Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/366

340 had a successful issue, but, as is well known, the death of Gaveston only opened the way to the ascendancy of another favourite, and after the lapse of a few years, during which the earl of Hereford served for some time in Scotland, he was again in the field with Lancaster against the Despensers. At first their rising was triumphant and procured the banishment of the Despensers; this temporary success, however, was effectually reversed at the fatal battle of Boroughbridge, March 16, 1321, where the earl of Hereford was slain in attempting to force the bridge, and Thomas of Lancaster being taken prisoner, suffered at Pontefract the doom he had inflicted on Gaveston at Warwick. On the person of Bohun was found a counterpart of the treaty offensive and defensive, which the insurgents had concluded with Robert Bruce. Much stress was laid on this document at the trial of the earl of Lancaster: in point of law it was certainly treasonable, yet, regarding it dispassionately, at this distance of time, we may be justified in doubting the treason of its spirit. It provided that the king of Scots and his adherents should aid the earls in the maintenance of their cause; in consideration of such assistance the earls agreed they would not assist the king of England against the Scots, and they covenanted that on attaining their own ends, they would use their best power to make good peace between the two lands of England and Scotland; an object, which under the then state of affairs, every good subject as well as every wise statesman might have desired conscientiously and with the purest loyalty to attain.

The will of the earl of Hereford was made on the 11th of August, 1319, at Gosforth, near Newcastle on Tyne, a place which was then the patrimony of a branch of the ancient house of Surtees, and is now the seat of the family of Brandling. He was then on his march to besiege the town of Berwick, which had been taken by the Scots in the preceding- year. The expedition proved unsuccessful, for the earl of Lancaster withdrew from the siege, not without suspicion of having been bribed by the Scots, and was accompanied in his retreat by all the barons of his party, and among them by the earl of Hereford.

The document was therefore made in contemplation of the possibility of sudden death in the field. With this contin-