King Edward II: His Life, His Reign, and Its Aftermath, 1284-1330

Edward of Caernarfon is best known today for his disastrous military defeat in 1314 at Bannockburn, where his English army was defeated by a vastly inferior Scottish force led by Robert the Bruce, leading to Scottish Independence. This catastrophe was one of many in a disastrous career marked by indolence, vengefulness, vacillation in relationships with France, deranged policies at home, and constitutional wrangling, ultimately brought to an end by a minor insurgency led by his vindictive wife and her paramour, a disaffected baron.