Sir John D'ARUNDEL ( -1379)

	Betchworth Castle

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

John FitzAlan (D' Arundel), 1st Baron Arundel (c. 1348 – 16 December 1379) was a Lord Marshal or Marshal of England.

He was born in Etchingham, Sussex, England to Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster (Eleanor Plantagenet).

John was appointed Marshal by Richard II of England in 1377. He was summoned to Parliament 4 August 1377, by writ directed Johanni de Arundell.

On 26 July 1379[1][2] he was given license to crenellate (i.e., permission to fortify) a stone castle on the site of an 11th century earthwork fortress in Surrey. Over the years since then the structure was rebuilt and remodelled and its remains are now known as Betchworth Castle.

Being in command of a naval expedition in aid to the Duke of Brittany, he defeated the French fleet off the coast of Cornwall.

Commanding a force with the purpose of bringing relief to the Duke of Brittany, Sir John was compelled to wait for stronger winds. During this wait he decided to take refuge in a nunnery, where his men "took no notice of the sanctity of the place and... violently assaulted and raped"[3] those they found inside. Further to this Sir John "allowed his men to ransack the countryside as they liked and to impoverish the people"[3]. When the force eventually set out to sea, carrying with them goods stolen from a nearby church and under a pronouncement of excommunication from the wronged priests, the expedition was caught in a storm. Thomas Walsingham reports that during the panic of the storm, Sir John murdered those of his men who refused to make for shore for fear of being shipwrecked upon the rocks. Subsequently, after safely arriving on an island off the Irish coast, Sir John and his boat captain were swept back into the sea and drowned[3]. He was buried in Lewes, Sussex.

He was also an ancestor of the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

On 17 February 1358, John was married to Lady Eleanor Maltravers (Mautravers) (1345 – 10 January 1404/1406), daughter of John Maltravers and Gwenthin. They had at least five children (some references list more):

Joan FitzAlan (D' Arundel) (c. 1360 – 1 September 1404. She married first Sir William de Etchingham and secondly William de Brien.

John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel (3 November 1364 – 14 August 1390), who married Elizabeth le Despenser.

Richard FitzAlan (c. 1366 – 3 June 1419).

Sir William Arundel (c. 1369 – 1400. He was a Knight of the Garter.

Henry Fitzlangley (c. 1369 – 1428), who married Alice Lnu.

NOTES:

1 Betchworth Castle Betchworth Park Golf Course Brockham Leatherhead Mole Valley Surrey England English

2 Betchworth Castle Licence to Crenellate

3 a b c Thomas Walsingham, "Chronica Maiora"

SOURCES:

'The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham, 1376-1422', ed. & trans. J. Taylor, W. Childs & L. Watkiss

Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 9-33, 21-31, 21-32, 59-34, 212-34³

Sources