It is recorded that Fulk Fitz-Gwarine, and John son to Henry II. afterwards King John, were playing at chess together, when it happened that they disagreed, and the prince gave Fulk a severe blow upon the head with the board, which the latter returned in such a violent manner, as almost to kill the young prince; a circumstance, had it happened, not much to be regretted, were it not in consideration of the glorious Magna Charta afterwards obtained from him.
Mr. Dovaston in speaking of the noble actions of Fitz-Gwarine, mentions Fulk and John’s quarrel in the following manner:
“Enough to name our last affray, The prince his temper lost at play, The chess-board swung with coward sway And hurl’d my head upon. Ill could the wrong my bosom brook, I sent him first a furious look, Then firm with knuckles clench’d I strook The pate of royal John.”
Fulk Fitz-Gwarine was succeeded by his eldest son, who bore the same name. He raised the glory and dignity of his family beyond any thing it had yet attained to, by numerous and valourous actions, hereafter respectively to be recorded. At the time, his father died, he was actively engaged in Lombardy, where he conducted himself with such ability and vigour, that king
Richard I. just before he went on the Crusades, made him Lord Marcher of Wales, an office that required all the exertion and capacity that could possibly exist in one man.
In the beginning of king John’s reign, Whittington was in the hands of Maurice, brother to the person to whom Owen Gwynedd presented it. Fulk Fitz-Gwarine made application to John for this place, the ancient property and residence of his family; but Maurice by means of his opulence and well-timed presents had sufficient influence over the king, to retain the possessions he so much desired: nevertheless, Fitz-Gwarine had a steady and judicious friend in one John of Raumpayne, a minstrel, whom he made his trusty spy over the conduct of Maurice at Whittington. In those times when men considered the sword a better instrument of revenge or defence, than the laws of their country, and when one Baron insulted another, a petty war ensued between them, often attended with much bloodshed, and generally concluded with the demolition, or at least capture of the castle of one party by the other. It was the failing of our hero to have recourse to this method of gaining possession, to what he thought himself fairly entitled; any other means would have been considered in a very dishonourable light by those turbulent barons and knights, who were his friends. I hope that this action, or to express it in the language of that age, this _feat_ of arms of Fulk, will not dispossess the reader of that kindness he has shown to Fitz-Gwarine and his historian, by favouring him so far with an attentive and indulgent perusal. All I can say of the battle made by Fulk upon Maurice is, that the latter was slain, and the king of Wales gave Fulk the Castle of Whittington, by which it appears, that prince espoused his cause. But the English king made Wrenoc (son to Maurice) Lord of Whittington, and sent privily to the prince of Wales to behead Fulk, who avoided the policy of king John by flying into France, with the assumed name of Sir Amice, a wandering knight. He was so admired by the French King for his honourable and chivalrous conduct, that he offered him a barony of France, which Fulk politely declined.—By some means it happened that Lewis, the French king, discovered Fitz-Gwarine; upon which, the latter fled into Brittainy, where his deeds of chivalry were so applauded, that a celebrated French author collected and published them, forming a work universally read by the chevaliers and ladies of that age. The title given to the English translation is, “The Feates of Gwarine and his Sunnes.”