Edmund born on 5th August1301 at Woodstock in Oxfordshire.  He was 62 years younger than his father, who died when Edmund was only seven. Reportedly, he enjoyed his father's favour. He was summoned to Parliament by writ of summons on 5th August 1320, by which he is held to have become Baron Woodstock. On 28th July 1321 he was created Earl of Kent.

Kent married 3rd Baroness Margaret Wake, daughter of the 1st Baron Wake by Joan de Fiennes, sometime between October and December in 1325 at Blisworth in Northamptonshire.

He was from 1327, after the execution and forfeiture of the Earl of Arundel, for the three remaining years of his life to hold the castle and honour of Arundel, although he was never formally invested with the titles appropriate to this barony. He was the father of Joan of Kent, through whom the earldom eventually passed into the Holland family.

Kent was executed for treason on 19th March 1330, having supported his half-brother on  the deposed King Edward II, by order of the Regents the Earl of March and Queen Isabella, before the outer walls of Winchester Castle. It was said that he had conspired to rescue King Edward from prison. Such was public hostility to the execution that "he had to wait five hours for an executioner, because nobody wanted to do it", until a convicted murderer offered to do the deed in exchange for a pardon.

He was buried on 31st March at the Church of the Dominican Friars in Winchester.

Kent's execution was the beginning of the end for March's regency. Thereafter, in October 1330, King Edward III assumed the full powers of King with the support of Kent's cousin, the powerful Earl of Lancaster. March was executed that same year for, inter alia, having assumed the royal powers. The children and widow of the Earl of Kent were treated as members of Edward III's Royal Household.

The children of Edmund, Earl of Kent, by Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake, were:

Edmund Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Kent born in 1326 and died before 5th October 1331)

Margaret Plantagenet born in 1327and died in1352. She married Arnaud-Amanieu VIII d'Albret, Viscount of Tartas.

Joan Plantagenet ("The Fair Maid of Kent")

John Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Kent born on 7th April 1330 and died on 26th  December 1352