Mary Ferrers

Notes:

Died:
Age: 63

Mary married Ralph Neville in 1413 in Oversley, Warwickshire, England. Ralph (son of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Margaret Stafford) was born in 1394; died on 25 Feb 1458 in Oversley, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Mary Neville was born about 1414 in Oversley, Warwickshire, England; died in 1475 in Yorkshire, England.
2. John Neville was born about 1416 in Oversley, Warwickshire, England; died on 17 Mar 1481 in Lincolnshire, England.

Robert married Joan Beaufort in 1391 in Beaufort, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France. Joan (daughter of John "of Gaunt" Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster and Katherine de Roët) was born on 1 May 1375 in Beaufort Castle, Goudet, Haute-Loire, Auvergne, France; died on 13 Nov 1440 in Howden, Yorkshire, England; was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a Knight of the Order of the Garter. He was Prince of England, in 1342 he was Earl of Richmond, in 1361 he was Earl of Lancaster, and, in 1362 he was Earl of Derby, Earl of Leicester and Earl of Lincoln. Also he was Titular King of Castile and Leon and Duke of Aquitane. In 1377, he became Earl Palatinate.

Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Earl of Derby, Earl of Lincoln, Duke of Aquitaine, Lord of Beaufort and Nogent, Rey de Castilla y Leon, Seigneur de Bergerac et Roche-sur-Yon, Knight of the Garter.

He virtually ran England during his Father's declining years. He was one of the wealthiest men in the realm. --- He had wealth and power over the lives of others of a type we find it hard to even imagine today. His progeny became rich and powerful in his train. Perhaps he mused that he would go down in History as Duke of Lancaster, honored, feared, magnificent and respected. And yet, because William Shakespeare [1564-1616], 200 years after the Duke of Lancaster's death --- writes a play called Richard II [1595-1596] and calls him John of Gaunt, an infant nickname that John enjoyed until the age of three, and not thereafter --- this sobriquet --- corrupted from his birthplace in Ghent, Flanders, Netherlands --- sticks to him forever. Ghent is now in Belgium. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Rey de Castilla y Leon has been dead for almost 600 years --- but Shakespeare's christening wins the historical palm and is the name he sleeps with for the eons. Scribblers are often powerful beyond belief. -- Spencer Hines

He was only able to marry her after Constanza's death, at which time her children by him were retro-actively legitimated. -- Brant Gibbard

The four original Beauforts were born to Katherine Roet Swynford and John of Gaunt while John's second wife was still alive. On her death in 1394 John married Katherine, and in 1397 Richard II, as a favour to John of Gaunt and in order to neutralize John's son Derby (later King Henry IV) legitimatized the children who had been born out of wedlock. Richard's Act of Parliament did not bar the Beauforts or their descendants from the throne. But Henry IV later wrote in, between the lines of the document, a clause excluding the Beauforts from the succession. This interlineation was, bluntly, a forgery of an Act of Parliament, and Henry VII's sccession confounded it. -- from Kings & Queens of England & Scotland (by Allen Andrews, Marshall Cavendish, London 1985)

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399), English soldier and statesman, the fourth son of King Edward III of England, and brother of Edward, the Black Prince. John was born in March 1340 in Ghent (M.E., Gaunt), now in Belgium. In 1359 he married Blanche, daughter of Henry, duke of Lancaster; when Henry died, John became duke.

John of Gaunt played an important part in the wars of the period between England and France and between England and Spain. He commanded a division of the English army, led by the Black Prince, that defeated the army of Henry (later Henry II, king of Castile and Leon) at N jerera in 1367. As a result of his second marriage, to Constance, daughter of Peter the Cruel (king of Castile and Leon), John laid claim to the throne ofofof Castile. . During the Hundred Years' War, he aided (1370-1371) the Black Prince against France and established English rule over most of southern France. After a severe illness forced the return of the Black Prince to England, John took command of the English armies; by 1380 he had lost much of the territory the English had previously won. In 1386 John invaded Castile, but was defeated by John I, king of Castile and Leon. John of Gaunt gave up his claim to Castile and Leon in 1387, whe when his daughter married d Henry, later Henry III, king of Castile and Leon.

John of Gaunt was also prominent in English affairs. Together with Alice Perrers, his father's mistress, John dominated the English government. He was opposed by Parliament and by the Black Prince. In 1376 Parliament banished Alice Perrers and curtailed John's powers. The death of the Black Prince that year and the dissolution of Parliament, however, enabled John to regain his power. In 1377, on the death of Edward III and the accession of Richard II (John's nephew and son of the Black Prince), John gave up his control of the government and thereafter played the role of peacemaker; he also supported the king, by whom he was made (1390) duke of Aquitaine. In 1396, after the death of his second wife, John married his mistress Catherine Swynford, and Richard legitimized their children the following year. Saddened by the exile (1398) of his son, Henry of Lancaster (later King Henry IV of England), John died on February 3 of the following year.

Birth:
Abbaye De St Bavon, Ghent, Flandre Orientale, Belgium

John married Katherine de Roët on 13 Jan 1396 in Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire, England. Katherine (daughter of Paon de Roët) was born on 25 Nov 1350 in Hainault, Belgium; died on 10 May 1403 in Lincolnshire, England; was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Katherine Swynford

Notes:

Governess to the Duke's daughter by his first wife, became John's mistress in 1388. All their children were before they were married. They were legitimated later by the Pope.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 20 Nov 1312

Edward married of Hainault Philippa d'Avesnes on 24 Jan 1327 in York Minster, Deangate, Yorkshire, England. Philippa (daughter of William I "The Good" d'Avesnes, Count of Hainaut and Jeanne de Valois) was born on 24 Jun 1314 in Le Quesnoy, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 15 Aug 1369 in Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Philippa of Hainault

Notes:

Walter of Stapeldon was bishop of Exeter, and in 1319 served on an English diplomatic mission to the Low Countries to negotiate a naval agreement. As part of their responsibilities, the emissaries also visited Hainaut and gave Philippa the once-over. It is interesting that she was even then being considered as a possible future queen of England, nearly a full decade before Queen Isabella finally closed the negotiations.

A document from their trip gives a fairly full physical description of the young girl: she was well built, without any obvious deformity; good hair, neither light nor dark; neat head, with a somewhat bulbous forehead (considered a sign of beauty); her eyes were dark brown, almost black, and fairly close together (NOT a good sign). Her nose was all right, except the tip was a bit broad and the nostrils a tad large. The lips were full, especially the lower one. Her teeth were good, some whiter than others, and the lower row was noticeably irregular while the upper row protruded just a bit--not too much. Her skin was brownish, not the translucent white of a romance heroine. She resembled her father a good deal (a good sign as it suggested she was more masculine and might well have more sons than daughters), both parents were very fond of her, and all the courtiers of Hainaut thought well of her too, as far as the envoys were able to determine.

According to her mother, Philippa would have her ninth birthday at the next feast of the Nativity of St John Baptist (24 June), which puts her birth on or near that day in the year 1310. She was thus about two and one-half years older than her future husband, and would have been about 45 when she bore her last child Thomas in 1355. -- John Carmi Parsons (edited)