A Bibliographical Palimpsest: The Post-Publication History of the 1680 Octavo, The History of the Most Unfortunate Prince King Edward II

At once expressly relegated to the status of a derivative document and implicitly elevated to the status of an authoritative source, the small octavo publication entitled The History of the Most Unfortunate Prince King Edward II (London, 1 680) has been more used than considered. From its original editor through its subsequent eighteenth- and nineteenth-century editors, the 77-page pamphlet was seen as a sensational yet cogent critique of monarchical excess, especially in the selection, promotion, and main­tenance of disreputable and malefi c royal administrators or “favorites.” Discovered, as is claimed on the title page and in the preface, among the papers of a notable early Stuart privy councillor, Henry Cary, first Viscount Falkland and Lord Deputy of Ireland, the highly moralizing story of the misery effected by Gaveston and Spencer on Edward II and his realm was thought to provide, in 1680, a singularly potent yet loyal warning about contemporary monarchical practice. In the eighteenth century, it was thought to contribute to the commercial promise of the eight-volume The Harleian Miscellany: or a collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts as well in manuscript as in print, found in the late earl of Oxford’s library (London, 1744–1746).