Joan Fitzalan, Countess of Hereford

Lady Joan FitzAlan
Countess of Hereford
Countess of Essex
Countess of Northampton
Born1347
Arundel Castle, Sussex, England
Died7 April 1419
Noble familyFitzAlan
Spouse(s)Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton
IssueEleanor de Bohun
Mary de Bohun
FatherRichard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel
MotherEleanor 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.

  1. ^ Duggan, Anne; Ward, Jennifer C. (2000). Nobles and Nobility in Medieval Europe: Concepts, Origins, Transformations. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 251. ISBN 9780851158822. Retrieved 12 September 2021. (...) 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.