l as the people at his side, and
even in his lonely wanderings and hairbreadth escapes he was, what
neither Balliol nor Wallace had been, the true head of the Scottish
nation. Before the end of =1306= he reappeared in Carrick, where his
own possessions lay, and where the whole population was on his side,
and inflicted heavy losses on the English garrisons. Early in July
=1307= Edward, who himself had tarried in Cumberland, once more set
out to take the field in person; but he was now old and worn out, and
he died at Burgh on Sands, a few miles on the English side of the
border.

[Illustration: Edward II.; from his monument in Gloucester Cathedral.]

21. =Edward II. and Piers Gaveston. 1307--1312.=--The new king, Edward
II., was as different as possible from his father. He was not wicked,
like William II. and John, but he detested the trouble of public
business, and thought that the only advantage of being a king was that
he would have leisure to amuse himself. During his father's life he
devoted himself to Piers Gaveston, a Gascon, who encouraged him in
his pleasures and taught him to mistrust his father. Edward I.
banished Gaveston; Edward II., immediately on his accession, not only
recalled him, but made him regent when he himself crossed to France to
be married to Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV. The barons, who
were already inclined to win back some of the authority of which
Edward I. had deprived them, were very angry at the place taken over
their heads by an upstart favourite, especially as Gaveston was
ill-bred enough to make jests at their expense. The barons found a
leader in Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the son of that Edmund, the
brother of Edward I., who had received the title of king of Sicily
from the Pope (see p. 197). Thomas of Lancaster had very large
estates. He was an ambitious man, who tried to play the part which had
been played by Earl Simon without any of Simon's qualifications for
the position. In =1308= the king yielded to the barons so far as to
send Gaveston out of the country to Ireland as his Lieutenant. In
=1309= he recalled him. The barons were exasperated, and in the
Parliament of =1310= they brought forward a plan for taking the
king's government out of his hands, very much after the fashion of the
Provisions of Oxford. Twenty-one barons were appointed Lords
Ordainers, to draw up ordinances for the government of the country. In
=1311= they produced the ordinances. Gaveston was to be