Biography of Henry "Almain" Cornwall 1235-1271

Paternal Family Tree: Anjou aka Plantagenet

Maternal Family Tree: Aoife ni Diarmait Macmurrough Countess Pembroke and Buckingham 1145-1188

In or before 1218 Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford (age 37) and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 17) were married. She by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford. The difference in their ages was 20 years. She the daughter of [his grandfather] William Marshal 1st Earl Pembroke (age 71) and [his grandmother] Isabel Clare Countess Pembroke (age 45). He the son of Richard Clare 3rd Earl Hertford and Amice Fitzrobert Countess Hertford. They were third cousins. He a great x 2 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.

On 30th March 1231 [his father] Richard of Cornwall 1st Earl Cornwall (age 22) and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 30) were married at Fawley, Lambourn. She by marriage Countess Cornwall. She the daughter of [his grandfather] William Marshal 1st Earl Pembroke and [his grandmother] Isabel Clare Countess Pembroke. He the son of [his grandfather] King John of England and [his grandmother] Isabella of Angoulême Queen Consort England (age 43). They were fifth cousins.

On 2nd November 1235 Henry "Almain" Cornwall was born to [his father] Richard of Cornwall 1st Earl Cornwall (age 26) and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 35). He a grandson of King John of England.

Before November 1237 [his half-brother] Richard de Clare 6th Earl Gloucester 5th Earl Hertford (age 15) and [his sister-in-law] Margaret Burgh Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 15) were married. She by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford. She the daughter of Hubert de Burgh Count Mortain 1st Earl Kent (age 67) and Margaret Dunkeld Countess Kent (age 44). He the son of Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 37). They were half third cousin once removed. He a great x 3 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a great x 3 granddaughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.

After November 1237 [his half-brother] Richard de Clare 6th Earl Gloucester 5th Earl Hertford (age 15) and [his sister-in-law] Maud Lacy Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 14) were married. She by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford. She the daughter of John Lacy Earl Lincoln (age 45) and Margaret Quincy 3rd Countess Lincoln and Pembroke (age 31). He the son of Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 37). They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 3 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.

On 17th January 1240 [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford (age 39) died.

On 23rd November 1243 [his father] Richard of Cornwall 1st Earl Cornwall (age 34) and [his step-mother] Sanchia Provence Queen Consort Germany (age 15) were married at Westminster Abbey [Map]. She by marriage Countess Cornwall. She the daughter of Raymond IV Count Provence (age 45) and Beatrice Savoy Countess Provence (age 45). He the son of [his grandfather] King John of England and [his grandmother] Isabella of Angoulême Queen Consort England (age 55). They were fourth cousins.

The History of William Marshal, Earl of Chepstow and Pembroke, Regent of England. Book 1 of 2, Lines 1-10152.

The History of William Marshal was commissioned by his son shortly after William’s death in 1219 to celebrate the Marshal’s remarkable life; it is an authentic, contemporary voice. The manuscript was discovered in 1861 by French historian Paul Meyer. Meyer published the manuscript in its original Anglo-French in 1891 in two books. This book is a line by line translation of the first of Meyer’s books; lines 1-10152. Book 1 of the History begins in 1139 and ends in 1194. It describes the events of the Anarchy, the role of William’s father John, John’s marriages, William’s childhood, his role as a hostage at the siege of Newbury, his injury and imprisonment in Poitou where he met Eleanor of Aquitaine and his life as a knight errant. It continues with the accusation against him of an improper relationship with Margaret, wife of Henry the Young King, his exile, and return, the death of Henry the Young King, the rebellion of Richard, the future King Richard I, war with France, the death of King Henry II, and the capture of King Richard, and the rebellion of John, the future King John. It ends with the release of King Richard and the death of John Marshal.

Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.

In 1255 [his former brother-in-law] Baldwin Redvers 6th Earl Devon and [his half-sister] Amice Clare Countess Devon (age 34) were married. She by marriage Countess Devon. She the daughter of Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford and [his mother] Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford. They were fourth cousins. He a great x 3 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a great x 3 granddaughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.

On 23rd March 1260 Alfonso Barcelona (age 31) and [his future wife] Constance Béarn were married. He died three days later. He the son of James I King Aragon (age 52) and Eleanor Ivrea Queen Consort Aragon.

On 14th July 1262 [his half-brother] Richard de Clare 6th Earl Gloucester 5th Earl Hertford (age 39) died. His son [his nephew] Gilbert (age 18) succeeded 7th Earl Gloucester, 6th Earl Hertford, 9th Lord Clare, 3rd Lord Glamorgan. Alice or Alix Lusignan Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 26) by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford.

Battle of Chesterfield

On 15th May 1266 Henry "Almain" Cornwall (age 30) and John Warenne 6th Earl of Surrey (age 35) fought for the King at Chesterfield, Derbyshire [Map] during the Battle of Chesterfield. Henry Hastings (age 31), John Clinton, Roger Mandeville, John Eyvil, Baldwin Wake (age 28) all fought on the rebel side. The rebel Robert Ferrers 6th Earl of Derby (age 27) was captured.

On 24th June 1268 King Edward I of England (age 29) took the cross at Northampton [Map], along with his brother Edmund "Crouchback" Plantagenet 1st Earl of Leicester 1st Earl Lancaster (age 23) and cousin Henry "Almain" Cornwall (age 32), from Papal Legate Ottobuono Fieschi (age 58).

On 5th May 1269 Henry "Almain" Cornwall (age 33) and Constance Béarn were married at Windsor Castle [Map]. He the son of Richard of Cornwall 1st Earl Cornwall (age 60) and Isabel Marshal Countess Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford.

On 16th June 1269 [his father] Richard of Cornwall 1st Earl Cornwall (age 60) and Beatrice Falkenburg Countess Cornwall were married at Kaiserslautern [Map]. She by marriage Countess Cornwall. He the son of [his grandfather] King John of England and [his grandmother] Isabella of Angoulême Queen Consort England.

In 1270 Henry "Almain" Cornwall (age 34) repudiated [his wife] Constance Béarn.

Murder of Henry of Almain

                    On 13th March 1271 Henry "Almain" Cornwall (age 35) was murdered while attending mass at the Chiesa di San Silvestro, Viterbo by his cousins Simon "Younger" Montfort and Guy Montfort Count Nola (age 27) in revenge for the deaths of their father Simon and older brother Henry at the Battle of Evesham.
                
                    The murder was carried out in the presence of the Cardinals, who were conducting a papal Election, King Philip III of France (age 25), and King Charles of Sicily (age 43). The Montfort brothers were excommunicated.
                
                    Henry "Almain" Cornwall was buried in Hailes Abbey [Map].
                
                    The deed is mentioned by Dante Alighieri some forty years after in the Divine Comedy who placed Guy de Montfort in the seventh circle of hell.

New Chronicle by Villani Chapter 39. 13th March 1271. And now we return to our chief subject — how was slain Count Henry, earl of Cornwall (age 35), brother [cousin] of King Edward, in revenge for this, as we said before. The court was greatly disturbed, giving much blame therefor to King Charles, who ought not to have suffered this if he knew thereof, and if he did not know it he ought not to have let it go unavenged. But the said Count Guy (age 27), being provided with a company of men-at-arms on horse and on foot, was not content only with having done the said murder; forasmuch as a cavalier asked him what he had done, and he replied, "J'ai fait ma vangeance," [I took my revenge] and that cavalier said, "Comment? Votre père fut trainé;" [How? Your father was dragged] and immediately he returned to the church, and took Henry by the hair, and dead as he was, he dragged him vilely without the church; and when he had done the said sacrilege and homicide, he departed from Viterbo, and came safe and sound into Maremma to the lands of Count Rosso, his father-in-law. By reason of the death of the said Henry, Edward, his brother, very wrathful and indignant against King Charles, departed from Viterbo, and came with his followers through Tuscany, and abode in Florence, and knighted many citizens, giving them horses and all knightly accoutrements very nobly, and then he came into England, and set the heart of his said brother in a golden cup upon a pillar at the head of London Bridge over the river Thames, to keep the English in mind of the outrage sustained. For the which thing, Edward, after he became king, was never friendly towards King Charles, nor to his folk. After like manner, Philip, king of France, departed with his folk, and came and dwelt many days in Florence; and when he was come into France, he buried the body of the good King Louis, his father with great honour, and had himself crowned with great solemnity at Rheims.

Divine Comedy Canto 12. Then I turned me to the Poet, and he said, "Let him now be first, and I second." A little further on the Centaur stopped above some folk who far as the throat were seen to issue from that boiling stream. He showed to us at one side a solitary shade, and said, "He cleft, in the bosom of God, the heart that still is honoured on the Thames¹." Then I saw folk, who out of the stream held their head, and even all their chest; and of these I recognized many. Thus ever more and more shallow became that blood, until it cooked only the feet: and here was our passage of the foss.

Note 1. In 1271, Prince Henry, son of [his father] Richard of Cornwall, was stabbed during the mass, in a church at Viterbo, by Guy of Montfort, to avenge the death of his father, Simon, Earl of Leicester, in 1261. The heart of the young Prince was placed in a golden cup, as Villani (vii. 39) reports, on a column, at the head of a bridge in London.

The Deeds of the Dukes of Normandy

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum [The Deeds of the Dukes of Normandy] is a landmark medieval chronicle tracing the rise and fall of the Norman dynasty from its early roots through the pivotal events surrounding the Norman Conquest of England. Originally penned in Latin by the monk William of Jumièges shortly before 1060 and later expanded at the behest of William the Conqueror, the work chronicles the deeds, politics, battles, and leadership of the Norman dukes, especially William’s own claim to the English throne. The narrative combines earlier historical sources with firsthand information and oral testimony to present an authoritative account of Normandy’s transformation from a Viking settlement into one of medieval Europe’s most powerful realms. William’s history emphasizes the legitimacy, military prowess, and governance of the Norman line, framing their expansion, including the conquest of England, as both divinely sanctioned and noble in purpose. Later chroniclers such as Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni continued the history, extending the coverage into the 12th century, providing broader context on ducal rule and its impact. Today this classic work remains a foundational source for understanding Norman identity, medieval statesmanship, and the historical forces that reshaped England and Western Europe between 800AD and 1100AD.

Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.

After 13th March 1271 Henry "Almain" Cornwall (deceased) was buried at Reading Abbey, Berkshire [Map].

                    Letters. 1279. Letter XVI. [his former wife] Constance Widow of Henry of Germany, the Nephew of Henry III to Edward I (age 39).
                
                    To the most serene prince, and, if it please him, her dearest lord, Edward, by God's grace king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, his humble and devoted Constance, relict of the late noble man Henry of Germany, wishes health, and commends herself with devoted obsequiousness and honour.
                
                    Be it known to your excellency, that for some time last past I have not dared, through fear of you to write to your highness, nor to signify anything to you, whereof of good cause I grieved, and was beyond measure distressed at heart. But now, by the leave and counsel of the Lord Bishop of Bath (age 40), and Lord Otho de Grandison (age 41), I have dared to write to you, which gives me all possible joy, supplicating your royal majesty that you will deign diligently to search out and inquire the truth from the said lord bishop and Sir Otho concerning my estate, and about all things which have hitherto been done and at tempted about me; for they, if they choose, can for the most part certify you as to the premises. Yet I much desire, and long above all things, that I could speak face to face with your highness about my estate and other things concerning me. Wherefore I pray your lordship, as affectionately and humbly as I can, by that dear love which by your favour you were wont to bear me, and still bear as I hope, that if it would please you that I might come to your highness, you will command my [his former father-in-law] lord and father (age 54), when he shall be in England, to send for me by his letters. And I believe he will do it willingly, if you will command or advise it. Please it your highness to give credence to our dear and trusty clerk, Master William R., of Miremont, the present bearer, in reference to the premises and all other things which he will say to you on our behalf. May the Most High long preserve your person and dominions, and give you increase of favour and honour!