The Death of a King

able to draw up a fairly accurate picture of Edward II’s capture and imprisonment. In 1322, after crushing his barons at the battle of Boroughbridge, Edward II and the Despenser family began to rule England like despots. Despenser the Younger totally controlled the king’s decisions and waged a savage vendetta against Isabella, who refused to accept his authority. He confiscated her lands and even organized a plot to allow the Scots to capture her. He insisted on sleeping in the same room as the King and encouraged Edward’s affection for his own wife, Eleanor. In 1325, under the pretext of a diplomatic mission to France, Isabella managed to leave England. A few months later she was joined by her eldest son (the present king) and, together with the exiled Roger Mortimer (who had escaped from the Tower), moved to Hainault in the Low Countries where she planned her invasion of England.
    Isabella and Mortimer landed in Suffolk in September, 1326, with a few followers. Popular discontent at Edward II’s rule drew almost everyone to their standards, especially as the queen was shrewd enough to pose as the champion of justice and the avenger of the wrongs committed by the Despensers. When Henry, the new Earl of Lancaster, joined Isabella, this was the signal for a general desertion of her husband’s cause. The king soon found himself unable to resist the united opposition centred around the queen; within weeks, even the rats from the administration began to desert him. The very courtiers who had been the chief agents of Despenser, the self-seeking bishops, the corrupt judges and the time-serving royal agents went over almost as a body to the side of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward was in London when his queen landed but the anger of the mob soon drove him out of the city. He tried to make a stand at Gloucester, where he unfurled the royal banner, but no one answered his summons, so he crossed the River Severn to the county of Glamorgan. There he made one more pathetic attempt to maintain a foothold in England. Despenser’s father was sent back to hold Bristol but he only attracted the attention of Isabella, who besieged the city. After a few days, Despenser the Elder surrendered. He was shown no mercy but dragged through the city and beheaded.
    Meanwhile, Edward was wandering aimlessly through Glam-organ. Isabella, intent upon his capture, despatched some of her faithful followers to track him down. On 16 November, 1326, Edward and his pitifully few retainers were betrayed at Neath in South Wales, captured and marched off to the castle of Llantrissant. Hugh Despenser the Younger, however, was taken to the queen at Hereford. There, he was dragged through the city shrieking with terror, before being hanged, quartered and beheaded. Isabella had a banqueting table placed beneath the scaffold so she could eat and drink while she watched her enemy die. As for Edward II, Isabella refused to meet him and ordered him to be imprisoned at Monmouth Castle.
    I have now reached my real subject, Richard, the captivity and death of Edward II. After a short time at Monmouth, Edward was escorted to the castle of Kenilworth, where he remained under the care of the Earl of Lancaster. Meanwhile, Isabella and Mortimer consolidated their victory. A parliament met on 7 January at Westminster, where it was decided that Edward should be deposed for incompetence and his son put in his place. A deputation from this parliament visited Kenilworth and offered Edward the alternatives of either resignation or deposition. The poor king showed little fight and was forced to accept the inevitable. He was led in front of the deputation, clad in black, and, dazed with confusion, tearfully announced that he would yield to the wishes of Parliament and appoint his son as his successor. Then the leader of the deputation renounced homage and the steward of the old king’s household broke his wand of office to indicate that Edward II’s reign was finished.
    The pathetic ex-king was then led back to captivity. The records maintain his treatment at Kenilworth was good. He lacked nothing and was honoured as a closely guarded state prisoner. This is quite likely, for although Henry of Lancaster had taken a leading part in bringing about the king’s deposition, he was profoundly conscious that his prisoner had been his anointed prince. However, Isabella seems to have thought that Lancaster was too kind. At the beginning of April, 1327, Edward was taken from the