Edward II (Penguin Monarchs): The Terrors of Kingship

Edward II (Penguin Monarchs): The Terrors of Kingship
ISBN-10
0141977973
ISBN-13
9780141977973
Category
History
Pages
144
Language
English
Published
2016-09-29
Publisher
Penguin UK
Author
Christopher Given-Wilson

Description

'He seems to have laboured under an almost child-like misapprehension about the size of his world. Had greatness not been thrust upon him, he might have lived a life of great harmlessness.' The reign of Edward II was a succession of disasters. Unkingly, inept in war, and in thrall to favourites, he preferred digging ditches and rowing boats to the tedium of government. His infatuation with a young Gascon nobleman, Piers Gaveston, alienated even the most natural supporters of the crown. Hoping to lay the ghost of his soldierly father, Edward I, he invaded Scotland and suffered catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn. After twenty ruinous years, betrayed and abandoned by most of his nobles and by his wife and her lover, Edward was imprisoned in Berkeley Castle and murdered - the first English king since the Norman Conquest to be deposed.

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