Fieschi Letter
The Fieschi Letter was written to the English king
Contents of the letter
The Fieschi letter begins by following the historically accepted story that
Edward is then said to have stayed in Ireland for nine months. He then crossed to the Low Countries and travelled to Italy, visiting the pope in Avignon on his way through France. Edward reported to have lived the rest of his life in monastic hermitages near Cecima in the Diocese of Pavia, most likely in Sant'Alberto di Butrio abbey, Ponte Nizza.
Provenance
The letter was discovered by a French archivist in an official register dated before 1368 which had been the property of
Theories in support
No one [citation needed] doubts the authenticity of Fieschi's letter, only its veracity, and it contains details that few people knew at the time and was written long before the accepted accounts of the flight, imprisonment and murder.
Ian Mortimer has argued that it is 'almost certain' that Edward II did not die in 1327.[1] It is possible that Edward II knew he had no support at home and never tried to regain the throne, especially after his son, Edward III, had removed Roger Mortimer. In the Italian town of Cecima (75 km from Milan), there is a tradition that a king of England was buried there and there is an empty mediaeval tomb said to be the place of his burial before his body was repatriated to England by his son.
The elaborate funeral in Gloucester of the person supposed to be Edward II may have been that of the gate-keeper. Many local dignitaries were invited to view the body from a distance, but it had been embalmed and may have been unrecognisable. For the first time a carved wooden effigy of the dead king was carried through the streets rather than the body on a bier.
Diplomatic documents also show in 1338 that Edward III travelled to Koblenz to be installed as vicar of the Holy Roman Empire and there he met someone called William le Galeys, or William the Welshman, who claimed to be the king's father. (Edward II was born in Caernarvon and was the first son of an English king to be given the title Prince of Wales.) Claiming to be the king's father would have been dangerous, and it is not known what happened to William. Some historians claim that the person was a man named William Ockle.
Arguments against
Opponents who challenge the veracity of the contents of the letter argue that the letter should be seen rather as an attempt by the bishop of Maguelone (who had been sent to Germany to disrupt an Anglo-German alliance) to blackmail Edward III by undermining his position at the German court. Fieschi held various church appointments in England from 1319 and may also have been attempting to gain royal patronage.
Popular culture
The main plot of Ken Follett's novel, World Without End, is built around a similar letter. However, the fictional letter in the book was written by the King himself, and would have constituted an unquestionable proof.
References
- English Historical Reviewcxx (2005), pp. 1175-1224
- Ian Mortimer - The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327-1330 (2003)
- Ian Mortimer - The Perfect King: the Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation (2006), especially appendix three Archived 2013-03-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Alison Weir - Isabella, She Wolf of France; Queen of England 0712641947 (2005)