“The Houses of Plantagenet and Lancaster had not always been united. The Duchy of Lancaster - as it was later called - had emerged in the thirteenth century at the end of the Second Barons’ War and death of the rebel Lord Simon de Montfort at Evesham.
The youngest son of Henry III, Edmund Crouchback, inherited de Montfort Earldom of Leicester and, later, Lancaster. By 1269, Edmund was on track to become an incredibly wealthy territorial magnate, like all who would succeed him.
Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, was a popular prince a capable and pious soldier - nicknamed Crouchback due to the motif of the cross he bore on his shield and wore on his back whilst on crusade.
He was fiercely loyal to his brother King Edward I (Longshanks’), fighting in his various wars across Scotland and France and overseeing extensive Plantagenet castle-building projects in Wales.
Over time Edmund accumulated a series of dignities, land and property. By the end of his life he was extremely powerful, with land dotted throughout the realm. After Edmund’s death in Bayonne in 1296, he was interred at Westminster Abbey and his wealth distributed among his children: Thomas, Henry and John. Thomas inherited the title Earl of Lancaster. At the end of the thirteenth century, the relationship between the house of Lancaster and the Plantagenets was positive.
After Edward II ascended the throne, he immediately bestowed a royal title - Earl of Cornwall - on his favourite (and suspected lover) Piers Gaveston. This instantly sparked massive opposition from the nobility, and Thomas of Lancaster became a leading player in an uprising against the King and his favourite. In an unforgiving dispute, Gaveston was eventually caught and executed on Lancaster’s lands near Kenilworth, infuriating the King and leading him to call Thomas of Lancaster a rebel and a traitor.
After Gaveston’s death, domestic politics was turned on its head: Thomas of Lancaster exercised his authority and undermined the King. He refused to serve in the war against the Scots, and went so far as to agree to a personal truce with the Scottish lords, working under the pseudonym King Arthur. After years of growing animosity between the cousins, an influential noble family - the Despensers - rose to prominence at court and helped Edward Il seek retribution.
Edward II had never forgiven his cousin for Gaveston’s murder and, in 1322, finally took his revenge. Thomas of Lancaster was arrested after the Battle of Boroughbridge and tried for treason - with the Despensers and the King as members of the tribunal. A week after his arrest, Thomas of Lancaster, dressed in an old surcoat, was carried on a donkey a mile from Pontefract Castle, where he was executed. The only mercy extended was that he was at least spared the prescribed fate of a convicted traitor, that of being hung, drawn and quartered.
As he was of royal blood, he was granted death by beheading. After Thomas’s conviction and execution as a traitor, Lancastrian loyalty was called it into question: that historical mistrust would haunt John of Gaunt throughout his political and personal life.
When Gaunt inherited the Lancastrian lands, nearly forty years later, it was claimed that blood trickled from Thomas of Lancaster’s tomb - a grim omen of an uncertain dynastic future.
Thomas became a posthumous icon, which perhaps made the Lancastrian position all the more dangerous. Shortly after his death, cult began to emerge around his effigy, said to induce miracles-even his hat was believed to cure headaches. By the time Henry- his younger brother and heir to the Lancastrian lands - installed a memorial cross for the murdered Thomas, the dead Earl had achieved a significant following, with three attempts to have him canonised.
With Edward Il pitted against his Queen, Isabella, and her lover Roger Mortimer, the dynastic future of England was precarious. The Lancastrian administration, however, remained constant. Whilst the royal family were embroiled in a bitter feud, Henry, Earl of Lancaster, invested in Leicester as the heart of Lancastrian affairs. He renovated Leicester Castle but his greatest project was in the south-west of the town, the Newarke - a hospital and church - that employed generations of local labourers.
From 1330, Henry of Lancaster created a home to the Lancastrian dynasty in Leicestershire and brought the previously quiet town of Leicester to the forefront of English consciousness. Henry was popular in Leicester; the citizens of the town respected him and he carefully considered their needs, even endowing funds for a public latrine, for the ease of all the said community. Yet it was his large building projects in Leicester thar benefitted local people most significantly. This positive relationship with the town continued with his son Henry of Grosmont, the future Earl of Derby, Duke of Lancaster and father in law of John of Caunt.
Over the course of his flowering career, and even after being raised to his Dukedom, Henry of Grosmont never shirked his feudal responsibility in Leicester, and the relationship between people and magnate remained steadfast. By the time Gaunt inherited the town, Leicester was unbendingly loyal to Lancaster.”
CARR, Helen. In: The Bleeding Tomb: a Lancastrian Inheritance. The Red Prince John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster. 2021.
Fan casting: Sean Bean as Edmund ‘Crouchback’; Adam Driver as Thomas of Lancaster; Aneurin Barnard as Henry of Lancaster; Nicolaj Coster Waldau as Henry of Grosmont. *
*please notify if these gifs were used inappropriatedly; not mine to claim just to illustrate the characters.
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