POLITICAL HISTORY 



old charge as well as on the new. The archbishop, however, insisted upon 

 his right to hold the inquiry, and reported that Philip properly refused to 

 plead to a charge on which he had been acquitted, and that for his insolence 

 in court he had condemned him to present himself before the offended justice 

 with back bared for corporal punishment, and further to forfeit his prebend 

 for the space of two years, to be used as the king should dispose of it.'" The 

 further development of the quarrel belongs to the general history of England. 

 With Becket Bedfordshire had little more to do. In his flight from the Council 

 of Northampton, October 1 1 64, he stopped at Chicksands on his way south 

 from Lincolnshire, and was accompanied thence by one of the monks named 

 Gilbert." 



When the troubles of the reign of John came to a head in 12 15, William 

 de Beauchamp was one of the barons who leagued together to demand a charter 

 of liberties, and on their repulse at Northampton the baronial forces withdrew 

 to Bedford Castle, where William received them ' with due respect ' ; '^ while 

 amongst those who joined them later in London were two who belong to 

 Bedfordshire history, Henry de Braibroc '* and William de Cantilupe. On 

 15 June the Great Charter was executed, but Innocent III at once declared 

 it invalid and excommunicated the barons. The king summoned foreign 

 mercenaries and marched north with his half-brother William, Earl of 

 Salisbury, Lavaric de Maulac at the head of his Poitevins, the ' pitiless ' Fulk 

 de Breaute, and a horde of ' vile filthy Brabanters, under a blood-thirsty cut- 

 throat.' '* They stopped a night at Dunstable and so marched on for 

 Northampton, plundering and burning on the way the lands and buildings of 

 the barons. Forces were detached east and west, and in the end of November 

 Fulk captured Hanslope in Buckinghamshire, and then made for Bedford. 

 The warden of the castle asked for a week's grace, but as no relief arrived, 

 he surrendered on 2 December, and the king at once bestowed the castle 

 upon Fulk.'* 



At the end of the year a second papal excommunication named the 

 rebellious barons individually, including William de Beauchamp.'^ They 

 then resolved to offer the crown to Louis of France, and he landed on 

 21 May 1216." Soon all the south-eastern part of the country was in his 

 hands, and he inflicted much damage on the town of Dunstable, and took 

 from it a levy of 200 marks.'* 



After John's death many of the barons still supported Louis against 

 William Marshal and Hubert de Burgh, who defended the rights of the 

 young Henry III. Fulk and the two Cantilupes were in the king's army, 

 while William de Beauchamp and Henry de Braibroc were on Louis' side. 



^ Mater. Hist. Becket (Rolls Ser.), iv, 25. " Ibid. 55. 



^ R. of Wendover, Flares Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 1 16. 



^ Sheriff of Beds, and Bucks, in 1 2 10 and 1 2 1 1 {P.R.O. List). He was at first among John's ' consiliarii 

 iniquissimi ' (R. of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 60). 



" Matt. Paris, Ciroti. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 636. ' Walterus Buuc, sicarius et vir sanguinum, cum Flan- 

 drensibus et Brebantiis suis spurcissimis et ignobilibus, omni genere facinorum commaculatis.' 



'' R. of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 163 ; Matt. Paris, op. cit. ii, 638. It was then that the king 'dirui fecit 

 ecclesiam Sancti Pauli de Bedeford . . . eo tempore quo firmare fecit castrum Bedefordie,' for which Henry III 

 made compensation to Newnham (Ca/. Pat. 1216-25, p. 29). 



*= R. of Wendover, op. cit. ii, 169. " Ibid. 180. 



'^ Jnti. Dunst. 47. From 1202 to 1296 the Dunstable Chron. is rich in matter of local and general in- 

 terest and there are a few supplementary entries of later date. It is printed in vol. iii of Amales Monastic! 

 in the Rolls Series, and will be frequently referred to in the above form. 



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