- Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel
Richard FitzAlan, "Copped Hat", 10th
Earl of Arundel (9th Earl of Arundel per Ancestral Roots) (c. 1306 – 24 January 1376) was an English nobleman andmedieval military leader.Lineage
FitzAlan was the eldest son of
Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel (8th Earl of Arundel per Ancestral Roots), andAlice de Warenne . His maternal grandparents wereWilliam de Warenne, 8th Earl of Surrey and Joan de Vere. William was the only son ofJohn de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey .He was born 1306 in
Sussex ,England and died 24 January 1376 in Sussex, England.Alliance with the Despensers
Around 1321, FitzAlan's father allied with King Edward II's favorites,
Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester and his namesake son, and Richard was married toIsabel le Despenser , daughter of Hugh the Younger. Fortune turned against the Despenser party, and on 17 November 1326, FitzAlan's father was executed, and he did not succeed to his father's estates or titles.Gradual restoration
However, political conditions had changed by 1330, and over the next few years Richard was gradually able to reacquire the Earldom of Arundel as well as the great estates his father had held in
Sussex and in theWelsh Marches .Beyond this, in 1334 he was made
Justiciar of North Wales (later his term in this office was made for life), Sheriff for life ofCaernarvonshire , and Governor ofCaernarfon Castle . He was one of the most trusted supporters ofEdward the Black Prince in Wales.Military service in Scotland
Despite his high offices in Wales, in the following decades Arundel spent much of his time fighting in
Scotland (during the Second Wars of Scottish Independence) andFrance (during theHundred Years' War ). In 1337, Arundel was made Joint Commander of the English army in the north, and the next year he was made the sole Commander.Notable victories
In 1340 he fought at the
Battle of Sluys , and then at the siege ofTournai . After a short term as Warden of theScottish Marches , he returned to the continent, where he fought in a number of campaigns, and was appointed Joint Lieutenant ofAquitaine in 1340.Arundel was one of the three principal English commanders at the
Battle of Crécy . He spent much of the following years on various military campaigns and diplomatic missions.Great wealth
In 1347 he succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey (or Warenne), which even further increased his great wealth. (He did not however use the additional title until after the death of the Dowager Countess of Surrey in 1361.) He made very large loans to King Edward III but even so on his death left behind a great sum in hard cash.
Marriages
Arundel married twice. His first wife (as mentioned above), was
Isabel le Despenser . He repudiated her, and had the marriage annulled on the grounds that he had never freely consented to it. PopeClement VI granted the annulment. After the annulment he marriedEleanor of Lancaster , daughter ofHenry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster andMaud Chaworth .Children
By his first marriage he had one son,
Edmund Arundel , who was bastardized by the annulment. This son married Sybil, a daughter ofWilliam Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury .By the second he had 3 sons: Richard, who succeeded him as 6th Earl of Arundel (10th Earl of Arundel per Ancestral Roots);
John Fitzalan ,1st Baron Maltravers, who was a Marshall of England, and drowned in 1379; andThomas Arundel , who becameArchbishop of Canterbury . He also had 4 surviving daughters by his second wife:Joan Fitzalan (1348- 7 April 1419) who marriedHumphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford , Alice (1352- 17 March 1416 who marriedThomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent , Mary Fitzalan (died 29 August 1396), who married John Le Strange, 4th Lord Strange of Blackmere, and Eleanor Fitzalan (1356- before 1366).References
*"Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700" by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 8-31, 17-30, 21-30, 28-33, 60-32, 97-33
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