The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III. — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III.
David Hume · en
The earl of Leicester, master of London, and of the counties in the
south-east of England, formed the siege of Rochester, which alone
declared for the king in those parts, and which, besides Earl Warrenne,
the governor, was garrisoned by many noble and powerful barons of the
royal party. The king and prince hastened from Nottingham, where they
were then quartered, to the relief of the place; and on their approach,
Leicester raised the siege and retreated to London, which, being the
centre of his power, he was afraid might, in his absence, fall into the
king’s hands, either by force or by a correspondence with the principal
citizens, who were all secretly inclined to the royal cause. Reënforced
[**unusual spelling but that is what it looks like] by a great body
of Londoners, and having summoned his partisans from all quarters,
he thought himself strong enough to hazard a general battle with
the royalists, and to determine the fate of the nation in one great
engagement, which, if it proved successful, must be decisive against
the king, who had no retreat for his broken troops in those parts, while
Leicester himself, in case of any sinister accident, could easily
take shelter in the city. To give the better coloring to his cause, he
previously sent a message with conditions of peace to Henry, submissive
in the language, but exorbitant in the demands;[*] and when the
messenger returned with the lie and defiance from the king, the prince,
and the king of the Romans, he sent a new message, renouncing, in the
name of himself and of the associated barons, all fealty and allegiance
to Henry. He then marched out of the city with his army, divided into
four bodies: the first commanded by his two sons, Henry and Guy de
Mountfort, together with Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, who had
deserted to the barons; the second led by the earl of Glocester, with
William de Montchesney and John Fitz-John; the third, composed of
Londoners, under the command of Nicholas de Segrave; the fourth headed
by himself in person. The bishop of Chichester gave a general absolution
to the army, accompanied with assurances, that, if any of them fell in
the ensuing action, they would infallibly be received into heaven, as
the reward of their suffering in so meritorious a cause.
* M. Paris, p. 669. W. Heming. p. 583.