by An Ard Rí and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2012

House of Plantagenet

No British dynasty has been as successful as the Plantagenets of this time period in passing down the crown.  These Plantagenet kings had to deal with the Second Baron’s War and the Hundred Years’ War.  King Edward I conquered Wales and tried to conquer Scotland.  Parliament and other social institutions developed. A distinctive English culture arose.  Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature wrote his Canterbury Tales.  Great cathedrals were built and universities were established.  The Bubonic Plague or Black Death caused great turmoil and killed half of England’s population.  In 1399, the Plantagenet dynasty was split into two cadet branches, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, who later battled for control of the crown in the Wars of the Roses.

• Henry III (Henry of Winchester) – reigned 1216-1271
• Edward I (Edward Longshanks) – reigned 1271-1307
• Edward II (Edward of Caernarfon) – reigned 1307-1327
• Edward III – reigned 1327-1377
• Richard II – reigned 1377-1399

• Unofficial Royalty: House of Plantagenet Index

Burial articles for all the British royal houses can be found at Unofficial Royalty: British Royal Burial Sites

Unless otherwise noted, portraits and photos are from Wikipedia.

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Westminster Abbey

With a few exceptions, the kings and consorts of this time period were buried at Westminster Abbey in London, England.  First known as St. Peter’s Abbey, Westminster Abbey was founded by Benedictine monks in 960 under the patronage of King Edgar the Peaceful (reigned 943 – 975) and St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. In the 1040s, King Edward, better known as St. Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042 – 1066), built his royal palace nearby St. Peter’s Abbey on the banks of the River Thames on land known as Thorney Island. Later the medieval Palace of Westminster sat upon the site and today the Houses of Parliament (formal name is still Palace of Westminster) is there.

Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St. Peter’s Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. This church became known as the “west minster” to distinguish it from (old) St. Paul’s Cathedral (the “east minster”) in the City of London. The new church was consecrated on December 28, 1065. Too ill to attend the consecration, Edward the Confessor died on January 5, 1066, and was buried before the high altar of his new church the day after his death.

Embed from Getty Images 
Shrine of Edward the Confessor: Around the perimeter of the chapel are tombs of kings and queens from this time period

In 1245, King Henry III started the construction of the second and present Westminster Abbey in the new Gothic style of architecture. The new church was designed to be not only a place of worship and a monastery but also a place for the coronation and burial of monarchs. This church was consecrated on October 13, 1269, and on that day, King Henry III oversaw a grand ceremony to rebury Edward the Confessor in a magnificent new shrine, personally helping to carry the body to its new resting place. Edward the Confessor’s shrine survives and around his shrine were interred a number of Plantagenet kings and queens.

• Unofficial Royalty: Westminster Abbey
• Unofficial Royalty: Westminster Abbey: Royal Burials
• Official Website: Westminster Abbey
• Take a virtual tour inside Westminster Abbey

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Henry III, King of England (reigned 18 October 1216 – 16 November 1272)

• Unofficial Royalty: King Henry III of England

The eldest son of King John, Henry III became king when he was nine-years-old, in the midst of the First Barons’ War (1215–17), in which a group of rebellious barons supported by a French army, made war on King John because of his refusal to accept and abide by the Magna Carta. On January 14, 1236, at Canterbury Cathedral, 29-year-old Henry married 13-year-old Eleanor of Provence, the second of the four daughters of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy.  Henry and Eleanor had five children.

Henry was increasingly ill and infirm during his final years. His son and heir Edward I became the Steward of England and began to play a more prominent role in government. The most important legacy of King Henry III is Westminster Abbey.

King Henry III died from a stroke at the age of 69 on November 16, 1272, at the Palace of Westminster. By his own direction, Henry was buried in the original coffin of Edward the Confessor. Eventually, a grander tomb was built for Henry, and on May 10, 1290, his remains were moved to their current location in Westminster Abbey in the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor, in a tomb directly north of Edward the Confessor’s shrine.

Eleanor of Provence, Queen of England 

• Unofficial Royalty: Eleanor of Provence, Queen of England

Eleanor of Provence was born circa 1223 in Aix-en-Provence, the capital of Provence, now in France. Her parents were Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy. On January 14, 1236, Eleanor married King Henry III of England. Eleanor and Henry had a total of five children.

Eleanor of Provence survived her husband for nineteen years. In 1280, Eleanor retired to the Abbey of St Mary and St Melor in Amesbury, England where she died on June 24/25, 1291. It appears that Eleanor requested that she be buried with her husband at Westminster Abbey but was buried at the Abbey of St Mary and St Melor in Amesbury, England. Eleanor’s remains were lost when the Abbey was destroyed in 1539 during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.  Her heart was buried at London’s Greyfriars Monastery which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

• Wikipedia: Abbey of St Mary and St Melor

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Edward I, King of England (reigned 16 November 1272 – 7 July 1307)

• Unofficial Royalty: King Edward I of England

The eldest son of King Henry III, King Edward I was born on June 17, 1239, at the Palace of Westminster in London, England. It was the first time the Anglo-Saxon name Edward (Anglo-Saxon Ēadweard, ead: wealth, fortune; prosperous and weard: guardian, protector) was used for a child of the monarch since the Norman Conquest. Henry III was devoted to Edward the Confessor and named the infant after the monarch/saint.

Edward married Eleanor of Castile, the daughter of (Saint) King Ferdinand III of Castile and his second wife Jeanne de Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu on November 1, 1254, in the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Castile, now in Spain. The couple had 14-16 children, but only six survived childhood.

In the summer of 1307, King Edward I prepared a military campaign to fight Robert the Bruce in Scotland. On the way to Scotland, the 68-year-old king died, probably from cancer, on July 7, 1307, at Burgh by Sands in Cumbria, England.  Edward’s body lay for sixteen weeks in Waltham Abbey. He had wanted his body to be boiled and his bones to be carried by his army during future campaigns against Scotland.  Instead, Edward I’s body was embalmed and laid to rest in a tomb without an effigy in Westminster Abbey near his father and his first wife Eleanor of Castile, adjacent to the tomb of his namesake Edward the Confessor, which can be seen in the left background of the photo below.

Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England

Eleanor of Castile was the first wife of King Edward I. In the autumn of 1290, Edward was in the north of England and Eleanor of Castile, was traveling north at a leisurely pace to meet him.  On her way to Lincoln, Eleanor became ill and as she reached Harby in Nottinghamshire, 22 miles from Lincoln, she could go no further, so she sought lodging at the house of Richard de Weston in Harby.  Eleanor’s condition worsened and messengers were sent to summon the king to her bedside.  King Edward arrived in Harby before Eleanor died in the evening of November 28, 1390.  Eleanor was 49-years-old, had been married to Edward for 36 years, and had given birth to 14-16 children.

Eleanor’s viscera were buried at Lincoln Cathedral, her heart at London’s Dominican Church (Blackfriars), and her body at Westminster Abbey. The heart monument was destroyed in 1540 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, while her Lincoln viscera tomb was smashed by Roundheads during the English Civil War. During the Victorian era, her viscera tomb was rebuilt at Lincoln Cathedral.

• Wikipedia: Blackfriars, London
• Wikipedia: Lincoln Cathedral

Eleanor Crosses

• Wikipedia: Eleanor Crosses

King Edward I was devastated when Eleanor died.  It took twelve days for her remains to reach Westminster Abbey and twelve crosses, known as Eleanor Crosses, were erected at the places where her funeral procession stopped overnight.  Charing Cross in London is perhaps the most famous, but the cross there is a reconstruction.  Only three original crosses survive although they have had some reconstruction: Geddington Cross, Hardingstone Cross, and Waltham Cross.

Margaret of France, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Margaret of France, Queen of England

Margaret of France was Edward I’s second wife. Probably born in Paris, France in 1279, Margaret was the youngest child of King Philippe III of France and his second wife Marie of Brabant. On September 10, 1299, in Canterbury, England, 60-year-old King Edward I and 17-year-old Margaret of France were married. Margaret was never crowned, making her the first queen since the Norman Conquest in 1066 not to be crowned. Edward and Margaret had three children.

Edward died when Margaret was still in her 20s. Margaret retired to her dower house, Marlborough Castle, in Wiltshire, England, where she lived the rest of her life. She died there on February 14, 1318, not yet 40 years old, and she was buried at Christ Church Greyfriars in London, which she had co-founded. Her beautifully carved tomb was destroyed during the English Reformation, sold for its marble and other valuable materials.

• Wikipedia: Christ Church Greyfriars

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Edward II, King of England (reigned 25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327)

• Unofficial Royalty: King Edward II of England

King Edward II of England was born on April 25, 1284, at Caernarfon Castle in Gwynedd, Wales. Known as Edward of Caernarfon, he was the fourth son and the youngest of the 14-16 children of King Edward I of England and his first wife Eleanor of Castile.

Edward was born less than a year after his father King Edward I had taken complete control of Wales. At the time of his birth, Edward had only one surviving elder brother, Alphonso, Earl of Chester. However, ten-year-old Alphonso died four months after Edward’s birth, leaving his baby brother as heir to the throne. The tradition of conferring the title “Prince of Wales” on the heir apparent of the monarch is usually considered to have begun in 1301 when King Edward I of England invested his son Edward of Caernarfon with the title at a Parliament held in Lincoln. Since then, the title has been granted (with a few exceptions) to the heir apparent of the English or British monarch.

Edward II was deposed by his wife Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer in 1327 and imprisoned at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire and later at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire where castle records indicate he was well treated. The circumstances of what happened to him are uncertain.  One theory is that he died at Berkeley Castle on September 21, 1327, murdered on the orders of Isabella and Mortimer.

His body was embalmed at Berkeley Castle, was shown to local town leaders, and was buried at St. Peter’s Abbey in Gloucester. King Edward III arranged for a tomb for his father to be constructed with an alabaster effigy, a tomb-chest and a canopy made of oolite and Purbeck stone. The abbey was dissolved in 1540 by King Henry VIII and became Gloucester Cathedral in 1541. King Edward II’s tomb, which was restored in 2007-2008, can still be seen in Gloucester Cathedral.

• Wikipedia: Gloucester Cathedral

Isabella of France, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Isabella of France, Queen of England

Isabella was the formidable French wife of Edward II of England. She was probably born in Paris in 1295, the daughter of King Philippe IV of France and Joan I, Queen of Navarre in her own right.  Isabella and King Edward II were married on January 25, 1308, in Boulogne, France. Isabella and Edward had four children.

In 1327, Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer deposed King Edward II and imprisoned him at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire and later at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. Edward eventually died but the circumstances of what happened to him are uncertain. Isabella and Edward’s 14-year-old son became King Edward III of England with Isabella and Mortimer acting as regents.

When King Edward III turned 18 years old, he conducted a coup d’état that resulted in the execution of Roger Mortimer and the arrest of his mother. Isabella was held under house arrest for the rest of her life.  On August 22, 1358, Isabella died at the age of 63.  She was buried at the now-destroyed Franciscan Church at Newgate, London. Her tomb did not survive the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII.

• Wikipedia: Christ Church Greyfriars

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Edward III, King of England (reigned 1 February 1327 – 21 June 1377)

• Unofficial Royalty: King Edward III of England

King Edward III on November 13, 1312, at Windsor Castle. He became king at the age of 14 and his reign of 50 years, 147 days is surpassed only by the reigns of King Henry III, King George III, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth II.  On January 24, 1328, Edward and Philippa of Hainault were married at York Minster in York, England. Edward and Philippa had fourteen children. Their sons married into the English nobility and it was their descendants who later battled for the throne in the Wars of the Roses.

Edward made his kingdom into one of the most organized military powers of Europe. During his reign there were changes in the government with the legislative branch, Parliament, gaining power.  King Edward III suffered a stroke in May of 1377. He died at Sheen Palace on June 21, 1377, at the age of 64, and was buried in Westminster Abbey beside his wife Philippa, who had died in 1369.

Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Philippa of Hainault

Born June 24, 1314, Philippa was the daughter of William I, Count of Hainault and Joan of Valois. Philippa of Hainault married King Edward III when she was 14-year-old. The couple had fourteen children including their eldest child, Edward the Black Prince, who was born days before Philippa’s sixteenth birthday.

Philippa died on August 15, 1369, of a “dropsical malady” (edema) that had bothered her for about two years.  She was 55-years-old and had outlived seven of her children.  According to the chronicler Jean Froissart, Philippa died holding the hands of her husband and her youngest child Thomas who was fourteen years old.  She was buried in a tomb with an alabaster effigy in Westminster Abbey.

From Susan Flantzer: I’ve felt a closeness to Philippa of Hainault since 2005 when I made my second visit to Westminster Abbey.  My first visit was in 1990 with my sister and my two children.  In 2005, I was with my husband and kept telling him that I was sure I saw Edward the Confessor’s tomb in 1990, but could not see it in 2005.  There was a verger nearby whose duty it was to answer questions, so I asked him.  He said that the route tourists go through the Abbey had changed since 1990 and he would show me how to see Edward the Confessor’s tomb.  He brought me to the tomb of Philippa of Hainault which is located on a side aisle next to the main altar.  He told me to stand on the tomb’s edge and then I would be able to see into the Chapel of Edward the Confessor.  So there I was looking into the face of Philippa on her effigy while being able to see Edward the Confessor’s tomb.

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Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Kent

• Unofficial Royalty: Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales was the eldest of the fourteen children of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Today, Edward of Woodstock is commonly referred to as “The Black Prince” although he was not called that in his lifetime. The first appearance of the reference occurred more than 150 years after his death. It is thought it may refer to Edward’s black shield, and/or his black armor or from his brutal reputation, particularly towards the French in Aquitaine.  He was one of the seven Princes of Wales who never became King.

Edward married Joan, 4th Countess of Kent, his father’s first cousin, on October 10, 1361, at Windsor Castle. Joan was the daughter and heiress of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, the younger son of King Edward I of England by his second wife Margaret of France. Edward and Joan had two sons, including King Richard II.

Edward is best known for his military career in the Hundred Years War.  He contracted an illness around 1366 that ailed him until his death in 1376. It was believed that he contracted dysentery, which killed more medieval soldiers than battle but it is unlikely that he could survive a ten-year battle with dysentery. Other possible diagnoses include edema, nephritis, or cirrhosis. By 1371, Edward was no longer able to perform his duties.

On June 7, 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, Edward died at the Palace of Westminster. He had requested to be buried in the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral. However, his request was overruled and he was buried in a tomb with a bronze effigy on the south side of the shrine of Thomas Becket behind the choir. Edward’s heraldic helmet and gauntlets were placed above his tomb. Today, replicas hang above his tomb and the originals are in a glass case nearby.

A year after his death, Edward’s father King Edward III died and was succeeded by his ten-year-old grandson King Richard II, the surviving son of Edward the Black Prince.

• Unofficial Royalty: Canterbury Cathedral

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John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

• Unofficial Royalty: John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

John of Gaunt was the fourth son but the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. It is through John’s first marriage with Blanche of Lancaster that the Duchy of Lancaster eventually became a possession of the British Crown. John is also quite important in royal genealogy. His daughter Catherine of Lancaster married King Enrique III of Castile, which made John the grandfather of King Juan II of Castile and the ancestor of all subsequent monarchs of Castile and a united Spain. His daughter Philippa of Lancaster married King João I of Portugal making all future Portuguese monarchs descendants of John. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her predecessors since King Henry IV, John’s son with his first wife Blanche of Lancaster, are descended from John of Gaunt. In fact, most European monarchies are descended from John. The Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor were all descended from John of Gaunt’s children.

John of Gaunt died on February 3, 1399, at Leicester Castle in England at the age 58.  Despite the fact that he married two more times, John was buried with his first wife Blanche of Lancaster at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Unfortunately, the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed Old St. Paul’s Cathedral and the magnificent tomb of Blanche and John.

• Unofficial Royalty: Old St Paul’s Cathedral

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Richard II, King of England (reigned 22 June 1377 – 29 September 1399)

• Unofficial Royalty: King Richard II of England
• Unofficial Royalty: Death of Richard II, King of England

Richard II became king in 1377 when he was ten-years-old upon the death of his grandfather King Edward III.  He married twice, to Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois, but both marriages were childless.

In 1398, Henry Bolingbroke, first cousin of King Richard II and the eldest child of King Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt, quarreled with Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who accused him of treason. The two men planned to duel, but instead, King Richard II banished them from England, and Henry went to France.  John of Gaunt died on February 3, 1399, and Richard confiscated the estates of his uncle and stipulated that Henry would have to ask him to restore the estates. Henry returned to England while his cousin Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland and began a military campaign of his own, confiscating the land of those who had opposed him. King Richard II eventually was abandoned by his supporters and was forced by Parliament to abdicate the crown to his cousin Henry who became King Henry IV, the first king of the House of Lancaster. Richard was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire where he died on or around February 14, 1400. The exact cause of his death, thought to have been starvation, is unknown.

Richard’s body was taken south from Pontefract Castle and displayed in the Old St Paul’s Cathedral before burial in Kings Langley Priory in Hertfordshire, England on March 6, 1400.  In 1413, King Henry V of England, son of King Henry IV, in an effort to atone for his father’s act of murder and to silence the rumors of Richard’s survival, had Richard’s remains moved to Westminster Abbey where they were placed in an elaborate tomb Richard had constructed for his first wife Anne of Bohemia in the St. Edward the Confessor Chapel, next to the tomb of Richard’s grandfather King Edward III.

Anne of Bohemia, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Anne of Bohemia

Anne of Bohemia was the first wife of King Richard II.  Born on May 11, 1366, in Prague, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), Anne of Bohemia was the eldest child of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, and his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania. During their twelve years of marriage, Anne failed to produce an heir to the throne.

In June of 1394, Anne became ill with the plague while at Sheen Palace.  She died three days later on June 7, 1394, at the age of 28.  King Richard II was so devastated by Anne’s death that he ordered Sheen Palace to be destroyed. For almost 20 years it lay in ruins until King Henry V started a rebuilding project in 1414.  King Richard gave Anne a magnificent funeral.  The funeral procession made its way from Sheen Palace to Westminster Abbey lit by candles and torches made from wax specially imported from Flanders.  Those in the procession were dressed all in black and wore black hoods.  King Richard was angered when Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel arrived late for the funeral.  The king struck the earl in the face with his scepter.

Richard had a tomb built for his wife at Westminster Abbey.  Unusually, he had his own effigy made to lie alongside Anne’s on the tomb with their hands clasped, although their hands eventually became broken off.  Richard was originally buried at Kings Langley Priory in Hertfordshire, England.  When King Henry V came to the throne in 1413, he ordered that the remains of King Richard II be transferred to Westminster Abbey to join Anne in the tomb Richard had built for them.

Isabella of Valois, Queen of England

• Unofficial Royalty: Isabella of Valois, Queen of England

After his first wife’s death, 29-year-old Richard married seven-year-old Isabella of Valois, the eldest surviving child of the twelve children of King Charles VI of France.  Isabella was also the sister of Catherine of Valois who married King Henry V of England and was the mother of King Henry VI. Through her second marriage to Owen Tudor, Catherine was the grandmother of King Henry VII of England.

Because of her young age, Isabella lived apart from Richard at Windsor Castle. Richard visited her frequently and a strong affection developed between the partners of this unconsummated marriage.  Richard’s death made Isabella a widow at the age of ten.  After Richard II’s death, Isabella married Charles, Duke of Orléans and died in childbirth in September 1409 at the age of 19. She was buried at the Benedictine Abbaye Saint-Laumer de Blois in France.   In 1624, Isabella’s remains were transferred to the Church of the Celestines in Paris, which was destroyed during the French Revolution.

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