Edmund "Crouchback" , Earl Lancaster PLANTAGENET

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following copied from James Stevens, World Connect db=:2052409,rootsweb.com
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Following is a brief summary of Edmund's entry from the "Dictionary ofNational Biography" :

In 1254, at the age of nine, Pope Innocent VI invested him with thekindom of Sicily and Apulia. The huge sums of money sought by the Popeand Edmund's father, KING HENRY III, to drive Manfred out of southernItaly made this venture very unpopular with the English barons. Thescheme was finally abandoned in 1263. In 1264, England was in a state ofcivil war. KING HENRY III and PRINCE EDWARD were captured by the forcesof Simon De Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, who was, for all practicalpurposes, the ruler of England. Meanwhile, Edmund and his mother, QUEENELEANOR were in Paris raising an army. After the Battle of Eversham in1265, where Simon de Montfort was slain and his forces defeated by PRINCEEDWARD who had escaped from captivity, Edmund returned to England withhis mother. He was one of the magnates who urged THE KING to adopt thesweeping measure of confiscation (against those barons who had supportedMontfort) determined on in the parliament of Winchester, being moved, itwas believed, by the desire of enriching himself. He had a large share ofthe spoils, being created Earl of Leicester and receiving the stewardshipof the kingdom. In 1267 he was also created Earl of Lancaster. With hisbrother, PRINCE EDWARD, and several other magnates, Edmund took up thecross in 1268 and was with his brother at Acre in 1271-72.

Returning home before EDWARD, he reached England in December 1272,shortly after his father's death, was received with rejoicing by theLondoners, and went to his mother at Windsor. His crusade, during whichhe is said to have accomplished little or nothing , seems to have gainedhim the nickname of Crouchback (or crossed back). It is said, however, tohave been asserted by John of Gaunt in 1385 that the name implieddeformity, that Edmund was really the elder son of HENRY III, but hadbeen passed over by his father as unfit to reign, and a desire ofspreading this fable appears to have been entertained by Henry ofLancaster, Henry IV, and was perhaps implied in his challenge of thecrown.

By his marriage, after the death of his childless first wife (Aveline deFortibus) to BLANCHE, the granddaughter of KING LOIUS VIII OF FRANCE,Edmund became Count of Champagne and Brie. From 1277 to 1296 Edmund wasactive in THE KING's service. He commanded THE KING's forces in SouthWales, acted as ambassador at the French court, unsuccessfully attemptedto organize another crusade on behalf of THE KING, and, in conjunctionwith ROGER DE MORTIMER, EARL OF MARCH (RIN 684), defeated and executedLlewelyn in Wales. When war broke out with France in 1294/5, Edmund wasagain serving as ambassador there.  Remaining loyal to KING EDWARD, he,of course, lost all claim to his French possessions. He led armies inBrittany and Gascony. He died in Bayonne deeply mortified that he was notprovided the funds needed to keep his army in the field. "He wasreligoius, gay, and pleasant in disposition, open-handed, and a popularcommander."