Eleanor was a daughter and co-heir of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl
of Hereford, Essex and Northampton (1342-73) and his wife Joan,
daughter of Richard (Fitzalan), Earl of Arundel. She was aged 7
at her father's death and she and her younger sister Mary
inherited his large estates. In 1385 Eleanor married Thomas (of
Woodstock), Duke of Gloucester (1355-97), youngest son of Edward
III. Thomas was accused of conspiring against Richard II and was
arrested, taken to Calais and murdered by being smothered in a
feather bed. He was brought back to the Abbey and buried in St
Edmund's chapel but was later moved to the chapel of St Edward
the Confessor by order of Henry IV (his brass no longer
survives). Their only son Humphrey, Earl of Buckingham, died in
1399 and Eleanor is said to have died of grief soon after. They
had four daughters: Anne married firstly the Earl of Stafford and
secondly Sir William Bourchier, Joan died unmarried in 1400,
Isabel entered a nunnery and Philippa died young. Eleanor's
sister Mary (d.1394) married Henry of Lancaster, the future Henry
IV.
Eleanor was buried in the chapel of St Edmund and a fine brass
to her memory remains on top of a low free-standing marble altar
tomb. It shows her standing beneath an elaborate triple canopy
wearing a widow's veil, her head resting on two embroidered
cushions. Above her head is the Bohun emblem of a swan. The
inscription around the rim is in French and can be
translated:
Here lies Eleanor de Bohun, daughter and co-heir of the
honourable knight Sir Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, Essex
and Northampton, and Constable of England, wife of the mighty and
noble prince Thomas of Woodstock, son of the excellent and mighty
prince Edward, King of England, the Third since the Conquest,
Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Essex and Buckingham, and Constable
of England, who died 3 October in the year of grace 1399.
Five out of six of the coats of arms still remain, including
(mid left) the arms of Bohun (a bend cotised between six lions
rampant).
The illustration is from an engraving of her brass. The
rubbing of Abbey brasses is not permitted.