Berkeley Castle - Murder of Edward II

Murder of Edward II

The castle was ransacked in 1326 by the forces of Hugh Despenser, the favourite of King Edward II. In 1327, Edward was deposed by the Queen and her ally Roger Mortimer, and they made Thomas de Berkeley and his brother-in-law John Maltravers his joint custodians. They brought Edward to Berkeley Castle, and held him there for 5 months from April to September. During that time a band of Edward's supporters attacked, entered the castle and rescued him, only for him to be recaptured soon afterwards. It is possible that his captors then moved him around between several castles to make further rescue more difficult, before returning him to Berkeley Castle in September. Some commentators have claimed that Edwards' escape was actually successful, and that someone else was later murdered in his place.

Edward was reputedly murdered there on September 21, 1327 by unknown means, although popular stories of a red hot poker or suffocation persist. The cell where he is supposed to have been imprisoned and murdered can still be seen, along with the adjacent 11 m (36 ft) deep dungeon, which supposedly echoes the events of the murder every year on September 21.

The account given to Parliament at the time was simply that Edward had met with a fatal accident. The body was embalmed and remained lying in state at Berkeley for a month, in the Chapel of St John within the castle keep, before Thomas de Berkeley escorted it to Gloucester Abbey for burial. Thomas was later charged with being an accessory to the murder, but his defence was that it was carried out by the agents of Roger Mortimer while he was away from the castle, and in 1337 he was cleared of all charges.