nster, during Christmas 1326-7, he was deposed, and his son
Edward, then only fourteen years of age, elected in his stead. On the
21st of September in the same year Edward II. ended his miserable
career in Berkeley Castle, being, it is supposed, cruelly murdered by
his keepers.

EDWARD THE THIRD'S CORONATION

festivities were a sumptuous enlargement of the Christmas celebration,
which usually extended over Twelfth Night. It is said that the
banqueting cost the equivalent of forty thousand pounds of our money;
and before the young king there appeared quite a multitude of
minstrels, mimics, and gleemen. Professor Henry Morley[21] gives a
specimen of the metrical romances which were translated from the
French for recitation at the royal and noble banquets of this period.
They were "busy with action, and told with a lively freedom;" and, in
the one quoted, "The Fabliau of Sir Cleges," we catch some interesting
references to the celebration of Christmas:--

"Every year Sir Cleges would
At Christmas a great feast hold
In worship of that day,
As royal in alle thing
As he hadde been a king
For sooth as I you say.
Rich and poor in the country about
Should be there withouten doubt;
There would no man say nay.
Minstrels would not be behind,
For there they might most mirthes find
There would they be aye.

"Minstrels when the feast was done
Withouten giftes should not gon,
And that both rich and good:
Horse, robes and riche ring,
Gold, silver, and other thing,
To mend with their mood.
Ten yeare such feast be held,
In the worship of Mary mild
And for Him that died on the rood.
By that his good began to slake
For the great feasts that he did make.
The knight gentil of blood."

"KEPE OPEN COURT" AT CHRISTMAS.

Froissart, in Cap. XIIII. of his "Chronicles,"[22] gives the
following account of the Christmas Celebration at which Edward the
Third was crowned:--

"After that the most part of the company of Heynaulte were departed,
and syr John Heynaulte lorde of Beamonde taryed, the Quene gave leve
to her people to departe, savynge a certayne noble knightis the whiche
she kept styl about her and her s[=o]ne, to counsell them, and
commaunded all them that departed, to be at London the next Christmas,
for as than she was determyned to kepe open court, and all they
promysed her so to do. And whan Christmas was come, she helde a great
court. And thyther came d