After wandering helplessly for some weeks in Wales, the king was taken prisoner and was compelled to abdicate in favour of his son. He died less than a year later in captivity — some say murdered on the orders of Isabella and Mortimer by having a red-hot poker inserted somewhere rather painful. Young Edward was installed as king aged just 14 with his mother and her lover acting as his advisers and de facto rulers of the country.
Nottingham was one of their favourite castles and it was here that their three-year proxy-reign came to an end, slightly ironically considering how Edward II was possibly dispatched, via an unguarded dark hole beneath them. On the 19th October , a small group of heavily armed supporters of the king stormed Nottingham Castle using the caves beneath the building. They captured Queen Isabella and Mortimer whilst still in their bed!
This book is excellent on the Spanish Inquisition in general but does not provide an abundance of information concerning Isabel. Kamen received his doctrine in history in , taught at the University of Warwick for most of his career until he moved to Barcelona.
Many of his articles have appeared in leading scholarly publication. Liss, Peggy K. Isabel the Queen: Life and Times. This is a concise work covering the main events and accomplishments of Isabel's reign. It examines her relationship with Christopher Columbus. Liss also includes a chapter on Isabel's children and the relationships they had with their mother who educated them and cherished them.
For further reference and research, a bibliography and index are included. In addition to this concise source listing, there is a family tree tracing Isabel's royal lineage. A detailed history, and ways to contribute to the canonization process are also prominent on the site. Miller, Townsend. The Castles and The Crown. This book focuses on the relationships with those closest to the Queen. Each chapter examines the relationship with a different individual. Also discussed is how each of these relationships affected her reign and policies.
Miller includes photographs of castles and statues resulting from Isabella's reign. The queen enjoyed at first a supportive welcome from her royal brother, who showed understanding of her suffering and even urged her to extend her stay in the Kingdom of France In such favorable circumstances, Isabella succeeded in bringing about an extension of the truce, and her eldest son and heir to the throne of England, Edward III, paid due homage to the Capetian King.
In fact, she rather ostentatiously began to wear black dresses that suited her status as a widow, which she considered herself; namely, a woman who had been deserted by her husband Such a possibility, however, seems rather bizarre owing to both the papal support evinced toward Isabella and, perhaps more importantly, to the international effect that the dissolution of the royal marriage might have.
It implies that at this stage the queen had assumed a pivotal position in the opposition to the king that had crystallized in France and that included the leading barons 60 and the most prominent prelates of England The growing disappointment with Edward II and the Despensers caused the opposition to reproach the King of England as rex inutilis, a rather convenient formula to justify their open hostility to their lawful ruler Just a few days before her departure for England, however, Isabella wrote a moving letter to Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, justifying her refusal to return before the removal of the Despensers.
It seems reasonable to assume that the many discrepancies among the barons and their partyinterests turned the queen into a unifying factor; someone around whom. This possibility is strengthened when one reconsiders the mediatory role that Isabella had successfully played between Edward and the insurgent barons in the years previous to her journey to France.
Isabella landed in England with about men-at-arms on 24 September , and her journey to London gradually took on the signs of a triumphal march. The heir of St. Among the many charges leveled against Hugh Despenser the younger, his cruel attitude toward Isabella, not least the confiscation of her dowry, received a place of prominence as did his pernicious influence on the royal couple as a whole Besides their fantastic nature, such rumors were probably propagated by Isabella herself to justify her reluctance to meet her husband or to join him, as requested by some.
On the other hand, the political developments did not leave much room for a friendly, peaceful agreement between king and queen. The many charges against Edward II and his advisors were summarized by Bishop Adam Orleton under the motto Vox populi, vox Dei, thus justifying the first deposition of a king in the history of England Some of his personal tastes and behaviour were not what was expected of a king.
The exercise of regency, indeed, opened up ample possibilities for medieval queens, who could thereafter evade their otherwise theoretical position and play an indispensable institutional role. On the other hand, queens lacked the prestige of the crowned king, gratia Dei, and the fragility of their situation might therefore have encouraged opposition. After the nomination of his wife, Joan of Navarre, as regent — should the king prematurely pass away — Philip specifically established that the queen regent would lose her power and fortune should she remarry during the minority of her eldest son Although Isabella never married Mortimer, their relationship was clearly in blatant contrast to the expectations of a widow queen regent.
Richard II, for instance, was reputed to be able to rule when he was just thirteen years old; if that was indeed the case, then, by.
One may further argue that the elevation of one baron over the others — as in the cases of Hubert de Burgh, John de Gaunt, Beaufort, and Gloucester — was always very problematic, a difficulty paralleled by that of royal favorites. The mysterious death of Edward II at Berkeley Castle on 21 September — allegedly, after three unsuccessful escape attempts 76 — freed Isabella of immediate threats from the deposed king, but it did not prevent the growing resentment against her rule The shift in attitude toward Isabella between the years and is faithfully reflected in contemporary sources.
A new, more sensitive image of Edward II was gradually elaborated, and his past weaknesses were neglected as though they had never been, so as to pave the way for a sort of reincarnation of the biblical Job, who peacefully acquiesced. The shift in attitude toward Isabella has encountered different approaches in historical research.
Some historians emphasized the moral factor, claiming that the sympathy expressed toward the abandoned queen during the reign of Edward II was withdrawn from the ambitious female ruler who openly lived with her paramour Isabella appeared with Mortimer in , and she was still with him in The changing attitudes toward the queen cannot therefore be explained by her personal behavior alone but, first and foremost, by the policies that Isabella and Mortimer supported during these critical years. Indeed, Isabella and Mortimer did not succeed in repairing internal stability notwithstanding their efforts at reinstating law and order after the anarchical years of Edward II Their struggle with the Lancastrian faction and the lawless execution of the Earl.
On the other hand, Isabella and Mortimer did bring to an end the War of Saint-Sardos with France, and large areas of Gascony were returned to England in exchange for 50, marks as war indemnity [ Treaty of Paris, 31 March ] Even if the balance of power was too precarious, it is rather clear that Isabella and Mortimer supported a peace policy in complete disregard of the bellicose strategy of Edward III, which was shared by most of the barons and which in a few years resulted in the Hundred Years War The Treaty of Paris left the Agenais to France but the premature death of the last Capetian king soon afterwards led to inheritance claims by Isabella and Edward III, thus making the whole agreement meaningless.
Finally, a new agreement with Philip VI was achieved between May and July , but not before Edward III dismissed his claims to the throne of France and paid due homage to the first king of the Valois dynasty Though Robert Bruce had to pay 20, pounds in compensation for his harmful attacks along the northern border, many of his English neighbors still regarded him as an outlaw.
Bel fitz! Mortimer was a man with the ability and the will to lead an invasion of England and destroy Hugh Despenser and his father, the Earl of Winchester, and, if need be, bring down the king himself. Although their relationship has been romanticised to a considerable degree in much modern literature, it is far more likely to have been a pragmatic political alliance than a passionate love affair, at least in the beginning.
Isabella betrothed her son Edward of Windsor to a daughter of the Count of Hainault in modern-day Belgium in order to secure ships, mercenaries and cash to invade England. A parliament was held in London at the beginning of , which decided that Edward II must be forced to abdicate his throne to his year-old son Edward of Windsor. Although Queen Isabella and her favourite Roger Mortimer were not appointed members of it, it seems that they ruled England for several years.
How Edward died, whether by suffocation or illness or something else — the infamous red-hot poker is a later invention and dismissed by modern experts on the era — or whether Edward even died at all is still a matter of passionate debate. There is, however, no real reason to suppose that Isabella of France ordered the murder of her own husband.
She had sent him gifts while he was in captivity in On 19 October , still a month short of his 18th birthday, the king launched a dramatic coup against the pair at Nottingham Castle, and had Mortimer hanged on 29 November. Isabella was held under house arrest for a while, and was forced to give up the vast lands and income she had appropriated; she had awarded herself 20, marks or 13, pounds a year, the largest income anyone in England received the kings excepted in the entire Middle Ages.
It was hardly a wonder that Edward III found his coffers almost entirely empty.
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