Pagina:Annales monastici Vol IV.djvu/29

PREFACE. XXI royalist army is described as " comes Gloucestrise cum " marchionibus et aliis multis cum exercitu forti et " terribili" (p. 1G8). After the battle the parliament at Winchester is said to have been summoned by the earl of Gloucester " et his qui ex parte sua fuerant" (p. 174). He then states that prince Edward was present at the battle, " ex parte comitis Glovernise " (ib.). There can be little doubt that this omission was purposely done, whether from motives of respect or fear it is not easy to say. After the battle of Lewes, he says, " Quia propter " temporum malitiam non est tutum omnia vera loqui, " ideo ad prsesens tacemus nomina magnatum, qui fu- " gerant et qui capti fuerant in bello prsedicto. Multa " etiam alia quae sunt facta his diebus omittimus huic " historise interserere propter pacem legentium, quia " forte quod placeret regalibus displiceret baronvim fau- " toribus " (p. 149). This must have been written very near the time itself, probably immediately after the battle of Evesham, and before tlie general pacification of the country. Here the annalist is in very marked op[)Osi- tion to Wykes, with whom prince Edward is the prime mover of everything. At the battle of Lewes he speaks of him as being the real leader of the army, " cui flos " totius exercitus intendebat " (p. 150), and at Evesham all is ascribed to him which the other gives to Gilbert de Clare. There are minute and interesting details in the Osney Simon de chronicle of the death of Simon de Montfort. who is ^ontfort. called " vir Dei" (p. 170), and of the burial of his remains ; but as he uses the same terms in which the Evangelists describe the burial of our Lord, they are the less trustworthy.^ The account, however, of the • " Super ea (the mutilated por- | " monumento novo deposuerunt, in " tions of his body) sicut super I " quo nondum quisquam positus fue- •' arma sua ut quis quid tolleret, " rat" (pp. 175, 176). This shows " quasi sortem mittebant" (pp. 170, the estimation in which he was held 171). " Reliquum corporis . . . in at Osney, and makes the contrast " lintheamine mundo involventes, in with Wykes still more remarkable.