Free Edward II: The Unconventional King by Kathryn Warner Page B

work. When she says the king ‘swooned’ at the start of the book it is because she has an early-fourteenth-century source that says Edward ‘swooned’. What emerges from her work is an integrity which is both reassuring and refreshing. You know you can trust her because she passionately wants to understand the reality of the man’s life.
    Edward II’s reign will always be regarded as a failure but as a result of studies like this, there is a hope that the man who was the centre of events will emerge in all his complexity, not simply as a weak king. He had his virtues – among them his piety, his loyalty to his friends and his generosity. As Kathryn observes, he was not devoid of strategic ability – I smiled when I read her line that the astuteness he showed when defending his favourites was ‘to the intense frustration of his contemporaries’. Reading this book I found myself asking the question, was there ever a ruler of England whose perception of his own virtues differed so much from those of his contemporaries? Where he saw virtue, they saw betrayal. Given that state of affairs, what could he possibly have done to make a success of his reign? He was, it seems, doomed by his inheritance.
    Ian Mortimer

A Note on Wages and Prices
    Rather than giving modern equivalents of incomes and prices in the early fourteenth century, which are almost impossible to calculate accurately and which, with inflation, date quickly, this page is intended to give an idea of the value of money in Edward II’s reign.
    The only coin in general circulation in England was the silver penny, which could be broken in two to make a half-penny, or into four to make a farthing. The main unit of currency was the pound, consisting of 240 pence or twenty shillings, though it remained a purely theoretical notion for most people. Large sums of money could only be transported in barrels containing thousands of pennies. The mark was another unit of currency often used in accounting: it equalled two-thirds of a pound, or thirteen shillings and four pence, or 160 pence.
    The average daily wage of an unskilled labourer was one or one and a half pence.
    Skilled craftsmen of course earned more: Edward II’s carpenters were paid three pence a day, and his master carpenters six pence.
    In Edward’s household, pages earned two pence per day, grooms and archers three pence, squires seven and a half pence, and sergeants-at-arms twelve pence (one shilling). His steward earned 200 marks per year, or £133, six shillings and eight pence.
    The minimum annual income to qualify for knighthood was £40.
    The annual gross income of the earl of Lancaster, the richest man in England, was £11,000.
    A loaf of the cheapest bread cost a farthing (quarter of a penny). A chicken, two dozen eggs and a gallon of ale each cost a penny.
    The cost of a trained warhorse was £50 to £80, a cow cost ten or twelve shillings, and a sheep cost twenty pence or less.

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1. Edward’s tomb and effigy in Gloucester Cathedral.
    2. Edward’s tomb and effigy, with his feet resting on a lion. (Photos by author, with permission of the Very Reverend Dean of Gloucester)
    3. Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where Edward was forced to abdicate in January 1327. (Courtesy of Steve Taylor under Creative Commons)
    4. Warwick Castle, where Piers Gaveston was imprisoned in 1312. (Courtesy of Tony Hisgett under Creative Commons)
    5. Tower of Gloucester Cathedral. (Photo by author)
    6. An inscription outside Gloucester Cathedral, formerly King Edward’s Gate. (Photo by author)
    7. Caernarfon Castle, North Wales, Edward’s birthplace in 1284 when it was a building site. (Courtesy of Peter Broster under Creative Commons)
    8. Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, where Edward was held in captivity in 1327.
    9. Inside Berkeley Castle; Edward was held in the keep, on the right. (Photos by author)
    10. Edward’s coronation, from a manuscript of the early fourteenth century.