Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II: : An insightful take on an infamous murder

by Paul Doherty

Overview

The story of a queen known as 'the she-wolf' and a fresh view of an infamous murder...

In a colourful non-fiction narrative, which provides an evocative setting for a scramble for wealth and power, Paul Doherty traces the life of Queen Isabella and her part in the mysterious death of her husband, King Edward II. Perfect for fans of Michael Jecks and Kathryn Warner.

'Riveting... Nobody reading could be left in any doubt that... Edward's murder at Berkley is open to question' - Alison Weir, Sunday Times

In chess, from the time of Queen Isabella of England, the queen has been considered the most powerful and feared piece on the board. Known to chroniclers as the 'she-wolf', Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France, married King Edward II of England in 1308 in a union intended to create a lasting peace between the two countries. But after 13 years of enduring her husband's unkind and dissolute nature she fled abroad. With her lover, the exiled Roger Mortimer, she raised an army of mercenaries and invaded England, successfully deposing Edward.

Popular belief holds that Edward was murdered in an infamous manner at Berkeley Castle near Gloucester, at the order of his wife and her lover. But after Mortimer's execution a letter arrived at court that cast doubt over Edward's death and raised the possibility of his escape. The evidence remains controversial to this day, and here Paul Doherty examines it in his fascinating detective study, set in one of the most turbulent and exciting periods of English history.

What readers are saying about Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II:
'A scholarly and very readable biography of the woman known as the 'She Wolf of France''
'Paul Doherty has done a wonderful job in sketching the life and career of this remarkable Queen - it's a real historical page-turner'
'I could not stop reading this book by Paul Doherty as it is very well written, immensely readable and fascinating. For me an absolute MUST'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780755395804
Publisher:	Headline Book Publishing, Limited
Publication date:	06/06/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough. He studied History at Liverpool and Oxford Universities and obtained a doctorate for his thesis on Edward II and Queen Isabella. He is now headmaster of a school in north-east London and lives with his family in Essex.

Table of Contents

	Prologue: England under Edward I	1
1	A Fitting Marriage ...	11
2	Isabella and the King's Favourite	35
3	The New Favourite and Isabella's Disgrace	69
4	The She-Wolf Triumphant	105
5	The Burial of a King	133
6	The Downfall of the She-Wolf	155
7	The Immortal King	183
8	The King is Dead, Long Live the King	217
	Notes	241
	Bibliography	251
	Index	257

Editorial Reviews

This tidy survey of the 14th-century reign of British king Edward II and his queen, Isabella, provides thumbnail sketches of a series of massacres, tortures, plots and counterplots leading to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Edward, the first English king to be deposed from the throne. The prolific Doherty (author of the recent, compelling The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun) is better known for writing several series of historical mystery novels, including the criminal investigations in an older Britain of Hugh Corbett and Brother Athelstan. Renowned for a sure ability to bring these periods to life in his fiction, Doherty seems strangely hog-tied by facts here. He notes in regard to the problems of determining why celebrity marriages go south today, that the difficulty is compounded by speculating on such events which occurred 700 years ago. The arranged marriage of Edward, heir to the English throne, and Isabella of France, went spectacularly wrong, with the queen, after she had been in exile in her native France, returning to England with an army to depose Edward. According to one tradition, Isabella arranged his death by means of a red hot poker thrust up into his bowels. Doherty postulates that Edward may have escaped this dire end in the year 1327, while duly recording Isabella's political supremacy and influence on history, which symbolically lives on in the powers invested in the queen in chess. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Distinguished British historian Paul Doherty proves that if he ever took to writing detective novels, he'd quickly establish an Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle-class reputation. Neither Miss Marple nor Sherlock Holmes could've done better in unearthing evidence and resolving two historic mysteries: Was England's King Edward II really murdered, as has been supposed for centuries; and did Alexander the Great die prematurely from his allegedly excessive fondness for wine, or was he poisoned?(13 Apr 2005)
—Steve Forbes

Forbes Magazine

A lively reconstruction of events in medieval English history, full of all the good stuff: murder, adultery, treason, and a few beheadings. Isabella, the daughter of French king Philip Le Bel and Johanna of Navarre, is a minor figure in world history, all things considered; Mel Gibson’s 1995 film Braveheart gives her a far more important role in the unpleasantness between England and Scotland of the late-13th and early-14th centuries than the facts warrant, especially by supposing that the Scottish leader William Wallace was the father of her child, who would become Edward III. For all that, Isabella did chalk up some significant deeds, not least of which, writes English mystery author and historian Doherty (The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun, 2002, etc.), was that "she brought about the first formal deposition of an English king, even though it was for her own selfish motives." That king was Edward II, son of Edward Longshanks, who emerges in Doherty’s account as a feckless but not altogether bad fellow; his downfall came not through his homosexual dallying, as Braveheart hints, but through his overall lack of interest in running an empire, a job Isabella was only too happy to take on in the name of her son, fathered not by Edward but by the English exile Roger Mortimer. The existence of both heir and bedroom rival meant, of course, that Edward II had to be done away with, and Isabella engineered a nicely gruesome end for him. Confused yet? Well, the times were plenty confusing--they could hardly be otherwise in a milieu when royal spymasters wrote to the Pope to ask for blessings against spells cast by rival magicians, and when the death of a child in Norway could set about a struggleover monastic succession in France. Doherty deftly keeps the players and the facts lined up, delivering an entertaining tale as well. A satisfying excursion for medieval-history buffs.

Kirkus Reviews