14. | Henry (Plantagenet), 3rd Earl of Lancaster and of Leicester, Count of Provence was born circa 1281 (son of Edmund (Plantagenet), 1st Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, King of Sicily and Blanche (Capet), of Artois); died on 22 Sept. 1345; was buried in North Side of the High Altar, Newark Abbey, Leicester, Leicestershire, England. Other Events:
- Hereditary Title: 3rd Earl of Lancaster
- Hereditary Title: Count of Provence
- Hereditary Title: Lord Lancaster [E., 1299]
- Hereditary Title: From 29 March 1324; 3rd Earl of Leicester
- Office: 1327; Captain General of the King's armies against the Scots
Notes:
He had livery of Monmouth and lands of his father beyond the Severn, 20 March 1296/97.
He served with the King of Flanders, 1297–98.
From 1298 to 1323, he served in Scotland nearly every year, being from 1310 onwards frequently ordered to send men from his Welsh lordship to serve in the Scottish wars.
He attested a charter at St. Albans, 3 November 1299.
He took part in the siege of Carlaverock in July 1300.
As Henry of Lancaster, Lord of Monmouth, his seal is appended to the Barons' Letter to the Pope, 12 February 1300/01.
On 22 January 1307/08, he was commanded to meet Edward II and his Queen at Dover, after their marriage at Boulogne.
At the Coronation, 25 February 1307/08, he bore the Rod with the Dove.
In August 1309 he joined in the Barons' letter to the Pope about abuses.
On 17 March 1309/10, he was one of those who forced the King to agree to the appointment of the Lords Ordainers.
He was pardoned, among other adherents of Earl Thomas, 16 October 1313 for participation in the execution of Piers (Gaveston), 1st and last Earl of Cornwall.
As one of the Lords Marchers he was involve d in the fighting in South Wales, January 1315 to March 1316, occasioned by the rebellion of Llywelyn Bren.
In June 1317, the King wrote to Philippe of France asking him to respite the homage of Henry of Lancaster for his lands in Champagne and Brie as he was needed in England.
In 1320 he joined the confederacy of the Marchers against the Despensers, and civil war raged for some time in South Wales, the native Welsh siding with the Marchers; however, he took no part in the rebellion of his brother Thomas in 1322.
In May 1325 he was accused of treason because he had written a letter of consolation to the Bishop of Hereford (Adam of Orlton), used his brother's arms, and set up a cross near Leicester to induce passers-by to pray for his brother; but no proceedings were taken against him.
In August 1325 he was in readiness to attend the King with a suite of 8 followers when Edward made a pretence of setting out for France to do homage for Aquitaine and Ponthieu—a journey which was never taken.
On the Queen's return to England with Roger de Mortimer in September 1326, Henry joined her party against Edward II, which led to a general desertion of the King's cause, and was appointed Keeper of the castles of Abergavenny and Kenilworth.
The King having fled to Wales, Henry was sent in pursuit and captured the King at Neath, taking him thence to Llantrisant, co. Glamorgan, 16 November 1326. He captured the younger Despenser at the same time.
He was appointed to take charge of the King, and was responsible for his custody at Kenilworth till 4 April 1327. (It was at Kenilworth, in the presence of his custodian and others, that Edward II made his formal abdication, of which a graphic account is given in Geoffrey le Baker's Chronicon.)
As Henry, Earl of Lancaster, he was appointed, 7 December 1326, Keeper of the castle and honour of Lancaster, the castles and honours of Tutbury and Pickering, the manor of Melbourne, co. Derby, and the manor of Stanford, co. Bucks; and as Henry, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, Keeper of various manors in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, Rutland, and Leicestershire.
He was present, 1 February 1326/27, at the Coronation of Edward III, whom he knighted, and of whom he was appointed guardian.
The Queen and Roger de Mortimer, however, usurped the authority with which Henry had been invested by the general consent of the magnates for the better government of the King and of the realm, and Henry was unable to control or to advise his young charge.
On 23 April 1327, he had livery of a large number of honours and manors late of Thomas his brother, the King having taken his homage.
On 12 February 1327/28, the Exchequer was ordered to search the rolls of the accounts of the sheriffs of co. Lancaster and to allow Henry to receive ferms and issues of the county as had Edmund his father and Thomas his brother.
He with Lord Wake and others refused to attend the Parliament summoned to meet at Salisbury on 16 October 1328, where Mortimer had assembled a large armed force.
Mortimer set the Royal forces in action against them, and the Earl's town of Leicester was ravaged.
He marched at the head of his own men and some Londoners, but his chief supporters fell away and he was obliged to make his submission at Bedford.
Orders were issued for the seizure of his lands in January 1328/29, but rescinded in February upon a heavy fine, which was forgiven in December 1330.
His partisans and those of Hamo de Chigwell, formerly Lord Mayor of London, were tried at the Guildhall.
On 12 September 1329 he had a protection on going beyond seas, and in that month set out for France with a large retinue.
On 3 December 1329 he was joined with the Bishop of Norwich in the negotiations with King Philippe touching questions still at issue between the two Kings after Edward's act of homage at Amiens on 6 June. On 27 Jan. 1330 the Ambassadors had further instructions to negotiate marriages between Jean, eldest son of King Philippe, and Edward's sister Eleanor, and John of Eltham and Princess Marie of France, in which they did not succeed.
At about this time (early 1330) he became blind.
On 2 April 1330 he had licence to found a hospital for poor persons and pilgrims in his town of Leicester, to be served by 4 or 5 chaplains, and to appropriate to it Ircester church, of his patronage. This hospital was the Newark, Leicester.
On the fall of Mortimer in October 1330 his close personal relations with the young King were renewed.
On 1 February 1331/32 he had remission of £221 13s. 4d. relief on succeeding to his brother Thomas's lands, because the King had had them in his own hand for six years after the death of Thomas.
On 27 March 1332, for the special affection which he bore him, the King granted Henry 500 marks yearly for the better maintenance of his estate.
In December 1334, Henry made a gift to the nuns of Canons Ashby.
In 1335 he was with the King at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where the invasion of Scotland by Edward III and Balliol, from Carlisle and Newcastle respectively, was planned and carried out.
He was summoned to attend a Great Council at Northampton, 15 June 1338.
In January 1338/39 he was one of the collectors of wool in co. Lincoln.
In June 1339 Henry, as Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, Steward of England, headed the group of Earls who were sureties for the treaty concluded at Brussels between England and Brabant.
On 14 July 1341 the King granted him and the heirs of his body certain jura regalia—namely, the return of all King's writs and all pleas of withernaam (de vetito namio) in their lands and fees, &c. (These were afterwards cancelled with the consent of his son Henry.)
In September 1342 he was summoned to the Great Council to be held the following month.
He was appointed, 1 July 1345, to the Council of Prince Lionel, Keeper of England during the King's absence.
Hereditary Title:
He was summoned to Parliament during the lifetime of his father, from 6 February 1298/99, by writs directed Henrico de Lancastre nepoti Regis and Henrico de Lancastre, whereby, according to modern doctrine, he is held to have become Lord Lancaster.
Hereditary Title:
He was present as Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, 26 October 1326, at Bristol, at the extraordinary Council which elected Prince Edward, then Duke of Aquitaine, keeper of the realm during his father's absence, the King having fled to Wales.
On 3 February 1326/27 his brother Thomas was rehabilitated in Parliament, whereby Henry's right of succession to his brother in the Earldom of Lancaster was recognised.
Hereditary Title:
In 1323 he petitioned the King and Council for the earldoms of Lancaster and Leicester.
He received a writ of livery of the earldom and honour of Leicester, 29 March 1324 (the castle of Kenilworth excepted), becoming thereby Earl of Leicester, and possibly Steward of England.
He was summoned, 13 September 1324, to the Great Council at Salisbury as Earl of Leicester, and as Henry de Lancastria, "now Earl of Leicester," he received the honour of Leicester 8 November 1324.
Buried:
There were present at his funeral the King and Queen, Queen Isabel, Archbishops, bishops, earls and barons.
Henry married Maud Chaworth before 2 March 1296/97. Maud (daughter of Sir Patrick de Chaworth and Lady Isabel Beauchamp) died between 19 Feb. 1317 and 3 Dec. 1322; was buried in Mottisfont Priory, Mottisfont, Hampshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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