opened perhaps the most difficult period for his siblings, Bishop Beau-
mont and Isabella de Vescy, since their arrival in England many years
earlier.^64 Indeed, it has been suggested that Isabella played a significant
role in the‘next’conspiracy, helping to pass messages between Edmund
of Kent and the archbishop of York.^65 Moreover, in the confession that
Edmund made shortly before his execution, he claimed that, on a recent
journey to the continent, he had met with Henry of Beaumont and Sir
Thomas Roscelyn (another member of the Disinherited), and they had
told him that they were planning to launch an invasion of England, with
Scottish assistance.^66 Whatever the truth about all this, Henry was saved
by the young King Edward III, who overthrew his mother and her lover
in October 1330, and took up the government himself.^67
It is tempting to suggest, though, that Henry put his time in France to
good use. King Robert died in 1329, leaving a child, David II, as his
successor. This reopened all the old questions about the durability of
Robert’s achievement, and whether the Bruces would stay in power
in Scotland. Hence, it may well have been at this juncture that Henry
first seriously sounded out Edward Balliol, the son and heir of the
Bruces’old rival, about the possibilityof claiming the Scottish throne.^68
In this context, it is worth examining a rather bizarre-looking notion
that emerges, howeverfleetingly, in the extant source material: namely
that, at some point in the late 1320s or early 1330s, Edward Balliol
married Margaret of Taranto, the niece of King Robert of Naples, but
then renounced her.^69 If something like this did indeed take place, then
the lack of evidence may well suggest that it was actually a betrothal,
rather than a marriage. Moreover, if this is right, then it would all have
been much easier to repudiate when it became clear that Angevin
diplomatic clout, even at the French court, was not going to help very
much. But, if such a betrothal did occur, the obvious question is a
simple one: who encouraged Edward to do it? The answer, of course,
leaps to eye: Henry of Beaumont, whose close kinsman, Walter VI of
Brienne, had recently married Margaret’s half-sister, Beatrice.^70 If this
is correct (and, it has to be said, it is all deeply speculative), then it is
an important example of an interconnection between the senior line
of the house of Brienne and their‘English’cousins. More to the point, it
heir, Henry of Grosmont. For these marriages, see K. Fowler,The King’s Lieutenant:
Henry of Grosmont, First Duke of Lancaster, 1310– 1361 (London, 1969), 26.(^64) For the bishop, see Fraser’s article in theODNB.
(^65) SeeAdae Murimuth continuatio chronicarum Robertus de Avesbury, Appendix, 254–6.
(^66) Ibid., Appendix, 254–6. (^67) Ormrod,Edward III,90–2.
(^68) For Edward’s earlier career, see Beam,The Balliol Dynasty, 192–211.
(^69) Ibid., 211–12. (^70) See below,163.
156 Hubris and Nemesis (c. 1311–1356)