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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 203



dam, be of good cheer, for I will not fail in my promise; and you shall come and see my brother and his countess and family, who will receive you with gladness, for I have heard them say so." "Sir," answered the Queen, ''Ifind in you more kindness and comfort than in all the world besides, and I give you five thousand thanks for all you have so courteously promised. I and my son shall be for ever bound to you, and we will put the kingdom of England under your management, as it ought to be." The Queen and her son, accompanied by Sir John, proceeded on the following day to Valenciennes, where they were most graciously received by the Count and Countess of Hainault and their court, and where they tarried eight days, enjoying one round of feasting and merriment. The Queen, however, found time to mature her plans forthc invasion of England. Sir John also wrote to many nobles and knights, beseeching them, as they valued his friendship, to arm in the cause of Isabella. Sir John next obtained the consent of the Earl, his brother, to embark in the hazardous enterprizo, and with the Queen and her sou proceeded to Dort, the appointed rendezvous of the expedition. Their voyage to England was tempestuous ; after tossing about whither they knew not for two days, they descried the English coast ; and on the twenty-second of September, landed at the haven of Orewell, near Harwich, in Suffolk. On landing, not knowing where they were, they remained three days on the beach, uncertain what course to take : on the fourth, they landed their horses, boldly marched forward, found they were on the lands of Thomas of Brotherton, the King's brother and one of their partizans, and were joyed to find " all the country about fall to them of their own free will." Isabella brought with her foreign troops to the number of three thousand seven hundred ; and at Harwich Henry of Lancaster, the Earl of Leicester, and the Bishops of Lincoln, Hereford, and Ely, besides other prelates and nobles, joined her with powerful forces. Indeed, her emissaries had so effectually persuaded the nation that she was an injured, oppressed Queen, that on her landing, the great majority of all classes flocked to her standard, and bailed her as the deliverer of the country. The deception she practised to get to France and obtain possession of her heir, her adulterous conduct with Mortimer, an outlawed traitor, and her general misconduct, were either altogether overlooked, or regarded as false reports, basely circulated by the Spencers, so intense was the excitement, so fully the feeling in her favour. As to the weak-minded Edward, the news of this landing literally paralyzed him. Instead of raising an army and equipping a fleet, which might have crushed the designs of his enemies in their embryo, he had contented himself with writing complaining letters to the Pope and the. King of France ; and now that England was invaded and himself threatened with destruction, he had not the means to check the progress of his triumphing enemies. The fleet, although ordered to assemble at Orewell three days before the Queen landed there, had been perfidiously directed to a distant port. Bobcrt de AVatcrville, who had been commissioned to oppose the invaders, betrayed his trust, and ranged his forces under the banners of the Queen and her son, whilst so many of the nobles had already joined or were dailyjoining the cause of Isabella, that the unfortunate Monarch knew not whom to trust. Fearing to summon the military tenants of the crown, he ordered the commissioners of array to aid him with all the forces they could collect in the neighbouring counties, and on the twenty-third of September issued a proclamation, offering one thousand pounds for Mortimer's head, and ordered the invading army and all who joined its ranks, with the exception of his wife, bis son, and his brother, the Earl of Kent, to be treated as common enemies. In retaliation, the Queen offered a reward of two thousand pounds for the head of Spencer the younger, and announced by proclamation, that she had come to deliver the realm from the mis


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