Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent

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Edmund of Woodstock. Representation from the 14th century

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (born August 5, 1301 in Woodstock Palace , † (executed) March 19, 1330 in Winchester ) was an English magnate .

Origin and equipment with own land

Edmund of Woodstock came from the English ruling family Plantagenet . He was the youngest son of King Edward I from his second marriage to Margaret of France . Thus he was a younger half-brother of the future King Edward II and a younger brother of Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk . Edmund got his nickname after his birthplace, Woodstock Palace near Oxford .

As with the children from Edward I's first marriage, little is known about the childhood of Edmund and his siblings. The old king was still trying to secure the future of his youngest son by promising in 1306 to provide him with lands with an annual income of 7,000 marks within two years . Shortly before his death in July 1307, Edward I promised his son property worth a further 1,000 marks, but he no longer determined which lands Edmund should receive. Edward I had evidently intended to raise either Edmund or his brother Thomas to Earl of Cornwall . But since he did not implement this until his death in July 1307, his successor Edward II awarded this title with extensive lands to his favorite Piers Gaveston . In order to take care of his youngest brother, Edward II finally furnished several goods in 1315. In November 1319 he gave him a generous donation with an annual income of 2,000 marks.

Diplomatic and political support from Edward II.

The king increasingly entrusted his officially underage half-brother with political tasks. A nobility opposition had formed several times against the king, but Edmund proved to be a reliable supporter of the king. With the consent of the king, Edmund testified in August 1318 to the treaty of Leake , which was to reconcile the king with the Earl of Lancaster . In the spring of 1320 he was the leader of an embassy that also included Hugh le Despenser the Elder and Bartholomew de Badlesmere . The embassy first traveled to the French royal court and then to consultations with Pope John XXII. to Avignon . There she was supposed to obtain papal approval for the elevation of Henry Burghersh , a nephew of Badlesmere, to the position of Bishop of Lincoln. In addition, they should persuade the Pope to release the English king from his oath of compliance with the ordinances , the requirements of the aristocratic opposition. On the return journey, the embassy met the English king in Amiens , France , where he had paid homage to the French king Philip V for his possessions in southwestern France. Back in England, Edmund was first called to parliament in October 1320 .

The execution of the Earl of Lancaster. Representation from the 15th century

Role in civil war

By 1318, Hugh le Despenser the Elder and his son of the same name, Hugh, had gained considerable influence over the king as leading courtiers. The hatred of numerous nobles for the Despensers erupted in the spring of 1321 in the Despenser War , a violent rebellion of the Marcher Lords . The barons plundered the Despensers' estates in south Wales and then marched with their troops to London, where a parliament, including Edmund, forced the king to banish the Despensers. Even Bartholomew de Badlesmere, the Steward of the Household , had joined the rebellion. Thereupon the king dismissed Badlesmere from his offices and instead appointed Edmund on June 16, 1321 as administrator of Kent , in command of Dover Castle and as Warden of the Cinque Ports . On July 26th, the king raised Edmund to Earl of Kent and with this title gave him further rights. With this Edward II wanted to weaken the position of his former confidante Badlesmere in Kent, where he had the center of his possessions. In addition, on September 26th, the King appointed Edmund, instead of Badlesmere, administrator of Tonbridge Castle in Kent. The rebels had since failed to build on their success, so the king began to put down the rebellion militarily in October. He asked Edmund to raise troops in his property for the campaign. From the end of 1321 Edmund himself took part in the king's campaign against the rebels in the Welsh Marches . After the rebellion was put down there, the king turned against the Earl of Lancaster in early 1322. Edmund, along with other magnates, advised the king on March 11th to declare Lancaster and the remaining rebels traitors and to act against them with all might. The king now commissioned Edmund, together with the Earl of Surrey Pontefract Castle , to occupy one of the main seats in Lancaster. After the Battle of Boroughbridge on March 17, 1322, Lancaster was captured and brought first to York and then to Pontefract. Edmund is a member of the seven-magnate tribunal that sentenced Lancaster to death on March 22nd. At the end of 1322 the rebel Maurice de Berkeley , who was incarcerated in Wallingford Castle, was able to overpower his guards with the help of friends. Together with his supporters, he holed up in the castle. Then in January 1323 the king sent Edmund and the elder Despenser to Wallingford to retake the castle. They not only occupied Wallingford Castle, but also Berkeley Castle , where they, in disregard of sanctuary, also captured the defenders who had fled to the castle chapel.

Coat of arms of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent

Edmund was richly rewarded for his loyalty to the king. At the end of March 1322 Edward II gave him extensive estates in Wales, which had been confiscated by the rebel Roger Mortimer of Wigmore . In addition, he was appointed Sheriff of Rutland . In July 1322, the king gave him the management of Oakham Castle . In 1323 the king commissioned him to arrest and punish the supporters of the rebel Robert le Ewer . In September 1323 Edmund received the king's permission to hold a tournament in Northampton .

Service in Scotland and France

After his victory over his domestic opponents, Edward II turned to war with Scotland . Edmund was one of the commanders of the English army that advanced into Scotland in August 1322, but the army was defeated and dispersed by the Scots on October 14 at the Battle of Byland . Edmund fled to York with the king's entourage. Fearing a new Scottish invasion, the King ordered Edmund and other magnates to raise as many soldiers as possible and bring them to York in December. In February 1323, the King appointed Edmund his governor in Scotland and, instead of treason, accused Andrew Harclay governor in the Scottish Marches . In early March 1323 he was one of the judges who sentenced Harclay to death. As governor, Edmund now raised troops in Cumberland , Westmorland and Lancashire for the war against Scotland, but on May 30th he attended the council at which the king agreed to negotiate with Scotland. Finally in the same year the king concluded a thirteen-year truce with Scotland.

At the end of 1323 a conflict with France began over the south-west French Gascony, which belonged to the English kings . After initial attempts at mediation had failed, Edward II sent a high-ranking delegation to negotiate in Paris with his brother Edmund and Alexander Bicknor , Archbishop of Dublin, in April 1324 . The negotiations remained fruitless, however, whereupon the French declared Gascony confiscated. Thereupon Eduard II appointed on July 20, 1324 Edmund, who had returned to England, to lieutenant of Gascon to defend it in the war against France . The inexperienced Edmund quickly made himself unpopular in the Agenais for his demands on the local population, and as a result the region was quickly conquered for France by Charles of Valois in August . Edmund fled to La Réole , where the French trapped and besieged him. In a hopeless situation, he had to agree to a six-month armistice on September 22nd, which granted the French the possession of their conquered territories. Then Edmund stayed in the Gacogne. In April 1325 he ordered an army to be set up in Gascony to support the English troops, which were sent to reinforce Gascon under the command of Earl Warenne of England.

Role during the fall of Edward II.

To end the war with France, Edward II agreed to peace negotiations. But since he did not want to leave England for fear that his opponents would overthrow his rule during his absence, he sent Queen Isabelle to France for negotiations in March 1325 . Isabelle, who was a sister of the French King Charles IV , was able to quickly negotiate a new armistice. In this, the French accepted that instead of the king, the heir to the throne, Edward, paid homage to the French king for Gascony. He paid the required homage on September 24th . After that, however, both Isabelle and Eduard, the heir to the throne, refused to return to England in view of the influence of the Despensers at the royal court. Edmund also did not return to England and supported the Queen, who, together with the rebel Roger Mortimer , who had escaped from prison, planned to overthrow the King and the Despensers. Edward II ordered Edmund to return to England. When Edmund did not obey this order, the king declared his possessions confiscated in March 1326 and removed him from his offices. Edmund now accompanied the queen to the county of Hainaut , where the heir to the throne was betrothed to Philippa , a daughter of Count Wilhelm . The Count put a small mercenary force at the disposal of the conspirators, with whom Mortimer, the Queen and Edmund landed in England in September 1326 . They quickly received support from Edmund's brother Thomas of Brotherton and from Henry of Lancaster , a brother of the Earl of Lancaster, who was executed in 1322. The rule of Edward II quickly collapsed. Both Edmund and his brother Thomas attended the council meeting in Bristol on October 26th , at which the heir to the throne was appointed ruler . Both brothers were also members of the tribunal that sentenced the elder despenser to death. In November, they were also among the judges who sentenced the younger Despenser to death. Edmund attended the first parliament that the new government had convened. He became a member of the Regency Council chaired by Henry of Lancaster and took part in the coronation of the heir to the throne Edward on February 1, 1327.

In gratitude for his support, Edmund received properties that had previously belonged to the two Despensers and the Earl of Arundel , who was also executed . In 1328 he received further possessions from the Despensers, and at his request he also granted his followers land property. Edmund was now frequently at the royal court, where he attested numerous documents. In 1327 he was appointed one of the commanders of the army which led an unsuccessful campaign to Scotland. After the deposed Edward II was likely murdered in September 1327, Edmund attended the funeral of his half-brother in Gloucester Cathedral .

Role during the reign of Isabelle and Mortimer

It soon became clear, however, that Edmund did not play a major role in government. Real power had quickly passed to Roger Mortimer, supported by his mistress, Queen Isabelle. Like his brother Thomas, he stayed away from a council meeting in York in July 1327. On June 6th he had been appointed one of the commanders of the army that was set up to repel a Scottish raid on northern England, but by June 30th at the latest Henry of Lancaster had taken sole command. Edward took part in the unsuccessful campaign , but was of no major importance. In the fall of 1328 he allied with his brother Thomas, with Henry of Lancaster and with his brother-in-law Thomas Wake to limit Mortimer's power. In early December 1328 they met with other opposition barons and prelates in London. The goal of this alliance was government reform, but Edmund only half-heartedly supported the opposition. The conflict threatened to escalate into open civil war in early January 1329, but when Lancaster declared at Bedford that they had no choice but to fight the king's forces, Edmund and his brother Thomas switched sides. Without their support, Lancaster was far militarily inferior, and his revolt collapsed. He was politically disempowered, so that power was now entirely with Mortimer and Isabelle. Edmund, too, had now almost completely lost his influence in the government, despite having switched sides. Although he still testified regularly, but rarely, royal documents, because he was only reluctantly seen at the royal court. In 1329 he traveled again to Gascony and to the papal court in Avignon on behalf of the government. After his return to England, he and his brother Thomas accompanied Philippa of Hainault on her way from London to Westminster Abbey for the coronation in January 1330 . After that, Edmund no longer witnessed any royal documents.

Fall and death

Edmund was meanwhile convinced that his brother Edward II was still alive but was being held captive by Mortimer. How he claims to have found out is unclear, but he joined a group of conspirators who wanted to free the overthrown king and put him back on the throne. The group included several clergymen, but also former supporters of the Despensers. But the group was badly organized and the conspiracy was soon betrayed. During Parliament of March 1330, Edmund was charged as a traitor and sentenced to death. His brother-in-law Thomas Wake was also charged, but was able to flee England in time. Edmund was due to be executed outside Winchester Castle on March 19th . However, there was no executioner who wanted to execute Edmund as the king's son and important magnate. After waiting all day under humiliating circumstances, in the evening Mortimer finally found an ordinary criminal who beheaded Edmund and was not executed for it himself. Edmund's body was first buried in the Franciscan Church in Winchester, but after the fall of Mortimer in 1331 it was transferred to Westminster Abbey.

Descendants and inheritance

Edmund had married Margaret , the widow of John Comyn († 1314) and daughter of John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell in late 1325 . With her he had two sons and a daughter:

  1. ⚭ William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury
  2. ⚭ Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent
  3. ⚭ 1361 Edward, Prince of Wales

After Edmund was sentenced and executed, his widow was also arrested. His goods were confiscated and distributed to Mortimer's favorites. In October 1330, however, Mortimer was by a coup of the young Edward III. overturned. When he was tried in Parliament, it was revealed that Edmund had been the victim of an intrigue by Mortimers and his allies. They had actively supported Edmund's assumption that Edward II was still alive, so that Edmund actually believed that his brother had not been murdered. In the same parliament Edmund was from Edward III. officially pardoned, so that Edmund's son of the same name inherited his property. However, the younger Edmund died a year later, after which his younger brother John became heir to the estates and the title of Earl of Kent. After his childless death, the title fell to Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, husband of Edmund's daughter Joan. After his death, the title fell to her second husband, Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince.

Edmund was already controversial among his contemporaries. While chronicler Henry Blaneford called him a great man, other chroniclers criticized his unsteady political stance, which was ultimately unsuccessful. His household was notorious for requisitioning food and other goods from the surrounding area without payment. This and his political unsuccessfulness meant that Edmund's early death was mourned by only a few.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 131
  2. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 255
  3. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 293
  4. ^ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 58
  5. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 312
  6. ^ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 131
  7. ^ Natalie Fryde: The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321-1326 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. ISBN 0-521-54806-3 , p. 143
  8. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 137
  9. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 158
  10. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 177
  11. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 246
  12. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 211
  13. ^ Ranald Nicholson: Edward III and the Scots. The formative Years of a Military Career . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, p. 23
  14. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 218
  15. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 225
  16. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 217
  17. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 234
personal data
SURNAME Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edmund of Woodstock
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1301
PLACE OF BIRTH Woodstock Palace
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1330
Place of death Winchester