In-Law: Eleanor Cobham, c 1400-1452

Marriage into the Plantagenet family could be a dangerous proposition.  Family connections, particularly wives and children, can often be seen as weak links to exploit during family frictions.  Eleanor Cobham, c 1400-1452, 2nd wife of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, found herself in the middle of a family squabble for power during the Wars of the Roses and ended up with a witchcraft conviction and a life sentence.

Eleanor was born around 1400 in Sterborough Castle, Kent.  Though some novels portray her as coming from an obscure background, she was the daughter of Reginald Cobham, 3rd Baron Sterborough and Cobham and had gentry connections through her mother's side.  Although common, in the sense of not being royal, her family was still minor aristocracy and good enough that Eleanor became a lady in waiting to Jacqueline of Hainault, first wife of Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, an uncle of King Henry VI.  Humphrey was the guardian of his minor nephew, Henry VI and leader of the royal council.  At some point, he departed to France to secure control of Jacqueline's estates in what is now Belgium and, on returning to England, he caught sight of Eleanor.  Eleanor was described as beautiful, intelligent and ambitious.  Just the type to appeal to Humphrey, who was an intelligent, ambitious and powerful man in his own right.  He and Eleanor began an affair, but it wasn't enough for Humphrey.  In 1428, he had his marriage to Jacqueline annulled and married Eleanor, causing a great deal of scandal and diminishing his own prestige at court.

Humphrey and Eleanor worked their way back into society by becoming an it couple, holding a flamboyant court at Humphrey's palace of La Pleasaunce, later Greenwich Palace.  By 1436, Eleanor was granted the title Duchess of Gloucester and allowed precedence at court in time for that year's Garter ceremony.  Humphrey placed his estate in jointure with her, allowing her to keep his entire property at his death.  Then, Humphrey's brother John, Duke of Bedford died and Humphrey was heir presumptive to the throne after his young nephew.  He claimed the right to be Regent of the Kingdom, but the council opposed his plans.  Whispers began that Humphrey had treasonous ambitious to take the crown for himself.  It was noted that Eleanor was quite popular with the young king.

Though witchcraft and magic of any sort were strictly forbidden in England, astrology and other forms of magic are as old as the hills.  Eleanor, like many wealthy people, kept the services of an astrologer, Roger Bolingbroke, who with a colleague Thomas Southwell, predicted the death of the King in 1441 from a sudden illness.  In those days, even talking about the possible death of the king, let alone predicting it, was considered a lesser form of treason and punishable by death.  The two men were arrested and Bolingbroke implicated Eleanor, suggesting that she had contacted him to discern her and Humphrey's future.  Eleanor was arrested and denied everything, but stated that she had sought the services of one Margery Jourdemayne, the so-called Witch of Eye, to buy potions for help in conception.  This was a common occurrence among women with disposable income.  The pressure for multiple male heirs was high and Eleanor had only had one son by Humphrey, Arthur, who died young.  This admission was enough to accuse both Eleanor and through her Humphrey of having treasonous designs on the King's life.  Southwell and Bolingbroke were hanged, drawn and quartered.  Jourdemayne was burnt at the stake.  Eleanor was forced to divorce Humphrey and renounce all royal title and position, as well as claim to his property.  She performed public penance in London and was imprisoned in a succession of castles further and further away from London, Chester, then Kenilworth, the Isle of Man, and finally Beaumaris Castle, where she died in 1452.

Royal: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 1390-1447

The Plantagenets could fight with one another but stood as one against a common enemy.  The sons of Henry IV, Henry V, King of England, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Clarence, 1390-1447, were a close-knit bunch.  When Humphrey was wounded on the battlefield at Agincourt and in danger of being overrun by French knights in 1415, Henry came to his aid.  So did their cousin, the Duke of York, who was killed trying to cover the King and Humphrey. 

Humphrey's place of birth is not known.  His mother was Henry IV's first wife, Mary de Bohun, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.  Thus, Humphrey was named for his grandfather.  Like his older brothers, Humphrey was schooled in the arts of war and chivalry, but he was also a man of letters who amassed a considerable personal library.  Duke Humphrey's Library is part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.  In 1422, Humphrey married Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault in her own right.  At the time, they were the It Couple, Humphrey praised as a chivalrous knight, skilled commander and generous patron and benefactor of Oxford University.  Jaqueline, beautiful, proud and used to getting her way.  They had no children and their marriage was annulled in 1428.  Humphrey then married his mistress, Eleanor Cobham, by whom he had an unnamed son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Antigone, later Countess of Tankerville.  Eleanor would become embroiled in a bizarre plot to kill the unpopular Henry VI by means of sorcery.  She maintained that she'd sought the aid of a wise woman for potions to help her conceived children.  The alleged witch was burnt at the stake and Eleanor was made to do public penance at Paul's Cross, forced to divorce her husband and was imprisoned in various castles the rest of her natural life. 

Humphrey served in various positions under both Henry V and Henry VI, both in Parliament and as a member of the Privy Council.  He was a skilled commander in the ongoing Hundred Years War, his knowledge of classical siege warfare coming in handy several times.  He also became Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.  In 1422, on the death of Henry V, Humphrey was made Lord Protector to his young nephew, Henry VI and later claimed the Regency after his older brother Bedford's death.  This latter claim was rejected by the Lords in Council.  In 1436, Duke Phillip of Burgundy attacked Calais, the last English stronghold on the Continent.  Humphrey was made garrison commander and successful withstood the siege.  In person, he was known as being generous to the poor.  However, this all-around successful life couldn't last long.  In 1448, he was accused of another plot against Henry VI, but died of a stroke before he could be arrested and brought to trial.

He was buried at Bury St. Albans, but local legend had him buried in Old St. Paul's Cathedral.  In reality, the tomb belonged to John, Lord Beauchamp de Warwick.  Thieves and other petty criminals often sought sanctuary in the Cathedral, where they relied on the alms of the clergy to sustain them until they decided to give themselves up for trial.  Needless to say, they often went hungry.  Perhaps in a nod to Humphrey's reputation for alms-giving, the phrase, to dine with Duke Humphrey, meant to go without a meal.  A Humphrey picnic meant later the same thing.  Duke Humphrey was given the manor of Greenwich and began building a house there which he called Belle Court.  It would grow to become Placentia and later Greenwich Palace, showpiece of the Tudors and Stuarts before becoming a Naval hospital and old sailors home, then the Naval Observatory.