The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (32 page)

This decision presented Roger with a much more difficult problem with regard to the legal consolidation of Isabella’s power and the establishment of her son’s reign. Since the prince had been appointed guardian of the
country while the king had been abroad, on Edward’s return that guardianship should have come to an end, even though the king was in prison. Roger and Isabella found a temporary solution by having Bishop Orleton take the great seal from the king and give it to Isabella, so she could rule in her husband’s name, or the prince’s, or her own, as appropriate. In addition, in December the Chancery was ordered to date writs issued in the king’s name as if they had emanated from him at Kenilworth. But Roger and his constitutional advisers, such as Bishop Orleton of Hereford and Bishop Stratford of Winchester, knew this state of affairs could not continue. It would only be a matter of time before someone challenged the legality of such writs.

On 4 January 1327 Roger and Isabella entered London with the prince and the court. The rioting had calmed somewhat. The election of Richard de Bethune as mayor in November had placed one of Roger’s most loyal supporters in power, and he had returned the city to something resembling normality. Parliament had accordingly been scheduled to meet on 7 January, and the lords, prelates, knights of the shire and representatives of the boroughs and Cinque Ports all assembled in Westminster Hall.
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But the king and the two bishops sent to accompany him from Kenilworth had not arrived.
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As a result Parliament could not proceed, for the assembly could not be deemed Parliamentary unless the king were present. Nothing happened until 12 January when the bishops arrived alone.
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Instead of the king himself they brought his defiant refusal to attend, and his declaration that all who did attend were traitors. Bishop Orleton, in announcing this, declared that it was just as well that the king had not come, for he kept a dagger in his clothes for the purpose of killing the queen, should he ever see her.

Already Roger’s propaganda machine was working. Orleton, who was almost certainly exaggerating the king’s defiance, knew as well as Roger that, for the first time in English history, the representatives of the community of the realm would be called upon to act as an authority over and above that of the king. At this time, commoners were rarely even summoned to Parliament, let alone asked to judge the monarch. But Roger and his advisers intended to manipulate them to their political advantage. It was no democratic principle which made Roger and Orleton draw the representatives of English boroughs into the debate about the deposition of Edward II, but a calculated attempt to unite all the classes of the realm against the monarch. Hence no representatives were summoned from South Wales, which was known to be strongly in favour of the king, and representatives were only summoned from North Wales (which was strongly anti-Mortimer) when it was too late for them to take part in the debates.

Orleton went straight to the crux of the matter: the king had refused to come to Parliament; so did Parliament want the king to rule the country or did it prefer that his son should rule instead? Orleton’s confidence and the rigging of the later debates itself suggests that a wave of approval was expected to follow his speech, together with a unanimous declaration of allegiance to the prince. But such a reaction was not forthcoming. It was too sudden. The Archbishop of York, three other bishops, and various other people refused to give an answer. They declared that this was for fear of the Londoners, who were known to be on Roger’s side. Some of them wished to see the king himself speak in Parliament, and openly abdicate, rather than for him to be deposed by Roger and Isabella. Frustrated, Orleton accordingly dismissed Parliament until nine o’clock the following morning, and consulted with Roger as to what to do next.
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Roger now used his influence over the Londoners. The waverers were reluctant to answer his demands because of fear of recriminations; rather than reduce that fear he decided to exploit it. He instructed Richard de Bethune to write to Parliament asking whether the members would come to the Guildhall to swear an oath to protect Isabella and her son, and to depose the king. He also called all the great lords to attend a secret meeting that evening, and asked for their unanimous support in deposing the king. This was forthcoming. Roger now had all the weapons he needed.

At nine o’clock on the morning of Tuesday 13 January Roger addressed the mass gathered in Westminster Hall. He spoke eloquently, but did not try too hard to persuade them. Instead he showed the assembly the letter from the mayor and citizens of London, asking that they all swear the oath to support the queen and her son and to depose the king. Roger added that in a meeting the night before all the great lords of the realm had discussed the matter and were unanimous in their opinion that the king should be deposed. He was not saying this for himself, he said, and nor could he speak for the commons, but he had to speak out on the issue because the great lords had urged him to do so. On cue, Roger’s cousin, Thomas Wake, jumped up and declared in a loud voice that he for one did not think that the king should be allowed to rule any longer. As the tones of assent were heard around the hall, Orleton rose to his feet. ‘An unwise king destroyeth his people,’ he preached, going on to give a tremendous sermon, rousing those present in the way he knew best, through the power of the word of God. By the time he had come to the end, Parliament was truly animated. ‘Away with the king! Away with him!’ they shouted. But the show was only just beginning. As soon as Orleton had resumed his seat, Bishop Stratford took up the call. His theme, obviously prepared well in advance, was that the head of the nation was feeble, and that the
king should be allowed to lead the country astray no longer. As he spoke, again Thomas Wake rose and demanded, gesturing to the assembly, ‘Do you agree? Do the people of the country agree?’ By this stage the representatives of the people who agreed were completely swept away, and those who did not had been silenced by the knowledge that they would have to face the Londoners in the Guildhall later that day. As the commotion died down, the last of the three scheduled speakers stepped forward. This was the old Archbishop of Canterbury, Walter Reynolds. He said that the people of England had been oppressed too long, and that, if it were the people’s will that the king should be deposed, then it was God’s will, and the reign should come to an end. Again, on cue, Thomas Wake rose and demanded: ‘Is this the will of the people? Is it the people’s will that the king should be deposed and his son made king in his place?’ A tumult of approval answered him. ‘Let it be done! Let it be done!’ The archbishop then concluded: ‘Your voice has clearly been heard here, for Edward has been deprived of the government of the kingdom and his son made king as you have unanimously consented.’
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Then, as the assembly was carried away, Prince Edward was ushered into the hall to the cry ‘Behold your king!’ At which point most of the assembly started singing ‘Glory, Laud and Honour’. The Bishop of Rochester, one of the few who did not sing, was later beaten up for his lack of enthusiasm.

The overt manipulation of Parliament was entirely Roger’s doing. Later that day a large crowd of nobles, prelates and knights followed him to the Guildhall to swear the oath of fealty requested by Richard de Bethune. The first to swear the oath was Roger. The oath itself was different from that requested by de Bethune in his letter. Those who took it swore only to protect Isabella, her son, and those who fought against Despenser, and to observe the Ordinances and the liberties of the city of London.
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There was no mention of the deposition of the king. Persuading de Bethune to include this had just been a ruse by Roger to intimidate those who were not in favour to keep quiet during the sermons and speeches in Parliament.
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It did not matter that many of the assembly did not swear the Guildhall oath; the oath itself was irrelevant as far as the deposition went. But it had influenced or threatened Parliament clearly to vote in favour of removing the king, and thus Roger was able to say that the decision was with the assent of the people of England in Parliament. The English monarchy had changed for ever.

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The agreement by Parliament to dethrone Edward II was a landmark achievement. Never before had an English monarch been deposed, and
nor had any European king of comparable status been removed from his throne. The only precedent was a minor German prince of small reputation earlier in the fourteenth century. Thus, for Victorian and early twentieth-century scholars, the key feature of the fall of Edward II was this constitutional development, and especially what this indicated about the role of Parliament. In concentrating on the constitution they failed to notice the most important fact about the deposition of Edward II: it did not actually happen. Parliament’s will was not imposed on Edward; rather he was asked to accept its decision.

On 20 January Edward, dressed in a black robe, was led into the hall at Kenilworth Castle. There he saw the faces of those who had come to announce the decision of Parliament. Immediately he collapsed in a faint, and had to be lifted back to his feet by Bishop Stratford and Henry of Lancaster. Orleton read the charges. The king had been found guilty of several crimes. Namely: of being incompetent to govern, and of allowing others to govern for him to the detriment of his people and of the Church; of not listening to good advice but rather pursuing occupations unbecoming to a monarch; of having lost Scotland and lands in Gascony and Ireland through his failure effectively to govern; of allowing the Holy Church to be damaged and its representatives to be imprisoned, and other nobles to be killed, imprisoned, exiled and disinherited; of failing to ensure that all received justice, but instead governing for his own profit and allowing others to do the same, against his coronation oaths; and of fleeing in the company of a notorious enemy of the realm, and leaving the realm without government, thereby losing the faith and trust of his people. Since his cruelty and faults in his character were to blame, the people had agreed that there was no alternative but to depose him.
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Edward, utterly shaken by this judgement, wept as he heard the charges. At the end, he was offered a choice: to abdicate in favour of his son, or to resist and relinquish the throne to one who was not of the royal blood but experienced in government, with the obvious implication that this would be Roger. Through his tears, the king confessed that he lamented that his people so hated his rule. He agreed that if the people would accept his son, he would resign in his son’s favour. Sir William Trussel then stepped forward to renounce homage on behalf of all the lords of the realm, and after him Thomas le Blount publicly broke his staff of office, announcing that Edward’s royal household was no more. In this way Edward abdicated and was not deposed, a distinction which later would prove significant.

News of all that had happened at Kenilworth was published in London on 24 January:

Sir Edward, late king of England, has of his good will and by common counsel and assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and other nobles, and commonalty of the realm, resigned the government of the realm and granted and wills the government shall come to Edward, his eldest son and that he shall govern, reign and be crowned king for which reason all the magnates have done homage. We proclaim the peace of our said Lord, Sir Edward the son, and command under pain of disinheritance and of loss of life and limb that no one infringe the peace of our said lord the king. If anyone have anything to demand from another let him demand it by way of law without using force or violence.
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The day after the announcement of the abdication was proclaimed the first day of the reign of Edward III. It was thus effectively the start of the reign of Roger and Isabella, who firmly advised the fourteen-year-old boy, looked after his privy seal for him, appointed the Chancellor who held the great seal, and, of course, controlled access to the young king himself.

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Roger, as the orchestrator of events, had never had any doubts about the discussions concerning the king’s deposition, nor about the king’s subsequent abdication. Even before the debates had taken place he had fixed the date of the coronation for 1 February, and had decided that his three eldest sons would be among those knighted on the day. On 13 January, the day of his speech and the prelates’ speeches to Parliament, he was more concerned with what his sons would wear at the coronation of the new king than the process of removing the old one. He ordered that his sons should be given bannerets’ clothes for the occasion.
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Three days later, he changed his mind and decided they should be dressed in clothing befitting earls.
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This was four days before the king’s abdication. His confidence was so high, and his authority so great, that dressing his sons as earls – implying a rank above himself and far above them – seems never to have crossed his mind as a high-handed act. Nor, in the euphoria of the moment, does it seem to have crossed anyone else’s.

On the day of the coronation the young king was knighted by John of Hainault.
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Edward himself then dubbed a number of young knights, as tradition dictated. First and foremost were Roger’s sons – Edmund, Roger and Geoffrey – in their earls’ attire, followed by Hugh de Courtenay, Thomas Lestrange and other heirs. The Archbishop of Canterbury performed the actual coronation, while the Bishops of Winchester and London held the crown above the boy, it being too heavy to be placed upon his head. The two bishops who had performed such important roles
in the proceedings of the Parliamentary deposition – Orleton and Stratford – were present, as were Roger’s other episcopal supporters: William Airmyn of Norwich, Henry de Burghersh of Lincoln, and John de Hothum of Ely. Even the Bishop of Rochester was present, still nursing his bruises. This time he joined with Bishop Airmyn in the singing of the Litany.