On this day in 1326 King Edward II of England was deposed by forces led by his wife Isabella and her favourite, the exiled Roger de Mortimer.

The son of the fearsome Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots, Edward had ruled for 20 years. He was perceived as weak and indecisive and tended to have favourites at court to whom he entrusted much power. His defeat by the Scots at Bannockburn was a disaster and eventually his wife Isabella (known as the ‘She-Wolf of France’), had had enough and joined Mortimer who was plotting to overthrow him.

Edward was deposed in favour of his son Edward III and imprisoned at Berkeley Castle where he was later murdered. Mortimer was later executed for treason by the new King but Isabella was allowed to live on in comfort until she died 20 years later.

The poem today is The Female of the Species, by Rudyard Kipling:

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
Twas the women not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man’s timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn’t his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husbands each confirms the other’s tale –
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Today I will try to no longer be a people pleaser and approval seeker but to have the strength and courage to be myself.