Elizabeth of Lancaster

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The funerary monument of Elizabeth of Lancaster in the Parish Church of Burford

Elizabeth of Lancaster (married Elizabeth Holland, Duchess of Exeter and Countess of Huntingdon LG ), (* around 1364, † November 24, 1425 ) was an English noblewoman.

Origin and marriage

Elizabeth was a younger daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his first wife Blanche of Lancaster . Her mother died in 1368. In September 1372, she and her sister Philippa and her younger brother Henry had been given a joint household. In 1376, Catherine Swynford , her father's mistress , was the tutor to Elizabeth and her sisters. Presumably she was accepted into the Order of the Garter in 1378. In 1380 her father married her to eight-year-old John Hastings , heir to the Earl of Pembroke. She was subsequently brought up at the royal court, where her father provided £ 100 a year to support the young couple. There she was supposed to learn courtly manners and intercourse, but Sir John Holland , a half-brother of the king, fell in love with her probably around 1385 . Elizabeth succumbed to his persistent wooing and became pregnant by him. Thereupon her first marriage was dissolved and, with her father's approval, she married on June 24, 1386 near Plymouth Holland. At the beginning of July 1386 she and her husband left for Spain, where her husband was a commander of her father's army, which wanted to enforce his claim to the throne of Castile militarily. The campaign failed and her husband finally left the army with her. They traveled back to England, which they reached in April 1388.

Wife of John Holland

In England her husband became one of the leading favorites of King Richard II , who made him Earl of Huntingdon in 1388 and Duke of Exeter in 1397 . Elizabeth, who became Countess of Huntingon and Duchess of Exeter , was one of the leading ladies of the royal court. After several births, she was honored as the best dancer of the court at a festival on the occasion of the adjournment of parliament in 1397 . However, there was tension in her relationship with her husband when her brother Henry Bolingbroke was exiled in 1398 and returned to England the following year, overthrowing Richard II, and himself becoming King when Henry IV . Elizabeth was enjoying herself with her brother, while her husband, being the favorite of the overthrown king, lost his title of Duke of Exeter and large parts of his lands. Together with other conspirators he planned in January 1400 in the so-called Epiphany Rising to overthrow the new king in order to put Richard II back on the throne. Before this attempted coup, there was a tearful farewell to his wife, but he is said to have reproached her for her sympathy with her brother. Still, Elizabeth did not betray the conspiracy, which quickly failed. Her husband tried to flee England but was captured and executed. King Henry IV handed his severed head over to his sister after it was displayed over London Bridge . Since her husband had been expropriated as a traitor, she received an annual pension of over £ 666 from the king.

Next life

In the summer of 1400, Elizabeth was the second married to Sir John Cornewall of Burford , Shropshire . Her husband was a celebrated tournament fighter, but of much lower class than she was. Presumably Cornewall had distinguished himself at a tournament in the presence of the king in York at the end of June 1400 , which made Elizabeth aware of him. Allegedly she had married him at first without her brother's consent, but she soon regained the king's favor. In May 1401 he finally gave her considerable parts of her first husband's possessions in Devon , including the splendid country house of Dartington Hall , for which, however, her annual pension was reduced. In 1404 it received further possessions back as Wittum .

After her death, she was buried not next to her first husband, but in Burford Parish Church, the residence of her third husband.

progeny

From her second marriage to John Holland, Elizabeth had several children including:

  • Richard († September 3, 1400)
  • John Holland (1395-1447)
  • Edward Holland, Count of Mortain (1399-1418)
  • Constance († 1437)
  1. Thomas Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk
  2. John Gray de Ruthyn

From her third marriage to John Cornewall, she had at least two children:

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edward II (1284-1327)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edward III. (1312-1377)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Isabelle de France († 1358)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
John of Gaunt (1340-1399)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
William III. (1286–1337)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Philippa of Hainaut (1311-1369)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Joan of Valois (1294–1342)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elizabeth Plantagenet (1364-1426)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Henry Plantagenet (1281-1345)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Henry of Grosmont (1306-1361)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Maud Chaworth (1282-1322)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Blanche of Lancaster (1341-1368)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Henry de Beaumont
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Isabel de Beaumont
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alice Comyn
 
 
 
 
 
 

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. George Frederick Beltz: Memorials of the Order of the Garter from its foundation to the present time; with biographical notices of the knights in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II. William Pickering, London 1841, p. 247