Edward (13th November 1312 – 21st June 1377), known as Edward of Windsor before his accession from his birthplace, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 after the disastrous and unorthodox reign of his father, Edward II, who was deposed by his own wife, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer. Edward III is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority. He transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His fifty-year reign was the second-longest in medieval English history and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English Parliament, as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He outlived his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, and the throne passed to his grandson, Richard II.
Edward ascended the Throne and was crowned the age of fourteen. At seventeen he led a successful coup d'état against Mortimer, the de facto ruler of the country, and began his personal reign as an adult. After a successful campaign in Scotland he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1337 through the female line even though France was ruled by Salic Law. This started what became known as the Hundred Years' War. Following some initial setbacks, this first phase of the war went exceptionally well for England; victories at Crécy and Poitiers led to the highly favourable Treaty of Brétigny/Calais, in which England made territorial gains, and Edward renounced his claim to the French throne. This phase would become known as the Edwardian War. Edward's later years were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and poor health. It was the weak reigns of Edward's grandson King Richard II and his descendant King Henry VI, the strength of princes other than the first-born and the infighting among Edward's descendants which lead to the Wars of the Roses. |
It is thought that Edward III's Coat of Arms before he ascended the Throne were England with a plain blue, three-pointed Label. That or five Points. Heraldry was yet to experience its heyday and Edward was barely fourteen when he became King. He had been created Earl of Chester in 1320 and Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Ponthieu in 1325. This was his father's idea to annoy the King of France who just happened to be Edward II's father-in-law. Unlike his father, Edward III was not appointed Prince of Wales. His Coat of Arms may therefore be purely conjecture. As KIng, Edward III took on the plain Arms of England of his father and ancestors. But this would change in 1340. |
Also at the time, France had a more important position in Europe to England and the Capet Dynasty would have been regarded as senior to the Plantagenets. It would therefore seem to be quite natural to place the Arms of the senior house in the first Quarter.
The Fleur-de-Lys was to become part not only of the English Royal Arms for over 400 years, but also, in ornamental form, on regalia such as Crowns, Coronets and Sceptres. Many and varied suggestions for design inspiration include a spear-head, a bee or a frog, but the most rational and widely accepted assumption is that it represents a flower - either the lily (symbol of the Virgin Mary) or the yellow flag iris. According to Pierre-Augustin Boissier de Sauvages, the Franks lived around the river Leie or Lys in Flanders before moving into Gaul. They referred to a yellow Iris as the Fleur-de-Lys, i.e. the flower of the River Lys. The Fleur-de-Lys is an emblem of the north-eastern French city of Lille and Iris pseudacorus is recognised as a symbol for the Brussels. A more plausible reason, not unlike the origins of the Thistle as the emblem of Scotland, is the legend of Clovis, King of the Franks in the sixth century, who was caught between the superior force of the Goths and the river Rhine. Observing that irises were growing a long way into the river, he realised that the water would be shallow enough to ford his way over. Clovis and his army therefore escaped and he adopted the flower as his emblem.
Upon a Chapeau gules turned up ermine, a Lion statant guardant and crowned or.
The Chapeau which the Lion stands on was an early symbol of dignity and rank. It is related to the Cap which covered the Helmet before the development of Mantling and also represents the Cap of Maintenance which forms a part of the reglia carried before the sovereign at the Opening of Parliament and has historically been worn by a king to his Coronation before being crowned. This also developed into the lining of a closed Crown and Coronets.
There is no actual evidence that Edward III used Supporters, although a Lion guardant and a Falcon argent have been attributed.
Edward's other claim to fame is that he founded the Noble Order of the Garter in approximately 1384 as we saw in a previous Blog. He also vested his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales (known as The Black Prince) with the first English Dukedom , creating him Duke of Cornwall, as we saw last week.
Philippa of Hainault
Philippa was engaged to Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1326. Their marriage was celebrated in York Minster on 24th January 1328, some months after Edward's accession to the throne of England as Edward III and Isabella of France's infamous invasion. After her husband reclaimed the throne, Philippa influenced King Edward to take interest in the nation's commercial expansion, was part of the successful Battle of Neville's Cross, and often went on expeditions to Scotland and France. She acted as regent in 1346, when her husband was away for the Hundred Years' War and won much popularity with the English people for her compassion the following year, when she successfully persuaded the King to spare the lives of the Burghers of Calais. This popularity helped maintain peace in England throughout their long reign.
Queen's College, Oxford was founded by her chaplain Robert de Eglesfield in her honour.
By all accounts, Philippa and Edward’s forty-year marriage was happy. They had thirteen children, including five sons who lived into adulthood. Three of their children died of the Black Death in 1348, though. The rivalry of their numerous descendants would, however, bring about the long-running and bloody dynastic Wars of the Roses in the next century.
Philippa used the Arms of her father. On her tomb she quarters these with the Royal Arms of her husband, but her father's Quarter appears to show four Lions rampant and alternately black and red. In fact, her father's Arms were quarterly Flanders (Or, a Lion rampant sable) and Holland (Or, a Lion rampant gules). There is just no visible dividing line between the Grand Quarters and the Field of both Arms is confusingly gold. Philippa's marital Shield of Arms is one of the most aesthetically pleasing I know for a queen consort, rvialled only by HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
The first appearance of a Lion Rampant for Flanders is on a seal of Count Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191, and dating from 1163. As such it constitutes the oldest of the many territorial Arms bearing a Lion in the Low Countries. Still, Count Philip was not the first of his line to bear a Lion, for his cousin, William of Ypres, already used a seal with a lion passant in 1158, thought to derive from his maternal uncle, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.
A red Lion on gold has been the Arms of Holland for many centuries and continues to be used in the Arms of both present day provinces of the Netherlands, North and South Holland. The colours of the Arms were reversed during the Dutch Republic.
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence
Having been named as his father's representative in England in 1345 and again in 1346, Lionel joined an expedition into France in 1355, but his chief energies were reserved for the affairs of Ireland. He was named Earl of Ulster in 1347 as his first wife, Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster was the daughter and heiress of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster. However, after holding a parliament at Kilkenny, which passed the celebrated Statute of Kilkenny in 1366, Lionel dropped the task in disgust and returned to England.
Lionel also received the title Clarence through his wife, who was also, through her grandmother, heir to the last Earl Gilbert of Clare. Lionel was made Duke of Clarence when he was 24.
After Elizabeth died in 1363, a second marriage was arranged with Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Pavia. Journeying to fetch his bride, Lionel was received in great state both in France and Italy and was married to Violante at Milan in June 1368. Some months were then spent in festivities, during which Lionel was taken ill at Alba, where he died on 17th October 1368. There was strong speculation at the time that he had been poisoned by his father-in-law, although this has never been proven.
Lionel had only one child, Philippa, daughter of his first wife Elizabeth. In 1368 Philippa married Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. Their granddaughter and eventual heir, Anne Mortimer, married into the Yorkist branch of the English royal family and was the mother of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York. The House of York based its claim to the English Throne on descent through the female line from Lionel. In doing so, the Yorkists were able to present a senior claim over the Lancastrian branch, the descendants of a younger brother, John of Gaunt. (Edward III's first-born son, Edward the Black Prince, had no legitimate descendants past his two sons Edward of Angoulême and King Richard II.) Lionel was therefore the ancestor of Kings Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III and all later British monarchs except for Henry VII, whose wife Elizabeth of York was Lionel's descendant, being Edward V's sister.
Lionel received a Label of three Points for the son of a sovereign. This carried a red Canton (half an upper Quarter) on each Point in connection with the title of Duke of Clarence as Argent, a Canton Gules was a subsidiary Coat of Arms attributed to the Clare family. This symb ol hjas been used withing the British Royal Family a few times since, the last occasion being when Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (daughter of Queen Victoria) was assigned a red Rose between two red Cantons in 1858.
There is conjecture that Lionel had first received a Label of three St George's Crosses. But this remains conjecture as Lionel and Elizabeth were betrothed as children and married in 1352 and married when Lionel was 13 or 14.
Elizabeth is the person who brought the Arms Or, a Cross gules (de Burgh) to the Yorkist side of the family and also the Badge of the black Bull of Clarence, which remains a Royal Beast.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
John's early career was spent in France and Spain fighting in the Hundred Years' War. He made an abortive attempt to enforce a claim to the Crown of Castile that came through his second wife, and for a time styled himself King of Castile. As Edward the Black Prince, Gaunt's elder brother and heir to the ageing Edward III, became incapacitated due to poor health, Gaunt assumed control of many government functions, and rose to become one of the most powerful political figures in England. He was faced with military difficulties abroad and political divisions at home, and disagreements as to how to deal with these crises led to tensions between Gaunt, the English Parliament, and the ruling classes, making him an extremely unpopular figure.
John exercised great influence over the English throne during the minority of King Richard II and the ensuing periods of political strife. He mediated between the King and a group of rebellious nobles, which included Gaunt's own son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke. Following Gaunt's death in 1399, his estates and titles were declared forfeit to the Crown, and his son, now disinherited, was branded a traitor and exiled. Henry Bolingbroke returned from exile shortly after to reclaim his inheritance and deposed Richard. He reigned as King Henry IV, the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the English throne.
John of Gaunt has generally been regarded as an ancestor of all English monarchs beginning with his son Henry IV. His direct male line, the House of Lancaster, would rule England from 1399 until the time of the Wars of the Roses. Gaunt is also generally considered to have fathered five children outside marriage, many by Katherine Swynford, his long-term mistress and third wife. They received the surname Beaufort and were later legitimised by royal and papal decrees. This did not affect Henry IV's bar to their having a place in the line of succession, though. Through his daughter, Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland, Gaunt was an ancestor of the Yorkist kings Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III. Through his great-granddaughter, Lady Margaret Beaufort, he was also an ancestor of Henry VII, who married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, and all subsequent monarchs are descendants of their marriage.
In his infancy, John of Gaunt was created Earl of Richmond on the death of John, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond (grandson of King Henry III of England). Gaunt's Arms at this time carried a Label of three Points ermine, evidently taken from the Arms of Brittany. Although he relinquished the Earldom when he became Duke of Lancaster, there is evidence to suggest that Gaunt carried on using the ermine Label for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, his tomb in Old St Paul's cathedral is known to have shown his Label as being blue with three Fleurs-de-Lys on each Point. This comes from the Duchy of Lancaster, which came from his first wife, Blanche. She was a co- and then sole heiress of her father, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, the original owner of Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire and also a descendant of King Henry III and a co-founder Knight of the Order of the Garter. His Arms were England with a blue Label of three Points “of France”, namely three Fleurs-de-Lys on each Point. John is not known to have used this Label in his lifetime.
For a while, Gaunt claimed the Throne of Castile and Leon through his second wife, Constance, who was the elder daughter of King Peter of Castile, who was deposed and killed. Although Castile lacked men and money to fight and lacked enthusiasm for a Lancastrian intruder, the rivals came to terms. John of Gaunt resigned his claim and married his only daughter by Constance, Catherine, to Henry III, grandson of Henry II of Castile who had taken her grandfather Peter's Throne. Henry and Catherine were the great-grandparents of Catherine of Aragon.
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
On the death of his godfather, the Earl of Surrey, Edmund was granted the Earl's lands north of the Trent, primarily in Yorkshire. In 1359, he joined his father King Edward III on an unsuccessful military expedition to France. Edmund was made a knight of the Garter in 1361 and, the following year, at the age of twenty-one, he was created Earl of Cambridge by his father. Edmund was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports on 12th June 1376 and held office until 1381. On 6th August 1385, he was elevated to Duke of York.
He supported his elder brother, John of Gaunt, in his unsuccessful attempt at gaining the Throne of Castile and Leon. After largely supporting his weak nephew King Richard II as Keeper of the Realm whilst Richard was abroad and with the belief that the childless Richard would name his son, Edward, as his successor, Edmund decided to change allegiance to John's son, Henry of Bolingbroke who became King Henry IV.
Langley's first wife, Isabella, was a daughter of King Peter of Castile and María de Padilla. She was also the sister of the Infanta Constance of Castile, the second wife of Langley's brother John of Gaunt. Langley and Isabella were both descendants of Henry II of England. After Isabella's death in 1392, Langley married his second cousin once removed Joan Holland, whose great-grandfather Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was the half-brother of Langley's grandfather Edward II; she and Langley were thus both descended from King Edward I. The young Joan was the granddaughter of his late sister-in-law Joan of Kent. The marriage produced no children.
His Tomb, shown above, shows a number of Shields, but, unfortunately, they have worn over time, so the individual Labels are now unrecognisable. It does, however, show one thing which maybe just be artistic license or the way Labels started. They are shown in line with the very top of the Shield, whereas mostly ever since, they have been placed a little way down from the top.
Edmund's personal Label was of three Points, each charged with three red discs called Torteaux. The name is derived from the French for tart or cake, and there appears to be no theory as to why Edmund should have received this on his Label.
Edward Plantagenet , 2nd Duke of York
Edward held various titles:
- Earl of Rutland (25th February 1390 – 1st August 1402)
- Earl of Cork (c. 1395)
- Duke of Albemarle (29th September 1397 – 3rd November 1399). He had this title taken away from him as a result of the admitting to the aborted plot to assassinate King Henry IV.
- Duke of York (1st August 1402 – 25th October 1415). He inherited this and the following titles on the death of his father.
- Earl of Cambridge (1st August 1402 – c. 1414)
Either way, Edward inherits his father's Label with three Torteaux per Point on his father's death in 1402. Edward's seal as 2nd Duke of York, attached to a charter of 1403, is agreed to be the earliest known instance of the change from France ancient to France modern.
Richard of Coningsburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge
He had two claims to fame: Having been created Earl of Cambridge in 1414, he was beheaded for his part in the Southampton Plot, a conspiracy against King Henry V the following year. The other, and possibly linked, is that he married Anne (de) Mortimer, sister and afterwards heiress to Edmund, Earl of March, and therefore through the female line to Lionel, Duke of Clarence and therefore an older son of King Edward III. The expectations of both Yorkist brothers, Edward and Richard, the expectations of Richard's son, also called Richard and who had the Yorkist Dukedom restored under King Henry VI, preference for this capable and honourable 3rd Duke of York over the weak King Henry VI in the hands of advisors and the rivalry with the Lancastrian line - considered usurpers - ultimately leads to the Wars of the Roses.
Richard's Arms were the York Arms with a Bordure charged with purple Lions. These obviously allude to the Leon Quarter of his mother's Arms. The Bordure is variously shown with eight, nine, ten or even twelve Lions, but the precise amount of Lions would not have been important at this stage of Heraldry.
The Mortimer Arms were once more brought into the Royal Family through Anne. Her marriage to Richard was undertaken secretly and probably with haste, without the knowledge of her nearest relatives, and was validated on 23 May 1408 by papal dispensation. She died in 1411. Her surviving son, the 3rd Duke of York, was the father of both King Edward IV and King Richard III.
Richard also married Matilda (or Maud), daughter of Thomas, 6th Baron Clifford, but they had no children.
Richard, 3rd Duke of York
Richard's Seal of 1477 shows the simple Arms of a Duke of York of the times with the Label showing three Torteaux on each Point. His Arms are also known to have been marshalled as follows: Grand quarterly, 1st and 4th: The Royal Arms of England differenced by a Label of three Points argent each charged with three Torteaux (differenced Arms of his great-grandfather King Edward III), 2nd: Castile and León (for his grandmother, Isabella of Castile), 3rd: Mortimer quartering de Burgh (for his mother, Anne Mortimer); overall an Inescutcheon of Holland, Earl of Kent. The Inescutcheon of pretence showing the arms of the House of Holland, Earls of Kent, represents his claim to represent that family, derived from his maternal grandmother Eleanor (Alianore) Holland (1373-1405), one of the six daughters and eventual co-heiresses to their father Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (1350/4-1397) who was in turn a maternal half-brother of King Richard II. |
The death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1447 left York nearer in the line for succession to the Throne, but the Beauforts had him sent—virtually banished—to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. He returned to England in 1450 and led the opposition to Henry’s new chief minister, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.
When the King suffered a nervous breakdown in July 1453, Henry's ambitious Queen, Margaret of Anjou, backed by Somerset, claimed the regency, but her rule was so unpopular that Parliament appointed York Protector of the Realm in March 1454. York was hated and feared by Margaret because he was a potential rival to the Throne she hoped to obtain for her son, then an infant. Consequently, upon Henry’s recovery, in December 1454, Margaret persuaded him to dismiss York and restore Somerset to power. York immediately took up arms. At St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on 22nd May 1455, his forces killed Somerset in battle, and he had control of the government until Margaret again gained the upper hand in October 1456.
Hostilities between the two sides reopened late in 1459 and in July 1460 York’s able lieutenant Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeated the Lancastrians at Northampton and captured the King. A compromise was then worked out whereby Henry would remain king for life and York was to succeed him. But Margaret, who would never agree to the disinheritance of her son, raised a rebellion in northern England. York’s attempt to deal with her resulted in his death when he was attacked by the Lancastrians outside his castle near Wakefield. His son Edward seized power the following year as Edward IV.
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
Her husband was the leading contender for the Throne of England from the House of York during the Wars of the Roses until his death in 1460. Their son Edward assumed the throne as Edward IV the following year, after the deposition of King Henry VI, to avenge his father. Cecily therefore narrowly missed out on becoming queen consort of England. Although, she would live to see her great-niece, Anne Neville, marry her son Richard III, thereby also becoming her daughter-in-law as well as queen consort. She outlived all her sons, but would see her granddaughter, Elizabeth of York, marry Henry Tudor and live long enough to see the births of their first three children: Arthur, Margaret and Henry (later Henry VIII). Cecily marshalled her Neville Arms with her husband's York Arms. Strangely, Henry didn’t take on his Yorkist ancestors’ Label when he came to be made Duke of York, he took on the Lancastrian ermine Label… |
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
Thomas married Eleanor de Bohun in 1374, was given Pleshey Castle in Essex, and was appointed Constable of the Realm, a position previously held by the Bohuns. 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 and created Earl of Buckingham. On 22nd June 1380 he became Earl of Essex in right of his wife. In 1385, he received the title Duke of Aumale, and at about the same time was created Duke of Gloucester.
Thomas placed himself at the head of the party that was opposed to the advisers of King Richard II. known as the Lords Appellant. He was joined by Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and of Surrey; and Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. These were later joined by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (the future king Henry IV) and Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham. Richard II quickly regained control and eventually, in 1397, managed to dispose of the group. By 1396, Thomas and Richard were again at odds over policy. Thomas was arrested at his home by the King himself and was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason. 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.
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.
As he was attainted as a traitor, his dukedom of Gloucester was forfeit. The title Earl of Buckingham was inherited by his son, Humphrey, who died only two years after his father’s own death and left no heir. Humphrey's Arms were the same as his father's. Thomas of Woodstock's eldest daughter, Anne, married into the powerful Stafford family, who were Earls of Stafford. After her death in 1438, her son, Humphrey Stafford, was created Duke of Buckingham (as well as the other titles his mother inherited as co-heiress of his uncle) in 1444 and also inherited part of the de Bohun estates.