Queen Isabella had a special dislike for Hugh Despenser the younger. Various historians have suggested, and it is commonly believed, that he and Edward had an ongoing sexual relationship. (Froissart wrote that "he was a sodomite, even it is said, with the King.")[7] Some speculate it was this relationship that caused the Queen's dislike of him. Roger Mortimer and the Queen invaded England in October 1326. Their forces numbered only about 1,500 mercenaries to begin with, but the majority of the nobility rallied to them throughout October and November. By contrast, very few people were prepared to fight for Edward II, mainly because of the hatred that the Despensers had aroused. The Despensers fled West with the King, with a sizable sum from the treasury. The escape was unsuccessful. Separated from the elder Despenser, the King and the younger Despenser were deserted by most of their followers, and were captured near Neath in mid-November. King Edward was placed in captivity and later forced to abdicate in favour of his son. The elder Despenser (the father) was hanged at Bristol on 27 October 1326, and younger Despenser (the son) was brought to trial. Hugh Despenser the younger tried to starve himself before his trial,[8] but face trial he did on 24 November 1326, in Hereford, before Mortimer and the Queen. He was judged a traitor and a thief, and sentenced to public execution by hanging, as a thief, and drawing and quartering, as a traitor. Additionally, he was sentenced to be disembowelled for having procured discord between the King and Queen, and to be beheaded, for returning to England after having been banished.[citation needed] Treason had also been the grounds for Gaveston's execution; the belief was that these men had misled the King rather than the King himself being guilty of folly.[citation needed]
Immediately after the trial, Despenser was dragged behind four horses to his place of execution, where a great fire was lit. He was stripped naked, and Biblical verses denouncing arrogance and evil were written on his skin. He was then hanged from a gallows 50 ft (15 m) high, but cut down before he could choke to death.[citation needed]
In Froissart's account of the execution, Despenser was then tied to a ladder, and —in full view of the crowd— had his genitals sliced off and burned (in his still-conscious sight) then his entrails slowly pulled out, and, finally, his heart cut out and thrown into the fire. Professor Clare Sponsler says that Froissart is the only source to describe castration, where all other contemporary accounts have Despenser quartered, hanged, and beheaded.[9]
Just before he died, it is recorded that he let out a "ghastly inhuman howl",[citation needed] much to the delight and merriment of the spectators.[citation needed] Finally, his corpse was beheaded, his body cut into four pieces, and his head mounted on the gates of London.[2] Mortimer and Isabella feasted with their chief supporters, as they watched the execution.[citation needed]
Four years later, in December 1330, his widow was given permission to gather and bury his remains at the family's Gloucestershire estate,[2] but only the head, a thigh bone and a few vertebrae were returned to her.[10]