Isabella Mortimer, Countess of Arundel

Isabella Mortimer, Countess of Arundel, Lady of Clun and Oswestry (born after 1247 – died before 1 April 1292^[1]/after 1300)^[2] was a noblewoman and a member of an important and powerful Welsh Marcher family. She was the wife of John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, Lord of Clun and Oswestry. She was married three times.

Family

Isabella was born sometime after 1247, at Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire, the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer and Maud de Braose. Her father was a celebrated soldier and Marcher baron; and her mother was a staunch royalist during the Second Barons' War who devised the plan for the escape of Prince Edward, the future King Edward I of England, from the custody of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. She had one sister and five brothers including Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer.

Marriages and issue

Before 14 May 1260, Isabella married her first husband, John Fitzalan, who would succeed as feudal Lord of Clun and Oswestry, and 7th Earl of Arundel in 1267. He was the son of John Fitzalan, 6th Earl of Arundel and Maud le Botiller. Together they had at least two children:^[3]

• Richard Fitzalan, 8th Earl of Arundel (3 February 1267- 9 March 1302), married Alice of Saluzzo, by whom he had issue.
• Maud Fitzalan (died after October 1298), married Sir Philip Burnell of Condover, Holgate, Acton Burnell, and Little Rissington, by whom she had issue.

In 1273, a year after the death of her husband John, Isabella married her second husband, Ralph d'Arderne. He died on an unrecorded date. On 2 September 1285, in a private ceremony at Poling, Sussex, she married, as his second wife, her third husband, Robert de Hastang. She was fined the sum of £1,000 for having married without Royal Licence.^[4] It is not known whether she had further children by her last two husbands. Robert de Hastang had at least two sons by his unnamed first wife.

She had the care of the children of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey. The King committed Farnham Castle to her on 11 March 1268; she also had Portchester Castle, plus one third of Arundel Forest as part of her dower. She rendered £200 for the farm at Oswestry and the Hundred; and had livery of Arundel Castle and Honor at £100 rent, and of Oswestry Castle during the minority of her son.

It is recorded in the Calendar Close 1279-1288 that she had been granted in dower one third of the manor of Stoughton by Hugh Bigod, Justiciar of England, father of Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk.

Isabella died on an uncertain date; some sources indicate that she died after 1300,^[2] however Peter W. Hammond's The Complete Peerage, Volume XIV, page 38 states that she died before 1 April 1292.^[1]

Notes

References

• Lundy, Darryl (20 February 2010), Isabel de Mortimer, The Peerage 
  • Cokayne, G.E. (2000), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant I (new, 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes ed.), Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing, p. 240 
  • Hammond, Peter W., ed. (1998), Addenda & Corrigenda, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times XIV, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing, p. 38