Blanche de Brienne, Baroness Tingry


Blanche de Brienne, Baroness Tingry was the wife of William II de Fiennes, Baron of Tingry. She was also known as Dame de La Loupeland, and Blanche of Acre.

Family

Blanche was born in about the year 1252 in France. She was the only child and heiress of Jean de Brienne, Grand Butler of France, and his first wife, Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun, widow of Jean I de Montfort. Her paternal grandparents were John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, and Berenguela of Leon, and her maternal grandparents were Geoffrey VI, Viscount de Chateaudun and Clémence des Roches. Blanche had a uterine half-sister Beatrice de Montfort, Countess of Montfort-l'Amaury from her mother's first marriage to Jean I de Montfort. In 1260, Beatrice married Robert IV of Dreux, Count of Dreux, by whom she had six children.
Blanche was co-heiress to her mother, by which she inherited Loupeland in Maine.

Marriage and issue

In the year 1269, Blanche married William II de Fiennes, Baron of Tingry and Fiennes, son of Enguerrand II de Fiennes and Isabelle de Conde. His other titles included Lord of Wendover, Buckinghamshire, of Lambourne, Essex, of Chokes and Gayton, Northamptonshire, of Martock, Somerset, of Carshalton and Clapham, Surrey, and custodian of the county of Ponthieu. The settlement for the marriage had been made in February 1266/67. William and Blanche had at least one son and two daughters:
She married William de la Planche and had at least one son:
Blanche is ancestress of Edward IV and all subsequent English monarchs. Her other descendants include Lady Margaret Beaufort and queen consorts Elizabeth Woodville, Lady Anne Neville, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
In 1285, Blanche received the gift of twelve leafless oak stumps from Selwood Forest from King Edward I for her fuel.
Blanche de Brienne died on an unknown date around the year 1302. Her husband William was killed on 11 July 1302 at the Battle of Courtrai.