Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Arundel

Notes:

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_le_Despenser,_Countess_of_Arundel

She was the eldest daughter of Hugh Despenser the Younger and Eleanor de Clare. She was descended from Edward I of England through her mother, while her father is famous for being the favorite of Edward II of England.

Though he had stood against Edward II in the past, Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel had loyally supported him since the 1320s. Thus it must have seemed to be politically prudent to Edmund to marry his heir Richard to the eldest daughter of the King's closest friend and adviser Hugh le Despenser. For Hugh's part, a large incentive for him must have been that he could expect his daughter Isabel would one day become Countess of Arundel.

On 9 February 1321 at the royal manor Havering-atte-Bower, Isabel was duly married to Richard FitzAlan, the heir to the earldom of Arundel. Isabel was only eight at the time, while Richard was fifteen (not seven as has been claimed). Their respective ages would come up later when Richard would try to seek an annulment.

Richard and Isabel had one son, Edmund Fitzalan, born in 1327, and in 1331 Isabel's husband became earl of Arundel. However, in December 1344 Richard Fitzalan had their marriage annulled on the grounds that he had never freely consented to marry Isabel and that they both had renounced their vows at puberty but had been "forced by blows to cohabit, so that a son was born". Isabel retired to several manors in Essex that were given to her by her ex-husband. After receiving a papal dispensation, Richard married Isabel's first cousin Eleanor of Lancaster, with whom he had apparently been having an affair.

Richard and Isabel's only child, Edmund Fitzalan, was rendered illegitimate by this annulment and so was unable to inherit his father's earldom. When his father died in 1376 Edmund quarreled with his half-siblings, the children of his father's second marriage, over inheritance rights. Edmund was imprisoned in the Tower of London until he was released in 1377 by request of his brothers-in-law.

After their father was executed for treason in 1326, Isabel and her youngest sister Elizabeth were the only daughters of Hugh the Younger to escape being confined in nunneries, Isabel because she was already married and Elizabeth because of her youth.

Buried:
Grave location, portrait and abbey photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=62397103

There is an inscription on the chapel where she rests. It runs along the outside and inside walls as follows:
"Mementote dne Isabelle le Despenser Comitisse de Warrewick Que hanc capellam fundavit in honore bte Marie Magdalene Et obiit Londiniis apud Minres A° Dni MCCCCXXXIX Die Scti Jhis Evngste Et sepulta e i choro i dextra patris sui cuj. Ame parcet Deus. Amen."

Translation:
"Remember the Lady Isabelle le Despencer, Countess of Warwick, who founded this chapel to the honour of the blessed Mary Magdalene, and died in London in the Minories AD 1439 on the day of Saint John the Evangelist [27th December], and was buried in the Choir on the right hand of her father, on whose soul may God have pity. Amen."

Isabel married Richard (Cropped Hat) Fitz Alan, 10th Earl of Arundel and 8th Earl of Surrey 09 Feb 1321, Havering-atte-Bower, London Borough of Havering, England. Richard (son of Edmund FITZALAN, Lord of Arundel and Alice DE WARREN) was born 1306, Arundel, Sussex, England; died 24 Jan 1376, Sussex, England; was buried , Chichester Cathedral, Chichester, West Sussex, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_FitzAlan,_10th_Earl_of_Arundel

Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and 8th Earl of Surrey married twice:

Firstly, on 9 February 1321 at Havering-atte-Bower, to Isabel le Despenser (born 1312, living 1356, and may have died circa 1376-7). At that time, the future earl was either eight or fifteen, and his bride nine years old. Later he repudiated this bride, and was granted an annulment by Pope Clement VI in December 1344 on the grounds that he had been underage and unwilling. By this marriage, Richard and Isabel had one son (when Richard was either fourteen or twenty-one, and Isabel fifteen), who was bastardized by the annulment:

Sir Edmund de Arundel, knt (b ca 1327; d 1376-1382), bastardized by the annulment. Edmund was nevertheless knighted, married at the age of twenty, in the summer of 1347 Sybil de Montacute, a younger daughter of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine Grandison, whose elder sister Elizabeth was married to his maternal uncle, of whom it was said he arranged.

Edmund protested his bastardization bitterly in 1347, but was apparently ignored. After his father's death in 1376, Edmund disputed his half-brother Richard's inheritance of the earldom and associated lands and titles in 1376 and apparently tried to claim the six manors allotted to his deceased mother.

He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1377, and finally freed through the intervention of two of his brothers-in-law (his wife's brother John de Montacute and the second husband of Elizabeth de Montacute, Lady Le Despencer). They had three daughters who were his co-heiresses and who brought a failed suit in 1382 against their half-uncle the Earl:

1. Elizabeth (or Alice) de Arundel, who married Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369) of Mohuns Ottery in Devon, feudal lord of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and lord of the manor of Moulsford in Berkshire. From Alice are descended all the members of the prominent and widespread Carew family, except Carew of Beddington in Surrey, descended from one of Sir Leonard's great-uncles.

2. Philippa de Arundel (died 18 May 1452), who married (as his 2nd wife) Sir Richard Sergeaux, Knt, of Colquite, Cornwall. A Victorian historical novel ascribes the following five children to her: a) Richard, born 21 December 1376, and died childless, 24 June 1396; b) Elizabeth, born 1379, wife of Sir William Marny; c) Philippa, born 1381, wife of Robert Passele; d) Alice, born at Kilquyt, 1 September 1384, wife of Guy de Saint Albino; e) Joan, born 1393, died 21 February 1400. "Philippa became a widow, 30 September 1393, and died 13 September 1399."

3. Alice Sergeaux, later Countess of Oxford (c. 1386-18 May 1452), who married 1stly Guy de St Aubyn of St. Erme, Cornwall, and 2ndly about 1406-7 (as his 2nd wife) the 11th Earl of Oxford and widower of Alice de Holand (dsp. 1406, niece of Henry IV), and was the mother of two sons by him
a)John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford b)Robert de Vere, whose grandson, John, became the 15th Earl of Oxford.

4. Katherine de Arundel, who married Robert Deincourt.


Birth:
Source:
Aileen Lewers Langston and J. Orton Buck, Jr., Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants, Vol. II (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1974), 170, 334.

Died:
Source:
Frederick Lewis Weis, The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, 5th ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999).

Edmund married Sybill de Montagu. Sybill (daughter of William de Montagu and Catherine de Grandison) was born ca 1330. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_FitzAlan,_10th_Earl_of_Arundel#Marriages_and_children

Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and 8th Earl of Surrey married twice:

Firstly, on 9 February 1321 at Havering-atte-Bower, to Isabel le Despenser (born 1312, living 1356, and may have died circa 1376-7). At that time, the future earl was either eight or fifteen, and his bride nine years old. Later he repudiated this bride, and was granted an annulment by Pope Clement VI in December 1344 on the grounds that he had been underage and unwilling. By this marriage, Richard and Isabel had one son (when Richard was either fourteen or twenty-one, and Isabel fifteen), who was bastardized by the annulment:

Sir Edmund de Arundel, knt (b ca 1327; d 1376-1382), bastardized by the annulment. Edmund was nevertheless knighted, married at the age of twenty, in the summer of 1347 Sybil de Montacute, a younger daughter of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine Grandison, whose elder sister Elizabeth was married to his maternal uncle, of whom it was said he arranged.

Edmund protested his bastardization bitterly in 1347, but was apparently ignored. After his father's death in 1376, Edmund disputed his half-brother Richard's inheritance of the earldom and associated lands and titles in 1376 and apparently tried to claim the six manors allotted to his deceased mother. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1377, and finally freed through the intervention of two of his brothers-in-law (his wife's brother John de Montacute and the second husband of Elizabeth de Montacute, Lady Le Despencer). They had three daughters who were his co-heiresses and who brought a failed suit in 1382 against their half-uncle the Earl:

1.Elizabeth (or Alice) de Arundel, who married Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369)of Mohuns Ottery in Devon, feudal lord of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and lord of the manor of Moulsford in Berkshire. From Alice are descended all the members of the prominent and widespread Carew family, except Carew of Beddington in Surrey, descended from one of Sir Leonard's great-uncles.

2. Philippa de Arundel (died 18 May 1452), who married (as his 2nd wife) Sir Richard Sergeaux, Knt, of Colquite, Cornwall. A Victorian historical novel ascribes the following five children to her:

Richard, born 21 December 1376, and died childless, 24 June 1396;

Elizabeth, born 1379, wife of Sir William Marny;
Philippa, born 1381, wife of Robert Passele;
Alice, born at Kilquyt, 1 September 1384, wife of Guy de Saint Albino;

Joan, born 1393, died 21 February 1400.

"Philippa became a widow, 30 September 1393, and died 13 September 1399."

3. Alice Sergeaux, later Countess of Oxford (c. 1386-18 May 1452), who married 1stly Guy de St Aubyn of St. Erme, Cornwall, and 2ndly about 1406-7 (as his 2nd wife) the 11th Earl of Oxford and widower of Alice de Holand (dsp. 1406, niece of Henry IV), and was the mother of two sons by him:

John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford

Robert de Vere, whose grandson, John, became the 15th Earl of Oxford.


Birth:
Source:
Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004), 334.

Buried:
Grave location:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=152343727

Died:
Sources:
Inquisitiones Post Mortem, 17 Ric. II., 53; 21 Ric. II., 50; 1 H. IV., 14, 23, 24.

Philippa married Sir Richard Sergeaux. Richard was born , Erwan, Cornwall, England; died 30 Sept. 1393, Cornwall, England; was buried , Saint Mary Chapel of Colquite, St Mabyn, Cornwall, England . [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Died:
Sources:
Frederick Lewis Weis, The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, 5th ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999).

Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004), 334.

Philippa married Sir Robert Pashley, I. Robert was born 1370, Sussex, England; died ca 1406. [Group Sheet]