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Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of Arundel

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Alice of Saluzzo
Countess of Arundel
Born Saluzzo, Piedmont, Italy
Died 25 September 1292
Buried Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, England
Noble family Aleramici (by birth)
Fitzalan (by marriage)
Spouse Richard Fitzalan, 1st Earl of Arundel
Issue Edmund Fitzalan, 2nd Earl of Arundel
John Fitzalan
Alice Fitzalan
Margaret Fitzalan
Eleanor Fitzalan
Father Thomas I of Saluzzo
Mother Luigia di Ceva

Alice of Saluzzo, Countess of Arundel (died 25 September 1292)[1] also known as Alasia di Saluzzo, was a Northern-Italian noblewoman of the Frankish dynasty of the Aleramici. She became Countess of Arundel in 1289 through her marriage to Richard Fitzalan, 1st Earl of Arundel.

Family

Alice was born in Saluzzo (present-day Province of Cuneo, Piedmont); the second of fifteen children of Thomas I, 4th Margrave of Saluzzo, and Aloisia di Ceva, daughter of Guglielmo II, Marquis of Ceva.[1] Her paternal grandmother, Beatrice of Savoy, was a first cousin to Queen Eleonor of Provence (wife of Henry III), and namesake of the Queen's mother (sister of the former's father). It was in fact Queen Eleonor who in 1247 arranged the marriage of her niece Alasia of Saluzzo (Alice's paternal aunt) to Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract, successor to the Earldom of Lincoln.

Marriage and issue

Sometime before 1285 Alice arrived in England and, through the intervention of her great-aunt Queen Eleanor, married Richard Fitzalan, feudal lord of Clun and Oswestry in the Welsh Marches, the son and heir of John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel and Isabella Mortimer. Richard would succeed to the title of Earl of Arundel in 1289, thus making Alice the 8th Countess of Arundel.

Richard and Alice's principal residence was Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire, but Richard also held Arundel Castle in Sussex and the castles of Clun and Oswestry in Shropshire. Her husband was knighted by King Edward I in 1289, and fought in the Welsh Wars (1288–1294), and later in the Scottish Wars. The marriage produced:

Alice died on 25 September 1292 and was buried in Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire. Alice's husband Richard died on 9 March 1302 and was buried alongside her. In 1341, provision was made for twelve candles to be burned beside their tombs.[1] The abbey is now a ruin as the result of a fire during the English Civil War.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Cokayne, G. E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant (Ab-Adam to Basing). Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). London: The St Catherine Press. p. 241.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Back to citation occurrence 2.3 Given-Wilson 2004.

Bibliography