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Edward II of England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the play, see Edward II (play). For the film, see Edward II (film). Edward IIKing of England; Lord of Ireland (more...)
Edward II, depicted in Cassell's History of England, published circa 1902
Reign 7 July 1307 – 20 January 1327
Coronation 25 February 1308
Predecessor Edward I of England
Successor Edward III of England
Consort Isabella of France
Issue Edward III of England
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall
Eleanor, Countess of Guelders
Joan, Queen of Scots
Titles and styles
King Edward II
The King
The Prince of Wales
Edward of Caernarfon
Royal house House of Plantagenet
Father Edward I of England
Mother Eleanor of Castile
Born 25 April 1284(1284-04-25)
Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd
Died 21 September 1327 (aged 43)?
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Burial Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire
Edward II, (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327?) of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. His tendency to ignore his nobility in favour of low-born favourites led to constant political unrest and his eventual deposition. Edward is perhaps best remembered for his supposed murder and his showering of male favourites with gifts as well as being the first monarch to establish colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Prince of Wales
The fourth son of Edward I of England by his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle. He was the first English prince to hold the title Prince of Wales, which was formalized by the Lincoln Parliament of 7 February 1301.
The story that his father presented Edward II as a newborn to the Welsh as their future native prince is unfounded. 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 that spoke no English at all.[1] This story first appeared in the work of 16th century Welsh "antiquary" David Powel.[citation needed]
Edward became heir 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.
It has been hypothesized[who?] that Edward's love for "lowbrow" activities developed because of his overbearing, ruthless father. 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".[2] The king attributed his son’s preferences to his strong attachment to Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight, and Edward I exiled Gaveston from court after Prince Edward attempted to bestow on his friend a title reserved for royalty. Ironically, it was the king who had originally chosen Gaveston to be a suitable friend for his son, in 1298 due to his wit, courtesy and abilities. Edward I died on 7 July 1307 en route to another campaign against the Scots, a war that became the hallmark of his reign. Edward had requested that his son "boil his body, extract the bones and carry them with the army until the Scots had been subdued." But his son ignored the request and had his father buried in Westminster Abbey with the epitaph "Here lies Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots".[3] Edward II immediately recalled Gaveston and withdrew from the Scottish campaign that year.
King of England
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".[2] 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, "Philip the Fair," and sister to three French kings. The marriage was doomed to failure almost from the beginning.[citation needed] 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. Nevertheless, their marriage produced two sons, Edward (1312–1377), who would succeed his father on the throne as Edward III, and John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall (1316–1336), and two daughters, Eleanor (1318–1355) and Joanna (1321–1362), wife of David II of Scotland. 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.
War with the Barons
When Edward travelled to the northern French city of Boulogne to marry Isabella, he left his friend and counsellor Piers Gaveston to act as regent. Gaveston also received the earldom of Cornwall and the hand of the king's niece, Margaret of Gloucester; these proved to be costly honours.
Various barons grew resentful of Gaveston, and insisted on his banishment through the Ordinances of 1311. Edward recalled his friend, but in 1312, Gaveston was executed by the Earl of Lancaster and his allies, who claimed that Gaveston led the king to folly. Gaveston was run through and beheaded on Blacklow Hill, outside the small village of Leek Wootton, where a monument called Gaveston's Cross still stands today.
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 begged Edward's pardon.
Conflict with Scotland
During this period, Robert the Bruce was steadily reconquering Scotland. Each campaign begun by Edward, from 1307 to 1314, ended in Robert's 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 Edward I than the living Edward II.[citation needed] By June 1314, only Stirling Castle and Berwick remained under English control.
On 23 June 1314, Edward and his 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 was 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.
However, Edward had made a serious mistake in thinking his vastly superior numbers alone would provide enough of a strategic 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.
Tactics similar to Robert's were employed by victorious English armies against the French in later centuries, partly as a direct result of the enduring decisiveness of the Scots' victory. A young Henry V of England would use exactly this tactic against French cavalry in a key battle on the fields of Agincourt in 1415, winning the day against France.
Edward and Piers Gaveston
Several contemporary sources criticised his infatuation with Piers Gaveston, to the extent that Edward ignored and humiliated his wife. Chroniclers called the relationship excessive, immoderate, beyond measure and reason and criticised his desire for wicked and forbidden sex[4]. The Westminster chronicler says that Gaveston led Edward to reject the sweet embraces of his wife. He turned over to Gaveston all of the wedding gifts Isabella brought to the marriage - including the marriage bed. The Meaux Chronicle (written decades later) complained that, Edward took too much delight in sodomy. This does not, however, prove that Edward and Gaveston were lovers; only that some contemporaries and later writers thought this might be the case.
Gaveston was considered to be athletic and handsome; was a few years older than Edward and had seen military service in Flanders before becoming Edward's close companion. Upon meeting Gaveston, he was immediately dazzled and later exclaimed that he loved Gaveston "more than life itself". Gaveston was known to have a quick, biting wit, and his fortunes continued to ascend as Edward obtained more and more honours for him, including the Earldom of Cornwall. Earlier, Edward I had attempted to control the situation by exiling Gaveston from England. However, upon the king's death in 1307, Edward II immediately recalled him.