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K.Edw. "He had committed the Care of this Realm to

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his Ministers of State, and to the Duke of Cornwall as Guardian of it; and was himself at Antwerp with the Queen, who had newly layn in of her Third Son there. "His Children were kept in the Tower of London; the Care of which was comitted to Mathew de la Beche, as Constable of it.

In this State of Affairs, the King alone returns, upon a sudden, about the beginning of February, into England, and, at Midnight, unexpected by any Body, lands in the River, at the Tower. It was a very sad Condition, that by this means, he found the Tower in. There were only his own Children, and 3 Servants in it. Upon this He presently Sends away for the Lord Mayor of London to come to Him; shews him the negligent posture in which he found all things and commands him to seize upon his Ministers whom he had intrusted with his Affairs, in his Absence; and upon Thomas Lord Wake among the rest. Being brought before him, he committed them to safe Custody, in several places: "Only Thomas was presently set at Liberty, and that, says my Author in a very honourable Manner.

5 Walsing: Hist: p. 146. 6 Wals: ib: p. 147. 7 Wals: ib: P. 147.

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Being thus set at Liberty at home, and the K.Edw. War continuing abroad, he the next time went over with the King, in his French Expidition. But he tarried not long there, for the same Years we find him appointed, as one of the Commissioners, to judge in the Great Controversy, then depending between the King and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. But this matter being, by the Intercession of the Parliament, composed not long after, they never sat upon it; and the Arch-Bishop was intirely acquitted by the King, and intrusted with his Affairs, as he had been before.

And thus have we seen what part this great Man had both in the Civil and Military Affairs of his time. 'as for his Works of Piety they are largeably recorded in the Historys of our Religious Houses: 'one of which he entirely founded and endow'd at his own Cost; as may be seen at large in the Charters still remaining of the Revenews of it.

Thus lived this noble Lord, in great Honour

8 Baronag: To: 1. p. 541.

9 An. Edw. 16. Vid: M. Parker Antiq: ex Steph: Birchington p. 236. 1 Monasti: To: ii. P: 347. 348. 898.

2 Cotyngham fundat 1322, Seal published by the Society of Antiquaries. E. B.

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Marg.

tess of

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K.Edw. and Interest, till about the Year 1349. in which I find his Death placed. May 31st. I cannot learn that he left any Child behind him: And Coun- so his Estate fell to Margaret his Sister; who was then 40 Years old, and Widow of two Husbands; Vizt. John Comyn of Badenagh, her first; And then of Edmund of Woodstock Earl of Kent, and second Son of King Edward the 1st. by Philippa his Wife, daughter of Philip the Hardy King of ffrance.

This was that Earl of Kent, who for Sedition against his Nephew, King Edward the 3d. and for pretending that his Brother King Edward the 2d. was still living, as I have before said lost his Head.

By this Earl of Kent, Margaret had Issue two Sons, Edmund and John, and as many Daughters, Margaret marryed to Amaneus. Eldest Son of Bernard, Lord de la Brette. who dyed without Issue, and Joan, to whome by the failure of all the rest, the Honour and Estate, both of her Father, and Mother descended.

For thô both her Brothers outlived their

3 Baron: T: 11: p. 93. a.

4 Baron: To. ii. p. 94. a.

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Father, and were successively Partakers of his K.Edw. Honour and Estate; to which Edmund the eldest, was immediately restored, after the Death of his Father, yet both dyed without Issue, and so the whole Inheritance finally settled, in their younger Sister.

Coun

Being now heir to two such noble Familys Joan it is not to be wondred, if many Applications Kent.

were made to her: And indeed she behaved herself so, that it is not easy to say, who was her Husband, or in what Order, to fix the Succession of them. But we will take the Matter, as it was prov'd in the Court of Rome, and according to which, Sentence was there pronounced in it. And that was in short, thus. She was first contracted to, and after that carnally known by Sr. Thomas Holland: But being not actually marry'd to him, The Earl of Salisbury took the Advantage of his absence, upon some occasions that, it seems, had called him from Her; And contracted himself, in like manner to Her, and under that pretence, refused to restore her to her former Husband. Upon this Sr. Thomas Holland, sews for his Wife, in the Spiritual Court; and the Cause

5 Baronag: To. ii. p. 24. a.

H

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K.Edw: was so considerable, that it was finally heard by Pope Clement the sixth, and upon a full hearing, she was decreed to be the Wife of Sr. Thomas Holland; and the Earl of Salisbury was left at liberty to take, as he did, an other Wife.

Sr. Thomas Holland being dead, she was within a very little while again marryed to Edward the Black Prince, and by Him had Issue Richard the second. So that to set her Honour in one View, She was the Grandaughter of a King; the Wife of a Prince of Wales; and the Mother of a King; thô the Death of her Husband prevented her from being herself a Queen.

And here then, I must conclude this second Age of our House, and with which all the Honour, and almost all the Estate of it, ended also. And all that now remains is, the Memory of what we once enjoyed. And thô irrecoverably yet without any Crime, by the Providence of God, fell from. This Honour, however, we have that out of the Ruins of our Family rose two others: more eminent than it; the Houses I mean of Kent, and Huntington: thô the former of these continued not long: but was

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