Seymour Phillips - Edward II: The Chameleon

EDWARD II

EDWARD II

Seymour Phillips

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON

Copyright 2010 Seymour Phillips

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Phillips, Seymour.

Edward II/Seymour Phillips.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780300156577 (cl: alk. paper)

1. Edward II, King of England, 12841327. 2. Great BritainKings and rulersBiography. 3. Great BritainHistoryEdward II, 13071327. I. Title.

DA230.P48 2010

942.03'6092dc22

[B]

2009038959

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Nuala, Eoin and Catherine

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plates

1. Eagle Tower, Caernarfon castle. Cadw, Welsh Assembly Government (Crown Copyright).2. Edward I creating Edward Prince of Wales in 1301, Cotton Ms. Nero D.II, f. 19v. All Rights Reserved. British Library Board.3. Marriage agreement between Edward and Isabella, 1303. Courtesy of the Royal Institution of South Wales, held at the West Glamorgan Archive Service (RISW DOC 5/3).4. Isabella kneeling between the shields of England and France, from the Psalter of Queen Isabella of England, c. 13038. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Cod.gall. 16 f. 94r.5. Silver-gilt casket with royal armorials, c. 13038. Trustees of the British Museum.6. Wedding of Edward and Isabella, illustration in Jean de Wavrin's Chroniques d'Angleterre . British Library Board (Royal Ms. 15.E.iv, f. 295v).7. Ms. illustration of Edward II seated in majesty, 1308. Courtesy of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Ms. 20 f. 68).8. Edward II holding a sword and a sceptre, Chaworth Roll. Courtesy of Sam Fogg, London.9a. Sabrina Lenzi as Isabella in David Bintley's ballet Edward II . Photograph: Bill Cooper.9b. Wolfgang Stollwitzer as Edward in David Bintley's ballet Edward II . Photograph: Bill Cooper; Birmingham Royal Ballet.10a, b and c. Miniatures showing Philip IV and Edward II girding Philip's sons with their swords and riding out, preceded by trumpets, from a translation of the Livre de Kalila et Dimna by Raymond de Bziers. Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris (Ms. Latin 8504, f. 1v).11. Miniature showing the opening of the sixth vial, Apocalypse Ms. of 1313. Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris (Ms. Fr. 13096, f. 50).12. The Battle of Bannockburn. Courtesy of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Ms. 171, f. 265).13. Execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, illustration in the Chronicles of Jean Froissart. Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris (Ms. Fr. 2643, f. 197).14. King and queen kneeling, illustration in the Taymouth Hours. British Library Board (Yates Thompson Ms. 13, f. 18).15. Illustration from Walter de Milemete, De nobilitatibus sapientiis et prudentiis regum , 13267. Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford (Ms. 92, f. 4v).16. Berkeley castle, Gloucestershire. Crown Copyright NMR (Wingham Collection).17. Letter of 24 September 1327 from Edward III at Lincoln to John de Bohun, earl of Hereford, announcing the death of Edward II. The National Archives (DL 10/253).18. Edward's tomb, Gloucester cathedral. Angelo Hornak Picture Library.19. Castle of Melazzo near Acqui Terme, Italy. Author's photograph.20. Monastery of S. Alberto di Butrio, near Cecima, Italy. Author's photograph.21. Alleged tomb of Edward II in the monastery of S. Alberto di Butrio, near Cecima, Italy. Author's photograph.22. Cathdrale Saint-Pierre-de-Maguelone, near Montpellier, France. Photograph David Merlin.23. Letter from Manuel Fieschi to Edward III, c. 13368 containing the alleged confession of Edward II. Archives dpartementales de l'Hrault, Montpellier, France (G 1123, f. 86r).24. The Oxwich Brooch, early fourteenth-century set gold ring brooch. National Museum of Wales.

Maps

England and Scotland in the reign of Edward II. Ireland at the time of Edward Bruce's invasion (131518). Wales: the Principality and the March. France, the Low Countries, parts of the Rhineland and northwest Italy.

PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been a long time in the making. At one level its origins go back to the time when, as a schoolboy visiting the Royal Institution of South Wales in Swansea, I saw a framed document recording the betrothal of the future Edward II and Isabella in 1303 on the wall of the library and wondered how it could possibly have ended up in such an unlikely place. In practice however it stems from my first book, Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke, 13071324: Baronial Politics in the Reign of Edward II , which showed me both the complexity of the reign of Edward II and how much more research was still required to produce a fully rounded treatment of the period. My researches since then have progressed via a lengthy digression into the history of medieval Europe's relations with the outer world and a number of papers on the early fourteenth century, including the biography of Edward II published in the Oxford DNB in 2004, and most recently in my contributions to the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England ( PROME ) project published in 2005. In writing this volume for the Yale English Monarchs series I have drawn on my own published work and researches, as well as on the published work of many previous scholars such as J.C. Davies, Hilda Johnstone, H.G. Richardson, G.O. Sayles, T.F. Tout and Bertie Wilkinson, and of the numerous other scholars who have been active more recently in the field of late thirteenth-and early fourteenth-century history, notably Michael Altschul, Geoffrey Barrow, Paul Binski, Elizabeth Brown, Mark Buck, the late Pierre Chaplais, Wendy Childs, the late George Cuttino, the late Sir Rees Davies, Jeffrey Denton, Sean Duffy, Archie Duncan, Robin Frame, the late Edmund Fryde, Natalie Fryde, Chris Given-Wilson, Antonia Gransden, Roy Haines, Elizabeth Hallam, Jeffrey Hamilton, Gerald Harriss, the late Geoffrey Holmes, Michael Jones, Richard Kaeuper, Maurice Keen, Colm McNamee, John Maddicott, Ian Mortimer, Mark Ormrod, Edward Peters, Michael Prestwich, Nigel Saul, Beverley Smith, the late Lionel Stones, Matthew Strickland, John Taylor, Malcolm Vale, Claire Valente and Scott Waugh. I have also made use of unpublished work, in particular the outstanding D.Phil. thesis by Paul Doherty on the life and career of Isabella, Edward II's wife and queen; the Ph.D. theses by Arthur Echerd Jr on the cult of St Thomas of Lancaster, and Alistair Tebbit on Edward II's household knights; and two papers on English coronations by John Carmi Parsons. I should also like to thank the many scholars who have helped me with information or offered encouragement, notably my fellow editors on the PROME project; James Lydon and the late F.X. Martin, o.s.a., who encouraged my interest in Anglo-Irish relations; Brenda Bolton, the late Leonard Boyle, O.P., John Henderson and Eileen Kane who helped me in my quest for the lost book of Edward II's miracles; Paul Brand, Boyd Breslow, the late Pierre Chaplais, Martin Cunningham, Gwilym Dodd, Paul Drybugh, John Gillingham, Jeffrey Hamilton, Jill Hughes, Donald Logan, Mark Ormrod, Guilhem Ppin, Richard Pfaff, Michael Prestwich, Brendan Smith, Shelagh Sneddon, Alistair Tebbit and Bernadette Williams. David Smith, the former county archivist of Gloucestershire and archivist for Berkeley Castle, and Lowinger Maddison, the librarian of Gloucester Cathedral, gave me invaluable help during my researches in Gloucester and at Berkeley. I am also greatly indebted to the staff of the former Public Record Office in Chancery Lane and The National Archives at Kew; the British Library and Bodleian Library; the Archivio Segreto Vaticano and Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome; the Archives Nationales and Bibliothque Nationale in Paris; and the Archives dpartementales de l'Hrault, Montpellier; and to the staff of the library at University College Dublin, especially in the interlibrary loans department, whose help was invaluable and sometimes crucial.

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