Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were engaged.--The Pope.--His claim of jurisdiction in England.--The Pope's legate and the students at Oxford.--Great riot made by the students.--The end of the affair.--Plan to assassinate the king.--Margaret, the servant-girl.--Execution of Marish.--Ideas of the sacredness of the person of a king.--Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of Wales.--Leolin's bride intercepted at sea.--The unhappy fate of Leolin.--Fate of Prince David, his brother.--Occasional acts of generosity.--Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches.--The fate of Lewin.--Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales.--The first English Prince of Wales.--Piers Gaveston.--Edward II. and his favorite.--Their wild and reckless behavior.--The king goes away to be married.--Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage.--His infatuation in respect to Gaveston.--The coronation.--Bold and presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston.--His unpopularity.--He is banished.--His parting.--The Black Dog of Ardenne.--Gaveston's return.--Gaveston made prisoner.--Consultation respecting him.--His fate.--The Spencers.--The queen and Mortimer.--Edward III. proclaimed king.--Edward II. made prisoner.--Edward II. formally deposed at Kenilworth.--The delegation require the king to abdicate the crown.--Opinion of the monks.--Alarm of the nobles.--Berkeley Castle.--Plot for assassinating the king.--Dreadful death.--Great hatred of Mortimer.--Situation of the castle of Nottingham.--The caves.--Entrance of the conspirators into the castle.--Isabella's unhappy fate.--Mortimer's Hole. In the days of the predecessors of King Richard the Second, notwithstanding the claim made by the kings of a right on their part to reign on account of the influence exercised by their government in promoting law and order throughout the community, the country was really kept in a continual state of turmoil by the quarrels which the different parties concerned in this government were engaged in with each other and with surrounding nations. These quarrels were of various kinds. 1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually quarreling with the nobles. 2. The different branches of the royal family were often engaged in bitter and cruel wars with each other, arising from their conflicting claims to the crown. 3. The kings of different countries were continually making forays into each other's territories, or waging war against each other with fire and sword. These wars arose sometimes from a lawless spirit of depredation, and sometimes were waged to resent personal insults or injuries, real or imaginary. 4. The Pope of Rome, who claimed jurisdiction over the Church in England as well as elsewhere, was constantly coming into collision with the civil power.