e city. To give the better coloring to his cause, he
previously sent a message with conditions of peace to Henry, submissive
in the language, but exorbitant in the demands;[*] and when the
messenger returned with the lie and defiance from the king, the prince,
and the king of the Romans, he sent a new message, renouncing, in the
name of himself and of the associated barons, all fealty and allegiance
to Henry. He then marched out of the city with his army, divided into
four bodies: the first commanded by his two sons, Henry and Guy de
Mountfort, together with Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, who had
deserted to the barons; the second led by the earl of Glocester, with
William de Montchesney and John Fitz-John; the third, composed of
Londoners, under the command of Nicholas de Segrave; the fourth headed
by himself in person. The bishop of Chichester gave a general absolution
to the army, accompanied with assurances, that, if any of them fell in
the ensuing action, they would infallibly be received into heaven, as
the reward of their suffering in so meritorious a cause.

* M. Paris, p. 669. W. Heming. p. 583.

Leicester, who possessed great talents for war, conducted his march with
such skill and secrecy, that he had well nigh surprised the royalists
in their quarters at Lewes, in Sussex, but the vigilance and activity of
Prince Edward soon repaired this negligence; and he led out the king's
army to the field in three bodies. He himself conducted the van,
attended by Earl Warrenne and William de Valence; the main body was
commanded by the king of the Romans and his son Henry; the king himself
was placed in the rear at the head of his principal nobility. Prince
Edward rushed upon the Londoners who had demanded the post of honor in
leading the rebel army, but who, from their ignorance of discipline and
want of experience, were ill fitted to resist the gentry and military
men, of whom the prince's body was composed. They were broken in an
instant; were chased off the field; and Edward, transported by his
martial ardor, and eager to revenge the insolence of the Londoners
against his mother,[*] put them to the sword for the length of four
miles, without giving them any quarter, and without reflecting on the
fate which in the mean time attended the rest of the army. The earl of
Leicester, seeing the royalists thrown into confusion by their eagerness
in the pursuit, led on his remaining troops against the bodies commande