Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II (11 page)

On 1 August 1323, the garrison of the Tower celebrated the feast of Peter Ad Vincula – St Peter-in-Chains – after whom the Tower chapel was named. At the banquet the guards were drugged and Mortimer, with further help from two wealthy London merchants, John de Gisors and Richard de Betton, escaped from the Tower by a rope ladder. He lowered himself down, swam the Thames and reached the pre-arranged meeting place, where a group of horsemen took him to Portchester from where he crossed to France.
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Historians have always wondered if Queen Isabella, in the light of her later liaison with Mortimer, had anything
to do with Mortimer’s escape. The Marcher Lord was undoubtedly resolute and highly versatile. No physical description of Mortimer exists but he comes across as a tough, wily, resolute fighting man: a warrior, used to danger and physical hardship. His escape from the Tower, crossing the Thames and flight from England, is one of the most successful in the history of that bleak fortress. Mortimer, moreover, had not been a leading member of the baronial opposition; he had been much more involved in Ireland and along the Welsh March and he loyally supported the King until he clashed with the de Spencers over lands in South Wales. In 1311, Isabella had assisted Roger Mortimer in the release of a Chamberlain of North Wales imprisoned on the suspicion that he had deliberately lost his accounts.
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She also corresponded with him,
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supporting him and the others in the Somerton case, whilst her bailiff at Macclesfield, John Hinkley, had been in the Mortimers’ retinue when they fought against the de Spencers,
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On 17 February 1323, Isabella wrote a letter to the treasurer begging for relief for Roger’s wife Joan who had also been imprisoned.
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Isabella was in, or around the Tower during August 1323 when Mortimer escaped. Her friendship, and implicit understanding of Mortimer’s grievances, may have blossomed into a deeper relationship, and she may have persuaded the French court to give Mortimer a sympathetic reception. Edward specifically accused Charles de Valois, Isabella’s uncle, not only of supporting Mortimer but of being involved in his escape.
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Isabella’s liaison with Mortimer might have begun before her departure to France: because of de Spencer, she may have already regarded her marriage as null and void. During those first few months at Paris, Isabella and Mortimer must
have kept their relationship very secret. However de Spencer’s spies in her household may have alerted the King and his favourite while the visit of Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, would have brought matters to a head, resulting in the good bishop’s abrupt flight from Paris. He took back firm evidence of the liaison and thereafter Isabella dropped all pretence.

Edward’s anger is clearly apparent in his letters. His wife and heir were now in rebellion and he was being proclaimed a cuckold throughout the courts of Europe. He threatened to disinherit his son and heir too and use him as an example so that all sons would learn to obey their fathers.
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De Spencer, and Edward also, realized the matter would have to be settled by the sword. Watches were set up along the south-east coast to prevent secret agents landing with arms or messages. Suspects were rounded up, including Mortimer’s mother Margaret, who was imprisoned in Elstow Abbey.
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The King issued firm instructions that, if his Queen and Prince returned in the ships he’d sent for them, they were to be treated honourably. However, if they landed with banners displayed and armed men, Isabella, Prince Edward and the Earl of Kent were to be taken as prisoners, and the rest were to be executed under martial law.
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Edward and de Spencer also initiated a widespread campaign of bribery both at Avignon and the French court in an attempt to buy themselves out of trouble. Papal legates travelled between Paris and London. The King even despatched Thomas Dunheved, his Dominican confessor, to the Pope to seek a divorce from Isabella. Charles of France was receptive to the bribes; the resolute John XXII was not. He believed Isabella’s grievances and
made his feelings felt. When Edward sent a gift of 5000 florins, Pope John graciously thanked Edward but bluntly added that he would take the gift as part payment of an outstanding debt and he looked forward to receiving the rest as soon as possible.
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Charles IV began to grow tired of his sister. De Spencer’s gold and, perhaps, memories of the Tour de Nesle scandal led to a cooling of their relationship.
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Once Isabella realized which way the wind was blowing, she and Mortimer left the French court in the summer of 1326 and entered the territory of William, Count of Hainault. Isabella promised a settlement of all maritime disputes between Hainault and England and the marriage of her eldest son Edward to William’s daughter Philippa. In return William offered troops, a fleet of eight men-of-war as well as 132 fishing smacks, or herring ships, for transport to assist with any invasion.
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Edward and de Spencer became almost hysterical in organizing watches along the coast, issuing letters to sheriffs, strengthening castles, seeking out traitors and spies.
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But their efforts were fruitless. Many of de Spencer’s secret enemies now emerged from the shadows and the King and his favourite did not know whom to trust. Prominent members of their administration, such as Robert Bellers and Robert Sapy, were horribly murdered. The latter’s eyes were torn out and all his limbs were broken before he died.
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The de Vescy family attacked royal officials in Yorkshire while other de Spencer opponents appeared at fairs and markets, openly flouting their resistance and subjecting royal manors to a series of bloody attacks.
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By March 1326 Edward was bemoaning how the secret agents of his enemies were able to move in and out of the country at their ease: he was soon to discover the reason why.
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On 21 September 1326 Isabella and Mortimer set sail from Dordrecht in Hainault,
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crossed the North Sea and made a safe landing on the Suffolk coast, to take up position off a small Suffolk port with their mercenaries and all the malcontents from England. Edward had put his fleet on a war footing and a special squadron was supposed to take up position off the small port of Orwell, the very route Isabella’s ships would have to follow.
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On 24 September 1326, the rebels landed on the Colvasse peninsula near Walton-on-Naze, on the tip of the approach to the port of Orwell.
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Isabella led about 1500–2000 men and, more importantly, she met with no opposition. The King’s fleet did not materialize – it apparently sailed in the opposite direction – while the levies of Essex, who were supposed to block her from landing, went over to her side. It would be wrong to suggest such treachery was due solely to devotion to Isabella. In truth, it was a clear expression of the hatred felt for Edward II and the de Spencer regime: very few were prepared to support them.

Edward and de Spencer, who had set up their headquarters in London, were aghast at the reports which now flooded in. Thomas, Earl of Norfolk, the King’s half-brother, immediately joined the Queen. Henry of Lancaster, the dead Earl Thomas’s brother, collected levies at Leicester and marched south to link up with the invaders.
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Worse, the London merchants were quietly distributing bribes to their mob leaders. Edward and de Spencer, fearful of being trapped in the city, made preparations to flee into Wales to raise troops. The royal Chancery issued letter after letter telling this sheriff or that official to raise troops to muster at certain points to oppose the Queen.
Mortimer was branded an outlaw: a reward of a thousand pounds sterling was put on his head, dead or alive. But no one was interested.
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The King, his favourites and a select group of clerks, with a mobile treasure of about
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29,000, fled London on 2 October for the safety and security of de Spencer’s strongholds in Wales.
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The Queen’s march inland became a triumphant progress. She reached Oxford where the University greeted her as a saviour. For the time being Queen Isabella observed the niceties. She lodged with the Carmelites whilst Mortimer was given a chamber at Osney Abbey.
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A special convocation of the University took place. Adam Orleton, Bishop of Hereford, emerged from hiding to deliver a violent sermon against de Spencer. Preaching on a text from Genesis: ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, she will bruise thy head.’ Orleton applied the text to de Spencer the Younger, describing him ‘as a seed of the first tyrant Satan who would be crushed by the Lady Isabella and her son the Prince’. Orleton’s speech was a clear warning of the violence to come.
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The Leicestershire chronicler, Knighton, reports how the Queen and her party had decided on the eradication of the entire de Spencer family, root and branch, so that never again would a de Spencer rise to power and threaten the throne.
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Edward’s star was plunging fast. On 11 October he reached Gloucester, offering free pardons to any outlaw who joined him and was reduced to making twelve archers of his household swear they would never leave him. He asked the bishops to intervene but he was calling into the darkness.
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A few bishops met at Lambeth on 13 October to draw up plans for a peace conference at St Paul’s.
Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, now revealed that he had been sending secret funds to the Queen, and the King’s cause was pronounced lost. The meeting broke up.
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The only bishop loyal to Edward, Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, unwisely decided to return to London, now a very dangerous place for any adherent of Edward or de Spencer. Isabella had issued a proclamation saying that the Londoners would be punished if they did not destroy de Spencer. The royal favourite had placed a thousand pounds on Mortimer’s head dead or alive: Isabella responded by doubling that for de Spencer. The mob rose in revolt. The Tower was stormed and de Spencer’s men were killed. Poor Stapleton chose that very moment to enter London. He was seen by one of the robber gangs, nicknamed ‘Rifflers’, who pursued the bishop and his two squires to St Paul’s. They were captured in a nearby stableyard, stripped naked and hacked to death. Stapleton’s head was sent to the Queen.
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Isabella was fully intent on capturing her husband. However, although England had deserted the King, the Mortimers were not liked in Wales and Edward hoped that a fresh royal army might be gathered there. The elder de Spencer, exhausted, took shelter in Bristol. On 18 October Isabella arrived before the city. For eight days the favourite’s father held out, trying to negotiate terms to guarantee security of life and limb. It was futile: his garrison refused to fight, the gates were opened and, on 22 October, the elder de Spencer was arraigned before a military tribunal manned by adherents of the dead Earl of Lancaster. Isabella pleaded for his life – after all, the elder de Spencer had shown friendship to her in the early years of her marriage. The Lancastrians, now a powerful part of
her army, reminded her of her promise that all de Spencers were to die. The elder de Spencer was charged, not allowed to answer and found guilty ‘by clamour of the people’. He was sentenced to be hanged in a surcoat quartered with his own arms, which was to be burnt and destroyed for ever. The old man suffered the full rigours of a traitor’s death, hanging, drawing and quartering, on the common gallows outside Bristol. His severed head was sent to Winchester and his decapitated corpse displayed on the gallows before being hacked up and fed to dogs.
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The pursuit of the King was then resumed, although the constitutional niceties were observed. A council meeting was held and it was decreed that, as the King had fled from his kingdom, his eldest son would take over as ‘Custos’ or Keeper.
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Edward, meanwhile, had taken a ship across the Bristol Channel in an attempt to flee abroad. He offered money to de Spencer’s confessor, Richard Bliton, to pray to St Anne for a favourable wind. The saint proved to be of no assistance and they were forced to return to Wales. They had a brief respite at Caerphilly Castle but, frightened of being besieged, de Spencer and Edward fled once more. They left the castle in control of the royalist John Felton who held out for weeks before negotiating his own surrender.
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The King continued to issue writs and raise troops, but it was all over. His household accounts end abruptly on 31 October, a sign that the royal clerks were deserting him. Edward moved to Neath Abbey and, on 10 November, made one last-ditch attempt to negotiate with his wife.
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It failed. Edward tried to hide in the countryside but troops, led by Henry of Lancaster, were not far behind. Certain Welshmen, for a sum, offered to lead Lancaster to the King. Edward and his party were captured. Most of
them were released but de Spencer and Simon de Reading were sent under chains to the Queen at Hereford.
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Edward surrendered to Henry of Lancaster and was taken first to Monmouth then on to Kenilworth Castle. The King was finished and the ‘She-Wolf’ had come into her own.

Edward II’s downfall was inextricably linked to the collapse of his marriage to Isabella. Even in a modern marriage, which disintegrates in the full glare of the public media, it is difficult to ascertain what is the cause and who is at fault, and the difficulty is compounded by speculating on such events which occurred 700 years ago. Nevertheless, some evidence does exist for the tragedy which swept away Edward II and the de Spencers in 1326. What is most surprising about the whole affair is the speed with which Edward and Isabella’s relationship disintegrated and transformed into conspiracy, treason and bloody death.

Edward II was in his early twenties when he married Isabella; she was probably approaching her thirteenth year. They both had to face considerable personal and political difficulties. They had not met before, nor was there any indication of a desire by either party to marry: they were simply political pawns, managed and manoeuvred by their respective fathers. Matters were certainly not helped by Edward II’s conduct after his marriage. He went out of his way to insult his in-laws and openly favoured his ‘sweet brother’ Gaveston. Nevertheless, Gaveston proved to be no real threat to Isabella. Whatever the exact relationship between the Gascon favourite and the King, Isabella did not harbour the same intense hatred for him as she did for de Spencer.