(41) For the Londoners at Lewes let us take the account of an enemy. Thomas Wykes (148) tells us how the Earl set out, “glorians in virtute sua congregata baronum multitudine copiosa, Londoniensium innumerabili agmine circumcinctus, quia legitur stultorum infinitus est numerus.” Presently we read how the “Londoniensium innumera multitudo, bellorum ignara,” were put to flight by the Lord Edward very much after the manner of Prince Rupert. (42) On the religious reverence paid to Earl Waltheof, see Norman Conquest, ii. 602. I have there referred to the office of Thomas of Lancaster, which will be found in Political Songs, 268. Some of the pieces are what we should think most daring parodies of parts of the Church Service, but we may be sure that what was intended was reverence and not irreverence. There is another parody of the same kind in honour of Earl Thomas, a little earlier back in the volume, p. 258. It was a matter of course that Thomas of Lancaster should be likened to Thomas of Canterbury. “Gaude, Thoma, ducum decus, lucerna Lancastriæ, Qui per necem imitaris Thomam Cantuariæ; Cujus caput conculcatur pacem ob ecclesiæ, Atque tuum detruncatur causa pacis Angliæ. (43) Let us take a Latin, a French, and an English specimen of the poems in which Simon’s death was lamented and his intercession implored. “Salve, Symon Montis Fortis, Totius flos militiæ, Durus pœnas passus mortis, Protector gentis Angliæ. Sunt de sanctis inaudita Cunctis passis in hac vita, Quemquam passum talia; Manus, pedes, amputari, Caput, corpus, vulnerari, Abscidi virilia. Sis pro nobis intercessor Apud Deum, qui defensor In terris exstiteras.”—(Political Songs, 124.) The French poem which follows directly in the collection is too long to copy in full. This is perhaps the most remarkable stanza, in which we again find the comparison with Thomas of Canterbury:— “Mès par sa mort, le cuens Mountfort conquist la victorie, Come ly martyr de Caunterbyr, finist sa vie; Ne voleit pas li bon Thomas qe perist seinte Eglise, Le cuens auxi se combati, e morust sauntz feyntise. Ore est ocys la flur de pris, qe taunt savoit de guerre, Ly quens Montfort, sa dure mort molt emplorra la terre.” In this poem there is not, as in the Latin one, any direct prayer to the martyred Earl, but in the last stanza we read:— “Sire Simoun ly prodhom, e sa compagnie, En joie vont en ciel amount, en pardurable vie.” The only English piece on these wars belongs to an earlier date, namely, the satirical poem against King Richard, how the one English Augustus “Makede him a castel of a mulne post;” but we get verses on Simon’s death in the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (ii. 559):— “& sir Simond was aslawe, & is folk al to grounde, More murÞre are nas in so lute stounde. Vor Þere was werst Simond de Mountfort aslawe, alas! & sir Henri is sone, Þat so gentil knizt was.