Deddington, Oxfordshire, South-Central England, British Isles

On 9th June 1312 Piers Gaveston 1st Earl Cornwall (age 28), under the protection of Aymer de Valence 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 37), stayed at The Rectory, Deddington whilst en route south. Aymer de Valence 2nd Earl Pembroke left Piers Gaveston 1st Earl Cornwall there whilst he left to visit his wife. The following morning Guy Beauchamp 10th Earl Warwick (age 40), with Edmund Fitzalan 2nd or 9th Earl of Arundel (age 27), Humphrey Bohun 4th Earl Hereford 3rd Earl Essex (age 36) and John Botetort 1st Baron Botetort (age 47) arrested Piers Gaveston 1st Earl Cornwall and took him to Warwick Castle [Map].

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. In the year of Christ 1312,¹ around the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist [24th June], for the defence of Piers Gaveston, he was removed from Bamburgh Castle [Map] and placed under the custody of Aymer de Valence (age 37), Earl of Pembroke. The Earl had sworn before the King, having taken the most sacred oath upon the altar, that he would protect Gaveston from all his enemies for a certain period, within which the King intended to reconcile him with the barons. However, envy, which corrupts even the greatest loyalties, and the desire to please Gaveston's enemies, led his guardian to abandon his oath through negligence. Eventually, Gaveston was taken against his will by one of his familiar enemies and delivered into the hands of his foes at Deddington Manor, located between Oxford and Warwick. There, neither natural hiding places nor fortifications could shield him from the proximity of the Earl of Warwick. That night, Pembroke departed from Gaveston, and at dawn, Guy de Beauchamp (age 40), Earl of Warwick, accompanied by a small force and great commotion, arrived. Gaveston was then taken to Warwick Castle, where, after deliberation with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and Humphrey, Earl of Hereford, he was executed in their presence at a place called Blacklow Hill [Map] on the 19th June 1312. His body was entrusted to an honourable burial² in the Dominican friary at Langley [Map] by order of the King.

Anno Christi MCCCXJ, circa festum Nativitatis Ioannis Baptiste, pro defensione Petri, Petrus revocatus a castro de Bamborgh committitur custodie Adomari de Valence, comitis Penbrochie, adiurati coram rege, inspecto sancto sanctorum sacramento altaris, quod ipsum indempnem quatenus posset contra omnes adversarios suos custodiret ad certum tempus, citra quod intendebat rex alico modo Petrum regni proceribus reconciliasse. Set fidem invidia inter summa lacescens et amor placendi inimicis Petri tutorem ipsius contra iuramentum in negligenciam abduxerunt. Ducitur tandem Petrus quo non vellet per familiarem inimicum in mediam potestatem inimicorum, in manerium videlicet Dathintone, que est inter Oxoniam et Warewyc, ubi nec latibulum naturale nec castrum aut munimentum aliquod artificiale posset a vicinitate comitis Warewyc Petrum sequestrare, Adomarus nocte ab ipso Petro recessit, et in aurora Guido Warewyc cum comitiva mediocri et cum hutesio accessit. Petrum quoque ductum ad castrum Warewyk, habita deliberacione cum Thoma comite Lancastrie et comite Herefordie, in ipsorum conspectu in loco qui dicitur Caveresich XIX die mensis Iunii fecit decapitari; cuius corpus in ecclesia fratrum ordinis Predicatorum de Langliþe rex honourifice commisit sepulture.

Note 1. Baker has entirely omitted Gaveston's movements in 1311-12. He seems to have confused Bamburgh and Scarborough. By the Ordinances, Gaveston was again banished 1st November 1311. He went to Flanders, but returned almost immediately, and rejoined Edward at York at the beginning of the new year; the king's writ declaring his banishment illegal bearing date the 18th January 1312. Rymer's Fœdera 2.153; Annales Londonienses 203.

On the approach of the confederate lords Gaveston fled from Newcastle and took refuge in Scarborough early in May; was besieged, and surrendered, 19th May, to the earl of Pembroke. Annales Londonienses 204.

The Chronicle of Lanercost 217.

The story of his surrender and subsequent capture by Warwick is told by the Monk of Malmesbury, Vita Edward II, 177.

Warwick made Gaveston his prisoner at Deddington on the 10th June, Annales Londonienses 206.

He gave him over to Lancaster, who with his confederates led him out to execution, the earl of Warwick remaining in his castle. Murimuth (Rolls Series), p. 17, is evidently wrong in stating that Warwick dismissed him and that he was afterwards made prisoner again. In the following extract from the Annales Londonienses 207.

The nicknames which Gaveston gave, with such deadly offence, to certain lords are noticed by several of the chroniclers. All does not appear to have been properly explained. The Chronicle of Lanercost 216.

The prose Brute chronicle has also some interesting particulars on this point. This chronicle is extant in both a French and an English version. Of the French version there are two editions, both compiled in the reign of Edward III, and ending with the account of the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. From the second edition of this French version the English version was translated; and to this translation further additions were subsequently made. The names of the writers are unknown, but it appears that one of the later editions of the English version is due to John Maundeville, rector of Burnham Thorp, co. Norfolk, 1427-1441 (Notes and Queries, 1856, p. 1.) To the authorship of the second edition of the French version perhaps a clue may be found in certain extracts, or rather translations, from a French chronicle, which are printed in Leland's Collectanea, 1.454. Many of these extracts prove that much of Pakington's chronicle must have been word for word the same as the revised edition of the French Brute. The English Brute chronicle was printed by Caxton in 1480, with the title Chronicles of England.

Caxton's Chronicles do not appear to have had the attention of modern historians as much as they deserve. Barnes, the writer of the History of Edward III, 1688, did not know the book; but he found in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, a MS. of the English Brute chronicle, and made ample use of it, referring to it as MS. Vet. Angl. in C.C.C. Cantab. Barnes's quotations have been cited by later writers, who have failed to recognize in them the text of Caxton. In the following notes I have printed some interesting passages from the English Brute, making use of Harley MS. 2279 and Egerton MS. 650.

Gaveston's nicknames for the barons are thus described: "Kyng Edward lovede Piers of Gavastone so moche that he mygte nougte forlete his companye; and so moche the kyng yaf and behigte to the peple of Engelonde that the exiling of the forsaide Piers shulde bene revokede atte Staunford thurj hem that him exilede. Wherfore Peris of Gavastone come ayen into Engelonde, and, when he was come ayen into this lande, he despisede the gretteste lordes of this lande, and callede sire Robert of Clare, erle of Gloucestre, horeson; and the erle of Nicole, sire Henry Lacy, brust bely; and sir Guy, erle of Warwyke, blak hounde of Arderne; and also he callede the noble erle and gentil Thomas of Lancastre cherle; and meny other scornes and shame hem saide, and by many other grete lordes of Engelonde. Wherfor thei were towardis him ful angry and sore annoyede." The terms for these names in the French version (Royal Ms. 20 A. 3) are 'filz a puteyne', 'boele crevee,' 'noir chien de Ardene,' and 'vielers.' This last word the English translator has not understood. In the extract in Leland's Collectanea there are additional words: 'vielers, porceo quil est greles et de bel entaille.' Misunderstanding the first two words of this sentence, Lingard has made out that Lancaster was called 'Old Hog.' But the words mean: 'Fiddler, because he is slim and tall.' This seems to be confirmed by Walsingham (Historia Anglicana, 1.115) who says that Gaveston called Lancaster 'histrionem,' and further that Pembroke was nicknamed 'Joseph the Jew,' the reason being 'quod pallidus erat et longus [because he was pale and tall].' The 'pallidus' and 'longus,' which do not appear to be specially descriptive of a Jew, would perhaps belong better to the 'Play-actor,' just as 'greles' and 'de bel entaille' are applied to the 'Fiddler.'

Note 2. Gaveston's body lay for two years at Oxford, Vita Edward II, 209: "A few days after Christmas, the lord King Edward had the body of Piers Gaveston, his former special friend, transferred from Oxford to Langley. For now more than two years had passed since Peter's beheading, and until this time he had lain unburied among the friars at Oxford. It is said that the king had intended first to avenge Peter's death, and only afterward to commit his body to burial. But now those from whom the king had once sought vengeance had been reconciled with him in friendship. So the king, at Langley, where he had previously established a house for the Dominican friars, had the body of his Peter buried with great honour.

See also Knighton 2533, Annales Londonienses 232 and Annales Paulini 273.