57 



lost his crown and his life. The Despencers were soon taken 

 and executed as traitors, and the King himself being deserted 

 by his friends, was soon after captured in South Wales. He 

 was first sent to Kenilworth Castle, Thomas, Lord Berkeley, 

 Sir John Maltraveks and Sir Thomas de Gournat being 

 charged with his safe custody. Gournat and Maltravers, who 

 were his immediate gaolers removed him to Corfe Castle, and 

 thence to Bristol, from whence he was brought on Palm Sunday 

 April 5th, 1327 to Berkeley Castle. Lord Berkeley courteously 

 received the King, and seems to have treated him with kindness 

 and consideration ; but this did not please the Queen and her 

 advisers, for letters were soon after sent to Lord Berkeley 

 commanding him to " use no familiarity with Edward the late 

 King," but to deliver over the custody of him to Maltravers 

 and GoTJRNAY. Perceiving what was intended, Lord Berkeley 

 withdrew with a heavy heart to his manor house at Wotton- 

 imder-Edge. Gotjrnay and Maltravers now treated their 

 unhappy charge with the greatest cruelty and indignity, hoping 

 thereby to hasten his death ; and among other tortures they 

 almost suffocated him with the stench of putrid carcases placed in 

 a cellar or dungeon under the floor of his apartment. As this 

 treatment did not sufficiently hasten his death, they at length 

 murdered him with circumstances of horrible barbarity at mid- 

 night on 21st September, 1327. His shrieks were heard in the 

 town, and in the morning the inhabitants were told that the 

 King had died of some sudden seizure in the night, and were 

 invited to come and view the body. It shewed no wound, but 

 the features were terribly distorted as though from a violent and 

 painful death. 



The monasteries at Kingswood, Bristol, and Malmesbury 

 refused to receive the corpse, fearing the Queen's displeasure, 

 but the Abbot of St. Peter's at Gloucester, to his honour, 

 brought it from Berkeley and received it at his Cathedral, with 

 a procession of the whole convent and of the city, and buried 

 it honourably in the north aisle, near the high altar. 



The Steward's accounts of the time contain several entries 

 having reference to the King's residence at Berkeley, and the 



