Edward Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser

Arms of Despencer.

Edward le Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser KG (24 March 1336, Essendine – 11 November 1375) was the son of another Edward le Despenser and Anne Ferrers, sister of Henry, Lord Ferrers of Groby.[citation needed] He succeeded as Lord of Glamorgan in 1349.

Le Despencer went with Edward the Black Prince to France, and was present at the Battle of Poitiers. In recognition of his conduct in the French wars, he was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1357. At the same time, he also became a Knight of the Garter.

He was a friend and patron of Jean Froissart[1] and the eldest brother of Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich.

There is a statue of him on the top of the Holy Trinity Chantry Chapel in Tewkesbury Abbey, renowned as the "KNEELING KNIGHT".

  1. ^ William Caferro, John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (2006), p. 134.