Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster ( 1278 – 22 March 1322) was an English nobleman of the first
House of Lancaster of the royal
Plantagenet Dynasty. He was
Earl of Lancaster,
Leicester, and
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
from 1296 to 1322, and
Earl of Lincoln and
Salisbury ''
jure uxoris'' from 1311 to 1322. As one of the most powerful
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
s of England, Thomas was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition to his first cousin, King
Edward II.
Early life and, marriage
Thomas was the eldest son of
Edmund Crouchback and
Blanche of Artois, Queen Dowager of Navarre and niece of King
Louis IX of France
Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VI ...
. Crouchback was the son of King
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 John, King of England, King John and Isabella of Ang ...
. Through his mother, Thomas was a half-brother of Queen
Joan I of Navarre.
His marriage to
Alice de Lacy was not successful. They had no children together, while he fathered, illegitimately, two sons named John and Thomas. In 1317, Alice was abducted from her manor at
Canford,
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, by Richard de St Martin, a
knight in the service of
John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. This incident caused a feud between Lancaster and Surrey; Lancaster seized two of Surrey's castles in retaliation. King Edward then intervened, and the two earls came to an uneasy truce. Thomas continued to hold the powerful earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. This was due to the marriage contract the two families had agreed upon; upon the death of his father-in-law, Thomas would hold these earldoms in his own right, not, as would be expected, in right of his wife.
Earl of Lancaster
On reaching full age, he became hereditary
sheriff of Lancashire. However, he spent most of the next ten years fighting for
Edward I in Scotland, leaving the shrievalty in the care of deputies. He was present at the
Battle of Falkirk in 1298 as part of Edward I's wing of the army.
He served in the
coronation of his cousin, King
Edward II of England, on 25 February 1308, carrying
Curtana, the sword of
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex.
Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...
. At the beginning of the king's reign, Lancaster openly supported Edward, but as the conflict between the king and the nobles wore on, Lancaster's allegiances changed. He despised the royal
favourite,
Piers Gaveston, who mocked him as "the Fiddler" and swore revenge when Gaveston demanded that the king dismiss one of Lancaster's retainers.
Lancaster was one of the
Lords Ordainers who demanded the banishment of Gaveston and the establishment of a baronial
oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Members of this group, called oligarchs, generally hold usually hard, but sometimes soft power through nobility, fame, wealth, or education; or t ...
. His private army helped separate the king and Gaveston, and Lancaster was one of the "judges" who convicted Gaveston and saw him executed in 1312.
After the disaster at
Bannockburn in 1314, Edward submitted to Lancaster, who in effect became ruler of England. He attempted to govern for the next four years, but could not keep order or prevent the
Scots from raiding and retaking territory in the North. In 1318, his popularity with the barons declined, and he was persuaded "to accept a diminished authority."
Death
The new leadership, eventually headed by
Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester, and his son
Hugh Despenser the Younger, proved no more popular with the baronage, and in 1321 Lancaster was again at the head of a rebellion. This time, he was defeated at the
Battle of Boroughbridge on 16 March 1322 and taken prisoner.
Lancaster was tried by a tribunal consisting of, among others, the two
Despensers;
Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel; and King Edward. Lancaster was not allowed to speak in his defence, nor was he allowed to have anyone speak for him. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Because of their kinship and Lancaster's royal blood, the king commuted the sentence to beheading, as opposed to being
hanged, drawn and beheaded, and Lancaster was executed on 22 March 1322 near
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract (or Pomfret) Castle is a castle ruin in the town of Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, England. King Richard II of England, Richard II is thought to have died there. It was the site of a series of famous sieges during the 17th-cent ...
.
Upon his death, his titles and estates were forfeited, and the Scots, whom Lancaster gained aid from in his rebellion, mainly to weaken the English in their war, seized the opportunity to take his inheritance in the
Great Raid of 1322. In 1323, his younger brother
Henry successfully petitioned to take possession of the earldom of Leicester, and in 1326 or 1327, Parliament posthumously reversed Thomas's conviction. Henry was further permitted to take possession of the earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, Salisbury and Lincoln.
Soon after Thomas's death, miracles were reported at his tomb at Pontefract, and he became venerated as a
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
and
saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
. In 1327, the Commons petitioned
Edward III to ask for his
canonisation, and popular veneration continued until the reformation.
On 23 March 1822, Thomas's remains were discovered in a large stone coffin buried in a field in the parish of
Ferry Fryston. In 1942, it was reported by E. J. Rudsdale that some of Thomas's bones had been found in a box at Paskell's auctioneers in Colchester, Essex, having been removed from Pontefract Castle in 1885.
Titles and lands
Thomas inherited the
earldoms of
Lancaster,
Leicester and the
Ferrers earldom of Derby from his father.
By
his marriage to
Alice de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln, daughter and heiress of
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, he became
Earl of Lincoln,
Earl of Salisbury, 11th
Baron of Halton and 7th
Lord of Bowland upon the death of his father-in-law in 1311. Master of five earldoms, he was one of England's wealthiest and most powerful men.
[Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster]
English Monarchs, Retrieved 13 September 2015 Thomas was in possession of many key fortresses, including
Clitheroe Castle, particularly in northern England. He was responsible for the extension of
Pontefract Castle, and in 1313, he began the construction of
Dunstanburgh Castle, a massive fortress in
Northumberland.
Arms
Inherited from his father, Thomas bore the arms of the kingdom,
differenced by a ''
label France of three points (that is to say,
azure three
fleur-de-lys or, each)''.
Genealogical table
Thomas was closely related to the
Capetian kings of France and the
Plantagenet kings of England. His contemporaries commented, "as each parent was of royal stock, he was clearly of nobler descent than the other earls".
Footnotes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lancaster, Thomas, 2nd Earl Of
1270s births
1322 deaths
13th-century English nobility
14th-century English nobility
2nd Earl of Leicester
2
English rebels
Executed English nobility
High sheriffs of Lancashire
Thomas Plantagenet
Lord High Stewards
People executed under the Plantagenets by decapitation
People executed under the Plantagenets for treason against England
Barons of Halton
Earls of Lancaster