in the face of the general hatred.  On June 22 they fled from Oxford in the company of their ally, Earl Warenne.  They rode straight for the coast, but failing to reach it, occupied Winchester, where they sought to maintain themselves in Aymer’s castle of Wolvesey.  The magnates of the parliament then turned against them the arms they professed to have prepared against the Welsh.  Headed by the new justiciar, Hugh Bigod, they besieged Wolvesey.  Warenne abandoned the aliens, and they gladly accepted the terms offered to them by their foes.  They were allowed to retain their lands and some of their ready money, on condition of withdrawing from the realm and surrendering their castles.  By the middle of July they had crossed over to France.  With them disappeared the whole of the organised opposition to the new government.  Edward, deprived of their support, swore to observe the Provisions.

Immediately on the flight of the Lusignans the council of Fifteen was chosen after a fashion which seemed to give the king’s friends an equal voice with the champions of the aristocracy.  Four electors appointed it, and of these two were the nominees of the baronial section, and two of the royalist section of the original twenty-four.  The result of their work showed that there was only one party left after the Wolvesey fiasco.  While only three of the king’s twelve had places on the permanent council, no less that nine of the fifteen were chosen from the baronial twelve.  It was useless for Archbishop Boniface, John Mansel, and the Earl of Warwick to stand up against the Bishop of Worcester, the Earls of Leicester, Norfolk, Hereford, and Gloucester, against John FitzGeoffrey, Peter Montfort, Richard Grey, and Roger Mortimer.  Moreover, of the three, John Mansel alone could still be regarded as a royalist partisan.  There were three of the fifteen chosen from outside the twenty-four.  Of these, Peter of Savoy, Earl of Richmond, might, like his brother Boniface, be regarded as an alien, though hatred of the Poitevins had by this time made Englishmen of the Savoyards.  The other two, the marcher-lord James of Audley and William of Fors, Earl of Albemarle, were of baronial sympathies.  It was the same with the other councils.

Inquiry was made as to abuses.  Gradually the royal officials were replaced by men of popular leanings.  The sheriffs were changed and were strictly controlled, and four knights from each shire assembled in October to present to the king the grievances of the people against the out-going sheriffs.  The custody of the castles was put into trusty and, for the most part, into English hands.  Finally the king was forced to issue a proclamation, in which he commanded all true men “steadfastly to hold and to defend the statutes that be made or are to be made by our counsellors”.  This document was issued in English as well as in French and Latin.  A copy of the English version was sent to every sheriff, with instructions to read it several times a year in