Seal of Henry of Lancaster from the Barons' Letter of 1301, which he signed as Henricus de Lancastre, Dominus de Munemue (Henry of Lancaster, Lord of Monmouth). His shield couche shows the armorial of Plantagenet differenced by a bend azure.
Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1281 – 22 September 1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin.
Henry's elder brother Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, succeeded their father in 1296, but Henry was summoned to Parliament on 6 February 1298/99 by writ directed to Henrico de Lancastre nepoti Regis ("Henry of Lancaster, nephew of the king", Edward I), by which he is held to have become Baron Lancaster. He took part in the Siege of Caerlaverock in July 1300.
Petition for succession and inheritance
After a period of long-standing opposition to King Edward II and his advisors, including joining two open rebellions, Henry's brother Thomas was convicted of treason, executed and had his lands and titles forfeited in 1322. Henry did not participate in his brother's rebellions; he later petitioned for his brother's lands and titles, and on 29 March 1324 he was invested as Earl of Leicester.
A few years later, shortly after his accession in 1327, the young Edward III of England returned the earldom of Lancaster to him, along with other lordships such as that of Bowland. He may have inherited the Barony of Halton.[2]
Henry was sent in pursuit and captured the King at Neath in South Wales.[3] He was appointed to take charge of the King and was responsible for his custody at Kenilworth Castle.[3]
In about the year 1330, he became blind (Prestwich states Henry was going blind around 1329).[7]
Henry spent the last fifteen years of his life at Leicester Castle. There he founded a hospital for the poor and infirm in an extension of the castle bailey. It became known as the Newarke, and Henry was buried in the hospital chapel when he died in 1345. The King and Queen attended his funeral. He was succeeded as Earl of Lancaster and Leicester by his eldest son, Henry of Grosmont, later first Duke of Lancaster. Henry had his father's remains moved to the collegiate Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke, which he had built when he enhanced his father's foundation.[8][9]
Trinity Hospital chapel in the Newarke, Leicester
Nickname
According to Jean Le Bel, he was nicknamed Wryneck, or Tors-col in French, possibly due to a medical condition.[10]Froissart repeated that statement in his Chronicles.
Prior to his restoration to his earldoms, Henry bore the royal arms of King Henry III, differenced by a bend azure. Upon his restoration, his difference changed, to a label France of three points (that is to say a label of three points azure each charged with three fleur-de-lys or).[13]
Henry is a supporting character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. He was portrayed by William Sabatier [fr] in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and by Romain Rondeau [fr] in the 2005 adaptation.[15]
Notes
^Armitage-Smith, Sir Sydney, John of Gaunt: king of Castile and Leon, duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster, (Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd., 1904), pg 197.
^Burke, John, A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, (Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley:London, 1831), 424.
