Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell

Who was Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell?

Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell, English baron, belonged to a Lincolnshire family which had lands also in Cumberland, being the son of John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell, who was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1295, and the grandson of Baldwin Wake, both warriors of repute.

Among Thomas Wake's guardians were Piers Gaveston and Henry, Earl of Lancaster, whose daughter Blanche he married before 1317. This lady was the niece of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and her husband was thus attached to the Lancastrian party, but he did not follow Thomas of Lancaster in the proceedings which led to his death in 1322. Hating the favourites of Edward II, Wake joined Queen Isabella in 1326 and was a member of the small council which advised the young king, Edward III; soon, however, he broke away from the queen and her ally, Roger Mortimer, and in conjunction with his father-in-law, now earl of Lancaster, he joined the malcontent barons.

He was possibly implicated in the plot which cost his brother-in-law, Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, his life in 1330, and he fled to France, returning to England after the overthrow of Isabella and Mortimer.