e] that was made to you some time; and from this time
forth I defy thee and deprive thee of all royal power, and I shall
never be attendant on thee as King from this time."

Then Sir Thomas Blount, steward of the King's household; advanced,
broke his staff of office before the King's face, and proclaimed the
royal household dissolved.

Edward was soon after committed to Berkeley Castle,[1] in
Gloucestershire. There, by the order of Mortimer, with the connivance
of Queen Isabelle, the "she-wolf of France," who acted as his
companion in iniquity (S232), the King was secretly and horribly
murdered.

[1] Berkeley Castle is considered one of the finest examples of feudal
architecture now remaining in England. Over the stately structure
still floats the standard borne in the Crusades by an ancestor of the
present Lord Berkeley.

234. Summary.

The lesson of Edward II's career is found in its culmination. Other
sovereigns had been guilty of misgovernment, others had put unworthy
and grasping favorites in power, but he was the first King whom
Parliament had deposed.

By that act it became evident that great as was the power of the King,
there had now come into existence a greater still, which could not
only make but unmake him who sat on the throne.

Edward III--1327-1377

235. Edward's Accession; Execution of Mortimer.

Edward III, son of Edward II, was crowned at fourteen. Until he
became of age, the government was nominally in the hands of a council,
but really in the control of Queen Isabelle and her "gentle Mortimer,"
the two murderers of his father (S233).

Early in his reign Edward attempted to reconquer Scotland (S219), but
failing in his efforts, made a peace acknowledging the independence of
that country. At home, however, he now gained a victory which
compensated him for his disappointment in not subduing the Scots.

Mortimer was staying with Queen Isabelle at Nottingham Castle. Edward
obtained entrance by a secret passage, carried him off captive, and
soon after brought him to the gallows. He next seized his mother, the
Queen, and kept her in confinement for the rest of her life in Castle
Rising, Norfolk.

236. The Rise of English Commerce; Wool Manufacture, 1336.

The reign of Edward III is directly connected with the rise of a
flourishing commerce with the Continent. In the early ages of its
history England was almost wholly an agricultural country. At length
the farmers in the eastern c