Richard FitzAlan, 7th Earl of Arundel

Richard FitzAlan, 7th Earl of Arundel
Name	Richard FitzAlan, 7th Earl of Arundel
Birth date	c. 1346
Death date	24 January 1397
Title	Earl of Arundel and Surrey
Spouse	Elizabeth de Bohun; Philippa Mortimer
Parents	Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel; Eleanor of Lancaster
Issue	Thomas FitzAlan, 8th Earl of Arundel; Joan FitzAlan; Margaret FitzAlan; others
Resting place	Arundel Castle Chapel

Richard FitzAlan, 7th Earl of Arundel was an English nobleman, magnate, and soldier prominent in the later fourteenth century whose career intersected with the reign of Edward III, the politics of Richard II, and the military campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. As Earl of Arundel and Surrey, he combined extensive landholding, naval command, and parliamentary influence, becoming a leader of the aristocratic opposition that culminated in his execution during the political crises of 1397. His life illuminates relations among the Plantagenets, the network of magnates including the House of Lancaster and the House of York antecedents, and the dynamics of late medieval English warfare and court factionalism.

Early life and family background

Born circa 1346 into the FitzAlan dynasty that held Arundel Castle since the Norman Conquest, he was the son of Richard FitzAlan, 3rd Earl of Arundel (often styled 10th of the family) and Eleanor of Lancaster, herself a member of the House of Lancaster and granddaughter of Henry III. His kinship linked him to a web of aristocratic houses including the Beauforts, the Mortimers, and the Bohuns through marriage alliances that shaped fourteenth-century politics. Educated in the milieu of martial aristocracy, he inherited not only castles and manors across Sussex, Surrey, and the West Country but also feudal responsibilities tied to service under Edward III and later Richard II. Contemporaries such as John of Gaunt and Edward, the Black Prince formed the circle of magnates among whom he matured into public life.

Titles, estates, and political career

Succeeding to the earldom in the 1370s, he held the offices of Admiral of the Fleet and served on royal commissions and in the House of Lords, participating in parliaments presided over by Edward III and then Richard II. His baronial status entailed lordship over Arundel Castle, estates in Norfolk, Wiltshire, and the Honour of Worthing, and rights associated with the earldoms of Arundel and Surrey. He cultivated ties with leading families such as the Percys and the Beauchamps, while his political alignments shifted in response to the rise of royal favourites like Robert de Vere, Michael de la Pole, and the influence of Alice Perrers. As a peer he sat on trials and commissions, including inquiries connected to the Good Parliament of 1376 and later parliamentary sessions in which the Commons confronted ministerial corruption tied to Robert de Vere and Richard II’s inner circle.

Role in the Hundred Years' War and military service

FitzAlan’s military career encompassed service in the wars in France and maritime operations in the Channel; he fought alongside veterans of the Crécy and Poitiers campaigns and operated under captains shaped by the career of Edward, the Black Prince. He commanded forces on coastal defense against privateers and led expeditions to support English possessions in Aquitaine and the continental campaigns mounted in the 1370s and 1380s. His tenure as an admiral involved confrontations with Castilian ships and the protection of merchant convoys linking English ports with Brittany and Gascony. In domestic military affairs he participated in suppressing disturbances and in the muster of retinues that reflected evolving late-medieval practices of scutage and indenture, interacting with military figures such as Thomas of Woodstock and regional captains drawn from the knightly class.

Opposition to Edward IIIs favourites and political downfall

Although a product of the Edwardian household, FitzAlan became a central figure in the aristocratic opposition to the dominance of royal favourites during the reign of Richard II, aligning with the Lords Appellant including Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Warwick, and Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby. He played a part in the 1387-88 campaign that culminated in the Battle of Radcot Bridge and the Merciless Parliament, which sought the impeachment of ministers such as Michael de la Pole. His opposition later brought him into conflict with Robert de Vere and ultimately with Richard II when the king reasserted authority in the 1390s. After the king’s revenge against the Appellants, FitzAlan was arrested, tried for treason in 1397, attainted, and executed, an outcome shared with other nobles who had opposed royal policy.

Marriages, children, and succession

He married into the Bohun family when he wed Elizabeth de Bohun, a match that strengthened ties to the powerful earls of Hereford and the lineage of Humphrey de Bohun, producing heirs including Thomas FitzAlan, who succeeded as 8th Earl of Arundel. Subsequent family alliances included ties through his daughter Joan to the Seymour-style mesh of gentry and through Margaret to other noble houses, embedding the FitzAlan inheritance into the dynastic politics that fed into the Wars of the Roses genealogies. His descendant network connected with the Percy and Neville houses and later provided a platform for Arundel influence under successive monarchs such as Henry IV and Henry V.

Death, legacy, and historical assessment

Executed in 1397, his death at the hands of royal authority marked the violent closing of a chapter in late-fourteenth-century noble resistance to monarchical favoritism; his estates were for a time forfeited before partial restoration to his line under the Lancastrian ascendancy of Henry IV. Historians assess him variously as a martial magnate, a principled opponent of ministerial corruption, and a participant in factional excesses that destabilized Richard II’s reign. Sources including chronicle narratives by contemporaries like Thomas Walsingham and administrative records in the Patent Rolls portray a figure typical of high medieval English aristocracy: militarily capable, politically active, and enmeshed in kinship networks that shaped the trajectory of late medieval England up to the crises of the early fifteenth century. Arundel Castle remains a material testament to his family’s status and to the architectural and territorial legacy of the FitzAlans.

Category:14th-century English nobility Category:Earls of Arundel