by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester is the wife of Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Birgitte Eva Henrisksen was born in Thomas Kingos Parish in Odense, Denmark on June 20, 1946.  She is the daughter of Asger Preben Knud Wissing Henriksen, a lawyer, and Vivian van Deurs. When her parents divorced, Birgitte started using her mother’s maiden name, van Deurs, as her surname.

Birgitte received her early education in her hometown of Odense, Denmark and her secondary education at Brillantmont International School in Lausanne, Switzerland. She also attended the Margrethe School in Copenhagen, Denmark also known as the Scandinavian Academy of International Fashion and Design. The school’s name refers to its first patron, Princess Margrethe of Denmark who married Prince René of Bourbon-Parma. Princess Benedikte, sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Princess Elisabeth of Denmark, cousin of Queen Margrethe II also attended Margrethe School. Princess Benedikte became the patron of the school.

It was while attending the Bell School of Languages in Cambridge, England that Birgitte met her husband, Prince Richard of Gloucester. Prince Richard was studying architecture at Magdalene College, Cambridge University. As the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (third son of King George V of the United Kingdom), Prince Richard expected to have to earn his own way and planned a career as an architect as his elder brother Prince William would become Duke of Gloucester upon their father’s death. Prince Richard received his Bachelor of Arts in June 1966 and subsequently received his Master of Arts in 1971. Upon completion of his training, Prince Richard went into practice as a partner in a London architectural firm. In 1971, Birgitte was also working in London as a secretary at the Danish Embassy.

Birgitte and Prince Richard became engaged in February 1972 and were married on July 8, 1972, at St. Andrew’s Church in Barnwell, Northamptonshire, England nearby the Gloucester family home Barnwell Manor.  Birgitte was then styled Her Royal Highness Princess Richard of Gloucester. Prince Richard’s father was unable to attend the wedding. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester had suffered his first stroke in 1965 and subsequent strokes required him to use a wheelchair and rendered him unable to speak for his remaining years.

First row, seated: Princess Alice of Albany; Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester; The Queen Mother; Vivian van Deurs Second row, standing: Prince Michael of Kent; Princess Margaret; The Prince of Wales; Prince Richard of Gloucester; Birgitte van Deurs; Prince William of Gloucester; two members of Birgitte’s family; Asger Henriksen; Photo Credit – orderofsplendor.blogspot.com

Shortly after the wedding, on August 28, 1972, Prince Richard’s elder brother Prince William crashed his plane in a flying competition and died. (See Unofficial Royalty: Tragedy in the British Royal Family at the end of August, scroll down) This terrible tragedy left Prince Richard first in line to his father’s dukedom and increased his family obligations and royal duties. Therefore, he resigned his partnership in the architectural firm and began to represent his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, at royal engagements.

On June 10, 1974, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester died and Prince Richard succeeded his father as Duke of Gloucester. Birgitte was then styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester’s official residence is at Kensington Palace in London. In 2019, they moved from the large Apartment 1 to the Old Stables, a smaller residence that is also located within the Kensington Palace grounds. They have leased out their private home Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire, England since 1994.

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Princess Alice with her son the Duke of Gloucester, daughter-in-law the Duchess of Gloucester and her grandchildren, Lady Davina Windsor, Lady Rose Windsor, and Alexander the Earl of Ulster celebrating her 100th birthday in 2001

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester have three children:

• Alexander Patrick Gregers Richard Windsor, Earl of Ulster (born 1974) married Claire Booth. The couple had two children:
  • Xan Richard Anders Windsor, Lord Culloden (born 2007)
  • Lady Cosima Rose Alexandra Windsor (born 2010)
• The Lady Davina Elizabeth Alice Benedikte Lewis (born 1977), married Gary Lewis, divorced in 2018.  The couple had two children:
  • Senna Kowhai Lewis (born 2010)
  • Tāne Mahuta Lewis (born 2012)
• The Lady Rose Victoria Birgitte Louise Gilman (born 1980), married George Gilman. The couple had two children:
  • Lyla Beatrix Christabel Gilman (born 2010)
  • Rufus Gilman (born 2012)

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The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attending the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2019

The Duchess of Gloucester carried out many public engagements on behalf of her patronages and organizations and in support of her husband’s first cousin Queen Elizabeth II. She also supported The Queen at official engagements such as state banquets, religious services, garden parties, and receptions. The Duchess of Gloucester also made official overseas visits as a representative of The Queen with and without her husband. She continues to carry out engagements and represents her husband’s first cousin once removed King Charles III.

In 2024, The Duchess of Gloucester was made a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter by King Charles III.  This appointment is very significant, as Royal spouses (other than the spouse of the Sovereign or the Heir) are not traditionally invested in the Order of the Garter.  This is in recognition of her many years of support to both Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III.

The Duchess’ patronages include:

• Bliss, the special care baby charity
• St Paul’s Cathedral School
• St John’s School, Leatherhead
• Bridewell Royal Hospital (King Edward’s School, Witley)
• Royal Academy of Music

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by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Tomb of Joan of Navarre and her husband King Henry IV in Canterbury Cathedral; Photo Credit: Susan Flantzer

Joan of Navarre was born around 1370 in Pamplona in the Kingdom of Navarre, now in present-day Spain. Originally named Jeanne after her mother and her paternal grandmother Jeanne II, Queen of Navarre, her name was anglicized as Joan or Joanna after she became Queen of England. Joan’s father was Charles II, King of Navarre who lived up to the nickname Charles the Bad. Joan’s mother was Jeanne of Valois, daughter of Jean II, King of France, called Jean the Good. Joan’s mother died when Joan was about three years old.

Joan had six siblings:

• Marie (1360 – after 1400), married Alfonso d’Aragona, Duke of Gandia, no issue
• Charles III, King of Navarre (1361–1425), married Eleanor of Castile, had issue
• Bonne (1364 – after 1389)
• Peter, Count of Mortain (circa 1366 – 1412), married Catherine of Alençon, no issue
• Philip (born and died 1368)
• Blanche (1372–1385)

When Joan was around 16 years old, she became the third wife of Jean IV, Duke of Brittany who was around thirty years older. Jean previously had married two English brides, Mary of Waltham, the daughter of King Edward III of England, and Joan Holland, the daughter of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent. Both marriages were childless.

Joan and Jean had nine children:

• Jeanne of Brittany (1387 – 1388)
• Daughter (1388)
• Jean V, Duke of Brittany (1389–1442) married Joan of France; had issue
• Marie of Brittany (1391 – 1446) married John I of Alençon; had issue
• Marguerite of Brittany (1392 – 1428) married Alain IX, Viscount of Rohan and Count of Porhoët
• Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (1393 – 1458) married 1) Margaret of Burgundy; 2) Joan of Albret; 3) Catherine of Luxembourg-Saint-Pol; no legitimate issue from his three marriages
• Gilles of Brittany (1394 – 1412)
• Richard of Brittany (1395 – 1438) married Margaret d’Orléans, Countess of Vertus; had issue
• Blanche of Brittany (1397 – aft. 1419), married John IV, Count of Armagnac; had issue

Jean IV, Duke of Brittany died in 1399 and Joan became regent for her eldest son Jean V, Duke of Brittany for two years until he came of age at the age of 12. Henry Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV of England, visited the court of Brittany in 1399. He had been banished from England by his cousin King Richard II of England who Henry overthrew later that same year. Henry made a good impression on Joan and she was determined to marry him if the opportunity should arise. In 1402, after Joan’s son came of age, she sent an emissary to England to arrange a marriage with Henry. Henry’s first wife Mary de Bohun died in childbirth in 1394 giving birth to her seventh child. Henry was agreeable to the marriage and a proxy marriage was held on April 3, 1402, with Joan’s emissary standing in for the bride.

Joan left France for England in January of 1403 with her two youngest daughters and had an uncomfortable, stormy crossing. Her ship, due to land at Southampton, was blown off course by the terrible weather and finally landed in Falmouth in Cornwall. She traveled to Winchester where Henry met her and they were married at Winchester Cathedral on February 7, 1403. They traveled to London where Joan’s coronation was held at Westminster Abbey on February 26, 1403.

At the time of their marriage, Henry was about 37 and Joan was about 35, but they had no children together. Joan got along well with her stepchildren especially Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, the future King Henry V of England. In his last years, King Henry IV suffered from a disfiguring disease (possibly leprosy, syphilis, or psoriasis) and had severe attacks (possibly from epilepsy or cardiovascular disease).  While in prayer at the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, Henry suffered a fatal attack, possibly a stroke.  He was carried to the Jerusalem Chamber, a room in the house of the Abbey’s abbot, where he died at age 45.  Henry was not buried at Westminster Abbey but instead requested that he be buried at Canterbury Cathedral, presumably because of an affinity towards St. Thomas Becket whose shrine was there.

King Henry V held his stepmother in the highest regard as shown by his appointing “his dearest mother” as regent in 1415 when he went to France and gained his great victory at the Battle of Agincourt.  After the battle, Joan walked in the procession from St. Paul’s Cathedral to Westminster Abbey for a service of thanksgiving, but she must have had ambivalent feelings. One of her sons-in-law died on the French side in the battle and her son Arthur, who was taken prisoner, spent five years as a prisoner at the Tower of London and Fotheringay Castle.

In 1418, while King Henry V was once again fighting in France and his brother John, Duke of Bedford was acting as regent, Joan was suddenly arrested and accused of using witchcraft to poison the king. She was sent to Pevensey Castle in Sussex, England where she was kept for four years until she was released in 1422. She lived quietly through the reign of King Henry V and into the reign of his son King Henry VI. Joan died on June 10, 1437, at her favorite residence, Havering Palace in the village of Havering-atte-Bower in what is now the London Borough of Havering, at the age of about 67. She was buried with King Henry IV at Canterbury Cathedral.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

England: House of Lancaster Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Index
• House of Lancaster Index
• British Royal Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Other Important Events
• Coronations after the Norman Conquest (1066 – present)
• History and Traditions: Norman and Plantagenet Weddings
• House of Lancaster Burial Sites

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Portrait of unknown sitter thought to be Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury; Credit – Wikipedia

One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, Margaret was born on August 14, 1473, at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, England. Her father was George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York who was the York claimant during the Wars of Roses until his death at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.  Margaret’s paternal uncles were the Yorkist monarchs King Edward IV and King Richard III.  Margaret’s mother was Lady Isabel Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses) who was also killed at the Battle of Wakefield. Margaret’s maternal aunt was Anne Neville who was married to King Henry VI‘s only child, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales until his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Later, Anne married King Richard III.

Margaret had three siblings but only one sibling survived early childhood:

• Anne of Clarence (born and died 1470), born and died on a ship off Calais
• Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick (1475 – 1499), executed
• Richard of Clarence (1476 – 1477)

Margaret’s mother Isabel died when Margaret was three years old. Now it is thought that Isabel died of either tuberculosis or childbed fever, but George, Duke of Clarence thought his wife had been poisoned by a servant who was subsequently tried and hanged. When Margaret was four-years-old, her father was tried for treason against his brother King Edward IV and privately executed in the Tower of London. Margaret and her younger brother Edward were placed in the care of their maternal aunt Anne Neville. In 1485, the last Yorkist king, Richard III, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth and the Lancaster claimant Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond assumed the throne as King Henry VII. Henry VII then married Margaret’s first cousin Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of King Edward IV.

After the rise of the Tudors, the remaining members of the House of York were systematically dealt with through marriage, imprisonment, and eventually, execution. Margaret’s brother Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, the next male Yorkist claimant to the throne, was held at the Tower of London until he was executed in 1499. It was thought at the time that Edward was executed in response to pressure from King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile to ensure there would be no potential heirs who could jeopardize the eventual accession to the throne of King Henry VII’s heir Arthur who was to marry Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter Catherine of Aragon.

Sometime between 1491 and 1494, King Henry VII arranged for Margaret to marry Sir Richard Pole. It is thought that this marriage was arranged because Sir Richard’s mother was a half-sister of the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort and this would make it more difficult to use her in a plot to overthrow the Tudors. Margaret and Richard had five children:

• Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 1492 – 1539) married Jane Neville, daughter of George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny; had issue; was one of the peers in the trial of Anne Boleyn; beheaded for treason during the reign of King Henry VIII
• Reginald Pole (c. 1500 – 1558) Cardinal, Papal Legate, and last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Queen Mary I.
• Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington (c. 1501 – 1558) married Constance Pakenham, granddaughter and heiress of Sir John Pakenham; had issue; suspected of treason by King Henry VIII by conspiring with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, lived in exile in Europe
• Sir Arthur Pole of Broadhurst (c. 1502 – 1535) married Jane Lewknor, daughter of Roger Lewknor; no issue
• Lady Ursula Pole (c. 1504 – 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford; had issue

After the accession of King Henry VIII in 1509, Margaret was initially in favor at court. She was created Countess of Salisbury in her own right in 1513 and was godmother and later governess of Mary Tudor (later Queen Mary I), daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Some of the lands that the family lost when George, Duke of Clarence was attainted were restored and Margaret became the fifth richest English peer.

Margaret had a strong and independent personality and eventually, she angered the king. In 1539, Margaret was accused of conducting treasonable correspondence with her son Cardinal Pole and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. An Act of Attainder was passed by Parliament and Margaret lost all her land and her title. It is suspected that the charges and the evidence were fabricated by Thomas Cromwell who himself fell out of favor and was executed in 1540.

On May 27, 1541, Margaret was told that she would be executed that day. She argued that there was no proof that she had committed a crime. The 67-year-old Margaret was dragged to the block at Tower Green where she refused to place her head saying, “So should traitors do, and I am none.” The inexperienced executioner proceeded to “hack her head and shoulders to pieces” with ten blows of the ax. Margaret was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church on December 29, 1886, and she is known as Blessed Margaret Pole. Her feast day should coincide with the day of her martyrdom, however, May 27 was already in use as the feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, so Margaret’s feast day is May 28.

Tower Green, the site of the scaffold where Margaret Pole and others were executed inside the Tower of London; Credit – Wikipedia

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