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 adhered to the side of Henry Beaufort [q. v.], bishop of Winchester. As early as 1424 he was differing from Gloucester as to the treatment of a papal collector, whom he protected (Beckington Correspondence, i. 281). His prudence and moderation procured him the highest preferment in 1426, when he became successively chancellor and archbishop of York. In each case the appointment was the result of a compromise between the opposing parties, and Kemp was apparently accepted by Duke Humphrey's faction, which was the weaker, as the least unpalatable nominee of the Beaufort side. Bedford had reconciled Beaufort and Humphrey in the parliament of Leicester, and Beaufort, as part of the agreement, gave up the chancellorship. On 16 March the silver seal was put into Kemp's hands by the little king at St. Mary's Abbey, Leicester, and on 18 March Bedford transferred the gold seal to him with the approval of the assembled estates (Fœdera, x. 353; Rot. Parl. iv. 299). The see of York had been vacant since the death of Henry Bowet [q. v.] in October 1423. Martin V now refused to accept the translation of Bishop Morgan of Worcester, who, after long delays, had been nominated by crown and chapter, and was a partisan of Duke Humphrey, and provided Richard Fleming, bishop of Lincoln; but the council frightened Fleming, by holding over him the penalties of præmunire, into renouncing all his claims to the see; and Kemp, brought forward in his stead, was elected by the chapter on 8 April 1426 (, Fasti Eccles. Angl. iii. 110, ed. Hardy). Martin retranslated Fleming to Lincoln, and accepted Kemp on his acknowledgment of the formal validity of Fleming's appointment. But Kemp was unwillingly received by the chapter when he came to York to be enthroned.

Kemp remained chancellor till 1432. All went smoothly at first, because Bedford remained in England. But on the withdrawal of Bedford to France, and of Beaufort on crusade, Gloucester at once began to act as master, and Kemp was hardly strong enough to keep him in check. In all the renewed quarrels which followed Beaufort's return, Kemp seems to have supported his old associate. In the parliament of 1429, opened by Kemp with the customary sermon, his party procured the restoration of Beaufort to the council and the ending of the protectorate. But between April 1430 and February 1432 Henry VI was in France, and Beaufort spent most of the time with him. Kemp was thus left to exert the chief restraining influence on Gloucester, the lieutenant of the kingdom. Fresh disputes naturally arose between them, and Kemp fell into precarious health. In January 1431 he was unable to open parliament in person, and was under the care of John Somerset, the king's physician. Moreover, as Henry grew older, Gloucester's influence over him increased. The king's return was quickly followed by a change of ministry. On 25 Feb. 1432 Kemp resigned the chancellorship on the pretence of bad health, and was succeeded by Bishop Stafford of Bath (Fœdera, x. 500).

Deprived of office, Kemp continued an active member of the council. He now became a strenuous adherent of the new peace party, and was appointed one of the ambassadors to the council of Basel, where strenuous efforts were being made by Eugenius IV to procure peace between France and England. On 26 Nov. 1432 Kemp received letters of protection, a grant of a salary of one thousand marks a year, and the usual wages of an archiepiscopal ambassador while he was at the council (ib. x. 525, 526). But he still delayed his departure, though on 8 Feb. 1433 he again requested a safe-conduct (ib. x. 536), which he received on 28 Feb., along with a license to take one thousand marks out of the kingdom with him (ib. x. 539). On 1 April letters of general attorney were issued for him (ib. x. 547). But the council finally resolved to keep him in England, and entrust his mission to other hands (ib. x. 589, 595). In July he refunded the sums advanced for his maintenance abroad, which were spent on the siege of Saint-Valery (Ord. P. C. iv. 168). In the same month he was prominent in conducting the negotiations with the French envoy, Lannoy, in London (, ii. 226–9). At the end of the session he joined four other bishops in volunteering to attend the council without payment, provided that he was not forced to attend in vacation (Rot. Parl. iv. 446).

The urgency of the pope and council at last forced the English to send ambassadors to the great European congress at Arras and, after Philip of Burgundy declined to act for England, Kemp became head of the embassy. He arrived with his companions on 25 July, and next day delivered a great oration before the cardinals of Santa Croce and Cyprus, the representatives respectively of pope and council (, Histoire de Bourgogne, iv. preuves, pp. cxlviii–li). Minute accounts of the acts of the congress have been preserved (cf. a French account by A. de la Taverne, 1651; a Latin relation by the English ambassadors in Harleian MS. 4763; and, Histoire de Charles VII, ii. 505–59). The congress was opened on 3 Aug., and Kemp declared on 6 Aug. ‘very