John Beaufort KG (abt. 1371 - 1410)

Born about 1371 in Anjou, France

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (Holland) Lancaster — married before 28 Sep 1397 in England

Descendants

Died 16 Mar 1410 at about age 39 in Royal Hospital of St. Katherine-by-the-Tower, London, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Titles of Sir John Beaufort: (Royal Ancestry)

King's knight

Earl of Somerset 10 Feb. 1396/7

Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine 1397-1401

Constable of Wallingford Castle 1397

Marquess of Dorset 29 Sept. 1397

Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports 1398-9.

Admiral of the Fleet in the West and North 1398-9, 1406-7,

Chamberlain of England 1399

Privy Councillor 1401, 1404, 1406

Captain of Calais 1401

Lieutenant of South Wales 1403

Vice Constable of England 1404.

Constable of Corfe Castle 1407

Parents

John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford

Occupation

• 1396: K.G.
• from 1397: Earl of Somerset^[1]
• from 1397: Marquis of Dorset^[1]

Death and burial of Sir John Beaufort

He died in the Royal Hospital of St. Katherine-by-the-Tower, London 16 March 1409/10.^[2] He was buried in St. Thomas's Chapel in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, Kent.

His heir was his nine-year-old son Henry.^[2]

After the death of his wife Margaret, the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury received a royal mandate to exhume the bodies of her former husbands and reinter them beside her in St. Michael's Chapel.

(Royal Tombs of Medieval England) John Beaufort was buried at Canterbury to the north of Becket's shrine. His will of 1410 made on the eve of his death gave no instructions for the place of burial, and it was probably Henry IV who chose his step-brother's burial-place. There is no record that he had a tomb. Prior to her death Margaret Holland had already decided to erect a triple tomb for herself and her two husbands. Margaret herself was interred at Canterbury in St. Michaels' Chapel on 8 January 1440. On 27 January Henry VI instructed the exhumation of the bodies of her two husbands, Somerset and Clarence and their reburial according to the duchess's prior instructions. Their triple-tomb stands in the center of the chapel and features alabaster effigies and Purbeck marble tomb-chest. Margaret Holland's effigy lies in the center of the tomb with John Beaufort's to the left and that of Clarence in the senior position; all are shown with hands clasped in prayer. Margaret's effigy has a ducal coronet and her husband's effigies are both wearing armor.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Burke, 1864
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} King's College London, 2014. | Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available at writ for return of inquisition Accessed: 15/12/2020, Inquisitions Post Mortem for John earl of Somerset 1410

• Royal Ancestry D. Richardson 2013 Vol. I p. 498
• Royal Ancestry D. Richardson 2013 Vol. III p. 498 and 504
• Royal Ancestry D. Richardson 2013 Vol. IV p. 645-650
• ROYAL ANCESTRY by Douglas Richardson Vol. V, page 200. JOHN BEAUFORT, K.G., 1st Earl of Somerset, married MARGARET HOLAND (desc. King William the Conqueror) [see SOMERSET 11].
• Royal Tombs of Medieval England M. Duffy 2003 p. 223-229
• Beltz, George. Memorials of the Order of the Garter (William Pickering, London, 1841) Page 354-7
• Burke, B. (1864). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: Comprising & Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, (pp.63). Harrison and Sons. Google Books.
• www.thepeerage.com
• Wikidata: Item Q544076, en:Wikipedia
• Hope, Sir William Henry St. John. The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter, 1348-1485 (A. Constable and Co., ltd., Westminster, 1901) Plate XVII