A rare event
Deposing a crowned king was unusual in medieval England. A king’s authority came from God and from anointing, and the idea of removing him was dangerous. In 1327 it happened to Edward II, and the way it was done shows how his enemies tried to justify what they were doing. The story also ends with questions about what happened to him afterward that cannot be fully answered.
The invasion of 1326
By the mid-1320s Edward’s government was dominated by Hugh Despenser the younger and his father. Edward’s wife, Isabella of France, had grown estranged from the king and hostile to the Despensers. In 1325 she went to France on a diplomatic mission to negotiate over the lands in Gascony, and she was joined there by their son, the future Edward III, who was sent to perform homage. She did not return.
In France she became associated with Roger Mortimer, a marcher lord who had been imprisoned in the Tower after the conflicts of 1321-22 and escaped in 1323. Their relationship eventually became a romantic one, according to most chroniclers. Their alliance is often seen as a convenient shared opposition to the Despensers. In September 1326 they landed in Suffolk with a small force, saying they came to remove the king’s evil advisers. Support gathered swiftly. Edward’s government collapsed, since the Despensers had few loyal friends, and Londoners turned against the king’s side.
Edward fled westward toward Wales with the younger Despenser. They were captured in November. Despenser was tried and executed at Hereford in a brutal public ceremony, and the elder Despenser had been put to death shortly before at Bristol. Edward himself was taken into custody and held at Kenilworth Castle.
Making a case for removal
In January 1327 a parliament met at Westminster, with Isabella and Mortimer effectively in control. Its members considered what to do about a king who had been captured and had no ability to rule. The accusations drawn up against him included that he had been incompetent, that he had been led by bad advice, that he had lost Scotland and that he had harmed the church and the nobility through cruelty. Whether these claims were fair is a separate question; they were chosen to justify the step.
The assembly proclaimed the young prince as king, but a legal difficulty remained, since a king could not simply be dismissed. A delegation went to Kenilworth to put the matter to Edward and, according to accounts, to secure his agreement to resign. He is reported to have been deeply distressed, and to have accepted on condition that his son would succeed. The formal renunciation of homage followed, and Edward III was crowned in February 1327. In law, it was presented as a resignation, not a deposition, which helped to keep up the idea that the crown was not being taken by force. This approach was later used in other cases and became a precedent for removing kings, including Richard II in 1399.
Berkeley Castle
Edward was moved from Kenilworth to Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire in the spring of 1327, partly because attempts had been made to free him and his captors wished to keep him away from supporters. He was placed under the care of men connected to Mortimer. In late September 1327 the government announced that he had died.
The official story was that he had died of natural causes. Because the announcement came when his supporters were still active, and because his death was convenient to those in power, many contemporaries suspected foul play. It is widely believed that he was killed, but there is no reliable proof of how.
The famous story and its problems
A well-known tale holds that Edward was killed by a red-hot iron thrust into his body, designed to leave no marks. It appears in chronicles written some years after the event. Many modern historians doubt it, noting that it may reflect the hostile writers’ wish to link his fate to accusations about his private life, or may be modeled on moralizing patterns of storytelling. The truth is that no early source gives a trustworthy description of the death.
An entirely different account comes from a letter attributed to an Italian churchman, Manuel Fieschi, written in the 1330s. It claims that Edward escaped from Berkeley and lived on as a hermit in Italy. The letter is real, but whether its story is true is another matter, and most historians regard it as unlikely or as a garbled tale. A few scholars take it seriously. Edward III is known to have taken an interest in some of the same people, which has caused speculation, but nothing here amounts to proof.
What can be said with confidence
It is certain that Edward II was forced off the throne in January 1327, that his son was crowned in his place, that he was held in custody and that his death was announced in September 1327. Everything beyond that, including cause, date and place of burial, is argued over. He was buried at Gloucester Abbey, now Gloucester Cathedral, where Edward III later arranged a tomb that became a pilgrimage site. Mortimer and Isabella ruled in the young king’s name until 1330, when Edward III seized power, had Mortimer executed and took control of his own government.