Eleanor (Bohun) of Gloucester LG (abt. 1366 - 1399)

Born about 1366 in England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 3 Oct 1399 at about age 33 in Minoresses Convent, Aldgate, London, England

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Eleanor de Bohun is in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project to several surety barons (see text below).

Biography

Eleanor (Bohun) of Gloucester LG is a member of the House of Bohun.

Eleanor de Bohun was the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, Earl of Essex, Earl of Northampton, and his wife Joan FitzAlan (also known as Joan de Arundel). Eleanor was recorded as age 7 in 1373, suggesting she was born about 1366.^[1][2]

Before 24 August 1376 she married Thomas of Woodstock, youngest legitimate son of King Edward III.^[1][3] They had 1 son and 3 daughters^[1][3]:

• Humphrey (died unmarried)^[1]
• Anne, wife of Sir Thomas de Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford; of Sir Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford; and of Sir William Bourchier, Constable of the Tower of London^[4]
• Joan, wife of Sir Gilbert, 5th Lord Talbot^[1]
• Isabel (nun)^[1]

In 1384 Eleanor was made a Lady of the Garter (LG) by Richard II.^[5][6]

In 1394 she and her husband were granted a licence to found a college of priests at Pleshey in Essex.^[1]

After her husband's death she retired to a convent. She made her will on 9 August 1399, styling herself "Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, Countess of Essex". She died on 3 October 1399^[7] at the Minoresses' Convent, Aldgate, and as she requested, was buried at St. Edmund's Chapel "in the church of the abbey of Westminster...near the body of my...husband Thomas Duke of Gloucester and seventh son of King Edward the Third."^[1][3][8] Later her husband's remains were moved to the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey^[1] but hers - as she requested in the event her husband's were moved^[3][9] - remained in St. Edmund's Chapel.^[9][10]

Eleanor's monument in Westminster features an incised brass with Purbeck marble matrix and low-lying base. The Duchess is depicted wearing widow's garb of veil and wimple without a ducal coronet. Her tomb has a triple-arched canopy containing the Bohun swan badge. The Purbeck tomb base is too shallow to have accommodated Eleanor's coffin, which almost certainly lies beneath it.^[9]

Eleanor's will left bequests to the convent of the Minoresses near London, without Aldgate, the convent of Llanthony near Gloucester, and the church and abbey of Walden, Essex, where her father was buried.^[3]

Inquisitions Post Mortem by writ dated 3 October 1399. Her heirs were her daughters Anne, wife of Edmund Earl of Stafford, of full age, age 17 and more; Joan, of full age, age 15 and more; and Isabel, aged 13 on "23 April last".^[7]

Research Notes

Marriage Date: No record of the date of her marriage to Thomas of Woodstock seems to have been found. In considering the following, one needs to bear in mind the length of time that could be taken over detailed negotiations of the terms of a marriage as well as Eleanor's own age (though aristocratic marriages in childhood were not that uncommon in this period) and the common practice of a marriage being agreed while at least one of the parties was a fairly young child, with the marriage ceremony not taking place till some time later.

• Both Magna Carta Ancestry and the Complete Peerage state that the marriage took place before 24 August 1376.^[1][3]
• The Complete Peerage cites an entry in the Close Rolls for 8 February 1376 describing Eleanor as Thomas's wife,^[11] but appears not to regard that as firm evidence that the actual wedding ceremony had taken place by then, as it states in the main text of the entry for Thomas of Woodstock that the marriage was before 24 August that year.^[3] The Close Rolls reference to her being Thomas's wife could just mean that the couple were firmly betrothed.
• On 3 April 1374 Thomas of Woodstock was granted a number of manors in anticipation of the marriage.^[1][12] The manors had previously been held by her father, and in the grant it was stated that he "will take to wife" Eleanor de Bohun.^[12] It may nonetheless have been a while before the marriage actually took place.
• The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Thomas of Woodstock suggests hesitantly that the marriage may have been in early summer 1374, citing a record in the Register of John of Gaunt, dated 1 June 1374, of the order of a goblet and ewer to be delivered to Eleanor on her marriage day^[12][13]: clearly the marriage had not taken place by then, and it is possible that this gift was ordered some months or more before the wedding.
• T Anna Leese in her book Blood Royal does not give a marriage date.^[14]
• Alison Weir, in Britain's Royal Families, states, without giving a source, that the marriage was before 8 February 1376, and may possibly have been in 1374, and adds that there is no record of where it took place.^[15]
• Medlands also suggests that the marriage was before 8 February 1376, but again without a source.^[8]

Daughter Philippa: Marlyn Lewis cites Paget for an additional daughter Philippa, born about July 1389, dead by 3 Oct 1399.^[16] If the only source for this is the one described in MedLands, she looks very dubious. The Westminster Abbey website also refers to Philippa, with no source, adding that she died young.^[10] Eleanor's instructions about her burial refer to her children Humphrey, Anne, Joan and Isabel, but not to a daughter called Philippa.^[8]

Death Location: Maureen Duffy gives a different death place. She states that Eleanor retired to the Benedictine nunnery at Barking in London where she died in 1399.^[9] T Anna Leese in Blood Royal also states that Eleanor retired to Barking Abbey.^[17] Eleanor's will, though, left bequests to the convent of the Minoresses without Aldgate, not to Barking Abbey.^[3] And according to Wikipedia her daughter Isabel had been placed in the convent of the Minoresses.^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), volume I pp.277-80 BOURCHIER 8.
2. ↑ Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, I:245-247 BOHUN 7.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, new edition, Vol. 5, St Catherine Press 1926, pp.727-8
4. ↑ Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, I:280 BOURCHIER 9.
5. ↑ List of Knights and Ladies of the Garter, web
6. ↑ George Frederick Beltz. Memorials of the Order of the Garter, from Its Foundation to the Present Time, W Pickering, 1841, p. 247, Google Books
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} J. L. Kirby, 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry IV, Entries 103-152', in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 18, Henry IV (London, 1987), pp. 35-49. British History Online [accessed 15 November 2020]: #126-155.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} Charles Cawley. Eleanor de Bohun, entry in "Medieval Lands" database.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3} Maureen Duffy. Royal Tombs of Medieval England, The History Press 2003, pp. 162-163
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Westminster Abbey website - Westminster Abbey burials: Eleanor de Bohun
11. ↑ G E Cokayne, Complete Peerage, volume 5, p. 720, footnote f
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: 'Thomas [Thomas of Woodstock], duke of Gloucester', 2004, revised online 2008, available online via some libraries
13. ↑ The text of the Register entry (in French) is in John Of Gaunt's Register, volume II, Camden Society, 1911, pp. 224-5, entry 1431, Internet Archive. The gifts are to be delivered to "nostre tres ame seur la dame de Wodstok le jour de son mariage."
14. ↑ T Anna Leese. Blood Royal: Issue of the Kings and Queens of Medieval England 1066-1399, Heritage Books 2007, p. 114
15. ↑ Alison Weir. Britain's Royal Families, new edition, Pimlico, 2002, reissued by Vintage Books, 2008, p. 115
16. ↑ Marlyn Lewis. Our Royal, Titled and Commoner Ancestors, Philippa Plantagenet.
17. ↑ T Anna Leese. Blood Royal: Issue of the Kings and Queens of Medieval England 1066-1399, Heritage Books 2007, p.170
18. ↑ Wikipedia: Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare without Aldgate

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City: the author, 2013. See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry. Additional Royal Ancestry citations (from Lewis):
  • Vol. I, pp. 90, 425-6 and 477-482
  • Vol. V, pp. 13-14 and 119
• Cokayne, G E. Complete Peerage, new edition Vol. 5, ed. the Hon Vicary Gibbs and H A Doubleday, St Catherine Press 1926, pp. 727-8.
• Lewis, Marlyn. Alianore de Bohun, entry in "Our Royal, Titled, Noble, and Commoner Ancestors and Cousins" database (accessed 7 May 2019). Note: Listed under "Reliable Sources with Conditions" (see the Magna Carta Project's Reliable Sources page).
• Cawley, Charles. "Medieval Lands": A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families © by Charles Cawley, hosted by Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). See also WikiTree's source page for MedLands.
• Duffy, Maureen. Royal Tombs of Medieval England, The History Press 2003
• Wikipedia: Eleanor de Bohun

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

Eleanor de Bohun appears in Magna Carta Ancestry in a Richardson-documented trail from Gateway Ancestor Mary Bourchier to Magna Carta Surety Baron Henry de Bohun (vol. I, pages 277-291 BOURCHIER). This profile was developed in accordance with project standards by Michael Cayley in April 2019 and was badged 5 July 2019 by Noland-165. Additionally, the Bourchier to Bohun trail connected this profile to previously-badged trails to other surety barons including John de Lacy, Saher de Quincy, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, Robert de Vere, Hugh le Bigod and Roger le Bigod. These trails are set out in the Magna Carta Trails on the Gateway's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".