Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York

Edmund of Langley
Duke of York
Successor	Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke
Born	(1341-06-05)5 June 1341 Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
Died	1 August 1402(1402-08-01) (aged 61) Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
Burial	Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
Spouse	Isabella of Castile Joan Holland
Issue	Edward, 2nd Duke of York Constance of York, Countess of Gloucester Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge
House	House of Plantagenet (by birth) House of York (founder)
Father	Edward III of England
Mother	Philippa of Hainault

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, 1st Earl of Cambridge, KG (5 June 1341 – 1 August 1402) was a younger son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, the fourth of this Royal couple's five sons who lived to adulthood. Like so many medieval princes, Edmund gained his identifying nickname from his birthplace of Kings Langley Palace in Hertfordshire. He was the founder of the House of York, but it was through the marriage of his younger son, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge to Ann Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Lionel of Antwerp, Edward III's second son, that the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses made its claim on the throne (the other party in the Wars of the Roses, the incumbent Lancasters, being the male descendants of his elder brother, John of Gaunt) who was Edward III's third son.

Early years

On the death of his godfather, the Earl of Surrey, Edmund was granted the Earl's lands north of the Trent, primarily in Yorkshire. In 1359 he joined his father King Edward III on an unsuccessful military expedition to France and in 1361 was made a knight of the Garter. In 1362, at the age of twenty-one, he was created Earl of Cambridge by King Edward.

Military career

Edmund of Langley before King Ferdinand of Portugal, from Jean de Wavrin's Chronique d'Angleterre.

Some argue that Edmund had little aptitude for war, but he took part in several military expeditions to France in the 1370s, and when his tomb was opened in the 1870s his skeleton showed evidence of wounds that strongly suggests his martial abilities have been under-rated. In 1369 he brought a retinue of 400 men-at-arms and 400 archers to serve with John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, on campaign in Brittany and Angoulême. The following year he first joined Pembroke again on an expedition to relieve the fortress of Belle Perche and then accompanied the Black Prince on the campaign which resulted in the siege and sack of Limoges. In 1375 he sailed with Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, to relieve Brest, but after some initial success a truce was declared.

In 1381 he led an abortive expedition to join with the Portuguese in attacking Castile, but after months of indecisiveness a peace was again declared (between Spain and Portugal) and Edmund had to lead his malcontented troops home.

He was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports on 12 June 1376 and held office until 1381. He acted as Keeper of the Realm in 1394/95 when Richard II campaigned in Ireland and presided over Parliament in 1395. He was also keeper of the realm in 1396 during the king's brief visit to France to collect his child-bride Isabella. The Duke was left as Custodian of the Realm in the summer of 1399 when Richard II departed for an extended campaign in Ireland. In late June the exiled Henry Bolingbroke landed at Bridlington in Yorkshire. He raised an army to resist Bolingbroke, then decided instead to join him, for which he was well rewarded. He thereafter remained loyal to the new Lancastrian regime as Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II to become King Henry IV.

Later life

On 6 August 1385, Edmund was elevated to Duke of York

Towards the end of his life, in 1399, he was appointed Warden of the West March for a short period.

Edmund of Langley died in his birthplace and was buried there in the church of the mendicant friars. His dukedom passed to his eldest son, Edward.

Marriage

Langley's first wife, Isabella, was a daughter of King Peter of Castile and María de Padilla. They had two sons and a daughter:

• Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (killed in action at the Battle of Agincourt)
• Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (executed for treason by Henry V), ancestor of Kings Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III of the House of York, and all succeeding monarchs of England after King Henry VII.
• Constance of York (an ancestor of Queen Anne Neville)

After Isabella's death in 1392, Langley married his cousin Joan Holland, whose great-grandfather Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was the half-brother of Langley's grandfather Edward II; she and Langley were thus both descended from King Edward I. The marriage produced no children.

Langley's first wife, Infanta Isabella of Castile, was the sister of Infanta Constance of Castile, the second wife of Langley's brother John of Gaunt.

His second wife, Lady Joan Holland, a granddaughter of Joan of Kent, Princess of Wales (mother of Richard II), was the sister of Margaret Holland who married firstly to Gaunt's son John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and secondly to Thomas of Lancaster, grandson of John of Gaunt by his son King Henry IV. Another sister, Eleanor Holland was mother-in-law to Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, grandson of John of Gaunt by his daughter Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Yet another sister, Alianore Holland was mother to Anne de Mortimer, wife to Langley's son, Richard of Conisburgh. Another sibling of Lady Joan, Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent would father a child by Langley's daughter Constance of York; it has been claimed there was a marriage betrothal between the two, but no evidence that they were officially married.

Shakespeare's Duke of York

As a son of the sovereign, Edmund bore the arms of the sovereign, differenced by a label argent, on each point three torteaux.

Edmund, the 1st Duke of York is a major character in Shakespeare's Richard II. In the play, Edmund resigns his position as an adviser to his nephew, Richard II, but is reluctant to betray the king. He eventually agrees to side with Bolingbroke to help him regain the lands Richard confiscated after the death of Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt. After Bolingbroke deposes Richard and is crowned Henry IV, Edmund discovers a plot by his son, Aumerle to assassinate the new king. Edmund exposes the plot, but his wife Isabella convinces Henry to pardon her son.

Remains

From an account of the exhumation of Edmund's corpse in 1877: "The skull belonging to the male skeleton had a sloping forehead. The chin and lower jaw were powerfully developed. The front teeth were small in size and crammed together, and many of the back teeth lost. Still the retention of the front teeth and the good development of the lower jaw and chin, coupled with the length and breadth of the facial region, must have given a commanding expression to the old man who owned this skull... A piece of coarse textile fabric, with some hair of a greyish-red color adhering to it, was found with the skull. He was from 5' 5" to 5' 7" in height."

Ancestry

Family of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York

16. Henry III of England 8. Edward I of England 17. Eleanor of Provence 4. Edward II of England 18. Ferdinand III of Castile 9. Eleanor of Castile 19. Jeanne of Dammartin 2. Edward III of England 20. Philip III of France (=28) 10. Philip IV of France 21. Isabella of Aragon (=29) 5. Isabella of France 22. Henry I of Navarre 11. Joan I of Navarre 23. Blanche of Artois 1. Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York 24. John I, Count of Hainaut and Lord of Avesnes 12. John II, Count of Holland 25. Adelaide of Holland 6. William I, Count of Hainaut 26. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg 13. Philippa of Luxembourg 27. Margaret of Bar 3. Philippa of Hainault 28. Philip III of France (=20) 14. Charles of Valois 29. Isabella of Aragon (=21) 7. Joan of Valois 30. Charles II of Naples 15. Marguerite of Anjou and Maine 31. Maria of Hungary

Bibliography

• Peggy K. Liss, "Isabel the Queen," New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 165
• James Reston, Jr. "Dogs of God," New York: Doubleday, p. 18.
• Douglas Biggs, “A Wrong Whom Conscience and Kindred Bid Me to Right: A Reassessment of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York and the Usurpation of Henry IV” Albion, 26 (1994), pp. 231–246.
• Douglas Biggs, “To Aid the Custodian and Council: Edmund of Langley and the Defense of the Realm, June–July 1399,” Journal of Medieval Military History, I (2002), pp. 125–144.
• Douglas Biggs, “’A Voyage or Rather and Expedition to Portugal:’ Edmund of Langley in Iberia 1381/82,” Journal of Medieval Military History 7 (2009), pp. 57–74.
• Douglas Biggs, Three Armies in Britain: The Irish Campaign of Richard II and the Usurpation of Henry IV, 1399, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2006.

External links

• Tuck, Anthony (January 2008). "Edmund , first duke of York (1341–1402)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16023. Retrieved 2009-10-11. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• For the tombs of Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile, see 'Friaries: King's Langley priory', A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 4 (1971), pp. 446–451.[1] Date accessed: 5 October 2012