The Skaggs-Files

Eleanor of Lancaster (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet1) (about 1318 - 11 January 1371/2) was born in Arundel, West Sussex, England, the daughter of Henry, Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281-1345) and his wife Maud de Chaworth (1282- c. 1317).

Before June 1337, she married John de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan, 2nd Lord Beaumont, son of Henry de Beaumont (c. 1288 - bef. 1340) and his wife Alice Comyn (c. 1291-1349).

They had two children, Henry (1340-1369), who succeeded his father as Lord Beaumont, and Matilda.

John de Beaumont died in a tournament on 14 April 1342.

On 5 February 1344/1345 at Ditton Church, Stoke Poges, Buckingham, she married Richard FitzAlan, 3rd Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surry, known by the soubriquet of "Copped Hat", Justiciar of North Wales, Governor of Carnarvon Castle, Admiral of the West. His previous marriage, to Isabel le Despenser, had taken place when they were children. It was annulled by Papal mandate as she, since her father's attainder and execution, had ceased to be of any importance to him. The Pope obligingly Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel (d. January 24, 1376) was an English nobleman and military commander.

He was the son of Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel and Alice Warenne. His birthdate is uncertain, but was not before 1307.

Around 1321 Richard's father allied with king Edward II's favorites the Despensers, and Richard was married to Isabella, daughter of the younger Hugh le Despenser. Fortune turned against the Despenser party, and in 1326 Richard's father was executed, and Richard did not succeed to his father's estates or titles.

However by 1330 political conditions had changed, and over the next few years Richard was gradually able to reaquire the earldom of Arundel as well as the great estates his father had held in Sussex and in the Welsh Marches. Beyond this, in 1334 he was made justice of North Wales (later his term in this office was made for life), sheriff for life of Carnarvonshire, and governor of Carnarvon Castle.

Despite his high offices in Wales, in the following decades Arundel spent much of his time fighting in Scotland and France. In 1337 he was joint commander of the English army in the north, and the next year he was made the sole commander.

In 1340 he fought at the Battle of Sluys, and then at the siege of Tournai. After a short term as warden of the Scottish Marches, he returned to the continent, where he fought in a number of campaigns, and was appointed joint Lieutanant of Aquitaine in 1340.

Arundel was one of the three principal English commanders at the Battle of Crecy. He spent much of the following years on various military campaigns and diplomatic missions.

In 1353 he succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey (or Warenne), which even further increased his great wealth. (He did not however use the additional title until after the death of the dowager countess of Surrey in 1361.) He made very large loans to Edward III but even so on his death left behind a great sum in hard cash.

Arundel married twice. His first wife (as mentioned above), was Isabella Despenser. He repudiated her, and had the marriage annulled on the grounds that he had never freely consented to it. After the annullment he married Eleanor of Lancaster, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Leicester.

By his first marriage he had one daughter. By the second he had 3 sons: Richard, who succeeded him as earl; John, who was a Marshall of England, and drowned in 1379; and Thomas Arundel, who became Archbishop of Canterbury. He also had 2 surviving daughters by his second wife: Joan, who married Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and Alice, who married Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent.
annulled the marriage, bastardized the issue, and provided a dispensation for his second marriage to the woman with whom he had been living in adultery (the dispensation, dated 4 March 1344/5, was required because his first and second wives were first cousins.

The children of Eleanor's second marriage were:
Richard (bef. 1347-1397), who succeeded as Earl of Arundel
John (bef 1349-1379)
Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of York (c. 1352-)
Joan (bef. 1351-1419)
Alice (1352-1416)

Eleanor died at Arundel and was buried at Lewes Priory in Lewes, Sussex, England.