Scandalous as were the proceedings of his
agents, their iniquities are but trifles as compared with the offences
of the counsellors of Philip the Fair.
[1] For the _abjuratio regni_ see A. Reville in the _Revue
Historique_, 1. (1892), 1-42.
[2] For Adam of Stratton see Hall, _Red Book of the Exchequer_,
iii., cccxv.-cccxxxi. Extracts from the Assize rolls recording
the proceedings of the special commission will soon be
published by the Royal Historical Society.
Fear of Edward drove nobles into obedience as well as ministers into
honesty. Gloucester desisted unwillingly from his attacks on Brecon,
and was constrained to divorce his wife and marry the king's daughter,
Joan of Acre. In becoming the king's son-in-law, he was forced to
surrender his estates to the crown, receiving them back entailed on the
heirs of the marriage or, in their default, on the heirs of Joan. Thus
the system of entails made possible by the statute _De donis_ was used
by Edward to strengthen his hold over the most powerful of his
feudatories and increase the prospect of his estates escheating to the
crown.
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