a London chronicler, who adds, âAs a result, rumours circulated that the king was more in love withthis artful and malevolent man than his bride, that truly elegant lady, who is a most beautiful woman.â 8
The man
Tall and well built, Edward had a weak little face hiding behind a beard. Naturally indolent, his priority was enjoying himself. What his nobles disliked so much were his amusements and his friends. He preferred farm work to jousting â thatching, digging and hedging, shoeing horses, besides rowing and running races. Another pastime was play acting â the third-rate Bishop of Worcester, Walter Reynolds, owed his promotion to Canterbury to thespian skills. âInstead of lords and ladies, whose company he avoided, he mixed with harlots, singers and jesters, with carters, diggers and ditchers, with rowers, sailors and boatmen, and went in for heavy drinkingâ, says the chronicler Ranulph Higden, adding that the king was dangerously indiscreet and petty minded, losing his temper with those around him for the least fault. 9 His liking for low society may have been due to mental derangement. 10
Toutâs description of Edward as brutal and brainless has been questioned, but the more one learns the apter it seems. His brutality showed in a cruel streak, his lack of brains in an absence of any understanding of business or politics, and an inability to read the Latin needed for administration. Uninterested in beautiful things other than jewels, his one talent was a flair for verse in Norman French, rarely displayed. Low self-esteem and a paralysing lack of confidence explains his dependence on strong-minded favourites.
Despite having four children by his queen and another by a mistress, he has gone down to history as a homosexual, largely because of Christopher Marloweâs play
Edward the Second
, which is based on an imaginative reading of Holinshedâs Chronicles. Most modern historians disagree with this assessment. 11 When the author of the
Vita
compared the kingâs affection for Piers tothat of David for Jonathan, he was not thinking of sodomy. A more plausible reason for Gavestonâs dominance is the power of a strong mind over a weak one and the support he gave to a man who suffered from panic attacks â not unlike the reassurance given by an understanding male nurse to a mental defective.
Among his few personal tastes, other than âpeasant amusementsâ, was a fondness for two small palaces. One was Kingâs Langley in Hertfordshire, given to him by his father in 1302, where he later founded a Dominican priory. The other was Burstwick near Hull, which after belonging briefly to Gaveston became the kingâs main residence in the North. âLangley and Burstwick stood to Edward II as Osborne and Balmoral to Queen Victoriaâ, comments Tout. 12
Conventionally pious, he did not inherit the family cult of the Confessor, but showed a marked devotion to St Thomas, making pilgrimages to Canterbury. He also often visited the abbey of St Albans, to which he gave timber for new choir stalls.
The Ordainers
The leaders of what became an opposition were mediocrities. âFive earldoms and close kinship with the two greatest monarchs in the west gave neither dignity, policy, patriotism nor common sense to that most impossible of all medieval politicians, earl Thomas of Lancasterâ, says Tout, who adds he was âsulky, vindictive, self-seeking, brutal and viciousâ. 13 John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, was a disreputable nonentity, while the bookish Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick was treacherous. On the other hand, Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, was impeccably honourable as well as eminently sane. So too was the aged Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who had been among the late kingâs most trusted ministers.
Gavestonâs worst sin was depriving them of their role as the monarchâs advisers. Jointly, they took an oath to make him leave
The man
Tall and well built, Edward had a weak little face hiding behind a beard. Naturally indolent, his priority was enjoying himself. What his nobles disliked so much were his amusements and his friends. He preferred farm work to jousting â thatching, digging and hedging, shoeing horses, besides rowing and running races. Another pastime was play acting â the third-rate Bishop of Worcester, Walter Reynolds, owed his promotion to Canterbury to thespian skills. âInstead of lords and ladies, whose company he avoided, he mixed with harlots, singers and jesters, with carters, diggers and ditchers, with rowers, sailors and boatmen, and went in for heavy drinkingâ, says the chronicler Ranulph Higden, adding that the king was dangerously indiscreet and petty minded, losing his temper with those around him for the least fault. 9 His liking for low society may have been due to mental derangement. 10
Toutâs description of Edward as brutal and brainless has been questioned, but the more one learns the apter it seems. His brutality showed in a cruel streak, his lack of brains in an absence of any understanding of business or politics, and an inability to read the Latin needed for administration. Uninterested in beautiful things other than jewels, his one talent was a flair for verse in Norman French, rarely displayed. Low self-esteem and a paralysing lack of confidence explains his dependence on strong-minded favourites.
Despite having four children by his queen and another by a mistress, he has gone down to history as a homosexual, largely because of Christopher Marloweâs play
Edward the Second
, which is based on an imaginative reading of Holinshedâs Chronicles. Most modern historians disagree with this assessment. 11 When the author of the
Vita
compared the kingâs affection for Piers tothat of David for Jonathan, he was not thinking of sodomy. A more plausible reason for Gavestonâs dominance is the power of a strong mind over a weak one and the support he gave to a man who suffered from panic attacks â not unlike the reassurance given by an understanding male nurse to a mental defective.
Among his few personal tastes, other than âpeasant amusementsâ, was a fondness for two small palaces. One was Kingâs Langley in Hertfordshire, given to him by his father in 1302, where he later founded a Dominican priory. The other was Burstwick near Hull, which after belonging briefly to Gaveston became the kingâs main residence in the North. âLangley and Burstwick stood to Edward II as Osborne and Balmoral to Queen Victoriaâ, comments Tout. 12
Conventionally pious, he did not inherit the family cult of the Confessor, but showed a marked devotion to St Thomas, making pilgrimages to Canterbury. He also often visited the abbey of St Albans, to which he gave timber for new choir stalls.
The Ordainers
The leaders of what became an opposition were mediocrities. âFive earldoms and close kinship with the two greatest monarchs in the west gave neither dignity, policy, patriotism nor common sense to that most impossible of all medieval politicians, earl Thomas of Lancasterâ, says Tout, who adds he was âsulky, vindictive, self-seeking, brutal and viciousâ. 13 John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, was a disreputable nonentity, while the bookish Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick was treacherous. On the other hand, Aylmer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, was impeccably honourable as well as eminently sane. So too was the aged Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who had been among the late kingâs most trusted ministers.
Gavestonâs worst sin was depriving them of their role as the monarchâs advisers. Jointly, they took an oath to make him leave
Similar Books
