Lord of Bramber and Gower John de Braose

Notes:

Nicknamed "Tadody" by the Welsh when he was hidden in Gower as a child after King John had his father and grandmother killed. He was later in the custody of Engelard de Cigogny (castellan of Windsor) along with his brother Giles. Cigogny was ordered to give the two boys up to William de Harcourt in 1214. At this time John became separated from his brother. He was present at the signing of the Magna Charta in 1215.

John disputed his uncle Reginald's claim to the Braose lands, sometimes resorting to arms. Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, helped him to secure Gower(1219). In 1221, with the advice and permission of Llewelyn, he repaired his castle of Abertawy (Swansea). He purchased the Rape of Bramber from Reginald and his son William in 1226. In that year John confirmed the family gifts to Sele Priory, near Bramber, and to the Abbey of St Florent, Saumur, and added others. After the death of Reginald(1228) he became Lord of Skenfrith, Grosmont, and Whitecastle, the three Marcher castles, by charter from the king but he lost these in 1230 to Hugh de Burgh at the same time as Gower became a subtenancy of de Burgh's Honor of Carmarthen and Cardigan.

See Castle of Abertawy, Swansea

Joan de Braose, surnamed Tadody, had been privately nursed by a Welshwoman at Gower. This John had grants of lands from King Henry III and was also possessed of the Barony of Brembye, in Sussex, where he died in 1231, by a fall from his horse, his foot sticking in the stirrup. He married, it is stated, Margaret, dau. of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, by whom (who m. afterwards Walter de Clifford) he had a son, his successor, William de Braose. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 72, Braose, Baron Braose, of Gower]

John married Margaret verch Llewelyn in 1219 in Wales. Margaret (daughter of Llywelyn Fawr ap Iowerth, Prince of Wales and Joan Plantagenet, daughter of Joan Plantagenet) was born in 1210 in Caernarvonshire, Wales; died in 1263 in Clifford Castle, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William de Braose was born in 1230; died in 1291.

Notes:

William did not accompany King Richard on Crusade but fought with King John against Philip in Normandy (1203/4). King John demanded William as a hostage for his father's loyalty in 1208. His mother Maud refused and they fled to Ireland. In 1210 John prepared an expedition to Ireland. Maud and William escaped Ireland, but were apprehended in Scotland. William the father was in Wales at the time. It is believed that Maud and William were starved to death at Windsor Castle (Some say Corfe).

William, who perished by starvation with his mother at Windsor m. Maud, dau. of the Earl of Clare, with whom he had the town of Buckingham, in frank marriage, and left a son, John. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, ENG, 1883, p. 72, Braose, Baron Braose, of Gower]

William married Maud de Clere in 1197. Maud (daughter of 4th Earl of Hertford Richard de Clare and Countess of Gloucester Amicia) was born about 1176 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died in 1213. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

At his peak Lord of Bramber, Gower, Abergavenny, Brecknock, Builth, Radnor, Kington, Limerick, and the three castles of Skenfrith, Grosmont, and Whitecastle.

William inherited Bramber, Builth, and Radnor from his father, Brecknock and Abergavenny through his mother. He was the strongest of the Marcher Lords involved in constant war with the Welsh and other lords. He was particularly hated by the Welsh for the massacre of three Welsh princes, their families and their men which took place during a feast at his castle of Abergavenny in 1175. He was sometimes known as the "Ogre of Abergavenny". One of the Normans' foremost warriors, he fought alongside King Richard at Chalus in 1199 (where Richard was killed).

William received Limerick in 1201 from King John. He was also given custody of Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Gwynllwg in return for large payments.

William captured Arthur, Count of Brittany at Mirebeau in 1202 and was in charge of his imprisonment for King John. He was rewarded in February 1203 with the grant of Gower. He may have had knowledge of the murder of Prince Arthur and been bribed to silence by John with the city of Limerick in July. His honors reached their peak when he was made Sheriff of Herefordshire by John in 1206-7. He had held this office under Richard from 1192-1199.

His fall began almost immediately. William was stripped of his office as bailiff of Glamorgan and other custodies in 1206-7. Later he was deprived of all his lands and, sought by John in Ireland, he returned to Wales and joined the Welsh Prince Llewelyn in rebellion. He fled to France in 1210 via Shoreham "in the habit of a beggar" and died in exile near Paris. Despite intending to be interred at St John's, Brecon, he was buried in the Abbey of St Victorie, Paris by Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, another of John's chief opponents who was also taking refuge there.

His wife and son were murdered by King John-starved to death at Windsor Castle.

See Castle of Grosmont

William de Braose inherited the large estates of his grandmother, Bertade Gloucester, and besides possessed the Honor of Braose, in Normandy. This feudal lord was a personage of great power and influence during the reigns of Henry II and Richard I, from the former of whom he obtained a grant of the "whole kingdom of Limerick, in Ireland," for the service of sixty knight's fees, to be held of the king and his younger son, John. For several years after this period, he appears to have enjoyed the favor of King John and his power and possessions were augmented by divers grants from the crown. In the 10th of the king's reign [1209], when the kingdom labored under an interdiction and John deemed it expedient to demand hostages from his barons to ensure their allegiance should the Pope proceed to the length of absolving them from obedience to the crown, his officers who came upon the mission to the Baron de Braose were met by Maud, his wife, and peremptorily informed that she would not entrust any of her children to the king, who had so basely murdered his own nephew, Prince Arthur. de Braose rebuked her for speaking thus, however, and said that if he had in anything offended the king, he was ready to make satisfaction according to the judgment of the court and the barons, his peers, upon an appointed day and at any fixed place without, however, giving hostages. This answer being communicated to the king, an order was immediately transmitted to seize upon the baron's person, but Braose having notice thereof fled with his family into Ireland.

This quarrel between de Braose and King John is, however, differently related by other authorities. The monk of Llanthony stated that King John disinherited and banished him for his cruelty to the Welsh in his war with Gwenwynwyn, and that his wife Maud and William, his son and heir, died prisoners in Corfe Castle. Another writer relates, "that this William de Braose, son of Philip de Braose, Lord of Buelt, held the lands of Brecknock and Went for the whole time of King Henry II, Richard I, and King John without any disturbance until he took to wife the Lady Maud de St. Walerie, who, in revenge of Henry de Hereford, cause divers Welshmen to be furthered in the castle of Bergavenny as they sat at meat; and that for this, and for some other pickt quarrel, King John banished him and all his out of England. Likewise, that in his exile, Maud his wife, with William, galled, Gam, his son, were taken and put into prison where she died the 10th year after her husband fought with Gwenwynwyn and slew three thousand Welch." From these various relations, says Dugdale, it is no easy matter to discover what his demerits were, but what usage he had at last, take here the credit of these two historians who lived near that time. "This year, viz. anno 1240," quoth Matthew of Westminster, "the noble lady Maud, wife of William de Braose, with William, their son and heir, were miserably famished at Windsor by the command of King John; and William, her husband, escaping from Scorham, put himself into the habit of a beggar and, privately getting beyond sea, died soon after at Paris, where he had burial in the abbey of St. Victor." And Matthew Paris, putting his death in anno 1212 (which differs a little in time), says, "That he fled from Ireland to France and, dying at Ebula, his body was carried to Paris and there honorably buried in the abbey of St. Victor." "But after these great troubles in his later days," continues Dugdale, "I shall now say something of his pious works. Being by inheritance from his mother, Lord of Bergavenny, he made great grants to the monks of that priory, conditionally, that the abbot and convent of St. Vincent, in Maine (to which this priory of Bergavenny was a cell) should daily pray for the soul of him, the said William, and the soul of Maud, his wife."

This great but unfortunate personage had issue by his wife, Maud de St. Walerie, I. William; II. Giles: III. Reginald; IV. Sir John; I. Joane; II. Loretta; III. Margaret; IV. Maud.

When the contest between King John and the barons broke out, Giles de Braose, bishop of Hereford, arraying himself under the baronial banner, was put in possession by the people of Bergavenny and the other castles of the deceased lord, and eventually King John, in the last year of his reign, his wrath then being assuaged, granted part of those lands to the bishop's younger brother and heir. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p.72, Braose, Baron Braose, of Gower]

Buried:
Abbey of St Victorie, Paris, Seine, France

William married Maud de St. Valery in 1169. Maud was born about 1155 in Bramber, Sussex, England; died in 1210 in Corfe, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From "The de BRAOSE Web":

Maud (Matilda) de Braose was also known as the Lady of la Haie and to the Welsh as Moll Walbee. Married to William de Braose, the "Ogre of Abergavenny", she was a significant warrior in her own right. Her long defense of Pain's Castle when it was besieged by the Welsh earned it the name "Matilda's Castle". The local people saw her as a supernatural character. She was said to have built Hay Castle (picture, right) single handed in one night, carrying the stones in her apron. When one fell out and lodged in her slipper she picked it out and flung it to land in St Meilig's churchyard, three miles away across the River Wye at Llowes. The nine foot high standing stone (left) can still be seen inside the church. The final fall of her husband may owe a lot to her hasty reply to King John when he requested her son William as a hostage in 1208. She refused on the grounds that John had murdered his nephew Arthur whom he should have protected. The dispute between John and the de Braoses led to Maud dying of starvation in the King's castle at Windsor along with her son, while her husband, stripped of all his lands, died the following year in exile in France.

Notes:

Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, who in the 7th Richard I gave 1000 pounds to the king for livery of the lands of his mother's inheritance with his proportion of those sometime belonging to Giffard, Earl of Buckingham. His lordship m. Amicia, 2nd dau. and co-heiress (with her sisters Mabell, wife of the Earl of Evereux, in Normandy, and Isabel, the divorced wife of King John) of William, Earl of Gloucester, by whom he had issue, Gilbert, his successor, and Joan, m. to Rhys-Grig, Prince of South Wales. This earl, who was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce Magna Carta, d. in 1218, and was s. by his son, Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Richard married Countess of Gloucester Amicia about 1180. Amicia (daughter of 2nd Earl of Gloucester William FitzRobert and Hawise de Beaumont) was born in 1160 in Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, England; died on 1 Jan 1224/25 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William was very fortunate in his marriage to Berta. All of her brothers died young without heirs, so she brought a number of important lordships to the de Braoses in 1166. These included Brecon and Abergavenny. William became Sheriff of Hereford in 1174. His interest in Sussex was maintained as he confirmed the grants of his father and grandfather for the maintenance of Sele Priory and extended St Mary's, Shoreham. See St Mary's, Shoreham, Sussex. William m. Berta, dau. of Milo de Gloucester, Earl of Hereford, and co-heir of her brother, William, Earl of Hereford, by whom he acquired Brecknock, with other extensive territorial possessions. He had two sons, William and Reginald, and was s. by the elder. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 72, Braose, Baron Braose, of Gower]

William married Heiress of Brecon Bertha FitzMiles de Gloucester about 1150 in England. Bertha (daughter of Earl of Hereford Miles Fitzwalter and Sybil de Neufmarche) was born about 1130 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Roger de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford, is likewise said to have born the title of Earl of Clare. In the 3rd Henry II, this nobleman obtaining from the king all the lands in Wales which he could win, marched into Cardigan with a great army and fortified divers castles thereabouts. In the 9th of the same reign, we find him summoned by the celebrated Thomas-E homage to the prelate for his castle of Tonebruge; which at the command of the king he refused, alleging that holding it by military service it belonged rather to the crown than to the church. His lordship m. Maude (who m. after his decease William d'Aubigny, Earl of Arundel), dau. of James de St. Hillary, by whom he had a son, Richard, his successor. This earl who, from his munificence to the church and his numerous acts of piety, was called the Good, d. in 1173, and was s. by his son, Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Roger married Maud de St. Hilaire about 1152 in Field Dalling, Norfolk, England. Maud (daughter of James de St. Hilaire and Aveline Canmore) was born about 1132 in Burkenham, Norfolk, England; died on 24 Dec 1193 in Field Dalling, Walsingham, Norfolk, England; was buried in Priory of Great, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

[From Burke's Peerage-see source for details]

An undoubted Earl of Gloucester, perhaps the first authentic one, at any rate after the Conquest, is Robert FitzHamon's son-in-law, another Robert, who was an illegitimate son of Henry I and was so created 1122. The Earldom passed to his eldest son, William FitzRobert, and from him to John, later King John and husband from 1189 to 1199 (when he divorced her) of Isabel, the youngest of William FitzRobert's three daughters. On John's coming to the throne the title did not merge in the Crown for it was not his in his own right but in right of his wife.

William married Hawise de Beaumont about 1150. Hawise (daughter of 2nd Earl of Leicester Robert II de Beaumont and Amice de Gael) was born in 1129 in Leicestershire, England; died on 24 Apr 1197. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]