Richard de Arundel

Notes:

Also called Richard Fitz Alan. 11th Earl of Arundel. 10th Earl of Surrey. Chief Butler of England. Member of the council of the regency, 1377. An accomplished naval commander, he was Admiral and/or Captain-General of the fleet at various times with various titles. He was an ally of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, uncle of Richard II, and gradually incurred Richard's enmity. Ultimately he was arrested, accused of plotting with Gloucester to imprison the king, put to trial at Westminster, attainted, and beheaded.

Richard married Elizabeth de Bohun on 17 Oct 1359. Elizabeth (daughter of William de Bohun and Elizabeth de Badlesmere) died on 3 Apr 1385; was buried in Lewes Priory, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Joan Arundel was born about 1371; died on 14 Nov 1435; was buried in Black Friars, Herefordshire, England.
2. Elizabeth Fitz Alan was born about 1371; died on 8 Jul 1425.

Notes:

"Steward of Scotland, 1326-1336; Justice of North Wales, 1334-1376; Sheriff of Carnarvonshire 1339-1343, 1346-1347; Admiral of the West, 1340-1341 and 1345-1347; Sheriff of Shropshire, 1345-1376; commanded the 2nd division at the battle of Crécy, 26 Aug 1346, and was at the fall of Calais, 1347; assumed the title of Earl of Surrey, 1361, upon the death of his maternal aunt, Joan, widow of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey." [The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, citation details below.]

Called "Copped Hat."

A pair of memorial effigies depicting Richard Fitz Alan and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster can be seen at Chichester Cathedral. They lie side by side, a lion at his feet and a dog at hers. In a note of tenderness that makes one wonder if the sculptor knew the couple, he has his right hand ungloved, and her right hand rests lightly upon his.

These effigies were celebrated in 1956 by Philip Larkin in his poem "An Arundel Tomb," the last lines of which are quoted on Larkin's own Poet's Corner memorial stone in Westminster Abbey.

Richard married Eleanor of Lancaster on 5 Apr 1345. Eleanor (daughter of Henry of Lancaster and Maud de Chaworth) was born about 1318; died on 11 Jan 1372 in Arundel, Sussex, England; was buried in Lewes Priory, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1341 she was granted £100 yearly for life in consideration of her long attendance on Queen Philippe. She was also granted license to have one course with greyhounds any time she passed through the King's English forests, parks, and warrens, and to carry away any deer taken at that course.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1 May 1285, Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire, England

Notes:

Also called Edmund Arundel. Earl of Arundel. An opponent of Gaveston, he became one of the Lords Ordainers, and one of those before whom Gaveston was tried before he was killed. Edmund Fitz Alan was also among the magnates who refused to help Edward II against Scotland, resulting in the disaster at Bannockburn. However, around the time his son Richard was betrothed to Hugh Dispenser the Younger's daughter Isabel, Fitz Alan began a rapprochement with the king. This would ultimately result in Fitz Alan's execution on the order of Roger Mortimer. According to a one account, a blunt sword was ordered, and his beheading took 22 strokes.

"Though he was never canonised, a cult emerged around the late earl in the 1390s, associating him with the 9th-century martyr king St Edmund. This veneration may have been inspired by a similar cult around his grandson, Richard Fitz Alan, 11th Earl of Arundel, who was executed by Richard II in 1397." [Wikipedia]

Just to drive home the point that association with the Despensers never works out for anybody, in 1344 his son Richard sought and obtained an anullment from his marriage to Isabel le Despenser, on the grounds that the betrothal had been inflicted on him in childhood and without his consent.

Edmund married Alice de Warenne after 30 Dec 1304. Alice (daughter of William de Warenne and Joan de Vere) died between 1330 and 23 May 1338. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1281, Grosmont Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales

Notes:

Also called "Tortcol"; also called Henry Plantagenet.

Earl of Lancaster. Earl of Leicester.

Steward of England; Constable of Abergavenny and Kenilworth Castles 1326; Chief Guardian of the King 1327; Captain-General of the Marches towards Scotland 1327; Councillor of Regency 1345.

Summoned to Parliament by writs 6 Feb 1299 onward.

"Served against the Scots and in Flanders, at the siege of Carlaverock in 1300, among the barons forcing restrictions on Edward II's powers, joined the queen's party in 1326 and captured the king later that year, knighted Edward III at his coronation, became blind in about 1330, but continued to participate in public affairs and as a counselor of the king." [Ancestry of Charles II, citation details below.]

Henry of Lancaster and Maud de Chaworth were great-grandparents of both Henry IV and his queen, Mary de Bohun.

Henry married Maud de Chaworth before 2 Mar 1297. Maud (daughter of Patrick de Chaworth and Isabel de Beauchamp) was born on 2 Feb 1282; died before 3 Dec 1322; was buried in Mottisfont Priory, Hampshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Maud de Chaorces.

Notes:

Also called Richard de Arundel. Earl of Arundel.

From Complete Peerage, 1:240-41:

Richard fitz Alan, feudal Lord of Clun and Oswestry and [according to the admission of 1443], Earl of Arundel, only son and heir, born 3 February 1266/7, and was only 5 years old at his father's death. He had seizin of his lands 8 December 1287. According to Glover he was created Earl of Sussex (a) in 1289, when he was knighted and "received the sword of the county of Sussex" from Edward I "ut vocatur Comes;", but it seems more probable that this creation was as Earl of Arundel (b). At all events no more is heard of the former title (Sussex) as connected with this family, but only of the title of Arundel. On 12 February 1290/1 there is a grant to him as Richard Arundel, Earl of Arundel. In October 1292 he was summoned by a writ directed to the Earl of Arundel, and was summoned to Parliament 24 June 1295, by a writ directed Ricardo filio Alani Comiti Arundell, ranking him as junior to all the other Earls. He fought in the Welsh wars 1288, in Gascony 1295-7, and in the Scottish wars 1298-1300, being present at the siege of Carlaverock in 1300. He signed the Barons' letter to the Pope, 12 February 1300/1.

(a) "The Earldom of Sussex must at this period have been a subject of contention between the De Warrens and Fitz Alans, for John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, was receiving, at the very time that this investiture occurred, writs directed to him as Earl of Sussex. John de Warren was perhaps the greatest noble of the time in which he lived, and his power and influence may have operated to induce Fitz Alan to abandon his claim upon the Earldom of Sussex and to adopt that [i.e. the Earldom of Arundel] by which his descendants have ever since been known." (Courthope, p. 29).

(b) It is worthy of remark, in connection with the very doubtful right, either of his father or grandfather, to the Earldom of Arundel, that it was not till 1282, viz. sometime after their death and during this Earl's minority, that Isabel, Countess of Arundel, widow of Hugh (d'Aubigny), died. It would almost appear (possibly owing to the largess of her dower) that the Earldom was not dealt with during her lifetime. A somewhat parallel case occurs, later on, in the same family, when Richard, Earl of Arundel, who, in 1347, had suc. his maternal uncle the Earl of Surrey, did not assume the Earldom of Surrey till the death of Joan, widow of the afsd. Earl, in 1361.

Richard married Alice di Saluzzo in Nov 1282. Alice (daughter of Tomasso di Saluzzo and Aluigia del Vasto) was born in of Saluzzo, Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy; died on 25 Sep 1292; was buried in Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Alasia di Saluzzo; Alasia del Vasto di Saluzzo.

"Along with her aunt Alasia de Saluzzo who married Edmund de Lacy, 2nd earl of Lincoln, in 1247, Alasia was one of the first Italian women to marry into an English noble family. Her marriage had been arranged by the late King Henry III's widowed queen consort Eleanor de Provence." [Leo van de Pas]

CP has her buried at Todingham Priory, but Chris Phillips's compilation of corrections to CP includes Douglas Richardson's note in Jan 2002 that "the bodies of both Richard and Alesia were at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, by 1341, when provision was made for 12 candles to burn in the church of Haughmond around their tombs."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 15 Jan 1256, of Bromfield, Denbighshire, Wales
• Alternate death: 15 Dec 1286, Croydon, Surrey, England

Notes:

Killed at a tournament; said to have been ambushed and slain by rivals.

William married Joan de Vere in 1284. Joan (daughter of Robert de Vere and Alice de Sanford) died about 23 Nov 1293; was buried in Lewes Priory, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 24 Nov 1293

Notes:

Earl of Leicester; Earl of Lancaster; Earl of Derby. Steward of England 1265; Keeper of the Isle of Lundy 1266; Warden of Sherborne Castle 1267; Lieutenant of Pothieu 1291; Lieutenant of Gascony 1296.

Nearly King of Sicily.

Summoned to Parliament by writ 24 Jun 1295; definitely far from the most interesting thing that ever happened to him.

From Wikipedia (as of 5 Dec 2023):

Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster (16 January 1245 – 5 June 1296), also known by his epithet Edmund Crouchback, was a member of the royal Plantagenet Dynasty and the founder of the first House of Lancaster. He was Earl of Leicester (1265–1296), Lancaster (1267–1296) and Derby (1269–1296) in England, and Count Palatine of Champagne (1276–1284) in France.

Named after the 9th-century saint, Edmund was the second surviving son of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence and the younger brother of King Edward I of England, to whom he was loyal as a diplomat and warrior. In 1254, the 9-year-old Edmund became involved in the "Sicilian business", in which his father accepted a papal offer granting the Kingdom of Sicily to Edmund, who made preparations to become king. However, Henry III could not provide funds for the operation, prompting the Papacy to withdraw the grant and give it to Edmund's uncle, Charles I of Anjou. The "Sicilian business" outraged the barons led by the Earl of Leicester and Edmund's uncle, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and was cited as one of the reasons for limiting Henry's power. Deterioration of relations between the barons and the king resulted in the Second Barons' War, in which the royal government, supported by Edmund, triumphed over the baronage following the death of Montfort in the Battle of Evesham in 1265.

Edmund received the lands and titles of Montfort and the defeated barons Nicholas Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave and Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, and became Earl of Lancaster, Leicester and Derby. Primarily known as the earl of the first county, he eventually became the most powerful baron of England. Later, Edmund accompanied his elder brother Edward on his crusade in the Holy Land, where his epithet "Crouchback" originated from a corruption of 'cross back', referring to him wearing a stitched cross on his garments. Following the death of his first wife, Aveline de Forz, Edmund's aunt and Dowager Queen of France Margaret of Provence arranged his second marriage to Blanche of Artois, the recently widowed Queen Dowager of Navarre and the Countess of Champagne. With his second wife Blanche, Edmund governed Champagne as count palatine in the name of his stepdaughter Joan until she came of age. Edmund was active in supporting his family members, such as assisting Edward in conquering Wales, advocating for the claims of his aunt Margaret against his uncle Charles I of Anjou in his mother and aunt's homeland of Provence and managing Ponthieu on behalf of his sister-in-law, Eleanor of Castile.

When Edmund's stepson-in-law, King Philip IV of France, demanded Edward, who was also his vassal through Gascony, to come to Paris to answer charges of damages caused by English mariners in 1293, Edward sent Edmund to mediate the crisis to avert war. Edmund negotiated an agreement with Philip where France would occupy Gascony for 40 days, and Edward would marry Philip's half-sister, Margaret. When the 40 days were over, Philip tricked Edward and Edmund by refusing to relinquish control over Gascony, calling Edward to again answer for his charges. Edmund and Edward then renounced their homages to Philip and prepared for war against France. Edmund sailed for Gascony with his army and besieged the city of Bordeaux. Unable to pay his troops, Edmund was deserted by his army and retreated to Bayonne, where he died from illness in 1296. Edmund's body was brought back to England, where he was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1301.

Edmund married Blanche of Artois on 18 Jan 1276 in Paris, France. Blanche (daughter of Robert of France and Mahaut of Brabant) was born about 1248; died on 2 May 1302 in Paris, France; was buried in Church of the Cordeliers, Paris, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Her heart was buried in the choir of the conventual church of the Minoresses at Nogent-l'Artaud." [Royal Ancestry]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1254, of Kempsford, Gloucestershire, England
• Alternate death: Abt 7 Jul 1283, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales

Notes:

Also called Patric de Chaorces, Patric de Cadurcis, Payn Chaworth. Accompanied Henry III on a crusade to the Near East in 1269.

Patrick married Isabel de Beauchamp. Isabel (daughter of William de Beauchamp and Maud fitz John) died before 30 May 1306. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]