This book is not an attempt to provide a systematic narrative of the reign of Edward II. Its purpose is to reconsider the last years of the reign from a large body of evidence, some of it familiar but hitherto partly neglected, much of it new. The importance of this period has tended either to be underestimated or misunderstood because it is a very abnormal period in English history. It encompasses the rule of Edward II and his favourites, the Despensers, Hugh the father and Hugh the son, and provides one of the few examples in English history of a period of tyrannical rule which, for a time, met no overt political opposition in the country. It is impossible to discuss this period intelligibly without illustrating its striking contrast to the years preceding it. The earlier portion of Edward's reign had been a time of extremely active political opposition led, after 1311, by the king's cousin, the earl of Lancaster. The main objective of this opposition was always to obtain control of the king's government, but its methods and immediate targets varied as the king acquired different friends and advisers. In the years 1317–21, as the two Despensers, father and son, gradually obtained a monopoly of influence over the king, they in turn became the main targets for baronial hostility. The crisis which began in 1321 with two successive civil wars ended with Lancaster's execution in 1322, but the ‘Despenser regime’ became too hated to endure.