The Comic History of EnglandÀ Beckett, Gilbert Abbott
History
The Comic History of England
À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott
Great Britain -- History -- Humor
Leicester had formed a camp near Kenilworth, and having got the king
still in his possession, he encased the poor old man in armour, put him
on a horse, and turned him into the field on the morning of the battle.
The veteran was soon dismounted, and was on the point of being killed,
when he roared out "Hollo! stop! I am Henry of Winchester!" His son
recognising his voice, seized him and literally bundled him into a place
of safety. "What do you do here?" muttered Edward, somewhat annoyed, but
the aged Henry could not explain a circumstance which might have played
old Harry with the cause of the Royalists. Leicester's horse fell
under him, but the earl bounding to his feet, continued to fight, until
finding the matter getting serious, he paused to inquire whether the
Royalists gave quarter. "There is no quarter for traitors," was the only
reply he received, followed by a poke in the shape of a home-thrust from
the sword of one of the enemy. Deprived of their leader, Leicester's
followers had nothing to follow, and the Royalists obtained a victory.
The king was now restored to power, but there were still a few rebels
in the forest of Hampshire, one of whom, named Adam Gourdon, came to a
personal contest with Prince Edward, who got him down, placed his
foot on his chest, and generously restored him to liberty. Gourdon was
introduced to the queen the same night as a sort of prize rebel, and
became a faithful adherent to the royal family.
Henry was now left at home all by himself, his son Edward having gone to
Palestine. The old man often wrote to request the prince to return, for
his majesty found himself unequal to the bother of ruling a people still
disposed to be occasionally turbulent. A sedition had broken out at
Norwich, which Henry had gone to quell, and he was on his way back to
London, when he was laid up at St. Edmund's Bury by indisposition. Being
considered a slight illness, it was at first slighted, but the royal
patient became worse, and he died on the 16th of November, 1272, at the
respectable age of sixty-eight, according to one historian, * sixty-four
according to a second, ** and sixty-six according to a third. *** The
last seems to be the nearest to the truth, for Henry had been a king
about fifty-six years, and he was about ten when he came to the throne.
He was buried at Westminster Abbey, where for nothing on Sundays and for
twopence on week days, posterity may see his tomb.
* Macfarlane.
** Hume.
***Rapin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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