The young King, who was crowned at fourteen
years of age with all the usual
solemnities, resolved not to bear this, and soon
pursued Mortimer to his ruin.

The people themselves were not fond of
Mortimer—first, because he was a Royal
favourite; secondly, because he was
supposed to have helped to make a peace with
Scotland, which now took place, and in virtue
of which the young King's sister Joan, only
seven years old, was promised in marriage
to David, the son and heir of Robert Bruce,
who was only five years old. The nobles hated
Mortimer because of his pride, riches, and
power. They went so far as to take up arms
against him; but were obliged to submit.
The Earl of Kent, one of those who did so,
but who afterwards went over to Mortimer
and the Queen, was made an example of in
the following cruel manner:

He seems to have been anything but a
wise old earl; and he was persuaded by the
agents of the favourite and the Queen, that
poor King Edward the Second was not really
dead; and thus was betrayed into writing
letters favouring his rightful claim to the
throne. This was made out to be high treason,
and he was tried, found guilty, and sentenced
to be executed. They took the poor old lord
outside the town of Winchester, and there
kept him waiting some three or four hours
until they could find somebody to cut off his
head. At last, a convict said he would do it,
if the government would pardon him in
return; and they gave him the pardon; and at
one blow he put the Earl of Kent out of his
last suspense.

While the Queen was in France, she had
found a lovely and good young lady, named
Phillipa, who she thought would make an
excellent wife for her son. The young King
married this lady, soon after he came to the
throne; and her first child, Edward, Prince
of Wales, afterwards became celebrated, as
we shall presently see, under the famous title
of EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE.

The young King, thinking the time ripe for
the downfall of Mortimer, took counsel with
Lord Montacute how he should proceed. A
Parliament was going to be held at Nottingham,
and that lord recommended that the
favourite should be seized by night in
Nottingham Castle, where he was sure to be.
Now, this, like many other things, was more
easily said than done; because, to guard
against treachery, the great gates of the
Castle were locked every night, and the great
keys were carried upstairs to the Queen, who
laid them under her own pillow. But the
Castle had a governor, and, the governor
being Lord Montacute's friend, confided to
him how he knew of a secret passage
underground, hidden from observation by the weeds
and brambles with which it was overgrown;
and how, through that passage, the conspirators
might enter in the dead of night, and go
straight to Mortimer's room. Accordingly,
upon a certain dark night, at midnight, they
made their way through this dismal place:
startling the rats, and frightening the owls
and bats: and came safely to the bottom of
the main tower of the Castle, where the King
met them, and took them up a profoundly-
dark staircase in a deep silence. They soon
heard the voice of Mortimer in council with
some friends; and bursting into the room
with a sudden noise, took him prisoner. The
Queen cried out from her bed-chamber,
"Oh, my sweet son, my dear son, spare my
gentle Mortimer! " They carried him off,
however; and, before the next Parliament,
accused him of having made differences
between the young King and his mother, and
of having brought about the death of the Earl
of Kent, and even of the late King; for, as
you know by this time, when they wanted to
get rid of a man in those old days, they were
not very particular of what they accused him.
Mortimer was found guilty of all this, and
was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn. The
King shut his mother up in a genteel
confinement, where she passed the rest of her
life; and now he became King in earnest.

The first effort he made was to conquer
Scotland. The English lords who had lands
in Scotland, finding that their rights were
not respected under the late peace, made
war on their own account: choosing for
their general, Edward, the son of John
Baliol, who made such a vigorous fight,
that in less than two months he won the
whole Scottish Kingdom. He was joined,
when thus triumphant, by the King and
Parliament; and he and the King in person
besieged the Scottish forces in Berwick. The
whole Scottish army coming to the assistance
of their countrymen, such a furious battle
ensued, that thirty thousand men are said to
have been killed in it. Baliol was then
crowned King of Scotland, doing homage to
the King of England; but little came of his
successes after all, for the Scottish men rose
against him, within no very long time, and
David Bruce came back within ten years and
took his kingdom.

France was a far richer country than
Scotland, and the King had a much greater
mind to conquer it. So, he let Scotland alone,
and pretended that he had a claim to the
French throne in right of his mother. He had,
in reality, no claim at all; but that mattered
little in those times. He brought over to his
cause many little princes and sovereigns, and
even courted the alliance of the people of
Flanders—a busy, working community, who
had very small respect for kings, and whose
head man was a brewer. With such forces as he
raised by these means, Edward invaded France;
but he did little by that, except run into debt
in carrying on the war to the extent of three
hundred thousand pounds. The next year he
did better; gaining a great sea-fight in the
harbour of Sluys. This success, however, was
very short-lived, for the Flemings took