Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Eleanor de Bohun

Female - Aft 1278


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  • Name Eleanor de Bohun 
    Gender Female 
    Alternate death Aft 1276  [1
    Death Aft 10 Jun 1278  [2, 3
    Siblings 1 sibling 
    Person ID I2394  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 4 Dec 2020 

    Father Humphrey de Bohun,   b. Aft 28 Apr 1199   d. 24 Sep 1275 (Age < 75 years) 
    Mother Maud of Avenbury   d. 8 Oct 1273, Sorges, Gascony, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F949  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family John de Verdun,   b. Abt 1226, of Alton, Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Bef 17 Oct 1274 (Age ~ 48 years) 
    Marriage Bef 1267  [2, 3
    Children 
     1. Maud de Verdun,   b. of Alton Castle, Cheadle, Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aft 1293
    Family ID F973  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 5 Jan 2016 

  • Notes 
    • "Sometime after [10 Jun 1278], members of Eleanor's household petitioned the king, stating that she was mad and an imbecile, and requested a suitable wardship for her." [Royal Ancestry]

      Peter Stewart, 2 Dec 2020, post to soc.genealogy.medieval:

      There is no question that [Humphrey de Bohun, d. 1265, and his wife Eleanor de Briouze] did have a daughter named Eleanor, but she was the second wife of Robert de Ferrers, 6th earl of Derby, from June 1269 whereas the other Eleanor de Bohun, wife of John de Verdon, was widowed in 1274. The latter couple had a son named Humphrey—presumably after her father—born on 4 June 1267, and she had the Verdon and Bohun bearings on her seal. The Eleanor married to Robert de Ferrers was described as sister to Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd earl of Hereford (son of Humphrey who died in 1265 by Eleanor de Braiose) in the close roll for 1290 (Edward I, vol 3 p. 119: "Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and Eleanor de Ferrariis, his sister, acknowledge that they owe to Robert de Tibotot and Matthew de Columbariis, the king’s butler, 200l.; to be levied, in default of payment, of their lands and chattels in cos. Hereford and Essex"). Two witnesses at the IPM of this Eleanor's son John, 1st lord Ferrers of Chartley, quoted in CP vol. 5 pp. 305-306 note (d), placed her as the granddaughter of Humphrey de Bohun who was clearly the 2nd earl of Hereford and 7th of Essex.

      The most likely answer seems to me that John de Verdon's wife Eleanor de Bohun was a paternal half-sister of Humphrey the husband of Eleanor de Braiose, i.e. a daughter of the 2nd earl of Herford by his second wife, Maud de Avenbury. This would account for her evident family connection as well as the chronology placing her apparently around 20 years younger than the daughters of the 2nd earl by his first wife, Maud de Lusignan.

      The double Verdon-Bohun marriages posited by [Mark S. Hagger, The Fortunes of a Norman Family, The Verduns in England, Ireland, and Wales, 1066-1316], including his Matilda who was actually named Margery or Margaret to John's son Theobald I, are somewhat downscale socio-politically from the Ferrers marriage of the 3rd earl's sister. Maybe Margery was also a near-contemporary half-blood aunt of the 3rd earl, another daughter of the 2nd earl by Maud de Avenbury. At any rate Hagger's placing her as a sister of the third earl would entail a second-cousin marriage between her son Theobald II de Verdon and Maud de Mortimer, both in that case great-grandchildren of William de Braiose and Eve Marshal.

  • Sources 
    1. [S72] Chris Phillips, Some Corrections and Additions to The Complete Peerage.

    2. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.

    3. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998.