feudal relation, by which he chose to bind his people, in their three estates, to help him to govern and to take their share in all national work. CHAPTER XI. THE CONFIRMATION OF THE CHARTERS. Punishment of the judges--Banishment of the Jews--Scottish succession--The French quarrel--The ecclesiastical quarrel--The constitutional crisis--The confirmation of the charters--Parliament of Lincoln--Its sequel--War of Scottish independence--Edward’s death. [Sidenote: Evils consequent on the absence of the king. ] Edward completed his work in Wales at the end of the year 1284. The next year was spent in legislation, and in the summer of 1286 he went to France. Edmund of Cornwall acted as regent in his absence, and he stayed away for three years. For two out of the three the country was at peace; in 1288, however, the absence of the king began to tell, and in 1289 the need of money for home and foreign purposes became pressing. The news that the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford were engaged in all but open warfare on the Welsh marshes, and that the collected parliament of 1289 had refused to sanction a new tax before the king came home, brought Edward back in the August of that year. He found that the public service had suffered sadly from the removal of the guiding hand. Complaints were pouring in against the judges of the Courts of Westminster; violence and corruption were charged upon the chief administrators of the law; and the king’s first work was to try the accused, to remove and punish the guilty. The two chief justices and several other high officers were, after careful investigation, deprived of their places. The next thing was if possible to gain a stronger hold over the uneasy earls. Gilbert of Gloucester, whose assistance had enabled Edward to overthrow Earl Simon at Evesham, and who had been the first to take the oath of fealty at his accession, had been throughout his career marked by singular erratic waywardness. He was not yet an old man, and a project had been on foot for some time, by which he was to marry the king’s daughter Johanna, who was born at Acre during the crusade. This was now carried into effect, and thus one of the most dangerous competitors for influence in the country was bound more closely than ever to the king. [Sidenote: Banishment of the Jews. ]