Edward II of England

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Edward II
Edward II - British Library Royal 20 A ii f10 (detail).jpg
Edward II shown receiving the English crown in a contemporary illustration
King of England (more...)
Reign 7 July 1307 – 25 January 1327
Coronation 25 February 1308
Predecessor Edward I
Successor Edward III
Spouse Isabella of France
Edward III of England
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall
Eleanor, Countess of Guelders
Joan, Queen of Scots
Adam FitzRoy
House House of Plantagenet
Father Edward I of England
Mother Eleanor of Castile
Born (1284-04-25)25 April 1284
Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd
Died Traditionally, 21 September 1327(1327-09-21) (aged 43)
Traditionally, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Burial Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire
Religion Roman Catholic

Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon,[1] was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II. Between the strong reigns of his father Edward I and son Edward III, the reign of Edward II was considered by some to be disastrous for England, marked by alleged incompetence, political squabbling and military defeats.

While Edward fathered at least five children by two women, he was rumoured by some to have been bisexual. His inability to deny even the most grandiose favours to his unpopular male favourites (first a Gascon knight named Piers Gaveston, later a young English lord named Hugh Despenser) led to constant political unrest, and his eventual deposition.

Edward I had pacified Gwynedd and some other parts of Wales and the Scottish lowlands, but never exerted a comprehensive conquest. However, the army of Edward II was devastatingly defeated at Bannockburn, freeing Scotland from English control and allowing Scottish forces to raid unchecked throughout the north of England.

In addition to these disasters, Edward II is remembered for his probable death in Berkeley Castle, allegedly by murder, and for being the first monarch to establish colleges at Oxford and Cambridge: Oriel College at Oxford and King's Hall, a predecessor of Trinity College, at Cambridge.

Prince of Wales[edit]

The fourth son and eleventh child of Edward I by his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle.[1] He was the first English prince to hold the title Prince of Wales, which was formalised by the Parliament of Lincoln of 7 February 1301.

Shield as heir-apparent

The story that his father presented Edward II as a newborn to the Welsh as their future native prince did not appear until the 16th century. The Welsh purportedly asked the king to give them a prince who spoke Welsh, and, the story goes, he answered he would give them a prince who spoke no English at all. This was no great concession as the Plantagenets spoke Norman French rather than English.[2][3]

Edward became heir apparent at just a few months of age, following the death of his elder brother Alphonso. His father, a notable military leader, trained his heir in warfare and statecraft starting in his childhood, yet the young Edward preferred boating and craftwork, activities considered beneath kings at the time.

The prince took part in several Scots campaigns, but despite these martial engagements, "all his father's efforts could not prevent his acquiring the habits of extravagance and frivolity which he retained all through his life".[4] The king attributed his son’s preferences to his strong attachment to Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight he had chosen in 1298 to be a suitable friend for his son due to his wit, courtesy and abilities. After Prince Edward attempted to bestow on his friend a title reserved for royalty, Edward I exiled Gaveston from court.

Edward I knighted his son in a major ceremony in 1306 called the Feast of the Swans whereby all present swore to continue the war in Scotland.

King of England[edit]

Edward I died on 7 July 1307 en route to another campaign against the Scots, a war that had become the hallmark of his reign. One chronicler relates that Edward had requested his son "boil his body, extract the bones and carry them with the army until the Scots had been subdued." His son ignored the request, however, and had his father buried in Westminster Abbey.[5] Edward II immediately recalled Gaveston, created him Earl of Cornwall, gave him the hand of the king's niece, Margaret of Gloucester, and withdrew from the Scottish campaign.

Edward's Coat of Arms as King

Edward was as physically impressive as his father, yet he lacked the drive and ambition of his forebear. It was written that Edward II was "the first king after the Conquest who was not a man of business".[4] His main interest was in entertainment, though he also took pleasure in athletics and mechanical crafts. He had been so dominated by his father that he had little confidence in himself, and was often in the hands of a court favourite with a stronger will than his own.

On 25 January 1308, Edward married Isabella of France, the daughter of King Philip IV of France, in an attempt to bolster an alliance with France. On 25 February the pair were crowned in Westminster Abbey. The marriage, however, was doomed to failure almost from the beginning. Isabella was frequently neglected by her husband, who spent much of his time conspiring with his favourites regarding how to limit the powers of the Peerage in order to consolidate his father's legacy for himself.

War with the barons[edit]

In 1308 Edward travelled to Boulogne to marry Isabella, leaving Gaveston to act as regent. It was here that the first discontent with the new king's rule found expression, through the so-called Boulogne agreement.[6] As the resentment against Edward's rule and Gaveston's position of power grew, some barons began to insist Gaveston be banished, through the Ordinances of 1311. Edward recalled his friend, but could do little to prevent Gaveston being captured in 1312 under the orders of the Earl of Lancaster and his allies, who claimed that he had led the king to folly. He was captured first by the Earl of Warwick, whom he was seen to have offended, and handed over to two Welshmen. They took him to Blacklow Hill and murdered him; one ran him through the heart with his sword and the other beheaded him. A monument called Gaveston's Cross remains on the site, south of Leek Wootton near Warwick.

Edward's grief over the death of Gaveston was profound. He kept the remains of his body close to him for a number of weeks before the Church forcibly arranged a burial. Immediately following this, Edward focused on the destruction of those who had betrayed him, while the barons themselves lost impetus (with Gaveston dead, they saw little need to continue). By mid-July, Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was advising the king to make war on the barons who, unwilling to risk their lives, entered negotiations in September 1312. In October, the Earls of Lancaster, Warwick, Arundel and Hereford were forced to beg Edward's pardon.

Edward and Piers Gaveston[edit]

Several contemporary sources criticised Edward's seeming infatuation with Piers Gaveston, to the extent that he ignored and humiliated his wife. Chroniclers called the relationship excessive, immoderate, beyond measure and reason and criticised his desire for wicked and forbidden sex.[7] The Westminster chronicler claimed that Gaveston had led Edward to reject the sweet embraces of his wife; while the Meaux Chronicle (written several decades later) took concern further and complained that, Edward took too much delight in sodomy. While such sources do not, in themselves, prove that Edward and Gaveston were lovers, they at least show that some contemporaries and later writers strongly believed that this might be the case.

Gaveston was considered to be athletic and handsome; he was a few years older than Edward and had seen military service in Flanders before becoming Edward's close companion. He was known to have a quick, biting wit, and his fortunes continued to ascend. Isabella's marriage to Edward subsequently took place in 1308 and almost immediately, she wrote to her father, Philip the Fair, complaining of Edward's behaviour and his relationship with Gaveston.

Although the relationship that developed between the two young men was certainly very close, its exact nature is impossible to determine. The relationship might have had a sexual element, though the evidence for this is not conclusive. Both Edward and Gaveston married early in the reign. There were children from both marriages – Edward also had an illegitimate son, Adam. While some of the chroniclers' remarks can be interpreted simply as homosexuality or bisexuality, too many of them are either much later in date or the product of hostility. It has also been plausibly argued that the two men could have entered into a bond of adoptive brotherhood.[8][9] British historian Ian Mortimer has drawn attention to the use of 'anti-sodomite' smear campaigns in the late 13th and early 14th centuries against Pope Boniface VIII and the Knights Templar.[10]

The relationship was later explored in a play by the 16th-century dramatist Christopher Marlowe. This is unusual in making explicit reference to an open sexual relationship between king and favourite. More frequently the nature of the relationship between the two is only hinted at, or is cited as a dreadful example of the fate that might befall kings who allow themselves to be influenced by favourites, and so become estranged from their subjects.[9]

Defeat in Scotland[edit]

Bruce crowned King of Scots; modern tableau at Edinburgh Castle

Robert the Bruce had been steadily reconquering Scotland. Each campaign begun by Edward, from 1307 to 1314, had ended in Robert clawing back more of the land that Edward I had taken during his long reign. Robert's military successes against Edward II were due to a number of factors, not the least of which was the Scottish king's strategy. He used small forces to trap an invading English army, took castles by stealth to preserve his troops and he used the land as a weapon against Edward by attacking quickly and then disappearing into the hills instead of facing the superior numbers of the English.

Bruce united Scotland against its common enemy and is quoted as saying that he feared more the dead king's bones (Edward I) than his living heir (Edward II).[11] By June 1314, only Stirling Castle and Berwick remained under English control.

On 23 June 1314, Edward and an army of 20,000 foot soldiers and 3,000 cavalry faced Robert and his army of foot soldiers and farmers wielding 14-foot-long pikes. Edward knew he had to keep the critical stronghold of Stirling Castle if there were to be any chance for English military success. The castle, however, was under a constant state of siege, and the English commander, Sir Phillip de Mowbray, had advised Edward that he would surrender the castle to the Scots unless Edward arrived by 24 June 1314, to relieve the siege. Edward could not afford to lose his last forward castle in Scotland. He decided therefore to gamble his entire army to break the siege and force the Scots to a final battle by putting its army into the field.

Edward had however, made a serious mistake in thinking his vastly superior numbers alone would provide enough of a tactical advantage to defeat the Scots. Robert not only had the advantage of prior warning, as he knew the actual day that Edward would come north and fight, he also had the time to choose the field of battle most advantageous to the Scots and their style of combat.

As Edward moved forward on the main road to Stirling, Robert placed his army on either side of the road north, one in the dense woods and the other placed on a bend on the river, a spot hard for the invading army to see. Robert also ordered his men to dig potholes and cover them with bracken in order to help break any cavalry charge.

By contrast, Edward did not issue his writs of service, calling upon 21,540 men, until 27 May 1314. Worse, his army was ill-disciplined and had seen little success in eight years of campaigns. On the eve of battle, he decided to move his entire army at night and placed it in a marshy area, with its cavalry laid out in nine squadrons in front of the foot soldiers. The following battle, the Battle of Bannockburn, is considered by contemporary scholars to be the worst defeat sustained by the English since the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Reign of the Despensers[edit]

Westminster Hall
Seal of Edward II
Seal of Edward II-2

Following Gaveston's death, the king increased favour to his nephew-by-marriage (who was also Gaveston's brother-in-law), Hugh Despenser the Younger. But, as with Gaveston, the barons were indignant at the privileges Edward lavished upon the Despenser father and son, especially when the younger Despenser began in 1318 to strive to procure for himself the earldom of Gloucester and its associated lands.

By 1320, the situation in England was again becoming dangerously unstable. Edward had been challenged by John Deydras, a royal pretender; although Deydras was ultimately executed, the rumours surrounding the case highlighted Edward's unpopularity.[12] Edward ignored the law in favour of Despenser: when Lord de Braose of Gower sold his title to his son-in-law, an action entirely lawful in the Welsh Marches, Despenser demanded the king grant Gower to him instead. The king, against all laws, then confiscated Gower from the purchaser and offered it to Despenser; in so doing, he provoked the fury of most of the barons. In 1321, the Earl of Hereford, along with the Earl of Lancaster and others, took up arms against the Despenser family, and the king was forced into an agreement with the barons.

On 14 August at Westminster Hall, accompanied by the Earls of Pembroke and Richmond, the king declared the Despenser father and son both banished.

The victory of the barons proved their undoing. With the removal of the Despensers, many nobles, regardless of previous affiliation, now attempted to move into the vacuum left by the two. Hoping to win Edward's favour, these nobles were willing to aid the king in his revenge against the barons and thus increase their own wealth and power. In following campaigns, many of the king's opponents were murdered, the Earl of Lancaster being beheaded in the presence of Edward himself.

With all opposition crushed, the king and the Despensers were left the unquestioned masters of England. At the York Parliament of 1322, Edward issued a statute which revoked all previous ordinances designed to limit his power and to prevent any further encroachment upon it. The king would no longer be subject to the will of Parliament, and the Lords, Prelates, and Commons were to suffer his will in silence. Opposition to Edward and the Despensers rule continued; in 1324 there was a foiled assassination attempt on their lives, and in early 1325 John of Nottingham was placed on trial for involvement in a plot to kill them with magic.[13]

Isabella leaves England[edit]

A dispute between France and England then broke out over Edward's refusal to pay homage to the French king for the territory of Gascony. After several bungled attempts to regain the territory, Edward sent his wife, Isabella, to negotiate peace terms. Overjoyed, Isabella arrived in France in March 1325. She was now able to visit her family and native land as well as escape the Despensers and the king, all of whom she now detested.

On 31 May 1325, Isabella agreed to a peace treaty favouring France and requiring Edward to pay homage in France to her brother, King Charles; but Edward decided instead to send his son to pay homage. This proved a gross tactical error, and helped to bring about the ruin of both Edward and the Despensers, as Isabella, now that she had her son with her, declared that she would not return to England until Despenser was removed.

Invasion by Isabella and Mortimer[edit]

When Isabella's retinue—loyal to Edward, and ordered back to England by Isabella—returned to the English Court on 23 December, they brought further shocking news for the king: Isabella had formed a liaison with Roger Mortimer in Paris and they were now plotting an invasion of England.

Isabella, third from left, with her father, Philip IV, her future French king brothers, and King Philip's brother Charles of Valois

Edward prepared for the invasion but was betrayed by those close to him: his son refused to leave his mother, claiming he wanted to remain with her during her unease and unhappiness. Edward's half-brother, the Earl of Kent, married Mortimer's cousin, Margaret Wake; other nobles, such as John de Cromwell and the Earl of Richmond, also chose to remain with Mortimer.

In September 1326, Mortimer and Isabella invaded England. Edward was amazed by their small numbers of soldiers, and immediately attempted to levy an immense army to crush them. However, a large number of men refused to fight Mortimer and the queen; Henry of Lancaster, for example, was not even summoned by the king, and he showed his loyalties by raising an army, seizing a cache of Despenser treasure from Leicester Abbey, and marching south to join Mortimer.

The invasion soon had too much force and support to be stemmed. As a result, the army the king had ordered failed to emerge and both Edward and the Despensers were left isolated. They abandoned London on 2 October, leaving the city to fall into disorder.

On 15 October a London mob seized and beheaded without trial John le Marshal (a Londoner accused of being a spy for the Despensers) and Edward II's Treasurer, Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, together with two of the bishop's squires.[14] The king first took refuge in Gloucester (where he arrived on 9 October) and then fled to South Wales in order to make a defence in Despenser's lands.[15] However, Edward was unable to rally an army, and on 31 October, he was abandoned by his servants, leaving him with only the younger Despenser and a few retainers.

On 27 October, the elder Despenser was accused of encouraging the illegal government of his son, enriching himself at the expense of others, despoiling the Church, and taking part in the illegal execution of the Earl of Lancaster. He was hanged and beheaded at the Bristol Gallows. Henry of Lancaster was then sent to Wales in order to fetch the king and the younger Despenser; on 16 November he with Welsh rebels caught Edward, Despenser and their soldiers in the open country near Tonyrefail, where a plaque now commemorates the event. Edward Longshanks' conquest of Wales with his Welsh allies had been short-lived, the armed Welsh were in permanent rebellion and Wales was in turmoil throughout the 14th century. He and the soldiers were released and Despenser was sent to Isabella at Hereford whilst the king was taken by Lancaster himself to Kenilworth.

End of the Despensers[edit]

Reprisals against Edward's allies began immediately thereafter. The Earl of Arundel, Sir Edmund Fitz Alan, an old enemy of Roger Mortimer, was beheaded on 17 November, together with two of the earl's retainers, John Daniel and Thomas de Micheldever. This was followed by the trial and execution of Despenser on 24 November.[16][17]

Hugh Despenser the Younger was brutally executed and a huge crowd gathered in anticipation at seeing him die – a spectacle for public entertainment. They dragged him from his horse, stripped him, and scrawled Biblical verses against corruption and arrogance on his skin. They then dragged him into the city, presenting him (in the market square) to Queen Isabella, Roger Mortimer, and Henry of Lancaster. He was then condemned to hang as a thief, be castrated, and then to be drawn and quartered as a traitor, his quarters to be dispersed throughout England. Despenser's vassal Simon of Reading was also hanged next to him, on charges of insulting Queen Isabella.[18]

Edward II's Chancellor, Robert Baldock, was placed under house arrest in London, but a London mob broke into the house, severely beat him, and threw him into Newgate Prison, where he was murdered by some of the inmates.[19]

Political opposition and abdication[edit]

With the king imprisoned, Mortimer and the queen faced the problem of what to do with him. The simplest solution would be execution: his titles would then pass to his son Edward of Windsor, whom Isabella could control, while it would also prevent the possibility of his being restored.

Execution would require the king to be tried and convicted of treason: and while most lords agreed that Edward had failed to show due attention to his country, several prelates argued that, appointed by God, the king could not be legally deposed or executed; if this happened, they said, God would punish the country. Thus, at first, it was decided to have Edward imprisoned for life instead.

However, the fact remained that the legality of power still lay with the king. Isabella had been given the Great Seal, and was using it to rule in the names of the king, herself, and their son as appropriate; nonetheless, these actions were illegal, and could at any moment be challenged.

In these circumstances, Parliament chose to act as an authority above the king. Representatives of the House of Commons were summoned, and debates began. The Archbishop of York, William Melton and others declared themselves fearful of the London mob, loyal to Roger Mortimer. Others wanted the king to speak in Parliament and openly abdicate, rather than be deposed by the queen and her general. Mortimer responded by commanding the Lord Mayor of London, Richard de Betoyne, to write to Parliament, asking them to go to the Guildhall to swear an oath to protect the queen and Prince Edward, and to depose the king. Mortimer then called the great lords to a secret meeting that night, at which they gave their unanimous support to the deposition of the king.

Eventually Parliament agreed to remove the king. However, for all that Parliament had agreed that the king should no longer rule, they had not deposed him. Rather, their decision made, Edward was asked to accept it.

Kenilworth Castle's keep from the south

On 20 January 1327, Edward II was informed at Kenilworth Castle of the charges brought against him: The king was guilty of incompetence; allowing others to govern him to the detriment of the people and Church; not listening to good advice and pursuing occupations unbecoming to a monarch; having lost Scotland and lands in Gascony and Ireland through failure of effective governance; damaging the Church, and imprisoning its representatives; allowing nobles to be killed, disinherited, imprisoned and exiled; failing to ensure fair justice, instead governing for profit and allowing others to do likewise; and of fleeing in the company of a notorious enemy of the realm, leaving it without government, and thereby losing the faith and trust of his people.

Edward, profoundly shocked by this judgment, wept while listening. He was then offered a choice: he might abdicate in favour of his son; or he might resist, and relinquish the throne to one not of royal blood, but experienced in government—this, presumably, being Roger Mortimer. The king, lamenting that his people had so hated his rule, agreed that if the people would accept his son, he would abdicate in his favour. The lords, through the person of Sir William Trussell, then renounced their homage to him, and the reign of Edward II ended.

The abdication was announced and recorded in London on 24 January 1327, and the following day was proclaimed the first of the reign of Edward III—who, at 14, was still controlled by Isabella and Mortimer. Edward II remained imprisoned.

A poem, the "Lament of Edward II", traditionally credited to Edward, might have been written during his imprisonment.[20]


Covered walkway leading to Edward II's supposed cell within Berkeley Castle

The government of Isabella and Mortimer was so precarious that they dared not leave the deposed king in the hands of their political enemies. On 3 April, Edward II was removed from Kenilworth and entrusted to the custody of two subordinates of Mortimer, then later imprisoned at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.

On 23 September 1327 Edward III was informed that his father had died on 21 September 1327.[21] Most sources agree that Edward died on that date at Berkeley Castle. One chronicle, however, states that Edward died at Corfe Castle.[citation needed] The causes given for his death vary. A number of chroniclers give no cause of death at all. Some state that he was suffocated, or strangled, and a few state that he was both suffocated and killed by the insertion of a red hot poker[22] or other long metal object[23] into his anus. This last explanation is the one usually associated with Edward, but it may be a later addition designed to lower Edward's reputation.[22] Thomas de la Moore wrote an account of Edward's murder in 1352 that is uncorroborated by other contemporary sources.[24][25][26] Not until the relevant sections of the longer Brut chronicle were composed by an anti-Mortimer Lancastrian polemicist in the mid-1430s was the story widely circulated.[27] [28] The historian Michael Prestwich states that most of the poker story "belongs to the world of romance rather than of history".[23]

Edward II's tomb at Gloucester Cathedral

Nor was there any indication at the time of Edward's death that his wife had any role in his death. It was not until late 1330, when Mortimer was tried and executed, that any writers or chroniclers start mentioning that the ex-king had been murdered.[22]

The historian Ian Mortimer has put forward the argument that Edward II was not killed at Berkeley but was still alive at least until 1330.[29] In his biography of Edward III[30] he explores the implications of this, using evidence including the Fieschi Letter, concluding Edward II may have died in Italy around 1341. In her biography of Isabella, Alison Weir also considers the Fieschi Letter narrative – that Edward escaped imprisonment and lived the rest of his life in exile. Other historians, however, including David Carpenter,[31] have criticised Mortimer's methodology and disagree with his conclusions.

A public funeral attended by Isabella was held in 1327, after which Edward's body was said to be laid in Gloucester Cathedral. His son set up an elaborate tomb, which attracted pilgrims from far and wide.

The rule of Isabella and Mortimer did not last long after the announcement of Edward's death. They made peace with the Scots in the Treaty of Northampton, but this move was highly unpopular. Consequently, when Edward III came of age in 1330, he executed Roger Mortimer on fourteen charges of treason, most significantly the murder of Edward II (thereby removing any public doubt about his father's survival). Edward III spared his mother and gave her a generous allowance, but ensured that she retired from public life for several years. She died at Hertford on 23 August 1358.

According to the Calendar of Fines Edward III (1327–1330) held at Winchester records office, Edward III made every effort to track down his father's killers, William Ockley (not Ogle), Sir Thomas Gurney, and Sir John Maltravers, but they fled the country.[citation needed]Ockley, Gurney and Maltravers were Roger Mortimer's henchmen from the Welsh Marches. William Ogle died before the event; he was a bailiff of Newcastle according to family history (Ogle and Bothal, British library).


Edward II had four children with Isabella:

  1. Edward III of England (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377). Married Philippa of Hainault on 24 January 1328 and had issue.
  2. John of Eltham (15 August 1316 – 13 September 1336). Never married. No issue.
  3. Eleanor of Woodstock (18 June 1318 – 22 April 1355). Married Reginald II the Black, Count of Guelders in May 1332 and had issue.
  4. Joan of The Tower (5 July 1321 – 7 September 1362). Married David II of Scotland on 17 July 1328 and became Queen of Scots, but had no issue.

Edward had also fathered at least one illegitimate son, Adam FitzRoy, who accompanied his father in the Scottish campaigns of 1322 and died shortly afterwards.

Edward in popular culture[edit]

Edward II has been portrayed in popular culture a number of times. The most famous fictional account of Edward II's reign is Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II (c. 1592). It depicts Edward's reign as a single narrative, and does not include Bannockburn.

In 1991 English filmmaker Derek Jarman adapted the Christopher Marlowe play into a film featuring Tilda Swinton, Steven Waddington, Andrew Tiernan, Nigel Terry, and Annie Lennox. The film specifically portrays a homosexual relationship between Edward II and Piers Gaveston.

French novelist Maurice Druon's saga The Accursed Kings depicts Edward II and the Despensers' fall in its fifth novel, La Louve de France (The She-Wolfe of France). In this novel (whose title refers to Queen Isabelle's historic nickname) it is assumed as historic the homosexuality of the king (and his special relationship with Hugh Despenser) and his secret murder in prison by red-iron impalement.

Edward was portrayed as an effeminate homosexual in Braveheart. His death and sexuality are mentioned a number of times in Michael Crichton's novel Timeline.

Edward II's supposed escape from prison and obscure life in exile forms the main secret plot of Ken Follett's novel World Without End, and the subsequent TV miniseries of the same name.


See also[edit]



  1. ^ a b Haines. Edward of Caernarfon. p. 3
  2. ^ Crofton, Ian (2007). "Edward I". The Kings and Queens of England. 21 Bloomsbury Square, London: Quercus. p. 84. ISBN 1-84724-065-8. Retrieved 23 June 2008. 
  3. ^ This story first appeared in the work of 16th-century Welsh "antiquary" David Powel.[citation needed]
  4. ^ a b "King Edward II". NNDB. Retrieved 23 June 2008. 
  5. ^ Hudson, M.E.; Mary Clark (1978). Crown of a Thousand Years. Crown Publishers, Inc. p. 48. ISBN 0-517-53452-5. 
  6. ^ Fritze, Ronald H.; William Baxter Robison (2002). "Boulogne Document (1308)". Historical dictionary of late medieval England, 1272–1485. Westport, London: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 68–9. ISBN 0-313-29124-1. Retrieved 1 August 2009. 
  7. ^ Flores Historiarum
  8. ^ Chaplais, Pierre (1994). Piers Gaveston: Edward II's adoptive brother. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198204493.  OCLC 29030706
  9. ^ a b Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University, 2004
  10. ^ Ian Mortimer: "Barriers to the Truth" History Today: 60:12: December 2010: 23
  11. ^ P.C.Doherty,Isabella and the strange death of Edward II, Constable, 2003
  12. ^ Doherty, Paul. (2003) Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II. London: Robinson, p.61; Weir, Alison. (2006) Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England. London: Pimlico, p.117.
  13. ^ Doherty, pp80-1.
  14. ^ Ian Mortimer The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England 1327–1330 (London, 2004) pp. 155–156
  15. ^ Ian Mortimer The Greatest Traitor' p.154'
  16. ^ The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215; Adams and Weis; pg 111
  17. ^ Ian Mortimer The Greatest Traitor'pp. 160–162 '
  18. ^ Ian Mortimer The Greatest Traitor pp. 159–162.
  19. ^ Ian Mortimer The Greatest Traitor p. 162.
  20. ^ For a sceptical comment, see V.H. Galbraith, "The literacy of the medieval English kings", Proceedings of the British Academy, 21 (1935:221 note 6); May McKisack, The Fourteenth Century (Oxford History of England) 1959:2, reserves judgement: "if he was indeed the author of the Anglo-Norman lament ascribed to him, he knew something of versification;" M. Smallwood, "The Lament of Edward II", Modern Language Review 68 (1973:521–29) pp. 528f, feels that "the authorship question has not been settled"; Claire Valente, "The 'Lament of Edward II': religious lyric, political propaganda", Speculum 77 (2002:422ff) writes "I think it unlikely that Edward II wrote the poem" (p. 422)
  21. ^ Phillips Edward II pp. 548-549
  22. ^ a b c Phillips Edward II pp. 560-565
  23. ^ a b Prestwich The Three Edwards p. 99
  24. ^  Tait, James (1894). "More, Thomas de la (DNB00)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co. "Sir THOMAS de la [Moore](fl. 1327-1347), alleged chronicler, passed for three centuries as the unquestioned author of a short chronicle entitled ‘Vita et Mors Edwardi Secundi, Gallice conscripta a generosissimo milite Thoma de la Moore, et in Latinum reducta ab alio quodam ejus synchrono,’ first printed by Camden in his ‘Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica,’ &c., in 1603, and re-edited for the Rolls Series by Bishop Stubbs in 1883 in the second volume of ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II.’ This chronicle, from which historians have drawn some of the most graphic details of Edward II's last days, was regarded as a contemporary Latin translation of a supposed French work by More, whence Geoffrey Baker [q. v.] or Galfrid le Baker de Swynebroke was also credited with having drawn his chronicle extending from 1303 to 1356. But Bishop Stubbs has proved that the ‘Vita et Mors’ usually associated with More's name is nothing but an abstract and extract from Baker's chronicle" 
  25. ^ "Stubbs, William, ed.,(1882-83) Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II (London: Longman & Co. (Rolls Series, No. 76), 2 vols.". www.medievalsourcesbibliography.org. Retrieved 20 February 2013. 
  26. ^ Weir, Alison (2006). Isabella: She-wolf of France, Queen of England. Pimlico. ISBN 978-0712641944. 
  27. ^ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=176011.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. ^ Mortimer, Ian. "A red-hot poker? It was just a red herring". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 7 November 2013. 
  29. ^ Ian Mortimer, 'The Death of Edward II in Berkeley castle', English Historical Review cxx (2005), pp. 1175–1224
  30. ^ Mortimer, The Perfect King
  31. ^ "Letters · LRB 2 August 2007". Lrb.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-08-17. 



  • Blackley, F.D. Adam, the Bastard Son of Edward II, 1964.
  • Davies, James Conway (1967) [1918]. The Baronial Opposition to Edward II: Its Character and Policy, a Study in Administrative History. London: Cass. 
  • Doherty, Paul. Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II. Constable and Robinson, 2003. ISBN 1-84119-301-1
  • Fryde, Natalie. The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II: 1321–1326
  • Haines, Roy Martin (2003). King Edward II: Edward of Caernarfon, His Life, His Reign, and Its Aftermath, 1284–1330. Montreal, London: McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2432-3. 
  • McKisack, M. (1959). The Fourteenth Century: 1307–1399. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821712-9. OCLC 183353136. 
  • Maddicot, J.R. (1970). Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821837-0. OCLC 132766. 
  • Mortimer, Ian. The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327–1330. Thomas Dunne Books, 2003. ISBN 0-312-34941-6
  • Mortimer, Ian. The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III Father of the English Nation. Jonathan Cape, 2006. ISBN 978-0-224-07301-1 Appendix 2: The fake death of Edward II; Appendix 3: A note on the later life of Edward II
  • Mortimer, Ian.'Note on the deaths of Edward II' (2008)
  • Phillips, Seymour. Edward II (Yale University Press; 2010) 679 pages; $45). Full biography; considers the question of whether or not he was murdered in 1327, or lived on as a captive and later wanderer.
  • Phillips, J.R.S. (1972). Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke 1307–1324. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822359-5. OCLC 426691. 
  • Prestwich, M.C. (1980). The Three Edwards: War and State in England 1272–1377. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-77730-0. OCLC 185679701. 
  • Prestwich, Michael (2007). Plantagenet England: 1225–1360 (new ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822844-9. 
  • Tuck, Anthony (1985). Crown and Nobility 1272–1461: Political Conflict in Late Medieval England. London: Fontana. ISBN 0-00-686084-2. 
  • Weir, Alison, 'Isabella, She-Wolf of France', Jonathan Cape, 2005, ISBN 0-224-06320-0

External links[edit]

Edward II of England
Born: 25 April 1284 Died: 21 September 1327?
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Edward I
King of England
Duke of Aquitaine
Lord of Ireland

Succeeded by
Edward III
Preceded by
Eleanor and Edward I
Count of Ponthieu
English royalty
Title last held by
Llywelyn the Last
Prince of Wales
Title next held by
Edward, the Black Prince