On 23/01/16 10:04, Ian Goddard wrote:
> Could it simply be a French rendition of the English place name of
> Langley. There are a lot of Langleys in England and even more if you
> take into account the alternative of Longley.
You're not the first to suggest this. E.g. in /Notes & Queries/, 4th
series, vol 3 (6 Feb 1869), pp 125-6.
https://archive.org/stream/s4notesqueries03londuoft#page/125/mode/2up
"En consultant la généalogie des Lancastre, on voit que Thomas duc de
Clarence eut deux fils: l'un nommé le duc de Beaufort, l'autre nommé
simplement Thomas; comme l'histoire d'Angleterre mentionne une abbaye
nommée Langley, près de Londres, qui était, je crois, un apange de la
couronne, il est présumable qu'on a fait prendre dans la suite le nom de
Langley à ce Thomas."
Obviously one has to treat with considerable scepticism a person who
thinks a Duke of Beaufort was a son of Thomas, Duke of Clarence. (John
Beaufort, Duke of Somerset was his step-son, which is presumably the
origin of the confusion.)
Langley Abbey is in Norfolk, on the river Yare midway between Norwich
and Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk. But I can find no reference to it
having been a appanage of the Crown; for example, nothing is mentioned
in the Abbey's entry in the VCH for Norfolk [vol 2, pp 418-21].
There was a reply the next month [6 Mar, p 228]:
https://archive.org/stream/s4notesqueries03londuoft#page/228/mode/2up
"He [Thomas, Duke of Clarence] had one illegitimate son, called in our
histories the Bastard of Clarence, whose Christian name is given by
Anderson as John: Baker calls him Sir Thomas Beaufort on one page, and
Sir John Beaufort on the next. It therefore appears he bore the name
Beaufort, though he was not of the old Beaufort stock, descended from
the eldest natural son of John of Gaunt; and I think there is room for
considerable doubt whether he was ever created Duke of Beaufort."
The author mentions King's Langley, Abbot's Langley and Chilterne
Langley, all in Hertfordshire. "I greatly doubt any of these places
having ever been the appanage of the Bastard of Clarence or his
descendants. Is it not possible that the name of these descendants is
not derived from Langley, but from L'Anglais?"
Do any contemporary sources refer to the Bastard of Clarence using the
surname Beaufort? It would not be wholly surprising as the Beauforts
were his step-siblings, but I've never seen it.
Richard