| Description (Repository) |
The deeds and works of g;ood men are reduced to writine:, that
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so, to their praise and endless glory, they may be handed down to
the memory of posterity; and in like manner ought the cruelties, the
malice, the perfidy, and the wickedness of the iniquitous, to be put in writing,
that so, to their disgrace, reproach, and dishonour, the same may, in
future times, unto the whole world be notified. Hence it is, that it
ought not to be passed over in silence what wickedness and what cruelty
Thomas Fitz-Thomas and Thomas de Piwelesdon, and their iniquitous
accomplices, amid the many evils which they had committed during the
commotions in the kingdom of England, thought to perpetrate and hoped
to carry into effect : and the same would have been done, had it not been
prevented by the Battle of Evesham occurring. For at the time when
Sir Edward and the Earl of Gloucester, and their adherents, were at
Gloucester, the Earl of Leicester and his accomplices, as also his lordship
the King although not of his own free will being at Hereford, the
before-named Thomas and Thomas, and other wicked persons, holding conference
among themselves, whether or not at the command of the Earl
of Leicester I know not, made arrangement, and by oath confirmed the
same, that suddenly and unexpectedly they would put to death about forty
of the most lawful men of the City; and this, because they were faithful
to his lordship the King and to Sir Edward his son. For on a day named,
namely the Thursday after Saint Peter's Chains "[1 August], the whole
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of the commonalty was summoned to appear at the Guildhall, that so among
them the men aforesaid might be seized, and immediately put to death.
Accordingly, on that day the wicked persons before-mentioned came there
with arms beneath their clothes, their accomplices rushing in in troops,
ready and prepared with swords and other arms to perpetrate the felony
aforesaid; when, behold! news came of the battle which had been fought
at Evesham on the Tuesday preceding ; upon hearing which,
these wicked men of Belial abandoned their design, and so on
that day the innocent blood was saved. |