A chronicle of the Kings of England, from the time of the Romans goverment [sic] unto the raigne of our soveraigne lord, King Charles containing all passages of state or church, with all other observations proper for a chronicle / faithfully collected out of authours ancient and moderne, & digested into a new method ; by Sr. R. Baker, Knight.

Of his Acts before, and at his Coronation.

EDward of Carnarvan, eldest Sonne of King Edward the first, succeeded him in the kingdome; and never did Prince come to a Crowne with more applause of Nobility and People; and there was good cause for it: For he had beene trained up in all good courses for Piety and Learning; he had seene the Government of his Father, from whose Example he could not but have learned many good Lessons; he had been initiated in the wayes of State, having beene left Gover∣nour of the Realme, and presiding in Parliament in his Fa∣thers absence; and he was now three and twenty yeares old, a fit age for bearing the weight of a Scepter; and yet for all these advantages, there wanted not feares of him in the mindes of many, who could not but remember what prankes he had played not long before; how he had broken the Bishop of Chesters Parke, and in most disorderly manner had killed his Deere, for which both himselfe had beene committed to Prison, and his Friend Pierce Gaveston banished the Realme: and if he did such things being but Prince, what might not be feared of him comming to be King? For seldome doth advancement in honour alter men to the better; to the worse often, and commonly then, when it is joyned with an Authority that sets them above controlement. Neither yet was their feare more out of what they had seene, then out of what they saw; for where he should have endevoured to accomplish the charge his Father had given him in his death-bed, he seemed to intend nothing lesse: nothing more then wholly to breake it; for he presently called home Pierce Gaveston from banishment; and the two and thirty thousand pounds, which his Father had specially appointed for the Holy Warre; either all or the most of it he be••towed upon Gaveston: and for carrying his Fathers bones with him about Scotland; it had beene well if he had suffered them quietly to be laid at rest in England; for after the Corps had beene kept above ground, sixteene weekes in the Abbey of Waltham, and that the Bishop of Chester, Walter Langton, the then Lord Treasurer, and Executor of his Fathers Will, was busie in prepa∣ring for his Funerals; he sent the Constable of the Tower to arrest him, and im∣prison him at Wallingford, seising upon all his Goods, and giving them to Gaveston; and all for old grudges. And (that which seemed a high straine of incongruity)

before he had seene performed his Fathers Funerals, which was not till the 27. of October following; he entred into Treatie of his owne Nuptials, forgoing over to Boleigne, on the two and twentieth of Ianuary, he marryed Isabell, the Daughter of Philip the Faire, King of France: which Marriage was honoured with the pre∣sence of foure Kings, the King of France himselfe, the King of Nav••rre his Sonne, the King of the Romans, and the King of Sicilie: and three Queenes besides the Bride, Mary Queene of France, Margaret the Dowager Queene of England, and the Queene of Navarre: and yet did Gavest••n exceed them all in bravery. This was observed by the Lords of England: and thereupon when his Queene and he came afterward to be Crowned, they went unto him, signifying what a hainous transgression of his Fathers will it was to call home G••veston; and seeing the charge was no lesse given to them then to him, if he did not performe it they would; and therefore unlesse he would remove Gaveston from the Court and kingdome, they would hinder his Coronation from proceeding: which strooke such a dampe to Prince Edwards spirits, to thinke what a disgrace it would be to him; if so many of his great Friends being present, Charles of Valois, the King of Frances Brother, the Dukes of Britaine and Brabant, the Count of Luxenburg, who was afterward Em∣peror, the Duke of Savoy, the two Dutchesses of Brabant & Artois, with many other Princes and great Ladies, if now his Coronation should be called in question, that he solemnly swore he would do what they desired in the next Parliament, so they would be quiet now; and thereupon, on the 24. day of February, in the yeare 1307. his Queene and he were both Crowned at Westminster, by the hands of Henry Bishop of Winchester, by Commission from Robert Arch-bishop of Canterbury, being then in Exile, and out of the kingdome: At which solemnity there was so great a presse of People, that Sir Iohn Blackwell knight was crowded to death. And now in the very Act of his Coronation, there was given another provocation to the Lords against Gaveston: for the King had appointed him to carry the Crowne of Saint Edward before him, (the greatest honour could be done to a Subject) which ad∣ded to the other honours the King had done him, (for he had made him Earle of Cornewall, Lord of Man, and Lord Chamberlaine) so incensed the Lords, that they entred into consultation, how to suppresse this violence of the Kings affecti∣on; which shortly after they put in execution. Portion in money King Edward had none with his Wife: but the King of France gave him the Dutchy of Guyenne, which he had seised upon before, as confiscate to him: and thereupon King Ed∣ward did him Homage for that Dutchy, and for the County of Ponthieu.