In Easter week of this same year, the above-mentioned nobles assembled at Stamford,[413] with horses and arms. They had now induced almost all the nobility of the whole kingdom to join them, and constituted a very large army; for in their army there were computed to be two thousand knights, besides horse-soldiers, attendants, and foot-soldiers, who were variously equipped.... The king at this time was awaiting the arrival of his nobles at Oxford.[414] On the Monday next after the octave of Easter,[415] the said barons assembled in the town of Brackley.[416] And when the king learned this, he sent the archbishop of Canterbury and William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, with some other prudent men, to them to inquire what the laws and liberties were which they demanded. The barons then delivered to the messengers a paper, containing in great measure the laws and ancient customs of the kingdom, and declared that, unless the king immediately granted them and confirmed them under his own seal, they, by taking possession of his fortresses, would force him to give them sufficient satisfaction as to their before-named demands. The archbishop, with his fellow messengers, then carried the paper to the king, and read to him the heads of the paper one by one throughout. The king, when he heard the purport of these heads, said derisively, with the greatest indignation, "Why, amongst these unjust demands, did not the barons ask for my kingdom also? Their demands are vain and visionary, and are unsupported by any plea of reason whatever." And at length he angrily declared with an oath that he would never grant them such liberties as would render him their slave. The principal of these laws and liberties which the nobles required to be confirmed to them are partly described above in the charter of King Henry,[417] and partly are extracted from the old laws of King Edward,[418] as the following history will show in due time. [Sidenote: The castle of Northampton besieged by the barons] As the archbishop and William Marshal could not by any persuasion induce the king to agree to their demands, they returned by the king's order to the barons, and duly reported to them all that they had heard from the king. And when the nobles heard what John said, they appointed Robert Fitz-Walter commander of their soldiers, giving him the title of "Marshal of the Army of God and the Holy Church," and then, one and all flying to arms, they directed their forces toward Northampton.[419] On their arrival there they at once laid siege to the castle, but after having stayed there for fifteen days, and having gained little or no advantage, they determined to move their camp. Having come without _petrariae_[420] and other engines of war, they, without accomplishing their purpose, proceeded in confusion to the castle of Bedford....[421]