Edith de Willesford

Conjectured Name for Concubine #1

• As of 7 Sep 2022, Medlands does not support a name for the mother of Sir Roger of Clarendon. It only prefaces his mother thus: "Edward Prince of Wales had one illegitimate son by Mistress (1): ROGER de Clarendon..."
• Douglas Richardson only cites The Complete Peerage:– “Illegitimate child of Edward of Woodstock, by a mistress, Edith de Willesford. She was living 8 May 1385. C.P.R. 1361–1385 (1897): 562. — i. ROGER (DE) CLARENDON….” — Note: Cokayne relied on the conclusion of George-Frederick Beltz.

Books that name the mother of Sir Roger of Clarendon default to one secondary source author's conjecture, or they cite no source at all. That author was George-Frederick Beltz. Beltz referred to two primary sources from which he conjectured that Edith de Willesford was the mother of Sir Roger. From his 1841 book titled Memorials of the Order of the Garter, from Its Foundation to the Present Time, etc., Beltz wrote on page 17, footnote. 1:–
“Register “Sudbury,” fo. 90, in the archiep. regy at Lambeth. It is also printed in Nichols’ Royal Wills, p. 66. It contains, among other bequests, one of a silk bed to SIR ROGER DE CLARENDON. This person was Edward’s natural son by, as it is supposed, Edith de Willesford, of whom mention is made in Rot, Pat. 8 Ric. 2, p. 2 m. 13.”

Sketchy Sources

• In Thelma Anna Leese's1996 book titled Blood Royal: Issue of the Kings and Queens of Medieval England, 1066-1399: the Normans and Plantagenets, she mentioned Edward's illegitimate son John Sounder—that he is "believed to be the child of Edith de Willesford." He was "honorably mentioned by [the chronicler] Froissart. A second illegitimate son was Roger de Clarendon, who was executed by his cousin, Henry IV (Sedgwick, The Black Prince, p. 169)." — Note that Leese does not include a name for Roger's mother.
• From Weir's "Britain's Royal Family":– "...By Edith de Willesford (d. after 1385): 1. Sir Roger de Clarendon..." — Note: Weir's Britain's Royal Family is not a secondary source. While most lineal relationships and names may be correct, this book seldom refers to primary sources to underpin the included content.
• Brian Bevan's 2016 book titled Henry IV merely echoes the same sentiment, but he unacademically cites no source: "We know nothing about Roger's mother, except that her name was Edith de Willesford,..."