In these words, Seymour Phillips, in his masterly biography of King Edward II, described the return from exile of Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall, in the winter of 1311–12, and the beginning of the final act in a story which ended in the death of the king’s favourite the following June. In examining Gaveston’s reunion with the king, Phillips, like other authors such as Pierre Chaplais and John Maddicott before him, used and cited one particular document, which he described as a ‘draft newsletter’, and which recounts events in Yorkshire at this tumultuous time. However, it is clear that the identities of both the writer and the intended recipient of that letter, neither of which is specified in the text, have been misunderstood for many years, and although it does not necessarily change the value of the information contained within the letter, understanding its origins does help to put the document, and its relevance, into greater context.

The letter itself is far from being the most impressive document in The National Archives’ collections. Measuring just 22cm by 15cm, its dorse is blank apart from a few scribbles, while the text on the face, written in Anglo-Norman French, begins some way from the top of the page and runs right down to the foot, before the sheet of parchment was turned round and a further six lines were added in the remaining gap, upside-down to the original text. These additional lines, and the final three lines of the main block of text, contain the details of national political events, suggesting that the author may have added them as something of an afterthought or addition to the main content of his letter.