Sir Edmund de Arundel
1327 – 1377
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Sir Edmund de Arundel was the eldest son of the FitzAlan Earl of Arundel, and he should have inherited an earldom. His parents' marriage was annulled, he was declared illegitimate, and the title passed instead to his half-brother. It is a reminder that in the fourteenth century legitimacy was a matter of law and litigation rather than of biology, and that it could be taken away from a man who had already been born to it.
Research notes
✓ DOCUMENTED (CP vol. X p.236 note a): SIR EDMUND DE ARUNDEL, "eldest (set-aside) son of RICHARD, [FITZALAN] EARL OF ARUNDEL" - his parents' marriage was annulled and he was declared illegitimate, the earldom passing to his half-brother. Father of Philippe (our line). The FitzAlan Earls of Arundel above him = printed peerage, note-only, extendable (with the illegitimacy honestly flagged wherever the line is told). Direct ancestor. Added 22 Jul 2026. ||27 Oct 2026 - PARENTS WIRED - RING|| ✓ CP I 'Arundel' pp.243-4: eldest son of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (c.1313-1376), by his first wife Isabel, da. of Hugh le Despenser the younger by Eleanor de Clare - marriage annulled 4 Dec 1344 and Edmund bastardised; papal mandate 31 Jul 1347 on Edmund's petition ('Earl Richard and Isabella married and begot Edmund ... Edmund being then 18 years old ... by this time 20'); m. before Jul 1349 Sibyl, da. of William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury (indult to 'Edmund d'Arundel, eldest son of the Earl of Arundel, and Sibyl his wife', Jul 1364); knighted 1352; living 1377. Both grandparents' families were already in the tree, so this closes two rings: onto Edmund 9th Earl × Alice de Warenne, and onto Hugh le Despenser × Eleanor de Clare. CONFLICT NOTED, NOT ADOPTED: CP I p.244 note (b) lists Philippe (wife of Sir Richard Sergeaux) as the Earl's daughter by Isabel, i.e. Edmund's SISTER; CP X p.236 note (a) (the source of this record) and the chronology make her Edmund's daughter - Isabel's marriage ended by 1344 while Philippe's daughter Alice was born c.1386, which needs Philippe born well after Edmund's 1349 marriage. The wiring stands as Edmund's daughter. Source: Complete Peerage 2nd ed. vol. I (1910), 'Arundel' pp.242-244 and notes (archive.org completepeerageo01coka), read 27 Oct 2026.