severity, in order to obtain from him a recognition of the feudal
superiority of the Clarenhams; and though the success of the royal
party at Evesham occasioned his liberation, his possessions were
greatly diminished. Nor had the turmoils of the reign of Edward
II. failed to leave their traces on the fortunes of the Lynwoods.
Sir Henry, father of the present Knight, was a staunch adherent of
the unfortunate monarch, and even joined the hapless Edmund, Earl
of Kent, in the rising in which that Prince was entrapped after the
murder of his brother. On this occasion, it was only Sir Henry's
hasty flight that preserved his life, and his lands were granted
to the Baron Simon de Clarenham by the young Edward III., then under
the dominion of his mother Isabel, and Roger Mortimer; but when at
length the King had freed himself from their trammels, the whole
county of Somerset rose to expel the intruders from Lynwood Keep,
and reinstate its true master. Nor did Simon de Clarenham make
much resistance, for well knowing that an appeal to the King
would occasion and instant revocation of the grant, he judged
it advisable to allow it to sleep for the present.

Sir Henry Lynwood, therefore, lived and died unmolested. His
eldest son, Reginald, was early sent to the Royal Camp, where he
soon distinguished himself, and gained the favour and friendship
of the gallant Prince of Wales. The feud with the Clarenhams
seemed to be completely extinguished, when Reginald, chiefly by
the influence of the Prince, succeeded in obtaining the hand of
a lady of that family, the daughter of a brave Knight slain in
the wars in Brittany.

Since this time, both the Baron de Clarenham and his son, Sir
Fulk, had been on good terms with the Knight of Lynwood, and the