Mother Anne Mortimer | Name Isabel Cambridge, | |
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Issue William Bourchier, Viscount BourchierSir Henry BourchierHumphrey Bourchier, 1st Baron CromwellJohn BourchierSir Thomas BourchierEdward BourchierFulk BourchierIsabel Bourchier Children William Bourchier, Viscount Bourchier, John Bourchier, 6th Baron Ferrers of Groby Parents Anne de Mortimer, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge Siblings Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York Similar People Richard of York - 3rd Duke of Y, Anne de Mortimer, Richard of Conisburgh - 3rd Earl o, Isabella of Castile - Duchess, Anne of York - Duchess |
Isabel of Cambridge, Countess of Essex (1409 – 2 October 1484) was the only daughter of Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge and Anne Mortimer. She was the sister of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and like him a great-grandchild of Edward III of England.
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Early life
Isabel of York, the only daughter of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, and Lady Anne de Mortimer, was born about 1409. Through her father, she was the granddaughter of King Edward III's fourth surviving son, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, and his first wife, Isabella of Castile. Her mother was the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (grandson of Lionel of Antwerp) and Lady Alianore Holland (granddaughter of Lady Joan of Kent, Princess of Wales).
Isabel's father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, was beheaded on 5 August 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot against King Henry V, and although the Earl's title was forfeited, he was not attainted, and Isabel's brother, Richard, then aged four, was his father's heir. Moreover, within a few months of his father's death, Richard's childless uncle, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, was slain at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, and Isabel's brother was eventually his uncle's heir as well.
Marriages and issue
In 1412, at three years of age, Isabel was betrothed to Sir Thomas Grey (1404 – d. before 1426), son and heir of Sir Thomas Grey (c.1385-1415) of Heaton in Norham, Northumberland, and his wife, Alice Neville, the daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland. They had one son. The elder Sir Thomas Grey was an associate of Isabel's father who also lost his life in the Southampton Plot.
She married secondly, before 25 April 1426, the marriage being later validated by papal dispensation, Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, by whom she had seven sons and one daughter:
Death
Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, died on 4 April 1483. Isabel remained a widow and died on 2 October 1484. A manuscript calendar records her death on VI Non Oct in 1484. Both were buried at Beeleigh Abbey near Maldon, Essex, but later reburied at Little Easton, Essex.