re the Earls of Leicester,
Gloucester, and Derby, with le Despenser, the chief justiciary; men
who had all previously sworn to submit to the award of the French
monarch. Their only pretence for this breach of faith was, that the
latter part of Lewis's sentence was, as they affirmed, a contradiction
to the former: he ratified the charter of liberties, yet annulled the
provisions of Oxford; which were only calculated, as they maintained,
to preserve that charter; and without which, in their estimation, they
had no security for its observance.
[FN [f] Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 363.]

The king and prince finding a civil war inevitable, prepared
themselves for defence; and summoning the military vassals from all
quarters, and being reinforced by Baliol, Lord of Galloway, Brus, Lord
of Annandale, Henry Piercy, John Comyn [g], and other barons of the
north, they composed an army, formidable, as well from its numbers as
its military prowess and experience. The first enterprise of the
royalists was the attack of Northampton, which was defended by Simon
de Montfort, with many of the principal barons of that party; and a
breach being made in the walls by Philip Basset, the place was carried
by assault, and both the governor and the garrison were made
prisoners. [MN 5th April.] The royalists marched thence to Leicester
and Nottingham; both which places having opened their gates to them,
Prince Edward proceeded with a detachment into the county of Derby, in
order to ravage with fire and sword the lands of the earl of that
name, and take revenge on him for his disloyalty. Like maxims of war
prevailed with both parties throughout England; and the kingdom was
thus exposed in a moment to greater devastation, from the animosities
of the rival barons, than it would have suffered from many years of
foreign or even domestic hostilities, conducted by more humane and
more generous principles.
[FN [g] Rymer, vol. i. p 772. M. West. p. 385. Ypod. Neust. p. 469.]

The Earl of Leicester, master of London, and of the counties in the
south-east of England, formed the siege of Rochester, which alone
declared for the king in those parts, and which, besides Earl
Warrenne, the governor, was garrisoned by many noble and powerful
barons of the royal party. The king and prince hastened from
Nottingham, where they were then quartered, to the relief of the
place; and on their approach, Leicester raised the siege, and
retreated to London, which, be