Edward was then at Pontefract in the chief castle of his deadliest enemy.  Thither the prisoners of Boroughbridge were sent for their trial, and there they were hastily condemned by a body of seven earls and numerous barons, presided over by the king himself.  Lancaster, not allowed to say a word in his defence, was at once sentenced to death as a rebel and a traitor.  In consideration of his exalted rank, the grosser penalties of treason were commuted, as in the case of Gaveston, to simple decapitation.  On the morning of March 22 Thomas was led out of his castle, clad in the garb of a penitent and mounted on a sorry steed.  He was conducted to a little hill outside the walls.  The crowd mocked at his sufferings and in scorn called him “King Arthur”.  In two or three blows of the axe, his head was struck off from his body.  Nor was he the only victim.  Audley, spared his life by reason of his marriage to the king’s niece, was, like the two Mortimers, consigned to prison.  Clifford and Mowbray were hanged at York, and Badlesmere at Canterbury.  In all, more than twenty knights and barons paid the penalty of death.

It is hard to waste much pity on Lancaster.  He was the victim of his own fierce passions and, still more, of his own utter incompetence.  His attitude all through the crisis had been inept in the extreme, and the poor fight that he made for his life at Boroughbridge was a fitting conclusion to a feeble career.  But with all his faults he remained popular to the end, especially with the clergy and commons.  He was hailed as a martyr to freedom and sound government.  Pilgrimages were made to the scene of his death, and miracles were wrought with his relics.  A chapel arose on the little hill dedicated to his worship, and a loud cry arose for his canonisation.  The abuse made by his enemies of their victory only strengthened his reputation among the people.  The tragedy of his fall appealed to the rude sympathies of the north-countrymen, and the merit of the cause atoned in their minds for the weakness of the man.

A parliament met at York on May 2, where the triumph of the king received its consummation.  The Despensers had more advanced constitutional ideas than Lancaster, and pains were taken that this parliament should completely represent the three estates.  It was a novel feature that twelve representatives of the commons of north Wales and twelve of the commons of south Wales attended, on this occasion, to speak on behalf of the region where the troubles had first begun.  With the full approval of the estates, the ordinances were solemnly revoked, as infringing the rights of the crown.  The important principle was laid down that “matters which are to be established for the estate of the king and for the estate of the realm shall be treated, accorded, and established in parliament by the king and by the council of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the realm”.  Thus, while the repeal of the ordinances seemed based upon