424 MATTHEW OF WISTMIKSTEB. A.B. 12G4. contend against BO many nobles, and especially against that most sagacious warrior Simon de Montfort. Moreover, Llewellyn, who had by this time advanced beyond the borders of Wales, was now above them, preparing to attack them in the rear, and so they were compelled to come to terms of peace. Therefore, that Edward, that illustrious youth, the son of the king, might be released from confinement, he was compelled to agree to peace on the other aide, though on hard and oppressive terms. For he was forced to agree that he would not leave the island of Britain for three years, and in the mean time would plot no evil against either the kingdom or the nobles, on pain of losing his inheritance. And for the confirmation and security of this agreement, nearly all the castles which his partisans had in their keeping, and which were dotted about the Marches, all the way from Bristol to Chester, were given up to the earl of Leicester ; and likewise Chester itself, which had been the county palatine of prince Edward, in consequence of an exchange made with the aforesaid earl, was transferred to another master. Hereford too,1 and other castles, situated towards the southern district of Wales, had been some time before surrendered, and entrusted to the keeping of Peter de Montfort and others of the barons. After these events, the king returned to his splendid palace, which is called Woodstock, where he celebrated the feast of the Nativity of the Lord with all due solemnity. But the earl, as fortune smiled on him in every design which he conceived in bis mind, celebrated the same festival in his castle of Kenilworth, attended by a large company of knights. And he is reported to have had in his own household at least a hundred and forty knights receiving pay, besides a great number of others devoted to his service, when he went on any expedition. By this time, therefore, all England, except the most remote districts of the north (which etui, under die influence of the king of Scotland and John de Balliol, conspiring against him), was favourable, and indeed subject to him ; so that nothing of any importance was done in the whole kingdom without him. Every thing was ordered by him, all the king's castles were entrusted to his government. Nor indeed was the king himself, who was now in the fifteenth year of his reign, considered anything more than a shadow of a name, The text here is quite unintelligible, and probably corrupt. I have therefore borrowed the real terms of the treaty from Hume.