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The Lords Ordainers Eight Earls: Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster.'The Martyr'. Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Edmund Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. Seven Bishops: Robert Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury. John Langton, Bishop of Chichester. Ralph Baldock, Bishop of London. Simon of Ghent, Bishop of Salisbury. David Martin, Bishop of St.David's. John of Monmouth, Bishop of Llandaff. John Salmon, Bishop of Norwich. Six barons: John Grey, Baron Grey de Wilton. Hugh de Courtenay, Baron Courtenay. Hugh de Vere, Baron of Swanscombe. Robert Clifford, Baron Clifford. William Marshal, Baron Marshal. William Martin, Baron Martin. |
The young King Edward married
Queen Isabella who despite bearing Edward four children, became disaffected
by the treatment of her by Edward's favourites. The most prominent
of these was Gaveston who gained the Earldom of Cornwall. and after Gaveston's
murder, the Despensers (de Spencers later Spencers). Alison
Weir has recently tried to salvage, somewhat, the tainted image of Isabella,
the "She-Wolf" of France, but a great amount of momentum will need to
be provided to shift the notion that she was somehow to blame for much
of the turmoil of Edward's reign. Perhaps in a paternalistic society
someone had to become the butt of the disappointment.A Yorkshire time line for Edward II's reign:
Yorkshire's welfare was directly
related to the wars between Scotland and England during the reigns
of the three Edwards'.
1307 Edward ascends at the
age of 23. He grants Knaresborough to Gaveston which
stings the barons of the North.
1308 Isabelle of France [17
y.o.] is married to Edward II [24 y.o.] Gaveston is
granted Knaresborough and Skipton Castles.
1309
1310 Many of the English Templar
Properties were concentrated in Yorkshire, between 1310 and 1322 Edward
II seized many of them or gave them to the Hospitallers3.
1311- William de Miggeley
is known to have been a practising Lawyer
and Justice of Common Pleas in Yorkshire.
1312 Between January and April
Edward II was resident at York and received Gaveston after Edward I
had banished him from court. The Earl of Lancaster, with a private
army, marched on York. Edward II and Gaveston fled to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne where they escaped to Tynemouth. From
here they took ship to Scarborough. Edward II left Gaveston in charge
as the governor of the strongly fortified Scarborough castle whilst
he returned to York then London.
|
The Barons' Army at the Siege of Scarborough 1312
* Aymer Valence,
Earl of Pembroke+ + = went over to Edward II
after Gaveston was murdered. |
The Death of King Edward II's Favourite
After Edward's return to York, the barons army, after
a number of repulsions managed to capture Piers Gaveston at Scarborough
and he was taken to Castle Deddington near Banbury Oxon. Gaveston was
seized using a force of 140 men under Guy De Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick,
one of the foremost 'Ordainers'. This was probably done with the connivance
of Aymer De Valence, Earl of Pembroke at Deddington castle and then
Gaveston was taken to Warwick Castle. Gaveston may have prayed at the chantry
situated at what is now called Guy's Cliff on the banks of the River Avon
before being taken to Blacklow Hill which lies between Kenilworth and Warwick. The barons who engineered
the execution were led by Thomas Earl of Lancaster.
Here at Blacklow, Gaveston was
beheaded whilst others say run through with a sword and stabbed and even
felled with a battle-axe on the grass where he lay, by two Welshmen. [19th
or 20th June 1312]. Either way this was an enormously important
act for it showed the populace that the Lord's Ordainers and the Earl of
Lancaster were a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the North of
England. Homophobia was alive and well even at this time but we
must recognise that this Gascon, Gaveston, had incurred the wrath
of the barons by his insults and more particularly by being granted estates
they felt were rightfully theirs.
After Gaveston's death, Isabella, the Queen,
grew closer to the homosocial king Edward II and the future Edward III
was born a year later on the 13th November
at Windsor Castle. However the Despensers
soon replaced Gaveston as Edward II's favorites, incurring the
jealousy of both Isabella and the barons.
1313 - As a result of the instability in the English crown the
Scottish under Robert de Bruce began to make serious incursions into
Northumberland and Yorkshire, burning and pillaging as they went.
Bannockburn 24th
June 1314.
1315 By this time the country was experiencing
the "worst famine in living memory" caused by heavy rainfall. Later
this period was described as "The Great Famine". Edward II made
peace with his barons in order to help protect the Northern Marches
against Scottish invaders.
1316 The Great Famine continued
into this year, when a harvest was obtained in October. In this year John Warrene 8th Earl Warrene was excommunicated
by the Church of Rome.This was probably achieved with the assistance
of Edward II.
1317 Further calamity beset
the north when cattle murain and sheep disease followed. In this year Sandal castle
was put under siege by the Earl of Lancaster, a neighbourhood disagreement
ostensibly over the death of Gaveston, had developed between Warrene
and Lancaster. This is the turning point for Warrene who had sided
with Edward II. Sandal Magna castle was subseqently burnt to the ground
by Lancaster.
As a result
of his favouritism of Gaveston and the severe loss at Bannockburn,
famine and cattle diseases, Edward II became very unpopular, everything
it could be concluded was as a result of Edward's poor rule. Thomas
Plantagenet, the Duke of Lancaster became for a time, more popular
than Edward, especially in the North of England for Yorkshire folk were
looking forward to a leader who could take the battle once again to the
Scots or at least treaty with them.. But eventually the 'Ordainers' tired
of his power seeking and treachery and joined the Royalists to remove
him from power.
See The Battle of Boroughbridge
1318
1319
In this year as Lancaster became more powerful, John Earl Warrene was
forced to grant the Wakefield Manor lands to Thomas Earl of Lancaster.
Thomas already held the neighbouring lands of the Honour of Pontefract.
Thus for about five years, from 1317 until 1322, the Pontefract lands
and the Wakefield manor lands were held under one baron. It is likely
that the landed knights such as de Thornhill and de Midgley of the Honour
of Pontefract were unwilling parties to this aggregation. Lancaster was
their lord and demanded their services, de Warrene however was the owner
of the nearest castle, a haven of safety in troublesome times. Any not
pledging alleigance to the lord could have been dispossessed.
1320 Earl Lancaster completed rebuiling Sandal Magna castle in stone.
1321
THE BATTLE OF BOROUGHBRIDGE
1322 -From 1315 the Earl of
Lancaster, Thomas Plantagenet had been unchallenged. There had been
three years of torrential rain throughout Europe, cannibalism was
recorded and people murdered for food. Prices rose by eight times in
one year and families fought
each other.5. Thomas' wife had left
him in 1316 [others say she was 'abducted' but probably did not resist]
and hid with another earl, John De Warrene at Reigate who held estates
in Sussex and at Conisboro'
in Yorkshire. This started a war with Yorkshire.
Lancaster had been gathering
support in an attempt to overthrow Edward II. From 1315 he
built Dunstanburgh castle in Northumberland
where he entreated the Scots to join him. On the 16th March 1322
the barons' army, led by the Earl of Lancaster, whose seat was at Pontefract,
engaged in a battle with the kings's army at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire.
THE BATTLE OF BOROUGHBRIDGE
| THE BARONIAL ARMY | EDWARD II's ARMY |
| * The Earl of Lancaster- Thomas Plantagenet, the
king's cousin. * Sir Robert de Holland, originally Lancaster's butler and favourite, who defected to the king's army. * Humphrey De Bohun 4th Earl of Hereford & Essex# * Aymer De Valence-Earl of Pembroke * Edmund Plantagenet-Earl of Kent, brother to Ed. II. * John de Brittany-Earl of Richmond * Sir Robert Malmthorpe * John De Mowbray of Kirklinton, 2nd baron, Governor of the City of York and Scarborough Castle, Sheriff of York, hanged later at York, 1322. # killed by a Welshman under the Boroughbridge. |
*Sir Andrew de Harcla, Governor of Carlisle and
the Western Marches who had previously been
given his knighthood by Lancaster. *Sir Simon Ward [Sheriff of Yorkshire 1315-1321] *William Lord Latimer [Governor of the city of York] * Henry De Faucumberg and the Yorkshire Array. |
Lancaster was taken to Pontefract castle
where he was confined to one of the towers, perhaps the Gascoigne Tower. The expected Scots assistance never materialised
and the baronial army was cut down by the withering hail of arrows
from Harcla's archers. Lancaster was arrested whilst praying in Boroughbridge
church and taken to York. Here he was mocked by the crowd, from there
he er in which Richard II is supposed
to have been held. Edward II arrived shortly after Lancaster's incarceration
and Lancaster was arraigned before the king in the Great Hall
of Pontefract.
After the trial, at which
Lancaster was not permitted to offer a defence, he was paraded on
an old horse through the streets of Pontefract with a friar's hood
on his head and given many insults. Initially he was to be hanged, drawn
and quartered, a method originally devised for William Wallace [Le Waleys]
by Edward I, but this was reduced to beheading because of Lancaster's
royal blood [A Plantagenet]. At
his execution he was made to kneel towards Scotland before being beheaded,
a symbolic way for a traitor to pay homage to the Northern enemy. The
remnants of Lancaster's army were declared contrariants a special
type of fugitive [outlaw] many escaping to the protection of the
local area of which one was probably the Barnsdale district. see Robin
Hood
Ninety five barons and knights were made prisoners at Pontefract
and tried for high treason. One of the judges was John 8th Earl Warrene.
Some were executed here at the same time whilst others were taken to
York and executed later. Robert de Clifford of Skipton was hung in chains
at York castle, his body rotting for three years before the friars of
York took away his remains and cremated them..
After the execution, Edward
II held a parliament at York, reversing sentences that hadpreviously
been passed by rebel barons against the Despensers. Sometime
after the battle of Boroughbridge Edward II gave back John 8th Earl
Warrene Earl of Surrey, the manor of Wakefield.
< The so-called Clifford's Tower, the keep of York Castle where in 1322
Roger de Clifford was hung in chains.
After the
Battle of Boroughbridge, the clergy in the year 1322, granted
fourpence in the mark to Edward II to carry on the war against Scotland.
Edward accompanied by Isabella marched to Edinburgh but had to retreat
due to a scarcity of provisions. The army was followed by Robert de Bruce,
where the English were surprised at Byland Abbey. The army fled, Edward
escaping on a fleet-footed horse and thence by a rough sea passage.
Isabella fled to Tynemouth priory where she too took rough passage. John
de Brittany, Earl of Richmond, was captured and held for a long period
of time for ransom. Andrew de Harcla [Anglicised to Harclay] was accused
of treachery for not opposing the Scots and was summararily executed at
Carlisle. Following this series
of downward spirals, Edward II signed a treaty with the Scots at Bishopthorpe,
near York, so named from the Archbishop of Yorks palace being located
here.| The Kyng came to
Notynghame, With knyghtes in grete araye, For to take that gentyll knyght, And robyn Hode, yf he may. A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode -the F text. |
1324 -24th March to 22nd November a "Robyn Hode" was employed
by Edward II as a porter of the King's Chamber. In the 1320's Queen Isabella became Edward II, her husband's. Meanwhile the the lover of Edward's, Queen Isabella,
Roger de Mortimer escaped from the White Tower to France.
1325- In March the king and the
two Despensers sent Queen Isabella to France as an envoy and she then lured prince Edward [later EdIII] to France to
pay homage for Gascony. From this year,
with the young English prince in her grasp, Isabella organised Edward II's
betrayal and destruction. For this she was to win the opprobrium of English
chroniclers, for although she was the English Queen, she was also fiendishly
French. Ostensibly Isabella was to negotiate a treaty with her brother
Charles IV of France for war had broken out between England and France in
1324. She announced she would not return to England unless the
Despensers [later Spencers] were dismissed. With her lover Roger Mortimer,
Earl of Wigmore she rallied support under the protection of the Flemish,
Count of Hainault. This family of Hainaulters later provided both a daughter
in marriage for Edward III [Philippa] and another, Elizabeth, for Robert
de Holand, 2nd baron Holland.
1326 - 24th
September Mortimer and Isabella invaded England, entering through Orwell Haven, Suffolk, They were supported by the Earl of Lancaster and Edmund
of Kent, and welcomed by the Earl of Norfolk, Thomas de Brotherton and
many of the people of England. On November
16th King Edward II was captured near Neath by Henry Earl of Leicester.
In January 1327 Ed. II was deposed in favour of his son Edward, later
Edward III. Edward at this time was a mere
14 years old.
1326 - ISABELLA AND THE YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD ARE GREETED AT ORWELL
Queen Isabella with prince Edward
and Roger Mortimer landed at Orwell Haven in Suffolk and gathered
the barons' and peoples support. The location of the
'Mythical Town of Orwell' has confounded researchers6, but it
appears that it was never a town but a port which has now been swept away
by the notorious east coast sea erosion.7 Where it lay exactly
is not obvious, but if the painting from Froissart's Chronicles is
at all accurate it shows a castle in the foreground, presumably the fortified
port of Orwell. Erosion is already evident at the base of the tower. In
the distance are plunging cliffs as we see at Bull's Cliff today. These cliffs
are composed of unconsolidated boulder clays and silts which have a
tendency to slip in rotational shear. This was discovered during World War
II when a heavy gun battery was erected on Bull's Cliff, the first practice
salvo caused the engineers to rethink the location when part of the cliff
collapsed as a result. Where 'West Rocks' lies just 100 metres off
the Old Walton beach, South of Bull's Cliff, there is believed to have been
a Roman Saxon-shore fort which collapsed into the sea. From
dredgings taken in the late 1800's the 'rocks' appear to have included
building stone. This may be the remains of the Roman 'castle' [Saxon shore
fort], much embellished, shown perched on the edge of the cliffs in the middle
distance of the Froissart painting, which looks north [observe the shadow
of the kneeling knight's leg].
1327 Edward II was murdered at
Berkeley castle , his tomb however is not in Westminster
but at Gloucester
Cathedral, probably as
a result of Queen Isabella's directive. Later, on her death in 1358
Queen Isabella, his wife was buried in London but her heart was taken
to Gloucester Abbey where her husband had been buried4. The
Cathedral there has a huge Crecy window added later in Edward III's time.
Gloucester became a great attraction to pilgrims who were saddened at
the death of Edward II for about half the people of England supported
him, the other half were essentially those residing in Northern England.
< Berkeley Castle where Edward II met his end in the end!
Isabella and Mortimer with their supporters near Bristol whilst
Sir Hugh Despenser the eldr is executed in the town. >
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