John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel (c. 1348 – 1379), also known as Sir John Arundel, was an English soldier.
Lineage
He was born in
Etchingham
Etchingham is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex in southern England. The village is located approximately southeast of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent and northwest of Hastings, on the A265, half a mile west o ...
,
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 ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to
Richard Fitzalan, 3rd Earl of Arundel (c. 1313 – 1376), and his second wife
Eleanor of Lancaster
Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet; 11 September 1318 – 11 January 1372) was the fifth daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.
First marriage and issue
Eleanor married first on 6 ...
(1318–1372), daughter of
Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster
Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster ( – 22 September 1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II of England, Edward II (1307–1327), his first c ...
, and widow of
John, 2nd Baron Beaumont. His brother was
Thomas Arundel
Thomas Arundel (1353 – 19 February 1414) was an English clergyman who served as Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York during the reign of Richard II, as well as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1397 and from 1399 until his death, an outspoken o ...
, Archbishop of Canterbury. His sister was
Joan Fitzalan
Joan FitzAlan, Countess of Hereford, Countess of Essex and Countess of Northampton (1347 – 7 April 1419) was the wife of the 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton. She was the mother of Mary de Bohun, the first w ...
, Countess of Hereford.
High office
![betchworth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Betchworth.castle.jpg)
John was appointed
Lord Marshal of England
Earl marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the United Kingdom). He is the eighth ...
by
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
in 1377, and summoned to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on 4 August 1377, by writ directed ''Johanni de Arundell''. He served as Lord Marshal until 1379.
On 26 July 1379 he was given licence to
crenellate
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
(i.e., permission to fortify) a stone castle on the site of an 11th-century earthwork fortress in Surrey. Over the years since then the structure was rebuilt and remodelled and its remains are now known as
Betchworth Castle
Betchworth Castle is a mostly crumbled ruin of a fortified medieval stone house with some tall, two-storey corners strengthened in the 18th century, in the north of the semi-rural parish of Brockham. It is built on a sandstone spur overlooking ...
.
Naval victory
Being in command of a naval expedition in aid to the
Duke of Brittany
This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...
, he defeated the French fleet off the coast of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
.
Death at sea
Commanding a force with the purpose of bringing relief to the
Duke of Brittany
This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...
, Sir John was compelled to wait for stronger winds. During this wait he decided to take refuge in a nunnery, where his men "took no notice of the sanctity of the place and... violently assaulted and raped"
[Thomas Walsingham, "Chronica Maiora"] those they found inside. Further to this Sir John "allowed his men to ransack the countryside as they liked and to impoverish the people".
When the force eventually set out to sea, carrying with them goods stolen from a nearby church and under a pronouncement of excommunication from the wronged priests, the expedition was caught in a storm.
Thomas Walsingham reports that during the panic of the storm, Sir John murdered those of his men who refused to make for shore for fear of being shipwrecked upon the rocks. Subsequently, after safely arriving on an island off the Irish coast, Sir John and his boat captain were swept back into the sea and drowned.
According to
Thomas Walsingham's story, FitzAlan's men profaned a convent at or near
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, and abducted many of its occupants. The fleet was then pursued by a violent tempest, when the wretched nuns who had been carried off were thrown overboard to lighten the ships. The vessels were, however, wrecked on the Irish coast, near
Scarriff
Scarriff Central Statistics Office, Census 2002Population of Towns ordered by County and size, 1996 and 2002 or Scariff () is a large village in east County Clare, Ireland, situated in the midwest of Ireland. The town is on the West end of Loug ...
according to some authorities, but at
Cape Clear Island
Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (officially known by its Irish name: Cléire, and sometimes also called Oileán Chléire) is an island off the south-west coast of County Cork in Ireland. It is the southernmost inhabited part of Ireland and ha ...
according to others. Sir John Arundell, together with his esquires, and other men of high birth, were drowned, and twenty-five ships were lost with most of their crews.
Froissart
Jean Froissart (Old and Middle French: ''Jehan'', – ) (also John Froissart) was a French-speaking medieval author and court historian from the Low Countries who wrote several works, including ''Chronicles'' and ''Meliador'', a long Arthurian ...
's account of the event differs essentially from Walsingham's, in the omission of the story of the desecration of the convent.
Burial
He was buried in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
, Sussex.
Marriage and children
On 17 February 1358, FitzAlan married
Eleanor Maltravers
Eleanor Maltravers, or Mautravers, ( 1345 – January 1405) was an English noblewoman. The granddaughter and eventual heiress of the first Baron Maltravers, she married two barons in succession and passed her grandfather's title to her grandson ...
(Mautravers) (1345 – 10 January 1404 or 1406), daughter of
John Maltravers, 1st Baron Maltravers
John Maltravers, 1st Baron Maltravers (1290?–1364) was an English nobleman and soldier.
Early life
He was son of Sir John Maltravers (1266–1343?) of Lytchett Matravers, Dorset, born by his first wife Eleanor, about 1290. He was knighted, as ...
and Gwenthin. They had at least five children (some references list more):
*Joan FitzAlan (D' Arundel) (c. 1360 – 1 September 1404. She married first
William de Brien
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...
(one son) and secondly
Sir William de Echingham
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...
.
*
John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel
John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel, 2nd Baron Maltravers ''jure matris'', also called John de Arundel (30 November 1364 – 14 August 1390), of Buckland, Surrey, was the son and heir of John FitzAlan, 1st Baron Arundel by his wife Eleanor Maltr ...
(3 November 1364 – 14 August 1390), who married
Elizabeth le Despenser
Elizabeth Despenser (died 10 April/11 April 1408) was an English noblewoman of the late 14th century. She should not be confused with Elizabeth le Despenser, Baroness Berkeley, who was her great-aunt and who was the daughter of her great-gran ...
.
*Richard FitzAlan (c. 1366 – 3 June 1419). His daughter Joan married Thomas Willoughby of Parham, a grandson of Alayne FitzAlan, daughter of
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 ...
.
*Sir
William Arundel
Sir William Arundel KG (born about 1369, died 1400) was a Knight of the Order of the Garter, Constable of Rochester Castle and Constable and Warden of Reigate Castle. He owed all his appointments to Richard II whose reign (1377-1399) covered mos ...
(c. 1369 – 1400). He was a
Knight of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
.
*Margaret (1372 – 7 July 1439) married
William Ros, 6th Baron Ros
William Ros, 6th Baron Ros (c. 1370 – 1 November 1414) was a medieval English English peerage, nobleman, politician and soldier. The second son of Thomas Ros, 4th Baron Ros and Beatrice Stafford, William inherited his father's Feudal baron, ...
of Hamlake and had descendants
Ancestry
Notes
References
*
*
* 'The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham, 1376-1422', ed. & trans. J. Taylor, W. Childs & L. Watkiss
* ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'' by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 9–33, 21–31, 21–32, 59–34, 212–34
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arundel, John FitzAlan, 1st Baron
1340s births
1379 deaths
11
Burials at Lewes Priory
Deaths by drowning
Deaths due to shipwreck
Earls Marshal
English soldiers
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
Lord Marshals of England
Peers created by Richard II
People from Etchingham
Younger sons of earls