[P. 61], l. 16, Ly eveske de Herefort.—Peter de Egueblanche, Bishop of Hereford, a staunch adherent to the King, and, by his oppressions, exceedingly obnoxious to the Commons. In 1263, the Barons seized and imprisoned him, and confiscated his treasures. He was a native of Savoy.
[P. 62], l. 1, ly pastors de Norwis.—Simon de Wanton, Bishop of Norwich, from 1257 to 1265, chaplain to King Henry III., and one of his justices.
—— l. 7, Sire Jon de Langelé.—According to the Annales de Dunstaple, the estates of G. de Langley were plundered soon after the arrest of the Bishop of Hereford:—“idem facientes de maneriis G. de Langele et ejus bonis.” Vol. i. p. 354. Perhaps this was the same person.
[P. 62], l. 13, Sire Mathi de Besile.—We should perhaps read Machi; Robert of Gloucester and Stow call him Macy. He was a French knight, who had been made Sheriff of Gloucester, after the King had sworn to the articles of Oxford. The Barons ejected him, and put another sheriff in his place; Sir Macy came with a body of armed men and the authority of the King, reinstated himself by force, and drove away his rival. Sir Roger de Clifford and Sir John Giffard came against him, besieged and took Gloucester Castle, and imprisoned him along with the “Freinss bissop” of Hereford, whom they seized immediately afterwards. Robert of Gloucester mentions the confiscation of his property:—
“And Sir Jon Giffard nom to him is quic eiȝte echon,
And al that he fond of is, and nameliche at Sserton.”
The song here printed was evidently written just after this event, and previous to the subsequent desertion of Clifford and others mentioned in it.
—— l. 18, treget.—It has been suggested that this word represents the Latin treugellum, a little truce.
—— l. 19, mi Sire Jon de Gray.—John de Gray held on the King’s party, and was rewarded for his loyalty by the grant of various high offices. The circumstance alluded to in the song is thus told in the Annales de Dunstaple (Ed. Hearne, vol. i. p. 357); it occurred in the disturbances in London in 1263.—“Quo perpetrato facinore, cives Londoniarum contra ipsum et alios de consilio regis in civitate commorantes, insurrexerunt; in tantum quod hospitium Johannis de Grey extra Ludgate invaserunt, et equos ejus triginta duo et alia quæcunque ibidem inventa abduxerunt: ipso Johanne cum difficultate maxima ultra alveum de Flete fugam arripiente. Idem fecerunt de domibus et bonis Simonis Passelewe.”