" First account of how Edward II developed a reputation for engaging in sexual and romantic relationships with men, and of the origins of the story that he was murdered by anal penetration with a red-hot spit; " First assessment of contemporary accounts of Edward II's sexual behaviour that is informed by with current scholarly understandings of the history of sex and the medieval and early modern discourse of sexual transgression; " Reveals the significant influence on medieval and early modern history-writing of literary texts and techniques, including illuminating the cultural impact of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II. During his lifetime and the four centuries following his death, King Edward II (1307-1327) acquired a reputation for having engaged in sexual and romantic relationships with his male favourites, and having been murdered by penetration with a red-hot spit. This book provides the first account of how this reputation developed, providing new insights into the processes and priorities that shaped narratives of sexual transgression in medieval and early modern England. In doing so, it analyses the changing vocabulary of sexual transgression in English, Latin and French; the conditions that created space for sympathetic depictions of same-sex love; and the use of medieval history in early modern political polemic. It also focuses, in particular, on the cultural impact of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II (c.1591-92). Through such close readings of poetry and drama, alongside chronicle accounts and political pamphlets, it demonstrates that Edward’s medieval and early modern afterlife was significantly shaped by the influence of literary texts and techniques. A ‘literary transformation’ of historiographical methodology is, it argues, an apposite response to the factors that shaped medieval and early modern narratives of the past.
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