The Sheer Dreadfulness of Hugh Despenser

It's true that Edward II was a very bad ruler; one of his problems was that he would adhere loyally to his favorites.  And though his loyalty to Piers Gaveston gave him difficulties, his loyalty to Hugh Despenser got him dead. Why, oh, why, did Edward think so highly of Hugh Despenser, the greedy dangerous, annoying chancellor who was so very dreadful that the queen invaded the country to get rid of him? And is the only Englishman to have a war named after him? Why? We don't know that.  But we do know that really Hugh should have been sent away long before things fell apart.  In this episode, we discuss the dreadfulness of Hugh, and the exciting news that we have perhaps found some of his bones.  Oh, and that execution.  It was bad.