siding at a parliament held at Berwick in 1296, after Edward had overrun, and for the time subjugated, Scotland. There he administered the oaths of allegiance to all the Scottish nobility who were reduced to the sad necessity of swearing fealty to the haughty conqueror, and of binding themselves to come to his assistance at any time and place he might prescribe. But Wallace soon arose; Robert Bruce was to follow; and amid the general gloom the Highland seers could descry in the distant horizon shadows of the glories of Bannockburn. CHAP. XI. abroad. We must confine ourselves to events in which Lord Chancellor Langton was more immediately concerned. The following year Edward, thinking that he had conquered Scot- A. D. 1297. land, determined to carry on war against France, that he might take vengeance for the perfidy of the monarch of that country, by which he asserted he had been tricked out of Guienne. Having assembled his fleet and army at Win- King goes chelsea, then the great port of embarkation for the Continent, he hastened thither himself to meet them, accompanied by the Chancellor, who on board the ship "Edward" delivered the Great Seal into his own hand as he was setting sail for Flanders.* The King carried it abroad with him, having appointed John de Burstide, who attended him as his secretary, to keep it. But Langton still remained Chancellor, and on his way back to London, at Tonbridge Castle, another seal was delivered to him by Prince Edward, appointed guardian of the realm in the King's absence. Parliament A parliament was soon after held while the King remained A. D. 1297. abroad, nominally under the young Prince, but actually at Westunder Langton. Here broke out a spirit of liberty which minster. could not be repressed, and the Chancellor was obliged to allow the statute to pass both Houses, called "The Confirm- "Confirmation of the Charters," whereby not only MAGNA CHARTA ation and CHARTA DE FORESTA were confirmed; but it was Charters." enacted that any judgment contrary to them should be void; that copies of them should be sent to the cathedral churches throughout the realm, and read before the people twice every *Rot. Pat. 25 Ed. 1. n. 2. m. 7. Rot. Claus. m. 7. of the CHAP. XI. A. D. 1298. "Articuli super Chartas." year*; that sentence of excommunication should be pronounced on all who should infringe them+; and that no aids should be taken without the consent of parliament. ‡ The statute was in the form of a charter, but the Chancellor conceived that he had no power to give the royal assent by putting the seal to it, and it was sent to Flanders by messengers from both Houses, to be submitted to Edward himself. After much evasion and reluctance, he ordered De Burstide to seal it with the Great Seal which he had brought along with him. The King, baffled in his military operations against France, and alarmed by the news of an insurrection in Scotland under Wallace, found it prudent to return to his own dominions, and (according to the close Roll), on Friday, the 14th of March, 1298, he landed at Sandwich from Flanders, and the next day, about one o'clock, John de Langton, the Chancellor, came to the King's bed-chamber at Sandwich, and there, in the presence of divers noble persons, by the King's bed-side, he delivered up to the King the seal that had been used in England during his absence, and the King immediately after, with his own hand, delivered to the Chancellor the Great Seal which he had taken with him to Flanders. § Edward, having obtained (it is to be feared by the advice of the Keeper of his conscience) a dispensation from the Pope from the observance of the confirmation of the Charters to which he had given his assent when out of the realm, the Parliament the following year passed the statute of ❝ Articuli super Chartas ||," which introduced the new enactment “that the commonalty should choose three persons in every county to be authorised by the King's letters patent under the Great Seal, to hear and determine such complaints as should be made of those who offended in any point against the Charters, as well the King's officers as others, and to punish them by imprisonment, ransom, or amercement according to the trespass." To this statute the King gave his royal assent *25 Ed. 1. c. 2. † C. 3. C. 4. C. 5. and 6. 2 Inst. 525. Rot. 57. a. § Rot. Pat. 26 Ed. 1. mm. 23. 12. in dorso. XI. in person from the throne, "the Chancellor and the Judges CHAP. sitting on the woolsacks," and from this time no sovereign of England has denied that the Charters are law, however in practice they may have been violated.* elected Bishop of The Chancellor was now involved in a dispute in which he Chancellor was personally interested, and which caused him great trouble and anxiety for some years. He had not had the good luck Ely. to be promoted to the episcopal bench,—when the see of Ely becoming vacant, he thought he was secure of it. But while some of the monks voted for him according to the wishes of the government, others gave their voices for their own Prior, who, they said, would have much more leisure to attend to the duties of a faithful overseer of the church of Christ. Rome. The Court was then at York, the Chancellor, as usual, attending the King. He posted off to Lambeth to consult the Archbishop of Canterbury, leaving the Seal with three persons, John de Crancombe, John de Caen, and William de Birlay, to be kept by them in their joint custody on the King's behalf until he should return.† The Archbishop Goes to advised him to proceed in person to Rome, the Prior of Ely having already appealed to the Pope. Langton, without resigning his office of Chancellor, had leave of absence to prosecute his suit, and on the 14th of February, 1299, delivered up the Great Seal, to be held during his stay abroad, by John de Burstide as Keeper. He landed at Dover on his return, on the 11th of June following, and on the 16th of the same month the Seal was re-delivered to him by the King.‡ He had not succeeded at the Vatican, notwithstanding all the influence exerted in his favour. The Holy Father, taking this opportunity to show the plenitude of his power, entirely set aside the election of the monks, consecrated the Bishop of Norwich to the see of Ely, bestowed Norwich on the Prior of Ely, and, by way of consolation to the English Chancellor, made him Archdeacon of Canterbury. On the 12th day of August 1302, Langton resigned his Resignaoffice of Chancellor for some reason not explained to us. This *1 Parl. Hist. 43. Rot. Pat. 26 Ed. 1. m. 27., and Rot. Claus. 26 Ed. 1. m. 10. tion of Langton. CHAP. . XI. Adam de Great Seal. occurrence certainly did not proceed from a desire to sacrifice him to a rival, for the King was much perplexed in the appointment of a successor. The Close Roll gives a very circumstantial account of the ceremony of the resignation: "Be it remembered that in the 30th year of King Edward, on Monday after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, about the hour of vespers, in the chamber wherein the King then lodged, in the Hostel of the Archbishop of York, near Westminster, immediately after the King rose from Council, Lord John de Langton, the Chancellor of England, restored to the King his Great Seal, and the King in the presence of Amadio Earl of Savoy, John de Bretagne, and divers others of his council, delivered the same to the Lord John de Drakensford, then Keeper of his wardrobe, to be kept there." After a lapse of ten days, the King had not yet made up Osgodebey, his mind who should be Chancellor, but there being a neKeeper of cessity that the judicial business connected with the office should proceed, the Great Seal was given under certain restrictions into the keeping of Adam de Osgodebey, Master of the Rolls, of which we have the following entry :-" On the 23d of August, in the 30th year of the King, in the King's chamber at Kensington, in the presence of Otho de Grandison, Amadio Earl of Savoy, John de Bretagne, and others of the King's Council, the King's Great Seal was delivered by the King's order by the hand of Lord John de Drakensford, Keeper of the wardrobe, to Lord Adam de Osgodebey, Keeper of the Rolls of the Chancery, who was enjoined to keep it under the seal of Master John de Caen, and the Lords William de Birlay and Robert de Bardelley, until the King should provide himself with a Chancellor.† The Seal being so disposed of, the King set forward on his journey to Dover by the way of Chichester." A. D. 1302. At last, on the 30th of September following, a new Chancellor was declared in the person of WILLIAM DE GRENEFIELD, Dean of Chichester. The reader may be gratified by the record of the appointment and installation:-" On * Cl. Rol. 30 Ed. 1. m. 8. † quousque Dominus Rex sibi de Cancellario providisset. Cl. 30 Ed. 1. m. 6. CHAP. XI. FIELD, Sunday the morrow of St. Michael, in the same year, in the King's Chapel, at St. Redegund, immediately after mass, in the presence of Lord John de Drakensford and others, chap- WILLIAM lains and clerks of the said chapel of the King, Lord Adam DE GRENEde Osgodebey delivered the Great Seal to our Lord the Chancellor. King, who then received it into his own proper hands, and straightway delivered it to Master William de Grenefield, Dean of Chichester, whom he had chosen for his Chancellor, to keep, and the said Chancellor delivered the said Seal again to the said Adam, to be carried with him the said Chancellor to Dover; and on the same day at Dover, the Chancellor received it back from the said Adam, and the next day sealed writs with it in the House of God there."* Langton, the Ex-chancellor, remained some years without any promotion; but in 1305 he was made Bishop of Chichester, and he obtained quiet possession of that see, which he continued to govern with great credit till he was again restored to the office of Chancellor in the succeeding reign. William de Grenefield (sometimes called Grenevill), now His family. his successor, was descended from an ancient family in the West of England, represented by the present Duke of Buckingham. He entered the Church when very young, and was a Canon of York before he was Dean of Chichester. He frequented the court of Edward I., and had shown qualities which induced the belief that he would make a useful servant to the Crown. When raised to his new dignity he is said to have been "eminent in counsel, and very eloquent." Chancellor He and Edward's other ministers were excessively un- A. D. 1302. popular, insomuch that at a parliament called soon after his Attempt in parliament appointment, an attempt was made to carry a favourite to make scheme several times brought forward in weak reigns about office of this period of English history, but which we should not have elective. expected to find proposed to him who had conquered Wales, and led his victorious armies to the extremity of Scotland,"that the Chancellor, Chief Justice, and Treasurer should be chosen or appointed by the community of the kingdom. The King, by the Chancellor's advice, returned for answer, — *Cl. Rol. 30 Ed. 1. m. 5. |