The barons agreed with one exception. This was Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester, an ambitious man― more than that, an avaricious one. He had served in Scotland with the King ‘s father and eager to curry favour with the younger Edward, he saw an opportunity here. He had asked for an audience with the King and being admitted found him with Gaveston, both of them rather gloomy for they knew the barons were standing together against the favorite.
Winchester told them that the barons had called a meeting and intended to confront the King and command Gaveston’s banishment.
‘I will not let him go!’ cried Edward petulantly.
Gaveston said: ‘They may force you to do so, sweet lord.’
‘I will not be forced. Am I the King, or am I not? God’s teeth, I have not reigned a year yet and they would rule me.’
Winchester said: ‘I fear my lord that they are going to insist and it may be necessary for a while to do as they wish. But need it be for long, and why should you not decide where the Earl of Cornwall should go?’
‘They want to send him to Gascony.’
‘He could go to Ireland, my lord. There he could act as your lieutenant. He could be given a grant of money and live in comfort until you could see fit to recall him. You see if there were trouble in Ireland it would be necessary to consult with him. And then you could meet somewhere half-way. You could accompany him on his journey until he takes ship. Perhaps this could break the melancholy a little.’
Gaveston’s face had brightened but Edward was still downcast.
‘I do not wish him to go at all,’ he cried peevishly.
‘My heart is torn in pieces,’ added Gaveston, ‘But Winchester is right. We can soften the blow. We can rest assured that they are determined to part us, and I fear they may succeed. But let us make our parting as brief as possible. Let us see if we cannot outwit them in the end.’
Edward could not be comforted. He said he could not bear to be parted from Gaveston even for a night.
Hugh le Despenser watched them together and thought how weak the King was and how completely Gaveston controlled him but with Gaveston out of the way would the King be looking for new favourites? It was not that Despenser wished to take Gaveston’s place. None could do that. But a weak King could be flattered and worked upon and Hugh le Despenser might be the man to do it.
Gaveston was going.
The barons had decided on it and they had even hinted at civil war if Edward did not obey them. He had to make a choice. If Hugh le Despenser threw in his lot with the barons, he would have many rivals. Lancaster― though not the most astute of men— would lead them. There was Warwick, Lincoln, Pembroke― too many strong men.
But if he supported the King, he might become more powerful than any of them. Even if Gaveston returned, he would be grateful to him, for he was going to speak for him at the council meeting which would be held.
He had made up his mind. Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester had thrown in his lot with the King and Gaveston.
Edward was still King and would remain King. It was far-sighted to curry favour with kings if one could keep that favor.
The next day at the meeting of the council, Hugh le Despenser was the only one who spoke against the banishment of Gaveston. The barons rounded on him, hinted that he was a traitor, but he merely laughed.
He was sure he had taken the right action and that he would lose nothing in the long run. He was present when the ultimatum was put to the King. The barons were threatening civil war if Gaveston did not leave the country.
Edward had no alternative but to submit, but he had expressed his gratitude to Hugh le Despenser for his support.
‘I shall not forget my friends,’ he said, and when shortly afterwards Hugh le Despenser was dismissed from the council, he remembered those words.
The King rode with Gaveston to Bristol, seeking to make the journey as long as possible.
He was sick at heart. There was no joy in life for him without his beloved Perrot. Gaveston declared that his own sorrow at the parting was as great if not greater than the King’s.
This was not true of course. In fact Gaveston was somewhat excited at the prospect of governing Ireland. There he would be treated like a king. He had come with all the trappings of royalty and he intended to be treated as such. It had been a stroke of brilliance to have thought of Ireland. He was determined to succeed there. That would be a blow for his enemies. They thought he was frivolous but he was by no means so. He frivolled to amuse the King, that was all. The King’s favour was necessary to him. Because of it, he was richest man in England; and he had been careful to get his treasures out of the country because he could never be sure when those barons were going to trump up some charges against him, and who knew they might take it into their heads to confiscate his goods. So he had made sure his wealth was taken into Gascony where he had some estates and there it awaited him if at any time he had to leave the country in a hurry. Edward was the most generous of men and he had bestowed on him the funds which the late King had gathered together for a crusade. Gaveston grimaced. He could make much good use of such treasure.
Better for him to possess it than that it should be frittered away on some useless campaign for killing Saracens and getting nowhere.. When he thought of all that had been wasted in that hopeless endeavor in the past he could feel really angry.
Well now he must say farewell to his sorrowing King and assure him that very soon he would be back with him.
‘I intend to make such a success of this Irish campaign, sweet lord, that your barons will tear their hair and smite their breasts and like as not grovel on the floor and eat the rushes.’
‘That was what my great grandfather used to do.’
‘They shall do the same, I promise you.’
‘Promise me one thing more important, my dear one. That you will never forget me and come back as loving as you left.’
‘I give you my word, dear lord.’
Edward stood on the shore and watched the ship sail away. Then he turned sorrowfully away. ‘I can know no happiness,’ he said, ‘until Perrot comes back to me.’
MURDER ON BLACKLOW HILL
EDWARD was desolate but Isabella was triumphant. She was furious, of course, to have been set aside for Gaveston and her inclination was to scorn her husband, but she had grown up since her marriage and was not going to act in a manner which might bring no good to herself. Strangely enough she was still physically in love with her husband. When she looked round the court, she could not find one man who was as handsome in her eyes.
As for Edward, he was pliant, amiable, and anxious to placate her and she found his melancholy attractive. She thought how gratifying it would be to win him away from Gaveston and when that fellow returned, as he undoubtedly would, it would give her immense satisfaction to see Edward turn away from him because of his love for his wife. It would be a difficult task to achieve with one of Edward’s proclivities, but the very immensity of it intrigued and inspired her.
There was one other consideration— and this was the chief of alclass="underline" she wanted children. She must have a son who would inherit the throne. If she did, then she could guide and rule him; and if Edward so displeased the barons and they deposed him— which, it had already occurred to her, was not an impossibility— she would be there with her son ready to take the crown. That was looking forward a good many years but she was becoming shrewd and wise.
Edward had humiliated her beyond normal endurance. Very well, why should she not use him to get what she wanted from life? Determination had taken the place of humiliation and life had become quite amusing and exiting.