Richard of Cornwall

For the philosopher, see Richard Rufus of Cornwall.

Richard of Cornwall (5 January 1209 – 2 April 1272) was Count of Poitou (from 1225 to 1243), Earl of Cornwall (from 1227) and German King (formally "King of the Romans", from 1257).

He was born at Winchester Castle, the second son of King John of England and Isabella of Angouleme, and thus, the younger brother of King Henry III. He was made High Sheriff of Berkshire at the age of only eight, was styled Count of Poitou from 1225 and Earl of Cornwall from 1227. Richard's revenues from Cornwall provided him with great wealth, and he became one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Though he campaigned on King Henry's behalf in Poitou and Brittany, and served as Regent three times, relations were often strained between the brothers in the early years of Henry's reign. Richard rebelled against him three times, and had to be bought off with lavish gifts.

In March 1231 he married Isabel Marshal, the widow of the Earl of Gloucester, much to the displeasure of his brother King Henry, who had been arranging a more advantageous match for Richard. Richard became step-father to Isabel's six children from her first husband. In that same year he acquired his main residence, Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), and spent much money on developing it. He had other favoured properties at Marlow and Cippenham in Buckinghamshire. Isabel and Richard had four children, of whom only their son, Henry of Almain, survived to adulthood. When Isabel was on her deathbed in 1240, she asked to be buried next to her first husband at Tewkesbury, but Richard had her interred at Beaulieu Abbey instead. As a pious gesture, however, he sent her heart to Tewkesbury. Later that year Richard joined the Sixth Crusade and departed for the Holy Land. He fought in no battles but managed to negotiate for the release of prisoners and the burials of Crusaders killed at a battle in Gaza in 1239. He also refortified Ascalon, which had been demolished by Saladin. On his return from the Holy Land, Richard visited his sister Isabella, the empress of Frederick II.

Richard opposed Simon de Montfort, and rose in rebellion in 1238 to protest against the marriage of his sister, Eleanor, to Simon. Once again he was placated with rich gifts, but in 1240 when he and Montfort joined the Crusade at the same time, they made a point of not traveling together. On his return, Richard married Sanchia of Provence, the sister of his brother Henry's queen, Eleanor. This marriage tied him even more closely to the royal party.

Richard's claims to Gascony and Poitou were never more than nominal, and in 1241 King Louis IX of France invested his own brother Alphonse with Poitou. Moreover, Richard and Henry's mother, Isabella of Angouleme, claimed to have been insulted by the French king. They were encouraged to recover Poitou by their stepfather, Hugh X of Lusignan, but the expedition turned into a military fiasco after Lusignan betrayed them. The pope offered Richard the crown of Sicily, but according to Matthew Paris he responded to the extortionate price by saying, "You might as well say, 'I will sell or give you the moon; go up and take it'." Instead, his brother King Henry purchased the kingdom for his own son Edmund.

In 1257, Richard was elected by three German Electoral Princes known as the "English party" (Cologne, Mainz and the Palatinate) as King of Germany. He had bought the electors' votes for the vast sum of 28,000 marks. In May 1257, Pope Alexander IV crowned Richard "King of the Romans" at Aachen. However, like his lordships in Gascony and Poitou, his title never held more than honorary significance, and he made only four brief visits to Germany between 1257 and 1269. He founded Burnham Abbey in Buckinghamshire in 1263, and the Grashaus, Aachen in 1266.

He joined King Henry in fighting against Simon de Montfort's rebels in the Second Barons' War (1264–67). After the shattering royalist defeat at the Battle of Lewes, Richard took refuge in a windmill, was discovered, and imprisoned until September 1265.

On April 2, 1272, Richard died at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire. He was buried at Hayles Abbey, which he had founded.

Marriages

He married three times:

• On 30 March 1231, at St Mary's Church at Fawley in Buckinghamshire, to Isabel Marshal, widow of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, and daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. She died in childbed 17 January 1240.
• On 23 November 1243, at Westminster Abbey, to Sanchia, daughter of Raymond Berenger IV, Count of Provence. She died 9 November 1261.
• On 16 June 1269, at Kaiserslautern, to Beatrice of Falkenburg, daughter of Dietrich I, Count of Falconburg. There were no children. She was aged about sixteen to Richard's sixty, and was said to be one of the most beautiful women of her time. Beatrice died 17 October 1277 and was buried at the Church of the Friars Minor in Oxford.

Issue

Isabel bore him four children, all of whom died in the cradle, except Henry of Almain (1235–71), Richard's heir apparent. Henry was the victim of the famous murder at Viterbo, when he was cut down while praying in a church by his cousins, Simon the younger de Montfort and Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola. Richard had three sons by Sanchia, Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall (1249–1300) but he died childless, Richard Cornwall (1252–96) who married Joan Saint Owen (born 1260) and had issue. He, however, died at the siege of Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1296, and Richard Cornwall, infant who died within a month of his birth.

Richard had the reputation of being a womanizer. His mistress, Joan de Valletort, was certainly the mother of at least one of his children. An illegitimate son, Philip de Cornwall, was a cleric in 1248. Another illegitimate son, Walter de Cornwall, was granted lands by his half-brother Edmund, and died in 1313.

Media

Richard and his first wife, Isabel Marshall, appear as characters in Virginia Henley's historical novels, The Marriage Prize and The Dragon and the Jewel.

Sources

• Denholm-Young, Noel. Richard of Cornwall, 1947
• Tyerman, Christopher. England and the Crusades, 1095–1588
• Lewis, Frank. Beatrice of Falkenburg, the Third Wife of Richard of Cornwall, 1937