Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall (c. 1284 – 19 June 1312) was an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favourite of King Edward II of England.

At a young age he made a good impression on King Edward I "Longshanks", and was assigned to the household of the King's son, Edward of Carnarvon. The prince's partiality for Gaveston was so extravagant that Edward I sent the favourite into exile, but he was recalled a few months later, after the King's death led to the prince's accession as Edward II. Edward bestowed the Earldom of Cornwall on Gaveston, and arranged for him to marry his niece Margaret de Clare, sister of the powerful Earl of Gloucester.

Gaveston's exclusive access to the King provoked several members of the nobility, and in 1308 the King was again forced to send him into exile. During this absence he served as the King's Lieutenant of Ireland. Edward managed to negotiate a deal with the opposition, however, and Gaveston returned the next year. Upon his return his behaviour became even more offensive, and by the Ordinances of 1311 it was decided that Gaveston should be exiled for a third time, to suffer outlawry if he returned. When he did return in 1312, he was hunted down and executed by a group of magnates led by Thomas of Lancaster and Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

It was alleged by medieval chroniclers that Edward II and Piers Gaveston were lovers, a rumour that was reinforced by later portrayals in fiction, such as Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II. This assertion has received the support of some modern historians, while others have questioned it. According to Pierre Chaplais, the relationship between the two was that of an adoptive brotherhood, and Gaveston served as an unofficial deputy for a reluctant king. Other historians, like J.S. Hamilton, have pointed out that concern over the two men's sexuality was not at the core of the nobility's grievances, which rather centred on Gaveston's exclusive access to royal patronage.

Family background and early life[link]

Piers Gaveston's father was Arnaud de Gabaston, a Gascon knight in the service of Gaston VII of Béarn.^[1] Gabaston had come into a substantial amount of land in Gascony through his marriage to Claramonde de Marsan, who was co-heir with her brother of the great landowner Arnaud-Guillaume de Marsan.^[2] Through the possessions of his wife, Gabaston also became a vassal of the King of England, in the King's capacity of Duke of Aquitaine.^[3] His service to Edward I of England stretched over a long period of time, starting in the Welsh Wars of 1282–83, in which he participated with a substantial contingent.^[3] Sometime before 4 February 1287, Claramonde died, and for the rest of his life Gabaston struggled to retain his wife's inheritance from rival claims by relatives and neighbours. Because of this, he became financially dependent on the English king, and was continuously in his service.^[4] He was used as a hostage by Edward twice: first in 1288 to Aragon, secondly in 1294 to the French king, when he managed to escape and flee to England in 1297.^[5] After returning home, he was back in England in 1300, where he served with Edward I in the Scottish Wars. He died at some point before 18 May 1302.^[4]

Little is known of Piers Gaveston's early years; even his year of birth is unknown. He and Prince Edward of Carnarvon (born 25 April 1284) were said to be contemporaries (coetanei), so it can be assumed that he was born in or around 1284.^[6] Though one chronicle claims he accompanied his father to England in 1297, the first reliable reference to him is from Gascony later that year, when he served in the company of Edward I.^[7] In 1300 he sailed to England with his father and his older brother, Arnaud-Guillaume de Marsan. It was at this time that he became a member of the household of the young Prince Edward – the future Edward II.^[8] The King was apparently impressed by Gaveston's conduct and martial skills, and wanted him to serve as a model for his son. In 1304, the king awarded Gaveston the wardship of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, after the death of Roger's father, on the request of Edward, Prince of Wales.^[9] This put Gaveston in charge of Mortimer's possessions during the latter's minority, and served as proof of the king's confidence in his son's companion.^[10]

As part of the circle around the prince, however, Gaveston also became entangled in conflicts between the king and his son. These difficulties first materialised in a dispute between treasurer Walter Langton and Prince Edward. The case enraged King Edward to the point where he banned his son from court, and banished several men from the prince's household. Though the two were reconciled at a later point, the king still prevented Gaveston from rejoining the prince. This matter was settled before 26 May 1306, however, the date when Gaveston was knighted, four days after the prince.^[11] Later that year Gaveston was once more in trouble, when he and twenty-one other knights deserted a Scottish campaign to attend a tournament. An arrest order was sent out for the deserters, but, at the insistence of Queen Margaret, they were all pardoned in January 1307.^[12]

First exile and return[link]

Gaveston's return to grace was only temporary. On 26 February 1307, Edward I announced that the prince's favourite had to leave the realm shortly after 30 April that year. This time it seems the punishment was not intended for Gaveston, though, but for the Prince of Wales.^[13] According to Walter of Guisborough, the prince appeared before the king to request that his own county of Ponthieu be given to Gaveston. Edward I, enraged, tore out handfuls of his son's hair and threw him out of the royal chambers.^[14] Though Guisborough cannot necessarily be trusted on the details of the events, the story reflects the general exasperation the king felt with the prince's favouritism towards Gaveston, and the lavish gifts bestowed on the favourite.^[15][16] This extravagance was clearly seen on Gaveston's departure, when Prince Edward equipped him with horses, luxurious clothes, and £260 of money.^[17]

Gaveston's first exile was to be a short one. In early July 1307, Edward I fell ill while once more campaigning in the North, and lay dying at Burgh by Sands near the Scottish border. According to one chronicle, he gathered some of his most trusted men around him, including Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Aymer de Valence, soon to be Earl of Pembroke. Edward entrusted the magnates with the care of his son, and instructed them particularly to prevent the return of Piers Gaveston from exile.^[18] Nevertheless, when the king died on 7 July, one of Edward II's first acts as king was to recall his friend. Gaveston returned almost immediately, and the two were reunited by early August.^[19]

Earl of Cornwall[link]

Initial from the charter granting Gaveston the earldom of Cornwall, showing the arms of England at top, and Gaveston's coat of arms impaled with those of de Clare below.

On 6 August 1307, less than a month after succeeding, Edward II made Piers Gaveston Earl of Cornwall.^[20] According to contemporary narrative sources, this was a controversial decision. Gaveston came from relatively humble origins, and his rise to the highest level of the peerage was considered improper by the established nobility. Furthermore, the earldom of Cornwall had traditionally been reserved for members of the royal family, and Edward I had intended it for one of his two younger sons from his second marriage.^[21] The discontent reported by the chronicles may have been the result of hindsight, however; there is no sign that the established nobility objected to the ennoblement of Gaveston at the time.^[22] The earldom gave Gaveston substantial landholdings over great parts of England, to the value of £4,000 a year.^[23] These possessions consisted of most of Cornwall, as well as parts of Devonshire in the south-west, land in Berkshire and Oxfordshire centred on the honour of Wallingford, most of the eastern part of Lincolnshire, and the honour of Knaresborough in Yorkshire, with the territories that belonged to it.^[24] In addition to this, Edward also secured a prestigious marriage between Gaveston and Margaret de Clare, sister of the powerful Earl of Gloucester.^[25] The possessions and family connection secured Gaveston a place among the highest levels of the English nobility.^[24]

Even though the new king was initially met with goodwill from his subjects, it was not long before certain members of the nobility became disaffected with Gaveston and the special relationship he enjoyed with Edward. On 2 December 1307, exactly one month after Gaveston's marriage, the king organised a tournament in Gaveston's honour at Wallingford Castle.^[26] Here Gaveston and his companions in arms handed a humiliating defeat to the earls of Warenne, Hereford, and Arundel.^[27] Gaveston won, according to various accounts of the events, either by bringing too many knights to the field, or simply by having a better contingent. From this point on Warenne – and possibly also the other two earls – became hostile to Gaveston.^[28]

When Edward II left the country early in 1308 to marry the French king's daughter Isabella, he appointed Gaveston regent in his place. This was a responsibility that would normally be given to a close family member of the reigning king.^[29] There is no sign that Gaveston exploited the regency for personal gains, but the other nobles were still offended by his arrogant behaviour.^[30] This behaviour continued at the coronation feast after the king's return, during which the king largely ignored his new wife in favour of Gaveston.^[31] The collective grievances first found expression in the so-called 'Boulogne agreement' of January 1308, in which the earls of Warenne, Hereford, Lincoln and Pembroke expressed concern about oppression of the people and attacks on the honour of the crown. Though not mentioned by name, Gaveston was the implied target of this document.^[32] Later that year, in the April parliament, the so-called Declaration of 1308 demanded the renewed exile of Gaveston, again without explicitly mentioning the favourite by name.^[33] The king initially resisted, but had to give in to the demand once it became clear that the barons had the support of King Philip IV of France, who was offended by Edward's treatment of his daughter.^[34] On 18 May, Edward consented to sending Gaveston into exile.^[35]

Ireland and return[link]

Coat of arms of Piers Gaveston

Gaveston was not exiled immediately; he did not have to leave the realm until 25 June, but faced excommunication by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Winchelsey, should he return.^[36] Edward used the intervening period to provide for his favourite's continued prosperity and political importance. As a compensation for the loss of the earldom of Cornwall, which was another condition of the exile, Gaveston was granted land worth 3,000 marks annually in Gascony, and land amounting to the same value in England.^[37] Further to this, he was appointed the king's Lieutenant of Ireland, so that a certain amount of honour could be maintained despite the humiliation of the exile.^[38] The appointment came the day after Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, had been given the same position, indicating that it was an improvised measure.^[39] Gaveston's appointment came with wider authority than Ulster's, however, for he had full regal powers to appoint and dismiss any royal officers.^[40]

Gaveston's lieutenancy was primarily of a military nature; by the early 14th century, Ireland had become a rebellious and unruly dominion for the English crown. In this capacity Gaveston had considerable success, killing or defeating several major insurgents. He fortified the town of Newcastle McKynegan and Castle Kevin, and rebuilt the road from Castle Kevin to Glendalough. This helped pacify the county at least as far as the Wicklow Mountains, west of Dublin.^[41] In the field of administration he made less of a mark. The most notable issue with which he was involved concerned a dispute over murage – a toll on the town walls – between the citizens of Dublin.^[42] As during the regency, though, there is no evidence that Gaveston exploited his position for his own advantage and he did nothing to alienate the local elite.^[43]

Edward II began working towards a recall before Gaveston had even left.^[44] Through distribution of patronage and concessions to political demands, he won over several of the earls who had previously been of a hostile disposition.^[45] Lincoln, who was the leader of the baronial opposition due to his age and great wealth, was reconciled with Edward by late summer 1308. Even Warwick, who had been the most unyielding of the king's enemies, was gradually mollified.^[46] Significantly, though, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who had not been involved in the campaign to exile Gaveston, seems to have become disaffected at this time.^[47] Nevertheless, by 25 April 1309, Pope Clement V was satisfied that the difficulties between the king and his magnates had been settled, and agreed to lift the interdict against Gaveston.^[48] At the parliament that met at Stamford in July, Edward had to agree to a series of political concessions. The so-called Statute of Stamford was based on a similar document Edward I had consented to in 1300, called the articuli super carta, which was in turn based on Magna Carta.^[49] Before the Stamford Parliament, however, on 27 June, Gaveston had returned to England.^[50]

Ordinances and final exile[link]

On 5 August 1309, Gaveston was reinstated with the earldom of Cornwall.^[51] It did not take long, however, for him to alienate the earls once more. The chronicles tell of how Gaveston gave mocking nicknames to other earls, calling Lincoln 'burst-belly', Pembroke 'Joseph the Jew', Lancaster 'the fiddler' and Warwick 'the black dog of Arden' (from the forest of Arden in Warwickshire).^[52] Gaveston also began to exploit his relationship with the king more ostentatiously, obtaining favours and appointments for his friends and servants.^[53] The political climate became so hateful that in February 1310, a number of the earls refused to attend parliament as long as Gaveston was present.^[54] Gaveston was dismissed, and, when parliament convened, the disaffected barons presented a list of grievances they wanted addressed. On 16 March, the king was forced to appoint a group of men to ordain reforms of the royal household.^[55] This group of so-called Lords Ordainers consisted of eight earls, seven bishops and six barons.^[56] Among the earls were supporters of the king, like Gloucester and John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, as well as strong opponents, like Lancaster and Warwick.^[57]

While the Ordainers were at work drafting their reform document, Edward decided to address one of the main causes behind the discontent: the Scottish situation.^[56] Edward II had, almost immediately after his accession, abandoned the relentless Scottish campaigns of his father.^[58] As a result, Robert the Bruce had been able to regain the initiative in the war, reconquer lost territory, and stage destructive raids into the north of England. To aggravate matters, Edward had continued to raise extortionate taxes, ostensibly for the war in Scotland, but without showing any result.^[59] If the king could produce victory against the Scots, this would go a long way towards undermining the work of the Ordainers.^[60] In June, the king summoned the magnates for a military campaign, but most of the Ordainers refused on the basis of the work they were performing.^[61] When the king departed for Scotland in September, only Gloucester, Warenne and Gaveston among the earls accompanied him.^[62] The campaign proved frustrating for Edward, when Bruce refused to engage in open battle, or even get involved in negotiations. In February, Gaveston was sent with an army north from Roxburgh to Perth, but he failed to track down the Scottish army.^[63]

While the royal army was in the north, Edward received news from London that the Earl of Lincoln had died on 6 February 1311.^[64] This meant that a moderating influence on the baronial party had been lost, at the same time as the antagonistic Earl of Lancaster – who was Lincoln's son-in-law and heir – emerged as the leader of the Ordainers.^[65] With the Ordainers ready to present their programme of reform, Edward had to summon a parliament. In late July he appointed Gaveston Lieutenant of Scotland, and departed for London.^[66] Bruce still evaded the English successfully, in early August even staging a raid into northern England, and shortly after this Gaveston withdrew to Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland.^[67] When parliament met on 16 August, the king was presented with a set of proposed reforms of the royal household, as well as specific attacks on individuals, including a demand for the renewed exile of Piers Gaveston.^[68] Edward initially offered to agree to the reforms as long as Gaveston was allowed to stay, but the Ordainers refused. The king held out for as long as he could, but eventually had to agree to the Ordinances, which were published on 27 September.^[69] On 3 November, two days after the allotted deadline, Gaveston left England for the last time.^[70]

Return and death[link]

View of Warwick Castle from St Mary's Church

It is not quite clear where Gaveston spent his time abroad; the conditions of his exile banned him from staying in any of the lands of the English king. This precluded both Aquitaine and Ireland, where he had spent his previous exiles.^[70] There is some evidence that he might have gone to France initially, but considering the French king's hostile attitude towards him, he is not likely to have stayed there long. Flanders is a much more likely candidate for Gaveston's third and final exile.^[71] This time his absence was even shorter than the second time, lasting no more than two months. Returning around Christmas 1311, he was reunited with the king early in 1312, probably at Knaresborough on 13 January.^[22] The reason for his quick return might have been the birth of his child, a daughter named Amie, around this time. On 18 January, Edward declared the judgement against Gaveston unlawful, and restored all lands to him.^[72]

The royal and baronial parties now both began preparations for war. In March, Gaveston settled at Scarborough, and began to fortify the castle.^[73] Around the same time, he was pronounced excommunicate by Archbishop Winchelsey at St Paul's. At the same meeting the barons – under the leadership of Lancaster – divided up the realm to oppose the king. Pembroke and Warenne were given the responsibility of capturing Gaveston.^[74] On 4 May, the king and Gaveston were at Newcastle, and barely escaped a force led by Lancaster, Henry Percy and Robert Clifford.^[75] Gaveston then returned to Scarborough, while the king left for York. Scarborough was soon besieged by Pembroke, Warenne, Percy and Clifford, and on 19 May Gaveston surrendered to the besiegers.^[76] The terms of the surrender were that Pembroke, Warenne and Percy would take Gaveston to York, where the barons would negotiate with the king. If an agreement could not be reached by 1 August, Gaveston would be allowed to return to Scarborough. The three swore an oath to guarantee his safety.^[77] After an initial meeting with the king in York, Gaveston was left in the custody of Pembroke, who escorted him south for safekeeping.^[78]

On 9 June, Pembroke left Gaveston at the rectory at Deddington in Oxfordshire, while he himself left to visit his wife.^[79] When Warwick found out about Gaveston's whereabouts, he immediately rode out to capture him. The next morning he appeared at the rectory, where he took Gaveston captive and brought him back to his castle at Warwick.^[80] Pembroke, whose honour had been affronted, appealed for justice both to Gaveston's brother-in-law Gloucester and to the University of Oxford, but to no avail.^[81][82] At Warwick, Gaveston was condemned to death for violating the terms of the Ordinances, before an assembly of barons, including Warwick, Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel.^[83] On 19 June, he was taken out on the road towards Kenilworth as far as Blacklow Hill, which was on the Earl of Lancaster's land. Here, two Welshmen ran him through with a sword, before beheading him.^[84]

Aftermath[link]

The 1823 Gaveston monument at Blacklow Hill.

Gaveston's body was simply left behind at the site of his execution. One chronicle tells of how four shoemakers brought it to Warwick, who refused to accept it, and ordered them to take it back outside his jurisdiction. Eventually, a group of Dominican friars brought it to Oxford.^[84] A proper burial could not be arranged while Gaveston was still excommunicate, and it was not until 2 January 1315, after the king had secured a papal absolution for his favourite, that he could have his body buried in an elaborate ceremony at the Dominican priory at Langley.^[22] In 1823, a cross was erected at Blacklow Hill by local squire, Bertie Greathead, at the place believed to be the location of Gaveston's execution.^[85]

Edward also provided a generous endowment for Gaveston's widow Margaret, who in 1317 married Hugh de Audley, later Earl of Gloucester.^[86] The king tried to find a suitable marriage for Piers' and Margaret's daughter Joan, but these arrangements came to nothing when Joan died in 1325, at the age of thirteen.^[87] There is also some evidence that Gaveston might have fathered another, illegitimate daughter; one contemporary document refers to an "Amie filie Petri de Gaveston". This Amie was a chamberlain of Edward III's wife, Queen Philippa, and later married John Driby, a yeoman of the royal family.^[88]

Edward's initial reaction to the news of Gaveston's execution was rage; according to the Vita Edwardi he swore to avenge the act.^[22] Circumstances, however, prevented him from taking immediate action against the executioners.^[89] During the previous raid on Newcastle, the king and Gaveston had to flee quickly, leaving behind horses and jewels worth a great amount of money.^[90] At the same time, the barons' extralegal action had alienated many of their former associates; the Earl of Pembroke in particular became strongly tied to the king's cause after the affront to his honour.^[91] Through the arbitration of the Earl of Gloucester and others, a settlement was finally reached on 14 October 1313, whereby the barons were given a pardon and the horses and jewels were returned to the king.^[92] The following years were marked by a constant power struggle between Edward and Lancaster, centred on the maintenance of the Ordinances. The matter was not finally settled until 1322, when Lancaster was defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge, and executed.^[93]

Question of homosexuality[link]

It was hinted at by medieval chroniclers, and has been alleged by modern historians, that the relationship between Gaveston and Edward was homosexual. The Annales Paulini claims that Edward loved Gaveston "beyond measure", while the Lanercost says the intimacy between them was "undue".^[94] The Chronicle of Melsa states that Edward "particularly delighted in the vice of sodomy", without making special reference to Gaveston.^[95] The portrayal of Gaveston as homosexual continued in fictional portrayals, such as Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II from the early 1590s, and the 1924 adaptation of that work by Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger.^[96]

Modern historians have been divided on the issue. T. F. Tout, writing in 1914, rejected the idea.^[97] J.S. Hamilton, who wrote a biography of Gaveston in 1988, on the other hand says that "there is no question that the king and his favorite were lovers."^[95] Pierre Chaplais, writing a few years later, had more reservations. Chaplais cites the fact that Edward had four children with his wife — and even an illegitimate son — as well as the relative silence of contemporary commentators on the topic.^[98] He also finds it hard to believe that Philip IV of France would have allowed the English king to marry his daughter Isabella if Edward was known to be homosexual.^[99] Mark Ormrod has pointed out the inherent anachronism of speaking of homosexuality in a medieval context. Instead Ormrod suggests the focus should be on the motivation behind the use of sexuality in contemporary attacks on the king and Gaveston.^[100]

If the king and Gaveston were indeed lovers, the question remains of what effect this had on their respective careers and eventual downfalls. John Boswell, in his Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, calls Gaveston Edward's lover, and writes that there is little doubt "that [Edward's] wife and the barons of England were violently hostile to Edward's sexual proclivities, although he more than fulfilled his royal duties by fathering four children with Isabella."^[101] Boswell argues that Edward and Gaveston fell victim to a new-found concern about sexual morals among the secular powers of Western Europe, manifested shortly before in the trial of the Knights Templar in 1307.^[102] This interpretation is disputed by Hamilton. "The favorite was murdered because of his control of patronage," writes Hamilton, "not because of his access to the king's bedchamber".^[103] This same view is also expressed by Roy Martin Haines, in his 2003 biography of the king.^[104]

Historical assessment[link]

An 1872 painting by English artist Marcus Stone shows Edward II cavorting with Gaveston while nobles and courtiers look on with concern.

Contemporary and near-contemporary chroniclers were generally negative in their attitudes towards Gaveston, blaming the royal favourite for many of the problems of the reign. Gaveston was accused of such various crimes as draining the treasury, orchestrating the arrest of treasurer Walter Langton, and filling the court with foreigners.^[96] According to the Lanercost Chronicle, "There was not anyone who had a good word to say about the king or Piers."^[105] Nevertheless, the chroniclers did not deny that he had certain good qualities. Irish chroniclers were appreciative both of his military and his administrative skills during his period in Ireland. Likewise, Geoffrey the Baker called him "graceful and agile in body, sharp witted, refined in manner, [and] sufficiently well versed in military matters."^[96] Marlow, however, focused exclusively on the negative aspects of Gaveston's biography, portraying him – according to Hamilton – as "a sycophantic homosexual with a marked tendency towards avarice, nepotism, and especially overweening pride."^[96] This was the impression that lived on in the popular imagination.

The first modern historians to deal with the reign of Edward II – William Stubbs, Thomas Frederick Tout and James Conway Davies – added little to the understanding of Gaveston. While generally agreeing with the chronicles, they allotted him no importance within their own main field of interest, that of constitutional history.^[106] For later generations of historians, the focus shifted from constitutional to personal issues. From the 1970s onwards, the topic of study became the personal relations between magnates and the crown, and the distribution of patronage. It is to this school of thought that Hamilton's biography belongs, in which he argues that it was Gaveston's exclusive access to royal patronage that was the driving force behind the baronial animosity towards him.^[107] Chaplais, on the other hand, takes a different approach to the study of Gaveston and his place in the reign of Edward II. According to Chaplais, Edward was more or less indifferent to the practice of kingship, and essentially delegated the job to Gaveston.^[108] As an alternative to a homosexual relationship, Chaplais suggests that the bond that existed between the king and Gaveston was that of an adoptive brotherhood.^[109] This concept had a Biblical precedent in the traditionalist, platonic interpretation of the relationship between David and Jonathan, and also existed in the Middle Ages, as exemplified in the story of Roland and Olivier.^[110]

In modern popular culture, Gaveston has been portrayed in a variety of ways. In Derek Jarman's 1991 film, based on Marlow's play, Edward and Gaveston are presented as victims of homophobia and prejudice.^[111] In the 1995 movie Braveheart, on the other hand, Gaveston (thinly disguised as the character 'Phillip') is again caricatured as arrogant and effeminate.^[112] There is also an Oxford University dining and drinking club called the Piers Gaveston Society.^[113]

References[link]

Sources[link]

Primary:

• Guisborough, Walter of (1957). Harry Rothwell. ed. The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. 3. 89. London: Camden Society. 
• Childs, W.R. (ed.) (2005). Vita Edwardi Secundi. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-927594-7. 

Secondary:

• Altschul, Michael (1965). A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217–1314. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-0022-6. 
• Barrow, G. W. S. (1965). Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 
• Boswell, John (1980). Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06711-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=mv4iIU6GkHAC&pg=PA297. 
• Burgtorf, J. (2008). "With my Life, His Joyes Began and Ended: Piers Gaveston and King Edward II of England Revisited". In Nigel Saul. Fourteenth Century England V. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 31–51. ISBN 1-84383-387-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=tIAYCzpXPEMC&pg=PA31. 
• Chaplais, P. (1994). Piers Gaveston: Edward II's Adoptive Brother. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-820449-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=b9dC8pNJ07cC. 
• Davies, James Conway (1918). The Baronial Opposition to Edward II: Its Character and Policy, a Study in Administrative History. London: Cass. 
• Given-Wilson, Chris (1996). The English Nobility in the Late Middle Ages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-14883-9. http://books.google.com/?id=3pjnta9xQOwC. 
• Haines, Roy Martin (2003). King Edward II: Edward of Caernarfon, His Life, His Reign, and Its Aftermath, 1284–1330. Montreal, London: McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2432-3. 
• Hamilton, J. S. (1988). Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, 1307–1312: Politics and Patronage in the Reign of Edward II. Detroit; London: Wayne State University Press; Harvester-Wheatsheaf. pp. 92–3. ISBN 0-8143-2008-2. 
• Hamilton, J.S. (2004). "Gaveston, Piers, earl of Cornwall (d. 1312)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/ref:odnb/10463. 
• McKisack, May (1959). The Fourteenth Century: 1307–1399. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821712-9. 
• Maddicot, J.R. (1970). Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821837-0. OCLC 132766. 
• Mortimer, Ian (2003). The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327–1330. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06249-2. 
• Phillips, J.R.S. (1972). Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke 1307–1324. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822359-5. OCLC 426691. 
• Phillips, Seymour (2010). Edward II. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7. 
• Prestwich, Michael (1997). Edward I (updated ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07209-0. 
• Prestwich, Michael (2007). Plantagenet England: 1225–1360 (new ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822844-9. 
• Tout, T.F. (1914). The place of the Reign of Edward II in English History. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 88-920000-8-X. 
• Tuck, Anthony (1985). Crown and Nobility 1272–1461: Political Conflict in Late Medieval England. London: Fontana. ISBN 0-00-686084-2. 

Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant in March 2011
Born	Hugh John Mungo Grant (1960-09-09) 9 September 1960 (age 51) Hammersmith, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, Film producer
Years active	1982–present
Partner	Elizabeth Hurley (1987–2000) Jemima Khan (2004–2007)
Children	1 (Tabitha, b. 2011)

Hugh John Mungo Grant^[1] (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide.^[2] Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's sleeper hit Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).^[3] He used this breakthrough role as a frequent cinematic persona during the 1990s to deliver comic performances in mainstream films like Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and Notting Hill (1999). By the turn of the 21st century, he had established himself as a leading man skilled with a satirical comic talent.^[4] Since the 2000s, Grant has expanded his oeuvre with critically acclaimed turns as a cad in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), About A Boy (2002), Love Actually (2003), and American Dreamz (2006).^[5]

Within the film industry, Grant is cited as an anti-film star who approaches his roles like a character actor, with the ability to make acting look effortless.^[6] Hallmarks of his comic skills include a nonchalant touch of irony/sarcasm and studied physical mannerisms as well as his precisely-timed dialogue delivery and facial expressions. The entertainment media's coverage of Grant's life off the big screen has often overshadowed his work as a thespian.^[7][8] He has been vocal about his disrespect for the profession of acting, and in his disdain towards the culture of celebrity and hostility towards the media.^[9][10] In a career spanning 30 years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting is not a true calling but just a job he fell into.^[11]

Early life and ancestry[link]

Grant was born at Hammersmith Hospital in Hammersmith, London, England, the second son of Fynvola (née MacLean; b. Wickham, Hampshire, 11 October 1933; m. Boxgrove, Sussex, 6 July 1957; d. Hounslow, London, July 2001)^[12] and Captain Michael Jordan Grant (b. 1929). Genealogist Antony Adolph described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders and aristocracy,"^[13] including William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan and Dr. James Stewart.^[13][14][15] John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl, Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Rt. Hon. Sir Evan Nepean, and a sister of former British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, are a few of his notable maternal ancestors.^[16] Grant's grandfather, Major James Murray Grant, DSO, a native of Inverness in Scotland, was decorated for bravery and leadership at Dunkirk during World War II.^[17]

Grant's father, Capt. Grant, was trained at Sandhurst and served with the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya, Germany and Scotland.^[18] Capt. He ran a carpet firm, pursued hobbies such as golf and painting watercolours, and raised his family in Chiswick, west London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.^[19][20] In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by the John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his famous son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours."^[21] She worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of west London.^[22] She died at the age of 65,^[12] 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.^[23]

Grant's accent is an inheritance from his mother and, on Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, he credited her with "any acting genes that [he] might have."^[20] Both his parents were children of military families,^[24] but, despite his parents' backgrounds, Grant has stated that his family was not always affluent while he was growing up.^[25] Grant spent his childhood summers shooting and hunting with his grandfather in Scotland.^[19] Grant's elder brother, James "Jamie" Grant, is a successful banker as Managing Director, Head of Healthcare, Consumer, & Retail Investment Banking Coverage, at JPMorgan Chase in New York.^[26]

Education[link]

Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick but then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith. From 1969 to 1978, he attended the independent Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school.^[27][28] He also represented Latymer on the popular quiz show, Top of the Form, an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.^[29] Chris Hammond, his form teacher in 1975 and later the assistant head of Latymer, told People magazine that Grant was "a clever boy among clever boys."^[28][30] In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford where he starred in his first film, Privileged, produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation, OUFF. He studied English literature and graduated with 2:1 honours.^[31] Actress Anna Chancellor, who knew Grant at Oxford, has recalled, "I first met Hugh at a party at Oxford. There was something magical about him. He was a star even then, without having done anything."^[32] He received an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London to pursue a PhD in the history of art, but decided not to take the offer because he failed to secure a grant. Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet,^[33] he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of Twelfth Night.^[34] Hugh Grant funds The Fynvola Grant Scholarship at Latymer Upper School in memory of his mother who was a teacher in West London.

Young earner[link]

After making his debut as Hughie Grant in the Oxford-financed Privileged (1982), Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs: he wrote book reviews,^[35] worked as assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club,^[36] tried his hand at tutoring, wrote comedy sketches for TV shows,^[37] and was hired by Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager.^[38] To obtain his Equity card, he joined the repertory theatre Nottingham Playhouse and lived for a year at Park Terrace in The Park Estate, Nottingham.^[39] Bored with small acting parts, he created his own comedy revue called The Jockeys of Norfolk with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London’s pub comedy circuit with stops at The George IV in Chiswick, Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice and The King's Head in Islington.^[40] Starting on a low note, The Jockeys of Norfolk eventually proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival after their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, garnered them a spot on the BBC2 TV show called Edinburgh Nights.^[41] During this time, Grant also appeared in theatre productions of plays such as An Inspector Calls, Lady Windermere's Fan, and Coriolanus.

Career[link]

Grant at the Cannes film festival, 1997

Grant's first leading role came in Merchant-Ivory's 1987 Edwardian drama, Maurice, adapted from E.M. Forster's novel of the same name, in which he played the homosexual Clive Durham. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of Cantabrigian collegians Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Grant balanced small roles on television with rare film work, which included a supporting role in The Dawning (1988), opposite Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons and a turn as Lord Byron in a Goya Award-winning Spanish production called Remando al viento (1988). He also portrayed some other real life figures during in his early career such as Charles Heidsieck in Champagne Charlie and as Hugh Cholmondeley in BAFTA Award-nominated White Mischief.

In 1990, he made a cameo appearance in the sport/crime drama The Big Man, opposite Liam Neeson, and in which Grant assumed a Scottish accent. The film explores the life of a Scottish miner (Neeson) who becomes unemployed during a union strike. In 1991, he played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film Our Sons.

In 1992, he appeared in Roman Polanski's film Bitter Moon, portraying a fastidious and proper British tourist who is married, but finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman and her embittered, paraplegic American husband. The film was called an "anti-romantic opus of sexual obsession and cruelty" by the Washington Post.^[42] His other work in period pieces such as Ken Russell’s horror film, The Lair of the White Worm (1988), award-winning Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day (1993) and (as Frédéric Chopin in) Impromptu (1991) went largely unnoticed. He later called this phase of his career "hilarious," referring to his early films as "Europuddings, where you would have a French script, a Spanish director, and English actors. The script would usually be written by a foreigner, badly translated into English. And then they'd get English actors in, because they thought that was the way to sell it to America."^[43]

At 32, Grant claimed to be on the brink of giving up the acting profession but was surprised by the script of Four Weddings and a Funeral (FWAAF).^[4] "If you read as many bad scripts as I did, you'd know how grateful you are when you come across one where the guy actually is funny," he later recalled.^[3] Released in 1994, FWAAF became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office in excess of $244 million,^[44] making Grant an overnight international star. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, and among numerous awards won by its cast and crew, it earned Grant his first and only Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It also temporarily typecast him as the lead character, Charles, a bohemian and debonair bachelor. Grant and Curtis saw it as an inside joke that the star, due to the parts he played, was assumed to have the personality of the screenwriter, who is known for writing about himself and his own life.^[43][45] Grant later expressed:

In July 1994, Grant signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and by October, he became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited.^[46] He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s and lost a bid to produce About a Boy to Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions.^[47] The company closed its U.S. office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005.^[48]

1995 saw the release of Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project, Chris Columbus's comedy Nine Months. Though a hit at the box office, it was almost universally panned by critics. The Washington Post called it a "grotesquely pandering caper" and singled out Grant's performance, as a child psychiatrist reacting unfavourably to his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy, for his "insufferable muggings."^[49] The same year, he played leading roles as Emma Thompson's suitor in Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and as a cartographer in 1917 Wales in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. In the same year he performed in the Academy Award-winning Restoration.

Before the release of FWAAF, Grant reunited with the director of FWAAF, Mike Newell, for the tragicomedy An Awfully Big Adventure that was labelled a "determinedly offbeat film" by The New York Times.^[50] Grant portrayed a bitchy, supercilious director of a repertory company in post-World War II Liverpool. Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "It shows that he has range as an actor,"^[51] but the San Francisco Chronicle disapproved on grounds that the film "plays like a vanity production for Grant."^[52] Janet Maslin, praising Grant as "superb" and "a dashing cad under any circumstances," commented, "For him this film represents the road not taken. Made before Four Weddings and a Funeral was released, it captures Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today."^[50] Grant made his debut as a film producer with the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures, a commercial and critical failure.

After a three year hiatus, in 1999 he paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill, which was brought to theatres by much of the same team that was responsible for FWAAF. This new Working Title production displaced FWAAF as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $363 million worldwide.^[44] As it became exemplary of modern romantic comedies in mainstream culture, the film was also received well by critics. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton said, "Notting Hill stands alone as another funny and heartwarming story about love against all odds."^[53] Reactions to Grant's Golden Globe-nominated performance were varied, with Salon.com's Stephanie Zacharek criticising that, "Grant's performance stands as an emblem of what's wrong with Notting Hill. What's maddening about Grant is that he just never cuts the crap. He's become one of those actors who's all shambling self-caricature, from his twinkly crow's feet to the time-lapsed half century it takes him to actually get one of his lines out."^[54] The film provided both its stars a chance to satirise the woes of international notoriety, most noted of which was Grant's turn as a faux-journalist who sits through a dull press junket with, what the New York Times called, "a delightfully funny deadpan."^[55] Grant also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, that year. It was dismissed by critics, performed modestly at the box office, and garnered its actor-producer mixed reviews for his starring role. Roger Ebert thought, "Hugh Grant is wrong for the role [and] strikes one wrong note and then another,"^[56] whereas Kenneth Turan, writing in the Los Angeles Times, said, "If he'd been on the Titanic, fewer lives would have been lost. If he'd accompanied Robert Scott to the South Pole, the explorer would have lived to be 100. That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures."^[57]

While promoting Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks on NBC’s The Today Show in 2000, Grant told host Matt Lauer, “It's my millennium of bastards.”^[58] In 2000, Grant also joined the Supervisory Board of IM Internationalmedia AG, the powerful Munich-based film and media company.^[59]

Small Time Crooks starred Grant, in the words of film critic Andrew Sarris, as "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who] is one of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created."^[60] In a role devoid of his comic attributes, the New York Times wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and nasty calculation."^[61] A year later, his turn as a charming but womanising book publisher Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) was proclaimed by Variety to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as any comic turn in memory."^[62] The film, adapted from Helen Fielding's novel of the same name, was an international hit, earning $281 million worldwide.^[44] Grant was, according to the Washington Post, fitting as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind the male god's countenance that he knows all too well."^[63]

Grant's "immaculate comic performance" (BBC) as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel About a Boy received raves from critics.^[64] Almost universally praised, with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy (2002) was determined by the Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings."^[65] Rolling Stone wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs,"^[66] while Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource."^[67] Released a day after the blockbuster Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, About a Boy was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $129 million globally.^[44] The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2002.^[68] "His performance can only be described as revelatory," wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."^[65] The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."^[69] About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Gone were the floppy locks that had become his trademark, with Grant now sporting a cropped haircut. He has retained this look since.

Grant was also paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.'s Two Weeks Notice, which made $199 million internationally but was judged poorly by professional reviewers.^[44] The Village Voice concluded that Grant's creation of a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine."^[70]

Two Weeks Notice was followed by the 2003 ensemble comedy, Love Actually, headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" and accumulated $246 million at the international box office.^[44] It marked the directorial debut of Richard Curtis, who told the New York Times that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of the role to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly charming than earlier Curtis incarnations.^[71] Roger Ebert claimed that "Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport."^[72] Film critic Rex Reed, on the contrary, called Grant's performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as the star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has become his acting style."^[73]

A speech delivered by Grant in Love Actually – where he extols the virtues of Great Britain and refuses to cave to the pressure of its longstanding ally, the United States – was etched in the transatlantic memory as a satirical, wishful statement on the concurrent Bush-Blair relationship.^[74] Blair responded by saying, "I know there's a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and tell America where to get off. But the difference between a good film and real life is that in real life there's the next day, the next year, the next lifetime to contemplate the ruinous consequences of easy applause."^[75]

Grant in Brussels, October 2008

In 2004, Grant reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which, like its predecessor, made more than $262 million commercially.^[44] Gone from the screen for two years, Grant next reteamed with Paul Weitz (About a Boy) for the black comedy American Dreamz (2006). Grant starred as the acerbic host of an American Idol-like reality show where, according to Caryn James of the New York Times, "nothing is real ... except the black hole at the centre of the host's heart, as Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit."^[76] American Dreamz failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, with smarmy self-loathing. The Boston Globe proposed that this "just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant,"^[77] and critic Carina Chocano said, "He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy."^[78]

In 2007, Grant starred opposite Drew Barrymore in a parody of pop culture and the music industry called Music and Lyrics. The Associated Press described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic comedy that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough."^[79] Though he neither listens to music nor owns any CDs,^[24] Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley.^[9] The Star-Ledger dismissed the performance, writing that "paper dolls have more depth."^[80] The film, with its revenues totalling $145 million, allowed Grant to mock disposable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead character. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Grant strikes precisely the right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too intelligent not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far too brazen to feel anything like shame."^[81] In 2009, Grant starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which was a commercial as well as a critical failure.^[82]

In 2011, Grant reportedly turned down the starring role in Chuck Lorre's Two and a Half Men reboot, replacing Charlie Sheen's vacated role. He turned down the role due to creative differences.

Work ethic[link]

Grant is well known for having a very strong work ethic. He has called being a successful actor a mistake and has repeatedly talked of his hope that film stardom would just be "a phase" in his life, lasting no more than ten years.^[43] He pins his lack of interest in acting on two different thoughts: first, that he drifted into the job as a temporary joke at age 23 and finds it an immature way for a grown man to spend his time;^[83] and secondly, because he believes to have already given the one remarkable comic performance he had hoped to create on screen.^[84] A self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set,^[11] Grant has constantly opted to describe himself as a reluctant actor, who chooses to be neutral about his career and works mostly with friends from previous collaborations.^[6][85] Richard Curtis, a frequent collaborator, revealed that Grant is not fluid about the filmmaking process and tends to be unrelaxed while filming because he does not feel as though he's in the director's hands and prefers instead to take responsibility for giving a definitive performance.^[9] Grant is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.^[86][87]

A 2007 Vogue profile of Grant referred to him as a man with a "professionally misanthropic mystique."^[9] The observation followed published facts such as that Grant conducts his interviews alone (without any publicists),^[88] and has derided focus groups, market research and overriding emphasis on the opening weekend.^[89] Grant decided to let go of his agent in 2006, ending a 10-year relationship with CAA.^[90] Besides proudly proclaiming in interviews to have never listened to external views on his career, he stated that he does not require the hand-holding an agent provides.^[9] A few months before firing his agent, he said, "They've known for years that I have total control. I've never taken any advice on anything."^[84]

He has stuck to the genre of comedy, especially the romantic comedy, for the entirety of his mainstream film career and never ventures to play characters who are not British. While some film critics, such as the respected Roger Ebert, have defended the limited variety of his performances, others have dismissed him as a one-trick pony. Eric Fellner, co-owner of Working Title Films and a long-time collaborator of Grant said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but each performance is unique."^[91] A majority of Grant's popular films in the 1990s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, often with an American woman. In earlier films, Grant was adept at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman for humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters as he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously.^[39] These performances were sometimes deemed overbearing, in the words of Washington Post's Rita Kempley, due to his "comic overreactions—the mugging, the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids." She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill."^[92] Grant's penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has been one of the foremost objections raised against his acting style. Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, he must get "his jiving and shucking under control."^[93] Film historian David Thompson wrote in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film about how it is merely itchy mannerisms that Grant equates with screen acting.

Grant's screen persona of later films, in the new millennium, gradually developed into a cynical, self-loathing cad.^[94] Claudia Puig of USA Today celebrated this transformation with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start of [Grant's] film career but have grown cloying in more recent movies."^[95] Using his facial contortions and an affected stammer for varied comic purposes,^[96] According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the two tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in Bridget Jones's Diary and About a Boy and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody of himself.^[97] His preference for levity over dramatic range has been a controversial topic in establishment circles, prompting him to say:

In the media[link]

Grant has repeatedly spoken about his boredom with playing the celebrity in the press^[98] and is known in popular media for his guarded privacy,^[99] About the culture of celebrity, he told Vogue, "My theory is that it's like bodybuilders who inject testosterone, which means that their own powers to generate testosterone shut down forever. The fake esteem you get from being in the public eye feels like self-worth, but actually your own powers to produce it shut down. The stuff that really counts is your own. And that's, I think, why people go bonkers."^[9] On probing of his personal life, he has remained incredibly steadfast in "offering a dead bat to any question he feels is not general enough."^[100] Meanwhile, acquaintances portray him as a complicated man with an anarchic and sharp constitution.^[9][39] "There is at least as much of Hugh that is charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue," according to Mike Newell, "is maybe too clever for its own good as there is of him that's gorgeous and kind of woolly and flubsy."^[101] Filmmaker Paul Weitz, calling Grant funny, observed that "he perceives flaws in himself and other people, and then he cares about their humanity nonetheless."^[102] British newspapers regularly refer to him as grumpy.^{[103][104][105][106][107]}

Libel lawsuits[link]

In 1996, Grant won substantial damages from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January 1995. The company's now-defunct newspaper, Today, had falsely claimed that Grant verbally abused a young extra with a "foul-mouthed tongue lashing" on the set of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.^[108]

On 27 April 2007, Grant accepted undisclosed damages from the Associated Newspapers over claims made about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three separate tabloid articles, which were published in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday on 18, 21 and 24 February. His lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false."^[109] Grant said, in a written statement, that he took the action because: "I was tired of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday papers publishing almost entirely fictional articles about my private life for their own financial gain." He went on to take the opportunity to stress, "I'm also hoping that this statement in court might remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost never exist."^[110]

Legal troubles[link]

Hugh Grant mugshot, 1995

On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested in an L.A. Vice police operation not far from Sunset Boulevard for misdemeanour lewd conduct in a public place with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown.^[111] He pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180, placed on two years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program.^[112][113]

The arrest occurred about two weeks before the release of Grant's first major studio film, Nine Months, which he was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had him booked for the same week and, as recalled in former employee Don Sweeney's memoirs, "despite his arrest, Hugh Grant kept his appointment to appear on Jay's show."^[114] The interview was a career-making hit for Leno and Grant was singled out for not making excuses for the incident.^[115][116] He famously said:

On Larry King Live, Grant declined the host Larry King's repeated invitations to probe his psyche, saying that psychoanalysis was "more of an American syndrome" and he himself was "a bit old fashioned."^[118] He told the host: "I don't have excuses."^[119] Grant was appreciated for "his refreshing honesty" as he "faced the music and handled it with tongue [in] cheek."^[120]

In April 2007, Grant was arrested on allegations of assault made by paparazzo Ian Whittaker.^[121] Grant made no official statement and did not comment on the incident.^[122] Charges were dropped on 1 June by the Crown Prosecution Service on the grounds of "insufficient evidence."^[123]

Phone hacking exposé[link]

In April 2011 Grant published an article in the New Statesman entitled "The Bugger, Bugged"^[124] about a conversation following a chance encounter with Paul McMullan, former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail and News of the World, particularly Andy Coulson, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said that every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards had cultivated a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them must have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting that Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest:

"Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election ... So that was my submission to parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot."^[124]

When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Police to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping by Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed that this had happened, but also stated that the police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists, so had a motive to comply:

"20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms?... And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly."^[124]

Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.^[125]

Whilst the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared for example on BBC Radio 4) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of the then missing and subsequently murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence in her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in a bravura performance on BBC television's Question Time in July 2011.^[126]

Personal life[link]

Grant during the second round of Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, October 2007

In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in a Spanish production called Remando Al Viento (1988), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont.^[43] Grant started dating the aspiring model while shooting and their relationship was subsequently the subject of much media attention. After 13 years together, the two made "a mutual and amicable decision" to split in May 2000.^[127] In 2004, he began dating Jemima Khan under the intense scrutiny of British tabloids.^[9] Three years later, in February 2007, Grant's publicist announced that the couple had "decided to split amicably."^[128] The spokesman added, "Hugh has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima."

Grant is godfather to Hurley's son Damian.^[129] In November 2011, it was announced that Grant had become a father to a baby girl, Tabitha, earlier that autumn.^[130] The identity of the mother, with whom Grant had had a "fleeting affair" according to his publicist, was not at first announced; however, it was later revealed to be a Chinese woman, Tinglan Hong.^[131][132] The publicist went on to say that "while this was not planned, Hugh could not be happier or more supportive. He and the mother have discussed everything and are on very friendly terms."^[133] In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2012, Grant revealed that his daughter's Chinese name is Xiao Xi（小喜) meaning "happy surprise".^[134]

Grant has claimed that Hong has been “badly treated” by the media, saying that press intrusion prevented him from attending the birth of his daughter in September 2011. Grant said, “I was at one of the party conferences, about to give a speech, and was pacing about on the end of the phone. I shouldn’t have gone to the hospital at all, because it brought all this attention down on the mother’s head. But I couldn’t really resist it, so I went on the second day.” Hong later obtained an injunction which allowed Hugh Grant to visit her and baby Tabitha in peace.^[130]

A famous "golfing addict",^[135] Grant is a scratch golfer and is a regular at pro-am tournaments with membership at the Sunningdale Golf Club. He is also frequently pictured by the paparazzi at the famed Scottish golf courses in St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.^[136] Highly competitive,^[137] he reportedly plays with a lot of money at stake.^[138] As a young boy, he played rugby union on his school's first XV team at centre and played football as an avid fan of Fulham F.C.. He is also a fan of Scottish side Rangers F.C.^[139] thanks to his grandfather who was Scottish. He continued to play in a Sunday-morning football league in south-west London after college and remains an "impassioned Fulham supporter."^[27] Grant's other interests include snooker^[140] and tennis.^[141]

Charity work[link]

Grant is a Patron of The DIPEx Charity,^[142] founded by the late Ann McPherson, a charity that publishes the websites Healthtalkonline and Youthhealthtalk; and a Patron of the Fynvola Foundation, named after his late mother, a charity which provides nursing and care for older learning-disabled people.^[143] He is also a supporter of Marie Curie Cancer Care, whose Great Daffodil Appeal he promoted in March 2008.^[144]

Filmography[link]

Awards and honours[link]

References[link]