present at the battle of Dunbar, took part in the expedition to Flanders in 1297, and was employed to treat for peace between Edward and the king of the Romans and the king of France. The next year he again served in Scotland, and was sent on an embassy to Boniface VIII. He took part in other Scotch campaigns, and in the negotiations with France which preceded the peace of 1303. In 1305 he was sent to Clement V at Lyons, and obtained a bull absolving the king from the oaths which he had taken to his people. At the coronation of Edward II he carried part of the royal insignia. When in 1308 the arons leagued themselves together against Gaveston, ne stood alone in upholding the king's favourite. His conduct was put down to avarice, he was regarded as a deserter from the common cause, and the parliament which met at Northampton procured his dismissal from the council (Vita Edwardi II, ii. 158; Annales Paulini i. 264). His disgrace was not of long duration; he received the castles of Devizes and Marlborough, and became the chief adviser of the king. In 1312 he was sent with Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke [q. v.], and others to endeavour to secure London for the king. The commissioners arrested some of the citizens, a tumult was raised, and they were forced to leave the city (Annales Londonienses, i. 215). On the death of Gaveston, Despenser became the chief man of the court party, and encouraged the king to form plans of revenge against the barons. He was bitterly hated by the Earl of Lancaster, and was excluded from the general pacification of 1313. He accompanied the king on his unfortunate expedition to Scotland in 1314, and when the defeat of Bannockburn placed Edward at the mercy of Lancaster, was forced to withdraw from the court and the council. In 1318 the king seemed on the point of making a vigorous effort to overthrow the power of Lancaster, and Despenser, with the other lords of the same party, attended the parliament at Northampton armed, and at the head of his retainers. A pacification followed, greatly to the king's disadvantage, and he stood alone in refusing to bend to the earl's will. About this time his son, Sir Hugh le Despenser [q. v.], joined the king's side. Both the Despensers received many large grants from the crown: they were generally hated, and were accused of many acts of oppression and wrongful dealing. Although both, and especially the son, succeeded Gaveston in the royal favour, they had little in common with him. Unlike Gaveston, they were of noble family, and were connected with many great baronial houses. They held the most prominent place in the party opposed to the unscrupulous designs of Lancaster, and sought their own advancement through alliance with the crown, while the earl carried on an equally selfish policy by thwarting and limiting the royal power. Greedy and ambitious, they used the influence they gained over the king for their own aggrandisement. The wealth and honours he showered upon them strengthened the hatred in which they were held. In the case of Gaveston, the hatred of the barons was mixed with contempt for the upstart foreigner; in the case of the Despensers, it was near akin to fear. It appears impossible to decide whether the father or the son was the more to blame. From almost the beginning of the reign the elder Despenser had taken a leading part on the king s side, and the hostility of the barons towards him was of long standing. After the son adopted the same policy both worked together for their common advantage, and the elder Despenser was concerned in the quarrels with other baronial families consequent on the marriage of his son (on the position of the Despensers see Introduction to Chronicles of the Reign of Edward I and Edward II, ii. by Bishop Stubbs).
The quarrel between the younger Despenser and Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford [see under Hugh le Despenser the younger], led to a league against both the Despensers, which was joined by the great lords of the Welsh marches and many other powerful nobles, who in 1321 ravaged their lands and took their castles in Wales, and spoiled their manors and levelled the fences of their chaces in England. The king was anxious to interfere on their behalf; he was prevailed on to call a parliament, and pressed to consent to their banishment. He consented, and in July the charges against them were formally stated and considered in parliament. They had estranged the king from his people, had usurped his authority, and had debarred the magnates of the realm from access to him. Sentence of banishment was pronounced against them both. The elder Despenser went abroad. In the following December the king obtained a condemnation of this sent ence from the convocation of the clergy, and on 1 Jan. 1322 Archbishop Reynolds pronounced it illegal. Despenser returned, joined the king in his attack on his enemies, and after the battle of Roroughbridge assisted at Lancaster's trial and condemnation. He was created earl of Winchester in the parliament held at York. Although they were the king's favourites, the Despensers did not aim at establishing a royal tyranny; they inherited some of the doctrines of the baronial party
