- Major landowner in Medieval Essex County of England
- 1400: Ordered execution of the Earl of Huntingdon
Countess Joan FitzAlan was born 1347 in Arundel Castle, West Sussex, Sussex, England, United Kingdom to Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (c1313-1376) and Eleanor Plantagenet (c1318-1372) and died 7 April 1419 of unspecified causes. She married Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341-1373) 9 September 1359 JL .
Biography
Psalter celebrating the marriage of Joan FitzAlan's daughter Mary de Bohun to Henry of Bolingbroke on 27 July 1380
King Henry V of England, grandson of Joan Fitzalan and Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford
Joan FitzAlan,[1] Countess of Hereford, Countess of Essex and Countess of Northampton was the wife of the 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton.
In 1400, she gave the order for the beheading of the Earl of Huntingdon in revenge for the part he had played in the execution of her brother, the 11th Earl of Arundel, who was also married to her husband's sister, Elizabeth de Bohun (c1350-1385).
The estates which comprised Joan's large dowry made her one of the principal landowners in Essex, where she exercised lordship, acting as arbitrator and feoffee in property transactions.
Widowhood
Joan was left a widow in January 1373 at the age of about 25 or 26, and she chose not to remarry. Her two daughters were made wards of Edward III. Sometime after her husband's death, she received from King Edward the manor of Langham, which she held until her own death,[2] among the numerous other manors she owned. The numerous estates which comprised Joan's large dowry ensured that she was one of the principal landowners in Essex.[3] This placed her at the hub of a powerful structure of landed country gentry, who acted as her advisers and officers; Joan in turn acted as "arbitrator, feoffee in property transactions, and intercessor with the royal government".[4]
During the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, some of Joan's manors were sacked by the rebels; this did not deter Joan from expanding and industrialising her lands after the uprising had been put down, having done much to encourage the dyeing and fulling of woollen cloth on some of her estates such as Saffron Walden.[5]
In the Public Record Office, London, there is an extant document, written in Latin, which records the payment to Joan by John of Gaunt for the maintenance of her younger daughter Mary after the latter's marriage until she came of age in 1384.[6]
A member of St. Helen's religious guild in Colchester, Joan founded chantries and was also a patron of Walden Abbey, having donated money for relics, vessels, vestments, and the construction of new buildings.[7] She is described in the State Rolls as having been a "great benefactress" to the monasteries of Essex.[8]
Execution of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter
In 1397, Joan's brother 11th Earl of Arundel, who was also married to her husband's sister, Elizabeth de Bohun (c1350-1385). and a Lord Appellant was executed on Tower Hill for his opposition to King Richard II of England. The king's half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, Earl of Huntingdon accompanied him to the scaffold, as one of King Richard's representatives.
Less than three years later in 1400, when Holland joined a conspiracy to murder the new king Henry IV (Joan's former son-in-law), and was captured near Joan's principal residence Pleshy Castle in Essex, he was turned over to her for punishment. Described as having possessed a "stern character",[9] she showed him no mercy, and promptly gave orders for his decapitation, after having summoned the children of her dead brother to witness the execution. Following the beheading, which was performed without benefit of a trial, she ordered that Holland's severed head be raised on the end of a pike, which was placed upon the battlements of Pleshy Castle.[10]
Henry IV rewarded Joan for her services on behalf of the Crown, by granting her custody of forfeited lands and properties. When Henry died in 1413, Joan's grandson Henry V followed suit; therefore up until her death in 1419, a large number of forfeited estates had come under her control.[11]
Death
Lady Joan FitzAlan died on 7 April 1419 and was buried with her husband in Walden Abbey, which she had previously endowed.
Family Life
Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and Eleanor of Lancaster, parents of Lady Joan FitzAlan
Lady Joan FitzAlan was born in 1347 at Arundel Castle, Sussex, one of seven children, and the eldest daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster. Her paternal grandparents were Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel and Alice de Warenne, and her maternal grandparents were Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.
She was the mother of Mary de Bohun (c1368-1394), the first wife of Henry of Bolingbroke who later reigned as King Henry IV, and Eleanor de Bohun (c1366-1399), Duchess of Gloucester. She was the maternal grandmother of King Henry V.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Eleanor de Bohun (c1366-1399) | 1366 | 3 October 1399 | Thomas of Woodstock (1355-1397) |
| Mary de Bohun (c1368-1394) | 1368 | 4 July 1394 Peterborough Castle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom | Henry IV of England (1367-1413) |
| Elizabeth de Bohun (c1370-c1370) | 1370 England | 1370 England | |
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Edmund FitzAlan (c1327-aft1377) | |||
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Mary FitzAlan (c1356-bef1376) | |||
| Edmund FitzAlan (c1346-c1366) | |||
| Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel (1346-1397) | 1346 | 21 September 1397 Tower Hill, Greater London, England | Elizabeth de Bohun (c1350-1385) Philippa Mortimer (1375-1400) |
| Joan FitzAlan (1347-1419) | 1347 Arundel Castle, West Sussex, Sussex, England, United Kingdom | 7 April 1419 | Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341-1373) |
| John FitzAlan (c1348-1379) | 1348 | 16 December 1379 | Eleanor Maltravers (c1345-c1405) |
| Alice FitzAlan (c1350-1416) | 1350 | 17 March 1416 | Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (1354-1397) |
| Thomas Fitzalan (c1352-1414) | |||
| Eleanor Fitzalan (c1355-bef1366) | |||
See Also
- Joan FitzAlan
- FitzAlan Family
- Bohun Family
External Links
- wikipedia:en:Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford
- Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford at thePeerage
- Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford, Geni.com, https://www.geni.com/people/Joan-Fitzalan-Countess-of-Hereford/6000000004303275587, retrieved 01 Jan 2024
- Bohun Family Genealogy, TudorPlace.com.ar, http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BOHUN.htm, retrieved 01 Jan 2024
- Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford at Find A Grave
- Hazlitt, William Carew, and Thomas Blount. Tenures of Land & Customs of Manors. 4th. London: Ballentine and Company, 1874. ad
Notable Ancestors
- Charlemagne Family Ancestry
- Rollo Family Ancestry
- Alfred the Great Family Ancestry.
- House of Plantagenet
- Warenne Family Ancestry
- House of Capet.
Notable Descendants
References
- ^ Duggan, Anne; Ward, Jennifer C. (2000). Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe: Concepts, Origins, Transformations.. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 251. ISBN 9780851158822. https://books.google.com/books?id=sQS9ZUqYQbUC&q=why+the+english+ladies+in+the+middle+age+kept+their+family+birth+name&pg=PA251. "(...) because of the number of sons born to the higher nobility in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, (...) The emphasis on agnatic lineage was reflected in the fact that the woman kept her natal family name when she married and did not become fully a member of her marital kin."
- ^ Langham|British History Online. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
- ^ Ward, Jennifer C. (2006). Women in England in the Middle Ages. London: Contiuum International Publishing Group. p. 108; ISBN 978-1-85285-346-4
- ^ Ward, p. 109
- ^ Ward, p. 108
- ^ Ward, Jennifer C. (1995). Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066–1500. Manchester medieval sources series. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 22. ISBN 0-7190-4114-7
- ^ Ward, p. 109
- ^ The Early History and Antiquaries of Wycombe: In Buckinghamshire. p. 25
- ^ Costain, Thomas B. (1962). The Last Plantagenets. New York: Popular Library (originally published by Doubleday Co., Inc.). p. 233.
- ^ Costain, p. 233
- ^ Ward, p. 109