Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
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Twice, before Parliament rose on 14 May, the King undertook to dower his wife within one year with lands and rents worth £15,000 per annum.38 How he was to do this was problematical, since the Crown was virtually impoverished.
Of greater import was the Queen Mother’s announcement that she intended to pursue her son’s claim to the French throne, a resolve enthusiastically supported by Edward III and calculated to placate the English people, who felt their national honor had been disparaged by the peace with Scotland. She had already had Edward write a letter to the Pope, in which he acknowledged that his mother could not succeed to the French throne, “as the kingdom of France was too great for a woman to hold by reason of the imbecility [that is, weakness] of her sex,” but that he wished to claim it himself as Charles IV’s nearest male relative. Isabella would have realized that, if she had pressed her own claim, those of her brothers’ daughters would take precedence.
On 16 May, Bishops Orleton and Northburgh were sent to France to demand officially that Edward III be recognized as its king.39 Orleton argued that Isabella could legitimately transmit her claim to her son since no woman had ever been legally excluded from the French throne, for it had never yet had occasion to pass to a female; furthermore, it could not be denied that every feudal lordship in France could be inherited by a woman, so why not the Crown? Nor, however, could it be denied that a thirty-five-year-old man with experience in statecraft was infinitely preferable as a ruler to a boy of fifteen in tutelage to his mother and her lover, and the twelve peers of France, who were well aware of Isabella’s dubious private life, and utterly averse to the prospect of any English king sitting on France’s throne, “clean put out” Edward’s claim, insisting that the throne of France “was of such great noblesse that it ought not by succession to fall into a woman’s hand.”40 Nor did Isabella’s efforts to secure the support of the Gascon nobility bear fruit. The French lords prevailed, and Philip VI was crowned on 29 May.
An incensed Isabella, who was still bent on pressing her son’s claims but was in no position to resort to military force, focused instead on seeking allies in an attempt to undermine Philip, to whom she was thereafter to refer disparagingly as “the foundling king,” a nickname bestowed on him by his enemies, the Flemings. She began cultivating the friendship of France’s neighbors, with Brabant, Gueldres, Bruges, Navarre, and Castile, and on 21 May, she opened negotiations for the marriage of her younger son, John, now nearly twelve, and the daughter of the Castilian Lord of Biscay.41
On 24 May, Edward III arrived at Warwick, to be greeted by Lancaster, who had come to discuss possible strategies for a war with France.42
Isabella had probably accompanied Mortimer to Hereford for the double wedding of his daughters, Joan and Katherine, to Audley’s heir, James, and Warwick’s heir, Thomas de Beauchamp, respectively, which took place on 31 May.43 Afterward, Mortimer escorted his wife back to Ludlow. He hardly ever saw Joan nowadays, and it appears that they were more or less estranged, although he did send her gifts of romances from time to time, and he did continue to have her arms engraved on his plate.44 Isabella’s movements are unrecorded at this time, so we may assume that she attended the wedding, for she was at nearby Worcester on 10 June. If so, it was probably at this time that she stayed as Mortimer’s guest at Ludlow, either in the luxurious new chamber block adjoining the great hall, which he had built before 1320, or in the late thirteenth-century solar palace at the other end of the hall.
Ludlow Castle had come into Mortimer’s hands through his marriage to Joan de Genville. Built in the twelfth century, it occupied a lofty position above the River Teme. Originally a great Marcher fortress, it was now a palatial residence offering the latest in domestic comforts. Mortimer could have shown Isabella the chapel he was building to Saint Peter ad Vincula in the outer ward of the castle, in thanksgiving for his escape from the Tower on the saint’s feast day in 1323.45 How Lady Mortimer reacted to the Queen’s presence in her home is a matter for speculation.
From Warwick, the young King and Queen intended to make a leisurely progress south toward Woodstock, which would become one of Philippa’s favorite residences. Their removal there represented a tactical withdrawal from the arrangements that were being made for the marriage of Edward’s seven-year-old sister Joan to David Bruce, with which Isabella was now greatly preoccupied. Edward wanted nothing to do with the marriage and had already publicly announced that it did not have his blessing and that he would not be attending it.46 Instead, he would remain with Philippa at Woodstock. This rare act of defiance testifies to the strength of his objections to the treaty. Isabella tried to persuade him to change his mind, even arranging a spear fight in Berwick as an incentive, but Edward was adamant, and she did not press the matter.
First, however, the King went to Worcester to meet up with his mother and Mortimer, who had arrived there by 10 June. The council was due to meet to discuss raising troops to send to Gascony in pursuance of the King’s claim to France, but Lancaster, perhaps fearing that the views of the Queen would prevail, adamantly refused to proceed, on the grounds that insufficient councillors were present, and insisted that the discussion be postponed until the full council could be assembled. After five days of wrangling, the Queen conceded defeat on this issue, and the King summoned the lords to meet at York on 31 July.47 Isabella arrived in York on 1 July.48
The Treaty of Northampton had provided for the return of the Stone of Scone to Scotland. Despite Edward’s opposition, Isabella had every intention of taking it north with her when she went to Berwick for Joan’s wedding, and at her insistence, on 1 July, the King reluctantly sent the Abbot of Westminster an order to deliver up the stone to the sheriffs of London, who were to “have it carried to the Queen of England, our very dear lady and mother, in whatever part of the north of England she may be.”49 Edward was being deliberately awkward and unhelpful, since he must have known full well where Isabella could be found. But the London mob were on his side and staged a demonstration, refusing to allow the Abbot to surrender the stone. Edward must have been delighted to receive his letter stating that he would not release it until the matter had been discussed further. So the Stone of Scone stayed at Westminster; Isabella evidently did not wish to further alienate her son by pressing for its removal.50
The Queen appointed her staunch ally Bishop Burghersh Chancellor on 2 July. At this time, nearly every high office was in the hands of her supporters,51 but Burghersh was one of the most deserving, being “noble and wise in counsel, of great boldness, yet of polished manners, and singularly endowed with personal strength.”52 Furthermore, he would remain loyal to Isabella through crisis after crisis.
Early in July, Isabella and Mortimer, accompanied by a great retinue that included the Queen’s younger children, Chancellor Burghersh, Bishops Airmyn and Orleton, and the Earl of Surrey, escorted the Princess Joan north to Berwick, where on the sixteenth, they witnessed her marriage to David Bruce, which was celebrated with considerable splendor.53 Isabella financed her stay in the North by appropriating provisions that were meant for the Tower of London and the services of her son’s purveyors;54 this was just one example among many of her misuse of public funds.
On 22 July, after attending the magnificent entertainments hosted by the Scottish lords,55 Isabella presented her daughter with numerous farewell gifts before formally handing her over to the Scots. Among these gifts was probably a precious manuscript, the Taymouth Hours, which dates from circa 1325–3556 and has illustrations that are similar to those in Queen Mary’s Psalter. The Taymouth Hours has four pictures of the Queen who either commissioned it or owned it: she is depicted at prayer during Mass, kneeling beneath a purple canopy in front of an open book that lies on a prie-dieu; at prayer before a vision of the Holy Ghost, with a bearded man beside her; kneeling with a king, keeping vigil as Christ agonizes in the Garden of Gethsemane; and, wearing her crown, being presented by the Virgin to the enthroned Christ.57 This queen has been identified with either Isabella
or her daughter Joan.58 It has been suggested that Isabella commissioned the Taymouth Hours, with its French prayers, as a wedding gift for Joan.59 If so, she must have hoped that her daughter would benefit from the spiritual and moral guidance it offered and follow the role models of the Virgin Mary and the chaste Diana the Huntress, as exemplified in its pages.
After the feasting was over, the Scottish lords took Joan and David to Cardross Castle to meet King Robert, who extended to Joan “a fair welcoming.”60 Hearing that Edward III had refused to attend the wedding, he, too, had stayed away,61 so Isabella never met him.
Escorted for part of the way by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and Sir James Douglas, “the Black Douglas,” who had famously tried to abduct her on two occasions, Isabella returned south with Mortimer, knowing that it would be a long time before she saw Joan again. It was being said in England that the Queen had “disparaged” the Princess by this “vile marriage,”62 while the Scots gave their dowerless little Queen the derisory nickname “Joan Make-peace.”63
On 28 July, at Isabella’s plea, Robert I made concessions to some of the Disinherited, including Wake, Beaumont, and Henry, Lord Percy,64 which incensed those whose claims had been passed over. Percy received other marks of favor from Isabella and remained her loyal ally, unlike Wake and Beaumont.65 Wake was Lancaster’s son-in-law, and Isabella had deprived him of his office of Justice south of the Trent on 9 May and replaced him with William, Lord Zouche, who owed his advancement to his “good service to Queen Isabella.”66 As for Beaumont, who had long been a good friend, Isabella would never forgive his disaffection.
The Queen and Mortimer were at Pontefract on 25 July67 and arrived in York a day or so after Parliament had met there on the thirty-first.68 Immediately, they summoned a meeting of the council to discuss sending troops to Gascony, but Lancaster, Norfolk, Kent, and Wake failed to show up.69 The significance of this would not have been lost on Isabella and Mortimer, who must have realized that a conflict was looming. All talk of war was therefore shelved until the next Parliament.70
It was now painfully clear that, as a direct result of the “disgraceful peace” of Northampton, Isabella’s and Mortimer’s former allies had lost faith in them and were ready to desert them. Matters were only made worse when most of the first installment of Bruce’s compensation money disappeared into Isabella’s coffers rather than going to replenish the empty Exchequer.71 She had also appropriated taxes raised at Lancaster’s behest for fighting the Scots. Soon, it was being said that she and Mortimer had arranged the treaty and compromised England’s honor purely for their own personal gain.
In this general climate of disapproval, other resentments had begun to surface. There had long been a growing undercurrent of feeling that Mortimer was getting above himself, and many had begun to resent his and Isabella’s monopoly of power, which, it was said, they meant to hold on to at any price.72 Mortimer’s increasing arrogance and presumption earned him much disapproval. He dispensed patronage like a king, for grants to his followers were made in the King’s name, under the Privy Seal, effectively under Isabella’s control, which had led to complaints in Parliament that it was being misused.73
Lancaster had been irrevocably alienated from Isabella and Mortimer by the passing of the Treaty of Northampton, which starkly exposed how far his own power and influence had been eroded. Norfolk, Beaumont, and many of the Disinherited also felt outraged and humiliated, and by August, Kent, whose loyalty to Isabella had long been wavering, had aligned himself with Lancaster.
Hence, Lancaster, Norfolk, Kent, and others had deliberately absented themselves from the council meeting at York out of utter indignation at the peace with Scotland, the undermining of their own influence, and the increasing autocracy of Isabella and Mortimer. Furthermore, they were publicly claiming that the Queen had usurped the sovereign’s authority under the pretense of reforming the abuses of Edward II’s rule and asserted that, in a little over a year, she and Mortimer had committed more crimes than Edward and his favorites had in twenty years.74 This was a vast exaggeration, but Lancaster was a driven man, spurred on by his anger over the treaty, his desire to retrieve the Lincoln inheritance from the Queen, and his determination to reassert his authority, which Isabella and Mortimer had subverted at every turn. He was well aware that he was the only person able to coordinate effective opposition against them, but he also knew that, once he openly proclaimed himself their enemy, they would be bent on destroying him.75
As for Kent, he desperately wanted an opportunity to redress the wrongs he had done Edward II, while he and Norfolk felt that Mortimer had usurped their positions as Princes of the Blood. Both must have felt that the rewards given them for supporting Isabella were paltry compared to those that she and Mortimer had awarded themselves.76
Another who had deserted Isabella was Bishop Stratford, who was to act as Lancaster’s public mouthpiece in the coming conflict. Almost alone among the Queen’s chief supporters, he had received no substantial reward or public office, which had apparently rankled greatly.
Thanks to the efforts of Hamo de Chigwell, many Londoners also sympathized with Lancaster, and on 12 August, the Mayor sent a tentative letter of support to him, Kent, Wake, and Stratford, thanking them for their favor shown to the City in the past and wishing them long continuance.77
On 18 August, the court left York, and on the twenty-second, the day before it reached Doncaster, Isabella sent Thomas Garton, controller of the King’s Wardrobe, to Lancaster, probably to invite him to talks. Garton rejoined the court at Nottingham four days later.78
Isabella and Mortimer were together at Nottingham on 2 August.79 Soon afterward, Mortimer lost two of his sons, Roger, who died shortly before 27 August, and John, who was killed in a tournament.80 These tragedies appear to have had a profound effect on Mortimer, whose grief seems to have found its outlet in aggression.
On 7 September, the court was at Barlings Abbey near Lincoln when Lancaster came to parley at the head of an armed force, having decided that there was no other way of emphasizing his grievances. This provoked an uproar, with Isabella and Mortimer angrily protesting against such defiance and refusing to listen to Lancaster’s complaints, and Lancaster furiously threatening to turn his troops on them. In the end, the King was compelled to command the Earl to lay his complaints before Parliament, which had been summoned to meet at Salisbury.81
Isabella was badly shaken by this scene. The specter of civil war had once again raised its grimacing head, and the government reacted accordingly, issuing contingency plans for dealing with Lancaster to the sheriffs. At Wisbech, on 16 September, Isabella and Mortimer banned all public assemblies and moved to replace any sheriff whose loyalty was questionable.82 Shortly afterward, they left Wisbech and made for Gloucester,83 where Mortimer began to muster troops from the Marches. With some truth, the pro-Lancastrian Brut claimed that this open rift with Lancaster marked the beginning of the tyranny of Isabella and Mortimer.
The row at Barlings had driven Lancaster to seek openly the support of the Londoners. On 14 September, Wake and Stratford had gone to the Guildhall and, in an address to the citizens, publicly declared their grievances. They demanded that the King should live off his own revenues so that he would have at his disposal sufficient treasure to fight his enemies; that his mother should surrender her vast dower and live on the traditional income of a queen consort; that she should avoid abusing the privilege of purveyance, which she had used to obtain goods for Mortimer as well as herself, and cease oppressing the people with her extravagance; that Mortimer be banished from court and made to remain on his own lands, since he had disinherited many in order to acquire them; that there should be an inquiry as to why the Weardale campaign had failed; that the regency council should be permitted to function without obstruction or interference and not be neglected; and that law and order should be properly enforced. The Londoners loudly voiced their approval and called for these matters to be discussed in a Parliament at Westminster, not a
t Salisbury.84
After leaving Wisbech, Edward III had progressed through East Anglia, probably making for London by a roundabout route; at Thetford on 24 September, he received a letter from Isabella.85 By now, however, Lancaster had learned that the King was on his own and marched his forces from Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire to intercept and take custody of him.86 On 27 September, when Edward arrived at Cambridge, he was warned of Lancaster’s intentions and “turned aside,” probably to join his mother and Mortimer at Gloucester,87 a journey that meant swinging southward to avoid meeting Lancaster. On the day Edward left Cambridge, Hamo de Chigwell wrote to inform him of the proceedings at the Guildhall.88
Isabella and Mortimer had arrived at Gloucester by 4 October.89 Edward III must have arrived soon afterward, to be shortly followed by news of the proceedings at the Guildhall. Isabella was devastated when she heard and fell weeping into her son’s arms, crying that Lancaster was his enemy and meant her evil by his false and cruel accusations. Edward was appalled at her distress and took it upon himself to send Sir Oliver Ingham and Bartholemew, Lord Burghersh, to the Mayor with a demand that he explain his conduct to the King.90
When the royal party arrived at Salisbury, they received the shocking news that Lancaster’s men had murdered Sir Robert Holland. Yet this had not been without provocation, for once he had been reinstated in his lands, Holland, a thoroughly unpleasant character, had dared to raid Lancaster’s estates.91 In retaliation, in June 1328, William Bradshaw, one of Lancaster’s adherents, had accused Holland of the murder of one Adam Banastre in 1326. Almost certainly this was a ploy on Lancaster’s part to discredit Holland and remove him from the political arena. An indictment had been brought against Holland, but the Queen, contravening the provisions of the Statute of Northampton, issued a writ under the Privy Seal prohibiting any justice from proceeding against him.92