Fitzalan, Joan (d. 1419)
Fitzalan, Joan (d. 1419)
Countess of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton. Name variations: Joan Bohun. Born before 1351; died on April 7, 1419; buried in Walden Abbey, Essex, England; daughter of Richard Fitzalan (c. 1313–1376), 8th earl of Arundel, and Eleanor Plantagenet (c. 1318–1372); sister of Alice Fitzalan (1352–1416); married Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton; children: Eleanor Bohun (1366–1399); Mary de Bohun (1369–1394, first wife of Henry IV, king of England).
Joan Fitzalan's daughter Mary de Bohun married Henry IV, a few years before he became king of England. In the beginning of Henry's reign, there was a plot to restore Richard II to the throne. One of its ringleaders was John Holland, Richard II's half-brother, who was captured and fell into Joan Fitzalan's hands. Joan was very loyal to Henry, despite the fact that her daughter, the queen, had already died in childbirth in 1394. Joan had Holland beheaded on February 9, 1400, without trial.