Isabel de Verdun

Isabel de Verdun, Baroness Ferrers of Groby (21 March 1317 – 25 July 1349) was an heiress, who was related to the English royal family as the eldest daughter of Elizabeth de Clare, herself a granddaughter of King Edward I of England. When she was a child, Isabel was imprisoned in Barking Abbey, along with her mother and half-sister, after her stepfather had joined the Earl of Lancaster's ill-fated rebellion against King Edward II. Her husband was Henry de Ferrers, 2nd Lord Ferrers of Groby.

Isabel was born at Amesbury Priory, Wiltshire, on 21 March 1317, the only child of the marriage of Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Lord Verdun, Justiciar of Ireland (born 8 September 1278) and Lady Elizabeth de Clare. She was born eight months after her father died of typhoid on 27 July 1316. He and Elizabeth had been engaged before she was called back to England by Edward II, intent on marrying her to one of his own supporters. So Theobald abducted Elizabeth from Bristol Castle in early 1316, and married her shortly afterwards on 4 February. Elizabeth was his second wife, his first wife having been Maud Mortimer (c.1289- 18 September 1312). Isabel had three half-sisters from her father's prior marriage, Joan de Verdun, Elizabeth de Verdun, and Margery de Verdun.

Isabel, along with her three de Verdon half-sisters, was a co-heiress of her father. She is occasionally referred to as Heiress of Ludlow.

Theobald was Elizabeth's second husband, her first husband John de Burgh had died in a minor skirmish in Galway, Ireland on 18 June 1313. She had a son by de Burgh, William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster (17 September 1312- 6 June 1333), who was Isabel's uterine half-brother. William would later marry Maud of Lancaster, by whom he had a daughter Elizabeth de Burgh, suo jure 4th Countess of Ulster (6 July 1332- 10 December 1363). Following the death of her brother Gilbert at Bannockburn in 1314, Elizabeth, along with her two sisters, Margaret and Eleanor, became one of the greatest heiresses in England. Her uncle, King Edward II of England, ordered her to return to England, where he planned to select a husband for her from among his supporters. She was placed in Bristol Castle where Verdun would afterwards abduct her, to the fury of King Edward.