Even then resistance was not yet over.  A forlorn hope of the disinherited, headed by John d’Eyville, established themselves about Michaelmas in the isle of Ely, where they made themselves the terror of all East Anglia, plundering towns so far apart as Norwich and Cambridge, maltreating the Jews, and holding the rich citizens to ransom.  Early in 1267 the north-country baron, John of Vescy, rose in Northumberland, and violently resumed possession of his forfeited castle of Alnwick.  While Henry tarried at Cambridge, Edward went north and soon won over Vescy by the clemency which made the lord of Alnwick henceforth one of his most devoted servants.

More formidable than the revolt of Eyville or Vescy was the ambiguous attitude of Earl Gilbert of Gloucester.  Roger Mortimer was once more intriguing against him, and striving to upset the Kenilworth compromise.  After a violent scene between the two enemies in the parliament at Bury, Gloucester withdrew to the march of Wales, where he waged war against Mortimer.  In April, 1267, he made his way with a great following to London, professing that he wished to hold a conference with the legate.  It was a critical moment.  Edward was still in the north; Henry was wasting his time at Cambridge; the Londoners welcomed Earl Gilbert as a champion of the good old cause; the legate took refuge in the Tower, and the earl did not hesitate to lay siege to the stronghold.  Before long Gloucester was joined by Eyville and many of the Ely fugitives.  It seemed as if Gloucester was in as strong position as Montfort had ever won, and that after two years of warfare the verdict of Evesham was about to be reversed.

Edward marched south and joined forces with his father, who had moved from Cambridge to Stratford, near London.  Everything seemed to suggest that the eastern suburbs of London would witness a fight as stubborn as Lewes or Evesham.  But Gloucester was not the man to press things to extremities, and Edward though firm was conciliatory.  He delivered Ottobon from the hands of the rebels,[1] and then arranged a peace upon terms which secured Gloucester’s chief object of procuring better conditions for the disinherited.  Not only Earl Gilbert but Eyville and his associates were admitted to the royal favour.  A few desperadoes still held out until July in the isle of Ely, and Edward devoted himself to tracking them to their lairs.  He built causeways of wattles over the fens, which protected the disinherited in their last refuge.  When he had clearly shown his superiority, he offered the garrison of Ely the terms of the Dictum de Kenilworth.  With their acceptance of these conditions the English struggle ended, in July, 1267, nearly two years after the battle of Evesham.

    [1] Engl.  Hist.  Review, xvii. (1902), 522.