Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester

Thomas of Woodstock
Duke of Gloucester and of Aumale Earl of Essex and of Buckingham
Earl of Buckingham
Successor	Humphrey
Spouse	Eleanor de Bohun
Detail Issue
Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham Anne of Gloucester Joan Isabel Philippa
House	House of Plantagenet
Father	Edward III of England
Mother	Philippa of Hainault
Born	(1355-01-07)7 January 1355 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire
Died	8 September 1397(1397-09-08) (aged 42) Calais, Pale of Calais

Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Buckingham, 1st Earl of Essex, Duke of Aumale, KG (7 January 1355 – 8 or 9 September 1397) was the fourteenth and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He was the fifth of the five sons of Edward III who survived to adulthood.

Early life

Thomas was born after two short-lived sons, one of whom had also been baptised Thomas. He was born 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire.^[1] He married Eleanor de Bohun by 1374,^[2] was given Pleshey castle in Essex, and was appointed Constable of the Realm.^[1] The younger sister of Woodstock's wife, Mary de Bohun, was subsequently married to Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, who later became Henry IV of England.

At the age of 22, in 1377, Woodstock was knighted^[1] and created Earl of Buckingham.^[3] In 1385 he received the title Duke of Aumale and at about the same time was created Duke of Gloucester.^[4]

Campaign in Brittany

Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel; Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester; Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham; Henry, Earl of Derby (later Henry IV); and Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, demand Richard II to let them prove by arms the justice for their rebellion

Murder of Thomas of Woodstock.

Thomas of Woodstock was in command of a large campaign, which followed the Breton War of Succession when English forces had supported John V, Duke of Brittany against his rival for the Dukedom Charles of Blois, who was supported by France. At the head of an English army, John, duke of Brittany was victorious, but the French had continued to undermine his position and he was later forced into exile in England. He returned in 1379, supported by Breton barons who feared the annexation of Brittany by France. An English army was sent under Woodstock to support his position. Due to concerns about the safety of a longer shipping route to Brittany itself, the army was ferried to the English continental stronghold of Calais in July 1380.^[5] As Woodstock marched his 5,200 men east of Paris they were confronted by the Duke of Burgundy's army at Troyes, but the French had learned from Crécy and Poitiers not to offer a pitched battle to the English, so the two armies eventually marched away. French defensive operations were then thrown into disarray by the death of Charles V a few days later. Woodstock's chevauchée continued westwards largely unopposed, and in November 1380 he laid siege to Nantes and its vital bridge over the Loire towards Aquitaine.^[5] However, he found himself unable to form an effective stranglehold and urgent plans were put in place for Sir Thomas Felton to bring 2,000 reinforcements from England. By January, though, it had become apparent that the Duke of Brittany was reconciled to the new French King and, with the alliance collapsing and dysentery ravaging his men, Woodstock abandoned the siege.^[5]

Dispute with King Richard II

Thomas of Woodstock was the leader of the Lords Appellant, a group of powerful nobles whose ambition to wrest power from Thomas's nephew, King Richard II of England, culminated in a successful rebellion in 1388, which significantly weakened the king's power. Richard II managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason.

During that time he was murdered, probably by a group of men led by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and Nicholas Colfox, presumably on behalf of Richard II. This caused an outcry among the nobility of England that is considered by many to have added to Richard's unpopularity.

Issue

Thomas and Eleanor had five children:

1. Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham (c. 1381 - 2 September 1399)
2. Anne of Gloucester (c. 1383 - 1438) married *(1st)Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford;^[6]*(2nd) Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford; and *(3rd) William Bourchier, Count of Eu.
3. Joan (1384 - 16 August 1400) married Gilbert Talbot, 5th Lord Talbot (1383–1419). Died in childbirth.
4. Isabel (12 March 1385/1386 - April 1402)
5. Philippe (c. 1388) Died young

As he was attainted as a traitor, his dukedom of Gloucester was forfeit. The title Earl of Buckingham was inherited by his son, who however died only two years later in 1399. Thomas of Woodstock's eldest daughter, Anne, married into the powerful Stafford family, who were Earls of Stafford. Her son, Humphrey Stafford was created Duke of Buckingham in 1444 and also inherited part of the de Bohun estates.

The other part of these estates — including the Earldom of Hereford, which had belonged to Mary de Bohun and had then become incorporated into the holdings of the House of Lancaster — became a matter of contention in the latter 15th century.

In literature

• Thomas of Woodstock's murder plays a prominent part in the opening scene of William Shakespeare's play Richard II.
• He also is the subject of Thomas of Woodstock, another Elizabethan drama by an anonymous playwright. Because of its stylistic affinities to Shakespearea's play, it is also called Richard the Second Part One.

Ancestry

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Arms

As Duke of Gloucester, Thomas had use of the coat of arms of the kingdom, differenced by a bordure argent.^[7]

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II, (University of Miami Press, 1971), 5.
2. ↑ G.A. Holmes, Estates of the Higher Nobility in Fourteenth Century England, (Cambridge University Press, 1957), 24.
3. ↑ Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II, 6.
4. ↑ Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II, 91.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II, 124-126.
6. ↑ Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II, 93.
7. ↑ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family