Blanche of England
Portrait above Blanche's tomb in Neustadt an der Weinstraße
BornSpring 1392
Peterborough Castle, Northamptonshire, Kingdom of England
Died22 May 1409 (aged 17)
Free Imperial City of Haguenau, Holy Roman Empire
Burial
St Mary's at Neustadt, Electorate of the Palatinate
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1402)​
IssueRupert
HouseLancaster
FatherHenry IV of England
MotherMary de Bohun

Blanche of England (spring 1392 – 22 May 1409), also known as Blanche of Lancaster, was a member of the House of Lancaster, the daughter of King Henry IV of England by his first wife Mary de Bohun.

Family

Born at Peterborough Castle (now in Cambridgeshire), Blanche was the sixth of the seven children born during the marriage of Henry of Lancaster and his wife Mary de Bohun.[1] At the time of her birth, Henry was only Earl of Derby and, thanks to his marriage, Earl of Northampton and Earl of Hereford; as the only surviving son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, he was the heir of the Duchy of Lancaster. Blanche was named after her paternal grandmother.

Blanche's mother died on 4 June 1394 in Peterborough Castle after giving birth to her last child, Philippa. Five years later, on 30 September 1399, Blanche's father deposed his cousin Richard II and usurped the throne. Three years later in 1402, her father was remarried, to Joanna, daughter of King Charles II of Navarre and widow of Duke John V of Brittany. There were no children of this marriage.

Marriage

The Crown of Princess Blanche, kept at Munich Residenz

In January 1401 Henry IV held a tournament at Eltham Palace to honour the visit of Manuel II Palaiologos. The tournament was commemorated in literary form as thirteen letters in old French addressed to Blanche. Each letter, supposedly written by a legendary patron, praises one of the combatants. The letters were probably read aloud during the event.[2]

After his accession to the English throne, King Henry IV wanted to make important alliances in order to maintain and legitimise his rule. One needed ally was King Rupert of Germany, who had also ascended following his predecessor's deposition: a marriage between Rupert's eldest surviving son Louis and Henry IV's eldest daughter Blanche was soon arranged.[3]

Blanche's restored tombstone at the church in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse

The marriage contract was signed on 7 March 1401 in London; the bride's dowry was fixed in the amount of 40,000 Nobeln (over 300 kg of gold). The formal marriage between Blanche and Louis took place on 6 July 1402 at Cologne Cathedral, Germany.[1] Blanche's dowry included the oldest surviving royal crown known to have been in England.[4] Despite its political nature, the marriage was said to be happy. Four years later, on 22 June 1406 in Heidelberg, Blanche gave birth to a son, called Rupert after his paternal grandfather.

In 1408 Blanche was made Lady of the Garter. One year later, pregnant with her second child, she died of fever in Haguenau, Alsace and was buried in the Church of St. Mary (today St. Aegidius) in Neustadt in the Palatinate.

Her widower became Elector Palatine as Louis III in 1410 after the death of his father King Rupert and in 1417 married Matilda, daughter of Amadeo, Prince of Achaea, member of the House of Savoy, who bore him six children. Blanche's son Rupert (nicknamed the English) died aged nineteen in 1426, unmarried and without issue.

Ancestry

References

  1. 1 2 Panton 2011, p. 74.
  2. ↑ Sarah Carpenter, 'Chivalric Entertainment at the Court of Henry IV: The Jousting Letters of 1401', Medieval English Theatre, 43 (D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 39-107.
  3. ↑ Harriss 2005, p. 427.
  4. ↑ Ogden 2018, p. 73.
  5. ↑ Tout, Thomas Frederick (1911). "Edward III" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  6. 1 2 Armitage-Smith, Sydney (1905). John of Gaunt: King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Seneschal of England. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 77. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  7. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Philippa of Hainaut" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  8. ↑ Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head. p. 84. ISBN 9780099539735.
  9. ↑ Mosley, Charles, ed. (1999). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Vol. 1 (106th ed.). Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 228.
  10. 1 2 Weir (1999), p. 84.
  11. 1 2 Cokayne, G.E.; Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H.A.; White, Geoffrey H.; Warrand and, Duncan; de Walden, Howard, eds. (2000). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. Vol. II (new ed.). Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 70.
  12. ↑ Cokayne et al (2000), I, p. 242
  13. ↑ Weir (1999), p. 78.

Sources

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