The Deposition of Edward II (1327)

The removal of Edward II from the English throne in January 1327, the first deposition of an anointed English king since Aethelred II in 1013 and the first removal of a reigning king by his own subjects since the Norman Conquest. Following Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer's successful invasion in the autumn of 1326, Edward was captured, imprisoned and stripped of government; a meeting of prelates and magnates agreed his son should replace him, and articles of accusation were drawn up. No law or precedent existed for deposing an anointed king, so the regime framed the change as a voluntary abdication rather than a forced deposition, to avoid the taint of illegality, though the substance was compulsion. Edward III, aged fourteen, was crowned at Westminster on 29 January 1327. The episode set a precedent later English politics returned to directly: when Richard II faced deposition in 1399, the events of 1327 were cited to justify removing him too.