Boulogne agreement The Boulogne agreement was a document signed by a group of English magnates in 1308 , concerning the government of Edward II . After the death of Edward I in 1307 , discontent soon developed against the new king . This was partly due to lingering problems from the previous reign , but also related to issues with Edward II himself . Particularly his abandonment of the Scottish Wars and his patronage of the unpopular Piers Gaveston caused discontent . Drawn up in Boulogne - sur - Mer during the king ' s nuptials , the document vaguely asserted the signatories ' duty to guard the rights of the Crown . Three months later , the agreement was the basis for another document , justifying opposition to the king . This latter document , the so - called Declaration of 1308 , is notable for its use of the " doctrine of capacities " : the distinction between the person of the King and the institution of the Crown . The document today exists only in a 17th - century transcript by the antiquarian William Dugdale . The Boulogne agreement was largely unknown to modern historians up until the 1960s , but it is now considered significant because it is the first documented expression of the conflict between king and nobility , which was to dominate so much of the reign of Edward II . Though historians agree on the document ' s importance , there is still disagreement over its interpretation , particularly whether the signatories should be seen as oppositional or loyal to the king . Background . Edward II succeeded as king of England on 7 July 1307 , on the death of his father Edward I . The expectations of the new king were high , and he initially enjoyed a good relationship with the leading magnates of the realm . There were , however , some issues of contention remaining from the reign of his father . Edward I ' s incessant wars had put a great fiscal burden on the country , and his confrontational style had led to conflict with some of the leading lay and ecclesiastical lords . This had culminated in the drafting of the so - called Remonstrances in 1297 , a set of complaints about royal government . By Edward I ' s death in 1307 , most of these issued had been resolved . It was nevertheless in the interest of the leading men of the country to make sure that the new king did not act the way his father had , and ignored the opinions of his councillors . There were also certain personal issues regarding the new king that caused concern . Shortly before his death , Edward I had exiled Prince Edward ' s favourite and possible lover Piers Gaveston , whom the king believed had too much influence over the prince . At his deathbed he had supposedly exhorted some of his closest followers Henry de Lacy , Earl of Lincoln , Guy de Beauchamp , Earl of Warwick , Aymer de Valence , Earl of Pembroke and Robert Clifford to keep watch over his son , and particularly to make sure that Gaveston did not return . One of Edward II ' s first actions as king was nevertheless to recall Gaveston from exile . He also gave him the title of Earl of Cornwalla title normally reserved for members of the royal familythereby furthering the aggravation against the favourite . Another source of discontent was Edward II abandoning the Scottish Wars pursued by his father . This left the way open for Robert the Bruce to regain land the English had conquered , to the detriment of many English magnates . On 22 January 1308 , Edward II left England for France , leaving Gaveston behind as Regent . By the Treaty of Montreuil in 1299 , it had been agreed that Edward should marry Isabella , the daughter of Philippe IV of France . Accompanying the king were several great nobles , including Lincoln , Pembroke , Clifford , John de Warenne , Earl of Surrey and Humphrey de Bohun , Earl of Hereford . On 25 January Edward and Isabella were married at Boulogne - sur - Mer , and on 31 January Edward performed homage for the Duchy of Aquitaine , which the English king held of the French king . On that same day , the nobles mentioned above , with others , gathered to sign the document that has become known to history as the Boulogne agreement . Document and interpretation . The document was signed and dated at Boulogne on the 31 January 1308 . At the top of the list of signatories was Antony Bek , Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem . He was followed by the four earls Lincoln , Pembroke , Surrey and Hereford , and five men of baronial families : Clifford , Payn Tybetot , Henry de Gray , John de Botetourt and John de Berwick . The document today exists in the Bodleian Library in Oxford , as a transcript made by the 17th - century antiquarian William Dugdale . Dugdale ' s transcript is believed to be based on an older document , which was probably lost in the Cotton library fire of 1731 . The text of the document is rather vague and noncommittal . The signatories were concerned with guarding the king ' s honour and the rights of the Crown ( " garder son honeur et les dreits de sa Corounne " ) . There was also a promise to address and correct both the things that had been done against that honour and those rights , as well as the past and present oppression of the people ( " les choses que sont feites avant ces houres countre soen honour et le droit de sa Coronne , et les oppressiouns que ount estre feit et uncore se fount de jour en jour a soen people " ) . Nothing is said about what specifically these things were , but it must be assumed that the target was Gaveston . Bek was given the authority to excommunicate whoever broke the terms of the agreement . Because of the vague language of the document , there has been much scholarly debate over how it should be interpreted . John Maddicott saw the wording as a hostile warning to the new king to avoid the mistakes of his father , or face the consequences . J . R . S . Phillips , on the other hand , took the signatories to be positively inclined towards Edward II . There were others who were more intrinsic in their opposition to the king and Gaveston , primarily the Earl of Warwick . The purpose of the document , in Phillips view , was to present the king with a warning , and hopefully protect him against the more antagonistic members of the nobility . Aftermath and transmission . The Boulogne agreement had little immediate impact , and is notable mostly for its influence on a later document presented in parliament in April that year . In the meanwhile , on 25 February , the king had been crowned . Before the coronation , the king had been forced to include an additional clause in his coronation oath . The king obliged himself to abide by the law , but this exact meaning of this promise was ambiguous . The clause referred to laws the people " shall have chosen " ( " aura eslu " ) , which left it unclear whether it also included future enactments . At the coronation ceremony that followed , Gaveston acted with such presumption and arrogance as to further alienate the leading magnates . The document from the April parliament , today referred to as the Declaration of 1308 , contained three articles and was presented by the Earl of Lincoln . The first article invoked the so - called " doctrine of capacities " : that the subjects of the realm owed allegiance to the institution of the Crown , not to the person of the King . If the King abused his position , it was his subject ' s duty to correct this , thereby upholding the pledge of the Boulogne agreement to protect the rights of the Crown . The second article was an attack on Gavestonthough he was not mentioned by nameimplicitly demanding his renewed exile . The third article referred to the additional clause from the coronation oath . It was here taken to mean that the king had obliged himself to abide by any decisions made by his subjects ; past , present or future . The king initially held out against the opposition , but the earls also received support from Philippe IV , who was offended by Edward ' s apparent preference of Gaveston over Isabella . On 18 May Edward agreed to once again send Gaveston into exile . Dugdale both transcribed the Boulogne agreement and made a reference to it , in a footnote in his 1675 " Baronage of England " . After this the document was absent from history writing for almost three centuries . Dugdale ' s footnote was mentioned by certain historians , but it was not until 1965 that the document itself was again used as a source , when Noël Denholm – Young quoted a few lines from it in his " History and Heraldry : 1254 – 1310 " . In 1972 , J . R . S . Phillips printed a complete transcription of the Boulogne agreement in his book " Aymer de Valence , Earl of Pembroke 1307 – 1324 " .