Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/103

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Fitzalan
97
Fitzalan

he was at the great feast given by Edward III in honour of the Countess of Salisbury (Froissart, iii. 3). His next active employment was in the same year as warden of the Scottish marches in conjunction with the Earl of Huntingdon. In October of the same year he accompanied Edward on his expedition to Brittany (ib. iii. 225), and was left by the king to besiege Vannes (ib. iii. 227) while the bulk of the army advanced to Rennes. In January 1343 the truce put an end to the siege, and in July Arundel was sent on a mission to Avignon. In 1344 he was appointed, with Henry, earl of Derby, lieutenant of Aquitaine, where the French war had again broken out ; and at the same time was commissioned to treat with Castile, Portugal, and Aragon (Fœdera, iii. 8, 9). In 1345 he repudiated his wife, Isabella, on the ground that he had never consented to the marriage, and, having obtained papal recognition of the nullity of the union, married Eleanor, widow of Lord Beaumont, and daughter of Henry, third earl of Lancaster. This business may have prevented him sharing in the warlike exploits of his new brother-in-law, Derby, in Aquitaine. He was, however, reappointed admiral of the west in February 1345, and retained that post until 1347 (Nicolas, Hist. of Royal Navy, ii. 95). In 1346 he accompanied Edward on his great expedition to northern France (Froissart, iii. 130), and commanded the second of the three divisions into which the English host was divided at Crecy (ib. iii. 169, makes him joint commander with Northampton, but Murimuth, p. 166, includes the latter among the leaders of the first line). He was afterwards with Edward at the siege of Calais (Rot. Parl. ii. 163 b}. In 1348 and 1350 Arundel was on commissions to treat with the pope at Avignon (Fœdera, iii. 165, 201). In 1350, however, he took part in the famous naval battle with the Spaniards off Winchelsea (Froissart, iv. 89). In 1351 he was employed in Scotland to arrange for a final peace and the ransom of King David (Fœdera, iii. 225). In 1354 he was one of the negotiators of a proposed truce with France, at a conference held under papal mediation at Guines (ib. iii. 253), but on the envoys proceeding to Avignon (ib. iii. 283), to obtain the papal ratification, it was found that no real settlement had been arrived at, and Innocent VI was loudly accused of treachery (Cont. Murimuth, p. 184). In 1355 Arundel was one of the regents during the king's absence from England (Fœdera, iii. 305). In 1357 he was again negotiating in Scotland, and in 1358 was at the head of an embassy to Wenzel, duke of Luxembourg (ib. iii. 392). In August 1360 he was joint commissioner in completing the ratifications of the treaty of Bretigny. In 1362 he was one of the commissioners to prolong the truce with Charles of Blois (ib. iii. 662). In 1364 he was again engaged in diplomacy (ib. iii. 747).

The declining years of Arundel's life were spent in comparative seclusion from public affairs. In 1365 he was maliciously cited to the papal court by William de Lenne, the foreign bishop of Chichester, with whom he was on bad terms. He was supported by Edward in his resistance to the bishop, whose temporalities were ultimately seized by the crown. He now perhaps enlarged the castle of Arundel (Tierney, Hist. of Arundel, p. 239). His last military exploit was perhaps his share in the expedition for the relief of Thouars in 1372.

Arundel was possessed of vast wealth, especially after 1353, when he succeeded, by right of his mother, to the earldom of Warenne or Surrey. He frequently aided Edward III in his financial difficulties by large advances, so that in 1370 Edward was more than twenty thousand pounds in his debt. Yet at his death Arundel left behind over ninety thousand marks in ready money, nearly half of which was stored up in bags in the high tower of Arundel (Harl. MS. 4840, f. 393, where is a curious inventory of all his personal property at his death).

One of Arundel's last acts was to become, with Bishop William of Wykeham, a general attorney for John of Gaunt during his journey to Spain (Fœdera, iii. 1026). He died on 24 Jan. 1376. By his will, dated 5 Dec. 1375, he directed that his body should be buried without pomp in the chapter-house of Lewes priory, by the side of his second wife, and founded a perpetual chantry in the chapel of St. George's within Arundel Castle (Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta, pp.94-6). By his first marriage his only issue was one daughter. By his second he had three sons, of whom Richard, the eldest [see Fitzalan, Richard III], was his successor to the earldom. John, the next, became marshal of England, and perished at sea in 1379. According to the settlement made by Earl Richard in 1347 (Rot. Parl. iv. 442), the title ultimately reverted to the marshal's grandson, John VI Fitzalan. The youngest, Thomas [see Arundel, Thomas], became archbishop of Canterbury. Of his four daughters by Eleanor, two are mentioned in his will, namely Joan, married to Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, and Alice, the wife of Thomas Holland, earl of Kent. His other daughters, Mary and Eleanor, died before him.