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 highly and magnificently’ his master's desire for peace. But his insistence on impossible terms drew on him the merited rebuke of the legates on 10 Aug. Sickness prevented him from attending the session of 12 Aug., when the English proposed to secure peace by way of marrying Henry to a daughter of Charles VII. In subsequent sessions the French made great concessions, but Kemp was hampered by his instructions and the unreasonable state of English public opinion. The negotiations were therefore destined to fail. On 31 Aug. Kemp rejected the offer of Normandy as a French fief, and was again rebuked by the two legates. Beaufort had now arrived, and on 1 Sept. Kemp joined him in a long private discussion with Burgundy. Henceforth Kemp acted under Beaufort, but on 6 Sept. the English withdrew from Arras, and returned to England. Kemp henceforth shared the unpopularity of all the English statesmen who sought an honourable end to a hopeless conflict.

Kemp went back to his work on the council. In 1436 he joined the Bishop of Durham and the Earl of Northumberland in relieving Roxburgh, besieged by James I (Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles, p. 166), and acted as one of the executors of the Duke of Bedford (, i. 493). He was still closely associated with Beaufort. In 1439 a new conference met to negotiate a peace. Beaufort and his niece, Isabella, duchess of Burgundy, acted as mediators, and Kemp again headed the English ambassadors. At the end of January 1439 Kemp accompanied Beaufort to Calais for a preliminary conference. He had received on 23 Nov. 1438 powers to negotiate with Burgundy for the resumption of commercial intercourse with Flanders (Fœdera, x. 713). Between 21 and 30 May 1439 he obtained his final instructions as to the negotiations with France (ib. x. 724–30). The journal of the secretary Beckington preserves a minute account of the proceedings (Ord. P. C. v. 335–407). On 26 June the ambassadors landed at Calais for the principal meetings, which were fixed to take place near Oye, a castle not far from Gravelines. On 28 June the French ambassadors joined them at Calais, and next day were entertained by Kemp at dinner. The conference opened on 6 July, but the French protested against the English allowing to their master no other style than Charles of Valois. Kemp went back to Calais and corrected the commissions, and did not scruple to insert in the new commissions the same date as in the original ones. On 10 July Kemp began the proceedings by a sort of sermon in Latin on a text from the revelations of St. Bridget, and the fruitless and unmeaning negotiations continued, with occasional interruptions, till 29 Aug. As the English were unable to accept the renewed French offer of Normandy in satisfaction of their claims, an adjournment was made to secure fresh instructions, and on 5 Sept. Kemp returned to England. He came back on 9 Sept., with instructions dated 30 Aug. that Henry would be content with Normandy and Guienne in full sovereignty, and without abandoning his claim to the French crown. Kemp afterwards incurred much ill-will by striving hard to persuade the king and council to give up the title of king of France. The French ambassadors had not returned, and a final conference on 15 Sept. ended the abortive negotiations. Kemp delayed, however, at Calais, and signed on 29 Sept. a treaty of commerce with Flanders. Bad winds kept him at Calais till 2 Oct., and after a rough passage he left his ship, which could not make Dover, in the Downs, and landed in a small boat near Sandwich. On 7 Oct. Kemp reached London with the cardinal, and on 9 Oct. had an interview with the king. He laboured to no purpose to procure new conferences in the spring, but succeeded in effecting the release of Orleans, who pledged himself to use his best efforts to further a peace. Gloucester took advantage of Orleans's release to issue a sort of manifesto against Beaufort and Kemp, in which he unscrupulously denounced their policy and character (, ii. 440–51).

At his third creation of cardinals, in December 1439, Eugenius IV appointed Kemp cardinal priest of Santa Balbina (, Trésor de Chronologie, p. 1206). Mindful of Beaufort's difficulties, Kemp hesitated to accept the position, but he was persuaded to do so by the king, who confirmed him in the possession of his English preferment and dignities, and hoped that his exalted position would make him more influential in future negotiations for peace (Beckington Correspondence, ii. 38–47). No worse trouble befell the new cardinal than a sharp contest with Archbishop Chichele, over whom he claimed precedence. The matter was referred to the pope, who decided that even in his own province an archbishop should go after a cardinal, ‘the first degree in the church next to the papacy’ (, Life of Chichele).

During the next ten years Kemp's political attitude became somewhat ambiguous. He was a regular attendant at council, but took no very prominent part in affairs. In 1441 he was one of the judges of Eleanor Cobham (English Chronicle, 1377–1461, Camden Soc.,