Edmund, Earl of Rutland
Edmund of York | |
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Earl of Rutland | |
Born | 17 May 1443 Cecily Neville |
Edmund, Earl of Rutland (17 May 1443 – 30 December 1460) was the fourth child and second surviving son of
He was created
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
In 1451, Edmund's father, who held the title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, appointed Edmund as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. As Edmund was underage, the duties of the position were held by Deputy Chancellors. His first Deputy Chancellor was Edmund Oldhall, Bishop of Meath. His brother Sir William Oldhall was Chamberlain to the Duke of York and was likely behind that appointment. He acted as de facto Chancellor until 1454.
Oldhall was replaced by John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, who also held the office of Lord High Steward of Ireland. He would continue serving as the de facto Chancellor until his death at the Battle of Northampton (10 July 1460).
His appointment and those of his Deputies were acknowledged by the Parliament of Ireland which at this time first asserted its independence. The Parliament declared that Ireland held separate legislature from the Kingdom of England and its subjects were only subject to the laws and statutes of "the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland, freely admitted and accepted in their Parliaments and Great Councils".
According to Parliamentary decisions during his term, the Irish subjects were only bound to answer writs by the Great Seal of Ireland, held by the Lord Chancellors. Any officer attempting to enforce the rule of decrees from England would lose all of his property in Ireland and be subject to a fine.
The
Death
Edmund died at the age of seventeen either during or shortly after the
By the account given by Roderick O'Flanagan in his 1870 biography of Edmund:
Urged by his tutor, a priest named Robert Aspell, he was no sooner aware that the field was lost than he sought safety by flight. Their movements were intercepted by the Lancastrians, and Lord Clifford made him prisoner, but did not then know his rank. Struck with the richness of his armour and equipment, Lord Clifford demanded his name. "Save him", implored the Chaplain; "for he is the Prince's son, and peradventure may do you good hereafter."
This was an impolitic appeal, for it denoted hopes of the House of York being again in the ascendant, which the Lancastrians, flushed with recent victory, regarded as impossible. The ruthless noble swore a solemn oath: "Thy father", said he, "slew mine; and so will I do thee and all thy kin;" and with these words he rushed on the hapless youth, and drove his dagger to the hilt in his heart. Thus fell, at the early age of seventeen, Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
However this story does not appear in any of the accounts of the battle written by the chroniclers of the time.
Edmund was possibly executed on the orders of the Lancastrian
Edmund and his father were buried at Pontefract Priory. The bodies were reburied, with great pomp, in the family vault at Fotheringhay Castle on 29–30 July 1476.[3]
Lord Clifford would himself be slain in March 1461 at the Battle of Ferrybridge.
In popular culture
In Shakespeare's play, Henry VI, Part 3, Rutland is portrayed as a young boy who is brutally murdered by Clifford after pleading for his life; the source appears to be Edward Hall's 1548 Chronicle, which says, incorrectly, that Rutland is "scarce of the age of twelve years" at his death.
In Sharon Kay Penman's revisionist historical novel The Sunne in Splendour, Edmund is portrayed as a brave, sensitive and wise young man who mentors his youngest brother, Richard, and whose tragic death haunts his oldest brother, Edward, long after he becomes king.
Arms
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Ancestors
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References
- ISBN 0-520-02781-7, p 14
- ^ Weir, Alison, "Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy", Bodley Head 2002, p 134
- ^ Charles Ross, Edward IV, p. 271
- ^ "marks of cadency in the British royal family". www.heraldica.org.
- ISBN 0-900455-25-X
- ^ "The House of York". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
External links
- Hammond, Peter (2010). "Edward's Younger Brother" (PDF). Ricardian Bulletin (December ed.). pp. 33–34. ISSN 0308-4337.
- The lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of Ireland, from the earliest times to the reign of Queen Victoria, London 1870