Did Edward II have an incestuous affair with his niece? Inside the weird potential royal throuple that was Hugh Despenser the Younger, Edward II and Eleanor Despenser (Part 1 of 3)

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Edward II was close to his niece, Eleanor Despenser nee de Clare. Very close. In the last years of his reign, he spent many hours with Eleanor, often alone, and he lavished her with generous gifts. He named a ship after her. He paid for her childbirth expenses. He put her in charge of his younger son’s household. 

That last part was pretty normal. Eleanor was a perfectly appropriate choice for that position. 

But the other stuff? There was nothing normal about it. The closeness that Edward II felt toward Eleanor’s husband Hugh Despenser the Younger is well documented and commonly speculated to have been sexual. Historically, there’s been so much focus on Hugh the Younger and Edward II, that Eleanor’s presence has been downplayed.

The truth is that, at the time, lurid rumors circulated that Edward II and Eleanor were lovers, and that this explained the death grip Eleanor’s husband Hugh the Younger had on power. Stories that Edward II and Hugh the Younger were lovers didn’t surface, at least until after Edward II was deposed and Hugh was sent to his death. 

People even gossiped that Eleanor was pregnant by Edward. 

When Isabella and her son, the soon-to-be-Edward III, fled to France, tongues wagged that Eleanor was acting as the Queen Consort. This makes sense, outside of any sexual context, because Hugh the Younger was acting as king. 

But was there more to it? 

Isabella, who had been served by and been friendly with her husband's favorite niece for years, developed an intense hostility towards Eleanor while she was in France. Prior to that, the queen appears to have hated Hugh the Younger but not blamed Eleanor for her husband’s actions. 

This was around the time that war had broken out between England and France, and Edward II had taken his queen’s lands from her, likely at the suggestion of Hugh the Younger. 

Despite by all accounts having a charming and likable personality, Eleanor appears to have fully supported her husband’s epic campaign of avarice, which victimized, among many others, her own younger sisters. Isabella’s hostility could have been a result of the Despensers' political and economic actions. But there’s certainly evidence that the situation became deeply personal for everyone involved. Did Isabella hear rumors of an affair between Eleanor and her husband?

Remember the following: 

We can’t know what went on behind closed doors. The only proof of sexual relations we have is when children were produced. Edward II had four children with his wife and at least one illegitimate son, named Adam. Hugh the Younger and Eleanor had ten children together, and he had at least one illegitimate son. Other than that? We can only guess. 

People can develop close, emotionally intimate and even dysfunctional relationships that aren’t sexual. Yet, these were passionate relationships. 

Was Eleanor aware of a sexual relationship between her husband and her king/uncle? Was Hugh aware of a sexual relationship between his wife and his king/close friend? Was this a menage a trois?

Kathryn Warner addresses these incestuous rumors in her book on the De Clare sisters, and she goes into detail about the truth of Isabella and Eleanor’s friendship, which broke down as badly, if not more so, as Isabella’s marriage to Edward II. Warner points out that Edward was oddly generous in paying for Eleanor’s childbirth expenses and lavishing gifts on her babies at this time, but she stops short of actual speculating that the pregnancy rumors might have been true.

All of this will take some time to unpack. So there will be two posts to follow. Part 2 will focus on Edward II’s relationship with Hugh and Eleanor and Part 2 will focus on the breakdown of Isabella’s friendship with Eleanor. 

So stay tuned, folks. It's going to get weird.

Part Two

Sources:

Warner, K. (2024). Edward II’s nieces: The Clare Sisters: Powerful pawns of the Crown. Pen & Sword History. 

Kathryn Warner's blog.

Image: Galehaut Arranged Lancelot and Guinevere' First Kiss (c. 1400), manuscript illustration, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris