Lady Joan FitzAlan | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Hereford Countess of Essex Countess of Northampton | |
| Born | 1347 Arundel Castle, Sussex, England |
| Died | 7 April 1419 |
| Noble family | FitzAlan |
| Spouse(s) | Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton |
| Issue | Eleanor de Bohun Mary de Bohun |
| Father | Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel |
| Mother | Eleanor of Lancaster |
Joan FitzAlan,[1] Countess of Hereford, Countess of Essex and Countess of Northampton (1347 – 7 April 1419) was the wife of the 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton. She was the mother of Mary de Bohun, the first wife of Henry of Bolingbroke who later reigned as King Henry IV, and Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester. She was the maternal grandmother of King Henry V.
In 1400, she gave the order for the beheading of the Earl of Huntingdon in revenge for the part he had played in the execution of her brother, the 11th Earl of Arundel.
The estates which comprised Joan's large dowry made her one of the principal landowners in Essex, where she exercised lordship, acting as arbitrator and feoffee in property transactions.
(...) because of the number of sons born to the higher nobility in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, (...) The emphasis on agnatic lineage was reflected in the fact that the woman kept her natal family name when she married and did not become fully a member of her marital kin.