Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of Arundel (died 25 September 1292) also known as Alesia di Saluzzo, was a Savoyard noblewoman and an English countess. She was daughter of

Thomas I of Saluzzo Thomas I (1239–1296) was the fourth Marquess of Saluzzo from 1244 to his death. He was the son of Manfred III and Beatrice of Savoy. He succeeded his father Manfred III. He was also the grandson of Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy. Biography Unde ...

, and the wife of

Richard Fitzalan, 8th Earl of Arundel Richard FitzAlan, 1st Earl of Arundel (3 February 1267 – 9 March 1302) was an English nobleman and soldier. Lineage He was the son of John Fitzalan III and Isabella Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Wigmore and Maud de B ...

. She assumed the title of Countess of Arundel in 1289.

Family

Alice was born on an unknown date in

Saluzzo Saluzzo (; pms, Salusse ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy. The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are fo ...

(present-day

Province of Cuneo Cuneo (Italian), or Coni (Piedmontese), is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Haut ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

); the second-eldest daughter of Thomas I, 4th Margrave of Saluzzo, and Luigia di Ceva, daughter of Giorgio,

Marquis of Ceva The Marquisate of Ceva was a small independent state in north-western Italy, situated at the foot of the Apennines, with its seat at Ceva, in what is now a part of Piedmont. Establishment The marquisate was created in 1125 at the death of Bonifa ...

. Alice had fifteen siblings. Her father was a very wealthy and cultured nobleman under whose rule Saluzzo achieved a prosperity, freedom and greatness it had never known previously. She was niece of Alasia of Saluzzo, who in 1247 had married an English nobleman,

Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract Edmund de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (c.1230–1258) was an important landholder in Northern England, with a strategic manor at Stanbury which was important for east–west communication, and as Lord of the Honour of Pontefract he possessed Pontefract ...

, and was a more distant kinswoman of

Eleanor of Provence Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a French noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in 1253. ...

, queen consort of

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...

Marriage and issue

Sometime before 1285, Alice married Richard Fitzalan,

feudal lord An overlord in the Kingdom of England, English Feudalism in England, feudal system was a lord of the manor, lord of a manor who had Subinfeudation, subinfeudated a particular Manorialism, manor, Estate in land, estate or fief, fee, to a Leaseho ...

Clun Clun ( cy, Colunwy) is a town in south west Shropshire, England, and the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2011 census recorded 680 people living in the town.Combined populations for the two output areas covering the tow ...

and

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

in the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

, the son of

John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, 4th Baron Maltravers KG (14 February 140812 June 1435) was an English nobleman and military commander during the later phases of the Hundred Years' War. His father, John Fitzalan, 3rd Baron Maltravers, f ...

and

Isabella Mortimer Isabella Mortimer, Lady of Clun and Oswestry (born after 1247; died before 1 April 1292''Calendar of Fine Rolls,'' 1272-1307, p. 309) was a noblewoman and a member of an important and powerful Welsh Marcher family. Although often overshadowed i ...

. Richard would succeed to the title of Earl of Arundel in 1289, thus making Alice the 8th Countess of Arundel. Her marriage had been arranged by her kinswoman, the widowed queen consort Eleanor. Richard and Alice's principal residence was

Marlborough Castle Marlborough Castle, locally known and recorded in historical documents as ''The Mound'', was an 11th-century royal castle located in the civil parish of Marlborough, a market town in the English county of Wiltshire, on the Old Bath Road, the old ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, but Richard also held

Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and the castles of Clun and Oswestry in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. Her husband was knighted by King

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

in 1289, and fought in the Welsh Wars (1288–1294), and later in the

Scottish Wars The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...

. The marriage produced four children: *

Edmund FitzAlan, 2nd Earl of Arundel Edmund Fitzalan, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1 May 128517 November 1326) was an English nobleman prominent in the conflict between King Edward II and his barons. His father, Richard Fitzalan, 1st Earl of Arundel, died in 1302, while Edmund was still a ...

(1 May 1285 – 17 November 1326 by execution), married

Alice de Warenne Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel (15 June 1287 – 23 May 1338) was an English noblewoman and heir apparent to the Earldom of Surrey. In 1305, she married Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel. Family Alice, the only daughter of William d ...

, by whom he had issue. * John FitzAlan, a priest * Alice FitzAlan (died 7 September 1340), married Stephen de Segrave, 3rd Lord Segrave, by whom she had issue. * Margaret FitzAlan, married William le Botiller, by whom she had issue. *

Eleanor FitzAlan Eleanor Fitzalan (c. 1284 – July/August 1328) was an alleged daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 1st Earl of Arundel and his wife Alice of Saluzzo. She became the wife of Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy. Their son was Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy. ...

, married

Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick (25 March 1273 – October 1314) was a medieval English magnate. He fought under King Edward I of England in Wales and Scotland and was granted extensive estates in Scotland, which were later retake ...

, by whom she had issue. Alice died on 25 September 1292 and was buried in

Haughmond Abbey Haughmond Abbey ( ) is a ruined, medieval, Augustinians, Augustinian monastery a few miles from Shrewsbury, England. It was probably founded in the early 12th century and was closely associated with the FitzAlan family, who became Earls of Arund ...

, Shropshire. Alice's husband Richard died on 9 March 1302 and was buried alongside her. In 1341, provision was made for twelve candles to be burned beside their tombs. The abbey is now a ruin as the result of a fire during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arundel, Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of 13th-century births Year of birth unknown 1292 deaths People from Saluzzo Italian countesses English countesses Aleramici FitzAlan family Burials at Haughmond Abbey 13th-century English people 13th-century English women 14th-century Italian nobility 14th-century Italian women