In-Law: William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1396-1450

Being a noble in Medieval England wasn't meant to be a popularity contest.  On the other hand, it didn't pay to upset the wrong people.  William de la Pole, 1396-1450, 1st Duke of Suffolk and the husband of Alice Chaucer learned this the hard way. 

William was born at Cotton, Suffolk, the second son of the Earl of Suffolk through his wife, who had been born a Beauchamp.  Although his family's ancestry sounds noble enough, somewhere in the family tree had been a wool merchant from Hull.  His fellow nobles with more exalted lineage could've let that slide, but William was his own worst enemy.  Opinionated and obnoxious, overly greedy and at the center of several unlucky mistakes, he apparently never learned how to win friends and influence people.  His personal badge was a crude form of anchor known as a jackanapes or Jack of Naples.  It was a weight attached to a chain meant to keep pet monkeys or other exotic animals from escaping.  In the centuries since William's death, a jackanapes has come to mean an obnoxious, long-winded and overbearing person. 

William saw service during the Hundred Years War early in life.  He was wounded in 1415 during the Siege of Harfleur, where his father died of dysentery.  Later, William's older brother also died at Agincourt, also fought in 1415.  In short order, William was 4th Earl of Suffolk, but there was more to come.  He was the co-commander of the English forces at the Siege of Orleans in 1429, when he was forced to surrender the city, to Joan of Arc of all people!  He also surrendered the town of Jargeau, and remained a prisoner of war in France for 3 years.  Even after Joan was burnt at the stake, the French continued to make inroads on former Plantagenet real estate in France.  Suffolk returned to England in 1434 an in likely hero.  He had already married Alice Chaucer, granddaughter of Geoffrey in 1430, which made him a royal insider.  He was made Constable of Wallingford Castle and negotiated the marriage in 1444 of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou.  This earned him the promotion to Marquess of Suffolk.   Little did anyone know but Margaret's marriage treaty secretly gave the provinces of Maine and Anjou back to France. 

With the deaths of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester in 1447 and Cardinal Beaufort, Suffolk became the power behind the throne of the increasingly incompetent Henry VI.  He became Chamberlain to the King and later Lord High Admiral of England.  He was made Earl of Pembroke and ultimately Duke of Suffolk.  As the honors and accolades just kept coming, it was discovered that Suffolk was in secret talks with Jean, Count de Dunois, who had been Suffolk's captor in France.  Further investigation discovered the secret clauses in Margaret and Henry's marriage treaty, negotiated by Suffolk.  He also still owed Dunois for his ransom.  As French victories, particularly in Maine and Anjou continued to pile up, Suffolk was blamed and ultimately accused of treason.  He had powerful enemies, including John Paston and John Fastolf. 

In 1450 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London and impeached in the House of Commons.  Parliament demanded a trial for treason and a death sentence but Henry VI intervened and ordered exile instead.  Suffolk quickly found a ship for the last English toehold in France, Calais.  His enemies chartered another ship, Nicholas of the Tower, and gave chase.  Suffolk's vessel was forced to stop and the Duke was arrested, tried on board the Nicholas, and executed.  His headless body later washed ashore on the English side.  Alice buried her husband at the Carthusian Priory at Hull and scrambled to hold onto as much of William's estates for her son John as she could.  The most expedient way to do that was to marry him as close to royalty as possible.  His first wife was Lady Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt.  After that marriage was annulled, John's second marriage was to Elizabeth of York, a sister of Edward IV and aunt of Queen Elizabeth of York.  It is from John and Elizabeth that the de la Pole family, rivals of the Tudors, descend.

Courtier: Alice Chaucer de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk, 1404-1475

Life during the time of the Wars of the Roses wasn't for sissies.  The women had to be as tough as the men and few met that description better than the matriarch of the de la Pole branch of the Plantagenet family, Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk. 

Alice, 1404-1475, was the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame, through his son Thomas.  The Chaucers were connected.  Geoffrey was a lawyer and bureaucrat active in the service of Edward III, Richard II, and Richard's rival Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV.  The Chaucer family's connections made possible three good marriages for Alice.  When she was 11, she married Sir John Phillip, who died a year later of dysentery while in service in Normandy during the Hundred Years War.  He left his young widow with an estate of extensive property, including Donnington Castle.  Young Alice married next in 1421, Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury, and when he died in 1428 she had yet more property to her credit.  Finally, in 1430, she married William de la Pole, Earl and later Duke of Suffolk.  In 1442, she bore him a son, John. 

William was steward of the household and a leading counselor of Henry VI and Alice served as a lady in waiting to Margaret of Anjou.  For a time, she was a loyal Lancastrian.  However, in 1450, William was impeached by the House of Commons.  Henry exiled the Duke to save him from death, but his ship was tracked down.  He was captured, returned to England and executed.  Alice now had to scramble to protect her son's inheritance.  She loaned the king several thousand marks to spare her son's lands from attainder but in 1451, found herself facing a state trial on suspicion of support the opposing Yorkists.  She was acquitted, but later threw in her lot with Edward IV against Henry and her former mistress, Margaret of Anjou.  After Henry's death and when Margaret was captured, Alice was deemed trustworthy enough to serve as Margaret's guardian and effectively jailer.  She was also appointed castellan of Wallingford Castle in her own right.

Alice made several pious donations to religious institutions and charitable causes throughout her life.  She held property in over 22 counties and was patroness of the poet John Lydgate.  She was no doubt a devoted mother.  But she could also be ruthless.  She was not above taking her erstwhile friend Margaret Paston to court to seize several Paston manors on the basis of fraudulent deeds.  The two women had been friends, but were now bitter enemies.  Alice could be as avaricious and cunning as any man over her time.  She was also the last woman to be named a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter.  Alice died in 1475 wealthy enough to have an elaborate transi or double-decker tomb in her honor at St Mary's Church, Ewelme.  The top level of the tomb showed her in the prime of life as a noble woman, but below was a rotting corpse, symbolizing what she became after her death. 

Meanwhile her son, John, would marry Elizabeth, daughter of Richard of York and Cecilly Neville.  Elizabeth was the sister of Edward IV and Richard III.  Thus, after the deaths of these final Plantagenet kings, the de la Pole family would carry an important claim to the Yorkist side of the Plantagenet dynasty and give the Tudors no end of grief.