King Edward Plantagenet II of England ¹

  General Notes:

Called Edward of Caernarfon, he was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327.
He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II. Interspersed between the strong reigns of his father Edward I and son Edward III, the reign of Edward II was considered by some to be disastrous for England, marked by alleged incompetence, political squabbling and military defeats.

Although widely rumoured to have been either homosexual or bisexual, Edward fathered at least five children by two women. His inability to deny even the most grandiose favours to his male favourites (first a Gascon knight named Piers Gaveston, later a young English lord named Hugh Despenser) led to constant political unrest and his eventual deposition.

Edward I had pacified Gwynedd and some other parts of Wales and the Scottish lowlands, but never exerted a comprehensive conquest. However the army of Edward II was devastatingly defeated at Bannockburn, freeing Scotland from English control and allowing Scottish forces to raid unchecked throughout the north of England.

In addition to these disasters, Edward II is remembered for his probable death in Berkeley Castle, allegedly by murder, and for being the first monarch to establish colleges at Oxford and Cambridge: Oriel College at Oxford and King's Hall, a predecessor of Trinity College, at Cambridge.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Title: Prince of Wales, 7 Feb 1301. The story that his father presented Edward II as a newborn to the Welsh as their future native prince did not appear until the 16th century. The Welsh purportedly asked the King to give them a prince who spoke Welsh, and, the story goes, he answered he would give them a prince that spoke no English at all. This was no great concession as the Plantagenets spoke Norman French rather than English.

• Title: King of England, 1307.

• Misc: Deposed by his wife, Queen Isabella, Jan 1327.

• Alt. Death, 1341.

Edward married Queen Isabella of France of England, daughter of King Philip of France IV The Fair and Queen Joan of Navarre, on 25 Jan 1308 in Bologna, , Emilia-Romagna, ITA. (Queen Isabella of France of England was born in 1292 in Paris, , , FRA, died on 22 Aug 1358 in Castle Rising, , NFK, ENG and was buried in Grey Friars, Church, London, England.)

  Marriage Notes:

In 1324 Queen Isabella openly charged King Edward's fvourite, Hugh Despenser, with creating discord between the royal couple.