John Lackland

In fact, the story of the Magna Carta is that.

These land barons surround, I think it was King John.

You can't push us around and tell us we don't have any rights, tell us we can't have a voice in what goes on.

You're going to sign this document, the Magna Carta, that extends those rights to us.

That's just me.

All right, get to some of your phone calls.

John, welcome to the Triple H Radio Experience.

Hey, is this Hal?

They're not really that... impressed by it, I think, because there's no evidence that they were involved, commissioned images of Guy or adopted the icons or the stories of Guy Rourke in any of their story, because at this point, In the 1200s, the Beaumonts were in retreat.

They are in decline and the loss of Normandy under King John has severed their connections with their homeland or the original homeland.

So there's a real kind of junction there where they're not interested in Guy of Warwick.

It's only the later elves, I know, will come to them, the Beechams, who take this under their wing and really run with it.

So you have people in England that were like, nah.

In fact, the story of the Magna Carta is that These land barons surround, I think it was King John.

You can't push us around and tell us we don't have any rights, tell us we can't have a voice in what goes on.

You're going to sign this document, the Magna Carta, that extends those rights to us.

That's just me.

All right, get to some of your phone calls.

John, welcome to the Triple H Radio Experience.

Hey, is this Al?

You're so right.

Because the Magna Carta, you know, King John didn't want to seal the charter.

He was forced to.

And then he has it annulled immediately, gets the Pope to annul it.

With but one more stroke he would have equaled Marvin's score.

As it was, his points were six, even as those of John of the Wallfield, while Marvin had thrice struck the bull's-eye and four times the rolling ball.

When Lord Mountjoy announced the prize was Marvin's, the elder Mountjoy men broke out afresh with cheers, and in these all the company, led by my father himself, speedily joined.

Two of the stoutest yeomen hoisted Marvin to their shoulders, and with them in the lead we made a procession through the fields and toward the hall, all the men and maidens shouting and dancing and making a most merry and heartening din.

Mindful of the skill and daring of the Welsh in night attacks, the Lord Constable posted double lines of sentinels, and we seized such sleep as we might, wrapping in our dripping cloaks and lying upon the grass and leaves.

At last, i for one slumbered heavily and it seemed but an hour ere our leaders roused us and we saw the black shadows of the mists around us turning grey with morning light while we ate again of the bread and meat we carried the constable despatched two riders with a message to sir guy baldiston at the pass with commands to send back word to wallingham of our whereabouts and our intent to pursue the ravagers still farther in half an hour we were again in saddle and de lacy was giving directions for our better ordering to guard against surprise upon the march when one descried our messengers returning at full gallop and lying low upon their horses necks as if in fear of arrows that might come from wayside rocks and trees they rode indeed not like the soldiers of a victor's army but like men who are hunted and flee for their lives in a moment more they had attained our lines their horses loudly panting with the labor of such galloping over rough and stony paths and the foremost rider cried out to the commander oh my lord sir guy and all his men are slain and the welsh have the pass again we but narrowly escaped being taken ourselves the constable sat on his great war-horse gazing and frowning at the messenger for a length of time that an arrow shot strongly upward might have needed to come again to earth then he said sternly and how closely didst thou see all this my lord we rode within the bowshot twas something dark and misty and we knew not what was toward the pass is filled with welshmen and they raise the skull-bone banner tis an army such as we encountered yesterday de lacy glanced about him at his leaders my lords and gentlemen you hear what has chanced shall we attack again from this side or fare onward we must ride onward my lord and that quickly answered lord mountjoy we cannot force that narrow pass gainst such an army as our messenger describes doubtless they hold also the crags above and from thence they can roll down rocks that would fell and crush any force that attempted it we saw many hundreds of them on the crags above put in the messenger and what if we ride forward demanded the constable have we a clearer road on that side ay my lord returned my father once years agone i rode through this valley a hawking there is another gateway called the pass of the eagles three leagues farther west it is much broader than the other and if we hasten risk can scarcely gather a force that can hold it against us then beyond is the good wide valley of owain adown which in ten hours hard riding we may gain the marches once more the lord constable gazed at the ground before him for a moment then he lifted his head and spake so that all around might hear my lords this welsh freebooter hath shown himself a better general than i he hath enticed us into this valley and then hath closed the gate behind us as one entraps a bear or wolf the storm it seems hath given him respite he fights in his own land and doubtless the knight hath brought many recruits to his banner now ride we on to force this other gateway ere he gather an army that can close that also forward for st george at the full trot we rode away and for an hour and more we slackened not our speed by the sides of the pathway or crouching under crags in the hillside we saw at intervals the huts of stones and turf of the welsh mountain folk but all stood silent and deserted with never a wisp of smoke from chimney or sight of woman or child when the sun was an hour high the valley narrowed again around us and we came in sight of the pass of the eagles then indeed we knew that if any of us returned alive from this adventure twould be by the favour of all the saints and by the utmost might of our arms for the army of rys stood before us drawn up in twenty ranks across the defile which was there of a furlong's width in the front rank stood the spearmen with the butts of their weapons firmly planted in the ground and the points held at the height of a horse's breast in the next the king and his sons the leaders of tribes and of all those who bore the heaviest arms and iron shields behind them rank after rank of swordsmen and javelin throwers and rearmost their archers with bows in hand and arrows ready notched the flanks of the welsh array were protected by high and rocky slopes where scrubby oaks and thorns found scant foothold amidst the crags and where no horse could tread on both sides of the valley where it narrowed to the pass were broken cliffs that not a mountain goat could scale beyond these lay the heather-covered mountainsides and far-away rocky peaks where already snow had come at the word our men wheeled into line of battle the armoured knights in the van in two open ranks then the men-at-arms in three more of closer array the archers were not to charge with us but with a dozen knights and a hundred men-at-arms under lord mountjoy were to form a rear-guard lest other bodies of the welsh close in upon us both sir geoffrey and i had won favour in the lord constable's eyes by somewhat we had accomplished in the fighting at the ford and now i led the forces of mountjoy at his right and geoffrey those of carleton and teramore on his left hand in a moment came the furious shock of battle and all the frightful scenes of the struggle by the river's edge with the vantage now on the side of our enemies many of the steeds of our gallant knights transfixed themselves upon the welsh lances and their riders brought to the ground fell victims to swords or javelins or were crushed beneath the hoofs of our own oncoming ranks but the line of spears was utterly broken and the other knights and men-at-arms drove furiously into the mass before them swords and lances did their terrible work and in the briefest time hundreds of our enemies had fallen the constable fought that day with a huge mace and swinging it about his head as if it were a willow wand he seemed like the great god thor of the heathen worship of old but now for every two or three of the welsh one of our knights or men-at-arms perished also some of the tribesmen struck down by the swords of the riders thrust upwards at our horses with swords and knives as we passed over them and so cast down many a rider into the melee of dashing hoofs and glancing blades and many times furious warriors laying hold upon the riders brought them to the earth and to speedy death their archers and javelin throwers aimed at our necks and faces and though many of their shafts flew wide or even struck down their own others found their marks indeed and added to our fatal losses from one desperate moment to another for a length of time ever unknown to me the struggle and the slaying went on unchecked our numbers grew ever fewer and we were gaining scarce a yard of ground for all the heaps of fallen the welsh fought on with undiminished fury and twas evident that they would slay the last of us ere we could force the pass lionel of montmorency had fallen with half his men as also dunwoody and sir william his brother and heir the lord constable himself was wounded and panting with fatigue and loss of blood had dropped his mace to fight again with broadsword sir geoffrey of carleton had once saved him from the hands of a huge welsh warrior who sought to drag him from his saddle and now the two fought almost back to back in an ever-narrowing circle of enemies suddenly i saw and felt the tribesmen wavering and giving ground before us and became aware of a shower of cross-bow bolts that was falling among them and striking them down by hundreds looking up to see whence they came i beheld cedric of mountjoy and half a thousand of his cross-bow men among the rocks in the promontory to the right discharging their bolts as fast as they could lay them in groove and pouring a most deadly hail into the thick ranks of our enemies twas evident that cedric had dismounted all his men and found some means to scale the cliffs and strike the welsh in flank then i saw that a body of the enemy hastily called from the rearmost ranks by the huge and red-haired griffith son of rhys assaulted this position and sought to pull our archers from their posts of vantage climbing upward amongst the crags they faced at closest range the deadly aim of the crossbowmen backward they fell by scores their bodies crushing down those below them not a dozen came to grips with the archers of these the leader had his great sword thrust aside by cedric's bow then was seized about the waist lifted from the earth and thrown to the rocks below where he lay still with broken back with the fall of griffith our men set up a mighty shout and pressed the welsh ever the harder the deadly bolts still poured down from cedric's vantage ground but shifted ever their direction as we drove the enemy before us the yells of the welshmen which had been those of victory and triumph now changed to cries of despair hundreds turned and fled and of these many cast down their weapons that they might run the faster soon the downward pathway ahead of us was filled with fugitives and only a few bands of desperate warriors fought on preferring death to such a defeat after victory had been almost within their grasp With the pass open before us, we paused not to pursue the Welsh into the rocky and wooded fastnesses where they had fled.

Taking up our sorely wounded in such litters as we could hastily form, and those with less grave hurts behind the other horsemen, we reformed our column and rode away down the broad valley toward the marches and the goodly fortress of Wenderley that Sir John Clarendon held for the king.

When the moon rose at the ninth hour of the evening of that day, the Lord High Constable stood in the courtyard at Wenderley, surrounded by the lords and barons of his expedition and of the castle garrison.