Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II (Hardcover)

~ Paul Doherty (Author) "Isabella was a fairy-tale princess..." (more)
Key Phrases: baronial opposition, escaped king, immortal king, Earl of Kent, Edward of Caernarvon, Berkeley Castle (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tidy survey of the 14th-century reign of British king Edward II and his queen, Isabella, provides thumbnail sketches of a series of massacres, tortures, plots and counterplots leading to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Edward, the first English king to be deposed from the throne. The prolific Doherty (author of the recent, compelling The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun) is better known for writing several series of historical mystery novels, including the criminal investigations in an older Britain of Hugh Corbett and Brother Athelstan. Renowned for a sure ability to bring these periods to life in his fiction, Doherty seems strangely hog-tied by facts here. He notes in regard to the problems of determining why celebrity marriages go south today, that the difficulty is compounded by speculating on such events which occurred 700 years ago. The arranged marriage of Edward, heir to the English throne, and Isabella of France, went spectacularly wrong, with the queen, after she had been in exile in her native France, returning to England with an army to depose Edward. According to one tradition, Isabella arranged his death by means of a red hot poker thrust up into his bowels. Doherty postulates that Edward may have escaped this dire end in the year 1327, while duly recording Isabella's political supremacy and influence on history, which symbolically lives on in the powers invested in the queen in chess.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Oh, the color and drama of the Middle Ages. Doherty whisks us off to those vibrant but cruel days in this accessible biography of the queen of England's Edward II (who ruled during the years 1307-27). The son of the mighty but brutal Edward I married Isabella, a princess of France, but the great love of his life was a foreign-born man, Piers Gaveson. Edward II insisted his friend be treated as co-king; naturally, the favorite one made enemies, and those enemies eventually dealt him a fatal blow. For some years after that, Edward and Isabella were close, but soon the king had another male favorite; and, not surprisingly, the king's favorite and the queen had it out. As a result, Isabella fled home to France, came back with an army, and deposed her husband in favor of their son, Edward III. And what should she do with her husband, whom she now despised? Traditional historiography has it that she had him murdered; however, Doherty finds otherwise. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st ed/1st printing edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786711930
• ISBN-13: 978-0786711932
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #803,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did Edward Bluff His Way Out of the Poker Game?, November 20, 2005

By	takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

If your knowledge of Edward II is as sketchy as mine was, you'll think that the strange death in the title of Paul C. Doherty's book refers to the gruesome manner in which Edward was supposedly assassinated. Edward is widely thought to have been killed by, in the translated words of a contemporary chronicler, "a red hot poker being thrust up into his bowels."

Certainly that is a strange death, but Doherty finds evidence that there is much more strangeness in what happened after Edward's downfall. Doherty agrees with most historians up to the point where Edward is captured, imprisoned in Berkeley Castle, and forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Edward III. Only fifteen years old, Edward III would be subject to his mother's control, and that of his mother's lover, Roger Mortimer.

Accepted history says that Edward II tried to escape from Berkeley Castle in 1327, was quickly captured, then killed by agents of Mortimer. Doherty thinks Edward's escape was successful and that Isabella and Mortimer buried a look-alike to prevent attempts to reinstate Edward II. He offers several possibilities about what happened to Edward II after escaping, but comes to no definitive conclusion other than that he was not murdered at Berkeley Castle and is probably not buried in the tomb that bears his name in Gloucester Cathedral.

Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II is a short book, only 262 pages including footnotes, bibliography, and index. Doherty explains everything lucidly enough so that I was swept up right into history without knowing much about the characters beforehand. He explains the sources and their biases, and how he came to his conclusions. If you enjoy Doherty's book, you may also like Alison Weir's Queen Isabella (2005), in which Weir goes a step beyond Doherty, and decides that Edward II not only escaped, but ended up a hermit in Italy until he died in 1341.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good general starter that'll whet the appetite, September 29, 2003

By	ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

With an opening prologue espousing the imperial aims of Edwards 1st and focusing on the height of the English mediaeval period of the fourteenth century, Doherty focuses on London's expansion to become a true European capital and how Edward's dreams were thwarted by the Scots. Into the mix came the marriage of his son, the future Edward II and Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV of France
The first half of the book details the history of the couple right up until Edward's somewhat painful death (as reported by Swynbroke) whilst incarcerated at Berkeley. Opening with the political dynastical struggle between Edward and Philip to create future power for their respective countries the two were betrothed in 1299 with what could be seen at the time as a heavily bound contract promising all kinds of dire retribution if any party should renege on the deal. We move swiftly through the sudden death of Edward I in 1307, having some detail on the relationship between the King and the to-be Edward II, Doherty heavily emphasizing Edwards fiercely emotive personality traits. If a fiend you were a friend for life, if an enemy, he never got. This is a trait that is prevalent through Edward II's life and heavily affected his decision making. Two figures leap out as having lived and fallen with him. Firstly, Gaveston who was ultimately elevated to Earl of Cornwall and given such a place of prominence that the nuptials of Edward and Isabella were portrayed in a rather insulting manner to the French nobility. However, given Isabella's age at the time this does not seem to have been too problematic. After Gaveston's exile in 1308 and subsequent `execution' following an English noble revolt headed by Lancaster, Isabella rose in prominence and indeed fortified several treaties between Edward and Philip, whilst Edward eventually rounded on Lancaster and the remaining rebellious lords and had them effectively proscribed. Post-battle of Bannockburn where the Scots crushed the English in 1314 Edward became increasingly emotive in his rulings and Isabella found herself the subject of many plots. It is at this time Hugh de Spencer (or Dispenser as there seems to be some conflict of his name) the Younger rose to favourite under Edward, again to the same degree as Gaveston but this man appears to have been far more brutal. Indeed Doherty tries to suggest that Isabella's ultimate separation and rebellion against Edward in 1326 was due to the suggestion that there ultimately be an `open' relationship amongst the three of them. This in turn, `justifies' Isabella's adultery with Roger Mortimer during he initial self-exile in France and subsequent dealings in England when she returned to invade and execute de Spencer and capture Edward, forcing the coronation of their son, Edward III.
The second half of the book deals with the uncertainty surrounding Edward's death during incarceration, firstly placing his movements during those last few months then his subsequent burial away from Westminster as a `deposed prince'. Doherty gives time to discussing the movements of the body (it took several months to carry out the funeral due mainly to the military expedition in Scotland) before detailing the funeral of Dec 20 1327. After the internment Isabella seems to have forgotten her dead husband, moving swiftly to arrange the marriage of her son and Phillipa of Hainhault. Unfortunately, Isabella appears to have succumbed (with Mortimer) to excessive rapacity and governmental monopolisation resulting in Lancaster plotting rebellion and eventually falling out with her son, Edward III. After Edmund, Earl of Kent's admission that Edward II was not dead but imprisoned at Corfe Castle and there was a plot to free him - in itself a ludicrous turn of events - led to many arrests and death for treason. Nevertheless, by the fall of 1330, Isabella was in exile and Mortimer executed as all they had done was replace Edward's tyranny with their own. It was now the young Edward III decided to act in conjunction with Pope John XXII. Edward's close friend Montague managed to get Mortimer to declare that his word was above the King's and promptly pulled off a coup, imprisoning Mortimer then securing his execution. At the trial of Berkeley we learn that Thomas Gurney, William Ockle and Maltravers were identified as the regicides. All bar Gurney were eventually pardoned, he dying whilst under arrest. Isabella escaped and henceforth no reference was made to her being involved in any of the crimes committed. Doherty skips through the remaining 28 years of her life, noting her piety and charitable goodwill.
Come Chapter 7 the main protagonists are dead and hence Doherty's historical recreation ends. He spends the remaining 60 pages discussing the true events surrounding Edward II's death. He focuses on a letter from the papal notary Fieschi (dated by modern historians to around 1337) who claims to have met Edward II, detailing his life on the run until he ends up at a monastery near Milan. Going through the letter section by section, Doherty firstly seems to pass the letter off as fabrication then comes a more neutral stance is saying that he fundamentally believes that Edward II didn't die, but that Fieschi got his information second hand rather than in a direct interview.
Doherty's account of Isabella and Edward II and III is a good starting point for anyone wishing to gain an instant understanding of the history of England during the early fourteenth century. Immediately accessible to the general reader, it is useful for the pre-university student or for those wishing some standard reading of the subject though it should be noted the quality is nowhere near university standard. For more detailed analysis of the time and the personages involved there are better books out there, but this is not intended to be overly critical. It is a good general overview of the history with some `suggestive' theories that aren't really expanded on, that can leave the reader with questions to which the answers need to be sought elsewhere.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dull, November 2, 2004

By	a history lover (California) - See all my reviews

With such interesting subject matter, I had high hopes for this book. However, it is so sluggish I can hardly get through it. The language and writing style is faux-scholarly and circuitous. As a result, the story doesn't "flow" and I find myself forced to reread several parts. The author glazes over the juiciest bits as well. There must be a better telling of this story somewhere out there!