Thomas, Earl of Lancaster

Thomas, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1278 – 22 March 1322) was an English nobleman. A junior member of the House of Plantagenet, he was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition to his first cousin, Edward II of England.

Thomas was the eldest son of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster and Blanche of Artois, Queen Dowager of Navarre. Crouchback was the son of King Henry III of England.

His marriage to Alice de Lacy was not successful. They had no children together, while he fathered, illegitimately, with another woman, two sons. In 1317 she was abducted from her manor at Canford, Dorset by Richard de St Martin, a knight in the service of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. This incident caused a feud between Lancaster and Surrey; Lancaster divorced his wife and seized two of Surrey's castles in retaliation. King Edward then intervened, and the two Earls came to an uneasy truce.

Although divorced from his wife, he continued to hold the powerful Earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. This was due to the marriage contract the two families had agreed; upon the death of his father-in-law, Thomas would hold these earldoms in his own right, not, as would be expected, in right of his wife.

On reaching full age he became hereditary Sheriff of Lancashire, but spent most of the next ten years fighting for Edward I in Scotland, leaving the shrievalty in the care of deputies. He was present at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298 as part of Edward I's wing of the army.

He served in the coronation of his cousin, King Edward II of England, on 25 February 1308, carrying Curtana, the sword of St Edward the Confessor. At the beginning of the King's reign, Lancaster openly supported Edward, but as the conflict between the king and the nobles wore on, Lancaster's allegiances changed. He despised the royal favourite, Piers Gaveston, who mocked him as "the Fiddler", and swore revenge when Gaveston demanded that the King dismiss one of Lancaster's retainers.