13th- and 14th-century English nobleman
Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster
(
c.
1278 ? 22 March 1322) was an English nobleman of the first
House of Lancaster
of the royal
Plantagenet Dynasty
. He was
Earl of Lancaster
,
Leicester
, and
Derby
from 1296 to 1322, and
Earl of Lincoln
and
Salisbury
jure uxoris
from 1311 to 1322. As one of the most powerful barons of England, Thomas was one of the leaders of the
baronial
opposition to his first cousin, King
Edward II
.
Early life and marriage
[
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]
Thomas was the eldest son of
Edmund Crouchback
and
Blanche of Artois
, Queen Dowager of Navarre and niece of King
Louis IX of France
. Crouchback was the son of King
Henry III of England
.
Through his mother, Thomas was a half-brother of Queen
Joan I of Navarre
.
His marriage to
Alice de Lacy
was not successful. They had no children together, while he fathered, illegitimately, two sons named John and Thomas.
[2]
In 1317 Alice was abducted from her manor at
Canford
,
Dorset
, by Richard de St Martin, a
knight
in the service of
John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey
. This incident caused a feud between Lancaster and Surrey; Lancaster seized two of Surrey's castles in retaliation. King Edward then intervened, and the two earls came to an uneasy truce. Thomas continued to hold the powerful earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. This was due to the marriage contract the two families had agreed; upon the death of his father-in-law, Thomas would hold these earldoms in his own right, not, as would be expected, in right of his wife.
Earl of Lancaster
[
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]
On reaching full age he became hereditary
sheriff of Lancashire
, but spent most of the next ten years fighting for
Edward I
in Scotland, leaving the shrievalty in the care of deputies. He was present at the
Battle of Falkirk
in 1298 as part of Edward I's wing of the army.
He served in the
coronation
of his cousin, King
Edward II of England
, on 25 February 1308, carrying
Curtana
, the sword of
Edward the Confessor
. At the beginning of the king's reign, Lancaster openly supported Edward, but as the conflict between the king and the nobles wore on, Lancaster's allegiances changed. He despised the royal
favourite
,
Piers Gaveston
, who mocked him as "the Fiddler",
[3]
and swore revenge when Gaveston demanded that the king dismiss one of Lancaster's retainers.
Lancaster was one of the
Lords Ordainers
who demanded the banishment of Gaveston and the establishment of a baronial
oligarchy
. His private army helped separate the king and Gaveston, and Lancaster was one of the "judges" who convicted Gaveston and saw him executed in 1312.
After the disaster at
Bannockburn
in 1314, Edward submitted to Lancaster, who in effect became ruler of England. He attempted to govern for the next four years, but was unable to keep order or prevent the
Scots
from raiding and retaking territory in the North. In 1318 his popularity with the barons declined and he was persuaded "to accept a diminished authority."
[4]
Death
[
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]
The new leadership, eventually headed by
Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester
, and his son
Hugh Despenser the Younger
, proved no more popular with the baronage, and in 1321 Lancaster was again at the head of a rebellion. This time he was defeated at the
Battle of Boroughbridge
on 16 March 1322, and taken prisoner.
Lancaster was tried by a tribunal consisting of, among others, the two
Despensers
;
Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel
; and King Edward. Lancaster was not allowed to speak in his own defence, nor was he allowed to have anyone to speak for him. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Because of their kinship and Lancaster's royal blood, the king commuted the sentence to beheading, as opposed to being
hanged, drawn and beheaded
,
and Lancaster was executed on 22 March 1322 near
Pontefract Castle
.
Upon his death, his titles and estates were forfeited, and the Scots, whom Lancaster gained aid from in his rebellion, mainly to weaken the English in their war, seized the opportunity to take his inheritance in the
Great Raid of 1322
. In 1323, his younger brother
Henry
successfully petitioned to take possession of the earldom of Leicester, and in 1326 or 1327 Parliament posthumously reversed Thomas's conviction, and Henry was further permitted to take possession of the earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, Salisbury and Lincoln.
Soon after Thomas's death, miracles were reported at his tomb at Pontefract, and he became venerated as a
martyr
and
saint
. In 1327 the Commons petitioned
Edward III
to ask for his
canonisation
, and popular veneration continued until the reformation.
On 23 March 1822, Thomas's remains were discovered in a large stone coffin buried in a field in the parish of
Ferry Fryston
.
[6]
In 1942 it was reported by E. J. Rudsdale that some of Thomas's bones had been found in a box at Paskell's auctioneers in Colchester, Essex, having been removed from Pontefract Castle in 1885.
[7]
Titles and lands
[
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]
From his father, Thomas inherited the
earldoms
of
Lancaster
,
Leicester
and a
Ferrers earldom of Derby
.
By
his marriage
to
Alice de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln
, daughter and heiress of
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln
, he became
Earl of Lincoln
,
Earl of Salisbury
, 11th
Baron of Halton
and 7th
Lord of Bowland
upon the death of his father-in-law in 1311. Master of five earldoms, he was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in England.
[8]
Thomas was in possession of many key fortresses, including
Clitheroe Castle
, particularly in northern England. He was responsible for the extension of
Pontefract Castle
and in 1313 he began the construction of
Dunstanburgh Castle
, a massive fortress in
Northumberland
.
Arms
[
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]
Inherited from his father, Thomas bore the arms of the kingdom,
differenced
by a
label
France of three points (that is to say
azure
three
fleur-de-lys
or
, each)
.
[9]
Genealogical table
[
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]
Thomas was closely related to both the
Capetian
kings of France
and the
Plantagenet
kings of England
. His contemporaries commented that "as each parent was of royal stock, he was clearly of nobler descent than the other earls".
- ^
Warner, Kathryn
(2018).
Blood Roses
(1st ed.). Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. p. 120.
- ^
Hamilton, J. S.
"Gaveston, Piers, earl of Cornwall"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, 3 January 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- ^
Arnold-Baker, Charles
(2015).
The Companion to British History
. Routledge. p. 778.
ISBN
9781317400400
. Retrieved
23 November
2022
.
- ^
GENUKI: The Ancient Parish of FERRY FRYSTON
. Accessed 31 January 2023.
- ^
Rudsdale, E. J.
"WW2: A Civilian in the Second World War: 31st January 1942: The Earl of Lancaster's Bones"
.
- ^
Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster
, English Monarchs, Retrieved 13 September 2015
- ^
"marks of cadency in the British royal family"
.
heraldica.org
.
References
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]
Further reading
[
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]