CP Correction - Eleanor (Holland), Countess of Salisbury
Brad Verity
Holand':
"Eleanor de Holand is interesting. CP reports that she was issued
Garter
robes in 1413 and later. But Grace Holmes in her recent "The Order of
the Garter" (Windsor, 1984) does not include Eleanor in her list of
such
Ladies of the Garter. The only other piece of informaton is that
Thomas
Montagu did not marry his second wife, Alice Chaucer (who did have
Garter robes from 1432 on), until before November 1424. CP does not
give
a death date for Eleanor. My guess is that Eleanor died between, say,
1420 and 1423, but this is no more than a guess."
CP needs to be adjusted as to when Eleanor first received Garter robes
- it was in 1405. According to James L. Gillespie, in his article
'Ladies of the Fraternity of St. George and the Garter', "Albion" 17,
3 (Fall 1985), p. 269:
"Two Englishwomen were also admitted into the fraternity at this time,
Anne, countess of Strafford [sic], the widow of the Garter Knight,
earl Edmund who was slain at Shrewsbury in the king's cause and
Eleanor, lady Montacute, the daughter of Thomas Holland the younger
and the wife of Thomas Montacute, the future earl of Salisbury.
[footnote: PRO E. 101/405/13.] These two ladies are each of interest
... Lady Montacute, on the other hand, was made a Lady of the Garter
four years before her husband became a Knight Companion. It would
seem that Henry [IV] was attempting to honor the husband through the
wife and to pledge to Thomas, whose family had a long association with
the Order, that he would be admitted as a Knight Companion as soon as
a vacancy became available. Eleanor continued to receive her robes
until at least 1416. [footnote: PRO E. 101/406/28.]"
This also means Eleanor did not die until at least 1416.
There may be a way to determine Eleanor's approximate date of death.
She was a coheiress to her brother Edmund Holland, Earl of Kent (d.
1408). According to historian Michael Hicks, in his 1991 book
'Richard III and his Rivals: Magnates and their Motives in the War of
the Roses', pp. 356-357: "Without her purparty Thomas [Montagu, Earl
of Salisbury] could hardly have maintained the estate expected of an
earl, for his total income was only f725 on inquisition valuations."
Earl Thomas held the lands of his first wife Countess Eleanor by
courtesy of England after her death. As she held the lands as a
tenant-in-chief of the crown, there would probably be a writ of diem
clausit extremum issued at her death, and perhaps the Calendar of Fine
Rolls provides a clue.
It was Eleanor who in 1411 received one fifth (her share) of the dower
lands of Elizabeth (of Juliers), dowager Countess of Kent. But by
1425, it was Eleanor's daughter and heiress Alice Montagu (later
Countess of Salisbury) who received one fifth of the dower of Lucy
(Visconti), dowager Countess of Kent. This of course concurs with
Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury being married to second wife Alice
Chaucer by November 1424.
Curiously, there does not seem to be an IPM for Countess Eleanor,
though there were IPMs conducted in 1423 after the death of her sister
Elizabeth, Lady Neville. Why one sister and coheiress received an IPM
while the other did not I can't explain. Maybe because Elizabeth,
Lady Neville, was a widow?
Cheers, -----Brad