Such as it is, however, the reign of Edward II. is chiefly important as a period of transition. It winds up much that was left undone by his father; it is the seed-time of the influences which ripened under his son. The constitutional acts of 1309, 1310 and 1311 are the supplement to those of 1297; the tragedy of Piers Gaveston and Earl Thomas is the primary cause of much of the personal history that follows. So, too, the reign closes the great interest of Scottish warfare, and contains the germ of the long struggle with France. But viewed by itself its tragic interest is the greatest; and it is rich in moral and material lessons. It tells us that the greatest sin for which a king can be brought to account is not personal vice or active tyranny, but the dereliction of kingly duty; the selfish policy which treats the nation as if it were made for him, not he for the nation. It is the greatest sin and the greatest folly, for it at once draws down the penalty and leaves the sinner incapable of avoiding it or resisting it; it leaves the nation to be oppressed by countless tyrants, and is by so much worse than the tyranny of one. It allows the corruption of justice at the fountain’s head. [Sidenote: Constitutional results of the epoch closing with his downfall. ] So we close a long and varied epoch. The sum of its influences and results must be read in the history of the following age, in which, in many important points, the reign of Richard II. repeats the tragedy of Edward II.; and the struggles of York and Lancaster consummate the series of events which begin at Warwick and at Pomfret; in which the constitution that we have seen organized and consolidated under Henry II. and Edward I. is tested to the utmost, strained and bent and warped, but still survives to remedy the tyranny of the Tudors and overthrow the factitious absolutism of the Stewarts. INDEX. Accursi, Francesco, 221 Acre, siege of, 116; the English at, 118; double siege at, 118; taken, 120 Adeliza, queen, 95 Adrian IV., pope, 30, 46 Alexander III., pope, 3, 71, 92 Alexander IV., pope, 186 Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 21 Alfonso, King of Castile, 99 Alnwick, battle of, 96 Amalric, Count of Montfort, 193 Amiens, council at, 202 Amory, Roger d’, 278; his death, 281 Anarchy in the reign of Stephen, 22 Anglo-Saxon militia system, 88 Anjou, house of, at Jerusalem, 104; loss of, 142 Anselm, 63 Aquitaine, feudal rights of, 51 Archbishops, disputed election of, at Canterbury, 145 Arthur, grandson of Henry II., 125; his claims to the throne, 136; his claims in France, 140; murder of, 142 Arundel, earl of, 95 Ascalon rebuilt, 121 Audley, Hugh of, 278 Aumâle, William of, 45 Azai, conference at, 109 Badlesmere, Sir Bartholomew, 278; his death, 281 Badlesmere, Lady, 279 Baldock, chancellor, 283 Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, 116