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Isabella now did all in her power to influence the king against the barons, instead of working to restore peace, as she once did. So he fought against them in person, and Lancaster was seized in the battle. He was sentenced by the king with the least possible delay, and beheaded a few hours later. The queen knew nothing about her uncle's sentence until too late, otherwise, it is to be hoped, she would have endeavored to save him. She was living in the Tower at the time, and it was there that her youngest child, the Lady Joanna, was born.
Roger Mortimer had been captured while fighting against the king, and imprisoned in the Tower under sentence of death; but he managed in some unaccountable manner to see Isabella, and get her interested in him. Her influence was all-powerful at that period, so, to the astonishment of everybody, she made Edward change Mortimer's sentence of death to imprisonment for life, though he had really commenced the civil war by a fierce attack on the lands of the Despencers. These men now hated the queen more than ever for assisting their enemy.
The following year Mortimer planned his escape from the Tower with the assistance of the constable and others. The queen herself provided a drink for the guard that put them into a heavy sleep. Then the prisoner, who had worked a hole from his dungeon into the kitchen of the royal apartments, climbed up the chimney and got out on the roof, along which he stealthily crawled to the Thames side, and descended by a rope ladder. The constable awaited him in a little boat, and rowed him across the river, where seven of his friends met him on horseback. With this guard he went to the coast of Hampshire, and pretended to sail to the Isle of Wight; but, instead of that, the fugitive got on board a large ship that had been engaged for him, and was soon landed in Normandy. Thence he went to Paris. When the king heard of the escape a great hue and cry was raised for Mortimer, dead or alive, but his whereabouts were not suspected, and he remained safely hidden in France.
The Despencers now began to influence the king as powerfully as Gaveston had done, and the queen commenced her plans for their destruction. She declared that they were the cause of all the recent bloodshed, and pretended that her Uncle Lancaster was a saint and a martyr, who only met his death by the advice of these favorites.
They had really committed one fault for which Isabella could not forgive them; they had caused her allowance to be curtailed, and no one ever offended her without paying dearly for it.
She had ceased to be lovable to the king, and so had lost her hold on him; but for this also she blamed the Despencers. Then she was deprived, by their advice, of her French servants and of all her possessions in England. She and her husband quarrelled to such an extent that at last they refused to see each other at all.
But Isabella was not meek enough to stand ill-treatment, so she complained to her brother, King Charles, who had succeeded to the throne of France. He wrote a very indignant letter to Edward, declaring his intention of seizing all the provinces of the French crown held by England. But Edward was not prepared for war, and neither he nor his ministers dared to go to France to face the angry brother of Isabella.
A.D. 1325. In this dilemma the queen volunteered her services as peace-maker, providing she might be allowed to go to Paris herself. Edward was only too happy to have the matter so easily settled, and the Despencers were delighted at the thought of getting rid of her. Isabella had a little plan of her own which she intended to carry out. The first step was a treaty of peace, which she arranged on her arrival in France, between her brother and the King of England. She was not at all surprised when the Despencers, who feared her influence over the weak mind of Edward, had dissuaded him from crossing the channel with her, even after his arrangements had been made. In fact, this was exactly what she had desired, because it enabled her to propose that her son, the Prince of Wales, should be invested with certain powers which she named, and sent in his father's stead. Both the king and the Despencers fell into the snare, and Isabella got the heir to the throne of England into her own hands.