Piers Gaveston, the King's Favorite

and I am so grateful for you. Let's get started. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. The Baron of Lancaster and the Baron of Warwick walked a man with ropes around his wrists to the top of a hill on a warm June morning. The two barons were quiet as they walked, listening to the monotonous,

deadening pace of their footsteps in the grass. The prisoner was also silent, no tears, no begging, same as it had been during his trial just a few days prior at Warwick's Castle, where a handful of other nobles had condemned the prisoner to death. The word trial is loosely applied here. There was no judge, no representation for the defendant. They said that the charge was disobeying the terms of inordinance they had agreed upon with the king, But everyone

involved knew what the real charge was. Being the King's favorite, occupying all of his attention, receiving an endless dream of his money and his favor. King Edward the Second was devoted to this man in a way that he never was to anyone else in his life, not even his wife. Everyone knew who the real love of the King's life was, and so Pierce Gaveston, first Earl of Cornwall, was sentenced to death. There were two men on the hill to

do the actual execution. One took a sword and first ran it through Gaveston's stomach and then pulled it back out with a sickening squish. They all waited until Gaveston fell to the grass, and then his head was sliced off. The men who were still alive looked away from the mangled body and began walking back down the hill towards home. Gaveston's body was left outside for the elements without a burial, to decompose in the grass and be picked at by

the birds and rodents happening by. He was twenty eight years old at the time of his death. King Edward the Second would be furious, demented with rage and grief when he heard that his love Pierce Gaveston had been and murdered by the barons, but his options when it came to retaliation were limited. The barons had been filling in the vacuum of power left by the weak and

ineffectual king, building their own private armies. The king's own wife, Queen Isabella, had been watching it all unfold for years, and she had her own ideas for how the country should be run. And she was about to meet a man who would help her with her coup. Her heart had been broken by a king who never cared about her at all. She could at least take a country out from under him. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is

noble blood. According to the Chronicle of the Civil Wars of Edward the Second, the first time the future King Edward the Second saw Pierce Gaveston, he tied himself to him against all more hurdles, with an indissoluble bond of love. It was twelve nine seven. Pierce Galveston was a teenager, the son of a knight from Gasson, who had joined the army of King Edward, the first to fight in Flanders. The King saw the young boy particularly handsome, but also

particularly graceful, athletic and well mannered. He embodied the values for a young man at the time when it came to bearing and male conduct, and so the King appointed the young man to join his son's household, to join the staff of the Prince of Wales, and hopefully to serve as a good example. The King was a little

worried about his son. That word the second seemed to gravitate towards activities associated with the lower class, like growing and the menial hypnotic work of farm hands like hedging and ditching around fields. But when Edward the Second it wasn't playing farm hand, he seemed spoiled. A wealthy dilettante. He played the organ and a Welsh string instrument known as a crwth, which is spelled I kid you not ce r w t h. The Welsh language does not

mess around. The Prince bred horses and greyhounds. He kept a pet Cammell and a pet lion that he insisted on bringing with him on a campaign he went on in Scotland with his father. All of that to say he needed good upper class boys in his household to model good courtly behavior for him. When Galveston arrived to the Prince's household, they were about the same age. Galveston may have been one or two years older, but from that point on the two young men were inseparable. It

was love in every sense of the word. They rode together, walked together, talked together, played together. It was no secret with whom the Prince was spending all of his time, and the Prince was already working hard to elevate Gaveston's position in the household. He was designated associates or a companion, rather than what one might have expected, which was for

him to be a scoutefer or an esquire. The two men were so close that when the King wanted to punish his son for loudly voicing his disparaging opinion about the Bishop of Chester, he did so by exiling Pierres Gaveston to France. Gaveston was still granted a salary while he was away quote for as long as he shall remain in parts beyond the sea during the King's pleasure

and waiting for recall, Edward the Second was bereft. He wrote a letter to his sister Elizabeth, hoping that she could talk to their stepmother and get her to intercede with the king to bring Gavest back. We would be greatly relieved of the anguish which we have endured, Edward the Second wrote, and from which we continue to suffer from one day to the next. Eventually, the King forgave

his son's trespasses. When the prince was knighted, Gaveston was returned to his household like a graduation gift, and in thirteen o six the two boys both accompanied the king on an army expedition to Scotland to follow up on a victory over Robert the Bruce. If you've seen Braveheart first, please know that it is only history in the loosest possible sense, but this is also around the time period

where it is supposed to have happened. Edward the Second Father is Edward the First, of course, also known as long Shanks. Edward the Second in the movie Braveheart is portrayed as effeminately gay. So now might be a good time to take a brief break from the story to discussed the ways we talk about homosexuality when it comes to history, especially history as far back as the fourteenth century.

A lot of pre eminent queer theorists and scholars actually disagree as to whether it's useful or helpful to call someone like Edward the Second gay when that isn't how he would have identified himself, or really how anyone at the time would have characterized him. But to me, it also feels like a useless exercise to tie ourselves into knots, as some writers do trying to paint Edward the Second

and Pierce Gaveston as best bros. The fact of the matter is that textual evidence is that Edward and Gaveston had a relationship that went beyond the normal courtly affection between two men at the time, something that was noted

and observed contemporaneously, albeit obliquely. As Peter Ackroyd writes in his book Queer History, their relationship emphasizes that five and perhaps non existent line between camaraderie and same sex love, as we've come to see in the sort of florid portrayals of courtly love between men in the fourteenth century and beyond. Edward the Second and Gaveston would go on to have a formal relationship as wedded brethren, a union that would have been solemnized before an altar in a church.

I suppose the apt comparison there is something like them being blood brothers. But again, how disingenuous to pretend that this is a story about two bros who were such close bros that they decided to kneel in a church side by side to show what bros they are. An anonymous writer of a contemporary biography wrote, quote, I do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another. Our king was incapable of moderate favor, and on account of Pierce was said to forget himself, And so Pierce

was accounted a sorcerer. At the time, sorcerer was coded language for someone who engaged in homosexual acts, an allegation put more explicitly by a Cistercian monk who wrote of Edward the second, and please forgive my Latin or lack thereof, in vito sodomitico numium delectabut or he wallowed in sodomy. Edward the Second would go on to father five children, one illegitimate, more than fulfilling his duty with his wife

of providing the country with a male heir. But a king doing his duty to provide an air can sort of be considered an endeavor completely disparate from ideas of love or companionship. So I think we should resist the temptation to, as I saw one less than reputable internet analysis, to celebrate Edward the Second as the first bisexual king

of England. That terminology simply doesn't hold the same meaning it does today when applied to seven hundred years ago, and so personally I agree with the historians who don't quite see that sort of formal denomination as particularly useful in this case. I do find it helpful just to remember that, even though he lived in the thirteen hundreds,

Edward the Second was a human being. He was a human being who fell deeply and madly in love with a man, and that relationship would be the central one for almost his entire life, and that love would eventually lead to both of their downfalls. Though the king had restored Gaveston to his son's household, the reunion wouldn't last long. After the campaign in Scotland, the army set up camp for the winter in Lander Coast, near the English border.

That winter, twenty two prominent knights, including Gaveston, left camp without permission to sail to France for a series of tournaments. When the men returned, they found that the king had confiscated all of their lands in anger at their disobedience. Eventually, the king calmed down and he realized it was just a youthful indiscretion and all of the knights were forgiven and pardoned all of the knights except Gaveston. Out of the twenty two men, only Gaveston was banished, once again

forced to leave the country. The exact reason for Gaveston's uniquely harsh punishment isn't known, but it's possible that the king wanted his son to move on from his teenage crush so that he could be ready for his new bride incoming from France. King Edward the First had arranged for his son to marry Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fourth or Philip the Fair, when she was just two

years old. Now that she was twelve, it was finally time to make good on that betrothed, though in case you were wondering, Edward the Second was twenty three, but before the wedding actually took place, Edward the First died suddenly, and so the prince ascended to the throne as King Edward the Second. The first thing Edward did as king was bring back Galveston and grant him the impressive title

of Earl of Cornwall. It wasn't unheard of for a king to give a lower born gentleman such a grand title, but given the nature of the king's relationship with Galveston, it narrowed some eyes, especially because before the late king died he had been planning on giving that earldom to one of his sons by his second wife. The earldom was supposed to go to a prince, and here comes this new king giving it to an upstart son of

a knight. The new king also set Gaveston up with a well placed wife of his own, Margaret Declare, sister of the Earl of Gloucester and Edward's niece. Gaveston was also appointed regent temporarily while Edward went to France to marry his own bride, the thirteen year old Isabella. The wedding in France went right as planned, and so young Isabella accompanied her new husband back to England, where they would have another wedding ceremony and their official coronations as

Queen and King of England. They arrived back on the shores of Dover on a cold February afternoon, and that very moment would doom their entire marriage. Who was waiting on the shore for the new king and his new bride, then the real love of the King's life, Pierre Gaveston. As soon as he set foot to grass, the King ran towards his lover, laughing and crying. They embraced for

a long time. They kissed, all the while thirteen year old Isabella of France was just standing there, chilled by the February air and the wind whipping up from the sea, watching her new husband so deeply and so clearly in love with a person that wasn't her. At their coronation, Gaveston took most of the attention, to the shock of nearly everyone there. He arrived wearing purple, a color meant to be worn by only the king. An onlooker noted that he looked more like the god Mars than a

mere mortal At the banquet. Afterward, the King spent the entire night perched on Gaveston's small couch, gazing up into his eyes, laughing and flirting with him. The King early so much as acknowledged his new bride. The scene was so outrageous that two of Isabella's uncles left the party in disgust. Life as the new Queen of England was miserable For Isabella. She was young, all alone, and her husband constantly humiliated her with his lack of affection and

overt love for Gaveston. She wrote to her father, King Philip the Fair that she was being treated poorly. The money that was supposed to be given to her by her new husband seemed to be slow coming. While there was never any shortage for whatever extravagance Pierce Gaveston wanted, the jewels that Isabella's father had presented to the King as part of her dowry were being freely shared between

the King and Galveston. Isabella also told her father that the barons of England were getting fed up as well, that they hate at Gaveston and the King's outright favoritism. That there were rumors that Gaveston had cruel little nicknames for all of them that he used behind their backs. The beloved Earl of Lincoln Gaveston called burst Belly, and the Earl of Warwick was quote the black dog of Arden. King Edward the Seconds untamed affections for this man, We're

making him and England vulnerable. In thirteen o eight, the great Barons of England demanded that the King send peers into exile. Faced directly by the displeasure of his nobles, the King agreed. Exile also meant that he was forced to strip Gaveston's earldom, but the King compensated for it by immediately appointing Gaveston as the King's lieutenant in Ireland,

and Edward the Second was king. He did have some power, and he assumed that the barons would settle down, and so a year later, when he assumed things would have calmed a bit, he brought Gaveston back to England. He was wrong. Things had not calmbed down. By March thirteen ten, the barons were all but threatening civil war if the King refused to sit down with them and negotiate what

to do about the Gaveston problem. With his hands tied, Edward the second agreed to create an organization called the Lords Ordainers, a group of twenty one earls, barons and bishops who would agree on the rules when it came to managing the King's household. The Ordainers came up with a number of new rules, including once again exile for

the King's favorite. When faced with a group of angry nobles, some of whom had spent the better part of the past few years assembling private armies, the King found he had very little actual power. He bargained, saying he would agree to all of the rules except the banishment of Gaveston. The nobles refused him, and so for the third and

final time, Gaveston was formally banished from England. It would only be a few months before the King decreed that the Ordainers were actually operating illegally, that the proclamations didn't mean anything, so that he could bring Gaveston back, but the nobles would refuse to back down, which meant that as soon as Gaveston was back in England, he and the King were now on the run from the king's

own nobleman. While fleeing the Earl of Lancaster in May of thirt twelve, the King was forced to leave most of his retinue and baggage behind so that he could travel light and avoid capture. So at Newcastle he abandoned and his jewels and plates. He abandoned several valuable war horses and various assorted trappings, and he also abandoned his wife, who was five months pregnant. Edward, the seconds only concern was Galveston. Gaveston fortified himself at Scarborough Castle, where he

was besieged by the Earls of Pembroke and Warwick. It was around this time that Gaveston was also excommunicated by the Archbishop Winchesley at St Paul's. The nobles meant war. The siege ended with Gaveston's surrendering to the Earl of Pembroke on the condition that they would negotiate with the King for an acceptable course of action and have until

August one to do it. Pembroke agreed, and he took Galveston into his custody to Deddington in Banbury, where he'd be kept until they finalized their deal with the King. Pembroke guaranteed his safety, and word was sent onto the King, who, of course immediately began riding north, but then Pembroke spent a weekend away with a cousin, and whether it was purposeful or just an unfortunate coincidence, Gaveston was left unguarded.

When the Earl of Warwick heard that the hated Gaveston was so close, he sprung into action and captured him himself. He brought the king's favorite back to Warwick in chains, parading him through the streets like a common thief while the crowd jeered at him and made of scene gestures.

Before the king could even finish his travels, the earls completed a quick sham trial and brought Pierce Gaveston to black Low Hill, where two Welsh executioners were ready to kill him by running him through, first with a sword and then by cutting off his head. His body was

left to rot on the hill. Gaveston being excommunicated at the time, meant that he couldn't have a proper Christian burial, although the king did immediately begin fighting to recover the body and give his love the resting place he thought he deserved. Gaveston's body was eventually rescued and embalmed, and buried in the Dominican friary at King's Langley and hare

to share. But it wouldn't be until eighteen twenty three that a local squire would erect a monument for Pierce Gaveston, which would read, under his name quote the minion of a hateful king beheaded by barons as lawless as himself. According to that squire, there were no heroes in this story. The king mourned deeply, and though during the following period he would sire heirs with his wife, his heart never covered from the loss of his greatest love. The man

he had spent thirteen years with. You would eventually, nearly a decade later, find a new favorite, a man named Hugh Dispenser, the younger. Unlike Pierce Gaveston, who had been relatively moderate in his spending and not too keen on making enemies what good it did him you, Dispenser was shameless. He spent wildly, and it wasn't long before the nobles were calling him another Gaveston. The Queen, for her part, despised Dispenser. Here was another young upstart, not only taking

her husband's attention again but flaunting it. It goes without saying that the King's treatment of his wife hadn't improved since the first time they set foot on English soil together. Once her household had been fleeing a Scottish army, and her husband had so dawdled on sending support that it led to her just barely escaping with her life. Queen Isabella eventually persuaded her husband to let her go to France to negotiate with her brother, who was by then

the King. It was while she was at French court that she met a man named Roger Mortimer, a formerly powerful English lord who had been forced to flee the country after a failed rebellion against Edward the Second. The friendship between the Queen and Mortimer deepened when it was revealed that they had a common goal removing Edward from the throne. The two became lovers, and eventually Mortimer led an expedition that would see the pair of them successfully

seize control of the English throne. Hugh de Spenser was captured and found guilty on more charges than he could answer for. He knew that execution was coming to him, and that that execution would be grim, and so before his verdict, he had been trying to starve himself to death, but it didn't work, and he was right about the execution being grim. So if you're a little squeamish about gore,

you might want to fast forward about thirty seconds. The king's new favorite was dragged through the streets naked and publicly humiliated, with men writing Bible verses on his skin, Bible versus about the many sins of which he had been formally accused. Dispenser was to be hanged as a commoner, but the news was released before he was fully asphyxiated and so still breathing, but only barely. Dispenser was tied to a ladder and a red hot blade was used

to slice off his genitals. From there he was beheaded and drawn and quartered. His head was mounted on the gates of London. King Edward the Second was captured soon afterward and forced to abdicate in favor of his young son, Edward the Third, who would be king in name only as Queen Isabella, and Roger Mortimer ruled as regent in his stead. While captured and imprisoned, Edward died either of a mysterious illness or more likely at the behest of

the new regime. The rumor with not much factual evidence behind it, but the rumor that's plenty colorful is that he was killed by guards in a way that wouldn't show much damage to the outside of his body. Another warning here, I'm going to say this as delicately as I can by shoving a flaming hot poker up his

rear end. But that detail lurid as it is maybe an example of historical embellishment, meant to emphasize the gossip around the king's relationships and sexual proclivities, but that rumor in itself is evidence that the King's relationships were explicitly sexual. No one ever shoves a red hot poker up someone's but because they're upset that he's such close platonic bros with another man. That's the tragic story of Pierce Gaveston

and King Edward the Second. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear more about what happened with Queen Isabella. Edward the Third eventually came of age and overthrew the regency of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella. Roger Mortimer was killed, but graciously Edward the Third spared the life of his mother. The Queen was briefly imprisoned, but then allowed to live in a palace just away from court.

Edward the Third did one more thing to honor the memory of his father, the man whom he could scarcely remember, but who had been so deeply betrayed by his wife and fellow countrymen. When Queen Isabella died, her son Edward the Third had something wrapped in linen and buried alongside her. It was King Edward the seconds embalmed heart, the thing that had caused so much trouble and strife and pain. At last, for the first time and only in death,

what Queen Isabella finally have it. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. The show was written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the

show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H