Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/46

 . His favourite pastimes were of a curiously unkingly nature. He disliked the society of his equals among the youthful nobility, and, save for a few attached friends, his favourite companions were men of low origin and vulgar tastes. With them Edward would exercise his remarkable dexterity in the mechanical arts. 'He was fond of smith's work, was proud of his skill at digging trenches and thatching houses. He was also a good athlete, fond of racing and driving, and of the society of watermen and grooms. He was passionately devoted to horses and hounds and their breeding. He bought up the famous stud of Earl Warenne, which he kept at Ditchling in Sussex. At one time he borrows from Archbishop Winchelsey a 'beal cheval bon pour estaloun,' at another he gets a white greynound of a rare breed from his sister. He boasted of his Welsh harriers that could discover a hare sleeping, and was hardly less proud of the 'gentzsauvages' from his native land, who were in his household to train them. He was also a musician, and beseeches the abbot of Shrewsbury to lend him a remarkably good fiddler to teach his rhymer the crowther, and borrows trumpets and kettledrums from Reynolds for his little players. He was devoted to the stage, and Reynolds first won his favour, it was said, by his skill 'in ludis theatralibus' (, p. 197). He was not well educated, and took the coronation oath in the French form, provided for a king ignorant of Latin. He was fond of fine clothes, and with all his taste for low society liked pomp and state on occasions. He had the facile good nature of some thoroughly weak men. Without confidence in himself, and conscious probably of the contempt of his subjects, he was never without some favourite of stronger will than his own for whom he would show a weak and nauseous affection. Sometimes with childlike passion he would personally chastise those who provoked his wrath. He could never keep silence, but disclosed freely even secrets of state. He had no dignity or self-respect. His household was as disorderly as their master's example and poverty made it. The commons groaned under the exactions of his purveyors and collectors. The notion that he neglected the nobility out of settled policy to rely upon the commons is futile. Even less trustworthy is the contention that his troubles were due to his zeal for retrenchment and financial reform to pay his father's debts and get free from the bondage of the Italian merchants. (For Edward's character the chief authorities are, pp.191-2; , in , c. 2531-2; , p.91; Ann. de Melsa, ii. 280, 286; Cont. ,p. 18; Lanercost, p. 236; Scalachronica p. 136; and for his habits in Sussex Arch. Collections ii. 80-98, and the Ninth Report of Deputy-Keeper, app. ii. 246-9; for his finances, Mr. Bond's article in Archæologia, xxviii. 246-54; and the summary of wardrobe accounts for 10, 11, and 14 Edw. II in Archæologia, xxvi. 318-45).

Edward I's policy underwent a complete reversion on his son's accession. After his father's death the new king hurried north to Carlisle, where he arrived on 18 July, and after visiting Burgh next day he received on 20 July the homage of the English magnates then gathered in the north. He then advanced into Scotland, and on 31 July received at Dumfries the homage of such Scottish lords as still adhered to him (Ann. Lanercost p.209). But after a few weeks, during which he accomplished absolutely nothing, he left Aymer de Valence as guardian of Scotland, and journeyed to the south after his father's body. He had already been joined by Gaveston, whom, on 6 Aug., he had made Earl of Cornwall, despite the murmurs of the majority of the barons. He now dismissed with scanty courtesy his father's ministers, wreaked his spite on Langton by pilfering his treasure and immuring him in the Tower. Langton's successor at the treasury was Walter Reynolds, Edward's old favourite. The acquiescence of the Earl of Lincoln in the elevation of Gaveston saved him for a time from the fate of Langton and Baldock. On 13 Oct. Edward held a short parliament at Northampton, whence he went to Westminster for the burial of his father on 27 Oct. On 29 Oct. he betrothed Gaveston to his niece, Margaret of Gloucester (Cont., ed. Hall 1722, p. 3), and also appointed him regent on his departure for France to do homage for Gascony and wed his promised bride. On 22 Jan. 1308 Edward crossed from Dover to Boulogne (Parl. Writs, II. i. 13), and on 25 Jan. his marriage with Isabella of France was celebrated with great pomp in the presence of Philip the Fair and a great gathering of French and English magnates (Ann. Lond. p. 152; Ann. Paul. p. 258., ii. 270, wrongly dates the marriage on 28 Jan., and , p. 32, on 24 Jan.) On 7 Feb. the royal pair arrived at Dover (Parl. Writs. II . i. 13), and after a magnificent reception at London the coronation was performed on 25 Feb. with great state at Westminster. The minute records of the ceremony (Fœdera, ii. 33-6) show that the coronation oath taken by the new monarch was stricter than the older form, and involved a more definite reference to the rights of the commons. The disgust occasioned by Edward's infatuation for Gaveston had nearly broken up the coronation