Page:The Queens of England.djvu/147

ISABELLA OF FRANCE. 123 the place of Gaveston with a young man by the name of Despenser. Hugh Despenser was accomplished, brave, and amiable. He was of an ancient descent, but poor, and a depend- ent of the. Earl of Lancaster. The earl himself had placed him about the court; — a fatal act, which ended in the earl's own destruction, that of the Despensers, of many other men, barons as well as commoners, and, finally, of the king himself. No sooner did the king see Despenser, than he became, as it were, bewitched by him. He married him to the daughter of the late Earl of Gloucester, gave him immense estates, and also heaped on the older Despenser, Hugh's father, patronage and property almost without limit. The barons conceived for the Despensers an intensity of hate and jealousy equal to that which they had borne to Gaveston. The Earl of Lancaster was the first to show hostility to his old follower. The nobles rose, burnt the castles of the Despensers, and demanded of the king their perpetual banishment. To this Edward was com- pelled to consent. But in 1 32 1 an incident occurred which produced the most extraordinary consequences. The queen, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, was refused by Lady Badlesmere, the wife of the castellan, admittance to her own castle of Leeds, in Kent. Badlesmere was absent, but on hear- ing his wife's deed, approved and confirmed it. All the indig- nant fire of the queen's nature was roused at this insult ; she complained vehemently to the king that she had been grossly insulted, and six of her royal escort slain by a volley of arrows from the castle walls. Edward was compelled to vindicate his own honor and that of the queen. The Londoners were fired with enthusiasm to revenge the injury of this popular queen, and the insolent Lady Badlesmere was speedily lodged close prisoner in the Tower, after having seen the seneschal of the castle, Walter Colepepper, and eleven of the garrison, hanged before its gates. But Badlesmere was one of the associated barons who had compelled Edward to banish the Despensers ; therefore the barons, and the Earl of Lancaster at their head, before so prompt in their zeal for the queen, now lay still, and took no part in the demonstration against the Badlesmeres. The queen was piqued ; and, fatally for all parties, she urged the king to employ the force, which he had cr.ceessfully used against the Badlesmeres, to put down the baronial faction. This produced