Apologies for the short post today, but I've had a very busy week teaching and haven't had time to prepare a proper one. ;)
I was delighted recently to see that a new edition of the mid-fourteenth century chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker has been published, edited by Richard Barber and translated by David Preest. I was even more delighted to see that a footnote on page 40 cites my 2011 English Historical Review article about the earl of Kent's plot of 1330! Baker invented the tales of Edward of Caernarfon's torments at Berkeley Castle in 1327 and wrote a ludicrously over-the-top account of the red-hot poker story which is still often repeated as fact, but of course there's a lot more to his chronicle than that, and it's great to see a new edition of it.
I'm so looking forward to reading this book: Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England by Lisa Benz St John. The three queens are Marguerite of France, Isabella of France and Philippa of Hainault, the stepmother, wife and daughter-in-law of Edward II. A few weeks ago I picked up a new book which shall remain nameless about the queens of England, saw three mistakes on one page in the Isabella of France chapter, and put it down again. I'm afraid I don't quite see the point of all these glossy purportedly non-fiction books where writers who rarely have any qualifications in history merely repeat and perpetuate the errors of previous writers and barely even bother looking at any primary sources. It's so good to see a proper academic study of these women by a properly-qualified writer appear.
A Polish lady named Kasia runs a great site about Henry II's son Henry the Young King (1155-1183): well worth a look! Henry died childless, so was succeeded by his brothers Richard Lionheart and John, Edward II's great-grandfather. He was married to Louis VII of France and Constanza of Castile's daughter Marguerite; Louis had of course formerly been married to young Henry's mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, which meant that Henry and his wife had half-sisters in common. Pretty odd when you think about it! Marguerite's younger sister Alais, who was betrothed for many years to Richard Lionheart but never married him, was the great-great-grandmother of Edward II (Alais and Guillaume Talvas, count of Ponthieu - Marie, countess of Ponthieu - Jeanne, countess of Ponthieu and queen of Castile - Eleanor of Castile - Edward II).
In case you missed it ;), my blog was linked in this Guardian article about Derek Jarman's 1991 film about Edward II.
My friend Anerje recently visited Winchester Cathedral and
took pics of the tomb of Piers Gaveston's father Sir Arnaud de Gabaston, who died in 1302. Great to see him!
Another good friend of mine, historical novelist Paula Lofting, now has a website, so please take a look if you're at all interested in eleventh-century history. See also here, here and here for her blogs.
Finally, in the Things That Are Annoying Me This Week category, I'd like to give a dishonourable mention to all the people in online forums, on Facebook and so on who refer to Edward II as a 'queen' rather than a king and are evidently deeply and madly impressed with their own hilarious wittiness and cleverness. ('Was any queen of England killed before Anne Boleyn?' 'Does Edward II count?' Ba-doom tish!). You know what, peeps, it's not funny, it's lame and pathetic. Give it a rest. Oh, and all the fans of the Victim!Isabella school of thought who whine in reviews of books about Edward and Isabella that Edward 'didn't consummate the marriage for four years, waaaah, what a horrid neglectful so-called husband he was' and that 'he only did his duty' and nothing more. Yeah, because evidently these people were present in Edward and Isabella's bedchamber to be able to state with such certainty that he didn't enjoy it, and of course it would have been far better for a man in his twenties to consummate his marriage with a girl of recently turned twelve and force her to go through pregnancy and childbirth as soon as possible rather than doing the humane thing and waiting until she was older. Sheesh, do people actually think at all before coming out with this crap? I feel a blog post coming on...
26 August, 2012
19 August, 2012
Piers Gaveston's Family And Age
One thing to say first: My long post from last year about Edward II's children, explaining why neither William Wallace nor Roger Mortimer could possibly have been their father, was linked on The Guardian website on Thursday, yay! It was in an article about Derek Jarman's 1991 film adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's c. 1592 play about Edward II (a film I liked a lot more than I was expecting to). I've been getting loads of hits from that - am very pleased and proud! ;-)
I'm still very grateful to the anonymous commenter on my blog a few weeks ago who kindly and generously shared information about Piers Gaveston's family with me, which has really got me thinking about Piers' age and his relationship with Edward II. His parents were Arnaud de Gabaston, baron of Béarn, and Claramonde de Marsan, daughter of Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan (d. 1272), another of the barons of Béarn. Claramonde had previously been married to another Béarnais lord, Arnaud de Lescun, and had a son by him, Fortaner, Piers' half-brother. (Wrongly identified as Claramonde's brother by Piers' biographer J.S. Hamilton, but petitions SC 8/278/13863 and SC 8/278/13858 in the National Archives name Fortaner de Lescun as the brother of Claramonde's son Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan.) Claramonde died on or shortly before 4 Febuary 1287; the story favoured by sensationalist novelists that she was burned as a witch first appeared in the seventeenth century.
After the death of Arnaud de Lescun, Claramonde was quickly married off to Arnaud de Gabaston, so quickly, in fact, that some Gascon experts on this period believe that her eldest child by her second marriage might in fact have been fathered by her first husband. This was Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan, who took his mother's name and was heir to the lands and castles she inherited from her father (after whom he was named). Piers Gaveston was the second child of Claramonde and Arnaud de Gabaston, or perhaps Gabaston's eldest child, half-brother of Fortaner de Lescun and, perhaps, also the half-brother of Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan. My anonymous commenter points out that Piers was chosen by his father to inherit the lordship and title of Gabaston, maybe proof that Arnaud thought Piers was his eldest son. Fortaner and Arnaud-Guilhem were old enough to file a suit in 1292 (J.S. Hamilton, p. 27), and Fortaner was one of the hostages Edward I gave to Alfonso III of Aragon in 1288, as was his stepfather Arnaud de Gabaston (Foedera 1272-1307, pp. 689-90). Fortaner was called lord of Lescun, Fortanerius dominus de Lescu; Arnaud was called Dominus Arnaldus de Gauaston.
ETA: Anerje saw Arnaud de Gabaston's tomb in Winchester Cathedral recently and took pics, here!
As I've remarked here before, Piers was most probably named after his uncle Pierre Caillau, mayor of Bordeaux, who married Claramonde's sister Miramonde. On his father's side he seems to have had uncles named Bernard and Raimond de Gabaston, the latter an archdeacon, and his paternal grandfather was probably Garsie de Gabaston. The family can be traced back in Béarn to 1040, so Piers was most certainly not a "night-grown mushrump" as Christopher Marlowe calls him and whatever contemporary English chronicles might have thought. Incidentally, there is a theory, based on one fourteenth-century chronicle called the Polistorie, that Piers Gaveston's father was also called Piers. A petition to Edward I in c. 1305 disproves this, however: it was presented by 'Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan and Perrot de Gauastun, sons of Sir Arnaud de Gauaston, late knight of Gascony' (fuiz de mons' Arnaud de Gauaston iadis chevaler de Gascoigne: The National Archives, SC 8/291/14546).
We know (Hamilton, pp. 21, 133 note 21) that Arnaud de Gabaston and Claramonde de Marsan were married by 30 June 1272, on which date they acknowledged a debt to the future Edward I. Given the confusion over the paternity of their son Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan and his birth not long after the death of Claramonde's first husband Arnaud de Lescun, this would place Arnaud-Guilhem's birth in the early 1270s at the latest, perhaps before 1270. Thanks to the commenter, I now know that in 1285 Claramonde made a donation to have masses said in the diocese of Lescar for the birth of her daughter Amie or Amye, the fifth child of Arnaud de Gabaston (presumably this includes Arnaud-Guilhem). Piers was the second child, and was followed by brothers Gérard and Raimond-Arnaud, then Amie. (Sources: Pierre de Marca's Histoire du Béarn (1640) and the modern works of Pierre Tucoo-Chala, via the commenter.)
So Piers' elder brother or half-brother was born near the beginning of the 1270s or earlier (and, as noted above, was old enough to file a suit in 1292), and his younger sister Amie was born in 1285, with two brothers born sometime before her. Unless no children were born to Claramonde and Arnaud for many years from the early 1270s and then their youngest four were all born close together in the 1280s, this means that Piers Gaveston was a few years older than I've always thought, perhaps even born as early as 1275 or thereabouts. This changes the mental picture I have of his relationship with Edward II. The St Albans chronicler chronicler calls Piers and Edward 'contemporaries', coetani, and I'd always assumed that he was a little older than Edward, born perhaps in 1281 or 1282 (he had to have been born by 29 July 1283 at the latest, as on 29 July 1304 he was granted the wardship of Roger Mortimer by Edward I, and had to be at least twenty-one then). As J.S. Hamilton points out, Piers seems to have been chosen as a companion for his son by Edward I on the grounds that he was somewhat older and a suitable role model as he came from the region of bele manere (fine manners) and was courteous, and also a brave and excellent soldier and jouster. Seemingly, though, Piers was more than a couple of years older than Edward, perhaps five or seven or even eight or nine years older?
Piers' brothers Gérard and Raimond-Arnaud are totally obscure to me, and I haven't seen any references to them in England in Edward II's reign, unless the 'Bourd de Gavaston' named on the Close Roll as living at Piers' castle of Wallingford in 1312 was a nickname for one of them. A biography of Piers by Walter Phelps Dodge published in 1899 includes an appendix from the Journal of the British Archaelogical Association of 1856, which states that two of Piers' brothers were, like him, buried at Langley Priory. J.S. Hamilton talks of a Guilhem-Arnaud de Gabaston, illegitimate son of Arnaud de Gabaston and thus another half-brother of Piers, who died in 1312 when prayers were said at Langley for him. My commenter, however, cites the Gascon historian Pierre Tucoo-Chala, who found that the 'Guilhem-Arnaud de Gabaston' was in fact Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan, who was still alive in Gascony in 1325 (see below), so I have no idea who masses were said at Langley for in 1312. The Vita Edwardi Secundi says that Piers' sister, presumably Amie - although the chronicler doesn't name her - was with him during the siege of Scarborough Castle in May 1312. The existence of Piers' sister Amie is pretty well definitive proof that the Amie Gaveston who was a damsel of Queen Philippa's chamber in the 1330s and who is said in one document to have been Piers' daughter really, truly, genuinely was his (illegitimate) daughter, by an unknown mother, and named after his sister. Other relatives of Piers, the Caillaus and Marsans, appear often on record in England in Edward II's reign, as does Bourgeois de Tilh, an ally of Piers; Tilh is only 45 miles from Gabaston. One of Edward's sergeants-at-arms was Isarn de Lanneplaà, which is even closer to Gabaston.
Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan married a woman named Mary or Marie (Chancery Warrants 1244-1326, p. 315) and had four children, Arnaud, Jean, Piers and Bernard (Hamilton). He was still alive in April 1325, when he was paid wages by Edward II as the captain of Roquefort-de-Marsan, part of Claramonde's inheritance (Pierre Chaplais, ed., The War of Saint-Sardos (1323-1325): Gascon Correspondence and Diplomatic Documents, p. 274). Edward II had knighted him in May 1308 and granted him lands in Gascony to support his new status, and the following year appointed him seneschal of the Agenais (Patent Rolls 1307-1313, pp. 74, 78; Chancery Warrants, p. 299). 'Fortanerius de Lescu' visited England in June 1311 as the steward of Constance de Béarn, who had once been married to Edward I's first cousin Henry of Almain (Close Rolls 1307-1313, p. 362; Chancery Warrants, p. 367). Edward II acknowledged in October 1309 that he and his father owed 'Fortener, lord of Lescu' £1200, but that only £320 had been paid (Chancery Warrants, p. 300). Finally, Piers' first cousin Pierre Caillau, the son of Claramonde’s sister Miramonde de Marsan, followed in his father's footsteps and served as mayor of Bordeaux from 1308 to 1310, and died in 1335. Pierre (Peyre) had a brother called Bertrand; there was a complaint against them in 1308 (Malcolm Vale, The Origins of the Hundred Years War: The Angevin Legacy 1250-1340, p. 280, and Gascon Register A, ed. G.P. Cuttino, p. 374). A few historians including J.S. Hamilton call Bertrand Caillau Piers' 'nephew', presumably translating the Latin nepos too literally.
This is Gabaston, ancestral home of Piers Gaveston. Looks fabulous with the Pyrenees in the background. This is Lescun, where his mother's first husband ruled - even more stunning and dramatic. And some of the castles held by Arnaud de Gabaston and Claramonde de Marsan: Roquefort-de-Marsan; Hagetmau; St Loubouer. See also the excellent Discover Gascony blog.
Vita Edwardi Secundi: "...he alone found favour in the king's eyes and lorded it over them [the barons] like a second king...Nor could the king's affection be alienated from Piers, for the more he was told, in attempts to dampen his ardour, the greater grew his love and tenderness towards Piers...if an earl or baron entered the king's chamber to speak with the king, in Piers' presence the king addressed no-one, and to none showed a friendly countenance save to Piers only...I do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another. Jonathan cherished David, Achilles loved Patroclus. But we do not read that they were immoderate. Our king, however, was incapable of moderate favour, and on account of Piers was said to forget himself, and so Piers was accounted a sorcerer...Piers remained a man of big ideas, haughty and puffed-up. I fear that his pride will bring about his ruin and headlong fall; for it is written, the heart is exalted before destruction."
I'm still very grateful to the anonymous commenter on my blog a few weeks ago who kindly and generously shared information about Piers Gaveston's family with me, which has really got me thinking about Piers' age and his relationship with Edward II. His parents were Arnaud de Gabaston, baron of Béarn, and Claramonde de Marsan, daughter of Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan (d. 1272), another of the barons of Béarn. Claramonde had previously been married to another Béarnais lord, Arnaud de Lescun, and had a son by him, Fortaner, Piers' half-brother. (Wrongly identified as Claramonde's brother by Piers' biographer J.S. Hamilton, but petitions SC 8/278/13863 and SC 8/278/13858 in the National Archives name Fortaner de Lescun as the brother of Claramonde's son Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan.) Claramonde died on or shortly before 4 Febuary 1287; the story favoured by sensationalist novelists that she was burned as a witch first appeared in the seventeenth century.
After the death of Arnaud de Lescun, Claramonde was quickly married off to Arnaud de Gabaston, so quickly, in fact, that some Gascon experts on this period believe that her eldest child by her second marriage might in fact have been fathered by her first husband. This was Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan, who took his mother's name and was heir to the lands and castles she inherited from her father (after whom he was named). Piers Gaveston was the second child of Claramonde and Arnaud de Gabaston, or perhaps Gabaston's eldest child, half-brother of Fortaner de Lescun and, perhaps, also the half-brother of Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan. My anonymous commenter points out that Piers was chosen by his father to inherit the lordship and title of Gabaston, maybe proof that Arnaud thought Piers was his eldest son. Fortaner and Arnaud-Guilhem were old enough to file a suit in 1292 (J.S. Hamilton, p. 27), and Fortaner was one of the hostages Edward I gave to Alfonso III of Aragon in 1288, as was his stepfather Arnaud de Gabaston (Foedera 1272-1307, pp. 689-90). Fortaner was called lord of Lescun, Fortanerius dominus de Lescu; Arnaud was called Dominus Arnaldus de Gauaston.
ETA: Anerje saw Arnaud de Gabaston's tomb in Winchester Cathedral recently and took pics, here!
As I've remarked here before, Piers was most probably named after his uncle Pierre Caillau, mayor of Bordeaux, who married Claramonde's sister Miramonde. On his father's side he seems to have had uncles named Bernard and Raimond de Gabaston, the latter an archdeacon, and his paternal grandfather was probably Garsie de Gabaston. The family can be traced back in Béarn to 1040, so Piers was most certainly not a "night-grown mushrump" as Christopher Marlowe calls him and whatever contemporary English chronicles might have thought. Incidentally, there is a theory, based on one fourteenth-century chronicle called the Polistorie, that Piers Gaveston's father was also called Piers. A petition to Edward I in c. 1305 disproves this, however: it was presented by 'Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan and Perrot de Gauastun, sons of Sir Arnaud de Gauaston, late knight of Gascony' (fuiz de mons' Arnaud de Gauaston iadis chevaler de Gascoigne: The National Archives, SC 8/291/14546).
We know (Hamilton, pp. 21, 133 note 21) that Arnaud de Gabaston and Claramonde de Marsan were married by 30 June 1272, on which date they acknowledged a debt to the future Edward I. Given the confusion over the paternity of their son Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan and his birth not long after the death of Claramonde's first husband Arnaud de Lescun, this would place Arnaud-Guilhem's birth in the early 1270s at the latest, perhaps before 1270. Thanks to the commenter, I now know that in 1285 Claramonde made a donation to have masses said in the diocese of Lescar for the birth of her daughter Amie or Amye, the fifth child of Arnaud de Gabaston (presumably this includes Arnaud-Guilhem). Piers was the second child, and was followed by brothers Gérard and Raimond-Arnaud, then Amie. (Sources: Pierre de Marca's Histoire du Béarn (1640) and the modern works of Pierre Tucoo-Chala, via the commenter.)
So Piers' elder brother or half-brother was born near the beginning of the 1270s or earlier (and, as noted above, was old enough to file a suit in 1292), and his younger sister Amie was born in 1285, with two brothers born sometime before her. Unless no children were born to Claramonde and Arnaud for many years from the early 1270s and then their youngest four were all born close together in the 1280s, this means that Piers Gaveston was a few years older than I've always thought, perhaps even born as early as 1275 or thereabouts. This changes the mental picture I have of his relationship with Edward II. The St Albans chronicler chronicler calls Piers and Edward 'contemporaries', coetani, and I'd always assumed that he was a little older than Edward, born perhaps in 1281 or 1282 (he had to have been born by 29 July 1283 at the latest, as on 29 July 1304 he was granted the wardship of Roger Mortimer by Edward I, and had to be at least twenty-one then). As J.S. Hamilton points out, Piers seems to have been chosen as a companion for his son by Edward I on the grounds that he was somewhat older and a suitable role model as he came from the region of bele manere (fine manners) and was courteous, and also a brave and excellent soldier and jouster. Seemingly, though, Piers was more than a couple of years older than Edward, perhaps five or seven or even eight or nine years older?
Piers' brothers Gérard and Raimond-Arnaud are totally obscure to me, and I haven't seen any references to them in England in Edward II's reign, unless the 'Bourd de Gavaston' named on the Close Roll as living at Piers' castle of Wallingford in 1312 was a nickname for one of them. A biography of Piers by Walter Phelps Dodge published in 1899 includes an appendix from the Journal of the British Archaelogical Association of 1856, which states that two of Piers' brothers were, like him, buried at Langley Priory. J.S. Hamilton talks of a Guilhem-Arnaud de Gabaston, illegitimate son of Arnaud de Gabaston and thus another half-brother of Piers, who died in 1312 when prayers were said at Langley for him. My commenter, however, cites the Gascon historian Pierre Tucoo-Chala, who found that the 'Guilhem-Arnaud de Gabaston' was in fact Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan, who was still alive in Gascony in 1325 (see below), so I have no idea who masses were said at Langley for in 1312. The Vita Edwardi Secundi says that Piers' sister, presumably Amie - although the chronicler doesn't name her - was with him during the siege of Scarborough Castle in May 1312. The existence of Piers' sister Amie is pretty well definitive proof that the Amie Gaveston who was a damsel of Queen Philippa's chamber in the 1330s and who is said in one document to have been Piers' daughter really, truly, genuinely was his (illegitimate) daughter, by an unknown mother, and named after his sister. Other relatives of Piers, the Caillaus and Marsans, appear often on record in England in Edward II's reign, as does Bourgeois de Tilh, an ally of Piers; Tilh is only 45 miles from Gabaston. One of Edward's sergeants-at-arms was Isarn de Lanneplaà, which is even closer to Gabaston.
Arnaud-Guilhem de Marsan married a woman named Mary or Marie (Chancery Warrants 1244-1326, p. 315) and had four children, Arnaud, Jean, Piers and Bernard (Hamilton). He was still alive in April 1325, when he was paid wages by Edward II as the captain of Roquefort-de-Marsan, part of Claramonde's inheritance (Pierre Chaplais, ed., The War of Saint-Sardos (1323-1325): Gascon Correspondence and Diplomatic Documents, p. 274). Edward II had knighted him in May 1308 and granted him lands in Gascony to support his new status, and the following year appointed him seneschal of the Agenais (Patent Rolls 1307-1313, pp. 74, 78; Chancery Warrants, p. 299). 'Fortanerius de Lescu' visited England in June 1311 as the steward of Constance de Béarn, who had once been married to Edward I's first cousin Henry of Almain (Close Rolls 1307-1313, p. 362; Chancery Warrants, p. 367). Edward II acknowledged in October 1309 that he and his father owed 'Fortener, lord of Lescu' £1200, but that only £320 had been paid (Chancery Warrants, p. 300). Finally, Piers' first cousin Pierre Caillau, the son of Claramonde’s sister Miramonde de Marsan, followed in his father's footsteps and served as mayor of Bordeaux from 1308 to 1310, and died in 1335. Pierre (Peyre) had a brother called Bertrand; there was a complaint against them in 1308 (Malcolm Vale, The Origins of the Hundred Years War: The Angevin Legacy 1250-1340, p. 280, and Gascon Register A, ed. G.P. Cuttino, p. 374). A few historians including J.S. Hamilton call Bertrand Caillau Piers' 'nephew', presumably translating the Latin nepos too literally.
This is Gabaston, ancestral home of Piers Gaveston. Looks fabulous with the Pyrenees in the background. This is Lescun, where his mother's first husband ruled - even more stunning and dramatic. And some of the castles held by Arnaud de Gabaston and Claramonde de Marsan: Roquefort-de-Marsan; Hagetmau; St Loubouer. See also the excellent Discover Gascony blog.
Vita Edwardi Secundi: "...he alone found favour in the king's eyes and lorded it over them [the barons] like a second king...Nor could the king's affection be alienated from Piers, for the more he was told, in attempts to dampen his ardour, the greater grew his love and tenderness towards Piers...if an earl or baron entered the king's chamber to speak with the king, in Piers' presence the king addressed no-one, and to none showed a friendly countenance save to Piers only...I do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another. Jonathan cherished David, Achilles loved Patroclus. But we do not read that they were immoderate. Our king, however, was incapable of moderate favour, and on account of Piers was said to forget himself, and so Piers was accounted a sorcerer...Piers remained a man of big ideas, haughty and puffed-up. I fear that his pride will bring about his ruin and headlong fall; for it is written, the heart is exalted before destruction."
12 August, 2012
August Anniversaries
1 August 1312: This was the deadline agreed in York in late May for parliament to decide the fate of Piers Gaveston, captured at Scarborough Castle. Of course, the earls of Warwick, Lancaster and Hereford had taken the decision out of parliament's hands on 19 June.
1 August 1315: Robert Bruce, attempting to capture Carlisle, gave up the siege after ten days and left, thanks to the stout defence of the town by Andrew Harclay, sheriff of Cumberland and later (briefly) earl of Carlisle. The happy news had not yet reached Edward II at Langley, Hertfordshire on the 8th, on which date he ordered all the sheriffs south of the Trent to send men-at-arms "against the Scotch rebels who are now besieging Carlisle."
1 August 1321: The Marcher rebels entered London to attend the parliament which had been due to begin over two weeks previously - seemingly all that pillaging and chasing people out of their homes had delayed them - and demand the exile of the Despensers.
1 August 1323: Roger Mortimer escaped from the Tower of London, having fed his guards sedatives in their wine, and made his way to the continent. Five days after the escape, Stephen Segrave, constable of the Tower, was still seriously ill from the sedatives. Edward II, at Kirkham in Yorkshire, heard the news on 6 August, and ordered all the sheriffs and keepers of the peace in England and the bailiffs of fifteen ports to pursue Mortimer with hue and cry and take him dead or alive. On 26 August, he told his brother Kent that he thought Mortimer had gone to Ireland (he was in the Low Countries).
1 August 1324: Funeral of Edward's kinsman Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey; his tomb still exists.
2 August 1310: Edward II, dragging his feet, finally and reluctantly confirmed the preliminary Ordinances, that is, enforced reforms of his household carried out by a group of earls, bishops and barons, which they had issued on 19 March.
c. 2 August 1320: The mayor and citizens of London "dressed in clothes appropriate to their office" rode out to meet Edward and Isabella on their return from France, where Edward had paid homage to Philippe V for his French lands, and "greeted him in fine style."
3 August 1309: Edward II sent a letter to his father-in-law Philippe IV expressing his annoyance that Philippe addressed Robert Bruce as king of Scotland in letters to Robert, but referred to him as 'earl of Carrick' in letters to Edward. The letter abruptly begins "To the king of France, greetings."
3 August 1326: Death of Roger Mortimer's uncle Roger Mortimer of Chirk in the Tower of London, aged about seventy.
5 August 1309: Piers Gaveston was re-granted the earldom of Cornwall by parliament in Stamford, following his second exile in Ireland. All the English earls except Lancaster and Arundel witnessed Piers' restoration, even Warwick, and the deed was delivered to Edward II in his chamber at the house of the Dominicans.
6 August 1307: Edward II created Piers Gaveston earl of Cornwall, probably even before Piers had returned to England from exile and possibly even without his prior knowledge, as Edward claimed in a letter to Pope Clement V the following year - though at the time Edward was trying to manipulate Clement into supporting Piers and himself and might have been stretching the truth. The charter includes the arms of de Clares, showing that Edward was already planning the marriage of Piers and his niece Margaret de Clare, which took place on 1 November that year. (Several chroniclers comment that Edward called Piers his 'adopted brother', but he had no available sisters for Piers to marry except his little half-sister Eleanor, Edward I's youngest child, who was only fifteen months old in August 1307, so a niece had to suffice instead.)
6 August 1315: Edward II proclaimed that the magnates of the realm should limit the number of courses served at their tables, on account of the "excessive and abundant portions of food" they were accustomed to enjoying, while many of their countrymen starved during the Great Famine. The proclamation also limited the number of minstrels permitted to go to the houses of great lords to three or four a day, and they were not to go to the houses of "smaller people" at all, "unless requested to do so," the proclamation added helpfully. Minstrels were also commanded to be satisfied with the amount of food and drink freely offered to them and not to demand more.
16 August 1312: Edward II gave three shillings to John of Lombardy for "making his minstrelsy with snakes before the king" in Dover.
16 August 1320: Edward wrote to his kinsman the earl of Pembroke telling him that his half-brother the earl of Norfolk had come to him asking advice about his marriage, and that Edward did not wish to proceed further without Pembroke's advice. King Jaime II of Aragon proposed his daughter Maria, widow of Pedro of Castile (Edward's first cousin once removed) as Norfolk's bride, but in August 1321 reported that Maria had decided to take the veil and that he did not think he would be able to change her mind.
17 August 1307: Piers Gaveston, newly returned to England and earl of Cornwall, held a feast for Edward II at Sanquhar in Scotland. Edward gave a pound each to the Welsh trumpeters, Yevan and Yethel, who performed for them.
17 August 1317: Edward arrived at Lincoln and gave generous alms at the masses celebrated in the cathedral for the repose of the soul of John Montacute, teenage son of his friend and household steward William Montacute, whose funeral had taken place there three days before. (John's younger brother William became a close friend of Edward III and earl of Salisbury.) Edward paid forty clerks to pray for the young man's soul and thirteen widows to watch over his body.
August 1317, in general: The Sempringham annalist tells us that "there issued from the earth water-mice with long tails, larger than rats, with which the fields and meadows were filled in the summer and in August."
1 August 1315: Robert Bruce, attempting to capture Carlisle, gave up the siege after ten days and left, thanks to the stout defence of the town by Andrew Harclay, sheriff of Cumberland and later (briefly) earl of Carlisle. The happy news had not yet reached Edward II at Langley, Hertfordshire on the 8th, on which date he ordered all the sheriffs south of the Trent to send men-at-arms "against the Scotch rebels who are now besieging Carlisle."
1 August 1321: The Marcher rebels entered London to attend the parliament which had been due to begin over two weeks previously - seemingly all that pillaging and chasing people out of their homes had delayed them - and demand the exile of the Despensers.
1 August 1323: Roger Mortimer escaped from the Tower of London, having fed his guards sedatives in their wine, and made his way to the continent. Five days after the escape, Stephen Segrave, constable of the Tower, was still seriously ill from the sedatives. Edward II, at Kirkham in Yorkshire, heard the news on 6 August, and ordered all the sheriffs and keepers of the peace in England and the bailiffs of fifteen ports to pursue Mortimer with hue and cry and take him dead or alive. On 26 August, he told his brother Kent that he thought Mortimer had gone to Ireland (he was in the Low Countries).
1 August 1324: Funeral of Edward's kinsman Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey; his tomb still exists.
2 August 1310: Edward II, dragging his feet, finally and reluctantly confirmed the preliminary Ordinances, that is, enforced reforms of his household carried out by a group of earls, bishops and barons, which they had issued on 19 March.
c. 2 August 1320: The mayor and citizens of London "dressed in clothes appropriate to their office" rode out to meet Edward and Isabella on their return from France, where Edward had paid homage to Philippe V for his French lands, and "greeted him in fine style."
3 August 1309: Edward II sent a letter to his father-in-law Philippe IV expressing his annoyance that Philippe addressed Robert Bruce as king of Scotland in letters to Robert, but referred to him as 'earl of Carrick' in letters to Edward. The letter abruptly begins "To the king of France, greetings."
3 August 1326: Death of Roger Mortimer's uncle Roger Mortimer of Chirk in the Tower of London, aged about seventy.
5 August 1309: Piers Gaveston was re-granted the earldom of Cornwall by parliament in Stamford, following his second exile in Ireland. All the English earls except Lancaster and Arundel witnessed Piers' restoration, even Warwick, and the deed was delivered to Edward II in his chamber at the house of the Dominicans.
6 August 1307: Edward II created Piers Gaveston earl of Cornwall, probably even before Piers had returned to England from exile and possibly even without his prior knowledge, as Edward claimed in a letter to Pope Clement V the following year - though at the time Edward was trying to manipulate Clement into supporting Piers and himself and might have been stretching the truth. The charter includes the arms of de Clares, showing that Edward was already planning the marriage of Piers and his niece Margaret de Clare, which took place on 1 November that year. (Several chroniclers comment that Edward called Piers his 'adopted brother', but he had no available sisters for Piers to marry except his little half-sister Eleanor, Edward I's youngest child, who was only fifteen months old in August 1307, so a niece had to suffice instead.)
6 August 1315: Edward II proclaimed that the magnates of the realm should limit the number of courses served at their tables, on account of the "excessive and abundant portions of food" they were accustomed to enjoying, while many of their countrymen starved during the Great Famine. The proclamation also limited the number of minstrels permitted to go to the houses of great lords to three or four a day, and they were not to go to the houses of "smaller people" at all, "unless requested to do so," the proclamation added helpfully. Minstrels were also commanded to be satisfied with the amount of food and drink freely offered to them and not to demand more.
6 August 1315 and 1 August 1317: Edward appointed two of his Italian kinsmen, the brothers Federico and Carlo Fieschi, counts of Lavagna, "to be of the king’s household and council and to wear his livery for ever."
7 August 1316: After a delay of more than two years since the death of Clement V in April 1314, the cardinals in Avignon finally elected a new pope: the Gascon-born Jacques Duèse, cardinal-bishop of Porto, who took the name John XXII. Edward II sent gifts worth a staggering £1604 to "the Lord John, by the grace of God, pope," including a cope "embroidered and studded with large white pearls," several golden ewers, thirteen golden salt-cellars, numerous golden dishes and bowls, a golden basin and a golden chalice. He also paid £300 for an incense boat, a ewer and a "gold buckle set with diverse pearls and other precious stones" to be sent in Queen Isabella's name, and 100 marks for another cope embroidered by Roesia, wife of London merchant John de Bureford, also sent in the queen's name.
7 August 1316: Edward II gave a very generous gift of twenty marks to the messenger who brought him news that his brother-in-law the future Philippe V of France's wife Jeanne of Burgundy had borne a son, Louis, on 24 June. The boy died a few months later. In November 1316 Louis X's posthumous son by Queen Clemence, King Jean I, died at five days old, and Philippe became king of France.
8 August 1311: The parliament which Edward knew would demand Piers Gaveston's exile yet again was meant to begin in London on this day; Edward,trying to delay the inevitable, didn't even arrive in London until the 13th.
8 August 1317: Edward passed through Shelford near Nottingham, where he attended masses and distributed five shillings and sixpence in oblations at the conventual church for the soul of his nephew the earl of Gloucester, "whose heart lies there inhumed," although the rest of the young earl's body was buried at Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire.
10 to 12 August 1315: Edward II stayed in St Albans, and the abbey chronicler reported that even he had difficulty buying bread for his household during the early months of the Great Famine.
12 August 1315: Death of Guy Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, in his early forties; he left as his heir his eighteen-month-old son Thomas, who married Roger Mortimer's daughter Katherine in 1328. Although I very much doubt Edward II grieved for Warwick, Piers Gaveston's abductor in June 1312, there is absolutely no reason to believe the story of a much later chronicler Thomas Walsingham (died 1422) that Warwick was poisoned on Edward's orders or with his knowledge. He had been ill since at least 18 July.
12 August 1326: Edward attacked Normandy with a force of about 300 ships, possibly in an attempt to seize his son, said in 1327 to have been "in those parts" – though the king told the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge that his intention was "to restrain the malice of the men of the king of France in case they wish to enter the realm." The force was repulsed with heavy losses, precisely the last thing that Edward needed with his wife and Roger Mortimer's invasion imminent.
13 August 1322: Edward II's army arrived at Roxburgh at the start of yet another unsuccessful campaign in Scotland, Edward's last.
14 August 1321: A furious Edward entered the great hall of Westminster where parliament was in session, flanked by his cousins the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, and agreed to exile the Despensers. At breakfast the following morning, he told the bishop of Rochester that he "would within half a year make such an amend that the whole world would hear of it and tremble."
15 August 1316: Birth of Edward II and Isabella of France's second son John, later earl of Cornwall, at the palace of Eltham in Kent. Edward was then 250 miles away in Yorkshire, meeting his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, and had heard the news by 24 August, on which date he asked the Dominicans of York to say prayers for himself, "Queen Isabella our very dear consort, Edward of Windsor our eldest son, and John of Eltham our youngest son, especially on account of John." It's interesting to note that by the convention of the era, the boy would usually have been called Philip after his maternal grandfather Philippe IV of France. Edward II was hundreds of miles away at the time, so I wonder if it was Isabella's choice, and that she named her son in honour of the new pope John XXII, as the news of his election reached England at about the time of the boy's birth. Unless it was something the couple had already decided before Edward departed for Yorkshire, John being the name of his eldest brother who had died at the age of five in 1271 and his great-grandfather King John.
15 August 1323: Edward sent a gift of 'coursing dogs' to his brother-in-law Charles IV of France, with whom he would go to war a few months later.
15 August 1324: The Gascon town of Agen fell to the French during the war of Saint-Sardos, but Bordeaux and Bayonne, the most important cities, remained in English hands, as did numerous other towns.
7 August 1316: After a delay of more than two years since the death of Clement V in April 1314, the cardinals in Avignon finally elected a new pope: the Gascon-born Jacques Duèse, cardinal-bishop of Porto, who took the name John XXII. Edward II sent gifts worth a staggering £1604 to "the Lord John, by the grace of God, pope," including a cope "embroidered and studded with large white pearls," several golden ewers, thirteen golden salt-cellars, numerous golden dishes and bowls, a golden basin and a golden chalice. He also paid £300 for an incense boat, a ewer and a "gold buckle set with diverse pearls and other precious stones" to be sent in Queen Isabella's name, and 100 marks for another cope embroidered by Roesia, wife of London merchant John de Bureford, also sent in the queen's name.
7 August 1316: Edward II gave a very generous gift of twenty marks to the messenger who brought him news that his brother-in-law the future Philippe V of France's wife Jeanne of Burgundy had borne a son, Louis, on 24 June. The boy died a few months later. In November 1316 Louis X's posthumous son by Queen Clemence, King Jean I, died at five days old, and Philippe became king of France.
8 August 1311: The parliament which Edward knew would demand Piers Gaveston's exile yet again was meant to begin in London on this day; Edward,trying to delay the inevitable, didn't even arrive in London until the 13th.
8 August 1317: Edward passed through Shelford near Nottingham, where he attended masses and distributed five shillings and sixpence in oblations at the conventual church for the soul of his nephew the earl of Gloucester, "whose heart lies there inhumed," although the rest of the young earl's body was buried at Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire.
10 to 12 August 1315: Edward II stayed in St Albans, and the abbey chronicler reported that even he had difficulty buying bread for his household during the early months of the Great Famine.
12 August 1315: Death of Guy Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, in his early forties; he left as his heir his eighteen-month-old son Thomas, who married Roger Mortimer's daughter Katherine in 1328. Although I very much doubt Edward II grieved for Warwick, Piers Gaveston's abductor in June 1312, there is absolutely no reason to believe the story of a much later chronicler Thomas Walsingham (died 1422) that Warwick was poisoned on Edward's orders or with his knowledge. He had been ill since at least 18 July.
12 August 1326: Edward attacked Normandy with a force of about 300 ships, possibly in an attempt to seize his son, said in 1327 to have been "in those parts" – though the king told the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge that his intention was "to restrain the malice of the men of the king of France in case they wish to enter the realm." The force was repulsed with heavy losses, precisely the last thing that Edward needed with his wife and Roger Mortimer's invasion imminent.
13 August 1322: Edward II's army arrived at Roxburgh at the start of yet another unsuccessful campaign in Scotland, Edward's last.
14 August 1321: A furious Edward entered the great hall of Westminster where parliament was in session, flanked by his cousins the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, and agreed to exile the Despensers. At breakfast the following morning, he told the bishop of Rochester that he "would within half a year make such an amend that the whole world would hear of it and tremble."
15 August 1316: Birth of Edward II and Isabella of France's second son John, later earl of Cornwall, at the palace of Eltham in Kent. Edward was then 250 miles away in Yorkshire, meeting his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, and had heard the news by 24 August, on which date he asked the Dominicans of York to say prayers for himself, "Queen Isabella our very dear consort, Edward of Windsor our eldest son, and John of Eltham our youngest son, especially on account of John." It's interesting to note that by the convention of the era, the boy would usually have been called Philip after his maternal grandfather Philippe IV of France. Edward II was hundreds of miles away at the time, so I wonder if it was Isabella's choice, and that she named her son in honour of the new pope John XXII, as the news of his election reached England at about the time of the boy's birth. Unless it was something the couple had already decided before Edward departed for Yorkshire, John being the name of his eldest brother who had died at the age of five in 1271 and his great-grandfather King John.
15 August 1323: Edward sent a gift of 'coursing dogs' to his brother-in-law Charles IV of France, with whom he would go to war a few months later.
15 August 1324: The Gascon town of Agen fell to the French during the war of Saint-Sardos, but Bordeaux and Bayonne, the most important cities, remained in English hands, as did numerous other towns.
16 August 1320: Edward wrote to his kinsman the earl of Pembroke telling him that his half-brother the earl of Norfolk had come to him asking advice about his marriage, and that Edward did not wish to proceed further without Pembroke's advice. King Jaime II of Aragon proposed his daughter Maria, widow of Pedro of Castile (Edward's first cousin once removed) as Norfolk's bride, but in August 1321 reported that Maria had decided to take the veil and that he did not think he would be able to change her mind.
17 August 1307: Piers Gaveston, newly returned to England and earl of Cornwall, held a feast for Edward II at Sanquhar in Scotland. Edward gave a pound each to the Welsh trumpeters, Yevan and Yethel, who performed for them.
17 August 1317: Edward arrived at Lincoln and gave generous alms at the masses celebrated in the cathedral for the repose of the soul of John Montacute, teenage son of his friend and household steward William Montacute, whose funeral had taken place there three days before. (John's younger brother William became a close friend of Edward III and earl of Salisbury.) Edward paid forty clerks to pray for the young man's soul and thirteen widows to watch over his body.
18 August 1313: Edward forbade his nephew Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Bartholomew Badlesmere from besieging Bristol, part of the very long struggle Badlesmere had with the inhabitants of Bristol.
19 August 1315: Edward II's brother-in-law Louis X of France married his second wife Clemence of Hungary, five days after the death (murder?) of his adulterous first wife Marguerite of Burgundy at
Château Gaillard. Clemence was crowned queen of France at Rheims on 24 August.
24 August 1325: Edward wrote to Charles IV telling him that he was ill and thus would not be able to travel to Beauvais to pay homage to him for his French lands. It is unlikely to have been a genuine illness.
19 August 1315: Edward II's brother-in-law Louis X of France married his second wife Clemence of Hungary, five days after the death (murder?) of his adulterous first wife Marguerite of Burgundy at
Château Gaillard. Clemence was crowned queen of France at Rheims on 24 August.
24 August 1325: Edward wrote to Charles IV telling him that he was ill and thus would not be able to travel to Beauvais to pay homage to him for his French lands. It is unlikely to have been a genuine illness.
27 August 1320: Edward wrote to the king of Cyprus, Henri de Lusignan, asking him to protect three Dominican friars going to preach to the Saracens. Henri was Edward's third cousin twice removed via common descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine.
27 August 1326: Edward II's son was betrothed to Philippa, daughter of the count of Hainault, by Isabella, much to Edward's fury.
28 August 1311: Edward paid £113 "for the expenses and preparations made for the burial of the body of the Lady Eleanor, the king's sister" at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. Eleanor was his half-sister and only five (born 4 May 1306) at her death, the youngest child of Edward I and Marguerite of France.
28 August 1311: Edward paid £113 "for the expenses and preparations made for the burial of the body of the Lady Eleanor, the king's sister" at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. Eleanor was his half-sister and only five (born 4 May 1306) at her death, the youngest child of Edward I and Marguerite of France.
29 August 1321: Deadline for Hugh Despenser father and son to leave England.
29 August 1325: Date Edward II was meant to perform homage to Charles IV at Beauvais for his French lands. He sent his son instead and the rest is history.
August 1317, in general: The Sempringham annalist tells us that "there issued from the earth water-mice with long tails, larger than rats, with which the fields and meadows were filled in the summer and in August."
05 August, 2012
The VIPs Who Attended Edward And Isabella's Wedding
Here's a list of the European royalty and nobility who (probably but not certainly, in some cases) attended Edward II and Isabella of France's wedding in Boulogne on 25 January 1308.
- Philippe IV, king of France (1268 - 29 November 1314)
Isabella's father, known as le Bel or the Fair, the son of Philippe III (died 5 October 1285) and Isabel of Aragon (d. 28 January 1271). His wife Jeanne, queen of Navarre in her own right, died almost three years before the wedding. Philippe was also Edward II's second cousin: their paternal grandmothers Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence were sisters.
- Louis, king of Navarre (4 October 1289 - 5 June 1316)
Philippe IV's eldest son and Isabella's brother, the future Louis X of France, who had inherited the kingdom of Navarre from his mother Queen Jeanne in 1305. I'm not sure if his wife Marguerite of Burgundy also attended the wedding. His younger brothers the future Philippe V (1291/93 - 3 January 1322) and Charles IV (1293/94 - 1 February 1328) of France did, as did perhaps their wives Jeanne and Blanche of Burgundy, and Philippe IV's youngest son Robert, who died later that year at the age of eleven.
- Marie of Brabant, dowager queen of France (13 May 1254 - 12 January 1321)
Philippe IV's stepmother, the widow of Philippe III. Marie was the daughter of Duke Henry III of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgundy, and the granddaughter of Marie of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Philip of Swabia, king of Germany and Eirene Angelina, dowager queen of Sicily (which makes Marie the first cousin of Blanche of Artois; Blanche was also the first cousin of Marie's husband Philippe III). Marie was the aunt of Duke John II of Brabant, who married Edward II's sister Margaret (see below). She married the widowed Philippe III in August 1274 and had three children, all of whom she outlived. From October 1285 to December 1295, there were three queens in France: Jeanne of Navarre, wife of Philippe IV; Marie, his stepmother; Marguerite of Provence, his grandmother, widow of Louis IX.
- Marguerite of France, dowager queen of England (1278/79 - 14 February 1318)
Daughter of Philippe III and Marie of Brabant, half-sister of Philippe IV, second queen of Edward I, stepmother of Edward II, mother of Thomas of Brotherton, later earl of Norfolk and Edmund of Woodstock, later earl of Kent. (Today is Edmund's birthday, born 5 August 1301. Happy Birthday, Edmund!)
- Charles 'the Lame', king of Naples and Albania and titular king of Jerusalem, prince of Achaea, Taranto and Salerno (1248/54 - 3 May 1309).
Son of Louis IX's brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and Beatrice of Provence, and thus the first cousin once removed of both Edward II and Philippe IV. Charles and his wife Marie of Hungary had numerous children who made excellent marriages throughout Europe. One of their grandchildren was Clemence of Hungary, second wife of Louis X, above.
- Albrecht von Hapsburg, king of Germany, duke of Austria and Styria (July 1255 - 1 May 1308)
Eldest son of Rudolf von Hapsburg (1 May 1218 - 15 July 1291), and the only son who outlived his father. His younger brother Hartmann (b. 1263) was betrothed to Edward II's sister Joan of Acre in the 1270s, but drowned in 1281; his sisters included the queens of Bohemia and Hungary and the duchesses of Bavaria and Saxony. Albrecht was murdered a few weeks after Edward and Isabella's wedding - on what, incidentally, would have been his father's ninetieth birthday - by his nephew Johann of Swabia, known as Johann Parricida.
Below: Albrecht's father Rudolf, a photo I took in Speyer Cathedral a few weeks ago.
- Charles, count of Valois (12 March 1270 - 16 December 1325) and Louis, count of Évreux (3 May 1276 - 19 May 1319)
Charles was the son of Philippe III of France and Isabel of Aragon, and Philippe IV's full brother; Louis was the son of Philippe III and Marie of Brabant and thus their half-brother, and the full brother of Marguerite, dowager queen of England. Louis had an excellent relationship with Edward of Caernarfon before the latter succeeded to the throne, as their surviving letters of 1305 demonstrate (it was to Louis that Edward sent his humorous letter about a 'big trotting palfrey' and 'lazy dogs'). Louis's son and heir Philippe married his cousin Jeanne II of Navarre (daughter of Louis X and Marguerite of Burgundy) and was the father of King Charles 'the Bad'; his daughter Marie married Edward II's nephew Duke John III of Brabant. Charles, count of Valois, Anjou, Maine, Chartres and Alençon and titular emperor of Constantinople by right of his second wife Catherine de Courtenay, was the father of Philippe VI and the ancestor of the Valois dynasty which ruled France from 1328 to 1589, and is one of the men who can well be described as a 'grandfather of Europe' - by his three wives he had fourteen children and at least seventy grandchildren, who included Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault, King Jean II of France, Jeanne de Bourbon, queen of Charles V of France, and Jeanne, queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily in her own right.
- Hugues V, duke of Burgundy and titular king of Thessalonica (c. 1282 - 9 May 1315)
Grandson via his mother Agnes of Louis IX of France and Marguerite of Provence, and thus the first cousin of Philippe IV. Two of Hugues' sisters married kings of France: Marguerite, the adulterous first wife of Louis X, and Jeanne, queen of Philippe VI. Another sister, Marie, married Edward II's nephew Count Edouard I of Bar. Hugues was betrothed to one of the many daughters of Charles of Valois, above - Catherine, by Charles's second marriage, titular empress of Constantinople in her own right - but died childless. He attended the wedding with his brother Eudes, who succeeded him as duke, and probably their younger brothers Louis and Robert.
- John II, duke of Brabant (27 September 1275 - 27 October 1312)
Edward II's brother-in-law, betrothed to Edward I and Eleanor of Castile's third surviving daughter Margaret when they were both three years old.
- Robert de Béthune, count of Flanders (1249 - 17 September 1322)
Eldest son and heir of Guy de Dampierre, count of Flanders (mid-1220s-1305), Robert was in his mid-fifties when he succeeded his long-lived father. Robert had at least fifteen siblings and half-siblings from his father's two marriages, who included: Philippa, who was betrothed to Edward of Caernarfon from 1294 to 1297; Isabella, who was a 'substitute' fiancée for Edward; Margaret, the grandmother of Duke John II of Brabant; Beatrix, the grandmother of Count John I of Holland who married Edward II's sister Elizabeth in 1297; the bishop of Metz and Liège; and another Margaret, who was briefly married to Alexander III of Scotland's son Alexander (Edward II's first cousin). Robert de Béthune's first wife Blanche was one of the daughters of Louis IX's brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and Beatrice of Provence; his second was Yolande, countess of Nevers in her own right, who had previously been married to Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence's son Jean-Tristan.
- Louis, count of Nevers and Rethel (1272 - 22 July 1322)
The son and heir - though his father outlived him by a few weeks - of Robert de Béthune above, and who also attended Edward and Isabella's wedding. Louis was count of Rethel by right of his wife Jeanne, and count of Nevers from his mother. Louis's son, also Louis, succeeded his grandfather Robert as count of Flanders.
- Jean I, marquis of Namur (c. 1267 - 32 January 1330)
Half-brother of Robert de Béthune. Jean's daughter Blanche was queen of Sweden and Norway, as the wife of Magnus IV (of Sweden, also known as Magnus VII of Norway). Magnus's nickname was the excellent 'the Caresser'.
- Jean II, count of Dreux and Montfort-l'Amaury (1265 - 1309)
Son of Robert IV, count of Dreux. Jean's mother Beatrice was the granddaughter and heiress of Amaury de Montfort, elder brother of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. Jean's sister Yolande, who succeeded him as countess of Montfort, married Alexander III, king of Scotland (the king was riding to see her when he and his horse fell off a cliff in a storm) and secondly Duke Arthur II of Brittany.
- Amadeus V, count of Savoy (1249/53 - 16 October 1323)
A first cousin (although many years younger) of Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III, through his father Thomas. Amadeus was on excellent terms with his kinsman Edward I, who after the death of his son-in-law Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester in 1295, decided to marry his widowed daughter Joan of Acre to Amadeus, who had been widowed from Sybille de Baugé the previous year. Joan had other ideas, however, and married Ralph de Monthermer. Amadeus married instead Marie of Brabant, sister of Joan and Edward of Caernarfon's brother-in-law Duke John II. Amadeus's son and heir, born in 1284, by his first wife Sybille, was named Edouard after his cousin and friend Edward I. Edouard married Blanche, sister of Duke Hugues V of Burgundy and granddaughter of Louis IX, three of whose sisters (Marguerite, Blanche and Marie) have also been mentioned in this post. ;-)
- Philippe IV, king of France (1268 - 29 November 1314)
Isabella's father, known as le Bel or the Fair, the son of Philippe III (died 5 October 1285) and Isabel of Aragon (d. 28 January 1271). His wife Jeanne, queen of Navarre in her own right, died almost three years before the wedding. Philippe was also Edward II's second cousin: their paternal grandmothers Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence were sisters.
- Louis, king of Navarre (4 October 1289 - 5 June 1316)
Philippe IV's eldest son and Isabella's brother, the future Louis X of France, who had inherited the kingdom of Navarre from his mother Queen Jeanne in 1305. I'm not sure if his wife Marguerite of Burgundy also attended the wedding. His younger brothers the future Philippe V (1291/93 - 3 January 1322) and Charles IV (1293/94 - 1 February 1328) of France did, as did perhaps their wives Jeanne and Blanche of Burgundy, and Philippe IV's youngest son Robert, who died later that year at the age of eleven.
- Marie of Brabant, dowager queen of France (13 May 1254 - 12 January 1321)
Philippe IV's stepmother, the widow of Philippe III. Marie was the daughter of Duke Henry III of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgundy, and the granddaughter of Marie of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Philip of Swabia, king of Germany and Eirene Angelina, dowager queen of Sicily (which makes Marie the first cousin of Blanche of Artois; Blanche was also the first cousin of Marie's husband Philippe III). Marie was the aunt of Duke John II of Brabant, who married Edward II's sister Margaret (see below). She married the widowed Philippe III in August 1274 and had three children, all of whom she outlived. From October 1285 to December 1295, there were three queens in France: Jeanne of Navarre, wife of Philippe IV; Marie, his stepmother; Marguerite of Provence, his grandmother, widow of Louis IX.
- Marguerite of France, dowager queen of England (1278/79 - 14 February 1318)
Daughter of Philippe III and Marie of Brabant, half-sister of Philippe IV, second queen of Edward I, stepmother of Edward II, mother of Thomas of Brotherton, later earl of Norfolk and Edmund of Woodstock, later earl of Kent. (Today is Edmund's birthday, born 5 August 1301. Happy Birthday, Edmund!)
- Charles 'the Lame', king of Naples and Albania and titular king of Jerusalem, prince of Achaea, Taranto and Salerno (1248/54 - 3 May 1309).
Son of Louis IX's brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and Beatrice of Provence, and thus the first cousin once removed of both Edward II and Philippe IV. Charles and his wife Marie of Hungary had numerous children who made excellent marriages throughout Europe. One of their grandchildren was Clemence of Hungary, second wife of Louis X, above.
- Albrecht von Hapsburg, king of Germany, duke of Austria and Styria (July 1255 - 1 May 1308)
Eldest son of Rudolf von Hapsburg (1 May 1218 - 15 July 1291), and the only son who outlived his father. His younger brother Hartmann (b. 1263) was betrothed to Edward II's sister Joan of Acre in the 1270s, but drowned in 1281; his sisters included the queens of Bohemia and Hungary and the duchesses of Bavaria and Saxony. Albrecht was murdered a few weeks after Edward and Isabella's wedding - on what, incidentally, would have been his father's ninetieth birthday - by his nephew Johann of Swabia, known as Johann Parricida.
Below: Albrecht's father Rudolf, a photo I took in Speyer Cathedral a few weeks ago.
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| Rudolf von Hapsburg, king of Germany: effigy in Speyer Cathedral. |
Elisabeth of Carinthia (or Elisabeth of Tyrol), queen of Germany (c. 1262 - 28 October 1312)
One of the children of Meinhard, duke of Carinthia (in modern-day Austria and Slovenia) and Elisabeth of Bavaria. Elisabeth's brother Henry was king of Bohemia, and one of her nieces, yet another Elisabeth, was queen of Sicily. Albrecht and Elisabeth attended Edward and Isabella's wedding with their son Leopold, duke of Austria, and had another eleven children, including the king of Bohemia and titular king of Poland, the queen of Hungary and the duchesses of Calabria and Lorraine.
Charles was the son of Philippe III of France and Isabel of Aragon, and Philippe IV's full brother; Louis was the son of Philippe III and Marie of Brabant and thus their half-brother, and the full brother of Marguerite, dowager queen of England. Louis had an excellent relationship with Edward of Caernarfon before the latter succeeded to the throne, as their surviving letters of 1305 demonstrate (it was to Louis that Edward sent his humorous letter about a 'big trotting palfrey' and 'lazy dogs'). Louis's son and heir Philippe married his cousin Jeanne II of Navarre (daughter of Louis X and Marguerite of Burgundy) and was the father of King Charles 'the Bad'; his daughter Marie married Edward II's nephew Duke John III of Brabant. Charles, count of Valois, Anjou, Maine, Chartres and Alençon and titular emperor of Constantinople by right of his second wife Catherine de Courtenay, was the father of Philippe VI and the ancestor of the Valois dynasty which ruled France from 1328 to 1589, and is one of the men who can well be described as a 'grandfather of Europe' - by his three wives he had fourteen children and at least seventy grandchildren, who included Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault, King Jean II of France, Jeanne de Bourbon, queen of Charles V of France, and Jeanne, queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily in her own right.
- Hugues V, duke of Burgundy and titular king of Thessalonica (c. 1282 - 9 May 1315)
Grandson via his mother Agnes of Louis IX of France and Marguerite of Provence, and thus the first cousin of Philippe IV. Two of Hugues' sisters married kings of France: Marguerite, the adulterous first wife of Louis X, and Jeanne, queen of Philippe VI. Another sister, Marie, married Edward II's nephew Count Edouard I of Bar. Hugues was betrothed to one of the many daughters of Charles of Valois, above - Catherine, by Charles's second marriage, titular empress of Constantinople in her own right - but died childless. He attended the wedding with his brother Eudes, who succeeded him as duke, and probably their younger brothers Louis and Robert.
- John II, duke of Brabant (27 September 1275 - 27 October 1312)
Edward II's brother-in-law, betrothed to Edward I and Eleanor of Castile's third surviving daughter Margaret when they were both three years old.
- Robert de Béthune, count of Flanders (1249 - 17 September 1322)
Eldest son and heir of Guy de Dampierre, count of Flanders (mid-1220s-1305), Robert was in his mid-fifties when he succeeded his long-lived father. Robert had at least fifteen siblings and half-siblings from his father's two marriages, who included: Philippa, who was betrothed to Edward of Caernarfon from 1294 to 1297; Isabella, who was a 'substitute' fiancée for Edward; Margaret, the grandmother of Duke John II of Brabant; Beatrix, the grandmother of Count John I of Holland who married Edward II's sister Elizabeth in 1297; the bishop of Metz and Liège; and another Margaret, who was briefly married to Alexander III of Scotland's son Alexander (Edward II's first cousin). Robert de Béthune's first wife Blanche was one of the daughters of Louis IX's brother Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and Beatrice of Provence; his second was Yolande, countess of Nevers in her own right, who had previously been married to Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence's son Jean-Tristan.
- Louis, count of Nevers and Rethel (1272 - 22 July 1322)
The son and heir - though his father outlived him by a few weeks - of Robert de Béthune above, and who also attended Edward and Isabella's wedding. Louis was count of Rethel by right of his wife Jeanne, and count of Nevers from his mother. Louis's son, also Louis, succeeded his grandfather Robert as count of Flanders.
- Jean I, marquis of Namur (c. 1267 - 32 January 1330)
Half-brother of Robert de Béthune. Jean's daughter Blanche was queen of Sweden and Norway, as the wife of Magnus IV (of Sweden, also known as Magnus VII of Norway). Magnus's nickname was the excellent 'the Caresser'.
- Louis de Clermont, count of Clermont and La Marche and first duke of Bourbon (1279/80 - January/February 1342)
Grandson of Louis IX and Marguerite of Provence via his father, their youngest son Robert, and thus a first cousin of Philippe IV and Duke Hugues V of Burgundy. Like a couple of other people in this post - Charles, king of Naples and Albania, and Jeanne of Burgundy, queen of Philippe VI of France - Louis was known as le Boiteux, the Lame, though he is also sometimes known as 'the Great'. Louis's mother was Beatrice of Burgundy, granddaughter of Duke Hugues IV of Burgundy and heiress of her mother Agnes, herself the heiress to Bourbon. Louis's direct male line descendant Henri de Bourbon (1553-1610) - his six greats grandson - became King Henri IV in 1589, the first Bourbon king of France.
- Robert of Artois (1287 - 16 October 1342)
Great-nephew of Blanche of Artois, queen of Navarre and countess of Lancaster, and nephew of Mahaut, countess of Artois in her own right and countess of Burgundy by marriage, against whom Robert waged a long and bitter struggle for the rights to the county of Artois, which is dramatised in Maurice Druon's novels. (He lost.) His grandfather Robert, Blanche's brother, was killed at the battle of Courtrai in July 1302. Robert (the younger)'s wife Jeanne was one of the many daughters of Charles of Valois, above, by his second wife, and half-sister of Philippe VI of France. A bitter enemy of his brother-in-law Philippe VI, Robert of Artois supported Edward III during the Hundred Years War, and moved to England. His grave is in St Paul's Cathedral.
- William, count of Hainault, Holland, Zeeland and Avesnes (mid-1280s - 7 June 1337)
In 1328, William became the father-in-law of Edward III of England when his daughter Philippa married the young king. His eldest surviving daughter Margaret was Holy Roman Empress and queen of Germany by marriage to Ludwig von Wittelsbach. William was married to Jeanne, second-eldest daughter of Charles of Valois (the eldest sister Isabelle was the first wife of Duke John III of Brittany). His elder brother John was killed at the battle of Courtrai in July 1302, which made him their father's heir.
- Guy IV, count of St Pol, Grand Butler of France (mid-1250s - 6 April 1317)
Younger half-brother, via their mother Matilda of Brabant, of Blanche of Artois. Guy married Marie de Dreux, the daughter of Duke John II and Beatrice of England, who was thus the granddaughter of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, and Edward II's first cousin. One of Guy and Marie's daughters was Marie, who married Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke and founded Pembroke College at Cambridge in 1347; another, Mahaut, married Charles of Valois as his third wife. Guy fought at the battle of Courtrai in July 1302, where many French noblemen were killed, but managed to flee the field with his life.
- Jean II, count of Dreux and Montfort-l'Amaury (1265 - 1309)
Son of Robert IV, count of Dreux. Jean's mother Beatrice was the granddaughter and heiress of Amaury de Montfort, elder brother of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. Jean's sister Yolande, who succeeded him as countess of Montfort, married Alexander III, king of Scotland (the king was riding to see her when he and his horse fell off a cliff in a storm) and secondly Duke Arthur II of Brittany.
- Amadeus V, count of Savoy (1249/53 - 16 October 1323)
A first cousin (although many years younger) of Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III, through his father Thomas. Amadeus was on excellent terms with his kinsman Edward I, who after the death of his son-in-law Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester in 1295, decided to marry his widowed daughter Joan of Acre to Amadeus, who had been widowed from Sybille de Baugé the previous year. Joan had other ideas, however, and married Ralph de Monthermer. Amadeus married instead Marie of Brabant, sister of Joan and Edward of Caernarfon's brother-in-law Duke John II. Amadeus's son and heir, born in 1284, by his first wife Sybille, was named Edouard after his cousin and friend Edward I. Edouard married Blanche, sister of Duke Hugues V of Burgundy and granddaughter of Louis IX, three of whose sisters (Marguerite, Blanche and Marie) have also been mentioned in this post. ;-)