Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche

Thomas Beaufort
Count of Perche
Noble family	House of Beaufort
Father	John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset
Mother	Margaret Holland
Born	1405
Died	2 October 1431 (aged 26) Louviers, France

Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche (c. 1405 – 3 October 1431) was a member of the Beaufort family and an English commander during the Hundred Years' War.

He was the third son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and his wife, Margaret Holland.

With his elder brother, Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset, Thomas joined in Henry V's 1419 campaigns in France. In 1421, he accompanied the king's younger brother Thomas of Lancaster to the fighting in Anjou. Lancaster was killed at the Battle of Baugé while Somerset and Thomas were captured. Thomas was eventually released around 1427 in a prisoner exchange negotiated by his uncle, Cardinal Beaufort.

As an able male member of the Beaufort family, Thomas rejoined the fighting almost immediately. He was granted the title Count of Perche in December 1427, his title being more a claim to land, rather than a recognized title since it was already held by the French Duke John II of Alençon. This was part of a continuing attempt by Cardinal Beaufort to carve out estates for his nephews from conquered French land. During the 1430 royal coronation expedition of Henry VI, Thomas was granted a retinue of 128 soldiers and 460 archers. He commanded soldiers at a battle at La Charité-sur-Loire in late 1430 and died 3 October 1431 at the siege of Louviers, three weeks before the city's fall.^[1]

Perche died unmarried and childless. Upon his death, his title was extinct.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche

16. Edward II of England[2]               8. Edward III of England[3]                       17. Isabella of France[2]               4. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster[4]                             18. William I, Count of Hainaut[5]               9. Philippa of Hainault[5]                       19. Joan of Valois[5]               2. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset[4]                                   10. Payne de Roet[6]                       5. Katherine Swynford[7]                             1. Thomas Beaufort, Count of Perche                                         24. Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand[8]               12. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent[9]                       25. Maud la Zouche[8]               6. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent[4]                             26. Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent[10]               13. Joan of Kent[9]                       27. Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell[10]               3. Margaret Holland[4]                                   28. Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel[11]               14. Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel[9]                       29. Alice de Warenne[11]               7. Alice Fitzalan[12]                             30. Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster[13]               15. Eleanor of Lancaster[13]                       31. Maud Chaworth[13]

Notes

1. Harriss, G.L. Cardinal Beaufort: A Study of Lancastrian Ascendancy and Decline. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988.
2. Weir 2008, p. 92.
3. Weir 2008, p. 232.
4. Brown 2004.
5. Weir 2008, p. 93.
6. Weir 2007, p. 6.
7. Marshall 2003, p. 50.
8. Browning 1898, p. 288.
9. Weir 2008, p. 125.
10. Weir 2008, pp. 94–95.
11. Weir 2008, pp. 97, 104.
12. Weir 2008, pp. 94, 125.
13. Weir 2008, p. 77.

References

• Brown, M.H. (2004). "Joan [Joan Beaufort] (d. 1445)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14646. Retrieved 21 November 2013. (subscription required)
• Browning, Charles H. (1898). The Magna Carta Barons and Their American Descendants. London: Genealogical Publishing Company.
• Marshall, Rosalind (2003). Scottish Queens, 1034-1714. Tuckwell Press.
• Weir, Alison (2008). Britain's Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5.
• Weir, Alison (2007). Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-45323-5.