Introduction

It is important to emphasize that Edward II's relationships with his favourites were not represented by medieval and early modern writers solely as sexually indulgent. The emotional depth of these relationships is a central part of the historiographical tradition surrounding Edward, and it is this – arguably more than the sensationalized depictions of ‘lechery’ and sexual sin – that made his story so compelling for writers and readers in these periods. However, the way in which writers depicted Edward's emotional attachment to his favourites shifted over time, as repeated statements that Edward ‘called Gaveston his brother’ gave way to increasingly romanticized narratives.

The relative scholarly neglect of the emotional, often romantic representation of these relationships (outside of literary criticism of Marlowe's Edward II) doubtless partly reflects the lack of attention to the long-term development of Edward's reputation, in favour of attempts to establish the ‘facts’ of his behaviour. Emotion and psychological realism in accounts of historical figures is often, implicitly or not, considered the preserve of literary critics, and has consequently been largely ignored by biographers of Edward and historians of his reign. It seems to me, however, that this lack of attention to the significant historiographical tradition of the love between Edward and his favourites also reflects more modern popular discourse, in which same-sex relationships are disproportionately seen as characterized by desire rather than by love.