Edward II: Terrors of Kingship
Christopher Given-Wilson
Penguin Books,2015.
Dr Christopher Gavin-Wilson is a Professor of Medieval History at the University of St Andrews. In a short work of less than 130 pages he has brought to life the tumultus reign of a tragic and perhaps largely misunderstood monarch of medieval England. The first Prince of Wales, so named as Edward was born when his father Edward I was fighting the Welsh in 1307, Edward II was by all medieval accounts a competent warrior, though he did not have too many successes on the battlefield and hence always fared poorly when compared with his more famous father. The shattering defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314 was partly due to the desertion of powerful magnates like the Earls of Lancaster, Warwick and Arundel, there is also the lurking suspicion that Robert Bruce had completely outwitted Edward with his schilrron formation, tightly packed pikemen holding 12 foot pikes and moving as one formation and defending themselves with thick shields which deflected the arrows of the long bow archers quite successfully. The defeat at this crucial battle only intensified the internal war between the King and his magnates.
Edward II was probably gay and his alledged lover, Piers Gavestone. The influece of this man on the King was deeply resented by the nobility and a section headed by the Earl of Lancaster began plotting to rid the realm of this 'evil influence" which in the medieval period meant nothng less than plotting for hs death. Gavestone was captured and put to death by Lancaster which only exacerbated the deep faultlines within the nobility. An interesting feature of the reign of Edward II was the promulgation of what came to be called the Ordinances, perhaps after the Magna Carta, the first set of written principles according to which England was to be governed, a compact between the nobles and the Crown.The Compact was essentially the work of the Earls of Glouchester, Lincoln and Lancaster and from a political theory point of view is innovative as it makes a clear disctinction between the Crown and the person of the King, a precocious Cromwellian moment in the fourteenth century. The King undertook to rule in consultation with the nobles assembled in Parliament. And of course, Edward had no intention of letting Royal Prerogative slip from his hands.
In 1318 yet another royal favourite, Hugh Despenser made his appearance and the struggle with Lancaster ended only with the capture and execution of Thomas Lancaster in 1318. Hugh made the same fatal mistake of Gavestone. he openly flaunted his nearness to the King and as one medieval chronicler put it was seen as a "second king". Accumulating earldoms was a sure sign of both political and material progress and soon the Despensers were the most powerful political clan i all of England. As the Despensers grew in wealth, the loyal nobles that Edward II had inherited from his father started veering away from the Court, a sure sign that they were not secure in the new order. The Despensers helped Edward II in his struggle against Lancaster and in 1322 had help defeat him in the Battle of Boroughbridge in which Hereford was killed Lancaster captured only to die at the hands of an executioner two days later. The ascendency of the Despensers was also accompanied by the first systematic attempt at augmenting the Royal Exchequer since 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest. Collection of taxes, forced loans, forefeiture of Property, fines for pardons were some of the innovative means by which Edward II raised monies for his wars. And at the time of his death had -l- 62,000 in the treasury.
As Hugh Despenser became powerful opposition began to build up and leading the contrarians were Sir Hugh Mortimer and the King's wife , Issabella. Medieval chroniclers have portrayed the relationship between the two as an adultrous one.
The Execution of Hugh Despenser
The last five years of Edward's reign were indeed filled with wars, rebellions, court intrigues and factional strife. He was quite unsuited to govern given his character and general lack of confidence in all but a handful of trusted nobles. Even the City of London was not spared his high handedness. He sought to curtail the financial and other liberties enjoyed by the City and even suspended the Mayor. Distrusting the Londoners, the Tower of London was garissoned with Flemmish mercenaries. Blaming London for the escape of Mortimer and Isabella, Edward was rapidly loosing ground.
The struggle against Roger Mortimer provoked an early but certainly precocious instance of the conflict between Church and King that was to erupt later immortalized by Thomas Beckett. Edward accused Adam Orleton, a prelate of aiding the escape of Roger Mortimer and tried to bring charges against him, the Archbishop invoked "clerical privilege" and came into the Court Room and took the prelate out and Edward could do little about it.
The book though a short account is well written and certainly worth reading.
