wick castle. After the lapse of a few months a reconciliation took place between the king and his insurgent nobles; and an amnesty was granted to them for all their offences, on their publicly asking pardon on their knees. Meanwhile the brilliant successes of Robert Bruce in driving the English from Scotland, at length roused Edward from his lethargy, and at the head of the most powerful army that had ever crossed the Scottish border, he advanced towards Stirling. Robert Bruce had posted his forces in a well-chosen position at Bannockburn, about two miles from that town, and here the hostile armies joined battle on the 23rd of June, 1314. After a bloody contest the English were defeated with prodigious slaughter. Edward with difficulty escaped from the field to Dunbar castle escorted by a small body of horse, and ultimately found his way to Berwick in a fishing-skiff.—(See Robert Bruce.)
Although all hope of subjugating Scotland was now at an end, Edward was not yet willing to renounce his claims on that country, and a desultory war was carried on between the two kingdoms. The Scots made repeated incursions into England, burning and laying waste the northern counties, and returned home laden with plunder. The interference of the pope was solicited by Edward, but the Scots, in spite of the pontiff's threats, proceeded to wrest from the English the town of Berwick, the key of the eastern marches. An attempt made by Edward, in the summer of 1319, to retake this important fortress, failed of success. The Scots carried their destructive arms as far as Mitton in Yorkshire, and there inflicted a severe defeat on a large but ill-assorted force under the archbishop of York. At this juncture Edward was compelled to desist from his attempts upon Scotland, in consequence of the critical position of his own kingdom. He could not live without a favourite, and Hugh le Despenser, a young Englishman of noble birth, succeeded to the place which Gaveston had held in Edward's confidence, and by his insolent and rapacious conduct rendered himself the object of universal dislike. Fresh dissensions in consequence broke out between the king and the barons, and continued for several years to disturb and enfeeble the kingdom. Both parties had recourse to arms. At one time the barons seized and plundered the estates of the favourite and his father, and extracted from the king a sentence of banishment against the Despensers, and an indemnity for their own proceedings. In the following year (1321) the king, having gained the ascendancy, recalled his ministers, and seized the castles and imprisoned the persons of some of the leading malcontents. At length the great earls of Lancaster and Hereford entered into a treaty of alliance with the Scots, and concerted with them an invasion of England. This treasonable alliance, however, having become known, Edward promptly took the field at the head of a powerful force, and the earl of Lancaster retreated to the north in the hope of receiving assistance from the Scots, but was totally defeated at Boroughbridge (16th March, 1321) by Sir Andrew Hartcla, warden of the western marches. The earl of Hereford and many other barons were slain, and the earl of Lancaster himself was soon after executed for treason.
Elated by this transient gleam of success, Edward on the following year undertook a new invasion of Scotland at the head of an army of one hundred thousand men, but was completely foiled in his enterprise by the sagacious policy of Bruce, and compelled to retreat without having seen an enemy. The English had scarcely regained their own country when Bruce crossed the border, and by a rapid march surprised and totally routed the English army, near Malton in Yorkshire. Edward himself with difficulty escaped to York, leaving many prisoners and an immense booty in the hands of the victors. Meanwhile the dissensions between Edward and his barons still continued; his queen, too, was deeply offended by the ascendancy of the Despensers, and was alienated from her husband, as she alleged, by his unworthy behaviour. She therefore sought an opportunity of escaping from his authority. In 1324 she went to Paris for the purpose of adjusting a dispute which had arisen between her husband and her brother, the king of France, respecting the province of Guienne. The disputed territory was resigned to the young prince of Wales, who joined his mother for the ostensible purpose of doing homage for it to the French king. A great number of the malcontent barons immediately flocked to Paris, and among the rest young Roger Mortimer, a powerful Welsh baron, who made his escape from the Tower, to which he had been condemned for life. Finding herself thus strongly supported, Isabella concocted a plot for the destruction of her husband, as well as of his favourites, and landed in England 22d September, 1326, for the sole purpose, as she averred, of freeing the king and kingdom from the tyranny of the Despensers. She was everywhere welcomed with open arms. The unhappy king, deserted by all his friends, took to flight, and having failed in an attempt to escape to Ireland, endeavoured to conceal himself in the mountains of Wales, but was discovered and delivered up to his enemies. The Despensers were put to death without trial, and Edward was conducted to London and consigned to the Tower. His deposition was voted by parliament (January, 1327), on the charges of his incapacity for government, his indolence, his love of frivolous amusements, and his accessibility to evil counsel. His son Edward was placed on the throne, and the queen was nominated regent. The hapless monarch did not long survive his deposition. Mortimer, who was now universally regarded as the paramour of the queen, seems to have dreaded a reaction in the king's favour, and secretly gave orders that he should be put to death. Edward had been lodged in Berkeley castle, and intrusted to the charge of Lord Berkeley and Sir John Maltravers. The latter treated the fallen monarch with every species of indignity, and at length, during the absence of Lord Berkeley, by the orders of Mortimer delivered Edward to the custody of two ruffians named Gournay and Ogle, who put him to death (September, 1327) by thrusting a red-hot iron into his bowels through a tin pipe, in order that there might be no outward marks of violence on his body. Edward was murdered in the forty-third year of his age, and the nineteenth of his reign.—J. T.
EDWARD III., son of the preceding, was born on the 13th November, 1312. He was only fourteen years of age when he was proclaimed king, but a council of regency, consisting of five bishops and seven lay peers, was appointed by the parliament to conduct the government, and the earl of Lancaster was nominated guardian of the young king's person. Mortimer did not claim a seat in the council, but he secretly guided all their deliberations, and monopolized almost the whole power of the government, The young king soon displayed a strong desire for military fame, and Mortimer, who was probably not unwilling to turn his energies in that direction, placed him at the head of the powerful army which he now levied for the purpose of repelling a formidable invasion of the Scots, under Sir James Douglas and Randolph, earl of Moray.—(See Robert Bruce.) The "first ride of young Edward against the Scots," as Froissart terms it, proved a total failure. The veteran Scottish leaders baffled the English, and returned to their own country laden with plunder. Soon after this inglorious campaign, a treaty of peace was concluded between the two countries, by which on payment of thirty thousand marks by Robert Bruce, all claims of superiority on the part of England were for ever renounced.
Meanwhile Philippa of Hainault, to whom Edward had been contracted by his mother during a visit to the continent, was brought to England by her uncle, and married to the young king at York, 24th January, 1328, The whole power of the government was now openly wielded by Mortimer, who was created Earl of March, and became odious alike to the king and to the people. With the connivance of Edward he was arrested at midnight in the castle of Nottingham, brought to trial for the murder of the late king, and various other crimes, and hanged on the 29th of November, 1330. The queen-dowager was at the same time stripped of her enormous jointure and of all her power, and confined for life to the castle of Risings. Edward was now his own master, and soon began to display both his ambition and his great military talents. His first efforts were directed against Scotland, and, in spite both of a solemn treaty and of his near relationship to David Bruce, he endeavoured to place Edward Baliol on the Scottish throne, and subsequently renewed, in the most unprincipled manner, the pretensions of England to feudal superiority over the northern kingdom. But all his efforts terminated in total failure.—(See David Bruce.) He invaded Scotland no less than five times, inflicted several bloody defeats upon the Scotch armies, wasted the country with fire and sword, and reduced many portions of it to a desert; but he was unable to make any permanent impression upon the nation. Fortunately, however, for the cause of Scottish independence, Edward's unbridled ambition led him to make pretensions to the crown of France, as the heir of his mother Isabella, daughter of the French king, Philip the Fair. This new scheme of aggrandizement diverted his attention from the conquest of Scotland, and caused him to
