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
12 - The Place of the Reign of Edward II
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
To put it mildly, Edward II has received a bad press from his own day to the present. His name is a byword for incompetence and neglect of duty; and he has been used in England (and sometimes also in France) to demonstrate the folly of allowing power to accrue to irresponsible favourites and chief (or prime) ministers. Seemingly the only good thing to be said about Edward II was Tout's remark that Edward's very ineffectiveness was almost a blessing since ‘a strong successor to Edward I might have made England a despotism; his weak and feckless son secured the permanence of Edwardian constitutionalism’.
During the latter part of the twentieth century Edward II also became an icon for the gay community through, for example, Derek Jarman's very explicit 1992 film version of Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II. In the late 1980s the English composer Peter Tranchell (1922–93) projected an opera on Edward II; David Bintley's ballet Edward II, was first performed by the Stuttgart Ballet in April 1995, and then by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in October 1997. The music for the ballet was composed by John McCabe, who also reworked the score in his symphony no. 5, Edward II (completed in April 1997). Edward's musical associations also extend to a ‘folk/reggae’ band, Edward II, active since the late 1980s, one of whose albums has the evocative title of Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas. In a sense, Edward II has become everybody's property, making an assessment of him and his reign even more problematic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Reign of Edward IINew Perspectives, pp. 220 - 233Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006