Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II (6 page)

Edward was seemingly captivated when he eventually met his young bride. One chronicler even claims he neglected the war in Scotland because of his desire to marry the beautiful Princess as soon as possible.
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The wedding was a major event for European royalty. The guest list included Mary, the Queen Dowager of France, Isabella’s brothers, Louis, Philip and Charles, the Arch-Duke of Austria, the Duke of Brabant and other European nobility.
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On Sunday, 28 January, there was a general wedding feast. On the 30th, Edward acted as host at a great banquet arranged for the French court. The King and his new Queen took lodgings near the cathedral, the rest of his retinue sheltering in canvas tents which had been set up around the harbour town of Boulogne.
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Naturally, Philip IV mixed business with pleasure. He presented a list of grievances to Edward, who retaliated by dismissing them and sending the French King’s wedding gifts, including jewels, rings and other precious articles, back home to Gaveston.
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This led to a bitter row. The French and English lords were tired of Edward’s games: the wedding celebrations were marred by a general manifesto issued by the English nobility, and certainly backed by the French, complaining of ‘certain oppressions’, the opening shot of their later campaign against Gaveston.
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On 2 February 1308, Edward and his new bride left France and landed at Dover on the 6th. Isabella was greeted by the wife of the Earl of Norfolk, the Countess of Hereford, and other noble ladies. Gaveston must have
taken great pleasure in issuing the summons himself, deliberately bringing them to Dover at least four days before the new bride arrived, an uncomfortable sojourn in a bleak channel port in the dead of winter.
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As soon as the King disembarked, he ran to Gaveston, embraced him and called him ‘Brother’.
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In an atmosphere of heightening tension, the royal party made its slow progress to London via royal palaces at Rochester, Eltham and London. On 19 February 1308, Isabella was formally lodged in the royal apartments at the Tower from where she would be taken to be solemnly crowned with her husband. By now Isabella’s French relatives were also seething. Her two uncles, Louis of Evreux and Charles of Valois, joined the English barons in threatening to postpone the coronation until Gaveston was exiled. Edward prevaricated and then promised reforms.
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The coronation took place on 25 February 1308 but it was a fiasco. Gaveston, not Isabella, appeared to be the guest of honour. Two London upholsterers received advances of five pounds sterling, ‘for making tapestries with the arms of the King of England and of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall against the King’s coronation’.
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It was a public insult to the French, who demanded that Isabella’s arms, not some Gascon upstart’s, be arrayed alongside those of her new husband. Further surprises were in store. The coronation of a king and the first wearing of his crown was a very solemn event. Ceremonies such as the carrying of the crown, the bearing of the royal sword, Curtana, and the fastening of the King’s spurs, possessed a symbolic significance: these were always undertaken by leading nobles. However, on this occasion, these ceremonial tasks were given to Gaveston. He carried the coronation crown
of the Confessor. He held Curtana and also fastened the spurs onto the King’s left foot. In appointing Gaveston to discharge these solemn and sacred duties, Edward was proclaiming that his favourite was, in fact, superior to the high nobility, whether of England or France, such as Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and Charles of Valois.
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Passions ran high; so much so that swords were drawn and a fight nearly broke out during the coronation. According to the chroniclers, only the presence of the Queen and the sacredness of the occasion, prevented bloodshed in Westminster Abbey.

Gaveston, as Regent, had also been responsible for the preparations for the coronation – and his organization left a great deal to be desired. The crowd was not properly marshalled and one man was trodden to death. It was three in the afternoon before the solemn consecration was over and long after dark before the formal banquets got underway. The food was badly cooked and ill-served, yet Edward II didn’t seem to mind. He chose the occasion to publicly insult both his bride and his guests by sitting with the Gascon rather than his Queen.
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It is difficult to understand why, at least from July 1307 to the end of February 1308, Edward II went out of his way to publicly insult everybody he could. The only logical explanation could be that he was at last voicing his resentment, and that of his favourite, at their former treatment at the hands of his father, Edward I. Secondly, Edward was determined that everyone should accept Gaveston as his co-ruler, England’s second king, his blood brother: public ceremonies provided the best stage for this. Edward II may not have deliberately wished to insult a twelve-year-old French Princess. Isabella was, as
usual, regarded as a pawn to be used in her husband’s confrontation with both her father and his barons.

Nevertheless, Edward II had sown the seeds for his later betrayal. Stubborn as ever, he attacked those who opposed his favourite and the easiest targets were the weakest. The Manor of Hailes, as well as Berkhamsted Castle, which belonged to Isabella’s aunt, the Dowager Queen Margaret, were taken from her and given to Gaveston. Isabella herself was treated even more harshly. No dower lands were given to her, and there is no record of Isabella receiving even petty sums to set up and run her own independent household. Until July 1308, Isabella had to accompany Edward to royal palaces and manors at Westminster, Reading, Wallingford and Windsor. Nor was she given any patronage, such as the right to promote clerks or priests; nothing is recorded, except for three criminals receiving pardon ‘at the Queen’s insistence’.
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Philip IV grew concerned. Why had lands not been granted to his daughter? Edward replied evasively he would love to do so but his Council was preventing it.
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Finally, Philip decided to intervene. An autocrat himself, he was reluctant to support rebels against any king, but the treatment of his daughter and sister were the final straw. Two anonymous newsletters of May 1308 mentioned how Philip had sent envoys to England to proclaim his hostility to Gaveston and that anyone who supported the royal favourite was now France’s mortal enemy. Philip also despatched monies to encourage the English opposition.
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Young Isabella was drawn into this too. Two months earlier Philip had sent a secret agent, a trained clerk, Ralph de Rosseleti, to England to carry Isabella’s privy seal.
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This trusted French clerk now took
over the despatch of Isabella’s letters and any sent to her. She was now her father’s principal point of contact with the rebel barons in England.

Edward then conceded defeat, at least to create a breathing space. If he continued to support Gaveston, he would not only face war in the north against Robert the Bruce but uprisings throughout England led by his leading earls and supported by French troops. So Edward changed tack. Gaveston was honourably exiled to be Edward’s Regent in Ireland, while the English King worked furiously to detach the French court from his baronial opponents. This opposition was now making itself felt in every walk of life. For example, in the late spring of 1308 the monks of Westminster were bitterly divided over the appointment of their new abbot, Kedyngton, a protégé of Gaveston. His opponents, led by Roger de Aldenhan, urged his colleagues to petition Queen Isabella, who would do anything to hinder Gaveston’s nominee because of her hatred for him.
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Once Gaveston had left, Edward desperately tried to bring such partisan policies to an end. Isabella was immediately given certain estates in the French counties of Ponthieu and Montreuil as a sweetener. She did not attend Gaveston’s departure from Bristol on 25 June 1308; instead, she waited for her husband at Kings Langley before travelling on to Windsor to console him on the loss of his favourite. The new Queen now began to be treated with increasing honour. She attended a Parliament at Northampton in August and afterwards entertained the nobility with a great banquet at Westminster.
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Edward now hoped, through his wife and dowager aunt, to win Philip’s approval. Bishop Langton, whom Margaret
had defended, was released,
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whilst property given to Gaveston was restored to her. Even greater generosity was shown to Isabella: huge grants of money were issued from the Exchequer and she received the ownership of manors in England and Wales and the right to appoint priests and clerks to benefices. Moreover, Isabella was now constantly in Edward’s company. Hardly surprisingly, Philip withdrew his opposition to Gaveston who, in 1309, rejoined the King.
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Over the next two years, 1309–11, Isabella was the King’s constant companion and supporter, so much so that the baronial opposition led by Thomas of Lancaster regarded her as Gaveston’s ally. She even sheltered the favourite’s supporters in her household. The barons demanded their removal, especially Henry Beaumont and his sister Isabella de Vescy, who’d become the Queen’s regular companion. The barons had their way but Isabella refused to give up the friendship, writing constantly to de Vescy and sending her delicacies of wild boar meat and cheese.
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By the end of 1311 Isabella was still only fifteen years of age but nevertheless a Queen in her own right, a powerful landowner and a lavish patron. She had a household of over 200. Her tailor, John Falaise, employed sixty seamstresses to maintain and repair the Queen’s robes. Falaise also supervised the Queen’s treasury in the Tower of London – huge iron-bound coffers containing Isabella’s jewels, plates and precious cloths, which were supplemented by gifts from the King. She was given rich wardships and the control of lands, whose owners had yet to come of age. The manors of Bourne and Deeping, as well as the royal manor of Eltham, with additional lands in Kent, were added to her estates. She attended her husband, graced
state occasions and made royal tours, such as her pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine at Canterbury, being awarded
£
140 to defray the costs.
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At the beginning of 1312 Isabella received extra money to accompany the King and his favourite north but this was no mere court outing. Edward II now faced a sea of troubles. Since 1307 Robert the Bruce and his commanders had transformed their guerrilla campaign in Scotland into a full-scale war against the English occupier. South of the border, the baronial opposition led by Thomas of Lancaster, with his extensive estates in Lancashire, Yorkshire and across the Midlands, was on the brink of civil war over Gaveston’s continued preferment. Any opposition by Isabella to the Gascon favourite had now evaporated. She travelled with him and the King, she sheltered his friends and, on her husband’s behalf, intervened to seek the support of her father and the French court.
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This strange triangular relationship can only remain a matter of speculation. Edward and Isabella certainly lived as man and wife, as did Gaveston and Joan of Gloucester. The latter gave birth to a daughter and by March 1312 Isabella herself was pregnant with her first child and sharing the good news with everyone.
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The spring of 1312 was a happy one for the court. The King and his Queen were sheltering at York, well away from the intrigues at Westminster, but close enough to keep an eye on developments along the Scottish border. At the end of February Gaveston’s daughter was christened and the court was entertained by ‘King Robert’ and other minstrels. There is even evidence of horseplay between the King’s and Queen’s households. On Easter Monday, 27 March 1312, the ladies of Isabella’s chamber indulged
Edward’s well-known love of practical jokes. Payments were made to a group of them for catching the King asleep in bed and dragging him from it.

This was a well-established custom connected with the story of Christ’s resurrection: any man found in bed on Easter Monday morning could be dragged away as a prisoner and forced to make payment for his release. Edward apparently loved this, paying the ladies concerned a most generous sum.
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Once the Easter season was over, however, the King and his Queen had to face the grim reality of war. Bruce was now threatening the border whilst Lancaster and the other barons were calling up troops. Edward journeyed further north to Newcastle, while Isabella retired to Tynemouth Priory for sanctuary. Edward’s stay in the north demonstrated his fecklessness: he, his favourite and his pregnant Queen were caught between the Scots and the baronial army moving north. The royal forces were few in number and eventually any organized command amongst Edward’s forces collapsed. The King became a hapless fugitive in his own kingdom, desperately fleeing his enemies. Lancaster and the others followed in pursuit, forcing Edward and Gaveston to join the Queen at Tynemouth. The barons continued their harassment, threatening to besiege the Priory. Isabella was forced to flee with her husband and his favourite, leaving most of her baggage train behind. Lancaster wrote to her, assuring the Queen of his good will. Isabella ignored this and adhered to her husband.
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The royal party fled south, to Scarborough, and Gaveston was left in its castle, perched high on the cliffs above town and sea for his own safety, whilst Edward and Isabella continued on to York.

An entry in Isabella’s household book for the period 1311–17 shows that she was not simply a spoilt, young woman, who collected lands, possessions and money, more intent on her status than anything else. The Scottish war had devastated the north, towns and villages were burnt, farms ransacked. It was a cruel guerrilla war, of ferocious cross-border raids: Bruce’s commanders used the terrain of lonely valleys, dense woods and empty moorland to terrifying effect. They burnt and plundered, swelling the stream of refugees south. Isabella found one of these refugees, a young boy whom she called Tomolinus. The Queen, ‘being moved to charity by his miseries gave him food and raiment and sent him to live in London with Agnes the wife of Jean, one of the Queen’s musicians, providing money for both doctors and teachers.’
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