Essay on Caerphilly Castle. 67 



and invaded the lordship. Similar commissions were also issued to nobles 

 in the neighbourhood. 



In the tripartite division of the estates, Le Despencer having obtained 

 the county of Glamorgan, we find him rated among the Welsh levies, at 

 five hundred foot for his lands in Glamorgan and Morgannwc, and three 

 hundred for the king's lands in his custody. 



About this time also, Le Despencer took advantage of Mortimer's at- 

 tainder to seize upon the castle of Caerphilly, which has been mentioned 

 as descending to tlie Mortimers by the widow of an earl of Gloucester ; 

 and having fortified it by additional defences, was enabled for some time 

 to withstand the forces brought against him by the incensed barons, al- 

 though they finally obtained possession of it. 



By a series of acts of oppression in AVales and elsewhere, 



1321. Hugh Le Despencer, and Hugh his son, arrayed the whole 

 realm in arms against themselves and their monarch, and raised 

 that fearful storm which involved them all in a common destruction. 



In 1326, the queen and her paramour Mortimer, having taken 

 " ■ np arms, the king, attended by the Despencers and Baldock 

 the chancellor, fled from London, to which he never returned. 



As the flight of the king from his barons and remorseless queen has, in 

 its details, been generally neglected by historians, it may be useful to give 

 the following rather minute particulars, compiled chiefly from, or at least 

 corrected by, writs issued by the monarch on his passage. 



The king was at Westminster on the second of October, and 

 Foedera in at Acton on the same day. On the tenth, with a few followers, 



loco. pursued by his queen with a much larger number, he rested at 



Gloucester, whence the elder Despencer, then ninety years old, 

 was dispatched to defend the castle of Bristol.* From Gloucester, the king, 

 accompanied by the younger Despencer and Robt. Baldock his chancellor, 

 proceeded to Tintern, where he rested upon the I4th and 15th, and then 

 remained at Striguil until the 21st. He was at Cardiff during the 27th 

 and 28th, whence, probably dee.miug himself unsafe, he returned to Caer- 

 philly, where he issued writs, bearing date the 29th and 30th of the month, 

 to Rhese ap Griffith and others, giving them power to raise troops : Rhese 

 seems to have been perfectly in the royal confidence, as his commission is 

 unlimited. 



Whether Edward thought Caerphilly too near the English border, or 

 whether the garrison was too small to defend its extensive outworks, does 

 not appear ; but leaving Despencer to defend the castle, he retired to 

 Margam, where he was on the 4th of November, and thence to Neath, 

 where he rested the next day, and whence he issued a safe conduct to the 

 abbot of that monastery, as his ambassador to the queen and Mortimer. 



• WalHingham says that the elder Despencer was dismissed from Striguil. 



