POLITICAL HISTORY 



crown all came the king's constant demands for more money. We are not, 

 therefore, surprised to find that certain of the people of Staffordshire refused 

 to pay the twentieth granted to Edward, alleging that the said tax had been 

 given the king under certain conditions, namely that he would observe the 

 Great Charter, the Forest Charter, and other ordinances, and would have a 

 perambulation of the forests conducted, and these things had not been done. 

 The king professed great astonishment, as he had commanded the said ordin- 

 ances to be observed in every particular. Apparently with a real desire to 

 learn the truth of the matter, he issued a commission to make strict inquiry 

 into it. 117 



At the end of 1321 Edward with unwonted energy resolved to attack 

 the party of the great Earl of Lancaster, to whose ascendancy he could no 

 longer submit. In reply Lancaster collected an army of about 30,000 men 

 at Tutbury, one of his many castles, and his principal residence. On the 

 king's approach, in order to prevent his crossing by the bridge at Burton on 

 Trent to attack Tutbury, he erected defences on the east end of the bridge 

 about 10 March, 1322. The vanguard of the king made an assault upon 

 these, and was repulsed with loss. 



A halt was called for a few days, and at a council of war it was decided 

 to divert the enemy's attention by keeping up the attack on the bridge at 

 Burton 118 and push on with the rest of the troops to Salter's Bridge, a few 

 miles distant. However, before this was carried into effect a man who had 

 suffered from the exactions of Lancaster, who had made the monks of 

 Burton Abbey assist him with money and provisions, and quartered his 

 soldiers on the inhabitants of the town, informed the king of a ford at 

 Walton, by which he crossed. He was on the point of attacking when 

 suddenly the younger Despenser leapt from his horse, 119 and prostrating 

 himself before the king on the snow which then covered the ground, be- 

 sought him not to unfurl his standard, for those whom he was about to 

 attack were the nobles and lieges of his kingdom, and were not led by wise 

 advice but excited by youthful ardour, and if the king's standard was 

 unfurled universal war would lay waste the whole land, which could hardly 

 be controlled in the king's time. Whatever might have been the effect of 

 this curious speech, the day was already won, for in the meantime the 

 vigorous attack on the bridge at Burton had engaged all the enemy's 

 attention, and when the king was across the river he had almost surrounded 

 Lancaster's army. They were seized with panic, and having set fire to part 

 of Burton escaped in the smoke to Pontefract. 120 



At Tutbury the king captured some wounded who had been abandoned 

 in the hasty flight, and remained there five days, ordering the arrest of 

 Thomas of Lancaster and his supporters. 121 He then set out for Pontefract, 

 where he heard the news of Lancaster's defeat at Boroughbridge, a defeat 

 soon followed by his trial and execution. In these troubles several Stafford- 

 shire tenants fought against the king, among them James and John the 

 sons of William de Stafford, William de Chetelton, Nicholas de Longford, 



117 Rot. Par/. (Rec. Com.), i, 449. "' Holinshed, Chron. of Engl. ii, 566. 



119 Chron. of Edio. I and Edvi. II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 75, 267. 



IJO Thos. of Walsingham, Hist. dngl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 64. A chest full of coins discovered in the River 

 Dove in 1831 is supposed by Mosley (Hist, of Tutbury) to have formed part of Lancaster's treasure. 

 121 Rymer, FoeJera (orig. ed.), iii, 933. 



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