Mary de Bohun was the second daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford and Joan FitzAlan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel. The lineage of the de Bohuns go as far back as before the Norman Conquest. [1] Mary’s father died in 1373, who, before his death, divided the inheritance between Mary and her eldest sister, Eleanor[2]. When Mary was chosen by John of Gaunt to be the wife and heir of his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, John’s brother, Thomas of Woodstock, who was married to Eleanor de Bohun, began to plot against Gaunt. Woodstock tried stop the match by trying to send Mary to convent and thus all of Mary’s inheritance would be transferred to Eleanor. [3] The Duke of Lancaster caught word of this plan and managed to thwart it, how he did, it is not said.
By 1380, Mary, aged around 12, and Henry, aged 13, were married at Rochford Hall, the home of Eleanor and Thomas of Woodstock [4]. The marriage celebrations are said to have been very joyous. Mary was gifted with a silver gilt goblet and a ewer, from Philippa and Elizabeth, her two sister-in-laws. John, her father-in-law gifted her with jewels. [5] The celebrations consisted of a banquet along with King Richard II and Edmund of Langley providing minstrels for the occasion. Though there was political advantage to the match with Henry gaining lands in England and the castles of Brecon and Hay[7], Mary and Henry’s relationship and marriage is said to have been a loving one. Both had a love for playing music. Henry played the flute, and Mary would sing to accompany the sound[8]. They also shared a love of chess, dogs, and parrots[9]. Mary spent most of her time at Peterborough Castle, and Henry was said to visit her often. While away on business, Henry would often send his wife gifts, a record in a month of January says that he sent her a gift of oysters, mussels, and sprats[10]. By 1387, at the latest, or 1385 at the earliest, John of Gaunt provided the granted Monmouth Castle to them as their own[11]. It appears that Henry remained faithful to Mary as there are no records of him keeping or gifting any mistresses. Mary is said to have gotten on well with her husband’s family, particularly Philippa and Elizabeth. In a politics Mary had a minor role, though she was a patron of arts, as was much of her family, and she patronised a manuscript in the 1380s. [12] A few months after her marriage to Henry, Mary fell pregnant, her first boy was born in 1382, and he was named Edward, though he died a few days after his birth. The next son, Henry of Monmouth, who would one day be the victor at Agincourt, was born in the gatehouse Monmouth Castle in 1386[13]. Around the time of Monmouth's birth, the elder Henry had been made a commander of the Lord’s Appellent. A legend surrounds Henry of Monmouth’s birth, that Henry of Bolingbroke was returning home from court when he received the news of his son’s birth from a ferryman while crossing the River Wye, it is said that Henry was so pleased with the news that he gave the ferryman all his dues and tolls[14]. Mary went on to have six children after Monmouth’s birth: Thomas, future Duke of Clarence, born in 1387; John, future Duke of Bedford, born 1389; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, born in 1390; Blanche, future Elector Palatine Consort, born in 1392; and Philippa, future Queen Consort of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, born in 1394. Mary died after giving birth to her daughter Philippa, at Peterborough Castle, aged only 25/26. Her funeral took place at the College of Newark in Leicester, twenty-four men provided black cloth for the funeral, and Henry donated hundreds of marks to the deans and canons the church to aid in repairs of the building.[15] References [1] Bryan Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) pp. 7-8 [2] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) pp.7-8 [3] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) pp. 7-8 [4] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) pp. 7-8 [5] Jennifer Ward, Women in the Middle Ages (Routledge: Abingdon, 2016) p. 35 [7] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 8 [8] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 8 [9] Alison Weir, Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess (Vintage: New York, 2008) p. 209 [10] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 36 [11] Weir, Katherine Swynford (Vintage: New York, 2008) p. 208 [12] Ward, Women in the Middle Ages (Routledge: Abingdon, 2016)) p. 115 [13] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 14 [14] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 14 [15] Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) p. 38 Bibliography [1] Bryan Bevan, Henry IV (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 1994) [2] Jennifer Ward, Women in the Middle Ages (Routledge: Abingdon, 2016) [3] Alison Weir, Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess (Vintage: New York, 2008)
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