After the departure of Sir John de Hainault, King Edward and his mother governed the kingdom by the counsels of the good Earl of Kent and of Sir Roger Mortimer. Both of them had been banished with the queen. They also took the advice of Sir Thomas Wager, and of others who were esteemed the wisest in the land. This, however, created much envy, which never dies in England, but reigns there as well as in other places. Thus passed the winter and Lent in perfect peace until Easter; when it happened that Robert, King of Scotland, who, though brave, had suffered much in his wars with England, having often been defeated by King Edward, grandfather of the young king, being at this time very old and afflicted with leprosy, hearing that the king had been taken prisoner and deposed, and his counsellors put to death, thought it a favorable opportunity to send a defiance to the present king, as yet a youth, whose barons were not on good terms with each other, and to attempt the conquest of some part of England. About Easter, 1327, he sent a defiance to King Edward and all the country, informing them that he would enter the kingdom, and burn it as far as he had done before after the defeat of Stirling, in which the English suffered so much. When the young king and his council received this challenge, they published it throughout the kingdom, and ordered that all the nobles and others should come properly accoutred and accompanied, according to their different ranks, to York, the Day of Ascension following. He also sent a considerable body of men at arms to guard the frontiers of Scotland, and messengers to Sir John de Hainault, begging him very affectionately to assist and accompany him in this expedition, and to meet him at York on Ascension Day with as many companions in arms as he could bring with him.