Individual Details

Along with her three brothers, Joan had been privately declared legitimate by their cousin Richard II of England in 1390, but for various reasons their father secured another such declaration from Parliament in January 1397. Joan was already an adult when she was legitimized by the marriage of her mother and father with papal approval. The Beauforts were later barred from inheriting the throne by a clause inserted into the legitimation act by their half-brother, Henry IV of England, although it is not clear that Henry IV possessed sufficient authority to alter an existing parliamentary statute. Soon after this declaration, on 3 February 1397, when she was eighteen, Joan married Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, who had also been married once before.

Joan had two daughters by Ferrers, 14 children with Ralph Neville.

Joan Beaufort was the grandmother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England, whom Henry VII defeated to take the throne. (Henry then married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and their son became Henry VIII of England).

Birth	1379
Marriage	1391	Robert Ferrers
Marriage	3 Feb 1397	Ralph Neville 1st Earl of Westmoreland
Death	13 Nov 1440

Spouse

Robert Ferrers ( - 1395)

Spouse	Ralph Neville 1st Earl of Westmoreland ( - 1425)
Child	Lady Cecily "Rose of Raby" Neville Duchess of York (1415 - 1495)

Father	John Lancaster of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340 - 1399)
Mother	Katherine Swynford (1350 - 1403)
Sibling	John Beaufort 1st Earl of Somerset (1373 - 1410)