Eleanor of Lancaster
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Eleanor of Lancaster (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet1) (about 1315 - 11 January 1372) was born in Arundel, West Sussex, England, the fifth daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281-1345) and his wife Maud Chaworth (1282-1322).
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First marriage and offspring
Sometime between September 1 and November 6, 1330, she married John Beaumont, 2nd Lord Beaumont, son of Henry Beaumont, 4th Earl of Buchan (c. 1288 - 1340) and his wife Alice Comyn (c. 1291-1349). They had two children:
- Henry Beaumont, 3rd Lord Beaumont, born late 1339
- Matilda Beaumont (died July 1467), married Hugh de Courtenay
Eleanor was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa, and was in service to her in Ghent when her son Henry was born. John de Beaumont died in a tournament on 14 April 1342.
Second marriage
On 5 February 1344 at Ditton Church, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, she married Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey, known by the soubriquet of "Copped Hat", Justiciar of North Wales, Governor of Carnarvon Castle, Admiral of the West.2
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 and execution, had ceased to be of any importance to him. The Pope 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 1344/5, was required because his first and second wives were first cousins).
The children of Eleanor's second marriage were:
- Richard (1346-1397), who succeeded as Earl of Arundel
- John Fitzalan(bef 1349-1379)
- Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of York (c. 1350-February 19, 1413)
- Joan Fitzalan (bef. 1351-April 17, 1419), married Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford
- Alice Fitzalan (1352-March 17, 1416), married Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
Eleanor died at Arundel and was buried at Lewes Priory in Lewes, Sussex, England. Her husband 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."
Sources
- Fowler, Kenneth. The King's Lieutenant, 1969
- Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. Testamenta Vetusta, 1826.
Notes
- 1The surname "Plantagenet" has been retrospectively applied to the descendants of Geoffrey of Anjou without historical justification: it is simply a convenient, if deceptive, method of referring to people who had, in fact, no surname. The first descendant of Geoffrey to use the surname was Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (father of Edward IV of England) who apparently assumed it about 1448.
- 2also called Richard de Arundel.