The Demon's Brood

by Desmond Seward

Encouraged, Edward summoned the Despensers home in December, dispatching troops to capture other baronial castles. Early in 1322 he took a small army to the Welsh border, where he routed the Marchers, seizing all their strongholds. Then he went up to northern England, to deal with Lancaster. He is often praised for the military ability he showed on the campaign, but it must have been supplied by an experienced commander at his side – the elder Despenser or John of Brittany.

  Lancaster found himself outmanoeuvred. Although joined by the Earl of Hereford, he was deserted by his henchmen and Pembroke. Retreating northwards with 700 men-at-arms, he hoped to find refuge in his castle at Dunstanburgh on the Northumbrian coast, but on 16 March was intercepted at Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire by Sir Andrew Harclay from Cumberland, who brought 4,000 pike-men and archers. Trying to cross the River Ure over the bridge, Hereford was killed – stabbed up the backside with a spear by a man standing below – while his comrades’ attempt to ford was repulsed by devastating arrow fire. In despair, Lancaster rode back to his lodgings in Boroughbridge, where he was arrested the next day.

  Less than a week later, after a trial before King Edward in the hall of his own castle of Pontefract, during which he was forbidden to speak in his defence, the earl was led out on a donkey to a little hill nearby and beheaded as a traitor. It was not only the memory of Piers’s murder that made Edward pitiless; he feared his cousin was planning to take his place. In view of the unholy regime that followed, many people venerated Lancaster as a martyr and the tomb of ‘St Thomas’ became a place of pilgrimage.

  The ‘Contrariants’, the earl’s leading supporters, were treated mercilessly, Badlesmere and twenty-eight knights suffering the full penalties for treason. Another eighty-six knights were imprisoned and over a hundred more received crippling fines. Two months later, a parliament repealed the Ordinances in the Statute of York, with a proviso that no restraints of this sort must ever again be placed on the king’s power. Ironically, the fact that the regime used parliament to do so demonstrated parliament’s increasing importance.

  The Despenser tyranny

  Despite the shameful defeat at Old Byland in August that year, the Despensers ruled the kingdom, since Edward confirmed all their decisions. Pembroke’s death in 1324 removed the one man who might have restrained them. ‘Weak as he had often been in action, doubtful as were some of his subtle changes of front, with him disappeared the best influence that had ever been exerted on the court and council of Edward II.’25 The elder Hugh was created Earl of Winchester, securing many estates confiscated in the Midlands and southern England.

  The Vita comments, ‘the son’s wickedness outweighed the father’s harshness’.26 The younger Hugh did as he pleased, knowing the king would back him. Creating a fiefdom for himself in south Wales and on the Marches that stretched from Milford Haven to Chepstow, as well as seizing the lands of his sisters-in-law, he bullied several wealthy widows into handing over their estates. A Glamorgan lady had her limbs broken, sending the poor woman insane, while Lancaster’s widow was threatened with burning alive as a husband murderer, on the pretext she must have led him astray.

  For a time, such methods worked. ‘No one, however great or wise, dares to go against what the king wants’, records the author of the Vita.27 By September 1324 the younger Hugh had deposited almost £6,000 with Florentine bankers and over the next two years nearly another £6,000 with the Peruzzi – billions in today’s money and only part of his wealth, which was mainly in land.

  Yet there were dangerous irreconcilables, such as Sir Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, an old enemy of the Despensers from the Welsh Marches who had been imprisoned in the Tower. In 1323, having drugged his guards’ wine, including that of the constable, with a potion supplied by his friend Bishop Orleton, he escaped up a chimney, over a roof and down the wall, using a series of ropes, before swimming the Thames. He then fled to France.

  Paradoxically, the Despensers’ rule saw administrative reforms since it suited them for Edward to be rich. They had started earlier in the reign to save the royal household from control by the Ordainers, and now the Exchequer and the household offices – the Wardrobe and the Chamber – became more efficient. In 1323 the treasurer, Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, introduced proper tax records. All this increased the Crown’s revenues. (One of the first Englishmen known to wear spectacles, Walter Stapledon was a complex figure, whom the Vita calls ‘immeasurably greedy’.28) Sound innovations took place at grass-roots level, sheriffs being recruited from the gentlemen of their county and holding office for only a limited period, while steps were taken to standardize weights and measures.29

  Isabella versus the Despensers

  Old Byland made it plain that the attempt to conquer Scotland had failed. Andrew Harclay, created Earl of Carlisle for defeating Lancaster at Boroughbridge, was so shaken that he negotiated a secret treaty, recognizing Bruce as King Robert in return for a guarantee that his estates would be spared by the Scots. Refusing to accept the war had been lost, Edward was so angry when he learned of Harclay’s treaty that he had him executed as a traitor.

  Even Londoners were alarmed by Old Byland, a delegation asking the constable of the Tower if he expected the city to be attacked by Scots. They were horrified by the perils of the queen, whom Edward had left at Tynemouth Priory on the Northumbrian coast. Taking refuge in the adjoining castle, she found herself besieged on land by Scots and from the sea by a Flemish fleet. Her husband sent letters to her but made no attempt at rescue. (The younger Despenser was later accused of telling him to let Isabella be captured.) Eventually, she escaped in a fast ship, although one of her ladies fell overboard.

  Nobody knows why the younger Hugh had such a hold over Edward. Writing half a century later, Froissart says the relationship was homosexual – Despenser had been ‘a sodomite, even with the king’30 – while nearer the time Robert of Reading refers to ‘illicit and sinful unions’, claiming that Edward refused to sleep with the queen.31 Yet Isabella bore him a daughter in 1321 and Hugh’s wife had one in 1319 and another in 1325, which added up to a total of nine Despenser children. As with Gaveston, Hugh’s fascination for the king is more likely to have stemmed from sheer force of personality.

  Robert of Reading’s ‘illicit and sinful unions’ could refer to women instead of a man. A Hainault chronicle says the king was having an affair with Hugh’s wife, Eleanor de Clare, but suggestions of a ‘wife-swap’ are unconvincing.32 A popular modern writer even claims that the queen was raped by Hugh, for which there is not the slightest shred of evidence.33 All that is certain is that in 1325 Isabella announced publicly that somebody had come between her and her husband.

  She had spent a year living apart from Edward after her escape from the Scots in 1322, the excuse being her desire to make several long pilgrimages. Returning to court the next autumn. she found the Despensers more firmly entrenched than ever, and still more hostile. Then the pair made a series of blunders that showed how much they underestimated her.

  The queen’s plot

  In October 1323 a Gascon noble burned to the ground a disputed bastide on the northern frontier of Guyenne. The English seneschal at Bordeaux was blamed, his refusal to appear before King Charles IV’s court at Toulouse resulting in the ‘War of Saint-Sardos’. In September 1324 a French army occupied the Agenais, declaring all Gascony forfeit under feudal law. Edward’s brother, the Earl of Kent, only obtained a six months’ truce by surrendering La Réole.

  The Despensers bore a grudge against King Charles for refusing to give them refuge in 1321 and sheltering fugitives such as Mortimer. At their prompting, as soon as the Agenais was occupied Edward confiscated Isabella’s estates, pretending she might be a threat during a French invasion – the real motive being that the Despensers coveted her lands. In November she was declared an enemy alien, her household being dissolved and its officials imprisoned in religious houses. Her children were placed in the care of Hugh Despenser’s wife – who may have been her husband’s mistress.


  It looked as if Edward was going to lose Guyenne. At the papal nuncio’s suggestion, he sent Isabella to plead with her brother, Charles IV, in March 1325. Told to return by midsummer, she was given back her household as a peace offering. Possessing her father King Philip’s sphinx-like quality, she deceived even the younger Hugh. ‘When she left, she said good bye to everyone and went off happily enough’, her husband later complained.34 The queen had reason to look pleased since events were playing into her hands, but for six months after her departure Edward and his favourites suspected nothing.

  Then the French king announced that Edward’s eldest son could pay homage in his place and keep the duchy. Reluctantly, the Despensers gave approval. The thirteen-year-old Prince Edward arrived in France, escorted by Bishop Stapledon, and did homage. With her son in her hands, Isabella decided to put him on the throne of England in place of her husband.

  Stapledon had brought a message from Edward, commanding her to return to England as soon as the prince reached the French court. Dressed in black like a widow, she gave an answer that frightened the bishop into fleeing back across the Channel. ‘In my opinion, marriage is a union of a man and a woman, loyally living their life together, and somebody has come between my husband and myself and is trying to break the bond’, she said. ‘I tell you, I shan’t return until this intruder has been removed and now I’ve taken off my wedding dress I shall go on dressing as a widow does when she’s in mourning until I’ve taken my revenge on such a Pharisee.’ King Charles, who was present, said, ‘If she wants to stay here, I won’t make her go – she’s my sister.’35

  In response the royal council (which meant the Despensers), instructed the bishops of England to write to Isabella. The theme of their letters was ‘Hugh Despenser has formally demonstrated his innocence in front of everyone and shown he has never harmed the queen, but done everything in his power to help her, and has confirmed by his sworn oath that he will always do this in future’, and, less suavely, ‘you want to destroy a whole people out of hatred for one man’.36

  She took no notice, keeping her son with her, the centre of a group of English exiles who hated the Despensers. The most distinguished were the king’s brother Edmund, Earl of Kent, and John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. They also included Roger Mortimer, ten years older than herself, who became not only her political adviser but her lover despite his having a wife and twelve children. The group left France in the middle of 1326, either because King Charles was irritated by the scandal or because he would not give them troops. In Hainault, in return for offering to marry Prince Edward to the count’s daughter Philippa, she obtained the money, ships and soldiers needed for an invasion.

  The fall of Edward II and the Despensers

  Isabella’s expedition landed near Orwell in Suffolk on 24 September, bringing 2,000 men led by Mortimer. She issued a proclamation against the Despensers, whom she denounced as murderers of the Earl of Lancaster, robbers and oppressors. When she advanced inland there was no opposition. Her opponents did not dare to raise a large army for fear it might mutiny – what troops they had ran away. Edward and the younger Hugh fled to the West Country, hoping to find supporters.

  The queen announced that she would punish the Londoners if they did not help her overthrow the Despensers. They responded by rioting on 15 October, the day when the industrious Bishop Stapledon, whom the king had left behind as ‘guardian’, unwisely rode into the City. He was chased by a mob, dragged off his horse while trying to reach sanctuary in St Paul’s and beheaded with a bread knife.

  At Bristol the elder Despenser attempted to bargain for his life when Isabella’s army arrived, but his men let in her troops. Although she wanted to save him, he was tried at once. ‘Sir Hugh, this court forbids you to answer [the charges] because you made a law that men can be condemned without replying’, he was told. ‘By force and against the law of the land, and taking upon yourself royal power, you counselled the king to disinherit and undo his lieges, notably my lord Thomas of Lancaster whom you put to death without cause. You are a robber and by your cruelty you have robbed this land, so that the entire people cry vengeance on you.’37 Found guilty by a roaring mob, old Hugh was hanged in his armour with his coat of arms reversed, then cut down alive, disembowelled and quartered. His remains were fed to scavenging dogs.

  Prince Edward was proclaimed Guardian of the Realm. Meanwhile, his father and the younger Hugh tried to sail for Ireland, but were driven back by a storm. Eventually, on 16 November the pair were captured at Neath Abbey in Glamorgan by Henry of Lancaster, the late Earl Thomas’s brother. The king was taken to Kenilworth Castle where he was kept under guard, Henry forcing him to surrender the great seal.

  Eight days later, having failed to starve himself to death, Hugh Despenser was tried at Hereford in the presence of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. Among the charges were appropriating royal powers, murdering noblemen, procuring Lancaster’s execution and responsibility for defeat by the Scots, as well as destroying the queen’s marriage. Forbidden to plead although too weak to speak, he was condemned to die as a thief, traitor and returned exile. Naked, wearing a crown of nettles and with mocking verses carved on his skin by knives, at one point screaming inhumanly, he was dragged into the city’s main square by four horses to the sound of trumpets and bagpipes. After being half-hanged on a 50 ft tall gallows, he was disembowelled in the usual way.

  The deposition of Edward II

  Edward refused to attend a parliament in London summoned in his name. When it met in January 1327, rejecting any possibility of Isabella rejoining him – Bishop Orleton (an old friend of Mortimer) stated that the king carried a knife in his hose to murder the queen and said he would kill her with his teeth were it taken from him. Read by Archbishop Reynolds of Canterbury, the Articles of Deposition denounced Edward for bad government, listening to men who gave evil counsel, undignified amusements, losing Scotland and squandering the realm’s treasure. He had done all he could to ruin his subjects, and his cruelty and weakness demonstrated he was incorrigible.

  On 12 January Edward was formally deposed, his son being proclaimed king. At Kenilworth later that month, clothed in black from head to foot, he abdicated, weeping and half-fainting when asked to resign the Crown by a delegation that came from every section of society: magnates and gentry, prelates, abbots and friars, barons of the Cinque Ports. The entire country wanted to be rid of him. In his misery, he composed some verses, beginning ‘En tenps de iver me survynt damage’:

  In winter woe befell me,

  By cruel fortune threatened

  My life now lies a ruin . . .38

  Edward II’s murder

  Shortly afterwards, the ex-king was taken by night to closer confinement at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where his gaoler was an old enemy whom he had persecuted, John, Lord Berkeley. En route, he was ill-treated and mocked by his escort, who shaved off his hair and beard at the roadside with cold water from a ditch, dressed him in old clothes, put a crown of hay on his head and made him swallow rotting food. When he arrived, he was shut in a cell over a cesspit filled with stinking animal carcases.

  One chronicler says Edward was taken to other prisons as well, moved about to confuse such would-be rescuers as his confessor, a Dominican friar called Thomas Dunheved, who in 1326 had been in Rome seeking the annulment of the king’s marriage. He was abetted by his brother Stephen (a pardoned outlaw) with a Cistercian monk from Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire. In July 1327 they broke into Berkeley Castle, briefly releasing the ex-king, although he was speedily recaptured.39 In addition, Sir Rhys ap Griffith, who was an old foe of Roger Mortimer, together with other Welshmen, plotted to attack the castle and deliver the king.

  Rumours of rescue doomed Edward, since Isabella and Mortimer realized their rule was growing unpopular. The ex-king was liquidated on the night of 27 September 1327, in a way designed to conceal that he had been murdered. Held down by pillows on a table, a horn funnel was rammed up his rectum, and through
it a red-hot plumber’s iron was inserted. His shrieks could be heard throughout the castle.40

  In 1340 an Italian cleric named Manuel Fieschi, a papal notary who had held benefices at Salisbury and Ampleforth, and was obviously well informed about the deposition, sent a strange letter to Edward III. He said the ex-king had escaped from Berkeley, taking refuge in Ireland and then at Avignon, sheltered by Pope John XXII, before spending the rest of his life as a hermit in northern Italy where he died. Fieschi claimed he had actually spoken to Edward, who gave him details of his escape. It is difficult, however, to avoid the conclusion that Fieschi’s letter was no more than an ingenious attempt to extract money.41

  Not only do most modern historians accept that Edward II died at Berkeley Castle, but so did contemporaries. Embalmed, his body lay in the castle’s chapel for three months because Queen Isabella declined a request by the monks of Westminster to bury him, for fear it might result in hostile demonstrations by Londoners. Finally, without asking permission, the aged Abbot John Thokey of Gloucester, who had been a friend of the king, sent a hearse to bring the corpse from Berkeley for interment in his own abbey. Rumours of the murder had spread all over England and, alarmed, Isabella and Mortimer attended the funeral, both in mourning.

  Gloucester Abbey became a shrine, such large crowds flocking to the king’s tomb near the high altar that a wooden effigy with a copper gilt crown was placed on it. Over the years, this was replaced by one of Purbeck marble whose haunting face, seen from a certain angle, gives an unmistakable impression of weakness. There were so many offerings that the abbot was able to rebuild the church.

  Retrospect

  However much pilgrims might venerate the dead King Edward II, in life he had been an unmitigated disaster without a single redeeming feature. He even lacked the family demon. One cannot disagree with Tout’s verdict, ‘a coward and a trifler’,42 or with a modern historian who calls his reign ‘the nadir of the dynasty’.43