1895 19 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster Downloaded from PAET L EHAPS it has been the fate of Edmund, second son of Henry F HE, to receive less than his due of historical notice. The http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ attractiveness of the character of his eider brother, the import- ance of the kingly position, and the scantiness of oar informa- tion about him as compared with Edward are obvious reasons for this neglect. Yet as king designate of Sicily Edmund was a factor, and, despite his youth, probably not an altogether passive factor, in the crisis which brought about the provisions of Oxford and the barons' war. To the overwrought impatience of the baronage the demand for 185,000 marks for the expense of getting at University of Michigan on June 11, 2015 the crown of Sicily for Edmund came as the last straw. The solace which his father provided for his disappointment of the Sicilian crown made him lord of the three great earldoms of Derby, Lancaster, and Leicester, besides extensive lands in the marches of Wales, in which he ruled like a little king. He nearly succeeded in gaining another earldom and other extensive possessions by his first marriage, while by his second he was consoled for his disap- pointment by becoming for eight years count regent of Champagne and lord, through his wife, of the five chdteUeniet which formed her dower until the outbreak of the French war in 1294. In this capacity he had the strongest interest in preserving that peace with France which gave Edward I time for his legal and constitu- tional reforms, and for the reduction of at least one part of Wales to some semblance of order as an appanage of the crown, in which Edmund was always ready to place his resources as a lord marcher of Wales and lord of three earldoms at the disposal of his brother. Edmund's desire for peace, too, largely contributed to bring about the treacherous seizure of Gascony by Philip IY, which was the effective cause of the war of 1294, a war which in its turn gave origin to the «*.Tn.fm of Edward HI to the French throne, through one of the conditions of the peace which terminated it—namely, the marriage of Isabella of France to Edward of Carnarvon. Edmund has a more direct and obvious importance in history than 20 EDMUND, EARL OF LANCASTER Jan. any to which these facts can give him claim, as the founder of the greatness of the house of Lancaster. Edmund, second son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence, was born on 16 Jan. 1245, perhaps at Bury St. Edmunds, and was so named after the martyred East-Anglian king to whom Henry had prayed for a second son.1 We hear nothing further of him until 1254, bat meanwhile events were preparing for the first important incident of his life, his investiture by the pope with the crown of Sicily. The acquisition of the crown of Sicily by the emperor Henry YI Downloaded from had added a new element of bitterness to the medieval struggle between the papacy and the empire. The papal power was at once threatened at its centre and lost one of its chief supports against the emperor. The papacy 3aw itself forced to fight for life itself. The death of Henry VI removed the immediate danger; but the http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ papacy never forgot it, and this recollection was the secret of the implacable hostility which from 1225 onwards it displayed towards his son Frederick II, its early protege, but when he became powerful and dangerous its most hated foe. For twenty-five years the struggle was intermittently continued, carried on very largely by papal exactions from the English clergy. At last by sudden and overwhelming disasters to Frederick II, and his death at University of Michigan on June 11, 2015 in 1250, the reigning pope, Innocent IV, the ablest and bitterest of Frederick's papal opponents, seemed on the point of gaining a decisive victory. Conrad IV, Frederick's son and successor in the empire, wished to make peace, but Innocent would have none of it so long as the emperor remained king of Sicily. All his efforts were directed to wresting Sicily from Conrad. As early as 1250 it was possibly offered by the pope to both Eichard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III of England, and Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX of France and count of Provence since 1246, in the hope that he might gain thereby the assistance of one of them in men or money.1 In August 1252 letters were addressed by him to St. Louis, Alfonse of Poitiers, his brother, and Henry m in almost identical terms, asking them to urge their respective brothers to accept his offer.1 But Manfred, an illegitimate son of Frederick II, was very successfully defending Sicily against the pope for his 1 Matt. Paris, Hist, itaior, iv. 406; Ann. Winion, ii. 90; Aim. Dunsi. iii. 166; Ann. Om. iv. 92; Wykes. iv. 92; Ann. Wujorn, iv. 437 ; John de Oxenedes, 174; Contin. Ftor. Wigon. (Tauter), ii. 179 (E. H. S.) Alienor regina peptrit filium, qvi, tx nomuu glorioti regia tt martyri* Edmtmdi, Ednumdut apptUatur, domino rtgt, per littrtcm mam domino Htnrieo abbati, hoc demandant*, ut inter tot amdictum fuit. The continnator copied from a chronicle written at St. Edmonds for this portion cf his work; and the abbot of St. Edmonds in 1215 was named Henry. 9 Hogo Koch, Richard von Cornwall, L 106; Bichard Stemfeld, Earl von Anjou al* Graf dor Proomct, p. 82. > Burner's Fotdtra, Becord e<L, L p 284. 1895 EDMUND, EARL OF LANCASTER 21 brother; so that neither Eichard nor Charles felt very eager about the offer. Richard requested several fortresses and hostages as security, as well as the payment of a very large part of his expenses by the pope; ' otherwise,' he said, ' the pope might as well give him the moon.' * Charles of Anjou nearly accepted the crown on the somewhat stringent conditions on which it was offered to him on 10 Jane 1253. But he was not yet thoroughly master of Provence, and the offer of TTn.inH.nIt:, which Margaret of Flanders made to him, along with the ties of kinship, induced him to refuse the somewhat shadowy boon for a more real advantage. So, though the negotia- Downloaded from tions do not seem to have been finally broken off so late as 27 Sept. 1258, the coming of this ' prince of peace and star of the morning, as Innocent IV called him, was not to take place for more than a decade.5 Disappointed of Richard and Charles, but still pursuing a double http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ policy, Innocent, at the same time that he was negotiating a settle- ment with Conrad, on 6 March 1254 conferred the crown of Sicily on Edmund.6 Henry HI, ' lest he should seem to thirst for his own blood and the spoils of his kin' (Frederick H having married his sister Isabella as his second wife), still delayed accepting it, though the pope confirmed the grant on 14 May. But he had an- influential ally to promote his schemes in Thomas of Savoy, the queen's uncle, who had married his niece; and the death of at University of Michigan on June 11, 2015 Conrad IV on 21 May 1255, preceded in December by that of Henry, son of Frederick H by Isabella, removed the English king's scruples, though Conrad left a young son, Conradin.7 In- nocent IV now commuted Henry's vow of crusade to the pro- secution of his Sicilian claim in arms, and extended the tenth of ecclesiastical revenues levied for the crusade to the Holy Land, which was now to be turned to the purpose of a Sicilian expedition, from two to five years. Henry must curtail his expenses to raise money, get his son to have a seal made, and send a letter of accept- ance, with letters patent naming Edmund king. If Henry only came with a good army, there would be no resistance.8 But how- ever much Henry might like to have his vow of crusade commuted, and however eagerly his ambition might accept the offer of the crown for his son, he was already in debt, and England was by no means the mine of wealth the papal curia believed it to be. So nothing was done; and, though he never revoked the grant to Edmund, Innocent made terms with Manfred, who had soon come to the front in spite of a provision in Conrad's will, pro- bably dictated by an ignoble jealousy, which appointed the incom- 4 Matt. Paris, Hist. Maior, r. 457. » Sternfeld, pp. 92-45; Btgtitru d'Innocent 17, ed. E. Berger, tome viii. introd. p. 278. • Bymer, L 297. ' Ibid. i. 30L ' Ibid. L 302-4. 22 EDMUND, EARL OF LANCASTER Jan. petent Bertold, margrave of Homburg, regent. The agreement, which ignored Edmund's ftUimn altogether, was arrived at on 27 Sept. But the reconciliation was a hollow one. A certain Borello d'Anglone, after attempting to take Manfred in an ambush, was murdered by the inhabitants of Teano, who were devoted to Manfred and thought he had slain him. The papal party were only too eager to accuse Manfred of the guilt of con- nivance. Deserted by Bertold of Homburg, he fled for his life across the Apennines with a few followers, and after several hair- breadth escapes found refuge and support amongst the Saracens of Downloaded from Lucera.