I have told in the story of _Old St. Paul’s_ how his Queen, Eleanor of
Savoy, had much to do with King Henry’s unpopularity. She was beautiful
to look upon, and highly accomplished, a patron of the arts, and the
bringer of musical excellence, both of voice and instrument, from
her native land of Provence. But she was greedy of money, proud,
arrogant and vindictive, and always bent on enriching her kindred. Her
uncle, Boniface of Savoy, whom she made Archbishop of Canterbury, was
detested by the clergy, especially by the monks, for his insatiable
and unblushing avarice. Her husband loved the Tower as a place of
residence, but when one day she started forth in her barge for
Westminster she was received with curses and cries of “Drown the
witch,” and had to hasten back in terror and take refuge once more
within the Tower walls. Her son, Edward I, never forgave the Londoners
for so insulting his mother, and not long after found an opportunity of
revenging it. At the Battle of Lewes he defeated a regiment of London
citizens fighting on the side of the Barons, and pursued them far out
of the field, slaughtering some 2,000 of them. But his leaving his
father to look after himself had much to do with his losing the battle.
The war between King Henry and the Barons came to an end with the
defeat and death of Montfort at Evesham in 1264. The Barons had held
the Tower until then, but the King now resumed authority over it, and
increased its fortifications. He first made the famous Hugh de Burgh,
Earl of Kent, Constable, but afterwards replaced him by Peter de
Roches, Bishop of Winchester. Before long the peace of the country was
again disturbed by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who having
obtained possession of the city of London denounced the Papal Legate
Otho for residing in the Tower; it was “a post,” he said, “not to be
trusted in the hands of a foreigner, much less of an ecclesiastic.”
The Legate, in defiance, went to St. Paul’s, and under pretence of
preaching in favour of the Crusade, broke forth into fierce invectives
against the earl, who was present. The preacher had some difficulty in
making his way back to the Tower, which was besieged by de Clare; but
he held it successfully until the siege was raised by the royal army.
One notable prisoner of this reign was Griffin, son of Llewelyn, Prince
of Wales, who was caught and detained in the Tower as a hostage in
1244. He attempted to escape as Flambard had done, making a rope of
his bedclothes. But he was very fat, it broke, and he was killed. His
nephew Llewelyn was the chieftain who afterwards gave so much trouble
to Edward I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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