Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent

Edmund of Woodstock
Coat of arms of Edmund, Earl of Kent
Earl of Kent
Successor	Edmund, 2nd Earl
Spouse	Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell
Issue
Edmund, 2nd Earl of Kent Margaret, Viscountess of Tartas Joan, 4th Countess of Kent, Princess of Wales John, 3rd Earl of Kent
Father	Edward I Longshanks, King of England
Mother	Margaret of France
Born	5 August 1301(1301-08-05) Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Died	19 March 1330(1330-03-19) (aged 28)
Burial	Dominican Friary, Winchester

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (5 August 1301 – 19 March 1330) was a member of the English Royal Family.

Biography

Early life

He was born at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, the son of Edward I Longshanks, King of England and his second wife, Margaret of France. He was 62 years younger than his father, who died when Edmund of Woodstock was only seven. Reportedly, he enjoyed his father's favour. He was summoned to Parliament by writ of summons on 5 August 1320, by which he is held to have become Baron Woodstock. On 28 July 1321 he was created Earl of Kent.

War of Saint-Sardos

During the reigns of King Philip IV of France and his sons, the monarchy of France gradually expanded its authority and thus came into conflict with Edmund's half-brother, King Edward II of England. As Duke of Aquitaine, King Edward ruled Gascony as a vassal of the French King, these lands were all that was left from the once great Angevin empire; the Kings of France wanted this last English foothold gone too.

In April 1324, Edmund of Woodstock led an embassy to the French court to try to negotiate a peaceful compromise. On arrival in Paris the ambassadors received a cold welcome from the new French King, Charles IV. The English therefore decided to prepare for war.

The Earl of Kent was given command of the army assembling for Gascony. In August 1324, the French King's uncle, Charles of Valois, invaded Aquitaine and swept through the region, capturing many towns. The English were poorly prepared: many garrisons were little more than skeleton forces; some had no troops at all. The major engagement of the war was the brief siege of the English fortress of La Réole, on the Garonne river. Promised reinforcements from England never arrived, and the Earl of Kent was forced to surrender after a month of bombardment by French cannon.

The intended English reinforcements were led by Hugh le Despenser, the elder, whose military ineptitude and failure to relieve La Réole had led to the quick collapse of the English position in France. The war was a nearly total English defeat, with only Bordeaux and a narrow coastal strip of the once great Duchy of Aquitaine remaining in English hands.

Marriage

Kent was married to Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell, daughter of John Wake, first Baron Wake of Liddell and Joan de Fiennes, sometime between October and December of 1325, at Blisworth in Northamptonshire.

In 1327, after the execution and forfeiture of the Earl of Arundel, Kent held the castle and honour (land) of Arundel, although he was never formally invested with the titles appropriate to this fief. Edmund was the father of Joan of Kent, through whom the earldom eventually passed into the Holland family.

Execution

Edward II had been deposed when his wife Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer invaded England from their exile in France. Isabella had been staying in Paris with her brother Charles IV of France when she met and fell in love with the notorious rebel Mortimer who was in exile for his role in the rebellion known as the Despenser War. After the couple had taken power, Edmund was sentenced to death by Sir Robert de Hauville for treason due to his support of his half-brother, Edward II. It was done under the orders of Mortimer, as he feared that Edmund, believing Edward II to be still alive, had conspired to rescue him from prison. The execution was undertaken before the outer walls of Winchester Castle. But such was the public hostility to the execution that "he had to wait five hours for an executioner, because nobody wanted to do it". A convicted murderer eventually beheaded Edmund in exchange for a pardon.

Edmund was buried on 31 March at the Church of the Dominican Friars in Winchester.

Legacy

Edmund's execution was the beginning of the end for Mortimer's regency. In October 1330, Edward III assumed the full powers of King with the support of Edmund's cousin, Henry, Earl of Lancaster. A month later Mortimer was executed for assuming royal powers. Edmund's widow and children were treated as members of Edward III's royal household.

Family

The children of Edmund, Earl of Kent, by Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake, were:

• Edmund, 2nd Earl of Kent (1326 - bef. 5 October 1331)
• Margaret (1327–1352). Married Arnaud Amanieu, Lord of Albret.
• Joan of Kent ("The Fair Maid of Kent"; 28 September 1328 – 7 August 1385). Married Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent and Edward, the Black Prince son of Edward III
• John, 3rd Earl of Kent (7 April 1330 – 26 December 1352)

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Arms

As Earl of Kent, Edmund had use of the coat of arms of the kingdom, differenced by a bordure argent. His arms, along with his peerages, were transmitted to his sons in turn.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Hugh le Despenser	Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports 1321–1323	Succeeded by Sir John Peche
Peerage of England
New creation	Earl of Kent 1321–1323	Succeeded by Edmund, 2nd Earl