Edward II: The Unconventional KingHe is one of the most reviled English kings in history. He drove his kingdom to the brink of civil war a dozen times in less than twenty years. He allowed his male lovers to rule the kingdom. He led a great army to the most ignominious military defeat in English history. His wife took a lover and invaded his kingdom, and he ended his reign wandering around Wales with a handful of followers, pursued by an army. He was the first king of England forced to abdicate his throne. Popular legend has it that he died screaming impaled on a red-hot poker, but in fact the time and place of his death are shrouded in mystery. His life reads like an Elizabethan tragedy, full of passionate doomed love, bloody revenge, jealousy, hatred, vindictiveness and obsession. He was Edward II, and this book tells his story. Using almost exclusively fourteenth-century sources and Edward’s own letters and speeches wherever possible, Kathryn Warner strips away the myths which have been created about him over the centuries, and provides a far more accurate and vivid picture of him than has previously been seen. |
Contents
Another Exile | |
Death Birth and Reconciliation | |
Military Disaster and Famine | |
The Despenser | |
The Kings Revenge | |
Tyranny Miracles and an Escape | |
Catastrophe in Gascony | |
The Queen Takes a Favourite | |
Invasion Abdication and Imprisonment | |
Four Conspiracies and a Funeral | |
The Curious Case of the King Who Lived | vi |
Conflicts Marriages and an Abduction | |
Robbery Holy Oil and an Impostor | |
Household and Homage | |
Notes | 27 |
60 | |
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