overeign. They required the banishment
of Gavaston, imposed an oath on him never to return, and engaged
the bishops, who never failed to interpose in all civil concerns,
to pronounce him excommunicated if he remained any longer in the
kingdom.[*] Edward was obliged to submit;[**] but even in his compliance
gave proofs of his fond attachment to his favorite. Instead of removing
all umbrage by sending him to his own country, as was expected, he
appointed him lord lieutenant of Ireland[***], attended him to Bristol
on his journey thither, and before his departure conferred on him new
lands and riches both in Gascony and England.[****] Gavaston, who did
not want bravery, and possessed talents for war,[*****] acted, during
his government, with vigor against some Irish rebels, whom he subdued.

* Trivet, Cont. p. 5.

** Rymer, vol. iii. p. 80.

*** Rymer, vol. iii. p. 92. Murimuth, p. 39.

**** Rymer, vol. iii. p. 87.

***** Heming. vol. i. p. 248. T. de la More, p. 593.

Meanwhile, the king, less shocked with the illegal violence which
had been imposed upon him, than unhappy in the absence of his minion,
employed every expedient to soften the opposition of the barons to
his return; as if success in that point were the chief object of his
government. The high office of hereditary steward was conferred on
Lancaster: his father-in-law, the earl of Lincoln, was bought off by
other concessions: Earl Warrenne was also mollified by civilities,
grants, or promises: the insolence of Gavaston, being no longer before
men's eyes, was less the object of general indignation; and Edward,
deeming matters sufficiently prepared for his purpose, applied to the
court of Rome, and obtained for Gavaston a dispensation from that oath
which the barons had compelled him to take, that he would forever
abjure the realm.[*] He went down to Chester to receive him on his first
landing from Ireland; flew into his arms with transports of joy; and
having obtained the formal consent of the barons in parliament to his
reestablishment, set no longer any bounds to his extravagant fondness
and affection. Gavaston himself, forgetting his past misfortunes, and
blind to their causes, resumed the same ostentation and insolence,
and became more than ever the object of general detestation among the
nobility.

The barons first discovered their animosity by absenting themselves from
parliament; and finding that this expedient had not bee