The Flighty Edward II
King Edward II of England (1284 – 1327) was the anti-knight and the opposite of the chivalric ideal. He differed greatly from his father Edward I, perhaps England’s greatest monarch. A weak and flighty ruler, Edward II raised favorites who misgoverned the kingdom in his name. To compound the problem, he did little to counter the perception that those favorites were his gay lovers. Poor governance and perceived effeteness in a homophobic age were a toxic mix. It earned Edward the contempt of his barons and subjects, and brought him to grief in the end.
Early in his reign, Edward enraged his barons when he made an earl out of Piers Gaveston, a frivolous favorite and his rumored lover. The barons demanded that their monarch banish Gaveston, and assent to a document that limited royal power over appointments and finances. Edward caved in and banished Gaveston, but soon thereafter allowed him to return. The exasperated barons seized and executed the royal favorite. In 1314, Edward led an army into Scotland, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn. He lost at a stroke all the hard-won gains his father had made with years of great effort and expense to assert English control of Scotland.
