THE QUEEN INSULTED BY THE LONDONERS (1263).
Source.—William Rishanger's Chronicle, p. 18. (Rolls Series).
Meanwhile, Edward, the King's son, arrived from across the seas, and garrisoned Windsor Castle with an armed band of aliens, whom he had brought with him a short time before. The King, however, fearing to be imprisoned in the Tower by the army of the Barons, agreed while there was yet time, through the mediation of timorous men, to the conditions of peace proposed by the Barons, and promised to observe the Provisions of Oxford. But the Queen, impelled by woman's malice, opposed the Barons as far as she could. Consequently, when she had embarked in a boat on the Thames for the purpose of proceeding by water to the castle at Windsor, a mob of townspeople gathered at the bridge under which she had to pass, loaded her with abuse and execrations, and, by throwing stones and mud, compelled her to return to the Tower.