Philippa de Beauchamp


Philippa de Stafford, Countess of Stafford, was a late medieval English noblewoman and the daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, KG, and Katherine Mortimer. Her maternal grandfather was the powerful Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.

Marriage and issue

On or before 1 March 1350, she married Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, son of Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, and Margaret de Audley, suo jure 2nd Baroness Audley.
Together Hugh and Philippa had at least seven children:
  1. Margaret Stafford. Married Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland as his first wife and had issue.
  2. Sir Ralph Stafford. Killed by King Richard II's half-brother, John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter in a feud during an expedition against the Scots in July 1385.
  3. Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford. Inherited the earldom from his father at the age of 18. Married Anne Plantagenet, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester and Eleanor de Bohun. No issue, the marriage was reportedly never consummated.
  4. William Stafford, 4th Earl of Stafford. Inherited the earldom from his brother at the age of 14. He was a ward of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. He died at 19.
  5. Katherine Stafford. Married Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and had issue.
  6. Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford. Inherited the earldom from his brother at the age of 17. Married Anne of Gloucester, widow of his elder brother Thomas. Edmund and Anne were the parents of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
  7. Joan Stafford. Married Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey and 3rd Earl of Kent. No issue.

Death

The Countess Philippa died in spring 1386, and it was probably this combined with the death of their eldest son that pushed her husband to undertake a series of pilgrimages. She was buried at Stone Priory, Staffordshire. The Earl died in October of the same year in Rhodes, having not yet reached his destination of Jerusalem.