Even the agents of Mortimer shrunk from the odium of decreeing Edward’s deposition, and the more prudent course was preferred of inducing the king to resign his power into his son’s hands.  An effort to persuade the captive monarch to abdicate before his estates, was defeated by his resolute refusal.  Thereupon a committee of bishops, barons, and judges was sent to Kenilworth to receive his renunciation in the name of parliament.  On January 20, Edward, clothed in black, admitted the delegates to his presence.  Utterly unmanned by misfortune, the king fell in a deep swoon at the feet of his enemies.  Leicester and Stratford raised him from the ground, and, on his recovery, Orleton exhorted him to resign his throne to his son, lest the estates, irritated by his contumacy, should choose as their king some one who was not of the royal line.  Edward replied that he was sorry that his people were tired of his rule, but that being so, he was prepared to yield to their wishes, and make way for the Duke of Aquitaine.  On this, Sir William Trussell, as proctor of the three estates, formally renounced their homage and fealty, and Sir Thomas Blount, steward of the household, broke his staff of office, and announced that the royal establishment was disbanded.  Thus the calamitous reign of Edward of Carnarvon came to a wretched end.  His utter inefficiency as a king makes it impossible to lament his fate.  Yet few revolutions have ever been conducted with more manifest self-seeking than that which hurled Edward from power.  The angry spite of the adulterous queen, the fierce vengeance and greed of Roger Mortimer, the craft and cruelty of Orleton, the time-serving cowardice of Reynolds, the stupidity of Kent and Norfolk, the party spirit of Stratford and Ayermine, can inspire nothing but disgust.  Among the foes of Edward, Henry of Leicester alone behaved as an honourable gentleman, anxious to vindicate a policy, but careful to subordinate his private wrongs to public objects.  Though his name and wrongs were ostentatiously put forward by the dominant faction, it is clear from the beginning that he was only a tool in its hands, and that the reversal of the sentence of Earl Thomas was but the pretext by which the schemers and traitors sought to capture the government for their own selfish ends.

The resignation of the king was promptly reported to parliament.  On January 24 the Duke of Aquitaine was proclaimed Edward III., and from the next day his regnal years were reckoned as beginning.  Henry of Leicester dubbed him knight, and on January 20 he was crowned in Westminster Abbey.  A few days later the young king met his parliament.  A standing council was appointed to carry on the administration during his nonage.  Of this body the Earl of Leicester acted as chief, though most of his colleagues were partisans of Mortimer and the queen.  Orleton, who was made treasurer, continued to pull the wires as the confidential agent of Isabella and Mortimer.  A show of devotion to the good old cause was thought politic, and therefore the sentences of 1322 were revoked, so that Earl Henry, restored to all his brother’s estates, was henceforth styled Earl of Lancaster.  The commons went beyond this in petitioning for the canonisation of Earl Thomas and Archbishop Winchelsea.  The revolution was consummated by a new confirmation of the charters.