Henry Plantagenet OF LANCASTER (1281-1345)

Name:	Henry Plantagenet OF LANCASTER 1,2
Sex:	Male
Father:	Edmund "Crouchback" OF LEICESTER AND LANCASTER (1245-1296)
Mother:	Blanche OF ARTOIS (aft1245-1302)

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	1281	Grosmont Castle
Title (1)	29 Mar 1324 (age 42-43)	Earl of Lancaster
Occupation	frm 1324 to 1345 (age 42-64)	Lord High Steward
Title (2)	1336 (age 54-55)	Lord of Beaufort and Nogent in France
Group/Caste Membership		House of Plantagenet
Death	22 Sep 1345 (age 63-64)	Leicester
Burial		Newark Abbey, Co. Leicester

Additional Information

Title (1)

two years after his brother's execution for treason

Marriage

	Eleanor Plantagenet of Lancaster		Eleanor and her second husband, Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel

Spouse	Matilda DE CHAWORTH (1282-bef1322)
Children	Eleanor Plantagenet OF LANCASTER (1318?-1372)

Individual Note

Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (1281 – 22 September 1345) was an English nobleman, one of the principals behind the deposition of Edward II.

 

He was the younger son of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester,[1] who was a son of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence. Henry's mother was Blanche of Artois.

 

Henry's elder brother Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster succeeded their father in 1296, but Henry was summoned to Parliament on 6 February 1298/99 by writ directed Henrico de Lancastre nepoti Regis, by which he is held to have become Lord Lancaster. He took part in the siege of Carlaverock in July 1300.

 

Petition for succession and inheritance

After a period of longstanding opposition to Edward II of England and his advisors, including joining two open rebellions, Thomas, in 1322, was convicted of treason, executed and his lands and titles forfeited. Henry did not participate in his brother's rebellions; he later petitioned for his brother's lands and titles, and on 29 March 1324 he was invested as Earl of Leicester. A few years later, shortly after his accession in 1327 the young Edward III of England returned the earldom of Lancaster to him, along with other lordships such as that of Bowland.

 

Revenge

On the Queen’s return to England with Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March in September 1326, Henry joined her party against King Edward II, which led to a general desertion of the King’s cause and overturned the power of Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester and his namesake son Hugh the younger Despenser.

 

He was sent in pursuit and captured the king at Neath in South Wales. He was appointed to take charge of the King, and was responsible for his custody at Kenilworth Castle.

 

Full restoration and reward

Henry was appointed chief advisor of the new king Edward III of England,[2] and was also appointed captain-general of all the King's forces in the Scottish Marches.[3] He was appointed High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1327.

 

In about the year 1330, he became blind.

 

Succession

He was succeeded as Earl of Lancaster and Leicester by his eldest son, Henry of Grosmont, who subsequently became Duke of Lancaster.

 

Family

He married Maud Chaworth, before 2 March 1296/1297.[4]

 

Henry and Maud had seven children:

 

Henry, Earl of Derby, (about 1300-1360/61)

Blanche of Lancaster, (about 1305 - 1380) married Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell

Maud of Lancaster, (about 1310-1377); married William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster

Joan of Lancaster, (about 1312-1345); married John de Mowbray, 3rd Baron Mowbray

Isabel of Lancaster, Abbess of Amesbury, (about 1317-after 1347)

Eleanor of Lancaster, (about 1318-1371/72) married (1) John De Beaumont and (2) 5 Feb. 1344/5, Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel;

Mary of Lancaster, (about 1320-1362), who married Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy, and was the mother of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland.

 

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Prior to his restoration to his earldoms, Henry bore the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a bend azure. Upon his restoration, his difference changed, to a label France of three points (that is to say azure three fleur-de-lys or, each).[5]

 

NOTES:

1 Armitage-Smith, Sir Sydney, John of Gaunt: king of Castile and Leon, duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, (Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd., 1904), 197.

2 Leese, Thelma Anna, Blood royal: issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066-1399, (Heritage Book Inc., 2007), 201.

3 Burke, John, A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, (Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley:London, 1831), 424.

4 Cambrian Archaeological Association, Archaeologia cambrensis, Volume 3, (W.Pickering:London, 1852), 15.

5 Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

 

SOURCES:

Armitage-Smith, Sir Sydney, John of Gaunt: king of Castile and Leon, duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd., 1904.

Burke, John, A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley:London, 1831.

Cambrian Archaeological Association, Archaeologia cambrensis, Volume 3, W.Pickering:London, 1852.

Leese, Thelma Anna, Blood royal: issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066-1399, Heritage Book Inc., 2007.³

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 27, 18-29; 25, 17-29; 80, 72-32.

2	Weir, Alison, "Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy" (Vintage, 2008). p 77.

3	"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry,_3rd_Earl_of_Lancaster.