Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 1: Arundel

ARUNDEL (co. Sussex)

See also "proposed" section

Volume 1, page 241:
He [Richard Fitz Alan, later Earl of Arundel (d.1301/2)] m., before 1285, (when he was but 18) Alasia, da. of Tommaso I, MARQUIS OF SALUZZO in Piedmont [1244-99], by Luisa, da. of Giorgio, MARQUIS OF CEVA. She d. 25 Sep. 1292, and was bur. at Todingham Priory. He d. 9 Mar. 1301/2, in his 36th year, and was bur. with his ancestors.

The bodies of both Richard and Alesia were at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, by 1341, when provision was made for 12 candles to burn in the church of Haughmond around their tombs [Una Rees, ed., The Cartulary of Haughmond Abbey, p.227 (1985)].

[Douglas Richardson pointed this out in January 2002.]

Volume 1, page 242:
Having been captured in Shropshire by the Queen's party, he [Edmund (Fitz Alan), Earl of Arundel] was, without trial, beheaded at Hereford, 17 Nov. 1326, in his 42nd year.

His body was initially buried in the Franciscan church at Hereford, but later reburied at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, at the request of the abbot and convent [Victoria County History, Shropshire, vol.2, p.64, quoting the text of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 339, f.46 (continuation of the chronicle of Peter of Ickham)]. Provision was also made for 6 candles to burn around his tomb at Haughmond [Una Rees, ed., The Cartulary of Haughmond Abbey, p.227 (1985); this entry is dated 1 March 1325/6, before Edmund's execution].

[Douglas Richardson pointed this out in January 2002.]

Volume 1, page 244, note b (as corrected in volume 14):
By his 1st wife, Isabel, he [Richard Fitz Alan, 10th Earl of Arundel (d.1375/6)] had 2 children. (1) Edmund, who m., before July 1349, Sibyl, da. of William (Montagu), Earl of Salisbury. He was knighted 1352, and was living 1377. He had [daughters] Alice, who m. Sir Leonard Carew (b. 1342, d. 1370) ... and Philippe, who m. Sir Richard Sergeaux (d. 30 Sep. 1393) ... (2) Isabel, who m. John, 4th Lord Strange of Blackmere.

It seems likely that the 10th earl had only a son, Edmund, by his first wife. As noted on page 243, note d, "in none of the documents bearing on the case [the divorce of Richard from Isabel] is there a mention of daughters". Richard and Isabel later claimed that the conception of their son was the result of their having been forced by violence to cohabit.

The wife of John, 4th Lord Strange of Blackmere, was called Mary not Isabel (see Complete Peerage, volume 12, part 1, p.344), and was a daughter of Edmund, the 9th earl, not Richard, the 10th (see further details below).

Edmund, son of Richard, 10th earl of Arundel, had at least three daughters (see further details below):

• Elizabeth, who married 1stly Sir Leonard Carew and 2ndly Sir John de Meriet, and d. 1385 or 1386
• Philippa, who married 1stly Sir Richard Sergeaux and 2ndly Sir John Cornwall, and d. 1399
• Katherine, who married .... Deincourt, and d. before 12 February 1381/2

Mary, the wife of John, 4th Lord Strange of Blackmere

Volume 14, p.596 retains the identification of John Strange's wife Mary as a daughter of Richard, the 10th earl, but mentions Margaret Aston's argument, in Thomas Arundel, chart following p.436 (1967), that Mary was instead the daughter of Edmund, the 9th earl. It adds that if this were so, Mary would have been aged about 40 when her son John was born.

Margaret Aston cites two records that place Mary as a sister - not a daughter - of Richard, the 10th earl: (i) in a petition to the Pope in 1364, she calls herself "Mary la Straunge, lady of Corfham, widow, and sister of the Earl of Arundell" [Cal. Papal Petitions, 1342-1419, p.484] and (ii) in an "ordinance and device" registered with his will, Richard refers to his sister Mary Lestrange [Reg. Sudbury, Lambeth, f.95v].

A third independent piece of evidence is an agreement between the attorneys of Richard, earl of Arundel and Surrey, and the attorneys of Isabel, late the wife of John Lestrange of Blakemere, concerning Isabel's dower, which refers to this John [Mary's son] as the earl's nephew, which "agreement shall be affirmed in the king's chancery" [Cat. Ancient Deeds vol. 3, C3059: English abstract of a French original]. This agreement is undated, but was probably made soon after 28 November 1375, when an order was enrolled to the escheator in Shropshire, to take an oath from Isabel not to marry without the king's licence, and to assign her dower in the presence of Richard, earl of Arundel, or his attorneys, sending the assignment under seal to be enrolled in chancery [Cal. Close Rolls 1374-77, p.176]. A note was later added to the agreement, recording the delivery of dower by the assent of Richard, now earl of Arundel, and the other executors of Richard, the former earl [who had died in January, 1375/6]. This was perhaps in June 1376, when following Isabel's unlicenced remarriage it was ordered that she should have her dower with the "assent of Richard now earl of Arundell and other the executors of Richard late earl of Arundell" [Cal. Close Rolls 1374-77, p.378].

As to the chronology, Mary's son John Lestrange was born in the early 1350s [Complete Peerage volume 12, part 1, p. 344], while Edmund, the 9th earl of Arundel, married while a minor in 1305 and was executed in 1326. From this it appears that Mary could have been under 30 when John was born. (However, Mary's daughter Ankaret, the eventual heir, was born later, about 1361 [p.345].)

The children of Edmund, son of Richard, 10th earl of Arundel

In 1382, John Meryett, knight, and Elizabeth his wife, Richard Sergeaux, knight, and Philippa his wife and Robert d'Eyncourt, the son of Katherine, claimed that Richard, Earl of Arundel, had disseised them of a free tenement in Singleton, Sussex - Elizabeth, Philippa and Katherine (evidently deceased) being daughters of Edmund, son of Richard, late earl of Arundel [P.R.O. CP/40/487/503, transcribed with a translation in S.E. Thorne, ed., Year Books of Richard II: 6 Richard II, 1382-1383, pp.66-69 (1996)].

B.W. Greenfield, in a very detailed study [Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Proceedings, vol. 28, pp. 99-215 (1882)], presents strong evidence that Elizabeth, the wife of Sir John Meryett (1345/6-1391), was the widow of Sir Leonard Carew (1342-1369), and probably the mother of his only son and heir, Thomas Carew (1369-1431). Greenfield suggests that Elizabeth probably married Sir John in about 1373, when he conveyed his lands to Sir Edmund de Arundel and others [citing Final Concords, Somerset, Michaelmas Term, 47 Edward III], and shows that she must have died, without issue by Sir John, between Michaelmas Term 1385 and March 1386. (He also mentions a statement in Tierney's History of Arundel [citing Vincent, MS Ashmole 8467] that Sir Leonard Carew married Alice, daughter of Sir Edmund de Arundel by Sibyl, his wife - which is presumably why the Complete Peerage incorrectly names this daughter as Alice.)

On Philippa, see Fanhope.

[Douglas Richardson pointed out the arguments for Richard and Isabel having had only a son, including Margaret Aston's work, in November 2001, and the evidence for the daughters of Edmund in January 2002. Thanks to Adrian Channing for other useful comments.
Item last updated: 11 February 2003.]