Fieschi Letter

The letter is best known for its claim that Edward II was not murdered in 1327 but escaped and spent the remainder of his life in exile in Europe.

Edward reported to have lived the rest of his life in monastic hermitages near Cecima in the Diocese of Pavia, most likely in Sant'Alberto di Butrio abbey, Ponte Nizza.

The letter was discovered by a French archivist in an official register dated before 1368 which had been the property of Gaucelm de Deaux, bishop of Maguelonne, and was preserved in the Archives Departmentales d'Herault at Montpelier.

No one [citation needed] doubts the authenticity of Fieschi's letter, only its veracity, and it contains details that few people knew at the time and was written long before the accepted accounts of the flight, imprisonment and murder.

In a lengthy response to Mortimer's assertions, historian David Carpenter has argued that the letter "should not be taken as evidence of Edward II’s survival".

It is hard to imagine a quicker way of adding to the rumours that the king was alive than for large numbers of people to see a corpse with the face covered up.