Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence

Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, KG (Norman: Leonell Duc de Clarence; 29 November 1338 – 17 October 1368[1][2]) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant.[3] Lionel was born of a Flemish mother and was a grandson of William I, Count of Hainaut. He grew to be nearly seven feet in height and had an athletic build.[4][5]

Lionel of Antwerp
Duke of Clarence
Lionel, Duke of Clarence. 19th-century drawing of bronze statuette on south side of tomb of his father King Edward III in Westminster Abbey
Earl of Ulster (jure uxoris)
Predecessor	William Donn de Burgh
Successor	Philippa with Roger Mortimer
co-Ruler	Elizabeth de Burgh
Born	29 November 1338 Antwerp, Duchy of Brabant (now Belgium)
Died	17 October 1368 (aged 29) Alba, Piedmont
Burial	Clare Priory, Suffolk
Spouse	Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster ​ ​ (m. 1352; died 1363)​ Violante Visconti ​ ​ (m. 1368)​
Issue	Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster
House	Plantagenet
Father	Edward III, King of England
Mother	Philippa of Hainault

First marriage

Betrothed as a child to Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster (died 1363), daughter and heiress of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, he was married to her in 1352, but before this date he had entered into possession of her great Irish inheritance. He was called Earl of Ulster from 1347.[6]

Ireland

Having been named as his father's representative in England in 1345 and again in 1346, Lionel joined an expedition into France in 1355, but his chief energies were reserved for the affairs of Ireland.[6]

Appointed governor of that country, he landed at Dublin in 1361, and in November of the following year was created Duke of Clarence, the third dukedom created in England, while his father made an abortive attempt to secure for him the crown of Scotland. His efforts to secure an effective authority over his Irish lands were only moderately successful. After holding a parliament at Kilkenny, which passed the celebrated Statute of Kilkenny in 1366, he dropped the task in disgust and returned to England.[6]

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was at one time a page in Lionel's household.[6]

Second marriage

After Lionel's first wife Elizabeth died in 1363, a second marriage was arranged with Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Pavia. Journeying to fetch his bride, Lionel was received in great state both in France and Italy and was married to Violante at Milan in June 1368. Some months were then spent in festivities, during which Lionel was taken ill at Alba, where he died on 17 October 1368.[6] There was strong speculation at the time that he had been poisoned by his father-in-law,[7] although this has never been proven.

Issue

Lionel had only one child, Philippa, daughter of his first wife Elizabeth. In 1368 she married Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. Their granddaughter and eventual heir, Anne Mortimer, married into the Yorkist branch of the English royal family and was the mother of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York. Even though Richard was a descendant in the male line of Edward III, the House of York based its claim to the English throne on descent through the female line from Lionel to establish a lasting blood line. (Edward's first-born son, the Black Prince, had no legitimate descendants past his two sons Edward of Angoulême and King Richard II.)[6] Lionel was the ancestor of Kings Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III and all later British monarchs except for Henry VII, whose wife Elizabeth of York was Lionel's descendant.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence

16. Henry III of England[8] 8. Edward I of England[8] 17. Eleanor of Provence[8] 4. Edward II of England[8] 18. Ferdinand III of Castile[8] 9. Eleanor of Castile[8] 19. Joan, Countess of Ponthieu[8] 2. Edward III of England 20. Philip III of France[9] (= 28) 10. Philip IV of France[8] 21. Isabella of Aragon[9] (= 29) 5. Isabella of France[8] 22. Henry I of Navarre[10] 11. Joan I of Navarre[11] 23. Blanche of Artois[10] 1. Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence 24. John I, Count of Hainaut[11] 12. John II, Count of Holland[11] 25. Adelaide of Holland[11] 6. William I, Count of Hainaut[11] 26. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg[11] 13. Philippa of Luxembourg[11] 27. Margaret of Bar[11] 3. Philippa of Hainault 28. Philip III of France[9] (= 20) 14. Charles, Count of Valois[12] 29. Isabella of Aragon[9] (= 21) 7. Joan of Valois[11] 30. Charles II of Naples[12] 15. Margaret, Countess of Anjou[12] 31. Mary of Hungary[12]

Arms

One reputed version of Lionel's coat of arms

Lionel's arms were at some point those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of five points, with each point bearing a cross gules, thus presenting the flag of England's Saint George's cross on each point[13] There are also suggestions, such as the above image, that at some point he bore a differentiating label argent of three points, each bearing a canton gules.

Notes

1. "Lionel of Antwerp, duke of Clarence | English noble". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
2. Nichols, John; Gough, Richard (1780). A collection of all the wills, now known to be extant, of the kings and queens of England, princes and princesses of Wales, and every branch of the blood royal, from the reign of William the Conqueror to that of Henry the Seventh exclusive : with explanatory notes, and a glossary. J. Nichols. p. 90. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
3. Ormrod 2008.
4. Strickland, Agnes (2009). Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest: With Anecdotes of the Courts: First Published From Official Records and Other Authentic Documents, Private as Well as Public. Volume II. p.181. Google Books. Retrieved 14 August 2014
5. Maskel, J. (21 June 1890). "The Dukedom of Clarence". Notes and Queries. 7. London, UK: Oxford University Press. 9 (234): 481–483. ISSN 0029-3970. OCLC 2623018. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
6. Chisholm 1911, p. 248.
7. Frances Stonor Saunders, Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman (2004).
8. Armitage-Smith, Sydney (1905). John of Guant: King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Seneschal of England. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 21. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
9. Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires. pp. 87–88.}
10. Anselme 1726, pp. 381–382
11. von Redlich, Marcellus Donald R. Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants. I. p. 64.
12. Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head. pp. 75, 92.
13. Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

References

• Ormrod, W. M. (January 2008) [2004]. "Lionel, duke of Clarence (1338–1368)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16750. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clarence, Dukes of s.v. Lionel of Antwerp". Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 428.

Further reading

• Tout, Thomas Frederick (1893). "Lionel of Antwerp" . Dictionary of National Biography. 33. pp. 335–338.