Saturday, October 7th, is I date I will never forget! The Mortimer History Society were holding a historical event in Ludlow. One of the speakers was Kathryn Warner, who was to give a talk about Isabella of France, based around her book 'Isabella, Rebel Queen'. I've 'known' Kathryn for about 10 years, but only through e-mail and her superb blog on Edward II. After all this time, we were finally going to meet and I was going to hear her presentation. And what a wonderful day it was!
Ludlow is such a picturesque town on the borders of England and Wales, and of huge importance to the Mortimer family. Kathryn was due to talk for about 50 mins - and I wondered how on earth she would be able to keep to 50 minutes! How Kathryn managed to paint a superb 'pen portrait' of Isabella in such a short time, I'll never know! But it was all there - the history of her parents, her childhood, marriage and her relationship with Piers Gaveston and the collapse of her marriage which ended with the deposition of her husband, Edward II. I'm amazed that for almost an hour Kathryn didn't stop for a sip of water and made use of just a couple of cue cards. Her talk was riveting, informative and entertaining! Myths such as Piers receiving Isabella 's wedding presents were dismissed and there was laughter as any notion of William Wallace being Edward III's father were demolished. The complicated lineage of Edward and Isabella was expertly explained.
Having read Kathryn's book and her blog, Kathryn's talk was still thought-provoking. I hadn'I realised that Isabella's last child was born when she was only 25 - still at the height of her fertility. It begs the question why? Was it because of her fertility or her husband's? Or did Isabella and Edward cease sharing a bed? As Kathryn has shown, the marriage was happy and the couple were rarely apart and shared a bed frequently. Isabella was an ideal Queen and provided huge support for her husband. It may well be fertility problems weren't issue - or was it the influence of Hugh Despencer that changed Edward's attitude to his wife? It's an intriguing thought.
It was a wonderful day and I really enjoyed chatting away to Kathryn about Piers, Edward, Isabella, Hugh........Made me realise once again how happy I was when recovering from a severe bout of tonsillitis, confined to bed, having just re-read Jean Plaidy's 'The Follies of the King', I googled 'Piers Gaveston ' and found Kathryn 's superb blog!
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