WEBVTT - The She-Wolf, Her Husband, and Their Lovers

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm

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<v Speaker 1>and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener discretion advised. In thirteen

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<v Speaker 1>twenty six, the billowing sails of eight warships rose over

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<v Speaker 1>the sea on the English horizon. They were flanked by

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred and thirty two smaller vessels, all ready for

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<v Speaker 1>an invasion. The ships had come from France. They had

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<v Speaker 1>sailed from Flanders and were heading toward the Thames Estuary

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<v Speaker 1>that September, as summer turned to fall. They were coming

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<v Speaker 1>to depose the King of England. No invasion of England

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<v Speaker 1>by sea had succeeded since the Norman conquest two hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and sixty years earlier in ten sixty six. But this

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<v Speaker 1>was no ordinary invasion by some hostile foreign power. The

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<v Speaker 1>man leading the charge had been condemned to death, and

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<v Speaker 1>he had been spared by the very king he was

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<v Speaker 1>now coming to depose. But far more shocking was the

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<v Speaker 1>woman standing next to him. She was the man's lover

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<v Speaker 1>in adulterous scandal. She was said to be among the

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<v Speaker 1>most beautiful women in the world. She had blonde hair

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<v Speaker 1>blowing against her forehead now in the sea wind, she

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<v Speaker 1>was dressed in widow's weeds, the black clothes of mourning,

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<v Speaker 1>but her husband was alive for now. Her name was Isabella.

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<v Speaker 1>She had been born in France, but she wasn't some

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<v Speaker 1>foreign usurper. She was the wife of King Edward the

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<v Speaker 1>Second of England. She was the most treasonous queen in

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<v Speaker 1>all of English history. Born the daughter of the King

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<v Speaker 1>of France, adored and then despised by her subjects, mother

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<v Speaker 1>of the future sovereign, scorned and humiliated by an unpopular

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<v Speaker 1>husband more interested in having affairs with men than in

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<v Speaker 1>her She's known to history as a sinner, a Jezebel,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe even a murderer, known in the end.

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<v Speaker 2>As the she Wolf of France. She was Isabella, Queen

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<v Speaker 2>of England, and she was sailing from the continent with

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<v Speaker 2>troops and her lover by her side, and a steely

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<v Speaker 2>glint in her eye, ready to depose her king. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>Danas Schwartz, and this is noble blood. The little girl

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<v Speaker 2>who would someday overthrow the King of England was born Isabelle,

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<v Speaker 2>Princess of France around the year twelve ninety. She was

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<v Speaker 2>the daughter of Philip the Fair, the handsome and fearsome

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<v Speaker 2>King of France. She was one of seven children, the

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<v Speaker 2>only daughter to survive to adulthood. Her father had keen

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<v Speaker 2>political designs for each of his children's marriages, which this

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<v Speaker 2>podcast actually covered in our episode on the Tordonell Affair.

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<v Speaker 2>Suffice to say that in thirteen o three, at only

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<v Speaker 2>seven years old, as a prized princess, Isabella was betrothed

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<v Speaker 2>to then Prince Edward of England, who was nineteen. At

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<v Speaker 2>the betrothal ceremony, Isabella made herself as tall as she

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<v Speaker 2>could in front of an archbishop who was Edward's proxy.

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<v Speaker 2>She put her little hand in the archbishop's big one

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<v Speaker 2>and hoped with her child's heart that her husband would

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<v Speaker 2>be good to her when they finally met, that he

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<v Speaker 2>would love her, that he would fulfill her father's hope

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<v Speaker 2>for a future king of England. And descended from both

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<v Speaker 2>the French and English lines. But she must have noticed

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<v Speaker 2>that her future husband never sent her any gifts across

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<v Speaker 2>the English Channel, nor any letters. Even as a child,

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<v Speaker 2>she may have wondered why not. Five years later she

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<v Speaker 2>would find out. On January twenty fifth, thirteen o eight,

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<v Speaker 2>twelve year old Isabella formally married Edward, who was by

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<v Speaker 2>then King of England. Despite the mismatch in age, Edward

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<v Speaker 2>was a handsome groom. Isabella biographer Alice and Weir describes

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<v Speaker 2>the six foot tall Edward like a dang Disney prince

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<v Speaker 2>for Isabella. Quote.

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<v Speaker 1>He was well.

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<v Speaker 2>Proportioned and had curly, fair shoulder length hair, with a

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<v Speaker 2>mustache and beard. He was also well spoken. His mother

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<v Speaker 2>tongue was Norman French and articulate, and he dressed elegantly,

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<v Speaker 2>even lavishly end quote. One limitation of histories this old

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<v Speaker 2>is we have very little insight into Isabella's thoughts around

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<v Speaker 2>this time. Even the biographies and articles about her are

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<v Speaker 2>frequently about her husband, which leaves a blank space in

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<v Speaker 2>our understanding. The fact is that Isabella was twelve years

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<v Speaker 2>old at her wedding to a man twice her age.

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<v Speaker 2>Both Isabella's mother and her new husband's mother had been

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<v Speaker 2>married by age eleven. Twelve was the youngest age at

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<v Speaker 2>which the Church permitted sex between husband and wife. Historians

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<v Speaker 2>generally believe that Isabella and Edward didn't consummate the marriage

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<v Speaker 2>on their wedding night. I can imagine a young Isabella

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<v Speaker 2>who was grateful for this reprieve. Maybe she felt like

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<v Speaker 2>a child thrown into a stranger's bed, albeit a bed

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<v Speaker 2>that she had been preparing for since youth. Maybe she

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<v Speaker 2>viewed her new husband's restraint as chivalrous or loving, but

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<v Speaker 2>that wasn't all it was. This podcast has covered the

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<v Speaker 2>story of Edward the Second and his affair with the

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<v Speaker 2>love of his life, his boyhood courtier Peers Gaveston. The

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<v Speaker 2>fact that he's the tragic hero of one episode of

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<v Speaker 2>this podcast and a side character in this one is

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<v Speaker 2>just more proof that history can be told from many angles.

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<v Speaker 2>Love for one person is heartache for another. The difference

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<v Speaker 2>between comedy and tragedy is often just a matter of

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<v Speaker 2>who your main character is. When Isabella arrived in England

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<v Speaker 2>after the wedding, her husband greeted Gaveston with a degree

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<v Speaker 2>of enthusiasm that shocked Isabella's relatives. Isabella had to watch

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<v Speaker 2>as Gaveston wore jewels that were part of her dowry,

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<v Speaker 2>and he wore purple to the coronation, the color of royalty,

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<v Speaker 2>as though he were the true spouse of Edward being

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<v Speaker 2>elevated to the throne. For Isabella, it was embarrassing. She

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<v Speaker 2>told her father that She was quote the most wretched

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<v Speaker 2>of wives. She received no money from her husband. She

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<v Speaker 2>was miserable. She wasn't the only one. The English barons

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<v Speaker 2>all wanted the king's favorite, Gaveston gone, and they got

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<v Speaker 2>their way. In thirteen eight, six months after Isabella arrived

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<v Speaker 2>in England, Gaveston was banished from the country. With Gaveston gone,

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella's husband warmed to her. He started giving her lands

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<v Speaker 2>and money. Wherever he traveled, she went with him. She

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<v Speaker 2>may have felt like any girl who has a crush

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<v Speaker 2>on a guy who has a crush on someone else.

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<v Speaker 2>It hurts, yes, but maybe his affections can be turned.

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<v Speaker 2>But then Edward brought Gaveston back. Everybody likes a catfight.

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<v Speaker 2>Sensationalized history would have us believe that Isabella hated Gaveston

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<v Speaker 2>to the end. Isabella was probably pained to see the

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<v Speaker 2>return of her competition, but she was quite a bit

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<v Speaker 2>older now with some relationship of her own with the king,

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<v Speaker 2>and she reached some equilibrium with Gaveston. It's worth noting

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<v Speaker 2>that everyone in this saga, from Gaveston to the lovers

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<v Speaker 2>of both King and Queen that I'll mention later in

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<v Speaker 2>this episode was married to a member of the opposite

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<v Speaker 2>sex and had children of their own. Once Gaveston came back,

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella was kind to his pregnant wife. She spent time

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<v Speaker 2>with Gaveston. She may have even found him kind of amusing.

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<v Speaker 2>But if Isabella mellowed somewhat towards Galveston, the English courts

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<v Speaker 2>as a whole did not. They wanted him gone for good,

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<v Speaker 2>violently if need be, as violence mounted around them. In

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<v Speaker 2>thirteen eleven and twelve, Isabella told her husband that she

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<v Speaker 2>was pregnant, probably hoping that with that news, Edward would

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<v Speaker 2>prioritize her protection. He didn't. He left her at Newcastle

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<v Speaker 2>while he protected Gaveston instead. Some piece of her must

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<v Speaker 2>have learned, no matter how good her relationship with Edward seemed,

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<v Speaker 2>she would never really come first. Gaveston would be brutally

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<v Speaker 2>executed on June nineteenth, thirteen twelve. The details of that

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<v Speaker 2>brutality belonged to Edward's story, covered in another episode. This

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<v Speaker 2>is Isabella's story, and here it's more interesting to imagine

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<v Speaker 2>her reunion with her grieving husband in the aftermath. I

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<v Speaker 2>wonder if she felt a victor's gladness at being the

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<v Speaker 2>only remaining competitor for her husband's heart, or a wife's

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<v Speaker 2>sorrow for her husband's grief, or maybe she felt the

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<v Speaker 2>empathy of the fellow unlucky in love. Either way, five

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<v Speaker 2>months later, at age seventeen, Isabella gave birth to the

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<v Speaker 2>heir to the throne, another Edward. She went on to

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<v Speaker 2>have three more children with the king, and whether there

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<v Speaker 2>was any love in the act of conception or purely

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<v Speaker 2>dynastic duty was a secret that died with their history.

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<v Speaker 2>What's certain is that once Gaveston was out of the

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<v Speaker 2>picture for good, there was at least mutual respect between

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella and her husband. Isabella was smart and savvy, versed

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<v Speaker 2>in both English and French territorial and political interests. She

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<v Speaker 2>was also impressively involved in negotiations and diplomacy. Edward, never

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<v Speaker 2>one of the greats when it came to statecraft, seemed

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<v Speaker 2>to like having his queen involved. They simply liked each other.

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<v Speaker 2>They wrote letters to each other any time they were apart.

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<v Speaker 2>They played gambling games together as a team. It would

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<v Speaker 2>have been hard to imagine that this beautiful woman laughingly

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<v Speaker 2>playing games of chance beside her husband would someday gather

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<v Speaker 2>the flotilla that would overthrow him, but maybe there were hints.

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<v Speaker 2>At one point, giggling playing a game, Isabella's ladies fake

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<v Speaker 2>captured the king and wouldn't let him go until the

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<v Speaker 2>fake ransom had been paid. Some games seemed more ominous

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<v Speaker 2>in retrospect. Isabella spent years developing mutual respect with her husband,

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<v Speaker 2>maybe even genuine affection, so she must have been devastated

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<v Speaker 2>when she learned that his dalliances did not die with Gaveston.

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<v Speaker 2>Not yet a decade after Gaveston's death, Edward took a

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<v Speaker 2>new lover, Hula Dispenser, Royal Chamberlain. This dispense Her was

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<v Speaker 2>nothing like Isabella's earlier rival, Galveston, who honestly seemed kind

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<v Speaker 2>of meek, almost cute by comparison, Dispenser was a cruel

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<v Speaker 2>and violent man, especially depraved toward women. He had one

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<v Speaker 2>widow tortured until all four limbs were broken and she

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<v Speaker 2>was said to have lost her mind. Isabella hated him,

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<v Speaker 2>Dispenser began to turn her husband against her. It's possible

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<v Speaker 2>that Despenser actually sexually harmed Isabella in some way, although

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<v Speaker 2>the details aren't quite clear. As relations between France and

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<v Speaker 2>England worsened, dispenser whispered in the King's ear, and Isabella

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<v Speaker 2>lost everything. King Edward asked the Pope to annul their marriage,

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<v Speaker 2>though the Pope declined. Isabella's lands were taken from her.

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<v Speaker 2>French servants, who had come to England with her when

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<v Speaker 2>she was twelve years old, were taken from her household. Finally,

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<v Speaker 2>her three younger children were taken from her, on suspicion

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<v Speaker 2>that she would incite them to treason because she's a

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<v Speaker 2>French woman. Well, you tell someone what they are enough,

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<v Speaker 2>they might believe you. She didn't deserve this treatment. Isabella

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<v Speaker 2>was the Queen of England, the daughter of King Philip

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<v Speaker 2>of France. She had spent years giving Edward children, doing

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<v Speaker 2>his diplomacy, playing games with him, delighting side by side

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<v Speaker 2>at the animals in their menagerie. No, she deserved a

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<v Speaker 2>husband like her father had been, who never remarried after

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<v Speaker 2>the death of his wife. Isabella's mother loyal to the end.

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella's father was harsh as a king, but as a father,

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<v Speaker 2>he was in touch with his daughter constantly. He mentioned

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella's name in every written record of French concessions to England,

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<v Speaker 2>knowing that she loved books. He made sure she got

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<v Speaker 2>the gift of an ornately illustrated apocalypse. When she burned

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<v Speaker 2>her hand, he sent doctors to attend to her. In England,

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella's husband didn't show loyalty anywhere nearly that much. But

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella's husband had never been loyal to her, so why

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<v Speaker 2>she thought should she be loyal to him? Isabella started smiling.

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<v Speaker 2>It hurt far more to have lost her husband's respect

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<v Speaker 2>as a thirty year old adult than it had been

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<v Speaker 2>as a child to have never had it. But she

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<v Speaker 2>played nice, so nice that Edward himself allowed his beautiful,

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<v Speaker 2>smiling wife to go alone to France, ostensibly as a

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<v Speaker 2>peacemaker between the nations. A nightmare dressed like a day dream.

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<v Speaker 2>When Isabella arrived in France, she kissed her brother, King

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<v Speaker 2>Charles the Fourth, who looked so much like their departed father.

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<v Speaker 2>She breathed in the sweet scent of home, and soon

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<v Speaker 2>enough she encountered a man named Roger Mortimer. He had

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<v Speaker 2>once been a friend and ally of King Edward, until

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<v Speaker 2>under Despenser's cruel regime, he turned against the English king.

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<v Speaker 2>They had this in common. Mortimer and Isabella. Mortimer had

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<v Speaker 2>once been sentenced to death for treason against the king.

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<v Speaker 2>But Edward had commuted the sentence. He could not have

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<v Speaker 2>known at the time that he was sparing the life

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<v Speaker 2>of the man who would become his wife's lover. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>Isabella started an affair with Mortimer, fueled by the aphrodisiac

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<v Speaker 2>of shared hatred for her husband. There's something almost tragic

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<v Speaker 2>that Isabella and Edward had so much in common. Both

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<v Speaker 2>were trapped in a marriage when their real devotions were elsewhere.

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<v Speaker 2>Both turned to an adulterous affair. We can imagine in

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<v Speaker 2>a different life, in a different time in history, with

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<v Speaker 2>a different understanding of sexuality, the wife and husband might

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<v Speaker 2>have divorced, might have even remained married, but understood their

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<v Speaker 2>desires for people that their spouses could never be. They

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<v Speaker 2>had respected each other once upon a time, but that

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<v Speaker 2>time was now long past. By thirteen twenty five, Isabella

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<v Speaker 2>and Mortimer were playing it very smart, while at the

0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:38.560
<v Speaker 2>exact same moment Edward played it very dumb. Edward sent

0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.960
<v Speaker 2>his first born son to visit Isabella in France, which

0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.600
<v Speaker 2>put all the power in her hand. She now had

0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:52.160
<v Speaker 2>the heir. The king pretty soon realized his mistake. He

0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.120
<v Speaker 2>started sending letter after letter to Isabella, to Charles, to

0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.240
<v Speaker 2>anyone he could think of. He asked Isabella to come

0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.360
<v Speaker 2>home to England and with their son. She sent back

0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.119
<v Speaker 2>demure letters with feeble excuses. Oh, I couldn't possibly leave France.

0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.240
<v Speaker 2>My brother wants us to say. Edward started to get

0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:17.080
<v Speaker 2>very nervous. He was right to. Isabella was hanging out

0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.320
<v Speaker 2>in France with English exiles who hated Edward. She was

0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:26.160
<v Speaker 2>wearing the black garb of a widow, major alarm bells.

0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.760
<v Speaker 2>It was probably seen as a symbol of her displeasure

0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.280
<v Speaker 2>with her husband's infidelity, but it was also a threat.

0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.399
<v Speaker 2>If she wasn't a widow yet, she would be one soon.

0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.640
<v Speaker 2>She would make sure of it. Edward kept asking Isabella

0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:49.320
<v Speaker 2>to return with their son, and Isabella kept defying him.

0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.680
<v Speaker 2>It became like a game of keep away. Finally she

0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.800
<v Speaker 2>made it plain she would not return to England except

0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:03.399
<v Speaker 2>upon quote the destruction of Hugh. At this point Edward

0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:09.480
<v Speaker 2>really and rightly freaked out. On December first, thirteen twenty five,

0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:14.199
<v Speaker 2>his bishops wrote to Isabella, quote, the whole country is

0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.600
<v Speaker 2>disturbed by the answers which you have lately sent to

0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.800
<v Speaker 2>our Lord King, and because you delay your return out

0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.280
<v Speaker 2>of hatred for Hugh la Dispenser. We warn you as

0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.240
<v Speaker 2>a daughter to return to our lord King your husband.

0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.399
<v Speaker 2>It's striking that Edward's bishops wrote from the perspective of

0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.640
<v Speaker 2>a father figure to this woman whose father had actually

0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:42.520
<v Speaker 2>helped her in her life. Isabella knew whose daughter she

0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:49.560
<v Speaker 2>really was, so she and Mortimer drew up plans they

0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.479
<v Speaker 2>would invade England by sea. At the time, it had

0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:57.160
<v Speaker 2>been two hundred years since the last successful sea invasion,

0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.439
<v Speaker 2>far but not so far outside life history that it

0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:06.080
<v Speaker 2>couldn't be done again. They gathered their eight warships and

0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:11.280
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and thirty two support vessels. Together they set sail.

0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.520
<v Speaker 2>They landed in England two days later, September twenty fourth,

0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.719
<v Speaker 2>thirteen twenty six. As far as invasions go, it was

0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.760
<v Speaker 2>a shockingly easy and bloodless one. As had happened with Gaveston,

0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:33.359
<v Speaker 2>Isabella's hatred of Dispenser matched the public sentiment. Under Dispenser's influence,

0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.800
<v Speaker 2>Edward had become a tyrant. The people were on her side.

0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:44.000
<v Speaker 2>Isabella and Mortimer captured Cambridge, then Oxford. Militias that were

0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.240
<v Speaker 2>called in defense of the king instead defected to the

0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.040
<v Speaker 2>side of the invaders. When Isabella found out what her

0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:56.000
<v Speaker 2>husband did next, perhaps she felt only a superior, justified

0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:00.520
<v Speaker 2>kind of vengeance. Perhaps she felt a twinge of sorrow

0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.359
<v Speaker 2>at how predictable her husband was, how well she knew

0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.879
<v Speaker 2>his heart, how much she had changed while he had not.

0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:15.080
<v Speaker 2>As his reign collapsed around him, Edward left with Dispenser,

0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.199
<v Speaker 2>just as he had with Gaveston years before, when she

0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.560
<v Speaker 2>had been left alone and pregnant with their son. Isabella's

0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.600
<v Speaker 2>husband had never been a great tactician. His actions gave

0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.560
<v Speaker 2>her the chance to claim that he had abandoned his people,

0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.960
<v Speaker 2>given up his throne. No one was willing to fight

0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.639
<v Speaker 2>for him. The will of the nation was with Isabella.

0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:43.760
<v Speaker 2>Dispenser was captured and brutally executed. He was hanged, castrated,

0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.680
<v Speaker 2>and burned. Edward the Second was kept under guard in

0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:53.320
<v Speaker 2>Berkeley Castle. On January twenty fifth, thirteen twenty seven, Edward

0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.159
<v Speaker 2>the Third was proclaimed King of England. As he was

0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.399
<v Speaker 2>only fourteen, not yet of age, someone else would have

0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:06.040
<v Speaker 2>to rule as regent in his stead. Well, one woman

0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:10.479
<v Speaker 2>was up to the task. Queen Isabella had invaded with

0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:16.280
<v Speaker 2>popular support. She had deposed her husband. She essentially took

0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:25.399
<v Speaker 2>the crown Queen. Mother Isabella came to rule on behalf

0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.400
<v Speaker 2>of her son on a wave of public popularity. But

0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.600
<v Speaker 2>the public is fickle. On September twenty first, thirteen twenty seven,

0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.960
<v Speaker 2>former King Edward the Second was murdered in his captivity.

0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.640
<v Speaker 2>It was said that he was suffocated by a pillow

0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.880
<v Speaker 2>to the mouth and a heavy table to the stomach,

0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:51.200
<v Speaker 2>and then killed, my apologies, by a hot iron up

0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:56.800
<v Speaker 2>the rectum. Rumors swirled that Isabella and Mortimer had secretly

0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.640
<v Speaker 2>ordered the king's death. After all, a living former king

0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.320
<v Speaker 2>who had been deposed by his French wife and her

0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.639
<v Speaker 2>lover would always be a threat to their rule. The

0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:11.400
<v Speaker 2>public is fickle, after all, this was the Middle Ages.

0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.480
<v Speaker 2>What if opinion had turned? What if over time Edward

0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.399
<v Speaker 2>came to be seen as the wronged party and he

0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.400
<v Speaker 2>gathered support. God knew if he were reinstated, it would

0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:27.000
<v Speaker 2>be Isabella's head that rolled. But whoever was responsible for

0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:31.720
<v Speaker 2>the loss of Isabella's husband, he was gone. Isabella was

0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:37.160
<v Speaker 2>making royal decisions, and six months later, in thirteen twenty eight,

0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:42.760
<v Speaker 2>she supported the Treaty of Edinburgh Northampton, which recognized Scotland's

0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:46.560
<v Speaker 2>independence and promised her daughter to the son of the

0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:51.560
<v Speaker 2>Scottish king. The English public felt betrayed, their support for

0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:57.280
<v Speaker 2>Isabella fell apart. In an ironic twist, Isabella did what

0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:00.680
<v Speaker 2>her husband had done. In the face of public day disapproval.

0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:05.119
<v Speaker 2>She unjustly elevated the status of her lover to the

0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.120
<v Speaker 2>consternation of the public and the pain of her family.

0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:14.959
<v Speaker 2>Amidst calls for Mortimer's banishment, Isabella defiantly gave him an

0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:19.439
<v Speaker 2>earldom that she invented for him, pretty much exactly in

0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:24.440
<v Speaker 2>the mold of Edward's defiant elevation of Gaveston and then Dispenser.

0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:29.600
<v Speaker 2>Isabella and her husband really did have a lot in common,

0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:35.040
<v Speaker 2>and just as Isabella had done to her husband, her

0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:40.000
<v Speaker 2>son did to her in thirteen thirty he took Isabella's

0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:45.320
<v Speaker 2>favorite away. Mortimer was convicted of treason and hanged naked

0:23:45.400 --> 0:23:49.600
<v Speaker 2>in London, where his body was left dangling for two days.

0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:55.320
<v Speaker 2>And as for Isabella, for a woman regarded by history

0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:59.840
<v Speaker 2>as evil, she got off pretty lightly. In life. Queen's

0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.280
<v Speaker 2>of England have been beheaded and imprisoned for far less

0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:09.000
<v Speaker 2>than deposing a king alongside an adulterous lover. But Edward

0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:12.120
<v Speaker 2>the Third made sure that his mother was barely even

0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:17.240
<v Speaker 2>mentioned in Mortimer's trial. Isabella was briefly placed under house arrest,

0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.399
<v Speaker 2>but she lived out the majority of her next twenty

0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:25.159
<v Speaker 2>eight years in freedom. Isabella died on August twenty second,

0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:29.840
<v Speaker 2>thirteen fifty eight, at sixty three years old. Her body

0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:33.920
<v Speaker 2>was embalmed and, per her own instructions, wrapped in her

0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.520
<v Speaker 2>wedding cloak. It was an odd move for a woman

0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.360
<v Speaker 2>who had been so betrayed by her husband. In the end,

0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:46.200
<v Speaker 2>she wanted to dress as his bride. History was not

0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:50.040
<v Speaker 2>kind to Isabella. The beautiful daughter of the Fair King,

0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:54.280
<v Speaker 2>was called ugly, a sinner, a Jezebel until two thousand

0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:59.040
<v Speaker 2>and six. She had no published biography, but her influence

0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:04.359
<v Speaker 2>lasted centuries. When her brother, Charles the Fourth died, she

0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:08.080
<v Speaker 2>insisted that her son had the rightful claim to the

0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:12.280
<v Speaker 2>French crown, which eventually set off the Hundred Years War

0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:18.760
<v Speaker 2>between England and France. She instigated the first parliamentary deposition

0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:22.200
<v Speaker 2>of a king, which set a precedence that would depose

0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:26.560
<v Speaker 2>five more kings over the next three hundred years. Today

0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:30.199
<v Speaker 2>we might call her a fem fetale. They're sort of

0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:35.400
<v Speaker 2>a hashtag feminist kind of basic reading of Isabella which

0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:39.040
<v Speaker 2>her story lends itself to. She was a slighted woman

0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:43.840
<v Speaker 2>overthrowing her tyrannical husband and removing his lover, who was

0:25:43.880 --> 0:25:48.239
<v Speaker 2>a brutal torturer of vulnerable women and widows. But the

0:25:48.240 --> 0:25:53.200
<v Speaker 2>Middle Ages don't really lend themselves to girl bosses. Mortimer

0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:56.000
<v Speaker 2>had at one point threatened to kill her if she

0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:59.639
<v Speaker 2>didn't follow through with their designs against the king. However

0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:04.159
<v Speaker 2>bius or not he was, Isabella had needed Mortimer to

0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:07.880
<v Speaker 2>do what she did. The role of women was constricted

0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:13.960
<v Speaker 2>in the fourteenth century, and while Isabella acted fiercely, audaciously, bravely,

0:26:14.600 --> 0:26:17.200
<v Speaker 2>she still had to rely on a man in order

0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:21.640
<v Speaker 2>to do it. In fifteen ninety one, Shakespeare would coin

0:26:21.720 --> 0:26:25.480
<v Speaker 2>the term she Wolf of France to describe Henry the

0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:31.800
<v Speaker 2>Fourth's wife, Margaret of Anjous. Centuries later, in seventeen fifty seven,

0:26:32.160 --> 0:26:36.520
<v Speaker 2>the English poet Thomas Gray applied the term to Isabella,

0:26:37.160 --> 0:26:42.400
<v Speaker 2>quote she Wolf of France with unrelenting fangs that tersed

0:26:42.560 --> 0:26:47.800
<v Speaker 2>the bowels of thy mangled mate. The name stuck. Isabella

0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:51.080
<v Speaker 2>became known to history as the she Wolf of France.

0:26:51.920 --> 0:26:56.840
<v Speaker 2>The imagery is striking a feigned creature waiting in the woods,

0:26:57.359 --> 0:27:03.720
<v Speaker 2>the suggestion of sexual predation and indiscretion. There's also the

0:27:03.800 --> 0:27:08.439
<v Speaker 2>suggestion in the phrase, though Gray didn't mean it, of

0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:20.560
<v Speaker 2>a pack of other she wolves to come after. That's

0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:24.040
<v Speaker 2>the story of Queen Isabella deposing her husband the King,

0:27:24.600 --> 0:27:28.119
<v Speaker 2>but stick around after a brief sponsor break to find

0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:32.680
<v Speaker 2>out whether she really was responsible for Edward the Second's murder.

0:27:40.359 --> 0:27:45.040
<v Speaker 2>While many sources, including this very podcast, have speculated that

0:27:45.119 --> 0:27:49.040
<v Speaker 2>Isabella and her lover Mortimer were behind the murder of

0:27:49.119 --> 0:27:54.080
<v Speaker 2>the deposed King Edward the Second, not all historians agree.

0:27:54.160 --> 0:27:57.359
<v Speaker 2>Another story goes that Isabella had nothing to do with

0:27:57.440 --> 0:28:00.960
<v Speaker 2>the death of her husband. According to that story, Edward

0:28:01.160 --> 0:28:05.400
<v Speaker 2>escaped his captors in thirteen twenty six, and a dampelganger

0:28:05.600 --> 0:28:10.000
<v Speaker 2>was buried in his place. Eventually, he even reunited with

0:28:10.080 --> 0:28:13.600
<v Speaker 2>his son, Edward the Third, in disguise as a humble,

0:28:14.000 --> 0:28:19.600
<v Speaker 2>unsuspecting Welshman William the Welshman. It sounds like a merry

0:28:19.680 --> 0:28:23.040
<v Speaker 2>children's book character, but it has an outside chance of

0:28:23.119 --> 0:28:27.000
<v Speaker 2>being true. In this version of events, Isabella knew or

0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:30.879
<v Speaker 2>had reason to suspect, that her husband was alive, and

0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:33.520
<v Speaker 2>gave her peace to know she was not his murderer

0:28:34.119 --> 0:28:38.160
<v Speaker 2>enough piece that she felt comfortable wrapping herself in their

0:28:38.200 --> 0:28:56.920
<v Speaker 2>wedding cloak after her death, her conscience free. Noble Blood

0:28:57.040 --> 0:29:00.360
<v Speaker 2>is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Miles from

0:29:00.360 --> 0:29:04.320
<v Speaker 2>Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz.

0:29:04.760 --> 0:29:09.920
<v Speaker 2>Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Mira Hayward,

0:29:10.080 --> 0:29:13.719
<v Speaker 2>Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is produced by

0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:18.800
<v Speaker 2>rima Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive

0:29:18.840 --> 0:29:23.120
<v Speaker 2>producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more

0:29:23.160 --> 0:29:28.440
<v Speaker 2>podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:29:28.440 --> 0:29:30.280
<v Speaker 2>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.