Anglo-French soldier and courtier Piers Gaveston was born in c. 1284 and died on this day in 1312. Born to Gascony to a wealthy French landowning family, he served in the company of King Edward I, who him to the household of his son and heir Prince Edward. Piers and Edward Jr became inseparable and so openly besotted by one another that Piers was sent into exile in 1307. Following Edward Sr’s death, the young Edward became King, and recalled Gaveston to England, and elevated him to the peerage as 1st Earl of Cornwall. They continued their affair, despite both being married. Gaveston’s unpopularity at court was so great that Edward was forced to exile him again, appointing him the King’s Lieutenant in Ireland. On his return in 1309, Gaveston exploited his position to obtain favours for friends, leading most of the earls to abandon support for Edward’s military campaign. Exiled for a third time in 1311, he returned to England in 1312, settling at Scarborough Castle with Edward and preparing for civil war. They were defeated in a military campaign led by the Duke of Lancaster, and imprisoned separately. Edward was forced to abdicate in favour of his young son, whereas Gaveston was sentenced to death, beheaded and had his head thrown in a ditch. Edward had Gaveston buried three years later in an elaborate ceremony, though the site of his tomb is now lost. Their relationship was chronicled in Christopher Marlowe’s 1594 play Edward II, filmed in 1991 by Derek Jarman starring Andrew Tiernan as Gaveston, drawing comparisons between Edward’s and Gaveston’s prosecution and 1980s-era gay rights campaigns. The Piers Gaveston Society, a secret dining club at Oxford University, was named in his honour. In 2015, it was reported that British Prime Minister David Cameron had been a member of the Society while at Oxford, and had inserted his genitals into a dead pig’s mouth as part of an initiation ceremony.