The Fallen Woman: Isabella of France (1295-1358)
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Isabella and her son
return from France
(15th Century) |
Isabella of France
(1295-1358), has a bad reputation, and is remembered as the ‘She-Wolf of
France’; the greatest femme fatale in English history who overthrew her husband
for the love of another man. Initially a model royal wife, she fought her way
to historical infamy by deposing her husband, and reigning as regent during her
son’s minority with her lover, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March (1287-1330). Her
reign was politically insignificant and short, but her part in her husband’s
downfall was game shifting as not only had she proved that women could fight
just as hard as men; she had been the catalyst for the first legal deposition
of a King in English history.
Isabella was born to
be a Queen. She was the only daughter, of Philip IV of France and his wife Joan
I of Navarre. The influence of her parents in Isabella’s life was particularly
striking. Her father was handsome, charismatic and ruthless, and one of medieval
France’s most effective monarchs. Philip was instrumental in turning France’s
government from reliance on the talents of the King, to being in possession of
a strong bureaucratic system. Callous and ruthless, he also destroyed hundreds
of lives in his drive for financial security; expelling the Jews in 1306,
suppressing the Knights Templar between 1307 and 1314 to seize their assets,
and took lands from King Edward I of England to build his land revenue. Isabella
was said to greatly resemble him in looks and temperament. She adored her
father, and Isabella was Philip’s favourite child.
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Isabella's father, Philip IV "The Fair" of
France |
In contrast,
Isabella’s mother Joan was plump, plain and had inherited Navarre during her
minority. Her father-in-law, Philip III, had taken advantage of Navarre’s weak
state and married Joan into the Capetian dynasty, subsuming Navarre into France.
Although Joan showed signs of bravery and courage; she quashed a Navarrese rebellion
against her, she was mostly subservient and weak willed in the face of her
powerful husband, and let him rule in her name. She died when Isabella was ten;
having offered Isabella a model of correct female behaviour, a lesson Isabella
was to profoundly reject later in life.
Isabella’s future
always lay in England; her hand in marriage was a useful bargaining chip for
Philip to prevent hostilities with Edward I over Aquitaine. In 1308, she was
betrothed to Edward I’s heir, Edward, Prince of Wales, and they were married on
25th January in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Chronicler Geoffrey of Paris
lauded Isabella as ‘the beauty of beauties’, and she was said to resemble her
father as she was tall, slender, blonde with high cheek bones and pale skin.
She was also noted to be diplomatic and charming, skills she retained for her
whole career, and her high intelligence was often noted upon. Isabella was off
to a flying start as the Princess of Wales.
Isabella’s
father-in-law, Edward I, was one of England’s great medieval kings, immortalised
as ‘The Hammer of the Scots’. He had a glittering career through strengthening
royal power, extending English control into Scotland and Wales, establishing
Parliament as a permanent institution and creating a standardised tax system.
He was tall, intimidating and the model of medieval kingship, but he felt his
legacy was insecure due to the personality of his effeminate son. On his death
in 1307, Edward had supposedly begged his barons to make sure his son continue
the war with Scotland and be free of the influence of a coterie of unsuitable
favourites.
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| Edward II receiving his crown |
It was hoped that
Isabella’s husband would be much like his father. Edward was tall and
statuesque, with golden hair and a very handsome face and he appeared a model
medieval King. He had some unusual hobbies, which worried some of his barons,
such as thatching roofs and rowing which were not considered suitable for his
class. Edward was friendly and amiable, but also had a very intense
personality, bordering on the obsessive. He was intensely loyal to those he
loved, and rather sadly, it was this trait that was the cause his downfall. Most
notably, at the wedding feast for Edward and Isabella, Edward did not attend on
his young wife. Instead, he spent the entire feast sitting next to his
favourite; Piers Gaveston.
Piers was not from a noble
background. He was the son of a Gascon knight, Arnaud de Gaveston, who owned
extensive lands in Aquitaine due to his wife, Claramonde, Piers’ mother. This
made the Gaveston family vassals of Edward I, as he was not only King of
England but also Duke of Aquitaine. Piers was the same age as Isabella’s
husband, and in 1300 Piers sailed for England from his homeland. The aging King
Edward, fearing his son did not have the temperament or nature to be a good
king, was impressed with Piers’ martial skills, and took him into his household
to serve as a model for the impressionable Prince Edward.
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| "Edward II and Gaveston" (1872) by Marcus Stone |
Initially, Piers made
a good impression on both Edward I and the Prince of Wales. By 1304, Piers was
in such high esteem that he was given the wardship of a young sixteen-year-old
boy, an orphan named Roger Mortimer, who would later play a dramatic role in
Isabella’s story. Although Piers was not a member of the aristocracy, his
relationship to the Prince of Wales was worryingly close. At this stage, Edward
and Piers’ relationship was already being described as being ‘excessive,
immoderate, beyond measure and reason’ (Flores Historianum) and Edward was
suspected of harbouring desires for ‘wicked and forbidden sex’ (Flores
Historianum) with Piers.
By the time Isabella
arrived in England in 1308, Piers and Edward had already been involved in
political wrangling. In 1306, Edward I
had banished Gaveston from court but when he died and his son became king in 1307,
Gaveston was recalled and made Earl of Cornwall, in spite of his humble
background. The Cornwall fortune included land worth £4000 a year and Edward
further honoured his favourite by betrothing Piers to his niece Margaret de
Clare. For some, the marriage was worse than Gaveston’s rise to the peerage, as
Margaret was of the blood royal while Gaveston was a commoner. While Edward
claimed that he was merely attempting to surround Piers with friends, Edward’s
barons believed he was attempting to bolster Gaveston’s power against them.
Edward ignored the Barons complaints, and as Piers and Margaret exited their
wedding, Edward had them showered with silver pennies.
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Thomas of Lancaster (left) with
St George |
The problems in
Edward’s reign were caused both by his predecessor’s financial policies and his
own excesses. The main problem for the Barons was that during Edward I’s last
years fighting in Scotland he had relied on purveyance, or requisitioning goods
for military use without compensation, to fund his army. Edward II continued to
implement this policy, but refused to continue the war in Scotland. This,
coupled with Edward’s failing to capitalise on his father’s Scottish victories,
only served to increase the Barons venom towards him. Slowly allying against
the king they were led by Edward’s cousin, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and a
veteran of the Scottish wars, Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Gaveston did nothing
to relieve the problem, and instead he began to ridicule the magnates and gave
them denigrating nicknames; Lancaster was ‘The Fiddler’, and Lincoln
‘Burst-Belly’.
In these early years,
Isabella was too young to be actively involved in the intrigue involving Edward
and Piers, but she became a potent symbol for their opponents. As a French
Princess, she became a key meeting point between the English Court and her
father, Philip, who was secretly funding the dissenting barons, who became
known as the Lords Ordainers. Isabella also became a symbol of perfect
Queen-ship in contrast to Edward’s failed kingship. However, Isabella’s
popularity was not enough to prevent the Ordainers from acting, and in 1308
they created the Bourlogne Agreement, in which they spoke of the oppression of
the people and the attacks on the honour of the crown in rather a vague manner.
Yet although the wording was not precise, it was clear their target was
Gaveston. Although it did not immediately affect Gaveston’s role, it forced
Edward to change his coronation oath, and when crowned he promised to protect
the laws that the people ‘shall have chosen’. This meant that under sacred oath
he promised to retain the Ordainers as his political advisors.
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| Edward I's Coronation Chair |
Gaveston’s position
saw the continued neglect of the now thirteen-year-old Isabella that had begun
at her wedding feast. Edward channelled lands and monies intended for her
coffers to Gaveston, and even refused to give her the jewels destined for the
Queen. This selfishness on the part of Edward seriously backfired, as when
Parliament met in April 1308, the Ordainers were ready. Led by Lincoln they
presented the King with a document that claimed “Homage and the Oath of
Allegiance are more in respect of the crown than in respect of the king’s
person…If ... it should befall that the king is not guided by reason.” It even
stated the intention of the Ordainers to “reinstate the king in the dignity of
the crown.” They demanded the exile of Gaveston, and although Edward initially
refused, he was forced when he discovered that Isabella’s powerful father
supported the Ordainers due to the mistreatment of his daughter. Gaveston was
exiled under the threat of excommunication from June 1308, but he would not be
gone for long.
In the year of
Gaveston’s exile from England Isabella and Edward’s relationship greatly
improved. Edward gifted the northern French counties of Ponthieu and Montreuil
to Isabella and began to show her more respect ending Philip’s support for the
Ordainers. It was during this year that Isabella began to form the great
political mind that she later possessed, as she began to side passionately with
her husband. She made a strong alliance between herself and the Beaumont
family, particularly Henry de Beaumont and his sister Isabella de Vesci. They
actively began to oppose the Ordainers, particularly Lancaster, and he noted
them down for later political annihilation.
Meanwhile, Edward had
been working for the return of Gaveston, and in August 1309, when King Philip
withdrew his support for the Ordainers, Gaveston returned to England. As
ostentatious and arrogant as ever, the Ordainers refused to even attend
Parliament while Gaveston was present forcing Edward to grant them reforming
powers. Edward returned to the Scottish war and became focussed on capturing
their leader Robert the Bruce. Most of the Ordainers refused to support what
they saw as an insincere venture, so while Edward and Piers were absent in
Scotland, they published of the Ordinances of 1311, which made clear the Barons
attentions. Now led exclusively by the radical Lancaster, they singled out
Gaveston, Beaumont and de Vesci as evil counsellors of the king. Gaveston was
exiled one final time.
Isabella stayed loyal
to her husband, but Piers returned in less than three months, in Christmas
1311. This was the final straw for the Ordainers and the situation officially
became a Civil War as they went on the hunt for Gaveston. Gaveston, whose wife
had just given birth to a daughter, moved with Edward to York to celebrate,
confident in his King’s support. It was around this time that Isabella fell
pregnant with her first child, and this caused her to become separated from her
husband and Gaveston as they moved to Newcastle, while Isabella was sent to the
comfort of Tynemouth Priory away from the impending fighting.
It was at this point
that Isabella made her first, emotional entrance into the history books in the
cast of a model Queen and wife. Lancaster’s army, aware of Gaveston’s presence,
arrived on the outskirts of Newcastle, and Edward and Piers were forced to
flee. They raced to Isabella and the safety of Tynemouth Priory, where they
planned to take to sea to escape the Ordainers. On their arrival a tearful,
pregnant Isabella who was furious at her husband’s plans greeted them. Isabella
was apparently distraught and sobbed at Edward’s feet, accusing him of
favouring Gaveston and never caring for her wellbeing, in spite of the fact she
was his Queen. Edward ignored her protests, and abandoned her, leaving her
alone to face Lancaster’s oncoming army. It was the last time Isabella was ever
to see Piers. Terrified, Isabella was forced to abandon her household and move with
a small group down the road to York, hoping to reconvene with Edward there.
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Piers Gaveston dead at
the feet of the Earl of
Warwick |
Edward and Gaveston
moved to Scarborough Castle, where Edward left the now ill Piers. He returned
to Isabella, and reunited with her as planned in York. For Gaveston, however,
the game was up, as he was captured by one of the Ordainers, Aymer de Valence,
Earl of Pembroke. Moderate Pembroke, wanting a fair trial for Gaveston, took
Piers to Doddington in Oxfordshire where he was given luxury accommodation.
Pembroke was not as attentive as he ought to have been, and while he went to
visit his wife, another Ordainer, Warwick ‘The Black Dog’ discovered Gaveston’s
location and stormed his lodgings shouting – ‘Get up you traitor!’ through his
open bedroom window. Warwick escorted Gaveston to Warwick castle where he was
thrown in the cells, while Warwick convened with the Ordainers. Led by
Lancaster, they promised to protect each other on Gaveston’s death, and Piers
was sentenced to death as per the laws of the Ordinances of 1311. Piers was
brought to Blacklow Hill in Warwick where he was run through with a sword and
beheaded, ending his glittering career by Edward’s side.
For Isabella, it
seemed her one rival for Edward’s affection was gone, and she became determined
to be the best wife she could to Edward. Although Edward grieved deeply for
Gaveston and promised revenge against his murderers, this was the high point of
their marriage. In November 1312 their son, also named Edward, was born and
Isabella became a leading member of the group opposing Lancaster, which also
included her husband and rising forces in Court, the Despenser father and son,
both named Hugh respectively. Isabella also became instrumental in trying to
forge a strong relationship between her husband and her father to counter the
power of the Ordainers. It was this attempt to heal relations between the pair
that saw Isabella’s involvement in an incident that undermined her reputation
both at home and abroad.
Contemporaries
described Isabella’s father as being akin to a statue, with little interest in
pleasures of the flesh. Therefore, when Isabella uncovered supposed infidelity
on the part of all three of her sister-in-laws, it ignited Philip’s wrath and spelt
the end of her father’s dynasty. On a visit to France in 1313, Isabella
attended on her father and her three brothers; Louis, Philip and Charles. She gifted
each of her sisters-in-law embroidered purses, which appeared on the belts of
two Norman knights, Gautier and Philippe d'Aunay, at a feast in London
later in the year. Isabella
concluded that her brother’s wives were having affairs with the knights, and
informed her father on the next visit to France in 1314.
This spelled disaster for her family. Philip ordered the knights be put
under surveillance, and soon the probably fictitious story emerged that Louis
and Charles’ wives, Margaret and Blanche of Burgundy, had in adulterous
relationships with the d’Aunay brothers in the Tour de Nesle Castle, of which
the incident takes it’s name. Isabella’s other sister-in-law, Joan of Burgundy,
was suspected of knowing of the infidelity but not bringing it to Philip’s
attention. The d’Aunay brothers were tortured and executed horribly; they were
broken on the wheel, emasculated and skinned alive before their corpses were
hanged. While Joan’s name was eventually cleared, Margaret and Blanche suffered
horrific treatment. Their heads were symbolically shaved and they were
imprisoned for life. Margaret died after two years in captivity due to poor
treatment, while Blanche was imprisoned for the rest of her life underneath the
Château Gaillard.
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Isabella's family (l-r): Charles IV of France (brother), Philip V
of France (brother), Isabella herself, Philip IV (father),
Louis X of France (brother) and Charles of Valois
(uncle). |
In light of Isabella’s later actions, this is seen as a hypocritical
move on her part to secure favour with her husband and father, and perhaps an
attempt to test her own power. The Tour de Nesle Affair not only precipitated
the collapse of the Capetian dynasty, it also ruined Isabella’s reputation in
France and undermined her in England, and as her actions corresponded with
Edward’s notable defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn against Robert the Bruce
in 1314, helped to bolster Lancaster’s power.
Once Edward and Isabella had returned to England, Isabella returned to
her duties as a wife and mother. In 1316 Isabella gave birth to their second
child, John, followed by a daughter, Eleanor, in 1318, seemingly capturing her
husband’s affections at last. Although Isabella seemed to be more secure in her
position, it was still obvious that she was a political animal; after a Oxford
clerk named John Drydas, who had a strong resemblance to Isabella’s husband,
claimed to be the real Edward who had been swapped at birth, Isabella took the
opportunity to counter Lancaster’s smugness by tightening her alliance with the
Beaumont’s, and promoting Isabella de Vesci within her household which promoted
her husbands cause. It finally seemed that Isabella’s loyalty to her husband
had been proved, and Isabella could finally relax.
With the execution of Gaveston, it seemed that the problem of an
overmighty favourite within the English Court was a distant possibility, but a
new favourite emerged in 1318, more greedy, dangerous and scheming than
Gaveston had ever been. Hugh Despenser the younger was an old ally of Edward’s,
particularly against Lancaster in 1312 and had spent his life fighting in
Scotland and on the Welsh Marches. He also appears to have been a brutal and
ruthless man; in 1318 he had a Welsh rebel, Llewelyn Bren, who was well
respected by the English Marcher Lords, hung, drawn and quartered in Cardiff
Castle, in spite of promising him protection. It was clearly an extrajudicial
killing. Although knowing of Despenser’s character, Edward made him a royal
chamberlain and Hugh quickly worked his way into Edward’s affections.
It was also in 1318 that another man returned to court. Roger Mortimer
had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for Edward II for ten years. He was
everything Edward was not; militaristic, masculine and adventurous and had won
stellar victories in both Ireland and Wales. On meeting Isabella, there may
have been an instant attraction between the two, as some historians argue that
their relationship began in earnest at this point, but it seems more likely
that Isabella, riding high in her husband’s favours and having witnessed what
happened to her sisters-in-law who committed adultery, stayed loyal to Edward.
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| Isabella and Roger Mortimer (15th century) |
Mortimer and Despenser were old enemies. Despenser had always harboured
a longing for revenge on Mortimer due to an old enmity between their families.
The loathing was soon realised as Hugh was awarded some of Mortimer’s lands in
the Welsh Marches. Mortimer was pushed into the arms of Lancaster and the other
disaffected Barons. Edward did little to help the problem as he repeatedly
favoured Despenser in disagreements, most notably when in 1320 Edward
confiscated the lordship of Gower from its rightful owner for the demanding
Despenser. The barons were in uproar and started to arm themselves against
Despenser.
However, the Barons were not the only ones to hate Despenser. Isabella,
although having a working relationship with Edward’s previous favourite,
Gaveston, openly detested Despenser. Froissart, the contemporary chronicler,
claims it was because Isabella had proof that Despenser and her husband were
sodomites, while historian Weir goes further and speculates that the violent
Despenser possibly sexually assaulted or even raped her. Although she detested
Despenser, Isabella was trapped in political stalemate, as she was also
estranged from Lancaster’s faction, leaving her unable to oppose the
Despenser’s.
Led by Lancaster, the Marcher Lords, who included Mortimer, refused to
attend Edward’s Parliament’s in 1319, and when a succession dispute broke out,
it was to Lancaster, not Edward, they turned for the dispute to be settled. Due
to the change in the balance of power, Edward was forced to send his favourite
and his father into exile in 1321. Again, Isabella made an emotional appeal to
her husband, similar to the one in Tynemouth Priory in 1311, and she got down
on her knees and begged her husband to do right by her and the country and
exile the Despensers. This offered Edward a face saving excuse to exile his favourites,
which he did; the younger Hugh becoming a pirate in the English Channel.
However, in spite of Isabella’s pleas, Edward recalled the Despenser’s within
weeks.
Lancaster and Edward were now at loggerheads, and Edward was desperate
for a reason to attack his enemies. Historians believe he conscripted his wife,
who was seemingly willingly to please him, to be the catalyst for war. He sent
her on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, but she made a detour to Leeds Castle, one
of Isabella’s properties but also the home of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a
supporter of Lancaster. Bartholomew at the time was away in Oxford at a meeting
with the other Barons, and had left the Castle under the charge of his wife,
Margaret. Margaret de Badlesmere had a long-standing estrangement with the
Queen; as Isabella had refused to promote one of Margaret’s relatives in the
Exchequer in 1317. When Isabella demanded entrance to the castle, Margaret
refused, stating she would only open the gates if her husband commanded her.
Fighting broke out just outside of the castle, sparking what became known as
the Despenser Wars.
Taking this opportunity as a sign of defiance, Edward moved northwards
to engage his cousin. Lancaster retaliated by making an alliance with King
Robert I of Scotland (previously Robert the Bruce) to give himself diplomatic
and military support. The two sides met
at the Battle of Boroughbridge on 16th March, and in a shocking turn
of events, Lancaster was defeated. He was captured, and brought before a trial
whose judges consisted of Edward and the two Despenser’s. He was forbidden from
speaking in his defence, or for having anyone speak for him. He was found
guilty of treason, but due to his relation to Edward, his sentence was commuted
to beheading. It was carried out in Pontefract Castle on 22nd March.
Meanwhile, Roger Mortimer had not been present at Boroughbridge as he
had been captured by the Kings forces in Shrewsbury. He was incarcerated in the
Tower of London, where he remained a prisoner for a year. However, in August
1323, rumour reached Mortimer that Despenser had persuaded Edward to have him
executed so he made an escape plan. He had made friends with the Deputy
Constable of the Tower, Gerard d’Alspaye, who he convince to drug the Constable
and release Mortimer from his cell from where the two men made their way to the
kitchens. Once there, they climbed out of the window and scaled the curtain
wall on ropes, before going to exile in France.
Edward was triumphant
and victorious, and along with Despenser brought a reign of tyranny down on his
subjects, punishing harshly those who had opposed Despenser’s reign, including
land confiscations and the punishment of the extended families. A good example
of the punishments enacted against Edward’s enemies is in the case of the de
Badlesmere family, who defiance at Leeds Castle had precipitated Lancaster’s
fall. Bartholomew de Badlesmere, who had always been an unwilling rebel, was
hung, drawn and quartered as a rebel at Blean in April 1322, while his wife
Margaret was sent to the Tower with her five children. On her journey through
London, Margaret was insulted and jeered by the people of the city. Isabella
was supposedly troubled by the brutality, even to enemies like Margaret de
Badlesmere. It may have been at this point that Isabella first realised the tyrant
her husband had become.
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Isabella and her son, Prince Edward
(14th century) |
Hugh and Edward also
began to target Isabella herself, and this may possibly have been when
Despenser made some kind of attempt to physically or sexually assault the
Queen. Despenser refused to pay her money he owed her, or return the Castles of
Marlborough and Devizes that were part of her dower that he had captured during
campaign. Edward even turned on his wife; refusing to enact on a tradition to
gift the Queen any of the spoils of war from the failed rebellion. Isabella was
further exasperated with Edward’s inability to counter the Scottish problem, as
Robert I’s forces were now breaching the English borders.
It was at the end of
the year that the final breach in Edward and Isabella’s marriage came. Spurred
on by Robert’s continued disregard for English borders, Edward, Isabella and
Hugh rode north to counter the Scots. After the disastrous English defeat at
the Battle of Old Byland in Yorkshire in November 1322, Edward and Hugh rode
south to raise more troops. Edward, perhaps not wishing to be encumbered by his
wife, moved her once again to Tynemouth Priory. With the Scottish army marching
south, Isabella became justifiably concerned that she would be attacked, and
sent requests to Edward pleading for support. When Edward wrote back,
suggesting he send Despenser troops to aid her, Isabella resoundingly rejected
his offer, demanding less hostile troops. Hugh, possibly seeing Isabella as his
biggest political rival, persuaded Edward to retreat south, leaving Isabella
isolated and trapped her between the Scottish Army to her west, and the
dangerous sea patrolled by Flemish vessels allied with the Scots to her east.
Confirmed in her belief that her husband was no longer an ally, she used a
small group of squires from her retinue to fight the Scottish army off while
others commandeered a ship. While the fighting continued Isabella and her
retinue fled onto the ship, and the ensuing skirmish resulted in the deaths of
two of her ladies in waiting. Evading the Flemish fleet, she dashed south and
ran to York, where Edward was waiting.
This incident
effectively ended Isabella and Edward’s marriage. She was furious with him for
abandoning her to the Scots and for him following Hugh’s direction over hers.
Edward angrily blamed her supporters, particularly the Beaumont’s for not
protecting her, and Isabella knew the charade was over. Not wanting to spend
any longer with her weak husband, she began a ten month long pilgrimage round
England, leaving Edward and Hugh to live together in a way she knew she should
be living as Queen, the wife to a King.
After the end of her
pilgrimage, it seemed as if she had very few allies and that Hugh was
campaigning for her destruction. With the death of Lancaster, the Ordainers,
perhaps her natural allies, had all been executed or fled abroad, and so she
had little choice but to return to Edward in 1323. It even seemed as if she had
lost support from her family, as her brother Charles, now Charles IV of France,
worsened the situation by conquering Aquitaine, Edward’s duchy. With Isabella
refusing Edward’s command to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Despenser’s, she
was stripped of all her lands, the Queen’s privilege of giving patronage, her
coffers were overtaken by the Despensers, all her French attendants were
arrested and her three youngest children, John, Eleanor and Joan (born 1321)
were taken away from her. It was at this moment that Isabella decided she was
not going to be a victim anymore.
It was also at this
point that Edward seemed to have grown more paranoid about the threats against
him. In 1324 it was alleged that a famous magician, John of Nottingham had been
hired to kill Edward and Hugh using wax poppets, and Edward became convinced
that if he left Hugh’s side for a moment the Barons would strike against Hugh,
just as they had done with Piers. However, the situation in France was heating
up, and Edward desperately needed to visit Isabella’s brother to pay homage to
him as overlord of his remaining territory of Gascony. Pope John XXII called in
to oversee the dispute between Charles and Edward, suggested that Isabella be
sent to France to help make relations more agreeable. Isabella jumped at the
opportunity, desperately wanting to escape her husband and Hugh, who she now
evidently loathed equally.
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Edward I pledging homage to Philip IV
(15th Century) |
Edward agreed and
Isabella arrived in Paris in March 1325, and invented a solution both to
appease her brother and bring more political cards into her hands. She arranged
for her eldest son, Prince Edward, now twelve years old, to come and pay homage
to Charles IV for Gascony, the territory remaining to the English, in place of
his father. Edward agreed and Prince Edward arrived in Paris in September, but
was expected to return home almost immediately. Isabella not wanting to
relinquish her control over the most important political piece she now had refused
to come home. Angry at her disloyalty, Edward sent letters to Charles IV for
his wife’s return but Charles supported his sister and refused to expel her
from France. It seemed that Isabella was resolved to stay in Paris forever, as
far away from Edward and Hugh as she could possibly get.
Isabella went on to
become involved in political intrigues against her husband, most notably
supporting her brother pressurising Edward into relinquishing Aquitaine. Edward
then attempted to get his agent, Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, to
convince Isabella to return. Stapledon did not succeed, but he returned with
worrying news. Isabella had declared that Despenser had destroyed her marriage
with Edward and that she dressed as a widow in protest. Even worse, he had
discovered that the political exiles that had fled after Lancaster’s execution
were gathering in France and forming a court in exile, revolving entirely
around the person of the Queen. People in the Queen’s party included Edmund,
Earl of Kent who was Edward’s own half-brother and John of Brittany, another
cousin. But the most important man in the Queen’s circle was the man that
Stapledon widely suspected Isabella of taking for her lover in December 1325;
Roger Mortimer.
Isabella and Roger
were reintroduced by Isabella’s cousin Joan, Countess of Hainault. While Joan
had merely intended to cultivate Roger’s support in a plan to marry Prince
Edward to one of her daughters, the meeting sparked off a passionate affair
that has been described as the greatest romance of the Middle Ages. It is
almost certain that there had been a long standing sexual attraction between
the two which until this point had never been acted upon, but they were also
intellectually compatible, sharing interests in Arthurian legends and high
culture. Both parties were committing adultery; Roger had been married to Joan
de Geneville since childhood, and they had a large family together, while Isabella
was making her husband a cuckold and the laughing stock of Europe. The greatest
risk of Isabella’s life had taken place for one reason; both she and Mortimer
were committed to the downfall of the Despenser’s regime.
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| Philippa of Hainault (14th century) |
Isabella and
Mortimer’s first move was to take up Joan of Hainault’s offer of a betrothal
between Prince Edward and one of her daughters. On arrival in Hainault in the
summer of 1326, Prince Edward chose Joan’s middle daughter Philippa, who was
described as being dark haired, dark eyed and sweet natured, the opposite of
his ferocious mother. Although Isabella undertook the marriage for political
advancement, Edward and Philippa had a strong marriage that remained loving and
faithful until Philippa’s death almost fifty years later. The marriage brought
financial support for Isabella and Mortimer from the Hainaulters and enabled
Isabella to start building the force that she aimed would depose both Despenser
and her husband, while gaining secret promises from the Scots not to intervene
in the impending Conquest.
Although Edward was
pre-warned of Isabella’s plan, she managed to avoid his fleet that was awaiting
her in the Channel and landed in Orwell on 24th September with a force
of 1,500. Local levies raised to defend Edward quickly defected to Isabella,
and together with Mortimer, she rolled in land. Leading nobles rallied to her
cause, most notably Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, Edward’s
half-brother, and Henry of Lancaster, the younger brother of the murdered
Thomas. This united all opposition of the King under one flag, and they headed for
London. Edward and Despenser, failing to find support, and were forced to flee
from London to Gloucester, and Isabella and Mortimer gave chase. Mortimer laid
siege to Bristol, a town held by Hugh Despenser the Elder, and on it’s fall
Isabella was reunited with her daughters who were held captive there. Edward
and Despenser attempted to escape to the island of Lundy on the Devon coast but
due to bad weather were forced to land in Wales. They were captured in
Llantrisant on 16th November.
 |
Execution of Hugh Despenser the
Younger (Froissart) |
Revenge against the
regime began almost instantly. Although Isabella tried to protect Hugh
Despenser the Elder, who had once been her ally, she could not stop Mortimer’s
wrath, and he was hanged on 27th October and his corpse fed to the
dogs of Bristol. Hugh Despenser the Younger tried to starve himself before his
trial, but Mortimer and the Queen tried him and sentenced him to be hung, drawn
and quartered. Froissart goes further and mentions that he was castrated before
his execution, possibly a punishment alluding to his homosexuality or his
suspected rape of the Queen. Despenser let out a ‘ghastly inhuman howl’ just
before his death, much to the joy of the spectators that had gathered to see
him die. His corpse was beheaded and he was cut into four pieces, and his head
mounted on the gates of London. Mortimer and Isabella supposedly feasted with
their supporters as they watched his execution. But for Mortimer and Isabella,
the most difficult decision was yet to come.
Isabella’s husband was
a divinely anointed monarch, and could not be disposed of in the way the
Despenser’s had. He was given to the custody of Henry of Lancaster, and in the
Parliament in January 1327, it was decided to legally depose Edward, hold him
under house arrest for the rest of his life and replace him with his son.
Edward III was declared King, and Isabella was made his regent. The deposed
Edward supposedly wept at the news, but faced with the hard choice of seeing
his son crowned if he collaborated or usurpation by Roger Mortimer if he
resisted, he was faced with little choice. However, most felt that Parliament
did not have the authority to depose Edward, and Isabella knew she was under
constant threat if her husband remained alive.
 |
| Allegorical arrest of Edward II (15th Century) |
What happened next was
one of the most mysterious incidences in English History. Edward was moved to
Berkeley Castle on the Welsh Marches, a hotbed of support for Mortimer. On 23rd
September, his custodian, Lord Thomas Berkeley, informed Isabella and Mortimer
that Edward had died in an accident on the 21st. Edward was buried with much
display at Gloucester Cathedral to prove the old king was really gone, but
there is a popular theory cited by several historians that Edward did not die
but escaped to Italy and lived until 1341, evidenced by the Fieschi Letter,
that was sent to Edward III in 1337 in which “Edward” claimed he had survived
an lived out the rest of his life peacefully in Italy. However, it is most
likely that he did die in 1327, and whether by the legendary hot poker or
through natural causes, Edward II’s tyrannous reign had been brought to a
brutal end.
Isabella and
Mortimer’s rule as regents only lasted four years, and they proved to be as
capricious and greedy as the Despenser’s. Isabella increased her land holdings
to £13,333 making her the richest landowner in the kingdom and refused to give
her dower lands to the new Queen in contradiction of convention. However,
Isabella did try to heal some of the foreign policy disasters of her husband’s
reign. She betrothed her daughter Joan to the new king of Scotland, David II,
and brought an end to the war with Scotland under the Treaty of Northampton.
Isabella also bought back some English lands in France for 50,000 marks a year,
but both these ventures made her wildly unpopular, and the fragile alliance
that had been formed to fight her husband slowly fell apart.
Henry of Lancaster was
the first to dissent, and after the Treaty of Northampton in 1328 he refused to
return to court. In attempting to regain popularity, after Isabella began to
champion her son’s claim to France over the heir, Isabella’s cousin, who became
King Philip VI in 1328. Failing, she became more unpopular than ever before,
and in January 1329 Lancaster rallied his forces against her, including her
long time supporters Henry de Beaumont and Isabella de Vesci. Isabella marched
to meet them in full armour, and it was possibly this symbolism that made the
Lancastrians surrender. Although this rebellion was crushed and the rebels let
off lightly, an even worse threat emerged in 1330, when Mortimer tricked Edmund
of Kent, Edward III’s uncle, into believing his brother was still alive.
Desperate to free Edward, he began to conspire against Isabella, and when
discovered, he was beheaded in Winchester Castle. The execution was carried out
by a local murderer who was offered a pardon as Mortimer was unable to find a
trained man willing to execute a man of the blood royal.
 |
Isabella's son, Edward III, later in life
(15th century) |
Isabella and Mortimer,
paranoid and convinced that the nobles were trying to overthrow them, retreated
to Nottingham Castle with Edward III for protection in mid 1330. Mortimer,
afraid and angry, in anger claimed his word was more important than Edward’s. On
hearing this, Edward became convinced that Mortimer was trying to overthrow
him, just like his father. On the 19th October Edward rallied twenty-three
men and crept up to the keep of the castle using secret tunnels and burst in on
Isabella and Mortimer in bed. Edward himself seized Mortimer and had him
dragged away while Isabella supposedly screamed – ‘Fair son, have pity on the
gentle Mortimer!’ Lancastrian troops surrounded the Castle as Edward seized
control of his own kingship for the first time.
Parliament was called
and Mortimer was put on trial for treason. No word of his relationship with
Dowager Queen was mentioned and Edward, a lenient man, spared Mortimer the
horrors of being hung, drawn and quartered. The great love of Isabella’s life
was hanged at Tyburn on the 29th November 1330, and with him Isabella’s
ambitions died. Edward, no longer trusting his mother, put her under house
arrest at Berkhamsted Castle, but she later transferred to Windsor then in 1332
Castle Rising, her own property in Norfolk. It was during her stay at
Berkhamsted that Isabella possibly suffered a nervous breakdown at the brutal
loss of her lover, and she remained in a deep depression for some time. From
this point onwards, Isabella’s life would be a lot quieter than it had been
previously.
Although confined to
Castle Rising, she began to cultivate a mini-court around her with hunting,
dancing and other sports. Eventually, Edward recognised her as a useful asset
in his dealing with France. When the Hundred Years War with France began,
Isabella, with her knowledge of France, was used as a negotiator. Towards the
end of her life, she became a rather conciliatory woman and among her group of
friends were the remaining family of her great love, Roger Mortimer,
particularly his grandson, also named Roger, who Edward restored to his
grandfather’s titles. Isabella died in Castle Rising on 22nd August
1358 and she commanded to be buried in her wedding dress, and as if to erase her
disloyalty to her husband, she asked to be buried with his heart, which had
been placed in a casket at his death thirty years previously.
Although Isabella has
been remembered to history as a ruthless she-wolf who overthrew her husband, was
corrupt, self-serving and tyrannous, Isabella achieved something that none of
her predecessors as Queen could ever match. She proved that women could be as
powerful and brutal as men, and by deposing Edward, she set a precedent which
clearly dictated that the King was the exclusive source of power and could be
challenged by disaffected subjects. While seen as a cold-hearted schemer, it
was her overwhelming passion for Roger Mortimer that persuaded her to take the
final leap to move from being a victim to overthrowing Edward’s tyranny.
Therefore, although it seems that Isabella was the most ruthless political
player of her age, she was clearly capable of throwing off the shackles of
acceptable female behaviour to fight for the people she truly loved.
Castor,
Helen, “She-Wolves: The Women who Ruled England before Elizabeth” (2011)
Jones,
Dan, "The Plantagenets: The Kings who Made England”, (2012)
Weir, Alison,
"Isabella: She-Wolf of France", (2006)
Next time... Boudicca; the Rebel, the Queen, the Victim...
