Edmund (Plantagenet) Crouchback (1245 - 1296)

Born 16 Jan 1245 in London, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Aveline (Forz) de Forz — married 9 Apr 1269 in Westminster Abbey, London, England

Husband of Blanche (Artois) d'Artois — married 29 Oct 1276 in Westminster, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 5 Jun 1296 at age 51 in Bayonne, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Aquitaine, France

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Biography

Edmund (Plantagenet) Crouchback is a member of the House of Lancaster.

Names

Edmund Plantagenet, 1st Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (16 Jan 1245 – 5 Jun 1296)

Edmund Crouchback

Titles

King of Sicily

Earl of Leicester

Earl of Lancaster

Count of Aumale

Birth and Parentage

Edmund Crouchback was born 16 January 1245, and was the second surviving son of King Henry III of England of the House of Plantagenet and Queen Eleanor of Provence (Eleanore Berenger). ^[1]

Edmund was born in London. He was a younger brother of Edward I of England, Margaret of England, and Beatrice of England, and an older brother of Katherine of England.^[1]

Public Life, Part 1

In his childhood he had a claim on the Kingdom of Sicily, but he never ruled there.

In 1255 (at the age of 10) he was invested ruler of the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia by the Bishop of Romania, on behalf of Pope Innocent IV. In return his father undertook to pay the papacy 135,541 marks and fight a war to dislodge Manfred of Sicily from the kingdom. Upon Innocent's death, Pope Alexander IV confirmed Edmund's grant of Sicily.[2] Henry's barons refused to contribute to what they called the "Sicilian business" and ultimately Henry was only able to pay 60,000 marks. Stephen Runciman says the grant of the kingdom was revoked by Pope Alexander IV on 18 December 1258;[3] Baines and Harland state that this occurred in 1263 under Pope Urban IV. Edmund renounced his claim to the crown of Sicily. ^[1]

At about the same time Edmund was granted Sicily, he was made Earl of Chester.[2] In 1263, the Earldom of Chester was transferred to his elder brother Edward, who required the palatinate income. ^[1]

In 1265 he was granted all the lands of Simon de Montfort and from 1267 he was titled Earl of Leicester. In that year he also began to rule Lancashire, but he did not take the title Earl of Lancaster until 1276.

Edmund soon obtained, however, important possessions and dignities, for soon after the forfeiture of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester on 25 October 1265, Edmund received the Earldom of Leicester[2] and later that of Lancaster. He was granted the honour of the Stewardship of England and the lands of Nicolas de Segrave. He also acquired the titles and estates of Lord Ferrers, that included the earldom of Derby, and the Honour of Hinckley Castle. In 1267 he was granted the lordship of Builth Wells in opposition to the then holder, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (the last prince of an independent Wales). To help him conquer the land he was also granted his elder brother's lordships of the Trilateral of Skenfrith, Grosmont and White Castle together with Monmouth. After the civil war in 1267, he was appointed High Sheriff of Lancashire. Henry III created his second son Earl of Leicester in 1267, granting the honour and privileges of that city. The following year, he was made Constable of Leicester Castle, a royal possession in the king's name. By now Crouchback had a reputation for being a ruthless and ferocious warrior, but he was not in England fighting de Montfort.[4]^[1]

First Marriage to Aveline de Forz

m.1 8 April 1269 Aveline de Forz dau of William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle and Isabel de Reviers, Countess of Aumale (also known as Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon). She died just 4 years after the marriage at 15, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. The couple had no children, though some sources believe she died in childbirth or shortly after a miscarriage.^[1]

Public Life, Part 2

In 1271 he accompanied his elder brother Edward on the Ninth Crusade to Palestine. Some historians, including the authors of the Encyclopædia Britannica article on him, state that it was because of this that he received the nickname Crouchback (which means "cross back") indicating that he was entitled to wear a cross stitched into the back of his garments. Edmund remained loyal to his brother, Edward I, who confirmed the Charter grants of 1265, 1267, and 1268-9, in a document of Inspeximus in 1284, and by parliament in the Great Charter of Leicester.[5] He fequently acted as an ambassador abroad. In 1291, he was sent as Governor of Ponthieu, on behalf of his second wife, Blanche of Artois.^[1]

On his return from the Crusade of 1271-2 he seems to have made Grosmont Castle his favoured home and undertook much rebuilding there. His son Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster was apparently born there in 1281.^[1]

Second marriage to Blanche d'Artois

He married (2nd) in Paris, on 3 February 1276 to Blanche of Artois, widow of Enrique (or Henri) I, King of Navarre, Count of Champagne and Brie, and daughter of Robert I of Artois and Matilda of Brabant. ^[1]

Children of Edmund and Blanche

With Blanche he had three children:

1. Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, (born 1278, executed 22 March 1322)
2. Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (born 1281, died 22 September 1345)
3. John of Lancaster, seigneur of Beaufort (present day Montmorency, Aube, arrond. d’Arcis-sur-Aube, canton de Chavanges) and Nogent-l’Artaud (Aisne, arrond. de Château-Thierry, canton de Charly), France. He married before July 1312 Alix de Joinville, widow of Jean d’Arcis, seigneur of Arcis-sur-Aube and Chacenay (died in or before 1307), and daughter of Jean de Joinville, seigneur de Joinville (Haute-Marne, arrond. Vassy, ch.-I. canton), Seneschal of Champagne, by his 2nd wife, Alix, daughter and heiress of Gautier, seigneur of Reynel. They had no issue. He died in France shortly before 13 June 1317. See Foundations 1(3) (2004): 198–199.

Other children shown as being from this marriage are not, and further research is required to determine where they belong:

1. Nicholas
2. Mary

Public Life, Part 3

Between 1276 and 1284 he was also Count of Champagne and Brie, governing those counties in right of his second wife, Blanche of Artois, until her daughter from a previous marriage came of age. His nickname, "Crouchback" (meaning "crossed -back"), refers to his participation in the Ninth Crusade.[1]^[1]

Edmund's duty to the church included the foundation of the Nuns of Clara, Minories, at St Aldate's. In 1291, his estate paid for the establishment for the Chapel of Savoy, in memory of his mother, at St Clement Danes. Filial piety was part of the chivalric code of an honourable knight. He was a generous benefactor to the monastery of Grace Dieu in Leicestershire, and the nuns at Tarrant Crawford.^[1]

He also helped establish a major Grey friars monastery at Preston in the duchy of Lancaster. In 1281 he supervised the construction of Aberystwyth Castle for King Edward I to subjugate the Welsh. The next year he accompanied Roger Mortimer on campaign against Llywelyn, defeating and capturing the prince. He took an army to Bordeaux for his brother. Amongst the nobles[6] was the Earl of Lincoln and 26 banneret knights. During the siege of Bayonne the English ran out of money, so the army melted into the countryside. Broken-hearted the warrior-prince Edmund Crouchback died on 5 June. His body was carried to England and was interred on 15 July 1296 at Westminster Abbey, London.^[1]

Death and Burial

He died 5 June 1296 ^[1]

Edmund died besieging Bordeaux for his brother on 5 June 1296 in Bayonne, and was interred on 15 July 1296 at Westminster Abbey.

Additional note. (Royal Tombs of Medieval England) Edmund was buried first in the Minories church near Aldgate, London, a Franciscan nunnery founded by the earl and his second wife, Blanche of Champagne, four years earlier. In 1300 Edmund was reburied in Westminster Abbey, his heart remaining at the Minories. As early as the 1290s the tombs of Henry III's son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and his wife, Aveline de Forz, were erected outside the Confessor's Chapel to the north of the Westminster High Altar, a position of considerable sanctity, but one removed from the most sacred relics, suggesting that considerations of seniority were being applied.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12} Wikipedia, Edmund Crouchback, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Crouchback

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. I page 144

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. III page 476

BLANCHE OF ARTOIS, married (1st) ENRIQUE (or HENRI) I el Gordo, King of Navarre, Count Palatine of Champagne and Brie [see Blois 7]; (2nd) EDMUND OF ENGLAND, Knt., Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby [see Lancaster7].

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. I page 395

• Royal Tombs of Medieval England M. Duffy 2003 p. 20, 92-96

Wikipedia Notes: [1]Simon Lloyd, "Edmund , first earl of Lancaster and first earl of Leicester (1245–1296)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008). [2]a b c Baines, Edward and Harland, John. The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster, G. Routledge and Sons, 1868 [3]Runciman, Steven (1958). The Sicilian Vespers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 59–63. [4]"The Scottish and Welsh Wars 1250-1400", (1984), p.32 [5]"Fourteenth century England" vol. VII, p.137. [6]E. Baines, "History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster", (1836) p.123. [7]Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

Also see:

• Wikipedia: Edmund Crouchback

• The Complete Peerage, G.E.C., Eng. V, v. 7, p. 368-401, 547-48

• Dict. of Nat'l Biog., Eng. Pub. A, v. 32, p. 33-35

• Royal Dau of Engl, Eng. 120, v. 1, p. 60-61

• Tab. Souv. Gen., France 22, Tab. 21, 46

• Royalty for Commoners: The Complete Known Lineage of John of Gaunt, Son of Edward III, King of England, and Queen Phillipa, 4th ed (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 2002) .

• Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1912) Edward I. Vol. 3: Years 20-28: Page 288: #423: Edmund the King's Brother