ce of regular treaties of peace, which were not
often made at that time.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1215.]

The barons of England had made use of the king's absence to bring their
confederacy to form; and now, seeing him return with so little credit,
his allies discomfited, and no hope of a party among his subjects, they
appeared in a body before him at London. All in complete armor, and in
the guise of defiance, they presented a petition, very humble in the
language, but excessive in the substance, in which they declared their
liberties, and prayed that they might be formally allowed and
established by the royal authority. The king resolved not to submit to
their demands; but being at present in no condition to resist, he
required time to consider of so important an affair. The time which was
granted to the king to deliberate he employed in finding means to avoid
a compliance. He took the cross, by which he hoped to render his person
sacred; he obliged the people to renew their oath of fealty; and,
lastly, he had recourse to the Pope, fortified by all the devices which
could be used to supply the place of a real strength, he ventured, when
the barons renewed their demands, to give them a positive refusal; he
swore by the feet of God (his usual oath) that he would never grant them
such liberties as must make a slave of himself.

The barons, on this answer, immediately fly to arms: they rise in every
part; they form an army, and appoint a leader; and as they knew that no
design can involve all sorts of people or inspire them with
extraordinary resolution, unless it be animated with religion, they call
their leader the Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church. The king
was wholly unprovided against so general a defection. The city of
London, the possession of which has generally proved a decisive
advantage in the English civil wars, was betrayed to the barons. He
might rather be said, to be imprisoned than defended in the Tower of
London, to which close siege was laid; whilst the marshal of the barons'
army, exercising the prerogatives of royalty, issued writs to summon all
the lords to join the army of liberty, threatening equally all those who
should adhere to the king and those who betrayed an indifference to the
cause by their neutrality. John, deserted by all, had no resource but in
temporizing and submission. Without questioning in any part the terms of
a treaty which he intended to observe in none, he agreed to everythin