XVill THE MASTER OF GAME had the work been dedicated at an earlier period by the uncle to his would scarcely have “submitted his little simple book ” toa mere child’s It was exactly at that period, when it lay very much in the interest of th York to regain the King's good will “ and to conciliate the powers at court. . . . s flattering language of the dedication was probably intended to serve a purpose aa The following genealogical table may prove of use to show the royal descent of the auth uthor : EDWARD III. (d. 1377) m. PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT | 4 | John of Gaunt, Edmund of Lang] of Clarence D. of Lancaster (d. 1399) Earl of Gane | | | Edward William of — Lionel D the Black Prince Hatfield ee | William of | (d. young) of Lancaster (d. 1369) (created 138 ire II. (2) 1371 Constance d. (6. 1341, d. oe (d. 1400) of Peter the Cruel of — m. (Z) 1372 Isabel of m. Anne of Bohemia (d. x 1 1 (2) Isabella of pee a rae Aiea whe m. 1406 Charles D. of Or- ie ! 7 ee een eans, who remained impri- Henr ili meh y Iv. Phil soned in England from r415— (Bolingbroke) m. Leone 1440 (b. 1366 ;1 d. 1413) m. (I) Mary de Bohun (d. 1394) (2) 1403 Johanna of Navarre (d. 1437) of Portugal | Philippa m. King Eric of Denmark, Norway and Sweden Henry v.? (1386-1422) m. 1420 Catherine d. Charles vi. of France i Ed i i ! ae oe Richard of Conisburgh, Constance eae mie 4 Paluct Cambridge ; m. Thomas le Despenser, eaten pe beheaded 1415 Earl of Gloucester; Second Duke of York, 1402 - ; beheaded , 1402 ; I 0. 1373(?); d. 1415 Battle of Agincourt menGesten dang effected m. Philippa Mohun of Dunster (d. 1431) On iat ee mas THE CAREER OF EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK, AUTHOR OF “THE MASTER OF GAME” Epwarp PLANTAGENET, known also, fro almost certain, born in 1373, a ye Isabella of Castile, second d m the place of his birth, as Edward of Norwich, was, it is ar after the marriage of his father, Edmund of Langley, with aughter of Pedro the Cruel. Edmund of Langley, the founder of the 1 The date of He ooh : the existing evidence ae em cane ae oe with exactness, as he was born in a private station, and 2 About the birt i ; ‘ yule, 1v. 330) fone ee Hoey eee ne since the Conquest is so little authentic known as of Henry v.’s birth, Ramey) Falling fierce ae ae d that he would ascend the throne. Various historians give different dates : William of Worcester, ieee eee 9, 1387; Encyc. Brit.and Pauli, August 9,’87; Brockhaus, August 29, ’87; Gardiner, all accept 1387 ae vt es ae Langley, Coxe, Luders, Solly-Flood, Church, Dict. of Nat. Biog. and Monmouth. Ones ry me ta and, as Wylie points out, it is placed on his statue in Agincourt Square, 1, 83, Banks, Yorks. Arch, and Top Toe. 1@ol. xx. 29, “ Wills of Kings” 404, Sandford, Blore, Lingard, Skeat, Chaucer, a year later. Wylie, on the other eae 267, Notes and Queries, March 5,’87 ; while Clarke and Wright even put it having been born at the ee > ee with clearly reasoned data that 1386 was the year of his birth, Cee aN : In August 1386, when his mother was only 16 years old. We know eee soe eee 9, 1413, that he was 34 years old when his brother Thomas died omer ae aes succumbed on August 31, 1422. Moreover, as Wylie eae ae ow that his mother and father, Mary de Bohun and Henry Earl € summer of 1386, and that their next son, Thomas, was born in points out, the records of of Derby, were keeping ho youthful nephew, the former noble and wise correction,” € thrice disgraced Duke of Thomas of m.(I) Blanche, d. of Henry first Duke of York gg eto THE AUTHORSHIP XIX emblem, was the least capable of that he was Richard 1.’s Master hy so many writers erroneously House of York, who, it is said, was the first to use the rose as an Edward ut.’s sons. He occupied various posts at Court, the fact of Game and Master of the Mews being one of the reasons W ay res attributed the ‘‘ Master of Game” tohim. He also was one of the Commissioners 0 during the minority of his nephew ae a iad later on, was three times Regent of England i ichard’s absence in Ireland and elsewhere. ae es Langley proceeded in 1381 at the head of an army to Portugal to es meee John against the King of Castile. He was accompanied by his wife and his youth ul son | ward, our author. There the latter, who had been knighted by Richard Ht. at his coronation, was married as a boy of eight or nine to Beatrice, daughter of King Ferdinand of Portugal, ce ore of the conditions of the Treaty of Estremoz. But as Ferdinand refused to let the child-wife accompany her equally youthful spouse back to England, the marriage was annulled, and she was shortly afterwards re-married to the Infante John of Castile, with whose father her own parent made peace.” pee ee created the young Prince Edward Earl of Rutland, to hold that dignity during the life of his father, together with rents of the annual value of 800 marks secured on the castle and lordship of Okeham, and the whole of the forest of Rutland. In 1392 he was made, in spite of his youth, Admiral of the Northern Fleet, and in the following November Admiral of England, an office which he retained until 1398. When Richard's relations with Gloucester and Arundel grew more and more strained, he showed increasing favour to Edward, and, if we can believe Creton, there was no man in the world whom Richard of England loved better than Edward, and according to one authority (“ Ann. Richardi,” p. 304), Richard at one time con- templated abdication in Edward's favour. In 1392 Edward, in conjunction with his uncle, John of Gaunt, visited France to negotiate at Amiens for peace. Two years later he accompanied the King on his first expedition to Ireland, and in the subsequent year he acted as Richard’s principal plenipotentiary in the negotiations concerning the latter's marriage with Isabella of France, a suggested marriage between Rutland himself and Jeanne, a sister of Isabella, coming to nothing. He figured prominently at the costly meeting at Guisnes between the Kings of England and France in October 1396, which preceded the marriage. In the spring of 1397 Edward went abroad again on a mission to France and the Princes of the Rhine, and important positions rained down on him. He was made Earl of Cork, he was Constable of the Tower, Warden of the Cinque Ports with the reversion of the Governor- ship of the Channel Islands, Warden and Chief Justice of the New Forest and of all the forests south of the Trent, Lord of the Isle of Wight, and Warden of the West Marches. It has been pointed out® that it can hardly have been a mere coincidence that just before taking his revenge upon the revolting Lords Appellant, King {Richard entrusted so many important strategical points along the Channel to the man who already commanded the fleet. When the crisis came Rutland took a leading part in the arrest of his uncle Gloucester, and of Arundel and Warwick, and was given the first-named’s office of Constable of England. If the informer Halle spoke the truth at London in 1387, Doyle, i. 397, giving the date as Sept. 29, 1387. Wylie, so extremely accurate in his dates makes a slight slip, when (i. p. 17,) he declares that Henry of Monmouth when created Prince of Wales Es October 6, 1399, was a lad twelve years of age; were this so his argument that he was born in the summer of 1386 would fail. Henry of Monmouth was not the eldest son, a boy having been born in April 1382, when his mother was only 12 years of age, but he was the first to be reared (Wylie, iii. 324-5). } Hardyng says of him: “as fayre a person as a man might see anywhere.” 3 5 ens Harl. MS. 1319 contai portrait of him, and his will is given by Nichols. His devotion to sport is well known: cea “When all the lordes to Councell and parlyament Went, he wolde to hunte and also to hawckyng.” ® Froissart, vol. iv. chap. xxi., makes a misleading mistake in connection with this incident, for he calls Edmund of aces son “‘ ae ce of ae He says in another place (ii. ch. 84), when speaking of this marriage at “ young as the married couple were they were both laid in th i * “National Biography,” vol. xly. p. 4or. murngeg ies g)