EDWARD II., OF CAERNARVON. A.D. 1307--1327.
Unlike his father in everything was the young Edward, who had just
come to manhood in mind, for he was silly and easily led as his
grandfather, Henry III., had been. He had a friend--a gay, handsome,
thoughtless, careless young man--named Piers Gaveston, who had often
led him into mischief. His father had banished this dangerous
companion, and forbidden, under pain of his heaviest displeasure, the
two young men from ever meeting again; but the moment the old king was
dead, Edward turned back from Scotland, where he was so much wanted,
and sent for Piers Gaveston again. At the same time his bride arrived
--Isabel, daughter to the King of France, a beautiful girl--and there
was a splendid wedding feast; but the king and Gaveston were both so
vain and conceited, that they cared more about their own beauty and
fine dress than the young queen's, and she found herself quite
neglected. The nobles, too, were angered at the airs that Gaveston
gave himself; he not only dressed splendidly, had a huge train of
servants, and managed the king as he pleased, but he was very insolent
to them, and gave them nick-names. He called the king's cousin, the
Earl of Lancaster, "the old hog;" the Earl of Pembroke, "Joseph the
Jew;" and the Earl of Warwick, "the black dog." Meantime, the king
and he were wasting the treasury, and doing harm of all kinds, till
the barons gathered together and forced the king to send his favorite
into banishment. Gaveston went, but he soon came back again and
joined the king, who was at last setting out for Scotland.
The nobles, however, would not endure his return. they seized him,
brought him to Warwick Castle, and there held a kind of Court, which
could hardly be called of Justice, for they had no right at all to
sentence him. He spoke them fair now, and begged hard for his life;
but they could not forget the names he had called them, and he was
beheaded on Blacklow Hill.
Edward was full of grief and anger for the cruel death of his friend;
but he was forced to keep it out of sight, for all the barons were
coming round him for the Scottish war. While he had been wasting
his time, Robert Bruce had obtained every strong place in Scotland,
except Stirling Castle, and there the English governor had promised
to yield, if succor did not come from England within a year and a day.
The year was almost over when Edward came into Scotland with a fine
army of English, Welsh, and Gascons from Aquitaine; but Robert Bruce
was a great and able general, and he was no general at all; so when
the armies met at Bannockburn, under the walls of Stirling, the
English were worse beaten than ever they had been anywhere else,
except at Hastings. Edward was obliged to flee away to England, and
though Bruce was never owned by the English to be King of Scotland,
there he really reigned, having driven every Englishman away, and
taken all the towns and castles. Indeed, the English had grown so
much afraid of the Scots, that a hundred would flee at the sight
of two.
The king comforted himself with a new friend--Hugh le Despencer--who,
with his old father, had his own way, just like Gaveston. Again the
barons rose, and required that they should be banished. They went,
but the Earl of Lancaster carried his turbulence too far, and, when
he hear that the father had come back, raised an army, and was even
found to have asked Robert Bruce to help him against his own king.
This made the other barons so angry that they joined the king against
him, and he was made prisoner and put to death for making war on the
king, and making friends with the enemies of the country.
Edward had his Le Despencers back again, and very discontented the
sight made the whole country--and especially the queen, whom he had
always neglected, though she now had four children. He had never
tried to gain her love, and she hated him more and more. There was
some danger of a quarrel with her brother, the King of France, and
she offered to go with her son Edward, now about fourteen, and settle
it. But this was only an excuse. She went about to the princes
abroad, telling them how ill she was used by her husband, and asking
for help. A good many knights believed and pitied her, and came with
her to England to help. All the English who hated the Le Despencers
joined her, and she led the young prince against his father. Edward
and his friends were hunted across into Wales; but they were tracked
out one by one, and the Despencers were put to a cruel death, though
Edward gave himself up in hopes of saving them.
The queen and her friends made him own that he did not deserve to
reign, and would give up the crown to his son. Then they kept him
in prison, taking him from one castle to another, in great misery.
The rude soldiers of his guard mocked him and crowned him with hay,
and gave him dirty ditch water to shave with; and when they found he
was too strong and healthy to die only of bad food and damp lodging,
they murdered him one night in Berkeley Castle. He lies buried in
Gloucester Cathedral, not far from that other foolish and unfortunate
prince, Robert of Normandy. He had reigned twenty years, and was
dethroned in 1327.
The queen then wanted to get rid of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the poor
king's youngest brother. So a report was spread that Edward was
alive, and Edmund was allowed to peep into a dark prison room, where
he saw a man who he thought was his brother. He tried to stir up
friends to set the king free; but this was called rebelling, and he
was taken and beheaded at Winchester by a criminal condemned to die,
for it was such a wicked sentence that nobody else could be found to
carry it out.