sure of the war steadily increased, and far wider measures of arbitrary
taxation were needful to equip an expedition which Edward prepared to lead
in person to Flanders. The country gentlemen were compelled to take up
knighthood or to compound for exemption from the burthensome honour, and
forced contributions of cattle and corn were demanded from the counties.
Edward no doubt purposed to pay honestly for these supplies, but his
exactions from the merchant class rested on a deliberate theory of his
royal rights. He looked on the customs as levied absolutely at his
pleasure, and the export duty on wool--now the staple produce of the
country--was raised to six times its former amount. Although he infringed
no positive provision of charter or statute in his action, it was plain
that his course really undid all that had been gained by the Barons' war.
But the blow had no sooner been struck than Edward found stout resistance
within his realm. The barons drew together and called a meeting for the
redress of their grievances. The two greatest of the English nobles,
Humfrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk,
placed themselves at the head of the opposition. The first was Constable,
the second Earl Marshal, and Edward bade them lead a force to Gascony as
his lieutenants while he himself sailed to Flanders. Their departure would
have left the Baronage without leaders, and the two earls availed
themselves of a plea that they were not bound to foreign service save in
attendance on the king to refuse obedience to the royal orders. "By God,
Sir Earl," swore the king to the Earl Marshal, "you shall either go or
hang!" "By God, Sir King," was the cool reply, "I will neither go nor
hang!" Both parties separated in bitter anger; the king to seize fresh
wool, to outlaw the clergy, and to call an army to his aid; the barons to
gather in arms, backed by the excommunication of the Primate. But the
strife went no further than words. Ere the Parliament he had convened could
meet, Edward had discovered his own powerlessness; Winchelsey offered his
mediation; and Edward confirmed the Great Charter and the Charter of
Forests as the price of a grant from the clergy and a subsidy from the
Commons. With one of those sudden revulsions of feeling of which his nature
was capable the king stood before his people in Westminster Hall and owned
with a burst of tears that he had taken their substance without due warrant
of law. His pa