Paul Doherty: Prince of Darkness

In 1312 the English barons captured him and led him to Blacklow Hill in Warwickshire. Gaveston turned to one of his captors, the Earl of Warwick, and said, 'My Lord, surely you will not spoil my looks by striking off my head?' Warwick happily obliged and struck Gaveston to the heart with his dagger. The young Edward was distraught He had Gaveston's body embalmed and kept in bis palace at Kings Langley until the Church forced him to carry out the funeral ceremony.

There is an interesting link between Edward II's favour- ites and the English royal family in the last decade of the twentieth century. After Gaveston's death, Edward chose a new favourite, the very sinister but able Hugh de Spencer, whose tomb can still be seen in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire. De Spencer's control over the young king led to civil war between Edward and his Isabella. The Queen was victorious. De Spencer died a horrible death and, according to unpublished chronicle, the Commons took an oath never to allow a de Spencer to become King. The present marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Diana Spencer, one of Hugh's descendants and mother of a future King, perhaps lifts the curse on one of England's most ancient families.