Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor
Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in b ...
; 11 September 1318 – 11 January 1372) was the fifth daughter of
Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster
Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster ( – 22 September 1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin.
Origins
He was ...
and
Maud Chaworth
Maud de Chaworth (2 February 1282 – 3 December 1322) was an English noblewoman and wealthy heiress. She was the only child of Patrick de Chaworth. Sometime before 2 March 1297, she married Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, by whom she had seven c ...
.
First marriage and issue
Eleanor married first on 6 November 1330 John de Beaumont, 2nd Baron Beaumont (d. 1342), son of
Henry Beaumont, 4th Earl of Buchan
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
*Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
, 1st Baron Beaumont (c.1288-1340) by his wife
Alice Comyn
Alice Comyn, Countess of Buchan, Lady Beaumont (1289 – 3 July 1349) was a Scottish noblewoman, a member of the powerful Comyn family which supported the Balliols, claimants to the disputed Scottish throne against their rivals, the Bruces. ...
(1289-3 July 1349). He died in a tournament on 14 April 1342. They had one son, born to Eleanor in Ghent whilst serving as lady-in-waiting to Queen
Philippa of Hainault:
*Henry Beaumont, 3rd Baron Beaumont, (4 April 1340 – 25 July 1369), the first husband of Lady
Margaret de Vere
Margaret de Vere (died 16 June 1398) was an English noblewoman, a daughter of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford and his wife Maud de Badlesmere.
Background
Margaret was a daughter of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford and his wife Maud de Badlesme ...
(d. 15 June 1398), the daughter of
John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford by his wife
Maud de Badlesmere
Maud de Badlesmere, Countess of Oxford (1310 – May 1366) was an English noblewoman, and the wife of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford. She, along with her three sisters, was a co-heiress of her only brother Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badle ...
. Henry and Margaret had one son,
John Beaumont, 4th Baron Beaumont
John Beaumont, 4th Baron Beaumont KG (1361–1396) was an English military commander and Admiral who served in the Hundred Years' War against the partisans of Antipope Clement VII.
Origins
Beaumont was born in 1361 at Folkingham Castle, Lin ...
KG (1361-1396).
Second marriage
On 5 February 1345 at
Ditton Church Ditton may refer to:
Places Canada
*The former Ditton, Quebec, which amalgamated into La Patrie, Quebec in 1997
* Ditton River, a tributary of the rivière au Saumon in Le Haut-Saint-François Regional County Municipality, Estrie, Québec
* Ditto ...
,
Stoke Poges
Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and southeast of Farnham Common.
Etymology
In the name Stoke Poges, ''stoke'' means " stockaded (pl ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...
, she married
Richard FitzAlan, 3rd Earl of Arundel.
[also called Richard de Arundel]
His previous marriage, to
Isabel le Despenser, had taken place when they were children. It was
annulled by Papal mandate as she, since her father's
attainder
In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditar ...
and execution, had ceased to be of any importance to him.
Pope Clement VI obligingly annulled the marriage,
bastardized the issue, and provided a
dispensation for his second marriage to the woman with whom he had been living in adultery (the dispensation, dated 4 March 1345, was required because his first and second wives were first cousins).
The children of Eleanor's second marriage were:
#
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...
(1346–1397), who succeeded as
Earl of Arundel
#
John Fitzalan (bef 1349 - 1379)
#
Thomas Arundel,
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...
(c. 1353 - 19 February 1413)
#
Lady Joan FitzAlan
Joan de Beauchamp, Baroness Bergavenny ( FitzAlan; 1375 – 14 November 1435) was an English noblewoman, and the wife of William de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny of the Welsh Marches.
Family and lineage
Lady Joan FitzAlan was born in 1375 ...
(1347/1348 - 7 April 1419), married
Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford
Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex, 2nd Earl of Northampton, KG (March 25, 1342–January 16, 1373) was the son of William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, and Elizabeth de Badlesmere, and grandson of Humphrey de Bohun, ...
#
Lady Alice FitzAlan (1350 - 17 March 1416), married
Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (Thomas Holand)
#Lady Mary FitzAlan (died 29 August 1396), married
John Le Strange, 4th Lord Strange of Blackmere, by whom she had issue
#Lady Eleanor FitzAlan (1348 - d 29 Aug 1396) married Sir Anthony Browne.
Later life
Eleanor died at
Arundel
Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England.
The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much larg ...
and was buried at
Lewes Priory
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and ha ...
in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...
,
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...
, England. Her husband survived her by four years, and was buried beside her; in his will Richard requests to be buried "''near to the tomb of Eleanor de Lancaster, my wife; and I desire that my tomb be no higher than hers, that no men at arms, horses, hearse, or other pomp, be used at my funeral, but only five torches...as was about the corpse of my wife, be allowed''."
The memorial effigies raised to Eleanor and her husband
Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel, now in
Chichester Cathedral, are the subject of the celebrated
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...
poem "
An Arundel Tomb
"An Arundel Tomb" is a poem by Philip Larkin, written and published in 1956, and subsequently included in his 1964 collection '' The Whitsun Weddings''. It describes the poet's response to seeing a pair of recumbent medieval tomb effigies with th ...
."
Ancestry
Sources
*Fowler, Kenneth. ''The King's Lieutenant'', 1969
*
Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. ''Testamenta Vetusta'', 1826.
*Weis, Frederick Lewis, ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'', Lines: 17-30, 21-30, 28-33, 97-33, 114-31
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleanor Of Lancaster
1318 births
1372 deaths
House of Plantagenet
Burials at Lewes Priory
House of Brienne
FitzAlan family
14th-century English women
14th-century English people
Arundel
Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England.
The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much larg ...
Daughters of British earls