Edward II's murder at Berkeley Castle in 1327 is one of the most
famous and lurid tales in all of English history. But is it true?
?For over five centuries, few people questioned it, but with the
discovery in a Montpellier archive of a remarkable document, an
alternative narrative has presented itself: that Edward escaped from
Berkeley Castle and made his way to an Italian hermitage.
In Long Live the King, medieval historian Kathryn Warner explores in
detail Edward's downfall and forced abdication in 1326/27, the role
possibly played by his wife Isabella of France, the wide variation in
chronicle accounts of his murder at Berkeley Castle and the fascinating
possibility that Edward lived on in Italy for many years after his
official funeral was held in Gloucester in December 1327.