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ROYAL HERALDRY. 391
parliament, and commending him to their liberality in these words:
"Behold here, good people, my son Edmond, whom God in His gracious
"goodness hath called to the excellency of kingly dignity. How comely
" and well worthy he is of all your favour, and how cruel and tyrannical
"must they be who, at this pinch, would deny him effectual and season-
" able help both with money and advice."
*
In 1269, he assisted the King his father, Edward Prince of Wales,
and the King of the Romans, to bear the bier of Edward the Confessor,
and place
it in St. Edward's Chapel, the chef-d 'au-vre of Gothic architecture
in Westminster Abbey, which Henry III. had been fifty years in
and which was then completed.
At the age of nineteen he was created Earl of Leicester, on the
death of Simon de Montford at the battle of Evesham, and two years
after, Earl of Lancaster, when Robert de Ferrers forfeited his titles and
estates.
In 1259 he is mentioned as meeting his sister Margaret, Queen of
Scotland, at St. Albans, on her way to London. He seems at least to
have made an effort to fulfil his vow, as he is mentioned, A.D. 1270, as
arriving at Tunis with his brother, Edward Prince of Wales, and his wife,
Eleanor of Castile, but only to find that St. Louis King of France had
died there shortly before, and that a truce for ten years had been made
with the Saracens. Edward endeavoured to rouse the French to proceed :
" But, my dearest lords," he urged,
" have we not come here to destroy
" the enemies of the Cross of Christ, not to compound with them < Far
"be this from us. Let us on, the land is open before us, and proceed
" even to the holy city Jerusalem." But in vain : the French pleaded the
obligation of the truce ; so they retired to Messina, where they were
entertained by the King, Charles of Anjou, who had defeated Manfred at
the battle of Benevento and established himself in his place ; and whose
wife, Beatrice of Provence, was sister to Queen Eleanor of England. The
following year they proceeded to Acre, where Edward was stabbed by
the assassin whom he slew with a camp-stool. After some days the surgeon,
brought by the Master of the Temple, recommended incisions in the arm,
which shewed unfavourable symptoms. At which Eleanor lost her presence
of mind, and bursting into tears, was unceremoniously carried out of the
room by Edmond and John de Vesci, the former blandly remarking that
it was better that she should scream and cry than all England mourn and
lament. After several unimportant skirmishes a truce for ten years, seven
weeks, and ten days, was made; and in August 1272, Prince Edmond
returned home. On the eve of his departure for the Holy Land, however,
he had been married 8th April, 127010 Aveline, heiress of William de
Matthew Paris.