Eleanor Beauchamp, TheStepMother's Mother
Depiction of Eleanor from the Rous Rollc. 1483

"She was not beheaded by beserver Yorkist extremists."

TheStepMother's mother, Eleanor Beauchamp, Duchess of Somerset, was a fine lady. Married three times, she bore thirteen children in her fifty-eight years. Her first marriage to Thomas Ros, 8th Baron Ros, produced three children and ended when her husband, participating in the Hundred Years' War in France, fell into the Seine during a minor skirmish and drowned. Her second marriage to Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, produced ten children, including TheStepMother, their second child, and their second daughter, Joan Beaufort. Edmund Beaufort was a polarizing figure in war and politics. Henry VI assigned him to replace his chief political rival, the Duke of York, as head of all English forces in France. Edmund became notorious as the one responsible for losing all territory won there by the English, thereby ending the Hundred Years' War. He returned in relative disgrace, though the king held him in considerable esteem. Ultimately, the king could no longer protect him, and he was captured and killed by York forces in the first battle of St Albans, the opening volley in what would become The War of the Roses. This conflict would ultimately take two of TheStepMother's brothers, both killed on the same day. Eleanor's third husband, Walter Rokesley, produced no offspring. She died in Bayard's Castle in London, a known Yorkist hangout.

It would have seemed a wise move for TheStepMother to leave Old Blighty. She married my fifteenth great-grandfather, Robert St. Lawrence, the 3rd Baron Howth and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a role he surprisingly continued to fulfill even after marrying Joan. Richard III, the king at the time, was a Yorkist, and St. Lawrence was known to support the ascendent Tudor faction. Robert's son Nicholas, my fourteenth great-grandfather, was an ambiguous presence in my Fambly tree. Many sources insist that he was Joan's son, though some suggested his mother was Robert's first wife, Alice White, daughter of Nicholas White of Killester. If so, Joan Beaufort St. Lawrence would be TheStepMother. This discovery and my eventual acceptance created a crisis around creating this series.

I had made the classic genealogical error of presuming the goodness of ancient data. Joan lived from 1433 to 1518, surviving to an extravagant age for that era: eighty-six years. She and Robert apparently did produce children, though history can't seem to agree on their precise identity. Robert died only six or so years after he and Joan were married, so the possibility of them producing many children seems limited. Joan went on to marry a lord in Dorcet, Sir Richard William Fry (Frye), the reported earliest known ancestor of "the famed Fry family." The fact that Nicholas was Alice White's father's name might support the argument that he was her son, not Joan's. We're talking about mid-fifteenth-century records in Ireland, so there might not be any definitive verification. Either way, Joan is TheStepMother or the actual mother, so it connects to the history I've been touting. We inherit more than merely genetics. This represents one potentially weak link. It shouldn't surprise me if I eventually find others.

Still, I felt a deep sense of embarrassment when I discovered this possible break in the lineage, for over the creation of this history, I've grown closer than I perhaps had any right to feel toward my presumed ancestors. They now represent not just some abstraction but authentic heritage to me. I genuinely feel connections reaching out across the centuries, even though those connections amount to almost complete projection. I have not inherited Edmund Beaufort, the 2nd Duke of Somerset's lousy luck any more than his daughter's apparent good fortune. She was not beheaded by berserker Yorkist extremists. She survived to nurture my fourteenth great-grandfather, whether she was his actual birth mom or just TheStepMother.

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Fambly, #PureSchmaltz