to sell Gower to John of Mowbray, the husband of his daughter and heiress.  When Braose died in 1320, Mowbray took possession of Gower in accordance with the “custom of the march”.  The royal assent had not been asked, either for licence to alienate, or for permission to enter upon the estate.  Despenser coveted Gower for himself.  He had already got Newport, had he Swansea also he would rule the south coast from the Lloughor to the Usk.  Accordingly, he declared that the custom of the march trenched upon the royal prerogative, and managed that Gower should be seized by the king’s officers, as a first step towards getting it for himself.

Despenser’s action provoked extreme indignation among all the marcher lords.  They denounced the apostate from the cause of his class for upsetting the balance of power in the march, and declared that in treating a lordship beyond the Wye like a landed estate in England, Hugh had, like Edward I., “despised the laws and customs of the march”.  It was easy to form a coalition of all the marcher lords against him.  The leaders of it were Humphrey of Hereford, Roger Mortimer of Chirk, justice of Wales, and his nephew, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, the head of the house, who had overthrown Edward Bruce’s monarchy of Ireland.  As Braose co-heirs their position was unassailable.  But every other baron had his grievance.  John of Mowbray resented the loss of Gower; Henry of Lancaster feared for Monmouth and Kidwelly; Audley wished to win back Newport, and Amory, Usk.  Behind the confederates was Thomas of Lancaster himself, eager to regain his lost position of leadership.  The league at once began to wage war against Despenser in south Wales, and approached the court with a demand that he should be banished as a traitor.

Edward made his way to Gloucester in March, 1321, and strove to protect Despenser and to calm the wild spirits of the marchers.  But private war had already broken out after the marcher fashion, and the king retired without effecting his purpose.  Left to themselves the marcher allies easily overran the Despenser lands, inherited or usurped.  Neither Cardiff nor Caerphilly held out long against them:  the Welsh husbandmen, like the English knights and barons of Glamorgan, were hostile to the Despensers.  The king could do nothing to help his friends.  In May, Lancaster formed a league of northern barons in the chapter-house of the priory at Pontefract.  In June, another northern gathering was held in the Norman nave of the parish church of Sherburn-in-Elmet, a few miles to the north of Pontefract.  This was attended by the Archbishop of York and two of his suffragans, and a great number of clergy, secular and regular, as well as by many barons and knights.  It was in fact an informal parliament of the Lancastrian party.  A long list of complaints were drawn up which, under fair words, demanded the removal of bad ministers, and among them the chamberlain.  The clerical members of the conference met separately at the rectory, where they showed more circumspection, but an equally partisan bias.[1]