Kathryn’s answer to “Kathryn - I haven't read your book yet but have read Ian Mortimer's Greatest Traitor and his book o…” > Likes and Comments

I'd be interested to know about the source that references the dispensation was incorrectly formulated. My understanding is that there were four aspects: consanguinity, the Godfather issue, confirming that Joan's marriage to Holland was her true marriage (Montague marriage invalid) so Edward & Joan's children would be legitimate, that they married secretly without permission. I had read that the "official" papal documents arrived after Edward & Joan were publicly marriage but had not read anything about the issue you mention. So far the bios on Edward don't have much relative to Lionel or Elizabeth but I have identified a biography of her that may shed some light.

I'll do it at the weekend when I have time.

See Alison McHardy's article 'Richard II: A Personal Portrait' in The Reign of Richard II, ed. Gwilym Dodd (Tempus, 2000), pp. 11-12, for the incorrect dispensation. Richard had a box full of documents relating to his parents' marriage and to the dissolution of his mother's marriage to William Montacute.