sent the King's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester and the Bishop of Ely in their stead. This indicates that parliament agreed that the King's absence would emasculate its negotiating power. Gloucester and the bishop spoke, in Saul's words, "eloquently, if fictitiously" to the King on how they perceived his duty, which they supported by reference to ahistoric—"fictitious"—statutes and traditions. Saul describes these as "outrageous remarks"—they claimed to have these statutes in their possession at the time—while Tuck notes the implicit threat. Gloucester appears ultimately to have made a threat of deposition against Richard or at least raised the spectre of Edward II (under a supposedly "ancient law" which dictated that, without a King's presence in an annual parliament, the Commons could go home, facing no punishment for leaving parliamentary business unfinished—in this case, Richard's war tax). The Eulogium Historiarum chronicler also describes these events: The chronicler alleged that Richard even threatened to appeal to the King of France for aid against his domestic enemies, until the Duke and the Bishop pointed out that the King of France himself was England's greatest enemy. According to Richard Grafton's chronicle: The lords reminded Richard that both Richard's father and grandfather had "toke great laboures uppon them...to conquere the realme of France", rather than appealing to it for assistance. Knighton also relates how, in parliament, the Lords sent for "the statute by which Edward [II] had been adjudged", which had forced the choice upon Edward in 1327 of either resigning the throne or his son, later Edward III, being disinherited. As a result of this manoeuvre Richard became melancholic, and agreed to return to parliament and accept the Commons' petitions. In a final political misjudgement, the King had promoted de Vere from Earl of Oxford to Marquess of Dublin on 13 October. This enraged people all the more: Chris Given-Wilson, for example, argues that "there can be little doubt that few thought him worthy of the honour". The King eventually dismissed de la Pole as Chancellor ten days later, and appointed the Bishop of Ely the next day. Also dismissed alongside de la Pole were the Treasurer—the Bishop of Durham—and the Keeper of the Privy Seal, Walter Skirlaw. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (PROME) project, notes that at least two of Richard's proposed creations—John, Lord Neville and the under chamberlain to the royal household, Simon Burley, to the earldoms of Cumberland and of