d himself disappointed
in his expectations with regard to the loyalty of those parts; and he
passed over to Wales, where, he flattered himself, his name was more
popular, and which he hoped to find uninfected with the contagion of
general rage which had seized the English.[***] The elder Spenser,
created earl of Winchester, was left governor of the castle of Bristol;
but the garrison mutinied against him, and he was delivered into the
hands of his enemies. This venerable noble, who had nearly reached his
ninetieth year, was instantly without trial, or witness, or accusation,
or answer, condemned to death by the rebellious barons: he was hanged on
a gibbet; his body was cut in pieces, and thrown to the dogs;[****] and
his head was sent to Winchester, the place whose title he bore, and was
there set on a pole and exposed to the insults of the populace.

The king, disappointed anew in his expectations of succor from the
Welsh, took shipping for Ireland; but being driven back by contrary
winds, he endeavored to conceal himself in the mountains of Wales: he
was soon discovered, was put under the custody of the earl of Leicester,
and was confined in the castle of Kenilworth. The younger Spenser, his
favorite, who also fell into the hands of his enemies, was executed,
like his father, without any appearance of a legal trial.[*****]

* Walsing. p. 124. T. de la More, p. 599. Murimuth, p. 66.

** Walsing. p. 124.

*** Murimuth, p. 67.

**** Leland's Coll. vol. ii. p. 673. T. de la More, p. 599.
Walsing. p. 125. M. Froissard, liv. i. chap. 13.

***** Walsing. p. 125. Ypod. Neust. p, 508.

The earl of Arundel, almost the only man of his rank in England who
had maintained his loyalty, was, without any trial, put to death at the
instigation of Mortimer: Baldoc, the chancellor, being a priest, could
not with safety be so suddenly despatched; but being sent to the bishop
of Hereford's palace in London, he was there, as his enemies probably
foresaw, seized by the populace, was thrown into Newgate, and soon after
expired, from the cruel usage which he had received.[*] Even the usual
reverence paid to the sacerdotal character gave way, with every other
consideration, to the present rage of the people.

{1327.} The queen, to avail herself of the prevailing delusion,
summoned, in the king's name, a parliament at Westminster; where,
together with the power of her army, and the authority of her partisans