DENHOLM-YOUNG, N. (ED.) — Vita Edwardi Secundi

Kondon e.a. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. 1st ed. 1957 xxviii-150p. Cloth & jacket Nelson's medieval Texts This text has been out of print for a long time. There is a 2005 re-edited edition with new introduction, new historical notes, and revised translation but still very much based on this one. Fair copy Edward II (1284-1327) was as controversial in his own time as he is in modern scholarship. Tales circulated of his affairs with the courtier Piers Gaveston (to whom he is said to have given his wife's jewelry) and of his forced abdication and his rather ignominious death in the Tower of London (as the result of a strategically placed hot poker). The Vita Edwardi Secundi, written by an anonymous, probably secular cleric, provides a far more balanced picture of the unfortunate monarch.