Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Character of Edward II: The Letters of Edward of Caernarfon Reconsidered
- 2 The Sexualities of Edward II
- 3 Sermons of Sodomy: A Reconsideration of Edward II's Sodomitical Reputation
- 4 The Court of Edward II
- 5 Household Knights and Military Service Under the Direction of Edward II
- 6 England in Europe in the Reign of Edward II
- 7 The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321–7
- 8 Edward II: The Public and Private Faces of the Law
- 9 Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II
- 10 The Childhood and Household of Edward II's Half-Brothers, Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock
- 11 Rise of a Royal Favourite: the Early Career of Hugh Despenser the Elder
- 12 The Place of the Reign of Edward II
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
7 - The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321–7
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Character of Edward II: The Letters of Edward of Caernarfon Reconsidered
- 2 The Sexualities of Edward II
- 3 Sermons of Sodomy: A Reconsideration of Edward II's Sodomitical Reputation
- 4 The Court of Edward II
- 5 Household Knights and Military Service Under the Direction of Edward II
- 6 England in Europe in the Reign of Edward II
- 7 The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321–7
- 8 Edward II: The Public and Private Faces of the Law
- 9 Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II
- 10 The Childhood and Household of Edward II's Half-Brothers, Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock
- 11 Rise of a Royal Favourite: the Early Career of Hugh Despenser the Elder
- 12 The Place of the Reign of Edward II
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Summary
…the earl of Leicester, Roger Mortimer and John of Hainault…pursued the king, Hugh Despenser and Robert Baldock, lest they should take to the sea and cross to Ireland, raise an army and oppress England as before; the said lords feared that if the king could reach Ireland and gather an army, he might cross to Scotland and, with the help of the Scots and the Irish, invade England.
Fleeing his estranged queen and her lover, Roger Mortimer, Edward II put to sea at Chepstow on 20 October 1326. In revisiting the denouement of his reign, contemporaries keenly speculate on his destination and purpose. A Franciscan friar writing on the Scottish marches fifteen years later offers this striking interpretation. His is the most developed version of a story with its origins in popular rumours, as expressed by the Anonimalle chronicler, that the king ‘voleit aver passe en Irland’. This, though, countered general opinion. Adam Murimuth believed Edward aimed ‘ad partes remotas’. Most chroniclers assume he intended flight to Wales to raise forces against the invaders. Modern authorities, as Seymour Phillips notes in re-examining literary traditions surrounding Edward's relationship with Ireland, have dismissed any venture across the Irish Sea. His latest biographer believes Waleswashisaim. Edward's failure to navigate the Severn Estuary and his capture near Llantrisant on 16 November make such rumours easy to reject. They may, moreover, reflect his literary denigration as cowardly and duplicitous, or accentuate Scottish perfidy during subsequent crises in Anglo-Scots relations. Similarly, they may mirror a historical tradition in which Ireland acts as a refuge for those fleeing persecution in England.
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- Information
- The Reign of Edward IINew Perspectives, pp. 119 - 139Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006