The Queen convinces the nobles to allow Gaveston to be recalled from Ireland so that they may assassinate him. When he returns, the nobles rise and capture him. The king asks that he see Gaveston one last time before Gaveston is executed, but Warwick intercedes and beheads Gaveston in a ditch.

Edward chooses a new favorite, Spencer, Jr. and bestows many honors on him. The nobles object to Spencer, Jr. and seek his ouster, believing him to be another mere waterfly. When Edward refuses to disassociate himself with Spencer, Jr., the nobles rise up again. Edward wins this time and takes the nobles prisoner. He sends all except Mortimer, Jr. and Mortimer, Sr. (the latter is held prisoner by the Scots and never heard from again in the play) to be executed.

Kent, the king's brother, speaks in defense of the nobles and is exiled from the king.

Isabella, meanwhile, has gone to her father, king of France, to enlist aid, ostensibly for the king, but actually in league against Edward. Isabella has by now joined with her lover Mortimer in his Machiavellian quest for power.

Mortimer escapes from the Tower and makes for France. Edward sends money to bribe the French nobles and keep them from joining with Isabella and Mortimer against him.

Isabella is thwarted in raising an army in France because of Edward's bribes, but she and her son, the heir apparent, is joined there by Mortimer and Kent.

Mortimer succeeds in raising an army and attacking the king. His efforts are successful. He defeats Edward. Kent, seeing that the Queen and Mortimer are dissembling in an attempt to wrest power from the line of Edward, has second thoughts about them.

Edward, Spencer, and Balldock flee to an Abbey where they are caught after a Mower betrays their whereabouts. In the Abbey the king reverts to childlike behavior and a wish to remain in the pastoral setting, free from the cares of monarchy. Edward, Spencer, and Baldock are captured. Spencer and Baldock are executed; Edward is sent to Killingworth castle where he is placed in the dungeon, knee-deep (?) in water, and mentally tortured by unsympathetic wardens.

He survives the ordeal to the admiration of even his captors, who see in him the true demeanor of a noble king. Mortimer and the Queen dissemble and have Edward further tortured, all unbeknownst to the prince, Edward's son. The Queen and Mortimer, who wants the Regency, see Kent as a threat because Kent has the ear of the young Prince.

Mortimer and the Queen send Lightborn (a loose translation of Lucifer) to kill Edward at Killingsworth. Lightborn does not know that Mortimer gave orders to the wardens of Edward, Gurney and Matrevis, to kill Lightborn once the commission is fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Kent is called before Mortimer and the Queen for attempting to redeem Edward. He is labeled a traitor by Mortimer and, despite the Prince's protestations to save Kent, Kent is taken off and executed. The Prince becomes wrathful.

Lightborn arrives at Killingsworth. He pretends at first no harm to Edward, but Edward sees through him. Edward is strapped down and a hot iron is inserted in his fundament. After Edward's death, Gurney and Matrevis are shocked at the death and happily carry out their commission to murder Lightborn. They repent themselves of the heinous crime and flee the court of Mortimer after announcing the outcome of Lightborn's act.

The Prince, now king, rallies the support of the lords and condemns Mortimer for his part in Edward's slaying. Mortimer goes to his death with scorn. Mortimer sentences his mother, the Queen, to the Tower until her part in the crime can be determined. Edward's body is brought in a hearse and Mortimer's decapitated head is placed upon it.

The play ends with the new king attesting to his obvious innocence of all that has transpired regarding Edward II.

Gaveston is little more than a pandering waterfly, who leads Edward astray with his licentious, hedonistic ways.

The Prince is wholly innocent of all the wrongdoing in the play.

Kent is a man on conscience, who opposes tyranny from all quarters at all times.

Mortimer, Jr. begins the play by appearing to be the noblest of the nobles, eager only for the betterment of England and truly concerned for the threat imposed by Gaveston in Edward's court. He turns out, however, to be a Machiavel, interested only in his own rise to power. When his Machiavellian tendencies surface, Mortimer, Jr. becomes a cardboard character.

The Queen appears at first to be truly devoted to Edward. Indeed, even in soliloquy, she professes her all-encompassing love for Edward. But she turns to Mortimer, Jr. as lover and co-ruler without much (if any) motivation or foreshadowing. So great is her change that we find her at the end of the play requesting a new warden for Edward when she learns that the present wardens begin to pity their charge. She is bent on Edward's destruction, but moreover, she thirsts for his torture and humiliation–possibly for the humiliation she felt earlier when cast aside in favor of Gaveston. Her change, nevertheless, is a matter of consternation in critical circles. One hint that she has Machiavellian tendencies appears early in the play–at I. iv.229-73–when she has the idea to call Gaveston back from Ireland in order to assassinate him.

Spencer, Jr. is not the waterfly Gaveston was. He demonstrates a true patriotism and love of king qua king which is to be admired by the auditor. When we first see him and Baldock (II.i.) we are given to believe that both are mere favor-seekers, but by their demise we find both bewailing the fall of their king although it has been suggested that, at least as far as Baldock is concerned, he may be "putting the make" on God to get in with the "big guy" whence he goes. But Spencer, Jr. as favorite demonstrates Edward's gradual conversion from irresponsible king (as suggested by his choice of Gaveston) to the wholly noble and honorable king (as demonstrated in the dungeons of Killingworth).

There is a chiasmus of fortunes that can be traced between Edward II and Mortimer, Jr. Socially (in court) Edward is at the top and Mortimer is at the bottom. As Mortimer's fortunes wax, so Edward's wane, and vice versa. Morally, however, Edward is at the bottom and Mortimer appears to be at the top–Edward is a wonton and Mortimer a patriot. As Mortimer's morality degenerates, however, Edward's increases. (Perhaps "morality" is too loaded and "dignity" the better discriptor.)

This play demonstrates Boccacio's De casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium by which the theme is of falling when vanity of human wishes climbs aboard the Wheel of Fortune. There is no tragic flaw in the character, but the character makes the mistake of taking his eyes off of God in favor of temporal success and damns himself to the vagaries of the Wheel of Fortune. This demonstrates the Marlovian deterministic world wherein everyone is responsible for his/her own fate.

Shakespeare's Richard III (for line echoes esp. at V.iv.55- 63; and also make note of the possibility that RIII could have preceded EII to the stage.)