EDWARD II.
Born 1284. Married Isabella daughter of Philip IV. of France, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. Began to reign, 1307. Reigned 20 year. Died 1327.
 |
DOMINIONS Edward nominally succeeded to all his father held in France and Great Britain, but came near to losing most of it. Scotland, mostly in the hands of his officers and partisans in 1307, was gradually recovered by Bruce, till the battle of Bannockburn extinguished English dominion, and Bruce took Berwick in 1318. The Welsh were in revolt in 1316. The Scots invaded Ireland in 1315 and nearly overthrew the English power, but the Irish were defeated and the Scots expelled in 1318 by the Anglo Irish nobles, but the royal authority in Ireland was reduced to a shadow. In 1325 Gascony and Ponthieu were made over to the king's son. In 1313 the Isle of Man was conquered by the Scots, and remained in their hands till 1343. |
The reign of Edward II in England,
which gave Scotland the opportunity to regain its independence, lasted for twenty years, during which time there
was constant bickering between the king and the barons. Even his queen, Isabella of France, conspired against him
, he was deposed, and imprisoned in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, where he was murdered.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS.
On coming to the throne, Edward disbanded his army about to invade Scotland, and returned home. Revolt of the Barons,
1310. His favourite, Piers
Gavestone, the cause of the revolt
beheaded at Warwick, 1312. The English defeated by Robert Bruce, at Bannockburn. A second revolt of the barons,
caused by Edward's new favourites, the Despencers, 1322. The barons were defeated at Boroughbridge; but in 1326, Queen Isabella, who had been with her son, Prince Edward, in France, joined
the male-content, Lord Mortimer, and invaded England, and the Despencers were hanged, while Edward himself after
resigning his crown, was murdered in Berkeley castle.
Edward II., King of England, born at Caernarvon Castle in 1284, and the first English Prince of Wales, succeeded his father, Edward I, in 1307. He was of an agreeable figure and mild disposition, but apathetic and fond of pleasure. After marching as far as Cumnock, in Ayrshire, with the army collected by his father, he returned, dismissed his troops, and abandoned himself entirely to amusements. His weakness for a clever but dissolute young Gascon, Piers Gaveston, on whom he heaped honours without limit, roused the nobles to rebellion Gaveston was captured and executed as a public enemy. Two years after, in 1314, Edward assembled an immense army to check the progress, of Robert Bruce, but was completely defeated at Bannockburn. In 1322 he made another expedition against Scotland, but without achieving anything important. The king's fondness for another favourite, Hugh le Despenser, made many discontented, and Queen Isabella making visit to France, entered into a correspondence with the exiles there, and formed an association of all hostile to the king. Aided with a force from the Count of Hainault she landed in Suffolk in 1326. Her army was completely successful. The Despensers were captured and executed, and the king was taken prisoner and confined in Kenilworth, and ultimately in Berkeley Castle, where he was murdered 21st Sept. 1327.
WARS
The Scotch war continued, generally to the advantage
of the Scots At Bannockburn, 1314, Robert Bruce completely defeated Edward, with the Earls of Pembroke and Gloucester,
the barons of the party of Lancaster not being present.
In 1316 some of the danger of the Scotch invasion of Ireland was averted by the defeat of the O'Connors with great
loss at Athunree by the De Burghs.
In 1318 Edward Bruce was defeated and killed at Dundalk by John de Bermingham.
In 1319 the Sects won a victory in Yorkshire called the Chapter of Mytton.
In 1322 the Earl of Lancaster, openly in alliance with Bruce, was defeated by the king's forces at Boroughbridge,
and he himself taken and executed. In the same year the Scots defeated and nearly captured the king, near Byland
Abbey in Yorkshire
OFFICIALS
Archbishops - Robert Winchelsey, d.1313; Walter
Reynolds, trans. from Worcester, 1313 -1327. He was the king's tutor and friend, but tuned against him in 1327,
and is said to have died of shame at the result
Chancellors - Ralph Baldock, 1307; John Langton, Bishop of Chichester, 1807 - 1310; Walter Reynolds, Bishop of
Worcester, afterwards Archbishop, 1310 - 1311; Adam de Osgodebey, Keeper of the Seal, 1311; Walter Reynolds, Keeper
of the Seal, 1312 - 1314; John do Sandall, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, 1314 - 1318; John de Hotham, Bishop
of Ely, 1318 - 1320; John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich, 1320 - 1323; Robert Baldock, afterwards Bishop of Norwich,1323
- 1327.
Walter Reynolds, afterwards Chancellor and Archbishop, was Treasurer from 1307 - 1310.
Walter Langton, Edward the First's minister, was made Treasurer in 1312 in spite of the opposition of Lancaster's
party, but was removed altogether from the royal council in 1315.
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was made President of the Royal Council in 1316.
Hugh le Despenser, the younger, was made Chamberlain in 1318.
Hugh le Despenser, the elder, Justice of the forests south of Trent in 1324.
ACTS AND DOCUMENTS
In 1311 the Lords Ordainers, appointed in Parliament by the influence of Lancaster's party, made a reform of the government, providing that the royal ministers should be appointed by the advice of the baronage, and should be sworn in parliament, that the king should not go to war without the consent of the baronage, that parliament should be called once or twice every year. The ordinances are distinctly baronial intendency not popular. Printed in Rolls of Parliament, i.281 - 286.The substance of the ordinances is given in Stubbs, Constitutional History.
