A Note Clarifying the Date of the Last Will and Testament of Richard FitzAlan, earl of Arundel (d. 1397)

Abstract

In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for the Appellant lord, Richard FitzAlan (1346–1397), fourth earl of Arundel and ninth earl of Surrey, the biographer asserts that the earl’s will, later proved at the court of his brother, Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, was dated 4 March 1393 (emphasis mine).1 There is, however, some contention around this date due to what is likely a scribal error in the still-unedited and -unpublished register of Archbishop Arundel: early in the will, the scribe has either misidentified the regnal year or has miscopied the calendar date. The text opens: En noun de piere du fitz et de seint espririt Amen. Jeo Richard counte darundell et de Surrey le quart jour de Mars, lan del incarnation nostre seignour ihu crist mill ccc quatre vintz et douze, et lan du regne le Roy Richard seconde seszime en moun chastel philipp en bone et seine memorie face mon testament (In the name of [the] Father, [the] Son, and [the] Holy Spirit, Amen. I, Richard, earl of Arundel and of Surrey, [on] the fourth day of March, the year of the incarnation of our Saviour Jesus Christ [one] thousand three hundred ninety-two, and the sixteenth year of the reign of the king Richard II, at my castle Philipp, in good and healthy mind, make my testament).2