Notes On: Lady Isabella Perez de Castile

Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York

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For other people named Isabella of Castile, see Isabella of Castile (disambiguation).

Isabella of Castile
Duchess of York
Spouse	Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
Issue	Edward of Langley, 2nd Duke of York Constance of York Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge
House	Burgundy (by birth) York (by marriage)
Father	Peter of Castile
Mother	María de Padilla
Born	1355
Died	23 December 1392
Burial	Kings Langley, Hertfordshire

Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York (1355 – 23 December 1392) was the daughter of King Peter of Castile and María de Padilla (d.1361). She accompanied her elder sister, Constance, to England after Constance's marriage to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and married Gaunt's younger brother, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.^[1]

Contents

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Life[edit]

Isabella of Castile (c. 1355 – 23 December 1392) was the youngest of the three daughters of King Peter of Castile by his favourite mistress, María de Padilla (d.1361).^[2]

On 21 September 1371 Edward III's fourth son, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, married Isabella's elder sister, Constanza (d.1394), who after the death of her father in 1369 claimed the throne of Castile. Isabella accompanied her sister to England, and on 11 July 1372, at about the age of 17, married John of Gaunt's younger brother,Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, fifth son of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, as part of a dynastic alliance in furtherance of Gaunt's claim to the crown of Castile.^[3] According to Pugh, Isabella and Edmund of Langley were 'an ill-matched pair'.^[4]

As a result of her indiscretions, including an affair with King Richard II's half-brother, John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter (d.1400), whom Pugh terms 'violent and lawless', Isabella left behind a tarnished reputation, her loose morals being noted by the chronicler Thomas Walsingham. According to Pugh, the possibility that Holland was the father of Isabella's favourite son, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, 'cannot be ignored'.^[5]

In her will Isabel named King Richard as her heir, requesting him to grant her younger son, Richard, an annuity of 500 marks. The King complied. However, further largess which might have been expected when Richard came of age was not to be, as King Richard II was deposed in 1399, and according to Harriss, Isabella's younger son, Richard, 'received no favours from the new King, Henry IV'.^[6]

Isabella died 23 December 1392, aged about 37, and was buried 14 January 1393 at the church of the Dominicans at Kings Langley.^[7] After Isabella's death, Edmund of Langley married Joan Holland, sister and co-heir of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (9 January 1382 – 15 September 1408), with whom his daughter, Constance, had lived as his mistress (see above).^[8]

Isabella was named a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1378.^{[citation needed]}

Issue[edit]

Coat of arms of Castile and Leónwhich Isabel adopted as the daughter of King Peter of Castile. Quarterly, Castille and Leon (Kingdom of Castille).^[9]

Isabella and Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, had three children:

• Edward of Langley, 2nd Duke of York (c.1373 – 25 October 1415), who married firstly, Beatrice of Portugal, which marriage was annulled, and secondly, Philippa Mohun, third daughter of John Mohun, 2nd Lord Mohun (c.1320 – 15 September 1375), and Joan Burghersh (d. 4 October 1404), daughter of Bartholomew de Burghersh (c.1304 – 3 August 1355), 3rd Baron Burghersh. Edward served in numerous administrative offices and military campaigns during the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, and was slain at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415.^[10]

• Constance of York (c.1374 – 28 November 1416), who married Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester (22 September 1373 – 16 January 1400), third but first surviving son of Edward le Despenser and Elizabeth Burghersh, by whom she had a son, Richard, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Isabel.^[11] Constance was involved in a plot to abduct the young Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, in February 1405, and in turn implicated her elder brother, Edward. After the death of her husband she was either betrothed to or lived as the mistress of Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (9 January 1382 – 15 September 1408), and had a daughter by him, Eleanor Holland (died c. 1459), who married James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley.^[12]

• Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (1375 – 5 August 1415), who married Anne Mortimer, and was beheaded on 5 August 1415 for his role in the Southampton Plot.

Shakespeare and Isabella of Castile[edit]

Isabella is depicted, unhistorically, as living in late December 1399 at the time of the Epiphany Rising in Act V of Shakespeare's Richard II.

(From: Find A Grave)

Tomb that contains the remains of Isabella of Castile her husband Edmund of Langley and their daughter in law Anne Mortimer

Birth:	1355 Zamora Castilla y León, Spain
Death:	Dec. 23, 1392 Kings Langley Hertfordshire, England
Infanta Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York was the daughter of King Peter of Castile and María de Padilla. She was a younger sister of Constance, Duchess of Lancaster. On March 1, 1372, Isabella married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, he was the fourth son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, at Wallingford, England. As a result of her marriage, she became the first of a total of eleven women who became Duchess of York. They had three children: Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (1373 – 25 October 1415). Constance of York (1374 – 29 November 1416). Married Thomas le Despenser and was mother of Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester and Warwick. Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (1375 – 5 August 1415). She was named a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1378. Isabella died 23 December 1392 and on 14 January 1393 was buried in Kings Langley Manor House in Hertfordshire, England. Isabel lies entombed with her husband in King's Langley. By the terms of her will, dated December 6, 1392, she asked that a hundred trentals and a hundred sauters were to be said for her soul, and four priests, or one at least, were to sing for her by the space of four years. Upon the day of her burial her best horse was to be delivered for her mortuary. She bequeathed to the King her heart of pearls; to the Duke of Lancaster, a tablet of jasper, given her by the King of Armenia; to her son Edward, her crown, to remain to his heirs; to Constance le Despencer, her daughter, a fret of pearls; to the Duchess of Gloucester, her tablet of gold with images, and also her sauter with the arms of Northampton; and to the King the residue of her goods, in trust that he should allow his godson Richard, her younger son, an annuity of 500 marks for life, a trust which the King, out of the great respect he bore to her, accepted. Originally interred in the Church of the Friary at Langley, the remains of the Duke and his wife were brought to All Saint's, King's Langley, about the year 1574. The couple were destined for a second exhumation. On November 22, 1877, Professor George Rolleston, M.D. The professor was expecting to find two remains instead he found three. The remains are those of Isabella of Castile, her husband Edmund of Langley and the third are those of their daughter in law Anne Mortimer Family links:  Parents:   Peter of Castile (1334 - 1369)   Maria De Padilla (1334 - 1361)  Spouse:   Edmund of Langley (1341 - 1402)*  Children:    Constance of York (1374 - 1416)*   Richard of Conisbrough (1385 - 1415)*  Sibling:   Constance De Castille (1354 - 1394)**   Isabella Perez de Castile (1355 - 1392)