Edward's weird hobbies

Edward II enjoyed thatching, digging ditches, building walls, swimming, rowing, and all manner of other outdoor hobbies considered incompatible with his royal dignity.

But seen from a 21st century perspective, this is quite endearing, isn't it? The king with the common touch, who liked talking to 'normal' non-aristocratic people. Totally unconventional by the standards of his time, nowadays he'd probably be seen as an excellent role model for a nation of couch potatoes!

I've thought before that he was a man out of his time. Had he lived today, a tall, good looking, strong, man of the people he'd have probably been a movie star. Either that or he and the equally striking Isabella would've been the new Posh and Beckham!

Good point, Paul. I think this is one reason why I'm so interested in Edward - the phrase ' a man out of his time' is one I use often, and he was so utterly unconventional by the standards of his time.

I've often thought that his habit of hanging out with peasants, so incomprehensible to the medieval mind, would make him very popular nowadays - the king with the common touch.

Haha, love the idea of Eddie and Izzy as Posh and Becks!

Charlemagne was noted for his interest in swimming - he was very good and encouraged those of his court to follow suit.

Interesting to note the interest in "outdoor" activities of the "modern day" royals, and their movement amongst the "common" people.

Edward's interest in the more humble of his subjects bears a striking resemblence to the current royal fascination with those less fortunate.


Yes, definitely a man before his time ...

I read that swimming was a noble´s sport, so I got confused when I read above that the fact that he liked to swim was scandalous.
But coudl somebody please explain to me what were the sports of the nobles in that century? I mean what did the people expected Edward II to do? Getting peasant girls pregnant? Going into his father´s campaigns all the time?
I mean when I look at his activities I think it was kind o unusual, but the people of his time act as if he was placing his sister´s dresses and walking around with Piers Gaveston making flowers bouquets.
I tried to research and just found out that medievla princes were supposed to play chess, go to war campaigns , but if someone gave me a quicklist or something perhaps I could understand a but better.

AndreaFaery wrote:

I mean when I look at his activities I think it was kind o unusual, but the people of his time act as if he was placing his sister´s dresses and walking around with Piers Gaveston making flowers bouquets.

Noblemen were expected to go hunting and hawking, and the big one - jousting! I've never seen any evidence that Ed II ever jousted, maybe from personal preference, or maybe because it was so dangerous and his father didn't want to risk his sole surviving heir (before 1300) - some men died jousting in Ed's childhood, such as the earl of Surrey's son in 1286 and the duke of Brabant in 1294.

Other hobbies - dicing and gambling, maybe - which Ed did do, enthusiastically!

Did you mention "wenching" ?

Oppressing the peasants? No, I'm really, really not going to mention Mortimer or Thomas of Lancaster here - ooops! I just did!

Arguing with other barons and earls? Oh wait, Edward did that!

Appropriating other people's lands? I think that one was delegated to Hugh Despenser (both of them)

Oh thank you for mentioning the hobbies, I was aware of some of them but did not understand the fact that his people seemed to not like their prince to be athletic. But I get it, they wanted him to only do that (hunting,hawking),not any "peasant stuff".

And I can imagine him gambling great amounts of money, I mean he did not earn the money so he just expends it lavishly with no sense of the worth of that money (like the vast amount of presents he gave to Gaveston when he was first banished), but hey I don´t blame him , I think he should have been a really cold man because of his status and up bringing, and he turn out to be really humble at heart
EDII rules!

Oh, I just noticed you are from Costa Rica! Just imagine how Ed would feel if he knew he had a 21st century fan from Costa Rica - brilliant!

I would have thought a fair amount of time was spent on plain old boozing
I'm sure it was done during the gaming and other pursuits but don't you think it would have been pursued for it's own brand of entertainment?
Cheers!!

LOL, I think so too!
The chronicler Ranulph Higden says that Ed got drunk too often, and had a tendency to spill state secrets when in his cups. *Grins* Sounds to me too that he liked boozing for the sheer hell of it! He was also a late riser, which probably means that he'd been up half the night drinking and gambling.