Isabel Despenser, Countess of Warwick

Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester and Warwick, LG (26 July 1400 – 27 December 1439)^[1] was the posthumous daughter and eventually the sole heiress of Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester by his wife, Constance of York, daughter of Edmund of Langley (son of King Edward III of England).^[2] She was born six months after her father had been beheaded for plotting against King Henry IV of England (1399–1413).

Isabel le Despencer
Countess of Warwick and Worcester
Drawing of Isabel from the Beauchamp Pageant, c. 1483–1494
Baroness Burghersh
Reign	1414-27 December 1439
Predecessor	Richard le Despencer, 4th Baron Burghersh
Successor	Henry Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick
Born	26 July 1400
Died	27 December 1439 (aged 39)
Spouse(s)	Richard Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick
Issue	Elizabeth Beauchamp, Baroness Bergavenny Henry Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick
Father	Thomas Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester
Mother	Constance of York, Countess of Gloucester

Marriages and children

Isabel married twice, successively to two identically named first-cousins, grandsons of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick:

1. Firstly to Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester (1394–1422) who died at the Siege of Meaux. They had one daughter:
   1. Elizabeth de Beauchamp,^[2] born 1415, who married Edward Neville, 1st Baron Bergavenny (died 1476), and had children.
2. Secondly to Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (1382–1439),^[3] her 1st husband's first-cousin from a senior Beauchamp line, by whom she had two children:^[4]
   1. Henry de Beauchamp (1425–1446), who succeeded his father as 14th Earl of Warwick, and later was created 1st Duke of Warwick. He married Cecily Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and had by her one daughter Anne Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick who died as a child.^[5]
   2. Anne de Beauchamp, who became 16th Countess of Warwick, following the deaths of her brother and his infant daughter.^[6] Anne married Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and who became jure uxoris 16th Earl of Warwick.^[7] Her husband therefore was the brother of her own brother's wife. They had two daughters who married at the highest level: Isabel Neville (1451–1476), who married George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1449–1478), and Anne Neville (1456–1485), who married firstly Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and secondly King Richard III (1483–1485).^[8]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Isabel Despenser, Countess of Warwick

16. Hugh le Despenser the Younger 8. Edward le Despenser 17. Eleanor de Clare 4. Edward le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer 18. Sir William de Ferrers of Groby, Lord Ferrers 9. Anne Ferrers 19. Ellen de Segrave 2. Thomas Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester 20. Bartholomew de Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh 10. Bartholomew de Burghersh, 2nd Baron Burghersh 21. Elizabeth de Verdun 5. Elizabeth Burghersh 22. Richard of Weyland 11. Cecily de Weyland 23. Joan de Ufford 1. Isabel Despenser 24. Edward II of England 12. Edward III of England 25. Isabella of France 6. Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York 26. William I, Count of Hainaut 13. Philippa of Hainault 27. Joan of Valois 3. Constance of York 28. Alfonso XI of Castile 14. Pedro of Castile 29. Maria of Portugal 7. Isabella of Castile 30. Juan García de Padilla 15. María de Padilla 31. María Fernández de Henestrosa

Notes

References

1. Warner, Kathryn (18 January 2021). The Rise and Fall of a Medieval Family: The Despensers. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-5267-4494-4.
2. Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Vol. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. pp. 26–27.
3. Lawrence, Martyn John. (2005). Power, ambition and political rehabilitation: the Despensers, c. 1281-1400. Doctoral dissertation, University of York.
4. Tompsett, Brian. "de Beauchamp, Richard of Warwick, Earl of Warwick 13th". Royal Genealogical Data. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
5. Hicks, Michael (15 April 2008). Warwick the Kingmaker. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-75193-0.
6. Hicks, Michael (1 February 1999). "Between Majorities: the 'Beauchamp Interregnum', 1439–491". Historical Research. 72 (177): 27–43. doi:10.1111/1468-2281.00071. ISSN 0950-3471.
7. Hickey, Julia A. (12 October 2023). The Kingmaker's Women: Anne Beauchamp and Her Daughters, Isabel and Anne Neville. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-3990-6487-3.
8. Hicks, Michael (26 August 2011). Anne Neville: Queen to Richard III. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-6887-7.

Bibliography