Edward II's demise may or may not have been as described by Marlowe. Remember that Bill S. and Chris M. were writing their lightweight little Christmas pageants during the reign of a Tudor monarch whose grandfather had disposed of the Plantagenets only recently, comparatively speaking, and there was a certain amount of sycophancy in their "histories" and "tragedies".
Edward II may possibly have been bisexual but it seems far more likely, considering he fathered at least 14 children including 4 legitimate children and one acknowledged bastard, that his relationships with Piers Gaveston and the Despensers (father and son, for heaven's sake) were the actions of a "weak" king surrounding himself with people he liked and trusted. And he didn't love or trust his wife, and with good reason as the events of 1326 proved.
He was weak in fourteenth century terms, anyway. He didn't like warfare and he wasn't ruthless. He had plenty of experience of warfare from fighting in his father's armies and he probably knew how to be an absolutist despot, but these things were against his nature. He was a renaissance man born before his time if the truth be known. I rather picture a Prince Charles-type figure, seemingly politically unastute, meaning well but unable to influence events in the direction he really wanted.
He must have known that the favouritism he showed towards Gaveston and the Despensers was the cause of many of his problems, particularly the compilation of the Ordinances and the consequent political ascendancy of Thomas of Lancaster, who was his cousin. The loss of Scotland at Bannockburn probably resulted in him being generally unpopular rather than just unpopular among the aristocracy. Certainly, when it came to it he couldn't even raise an army to defend himself and his crown against his French wife's very small, almost token, invasion force.
It was a rather unsettled time in Europe. The "law" was a very mutable quantity. Disposing of enemies was carried out in the most savage manner "pour encourager les autres" politically, as well as being a reflection of the nature of the people of the time. This would, of course, carry on into the following century as the Hundred Years War dragged on to its unedifying conclusion.
It appears to be an undisputed fact that Edward was murdered at Berkeley Castle, and it would be surprising if he hadn't been butchered. The manner of his murder, however, is highly questionable.
