Edward II · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
King Edward II
major
Also known as Edward, Ned, King Edward
A king who would rather dote on his favorite than govern, Edward turns a royal court into a battlefield of wounded pride and jealous love.
Younger Mortimer
major
Also known as Mortimer, the Younger Mortimer, Lord Mortimer
A proud baron who despises the king's favorites, Mortimer channels his ambition into rebellion and his resentment into a dangerous intimacy with the neglected queen.
Queen Isabella
major
Also known as Isabella, Isabel, Queen Isabella
Edward's French queen, publicly humiliated and privately furious, Isabella watches her husband lavish affection on Gaveston while she is left to pine and plot.
Younger Spenser
supporting
Also known as Spenser, the Younger Spenser, Hugh Spenser, sweet Spenser
Younger Spenser rises to fill the intimate place Gaveston left vacant, becoming the king's confidant and reader of dangerous dispatches. Where Gaveston charmed with masques and music, Spenser counsels severity, pressing Edward to stop suffering baronial insults and start lopping heads. His ascent makes him a target of the same noble hatred that destroyed his predecessor, tying his fate to the king's increasingly isolated court.
Baldock
supporting
Also known as Baldock
Baldock enters the play as a servant seeking employment and is taken on by Edward for the plain reason that his gentry comes from Oxford rather than heraldry. He quickly becomes a voice in the king's ear, applauding the 'haught resolve' to defy the barons as befits a sovereign rather than a schoolboy. His willingness to flatter royal anger makes him complicit in the misgovernment that the nobles rise to correct.
Earl of Kent
supporting
Also known as Kent, Edmund, uncle Kent
Kent first pleads with Edward to banish Gaveston for the realm's sake, and is called traitor for his pains. He then presents himself to Lancaster, Warwick, and Mortimer as a convert to their cause, offering his honor as hostage for his truth. His divided loyalty between blood and country makes him a barometer of how thoroughly the royal family has fractured.
Earl of Warwick
supporting
Also known as Warwick, Lord Warwick, proud Warwick
Warwick pursues Gaveston with the cold certainty of a man who believes he is executing public justice rather than private vengeance. When Pembroke's men protest that taking the prisoner dishonors their lord, Warwick answers simply that it is his country's cause he follows, then tells Gaveston his shadow may parley with King Edward. His implacability, named by Edward himself alongside Lancaster's, gives the baronial opposition its sharpest edge.
Earl of Pembroke
supporting
Also known as Pembroke, Lord Pembroke, my Lord of Pembroke
Pembroke stands among the earls who scale Tynemouth's walls and swear homage to the prince's right, but he is the one whose word is questioned when Warwick snatches Gaveston from his men. His protest through James that Warwick wrongs an honorable friend shows a nobleman caught between factional loyalty and personal faith. That tension makes him a measure of how far the barons will go once their cause is loosed.
Prince Edward
supporting
Also known as Prince Edward, Edward
Prince Edward returns from Flanders in the armed retinue of Isabella, Mortimer, and Sir John of Hainault, the nominal right in whose name the rebels swear homage and fealty. His father's lament that his 'little boy' is thus misled to countenance their ills marks the human cost of the civil war. As the figure both sides invoke, he embodies the succession that makes the conflict over Edward's favorites so dangerous to the realm.
Matrevis
supporting
Also known as Matrevis
A jailer who measures a king's endurance like a farmer weighing rain, Matrevis guards Edward in Berkeley's flooded vault and finds the body harder to break than the mind.
Piers Gaveston
major
Also known as Gaveston, Pierce of Gaveston, poor Gaveston, sweet Gaveston
The exiled favorite who returns to England hungry for a king's embrace, Gaveston stages spectacles of desire while treating barons and beggars as disposable props.
Earl of Lancaster
supporting
Also known as Lancaster, Earl of Lancaster
A powerful earl whose loathing for Gaveston is immediate and absolute, Lancaster embodies the baronial fury that turns a court quarrel into armed revolt.
Elder Mortimer
supporting
Also known as the Elder Mortimer, Elder Mortimer
The elder of the Mortimer name, he stands among the barons who resist the king's favorites, his authority shadowed by his more ambitious kinsman.
Gurney
supporting
Also known as Gurney
Gurney opens the dungeon door only to throw meat and nearly choke on the stench, a keeper whose casual cruelty is matched by his fear of being the one left holding the knife.
Lightborn
supporting
Also known as Lightborn
Sent with an unpointed letter and a red-hot spit, Lightborn arrives at Berkeley Castle speaking comfort while preparing the most intimate violence in the play.
Trussel
minor
Also known as Trussel
Messenger who brings news of Edward's abdication to the court.
Beaumont
minor
Also known as Beaumont
Nobleman who serves as a messenger and attendant to the barons.
Rice ap Howel
minor
Also known as Rice ap Howel, Rice ap
Welsh captain who captures Spenser and delivers him to the barons.
Levune
minor
Also known as Levune
Messenger sent by the French king to negotiate with Edward.
Lord Berkeley
minor
Also known as Berkeley, Lord Berkeley, The Lord of Berkeley
Nobleman in whose castle Edward is imprisoned.
Lord Arundel
minor
Also known as Arundel, Lord Arundel
Baron who supports the king and is executed by the rebels.
Sir John of Hainault
minor
Also known as John of Hainault, Sir John, Hainault
Foreign ally who aids Isabella and Mortimer in their invasion of England.
James
minor
Also known as James
Servant or attendant to the queen, delivering messages.
Niece
minor
Also known as Niece, King Edward's Niece
King Edward's niece, married to Gaveston to elevate his status.
Elder Spenser
minor
Also known as the Elder Spenser, Elder Spenser
Father of Younger Spenser, executed by the barons for supporting Edward.
Lord Percy
minor
Also known as Percy, Lord Percy
Nobleman who briefly appears among the baronial opposition.
Mowbray
minor
Also known as Mowbray
Nobleman mentioned as part of the baronial faction.
Lord Bruce
minor
Also known as Lord Bruce
Scottish lord referenced in the context of border conflicts.
