A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Roman Government, Royal biography 7 · Part 10 – Part 12
Of his Wife and Children.
HE married Philippa, the daughter of William Earle of Haynault at Yorke; a match made up in haste by Queene Isabell his mother, for her owne ends, although a better could never have beene made upon deliberation for King Edwards ends: for though her Parentage were not great, and her portion less…; yet she made amends for both, in vertue; for never King had a better Wife. By her King Edward had seven sonnes and five daughters: his eldest sonne Edward Prince of Wales, and commonly called the Blacke Prince, (but why so called uncertaine for to say, of his dreadfull acts, as Spe…de saith, hath little probability) was borne at Woodstocke, in the third yeare of his Fathers Raigne; he married Ioane, the daughter of Edmund Earle of Kent, brother by the Fathers side to King Edward the second. She had beene twice married before; first to the valiant Earle of Salisbury, from whom she was divorced: next to the Lord Thomas Holland; after whose decease, this Prince passionatly loving her, married her: by her he had issue two sonnes, Edward the eldest, borne at Angoulesme, who died at seven yea…es of age; and Richard borne at Burdeaux, who after his Father, was Prince of Wales, and after his Grandfather King of England. This Prince had also naturall issue, Sir Iohn Sounder, and Roger Clarendon Knights; the latter being attainted in the Raign… of King Henry the fourth, is thought to have …eene Ancestour to the house of Smiths in Essex. He died at Canterbury, in the sixe and fortieth yeare of his age; and of his Fathe… Raigne, the nine and fortieth, and was buried at Christs Church there. His second sonne William was borne at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, who deceased in his childhood, and was buried at Yorke. His third sonne Lyonell was borne at Antwerpe, in the twelveth yeare of his Fathers Raigne; he married first Elizabeth, the daughter and Heire of William Burgh, Earle of Ulster in Ireland; in who…e Right he was first created Earle of Ulster: and because he had with her the honour of Clare, in the County of To… mond; he was in a Parliament, created Duke of Clarence, as it were of the Countrey about the Towne and Honour of Clare; from which Dutchy, the name of Clarentieux (being the title of the King of Armes, for the South parts of England) is derived. This Duke had issue by her one onelyonly daughter, named Philippa afterward wife of Edmund Mortimer, Earle of March; mother of Earle Roger, Father of Anne Countesse of Cambridge, the mother of Richard Duke of Yorke, Father of King Edward the fourth. The second marriage of this Duke was at Millaine in Lombardy, with the Lady Vi…lanta, daughter of G…leac… the second Duke thereof; but through intemperance he lived not long …fter. King Edwards fourth sonne named Iohn, was borne at Ga…t, in the foureteenth yeare of his Fathers Raigne; he had three wives, the first was …l…nch, daughter and Coheire, and in the end the sole Heire of Henry Duke of Lancaster, sonne of Edmund, sirnamed Crouch back; by whom he had issue, Henry of Bullingbrooke Earle of Derby, after Duke of Hereford, and lastly King of England, named Henry the fourth, who first placed the Crowne in the house of Lancaster. By her also Iohn of Gaunt had two daughters, Philip wife of Iohn the first, King of Portugall; and Elizabeth married first to Iohn Holland, Earle of Huntington, and after him, to Sir Iohn Cornwall, Baron of Fanhope. Iohn of Gaunts second wife was Constance, the eldest daughter of Peter King of Castile and Leon, in whose Right, for the time he intitled himselfe King of both those Realmes: by her he had issue one onelyonly daughter named Katherine, married to Henry the third, sonne of King Iohn, in possession before, and in her Right after King of both the said Realmes. Iohn of Gaunts third wife was Katherine, the Widow of Sir Hugh Swinford, a knight of Lincolnshire, eldest daughter and Coheire of Payn Roet, a Gascoyne, called G…en King of Armes for that Countrey; his younger daughter being married to Sir Geoffrey Chawcer, our Laureat Poet. By her he had issue born before matrimony, and made legitimate afterward by Parliament, in the twentieth yeare of King Richard the second; Iohn Earle of Somerset, Thomas Duke of Exeter, Henry Bishop of Winchester, and Cardinall, and Ioane (who was first married to Robert Ferrers Baron of Wemme, and Ou…sley, in the Counties of Salop and Warwicke) and secondly, to Ralph Nevill, the first Earle of Westmerland. She and all her brethren were sirnamed Beaufort, of a Castle which the Duke had in France, where they were all borne; and in regard thereof, bare the Portcullis of a Castle for the Cognisance of their Family. This Duke in the thirteenth yeare of his Nephew King Richard was created Duke of Aquitaine, but in his sixteenth yeare he was called home, and this title re-called; and the third yeare after, in the sixtieth of his age, he died at Ely house in Holbourne, and lieth honourably Entombed in the Quire of Saint Paul. King Edwards fifth sonne Edmund, sirnamed of Langley, was first in the yeare 1362. created Earle of Cambridge, and afterward in the yeare 1386. made Duke of Yorke; he married Isabell, daughter and Coheire to Peter, King of Castile and Leon: his sonne Richard Plantagenet Duke of Yorke, tooke to wife Anne Mortimer, Heire of the foresaid Lyonell, elder brother to Edmund of Langley. King Edwards sixth sonne William, sirnamed of Windsor, where he was borne, died young, and is buried at Westminster. King Edwards youngest sonne Thomas, sirnamed of Woodstocke, where he was borne, was first Earle of Buckingham, and after made Duke of Glocester by his Nephew King Richard the second. He was a man of valour and wisdome, but the King surmizing him to be a too severe observer of his doings; consulted with Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolke, how to make him away: whom Mowbray unawares surprising, convaied secretly to Callice, where he was strangled the twentieth yeare of King Richards Raigne. He had issue one sonne, Humphrey Earle of Buckingham, who died at Chester of the Pestilence, in the yeare 1400. and two daughters, Anne married first to Edmund Earle of Stafford, by whom she had Humphrey Duke of Buckingham; secondly to William Bourchier Earle of Ewe, by whom she had Henry Earle of Essex, and Ioane married to Gylbert Lord Talbot, and h…d issue by him a daughter, who died young. Of King Edwards daughters, the eldest named Isabell, was married at Windsor to Ingelram of Guysnes, Lord of Co…cy, Earle of Soysons, and after Arch-duke of Austria; created also by King Edward, Earle of Bedford: by whom she was mother of two daughters; Mary married to Henry Duke of Barre, and Philip married to Robert de Vere Earle of Oxford, Duke of Ireland, and Marquesse of Dublyn. This Robert in the height of his fortunes forsooke his Lady Philip, and married one Lancerona a Joyners da…ghter (as was said) which came with King Richard the seconds wife ou… of Bohemia; and being for abusing the Kings eare, driven out of the Land by the Lords, he died at London in extreame poverty in the yeare 1392. Isabell his wives mother, was buried in the Church of Friers Minorites neare Aldgate in London. King Edwards second daughter Ioane was married by Proxie to Alphonsus, King of Castile and Leon … but passing into Spaine, died by the way; and King Alphonsus met her, instead of consummating his Espousall, to solemnise her Funerall. His third daughter Blanch died young. His fourth named Mary, was married to Iohn Montford Duke of Britaine. His youngest named Margaret, borne in Callice, was the first wife of Iohn de Hastings, Earle of Pembroke, but died without issue.
Of his Personage and Conditions.
HE was of stature indifferent tall, of sparkling eyes, of a comely and manly countenance, in his later time something bald; and concerning his conditions, no man was more gentle, where there was submission; where opposition, no man more sterne. He was a Prince no lesse of his passions, then of his people; for he was never so loving, as to be fond; nor ever so angry, as to be inexorable: but this must be understood of the time while he was a man, for in his old age, when he came to be a childe againe, he was Prince of neither. He was no lesse fortunate then valiant; and his fortunatenes was the greater by a kind of Antiperistatis, as comming betweene two unfortunate Princes; Successour to one, and Predecessour to another. He was of so warlike a disposition, that his very sports were warlike; for no delights were so frequent with him as Justs and Tournaments. To shew his devotion, one example may be sufficient, for when neither Cardinals nor Counsellours could move him to make peace with France, a tempest from Heaven did it; to which may be added, that he never wanne great battell, of which he wanne many, but he presently gave the glory of it to God by publike Thanksgiving. He out-lived the best wife, and the best sonne that ever King had; and to say the truth, he out-lived the best of himselfe, for his later years were not answerable to his former.
Of his Death and Buriall.
KING Edward besides his being old, and worne with the labours of warre, had other causes that hastened his end: his griefe for the losse of so worthy a sonne, dead but tenne moneths before; his griefe for the losse of all benefit of his conquests in France, of all which he had little now left, but onelyonly Callice: and oppressed thus in body and minde, he was drawing his last breath, when his Concubine Alice Pierce packing away what she could catch, even to the Rings of his fingers, left him; and by her example, other of his attendants, sea…sing on what they could come by, shift away; and all his Counsellours and others forsooke him, when he most needed them, leaving his Chamber quite empty; which a poore Priest in the house seeing, he approaches to the Kings Bed-side, and finding him yet breathing, cals upon him to remember his Saviour, and to aske merciemercy for his offences, which none about him before would doe: but now moved by the voyce of this Priest, he shewes all signes of contrition, and at his last breath expresses the name of Jesus. Thus died this victorious King at his Manor at Sheene, (now Richmond) the one and twentieth day of Iune, in the yeare 1377. in the sixty fourth yeare of his age, having Raigned fifty yeares, foure moneths, and odde dayes. His body was conveyed from Sheene by his foure sonnes and other Lords, and solemnly interred within Westminster Church, where he hath his Monument, and whereit is said, the sword he used in battell, is yet to be seene, being eight pound in weight, and seven foote in length.