House Plantagenet | Name Eleanor Lancaster | |
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Born 11 September 1318 ( 1318-09-11 ) Issue Henry Beaumont, 3rd Baron BeaumontMatilda de CourtenayRichard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of ArundelJohn FitzAlan, 1st Baron ArundelThomas Arundel, Archbishop of CanterburyJoan Fitzalan, Countess of HerefordAlice Fitzalan, Countess of KentMary Fitzalan, Lady Strange of BlackmereEleanor Fitzalan Died January 11, 1372, Arundel, United Kingdom Children Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel Spouse Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (m. 1344), John de Beaumont, 2nd Lord Beaumont (m. 1330–1340) Parents Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, Maud Chaworth Siblings Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster Similar People Edmund Crouchback, Blanche of Artois, Eleanor de Bohun, Mary de Bohun, Thomas - 2nd Earl of Lancaster | ||
Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet; 11 September 1318 – 11 January 1372) was the fifth daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.
Contents
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, 1st Baron Beaumont (c.1288-1340) by his wife Alice Comyn (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:
Second marriage
On 5 February 1344 at Ditton Church, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, she married Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of 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 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 1344/1345, 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 Canterbury (c. 1353 - 19 February 1413)
- Lady Joan FitzAlan (1347/1348 - 7 April 1419), married Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford
- 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 (1356 - before 1366)
Later life
Eleanor died at Arundel and was buried at Lewes Priory in Lewes, Sussex, 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 attributed to Eleanor and her husband Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel in Chichester Cathedral are the subject of the celebrated Philip Larkin poem "An Arundel Tomb."