John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk

John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk KG ( September 27, 1442 , † 1492 ), was the son of William de la Pole and Alice Chaucers, the daughter of Thomas Chaucer .

Even as a child, John got caught up in the rivalries between the House of York and Lancaster: his father, a counselor to Henry VI, tried to marry his son into an important Lancaster family. On February 7, 1450, a few months before his father's death, the seven-year-old's marriage promise to Margaret Beaufort , who was under the tutelage of William de la Poles, was consummated. However, this promise was made by Henry VI. dissolved.

After the death of his father, John obviously turned to the other side and married Elizabeth of York (* 1444, † 1504), the second surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville , before February 1458 . Through this wedding, de la Pole became the brother-in-law of two English kings, Edward IV and Richard III.

John's new relatives were very rewarding for him: on March 23, 1463, his brother-in-law Edward IV reappointed him as Duke (a title that had been revoked from his father). Other lucrative and honorable posts followed: De la Pole became, like his father, in command of the castle at Wallingford , in 1472 he was knight of the Order of the Garter and high steward of Oxford University .

After the Yorks' defeat in 1485, John de la Pole appears to have made the sensible decision to withdraw from politics while his sons continued to struggle against reality in vain. Henry VII left him his titles - possibly under the influence of his mother - and he died the Duke of Suffolk at the age of 50 and was buried like his father in Wingfield .

family

John de la Pole and Elizabeth of York were the parents of eleven children known by name:

• John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (* 1462/1464; † 1487)
• Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk (* 1472; † 1513)
• Catherine de la Pole (* 1461; † 1523) ⚭ Lord William Stourton
• Elizabeth de la Pole (* 1466; † 1489)
• Richard de la Pole († February 24, 1525), died in the Battle of Pavia (1525)
• Humphrey de la Pole, clergyman (* 1474; † 1513)
• Sir William de la Pole (* 1478; † 1539)
• Edward de la Pole, Archdeacon of Richmond († 1485)
• Geoffrey de la Pole
• Anne de la Pole († after 1495)
• Dorothy de la Pole

The sons were considered, since Richard III. after the death of his son Edward had no direct heirs as heir to the throne of the House of York on the English throne.

literature

• John Burke, John Bernard Burke: The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with their Descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects , London 1851. Family trees CLXIX and CCI.
• Bernard Burke: Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. London 1883, p. 441.
• Douglas Richardson: Plantagenet Ancestry. Baltimore 2004, p. 690.

Web links

• John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
William de la Pole	Duke of Suffolk 1463-1492	Edmund de la Pole