CONSTANCE PLANTAGENET, LADY LE, COUNTESS OF GLOUCESTER.

Only daughter of Edmund Duke of York and his wife Isabel of Castilla;
most likely born at Langley, in or about 1374. On the 16th of April,
1378, the marriage of Edward, son and heir of Edward late Lord Le
Despenser, was granted to her father for her benefit. (_Rot. Pat_. 1
R. II, Part 5.) But the infant bridegroom was dead on the 30th of May
following, and his brother Thomas was evidently substituted in his
stead. (_Rot. Pat_. 1 R. II, Part 6.) Thomas and Constance were
married before the 7th of November, 1379, as on that day her uncle, John
of Gaunt, paid 22 pounds 0 shillings 4 pence for his wedding present to
the bride, a silver-gilt cup and ewer on a stand, and he speaks of the
marriage as then past (_Register of John Duke of Lancaster_, ii, folio
19, _b_.) Constance remained in England during the absence of her
parents in Portugal, 1381-2. Eighty marks per annum were granted to her
from the Despenser lands, January 14th, 1384. When she took up her
residence at Cardiff with her husband is uncertain; but there is every
probability that it was not till after the death of her mother, in
February, 1393, and very likely not till after her father's second
marriage, about the following October. The approximate date may be
given as 1394-5. Two pardons are recorded of persons accused of murder,
June 22nd, 1395, and April 27th, 1396, "at the request of our beloved
kinswoman the Countess of Gloucester." There was no Countess of
Gloucester at the time, for Constance had not yet attained that title.
The words _may_ be slips of the scribe's pen for the Duchess of
Gloucester. It was not until September 29th, 1397, that Thomas Le
Despenser was created Earl of Gloucester. There is no evidence to show
the presence of Constance in London during the stormy period of her
cousin Henry's usurpation; she seems to have remained at Cardiff. On
the 22nd of February, 1400, about six weeks after her husband's murder,
a grant of 60 pounds per annum was made to the King's son, John Duke of
Bedford, out of the issues of her lands (_Rot Pat._ 1 H. IV, Part 8);
but on the 3rd of March, the custody of her son Richard was granted to
her, and 30 pounds worth of gold and silver of her late husband's goods
in the hands of the Mayor of Bristol. (_Ibidem_, Part 6.) Moreover, on
the 19th of February, a concession was made to her of eleven manors, two
towns, two castles, two lordshi