Edward II of England barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the king's reign mounted. The Despenser family, in particular Hugh Despenser the Younger, became close friends and advisers to Edward, but Lancaster and many of the barons seized the Despensers' lands
Battle of Allt Camhna they were guilty of treachery, which is much worse than a defeat. The day and place were fixed for their meeting the Caithness men, and they did not appear, but allowed those to be cut down by a host which had laid their accounts to have the combined forces of Caithness and Sutherland to contend with"". 17th-century historian Sir Robert Gordon (1580–1656), who was living at the time of the battle and who was a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, wrote an account of the battle in his book "A Genealogical History of the Earldom of