Important Edward II-related events that happened in the month of March.
1 March 1261: Birth of Hugh Despenser 'the Elder', made earl of Winchester by Edward II in May 1322, and father of the king's notorious chamberlain and favourite Hugh the Younger. Hugh the Elder was only four years old when his father - inevitably also called Hugh, the justiciar of England - was killed at the battle of Evesham fighting for Simon de Montfort in August 1265.
2 March 1297, or a little earlier: Wedding of Edward's first cousin Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edward I's younger brother Edmund of Lancaster and Blanche of Artois, and Maud Chaworth. Much later, Henry succeeded his elder brother Thomas as earl of Lancaster and Leicester. Five of his and Maud's seven children had children of their own, and the couple were the ancestors of much of the English nobility by the second half of the fourteenth century.
2 March 1316: Death of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland's eldest child Marjorie, who died giving birth to the first Stewart king of Scotland, Robert II.
3 March 1322: Hugh Despenser father and son openly re-joined the king and took part in the campaign against the Contrariants, only six months after they had been sent into supposedly perpetual exile from England.
3 March 1323: Execution of Sir Andrew Harclay, earl of Carlisle (see also below) after negotiating with Robert Bruce without Edward II's permission. Andrew was hanged, drawn and quartered in the town of Carlisle.
4 March 1309: Edward II sent a letter to his father-in-law Philip IV, stating that Philip's daughter, his wife Isabella, was "in good health and will, God willing, be fruitful." Given Isabella's extreme youth - she was then thirteen - it is highly unlikely that they were regularly sleeping together yet.
5 March 1324: Birth of Robert Bruce's son the future King David II of Scotland, born when Robert was almost fifty (he was born on 11 July 1274). David married Edward II's youngest daughter Joan of the Tower in July 1328 when he was four, and became king of Scotland the next year. David's mother was the earl of Ulster's daughter Elizabeth de Burgh. He was the decades-younger half-brother of Marjorie, above, and his half-nephew Robert II was eight years older than he was.
9 March 2325: Departure of Queen Isabella for her native France to arrange a peace settlement with her brother Charles IV. Contrary to the daft witterings of Jean Froissart decades later, too often repeated since as though they're in any way accurate, Isabella left the country with a large retinue and, of course, her husband's knowledge and consent, and did not secretly flee from cruel persecution after pretending to go on pilgrimage to Canterbury.
10 March 1310: Edward gave half a dozen manors in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk back to Hugh Despenser the Elder, their owner. He had seized them on hearing that Hugh Despenser the Younger had gone overseas to joust contrary to the king's prohibition, believing them to be the younger Hugh's, but it transpired that the elder Hugh owned them and had given their revenues to his son. (Yet another example of many which reveals that Edward II did not much like Hugh Despenser the Younger before 1318/19.)
11 March 1326: Edward gave two and a half pounds to his painter Jack of St Albans for dancing on a table and making him laugh, "in aid of him, his wife and his children."
12 or 13 March 1322: Death of Edward's nephew-in-law and former infatuation Sir Roger Damory, whom Edward had married to his niece Elizabeth de Clare née de Burgh in 1317. The date of Roger's death is not totally clear; chroniclers give 13 or 14 March, but Roger's widow Elizabeth kept it as 12 March, the feast day of St Gregory. Roger died of wounds sustained fighting against the royal army at Burton-on-Trent during the Contrariant rebellion.
14 March 1318: Edward attended the funeral of his stepmother Queen Marguerite at the Greyfriars church in London. His sister Mary the nun of Amesbury was also there, as was the king's current infatuation Sir Roger Damory, for whom Edward purchased cloth for the occasion. (As I type that, I wonder if Edward brought Damory along deliberately as a kind of 'up yours' gesture to the late Marguerite, who had financially supported the opposition to his beloved Piers Gaveston in 1308?)
15 March 1314: Philip IV had Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, burned alive on an island in the Seine in Paris, the day before his daughter Isabella arrived in the city to discuss certain matters with her father on her husband's behalf.
16 March 1310: Edward was forced to consent to the formation of the Lords Ordainer, a group of earls, bishops and barons, who appointed themselves to reform the royal household and government.
16 March 1322: Edward II's first cousin and enemy Thomas, earl of Lancaster, was defeated at the battle of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire by Sir Andrew Harclay, sheriff of Cumberland. The king's brother-in-law Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, widower of Edward's sister Elizabeth (1282-1316), was killed during the battle.
16 March 1322: Edward ordered his newly-widowed niece Elizabeth de Burgh, days after the death of her husband Damory, not to leave the gates of Barking Abbey, and kept her incarcerated there for some months.
18 March 1326: Edward II sent a letter to his thirteen-year-old son Edward of Windsor, in France with his mother Isabella, ordering him home.
19 March 1286: Death of Edward's uncle-in-law King Alexander III of Scotland, widower of Edward's aunt Margaret of England (1240-75). From 1289 until her death in 1290, Edward was betrothed to Alexander's granddaughter and heir Margaret of Norway.
19 March 1330: Execution of Edward II's twenty-eight-year-old half-brother Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, for the 'crime' of trying to free the supposedly dead Edward from captivity.
20 March 1327: End of the four-month or longer siege of Caerphilly Castle, when Queen Isabella finally agreed not to execute Hugh 'Huchon' Despenser, eldest son and heir of the late Hugh Despenser the Younger. He was imprisoned until July 1331.
21 March 1317: Birth of Edward's great-niece Isabella de Verdon, second child of his niece Elizabeth de Burgh née de Clare. Edward sent a silver cup as a christening gift, and Queen Isabella was the chief sponsor or godmother of the infant, who was named after her.
22 March 1322: Execution of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, outside his own castle of Pontefract.
23 March 1322: Execution in York of the Contrariants John, Lord Mowbray, Roger, Lord Clifford, and Sir Jocelyn Deyville.
23 March 1361: Death of Henry of Grosmont, first duke of Lancaster, earl of Derby, Lincoln and Leicester, only son and heir of Edward II's first cousin Henry of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth/
25 March 1306: Coronation of Robert Bruce as king of Scotland at Scone Abbey.
25 March 1322: Sir Andrew Harclay was made earl of Carlisle as a reward for his defeat of the Contrariant army at Boroughbridge nine days earlier.
25 March 1342: According to the evidence in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Henry of Grosmont, first duke of Lancaster and son and heir of Henry of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth, above, his younger daughter and ultimate heir Blanche was born on this date. Blanche married Edward II's grandson John of Gaunt and was the mother of Henry IV.
26 March 1324: Death of Marie of Luxembourg, second wife of Queen Isabella's brother Charles IV and sister of John 'the Blind', king of Bohemia, after prematurely giving birth to a son who also died.
27 March 1316: Edward paid gave twenty pounds to John Fleg, horse dealer of London, for a bay horse "to carry the litter of the lady the queen" during her pregnancy with their second son John of Eltham.
1 March 1261: Birth of Hugh Despenser 'the Elder', made earl of Winchester by Edward II in May 1322, and father of the king's notorious chamberlain and favourite Hugh the Younger. Hugh the Elder was only four years old when his father - inevitably also called Hugh, the justiciar of England - was killed at the battle of Evesham fighting for Simon de Montfort in August 1265.
2 March 1297, or a little earlier: Wedding of Edward's first cousin Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edward I's younger brother Edmund of Lancaster and Blanche of Artois, and Maud Chaworth. Much later, Henry succeeded his elder brother Thomas as earl of Lancaster and Leicester. Five of his and Maud's seven children had children of their own, and the couple were the ancestors of much of the English nobility by the second half of the fourteenth century.
2 March 1316: Death of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland's eldest child Marjorie, who died giving birth to the first Stewart king of Scotland, Robert II.
3 March 1322: Hugh Despenser father and son openly re-joined the king and took part in the campaign against the Contrariants, only six months after they had been sent into supposedly perpetual exile from England.
3 March 1323: Execution of Sir Andrew Harclay, earl of Carlisle (see also below) after negotiating with Robert Bruce without Edward II's permission. Andrew was hanged, drawn and quartered in the town of Carlisle.
4 March 1309: Edward II sent a letter to his father-in-law Philip IV, stating that Philip's daughter, his wife Isabella, was "in good health and will, God willing, be fruitful." Given Isabella's extreme youth - she was then thirteen - it is highly unlikely that they were regularly sleeping together yet.
5 March 1324: Birth of Robert Bruce's son the future King David II of Scotland, born when Robert was almost fifty (he was born on 11 July 1274). David married Edward II's youngest daughter Joan of the Tower in July 1328 when he was four, and became king of Scotland the next year. David's mother was the earl of Ulster's daughter Elizabeth de Burgh. He was the decades-younger half-brother of Marjorie, above, and his half-nephew Robert II was eight years older than he was.
9 March 2325: Departure of Queen Isabella for her native France to arrange a peace settlement with her brother Charles IV. Contrary to the daft witterings of Jean Froissart decades later, too often repeated since as though they're in any way accurate, Isabella left the country with a large retinue and, of course, her husband's knowledge and consent, and did not secretly flee from cruel persecution after pretending to go on pilgrimage to Canterbury.
10 March 1310: Edward gave half a dozen manors in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk back to Hugh Despenser the Elder, their owner. He had seized them on hearing that Hugh Despenser the Younger had gone overseas to joust contrary to the king's prohibition, believing them to be the younger Hugh's, but it transpired that the elder Hugh owned them and had given their revenues to his son. (Yet another example of many which reveals that Edward II did not much like Hugh Despenser the Younger before 1318/19.)
11 March 1326: Edward gave two and a half pounds to his painter Jack of St Albans for dancing on a table and making him laugh, "in aid of him, his wife and his children."
12 or 13 March 1322: Death of Edward's nephew-in-law and former infatuation Sir Roger Damory, whom Edward had married to his niece Elizabeth de Clare née de Burgh in 1317. The date of Roger's death is not totally clear; chroniclers give 13 or 14 March, but Roger's widow Elizabeth kept it as 12 March, the feast day of St Gregory. Roger died of wounds sustained fighting against the royal army at Burton-on-Trent during the Contrariant rebellion.
14 March 1318: Edward attended the funeral of his stepmother Queen Marguerite at the Greyfriars church in London. His sister Mary the nun of Amesbury was also there, as was the king's current infatuation Sir Roger Damory, for whom Edward purchased cloth for the occasion. (As I type that, I wonder if Edward brought Damory along deliberately as a kind of 'up yours' gesture to the late Marguerite, who had financially supported the opposition to his beloved Piers Gaveston in 1308?)
15 March 1314: Philip IV had Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, burned alive on an island in the Seine in Paris, the day before his daughter Isabella arrived in the city to discuss certain matters with her father on her husband's behalf.
16 March 1310: Edward was forced to consent to the formation of the Lords Ordainer, a group of earls, bishops and barons, who appointed themselves to reform the royal household and government.
16 March 1322: Edward II's first cousin and enemy Thomas, earl of Lancaster, was defeated at the battle of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire by Sir Andrew Harclay, sheriff of Cumberland. The king's brother-in-law Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, widower of Edward's sister Elizabeth (1282-1316), was killed during the battle.
16 March 1322: Edward ordered his newly-widowed niece Elizabeth de Burgh, days after the death of her husband Damory, not to leave the gates of Barking Abbey, and kept her incarcerated there for some months.
18 March 1326: Edward II sent a letter to his thirteen-year-old son Edward of Windsor, in France with his mother Isabella, ordering him home.
19 March 1286: Death of Edward's uncle-in-law King Alexander III of Scotland, widower of Edward's aunt Margaret of England (1240-75). From 1289 until her death in 1290, Edward was betrothed to Alexander's granddaughter and heir Margaret of Norway.
19 March 1330: Execution of Edward II's twenty-eight-year-old half-brother Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, for the 'crime' of trying to free the supposedly dead Edward from captivity.
20 March 1327: End of the four-month or longer siege of Caerphilly Castle, when Queen Isabella finally agreed not to execute Hugh 'Huchon' Despenser, eldest son and heir of the late Hugh Despenser the Younger. He was imprisoned until July 1331.
21 March 1317: Birth of Edward's great-niece Isabella de Verdon, second child of his niece Elizabeth de Burgh née de Clare. Edward sent a silver cup as a christening gift, and Queen Isabella was the chief sponsor or godmother of the infant, who was named after her.
22 March 1322: Execution of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, outside his own castle of Pontefract.
23 March 1322: Execution in York of the Contrariants John, Lord Mowbray, Roger, Lord Clifford, and Sir Jocelyn Deyville.
23 March 1361: Death of Henry of Grosmont, first duke of Lancaster, earl of Derby, Lincoln and Leicester, only son and heir of Edward II's first cousin Henry of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth/
25 March 1306: Coronation of Robert Bruce as king of Scotland at Scone Abbey.
25 March 1322: Sir Andrew Harclay was made earl of Carlisle as a reward for his defeat of the Contrariant army at Boroughbridge nine days earlier.
25 March 1342: According to the evidence in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Henry of Grosmont, first duke of Lancaster and son and heir of Henry of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth, above, his younger daughter and ultimate heir Blanche was born on this date. Blanche married Edward II's grandson John of Gaunt and was the mother of Henry IV.
26 March 1324: Death of Marie of Luxembourg, second wife of Queen Isabella's brother Charles IV and sister of John 'the Blind', king of Bohemia, after prematurely giving birth to a son who also died.
27 March 1316: Edward paid gave twenty pounds to John Fleg, horse dealer of London, for a bay horse "to carry the litter of the lady the queen" during her pregnancy with their second son John of Eltham.
27 March 1321: Edward sent letters to the disaffected Marcher lords, and also Hugh Despenser the Younger in an obvious attempt to look like he wasn't taking sides, ordering them "not to permit any assemblies to be made whereby the king’s peace or the tranquillity of the king’s people of those parts may be disturbed." It was much too late; the Despenser War began a few weeks later.
31 March 1325: Queen Isabella, in France negotiating a peace settlement with her brother Charles IV, sent Edward a letter calling him "my very sweet heart" five times.
31 March 1325: Queen Isabella, in France negotiating a peace settlement with her brother Charles IV, sent Edward a letter calling him "my very sweet heart" five times.
Quite a list of dates!
ReplyDeleteAbout no Four: I think it means Edward was not yet sleeping with Isabella but wished she would be mother of his children in years to come. At least that is how I read between the lines.