1310-1319 Piers Gaveston

Around 19th March 1311 the nobility attempt to constrain King Edward II of England [aged 26] by imposing a Council of Ordainers upon him. The Council included twenty-one signatories including:

Guy Beauchamp 10th Earl Warwick [aged 39].

Robert Clifford 1st Baron Clifford [aged 36].

Thomas Plantagenet 2nd Earl of Leicester, 2nd Earl Lancaster, Earl of Salisbury and Lincoln [aged 33].

Gilbert de Clare 8th Earl Gloucester 7th Earl Hertford [aged 19].

Henry Lacy 4th Earl Lincoln, Earl Salisbury.

John Capet 4th Earl Richmond [aged 45].

William Marshal 1st Baron Marshal [aged 33], and.

Aymer de Valence 2nd Earl Pembroke [aged 36].

Annals Londonienses. On the Monday immediately before the feast of Saint John the Baptist, in the aforementioned year, that is, on the 19th day of June, the aforesaid counts came to Warwick with their men and requested the body of the said Peter from the aforementioned Earl of Warwick; the aforementioned Earl of Warwick delivered the body to the said counts, safe and sound; and they had the body of the said Peter taken out of the town of Warwick, and out of the fief of the said Earl of Warwick to Gaversweche [Map], between Warwick and Kenilworth, in the fief of the Earl of Lancaster, and there he was beheaded, around noon, by the hands of a certain Breton, in front of all the people assembled there. And thus each returned to his own place, leaving the body of the said Peter in the area where he was beheaded. Then four cobblers from Warwick placed the body of the deceased on a ladder, carrying it back towards Warwick, there to be buried; but the Earl of Warwick, who had not left the castle throughout the time of the beheading, had the body taken back to the same place where he was first beheaded, outside his fief; and behold, the Dominican friars led his body to Oxford, where it is kept with much honor: hence, they are greatly hated by the aforementioned counts.

Die ergo Lunæ proxima ante festum Sancti Johannis Baptistæ, anno prædicto, videlicet xix die Junii, prædicti comites cum suis venerunt apud Warwyke et petierunt corpus dicti Petri a prædicto comite Warwiciæ; quem prædictus comes Warwiciæ dictis comitibus tradidit corpus ejus sanum et salvum; at ipsi fecerunt conduci corpus dicti Petri extra villam Warwiciæ, et extra feodum dicti comitis Warwiciæ ad Gaverissweche, inter Warwyk et Kilneworthe, in feodo comitis Lancastriæ, et ibidem fuit decollatus, circa horam meridiei, per manus cujusdam Britonis, coram omni populo ibidemn coadunato. Et sic recesserunt unusquisque ad propria, relinquentes corpus dicti Petri in area ubi ipse decollatus est. Tunc quatuor sutores de Warwick posuerunt corpus mortui super scalam, reportantes versus Warwyk, ibidem sepeliendum; sed et comes Warwiciæ, qui toto tempore decollationis non exivit de castro, fecit corpus reportare ad ecundem locum, ubi prius decollatus fuit extra feodum suum; et ecce fratres Jacobini conduxerunt corpus ejus apud Oxoniam, ubi multum honorifice custoditur: unde multum sunt in odio de comitibus prædietis.

Adam Murimuth Continuation. In this year, around the feast of Saint John the Baptist [24th June 1312], the king wished that Piers de Gaveston should be brought to him by Lord Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, for his safety. When they were at Deddington near Banbury, the earl left him there during the night and went nearby to another place for some business. At dawn the next day Guy, earl of Warwick, arrived with a moderate retinue and with a hue and cry. He roused the said Piers and carried him off to his castle of Warwick. Afterwards, having taken counsel with the leading men of the realm, and especially with Thomas, earl of Lancaster, he at last released him from prison to go wherever he wished. And when he left the town of Warwick and reached a place called, as if prophetically, Gaveston, he found many people raising a hue and cry against him with shouts and horns, as against an enemy of the king and of the realm who had been lawfully outlawed or exiled. At length, on the nineteenth day of the month of June [1312], they beheaded him as such. His head was carried by a certain friar of the Order of Preachers in his hood; and afterwards friars of the same order sought out his body and kept it at Oxford with solemn vigils for a year and more. Finally he was buried at Langley, where the king established a solemn convent of the Friars Preachers for the good of his soul, placing there a large number of student friars and providing them with suitable maintenance from his treasury in London.

Hoc anno, circa festum sancti Johannis baptiste, voluit rex Petrum de Gaverstone sibi adduci per dominum Adomarum de Valence, comitem Penbrokim, securitatis causa; et, cum essent apud Danyntone juxta Bannebury, idem comes dimisit eum in nocte, et ivit prope ad unum locum ex causa Et in crastino in aurora venit Guido, comes Warewykiæ, cum comitiva mediocri et hutesio, et ipsum Petrum evigilavit et ad castrum suum de Warewyk secum duxit; et, habita postmodum deliberatione cum majoribus regni, et t.. precipue cum Thoma comite Lancastriæ, finaliter dimisit eum de carcere, ire quo vellet. Et, quando exivit villam de Warewyk usque ad locum qui dicitur, quasi prophetice, Gaveressich invenit ibi multos homines facientes hutesium super eum vocibus et cornibus, sicut super inimicum regis et regni legitime utlagatum sive exulatum; et finaliter ipsum, sicut talem, XIX die mensis Junii decapitaverunt. Cujus caput quidam frater Predicatorum portavit in capucio suo, et post corpus fratres ejusdem ordinis quæsiverunt et apud Oxoniam cum solempnibus vigiliis per annum et amplius tenuerunt Sed finaliter sepultus fuit apud Langeley, ubi idem rex solempnem conventum Predicatorum pro anima ipsius statuit; ibi magnum numerum fratrum studentium constituens, eis de rario suo Londoniis congruam exhibuit sustentationem.

Bourgeois de Valenciennes. That King Charles took as his wife Blanche¹, daughter of Mahaut, Countess of Artois. This Blanche died in prison for misconduct of her body, of which she was accused, along with others of the kingdom of France. And so too did the wife [Margaret] of King Louis, his elder brother; for two knightly brothers, sons of the lord of Aunay, were flayed at Pontoise in the time of the fair King Philip. And likewise the wife of King Philip [Joan], the middle of the three brothers, was accused and named in the matter; but he would not believe it, rather saying that he held her to be a good lady and a virtuous woman in her conduct.

Celuy roy Charles eult à femme Blance fille Mehault contesse d'Artois, laquele Blance morut en prison pour male fachon de son corps qu’on luy ametoit, et pluseurs du royalme de France. Et ossy fist la femme du roy Loys son aisné frère, dont II frères chevaliers, fils du seigneur d’Aunay, en furent escorchiés à Pontoise du tamps du beau roy Philippe. Et encore en fut notée et nommée la femme du roy Philippe le moyen des III frères; mais il ne le veult mye croire, ains dit qu’il la tenoit à bonne dame et à preude femme de son corps.

Note 1. King Charles IV of France and Blanche of Burgundy married in 1308. In 1314 the 'Tour de Nesle Affair' emerged in which Blanche and her sister Joan, wife of Philip, Count of Poitiers, later King Philip V of France, and sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, wife of King Louis X of France, were accused of adultery with knights. Joan was acquitted. Chronicle of Nangis Continuation: "Margaret, the young queen of Navarre, and Blanche, wife of Charles, the king of Navarre’s younger brother, for the adultery most shamefully committed and frequently practiced by them with the knight brothers Philip and Walter of Aunay, the former [Margaret] with Philip, the latter [Blanche] with Walter, as their crimes demanded, were repudiated by their own husbands, deprived, not undeservedly, of all temporal honour, and committed to prisons, so that there under strict guard, deprived of all human comfort, they might pass their lives unhappily and end them miserably. The aforesaid two knights, who were not only wicked adulterers but also most vile violators of their lords’ marriages, though those lords had placed especial trust in them as highly intimate members of their household, and they were reckoned among their garments and family in full confidence, and who were the worst of traitors; and who were much more culpable in the deed, since they had enticed those young women, still of tender age and of the weaker sex, by their seductions and flatteries. At Pontoise, on the Friday after Quasimodo Sunday, confessed that they had carried on this crime for nearly three years, in many places and sometimes even at sacred seasons. And for the commission of so great a crime, paying the penalty and manner of an ignominious death, in the common square of the Martroi, in the sight of all, they were flayed alive; their virile members together with their genitals were cut off; and, their heads struck off, they were dragged to the common gallows. Completely stripped of skin, they were hanged by the shoulder blades and joints of their arms. Afterwards, near them, a certain doorkeeper, as one who seemed rightly to have been an accomplice and privy to the aforesaid crime, and many others as well, both noble and ignoble, of either sex, who appeared to have consented to or known of the said offense, were subjected to torture; some were drowned in swift waters; many perished by secret deaths; yet several, found innocent, escaped entirely. Among these especially was a certain Dominican friar, called the Bishop of Saint George, who was said to have been a collaborator and accomplice in the aforesaid crime, whether by sorceries that incited people to illicit acts. Some said he was detained in prison at Paris among the Dominican friars; others that, since the apostolic see was then vacant, he had been sent to the cardinals and left to their judgment. Moreover, although Joan, sister of the said Blanche and wife of Philip, Count of Poitiers, was at first strongly regarded as suspect in the matter and was for some time separated from her husband and kept under guard in the castle of Dourdan, nevertheless, after an inquiry made on this account, she was cleared of the said suspicion and judged blameless and entirely innocent in the Parliament at Paris, in the presence of the Count of Valois, the Count of Évreux, and many other nobles. And thus, before a year had passed, she deserved to be reconciled to her husband, the count."

And the Matrical Chronicle of Godefroy de Paris, Lines 6222-6271:

In that year then, in May,

A time full of joy

Was turned into adversity

For the kingdom, of which men will speak

As long as the world shall endure.

All song and mirth and gladness

Were turned to great distress,

By the event that then in France befell;

For which it was fitting to flay

Two knights, handsome and gay,

Gautier and Philippe d’Aunay.

Of father and mother they were brothers.

It was because they maintained,

The one, the sister of the Duke of Burgundy,

Bringing upon her great shame;

The other brother dishonoured the daughter

Of Burgundy, of whom France is ashamed.

Wrongly the matter runs everywhere.

The count’s daughter indeed had

A sister who knew nothing

Of the queen and of her sister,

For she was not of their inner circle,

Nor called to the secret counsel.

Thus she saw on many a day

Many a sign that displeased her;

But of this she dared not speak,

For the shame of her lineage,

And to avoid anger and harm;

For he who keeps all silent

Has peace with all, and pleases none.

But there is no fire without smoke.

Thus the matter went its course.

The deed was discovered and proved,

Which had long lain hidden;

And it was openly known

Of Philippe, that he had lain

Many times, with her consent,

And without force or resistance,

With the Queen of Navarre;

And all that he wished to ask of her

He had entirely.

I know not by what nor how

Thus those two came to agreement,

But in many ways did people speak of it;

Some commonly said

They agreed by enchantment;

Others said

They did it without enchantment.

Believe whichever you will,

But not all that you hear.

Chronicle of William Nangis, -1300. Margaret, the young queen of Navarre, and Blanche, wife of Charles, the king of Navarre’s younger brother, for the adultery most shamefully committed and frequently practiced by them with the knight brothers Philip and Walter of Aunay, the former [Margaret] with Philip, the latter [Blanche] with Walter, as their crimes demanded, were repudiated by their own husbands, deprived, not undeservedly, of all temporal honour, and committed to prisons, so that there under strict guard, deprived of all human comfort, they might pass their lives unhappily and end them miserably. The aforesaid two knights, who were not only wicked adulterers but also most vile violators of their lords’ marriages, though those lords had placed especial trust in them as highly intimate members of their household, and they were reckoned among their garments and family in full confidence, and who were the worst of traitors; and who were much more culpable in the deed, since they had enticed those young women, still of tender age and of the weaker sex, by their seductions and flatteries. At Pontoise, on the Friday after Quasimodo Sunday, confessed that they had carried on this crime for nearly three years, in many places and sometimes even at sacred seasons. And for the commission of so great a crime, paying the penalty and manner of an ignominious death, in the common square of the Martroi, in the sight of all, they were flayed alive; their virile members together with their genitals were cut off; and, their heads struck off, they were dragged to the common gallows. Completely stripped of skin, they were hanged by the shoulder blades and joints of their arms. Afterwards, near them, a certain doorkeeper, as one who seemed rightly to have been an accomplice and privy to the aforesaid crime, and many others as well, both noble and ignoble, of either sex, who appeared to have consented to or known of the said offense, were subjected to torture; some were drowned in swift waters; many perished by secret deaths; yet several, found innocent, escaped entirely. Among these especially was a certain Dominican friar, called the Bishop of Saint George, who was said to have been a collaborator and accomplice in the aforesaid crime, whether by sorceries that incited people to illicit acts. Some said he was detained in prison at Paris among the Dominican friars; others that, since the apostolic see was then vacant, he had been sent to the cardinals and left to their judgment. Moreover, although Joan, sister of the said Blanche and wife of Philip, Count of Poitiers, was at first strongly regarded as suspect in the matter and was for some time separated from her husband and kept under guard in the castle of Dourdan, nevertheless, after an inquiry made on this account, she was cleared of the said suspicion and judged blameless and entirely innocent in the Parliament at Paris, in the presence of the Count of Valois, the Count of Évreux, and many other nobles. And thus, before a year had passed, she deserved to be reconciled to her husband, the count.

Margareta Navarræ regina juvencula, et Blancha regis Navarrse Karoli fratris junioris uxor, pro adulterio ab eis lurpissime frequentato et perpetrato cum Philippo et Galterode Alncto fralribus militibus, a prima videlicet cum Philippo et altera cum Galtero, suis exigentibus culpis, a propriis repudiatæ conjugibus, omni non immerito honore temporali privatee, deputantur carceribus, ut ibi sub arcta custodia, omni humano destitutæ solatio, infeliciter agerent vitara , et miserabiliter finirent. Duo vero præfati milites cum iion solum iiequam adulteri, sed et dominorum suorum conjugii violatores nequissimi , qui de ipsis , tamquam familiaribus nimis domesticis, prsecipuam gerebant fiduciam, cumque de eorum vestibus et familia reputarentur vera scientia , et erant pessimi proditores, necnon mulierculis ipsis, adhuc setate juvenculis , quas , prosexu fragili , suis lenociniis et blandimentis illexerant, raulto raagis in facto culpabiles; apudPontisaram, die veneris post Quasimodo , confessi sunt hoc scelus quasi per triennium frequentasse , pluribus locis et quandoque temporibus sacrosanclis. Proque tanti perpetratione flagitii ignominiosæ mortis genus et poenam luentes, in communi platea Martrei , cunctis videnlibus, vivi excoriati , eisquc virilibus una cum genitalibus amputatis, cæsisque capitibusad commune patibulum Iracti , cunctisque omnino corio denudatls , per spatulas et brachiorum compagines suspenduntur. Postmodum juxta eos ostiarius, quasi qui fautor et conscius prædicti sceleris merito videbatur, multi etiam tamnobiliumquam ignobilium utriusque sexus, qui præfati facinoris consentientes videbantur aut conscii, plerique tormentis quæstionati fuerunt, aliqui vero in aquis vehementibus submersi, plurimi vero occultis mortibus perierunt; plerlque innocentes reperti penitus evaserunt, inter quos præcipue quidam frater Prsedicator, dictus episcopus sancti Georgii , qui aut sorlilegiis qui homines provocabant ad illi- cita, cooperator et conscius meraorati flagitii dicebatur, quem aliqui dixerunt Parisius apud fratres Prædicatores carcere fuisse detentum , alii vero cardinalibus, cum jam vacaret sedes apostolica , destinatum , et eorum judicio derelictum. Porro etsi Johanna , dictæ Blanchæ soror, sponsa Philippi comitis Pictavensis, vehementer in casu habita fuerit in principio pro suspecta , et a viro suo aliquamdiu separata, et apud Durdanum castrum sub carcerali custodia reservata, post inqutestam nihilominus ob hoc factam, a prædicta suspicione purgata, inculpabilis et omnino innoxia in parlamento Parisius, præsentibus comile Valesii et comite Ebroicensi multisque nobilibus aliis, judicatur, et sic, anno minime revoluto, reconciliari promeruit comiti sponso suo.

Adam Murimuth Continuation. In the year of our Lord 1314, while the apostolic see was vacant, the year always being reckoned from the feast of Saint Michael [29th September], and in the eighth year of the reign of the same Edward of Caernarfon, around the feast of Saint Nicholas King Philip of France, called the Fair, died¹. He was succeeded by his son Louis, who had previously been king of Navarre. He was guided by the counsel of his uncle Charles [aged 44]. By that counsel, soon after Easter, Enguerrand de Marigny [aged 54], who had been the principal counsellor of Philip, father of the said King Louis, was hanged. Also the queen of Navarre [aged 24], the wife of the said Lord Louis [aged 25] and daughter of the count of Burgundy, was suffocated² on account of adultery alleged against her with Lord Philip d'Aunay. That same Louis, later in that same year, took in marriage the daughter of the king of Hungary, named Clemence, both in name and, as was said, in reality.

Anno Domini millesimo CCCXIIII, apostolica sede vacante, semper in festo sancti Michaelis incipiendo, et ipsius regis Edwardi de Carnervans VIIJ, circa festum sancti Nicholai, fuit mortuus rex Franciæ, Philippus, dictus le Bel, et successit sibi Lodowycus filius suus, qui fuit prius rex Navvarræ; qui ducebatur consilio Karoli avunculi sui. Cujus consilio cito post Pascha suspensus fuit Ingeramus de Maremy, qui fuit principalis consiliarius Philippi, patris ipsius regis Lodowyci. ltem regina Navvarræ, uxor ipsius domini Lodowyci et, filia comitis Burgundiæ, propter adulterium sibi impositum cura domino Philippo Daune, fuit suffocata. Qui quidem Lodowycus, eodem anno, postmodum duxit in uxorem filiam regis Hungariæ, Clemenciam nomine et re, ut dicebatur.

Note 1. King Philip IV of France died on 29th November 1314.

Note 2. The Tour de Nesle Affair in the three daughters-in-law of King Philip IV, Margaret and sisters Blanche and Joan were accused of adultery. Chronicle of William Nangis: "Margaret, the young queen of Navarre, and Blanche, wife of Charles, the king of Navarre's younger brother, for the adultery most shamefully committed and frequently practiced by them with the knight brothers Philip and Walter of Aunay, the former [Margaret] with Philip, the latter [Blanche] with Walter, as their crimes demanded, were repudiated by their own husbands, deprived, not undeservedly, of all temporal honour, and committed to prisons, so that there under strict guard, deprived of all human comfort, they might pass their lives unhappily and end them miserably. The aforesaid two knights, who were not only wicked adulterers but also most vile violators of their lords' marriages, though those lords had placed especial trust in them as highly intimate members of their household, and they were reckoned among their garments and family in full confidence, and who were the worst of traitors; and who were much more culpable in the deed, since they had enticed those young women, still of tender age and of the weaker sex, by their seductions and flatteries. At Pontoise, on the Friday after Quasimodo Sunday, confessed that they had carried on this crime for nearly three years, in many places and sometimes even at sacred seasons. And for the commission of so great a crime, paying the penalty and manner of an ignominious death, in the common square of the Martroi, in the sight of all, they were flayed alive; their virile members together with their genitals were cut off; and, their heads struck off, they were dragged to the common gallows. Completely stripped of skin, they were hanged by the shoulder blades and joints of their arms. Afterwards, near them, a certain doorkeeper, as one who seemed rightly to have been an accomplice and privy to the aforesaid crime, and many others as well, both noble and ignoble, of either sex, who appeared to have consented to or known of the said offense, were subjected to torture; some were drowned in swift waters; many perished by secret deaths; yet several, found innocent, escaped entirely. Among these especially was a certain Dominican friar, called the Bishop of Saint George, who was said to have been a collaborator and accomplice in the aforesaid crime, whether by sorceries that incited people to illicit acts. Some said he was detained in prison at Paris among the Dominican friars; others that, since the apostolic see was then vacant, he had been sent to the cardinals and left to their judgment. Moreover, although Joan, sister of the said Blanche and wife of Philip, Count of Poitiers, was at first strongly regarded as suspect in the matter and was for some time separated from her husband and kept under guard in the castle of Dourdan, nevertheless, after an inquiry made on this account, she was cleared of the said suspicion and judged blameless and entirely innocent in the Parliament at Paris, in the presence of the Count of Valois, the Count of Évreux, and many other nobles. And thus, before a year had passed, she deserved to be reconciled to her husband, the count."