First published 2015
Edward II stands among England's most despised monarchs. During his reign, he repeatedly pushed his kingdom toward civil war while allowing male favorites to wield royal power. His military leadership culminated in England's most humiliating battlefield defeat. His queen eventually took her own lover and launched an invasion against him. Edward fled through Wales with only a few loyal followers as enemy forces closed in. He became the first English king forced to give up his throne. Legend claims he died screaming on a red-hot poker, but the actual circumstances of his death remain mysterious. Kathryn Warner reconstructs Edward's turbulent life using fourteenth-century documents and the king's own correspondence. She dismantles centuries of accumulated myths to reveal a more accurate portrait of this tragic ruler whose story contains all the elements of passionate love, betrayal, revenge, and obsession found in Elizabethan drama.
Genres: history, historical-fiction, political-science, biography-memoir
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: betrayal, forced-proximity, tragedy
Setting: England, Wales
Period: 14th Century
336 pages · Paperback · Amberley Publishing