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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the History of England.

Episode 91, the new favourites.

So last time he managed to skate right over Bunkburn, without having to go through the pain of actually describing how the Scots gave the dropping.

As English do have some experience of getting dropped, try never enjoy, however unbalanced and unobjective that is of me.

I'm not looking forward to Joan of Arc, I have to say, but I've got a wild to adjust to the forthcoming pain.

Anyway, as we said last week, defeat in Scotland, put poor old Edward right on the back foot again.

So at the Parliament of 1316, Thomas of Lancaster and the Ordainers were able to impose wholesale changes in his Royal Officials.

This was without doubt Thomas's big moment, he was now officially in the driving seat, with a perfect opportunity to whip the horses into a lather and send the English wagon skipping along down the road of reform.

If only Thomas had been the man for the job.

But as it happens, Edward's reputation, as an administrative idler and incompetent, is really not much worse than Lancaster's.

It is always worth noting that we should never think of the barons and magnets as a homogeneous block.

They are an irritable, backed-biting lot, always on each other's cases.

Just by way of it, for instance, in 1316, Hugh Dispenser attacked another lord, a chap called John de Rousse, in Lincoln Cathedral, right in front of the king and the assembled worthers.

Now, if you did that at work these days, just imagine the tribunals and re-education you'd have to go through.

And Lancaster himself, in particular, had a habit of flexing his muscles and resolving disputes by the threat of force.

For example, Lancaster and Pembroke were at each other's throats over a land dispute in Northamptonshire.

It almost came to open warfare between their retainers until, at the York Parliament, in 1314, Lancaster forced Pembroke to give up his claims.

Lancaster's only true ally and friend, the Elivoric, died in 1315, and Lancaster's bullying was, when he was never able to create a genuinely united group behind him.

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