He ruled 1307-1327. He was succeeded by his son, Edward III.

Reigned 1307-1327 deposed and murdered. 1st Prince of Wales
His reign was troubled by extravagances, his militarist disasters in Scotland
notably at Bannockburn (1314) and unpopularity of his favourite peers
Gaveston who died in 1312 and Hugh le Despencer 1262-1326.
He was deposed on 21 Jan 1327, and murdered by a red-hot poker in his bowels.
Invested as the first English Prince of Wales in 1301.


Edward II, reigned 1307-27,
born Caernarvon Castle, Wales, 1284 (on one of his father's campaigns against the Welsh),
cr first Prince of Wales 1301,
mar 1308 to Isabella of France [born 1292],
his gay lover Gaveston was murdered 1312 and Hugh le Despencer murdered 1326,
lost Scotland at Bannockburn 1314,
deposed 1327 by Isabella and her lover, Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March,
and murdered at Berkeley Castle (seat of Mortimer's son-in-law) 1327, age 43 yrs,
bur Gloucester cathedral.
Isabella bur Franciscan church, Newgate St, London (now a ruin and garden, see map),


It was alleged by medieval chroniclers that Edward II and Piers Gaveston were lovers, a rumour that was reinforced by later portrayals in fiction, such as Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II. This assertion has received the support of some modern historians, while others have questioned it. According to Pierre Chaplais, the relationship between the two was that of an adoptive brotherhood, and Gaveston served as an unofficial deputy for a reluctant king.

Widely rumoured to have been either homosexual or bisexual, Edward fathered at least five children by two women. His inability to deny even the most grandiose favours to his male favourites (first a Gascon knight named Piers Gaveston, later a young English lord named Hugh Despenser) led to constant political unrest and his eventual deposition. The behaviour resulted in contemporary accusations of sodomy from Bishop Adam Orleton of Hereford, an ally of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella in their successful insurgency against Edward.

In addition to these disasters, Edward II is remembered for his probable death in Berkeley Castle, allegedly by murder, and for being the first monarch to establish colleges at Oxford and Cambridge: Oriel College at Oxford and King's Hall, a predecessor of Trinity College, at Cambridge.

Several contemporary sources criticised Edward's seeming infatuation with Piers Gaveston, to the extent that he ignored and humiliated his wife. Chroniclers called the relationship excessive, immoderate, beyond measure and reason and criticised his desire for wicked and forbidden sex.[6] The Westminster chronicler claimed that Gaveston had led Edward to reject the sweet embraces of his wife; while the Meaux Chronicle (written several decades later) took concern further and complained that, Edward took too much delight in sodomy. While such sources do not, in themselves, prove that Edward and Gaveston were lovers, they at least show that some contemporaries and later writers thought strongly that this might be the case.
Gaveston was considered to be athletic and handsome; he was a few years older than Edward and had seen military service in Flanders before becoming Edward's close companion. He was known to have a quick, biting wit, and his fortunes continued to ascend as Edward obtained more honours for him, including the Earldom of Cornwall. Earlier, Edward I had attempted to control the situation by exiling Gaveston from England. However, upon the elder king's death in 1307, Edward II immediately recalled him. Isabella's marriage to Edward subsequently took place in 1308. Almost immediately, she wrote to her father, Philip the Fair, complaining of Edward's behaviour.
Although the relationship that developed between the two young men was certainly very close, its exact nature is impossible to determine. The relationship may have had a sexual element, though the evidence for this is not conclusive. Both Edward and Gaveston married early in the reign. There were children from both marriages - Edward also had an illegitimate son, Adam. While some of the chroniclers' remarks can be interpreted simply as homosexuality or bisexuality, too many of them are either much later in date or the product of hostility. It has also been plausibly argued that the two men may have entered into a bond of adoptive brotherhood.[7] British historian Ian Mortimer has drawn attention to the use of 'anti-sodomite' smear campaigns in the late 13th and early 14th centuries against Pope Boniface VIII and the Knights Templar. In the latter case, Orleton was a protagonist at the Papal Court at Avignon.[8]

The government of Isabella and Mortimer was so precarious that they dared not leave the deposed king in the hands of their political enemies. On 3 April, Edward II was removed from Kenilworth and entrusted to the custody of two subordinates of Mortimer, then later imprisoned at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire where, it was generally believed, he was murdered by an agent of Isabella and Mortimer on 11 October 1327.