Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester ★

Born January 7, 1355, at Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England. He married 1376, to Eleanor de Bohun. He died September 8 or 9, 1397, in the Pale of Calais.

Birth and Early Life

Thomas of Woodstock was born on January 7, 1355, at Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, the fifth surviving son and youngest child of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, arriving after two earlier sons named Thomas had died in infancy. As the youngest son he grew up in the shadow of far more prominent brothers, especially Edward the Black Prince.

His prospects improved sharply when he married Eleanor de Bohun around 1374, elder daughter and co-heiress of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, bringing him substantial estates, Pleshey Castle in Essex, and a claim to the office of Constable of the Realm. The marriage also tied him to his brother John of Gaunt's family, since Eleanor's sister Mary married Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke.

Rise to Prominence and Early Honors

Edward III advanced his youngest son steadily through the late 1370s: knighted and created Earl of Buckingham in 1377, then Earl of Essex in right of his wife in 1380. In 1385 he was made both Duke of Aumale and Duke of Gloucester, reaching the highest rank of the English nobility, and was appointed Lord High Constable of England, placing him at the center of the realm's military authority.

The Brittany Campaign and Military Service

In 1380 Thomas led a major expedition to France in support of John IV, Duke of Brittany, ferrying some 5,200 men to Calais before marching toward the Loire, where the French — having learned from Crécy and Poitiers not to risk open battle — avoided direct engagement. He pressed on largely unopposed and laid siege to Nantes by November, but the campaign collapsed when the Duke of Brittany made peace with the new French king and dysentery devastated Thomas's army, forcing him to abandon the siege by January 1381.

Return to England and Growing Opposition to Richard II

Back in England in 1381, Thomas found that John of Gaunt had already arranged Henry Bolingbroke's marriage to Mary de Bohun, Eleanor's sister and co-heiress, straining relations between the brothers even as they cooperated to suppress the Peasants' Revolt that year. Through the mid-1380s Thomas grew increasingly alienated from his nephew Richard II's court, particularly its favored advisers Robert de Vere and Michael de la Pole, and became a natural leader for nobles opposed to the young king's governance.

Leadership of the Lords Appellant and the Merciless Parliament

In 1386 Thomas joined a commission to reform the royal household, forcing the impeachment of Michael de la Pole. When Richard moved against the reformers, Thomas and his allies defeated the king's favorite Robert de Vere at the Battle of Radcot Bridge in December 1387 and took control of London with the king effectively powerless in their hands.

As leader of the Lords Appellant — alongside Richard FitzAlan, Thomas de Mowbray, and Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick — Thomas reportedly urged Richard's outright deposition before being talked down by his colleagues. Instead the group dominated the "Merciless Parliament" of February 1388, which impeached and executed several of the king's closest supporters, including Robert de Vere — the high-water mark of Thomas's political power.

Richard's Recovery and Growing Tensions

Through the 1390s Richard II gradually rebuilt his own authority, and by 1396 he and Thomas were divided by fundamental disagreements over governance. Having learned from his earlier humiliation, Richard carefully consolidated power while outwardly maintaining peace with the magnates who had once dominated him.

Imprisonment, Murder, and Legacy

In 1397 Richard finally struck, having Thomas arrested at his own home and shipped to Calais to await trial on treason charges stemming from the events of 1388. Less than a month later, on September 8 or 9, 1397, Thomas was murdered — smothered between two feather beds, almost certainly on Richard's orders, by men led by Thomas de Mowbray and Sir Nicholas Colfox.

He was buried at Westminster Abbey, and Parliament posthumously declared him a traitor, forfeiting his estates. His son Humphrey inherited the earldom of Buckingham but died childless just two years later, ending the male line; his daughter Anne, however, married Edmund Stafford, and their son Humphrey Stafford was created Duke of Buckingham in 1444, restoring the ducal title to Thomas's descendants nearly fifty years after his murder.