The early Plantagenets

by William Stubbs

Campaign
of Edward
in the
North.

Truce with
Scotland.

It was indeed high time, for such had been the course of recent events that the attitude of the two kingdoms were reversed, and England seemed more likely to become tributary to Scotland than to exercise sovereignty over it. Edward’s campaign, was, however, as usual unsuccessful. He narrowly escaped capture amongst the Yorkshire hills, and the whole county was in such alarm that he found it scarcely possible to hold a parliament at York. Nor did his troubles end there. Early in the following year he found that Sir Andrew Harclay, whom he had just made Earl of Carlisle, was negotiating treasonably with Robert Bruce; he was taken, condemned, and executed. Well might the unhappy king throw himself more desperately than ever on the support of the Despensers, for he knew none others, even of those who had served him best or whom he had most richly rewarded, who were not ready to turn and betray him. With the Despensers he was safe, for they, he was sure, could only stand with him and must fall when he fell. One thing, however, he did, in itself wise and just—concluding with Scotland a truce for thirteen years. This was done in May 1323. Prudent as it was, it alienated from him the adventurers who like Henry de Beaumont were intent on carving out for themselves counties in conquered Scotland. Everything was interpreted in the worst sense against him; the men who refused to follow him to war cried out against the peace; and the men who had followed him to war deserted him. Thus when he at last found himself without a rival in the kingdom, it seemed as if he were left alone to discover how great depths of abasement were still to be sounded; new calamities which, whoever really caused them, seemed to result from his own incapacity. In truth, partly owing to Edward’s neglect of the duty of a king, and partly owing to the inveterate animosities following on the death of Lancaster, the tide of public and private hatred was too high to be long resisted. Yet the last impulse came from a quarter from which it might have been least expected and from which it was certainly least deserved.

Position
and policy
of the
queen.

Edward, with all his faults, had been a kind husband and father; but he had trusted his wife less implicitly than she desired to be trusted. In this he was justified by the fact of her close relationship to the Earl of Lancaster, and still more by the jealousy which she displayed towards his confidential ministers. Not only the Despensers but Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, the Treasurer, and Baldock, the Chancellor, were the objects of her settled aversion; and she lent a ready ear to all who fancied that these men had injured them or stood in the way of their advancement. The court contained many such men, who were ambitious of becoming ministers of state or bishops and ready to take either side for gain; men who hated the Despensers, and who saw their own prospects blighted by the fall of Lancaster. Regularly, as the tide had turned, as the king or the Ordainers had gained or lost, the great offices of state had changed hands, and there was all the grudging, all the personal animosities, which in later ages appear to be inseparable from government by party.

Avarice and
arrogance
of the Despensers.

The events which followed the peace with Scotland brought these influences more strongly into play. The shadows gathered rapidly round the miserable king almost from that hour. The constitutional struggle had ceased. The death of the Earl of Lancaster had rid the Despensers of their most dangerous rival, the revocation of the Ordinances had left the government in their hands, and the death of the Earl of Pembroke in 1324 left them without competitors. The elder Hugh, now made Earl of Winchester, set no limit to his acquisitiveness; he was an old man, and might have considered that it would be more conducive to his son’s welfare to make friends than to multiply estates. The younger Hugh, himself a man of mature years, was made, by his violence and pride, even more conspicuous than his father. Henry of Lancaster, the brother and heir of Earl Thomas, was reduced to practical insignificance by the detention of his brother’s estates in the king’s hands; and although the Despensers sought to purchase his services, and he had no personal dislike to the king, he could not be regarded as a safe and sound pillar of the falling state. The ministers Baldock and Stapleton were faithful men, but neither wise enough to counteract nor strong enough to guide the policy of the favorites.

Summons
to Edward
to do
homage to
the new
French
king.

Departure
of the queen
for France,
followed by
that of
Prince
Edward.

Philip V. died in January, 1322, and the homage of Edward for the provinces of Ponthieu and Gascony was forthwith demanded for his successor, Charles IV. A series of negotiations followed which early in 1324 led to a peremptory summons and a threat of forfeiture, no indistinct prelude to war. Edward might easily have crossed over to his brother-in-law’s court, as he had done more than once before, but the Despensers would not allow it. They dared not suffer him to escape from their direct control, they dared not accompany him; if he left them in England they knew their doom. The French court too was filled with their enemies; Roger Mortimer, the lord of Wigmore, who had been taken prisoner in 1322, had escaped from the Tower and gone to France. Henry of Lancaster was waiting to supplant them at home. War was the only alternative. Still negotiations proceeded. First Pembroke was sent; he died on the mission; then Edmund of Kent, the king’s half-brother; he failed to obtain terms. The king’s most trusted chaplains were sent to the Pope; but they spent their labor and treasure in securing their own promotion. At last in 1325 the queen went over. She parted apparently on the best terms with both Edward and the Despensers, and continued in friendly correspondence until she had prevailed on the king to send over his eldest son. It was arranged that the provinces should be made over to him and that he should do the homage. This was done in September, 1325, and almost immediately afterwards she threw off the mask. How long she had worn it we cannot tell. Possibly she left Edward in good faith and fell on her arrival in France into the hands of those who were embittered against him; possibly she was a conspirator long before. Anyhow the tie to the king, which could be so easily broken, could not, in the case of either mother or son, have been a strong one. As early as December the king was warned that Isabella and Edward would not return to him.