The youngest child of Edward I, Edward II was born in Caernarfon and was the first heir to the throne to be given the title 'prince of Wales'. A chronicler described him as 'fair of body and great of strength', but his reign is generally regarded to have been disastrous.
Unlike his warrior father, he was interested in rustic pursuits such as rowing and thatching, as well as in fancy clothes and amateur theatre. At court, he alienated most of the English nobility by heaping riches (including his wife's jewels) and privileges on his favourites: first, Piers Gaveston, and then Hugh Despenser.
His financial difficulties forced Edward to summon Parliament. There his opponents compelled him to submit to a series of reforms, the Ordinances (1311). Like the Provisions of Oxford, they were intended to control the king's policies and appointments, but his corrupt and extravagant behaviour continued.
Civil war broke out, which led, first, to the practical take-over of power by Edward's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, and then, in 1312, to the murder of Gaveston. The king's reputation reached its nadir on the battlefield, when, in 1314, he led an English army to slaughter against Scottish king Robert Bruce at Bannockburn.
Forming a group of allies around himself, Edward was finally able to exert his authority. His defeat of Lancaster at the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 led to a reign of terror – fuelled by Edward's need to avenge the murder of Gaveston – which included the execution of Lancaster and 24 other nobles.
When war broke out with France in 1324, Edward despatched his queen, Isabella, sister of the French king, as peacemaker. But she remained in France and returned two years later at the head of a small invasion force with her lover, Roger Mortimer.
The king was captured and condemned by Parliament in 1327 as 'incorrigible without hope of amendment'. He was forced to abdicate in favour of his teenage son Edward III, and died in Berkeley Castle later that year – according to a story written 30 years later, through the application of a red-hot poker in his rectum as punishment for his homosexuality.
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 Edward II, Part I: The gay blade
www.historyhouse.com/in_history/edward_i
i/
Article from History House, the 'irreverent history magazine': lots of good information told in ways your history teacher wouldn't dream of ...
The Battle of Bannockburn
www.anmoddracan.org.uk/bann.htm
Page that puts Edward's defeat in the context of the Scottish wars of independence, courtesy of Anmod Dracan, a living history re-enactment society.
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The Tyranny and Fall of Edward II 1321-1326 by Natalie Fryde (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
This book reassesses the unusually violent rule of Edward II and the Despensers. It examines the social dislocation caused by Edward's execution of his opponents and the confiscation of their lands in 1322 and the perversion of the law that accompanied it. Queen Isabella's contribution to the king's overthrow and Edward's disastrous relations with her brother, the king of France, are worked out in detail, and there is a separate chapter on the contribution of London to the downfall of the regime.
Get this book
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 Berkeley Castle
In Gloucestershire: leave M5 at junction 20. Go north on A38 and follow signs to Berkeley, then brown signs to castle.
Begun in the mid-12th century, this castle has been in the hands of the Berkeley family ever since. Today, within the impressive keep, you can visit the King's Gallery, which includes the cell and dungeon in which Edward II was imprisoned and murdered.
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