Richard Fitzalan - 10th Earl of Arundel

  General Notes:

FitzAlan was the eldest son of Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel (8th Earl of Arundel per Ancestral Roots), and Alice de Warenne. His maternal grandparents were William de Warenne and Joan de Vere. William was the only son of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey.

Around 1321, FitzAlan's father allied with King Edward II's favorites, Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester and his namesake son, and Richard was married to Isabel le Despenser, daughter of Hugh the Younger. Fortune turned against the Despenser party, and on 17 November 1326, FitzAlan's father was executed, and he did not succeed to his father's estates or titles.

However, political conditions had changed by 1330, and over the next few years Richard was gradually able to reacquire the Earldom of Arundel as well as the great estates his father had held in Sussex and in the Welsh Marches.

Beyond this, in 1334 he was made Justiciar of North Wales (later his term in this office was made for life), Sheriff for life of Caernarvonshire, and Governor of Caernarfon Castle. He was one of the most trusted supporters of Edward the Black Prince in Wales.

Despite his high offices in Wales, in the following decades Arundel spent much of his time fighting in Scotland (during the Second Wars of Scottish Independence) and France (during the Hundred Years' War). In 1337, Arundel was made Joint Commander of the English army in the north, and the next year he was made the sole Commander.

In 1340 he fought at the Battle of Sluys, and then at the siege of Tournai. After a short term as Warden of the Scottish Marches, he returned to the continent, where he fought in a number of campaigns, and was appointed Joint Lieutenant of Aquitaine in 1340.

Arundel was one of the three principal English commanders at the Battle of Crécy. He spent much of the following years on various military campaigns and diplomatic missions.

In 1347 he succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey (or Warenne), which even further increased his great wealth. (He did not however use the additional title until after the death of the Dowager Countess of Surrey in 1361.) He made very large loans to King Edward III but even so on his death left behind a great sum in hard cash.

Richard married Eleanor Plantagenet on 5 Feb 1344 in Ditton Church, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. (Eleanor Plantagenet was born on 11 Sep 1318 and died on 11 Jan 1372.)