April 22, 1355: Death of Princess Eleanor of Woodstock, Princess of England, Duchess of Guelders

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Duke Reginald II of Guelders, Duke Reginald III of Guelders, Eleanor of Woodstock, Infanta Eleanor of Castile, Isabella of France, King Edward II of England, King Edward III of England, King Philippe IV of France, Princess of England, Regent

Eleanor of Woodstock (June 18, 1318 – April 22, 1355) was an English princess and the duchess of Guelders by marriage to Duke Reginald II of Guelders. She was regent as the guardian of their minor son Reginald III from 1343 until 1344. She was a younger sister of King Edward III of England.

Early life

Eleanor was born at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire to King Edward II of England and Isabella of France, the youngest surviving child and only surviving daughter of King Philippe IV of France and Queen Joan I of Navarre.

Eleanor was named after her paternal grandmother, Infanta Eleanor of Castile. £333 was given for her churching by her father. In 1324 she was taken into care by her cousin Eleanor de Clare then sent to the care of Ralph de Monthermer and Isabella Hastings with her younger sister Joan of the Tower at Pleshey. In 1325, there were negotiations between England and Castile for Eleanor to be betrothed to Alphonso XI of Castile, but this fell through due to the dowry.

In early 1328 Eleanor’s new sister-in-law, Philippa of Hainaut, wife of King Edward III, became Eleanor’s guardian. In 1329, during the minority government, negotiations were underway for a match between Eleanor and the future King Jean II of France; the following year the prospective bridegroom was Pedro, son of King Alphonso IV of Aragon, but these negotiations fell through also.

Duchess of Guelders

In May 1332 Eleanor married the count of Guelders, Reinoud II “the black” (English: Reginald), of the House of Wassenberg (born c. 1287), a marriage arranged by her brother, Edward III, and her mother’s cousin Joan of Valois. The groom, quite dark of colour and according to chronicles, also of character, was a widower with four daughters. He was known for, among other things, having imprisoned his father for over six years.

As Eleanor sailed from Sandwich, her wedding trousseau included a wedding gown of Spanish cloth, caps, gloves, shoes, a bed, rare spices and loaves of sugar. She was well received in Guelders.

According to legend, she was sent from court in 1338 under the pretext that she had leprosy. Her husband was reportedly under the influence of the priest Jan Moliart, who had been active in her exile and the false pretense of her alleged leprosy. During her supposed exile, she is said to have stayed in Deventer; she does appear to have been active as the protector of the Franciscan Friars, and a financier of their new church.

Again according to legend, her husband tried to annul the marriage. Although there is no firm evidence to support this story, which finds parallels in the legends surrounding numerous other royal women, Eleanor turned up in Court in Nijmegen to contest the annulment, and proceeded to strip down, proving she was no leper, and thus forcing her husband to take her back. He died from a fall from his horse on 12 October 1343.

Regency

When she was widowed, Eleanor became the regent of Guelders for her nine-year-old son Reginald. Having assumed power, she had her old enemy Jan Moliart arrested and imprisoned. Her regency was formally recognised, but she was forced to confront a relative of her late husband, Jan van Valkenburg, who demanded his right to share the regency with her. The situation was soon so difficult that, according to some accounts, she was forced to resign her post of regency, and her son was formally declared of legal majority and therefore of no need of a regency at the age of eleven in 1344.

After her resignation she formally retired under the title Lady of Veluwe (after the name of her dowry), and spent much of her time acting as a benefactor of convents, particular the beggar convents such as the Order of Saint Clare.

During the 1350s, she and Reginald came in conflict over making peace with his younger brother Edward, and he confiscated her lands.

Death and burial

On April 22, 1355, twelve years after she became a widow, Eleanor died at age 36. According to legend, she had been too proud to ask her brother Edward III for help and was buried in the Franciscan church in Deventer. Her tombstone had the simple inscription ELEANOR on it; however, in England, on the south side of Philippa of Hainault’s tomb in Westminster Abbey there is an image of her and her husband.

March 20, 1412: Death of Henry IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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Duke of Lancaster, Henry Bolingbroke, Henry IV of England, Joanna of Navarre, John of Gaunt, King Edward III of England, King Richard II of England, Lord of Ireland, Mary de Bohun, Usurper

Henry IV (c. April 1367 – March 20, 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. His grandfather King Edward III had claimed the French throne as a grandson of Philippe IV of France, and Henry continued this claim. He was the first English ruler since the Norman Conquest, over three hundred years prior, whose mother tongue was English rather than French.

Early Life

Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle, in Lincolnshire, to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. His epithet “Bolingbroke” was derived from his birthplace. Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III. Blanche was the daughter of the wealthy royal politician and nobleman Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster.

Henry of Grosmont was the only son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281–1345); who in turn was the younger brother and heir of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1278–1322). They were sons of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1245–1296); the second son of King Henry III (ruled 1216–1272) and younger brother of King Edward I of England (ruled 1272–1307).

Henry of Grosmont was thus a first cousin once removed of King Edward II and a second cousin of King Edward III (ruled 1327–1377). His mother was Maud de Chaworth (1282–1322). On his paternal grandmother’s side, Henry of Grosmont was also the great-great-grandson of King Louis VIII of the Franks.

John of Gaunt enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his own nephew, King Richard II. Henry’s elder sisters were Philippa, Queen of Portugal, (wife of King João I of Portugal) and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter. His younger half-sister, the daughter of his father’s second wife, Constance of Castile, was Katherine, Queen of Castile wife of King Enrique III of Castile.

Henry Bolingbroke also had four natural half-siblings born of Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters’ governess, then his father’s longstanding mistress and later third wife. These illegitimate children were given the surname Beaufort from their birthplace at the Château de Beaufort in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.

Henry’s relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In his youth, he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort proved problematic after 1406. Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville, married Henry’s half-sister Joan Beaufort.

Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, even though Henry revoked Richard II’s grant to John of a marquessate. Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherine’s first marriage, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where Richard II is said to have died.

Henry’s half-sister Joan was the mother of Cecily Neville. Cecily married Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, making Joan the grandmother of two Yorkist kings of England.

John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt’s land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands from Richard.

Henry was involved in the revolt of the Lords Appellant against Richard in 1388, resulting in his exile by King Richard II.

Accession

After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant. Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire.

Henry initially announced that his intention was to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison King Richard (who died in prison under mysterious circumstances) and bypass Richard II’s 7-year-old heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.

Henry’s coronation, on October 13, 1399 at Westminster Abbey, may have marked the first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English.

As king, Henry faced a number of rebellions, most seriously those of Owain Glyndŵr, the self-proclaimed ruler of Wales, and the English knight Henry Percy (Hotspur), who was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. The king suffered from poor health in the latter part of his reign, and his eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, assumed the reins of government in 1410. Henry IV died in 1413, and his son succeeded him as King Henry V.

Marriages and issue

First marriage: Mary de Bohun

The date and venue of Henry’s first marriage to Mary de Bohun (died 1394) are uncertain but her marriage licence, purchased by Henry’s father John of Gaunt in June 1380, is preserved at the National Archives. The accepted date of the ceremony is February 5, 1381, at Mary’s family home of Rochford Hall, Essex.

The near-contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart reports a rumour that Mary’s sister Eleanor de Bohun kidnapped Mary from Pleshey Castle and held her at Arundel Castle, where she was kept as a novice nun; Eleanor’s intention was to control Mary’s half of the Bohun inheritance (or to allow her husband, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, to control it). There Mary was persuaded to marry Henry.

Henry had four sons from his first marriage, which was undoubtedly a clinching factor in his acceptability for the throne. By contrast, Richard II had no children and Richard’s heir-presumptive Edmund Mortimer was only seven years old. The only two of Henry’s six children who produced legitimate children to survive to adulthood were Henry V and Blanche, whose son, Rupert, was the heir to the Electorate of the Palatinate until his death at 20.

All three of his other sons produced illegitimate children. Henry IV’s male Lancaster line ended in 1471 during the War of the Roses, between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, with the deaths of his grandson Henry VI and Henry VI’s son Edward, Prince of Wales.

Second marriage: Joanna of Navarre

Mary de Bohun died in 1394, and on February 7, 1403 at Winchester Cathedral Henry married Joanna of Navarre, the daughter of Charles II of Navarre, the daughter of Jean II of France (called The Good), and Bonne of Luxembourg.

She was the widow of Jean IV, Duke of Brittany (known in traditional English sources as Jean V), with whom she had had four daughters and four sons; however, her marriage to the King of England was childless.

Final illness and death

The later years of Henry’s reign were marked by serious health problems. He had a disfiguring skin disease and, more seriously, suffered acute attacks of a grave illness in June 1405; April 1406; June 1408; during the winter of 1408–09; December 1412; and finally a fatal bout in March 1413. In 1410, Henry had provided his royal surgeon Thomas Morstede with an annuity of £40 p.a. which was confirmed by Henry V immediately after his succession.

This was so that Morstede would ‘not be retained by anyone else’. Medical historians have long debated the nature of this affliction or afflictions. The skin disease might have been leprosy (which did not necessarily mean precisely the same thing in the 15th century as it does to modern medicine), perhaps psoriasis, or a different disease.

The acute attacks have been given a wide range of explanations, from epilepsy to a form of cardiovascular disease. Some medieval writers felt that he was struck with leprosy as a punishment for his treatment of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, who was executed in June 1405 on Henry’s orders after a failed coup.

According to Holinshed, it was predicted that Henry would die in Jerusalem, and Shakespeare’s play repeats this prophecy. Henry took this to mean that he would die on crusade. In reality, he died in the Jerusalem Chamber in the abbot’s house of Westminster Abbey, on March 20, 1413 during a convocation of Parliament. His executor, Thomas Langley, was at his side.

October 11, 1347: Death of Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Part II

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Anti-Pope Nicholas V, Emperor Louis IV, German-Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, King Edward III of England, King Philippe VI of France, Margaret II of Hainaut, Pope Benedict XIII, Pope John XII

After the reconciliation with the Habsburgs in 1326, Ludwig marched to Italy and was crowned King of Italy in Milan in 1327. Already in 1323, Ludwig had sent an army to Italy to protect Milan against the Kingdom of Naples, which was together with France the strongest ally of the papacy. But now the Lord of Milan Galeazzo I Visconti was deposed since he was suspected of conspiring with the pope.

In January 1328, Ludwig IV entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor by the aged senator Sciarra Colonna, called captain of the Roman people. Three months later, Ludwig IV published a decree declaring Pope John XXII (Jacques Duèze), who resided in Avignon, deposed on grounds of heresy. He then installed a Spiritual Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as antipope Nicholas V, who soon left Rome and a few years later submitted to Pope John XXII.

In the meantime, Robert, King of Naples had sent both a fleet and an army against Ludwig and his ally Frederick II of Sicily. Ludwig spent the winter 1328/29 in Pisa and stayed then in Northern Italy. When his co-ruler Friedrich the Fair of Habsburg died in 1330, Ludwig returned from Italy. In fulfillment of an oath, Ludwig founded Ettal Abbey on 28 April 1330.

Franciscan theologians Michael of Cesena and William of Ockham, and the philosopher Marsilius of Padua, who were all on bad terms with the Pope as well, joined Emperor Ludwig in Italy and accompanied him to his court at Alter Hof in Munich which became the first imperial residence of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1333, Emperor Ludwig IV sought to counter French influence in the southwest of the empire so he offered Umberto II of Viennois the Kingdom of Arles which was an opportunity to gain full authority over Savoy, Provence, and its surrounding territories. Humbert was reluctant to take the crown due to the conflict that would follow with all around him, so he declined, telling the emperor that he should make peace with the church first.

Emperor Ludwig IV also allied with King Edward III of England in 1337 against King Philippe VI of France, the protector of the new Pope Benedict XII in Avignon. King Philippe VI had prevented any agreement between the Emperor and the Pope. Thus, the failure of negotiations with the papacy led to the declaration at Rhense in 1338 by six electors to the effect that election by all or the majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the empire, without papal confirmation. King Edward III was the Emperor’s guest at the Imperial Diet in the Kastorkirche at Coblence in 1338 and was named Vicar-General of the Holy Roman Empire. However in 1341, the Emperor deserted Edward III but came to terms with Philippe VI only temporarily. For the expected English payments were missing and Louis intended to reach an agreement with the Pope one more time.

Imperial privileges

Ludwig IV was a protector of the Teutonic Knights. In 1337 he allegedly bestowed upon the Teutonic Order a privilege to conquer Lithuania and Russia, although the Order had only petitioned for three small territories. Later he forbade the Order to stand trial before foreign courts in their territorial conflicts with foreign rulers.

Louis concentrated his energies also on the economic development of the cities of the empire, so his name can be found in many city chronicles for the privileges he granted. In 1330 the emperor for example permitted the Frankfurt Trade Fair, and in 1340 Lübeck, as the leading member of the Hanseatic League, received the coinage prerogative for golden gulden.

Dynastic policy

In 1323 Ludwig IV gave Brandenburg as a fiefdom to his eldest son Ludwig V after the Brandenburg branch of the House of Ascania had died out. With the Treaty of Pavia in 1329 the emperor reconciled the sons of his late brother Rudolph and returned the Palatinate to his nephews Rudolph and Rupert. After the death of Heinrich of Bohemia, the duchy of Carinthia was released as an imperial fief on May 2, 1335 in Linz to his Habsburg cousins Albrecht II, Duke of Austria, and Otto, Duke of Austria, while Tyrol was first placed into Luxemburg hands.

With the death of duke Johann I in 1340 Ludwig IV inherited Lower Bavaria and then reunited the duchy of Bavaria. Johann’s mother, a member of the Luxemburg dynasty, had to return to Bohemia. In 1342 Ludwig also acquired Tyrol for the Wittelsbach by voiding the first marriage of Margarete Maultasch with Johann Heinrich of Bohemia and marrying her to his own son Ludwig V, thus alienating the House of Luxemburg even more.

In 1345 the emperor further antagonized the lay princes by conferring Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland upon his wife, Margaret II of Hainaut. The hereditary titles of Margaret’s sisters, one of whom was the Queen of England, were ignored. Because of the dangerous hostility of the Luxemburgs, Louis had increased his power base ruthlessly.

Tomb of Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor

The acquisition of these territories and his restless foreign policy had earned Ludwig V many enemies among the German princes. In the summer of 1346 the Luxemburg Charles IV was elected rival king, with the support of Pope Clement VI. Louis himself obtained much support from the Imperial Free Cities and the knights and successfully resisted Charles, who was widely regarded as a papal puppet (“rex clericorum” as William of Ockham called him). Also the Habsburg dukes stayed loyal to Louis. In the Battle of Crécy Charles’ father Johann of Luxemburg was killed; Charles himself also took part in the battle but escaped.

But then Ludwig IV sudden death avoided a longer civil war. Ludwig died in October 1347 from a stroke suffered during a bear-hunt in Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck. He is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich. The sons of Ludwig supported Günther von Schwarzburg as new rival king to Charles but finally joined the Luxemburg party after Günther’s early death in 1349 and divided the Wittelsbach possessions amongst themselves again. In continuance of the conflict of the House of Wittelsbach with the House of Luxemburg, the Wittelsbach family returned to power in the Holy Roman Empire in 1400 with King Rupert of Germany, a great-grandnephew of Ludwig.

June 17, 1239: Birth of Edward I, King of England and Lord of Ireland.

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Eleanor of Castile, Hammer of the Scots, King Edward I of England, King Edward II of England, King Edward III of England, King Henry III of England, King of England and Lord of Ireland, Marguerite of France, Parliament, Philip IV of France, Philippe III of France

Edward I (June 17/18, 1239 – July 7, 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as The Lord Edward.

Edward I, King of England and Lord of Ireland

On the night of June 17–18 1239, Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster to King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence, the second daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (1198–1245) and Beatrice of Savoy (1198–1267), the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and his wife Margaret of Geneva.

Edward is an Anglo-Saxon name, and was not commonly given among the aristocracy of England after the Norman conquest, but Henry was devoted to the veneration of Edward the Confessor, and decided to name his firstborn son after the saint.

Edward was involved from an early age in the political intrigues of his father’s reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons. In 1259, he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provisions of Oxford. After reconciliation with his father, however, he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Second Barons’ War.

After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was hostage to the rebellious barons, but escaped after a few months and defeated the baronial leader Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Within two years the rebellion was extinguished and, with England pacified, Edward joined the Ninth Crusade to the Holy Land. He was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died. Making a slow return, he reached England in 1274 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Edward spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law. Through an extensive legal inquiry, he investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties, while the law was reformed through a series of statutes regulating criminal and property law. Increasingly, however, Edward’s attention was drawn towards military affairs. After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a second rebellion in 1282–83 with a full-scale war of conquest.

After a successful campaign, he subjected Wales to English rule, built a series of castles and towns in the countryside and settled them with English people. Next, his efforts were directed towards the Kingdom of Scotland. Initially invited to arbitrate a succession dispute, Edward claimed feudal suzerainty over Scotland.

The war that followed continued after Edward’s death, even though the English seemed victorious at several points. Simultaneously, Edward found himself at war with France (a Scottish ally) after King Philippe IV of France had confiscated the Duchy of Gascony, which until then had been held in personal union with the Kingdom of England. Although Edward recovered his duchy, this conflict relieved English military pressure against Scotland.

At the same time there were problems at home. In the mid-1290s, extensive military campaigns required high levels of taxation, and Edward met with both lay and ecclesiastical opposition. These crises were initially averted, but issues remained unsettled. When the King died in 1307, he left to his son Edward II an ongoing war with Scotland and many financial and political problems.

Edward I was a tall man (6’2″) for his era, hence the nickname “Longshanks”. He was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries. Nevertheless, he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship, as a soldier, an administrator and a man of faith.

Modern historians are divided on their assessment of Edward: while some have praised him for his contribution to the law and administration, others have criticised him for his uncompromising attitude towards his nobility. Currently, Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III, establishing Parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming the law through statutes.

At the same time, he is also often criticised for other actions, such as his brutal conduct towards the Welsh and Scots, and issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England. The Edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages, and it was over 350 years until it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell in 1657.

Marriages

In 1254, English fears of a Castilian invasion of the English province of Gascony induced King Henry to arrange a politically expedient marriage between fifteen-year-old Edward and thirteen-year-old Eleanor of Castile. She was the half-sister of King Alfonso X of Castile and the daughter of King Fernando III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of England. Edward and Eleanor were married on November 1, 1254 in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile.

By his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward had at least fourteen children, perhaps as many as sixteen. Of these, five daughters survived into adulthood, but only one son outlived his father, King Edward II (1307–1327).

Eleanor of Castile had died on November 28, 1290. The couple loved each other and like his father, Edward was very devoted to his wife and was faithful to her throughout their married lives — a rarity among monarchs of the time. He was deeply affected by her death. He displayed his grief by erecting twelve so-called Eleanor crosses, one at each place where her funeral cortège stopped for the night. As part of the peace accord between England and France in 1294, it was agreed that Edward should marry Philippe IV’s half-sister Marguerite, but the marriage was delayed by the outbreak of war.

Marguerite of France (c. 1279-1318) was a daughter of Philippe III of France and Maria of Brabant. Edward was then 60 years old, at least 40 years older than his 20 year old bride. The wedding took place at Canterbury on September 10 1299. Marguerite was never crowned due to financial constraints, being the first uncrowned queen since the Conquest. This in no way lessened her dignity as the king’s wife, however, for she used the royal title in her letters and documents, and appeared publicly wearing a crown even though she had not received one during a formal rite of investiture.

By Margaret of France, Edward had two sons, both of whom lived to become adults, and a daughter who died as a child. The Hailes Abbey chronicle indicates that John Botetourt may have been Edward’s illegitimate son; however, the claim is unsubstantiated.

Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (August 5, 1301 – March 19, 1330) of Arundel Castle in Sussex, was the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife Margaret of France and was thus a younger half-brother of King Edward II. Edmund still remained loyal to his brother, and in 1321 he was created Earl of Kent. He played an important part in Edward’s administration, acting both as diplomat and military commander, and in 1321–22 helped suppress a rebellion against the King.

In 1326, Edmund joined a rebellion led by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, whereby King Edward II was deposed. Edmund failed to get along with the new administration, his nephew King Edward III, and in 1330 he was caught planning a new rebellion, and was executed.

Note on the Regnal Number of Edward Longshanks.

Whoever began numbering the kings and queen of England ignored centuries of royal tradition and began numbering the monarchs from the time of the Norman Conquest. There were kings of England for a few centuries prior to the year 1066. The name most effected by this tradition was Edward.

The use of ordinal numbers had not come into common usage during the reign of Edward Longshanks, he was simply known as King Edward or King Edward Longshanks. It wasn’t until the successive reigns of his son and grandson, also named Edward, that Edward Longshanks became known as Edward I. But this was not accurate for there were three Anglo-Saxon kings named Edward prior to the Norman conquest. Therefore, Edward I was in reality the fourth King of England by that name and should have been called King Edward IV. This means that the most recent King Edward, Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, was in reality King Edward XI.

Life of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

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2nd Duke of Buckingham, Duke of York, Henry Stafford, House of Plantagenet, House of Stafford, King Edward III of England, King Edward V of England, King Henry VII of England, King Richard III of England, Richard Duke of York, Wars of the Roses

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, (September 4, 1455 – November 2, 1483) was an English nobleman known as the namesake of Buckingham’s rebellion, a failed but significant collection of uprisings in England and parts of Wales against Richard III of England in October 1483. He is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance (and presumed murder) of the Princes in the Tower.

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Henry Stafford was the only son of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, and Anne Neville (d.1480) was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife Lady Joan Beaufort, the legitimised daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of King Edward III of England. His first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, was also his third cousin; both were great-great-grandchildren of King Henry III.

Henry Stafford became Earl of Stafford when he was three years old in 1458 upon his father’s death, and was made a ward of King Edward IV of England. He became the 2nd Duke of Buckingham at age 4 in 1460 following the death of his grandfather Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, at the Battle of Northampton.

Catherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham

In February 1466, at age 10, Henry was married to Catherine Woodville, the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne, and his wife Margaret of Baux. Catherine Woodville was sister of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

The Duke of Buckingham and Catherine Woodville had four children:
* Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478 – May 17, 1521)
* Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex (c. 1479 – 11 May 1532)
* Henry Stafford, 3rd Earl of Wiltshire (c. 1479 – April 6, 1523)
* Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1483 – 1544)

Upon the death of Edward IV in 1483, the Duke of Buckingham allied himself to the king’s younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, helping him succeed to the throne as Richard III in lieu of Edward’s living sons.

Buckingham’s rebellion of 1483

In 1483, a conspiracy arose among a number of disaffected gentry, many of whom had been supporters of Edward IV and the “whole Yorkist establishment”. The conspiracy was nominally led by Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who was Richard III’s former ally and first cousin once removed.

Richard III, King of England, Lord of Ireland

Although it had begun as a Woodville-Beaufort conspiracy (being “well underway” by the time of the duke’s involvement). Indeed, it has suggested that it was “only the subsequent parliamentary attainder that placed Buckingham at the centre of events”, in order to blame a single disaffected magnate motivated by greed, rather than “the embarrassing truth” that those opposing Richard were actually “overwhelmingly Edwardian loyalists”.

It is possible that they planned to depose Richard III and place Edward V back on the throne, and that when rumours arose that the young King Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, were dead, Buckingham proposed that Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, should return from exile, take the throne and marry Elizabeth of York, elder sister of the Tower Princes.

However, it has also been pointed out that as this narrative stems from Richard III’s own parliament of 1484, it should probably be treated “with caution”. For his part, Buckingham raised a substantial force from his estates in Wales and the Marches. Henry, Earl of Richmond, in exile in Brittany, enjoyed the support of the Breton treasurer Pierre Landais, who hoped Buckingham’s victory would cement an alliance between Brittany and England.

Henry VII, King of England, Lord of Ireland (Formerly The Earl of Richmond)

As Richard III’s ally, the plausibility of Buckingham being a suspect in the murder of the Princes in the Tower depends on the princes having already been dead by the time the Duke of Buckingham was executed in November 1483. It has been suggested that Buckingham had several potential motives.

As a descendant of Edward III, through two of his sons, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester on his father’s side, as well as through John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster through John Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt on his mother’s side, Buckingham may have hoped to accede to the throne himself in due course; alternatively, he may have been acting on behalf of a third party.

Some, notably Paul Murray Kendall, regard Buckingham as the likeliest suspect: his execution, after he had rebelled against Richard III in October 1483, might signify that he and the king had fallen out; Alison Weir takes this as a sign that Richard had murdered the princes without Buckingham’s knowledge and Buckingham had been shocked by it.

A contemporary Portuguese document suggests Buckingham as the guilty party, stating “…and after the passing away of King Edward V in the year of 83, another one of his brothers, the Duke of Gloucester, had in his power the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, the young sons of the said king his brother, and turned them to the Duke of Buckingham, under whose custody the said Princes were starved to death.”

A document dated some decades after the disappearance was found within the archives of the College of Arms in London in 1980; this stated that the murder “be the vise of the Duke of Buckingham”. This led for some historians to suggest that possibly some of Richard’s prominent supporters, including Buckingham and Tyrell, murdered the princes on their own initiative without waiting for Richard’s orders.

It is noted In the document “After the King’s departure Buckingham was in effective command in the capital, and it is known that when the two men met a month later there was an unholy row between them.” This supports theory that a rift between Buckingham and Richard III after the king learned of Buckingham’s involvement in the murders of his nephews.

Buckingham is the only person to be named as responsible in a contemporary chronicle other than Richard himself. However, for two reasons he is unlikely to have acted alone. First of all, if he were guilty of acting without Richard’s orders it is extremely surprising that Richard did not lay the blame for the princes’ murder on Buckingham after Buckingham was disgraced and executed, especially as Richard could potentially have cleared his own name by doing so.

Secondly, it is likely he would have required Richard’s help to gain access to the princes, under close guard in the Tower of London, although Kendall argued as Constable of England, he might have been exempt from this ruling. As a result, although it is extremely possible that he was implicated in the decision to murder them, the hypothesis that he acted without Richard’s knowledge is not widely accepted by historians.

While Jeremy Potter suggested that Richard would have kept silent had Buckingham been guilty because nobody would have believed Richard was not party to the crime, he further notes that “Historians are agreed that Buckingham would never have dared to act without Richard’s complicity, or at least, connivance”. However, Potter also hypothesised that perhaps Buckingham was fantasising about seizing the crown himself at this point and saw the murder of the princes as a first step to achieving this goal.

For his participation in the rebellion against the King, Henry Stanford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason by Richard III on November 2, 1483: he was beheaded in the courtyard between the Blue Boar Inn and the Saracen’s Head Inn (both demolished in the 18th century) in Salisbury market-place. He is believed to have been buried in St Peter’s Church in Britford in Wiltshire.

After the execution of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his widow, Catherine Woodville, married Jasper Tudor, second son of Owen Tudor and King Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois. After Jasper Tudor’s death on December 21, 1495, Catherine Woodville married Sir Richard Wingfield (d. July 22, 1525). Catherine Woodville died 18 May 1497.

The Life of Edward II, King of England and Lord of Ireland: Conclusion.

Tags

1st Earl of Kent, 1st Earl of March, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Berkeley Castle, Edmund of Woodstock, Henry of Lancaster, Isabella of France, King Edward II of England, King Edward III of England, Philippa of Hainault, Roger Mortimer, Thomas of Brotherton

Death of Edward II

Those opposed to the new government began to make plans to free Edward and restore him to the throne and Roger Mortimer decided to move him to the more secure location of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where Edward arrived around April 5, 1327.

It is unclear how well cared for Edward was; the records show luxury goods being bought on his behalf, but some chroniclers suggest that he was often mistreated.

Concerns continued to be raised over fresh plots to liberate Edward, some involving the Dominican order and former household knights, and one such attempt got at least as far as breaking into the prison within the castle.
As a result of these threats, Edward was moved around to other locations in secret for a period, before returning to permanent custody at the castle in the late summer of 1327.

On September 23 King Edward III was informed that his father had died at Berkeley Castle during the night of September 21. Most historians agree that Edward II did die at Berkeley on that date, although there is a minority view that he died much later. His death was, as Mark Ormrod notes, “suspiciously timely”, as it simplified Mortimer’s political problems considerably, and most historians believe that Edward probably was murdered on the orders of the new regime, although it is impossible to be certain.

Aftermath

Several of the individuals suspected of involvement in the death, including Sir Thomas Gurney, Maltravers and William Ockley, later fled England. If Edward died from natural causes, his death may have been hastened by depression following his imprisonment.

In the autumn of 1328, three members of the Royal Family United in a conspiracy against Isabella and Mortimer. these members were: Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (August 5, 1301 – March 19, 1330) the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife Margaret of France and his brother, Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (June 1, 1300 – August 4, 1338), the fifth son of King Edward I of England (both half-brothers of King Edward II). They were joined by Henry of Lancaster (c. 1281 – September 22, 1345) was a grandson of King Henry III (1216–1272) of England and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327) and also his first cousin.

The conspiracy was a product of shared interest, however, rather than strong personal ties. Once it became clear that it would fail, the two brothers and the Earl of Lancaster abandoned the venture. One reason for the failure of this rebellion was due to the passivity of the young Edward III.

After participating in the planned rebellion, Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent became less popular at court. However, He was still allowed to accompany the king’s wife Philippa of Hainault to her coronation in February 1330, but his appearances at court became less frequent. At this point he became involved in another plot against the king, when he was convinced by rumours that his brother was still alive.

It later emerged that Roger Mortimer himself was responsible for leading Edmund into this belief, in a form of entrapment. The plot was revealed, and in the parliament of March 1330 Mortimer ordered the execution of Edmund and he was indicted and condemned to death as a traitor.

Upon hearing that the verdict was death, the condemned earl pleaded with Edward III for his life, offering to walk from Winchester to London with a rope around his neck as a sign of atonement. Edward III however knew that leniency was not an option for the aforementioned entrapment utilized by Mortimer could extend to him and potentially be subversive to his own kingship if his father, Edward II truly was alive. Thus Edward III sanctioned the killing of his uncle.

It was almost impossible to find anyone willing to perform the execution of a man of royal blood, until a convicted murderer eventually beheaded Edmund in exchange for a pardon. Edmund’s body was initially buried in a Franciscan church in Winchester, but it was removed to Westminster Abbey in 1331.

After the execution of Edmund of Woodstock, Henry of Lancaster prevailed upon the young king, Edward III, to assert his independence. In October 1330, a Parliament was summoned to Nottingham, just days before Edward’s eighteenth birthday, and Mortimer and Isabella were seized by Edward and his companions from inside Nottingham Castle. Mortimer was put on trial for treason.

In spite of Isabella’s entreaty to her son, “Fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer,” Mortimer was conveyed to the Tower. Accused of assuming royal power and of various other high misdemeanors Isabella was portrayed as an innocent bystander during the proceedings, and no mention of her sexual relationship with Mortimer was made public. Mortimer was hanged at Tyburn on November 29, 1330, but Edward III showed leniency and he was not quartered or disemboweled.

Mortimer’s body hung at the gallows for two days and nights in full view of the populace. His his vast estates forfeited to the crown. Mortimer’s widow Joan received a pardon in 1336 and survived until 1356. She was buried beside Mortimer at Wigmore, but the site was later destroyed.

After the coup, Isabella was initially transferred to Berkhamsted Castle, and then held under house arrest at Windsor Castle until 1332, when she then moved back to her own Castle Rising in Norfolk. Agnes Strickland, a Victorian historian, argued that Isabella suffered from occasional fits of madness during this period but modern interpretations suggest, at worst, a nervous breakdown following the death of her lover.

As the years went by, Isabella became very close to her daughter Joan, especially after Joan left her unfaithful husband, King David II of Scotland. Joan also nursed her just before she died. She doted on her grandchildren, including Edward, the Black Prince. She became increasingly interested in religion as she grew older, visiting a number of shrines.

She remained, however, a gregarious member of the court, receiving constant visitors; amongst her particular friends appear to have been Roger Mortimer’s daughter Agnes Mortimer, Countess of Pembroke, and Roger Mortimer’s grandson, also called Roger Mortimer, whom Edward III restored to the Earldom of March.

Isabella took the nun’s habit of the Poor Clares before she died on August 22, 1358 at Hertford Castle, and her body was returned to London for burial at the Franciscan church at Newgate, in a service overseen by Archbishop Simon Islip.

Conspiracy Theories

With Mortimer’s execution in 1330, controversies rapidly began to circulate that Edward II was not still alive had been murdered at Berkeley Castle. Accounts that he had been killed by the insertion of a red-hot iron or poker into his anus slowly began to circulate, possibly as a result of deliberate propaganda; chroniclers in the mid-1330s and 1340s spread this account further, supported in later years by Geoffrey le Baker’s colourful account of the killing.

It became incorporated into most later histories of Edward II, typically being linked to his possible homosexuality.Most historians now dismiss this account of Edward II’s death, querying the logic in his captors murdering him in such an easily detectable fashion.

Another set of theories surround the possibility that Edward did not really die in 1327. These theories typically involve the “Fieschi Letter”, sent to Edward III by an Italian priest called Manuel Fieschi, who claimed that Edward escaped Berkeley Castle in 1327 with the help of a servant and ultimately retired to become a hermit in the Holy Roman Empire. A few historians have supported versions of its narrative.

The popular historian Alison Weir believes the events in the letter to be essentially true, using the letter to argue that Isabella was innocent of murdering Edward. The historian Ian Mortimer suggests that the story in Fieschi’s letter is broadly accurate, but argues that it was in fact Mortimer and Isabella who had Edward secretly released, and who then faked his death, a fiction later maintained by Edward III when he came to power. Ian Mortimer’s account was criticised by most scholars when it was first published, in particular by historian David Carpenter.

Edward II was ultimately a failure as a king; the historian Michael Prestwich observes that he “was lazy and incompetent, liable to outbursts of temper over unimportant issues, yet indecisive when it came to major issues”, echoed by Roy Haines’ description of Edward as “incompetent and vicious”, and as “no man of business”.

Edward II did not just delegate routine government to his subordinates, but also higher level decision making, and Pierre Chaplais argues that he “was not so much an incompetent king as a reluctant one”, preferring to rule through a powerful deputy, such as Piers Gaveston or Hugh Despenser the Younger. Edward’s willingness to promote his favourites had serious political consequences, although he also attempted to buy the loyalty of a wider grouping of nobles through grants of money and fees.

April 30, 1383: Birth of Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford.

Tags

2nd Duke of Buckingham, Countess of Stafford, Elizabeth Woodville, English Nobility, Henry Stafford, House of Plantagenet, House of Stafford, King Edward III of England, King Richard II of England, Kings and Queens of England, Lady Anne of Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock

Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford (April 30, 1383 – October 16, 1438) was the eldest daughter and eventually sole heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester by his wife Eleanor de Bohun.

Lady Anne was born on April 30, 1383 and was baptised at Pleshey, Essex, sometime before 6 May. Her uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, (third son of King Edward III), ordered several payments to be made in regards to the event. She was the granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

Coat of Arms of Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford.

Family

Father

Her father was Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (January 7, 1355 – September 8 or 9, 1397). He was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

In 1377, at the age of 22, Thomas of Woodstock was knighted and created Earl of Buckingham. On June 22, 1380 he became Earl of Essex Jure uxoris (in right of his wife). In 1385, he received the title Duke of Aumale, and at about the same time was created Duke of Gloucester.

Thomas married Eleanor de Bohun, the elder daughter and co-heiress with her sister, Mary de Bohun, of their father Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford. Thomas of Woodstock and his wife Eleanor had:

1. Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham (c. 1381 – 1399). English peer and member of the House of Lords. Died unmarried.
2. Anne of Gloucester (c. 1383 – 1438) who married three times.
3. Joan (1384–1400), who married Gilbert Talbot, 5th Lord Talbot (1383–1419) and died in childbirth.
4. Isabel (12 March 1385/1386 – April 1402), a nun of the Order of Minoresses
Philippa (c. 1388), died young

Thomas of Woodstock was the leader of the Lords Appellant, a group of powerful nobles whose ambition to wrest power from Thomas’s nephew, King Richard II of England, culminated in a successful rebellion in 1388 that significantly weakened the king’s power. Richard II managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason.

During that time he was murdered, probably by a group of men led by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and the knight Sir Nicholas Colfox, presumably on behalf of Richard II. Thomas was buried in Westminster Abbey, first in the Chapel of Saint Edmund and Saint Thomas in October 1397, and two years later reburied in the Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor. His wife was buried next to him.

As he was attainted as a traitor, his dukedom of Gloucester was forfeit. The title Earl of Buckingham was inherited by his son, who died in 1399 only two years after Thomas’ own death.

Mother

On Lady Anne’s maternal side she was also a descendant of the Kings of England.

Lady Anne’s mother was Eleanor de Bohun (c. 1366–1399) the elder daughter and co-heiress (with her sister, Mary de Bohun), of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373), by his wife Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.

Lady Anne’s grandmother, Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet; 1318-1372) was the fifth daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.

Her great-grandfather, Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1281-1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) via his son, Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster; and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin.

Marriages

Lady Anne married three times. Her first marriage was to Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford (c. 1368 – July 4, 1392) who was the second son—but the senior surviving heir—of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford and Philippa de Beauchamp, daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick. The marriage occurred around 1390. He died on July 4, 1392. He is interred in Westminster, and was interred in Stone, with his father; his widow, Anne, with whom he had had no children, married his youngest brother Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford.

On June 28, 1398, Anne married Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford (March 2, 1378 – July 14, 1403). They had three children together:

1. Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who married his second cousin, Anne, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Joan was a daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his third wife Katherine Swynford.
2. Anne Stafford, Countess of March, who married Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. Edmund was a great-grandson of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault). Edmund and Anne had no children. She married secondly John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter (d. 1447), and had one son, Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (d. 1475), and a daughter Anne, who married John Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby.
3. Philippa Stafford, died young.

In about 1405, Anne married William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (d. 1420), son of Sir William Bourchier and Eleanor of Louvain, by whom she had the following children:

1. Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex. He married Isabel of Cambridge, daughter of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, and Anne de Mortimer. Isabel was also an older sister of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.
2. Eleanor Bourchier, Duchess of Norfolk, married John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
3. William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin
4. Cardinal Thomas Bourchier
5.John Bourchier, Baron Berners. John was the grandfather of John, Lord Berners, the translator of Froissart.

Lady Anne died on October 16, 1438 aged 55 and was buried in Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester.

On Anne’s death, in 1438, the title of Earl of Buckingham (as well as her other titles) passed to her son Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, who in 1444 was created Duke of Buckingham by King Henry VI. his title remained in the Stafford family until the attainder and execution of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, Anne’s great-great grandson.

As we have seen Lady Anne was not only a granddaughter of a King of England, she was related to many noble families of England, her descendants continued that trend. They were among England’s noble families as well has being related to England’s Royal Family.

Descendants
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Son

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, 6th Earl of Stafford, KG (December 1402 – July 10, 1460). Humphrey Stafford married Lady Anne Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and Lady Joan Beaufort. Joan Beaufort (c. 1379-1440), was the youngest of the four legitimised children and only daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (third surviving son of King Edward III), by his mistress, later wife, Katherine Swynford. Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was killed during the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460.

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Grandson

Humphrey Stafford (c. 1425 – c. May 22, 1458), generally known by his courtesy title of Earl of Stafford, was the eldest son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Lady Anne Neville (d. 1480). Stafford married Lady Margaret Beaufort, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Lady Eleanor Beauchamp. By her father, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a niece of Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots and a cousin to Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII of England). Humphrey Stafford Predeceased his father. Lord and Lady Stafford had a single son, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1455–1483).

Great-Grandson

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (September 4, 1455 – November 2, 1483). He inherited his title, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, after his grandfather, the 1st Duke of Buckingham, was killed during the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460. In February 1466, at age 10, he was married to Catherine Woodville, sister of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and daughter to Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers. [I will write more on him tomorrow].

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Great-Great Grandson

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478 – May 17, 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. Buckingham was one of few peers with substantial Plantagenet blood and maintained numerous connections, often among his extended family, with the rest of the upper aristocracy, which activities attracted Henry VIII’s suspicion.

During 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King’s death and intending to kill the King. Buckingham was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May 17, 1521. Buckingham was posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on July 13, 1523, disinheriting most of his wealth from his children.

Great-Great-Great Grandson

Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (September 18, 1501 – April 30, 1563). After the execution for treason in 1521 and posthumous attainder of his father Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, with the forfeiture of all the family’s estates and titles, he managed to regain some of his family’s position and was created Baron Stafford in 1547. However, his family never truly recovered from the blow and thenceforward gradually declined into obscurity, with his descendant the 6th Baron being requested by King Charles I in 1639 to surrender the barony on account of his poverty.

March 5, 1324: Birth of David II, King of Scots

Tags

Hiuse of Stewart, House of Bruce, Joan of England, King David II of Scotland, King Edward III of England, King of Scots, King Robert II of Scotland, King Robert the Bruce of Scotland

David II (March 5, 1324 – February 22, 1371) was King of Scots for nearly 42 years, from 1329 until his death in 1371. He was the last male of the House of Bruce. Although David spent long periods in exile or captivity, he managed to resist English attempts to annex his kingdom, and left the monarchy in a strong position.

David II was the eldest and only surviving son of Robert I of Scotland and his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh. He was born on March 5, 1324 at Dunfermline Abbey, Fife. His mother died in 1327, when he was 3 years old. In accordance with the Treaty of Northampton’s terms, on July 17, 1328, when he was 4, David was married to 7 year old Joan of the Tower, at Berwick-upon-Tweed. She was the daughter of Edward II of England and Isabella of France. They had no issue.

David II, King of Scots.

David became King of Scots upon the death of his father on June 7, 1329, aged 5 years, 3 months, and 3 days. David and his wife were crowned at Scone on November 24, 1331. During David’s minority, Sir Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray was appointed Guardian of Scotland by the Act of Settlement of 1318. After Moray’s death, on July 20, 1332, he was replaced by Donald, Earl of Mar, elected by an assembly of the magnates of Scotland at Perth, August 2, 1332. Only ten days later Mar fell at the Battle of Dupplin Moor. Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, who was married to Christina, the sister of King Robert I, was chosen as the new Guardian. He was taken prisoner by the English at Roxburgh in April 1333 and was thence replaced as Guardian by Archibald Douglas (the Tyneman), who fell at Halidon Hill that July.

Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in July 1333, David and his wife were sent for safety into France, reaching Boulogne on May 14, 1334. They were received very graciously by King Philippe VI. Little is known about the life of the Scottish king in France, except that Château Gaillard was given to him for a residence, and that he was present at the bloodless meeting of the English and French armies in October 1339 at Vironfosse.

In 1346, under the terms of the Auld Alliance, David invaded England in the interests of the French, who were at war with the English in Normandy. After initial success at Hexham, David was wounded, and his army soundly defeated at the Battle of Neville’s Cross on October 17, 1346. David was captured and taken prisoner by Sir John de Coupland, who imprisoned him in the Tower of London. David was transferred to Windsor Castle in Berkshire upon the return of Edward III from France.

King David II of Scotland and King Edward III of England

On October 3, 1357, after several protracted negotiations with the Scots’ regency council, a treaty was signed at Berwick-upon-Tweed under which Scotland’s nobility agreed to pay 100,000 marks, at the rate of 10,000 marks per year, as a ransom for their king. This was ratified by the Scottish Parliament at Scone on November 6, 1357. His imprisonment had not been a rigorous one, although he remained captive in England for eleven years.

David returned at once to Scotland, bringing with him a mistress, Katherine Mortimer, of whom little is known. This was an unpopular move, and Katherine was murdered in 1360. After six years, owing to the poverty of the kingdom, it was found impossible to raise the ransom instalment of 1363. David then made for London and sought to get rid of the liability by offering to bequeath Scotland to Edward III, or one of his sons, in return for a cancellation of the ransom. David did this with the full awareness that the Scots would never accept such an arrangement. In 1364, the Scottish parliament indignantly rejected a proposal to make Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the next king. Over the next few years, David strung out secret negotiations with Edward III, which apparently appeased the matter.

David II, King of Scots by Robert Gibb (Scottish, 1801–1837)

His wife, Queen Joan, died on September 7, 1362 (aged 41) at Hertford Castle, Hertfordshire, possibly a victim of the Black Death. He remarried, on about 20 February 20, 1364, Margaret Drummond, widow of Sir John Logie, and daughter of Sir Malcolm Drummond. He divorced her on about March 20, 1370. They had no children. Margaret, however, travelled to Avignon, and made a successful appeal to the Pope Urban V to reverse the sentence of divorce which had been pronounced against her in Scotland. She was still alive in January 1375, four years after David died.

From 1364, David governed actively, dealing firmly with recalcitrant nobles, and a wider baronial revolt, led by his prospective successor, the future Robert II. David continued to pursue the goal of a final peace with England. At the time of his death, the Scottish monarchy was stronger, and the kingdom and the royal finances more prosperous than might have seemed possible.

Death

David II died unexpectedly, and at the height of his power, in Edinburgh Castle on 22 February 22, 1371. He was buried in Holyrood Abbey. At the time of his death, he was planning to marry his mistress, Agnes Dunbar, the niece of Agnes Randolph, who was known as “Black Agnes of Dunbar”. He left no children and was succeeded by his nephew, Robert II, (of the House of Stewart) the son of David’s half-sister Marjorie Bruce. David II was the last male of the House of Bruce.

Edward of Woodstock, The Black Prince, Prince of Wales

Tags

Abu Said, Edward of Woodstock, Enrique of Trastamara, King Edward III of England, King Pedro the Cruel of Castile, King Richard II of England, Kings and Queens of England, Prince of Wales, The Black Prince, the prince of Wales

Today I am featuring Edward the Black Prince a man who never lived to be King of England.

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England. All the reading I have done through the years indicate that Edward would have been an excellent king. In the history of England, and most monarchies in Europe, rarely was a strong and powerful ruler followed by a ruler that was equally capable, powerful and strong.

Edward was born on June 15, 1330 and he was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337 which was the first dukedom created in England and at the age of 13 he was invested with the title Prince of Wales. He was raised with his cousin Joan “the Fair” of Kent who would become his wife. They had two children, Edward of Angoulême who died in 1372 at the age of 7 and Richard who became King Richard II of England in 1377.

What was it that historians see in this prince that makes them conclude he would have been a good if not a great king? Well, for one thing I think it is that he demonstrated great intelligence. Also, Edward was born in the age of chivalry and his chivalrous behavior toward all, especially his captured enemies King Jean II of France and Duke Philippe II of Burgundy, has created a very positive image of him. The main reason that I think he was judged as having the potential of being a good king was the fact that he excelled at something that many medieval monarchs and princes engaged in…the art of War. Edward the Black Prince was a warrior prince.

There are a couple of theories to how Prince Edward earned his sobriquet “The Black Prince.” One reason is due to either black plated armor he wore during battle or a black shield he also used. Some historians theorize that his cruel behavior was also a reason for this sobriquet. Despite his chivalrous behavior Edward had a darker side. Edward was exceptionally harsh toward and contemptuous of members of the lower classes in society.

There are too many campaigns I could list that he was involved in so for the sake of brevity I will talk about two of them.

The Crécy Campaign which Edward lead crippled the French army for ten years and this victory brought back Normandy under English control which had been lost by King John in 1204.

The other campaign I find interesting is the one where Edward came into possession of what is now called the Black Prince’s Ruby, a spinel which now features prominently in the Imperial State Crown. The Ruby came into the possession of King Pedro the Cruel of Castile who had gotten it from Abu Said, the Moorish Prince of Granada. Pedro was envious of Abu Said’s wealth and Pedro had Said’s servants kill him and the Ruby was found on his body. In 1366 Pedro’s illegitimate brother, Enrique of Trastamara, lead a revolt against Pedro. Needing assistance in defeating his brother Pedro hired The Black Prince to suppress the revolt. Edward was successful and demanded the Ruby as payment for his efforts.

Edward died from dysentery at the age of 45 in 1376 one year before the death of his father, King Edward III.

 

 

Busy Royals!!

Tags

Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth II, King Edward III of England, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Royal Ascot, The Most Noble Order of the Garter, Trooping of the Colour, United Kingdom of Great Britain

I was swamped too so I could not get to my blogs yesterday. There is simply no rest for the royals. Not until August when the queen goes to Balmoral. In the last week we have witnessed the Trooping of the Colour (the official celebration of the Queen’s Birthday), Ceremony for the Most Nobel Order of the Garter and Royal Ascot.

Trooping the Colour

Trooping the Colour is a ceremony that began in the 17th century and is performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies. During a military conflict a regiment’s or flags, were used as rallying points. Since 1748 Trooping the Colour has also marked the official birthday of the British sovereign. It is held in London every year on a Saturday in June at Horse Guards Parade by St. James’s Park, and coincides with the publication of the Birthday Honours List. 

The gathering of the Royal Family on the balcony marks the first appearance of the Duke of Edinburgh since he was released from the hospital. 

Garter Ceremony.

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is the highest, and oldest, order of Chivalry in Britain and was founded by King Edward III of England circa 1348. The ceremony for the Garter is held on Monday’s of Ascot Week. It was held sporadically in the 18th century and ceased altogether in 1805. King George VI revived the ceremony in 1945 and it has been held every year since. The opening of the ceremony consists of the members of the Order, displayed in their ceremonial robes and Garter insignia, process from the state apartments in the Upper Ward of Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel where the service is held. When any new Knights of the Garter have been created they are installed on this occasion.

Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot is one of the major social events of the year. It began in the reign of Queen Anne in 1711. It is a horse racing event attended by the Queen and the other members of the Royal Family. The queen processes in a carriage and the royal standard is raised at the begin of each days racing. This event has become well know for the fancy dress and formal attire worn by the spectators along with the often outrageous hats worn by the women.