Helen Castor TV - Robert Bartlett TV - Dan Jones TV - Christopher Marlowe - Noel Denholm-Young - Charles William Chadwick Oman - Flores Historiarum - David Starkey TV - Danny Dyer TV -
Isabella ... was a peace-making queen. Dr Helen Castor, She Wolves: England’s Early Queens Isabella and Margaret, BBC 2012
It was Isabella herself who precipitated the country into civil war. ibid.
Edward ordered that all French men and women living in England should be arrested as enemy aliens. ibid.
Isabella, Mortimer and Prince Edward set sail for England. ibid.
She was greeted with open arms. ibid.
Her husband’s power simply melted away. ibid.
She, a queen, had seized power to depose a crowned and anointed king for the first time in English history. ibid.
Roger Mortimer was now Isabella’s lover. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets II, BBC 2014
Most famous for the story of his agonising death, but the story of his life is even more extraordinary – one of obsession, blood lust, political savagery and above all revenge. Dan Jones, Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty s1e3: Revenge, Channel 5 2014
Edward has promoted his best friend to Earl of Cornwall and made him his most trusted adviser. ibid.
The finances, security and political security have all gone to the dogs. ibid.
1321: 13 years into Edward II’s reign, [Piers] Gaveston’s murder by Lancaster remains unavenged. ibid.
1326: 19 years into Edward II’s reign, his support for the Despensers has made him hated throughout England. ibid.
My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
Shall with their goat feet dance an attic hay. Christopher Marlowe, Edward II
Tell Isabel the Queen, I looked not thus,
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France. ibid.
Base fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel
There is a point, to which when men aspire,
They tumble headlong down. ibid.
Edward II sat down to the game of kingship with a remarkably poor hand, and he played it very badly. Noel Denholm-Young, introduction to translation of Vita Edwardi Secundi ix, 1957
Seldom did a son contrast so strangely with his father as did Edward of Carnarvon with Edward the Hammer of the Scots. The mighty warrior and statesman begot a shiftless, thriftless craven. Charles William Chadwick Oman, A History of England p171, 1895
Oh! The insane stupidity of the king of the English, condemned by God and men, who should not love his infamy and illicit bed, full of sin, and should never have removed from his side his noble consort and her gentle wifely embraces, in contempt of her noble birth. Flores Historiarum p224
But the second Edward, unconventional and self-indulgent, reopened the old debate about royal power; his weaknesses brought the monarchy to the brink of disaster and may have inflicted a uniquely horrible death on the king. Nor was it all gore and glory. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e5: A United Kingdom
Bannockburn became infamous as England’s most shameful defeat by the Scots … Edward fled the battlefield. ibid.
For the first time in England's history a reigning monarch was formally deposed from the throne. ibid.
Edward II was dominated by his favourites, close friends who influenced his decisions. Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family II, BBC 2019