The queen, who had all along joined the barons in their hatred against the favourites, while on- a pilgrim age to Canterbury, had been denied a night's lodging, by Badlesmere, governor of the castle of Leeds. Irri tated by this affront, she persuaded her husband to take vengeance on his insolent vassal. Edward immediately raised an army, and having taken the castle of Leeds, put the governor to death. Being now emboldened with success, he resolved to take advantage of his situation, and to re-establish and confirm his authority, by the de struction of his enemies. He recalled the two Spencers from exile ; and marched with his army to the marches of Wales, where the discontented barons chiefly resided. The Earls of Hereford and Lancaster endeavored to op pose his passage of the Trent; but being repulsed, they fled towards Boroughbridge, where, being met by a body of royalists, under Sir Andrew Harcla, Hereford was slain, and Lancaster taken prisoner. As this prince was taken in arms, he was condemned by a court mar tial, and was led to execution, loaded with indignities and derision. The death of Lancaster was followed by that of his principal confederates. Many also were thrown into prison, and others escaped beyond seas. The young favourite seized upon the most considera ble forfeitures. His rapacity was insatiable. It dis gusted even the loyal barons, and exposed him to gene ral odium.
A difference having arisen between Edward and Charles the Fair, king of France, respecting the duchy of Guienne, Isabella was permitted to go over to Paris, in order to adjust matters with her brother. Charles, however, required that the king of England should ap pear in his court, and do homage for that duchy; but as there were many obstacles to such a journey, the queen proposed that Guienne should be given to young Edward, and that the prince should come to Paris and do homage to his superior lord. The king, glad of in dulging in his indolence, and in the society of his fa vourite, willingly consented. The queen, having now got the young prince into her power, was resolved to employ his influence for her own aggrandizement. She had fixed her affections, which had been long estranged from her husband, upon Roger -Mortimer, a powerful baron, who, having been engaged in the late rebellion, had escaped into France. At the French court also she met with many English fugitives, the remains of the Lancastrian faction, who were ready to countenance any of her schemes that were likely to be the means of re storing them to their possessions and their country. Be ing thus supported, and having gained over the Earls of Kent and Norfolk, brothers to the king, as also the Earl of Leicester, brother and heir to Lancaster, and the Arch bishop of Canterbury, with many other noblemen and prelates, she landed on the coast of Suffolk, with 3000 foreign troops. She openly declared that her only object was the expulsion of the Spencers from power; but with the ruin of the favourites, she meditated also the de thronement of her husband. As-the Spencers were uni versally hated, the people soon flocked to her standard, and even Robert de 1Vatteville, who was sent by the king to oppose her, joined her with all his forces. Ed
ward endeavoured to rouse the citizens of London in his defence, but in vain ; and being in a manner deserted, be fled towards Bristol. Thither he was pursued by the Earl of Kent, and the foreign mercenaries. He then passed over into Wales, leaving the castle of Bristol to the charge of the elder Spencer, who had lately been created Earl of Winchester; but he was nn sooner gone, than the garrison mutinied, and delivered up their go vernor to the rebellious barons. This venerable noble man, now in his ninetieth year, was condemned without trial, was hanged upon a gibbet, had his body cut to pieces and thrown to the dogs, and his head sent to Win chester to be exposed to the derision of populace. His son soon after shared the same fate. The king, disappointed of the expected succours, had attempted to escape into Ireland, but, being driven back by a storm, he fell into the hands of the rebels, and was committed to the castle of Kenitworth, under the custody of the Earl of Leicester. The queen then summoned a parlia ment at Westminster, in which the king Was charged with incapacity for government, and neglecting the pub lic welfare. He was consequently deposed, and was soon after compelled, by menaces, to sign his own resigna tion. The young prince was then crowned king ; but the whole authority of the government fell into the hands of his mother, and her paramour Mortimer. Not content, however, with the imprisonment of her hus band, and her own exaltation, the queen endeavoured to hasten his death, by the most ignominious and cruel treatment. Her criminal correspondence with Morti mer had become apparent to all ; and as they became hated for their vices, the dethroned monarch was regard ed with pity and veneration. They did not consider themselves as safe while the king lived. He was sent from prison to prison, and made the sport of his merce nary keepers. Every mean was tried to break his spirit. He was kept totally destitute of all the comforts, and almost of the necessaries of life. At one time they or dered him to be shaved, in the open fields, with cold and dirty water from a neighbouring ditch; when they refused to change it, he burst into tears, which bedew ing his face, he exclaimed, that, in spite of their cruel ty', he should be shaved with clean and warm water. But sorrow and affliction were instruments of murder too tar dy for the impatience of his enemies ; and Mortimer sent secret orders to his keepers to have him instantly dispatch ed. The assassins seized him while in bed, and, in order to prevent any outward marks of violence appearing on his person, they held him down with a table which they flung over him, and thrust a pipe up his body, through which they inserted a red hot iron, which consumed his bowels. His agonizing shrieks, however, discovered to all the inhabitants of Berkeley' castle, the barbarous mur der of their unfortunate king.