Earl Henry Plantagenet LANCASTER

   Other names for Henry were LANCASTER Earl and "Wryneck".

   Ancestral File Number: 8TSM-79. User ID: 2363730.

   General Notes:

"Wryneck", 3rd Earl of LANCASTER.

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Henry 3rd Earl of Lancaster, Mar =1 Maud Chaworth, =2 Alix Joinville, Died 1345...Richar Earl of Arundel, Mar =1 Isabel Daughter of Hugh Despenser The Younger,=2 (2) Eleanor Daughter of Henry 3rd Earl of Lancaster."

The Oxford History of England The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485, E F Jacob, Oxford Univ Press, p140:
[1414] "...The English insisted upon putting territorial claims first, includinga demand for a moiety of the county of Provence, the title to which had belonged to Thomas and Henry, sons of Edmund Crounchback, who derived his right from his aunt Eleanor of Provence, Henry III's wife. Eleanor was the second daughter of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence. The fantastic claim had been maintained by the English throughout the fourteenth century..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co
p227: "Queen Isabella had shown great courage in bringing her small army across the North Sea...
"...The landing had been made on the domain of Thomas of Brotherton, half brother to the king and her own blood cousin...
"Henry of Lancaster, called Wryneck, came galloping down from the north with a body of men. He was the brother of Thomas [2nd Earl of Lancaster], who had been so summarily disposed of, and had succeeded to the huge family estates. Burning with the desire for vengeance, which he had been compelled to suppress for four years, he threw in his lot with the invaders..."
p231: "A writ was at once issued for a meeting of Parliament at Westminster for the purpose of treating with the king, if he were present. In the absence of the king the house was to treat with the queen-consort and the king's son, who was designated as guardian of the realm. Edward, needless to state, was absent, although not of his own wish. He had been taken to Kenilworth Castle, which was owned by his kinsman, Henry of Lancaster. The latter welcomed him kindly and treated him throughout with due respect. Here he was to remain until a decision was reached as to the future occupancy of the throne..."
p239: "The deposed king remained at Kenilworth for the balance of the winter, lapped in luxury and kindly treated by Henry of Lancaster...
"While he passed the days as well as he could in Caesar's Tower, a conspiracy for his release was reaching formidableproportions...Henry of Lancaster learned what was afoot and asked to be relieved of the responsibility for so difficult a guest.
"The decision to send Edward to Berkeley Castle was due, therefore, to the fear of a successful coup..." p267: "The nation was slow to wrath where Isabella and Mortimer were concerned, but in time the cload of their iniquity was torn from them. When Mortimer came with an armed retinue to the Parliament at Salisbury on October 24, 1328, and beganto display all the airs of a dictator, the Earl of Lancaster refused to attend. He stayed at Winchester with a small force and was joined there by the two royal uncles and many other national leaders. Mortimer demanded an immediate adjournmentof Parliament to allow him time to punish the absent barons. He then ravaged the lands of Lancaster, an operation in which the young king joined. The opposition barons met at London and formed an alliance to offer armed resistance to the pretentious favorite..."
p276: "Mortimer must have realized that the murder of Kent had been a grievous mistake and that public sentiment was rising against him...Parliament was to meet at Nottingham that autumn...
"...They had to be very careful, for the king's mother was beginning to sense the danger surrounding her and had been taking minute precautions. It was arranged that Edward was to go into residence with them at Nottingham Castle. Guards were kept about the grounds at all hours of the day and night to prevent anyone from having audience with the king...Edward was allowed no more than four attendants. The earls of Lancaster and Hereford, the leading figures in the baronage, had been forbidden to find lodgingsin the town and were compelled to seek quarters at some distance in the country...
p279: "The Earl of Lancaster was still the titular head of the baronage. Although a weakness in his eyes had finally resulted in total blindness, he is saidto have been consulted by Edward when he arrived at Nottingham, or certainly by the closest adherents of the young king. The approval of the blind peer had been given to the contemplated coup, although he could nto offer his personal participation. It may have been that he provided some of the men who followed Montacute on his long crawl through the underground passage.
"When the earl heard the shouts of the mob in the streets, he had his servants lead him out, and when he learned the reason for the jubilation he joined in by shouting as madly as any tinker's apprentice. He is even said to have gesticulated with his arms to show how deeply he was moved...
"Other charges [against Mortimer] were as follows: He hadusurped the powers of the council and regency. He had taught the young king ot regard Henry of Lancaster as his enemy. He had procured the execution of edmund of Kent, although that unfortunate member of the royal family had been innocent of any crime..."
p316: "In 1335 Philip of France openly declared his intention of helping the Scots...Edward [II] sent a fleet under the command of Henry of Lancaster (the son of blind Henry Wryneck)..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Macropaedia, Vol VI, p436, Edward III England:
"Within five months of their invasion of England, the Queen and the nobles, who had much popular support, overpowered the King's forces. Edward II, charged with incompetence and breaking his coronation oath, was forced to resign, and on January 29, 1327, Edward III, aged 15, was crowned King of England.
"During the next four years Isabella and Mortimer governed in his name, though nominally his guardian was Henry, Earl of Lancaster..."

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905,
p267: "...[1315] Llewelyn's hill strongholds threatened Brecon on the north and the vale of Glamorgan on the south; and Hereford, then released from his Scottish captivity, was entrusted with the suppression of the revolt. Before long all the lords of the march joined Hereford in stamping out the movement. Among them were the two Roger Mortimers, the Montagues, and the Giffords, and Henry of Lancaster, Earl Thomas' brother, and lord in his own right of Mon- mouth and Kidwelly. Overwhelmed by such mighty opponents, Llewelyn surrendered to Hereford, hoping thus to save his followers..."
p276: "...[1319] On July 22, the feast of St.Mary Magdelen and the anni- versary of Falkirk fight, the barons assembled at Newcastle. Thomas of Lancaster was there with his brother Henry..."
p280: "...[1320] It was easy to form a coalition of all the marcherlords against [Despenser]...Henry of Lancaster feared for Monmouth and Kidwelly..."
p291-292: "...[1324] The Despensers' continuance in power rested more on the absence of rivals than on their own capacity...the successors of Humphrey Hereford and Guy of Warwick were minors, suspected by reason of their fathers' treasons. The only new earl was Henry of Lancaster who in 1324 obtained a partial restitution of his brother's estates and the title of Earl of Leicester. Prudent, moderate, and high-minded, Henry stood in strong contrast to his more famous brother. But the tragedy of Pontefract and his unsatisfied claim on the Lancaster earldom stood between Henry and the government, and the imprudence of the Despensers soon utterly estranged him fromthe king, though he was the last man to indulge in indiscriminate opposition, and Edward dared not push his powerful cousin to extremities...
p293: "...In such ways the king and the Despensers proclaimed their incap- acity to the world. The Scottish truce, the wrongs of Henry of Lancaster, the humiliation of the queen, the alienation of the old nobles, the fears of greedy prelates- each of these was remembered against them..."
p299: "...[1326] The gentry of Suffolk and Essex flocked to the standard of the queen, who declared that she had come to avenge the wrongs of Earl Thomas of Lancaster and to drive the Despensers from power. Thomas of Brotherton, the earl marshal, made common cause with the invaders, and Henry, Earl of Leicester, hastened to associate himself with the champions of his martyred brother..."
p301: "...Edward was captured on November 16, [1327] in Neath abbey. With him the younger Despenser was also taken. On November 20 the favourite was put to death at hereford...The king was entrusted to the custody of Henry of Leicester, who conveyed him to his castle of Kenilworth, where the unfortunate monarch passed the winter, `treated not otherwise than a captive king ought to be treated'...
p302: "...An effort to persuade the captive monarch to abdicate before his estates, was defeated by his resolute refusal. Thereupon a committee of bishops, barons, and judges was sent to Kenilworth to receive his renunciation in the name of parliament. On January 20, Edward, clothed in black, admitted the delegates to his presence. Utterly unmanned by misfortune, the king fell in a deep swoon at the feet of his enemies. Leicester and Stratford raised him from the ground, and, on his recovery, Orleton exhorted him to resign his throne to his son, lest the estates, irritated by his contumacy, should choose as their king someone who was not of the royal line. Edward replied that he was sorry that his people were tired of his rule, but that being so, he was prepared to yield to their wishes, and make way for the Duke of Aquitaine... Among the foes of Edward, Henry of Leicester alone behaved as an honourable gentleman, anxious to vindicate a policy, but careful to subordinate his private wrongs to public objects. Though his name and wrongs were ostentatious- ly put forward by the dominant faction, it is clear from the beginning that he was only a tool in its hands, and that the reversal of the sentence of Earl Thomas was but the pretext by which the schemers and traitors sought to capture the government for their own selfish ends.
"The resignation of the king was promptly reported to parliament. On January 24 the Dukeof Aquitaine was proclaimed Edward III, and from the next day his regnal years were reckoned as beginning. Henry of Leicester dubbed him knight, and on January 29 he was crowned in Westminster Abbey. A few days later the young king met his parliament. A standing council was appointed to carry on the administration during his nonage. Of this body the Earl of Leicester acted as chief, though most of his colleagues were partisans of Mortimer and the queen. A show of devotion to the goodold cause was thought politic, and there- fore the sentences of 1322 were revoked, so that Earl Henry, restored to all his borther's estates, was henceforth styled Earl of Lancaster...
"Even in the first flush of victory, Isabella and Mortimer were too insecure and too bitter to allow Edward of Carnarvon to remain quietly in prison under the custody of the Earl of Lancaster. As long as he was alive, he might always become the possible instrument of their degradation. At Orleton's instigation the deposed king was transferred in April from his cousin's care to that of two knights, Thomas Gurney and John Maltravers..."
p305-306: "...[1328] Mortimer's best chance of remaining in power was through lay partisans suchas Sir Oliver Ingham and Sir Simon Bereford. But his best chance of remaining in power was through the besotted infatuation of the queen-mother, whose relations with him were not concealed from the public eye by any elaborate parade of secrecy.He still posed as the inheritor of the tradition of the lords ordainers, and never failed to put as much of the responsibility of his rule as he could on Henry of Lancaster and the old baronial leaders..."
p307: "...Mortimer was created Earl of March in the parliament held in October, 1328, at Salisbury, where John of Eltham was made Earl of Cornwall and James, Butler of Ireland, Earl of Ormonde. His assumption of this new title at last roused the sluggish indignation of Earl Henry of Lancaster, who felt that his own marcher interests were compromised, and bitterly resented the vain use made of his name, while he was carefully kept without any control of policy. He refused to attend the Salisbury parliament, though he and his partisans mustered in arms in the neighbourhood of that city. Civil war seemed imminent, and Mortimer's Weslshmen devastated Lancaster's earldom of Leicester...Not long afterwards Lancaster was smitten with blindness, and was thenceforth unable to take an active part in public affairs. Mortimer again triumphed for the moment, and, with cruel malice, excepted Lancaster's confidential agents from the pardon which he was forced to extend to the earl. His success over Lancasterwas marerially facilitated by the weakness of Edmund, Earl of Kent, who, after joining with Earl Henry in his refusal to attend the Salisbury parliament, deserted him at the moment of the capture of Leicester by the Earl of March...
"Thefall of Kent convinced Lancaster that his fate would not be long delayed, and that his best chance of saving himself and his cause lay in stirring up the king to energetic action against the Earl of March. The death of his uncle [Edmund, Earl of Kent] irritated Edward, who at seventeen was old enough to feel the degrading nature of his thraldom, and was eager to govern the kingdom of which he was the nominal head. In June, 1330, the birth of a son, the future Black Prince, to Edwardand Philippa seems to have impressed on the young monarch that he had come to man's estate. Lancaster accordingly found him eager to shake off the yoke of his mother's paramour..."
"...Parliament met in Westminster on November 26, [1330],and its chief business was the trial of Mortimer before the lords. He was charged with accroaching to himself the royal power, stirring up dissension between Edward II and the queen, teaching Edward III to regard the Earl of Lancaster as his enemy, deluding Edmund of Kent into believing that his brother was alive and with procuring his execution..."
p314: "...[1333] The internal history of the first few years of Edward's reign was uneventful...The country was growing rich and prosperous. The annal- ists tell us of little save tournaments and mummings, and the setting up of seven new earldoms to remedy the gaps which death and forfeiture had made in the higher circle of the baronage. The earldom of Devon was revived for the house of Courtenay...William Bohun, a younger son of the Humphrey slain at Borough- bridge, became Earl of Northampton,...and Henry of Grosmont, the Earl of Lancaster's first born, Earl of Derby..."
p357: "...In June, 1345, Henry ofGrosmont, Earl of Derby, the eldest son of Henry of Lancaster, landed at Bayonne with a sufficient English force to encourage the lords of Gascony to rally round the ducal banner. Soon after his landing, the death of his blind father made DerbyEarl of Lancaster. During the next eighteen monts, the earl successfully led three raids into the heart of the enemies' territory..."

The Later Middle Ages 1272-1485, George Holmes, 1962, Norton Library of England p258: "Appendix B Genealogical Table I The Plantagenets: Henry Earl of Lancaster (died 1345)..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p71: "Henry Earl of Lancaster, 1281-1345..."

ANCESTRY.COM
World Ancestral Chart No. 17779 James Carl Romans.

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.11 8TSM-79.

   Marriage Information:

Henry married Maud De CHAWORTH, daughter of Sir Patrick De CHAWORTH, Jr and Isabel De BEAUCHAMP, before 2 Mar 1296-1297. (Maud De CHAWORTH was born in 1282 in Kidwelly, Cromworth, Wales, died after 19 Feb 1317 and was buried before 3 Dec 1322 in Priory, Mottisfont, Hampshire, England.)

   Marriage Information:

Henry also married Alix De JOINVILLE.