Edward II and Piers Gaveston

So, after a few weeks I managed to finish my painting of Edward II and Piers Gaveston (the original study I did is here [link] ). It's inspired in part by Christopher Marlowe's play, and in part by the roles the wonderful Peter Hanly and Stephen Billington played in the less-than-wonderful "Braveheart." Edward, the ill-fated king, is the moody blond on the left, and the black-haired man in the red tunic on the right is his lover, the upstart Gascon knight Piers Gaveston. The woman in the background is Edward's wife Isabella, who eventually deposed her husband and arranged his murder.

I tried to put a number of symbols in the piece, including the oak to the far left, which represents kingship, and the unicorns on the goblet (in the middle ages, unicorns symbolized lust as well as chastity, interestingly enough).
I'm so pleased it's done- the fabrics and jewels and swords, among other things, took forever! But I think it turned out rather well.

(For further reading about Edward II, Alianore's blog [link] has lots of great information, and plenty of juicy 700 year old gossip too!)