Edward 2nd 1307-1327 aged 23 when crowned. 

His father Edward 1st had produced 16 children with his vivacious Spanish wife Eleanor and Edward 2nd was the 14th. Edward 1st additionally had 3 further children with his second wife Margaret daughter of the King of France. His 3 elder brothers died young as did  the majority of his sisters. Unfortunately for those times Edward 2nd was a raving homosexual and made no effort to hide it even from his French wife Princess Isabella who he married when she was 12. Bi-sexual is a more accurate description as Isabella bore him 4 children including the next king Edward 3rd.  Edward also had an illegitimate son Adam.

Edward 2nd is recorded as being the worst medieval king, being too interested in his male lovers to worry about ruling the country. He suffered the ignominy of loosing the hard won Scotland in a rout master minded by Robert Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Finally he was murdered by killers working for his wife Isabella and her lover Mortimer using the fairly common method for homosexuals in those days, a red hot poker up his arse. (But see an alternative theory under Edward 3rd.)  

A chronological summary of his 20 year reign is as follows.

1307 Edward 2nd crowned at Westminster. Edward had previously held the title of Prince of Wales at 17 years old (the first eldest son to do so) and Duke of Aquitaine (France-still in English hands)  at 22.

1308 Edward married Isabella daughter of Philip 4th  King of France (She was between 12 and 16 years old). Edward already had a male lover Piers Gaveston. The Barons headed by Thomas Earl of Lancaster insisted that the King should rid himself of his lover and Gaveston was exiled to Ireland as Lord Deputy. Lancaster was hugely powerful being not only a cousin of the King but also the Earl of 5 counties and friends with the clergy and people at large. He was the Simon de Montfort of his time.

1310, Lancaster through Parliament had to run the country on behalf of the useless Edward and he set up a committee of 21 Bishops and Peers (The Lords Ordainers) to regulate the King and his household and run the country.

They imposed  the following rules

• The King could not make war with out the consent of Parliament.

• Parliament would select all key officers of state.

• The King would have to get the permission of the Ordainers to offer any gifts.

• Taxes on wool and cloth should be abolished.

• Parliament should meet at least once per year.

1312 Edward recalled Gaveston from Ireland so Lancaster had him executed.

1313 Edward finds two more male lovers the Despensers, father and son! Who are both powerful Marcher (Welsh) lords.

Queen Isabella probably at about this time took a lover another Marcher Lord, Mortimer.

1314 The war with Scotland resumes and Robert Bruce captures many castles in the north of England. Edward raises 100,000 men and marches north but this huge army is defeated at Bannockburn by Bruce. Bannockburn is a few miles up river east of Edinburgh.

Scotland now regains independence (which lasts 300 years)

1321 Lancaster and Mortimer force Edward to exile his two lovers the Despensers. Edward is furious and civil war breaks out over the Kings male lovers. The King is still in a strong position to raise an army and both Lancaster and Mortimer are captured. Lancaster is beheaded and Mortimer sent to the Tower (of London). The Despensers are recalled to satisfy the Kings sexual appetite. Edward dissolves the Ordainers and travels north where he is again routed by Bruce.

1323 Robert Bruce and Edward sign a peace treaty.

1324 Mortimer escapes from the Tower and heads for France.

1325 Isabella sent to France on a diplomatic mission to sort out disputes with the French King Charles 4th  over English Gascony. She is joined by her eldest son and heir to the throne Edward Prince of Wales and of course meets up with her lover Mortimer.

1326 Charles is disgusted by the sexual goings on between the English Queen and her lover Mortimer and expels them. On the way home the two lovers and the Prince of Wales, assume royal power, recruit a mercenary army in Suffolk and capture and execute the Despensers.

1327 Parliament meets and declares the Prince of Wales King as Edward 3rd rather than his father Edward 2nd.

The grounds for this action were that Edward 2nd was

• Incompetent and to indolent to be able to judge between right and wrong.

• Ignored the council of the wise and chooses to listen instead to “evil persons”.

• Lost Ireland, Scotland and Gascony in France. (Bordeaux area)

• Injured the church and oppressed the barons.

• Had broken his coronation oath and was ruining the land.

Edward 2nd was cruelly murdered in Berkeley in 1327. (Current thinking is that he lived on for more than 10 more years imprisoned in secret by Mortimer and Queen Isabella