From the time of Gaveston’s death the unhappy king remained for some years the sport or tool of contending parties. He was indeed incompetent to reign alone, or to choose ministers who could rule in his name. The Earl of Pembroke, Aymer de Valence, the son of that William of Lusignan, Henry III.’s half-brother, who was banished in 1258, first attempted to take the reins. Walter Langton had made his peace and become treasurer again; and on the death of Archbishop Winchelsey, in 1313, Walter Reynolds, the king’s old tutor and present chancellor, became primate. But these were not men to withstand the great weight of the opposition. Thomas of Lancaster, who on the death of Henry de Lacy had added the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury to the three which he already held, treated on equal terms with the king as a belligerent. The mediation of the clergy brought the two together at the close of 1312, and in the autumn of 1313 a general pacification was brought about, followed by an amnesty and a liberal supply of money in Parliament. The Ordinances were recognized as the law of the land; the birth of an heir to the crown was hailed as a good omen, and better hopes were entertained for the future. The war with Scotland was to be resumed, and with secure peace order in the government must follow.
Successes
of Robert
Bruce in
Scotland.
Battle of
Bannockburn.
Despotism
of
Lancaster.
War of the
Earls.
The Scots had been indeed left alone too long. Short truces, desultory warfare, the defeat of any spasmodic effort on the part of the English by a determined policy on the Scottish side of evading battle, had resulted in a great increase of strength in the hands of Robert Bruce. He had taken advantage of the domestic troubles of England, to recover one by one the strongholds of his kingdom. It is believed that he had intrigued both with Gaveston and with Lancaster. The Castle of Linlithgow came into his hands in 1311, Perth in 1312, Roxburgh and Edinburgh in 1313. Stirling, almost the only fortress left in the hands of the English, was besieged, and had promised to surrender if not relieved before midsummer 1314. Edward prepared to take the command of his forces and to raise the siege. But it was no part of Lancaster’s policy to support him. Taking advantage of the article of the Ordinances which forbade the king to go to war without the consent of the baronage in Parliament, he declined to obey the summons to war until Parliament had spoken. Edward protested that there was no time; Lancaster and his confederate earls stood aloof. The King and Pembroke, with such of the barons as they could influence, and a great host of English warriors, who had no confidence in their commander, met the Scots at Bannockburn, on the 24th of June, and were shamefully defeated. Edward lost all control over the country in consequence. The young Earl of Gloucester, whose adhesion had been a tower of strength to him, fell in the battle; the Earl of Pembroke, who had fled with him, shared the contempt into which he fell. Lancaster was practically supreme; he and his fellows, the survivors of the Ordainers, appointed and displaced ministers, put the king on an allowance, and removed his personal friends and attendants as they chose. In 1316 Lancaster was chosen official president of the royal council; he was already commander-in-chief of the army. He now sought the support of the clergy, forced the king to order the execution of the Ordinances, and conducted himself as an irresponsible ruler. But he had not a capacity equal to his ambition, and his greed of power served to expose his real weakness. He acted as a clog upon all national action; he would not act with the king, for he hated him; he dared not act without him, lest his own failure should give his rivals the chance of overthrowing him. The country, notwithstanding his personal popularity, was miserable under him. The Scots plundered and ravaged as they chose. He would not engage in war. He would not attend parliament or council. The court became filled with intrigue. The barons split up into parties; Edward, rejoicing in the removal of control, launched into extravagant expenditure, and began to form a new party of his own. With general anarchy it is no wonder that private war broke out, or that private war assumed the dimensions of public war. The Countess of Lancaster was carried off from her husband; the Earl of Warenne was accused, and the king was suspected of conniving at the elopement. The earls went to war. Edward forbade Lancaster to stir, and Lancaster of course disobeyed the order. In the midst of all this Robert Bruce, in April 1318, took Berwick.
Conflict of
parties.
Effects of
the loss of
Berwick.
There were now three parties in the kingdom. Lancaster had lost ground, but the king had gained none. The Earl of Pembroke had been gradually alienated, and now aimed at acquiring power for himself. The death of the Earl of Gloucester had left his earldom to be divided between the husbands of his three sisters, Hugh le Despenser, Roger d’Amory, and Hugh of Audley. The division of the great estates was in itself sufficient to create a new division of parties. D’Amory and Pembroke framed a league for gaining influence over the king in conjunction with Sir Bartholomew Badlesmere, a bitter enemy of Lancaster. Hugh le Despenser, the father of the one just mentioned, took on himself to reform the king’s personal party, and was aided by the few barons and bishops whom Edward had been strong enough to promote. The capture of Berwick had one salutary effect: it stopped the private war, and shamed the three parties into a compromise; but the compromise was itself a proof of common weakness. It was concluded in August, 1318, between Lancaster alone on his own part, and ten bishops and fourteen temporal lords as sureties for the king. It provided a new form of council—eight bishops, four earls, and four barons; one other member was to be nominated by Lancaster, who did not deign to accept a seat. But this constitution had no more permanence than the former. The official preponderance was maintained by Pembroke and Badlesmere, and they could do nothing whilst the Earl of Lancaster continued to stand aloof. Edward in 1319 made a vain attempt to recover Berwick, but only gave the Scots an opportunity of evading Yorkshire, and matters grew worse and worse. Men could not help seeing that even Edward himself could not mismanage matters more than they were being now mismanaged, and that, whether incapable or no, he had never yet had a chance of showing what capacity he had.
New favorites
of the king.