Alyce Chaucer (1404-1475) is buried in a magnificent alabaster tomb in the church in Ewelme, where she lived in a big manor house, and owned several other manors besides. She was granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, and next to her tomb is that of her parents: she inherited Ewelme through her mother Matilda Burghersh, and her father Thomas Chaucer was five times Speaker of the House of Commons.
The number of heraldic shields around her tomb proclaims Alyce’s upward mobility. She married three times. Her first husband was a knight, Sir John Phelip, who died of dysentery in the French wars. Next came the Earl of Salisbury, killed by a cannon ball at the siege of Orleans. Her third husband was William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who became a favourite of the young King Henry VI, and as his chief adviser was made Duke of Suffolk in 1448.
William led the negotiations for King Henry VI’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou, and Alyce went with him to escort Margaret to England in 1445. William was subsequently held responsible for ceding the counties of Maine and Anjou to France, and for the further loss of English possessions in Normandy. He was charged with treason, banished, but on his way to exile was murdered in 1450.
In 1437 Henry VI had granted a licence to William and Alyce to found a religious charity, God’s House in Ewelme, to include alms-houses and a school, endowed with land which they owned in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire. The foundation of Ewelme School is three years earlier than Eton College, founded by Henry VI in 1440.
Alyce lived for another 25 years after William’s death, and the brass inscription on her tomb says in Latin, ‘Pray for the soul of the most serene Princess Alyce Duchess of Suffolk, Patron of this church, and the main founder of this charity, who died on the 20th day of May 1475’.
May 2025 will be the 550th anniversary of Alyce’s death. Her charity the Ewelme Trust still exists, and supports the almshouses and the village school, which together with the church form a unique group of medieval buildings. To celebrate Alyce’s life and times there is to be a whole weekend of events in Ewelme on 16-18 May 2025: to learn more about how to attend the celebrations, click here.