Maud Chaworth

Maud Chaworth
Spouse	Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster
Issue
Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster Blanche of Lancaster, Baroness Wake of Liddell Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster Joan of Lancaster, Baroness Mowbray Isabel of Lancaster, Prioress of Amesbury Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel Mary of Lancaster, Baroness Percy
Father	Patrick de Chaworth, Lord of Kidwelly
Mother	Isabella de Beauchamp
Born	2 February 1282(1282-02-02)
Died	1322 (aged 39–40)

Maud de Chaworth (2 February 1282–1322) was an English noblewoman and wealthy heiress. She was the only child of Patrick de Chaworth. Sometime before 2 March 1297, she married Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, by whom she had seven children. Although the exact date of her death is unknown, it is estimated that she must have died sometime before 3 December 1322.

Parents

Maud was the daughter and only child of Sir Patrick de Chaworth, Baron of Kidwelly, in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, and Isabella de Beauchamp. Her maternal grandfather was William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. Her father, Patrick de Chaworth died on 7 July 1283. He was thought to be 30 years old. Approximately, three years later, in 1286, Isabella de Beauchamp married Hugh Despenser the Elder and had two sons and four daughters by him. This made Maud the half-sister of Hugh the younger Despenser. Her mother, Isabella de Beauchamp, died in 1306.

Childhood

When her father died, Maud was only a year old and his death left her a wealthy heiress. However, because she was an infant, she became a ward of Eleanor of Castile, Queen consort of King Edward I of England. Upon Queen Eleanor's death in 1290, her husband, King Edward I, granted Maud’s marriage to his brother Edmund, Earl of Lancaster on 30 December 1292.
Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Leicester was the son of Eleanor of Provence and Henry III of England. He first married Aveline de Forz, Countess of Albemarle, in 1269. Later, in Paris on 3 February 1276, he married Blanche of Artois who was a niece of Louis IX of France and Queen of Navarre by association with her first marriage. Blanche and Edmund had four children together, one of whom was Henry, who would later become 3rd Earl of Leicester and Maud Chaworth’s husband.

Marriage and issue

Although sources say that Edmund was married to Maud, it has been suggested that Maud was betrothed to Edmund and his son Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster^[1] together, to ensure that she married into the family even if Edmund were to die. Therefore, when Edmund did pass away, Henry and Maud were bonded in holy matrimony sometime before 2 March 1297. Henry was supposedly born between the years 1280 and 1281, making him somewhat older than Maud, but not by much since they were either fourteen or fifteen-years-old.
Since Maud inherited her father’s property, Henry also acquired this property through the rights of marriage. Some of that property was of the following: Hampshire, Glamorgan, Wiltshire, and Carmarthenshire. Henry was the nephew to the King of England, as well as being closely associated with the French royal family line. Henry's half-sister Jeanne (or Juana) was given the title Queen of Navarre in her own right, and married Philip IV of France. Not only that, but Henry was the uncle of King Edward II's Queen Isabella and of three Kings of France. He was also the younger brother of Thomas (Earl of Lancaster) and first cousin of Edward II.
Maud is very often described as the "Countess of Leicester" or "Countess of Lancaster" but she never bore the titles as she died before her husband received them. Henry was only named "Earl of Leicester" in 1324 and "Earl of Lancaster" in 1327, both after her death. Henry never remarried and died on 22 September 1345 when he would have been in his mid-sixties. All but one of his seven children with Maud outlived him.

Maud and Henry had seven children:

• Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, (about 1310–1361); Maud’s only son Henry was usually called Henry of Grosmont to distinguish him from his father. He was one of the great, well known and respected men of the fourteenth century. He took after his father and was well educated, literate, pious, a soldier and a diplomat. Henry produced his own memoir "Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines" which was completed in 1354. At one point, Henry of Grosmont was considered to be the richest man in England aside from the Prince of Wales. He was emerging as a political figure in his own right within England: he was knighted and represented his father in parliament. It was in the same year that he married his wife, Isabella, daughter of Henry, Lord Beaumont. His daughter Blanche was betrothed and eventually married to the son of Edward III, John of Gaunt. In 1361, Henry was killed by a new outbreak of the Black Death, leaving John of Gaunt his inheritance and eventually his title through his daughter Blanche.^[2]
• Blanche of Lancaster, (about 1302/05–1380); Maud’s eldest daughter was probably born between 1302 and 1305, and was named after her father’s mother Blanche of Artois. Around 9 October 1316, she married Thomas Wake, the second baron Wake of Liddell. Blanch was about forty-five when Thomas died and lived as a widow for more than thirty years. She was one of the executers of her brother Henry’s will when he died in 1361. Blanche outlived all her siblings, dying shortly before 12 July 1380 in her mid to late seventies. Born in the reign of Edward I, she survived all the way into the reign of his great grandson Richard II.
• Maud of Lancaster, (c. 1310– 5 May 1377^[3])There is some discrepancy as to when Maud died. A possible date of her death is 1377^[4]
  married William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster in 1327. They bore one child, Elizabeth de Burgh who was born 6 July 1332. Eleven months after the birth of their child, Earl William was murdered at “Le Ford” in Belfast, apparently by some of his own men. The countess Maud fled to England with her baby and stayed with the royal family. In 1337, Maud of Lancaster managed to ensure that the Justiciar of Ireland was forbidden to pardon her husband’s killers. She fought for her dower rights and exerted some influence there. She remarried in 1344 to Ralph Ufford and returned to Ireland where she had another daughter, Maud. After her second husband fell ill in 1346, she again returned to England. Maud of Lancaster died on 5 May 1377.
• Joan of Lancaster, (about 1312–1345); married between 28 February and 4 June 1327 to John, Lord Mowbray. John’s father was horribly executed for reasons unknown and young John was imprisoned in the Tower of London along with his mother Alice de Braose, until late 1326. A large part of his inheritance was granted to Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was his future wife’s uncle; however he was set free in 1327 before the marriage. Joan of Lancaster probably died in her early thirties, sometime before August 1344.
• Isabel of Lancaster, Prioress of Amesbury, (about 1317–after 1347); often said to be born in 1317 as one of the youngest daughters of Maud and Henry. Her life is somewhat obscure, going on pilgrimages and spending a lot of time alone. She spent a great deal of time outside the cloister on non-spiritual matters. Her father had given her quite a bit of property which she administered herself. She owned hunting dogs and had personal servants. She used her family connections to secure privileges and concessions.^[5]
• Eleanor of Lancaster, (1318- Sept. 1372); married John Beaumont between September and November 1330. Eleanor bore John a son, Henry, who married Margaret de Vere, a sister of Elizabeth and Thomas de Vere, Earl of Oxford. John Beaumont was killed in a jousting tournament in Northampton on 14 April 1342. Eleanor then became mistress of the Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, who happened to be married to her first cousin Isabel, daughter of Hugh Despenser the Younger. Richard obtained a divorce from the Pope and married Eleanor on 5 February 1345 in the presence of Edward III. They had five children together, three sons and two daughters. Eleanor died on 11 January 1372.
• Mary of Lancaster, (about 1320–1362); married Henry, Lord Percy before 4 September 1334 who fought at the battle of Crecy in 1346, and served in Gascony under the command of his brother in law Henry of Grosmont. Their son was Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. Mary of Lancaster died on 1 September 1362, the year after her brother Henry.

Notes

1. ^ Waugh, Scott L. "Oxford Dictionary National Biography." Henry of Lancaster. Sept. 2004. Oxford DNB. Sojourner Truth Library, New Paltz. 10 Oct. 2008. Keyword: Henry of Lancaster.
2. ^ Ormrod, W.M.. "Henry of Lancaster, first duke of LAncaster." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2008. 8 October 2008 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12960>
3. ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Earls of Ulster
4. ^ Frame, Robin. "Matilda of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. 13 Oct 2008 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50027>
5. ^ Kerr, Bernice M. "Isabel of Lancaster." Oxford DNB. 2004. Oxford DNB. Sojourner Truth LIbrary, New Paltz. 13 Oct. 2008. Keyword: Isabel of Lancaster.

References

• Commire, Anne, and Deborah Klezmer, eds. "Maud Chaworth." Women in the World History. 1999.
• Hallam, Elizabeth, ed. Four Gothic Kings. New York, NY: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. 133, 117, 126
• Cantor, Norman F. The Last Knight : The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era. New York: Free P, 2004.
• Binski, Paul. Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets : Kingship and the Representation of Power, 1200-1400. New York: Yale UP, 1995.

Persondata
Name	Chaworth, Maud
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 February 1282
Place of birth
Date of death	1322
Place of death