sister, Isabella de Vescy, collectively constituted another.^28 The great
reaction came in the‘Ordinances’of 1310–11. Thefinal text is a long,
impressive document that attempted to tackle a wide range of grievances.
Among the most important of these was the‘evil and deceptive counsel’
given to the king, and the remedy, naturally enough, was that all such
advisors should be‘removed and dismissed altogether’. It is telling that
only three people, or groups of people, are mentioned by name: Piers
Gaveston himself; Amerigo de’ Frescobaldi and the king’s hated
Florentine bankers; and the Beaumont siblings. It is also worth quoting
in full what the text has to say about Henry and Isabella:
- Also, because Sir Henry of Beaumont has received from our lord the king, to
the loss and dishonour of the king, since the time of the ordinance...to which the
king agreed, the kingdom of Man and other lands, rents, liberties and [bailliages],
and has caused lands and tenements, liberties and [bailliages] to be given to others
contrary to this ordinance, and because he has badly advised the king contrary to
his oath, we ordain that he be removed from the king’s counsel forever, and that
he should come no more near the king anywhere–unless it be at the common
summons of parliament, or in war, if the king wishes to have him–except by the
common assent of the archbishop [of Canterbury], bishops, earls and barons...
in full parliament; and all the other lands that he holds within the kingdom of
England be taken into the hand of the king of England and held until the king has
received, from the issue of these lands, the value of all the yield that the said Sir
Henry has received...and if the said Sir Henry in any way contravenes these
ordinances, let him be disinherited forever of all the lands that he has in England
of the king’s gift. - Because it has been found by examination by the prelates, earls and barons
that the lady de Vescy has caused the king to give to her brother Sir Henry of
Beaumont, and to others, lands, liberties and [bailliages] to the loss and
dishonour of the king and to the evident disinheritance of the crown, and also
caused letters to be sent out, under the [privy seal], against the law and intention
of the king, we ordain that she go to her house, within a fortnight after
Michaelmas, and stay there without ever returning to court; and that for all
these aforesaid things, and because it is understood that Bamburgh castle
belongs to the crown, we also ordain that this castle be retaken from her into
the hand of the king, and that it should not be given to her, or to another, except
at the king’s pleasure.^29
(^28) It is worth noting that the Beaumont siblings contrived to be close both to Piers
Gaveston and to the queen, Isabella of France–and perhaps this is an indicator that
Isabella was not as hostile to Gaveston as we might expect. For Henry of Beaumont’s
relationship with the favourite, seeCDS, iii, no. 201;The Chronicle of Lanercost, tr.
29 H. Maxwell (Glasgow, 2010), 197; and S. Phillips,Edward II(London, 2010), 241–2.
Adapted from the text inEnglish Historical Documents, 1189– 1327 , tr. H. Rothwell
(London, 1996), no. 100.
The Coming of the Hundred Years’War 147