York, Edmund of Langley, 1st duke of

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York, Edmund of Langley, 1st duke of (1342–1402). Edmund, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, was endowed with lands in Yorkshire in 1347 and created earl of Cambridge in 1362. Negotiations had then begun for his marriage to the count of Flanders's heiress; they foundered when the pro-French pope refused a dispensation. Edmund's marriage in 1372 to the dowerless second daughter of Peter the Cruel was arranged to protect John of Gaunt's Castilian aspirations. He was frequently engaged in military operations from 1359 onward, always in a junior role save in an abortive expedition to Portugal in 1381–2. In English politics he was likewise overshadowed by his brothers Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock, although Richard II appointed him regent in his absences and he was created duke in 1385. In 1399 York was unable to raise an army against Henry ( IV) and joined the Lancastrian bandwagon.

R. L. Storey

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Edmund of Langley duke of York

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