John of Gaunt’s Entailment

I have recently come across the argument (again) that Edward III‘s purported enfeoffment made Gaunt and his son the rightful heirs of Edward III.

1. The enfeoffment was created right at the end of Edward III’s reign when Edward was more or less senile and under the direct influence of Gaunt himself. A more prejudicial situation can scarcely be imagined, and I cannot believe that any modern judge would allow such a travesty to stand.
2. It is by no means obvious that Edward had the right, constitutionally, to bequeath the crown as though it was a mere plot of land. It was not settled in Parliament but on the King’s sole initiative.
3. If Edward had the right to do this, he did not have the right to bind his successor. Therefore, Richard II had the same ‘right’.
4. Ian Mortimer has demonstrated that the Parliament of 1386 settled the crown on Roger Mortimer, Earl of March. This is confirmed by the evidence of the Westminster Chronicle, written well before 1399, which states in no uncertain terms that March was the King’s heir and that equally Gaunt and his family were not.
5. Ian Mortimer has also claimed that Richard II appointed Edmund of Langley as his heir. While this is not incontrovertible, it makes good sense as by 1399 March was dead and Henry Bolingbroke was disgraced and in exile. Edmund was the ‘obvious’ heir in default of anyone else. Moreover, Richard II’s last Parliament were offered Edmund (whom they rejected) before ‘choosing’ Bolingbroke. It is very telling that, in the circumstances, such an offer was made.
6. Even more tellingly at no point did Henry Bolingbroke offer Edward III’s enfeoffment as a reason why he should succeed Richard. He did not even mention it. Nor did he claim based on being Richard II’s heir male, which he Indubitably was. (Unless you choose to believe Gaunt was a changeling, as rumour alleged.) Indeed, he preferred to claim through his mother and a farrago of lies commonly known as ‘the Crouchback Legend.’ Why he chose to go down this road is hard to comprehend. But he did. One possibility is that if the Crouchback legend had been true he would have been King by right, with Edward I, Edward II, Edward III and Richard II all usurpers. Too bad it was complete nonsense, as even informed people at the time were well aware.