Birth in north Wales, Edward's birthplace Edward II was born in
Caernarfon Castle in
north Wales on 25 April 1284, less than a year after Edward I had conquered the region, and as a result is sometimes called Edward of Caernarfon. The King probably chose the castle deliberately as the location for Edward's birth as it was an important symbolic location for the native Welsh, associated with
Roman imperial history, and it formed the centre of the new royal administration of North Wales. Edward's birth brought predictions of greatness from contemporary
prophets, who believed that the
Last Days of the world were imminent, declaring him a new
King Arthur, who would lead England to glory.
David Powel, a 16th-century clergyman, suggested that the baby was offered to the Welsh as a prince "that was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", but there is no evidence to support this account. Edward's name was
English in origin, linking him to the
Anglo-Saxon saint Edward the Confessor, and was chosen by his father instead of the more traditional
Norman and
Castilian names selected for Edward's brothers: John and Henry, who had died before Edward was born, and
Alphonso, who died in August 1284, leaving Edward as the heir to the throne. Although Edward was a relatively healthy child, there were enduring concerns throughout his early years that he too might die and leave his father without a male heir. He would have barely known his natural mother, Eleanor, who was in Gascony with his father during his earliest years.
Childhood, personality and appearance , thought to be of Edward's father,
Edward I Spending increased on Edward's personal household as he grew older and, in 1293, William of Blyborough took over as its administrator. Edward was probably given a religious education by the
Dominican friars, whom his mother invited into his household in 1290. He was assigned one of his grandmother's followers,
Guy Ferre, as his
magister, who was responsible for his discipline, training him in riding and military skills. It is uncertain how well educated Edward was; there is little evidence for his ability to read and write, although his mother was keen that her other children be well educated, and Ferre was himself a relatively learned man for the period. Edward likely mainly spoke
Anglo-Norman French in his daily life, in addition to some English and possibly
Latin. Edward had a normal upbringing for a member of a royal family. He was interested in horses and
horsebreeding, and became a good rider; he also liked dogs, in particular
greyhounds. In his letters, he shows a quirky sense of humour, joking about sending unsatisfactory animals to his friends, such as horses who disliked carrying their riders, or lazy hunting dogs too slow to catch rabbits. He was not particularly interested in
hunting or
falconry, both popular activities in the 14th century. He enjoyed music, including
Welsh music and the newly invented
crwth instrument, as well as
musical organs. He did not take part in
jousting, either because he lacked the aptitude or because he had been banned from participating for his personal safety, but he was certainly enthusiastic in his support of the sport. Edward grew up to be tall and muscular, and was considered good-looking by the standards of the period. He had a reputation as a competent public speaker and was known for his generosity to household staff. Unusually, he enjoyed
rowing, as well as
hedging and
ditching, and enjoyed associating with labourers and other lower-class workers. This behaviour was not considered normal for the nobility of the period and attracted criticism from contemporaries. In 1290, Edward's father had confirmed the
Treaty of Birgham, in which he promised to marry his six-year-old son to the young
Margaret of Norway, who had a potential claim to the crown of Scotland. Margaret died later that year, bringing an end to the plan. Edward's mother, Eleanor, died shortly afterwards, followed by his grandmother,
Eleanor of Provence. Edward I was distraught at his wife's death and held a huge funeral for her; his son inherited the County of Ponthieu from Eleanor. The idea was replaced with the proposal of a marriage to a daughter of the
rebellious Guy, Count of Flanders, but this too failed after King Philip was able to have the proposed bride sent to Paris. On his return, Edward I signed a
peace treaty, under which he took Philip's sister
Margaret as his wife and agreed that Prince Edward would in due course marry Philip's daughter, Isabella, who was then only two years old. In theory, this marriage would mean that the disputed Duchy of Gascony would be inherited by a descendant of both Edward and Philip, providing a possible end to the long-running tensions. The young Edward seems to have got on well with his new stepmother, who gave birth to two sons,
Thomas of Brotherton in 1300 and
Edmund of Woodstock in 1301. As king, Edward later provided his half-brothers with financial support and titles. Edward I returned to Scotland once again in 1300, and this time took his son with him, making him the commander of the rearguard at the siege of
Caerlaverock Castle. In the spring of 1301, the King declared Edward the
Prince of Wales, granting him the
earldom of Chester and lands across North Wales; he seems to have hoped that this would help pacify the region, and that it would give his son some financial independence. Edward received homage from his Welsh subjects and then joined his father for the 1301 Scottish campaign; he took an army of around 300 soldiers north with him and captured
Turnberry Castle. Prince Edward also took part in the 1303 campaign during which he besieged
Brechin Castle, deploying his own siege engine in the operation. In the spring of 1304, Edward conducted negotiations with the rebel Scottish leaders on the King's behalf and, when these failed, he joined his father for the siege of
Stirling Castle. In 1305, Edward and his father quarrelled, probably over the issue of money. The prince had an altercation with Bishop
Walter Langton, who served as the royal treasurer, apparently over the amount of financial support Edward received from the Crown. After some negotiations involving family members and friends, father and son were reconciled. The Scottish conflict flared up once again in 1306, when
Robert the Bruce killed his rival
John Comyn III of Badenoch and declared himself King of the Scots. Edward I mobilised a fresh army, but decided that, this time, his son would be formally in charge of the expedition. Amid a huge feast in the neighbouring hall, reminiscent of
Arthurian legends and
crusading events, the assembly took a collective oath to defeat Bruce. It is unclear what role Prince Edward's forces played in the campaign that summer, which, under the orders of Edward I, saw a punitive, brutal retaliation against Bruce's faction in Scotland. Edward returned to England in September, where diplomatic negotiations to finalise a date for his wedding to Isabella continued.
Piers Gaveston and sexuality from the
charter granting
Piers Gaveston the
earldom of Cornwall During this time, Edward became close to
Piers Gaveston. Gaveston was the son of one of the King's household knights whose lands lay adjacent to Gascony, and had himself joined Prince Edward's household in 1300, possibly on Edward I's instruction. The two got on well; Gaveston became a
squire and was soon being referred to as a close companion of Edward, before being knighted by the King during the Feast of the Swans in 1306. The King then exiled Gaveston to
Gascony in 1307 for reasons that remain unclear. According to one chronicler, Edward had asked his father to allow him to give Gaveston the County of
Ponthieu, and the King responded furiously, pulling his son's hair out in great handfuls, before exiling Gaveston. The official court records, however, show Gaveston being only temporarily exiled, supported by a comfortable stipend; no reason is given for the order, suggesting that it may have been an act aimed at punishing the prince. The possibility that Edward had a sexual relationship with Gaveston or his later favourites has been extensively discussed by historians, complicated by the scarcity of surviving evidence to determine for certain the details of their relationships. Homosexuality was fiercely condemned by the Church in 14th-century England, which equated it with
heresy. Both men had sexual relationships with their wives, who bore them children; Edward also had an illegitimate son, and may have had an affair with his niece,
Eleanor de Clare. The contemporary evidence supporting their homosexual relationship comes primarily from an anonymous chronicler in the 1320s who described how Edward "felt such love" for Gaveston that "he entered into a covenant of constancy, and bound himself with him before all other mortals with a bond of indissoluble love, firmly drawn up and fastened with a knot." The first specific suggestion that Edward engaged in sex with men was recorded in 1334, when
Adam Orleton, the
Bishop of Winchester, was accused of having stated in 1326 that Edward was a "sodomite", although Orleton defended himself by arguing that he had meant that Edward's adviser,
Hugh Despenser the Younger, was a sodomite, rather than the late king. The
Meaux Chronicle from the 1390s simply notes that Edward gave himself "too much to the vice of sodomy". Alternatively, Edward and Gaveston may have simply been friends with a close working relationship. Contemporary
chronicler comments are vaguely worded; Orleton's allegations were at least in part politically motivated, and are very similar to the highly politicised sodomy allegations made against
Pope Boniface VIII and the
Knights Templar in 1303 and 1308, respectively. Later accounts by chroniclers of Edward's activities may trace back to Orleton's original allegations, and were certainly adversely coloured by the events at the end of Edward's reign. Such historians as
Michael Prestwich and Seymour Phillips have argued that the public nature of the English royal court would have made it unlikely that any homosexual affairs would have remained discreet; neither the contemporary Church, Edward's father nor his father-in-law appear to have made any adverse comments about Edward's sexual behaviour. A more recent theory, proposed by the historian
Pierre Chaplais, suggests that Edward and Gaveston entered into a bond of
adoptive brotherhood. Compacts of adoptive brotherhood, in which the participants pledged to support each other in a form of "brotherhood-in-arms", were not unknown between close male friends in the Middle Ages. Many chroniclers described Edward and Gaveston's relationship as one of brotherhood, and one explicitly noted that Edward had taken Gaveston as his adopted brother. Chaplais argues that the pair may have made a formal compact in either 1300 or 1301, and that they would have seen any later promises they made to separate or to leave each other as having been made under duress, and therefore invalid. ==Early reign (1307–1311)==