Power of the Despensers.
Meanwhile, England itself had been in a miserable plight. 1315 and 1316 were years of fearful famine. Prices rose to an unprecedented height. Wheat was sold for 40 marks a quarter; and Parliament still further aggravated the evil by fixing a maximum price, which for a time closed the markets altogether. Terrible diseases followed in the wake of the famine. Again and again the northern counties were mercilessly ravaged; whole districts and dioceses were glad to compound with the Scotch for safety. An attempt was made by a Parliament in this year to re-establish the national prosperity, by obliging the King to accept Lancaster as his chief minister. Lancaster accepted this position, upon the condition that he should be allowed to resign if the King refused to follow his advice, or if men objectionable to Parliament were admitted to the King’s Council. For a moment there was peace. The Ordinances were accepted, and ordered to be published throughout the country. But it was not in the King to act honourably when the fortunes of his favourites were at stake; and Lancaster soon found himself thwarted by the ever-increasing power of the Despensers. It was in vain that Pope John XXII. was called in as a mediator. His legates were equally unsuccessful in their attempts to heal the domestic quarrels of the country and to establish a truce with Scotland. Bruce refused to treat unless he was acknowledged as King. He continued his enterprises, and captured the town of Berwick. The legates could do nothing but put him under the ban of the Church.
Temporary reconciliation in England.
Truce with Scotland. 1320.
At last, in 1318, a crisis was reached. The necessity of union against Scotland began to be obvious. The Despensers were for a time removed from England, and a committee in the interest of Lancaster was appointed to watch the royal action in the intervals of Parliament. This temporary adjustment of affairs in England was followed before long by a truce with Scotland. Edward tried and failed in an attempt to regain Berwick. Another furious invasion had ravaged the North of England, in which no less than eighty-four towns and villages were burned. It was plain that the Scotch were too strong for him. At the same time Bruce was anxious to be rid of the excommunication, and agreed to waive his claim to the obnoxious title. Under these circumstances there was no difficulty in treating.
The Welsh Marches quarrel with the Despensers.
Edward quarrels with the Marchers.
Hereford and Lancaster combine. 1321.
Despensers banished.
It soon became evident that the late attempts at compromise between the two parties in England were hollow. The question had to be tried by an appeal to arms. Nothing could induce the King to get rid of his favourites, nor the opposition to act in common with them. It was a little private quarrel, and no great question, which at length blew the smouldering discontent to a flame. The marriage of young Hugh Despenser with the daughter of the Earl of Gloucester, who had died at Bannockburn, had introduced a new and objectionable power into the midst of the Welsh Marches. A quarrel arose about a vacant fief, and the Marchers made common cause against the favourite. The King ordered the question to be settled before his own court, and subsequently before Parliament; but Hereford refused to appear unless the Despensers were removed. As the King vindicated his favourites, and refused to remove them, Hereford marched northward, joined Lancaster, and made a formal agreement with him that there should be no peace till the Despensers were gone. The confederates came in arms to the Parliament held at Westminster, found themselves completely master of the King, presented him with eleven articles of reformation, and procured from him, irregularly, and in spite of the protestations of the clergy, the condemnation and banishment of the Despensers. This condemnation was afterwards formed into a statute, and a pardon given to all those who had compelled the King to grant it.