- Earl of Chester
- Prince of England
Alfonso Plantagenet, Earl of Chester was born 24 November 1273 in Bayonne, Basse-Pyrenees, France to Edward I of England (1239-1307) and Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) and died 19 August 1284 Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom of unspecified causes.
By his first wife Eleanor of Castile, Edward I of England had at least fourteen children, perhaps as many as sixteen. Of these, five daughters survived into adulthood, but only one son outlived his father, becoming King Edward II (1307–1327). Edward's children with Eleanor were:[1][2]
Alphonso Plantagenet was their ninth child, and as oldest surviving son, an heir apparent to the English throne who never became king.[3]
Alphonso was the ninth child of King Edward I of England and his Castilian wife Eleanor. He was born in Bayonne, Gascony, a duchy claimed by his maternal uncle King Alphonso X of Castile until his parents' marriage in 1254. Edward and Eleanor's friendship with the King of Castile was also confirmed when they named their son in his honour, a "remarkable choice" given the name's rarity in England. Queen Eleanor even persuaded her brother to travel to Gascony and serve as godfather at the young prince's baptism.[3]
Alphonso's eldest brother, John, had died in 1271; the death of another older brother, Henry, in 1274, made Alphonso the couple's only son up until the last months of his life.[4] As his parents were often required to travel, Alphonso had a household of his own. Queen Eleanor was nevertheless invested in the upbringing of her son, who even had a Spanish cook.[3]
Alphonso's and Margaret's coats of arms, from his eponymous psalter
At the age of ten, Alphonso was engaged to Margaret, daughter of Floris V, Count of Holland. An opulent psalter was being prepared for the marriage when he fell ill[4] and died a few months before the wedding was to take place. The king and queen greeted the death of their son with deep sadness; at the same time, the historian M. Prestwich noted that in memory of the king's nephew Henry of Brittany, who died a month later, Edward and Eleanor ordered more masses than in memory of their son.
The Alphonso Psalter, now in the British Library, was completed a decade later when his sister Elizabeth married Margaret's brother, John I, Count of Holland, making the pairing of arms again appropriate.[5]
Alphonso's death at Windsor occurred shortly after the birth of his younger brother Edward, who became the oldest surviving male heir of Edward I. Alphonso was interred in The Confessor's Chapel at Westminster Abbey, although the exact location is unknown. His heart, however, was buried at the priory of Blackfriars, London (now destroyed).
As heirs apparent to the throne, both Alphonso and Edward bore the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a label azure.[6]
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Thomas of Brotherton (1300-1338) | 1 June 1300 | 4 August 1338 | Alice De Hales (1302-Bef 1330) Mary Braose |
| Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330) | 5 August 1301 | 19 March 1330 | Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell (c1299-1349) |
| Eleanor of England (1306-1311) | 4 May 1306 Winchester, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom | 1310 Amesbury Abbey, Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom | |
See Also
- Rollo Family Ancestry
- wikipedia:en:Alphonso, Earl of Chester
- Edward I of England at thePeerage
- Alphonso Plantagenet, Earl of Chester - Geni.com
- Edward I of England at Find A Grave
- English Kings 1066-1603 - Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
- Parsons (2008). "Margaret (1279?–1318)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- Parsons, John Carmi (1984). "The Year of Eleanor of Castile's Birth and her Children by Edward I". Medieval Studies XLVI: 245–265. DOI:10.1484/J.MS.2.306316.
- Prestwich, Michael (1972). War, Politics and Finance under Edward I. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-09042-7.
- Prestwich, Michael (2008). "Edward I (1239–1307)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8517. ISBN 978-019-861412-8. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-8517. Retrieved 28 February 2019. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
References
- ^ Parsons 1984, pp. 245-265
- ^ Prestwich 1997, p. 126.
- ^ a b c Bent, Margaret (2016). Magister Jacobus de Ispania, Author of the Speculum Musicae. Routledge. pp. 84, 135. ISBN 978-1317102731. https://books.google.com/books?id=tNy1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT95.
- ^ a b "On This Day: Death of Alphonso, Earl of Chester – History Blog". 2015-08-19. http://www.creativehistorian.co.uk/blog/read_131420/on-this-day-death-of-alphonso-earl-of-chester.html.
- ^ "The Alphonso Psalter – Medieval manuscripts blog". http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2011/07/the-alphonso-psalter.html.
- ^ Velde, Francois R.. "marks of cadency in the British royal family". http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/cadency.htm.