Biography of Edmund of Woodstock 1st Earl Kent 1301-1330

On 1st November 1254 [his father] King Edward I of England (age 15) and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England (age 13) were married at Abbey of Santa Maria la Real de Huelgas [Map]. She the daughter of Ferdinand III King Castile III King Leon and Joan Dammartin Queen Consort Castile and Leon (age 34). He the son of [his grandfather] King Henry III of England (age 47) and [his grandmother] Eleanor of Provence Queen Consort England (age 31). They were second cousin once removed. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England.

On 10th September 1299 [his father] King Edward I of England (age 60) and [his mother] Margaret of France Queen Consort England (age 20) were married at Canterbury Cathedral [Map]. She by marriage Queen Consort England. The difference in their ages was 39 years. She the daughter of [his grandfather] King Philip III of France and [his grandmother] Maria of Brabant Queen Consort France (age 43). He the son of [his grandfather] King Henry III of England and [his grandmother] Eleanor of Provence Queen Consort England. They were first cousin once removed. She a great x 3 granddaughter of King Henry "Curtmantle" II of England.

Guy Beauchamp 10th Earl Warwick (age 27) was present.

On 7th July 1307 [his father] King Edward I of England (age 68) died at Burgh by Sands [Map] whilst on his way north to Scotland. His son [his half-brother] Edward (age 23) succeeded II King of England. Earl Chester merged with the Crown.

Edward had gathered around him Thomas Plantagenet 2nd Earl of Leicester, 2nd Earl Lancaster, Earl of Salisbury and Lincoln (age 29), Guy Beauchamp 10th Earl Warwick (age 35), Aymer de Valence 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 32) and Robert Clifford 1st Baron Clifford (age 33) and charged them with looking after his son in particular ensuring Piers Gaveston 1st Earl Cornwall (age 23) didn't return from exile.

On 14th February 1318 [his mother] Margaret of France Queen Consort England (age 39) died at Marlborough Castle [Map]. She was buried at Christ Church, Greyfriars [Map]. Her tomb was destroyed during the Reformation.

On 19th March 1330 the King's uncle Edmund of Woodstock 1st Earl Kent (age 28) was beheaded at Winchester Castle [Map]. Earl Kent forfeit. Edmund had been convicted of plotting against the court believing his brother [his half-brother] King Edward II was still alive. It later emerged the plot had been created by Roger Mortimer 1st Earl March (age 42) to entrap Edmund. King Edward III of England (age 17) was unable to show leniency risking complicity in the plot. He was buried at Westminster Abbey [Map].

See Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke, Walter of Guisborough, Knighton 2555, Murimuth and Parliament Rolls.

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. In the year 1329, certain individuals,¹ wishing to find out what friends Edward II, the recently deceased King of England, still had, fabricated a story that he was living luxuriously in Corfe Castle, though never seen by day. To support this fiction, they held dances many nights upon the castle walls and towers, carrying lit candles and torches, so that they might be perceived by the simple folk of the countryside as keeping watch over some great king to whom they were rendering honours. News spread throughout England that the king's father was still alive. Because of this, the Earl of Kent sent a certain friar of the Order of Preachers to investigate the truth of the matter. Thinking he had bribed the castle's doorkeeper, the friar was deceived. He was brought in and kept hidden by day in the porter's chamber, with the promise that he would see by night the man he wished to see. At night he was led into the hall, ordered to wear secular clothing so as not to be recognized, and there he believed he saw King Edward, the king's father, sitting at a splendid supper. Believing what he saw, he reported to the Earl of Kent (age 27) that he had seen him. As a result, the earl, in the presence of certain persons to whom he should not have confided such things, swore he would labour to have his brother freed from the imprisonment in which he was held.

Anno MCCCXIX quidam experturi quos haberet amicos Edwardus secundus, rex Anglie nuper extinctus, confinxerunt ipsum in castro de: Corf laute vivere, set nusquam de die velle videri. Propterea fecerunt multis noctibus tripudia super muros castri et turres, preferentes cereos et tortices accensos, ut ab ydiotis de patria forent percepti, quasi aliquem magnum regem haberent custoditum, cui solemnizarent. Nova per totam Angliam sunt expansa quod regis pater viveret. Unde comes Cancie misit illuc quemdam fratrem ordinis Predicatorum, exploraturum rei veritatem; qui, putans se muneribus corrupisse castri ianitorem, decipitur. Introducitur nempe latiturus de die in camera ianitoris, visurus de nocte quem videre cupiebat. Nocte introducitur in aulam, iussus induere habitum secularem, ne perciperetur, videbaturque sibi ipsum videre Edwardum patrem regis cene splendide assidentem; quod ut credidit, ita retulit comiti Cancie se vidisse. Unde comes in presencia quorumdam, quibus non debuit fidem adibuisse, iuravit se laboraturum ad hoc, quod frater suus foret de reclusione ubi detinebatur liberatus.

Note 1. Stow's translation, 355-6.

The Brute chronicle (Harley MS. 2279).

The Chronicle of Lanercost 264.

The Dominican Thomas Dunheved, who is here stated to have been the friar who raised the devil for the occasion, is said to have been Edward II's envoy to gain the pope's consent to his divorce from Isabella. Chronicle of Lanercost 260.

The Brute chronicle has a partly similar account: "But the frere prechours to him [the imprisoned king] were good frendes evermore, and caste and ordeynede both nghte and day how thei myjte bringe him oute of prison. And amonge hire companye that the freres priveleche had brought ther was a frere that men callede Dunhevede; and he had ordeynede and gadered a grete companye of folke for to helpe atte that nede. Butte the frere was take and putte into a castelle of Pountfrete, and ther he deide in prison.

Kent's confession will be found in Latin, in Walsingham Historia Anglicana 2.351, and in French, in the appendix to Murimuth 253: This acknowledgment was made before Robert Houel, coroner of the King's household, and afterwards before the great men and peers of the land, at Winchester, on the sixteenth day of March, in the fourth year: To wit, that Edmund earl of Kent acknowledgeth that the pope charged him, on his benison, that he should use his pains and diligence to deliver Edward, his brother, sometime king of England, and that thereto he would find his costs. And he said that a friar preacher of the convent of London came unto him, at Kensington near to London, and told him that he had raised up the devil, which declared unto him for certain that Edward, his brother, sometime king of England, was alive. And he said that the archbishop of York sent unto him by a chaplain, one sir Aleyn, a letter of credence, which was: that he would aid him in the deliverance of his brother with five thousand pounds and moreover with as much as he had and as much as he could give. And he said that sir Ingelram Berenger told him in London, from sir William de la Zouche, that he would give as much as he could for the deliverance of his brother. And he said that sir William of Clif came unto him on the same message, by this token that they rode together between Woking and Guildford, and he told him that he should avoid the town of Guildford by reason of his niece Despenser that was in the same town of Guildford; and this same sir William spake unto him of the alliance between the son of Richard, Earl of Arundel, and his daughter, and said moreover that this would be the greatest honour that ever befell him, and that he would aid him as much as he could to do this thing. And he said that this same sir William came unto him from Hugh le Despenser, which told him that he would be well pleased to be with him; for he said that he would be sure of the deliverance in short time. And he said that sir William of Derham, clerk of his letters, and brother Thomas of Bromfield were they which most abetted him and stirred him to do these things aforesaid. And he said that sir Robert of Taunton, from the archbishop of York, brought a message of these things aforesaid, and told him that he had ready five thousand pounds to do this business aforesaid, and this of the money of sir Hugh the Despenser. And he said that this same sir Robert and two friars preachers which are out of their order, of which the one is called Edmund Savage and the other John, were the chief dealers in this matter. And he said that sir Fulk Fitz-Warin came unto him at Westminster and prayed him and stirred him to begin this thing, and encouraged him to do these things, and told him that this would be the greatest honour that ever befell him, and told him that he would aid him with body and heart and whatsoever he had. And he said that sir Ingelram Berenger came unto him from sir John Pecche, that he was of that mind, and thereto would bestow body and heart and whatsoever he had. And he said that rir Henry Beaumont and sir Thomas Rosselyn spake unto him in Paris, in the chamber of the duke of Brabant, that they were ready to come to England in aid of these things aforesaid; and that they stirred him to do these things; and that they would land towards the parts of Scotland, with countenance of Donald of Mar, and that he would aid them to uphold these things, and with all his strength. But the time of their coming is passed. And he said that sir Richard of Pontefract, confessor of the lady of Vesey, came unto him at Kensington, at the coronation, and afterwards at Arundel, from the archbishop of York, for these things aforesaid. And he said that a monk of Quar and John Cymmyngs, his cousin, had fitted out a ship, a barge, and a boat, to bring his brother and him to his castle of Arundel and from thence whithersoever should have been appointed. And he said that of these things aforesaid he opened himself unto sir E. of Monchiver and to George of Percy. And he said that the letters which he sent to sir Bugues of Bayeux and to John Daverill, sealed with his seal, he sent .... and the one letter was written by the hand of his wife. And he said that Ingelram Berenger, Maucelym Musarde and John Cymmynge did travail and take pains to accomplish these things. And he eaid that Ingelram Berenger came unto him at Arundel, in his chamber above the chapel, and said that the bishop of London would aid him in the deliverance of his brother with whatsoever he had. And these things he acknowledged to be true, and yieldeth himself guilty that he hath borne himself evilly for the undoing of his liege lord and of his crown, by countenance of these men aforesaid; and he wholly submitteth himself to the king's will, to come, in his shirt, to London or in this city, barefoot, or whithersoever the king shall appoint, with a rope round his neck, to do with him what it shall him please.".

Edward, in writing an account of his condemnation to the pope, quotes the terms of the confession, 24th March 1330. Rymer's Fœdera 2.783. The earl was still a young man at the time of his death, having been born in 1301. His conduct in Lancaster's revolt (above) as well as on the present occasion proves him to have been of remarkably weak character.

The article in Mortimer's condemnation in the parliament of 1330, which accuses him of being the author of the plot against Kent, is described in the Parliament Rolls, 2.52: Also, although the said Roger [de Mortimer] well knew that the father of our lord the king was dead and buried, he. through others of his faction, deceitfully led the Earl of Kent to believe that the said father of our lord the king was still alive. Because of this, the said Earl of Kent became very eager to know the truth, whether he was alive or not. And he sought to discover it by every honest means he knew. Nevertheless, the said Roger, by means of the royal power he had arrogated to himself, caused the said Earl of Kent to be arrested at the parliament held at Winchester, and he so procured and pursued the matter through that royal authority that the said earl was put to death at the said parliament.

Chronicle of Robert Fabyan [-1512]. [19th March 1330]. In this thyrde mayres yere, the abouesayde syr Edmude of Wodestoke (age 28) erle of Kent, entendynge the reformacion of the mysse ordre of the realme, beynge enfourmyd y^t his brother syr Edwarde was in lyfe, deuysed certeyn letters towdrynge the delyuery of his sayde brother, and sent them unto his sayd brother; of which dede he was shortlye after accusyd, and by auctoryte of a parlyament holdyn at Westmynster [Winchester], aboute Pentecoste folowinge, he for that dede was iudgyd to haue his hede smytten of, whereof execucion was done the. xv¹. day of May folowynge in the foresayde cytie of Winchester,

Note 1. In subsequent edits given as 25th. The execution Edmude of Wodestoke is usually given as 19th March 1330.

Chronicle of the Kings of England by Richard Baker. 19th March 1330. For another Parliament being holden at Winchester, Edmund Earl of Kent (age 28), the Kings Uncle, is there accused, and condemned upon his confession, for intending to restore his Brother, the late [his half-brother] King Edward; an intention only without any fact, yet condemned he was, and brought to the Scaffold: but generally so beloved of the people, that he stood on the Scaffold from one a Clock till five, before any Executioner could be found that would do the Office; till at last a silly wretch of the Marshalsey [Map] was gotten to cut off his head.

Annales of England by John Stow. [19th March 1330]. The same yeere, at the earnest request of some, the king held a parliament at Winchester, where, by procurement of the old queen and Roger Mortimer, the said earle of Kent [Edmund of Woodstock 1st Earl Kent (age 28)] and many other noble men and religious persons, to wit, the provincials of the white Carmelite fryers and of the blacke preaching friers, and frier Richard Wilton, weie accused of conspiracie, touching (as it was said) the deliverie of the kings father: which matter although it were but devised fantasie and a meere lye, yet the said earle, for certaine confessions which he made, and for certaine letters which were found about him, was there beheaded. The other, to wit, the provincials of the Predicants and Carmelites, were banished : but the bishop of London was set at libertie, Robert de Tauntone, priest, and some certaine Carmelite friers and Predicants were condemned to perpetuall prison. The death of the said earle was the lesse lamented, because his family and servants had above measure afflicted the commons, in taking up things (as they travailed) at the king's price, paying nothing or very little for it.

On 29th September 1349 [his former wife] Margaret Wake Countess Kent (age 52) died of plague. Her son [his son] John (age 19) succeeded 4th Baron Wake of Liddell and inherited her dower lands and the estates she had inherited from her brother [his former brother-in-law] Thomas Wake 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell.