Even if the Commons took little part in forming decisions, their force when formed hung on the assent of the knights and burgesses to them; and the grant which alone could purchase from the Crown the concessions which the Baronage demanded lay absolutely within the control of the Third Estate.

It was this which made the king's struggles so fruitless.

He assented to the Ordinances, and then withdrawing to the North recalled Gaveston and annulled them.

But Winchelsey excommunicated the favourite, and the barons, gathering in arms, besieged him in Scarborough.
His surrender in May 1312 ended the strife.

The "Black Dog" of Warwick had sworn that the favourite should feel his teeth; and Gaveston flung himself in vain at the feet of the Earl of Lancaster, praying for pity "from his gentle lord." In defiance of the terms of his capitulation he was beheaded on Blacklow Hill.
[Sidenote: Bannockburn] The king's burst of grief was as fruitless as his threats of vengeance; a feigned submission of the conquerors completed the royal humiliation, and the barons knelt before Edward in Westminster Hall to receive a pardon which seemed the deathblow of the royal power.