ENGLAND.- 209 



feited by his own imprudence. He recalled Gaveston,and loaded him 

 ■with honours, and married Isabella, daughter of the French king, who 

 restored to him part of the territories which Edward I, had lost in 

 France. The barons, however, obliged him once more to banish his 

 favourite, and to confirm the Great Charter. Gaveston being behead- 

 ed by the barons, they fixed upon young Hugh Spencer as a spy upon 

 the king ; but he soon became his favourite. He, through his pride, 

 avarice, and ambition, was banished, together with his father, whom 

 he had procured to be made earl ot Winchester. The queen, a fu- 

 rious ambitious woman, persuaded her husband to recal the Spencers, 

 while the common people, from their hatred to the barons, joined the 

 king's standard, and, after defeating them, restored him to the exer- 

 cise of all his prerogatives. A cruel use was made of those suc- 

 cesses ; and many noble patriots, with their estates, fell victims to the 

 queen's revenge ; but at last she became enamoured with Roger 

 Mortimer, who was her prisoner, and had been one of the most ac- 

 tive of the anti-royalist lords. A breach between her and the Spen- 

 cers soon followed ; and going over to France with her lover, she 

 found means to form such a party in England, that, returning with 

 some French troops, she put the eldest Spencer to an ignomjnious 

 death, made her husband prisoner, and forced him to abdicate his 

 crown in favour of his son Edward III, then fifteen years of age. No- 

 thing now but the death of Edward II, was wanting to complete her 

 guilt; and he was most barbarously murdered in Berkley-castle, by- 

 ruffians, supposed to be employed by her and her paramour Morti- 

 mer, in the year 1327. In this reign the Knights Templars were 

 suppressed. 



Edward III, mounted the throne in 1327. He was then under the 

 tuition of his mother, who cohabited with Mortimer; and they endea- 

 voured to keep possession of their power, by adopting many popular 

 measures, and putting an end to all national differences with Scot- 

 land, for which Mortimer was created earl of March. Edward, young 

 as he was, was soon sensible of their designs. He surprised them 

 in person at the head of a few chosen friends in the castle of Not- 

 tingham. Mortimer was hanged as a traitor on the common gallows 

 at Tyburn, and the queen shut up in confinement twenty-eight years, 

 to her death. It was not long before Edward found means to quar- 

 rel with David, king of Scotland, though he had married his sister. 

 David was driven to France by Edward Baliol, who acted as Ed- 

 ward's tributary, king of Scotland, and general, and did the same ho- 

 mage to Edward for Scotland as his father had done to Edward I. 

 Soon after, upon the death of Charles the Fair, king of France, with- 

 out issue, who had succeeded by virtue of the Salic law, which, the 

 French pretended, cut off all female succession to that crown, Philip 

 of Valois claimed it, as being the next heir male by succession ; but 

 he was opposed by Edward, as being the son of Isabella, who was 

 sister to the three last-mentioned kings of France, and first in the fe- 

 male succession. The former was preferred ; but the case being 

 doubtful, Edward pursued his claim, and invaded France with a pow- 

 erful army. 



The war, on the part of Edward, was a continued scene of success 

 and victory. In 1340 be took the title of king of France, using it in 

 all public acts, and quartered the arms of France with his own, add- 

 ing this motto, Dieu tt mon droit, " God and my right." At Crea- 

 sy, August 26th, 1246, above 100,000 French were defeated, chie.% 



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