Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II (7 page)

Even so, Isabella and Edward were themselves refugees in a hostile country, devoid of any baggage train and unable to call up sufficient troops. The King could do little to save his favourite. The barons followed them in hot pursuit and besieged Scarborough Castle. Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, gave every assurance that if Gaveston surrendered, he would be well looked after. Edward was unable to send help and the besieged favourite was now running short of food and supplies. On 19 May 1312, Gaveston surrendered. The King was beside himself, offering a thousand pounds for his favourite’s safety whilst despatching the most begging letters to the Pope and Philip IV, asking for their help.

Gaveston was supposed to be taken to the King. On 9 June Pembroke reached Deddington in Oxfordshire and left Gaveston in a rector’s house whilst he went to visit his wife and family. Historians have debated whether
Pembroke was simply naive or treacherous. The fact remained that Gaveston was now unprotected, and the Earl of Warwick arrived at Deddington only too pleased to seize the man who’d called him ‘The Black Dog of Arden’. Pembroke acted the role of the injured innocent. ‘The Black Dog’, however, summoned the other great earls to his castle at Warwick and decisions were made. Gaveston, stripped of his finery, was put on trial before hastily assembled royal justices and condemned to death as a traitor. On 19 June he was taken from Warwick and moved into Thomas of Lancaster’s territory. Gaveston, knowing he was to die, jokingly asked that, ‘because of his good looks his head not be cut off’. The barons handed their prisoner to a group of Welshmen, who took him some distance away to Blacklow Hill in Warwickshire. One ran him through the heart with his dagger, the other cut off his head, which was despatched to Lancaster to confirm that his mortal enemy was dead.

Edward’s grief was immeasurable, though all the chroniclers claim he dissimulated well. Nevertheless, the die was cast. From that day on, whatever peace treaties were made, whatever pardons were issued, the King and his earls were mortal enemies. The country teetered on the brink of civil war. Edward wrote more begging letters, demanding papal and French help. Philip IV truly believed the time had come to intervene. His daughter Isabella was now expecting a possible heir, whilst her husband was pleading for his help. French lawyers were despatched to England to mediate. A peace treaty was arranged but these were mere words, as one chronicler reported: ‘Because of Gaveston’s death, there rose a mortal and long lasting hatred of the King for his earls.’ Isabella herself might have been secretly
relieved: she was pregnant, being shown every favour by her husband, while the royal favourite had been removed with no blame to herself. The bond between King and Queen seemed strong.
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In the summer of 1312 Isabella moved from York to Westminster and on to Windsor for the royal lying-in. Her delivery was overdue and Edward and his court moved backwards and forwards to Windsor Castle in the weeks preceding the royal birth.
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On Monday, 13 November 1312, Edward’s patience was finally rewarded when two members of the Queen’s household, Jean Launge and his wife, informed him that Isabella had given birth to a healthy son. This was proclaimed to the waiting capital,
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and on 16 November 1312 the baby was christened in the royal chapel at Windsor. Present at the occasion was Cardinal Arnold, the papal legate and Isabella’s uncle, Louis of Evreux, who had arrived in England to help Edward in his difficulties, and Hugh de Spencer the Elder, representing the family who would soon take the place of the dead Gaveston in the King’s affections.
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However, the birth of the royal child caused more friction. The French wanted the boy named Louis after Philip IV’s grandfather, but the English earls objected. Edward conceded to his barons and England was deprived of ever having a king called Louis I.
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The barons protested stridently at the influence of France and their objections demonstrate how vulnerable Edward had made himself. During the Gaveston crisis, the King had attracted little military support but Philip of France was a different matter: the French had intervened in earlier English civil wars and could do so again.

During the Christmas festivities of 1312 the French
envoys clashed with leaders of the baronial opposition: harsh words were exchanged, but peace was maintained.
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London had been waiting to celebrate the royal birth and, at the end of January 1313, when she was strong enough, Isabella solemnly processed through the city. The London guilds staged a magnificent celebration in her honour, the climax being a glorious pageant by the powerful Fishmongers’ Guild, who accompanied the Queen from Westminster to the royal palace at Eltham.
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Edward II had gained an heir, but his problems still remained and he needed all the help he could get, if not at home then from abroad. He now began to act as if the French King was his overlord and master. In spite of the objections of his barons, Edward agreed to take his wife and heir to Paris. They left England on 23 May 1313 and reached the capital at the beginning of June. There were many things to discuss: Gascony, French interference in Scotland and Philip’s assistance against Edward’s opponents in England. There were also the Templars. This once-powerful fighting Order, under its Grand Master Jacques de Molay, was now ruined, its possessions and treasures seized. Many of its leading officers had either been barbarously executed or disappeared into the dungeons of Philip’s castles up and down the country. Pope Clement V, sheltering in Avignon, had been bullied into accepting Philip’s series of despicable allegations against the Templar Order and ordered their dissolution in a Bull,
Vox in Excelso.
Edward, to his eternal shame, had also seized Templar lands in England, and those knights who did not escape were committed to prison. Nothing was said about his earlier defence of this distinguished order.
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Philip relished his new-found power, and prepared a
series of ostentatious banquets and pageants for Edward’s benefit. Both Kings, conscious that the suppression of the Templars would leave a gap in the great crusading movement, took solemn oaths that they would pursue a joint crusade against the Turks.
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Isabella, too, was involved in this: she also took the cross, vowing to accompany her husband if he left for Palestine.
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Once the flowery declarations and empty promises had been made, Philip and Edward moved to Pontoise where the French King could continue his display of glory. A set of six gorgeous miniatures, still kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, commemorate Edward’s visit. In these paintings the French King is the constant centre of attraction, always flanked by members of his own family. One miniature in particular has him seated in glory, attended by the English King, bound to him by kinship as well as gratitude for favours received.
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One incident marred this glorious pageant. The English court had followed Philip to Poissy, residing not in palaces but in specially erected silken pavilions set up for their comfort. Here an accident occurred when the English royal tent caught fire and was burnt down. Edward escaped unscathed but Isabella, probably trying to rescue some possessions, had her hand badly burnt. For months afterwards physicians were tending to it with rose water, olive oil and lead plasters.
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By July 1313 the King and Queen were back in England, armed with French support and lawyers to combat the demands of the barons. However, Edward was personally more concerned with the corpse of his dead favourite, which the barons had at last released for burial. The King had it carefully embalmed at his favourite manor of Kings Langley in Hertfordshire and then moved to
the Dominican House in Oxford. It lay above ground for two more years until Edward, due to pressure from the Church, reluctantly agreed to have the corpse of Gaveston interred.
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The injury to the Queen’s hand still affected her and she remained at Westminster until after Christmas before travelling to Canterbury in January 1314 to give thanks for the safe birth of her son and recovery from her injuries. She also attended the consecration of her husband’s friend and acting companion, Walter Reynolds, as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Afterwards the Queen prepared to return to France to continue negotiations. The Italian financier, Pessagno, hired a splendid ship from Sandwich for the Queen’s crossing together with twenty-six cogs (a merchant ship which could be converted to a war ship) and thirteen barges for the rest of her household and escort. The Treasury was equally generous, releasing almost
£
5000 to cover the Queen’s expenses abroad.
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Isabella was now being used by her husband to reach a final
rapprochement
with Philip IV. She achieved considerable success in Paris but her visit led to the uncovering of a great scandal. During the festivities around the Île de France, Isabella noticed that three silken purses she had given to her sisters-in-law after the knighting of her brothers on her previous visit, were now being worn by three knights of the French court.

The rest of Paris, meanwhile, was distracted by other occurrences. During the spring of 1314, the same time Isabella arrived in the capital, Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the disgraced Templar Order, had been displayed on a public scaffold to recant his wrongs and seek the absolution of Philip IV. As matters turned out, de Molay
used the occasion to loudly proclaim and protest his innocence and that of his Order. De Molay stridently condemned the Pope, Philip IV and other western princes for their greed and rapacity. He made this statement on 14 March together with Geoffrey de Charnay, both men proclaiming their defiance for all of Europe to witness. The following day, 15 March 1314, de Molay and de Charnay were burnt to death over a slow-burning charcoal fire on an island in the river Seine. According to one report, de Molay continued screaming from the flames. He summoned Philip and Clement to appear with him before God’s tribunal within the year and cursed Philip’s family to the thirteenth generation.
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Historians have been quick to point out that de Molay’s curse did, indeed, become reality: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their young son spent their last days during the French Revolution in the ancient fortress once owned by the Templars. But, de Molay’s curse took effect more speedily: within the year both Philip IV and Pope Clement V were dead and, in the very month de Molay died, Isabella reduced her father’s carefully constructed diplomatic triumphs to ashes.

The scandal began with the purses. Isabella was intrigued and informed her father. Her household expenses mention ten torch-bearers who took her by night to Philip’s quarters in the royal palace to consult with the King.
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Philip ordered the matter to be carefully investigated and the three knights were watched and followed. In fact, they were regularly meeting all three of Philip’s daughters-in-law at a palace, the Tour de Nesle, on the outskirts of Paris. There they would feast and dine, turning these nights into one long orgy. Philip was aghast. A secret court was convened. The three women confessed to their adultery and were
sentenced to life imprisonment, being virtually walled up in different establishments throughout France. The three knights faced a more barbaric fate. One of them fled to England but was swiftly extradited and joined his two friends at Montfaucon, the bloody execution yard in Paris, where they were strapped to huge wheels which were spun while their limbs were shattered with iron bars.
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The Templars had their vengeance. A year earlier Philip had portrayed himself as master of Europe. Now his three sons were publicly proclaimed as cuckolds and their lives ruined. There is considerable evidence that the scandal soured relations between England and France, while Isabella was viewed as a
persona non grata
by the French court.

On her return to England, however, Isabella had to face a greater crisis. Edward II had left for the north, intent once more on crushing the Scots. An uneasy peace had been negotiated between Edward and his barons, with the exception of Thomas of Lancaster, and plans drawn up for an all-out invasion of Scotland. Many English lords, who owned estates there, buried their differences to face the common enemy. Writs were issued, troops raised and the English army crossed the border, threatening bloody retribution. The campaign ended in the greatest military disaster England ever suffered in Scotland. On 24 June 1314, Bruce and his army met the English invaders at Bannockburn and inflicted a devastating defeat. The Earl of Gloucester was killed, thousands perished in the battle and many were taken prisoner. Edward himself, although he fought bravely, had to be dragged from the battlefield, losing his own seals as well as his honour. Isabella was waiting for him at Berwick where she did what she
could for both her husband and other casualties. She attended to her husband’s wounds, even cleaning his armour; she also loaned him the use of her own seals to authorize documents, then accompanied him south to attend Parliaments held at York and Westminster.
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Isabella continued to do her best to support her husband during the traumatic period following Bannock-burn. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who had sulked in his tent like Achilles during the Scottish campaign, now emerged as an alternative ruler in England and seized the reins of power. Isabella, like Edward, was subjected to Lancaster’s strictures and dislike and grants to her dried up. The Earl again attacked the Beaumont family, who were driven from her household. Isabella did not retaliate but over the next two years, 1314–16, stayed with her husband until her lying-in for the birth of her second son John, who was born at Eltham on 15 August 1316 and baptized some five days later.
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Edward was ecstatic, and his delight was expressed in generous grants of land to Isabella, including the county of Cornwall and treasure from his Lombard bankers, the Bardi.
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