Blanche of England
Princess Blanche of England (* spring 1392 Peterborough Castle, † May 22, 1409, Haguenau, Alsace ) was by marriage Countess Palatine in the Palatinate. She died before her husband Ludwig III. (Pfalz ) in 1410 as Elector came to the government.
Life
She was the daughter of the English King Henry IV, of the house of Plantagenet of Lancaster, and his wife Countess Mary de Bohun. Her birth place was also called mountain Thodor, next to the later Peterborough Cathedral, built by William the Conqueror, later destroyed by Abbot Martin de Bec the castle in Peterborough.
A marriage between the eldest daughter of Henry IV, Blanca ( also Blanche ), and the eldest son of the newly elected German King Ruprecht, Louis III. should the two new and somewhat controversial royal houses consolidate ( Palatine- British relationship). Henry IV was the deposed King Richard II ( 1399 ) followed, King Ruprecht I. ( = same elector Rupprecht III. Palatine ) had actively pursued the deposition of King Wenceslas ( 1400).
The marriage contract was completed after fixing a dowry of 40,000 Nobel and other agreements brokered by the city of Cologne on March 7, 1401 in London. As dowry brought, inter alia, the bride also the so-called " Bohemian crown " or " Palatine Crown", in the wittelsbacher family, which today is located at Munich, in the Treasury of the Residenz Museum. It is the oldest surviving English crown and was probably the Bridal Crown of Queen Anne of England. The dowry negotiations were conducted by the Mainz Cathedral Provost Gottfried von Leiningen as a royal envoy to England.
The marriage between the princess and the 26- year-old -year-old prince was held in the cathedral at Cologne on 6 July 1402. Despite the political marriage, the marriage should have been happy. Four years later gave birth to a son Blanca fourteen years old, Ruprecht of the English ( 1406-1426 ).
In 1409 the newly pregnant Pfalzgräfin Blanca died of fever to Haguenau / Alsace. In a festive train was transferred to the body to Neustadt and put it in at the Abbey Church. Her husband told his father-in- one from there dated on June 4, 1409 letter that Blanca was attacked in May during a joint visit with him in Haguenau, of intermittent fever, which was all the more alarming when she was six months pregnant. After the attack had subsided and you have hoped for a full recovery of the sick, a permanent fever had occurred, which took his delicate young woman so strong that it was expected every day with her death. It is presented a numerous blackouts and nosebleeds, the latter, although the doctors with the help of God would be able to breastfeed; you gave the Princess but still the last rites. So " is at the most unfortunate May 22 at dawn, my wife of this evil world into a better received ," as Ludwig III. formulated independently. On the following day took place in Neustadt 's funeral, attended by King Ruprecht brothers had attended with his wife and Louis.
Elector Ludwig III. was only an eight year after the death Blancas with Matilda of Savoy, daughter of Prince Amadeus of Savoy, a new marriage, which sprang six children.
Blancas burial place to this day in the Catholic choir of the church ( Neustadt on the Wine Road ), just north of that of the Elector Ruprecht I (Pfalz ) and his wife Beatrice of mountain. The two juxtaposed electoral graves are made by bronze inscriptions in the modern floor of the center aisle visible from the Countess Palatine Blanca only by a little, turned hauenes cross because pews stand on. The original cover, with Gothic Majuskelinschrift, but without image representation, is currently (2010 ) on a wall in the north choir chapel. When removing or securing lines installed in the church floor original grave slabs in December 1906, the three brick tombs were found intact, but filled with rubble and groundwater. For reasons of piety they were " not investigated further, but covered again," as it is called in the former report to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior (LA Speyer, H3, 8370, page 71).
Is a representation of the " Last Judgment " from the time around 1420, with kneeling before Christ large figures of Elector Ludwig III. , His parents and his first wife, Blanche of England on the choir ceiling of the Wittelsbach founded as Memoria of the house collegiate church at Neustadt. It is believed that Ludwig III. finished the magnificent painting made to decorate the burial site of his very first woman mourned by him. The complete " Last Judgment " had been repainted in the iconoclastic Reformation and in 1885 re-exposed.
Blancas father, the English King Henry IV, is the main character of William Shakespeare's two-part drama " Henry IV "; with the life of her brother, Henry V is concerned its dramatic work " Henry V. "
Another brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, English Regent was of northern France. He left the St. Joan of Arc and condemn to death in 1431.
Blancas sister Philippa of England (1394-1430) was by marriage Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They often stayed at the grave of St. Bridget of Sweden, in the Vadstena monastery, became a benefactress of the Convention and is also buried there.
Blessed Ferdinand of Avis and his brother, Henry the Navigator, were cousins of Pfalzgräfin Blanca.
Progeny
- Ruprecht of the English, * 22 May 1406; † 20 May 1426, burial: Holy Spirit Church (Heidelberg )