The treaty of Leek marks the triumph of the middle party and the removal of Lancaster from the first place in the royal council.  A pardon was granted to him and his followers, but Thomas gained little else by the compact.  Pembroke and his friends showed themselves as jealous of Edward as ever the ordainers had been.  The ordinances were once more confirmed, and a new council of seventeen was nominated, including eight bishops, four earls, four barons, and one banneret.  The earls were Pembroke, Arundel, Richmond, and Hereford.  Of these the Breton Earl of Richmond was the most friendly to the king, but it was significant to find so truculent a politician as Hereford making common cause with Pembroke.  The most important of the four barons was Roger Mortimer of Wigmore.  Lancaster though not paramount was still powerful, but his habit of absenting himself from parliaments made it useless to offer him a place in the council, and he was represented by a single banneret, nominated by him.  Of these councillors two bishops, one earl, one baron, and Lancaster’s nominee were to be in constant attendance.  They were virtually to control Edward’s policy, and to see that he consulted parliament in all matters that required its assent.  A few days after the treaty Edward and Lancaster met at Hathern, near Loughborough, and exchanged the kiss of peace.  Roger of Amory and other magnates of the middle party reconciled themselves to Lancaster, and he condescendingly restored them to his favour.  But he would not deign to admit Hugh Despenser to his presence, and declared that he was still free to carry on his quarrel against Warenne.  In October, a parliament at York confirmed the treaty of Leek, adding new members to the council and appointing another commission to reform the king’s household.  From that time until 1321, Pembroke and his friends controlled the English state, though often checked both by the king and even more by Lancaster, who still stood ostentatiously aloof from parliaments and campaigns.  These years, though neither glorious nor prosperous, were the most peaceable and uneventful of the whole of Edward II.’s reign.  They are noteworthy for the only serious attempt made to check the progress of the Scots after Bannockburn.  From 1318 to 1320 king and court were almost continually in the north.  York became the regular meeting-place of parliaments for even a longer period.

Since 1314, the Scots had mercilessly devastated the whole north of England.  The population made little attempt at resistance, and sought to buy them off by large payments of money.  The Scots took the cash and soon came again for more.  They wandered at will over the open country, and only the castles and walled towns afforded protection against them.  Their forays extended as far south as Lancashire and Yorkshire, and, so early as 1315, Carlisle and Berwick were regularly besieged by them.  It was to no purpose that in 1317 the pope issued a bull insisting