the town of Newcastle, in which he gave the
inhabitants a license to dig coal. This is the first mention of coal in
England.

We learn from Madox,[**] that this king gave at one time one hundred
shillings to Master Henry, his poet; also the same year he orders this
poet ten pounds.

It appears from Selden, that in the forty-seventh of this reign, a
hundred and fifty temporal and fifty spiritual barons were summoned to
perform the service, due by their tenures.[***] In the thirty-fifth of
the subsequent reign, eighty-six temporal barons, twenty bishops,
and forty-eight abbots, were summoned to a parliament convened at
Carlisle.[****]

* Rymer, vol. i. p. 228. Spelman, p. 326.

** Page 208.

*** Titles of Honor, part ii. chap. 3.

**** Parliamentary Hist. vol. i. p. 151.

1_178_carnaryon.jpg

CHAPTER XIII.

[Illustration: 1_176_edward1.jpg EDWARD I.]

{1272.} The English were as yet so little inured to obedience under
a regular government, that the death of almost every king, since the
conquest, had been attended with disorders, and the council, reflecting
on the recent civil wars, and on the animosities which naturally
remain after these great convulsions, had reason to apprehend dangerous
consequences from the absence of the son and successor of Henry. They
therefore hastened to proclaim Prince Edward, to swear allegiance to
him, and to summon the states of the kingdom, in order to provide for
the public peace in this important conjuncture.[*]

* Rymer, vol. ii. p. 1 Walsing, p. 43. Trivet, p. 239.

Walter Giffard, archbishop of York, the earl of Cornwall, son of
Richard, king of the Romans, and the earl of Glocester, were appointed
guardians of the realm, and proceeded peaceably to the exercise of
their authority, without either meeting with opposition from any of the
people, or being disturbed with emulation and faction among themselves.
The high character acquired by Edward during the late commotions, his
military genius, his success in subduing the rebels, his moderation
in settling the kingdom, had procured him great esteem, mixed with
affection, among all orders of men; and no one could reasonably
entertain hopes of making any advantage of his absence, or of raising
disturbance in the nation. The earl of Glocester himself, whose great
power and turbulent spirit had excited most jealousy, was forward
to give proofs of his allegiance; and the other malecontents, b