For instance, his personal pursuits were "unkingly" for the time, but if you compare his ability to have the common touch with, say, Henry V's life before he was a king, then itmerely seems unconventional.  Whereas it was considered a strength in some royals, it has been held against Edward II.  As to his preference to let others take care of the government, there is enough evidence to show that Edward II took as active a role as Henry III did.

His favorites weren't necessarily bad administrators, according to this book.  In fact Gaveston was very fit, especially in the martial arts department.  He did show up all the nobles at one tournament and was victorious in many more.  He was a capable man, but he wasn't a noble.  He just snubbed people and used his closeness to the king to act out of what people thought was his place.  But, I think E2 gave him the title of Earl of Cornwall at one time.  As for the Despensers, the book maintains they were both very capable, especially the younger one, who seems to have continued E1’s efforts to make certain government offices independent of the Council.  However, the Despensers were not of the old nobility and were overly greedy, which was not a good thing at the time.  Therefore, his favorites were just bad politicians and not necessarily ncompetant.

As for E2’s military ability, he was supposedly quite capable.  He may not have had the strategic ability of his father and his son, but he was strong, he never died in combat and even John of Gaunt didn’t put up the W’s that Edward the Black Prince did.  E2 was just not superior.  It doesn’t mean he was ineffectual.

Thus, we come to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, his cousin, who had even less of a taste for hands on involvement than E2, but who thought he should still hold the offices.  He was a political creature, but didn’t want to do the work.  His standing as Prince of the Blood allowed him to subvert the crowns authority and create many problems for E2, very similar to the ones in which H3 had to deal with.  Only Thomas was not above thinking he had the right to call his own parliaments and treaty with the Scots, which he did.  If Gaveston or the Despensers had done something like Lancaster did, they would undoubtedly have been drawn and quartered.    They didn’t, though, because they were loyal to the crown, whereas Lancaster was loyal to his own idea of the power of the nobles.

As for E2 being gay, well R2 and W2 were also supposedly gay.  J1 was supposed to have been gay.  E2 was probably just more loyal to the idea of love and friendship than to the idea of being politically correct.

The book is fascinating.  I’ll go back to the library and post the name of it.