Queen Isabella

Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
by Alison Weir
Published in October 2005
528 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5

Queen Isabella of France is one of the most important women in English history. She would lead a coup, which would ultimately result in major events such as the Hundred Years War.

Queen Isabella was the daughter of Philip IV of France. The great king of England Edward the First Longshanks negotiated a marriage alliance between his son who would later be known as Edward II and Queen Isabella.

When Edward I Longshanks would die, Edward II would come to the throne. Immediately, his rule was clearly a disaster. Edward II was a spineless homosexual, a horrible military ruler, incredibly unpopular, didn’t have his finances under control, was easy to manipulate, and when it came to diplomacy was a babbling buffoon. Nevertheless, the marriage between Isabella of France and Edward II which had been much delayed was pushed forwards, and the two were (unhappily) wed.

Neither Edward II or Isabella were enthusiastic about the marriage. Edward II didn’t have any real interest in Isabella, and instead preferred spending time with his homosexual boyfriend Piers Gaveston. Isabella was neglected emotionally, but more important, financially by Edward II and wasn’t particularly happy.

Edward II’s boyfriend, Piers Gaveston, used his position to embezzle significant funds and engage in corrupt activities. He also delighted in insulting the great lords of the land. Edward II was easy to manipulate, so Gaveston became the de facto ruler of England. Luckily, Edward I Longshanks had anticipated potential issues, so had appointed Lord Lancaster to oversee governmental affairs. Lancaster pressured Edward II to exile Piers Gaveston, and because Edward II was spineless, Edward II eventually agreed. For a while, things were running relatively smoothly. However, Edward II eventually called Gaveston back from exile. Gaveston used his influence with the king to start a campaign of vindictive humiliation of those who had exiled him. Eventually, Lancaster staged a soft coup (the first of many during Edward II’s reign) and had Piers Gaveston tried and sentenced to death.

Gaveston’s death sent Edward II into a sort of insanity. Edward II took power back, and started haphazardly imprisoning, exiling, or killing everyone who he perceived as an enemy. He came under the influence of the medieval equivalent of the military industrial complex known as the marcher lords who convinced him to engage in fruitless and bloody wars. He also borrowed heavily from Italian and Jewish bankers, who began influencing his court.

The later half of Edward II’s reign was completely unhinged. He lost significant battles against the Scottish. He diplomatically insulted the French. He drove the kingdom into a deep economic recession.

Eventually Queen Isabella and her small son by Edward II (future king Edward III) used the pretext of a diplomatic mission to flee to France. After spending some time in exile, she began plotting her own coup. 

While in France, she began cavorting with English exiles and political dissidents who opposed the regime of Edward II. During this time, she started an affair with a former marcher lord, Roger Mortimer. With Mortimer’s help, she raised enough funds to buy the support of a small army of Dutch mercenaries. These mercenaries crossed the channel, and overthrew Edward II’s regime.

Edward II was extremely unpopular. As a result, nearly the entire kingdom threw their support behind Queen Isabella’s coup. Edward III was nominated as king, with Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer acting as reagents during his minority. Edward II was imprisoned in a palace, and forced to agree to his own abdication.

Having a former king who had been deposed under house arrest was a dangerous and unsustainable state of affairs, because he could become a rallying point for political enemies. Eventually, Edward II disappeared. Exactly what happened is blurry and varies on sources. The least credible sources say that he was sodomized to death using a red hot iron by his jailers (possibly who were seeking revenge for atrocities committed during Edward II’s reign). Another version, which is viewed by historians as much more credible, is that he was suffocated in his sleep. There also is a conspiracy theory, which gained significant traction at the time, that someone else was killed in his place and that Edward II lived out the rest of his life as a tonsured monk in Italy. Letters discovered by historians seem to support this latter theory, but we will never know.

Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer’s reign during Edward III’s minority quickly became unpopular. Queen Isabella agreed to an extremely unpopular peace with Scotland. She also was very corrupt, and embezzled significant funds with her lover Roger Mortimer. Her misgovernment was so significant that it eventually was said that she had just replaced one inept tyrant with another.

Edward III, once he turned 18, realized that his mother couldn’t be left in charge of the Kingdom. He staged his own small mini-coup, where he deposed his mother. Her lover, Roger Mortimer, was tried for corruption and ultimately executed. His mother, Queen Isabela, was allowed to live a life of luxury, and also acted as his advisor. Edward III proved to be a very effective king, in the vein of his grandfather Edward II.

The facts and narrative of the book is very interesting. This is an interesting period, and because I’ve read a lot about Edward II’s predecessors, it fits really well into my reading. However, I find Alison Weir’s early 2000s feminism to be grating.

On one hand, Queen Isabella was clearly extremely intelligent and capable. She also staged a necessary coup, which saved England from the disastrous reign of Edward II. She also apparently did a good enough job at raising her son Edward III who became one of England’s greatest kings. On the other hand, Queen Isabella had many moral failings which Weird defends rather than condemns. Her rule during Edward III’s minority wasn’t particularly successful. If she hadn’t come after the imbecile Edward II, she would probably be correctly seen as a bad ruler by historians. She also cheated on her husband with Roger Mortimer, which Weird defends as an act of bravery rather than condemns as a breach of her marital vow. I wish that she had taken a more balanced view. I’ve often found that female historians tend to be overly forgiving and prone to defending female historical figures to the point of nearly distorting history, rather than being more neutral.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the period with some background knowledge. It probably isn’t particularly interesting for those who are not studying the period. Weir’s excessive sympathy and defense of Queen Isabella is also a bit annoying.

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