The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II 1321-1326

by Natalie Fryde

Overview

This book reassesses the unusually violent rule of Edward II and the Despensers between 1321 and 1326. It examines the social dislocation caused by Edward's execution of his opponents and the confiscation of their lands in 1322 and the perversion of the law which accompanied it. From an examination of a large amount of unpublished material, Mrs Fryde shows how an exceptionally grasping courtier, the younger Despenser, worked with an equally grasping king to produce for the one an enormously swollen landed estate and for the other a vast hoard of treasure. The new evidence brought to light suggests that it was greed for wealth rather than any spirit of innovation which brought the Exchequer reforms of these years. Queen Isabella's contribution to the king's overthrow and Edward's disastrous relations with her brother, the king of France, are worked out in detail and there is a separate chapter on the contribution of London to the downfall of the regime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521548069
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/22/2004
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Abbreviations; 1. Problems and sources; 2. Introduction: the king and the magnates before 1318; 3. The rise of the Despensers; 4. The civil war, 1321–2; 5. The aftermath of the civil war: imprisonments and executions; 6. The aftermath of the civil war: confiscations and the territorial settlement; 7. Royal finance, 1321–6; 8. The Despensers' spoils of power, 1321–6; 9. The defeat in Scotland, 1322–3; 10. The French war; 11. The opposition to royal tyranny, 1322–6; 12. London; 13. Queen Isabella's invasion and the end of the regime; 14. Edward II's deposition and ultimate fate; 15. Epilogue; Appendices; Notes; Cited classes of records at the Public Record Office; Sources; Bibliography; Index.