o make any resistance;
Gavaston was yielded up to him, and conducted to Warwick Castle;
the earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel immediately repaired
thither;[****] and, without any regard either to the laws or the
military capitulation, they ordered the head of the obnoxious favorite
to be struck off by the hands of the executioner.[*****]

The king had retired northward to Berwick, when he heard of Gavaston's
murder; and his resentment was proportioned to the affection which he
had ever borne him while living. He threatened vengeance on all
the nobility who had been active in that bloody scene; and he made
preparations for war in all parts of England. But being less constant in
his enmities than in his friendships, he soon after hearkened to terms
of accommodation; granted the barons a pardon of all offences; and as
they stipulated to ask him publicly pardon on their knees,[******] he
was so pleased with these vain appearances of submission, that he seemed
to have sincerely forgiven them all past injuries. But as they still
pretended, notwithstanding their lawless conduct, a great anxiety for
the maintenance of law, and required the establishment of their former
ordinances, as a necessary security for that purpose, Edward told them
that he was willing to grant them a free and legal confirmation of such
of those ordinances as were not entirely derogatory to the prerogative
of the crown. This answer was received for the present as satisfactory.
The king's person, after the death of Gavaston, was now become less
obnoxious to the public; and as the ordinances insisted on appeared
to be nearly the same with those which had formerly been extorted from
Henry III. by Mountfort, and which had been attended with so many fatal
consequences, they were, on that account, demanded with less vehemence
by the nobility and people. The minds of all men seemed to be much
appeased; the animosities of faction no longer prevailed; and England,
now united under its head, would henceforth be able, it was hoped, to
take vengeance on all its enemies, particularly on the Scots, whose
progress was the object of general resentment and indignation.

* Walsing, p. 101.

** Rymer, vol ii. p. 324.

*** T de la More, p. 593.

**** Dugd. Baron, vol. ii. p. 44.

***** Walsing, p. 101. T. de la More, p. 593. Trivet, Cont. p.
9*

****** Ryley, p. 538. Rymer, vol. iii. p. 366.

Immediately after Edward's ret