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From: "Douglas Richardson" <>
Subject: Sir Edmund son of Henry, King of England, not Edmund Crouchback
Date: 27 Dec 2006 08:42:40 -0800
References: <bbb.a892a97.32c038b8@aol.com><mailman.209.1167009160.30800.gen-medieval@rootsweb.com>
Dear Merilyn ~
In your 7th Descent, you refer to Edmund "Crouchback" of Lancaster,
born 1244.
Actually, this popular royal prince was never known as Edmund
"Crouchback," nor was he hunchbacked. The erroneous nickname
"Crouchback" is based on a false legend generated years after Edmund's
death by John of Gaunt and his son, Henry [afterwards King Henry IV].
For particulars of this curious matter, see Given-Wilson, Chronicles of
the Revolution, 1399-1400 (1993): 195-196, which provides excerpts
from John Hardyng's chronicle explaining the origin of false legend
that Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, was hunchbacked. See also Hicks,
Who's Who in Late Medieval England (1991): 7-9 (biog. of Edmund
Crouchback), who explains that "the epithet 'Crouchback'... is
not given to him by any contemporary chronicler... for all that we know
of him points to his having been both handsome and skilled in
arms."). For a description of Edmund's winning personality, see Coat
of Arms 10 (1969): 260-275 ("... was of a gay and pleasant
disposition... a generous and popular prince, observant in religion
like all his family and a keen business man in the management of his
vast estates").
Edmund's usual style in contemporary records was "Sir Edmund, son of
Henry, king of England" or "Sir Edmund, the King's son"
[References: Giffard, Reg. of Walter Giffard Lord Archbishop of York
1266-1279 (Surtees Soc. 109) (1904): 65; Romeyn, Reg. of John le
Romeyn Lord Archbishop of York 1286-1296 1 (Surtees Soc. 123) (1913):
134].
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah
Merilyn Pedrick wrote:
><Dear James
< Again, according to my PAF programme, he has 12 descents from
Geoffrey. But
< I suppose that if and when more Cudworth ancestors are revealed,
there will
< be more descents.
< Merilyn
<
< 7th Descent
<
< 4. Henry III, King of England, b. 1207
< 5. Edmund "Crouchback" of Lancaster, b. 1244
< 6. Prince Henry, Earl of Lancaster etc. (see #7, 3rd Descent above)
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