Joan of Kent: The First Princess of Wales Read online

  Unfortunately, Edmund’s embassy was doomed to failure. Charles IV had no incentive to reach an agreement, as the crisis had given him a legitimate excuse to reassert French influence in the region. Arriving in Paris, Charles IV reputedly received Edmund’s deputation coldly, and it seems unlikely that the ambassadors could ever have suggested a solution which would satisfy all parties. The talks dragged on for three months, with obvious vacillations on the part of Edmund and the other English delegates. Charles IV had no intention of allowing the impasse to continue and by early July it was clear that he had determined on military action. When in desperation Edmund and his fellow ambassadors conceded some of the French demands, Edward II reacted with public anger and appointed replacement ambassadors. Privately, the king was finding his brother extremely useful. Edmund’s failed diplomatic overture had gained valuable time, and now invasion by the French was imminent he had a further use for him. On 20 July 1324 Edward II appointed Edmund to be his royal lieutenant in Gascony.56 This was, for the king, an expedient appointment. Edmund had obvious status as his brother; he was on the spot, loyal and known to have competence as a commander. If, as seemed likely, he failed to prevent a French invasion, then he was also a convenient scapegoat, enabling the king to distance himself from personal responsibility for any debacle. Unhappily for Edmund, this is exactly what happened. Within six weeks of his arrival in Gascony the French invading force had swept aside everything in their path. While there were many good reasons for the overwhelming French victory – the English garrison was small and poorly equipped, promised support from England never materialised, local support evaporated in the face of French numerical superiority – for Edmund it was a mortifying personal failure to add to his unsuccessful diplomatic overture. The prospect of returning to England with his reputation in tatters was not appealing. When Edward II asked Edmund to stay on as royal lieutenant in Gascony after signing the truce, he was probably relieved and thankful, and may have interpreted it as a sign of implied trust, helping to salve his bruised confidence. However, any comfort he derived may not have lasted for long. Once Edmund was established in Bordeaux, Edward II insisted that his reports and requests were channelled through Hugh Despenser. This was humiliating, and made worse by Hugh Despenser rebuffing Edmund’s friendly overtures towards him and undermining his position by conducting his own correspondence with Edmund’s officers.57

  Isolated in Gascony and distanced from the English court, with the opprobrium of defeat, Edmund’s confidence in his brother was shaken and this was not helped by the news from England. The situation in Gascony dominated foreign affairs in England. In September Edward II used the defeat in the Agenais and the resulting fear of a French mainland invasion as an excuse to deprive his wife of her lands and her French servants, and to reduce her allowance. It was even rumoured he might try to obtain a divorce. These actions prompted angry reactions from many of the nobility, and considerable sympathy for Isabella. Throughout the autumn there were rumours Edward II would go in person to settle matters with Charles IV, but by February 1325 he had been persuaded by the Despensers that his wife would be a suitable emissary to her brother. Isabella departed on 9 March 1325 – joyfully, according to the Vita chronicler. With the deepening crisis at home and his supporters starting to desert him, Edward II belatedly felt concern about Edmund, and wrote to his ‘dear brother’ personally on 23 February 1325, ostensibly about his duties but in reality to ensure his loyalty.58 But although Edmund seems to have served his brother faithfully in the duchy, he was wary and no longer unhesitatingly compliant. The first indication of Edmund’s newfound independence came in April when Edmund refused to comply with the king’s order to send his chancellor, John Ellerker, back to England.59 Edward II was undoubtedly taken aback, and angry, as his order in June reveals, demanding that Edmund ‘at once lay aside all excuse’ because he was ‘putting forward certain excuses which the King deems insufficient’.60 The king sensed that it was time to bring his brother home, and when an expedition, headed by the earls of Surrey and Atholl, was dispatched to bring the long-awaited reinforcements and money to Gascony in May 1325, he recalled Edmund.61

  It is not clear when Edmund left Gascony, but it is likely to have been in the autumn. The king evidently envisaged that it would take him some time to comply with his orders to complete his business before leaving, as he was paid as lieutenant until January 1326, but having received his recall Edmund turned his attention to his own personal affairs. Edmund had not forgotten Margaret, whom he knew was in Paris with the queen, and when her brother Thomas Wake arrived in Gascony with the expeditionary party, it gave him the opportunity to finalise arrangements for their marriage. Whether Edward II approved or not, Edmund was now determined to marry Margaret at the earliest opportunity, and had no intention of returning to England and leaving her in France. Knowing he would need a papal dispensation for their marriage (he and Margaret shared a common ancestor and so were related within the Church’s prohibited degrees of consanguinity), he lost no time in applying to the Pope. The necessary papal dispensation was granted on 2 October 1325, and by December Edmund had journeyed to Paris and married Margaret.62 Edward II does not seem to have objected to Edmund’s marriage, but he must have been appalled when he realised his brother was now in the enemy camp. When Edmund arrived in Paris, he found that Isabella was now surrounded by a sizeable body of supporters, all in opposition to the king. Isabella’s position had been strengthened by Prince Edward’s arrival in Paris in September to pay homage to Charles IV in his father’s place, and she had defiantly told her husband that she would not return to England until the Despensers were removed.63 Belatedly realising his mistake, Edward II made repeated demands for her to return, but to no avail. Having thoroughly alienated his wife, she ignored him, and an increasing number of disaffected nobles left England to join the queen in Paris.64

  Edmund may not have appreciated the seriousness of his brother’s position in his enthusiasm and determination to complete his own personal affairs, but once he had arrived in Paris he could have been in no doubt of the antagonism and hostility felt towards Edward II, or the strength of support for the queen. Edmund’s loyalty and allegiance towards his brother, already weakened by his Gascon experience, was further weakened by his marriage. Margaret’s brother Thomas Wake was a favoured intimate of Henry of Lancaster, who headed the Lancastrian opposition to the king. Her own loyalties naturally lay with the queen, and her cousin, Roger Mortimer, was quickly becoming the queen’s champion. Isabella was also Edmund’s cousin, and he may well have felt sympathy for her complaints, while being conscious that he had a duty towards her, and his nephew. Once in Paris, he dithered. Margaret, as her later career indicated, was a forceful woman, and her influence on him would have been decisive.65 Throughout the autumn and winter of 1325 Edward II wrote to Isabella requesting her return; by March 1326 he was begging Prince Edward, and Edmund, to return.66 Edmund’s deep devotion and loyalty to his brother resurfaced, and he resolved to return, but, unsure of his welcome, he wrote to the king requesting permission.67 Unfortunately, it was by then too late. Having ignored so many of his orders, Edward II had lost patience with Edmund, and on 4 April ordered Edmund’s lands, goods and chattels to be sequestrated.68 Edmund now dared not return, and found he was committed to the queen’s cause.

  Nevertheless, Edmund’s newfound allegiance to the queen was lukewarm. The driving force in her party was Roger Mortimer, who had not forgotten Edmund’s part in persuading him to surrender to Edward II in 1322. However, the recruitment of the king’s brother was a propaganda victory for Isabella, and Edmund was soon publicly associated with her. As the rift between king and queen widened Charles IV became uncomfortable with his sister’s presence and requested Isabella to leave his court, and to take her followers with her. Not yet ready to return to England, the queen travelled instead to Hainault, with the excuse of trying to arrange a match for Prince Edward. Edmund and Margaret accompanied her. Making no attempt to
consult with her husband, Isabella negotiated with the Count of Hainault and agreed that Prince Edward would marry one of his three daughters in return for his promise of military support. Edmund was called on to undertake to see that the marriage took place.69 Armed with this assurance, and with a considerable body of support around her, Isabella planned her return to England. Her stated aim remained the removal of the Despensers. Meanwhile, realising that his wife was not going to return on his terms, Edward II prepared for the worst, assuming an invasion was imminent. He amassed an army, putting the Earl of Surrey in command, and appointed his remaining supporters to take command of the country’s defences, deputing Thomas of Brotherton to take charge of defences in Essex, Hertfordshire and East Anglia. However, when Isabella and her supporters, including Edmund and Margaret, sailed for England in September 1326 they chose to land on Thomas’ Suffolk estates. There they were greeted in safety by sympathisers, including Thomas, whose change of allegiance was almost certainly due to Edmund’s influence.70 Edward II had not anticipated that his brothers would betray him and could barely credit it, being at pains to exclude Edmund from the warrant issued for the arrest of Roger Mortimer and the other rebels on 27 September.71 But by October he could be in no doubt of Edmund’s changed allegiance after a joint proclamation issued in the name of Isabella, Prince Edward and Edmund called on him to be rid of the Despensers.72

  Isabella’s actual intentions on returning to England, and whether or not she and Mortimer had planned all along to depose Edward II, have been much debated by historians. Whatever their real aims, they were careful to keep them secret. There was no reason for Edmund not to believe Isabella’s publicly stated objective of removing the Despensers, and he probably anticipated that an accommodation would be reached with Edward II, such as had been imposed in 1311 and 1321. No one predicted the complete and total collapse of support for the king, or the enthusiasm and approval with which the queen was greeted as she slowly made her way to London. The defeat of the king, without a single battle being fought, was overwhelming. The Earl of Winchester, the elder Despenser, was captured at Bristol, and his son at Hereford. Both were tried and executed, with Edmund and Thomas judges at their trials, showing that Edmund had long since lost any goodwill he may once have felt towards them.73 Abandoned by almost all of his supporters, Edward II was captured and imprisoned at Henry of Lancaster’s castle at Kenilworth. In January 1327 Isabella called an assembly of leading nobles to decide the king’s fate, at which the call was made for Edward II to step aside in favour of his son, Thomas Wake being one of the most vociferous of those calling for the king’s abdication. A deputation was sent to persuade the king to abdicate in favour of Prince Edward, and Edward II was forced, reluctantly, to agree. To unanimous acclaim, Prince Edward was crowned king on 29 January 1327, and shortly afterwards a council of four prelates, four earls and six barons was appointed to assist him in governing, on the grounds that at fourteen he was too young to do so himself.

  Events had moved quickly and Edmund’s part in them is hard to discern. Although he had been closely involved in the Despensers’ fate, he does not seem to have been a party to his brother’s capture, or included in the deputation persuading him to abdicate, yet he was, with Thomas, on the newly formed governing council. The absence of both brothers from the removal of the king suggests that neither was comfortable with the forced abdication, but neither appear to have raised a dissenting voice. Perhaps any qualms Edmund felt were allayed by Isabella’s assurance that the king would be permitted to live out his life in comfortable seclusion. But the truth is that they had both, in effect, been bought by Isabella. Knowing how Edmund had been treated by Edward II, Isabella astutely offered to fulfil the terms of Edward I’s charter in full as the price for his acquiescence in his brother’s deposition. Naturally Margaret would have urged him to accept, and with an heir to consider (Edmund and Margaret’s first child, Edmund, was probably born in the late autumn of 1326 or early in 1327), self-interest played its part.74 Edmund was anxious that his gain would not be seen as a reward for his change of allegiance, and he tried to distance himself from his sister-in-law by formally petitioning Parliament for completion of the charter terms, making it clear that he was asking for the fulfilment of a long-standing, legitimate claim. On 10 January 1327, just days before Edward II’s abdication, the exchequer was ordered to work out what property should be granted to Edmund to provide him with sufficient further rents to ensure he enjoyed an annual income of 8,000 marks a year, as promised by Edward I.75 Thomas followed Edmund’s lead and similarly submitted his own petition, stating that he had only received 6,000 of the 10,000 marks promised.76 On 27 February 1327, in addition to a substantial grant of former Despenser and Arundel holdings, including Arundel Castle, Edmund had the satisfaction of having Edward II’s 1315 and 1319 grants to him confirmed and extended to his heirs.77 Thomas also received grants to fulfil his charter terms. At long last they both had what their father had promised them so long ago, but they would have to live with the fact that the price they had paid to achieve this was their silence in the face of Edward II’s abdication.

  With Edward II’s abdication, Edmund’s position was publicly at its height and he appeared to enjoy considerable authority. He was the new king’s favourite uncle and he was on the council. Froissart described him as one of the young king’s main advisers, with Isabella and Mortimer.78 However, Edmund was not as powerful as his new position suggested. His reputation and standing had not been enhanced by his career in France, and nor had his cause been improved by the modest part he had played in Edward II’s deposition. With charisma, drive and force of personality Edmund could have made himself a dominant figure in the new regime, but he was not ambitious, and once he had obtained what he felt was his due as Edward I’s son he was content to follow the lead of others. Although he was a member of the council of twelve appointed to assist his young nephew, with Thomas Brotherton and Thomas Wake, it was headed by Henry of Lancaster and there is no evidence that Edmund enjoyed greater influence than the other council members. He was not intimate with Isabella and Mortimer, despite Froissart’s remark, and he made no attempt to become more closely associated with them. Even his achievement in obtaining the fulfilment of the charter terms indicates a crucial weakness on his part. Aware of Edmund’s ambivalence towards her cause, Isabella had been careful to ensure that (with the exception of Arundel Castle) Edmund received few key strategic properties, and that his lands were scattered (they were spread over twenty-six counties) so that he remained without a natural power base.79 Edmund must have realised this, but he does not seem to have objected, and he made no attempt to challenge Isabella and Mortimer’s dominance. In the summer of 1327 Edmund was appointed with Thomas of Brotherton, and Henry of Lancaster, to command the Scottish campaign, but it was not a successful partnership and the campaign ended badly, with Isabella and Mortimer forcing them to agree an unpopular truce. From the start of the new regime, the council had proved ineffective in taking control of affairs away from them, and Isabella and Mortimer’s acquisitive behaviour and firm grip on power started to arouse hostility. When opposition to Isabella and Mortimer started to grow in earnest, the disillusioned and unhappy nobility looked for leadership and found it in Henry of Lancaster, rather than in Edmund.

  In July and August, while Edmund was in Scotland, there were attempts to free Edward II. Edmund had not made any attempt to visit his brother, and it is impossible to know how he felt about the king’s incarceration. When it was announced at the end of September 1327 that Edward II had died at Berkeley Castle, barely eight months after his abdication, Edmund, like everyone else, appears to have accepted this calmly, even though it was unexpected, and obviously convenient for Isabella and Mortimer.80 He went to the funeral in Gloucester in December 1327, and afterwards he continued with his official duties, attending his nephew’s wedding to Philippa of Hainault in York at the end of January 1328.81 However, within a few months Edmund became convinced that
Edward II had not died and was being held in Corfe Castle. Having passively acquiesced in his brother’s removal from power, accepted his imprisonment and the announcement of his death, the intelligence that Edward II remained alive shook Edmund and appears to have resurrected all of his old loyalty towards his brother. Edmund would have realised that the only people who could have engineered the news of the king’s death, and the funeral, while concealing his survival, were Isabella and Mortimer, and that any attempt on his part to act on the information would threaten their position. There is frustratingly little in the way of evidence to explain why Edmund came to believe that Edward II was still alive, and even less to understand his reaction or intentions. At his own trial in October 1330 Roger Mortimer confessed that he had planted the information which led Edmund to believe Edward II was still alive in order to engineer Edmund’s downfall. Edmund was not stupid or credulous. Self-interest alone dictated that he ignore such information; he was in a very comfortable position, with the title and estates he had wanted, a wife and family (Joan was born during 1328) and a prominent position at court. Edmund had nothing to gain from Edward II returning, and a great deal to lose. But however the information came to him, Edmund believed it and determined to do something to support his brother.