It soon became evident that the late attempts at compromise between the two parties in England were hollow. The question had to be tried by an appeal to arms. Nothing could induce the King to get rid of his favourites, nor the opposition to act in common with them. It was a little private quarrel, and no great question, which at length blew the smouldering discontent to a flame. The marriage of young Hugh Despenser with the daughter of the Earl of Gloucester, who had died at Bannockburn, had introduced a new and objectionable power into the midst of the Welsh Marches. A quarrel arose about a vacant fief, and the Marchers made common cause against the favourite. The King ordered the question to be settled before his own court, and subsequently before Parliament; but Hereford refused to appear unless the Despensers were removed. As the King vindicated his favourites, and refused to remove them, Hereford marched northward, joined Lancaster, and made a formal agreement with him that there should be no peace till the Despensers were gone. The confederates came in arms to the Parliament held at Westminster, found themselves completely master of the King, presented him with eleven articles of reformation, and procured from him, irregularly, and in spite of the protestations of the clergy, the condemnation and banishment of the Despensers. This condemnation was afterwards formed into a statute, and a pardon given to all those who had compelled the King to grant it. [Sidenote: Insult to the Queen rouses Edward to energy.] [Sidenote: He recalls the Despensers. Pacifies the Marches.]