increaſing, he could hardly reach Newark caſtle; and there, by the advice of the abbot Croestoun, he confeſſed, and received ſacrament. After which he appointed his eldeſt ſon Henry, his heir, and ordered the realm to ſwear to him, and ſent his letters under his ſeal to all the ſheriffs and caſtellans of the kingdom to be attendant on him. Juſt when he was dying, there arrived meſſengers from ſome of the barons, about forty of them, with letters to be reconciled to him; but he was not in a condition to mind ſuch affairs.
In ten days time after K. John’s death, that party which had adhered to him, with Guallo the pope’s legate, made haſte to crown his ſon at Glouceſter. And becauſe he was not yet ten years old, and ſo no ways concerned in the deteſted cruelties of his father, and might be uſed as an expedient to drive out an already hated and inſolent foreigner, he was preſently accepted by the kingdom; while on the other hand, upon the firſt knowledge of K. John’s death, Lewis had, in this own conceit, wholly ſubdued and ſwallowed up the kingdom: but he found the contrary in ſummoning Dover caſtle upon this occaſion, thinking to have had the caſtle for his news; for he met with ſuch a reſolute denial as he took for
