Arms: Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or surmounted of a label of three lappets Azure each lappet charged with three fleurs de lis in pale Or.
Note: These arms given to Edmund Crouchback eventually descended to Blanch of Lancaster.
Henry de Grosmont (c.1310- 1361) was the only son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281–1345); who in turn was the younger brother and heir of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1278–1322). They were sons of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1245–1296); the second son of King Henry III (ruled 1216–1272) and younger brother of King Edward I of England (ruled 1272–1307).
Henry de Grosmont was thus a first cousin once removed of King Edward II and a second cousin of King Edward III (ruled 1327–1377). His mother was Maud de Chaworth (1282–1322). On his paternal grandmother’s side, Henry de Grosmont was also the great-great-grandson of Louis VIII of France.
When Henry de Grosmont was about age 18 he married Isabel of Beaumont; daughter of Henry de Beaumont, Earl of Buchan. He and Isabel had two daughters. The eldest was Maud of Lancaster (4 April 1340 – 10 April 1362), who married William I, Duke of Bavaria in 1352. The younger daughter was Blanche of Lancaster (25 March 1342 – 12 September 1368), who married her third cousin John of Gaunt (1340–1399) on 19 May 1359.
John, was the third of five surviving sons of Edward III. Gaunt inherited all of Lancaster’s possessions, and he was granted the ducal title of Duke of Lancaster the following year on 13 Nov 1362, but it was not until 1377, when Edward was largely incapacitated, that Gaunt was able to recover the palatinate rights for the County of Lancaster.
When Gaunt’s son by Blanche, Henry of Bolingbroke, usurped the crown in 1399 and became King Henry IV, the vast Lancaster inheritance, including the Honour of Bolingbroke and the Lordship of Bowland, was merged with the Crown as the Duchy of Lancaster.
Henry de Grosmont died 23 March 1361
The arms illustrated are an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor
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