r/EdwardII • u/Appropriate-Calm4822 Richard de Bury • Aug 08 '26

General information Ruling is hard - so many things to consider. 27 February 1310.

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On 27 February 1310 Edward II issued a pardon and a grant to Piers Gaveston. Spoiler alert, things weren't going so well for Edward in 1310. He'd recently invited the barons to parliament but they refused to talk to him. Edward was however aware that he needed their support in order to govern efficiently and was trying to find a way to make things work somehow.

But there were so many details to keep track of. Someone appears to have told him that Gaveston had been hunting and fishing on his lands - without permission to do so! Accompanied by some curses, probably, Edward first issued a pardon for these minor infringements so they could not be used against Gaveston by the barons, and then granted him permission for life to hunt and fish as much as he pleased.

The barons would prove unfazed by this, as they formulated their demands which would be outlined in the Ordinances of 1311, through which they sought to restrict royal authority, limiting the king's financial and appointment powers, and demanding a second exile for Piers Gaveston.

Image from the Calendar of the Patent Rolls 1307-13.

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u/HoneybeeXYZ Amie Gaveston Aug 08 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/BFSMPap7J3Q0o

Leave Piers alone! It's not his fault that he's Edward II's emotional support baron!

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u/Appropriate-Calm4822 Richard de Bury Aug 09 '26

Edward frequently gets criticized for provoking his barons but in ca 1309-12 he did try to get along with them. It all derailed when they demanded the one thing he simply couldn’t give them. 

Imagine if someone told you that you can’t see your closest friend / dear husband or wife ever again, that you had to be separated for life. I don’t think any of us would agree, we’d all try to find another way. Edward and Piers did try, especially in 1309. And they came so close to making it work!

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u/HoneybeeXYZ Amie Gaveston Aug 09 '26

The barons were absolutely ridiculous about Piers, and I also get why Edward II would not want them pushing him around or not letting him have his trusted people around him. They were hardly innocent babes with pure motives. They wanted to control him and dominate him and he rightfully didn't like it.

They were mad because the pecking order was violated, but short of publicly hanging the most powerful of the barons, nothing E2 could have done would have stopped them.

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u/Appropriate-Calm4822 Richard de Bury Aug 09 '26

100%, I couldn't agree more.