Richard of Cornwall

Richard of Cornwall (Winchester Castle, January 5, 1209-Berkhamstead Castle, April 2, 1272) was the second son of King John I of England. He was Count of Cornwall (from 1225), of Poitou (between 1225 and 1243) and King of Romans (from 1257). Being one of the richest men in Europe, he joined the barons' crusade, where he achieved success as negotiator in the release of the hostages and helped with the construction of the citadel at Ascalon.

Biography

Early years

Richard was born on January 5, 1209 at Winchester Castle, the second son of King John I of England and his wife, Elizabeth of Angoulême. He was appointed High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1217 at the age of eight, titled Earl of Poitou from 1225 and in the same year, at the age of sixteen, his brother King Henry III gave him Cornwall as a birthday gift, naming him High Sheriff of Cornwall. The income received from Cornwall provided him with great wealth, making him one of the richest men in Europe. Although he led campaigns for King Henry in Poitou and Brittany, and served as regent three times, relations between the two brothers were often strained in the early years of Henry's reign. Richard had even rebelled against him three times, having to be bought with lavish gifts.

Marriage with Isabel Marshal (1231-1240)

On March 13, 1231 he married Isabel Marshal, the wealthy widow of Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford (1180-1230). The marriage was not to the liking of his brother Henry, as he feared the family. Marshal by being rich, influential and generally opposed to him. That same year he acquired what would become his habitual residence, Wallingford Castle, in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), spending a lot of money on its renovation. Besides this, he had other favorite residences at Marlow and Cippenham, in Buckinghamshire. As a result of the marriage between Isabel and Richard, four children were born, of which only one, Henry of Almain, survived to adulthood.

Opposing Simon de Montfort, he led a rebellion in 1238 to protest the marriage between him and his sister Eleanor. However, he gave up when he was again appeased with rich gifts and gifts. When his wife Elizabeth was on her deathbed in 1240, she asked to be buried alongside her first husband, at Tewkesbury Abbey. However, Richard buried her in Beaulieu Abbey, although in a pious gesture he sent her heart to Tewkesbury.

The crusade of the barons and marriage with Sancha (1240-1243)

Shortly later, that same year, Richard left for the Holy Land. Although he did not participate in battles, he was important in the negotiations for the release of prisoners and in the burials of crusaders killed in battle in Gaza in 1239. He also refortified Ascalon, which had been destroyed by Saladin. Upon his return from the Holy Land, Richard visited his sister Elizabeth, consort of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen.

After the birth of his nephew, Prince Edward in 1239, government functions were divided in the event of the king's death, excluding Richard in favor of Queen Eleanor and her relatives from the House of Savoy. To avoid a conflict between Richard and his brother Henry III, a marriage was arranged between Richard and Sancha de Provenza, Eleanor's sister, ^{[citation needed]} whom he had known during his trip to the Holy Land, in Provence where he had been received by her father, Ramón Berenguer IV and had fallen in love with her. The marriage took place in Westminster, in November 1243.

This marriage allowed him to interact with other royal houses since Sancha's younger sister, Beatriz, would marry Charles I of Naples, while Margaret, her older sister, had married Charles's brother, Louis IX of France. The marriages of the kings of France and England and their two brothers with the four sisters of Provence helped improve the relationship between both countries, which led them to sign the Treaty of Paris.

Poitou and Sicily

Modern and contemporary representation of Ricardo's weapons. Them golden circles represent peas, known in France as pois. This was a word game alluding to your Poitou Count title.

Richard's claims to Gascony and Poitou - of which he was nominally count but under French rule since 1204 - were never echoed and even in 1241 King Louis IX of France invested his own brother Alfonso as count of Poitou or Poiters. However, when Isabella of Angoulême, mother of King Henry and Richard, claimed that he had been insulted by the French queen he began a military expedition encouraged by his stepfather, Hugh X of Lusignan. However, the expedition failed after the betrayal of Hugo X.

Later, the pope offered Richard the crown of Sicily, but according to the chronicler Matthew of Paris, faced with the exorbitant price, he rejected it saying: "It is the same as saying: I give you the moon as a gift, go up to heaven and bring it back." downwards." On the other hand, his brother Enrique did accept the pope's proposal, buying the kingdom for his own son, Edmund.

King of the Romans

Richard was elected in 1256 as king of the Romans by four of the seven electoral princes (Cologne, Mainz, the Palatinate and Bohemia), rivaling Alfonso X of Castile, who had been elected by Saxony, Brandenburg and Trier. The pope and Louis IX of France supported Alfonso, but both ultimately changed their minds under pressure from the powerful relatives of Eleanor of Provence, Richard's sister-in-law. On the other hand, Otakar II initially voted for Richard, but soon afterwards supported Alfonso and finally agreed to support the Earl of Cornwall, thus achieving the required simple majority. In this way, he was crowned on May 27, 1257 by the archbishop of Cologne in Aachen as king of the Romans. However, like his sovereignty in Gascony and Poitou, he never had a powerful power. effective over his domains, making only four brief visits to Germany between 1257 and 1269.

Last years and death

He supported his brother Henry during Simon de Montfort's rebellion in the Second Barons' War (1264-1267). He was taken prisoner after the Battle of Lewes (1264) along with his brother and his nephew, Prince Edward, remaining imprisoned until September 1265.

In December 1271 he suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side and he lost the ability to speak. Shortly afterwards, on 2 April 1272, Richard died at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire. He was buried at Hailes Abbey alongside his second wife Sancha of Provence and Henry, his son by his first wife.

After his death, a power struggle ensued in Germany that only ended in 1273 with the appearance of a new king of the Romans, Rudolf, the first Habsburg to occupy the imperial throne. In Cornwall he was succeeded by his son Edmund as earl.

Marriages and offspring

He married in the town of Fawley, Buckinghamshire, on 30 March 1231, Elizabeth Marshal, daughter of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. As a result of the marriage, four children were born:

• Juan (Marlow, Buckinghamshire, January 30, 1232) Ib.22 September 1232). He died in childhood, is buried in Reading Abbey.
• Isabel (Marlow, Buckinghamshire, September 9, 1233 - Ib.6 October 1234). He died in childhood, is buried in the Abbey of Reading.
• Enrique (Haughley Castle, November 2, 1235 - Viterbo, March 13, 1271). Murdered by his cousins Guido and Simon of Monfort, he was buried in the Abbey of Hailes. Married with Constance de Bearne, he died without a descendant.
• Nicolas (Berkhamstead Castle, January 17, 1240). Dead shortly after birth, he was buried in Beaulieu Abbey.

Elizabeth died on January 17, 1240, during the birth of her last child, and was buried in Beaulieu Abbey next to him.

After being widowed, Richard remarried in Westminster Abbey on November 23, 1243 with Sancha of Provenza, daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV of Provence. Sancha was also the sister-in-law of Richard's brother, King Henry III of England. Two children were born from the marriage:

• No name (Wallingford Castle, July 1246 - Ib. 15 August 1246).
• Edmundo (Berkhamsted Castle, January 1, 1250 - Ashbridge Abbey, September 25, 1300). It happened to her father and married Margarita de Clare, daughter of Ricardo de Clare, Duke of Gloucester. Without descent, the marriage was annulled in February 1294.

Widowed again after Sancha's death on November 9, 1261, he married for the third and last time in the German city of Kaiserslautern, on June 16, 1269, to Beatrice of Falkenburg. However, this marriage had no offspring, Beatrice survived her husband and died on October 7, 1277.

Illegitimate offspring

Ricardo had a lover named Juana, whose origins are unknown, but it is known that she was first married to Ralph de Valletort, feudal baron of Harberton (Devon) and Trematon (Cornwall); and later with Sir Alexander Okeston of Modbury (Devon). They had five children:

• Felipe He was a priest.
• Ricardo de Cornualles. He married Juana, daughter of Juan FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, with whom he had three sons and one daughter. Of the latter, named Juana, and of her husband John Howard, of the Howard family, the Dukes of Norfolk descend.
• Walter.with offspring.
• Isabel.
• Juana (legally) Juana Okestonby his mother's husband.

Titles