Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence

Lionel of Antwerp
Duke of Clarence
Lionel, Duke of Clarence. 19th-century drawing of bronze statuette on south side of tomb of his father King Edward III
Earl of Ulster (jure uxoris)
Predecessor	William Donn de Burgh
Successor	Philippa with Roger Mortimer
co-Ruler	Elizabeth de Burgh
Spouse	Elizabeth de Burgh m. 1352; dec. 1363 Violante Visconti m. 1368; wid. 1368
Issue
Philippa of Clarence, 5th Countess of Ulster
House	House of Plantagenet
Father	Edward III of England
Mother	Philippa of Hainault
Born	(1338-11-29)29 November 1338 Antwerp, Belgium
Died	7 October 1368(1368-10-07) (aged 29) Alba, Piedmont
Burial	Clare Priory, Suffolk

Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, jure uxoris 4th Earl of Ulster and 5th Baron of Connaught, KG (29 November 1338 – 7 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He was so called because he was born at Antwerp.

First marriage

Betrothed when a child to Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster (d. 1363), daughter and heiress of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster (d. 1332), he was married to her in 1352, but before this date he had entered into possession of her great Irish inheritance. He was called Earl of Ulster from 1347.

Ireland

Having been named as his father's representative in England in 1345 and again in 1346, Lionel joined an expedition into France in 1355, but his chief energies were reserved for the affairs of Ireland.

Appointed governor of that country, he landed at Dublin in 1361, and in November of the following year was created Duke of Clarence, the second Dukedom created in England, while his father made an abortive attempt to secure for him the crown of Scotland. His efforts to secure an effective authority over his Irish lands were only moderately successful; and after holding a parliament at Kilkenny, which passed the celebrated Statute of Kilkenny in 1366, he dropped the task in disgust and returned to England.

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was at one time a page in Lionel's household.

Second marriage

Lionel's wife died in Dublin in 1363, leaving behind a daughter, Philippa, whose descendants would one day claim the throne for the House of York. A second marriage was arranged for Lionel with Violante (c. 1353 - November 1386), daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Pavia (d. 1378); the enormous dowry which Galeazzo promised with his daughter being exaggerated by the rumour of the time. Journeying to fetch his bride, Lionel was received in great state both in France and Italy, and was married to Violante at Milan on 28 May 1368. Some months were then spent in festivities, during which Lionel was taken ill at Alba, where he died. There was strong speculation at the time that he had been poisoned by his father-in-law^[1] although this has never been proven.

Issue

His only child, Philippa, married in 1368 Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1351–1381). Their granddaughter and eventual heir, Anne Mortimer, married into the Yorkist branch of the English Royal family. The House of York based its claim to the throne on this line of descent.

Ancestry

One reputed version of Lionel's coat of arms

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Arms

Lionel's arms were at some point those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of five points, with each point bearing a cross gules.^[2] There are also suggestions, such as the above image, that at some point he bore a differentiating label argent of three points, each bearing a canton gules.

Notes

1. ↑ Frances Stonor Saunders, Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman (2004).
2. ↑ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 

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