294 Broughton Gifford. 
Lancaster, the eldest son of Edmund Crookback (the only brother 
of Edward I.), and so the first cousin of Edward II., and the first 
subject of the Crown. Whether he ever aspired to be something 
more, and to place that Crown on his own head, as Henry IV., the 
son of his great niece, actually did, on the ground that Edmund 
Crookback was the eldest son of Henry III., is unknown from the 
imperfect development of his schemes; but he was at least, from 
his power and position, the natural head of the barons, who felt 
themselves aggrieved by what they deemed an usurpation, by fo- 
reigners, of their proper place as the advisers of the Crown. He at 
their head had pursued to the death, with utter disregard for laws 
and capitulations, and under circumstances of gross indignity, Piers 
de Gaveston. When that favourite minister was replaced by the 
two De Spencers, the Earl of Lancaster and his party passed by 
violence through Parliament a bill of attainder and perpetual exile 
against them; and, resting in security on the royal indemnity for 
their illegal measures, departed to their several strongholds. The 
King, however, taking advantage of the indignity offered to his 
Queen at Ledes castle, recalled the De Spencers, and anticipated 
the barons in raising and arming a force, with which he proceeded 
to put down his enemies in detail. Among Lancaster’s chief ad- 
herents was his kinsman John Gifford. Their connection was on 
this wise. Matilda Longespée (first wife of John Gifford, senior) 
had by her first husband (William Longespée) an only daughter 
Margaret. She married Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who had 
by her an only daughter Alice, sole heiress to the estates and titles 
of the two great houses of Salisbury and Lincoln. These were 
conveyed, by her marriage at 9 years of age, to Thomas, already 
Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby.!. With John Gifford’s 
help (especially serviceable in his own neighbourhood) the barons 
took Gloucester. They afterwards encountered the King’s forces 
at Burton-on-Trent, where they were repulsed; and, while retreat- 
ing towards the north, with the view of effecting a junction with 
the King of Scotland, who in communication with the traitorous 
1 John Gifford was further pledged to this cause by his feudal relation to the 
Badlesmereé as Lords of Castle Combe, under whom he held Broughton. 
