ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the chronology of the events in Medieval Britain during the period 1307-99. On 7th November 1307, Gaveston is married by the king at Berkhamsted Castle to the king’s sister Countess Joan of Gloucester’s second daughter by the ‘Red Ear’ Gilbert de Clare, Margaret de Clare (1293–1342), co-heiress to her brother the current Earl Gilbert. On 25th January 1308, the marriage of Edward (aged 23) and Isabella (probably aged 15) at Boulogne Cathedral takes place. On 9th February, the royal party leave Dover, and proceed to the main royal country residence SE of London at Eltham Palace near Greenwich, recently bequeathed to the king by his father’s late minister Bishop Bek of Durham who rebuilt it. The displays of affection between Edward and Gaveston give rise to anger, exacerbated by Edward’s lack of interest in or granting of traditional funds and a separate household to his under-age teenage bride.
