His widow was granted his goods and chattels, valued at £200, besides silver, 11 Feb., and lands worth 1,000 marks a year for her maintenance, for life, 19 Feb. 1 399/1400.[1] In the Parl. of 5 Hen. IV, she was, on her petition, given leave to sue for her dower, notwithstanding her late husband's forfeiture.[1] On 17 Feb. 1404/5 she appeared before the Council on a charge of being concerned in the abduction of the young Mortimers from Windsor Castle, when she incriminated her brother, the Duke of York.[2] She was sent to Kenilworth Castle, and her property was seized:[2] her goods were restored 19 Jan. 1405/6, and her manors 18 June following.[3] About this time she had, or may be supposed to have had, a liaison with Edmund, Earl of Kent.[4] She d. 28 Nov. 1416,[5] and was bur. in 1420 in the Abbey of Reading.[6]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Patent Rolls, 1 Hen. IV, p. 6, m. 37; p. 5, m. 4: Parl. Rolls, vol. iii, p. 533.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Annales Henrici VI, p. 398: Walsingham, Hist., vol. ii, p. 268: Issue Roll, no. 581, m. 12.
- ↑ Patent Rolls, 7 Hen. IV, p. 1, m. 25, p. 2, m. 21.
- ↑ In a petition to Parl., by Margaret, Duchess of Clarence, Joan, Duchess of York, and others, 9 Hen. VI, it was stated that Alianore, wife of James, Lord Audeley, pretended to be da. and h. of Edmund, late Earl of Kent, "and begetyn and born in espousels pretentyd had betwix hym and Custance of late wyf to Thomas Lord Spencer," but the said Alianore is a bastard, "and nevere eny espousels wer hadde," but Edmund openly wedded Luce, sister of the Duke of Milan, at London, "lyvyng and thanne and there present the saide Custance, not claymyng the saide Edmond unto her husbond," and that the said Luce outlived the said Edmund, and had dower of his lands as his lawful wife. (Parl. Rolls, vol. iv, p. 375). Alianore is called Alianore Holond damsel, in the papal mandate to the Bishop of Lichfield, dated xvi kal. Mar. 13 Martin V [14 Feb. 1429/30] to grant a dispensation to James Touchet, Lord of Audeley kt., and the said Alianore, to contract, renew, and remain in the marriage which they had contracted per verba legitime de presenti but had not consummated, they not being in ignorance that they were related in the 3rd-3rd degrees of affinity. (Papal Letters, vol. viii, p. 175). This disposes of the statement in the Chronicle of Tewkesbury that she was a legitimate da. of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, by Constance abovenamed, a statement which is indeed, as far as the legitimacy is concerned, impossible.
- ↑ "Constancia que fuit uxor Thome nuper domini le Despenser defuncti que quasdam terras et quedam tenementa … tenuit in dotem et alias … de hereditate Isabelle uxoris Ricardi de Beauchamp' de Bergevenny chivaler." Writs of diem el. ext. 28 Nov. 4 Hen. V. Inq., cos. Oxon, Bucks, Gloucester, Devon, Cornwall, York, Lincoln, Wilts, Rutland, Notts, and city of London, 7, 10, 12, 16 Dec., Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, before St. Thomas the Apostle [16, 17, 19 Dec.] 1416, Tuesday after Epiphany, Saturday before, and Friday after, the Purification [12, 30 Jan., 5 Feb.], and 1 Feb. 1416/7. "… eadem Constancia obiit die Sabbati proximo ante festum sancti Andree Apostoli ultimo preteritum." (Ch. Inq. p. m., Hen. V, file 22, no. 52: Exch. Inq. p. m., I, file 106, no. 3).
- ↑ "Obiit domina Constancia … anno domini 1417 [sic] et sepulta est apud monasterium de Reding anno domini 1420." (Chron. of Tewkesbury, f. 228v).
murdred, with grete cruelte and horrible violence in an outerageous hedy fury, the right noble and worthy lordes John Montague late Erle of Salesbury and Thomas late Lorde le Despencer." (Parl. Rolls, vol. iii, p. 459, vol. v, p. 484).
