Battle of Boroughbridge – a 700th anniversary podcast and conference

  • 14 March 2022
  • 3 minutes

Gonville & Caius College Fellow Dr Andrew Spencer has taken part in a podcast and a conference recently held at Caius discussing the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Boroughbridge and the execution of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1322.

The special episode – broadcast on March 14 by the War and Diplomacy podcast (click for link) – discusses the bloody end of a civil war that scarred one of England’s most troubled and turbulent reigns, that of Edward II.

The Battle of Boroughbridge was part of a civil war between Edward II and his cousin Thomas, earl of Lancaster, which led to the latter's execution and, later, the first deposition of a king in English history.

The podcast highlights a research project with The National Archives and the Universities of Lancaster and Lincoln in collaboration with the Duchy of Lancaster on the early history of the Duchy of Lancaster, which has the been the monarch's private estate since 1399. The project is titled: A State within a State? The making of the Duchy of Lancaster, c.1066-1422. The conference, which publicly launched the project, was titled The Earldom-Duchy of Lancaster and the Battle of Boroughbridge: New Research and Directions and took place in the Bateman Room at Caius on Saturday 12 March to an invited audience of academics and students.

Dr Spencer, the Caius Senior Tutor, has published extensively on the nobility, politics and constitution of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century England and features on the podcast alongside Dr Sophie Ambler and Dr Paul Dryburgh. Dr Ambler is the Deputy Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy and author of The Song of Simon de Montfort: England's First Revolutionary and the Death of Chivalry (2019); Dr Paul Dryburgh is Principal Record Specialist at The National Archives, and has been at the forefront of new research into the records and government of the era for nearly 20 years.

Thomas of Lancaster was the heir and political successor of Simon de Montfort, champion of parliament and government reform. He was also the mightiest noble of the age, ruling the earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, and Salisbury. His domain was a vast state within a state. It would later form the core of the Duchy of Lancaster, which since 1399 has been the private estate of England’s monarch.

In 1322, Thomas brought these huge resources to bear in challenging Edward II. But that year, on March 16, his force was defeated at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire. Within a week, Thomas was charged with a series of crimes against the king and kingdom, and sentenced to execution. On March 22, he was beheaded, at his own base of Pontefract. But that was not the end of the story. By 1327 Edward II had been deposed – the new regime annulled the sentence against Thomas and even petitioned for him to be made a saint.

In the podcast, Dr Spencer, Dr Ambler and Dr Dryburgh place the civil war of 1322 in the context of catastrophic famine and ongoing wars with Scotland, and consider the policies and personalities of Thomas and Edward II, as well as the sources for their careers. They make the case that Boroughbridge and the execution of Thomas of Lancaster transformed England’s political and military history. Dr Spencer also spoke at the conference.

Select further reading:

Paul R. Dryburgh, ‘The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel? Edward II and Ireland, 1321-7’, in The reign of Edward II: New Perspectives, ed. Gwilym Dodd and Anthony Musson (Woodbridge, 2006), pp. 119-39

Natalie Fryde, The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 (Cambridge, 1979).

J.R. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-22: A study in the reign of Edward II (Oxford, 1970)

Seymour Phillips, Edward II (New Haven (CT); London, 2010)

Andrew M. Spencer, ‘Thomas of Lancaster in the Vita Edwardi Secundi: A Study in Disillusionment’, in Thirteenth century England XIV. Proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011, ed. Janet E. Burton, Phillipp R. Schofield and Björn K. U. Weiler (Woodbridge, 2013), pp. 155-168

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