General Notes

Sir William de Bohun, KG, born c1312, died Sep 1360, fought at Crecy, Earl of Northampton 16 Mar 1336/7; married 1335/8 Elizabeth Badlesmere. [Magna Charta Sureties]

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In 1357 Edward III conferred the Earldom of Northampton on his cousin and leading adviser William de Bohun, youngest son by a daughter of Edward I of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hertford and Essex.  The new Earl was occupied in fighting the Scots in the north of England, of which he became Constable in 1338, and the French in the opening stages of the Hundred Years War.  William's son Humphrey succeeded him but died without male issue in Jan 1372/3, when the Earldom expired.  [Burke's Peerage, Northampton, Earldom & Marquessate, p. 2108]

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William, a personage of great eminence in the turbulent times in which he lived and one of the gallant heros of Cressy. In the parliament held at London in the 11th Edward III [1338], upon the advancement of the Black Prince to the dukedom of Cornwall, he was created Earl of Northampton (17 March, 1337), and from that period his lordship appears the constant companion in arms of the martial Edward, and his illustrious son. At Cressy he was in the second battalia of the English army, and he was frequently engaged in the subsequent wars of France and Scotland. He was entrusted at different periods with the most important offices, such as ambassador to treat of peace with hostile powers, commissioner to levy troops, &c., and he was finally honoured with the Garter. His lordship m. Elizabeth, dau. of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, one of the co-heirs of her brother Giles, and widow of Edmund de Mortimer, by whom he had issue, Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Northampton, of whom hereafter, as successor to his uncle in the earldom of Hereford and Essex and constableship of England; and Elizabeth, m. to Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel. He d. in 1360. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 57-58, Bohun, Earls of Hereford, Earls of Essex, Earls of Northampton, and High Constables of England]