Lionel of Antwerp ¹

  General Notes:

Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, was the second surviving son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He was so called because he was born at Antwerp, Belgium.

Betrothed when a child to Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster (d. 1363), daughter and heiress of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster (d. 1332), he was married to her in 1352, but before this date he had entered into possession of her great Irish inheritance. He was called Earl of Ulster from 1347.

Having been named as his father's representative in England in 1345 and again in 1346, Lionel joined an expedition into France in 1355, but his chief energies were reserved for the affairs of Ireland.

Appointed governor of that country, he landed at Dublin in 1361, and in November of the following year was created Duke of Clarence, while his father made an abortive attempt to secure for him the crown of Scotland. His efforts to secure an effective authority over his Irish lands were only moderately successful; and after holding a parliament at Kilkenny, which passed the celebrated Statute of Kilkenny in 1367, he dropped the task in disgust and returned to England.

Lionel's wife died in Dublin in 1363, having given birth to a daughter, Philippa, whose descendants would one day claim the throne for the House of York. A second marriage was arranged for Lionel with Yolande or Violante, daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, lord of Pavia (d. 1378); the enormous dowry which Galeazzo promised with his daughter being exaggerated by the rumour of the time. Journeying to fetch his bride, Lionel was received in great state both in France and Italy, and was married to Violante at Milan in June 1368. Some months were then spent in festivities, during which Lionel was taken ill at Alba, where he died.

His only child, Philippa Plantagenet, married in 1368 Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1351-1381). They were parents to Anne de Mortimer, grandparents to Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and great-grandparents to Edward IV and Richard III.

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was at one time a page in Lionel's household.

  Noted events in his life were:

• He was a Duke of Clarence.

Lionel married Lady Elizabeth of Ulster de Burgh on 15 Aug 1342 in Tower of London, Tower Green, London, England. (Lady Elizabeth of Ulster de Burgh was born on 6 Jul 1332 in Carrickfergus Castle, Ulster, Ireland and died on 10 Dec 1363 in Dublin, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.)

  Marriage Notes:

They were also reported to have been married on 9 September 1342.