It would be too easy to ascribe a simplistic reason such as crude homophobia to the cruel death meted out to Edward II. In my opinion, the reasons are quite complex and layered.
Edward II was a failure at many levels. His first and foremost failure was as a king. The play, is after all, a major commentary on the crucial issues of kingship and class. In his love for and loyalty to his lover, Piers de Gaveston, Edward II showers him with a plethora of undeserved honours and titles. This only serves to rankle Edward II’s courtiers and subjects. Courtiers, because the noblemen at court consider themselves second only to the king, and yet they find themselves overlooked and bypassed by the king for someone as undeserving and of “base and obscure” origins as Gaveston, all because of Gaveston’s personal relationship with the monarch. So much so that Roger Mortimer, the younger, a nobleman, declares:
But this I scorn, that one so basely born
Should by his sovereign’s favour grow so pert
And riot it with treasure of the realm
Edward’s behavior also rankles the king’s subjects because while the treasury is emptied for the upkeep of Gaveston, the common man is hungry and groaning and “soldiers mutiny for want of pay”. Besides, from the 15th century-everyman’s point of view, by the king’s brazen display of homosexual love for Gaveston, “violence is offered to the church”. This would have only roused the rabble of the age.
Edward II’s other failure was as a husband and partner. The king was a married man and yet, he not just falls in love with another man, but also openly neglects and spurns his queen. She mourns the loss of her husband’s affections when she exclaims, “For now my lord the king regards me not, / in favour of Gaveston’s attractions”. And yet another place, the queen sighs:
I will endure a melancholic life
And let him frolic with his minion
The queen’s sorrow and the cause for it was public knowledge in the kingdom, and it had the compound effect of further infuriating the masses.
To be a good leader requires expert realpolitik skills, something that Edward II lacked sorely. While his faithfulness and devotion to his lover are admirable, his shirking of responsibilities to his wife, court, subjects, and realm is not. Given the values of the age, an uprising was expected, whether Edward II was homosexual or not. Where homophobia may have played a part in the dénouement is in the terrible and macabre killing of the king by Lightborn, who sodomises the king with a red-hot spit, thus leading to his death.
Edward II was a failure at many levels. His first and foremost failure was as a king. The play, is after all, a major commentary on the crucial issues of kingship and class. In his love for and loyalty to his lover, Piers de Gaveston, Edward II showers him with a plethora of undeserved honours and titles. This only serves to rankle Edward II’s courtiers and subjects. Courtiers, because the noblemen at court consider themselves second only to the king, and yet they find themselves overlooked and bypassed by the king for someone as undeserving and of “base and obscure” origins as Gaveston, all because of Gaveston’s personal relationship with the monarch. So much so that Roger Mortimer, the younger, a nobleman, declares:
But this I scorn, that one so basely born
Should by his sovereign’s favour grow so pert
And riot it with treasure of the realm
Edward’s behavior also rankles the king’s subjects because while the treasury is emptied for the upkeep of Gaveston, the common man is hungry and groaning and “soldiers mutiny for want of pay”. Besides, from the 15th century-everyman’s point of view, by the king’s brazen display of homosexual love for Gaveston, “violence is offered to the church”. This would have only roused the rabble of the age.
Edward II’s other failure was as a husband and partner. The king was a married man and yet, he not just falls in love with another man, but also openly neglects and spurns his queen. She mourns the loss of her husband’s affections when she exclaims, “For now my lord the king regards me not, / in favour of Gaveston’s attractions”. And yet another place, the queen sighs:
I will endure a melancholic life
And let him frolic with his minion
The queen’s sorrow and the cause for it was public knowledge in the kingdom, and it had the compound effect of further infuriating the masses.
To be a good leader requires expert realpolitik skills, something that Edward II lacked sorely. While his faithfulness and devotion to his lover are admirable, his shirking of responsibilities to his wife, court, subjects, and realm is not. Given the values of the age, an uprising was expected, whether Edward II was homosexual or not. Where homophobia may have played a part in the dénouement is in the terrible and macabre killing of the king by Lightborn, who sodomises the king with a red-hot spit, thus leading to his death.
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