the law of sanctuary, then prevailing, he was allowed to remain forty days unmolested. At the end of that time the convent was surrounded by a military force, and the entry of provisions into it was prohibited. Still it would have been deemed sacrilegious to take him from his asylum by violence; but the Lord Chief Justice preferred surrendering himself to perishing from want.* He was immediately conducted to the Tower of London. Rather than stand a trial, he petitioned for leave to abjure the realm; this favour was granted to him on condition that he should be attainted, and forfeit all his lands and chattels to the Crown.f Having walked barefoot and bareheaded, with a crucifix in his hand, to the sea-side at Dover, he was put on board a ship and deported to foreign parts. He is said to have died in exile, and he left a name often quoted as a reproach to the Bench till he was superseded by Jeffreys and Scroggs.‡ His punishment and infamy in after times. *One account says, "He took upon him the habit of a grey friar, but, being discovered by some of his servants, he was watched and guarded, and after two months' siege, went out, forsaking his friar's coole, and was taken and sent to the Tower."-See 4 Bloomfield's Norfolk, 631. The property forfeited by him was said to have been worth upwards of 100,000 marks, or 70,000l., "an incredible sum," says Blackstone, "in those days, before paper credit was in use, and when the annual salary of a Chief Justice was only sixty marks."-Com. iii. 410. Oliver St. John, in his speech in the Long Parliament against the Judges who decided in favour of ship-money, compares them with the worst of their predecessors: "Weyland, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the time of Edward I. was attainted of felony for taking bribes, and his lands and goods forfeited, as appears in the Pleas of Parliament, 18 Ed. I., and he was banished the kingdom as unworthy to live in that state against which he had so much offended." Lingard says that "Weyland was found guilty of having first instigated his servants to commit murder, and then screened them from punishment " (vol.iii. 270); but he cites no authority to support so serious a charge: and the historian on this occasion does not display his usual accuracy, as he makes Weyland Chief Justice of the King's Bench, elevating De Hengham at the same time to the office of Grand Justiciary." In a MS. chronicle in the Bodleian Library, cited by Dugdale (Chron. Ser. 1288), there is this entry: "Tho. de Weyland, eo quod malè tractavit populum, ab officio Justiciarii amotus, exhæredatus, et a terra exulatus." Speed gives a melancholy account of the sufferings of the English, at this time, between the Jews and the Judges. "While the Jews by their cruel usuries had one way eaten up the people, the De Thornton The immediate successor of De Hengham as Chief Justice of the King's Bench was GILBERT DE THORNTON, Who, I make no doubt, was a worthy man, but who could not have been of King's very distinguished, for all that I can find respecting him is that he was allowed a salary of 401. a year. * Bench. Brabaçon. He was overshadowed, as sometimes happens, by a puisne who sat by him, and who at last supplanted him. This was ROGER LE BRABAÇON,† who, from the part he took in Roger le settling the disputed claim to the crown of Scotland, is an historical character. His ancestor, celebrated as "the great warrior," had accompanied the Conqueror in the invasion of England, and was chief of one of those bands of mercenary soldiers then well known in Europe under the names (for what reason, historians are not agreed) of Routiers, Cottereaux, or Brabançonst. Being rewarded with large possessions in the counties of Surrey and Leicester, he founded a family which flourished several centuries in England, and is now represented in the male line by an Irish peer, the tenth Earl of Meath. The subject of the present sketch, fifth in descent from "the great warrior," changed the military ardour of his race for a desire to gain distinction as a lawyer. He Justiciars, like another kind of Jews, had ruined them with delay in their suits, and enriched themselves with wicked convictions." He then relates with great glee "how Sir Thomas Weyland, being stripped of all his lands, goods, and jewels, which he had so wickedly got, was banished like the felons he had tried."-Hist. of G.B. p. 559. * "Gilbertus de Thornton, capitalis Justic. habet XLI. per annum, ad se sustentandum."-Lib. 18 Ed. I. m. 1. †The name is sometimes spelt Brabaçon, Brabançon, Brabason, and Bra banson. A.D. 1291. Hume, who designates them "desperate ruffians," says, "Troops of them were sometimes enlisted in the service of one prince or baron, sometimes in that of another; they often acted in an independent manner, and under leaders of their own. The greatest monarchs were not ashamed, on occasion, to have recourse to their assistance; and as their habits of war and depredation had given them experience, hardiness, and courage, they generally composed the most formidable part of those armies which decided the political quarrels of princes."Vol. i. 438. was regularly trained in all the learning of "Essoins " and " Assizes," and he had extensive practice as an advocate under Lord Chief Justice de Hengham. On the sweeping removal of almost all the Judges in the year 1190, he was knighted, and appointed a Puisne Justice of the King's Bench, with a salary—which one would have thought must have been a very small addition to the profits of his hereditary estates-of 331. 68. 8d. a year.* He proved a most admirable Judge; and, in addition to his professional knowledge, being well versed in historical lore, he was frequently referred to by the Government when negotiations were going on with foreign states. Edward I., arbitrator by mutual consent between the He is employed by Ed. I. in the dispute about the crown of Scotland. aspirants to the crown of Scotland, resolved to set up a claim for himself as liege lord of that kingdom, and Brabaçon was employed, by searching ancient records, to find out any plausible grounds on which the claim could be supported. He accordingly travelled diligently both through the Saxon and Norman period, and-by making the most of military advantages obtained by Kings of England over Kings of Scotland, by misrepresenting the nature of homage which the latter had paid to the former for possessions held by them in England, and by blazoning the acknowledgment of feudal subjection extorted by Henry II. from William the Lion when that prince was in captivity, without mentioning the express renunciation of it by Richard I.-he made out a case which gave high delight to the English Court. Edward immediately summoned a parliament to meet at Norham, on the south bank of the Tweed, marched thither at the head of a considerable military force, and carried Mr. Justice Brabaçon along with him as the exponent and defender of his new suzeraineté. The * Dug. Chr. Ser. A.D. 1290. Scottish nobles being induced to cross the river and to assemble in the presence of Edward, under pretence that he was to act only as arbitrator, Sir Roger by his order addressed them in French (the language then spoken by the upper classes both in Scotland and England), disclosing the alarming pretensions about to be set up. The following is said to be the substance of this speech :— 11th May. Parliament. "Lords, Thanes, and Knights of Scotland,―The reason of our supreme Lord coming here, and of your being His address summoned together, is, that he, in his fatherly kind to the ness for all in any way depending upon him, taking Scottish notice of the confusion in which your nation has been since the death of Alexander your last King, and from the affection he bears for that kingdom, and all the inhabitants thereof, whose protection is well known to belong to him, has resolved, for the more effectually doing right to all who claim the kingdom, and for the preservation of the peace thereof, to show you his superiority and direct dominion over the same out of divers chronicles and ancient muniments preserved in several monasteries in England." * He then appears to have entered into his proofs; and he thus concluded: "The mighty Edward, to whom you have appealed, will do justice to all without any usurpation or diminution of your liberties; but he demands your assent to, and recognition of, his said superiority and direct dominion." A public notary and witnesses were in attendance, and in their presence the assumed vassals were formally called upon to do homage to Edward as their suzerain, of which a record was to be made for a lasting memorial. The Scots saw too late the imprudence of which they had been guilty in choosing such a crafty and powerful arbitrator. For the present they refused the required recognition, saying that "they must have Here is the well-known feudal dis- nium utile, which belongs to the feudatinction between the dominium directum, tory. which belongs to the lord, and the domi time for deliberation, and to consult the absent members of their different orders." Brabaçon, after advising with the King, consented that they should have time until the following day, and no longer. They insisted on further delay, and showed such a determined spirit of resistance, that their request was granted; and the 1st day of June following was fixed for the ceremony of the recognition. Brabaçon allowed them to depart; and a copy of his paper, containing the proofs of the alleged superiority and direct dominion of the English Kings over Scotland, was put into their hands. He then returned to the south, where his presence was required to assist in the administration of justice, leaving the Chancellor Burnel to complete the transaction. Although the body of the Scottish nobles, as well as the body of the Scottish people, would resolutely have withstood the demand, the competitors for the throne, in the hopes of gaining Edward's favour, successively acknowledged him as their liege lord, and their example was followed by almost the whole of those who then constituted the Scottish Parliament. But this national disgrace was effaced by the glorious exploits of Wallace and Bruce ; and Brabaçon lived to see the fugitives from Bannockburn, and to hear from them of the saddest overthrow ever sustained by England since Harold and his brave army were mowed down at Hastings. A.D. 1293. subjecting Scotland to English jurisdiction. When judgment had been given in favour of Baliol, Brabaçon was still employed to assist in the He assists in plan which had been formed to bring Scotland into entire subjection. There being a meeting at Newcastle of the nobles of the two nations, when the feudatory King did homage to his liege lord, complaint was made by Roger Bartholomew, a burgess of Berwick, that certain English judges had been deputed to exercise jurisdiction on the north bank of the Tweed. |