Depicting with shocking openness the sexual and political violence of its central characters’ fates, Edward the Second broke new dramatic ground in English theatre. The play charts the tragic rise and fall of the medieval English monarch Edward the Second, his favourite Piers Gaveston, and their ambitious opponents Queen Isabella and Mortimer Jr., and is an important cultural, as well as dramatic, document of the early modern period. This modernized and fully annotated Broadview Edition is prefaced by a critical but student-oriented introduction and followed by ample appendix material, including extended selections from Marlowe’s historical sources, texts bearing on the play’s complex sexual and political dynamics, and excerpts from contemporary poet Michael Drayton’s epic rendition of Edward the Second’s reign.

The dramatic life and mysterious death of the reviled Edward II, focusing on the vivid personality of the erratic and contradictory king, his unorthodox lifestyle and his passionate relationships with his male favourites, including Piers Gaveston

During his lifetime and the four centuries following his death, King Edward II (1307-1327) acquired a reputation for having engaged in sexual and romantic relationships with his male favourites, and having been murdered by penetration with a red-hot spit. This book provides the first account of how this reputation developed, providing new insights into the processes and priorities that shaped narratives of sexual transgression in medieval and early modern England. In doing so, it analyses the changing vocabulary of sexual transgression in English, Latin and French; the conditions that created space for sympathetic depictions of same-sex love; and the use of medieval history in early modern political polemic. It also focuses, in particular, on the cultural impact of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II (c.1591-92). Through such close readings of poetry and drama, alongside chronicle accounts and political pamphlets, it demonstrates that Edward's medieval and early modern afterlife was significantly shaped by the influence of literary texts and techniques. A 'literary transformation' of historiographical methodology is, it argues, an apposite response to the factors that shaped medieval and early modern narratives of the past.

In chess, from the time of Queen Isabella of England, the queen has been considered the most powerful and feared piece on the board. Known to chroniclers as the 'she-wolf', Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France, married King Edward II of England in 1308 in a union intended to create a lasting peace between the two countries. But after 13 years of enduring her husband's unkind and dissolute nature she fled abroad. With her lover, the exiled Roger Mortimer, she raised an army of mercenaries and invaded England, successfully deposing Edward. Popular belief holds that Edward was murdered in an infamous manner at Berkeley Castle near Gloucester, at the order of his wife and her lover. But after Mortimer's execution a letter arrived at court that cast doubt over Edward's death and raised the possibility of his escape. The evidence remains controversial to this day, and here Paul Doherty examines it in his fascinating detective study, set in one of the most turbulent and exciting periods of English history.

A new review of the most significant issues of Edward II's reign. Edward II presided over a turbulent and politically charged period of English history, but to date he has been relatively neglected in comparison to other fourteenth and fifteenth-century kings. This book offers a significant re-appraisal of a much maligned monarch and his historical importance, making use of the latest empirical research and revisionist theories, and concentrating on people and personalities, perceptions and expectations, rather than dry constitutional analysis. Papers consider both the institutional and the personal facets of Edward II's life and rule: his sexual reputation, the royal court, the role of the king's household knights, the nature of law and parliament in the reign, and England's relations with Ireland and Europe. Contributors: J.S. HAMILTON, W.M. ORMROD, IAN MORTIMER, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, ALISTAIR TEBBIT, W.R. CHILDS, PAUL DRYBURGH, ANTHONY MUSSON, GWILYM DODD, ALISON MARSHALL, MARTYN LAWRENCE, SEYMOUR PHILLIPS.

"Edward II" is one of the earliest English history plays. It focuses on the relationship between King Edward II of England and Piers Gaveston and Edward's murder on the orders of Roger Mortimer. Marlowe portrays the king's downfall as a result of his love for his dearests, Gaveston and Spencer, his negligence of his queen and earls, and the rise of Queen Isabella and her lover Mortimer. The play explores the tragic tensions between sexual passion and marriage, royal duty and self-fulfillment, and noble privilege and ambition.

The Vita Edwardi Secundi is the best and most readable of the chronicles of the reign of Edward II, and throws a fascinating light on the world of high politics. The anonymous author was close to the centre of politics, probably a royal clerk, and possibly John Walwayn (or someone with a similar career). His focus is largely on domestic politics and the relationship of the king and his barons, and he records the clashes and reconciliations of the period 1311-22 in valuabledetail. He also has much to say on the Scottish war, the appointment of bishops, and the outbreak of the French war. The work ends in the winter of 1325/6 with Queen Isabella's refusal to return from France while Despenser remained with the king.The work is much more than a simple chronicle. The author consciously wrote history and so commented extensively on personalities, and also on causation, motivation, and the vices of his age. He was generous to Gaveston despite his pride, more condemning of the Despensers' greed, and lamented Lancaster's wasted gifts. His reports on the arguments of both sides in the clashes between the king and his opponents are particularly enlightening, and show how serious were the threats to the king'sauthority, especially those voiced in 1321. The author's fear of civil war and attempts to define the fine line dividing resistance and treason probably reflect the concerns of many close to the court at that time.Recent research has emphasized that the Vita should be seen as a 'journal' rather than a 'memoir', and this enhances its value further, allowing historians to chart the changing views of a well-placed observer during the dramatic events of Edward's reign.The Vita has been edited three times before, once in each century since its discovery in 1728, but the last edition of 1957 has long been out of print. This new edition revises the Latin text and translation, provides a completely new introduction and historical notes to take account of recent scholarship, and includes a new and full apparatus and indices.