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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
1200-1216 Magna Carta is in 13th Century Events.
On 1st August 1202 King John of England (age 35) defeated the army of his nephew Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany (age 15) and Hugh X of Lusignan V Count La Marche (age 19) which was besieging John's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England (age 80) at Mirebeau Castle. King John of England took Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany 1187-1203's army by surprise capturing most. Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany and, probably, his sister Eleanor "Fair Maid of Britanny" 4th Countess of Richmond (age 18), both of whom arguably had better claims to the throne than King John of England were captured.
Arthur Plantagenet 3rd Duke Brittany was imprisoned by William de Braose 4th Baron Bramber (age 58) at Falaise Castle [Map].
Annals of Margam. 1st August 1202. King John (age 35) took his nephew Arthur (age 15) in chains at the castle of Mirabel on the feast of Saint Peter, and with Geoffrey de Lusignan1, Hugo the Brown2 and Andream de Chavenny, and Hugh III, viscount of Chastelleraud3, and Reymundnm de Troarde, and Savaricum de Maulyon, and Hugonem de Banchai, and all his other enemies of Poitou, who were around 200 soldiers and more. Of which 22 he killed the noblest and bravest men in arms by starvation in the castle of Corfe [Map]; so that not one of them escaped.
Rex Johannes apud castrum Mirabel cepit Arthurum nepotem suum in festum Sancti Petri ad vincula, et cum eo Galfridum de Lizanan1 et Hugonem de Brun2, et Andream de Chavenny, et vice-comitem de castro Haraldi3, et Reymundnm de Troarde, et Savaricum de Maulyon, et Hugonem de Banchai, et omnes alios inimicos suos Pictaviæ, qui ibi erant circiter cc. milites et plures. Ex quibus xxii. nobilissimos et strenuissimos in armis fame interfecit in castello de Corf [Map]; ita quod nec unus ex illis evasit.
Note 1. Geoffrey de Lusignan (age 52).
Note 2. Hugh de Lusignan (age 19), surnamed le Brun, count de la Marche.
Note 3. Hugh III, viscount of Chastelleraud.
Chronica Majora. 1st August 1202. The queen, being in dire straits, sent messengers with great haste to the king, who at that time was in Normandy, earnestly pleading and imploring him by the bond of filial piety to come to the aid of his desolate mother. Upon hearing this, the king hastened with a strong force, traveling day and night with such speed over a long distance that he arrived at the castle of Mirebeau sooner than could have been imagined. When the French and the Poitevins learned of his arrival, they came out pompously to meet the king in battle. But when the battle lines were drawn up on both sides and the armies clashed, the king, manfully resisting their haughty efforts, put them all to flight. He pursued them with such swiftness on horseback that he entered the castle together with the fleeing enemy. There followed a very fierce battle within the bounds of that same castle, but thanks to the praiseworthy strength of the English, it was soon brought to an end. For in that conflict two hundred knights from the kingdom of France were captured, and with Arthur himself, all the nobles of Poitou and Anjou, so that not a single foot soldier escaped to return and report the defeat to others. The captives were then bound in shackles and iron manacles, and placed in carts drawn by two horses, a new and unusual method of transport. The king sent some of them into Normandy, and others into England, so that they might be confined in stronger castles and held without fear of escape. Arthur himself remained under close watch at Falaise.
Regina vero in arcto posita nuncios ad regem, qui tunc temporis in Normannia erat, sub celeritate direxit, rogans obnixius et obtestans, ut pietatis optentu matri succurreret desolatæ. Quo audito, rex cum festinatione in manu potenti die noctuque spatium prætervolans itineris longioris, citius quam credi fas est ad Mirebellum castrum pervenit. Quod cum Francigenæ cum Pictavensibus cognovissent, exierunt obviam regi, pomposo congressu cum ipso pugnaturi. Sed cum dispositis aciebus hinc inde concurrissent, rex, superbis eorum conatibus viriliter resistens, omnes in fugam coegit, atque tam pernici equorum cursu fugientibus institit inimicis, ut una cum illis castellum intraret. Factus est autem infra præfati ambitum castri conflictus durissimus, sed virtute Anglorum laudabili in brevi finitus. Nam in illo conflictu capti sunt ducenti milites de regno Francorum, et cum ipso Arthuro omnes nobiles Pictavenses et Andegavenses, ita quod nec unus pes ex omnibus evasit, qui posset redire et casum aliis indicare. Ligatos! igitur captivos in compedibus et manicis ferreis, vehiculisque bigarnm impositos, novo genere equitandi et inusitato, rex partim transmisit in Normanniam, partim in Angliam, ut castris fortioribus detrusi absque metu evasionis servarentur. Arthurus vero apud Falesiam sub custodia vigilanti remansit.
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Les Grandes Chroniques de France. 1st August 1202. When Arthur, Count of Brittany, had parted from the king [King John], not many days passed before he entered too boldly and with too few men into King John's territory. Because of this, it happened that King John, who likely knew of his movements in advance, came upon him suddenly with a large number of armed men. He attacked him and defeated him. There Arthur, Count of Brittany, was captured, along with Hugh le Brun (age 19), Geoffrey de Lusignan (age 52),1 and many other knights.
Note 1. Geoffrey Lusignan. Geoffrey de Lusignan, lord of Vouvant and Mervent, son of Hugh VIII known as 'le Brun', lord of Lusignan. It was at Mirebeau (Vienne, district of Poitiers, chief town of the canton) that they were captured along with Arthur of Brittany, on August 1st, 1202 (see Matthew of Paris, Chronica Majora, vol. II, p. 478, and Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, p. 137).
Quant Artus, li cuens de Bretaigne, se fu du roi partiz, poi passèrent de jors après que il entra trop hardiement et à trop poi de gent en la terre le roi Jehan, de quoi il avint que li rois Jehans, qui bien savoit par aventure tôt son errement, vint seur lui soudainement a grant multitude de gent armée; à lui se combat i et le descoiifi. Là fu pris li cuens Artus, Hues li Bruns, Giffroiz de Lesegniem et maint autre chevalier.
Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. Arthur, count of Brittany, having been armed with knightly weapons by King Philip (whose young daughter he had been betrothed to), now being sixteen years of age, at the urging of certain reckless advisors, rebelled against his uncle King John. Following unsound and hasty counsel, he set out with Hugh de Lusignan, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and two hundred and fifty knights, and laid siege to the castle of Mirabeau under an unlucky omen. There Queen Eleanor, Arthur’s grandmother, was residing with her household. The queen, fearing capture, sent word to her son the king to bring swift aid to the besieged. The king at once marched with part of his army to that castle. The enemy had already entered the town and blocked up all the gates save one, and in confidence of their great number of gallant knights and men-at-arms, they awaited the king’s coming without fear. But King John, arriving, forced his way into the town after a fierce struggle, and by God’s will at once took captive all his enemies who had gathered there. For he captured there his nephew Arthur, Count Hugh, Geoffrey de Lusignan, and two hundred and fifty valiant knights and fifty-two more, besides many other brave retainers. Thus he delivered his mother with her attendants from the siege. This triumph of valour he immediately took care to announce to the English barons by letters, of which the following is the text:
Arturus autem comes Britanniæ, militaribus armis a rege Philippo decoratus, cujus filiam parvulam affidaverat, ipse jam sexdecim annorum ætatem habens, ad quorumdam importunam suggestionem contra avunculum suum regem Johannem rebellavit, sinistroque et nimis concito usus consilio, profectus est cum Hugone Brun et Gaufrido de Lezinant, et cum ducentis militibus et quinquaginta, atque castellum de Mirabel sinistro omine obsederunt, in quo regina Alienor, avia Arturi, cum suis hospitabatur. Regina vero, capi metuens, mandavit regi filio suo ut opem ferret quantocius obsessis. Rex autem illico cum parte exercitus sui ad castellum illud profectus est. Hostes autem castrum intraverant, et omnes portas terrari fecerant, excepta una sola, et secure regis adventum præstolabantur, in multitudine probissimorum militum et servorum confidentes. Rex vero adveniens cum gravi pugnæ conflictu urbem intravit, et omnes inimicos suos qui ibidem confluxerant, Deo volente, statim comprehendit. Cepit enim ibi Arturum nepotem suum, et comitem Hugonem, et Galfridum de Lezinant, et ducentos strenuos milites et quinquaginta-duos, exceptis aliis probissimis servientibus; sicque matrem suam cum sibi adhærentibus ab obsidentibus liberavit. Hunc autem virtutis triumphum illico baronibus Anglicanis mandare per literas curavit, quarum iste tenor est.
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On 1st April 1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England (age 82) died at Fontevraud Abbey [Map] where she was buried. Her remains were destroyed during the French Revolution. Her effigy found by Charles Stothard as described in the Introduction to his work Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Aquitaine (deceased), or Guienne, was the eldest daughter and heiress of William V. Duke of Aquitaine, by Eleanor of Chastelleraut, his wife. She was first married to Louis VII. of France, but, owing to some dissension which arose between them, Louis applied to the papal see for a divorce: and it appearing that there was consanguinity between the parties, they were separated by authority of the Church in Easter 1151. Henry the Second, then Duke of Normandy, thought that a marriage with the Countess of Poitou and Aquitaine offered too large an accession of dominion and political power to his crown to be neglected, and so promptly took his measures that he espoused her the following Whitsuntide. She bore King Henry six sons and three daughters. Their eldest daughter Matilda married Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony; among the issue of which marriage was Otho the Fourth, Emperor of Germany (age 29), and William (age 19), progenitor of the Dukes of Brunswick, who assumed as his arms the two lions which his grandfather Henry bore, and which seem to have been the ensign of the early English Kings of the Norman race as Dukes of Normandy. Eleanor thwarting the amours of her husband, and taking part against him with their elder son Prince Henry (who had received the titular and aspired to the actual honours of King during his father's lifetime), incurred his deep displeasure, and, according to Matthew Paris, banished from his bed, passed sixteen years of her life in close confinement. On the death of Henry in 1189, and the accession of her third son Richard to the Crown, he invested her with sovereign authority during his absence in Normandy; and her first act was a very general release of malefactors from confinement. She accompanied Richard to the Holy Land, died in 1204, the sixth year of the reign of her son John (age 37), and was buried at Fontevraud [Map]. She lies, like the other effigies at that place, upon a bier, attired in her royal vestments, with a crown upon her head.
On 30th May 1213 William "Longsword" Longespee Earl Salisbury (age 37) accidentally encountered a large French fleet. The French crews were mostly ashore. The English captured around 300 ships at anchor, burning a further 100 ships. The battle resulted in a period of peace in England with France being unable to invade, as well as generating significant wealth for England.
The Battle of Muret, the last major battle of the Albigensian Crusade, was fought on 12th September 1213 between the armies of Peter II King Aragon (age 35) and Simon "Elder" Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester (age 38). The Argonese forces were heavily defeated. Peter II King Aragon was killed. His son James (age 5) succeeded I King Aragon.
Les Grandes Chroniques de France. [12th September 1213]. After the barons and prelates had returned to France, the King of Aragon (age 35), the Count of Saint-Gilles (age 56), the Count of Foix, and many other barons of the land laid siege to the count in the castle of Muriaus. They had gathered a great host and inflicted wrongs, as they were of the country, and the count had only sixty knights, mounted sergeants, and pilgrims on foot, all unarmed, around him. After the count [Simon "Elder" Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester (age 38)] and his people had devoutly heard mass, confessed their sins, and invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit, they came out of the castle, bold as lions, as those armed with faith and belief, and valiantly fought against their enemies. They killed the King of Aragon and about 18,000 of his people. After they had won the battle and their enemies were all killed or driven away, they found that they had only lost eight pilgrims from all their company. Never had such a victory been heard of in this world, nor such a marvelous battle where so great a miracle should be noted. This Count Simon was called in the land the 'strong count,' for his marvelous strength. For, although he was very noble in arms, he was so devout that he heard mass and his canonical hours every day; always armed, always in danger. He had entirely left and renounced his country, in service to Our Lord, on this pilgrimage, to earn God's love and the joy of Paradise.
Après ce que li baron et li prelat s'en furent retorné en France, li rois d'Arragon, li cuens de Saint Gyle, li cuens de Fois, et maint autre baron du païs assistrent le conte ou chastel de Muriaus. Grant ost et tort avoient assemblé, come cil qui du pais estoient, et li cuens n'avoit que ce et lx chevaliers, d serjanz à cheval, et pèlerins à piè, toz desarmez, entor vif. Après ce que li cuens et sa gent orent la messe oie par L;rant dévotion, et il orent leur péchiez confessez et apelée la grâce du Saint Esperit, il issirent du chastel hardi comme lyon, come cil qui estoient armé de foi et de créance, et se combatirent à leur anemis vertueusement. Le roi d'Arragon occistrent et bien xviii de sa gent. Après ce que il orent la bataille vaincue et toz leur anemis occis et chaciez, il troverent que il n'orent perdu de tote leur gent que viii pèlerins tant seulement. Si ne fu ainques oie tel victoire en cest siècle ne si merveilleuse, ne bataille où l'on deust noter si grant miracle. Icil cuens Symons estoit apelez ou pais cuens forz, pour sa mervelleuse force. Car com il fust très nobles en armes, il estoit si preuzdons que il ooit chascun jor sa messe et ses houres kanoniaus; toz jors armez, toz jors en péril. Si avoit du tôt guerpi et adossé son pais, pour le servise Nostre Seigneur, en ceste voie de pérégrination, pour deservir l'amor de Dieu et la joie de Paradis.
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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
On 27th July 1214 the last battle of the Anglo-French War of 1213-1214. Philip Augustus II King France 1165-1223's army defeated the combined forces of England, Flanders and the Holy Roman Empire. Thomas St Valery (age 59) fought at Bouvines during the Battle of Bouvines.
On 15th June 1215 King John of England (age 48) met with his Baron's at Runnymede [Map] where he agreed to the terms of the Magna Carta which attempted to reduce the King's authority through political reform. Those who signed as surety included:
Roger Bigod 2nd Earl Norfolk (age 71)
his son Hugh Bigod 3rd Earl Norfolk (age 33)
Henry Bohun 1st Earl Hereford (age 39)
Richard Clare 3rd Earl Hertford (age 62)
his son Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford (age 35)
William "The Younger" Marshal 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 25)
William Mowbray 6th Baron Thirsk (age 42)
Saer Quincy 1st Earl Winchester (age 45)
Robert Ros (age 43), Richard Percy 5th Baron Percy Topcliffe (age 45)
Robert de Vere 3rd Earl of Oxford (age 50)
Eustace Vesci (age 46)
John Fitzrobert 3rd Baron Warkworth (age 25)
John Lacy Earl Lincoln (age 23).
William D'Aubigny (age 64), Geoffrey Mandeville 2nd Earl Essex (age 24)
William Forz 3rd Earl Albemarle
William Hardell
William Huntingfield
William Llanvallei
William Malet 1st Baron Curry Mallet
Roger Montbegon, Richard Montfichet
Geoffrey Saye (age 60) signed as surety the Magna Carta.
Ranulf de Blondeville Gernon 6th Earl Chester 1st Earl Lincoln (age 45) witnessed.
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On 19th October 1216 King John of England (age 49) died at Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire [Map]. His son Henry (age 9) succeeded III King of England.
John Monmouth (age 34) was present.
On his deathbed, John appointed a council of thirteen executors to help Henry reclaim the kingdom and requested that his son be placed into the guardianship of William Marshal 1st Earl Pembroke (age 70).
King John's will is the earliest English royal will to survive in its original form. The document is quite small, roughly the size of a postcard and the seals of those who were present at the time would have been attached to it. Translation of the will taken from an article by Professor S.D. Church in the English Historical Review, June 2010:
I, John, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, hindered by grave infirmity and not being able at this time of my infirmity to itemize all my things so that I may make a testament, commit the arbitration and administration of my testament to the trust and to the legitimate administration of my faithful men whose names are written below, without whose counsel, even in good health, I would have by no means arranged my testament in their presence, so that what they will faithfully arrange and determine concerning my things as much as in making satisfaction to God and to holy Church for damages and injuries done to them as in sending succour to the land of Jerusalem and in providing support to my sons towards obtaining and defending their inheritance and in making reward to those who have served us faithfully and in making distribution to the poor and to religious houses for the salvation of my soul, be right and sure. I ask, furthermore, that whoever shall give them counsel and assistance in the arranging of my testament shall receive the grace and favour of God. Whoever shall infringe their arrangement and disposition, may he incur the curse and indignation of almighty God and the blessed Mary and all the saints.
In the first place, therefore, I desire that my body be buried in the church of St Mary and St Wulfstan at Worcester. I appoint, moreover, the following arbiters and administrators: the lord Guala, by the grace of God, cardinal-priest of the title of St Martin and legate of the apostolic see; the lord Peter bishop of Winchester; the lord Richard bishop of Chichester; the lord Silvester bishop of Worcester; Brother Aimery de St-Maur; William Marshal earl of Pembroke; Ranulf earl of Chester; William earl Ferrers; William Brewer; Walter de Lacy and John of Monmouth; Savaric de Mauléon; Falkes de Bréauté.
The signatories were:
Guala Bicchieri (ca 1150 - 1227) Papal Legate.
Bishop Peter de Roches, Bishop of Winchester.
Richard le Poer (? - 1237), Bishop of Chichester.
Sylvester of Worcester, Bishop of Worcester.
Aimery de St-Maur (? -?1219), Master of the English Templars.
William Marshal 1st Earl Pembroke.
Ranulf de Blondeville Gernon 6th Earl Chester 1st Earl Lincoln (age 46).
William Ferrers 4th Earl of Derby (age 48).
William Brewer (? - 1226), 1st Baron Brewer.
Walter de Lacy (ca 1172-1241) Lord of Meath.
John: (1182 - 1248) Lord of Monmouth.
Savaric de Mauléon (? - 1236) Seneschal of Poitou from 1205.
Falkes de Bréauté (? - 1226) Seneschal of Cardiff Castle.
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Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. The king, learning that the barons had ceased from pursuing him, turned his reins and returned to Lynn, and there he placed Savaric de Mauleon, a Poitevin, in charge, and began to strengthen the town of Lynn.1 But there, as it is said, through excessive gluttony, for his belly was ever insatiable, having gorged himself to the point of surfeit, he was released by indigestion of the stomach into dysentery. Afterwards, when the flux had somewhat abated, he was blood-let at a village in Lindsey which is called Laxton. Then, when messengers came from those shut up in the castle of Dover and explained the cause of their coming, the sickness flared up again from the grief he conceived. Moreover, he was sorely afflicted with great distress because, on that journey, he had lost his chapel with its relics, and some of his sumpter-horses with various furnishings, near Wellstream, and many of his household were drowned in the sea-waters and swallowed up in the quicksands there, because they had rashly and hastily pressed forward before the tide of the sea had receded. But his illness, increasing over a few days, carried him off intestate at Newark Castle on the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist [18th October 1216]. His body, disembowelled, was brought to Worcester and there buried in the church. But his household plundered everything he had with him, and fled from him in headlong flight, leaving nothing with the corpse from which the body could be decently covered; but the castellan of the place, so far as he could, took care of the exenterated and naked body.
Rex, comperto quod barones cessassent ab ejus insecutione, conversis habenis, reversus est ad Len, et præfecto ibidem Savarico de Malo-leone, Pictavino, cœpit firmare Len. Sed ibidem, ut dicitur, ex nimia voracitate qua semper insatiabilis erat venter ejus, ingurgitatus usque ad crapulam, ex ventris indigerie solutus est in dysenteriam. Postea vero cum paululum cessasset fluxus, phlebotomatus est apud villam in Lindessi, quæ dicitur Lacford. Huc ergo cum venissent nuncii inclusorum castri Doveræ, et intimassent causam adventus sui, morbus ex dolore concepto recruduit. Præterea maximus dolor eum angebat, quod capellam suam cum suis reliquiis, et quosdam summarios suos cum varia supellectili, in itinere illo amiserat apud Wellestrem, et multi de familia ejus submersi sunt in aquis marinis, et in vivo sabulone ibidem absorpti, quia incaute et præcipitanter se ingesserant, æstu maris nondum recedente. Ægritudo autem ejus per dies paucos invalescens, apud castellum de Neuwerc intestatus decessit, in festo Sancti Lucæ evangelistæ, cujus corpus exenteratum delatum est Wigorniam, ibique in ecclesia sepultum. Familia autem ejus, omnia quæ secum habuerat, diripuerunt, et concito cursu ab eo diffugerunt, nihil cum corpore relinquentes unde cadaver honeste operiri posset; sed castellanus ejusdem, in quantum potuit, de corpore exenterato et nudo procuravit.
Note 1. On Sunday, 9th October 1216, the king arrived at King's Lynn from Spalding, and remained until the following Wednesday, when, having passed through Wisbeach, he reached Swineshead. He spent Thursday in the same place, and Friday and Saturday at Sleaford. On Sunday, 16th, we find him at Newark, where he spent the following two days, and there died on St Luke's day, 18th October 1216.
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Annals of Tewkesbury. [19th October 1216] King John of England dies at Newark on the day after the feast of St. Lucy the Virgin1. Peter of Worcester is made abbot of Tewkesbury on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Guala, the legate of the lord Pope, arrives in England and excommunicates Louis and all his accomplices. Pope Innocent dies, and Honorius succeeds him. All the barons of King John, except the Earl of Chester and a few barons of the Marches, turn away from him and submit to Louis. The city of Worcester, having used bad counsel, submits to Louis and receives in his name William Marshal the Younger. However, on the day of St. Kenelm, the Earl of Chester, Falkes, and other faithful followers of the king, arriving, burst into the city not faithfully guarded through the castle, captured it, seized the cathedral church, and took Hugh Poitou there, demanding also three hundred marks from the monks.
Johannes rex Angliæ obiit apud Newerk, in crastino Sanctæ Luciæ virginis. Petrus de Wigornia factus est abbas Theokesberiæ ad Nativitatem beatæ Mariæ. Gwala legatus domini Papæ applicuit in Angliam, et excommunicavit Ludovicum et omnes complices suos. Innocentius Papa obiit. Honorius successit. Omnes barones Johannis regis, excepto comite Cestriæ et paucis baronibus Marchiæ, diverterunt ab eo, subdiderunt se Ludovico. Civitas Wigorniæ malo usa consilio, subdidit se Ludovico, et recepit nomine ejus Willelmum Marescallum juniorem; sed die Sancti Kinelmi supervenientibus comite Cestriæ, Falchisio, et aliis fidelibus regis, ipsam per castrum non usquequaquam fideliter observatum irruperunt, et urbem ceperunt, et ecclesiam cathedralem deprendaverunt, et Hugonem Pontium ibidem ceperunt, sed et ccc. marcas a monachis exegerunt.
Note 1. Feast of St. Lucy the Virgin. 16th of September. Other sources describe King John dying on the 19th of October.
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