Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Royal Mausolea in the Long Fourteenth Century (1272-1422)
- Legal Culture: Medieval Lawyers’ Aspirations and Pretensions
- Thomas of Lancaster’s First Quarrel with Edward II
- Bristol and the Crown, 1326-31: Local and National Politics in the Early Years of Edward III’s Reign
- Mapping Identity in John Trevisa’s English Polychronicon: Chester, Cornwall and the Translation of English National History
- Edward the Black Prince and East Anglia: An Unlikely Association
- William Wykeham and the Management of the Winchester Estate, 1366-1404
- A Lancastrian Polity? John of Gaunt, John Neville and the War with France, 1368-88
- ‘Hearts warped by passion’: The Percy-Gaunt, Dispute of 1381
- The Reasons for the Bishop of Norwich’s Attack of Flanders in 1383
- Loyalty, Honour and the Lancastrian Revolution: Sir Stephen Scrope of Castle Combe and his Kinsmen, c.1389-c.1408
- The Furnishing of Royal Closets and the Use of Small Devotional Images in the Reign of Richard II: The Setting of the Wilton Diptych Reconsidered
- ‘Weep thou for me in France’: French Views of the Deposition of Richard II
Thomas of Lancaster’s First Quarrel with Edward II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Royal Mausolea in the Long Fourteenth Century (1272-1422)
- Legal Culture: Medieval Lawyers’ Aspirations and Pretensions
- Thomas of Lancaster’s First Quarrel with Edward II
- Bristol and the Crown, 1326-31: Local and National Politics in the Early Years of Edward III’s Reign
- Mapping Identity in John Trevisa’s English Polychronicon: Chester, Cornwall and the Translation of English National History
- Edward the Black Prince and East Anglia: An Unlikely Association
- William Wykeham and the Management of the Winchester Estate, 1366-1404
- A Lancastrian Polity? John of Gaunt, John Neville and the War with France, 1368-88
- ‘Hearts warped by passion’: The Percy-Gaunt, Dispute of 1381
- The Reasons for the Bishop of Norwich’s Attack of Flanders in 1383
- Loyalty, Honour and the Lancastrian Revolution: Sir Stephen Scrope of Castle Combe and his Kinsmen, c.1389-c.1408
- The Furnishing of Royal Closets and the Use of Small Devotional Images in the Reign of Richard II: The Setting of the Wilton Diptych Reconsidered
- ‘Weep thou for me in France’: French Views of the Deposition of Richard II
Summary
See how often and abruptly great men change their sides. Those whom we regard as faithless in the north we find just the opposite in the south. The love of magnates is as a game of dice, and the desires of the rich like feathers.
So wrote the anonymous author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi. He was decrying the fickleness of the earls of Lincoln and Warenne, who, having striven to procure the exile of Piers Gaveston in the spring of 1308, welcomed him back just a year later, when he was recalled from Ireland by Edward II in the summer of 1309. The relationship of Edward to his favourite was to dominate the politics of the first five years of his reign. His first act on becoming king had been to recall Gaveston, who was then in France, having been banished by Edward I. Initially, this had not caused any great resentment; Lincoln and Warrenne, and five of their fellow earls (including Lancaster) were the witnesses to the charter by which Gaveston was created earl of Cornwall, on 6 August 1307. However, Gaveston’s gross arrogance rapidly lost him their goodwill, though perhaps even more objectionable was the undue influence he exercised over royal patronage.
Disaffection was already evident by the beginning of 1308, just seven months after Edward’s accession. In mid-January, Edward and his court crossed to France for his marriage to Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV, leaving Gaveston behind as keeper of the realm. A group of magnates, who accompanied Edward, sealed letters patent at Boulogne on 31 January, pointing out that they were bound by their allegiance to uphold the king’s honour and the rights of his crown, and promising to obtain redress and make amends for ‘the oppressions that have been done and are still being done to his people day in, day out’; this juxtaposition was intended to imply a linkage between the redress of grievances and the upholding of the king’s honour. The group – which included Anthony Bek, bishop of Durham, and the earls of Lincoln, Warenne, Pembroke and Hereford – was made up of courtiers and royal servants; these were therefore men who remained fundamentally loyal to the king, but who realised that reforms were necessary in the face of mounting opposition.
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- Fourteenth Century England III , pp. 31 - 46Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004