William de Bohun, earl of Northampton

1st Earl of Northampton

William was an important advisor to Edward III. He served as a diplomat and military leader for Edward III on several occasions. He was created Earl of Northampton on 16 March 1336/7; Constable of England 12 June 1338; Knight of the Garter 1349.

Events

Date of Birth: about 1309.

Place of Birth: Caldicot Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales.

The date and place are given by Verity.The Complete Peerage (9:665) and Ormrod (ODNB) estimate about 1312.

Date of Death: 16 September 1360.

The date is given in The Complete Peerage (9:667), citing Cal. Inq.p.m., vol. x, no. 639.

Place of Burial: Walden Abbey, Essex.

The place is given in The Complete Peerage (9:667). Dugdale (4:141) describes the burial place.

Relationships

Father: Humphrey de Bohun (about 1276 - 16 March 1322).

This relationship is given in The Complete Peerage (9:664) and the ODNB article by Ormrod. Dugdale (6:1:135) supports it.

Mother: Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (August 1282 - about 5 May 1316).

This relationship is given in The Complete Peerage (9:664) and the ODNB article by Ormrod. Dugdale (6:1:135) supports it.

Spouse: Elizabeth Badlesmere (about 1310 - June 1356). Marriage licence 1335.

The information about the marriage licence is given in The Complete Peerage (9:667), citing Cal. Close Rolls, 1337-39, p. 421. However, the citation, while giving evidence for the marriage, does not seem to mention the licence or the date. The Calendar of Papal Registers notes that William and Elizabeth were granted a papal dispensation to marry, despite William being related in the fourth degree to Elizabeth’s previous husband, Edmund Mortimer. The dispensation was granted, as the marriage was seen as a way to “put an end to enmities between the families,” William having murdered Edmund’s father. The papal letter is dated 13 November 1335. (Actually, William arrested Roger Mortimer, and he was hanged at Tyburn.)

Children:

Humphrey de Bohun (25 March 1342 - 16 January 1373) married Joan FitzAlan.

Elizabeth de Bohun (died 3 April 1385) married Richard FitzAlan, 11th or 4th Earl of Arundel and 9th Earl of Surrey.

References

Medieval:

Calendar of the Close Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office. (London: H.M. Stationery Office. 1900) Edward III 1337-1339.

'Regesta 120: 1335', Calendar of Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 2: 1305-1342 (1895), pp. 523-529. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=96129 Date accessed: 19 March 2014.

Id. Nov. Avignon. (f. 283d.)

To the bishop of Lincoln. Mandate to grant a dispensation to William de Boun and Elizabeth de Badelesmere to intermarry, notwithstanding that William and Edmund, the late husband of. Elizabeth were related in the fourth degree of kindred; Edmund being the son of Roger de Mortuo Mari, earl of March, who was killed by William and his accomplices. Edmund left a son by Elizabeth; and the marriage, for which a dispensation is asked, has been arranged in order to put an end to the enmities between the two families.

“Cartæ ad Waldense Coenobium in agro Essexiensi spectantes,” Num. II, in Dugdale, William; Henry J Ellis; Bulkeley Bandinel; Roger Dodsworth; and John Caley. Monasticon Anglicanum: a history of the abbies and other monasteries, hospitals, frieries and cathedral and collegiate churches, with their dependencies, in England and Wales, also of such Scotch, Irish, and French monasteries as were any manner connected with religious houses in England. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1817-1830), Volume 4, page 141. [Dugdale’s cite: “Ex altero MS. cartaceo in bibl. Arundellana anno Domini 1647., A. 43, annotato, hodie MS. Norf. bibl. Reg. Soc. num. 51, fo. 43 a.”]

Anno Domini mccclxx, obiit Willielmus de Boun, comes Northamptoniae, cujus corpus sepelitur in parte boreali presbyterii nostri. Et Elizabeth uxor ejus sepelitur Lundoniae in ecclesia fratrum praedictorum ante majus altare.

[The Complete Peerage notes that the death date given here is erroneous.]

“Cartæ ad Coenobium Lanthoniense spectantes; cujus origo primum in Wallia, postea vero juxta Gloucestriam translatum,” Num. II (“Fundatorum Progenies”), in Dugdale, William; Henry J Ellis; Bulkeley Bandinel; Roger Dodsworth; and John Caley. Monasticon Anglicanum: a history of the abbies and other monasteries, hospitals, frieries and cathedral and collegiate churches, with their dependencies, in England and Wales, also of such Scotch, Irish, and French monasteries as were any manner connected with religious houses in England. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1817-1830), Volume 6, part 1, page 135.

Humfredus octavus de Bohun desponsavit Elizabetham filiam regis Edwardi filii regis Henrici tertii; de quibus sex filii et quatuor filæ; viz…. Edwardus et Willielmus nati ad unum tempus...

Willielmus de Bohun supradictus, quem rex Edwardus tertius, post mortem praedicti Johannis fratis sui, fecit comitem Northamtoniae, desponsavit Elizabetham filiam domini Bartholomei de Badlesmere, quae fuit prius desponsata domino Edmundo Mortuomari; de quorum exitu postea plene declaratur: tamen de dictis Willielmo et Elizabetha, procreati fuerunt unus filius, nomine Humfredus undecimus, et una filia, nomine Elizabetha.

.....Willielmus de Bohun, antedictus comes Northamtoniae, et constabularius Angliae, moriebatur xvi. die Septembris, anno Domini MCCCCL. et sepultus est apud Waldene: post ejus mortem haereditas comitatus Northamptoniae descendebat Humfredo undecimo de Bohun, filio suo.

Modern:

Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59), Volume 9, pages 664 - 667.

Diaz Pascual, Lucia. The de Bohun Dynasty: Power, Identity and Piety 1066-1399. (Ph.D. thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London: 2017).

Ormrod, W.M., “Bohun, William de, first earl of Northampton (c. 1312 - 1360)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Verity, Brad. “The Children of Elizabeth, Countess of Hereford, Daughter of Edward I of England” in Foundations volume 6 (2014).