cquired by so much
violence, and which he used with so much tyranny and injustice. An
ordinance was there passed, to which the king's consent had been
previously extorted, that every act of royal power should be exercised
by a council of nine persons, who were to be chosen and removed by the
majority of three, Leicester himself, the Earl of Gloucester, and the
Bishop of Chichester [w]. By this intricate plan of government, the
sceptre was really put into Leicester's hands; as he had the entire
direction of the Bishop of Chichester, and thereby commanded all the
resolutions of the council of three, who could appoint or discard at
pleasure every member of the supreme council.
[FN [w] Rymer, vol. i. p. 793. Brady's App. No. 213.]

But it was impossible that things could long remain in this strange
situation. It behoved Leicester either to descend with some peril
into the rank of a subject or to mount up with no less into that of a
sovereign; and his ambition, unrestrained either by fear or by
principle, gave too much reason to suspect him of the latter
intention. Meanwhile he was exposed to anxiety from every quarter;
and felt that the smallest incident was capable of overturning that
immense and ill-cemented fabric which he had reared. The queen, whom
her husband had left abroad, had collected in foreign parts an army of
desperate adventurers, and had assembled a great number of ships, with
a view of invading the kingdom, and of bringing relief to her
unfortunate family. Lewis, detesting Leicester's usurpations and
perjuries, and disgusted at the English barons, who had refused to
submit to his award, secretly favoured all her enterprises, and was
generally believed to be making preparations for the same purpose. An
English army, by the pretended authority of the captive king, was
assembled on the seacoast to oppose this projected invasion [x]; but
Leicester owed his safety more to cross winds, which long detained and
at last dispersed and ruined the queen's fleet, than to any resistance
which, in their present situation, could have been expected from the
English.
[FN [x] Brady's App. No. 216, 217. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 373. M.
West. p. 385.]

Leicester found himself better able to resist the spiritual thunders
which were levelled against him. The pope, still adhering to the
king's cause, against the barons, despatched Cardinal Guido as his
legate into England, with orders to excommunicate, by name, the