Piers Gaveston's 'treasure'

 After the death of Piers Gaveston on June 19th 1312, a list of his possessions and treasure was made by Thomas of Lancaster.  It is a very detailed list, and can be found in J S Hamilton's 'Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall' book.  It makes fascinating reading, and not just because Piers was accused by one chronicle of stealing from the Royal treasury and hiding it abroad.  The fact that Edward II had basically put him in charge of the treasury is over-looked.  And if Piers was smuggling items abroad from the treasury, he didn't do the job very well, as the list of royal treasure is vast!   Of course, Lancaster's aim was to try to prove Piers had the treasure illegally, so there are lots of mentions of gold and silver cups and basins belonging to the Queen and other members of the royal family, including a cup that had belonged to Edward II's mother, Eleanor of Castile.  Kathryn Warner's excellent Edward II blog has a superb post about some of the items that were returned to the king by Lancaster.  Here's a link to the post -  Piers Gaveston and the Royal treasure.

Clearly some of these silver and gold cups etc did belong to Piers - they had his coat of arms on them.  There were also embroidered pearl encrusted tunics and rich fabrics, including green silk.  The list of gold and silver buckles and clasps is astounding!  Most of the items are given a value as well.  Lancaster was obviously making a point - that Piers had illegally acquired the jewels and treasure, many of which did not belong to him.   But of course, Edward II already knew this - after all, he had put Piers 'in charge' .  

I think by favourite items from the list are the 3 forks, which belonged to Piers and were used for eating pears!  Forks were unknown in England at the time, as people ate with a knife and their fingers.  The idea of the graceful and elegant Piers eating pears with his own forks makes me smile.