# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzalan, Richard (1267-1302)

​FITZALAN, RICHARD I, Earl of Arundel (1267–1302), was the son of John III Fitzalan, lord of Arundel, by his wife Isabella, daughter of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, and was therefore the grandson of John II Fitzalan [q. v.] He was probably born on 3 Feb. 1267 (Eyton, vii. 258, but cf. Calendarium Genealogicum, i. 347, which makes him a little older). His father died when he was five years old, and his estates were scandalously wasted by his grandmother Matilda, and her second husband, Richard de Amundeville (Eyton, iv. 122). He was himself, however, under the wardship of his grandfather, Mortimer, though several custodians, among whom was his mother (1280), successively held his castle of Arundel. In 1287 he received his first writ of summons against the rebel Rhys ap Maredudd, and was enjoined to reside on his Shropshire estates until the revolt was put down (Parl. Writs, i. 599). He is there ​described as Richard Fitzalan, but in 1292 he is called Earl of Arundel in his pleas, in answer to writs of quo warranto (Placita de quo warranto, pp. 681, 687). It is said, without much evidence, that he had been created earl in 1289 (Vincent, Discovery, p. 25), when he was knighted by Edward I. But the title was loosely and occasionally assigned to his father and grandfather also, though certainly without any formal warranty, for the doctrine of the act of 11 Henry VI, that all who possessed the castle of Arundel became earls without other title, was certainly not law in the thirteenth century (Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, but cf. Dugdale, Baronage, i. 315). In 1292 his zeal to join the army was the excuse for a humiliating submission to Bishop Gilbert of Chichester, after a quarrel about his right of hunting in Houghton forest (Tierney, pp. 203-7, from Bishop Rede's Register). In 1294 he was again spoken of as earl in his appointment to command the forces sent to relieve Bere Castle, threatened by the Welsh insurgent Madoc (Parl. Writs, i. 599). In all subsequent writs he equally enjoys that title, though his absence in Gascony prevented his being summoned to the model parliament of 1295. In 1297 he again served in Gascony. In 1298, 1299, and 1300 he held command in Scotland, and in the latter year appeared, a 'beau chevalier et bien amé' and 'richement armé,' at the siege of Carlaverock (Nicolas, Siege of Carlaverock, p. 50). His last attendance in parliament was in 1301 at Lincoln, where he was one of the signatories of the famous letter to the pope. His last military summons was to Carlisle for 24 June 1301. He died on 9 March 1302 (Doyle, i. 70).
Fitzalan married Alice or Alisona, daughter of Thomas I, marquis of Saluzzo (Muletti, Memorie Storico-diplomatiche di Saluzzo, ii. 508), an alliance which is thought to point to a lengthened sojourn in Italy in his youth. By her he left two sons, of whom the elder, Edmund Fitzalan [q. v.], succeeded him, while the younger, John, was still alive in 1375 (Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta, p. 94). Of their two daughters, one, Maud, married Philip, lord Burnell, and the other, Margaret, married William Botiler of Wem (Dugdale, i. 315).
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