Piers Gaveston beheaded at Blacklow Hill

June 1312

Captured by the Earl of Warwick, Edward II's Gascon favorite was tried on the spot and beheaded on a Warwickshire hill by two Welsh soldiers. The king wept inconsolably. His court lost its most flamboyant figure. The political consequences of the lynching poisoned baronial-royal relations for the rest of the reign and set the stage for Edward's own deposition.