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I copied this straight off alt.conspiracy.
It has too much historical accuracy to be complete blather.
Back in the earlier half of the Fourteenth Century, Edward I (Longshanks, Hammer of the Scots, Killer of William Wallace etc.) of England died and his son Edward II became king. Official histories record Edward as being a 'weak king'. Edward liked men more than women and at his wedding to Princess Isabella of France he gave all his wedding gifts to Piers de Gaveston, the man he was in love with at the time. Gaveston's (whose mother was burned as a witch and who was widely believed to practice black arts himself) hold over the King was such that elements of the nobility saw to his demise.
King Edward soon found another favourite, however. An Earl de Spenser saw how the King could so easily be swayed by men he was in love with, so he encouraged his son Hugh to court the King's affections. Before long Hugh had such a hold over the King that the de Spensers were running the country and making very free with the contents of the King's treasury. The people were not happy. Parliament (the forerunner of today's British Parliament) decided enough was enough, as did many of England's leading barons. The Queen, too, was less than content with being treated like dirt and so civil war broke out.
Queen Isabella's side won. King Edward and Hugh de Spenser fled to Ireland, but were caught and Edward was forced to abdicate in favour of his son (also called Edward). They executed him by ramming a red hot poker up his posterior. Hugh de Spenser also "died horribly" (sorry, I don't have the details at the moment) and because of the trouble he caused, the Commons part of the Parliament swore an oath that no de Spenser would ever rule England.
As the nobility stopped speaking French over the years, they also dropped some of the French parts of their names and the de Spenser (or le Despensers) dropped the "de" to become the plain Spencers. Nearly seven centuries after his demise, Hugh's direct descendant, Lady Diana Spencer, married the heir to the throne of England, Charles Windsor, to become Princess Di. It looked like the curse upon the Spensers sworn by Parliament was finally broken.
Only she never became Queen. And now she's dead.
Tim Hodkinson
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