Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part III.

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3rd Duke of York, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Battle of Agincourt, Duke of Alençon, King Edward IV of England, Richard of Conisburgh, Richard Plantagenet

Before I move onto Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, I would like to finish telling the story of his father, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, husband of Anne Mortimer

Southampton Plot

In the Parliament of 1414, Richard was created Earl of Cambridge, a title formerly held by his elder brother, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, who had earlier ceased to be Earl of Cambridge either by resignation or deprivation of the title.

Richard’s creation as Earl of Cambridge in 1414, however, brought with it no accompanying grant of lands, and according to Harriss, Cambridge was ‘the poorest of the earls’ who were to set out on Henry V’s invasion of France.

As a result, he lacked the resources to equip himself properly for the expedition. Perhaps partly for this reason, Cambridge conspired with Lord Scrope and Sir Thomas Grey to depose King Henry V and place his late wife Anne’s brother, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, on the throne.

On July 31 Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March revealed the Southampton Plot to the king. Later, he served on the commission that condemned the Earl of Cambridge to death.

Although the Earl of Cambridge pleaded with the king for clemency, he received none and was beheaded on August 5, 1415 and buried in the chapel of God’s House at Southampton (now St. Julien’s Church, Southampton). The fleet set sail for France a few days later, on August 11, 1415.

Richard’s brother, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, himself was not implicated in the conspiracy, and he departed with the army for France. He was present at the Siege of Harfleur, where he made his will on August 17, 1415, then he commanded the van on the army’s march through northern France.

The 2nd Duke of York commanded the right wing at the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415, during which he became the highest-ranking English casualty. According to some witnesses, he rushed forward to save King Henry V who had been assisting his younger brother, Humphrey of Gloucester, and had been assailed and wounded by the Jean, 2nd Duke of Alençon.

The Duke York’s intervention saved the King’s life but cost the duke his own. His death has been variously attributed to a head wound and to being ‘smouldered to death’ by ‘much heat and pressing’. York was buried in the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, where he had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains.

Legacy

Although the Cambridge’s title was forfeited, he was not attainted, and his four-year-old son Richard was his heir. After the Earl of Cambridge’s elder brother was slain at Agincourt, the Earl of Cambridge’s four-year-old son Richard Plantagenet eventually inherited his uncle’s titles and estates as well as his father’s.

In the parliament of 1461, King Edward IV had the sentence that had been passed his grandfather, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, annulled as ‘irregular and unlawful’.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part II.

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3rd Earl of Cambridge, Anne Mortimer, Duke of York, Edmund of Langley, House of Plantagenet, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry V of England, King Henry VI of England, Richard of Conisburgh, Wars of the Roses

With the death of the childless Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, his nephew, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York became the heir-general of King Edward III of England.

Richard Plantagenet’s mother was Anne Mortimer (born on December 27, 1388) the eldest of the four children of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374–1398), and Eleanor Holland (1370–1405).

Anne’s father was a grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second surviving son of King Edward III of England, an ancestry which made her father Roger Mortimer a potential heir to the throne during the reign of the childless King Richard II.

Upon Roger Mortimer’s death in 1398, his claim to the throne passed to his son and heir, Anne’s brother, Edmund, 5th Earl of March. In 1399, Richard II was deposed by Henry IV of the House of Lancaster, making Edmund Mortimer a dynastic threat to the new king, Henry IV, who in turn placed both Edmund and his brother Roger under royal custody. All of this was dealt with in my previous entry.

Anne and her sister Eleanor remained in the care of their mother, Countess Eleanor, who, not long after her first husband’s death, married Lord Edward Charleton of Powys. Following their mother’s death in 1405, the sisters fared less well than their brothers and were described as “destitute”, needing £100 per annum for themselves and their servants.

Marriage

Around early 1408 (probably after January 8), Anne married Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (1385–1415), the second son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (fourth son of King Edward III) and his first wife, Isabella of Castile. Edmund of Langley the founder of the House of York.

On his father’s side, the Earl of Cambridge was the grandson of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, and on his mother’s side, he was the grandson of Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and León, and his favourite mistress, María de Padilla (died 1361). His godfather was King Richard II.

The marriage between Anne Mortimer and Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, was undertaken secretly and probably with haste, without the knowledge of her nearest relatives, and was validated on May 23, 1408 by papal dispensation from Pope Gregory XII.

This marriage would merge the Mortimer claim with the Yorkist claim to the English throne in the person of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.

Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge was a grandson of King Edward III through his father, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, while his wife, Anne Mortimer, was a great-great-granddaughter of King Edward III through Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the third son, but second surviving son of the English king Edward III.

What may seem like a large generational gap, it wasn’t actually; Richard was born in 1385 and Anne was only 3 years younger being born in 1388.

Anne Mortimer and Richard of Conisburgh had two sons and a daughter:

1. Isabel of York (1409 – 2 October 1484), who in 1412, at three years of age, was betrothed to Sir Thomas Grey, son and heir of Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton (1384–1415), by whom she had one son. Isabel married secondly, before April 25, 1426 (the marriage being later validated by papal dispensation by Pope Martin V), Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, by whom she had issue.

2. Henry of York (died young)

3. Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (22 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), Yorkist claimant to the English throne, and father of kings Edward IV and Richard III

Anne Mortimer died soon after the birth of her son Richard on September 22, 1411. She was buried at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, once the site of Kings Langley Palace, which also housed the tombs of her husband’s parents Edmund of Langley and Isabella of Castile.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, all three were reburied at the Church of All Saints’, Kings Langley.

June 5, 1341: Birth of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.

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1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Duke of York, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Anne de Mortime, Edmund of Langley, Edward III of England, John of Gaunt, Lionel of Antwerp, Pedro of Castile, Philippa of Hainault, Queen Philippa, Richard of Conisburgh, Wars of the Roses

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, KG (June 5, 1341 – August 1, 1402) was the fourth surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Philippa of Hainault daughter of Willem I, Count of Hainaut, and Jeanne de Valois, Countess of Hainaut, granddaughter of Philippe III of France. She was one of eight children and the second of five daughters. Her eldest sister Margaret married Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1324.

Like many medieval English princes, Edmund gained his nickname from his birthplace: 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 Anne de Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Edmund’s elder brother Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, that the House of York made its claim to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. The other party in the Wars of the Roses, the incumbent House of Lancaster, was formed from descendants of Edmund’s elder brother John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, 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 was made a knight of the Garter in 1361. In 1362, at the age of twenty-one, he was created Earl of Cambridge by his father.

Queen Philippa interceding for the Burghers of Calais by J.D. Penrose

Edmund took part in several military expeditions to France in the 1370s. In 1369, he brought a retinue of 400 men-at-arms and 400 archers to serve with John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, on campaigns in Brittany and Angoulême. The following year, he first joined Pembroke again on an expedition.

In the 1370s, English envoys entered into an alliance with King Fernando I of Portugal, where Portugal promised to attack Castile with the Lancastrian army. As a consequence of the Caroline War in France, John of Gaunt was forced to postpone the invasion of Castile. In 1381, Edmund finally led an abortive expedition to press John’s claim to Castile, joining with King Fernando in attacking Castile as part of the Fernandine Wars.

Edward III, King of England and Lord of Ireland

On August 6, 1385, Edmund of Langley was elevated to Duke of York. Edmund acted as Keeper of the Realm in 1394/95 when his nephew, King Richard II of England, 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 of Valois.

The duke was left as Custodian of the Realm in the summer of 1399 when Richard II departed for another extended campaign in Ireland. In late June of that year, 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

In Richard II’s will, Edmund was highly emphasised as the king’s heir despite the stronger claims of Henry of Bolingbroke and Edmund Mortimer. This was not due to any preference Richard had for Edmund, but rather a desire the king had to set Edmund’s son, Edward, on the throne. Towards the end of his life, in 1399, he was appointed Warden of the West March for a short period. Otherwise, from 1399 onward he retired from public life.

Edmund of Langley died in his birthplace and was interred at King’s Langley Priory; however, his tomb was relocated to the nearby All Saints’ Church, Kings Langley in 1575 after the priory had been dissolved. When the tomb was moved again during church restoration work in 1877, three bodies, one male and two female, were found inside. His dukedom passed to his eldest son, Edward. He was the last of his siblings to die, and lived the longest out of all of them.

The tomb of Edmund of Langley in All Saints’ Church, Kings Langley. The tomb was brought to the church in 1575 after the nearby King’s Langley Priory had been dissolved.

Marriage

Langley’s first wife, Infanta Isabella of Castile, was a daughter of King Pedro of Castile and María de Padilla. She was also the sister of the Infanta Constance of Castile, the second wife of Langley’s brother John of Gaunt.

They had two sons and a daughter:

* Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (c. 1373-1415), killed in action at the Battle of Agincourt.
* Constance of York (c. 1374-1416), great-grandmother of Queen Anne Neville.
* Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (c. 1385-1415), 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 beginning with King Henry VIII, whose mother Elizabeth of York was his great-granddaughter.

After Isabella’s death in 1392, Langley married his second cousin once removed 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 young Joan was the granddaughter of his late sister-in-law Joan of Kent. The marriage produced no children.