The disgrace of Byland and the tragedy of Carlisle showed that it was idle to pretend to fight the Scots any longer.  Negotiations for peace were entered upon; Pembroke and the younger Despenser being the chief English commissioners.  Peace was found impossible, as English pride still refused to recognise the royal title of King Robert, but a thirteen years’ truce was arranged without any difficulty.  This treaty of 1323 practically concluded the Scottish war of independence.  Bruce then easily obtained papal recognition of his title, though English ill-will long stood in the way of the remission of his sentence of excommunication.  His martial career, however, was past, and he could devote his declining years to the consolidation of his kingdom and the restoration of its material prosperity.  He reorganised the national army, built up a new nobility by distributing among his faithful followers the estates of the obstinate friends of England, and first called upon the royal burghs of Scotland to send representatives to the Scottish parliament.  He had made Scotland a nation, and nobly redeemed the tergiversation and violence of his earlier career.

Among Harclay’s motives for treating with the Scots had been his distrust of the Despensers.  As generals against the Scots and as administrators of England, they manifested an equal incapacity.  Their greed and insolence revived the old enmities, and they proved strangely lacking in resolution to grapple with emergencies.  Nevertheless they ruled over England for nearly five years in comparative peace.  This period, unmarked by striking events, is, however, evidence of the exhaustion of the country rather than of the capacity of the Earl of Winchester and the lord of Glamorgan.  The details of the history bear witness to the relaxation of the reins of government, the prevalence of riot and petty rebellion, the sordid personal struggles for place and power, the weakness which could neither collect the taxes, enforce obedience to the law, nor even save from humiliation the most trusted agents of the government.

The Despensers’ continuance in power rested more on the absence of rivals than on their own capacity.  The strongest of the royalist earls, Aymer of Pembroke, died in 1324.  As he left no issue, his earldom swelled the alarmingly long roll of lapsed dignities.  None of the few remaining earls could step into his place, nor give Edward the wise counsel which the creator of the middle party had always provided.  Warenne was brutal, profligate, unstable, and distrusted; Arundel had no great influence; Richmond was a foreigner, and of little personal weight, and the successors of Humphrey of Hereford and Guy of Warwick were minors, suspected by reason of their fathers’ treasons.  The only new earl was Henry of Lancaster, who in 1324 obtained a partial restitution of his brother’s estates and the title of Earl of Leicester.  Prudent, moderate, and high-minded, Henry stood in strong contrast