However, she was at that time much beloved by her subjects, and, with Gaveston out of the way, we hear no more complaints until the year 1312, when, to her great displeasure, he turned up again. This time, with his usual lack of judgment, the king had recalled him, and made him his principal secretary of state. This was a very high office, for he had all the affairs of the country under his control, and so determined was he to keep Edward under his thumb that nobody could speak to him excepting through the secretary.
This arrangement gave great offence, and when the young queen saw how the royal favorite was injuring her husband by making the nation dislike him, and, what was still worse, by leading him into dissipation and other acts of folly, she angrily remonstrated with him. He forgot the respect due to her rank, and answered with contempt, whereupon she complained to the king. But instead of upholding his wife and punishing his insolent favorite, Edward treated the matter with the utmost indifference. Isabella was furious, and wrote to her father, the King of France, a letter filled with bitter complaints of her husband's coldness and neglect, saying, "that she was the most wretched of wives, and that Gaveston was the cause of all her troubles."
In reply, Philip secretly urged the peers to rebel, which they did at last, headed by the Earl of Lancaster, and determined to compel Edward to dismiss his hated secretary of state. Then began a civil war, the most horrible disaster that can overtake any country. Edward, evidently considering discretion the better part of valor, ran away with his wife and his favorite. They got as far as York, but the victorious barons entered that place in triumph, and the two fugitives sailed for Scarborough, leaving the poor young queen alone, although she entreated her husband with tears in her eyes to take her along.
Finding herself forsaken, Isabella retired to a remote castle, where she passed her time in visiting the sick and poor, which the following notes, found in the royal household book, prove:—
A.D. 1312. "October 9. To little Thomeline, the Scotch orphan boy, to whom the queen, being moved to charity by his miseries, gave food and raiment to the amount of six and sixpence."
And again:
"To the same orphan, on his being sent to London to dwell with Agnes, the wife of Jean, the queen's French organist; for his education, for necessaries bought him, and for curing his maladies, fifty-two shillings and eightpence."
While at this castle the queen received a message from her uncle Lancaster assuring her of her safety, and telling her that they were only fighting to get hold of Gaveston.
The king, in the meantime, having left his favorite in the strong fortress of Scarborough, proceeded to the midland counties to raise forces for his defence. But the men of England were so indignant at the treatment their young queen had received at the hands of her husband and his unworthy guide, that instead of obeying the orders they received, they rose en masse to storm Gaveston in his shelter. Being destitute of provisions, and knowing that he could not withstand a siege, he surrendered on condition that he was to be safely conducted to the king and allowed to speak with him freely before his trial.