Edward II: The First Deposition

 Bosworth: The French Connection Part III

“The twenty-year reign of Edward II is generally seen as a disastrous period in English history. Edward suffered military defeats, encountered political crises and faced civil war. His reliance on his ‘favourites’, Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, rumoured to be his lovers, was seen as playing a large part in the king’s downfall.”

The Death of Edward II
Two months before his 15th birthday Prince Edward, the future Edward III (1312-1377), was informed on the 23 September 1327 that his father King Edward II had died at Berkeley Castle during the night of 21 September. Edward II’s body was taken to Gloucester Abbey where he was interred by the high altar. The end to his father’s reign had not been the happiest of times for the young prince and the death of the king was totally unexpected with the suspicion of foul play.

Entrance to Edward II's cell at Berkeley Castle

Edward of Caernarfon (1284 –1327), fourth son of Edward I the ‘Hammer of the Scots’, reigned as Edward II from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. After 36 years of marriage Edward I was grief-stricken by the death of his first wife Eleanor of Castile in November 1290. On her journey north to join her husband on military campaign in Scotland she was taken ill and died at the village of Harby, Nottinghamshire, about 7 miles from Lincoln. King Edward had her body gently transported back to London, having twelve stone monuments, known as the Eleanor Crosses, constructed at each location her body rested overnight. 

In 1299 when his father Edward I married Margaret (Marguerite of France), sister of King Philip IV of France (r.1285-1314), the young Prince Edward was betrothed to Isabella, the eldest child of Philip and his wife Joan of Navarre as part of a peace treaty with France. From his second marriage Edward I produced two sons, Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk and Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent.

When Edward I died on 7th July 1307 at Burgh by Sands, near Carlisle, one of his last wishes was that Piers Gaveston, whom he had exiled earlier that year owing to concern over his closeness to his son Prince Edward, would not be permitted to return to the country. Edward II duly married Isabella on January 25, 1308, at Boulogne with his coronation taking place the following month. 

Edward II soon came into conflict with his nobles over his favourites, firstly Piers Gaveston and then The Despenser family. One of the first acts as the new, King Edward II recalled Gaveston from exile ignoring his father’s wishes. Gaveston was again exiled after pressure from the nobles but the king soon called him back. Yet this time on his return Gaveston was executed in 1312 by a group of nobles fronted by the king’s cousin Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, which led to a period of armed conflict with the king. Lancaster (1278-1322), eldest son of Edmund Crouchback, brother of Edward I, was one of the most powerful barons in the country.

Having lost his close companion Gaveston, King Edward began to rely evermore on the Despenser family, with Hugh Despenser the Younger replacing Gaveston as his close friend and personal adviser. The Despenser family held lands and titles in the Marches, the region bordering England and Wales. As Marcher lords they were granted with special legal and military privileges.

The powerful earldoms of Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester had been created by William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman Conquest to control the Welsh border region. These earldoms were granted the privileged status of ‘County Palatine’ in which the nobleman, or counts palatine, swore allegiance to the monarch yet had the power to rule the county largely independently of the king. The Marcher Lords retained their distinct status until the 16th century and the reign of Henry VIII.

The earls of Hereford started to build Wigmore Castle but when they rebelled in 1075 their lands were confiscated and given to a Ralph Mortimer who made it his chief residence and central lordship of the Mortimer estates. The Mortimers came from Normandy at around the time of the Norman Conquest although it is unclear if a Mortimer actually fought at Hastings in 1066.

The King of Folly
The Mortimer’s gained estates and influence in the Marches through a series of beneficial marriages and inheritance. Wigmore remained the principal residence of the Mortimer family for over 250 years until it was superseded by Ludlow Castle which they acquired in 1301 when Roger Mortimer (1287-1330), married Joan de Geneville. Following their marriage Ludlow became the Mortimer’s primary residence to which Roger made significant changes, completing construction of the western Solar block to the Great Hall, then adding the eastern Solar block, transforming the castle into a Royal palace.

Joan was born at Ludlow Castle on 2nd February 1286, the daughter of wealthy parents Sir Piers de Geneville and Joan of Lusignan, and later inherited the estates of her grandparents, Geoffrey de Geneville and Maud de Lacy, making her one of the wealthiest women in the Welsh Marches, with further estates in Ireland.

Ludlow Castle

Roger and Joan through a seemingly happy marriage produced 12 children, eight daughters and four sons, all of whom survived to adulthood. Yet eventually Roger, a prominent figure in the Marches, became drawn into the politics of the time and came into conflict with King Edward II. 

The Despensers exploited their close relationship with Edward II, strengthening their power by executing their enemies and confiscating estates. Unsurprisingly, the Mortimers joined the other Marcher lords in opposition to the Despensers which effectively put them in direct confrontation with King Edward II. The encroachment of the Despensers into the southern Marches had brought them directly into conflict with the Mortimers at Wigmore. The personal feud between the Despensers and the Mortimers went back to 1265 when a previous Roger Mortimer (d.1282) killed the head of their family at the battle of Evesham.

Resentment continued to grow among the nobles and tensions came to a head in 1321 when a group of barons led by the Earl of Lancaster seized the Despensers' lands and forced the King to exile them. Edward II responded with a short military campaign in which he captured Lancaster and then had him executed in 1322. The King then quickly annulled the exile, the Despensers returned and hostilities recommenced.

The Mortimer's lands

Roger Mortimer (d.1330) led a 5-day rampage through the Despenser estates in the southern Marches. In 1322 Roger was captured at Shrewsbury and taken, with his uncle, Roger Mortimer of Chirk, to the Tower of London. He was sentenced to death and his lands confiscated but this sentence was subsequently reduced to life imprisonment.

On 1st August the following year, Roger escaped the Tower, said to have drugged the guards, or as some stories claim, he escaped through a hole in the kitchen roof, and fled to France where he was hosted by the King of France.

In 1325, Queen Isabella, her reputation earned her the nick-name as the ‘She-Wolf of France’, had been sent to France to negotiate a settlement between her husband, Edward II, and her brother Charles IV, the Fair, King of France (r.1322-1328). Isabella was joined by her son Prince Edward who Edward II had sent to France in his place to pay homage for Gascony and Ponthieu. Isabella refused to return to England, openly criticising her husband and the Despensers. While in France she met Roger Mortimer and it is generally believed they became lovers, although there is no hard evidence for this. They planned to invade England and in September 1326 landed in Suffolk with a small armed force mainly comprised of mercenaries.

The Despensers had become increasingly unpopular and, on their arrival, many of their opponents came to support Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer who she presented as her military commander. Within weeks their rebellion was successful and by November the King and Hugh Despenser were captured in South Wales. King Edward II was forced to abdicate in favour of his young son Prince Edward and imprisoned at Kenilworth Castle. The Despensers were dealt with ruthlessly Roger Mortimer, overseeing the trials and executions of them and other nobles. The King’s favourite Hugh Despenser was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Hereford. 

Roger was now at the pinnacle of his career, alongside Queen Isabella he became a dominant figure in England for the next three years. In 1328 he gave himself the title of Earl of March, by definition this implied the whole of the Marches region. This was without precedent as all earldoms were specific to estates or counties, never before a whole region. Roger, in addition to re-instatement of his previous estates including Wigmore and Ludlow, now acquired Denbigh, Montgomery, and Clun, Builth and Clifford Castles; he was now totally dominant in the Marches. 

At Wigmore in 1329 Roger organised a ‘Round Table’ event, a chivalric tournament introduced by Edward I, to celebrate the double wedding of his two daughters from his marriage to his wife Joan. At this Arthurian event Roger adorned himself with elaborate clothes and expensive jewellery sitting in the presence of the Queen. Needless to say, his behaviour did not impress people at Wigmore and even his own son is said to have declared Roger as the ‘king of folly’.

Wigmore Castle (Buck, 1732)

Roger never took an official position in the governance of the country and ignored the royal council of regency established to direct the country during Edward III’s minority years. Instead he used his relationship with Queen Isabella and her son to manipulate and control events; Roger was behaving much like the King’s favourites before him, Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, which had caused much resentment in the country and played a big part in King Edward II’s downfall.

Further resentment toward Roger had been growing since the trial and execution of the Earl of Kent for plotting to release his half-brother Edward II from imprisonment and restore him to the throne. Rumours circulated that the Earl of Kent had been set up by Roger, that he was fed false information that led him to believe that Edward II was still alive so that he would react accordingly and then he could be tried for treason.

The Fall of the Earl of March
When Edward III approached the age of 18, although technically still a minor, the resentment of being under Roger’s control grew stronger, to such a degree that he encouraged opposition to him. In October 1330 a group of young nobles close to the king broke into Nottingham castle and captured Roger. He was taken to the Tower of London and condemned without trial for a long list of charges including appropriating royal power and acting as if he was king, enriching himself and his family,  enticing the Earl of Kent into a plot of treason which ensured his death, and having Edward II murdered at Berkeley having removed him illegally from Kenilworth Castle. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to the traitor’s death, to be hung, drawn and quartered. Yet the King reduced the sentence to being ‘hung by the neck until dead’. On 29 November 1330 Roger Mortimer was dragged through the streets from the Tower to Tyburn where he was executed, his naked body left hanging at Tyburn for several days before being cut down and buried at Greyfriars in Coventry.

The Mortimer family was not treated so harshly and seemed to carry no blame for Roger’s behaviour. His wife Joan and her youngest daughters were initially placed under house arrest at Wickham in Hampshire. Her elder daughters were sent to convents and her other children taken to Windsor Castle. After Roger’s execution she was imprisoned in Skipton Castle. 

Although Roger’s title ‘Earl of March’ was confiscated the family seat at Wigmore with Maelienydd and other Marcher lordships was returned to Roger’s son and heir, Edmund Mortimer (d.1331). Yet Edmund died just one year after his father was executed which threatened the whole Mortimer inheritance as Edmund’s son and heir was only three years old at the time. For the next hundred years after the death of Edmund, the Mortimer male heirs would all die young with their respective sons inheriting as minors between ages 3-8 years.

Five years later in 1336 Roger’s widow Joan was pardoned by King Edward III for any involvement in her late husband’s uprising and all her lands that had been confiscated were restored to her. After she petitioned the king, Roger’s body was also returned to her and buried at Wigmore Abbey. Joan lived on until 1356 when she died aged 70 and was buried alongside him.

Edmund’s son, also named Roger (1327-1360), after his grandfather the 1st Earl of March, was one of the young companions of Edward, the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III. As such he was knighted by the prince during the invasion of France in 1346 and then fought at the battle of Crécy alongside the King.

Later that year he would rewarded for his services against the French with more of the Mortimer lands restored to him. In 1348 Roger was one of the original Knights of the Garter. Edward III created the Order of the Garter, an exclusive membership limited to just 25 Knights with the first places reserved for those commanders who had helped him to win the Crécy campaign. In 1349 Roger was again alongside the Black Prince in resisting the French attempt to take back Calais  

In 1354 Roger managed to reverse the sentence passed against his grandfather, and succeeded in restoring almost the entirety of the family estates and in doing so became the 2nd Earl of March. His estates grew further when he inherited the property of his grandmother Joan de Genville, widow of the 1st Earl of March. 

The Norman keep at Ludlow Castle 

The Mortimers were now one of the wealthiest family’s in the land and held in such high esteem by the Royal family that Roger’s son Edmund, 3rd Earl of March (1352-1381) was married to Philippa of Clarence, only child of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, and granddaughter of Edward III. As we have seen, Philippa’s granddaughter Anne Mortimer (1388-1411) was the mother of Richard, 3rd Duke of York (1411-1460), also known as Richard Plantagenet.

Richard’s mother Anne Mortimer died in September 1411 at the age of 22 shortly after his birth and then his father, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, was executed in 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot, an attempt to overthrow Henry V. Then within months his uncle Edward, 2nd Duke of York, was killed at the battle of Agincourt. Being without issue Edward’s title and lands passed to the young Richard, becoming 3rd Duke of York. When his uncle Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March died without issue in 1425, Richard inherited the vast estates and titles of the Mortimer family making him the wealthiest and most powerful noble in the country, second only to the king himself. Richard made Ludlow one of his primary residences.

>> Continued in Part IV - Did Edward II Survive?

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