their infringement of the royal prerogative, it was at least implied that they were also invalid because they were the work of a council of barons only, and not of a full parliament of the estates.  This declaration of the necessity of popular co-operation in valid legislation is the most important constitutional advance of the reign of Edward II.  It is a significant comment on the limitations of the baronial opposition that the ordinances should be the last great English law in the passing of which the commons were not consulted, and that a royalist triumph should be the occasion of the declaration of a vital principle.

The king’s friends then received their rewards.  Harclay was made Earl of Carlisle and the elder Despenser became Earl of Winchester.  Fear of the marcher lords, even in their prison, withheld from the younger Hugh the title, though hardly the authority, of Earl of Gloucester.  In other ways also the Despensers were anxious to prevent their victory suggesting too much of a reaction.  Before parliament separated, it adopted a new series of ordinances confirming the Great Charter and re-enacting in more constitutional fashion some portions of the laws of 1312, which aimed at protecting the subject and strengthening the administration.  Grants of men and money were made to fight the Scots, and once more the new customs were allowed to swell the royal revenue.  Thus the revolution was completed.  Edward, Gaveston, Lancaster, and Pembroke had each in their turn been tried and found wanting.  Thanks to the jealousies of the barons, his own spasmodic energy, and the acuteness of the Despensers, Edward was still to have another chance, under the guidance of his new friends.  We shall see how the restored rule of the Despensers was blighted by the same incompetence and selfishness which had ruined their predecessors in power.  The triumph of the Despensers proved but the first act in the tragic fall of Edward II.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FALL OF EDWARD II.  AND THE RULE OF ISABELLA AND MORTIMER.

During the deliberations of the parliament of York, the truce with Bruce expired, and forthwith came the news that the Scots had once more crossed the border.  On this occasion Bruce raided the country from Carlisle to Preston, burning every open town on his way, though sparing most of the religious houses.  At Cartmel, Lancaster, and Preston, favoured monastic buildings alone stood entire amidst the desolation wrought by the Scots.  No effective opposition was offered to them, and after a three weeks’ foray, they recrossed the Solway.