ntract. The Earl,
however, died at the early age of thirty-one, and Joan, whose two
daughters were married to Princes (Alianora to Thomas Duke of
Gloucester, Mary to Henry the Fourth), became a very powerful and
wealthy widow. One anecdote will show what her character was better
than volumes of description. She presided in person at the execution of
John Duke of Exeter (brother of her sister Alesia's husband), he being
loyal to his half-brother, King Richard, while Joan was a vehement
partisan of her son-in-law, Henry the Fourth. When no one came forward,
in answer to her appeal, as the Duke's executioner, Joan exclaimed,
"Cursed be you villains! are none of you bold enough to kill a man?" A
squire volunteered to officiate, but when he had seen and heard the man
whom he was to slay, he shrank from the terrible task. "Madam," was his
remonstrance to the Countess, "for all the gold in the world, I cannot
kill such a Lord!" "Thou shalt do what thou hast promised," said Joan,
"or I will cut thy head off." And, probably knowing that she was likely
to "do what she had promised," the squire preferred the fall of the
Duke's head to his own. (_Lystoire de la Traison et Mort du Roy
Richart_, pp. 98-9.) This strong-minded woman died April 7, 1419, and
was buried at Walden, having previously been admitted a sister of the
Grey Friars in her brother's Cathedral of Canterbury. (I.P.M. 7 H.V.,
59:--Arundel MS. 51, fol. 18:--_ib_. 68, fol. 51, b.) Of Alesia,
Countess of Kent, little personal is known. She left no mark on her
time, though the members of her numerous family were very prominent
characters. She died March 17, 1416 (I.P.M. 4 H.V., 51).

By all genealogists who have hitherto written on the Arundel family, two
more daughters are ascribed to Earl Richard the Copped-Hat. These are
Philippa Sergeaux, the heroine of the tale; and Mary L'Estrange. At the
time when this story was written, I was misled to follow this
supposition, though I had already seen that in that case, Isabel, and
not Alianora, must have been the mother of Philippa. Some months after
the story was first published, I began to suspect that this was also the
case with regard to Mary L'Estrange. But I was not prepared for the
discovery, made only last May, that Philippa Sergeaux was not the
daughter of Earl Richard at all! In two charters recorded on a Close
Roll for 20 Ric. II., she distinctly styles herself "daughter of Sir
Edmund of Arundel, Kn