Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II

by Paul Doherty (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $5.18

  It is said that the great power of the chessboard queen can be directly attributed to the extraordinary life of Isabella, wife to King Edward II. A beautiful woman, the daughter of Philip IV of France, Isabella was married to the bisexual Edward at the age of 12. The marriage was intended to create a lasting peace between England and France. Isabella was for a time a loyal consort, while Edward lurched from one crisis to another at home and abroad, and transferred his affections from Piers Gaveston to the more sinister favourite, Hugh de Spencer the Younger, who lost no opportunity to insult the queen. After 13 years she fled abroad, where she fell in love with the exiled Roger Mortimer. Between them they raised an army of mercenaries and successfully deposed Edward, inflicting a gruesome death on Hugh de Spencer. During her years as regent to her son, the future Edward III, Isabella is believed to have organized the notorious fate of her husband at Berkeley Castle, which eventually resulted in the hanging of Mortimer at Tyburn.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.45

  In chess, from the time of Queen Isabella of England, the queen has been considered the most powerful and feared piece on the board. Known to chroniclers as the 'she-wolf', Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France, married King Edward II of England in 1308 in a union intended to create a lasting peace between the two countries. But after 13 years of enduring her husband's unkind and dissolute nature she fled abroad. With her lover, the exiled Roger Mortimer, she raised an army of mercenaries and invaded England, successfully deposing Edward. Popular belief holds that Edward was murdered in an infamous manner at Berkeley Castle near Gloucester, at the order of his wife and her lover. But after Mortimer's execution a letter arrived at court that cast doubt over Edward's death and raised the possibility of his escape. The evidence remains controversial to this day, and here Paul Doherty examines it in his fascinating detective study, set in one of the most turbulent and exciting periods of English history.