submit to their demands.

CHAPTER II.

QUARRELS.

A.D. 1327

Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were engaged.--The
Pope.--His claim of jurisdiction in England.--The Pope's legate and
the students at Oxford.--Great riot made by the students.--The end
of the affair.--Plan to assassinate the king.--Margaret, the
servant-girl.--Execution of Marish.--Ideas of the sacredness of the
person of a king.--Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of
Wales.--Leolin's bride intercepted at sea.--The unhappy fate of
Leolin.--Fate of Prince David, his brother.--Occasional acts of
generosity.--Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches.--The fate of
Lewin.--Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales.--The first
English Prince of Wales.--Piers Gaveston.--Edward II. and his
favorite.--Their wild and reckless behavior.--The king goes away to
be married.--Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage.--His
infatuation in respect to Gaveston.--The coronation.--Bold and
presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston.--His unpopularity.--He is
banished.--His parting.--The Black Dog of Ardenne.--Gaveston's
return.--Gaveston made prisoner.--Consultation respecting him.--His
fate.--The Spencers.--The queen and Mortimer.--Edward III. proclaimed
king.--Edward II. made prisoner.--Edward II. formally deposed at
Kenilworth.--The delegation require the king to abdicate the
crown.--Opinion of the monks.--Alarm of the nobles.--Berkeley
Castle.--Plot for assassinating the king.--Dreadful death.--Great
hatred of Mortimer.--Situation of the castle of Nottingham.--The
caves.--Entrance of the conspirators into the castle.--Isabella's
unhappy fate.--Mortimer's Hole.

In the days of the predecessors of King Richard the Second,
notwithstanding the claim made by the kings of a right on their part
to reign on account of the influence exercised by their government in
promoting law and order throughout the community, the country was
really kept in a continual state of turmoil by the quarrels which the
different parties concerned in this government were engaged in with
each other and with surrounding nations. These quarrels were of
various kinds.

1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually
quarreling with the nobles.

2. The different branches of the royal family were often
engaged in bitter and cruel wars with each other, arising
from their conflicting claims to the crown.

3. The kings of d