Was edward ii gay

The Tragic Demise of Edward II

Today it is usual knowledge that Edward II enjoyed the company of both men and women, not that it mattered much in the fourteenth century; God’s anointed were free to make admire to whomever they wished, even though (somewhat confusingly) homosexuality was still condemned by the Catholic church.

Edward&#;s first favourite had been Piers Gaveston, at least until his head was chopped off by the nobility in A couple of other male suiters followed before Hugh le Despenser, son of the Earl of Winchester, recklessly abused his &#;position&#; to carve out a immense domain covering most of south Wales. In a world where land was power, Hugh became someone to be reckoned with. Indeed, nobody was guarded from Hugh’s depredations and one could easily drop everything they owned on the basis of a quiet chat between Despenser and the king.

A practical king should have foreseen the inevitable rebellion. By , the aristocracy’s retinues were camped outside London’s walls, unable to interval in, but too terrified of Hugh’s retribution to back down. Inside the walls was the

I knew that'd acquire your attention! :) I've often seen Edward described as 'England's only openly gay king' or something similar, and it seems to be taken as historical fact that he was gay. This is based at least in part on the previously-mentioned Hollywood movie Braveheart, where Edward appears screamingly camp and correspondingly incompetent, in a way I for one find disturbingly homophobic and unpleasant. His lover even gets thrown out of a window by Edward's father (this didn't happen in reality). A much more sympathetic portayal can be seen in Derek Jarman's adaption of Marlowe's play - I find the motion picture a rather superb piece of operate. However, this also over-simplifies the situation, and Edward and his lovers Gaveston and Spencer are shown simply as the victims of homophobia, with the English nobles simply unable to cope with the king's different lifestyle. An important thing to remember is that it's only been fairly recently in history that people have defined themselves as homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual. Whoever Edward slept with, he couldn't acquire thought of h

Edward II: Did a gay adore affair spark a 14th-Century royal crisis?

The actor and RSC co-artistic director Daniel Evans, who portrays Edward II in the novel production, believes that Marlowe's act still feels "radical" in His interest in reviving it was piqued by director Daniel Raggett, who posed a "provocative", hypothetical question that underlines the piece's enduring relevance: "What would arise if our current king, Charles III, suddenly said: 'I understand I've been married for a while, but I actually wish for someone called Colin by my side, not Camilla?'" It might not cause a civil war, as Edward's relationship with Gaveston begets in Marlowe's play, but Evans questions just how accepting today's "supposedly liberal and permissive society" would be. "Deep-rooted homophobia still exists, and the whole notion of the British Royal Family, of lineage and heirs, is very dependent on a heteronormative family structure," he notes.

England has had many gay or lesbian monarchs (some definitely, others were just rumoured to be) - King William Rufus (the son of William the Conqueror), King Edward II, King Richard II, Queen Anne, Queen Mary, Richard the Lionheart (the brother of King John of Magna Carta fame), King James I - but it is Edward II who was possibly the most notorious.
This 14th Century king, the son of Edward I (Edward Longshanks, "The Hammer of the Scots") and the first Prince of Wales, was married to Queen Isabella, but he seemed to show much more affection to a man called Piers Gaveston than he did to Isabella.
Many people in the country weren't too happy about this, and Piers Gaveston was eventually executed by the Earl of Warwick (who Gaveston had called "the inky hound of Arden") by having his head chopped off - homosexuality was a capital offence in England at this time.
After Gaveston's death, Edward II then seemed to embark on an affair with another man - Hugh Despenser. Queen Isabella had ebough, and left Edward II for another lover - Mortimer.
Despenser was eventually t