JUNE 129 



realm. To London, as matter of course, went the head, 

 but the portion of next highest honour was the right 

 upper quarter. For this there was sharp competition 

 between Winchester and York. Edward i. decided the 

 question in favour of the southern town, whither accord- 

 ingly the grisly token was conveyed. 



It was hard on the old city to yield her pre-eminence, 

 even though her double allegiance to Crown and Mitre 

 had sometimes brought the burgesses into dilemma. For 

 example, in 1243, when Henry iii. was quarrelling with 

 Bishop Raley, he ordered the mayor to shut the town 

 gates in his face. The mayor obeyed, and afterwards was 

 heavily fined by the angry prelate for resistance to his 

 spiritual lord. Yet Winchester, though reft of its glory 

 as the metropolis, long continued the favourite residence 

 of the Court. The greatest of the Plantagenets set out 

 thence on his crusade in 1270, and revisited it immedi- 

 ately on his return in 1276, and was constantly there 

 until the year before his death. In February of that 

 year, 1306, he was hunting at Itchen Stoke, a few miles 

 up the river. His mind was well at ease, for the dream 

 of his ambition — the unification of Great Britain under 

 one crown — had been satisfactorily accomplished. John 

 Balliol was giving no trouble ; Wallace had been disposed 

 of the previous summer; Edward himself had just held a 

 council in Westminster and assigned their posts to the 

 various Scottish magnates, including Robert de Brus, all 

 duly and doubly sworn to fealty ; the old king was well 

 entitled to take his pleasure in the chase. But messen- 

 gers brought startling news to him at Itchen Stoke. 

 Robert de Brus had slain John Comyn in the church of 

 Dumfries, and Scotland was arming. From that moment 



I 



