NOVISSIMI

In 1337, as part of a reorganisation in preparation for war, Edward III created a new noble rank in England by making his son duke of Cornwall. At the same time he created several new earls, prominent among them his allies in the overthrow of Mortimer in 1330 now, it would seem, receiving their reward. The chronicler Thomas Gray was unimpressed by these elevations, believing that it must entail the diminution of the king's estates, leaving him ‘obliged to subsist upon levies and subsidies’. Perhaps Gray was instinctively appalled by what he saw as favouritism on a large scale. But for most, as the silence of the chroniclers on the subject suggests, the elevations passed without special note. The new earls of Salisbury, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Northampton, Gloucester and Derby were not, like Gaveston or the Lusignans, rapacious foreigners. They were not, like Gaveston when he was made earl of Cornwall, suspected of improper access to the king; nor were they old and past making war, like the elder Despenser when he became earl of Winchester, nor believed to be running the country themselves, like Mortimer when he became earl of March in 1328. They were all about the king's age or a little older; they were, like him, able–bodied enthusiasts for the tournament and for war.

At times, no doubt, the line between despised favourites and the worthy elect (regardless of national affiliation) might still have been a fine one.