The Confession of Piers Gaveston

The Confession of Piers Gaveston by Brandy Purdy is an intelligent and imaginative account of the life of one of English History's most notorious characters. Gaveston was a young man, son of a Gascon Knight in the army of King Edward the First, who is sent by the King to be companion to his heir also Edward. Gaveston has come down to us as a manipulative seducer of the young prince who used his position to gather great wealth and power. Purdy paints a different picture though whether from diligent research or sympathetic imagination I do not know. Whichever it is Purdy tells a compelling story. Gaveston's mother is burnt as a witch whilst his father is away fighting for King Edward. Along with two servants he is turned out to fend for himself at the age of nine and soon finds that his good looks are the surest way to provide them with food and shelter. Arriving in his father's camp he received training in arms and became an expert soldier and jouster. It is as a manly example to his son that the King sends Gaveston to the Prince's household in Hertfordshire but as soon as he arrives the young Prince falls for him with the terrible consequences that follow for all concerned. Both Shakespear and Marlowe wrote plays on the life of King Edward the Second centred around his affair with Gaveston and thus ensured that this remained in the public mind ever since. At Cambridge University gay students founded a Gaveston Society indicating that six centuries after his death his name is still synonymous with homosexuality. Perhaps it is only now in todays less censorious atmosphere that a book giving a more sympathetic interpretation of Gaveston's life and actions could be published. Whatever the truth, and who can say at this distance what it is, Brandy Purdy has written a most interesting book which gives the general reader an alternative insight into a life that for generations has been cast as a monument to vice, perversion and villainy.