Notes

"Despenser, Hugh le, English nobleman, son of Hugh le Despenser. A supporter of the king against the barons, he fought under Edward I, for whom he secured a papal release from an oath to refrain from excessive taxation. When the barons forced Edward's son and successor, Edward II, to banish his favorite, Piers Gaveston, le Despenser supported Gaveston and in 1312 succeeded him as the royal favorite. Edward II made him Earlof Winchester in 1322, and le Despenser, together with his son, Hugh, acquired vast wealth.
The barons established a coalition to challenge Edward II and le Despenser, and open warfare broke out between the king and the barons. At the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, the king's forces defeated the coalition. The elder le Despenser became virtual ruler of England, instituted several important administrative reforms, and concluded peace with Scotland in 1323. In 1326 Isabella, queen consort of England, formed an alliance with the barons against Edward and the le Despensers in favor of Edward's and Isabella's son, young Prince Edward. In a general uprising, the forces of Edward II were defeated and both father and son le Despenser were hanged."

Notes
"... In 1322, however, with the advice and help of two new royal favorites, the baron Hugh le Despenser, and his son, also Hugh le Despenser, Edward II defeated Lancaster in battle and had him executed. The le Despensers thereupon became de facto rulers of England. They summoned a Parliament in which the commons were included and which repealed the ordinances of 1311 on the ground that they had been passed by the barons only. The repeal was a great step forward in English constitutional development, for it meant that thenceforth no law passed by Parliament was valid unless the House of Commons approved it."

"Edward again futilely invaded Scotland in 1322, and in 1323 signed a 13-year truce with Bruce. In 1325 Queen Isabella accompanied the Prince of Wales to France, where, in accordance with feudal custom, he did homage to king Charles IV for the fief of Aquitaine. Isabella, who desired to depose the le Despensers, allied herself with some barons who had been exiled by Edward. In 1326, with their leader, Roger de Mortimer, Isabella raised an army and invaded England. Edward and his favorites fled, but his wife's army pursued and executed the le Despensers and imprisoned Edward. In January 1327, Parliament forced Edward to resign and proclaimed the Prince of Wales king as Edward III. On September 21 of that year Edward II was murdered by his captors at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire."

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