436 MATTHEW OP WESTMOrSTEB. A.D.1265. barone, and the rest, having made up a list of some grievances, and appealing with all canonical observance to the Apostolic See, and, if need should be, to the general council, and to the church triumphant as well as militant, by means of the officers of the dioceses of Worcester, Chichester, and Ely, men well skilled in the law, and lawfully appointed notaries, did not wait for the result óf this appeal, but trusting to the protection of the sword of Mars, and disregarding the spiritual sword, ventured to perform divine service till the arrival in England of the lord Otho, the cardinal, and leading the aforesaid king like a prisoner, they divided all the castles and strong fortresses belonging to the king between the sons of the earl of Leicester, so often mentioned, and Hugh Despenser, and John Fitz-John, to the exclusion of the earl of Gloucester, who was the only man in the kingdom who they were afraid could weaken the toils in which they had bound their prisoners so fast ; and they assigned all the offices of the royal palace to the king's principal enemies, men who had dared to fight against him in a pitched battle. There was but little mention made for a year of the deliverance of Edward, the king's eldest son, until he himself, as the price of his release, gave his palatine county of Chester to the aforesaid earl of Leicester, and thus he purchased his liberation from the imprisonment and custody of the knights, his enemies. No one can adequately relate the condition of the nobles of the Marches, and the persecutions which they endured for a year and more. But when the earl of Leicester endeavoured to banish these lords marchers into Ireland, they, entering the camp of the king's eldest son, on the extreme borders of Wales, plundered the Welch castles of their enemies before mentioned, and thus furnished themselves with the necessary supplies, until the aforesaid earl of Leicester, having taken prisoner earl Ferrare, who secretly inclined to the party adverse to the capture of the earl of Gloucester, who has been often mentioned, and whom they suspected of similar sentiments, came to Gloucester. For then the lords marchers having united with the earl of Gloucester to meet their common danger, when the earl of Warrenne and William de Valence came with a large company of cross-bowmen and knights and landed in South Wales, they were inspired with greater boldness to resist the attacks of their persecutors; and to march to encounter the earl of Leicester and his friends, who