Execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger 1326

Hugh Despenser the Younger became the favourite of Edward II but was especially disliked by Queen Isabella of France. Some believed that this hostility was because he was having a sexual relationship with Edward, though there is no evidence that Edward II was homosexual.

As royal chamberlain, from 1318, Hugh Despenser had control over Isabella's finances and provided her with so little money, that she complained that she was worse off than her maid servant. Then in 1322, as a Robert the Bruce's Scots army invaded England, Isabella and Eleanor de Clare (Hugh's wife) were abandoned at Tynemouth by Edward and Hugh. The two women narrowly made their own escape by sea.1

When Isabella along with Roger Mortimer raised an army in France, seized power and deposed Edward, Hugh was arrested and tried and sentenced for treason, theft and for having procured discord between the King and Queen. He was was hanged, drawn, quartered, castrated, and beheaded in Hereford market place on the 24th November 1326.2

• 1. Phillips, S. Edward II. Yale English Monarchs Series (Yale University Press, 2011). p431.
• 2. Phillips, S. Edward II. Yale English Monarchs Series (Yale University Press, 2011). pp516-518.