Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/418

 Edmund also took part in the recapture of Maurice of Berkeley and the other escaped prisoners who had seized upon their place of confinement, Wallingford Castle. His violence of character was shown by his disrespect of the sanctuary of the castle chapel in which the fugitives had taken refuge.

On 9 April 1324 Edmund was sent with Alexander Bicknor [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, on an embassy to France to persuade the new king, Charles IV, to dispense with the personal homage of Edward II for Guienne. But the outbreak of some disputes in that duchy through the aggressions of the lord of Montpezat and his summons along with his supporter, Ralph Basset, Edward's seneschal, to answer in the French courts, proved a further complication. The magnificent entertainment and persuasions of Charles induced the weak earl to acquiesce in the trial of Montpezat and Basset by the French king's judges; but the archbishop was a more strenuous diplomatist, and on referring the dispute to Edward, the king confirmed Bicknor's views. The homage question was still unsettled, when Edmund was despatched to Gascony, having received on 20 July the appointment of lieutenant of Aquitaine. With very inadequate forces, he was obliged to meet an invasion of the duchy by Charles of Valois. The French conquered the whole of the Agenois, and Edmund had to seek shelter behind the walls of La Réole. At last a truce was patched up, to endure until a permanent peace could be negotiated, on terms that left the French possessors of the greater part of Aquitaine ('Cont. Guil. de Nangis in, Spicilegium, iii. 82, 83). But other events had now thrown the Guienne question into the shade. Queen Isabella had formed at Paris that alliance with Mortimer which resulted in Edward's deposition. Kent, though permitted by the terms of the truce to return to England, seems at once to have joined the conspiracy against his brother.

On 24 Sept. 1326 Kent and his wife landed at Harwich in the train of Isabella, Mortimer, and the young Duke of Aquitaine. Like Isabella and her son he was specially exempted from the fate meted out to the less distinguished rebels by royal proclamation. He was present at Bristol when, on 26 Oct., the younger Edward was made guardian of the realm, and next day was one of the assessors of Sir W. Trussel for the trial of the elder Despenser. On 24 Nov. he played a similar part at the condemnation of the younger Despenser at Hereford. On 29 Jan. 1327 he was present at Edward III's coronation at Westminster. He was one of the standing council appointed, with Lancaster at its head, to govern for the young king. In June he was appointed joint captain of the troops in the Scottish marches, and took part in the inglorious campaign of that summer. He also received fresh grants of lands, including part of the forfeitures of the elder Despenser.

The ascendency of the queen and Mortimer reduced the standing council to impotence, and Kent soon joined Lancaster in his proceedings against Isabella and her paramour. He was among the magnates who refused to attend the Salisbury parliament in October 1328. On 19 Dec. he and his brother summoned to London a meeting of the magnates of their party, and on 2 Jan. 1328–9 entered into a confederation against the king which was rudely broken up by the capture of Lancaster's town of Leicester and the desertion by Kent and Norfolk of his cause.

Kent's weak compliance did not save him from ruin. Mortimer and the queen hatched a deliberate plot to lure him to destruction. Their spies and agents plied him with proofs that Edward II was not dead but imprisoned abroad or in Corfe Castle. They urged him to take effectual measures to restore his brother to liberty. A preaching friar visited his house at Kensington and assured him that he had conjured up a devil who had revealed to him that Edward was still alive. He was also told that the pope was anxious that he should rescue the deposed king. Plans for an insurrection were laid before him. The credulous and discontented Edmund rose to the bait. In hasty speeches and imprudent letters he gave free vent to his thoughts and plans. His political associates, Archbishop Melton of York, Bishop Gravesend of London, and others became equally compromised. He found confederates even in Wales, where he held the lordship of Melynydd. He was now sufficiently involved. At the parliament which met at Winchester in the first week of Lent he was charged with treason. On 13 March 1329–30 he was arrested. At an inquest held by Robert Howel, coroner of the royal household, he had to acknowledge his own speeches and his own letters. These confessions were repeated before parliament. In vain Kent made an abject offer of submission to the king's will, naked in his shirt and with a rope round his neck. But the vengeance of the queen and her paramour was not thus easily satisfied. The episcopal offenders were prudently released under sureties, the lesser offenders received punishment; but the great culprit was adjudged death, though the want of the consent of the commons was regarded as invalidating his con-