1260-1269 Second Baron's War

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. Meanwhile the royalists went out to battle, arranging themselves in three divisions. The first was led by the king’s son Edward, with the Earl of Warenne and William de Valence, the king’s brother; the second by the king of Germany with his son Henry; the third by the king himself with his magnates. A fourth division the king did not set up, since he had left behind many standard-bearers to guard the town and castle of Tonbridge against the Earl of Gloucester; and there was the flower of almost all his youthful knighthood, for the king had not believed that the barons’ approach was so near. When therefore the lines of battle were prepared on either side, they exhorted one another to fight bravely; and with the clash of a fierce encounter many foot soldiers fell almost in an instant. At once the king’s son Edward with his line, being a young man bold and a vigorous knight, charged into the enemy with such force that he compelled them to retreat a great distance; so that some of those behind, believing from the retreat that the front ranks had fallen, fled in large numbers, and about sixty knights, trying to ford the waters to escape, were drowned. And when some had been slain, the men of London, who had begged for the first blows of battle, though ignorant of its dangers, immediately took to flight. Edward pursued them with his troop, cutting down the hindmost for two or three miles; for he hated them, because they had deserted his father and had dishonoured his mother when she was travelling by water from Westminster to the royal Tower along the Thames, throwing mud and stones from the bridge into her boat and shouting words of insult. Meanwhile, while he thus pursued the fugitives, the barons charged into the king’s second division, of which the greater part perished, and the king of Germany was captured, along with Robert de Brus and John Comyn, who had brought a numerous host of Scots. The king’s own division was broken through, and his war-horse was slain; and when his men saw many fallen and many others fleeing, they led the king back into the abbey from which he had set out, shutting the gates and setting a guard with many knights. The barons entered the town, the victory being won; nor could it easily be told for a long time, by reason of the multitude of wounded, who were royalists and who were baronial. While these things were happening, Edward the king’s son returned with his troop, and when his men saw in the plain the war-cart which Earl Simon had had made for riding, standing there without driver or guide, they rushed upon it and in a moment tore it to pieces; and they slew with the sword two burgesses whom they found in it. But as they came near the place of the slain and looked upon the great slaughter, their hearts were shaken and their fierce countenances grew pale. Yet their hearts were strengthened by that bold leader, the king’s son, who urged them by every means to be brave men. As they approached the town, the barons came out against them, and with a fierce battle fought, many fell on both sides. Then the Earl of Warenne fled with the king’s two brothers, William de Valence and Guy his brother, followed by more than seven hundred picked men-at-arms of their household and company; and on that same day, setting out as far as Pevensey, they crossed the sea. Hugh Bigod also fled with many others, and they madly abandoned the king’s son, though he was fighting manfully. Seeing this, he circled back around the town to the castle, and not finding his father there, returned to him in the abbey.

Interim egressi sunt regales ad pugnam, se præparantes per tres turmas, quarum primam ducebat filius regis Edwardus, cum comite de Warenna, et Willelmo de Valence fratre regis; secundam vero rex Alemanniæ cum filio suo Henrico; tertiam autem ipse rex cum magnatibus suis; quartam vero aciem non constituit rex, eo quod plures vexillarios reliquerat post se ad custodiendum villam et castrum de Tunebrige contra comitem Gloucestriæ, et erat ibi juvenilis ætas quasi totius militiæ suæ, non enim credebat rex adventum baronum tam propinquum: præparatis itaque hinc et inde aciebus exhortabantur ad invicem ad strenue militandum, et conserto gravi prælio corruerunt multi pedestres quasi in momento; statimque filius regis Edwardus cum acie sua, utpote juvenis acer et miles strenuus, irruit in hostes cum tanto impetu quod eos retrocedere compulit spatio magno, ita quod posteriores quidam ex retrocessione credentes primos corruisse, fugerunt plures, et aquæ se credentes ut transirent submersi sunt milites circiter LX cæsisque aliquibus fugerunt statim Londonienses qui primos ictus petierant, belli discrimina ignorantes, quos insequebatur Edwardus cum turma sua, cædens extremos eorum spatio duorum vel trium milliarium, eos enim habebat exosos pro eo quod recesserant a patre, et matrem suam dehonestaverant cum a Westmonasterio usque regiam turrem per aquam Thamesim navigaret, projicientes ex ponte in navem ipsius lutum et lapides, et contumeliosa verba protulerant; interim vero dum sic sequeretur fugientes irruerunt barones in aciem regis secundam, periitque ejus pars maxima et captus est rex Alemanniæ cum Roberto de Bruys et Johanne Comyn qui Scotos adduxerant numerosos, perforataque est acies ipsius regis et dextrarius ejus occisus; cumque vidissent sui multos corruisse et quamplures fugam iniisse, reduxerunt regem in abbatiam unde prius exierat, claudentes portas et custodiam adhibentes cum multis militibus; ingressique sunt barones in urbem, obtenta victoria; nec facile discerni poterat per longum spatium, præ multitudine vulneratorum, qui dicerentur regales et qui baronales: dumque fierent hæc Edwardus filius regis cum turma sua reversus, et videntes sui in planicie currum quem fieri fecerat comes Simon ad equitandum stantem cum eis absque auriga vel duce itineris, cucurrerunt, et quasi in momento dilaceraverunt eum, duos etiam burgenses quos invenerunt in eo gladio peremerunt; appropinquantes autem ad locum occisorum et stragem intuentes permaximam, expavit cor eorum et ferocis animi vultus deperiit; confortabat tamen corda eorum dux ille strenuus regis filius, et ut essent viri robusti modis omnibus animabat, appropinquantibus ipsis ad urbem exierunt barones obviam eis, et conserto gravi prælio corruerunt hinc et inde, fugitque comes de Warenna cum duobus regis fratribus Willelmo de Valence et Gwydone fratre ejus, et sequebantur eos plusquam septingenti armati electi qui erant de domo et familia eorum; et eadem die proficiscentes usque Pevensay mare transierunt: fugit etiam Hugo Bygot cum multis aliis, et filium regis strenue militantem vecorditer reliquerunt; quod videns ipse denuo circumduxit villam usque castrum, et ibi non invento patre reversus est ad eum in abbatiam.

On 31st October 1266 the Dictum of Kenilworth was issued. The Dictum was a peace agreement between King Henry III of England (age 59) and the rebels who were besieged in the impregnable Kenilworth Castle [Map]. The committee included:

Bishop Walter Branscombe (age 46).

Archbishop Walter Giffard (age 41).

Bishop Nicholas Ely.

Gilbert de Clare 8th Earl Gloucester 7th Earl Hertford.

Humphrey Bohun 2nd Earl Hereford 1st Earl Essex (age 62).

Philip Basset (age 82).

John Balliol (age 58).

Robert Walerand.

Alan Zouche (age 63).

Roger Somery 2nd Baron Dudley (age 76), and.

Warin Bassingbourne.

Robert Ferrers 6th Earl of Derby (age 27) and Henry Hastings (age 31) were fined seven times their annual income. The Dictum, however, required the rebels to pay their fines before being restored to their lands; something of a Catch-22 since if they weren't restored to their lands, they would have no income to pay the fine.