by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

Sir John de Southeray (circa 1364 – 1383) was the eldest of the three illegitimate children of King Edward III of England and his mistress Alice Perrers. Alice’s family surname was Salisbury and they worked as goldsmiths. Janyn Perrers, who would become Alice’s first husband, became an apprentice to the Salisbury family in 1342. It appears that around 1359, Janyn Perrers did some work for the royal court because in a royal writ he is described as “our beloved Janyn Perrers, our jeweler”. There is a possibility that he met King Edward III in his capacity as a goldsmith and jeweler and that Alice may have accompanied him.

Shortly after her husband died in 1361 or 1362, Alice became a lady-in-waiting to Philippa of Hainault, the wife of King Edward III. Even if Alice had not previously met King Edward III, they certainly became acquainted while she served as a lady-in-waiting. Alice, who was about 24 years old, gave birth to the first of her three children by Edward III in 1364, when the king was 56 years old.

King Edward III and Alice’s eldest child John had two younger sisters:

• Jane (circa 1365 – ?), married Richard Northland
• Joan (circa 1366 – circa 1431), married Robert Skerne, a lawyer and Member of Parliament

John had fourteen royal half-siblings from the marriage of his father King Edward III to Philippa of Hainault:

• Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince (1330 – 1376), married Joan, 4th Countess of Kent, had two sons, only the future King Richard II survived childhood
• Isabella of England (1332 – 1379) married Enguerrand VII de Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford, had two daughters
• Joan of England (circa1334 – 1348), died of the plague on the way to marry Pedro of Castile
• William of Hatfield (born and died 1337)
• Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1338 – 1368), married (1) Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster, had one daughter (2) Violante Visconti, no children
• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340 – 1399), married (1) Blanche of Lancaster, had seven children including King Henry IV of England (2) Infanta Constance of Castile, had one daughter and one son (3) Katherine Swynford (formerly his mistress), had three sons and one daughter (Note: All monarchs of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom since King Henry IV are descended from John of Gaunt, and most European monarchies are also descended from John. The Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor were all descended from John of Gaunt’s children.)
• Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341 – 1402), married (1) Infanta Isabella of Castile, had two sons and one daughter (2) Joan Holland, no children
• Blanche of the Tower (born and died March 1342)
• Mary of Waltham (1344 – 1362), married John V, Duke of Brittany, no children
• Margaret of Windsor, Countess of Pembroke (1346 – 1361), married John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, no children
• Thomas of Windsor (1347 – 1348), died of the plague
• William of Windsor (born and died 1348), died of the plague
• Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1355 – 1397), married Eleanor de Bohun, had one son and four daughters

In January 1377, the nearly thirteen-year-old John married seventeen-year-old Maud de Percy, the daughter of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy. The marriage was childless and in 1380, Maud obtained an annulment, claiming to have been married to John without her consent. Later in 1377, on April 23, St. George’s Day, John was knighted by his father King Edward III at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, along with John’s ten-year-old nephews, the future King Richard II, and the future King Henry IV, who would usurp the throne from his cousin King Richard II in 1399. On June 17, 1377, four days before his death, King Edward III gave his illegitimate son John his own coat of arms. Upon the death of King Edward III, John’s nephew Richard, the son of the deceased Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather as King Richard II.

From 1381 to 1382, Sir John de Southeray took part in the Fernandine Wars, a series of three wars between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile. He accompanied the English military expedition in support of Castile, commanded by his half-brother Edmund of Langley, 1St Duke of York. During the unsuccessful Castilian campaign, John led a contingent of English soldiers. After his troops went unpaid, John incited them to mutiny. Unlike his troops, John was never punished for his actions. John’s death date is uncertain. It is assumed he died in 1383, aged about nineteen. The last mention of Sir John de Southeray in contemporary chronicles is in 1383, when he asked a man named Ralph Basing to pay him a debt.

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2022). Alice Perrers, Mistress of Edward III, King of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/alice-perrers-mistress-of-edward-iii-king-of-england/
• Flantzer, Susan. (2015). King Edward III of England. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-edward-iii-of-england/
• John de Southeray. geni_family_tree. (2022). https://www.geni.com/people/John-de-Southeray/6000000003650779410
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). John de Southeray. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Southeray
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). John de Southeray. Wikipedia (French). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Southeray