DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0080
68
CHEPSTOW CASTLE.
charter at Runnymede, but John well knew that, by all the
laws of nations, a thing obtained by force is not a valid thing :
therefore, no fooner was the charter figned than he repudiated
it : and the barons, knowing quite as well that a forced contrail
thus repudiated was no contrail at all, took up arms to
compel him again to acknowledge their charter. But, fo far
from this, John, backed by the brave Earl of Pembroke,
refifted, and beat the barons at every point. What then did
thefe fame much-lauded barons ? They did a moft fhameful
and unpatriotic deed. They offered the crown of England to
Louis, dauphin of France, which, had he obtained it, would
have reduced this country for ever to a mere province of
France. But John beat both the barons and their king Louis
of France : and when John died, there was found in his
pocket, fays Carte the hiftorian, a letter figned by forty of
thefe barons, offering to refign all queftion of the charter, if
he would reftore them again to their titles and eftates.
Neither living nor dying, however, did John do this, but
treated the barons as traitors.
When he was dead, the brave feamen of Dover, putting
Hugh de Burgh at their head, and the brave archers of Eng-
land, putting William de Collingham at their head, determined
to fettle the matter with the barons, and drive away their
French king. At this time Louis and the barons held London
and the fouth of England, and were powerfully fupported by
the King of Scots in the north, and the Prince of Wales in
the weft; but the freemen of England, the failors and archers,
beat them all, and compelled the Dauphin to flee into his fllips
at the mouth of the Thames. They deftroyed all his fliips
except fifteen, with which he got him away. And then, thefe
freemen of England having faved England from a French as
well as a Norman invafion, marched up to London, and com-
CHEPSTOW CASTLE.
charter at Runnymede, but John well knew that, by all the
laws of nations, a thing obtained by force is not a valid thing :
therefore, no fooner was the charter figned than he repudiated
it : and the barons, knowing quite as well that a forced contrail
thus repudiated was no contrail at all, took up arms to
compel him again to acknowledge their charter. But, fo far
from this, John, backed by the brave Earl of Pembroke,
refifted, and beat the barons at every point. What then did
thefe fame much-lauded barons ? They did a moft fhameful
and unpatriotic deed. They offered the crown of England to
Louis, dauphin of France, which, had he obtained it, would
have reduced this country for ever to a mere province of
France. But John beat both the barons and their king Louis
of France : and when John died, there was found in his
pocket, fays Carte the hiftorian, a letter figned by forty of
thefe barons, offering to refign all queftion of the charter, if
he would reftore them again to their titles and eftates.
Neither living nor dying, however, did John do this, but
treated the barons as traitors.
When he was dead, the brave feamen of Dover, putting
Hugh de Burgh at their head, and the brave archers of Eng-
land, putting William de Collingham at their head, determined
to fettle the matter with the barons, and drive away their
French king. At this time Louis and the barons held London
and the fouth of England, and were powerfully fupported by
the King of Scots in the north, and the Prince of Wales in
the weft; but the freemen of England, the failors and archers,
beat them all, and compelled the Dauphin to flee into his fllips
at the mouth of the Thames. They deftroyed all his fliips
except fifteen, with which he got him away. And then, thefe
freemen of England having faved England from a French as
well as a Norman invafion, marched up to London, and com-