Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Riot, Sodomy, and Minions: The Ambiguous Discourse of Sexual Transgression
- 2 From Goats to Ganymedes: The Development of Edward II’s Sexual Reputation
- 3 Edward II and Piers Gaveston: Brothers, Friends, Lovers
- 4 ‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’: Edward II’s Agency and Culpability
- 5 Edward II as Political Exemplum
- 6 ‘No escape now from a life full of suffering’: Edward II’s Sensational Fall
- 7 Beyond Sexual Mimesis: The Penetrative Murder of Edward II
- Conclusion: The Literary Transformation of History
- Appendix: Accounts of and allusions to Edward II’s reign, composed 1305–1697
- Index
7 - Beyond Sexual Mimesis: The Penetrative Murder of Edward II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Riot, Sodomy, and Minions: The Ambiguous Discourse of Sexual Transgression
- 2 From Goats to Ganymedes: The Development of Edward II’s Sexual Reputation
- 3 Edward II and Piers Gaveston: Brothers, Friends, Lovers
- 4 ‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’: Edward II’s Agency and Culpability
- 5 Edward II as Political Exemplum
- 6 ‘No escape now from a life full of suffering’: Edward II’s Sensational Fall
- 7 Beyond Sexual Mimesis: The Penetrative Murder of Edward II
- Conclusion: The Literary Transformation of History
- Appendix: Accounts of and allusions to Edward II’s reign, composed 1305–1697
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter investigates how a consensus developed that Edward II was murdered by anal penetration with a red-hot spit. I question its interpretation by scholars as a self-evidently sexually mimetic, punitive murder method: in fact, the earliest accounts of this murder present it primarily as painful, torturous, and undetectable through outward inspection. Importantly, too, these earliest accounts emerge before the formation of a consensus on whether Edward's transgressions were sexual, let alone whether they specifically constituted sex with men. This analysis prompts a reassessment of the place of this narrative in the history of queer sexuality, and of the murder scene in Marlowe's Edward II, while also further illuminating the literary priorities of medieval and early modern chroniclers.
Keywords: Christopher Marlowe, homosexuality, prose Brut, red-hot poker, sodomy
Introduction
Modern historians and contemporary sources overwhelmingly agree that Edward II died in Berkeley Castle on 21 September 1327. (The exception is Ian Mortimer, who maintains that Edward was secretly kept at Corfe after a staged funeral aimed at forestalling further rescued attempts, with the prospect of restoring him to the throne used as ‘a potent threat to the young Edward III’. However, this argument has not been widely considered convincing; I share J.R.S. Phillips's sense that ‘It is hard to see what advantage would be gained by such a tactic.’) There is less historiographical consensus concerning how Edward died. Here contemporary sources differ, and are clearly inflected by the politically sensitive nature of the event. Phillips's meticulous assessment of the evidence leads to the plausible conclusion that ‘It seems more likely that he was murdered, probably by suffocation, and with the intention of leaving no outward mark on his body’. But by the mid-fourteenth century, the story that he was in fact murdered by anal penetration with a red-hot spit was already taking hold.
This chapter will not attempt to draw a firm conclusion regarding the manner of Edward's death. Instead, it will assess the medieval and early modern historiography of the event, analysing the way in which a consensus was reached, and the effects of this consensus on Edward's historiographical reputation.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Reputation of Edward II, 1305–1697A Literary Transformation of History, pp. 241 - 276Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020