Edward II Biography - The life of Edward II England's Worst King? Documentary

the year is 1326 a fleet is sighted off the east coast of England panic spreads throughout the countryside when French banners spotted amongst the approaching ships but on landing the locals are greeted not by a hostile French invasion force but by the Queen of England Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer their goal to depose the king of England whose reign and miss rule had become increasingly scandalous King Edward the second England's most contentious King [Music] the man known to history as King Edward ii was born on the 25th of april 1284 achenar van castle in northwestern wales edward was born on the feast day of st. mark the evangelist and at birth he was given the title Lord Edward of Caernarfon he was the fourth son of his father King Edward the first after whom he was named who himself was named after his father King Henry's favorite Saint Edward the Confessor Edward Spanish mother Queen Eleanor of Castile was 42 when she gave birth to Edward her youngest child she was born in 1241 the daughter of King Fernando the third of Castile and Leon who was later canonized as San Fernando despite the great celebrations on his arrival Edward was not born an heir as his eldest brother Alfonso was alive when Edward was born however Alfonso unfortunately came to an untimely end on the 19th of August 12 84 at the age of 10 when Edward was only four months old making Edward heir to the throne of England although he would not be made Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester until the 7th of February 1301 and he received the Duchy of Aquitaine from his father on the 7th of April 13:06 just six weeks before he was knighted at Westminster Abbey two other sons of King Edward the 1st and Queen Eleanor John and Henry had died at the ages of five and six in 1271 and 1274 respectively making the only remaining son precious indeed but Lord Edward was a hardy child who only suffered from one reported illness during his childhood which was a tertian fever shortly after he turned 10 years of age additionally King Edward the 1st and Queen Eleanor also had 10 daughters only five of whom survived to adulthood Lord Edward was born in Wales a year after his father had conquered the region and he would leave Wales at just a few months old and would not return until shortly before his 17th birthday in April 1301 furthermore at the time of his birth Lord Edward was proclaimed great portent or omen of a great or significant happening some said that the end of the world was near and that Edward would be a latter-day king Arthur leading England to great glory the first great loss that Edward ii experienced was at the age of 6 with the death of his mother eleanor on the 28th of november 12 94 / it was said that King Edward the first Greek greatly for his queen building the eleanor crosses in her memory which were crosses built in the twelve places that the Queen's funeral procession had stopped on the way to Westminster and it was on Queen Eleanor's death the six year old Edward inherited the title count upon - from her seven months later Edward would also lose his paternal grandmother eleanor of provence widow of henry the 3rd and it could be said that the lack of a guiding maternal figure in Edwards young life may have affected him emotionally in later life but Edward was not completely without female care as he was looked after by a wet nurse as a baby called Mary or Mary otter mon-sol who would later be replaced by alice delay grave where mary became ill young Edward would not have much contact in his early years with his natural mother Eleanor as she would be away in the Duchy of Aquitaine with Edwards father for much of his infancy and so Edward was cared for as a baby by employees of the King under the direction of a clerk named Charles of Denard and later as he grew you'd be educated by Dominican friars and his tutor Sir Guy fair during his early years Edward would spend the winters at Langley near st. Albans and during the summer he would tour around the South of England and the Midlands with his entourage in tow and the meals and horse care his party needed would often put a burden on the local towns folk due to the party's numbers as well as a large staff Edward also had the companionship of several children of high birth who were recorded as part of his household during the 12 90s such as more chained worth the granddaughter of the Earl of Warwick Elinor deburr her eldest daughter of the Earl of Ulster and Humphrey de Bohun heir to the earldom of Hereford and in the early 1300s the nephew of the Earl of Gloucester Gilbert declare who was law omen in Ireland Hugh Despenser when he was a boy and piers Gaveston and Noble from France were also part of his household and indeed biz Gaveston was originally a squire Edward the first household and was recorded in the records by the nickname Perrault physically edward ii was a striking figure he was kingly tall and handsome lacking his father's lists for his grandfather Henry the thirds drooping eye he was elegant and strong and his fair curly hair fell almost to his shoulders and was parted in the middle he also wore a mustache and a beard and when he came to the throne he was seen at first as a breath of fresh air after the long 35-year reign of his father he was athletic a good Horseman like his father and popular at first but public opinion was soon to change when knowledge of his strange pastimes became known Edward would swim row and dig ditches gamble and even thatch roofs he was not fond of warfare and he did not like to hold tournaments some thought his uncanny behavior indicated that this man was not suited or Adid happy with his lot as king of england and would not live up to his father's reputation the chronicler randolph higdon claimed that edward preferred the company of jesters carriage drivers diggers and sailors to the company of knights additionally there are records of dinner guests of Edwards that included sailors barge masters and carpenters it is true that Edward the seconds reputation with his people and with the know was at court and even with his own father would suffer from his pursuit of unsuitable pastimes and also his seeming obsession with unsuitable favorites whom he would shower with privileges the first and perhaps most famous of Edwards favorites was the son of inaudible ston a Gascon Knight and vassal to Edward the first in his role as Duke of Aquitaine who served with Edward the first during the Welsh Wars of 1282 and 1283 the son's name was Piers Gaveston it was Edward the first who initially sent piers Gaveston to live in his son's household when Edward was just 16 as he had impressed Edward the first with his military prowess when he served in his army in Flanders in 1297 and also in Scotland in 1300 it is thought that Edward the first place Gaveston in his son's household to act as a role model as he was an excellent jester brilliant soldier and was very courageous and according to the chronicler Jeffrey Baker he was agile in body and also graceful refined and well versed in military matters in 1304 at the request of young Edward the king gave Gaveston the wardship of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore after the death of his father this act showed that the king had confidence in his sons companion at the time as he would have charge of Mortimer's possessions until the child came of age Piers Gaveston was of noble birth his family being from the village of Gaveston close to the Pyrenees from which the family took their name he is thought to have been older than Edward a flamboyant character who was a member of Edward the first household from November 12 97 however by 1303 Gaveston was described as Edward the second companion and Edward was known to show him great affection in public and indeed it was blatant that Edward loved the man but whether it was brotherly love or some deeper sexual attraction is a subject of debate among scholars one school of thought suggests that despite a great love edward ii had four piers Gaveston it was not necessarily a romantic love as we know it today as the bonds of love and brotherhood between men were common during this time additionally it would refer to Gaveston as dear and faithful brother and one chronicler calls him a great Earl who the King had adopted as a brother and French historian Pierre Shapley suggested that the relationship might have been one of adoptive Brotherhood in which each participant pledges support to the other as if they were brothers it is indisputable that Gow astone did hold great influence over Edward however the idea that their relationship was sexual was largely due to the play of 1592 by Christopher Marlowe called Edward the second by the words from an anonymous chronicler of the thirteen 20s have also been interpreted as suggestive of a sexual element to their relationship although the words used such as indissoluble love covenant of constancy and fastened with a knot do not suggest sexual overtones at all but are quite vague and indeed it was the case at the time that sodomy was a heresy and was condemned by the church in 14th century England so it was not something that Edward either as heir to the crown or indeed as King would have undertaken lightly the first blatant reference to homosexuality came in 1334 when the Bishop of Winchester Adam Alton was accused of saying that Edward was a sodomite but he later defended himself saying that he had in fact been referring to Hugh Despenser the younger and not the late king himself it has also been suggested that the comments were in large part politically motivated but in the 13 90 s the mere chronicles noted that Edward gave himself quote too much to the vise of sodomy but it had been suggested that such allegations may have been influenced by Alton's original comment which was later retracted in fact both Gaveston and edward ii had sexual relationships with their wives and father children with them and edward also fathered an illegitimate son adam at some point between 1305 and 1310 when he was in his 20s and he was also said to have an affair with his niece Eleanor de Clare furthermore historians such as Seymour Philips and Michael Prestwich make the point that the public nature of the English royal court would have made keeping a homosexual affair secret almost impossible it is also the case that the church at the time as well as Edwards father and father-in-law may no known critical comments about Edwards sex life although the exact nature of the relationship between Edward and piers Gaveston is uncertain it is known that the favoritism shown to Gaveston caused widespread resentment and jealousy throughout the kingdom not least because of the arrogance that Gaveston was said to have shown and this fact was not lost on the king who perhaps felt the actions of his young heir would only serve to anger his nobles in 1259 King Henry the 3rd and Louis the 9th had signed the Treaty of Paris which stated that lands in France owned by the English such as Gascony were held by the English kings as a vassal to France and that the English kings had to pay homage to each new French king as their feudal overlord for holding these lands whenever a new king of either country was crowned the English Kings found his practice demeaning and the French Kings resented the English Kings holding so much land in France as part of the Treaty of Paris failure to pay homage to the King of France in a timely manner would lead to the confiscation of the held lands and indeed Philip the fourth did seize Gascony from Edward the first in 1294 when Edward refused to travel to Paris to discuss an incident and the port of La Rochelle and so in August 12 97 Edward the first left England on a campaign against the French and Philip the 4th in Flanders to defend his territory in Gascony which had been occupied by the French king's forces edward ii he was only 13 at the time was left behind and made regent in the Kings absence but this was not an easy time for Edward to be Regent as during the same year William Wallace had defeated the English at Stirling Bridge and there was also great disagreement between Edward the first and the Earl's of Norfolk and Hereford which made it an unsettled time in England the outcome of the French campaign for Edward the first was the peace treaty he signed with King Philip the fourth which outlined an agreement whereby King Edward the first whose first wife Eleanor died in 1290 would marry Philips half sister Margaret while his son would marry Philips daughter Isabella at some point in the future as at the time she was just an infant this agreement gave the English monarchy the Keith territory of cayenne as well as ensuring the return of eleanor of Castillo's lands in poncho and Montreux but more importantly it would ensure that a descendent of both kings but ruled a Duchy of Gascony in the future and so prevented further conflict it would the First's marriage to Margaret produced two stepbrothers for young Edward Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock in 1300 and 1301 and the relationship between the extended step family and Edward was seemingly cordial as when he was later crowned King Edward would provide his two stepbrothers with both income and titles in 1300 when Edward the first returned to Scotland as part of his ongoing campaign he took young Edward along making him commander of the rearguard at the siege of caerlaverock and on the 7th of February 1301 the King made Edward Prince of Wales an Earl of Chester granting him extensive lands across North Wales in an attempt not only to give Edward his own income but also to help pacify the region Edward also joined the King on the campaign of 1301 in Scotland which saw him captured Turnberry castle and in 1303 he used his own siege engine to besiege breeching castle and in the spring of 1304 he took part in peace negotiations on behalf of his father with the Scottish rebels but when no agreement was found he joined his father once more for the siege of Stirling Castle the year 1305 was marked by a quarrel that young Prince Edward had with Walter Langton the royal treasurer over the amount of money Edward received from the crown his father sided with the treasurer and Edward and his companions were banished from court and his financial support was curtailed however the Rif didn't last long and father and son was soon reconciled in 1306 Edward the first have been greatly angered by the actions of his former ally Robert the Bruce including his crowning at Scoon Abbey as King of Scotland and is stabbing to death of his great enemy John the Red common in the Franciscan Greyfriars Church in Dumfries prior to the crowning of Robert the Bruce there had been a ten-year interregnum in Scotland from when the previous King John Bay Deol had been removed from the throne in 1296 and whilst the English kings at the time did not lay claim to the Scottish throne they did feel entitled to interfere in Scottish affairs and they also believed that the Scottish Kings owed fealty or loyalty to the kings of England in return for the kingdom they ruled both Edward the first and Edward ii would not recognize Robert the Bruce as king of the Scots and the same was true of the Pope because of Bruce's killing of John Comyn on sacred ground a much of edward ii reign would be marked by constant campaigns to defeat Robert the Bruce and claim his position as overlord of Scotland and on the 7th of April 13:06 when King Edward the first made his son Duke of Aquitaine his intention was for Edward to lead the campaign against Robert the Bruce and finally quashed the Scottish rebels edward ii was knighted by his father on the 22nd of May 1306 in Westminster Palace and he then in turn 9300 are the young men in Westminster Abbey this ceremony became known as the feast of the swans since Edward had a pair of golden swans brought before the gathering and after the meal Edward would also swear an oath that he would not sleep two nights in one place until the Scots had been defeated listening to Edwards promises were Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser the Earl's of sorry Anne Arundel and also there was Roger Mortimer who was to play a great part in edward ii downfall 20 years later during this time Edward's extravagant gestures towards Gaveston continued one example would be the incident recorded by Walter of guys borough he recounts that in 1307 Edward told his father the king of his intention to give his favorite piers Gaveston the title count of Ponty which Edward had inherited from his mother Eleanor of Castile on her death this reportedly calls the King to fly into a rage and defamed Edward and even to lay hands on him possibly saying that he would not have Edward inherit his lands would it not split the Kingdom it is also thought that piers Gaveston may have been involved in an argument that edward ii had with the treasurer walter Langton in 1305 following which galliston and edward had been banished from court however the instant of 1307 was deemed much more serious by the king as it resulted in him sending Gaveston into exile on the continent from the 30th of april 1307 but the Exile was more of a punishment for Edward rather than Gaveston himself and even though he was looked after financially by Edward the first as he gave him a dowry of a hundred marks a year while he was absent young Edward generous as ever made sure that galliston left the kingdom with horses luxurious clothes as well as 260 pounds the skala chronica states that the reason for gaveston's banishment in 1307 was that he was quote accused before the king of diverse crimes and vices which rendered him unfit company for the king's son but it is likely that the real reason that he was unfit company was because of Edwards love and favoritism towards him which the King felt might cause resentment amongst the nobles when Edward became King himself while his father lay dying in burr by sands it was recorded by one chronicler then he gathered his Nobles around him and is structured them to take care of young Edward but also to prevent the return from exile of Gaveston these Nobles included Henry de Lacy the Earl of Lincoln he de Beauchamp the earl of warwick and a matt de Valence who would later become the Earl of Pembroke King Edward the first died at the age of 68 on the seventh of July 1307 in Berbice Anne's on his way once again accompanied by a large army to confront Robert the Bruce he died with Scotland's borders within sight but whilst his son and now the new king edward ii have been on his way to join his father he decided to stop and turn back when he reached northampton and he sent his father two barrels of expensive sturgeon in his place however on hearing the news that his father had died edward ii left london and started the march north to carlisle edward ii rein would be marked by controversy concerning the exact nature of his relationship with piers Gaveston but also because of his blatant favoritism additionally following his father's death it would immediately recalled Gaveston from the exile in France that King Edward the first sent him to despite knowing that it was against his father's wishes this first act as king would come to typify his political naivety as when his favoritism to male followers during his reign which greatly antagonize the great Earl's just as his father had feared on the 23rd of July Edward oversaw the departure of his father's funeral procession for London and Westminster Abbey led by the Bishop of Durham Antony Beck and Edward then set off on the 30-mile march to Dumfries with the aim of hunting down Robert the Bruce and also meeting up with his favourite piers Gaveston which he did when he arrived in Dumfries in August and it was speculated that this would have been an emotional meeting due to the fact that Edward by this time loved Gaveston deeply and hadn't seen him since April Edward ii had inherited the earldom of cornwall from his father who in turn had inherited it from the childless Earl Edmund nephew of Henry the third but on the 6th of August 1307 just a month after his father's death Edward passed it on to his favourite piers Gaveston again much to the annoyance of the Earl's who were forced to put their seals to the Charter which is today housed in the National Archives in Kew and only one dissenting Earl refused to sign the Charter that was the Earl of Warwick the earldom of Cornwall had been one of the great titles of the Plantagenet era and included lands in the southwest as well as Berkshire Oxfordshire and Yorkshire with an income of around four thousand pounds per year and not only did Edward bestow this title on Gaveston who the Earl saw as unworthy but he also promised him the hand in marriage of Margaret declare the daughter of the powerful Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Joan of acre Edwards sister however this act which many saw as overly generous and inappropriate for a person of gaveston's low standing would also be a decision that would ultimately prove dangerous politically for Edward as his love and favor for Gaveston was an indisputable fact as was the gulf between their backgrounds which was large and these indignities and injustice is greatly angered the Earl's but it was also frowned upon by Edward the first second wife Margaret of France who had hopes that the title would have gone to one of her sons and Edwards half-brothers Thomas of Brotherton or Edmund of Woodstock Edward had inherited debts of some two hundred thousand pounds from his father's reign when he came to the throne but a good king should always be able to refinance and cope with this deficit at one of the greater challenges left to edward ii by his father was the critical issue of the extent of english control in scotland as edward the first long military campaign against the Scots and his issues with Robert the Bruce had not been concluded before his death while stone dunfries in 1307 after the death of Edward the first the Scottish Lords loyal to Edward the second paid homage to him and then on the 12th of August Edward start to march north to pursue Robert the Bruce accompanied by Gaveston but after passing through sank want to reach come knock in the southern territories of Scotland it seemed and nothing of any value was being achieved and so they marched south again to Carlisle and then on to neseber Castle in Yorkshire which was now owned by Gaveston whilst some chroniclers at the time claimed that the new King abandoned the campaign Scotland in 1307 as he was eager to return south to marry his young fiancee Isabella it was probably more likely that he wanted to return to take over the running of his father's government and make the necessary arrangements for his wedding in France and more importantly his own coronation and so it was that Edward the second abandoned the war in Scotland in August 1307 and marched south firstly to Yorkshire and then on to Nottingham in September and then to Northampton in October where he would hold his first Parliament in order to make the necessary arrangements for his father's funeral and for his coronation and wedding to Isabella of France which took place in January 1308 employing Edward the second was betrothed four times during his childhood the first time was to Margaret the maid of Norway his cousin and daughter of eric ii of norway and the granddaughter of Alexander the third of Scotland who on Alexander's death in 1286 became Queen of Scotland but a marriage between her and Edward ii would never happen as in september 1290 she died at the age of only seven his second betrothal was in 1291 when Edward was 7 and was to Blanche a half-sister of Philip the fourth of France but following the war that ensued between Edward the first and Philip the fourth the engagement was called off and Edward was then betrothed to Philippa daughter of The Count of Flanders who was Edward's Ally but his betrothal was ended when in 1297 and with the 1st and Philip the fourth made peace and ultimately it was the betrothal that took place in 1299 to Isabella daughter of Philip the 4th which was the one that ended in marriage for Edward the second the funeral Edward the first took place at Westminster Abbey on the 27th of October 1307 where he was buried close to both his first wife Eleanor of Castile and his father Henry the third in the chapel of Edward the Confessor then following his father's funeral Edward published an edict which stated that galliston should henceforth be addressed only by his title as Earl of Cornwall which was intended to force the nobility to accept him as they equal and show him due respect he also wanted gavest on to be part of his royal family and so he made sure that the promise of marriage for Piers Gaveston to Edwards niece Margaret de Clare was kept and so in November 1307 only five days after Edward the First's funeral piers Gaveston married Margaret declare Edward the seconds nice daughter of Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Joan of acre Edward's own sister his niece Margaret was only 13 at the time and Gaveston was in his mid-20s Gaveston held a jousting tournament in honor of his new bride and which his Knights defeated the Earl's of Hereford Surrey an errand all increasing their feelings of hostility towards him as they felt he was both arrogant and lowborn they also hated the fact that he monopolized Edward the seconds attention being constantly present a court when Edward saw his barons Earl's and other Nobles edward ii ascended to the throne of england on the 20th of july 1307 a carlisle castle he was named King of England and Lord of Ireland adding another two titles to the four he already held and luckily for Edward opposition to the Royals was minimal at this time as the Earl of Norfolk and the Earl of Hereford who had caused Edward the first in trouble and recently died and Thomas Earl of Lancaster in Gilbert Earl of Gloucester where's cousin and nephew respectively as well as this walter Langton the royal treasurer and gaveston's enemy who had clashed with edward ii in 1305 was fired his lands were taken and he was imprisoned however Archbishop wind Chelsea of Canterbury who'd been exiled by his father was restored to the bishopric by the Pope at Edwards request this action would prove to be one of Edwards many mistakes as King as when Chelsea would become one of Edwards fiercest enemies then on the 26th of December 1307 Edward appointed Gaveston as cousteau reg knee or keeper of the realm while he traveled to France to marry his bride Isabella giving the nobles even more reason to dislike Gaveston as such a prominent role would normally be carried out by a high court official a member of the royal family or an archbishop and so Edwards actions gave Gaveston power over the realm confirmed by a Great Seal Edward and Isabella had been promised to each other since 1299 when Edward was 15 and Isabella was three or four and in beloit in France on the 25th of January 13 eight edward ii married the twelve-year-old isabella who was 11 years his junior are reportedly very beautiful as well as greedy an extremely extravagant but also compassionate pious and courageous and their early marriage was quite successful isabella proven to be an ally and a great companion to edward with isabella becoming pregnant with their first child four years after their marriage at the age of 16 the negotiations with philip the fourth over the size of Isabella's dowry had not been easy for the english royals during which edward agreed to pay homage to Philip for the Duchy of Aquitaine and to finish the implementation of the 1303 Treaty of Paris and in return Philip became Isabella wedding gifts worth over 21,000 leave and reputedly a fragment of the true cross and Edward gave his bride assaulter an illuminated manuscript containing the Book of Psalms their coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on Sunday the 25th of February 1308 in the presence of the nobles of England and France the Abbey had been restored and was adorned with a fountain producing wine as well as marble tables and forty ovens and it was Piers Gaveston immediately preceding the king and queen in the procession who carried the Royal Crown of Edward the Confessor the most sacred of all the Royal Regalia carried at the ceremony which was carried out of the Abbey by Henry would lock the Bishop of Winchester Edward entered the Abbey dressed in green silk and walking on a carpet of petals and it was recorded in the annals Pellini the Gaveston was so elegantly dressed in purple silk encrusted with pearls that he even out shown the king furthermore Gaveston also led the procession out of the a be carrying the royal sword of Edward the Confessor curtana which had been carried into the Abbey by the Earl of Lancaster in addition the banqueting-hall walls were adorned with Edward and Gaveston arms rather than Edward and Isabella's and Gaveston took pride of place next edward ii was the subject to his rapt attention all this was seen as rather insulting to the young queen isabella and only served to anger the English Nobles further as well as the French King indeed isabella wrote to her father that edward was an entire stranger to my bed and suggested that Gaveston was the cause of this however it should be remembered that marriages to young brides at this time for marriages in name only until the girl was of childbearing age so Edward's inattention to Isabella can be understood in this context as she was only 12 at that time and considered young even by the standards of the period and so for their first years together Edward would probably have employed the sexual services of a mistress whilst the marriage of Edward ii and isabella did not get off to the best of starts there is evidence from their letters to suggest that they developed a real affection between them edward calling isabella my dear heart and isabella referring to edward ii as my very sweet heart moreover their marriage produced four children their first son was the future King Edward the third born in 1312 their second son John of Alton was born in 1316 their first daughter Eleanor of Woodstock was born in 1318 and Joan was born in 1321 and Edwards illegitimate son Adam was probably born around 1307 before Isabella and Edward were married the early days of their marriage however were not an easy time for Edward as the favoritism that he showed to piers Gaveston led the country to the brink of Civil War additionally the position of the nobles was also held by King Philip the fourth of France who saw his daughter's treatment by Edward has caused by Gaveston and Edwards stepmother who's also Philips half-sister Margaret also had reason to dislike Gaveston and was said to have sent 40,000 pounds to the English nobles to fund their opposition of him although gaveston's returned from exile in 1307 had initially been accepted by the Earl's opposition was beginning to grow once more not least because of the influence he held over Edward as one chronicler put it two kings reigning in one Kingdom the one in name and the other in deed and he also provoked anger concerning his prominent role and Edwards coronation and perhaps as a result of this animosity he was accused both of stealing royal funds as well as Isabella's wedding gifts at the Parliament of February 1308 the Earth's refused to discuss government reform with Edward until the matter of Gaveston had been resolved and the heated discussion was only cooled with the intervention of the Earl of Lincoln Henry de Lacy who asked the other Earl's to back down and he was only Hugh Despenser the elder who supported Edward however at a session of Parliament in May of 1308 the opposition of the nobles to Gaveston resulted in Henry de Lacy the Earl of Lincoln requesting the Gaveston be exiled to Aquitaine and a threat of excommunication should he return and so faced with civil war by this time edward ii agree to exile his favourite piers Gaveston who had until the 25th of June to leave England or face excommunication and although Edward agreed initially he decided instead to send Gaveston across the Irish Sea and made him Kings Lieutenant of Ireland at a third meeting of Parliament in August 1308 to discuss reform Edward put forward a plan for another military campaign against Scotland but this was sidelined and secretly Edward began negotiations with Pope Clement the fifth as well as Phil at the 4th in order to secure the return of Gaveston to England by offering to suppress the Knights Templars and to release Walter Langton from prison at a further meeting of Parliament in 1309 the Earl's still refusing to allow Gaveston to return from exile offered Edward further taxes in return for his agreement to a program of governmental reform however after Edward assured the Pope that the conflict surrounding Gaveston had subsided and in the presence of concerns over how the original decision to exile him had been taken the Pope decided to annul the threat of excommunication and so the way was left open for Gaveston to return to England Gaveston did in fact arrive back in England in June of 1309 another next Parliament in August Edward made concessions to the Earl's who had opposed Gaveston by limiting the powers of the Royal Stuart and the marshal of the royal household as well as agreeing to limit the Crown's powers of her veins which was the force selling of provisions for the army and low prices he also agreed to cancel recently enacted customs legislation in return polymer - greed that Edward should receive more taxes to fund his campaigns in Scotland and it seemed at this point that a compromise might have been reached however on his return Gaveston continued to anger the Earl's with his arrogant and haughty manner even seemingly provoking them by giving them insulting nicknames such as the Black Dog of Arden for the Earl of Warwick Joseph the Jew for the Earl of Pembroke Shirl for the Earl of Lancaster son for the Earl of Gloucester and burst belly for the Earl of Lincoln in fact Warwick was recorded as saying quote if he calls me a dog be sure that I will bite him so soon as I shall perceive my opportunity the unrest culminated in the Earl's coming to the Parliament of February 13 10 armed and demanding that Edward put right the problems facing the realm at the time these issues were that the hard-won lands his father had acquired in Scotland were now being lost again to Scotland and that Edward was being misled by evil counsel and was wasting Treasury money and further that he could not manage his own household as his officials would take goods from the poor by the misuse of powers of prevalence and that he had brought shame on the country which was now divided it was then that Edward faced with a possible revolt was forced to agree in March 13 10 - the formation of a group of 21 Earl's known as the Lords or Dana to replace Gaveston as Edward's Council and reformed the governance of England as well as Edwards own household then in September of 1310 Edward and Gaveston took an army of 4700 men to Scotland but Robert the Bruce would not give battle and so with little progress made over the winter and supplies a money running low Edward returned south in the summer of 13 11 however in Edward's absence in Scotland Anthony beg Bishop of Durham had died as well as this Edward's Regent Henry de Lacy the Earl of Lincoln had also died with Lincoln's death Edward's cousin Thomas the Earl of Lancaster grew even more powerful as he inherited Lincoln's earldoms through his wife Lincoln sister and so now held Lancaster Lester Lincoln Salisbury and Derby with an income of around eleven thousand pounds a year from his lands making him by far the most powerful and wealthy Earl in England and he had wielded this power whilst Edward was in Scotland as Lancaster was duty-bound to give homage to Edward for the lands he held but refused to do so in Scotland forcing Edward to cross the Tweed to accept homage from Lancaster in haggis tton during Edwards absence in Scotland the or Dana's had drawn up the ordinances of 1311 which Edward accepted in October 13 11 the reforms limited the King's authority to go to war or to grant lands without Parliament's approval it also gave Parliament control of the royal administration as well as abolishing the system of pavilions and it also excluded the borrowing of money from the Italian Frescobaldi bankers whom Edward by this time Oh twenty-one thousand pounds in addition a system was implemented to check the ordinances were being kept but most devastating for Edward the ordinances exiled Gaveston wants more insisting that he should not be allowed to live in any lands owned by Edward including Gascony and Island and that he should lose his titles Edward was forced to accept gaveston's exile although it took six weeks for him to agree to this particular Clause of the ordinances and later he sought advice on the exile of others as to how he might bring him back but ultimately Gaveston was ordered into exile by the 1st of November 13:11 however he left later than ordered on the 3rd or 4th of November from the thames possibly for northern France or Flanders despite gaveston's departure from England the tension between Edward and the Earl's remained high and when further ordinances ordered that other members of his household sympathetic to Gaveston should leave this further angered the king and perhaps feeling that his royal power was being stripped he decided to revoke the ordinances and recalled Gaveston from exile in early 1312 giving him back his title Earl of Cornwall Edward spent Christmas with Isabella but left Westminster on the 27th of December 13:11 and headed north with gaveston's wife his niece Margaret who is now heavily pregnant arriving in York where Margaret gave birth on the 12th of January 13 11 to gaveston's daughter Joan named after Edward's sister Joan of acre and so Edward then met up with Gaveston on the 13th of January and they traveled together to York so that Gaveston could see his wife anew one daughter the earl's met in London and stopped further funding for the king and planned a capture of Gaveston however Edward was bent on saving his favourite at all costs even asking Robert the Bruce to give him sanctuary but Robert refused and the desperate request showed that Edwards loved Gaveston was evidently more important to him than his overlordship of Scotland the loyalty of his Earls and perhaps even his throne Isabella then left for York and she was reunited with her husband in late February 1312 at Bishop Thorpe just south of York where they prominence heed their first son who would later become King Edward the third subsequently Edward and Gaveston who the Archbishop of Canterbury had excommunicated in March left for Newcastle on the 5th of April 1312 with Isabella also arriving there on the 22nd of April later moving on to Teignmouth Priory maybe because by this time Gaveston was ill they were pursued to Newcastle by Thomas Earl of Lancaster despite this Edward found time to celebrate his 28th birthday on the 25th of April by buying Isabella some large white pearls with 40 pounds he had borrowed from a genuine merchant and during this time Edward also gave Gaston custody of Scarborough Castle on order he should give it over to no one but the king himself should he have need of it showing that Edward by this time was resigned to civil war and he also ordered his vassals in France the council foie and Armagnac and the Lord of al Bray along with 120 Gascon VIII counts and Barons to come to his aid in England with armed men and horses when on the 3rd of May Edward heard of the imminent arrival of Lancaster and his army they fled to join his Abela at Teignmouth and on the 5th of May they traveled by sea to Scarborough Castle leaving behind much of their household and valuables with Isabella travelling by land instead then Edward left Gaveston as Scarborough and travelled to Knaresborough and then York where he met her with Isabella again on the 14th of May meanwhile Lancaster seized the King's possessions left behind at Tynemouth which included a gold ring with an enormous Ruby called the cherry and a gold cup studded with jewels along with 63 horses on the day the King left Scarborough castle for York Galveston was besieged there by John de Warenne the Earl of Surrey Henry Percy Aymer de Valence the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Roger de Clifford and despite the king requesting them to desist Gaveston surrendered to them on the 19th of May on condition he be kept unharmed and under house arrest at his own castle at Wallingford until he could account for his actions to Parliament on the 1st of August placed under the custody of the Earl of Pembroke Gaveston was taken south to Wallingford but they stopped at deading ttan some 30 miles short of Wallingford on the 9th of June and that night pembroke left Gaveston under guard at deading tonry while he visited his wife Beatrice and he was on the morning of the 10th of June that Gaveston awoke to the sound of horses and men surrounding the Priory it was G Beauchamp the Earl of Warwick who Gaveston had insultingly cooled the black dog Vardhan he had come for revenge Warwick then took Gaveston to Warwick Castle after publicly walking him through the streets of deading ttan stripped of his belt of knighthood barefoot and bare headed he was thrown into the dungeons of Warwick Castle and put in Chains and after a brief trial on the 18th of June he was found guilty of being a traitor by breaking the ordinances and was run through and beheaded at black low Hill the following day by the Welsh men-at-arms of the Earl of Lancaster his body was taken in by Dominican monks who so back his head tendered his body and dressed him which was paid for by both Edward and Gaveston s Widow Margaret whose family would later be provided for by Edward but the Dominicans could not bury Galveston who was after all excommunicated and so he was not buried until the 2nd of January 13 15 when his funeral was held in Kings Langley Pryor in Hartford cheer after the Archbishop of Canterbury Walter Reynolds absolved his excommunication the killing of galliston caused further division in England as Edward grieved deeply and was furious with Lancaster in particular and the division caused by his treatment of Gaveston would cause a permanent rift between the men furthermore the Earl's of Pembroke and Surrey also disagreed with what Lancaster had done and moved their support to Edward and the threat of civil war loomed once again in December of 13 12 the Earl of Pembroke brokered a peace treaty which would pardon the Earl's for their involvement in the killing of Galveston in return for their support for another campaign in Scotland but an agreement was not reached straight away and so negotiations continued throughout 1313 and a step towards peace was attained when the treaty was finally formalized at a parliament in October of the same year in June of 1313 Edward and Isabella travelled to Paris with Pembroke Richmond and other loyalists including Hugh Despenser the elder and Henry Beaumont to meet with Philip the fourth to discuss disagreements over the administration of Gascony however it was probably also on Edward's agenda to garner support from the French King in his disputes with the English Earl's their visit was an opportunity for Philip to demonstrate his great wealth and power to the English King and so their tour included the knighting of Philips son and 200 other men in an elegant and grand ceremony in nightroad arm and there were also banquets held along the River Seine as well as this both men made declaration that they would both join a crusade to the Levant against the Muslims of Egypt and they also agreed terms for settling their differences in Gascony the success of the trip was only marred by a fire which broke out in Edward's quarters on his return from his successful trip to France edward found his position in england strengthened both politically and financially as the Earl's had agreed to a peace treaty by October 1313 as well as this Parliament had agreed to the raising of taxes and loans of 25,000 pounds from the Pope and 33,000 pounds from Philip as well as further loans organised by Edwards new Italian banker and Tonio pizanno in addition by this time Edward had an air as Isabella had given birth on the 13th of November 1312 to a son Edward at Windsor baby Edwards arrival was a cause for celebration and a reason for the country to come together again he was made Earl of Chester at the age of 12 days and to mark his birth Edward had raised his 12 year old half-brother Thomas of Brotherton to the rank of Earl of Norfolk however some Earl's were still disgruntled about other loyalist supporters of the King and their influence over him including Hugh Despenser the elder who had consistently remained loyal to Edward as well as rumblings of disquiet at home Edward still had Robert the Bruce to deal with who had by now taken most of the castles in Scotland once held by Edward and so he set out for the north with a fifteen to twenty thousand strong force supported by Gloucester he referred and PEM broke as well as Hugh Despenser and Roger Clifford however the Earl's of Lancaster Warwick arendelle and Surrey were missing and they send the minimum forces they were legally obligated to fearing that a victory in Scotland for Edward would mean that they would be at risk from his forces once they returned by late May Edward had reached barrack where he heard news that Stirling Castle was under siege from Robert the Bruce and the English commander of Stirling sent word that unless Edward arrived with relief forces by the 24th of June he would be forced to surrender meanwhile Roberts forces were preparing for Edward's arrival and on the 23rd of June in 1314 the two sides met on the high ground of Bannockburn surrounded by the marshy land ordering the burn with Robert Scottish forces of 500 cavalry and 6,000 infantry spear men or Schilt runs under his command alongside him were his brother Edward Bruce and his nephew the Earl of Moray on the first day of battle Robert killed Sir Henry de Bohun with a blow of his battle axe Gloucester and Hereford quarreled over who should lead the Vanguard and Gloucester was lucky to escape with his life and so the English then withdrew for the night then on the following day the 24th of June Edward encountered Robert's troops unexpectedly at new park with his forces in marching formation instead of battle formation as Sir Alexander Seton a Scottish noble fight on Edwards side had defected and informed the Scottish army of Edwards position and earlier that day Gloucester had argued fiercely with Edward as he felt the troops needed rest before continuing the attack but Edward disagreed and so to defend his honor Gloucester led the first attack of the Vanguard against the Scottish infantry in which he was killed however Edwards archers were at the rear of his formation and therefore unable to break up Robert spear men who crushed Edwards cavalry as they struggled to fight in the cramped terrain and so the English army were defeated in a pitched battle in which the Earl of Hereford was captured and the Earl of Gloucester Sir Roger de Clifford and Sir Giles argent an the third best night in Europe all lost their lives Edward was dragged away from the fighting by a medieval oz the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Charles de argint an when they realized that all was lost after which the battle turned into a rout with the pursuing Scottish army killing the remaining English forces in retreat and while the English was suffering huge losses which historian Peter Rees puts at 11,000 infantrymen Edward retreated to Dunbar then barrack and finally York during which time Stirling Castle finally fell PEM broke edward savior at Bannockburn and he referred released from captivity by the Scots remained loyal to Edward as did Henry Beaumont Hugh Despenser the elder and his son Hugh Despenser the younger in fact in the years following gaveston's death the Despenser's helped fill the gap left by the removal of the King's favorite during the years 1314 to thirteen seventeen increasingly harsh winters followed by wet summers throughout Europe resulted in flash floods in 1315 which destroyed arable lands resulting in the death of thousands of sheep and cattle from disease and starvation and ultimately famine throughout England for two years as an 80 percent deficit in crops when that starving people resorted to eating bird droppings pets damp and rotten corn and on occasion each other the loss of export revenue for wool and the decrease in meat supplies and resulting increase in food prices put pressure on the military garrison near Scotland while Robert the Bruce pressed further south into England's territories perhaps spurred on by the loss of the English Earl's of Bannockburn as well as the death of Warwick who died in August 13 15 and although Edward undertook a military campaign in 1319 to stop the advance it was unsuccessful as the famine made it increasingly difficult to keep his garrison supplied with food furthermore the requisitioning of food for the royal court throughout the famine years brought more discontentment with Edwards rule as the famine and the Scottish failures were felt to be a punishment from God an opposition also grew once more around Edwards treatment of his royal favorites on the death of Gilbert declare the Earl of Gloucester at Bannockburn his estates was split between his three sisters as he and his wife mauled had no children of their own and so three of those law to Edward hued oddly Roger de Murray and Hugh Despenser the younger received large fortunes as they were already married to the sisters of the Earl of Gloucester Margaret the widow of Gaveston Elizabeth and Elinor respectively and whilst the three received equal portions of declares fortune Hugh Despenser the younger also received the entire lordship of Glamorgan in Wales the most important of the declare lands politically from being a landless Knight Hugh dispensed the younger had married into the wealthy declare family had become the Kings Chamberlain and acquired Glamorgan in the Welsh Marches in thirteen seventeen and both he and his father were loyal to Edward but Hugh the younger would develop an ever increasingly close relationship with Edward over the coming years as he would rely on Hugh the younger for advice and he will also privy to all of Edwards court business in the words of one chronicler Edward loved him dearly with all his heart and mind but despite acquiring so much land dispense of the younger decides to also impinge on the land of neighboring Welsh martial Lords causing resentment from Roger Mortimer the Earl of Hereford his nephew Roger Mortimer of Whitmore Hugh and Roger de Murray as well as Hugh told early who rose up in May 13 21 along with Lancaster and marched through the land causing damage and destruction and seizing the dispenser lands in protest over the Kings favoritism towards them and although this rebellion was crushed resistance continued under Thomas Earl of Lancaster the marcher Lords Ally Edward faced further conflict and possible civil war when the Earl's led by Lancaster pressured Edward to re-implement the ordinances of 1311 removing a number of royal ministers replacing all the sheriffs in England ordering the resumption of royal grants and putting pressure on Edward to hear petitions of grievance and complaint from his subjects and furthermore much to Edwards displeasure Hugh Despenser the elder and Archbishop Reynolds were removed from their posts in government Lancaster took virtual control of government when he became head of a royal council in 1316 which was formed to imp and the reforms but he failed to fulfill the role becoming isolated from the other ELLs as well as government and refusing to meet Edward at Parliament for the next two years bringing governance to a standstill but after negotiations involving the Earl of Pembroke further conflict was avoided with the Treaty of Lake in August 13 18 which reestablished Edwards control pardoned Lancaster and established a new Royal Council to uphold the ordinances despite the treaty however between 13 17 and 13 21 relationships between Edward Lancaster and the Earl's deteriorated further not least because of Edwards treatment of his favorites and in June 13 21 Lancaster held a meeting of the Earl's and clergy which determined that the Despenser's had broken the ordinances and despite Edwards attempts to broker peace the opposition insisted on the exile of the dispensers which Edward agreed to for the sake of the realm but only after Isabella had begged him on her knees however Edward swore he would have his revenge and aided by his half-brothers some of the Earl's clergy and the Earl of Pembroke he deliberately created an excuse to go to war by having Isabella stop off on her way to pilgrimage at Leeds Castle which was the stronghold of path follow me of Bayda lzmir where his wife Margaret falling for the trick refused Isabella admittance and killed several of Isabella's contingent thus giving the King reason to wage war Edward would soon regain control of the southeast as Lancaster refused to help Basil's mayor he was his enemy and in January 13 22 with the help of the Despenser's who were able to secretly return from exile in mid-january Edward overcame the opposition forces of the marcher Lords along the river 7 then he was able to advance into the Welsh Marches where Bridgnorth was burned and Roger Mortimer and his uncle Roger Mortimer to Chirk surrendered to Edward on the 22nd of January 13 22 and then in February Hugh orderly the elder and Morris de Barclay also surrendered an Edward confiscated Berkeley castle from Sir Morris Edward was winning not only militarily but also politically as in February 13 22 a letter came to light that Edward had distributed widely which showed that Lancaster had negotiating with the Scots to overcome Edward and many of Lancaster's allies became weary of supporting him for fear of what would happen to them should he lose and it was at this time that the Welsh nobility also lent their support to Edward as the marcher Lords had been more a threat to their lands than Edward only 10 days after Lancaster's letters were published he was declared a traitor to the realm and Edward ordered the Earl's of Kent and Surrey to capture Pontefract castle then as Lancaster and the Earl's loyal to him attempted to make their way to Carlisle with a force of around 700 men they were stalked by Andrew Hart clay the warden of Carlisle Castle who had an accumulated army of 4,000 men after the Battle of Burton bridge in February 1322 Edward had crossed the river Trent and joined Hart clay at borough bridge where they engaged Lancaster and his forces at the Battle of borough bridge on the 16th of March where Lancaster and the Lancastrian loyalists were defeated after a trial at Pontefract Lancaster was found guilty of treason and beheaded in march 1322 after which edward repealed the ordinances through the statute of York at a parliament held on the 2nd of May 13:22 retaining only 6 clauses concerning the administration of the household an appointment of sheriffs and agreeing taxes for a fresh campaign against Scotland which took back royal power and equivocally and so by now Edward was without a doubt back in charge following the dispense of war.the - Roger Mortimer's Turk and Whitmore were sentenced to death but they had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment and they were imprisoned in the Tower of London from where Roger Mortimer - Wigmore escaped in August 1323 before fleeing to France and Morris to Berkeley Hugh orderly the younger and the elder were also imprisoned whilst in the last show of resistance the marcher Lords attempted to free other captives both from Windsor and Wallingford castles the remaining supporters of Lancaster were either executed or imprisoned and their lands were seized which resulted in Edward becoming hugely rich as by 1326 his Treasury contains sixty-two thousand pounds with which he rewarded his loyal supporters with titles and land Andrew Hartley was given the earldom of Carlisle the loyal Earl's of Surrey and Pembroke were both given land holdings the Earl of Aaron duels given lands confiscated from Roger Mortimer of Chirk as well as his title of Justice of Wales the Kings half-brother Edmund was given land and castles in the Midlands and Wales and Edwards young son John of Alton was given the Lancastrian castle of cutlery at the age of only six as well as this Hugh Despenser the elder was given the earldom of Winchester along with five separate grants of land including Lancaster's territory of Denby in North Wales Hugh Despenser the younger received all the lands of the earldom of Gloucester but not the title and he was also given extensive land holdings in Wales which were added to substantially over the coming years in effect making him Lord of South Wales with an income of around five thousand pounds per year additionally the king was granted 40,000 pounds for another campaign in Scotland which came to nothing but which also resulted in the death of his illegitimate son Adam and almost ended in Queen Isabella's capture when she was forced to flee Tynemouth by sea andrew har clay tried to negotiate a peace treaty independently with Robert the Bruce under terms which would force Edward to recognize Robert as rightful king of Scotland in return for a cessation to the invasion of England unsurprisingly the king was furious at har Clay's unauthorised intervention and immediately cruelly executed him as a common traitor but the king did agree to a thirteen year truce with Scotland bolstered by his swelling coffers and his victory over Lancaster Edward became emboldened and his loyal dispensers gathered the fruits at their loyalty while stealing cruelly with anyone who crossed them moreover there was still discontentment with Edwards favoritism of them indeed the chronicler Thomas de L'Amour stated that under Edward England had three kings at once however the success enjoyed by Edward would not last for long as stories began to circulate of miracles happening both at Lancaster's tomb and at the gallows used to execute his followers and in addition law and order broke down with the confusion caused by many seizures of land and then on the 1st of August 1323 and the Tower of London Roger Mortimer of Whitmore now landless escaped from his dungeon and fled to France where he was welcomed by the new king of France Charles the 4th Edwards brother-in-law the new King Charles the fourth was eager to assert his authority over England and a disagreement over Edwards lands at Saints our dose in 1324 gave him the excuse he needed and so he invaded Edwards territory of Gascony over a dispute concerning the killing of a French sergeant who intended to build a fortified town in a disputed region on the Gascon border which Edward denied responsibility for and send the Earl of Pembroke to protest but he died enroute and instead of compromising Charles intensified his attack in August 13:24 the French king's uncle Charles of Valois invaded Aquitaine in response Edward ordered the arrest of any French citizen in England and seized all French held lands in England including Isabella's and so the clergy in Earls recommended the raising of an army of 11,000 men to invade Gascony who Edward sent to France led by the Earl of Surrey as he felt that if he left England accompanied by his loyal Earls that he would leave the country open to invasion or rebellion in the meantime Edward recommence negotiations with King Charles the fourth who suggested that Isabella travelled to France along with Prince Edward to give homage to the French King for Gascony and in return Charles would end the war and return the disputed region of Asia nay but as Edward was concerned about sending his son to France he sent Isabella alone instead in March 1325 the negotiations were not easy for Isabella but she appealed to her brother Charles directly and it was eventually agreed that Edward would pay homage in person for his lands in Gascony however as Edward was still concerned about possible uprisings in England where he to leave he gave the Duchy of Aquitaine to his son Edward instead and sent him to pay homage to Charles in his place therefore the young Prince Edward crossed the channel and paid homage to his uncle the French King Charles the fourth in September 1325 and following this Edward had expected the return of his family to England but instead Isabella remained in France Edward and Isabelle's marriage had been successful in the beginning but by the time she left for France in 1325 the Queen was feeling discontent with Edwards treatment of her not least because of his behavior towards his favorites but there were other issues as Isabella seem to have disliked Hugh Despenser the younger personally maybe because of his mistreatment of highborn women at court or maybe because she felt humiliated that her own money from Edward came via dispenser she was also embarrassed that she had cause to flee Scottish forces on no fewer than three occasions during her marriage the last of which in 1322 she blamed dispenser for directly in addition to this Edward had also arranged terms with Robert the Bruce which had disadvantaged the Beaumont's who were landowners in Scotland and Friends of his Abela she was also unhappy about the seizure of her own lands in 1324 and the rest of her entire household and perhaps worst of all Edward had taken away her children and given custody of them to the wife of Hugh Despenser the younger Eleanor de Clare who was also employed to spy on Isabella's correspondence unsurprisingly Isabella was by this time happy to leave England and after her duties were completed negotiating on behalf of England she spend the summer in France touring her brothers properties and he would soon become apparent that Isabella would not be returning and she wrote to Edward complaining about her treatment and Edwards favor of dispenser Isabella had met Roger Mortimer of Wigmore at Christmas 1325 and by February 1326 had formed a relationship with Edward's enemy with whom she had much in common they both wanted the removal of Edward from power as well as to be rid of the dispensers and so they plotted together however Edward by this time had heard of their relationship and asked pope john xxii to force the French King to intervene on his behalf and facing excommunication Charles was forced to demand that Isabella and Mortimer leave France Isabella and Roger Mortimer attracted a following of Edwards opponents while in Paris and sorts safe haven with William the count of a nolle and whilst their Mortimer proposed a marriage between Prince Edward and the twelve-year-old Philippa the daughter of count William and so the marriage was agreed on the 27th of August and in return for this prestigious alliance with the heir to the English throne and a sizeable dowry for the bride count William provided 132 transport vessels and eight warships to assist in Mortimer's invasion of England in 1326 Isabella and Mortimer's invasion of England was launched with the fleet comprised of 95 ships meanwhile in England Edward had been preparing for an attack either from France or from Mortimer and in anticipation he prepared fleets at Portsmouth in the south and all well on the East Coast near present-day Apes which and as well as this Edward also tried to rally the people to support him in the event of an invasion however his support was weak from the local people's and his nobles were either incompetent or disloyal as when he ordered some 2,000 men to gather at all well only 55 actually arrived on the 24th of September 1326 Roger Mortimer Isabella and Prince Edward accompanied by Edwards half-brother Edmund of Woodstock landed on the East Coast at all well with a small force of 700 but will met with no resistance and instead the enemies of Edward and the Despenser's came to join them including Edwards other half-brother Thomas of Brotherton and Henry of Lancaster who had inherited the title from his brother Thomas of Lancaster whilst residing at the Tower of London Edward tried to raise support in the capital however instead there was a naki in London and mobs killed Edwards remaining officials including his treasurer walter Stapledon in st. paul's cathedral taking the tower and releasing Edwards prisoners and so Edward fled the city accompanied by the Despenser's reaching Gloucester between the 9th and 12th of October with Mortimer and Isabella giving chase with an ever increasing force of local allies some motivated by Isabella's promise of monetary reward for their support published on the Eleanor cross at Cheapside Edward and Hugh Despenser the younger set sail from chepstow headed for Lundy and then Island in the hope of raising a fresh army but bad weather forced them back to Cardiff from where they were treated to carefully Castle and in Edward's absence it was now that his rule collapsed and Isabella supporters took over the administration of the country backed by the clergy meanwhile Isabella's forces were surrounding Bristol where Hugh Despenser the elder had taken refuge he probably surrendered and was executed whilst Edward and Hugh Despenser the younger fled carefully castle on the 2nd of November leaving Valley was behind including 13 thousand pounds in cash however they were betrayed and captured north of K Philly and is courted to Monmouth Castle and then on to Henry Lancaster's castle at Kenilworth whilst Edward's remaining supporters perceived him carefully Castle finally surrendered in April 13:27 a parliament was called by Isabella and Mortimer and Edward was forced to relinquish his throne on the grounds that his weak leadership and personal faults had driven the country to the brink of disaster and as such he was incompetent to rule following that on the 20th of January 13:27 Henry Lancaster and the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln met privately with Edward and informed him that his son Edward would only inherit his throne if he was to abdicate with tears in his eyes Edward agreed to abdicate and Sir William Trussell representing the kingdom withdrew his fealty and formally ended Edward the seconds reign and so his son Prince Edward was proclaimed king on the 25th of January 13:27 in London and crowned King Edward the third at Westminster Abbey on the 1st of February and the age of 14 it was now time for Isabella and Mortimer to take revenge and so Hugh Despenser the younger was sent to trial declared a traitor and sentenced to death by disembowelment castration and quartering and was executed on the 24th of November 1326 whilst Edwards former Chancellor Robert bull dock died in fleet prison and the Earl of arendelle was beheaded the victors problem lay however on what was to be done with Edward of Caernarfon as the old king would now be known a remaining King but a possible future threat as those opposed to the new regime were making plans to free Edward and so the old king was moved to Berkeley castle in Gloucestershire a more secure position where Edward arrived on the 5th of April 13:27 Edward was kept under the custody of Mortimer son-in-law Thomas Barkley and John multi-verse who were given five pound a day to look after Edward and despite record showing luxury goods being brought to him doubts exist as to how well looked after he actually was as some chroniclers suggest he may well have been mistreated and also during this time there were several attempts from those loyal to Edward to free him from captivity however on the 21st of September 13:27 Isabella and Mortimer's problems were solved when Edward the second died Barclay castle at the age of 43 supposedly from natural causes but the timing of his death was most opportune for the couple and suspicions arose as to the circumstances surrounding his death on the 23rd of September 13:27 Edward the third was informed of his father's death and following this several of those who might have been involved in Edward's untimely demise fled including Sir Thomas gurney mal Travers and William Oakley whilst Isabella and Mortimer ruled as de facto rulers from 13 27 to 1330 due to the age of Edward the third during which time they signed the Treaty of Northampton making peace with the Scots in addition they both amassed and spent great wealth both actions being highly unpopular with the people of England and Mortimer also lost the favour of young Edward the third and in 1330 the young King staged a coup d'etat at Nottingham Castle arresting Mortimer and later executing him in November 1330 for 14 counts of treason including the murder of Edward the second the New King Edward the third blamed Mortimer for all the recent problems of the realm effectively releasing his father of all guilt concerning the events perhaps out of love or perhaps to increase the legitimacy of his own reign and he was also merciful and generous to Isabella giving her a suitable allowance and returning her to public life the body of Edward ii was embarked at barky castle and presented for viewing to the local leaders it was then taken to gloucester Abbey on the 21st of October 13:27 where he was buried on the 20th of December by the high altar using a temporary wooden effigy with a copper crown in the procession perhaps because of deterioration of his body which had been dead for three months by then Edward the third gate of his father a prestigious funeral costing 350 pounds with gilt Lions standards painted in gold leaf and oak barriers to controlled crowds he was buried in the shirt gloves and coif or cap used at his coronation and his effigy was later replaced by an alabaster version which depicts him with a protruding lower lip which is possibly a close likeness holding a king's scepter and orb and wearing a strawberry leafed crown whilst Edward's heart was placed in a silver container which was later buried with Isabella at Newgate Church in London but his body was placed in a lead coffin which remains in his tomb across the cathedral to this day controversy surrounds the circumstances of edward ii death to this day but during the mid 1330s accounts arose which stated that edward had been killed by the insertion of a red-hot poker into his anus perhaps this was propaganda due to his alleged homosexuality however most later historians dismissed the idea that his captors would have killed him in such an easily detectable fashion further accounts jest that Edward did not in fact died in September 13 27 but much later and that Edward actually escaped Berkeley castle with the help of a servant and became a hermit in the Holy Roman Empire indeed this account began with the feesh II letter sent by an Italian priest called man while a fee she to Edward the third in which he claimed that the body presented to Isabella and Mortimer was in fact the porter of Berkeley Castle who was killed by the assassins in an attempt to escape punishment for failing to kill Edward this story is also linked to the account of a meeting Edward the third had with a man called William the Welshman in Antwerp in 1338 who claimed to be Edward ii and the story does receive some support from historians some saying that isabella would not have plotted to kill edward suggesting that it was in fact Isabella and Mortimer who released Edward and then faked his death and so the idea that Edward may have actually survived does injurer to this day in the modern world king edward ii is regarded by many as being one of if not the worst king in english history as time and again throughout his reign he showed a complete disregard for the customs and traditions that any successful monarch had hitherto been expected to carry out from his past time such as boatbuilding to his complete alienation of his leading Nobles and family members to the point of rebellion although all of these allegations are true for the most part and there is little doubt that Edward was perhaps the king of England who showed the least aptitude for the role he has most certainly much like his Plantagenet descendant rich the third been the victim of posthumous propaganda and although there is no doubt his reign as king pales into insignificance when compared to the 1st and 3rd Kings of his name the truth that lies behind Edwards legend is not as damning as his enemies would have us believe this is evidenced by the fact that he was for much of his marriage a loving and even doting husband to his wife and could be kind beyond measure to those he cared for as well as this he was valiant and courageous in battle and when needed especially when seeking revenge on his adversaries Edward showed a political skill and cunning as well as a ruthlessness that would have made his father proud but which sadly was lacking in his day-to-day kingship all in all it could be said that Edward ii is perhaps the most intriguing and complex human being ever to sit on the English throne as throughout his reign he showed all the necessary skills required of a king but seldom executed them at the right time or towards the right people what do you think of edward ii was he an incompetent weak failure of a king who let his emotions get in the way of his kingship and his favourites ruled the realm or was he more of a reluctant king who did his best but was taken advantage of and was perhaps unsuited to his role let us know what you think in the comments section and meanwhile thank you very much for watching you you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Length: 74min 30sec (4470 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020