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EDMUND

HUSBAND:
EDNUND Crouchback. (Edmund Plantagenet). 1st Earl of Lancaster. [CHART A1].
Born on 16 January 1245 in London, England; son of HENRY III, King of England and Eleanor of Provence. He married (1) ?. He married (2) Blanche de ARTOIS [36825317]. He died on 5 June 1296.

In 1253 he was invested by Pope Innocent IV in the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia. At about this time he was also made Earl of Chester. These were of little value as Conrad IV of Germany, the real King of Sicily, was still living and the Earldom of Chester was transferred to his elder brother Edward.

Edmund soon obtained, however, important possessions and dignities, for soon after the forfeiture of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester in 1265, Edmund received the Earldom of Leicester and of Lancaster and also the honour of the Stewardship of England and the lands of Nicolas de Segrave. In 1267 he was granted the lordship of Builth Wells in opposition to the then holder, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. To help him conquer the land he was also granted his elder brother's lordships of the Trilateral of Skenfrith, Grosmont and White Castle together with Monmouth.

In 1271 he accompanied his elder brother Edward on the Ninth Crusade to Palestine. Some historians, including the authors of the Encyclopedia Britannica article on him, state that it was because of this that he received the nickname Crouchback (which they say means "cross back") indicating that he was entitled to wear a cross on his back.

On his return from the Crusade he seems to have made Grosmont Castle his favoured home and undertook much rebuilding there. His son Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Lancaster was apparently born there in 1281.

Edmund was married twice, first on 8 April 1269 to Lady Aveline de Forz, the daughter of William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle and Isabel de Reviers, Countess of Aumale. She died just 4 years after the marriage, at the age of 15, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. The couple had no children, though some sources believe she may have died in childbirth or shortly after a miscarriage.

He married a second time in Paris, on 3 February 1276 to Blanche of Artois, daughter of Robert I of Artois and Matilda of Brabant. That same year he became the Count of Champagne and Brie in France. With Blanche he had four children.

He died while besieging Bordeaux for his brother on 5 June 1296 in Bayonne, and was interred on 15 July 1296 at Westminster Abbey, London.

WIFE (1):
Aveline de Forz.
daughter of William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle and Isabel de Reviers, Countess of Aumale.

WIFE (2):
Blanche de ARTOIS.
Born in 1248; daughter of Robert, Count of Artois and Matilda of Brabant.

Blanche of Artois was the queen regent of Navarre from 1274 to 1284, and later became Countess of Lancaster by marrying into the English royal family. From 1274 to 1284 she ruled Navarre and the counties of Brie, Champagne, Troyes et Meaux for her daughter, Joan I of Navarre (ruled 1274 to 1305).

Blanche married Henry I of Navarre (ruled 1270-1274) who died in 1274. They had two children:
Theobald - who died in 1270 when he fell from a battlement at the castle of Estella.
Joan I of Navarre, who became Queen regnant of Navarre and Queen consort of France.

After Henry's death, Blanche married Edmund Crouchback in 1276, an English prince who was a younger son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. Edmund was also a widower, his young wife having died the same year as Blanche's husband.

She died on 2 May 1302.

CHILDREN of Edmund PLANTAGENET [36825316] and Blanche de ARTOIS [36825317]:
  1. Thomas Plantagenet, Second Earl of Lancaster (b. 1278)
  2. . Henry PLANTAGENET, Earl of Lancaster. Henry of Lancaster. Born about 1281. Died 1345.
  3. John Plantagenet, Lord of Beaufort, (c. 1282 - 1327)
  4. Mary Plantagenet (c. 1284 - c. 1289)


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