The favourite was a fine soldier, and his lance unhorsed his opponents in tourney after tourney.

His reckless wit flung nicknames about the Court, the Earl of Lancaster was "the Actor," Pembroke "the Jew," Warwick "the Black Dog." But taunt and defiance broke helplessly against the iron mass of the baronage.

After a few months of power the formal demand of the Parliament for his dismissal could not be resisted, and in May 1308 Gaveston was formally banished from the realm.
[Sidenote: Thomas of Lancaster] But Edward was far from abandoning his favourite.

In Ireland he was unfettered by the baronage, and here Gaveston found a refuge as the King's Lieutenant while Edward sought to obtain his recall by the intervention of France and the Papacy.

But the financial pressure of the Scotch war again brought the king and his Parliament together in the spring of 1309.