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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-07 > 0836399592


From: "William A. Reitwiesner" <>
Subject: Re: FITZALAN Family
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 09:13:12 EDT


"Susan S. Fuller" <> posted:

> I am seeking info on Earl FITZALAN b 1 May, 1283 at Castle, M, ENG d
>17 NOV 1326 from being BE-HEADED. WHY? I believe that he was married in
>1305 to Alice of Arundel. Any info at all would be greatly appreciated.

If you check the second edition of Cokayne's *Complete Peerage*, vol. 1,
pp. 241-242, you'll see that there are several errors in your question.
For example, he was Earl of Arundel, not Earl Fitzalan -- "Edmund FitzAlan"
was his *name*. He wasn't born "1 May, 1283 at Castle", he was born 1 May
1285 in the Castle of Marlborough. He did marry in 1305, but his wife was
Alice de Warenne, not "Alice of Arundel".

As to the circumstances of his death, you should check some of the general
histories of England which cover that time period. Generally, the English
nobles were fed up with the King, Edward II, his mismanagement of the
government, and his attentions to his favorites (Gavaston, Despencer,
etc.). The Queen, Isabella, sided with the nobles against her husband, and
by 1326 there was open warfare between the two sides. In 1327 Parliament
deposed the King, who was imprisoned and later executed.

The Earl of Arundel was one of the few nobles who sided with the King. As
Cokayne phrases it, the Earl, "having been captured in Shropshire by the
Queen's party he was, without trial, beheaded at Hereford, 17 Nov. 1326".

Hope this helps.

William Addams Reitwiesner

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