Cambridge, Richard of Conisborough, 1st earl of

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Cambridge, Richard of Conisborough, 1st earl of (1385–1415). Richard was the younger son of Edmund, duke of York, and a grandson of Edward III. With no lands, he depended on Exchequer annuities which were irregularly paid until after his clandestine marriage to Anne Mortimer, sister of Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, in 1408. No landed endowment accompanied his creation as earl by Henry V: it was really a courtesy title, recognizing Richard as heir to his childless brother Duke Edward. Apparently unhinged by resentment, Richard devised hare-brained seditious schemes in conversation with the Northumberland knight Thomas Gray of Heton and persuaded himself that Edmund Mortimer shared his motives for rebellion. It remains a mystery how Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, became entangled in this half-baked conspiracy. Convicted for plotting the deaths of Henry V and his brothers, Cambridge, Scrope, and Gray were beheaded at Southampton.

R. L. Storey

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