vale of Glamorgan on the south; and Hereford, then released from his Scottish captivity, was entrusted with the suppression of the revolt.  Before long all the lords of the march joined Hereford in stamping out the movement.  Among them were the two Roger Mortimers, the Montagues and the Giffords, and Henry of Lancaster, Earl Thomas’s brother, and lord in his own right of Monmouth and Kidwelly.  Overwhelmed by such mighty opponents, Llewelyn surrendered to Hereford, hoping thus to save his followers.

Lancaster himself suffered from the spirit of anarchy that was abroad.  His own Lancashire vassals rose against his authority, under Adam Banaster, a former member of his household.  Adam belonged to an important Lancashire family, which had long stood in close relations to Wales, and had committed a homicide for which he despaired of pardon.  He now posed as the champion of the king against the earl, believing that anything that caused trouble to Thomas would give no small delight at court.  Lancaster showed more energy in upholding his own rights than in maintaining the honour of England.  He raised such an overwhelming force that Banaster, unable to hold the field against him, shut himself up in his house.  His refuge was stormed and his head brought to Earl Thomas as a trophy of victory.  While Banaster was raiding Lancashire and Llewelyn south Wales, the Scots were devastating the country as far south as Furness, and Edward Bruce, King Robert’s brother, was conquering Ireland.  There was little wonder that Edward Bruce hoped to cross over to Wales when he had done his work in Ireland, or that the Welsh, buoyed up, as in the last generation, by the prophesies of Merlin, believed that the time was come when they would expel the Saxons, and win back the empire of Britain.

Of much longer duration than the wars of Llewelyn Bren and Adam Banaster, were the formidable disturbances which raged for many years at Bristol.  Fourteen Bristol magnates had long a preponderating influence in the government of the town.  The commons bitterly resented their superiority and declared that every burgess should enjoy equal rights.  A royal inquiry was ordered, but the judges, bribed, as was believed, by the fourteen, gave a decision which was unacceptable to the commons.  Lord Badlesmere, warden of the castle, sided with the oligarchs, and thus the whole authority of the state was brought to bear against the popular party.  But it was an easy matter to resist the government of Edward II.  The commons took arms and a riot broke out in court.  Twenty men were killed in the disturbances, and the judges fled for their lives.  Eighty burgesses were proved by inquest at Gloucester to have been the ringleaders.  As they refused to appear to answer the charges, they were outlawed.  Indignation at Bristol then rose to such a height that the fourteen fled in their turn, and for more than two years Bristol succeeded in holding out against the royal mandate.  At last, in 1316, the town was regularly besieged by the Earl of Pembroke.  The castle was not within the burgesses’ power, and its petrariae, breaking down the walls and houses of the borough, compelled the townsmen to surrender.  A few of the chief rebels were punished, but a pardon was issued to the mass of the burgesses.