Isabel LE DESPENCER

Abt 1312 - 1371  (~ 59 years)

• Name	Isabel LE DESPENCER
  Birth	Abt 1312	Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
  Gender	Female
  TitleOfNobility	Between 1331 and 1344  [1]
  	Countess of Arundel
  Divorced	4 Dec 1344  [1]
  _FSFTID	L857-99H
  _FSLINK	https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L857-99H
  _UID	195CE92AC1AD47B8B8D43E606D83548CEFDE
  Death	11 Jan 1371	Arundel, Sussex, England   [1]
  Burial	Aft 11 Jan 1371	Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Borough, Gloucestershire, England   [1]
  Person ID	I23708	Carney Wehofer July 2025
  Last Modified	13 Dec 2022

  
  

  Father	Lord Hugh "The Younger" LE DESPENCER,   b. 1287, Barton, Gloucestershire, England d. 24 Nov 1326, Hereford, Herefordshire, England (Age 39 years)
  Mother	Eleanore (Alianore) De CLARE,   b. 3 Oct 1292, Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly, Glamorganshire, Wales d. 30 Jun 1337, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England (Age 44 years)
  Marriage	14 Jun 1306	Westminster, London, England
  Family ID	F7326	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Richard "Copped Hat" FITZALAN,   b. Abt 1313, Of Arundel, Sussex, England d. 24 Jan 1376, Arundel, Sussex, England (Age ~ 63 years)
  Marriage	9 Feb 1320	Kings Chapel, Havering-Atte-Bower, Essex, England
  Annulled	4 Dec 1344	Arundel, Sussex, England,   [2]
  Children	1. Mary (Isabel) FITZALAN,   b. Abt 1323, Corfham, Shropshire, England d. 29 Aug 1396 (Age ~ 73 years)   2. Edmund FITZALAN,   b. 1327, Arundel, Sussex, England d. Bef 12 Feb 1382, England (Age 55 years)   3. Philippa FITZALAN,   b. Between 1327 and 1356   d. Yes, date unknown   4. Aline (Olive) FITZALAN,   b. 1340, Arundel, Sussex, England d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F2972	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2016

  
  

• Notes

  She was the Countess of Arundel. Isabel, daughter of 1st Lord (Baron) le Despenser of the 29 July 1314 creation, and had issue (bastardised by the papal annulment of 1344, [Burke's Peerage] Isabel le Despenser (1312– 1356) was the eldest daughter of Hugh Despenser the Younger and Eleanor de Clare. She was descended from Edward I of England through her mother, while her father is famous for being the favorite of Edward II of England. Though he had stood against Edward II in the past, Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel had loyally supported him since the 1320s. Thus it must have seemed to be politically prudent to Edmund to marry his heir Richard to the eldest daughter of the King's closest friend and adviser Hugh le Despenser. For Hugh's part, a large incentive for him must have been that he could expect his daughter Isabel would one day become Countess of Arundel. On 9 February 1321 at the royal manor Havering-atte-Bower, Isabel was duly married to Richard FitzAlan, the heir to the earldom of Arundel. Isabel was only eight at the time, while Richard was fifteen (not seven as has been claimed). Their respective ages would come up later when Richard would try to seek an annulment. Annulment Richard and Isabel had one son, Edmund Fitzalan, born in 1327, and in 1331 Isabel's husband became earl of Arundel. However, in December 1344 Richard Fitzalan had their marriage annulled on the grounds that he had never freely consented to marry Isabel and that they both had renounced their vows at puberty but had been "forced by blows to cohabit, so that a son was born". Isabel retired to several manors in Essex that were given to her by her ex-husband. After receiving a papal dispensation, Richard married Isabel's first cousin Eleanor of Lancaster, with whom he had apparently been living. Richard and Isabel's only child, Edmund Fitzalan, was rendered illegitimate by this annulment and so was unable to inherit his father's earldom. When his father died in 1376 Edmund quarreled with his half-siblings, the children of his father's second marriage, over inheritance rights. Edmund was imprisoned in the Tower of London until he was released in 1377 by request of his brothers-in-law. Father's execution After their father was executed for treason in 1326, Isabel and her youngest sister Elizabeth were the only daughters of Hugh the Younger to escape being confined in nunneries, Isabel because she was already married and Elizabeth because of her youth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_le_Despenser,_Countess_of_Arundel. Also see Source: The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom : extant, extinct, or dormant by G. E. Cokayne, 1910, Volume 1, with an account of the papal mandate.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1160] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 13 Dec 2022), entry for Isabel LE DESPENCER, person ID L857-99H. (Reliability: 3). [S1160] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 13 Dec 2022), entry for Richard "Copped Hat" FITZALAN, person ID LYK6-VQ2. (Reliability: 3).