This Day in History: 1327-06-07
Some time after Hugh Despenser the Younger‘s execution (a court favourite of Edward II, but loathed by Edward’s wife Queen Isabella) at Hereford on 24th November 1326, Edward II was taken to Kenilworth Castle, arriving there on the 5th December 1326. Edward was then moved to Berkeley Castle and in June 1327 a gang, led by a Dominican friar and a papal chaplain called Thomas Dunheved, launched a ‘rescuing’ assault on Berkeley Castle. Whether Edward was freed or not (it’s debatable), he was captured shortly afterwards. The gang scattered and Thomas Dunheved was captured eighteen miles from his family home in Dunchurch, Warwickshire and sent to prison in Pontefract Castle, where he died.