Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II Read online

  The volume of surviving administrative materials is considerable. Much has been published by the Public Record Office, e.g. the Calendar of Patent Rolls and Calendar of Close Rolls. These include hundreds of thousands of individual letters, writs, orders, etc. either issued open (‘patent’) or sealed (‘closed’). The rest can be found in either the manuscript collection of the British Library or the Bodleian in Oxford. Others are under the care of the Historical Manuscripts Commission.

  In France there are two principal sources: the National Archives or the Bibliotheque Nationale.

  In the bibliography, I have cited a list of sources consulted, both principal and secondary, and the more important secondary sources are cited in the text or the footnotes. ‘F’ stands for folio; ‘M’ or ‘Mem’ is the abbreviation for Membrane.

  Main abbrevations

  Annales Lond.

  Annales Londonienses, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, London, 1882)

  Annales Paulini

  Annales Paulini, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, London, 1882)

  Arch.

  Archaeologia series of journals

  Arch. Nat.

  Archives Nationales

  Avesbury

  Robertus de Avesbury, De Gestis Mirabilibus Regis Edwardi Tertii, ed. E.M. Thomson (Rolls Series, London, 1889)

  Bibl. Nat.

  Bibliotheque Nationale

  Bodl.

  Bodleian Library, Oxford

  Brit. Lib.

  British Library

  Brut

  Brut, Chronicle ed. F. W. D. Brie (Early English Text Society, 1906)

  Bull. Inst. Hist. Research

  Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research

  Bull. John Ryl. Lib.

  Bulletin of the John Ryland Library

  Cal. Chanc. Warr.

  Calendar of Chancery Warrants

  Cal. Ch. Rolls

  Calendar of Charter Rolls

  Cal. Cl. Rolls

  Calendar of Close Rolls

  Cal. Fine Rolls

  Calendar of Fine Rolls

  Cal. Papal Letters

  Calendar of Papal Registers

  Cal. Pat. Rolls

  Calendar of Patent Rolls

  Canon of Bridlington

  Gesta Edwardi de Caernarvon Auctore Canonico Bridlingtoniensi, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, London 1882–3)

  Dignity of a Peer

  Lords’ Report on the Dignity of a Peer. IV.

  Eng. Hist. Rev.

  English Historical Review

  Foeders

  T. Rymer, Foedera, Coventiones, Litterae, ed. A. Clarke and F. Holbrooke, I, II, (London, 1816–18)

  Hist. Mss. Comm.

  Historical Manuscripts Commission

  The Household Book

  The Household Book of Queen Isabella, ed. F. D. Blackley and G. Hermansen (Edmonton, 1971)

  Knighton

  Chronicon Henrici Knighton, ed. J. R. Lumby, I (Rolls Series, London, 1889)

  Lanercost

  The Chronicle of Lanercost, ed. H. Maxwell-Lyte (Glasgow, 1919)

  Melsa

  Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, ed. E. A. Bond, II (Rolls Series, London, 1867)

  Murimouth

  Adae Murimouth Continuatio Chronicarum, ed. E. M. Thompson (Rolls Series, London 1889)

  Northern Registers

  Historical Papers and Letters from Northern Registers, ed. J. Raine (Rolls Series, London, 1873)

  Parl. Writs.

  Parliamentary Writs, ed. F. Palgrave, II (London, 1827–34)

  Polychronicon

  The Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, ed. C. Babington and J. R. Lumby, VIII (Rolls Series, London, 1864–86)

  Rot. Parl.

  Rotuli Parliamentorum, I

  Rot. Scot.

  Rotuli Scotiae in Turri Londinenai et in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriense Asservati, ed. D. Macpherson, J. Caley, W. Illingworth, T. H. Horne, I (London, 1814)

  ‘Scalacronica’

  ‘Scalacronica’, ed. H. R. Maxwell, Scot. Hist. Rev. III (1905–6) and IV (1906–7)

  Scot. Hist. Rev.

  Scottish Historical Review

  Soc. Antiq.

  Society of Antiquaries

  Statutes

  Statutes of the Realm, I (1812)

  Swynbroke

  Chronicon Galfredi le Baker de Swynbroke, ed. E. M. Thompson (Oxford, 1889)

  Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc.

  Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

  Trin. Coll. Camb.

  Trinity College, Cambridge

  Trokelowe

  Johannis de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneford Chronica et Annales, ed. H. T. Riley (Rolls Series, London 1866)

  Willelmi Cappellani

  Willelmi Cappellani in Brederode postea Monachi et Procuratoris Egmundensis Chronicon, ed. C. Pijnacker Hondyk, XX (Historisch Genootschap, 3rd Ser., Amsterdam, 1904)

  Notes

  ONE: A Fitting Marriage . . .

  1. A. Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, (London, 1970) Vol. I. p. 541 (1832).

  2. P. C. Doherty ‘The date of the birth of Isabella’ Bull Inst. Hist. Res. XLVIII (1975), pp. 246–8. This is an edition of a papal letter from the Archives Nationales, which proves 1296 to be the year of her birth. There are a few references to her in the French royal accounts: Les Journaux du Tresor de Philippe le Bel, ed. J. Viard (Paris 1840), p. 700, Arch. Nat. ‘J’ 149. No. 30.

  3. Pierre Dubois, Summaria Brevis et Compendiosa, ed. H. Kampf (New York, 1936) provides a clear and contemporary account of Philip IV’s ambitions. R. Fawtier, The Capetian Kings of France, (Glasgow, 1960), pp. 60, 121 and 162.

  4. Foedera I, p. 904 and Brit. Lib., Cottonian Ms. Julius, E.I. fos 54r–56r.

  5. On Edward I and the Low Countries, See F. Bock England’s Beziehiengen zim Reich unter Adolf von Nassau (Innsbruck, 1933), p. 199 and Inventaires des Manuscrits concernants les Relations de Flandre et L’Angleterre, ed. J. de St. Genois (1842), p. 162. On Philip IV, see Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum Scriptores: Receuil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. P. Danou and J. Naudet (Paris, 1738–1904), Vol. XX, pp. 576, 677.

  6. Foedera I, pp. 906–7 Arch. Nat. J. 631. No. 30, Brit. Lib., Cott Mss. Julius, El, fos 63, 64, 66 and 67.

  7. In the ensuing row, Philip accused Boniface of such treachery: Arch Nat. J. 633, No. 6. Bibl. Nat. Fr. Mss. (Nouvelles Acquisitions), 6999, fo. 235.

  8. Foedera I, p. 951 and E/30/51a.

  9. Foedera I, pp. 952–4. Arch. No. J. 633, 12, 13, 17–19.

  10. S.C. 6/44/16.

  11. Doherty, ‘The date of the birth of Isabella’, pp. 246–8.

  12. Letters of Edward, Prince of Wales, ed. H. Johnstone (Roxburghe Club, 1931), pp. 144–5. References to Isabella, see Bibl. Nat., Collection Brienne, 7007, f. 1.

  13. C. 47/29/5/25.

  14. E/101/684/11, No. 7 and E/101/370/15, m. 15.

  15. Foedera I, p. 1012. Brit. Lib., Add Ms. 22923, f. 4.

  16. William Wallace had been captured and executed in London.

  17. See Chapter 6, p. 223.

  18. Geoffrey La Tour-Landry, Book of the Knights of La Tour, ed. T. Wright (London, 1868), pp. 26–7.

  19. Le Menagier de Paris, ed. Jerome Pichon (Paris, 1846), Vol. I, pp. 168–9.

  20. Knighton II, pp. 57–8.

  21. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, ed. Nevill Coghill (Penguin, 1982), pp. 31–2.

  22. Henry VIII prohibited this by Act of Parliament.

  23. The Canterbury Tales, p. 309.

  24. T. F. Tout, Edward I (London, 1890), p. 225.

  25. Foedera II, 1. p. 650; R. Twysden, Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem (London, 1652) co. 1. 2765.

  26. H. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, p. 115. H. Johnstone, Edward of Caernarvon 1284–1307 (Manchester, 1946), pp. 9, 17.

  27. The Register of Thomas Cobham – Bishop of Worcester, ed. H. Pearce (Worcs. Hist. Soc., 1930), pp. 97–8.

  28. H. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, pp. XIV–XIVI,
114.

  29. H. Johnstone, Edward of Caernarvon, pp. 30, 86.

  30. Annales Paulini, p. 260; Cal. Papal Registers, Letters 1305–1352, pp. 430–1.

  31. The Antiquarian Repository II (1779), pp. 58–9.

  32. H. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, p. XXXVIII.

  33. H. Johnstone, Edward of Caernarvon, pp. 42, 43.

  34. H. Johnstone, Edward of Caernarvon, p. 45.

  35. Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds ed. and translated by Gransden. (London 1964) pp. XXXIII and 157.

  36. Roll of Arms of Caerlaverock, ed. T. Wright (Rolls Series 1864), p. 18.

  37. Calendar of Patent Rolls 1292–1301, p. 576

  38. ‘Scalacronica’, p. 130.

  39. H. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, p. XXXVIII.

  40. The full story is given in H. Johnstone’s Letters of Edward, pp. XI–XIIV.

  41. H. Johnstone, Letters of Edward, p. XXXVII.

  42. Ibid., pp. XXXIX and L.

  43. Annales Lond., p. 143.

  44. Ibid., p. 146; Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. J. Wright (Rolls Series, 1867), p. 368.

  45. J. Barbour The Bruce, ed. W. N. Mackenzie (London, 1909), pp. 71–6.

  46. The Chronicles of Walter of Guisborough, ed. H. Rothwell (Royal Historical Soc., London, 1957), pp. 377–9.

  47. Ibid., pp. 382–3.

  48. Brit. Lib. Add. Mss. 22923, fo. 6.

  TWO: Isabella and the King’s Favourite

  1. Roll of Arms, ed. T. Wright (Rolls Series, 1864), p. 18.

  2. Vita Edwardi (London 1957), p. 40; Chronica Monasterii de Melsa II, p. 286; Canon of Bridlington, p. 91.

  3. Brit. Lib., Stowe Ms. 553, fo. 21v. (He died during the Scottish Expedition of autumn 1322.)

  4. Vita Edwardi Secundi, p. 41.

  5. Trokelowe, p. 64

  6. Annales Paulini, pp. 255, 262; Trokelowe, p. 64; Flores Historiarum III, p. 331; Murimouth, p. 9; Lanercost, p. 210; Melsa (Meaux) II, p. 355.

  7. Vita Edwardi, pp. 15 and 30.

  8. The Chronicle evidence for this is overwhelming: see Vita Edwardi, pp. 7, 17; Annales Paulini, p. 259; Brit. Lib., Ms. Harl. 636, fo. 232; Lanercost, p. 210.

  9. Murimouth, pp. 11–12; Annales Lond. I, p. 156; Lanercost, p. 187.

  10. Annales Paulini, p. 259; Trokelowe, p. 65; Vita Edwardi, p. 2.

  11. Thomas Walsingham, Historia Anglicana (Rolls Series, 1863), p. 125; Lanercost, p. 194; Annales Lond., pp. 151, 152 and 157.

  12. On Edward I’s death, see Annales Paulini, p. 256; Rothwell, Walter of Guisborough (1957), p. 37. The news reached London, see E/101/373/15f. 43v. for Gaveston’s recall, see, ibid., fo. 21v. For the Charter, see Foedera II, 1. 2. For the heraldic arms, see E/101/373/15f. 9r.

  13. E/101/373/15, f. 22r.

  14. A. P. Stanley, Historical Memoirs of Westminster Abbey (London, 1882), pp. 128–30.

  15. For this mixed judgement, see Flores Historiarum III, p. 137; Vita Edwardi, p. 40; Lanercost, p. 183; ‘Scalacronica’, p. 136.

  16. T. H. Parker, The Knights Templar in England (University of Arizona Press, 1963), p. 86 et seq.

  17. Foedera II, pp. 19, 24.

  18. Arch. Nat., J. 654, No. 8; Bibl. Nat. Coll., Brienne, fos. 67–76.

  19. Brit. Lib., Mss. Harl. 636, f. 32.

  20. Foedera II, p. 23.

  21. Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England V, p. 473.

  22. Foedera II, p. 24; E/101/376/6 M.2.

  23. Strickland, Lives, pp. 472–4.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Mss. de L’Arsenal de Paris 3346, f. 10; Annales Paulini, p. 258.

  26. E/101/373/6, M.2.

  27. C.47/29/6/3. Brit. Lib. Cottonian, Ms. Nero DX, f. 108.

  28. There are three highly recommended, very scholarly works on Edward II’s troubles with his baronage: John Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster (Oxford, 1970), pp. 72–3; J. C. Davies, The Baronial Opposition to Edward II (Cambridge, 1918); and Natalie Fryde, The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II 1321–1326 (Cambridge, 1979).

  29. E/101/373/6, M.2; E/101/373/7, M.3; Foedera II, p. 31.

  30. Strickland, Lives.

  31. E/403/141 M.8; Annales Paulini, p. 260; Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 73–4.

  32. E/101/325/4/M.2.

  33. Foedera II, p. 36.

  34. Annales Paulini, pp. 259–62, gives an eye-witness account of the Coronation débâcle.

  35. E101/373/7/M.5; Cal. Pat. Rolls 1307–1313, pp. 55, 58, 63.

  36. Arch. Nat., J. 655, No. 25.

  37. Flores Historiarum III, p. 148; Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 83–4.

  38. Les Journaux du Tresor de Philippe le Bel, ed. J. Viard (Paris, 1840), No. 5898.

  39. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 85–8.

  40. Bodl., Ms. Lat. Hist. C.5. (R) Mems. 1, 7.

  41. Hist. Mss. Comm. Report, 4 (1874), p. 394; Annales Paulini, pp. 264–5; Cal. Pat. Rolls 1307–1313, p. 186.

  42. Exchequer payments to Isabella: E/403/141/M.7; E/403/144 Mems. 1, 4, 5, 8; grant of lands, see Cal. Pat. Rolls 1307–1313, pp. 101, 113, 156.

  43. The Household Book of Queen Isabella, ed. F. D. Blackley and G. Hermansen (Edmonton, 1971), pp. 133, 207, 215.

  44. The Household Book of Queen Isabella describes Isabella’s lavish lifestyle in 1311. The Queen’s influence on grants can be seen in Cal. Pat. Rolls 1307–1313, pp. 58, 69, 74, 78, 92.

  45. Brit. Lib., Cott. Mss. Nero C. VIII, f. 58v. Two agents were sent to France ‘pro negociis regis secretis’ (‘on the secret business of the King’).

  46. The Household Book of Queen Isabella, pp. 137–8.

  47. Brit. Lib., Cott. Mss. Nero C. VIII, f. 84v; Bodl., Ms. Tanner 197, f. 54.

  48. Trokelowe, pp. 75–6.

  49. The Household Book of Queen Isabella, pp. 103–4.

  50. Gaveston’s downfall is described in detail by Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 121–30.

  51. E/101/375/2 Mems. 3 and 4.

  52. E/159/89 Mem. 15; Brit. Lib., Add Ms. 15664, f. 174.

  53. Foedera II, p. 178; Brit. Lib., Cott. Ms. Julius A. 1, f. 51.

  54. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana I, p. 134.

  55. Ibid., p. 135.

  56. Annales Lond., p. 221.

  57. Desmond Seward’s The Monks of War (Paladin, 1974), pp. 197–214, gives a clear account of this great scandal.

  58. Receuil des Historiens des Gaules, et de la France, Vol. XXI, ed. M. de Wailly (Paris, 1855), pp. 38, 657 and Vol. XXIII, pp. 135–9.

  59. E/30/1422.

  60. Bibl. Nat., Lat. Mss. 8504, fos. 1–2.

  61. Receuil des Historiens des Gaules, Vol. XXI, p. 657; E/101/375/9, f. 25; E/404/483/10.

  62. J. C. Davies, The Baronial Opposition to Edward II (Cambridge, 1918), p. 85.

  63. E/101/375/9, f.1.v.

  64. Seward, The Monks of War, pp. 211–12.

  65. E/101/375/9, f. 5v.

  66. Chronique de Pays Bas, ed. J. Smet (Brussels, 1856), II, pp. 138–9; H. Cordier, Annales de l’Hotel de Nesle, Memoires de L’Institut National de France XL1 (1920), p. 36; ‘Scalacronica’, ed. H. R Maxwell; Scot. Hist. Rev. III, 1905–6, pp. 453–4.

  67. E/101/375/9, fos. 19, 25, 27.

  68. Soc. Antiq., Mss. 120, fos. 15, 97 v.

  69. Cal. Pat. Rolls 1313–1317, pp. 490, 491, 518, 519.

  70. Hilda Johnstone makes reference to this ‘Legend’ in her short monograph, ‘Isabella the She-Wolf of France’, History XXI (1936–1937), pp. 208–19.

  71. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, p. 204.

  72. Cal. Pat. Rolls 1317–1321, pp. 112, 115, 116, 222, 223.

  73. E/101/377/7, M.8.

  74. Trokelowe, p. 103.

  75. Annales Paulini, pp. 287–8.

  76. Brit. Lib., Add. Mss. 17362, f. 49.

  77. E/101/377/11.

  78. W. J. Smith, ‘The Revolt of William Somerton’, Eng. Hist. Rev. LXIX (1954), pp. 76–87.

  79. Annales Paulini, p. 297.

  80. Ibid., p. 297.

  81. Brit. Lib., Add. Ch
arters 26, 684; Cal. of Cl. Rolls 1318–1323, P. 477.

  82. Irin. Coll. Camb., Ms. R.5.41, fos. 114v.–115v.

  83. Ibid.

  THREE: The New Favourite & Isabella’s Disgrace

  1. Vita Edwardi, pp. 97–102, 104.

  2. Trokelowe, p. 110; Annales Paulini, p. 299; Trin. Coll. Camb., Mss. R.5. 41, f. 115v.

  3. Cal. Cl. Rolls 1318–1323, p. 478.

  4. S.C.6/1090/12. M.1.

  5. Brit. Lib., Cott. Mss. Nero D, f. 111b.

  6. Natalie Fryde, ‘John Streetford, Bishop of Winchester, and the Crown, 1323–1330’, Bull. Inst. Hist. Research XLI (1971), pp. 54–5.

  7. Flores Historiarum III, p. 346.

  8. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, pp. 310–12.

  9. Vita Edwardi Secundi, pp. 124, 125, 136.

  10. J. Taylor, ‘The Judgement on Hugh Despencer the Younger’, Medievalia et Humanistica XII (1958), pp. 70–7.

  11. Vita Edwardi Secundi, p. 126.

  12. Trin. Coll. Camb., Ms. R.5.41., f. 118.

  13. E/101/380/5; Cal. Pat. Rolls 1321–1324., p. 405.

  14. Miscell. books (Duchy of Lancaster), DL.42/11, f. 66; John Taylor, ‘Judgement on Hugh Despencer’, op. cit.

  15. Mary McKisack, The Fourteenth Century, (Oxford, 1959), p. 75.

  16. SC. 1/63/169.

  17. Calendar of Docs. Relating to Scotland III, p. 146.

  18. E/163/4/11 No. 15. This is a collection of draft letters and includes Edward’s earlier letters (Nos. 73 and 8) to Winchester and Reynolds.