Alice Chaucer

Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk (1404–1475) was a granddaughter of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Married three times, she eventually became a Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

Alice was born Alice Chaucer, daughter to Thomas Chaucer and Matilda Burghersh. Her grandfather was the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, writer of The Canterbury Tales. When she was 11 she married Sir John Philip. The couple lived briefly at Donnington Castle, but Sir John died within a year. Sir John, also entitled Lord Dennington, had married Maud, the widow of Walter Cookesey of Caldwall Castle, Kidderminster in the County of Worcestershire. Sir John lived at Caldwall Castle during his marriage to Maud and upon her death married Alice Chaucer. Sir John, a close personal friend of Henry V, died of dysentery after the successful 22 September 1415 capture of the fortress of Harfleur in Normandy. Sir John is buried at St. Mary's Church in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

Later, after 1421, Alice married Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury (who died in 1428). Finally, in 1430, she married William de la Pole, Earl and later Duke of Suffolk, by whom she had a son John in 1442 (who became 2nd Duke of Suffolk in 1463).

William became constable of Wallingford Castle in 1434. Alice was a lady-in-waiting to Margaret of Anjou in 1445, and a patron of the arts. William was steward of the household to Henry VI, and from 1447 to 1450 was the dominant force in the council and chief minister to the king; as such he was particularly associated with the unpopular royal policies whose failures culminated in the anti-court protest and political violence of Cade's Revolt in 1450.

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