He was the only surviving son of 4th earl of the second creation and his first wife, Elizabeth de Bohun. When he was 16 his father was executed and his lands and titles forfeited. Fitzalan was a royal ward of King Richard's half-brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, along with a large part of the Arundel estates. Holland greatly mistreated him, a matter Fitzalan would cruelly repay many years later.
Escape, exile, return and restoration
Eventually Fitzalan escaped from his guardian and joined his uncle Thomas Arundel, the deposed Archbishop of Canterbury, in exile. The two eventually joined with another exile, the King's cousin Henry Bolingbroke. Fitzalan followed Henry in his return to England in July 1399, and in the following events which led to the deposition of King Richard II and Henry's crowning as King Henry IV. He functioned as butler at the coronation, and shortly afterward the new King restored him to his titles and estates. These included two notable Earldoms; those of Earl of Arundel and Earl of Surrey, and large estates in the Welsh Marches.
Early the next year a group of Barons who had been close to the deposed King Richard II revolted—known as the Epiphany Rising—amongst them Fitzalan's former guardian John Holland. The latter was captured by followers of Fitzalan's aunt Joan, Countess of Hereford, and at Fitzalan's behest was soon executed.
The next few years Fitzalan was much occupied by events in the Welsh marches, where he had to help deal with the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr which ran in full from 1400 to maybe 1412 but gained a great deal of early momentum until 1405. After the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 he was appointed to defend the Marches from further attacks along its full length and then focused on defeating Glyndwr in the northern March adjacent to North Wales.
Revolt in the North
In 1405 there was a revolt in the north of England, led by the Archbishop of York, Richard le Scrope, and the Earl of Norfolk, Thomas de Mowbray. Fitzalan was the head of the Commission which condemned the pair to death. This apparently led to a falling out between Fitzalan and his uncle, Archbishop Thomas Arundel, who objected to the execution of a fellow prelate.
Portuguese alliance and marriages
King Henry's sister, Philippa of Lancaster, had married King John I of Portugal, and to further cement the alliance between England and Portugal, Fitzalan married Beatrice, the illegitimate daughter of King John. The wedding took place in London on 26 November 1405, with King Henry IV in attendance.
In the following years Fitzalan again had to help suppress revolts in Wales and the Welsh Marches. Politically, Fitzalan allied himself with the King's half-brothers the Beauforts, and when Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, was appointed Chancellor in 1410, Fitzalan became one of the King's principal councillors. Beaufort favored an alliance with Burgundy, and Fitzalan was one of the leaders of those sent to help fight the rival Armagnac faction in France. Sometime in this period Fitzalan was made a Knight of the Garter. Henry IV fell seriously ill in 1411, but was determined to forge an alliance with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. The King announced his intention that a fleet would be sailing to Calais, and issued instructions to ambassadors to go to Burgundy's offer of a military aid against Orleans. But two days before the fleet was due to sail, the king changed his mind, and on 21 September 1411 declared Parliament would meet in November. Instead Arundel set sail with a private fleet and a mercenary force hired by the Burgundians from the Prince of Wales. Arundel found himself in a difficult dilemma: the king wanted an Armagnac alliance, but the prince preferred to deal with Burgundy. A double-dealing policy commenced negotiating with the duke of Berry while continuing to reinforce Burgundy. But the old king recovered at the November Parliament, and the prince's Regency council was dismissed. On 9 November, Arundel led 1000 archers to aid the Burgundians to victory before the bridge at the Battle of St Cloud, near Paris. Some of Arundel's men fought in the ranks of Duke's bodyguard. The Peace of Chartres signed by Henry IV in 1409 was broken. His policy of pro-Valois Armagnac diplomacy was enshrined in the Treaty of Bourges. But no sooner had it been signed on 20 May, the friends of the Burgundian elites declared it illegal, because it was. John the Fearless raised a royal army forcing Berry to surrender Bourges in the name of Charles VI on 15 July. The very next day the peace was renewed by the French nobility in a promissory letter to Henry IV signed by the dukes of Berry, Orleans, Bourbon and Burgundy. On 10 August 1412, the peace was again threatened by Thomas, Duke of Clarence who extorted an humiliating ransom from the Armagnacs after he had landed at St Vaast-le-Hogue. The King favoured Clarence over his older brother, so the Beauforts lost influence, and Arundel retired to his estates. Clarence was instructed to proceed to Gascony to await; the next spring King Henry IV died.
Great friend and soldier of Henry V
Arundel was with Henry at Westminster for Christmas 1414. One of the king's close friends he displayed the cardinal virtues of loyalty to the Lancastrian monarchy, as well as enjoying the honour of personal comradeship. Some lords remained loyal to Richard II and threatened rebellion throughout the north. There were those on the Welsh Marches, such as the Chamberlain of Chester who had deserted to Owain Glendower.
Ancestry
Succession
Fitzalan left no legitimate children. The castle and lordship of Arundel was inherited by his cousin John Fitzalan, 6th Earl of Arundel. The Earldom of Surrey fell into abeyance. The rest of his property was split amongst his three surviving sisters.
Secondary sources
Note: Some sources do not include the first seven earls in their list of Earls of Arundel. In such sources this Earl is the sixth.
