by Paul Doherty
'Your Grace, you sent for me?'
'There's a woman,' Edward began slowly. 'She lives in a house opposite The Swindlestock tavern near the church of St Catherine's by the Tower. She is both a traitress and a murderess.'
'Her name?'
'Agatha de Courcy.' Edward cleared his throat. 'She must die. Her crimes are self-confessed but for reasons of state cannot be divulged. You will take care of it, de Warenne. Make sure it is fast. Let her suspect nothing.'
'Your Grace, on what authority do I do this?'
The King smiled to himself, and without turning proffered the piece of parchment he had just written upon. De Warenne took it and read the words carefully.
'What the bearer of this document has done,' it ran, 'he has done for the sake of the Crown and the good of the realm.'
De Warenne bowed and slipped silently from the room. Author's Note
In 1301 Edward I and his son did have a violent altercation: the reason for this dispute is not known though the Prince of Wales certainly had a mistress by whom he had an illegitimate son. In the light of Philip IV's negotiations to marry his daughter off to the Prince of Wales, the mistress may have been 'retired' to accommodate French wishes. A similar move against the Prince's friend Gaveston, may also have figured in the row between King and Prince.
This betrothal and marriage had been imposed upon England by a Papacy very much in the pocket of Philip IV; Edward of England had to accept it or lose the beautiful, rich vineyards of Gascony in southwest France. The treaty was signed in 1298 and, for ten years, Edward of England squirmed like a snake trying to extricate himself from it Philip of France, however, held fast. There are documents in both the Record Office, London, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, which demonstrate how Philip was going to use this marriage to make one grandson Duke of Gascony and another King of England. As in modern diplomacy, such ventures can backfire; Philip's three sons failed to beget an heir and Isabella's son, the great warrior King Edward III, immediately laid claim to the throne of France and plunged that country into a hundred years of wasteful war.
Edward's infatuation with Piers Gaveston is well documented. Most historians concede that Edward was bisexual; the young prince openly declared that he loved his favourite 'more than life itself.. Gaveston was a Gascon upstart whose mother was burned as a witch and there were allegations that he, too, dabbled in the Black Arts. Eventually King Edward I exiled him but when his son became King, Gaveston was recalled and made Duke of Cornwall. The young king did marry Isabella but handed all of Philip IV's wedding gifts, including the bridal bed, over to Gaveston. The royal favourite also organised their coronation and made a complete nonsense of it; the food was cold, spectators were killed in the crush, and Gaveston upset the established nobles of England by his pre-eminence during the coronation ceremony. The young Gascon made matters worse by being handsome, an excellent jouster and very witty in choosing nicknames for Edward's nobles. He remained witty even unto death.
In 1312 the English barons captured him and led him to Blacklow Hill in Warwickshire. Gaveston turned to one of his captors, the Earl of Warwick, and said, 'My Lord, surely you will not spoil my looks by striking off my head?' Warwick happily obliged and struck Gaveston to the heart with his dagger. The young Edward was distraught He had Gaveston's body embalmed and kept in bis palace at Kings Langley until the Church forced him to carry out the funeral ceremony.
There is an interesting link between Edward II's favour- ites and the English royal family in the last decade of the twentieth century. After Gaveston's death, Edward chose a new favourite, the very sinister but able Hugh de Spencer, whose tomb can still be seen in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire. De Spencer's control over the young king led to civil war between Edward and his Isabella. The Queen was victorious. De Spencer died a horrible death and, according to unpublished chronicle, the Commons took an oath never to allow a de Spencer to become King. The present marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Diana Spencer, one of Hugh's descendants and mother of a future King, perhaps lifts the curse on one of England's most ancient families.
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