Royal: Blanche of England, 1392-1409

A stunning gold crown encrusted with gems resides in the treasury of the Residenz Palace in Munich, still connected with the former ruling family of Bavaria, the Wittelsbachs.  Once upon a time, an English princess carried this crown from her homeland in England to marry a distant Wittelsbach ancestor.  She bore a son, and died tragically young while carrying another child, who died in utero with her. 

Blanche, 1392-1409, was the daughter of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, and the granddaughter of John of Gaunt and his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster.  She was named for her grandmother.  At the time of her birth, Blanche was only one of many Plantagenet cousins.  Her mother, Mary de Bohun, Henry's first wife, died in childbirth to Blanche's baby sister Philippa, who would also survive and later find a brilliant marriage as Queen of Norway, but that was a long way off.  In 1399, her father deposed his cousin, Richard II, and became Henry IV of England.  His children were now princes and princesses and valuable dynastic alliances.  One of those alliances was with King Rupert of Germany, whose son Louis, a Wittelsbach, would one day become Elector Palatine of the Rhine, an hereditary office in the Witteslbach family. 

The formal betrothal contract was signed in 1401 and Blanche was soon on her way to her new home, her resplendent crown packed in her trousseau.  On July 6, 1402, she was married at Cologne Cathedral, all of ten years old.  By 1406, she and Louis were living together as husband and wife and Blanche bore a son, Rupert, named for his German grandfather.  Her father celebrated in 1408 by making her a Lady of Garter.  In 1409, Blanche was carrying another child when she caught a fever.  Both she and the baby died in Alsace.  She was buried at the Church of St. Mary in Neustadt, where her tombstone survives today.  Louis went on to become Elector Palatine and marry again, having other children by his second wife Matilda.  Blanche's son Rupert died while still a teenager, not yet old enough for children of his own.