oan Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland, 1377-1440
Arms: Gules a saltire Argent impaled by Quarterly, France and England within a bordure compony argent and azure
Joan Beaufort was the third child and only daughter of John of Gaunt, a Plantagenet and Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress Lady Katherine Swynford, née de Roët.
Joan married twice, first to Robert Ferrers, 5th Baron Boteler of Wem, in 1392 having two daughters before Robert died in1395. They lived in the household of the Duke of Lancaster.
Secondly, Joan married after she was legitimatized in November 1396 to Sir Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville of Raby. On 29 Sept 1397 Richard II created him the 1st Earl of Westmoreland. In 1403 Henry IV made him a Knight of the Garter.
Joan was created a Lady of the Garter in 1399 by Richard II
Joan and Ralph had fourteen children of whom ten survived to adulthood. One of the girls
Lady Cecily Neville (1415-1495 ) married Richard, 3rd Duke of York, by him she was the mother of King Edward IV of England and Richard III of England.
Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville had ten children of whom seven survived him including: the Princes in the Tower: Edward V of England 1470-1483 and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York 1473-1483. Their uncle, Richard III, sent them to the Tower
and after a while they disappeared… It is possible Henry VII disappeared them after, he as Henry Tudor, killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, but we think it more likely Richard III was the villain…
When Joan Beaufort died in 1440, she was buried next to her mother, Katherine Swynford in Lincoln Cathedral where they remain today.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
2018 1103
dqw266@gmail.com
