Abbreviations
AL: Annales Londonienses 1195–1330
Anonimalle: The Anonimalle Chronicle 1307–1334
AP: Annales Paulini 1307–1340
Baker: Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynbroke (ed. Thompson)
BIHR: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
‘Brief Summary’: Thomas Stapleton, ‘A Brief Summary of the Wardrobe Accounts’
Bruce: G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland
Brut: The Brut or the Chronicles of England
‘Captivity’: T. F. Tout, ‘The Captivity and Death of Edward of Carnarvon’
CCR: Calendar of Close Rolls
CChR: Calendar of Charter Rolls 1300–1326
CCW: Calendar of Chancery Warrants 1244–1326
CDS: Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland 1307–1357
CFR: Calendar of Fine Rolls
Chaplais, Gaveston: Pierre Chaplais, Piers Gaveston: Edward II’s Adoptive Brother
CIM: Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous 1308–1348
CMR: Calendar of Memoranda Rolls Michaelmas 1326–Michaelmas 1327
‘Court’: Michael Prestwich, ‘The Court of Edward II’ in RENP
CPL: Calendar of Papal Letters 1305–1341
CPR: Calendar of Patent Rolls
Croniques: Croniques de London
Doherty, Death: Paul Doherty, Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II
EHR: English Historical Review
FCE: Fourteenth Century England
‘First Journal’: J. C. Davies, ‘The First Journal of Edward II’s Chamber’
Flores: Flores Historiarum, Vol. iii
Foedera: Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, Vol. 2.1, 1307–1327
Gesta: Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon Auctore Canonico Bridlingtoniensi
Guisborough: The Chronicle of Walter Guisborough
Haines, Edward: Roy Martin Haines, King Edward II
Hamilton, Gaveston: J. S. Hamilton, Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall 1307–1312
HMSO: Her/His Majesty’s Stationery Office
Household Book: The Household Book of Queen Isabella of England
Intrigue: Ian Mortimer, Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal Conspiracies
Issues: Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer
Itinerary: Elizabeth Hallam, The Itinerary of Edward II and His Household
JMH: Journal of Medieval History
Johnstone: Hilda Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon 1284–1307
Lancaster: J. R. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster 1307–1322
Lanercost: The Chronicle of Lanercost 1272–1346
Livere: Le Livere de Reis de Britanie e le Livere de Engletere
Multitudo: Constance Bullock-Davies, Menestrellorum Multitudo
Traitor: Ian Mortimer, The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer
Murimuth: Adae Murimuth Continuatio Chronicarum
ODNB: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Opposition: J. C. Davies, The Baronial Opposition to Edward II
Perfect King: Ian Mortimer, The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III
Phillips: Seymour Phillips, Edward II
Place: T. F. Tout, The Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History
Polychronicon: Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, Vol. 8
PROME: The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England
Register: Bullock-Davies, A Register of Royal Domestic Minstrels
RENP: The Reign of Edward II: New Perspectives, ed. Dodd and Musson
SAL MS: Society of Antiquaries of London, manuscript
Sardos: The War of Saint-Sardos (1323-1325): Gascon Correspondence
Scalacronica: Scalacronica by Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, knight (ed. Stevenson)
‘Secular Musicians’: Richard Rastall, ‘Secular Musicians in Late Medieval England’
TNA: The National Archives (C: Chancery; DL: Duchy of Lancaster; E: Exchequer; SC: Special Collections)
Tout, Chapters: T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of England
TRHS: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
Trokelowe: Johannis de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneforde Chronica et Annales
Tyranny: Natalie Fryde, The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II 1321–1326
Valence: J. R. S. Phillips, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke 1307–1324
Vita: Vita Edwardi Secundi (ed. Denholm-Young)
Introduction
1. English Historical Documents 1189–1327, Vol. iii, 287–8.
2. Flores, 235.
3. J. Mackinnon, History of Edward III, 1; May McKisack, The Fourteenth Century 1307–1399, 95; ‘Captivity’, 145; Place, 9; K. H. Vickers, England in the Later Middle Ages, 84; Richard Baker, A Chronicle to the Kings of England, 102.
4. The other is Edward’s descendant Henry VI.
1 Heir to the Throne and Accession
1. Lanercost, 182.
2. Foedera Vol. 1.2, 1272–1307, 1018; Guisborough, 379, Lanercost, 182; Vita, 1.
3. Itinerary, 21; Johnstone, 125.
4. G. L. Haskins, ‘Chronicle of the Civil Wars’, 75; Anonimalle, 82; Guisborough, 380, 383; Lanercost, 184; Vita, 1.
5. Brut, 202–3; Scalacronica, 50.
6. Vita, 40.
7. Phillips, 33.
8. J. C. Parsons, ‘Year of Eleanor of Castile’s Birth’, 246–9; Parsons, Eleanor of Castile, 9. Fernando was canonised in 1671.
9. Johnstone, 12.
10. Johnstone, 6–7; Phillips, 36. The story first appeared in 1584 in The Historie of Cambria.
11. Henry Gough, Itinerary of King Edward the First, Vol. 1: 1272–1285, 145–6.
12. Parsons, Eleanor, 33; Phillips, 40 note 45.
13. Johnstone, 10 note 4.
14. Johnstone, 64; Phillips, 38–9.
15. Parsons, ‘Year of Birth’, 248.
16. Marc Morris, A Great and Terrible King, 231.
17. Johnstone, 24; Phillips, 40.
18. Hilda Johnstone, Letters of Edward, Prince of Wales 1304–5, 70.
19. Johnstone, 15–17; Phillips, 53–7, 64–5; Phillips, ‘Place of the Reign of Edward II’, RENP, 221–6. It has often been unfairly assumed that Edward was stupid and badly educated, which Phillips refutes.
20. Phillips, 57, for Eleanor and Mary. Edward’s half-brother the earl of Kent said in 1330 that his wife Margaret Wake had written a letter for him: Murimuth, 255.
21. Trokelowe, 98–9; Sardos, 143, 145.
22. Phillips, 62.
23. Johnstone, 26–7; Phillips, 48–9.
24. Johnstone, 27–8; Phillips, 41–2; Issues, 106–13.
25. Issues, 111.
26. Phillips, 45 note 76.
27. Morris, Terrible King, 307ff; Michael Prestwich, Edward I, 392ff; Prestwich, Documents Illustrating the Crisis; Phillips, 78ff.
28. CChR 1300–26, 6; Johnstone, 62; Phillips, 87.
29. CPR 1301–7, 424.
30. A list is given in Multitudo, 185–7.
31. Johnstone, 108.
32. Johnstone, 106–8.
33. Multitudo, 1–6.
34. Multitudo, xxv–xxvi.
35. Lanercost, 182–3; Guisborough, 379.
36. J. S. Hamilton, Gaveston, 37, 139.
37. Johnstone, 124; Hamilton, Gaveston, 35–6.
38. Guisborough, 382; Hannah Kilpatrick, ‘Correction to Hoskins’, 1–2.
39. Phillips, 46–7.
40. Vita, 40.
41. Lanercost, 222.
42. Scalacronica, 75.
43. Polychronicon, 298.
44. Nancy Goldstone, Four Queens, 6.
45. Foedera, 650.
46. Polychronicon, 299.
47. Foedera, 1; Lanercost, 183.
48. Phillips, 124; Prestwich, Edward I, 565–6.
2 The New King and His Favourite
1. Vita, 40; Roll of Arms of Caerlaverock, 18; Polychronicon, 299; Scalacronica, 45; Gesta, 91; Anonimalle, 80.
2. Prestwich, Edward I, 567; W. Mark Ormrod, Edward III, 578 and note 6.
3. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, 62.
4. Foedera, 2, 50. See also Phillips, 127, and Chaplais, Gaveston, 27–28.
5. Chaplais, Gaveston, 31; Hamilton, Gaveston, 37. TNA E 41/460 is the Cornwall charter.
6. K. B. McFarlane, The Nobility of Later Medieval England, 265.
7. For more information on Gaveston’s family, see Hamilton, Gaveston, 19–28.
8. On 29 July 1304, Edward I granted Gaveston the wardship of Roger Mortimer (CPR 1301–7, 244), meaning Gaveston was at least twenty-one then; Hamilton, Gaveston, 21.
9. TNA SC/8/291/14546; CDS 1272–1307, 368; Johnstone, 89.
10. Hamilton, Gaveston, 30.
11. Baker, 4.
12. CCR 1302–7, 277 note 44, and 295 note 45; Foedera 1272–1307, 1010.
13. Scalacronica, 33.
14. AP, 255.
15. Lanercost, 184; AP, 259, 273; Vita, 7, 17, 28, 104; Polistoire, folio 232r, cited in Chaplais, Gaveston, 11; AL, 157. Vita, 28, and AP, 263, for the quotations.
16. Chaplais, Gaveston, 6–22.
17. Vita, 15.
18. Cited in Johnstone, 42.
19. Chaplais, Gaveston, 56, 67, 123.
20. Brut, 216–7.
21. Hamilton, Gaveston, 27.
22. F. D. Blackley, ‘Bastard Son of Edward II’, 76; Chris Given-Wilson and Alice Curteis, Royal Bastards of Medieval England, 8, 136; Phillips, 102.
23. Amie was a damsel of Edward II’s daughter-in-law Philippa of Hainault.
24. ‘Secular Musicians’, 57; Register, 226.
25. Hamilton, Gaveston, 40.
26. Alison Weir, Isabella, 15.
27. As suggested in Doherty, Death, 42–3.
28. Guisborough, 383, AP, 257, Lanercost, 184–5; Beardwood, Records of the Trial, 1–2.
29. Morris, Terrible King, 349–50.
30. Jeffrey Denton, Robert Winchelsey and the Crown, 245–6.
31. Foedera, 11–12, 14, 17, 22, 25; CPR 1307–13, 13; CCR 1307–13, 7–9, 16–17.
32. From the early thirteenth century, the vast territory in France ruled by the English kings dwindled considerably, until only Gascony remained. However, although the kings of England no longer held the entire duchy, they continued to be called ‘duke of Aquitaine’. Following contemporary practice, I refer to Edward II by his correct title, but use the word ‘Gascony’ in all other contexts.
33. H. M. Colvin, History of the King’s Works, 2, 179–80; Register, 31.
34. Foedera, 8; Mary Saaler, Edward II 1307–1327, 38. Oljeitu or Öljaitü, also known as Muhammad Khodabandeh, was the great-great-great-grandson of Genghis Khan.
35. Prestwich, Edward I, 557.
36. Issues, 122–3; Phillips, 131 note 45.
37. Vita, 3.
38. Chaplais, Gaveston, 31–2.
39. CCR 1307–1313, 10.
40. The Gilbert de Clare who lived in Edward’s household before his accession was not Gloucester, as often stated, but his cousin of the same name, who was lord of Thomond.
41. Issues, 119–20; Hamilton, Gaveston, 38, 140.
42. Register, 119; Hamilton, Gaveston, 38, 140.
43. Issues, 119.
44. Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars, 85.
45. Foedera, 10, 16, 19, 24.
46. Barber, Trial of the Templars, 219; TNA SC 7/10/40.
47. Foedera, 23; CCR 1307–13, 48–9.
48. CCR 1307–13, 14.
49. CCR 1307–13, 90.
50. Evelyn Lord, The Knights Templar in Britain, 261.
51. CPR 1307–13, 21, 448.
52. Foedera, 17–18.
53. Itinerary, 26; CPR 1307–13, 13–26; CCR 1307–13, 9–13.
54. Trokelowe, 65; AP, 258–9.
55. Vita, 2.
56. Vita, 14–15.
57. Murimuth, 11.
58. Gesta, 33; AP, 259.
59. AP, 258; Itinerary, 26–7; CPR 1307–13, 29, 31; CCR 1307–13, 16; Foedera, 24–5; Jochen Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 37.
60. Foedera, 24; CPR 1307–13, 31.
61. Vita, 3.
62. AP, 260; Hamilton, Gaveston, 45–46; Chaplais, Gaveston, 34–42.
63. CCR 1307–13, 7–9, 16–17; CPR 1307–13, 13, 16.
3 Exile and Intrigue
1. Itinerary, 27. Edward had arranged to meet Philip on Sunday 21 January; Foedera, 25. There is no evidence that ‘engrossed with Gaveston’, he deliberately arrived late to insult the French, as suggested in Doherty, Death, 43.
2. Weir, Isabella, 8–9; Paul Doherty, ‘Date of Birth of Isabella’, 246–8.
3. Blanche, a niece of Louis IX of France, married firstly Enrique I of Navarre and secondly Edmund of Lancaster, younger brother of Edward I.
4. Weir, Isabella, 27.
5. Phillips, 134.
6. Phillips, 132; Elizabeth A. R. Brown, ‘Political Repercussions of Family Ties’, 576.
7. AP, 258.
8. Walter E. Rhodes, ‘Inventory of the Jewels and Wardrobe’, 518–21; Phillips, 135; Doherty, Death, 43–4.
9. AP, 258. See Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 45 and note 105: Gaveston received the gifts in his capacity as regent and there is no suggestion that Edward intended him to keep them, and Chaplais, Gaveston, 104: Edward was merely ensuring the safe delivery of the gifts.
10. Lancaster, 73; Valence, 25–9; Phillips, 138; Haines, Edward, 64.
11. Traitor, 35–6.
12. Foedera, 31; Itinerary, 28; CPR 1307–13, 45.
13. CCR 1307–13, 51; Phillips, 145 note 114.
14. Isabella and Richmond were both great-grandchildren of King Thibault I of Navarre.
15. Hamilton, Gaveston, 47, citing Trokelowe, 65; Gesta, 210.
16. CFR 1307–19, 14.
17. Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 46–7.
18. Issues, 122.
19. AP, 258–9.
20. AL, 152.
21. AP, 260.
22. For example, V. H. Galbraith, ‘The Literacy of the Medieval English Kings’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 21 (1935), 215: ‘It was thus stupidity or laziness, and not want of opportunity to learn Latin, that made it necessary for Edward II to take his coronation oath in French.’ Edward’s son Edward III and great-grandson Richard II also took their coronation oaths in French in 1327 and 1377, and nobody has ever accused them of being stupid and lazy because of it. See Phillips, 54–6.
23. No record survives of Edward I’s coronation oath in 1274, so it is possible that he also spoke French, and that it included the fourth clause.
24. Issues, 122.
25. Flores, 141–2.
26. Any details of the coronation not cited come from AP, 258–62.
27. CPR 1307–13, 47; AP, 258–9.
28. Issues, 121.
29. Phillips, 140.
30. Anthony Tuck, Crown and Nobility 1272–1461, 59; Michael Prestwich, The Three Edwards, 82.
31. TNA E/101/325/4.
32. AL, 260; Phillips, 145.
33. AP, 259.
34. Cited in Weir, Isabella, 40.
35. AP, 262; Vita, 15.
36. Edward and Isabella’s first daughter Eleanor was an exception: born in June 1318, she bore her first child in May 1333, before she turned fifteen.
37. Vita, 4.
38. Flores, 151.
39. Vita, 1.
40. Lanercost, 186.
41. Vita, 4–5; F. C. Hingeston–Ralph, The Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter 1307–1326 (1892), 11–12.
42. Lancaster, 83–4, 335–6.
43. Lanercost, 196; Polychronicon, 300.
44. Chaplais, Gaveston, 10.
45. Lancaster, 84.
46. CPR 1307–13, 51.
47. CPR 1307–13, 24; Foedera, 44; Tout, Chapters, Vol. 5, 277.
48. Guisborough, 382; Johnstone, 124–5.
49. TNA E 163/4/11; Sardos, 199–200.
50. Vita, 4; Lanercost, 187; Traitor, 39; Hamilton, Gaveston, 146.
51. Foedera, 44; CPR 1307–13, 71.
52. CPR 1307–13, 74, 78–9; Hamilton, Gaveston, 147; Chaplais, Gaveston, 47.
53. Gesta, 33–4; AP, 262–3; Vita, 5.
54. Haines, Edward, 61–2; Lanercost, 187.
55. Foedera, 51.
56. Chaplais, Gaveston, 45; CCW, 275.
57. Foedera, 49–51, 122–3.
58. Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 42–3.
59. CPR 1307–13, 83; Foedera, 51, 122–3, 129.
60. CFR 1307–19, 32.
61. Bruce, 249.
62. CPR 1307–13, 81–2.
63. Foedera, 63; Phillips, 152.
64. Vita, 6.
65. Hamilton, Gaveston, 41; Haines, Edward, 70.
66. Vita, 6.
67. AP, 264.
68. Andy King, ‘Thomas of Lancaster’s First Quarrel’, 31–45; Lancaster, 92–4.
69. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, 61, 65, 107, 136, 122.
70. CPR 1307–13, 95, 96, 148, 453.
71. Phillips, 64–5.
72. Livere, 327; AP, 266.
73. AL, 157; AP, 267.
74. CPR 1307–13, 101, 156; Foedera, 69.
75. Foedera, 68.
76. Hamilton, Gaveston, 53–66.
77. CPR 1307–13, 102–3.
78. Lancaster, 95–102; Phillips, 155.
79. Sophia Menache, Clement V (1998), 260.
80. Phillips, 156–7; Lancaster, 97–8; Haines, Edward, 72; Tuck, Crown and Nobility, 57; Place, 76.
81. CCR 1307–13, 158–9.
82. AL, 157; Vita, 8.
83. CCR 1307–13, 225–6.
84. Gesta, 35; Guisborough, 384.
85. Vita, 7.
4 Another Exile
1. Vita, 16.
2. Scalacronica, 48; Lanercost, 194.
3. Lanercost, 194 (Warwick quotation), Brut, 207; Flores, 152; Vita, 8; Place, 12–13.
4. AL, 133.
5. Chaplais, Gaveston, 56, 67, 123.
6. Vita, 7.
7. Vita, 7–8.
8. Haskins, ‘Chronicle of the Wars’, 76; Vita, 1–3.
9. Lanercost, 184.
10. Foedera, 63, 71.
11. Foedera, 60.
12. Peter Linehan, ‘English Mission of Cardinal Petrus Hispanus’, 615–20; Johnstone, 120.
13. Peter Coss and Maurice Keen, Heraldry, Pageantry, 89; Vita, 40.
14. CCR 1301–7, 83.
15. CCR 1307–13, 224; Foedera, 78, 82–3.
16. Foedera, 85; CDS, 19.
17. Foedera, 74.
18. CCR 1307–13, 13, 42, 281; Bruce, 261.
19. Foedera, 79.
20. Polychronicon, 299.
21. Prestwich, Edward I, 111; Parsons, Eleanor, 50.
22. Foedera, 81.
23. Vita, 9; Guisborough, 384–5.
24. Foedera, 86, 98, 103; CCR 1307–13, 171, 173, 190, 270, 283, 291.
25. CPR 1307–13, 211.
26. Foedera 1272–1307, 995.
27. Yonge, Flowers of History, 585; ODNB.
28. ODNB.
29. Vita, 8.
30. Foedera, 102.
31. Vita, 9; CPR 1307–13, 206–07; Foedera, 103.
32. AL, 167–8.
33. Opposition, 359; AL, 169.
34. AL, 169–74.
35. AL, 170–71; Phillips, 166; Opposition, 357–93.
36. R. Graham, The Register of Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (1956), Part 2, 1,043.
37. CPR 1307–13, 277.
38. Prestwich, Three Edwards, 81.
39. Polychronicon, 299; Scalacronica, 43.
40. SAL MS 122, 55, 63, 79.
41. Vita, 12.
42. CDS, 40–41, 48.
43. CDS, 33.
44. CDS, 39.
45. Vita, 40.
46. CPR 1307–13, 333; Foedera, 129; AL, 175; AP, 269.
47. Hamilton, Gaveston, 85; Lancaster, 115.
48. Lanercost, 192. J. S. Hamilton states that the story cannot be true, as Gaveston was only with Edward at Berwick in late March 1311, when the earl of Lancaster was in Leicester. Hamilton, Gaveston, 159 note 46; Lancaster, 342.
49. CDS, 40.
50. Phillips, 74, 174.
51. CDS, 41.
52. AL, 175–6.
53. Itinerary, 75–6; Vita, 17; Register, 76.
54. Itinerary, 76–7; Vita, 17. Queen Isabella went on pilgrimage to Canterbury in October 1311: Household Book, 143.
55. Hamilton, Gaveston, 91.
56. Issues, 124.
57. This and all following quotes from the Ordinance, and Edward’s reaction to it, from Vita, 17–20.
58. AP, 270; Trokelowe, 67; CCR 1307–13, 439.
59. Foedera, 143.
60. CCR 1307–13, 441; Foedera, 144.
61. CCR 1307–13, 393, 441; Foedera, 144–5.
62. Household Book, 137.
63. Chaplais, Gaveston, 75–6.
64. Vita, 20.
65. CPR 1307–13, 26.
66. AP, 171; AL, 202; Philips, Edward II, 180.
67. Itinerary, 79; CPR 1307–13, 397–8; CCR 1307–13, 380–81, 441; Foedera, 148.
68. CPR 1307–13, 397.
69. CPR 1307–13, 397.
70. CPR 1307–13, 395, 398; Household Book, 209.
71. Household Book, 208; Chaplais, Gaveston, 75.
72. Trokelowe, 68–9; Vita, 21; AP, 271.
73. CPR 1307–13, 405; Foedera, 151.
74. Vita, 21.
75. Stones and Keil, ‘Edward II and the Abbot of Glastonbury’, 176–82; Chris Given-Wilson, Chronicles: The Writing of History in Medieval England, 73–4, 229. It is not entirely clear in which year this correspondence took place; possibly, it belongs to 1321/22, when Edward’s friends the Despensers had also been banished from England, or to 1308/09, Gaveston’s first exile.
76. Foedera, 149, 151; CPR 1307–13, 398; CCR 1307–13, 447.
77. Sayles, Functions of Medieval Parliament, 302.
78. Vita, 21.
79. ‘Brief Summary ’, 342.
80. AL, 202; Gesta, 41; Vita, 2; Hamilton, Gaveston, 93.
81. Vita, 21.
5 Death, Birth and Reconciliation
1. Household Book, 143.
2. Itinerary, 81; CCW, 382; Chaplais, Gaveston, 77–8.
3. Gesta, 42; Chaplais, Gaveston, 78–9; Hamilton, Gaveston, 93–4.
4. Chaplais, Gaveston, 77.
5. CCR 1307–13, 448–9; Foedera, 153; AL, 203.
6. Chaplais, English Diplomatic Practice in the Middle Ages, 128, 130; Tout, Chapters, Vol. 2, 199–200. Phillips, ‘Place of the Reign’, RENP, 221–3, discusses the 1317 letter, and earlier historians’ insistence on Edward’s alleged stupidity and illiteracy.
7. Lanercost, 196.
8. Vita, 22–4.
9. Trokelowe, 74–5; Lancaster, 124; Chaplais, Gaveston, 81.
10. Register, 50; Household Book, 17, 25.
11. AL, 203; Lancaster, 123.
12. Vita, 22–3.
13. Register, 143; ‘Secular Musicians’, 62.
14. Register, 167, 218.
15. Register, 116.
16. Register, 119.
17. Household Book, 25, 27, 137.
18. Household Book, 13.
19. Traitor, 49–50, 69–70, 87, 100–1, 305–9.
20. Flores, 149; Vita, 22.
21. Hamilton, Gaveston, 94.
22. ‘Court’, 66.
23. SAL MS 122, 21, 28, 45.
24. CCR 1307–13, 581.
25. Foedera, 162.
26. Hamilton, Gaveston, 95.
27. CCR 1307–13, 426; Register, 143; ‘Secular Musicians’, 63.
28. CPR 1307–13, 454; CFR 1307–19, 129.
29. Foedera, 163–4; CCR 1307–13, 458.
30. Foedera, 169; Lanercost, 197; Gesta, 42; Itinerary, 85.
31. Trokelowe, 75–6.
32. Doherty, ‘Isabella’, 42, 92.
33. Household Book, xxv–xxvi: ‘the story that Edward abandoned Isabella seems to be a most unlikely one’; Haines, Edward, 84: ‘a fictitious tale’; Phillips, 482: Edward ‘did not abandon the pregnant Isabella’; Doherty, Death, 51; Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 49. Weir (Isabella, 63–4) is one of the few modern writers who accepts the story.
34. Household Book, 55.
35. Household Book, xxvi, 15.
36. Doherty, Death, 51.
37. Foedera, 203–5; CPR 1307–13, 554, 562.
38. Vita, 34–5.
39. Gesta, 42; Lanercost, 197–8; Vita, 24; Lancaster, 125; Phillips, 187–8.
40. Vita, 24.
41. CPR 1307–13, 460; CCR 1307–13, 460; Foedera, 169; Valence, 33.
42. Gesta, 42; Trokelowe, 76; Vita, 24.
43. Flores, 150–51.
44. Hamilton, Gaveston, 96; AL, 204–206.
45. AL, 204–06; Vita, 24.
46. Vita, 24.
47. Vita, 24.
48. Valence, 34; Hamilton, Gaveston, 97.
49. Lancaster, 127.
50. Vale, Princely Court, 180; Foedera, 170.
51. AL, 207, 236.
52. Vita, 25.
53. Flores, 152–3.
54. AL, 206–07.
55. Vita, 25.
56. Trokelowe, 77.
57. Gesta, 43–4.
58. Vita, 26.
59. Vita, 26–8.
60. Vita, 27, and see also: AL, 207; AP, 271; Anonimalle, 86; Baker, 5; Gesta, 44; Flores, 152; Lanercost, 198; Murimuth, 17–18; Trokelowe, 77.
61. AL, 207.
62. Foedera, 204.
63. AP, 262.
64. Itinerary, 86; Household Book, 45, 63, 221; CFR 1307–19, 136–7; CCR 1307–13, 427–8; CPR 1307–13, 465; Anonimalle, 86, Brut, 207, Vita, 30, Trokelowe, 77.
65. Vita, 30.
66. Vita, 29–30; Lanercost, 198; Anonimalle, 86.
67. Scalacronica, 51.
68. T. Wright, The Political Songs of England, 258–61; Vita, 29.
69. Hamilton, Gaveston, 99.
70. Lanercost, 203; Opposition, 85.
71. CPR 1307–13, 497, 664.
72. Itinerary, 86; Household Book, 221.
73. ‘Secular Musicians’, 63; Multitudo, 143; Register, 63, 77, 218.
74. AL, 208–10.
75. CPR 1307–13, 489–90.
76. Lanercost, 199; AL, 216.
77. Vita, 31.
78. Lanercost, 198.
79. Vita, 30, 32.
80. CPR 1307–13, 490; Foedera, 178; Vita, 32–33.
81. Vita, 29.
82. Vita, 33–4.
83. Vita, 34.
84. Vita, 38.
85. Foedera, 191–2; CPR 1307–13, 517; AL, 221–25.
86. Register, 32; ‘Secular Musicians’, 64; Weir, Isabella, 69.
87. Register, 31–2; ‘Secular Musicians’, 64.
88. CPR 1307–13, p. 508; Foedera, 184. Isabella’s will does not survive, and Edward himself never made one.
89. Trokelowe, 79–80; Vita, 36; Perfect King, 23.
90. CPR 1307–13, 516, 519.
91. Vita, 37.
92. Perfect King, 19–20.
93. AL, 220–21.
94. Perfect King, 23.
95. CDS, 58–9.
96. Vita, 48.
97. Itinerary, 94–5; Weir, Isabella, 73.
98. Foedera, 209.
99. Foedera, 203–05; Chaplais, Gaveston, 125–34; Hamilton, Gaveston, 119–127.
100. Foedera, 216.
101. CCR 1307–13, 537.
102. Chaplais, Piers Gaveston, 111–12.
103. Itinerary, 98; Vita, 39.
104. ‘Secular Musicians’, 64; Register, 122; quotation from Brown and Degalado, ‘Le grant feste: Philip the Fair’s Celebration’, 59.
105. Brown and Degalado, ‘Le grant feste’, 60–63; Kathleen M. Ashley and Wim N. M. Hüsken, Moving Subjects: Processional Performance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (2001), 124.
106. Chronique Métrique de Godefroy de Paris, ed. J.-A. Buchon (1827), 194.
107. ‘Le grant feste’, 64, 66; Ashley and Hüsken, Moving Subjects, 134, 142.
108. Register, 9.
109. Register, 165; Multitudo, 51.
110. Chronique Métrique, 196 (also for the ‘completely naked’ quote).
111. ‘Le grant feste’, 64, 71–2.
112. Vale, Princely Court, 229, 280.
113. Trease, ‘The Spicers and Apothecaries’, 46.
114. Trokelowe, 80.
115. CPR 1313–7, 21–6, 35–6; Foedera, 230–3; AL, 222–9.
116. Vita, 43.
117. Lanercost, 203; Vita, 43.
118. Livere, 331.
119. Vita, 43–4.
6 Military Disaster and Famine
1. Flores, 155–6; Vita, 45; Gesta, 45; Melsa, 329.
2. Lanercost, 202–203; Flores, 155–6; Vita, 45–6.
3. Foedera, 101.
4. Itinerary, 109–10; Trokelowe, 82.
5. Weir, Isabella, 96–8; Doherty, Death, p. 57.
6. CPR 1313–7, 5, 38, 85–7.
7. See Phillips, 222.
8. Trokelowe, 83; CCR 1313–8, 38; CPR 1324–7, 193.
9. Trokelowe, 83; Historia Anglicana, Vol. 1, 138–9; CCR 1313–8, 53.
10. Foedera, 258.
11. Weir, Isabella, 98.
12. Lanercost, 204; Vita, 48; Bruce, 274–9.
13. Lanercost, 202, 204; Bruce, 274, 277.
14. Scalacronica, 51–2; Vita, 48; Lanercost, 204; Haines, Edward, 481, note 118.
15. Vita, 49.
16. Scalacronica, 60.
17. Bruce, 336.
18. Lancaster, 162–3.
19. Bruce, 276–7; Nusbacher, Bannockburn 1314, 24–8; Reese, Greatest Victory, 52–3.
20. Vita, 50 (twenty leagues); Reese, Greatest Victory, 115–19, and Nusbacher, Bannockburn 1314, 85–114; Nusbacher, 89, for Hereford.
21. Lanercost, 206; Flores, 158.
22. Saaler, Edward II, 75.
23. Nusbacher, Bannockburn 1314, 89.
24. Vale, Princely Court, 221–2.
25. Derek Birley, Sport and the Making of Britain (1993), 32.
26. Kathleen Edwards, ‘Political Importance of English Bishops’, 324, 328.
27. Baker, 7.
28. Wright, Political Songs, 262–3.
29. Vita, 49.
30. For the battle, see Chris Brown, Bannockburn 1314: A New History; John Sadler, Bannockburn: Battle for Liberty; Aryeh Nusbacher, Bannockburn 1314; Peter Reese, Bannockburn: Scotland’s Greatest Victory.
31. Vita, 52–3.
32. Trokelowe, 86.
33. Scalacronica, 54.
34. Lanercost, 208–9. See also AP, 276; AL, 230–1; Gesta, 46; Vita, 54–5.
35. Reese, Greatest Victory, 172; Nusbacher, Bannockburn 1314, 211–2.
36. Issues, 134; CPR 1313–7, 273; CPR 1317–21, 111; CCR 1313–8, 298, 497.
37. Scalacronica, 57; Vita, 55; Reese, Greatest Victory, 172–3.
38. Baker, 9.
39. Doherty, Death, 60.
40. Vale, Princely Court, 108–9.
41. Anonimalle, 88; AL, 231; Lanercost, 208.
42. CCR 1313–8, 71, 76; CDS, 63–4.
43. Vita, 54–5.
44. Traitor, 64.
45. Vita, 56.
46. Trokelowe, 87.
47. Trokelowe, 86.
48. Lanercost, 210–11.
49. Foedera, 254–5.
50. CPR 1313–7, 169; Sayles, Functions, 317.
51. Place, 93.
52. Weir, Isabella, 102–3.
53. Johnstone, 129–30; Johnstone, ‘Eccentricities of Edward II’, 264–67; Michael Prestwich, Plantagenet England 1225–1360, 180–1; Phillips, 277.
54. Phillips, 277–8.
55. CPR 1313–7, 160, 183; Foedera, 256; CDS, 71.
56. CDS, 59, 95.
57. Lanercost, 211.
58. CCR 1313–8, 131–8.
59. CCR 1313–8, 204.
60. Vale, Princely Court, 171, 245. There was a custom to choose a boy from a church or cathedral choir to act as ‘boy-bishop’. Although he wasn’t allowed to celebrate the Eucharist, he blessed people, gave at least one sermon, and gave out alms to the poor. The boy-bishop’s ‘reign’ usually began on 6 December and ended on the 28th.
61. SAL MS 122, 62, 64, 75.
62. Foedera, 259; TNA E/101/375/15; E/101/376/2; E/101/375/16. The funeral took place either on 2 or 3 January 1315: Phillips, 241 note 21; Hamilton, Gaveston, 100; Chaplais, Gaveston, 110–11.
63. Murimuth, 17; C. F. R. Palmer, ‘The Friar–Preachers of Kings Langley’, The Reliquary, 23 (1882–3), 156.
64. Hamilton, Gaveston, 166, note 84.
65. Hamilton, Gaveston, 166, note 81.
66. Vita, 58.
67. CCR 1313–8, 139.
68. Hamilton, Gaveston, 100, 166–7.
69. Haines, Edward, 94; Valence, 83.
70. Alison Marshall, ‘Childhood and Household’, RENP, 204.
71. Vita, 123.
72. TNA C/81/90/3241; Valence, 132.
73. AP, 279.
74. Vita, 63–70.
75. Foedera, 263, 266; Anonimalle, 88.
76. Vita, 69; Anonimalle, 90.
77. Anonimalle, 90; Lanercost, 217; Trokelowe, 92.
78. Trokelowe, 93.
79. Trokelowe, 92.
80. Vita, 70; Trokelowe, 95.
81. Trokelowe, 95.
82. Vita, 70.
83. Bruce, 203; Traitor, 66–71, 80–81.
84. Traitor, 70–71; CDS, 89.
85. Lanercost, 213–6, and Vita, 61–2, for the siege (quotation from Lanercost, 215).
86. Lanercost, 216.
87. CPR 1313–7, 306–07; CFR 1307–1319, 248.
88. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, i, 137.
89. Vita, 75–6.
90. Issues, 126.
91. Scalacronica, 65.
92. Foedera, 274–5; CCR 1313–8, 306; AL, 238–9.
93. Vale, Princely Court, 237, 307.
94. Flores, 173; Phillips, 252.
95. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, 7, 105; Register, 19.
96. Haines, Edward, 359, note 38.
97. TNA E 101/376/25; CPR 1313–7, 355–6.
98. Johnstone, 130.
99. Flores, 173; Itinerary, 132–7; Foedera, 277–83; CPR 1313–7, 352–79; CCR 1313–7, 248–62; CCW, 422–35, show that Edward was in the Fens in autumn.
100. Croniques, 35, for 1308/09; AL, 158, for 1309/10; also AP, 268.
101. Yonge, Flowers of History, 582; Derek Vincent Stern, A Hertfordshire Demesne of Westminster Abbey: Profits, Productivity and Weather, ed. Christopher Thornton (2000), 98–9.
102. Issues, 128–9.
103. Register, 147; ‘Secular Musicians’, 66.
104. Scalacronica, 65; CCR 1323–7, 440–1; CPR 1313–7, 422; Prestwich, ‘Unreliability of Household Knights’, 10.
105. CPR 1313–7, 372, 378, 384, 525, 598, 609, 615, etc; CFR 1307–19, 225, 294, 316–17.
106. Flores, 178.
7 Conflicts, Marriages and an Abduction
1. PROME.
2. McKisack, Fourteenth Century, 47.
3. PROME; Sayles, Functions, 353.
4. CPR 1313–7, 398.
5. Issues, 131.
6. ‘Brief Summary’, 342–3.
7. Lanercost, 217, and see also Vita, 69–70; Gesta, 48.
8. Vita, 66–7.
9. Vita, 67; CPR 1313–17, 384, 433; Foedera, 283.
10. CCR 1313–18, 274–5, 283.
11. CCR 1313–18, 419; Foedera, 334.
12. Lancaster, 184.
13. CCW, 436–7; PROME, 355–6; Issues, 131.
14. Foedera, 288.
15. CCR 1313–18, 462; CCR 1318–23, 187, 363, 525, 641, 699; CCR 1323–7, 353, 556.
16. Issues, 132.
17. Lanercost, 217.
18. J. S. Hamilton, ‘Character of Edward II’, RENP, 13–14.
19. Foedera, 271; CCR 1313–18, 301; CPR 1313–17, 332–3; CCR 1313–18, 454.
20. ‘Brief Summary’, 343.
21. CPR 1307–13, 272; CPR 1313–17, 360.
22. Foedera, 290.
23. ‘Brief Summary’, 343–4.
24. Chaplais, English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, Part 1, Vol. 2, 820.
25. ‘Brief Summary’, 319–20.
26. Prestwich, Edward I, 113; Prestwich, ‘The Piety of Edward I’, 125; Phillips, 71.
27. ‘Court’, 67.
28. Itinerary, 142–144; ‘Brief Summary’, 320.
29. Lancaster, 187.
30. ‘Brief Summary’, 322–3; Issues, 133; CPR 1313–17, 608.
31. Foedera, 293; CPR 1313–17, 527.
32. Edward gave a pound to the messenger who brought him news of John XXII’s election on 17 August: ‘Brief Summary’, 321.
33. ‘Brief Summary’, 320; Trokelowe, 95.
34. CCR 1313–8, 430; Foedera, 296.
35. ‘Brief Summary’, 336; Phillips, 279.
36. Flores, 176–7.
37. CPR 1313–17, 621; ‘Brief Summary’, 320.
38. Polychronicon, 314.
39. Register, 144.
40. ‘Brief Summary’, 342; Register, 39. Philip was the grandson of Beatrice of Provence, sister of Edward’s grandmother Eleanor of Provence.
41. Place, 315; CPR 1313–17, 609.
42. CPR 1313–7, 563–4; Foedera, 301 Valence, 106.
43. Lancaster, 188; Valence, 106.
44. CPR 1301–7, 308; The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. Thomas Wright, Vol. 2, pp. 368–9.
45. CCR 1307–13, 583.
46. Haines, Edward, 406, note 79; CPR 1313–17, 401, 434.
47. CPR 1313–17, 528–9.
48. ‘Brief Summary’, 341; CPR 1313–17, 12; CCR 1313–18, 45–6.
49. Valence, 110, 317.
50. Foedera, 304.
51. Foedera, 311–2.
52. ODNB.
53. ‘Brief Summary’, 342.
54. ‘Brief Summary’, 342.
55. Foedera, 308, 317.
56. Foedera, 320–1, 364; CCR 1313–18, 466.
57. CPR 1313–17, 614.
58. CPL, 11; CPR 1281–92, 137.
59. Mitchell, Portraits of Medieval Women, 108–13.
60. Gesta, 54; Anonimalle, 92; Flores, 178–9.
61. Vita, 80, 87.
62. Foedera, 322; TNA SC 7/24/10.
63. PROME.
64. Opposition, 432; CPR 1313–7, 609.
65. CPR 1327–30, 439–40.
66. Davies, Opposition, 433.
67. CPR 1327–30, 30; CCR 1327–30, 27; Valence, 149, 314; Opposition, 34.
68. C. M. Woolgar, The Great Household in Late Medieval England, 190.
69. Vita, 68.
70. ‘Brief Summary’, 338.
71. TNA SC 1/63/150.
72. Underhill, Good Estate, 18.
73. ‘Brief Summary’, 337–8.
74. CPR 1313–7, 644.
75. CPR 1313–7, 666.
76. Issues, 133.
77. Underhill, Good Estate, 18; Issues, 133–4.
78. Underhill, Good Estate, 17.
79. ‘Brief Summary’, 339.
80. Trokelowe, 98–9; Phillips, 296; Prestwich, Plantagenet England, 203.
8 Robbery, Holy Oil and an Impostor
1. Vita, 87; Flores, 178; Valence, 119.
2. Vita, 80; see also Gesta, 50; Murimuth, 271.
3. Vita, 80.
4. Sayles, Functions, 336–7.
5. CPL, 414, 430–1, 439.
6. Vita, 80.
7. Vita, 87; Flores, 176–7.
8. J. R. S. Phillips, ‘The “Middle Party” and the Negotiating’, 17.
9. Phillips, 297.
10. Vita, 80–1.
11. Valence, 119–20.
12. Gesta, 50–2; Murimuth, 271–6.
13. Vita, 29.
14. ‘Brief Summary’, 342–3; Register, 165.
15. Foedera, 333.
16. TNA SC 8/279/13911; CPR 1313–47, 672.
17. TNA SC/8/197/9804; CCR 1313–18, 463.
18. CPL, 434.
19. ‘Brief Summary’, 339–40.
20. W. W. Rouse Ball, King’s Scholars and King’s Hall, 3.
21. Tyranny, 69.
22. Trevor Henry Aston et al, The Early Oxford Colleges (1984), 195; CPR 1317–21, 75, 103–4, 168–9, 237; CPR 1321–4, 423.
23. Cobban, ‘University of Cambridge’, 49–78.
24. Foedera, 357.
25. Nicholas Orme, From Childhood to Chivalry (1984), 91; Susan Cavanaugh, ‘Royal Books: King John to Richard II’, 305–9; Johnstone, 18, 86.
26. McKisack, Fourteenth Century, 2.
27. Cavanaugh, ‘Royal Books’, 308–9.
28. Register, 8.
29. ‘Court’, 68; Johnstone, 29.
30. SAL MS 122, 51.
31. Prestwich, ‘Court’, 68.
32. Johnstone, 61.
33. Morris, Terrible King, 202; Phillips, ‘Place of the Reign’, 228, and Edward II, 70; Place, 283.
34. Ormrod, ‘Personal Religion’, 855–6; Prestwich, Edward I, 111–14; Perfect King, 109–13; CPR 1327–30, 440.
35. Livere, 333.
36. ‘Brief Summary’, 341.
37. Valence, 125.
38. Haines, Edward, 108; Lancaster, 208; Valence, 123.
39. Valence, 123–4.
40. Vita, 81 (both quotations).
41. Flores, 180; Vita, 82.
42. Vita, 81–2.
43. Flores, 180–1; Lancaster, 210; Haines, Edward, 109.
44. ‘Brief Summary’, 344; Register, 167.
45. Michael Prestwich, ‘Gilbert de Middleton’, 183.
46. Prestwich, ‘Gilbert de Middleton’, 189.
47. CPL, 431–2.
48. Vita, 83; ‘Brief Summary’, 328; Lancaster, 206.
49. Foedera, 342.
50. Scalacronica, 60; ‘Brief Summary’, 330.
51. Livere, 333–5; Anonimalle, 90–2; Lanercost, 218; Scalacronica, 60; Vita, 82–4.
52. CPR 1317–21, 46; CCR 1313–8, 575; Foedera, 345–6; ‘Brief Summary’, 329; CIM, 98–9.
53. CFR 1307–19, 225, 316.
54. CFR 1307–19, 346–7; Foedera, 345–346; CCR 1313–1318, 575.
55. Lancaster, 207–8; Haines, Edward, 107–8.
56. CPR 1317–21, 34, 46, 58.
57. CFR 1307–19, 350; T. B. Pugh, ‘The Marcher Lords’, 603, note 2.
58. Valence, 131; Lancaster, 224.
59. Flores, 219, 222, 228.
60. Valence, 139–47, 317–9; Lancaster, 211–12.
61. Foedera, 345.
62. ‘Court’, 73.
63. ‘Brief Summary’, 344.
64. Johnstone, 30; Daniel Hahn, The Tower Menagerie (2003), 41–2.
65. Johnstone, 86; CDS 1272–1307, 364–6.
66. CCR 1313–8, 4, 60, 124, 163, 249, 362–3, 389, 502.
67. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, 31, 117; Vale, Princely Court, 305; CPR 1307–13, 82, 204, 291, 437, 557, 643.
68. ‘Brief Summary’, 344.
69. ‘Brief Summary’, 344; ‘Court’ 66.
70. ‘Brief Summary’, 342.
71. ‘Court’, 66–7.
72. Foedera, 353.
73. CPR 1327–30, 439.
74. CPR 1317–21, 3, 8, 112, 223.
75. CCR 1313–8, 527.
76. Foedera, 360.
77. Itinerary, 165; ‘Brief Summary’, 337.
78. ‘Brief Summary’, 338.
79.Prestwich, Three Edwards, 161.
80. Foedera, 358, 388, 391; TNA SC 7/25/21; ‘Brief Summary’, 330.
81. ‘Brief Summary’, 330–1; Bruce, 341.
82. Scalacronica, 66; Lanercost, 219–20.
83. CDS, 113.
84. Foedera, 365.
85. Lanercost, 221; Livere, 335.
86. Foedera, 362, 364.
87. Vita, 89.
88. Foedera, 359, 360–1, 375, 384.
89. William Page, ed., A History of the County of Hertford, Vol. 4 (1971), 446.
90. Foedera, 361, 375, 384.
91. CPR 1307–13, 96, 148, 453, 515; CPR 1313–7, 295.
92. ‘Brief Summary’, 337.
93. CFR 1307–19, 389; CPR 1327–30, 163.
94. Lanercost, 221–6; Childs, ‘Welcome my Brother’.
95. Scalacronica, 65; Vita, 86–7; Gesta, 55.
96. Anonimalle, 94.
97. Vita, 86.
98. Anonimalle, 94.
99. Lanercost, 222.
100. Childs, ‘Welcome, my Brother’, 153.
101. Phillips, ‘Edward II and the Prophets’, 196.
102. CPL, 436–7; Phillips, ‘Edward II and the Prophets’, 197–8; F. D. Blackley, ‘The Holy Oil’, 330–44; Phillips, 325–7, 340–2.
103. Phillips, ‘Place of the Reign’, 228; Phillips, 341–2.
104. Haines, Edward, 110.
105. Haines, Edward, 113.
106. Foedera, 370; CCR 1318–23, 112–4. For the Treaty, see: Lancaster, 213–29; Valence, 136–77; Haines, Edward, 109–17; Phillips, 318–21.
107. Foedera, 377; Place, 315, 350.
108. Foedera, 393.
109. CCR 1307–1313, 5; TNA E 101/369/11; CPR 1301–07, 443; Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, Vol. 2, 368–9.
110. Baker, 6.
111. CDS, 69; CPR 1307–13, 492; CPR 1313–7, 20, 540; CFR 1307–19, 181, 203, 223, 242, 278.
112. CCW, 308; CFR 1307–19, 54; CCR 1307–13, 198; CIM, 20; AL, 200, for the attack; Juliet Barker, The Tournament in England, 133.
113. For instance, CPR 1307–13, 528, 561, 571.
114. CPR 1317–21, 10, 45, 56.
115. Tyranny, 31.
116. Vita, 93, 111.
9 Household and Homage
1. The original French text is printed in Place, 241–81.
2. Woolgar, Great Household, 12.
3. Vita, 75.
4. Vita, 75.
5. Opposition, 233.
6. Weir, Isabella, 150, makes this claim, but the men she names are frequently mentioned in Edward’s chamber accounts of the 1320s as his valets.
7. SAL MS 122, 6, 19, 25, 63.
8. ‘Court’, 70.
9. Vale, Princely Court, 114–5.
10. Vale, Princely Court, 109–10.
11. ‘First Journal’, 676.
12. SAL MS 122, 41, 43, 60, 62–4, 79.
13. Frédérique Lachaud, ‘Liveries of Robes’, 290–1; Baines and Whatton, History of the County Palatine of Lancaster, 132–3.
14. CCR 1318–23, 118, 132; Foedera, 380–1; Perfect King, 403–4.
15. Foedera, 381, 405.
16. Flores, 192.
17. CCR 1318–23, 143.
18. CCR 1318–23, 141; Foedera, 400.
19. CPR 1317–21, 386, 415; TNA SC 8/294/14667; SAL MS 122, 9, 32, 62.
20. CCR 1318–23, 141.
21. Foedera, 402; Itinerary, 184–7.
22. Sayles, Functions, 337; ODNB.
23. Vita, 94; Lancaster, 246–7.
24. CDS, 124; Lancaster, 246–7.
25. Lanercost, 226.
26. Saaler, Edward II, 97.
27. Prestwich, Edward I, 115.
28. Trokelowe, 103.
29. Doherty, Death, 64.
30. Vita, 95–7.
31. Haskins, ‘Chronicle of the Civil Wars’, 77.
32. AP, 287–8; Flores, 188; Doherty, Death, 63–4; Phillips, 347.
33. Trokelowe, 104; Gesta, 57.
34. Lanercost, 227; Livere, 337; Brut, 211–12.
35. CCW, 570.
36. Lancaster, 248–9.
37. Cited in Lancaster, 249.
38. Gesta, 57.
39. Vita, 104; also Flores, 188.
40. Saaler, Edward II, 97.
41. Trokelowe, 104; Itinerary, 187.
42. Walsingham, 155–6; Phillips, 349.
43. Flores, 188; Lancaster, 247.
44. Lanercost, 227–8.
45. CPR 1317–21, 414, 416; Foedera, 409–11.
46. Livere, 337.
47. TNA C 47/22/12; Flores, 190–3.
48. Foedera, 412.
49. Rouse Ball, King’s Scholars, 6–8.
50. Weir, Isabella, 124.
51. Livere, 337.
52. PROME.
53. Foedera, 417–8.
54. Valence, 189.
55. AP, 288.
56. Foedera, 20, 21, 43, 179, 355, 385.
57. Sayles, Functions, 360.
58. Livere, 337.
59. Flores, 193; CCR 1327–30, 4; SAL MS 122, 76.
60. ‘Brief Summary’, 334.
61. CPR 1317–21, 448–55.
62. ‘Brief Summary’, 332–3.
63. Morris, Terrible King, 43, 108.
64. E. Pole Stuart, ‘Interview Between Philip V and Edward II’, 412–15; the translation is from Vale, Origins of the Hundred Years War, 51, and see also Phillips, 358–9.
65. Scalacronica, 74–5.
66. ‘Secular Musicians’, 69; Register, 144.
67. AP, 290; Foedera, 428.
68. Valence, 190–1.
69. Chaplais, English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, Part 1, Vol. 1, 64–6.
70. CCR 1318–23, 326; Foedera, 433; ‘Brief Summary’, 338–9.
71. Cited in PROME.
72. Haines, Edward, 45.
10 The Despenser War
1. Lanercost, 230.
2. Vita, 115.
3. AP, 292; Trokelowe, 107; Walsingham, 252.
4. Baker, 11, translated by Haines, Edward, 124.
5. AP, 259.
6. Brut, 212.
7. Anonimalle, 92.
8. Vita, 115.
9. Flores, 194–6; Lanercost, 229; Knighton, 196.
10. Scalacronica, 70.
11. J. Goronwy Edwards, Calendar of Ancient Correspondence, 219–20.
12. Vita, 108–09.
13. Place, 124, calls the Marchers’ privileges ‘a dangerous anachronism’.
14. CCR 1318–23, 268, for Gower; Vita, 108, for the quote; see also AP, 293.
15. CPR 1317–21, 547–8.
16. Vita, 109.
17. Polychronicon, 298–300; Scalacronica, 75.
18. Foedera, 437.
19. CCR 1318–23, 365.
20. Foedera, 437.
21. Issues, 135.
22. Vale, Princely Court, 308.
23. Edwards, Ancient Correspondence, 219.
24. CCR 1318–23, 355.
25. Brut, 213; Lancaster, 267.
26. Vita, 111.
27. CCR 1318–23, 260, 285–6, 326; CPR 1317–21, 505.
28. Vita, 128–9.
29. CCR 1318–23, 260.
30. CFR 1319–27, 15, 18; CFR 1307–19, 103.
31. CIM, 245; TNA SC 8/160/7986.
32. Valence, 191.
33. CPL 1342–62, 164.
34. ‘Brief Summary’, 338.
35. Foedera, 444; CCR 1318–23, 363.
36. CCR 1318–23, 363–5; Foedera, 446.
37. CCR 1323–27, 359.
38. Foedera, 446.
39. Lancaster, 265.
40. Vita, 109.
41. CCR 1318–23, 367–8.
42. Stevenson, ‘Letter of the Younger Despenser’, 761.
43. Cited in Lancaster, 266, note 2.
44. ‘Secular Musicians’, 66; Register, 32–3.
45. Vita, 110.
46. Brut, 213; Trokelowe, 109; AP, 303.
47. Cited in Lancaster, 266, note 2.
48. Foedera, 449; ‘Secular Musicians’, 69.
49. CCR 1318–23, 541–3; Flores, 344–5; Vita, 110; AP, 293.
50. CCR 1318–23, 541–2; J. C. Davies, ‘The Despenser War in Glamorgan’, 55–6.
51. TNA SC 8/6/298; Davies, ‘Despenser War’, 58.
52. CCR 1318–23, 543–4; CCR 1323–27, 118.
53. Vita, 115. The author described the elder Despenser as ‘brutal and greedy’, and had no better opinion of the younger Hugh: Vita, 114–15.
54. Cited in Haines, Edward, 124.
55. ‘Brief Summary’, 335; Davies, ‘Despenser War’, 58.
56. CPR 1321–4, 167–8, 249.
57.. CCR 1318–23, 541; Flores, 345.
58. TNA Arundell Deeds 215/1.
59. Place, 127.
60. CPR 1317–21, 591, 596–7.
61. Valence, 205–06.
62. Tyranny, 140.
63. ‘Brief Summary’, 338, 344–5; Vale, Princely Court, 308.
64. Brut, 213.
65. TNA SC 8/7/301.
66. TNA SC 8/92/4561; Trokelowe, 108; Walsingham, 160.
67. Brut, 213–4; Lancaster, 272–7.
68. CFR 1319–27, 68.
69. Tebbit, ‘Royal Patronage and Political Allegiance’, 206.
70. Foedera, 452.
71. CPR 1321–24, 23.
72. CPR 1327–30, 163.
73. CCR 1313–8, 477; Foedera, 453.
74. AP, 294.
75. Vita, 112; AP, 294–6.
76. Lancaster, 283–5; PROME.
77. AP, 296–7.
78. Vita, 113.
79. Haines, Edward, 128–9.
80. AP, 297.
81. CCR 1318–23, 494; Vita, 113; AP, 297; Anonimalle, 100.
82. Murimuth, 33; Baker, 11; Haines, Edward, 129.
83. Murimuth, 33.
84. Vita, 121.
85. CCR 1318–23, 492–494, 541–3; PROME.
86. CPR 1321–24, 15–21; Foedera; 454; TNA DL 10/234; PROME.
87. Vita, 116.
88. PROME; Phillips, 394.
11 The King’s Revenge
1. Brut, 214; Anonimalle, 100.
2. Vita, 115–6, for the quote, and also Brut, 214; AP, 300; Anonimalle, 100; Croniques, 42; Flores, 198; Trokelowe, 110; Scalacronica, 70; G. A. Holmes, ‘Judgement on the Younger Despenser, 1326’, 264.
3. Foedera, 941.
4. CPR 1324–7, 130.
5. Murimuth, 33.
6. CCR 1318–23, 477–8.
7. AP, 298; TNA SC 8/17/833.
8. Valence, 216.
9. AP, 299.
10. Weir, Isabella, 134.
11. Anonimalle, 102–4; Calendar of Letter-Books of London 1314–1337, 155. See also AP, 298–9; Baker, 11–12; Flores, 199–200; Livere, 339; Murimuth, 35; Trokelowe, 110–11; Vita, 116.
12. Tyranny, 51.
13. Vita, 117.
14. Murimuth, 34; Scalacronica, 67.
15. Anonimalle, 102.
16. CFR 1319–27, 76; Anonimalle, 102; Croniques, 43; AP, 299.
17. Donald Matthew, King Stephen (2002), 80.
18. Vita, 116.
19. CCR 1313–23, 505–6; Foedera, 459.
20. Lancaster, 300.
21. Livere, 339.
22. Lancaster, 304.
23. CPR 1321–4, 37; CCR 1318–23, 410, 510–11.
24. Haines, Edward, 134.
25. CCR 1318–23, 510–11.
26. Livere, 339.
27. Vita, 116.
28. Flores, 192–3.
29. CPR 1321–4, 40.
30. CPR 1321–4, 45.
31. Letters of the Kings of England, 23–4.
32. Vita, 117.
33. Trokelowe, 111; AP, 301; Vale, Princely Court, 309.
34. CCR 1318–23, 510–11; Foedera, 470.
35. Mark Buck, Politics, Finance and the Church, 138–9; Edwards, ‘Political Importance’, 339.
36. CCR 1318–23, 516; Scott L. Waugh, ‘Profits of Violence’, 850.
37. Waugh, ‘Profits of Violence’, 850; Haines, Edward, 135.
38. CPR 1321–4, 47; Lancaster, 306.
39. Foedera, 471; CPR 1321–4, 47.
40. Vita, 118; see also Gesta, 74.
41. CCR 1318–23, 511–14; Foedera, 471.
42. Vita, 121.
43. Tebbit, ‘Household Knights’, 90.
44. CPR 1321–4, 202, 307.
45. CPR 1321–4, 47–8, 51; Foedera, 472.
46. Vita, 119.
47. Croniques, 43; Vita, 119.
48. TNA SC 8/6/255.
49. CPR 1321–4, 62, 77; CCR 1318–23, 418, 422, 519.
50. Vita, 119; Haines, Church and Politics, 142.
51. Vale, Princely Court, 309.
52. CFR 1319–27, 91.
53. CCR 1318–23, 525–6; Foedera, 474, and see also 459, 463, 472.
54. Bruce, 343.
55. CCR 1318–23, 515–16.
56. Lancaster, 307.
57. CCR 1318–23, 516; Foedera, 474.
58. CPR 1321–4, 64; AP, 301.
59. CCR 1318–23, 521–2; Foedera, 474–5.
60. CCR 1318–23, 525–6.
61. CCR 1318–23, 524.
62. CCR 1318–23, 525.
63. Gesta, 75.
64. CFR 1319–27, 100.
65. Livere, 341.
66. Haines, Edward.
67. Opposition, 218, 233.
68. CPR 1338–40, 102–3.
69. George Sayles, ‘Formal Judgements on the Traitors’, 58.
70. Lanercost, 235; Croniques, 44. See also Gesta, 74–5; Baker, 13; Flores, 346; Livere, 340; Murimuth, 36. For Elizabeth’s statement, see G. A. Holmes, ‘A Protest Against the Despensers’, 210.
71. Vita, 123.
72. Lancaster, 310.
73. Brut, 217.
74. Flores, 346.
75. Hamilton, Gaveston, 39.
76. For the battle, see: Brut, 215–20; Lanercost, 231–3; Flores, 204–05; Gesta, 74–6.
77. Foedera, 479; CIM, 130.
78. Vita, 124–5.
79. CCR 1318–23, 535; CIM, 131.
80. CIM, 129–134.
81. Brut, 216– 21.
82. Vita, 125.
83. Anonimalle, 106.
84. Phillips, 408; Lancaster, 311–12.
85. Vita, 126.
86. Brut, 222; Vita, 126; Livere, 341–2.
87. Lanercost, 234; Anonimalle, 108; Brut, 222.
88. Vita, 126.
89. Brut, 223; Vita, 126.
90. Scalacronica, 67.
91. Brut, 223; Lanercost, 234; AP, 302–03; Baker, 14; Gesta, 77; Trokelowe, 112–24.
92. Anonimalle, 108; Brut, 228; Lancaster, 329.
93. Lancaster, 329.
94. CPR 1321–4, 148–9; CCR 1318–23, 673; Sayles, ‘Formal Judgement’, 60.
95. Trokelowe, 109.
96. Scalacronica, 67; Gesta, 78; Anonimalle, 108–10; Lanercost, 237; AP, 303; Foedera, 536–7; Vita, 119–20. For a full list of the men executed, see http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2009/06/edward-iis-executions-of-1322.html
97. Brut, 221; CPR 1338–40, 209; Sayles, ‘Formal Judgement’, 60.
98. Haskins, ‘Chronicle of the Civil Wars’, 83; Lanercost, 62; Vita, 100.
99. CFR 1319–27, 280; CCR 1323–7, 202–03.
100. CFR 1319–27, 154–71.
101. Buck ‘Reform of Exchequer’, 247–8.
102. Tyranny, 63.
103. Phillips, 412, note 7; Morris, Terrible King, 190.
104. Anonimalle, 80; Lanercost, 235; Flores, 200, cited in Phillips, 412.
105. CPR 1321–4, 249; see also Anonimalle, 110; Opposition, 565.
106. CPR 1321–4, 93; Foedera, 481.
107. CChR, 441–53; CPR 1321–4, 183, 327; Foedera, 491; CCR 1323–7, 335; Tyranny, 107–18, 228–32.
108. CDS, 140.
109. Foedera, 481; CPL, 448; TNA SC 7/25/14. Doherty, Death, 74, claims without citing a source that John XXII ‘intervened and begged the King to show some restraint’ regarding the executions. I have been unable to find this.
110. Brut, 225.
12 Tyranny, Miracles and an Escape
1. Vita, 136.
2. Brut, 220; Scalacronica, 70.
3. Holmes, ‘Judgement’, 265.
4. CIM, 200–01.
5. Underhill, Good Estate, 31–3.
6. Holmes, ‘Protest Against the Despensers’, 211.
7. Scalacronica, 70.
8. Tyranny, 107, 232.
9. E. B. Fryde, ‘Deposits of Hugh Despenser’, 348.
10. ‘First Journal’, 676.
11. TNA E 372/171, mem. 41; CPR 1324–7, 172, 278, 325; CPR 1327–30, 168–9.
12. John Carmi Parsons, ‘Intercessory Patronage’, 153–5.
13. Opposition, 97; SAL MS 122, 43.
14. Claire Sponsler, ‘The King’s Boyfriend’, 147; Polychronicon, 314.
15. CFR 1319–27, 124; CCR 1318–23, 529–34, 556–9.
16. Lanercost, 237–8.
17. CCR 1318–23, 577–8; CPR 1321–4, 184.
18. Gunnar Tilander, La Venerie de Twiti (1956).
19. Weir, Isabella, 170.
20. Blackley, ‘Bastard Son’, 76–7.
21. Foedera, 497; CCR 1318–23, 680.
22. Graham Bell, Robert the Bruce’s Forgotten Victory, 114; Bruce, 345–6.
23. Flores, 224–5.
24. Anonimalle, 112. See also Lanercost, 240, and CDS, 147.
25. Foedera, 498.
26. Gesta, 79.
27. Flores, 210; Lanercost, 240.
28. Croniques, 45.
29. Scalacronica, 69–70.
30. Flores, 218; Tyranny, 69–105.
31. Holmes, ‘Judgement’, 265.
32. CDS, 146.
33. Bruce, 346.
34. Haines, Edward, 84 and 394, note 142; Weir, Isabella, 146–7; Doherty, Death, 75–8.
35. Doherty, Death, 75, says the Despensers ‘decided once again to place the Queen in danger’. His account of subsequent events in fact contradicts this.
36. Weir, Isabella, 146; Saaler, Edward II, 116.
37. CPL, 457.
38. ‘First Journal’, 678.
39. CPR 1321–4, 227, 229.
40. CCR 1318–23, 597; CPR 1321–4, 206.
41. CPR 1321–4, 215, 221–2, 254; CCR 1318–23, 622, 685; ‘First Journal’, 680.
42. ‘First Journal’, 678; Vita, 128.
43. Vita, 128.
44. Flores, 212; CPR 1321–4, 232.
45. Phillips, 428–9.
46. Phillips, 429.
47. ‘Secular Musicians’, 70; ‘First Journal’, 675–6.
48. Livere, 347; Brut, 228.
49. ‘First Journal’, 676, 678; TNA E 101/379/17.
50. ‘First Journal’ 677; E 101/379/17.
51. ‘First Journal’, 677–8; E 101/379/17.
52. CCR 1318–23, 687, 690.
53. Saaler, Edward II, 116.
54. TNA E 101/379/17, 4.
55. Isabella’s letter: TNA SC 1/37/45; Eleanor’s: SC 1/37/4.
56. Opposition, 96–7; E 101/379/7. La Alianore appears to have been a different ship from La Despenser.
57. Phillips, 363–4, note 222, and 483, note 169; Haines, Edward, 43, 375, note 93; ‘Court’, 71.
58. ‘Court’, 71.
59. Flores, 229; ‘Court’, 71.
60. Knighton, 434.
61. Doherty, Death, 100–2, suggests that Despenser sexually harassed Isabella or that ‘wife-swapping’ was involved; Weir, Isabella, 149, that Despenser raped the queen. No evidence is offered except the ‘dishonour’.
62. ‘First Journal’, 678.
63. ‘First Journal’, 679.
64. CCR 1323–7, 168, 327; CPR 1321–4, 341; CPR 1324–7, 52; TNA E 40/4880; Fryde, ‘Deposits’, 348, 351.
65. Lanercost, 241.
66. Foedera, 502; CDS, 148.
67. CCR 1318–23, 692; CPR 1321–4, 234.
68. ‘First Journal’, 678.
69. Lanercost, 242 (quotation); Foedera, 504.
70. Lanercost, 243–4.
71. CPR 1321–4, 260; Lanercost, 245; Brut, 227–8; Foedera, 509.
72. Brut, 228.
73. Lanercost, 245; Gesta, 81–4; AP, 303–4; Trokelowe, 127.
74. CCR 1327–30, 404.
75. Lanercost, 242.
76. CDS, 152.
77. CCR 1318–23, 697; Foedera, 506.
78. ‘First Journal’, 679; TNA E 101/379/7, mem. 3.
79. TNA E 101/379/7, mem. 3.
80. Vita, 129–31; Trokelowe, 138–9.
81. Livere, 347, and see also Brut, 231, and Trokelowe, 138–9.
82. CPR 1321–4, 234; Vita, 130.
83. CPR 1321–4, 257, 314, 349.
84. Foedera, 507.
85. CCR 1318–23, 697. Sanchia and Richard of Cornwall’s only child Edmund died childless in 1300, leaving Edward I and then Edward II as his heirs.
86. CCR 1323–7, 136; Foedera, 531, 534.
87. CCR 1318–23, 697.
88. Foedera, 517–20, 524–9.
89. Foedera, 527; Haines, Archbishop John Stratford, 139.
90. CCR 1323–7, 147–8; CCW, 546.
91. CCR 1323–7, 147–8; CCW, 546.
92. Foedera, 464.
93. Haines, Church and Politics, 138.
94. CCR 1323–7, 325.
95. Edwards, ‘Political Importance’, 336; Haines, John Stratford, 139.
96. CPL, 468–9.
97. Edwards, ‘Political Importance’, 340.
98. Malcolm Vale, ‘Ritual Ceremony’, 27; Teofilo F. Ruiz, The City and the Realm 1080–1492 (2004), 144.
99. CCR 1318–23, 701; Foedera, 510.
100. Lancaster, 329–30.
101. Tyranny, 153.
102. CIM, 528–9.
103. Brut, 230.
104. CCW, 543.
105. CPR 1321–4, 278; CDS, 150; Valence, 230–1.
106. CPR 1321–4, 277–9; Foedera, 510–11, 521–3; Gesta, 84; Flores, 215–16; Lanercost, 246–7.
107. CCR 1318–23, 713–4.
108. Sardos, 16.
109. ‘Secular Musicians’, 71; CPR 1321–4, 333; Foedera, 531.
110. CCR 1323–7, 13.
111. CCR 1323–7, 132.
112. CPR 1321–4, 335; Phillips, 459.
113. CCR 1323–7, 133.
114. Scalacronica, 72; Lanercost, 251; Anonimalle, 116; AP, 305–6; Croniques, 46–7; Livere, 349–51; Trokelowe, 145–6.
115. Gransden, Historical Writing, 20, citing Flores, 217, citing Acts 16, 22–28, and Acts 12, 6–11.
116. Brut, 231; Murimuth, 40.
117. F. D. Blackley, ‘Isabella and the Bishop of Exeter’, 221.
118. Traitor, 130–31.
119. CCR 1323–7, 137–8, 140–1.
120. CPR 1321–4, 349; CCR 1323–7, 134–5.
121. CPR 1327–30, 17, 28, 31, 42, 57, 60, 70, 125; AP, 311.
122. CPR 1321–4, 443, 449.
123. CCR 1323–7, 87–8, 106.
124. Sardos, 22, 103.
125. Haines, Church and Politics, 49–52, 139–53; Haines, Edward, 152–7.
126. Lancaster, 319.
127. Vita, 136–8.
128. AP, 306; Opposition, 561–2.
129. Tout, Chapters, Vol. 2, 277.
130. Sayles, Functions, 328, for the quote.
131. Sardos, 176–7.
132. Sardos, 180.
133. Sardos, 5; CCW, 548.
134. CCR 1323–7, 322.
135. CCR 1323–7, 21–2, 58, 156, 171–3.
136. CCW, 549–50.
137. ‘Secular Musicians’, 71.
138. J. P. Toomey, Records of Hanley Castle (2001), xx. The castle has long since disappeared.
139. Martyn Lawrence, ‘Secular Patronage’, 92–3.
140. CCR 1323–7, 72; Foedera, 546; Murimuth, 43; AP, 306.
141. CPR 1321–4, 426.
142. Sardos, 189.
143. Sardos, 188–90; Foedera, 547.
13 Catastrophe in Gascony
1. Tyranny, 162–4.
2. CPL, 461.
3. CCR 1323–7, 171.
4. CCR 1323–7, 175–6. Alfonso XI, born August 1311, was a great-great-grandson of Edward’s grandfather Fernando III. Juan Manuel was also a grandson of Fernando III. Felipe was the son of Sancho IV and brother of Fernando IV, and Juan el Tuerto was the son of Juan (died 1319), son of Edward’s uncle Alfonso X.
5. Place, 283–4; Prestwich, ‘Piety of Edward I’, 126.
6. Hamilton, Gaveston, 167, note 85.
7. Flores, 222; Valence, 233.
8. Brut, 232.
9. CCR 1318–23, 563–4.
10. Valence, 234–6.
11. Sardos, 131–2, 191.
12. Tyranny, 143.
13. Morris, Terrible King, 268; Baker, 15.
14. Sardos, 64.
15. Sardos, 61–3, 92.
16. Sardos, 50, note 1; Foedera, 570.
17. Sardos, 52–3; Tyranny, 143.
18. CCR 1323–7, 313–4.
19. CPR 1324–7, 32.
20. CCR 1323–7, 358–9.
21. CCR 1323–7, 516–7.
22. CPR 1324–7, 104.
23. CPR 1324–7, 103–4; Sardos, 140–2.
24. CCR 1323–7, 254, 344.
25. CPR 1324–7, 104.
26. CCR 1323–7, 556–7. Like Alfonso XI of Castile, Afonso IV of Portugal was the great-great-grandson of Fernando III of Castile. Queen Beatriz was yet another of Edward’s Castilian cousins, daughter of Sancho IV and sister of Fernando IV.
27. Haines, Edward, 323.
28. CCR 1323–7, 344–5.
29. Sardos, 76, 80.
30. Sardos, 118–19, 145.
31. Sardos, 130.
32. Sardos, 59, 72–3.
33. Fryde, ‘Deposits’, 361–2; Tyranny, 145.
34. Sardos, 59–61; Tyranny, 145.
35. CFR 1319–27, 300–2, 308; CCR 1323–7, 223, 260; Foedera, 569.
36. Lanercost, 249, is one of the chronicles which gives Isabella’s income as a pound a day; see Buck, ‘Reform of the Exchequer’, 251; Place, 140; and Tout, Chapters, Vol. 5, 274, for her real income.
37. Menache, ‘Isabelle of France’, 110.
38. Tout, Chapters, Vol. 3, 275.
39. CPR 1317–21, 38, 46, for the seizure of Marguerite’s lands.
40. CCR 1323–7, 204, 206–7, 209–11, 216.
41. Sardos, 128, 130.
42. CCR 1323–7, 260; CPR 1324–7, 88, 157, 243; SAL MS 122, 81; Notes and Queries, 7th series (September 1886), 258. The girls lived sometimes in Pleshey, Essex, and sometimes in Marlborough, Wiltshire. One of them stayed for a while with the prioress of Ankerwick, Buckinghamshire, in or before May 1325 (SAL MS 122, 2, 78).
43. Underhill, Good Estate, 40–41.
44. TNA E 101/382/12: expenses; SAL MS 122, 66.
45. Paul Doherty in his 1977 doctoral thesis about Isabella claimed that Edward removed the queen’s children from her at the same time as he confiscated her lands in September 1324. The source Doherty cites for this, TNA E 403/201, is an issue roll of Edward’s wardrobe department from 8 July 1322 to 7 July 1323.
46. CPR 1292–1301, 592, 606; Benz St John, Three Medieval Queens, 109–110.
47. Ormrod, ‘Royal Nursery’, 400–11.
48. Marshall, ‘Childhood and Household’, RENP, 191–2.
49. Lanercost, 249; Flores, 226.
50. Household Book, 19, 127–9.
51. Haines, Edward, 43, 375.
52. PROME; Sardos, 95–7.
53. Sardos, 59, 214, 224, 233–4. There are many other such examples.
54. Sardos, 104, 217–8. Despenser, although about a dozen years older than Kent, was his nephew by marriage: Kent was the youngest son of Edward I, and Despenser’s wife was Edward’s eldest granddaughter.
55. Sardos, 143, 145.
56. Sardos, 143, 145.
57. Scalacronica, 70.
58. Sardos, 76.
59. CPR 1324–7, 6; CDS, 155–6; Foedera, 561, 578.
60. Vita, 131–4.
61. ‘Secular Musicians’, 72; Emma Griffin, Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain since 1066 (2007), 81.
62. CIM, 326.
63. Vale, ‘Ritual Ceremony’, 25, citing TNA E 101/380/4, folio 24v.
64. ‘Secular Musicians’, 72.
65. CPR 1317–21, 387, 582.
66. CPR 1324–7, 88, 157, 243.
67. CPR 1324–7, 335; CMR, 32. John was the eldest son of the earl of Hereford killed at Boroughbridge in 1322.
68. Haines, Archbishop John Stratford, 156, says that neither Charles IV, Isabella nor anyone else ‘had the slightest inkling of the extraordinary outcome of the policy they were advocating. Only in retrospect could the imaginative discern an overall scheme’ to deprive Edward of his throne.
69. Sponsler, ‘King’s Boyfriend’, 153, 163; Saaler, Edward II, 123.
70. Menache, ‘Isabelle of France’, 115.
71. Sardos, 42–3.
72. Sardos, 195–6.
73. Baker, 19.
74. CPL, 458, 462, 465, 467–8.
75. Foedera, 599.
76. Vita, 135.
77. Lanercost, 249; AP, 337.
78. CPL, 474; Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 226.
79. Croniques, 50; Anonimalle, 120; Brut, 233.
80. Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 226.
81. Sardos, 196.
82. CCR 1323–7, 353.
83. Sardos, 267.
84. Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 228; Tyranny, 96.
85. Vita, 143.
86. Sardos, 199–200.
87. CPL, 466.
88. CCR 1323–7, 352; Foedera, 591, 595.
89. CCR 1323–7, 353.
90. Sardos, 114.
91. Place, 298, 315.
92. CCR 1323–7, 500.
93. Foedera, 601.
94. SAL MS 122, 4, 16, 19.
95. SAL MS 122, 19.
96. CCR 1327–30, 143–4, 147–8; CIM, 245–7; TNA SC 8/169/8443, SC 8/169/8437 etc.
97. Fryde, ‘Deposits’, 361–2.
98. SAL MS 122, 21.
99. CCR 1323–7, 385; Foedera, 602–3.
100. Tyranny, 148.
101. Buck, Politics, Finance, 156, note 199.
102. Vita, 140.
103. Parsons, Eleanor, 13.
104. CPL, 466; Foedera, 603.
105. CCR 1323–7, 496; SAL MS 122, 26, 31.
106. CPR 1324–7, 161–2, 166–8; CCR 1323–7, 503.
107. Tyranny, 96.
108. CPR 1324–7, 171.
109. CPR 1324–7, 171.
110. CCR 1323–7, 399; CPR 1324–7, 171.
111. CPR 1324–7, 167–70, 173–5.
112. Foedera, 607; Sardos, 195, 241.
113. Murimuth, 44; Denholm-Young, ‘Edward of Windsor and Bermondsey Priory’, 433. Phillips, 67, says that Abbot William was one of Edward’s close personal friends.
114. SAL MS 122, 20–22.
115. CCR 1323–7, 577–8.
116. Anonimalle, 120; Murimuth, 44; Vita, 138.
14 The Queen Takes a Favourite
1. Denholm-Young, ‘Bermondsey Priory’, 433–4; Foedera, 609.
2. Sardos, 243; CCR 1323–7, 507; CPR 1324–7, 175.
3. SAL MS 122, 27.
4. Saaler, Edward II, 124.
5. SAL MS 122, 27.
6. CCW, 569.
7. SAL MS 122, 28.
8. Itinerary, 277; SAL MS 122, 29.
9. SAL MS 122, 28, 34, 38.
10. CCR 1323–7, 526; Foedera, 612–3.
11. SAL MS 122, 29, 34.
12. SAL MS 122, 38,
13. AP, 310, saying that Kent married Margaret around the time that Charles of Valois died, i.e. 16 December.
14. CCR 1323–7, 464.
15. Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 230–5; Buck, Politics, Finance, 156–8.
16. Vita, 142–3; Croniques, 49.
17. Haines, Edward, 170; Phillips, 491.
18. SAL MS 122, 40ff.
19. Livere, 354–5; CCR 1323–7, 593; CFR 1319–27, 418.
20. Haines, Archbishop John Stratford, 166.
21. Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 231; Carla Lord, ‘Isabella at the Court’, 46.
22. CCR 1323–7, 552; CFR 1319–27, 383, 388; Foedera, 630.
23. Vita, 143–4.
24. Vita, 144–5.
25. CPR 1324–7, 171, 193; CCR 1323–7, 505–6, 508, 527–8, 540–1, 569.
26. Vale, Princely Court, 159, 339.
27. Foedera, 617–8; CPL, 260.
28. CCR 1323–7, 543.
29. CCR 1323–7, 578–9.
30. Lanercost, 266–7; Vita et Mors, 307, cited in Haines, Edward, 169.
31. Murimuth, 45–6.
32. CCR 1323–7, 578–9.
33. Haines, Edward, 216 and 462, note 214; Burgtorf, ‘With my Life’, 40; Scalacronica, 72; Croniques, 61.
34. CPR 1324–7, 213.
35. Isabella’s letter is cited in Phillips, 491, and Blackley, ‘Bishop of Exeter’, 234. Weir, Isabella, 196, claims the queen’s ‘profound revulsion’ but cites no evidence.
36. CCR 1323–7, 580–82.
37. CCR 1323–7, 579–80.
38. SAL MS 122, 40, 43.
39. SAL MS 122, 45.
40. SAL MS 122, 46–7.
41. Tyranny, 186; Alison Marshall, ‘Thomas of Brotherton’, 81–6; SAL MS 122, 81.
42. SAL MS 122, 48–9, 54.
43. CPR 1317–21, 235; CPR 1321–4, 189.
44. Livere, 353–5.
45. CPR 1324–7, 238, 250, 283–4, 286; CCR 1323–7, 550–1; CCW, 575.
46. For the Folvilles, see Ian Mortimer, Time-Traveller’s Guide, 240–2.
47. Aston, Early Oxford Colleges, 237–8; CChR, 481–2, 485–6.
48. Haines, John Stratford, 166.
49. Haines, Edward, 443, note 218; CCR 1323–7, 540–1; Foedera, 618.
50. CCR 1323–7, 556–7; Foedera, 625–6.
51. CPR 1324–7, 215.
52. SAL MS 122, 50, 65; Notes and Queries (September 1886), 258.
53. SAL MS 122, 50, 58.
54. CCR 1323–7, 545–7; Foedera, 619.
55. CCR 1323–7, 535–7, 542, 552, 638–40, etc; Foedera, 616, 636, 642.
56. CCR 1323–7, 543; Foedera, 619.
57. CCR 1323–7, 547; Foedera, 619; SAL MS 122, 51.
58. SAL MS 122, 50 (q’nt le Roi sist enp’s son lit vn poi deuant la mynoet).
59. SAL MS 122, 21, 69, 78, 81.
60. Place, 254.
61. SAL MS 122, 51, 53, 56–8.
62. SAL MS 122, 55.
63. SAL MS 122, 53, 55.
64. CPR 1324–7, 285–6.
65. For example, Trokelowe, 110, and Croniques, 49.
66. CCR 1323–7, 551.
67. Lanercost, 250.
68. Foedera, 625l; CCR 1323–7, 543, 650.
69. Brut, 252–3.
70. CPR 1324–7, 286.
71. CCR 1323–7, 578–9.
72. Vita, 140.
73. Perfect King, 45.
74. SAL MS 122, 49, 59, 60, 68, 75, etc.
75. SAL MS 122, 49, 59, 60, 68, 75, etc.
76. CCR 1323–7, 471–2, 557.
77. CCR 1323–7, 569.
78. SAL MS 122, 62, 75, 92–3.
79. Lord, ‘Isabella at the Court’, 50.
80. CCR 1323–7, 576–8.
81. SAL MS 122, 62–4, 66, 70.
82. CPL, 473.
83. Haines, Archbishop John Stratford, 168.
84. CPR 1324–7, 269; CCR 1323–7, 563–4; Chaplais, English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, Part 1, Vol. 2, 314–5.
85. AP, 312; Croniques, 41; CPL, 478.
86. SAL MS 122, 65: iewer a pelot, ‘playing at ball’.
87. Haines, John Stratford, 167–8; PROME.
88. CPL, 475, 477–8.
89. CPL, 476, 479, 481–3.
90. CPL, 482.
91. SAL MS 122, 65–6.
92. SAL MS 122, 66; Phillips, 496–8.
93. Haines, ‘Bishops and Politics’, 605–6.
94. Phillips, 498; Haines, Edward, 276; CDS, 160.
95. Perfect King, 59; Weir, Isabella, 200–01.
96. Foedera, 632–3, 637–8, 640–1.
97. Tyranny, 182; Jonathan Sumption, Trial by Battle, 101.
98. Sumption, Trial by Battle, 102; SAL MS 122, 70.
99. ODNB; Sumption, Trial by Battle, 102.
100. SAL MS 122, 66.
101. CPR 1324–7, 281.
102. SAL MS 122, 75, 77.
103. SAL MS 122, 75, 77.
104. AP, 312–3; SAL MS 122, 78–9.
105. AP, 312.
106. CCR 1323–7, 452, 533; CPR 1324–7, 206, 258.
107. SAL MS 122, 80–81.
108. SAL MS 122, 81.
109. Brut, 234–5.
110. Flores, 231; Haines, Edward, 173; Phillips, 500.
111. CFR 1319–27, 404, 410; CCR 1323–7, 636, 642; CPR 1324–7, 296.
112. CCR 1323–7, 556, 643.
113. CCR 1323–7, 640–5 (p. 642, ‘malice’); SAL MS 122, 83 (la Dorre); Fryde, Tyranny, 184–5; Haines, Edward, 172.
114. Fryde, ‘Deposits’, 348, 350.
15 Invasion, Abdication and Imprisonment
1. Phillips, 501–02.
2. Phillips, 504; Ormrod, Edward III, 42; Perfect King, 48.
3. SAL MS 122, 87; Foedera, 643.
4. CCR 1327–30, 189, 249.
5. CCR 1323–7, 650–51.
6. Foedera, 645–6; Phillips, 509–10.
7. For the accusations of sodomy, see Intrigue, 47–50; for Orleton, Haines, Edward, 179, and Haines, Church and Politics, 165.
8. Perfect King, 49.
9. Tyranny, 188.
10 CFR 1319–27, 418, 421. Edward’s chamber accounts call Hugh Huchon; the Anonimalle, 132, Hughelyn.
11. CPR 1324–7, 328, 335; CCR 1323–7, 650–51.
12. CPR 1324–7, 325–7.
13. Bloom, ‘Simon de Swanland and King Edward II’, 2.
14. SAL MS 122, 92.
15. CCW, 582.
16. Haines, Edward, 178.
17. Phillips, 506.
18. Buck, Politics, Finance, 220–21; Haines, John Stratford, 173; Croniques, 52.
19. Croniques, 56; AP, 321.
20. Haines, Edward, 179; Phillips, 507.
21. Phillips, 98.
22. SAL MS 122, 88–90.
23. SAL MS 122, 89.
24. CCR 1327–30, 9.
25. CPR 1321–4, 62–3, 78, 97, 358, 396; CCR 1323–7, 125.
26. CCR 1323–7, 638; CPR 1324–7, 304.
27. CFR 1327–37, 43; CCR 1327–30, 182.
28. Murimuth, 257; CCR 1330–3, 77.
29. CCR 1323–7, 517.
30. TNA SC 8/32/1572.
31. CCR 1323–7, 622.
32. TNA SC 8/307/15309.
33. CFR 1319–27, p. 421; CPR 1324–7, 336.
34. Dryburgh, ‘Last Refuge of a Scoundrel?’, RENP, 119, 134–5, 139; Phillips, 510–12; Anonimalle, 130. Arundel’s whereabouts at this time are unclear.
35. Lanercost, 253.
36. SAL MS 122, 90; Itinerary, 290.
37. Claire Sponsler, ‘The King’s Boyfriend’, 162, note 9.
38. Foedera, 646; CCR 1323–7, 655.
39. Ormrod, Edward III, 44, note 70, for Zouche; Edward’s generosity to Wateville, which included giving him gifts of forty marks twice and forty pounds, visiting him at his house in London and paying his expenses when he was ill, is recorded in SAL MS 122, 9, 50, 64–5, 75, 77, 89.
40. SAL MS 122, 90.
41. Winchester was born on 1 March 1261: CFR 1272–1307, 149, 152; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 2, 1272–1307, Nos 101, 389.
42. AP, 317–18; Brut, 240; Haines, Edward, 181; Phillips, 513.
43. Gesta, 87.
44. CFR 1319–27, 422.
45. Rees, Caerphilly Castle, pp. 109–121.
46. CFR 1319–27, 430; CFR 1327–37, 12–13; CPR 1324–7, 341, 344; CPR 1327–30, 12, 14, 18, 37–9.
47. SAL MS 122, 90; Phillips, 514, note 363.
48. SAL MS 122, 90.
49. CPR 1327–30, 37–9, has a list of the Caerphilly garrison, who included Edward’s chamber staff Wat Cowherd, Peter Plummer, Henry Hustret, Rodrigo de Medyne, John Edriche, John Pope and others.
50. CCR 1327–30, 26.
51. Lanercost, 253.
52. CPR 1324–7, 335–6.
53. CPR 1324–7, 336.
54. CFR 1329–27, 422; CPR 1324–7, 337; Phillips, 514.
55. Phillips, 515.
56. AP, 319; Murimuth, 49; Flores, 234.
57. AP, 319; Anonimalle, 130.
58. CCR 1323–7, 655.
59. Haines, Edward, 185.
60. Brut, 240; Anonimalle, 130; Croniques, 56.
61. Tyranny, 77, 191–3, claims that Reading was one of Despenser’s closest friends, his marshal and loyal knight; Doherty, Death, 106, says he was Despenser’s ‘principal henchman’. I have found no evidence to support this. Reading was not a knight but a royal sergeant-at-arms, as SAL MS 122 makes clear.
62. Murimuth, 50. Michael Burtscher, The Fitzalans, 24.
63. ODNB; Burtscher, Fitzalans, 24–5; Lanercost, 252.
64. Murimuth, 50, wrongly gives Micheldever’s first name as Thomas, but it was certainly Robert: TNA SC 8/17/835; CFR 1327–37, 8; CPR 1327–30, 22.
65. SAL MS 122, 9; CPR 1324–7, 206, 258, 283; CFR 1319–27; 101.
66. CPR 1324–7, 339.
67. Brut, 339–40; Froissart, 43–4; Haines, Edward, 185; Traitor, 241.
68. Holmes, ‘Judgement’, 261–7, prints them in the French original, and see my translation at http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2009/04/charges–against–hugh–despenser–younger.html.
69. Haines, Edward, 185.
70. Brut, 240; Anonimalle, 130; AP, 320; Froissart, 43–4; Gesta, 87; Traitor, 162; Phillips, 518; Sponsler, ‘The King’s Boyfriend’, 152ff; Danielle Westerhof, ‘Deconstructing Identities’, 92–4.
71. CCR 1330–3, 175.
72. CPR 1324–7, 339–40.
73. CCR 1323–7, 624.
74. Underhill, Good Estate, 39–40.
75. I am grateful to Jules Frusher for bringing this point to my attention.
76. English Historical Documents 1189–1327, Vol. iii, 288.
77. CPR 1324–7, 337; Phillips, 518, note 384; Flores, 235.
78. Anonimalle, 132.
79. CPL 1305–41, 482.
80. Haines, Death of a King, 32; Haines, ‘Stamford Council’, 145, points out that there is no evidence for the allegation.
81. Doherty, Death, 108–9, 133, claims that Isabella ‘had murder in her heart’ regarding her husband and called for his execution at Wallingford, and that in her eyes he became a ‘non-person’. No evidence is cited in support of these unlikely statements.
82. Haines, ‘Stamford Council’, 143, Phillips, 521.
83. Edward’s deposition is discussed at length in Claire Valente, ‘Deposition and Abdication of Edward II’, 852–81; Phillips, 524–39; Haines, Edward, 188–94.
84. Lanercost, 254.
85. Lyon, Constitutional History of the UK, 95.
86. Valente, ‘Deposition and Abdication’, 869.
87. Valente, 855–6.
88. Phillips, 527–9; Valente, 859.
89. Phillips, 533–4; Valente, 860–1.
90. Murimuth, 51; Scalacronica, 74; English Historical Documents, 288; Flores, 235, etc.
91. Rothwell, English Historical Documents, 287–8; Flores, 235; Murimuth, 51; Valente, 870.
92. Next in line after Edward’s sons Edward of Windsor and John of Eltham were his half-brothers Norfolk and Kent and their sons, then his cousin Lancaster.
93. Foedera, 683; Valente, 870–71.
94. Foedera, 650.
16 Four Conspiracies and a Funeral
1. Phillips, 541.
2. PROME, November 1330 parliament; CCR 1327–30, 77.
3. Chronicon Henrici Knighton, I, ed. J. R. Lumby (1889), 444.
4. Traitor, 173–4, 288, note 26; Perfect King, 58.
5. ‘Captivity’, 153, 157–8.
6. AP, 333; Baker, 31; ‘Captivity’, 158–9.
7. Baker, 30–31.
8. Baker, 31.
9. PROME.
10. CCR 1327–30, 77; ‘Captivity’, 155; Haines, Edward, 225–6.
11. As suggested in Doherty, Death, 120.
12. CCR 1327–30, 77, 86.
13. Murimuth, 52.
14. Froissart, 44.
15. Cited in Doherty, Death, 123.
16. Murimuth, 52.
17. For Gurney’s family, see Haines, Death of a King, 150.
18. Valence, 262; CPR 1321–4, 53; CPR 1324–7, 5; CCR 1323–7, 202–3.
19. TNA SC 8/232/11592; CCR 1323–7, 554.
20. Claire Valente, ‘Lament of Edward II’, 422–39.
21. Murimuth, 52.
22. Doherty, Death, 113; Weir, Isabella, 256–7.
23. Tyranny, 209.
24. Tyranny, 209, 212–16, 223–4.
25. Croniques, 61–3.
26. Brut, 254–5, 257–9.
27. CFR 1319–27, 95, 101, 185.
28. Lanercost, 258–9.
29. Brut, 249.
30. CPR 1321–4, 50; CPR 1324–7, 326, 336; CPR 1327–30, 38.
31. CCR 1323–7, 169, 532; SC 8/98/4856.
32. ODNB; CCR 1323–1327, 101, 120; CPR 1321–4, 168, 372, 378; CPR 1327–30, 100; SC 8/47/2308.
33. CPR 1327–30, 74–99.
34. CPR 1327–30, 99.
35. Lanercost, 257.
36. Bridlington, 96; Lanercost, 256–7; CCR 1327–30, 212 (quotation); CPR 1327–30, 139, 180, 183, 191, and CCR 132–30, 157, 212.
37. CCR 1327–30, 157.
38. CCR 1327–30, 142; CPR 1327–30, 183.
39. CCR 1327–30, 169, 187–8, 273, 278.
40. CPR 1327–30, 95.
41. F. J. Tanqueray, ‘Conspiracy of Thomas Dunheved, 1327’, 119–24.
42. CPR 1327–30, 156–7.
43. Doherty, Death, 218–19.
44. CCR 1327–30, 156, 179.
45. TNA SC 8/69/3444.
46. CCR 1327–30, 241, 566; CPR 1327–30, 360.
47. AP, 337; Brut, 249; Lanercost, 259, 264–5.
48. CCR 1327–30, 146, 549.
49. CCR 1327–30, 158; Foedera, 714.
50. CCR 1330–3, 178, 181, 274.
51. ‘Captivity’, 165.
52. CCR 1327–30, 182.
53. AP, 337.
54. ‘Captivity’, 165, 182–190.
55. CPR 1324–7, 249; Haines, Death of a King, 138.
56. CPR 1321–4, 77.
57. TNA DL 10/253; Intrigue, 68.
58. PROME, November 1330 parliament.
59. Haines, Death of a King, 90–95, 138, 146; Hunter, ‘Measures Taken’, 274ff.
60. For thorough accounts of the chronicle evidence for Edward’s death, see Intrigue, 55–8; Phillips, 560–65.
61. AP, 337–8; Anonimalle, 134; Phillips, 561, note 238.
62. Murimuth, 53–4; Gesta, 97–8.
63. Lanercost, 259; Scalacronica, 74.
64. Phillips, 561–2.
65. Cited in Haines, Death of a King, 49.
66. David C. Fowler, The Life and Times of John Trevisa, Medieval Scholar (1995), 9, 16, 23.
67. Chaplais, Piers Gaveston, 112–13.
68. CPR 1327–30, 37.
69. Mortimer, ‘Death of Edward II’ in Intrigue, 66.
70. Haines, Death of a King, 53.
71. Intrigue, 68.
72. Intrigue, 68.
73. Intrigue, 67.
74. Moore, ‘Documents Relating to the Death’, 217.
75. Moore, ‘Documents’, 221; Phillips, 553; Intrigue, 67.
76. Moore, ‘Documents’, 221.
77. Moore, ‘Documents’, 221–2; Intrigue, 67, 69; Phillips, 553.
78. Ormrod, ‘Personal Religion of Edward III’, 870, note 120, citing TNA E 101/383/2.
79. Ernst Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies (new ed., 1997), 420.
80. Traitor, 240.
17 The Curious Case of the King Who Lived
1. The letter is held at Warwickshire County Record Office, CR136/C2027. It is printed in French in Haines, ‘Sumptuous Apparel’, 893–4, and in English in Intrigue, 154–5 (my translation differs slightly).
2. CCR 1330–3, 132, states that Kent attended Edward’s funeral ‘with other magnates of the realm’. There is no direct evidence that Melton was present, but it is extremely likely that he was, given that he was a high-ranking prelate and had for many years shown great loyalty to and affection for Edward.
3. Murimuth, 255–6; Lanercost, 264–5; Phillips, 566–7, Intrigue, 161. Kingsclere, oddly, was arrested in 1332 by Giles of Spain (an adherent of Kent in 1330) on suspicion of involvement in Edward II’s death.
4. Intrigue, 155, 161; Kathryn Warner, ‘Adherents of Edmund of Woodstock’, 804 note 150; Murimuth, 256.
5. Murimuth, 52–4; Brut, 253.
6. Intrigue, 75.
7. Warner, ‘Adherents’, 782–4, 799.
8. For a refutation of the accusation of stupidity, see Intrigue, 83–4, 153–4.
9. Murimuth, 256.
10. Mortimer, Intrigue, 86–7, 140. John Dunheved acknowledged in 1317 and 1329 that he owed a debt of £1,000 to Pecche, and mortgaged his manor of Dunchurch to him: CCR 1313–8, 572; CCR 1323–7, 201; CCR 1327–30, 543.
11. Intrigue, 161; Phillips, 567.
12. Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of London 1323–64, ed. A. H. Thomas, 72. For detailed accounts of Melton and Kent’s plot, its timing and the men who supported them, see Mortimer, ‘The Plot of the Earl of Kent, 1328–30’ in Intrigue, 153–173, and my ‘Adherents’, 779–805.
13. CCR 1330–3, 24, 132.
14. Murimuth, 256.
15. Brut, 263–7; PROME.
16. The Fieschi letter has been reprinted, discussed and interpreted numerous times since its discovery in 1877. See e.g. Cuttino and Lyman ‘Where is Edward II?’, 522–43; Phillips, 582–94; Traitor, 251–62; Intrigue, 182–9; Tyranny, 203–6; Doherty, Death, 192–215; Haines, Death of a King, 100–8. For Milasci, see Intrigue, 197–8, and Perfect King, 414–5.
17. See Traitor, 258. Phillips, 591, states Fieschi is incorrect in saying that the earl of Arundel was still with Edward and Despenser, but I know of no evidence which definitely places Arundel elsewhere, and he may well have still been with the king on 20 October at Chepstow. It is unclear when and where Arundel was captured, only that he was killed in Hereford on 17 November. The Fieschi letter correctly states that Edward was captured with Despenser and Robert Baldock, and not Arundel.
18. Intrigue, 178–82, 188–9, 202, 205; Phillips, 594–6.
19. Intrigue, 181, 221, note 29; Perfect King, 152–3, 412.
20. A notable exception is Richard de Neueby, who met Edward II in 1313, claiming to be his brother, and received a generous gift of money. As we have no record of him being punished and the entry also does not say ‘falsely claiming’, he may genuinely have been an illegitimate son of Edward I, or at least convinced Edward II that he was.
21. PROME: dicit quod ipse nunquam fuit consentiens, auxilians, seu procurans, ad mortem suam, nec unquam scivit de morte sua usque in presenti Parliamento isto.
22. Intrigue, 69.
23. Isabella’s reputation was far worse centuries after her death than in her own lifetime, when it doesn’t seem as though she was viewed as a notorious adulteress and murderess (except by Geoffrey le Baker). The ‘she-wolf’ nickname was first given to her in 1757, in a poem by Thomas Gray.
24. Blackley, ‘Cult of the Dead’, 26–9.
25. ODNB; Dixon and Raine, Lives of the Archbishops of York, Vol. 1, 436.
26. Intrigue, 197–202, 226–7; Perfect King, 414–5; Phillips, 586–8.
27. Sant’Alberto’s official website has a section in Italian and English on Edward II and the mysteries surrounding his death. His afterlife in Italy is discussed at length in Appendix 3 of Ian Mortimer’s Perfect King and in much of his Intrigue, which includes a long chapter on the Fieschi family and their connections to Edward II and III. The 2011 film Uncertain Proof, made by Bristol Films, deals with Edward’s afterlife in Italy, as does Ivan Fowler’s 2013 novel Auramala: The King Lives.
28. Perfect King, 201.
29. Perfect King, 201, 417.
30. Saaler, Edward II, 17; Vita, 75; Phillips, 66.