13 HISTORICAL MEaiORANPA OF 



treason." The king was conveyed to Ledbury, and thence to Ke- 

 nilworth Castle ; he was made to resign liis crown to his son, and 

 committed to the care of the Earl of Leicester. He was afterwards 

 delivered to two knights, who conveyed him first to Corfe Castle, 

 and then to Bristol. Some disposition to liberate him occasioned 

 his removal, in the night-time, to Berkeley Castle, where he was 

 ultimately cruelly put to death. 



A council of regency, composed of twelve distinguished persons, 

 was assembled, to conduct the affairs of state ; but the queen and 

 Mortimer struggled to monopolize the chief power of the adminis- 

 tration. One of the first acts of the government was to confer on 

 Lord Mortimer the title of the Earl of March. He had chosen 

 this, in consequence of its having once been in his wife's family ; 

 for he had married Johanna, one of the daughters and heiresses of 

 Sir Peter Genevill, knight, son of GeofFry de Genevill, lord of 

 Vaucolaur, of Try on, and many other places, and of Johanna, his 

 wife. Countess de la March.* The magnificent and ostentatious 

 disposition of this nobleman contributed to give the young king a 

 love of chivalry and romantic praise that made it fashionable among 

 his subjects. A desire of emulating the fame of the renowned Ar- 

 thur, incited him to keep a round table of knights and hold a tour- 

 nament, at his castle of Wigmore, in imitation of this favourite hero 

 of romance. t He became " proude beyonde measur." Even " Gef- 

 frey Mortimer, the (third) sunne, let caul his father, for pride. 

 King of Foly."J Indeed, the conduct of the Earl of IMarch and 

 the queen caused so much discontent, that an attempt was made to 

 overawe it, by the arrest of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the king's 

 uncle, who was accused, on a fabricated charge of treason, con- 

 demned, and executed. The king's visible dissatisfaction embold- 

 ened some to inform him that the Earl of March was implicated 

 in his father's murder. He was now eighteen, the age at which 

 the royal minority terminates. The queen and Mortimer were in 

 the castle of Nottingham, guarded by their military friends ; Ed- 

 ward, by connivance of the governor, was admitted secretly at night 

 with a few determined followers, led by Sir William Montacute, 

 through a subterraneous passage. Sir Hugh Trumpington was on 

 guard, and being, as Leland says, " redy to resiste the taking of 

 Mortimer, was slayne and braynid with a mace, by one of Mon- 



* Pedigree in the College of Arms. 



t Leland's Collectanea^ voL ii., p. 476. Avesbury, p. 7. 



X Leland's ColkcUy vol. ii., p. 476. 



