feast by prolonged revels, had their drink drugged, and were plunged in deep stupor. With the help of his friend a hole was cut in the wall of Mortimer's cell, through which he escaped into the kitchen of the king's palace, from the roof of which he reached one of the wards of the castle. Then a rope ladder enabled him to descend to an outer ward, and so at last to reach the banks of the Thames. The Bishop of Hereford had got ready the external means of escape, Mortimer found a little boat manned by two men awaiting him and his accomplice. In this they were ferried over the river. On the Surrey bank they found horses ready, upon which they fled rapidly through byways to the sea-coast, where a ship was ready which took them over to France, despite the vigorous efforts made by Edward to recapture him (Fœdera, p. v.)
Even in exile Mortimer remained a danger to Edward and the Despensers. He went to Paris, and ingratiated himself in the favour of Charles IV, who was now at open war with his brother-in-law in Guienne, and glad to establish relations with a powerful English nobleman. His partisan, Adam Orleton, though attacked by the king for treason, was so strongly backed up by the bishops that Edward was forced to patch up some sort of reconciliation with him, and allow him to return to the west. Mortimer's mother, Margaret, convoked suspicious assemblies of his friends until in 1326 Edward shut her up in a monastery (Pauli, Geschichte von England, iv. 281, from Patent and Close Rolls, 19 Edw. II.) But a more formidable danger arose after the arrival in Paris of Isabella of France [q . v.], the queen of Edward II, in the spring of 1325. Even before her departure from England Isabella had sought the advice of Orleton. In September she was joined by her son Edward, sent to perform homage to the French king for his duchy of Aquitaine. After the ceremony was performed Isabella and her son still lingered at the court of Charles of France, and in the course of the winter a close connection between her and Mortimer was established, which was notorious in England in the spring of 1326. Walter Stapledon, bishop of Exeter, who had accompanied the young Duke of Aquitaine to France, not only found himself powerless in the queen's counsels, but believed that Mortimer had formed plans to take his life. On his sudden flight to England the last restraint was removed which prevented Isabella from falling wholly into the hands of the little band of exiles who now directed her counsels. It was soon notorious that Mortimer was not only her chief adviser ('jam tune secretissimus atque principalis de privata familia reginse,' Galfridus le Baker, p. 21, ed. Thompson), but her lover as well. The chroniclers both then and later speak with much reserve on so delicate a subject, but none of them ventured to deny so patent a fact.
Charles IV soon grew ashamed of supporting Isabella and Mortimer, and Isabella left Paris for the Low Countries. Mortimer accompanied her on her journey to the north, where, by betrothing young Edward to Philippa of Hainault, men and money were provided, and the support of a powerful foreign prince obtained for the bold scheme of invading England which Isabella and Mortimer seem by this time to have formed. Mortimer shared with John, brother of the Count of Hainault, the command of the little force of adventurers hastily collected from Hainault and Germany (G. le Baker, p. 21). He crossed over with the queen and the son to Orwell, where they landed on 24 Sept. 1326. The most complete success at once attended the invaders. Not only were they joined by Mortimer's old partisans, such as Bishop Orleton, but the whole of the Lancastrian connection, headed by Henry of Leicester, the brother of Earl Thomas, joined their standard. Edward II fled to Wales, hoping to find protection and refuge amidst the Despensers' lands in Glamorgan ; but Mortimer, who was a greater power in Wales than the king, followed quickly in his steps. At Bristol he sat in judgment on the elder Despenser. On 16 Nov. Edward was taken prisoner. Mortimer was then with the queen at Hereford, where on 17 Nov. the Earl of Arundel was beheaded by his express-command, and where on 24 Nov. his great enemy, the younger Despenser, suffered the same fate, he himself being among the judges who condemned him (Ann. Paul. p. 319).
The proceedings of the parliament which met on 7 Jan. 1327, deposed Edward and elected his son as king, were entirely directed by Mortimer's astute and unscrupulous agent, Adam Orleton. Mortimer himself went on 13 Jan. with a great following to the Guildhall of London, and promised to maintain the liberties of the city (Ann. Paul. p. 322) which had shown its faithfulness to him by murdering Bishop Stapledon. On 6 March he attested a new charter of liberties granted to the Londoners (ib. p. 332). But Edward III was a mere boy, and for the next four years Mortimer really ruled the realm through his influence over his paramour, Queen Isabella. He was conspicuous at the coronation of the young king on 1 Feb. 1327, on which day three of his sons received the
