Rich. South.
Bristow faire robbed.
Variance betwixt the lord Paine Tiptost and Rice ap Meridoc.
This yeare the king went into Aragon, where his authoritie auailed much, in the making of agréement betwixt the kings of Aragon and Naples; whereby Charles king of Naples was then set at libertie, vpon certeine contracts or couenants passed and agréed betwixt them. ¶ The kings mother quéene Elianor this yeare forsooke the world, and tooke vpon hir the habit of a nunne at Ambresburie; but yet she still reteined and inioied hir dower by the popes authoritie and dispensation. About this time a squire called Chamberlaine, with his complices, set fire on the merchants boothes, at S. Butolphes faire; and whilest the merchants were about to quench the fire, the said squire and his complices set vpon the said merchants, slue manie of them, and robbed them of their goods. In this yeare fell variance betwéene the lord Paine Tiptost, wardeine of certeine castels in Wales, and a Welsh knight called sir Rées ap Meridoc, so that sundrie skirmishes were foughten betwixt them, and men slaine on both sides, to the great disturbance of the countrie.
N. Triuet.
The cause of this warre rose chéeflie, for that the said lord Tiptost, and the lord Alane Plucknet, the kings steward in Wales, would haue constreined the said Rées to appeare at counties and hundreds, as the vse in other parts of Wales then was, contrarie to such liberties as he had obteined of the king as he pretended. But when the king wrote vnto the same Rées, requiring him to kéepe the peace, till his returne (at what time he promised to reforme all things in due and reasonable order). Rées hauing alreadie put armour vpon his backe, would not now incline to any peace, but to reuenge his cause, assembled a great multitude of Welshmen, with whose helpe he burnt & destroied manie townes in Wales so that the K. being then beyond the seas, sent to the earle of Cornewall, whom in his absence he had appointed his lieutenant ouer England, requiring him to send an armie into Wales, to resist the malice and riotous attempts of the Welshmen. The earle shortlie therevpon prepared an armie, and went with the same into Wales, or (as other write) the bishop of Elie, the lord prior of S. Iohns, the earle of Glocester, and diuerse barons of the land went thither, and chasing the said Rées, dispersed his armie, and ouerthrew and raced his castels, but by vndermining and reuersing the wals at the castell of Druslan, with the fall therof, the baron Stafford, and the lord William de Montchensie, with manie other knights and esquiers, were oppressed and brused to death. ¶ This yeare, the king at Blankfort in Gascoigne, tooke vpon him the crosse, purposing eftsoones to make a iournie against Gods enimies.
Chron. Dunst.
In the winter of this yeare great flouds chanced, by reason of the excéeding abundance of raine that fell: and the sea alongst the northeast coasts from Humber to Yarmouth, brake into the land, ouerflowing the same by the space of thrée or foure leagues in breadth (as the author of the Chronicle of Dunstable affirmeth) ouerthrowing buildings, and drowning vp men and cattell that could not auoid the danger by the sudden comming in thereof, namelie, about Yarmouth, Dunwich, and Gippeswich. Likewise in the Mers land of Lincolnshire it did passing great hurt, bringing all the countrie into water. This chanced in the verie night of the beginning of this yéere, to wit, in the feast of the circumcision of our Lord, and in December it brake out againe in Northfolke and Suffolke, where it did much harme, namelie about Yarmouth.
An. Reg. 16.
1288.