Philippa of Hainault
Philippa of Hainault (24 June[1] 1315[2] – 15 August 1369) was the queen of Edward III of England.
| Philippa of Hainault | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Queen consort of England | |
| Tenure | 24 January 1328 – 15 August 1369 |
| Coronation | 4 March 1330 |
| Born | 24 June 1315 Valenciennes |
| Died | 15 August 1369 (aged 54) Windsor Castle |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Edward III of England |
| Issue | Edward, the Black Prince Isabella, Lady of Coucy Joan of England William of Hatfield Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York Blanche of England Mary, Duchess of Brittany Margaret, Countess of Pembroke Thomas of Windsor William of Windsor Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester |
| House | House of Plantagenet |
| Father | William I, Count of Hainaut |
| Mother | Joan of Valois |
Philippa was the daughter of William I, Count of Hainaut, nicknamed the Good, and Joan of Valois, the granddaughter of Philip III of France.[3]
King Edward II wanted an alliance with Flanders to benefit England. He sent Bishop Stapledon to choose a good wife for Prince Edward. He chose Philippa who was about nine years old at that time. Four years later Philippa was betrothed to Prince Edward.
Philippa married Edward at York Minster, on 24 January 1328. This was eleven months after he was made King. The real rulers of the kingdom were his mother, Queen Dowager Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. They jointly acted as his regents. The couple lived at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. Philippa was crowned queen on 4 March 1330 at Westminster Abbey. She was almost six months pregnant.[4] She gave birth to her first son, Edward, the following June just nine days before her seventeenth birthday.
In October 1330, King Edward began to rule. He ordered the arrest of his mother and Mortimer. Mortimer was killed for treason. Queen Dowager Isabella was sent to Castle Rising in Norfolk, where she spent the rest of her life.
Philippa went with Edward on his trips to Scotland, and the European continent in his early campaigns of the Hundred Years' War. She acted as regent in England on several times when her husband was away from his kingdom.
On 15 August 1369, Philippa died of an illness similar to dropsy in Windsor Castle at the age of fifty-six. By all accounts, her forty-year marriage to Edward had been happy. Even though he had an affair with her lady-in-waiting, Alice Perrers, during the later years.
The Queen's College, Oxford is named after Philippa. It was founded in 1341 by one of her chaplains, Robert de Eglesfield, in her honour.
Further reading
change- Warner, Kathryn (2019-10-15). Philippa of Hainault: Mother of the English Nation. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-6280-0.
References
change- ↑ David Williamson, Debrett's Kings and Queens of Britain, p.81, Webb and Bower Publishers, Ltd., London, 1986
- ↑ Great Englishwomen: "Philippa, afterwards Queen of Edward III. of England, was born in the provinces of Hainaut,in 1313"
- ↑ Leese, Thelma Anna, Blood royal: issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066-1399, (Heritage Books Inc., 2007), 140.
- ↑ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Kings of England, Edward III, retrieved on 10 March 2010
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