England
Foreign Affairs
But fortune did not favor Edward II. The Scots were in rebellion when he became king, and the treasury was empty. It took the king a few years to be able to raise an army, and when he did he led it to the worst defeat in living memory at Bannockburn in 1314. Northern England was to suffer from almost annual Scottish raid for years. Edward eventually had to accept a truce on unfavorable terms in 1323.
Matters were hardly better with regard to France. His father had married Edward off to Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV of France. But he did not love her and he treated her badly. She was embarassed by Edward's relations with Piers Gaveston and by his public neglect of her. Eventually, the queen took Roger Mortimer as her lover, creating a potential center for revolt.
At the same time, the French were pressuring Edward to do homage for Gascony. The English king refused, and Charles IV seized the duchy in 1324. A settlement in 1325 had the young Prince Edward (who would become Edward III) going to the French court to perform fealty on his behalf, thus saving the humiliation of the king himself having to do this.