Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester

Arms of Despencer: Quarterly 1st & 4th: Argent; 2nd & 3rd: Gules, a fret or, over all a ribbon sable

Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester and Warwick, LG (26 July 1400 – 1439) was the posthumous daughter and eventually the sole heiress of Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester (d. 1399) by his wife, Constance of York. She was born six months after her father had been beheaded for plotting against King Henry IV (1399–1413).

Marriages and progeny

Arms of first husband Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester (d. 1422): Gules, a fesse between six crosses crosslet or a crescent for difference.

These are the Beauchamp arms differenced by a crescent for a second son, referring to his father who was the second son of the 11th Earl of Warwick.

Arms of second husband Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (d. 1439): Gules, a fesse between six crosses crosslet or, the undifferenced Beauchamp arms of the senior line

Isabel married twice, successively to two identically named first-cousins, grandsons of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick (d. 1369):

• Firstly to Richard de Beauchamp, 1st Earl of Worcester (1394–1422) who died at the Siege of Meaux. They had one daughter:
  • Elizabeth de Beauchamp, born 1415, who married Edward Neville, 1st Baron Bergavenny (d. 1476), and had progeny.
• Secondly to Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick (1382–1439), her 1st husband's first-cousin from a senior Beauchamp line, by whom she had two children:
  • Henry de Beauchamp (1425–1446), who succeeded his father as 14th Earl of Warwick, and later was created 1st Duke of Warwick. He married Cecille Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and had by her one daughter who died an infant:
    • Anne Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick.
  • Anne de Beauchamp, who became 16th Countess of Warwick, following the deaths of her brother and his infant daughter. Anne married Richard Neville, the Kingmaker, eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and who became jure uxoris 16th Earl of Warwick. Her husband therefore was the brother of her own brother's wife. They had two daughters who married at the highest level:
    • Isabella Neville (1451–1476), married George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1449–1478), brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III, with issue.
    • Anne Neville (1456–1485), married firstly Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, without issue, and secondly King Richard III (1483–1485), with issue.

Ancestry

Family of Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester

16. Hugh Despenser the younger               8. Edward le Despenser                       17. Eleanor de Clare               4. Edward le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer                             18. William de Ferrers, 1st Baron Groby               9. Anne Ferrers                       19. Margaret de Segrave               2. Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester                                   20. Bartholomew Burghersh, 1st Lord Burghersh               10. Bartholomew de Burghersh, 2nd Baron Burghersh                       21. Elizabeth de Verdun               5. Elizabeth de Burghersh                             22. Richard of Weyland               11. Cicely Weyland                       1. Isabel le Despenser                                         24. Edward II of England               12. Edward III of England                       25. Isabella of France               6. Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York                             26. William I, Count of Hainault               13. Philippa of Hainault                       27. Joan of Valois               3. Constance of York                                   28. Alfonso XI of Castile               14. Peter of Castile                       29. Maria of Portugal               7. Isabella of Castile                             30. Juan García de Padilla, 1st Lord of Villagera               15. María de Padilla                       31. María Fernández de Henestrosa

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