Having locked up Edward in Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, the barons
now resolved ot remove him from the throne. Parliament drew up
articles of deposition against him, and appointed commissioners to
demand his resignation of the throne.
When they went to the castle, Edward appeared before them clad in deep
mourning. Presently he sank fainting to the floor. On his recovery
he burst into a fit of weeping. But, checking himself, he thanked
Parliament through the commissioners for having chosen his eldest son
Edward, a boy of fourteen, to rule over the nation.
Sir William Trussel then stepped forward and said: "Unto thee, O King,
I, William Trussel, in the name of all men of this land of England and
Speaker of this Parliament, renounce to you, Edward, the homage [oath
of allegiance] that was made to you some time; and from this time
forth I defy thee and deprive thee of all royal power, and I shall
never be attendant on thee as King from this time."
Then Sir Thomas Blount, steward of the King's household; advanced,
broke his staff of office before the King's face, and proclaimed the
royal household dissolved.
Edward was soon after committed to Berkeley Castle,[1] in
Gloucestershire. There, by the order of Mortimer, with the connivance
of Queen Isabelle, the "she-wolf of France," who acted as his
companion in iniquity (S232), the King was secretly and horribly
murdered.
[1] Berkeley Castle is considered one of the finest examples of feudal
architecture now remaining in England. Over the stately structure
still floats the standard borne in the Crusades by an ancestor of the
present Lord Berkeley.