1200-1216 Magna Carta

On 1st August 1202 King John of England (age 35) defeated the army of his nephew Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany (age 15) and Hugh X of Lusignan V Count La Marche (age 19) which was besieging John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England (age 80) at Mirebeau Castle. King John of England took Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany 1187-1203's army by surprise capturing most. Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany and, probably, his sister Eleanor "Fair Maid of Britanny" 4th Countess of Richmond (age 18), both of whom arguably had better claims to the throne than King John of England were captured.

Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany was imprisoned by William de Braose 4th Baron Bramber (age 58) at Falaise Castle [Map].

Flowers of History by Roger of Wendover 1202. Of a glorious victory gained by king John at Mirabeau.

The queen being placed in this predicament, sent messengers with orders to use all speed, to the king, who was then in Normandy, earnestly beseeching him by his filial affection to come to her assistance; on receipt of this intelligence, the king hastily set out with a strong force, and travelling night and day, he accomplished the long distance quicker than is to be believed, and arrived at Mirabeau. When the French and the people of Poictou learned that the king was on his way, they went out with a pompous array to meet him, and give him battle; but when they met each other in battle order, and had engaged, the king bravely withstood their turbulent attacks, and at length put them to flight, pursuing them so quickly with his cavalry, that he entered the castle at the same time as the fugitives. Then a most severe conflict took place [1st August 1202] inside the walls of the castle, but was soon determined by the laudable valour of the English; in the conflict there two hundred French knights were taken prisoners, and all the nobles in Poictou and Anjou, together with Arthur himself, so that not one out of the whole number escaped who could return and tell the misfortune to the rest of their countrymen. Having therefore, secured his prisoners in fetters and shackles, and placed them in cars, a new and unusual mode of conveyance, the king sent some of them to Normandy, and some to England, to be imprisoned in strong castles, whence there would be no fear of their escape; but Arthur was kept at Falaise under close custody.

Annals of Margam. 1st August 1202. King John (age 35) took his nephew Arthur (age 15) in chains at the castle of Mirabel on the feast of Saint Peter, and with Geoffrey de Lusignan¹, Hugo the Brown² and Andream de Chavenny, and Hugh III, viscount of Chastelleraud³, and Reymundnm de Troarde, and Savaricum de Maulyon, and Hugonem de Banchai, and all his other enemies of Poitou, who were around 200 soldiers and more. Of which 22 he killed the noblest and bravest men in arms by starvation in the castle of Corfe [Map]; so that not one of them escaped.

Rex Johannes apud castrum Mirabel cepit Arthurum nepotem suum in festum Sancti Petri ad vincula, et cum eo Galfridum de Lizanan¹ et Hugonem de Brun², et Andream de Chavenny, et vice-comitem de castro Haraldi³, et Reymundnm de Troarde, et Savaricum de Maulyon, et Hugonem de Banchai, et omnes alios inimicos suos Pictaviæ, qui ibi erant circiter cc. milites et plures. Ex quibus xxii. nobilissimos et strenuissimos in armis fame interfecit in castello de Corf [Map]; ita quod nec unus ex illis evasit.

Note 1. Geoffrey de Lusignan (age 52).

Note 2. Hugh de Lusignan (age 19), surnamed le Brun, count de la Marche.

Note 3. Hugh III, viscount of Chastelleraud.

A History of the Dukes of Normandy. [1st August 1202] As he came riding in, Hugh le Brun was struck down with his horse in the middle of the street. Then the king's men entered on every side through the gates, and the king himself came in; and with the first blow he struck, he cut off the hand of a knight fully armed, with his sword. Great indeed was the battle all through the town. What more shall I tell you? All the Poitevins were utterly defeated, and Arthur was taken, and all the Poitevins with him, not one of the great men escaped. When the king had done his deed, he returned toward Rouen, taking with him all his prisoners, save only Andrew of Chauvigny, whom he let go on his word of honor. And when the King of France heard these tidings at the siege of Arques, where he then was, he abandoned the siege and drew back. King John, when he came to Rouen, put his nephew Arthur in prison in the tower, where he died.

Si porta en son venir Huon le Brun o son cheval à tierre en mi la rue. Lors entrèrent de toutes pars li roial ès portes , et li rois meismes i entra; et au premier cop que il feri, caupa-il le puing i chevalier tout armé de s'espée. Moult fu grans la mellée tout aval la ville. Que vous diroie-je plus? tout furent desconfi li Poitevin, et Artus fu pris et tout li Poitevin; onques uns seus des haus homes n'en eschapa. Quant li rois ot fait son fait, il s'en repaira vers Ruem; si enmena toz ses prisons, fors seulement Andriu de Chavegny: celui en lassa-il aler sour sa fiance. Et quant li rois de France sot ces novieles au siège d'Arches, ù il estolt, il lassa le siège, si se traist arrière. Li rois Jehans, quant il fu veims à Ruem, il mist Artu son neveu en prison en la tour, ù il moru.

Les Grandes Chroniques de France. 1st August 1202. When Arthur, Count of Brittany, had parted from the king [John], not many days passed before he entered too boldly and with too few men into King John's territory. Because of this, it happened that King John, who likely knew of his movements in advance, came upon him suddenly with a large number of armed men. He attacked him and defeated him. There Arthur, Count of Brittany, was captured, along with Hugh le Brun (age 19), Geoffrey de Lusignan (age 52),¹ and many other knights.

Quant Artus, li cuens de Bretaigne, se fu du roi partiz, poi passèrent de jors après que il entra trop hardiement et à trop poi de gent en la terre le roi Jehan, de quoi il avint que li rois Jehans, qui bien savoit par aventure tôt son errement, vint seur lui soudainement a grant multitude de gent armée; à lui se combat i et le descoiifi. Là fu pris li cuens Artus, Hues li Bruns, Giffroiz de Lesegniem et maint autre chevalier.

Note 1. Geoffrey Lusignan, lord of Vouvant and Mervent, son of Hugh VIII known as 'le Brun', lord of Lusignan. It was at Mirebeau (Vienne, district of Poitiers, chief town of the canton) that they were captured along with Arthur of Brittany, on August 1st, 1202 (see Matthew of Paris, Chronica Majora, vol. II, p. 478, and Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, p. 137).

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. Of the capture of Arthur and the others at Mirabeau.

Arthur, count of Brittany, having been armed with knightly weapons by King Phili, whose young daughter he had been betrothed to, now being sixteen years of age, at the urging of certain reckless advisors, rebelled against his uncle King John. Following unsound and hasty counsel, he set out with Hugh de Lusignan, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and two hundred and fifty knights, and laid siege to the castle of Mirabeau under an unlucky omen. There Queen Eleanor, Arthur's grandmother, was residing with her household. The queen, fearing capture, sent word to her son the king to bring swift aid to the besieged. The king at once marched with part of his army to that castle¹. The enemy had already entered the town and blocked up all the gates save one, and in confidence of their great number of gallant knights and men-at-arms, they awaited the king's coming without fear. But King John, arriving, forced his way into the town after a fierce struggle, and by God's will at once took captive all his enemies who had gathered there. For he captured there his nephew Arthur, Count Hugh, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and two hundred and fifty valiant knights and fifty-two more, besides many other brave retainers. Thus he delivered his mother with her attendants from the siege. This triumph of valour he immediately took care to announce to the English barons by letters, of which the following is the text:

De captione Arturi et cæterorum apud Mirabel.

Arturus autem comes Britanniæ, militaribus armis a rege Philippo decoratus, cujus filiam parvulam affidaverat, ipse jam sexdecim annorum ætatem habens, ad quorumdam importunam suggestionem contra avunculum suum regem Johannem rebellavit, sinistroque et nimis concito usus consilio, profectus est cum Hugone Brun et Gaufrido de Lezinant, et cum ducentis militibus et quinquaginta, atque castellum de Mirabel sinistro omine obsederunt, in quo regina Alienor, avia Arturi, cum suis hospitabatur. Regina vero, capi metuens, mandavit regi filio suo ut opem ferret quantocius obsessis. Rex autem illico cum parte exercitus sui ad castellum illud profectus est. Hostes autem castrum intraverant, et omnes portas terrari fecerant, excepta una sola, et secure regis adventum præstolabantur, in multitudine probissimorum militum et servorum confidentes. Rex vero adveniens cum gravi pugnæ conflictu urbem intravit, et omnes inimicos suos qui ibidem confluxerant, Deo volente, statim comprehendit. Cepit enim ibi Arturum nepotem suum, et comitem Hugonem, et Galfridum de Lezinant, et ducentos strenuos milites et quinquaginta-duos, exceptis aliis probissimis servientibus; sicque matrem suam cum sibi adhærentibus ab obsidentibus liberavit. Hunc autem virtutis triumphum illico baronibus Anglicanis mandare per literas curavit, quarum iste tenor est.

Note 1. The Battle of Mirebeau was fought on 1st August 1202. Roger of Wendover: "The queen being placed in this predicament, sent messengers with orders to use all speed, to the king, who was then in Normandy, earnestly beseeching him by his filial affection to come to her assistance; on receipt of this intelligence, the king hastily set out with a strong force, and travelling night and day, he accomplished the long distance quicker than is to be believed, and arrived at Mirabeau. When the French and the people of Poitou learned that the king was on his way, they went out with a pompous array to meet him, and give him battle; but when they met each other in battle order, and had engaged, the king bravely withstood their turbulent attacks, and at length put them to flight, pursuing them so quickly with his cavalry, that he entered the castle at the same time as the fugitives. Then a most severe conflict took place inside the walls of the castle, but was soon determined by the laudable valour of the English; in the conflict there two hundred French knights were taken prisoners, and all the nobles in Poictou and Anjou, together with Arthur himself, so that not one out of the whole number escaped who could return and tell the misfortune to the rest of their countrymen. Having therefore, secured his prisoners in fetters and shackles, and placed them in cars, a new and unusual mode of conveyance, the king sent some of them to Normandy, and some to England, to be imprisoned in strong castles, whence there would be no fear of their escape; but Arthur was kept at Falaise under close custody."

History of the Dukes of Normandy: "Those who were keeping watch, when they saw them coming, began to cry out: 'To arms! To arms!' and the Poitevins ran to arm themselves. Geoffrey of Lusignan was sitting at table, he was a very valiant knight who had done many feats of arms both this side of the sea and beyond, and he was waiting for a dish of pigeons. When he heard the news that a great force was approaching, and there was fear it might be King John's men, he would have done well to rise from his meal and arm himself; but he swore by God's head that he would not rise before he had eaten his pigeons. Because of that delay, they took so long that the king's men entered the streets on every side. Hugh le Brun and Raoul of Issoudun, his brothers, who held the County of Eu through his wife, and Andrew of Chauvigny, who also held the lands of Châteauroux through his wife, and many great barons armed themselves and mounted their horses and ran to the gates. But William des Roches came so swiftly that he entered through the gate before the Poitevins could close it. As he came riding in, Hugh le Brun was struck down with his horse in the middle of the street. Then the king's men entered on every side through the gates, and the king himself came in; and with the first blow he struck, he cut off the hand of a knight fully armed, with his sword. Great indeed was the battle all through the town. What more shall I tell you? All the Poitevins were utterly defeated, and Arthur was taken, and all the Poitevins with him, not one of the great men escaped. When the king had done his deed, he returned toward Rouen, taking with him all his prisoners, save only Andrew of Chauvigny, whom he let go on his word of honor. And when the King of France heard these tidings at the siege of Arques, where he then was, he abandoned the siege and drew back. King John, when he came to Rouen, put his nephew Arthur in prison in the tower, where he died."

William the Breton: "When Arthur, Count of Brittany, had parted from the king [John], not many days passed before he entered too boldly and with too few men into King John's territory. Because of this, it happened that King John, who likely knew of his movements in advance, came upon him suddenly with a large number of armed men. He attacked him and defeated him. There Arthur, Count of Brittany, was captured, along with Hugh le Brun (age 19), Geoffrey de Lusignan (age 52), and many other knights."

On 1st April 1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England (age 82) died at Fontevraud Abbey [Map] where she was buried. Her remains were destroyed during the French Revolution. Her effigy found by Charles Stothard as described in the Introduction to his work Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.

Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Aquitaine (deceased), or Guienne, was the eldest daughter and heiress of William V. Duke of Aquitaine, by Eleanor of Chastelleraut, his wife. She was first married to Louis VII. of France, but, owing to some dissension which arose between them, Louis applied to the papal see for a divorce: and it appearing that there was consanguinity between the parties, they were separated by authority of the Church in Easter 1151. Henry the Second, then Duke of Normandy, thought that a marriage with the Countess of Poitou and Aquitaine offered too large an accession of dominion and political power to his crown to be neglected, and so promptly took his measures that he espoused her the following Whitsuntide. She bore King Henry six sons and three daughters. Their eldest daughter Matilda married Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony; among the issue of which marriage was Otho the Fourth, Emperor of Germany (age 29), and William (age 19), progenitor of the Dukes of Brunswick, who assumed as his arms the two lions which his grandfather Henry bore, and which seem to have been the ensign of the early English Kings of the Norman race as Dukes of Normandy. Eleanor thwarting the amours of her husband, and taking part against him with their elder son Prince Henry (who had received the titular and aspired to the actual honours of King during his father's lifetime), incurred his deep displeasure, and, according to Matthew Paris, banished from his bed, passed sixteen years of her life in close confinement. On the death of Henry in 1189, and the accession of her third son Richard to the Crown, he invested her with sovereign authority during his absence in Normandy; and her first act was a very general release of malefactors from confinement. She accompanied Richard to the Holy Land, died in 1204, the sixth year of the reign of her son John (age 37), and was buried at Fontevraud [Map]. She lies, like the other effigies at that place, upon a bier, attired in her royal vestments, with a crown upon her head.

Annals of Margam. [May 1204] The King of the Franks captured the castle of Chinon, and later all the fortifications of Normandy, Anjou, and the city of Poitiers, along with other castles, towns, and cities that he wanted to possess. This happened because when King John had captured Arthur and had kept him alive in prison for some time, he eventually, drunk and possessed by demons, personally killed him in the tower of Rouen on the Thursday before Easter, after lunch. He tied a large stone to his body and threw him into the Seine; the body was found in a fishing net called "sagena" and brought to the shore. It was discovered and secretly buried in the priory of Bec, known as Saint Mary's of the Meadow, due to fear of the tyrant.

Rex Francorum cepit castrum de Chynun, et postea omnes munitiones Normanniæ, Andegaviæ, et civitatem Pictavis, cum aliis castellis, oppidis, et civitatibus quas voluit habere, et hac ratione; cum rex Johannes cepisset Arthurum, eumque aliquamdiu in carcere vivum tenuisset, in turre tandem Rothomagensi, feria quinta ante Pascha, post prandium, ebrius et dæmonio plenus, propria manu interfecit, et grandi lapide ad corpus ejus alligato, projecit in Secanam; quod reti piscatorio, id est, sagena, inventum est, et ad littus tractum, cognitum; et in prioratu Becci, qui dicitur Sanctæ Mariæ de Prato, occulte sepultum, propter metum tyranni.

Chronicle of Walter of Coventry. Arthur, while imprisoned by his uncle John, King of England, was taken from the world under uncertain circumstances; and his tomb has never been found to this day, as it is said, yet not without the vengeance of God, who breaks the pride of all the haughty. For the Bretons, taking from his name a sort of omen, rashly and foolishly boasted that the ancient Arthur had been revived in this one, and that through him the destruction of the English and the transfer of the kingdom to the Britons was now at hand.

Arthurus in prisona patrui sui Johannis regis Angliæ, dubium quo casu, de medio factus est, nec est inventum sepulcrum ejus usque ad diem hunc, ut dicitur, sed non absque vindicta Dei, Qui frangit omnem superbum. Britones quippe quasi de nomine augurium sumentes, Arthurum antiquum in isto resuscitatum impudenter et imprudenter jactitabant, et Anglorum internecionem, regnique ad Britones per istum imminere translationem.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. In this year [1204], after the middle of Lent, King John, having taken counsel, sent envoys to the King of France, namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Norwich and Ely, as well as Count William Marshal and the Earl of Leicester, in order to sound out the king's intentions and to discuss with him some form of peace settlement. But King Philip, elated because everything was turning to his advantage, was altogether unwilling to agree to any peace unless Arthur¹ were delivered to him alive. If Arthur was already removed from the scene, then he demanded Arthur's sister in marriage, together with all the land beyond the sea. And when the form of peace was debated in various ways, King Philip, unwilling for peace, since he was confident he would soon gain all of King John's territory, always proposed some unacceptable or impossible condition in the terms, something that would both cause shame and diminish the dignity of the English crown, and detract from royal majesty. He raged most fiercely over the murder of Arthur, whom he had heard had been drowned in the Seine; and it is said that he swore never in all his life to cease harassing King John until he had stripped him of his whole kingdom. Soon after, at the following Easter, King Philip assembled his army, besieged Falaise, and quickly captured it with no resistance. Then, coming to Caen, he was at once peacefully received by the townsfolk, since they had no one who could defend them. After this he seized the whole of that province as far as Barfleur, Cherbourg, and Domfront.

Hoc anno, post mediam Quadragesimam, rex Johannes, concilio habito, nuncios direxit ad regem Galliæ, Cantuariensem scilicet archiepiscopum, Norwicensem episcopum atque Elyensem, necnon et comitem Willelmum Marescallum, cum comite Leircestriæ, ut explorarent animum regis, ac de aliqua pacis formula cum eo tractarent. Sed rex Philippus nimis efferatus, quia omnia ei pro voto succedebant, nequaquam aliquam pacis concordiam componere volebat, nisi Arturus ei vivus traderetur. Quod si ille de medio jam sublatus esset, sororem ejus in matrimonium expetebat, cum tota terra transmarina. Cumque diversis modis de formula pacis tractaretur, rex Philippus pacem nolens, qui in brevi totam terram regis se adepturum confidebat, semper aliquod inconveniens, aut aliquod impossibile, in forma pacis componenda proponebat, quod et pudorem et principatus minorationem regi Anglorum incuteret, et regiæ majestati derogaret. Sæviebat autem permaxime pro nece Arturi, quem in Sequana submersum fuisse audierat; unde et jurasse fertur quod nullo tempore totius vitæ suæ ab infestatione regis Johannis desisteret, donec eum toto regno suo privasset. Mox autem, Pascha subsequenti, coadunato exercitu, rex Galliæ obsedit Falesiam et in brevi cepit, nullo ei resistente; deinde, Cadomis veniens, a Cadomensibus pacifice statim receptus est, cum neminem haberent qui eos defendere valeret. Post hæc cepit totam illam provinciam usque Barbefleot, et Chereburch, et Danfrunt.

Note 1. Annals of Margam: "The King of the Franks captured the castle of Chinon, and later all the fortifications of Normandy, Anjou, and the city of Poitiers, along with other castles, towns, and cities that he wanted to possess. This happened because when King John had captured Arthur and had kept him alive in prison for some time, he eventually, drunk and possessed by demons, personally killed him in the tower of Rouen on the Thursday before Easter, after lunch. He tied a large stone to his body and threw him into the Seine; the body was found in a fishing net called 'sagena' and brought to the shore. It was discovered and secretly buried in the priory of Bec, known as Saint Mary's of the Meadow, due to fear of the tyrant."

Walter of Coventry: "Arthur, while imprisoned by his uncle John, King of England, was taken from the world under uncertain circumstances; and his tomb has never been found to this day, as it is said, yet not without the vengeance of God, who breaks the pride of all the haughty. For the Bretons, taking from his name a sort of omen, rashly and foolishly boasted that the ancient Arthur had been revived in this one, and that through him the destruction of the English and the transfer of the kingdom to the Britons was now at hand."

On 30th May 1213 William "Longsword" Longespee Earl Salisbury (age 37) accidentally encountered a large French fleet. The French crews were mostly ashore. The English captured around 300 ships at anchor, burning a further 100 ships. The battle resulted in a period of peace in England with France being unable to invade, as well as generating significant wealth for England.

The Battle of Muret, the last major battle of the Albigensian Crusade, was fought on 12th September 1213 between the armies of Peter II King Aragon (age 35) and Simon "Elder" Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester (age 38). The Argonese forces were heavily defeated. Peter II King Aragon was killed. His son James (age 5) succeeded I King Aragon.

On 27th July 1214 the last battle of the Anglo-French War of 1213-1214. Philip Augustus II King France 1165-1223's army defeated the combined forces of England, Flanders and the Holy Roman Empire. Thomas St Valery (age 59) fought.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. A battle¹ was fought between the king of France and the aforesaid count of Flanders with his allies, and the camps of the Flemings were overthrown by the French, and were captured the count of Flanders, and the count of Boulogne, and the earl of Salisbury, the illegitimate brother of the king of England, and a very great multitude of knights of lesser rank. This battle was fought on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of August [20th July], on a Sunday, near Douai.

Commissum est prælium inter regem Francorum et comitem Flandriæ prædictum cum complicibus suis, et cæsa sunt castra Flandrensium a Francis, et capti sunt comes Flandriæ, et comes Boloniæ, et comes Salesberiæ, frater regis Angliæ nothus, et maxima multitudo militum gradus inferioris. Actum est autem hoc prælium XIII kalendas Augusti, die Dominica, juxta Duay.

Note 1. The battle of Bouvines was fought on Sunday, 27th July 1214 rather than the 20th of July. William the Breton: "When the king and the barons had returned to their tents, that very evening he had brought before him the noble men who had been taken in the battle. They numbered thirty in all, each of such high nobility that every one had borne his own banner in the fight, besides the other prisoners of lesser rank. And when all were before him, he granted life to them all, according to the gentleness and great mercy of his heart, though all those who were of his own realm and his liege men, who had conspired against him, sworn to his death, and done all in their power to slay him, were guilty and deserving of death, according to the laws and customs of the land. They were bound in irons and chains and loaded upon carts, to be taken to prisons in various places. .... On the very day of the battle, William Longsword, Count of Salisbury, was delivered into the keeping of Count Robert of Dreux, with the intention that he should be given in exchange to King John of England, his brother, for the king’s son whom Philip held prisoner, as we have said above. But King John, who bore hatred toward his own flesh and blood, as one who had slain his nephew Arthur and kept Eleanor, that same Arthur’s sister, imprisoned for twenty years, would not consent to release a stranger in exchange for his own brother. Some of the other prisoners were confined in the Châtelet of the Grand-Pont and the Petit-Pont [the two great prisons of medieval Paris], and the rest were sent throughout the kingdom to various places of imprisonment."

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. On the appointed day [10th June 1215] of the conference, the barons gathered between Windsor and Staines, in the meadow called Runnymede, with a host of most noble knights, all well armed in every respect, and they remained there, having set up their tents. The king also, with his followers, stayed apart in the same meadow in pavilions. Then, with the archbishop of Canterbury intervening together with several bishops and certain barons, a kind of peace was made between the king and the barons, and, upon the touching of the holy things, it was sworn by all, even by the king himself, to be inviolably observed. Soon afterwards the form of peace was set down in a charter, so that each county of all England should have a single charter of one and the same tenor, sealed with the royal seal. There also the king restored to the barons and others their rights, of which it was without doubt certain that they were entitled. Another day having been appointed for the restoration of rights which were in dispute, the barons returned to London. From there the barons carried out military exercises in various parts of England. A general oath was taken by each individual, both knights and free men, throughout each county of the whole realm, by command of the king as set forth in open letters, that in faith and power they would uphold the aforesaid charter, and, if any should refuse to uphold it, they would, even the king himself, attack with all their strength.

Die igitur colloquii constituto barones inter Windlesore et Stanes, in prato qui vocatur Runemad, cum multitudine præclarissimæ militiæ et per omnia bene armatæ conveniunt, et in eodem loco fixis tentoriis remanserunt. Sed et rex cum suis seorsum in eodem prato in papillionibus mansit. Intervenientibus itaque archiepiscopo Cantuariensi cum pluribus coepiscopis et baronibus nonnullis, quasi pax inter regem et barones formata est, et tactis sacrosanctis, ab omnibus inviolabiliter tenenda juratur, etiam a rege. Mox igitur forma pacis in charta est comprehensa, ita quod singuli comitatus totius Angliæ singulas unius tenoris haberent chartas regio sigillo communitas. Ibi quoque jura sua baronibus, et aliis de quibus indubitanter constabat quod eis competebant, rex restituit. Præfixo igitur alio die ad jura restituenda de quibus controversia fuit, barones reversi sunt Londonias. Inde tirocinia diversis in locis Angliæ barones exercuerunt. Fit generalis juratio a singulis tam militibus quam liberis hominibus per singulos comitatus totius regni, ex præcepto regio in literis patentibus proposito, quod in fide et virtute prædictam chartam tenerent, et tenere nolentes, etiam regem ipsum, totis viribus infestarent.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. The king, having again replenished his forces of armed men, on the 11th of October, a Sunday, unexpectedly seized the city of Rochester and entered it, and laid siege¹ to the castle, harassing the besieged with many kinds of engines. Now in the castle were especially William de Albini, and Reginald de Cornhill, William de Amesford, and many other nobles with more than a hundred knights and squires, and very many stout crossbowmen; and the siege lasted for almost two months. In this siege the king spent more than sixty thousand marks on mercenaries, and he cruelly wasted all Kent; and even in the episcopal seat of Rochester, in the church and cloisters and the monks' offices, even beside the holy altar and the shrines of Saint Paulinus, the first archbishop of York, and of blessed Ithamar, once bishop of Rochester, they stabled their horses, and held feasts and drunken revels, and even lay in wantonness, with no regard for the holy place and the saints. But those who were within the castle defended themselves most skilfully and with the greatest discipline, killing countless foes outside. At last, however, when the walls had been battered and undermined, and food supplies had run out for the besieged, they surrendered themselves into the king's hands, committing themselves and their possessions to the king's mercy.

Rex iterum refectis copiis armatorum, V idus Octobris, die Dominica, Roffensem civitatem improvisus occupavit et ingressus castellum obsedit, machinis multimodis obsessos infestans. Erant autem in castello præcipui Willelmus de Albegni, et Reginaldus de Cornhulle, Willelmus de Amesforde, et alii plures nobiles cum plus quam centum militibus et servientibus, ac balistariis strenuis quamplurimis, tractaque est obsidio fere per duos menses. In qua obsidione rex expendit in stipendariis plus quam lx. millia marcarum, totamque Cantiam crudeliter populatus est, ipsamque sedem episcopalem Roffensem, ecclesiam et claustra ac officinas monachorum, etiam juxta sanctum altare et thecas sanctorum Paulini Eboracensis archiepiscopi primi, et beati Ythamar Roffensis quondam antistitis, stabiliverunt equos suos, et commessationes et ebrietates, necnon cubilia et impudicitias, nullo respectu habito loci sancti et sanctorum, inibi exercuerunt. Qui vero intra castellum erant, industrie satis et disciplinatissime se defenderunt, infinitos forinsecus occidentes. Tandem vero muribus conquassatis et suffossis, cum jam victualia defecissent obsessis, manus regi dederunt, se et sua regiæ misericordiæ committentes.

Note 1. Walter of Coventry: "Meanwhile, the besieged at Rochester were pressed ever harder, and as the king pushed on the assault, they were given no rest: five great siege engines hurled stones at them without ceasing, by day or by night. When all the outer works had been broken down, only the keep remained standing; and because of the antiquity and solid strength of its construction, it was little harmed by the stones that struck it. Then the miners were set to work, and when half of the keep had collapsed, those within still bravely defended themselves from the other half that remained, for the structure of the tower was such that one portion was divided from the fallen part by a very strong wall. No age, indeed, in our time remembers any siege pressed so urgently, nor any so manfully defended. For since they were given no respite for many days in succession, they suffered most grievously from famine, being confined within the narrow walls of the keep. When all else had failed them, they sustained themselves only with horseflesh and water, which was a hard thing for men who had been bred in luxury. At length, therefore, they were brought to the last extremity. First they expelled those among them who were least warlike, some of whom the king caused to have their hands or feet cut off. Soon after this, all the rest were taken captive; and except for those who claimed to be clerics, they were cast into prison. The king kept the knights and men of rank for himself, while he handed over the lesser ones to others. Only one man he commanded to be hanged, a crossbowman whom, it was said, he had raised from childhood, though it was thought, in the greatness of his wrath, that he would deliver all of them at once to a bitter death. When this was heard, the rest were thrown into terror; and all who remained, struck with fear, either fled to London or hid themselves in religious houses. Few there were who still trusted in their fortifications."