Edward II And Germany

Edward II never visited Germany during his reign, and had little contact with it or with its rulers, apart from Albrecht von Habsburg, king of Germany, who attended Edward's wedding to Isabella in Boulogne in January 1308 and who was assassinated by his nephew only a few weeks later. The list of goods Edward left behind at Tynemouth in May 1312 includes "a buckle of gold with two emeralds, two rubies, two sapphires and eleven pearls, with a cameo in the middle," a present to Edward from the queen of Germany (I presume this means either Elisabeth of Görz-Tirol, wife of Albrecht, or Margaret of Brabant, wife of Heinrich VII of Luxembourg and sister of Edward's brother-in-law Duke John II of Brabant). Edward did have cousins in Germany, the descendants of his father's first cousin Margarethe von Hohenstaufen or Margaret of Sicily, only surviving child of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and his third wife Isabella of England. Isabella was the sister of Henry III. There's not much else that can be said about Edward II's connections to Germany, really.

All that changed in Edward's presumed 'afterlife', when two pieces of evidence place him, or someone claiming to be him, in Germany on two different occasions in the 1330s - i.e. years after his official death on 21 September 1327. The Fieschi Letter says that Edward escaped from Berkeley Castle in 1327 and made his way to Corfe Castle, then to Ireland, then to the continent to visit the pope in Avignon, then to Brabant, then to Cologne. In Cologne, the Letter says, Edward wished to visit the Shrine of the Three Kings: see my recent post about it here. This would probably have been in 1331, as the Letter states that Edward left Ireland nine months after the execution of his half-brother the earl of Kent on 19 March 1330, so he would have left Ireland shortly after his son Edward III's execution of Roger Mortimer on 29 November 1330. Allowing a few weeks or months for his (alleged) travels around the continent, Edward would have reached Cologne sometime in 1331, or even 1332 if he wasn't travelling fast, and there is no reason to suppose that he was, especially as the Fieschi Letter says he was dressed as a hermit. After worshipping at the shrine of the Three Kings, the Letter says that Edward "crossed over Germany" on his way to Milan, and indeed the obvious route is to follow the Rhine south through Germany.

Another piece of evidence places a man claiming to be Edward II in Cologne and Koblenz in early September 1338. This is the wardrobe account of Edward III, then in Germany meeting the emperor Ludwig of Bavaria, which has two entries relating to a William le Galeys, 'the Welshman', "who asserts that he is the king's father." William (Edward?) was picked up in Cologne and taken the sixty or so miles south to Koblenz, where his son and the emperor were staying. Hmmm, what are we to make of this? He certainly wasn't executed as a royal pretender.

So, supposedly, Edward of Caernarfon visited Germany twice in the 1330s, once in c. 1331/32 and once in 1338. The same part of Germany as well, Cologne and Koblenz (if Edward did follow the Rhine south through Germany to Milan in 1331/32, his journey would have taken him through Koblenz, which stands on the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers). I therefore decided in my forthcoming book about his murder or survival that it would be a really good idea to take a look at who was ruling western Germany at this time, and see if I could come to any conclusions about who might have known the former king of England was crossing their territories. Results in the book, published in a few months! :-)

Philip Of Taranto, His Brother John of Gravina, And Their Marital (Mis)Adventures

Philip of Taranto (10 November 1278 - 23 December 1332) and his younger brother John of Gravina (c. 1294 - 5 April 1336) were second cousins of both Edward II and Philip IV of France: their paternal grandmother Beatrice of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France's brother Charles of Anjou and queen of Sicily, was the youngest of the four Provençal sisters who all became queens. Philip IV's paternal grandmother Marguerite, wife of Louis IX of France, was the eldest, and Edward's paternal grandmother Eleanor, wife of Henry III of England, the second eldest. Philip of Taranto and John of Gravina were two of the fourteen children of Charles of Naples and Marie of Hungary. Their siblings included Charles Martel, titular king of Hungary, father of Clemence of Hungary, who married Isabella of France's eldest brother Louis X as his second wife; Robert 'the Wise', king of Naples and Sicily, grandfather of the famous Joan, queen of Naples and Sicily who was murdered in 1382; Louis, bishop of Toulouse, canonised in 1317 a few years after his death; Marguerite, countess of Anjou in her own right, who married Isabella of France's uncle Charles of Valois and was the mother of Philip VI of France and the grandmother of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault; and the queens-consort of Aragon, Mallorca and Sicily.

Philip of Taranto was married firstly to Thamar Angelina Komnena, part of the house of the despotate of Epirus, which was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire (Epirus is in modern-day Albania and northwestern Greece). She was the daughter of the despot Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, and her mother Anna was the niece of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. Via Thamar, Philip was the king of Albania and despot of Epirus as well as the prince of Taranto (Italy) and Achaea (Greece). Philip and Thamar married in 1294 and had half a dozen children together, including the queen-consort of Armenia, the despot of Romania and the duchess of Athens.

In 1309, Philip accused Thamar of committing adultery with no fewer than forty men, and imprisoned her. She died in prison in 1311. Whether Thamar Angelina Komnena really committed adultery, or whether this was a convenient charge for her husband to rid himself of her so that he could marry another well-connected wife and gain more lands, is unclear, though I strongly suspect the latter (I mean, forty men? Wow.)

On 29 July 1313, Philip, then almost thirty-five, married his second wife, who was only about ten or eleven at the time. She was Catherine de Valois, eldest daughter of Catherine Courtenay (1274-1307), titular empress of Constantinople in her own right, and Charles, count of Valois, brother of Philip IV and uncle of Edward II's queen Isabella. Catherine de Valois inherited her mother's claim to the Latin empire of Constantinople, was the younger half-sister of Philip VI of France, and the aunt of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault, whose mother was Jeanne de Valois. The first wife of Catherine de Valois's father Charles de Valois was Marguerite of Anjou-Naples, eldest sister of Philip of Taranto. Yes, this means that Catherine married the brother of her father's first wife, who was the uncle of her older half-siblings. At this point, I just LOL. The wedding took place on the same day as the wedding of Philip de Valois (the future King Philip VI), who was the bride's half-brother and the groom's nephew, and Joan of Burgundy.

At the end of March 1321, Edward II - then attempting unsuccessfully to prevent the imminent Despenser War - wrote to Philip of Taranto’s elder brother Robert ‘the Wise’, king of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem, regarding the abduction by their brother John of Gravina, duke of Durazzo, of Matilda of Hainault, princess of Achaea. Edward asked Robert to ensure that John freed Matilda and allowed her to complete her marriage to Hugh de Palicia or Palice, to which she had been travelling when John of Gravina captured her. John was duke of Durazzo and count of Gravina, and was born in about 1294; he was the youngest of the many sons of Charles of Naples and Marie of Hungary, though had a younger sister, Beatrice. The brother closest to John in age was the excellently-named Peter Tempesta, meaning 'storm', who died childless in 1315 and whose heir to the county of Gravina John was. Matilda of Hainault was a first cousin of Edward III's father-in-law William, count of Hainault and Holland, and inherited the principality of Achaea  from her mother Isabelle of Villehardouin. She had already been widowed twice, from the duke of Athens and the titular king of Thessalonica, Louis of Burgundy (one of the brothers of Joan of Burgundy, queen of Philip VI of France, above). In the end, John of Gravina repudiated Matilda in 1321, and married instead Agnes of Périgord later that year, while Matilda married Hugh de Palice after all and died childless in 1331.

Edward II, Edward III, the Three Kings, and the Six Kings

In around 1330 or a little before, a prophecy was made and written down in England and later became known as the Prophecy of the Six Kings. The six kings of England after King John (died 1216) were characterised as beasts: Henry III was a lamb, Edward I a dragon, Edward II a goat, and Edward III a boar. The next two kings, whose identity was of course not known in c. 1330, would be Richard II, another lamb, and Henry IV, a mole. The prophecy said of Edward III that he would "whet his teeth on the gates of Paris" and conquer France and the Holy Land, and ultimately would be buried at the shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral, Germany.

The Three Kings and their connection to Edward II and III, and their shrines, are the topic of the post. They are the Wise Men or Magi of the Gospels, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus Christ. Edward III certainly knew of the prophecy that he would be buried at their shrine in Cologne Cathedral; he stayed in the city on 23 and 24 August 1338 (exactly 678 years ago today) on his way to meet the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig or Louis of Bavaria in Koblenz, visited the shrine and made a very generous donation, and promised that one day he would be buried in the cathedral church (though in fact he was buried at Westminster Abbey in July 1377). The prophecy of the Six Kings only began circulating in c. 1330, after the official death of Edward II in September 1327, but the Fieschi Letter of c. 1336/38 claims that Edward II, having escaped from Berkeley Castle before he was killed, "went to Paris, and from Paris to Brabant, from Brabant to Cologne so that out of devotion he might see The Three Kings, and leaving Cologne he crossed over Germany, that is to say, he headed for Milan in Lombardy." It therefore seems possible that a non-dead Edward II had heard of this prophecy of the Six Kings of England and that his son would one day be buried in Cologne, and desired to see the shrine, as the Fieschi Letter states. Even if Edward II was unaware of the prophecy, he certainly knew of the shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne, one of the most famous pilgrim sites in medieval Europe. His father Edward I had sent an offering to the shrine in 1305/06, near the end of his life. And although Edward II couldn't possibly have known it, his great-grandson Richard II would be born on the feast of the Three Kings, 6 January 1367, and his baptism in Bordeaux would supposedly be attended by three kings.

The remains of the Three Kings, before they were taken to Cologne, had lain in Milan, so it is perhaps significant that the Fieschi Letter states that Edward went to Milan after he had visited the shrine in Cologne. In Milan, to this day, stands a church dedicated to Sant'Eustorgio containing the empty shrine where the relics of the Three Kings were once located, which I was lucky enough to visit in May this year in the company of my lovely friend Margherita (and I spent the rest of that day in Milan with another lovely friend, Ivan Fowler of the Auramala Project, whose site is linked above). In the fourteenth century this church was a Dominican church, and Edward II was a massive supporter of the Dominicans and vice versa, which perhaps increases the likelihood that he went there. Sant'Eustorgio, or Saint Eustorgius in English, was bishop of Milan in the 300s, and got permission from the emperor Constantine the Great to take the remains of the Three Kings, which the emperor's mother Saint Helena had brought to Italy as she did countless other Christian relics, from Rome to Milan. They were housed in the church of Sant'Eustorgio until 1162, when the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa attacked Milan. Barbarossa looted the church and took the remains of the Three Kings back to Germany through the Gotthard pass over the Alps and up the River Rhine to the city of Cologne and into the keeping of its then archbishop Rainald von Dassel. In 1191, a spectacular golden shrine was made to house the relics, depicting the three men presenting their gifts to the infant Jesus, and in 1322 - just nine or ten years before the Fieschi Letter alleges that the officially then dead Edward II saw it - the shrine was moved to the choir of Cologne Cathedral by Archbishop Heinrich von Virneburg. Here it still stands. I visited it with my friend Rachel last Saturday.

Cologne Cathedral.

Golden shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne.

Shrine in Cologne Cathedral.

Shrine in Cologne Cathedral.

Church of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan.

Empty reliquary that once contained the remains of the Three Kings in Sant'Eustorgio.

Ditto.

Lincoln Cathedral And Its Chapter-House

I wrote a post a while ago about the eventful parliament of January/February 1316: Hugh Despenser the Younger punched John Ros in the face, in Lincoln Cathedral, in front of Edward II; the king heard of the abduction and forced marriage of his wealthy niece Elizabeth de Clare; he fixed the price of various foodstuffs during the Great Famine; and his cousin Thomas, earl of Lancaster, turned up late for parliament (realllllllly late) and was officially appointed Edward's 'chief counsellor'.

Here is where that parliament took place, in Lincoln Cathedral, and specifically in the chapter-house. The cathedral was consecrated in 1092 and from 1311 to 1549 was supposedly the tallest building in the world; in 1549, its central tower collapsed and has never been rebuilt. The chapter-house was built between 1220 and 1235 and is still used as a venue; when I was there just over a month ago, a small concert was taking place there. I love that it's still being used after eight centuries. I love being able to sit in and wander around a room where Edward II sat and held parliament and discussed the price of 'fat shorn sheep' and told Hugh Despenser with a straight face that of course the countess of Gloucester was pregnant by her husband sixteen months after his death and sent filthy looks in the direction of his cousin Thomas of Lancaster (probably).

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Chapter-house

Somerton Castle, Lincolnshire

I recently visited Lincolnshire for the first time in my life, though it felt pleasantly like going back to my roots as one of my great-great-great-grandmothers came from Gainsborough, and her grandfather, my five greats grandfather George Marsh, was high constable of Lincolnshire (whatever that means). We also popped over the border into Nottinghamshire and visited Newark Castle, which stands on the River Trent. Another family connection for me: one of my six greats grandfathers, John Winks, drowned in the Trent in Nottinghamshire on 23 December 1760. And more importantly for history, Edward II's great-grandfather King John died at Newark Castle on the night of 18/19 October 1216.

Anyway, I was happy to be visiting Lincoln as I had an idea, from reading it somewhere, that Edward II sometimes stayed at a place called Somerton Castle when he was in the area. I knew nothing about it at all except the name and vaguely that it was somewhere in the vicinity of Lincoln. For all I knew, the castle had vanished centuries ago. Amazingly, Somerton turns out to be about three miles from my dad's house, and is still there, though has been much altered: the medieval castle was incorporated into an Elizabethan house.

Somerton Castle, also much to my surprise, was not merely a place where Edward II stayed on occasion; he was the owner of it. It was given to him in 1309 by Anthony Bek (died 1311), bishop of Durham and the only Englishman in history to be patriarch of Jerusalem, who also gave Edward Eltham palace in Kent in 1305. (Generous!) Bek built Somerton Castle in the 1280s. It now stands isolated down the road from the village of Boothby Graffoe, and is also just a couple of miles away from the village of Coleby, where there's a church called All Saints. One of the rectors of Coleby was Thomas Cantilupe, who later became bishop of Hereford on the other side of the country, died in 1282, and was canonised as a saint in 1320. This was not least because of Edward II's efforts; he wrote often to the pope and cardinals about it. Maybe Edward knew of Coleby church and the Cantilupe connection. There's also the church of St Andrew in Boothby Graffoe near Somerton, where Edward may have worshipped, though the original church was destroyed by a hurricane (??) in 1666.

Here's a pic of Somerton Castle now, and here and here and here, and an aerial pic. It makes me happy that a former residence of Edward II is still lived in 700 years later.

Edward II's Murder...Or Not...?

I'm wading into the fray! My next book, provisionally titled Long Live The King? The Mysterious Fate Of Edward II, will be published in about May 2017. It's a detailed exploration of the evidence for a) Edward's murder at Berkeley Castle in September 1327 and b) his survival for years after that date. I want to try to present both sides as neutrally as possible and allow readers to make up their own minds. It's a very current debate; the latest edition of Fourteenth Century England contains an article by Dr Andy King called 'The Death of Edward II Revisited', an edition of BBC History Magazine earlier this year contained a debate on the topic by Ian Mortimer and Nicholas Vincent, and in November 2015 an entire TV programme was devoted to it. (A mostly horrible TV programme, but still.) There's so much information and so much to discuss that I decided to write an entire book about it; of course Edward's murder or possible survival is discussed in my two previous books, but I only had very limited space, and have been desperate to write a book dedicated to the topic for years. Yay! I hope you're excited :-)

Article And New Books

An article of mine about Isabella of France has just been published on the BBC History Magazine website. Enjoy! :-)

My book Isabella of France: The Rebel Queen got a great review in the weekly Catholic magazine The Tablet recently. You have to register on the site to read the full review, but it's free and very easy. I particularly enjoyed the part "she is very cross indeed with soi-disant [so-called] historians who bend known facts to fit their theories." That's very true; I am. :-)

Nick Gribit, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds recently, has written a book about Henry of Grosmont, then earl of Derby and later first duke of Lancaster, and his expedition to Aquitaine in 1345/6. Yay! As you probably know, I madly love Henry.

The latest edition of the fab series Fourteenth Century England, number nine, is out now, with an essay by Paul Dryburgh about Edward II's younger son John of Eltham (yippee!) and one by Andy King about Edward II's death (double yippee!). I have it on order; hope it comes soon as I'm dying (pun intended) to read both.

Martin White has written a novel, To Catch the Conscience of the King, about Edward II's downfall and his escape from Berkeley Castle. It came out as an e-book on 18 June this year, and the author tells me it will also be available in paperback soon. He's kindly sending me a copy. I'm looking forward to reading it; more here about it soon.

Finally, my good friend Ivan Fowler's novel about Edward II's survival in Italy has been entirely reworked and has been published in Italian, Edward; Il mistero del Re di Auramala, with a fab cover which I love. Can't wait to read the forthcoming English version!

International Medieval Congress 2016, Session 828: The Troublesome Twenties

On Tuesday 5 July 2016, from 4.30 to 6pm, I took part in the above session about the 1320s with Professor Mark Ormrod of the university of York, the moderator, and Dr Paul Dryburgh of the National Archives, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Roger Mortimer, first earl of March. Paul talked for thirty-five minutes, a general overview of the 1320s, about the 1322 Statute of York, and much else which I'm afraid I rather missed as I was thinking about my own impending talk! I then spoke for half an hour about Edward II's last chamber account of 1325/26, now held in the library of the Society of Antiquaries in London. I talked about Edward's relationships with his niece Eleanor Despenser and her husband Hugh, the king's powerful chamberlain and favourite: there is much in the account to imply a considerable amount of affection and familiarity between Edward and Eleanor, such as frequent letters, gifts and visits, private dining, and Edward's offering of thirty shillings to give thanks to God for granting Eleanor a prompt and safe delivery of her child in December 1325. (Not named or even given a gender, but probably the Despensers' youngest, Elizabeth.) Hugh Despenser was away from Edward far more than we might expect in 1325/26, given that he had persuaded Edward to send his son to France in September 1325 rather than go himself on the grounds that his life would be in danger if the king left him alone in England. He spent much time in Wales that year, and in November 1325 Edward II heard news that Despenser had been killed. He hastily sent three men there to ascertain what was happening, and gave the large sum of ten marks each to the men for telling him that Despenser was, 'by God's mercy', perfectly well. Despenser received a manuscript of the story of Tristan and Isolde from the king in 1326.

One thing I love about the last account of Edward II's chamber is the way it confirms that the stories the chroniclers tell about him, that he enjoyed the company of his common subjects and that he took part in 'rustic pursuits', are accurate. At Leeds, I gave a good few examples of this: the king giving out money to Thames fishermen and carpenters for spending time with him (one of them was called Colle Herron, Colle being a pet name for Nicholas), inviting shipwrights to come and visit him at Kenilworth Castle, joining in when a group of workmen dug ditches and made fences at the royal manor of Clarendon in Wiltshire. I throughly enjoyed the talk and would happily have stood there for hours, talking all about Edward II and his character and hobbies!

7 July 1307/1317

King Edward I died on 7 July 1307 at Burgh-by-Sands near Carlisle at the age of sixty-eight, 709 years ago today. Exactly ten years to the day later, on 7 July 1317 (whether by accident or design), Edward II founded the King's Hall at the University of Cambridge. When his descendant Henry VIII founded Trinity College in 1546, King's Hall was subsumed into it, as was Michaelhouse, founded in 1324 by Edward's ally Hervey Staunton of the King's Bench.

More posts coming soon - I visited Lincoln today so have lots of pics of the cathedral and especially the chapter-house, where Edward held parliament in early 1316, to post!

My Talks: IMC and Heckington

On Tuesday 5 July, from 4.30 to 6pm, I'll be taking part in a session at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds with Professor Mark Ormrod of the University of York (Edward III's biographer) and Dr Paul Dryburgh of the National Archives. Our session is called The Troublesome Twenties, i.e. the 1320s, and my talk is about Edward II's last chamber account of 1325/26 and what it reveals about him.

And on Friday 8 July at 7.30pm, I'll be giving an hour-long talk about Edward II in the village of Heckington, near Sleaford in Lincolnshire. I've been invited by the good people at St Andrew's church, which was founded by Edward's chaplain Richard Potesgrave; Richard was also one of the men who guarded Edward's body (or was it Edward's body...?) in Gloucester during the two months it lay in state there before his funeral on 20 December 1327. If you're anywhere in the vicinity, please do come along!