and turned themselves to the enemies of our lord the King, by means whereof our lord the King lost Poitou.
IV. That while our lord the King was under age, and it was necessary to succour Poitou, and the King's army should have gone to Poitou, the Earl caused the Castle of Bedford to be besieged, where our lord the King and his great men of England expended a very large quantity of money before it was taken....
V. That he had sent messengers to Rome, and before the lord the King was of full age had obtained that he should be of full age, as if this had been for the advantage of the lord the King, and by authority of this his age, had caused to be granted by charter to himself lands which had been of Henry de Essex, and many other lands, dignities, and franchises, of which, by his own authority, he took possession after the death of King John, and of which the said King John died seised, as he also caused to be given and confirmed to religious persons, ecclesiastics, and others, many lands and franchises and other things, to the lessening and great detriment of the dignity of the lord the King and his crown.
VI. That whereas the lord William, King of Scotland, formerly delivered to the lord King John his two daughters, the elder of whom was to be married to the lord the King, or to Earl Richard, if the lord the King should die; and for which marriage the same King William released King John all his right which he had in the lands of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Northumberland; and, besides, gave to him 15,000 marks in silver; he (i.e., Hubert de Burgh), before the lord the King was of such age as to be able to determine whether he would take her to wife or not, married her; so that, when the lord the King came of age, he was obliged to give the King of Scotland who now is, eight hundred oxgangs of land for the release of the lands aforesaid, because the first agreement had not been observed, and this notwithstanding he had before married the Countess of Gloucester, who had formerly been betrothed to the lord King John while he was Earl, and whom King John had committed to his custody, and whose marriage he had formerly sold to G. de Mandeville for 20,000 marks, whereby each of them was connected in a certain degree of consanguinity.
VII. Whereas the lord the Pope commanded that, on account of the said relationship, a divorce should be made between him and the Countess, his wife whom he now hath; he caused all the corn in the ear, belonging to the Romans, to be threshed out by those who were called Lewytheil. In consequence whereof, a general sentence of excommunication was passed against all those offenders, and those who favoured them; and this he did while he was Justiciar and bound to keep the peace, and so that by these means the peace continues disturbed to this time.
VIII. Whereas he had placed himself in the prison of the lord the King, and by the agreement made between them, he was to be taken to be an outlaw, if he should ever escape from that prison without the licence of the lord the King; he did escape from that prison, and ... he was become an outlaw; and afterwards when the lord the King had received him into his favour, he would not accept any writ of the lord the King for the remission of that outlawry....
IX. That he spake base and scandalous words of the lord the King in the presence of the lord Ralph, son of Nicholas, Godfrey de Cramcumbe, the brother of G., and others; and the lord the King still has many things to be proposed and alleged against him, which, for the perusal, he reserves in his mind to propose when it shall please him and occasion shall serve.