The closeness between the two men did not go unnoticed at the time. Quite why the King wanted to separate his son from Gaveston is unclear, but as soon as Edward I died in 1307, the two were reunited, whereupon Edward promptly made Gaveston Earl of Cornwall. Devastated to be apart from his favourite, the Prince lavished Gaveston with gifts and accompanied him to Dover to see him off. By 1306, the ageing King Edward I had banished Gaveston to France. Piers Gaveston first appears in the then Prince Edward’s household accounts in 1300, when Edward was 15 and Gaveston not much older. King Edward was married to Isabella of France and while historians are still divided on whether or not his relationship with Piers Gaveston was romantic, a strong relationship has been recorded. Marlowe’s text is heavily suggestive of a romantic relationship between the two men Ian McKellen and James Laurenson perform a scene between Edward II and Piers Gaveston in a production of Christopher Marlowe’s play about the ill-fated king.
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