Fitz-Thomas, had been
intruded into the office of mayor of London; and a convention for
their mutual security had been signed by that officer and the
commonalty of the city on the one part, and the earls of Leicester,
Gloucester, and Derby, Hugh le Despenser, the grand justiciary, and
twelve barons on the other. In the different wardmotes every male
inhabitant above twelve years of age was sworn a member of the
association: a constable and marshal of the city were appointed; and
orders were given that at the sound of the great bell at St. Paul's
all should assemble in arms and obey the authority of these officers.
The efficacy of the new arrangements was immediately put to the test.
Despenser, the justiciary, came from the Tower, put himself at the
head of the associated bands, and conducted them to destroy the two
palaces of the King of the Romans, at Isleworth and Westminster, and
the houses of the nobility and citizens known or suspected to be
attached to the royal cause. The justices of the king's bench and the
barons of the exchequer were thrown into prison; the moneys belonging
to foreign merchants and bankers, which for security had been
deposited in the churches, were carried to the Tower; and the Jews, to
the number of five hundred, men, women, and children, were conducted
to a place of confinement. Out of these, Despenser selected a few of
the more wealthy, that he might enrich himself by their ransom; the
rest he abandoned to the cruelty and rapacity of the populace, who,
after stripping them of their clothes, massacred them all in cold
blood. Cock ben Abraham, who was considered the most opulent
individual in the kingdom, had been killed in his own house by John
Fitz-John, one of the barons. The murderer at first appropriated to
himself the treasure of his victim; but he afterward thought it more
prudent to secure a moiety, by making a present of the remainder to
Leicester.[61]

Henry had summoned the tenants of the crown to meet him at Oxford; and
being joined by Comyn, Bruce, and Baliol, the lords of the Scottish
borders, unfurled his standard and placed himself at the head of the
army. His first attempts were successful. Northampton, Leicester, and
Nottingham, three of the strongest fortresses in the possession of the
barons, were successively reduced; and among the captives were
reckoned Simon the eldest of Leicester's sons, fourteen other
bannerets, forty knights, and a numerous body of esquires. From