Sir Richard FITZ ALAN KG (1346-1397)

Name:	Richard FITZ ALAN 1,2
Sex:	Male
Name Prefix:	Sir
Name Suffix:	KG
Father:	Richard FITZ ALAN D'ARUNDEL (1306?-1376)
Mother:	Eleanor Plantagenet OF LANCASTER (1318?-1372)

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	1346
Title (1)		10th Earl of Surrey
Title (2)	1386 (age 39-40)	Admiral of England
Occupation		Earl of Arundel
knighted
Death	21 Sep 1397 (age 50-51)	Cheapside
Burial		Church of the Augustin Friars, Bread Street, London

Additional Information

Title (2)	given to him by Richard II
Occupation	He is listed as the 10th Earl of Arundel in the Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Volumes 26 - 28.
knighted	as a Knight of the Garter
Death	Cause: beheading having committed high treason against King Richard

Marriage

	Elizabeth Fitz-Alan, Goushill Tomb, Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire, England

Spouse	Elizabeth DE BOHUN (1350?-1385)
Children	Elizabeth FITZ ALAN (ARUNDEL) (1366?-1425)
Marriage	28 Sep 1359 (age 12-13)

Individual Note 1

Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel and 10th Earl of Surrey (1346 – 21 September 1397) was an English medieval nobleman and military commander.

 

He was the son of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and Eleanor of Lancaster and was born in 1346.[1] He succeeded his father on 24 January 1376.

 

His brother was Thomas Arundel who was Bishop of Ely from 1374 to 1388, then Archbishop of York from 1388 to 1397, then Archbishop of Canterbury.[2]

 

At the coronation of Richard II, Richard FitzAlan carried the crown.[1]

 

In 1377 he was Admiral of the West and South.[1] In this capacity, he attacked Harfleur at Whitsun 1378, but was forced to return to his ships by the defenders. Later, he and John of Gaunt attempted to seize Saint-Malo but were unsuccessful.[3]

 

FitzAlan was closely aligned with Thomas, Duke of Gloucester who was uncle of King Richard II. Thomas was opposed to Richard II's desire for peace with France in the Hundred Years War and a power struggle ensued between him and Gloucester. In late 1386, Gloucester forced Richard II to name himself and Richard FitzAlan to Richard's Council.[4] This Council was to all intents and purposes a Regency Council for Richard II, however Richard limited the duration of the Council's powers to be one year.[5]

 

In 1386, Richard II named him Admiral of England, as well as being made a Knight of the Garter.[1] As Admiral of England, he defeated a Franco-Spanish-Flemish fleet off Margate in March 1387, along with Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham.[5]

 

In August, the King dismissed Gloucester and FitzAlan from the Council and replaced them with his favourites - including the Archbishop of York, Alexander Neville, the Duke of Ireland Robert de Vere, Michael de la Pole the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Robert Tresilian who was the Chief Justice, and the former Mayor of London Nicholas Brembre.[6]

 

The King summoned Gloucester and FitzAlan to meet with the King, but instead of coming, they raised troops and defeated the new Council at Radcot Bridge, taking the favorites prisoner. The Merciless Parliament the next year condemned the favorites. FitzAlan was one of the Lords Appellant who accused and condemned Richard II's favorites.[4] He made himself particularly odious to Richard by refusing, along with Gloucester to spare the life of Sir Simon Burley who had been condemned by the Merciless Parliament, even though the queen, Anne of Bohemia went down on her knees before them to beg for mercy. Richard never forgave this humiliation and planned and waited for his moment of revenge. In 1394 he further antagonized the King by arriving late for the queen's funeral. Richard, in a rage snatched a wand and struck him in the face and drew blood. Shortly after that, Richard feigned a reconciliation but he was only biding his time for the right moment to strike. Arundel was named Governor of Brest in 1388.[1]

 

Peace was concluded with France in 1389, however Richard FitzAlan followed Gloucester's lead and stated that he would never agree with the peace that had been concluded.[4]

 

Arundel married twice.

 

His first wife was Elizabeth de Bohun, daughter of William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton and Elizabeth de Badlesmere. They married around 28 September 1359 and had seven children:[1][7]

 

Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel[1]

Elizabeth FitzAlan[1][8]

Joan FitzAlan (1375 - 14 November 1435), who married William Beauchamp, 1st Baron Bergavenny;[1]

Margaret FitzAlan, who married Sir Rowland Lenthall;[1]

Alice FitzAlan, who married John Charleton, 4th Baron Cherleton. (not mentioned as an heir of Thomas in the Complete Peerage)

Arundel then married Philippa Mortimer, daughter of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. Her mother was Philippa Plantagenet, a daughter of Lionel of Antwerp and thus a granddaughter of Edward III. They had no children.[1]

 

On 12 July 1397 he was arrested for his opposition to Richard II,[1] as well as plotting with Gloucester to imprison the king.[9] He stood trial at Westminster and was attainted.[10] He was beheaded on 21 September 1397 and was buried in the church of the Augustin Friars, Bread Street, London.[1] Tradition holds that his final words were said to the executioner, "Torment me not long, strike off my head in one blow".[11] In October of 1400, the attainder was reversed, and Richard's son Thomas succeeded to his father's estates and honors.[1]

 

NOTES:

1 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n G. E. C. The Complete Peerage p. 244-245

2 Powell, et al. The House of Lords p. 398

3 Seward The Hundred Years War p. 124-125

4 a b c Seward The Hundred Years War p. 136-139

5 a b Powell et al. The House of Lords p. 400-401

6 Powell et al. The House of Lords p. 404

7 Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Earls of Arundel (Fitzalan)

8 Memorials of the Order of the Garter, from Its Foundation to the Present ... By George Frederick p. 298 accessed 1 November 2007

9 Seward The Hundred Years War p. 142

10 Powell et al. The House of Lords p. 417

11 Thomas B. Costain The Last Plantagenets, page 200

 

SOURCES:

Cokayne, G. E. The Complete Peerage Microprint Edition Gloucester: Sutton Publishing 2000 ISBN 0-904387-82-8

Some proposed Corrections to the Complete Peerage accessed on 10 July 2007

Powell, J. Enoch and Wallis, Keith The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540 London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1968 ISBN 0-297-76105-6

Seward, Desmond The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453 New York: Atheneum ISBN 0-689-70628-6³

Individual Note 2

He was illegitiment⁴

Individual Note 3

Richard FitzAlan III, 11th or 4th Earl of Arundel and 10th Earl of Surrey, b. 1345-47, beheaded 21 Sept. 1397 at Tower Hill, Cheapside, London, and buried in the Augustinian Church.[13] His sister, Alice, was a direct ancestress both of the brothers Edward IV and Richard III, of the latter’s wife Anne of Warwick, and of Henry VII.[14] He m. (2) Philippe Mortimer, widow of John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, and daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, by Philippe, daughter and heiress of Lionel, Duke of Clarence (third son of King Edward III). He m. (1) (contract dated 28 Sept. 1359),⁵

Sources

1	Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 22, 15-31; 31, 20-31; 70, 60-33.

2	Weir, Alison, "Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy" (Vintage, 2008). p 80.

3	"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_FitzAlan,_11th_Earl_of_Arundel.

4	Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 70, 60-33.

5	"Genealogy Page of John Blythe Dodson". http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/people/Dobson/genealogy/ff/FitzAlan/FitzAlan-AT.cfm.