Eleanor de Bohun


Eleanor de Bohun was the elder daughter and co-heiress, of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford and Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.

Marriage

In 1376, Eleanor married Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. Thomas was the youngest son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Following their marriage, the couple went to reside in Pleshey Castle, Essex. According to Jean Froissart, Eleanor and her husband had the tutelage of her younger sister, Mary, who was being instructed in religious doctrine in the hope that she would enter a convent, thus leaving her share of the considerable Bohun inheritance to Eleanor and Thomas.

Issue

Together Eleanor and Thomas had:
  1. Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham
  2. Anne of Gloucester married Thomas Stafford, [3rd Earl of Stafford]; Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford; and William Bourchier, Count of Eu. Her son by 3rd marriage, John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, was grandfather of Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer of Snape.
  3. Joan married Gilbert Talbot, 5th Baron Talbot. Died in childbirth.
  4. Isabel, became a Minoress, later abbess, in a religious house near Aldgate
  5. Philippa Died young

Order of the Garter

Eleanor de Bohun was made a Lady of the Garter in 1384. She became a nun sometime after 1397 at Barking Abbey. Prior to her death, Eleanor divided her holdings among her children. She died on 3 October 1399 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her executors included the chaplain in Pleshy, Essex.

In fiction

Eleanor appears briefly in Anya Seton's historical romance Katherine, based upon the life of Eleanor's sister-in-law Katherine Swynford, the third wife of John of Gaunt. She also appears in Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Richard II, where she unsuccessfully urges John of Gaunt to avenge her murdered husband.