The Invasion of England
By 1325, Isabella's marriage to Edward II was effectively over, and she was facing increasing pressure from Hugh Despenser the younger, Edward's new royal favourite. With her lands in England seized, her children taken away from her and her household staff arrested, Isabella began to pursue other options. When her brother, King Charles IV of France, seized Edward's French possessions in 1325, she returned to France, initially as a delegate of the King charged with negotiating a peace treaty between the two countries. However, her presence in France became a focal point for the many nobles opposed to Edward's reign. Isabella gathered an army to oppose Edward, in alliance with Roger Mortimer, whom she took as a lover. Isabella and Mortimer returned to England with a mercenary army, seizing the country in a lightning campaign. The Despensers were executed, and Edward II forced to abdicate – his eventual fate and possible murder remains of considerable historical debate. Isabella ruled as regent until 1330, when Isabella's son, Edward deposed Mortimer in turn and ruling directly in his own right.
Read more about this topic: Isabella Of France
Famous quotes containing the words invasion and/or england:
“We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe.”
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