A KING DETHRONED: EDWARD II 1307–27 6.1 INTRODUCTION

Every second or third generation, the Plantagenet dynasty threw up an exception to its normal run of able, dynamic, ruthless men of war.1 These, simplistically, may be placed in the famous category created by the authors of 1066 and All That: the Weak King. The first was Henry III, the second his grandson, Edward II.