Historians now suggest there is much doubt about both the manner and date of Edward II's death.

The popular story from the time is that he was suffocated. One of the first acts of Edward III on reaching his majority in 1330 was to have Mortimer, Queen Isabella's lover, executed for treason citing, among other things the murder of his (ie Edward III's) father, so it is possible that he died in 1327, the year of his abdication though the manner of his death is in dispute.

The earliest version of the story of the poker dates from after 1350's some 25 years after the date of Edward's supposed death and it did not really start to circulate until the 1430's, 100 years after Edward's death and it seems to have been circulated for political reasons to discredit the descendants of Mortimer. There is a theory that Edward went into exile and died in Italy around 1341, but many historians dispute this.