er is named first); and five nephews and nieces, all of
whom were unborn or in the cradle when the events referred to took
place. The sisters of Kent pleaded that "never any espousals were had
ne solemnised in deed betwixt the said Edmund and Custance; but that the
said Edmund, _by the ordinance, will, and agreement of the full noble
Lord late King Henry the Fourth_, that God rest, after great, notable,
and _long_ ambassad' had and sent unto the Duke of Melane for marriage
to be had betwixt the said Edmund and Luce, sister to the said Duke of
Milan, took to wife and openly and solemnly wedded the said Luce at
London, living and then and there present the said Custance, not
claiming the said Edmund unto her husband, ne any dower of his lands
after his decease. The said espousals so had and solemnised betwixt the
said Edmund and Luce continued withouten any interruption of the said
Custance, or any oyer during the life of the said Edmund." These ladies
were very wrathful against the "subtlety, imagined process, privy labour
and coloured means" whereby certain persons had been so wicked as to
depose that the said Alianora was born "in espousals had and solemnised
between Edmund and Custance," particularly considering that "the said
suppliants" were "none of them warned" of her intention to appear and
make her claim. (_Rot. Pari_. IV. 375-6.) The passage in Italics,
when viewed with the surrounding circumstances, told as much, if not
more, in Alianora's favour, as against her. And it did not please the
Duchess Joan to mention a few other little circumstances, which it was
more convenient than just to leave out of the account. The fact that it
was not the first time that Henry had applied to Galeazzo for assistance
in what is expressively termed "dirty work" (Froissart, book iv chapter
94); that Constance, however willing to protest against the projected
marriage of Edmund and Lucia, had been physically unable, being a
prisoner in Kenilworth Castle; that she had been set free just in time
to appear at the wedding (if she did appear); and that the bundle of
grants to her, dated about the same time, suspiciously point to a
purchase of her consent:--such facts as these, it was more convenient to
leave in the background. The petitions were received by Humphrey Duke
of Gloucester, a Gallio who cared for none of these things, whose cruel
treatment of his own hapless wife shows that no chivalrous feeling could
actuate him,