Froissart on John de Sotheray

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Leo van de Pas

Froissart on John de Sotheray

Legg inn av Leo van de Pas » 01 okt 2007 23:27:50

Will Johnson has not been able to find the reference in Froissart that Douglas Richardson referred to at second hand from Given-Wilson.

This is misleading anyway, selecting only a part of the account. Froissart referred to the person eight times, twice calling him a bastard brother of the king (in the summer of 1382, i.e. Richard II - "messires Jehans Soudrée, frère dou roy d'Engletière, bastart" and "un chevalier bastart, frère au roy d'Engletière, qui s'appelloit messires Jehans Soustrée"), once describing him as a bastard brother of Richard II's maternal half-brother John Holand (later duke of Exeter - "messire Jehan Soustrée, frère bastart à messire Jehan de Hollandes") and once in a reported speech of John Holand (calling him "Beau-frère Soustrée", that might mean brother-in-law or, as evidently here, a polite way to address a bastard half-brother).

Plainly Froissart thought that John de Sotheray was either a son of Richard II's and John Holand's mother Joan, countess of Kent, the only way he could be called bastard brother to both men, or else possibly that he was a son of the Black Prince and had married a sister of John Holand. The latter seems impossible, as although John de Sotheray's wife was named Matilda and John Holand had a sister of this name, by 1382 Matilda Holand was no longer the widow of Hugh de Courtenay and had been remarried to Valeran of Luxemburg, count of Saint-Pol.

Either way there is no sustainable argument that Froissart merely called John "frère au roy d'Engletière" in a passing slip when he correctly meant "oncle au roy d'Engletière".

There is no definite evidence that John de Sotheray was a son of Edward III, or indeed no direct statement that he was a son of Alice Perrers, who was merely called his "friend" when she could just as well have been called his mother, if so, with no disrespect to anyone.

Froissart's apparent idea that he was the son of Joan "the fair maid" of Kent is implausible, as no such allegation was made in the process of deposing her son Richard II when her infidelity was vaguely alleged (she was supposed to have had a son by a cleric, but this was probably just slander and no details were ever put forward as far as I know, certainly none involving a known individual).

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