In the following, only a general overview of England’s history in the first half of the 14th century is given, as far as it seems necessary for the understanding of n Edward II.1
Edward I.
In 1066, the Norman Guillaume le Conquérant or William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings, which established Norman rule over Anglo-Saxon England. This created the bizarre situation that Guillaume, the Duke of Normandy, was a vassal of the French King, William I, King of England, but equal to him. Under Henry II. Plantagenet, the English king’s possessions stretched from the Pyrenees to the English Channel, while the kings of France ruled over a few square kilometres of crown domain. Philippe II succeeded in wresting a large part of this territory from the descendants of Henry II. The disputes were to be finally settled in 1303 in the Peace of Paris between Henry III and Louis IX. The English monarch renounced Normandy, Anjou, Touraine and Poitou, received parts of Aquitaine, Gascony and some other territories, but had to pay homage to the French ruler in return. The conflict broke out again when Edward I and Philippe IV, two kings of equal strength, stood opposite each other. In order to settle the battle over Gascony, Pope Boniface VIII advised a double marriage. Edward I, whose first wife Eleanor of Castile had died in 1290, was to marry Marguerite, a half-sister of Philippe IV. In addition, there was to be a marriage between Edward’s son and Isabella (Isabeau), the daughter of the French king, as soon as she reached marriageable age. A reconciliation with France was obvious, for in the last ten years of his reign Edward I was at war with Scotland.
Family tree Edward II. Private property. © 2022
Scotland
In 1286, Alexander III had died. His marriage to Margaret, a sister of Edward I, had produced three children. The eldest daughter had married Erik II of Norway, with whom she had a daughter named Margaret. She had been the sole heiress to the Scottish king since 1284. With her death six years later, the dispute over the throne began. Two candidates, Robert Bruce and John Balliol, prevailed, but the Scots could not agree on anyone. So they asked Edward I to act as arbiter. His choice fell on Balliol, because he hoped that he would have an England-friendly regency. However, when the English king expected military help from the Scots in the fight against France in 1296, he was disappointed. Edward I then invaded Scotland, captured Balliol and made himself overlord. The Scots put up unusually stubborn resistance to English rule. In 1297, Andrew de Moray and William Wallace inflicted a crushing defeat on the English at Stirling Bridge, to which England responded a year later with the Battle of Falkirk. The Scottish resistance movement had thus been dealt a severe blow. Wallace had to retreat, was betrayed to the English a few years later and executed in London in 1305. Scotland thus had its martyr and the struggle for independence began anew. This time it was Robert Bruce, the grandson of the pretender to the throne in 1290, who took the lead. He had himself crowned King of Scotland in 1306 and began the reconquest of his country the following year.
Edward II and Piers Gaveston (1305-1312)
Edward I died on 7 July 1307. His son Edward II took on a heavy inheritance, but first took care of personal matters by bringing back his favourite, Piers Gaveston, from the temporary exile to which Edward I had sent him, as one of his first acts in office. The true nature of the relationship between Edward II and Gaveston remains unclear to this day. At least it did not prevent the king from marrying Isabella (Isabeau), the daughter of the French king Philippe IV, on 25 January 1308 as agreed. Probably no one had informed her about Gaveston and her husband. However, she was clever enough never to let it come to an open confrontation with the favourite. England’s leading nobles were not so lenient. Already towards the end of Edward I’s reign there had been serious conflicts between him, the nobility and the Church. His successor inherited not only the domestic and foreign policy tensions, but also the country’s severe economic problems. However, as he lacked his father’s strength and energy and favoured Gaveston in everything, who had been showered with titles, land, jewellery, etc. within a few months, the lords felt sufficiently motivated to do something about the king. For the time being, they succeeded in sending the favourite into exile. Edward II was unceasing in his efforts to bring him back, which he actually achieved thanks to an assurance from the Pope in June 1309. Gaveston made no effort to reconcile with the nobility, but only snubbed them further. The opposition of the nobility insisted on the establishment of a committee to carry out comprehensive reforms. Under the leadership of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, 21 nobles and bishops were elected to the committee. Members of the House of Commons were not represented on it. The originally moderate tone intensified after Lincoln died in February 1311 and his son-in-law Thomas Plantagent, Earl of Lancaster, took over the leadership. In October, 41 articles were presented, which included a massive restriction of royal rights in favour of the nobility. The king’s position was so weak that he had to accept these so-called ordinances and a renewed exile of Gaveston. Edward II re-admitted Gaveston in early 1312 with full honours and the knowledge that he was risking civil war. The lords immediately took up arms. Edward II and Gaveston had to flee. While the king was raising new troops, Gaveston entrenched himself at Scarborough. However, it could not withstand the siege for long, so in May Gaveston surrendered to the Earl of Pembroke on honourable terms. The whole matter was to be tried before Parliament, but this never happened. Without Pembroke’s knowledge, Gaveston was kidnapped and killed at the instigation of some leading lords on 19 June 1312.
The Heir to the Throne, Bannockburn and the Famine (1312-1317)
Gaveston’s assassination divided the nobility. Several lords supported the king from then on. With the help of France and the papal legate, the conflict was peacefully settled in December, with Lancaster’s party receiving a full pardon. During this turbulent time, the heir to the throne was born on 13 November 1312. Edward II was delighted with the son who was baptised in his name. By 1313, the king had succeeded in consolidating his domestic and foreign policy position. In addition, parliamentary concessions and new loans led to an improvement in the economic situation. Then came the bitter setback. Under Edward II, the Scots had not only succeeded in driving the English almost completely out of their country, but had also extended their military incursions into English territory. The king therefore prepared for a final counter-attack in the summer. An army of about 19,000 men marched towards Scotland. The English outnumbered the enemy 1:2, if not 1:3, but the Scots were tactically in a better position. The Battle of Bannnockburn lasted from 23 to 24 June 1314 and went down as one of the greatest defeats in English history. Edward II was forced to flee the battlefield. Less than a third of his army made it back to England. The King’s position vis-à-vis Parliament was weakened again by this disaster. The Earl of Lancaster de facto took over the power of government, but soon withdrew again and offered no way out of the crisis, which even the Lords soon had to realise. Added to this was the famine that struck northern Europe between 1315 and 1317. The measures introduced by the crown against this were not very successful. The nobility, the clergy as well as the population perceived these catastrophes as God’s punishment for the king’s improper and unworthy behaviour as a ruler.
The Marcher Lords and the Despenser War (1318-1322)
Although the Crown was met with a consistently hostile mood, the next major escalation was triggered by two men: Hugh Despenser Jr. and his father (Hugh Despenser sr.). The younger Despenser would have been entitled to the third of the inheritance after the death of his brother-in-law Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, which was to go to his wife Eleanore de Clare. But he was by no means satisfied with this. He was eager for personal property, which first brought him into conflict with the other heirs and then with the so-called Marcher Lords. They had their lands on the border with Wales, where they ruled almost autonomously, were exempt from taxation and had rights that in England were otherwise only granted to the king.
"The personal nightmare of any medieval landowner, […] was that one of his neighbours should become so powerful that he would be able to ride with armed men into his ancestral lands and disseise [sic!] him of them. This could happen in one of two circumstances. The first was that the neighbour became a royal favourite so that nobody dared to challenge him. The second was that the character of the king had so diminished royal authority that the neighbour no longer feared the king’s wrath […]."2
These were precisely the facts that the Despensers' neighbours had to face under Edward II. In 1318 Hugh Despenser Jr. was appointed royal chamberlain. Within a few months he had made himself indispensable to the king. Gaveston had at best had contempt for the nobility. The lords had felt insulted by it. The Despensers, on the other hand, demanded their possession, which made them an existential threat. In 1320, Roger Mortimer returned from Ireland, where he had fought against the Scots in recent years. Although he was not one of the most powerful Marcher lords, he was the only English magnate with a number of military successes to his name. A family feud had existed between the Mortimers and the Despensers for decades, and the situation in England exacerbated it. Before it came to extremes, the Earl of Pembroke intervened. He persuaded the king to send the two Despensers into exile in August 1321. However, they returned in December, whereupon royal troops marched towards Wales. The Earl of Lancaster initially refused to help, so Mortimer and several other Marcher lords had to surrender on 22 January 1322. By now, even Lancaster had realised that Edward II was unstoppable. He tried to get help from the Scots, but had to face the king’s army at Boroughbridge on 16 March without success. Edward II, who was not exactly used to success, fell into a power frenzy. He revoked the Ordinances of 1311, had Lancaster beheaded after a very questionable legal trial and ordered the executions of numerous notable lords. Those who escaped the wave of executions were locked away indefinitely. The royal wrath did not even spare the relatives of the rebels. Families were separated, aristocratic mothers, wives and children were scattered all over the country, imprisoned in castles or convents. Never before had an English ruler taken such action against his subjects. He was actively supported by the Despensers. For the next four years they ruled almost unchallenged. They were capable administrators, but shamelessly enriched themselves from the property of others, not even shying away from extortion, torture and murder. Widows and orphans were suddenly left without provisions because they either had to give up their land or their claims were negated altogether. The latter mainly affected the families of the insurgents who had fled. Since their husbands were still alive abroad, the women had no right to their widow’s dowry. The massive confiscations ruined other classes of the population as well, because although the Crown refused to pay the arrears of the dispossessed, it collected their outstanding debts, even if they had already been forgiven by their former creditors. Edward II, who had suffered from a lack of money since his accession, was infected by the greed of his favourite. While the latter took possession of more and more land, the king hoarded money. By 1323, the finances had been restored without the people noticing. Four years later, Edward II had financial reserves amounting to almost two complete years' revenue.
The Conflict with the Queen (1323-1326)
Unlike Gaveston, who had merely ignored Isabella, Despenser did everything he could to destroy Edward II’s marriage. He was supported in this by a massive deterioration in Anglo-French relations. Isabella’s brother Charles IV demanded that his brother-in-law pay homage for the English fiefdoms in France, but Edward II did not comply. In 1324, the situation escalated and France occupied Gascony. To end the conflict, Charles IV offered to vacate all occupied territories if Edward II would make his son Duke of Aquitaine and he would come to France with his mother to take the oath of liege. In retrospect, it seems completely incomprehensible that Edward II agreed to this, but at the time it was the only solution in Despenser’s eyes. On the one hand, he did not want to let the king go to France alone, as he no longer had him under control there; on the other hand, he could not accompany him, because that would have been tantamount to losing power in England. So Isabella sailed to France on 9 March 1325, followed by Prince Edward in September. Of course, it had been assumed in England that both of them would return after concluding a treaty and paying homage, but Isabella did not even think about it. She refused her and her son’s return until Edward II had disengaged from Despenser. The king, of course, was unwilling to fulfil his wife’s ultimatum and insisted on her return home, but Isabella had other plans. Together with several nobles, including Mortimer, who had fled England, she secured the support of her brother and cousin Jeanne de Valois for an invasion of England. She concluded a contract with Jeanne’s husband, Count Wilem I of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut, from whose territory the invasion was to start. This included the marriage of Edward, heir to the English throne, to Wilem’s daughter Philippa. At about this time, both France and England knew of a liaison between Isabella and Mortimer.
The Fight Against the Despensers and the Death of Edward II (1326-1327)
On 22 September 1326, under the leadership of John of Hainault, a brother of the count, Isabella set sail with an army at Dordrecht. They reached England two days later. Not only did they meet no significant resistance, they received support and encouragement everywhere. Almost the entire nobility as well as the clergy joined her. Edward II also had no support among the population. He was captured in Wales by Isabella’s allies. The country now had a king who had no power to govern, but without whom it was nevertheless impossible to govern. In January 1327, Isabelle sent negotiators to Edward II to persuade him to abdicate publicly before Parliament, but he refused, which meant that a Parliament should never have been held in the first place, as only the King was entitled to call one. Nevertheless, the members of parliament met in Westminster, where it was decided that Edward II should be deposed and replaced by his son. Prince Edward would only accept the crown if his father renounced it, which he finally did on 20 January 1327 after repeatedly refusing. In April, the deposed king was taken to Berkeley, where, according to official reports, he succumbed to illness on 21 September 1327.
The Treaty of Edinburgh and The French Succession (1327-1328)
The coronation of Edward III, who had almost as little say in his realm as his father, took place on 1 February 1327. Historians are divided when it comes to determining who actually exercised power in the first years of the new regency. Mortimer’s relationship with Isabella continued, but he was not appreciated by Edward III, held no official office and was not even a member of the multi-member council that assisted the still minor king. Nevertheless, he was treated as if he belonged to the royal family. He could only exert direct influence on the king through his mother, who had a good relationship with her son. The Scots took advantage of the change in the balance of power. They invaded Ulster and northern England. Under Mortimer’s leadership, England wanted to fight back, but peace negotiations were considered at the latest on 4 August 1327 when Edward III almost fell into the hands of the enemy at Stanhope Park. They ended on 3 May 1328 with the ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh by the English Parliament in Northampton. In it, England recognised Scotland as an independent and sovereign kingdom. Despite Scottish reparations, this treaty was very unpopular in England. Edward III did not hide the fact that in his eyes it was a disgraceful peace. An important reason for concluding such a treaty was probably the changed situation in France. On 1 February 1328, Charles IV, Isabella’s last brother, died without male descendants. With the reference to the Salic Law, women were excluded from the French succession, but it was not clear whether the crown could go to a man who was related to the royal house through a female line. This would place the closest male relative Philippe de Valois, a cousin of Isabella, behind Edward III in the line of succession, who declared his claim to the French crown on 28 March. In France, a commission of experts decided that women who do not have the right to inherit cannot transfer it to their sons. On 29 May 1328, Philippe VI was crowned in Reims. Edward III conditionally consented to this by taking the oath of fealty.
Uprising and The Fall of Mortimer (1328-1330)
Isabella, who continued to hope for the French crown, wanted to have her back free for possible military interventions, which is why peace with Scotland suited her. The English had no sympathy for these dynastic considerations. Even if they did not like the French, the Scots had been their immediate enemies for decades. Not only the people but also many members of the nobility opposed the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, as quite a few of them had lost large estates as a result of the demarcation of the border. Under the leadership of the Earl of Leicester, an opposition arose which was joined by, among others, the uncles of Edward III, the Earl of Norfolk and the Earl of Kent. For reasons that are no longer clear, the latter became convinced that his half-brother Edward II was still alive and was only being held captive by Mortimer. He took part in the preparations for a liberation operation, but Mortimer soon learned of it. After irrefutable evidence of Kent’s complicity was presented, the parliament sentenced him to death in a legally very questionable act. Although Kent had never been popular, his execution in 1329 caused the last sympathies that Isabella and Mortimer had still enjoyed to disappear. The English realised that they were just as insecure about their lives under the new rule as they had been before. Moreover, Mortimer exhibited such avaricious and arrogant behaviour as one had come to expect from the minions of Edward II. By the beginning of 1330 it was apparent that Philippa was pregnant. Her coronation could no longer be delayed. In June, her husband, who would come of age in the autumn, was the proud father of a son. Edward III had already fulfilled all the expectations placed on a young ruler. Now he just had to get rid of Mortimer. He had him arrested without warning on the night of 19 October. The following day, Edward III officially announced that he would henceforth rule independently. Only now was there public talk of Edward II’s assassination, without Mortimer being accused of it. He was convicted of treason and executed on 29 November 1330.
Outlook
Edward III had already fulfilled all the expectations placed on a young ruler. took after his grandfather more than his father. His reign, which lasted another 47 years, is still regarded as predominantly positive today. He achieved world-historical significance through his foreign policy. Relations between England and France remained tense because of property disputes and intervention in the Scottish succession. On 24 May 1337, Philippe VI confiscated parts of the English fiefdom, whereupon Edward III resigned his allegiance and henceforth also called himself King of France: The Hundred Years' War had begun. Although, or perhaps precisely because, from 1371 onwards Edward III seemed to be suffering from senile dementia, he made an unusual succession arrangement. After the death of the Prince of Wales in 1376, he designated his eldest son Richard as his heir. Richard II proved in many ways to be a worthy great-grandson of Edward II, but this story was told by another Elizabethan playwright.
