When they went to the castle, Edward appeared before them clad in deep mourning.  Presently he sank fainting to the floor.  On his recovery he burst into a fit of weeping.  But, checking himself, he thanked Parliament through the commissioners for having chosen his eldest son Edward, a boy of fourteen, to rule over the nation.

Sir William Trussel then stepped forward and said:  “Unto thee, O King, I, William Trussel, in the name of all men of this land of England and Speaker of this Parliament, renounce to you, Edward, the homage [oath of allegiance] that was made to you some time; and from this time forth I defy thee and deprive thee of all royal power, and I shall never be attendant on thee as King from this time.”

Then Sir Thomas Blount, steward of the King’s household; advanced, broke his staff of office before the King’s face, and proclaimed the royal household dissolved.

Edward was soon after committed to Berkeley Castle,[1] in Gloucestershire.  There, by the order of Mortimer, with the connivance of Queen Isabelle, the “she-wolf of France,” who acted as his companion in iniquity (S232), the King was secretly and horribly murdered.

[1] Berkeley Castle is considered one of the finest examples of feudal architecture now remaining in England.  Over the stately structure still floats the standard borne in the Crusades by an ancestor of the present Lord Berkeley.

234.  Summary.

The lesson of Edward II’s career is found in its culmination.  Other sovereigns had been guilty of misgovernment, others had put unworthy and grasping favorites in power, but he was the first King whom Parliament had deposed.

By that act it became evident that great as was the power of the King, there had now come into existence a greater still, which could not only make but unmake him who sat on the throne.

Edward III—­1327-1377

235.  Edward’s Accession; Execution of Mortimer.

Edward III, son of Edward II, was crowned at fourteen.  Until he became of age, the government was nominally in the hands of a council, but really in the control of Queen Isabelle and her “gentle Mortimer,” the two murderers of his father (S233).

Early in his reign Edward attempted to reconquer Scotland (S219), but failing in his efforts, made a peace acknowledging the independence of that country.  At home, however, he now gained a victory which compensated him for his disappointment in not subduing the Scots.

Mortimer was staying with Queen Isabelle at Nottingham Castle.  Edward obtained entrance by a secret passage, carried him off captive, and soon after brought him to the gallows.  He next seized his mother, the Queen, and kept her in confinement for the rest of her life in Castle Rising, Norfolk.

236.  The Rise of English Commerce; Wool Manufacture, 1336.