Editing Edward II of England (section)

==Death (1327)==
===Death and aftermath===
[[File:Edward II's cell - geograph.org.uk - 585477.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=photograph of walkway in Berkeley Castle|Covered walkway leading to a cell within [[Berkeley Castle]], by tradition associated with Edward's imprisonment]]

Those opposed to the new government began to make plans to free Edward, and Roger Mortimer decided to move him to the more secure location of [[Berkeley Castle]] in [[Gloucestershire]], where Edward arrived around 5 April 1327.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=542–543}}.</ref> Once at the castle, he was kept in the custody of Mortimer's son-in-law, [[Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley]], and [[John Maltravers]], who were given £5 a day for Edward's maintenance.<ref name="Phillips2011P541">{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=541}}.</ref> It is unclear how well cared for Edward was; the records show luxury goods being bought on his behalf, but some chroniclers suggest that he was often mistreated.<ref name=Phillips2011P541/> A poem, the "[[Lament of Edward&nbsp;II]]", has been attributed to Edward during his imprisonment by some scholars, but this is disputed.<ref name="Poemdetails">{{Harvnb|Galbraith|1935|p=221}}; {{Harvnb|McKisack|1959|p=2}}; {{Harvnb|Smallwood|1973|p=528}}; {{Harvnb|Valente|2002|p=422}}.</ref>{{Efn|For a sceptical comment, see [[Vivian Galbraith]]; [[May McKisack]] reserved judgement, noting that "if he was indeed the author of the Anglo-Norman lament ascribed to him, he knew something of versification"; M. Smallwood feels that "the authorship question has not been settled"; Claire Valente writes "I think it unlikely that Edward&nbsp;II wrote the poem".<ref name=Poemdetails/>}}

Concerns continued to be raised over fresh plots to liberate Edward, some involving the Dominican order and former household knights, and one such attempt got at least as far as breaking into the prison within the castle.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=543–544}}.</ref> As a result of these threats, Edward was moved around to other locations in secret for a period, before returning to permanent custody at the castle in late summer 1327.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=546–547}}.</ref> The political situation remained unstable, and new plots appear to have been formed to free him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=547}}.</ref>

On 23 September Edward III was informed that his father had died at Berkeley Castle during the night of 21 September.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=548}}.</ref> Most historians agree that Edward&nbsp;II did die at Berkeley on that date, although there is a minority view that he died much later.<ref name=MainstreamList/>{{Efn|Mainstream historical interpretations of Edward's death include those of Seymour Phillips, who argues that it is "likely that he was murdered, probably by suffocation"; Roy Haines, who suggests that he was probably murdered and that "there is little reason to doubt that Edward of Caernarfon's corpse has remained there [Gloucester Cathedral] undisturbed since December 1327 or thereabouts"; Mira Rubin, who concludes that Edward may have been murdered; Michael Prestwich, who has "no doubt" that Mortimer plotted to murder Edward, and that he "almost certainly died at Berkeley"; Joe Burden, who believes that Mortimer issued orders for Edward to be killed, and that Edward was buried at Gloucester; Mark Ormrod, who argues that Edward was probably murdered, and Edward is buried at Gloucester; Jeffrey Hamilton, who finds the argument that Edward survived Berkeley "fantastic"; and Chris Given-Wilson, who believes it is "almost certainly&nbsp;... true" that Edward died on the night of 21 September and was murdered.<ref name="MainstreamList">{{Harvnb|Rubin|2006|pp=54–55}}; {{Harvnb|Prestwich|2003|p=88}}; {{Harvnb|Burden|2004|p=16}}; {{Harvnb|Ormrod|2004|p=177}}; {{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=563}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=198, 226, 232}}; {{Harvnb|Given-Wilson|1996|p=33}}; {{Harvnb|Hamilton|2010|p=133}}; {{Cite web |last=Given-Wilson |first=Chris |date=9 July 2010 |title=Holy Fool |url=http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/history/article750063.ece |access-date=22 April 2014 |website=Times Literary Supplement |mode=cs2 |archive-date=25 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325201619/http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/history/article750063.ece |url-status=dead}}.</ref>}} His death was, as Mark Ormrod notes, "suspiciously timely", as it simplified Mortimer's political problems considerably, and most historians believe that Edward was probably murdered on the orders of the new regime, although it is impossible to be certain.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ormrod|2004|p=177}}.</ref> Several of the individuals suspected of involvement in the death, including Sir Thomas Gurney, Maltravers and {{Ill|William Ockley|fr}}, later fled.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=572–576}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=235–236}}.</ref>{{Efn|Thomas Berkeley was spared by Edward&nbsp;III, after a jury concluded in 1331 that he had not been involved in the killing of the late king. The same jury found that William Ockley and Thomas Gurney had been responsible for the death. Ockley was not heard of again, but Gurney fled and was pursued across Europe, where he was captured in Naples; he died as he was being returned to England. John Maltravers was not formally accused of murdering Edward&nbsp;II but left for Europe and from there contacted Edward&nbsp;III, possibly to make a deal over what he knew about the events of 1327; after a period in exile he was ultimately pardoned and given permission to return to England in 1351.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=575–576}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=236–237}}.</ref>}} If Edward died from natural causes, his death may have been hastened by [[major depressive disorder|depression]] following his imprisonment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=563}}.</ref>

The rule of Isabella and Mortimer did not last long after the announcement of Edward's death. They made peace with the Scots in the [[Treaty of Northampton]], but this move was highly unpopular.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=198–199}}.</ref> Isabella and Mortimer both amassed and spent great wealth, and criticism of them mounted.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=199–200}}.</ref> Relations between Mortimer and Edward&nbsp;III became strained and in 1330 the king conducted a ''[[coup d'état]]'' at [[Nottingham Castle]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=214–216}}.</ref> He arrested Mortimer and then executed him on fourteen charges of treason, including the murder of Edward&nbsp;II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=216–217}}.</ref> Edward&nbsp;III's government sought to blame Mortimer for all the recent problems, effectively politically rehabilitating Edward&nbsp;II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ormrod|2004|pp=177–178}}.</ref> Edward&nbsp;III placed his mother under arrest, but she was released soon after.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rubin|2006|pp=55–56}}.</ref>

===Burial and cult===
[[File:Gloucester Cathedral 20190210 143005 (33746070958).jpg|thumb|alt=photograph of Edward's tomb|Edward II's tomb at [[Gloucester Cathedral]]]]

Edward's body was [[embalmed]] at Berkeley Castle, where it was viewed by local leaders from Bristol and Gloucester.<ref>{{Harvnb|Burden|2004|p=16}}.</ref> It was then taken to [[Gloucester Abbey]] on 21 October, and on 20 December, Edward was buried by the [[high altar]], the funeral having probably been delayed to allow Edward&nbsp;III to attend in person.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=118}}; {{Harvnb|Burden|2004|pp=18–19}}.</ref>{{Efn|The historian Joel Burden notes that this delay in burial was not unusual for the period; the bodies of many other royalty, including Edward&nbsp;I and Isabella of France, remained unburied for a similar period.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=118}}.</ref>}} Gloucester was probably chosen because other abbeys had refused or been forbidden to take the king's body, and because it was close to Berkeley.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=118}}; {{Harvnb|Burden|2004|p=19}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=228–229}}.</ref>{{Efn|Although it was normal for Westminster Abbey to be used to bury English monarchs by the 14th century, the practice was not as formalised as it later became.<ref>{{Harvnb|Burden|2004|p=20}}.</ref>}} The funeral was a grand affair and cost £351 in total, complete with gilt lions, standards painted with [[gold leaf]] and oak barriers to manage the anticipated crowds.<ref>{{Harvnb|Burden|2004|pp=16–17, 25}}.</ref> Edward&nbsp;III's government probably hoped to put a veneer of normality over the recent political events, increasing the legitimacy of the young king's own reign.<ref>{{Harvnb|Burden|2004|pp=25–27}}.</ref>

A temporary wooden [[effigy]] with a copper crown was made for the funeral; this is the first known use of a funeral effigy in England, and was probably necessary because of the condition of the King's body, as he had been dead for three months.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|pp=106, 119}}; {{Harvnb|Burden|2004|p=21}}.</ref> Edward's heart was removed, placed in a silver container, and later buried with Isabella at [[Christ Church Greyfriars|Newgate Church]] in London.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=119}}.</ref> His tomb includes a very early example of an English [[alabaster]] effigy, with a [[tomb chest]] and a canopy made of [[oolite]] and [[Purbeck stone]].<ref name="Duffy2003PP119GloucesterWebsite">{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|pp=119, 122}}; {{Cite web |year=2014 |title=Edward II's Tomb |url=http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=edward-ii-tomb |access-date=22 April 2014 |publisher=Gloucester Cathedral |mode=cs2 |archive-date=6 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306120611/http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=edward-ii-tomb |url-status=dead}}.</ref> Edward was buried in the shirt, [[coif]] and gloves from his coronation, and his effigy depicts him as king, holding a [[sceptre]] and [[Sovereign's Orb|orb]], and wearing a strawberry-leaf crown.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|pp=106, 119}}.</ref> The effigy features a pronounced lower lip, and may be a close likeness of Edward.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=121}}.</ref>{{Efn|Earlier scholarship had argued that the effigy on the tomb was an idealised carving, although more recent work has put more emphasis on its likely resemblance to Edward&nbsp;II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=121}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|p=229}}.</ref>}}

Edward II's tomb rapidly became a popular site for visitors, probably encouraged by the local monks, who lacked an existing pilgrimage attraction.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|pp=119, 122}}; {{Harvnb|Ormrod|2004|pp=177–178}}.</ref> Visitors donated extensively to the abbey, allowing the monks to rebuild much of the surrounding church in the 1330s.<ref name=Duffy2003PP119GloucesterWebsite/> Miracles reportedly took place at the tomb, and modifications had to be made to enable visitors to walk around it in larger numbers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=122}}; {{Cite web |year=2014 |title=Edward II's Tomb |url=http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=edward-ii-tomb |access-date=22 April 2014 |publisher=Gloucester Cathedral |mode=cs2 |archive-date=6 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306120611/http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=edward-ii-tomb |url-status=dead}}.</ref> The chronicler [[Geoffrey le Baker]] depicted Edward as a saintly, tortured [[martyr]], and [[Richard&nbsp;II]] gave royal support for an unsuccessful bid to have Edward [[canonised]] in 1395.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=122}}; {{Harvnb|Ormrod|2004|p=179}}.</ref> The tomb was opened by officials in 1855, uncovering a wooden coffin, still in good condition, and a sealed lead coffin inside it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duffy|2003|p=123}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|p=232}}.</ref> The tomb remains in what is now [[Gloucester Cathedral]], and was extensively restored in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of over £100,000.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2014 |title=Edward II's Tomb |url=http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/history/article750063.ece |access-date=22 April 2014 |publisher=Gloucester Cathedral |mode=cs2 |archive-date=25 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325201619/http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/reviews/history/article750063.ece |url-status=dead}}.</ref>

{{Anchor|Controversial death}}

===Controversies===
Controversy rapidly surrounded Edward's death.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rubin|2006|p=55}}.</ref> With Mortimer's execution in 1330, rumours began to circulate that Edward had been murdered at Berkeley Castle. Accounts that he had been killed by the insertion of a red-hot iron or [[Fire iron|poker]] into his [[anus]] slowly began to spread, possibly as a result of deliberate propaganda; chroniclers in the mid-1330s and 1340s disseminated this account further, supported in later years by [[Geoffrey le Baker]]'s colourful account of the killing.<ref>{{Harvnb|Prestwich|2003|p=88}}; {{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=562}}; {{Harvnb|Ormrod|2006|pp=37–38}}; {{Harvnb|Mortimer|2004|pp=191–194}}.</ref> It became incorporated into most later histories of Edward, typically being linked to his possible homosexuality.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ormrod|2006|pp=37–39}}.</ref> Most historians now dismiss this account of Edward's death, querying the logic in his captors murdering him in such an easily detectable fashion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mortimer|2004|pp=193–194}}; {{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|p=563}}.</ref>{{Efn|Initial sources either did not suggest that Edward had been murdered at all, or suggested that he had been suffocated or strangled. The first sources to begin to successfully popularise the "anal rape" narrative were the longer ''Brut'' and ''Polychronicon'' chronicles in the mid-1330s and 1340s, respectively. One of Edward's biographers, Seymour Phillips, notes that while the hot iron story could be true, it is much more likely that he was suffocated, noting that the account of the red-hot iron seems suspiciously similar to earlier accounts of the murder of King [[Edmund Ironside]]; the similarities to this earlier story are also highlighted by [[Ian Mortimer (historian)|Ian Mortimer]] and [[Pierre Chaplais]]. His other biographer, Roy Haines, makes no reference at all to the red-hot poker story. Ian Mortimer, who argues that Edward did not die in 1327, naturally disputes the "anal rape" story. Paul Doherty notes that modern historians take the "lurid description of Edward's death with more than a pinch of salt". [[Michael Prestwich]] has noted that most of Geoffrey le Baker's story "belongs to the world of romance rather than of history", but has also noted that Edward "very possibly" died from the insertion of a red-hot iron.<ref>{{Harvnb|Phillips|2011|pp=562–564}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003}}; {{Harvnb|Mortimer|2006|pp=51, 55}}; {{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|p=131}}; {{Harvnb|Prestwich|2007|p=219}}.</ref>}}
 
Another set of theories surround the possibility that Edward did not really die in 1327. These theories typically involve the "[[Fieschi Letter]]", sent to Edward&nbsp;III by an Italian priest called Manuel Fieschi, who claimed that Edward escaped Berkeley Castle in 1327 with the help of a servant and ultimately retired to become a hermit in the [[Holy Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|pp=185–188}}.</ref> The body buried at Gloucester Cathedral was said to be that of the porter of Berkeley Castle, killed by the assassins and presented by them to Isabella as Edward's corpse to avoid punishment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|pp=186–188}}.</ref> The letter is often linked to an account of Edward&nbsp;III meeting with a man called William the Welshman in [[Antwerp]] in 1338, who claimed to be Edward&nbsp;II.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|p=213}}.</ref> Some parts of the letter's content are considered broadly accurate by historians, although other aspects of its account have been criticised as implausible.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|pp=189–208}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=222–229}}.</ref> A few historians have supported versions of its narrative. [[Paul C. Doherty]] questions the veracity of the letter and the identity of William the Welshman, but nonetheless has suspicions that Edward may have survived his imprisonment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doherty|2004|pp=213–217}}.</ref> The [[popular historian]] [[Alison Weir]] believes the events in the letter to be essentially true, using the letter to argue that Isabella was innocent of murdering Edward.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weir|2006|pp=285–291}}.</ref> and [[Natalie Fryde]] has claimed that Edward's survival is "a possibility".<ref>{{cite book |last=Bradbury |first=Jim |author-link=Jim Bradbury |date=2007 |title=The Capetians |location=London |publisher=Continuum Books |page=286 |isbn=978-1-85285-528-4}}</ref> The historian [[Ian Mortimer (historian)|Ian Mortimer]] suggests that the story in Fieschi's letter is broadly accurate, but argues that it was in fact Mortimer and Isabella who had Edward secretly released, and who then faked his death, a fiction later maintained by Edward&nbsp;III when he came to power.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mortimer|2005}}; {{Harvnb|Mortimer|2008|pp=408–410}}.</ref> Ian Mortimer's account was criticised by most scholars when it was first published, in particular by historian [[David Carpenter (historian)|David Carpenter]], who argues that there is no "convincing evidence for Edward’s survival, let alone for it being the result of a Mortimer plot”.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mortimer|2008|p=408}}; {{Cite news |last=Carpenter |first=David |date=7 June 2007 |title=What Happened to Edward II? |pages=32–34 |work=London Review of Books |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n11/david-carpenter/what-happened-to-edward-ii |access-date=20 April 2014}}</ref>{{Efn|For a critique of the theory that Edward&nbsp;II survived his imprisonment, see David Carpenter's review in the ''London Review of Books'', and Roy Haines's biography of Edward.<ref>{{Harvnb|Carpenter|2007|pages=32–34}}; {{Harvnb|Haines|2003|pp=234–237}}.</ref>}}