rs
were: the Earls of Clare, Albemarle, Gloucester, Winchester, Hereford;
Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk; Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford; William
Mareschal, the younger; Robert Fitz-Walter, Gilbert de Clare, Eustace
de Vescey, Gilbert Delaval, William de Moubray, Geoffrey de Say, Roger
de Mombezon, William de Huntingfield; Robert de Ros, the Constable of
Chester; William de Aubenie, Richard de Perci, William Malet, John
Fitz-Robert, William de Lanvalay, Hugh de Bigod, and Roger de
Montfichet. These men were, by this convention, really invested with
the sovereignty of the kingdom; they were rendered cooerdinate with the
King, or rather superior to him, in the exercise of the executive
power; and as there was no circumstance of government which, either
directly or indirectly, might not bear a relation to the security or
observance of the Great Charter, there could scarcely occur any
incident in which they might not lawfully interpose their authority.

John seemed to submit passively to all these regulations, however
injurious to majesty. He sent writs to all the sheriffs ordering them
to constrain everyone to swear obedience to the twenty-five barons; he
dismissed all his foreign forces; he pretended that his government was
thenceforth to run in a new tenor and be more indulgent to the liberty
and independence of his people. But he only dissembled till he should
find a favorable opportunity for annulling all his concessions. The
injuries and indignities which he had formerly suffered from the Pope
and the King of France, as they came from equals or superiors, seemed
to make but small impression on him; but the sense of this perpetual
and total subjection under his own rebellious vassals sank deep in his
mind; and he was determined, at all hazards, to throw off so
ignominious a slavery.

He grew sullen, silent, and reserved; he shunned the society of his
courtiers and nobles; he retired into the Isle of Wight, as if
desirous of hiding his shame and confusion; but in this retreat he
meditated the most fatal vengeance against all his enemies. He
secretly sent abroad his emissaries to enlist foreign soldiers, and to
invite the rapacious Brabancons into his service, by the prospect of
sharing the spoils of England and reaping the forfeitures of so many
opulent barons who had incurred the guilt of rebellion by rising in
arms against him. And he despatched a messenger to Rome, in order to
lay before the Pope the Great Charter, w