Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Character of Edward II: The Letters of Edward of Caernarfon Reconsidered
- 2 The Sexualities of Edward II
- 3 Sermons of Sodomy: A Reconsideration of Edward II's Sodomitical Reputation
- 4 The Court of Edward II
- 5 Household Knights and Military Service Under the Direction of Edward II
- 6 England in Europe in the Reign of Edward II
- 7 The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321–7
- 8 Edward II: The Public and Private Faces of the Law
- 9 Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II
- 10 The Childhood and Household of Edward II's Half-Brothers, Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock
- 11 Rise of a Royal Favourite: the Early Career of Hugh Despenser the Elder
- 12 The Place of the Reign of Edward II
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
4 - The Court of Edward II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Character of Edward II: The Letters of Edward of Caernarfon Reconsidered
- 2 The Sexualities of Edward II
- 3 Sermons of Sodomy: A Reconsideration of Edward II's Sodomitical Reputation
- 4 The Court of Edward II
- 5 Household Knights and Military Service Under the Direction of Edward II
- 6 England in Europe in the Reign of Edward II
- 7 The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321–7
- 8 Edward II: The Public and Private Faces of the Law
- 9 Parliament and Political Legitimacy in the Reign of Edward II
- 10 The Childhood and Household of Edward II's Half-Brothers, Thomas of Brotherton and Edmund of Woodstock
- 11 Rise of a Royal Favourite: the Early Career of Hugh Despenser the Elder
- 12 The Place of the Reign of Edward II
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Summary
It is unlikely that any English monarch has ever seen as much naked flesh on a single occasion as did Edward II when he was at Pontoise in 1313. There, he was entertained by Bernard the Fool and no fewer than fifty-four nude dancers. This event suggests a decadent extravagance, fitting the familiar stereotype of the king. Edward's affection for his favourites and his unkingly tastes for water sports and menial activities imply that his court had an eccentric, or even exotic, quality. The evidence of the household and chamber accounts, and the household ordinance of 1318, makes it possible to test this hypothesis, and to respond to the opinion of those who doubt whether true courts existed at all in this period.
For some historians of the early modern period, the term ‘court’ is not one which it is appropriate to use in the context of the fourteenth century; for Elton, the court had its origins in the reign of Henry VII, for it was only then that alternative centres of power were destroyed. As a result, ‘The Tudor Court as a centre of social and political life springs suddenly into existence with the accession of Henry VIII.’ Another argument rests on terminology, with the suggestion that at the start of the fifteenth century ‘a member of the royal entourage was known as “a household man”, and at the end, as a “courtier”’.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Reign of Edward IINew Perspectives, pp. 61 - 75Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006