Richard FitzRoy, Illegitimate Son of King John of England

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Richard FitzRoy’s father King John of England; Credit – Wikipedia

Richard FitzRoy, born circa 1185/1186, was the illegitimate son of King John of England and Ela de Warenne. His surname FitzRoy comes from the Anglo-Norman Fitz, meaning “son of” and Roy, meaning “king”, implying the original bearer of the surname was a child of a king. Richard was also called Richard de Chilham and Richard de Dover. His paternal grandparents were King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard’s maternal grandparents were Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey and Isabel de Warenne, 4th Countess of Surrey, one of the wealthiest heiresses in England.

Richard’s maternal grandfather Hamelin de Warenne, originally Hamelin of Anjou, was the illegitimate son of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou who was married to Empress Matilda, Lady of the English, the only surviving child of King Henry I of England. Geoffrey and Matilda were the parents of King Henry II of England so therefore Hamelin was the elder half-brother of King Henry II, and the uncle to Henry II’s children including King Richard I and King John.

Richard’s royal half-siblings (l to r) Henry, Richard, Isabella, Eleanor, and Joan; Credit – Wikipedia

King John had several long-term mistresses and around twelve illegitimate children, Richard’s half-siblings. Richard had five royal half-siblings from his father’s marriage to Isabella of Angoulême, Countess of Angoulême in her own right:

Before May 11, 1214, Richard married Rohese de Dover, the only child and heiress of Fulbert II de Dover and Isabel de Briwere of Devon. Through his marriage, Richard received Chilham Castle in Chilham, Kent, England and about a dozen fiefs in Kent and Essex, and became 1st Baron of Chilham.

Richard and Rohese had three children:

Battle of Sandwich, showing the capture of the French flagship & the killing of Eustace the Monk; Credit – Wikipedia

During the First Barons’ War (1215 – 1217), when a group of barons, with the support of King Philippe II of France, rebelled against Richard’s father King John of England, Richard supported his father as one of the commanders of the royal army. On August 24, 1217, during the naval Battle of Sandwich, Richard, in command of a ship, attacked and captured the French flagship and personally killed Eustace the Monk, the commander of the French fleet. Richard’s father King John died on October 19, 1216, and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son King Henry III of England. The First Barons’ War continued after King John’s death, but the great William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who served four English kings – Henry II, Richard I, John, and Henry III – managed to get most barons to switch sides from working with France to the new King Henry III and attacking the French.

Richard was the constable of several castles including the important Wallingford Castle in Berkshire, England, and served as Sheriff of Berkshire. He took part in the Fifth Crusade during the successful Siege of Damietta (1218 – 1219) in Egypt and then returned to England. In 1223, Richard accompanied his half-brother King Henry III on a campaign in Wales, and in 1225 he accompanied Alexander II, King of Scots, who was married to his half-sister Joan of England, on his pilgrimage to Canterbury.

In May 1230, King Henry III organized a campaign attempting to regain some of the Norman and Angevin French ancestral territories that his father had lost, and Richard accompanied his half-brother. The campaign did not go well. Henry III made a truce with King Louis X of France and returned to England having achieved nothing but a costly fiasco. After that, Richard had a career in royal service, mostly in command of castles on the Welsh border.

St. Mary’s Church and Churchyard in Chilham, Kent, England; Credit – www.findagrave.com

Richard FitzRoy, died before June 24, 1246, aged around sixty, at Chilham Castle in Chilham, Kent, England. All that is left of the Norman castle is the keep. A manor house, also called Chilham Castle, was built on the property in 1616 and still exists. It is thought that Richard was buried at St. Mary’s Churchyard in Chilham, Kent, England.

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Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016). King John of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-john-of-england/
  • Richard Fitzroy (1186-1246) – Find a Grave… Find a Grave. (n.d.). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157307212/richard-fitzroy
  • Richard Fitzroy, Baron of Chilham. geni_family_tree. (2023, August 13). https://www.geni.com/people/Richard-fitzRoy-Baron-of-Chilham/6000000013116383679
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Richard Fitzroy. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_FitzRoy
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Ричард Фицрой, 1-й барон Чилхем. Wikipedia (Russian). https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4_%D0%A4%D0%B8%D1%86%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B9,_1-%D0%B9_%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%A7%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%85%D0%B5%D0%BC