ps, and other lands (_Ibidem_, Part 5);
followed by a grant of "the price of certain vessels of silver,
brooches, jewels, and other goods" which had belonged to her husband.
(_Rot. Ex, Pasc_, 1 H. IV.) In 1404 she was restored to her dower by
Act of Parliament. (_Inq. Post. Mortem_ 4 H. V 52.) When and where
she met with her second husband can only be guessed; for that Edmund
Earl of Kent was really her second husband I think there is the
strongest reason to believe. His sisters afterwards chose to deny the
marriage; it was their interest to do so, for had the legitimacy of his
child been established, they would have been obliged to resign to her
her father's estates, which, as his presumptive heirs, they had
inherited. Their excessive anxiety to prove her illegitimate, the
persecution which Constance subsequently underwent, the resolute
determination of Henry the Fourth that Kent should marry Lucia, and the
remarkable coincidence of time between Constance's imprisonment and
Lucia's marriage, go far to show that the marriage (though perhaps
clandestine) was genuine, as alleged by Alianora; and I cannot avoid a
strong conviction that a great deal of this hate and persecution were
due to the fact that Constance was actually or suspectedly a Lollard.
The denials of Kent's sisters may be attributed to their wish to retain
his estates; while as for his nephews and nieces, who nominally joined
in the petition, they could only know what they were told; for Joyce
Lady Tibetot, the eldest of the group, was only three years old at the
death of Kent. But to what cause can be attributed the violent
determination of Henry the Fourth? If it be supposed that he wished to
benefit and advance Kent, how did he do it by preventing his
acknowledged marriage with a well-dowered Princess of England?--or if to
lower him, how was this done by purchasing for him, at the cost of
70,000 florins, the hand of a foreign Princess? Beside this, Henry
showed throughout that while he had no mercy for Constance, he was on
the best possible terms with Kent. Modern writers are altogether at
fault on the subject, most of them alleging that Constance's daughter
Alianora was born before her marriage with Thomas Le Despenser; whereas
it is shown by the Register that when Le Despenser and Constance were
married, the latter was only four or five years old, while Kent was not
even born. The rescue of the Mortimers comes in to complicate matters;
but