Edward’s time of triumph!

‘For Edward, these were good times! Days that brought him pleasure!

The not so distant future would bring hours to repent at leisure!’

The King was determined to wreak vengeance upon his enemies and his pre-emptive first strike occurred at Leeds Castle in Kent in October 1321. Queen Isabella, who was journeying to Canterbury on pilgrimage, approached Leeds Castle and requested shelter for the night. This was a reasonable request, as it was Crown property but held for Edward by Baron Bradlesmere who had defected to the faction led by Thomas of Lancaster.

The arms of Baron Bradlesmere.

Bradlesmere was away at the time and the castle was being minded by his wife, Margaret. Lady Margaret’s response to Isabella’s arrival was a volley of arrows from the battlements which killed a number of the Queen’s bodyguards.

‘ The Queen arrived and requested from the Lady Margaret, entry to the castle and sustenance in the Great Hall!

Lady Margaret’s reply was a fusillade of arrows from the castle’s wall!

Edward’s response was to besiege Leeds Castle. Bradlesmere responded by rushing to his wife’s defence. However, the unfortunate baron soon learnt that he would receive no help from Lancaster and the Marcher Lords in relieving the siege. Bradlesmere was thus forced to withdraw. The Lady Margaret, expecting prompt succour from Lancaster, now realised that none would in fact be forthcoming.

‘Betrayed! Betrayed! By Lancaster Tom so horribly betrayed!

Now besieged in this castle by the king, I feel so terribly, terribly afraid!’

The Lady Margaret had no choice but to surrender and after a promise of fair treatment from Edward, was led out of the castle for the journey to the Tower. As she left her home for the last time, she would have seen the castle’s battlements adorned with the corpses of her military commander and some of his men as they swung in the autumnal air.

Buoyed by this victory, Edward decided to recall the Despensers.

‘I have just seen the king welcoming  the Despensers at the palace door!

This  means that the country will soon be engulfed in civil war!’

As with the case of Edward’s late favourite Gaveston some years before, the Despensers’ exile lasted but a short time. Banished in July, back in the royal bosom by Christmas, 1321. Hugh the elder had taken up temporary residence in France whilst his son had spent the time pursuing a short-lived career as a particularly savage seafaring thief along the English Channel.

‘Whether he be sailing on the sea or riding on land!

Hugh the younger could be relied upon to lead a pillaging, murderous band!

When he ceased to harry the sea around England’s south coast!

The seaborne merchants with heartfelt relief raised their goblets in a joyful toast!’

Hugh the younger.

Edward had summoned the Despensers back to England because he calculated that he could outmanoeuvre his opponents and in this he would be proved correct. It was at this point that Edward showed an uncharacteristic degree of prescience. His arch enemy, Thomas of Lancaster, was scheming in Yorkshire with the northern barons. Edward predicted that if he moved against the Marcher Lords of Wales, Lancaster would not come to their aid, but stay put in his Pontefract lair.

‘Edward aimed to divide his foes and conquer!

As a military plan it proved to be an almighty stonker!

In January 1322, the king was in Wales dealing with the Marcher Lords who had complained so bitterly about his allies, the Despensers. As he had predicted, Lancaster did not travel south-west to support his Welsh allies.

‘Edward marched his army into the land and mountains of Wales!

His army’s attacks there caused the valleys to echo the sound of the rebels agonizing wails!’

The Marcher Lords were swiftly defeated and Edward turned his attention towards Lancaster. In fact, it was Lancaster’s failure to reinforce the Marcher Lords which had been a principal factor in their defeat. Lancaster’s cowardice, or lack of judgement, in failing to support his allies would sow the seeds of his own downfall and ultimately cause his ignominious execution.

‘Oh Tom, Earl of Lancaster, tis unto you that I now turn my gaze!

Dear kinsman, you have now come to the very end of your ignoble days!’

In early 1322, Edward marched north against Lancaster who along with his ally, the Earl of Hereford, retreated as the king advanced. Trying to cross a bridge in Yorkshire, Lancaster’s party were confronted by the king’s forces. In the melee that followed, Hereford was killed when a soldier hiding under the bridge thrust his pike into the unfortunate baron’s anus. His agonising screams were the death knell of the rebels campaign.

‘As the Earl of Hereford stood upon the bridge attempting to pass!

A cheeky Welsh pike man crept underneath and speared him in the ass!’

The tomb of Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.

Lancaster, now haemorrhaging allies, was apprehended on March 16th and taken to the king at Pontefract. He was swiftly tried and sentenced to death.

‘When you murdered Piers, it was done in a manner so as upon him to bestow great shame!

Now you, Lancaster Tom, will suffer a death so very much the same!’

Edward ordered that like Gaveston, Lancaster would be executed on a hillock. In fact the selected hillock was the place that some years before, Lancaster and his followers had stood and jeered at the king as he rode past. Led out on a tired old donkey, Lancaster was beheaded on the 22nd of March by an incompetent axeman who took three blows to sever the head from the body.

 

The rest of Lancaster’s senior supporters were also dispatched without mercy and for Edward, the early months of the year of 1322 had been a very pleasing time indeed.