Thomas Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel

Thomas Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, 10th Earl of Surrey (also FitzAlan) KG (* 13. October 1381 ; † 13. October 1415 ) was an English nobleman , who during the seizure of power and reign of King Henry IV. A played a significant role.

Life

Thomas Fitzalan was the son of Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel of the FitzAlan family , and his first wife Elizabeth de Bohun. When he was 16 years old, King Richard II had his father beheaded as a traitor and confiscated the family's property. Thomas was placed in the care of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter , a half-brother of the King. However, Holland, who also received a large part of the Fitzalan property, abused the boy, causing Thomas to flee. He managed to get to France, where his uncle Thomas , the former Archbishop of Canterbury , was living in exile. The two Fitzalans joined Henry Bolingbroke , a cousin of the king, who was also exiled from England .

In July 1399 Thomas Fitzalan followed Bolingbroke to England and supported his power struggle against King Richard. After Bolingbroke took power as King Henry IV , Thomas was accepted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion in October 1399 and in 1400 got back the family estates and his father's titles as 12th Earl of Arundel and 10th Earl of Surrey . In 1400 a group of nobles, including John Holland, revolted against the new king. Thomas Fitzalan made sure that his former guardian was executed - and presumably tortured beforehand - after his arrest.

In the following years Fitzalan, who himself had extensive possessions in Wales, was mainly busy fighting the uprising of Owain Glyndŵr . In 1405 he put down a revolt in northern England that was instigated by Richard le Scrope , Archbishop of York . Thomas chaired the commission that subsequently sentenced the bishop to death, resulting in an estrangement from his uncle, who had been Archbishop of Canterbury again since 1399.

On November 26, 1405, Fitzalan married Beatriz, a daughter of King John I of Portugal and his lover Inez Pirez. As Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports , Thomas Fitzalan was one of the king's closest advisers until 1412, but then withdrew to his estates. A year later, however, Henry IV died and Fitzalan became treasurer of his son Henry V. He supported his campaign against France in 1415. During the siege of Harfleur, he fell ill with dysentery , returned to England and died a few weeks later. Since he had no male heirs, the Earldom of Arundel fell to his second nephew John , the Earldom of Surrey became extinct.

In British historiography, Thomas Fitzalan is considered a gifted military leader, but also a cruel, vengeful and selfish character.

Web links

• Thomas Fitzalan, 5th / 12th Earl of Arundel on thepeerage.com , accessed September 10, 2016.
• Thomas Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel on thepeerage.com , accessed September 10, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Trevor Royle: The Wars of the Roses. England's first civil war. Abacus, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-349-11790-4 , p. 438

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard Fitzalan (until 1397)	Earl of Arundel 1400-1415	John FitzAlan
Richard Fitzalan (until 1397)	Earl of Surrey 1400-1415	Title expired