Both the Despensers desired to be earls, and the younger Hugh wished that the Gloucester earldom should be revived in his favour.  Assured of the good-will of the king, both had to contend against the jealousy of the baronage and the exclusiveness of the existing earls.  The younger Hugh had also to reckon with his two brothers-in-law, with whom he had divided the Clare estates.  These were Hugh of Audley, who had married Margaret the widow of Gaveston, and Roger of Amory, the husband of Elizabeth, the youngest of the Clare sisters.  There had been difficulty enough in effecting the partition of the Gloucester inheritance among the three co-heiresses.  In 1317 the division was made, and Despenser had become lord of Glamorgan, which politically and strategically was most important of all the Gloucester lands.[1] Yet even then, Despenser was not satisfied with his position.  His rival Audley had been allotted Newport and Netherwent, while Amory had been assigned the castle of Usk and estates higher up the Usk valley.  Annoyed that he should be a lesser personage in south Wales than Earl Gilbert had been, Despenser began to intrigue against his wife’s brothers-in-law.  Each of the co-heirs had already become deadly rivals.  Their hostility was the more keen since the three had already taken different sides in English politics.  Despenser was the soul of the court faction; Amory was the ally of Pembroke and Badlesmere, the men of the middle party; and Audley was an uncompromising adherent of Thomas of Lancaster.  There was every chance that each one of the three would have competent backing.  To each the triumph of his friends meant the prospect of his becoming Earl of Gloucester.

    [1] See for this, W.H.  Stevenson, A Letter of the Younger
    Despenser in 1321 in Engl.  Hist.  Rev., xii. (1897), 755-61.

Despenser, abler and more restless than the others, and confident in the royal favour, was the first to take the aggressive.  He wished to base his future greatness upon a compact marcher principality in south Wales, and to that end not only laid his hands upon the outlying possessions of the Clares but coveted the lands of all his weaker neighbours.  He took advantage of a family arrangement for the succession to Gower, to strike the first blow.  The English-speaking peninsula of Gower, with the castle of Swansea, was still held by a junior branch of the decaying house of Braose, whose main marcher lordships had been divided a century earlier between the Bohuns and the Mortimers.  Its spendthrift ruler, William of Braose, was the last male of his race.  He strove to make what profit he could for himself out of his succession, and had for some time been treating with Humphrey of Hereford.  Gower was immediately to the south-west of Hereford’s lordship of Brecon.  Its acquisition would extend the Bohun lands to the sea, and make Earl Humphrey the greatest lord in south Wales.  At the last moment, however, Braose broke off with him and sought