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 another favoured property at 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 Fawley Church, Fawley, 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 of Provence, 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 October 17, 1277 and
was buried at 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
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