e, ordering all payments to
be regularly made into the exchequer, revoking all late grants of
the crown, and giving the parties damages in the case of vexatious
prosecutions. But what chiefly grieved the king was the ordinance for
the removal of evil counsellors, by which a great number of persons
were by name excluded from every office of power and profit; and Piers
Gavaston himself was forever banished the king's dominions, under the
penalty, in case of disobedience, of being declared a public enemy.
Other persons, more agreeable to the barons, were substituted in all the
offices. And it was ordained that, for the future, all the considerable
dignities in the household, as well as by the law, revenue, and military
governments, should be appointed by the baronage in parliament; and
the power of making war, or assembling his military tenants, should
no longer be vested solely in the king, nor be exercised without the
consent of the nobility.

Edward, from the same weakness both in his temper and situation which
had engaged him to grant this unlimited commission to the barons, was
led to give a parliamentary sanction to their ordinances; but as a
consequence of the same character, he secretly made a protest against
them, and declared that, since the commission was granted only for the
making of ordinances to the advantage of king and kingdom, such articles
as should be found prejudicial to both, were to be held as not ratified
and confirmed.[**]

* Brady's App. No. 51.

** Ryley's Placit. Parl. p. 530, 541.

It is no wonder, indeed, that he retained a firm purpose to revoke
ordinances which had been imposed on him by violence, which entirely
annihilated the royal authority, and above all, which deprived him of
the company and society of a person whom, by an unusual infatuation, he
valued above all the world, and above every consideration of interest or
tranquillity.

As soon, therefore, as Edward, removing to York, had freed himself from
the immediate terror of the barons' power, he invited back Gavaston from
Flanders, which that favorite had made the place of his retreat; and
declaring his banishment to be illegal, and contrary to the laws and
customs of the kingdom,[*] openly reinstated him in his former credit
and authority.

{1312.} The barons, highly provoked at this disappointment, and
apprehensive of danger to themselves from the declared animosity of so
powerful a minion, saw that either his or