S. Impeachment of ROGER MORTIMER, Earl of MARCH, for Treason, 3rd Edward III. A. D. 1330. [Knighton, Coll. 2556. Walsingham. 3 Rapin, 419. 1 Cobb. Parl. Hist. 84.]

AT the parliament assembled at Westminster, on the 15th of March, 1330, the following Articles of Impeachment translated from the French original now on the Rolls in the Tower, were exhibited against Roger Mortimer, earl of March: viz.

party, led the king armed against the said earl of Lancaster, and other peers of the land, as far as Winchester, when they were coming to the parliament at Salisbury, so that the earl and other peers, to avoid the evils that might have happened, out of regard to the king, departed "These are the treasons, felonies, and mis- and went toward their own countries, grieving chie's done to our lord the king, and his people, that they could not speak with, or advise their by Roger Mortimer, and others of his company. liege lord as they ought to do.-4th. The said -1st. Whereas in the parliament holden at Roger, by the said usurped power, caused the Westminster next after the king's coronation, it king to march forcibly against the earl, and was ordained, that four bishops, four earls, and other peers of the land, who were appointed six barons should remain with the king to advise to be with the king, to advise him; and so him, and that four should still be with him, viz. prosecuted them with force, that the said earl one bishop, one earl, two barons at least, and and some others of his company, that wished that no great business should be done without well to the kingdom, submitted to the king's their assent; after which parliament the said grace, saving to them life and member, and Roger not having regard to the said assent, that they might not be disinherited, nor have usurped to himself royal power, and the govern- too great a fine set upon them; yet he caused ment of the realm, above the state of the king, them to be fined so grievously, that half their and put out and placed officers in the king's lands, if sold outright, would only pay it; and house, and otherwhere throughout the kingdom others he caused to be driven out of the naat his pleasure, such as were of his party, and tion, and their lands to be seized, against the set John Wyward and others about the king, to form of the Great Charter, and law of the land. observe his actions and words; so as he was en -5th. Whereas the said Roger knew well the compassed by his enemies, that he could do no- king's father was dead and buried, he by others thing as he would, but only as a man under of his party in deceivable manner, informed guard or restraint.-2nd. Whereas the king's the earl of Kent that he was alive; wherefore father was at Kenelworth, by order and assent the earl being desirous to know whether it was of the peers of the land, to stay there for his ease, so or not, used all the good ways he could to and to be served as such a great person ought discover the truth, and so long, till the said to be; the said Roger by his usurped power, Roger by his usurped royal power, caused him which he exercised over him at his pleasure, to be apprehended in the parliament holden at ordered that he should be sent to Berkley Westminster and so pursued him, as in that parcastle, where, by him and his confederates, he liament he procured his death.-6th. The said was traiterously, feloniously, and falsely mur- Roger, by his usurped royal power, caused the dered and killed.—-3rd. The said Roger by his king to give to him and his children, and confeusurped royal power, forbad by the king's writ derates, castles, towns, manors, and franchises under the great seal, that any should come to in England, Ireland, and Wales, in decrease of the parliament at Salisbury with force and arms, the revenues of the crown.--7th. The said Roger under pain of forfeiting whatever they had to in deceivable manner caused the knights of the king; yet thither he came with others of his shires, at the parliament at Winchester, to party with force and arins to the said parliament grant to the king one man at arms out of every contrary to the prohibition aforesaid; where-town of England, that answered in the court fore divers peers of the land, as the earl of of the Eyre by four men, and the provost, (i. e. Lancaster and others, knowing the manner of the rieve or bailiff of the lord of the manor) to his coming, would not be there: and whereas serve at their own cost, for a year in his war the prelates were assembled in one house, to in Gascoigne; which charge he contrived for consult about the business of the king and realm, the advantage of himself and party, in destructhe said Roger broke open the doors of the said tion of the people.-8th. The said Roger, by house with armed men, upon the prelates, and his said usurped royal power, caused summons threatened them with life and member, if any to be sent to many great knights and others, of them should be so hardy as to speak or do that they should come to the king wherever he any thing contrary to his pleasure in any point. was; and when they came, he caused them to be And in the same parliament by the said usurp charged to prepare themselves to go into Gased power, he caused the king to make him coigue, or fine at his pleasure; which fines earl of March, and to give him and his heirs were for the benefit of hen and his party.several lands in disherison of the crown; and 9th. The said Roger falsely and maliciously afterwards the said Roger, and those of his made discord between the king's father and

as a traitor and enemy to the king and kingdom, to be drawn and hanged, and commanded the earl mareschal to execute the judgment, and the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of London, with the constable of the Tower, and those who had the guard of him, to be aiding and assisting with the earl mareschal at the execution; which was performed accordingly on the 29th of November at a place then called the Elms, and afterwards Tyburn.*-He was not brought to answer, but condemned without

reversed as erroneous, and made void by act of parliament, and his grandchild Roger restored to his title and estate, 23 Ed. 3.

The king, also, in his parliament charged the earls, barons and peers, to give right and true

his queen; and possessed her, that if she went to him, she should certainly be killed with a dagger, or otherwise murdered; and by this way, and his other subtleties, he so ordered it, that she would not come to her liege lord and king, to the great dishonour of her son and self, and great damage of the whole realm per chance in time to come, which God forbid.10th. The said Roger by his said usurped royal power, had caused to be taken for him and his party, the king's treasure, as much as he pleased, without tale, in money and jewels, in de-hearing, and for that reason this Judgment was struction of the king, so that he had not wherewithal to pay for his victuals.-11th. The said Roger, by the said usurped power, caused to be shared between him and his confederates, the 20,000 marks which came out of Scotland, for the articles of peace, without any thing re-judgment against Simon de Bereford,kt. who had ceived by the king.-12th. The said Roger, by his above-mentioned royal power, received the king's duties and purveyance through the kingdom, as if he had been king: and he and his party had with them double the company of men and horse that were with the king, in destruction of the people, not paying for their quarters any more than they themselves pleased. -13th. The said Roger, by his said royal power caused the king to agree to the mounting of 200 Irish chevaliers, or horse, being of those that killed the great men of Ireland and others, who were in the king's faith; whereas the king ought immediately to have revenged their deaths, rather than pardoned them, contrary to the statute and assent of parliament.-14th. | The said Roger contrived to have destroyed the king's secret friends, in whom he had most confidence; and he surmised to the king, in the presence of the queen his mother, the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury, and others of his council, that his said secret friends had excited him to combine with his (the said Roger's) enemics beyond sea, in destruction to the queen his mother, and of him the said Roger; and this he affirmed so impudently to the king, that he could not be believed against what he had said: and for these things and many others, not as yet fit to be declared, he had been apprehended; wherefore the king charged the earls and barons, the peers of the land, as these things concerned himself, themselves, and all the people of the realm, to do right and true judgment upon him for the crimes above written, as being notorious and known to be true, to themselves, and all the people of the kingdom."

Then the earls, barons, and peers, having examined these articles, came into parliament before the king, and they all delivered their opinion, by one of their body, that all things contained in the said articles were notorious, and known to themselves, and all the people; wherefore they, as judges in parliament by assent of the king did award and judge the said Roger

been aiding and advising with Roger Mortimer in all the treasons, felonies, &c for which he was afterwards adjudged to die, as was notoriously known to the said peers; where upon they came before the king in parliament and said all with one voice, that the said Sinon was not their peer, and therefore they were not bound to judge him as a peer of the land :' but since it was a thing so notorious and known to all, that he was advising, aiding and assisting the said Roger in all the felonies, &c. aforesaid; and that he was guilty of divers other felonies and robberies, and a principal maintainer of robbers and felons; they as peers and judges of parliament by assent of the king, do award and adjudge him, as a traitor and enemy to the king and realm, to be drawn and hanged; and the carl mareschal was commanded to do execution; which was done accordingly. But it appears by the same parliament roll, that it was then also declared, that though the lords and peers in parliament had for this time, in the king's presence, proceeded as judges to give judgment upon those that were no peers; yet hereafter this should be no precedent to draw them to give judgment on any other but their peers, in case of treason or felony.

"The earl of March left four sons, of whom Edmund, his eldest, died in the flower of his age, and left his son Roger, who was restored to his grandfather's estates and honours. The earl bad also seven daughters, Katherine wife of Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick; Joan married to Janies lord Audley; Agnes to Lawrence de Hastings earl of Peinbroke, Margaret to Thomas son and heir of Maurice lord Berkley: Maude, to John son and heir of John de Charleton lord Powis; Blanche to Peter de Grandison; and Beatrix first to Edward son and heir to Thomas of Brotherton, earl marshal, son of Edward 2, and afterwards to sir Thomas de Broose." Dugdale's Baron. 146.

9. Proceedings against THOMAS DE BERKELE, for the Murder of King Edward II. A. D. 1331. [Rot. Parl. 4 Edw. III. M. 16.]

10. Proceedings against JOHN STRATFORD, Archbishop of Canterbury, for Treason, 14 Edw. III. A. D. 1341. [Rot. Parl. 14 Ed. III. 17 Ed. III. 2 Brady, 211. 1 Cobb. Par. Hist. 100.] of the war had been granted to him for maintaining thereof; and by what means, and whose default he lost Tournay; and punish the offenders in all things according to law. And as to what concerned him, saving always the estate of Holy Church, and his own order, he was ready in all points to submit to the judgment of his peers. This letter was dated at Canterbury the first of January.-In the same month, he wrote to Robert Bouser (a lay-man) late made chancellor of England, in the place of the bishop of Chichester, to preserve the liberties of Holy Church, and the laws of the land entire: And to let him know, that the ninth had levied and destrained for it, upon prelates and others of the clergy, who were not bound to pay it, as those that paid the tenth granted to the clergy, and held nothing of the king by barony, or were obliged to come to parliament; and also exacted the tenth of such as were bound to pay the ninth, oppressing the clergy contra Deum & Justitiam, against God and justice: Exhorting and requiring him in the Lord not to permit the religious and clergy to pay otherwise than according to the form of the grant of the taxes, nor give his advice or assent to any thing in prejudice of the Great Charter, or that might tend to the subversion of church-liberties, declaring if he should make out any writ, commission, or precept to that purpose, he should not omit to exercise such power as Holy Church had permitted him.-He wrote also to the king and his council after this manner: To our lord the king and his council, to all and every one of them; We John, by Divine permission archbishop of Canterbury, and the pope's legate, do declare all those that do arrest clerks, put them in prison, and detain them against their wills, are excommunicated by canon.' Which sentence he published in the church of Canterbury, and caused it to be published by all his brother suffragans, or bishops of that province. After the denunciation of which sentence, several clerks (there named) were taken and imprisoned in prejudice of God and Holy Church, against the law and privileges of all clerks, and to the danger of their souls, who did such things, or gave advice or assent to the doing of them. Wherefore he beseeched the king to preserve untouched the rights and privileges of Holy Church, and forthwith release the clerks, and others, that had been imprisoned against the Great Charter, the laws of the land, and privileges of such as were detained. And further besecched all of the king's council, who had presumed to advise the king to commit such things, not to hinder the release of those that were kept in prison. He also declared, That the king's ministers or officers, of what condition soever,

IN the year 1340, king Edw. 3, finding himself distressed for money to carry on his war in France, and thinking that those who had the care of his revenues were in fault, suddenly returned from Ghent into England, on St. Andrew's day; about midnight he arrived at the Tower, and next morning he sent for the archbishop of Canterbury to Lambeth, but found him not there. He also sent for the bishop of Chichester his chancellor, the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry lord treasurer, and several others his great officers, clerks of chancery, and justices, and imprisoned them in the Tower, except the bishops, whom, says Robert of Avesbury, for fear of the Clementine Constitution, That bishops ought not to be imprisoned, he permitted to have their liberty. On the 3d of December, the archbishop went to Canterbury, and secured himself in his church, to escape future dangers. Thither the king sent Nicholas de Cantelupe with letters of credence, That he would come to him to London, where he might personally speak with him; but he came not, pretending some about the king had threatened to kill him. Yet though he came not, he wrote to the king, and admonished him to take good advice, and make use of good and wise counsellors, and to remember that by evil counsel his father had, contrary to the laws of the land and Magna Charta, imprisoned some great men and others, adjudged them to death, seized their goods, or put them to grievous ransom and what happened to him for this cause. He also put him in mind, That by the circumspection and discretion of the prelates, the great and wise men of the nation, his own affairs had prospered, so as he possessed the hearts of the people; and had met more assistance from the clergy and laity than any of his progenitors. But at present, by the evil counsel of some English and others, who loved their own profit more than his honour, or the safety of the people, he had imprisoned clerks and others, against the laws of the land, his Coronation-oath, and against the Great Charter; the infringers whereof were, by the prelates of England and the Pope's bull, which he had by him, excommunicated. Which things he had done to the great danger of his soul, and detriment of his state and honour. He tells him, he had pronounced excommunicate all such about him that were favourers of Treason, flatterers of, and imposed upon him; and as his spiritual father beseecheth him to hold them as such, some of which by their sloth, and wicked service and advice, lost Tournay. And requested him to call together the prelates, great men, and peers of the land, to see and enquire in whose hands the Wool, Moneys, and other things then remained, which since the beginning

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