Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II

Both Edward II and his wife Isabella were powerful political players in Anglo-French relations, but their lives represent a real conflict between a disinterested and reluctant king whose extra-marital relationships sealed his fate at the hands of Isabella, and an honorouble queen and devoted wife turned `she-wolf' who took the ultimate revenge on her husband and his favourites. This book begins with Edward I in power and sets the historical and political scene for Edward II's accession, marriage and reign. Paul Doherty explores the relationships between Edward II and Isabella, Edward and his favourites Gaveston and de Spencer, and between these two figures and the queen, within the context of the breakdown and collapse of the royal marriage leading to conspiracy and death. The `murder mystery' element of the book concerns the events of the death and burial of the king. Doherty cites evidence to suggest that Edward II escaped death at the hands of scorned Isabella and that the queen was deceived, just as England was, about his fate which means that `the corpse in the lead coffin beneath the beautiful Purbeck marble sarcophagus in St Peter's at Gloucester is not Edward II's'. This book proves that sometimes history can be better than fiction.