Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester
Thomas of Woodstock | |
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Duke of Aumale, Earl of Buckingham and Earl of Essex | |
Successor | Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham |
Born | 7 January 1355 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire |
Died | 8 or 9 September 1397 (aged 42) Calais, Pale of Calais |
Spouse | Eleanor de Bohun |
Issue Detail |
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House | Plantagenet |
Father | Edward III of England |
Mother | Philippa of Hainault |
Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (7 January 1355 – 8 or 9 September 1397)[2] was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.
Early life
Thomas was born on 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire after two short-lived brothers, one of whom had also been baptised Thomas.[3] He married Eleanor de Bohun in 1374,[4] was given Pleshey Castle in Essex, and was appointed Constable of the Realm, a position previously held by the Bohuns.[3][5] The younger sister of Woodstock's wife, Mary de Bohun, was subsequently married to Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, who later became King Henry IV of England.
In 1377, at the age of 22, Woodstock was knighted
Campaign in Brittany
Thomas of Woodstock was in command of a large campaign in northern France that followed the
John returned to Brittany in 1379, supported by Breton barons who feared the annexation of Brittany by France. An English army was sent under Woodstock to support his position. Due to concerns about the safety of a longer shipping route to Brittany itself, the army was ferried instead to the English continental stronghold of Calais in July 1380.[9]
As Woodstock marched his 5,200 men east of Paris, they were confronted by the army of
Dispute with King Richard II
Returning to England early in 1381, Thomas of Woodstock found that his brother, John of Gaunt, had married his wife's sister, Mary de Bohun, to John's own son Henry. The relations between the brothers, hitherto somewhat strained, were not improved by this event; presumably, Thomas was hoping to retain possession of Mary's estates. Still, having taken part in crushing the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, Thomas became more friendly with John, and in 1385 was created duke of Gloucester. However, this mark of favour did not prevent him from taking up an attitude of hostility to his nephew, Richard II.[5]
Thomas placed himself at the head of the party that was opposed to the royal advisers,
Richard II quickly regained control and eventually, in 1397, managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant. By 1396, Thomas and Richard were again at odds over policy. In 1397, Thomas was arrested at his home by the king himself and was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason.[5] During that time he was murdered, probably by a group of men led by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and the knight Sir Nicholas Colfox, presumably on behalf of Richard II; parliament declared him guilty of treason and his estates forfeited.[5] These events caused an outcry among the nobility of England that is considered by many to have added to Richard's unpopularity.[citation needed]
Thomas was buried in Westminster Abbey, first in the Chapel of Saint Edmund and Saint Thomas in October 1397, and two years later reburied in the Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor. His wife was buried next to him.[11]
Marriage and progeny
Thomas married Eleanor de Bohun (c. 1366–1399), the elder daughter and co-heiress (with her sister Mary de Bohun) of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373).[12] Thomas of Woodstock and his wife Eleanor had issue as follows:
- Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham (c. 1381 – 1399), died aged 18, unmarried and without issue;
- Anne of Gloucester (c. 1383 – 1438) who married three times:
- Firstly to Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford,[13] without issue;
- Secondly to Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford, the youngest brother of her first husband, by whom she had issue one son and two daughters;
- Thirdly to William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (1374–1420),[5] by whom she had issue, represented today by the Wrey baronets (heirs of the Bourchier Earls of Bath), who quarter the arms of Bohun, Bourchier and Thomas of Woodstock.[a]
- Joan (1384–1400), who married Gilbert Talbot, 5th Baron Talbot (1383–1419) and died in childbirth
- Isabel (12 March 1385/1386 – c.1421), a nun of the Order of Minoresses[14]
As he was attainted as a traitor, his dukedom of Gloucester was forfeit. The title
The other part of these estates—including the Earldom of Hereford, which had belonged to Mary de Bohun and had then become incorporated into the holdings of the House of Lancaster—became a matter of contention in the latter 15th century.
In literature
- Thomas of Woodstock's murder plays a prominent part in William Shakespeare's play Richard II, though he is dead at the time of the play's beginning.
- He also is the subject of Thomas of Woodstock, another Elizabethan drama by an anonymous playwright. Because of its stylistic affinities to Shakespeare's play, it is also called Richard the Second Part One.
Ancestry and family
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Notes
- ^ As is visible on the monuments of Bourchier and Wrey in Tawstock Church in Devon
References
- ^ "marks of cadency in the British royal family". www.heraldica.org.
- ^ a b c d e Weir 1999.
- ^ a b c Goodman 1971, p. 5.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 3 January 2008. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Goodman 1971, p. 6.
- ^ Ward 1995, p. 21.
- ^ Goodman 1971, p. 91.
- ^ Goodman 1971, p. 124-126.
- ^ a b Goodman 1971, p. 124.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27197. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Ward 1992, p. 133.
- ^ Goodman 1971, p. 93.
- ^ Ward 1992, p. 143.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Armitage-Smith, Sydney (1905). John of Gaunt: King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Seneschal of England. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 21. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i von Redlich, Marcellus Donald R. Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants. Vol. I. p. 64.
- ^ a b c d Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires. pp. 87–88.}
- ^ a b Anselme 1726, pp. 381–382
External links
- Inquisition Post Mortem, #123–125.
Sources
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 130. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Goodman, Anthony (1971). The Loyal Conspiracy: The Lords Appellant under Richard II. University of Miami Press.
- Ward, Jennifer C. (1992). English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages. Routledge.
- Ward, Jennifer C., ed. (1995). Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066-1500. Manchester University Press.
- Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head.
Further reading
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27197. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)