Gaveston, conscious of his impending doom, betook himself to the north as early as February.  As soon as he could escape, Edward hurried northwards to join him.  An expedition against the Scots was then summoned for September.  It was high time that something should be done.  During the three years that Edward had reigned, Robert Bruce had made alarming progress.  One after the other the Scottish magnates had joined his cause, and a few despairing partisans and some scattered ill-garrisoned, ill-equipped strongholds alone upheld the English cause north of the Tweed.  But even then Edward did not wage war in earnest.  His real motive for affecting zeal for martial enterprise was his desire to escape from his taskmasters, and to keep Gaveston out of harm’s way.  The earls gave him no encouragement.  On the pretext that their services were required in London at the meetings of the ordainers, the great majority of the higher baronage took no personal part in the expedition.  Gloucester was the only ordainer who was present, and the only other earls in the host were Warenne and Gaveston himself.  The chief strength of Edwards army was a swarm of ill-disciplined Welsh and English infantry, more intent on plunder than on victory.  In September Edward advanced to Roxburgh and made his way as far as Linlithgow.  No enemy was to be found, for Bruce was not strong enough to risk a pitched battle, even against Edward’s army.  He hid himself in the mountains and moors, and contented himself with cutting off foraging parties, destroying stragglers, and breaking down the enemy’s communications.  Within two months Edward discreetly retired to Berwick, and there passed many months at the border town.  Technically he was in Scotland; practically he might as well have been in London for all the harm he was doing to Bruce.  However, Gaveston showed more martial zeal than his master.  He led an expedition which penetrated as far as Perth, and reduced the country between the Forth and the Grampians to Edward’s obedience.  Gloucester also pacified the forest of Ettrick.  To these two all the little honour of the campaign belonged.

The Earl of Lincoln governed England as regent during the king’s absence.  In February, 1311, he died, and Gloucester abandoned the campaign to take up the regency.  The death of the last of Edward I.’s lay ministers was followed in March by that of another survivor of the old generation, Bishop Bek of Durham.  The old landmarks were quickly passing away, and the forces that still made for moderation were sensibly diminished.  Gilbert of Gloucester, alone of the younger generation, still aspired to the position of a mediator.  The most important result of Lincoln’s death was the unmuzzling of his son-in-law, Thomas of Lancaster.  In his own right the lord of the three earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, Thomas then received in addition his father-in-law’s two earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury.  The enormous estates and innumerable