The Death of King Edward II, 1327
During the night of 21st/22nd September 1327 a horrible murder was committed in England that killed a king.
The victim was King Edward II, the less than worthy son of the “Hammer of the Scots”, Edward I. He was the opposite of his father in many ways. These included military prowess, hence the disastrous (from the English point of view) Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, at which Robert the Bruce defeated an English army and Edward abandoned the field of battle, followed by many of his troops.
Edward had no idea of how to rule and he allowed himself to be dominated by a series of “favourites”, including Piers Gaveston who was Edward’s gay lover.
Edward had a wife, namely Queen Isabella, and he managed to father a son, but Isabella came to prefer the company of a more manly lover, Roger de Mortimer. She therefore had personal reasons for wanting to get rid of her husband, apart from the political one of being able to rule the country as regent for her son who was only aged 14 at the time.
Edward was duly forced to abdicate in January 1327. He was arrested and taken to Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire where he was guarded by three other members of the plot, namely Sir Thomas Gurney, Sir John Maltravers and William Ogle.