CP Correction: Death date of Eleanor Cobham, former Duchess of Gloucester
Douglas Richardson
Complete Peerage 5 (1926): 736 (sub Gloucester) states that Eleanor
Cobham, former wife of Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester, died
a prisoner in 1454 in Peel Castle, Isle of Man. However, checking the
references provided by the author for this death date and place, it
seems that this information was not correctly sourced as is customary
by Complete Peerage.
Rather, according to noted historian, Ralph A. Griffiths, Eleanor
Cobham actually died 7 July 1452, in Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey in
Wales. He provides that information in his well researched article,
"Richard, Duke of York and the Royal Household in Wales, 1449-50"
which article appeared in Welsh History Review, vol. 8 (1976): 14–25.
For interest sake, I have abstracted below the pertinent passage from
Mr. Grifiths' article which deals with Eleanor Cobham. Griffiths
documents that Eleanor Cobham was removed from the Isle of Man to
Beaumaris Castle in 1449, in which place she subsequently died and was
buried in 1452. He lists his sources (chiefly P.R.O. accounts) in
footnotes 33 and 34, which footnotes I have copied.
pg. 24
"These reinforcements (of eight soldiers, then twelve and one priest)
were needed that much more speedily once it was decided to transfer
Eleanor Cobham to the island. On 10 March 1449 at Man castle, she was
handed over by John Clegge, Sir Thomas Stanley's representative and
janitor of Flint castle (where Stanley was constable), to William
Bulkeley, the Cheshire esquire who was serjeant-at-arms in north Wales
and lived at Beaumaris. Bulkeley was acting on behalf of Sir William
Beauchamp, the constable of Beaumaris constable, whence she was taken
forthwith with a great company [Footnote 33: Glegge, another
Cheshireman, continued to keep an eye on Eleanor at Beaumaris; Deputy
Keeper's Reports, XXXVIII, part 2 (1876), p. 307; Ormerod, op. cit.,
II, 178. Beauchamp received 100 marks per annum to cover her expenses
at Beaumaris, and the cost of the journey from Man amounted to £150
8s. 7d.: P.R.O., Min. Acc. 1216/7 m. 10; /8 m.9, 12; 1217/1 m. 11.
For Bulkeley, see above p. 16].
Eleanor died at Beaumaris on 7 July 1452 and was buried there (perhaps
in the early fourteenth-century parish church of St. Mary and St.
Nicholas) at great cost to Sir William Beauchamp [Footnote 34:
Beauchamp received 100 marks to defray the burial costs; P.R.O. Min.
Acc. 1217/1 m. 11; An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Anglesey
(Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and
Monmouthshire, 1937), pp. 3-8. The only chronicler to suggest a date
for Eleanor's death implied it took place in 1457, and it was this
reference that partly led C.L. Kingsford (English Historical
Literature, p. 63) to conclude that the Latin Chronicle, Incerti
scriptoris chronicon Angliae (Giles, op. cit., p. 31) was written
after 1457. It can no longer be used]. END OF QUOTE.
Given the specificity of Mr. Griffiths' statements and his good
documentation, it appears he has correctly isolated the true date date
and place for Eleanor Cobham.
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah
E-mail: royala...@msn.com