POLITICAL HISTORY 



been good, but already in his brother's time he had alienated the goodwill of 

 St. Etheldreda, while his exactions as king soon made 1 St. Edmund's the head 

 of the conspiracy against him. Richard earl of Clare, his son Gilbert and 

 his cousin Robert fitz-Walter, William de Huntingfeld, Roger de Cresci 

 and the earl led the county against the king. The autumn of 1214 saw an 

 extraordinary number of noble pilgrims at the shrine of the martyr, whose 

 church was turned into a council chamber. Every knight there swore to 

 stand by the liberties accorded to church and nobles by Henry I. Roger 

 de Cresci undertook to raise the county and lead it. Robert fitz-Walter 

 son of Walter fitz-Robert, who had opposed John during Richard's absence, 

 was elected ' Marshal of the army of God and of the Holy Church.' In 

 the inevitable civil war Suffolk suffered as between two fires ; soldiers, either 

 friends or foes, plundered indiscriminately. The barons in London proved 

 themselves as great a scourge as the royalists, 2 and in November, 1215, the 

 county found itself ravaged by the king's army, which was watching to 

 prevent the barons drawing supplies, and at the same time trembling under 

 the incursions of the licensed robbers who had made the isle of Ely their 

 head quarters. The destruction of John's fleet under Hugh Boves 3 had 

 strewn the coast with corpses and left it defenceless against the landing of 

 7,000 Frenchmen, the vanguard of Lewis's army. These in their turn 

 pillaged the towns and marched off to London laden with booty, and twice 

 again in the same year were towns put to ransom by the barons under fitz- 

 Walter and William de Huntingfeld. The news of John's death followed 

 close on the last ravaging of the county, for true to his policy of carrying 

 the war into his enemies' lands, the king had overrun the county before his 

 retreat north. 4 Suffolk now exchanged the doubtful excitement of war for 

 that of religious revival, which in the days of rival orders brought many evils 

 and riots in its train. The Friars Minor and the Dominicans were preaching 

 everywhere at the market crosses and usurping the place of the parish priest, 

 especially in the matter of confession, for it was easier for the sinner to confess 

 anonymously to an unknown and passing friar than to his own director. The 

 very liberties of St. Edmund were threatened. Gilbert of Clare, engaged in 

 a lawsuit with the abbot, tried to thrust into the town a body of the 

 friars, while the sheriff refused to acknowledge his judicial rights. 6 The 

 abbot complained that those who sought sanctuary within the four crosses 

 were so watched as to starve to death. The county was restless ; no 

 strangers were allowed to pass unchallenged, nor was anyone allowed to 

 give them entertainment, 8 and the hue and cry was strictly kept in every 

 town by special constables. When war actually broke out Suffolk as usual 

 was against the legitimate authority. At the battle of Lewes in the 

 insurgent army were the earl, Robert de Veer earl of Oxford, William 

 de Criketot, Roger de Huntingfeld, John de Boseville, John Esturmy, 

 Roger de Sancto Philoberto, Waleran Munceaux, Robert Peeche, and William 

 de Boville. 7 The last was nominated one of the custodes pads of the Mise 



1 Roger of Wendover, flares Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, ill. 



' Chron. of Elite. l-Edvi. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 17. 



1 Roger of Wendover, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 147-8. 



4 Chron. of Edw. l-Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 19. 



4 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 688 ; Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 1 88. 



* Assize of Arms. ' Blaauw, ' Simon de Montfort,' from East Angl. Mag. vii (new ser.), 63. 



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