POLITICAL HISTORY 



Parliament of 1295, besides the city of York, the boroughs of Beverley, Hedon, Malton, Pickering, 

 Pontefract, Ripon, Scarborough, Thirsk, Tickhill, and Yarm each sent two members. To that held 

 at York in May 1298 Beverley, Malton, Northallerton, Pontefract, and Scarborough sent members. 

 The returns for 1300 are defaced, but show Beverley, Ripon, Scarborough, and Boroughbridge, 

 and apparently Knaresborough, Pontefract, and Ravenser ; for 1302 no boroughs, and not even 

 York itself, appear, but in 1305 Beverley, Kingston, Ravenser, and Scarborough were represented ; 

 next year only Scarborough, which appears in 1307 with Beverley and Ripon, Ripon dropping 

 out in 1309 and Beverley in 131 1. From 13 13 to the time of Elizabeth the only Yorkshire 

 towns represented were the city and the boroughs of Scarborough and Kingston, save that Ravenser 

 makes an occasional appearance in the earlier years and that in 1329 Beverley, Richmond, and 

 Ripon were summoned. The number of parliamentary boroughs in this great county is certainly 

 curiously small, especially when compared with Sussex, Cornwall, and Devon, each with six, and 

 Wiltshire with thirteen. 



The accession of Edward II inaugurated a period of disorder and disaster, of which Yorkshire 

 bore more than its share. It was at York, at Christmas 1 3 1 1 , that the detested Gascon favourite. 

 Piers Gaveston, returning from banishment, rejoined the infatuated king.^' The barons at once 

 began to devise measures for his expulsion, and Edward determined to secure the important 

 stronghold of Scarborough before it was too late. His orders to Henry Percy to hand over the 

 castle were at first ignored, but upon their repetition in February 13 12 Percy reluctantly obeyed.^' 

 Early in April, Edward, who was still at York, evidently considered an attack imminent, and 

 he would seem to have sent his beloved Gaveston for safety to Scarborough, as on 4 April 

 Gaveston received the custody of that castle with instructions not to surrender it to anyone 

 except the king himself, and in the event of the king being brought thither as a prisoner he was 

 not to give it up.'" Two days later the king left York and moved up to Newcastle.'' Meanwhile 

 the barons exercised a wise secrecy in their movements,'^ and, lulled by their apparent inaction, 

 Gaveston left the security of Scarborough and joined Edward at Newcastle. Suddenly, on 

 Ascension Day, 4 May, news came that the Earl of Lancaster was advancing against the town ; 

 Edward and his favourite fled at once to Tynemouth, followed shortly afterwards by the court 

 officials,'' and in the afternoon of the same day the earl, with Sir Henry Percy, Sir Robert Clifford, 

 and their followers, occupied Newcastle without resistance and seized the king's treasure, arms, and 

 horses stored there.'* Next day the king and Gaveston set sail from Tynemouth and reached 

 Scarborough, where Gaveston took up his quarters, while Edward went on first to Knaresborough 

 and then to York." The siege of Scarborough was now undertaken by John de Warenne, Earl 

 of Surrey, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and Sir Henry Percy, who disregarded the king's 

 orders to raise the siege." After some three weeks Gaveston met the earls in the church of the 

 Dominican priory " and agreed to surrender on condition that they should arrange a conciliation 

 between him and his enemies, and that if they failed to do so they should replace him in the 

 castle in exactly the same state as at the time of his surrender.'* On these terms he trusted 

 himself to the Earl of Pembroke, by whom he was taken to Deddington, in Oxfordshire, where 

 during the earl's absence he was seized by the Earl of Warwick, carried off to Warwick, 

 condemned to death by the Earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel, and executed." King 

 Edward was furious, but beyond ordering John Mowbray, warden of York, to arrest Sir Henry 

 Percy, who had pledged his oath for Gaveston's safety at the time of his surrender,** he could at 

 this time take no measures of vengeance. 



The next fifteen years constituted one of the most disastrous periods in the history of northern 

 •England. After the disgrace of Bannockburn in 13 14 King Edward returned to York and 

 summoned a Parliament to treat of peace with Scotland.*' Then came two years of dearth and 

 famine,*^ aggravated by plundering raids of the Scots, who in 1316 ravaged Richmondshire.*' 

 In 1 31 7 Pope John XXII sent two cardinals to England, and while they were on their way 

 to Durham with Louis de Beaumont, Bishop-elect of Durham, and others, the whole party were 

 seized and carried off to Mitford Castle in Northumberland by Gilbert Middleton, warden of 

 the Scottish marches, who was in league with the Scots. The bishop and his brother were 

 detained, but the two cardinals, deprived of their horses and other property, were allowed to proceed 



" Chron. Edw. 1 and II (Rolls Ser.), i, 202. 



" Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 429 ; Cal. Close, 1307-13, p. 401. 



"" Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 454. '■ Ibid. 457. 



" Chron. Edw. I and II (Rolls Ser.) ii, 176. ^ Cal. Close, 1307-13, p. acq. 



" Ckron. Edw. I and II (Rolls Sen), ii, 176. ^ Ibid. 



'« Cal. Close, 1307-13, p. 460. " Chron. Edw. I and II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 43. 



" Ibid, i, 205. 39 ggg fr^c.H. Warw. ii, 433. 



*■ Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 486. " Chron. Edw. I and II (Rolls Ser.), i, 276. 



" Ibid, ii, 219. " Chron. Mon. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), ii, 333. 



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