demanded his caſtle of Beauvoir. William delivers his ſon in pledge, but kept his caſtle. And ſo upon ſeveral occaſions, they were forced to deliver up for hoſtages their ſons, nephews, and neareſt of kin. And thus he tyrannized over them, till the arcibiſhop put them into a right method: and when at laſt they had agreed to demand their rights, and had demanded them, they ſtaid for an anſwer from Chriſtmas to Eaſter; for ſo long he demurred upon what he was bound to have done above fifteen years before, and then gave them a flat denial. So that all the world, ſaving his holineſs, muſt ſay, that the barons were not raſh upon him.
Nor ſecondly, that the barons had no regard to their oath of fidelity[1]. For their oath of fidelity was upon this condition, that Earl John ſhould reſtore all men their rights; and upon the faith which his commiſſioners ſolemnly made to them that thus it ſhould be, they ſwore fidelity to him at Northampton. So that King John had no right at all to this early oath of fidelity, becauſe he himſelf would not keep covenant, nor fulfil the terms and conditions upon which it was
- ↑ Juramento fidelitatis omnino contempto.
