Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king
Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
and
Philippa of Hainault
Philippa of Hainault (sometimes spelled Hainaut; Middle French: ''Philippe de Hainaut''; 24 June 1310 (or 1315) – 15 August 1369) was Queen of England as the wife and political adviser of King Edward III. She acted as regent in 1346,Strickla ...
. He was named after his birthplace, at
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, in the
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...
. Lionel was a grandson of
William I, Count of Hainaut
William the Good ( nl, Willem, french: Guillaume; – 7 June 1337) was count of Hainaut (as William I), Avesnes, Holland (as William III), and Zeeland (as William II) from 1304 to his death.
Career
William, born , was the son of John II, Count ...
. He grew to be nearly in height and had an athletic build.
First marriage
Betrothed as a child to
Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster
Elizabeth de Burgh, Duchess of Clarence, ''suo jure'' 4th Countess of Ulster and 5th Baroness of Connaught (; ; 6 July 1332 – 10 December 1363) was a Norman-Irish noblewoman who married Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence.
Family
Elizab ...
(died
1363), daughter and heiress of
William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster
William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster and 4th Baron of Connaught (; ; 17 September 1312 – 6 June 1333) was an Irish noble who was Lieutenant of Ireland (1331) and whose murder, aged 20, led to the Burke Civil War.
Background
The grandson ...
, he was married to her in 1352, but before this date he had entered into possession of her great Irish inheritance. He was called
Earl of Ulster
The title of Earl of Ulster has been created six times in the Peerage of Ireland and twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since 1928, the title has been held by the Duke of Gloucester and is used as a courtesy title by the Duke's eld ...
from
1347
Year 1347 (Roman numerals, MCCCXLVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calenda ...
.
Ireland
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.
Appointed governor of that country, he landed at
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
in 1361, and in November of the following year was created
Duke of Clarence
Duke of Clarence is a substantive title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the British Royal Family. All three creations were in the Peerage of England.
The title was first granted to Lionel of Antwerp, the second son ...
, the third
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
dom created in England, while his father made an abortive attempt to secure for him the crown of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. His efforts to secure an effective authority over his Irish lands were only moderately successful. After holding a parliament at
Kilkenny
Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512.
Kilken ...
, which passed the celebrated
Statute of Kilkenny
The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts enacted by the Parliament of Ireland at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland.
Background to the Statutes
By the middle decades of the ...
in 1366, he dropped the task in disgust and returned to England.
The poet
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
was at one time a
page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
in Lionel's household.
Second marriage
After Lionel's first wife Elizabeth died in 1363, a second marriage was arranged. He married to
Violante Visconti
Violante (Jolantha) Visconti (1354 – November 1386) was the second of two children of Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan and Pavia, and Bianca of Savoy. Her father gave to her the provinces of Alba, Mondovì, Kenites, Cherasco, and Demonte as ...
, daughter of
Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
, members of the
Visconti family. Her brother,
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Milan (1395) and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò. He was the foundi ...
, was the Duke of Milan. Journeying to fetch his bride, Lionel was received in great state both in France and Italy and was married to Violante at
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in June 1368. Some months were then spent in festivities, during which Lionel was taken ill at
Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...
, where he died on 17 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.
Issue
Lionel had only one child,
Philippa
Philippa is a feminine given name meaning "lover of horses" or "horses' friend". Common alternative spellings include ''Filippa'' and ''Phillipa''. Less common is ''Filipa'' and even ''Philippe'' (cf. the French spelling of ''Philippa of Guelders'' ...
, daughter of his first wife Elizabeth. In 1368 she married
Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March
Edmund de Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March and ''jure uxoris'' Earl of Ulster (1 February 135227 December 1381) was the son of Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, by his wife Philippa, daughter of William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine G ...
. Their granddaughter and eventual heir,
Anne Mortimer
Anne de Mortimer, also known as Anne Mortimer (27 December 1388 – 22 September 1411), was a medieval English noblewoman who became an ancestor to the royal House of York, one of the parties in the fifteenth-century dynastic Wars of the Roses. ...
, married into the
Yorkist
The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...
branch of the English royal family and was the mother of
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York. Even though Richard was a descendant in the male line of Edward III from
Edmund of Langley
Edmund of Langley, Duke of York (5 June 1341 – 1 August 1402) was the fourth surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Like many medieval English princes, Edmund gained his nickname from his birthplace: Kings Lang ...
, Lionel's younger brother, the House of York based its claim to the English throne on descent through the female line from Lionel to the English throne. In doing so, the Yorkists were able to present a senior claim to the English throne over the
Lancastrian branch of the English royal family, the descendants of another younger brother,
John of Gaunt
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
. (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
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 d ...
.) Lionel was the ancestor of Kings
Edward IV,
Edward V
Edward V (2 November 1470 – mid-1483)R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. was ''de jure'' King of England and Lord of Ireland fro ...
,
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
and all later English, and subsequently British, monarchs except for
Henry VII, whose wife
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which ma ...
was Lionel's descendant.
Ancestry
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Arms
![Arms of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Arms_of_Lionel_of_Antwerp%2C_1st_Duke_of_Clarence.svg)
Lionel's arms were at some point those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of five points, with each point bearing a cross gules, thus presenting the flag of England's Saint George's cross on each point
Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
/ref> There are also suggestions, such as the above image, that at some point he bore a differentiating label argent of three points, each bearing a canton gules.
Notes
References
*
Attribution
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lionel Of Antwerp, 1st Duke Of Clarence
1338 births
1368 deaths
14th-century English nobility
101
Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...
House of Plantagenet
Garter Knights appointed by Edward III
Peers jure uxoris
People from Antwerp
Burials at Clare Priory
Children of Edward III of England
Lords Lieutenant of Ireland
Sons of kings
Peers created by Edward III