joining his son, with his last breath, to prosecute the enterprise, and never to desist, till he had finally subdued the kingdom. He expired July 7, 1307, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign: after having added more to the solid interests of the kingdom, than any of those who went before, or succeeded him.

EDWARD II. SURNAMED OF CAERNARVON.

EDWARD was in the twenty-third year of his age when he

succeeded his father; of an agreeable figure, of a mild harmless disposition, and apparently addicted to few vices. But he soon gave symptoms of his unfitness to succeed so great a monarch as his father; he was rather fond of the enjoyment of his power than of securing it; and lulled by the flattery of his courtiers, he thought he had done enough for glory, when he had accepted the crown. Instead, therefore, of prosecuting the war against Scotland, according to the injunctions he had received from his dying father, he took no steps to check the progress of Bruce; his march into that country being rather a procession of pageantry than a warlike expedition.

Weak monarchs are ever governed by favourites; and the first Edward placed his affections upon was Piers Gavestone, the son of a Gascon knight, who had been employed in the service of the late king. This young man was adorned with every accomplishment of person and mind that were capable

of creating affection; but he was utterly destitute of those qualities of heart and understanding that serve to procure esteem. He was beautiful, witty, brave, and active; but then he was vicious, effeminate, debauched, and trifling. These were qualities entirely adapted to the taste of the young monarch, and he seemed to think no rewards equal to his deserts. Gavestone, on the other hand, intoxicated with his power, became haughty and overbearing, and treated the English nobility, from which it is probable he received marks of contempt, with scorn and derision. A conspiracy, therefore, was soon formed against him, at the head of which queen Isabel, and the earl of Lancaster, a nobleman of great power, were associated.

It was easy to perceive, that a combination of the nobles, while the queen secretly assisted their designs, would be too powerful against the efforts of a weak king and a vain favourite. The king, timid and wavering, banished him at their solicitation, and recalled him soon after. This was

A. D. 1312. J

sufficient to spread an alarm over the whole kingdom; all the great barons flew to arms, and the earl of Lancaster put himself at the head of this irresistible confederacy. The unhappy Edward, instead of attempting to make resistance, sought only for safety: ever happy in the company of his favourite, he embarked at Tinmouth, and sailed with him to Scarborough, where he left Gavestone as in a place of safety, and then went back to York himself, either to raise an army to oppose his enemies, or, by his presence, to allay their animosity. In the mean time, Gavestone was besieged in Scarborough by the earl of Pembroke; and had the garrison been sufficiently supplied with provisions, the place would have been impregnable. But Gavestone, sensible of the bad condition of the garrison, took the earliest opportunity to offer terms of capitulation. He stipulated, that he should remain in Pembroke's hands as a prisoner for two months; and that endeavours should be used, in the mean time, for a general accommodation. But Pembroke had no intention that he should escape so easily; he ordered him to be conducted to the castle of Deddington, near Banbury, where, on pretence of other business, he left him with a feeble guard, which the earl of Warwick having information of, he attacked the castle in which the unfortunate Gavestone was confined, and quickly made himself master of his person. The earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel, were soon apprised of Warwick's success, and informed that their common enemy was now in custody in Warwick castle.

Thither, therefore, they hrasted with the utmost expedition, to hold a consultation upon the fate of their prisoner. This was of no long continuance; they unanimously resolved to put him to death, as an enemy to the kingdom, and gave him no time to prepare for his execution. They instantly had him conveyed to a place called Blacklow-hill, where a Welsh executioner, provided for that purpose, severed his head from the body.

To add to Edward's misfortunes, he soon after suffered a most signal defeat from the Scots army under Bruce, near Bannockburn; and this drove him once more to seek for relief in some favourite's company. The name of his new favourite was Hugh De Spenser, a young man of a noble English family, of some merit, and very engaging accomplishments. His father was a person of a much more estimable character than the son; he was venerable for his years, and respected through life for his wisdom, his valour, and his integrity. But these excellent qualities were all diminished and vilified, from the moment he and his son began to share the king's favour, who even dispossessed some lords unjustly of their estates, in order to accumulate them upon his favourite. This was a pretext the king's enemies had been long seeking for; the earls of Lancaster and Hereford flew to arms; sentence was procured from parliament of perpetual exile against the two Spensers, and a forfeiture of their fortune and estates. The king, however, at last rousing from his lethargy, took the field in the defence of his beloved Spenser, and at the head of thirty thousand men pressed the earl of Lancaster so closely, that he had not time to collect his forces together; and flying from one place to another, he was at last stopt in his way towards Scotland by Sir Andrew Harcla, and made prisoner. As he had formerly shewn little mercy to Gavestone, there was very little extended to him upon this occasion. He was condemned by a court-martial; and led, mounted on a lean horse, to an eminence near Pomfret, in circumstances of the greatest indignity, where he was beheaded by a Londoner.

A rebellion, thus crushed, served only to increase the pride and rapacity of young Spenser: most of the forfeitures were seized for his use; and in his promptitude to punish the delinquents, he was found guilty of many acts of rapine and injustice.

But he was now to oppose a more formidable enemy in queen Isabella, a cruel, haughty woman, who fled over to France, and refused to appear in England till Spenser was removed from the royal presence, and banished the kingdom.

By this reply she gained two very considerable advantages; she became popular in England, where Spenser was universally disliked; and she had the pleasure of enjoying the company of a young nobleman, whose name was Mortimer, upon whom she had lately placed her affections, and whom she indulged with all the familiarities that her criminal passion could confer. The queen's court now, therefore, became a sanctuary for all the malecontents who were banished their own country, or who chose to come over. Accordingly, soon after, accompanied by three thousand men at arms, she set out from Dort harbour, and landed safely, without opposition, on the coast of Suffolk. She no sooner appeared than there seemed a general revolt in her favour; and the unfortunate king found the spirit of disloyalty was not confined to the capital alone, but diffused over the whole kingdom. He had placed some dependence upon the garrison which was stationed in the castle of Bristol, under the command of the elder Spenser; but they mutinied against their governor, and that unfortunate favourite was delivered up and condemned by the tumultuous barons to the most ignominious death. He was hanged on a gibbet, in his armour, his body was cut in pieces, and thrown to the dogs, and his head was sent to Winchester, where it was set on a pole, and exposed to the insults of the populace.

Young Spenser, the unhappy son, did not long survive the father; he was taken, with some others who had followed the fortunes of the wretched king, in an obscure convent in Wales, and the merciless victors resolved to glut their revenge, in adding insult to cruelty. The queen had not patience to wait the formality of a trial; but ordered him immediately to be led forth before the insulting populace, and seemed to take a savage pleasure in feasting her eyes with his distresses. The gibbet erected for his execution was fifty feet high; his head was sent to London, where the citizens received it in brutal triumph, and fixed it on the bridge. Several other lords also shared his fate; all deserving pity, indeed, had they not themselves formerly justified the present inhumanity, by setting a cruel example.

In the mean time the king, who hoped to find refuge in Wales, quickly was discovered, and delivered up to his adversaries, who expressed their satisfaction in the grossness of their treatment. He was conducted to the capital, amidst the insults and reproaches of the people, and confined in the Tower. A charge was soon after exhibited against him, in which no other crimes but his incapacity to govern, his indo

A. D. 1329.

lence, his love of pleasure, and his being swayed by evil coun sellors, were objected against him. His deposition was quickly voted by parliament; he was assigned a pension for his support; his son, Edward, a youth of fourteen, was fixed upon to succeed him, and the queen was appointed regent during the minority. The doposed monarch but a short time survived his misfortunes; he was sent from prison to prison, a wretched outcast, and the sport of his inhuman keepers. He had been at first consigned to the custody of the earl of Lancaster; but this nobleman shewing some marks of respect and pity, he was taken out of his hands, and delivered over to lords Berkeley, Montravers, and Gournay, who were entrusted with the charge of guarding him month about. Whatever his treatment from lord Berkeley might have been, the other two seemed resolved that he should enjoy none of the comforts of life while in their custody. They practised every kind of indignity upon him, as if their design had been to accelerate his death by the bitterness of his sufferings.

Among other acts of brutal oppression, it is said that they shaved him for sport in the open fields, using water from a neighbouring ditch. He is said to have borne his former indignities with patience, but all fortitude forsook him upon this occasion; he looked upon his merciless insulters with an air of fallen majesty, and bursting into tears, exclaimed, that the time might come when he would be more decently attended. This, however, was but a vain expectation. As his persecutors saw that his death might not arrive, even under every ́cruelty, till a revolution had been made in his favour, they resolved to rid themselves of their fears, by destroying him at once. Accordingly, his two keepers, Gournay and Montravers, came to Berkeley castle, where Edward was then confined, and having concerted a method of putting him to death without any external violence, they threw him on a bed, holding him down by a table, which they had placed over him. They then ran a horn-pipe up his body, through which they conveyed a red hot iron; and thus burnt his bowels without disfiguring his body. By this cruel artifice they expected to have their crime concealed; but his horrid shrieks, which were heard at a distance from the castle, gave a suspicion of the murder; and the whole was soon after divulged by the confession of one of the accomplices. Misfortunes like his must ever create pity; and a punishment so disproportionate to the sufferer's guilt, must wipe away even many of those faults of which Edward was undoubtedly culpable.