by Alison Weir
To the Queen.
Lady [he wrote], oftentimes we have sent to you, both before and after the homage, of our great desire to have you with us, and of our great grief of heart at your long absence; and, as we understand that you do us great mischief by this, we will that you come to us with all speed and without further excuses. Before the homage was performed, you made the advancement of that business an excuse, and now that we have sent, by the honourable father the Bishop of Winchester, our safe conduct to you, you will not come for the fear and doubt of Hugh le Despenser. Whereat we cannot marvel too much, when we recall your flattering deportment towards each other in our presence, so amicable and sweet was your manner, with special assurances and looks, and other tokens of the firmest friendship, and also, since then, your very especial letters to him of late date, which he has shown to us.
In his next sentence, Edward demonstrates that he was a liar of the first order or capable of the greatest self-deception or perhaps extraordinarily stupid.
And certes, Lady, we know for truth, and so know you, that he has always procured from us all the honour he could for you, nor to you hath either evil or villainy been done since you entered into our companionship; unless, peradventure, as you may yourself remember, once when we had cause to give you secretly some words of reproof for your pride, but without other harshness. And doubtless both God and the law of Holy Church require you, both for your honour and ours, for nothing earthly to trespass against our commandments, or to forsake our company.
As a woman subject to her husband, Isabella was in an impossible situation. If she obeyed his commands and returned to him, having declared her hatred of Despenser, she would almost certainly be placing herself in danger. Yet if she defied her lord and stayed where she was, she ran the risk of incurring the censure of the Church and society in general. Edward was clearly aware of this, yet he was too blind to see that most people regarded his wife as more sinned against than sinning, even in detaining their son. Only able to see that he was a wronged husband, and believing that the sympathies of many were with him rather than his wife, he had no compunction about occupying the high moral ground. He went on:
And we are much displeased, now the homage has been made to our dearest brother, the King of France, and we have such fair prospect of amity, that you, whom we sent to make the peace, should be the cause (which God forfend!) of increasing the breach between us, especially by things which are feigned and contrary to the truth.
Edward did not pause to ask himself why Isabella should feign hatred for Despenser. It was plain to most people that she had enough cause to hate him, and it was not in her interests to foment trouble with the French. Had she not been given extreme provocation, she would have had no reason to seek her brother’s support, nor to remain in France. But the King chose to make out that, for unfathomable reasons of her own, she was deliberately creating a breach between the two countries. He concluded:
Wherefore we charge you as urgently as we can that, ceasing from all pretences, delays and false excuses, you come to us with all the haste you can. Our said Bishop [Stratford] has reported to us that our brother the King told you in his presence that, by the tenor of your safe-conduct, you would not be delayed or molested in coming to us as a wife should to her lord. And as to your expenses, when it shall be that you will come to us as a wife should to her lord, we will provide that there shall be no deficiency in aught that is pertaining to you, and that you be not in any way dishonoured by us. Also, we require of you to suffer and cause our dear son Edward to return to us with all possible speed, as we have ordered him, and that you in no way let [prevent] him. For we much desire to see him and to speak with him.93
That same day, the King wrote also to Charles IV, attempting to sweeten him with falsehoods:
We have received and understood your letters, delivered by the Bishop of Winchester, and have also understood what the Bishop has told us by word of mouth.
It seems that you have been told, dearest brother, by persons whom you consider worthy of credit, that our companion, the Queen of England, dare not return to us, being in peril of her life, as she apprehends, from Hugh le Despenser. Certes, dearest brother, it cannot be that she can have fear of him or any other man in our realm, since, by God, if either Hugh or any other living being in our dominions sought to do her ill, and it came to our knowledge, we would chastise him in a manner that should be an example to all others. And this is, and always will be, our entire will, as long as, by God’s mercy, we have the power. And, dearest brother, know certainly that we have never perceived that he has either secretly or openly, by word, look or action, demeaned himself otherwise than he ought in all points to do to so very dear a lady. And when we remember the amiable looks and words between them that we have seen, and the great friendship that she professed for him on her crossing the sea, and the loving letters which she has lately sent him, which he has shown to us, we have no power to believe that our consort can, of herself, credit such things of him; we cannot in any way believe it of him, who, after our own person, is the man of all our realm who would most wish to do her honour, and has always shown good sincerity to you. We pray you, dearest brother, not to give credence to any one who would make you otherwise suppose, but to put your faith in those who have always borne true witness to you in other things, and who have the best reason to know the truth of this matter.
Wherefore we beseech you, dearest brother, both for you honour and ours, but more especially for that of our said consort, that you would compel her to return to us with all speed; for certes, we have been ill at ease for want of her company, in which we have much delight; which truly we would have in no wise suffered, but for the great trust which we had that she should return at our will. And if our surety and safe conduct is not enough, then let her come to us on the pledge of your good faith for us.
We also entreat you, dearly beloved brother, that you would be pleased to deliver up to us Edward, our beloved eldest son, your nephew; and that, of your love and affection to him, you would render to him the lands of the duchy, that he be not disinherited, which we cannot suppose you wish. Dearly beloved brother, we pray you to suffer him to come to us with all speed, for we have often sent for him, and we greatly wish to see him and to speak with him, and every day we long for his return.
And, dearest brother, at this time, the honourable father in God, Walter [Stapledon], Bishop of Exeter, has returned to us, having certified to us that his person was in peril from some of our banished enemies; and we, having great need of his counsel, enjoined him on his faith and allegiance to return forthwith, leaving all other matters in the best way he could. We pray you, therefore, to excuse the sudden departure of the said Bishop, for the cause before said.
Given at Westminster, the first day of December.94
It is noticeable that Edward does not categorically deny that Despenser has treated Isabella badly, only that he himself has never perceived that he has, or could not believe it, or that, if Despenser did do her ill, he would be punished. There is too much repetition and emphasis in this letter, too much protest. The King’s plea to Charles to be mindful of Isabella’s honor shows that he knew already that her reputation was at stake. Medieval society frowned upon women who dared to desert their husbands, however provoked they had been; a wife was her husband’s property, and his honor was vested in her. Public opinion and the law would almost always be on his side, especially when that wife had also deprived her husband of his son and heir; and how much more opprobrious would such conduct be when her husband was also her king? But Edward grossly underestimated the extent of public sympathy for Isabella.
On 2 December, Edward sent a third letter, this time to his son. In it, he shows that he was aware of the wider implications of the boy’s being in his mother’s hands and the danger to himself from any alliance she might make.
Very dear son, as you are young and of tender age, we would remind you of that which we charged and commanded you when you left us a
t Dover, and you answered then, as we know, with good will, that you would not trespass or disobey any of our injunctions in any point for anyone. And since that your homage has been received by our dearest brother, the King of France, your uncle, be pleased to take your leave of him and return to us with all speed, in company with your mother, if so be that she come quickly; and if she will not come, then come you without further delay, for we have great desire to speak with you; therefore stay not for your mother, nor anyone else, on our blessing.
Given at Westminster, the 2nd day of December.95
For Isabella, Edward’s letters only confirmed what she had long believed, that he was deaf to her complaints and resolved only to put Despenser’s interests first. The young Prince found himself placed in an impossible position, torn between his duty to his father and sovereign, and his obedience to his mother, that wounded figure in mourning. It is clear that he loved both his parents, but he was only thirteen; how could he defy his mother when he was in her custody in a foreign kingdom where her brother ruled? All he could do was reply to his father that, yes, he did remember the promises he had made at Dover, but he could not return home because of his mother and felt he should stay with her on account of her great unease of mind and unhappiness. Isabella herself, however, assured her husband that, if the Prince wished to return, she would not prevent it.96 But of course, she did her best not to encourage it.
Charles IV discussed the contents of Edward’s letters with Isabella, who asked him to reply to her husband that she did desire to be with him as a wife ought to be; indeed, “she could wish for nothing better than to live and die in the company of her dear lord” and would be with him but for her fear of Despenser. She also asked Charles to explain why she had feigned friendship with Despenser.97
Aware now of what Stapledon had told Edward, Isabella wasted no time in embarking on what appears to have been a damage-limitation exercise with a view to blaming Stapledon’s actions on Despenser and thus deflecting scrutiny from her own supporters; on 8 December, she wrote reprovingly to the Bishop:
We have understood what you have told us by your letters and your excuses for leaving us in the way you did. Know that, since our very dear lord, the King of England, sent you with Edward our son into the regions of France, and we promised faithfully to keep you from harm and to take good and safe care of you; and our said lord the King commanded you to make a money loan for the expenses of our household, but—as we understand it—you have done nothing. And we forbade you to leave without our permission, and you gave us to understand that you had orders by letter from our very dear lord the King to leave, but you have never been able to show his letters to this effect, as it appears to us, and we are certain of it.
In spite of our very dear lord and brother [Charles IV] and ourselves, in disobedience, and despite our prohibition, and to the great dishonour of our said lord of England and ourselves, and to the advantage of Hugh le Despenser, you left us in an ill-intentioned way, so that we can see clearly that you are in league with the said Hugh, and more obedient towards him than towards us. We would therefore have you know that we do not consider you in any way excusable, though this is what it is our duty to do.
Given at Paris on 8 December.98
It was probably at this point that Roger Mortimer came back into Isabella’s life.
The Queen’s uncle, Charles, Count of Valois, had recently died, and in December, his relatives gathered in Paris for his funeral. His daughter Jeanne, Countess of Hainault, had traveled from the Low Countries to be there.99 During her visit, she met with Isabella and Charles IV for talks, and they doubtless discussed the poor relations between England and Hainault, the abortive negotiations for Prince Edward to marry one of Jeanne’s daughters, Count William’s anxiety to have the maritime dispute with England resolved, and the potential for an alliance between the two countries. Doherty plausibly suggests that Jeanne came armed with the firm offer of an alliance with Isabella: the terms were the amicable resolution of the dispute and the marriage of her son to a princess of Hainault, in return for aid from the Count.100
Jeanne probably brought with her in her train Roger Mortimer, who was certainly in Paris that December. For more than a year now, he had been in Hainault endeavoring, with the Count’s full approval, to raise troops for an invasion of England, and it would not be surprising if Jeanne had contrived a meeting between him and Isabella, now that Isabella was known to be in open opposition to the Despensers. Before this date, there is no record of Mortimer’s being in France at the same time as Isabella, so it is unlikely that he was the third party referred to by Edward II the previous November.
The likeliest scenario is that, urged on by Charles, Mortimer, Jeanne, and her own supporters, Isabella accepted in principle the offer of an alliance with Hainault. Because of the war over Gascony, Charles was reluctant to provide Isabella with an army, and she herself must long since have realized that invading England with French backing would not help to win her popular support, France being regarded as England’s ancient enemy. But a pact with the increasingly prosperous county of Hainault would offer many trading advantages to the English.
Certainly, this alliance was being mooted in diplomatic circles as a very real possibility during the weeks that followed. Most historians assert that, until the autumn of 1326, Isabella’s aim was purely the removal of the Despensers, but her intention to form an alliance with Hainault in defiance of her husband’s expressed wishes is strong evidence that, fired up by the resolve of her allies, she was seriously contemplating the deposition of her husband in favor of her son. This, of course, was a momentous and controversial proposition, and in order to win and retain popular support, Isabella was prudently to keep up the pretense that her quarrel was with the Despensers only.
Whatever the Countess Jeanne’s role in bringing them together, Isabella and Mortimer certainly met in Paris that December, were attracted to each other, and plunged headlong into an adulterous affair101 that flouted every convention of the medieval Church and state and ultimately caused a scandal of epic proportions.
Adultery was normally regarded then as a necessary evil in men but as a vile sin in women, especially the wives of landed men, for it endangered dynastic bloodlines. When a woman was the Queen of England, therefore, it was an even more serious crime. Isabella could not have forgotten the cruel fates of her sisters-in-law but probably felt that they had not been as bitterly provoked as she had, nor as deserving of sympathy. And indeed, it is clear that many people were sympathetic toward her plight and were prepared to turn a blind eye to the adulterous nature of her relationship with Mortimer, as long as their alliance remained advantageous in other ways. Nowadays, of course, many people would applaud Isabella’s courage in breaking away from an unendurable marriage and would regard her liaison with Mortimer as an opportunity for self-fulfillment and the chance to take control of her own destiny. But we cannot apply modern values when judging the actions of one who lived seven hundred years ago. Isabella must have known that she risked incurring the condemnation of society at large and that a woman flouted the conventions of the age only at her peril.
Although Isabella and Mortimer patently did not flaunt their sexual relationship, it would soon become abundantly clear that they were locked in much more than a political alliance; although it was certainly that, too, for both were victims of the Despensers, and both were driven by their determination to be revenged upon them and their ambition to be restored to greatness.
The English chroniclers of the day are infuriatingly reticent in writing about the affair between Isabella and Mortimer, apart from their tacit acceptance that it existed. Baker, for example, says euphemistically that “at that time, Mortimer secretly came first in the private household of the Queen.” He and some continental chroniclers hint that Mortimer was not the only man to share Isabella’s bed in Paris, but this probably reflects merely malicious gossip; had she taken other lovers, someone would have found out, and it would have give
n rise to talk in diplomatic circles, as did this affair with Mortimer.
We are left, therefore, to speculate as to the nature of the personal relationship between Isabella and Mortimer. He appears to have been everything that Edward II was not: strong, manly, unequivocally heterosexual, virile, courageous, audacious, and decisive. It is easy to understand why Isabella was attracted to him and why, after surrendering herself to his embraces, she could feel nothing but profound revulsion for her husband.
Mortimer’s marriage had apparently been one of mutual interest, affection, and physical satisfaction,102 but he had been parted from his wife for nearly three years now. He may well have maneuvered himself, or been maneuvered, into Isabella’s orbit for political reasons, if indeed he had not been in secret communication with her and her friends in Paris for some time. She was beautiful, intelligent, and well born, and in her widow’s weeds, she presented a tragic figure. In forming an attachment to Isabella, Mortimer was certainly motivated in part by a lust for power, but the chance to seduce the wife of the King who had condemned him to a terrible punishment and forced him into exile must have been an irresistible form of vengeance and probably added piquancy to the affair. Furthermore, Mortimer apparently seized every opportunity to poison Isabella’s mind against Edward, and he probably had little difficulty in convincing her that, if she returned to her husband, “he [Edward] would kill her with a poignard or other weapon.” Thereafter, Isabella was resolved never again “to afford him her bed.”
For her part, Isabella, at twenty-eight, had probably suffered emotional and sexual frustration for years and was doubtless all too willing to succumb to this strong and virile adventurer, with whom she shared many bonds. He was in a unique position to understand her alienation and her fear of Despenser, and what was more, he was a powerful ally who was ready to protect her and take decisive action to rectify her situation.103 For Isabella, going to bed with Mortimer may well have been a means of getting back at Edward and his favorites. Thus, the affair may have been born partly out of a desire for revenge on both sides.