Page "Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall" Paragraph 10

On 6 August 1307, less than a month after succeeding, Edward II made Piers Gaveston Earl of Cornwall.

According to contemporary narrative sources, this was a controversial decision.

Gaveston came from relatively humble origins, and his rise to the highest level of the peerage was considered improper by the established nobility.

Furthermore, the earldom of Cornwall had traditionally been reserved for members of the royal family, and Edward I had intended it for one of his two younger sons from his second marriage.

The discontent reported by the chronicles may have been the result of hindsight, however ; there is no sign that the established nobility objected to the ennoblement of Gaveston at the time.

The earldom gave Gaveston substantial landholdings over great parts of England, to the value of £ 4, 000 a year.

These possessions consisted of most of Cornwall, as well as parts of Devonshire in the south-west, land in Berkshire and Oxfordshire centred on the honour of Wallingford, most of the eastern part of Lincolnshire, and the honour of Knaresborough in Yorkshire, with the territories that belonged to it.

In addition to this, Edward also secured a prestigious marriage between Gaveston and Margaret de Clare, sister of the powerful Earl of Gloucester.

The possessions and family connection secured Gaveston a place among the highest levels of the English nobility.