|
There's tantalisingly little evidence of the private dynamics of Isabella and Mortimer's relationship. But it was clearly an all-consuming passion, not least because of the danger into which they'd precipitated themselves. Adultery, for a Queen, was sin and treason combined. But for Isabella there were no longer any safe options. With her knight at her side and the most valuable pawn of all, her son, under her control, what move would the Queen make? Isabella took a momentous decision. It was no longer enough to remove Despenser. She needed to remove her husband too. She intended to do something unprecedented in English history, depose an anointed King. Could she, as a woman, achieve this? She certainly couldn't do it alone. She needed an army. And how she got one reveals a great deal about the woman she'd become. |