Church into all parts of Europe, and known chiefly as
_Boni-Homines_, or _Poor Men of Lyons_. But the Waldensian Church was
acute enough to take advantage of this movement; and no sooner had the
Order been founded than an army of "Gospellers" (as even thus early they
were called), issued forth under its shelter. It appears probable that
at an early period of their preaching, a very large percentage of the
Predicant Friars were Gospellers. It is, moreover, an historical fact,
that during the struggle between Edward the Second and his wretched
Queen, the Predicant Friars ranged themselves on the side of the King,
who had always been their friend, and whose own confessor, Luke de
Wodeford, was of their Order. (_Rot. Ex., Pasc_, 2 Ed. III.) That the
Despensers also patronised them is rather an inference founded upon
fact, yet on such facts as very decidedly point to this conclusion. It
should not be forgotten, that all accounts of the reign and character of
Edward the Second which have come down to us were written by monks, or
by persons educated in the opinions of the monks; and the Church of Rome
has never, at any period of her history, hesitated to accuse of the
vilest crimes any who endeavoured to escape from her toils into the pure
light of the Gospel of Christ.

That Hugh Le Despenser the Elder was an unprincipled and avaricious man,
there can be little question. With him, if he embraced the principles
of the _Boni-Homines_ at all, it was evidently a mere matter of
intellectual opinion. Much less evidence can be found against his son,
whose chief crime seems to have been that he aroused the hatred of the
"she-wolf of France." Joan La Despenser (the ladies of the family are
always distinguished as _La_ Despenser in contemporary records) lived to
a good age, for she was probably born about 1310, and she died in her
nunnery of Shaftesbury, November 8, 1384 (I.P.M. 8 Ric. II., 14).

Richard Earl of Arundel, surnamed _Copped-Hat_, the elder of the two
sons of Earl Edmund and Alesia, heiress of Surrey, was born about 1308,
and died January 24, 1376. (Arundel MS. 51, fol. 18.) His father was
beheaded with Hugh Le Despenser the Elder, October 8 or 27, 1326; his
mother died before May 23, 1338. (Froissart's Chronicles, Book I.,
chapter xi.; _Rot. Pat_. 12 Ed. III., Part 2.) His first marriage was
before February 2, 1321 (_Ib_. 14 Ed. II., Pt. 2); and his baby Countess
was probably not more than three years old at