by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk wearing the collar of the Order of the Garter.; Credit – Wikipedia

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was the second of the two husbands of Mary Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England and sister of King Henry VIII of England. Brandon was born circa 1484, one of the four children of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn.

Charles Brandon had three siblings:

• Robert Brandon (1480 – ?)
• Catherine Brandon (circa 1484 – ?)
• William Brandon (circa 1476 – before 1485)

Charles Brandon’s father Sir William Brandon was the standard banner for Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (the future King Henry VII) from the House of Lancaster at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses. When King Richard III of England from the House of York, launched his final charge in the battle, he unhorsed but did not kill, Sir John Cheyne, a well-known jousting champion and Henry Tudor’s personal bodyguard. Sir William Brandon was then killed by King Richard III while defending the standard banner of Henry Tudor. Ultimately, the Battle of Bosworth resulted in King Richard III of England, losing his life and his crown. The battle was a decisive victory for the House of Lancaster, whose leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first monarch of the House of Tudor as King Henry VII of England.

In 1494, Charles Brandon’s mother died and the ten-year-old became an orphan. It is likely that Brandon’s uncle Sir Thomas Brandon, who acted as a diplomat for King Henry VII and was also Master of the Horse and a Knight of the Garter, arranged for his nephew to be raised at the court of King Henry VII. At court, Brandon would meet the future King Henry VIII, who was six years younger than Brandon. The two boys would connect due to their shared interests, especially jousting and real tennis, and a lifelong friendship developed. By the time King Henry VII died in 1509 and his son succeeded him as King Henry VIII, Brandon was already a favorite of the new king.

Before his 1515 marriage to Mary Tudor, Charles Brandon had two marriages and one contract to marry:

• 1507: Brandon married Margaret Neville, daughter of John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (killed at the Battle of Barnet) and Isabel Ingoldesthorpe, no children, the marriage was declared void about 1507 by the Archdeaconry Court of London, and later by a papal bull in 1528
• 1508: Brandon married Anne Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne and Eleanor Ughtred. Anne died in 1512. Brandon and Anne had two daughters:
  • Lady Anne Brandon (1507 – 1557), married (1) Edward Grey, 3rd Baron Grey of Powis, no children marriage dissolved (2) Randal Harworth, no children
  • Lady Mary Brandon (1510 – circa 1542), married Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle, had six children
• 1513: Brandon was contracted to marry Elizabeth Grey, 5th Baroness Lisle but the contract was annulled

On March 4, 1514, King Henry VIII created Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk. At that time, there were only two other Dukes in the Kingdom of England. That same year, King Henry VIII negotiated a peace treaty with France that included the marriage of his 18-year-old sister Mary Tudor and the 52-year-old twice-married King Louis XII of France who was eager to have a son to succeed him. Mary was not thrilled at the prospect of marrying a sick old man, especially since she was already in love with Charles Brandon. Apparently, Mary made her brother promise that if she should survive Louis XII, she could choose her second husband.

Mary’s marriage to King Louis XII of France did not last long. Louis XII died on January 1, 1515, just three months after the wedding. As he had no son, he was succeeded by his son-in-law François d’Angoulême from the House of Valois-Angoulême as King François I of France. Mary was aware that the new King of France would like her to marry a Frenchman to keep her dowry in France. However, she confided in François I that she wished to marry Charles Brandon and he agreed to help her. First, Mary had to follow the French royal custom of a widowed queen observing a 40-day mourning period. She spent the mourning period at the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris with darkened windows and candlelight. She was also observed to see if she was pregnant with the future heir to the throne.

Wedding portrait of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, attributed to Jan Gossaert, circa 1515; Credit – Wikipedia

Henry VIII sent Charles Brandon to France to bring his sister back to England, and he made Brandon promise that he would not propose to Mary. Once in France, Brandon was persuaded by Mary to abandon this pledge. On March 3, 1515, Mary secretly married Charles Brandon at the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris in the presence of ten people including King François I of France. Technically, this was treason as Brandon had married a royal princess without the king’s consent. Mary and Brandon returned to England to face the wrath of her brother. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey managed to calm down King Henry VIII although some members of the Privy Council wanted Brandon imprisoned or executed. Over a period of time, Mary and Brandon had to pay a £24,000 fine, approximately £7,200,000 today. The fine was later reduced by Henry VIII. The couple was married again in the presence of King Henry VIII at the Grey Friar’s Church in Greenwich on May 13, 1515.

Charles Brandon and Mary spent most of their time at Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk, England. They also had a London residence, Suffolk Place. Brandon’s daughters from his marriage to Anne Browne, Lady Anne Brandon and Lady Mary Brandon, lived with them at Mary’s insistence.

Brandon and Mary had four two sons and two daughters but only their daughters survived childhood :

• Henry Brandon (1516 – 1522), died in childhood
• Lady Frances Brandon (1517 – 1559), married (1) Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, had three daughters including the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey (2) Adrian Stokes, had three children who all died in infancy
• Lady Eleanor Brandon (1519 – 1547), married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, two sons and one daughter, only the daughter survived childhood
• Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln (c. 1523 – 1534), died in childhood

Mary opposed her brother’s attempt to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. Mary had known Catherine for many years and had a great fondness for her. She had developed a strong dislike for Anne Boleyn when Anne had served as one of her maids of honor in France.

Mary’s health began to suffer around the time King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn married. There were rumors that the coronation of Anne Boleyn on June 1, 1533, broke Mary’s heart. She died at Westhorpe Hall on June 25, 1533, at the age of 37, and was originally buried in the Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. In 1538, when the Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds was dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Mary’s coffin was brought to St. Mary’s Church in Bury St. Edmunds where it still rests in the crypt.

Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, Duchess of Suffolk, drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger; Credit – Wikipedia

Less than two months after the death of Mary Tudor, Charles Brandon married again. His fourth and final wife was Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. Katherine was the only child of William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, and therefore was his heir. Her mother was Willoughby’s second wife María de Salinas, the Spanish-born lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. After her father’s death in 1526, seven-year-old Katherine became a ward of King Henry VIII. Two years later, Henry VIII sold the wardship, not an unusual occurrence, to Brandon. Katherine Willoughby grew up with Brandon’s children and it was common knowledge that the wealthy heiress would be betrothed to Brandon’s son Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln. When Mary Tudor died, Katherine Willoughby was one of the chief mourners at her funeral. Not wanting to risk losing Katherine’s lands and wealth because his son Henry was too young to marry, Brandon married Katherine himself. Although at the time of their marriage, Brandon was forty-nine and Katherine only fourteen, the marriage was a successful one.

Miniature of Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk by Hans Holbein the Younger, circa 1541; Credit – Wikipedia

Charles Brandon and Katherine had two sons who both died on the same day of the sweating sickness, six years after their father’s death:

• Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk (1535 – 1551) died in his teens
• Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk (1537 – 1551) died in his teens an hour after his older brother

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was a military commander, was created a Knight of the Garter in 1513, and held several political positions during the reign of King Henry VIII:

• Earl Marshal 1524 – 1533
• Lord President of the Privy Council (1530 – 1545)
• Justice in Eyre (1534 – 1545)
• Lord Steward (1541 – 1544)

Throughout the reign of King Henry VIII, Charles Brandon remained close to the king, acting as a companion at court and often accompanying him on his travels. He accompanied Henry VIII to his famous 1520 summit with King François I of France known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1536, Brandon stood at the scaffold at the Tower of London, representing Henry VIII, at the execution of Anne Boleyn. Brandon led action against the 1536 – 1537 Pilgrimage of Grace, a protest against Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry VIII gave Brandon a large amount of church property that had been confiscated during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Gravemarker of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk; Credit – Credit – https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/charles-brandon-duke-of-suffolk/

During the summer of 1545, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was part of King Henry VIII’s entourage during a hunting progress. On August 24, 1545, Brandon, aged 60 – 61, died suddenly while the hunting progress was at Guildford Castle in Surrey, England. Henry VIII was grief-stricken at the loss of one of his oldest and most loyal friends. He arranged and paid for the burial of Brandon in the south quire aisle of St. George Chapel, Windsor Castle in Windsor, England. 18th-century historian Joseph Pote wrote regarding Brandon’s grave, “Nothing remains to distinguish the Grave of this noble Duke but a rude brick pavement.” Finally, in 1787, during the reign of King George III, it was “ordered that leave be given to lay a stone above the grave of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, according to His Majesty’s directions”. The gravemarker was put in place by architect Henry Emlyn while conducting a restoration of St. George’s Chapel in 1787 – 1790 that included the repaving of the quire aisles and nave.

Miniature of Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk by Hans Holbein the Younger; Credit – Wikipedia

After Charles Brandon’s death, his 26-year-old widow Katherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk married Richard Bertie, a member of her household, out of love and shared religious beliefs. Katherine and Richard Bertie had one daughter and one son. Katharine survived her first husband Charles Brandon by thirty-five years, dying on September 19, 1580, aged 61, at her family home Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, England which still remains in the Willoughby de Eresby family. Her son with Richard Bertie, Peregrine Bertie, inherited her title as the 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• Charles Brandon, 1. Duke of Suffolk (2022) Wikipedia (German). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brandon,_1._Duke_of_Suffolk (Accessed: March 5, 2023).
• Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brandon,_1st_Duke_of_Suffolk (Accessed: March 5, 2023).
• Cracknell, Eleanor. (2013) Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, College of St George. Available at: https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/charles-brandon-duke-of-suffolk/ (Accessed: March 5, 2023).
• DeLisle, Leanda. (2013) Tudor – Passion, Manipulation, Murder. New York: PublicAffairs.
• Flantzer, Susan. (2016) Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Duchess of Suffolk, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/mary-tudor-queen-of-france-duchess-of-suffolk/ (Accessed: March 5, 2023).
• Perry, Maria. (1998) The Sisters of Henry VIII. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
• Sir William Brandon, Kt. (2022) geni_family_tree. Available at: https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-William-Brandon-Kt/6000000006444764167 (Accessed: March 5, 2023).
• Weir, Alison. (2001) Henry VIII – The King and His Court. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Tomb effigy of Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond; Credit – Wikipedia

The father of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch of England and the ancestor of the British royal family and most other European royal families, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond was born circa 1430, at Much Hadham Palace in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Owen ap Maredudd ap Tudor, better known as Owen Tudor, and Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England, the widow of King Henry V of England. Edmund’s paternal grandparents were Maredudd ap Tudur and Margaret ferch Dafydd. Edmund’s maternal grandparents were  King Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria.

Edmund’s paternal grandfather Maredudd ap Tudur, a Welsh soldier and nobleman, was a descendant of the great Welsh prince, Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great), Prince of Gwynedd and Prince of Powys Wenwynwyn. Llywelyn Fawr was the longest-reigning ruler of Welsh principalities, maintaining control for 45 years. In 1216, Llewelyn Fawr received the fealty of the other Welsh lords and although he never used the title, he was the de facto Prince of Wales.

Edmund’s mother Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Through his mother, the French princess, Catherine of Valois, Edmund was a descendant of the Kings of France. Most notable of his mother’s siblings are Edmund’s uncle King Charles VII of France who was helped by Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years War while he was Dauphin of France (heir to the French throne), and Edmund’s aunt Isabella of Valois who was the second wife and widow of King Richard II of England.

16th-century portrait of King Henry VI of England, Edmund’s half-brother; Credit – Wikipedia

Edmund had one half-brother through his mother’s marriage to King Henry V of England:

• King Henry VI of England (1421 – 1471), married Margaret of Anjou, had one child Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales who died at the Battle of Tewkesbury during the Wars of the Roses

King Henry V of England, the husband of Edmund’s mother Catherine of Valois, died on August 31, 1422, of dysentery, nine days before his 36th birthday. His only child King Henry VI, at the age of nine months, started his 40 years on the throne and Henry V’s wife Catherine was left a widow at the age of 21. Because Catherine was still quite marriageable, a bill was passed in Parliament setting the rules for the remarriage of a queen dowager. The bill stated that if a queen dowager married without the king’s consent, her husband would lose his lands and possessions, but that any children of the marriage would not suffer any consequences. Permission to marry could only be granted once the king had reached his majority. As King Henry VI was only nine months old, Catherine of Valois had years before she could legally marry.

With Catherine being a young widow and with apparently no chance of remarriage, it should not seem unusual that an amorous relationship would be likely. Owen Tudor was a Welsh soldier and courtier who served in Catherine’s household and their relationship began when Catherine was living at Windsor Castle. There is much debate as to whether Catherine and Owen married. No documentation of marriage exists and even if they did marry, their marriage would not have been legal due to the act regarding the remarriage of a queen dowager. From the relationship between Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois descended King Henry VII of England and the Tudor dynasty. Through Henry VII’s daughter Margaret Tudor descended the British royal family and many other European royal families.

Edmund’s brother Jasper Tudor and his wife, stained glass window at Cardiff Castle in Wales; Credit – By Wolfgang Sauber – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16924086

It is uncertain how many children Edmund’s parents had. The following three siblings of Edmund can be verified:

• Owen Tudor (1429 – 1502), also known as Thomas and Edward, a monk at Westminster Abbey
• Jasper Tudor, 1st Earl of Pembroke and 1st Duke of Bedford (1431 – 1495), married Catherine Woodville (sister of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV of England), no children, Jasper helped to raise Edmund’s son, the future King Henry VII
• Margaret Tudor (born before January 1437), died in infancy

When Edmund was about seven-years-old, his mother Catherine of Valois died at the Abbey of St. Saviour in Bermondsey, London, England on January 3, 1437, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. After her death, her two sons Edmund and Jasper went to live with Katherine de la Pole, Abbess of Barking, sister of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Katherine de la Pole persuaded King Henry VI to take an interest in his half-brothers. King Henry VI gave his half-brother Edmund numerous estates, appointed him to the Privy Council, and created him Earl of Richmond.

In February 1453, Margaret Beauchamp, widow of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, brought her ten-year-old daughter Lady Margaret Beaufort to the royal court. Through her father, Margaret Beaufort was a descendant of King Edward III of England. Her grandfather John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset was the eldest child of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (King Edward III’s son), and his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he married in 1396. At the time of Margaret’s birth, her father had negotiated with King Henry VI that in the event of his death, the rights of Margaret’s wardship and marriage would be granted to her mother but the king reneged and instead granted her rights that came with her extensive land holdings to William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, a favorite of King Henry VI. In early 1450, the Duke of Suffolk married six-year-old Margaret to his seven-year-old son John de la Pole, later 2nd Duke of Suffolk. Three years later, the marriage was annulled and King Henry VI granted Margaret’s wardship to his half-brothers Edmund Tudor and Jaspar Tudor.

Even before the annulment of her first marriage, Lady Margaret Beaufort was chosen by King Henry VI as the bride for his half-brother Edmund Tudor. On November 1, 1455, at Bletsoe Castle in Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, England, 25-year-old Edmund married twelve-year-old Margaret. The Wars of the Roses, the fight for the English throne between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, had just started and Edmund, a Lancastrian, was taken prisoner by the Yorkists less than a year later. He died of the plague in captivity at Carmarthen Castle in Wales on November 3, 1456, leaving a 13-year-old widow who was seven months pregnant with their child, the future King Henry VII.

Tomb of Edmund Tudor at St. David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales; Credit – Wikipedia

Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond was initially buried in a prominent tomb in the center of the choir of the Grey Friars Church in Carmarthen, Wales. In 1539, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the reign of his grandson King Henry VIII, before the Grey Friars Church in Carmarthen was deconsecrated and repurposed, the tomb and the remains of Edmund Tudor were moved to St. David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales and placed in front of the high altar.

Pembroke Castle where Lady Margaret Beaufort gave birth to Edmund Tudor’s posthumous son, King Henry VII; Credit – By Aled Evans – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53306498

At the time of Henry Tudor’s birth, the Wars of the Roses was two years old, and his mother, a descendant of the House of Lancaster, was living at Pembroke Castle in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales under the protection of her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor. Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, was born on January 28, 1457, at Pembroke Castle. At birth, Henry succeeded to his father’s title Earl of Richmond. The birth was a difficult one and apparently, it left Margaret unable to have any more children. Jasper Tudor brought up his nephew Henry in Wales, and from 1461 – 1485, when the House of York held the English throne, Henry lived in exile in France under the protection of François II, Duke of Brittany.

Lady Margaret Beaufort, wife of Edmund Tudor and mother of King Henry VII; Credit – Wikipedia

Although her husband Edmund Tudor was long-dead, Lady Margaret Beaufort lived to see their son Henry Tudor defeat the Yorkist King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and become King of England. Edmund and Margaret’s son married Elizabeth of York, daughter of the Yorkist King Edward IV, melding the House of Lancaster and the House of York into the new House of Tudor which reigned in England until 1603. As the second lady in the land, Margaret was referred to as “My Lady the King’s Mother.” Margaret was alive for the birth of all seven of her grandchildren but only three survived into adulthood, her namesake Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots, King Henry VIII of England, and Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Duchess of Suffolk.

The health of Edmund and Margaret’s son King Henry VII’s health began to fail in 1507, and he died at Richmond Palace on April 21, 1509, at the age of 52. His mother Margaret was the executor of his will and arranged her son’s funeral and her grandson’s coronation. On June 23, 1509, Margaret watched the coronation procession of her grandson King Henry VIII from a window. Six days later, the day after King Henry VIII’s eighteenth birthday, Lady Margaret Beaufort died in the Deanery of Westminster Abbey at the age of 66. She was buried at Westminster Abbey near the tombs of her son and daughter-in-law King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Tomb of Lady Margaret Beaufort, wife of Edmund Tudor and mother of King Henry VII; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• DeLisle, Leanda. (2013) Tudor – Passion, Manipulation, Murder. New York: PublicAffairs.
• Edmund Tudor, 1. Earl of Richmond (2021) Wikipedia (German). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Tudor,_1._Earl_of_Richmond (Accessed: February 21, 2023).
• Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Tudor,_1st_Earl_of_Richmond (Accessed: February 21, 2023).
• Flantzer, Susan. (2013) Catherine of Valois, Queen of England, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/catherine-of-valois-queen-of-england/ (Accessed: February 21, 2023).
• Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/lady-margaret-beaufort-countess-of-richmond-and-derby/ (Accessed: February 21, 2023).
• Owen Tudor (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Tudor (Accessed: February 21, 2023).
• Weir, Alison. (1989) Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books.
• Williamson, David. (1996) Brewer’s British Royalty: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. London: Cassell.

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Joan Beaufort; Credit – www.findagrave.com

Joan Beaufort was the only daughter and the youngest of the four children of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he later married in 1396. Joan was born circa 1379, possibly at Kettlethorpe Hall in Kettlethorpe, Lincolnshire, England, a property that had belonged to the first husband of Joan’s mother, Sir Hugh Swynford who had died in 1371.

Joan’s mother Katherine Swynford; Credit – http://kettlethorpechurch.co.uk/katherine-swynford/

Joan Beaufort’s paternal grandparents were King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England. Her maternal grandmother is unknown but her maternal grandfather was Paon de Roet, a knight from the County of Hainault (now part of Belgium and France) who first came to England in 1328 when Philippa of Hainault married King Edward III of England.

Joan’s father John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster; Credit – Wikipedia

All British monarchs since King Henry IV are descended from John of Gaunt. In fact, most European monarchies are descended from John. The Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor were all descended from John of Gaunt’s children:

• King Henry IV (Lancaster: father of King Henry V, grandfather of King Henry VI)
• Joan Beaufort (York: grandmother of King Edward IV and King Richard III)
• John Beaufort (Tudor: great-grandfather of King Henry VII)

During the Wars of the Roses, the battle for the English throne pitted the House of Lancaster and the House of York against each other. Note in the lists of descendants below, the several family members who were killed in battle or executed during the Wars of the Roses.

Joan had three elder brothers:

• John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (circa 1373 – 1410), married Margaret Holland, had at least six children
• Henry, Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (circa 1375 – 1447), unmarried
• Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (circa 1377–1426), married Margaret Neville of Horneby, one son who died young

Joan had three half-siblings from her mother’s first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford (circa 1340 – 1371), a knight in service to John of Gaunt:

• Blanche Swynford (1367 – circa 1374), died in childhood
• Sir Thomas Swynford (1368 – 1432), married (1) Jane Crophill, had three children (2) Margaret Grey, no children
• Margaret Swynford (born c. 1369), became a nun at Barking Abbey in 1377 with help from her future stepfather John of Gaunt, where she lived the religious life with her cousin Elizabeth Chaucer, daughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and Katherine’s sister Philippa de Roet

King Henry IV of England, Joan’s half-brother from her father’s first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster; Credit – Wikipedia

Joan had seven half-siblings from her father’s first marriage to the wealthy heiress Blanche of Lancaster:

• Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal (1360 – 1415), married King João I of Portugal, had nine children
• John of Lancaster (c.1362/1364), died in infancy
• Elizabeth of Lancaster (1364 – 1426), married (1) John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke  (2) John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, had six children  (3) John Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope, had two children
• Edward of Lancaster (born and died 1365)
• John (born and died 1366), died in early infancy
• King Henry IV of England (1367 – 1413), married (1) Mary de Bohun, had six children including King Henry V of England  (2)  Joanna of Navarre, no children
• Isabella of Lancaster (born 1368), died young

The effigy of Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile, Joan’s half-sister from her father’s second marriage to Constance of Castile; Credit – Wikipedia

Joan had two half-siblings from her father’s second marriage to Infanta Constance of Castile:

• Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile (1372 – 1418), married King Enrique III of Castile and León, had three children. Through their son Juan II of Castile, Catherine and Enrique III are the grandparents of Isabella I, Queen of Castile and great-grandparents of Catherine of Aragon (daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England.
• John of Lancaster (1374 – 1375), died in infancy

Joan and her siblings likely spent their early years at Kettlethorpe Hall in Kettlethorpe, Lincolnshire, England, a property that had belonged to the first husband of John’s mother, Sir Hugh Swynford who had died in 1371. Kettlethorpe was a small, quiet village, close to the city of Lincoln but 150 miles from London. It would have been a perfect place for John of Gaunt to carry on a discreet affair and have his illegitimate children raised as he had made a second marriage in 1371 and Katherine was a recent widow.

Two years after the death of his second wife Constance of Castile, John of Gaunt married his mistress Katherine Swynford, Joan Beaufort’s mother, on January 13, 1396, at Lincoln Cathedral in England. After the marriage of Katherine and John, their four children were legitimized by both John of Gaunt’s nephew King Richard II of England and Pope Boniface IX. After Henry Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s eldest son by his first wife Blanche of Lancaster, deposed his first cousin King Richard II in 1399, and became King Henry IV, he inserted the Latin phrase excepta regali dignitate (except royal status) in the documents that had legitimized his Beaufort half-siblings and supposedly that phrase barred them from the throne. However, many disputed and still dispute the authority of a monarch to alter an existing parliamentary statute on his or her own authority, without the further approval of Parliament.

John of Gaunt treated his Beaufort children as cherished members of the family but he was careful that the provisions he made for them would not interfere with the Lancaster inheritance reserved for his legitimate children. Instead, he found other forms of income for them through marriages and for his second son Henry, through the church. Because of John of Gaunt’s cautions, his Beaufort children were held in great affection by their half-siblings.

When Joan was seven-years-old, she was betrothed to 13-year-old Robert Ferrers of Wem (circa 1373 – 1396), the heir of his mother Elizabeth Boteler, 4th Baroness Boteler of Wem. Joan and Robert were married in 1391 or 1392, and the couple remained in the household of John of Gaunt. Robert predeceased his mother, dying sometime between May 1395 and November 1396.

Joan and Robert had two daughters:

• Elizabeth Ferrers (1393 – 1474), married John de Greystoke, 4th Baron Greystoke, had twelve children
• Mary Ferrers (1394 – 1458), married her stepbrother Sir Ralph Neville, had two children

Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland with twelve of his twenty-two children, from the Neville Book of Hours, circa 1427-1432; Credit – Wikipedia

In November 1396, Joan married the recently widowed Ralph Neville, then 4th Baron Neville de Raby, after 1397, 1st Earl of Westmorland. Ralph was the son of John Neville, 3th Baron Neville de Raby and Maud Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy of Alnwick. The seventeen-year-old Joan immediately became the stepmother to Neville’s eight children by his first wife Margaret Stafford who died on June 9, 1396. Joan and Ralph lived primarily at Raby Castle near Staindrop in County Durham, England.

Joan’s eight stepchildren, the children of her second husband Ralph Neville:

• Maud Neville (circa 1383 – 1438), married Peter Mauley, 5th Baron Mauley, had two daughters
• Alice Neville (circa 1384 – circa 1434), married (1) Sir Thomas Grey, had nine children, beheaded for his part in the Southampton Plot (2) Sir Gilbert Lancaster, had one son
• Philippa Neville (1386 – circa 1453) married Thomas Dacre, 6th Baron Dacre of Gilsland, had nin children
• Sir John Neville (circa 1387 – circa 1420), Elizabeth Holland, had three sons and a daughter
• Elizabeth Neville, a nun
• Anne Neville (circa 1384 – 1421), married Sir Gilbert Umfraville (died at the Battle of Baugé in Anjou during the Hundred Years’ War), no children
• Sir Ralph Neville (circa 1392 – 1458), married his step-sister Mary Ferrers, daughter of Robert Ferrers of Wem and Joan Beaufort, had five children
• Margaret Neville (circa 1396 – circa 1463), married (1) Richard Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Bolton, had three children (2) William Cressener, had three sons

Joan Beaufort and her six daughters from her second marriage, from the Neville Book of Hours, circa 1427-1432; Credit – Wikipedia

Joan and Ralph had fourteen children:

• Lady Katherine Neville (circa 1397 – circa 1483), married (1) John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, had one son (2) Sir Thomas Strangways, had two daughters (3) John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont, killed in the Battle of Northampton during the Wars of the Roses, no children (4) Sir John Woodville, brother of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of the Yorkist King Edward IV. The marriage was considered a grab for money and power as Katherine was 65 and John was 19. After the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Edgecote during the Wars of the Roses in 1469, John and his father were taken prisoners, given a quick trial, and beheaded.
• Lady Eleanor Neville (circa 1398 – 1472), married (1) Richard le Despenser, 4th Baron Burghersh, no children (2) Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, killed during the First Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses, had ten children including four sons who died in battle during the Wars of the Roses
• Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury (1400 – 1460), married Alice Montagu, 5th Countess of Salisbury in her own right, had twelve children including Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, The Kingmaker, an important figure during the Wars of the Roses. After the defeat of the Yorkists at the Battle of Wakefield during the Wars of the Roses, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury escaped the battlefield but was captured, taken to the Lancastrian camp, and beheaded.
• Henry Neville (born and died circa 1402), died in infancy
• Robert Neville, Bishop of Durham (1404 – 1457)
• William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent (circa 1405 – 1463), married Joan de Fauconberg, 6th Baroness Fauconberg in her own right, had five children
• John Neville (born and died circa 1406), died in infancy
• George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer (circa 1407 – 1469), married Lady Elizabeth de Beauchamp, had four children
• Lady Anne Neville (circa 1408 – 1480), married (1) Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, killed at the Battle of Northampton during the Wars of the Roses, had twelve children (2) Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy, no children
• Thomas Neville (born circa 1410), died in childhood
• Cuthbert Neville (born and died circa 1411), died in infancy
• Joan Neville (circa 1412 – 1453), became a nun of the Order of St. Clare
• Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny (circa 1414 – 1476), married (1) Elizabeth de Beauchamp, had four children (2) Katherine Howard, had three children
• Lady Cecily Neville (1415 – 1495) married Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the Yorkist claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses who was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, had twelve children including King Edward IV and King Richard III

Ralph Neville was initially loyal to Joan’s first cousin King Richard II and secured the English northern border with Scotland for him. As a reward, Ralph was created Earl of Westmorland in 1397. However, after Richard II was deposed in 1399 by his first cousin Henry Bolingbroke, Ralph gave his loyalty to the new King Henry IV, Joan’s half-brother. For his support of the new king, Ralph was rewarded with a lifetime appointment as Earl Marshal in 1399, although he resigned the office in 1412.

In 1403, Ralph was created a Knight of the Garter. He was important to his wife’s half-brother King Henry IV and then to Henry IV’s son King Henry V as a reliable ally in the troubled north of England. Because of Joan’s royal connections and dynastic importance, Ralph decided in 1404 to disinherit his children from his first marriage in favor of his children from his second marriage. This created a long dispute called the Neville–Neville Feud that took years to settle.

In 1423, Ralph and Joan took Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the orphaned heir of the House of York, into their household as a royal ward. Richard’s mother Anne de Mortimer had died due to childbirth complications shortly after Richard’s birth. It was through his mother, a descendant of Edward III’s second surviving son Lionel of Antwerp that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne. Richard’s father Richard of Conisbrough, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, a grandson of King Edward III, died in 1415. Within a few months of his father’s death, Richard’s childless uncle, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and so Richard inherited his uncle’s title and lands, becoming the 3rd Duke of York. From 1415 – 1423, Richard had been the royal ward of Robert Waterton.

Eventually, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York married Ralph and Joan’s youngest child Cecily, and they were the parents of the Yorkist Kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III. Richard, 3rd Duke of York was the Yorkist claimant to the English throne during the Wars of the Roses until he was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. Richard and Cecily’s eldest son Edward, Earl of March, the future King Edward IV, then became the leader of the Yorkist faction.

The Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Staindrop that Ralph built; Credit – By George Ford, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9172971

After the early death of thirty-five-year-old King Henry V in 1422, and the accession of his nine-month-old only child as King Henry VI, Ralph served on the regency council of the young king. In addition to his political activities, Ralph built several churches including the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Staindrop, County Durham, England where his primary home Raby Castle was located. He was buried at the Collegiate Church of St. Mary after his death on October 21, 1425, at the age of about 61. Ralph’s tomb contains effigies of himself and his two wives but neither wife is buried there.

Tomb of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland with the effigy of his second wife Joan Beaufort. The effigy of Ralph’s first wife Margaret Stafford lies on his right side. Neither wife is buried with him. Credit – www.findagrave.com

Joan survived her husband Ralph by fifteen years, dying on November 13, 1440, aged 60-61, in Howden, Yorkshire, England. Although Joan had built a chantry in 1437 for her second husband Ralph and herself at the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Staindrop, she decided that she wanted to be buried near her mother Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster at Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England.

Tombs of Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland on the left and her mother Katherine Swyford, Duchess of Lancaster on the right (behind the chairs); Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Beaufort,_Countess_of_Westmorland> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Neville,_1st_Earl_of_Westmorland> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2017. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/john-of-gaunt-1st-duke-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2022. Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/katherine-swynford-duchess-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• geni_family_tree. 2022. Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, 4th Baron Neville de Raby. [online] Available at: <https://www.geni.com/people/Ralph-Neville-1st-Earl-of-Westmorland-4th-Baron-Neville-de-Raby/6000000001069437500> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• Jones, Dan, 2012. The Plantagenets. New York: Viking.
• Ru.wikipedia.org. 2022. Бофорт, Джоан — Википедия. [online] Available at: <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82,_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%B0%D0%BD> [Accessed 1 July 2022].
• Weir, Alison, 2009. Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Williamson, David, 1996. Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Tomb effigy of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset; Credit – www.findagrave.com

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset is significant in the history of British and Scottish royal genealogy. The Tudor dynasty was directly descended from him as he was the great-grandfather of King Henry VII of England. Henry VII based his claim to the English throne on the descent of his mother (and John’s granddaughter) Lady Margaret Beaufort from John of Gaunt, a son of King Edward III of England. John Beaufort’s daughter Joan Beaufort married James I, King of Scots, and was an ancestor of the Scots House of Stuart and the English House of Stuart.

All British monarchs since King Henry IV are descended from John of Gaunt. In fact, most European monarchies are descended from John. The Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor were all descended from John of Gaunt’s children:

• King Henry IV (Lancaster: father of King Henry V, grandfather of King Henry VI)
• Joan Beaufort (York: grandmother of King Edward IV and King Richard III)
• John Beaufort (Tudor: great-grandfather of King Henry VII)

During the Wars of the Roses, the battle for the English throne pitted the House of Lancaster and the House of York against each other.

John’s father John of Gaunt; Credit – Wikipedia

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset was the eldest of the three sons and the eldest of the four children of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom he later married in 1396. John was born circa 1373. The surname of John and his three siblings is derived from the now-demolished Beaufort Castle, a property in Champagne, France that John of Gaunt had sold years before. John of Gaunt likely felt it was a safe name to give to his illegitimate children by Katherine Swynford.

John’s mother Katherine Swynford; Credit – http://kettlethorpechurch.co.uk/katherine-swynford/

John Beaufort’s paternal grandparents were King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England. His maternal grandmother is unknown but his maternal grandfather was Paon de Roet, a knight from the County of Hainault (now part of Belgium and France) who first came to England in 1328 when Philippa of Hainault married King Edward III of England.

John had three younger siblings:

• Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (circa 1375 – 1447), unmarried
• Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (circa 1377–1426), married Margaret Neville of Horneby, one son who died young
• Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland (circa 1379–1440), married (1) Robert Ferrers, 5th Baron Boteler of Wem, had two daughters (2) Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, had fourteen children. Through their daughter Cecily Neville, Joan and Ralph were the maternal grandparents of two English kings from the House of York, the brothers King Edward IV and King Richard III.

John had three half-siblings from his mother’s first marriage to Sir Hugh Swynford (circa 1340 – 1371), a knight in service to John of Gaunt:

• Blanche Swynford (1367 – circa 1374), died in childhood
• Sir Thomas Swynford (1368 – 1432), married (1) Jane Crophill, had three children (2) Margaret Grey, no children
• Margaret Swynford (born c. 1369), became a nun at Barking Abbey in 1377 with help from her future stepfather John of Gaunt, where she lived the religious life with her cousin Elizabeth Chaucer, daughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and Katherine’s sister Philippa de Roet

King Henry IV of England, John’s half-brother from his father’s first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster; Credit – Wikipedia

John had seven half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to the wealthy heiress Blanche of Lancaster:

• Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal (1360 – 1415), married King João I of Portugal, had nine children
• John of Lancaster (c.1362/1364), died in infancy
• Elizabeth of Lancaster (1364 – 1426), married (1) John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke  (2) John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, had six children  (3) John Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope, had two children
• Edward of Lancaster (born and died 1365)
• John (born and died 1366), died in early infancy
• King Henry IV of England (1367 – 1413), married (1) Mary de Bohun, had six children including King Henry V of England  (2)  Joanna of Navarre, no children
• Isabella of Lancaster (born 1368), died young

The effigy of Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile, John’s half-sister from his father’s second marriage to Constance of Castile; Credit – Wikipedia

John had two half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Infanta Constance of Castile:

• Catherine of Lancaster, Queen of Castile (1372 – 1418), married King Enrique III of Castile and León, had three children. Through their son Juan II of Castile, Catherine and Enrique III are the grandparents of Isabella I, Queen of Castile and great-grandparents of Catherine of Aragon (daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England.
• John of Lancaster (1374 – 1375), died in infancy

John and his siblings likely spent their early years at Kettlethorpe Hall in Kettlethorpe, Lincolnshire, England, a property that had belonged to the first husband of John’s mother, Sir Hugh Swynford who had died in 1371. Kettlethorpe was a small, quiet village, close to the city of Lincoln but 150 miles from London. It would have been a perfect place for John of Gaunt to carry on a discreet affair and have his illegitimate children raised as he had made a second marriage in 1371 and Katherine was a recent widow.

John of Gaunt treated his Beaufort children as cherished members of the family but he was careful that the provisions he made for them would not interfere with the Lancaster inheritance reserved for his legitimate children. Instead, he found other forms of income for them through marriages and for his second son Henry, through the church. Because of John of Gaunt’s cautions, his Beaufort children were held in great affection by their half-siblings.

Two years after the death of his second wife Constance of Castile, John of Gaunt married his mistress Katherine Swynford, John Beaufort’s mother, on January 13, 1396, at Lincoln Cathedral in England. After the marriage of Katherine and John, their four children were legitimized by both John of Gaunt’s nephew King Richard II of England and Pope Boniface IX. After Henry Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s eldest son by his first wife Blanche of Lancaster, deposed his first cousin King Richard II in 1399, and became King Henry IV, he inserted the phrase excepta regali dignitate (“except royal status”) in the documents that had legitimized his Beaufort half-siblings and supposedly that phrase barred them from the throne. However, many disputed and still dispute the authority of a monarch to alter an existing parliamentary statute on his or her own authority, without the further approval of Parliament.

Shortly after John Beaufort was legitimized, he was created Earl of Somerset. During the summer of 1397, he was one of the noblemen who helped King Richard II free himself from the power of the Lords Appellant. As a reward, John was created Marquess of Somerset and Marquess of Dorset and was made a Knight of the Garter.

Since John Beaufort was the first cousin of King Richard II and the half-brother of King Henry IV, he held several important appointments:

• Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
• Admiral of the West
• Admiral of the Irish Fleet
• Lieutenant of Aquitaine
• Admiral of the North and Western Fleets
• Lord High Constable of England

Effigy of Margaret Holland; Credit – www.geni.com

On September 27, 1397, John Beaufort married Margaret Holland (1385 – 1439), the niece of John’s first cousin King Richard II of England. Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Alice FitzAlan. Like her husband, Margaret was also descended from English royalty. Her father’s mother was Joan of Kent, 4th Countess of Kent, Princess of Wales, a granddaughter of King Edward I of England. Margaret descended from Joan’s first marriage with Thomas Holland 1st Earl of Kent. Joan’s second husband was Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) who predeceased his father King Edward III of England. Joan and her second husband were the parents of King Richard II of England, the half-brother of Margaret Holland’s father Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent.

John Beaufort and Margaret Holland had six children:

• Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset (1401 – 1418), unmarried, was killed at the Siege of Rouen during the Hundred Years’ War
• John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (1404 – 1444), married Margaret Beauchamp, had one daughter Lady Margaret Beaufort who married Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. Their son Henry Tudor was King Henry VII of England, the first monarch from the House of Tudor
• Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scotland (1404 – 1445), married (1) James I, King of Scots, had eight children including James II, King of Scots (2) Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorne, had three children
• Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche (1405 – 1431), unmarried, was killed at the Siege of Louviers during the Hundred Years’ War
• Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406 – 1455), married Eleanor Beauchamp, had ten children, Edmund was killed fighting on the Lancastrian side in the First Battle of St. Albans, which traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses
• Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon (1409 – 1449) married Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, had three sons and six daughters, two sons were executed and one was killed in battle during the Wars of the Roses due to their strong strong support for the Lancastrian cause

After John’s first cousin King Richard II was deposed by John’s half-brother Henry Bolingbroke, in 1399, the new King Henry IV rescinded the titles that had been given to those nobles who had helped King Richard II free himself from the power of the Lords Appellant. John Beaufort lost his Marquess of Dorset title and was demoted from Marquess of Somerset back to Earl of Somerset. Despite this, John was loyal to his half-brother, serving in various military commands and on important diplomatic missions.

John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset died on March 16, 1410, aged about thirty-seven, at the Royal Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower, a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London. He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England near the tomb of his uncle Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, a final resting place probably chosen by his half-brother King Henry IV who was buried there himself in 1413.

Tomb of John Beaufort 1st Earl of Somerset, Margaret Holland, and Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence; Credit – https://thehistoryjar.com/tag/john-beaufort/

After his death, John Beaufort’s wife Margaret Holland married his nephew Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence (1387 – 1421), the son of King Henry IV, but they had no children. Margaret’s second husband died, aged thirty-three, on March 22, 1421, at the Battle of Baugé during the Hundred Years’ War in Anjou, France. Margaret survived both her husbands, dying on December 30, 1439, aged fifty-four, at St. Saviour’s Abbey, Bermondsey, in London, England. Margaret and both her husbands are buried together in a carved alabaster tomb in St. Michael’s Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England. Atop the tomb is an effigy with Margaret lying between her two husbands.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Beaufort,_1st_Earl_of_Somerset> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2022. Margaret Holland, Duchess of Clarence – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Holland,_Duchess_of_Clarence> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2017. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/john-of-gaunt-1st-duke-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2022. Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/katherine-swynford-duchess-of-lancaster/> [Accessed 29 June 2022].
• Jones, Dan, 2012. The Plantagenets. New York: Viking.
• Weir, Alison, 2009. Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Williamson, David, 1996. Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.