by Alison Weir
This was outrageous, and Deydras was put on trial for inciting sedition. At length, he admitted that he was an imposter but that he had been put up to it by the Devil appearing to him in the form of a cat. But that did not save him from the gallows, nor from the fire that afterward consumed his body. His cat was put to death in the same way.
And that, as far as the King was concerned, was an end to the matter. But the rumor that he was a changeling had “run through all the land,” and Isabella had been “troubled beyond measure” by it.176 Emotionally vulnerable after childbirth, she was evidently profoundly humiliated and unsettled by Deydras’s very public claims; there is no evidence, however, that she ever thought there was any truth in them.
Even though he was now more or less politically isolated, Lancaster was again making difficulties, insisting on the removal of the new favorites, who he warned were “worse than Gaveston”; naturally, he saw d’Amory and his colleagues as a dangerous threat to his position. But the King refused to send them away, and Parliament spent much of its time negotiating with Lancaster, sending emissaries as if he were the actual sovereign. On 29 July, a second delegation returned from the Earl, having made encouraging progress, at which point the Queen herself joined Pembroke and Hereford and the bishops in seeking a peace.
Did Isabella, at this juncture, visit Lancaster to make a personal plea for his cooperation? In the records of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Public Record Office, there are three references to preparations for the Queen’s visit to the Earl at Pontefract. They belong to 1319 but are undated. Lancaster went to considerable trouble to receive Isabella with due state: hangings were put up in the hall, streamers were attached to the instruments of his trumpeters, and four men spent six days making trestles and benches for the hall,177 which suggests that the Queen was bringing a large retinue with her. However, there is no record of the visit ever taking place.
Whether it did or not, as a result of the Queen’s intervention, a third embassy was sent to Lancaster on 1 August. Isabella certainly played a vital part in bringing about the settlement embodied in the Treaty of Leake, which was signed on 9 August 1318;178 Trevet attests that she had vigorously orchestrated the concord for the purpose of making peace. No doubt she also had in mind her own financial interests.
The treaty bound Edward to observe the Ordinances and dismiss his favorites but released him from his odious tutelage to Lancaster, who had been bribed into standing down from his position of power; instead, however, the King would have to obey the will of a council of masters under Pembroke rather than just one. But Pembroke was a fair man, and some of his associates were loyal to Edward. The King, however, was still determined to shake off all restraints on his royal authority and was by now a past master at playing one man off against another. As his wife, Isabella must have been aware of the King’s true feelings and intentions.
Five days after the treaty was signed, Edward met Lancaster on a bridge over the River Soar near Loughborough and went through the charade of giving his cousin the kiss of peace, having granted him a full pardon for all the offenses he had committed against the peace of the realm; this effectively brought to an end the Earl’s private war with Surrey. Notwithstanding Lancaster’s humiliation, Edward was still utterly determined to be revenged on him for Gaveston’s death but had probably reasoned, like him, that a peaceful settlement with the moderates was the best way forward, considering how weak his position was.
Edward took up residence at York on 28 September and stayed there until November. Isabella was staying in the vicinity and made two visits to Beverley Minster, on 8 and 18 October.179 Soon afterward, there arrived the welcome news of the death of Edward Bruce at the Battle of Faughart, near Dundalk. By the end of the year, the Scots had left Ireland for good, and the Irish crisis was at an end.
When Parliament met at York on 28 October, it endorsed the Treaty of Leake and set up a standing council of seventeen headed by Pembroke. In recognition of his great achievements in Ireland, Mortimer, who was back at court by this time, was nominated to be a member, as was the Elder Despenser, who was now allowed to return to the King’s service, despite having stood alone against the Treaty of Leake. The King had agreed not to act without this council’s consent, and Mortimer was among those who stood surety for him. Mortimer was also chosen to sit on a commission set up by Parliament to reform the King’s household;180 these are the first instances of his acting against Edward, and they indicate that he had now allied himself with Pembroke’s party.
Hugh le Despenser the Younger was also appointed to the permanent council, Parliament being under the impression that he, too, was with Pembroke. Parliament approved the recent appointment of the Younger Despenser as chamberlain of the King’s household. But Despenser’s allegiance was no longer to be counted upon, for with d’Amory out of the way, the younger Hugh rapidly took his place in the King’s confidence and affections. Despenser’s preferment to the influential post of chamberlain marks the beginning of his notorious reign as royal favorite, while a succession of grants tracks the growth of the King’s regard for him. As a man of far greater ability than Gaveston, the grasping and politically ambitious Despenser was to prove a more dangerous favorite in every way, and a far worse threat to the barons, who would come in time to fear him.
As chamberlain, Despenser had the final say on who gained access to his royal master and consequently controlled patronage. Thus, he was easily able to wield power and command huge bribes. Soon, he was suspected of subverting every other influence on the King, including Pembroke’s, and it was whispered that he led Edward “like a cat after a straw.”181 At this stage, however, there is no evidence that Isabella regarded Despenser as a rival, nor that there was tension or friction between them, although Isabella surely cannot have welcomed Hugh’s growing ascendancy over her husband. Even if the Queen did not realize it, Despenser, by virtue of his unique position, was already a threat to her position and her influence.
Although Froissart baldly states that Despenser “was a sodomite, even, it was said, with the King,” there is very little other direct evidence that Edward’s relationship with Hugh was of a homosexual nature. Nevertheless, circumstantial evidence makes it likely. Otherwise, Despenser could hardly have exercised such a mesmeric influence over Edward. And in 1321, Pembroke was to warn the King that “he perishes on the rocks that loves another more than himself.” He was certainly not referring to Edward’s love for Isabella.
Like his son, the Elder Despenser profited greatly by his son’s rise and came to enjoy greater political power than ever. Together, with the son as the driving force, the Despensers gradually gained a dominant hold upon the King. They hired and fired household officials as they pleased, and their rapaciousness soon became legendary. Let a man displease them or own something they coveted, and he might find himself in prison or dispossessed.
The York Parliament also dealt with the contentious issue of the resumption of royal grants, but Lancaster’s original comprehensive demands were sidestepped, and in the end, only one yeoman of the Queen’s household had his grant cut. Lancaster’s sole contribution in Parliament was to insist that, as hereditary Steward of England, he had the right to nominate a new steward of the household to replace William de Montacute, who had been given a post in Gascony; but, demonstrating how far the mighty Earl had fallen, Parliament disagreed and, to Lancaster’s fury, approved the King’s appointment of Badlesmere, who had once been Lancaster’s partisan; thereafter, there was bad blood between Lancaster and Badlesmere.182
Civil war had been averted, and the Treaty of Leake had heralded a fragile peace that was to last for the next two years. The King and Queen stayed on in the North through November 1318, and it was now that a reenergized Edward resolved to recover Berwick and began making plans to launch an all-out attack on the Scots the following June. Then the royal pair returned south, spending Christmas at Baldock in Hertfordshire.
On Twelfth Night, 6 January, the King and Queen d
istributed lavish gifts, which they could ill afford, and presided over the revelry at court. Edward generously presented a silver-gilt ewer with stand and cover to the courtier who was lucky enough to be “King of the Bean” for the evening; his role was similar to that of the Lord of Misrule, except that he held sway only on Twelfth Night.
Edward returned to York in January 1319, leaving the Earl of Norfolk as Keeper of the Realm. Isabella was in York by March, as was Despenser’s wife, Eleanor de Clare, who had been summoned by Edward to wait on her.183 Roger Mortimer, who had spent Christmas at Wigmore, also joined the court at York. On 15 March, the King appointed Mortimer Justiciar of Ireland; he would go there in June to keep order.
It was probably during her journey north that Isabella helped to end a dispute between the Abbot and townsfolk of Peterborough over who should meet the cost of repairing the town’s bridge. When word was sent in the King’s name that the Queen and her younger son, Prince John, would be coming to stay at the Abbey, the Abbot hastened to repair the bridge, ready for the royal visit. Then he was put to the further expense of presenting the Queen with a gift of £20 and outlaying another £400 for more presents and for entertainments during her visit.
Isabella spent most of the year in York and, according to Robert of Reading, gave birth to a daughter, Joan, while she was there. It has usually been assumed that this chronicler made an error and was in fact referring to the daughter of the same name whom the Queen bore in 1321; yet it is just possible that she did indeed bear a child, another Joan, in 1319, and that the infant died young. Nevertheless, no other chronicler mentions this second Joan.
Since 1317, Isabella had been urging Edward to address problems in her county of Ponthieu, where a French royalist party in Abbeville was steadily undermining English authority and threatening to turn the fief over to Philip V.184 But the King had had other, more pressing, concerns on his mind, and he had also neglected affairs in Gascony, which had earned him the censure of the Pope and the French King.185
Apart from needing to sort out these problems, there was another reason why it was politic for Edward to go to France. It was customary for each new king to receive the homage of all his vassals for the lands they held of him, and for some time now, Philip V had been pressing Edward II to come to France to perform this feudal duty in respect of Gascony, Ponthieu, and Montreuil. It was also customary for English kings to resist such demands for as long as possible, since they regarded the act of homage to be incompatible with their royal dignity. Before, Edward had been able to plead the unrest in his kingdom as being responsible for the delay, but there was now no reason why he should not go to France in the near future and every reason why he needed Philip’s goodwill; so in May 1319, he reluctantly sent Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, to the French court to make the necessary arrangements.
Stapledon was also to make a detour to Hainault to inspect one of the Count’s daughters, who had been suggested as a possible bride for Prince Edward. The Count, William V, was married to Isabella’s cousin Jeanne, the daughter of Charles of Valois, and they had five girls, Sybella, Margaret, Philippa, Jeanne, and Isabella. Stapledon’s description of the princess selected still survives but does not mention her name; it is likely that she was the eldest, Sybella, who died soon afterward, which was probably why the negotiations proceeded no further. Some historians suggest that it was Philippa who was described, but it is hardly credible that the third daughter would take precedence before the first and second.
Parliament met at York on 6 May. Isabella was probably present with the King. The time for the muster was now drawing near, but it was postponed until 22 July. The King left York on 14 July and in August met up with Pembroke, Surrey, Hereford, Arundel, Despenser, Lancaster, and Lancaster’s brother Henry at Newcastle, where eight thousand men were waiting for him. Then he led them north and, on 7 September, laid siege to Berwick. Although Lancaster was cooperating with the King in this venture, his support was halfhearted at best—it was commented on that none of his men attempted to scale the walls—and an angry Edward was still bent on destroying him; during the siege, he told the Despensers, “When this wretched business is over, we will turn our hands to other matters. For I have not yet forgotten the wrong that was done to my brother Piers.”186
Isabella, meanwhile, was staying with her children in “a little rural dwelling near York,”187 possibly at Brotherton, or at the Archbishop of York’s palace at Bishopsthorpe; as both of these houses were more than a hundred miles from the siege, she must have reasoned that she would be safe. But while Edward was at Berwick, the Scots were raiding the north of England with impunity, and the legendary Black Douglas188 had penetrated as far as Yorkshire with ten thousand men, having conceived the daring plan of kidnapping the Queen of England and holding her to ransom. “Had the Queen at that time been captured, I believe that Scotland would have bought peace for herself,” observed the author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi. Indeed, with Isabella held hostage, King Edward would have little choice but to acknowledge Bruce as King of Scots; in fact, he would have had to agree to everything Bruce demanded.
“Douglas marched into England with great secrecy and nearly arrived at the village where Queen Isabella and her children resided.” But by great good chance, one of his scouts fell into the hands of William Melton, the saintly Archbishop of York. Threatened with torture, “the man promised him, if they would spare him, to confess the great danger their Queen was in.” Melton and his colleagues “laughed his intelligence to scorn, until he staked his life that, if they sent scouts in the direction he pointed out, they would find Douglas and his host within a few hours’ march of the Queen’s retreat. Alarmed by the proofs given by the man,” the Archbishop and John Hotham, the Bishop of Ely, “went forth from the city with their usual retinues and the sheriffs and the burgesses and their followers, the monks and canons and other regulars, as well as anyone else who could handle a weapon.” They “marched on a sudden to the Queen’s residence with the tidings of her great danger, and brought her back to the city. Thence, for her greater security, she was taken by water to Nottingham,”189 where she probably sought refuge in the castle.
Then Melton hurriedly gathered together an army of monks and old men and bravely marched to confront the Black Douglas. But they were no match for the Scots and, on 12 September, were savagely defeated at the Battle of Myton-in-Swaledale; because so many clergy were slaughtered, this battle became known as the Chapter of Myton.190
If the plot to abduct Isabella was a decoying tactic, it worked, because on 17 September, once news reached the King of how narrowly she had escaped capture, he abandoned the siege of Berwick and hurried back to York, just as the victorious Scots were making their way home unopposed through Lancaster’s lands and then north via Westmorland, burning the harvest as they went.191 On 22 December, Edward had no choice but to make a two-year truce with Bruce.192 By now, his reputation was in the dust, and from this time forward, according to Robert of Reading, his infamy began to be notorious, not to mention his torpor, his cowardice, and his indifference to his crown and his realm. Again, there was popular speculation that he was a changeling.
The failure of the Scottish campaign led to further bad feeling and angry accusations. The jealous barons pointed the finger at the Younger Despenser as the man who had betrayed the Queen—which is perhaps indicative of ill feeling on his part toward her—but “in his defence,” he and his father blamed Lancaster, alleging that Bruce had bribed the Earl to create a diversion by threatening Isabella, a charge that was believed by many.193 There was no escaping the fact that someone with knowledge of the whereabouts of the King and Queen had passed that information to the Scots. It is hard to see what motive Lancaster or Despenser could have had in sabotaging the siege; nor did Isabella ever accuse Despenser of doing so, even when, later, she had good cause and opportunity. As for Lancaster, “rumour alone was active, and there was no evident crime.”194
Furthermore, there is evidence that t
he real culprit was possibly Sir Edmund Darel, “a certain soldier of the King’s chamber,” who is named as the traitor by both Robert of Reading and the Annales Paulini.195 Darel was a Yorkshire knight who had been in the service of the Percies, and a known opponent of the King. In 1313, he had been arrested as an accessory to Gaveston’s murder; in 1322, he would again be apprehended for taking up arms against the King and spend two years in the Tower as punishment.196 Darel may have been prompted by financial hardship to pass his information to the Scots. We know that he had raided and looted his neighbor’s property, which suggests he had fallen on hard times; moreover, there was talk that the Scots had paid large bribes for information leading to the kidnapping of the Queen.197 The Annales Paulini state that, back in May, while Parliament was sitting at York, Darel had been arrested for betraying the Queen, but that he had been released for lack of evidence. The King, however, had dismissed him from his service.198 This suggests that the plot to capture Isabella had been conceived months earlier and that, angry at his dismissal and still badly in need of money, Darel made a second attempt in September.
Edward spent Christmas that year at York, having invited the scholars of King’s Hall to join him. Isabella had rejoined Edward at York by 1 January 1320, for on that day, he gave her expensive gifts, including jewelry.199 Edward had now finally arranged to go to France to pay homage to Philip V, and the Queen was no doubt looking forward to their trip, for which preparations began early in the New Year;200 it was six years since she had visited her homeland.
Lancaster now capitalized on Edward’s unimpressive showing at Berwick. When Parliament met at York on 20 January, he refused to attend on the grounds that “the King and his associates were suspect by him, and he had openly proclaimed them his enemies.”201 There can be little doubt that he was referring to the Despensers.