THE NOBLES REFUSE TO GO TO GASCONY WITHOUT THE KING (1297).
Source.—Walter of Hemingburgh's Chronicle, vol. ii., pp. 121 et seqq. (English Historical Society Publications.)
On the Festival of S. Matthew the Apostle in the same year, the King, having summoned the magnates of the kingdom without the clergy, held a Parliament at Salisbury, in which he requested some of the nobles to cross to Gascony. When all began to excuse themselves, the King grew angry, and threateningly told some of them that they would either go or that he would bestow their lands on others who were willing to go. At this many of the Barons were offended, and signs of quarrel began to be apparent. The Earl of Hereford (who was High Constable), and the Earl Marshal gave as their excuse that they would willingly perform the duties which devolved on them by hereditary right, by accompanying the King in person. The King once more repeated his request to the Earl Marshal, who replied: "Gladly will I accompany thee, Sir King, preceding thy royal person in the front rank, as is my hereditary right." "But thou wilt also accompany the others without me." "I am not bound, nor is it my will, Sir King, to set out without thee." Thereat, it is said, the King angrily burst forth: "By God, Sir Earl, thou shalt either go, or hang." "By the same oath, Sir King," replied the Earl, "I will neither go nor hang." Then, without making any agreement, he left the council, which was dissolved for that occasion. Very soon the Earl of Hereford and the Earl Marshal, gathering round them many Barons, and choosing more than thirty bannerets, had collected a great host, to the number of fifteen hundred horsemen armed for battle; and the King began to be afraid, though he concealed his fear. Then the rebels, going to their own estates, refused to allow the King's officials to take wool or hides or to make any unusual exaction, or to extort anything from those unwilling to give; they even forbade the officials entrance to their estates, on pain of loss of life and limb, and occupied themselves in preparations for resistance.
The King, in this same year, abiding by his resolve, ordered all who owed him service, and all others who held from anyone twenty pounds worth of land within the kingdom of England, to be at London on the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula, with horses and arms, prepared to cross with him without delay or excuse.... The Earl of Hereford and the Earl Marshal, who had seceded from the King, when they did not fulfil their obligations, were dismissed from their offices, and the offices given by the King to others, who would do his will. The Earls, much incensed thereat, especially since they were supporting not so much their own cause as that of the commonalty as a whole, informed the mediators, who were passing between them and the King, that not only they themselves, but the whole commonalty of the land, were oppressed beyond all bounds by unjust exactions, talliages and prises, and especially by the non-observance of the liberties of the Great Charter; and when they saw that the King's attitude was unyielding ... they sent messengers to him ... to say that if he would confirm the Charter of Liberties and redress certain abuses, they were all ready to follow him to life or death....
When the lord King was at Portsmouth almost ready to cross (to Flanders), the Earls sent messengers to him to seek to know his will regarding the aforesaid proposals. And the King answered: "My full council is not here with me, ... and without it I cannot reply to your demands. But go, tell them that sent you, that if they are willing to come with me, they will do me a great pleasure; if they are not, I beg of them not to do injury to me or, at least, to the kingdom."... Then the aforesaid Earls, with certain Barons their accomplices, returning to London, forbade the King's Chancellor and his Barons of the Exchequer to collect the eighth penny of which the King had obtained a grant from the people, or the fifth from the clergy, or any other exaction or levy. And they besought the Londoners, as friends and brethren, to assist them to gain the liberties of the Great Charter, and to take measures for the recovery of their lost rights, and their preservation, when recovered; and lest they should afterwards be charged with unlawful robbery or extortion, the aforesaid Earls caused it to be publicly proclaimed that no one of their followers was to take anything, however small, from anyone, without paying the just price, and this under pain of losing the right hand, or even the head, should the seriousness of the crime so require. Then they returned to their own lands, doing no hurt or damage to anyone.