Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent (* 5 August 1301, † 19 March 1330) was a son of Edward I and his second wife Marguerite, half-sister of Philip IV of France. He was a half-brother of Edward II. and a cousin of Isabella. Even after the rise of the Despensers, he supported the king. Then they became too dangerous even for him. In 1325 Edward travelled with Isabella to France, where, like her, he refused to return to England. He was actively involved in the overthrow of the royal favourites, for which Isabella also rewarded him. In 1328 he and some other lords tried to limit Mortimer’s power, but failed. By 1330 at the latest, Kent must have become convinced – for reasons that are no longer comprehensible today – that his half-brother was still alive and being held captive by Mortimer. He took part in a half-hearted conspiracy to free the supposedly living Edward II. The enterprise failed. Kent was sentenced to death as a high traitor, but no one was found who dared to execute the sentence on the son of a king. Mortimer had to promise freedom to an already convicted murderer in return for his beheading of Kent. He had not been very popular throughout his life and did not receive posthumous glorification like Lancaster, yet Kent’s execution may have been a deciding factor for Edward III to finally do something about Mortimer.
Kent’s daughter Joan, who even by today’s standards can be described as a "dazzling personality", married Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of Edward III, in his third marriage. Kent was thus the maternal grandfather of Richard II.
Edward II
The figure of the Earl of Kent is altogether an anachronism, which is evident not only from the contradiction with the historical data, but also from his very first appearance. He tells of a dispute between the Lords Percy and Mowbray under Edward I,1 which is not historically verified, but which foreshadows the dispute between Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk and Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford during the reign of Richard II. Instead of the historical person, Marlowe’s Kent personifies the voice of reason and those who act for the good of the country against the king’s supposed or actual bad advisers such as Gaveston and Spencer, but never against the king himself. He criticises his half-brother, but stands by Edward II for a very long time. In the end, even Kent supports the lords, defends the murder of Gaveston, helps Mortimer escape and joins Isabella in France. The moment the Queen and Mortimer challenge the rightful ruler for the crown, he turns from them to fight till death for Edward II.
