rescued. Meanwhile the king's troops broke into the city, and Louis's men, thus hemmed in by Falkes on the one side and the main body of the army on the other, were cut to pieces in the streets. The victory of the royal army, which virtually ended the war, was in no small degree due to the desperate courage of Falkes and his men. During the Christmas festival 1217-18 he entertained the king and all his court at Northampton. He obtained livery of the manor of Plympton, his wife's dower, and of all the lands she inherited from her father, and was also made guardian of the young Earl of Devon, his stepson, and of his lands. His power was now great. Keeper of several strong castles which were garrisoned by his own men, and commanded by his own castellans, sheriff of six counties, lord of vast estates, and executor of the late king's will, he is described as being at this period 'something more than the king in England' (Ann. de Theok. p. 68; Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 35).
The policy of Hubert de Burgh, who demanded the surrender of the king's demesne, was highly distasteful to Falkes and the rest of John's foreign favourites. Although outwardly acting for the king, Falkes abetted the revolt of the Earl of Albemarle in 1220, and secretly supplied him with forces. The failure of the revolt was evidently a severe blow to his hopes, for the next year he and Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, who upheld the foreign party in the kingdom, determined to go on the crusade. He was, however, prevented from carrying out this design by the news of the fall of Damietta. He continued, therefore, for a little longer to act as one of the king's officers under the government of the justiciar, Hubert de Burgh. As sheriff he caused a deacon, who had apostatised to Judaism, and who was condemned by the council held at Osney and delivered over to the secular arm, to be burnt at Oxford in 1222. In the same year a dangerous insurrection broke out in London under the leadership of Constantine FitzAthulf, one of the principal citizens. This was more than a local riot, for Constantine was a partisan of Louis of France, and led the citizens with the cry 'Montjoie! Montjoie! God and our Lord Louis to the rescue!' He and two others were taken. The justiciar was afraid to put them to death openly, because of the people. Falkes, however, came to his help. Foreigner as he was, he had no desire for a French king. What he and his party aimed at was not a change of dynasty, but the establishment of their own power at the expense of the royal authority. Besides, he probably had little sympathy with a citizen movement. Early in the morning he took the prisoners across the Thames to hang them. When the rope was round his neck, Constantine, who up to the last had hoped for a rescue, offered 15,000 marks as a ransom for his life. Falkes, however, would not hearken to him, and hanged all three. Then at the head of his men he rode into the city along with the justiciar, and seized all who had taken part in the sedition. At the same time he was by no means prepared to submit without a struggle to the justiciar's policy of resumption. He may have carried on some negotiations with France, though the part he took in quelling the rising of the Londoners shows that at that time at least he had little expectation of help from that quarter. It is tolerably certain that he and the Earl of Chester were at least in sympathy with the rising of the Welsh under Llewelyn ap Iorwerth and Hugh of Lacy in 1223. Even after the insurrection was quelled the danger was still great, and Pope Honorius III, who as guardian of the kingdom pressed the resumption of the castles, urged the bishops to do all they could to maintain peace. Falkes joined the Earl of Chester and other lords in a scheme for seizing the Tower. Finding themselves unable to carry out their design, the conspirators sent to the king, demanding the dismissal of the justiciar. Henry, however, held firmly to his minister. At Christmas 1223-4 a great council was held at Northampton, and there the archbishop and bishops pronounced a general excommunication against the disturbers of the peace. Falkes and the other malcontents assembled at Leicester were informed that unless they submitted to the king on the morrow sentence of excommunication would be pronounced against them by name. This threat and the consciousness of the inferiority of their forces brought them to submission. Falkes and his castellans, together with the other rebel lords, appeared before the king at Northampton, and surrendered into his hands the castles, honours, and wardships that pertained to the crown.
The justiciar lost no time in following up the victory gained at Northampton. In June the king's justices itinerant held an assize of novel disseisin at Dunstable. Falkes was found guilty of more than thirty (Rog. Wend. iv. 94, and Chron. Maj. iii. 84; thirty-five, Ann. Dunst. p. 90; sixteen, Royal Letters, i. 225; and Rot. Claus. i. 619, 655; see Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 35) acts of wrongful disseisin. He was adjudged to lie at the king's mercy, and a fine of immense amount was laid on him. In revenge he ordered his garrison at Bedford Castle to seize the justices. The justices heard of their danger and fled. One
