But, notwithstanding the confession that John Lexinton had made and the promise that was given him, it was determined that he should not be spared, but should die. Upon hearing this he was greatly distressed, and he offered to make more confessions; so he revealed several additional particulars in regard to the crime, and implicated numerous other persons in the commission of it. All was, however, of no avail. He was executed, and eighteen other Jews with him.
Judging from the evidence which we have in this case, it is highly probable that the alleged crime was wholly imaginary. Confessions that are extorted by pain or fear are never to be believed. They may be true, but they are far more likely to be false. It was the custom in ancient times, and it still remains the custom among many ignorant and barbarous nations, to put persons to torture in order to compel them to confess crimes of which they are suspected, or to reveal the names of their accomplices, but nothing can be more cruel or unjust than such a practice as this. Most men, in such cases, are so maddened with their agony and terror that they will say any thing whatever that they think will induce their tormentors to put an end to their sufferings.
The common people could not often resist the acts of oppression which they suffered from their rulers, for they had no power, and they could not combine together extensively enough to create a power, and so they were easily kept in subjection.
The nobles, however, were much less afraid of the monarchs, and often resisted them and bid them defiance. It was the law in those days that all estates to which no other person had a legal claim escheated, as they called it, to the king. Of course, if the king could find an estate in which there was any flaw in the title of the man who held it, he would claim it for his own. At one time a king asked a certain baron to show him the title to his estate. He was intending to examine it, to see if there was any flaw in it. The baron, instead of producing his parchment, drew his sword and held it out before the king.
"This is my title to my estate," said he. "Your majesty will remember that William of Normandy did not conquer this realm for himself alone."
At another time a king wished to send two of his earls out of the country on some military expedition where they did not wish to go. They accordingly declined the undertaking.
"By the Almighty," said the king, "you shall either go or hang."
"By the Almighty," replied one of the earls, "we will neither go nor hang."
The nobles also often formed extensive and powerful combinations among each other against the king, and in such cases they were almost always successful in bringing him to submit to their demands.
CHAPTER II. QUARRELS.
A.D. 1327
Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were engaged.-The Pope.-His claim of jurisdiction in England.-The Pope's legate and the students at Oxford.-Great riot made by the students.-The end of the affair.-Plan to assassinate the king.-Margaret, the servant-girl.-Execution of Marish.-Ideas of the sacredness of the person of a king.-Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of Wales.-Leolin's bride intercepted at sea.-The unhappy fate of Leolin.-Fate of Prince David, his brother.-Occasional acts of generosity.-Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches.-The fate of Lewin.-Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales.-The first English Prince of Wales.-Piers Gaveston.-Edward II. and his favorite.-Their wild and reckless behavior.-The king goes away to be married.-Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage.-His infatuation in respect to Gaveston.-The coronation.-Bold and presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston.-His unpopularity.-He is banished.-His parting.-The Black Dog of Ardenne.-Gaveston's return.-Gaveston made prisoner.-Consultation respecting him.-His fate.-The Spencers.-The queen and Mortimer.-Edward III. proclaimed king.-Edward II. made prisoner.-Edward II. formally deposed at Kenilworth.-The delegation require the king to abdicate the crown.-Opinion of the monks.-Alarm of the nobles.-Berkeley Castle.-Plot for assassinating the king.-Dreadful death.-Great hatred of Mortimer.-Situation of the castle of Nottingham.-The caves.-Entrance of the conspirators into the castle.-Isabella's unhappy fate.-Mortimer's Hole.
In the days of the predecessors of King Richard the Second, notwithstanding the claim made by the kings of a right on their part to reign on account of the influence exercised by their government in promoting law and order throughout the community, the country was really kept in a continual state of turmoil by the quarrels which the different parties concerned in this government were engaged in with each other and with surrounding nations. These quarrels were of various kinds.
1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually
quarreling with the nobles.
2. The different branches of the royal family were often
engaged in bitter and cruel wars with each other, arising
from their conflicting claims to the crown.
3. The kings of different countries were continually making
forays into each other's territories, or waging war against
each other with fire and sword. These wars arose sometimes
from a lawless spirit of depredation, and sometimes were
waged to resent personal insults or injuries, real or
imaginary.
4. The Pope of Rome, who claimed jurisdiction over the
Church in England as well as elsewhere, was constantly
coming into collision with the civil power.
From some one or other of these several causes, the kingdom of England, in the time of Richard's predecessors, was seldom at peace. Some great quarrel or other was continually going on. There was a great deal of difficulty during the reigns that immediately preceded that of Richard the Second between the kings and the Pope. The Pope, as has already been remarked, was considered the head of the whole Christian Church, and he claimed rights in respect to the appointment of the archbishops, and bishops, and other ecclesiastics in England, and in respect to the government and control of the monasteries, and the abbeys, and to the appropriation and expenditure of the revenues of the Church, which sometimes interfered very seriously with the views and designs of the king. Hence there arose continual disputes and quarrels. The Pope never came himself to England, but he often sent a grand embassador, called a legate, who traveled with great pomp and parade, and with many attendants, and assumed in all his doings a most lofty and superior air. In the contests in which these legates were engaged with the kings, the legates almost always came off conquerors through the immense influence which the Pope exercised over the consciences and religious fears of the mass of the people.
Sometimes the visits of the legates and their proceedings among the people led to open broils. At one time, for instance, the legate was at Oxford, where the great University, now so renowned throughout the world, already existed. He was lodged at an abbey there, and some of the scholars of the University wishing to pay their respects to him, as they said, went in a body to the gates of the abbey and demanded admission; but the porter kept them back and refused to let them in. Upon this a great noise and tumult arose, the students pressing against the gates to get in, and the porter, assisted by the legate's men, whom he called to his assistance, resisting them.