336 ON THE ANCIENT PARLIAMENT AND CASTLE

belief. Yet if the facts be calmly examined, it Avill be dis- covered that the lyric fire of the poet first infused the suspicion into our minds, that it is nothing more than a traditionary tale handed down by Cambrian prejudice, resting only upon a solitary assertion, valueless in point of age, or cotempo- raneous authority. If no heavier or more certain crimes than this tarnished the reputation of Edward, it would be indeed an easy task to vindicate his fame, but darker shadows have passed across the records of his career, and history, which undertakes its office for the instruction of future ages, must also hold up to their detestation the perpetrators of injustice and cruelty. Naturally enough might the king have felt en- raged at the want of faith he detected in his newly conquered subjects, and reasonably might the constant insurrections and perfidies of the Welsh have urged him to rule them with a jealous severity. Yet having once accomplished the scope of his ambition by annihilating the dynasty of Wales and secur- ing the capture of the Welsh princes, it might have been enough to satiate the hands of justice and to ensure the per- manence of his conquest, had he pardoned their transgressions, if such indeed they may be termed, or at all events, had he moderated their punishment. Prince David, with his wife and children, w^as brought before the king at Rhyddlan, and earnestly desired to throw himself at the monarch's feet, but Edward refused to gratify his eyes by the humiliating spec- tacle of a fallen enemy, having determined to proceed against him judicially as a traitorous vassal of the crown. The for- malities being settled, and the prince conveyed in chains to Shrewsbiny, a parliament w^as summoned to try him for his defection and disloyalty. The writs were issued from Rhyddlan on the 2Sth of June 1283, to upwards of one hundred temporal peers, to nineteen justices, and to the mayors and citizens of twenty boroughs, also to the sheriff's, who were commanded to elect two knights of the shire through all the counties in England'^. The bishops alone were absent from this numerous and important assembly: important as being the first where the commons had any sliarc by legal authority in the councils of the state, and one to which we have been indebted for our present advancement and energies, and for that noble independance and rational

• Tail. Writs, vol. i. j), 11, 12. " Blakewaj's Slircwslmry, vol. i. p. Hfi — 151.