the prelates were neglected amidst the present disorders. The only
symptom which these turbulent barons gave of their regard to law,
was their requiring from the king an indemnity for their illegal
proceedings;[***] after which they disbanded their army, and separated,
in security, as they imagined, to their several castles.

This act of violence, in which the king was obliged to acquiesce,
rendered his person and his authority so contemptible, that every one
thought himself entitled to treat him with neglect. The queen, having
occasion soon after to pass by the castle of Leeds in Kent, which
belonged to the lord Badlesmere, desired a night's lodging, but was
refused admittance; and some of her attendants, who presented themselves
at the gate, were killed.[****] The insult upon this princess, who had
always endeavored to live on good terms with the barons, and who joined
them heartily in their hatred of the young Spenser, was an action which
nobody pretended to justify; and the king thought that he might, without
giving general umbrage, assemble an army, and take vengeance on the
offender. No one came to the assistance of Badlesmere; and Edward
prevailed.[*****]

* Walsing. p. 114.

** Tottle's Collect, part ii p. 50. Walsing. p. 114.

*** Tottle's Collect, part ii. p. 54. Rymer, vol. iii. p. 891.

**** Rymer, vol. iii. p. 89. Walsing. p. 114, 115. T. de la
Mare, p. 595. Murimuth, p. 56.

***** Walsing. p. 115.

But having now some forces on foot, and having concerted measures with
his friends throughout England, he ventured to take off the mask, to
attack all his enemies, and to recall the two Spensers, whose sentence
he declared illegal, unjust, contrary to the tenor of the Great Charter,
passed without the assent of the prelates, and extorted by violence from
him and the estate of barons.[*] Still the commons were not mentioned by
either party.

{1322.} The king had now got the start of the barons, an advantage
which, in those times, was commonly decisive, and he hastened with
his army to the marches of Wales, the chief seat of the power of his
enemies, whom he found totally unprepared for resistance. Many of the
barons in those parts endeavored to appease him by submission:[**]
their castles were seized, and their persons committed to custody. But
Lancaster, in order to prevent the total ruin of his party, summoned
together his vassals and retainers; declared his alliance with