 Edward II was a weak and ineffectual king ( made to look the more so by comparison with his father and son , Edward I and Edward III ) , and his reign was marked by military failure and internal strife . A great number of the barony turned against the King , and the leader of the opposition eventually became Thomas of Lancaster . Lancaster was Edward 's cousin , and next to the King he was the richest man in the country . Through a set of regulations known as the Ordinances , Lancaster and his associates had been trying to put restrictions on royal authority , but by the late 1310s Edward was again in full control of central government . The situation was aggravated by the King 's ostentatious patronage of his favourite , Hugh Despenser , and Hugh 's father by the same name . 
