Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester

Thomas le Despenser was an English nobleman and supporter of Richard II who was created earl of Gloucester in 1397. After Henry IV’s accession he joined the failed Epiphany Rising, was captured by a hostile crowd at Bristol and summarily executed in 1400.

Despenser’s rapid rise depended on Richard II, and Henry IV stripped him of the earldom after the 1399 revolution; his participation in the Epiphany Rising the following year led directly to his capture and death.

Anne O’Brien’s A Tapestry of Treason presents Thomas le Despenser through his marriage to Constance of York and their dangerous attachment to Richard II’s cause after Henry Bolingbroke takes the throne. His loss of rank and lands, involvement in conspiracy against Henry IV and eventual execution make Constance’s political choices inseparable from the ambitions and failures of her husband.