THE EXPULSION OF THE POITEVINS (1258).
Source.—Annals of Waverley, pp. 349-350. (Annales Monastici, vol. ii.—Rolls Series.)
For some years England had been thronged with such a multitude of foreigners of different nations, on whom had been showered so many revenues, lands, estates, and other possessions, that they held the English in the greatest contempt, as inferior beings. It was said by some, who knew their secrets, that, if their power continued to increase, they would remove the nobles of England by poison, deprive King Henry of his kingdom, appoint in his place someone else at their own pleasure, and so in the end bring all England under their sway for ever. Further, the four brothers of the lord the King, Aylmer, Bishop-elect of Winchester, William, Earl of Valence, Guido, and Godfrey, raised as they were above the other aliens in dignities and riches, raged against the English in their intolerable arrogance, and loaded them with many insults and affronts; nor did anyone dare to oppose their presumptuous deeds for fear of the King. And they were not the only guilty ones, but—a yet greater matter for sorrow—Englishmen rose against Englishmen, majors against minors, all aflame with the lust of gain, and by means of pleas and amercements, talliages,[18] exactions, and divers other abuses, strove to take from each man what was his own. Old laws and customs were either broken through or utterly destroyed and brought to nought; every tyrant's will was a law unto himself, and except by a money payment could no man procure a right judgment. It is not within the power of anyone to recount all the evil doings which in those days took place in England. At length in this year the Earls and Barons, Archbishops and Bishops, and other nobles of England, as though aroused from sleep by a divine touch, seeing the miserable state of the kingdom, banded themselves together, and boldly assumed the strength and courage of a lion which fears the attack of no one. First of all, they expelled from England by force the aforementioned brothers of the King, together with many other aliens, and then began diligently to renew and amend the old laws and customs. And lest anyone should presume rashly to violate these customs in the future, they drew them up in the manner of a charter, sealed, by the King's permission, with his own royal seal.
[18] Taxes to which the demesne lands of the crown and all royal towns were subject.