Roger de Montgomery

Family/Spouse: Josceline de Ponteaudemer. Josceline was born about 989 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to Winston Churchill, the Montgomeries (a very great house of Norman England) sided with Robert, Duke of Normandy, against his brother Henry I, in the war of succession after William Rufus, William The Conqueror's designated heir for England was killed in a hunting accident. Henry I destroyed the power of the Montgomeries starting in September, 1100. He captured Robert in Normandy in the battle at Tinchebrai and combined England and Normandy again.

http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/montgom2.html
Clan Montgomery

The Montgomerys are a Lowland clan of Anglo-Norman origin. Roger de Montgomery called "The Great" was father to another Roger, born about 1030 who was joint Regent of Normandy when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. Montgomery followed King William to England where he was created Earl of Arundel, he was later made Earl of Shropshire or Shrewsbury and the county of Montgomery is named after him. The first of the family in Scotland was Robert de Montgomerie who obtained a grant of the lands of Eaglesham in Renfrewshire, for some time the principal home of the Montgomeries. His descendant John Montgomerie of Eaglesham was the distinguished warrior who captured Henry Percy called Hotspur at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. With Percy's ransom he built the castle of Polnoon as well as acquiring the lands of Eglinton and Ardrossan through his marriage to Elizabeth of Eglinton. His grandson, Sir Alexander was created Lord Montgomerie and became a member of the King's council. Hugh, the 3rd Lord Montgomerie was created Earl of Eglinton in 1507. He was amongst those who opposed James III and fought at Sauchieburn in 1488, where the king lost his life. He also received the Isle of Arran with the custody of Brodick Castle. The 2nd Earl remained a devout Catholic at the Reformation and fought on the side of Mary Queen of Scots at her final defeat at Langside in 1568. He was declared guilty of treason and imprisoned in Doune Castle. When he was released he tried to secure the safety and toleration of Catholics in the wake of the Reformation. Ironically his daughter Lady Margaret married Robert Seton, 1st Earl of Winton, a loyal Covenanter in the wars of Charles I and it was their son, Alexander Seton who took the name Montgomerie who became the 6th Earl of Eglinton. He was also a Presbyterian supporter and followed Charles II. He was imprisoned for his Royalist sympathies by General Monk in 1659 after the death of Cromwell however in the following year it was Monk himself who restored the monarch to his throne. The 9th Earl was one of the Privy Council of King William and later Queen Anne and during the rebellion of 1715 actively promoted the training of the fencible men of Ayrshire. The 11th Earl raised the 77th Foot Highlanders. The 13th Earl was renowned for his celebrated tournament at Eglinton Castle in 1839. The Montgomeries and the Cunninghams had one of the longest running feuds in Scotland; in the 16th century Eglinton House was burnt and the 4th Earl was killed by Cunninghams, finally it was resolved by the government.

Thanks to James Pringle Weavers for the following information

MONTGOMERIE - This name is said to derive from Sainte Fio de Montgomerie in the Lisieux in Normandy, and the name arrived in Scotland with the Norman barons who were granted lands during the 12th century. The first of the name in Scotland is reputedly Robert de Montgomerie who obtained the lands of Eaglesham in Renfrewshire during that century. John, 7th of Eaglesham, distinguished himself at Otterburn in 1388 by capturing Henry 'Hotspur', and with proceeds of the ransom built Polnoon Castle. He extended his landholdings by marrying Elizabeth de Eglintoun, thus securing the Baronies of Eglintoun and Ardrossan in Ayrshire. Their grandson, Sir Alexander, Governor of Kintyre and Knapdale, became 1st Lord Montgomerie in 1445, and was the ancestor of the Montgomeries of Skermorlie. The Montgomeries of Stanhope, created Baronets in 1801, trace descent from Robert, brother of Sir Alexander. Hugh, 3rd Lord Montgomerie, was made Earl of Eglinton in 1507, and his brother, Robert, is the reputed ancestor of the Earls of Mount Alexander in Ireland. The 3rd Earl supported Mary Queen of Scots, and was captured at Langside in 1568. Towards the end of that century Lady Montgomery established linen and woolen manufacturing in Ireland and is reputed to have encouraged the manufacture of tartan there. The 3rd Earl's daughter, Margaret, married Robert Seton, 1st Earl of Winton, and in 1612 their son Alexander took the name and arms of Montgomerie on succession as 6th Earl of Eglinton. Archibald, 13th Earl of Eglinton, was created also Earl of Winton in 1859, as heir male of the Setons, but he was never recognized as chief of that name since he kept to the name of Montgomerie.

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

"William sat on his war-horse and called out Rogier, whom they name De Montgomeri. ' I rely greatly on you. Lead your men thitherward and attack them from that side. William, the son of Osbern, the seneschal, a right good vassal, shall go with you and help in the attack, and you shall have the men of Boulogne and Poix and all my soldiers' " (i.e. paid troops -- mercenaries). Such are the words Wace puts in the mouth of the Conqueror. And yet, according to Orderic, Roger de Montgomeri was not present at Hastings, having been left by the Duke in Normandy, governor of the duchy.

His statement is most explicit. King William, during his visit to his Norman dominions in 1067, was greatly disquieted by the reports from England of the disaffection of his new subjects, and the advantage taken of it by the Danes. "Leaving the government of Normandy," he proceeds, "to his Queen Matilda, and his young son Robert, with a council of religious priests and valiant nobles, to be guardians of the state, he rode, on the night of the 6th of December, to the mouth of the river Dieppe, below the town of Arques, and setting sail with a south wind in the first watch of the cold night, reached in the morning, after a most prosperous voyage, the harbour on the opposite coast called Winchester.... In his present voyage he was attended by Roger de Montgomeri, who at the time of his former expedition to invade England was left with his wife, governor of Normandy." Now when we remember that the father of Orderic was Odelirius of Orleans, one of the followers of this very Roger de Montgomeri when he came into England, and for his services received a grant of land lying on the banks of the river Meole at the east gate of Shrewsbury; that, with the help of his lord, he founded the monastery there of St. Peter and St. Paul, to which he retired in 1110, the Earl himself having died therein fourteen years previously; that Orderic, born in 1075, was at school at Shrewsbury until he was ten years of age, when he was sent to Normandy, became a monk in the Abbey of St. Evreux, of which Roger de Montgomeri was a patron and benefactor, revisited England in 1115, and was living, at the age of sixty-six, in 1141, -- it surely follows, that of all the companions of the Conqueror he had ever seen or heard of, Roger de Montgomeri, Earl of Shrewsbury, his father's lord and friend, was the one respecting whom he must have possessed the most accurate information. Is it likely, supposing Roger de Montgomeri had commanded a wing of the invading army, and performed feats of bravery at Senlac, that his servant and protégéâe who came over with him, and must in that case have been present at Hastings himself, would have been silent on the subject? Would not his deeds have been the theme of his whole household, and of the very school-fellows of the young Orderic? Was the Lord of Belesme amongst the noble personages who accompanied King William on his visit to Normandy in 1067? and if not, what was he doing in England during the disturbances in the King's absence? How was it that a man of his position and prowess was not associated with the other great warriors appointed to guard the realm and administer justice throughout it? His name never occurs even incidentally during that period.

Against this, to me overwhelming evidence, we have to place the statement of William of Poitiers, who, without any allusion to Roger de Montgomeri, simply says that Roger de Beaumont was the person at the head of the council appointed by the Duke to assist Matilda in the government of Normandy, and that of Wace, who circumstantially describes the actions of Roger de Montgomeri in the great battle. As the latter authority distinctly contradicts William of Poitiers, by making "old Rogier de Belmont" present at Senlac, in lieu of remaining in Normandy to counsel Matilda, he is as likely to be wrong in one assertion as the other. William of Poitiers is more to be trusted, but he does not say that Roger de Montgomeri was in the battle; he makes no mention of him whatever, though he gives the names of a dozen of the principal personages present; nor does he prove that he was not amongst the noble and wise men selected by the Duke to compose that council, of which the writer states Roger de Beaumont was the president. Mr. Freeman, confiding in the archdeacon, sets down the assertion of Orderic as "a plain though very strange confusion between Roger of Montgomeri and Roger of Beaumont." I only suggest that the son of Odelirius is the least likely person to have made that confusion, and that we have no proof of Roger de Montgomeri's presence in England previous to 1068.

The Lord of Belesme, however, is too remarkable a personage in the annals of those times to be omitted, on anything short of conclusive evidence, from an account of the companions of the Conqueror, and his family history is full of stirring and romantic incidents.

Orderic has minutely chronicled his marriages, his children, his deeds of valour and piety, his death and burial, and yet such is the mist that hangs over the genealogical history of our ancient nobility, that the father of this great and powerful Earl has only been recently identified. Brooke, in his Catalogue, declared him to be the son of Hugh de Montgomeri and of Sibell, his wife, fifth daughter of Herfastus the Dane, brother of Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy. Vincent triumphantly quotes the monk of Jumièges in contradiction of this assertion, and insists that hee was the son of Hugh de Montgomeri by Jocellina, his wife, daughter of Turolf de Pontaudemer, by Weeva, sister of the said Duchess Gunnora, and so he continued to be considered, notwithstanding that many passages in Orderic show this to be a mistake, until the French editors of that historian and the late Mr. Stapleton, in his illustration of the Norman Rolls of the Exchequer, clearly proved that the first Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury was not the son of a Hugh de Montgomeri by either lady, but of another Roger de Montgomeri, living in the time of Richard III and his brother Robert, Dukes of Normandy, and who in an early deed describes himself: "Ego Rogerius, quam dicunt Montgomeri." His son Roger, the subject of this memoir, in the act of foundation for the Abbey of Troarn in the Hiemois, acknowledging and distinguishing his father in the following words: "Ego Rogerius, ex Normannis, Normannus magni autem Rogerii filius."

"The old chronicler, Robert du Mont, had heard," observes Mr. Stapleton, "of the reputed descent from a niece of the Duchess Gunnora, wife of Richard 1, Duke of Normandy, but the genealogy given is certainly erroneous in making her, as wife to Hugh de Montgomeri, the immediate progenitrix of Roger, the Viscount of the Oximin or Hiemois."

To any one unaccustomed to the examination of such subjects, it would appear strange that modern historians and genealogists could have overlooked the obvious inference to be drawn from the very circumstantial account given of the assassination of Osbern the seneschal by Guillaume de Jumièges himself, who, in the second chapter of his seventh book,,,,,,, informs us that Osbern, the son of Herfast, brother of the Duchess Gunnora, had his throat cut by William, son of Roger de Montgomeri, one night while sleeping in the Duke's chamber at Vaudreuil; that Roger, for his perfidy, was exiled to Paris; and that five of his sons, Hugh, Robert, Roger, William, and Gilbert, continued their wicked careers in Normandy.

Surely no statement can be much clearer than this that there was a Roger de Montgomeri living during the minority of William II, Duke of Normandy, who had five sons, the third being named after him, and who, it is evident from subsequent passages in the same and other histories, was the Roger de Montgomeri who ultimately became Earl of Shrewsbury. Of these five sons we can trace the destinies. Hugh, Robert, and William were slain, -- the latter by Barno de Glotis, a servant of the Seneschal Osbern in revenge for the murder of his master. Roger was Viscount of the Hiemois; and Gilbert, his youngest brother, was unintentionally poisoned by his sister-in-law, as I shall hereafter have occasion to mention.

Of the five sons of the first Roger de Montgomeri, Hugh was apparently the eldest, as at the foot of one of his charters in the time of Duke Robert is "Signum Hugonis filii ejus," and it is therefore highly probable that the father of the first Roger might have been named Hugh, and was the husband of one of the nieces of Gunnora, and the confusion have arisen from that circumstance.

The story told by the monk of Jumièges, though clear enough ass regardss the family of Montgomeri, is obscure in other respects. William de Montgomeri is named as the murderer of Osbern, who, if there be any truth in the statement of Brooke, must have been his near kinsman, and Roger, the father of the criminal, is banished, apparently for the crime; which would imply that he was " particeps criminis" -- the instigator or accomplice of his son.

However this may be, it appears to have been the result of a personal quarrel, if not a family feud, for Orderic records that Osbern, the steward of Normandy, and William and Hugh, two sons of Roger de Montgomeri, and many other powerful knights, made war on each other in turn, causing great distress and confusion in the country, which was deprived at that time of its natural protectors, simply mentioning that Osbern was one of the many nobles who fell in those mutual quarrels.

The genealogy of the Dukes of Normandy from Rollo is in all the collateral portions exceedingly confused, and the chronology of the duchy itself beset with difficulties.

Next to Charlemagne, the Duchess Gonnor, or Gunnora, appears to have been the favourite starting-point for our Norman genealogists. If there is any insuperable obstacle in the way of hooking their line on to the Emperor of the West, they eagerly hitch it up, no matter how, to some loose end of the family of that fortunate fair one for whose romantic history we are indebted to the pages of Guillaume de Jumièges. As it is short ass well as romantic, and so very old that it may be new to many of my readers, I will venture to tell it in the fewest words possible.

One of the foresters of Richard 1, Duke of Normandy, was blest with a most beautiful wife, of Danish blood it would appear, named Sanfrie, the report of whose charms inspired the Duke with a vehement desire to ascertain the truth of it by personal observation. He therefore ordered a hunting party in the direction of the forester's dwelling, at which he stopped during the day, as a matter of course for rest and refreshment. The beautiful Sanfrie received her sovereign as was her duty, and the Duke was so captivated that he commanded her husband to resign her to him. As resistance could avail nothing, the woman, who had as much wit as beauty, contrived to substitute her sister for herself, and, the Duke, luckily for all parties, was not only well pleased with the exchange, but piously rejoiced that be had escaped a more flagrant breach of the decalogue. The fair substitute was named Gonnor or Gunnora, and on the death of Richard's first wife became Duchess of Normandy, and mother of Duke Richard II, called after her Gonnorides.

Such is the story, and at least there is no doubt about the marriage, which naturally led to the elevation of the other members of the Duchess's family. Besides Sanfrie (the wife of the forester), Gunnora had two sisters, the one named Eva or Weeva, and the other Avelina or Duvelima, and a brother named Herfast: and to one or other of these lucky Danes the majority of our Norman pedigrees are, as I have stated, hung on by hook or by crook.

The date of the death of the elder Roger de Montgomeri is not yet known, but he was evidently dead in 1056, when Roger II invited Gislebert, Abbot of Chatillon, with his monks, to Froarn, and expelled thence the twelve canons who had been placed there by his father in 1022, and had abandoned themselves to gluttony, debauchery, carnal pleasures, and worldly occupations.

We have already heard of William Talvas, the Lord of Belesme, who cursed the Conqueror in his cradle (vide p. 9, ante). Roger de Montgomeri married, in 1048, Mabel, the daughter of that William, and niece of Ivo de Belesme, Bishop of Séez from 1035 to 1070. By this match he acquired aa large portion of the domains of his father-in-law, and by the advice of Bishop lvo, his wife's uncle, transferred the Church of St. Martin of Séez to Theodoric, Abbot of St. Evroult, and, in conjunction with hiss wife, earnestly entreated the Bishop to erect a monastery there, which it appears he did. Now this Mabel, the chronicler tells us, was both powerful and politic, shrewd and fluent, but extremely cruel. Still she had a high regard for the excellent Theodoric, and in some things submitted to his admonitions, although in general averse to religious men.

"This lady," he subsequently tells us, "maliciously caused many troubles to the monks of St. Evroult, on account of the hatred she bore to the family of Giroie, founders of that abbey, but as her husband, Roger de Montgomeri, loved and honoured the monks, she did not venture to exhibit any open signs of her vindictive feeling. She therefore made the abbey her frequent resort, attended by numerous bands of armed retamers, under pretence of claiming the hospitality of the brotherhood, but to their great oppression, in consequence of their poverty through the barrenness of their land. At one time, when she had taken up her abode at the abbey with a hundred men-at-arms, and was remonstrated with by Abbot Theodoric on the sinful absurdity of coming with such a splendid retinue to the dwelling of poor anchorites, she exclaimed, in great wrath, 'When I come again my followers shall be still more numerous!' The abbot replied, 'Trust me, unless you repent of this iniquity, you will suffer what will be very painful to you.' And so it happened, for the very night following she was attacked by a disorder which caused her great suffering. Upon this she gave instant orders for being carried forth from the abbey, and flying in a state of alarm from the territory of St. Evroult, passed by the dwelling of a certain farmer named Roger Suissar, whose newly-born child she stopped for a few moments to suckle, with a hope of obtaining relief. It caused her severe pain at the time, but she reached home, we are told, completely restored to health, the unfortunate infant dying shortly afterwards."

Of course the honest monk who believes "each strange tale devoutly true" has no suspicion that the abbot took care that his prophecy should be fulfilled, and gave the very inconvenient visitor a dose which would not kill her, but cure her of coming to the abbey. The death of the baby, if it did die, was a coincidence too tempting not to be made the most of.

In 1063 Arnould d'Eschafour, son of William Giroie, the founder of the Abbey of St. Evroult, against whose family a deadly hatred had been continually cherished by that of Belesme, and who by the machinations of Mabel had been banished Normandy, presented himself at the Court of the Duke, and offering him a magnificent mantle, humbly entreated that his inheritance might he restored to him. The Duke, at that moment being in want of brave soldiers for his wars with the Manceaux and the Bretons, with his usual policy accepted the gift, and promised to restore him his estates (the greater proportion of which Mabel had contrived to obtain for her husband), giving him meanwhile free passage through his territories for a limited time.

Returning from the Court in company with Gilbert de Montgomeri, brother of Roger, he stopped at his Castle of Eschafour, then in the possession of Roger and Mabel, whose attendants pressed him earnestly to partake of some refreshments their lady had ordered them to set before him. He had, however, received from a friend a hint of some treachery, and remembering the warning, steadily refused to touch either the meat or the wine. Gilbert, who had ridden there with him, quite unconscious of the foul design, took a cup without dismounting from his horse, and draining its poisoned contents, died three days afterwards at Remalord. Thus, observes Orderic, this perfidious woman, attempting to destroy her husband's rival, caused the death of his only surviving brother, who was in the flower of his youth, and much distinguished for his chivalrous gallantry. Foiled in this attempt, she shortly afterwards made another, as deadly and unfortunately more successful. By means of entreaties and promises she induced Roger Gulafre, the chamberlain of Arnould, to become the instrument of her murderous designs.

Arnould being at Gourville, near Châtres, with his relatives, Giroieeee deeee Courville and Willlliaamm, surnamed Gouet de Montmirail, the traitor Gulafre took an opportunity of serving to his master and the other two nobles the poisoned beverage he had received from Mabel: Giroie and William de Montmirail survived the effects of the poison, but Arnould, after languishing for some days, expired on the 1st of January, 1064. After his decease the great family of Giroie gradually fell to decay, and for twenty-six years their lands remained in the possession of that of Montgomeri.

A truly terrible fate, however, awaited this infamous woman, who, according to the chronicler, had caused many great lords to be disinherited and to beg their bread in foreign lands. Amongst her victims was Hugh de la Roche d'lgé, in the Canton de Belesme, from whom she hadd wrested his castle on the rock, and had deprived of the inheritance of the lands of his fathers. In the extremity of his distress he undertook a desperate enterprise. With the assistance of his three brothers, men of undaunted courage, he forced an entry by night into the chamber of the Countess (for such was her rank at that time) at a place called Bures, on the Dive, near Froarn, and severed her head from her body as she lay in bed after having taken a bath. Their vengeance satiated, they lost no time in making good their retreat. Hugh de Montgomeri, her second son, who was in the castle with sixteen men-at-arms, on hearing of his mother's murder, instantly took horse and pursued the assassins, but was unable to overtake them, as they had taken the precaution to break down behind them the bridges over the rivers, which, being flooded and the night dark, presented such obstacles in the way of the pursuers that the four brothers succeeded in crossing the frontiers of Normandy, and took unmolested the road to Apulia.

Mabel was buried at Froarn on the 5th of December, 1082, Durandus being at that time the abbot who disgraced himself by causing a fulsome epitaph, preserved by Orderic, to be inscribed on the tomb of a detestable murderess.

I have travelled a little out of the record, as the lawyers say, in order to complete the story of this special representative of the hereditary wickedness of the family of Belesme, and must now return to her husband, whom the chronicler appears to acquit of direct complicity in the darker deeds of his wife, and simply observes, that as long as Mabel lived he was, at her instigation, a very troublesome neighbour to the inmates of Ouche, she having been always opposed to the family of Giroie. In 1066 we find him at the Council of Lillebonne, and, according to Taylor's List, contributing a noble contingent to the fleet of his sovereign, "A Rogero de Mongomeri sexaginta naves," the furnishing of which by no means proves that he accompanied them to England.

Wace is the only writer worth consideration who speaks of him as present in the great conflict, and selected by the Duke to command a wing of the invading army, while Dugdale, quoting the annals of St. Augustin at Canterbury, says he "led the middle part," which Wace as distinctly asserts was led by William himself, composed of all his principal nobles, his personal friends and kinsmen. Neither Robert du Mont, nor William of Jumièges, nor Benoit de St.-More, nor William of Poitiers, nor the authorr of Carmen de Bello make any mention of Roger de Montgomeri at that period, while Wace, not content with giving him the command of an important division, tells us of his single combat with a gigantic Englishman, captain of a hundred men, who, with his long Saxon axe, had hewed down horse and man till the Normans stood aghast at him. Roger de Montgomeri, riding at full speed with his lance couched, and shouting "strike, Frenchmen!" ("Ferrez, Franceiz") bore the giant to the earth, and revived the courage of his soldiers. Orderic, however, seems never to have heard of this brilliant exploit, nor anyone else that I am aware of.

In 1068, however, he appears to have been in England, and two years afterwards received from the Conqueror the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury, with the honour of Eye in Suffolk, and various estates in the counties of Cambridge, Warwick, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, and Middlesex, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty-seven manors, besides the cities of Chichester and Shrewsbury, and the Castle of Arundel.

At the same date (1070), by the death of Ivo, Bishop of Séez, he became,, in right of his wife Mabel, Seigneur of Belesme and Count of Alencon, which, added to his patrimonial lordship of Montgomeri, rendered him comparatively as powerful in Normandy as in England.

In 1077, the Earl of Shrewsbury accompanied King William in his expedition to recover the province of Maine, which had revolted, and, after its submission, marched with a division of the army to the relief of the Castle of La Flèche, in which its lord, John de la Flèche wasas besieged by Fulk le Rechin, Count of Anjou. A battle being prevented by the interposition of some Cardinal not named, terms of peace were agreed upon, Roger Earl of Shrewsbury and William Count of Evreux taking a prominent part in the negotiations. This treaty is known as the Peace of Blanchelande or of Bruere, from the locality in which it was concluded.

After the death of his wicked wife Mabel by the vengeful sword of Hugh de la Roche d'lgé, in December, 1082, Roger de Montgomeri married Adelaide,,, daughter of Everard de Puiset, an amiable and virtuous lady, who wrought by her advice and her example a great change for the better in his character, which, naturally good, had been warped by the arts and influence of his former Countess.

His building of the church at Quatford, near Bridgenorth, in Shropshire, was due to one of those so-called " pious frauds," of which we read so many accounts in our mediaeval chronicles, and which in this instance was practised on the Countess Adelaide.

On the first passage of this excellent lady from Normandy to England there arose so great a storm at sea, that nothing but shipwreck was expected by the mariners. The chaplain of the Countess, being much wearied with long watching, fell asleep, and saw in his dreams a comely matron, who said to him, "If your lady would be preserved from the danger of this dreadful tempest, let her vow to God that she will build a church to the honour of St. Mary Magdalen in the place where she shall first meet the Earl, her husband, in England" (he having preceded her thither some short time), "and specially where an hollow oak groweth near a hog-stye." All which, when the priest awoke, he related to the Countess, who forthwith made her vow accordingly, whereupon the tempest ceased, and she and her attendants landed safely in England. Journeying to rejoin her husband, she, after divers days, encountered him near Quatford, in a wood, hunting, at a certain spot where such an oak as "the comely matron" had described then grew -- and near a hog-stye, I presume, though it is not mentioned. She lost no time in informing her lord of the chaplain's vision and her consequent vow, and prayed him to fulfil it. The Earl, in gratitude for the preservation of his wife, readily assented. The church in honour of St. Mary Magdalen was built, endowed with ample possessions, and given to the Earl's collegiate chapel in the castle at Bridgenorth -- much to the advantage, no doubt, of the reverend chaplain, who may have been one of the clergymen, Godebald or Herbert, by whose counsels, Orderic tells us, in addition to those of Odelirius, the Earl was always prosperously guided.

The Earl, in common with many of the Norman nobility, appears to have been much attached to Robert Court-heuse, who, with all his faults, was brave, generous, and kindly-hearted. Witness his conduct when besieging his brother Henry in Mont St. Michel, in 1091. The garrison, being in great distress from want of water, Robert forbade his soldiers to prevent detachments issuing from the place to draw water from the wells, and, on being blamed by William Rufus for his consideration, exclaimed, "What, shall we suffer our brother to perish of thirst? who can now give us another should we lose him?" Where shall we find such an incident recorded of the heartless tyrant, his father, who ridiculed and hated him?

As early as 1081, we find the name of Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, amongst those who zealously interceded with King William at Rouen in favour of Robert after the battle of Gerberoi, and, after long pleading, succeeded in effecting a reconciliation between them, which, reluctantly consented to by the former, was of very brief duration; and on the accession of William Rufus he proved still further his affection for Robert, and his opinion of the injustice with which he had been treated by the Conqueror, by joining with the Earls of Kent, Cornwall, and other powerful noblemen in the attempt to place Robert on the throne of England, as the eldest son and rightful heir to the crown; and though not openly taking up arms, secretly favouring the movement, his three eldest sons, Robert, Hugh, and Roger, being amongst the young nobility who held Odo's castle at Rochester against the King. The Earl of Shrewsbury is said to have been gained over by the artful promises of Rufus to submit his right to the crown to be decided by him and others whom the late King had assigned to be his curators; and after the reduction of Rochester, and the suppression of the rebellion, we find Earl Roger fortifying his Castles of Belesme and Alencon in the cause of the King, and his son Robert a prisoner of that very Duke of Normandy, to place whom on the throne they had so recently risked their lives and properties.

The accounts of these tergiversations are so confused and discordant that, beyond main facts, it is dangerous to state anything, and as to the motives we are completely in the dark; but the days of Roger de Montgomeri were now briefly to be numbered. He returned to England in 1094, and having obtained from the Abbey of Cluni, of which he was a benefactor, the habit of its celebrated abbot, St. Hugh, assumed it, and was shorn a monk in the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul at Shrewsbury, with the consent, we are assured, of his wife, the Countess Adeliza, and for three days before his death wholly applied himself to divine conference and devout prayers with the rest of the community, expiring, in the odour of sanctity, 6th kalends of August, in the above year, leaving by his first wife, Mabel, five sons and four daughters: Robert, the eldest son, who succeeded to his mother's large estates in Normandy as Count of Alencon and Seigneur de Belesme; Hugh, who inherited his father's domains in England, with the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury; Roger, surnamed of Poitou, in consequence of his marriage with Almodis Countess of March, who possessed great estates in that province, and also sometimes called Earl of Lancaster for a similar reason; Philip, who accompanied Duke Robert to the Crusades, and died at Antioch; and Arnoul, who married Lafracota, daughter of a king of Ireland, and by conquest obtained that part of South Wales now called Pembrokeshire, and, building a castle there, appears to have been sometime entitled Earl of Pembroke, as his brother was of Lancaster. The daughters by Mabel were Emma, Abbess of Almenache; Maud, wife of Robert, Count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall; Mabel, wife of Hugh de Château-neuf; and Sibil, who marriedd Robert Fitz Hamon, Lord of Corboil, in Normandy.

By his second wife he had only a son named Everard, who took holy orders, and was chaplain to King Henry I.

The Earls of Eglintoun are presumed to be descended from this family of Montgomeri, but no proof has ever been made, and though in 1696 there existed a Comte de Montgomeri in France, an Earl of Montgomery in England, a Montgomery Earl of Eglintoun in Scotland, and a Montgomery Earl of Mount Alexander in Ireland, the link has yet to be found which would legitimately connect these noble families with that of the great Earl of Shrewsbury, who has only transmitted his name to us in that county of North Wales which he won by the sword and called Montgomery.

Roger married Mabel de Talvas d'Alencon in 1048 in Perche, France. Mabel was born about 1026 in Alençon, Orne, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 2 Dec 1079 in Bures Castle near Bayeux, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Facts about this person:

Alt. Born Abt. 1066

Sybil married Earl of Gloucester Robert FitzHamon about 1084 in Normandy, France. Robert was born about 1050 in Cruelly, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 10 Mar 1106/07 in At the battle of Falaise. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

PEMBROKE
From Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833)

PEMBROKE, a borough, market-town, and sea-port, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Castlemartin, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 6 miles (S.E. by E.) from Milford, 10 (S. by E.) from Haverford west, and 248 (W.) from London, containing, exclusively of the parish of Monkton, 5383 inhabitants. The name of this place is derived from the words Pen-Bro, literally signifying a headland or promontory, and originally applied to a district nearly corresponding in extent with the present hundred of Castlemartin, stretching out into the sea, and separating Milford Haven, on the north, from the Bristol channel on the south. On the erection of a castle and the consequent growth of the town, the name of the district in which they were situated was transferred to them, and subsequently to the whole of the county of which that town became the capital. The early history of this place is involved in some confusion: it is stated by Giraldus Cambrensis, that Arnulph de Montgomery erected here, in the reign of Henry I, a slender fortress of stakes and turf, which, on his return into England, he placed under the custody of his constable and lieutenant, Giraldus de Windesor. In the Chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarvan, who was contemporary with Giraldus, it is expressly stated that the castle was attacked in 1092, and again in 1094, by the forces of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, but that it was so strongly fortified as to baffle every effort of that chieftain to reduce it. The latter of these dates, which is some years prior to the accession of Henry I, contradicts the statement of Giraldus Cambrensis, with respect to the time of the original foundation; and the result of the attacks by so formidable an enemy is at variance with his description of the character of the fortress. Arnulph de Montgomery, on the accession of Henry I., having joined in a confederacy against that sovereign, the castle of Pembroke, together with his other estates, became forfeited to the crown, and Henry afterwards conferred the castle, together with the lordship of Carew and several other manors, on Giraldus de Windesor, Arnulph's lieutenant, who had married Nt, daughter of Rhys ab Tewdwr. According to Caradoc of Llancarvan, Giraldus or Gerald de Windesor rebuilt the castle of Pembroke in the year 1105, on a more advantageous site, called "Congarth Vechan," and removed into it his family and his goods. Soon after this, according to some authorities, Owain, son of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, having heard the beauty of Nt extolled at a banquet given by Cadwgan, either at his castle of Aberteivy, or at that of Eare Weare, in the parish of Amroath, came, under the pretence of relationship, to pay her a visit at this place, and becoming enamored at this interview, resolved upon carrying her away by force. For this purpose, having obtained the aid of some young men as profligate as himself he returned in the evening to the castle, which he entered unobserved, and, placing a guard over the chamber of Nt, set fire to the building, and, in the confusion and alarm which ensued, forcibly conveyed her and her children to his residence in Powys. Other writers, however, are of opinion that the castle of Carew was the scene of this outrage and abduction. The alliance of Gerald with the native princes of the country, by his marriage with Nt, who was some time after restored to him, subsequently excited the jealousy of Henry, who used every possible means to circumscribe his authority, as far as was consistent with the safety of the English interests in this province.

Gilbert de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, was created Earl of Pembroke, by Henry I., in 1109, and thus became possessed of the royal territories in this quarter, and of the castle of Pembroke; and in 1138, the earldom was erected into a county palatine, with the privilege of jura regalia; and, under the authority of its earl, a session and a monthly county court were held within the castle. In the latter all pleas of the crown were determined, fines levied, and recoveries passed: the writs were issued in the name of the earl, who held also at this place his courts of chancery and exchequer. Strongbow enlarged the castle, which he strengthened with additional fortifications, and made it in every respect a residence suitable to the dignity of the elevated rank which he held. He also incorporated the inhabitants of the town, which had arisen under the protection of the castle, and which he surrounded with a lofty embattled wall, defended by numerous bastions, and entered by three principal gates and a postern. Under the protection and influence of its earls Pembroke became a place of great importance; and in the year 1172, Henry II. kept the festival of Easter in the castle. Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the battle of Barnet, retired into the castle, in which were then residing the young Earl of Richmond and his mother; but he was soon besieged by Morgan ab Thomas, brother of the celebrated Rhys ab Thomas, a zealous partisan of the house of York, to whom he must have surrendered the fortress, had not David, another brother, who had embraced the opposite interest, come promptly to his assistance, and conveyed him, together with the Countess of Richmond and her son, to Tenby, where they embarked for France.

The suppression of the palatine jurisdiction, in the reign of Henry VIII., deprived Pembroke of its dignity as the metropolis of a regality; but during the civil war of the seventeenth century, its strength rendered it the scene of many important transactions. The castle, at the commencement of the war, was the only fortress possessed by the parliamentarians in this part of the principality, and was placed under the command of Colonel Rowland Laugharne. In 1643, Admiral Swanley arrived with the parliamentarian fleet in Milford Haven, and reinforced the garrison with two hundred mariners and several small pieces of cannon, with the aid of which the governor succeeded in reducing most of the neighboring fortresses, which were garrisoned for the king. In 1647, Colonel Laugharne, and likewise Colonels Powell and Poyer, abandoning the interest of the parliament, and embracing that of the opposite party, made Pembroke their head-quarters, and the rallying point for the army which they raised on behalf of the king; and after their defeat in the disastrous battle of St. Fagan's, in Glamorganshire, retired hither with the remnant of their forces, closely followed by the parliamentarian army, led by Cromwell in person, who immediately commenced the siege of the town, taking post at Welsdon, a village about two miles and a half from it. The siege was conducted with the greatest vigor, and sustained with obstinate valor by the garrison, who were resolved to hold out to the last extremity; but Cromwell having found means to destroy their mills, and their supply of water being also cut off by the destruction of a staircase leading into a cavern under one of the towers, in which was their chief reservoir, there remained only the alternative of a lingering death or immediate submission. Under these circumstances the garrison capitulated, on condition that their chief leaders should throw themselves on the mercy of the parliament; that several of the inferior officers should leave the kingdom, not to return within two years; that all arms and ammunition should be given up, and that the town should be spared from plunder. Laugharne, Powell, and Poyer were afterwards tried by a court martial, and being found guilty of treason, were condemned to be shot; but the authorities being induced to spare two of them, it was ordered that they should draw lots for this favor; and accordingly three papers were folded up, on two of which was written "Life given by God, "and the third left blank: the latter was drawn by Colonel Poyer, who was shot in Covent Garden, on the 25th of April, 1649. That the surrender of the garrison was justly attributed to the failure of their supply of water, by the accident above noticed, has been confirmed by a recent discovery of the cavern, in which was found a copious spring of water, with the shattered remains of a staircase leading to it from the tower, the bones of a man, and several cannon balls.

Family/Spouse: Lafracoth O'Brien. Lafracoth (daughter of Muirchertach O'Brien and Dubhchobhleigh Na Ossory) was born in 1076 in Munster, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Seigneur de Belleme and Alecon.

1102 Deprived of English lands and exiled to France by Henry I.

Family/Spouse: Agnes de Ponthieu. Agnes (daughter of Count of Ponthieu I Guy) was born about 1080 in Ponthieu, France; died after 6 Oct 1100. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Killed by Norse Raiders off the coast of Anglessey Island

Family/Spouse: Count de Mortaigne Robert de Conteville. Robert (son of Harlevin de Conteville and Officer of the Household Hariette de Falaise) was born in 1037 in Mortaigne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Avice married William "The Younger" Peverel in 1112 in La Marche, Normandy, France. William (son of William de Peverel) was born in 1080 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England; died in 1155 in Bourn, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maud married 1st Earl of Gloucester Robert de Caen about 1115 in Gloucestershire, England. Robert (son of King of England Henry I "Beauclerc" and Sibyl Corbet) was born about 1090 in Caen, Normandy, France; died on 31 Oct 1147 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Keeper of Dublin Lord of Llanstephan, Wales Maurice FitzGerald. Maurice (son of Constable of Pembroke Castle Gerald FitzWalter and Nest verch Rhys) was born about 1100 in Windsor, Berkshire, England; died after 1 Sep 1176. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Helie de Bourgogne. Helie (daughter of Odo (Eudes) Borel, Duke of Burgundy I and Sibylla de Bourgogne, daughter of Duke of Burgundy Eudes I "The Red" Borel de Bourgogne and Sibylla Burgundy) was born about 1080 in Bourgogne, France; died on 28 Feb 1141. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Isabel FitzRichard. Isabel (daughter of William FitzRichard) was born about 1084. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married 2nd Earl of Derby Robert de Ferrers in 1135. Robert (son of 1st Earl of Derby Robert de Ferrers and Hawise de Vitre) was born in 1100 in Ferrers, Derbyshire, England; died in 1160 in Merevale, Warwickshire, England; was buried . [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maud married 2nd Earl of Chester Ranulph de Gernon about 1141 in Gloucestershire, England. Ranulph (son of Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester and Lucy de Taillebois) was born in 1099 in Guernon Castle, Normandy, France; died on 16 Dec 1153 in Chester, Cheshire, England; was buried in St Werburgh, Chester, Cheshire, 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]

Notes:

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND FOR THE YEAR1914 PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS - PART 11, VOL.XLIV PAPERS

The Fitzgeralds Barons of Offaly

BYGODDA RD H. ORPEN, M.R.I.A., Member [Read 24 February 1914]
When studying afresh the pedigree of the barons of Offaly, from whom sprang the great house of the earls of Kildare, and, more recently, the dukes of Leinster, I was at the outset puzzled to know how they first became entitled to lands in Offaly. Strongbow, cantred of Offelan, the cantred in which Naas is situated, and this district was quite distinct from Offaly. Moreover, about the same time, Strongbow granted Offaly to Robert de Birmingham.

The eldest son of Maurice Fitzgerald was William FitzMaurice, who inherited the lands in Offelan granted to his father, and was confirmed in them by John, Lord of Ireland, in 1185. He was known as Baron of Naas. William gave half the cantred to his brother Gerald FitzMaurice. who thus obtained lands in Offelan, with centers at Maynooth and Rathmore. This grant was also confirmed by John in the reign of Henry II. But besides these lands, and certain lands about Croom (Limerick), in Imokilly, and elsewhere, with which we are not here concerned, as early as 1199 Gerald was in possession of the lands of Lea and Geashill. These places are in Offaly, and gave names to the principal Geraldine manors there. About September, 1199, they were claimed against Gerald FitzMaurice by one Maurice FitzPhilip, who seems to have been an official of King John. It does not seem worth while to make a conjecture about this claim, which is obscurely stated, and appears to have failed. About the same time the King granted letters of protection to Gerald, his chattels, men, and possessions, and at any rate it is clear from a mandate in the Patent Roll (5 John) that at Gerald's death, shortly before January 15, 1204, he was seized in his demesne as of fee of the castles of Lea and Geashill, Gerald FitzMaurice I, then, is rightly regarded as first baron of Offaly.

Even this bare statement of facts would naturally lead us to inquire whether Gerald did not obtain his lands in Offaly by a marriage with a daughter of the house of De Birmingham. He is indeed stated by Gilbert to have married a daughter of Hamo de Valognes, who was justiciar c.1197, but no authority is given for this statement, and I have been unable to find any support for it, While endeavoring to trace the devolution of Offaly, however, I have been led to the following conclusions:-first, that Gerald did, as a matter of fact, marry Eva de Birmingham, presumably daughter of Robert de Birmingham, first grantee of Offaly; that she was the mother of Maurice FitGerald II, second baron of Offaly, and that it was presumably through this marriage the family first acquired lands in Offaly; and secondly, that the heir of Maurice FitzGerald, second baron of Offaly, was not, as usually stated, his son Maurice FitzMaurice, but his grandson, Maurice FitzGerald III, son of an elder son, Gerald, who died in his father's lifetime, c.1243, that this grandson, who married as his second wife Agnes de Valence, the King's cousin, and was drowned in the Irish Channel in 1268. was the third baron of Offaly, and was succeeded in the barony by his son; and that Maurice FitzMaurice, who died in 1286, was never baron of Offaly at all. These are the main new points I hope to establish in this paper.

In dealing with the early pedigree of the Geraldines, it must be borne in mind that throughout the thirteenth century, at any rate, the family had no fixed surname. Members of the family are always designated in the contemporary documents by personal patronymies, changing with each generation. Thus in Latin documents we read of Mauricius filius Geraldi, Geraldus filius Mauricii, Thomas filius Maurieii, Johannes filius Thome, andc. So it was in French, substituting fiz (fitz) for filius and eve nearly Irish writers, though more ready to fix on a permanent patronymic, speak of Mac Muiris as well as Mac Gerailt. Neglect of this custom has contributed to the confusion which has beset the early steps in the pedigree of some branches, and yet the custom, if borne in mind, assists rather than impedes the correct affiliation of individuals. As, however, the names Maurice, Gerald, Thomas, and John recur more than once in the same or in different branches of the family, we must be on our guard against hasty identifications from identity of name. Dates must of course be carefully noted; but even but even accurate dates often fail to distinguish different individuals of the same name, and then the most important clue to identity is often to be found in the careful tracing of the devolution of lands in the various lines. For the purpose of this paper it will be necessary to follow out the devolution of Offaly.

On the death of Gerald FitzMaurice, first baron of Offaly, his heir, as will presently appear, was his son Maurice FitzGerald, then a minor of about nine years of age. There was therefore a long minority. On January 15, 1204, the custody of the castles of Lea and Geashill, and the wardship of Gerald's heir, were assigned to Earl William Marshal as lord of Leinster. Early in 1207, William Marshal went to Ireland, where dissensions had arisen between the justiciar, Meiler, FitzHenry, and the barons of Leinster and Meath. It appears that Meiler, acting on the King's order, had taken Offaly into the King's hand, and that this and other high-handed proceedings had incensed the barons against him. On May 23, 1207, the King reprimanded the barons for presuming to create a new assize without his consent, and for demanding that the justiciar should restore Offaly. In my Ireland under the Normans (vol. ii, pp. 209-215) I have endeavored to piece together the story of the discord between the earl and the justiciar, as far as it can be gathered from L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marhal, and from allusions in the records, and I need not here repeat it. Suffice it is to say that in March, 1208, the earl made his peace with the King who ordered Meiler to give seisin to the earl of the land of Offaly, with its castles. Maurice FitzGerald II appears to have come of age shortly before July 5, 1215, when he made a fine with the King of 60 marks to have the lands of Gerald, his father, in Ireland, with the castles of Crumeth (Croom), and of Dungarvan, in Oglassin (in Imokilly). On November 26, 1216, one of the first acts of the new King, or rather of Earl William Marshal, "rector regis et regne, " was to order Geoffrey de Marisco, the justiciar, to "cause Maurice FitzGerald to have seis in of the land of Maynooth, and of the lands whereof Gerald, his father, died seized in Ireland." Nothing is said expressly about Lea and Geashill, or the lands of Offaly.

It is not until the close of 1226 that we get a clue as to what had become of Offaly. It is, perhaps, not irrelevant to note that at this time the second Earl William Marshal, then lord of Leinster, was at enmity with Geoffrey de Marisco, who, in the preceding June, had superseded the earl as justiciar, the earl, as I have elsewhere shown, being strongly opposed to the new policy of confiscation which Geoffrey was appointed to carry out with regard to the King of Connacht. On December 10, 1226, the King issued a mandate to the "barons, knights, and free-tenants of Leinster" touching a plaint before the court of William Earl Marshal between Maurice FitzGerald, plaintiff, and Geoffrey de Marisco, justiciar of Ireland, defendant. Now, this mandate is preceded by a noteworthy preamble stating in general terms the law applicable to the case. I give this preamble and mandate as rendered from the Patent Roll, inserting in square brackets what I conceive to be its application to the case in question. After referring to King John's having ordained that English laws should be in force in Ireland, the preamble proceeds as follows:-

"Whereas the law and custom of England is that if a man [in this case Geoffrey de Marisco] marry a woman [Eva de Birmingham], whether widow [as in the case if Eva] or other, having an inheritance [Offaly], and he afterwards have issue by her [Robert de Marisco and perhaps other issue]whose cry shall be heard within four walls, that man, if he survive his said wife, shall have for his life the custody of his wife's inheritance, even though she may have an heir of full age [Maurice FitzGerald] by a former husband [Gerald FitzMaurice]. We therefore command you that in the plaint which is in the court of Earl William Marshal, between Maurice Fitzgerald, plaintiff, and Geoffrey de Marisco, our justiciar of Ireland, defendant, or in any like case, ye in no wise presume to give judgment to the contrary. Witness the King at Westminster, 10 December [1226]."

Now there is no doubt that Geoffrey de Marisco married Eva de Birmingham. She was his wife in February 1218, and was still his wife in June, 1223. It would seem then to follow that Eva de Birmingham was the mother of Maurice FitzGerald, and therefore had been wife of Gerald FitzMaurice. On no other supposition does the statement of law appear relevant to the case. The lands being in Leinster, and of the heritance of Eva de Birmingham, were presumably in Offaly. Thus our conjecture that Gerald FitzMaurice obtained Lea and Geashill, in Offaly, by a Birmingham marriage receives curious confirmation. If these lands were inherited by Eva de Birmingham, she would have been entitled to hold them of the Marshals, lords of Leinster, for her life. She died ex hypothesi shortly before the plaint was brought by her son and heir, Maurice FitzGerald, to recover the lands against Geoffrey; but the King intervened with a statement of the law, and Geoffrey remained entitled by "the curtsey of England."

But let us examine the circumstances a little more closely, and, in the first place, see how the dates work out. As Maurice FitzGerald came of age about 1215, he was born about 1194, and Eva was married to Gerald, his father, probably in or shortly before 1193. Gerald was dead in January 1204, and we next hear an Eva de Birmingham - presumably the same Eva-as the wife of Geoffrey FitzRobert, who mentions her as his wife in two deeds, to which Hugh le Rous, Bishop of Ossory (1202-1218), was one of the witnesses. He was, perhaps, the Geoffrey FitzRobert who was the second husband of Basilia, widow of Raymond le Gros, and at any rate he was one of William Marshal's most trusted vassals. He held from him the barony of Kells, in Ossory, and, early in the thirteenth century, was his seneschal of Leinster. He died in 1211, leaving Eva free to marry as her third husband Geoffrey de Marisco.

The Birmingham pedigree at this time is unfortunately obscure. With the exception of Robert de Birmingham, Strongbow's feoffee of Offaly, and this Eva, we hear of no one of the name in Ireland until about the year 1234, when mention is made of the land of Peter de Birmingham in Tethmoy. This Peter sided against Richard Marshal in this year, took part in the conquest of Connacht in the next, and in 1245 joined the expedition in aid of King Henry at Gannoe, in North Wales - in all three cases following the lead of Maurice FitzGerald.

I think he held his lands in Tethmoy as tenant of Maurice FitzGerald, and did not inherit them from Robert de Birmingham. It is noteworthy that the Birminghams, both in Leinster and in Connacht, were always surnamed by the Irish "Mac Fheorais," i.e. FitzPiers, and probably this Peter was the cponym of the clan. I conclude, then, that Eva, whether daughter or grand-daughter of Robert de Birmingham, was sole heiress of Offaly, and brought nominally the whole of it to her heir, Maurice FitzGerald II. There were indeed parts of Offaly in which the Normans never settled, but the early occupation was not confined to Lea (Clanmalier), Geashill, and Tethmoy. John FitzThomas of Desmond held the tuath of Oregan (ui Riagain), in Offaly, of Maurice Fitz Gerald III (to be mentioned later)for the moiety of the service of one knight with suit of court at Geashill.

According to the interpretation I have given of the mandate of December 10, 1226, Geoffrey de Marisco would, in ordinary course, have retained possession of Lea and Geashill up to his death. Now, eight years later, in consequence of the part he took against the Crown in the war of Richard Marshal, Geoffrey was thrown into prison, and his lands taken into the King's hands. Maurice FitzGerald took the leading part against Richard Marshal, and was rewarded by the King. It is clear from what follows that Maurice now obtained some lands of his which Geoffrey had held - and these lands were presumably Lea and Geashill. In September, 1234, when peace was made by the King at Marlborough between Gilbert Marshal and his brothers of the other part, and the community of Magnates of Ireland of the other part, the King granted to Maurice Fitzgerald that, notwithstanding the peace so made, he should have judgment of the King's Court touching certain tenements which Geoffrey de Marisco and others held of his (Maurice's) tenements. These tenements, we may infer with probability, were Lea and Geashill. Perhaps Geoffrey, facilitated the matter by surrendering the tenements to Maurice, for when, on August 3 1235, the King remitted his ire against Geoffrey, and ordered seisin to be given to him of his lands, he did so, "saving to the justiciar[Maurice] the lands which Geoffrey granted to him."

But if the conclusion that Eva de Birmingham, before she married Geoffrey de Marisco, was the wife of Gerald FitzMaurice should still seem no more than a plausible conjecture, fitting in with and explaining several facts indeed, but perhaps leaving open a chink for the admission of some other possible explanation, the following document - the last I shall quote on this point - will, I think , clinch the matter.

On August 19 1240, Maurice FitzGerald, the justiciar of Ireland, was granted provisionally "the custody of the land in Kerry which belonged to Robert de Mariscis who was the justiciar's brother, and the custody of Robert's heir." It is clear from this that Maurice FitzGerald, the justiciar in 1240, and Robert de Mariseis, were brothers of the half-blood, i.e. that they had the same mother. There can be little doubt that Robert de Mariscis was a son of Geoffrey de Marisco, or de Mariscis- the name is written in both ways - and bearing in mind what we have already established, the conclusion is irresistible: the mother of both Maurice and Robert was Eva de Birmingham.

To pass now to my second point, viz., that the heir of Maurice Fitzgerald, second baron of Offaly, was not his son known as Maurice FitzMaurice, but his grandson, another Maurice FitzGerald, son of his eldest son Gerald. This will perhaps be most conclusively shown by following out the devolution of Offaly; but it will be best to take first the crucial document which, properly understood, really settles the point. This document is calendered from the Close Roll, 42 Henry III, but not quite correctly, by Sweetman. Feeling great doubt about the correctness of the fifth line in Sweetman's abstract, which speaks of "the minority of Maurice, son and heir of the said Maurice FitzGerald, "I obtained from my friend Mr. Philip H. Hore a transcript of the entry in the Close Roll, and I found that the words here (when expanded) are: "ratione Mauricii filii Geraldi filii et heredis predicti Maureii filii Geraldiiqui infra ctatem est." Now in this passage the second filii must, I think, be taken in apposition to the immediately preceding Geraldii, and not to Maurieii, so that we have here four generations-Maurice, son of Gerald, son of Maurice, son of Gerald, which is, I think, correct. If the second filii be taken in apposition to Maurieii, we obtain the intrinsically absurd statement that Maurice, son of Gerald, was son of somebody else, viz., another Maurice, son of Gerald, and it is only through his omitting the first Gerald that this intrinsic absurdity does not appear on the face of Sweetman's abstract.

With this emendation, Sweetman's abstract is substantially correct. The document is an agreement made before the King, at Westminster, on Christmas Day, 1257, between the Lord Edward, the King's son, and Margaret, Countess of Lincoln, touching Offaly. The circumstances, partly recited in the document, were as follows:- Margaret, Countess of Lincoln, daughter of Robert de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, was widow of Walter Marshal, late Lord of Leinster (not, as stated in Burke, widow of Maurice Fitzgerald II), and as such she had obtained as dower the whole county of Kildare, and apparently the barony of Offaly. Accordingly, on the death of Maurice FitzGerald, second baron of Offaly, Margaret claimed the custody of the castles and lands of Offaly during the minority of the heir, namely, Maurice, son of the deceased baron's eldest son Gerald. It appears, however, that Maurice, younger (post nalus) son of the deceased baron, claimed the lands as against Maurice, his nephew (nepos suus), by virtue of his father's feoffment, or as his astrarius, or in some other way, and pending the decision of this claim, the Lord Edward would not give seisin to the countess. The agreement then virtually was that if Maurice (post nalus) persisted in his claim, the lands should be assigned to John FitzThomas [of Shanid]3 to hold pending the decision of the Lord Edward's court, and that if Maurice (post nalus) should make good his claim there under the feoffment or otherwise, then he should render fealty and relief to the countess; while if he should not make good his claim, then the lands and castles were to be restored to the custody of the countess during the minority of the heir.

It is really quite clear from this document that Maurice FitzMaurice was not, as stated in the received pedigrees, the eldest son and heir of Maurice FitzGerald II, who died in 1257, but a younger son (post nalus), and that the heir was Maurice FitzGerald III, grandson of the deceased, and nephew (nepos) of Maurice FitzMaurice. But, it may be asked, may not Maurice FitzMaurice have made good his claim to Offaly under his father's feoffment, and thus be rightly styled third baron, even though he was not the heir?

This question leads to a further correction. The feoffment alluded to appears to have been actually transcribed into the Red Book of the Earl of Kildare, begun in 1503. A sort of table of contents was compiled by William Roberts, Ulster King-at-Arms, and prefixed to a transcript of the Red Book made by him in 1633. This table has been printed in the Appendix to the Ninth Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, but it is incomplete, and sometimes misleading. The feoffment in question is there described as follows (p. 266):-"A graunt from Maurice, the sonne of Gerald, to his sonne Maurice, of all the lands of Offaly, Rathmoore, Fermayle, Carbry, with the castell of Sligath, all the lands of Fernanath, with the castle of Kilwisky, with lands in Tirconnell." Now from various documents, to some of which I shall refer, I was convinced that, as a matter of fact, Offaly did not go to Maurice FitzMaurice, but to his nephew Maurice FitzGerald III, and from him to his son Gerald FitzMaurice III. When recently, by the courtesy of Lord Frederick FitzGerald, I was given an opportunity of examining the Red Book, I turned up the deed in question, and found that it has been misunderstood, and is entirely misrepresented in the above-mentioned table of contents. As it is important to clear up this misconception, and as the deed has never, so far as I know, been printed, I give the essential parts of it here:-

"Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Mauricius filius Geraldi dedi et hacpresenti carta mea confirmani Mauricio filio meo pro homagio et serviciosuo et pro quieto clamio quam [sic] 1 michi fecit de tota terra Offalyecum omnibus suis pertinentiis et de terris de Maynooth Rathmore et deffermayll cum omnibus carum pertinenciis totam terram de Carbry cum Castro de Slygath tam in servicio quam redditibus et omnibus pertinenciissuis totam terram de ffermanath cum castro de Kylwysky2 tam andc. totamterram de Tirconyll tam andc. habendas et tenendas dicto Maurico etheredibus suis de me et heredibus meis iure hereditario libereandc. reddendo andc. unum falconem sorum vel decem solidos sterling andc. Hiistestibus domino Johanne filio Thome domino Johanne Pincerna Phillippode Stantona Mauricio filio Johannis Galfrido de Appilby Galfrido de Norragh Walerano de Wallesley Philippo de Hyntebyria (?) 3 Henrico de Capella Ricardo filio Willielmi Alexandro Crok Johanne filio Roberti Johanne Purcell Alano filio Mathei Ricardo de Santo fflorentio Nicholas de Dunheuyde Johanne le Poer Johanne de Capella Andrea le Poer Willclmode Punchardon Johanne Marescallo Roberto Crok Phillippo Wychecote et aliis." I think it will be seen that this deed is a grant from Maurice Fitzgerald to his son Maurice of certain lands in Sligo, Fermanagh, and Tirconnell, "in consideration of his homage and service, and inconsideration of the quit-claim which he has made to me of all the land of Offaly with all its appurtenances, and of the lands of Maynooth, Rathmore, and Fermayle with all their appurtenances."

So far from Offaly, andc., being included in the grant to Maurice FitzMaurice, his giving op to his father all claim to Offaly, andc., was the consideration for the grant of the other lands. The deed was perhaps executed not very long before the death of Maurice FitzGerald in 1257, and, at any rate, after the death of his eldest son Gerald, in 1243, when Maurice FitzMaurice may have been in actual possession of Offaly, asastrarius. Maurice FitzGerald II is said to have taken the habit of a Franciscan monk before his death, and to have died in the monastery which he had founded at Youghal.

I have now mentioned two documents - the only two so far as I know-which, as unfortunately described in the printed sources, may have misled previous writers into thinking that Maurice FitzMaurice was heir to his father, Maurice FitzGerald, the justiciar, and - though this is somewhat inconsistent-that Maurice FitzMaurice obtained Offaly by feoffment from his father. I have, however, shown that the documents themselves contain no such indications, but that the first clearly points to Maurice Fitzgerald, the justiciar's grandson, as the justiciar's heir, and the second plainly indicates that Offaly did not pass from the justiciar to his son Maurice. Positive Proof that Offaly passed to the justiciar's grandson and heir, Maurice FitzMaurice III, and that they were therefore third and fourth lords or barons of Offaly, respectively, will appear in the sequel; but it will help to a clearer understanding if we give some notes with regard to the justiciar's eldest son and his descendants, so as to establish the true succession in the senior line. They are not so well known as his second son, Maurice FitzMaurice.

Of Gerald, the justiciar's eldest son, we know little. He joined the King's expedition to Poiton in 1242, when he can hardly have been more than twenty-five years of age. He was paid and rewarded for his services, and is said to have died in Gascony in 1243. He left two infant children, a son and heir, Maurice FitzGerald III, and a daughter, Juliana, afterwards married to John de Cogan. There are several grants by Juliana in the Red book, to one of which we may here refer, as it is sufficiently establishes this part of the pedigree. It is a release and quit-claim from "Julianna Cogan, filia Geraldi filii Maurieii," to John FitzThomas, of all her rights, "ratione hereditarie successionis Mauricii filii Geraldi avi mei, Mauricii filii Geraldi fratris mei, et Geraldi filii Mauricii consanguinei mei," and it bears a date in July 1293.

Maurice FitzGerald III, who was still a minor in 1257, when his grandfather died, was numbered among the chief magnates of Ireland by 1262. He was implicated in the dissensions which arose in 1264 between the Geraldines and the Burkes, but probably his uncle, Maurice FitzMaurice, was the principal opponent of Walter de Burgh, the newly made Earl of Ulster. He was drowned when crossing the Channel to Ireland in July 1268, when he was about twenty-seven years of age. He was twice married, first to a wife whose name is unknown, by whom he had a son and heir, Gerald, born about February 1265, and secondly in 1266, to Agnes de Valence, the King's cousin. The Limerick lands were settled on this second marriage, but there was no issue from it.

There was now another long minority, and he wardship passed from hand to hand. Prince Edward granted the custody to Thomas de Clare, in recognition, no doubt, of the services of the House of Gloucester before and at battle of Evesham. By a deed of March 30, 1270, Thomas de Clare, for a fine of 3500 marks, sold to William de Valence the custody of the lands "which belonged to Maurice FitzGerald [III], deceased, with the marriage of his heirs, the custody of the castle of Leye and the manor of Rathingan." Here it appears plain enough for all to read that Maurice FitzMaurice (who was still alive) did not succeed to the lands in Offaly. Geashill is not specifically mentioned, perhaps because the castle had already been taken by the Irish, or more probably because Lea was "the chief castle of the barony," as stated in another document. From this last, indeed, it appears that Maurice FitzGerald III held the barony of Offaly of the lords of Leix, the chief of whom was Roger de Mortimer, by the service of twelve knights, and in 1274 it was decided before the King that Roger de Mortimer, and Matilda, his wife, were entitled to the "custody of the castle and honor of Leghey (Lea) till the age of Maurice's heirs, Maurice having held the castle and honor of them by knight service." Finally, in December 1283, Geoffrey de Geneville bound himself to William de Valence in 1200 "for the commission of lands of Maurice FitzGerald [III] and for the marriage of Gerald, son and heir of the said Maurice, under age, and in the custody of the said William. "This entry indeed suggests another correction in the received pedigree. It was clearly Gerald FitzMaurice III that married Joan, daughter of Geoffrey de Geneville, and not, as stated in Burke, Gerald FitzMaurice II, who died in 1243, before Geoffrey 's marriage. Gerald FitzMaurice III, fourth baron of Offaly, while not yet quite of age, appears to have led his vassals in the army of the justiciar into Wales in 1283-4, 1 at the time of the final conquest of that country. It was probably while he was absent in Wales that his castle of Lea was taken and burned by the Irish in 1284.2 Next year he was taken prisoner by "his own Irish of Offaly," to whom he was known as "Rothfalyaht" i.e. probably, Ruadh Failgheach, "the Red One of Offaly." In May 1285, he was granted a fair at Maynooth, and in 1287 he died. Accordingly to one (late, but probably correct) account he was slain in battle in Thomond along with Thomas de Clare, the husband of his father's cousin, Juliana. If so, he died on August 29, 1287. At his death he was Capitaneus Geraldinorum, "chief of the Geraldines," but he had only reached the middle of his twenty-third year.

I have now, I think, proved the two main points which I set out to prove; but these notes on the Geraldine barons of Offaly would be very incomplete if I did not at least indicate how John FitzThomas(after-wards first earl of Kildare), the fifth and most remarkable of them all, acquired the property and position he held. There can be little doubt that his father, Thomas, was a younger son of Maurice FitzGerald II-younger, probably, than his brother Maurice FitzMaurice. In one of the grants from Juliana de Cogan to John FitzThomas, transcribed in the Red Book, he is called "Johannes filius Thome filii Mauricii." We know little about Thomas FitzMaurice, except that he was given by his brother Maurice "the land of Bennede [Banada], in the cantred of Lune [now Leyny, Sligo], excepting the castle of Rathardereth" [Arderee, in the parish of Kilvarnet], and three villatas of land belonging to the said castle. In 1265 the castles of Bennfhada and Rathairderaibhe [Banada and Arderee] were burned and demolished by Aedh O'Conor; and in 1271 Thomas FitzMaurice died at his brother's castle of Lough Mask.

Now at the death, in 1287, of Gerald FitzMaurice, fourth baron of Offaly, his heir was his Aunt, Juliana, widow of John de Cogan; while the heirs of Maurice FitzMaurice, who died in 1286, were his two daughters, Juliana, wife (soon to be widow) of Thomas de Clare, and Amabil, seemingly a widow without children. Juliana de Cogan had a son, John, of full age, or nearly so; and Juliana de Clare had a son, Gilbert, an infant; but the nearest male descendant in the male line of Maurice Fitzgerald II would seem to have been his grandson, John FitzThomas. In recording the death of Gerald FitzMaurice, Capitaneus Geraldinorum, in 1287, Friar Clyn adds, hereditatem suam detit domino Johanni filio Thome filio adwunculi sui." This entry is, of course, not a contemporary one, but it does stand alone. By an inquisition concerning the manor of Athlacca. Limerick, taken in 1310, and transcribed at length in the Red Book, it was found (inter alia) that when Gerald FitzMaurice [III] came of age, and was seized of the manors of Maynooth, Rathangan, and Lea, in the county of Kildare, he enfeoffed John FitzThomas of them to hold to him and his heirs of the chief lords of the fee, together with the reversion of the aforesaid manors in county Limerick, and with all other reversions which might or should revert to himself in any way throughout all Ireland. The document is too long for a complete abstract of it to be here given. Suffice it to say that John FitzThomas did not get seisin of the Limerick manors during the lifetime of Gerald FitzMaurice; that the reversions, and c., fell to the lot of Juliana de Cogan, aunt of the said Gerald; and that she afterwards granted and released all her rights to John FitzThomas. There were further complications about the seisin, which John FitzThomas took in an irregular way; but the jury conclude by saying that "they do not know anyone to whom the said manor ought to remain, descend, or revert by hereditary right, or in any other way, unless to the said John FitzThomas." From another document it appears that John FitzThomas, in consideration of his services to Edward I in Scotland and Flanders, and to Edward II in Ireland, was pardoned for his intrusions on the said lands.

I could not find any deed of feoffment from Gerald FitzMaurice to John FitzThomas in the Red Book, but as regards Offaly, it contains the following Letters of Attorney - one from Gerald FitzMaurice, lord of Offaly, appointing John, the clerk, formerly provost (preposilus) of Leye, to deliver seisin of the manor of Leye to John FitzThomas or his attorney; and the other from John FitzThomas, authorizing Friar Roger, abbot of Rosglas [Monasterevin], to receive seisin of the manor of Leye. They are both dated at Rathymegan [Rathdangan], the former on the day of SS. John and Paul, a. r. Ed. XV [26 June 1287], and the latter on Tuesday next after the Feast of St. Swithin, a.r. Ed.XV [22 July 1287].

This was only a few weeks before the death of Gerald FitzMaurice.

It is clear, however, that John FitzThomas did not rely solely upon the feoffment from Gerald FitzMaurice. He soon set about getting in, so far as he could, all the rights or claims of the female heirs. He does not seem to have acquired the share of Juliana de Clare in the property of Maurice FitzMaurice; but the Red Book contains a great number of grants and releases between the years 1293 and 1297 from Juliana de Cogan and her son, John de Cogan, and from Amabil, daughter of Maurice FitzMaurice, conveying to John FitzThomas all their rights and claims to the succession of the several lands in connacht, Tirconnell, Fermanagh, county Limerick, Imokilly, Offaly, and Maynooth, which belonged to either Gerald FitzMaurice or to Maurice FitzMaurice at their respective deaths. In this way, and by other purchases, and finally by the grant of Kildare from the King, John FitzThomas became the most powerful landholder in Ireland, with the possible exception of his rival and antagonist, the Red Earl of Ulster.

Gerald married Heiress of Offaly Eve de Bermingham about 1193. Eve (daughter of Baron of Offaly Robert de Bermingham) was born in 1165 in Offaly, Kildare, Ireland; died before Dec 1226. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Nesta married Constable of England Hervey de Montmorency about 1161. Hervey (son of Seigneur de Chateau-Bassett Bouchard II de Montmorency and Adeliza (Alice) de Clermont) was born about 1138; died in 1165. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adela married 3rd Earl of Surrey William III de Warenne in 1132/1147. William (son of 2nd Earl of Surrey William II de Warenne and Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois) was born in 1118 in Vermandois, Neustria, France; died on 19 Jan 1147 in Laodicea, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adela married 1st Earl of Salisbury Patrick d'Evereaux before 1152. Patrick (son of Sheriff of Wiltshire Walter FitzEdward d'Evereaux and Sibyl de Chaworth) was born about 1129 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 27 Mar 1168 in Slain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Guy married Ida de St. Pol about 1145 in Ponthieu, France. Ida (daughter of Hugues IV St. Pol and Beatrix) was born about 1126 in St. Pol, Artois, Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 1st Earl of Cornwall Reginald de Dunstanville. Reginald (son of King of England Henry I "Beauclerc" and Sibyl Corbet) was born about 1100 in Dunstanville, Kent, England; died on 1 Jul 1175 in Chertsey, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby, rebelled against Henry II and marching at the head of the Leicestershire men (19th Henry II) upon Nottingham, then kept for the king by Reginald de Luci, got possession of the town which he sacked, putting the greater part of the inhabitants to the sword and taking the rest prisoners. He was soon afterwards, however, reduced to submission and obliged to surrender to the crown his castles in Tutbury and Duffield, which were demolished by order of the king. His lordship m. Sibilla, dau. of William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny and Brecknock, by whom he had issue. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p.196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

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There is substantial confusion over his name. See The Complete Peerage Vol. 4, p 193 for an account. Personally, I feel there could have been two brothers, William and Robert, Robert being the Earl and when he died at Acre his nephew William [son of his brother William] succeeded, but no documents support this theory! In The Complete Peerage vol. XIV, p. 250 it is suggested that Robert is a fabrication by Vincent, Earl of Ferrieres. [Brian Tompsett, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal04492]

William married Sybil de Braose about 1167 in Sussex, England. Sybil (daughter of 1st Baron of Gwentland William de Braose and Heiress of Brecon Bertha FitzMiles de Gloucester) was born in 1147 in Bramber, Sussex, England; died after 5 Feb 1227 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Goda de Toeni about 1162. Goda (daughter of Lord Flamstead Roger III de Toeni and of Hainault, Heiress of Brinkley Ida (Gertrude)) was born in 1140 in Eggington, Derbyshire. England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This nobleman, Hugh (Keveliok), 3rd Earl of Chester, joined in the rebellion of the Earl of Lancaster and the King of Scots against King Henry II, and in support of that monarch's son, Prince Henry's pretensions to the crown. In which proceeding he was taken prisoner with the Earl of Leicester at Alnwick, but obtained his freedom soon afterwards upon the king's reconciliation with the young prince. Again, however, hoisting the standard of revolt both in England and Normandy, with as little success, he was again seized and then detained a prisoner for some years. He eventually, however, obtained his liberty and restoration of his lands when public tranquility became completely reestablished some time about the 23rd year of the king's reign. His lordship m. Bertred, dau. of Simon, Earl of Evereux, in Normandy, and had issue, I. Ranulph, his successor; I. Maud, m. to David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William, King of Scotland, and had one son and four daus., viz., 1. John, surnamed le Scot, who s. to the Earldom of Chester, d. s. p. 7 June, 1237; 1. Margaret, m. to Alan de Galloway, and had a dau., Devorguilla, m. to John de Baliol, and was mother of John de Baliol, declared King of Scotland in the reign of Edward I; 2. Isabel, m. to Robert de Brus, and was mother of Robert de Brus, who contended for the crown of Scotland, temp. Edward I; 3. Maud, d. unm.; Ada, m. to Henry de Hastings, one of the competitors for the Scottish crown, temp. Edward I; II. Mabill, m. to William de Albini, Earl of Arundel; III. Agnes, m. to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby; IV. Hawise, m. to Robert, son of Sayer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester.

The earl had another dau., whose legitimacy is questionable, namely, Amicia, * m. to Ralph de Mesnilwarin, justice of Chester, "a person," says Dugdale, "of very ancient family," from which union the Mainwarings, of Over Peover, in the co. Chester, derive. Dugdale considers Amicia to be a dau. of the earl by a former wife. But Sir Peter Leicester, in his Antiquities of Chester, totally denies her legitimacy. "I cannot but mislike," says he, "the boldness and ignorance of that herald who gave to Mainwaring (late of Peover), the elder, the quartering of the Earl of Chester's arms; for if he ought of right to quarter that coat, then must the be descended from a co-heir to the Earl of Chester; but he was not; for the co-heirs of Earl Hugh married four of the greatest peers in the kingdom."

The earl d. at Leeke, in Staffordshire, in 1181, and was s. by his only son, Ranulph, surnamed Blundevil (or rather Blandevil) from the place of his birth, the town of Album Monasterium, modern Oswestry, in Powys), as 4th Earl of Chester.

* Upon the question of this lady's legitimacy there was a long paper war between Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring---and eventually the matter was referred to the judges, of whose decision Wood says, "a tan assize held at Chester, 1675, the controversy was decided by the justices itinerant, who, as I have heard, adjudged the right of the matter to Mainwaring." [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 365-6, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort in 1169 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France. Bertrade (daughter of Count d'Evereux Simon III de Montfort and Amicia (Maud) de Beaumont) was born in 1155 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France; died on 12 Jul 1189 in Evreux, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John divorced her on the ground of consanguinity; her grandfather Robert being an illegitimate son of Henry I. Burke also names her as Avisa.

Also known as Hawise, Joan, Eleanor.

The Complete Peerage vol. V, pp 689-692.

[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.

Isabel's situation now became that of a great heiress, for whoever she married next would gain the Earldom. John prevented her taking a second husband at all for the time being, however, and exchanged the Earldom of Gloucester with Aumarie de Montfort, son of William FitzRobert's eldest daughter Mabel, for the Comte of Evereux, which he then used as a dowry to secure the marriage of his niece Blanche with the King of France's son. Aumarie died childless and Isabel, who towards the end of John's reign married as her second husband Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and in right of his new wife now Earl of Gloucester too, died childless after marrying in the autumn of 1217 yet a third husband, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent.

The latter seems not to have been recognized as Earl of Gloucester as well as of Kent, despite his wife's undoubted possession of the former Earldom by the time of their marriage. But then she died only a few days later and her sister Amice, by now the only one of William FitzRobert's daughters still living, seems to have been recognized as Countess of Gloucester till her own death some seven and a half years later. On the other hand Amice's son Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford or of Clare (usually called the latter), was apparently acknowledged as Earl of Gloucester in addition this other dignity from as soon as the month after his aunt Isabel's death back in 1217.

Isabel married 5th Earl of Essex Geoffrey de Mandeville before 1216. Geoffrey (son of 1st Earl of Essex Geoffrey FitzPiers and Beatrix de Say) was born about 1184 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England; died on 23 Feb 1215/16 in London, Middlesex, England; was buried in Trinity Priory within Aldgate, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet on 19 Aug 1189 in Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire, England. John (son of King of England Henry II "Curtmantlel" Plantagenet and Duchess of Aquitaine Eleanor) was born on 24 Dec 1166 in Kings Manor House, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; died on 19 Oct 1216 in Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, England; was buried in Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married 1st Earl of Kent Hubert de Burgh about Oct 1217. Hubert was born about 1165; died on 12 May 1243; was buried in Blackfriars, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Amicia married 4th Earl of Hertford Richard de Clare about 1180. Richard (son of Earl of Hertford Roger de Clare and Maud de St. Hilaire) was born about 1153 in Tunbridge Castle, Kent, England; died in 1217. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

[From Burke' Peerage - see source for details]

John (King of ENG) prevented her (Isabel, youngest daughter of William FitzRobert) taking a second husband at all for the time being, however, and exchanged the Earldom of Gloucester with Aumarie de Montfort, son of William FitzRobert's eldest daughter Mabel, for the Comte of Evereux, which he then used as a dowry to secure the marriage of his niece Blanche with the King of France's son. Aumarie died childless.

Mabel married Comte d'Evereux Amaury V de Montfort about 1170. Amaury (son of Count d'Evereux Simon III de Montfort and Amicia (Maud) de Beaumont) was born about 1151 in Evereux, Eure, Normandy, France; died in 1191 in Evereux, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Built castles in Sligo, Banada, and Ardcree

Family/Spouse: Juliane de Cogan. Juliane (daughter of John de Cogan and Maria de Prendergast) was born about 1223 in Bampton, Devonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Earl of Surrey William de Blois about 1149. William (son of King of England Stephen de Blois and Countess of Boulogne Matilda de Talvas) was born about 1132 in Blois, France; died on 11 Oct 1159 in Toulouse, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married 5th Earl of Surrey Hamelin de Warenne in Apr 1164 in Surrey, England. Hamelin (son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou V and of Angers Adelaide) was born in 1129 in Normandy, France; died on 7 May 1202 in Lewes, Sussex, England; was buried in Chapter House of Lewes Priory, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Eleanor de Vitre about 1190. Eleanor (daughter of Robert III de Vitre and Emma de Dinan) was born in 1158 in Brittany, Normandy, and England; died in 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Acre, Palestine

John married Beatrice de St. Pol in 1174 in France. Beatrice was born about 1158 in of Saint Pol, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Mathilda about 1161 in Normandy, France. Mathilda was born about 1142 in Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Count of Meullent Robert de Beaumont. Robert was born in 1140 in Meulan, Aquitaine, France; died in Oct 1207 in Palestine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ralph de Mortimer. Ralph (son of Roger de Mortimer and Hawise de Vexin) was born about 1055 in Wigmore, Herfordshire, England; died in 1100. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gather married King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet in 1188. John (son of King of England Henry II "Curtmantlel" Plantagenet and Duchess of Aquitaine Eleanor) was born on 24 Dec 1166 in Kings Manor House, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; died on 19 Oct 1216 in Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, England; was buried in Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This nobleman, upon the return of King Richard from captivity, took arms in his behalf and, joining the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle, which, after a brief resistance, surrendered. For this and other acts of fidelity, he was chosen by the king to sit with the rest of the peers in the great council held at the said castle in Nottingham in the ensuing March. Moreover, at Richard's second coronation he was one of the four that carried the canopy over the king's head. Upon the accession of King John, his lordship, with the Earls of Clare and Chester, and other great men, swore fealty to the new monarch but upon the condition that each person should have his right. His lordship was present at the coronation of King John and 7 June following, being solemnly created Earl of Derby by special charter dated at Northampton, he was girt with a sword by the king's own hands (being the first of whom in any charter that expression was used). He had also a grant of the third penny of all the pleas before the sheriff throughout the whole country whereof he was earl, to hold to him and his heirs as amply as any of his ancestors had enjoyed the same. Moreover, in consideration of 4,000 marks, he obtained another charter from the king of the manor of Higham-Ferrers, Northampton, with the hundred and park; as also of the manors of Bliseworth and Newbottle, in the same shire; which were part of the lands of his great grandfather, William Peverel of Nottingham. King John also conferred upon him a mansion-house situated in the parish of St. Margaret within the city of London, which had belonged to Isaac, a Jew, at Norwich, to hold by the service of waiting upon the king (the earl and his heirs), at all festivals yearly without any cap, but with a garland of the breadth of his little finger upon his head. These liberal marks of royal favor were felt so gratefully by the earl that in all the subsequent struggles between the king and the refractory barons, his lordship never once swerved from his allegiance, but remained true to the monarch; and loyalty to the interests of his son, King Henry III. His lordship assisted at the coronation of the new monarch and immediately after the ensuing Easter, he took part with the famous William Marshall(governor of the king and kingdom), the Earls of Chester and Albemarle, and many other great men in the siege of Mountsorell Castle in Leicestershire, then held by Henry de Braybroke and ten other stout knights. And the same year was likewise with those noble persons at raising the siege of Lincoln, which place the rebellious barons with Lewis, King of France, had invested. His lordship m. Agnes, sister and one of the co-heirs of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, by whom he had two sons, William and Thomas. He died of the gout in 1246 and his countess d. in the same year after a union, according to some authorities, of seventy-five, and by others, of fifty-five years. His lordship was s. by his elder son, William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

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There is substantial confusion over his name. See The Complete Peerage Vol. 4, p 193 for an account. Personally, I feel there could have been two brothers, William and Robert, Robert being the Earl and when he died at Acre his nephew William son of his brother William succeeded, but no documents support this theory either! In The Complete Peerage vol. XIV, p.250 it is suggested that Robert is a fabrication by Vincent, Earl of Ferrieres. [Brian Tompsett, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

William married Agnes de Meschines on 2 Nov 1192. Agnes (daughter of 3rd Earl of Chester Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) was born about 1174 in Chester, Cheshire, England; died on 2 Nov 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mabel married 4th Earl of Arundel William d'AubignyChester, Cheshire, England. William (son of 3rd Earl of Arundel William d'Aubigny and Mabel de Chester) was born about 1173 in Arundel, Sussex, England; died on 1 Feb 1220/21 in Cainell near Rome, Latium, Italy; was buried in Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Hawise de Meschines
• Birth: 1170, Chester, Cheshire, England
• Death: Bef 3 Mar 1242/43

Family/Spouse: Robert de Quincy. Robert (son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester IV and Margaret de Beaumont) was born in 1172 in Winchester Buckley, Hampshire, England; died in Aug 1257 in London, Middlesex, England; was buried in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Warren de Bostock. Warren was born about 1180 in Henbury, Cheshire, England; died about 1206. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 8th Earl of Huntingdon David Huntington. David (son of 3rd Earl of Huntingdon Henry Dunkeld and Ada (Adelaide) de Warenne) was born about 1144 in Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, England; died on 17 Jun 1219 in Yardley, Northants, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ranulph married Duchess of Brittany Constance on 3 Feb 1186/87. Constance (daughter of Conan of Penthièvre, Duke of Brittany IV and Margaret de Huntingdon) was born about 1161; died on 5 Sep 1201 in Nantes, Brittany, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Agnes married 4th Earl of Derby William II de Ferrers on 2 Nov 1192. William (son of 3rd Earl of Derby William de Ferrers and Sybil de Braose) was born in 1172 in Ferrers, Derbyshire, England; died on 22 Sep 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The earl had another dau., whose legitimacy is questionable, namely, Amicia, * m. to Ralph de Mesnilwarin, justice of Chester, "a person," says Dugdale, "of very ancient family," from which union the Mainwarings, of Over Peover, in the co. Chester, derive. Dugdale considers Amicia to be a dau. of the earl by a former wife. But Sir Peter Leicester, in his Antiquities of Chester, totally denies her legitimacy. "I cannot but mislike," says he, "the boldness and ignorance of that herald who gave to Mainwaring (late of Peover), the elder, the quartering of the Earl of Chester's arms; for if he ought of right to quarter that coat, then must he be descended from a co-heir to the Earl of Chester; but he was not; for the co-heirs of Earl Hugh married four of the greatest peers in the kingdom."

* Upon the question of this lady's legitimacy there was a long paper war between Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring---and eventually the matter was referred to the judges, of whose decision Wood says, "a tan assize held at Chester, 1675, the controversy was decided by the justices itinerant, who, as I have heard, adjudged the right of the matter to Mainwaring." [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 365-6, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

Maud married Lord Bramber William IV The Younger de Braose in 1197. William (son of 4th Lord of Bramber William III de Braose and Maud de St. Valery) was born about 1170 in Bramber Castle, Sussex, England; died in 1210 in Corfe, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Roger de Lacy. Roger (son of Constable of Chester John de Lacy and Alice de Mandeville) was born about 1171 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died in 1211. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, who, after the decease of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, the 2nd wife of Isabel, the divorced wife of King John, and in her right Earl of Gloucester, and her own decease, s.p., as also the decease of Almarick D'Evereux, son of the Earl of Evereux by Mabell, the other co-heiress, who likewise succeeded to the Earldom of Gloucester, became Earl of Gloucester, in right of his mother, Amicia, the other co-heiress. This nobleman was amongst the principal barons who took up arms against King John, and was appointed one of the twenty-five chosen to enforce the observance of Magna Carta. In the ensuing reign, still opposing the arbitrary proceedings of the crown, he fought on the side of the barons at Lincoln, and was taken prisoner there by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke; but he soon afterwards made his peace. His lordship m. Isabel (who m. after his decease, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of King Henry III), one of the daus., and eventually co-heiress of William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, by whom he had issue, Richard, his successor; William; Amicia, m. to Baldwin de Redvers, 4th Earl of Devon; Agnes; Isabel, m. to Robert de Brus. The earl d. in 1229 and was s. by his eldest son, Richard de Clare. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Gilbert married Isabel Marshal on 9 Oct 1214 in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Isabel (daughter of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born on 9 Oct 1200 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died on 17 Jan 1240 in Birkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England; was buried in Beaulieu, New Forest District, Hampshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maurice married Emmeline Longespee about 1266. Emmeline (daughter of Earl of Ulster Justiciar of Ireland Stephen de Longespee and Emmeline de Ridelisford) was born in 1250 in Ulster, Ireland; died in 1291. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Founder Trinitarian Abbey at Adare, Limerick, IRE

Notes:

William de Warren (Plantagenet), Earl of Warren and Surrey, sided at the commencement of the contest between King John and the barons and for a long time thereafter with his royal kinsman, but eventually joined the banner of Lewis of France. On the death of King John, however, he returned to his allegiance and swore fealty to King Henry III, at the solemn nuptials of which monarch he had the honor of serving the king, at the banquet, with his royal cup in the Earl of Arundel's stead, who, being in minority, could not perform that office as he had not be engirt with the sword of knighthood. His lordship m. 1st, Lady Maud de Albini, dau. of the Earl of Arundel, but by her ladyship had no issue. Hem. 2ndly, Maud, dau., of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and widow of Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, by whom he had John, his successor, and Isabel. He d. in 1240, and was s. by his son, John de Warren (Plantagenet), Earl of Warren and Surrey. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 569, Warren, Earls of Surrey]

William married Matilda (Maud) Marshal before 13 Oct 1225. Matilda (daughter of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born about 1192 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died on 27 Mar 1248; was buried in Tintern Abbey, Chapel Hill, Monmouthsire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maud married Lord Hastings Henry d'Eu in 1146/1182. Henry (son of Count of Eu John d'Eu and Alice d'Aubigny) was born about 1145 in Leicestershire, England; died in Mar 1182/83. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ida married 2nd Earl of Norfolk Roger Bigod about 1185. Roger (son of 1st Earl of Norfolk Hugh Bigod and Juliana de Vere) was born about 1150 in Norfolk, England; died before 2 Aug 1221 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet. John (son of King of England Henry II "Curtmantlel" Plantagenet and Duchess of Aquitaine Eleanor) was born on 24 Dec 1166 in Kings Manor House, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; died on 19 Oct 1216 in Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, England; was buried in Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William FitzWilliam. William (son of Lord Emley and Sprotborough William FitzWilliam and Albreda (Aubrye) de Lisoures) was born about 1173 in Sprotbrough, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England; died before Feb 1223/24 in Emley, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Suzanne married King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet about 1186. John (son of King of England Henry II "Curtmantlel" Plantagenet and Duchess of Aquitaine Eleanor) was born on 24 Dec 1166 in Kings Manor House, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England; died on 19 Oct 1216 in Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, England; was buried in Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ela married Earl of Salisbury William de Longespee in 1198 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. William (son of King of England Henry II "Curtmantlel" Plantagenet and Rosamond de Clifford) was born in 1173 in Woodstock Manor, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 7 Mar 1226 in Salisbury Castle, Wiltishire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Countess of the Vexin Alys Capet on 20 Aug 1195. Alys (daughter of King of France Louis VII "The Younger" Capet and Constance Burgundy) was born on 4 Oct 1160; died about 1220. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adela married Thomas de St. Valery about 1178 in France. Thomas (son of Bernard IV de St. Valery and Alanor (Maud)) was born about 1155 in Normandy, France; died in 1218. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: WIlliam de Vernon. WIlliam was born about 1155 in Devonshire England; died on 10 Sep 1217. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Maud de Meschines. Maud (daughter of Earl of Cambridge William de Meschines and Cecily de Romilly) was born about 1120 in Gernons Castle, Normandy, France; died after 1190 in Skipton in Craven, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Stephen de Aumale. Stephen (son of Count of Troyes Odo (Eudes), III and of Normandy Adeliza) was born before 1070; died in 1127. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Burial: Merevale, Warwickshire, England
• Name: William de Ferrers

Notes:

William de Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby, upon doing homage in the 32nd Henry III [c. 1248], had livery of Chartley Castle and the other lands of his mother's inheritance; and the same year he sat in the parliament held in London wherein the king made so stout an answer to the demands of his impetuous barons. His lordship m. 1st, Sibel, one of the daus. and co-heirs of William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, by whom he had seven daus., viz., Agnes, m. to William de Vesci; Isabel m. 1st to Gilbert Basset, of Wycombe, and 2ndly, to Reginald de Mohun; Maud, m. 1st to William de Kymes; 2ndly to William de Vyvon, and 3rdly, to Emerick de Rupel Carnardi; Sibil m. 1st to John de Vipont, 2ndly to Franco de Mohun; Joane m. to William Aguillon, and 2ndly to John de Mohun; Agatha m. to Hugh Mortimer of Chelmersh; Eleanor m. 1st to William de Vallibus, 2ndly to Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winton, and 3rdly to Roger de Leybourne, but had no issue. The earl m. 2ndly Margaret, one of the daus. and co-heirs of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and had issue: Robert, his successor; William, upon whom his mother conferred the lordship of Groby, co. Leicester; Joan, m. Thomas, Lord Berkeley; and Agnes, m. to Robert de Muscegros, Lord of Deerhurst.

His lordship, who from his youth had been a martyr to the gout, and in consequence obliged to he drawn from place to place in a chariot, lost his life by being thrown through the heedlessness of his driver over the bridge at St. Neots, co. Huntingdon, in 1254. He was survived by his eldest son, Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 197, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

William married Sibyl Marshal before 14 May 1219. Sibyl (daughter of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born about 1191 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died before 1238. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Margaret de Quincy. Margaret (daughter of Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester and Helen "of Galloway") was born in 1218 in England; died in 1281 in England; was buried in Merevale, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord of Appleby John de Vipont. John (son of Robert de Vipont and Idonea de Busli) was born in 1210 in Brougham Castle, Appleby, Westmorland, England; died in 1241. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hugh married Isabel de Warenne in 1210/1241. Isabel (daughter of 6th Earl of Surrey William de Warenne and Matilda (Maud) Marshal) was born in 1206/1228; died in 1282. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Nicole married Roger de Somery about 1225 in Barrow, Leicestershire, England. Roger (son of Lord Dudley Ralph I de Somery and Margaret Marshall) was born about 1190 in Dinas, Cardigan, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died before 26 Aug 1273 in Dudley Castle, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke. Walter (son of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born in 1196; died on 24 Nov 1245. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln on 20 Jun 1221. John (son of Roger de Lacy and Maud de Clere) was born about 1192 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died on 22 Jul 1240 in Bur Stanlaw, Cheshire, Northamptonshire, England; was buried in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord of Galloway Alan FitzRoland. Alan was born about 1175; died in 1234; was buried in Dundrennan Abbey, Galloway, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Eva Marshal on 2 May 1230. Eva (daughter of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born in 1194 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died before 1246 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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]

Notes:

John de Lacy, Constable of Chester, in the 15th year of King John, undertook the payment of 7,000 marks to the crown in the space of four years for the livery of the lands of his inheritance and to be discharged of all his father's debts due to the exchequer; further obliging himself by oath that, in case he should ever swerve from his allegiance and adhere to the king's enemies, all his possessions should devolve upon the crown; promising also that he would not marry without the king's license. By this agreement it was arranged that the king should retain the castles of Pontefract and Dunnington, still in his own hands; and that he, the said John, should allow 40 pounds per annum for the custody of those fortresses. But the next year he had Dunnington restored to him upon hostages. About this period he joined the baronial standard and was one of the celebrated twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Carta. But the next year he obtained letters of safe conduct to come to the king to make his peace, and he had similar letters upon the accession of Henry III, in the 2nd year of which monarch's reign he went with divers other noblemen into the Holy Land. He m. Margaret, dau. and heir of Robert de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, by Hawyse, 4th sister and co-heir of Ranulph de Meschines, Earl of Chester and Lincoln, which Ranulph, by a formal charter under his seal, granted the Earldom of Lincoln, that is, so much as he could grant thereof, to the said Hawyse, "to the end that she might be countess and that her heirs might also enjoy the earldom;" which grant was confirmed by the king and, at the especial request of the countess, this John de Lacy, constable of Chester, was created by charter, dated at Northampton, 23 November, 1232, Earl of Lincoln, with remainder to the heirs of his body, by his wife, the above-named Margaret. In the contest which occurred during the same year between the king and Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, Earl Marshal, Matthew Paris states that the Earl of Lincoln was brought over to the king's party with John le Scot, Earl of Chester, by Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, for a bribe of 1,000 marks. In 1237, his lordship was one of those appointed to prohibit Oto, the pope's legate, from establishing anything derogatory to the king's crown and dignity in the council of prelates then assembled; and the same year he had a grant of the sheriffalty of Cheshire, being likewise constituted governor of the castle of Chester. The earl d. in 1240, leaving Margaret, his wife, surviving, who re-m. William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. His lordship left issue, Edmund, his successor, and two daus., which ladies in the 27th Henry III, were removed to Windsor, there to be educated with the king's own daus.; of these, Maud m. Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester.[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883]

John married Margaret de Quincy on 20 Jun 1221. Margaret (daughter of Robert de Quincy and Hawise de Kevelioc) was born about 1206 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died before 30 Mar 1266 in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England; was buried in Hospitallers, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and 2nd Earl of Gloucester, then in minority at the decease of his father in 1229. The wardship of this young nobleman was granted to the famous Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, Justiciar of England, whose dau., Margaret, to the great displeasure of the king (Henry III), he afterwards (1243) clandestinely married but from whom he was probably divorced, for we find the king marrying him the next year to Maude, dau. of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in consideration whereof the said John paid to the crown 5,000 marks and remitted a debt of 2,000 more. His lordship, who appears to have been a very distinguished personage in the reign of Henry III, was one of the chief nobles present in Westminster Hall (40th Henry III) [1256], when Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, with divers other prelates, pronounced that solemn curse, with candles lighted, against all those who should thenceforth violate Magna Carta. In two years afterwards, an attempt was made by Walter de Scotenay, his chief counselor, to poison the earl and his brother William, which proved effective as to the latter, while his lordship narrowly escaped with the loss of his hair and nails. In the next year the earl was commissioned, with others of the nobility by the appointment of the king and the whole baronage of England, to the parliament of France to convey King Henry III's resignation of Normandy and to adjust all differences between the two crowns; and upon the return of the mission, his lordship reported proceedings to the king, in parliament. About this period he had license to fortify the isle of Portland and to embattle it as a fortress. It is reported of this nobleman that, being at Tewkesbury in the 45th Henry III [1261], a Jew, who had fallen into a jakes upon the Saturday, refusing to be pulled out in reverence of the Jewish Sabbath, his lordship prohibited any help to be afforded him on the next day, the Christian Sabbath, and thus suffered the unfortunate Israelite to perish. He d. himself in the July of the next year (1262), having been poisoned at the table of Peter de Savoy, the queen's uncle, along with Baldwin, Earl of Devon, and other persons of note. His lordship left issue, Gilbert, his successor, Thomas, Rose, and Margaret. The earl was s. by his elder son, Gilbert de Clare.[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p.119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Richard de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 8TH EARL OF CLARE, 6TH EARLOFHERTFORD (b. Aug. 4, 1222--d. July 15, 1262, Eschemerfield, near Canterbury, Kent, Eng.), the most powerful English noble of his time. He held estates in more than 20 English counties, including the lordship of Tewkesbury, wealthy manors in Gloucester, and the great marcher lordship of Glamorgan. He himself acquired the Kilkenny estates in Ireland and the lordship of Usk and Caerleon in south Wales, making him the greatest lord in south Wales; in Glamorgan especially he was almost an independent prince.

Son of Gilbert de Clare (the 6th Earl), Richard succeeded to the earldoms in October 1230. He refused to help King Henry III on the French expedition of 1253 but was with him afterward at Paris. Thereafter he went on a diplomatic errand to Scotland and was sent to Germany to work among the princes for the election of his stepfather, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, as king of the Romans. About 1258 Gloucester became a leader of the barons in their resistance to the king, and he was prominent during the proceedings that followed the Mad Parliament at Oxford in 1258. In 1259, however, he quarreled with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester; the dispute, begun in ENG, was renewed in France, and he was again in the confidence of the king. This attitude, too, was only temporary, and in 1261 Gloucester and Montfort were again working in concord. [Encyclopedia Britannica CD, 1996, GLOUCESTER, RICHARD DE CLARE, 7TH EARL OF]

Richard married Maud de Lacy in 1237 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. Maud (daughter of John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln and Margaret de Quincy) was born on 25 Jan 1223 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died on 10 Mar 1289 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Megotta de Burgh. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Isabella (Isobel) de Clare

Isabella married Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale in May 1240. Robert (son of Robert de Brus, 4th Lord of Annandale and Isobel Huntingdon) was born about 1215; died on 31 Mar 1295 in Lochmaben, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland; was buried in Guisborough, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Juliana married Governor of London Lord of Thormond Thomas de Clare in 1275 in Essex, England. Thomas (son of 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Gloucester Richard de Clare and Maud de Lacy) was born about 1248 in Tunbridge, Kent, England; died on 29 Aug 1287 in Bunratty Castle, Thomond, Connaught, Clare, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John de Cogan. John was born on 8 Sep 1243 in Brampton, Devonshire, England; died on 23 Aug 1275. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married 5th Earl of Arundel Hugh d'Albini in 1210/1241. Hugh (son of 4th Earl of Arundel William d'Aubigny and Mabel de Meschines) was born in 1187/1213; died in 1243. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John was the leader of the English forces which lost to William Wallace in the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 as depicted in the film "Braveheart".

John de Warren (Plantagenet), Earl of Warren and Surrey, was but five years of age at the time of his father's decease, and was placed inward with Peter de Savoy, the Queen's brother. When he attained majority, he attached himself zealously to Henry III in his conflicts with the barons and maintained the cause of the king with his sword at the battle of Lewes. His lordship was a person of violent and imperious temper and was often betrayed into acts of great intemperance, as in the instance of assaulting Sir Alan Zouch and his son, Roger, in Westminster Hall, when he almost killed the one and wounded the other. And again, when Edward I issued the first writs of Quo Warranto, his lordship being questioned as to the title of his possessions, exhibited to the justicesan old sword and unsheathing it said, "Behold my lords, here is my warranty; my ancestors coming into this land with William the Bastard, did obtain their lands by the sword, and I am resolved with the sword to defend them against whomsoever shall endeavor to dispossess me, but our progenitors were sharers and assistants therein." The earl was constituted, by King Edward, general of all his forces on the north of Trent for the better restraining the insolences of the Scots; whereupon he marched into Scotland and so terrified the inhabitants that they immediately sued for peace and gave hostages for their future good conduct. But the war soon after breaking out afresh, his lordship sustained a signal defeat at Strivelin where his troops fled first to Berwick, and thence into England. The earl m. 1st, 1247, Alice, dau. of Hugh le Brun, Count de la March, and half sister by the mother of King Henry III, and 2ndly, Joan, dau. of William, Lord Mowbray, and by the former only had issue, William, Alianore, and Isabel. His lordship d. in 1304, and was s. by his grandson, John de Warren (Plantagenet). [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 569, Warren, Earls of Surrey]

John married Alice de Lusignan in Aug 1247. Alice (daughter of Count of La Marche Hugh de Lusignan, X and Countess of Angoulême Isabella Taillefer) was born in 1224 in Lusignan, Vienne, France; died on 9 Feb 1256 in Warren, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alice married Count of Eu Raoul de Lusignan about 1191. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hugh married Matilda (Maud) Marshal about 1207 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Matilda (daughter of 1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal and Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare) was born about 1192 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died on 27 Mar 1248; was buried in Tintern Abbey, Chapel Hill, Monmouthsire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Stephen married Emmeline de Ridelisford about 1244. Emmeline (daughter of Walter de Ridelisford and Annora) was born in 1216 in Kildare, Ireland; died in 1276. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William de Longespee, eldest son of William, Earl of Salisbury, "commonly called," says Sir William Dugdale, by Matthew Paris, and most of our other historians, Earl of Salisbury, but erroneous, for all records wherein mention is made of his do not give him that title, but called him barely William Longespee. Nay, there is an old chronicle who saith expressly, that, in anno 12233 (17th Henry III), he was girt with the sword of knighthood, but not made Earl of Salisbury." This William made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1240, and again in 1247, having assumed the cross for a second pilgrimage, proceeded to Rome, and thus preferred a suit to the sovereign pontiff. "Sir, you see that I am signed with the cross and am on my journey with the King of France to fight in this pilgrimage. My name is great and of note, viz., William Longespee, but my estate is slender, for the king of England, my kinsman and liege lord, hath bereft me of the title of earl and of that estate, but this he did judiciously, and not in displeasure, and by the impulse of his will; therefore I do not blame him for it. Howbeit, I am necessitated to have recourse to your holiness for favor, desiring your assistance in this distress. We see here (quoth he) that Earl Richard (of Cornwall)who, though he is not signed with the cross, yet, through the especial grace of your holiness, he hath got very much money from those who are signed, and therefore, I, who am signed and in want, do in treat the like favor. "The pope taking into consideration the elegance of his manner, the efficacy of his reasoning, and the comeliness of his person, conceded in part what he desire; whereupon he received above 1,000 marks from those who had been so signed. In about two years after this, anno 1249, having received the blessing of his noble mother, Ela, then abbess of Lacock, he commenced his journey at the head of a company of 200 English horse and, being received with great respect by the king of France, joined that monarch's army. In Palestine he became subsequently pre-eminently distinguished and fell, in 1250, in a great conflict with the Saracens, near Damieta, having previously kill above 100 of the enemy with his own hand. It was reported that, the bight before the battle, his mother Ela, the abbess, saw in a vision the heavens open and her son armed at all parts (whose shield she well knew), received with joy by the angels. Remembering the occurrence when the news of his death reached herein six months after, she held up her hands, and, with a cheerful countenance, said, "I, thy handmaid, give thanks to thee, O Lord, that out of my sinful flesh thou hast caused such a champion against thine enemies to be born." It was also said that, in 1252, when messengers were sent to the Soldan of Babylon for redemption of those who had been taken prisoner, he thus addressed them -- "I marvel at you, Christians, who reverence the bones of the dead, why you inquire not for those of the renowned and right noble William Longespee, because there be many things reported of them (whether fabulous or not I cannot say), viz., that, in the dark of the night there have been appearances at his tomb, and that to some, who called upon his God, many things were bestowed from Heaven. For which cause, and in regard of his great worth and nobility of birth, we have caused his body to be here entombed." Whereupon the messenger desiring it, the remains were delivered to them by the Soldan, and thence conveyed to Acre where they were buried in the church of St. Cross. This eminent and heroic personage m. Idonea, dau. and heir of Richard de Camville, and had issue, William de Longespee, his son and heir. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 168, d'Evereux, Earls of Salisbury]

Family/Spouse: William Beauchamp. William (son of Simon Beauchamp Baron of Bedford, II) was born in 1187 in Essex, England; died in 1262. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Marie married Count of Dammartin II Simon in 1184/1234. II was born about 1180 in Dammartin, Seine-et-Marne, France; died on 21 Sep 1239. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Leonore married Robert III de Dreux about 1211 in Dreux, Eure-et-Loire, France. Robert (son of Count of Dreux II Robert and Yolande de Courcy) was born in 1183 in Dreux, Eure-et-Loire, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William de Briwere. William (son of Drogo (Brogo) de Briwere) was born about 1080 in Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Isabel de Ferrers. Isabel (daughter of Walkelin de Ferrers and Alice Leche) was born about 1036. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adam II de Brus. Adam (son of Jueta Ivetta d'Arches) was born in 1125 in Skelton, Yorkshire, England; died in 1196 in Skelton, Yorkshire, England; was buried in Priory, Guisborough, Yorkshire North Riding, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester. Roger (son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester IV and Margaret de Beaumont) was born about 1195 in Winchester, Hamptonshire, England; died on 25 Apr 1264 in Buckley, Northamptonshire, England; was buried in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Alianore de Bohun. Alianore (daughter of Humphrey de Bohun and Eleanor de Braose) died in 1313. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 24 Jan 1288, Groby, Leicestershire, England

Family/Spouse: Anna Durward. Anna (daughter of Alan Durward and Marjory) was born in 1248 in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England; died in 1280 in Groby, Leicestershire, England; was buried in Groby, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Isabel FitzJohn. Isabel (daughter of Sheriff of Yorkshire, Justiciar of Ireland John FitzGeoffrey and Isabell (Isabella) Bigod) was born about 1230 in Shere, Farnbridge, Surrey, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Walter II de Sully. Walter was born about 1215 in Sully, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales; died in 1285. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joan married Lord Strange John IV le Strange about 1252 in of Ellesmere, Shropshire, England. John (son of Lord Knockyn John III le Strange and Lucy de Tregoz) was born about 1226; died before 26 Feb 1276. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maud married 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Gloucester Richard de Clare in 1237 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. Richard (son of Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford 1st Earl of Gloucester and Isabel Marshal) was born on 4 Aug 1222 in Gloucestershire, England; died on 14 Jul 1262 in John Griol's Manor, Ashenfield, Waltham, Kent, England; was buried on 28 Jul 1262 in Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: Abt May 1227, Lincolnshire, England

Edmund married Alice de Saluzzo in May 1247 in Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England. Alice was born in 1231 in Saluzzo Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy; died on 25 Sep 1292 in England; was buried in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Humphrey de Bohun. Humphrey (son of 2nd Earl of Hereford Humphrey de Bohun and Maud de Lusignan) died on 27 Oct 1265 in Beeston Castle, Chesire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maud married 1st Baron Wigmore Roger de Mortimer in 1247. Roger (son of Ralph de Mortimer and Princess of Wales Gwladys "The Dark" verch Llewelyn) was born in 1231 in Cwmaron Castle, Radnorshire, Wales; died on 27 Oct 1282 in Kingsland, Herefordshire, England; was buried in Wigmore Abbey, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Isabel de Clare. Isabel (daughter of 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Gloucester Richard de Clare and Maud de Lacy) was born about 1240; died about 1271. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Thomas, governor of the city of London, 1st Edward I [1272-3], and was killed in battle in Ireland fourteen years after, leaving by Amy, his wife, dau. of Sir Maurice FitzMaurice, Gilbert, who d. s. p.; Richard, d.v. p., leaving a son, Thomas, who d. s. p.; Thomas, whose daus. and eventual co-heiresses were Margaret, wife of Bartholomew, 1st Lord Badlesmere, and Maud, wife of Robert, Lord Clifford, of Appleby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Thomas married Juliana FitzMaurice in 1275 in Essex, England. Juliana (daughter of Lord of Offaly Justiciar of Ireland Maurice FitzMaurice and Emmeline Longespee) was born about 1266 in Dublin, Ireland; died after 1309. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William de Braose. William (son of Lord of Bramber and Gower John de Braose and Margaret verch Llewelyn) was born in 1230; died in 1291. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Gilbert "The Red Earl" de Clare

Notes:

Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, 7th Earl of Hertford and 3rd Earl of Gloucester, who, by the king's procurement, m. in 1257, Alice, dau. of Guy, Earl of Angouleme, and niece of the king of France, which monarch bestowed upon the lady a marriage portion of 5,000 marks. This noble man, who, like his predecessors, was zealous in the cause of the barons, proceeded to London immediately after the defeat sustained by the insurrectionary lords at Northampton (48th Henry III) [1264], in order to rouse the citizens, which, having effected, he received the honor of knighthood from Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at the head of the army at Lewes; of which army, his lordship, with John Fitz-John and William de Montchensi, commanded the second brigade, and having mainly contributed to the victory in which the king and prince became prisoners, while the whole power of the realm fell into the hands of the victors, the earl procured a grant under the great seal of all the lands and possessions lying in England of John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, one of the most faithful adherents of the king, excepting the castles of Riegate and Lewes, to hold during the pleasure of the crown, and he soon after, with some of the principal barons, extorted from the captive monarch a commission authorizing Stephen, then bishop of Chichester, Simon Montford, Earl of Leicester, and himself, to nominate nine persons of "the most faithful, prudent, and most studious of the public weal," as well prelates as others, to manage all things according to the laws and customs of the realm until the consultations at Lewes should terminate. Being jealous, however, of the power of Leicester, the earl soon after abandoned the baronial cause and, having assisted in procuring the liberty of the king and prince, commanded the second brigade of the royal arm at the battle of Evesham, which restored the kingly power to its former luster. In reward of these eminent services he received a full pardon for himself and his brother Thomas of all prior treasons, and the custody of the castle of Bergavenny during the minority of Maud, wife of Humphrey de Bohun. His lordship veered again though in his allegiance and he does not appear to have been sincerely reconciled to the royal cause until 1270, in which year, demanding from Prince Edward repayment of the expenses he had incurred at the battle of Evesham, with livery of all the castles and lands which his ancestors had possessed and, those demands having been complied with, he thenceforward became a good and loyal subject of the crown. Upon the death of King Henry, the Earl of Hertford and Gloucester was one of the lords who met at the New Temple in London to proclaim Prince Edward, then in the Holy Land, successor to the crown, and so soon as the new monarch returned to England, his lordship was the first to entertain him and his whole retinue with great magnificence for several days at his castle of Tonebruge. In the 13th Edward I [1285], his lordship divorced his wife Alice, the French princess, and in consideration of her illustrious birth, granted for her support during her life, six extensive manors and parks, and he m. in 1289, Joan of Acre, dau. of King Edward I, upon which occasion he gave up the inheritance of his castles and manors, as well in England as in Wales , to his royal father-in-law, to dispose of as he might think proper; which manors, and c., were entailed by the king upon the earl's issue by the said Joane, and in default, upon her heirs and assigns, should she survive the lordship. By this lady he had issue, Gilbert, his successor, Alianore, Margaret, and Elizabeth. His lordship d. in 1295, and the Countess Joan surviving, m. a "plain esquire," called Ralph de Monthermer, clandestinely, without the king, her father's, knowledge, but to which alliance he was reconciled through the intercession of Anthony Beke, the celebrated bishop of Durham, and became eventually much attached to his now son-in-law. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, pp. 119-120, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester (1243-1295), 8th earl of Gloucester and 9th earl of Clare, was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on Sept. 2, 1243. He married Alice of Angouleme, niece of king Henry III, succeeded his father in July 1262, and joined the baronial party led by Simon de Montfort. With Simon, Gloucester was at the battle of Lewes in May 1264, when the king himself surrendered to him, and after this victory he was one of the three persons selected to nominate a council. Soon, however, he quarreled with Simon. Leaving London for his lands on the Welsh border he met Prince Edward, afterward king Edward I, at Ludlow, just after his escape from captivity; and contributed largely to the prince's victory at Evesham in August 1265. But this alliance was as transitory as the one with Leicester, Gloucester championed the barons who had surrendered at Kenilworth in November and December 1266, and after putting his demands before the king, secured possession of London (April 1267). The earl quickly made his peace with Henry III and with Prince Edward. Under Edward I he spent several years in fighting in Wales, or on the Welsh border; in 1289 when the barons were asked for a subsidy he replied on their behalf that they would grant nothing until they saw the king in person (nihi prius personaliter viderent in Anglia faciem regis), and in 291 he was fined and imprisoned on account of levying private war on Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford. Having divorced his wife Alice, he married in 1290 Edward's daughter Joan, or Johanna (d. 1307). The "Red Earl," as he is sometimes called, died at Monmouth on Dec. 7, 1295, leaving, in addition to three daughters, a son, Gilbert, earl of Gloucester, killed at Bannockburn. [Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 10, p. 434, GLOUCESTER, GILBERT DE CLARE, EARL OF.]

Ninth Earl Clare

Gilbert married Joan "of Acre" Plantagenet on 30 Apr 1290 in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. Joan (daughter of Edward "Longshanks" Plantagenet, King of England and Eleanor "of Castile", Countess de Ponthieu) was born in 1272 in Acre, Palestine; died on 23 Apr 1307 in Clare, Suffolk, England; was buried on 26 Apr 1307 in Priory Church of the Austin Friars, Clare, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Alice de Lusignan on 2 Feb 1253. Alice (daughter of Count of La Marche Hugh de Lusignan, X and Countess of Angoulême Isabella Taillefer) was born in 1224 in Lusignan, Vienne, France; died on 9 Feb 1256 in Warren, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 1st Baron Mowbray Roger de Mowbray. Roger (son of Roger de Mowbray and Maud Beauchamp) was born in 1245 in Thirsk Hovingham, North Ride, Yorkshire, England; died in 1296 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Robert Bruce

Robert married Marjorie, Countess of Carrick in 1271. Marjorie was born in 1256; died before 9 Nov 1292. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord of Badlesmere on 28 Apr 1317 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. Bartholomew (son of Guncelin de Badlesmere and Joan FitzBarnard) was born on 18 Aug 1275 in Badlesmere, Swale, Kent, England; died on 14 Apr 1322 in Blean, Canterbury, Kent, England; was buried in Badlesmere, Swale, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gilbert de Umfreville. Gilbert (son of 8th Earl of Angus Gilbert de Umfreville and Elizabeth Comyn) was born before 1276; died before 23 May 1303. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 1276, Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Borough, Gloucestershire, England

Notes:

11/11/1315 Abducted and Forcibly Remarried by Robert de Welles

Matilda married Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford on 13 Nov 1295 in Clifford's Castle, Herefordshire, England. Robert (son of Justice of Forests Roger III de Clifford and Isabel de Vipont) was born on 1 Apr 1274 in Clifford Castle, Hereford, England; died on 24 Jun 1314 in Battle of Bannockburn, Stirling, Scotland; was buried in Shap Abbey, Eden District, Cumbria, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Age: 28

Eleanor married 7th Baron Percy Henry de Percy on 8 Sep 1268 in York, Yorkshire, England. Henry (son of 6th Baron Percy William de Percy and Eleanor de Baillol) was born in 1228 in Whitby, Yorkshire, England; died on 29 Aug 1272 in Sallay, Craven, Yorkshire, England; was buried in Sutton-in-Craven, North Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabella married King of the Scots John Balliol before 7 Feb 1281. John was born about 1249; died about 25 Nov 1314 in Hélicourt, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Joanna (Joane) de Vere in Jun 1285. Joanna (daughter of 5th Earl of Oxford Robert de Vere and Alice de Sanford) was born about 1264; died on 23 Nov 1293. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 2nd Earl of Hereford Humphrey de Bohun. Humphrey (son of 1st Earl of Hereford Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford Constable of England V and Countess of Essex Maud de Mandeville) was born in 1208 in Hereford, Herefordshire, England; died on 24 Sep 1275. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DEATH: I can't find a source for this. Many people have her dying in 1239, but also have her children born after that.

Isabell married Sheriff of Yorkshire, Justiciar of Ireland John FitzGeoffrey about 1229. John (son of 1st Earl of Essex Geoffrey FitzPiers and Aveline de Clare) was born in 1208 in of Shere, Surrey, England; died on 23 Nov 1258 in Farmbridge, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabell married Gilbert de Lacy about 1227 in Norfolk, England. Gilbert was born about 1200 in Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire, England; died on 12/25 Aug/Dec 1230 in Trim, Weobley, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Joan de Stuteville. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emmeline married Lord of Offaly Justiciar of Ireland Maurice FitzMaurice about 1266. Maurice (son of 2nd Baron of Offaly Justiciar of Ireland Maurice FitzGerald and Juliane de Cogan) was born about 1242 in Offaly, Kildare, Ireland; died before 10 Nov 1286 in Ross, Wexford, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Roger de Mowbray. Roger was born in 1218 in Axholme, Lincolnshire, England; died in Nov 1266 in Pontefract, York, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Abbeville, Ponthieu, France

Johanna married King of Castile and Leon III Ferdinand in 1237 in Burgos, Castile, Spain. III (son of King of Leon IX Alphonso and Queen of Castile Berengaria) was born in 1199; died on 30 May 1252 in Seville, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Yolande married Duke of Burgundy IV Hugh in 1229 in Burgundy, France. IV (son of Duke of Burgundy III Eudes and Alice de Vergy) was born about 9 Mar 1212 in Burgundy, France; died in Feb 1273 in Villaine, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Princess of Wales Gwladys "The Dark" verch Llewelyn about 1230. Gwladys (daughter of Llywelyn Fawr ap Iowerth, Prince of Wales and Tangwystl verch Lywarch) was born in 1205 in Caerarvonshire, Wales; died in 1251 in Winsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Joan Grammaire. Joan (daughter of Richard le Grammaire) was born about 1155 in Skelton, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ellen de Menteith. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 1254, Ricester, Oxfordshire
• Birth: 1254, Oxfordshire, England

Isabel married Justice of Forests Roger III de Clifford in 1269 in England. Roger (son of Justice of Wales Roger II de Clifford and Countess of Lorraine Hawise de Botterell) was born in 1243 in Tenbury, Worcestershire, England; died on 6 Nov 1282 in Menai Bridge, Isle of Anglesey, Wales; was buried in Shap, Eden District, Cumbria, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Maud d'Eiville. Maud (daughter of Roger d'Eiville) was born about 1263 in Walton, Deyville, Warwick, England; died in 1325. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Thomas, governor of the city of London, 1st Edward I [1272-3], and was killed in battle in Ireland fourteen years after, leaving by Amy, his wife, dau. of Sir Maurice FitzMaurice, Gilbert, who d. s. p.; Richard, d.v. p., leaving a son, Thomas, who d. s. p.; Thomas, whose daus. and eventual co-heiresses were Margaret, wife of Bartholomew, 1st Lord Badlesmere, and Maud, wife of Robert, Lord Clifford, of Appleby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Thomas married Juliana FitzMaurice in 1275 in Essex, England. Juliana (daughter of Lord of Offaly Justiciar of Ireland Maurice FitzMaurice and Emmeline Longespee) was born about 1266 in Dublin, Ireland; died after 1309. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William de Braose. William (son of Lord of Bramber and Gower John de Braose and Margaret verch Llewelyn) was born in 1230; died in 1291. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Gilbert "The Red Earl" de Clare

Notes:

Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, 7th Earl of Hertford and 3rd Earl of Gloucester, who, by the king's procurement, m. in 1257, Alice, dau. of Guy, Earl of Angouleme, and niece of the king of France, which monarch bestowed upon the lady a marriage portion of 5,000 marks. This noble man, who, like his predecessors, was zealous in the cause of the barons, proceeded to London immediately after the defeat sustained by the insurrectionary lords at Northampton (48th Henry III) [1264], in order to rouse the citizens, which, having effected, he received the honor of knighthood from Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at the head of the army at Lewes; of which army, his lordship, with John Fitz-John and William de Montchensi, commanded the second brigade, and having mainly contributed to the victory in which the king and prince became prisoners, while the whole power of the realm fell into the hands of the victors, the earl procured a grant under the great seal of all the lands and possessions lying in England of John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, one of the most faithful adherents of the king, excepting the castles of Riegate and Lewes, to hold during the pleasure of the crown, and he soon after, with some of the principal barons, extorted from the captive monarch a commission authorizing Stephen, then bishop of Chichester, Simon Montford, Earl of Leicester, and himself, to nominate nine persons of "the most faithful, prudent, and most studious of the public weal," as well prelates as others, to manage all things according to the laws and customs of the realm until the consultations at Lewes should terminate. Being jealous, however, of the power of Leicester, the earl soon after abandoned the baronial cause and, having assisted in procuring the liberty of the king and prince, commanded the second brigade of the royal arm at the battle of Evesham, which restored the kingly power to its former luster. In reward of these eminent services he received a full pardon for himself and his brother Thomas of all prior treasons, and the custody of the castle of Bergavenny during the minority of Maud, wife of Humphrey de Bohun. His lordship veered again though in his allegiance and he does not appear to have been sincerely reconciled to the royal cause until 1270, in which year, demanding from Prince Edward repayment of the expenses he had incurred at the battle of Evesham, with livery of all the castles and lands which his ancestors had possessed and, those demands having been complied with, he thenceforward became a good and loyal subject of the crown. Upon the death of King Henry, the Earl of Hertford and Gloucester was one of the lords who met at the New Temple in London to proclaim Prince Edward, then in the Holy Land, successor to the crown, and so soon as the new monarch returned to England, his lordship was the first to entertain him and his whole retinue with great magnificence for several days at his castle of Tonebruge. In the 13th Edward I [1285], his lordship divorced his wife Alice, the French princess, and in consideration of her illustrious birth, granted for her support during her life, six extensive manors and parks, and he m. in 1289, Joan of Acre, dau. of King Edward I, upon which occasion he gave up the inheritance of his castles and manors, as well in England as in Wales , to his royal father-in-law, to dispose of as he might think proper; which manors, and c., were entailed by the king upon the earl's issue by the said Joane, and in default, upon her heirs and assigns, should she survive the lordship. By this lady he had issue, Gilbert, his successor, Alianore, Margaret, and Elizabeth. His lordship d. in 1295, and the Countess Joan surviving, m. a "plain esquire," called Ralph de Monthermer, clandestinely, without the king, her father's, knowledge, but to which alliance he was reconciled through the intercession of Anthony Beke, the celebrated bishop of Durham, and became eventually much attached to his now son-in-law. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, pp. 119-120, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester (1243-1295), 8th earl of Gloucester and 9th earl of Clare, was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on Sept. 2, 1243. He married Alice of Angouleme, niece of king Henry III, succeeded his father in July 1262, and joined the baronial party led by Simon de Montfort. With Simon, Gloucester was at the battle of Lewes in May 1264, when the king himself surrendered to him, and after this victory he was one of the three persons selected to nominate a council. Soon, however, he quarreled with Simon. Leaving London for his lands on the Welsh border he met Prince Edward, afterward king Edward I, at Ludlow, just after his escape from captivity; and contributed largely to the prince's victory at Evesham in August 1265. But this alliance was as transitory as the one with Leicester, Gloucester championed the barons who had surrendered at Kenilworth in November and December 1266, and after putting his demands before the king, secured possession of London (April 1267). The earl quickly made his peace with Henry III and with Prince Edward. Under Edward I he spent several years in fighting in Wales, or on the Welsh border; in 1289 when the barons were asked for a subsidy he replied on their behalf that they would grant nothing until they saw the king in person (nihi prius personaliter viderent in Anglia faciem regis), and in 291 he was fined and imprisoned on account of levying private war on Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford. Having divorced his wife Alice, he married in 1290 Edward's daughter Joan, or Johanna (d. 1307). The "Red Earl," as he is sometimes called, died at Monmouth on Dec. 7, 1295, leaving, in addition to three daughters, a son, Gilbert, earl of Gloucester, killed at Bannockburn. [Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 10, p. 434, GLOUCESTER, GILBERT DE CLARE, EARL OF.]

Ninth Earl Clare

Gilbert married Joan "of Acre" Plantagenet on 30 Apr 1290 in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. Joan (daughter of Edward "Longshanks" Plantagenet, King of England and Eleanor "of Castile", Countess de Ponthieu) was born in 1272 in Acre, Palestine; died on 23 Apr 1307 in Clare, Suffolk, England; was buried on 26 Apr 1307 in Priory Church of the Austin Friars, Clare, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Alice de Lusignan on 2 Feb 1253. Alice (daughter of Count of La Marche Hugh de Lusignan, X and Countess of Angoulême Isabella Taillefer) was born in 1224 in Lusignan, Vienne, France; died on 9 Feb 1256 in Warren, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 1st Baron Mowbray Roger de Mowbray. Roger (son of Roger de Mowbray and Maud Beauchamp) was born in 1245 in Thirsk Hovingham, North Ride, Yorkshire, England; died in 1296 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 5 Feb 1311, Holborn, Greater London, England

Family/Spouse: Margaret Longespee, Countess of Salisbury. Margaret (daughter of William Longespee and Margaret de Clifford) was born on 23 Dec 1256 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died on 8 Oct 1306 in Brimpsfield, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Humphrey married Maud de Fiennes about 1275. Maud was born in 1235/1258; died before 1298. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 6th Earl of Derby Robert de Ferrers. Robert (son of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby III and Margaret de Quincy, son of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby III) was born in 1239; died in 1279. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabella married 7th Earl of Arundel John FitzAlan in 1261/1271. John (son of 6th Earl of Arundel John FitzAlan and Maud le Botiller) was born on 14 Sep 1246 in Arundel, Sussex, England; died on 18 Mar 1272 in Clun, Shropshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Margaret de Fiennes. Margaret (daughter of William II de Fiennes and Blanche de Brienne) was born about 1270 in France; died on 7 Feb 1333 in Hereford, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married 6th Earl of Oxford Robert de Vere in 1282 in Hedingham Castle, Essex, England. Robert (son of 5th Earl of Oxford Robert de Vere and Alice de Sanford) was born on 24 Jun 1257 in Hedingham Castle, Essex, England; died on 17 Apr 1331 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William de Braose, in the 22nd of Edward I [1293], had summons to attend the king with other great men to advise regarding the important affairs of the realm. And about the beginning of the ensuing September, he was one of those who embarked at Portsmouth with horse and arms in the king's service for Gascony. In the 28th and 29th of the same reign,he was in the wars of Scotland, and in the latter year he had summons to parliament as a baron. In the 32nd [1304], he was again in the Scottish wars and then enjoyed so much favour that the king not only confirmed to him and his heirs the grant of Gower Land, made by King john to his ancestor, but granted that he and they should thenceforth enjoy all regal jurisdiction, liberties, and privileges there in as ample a manner as Gilder de Clare, son of Richard de Clare, sometimes Earl of Gloucester, had in all his lands of Glamorgan. For several years afterwards, his lordship appears to have been constantly engaged upon the same theatre of war and was always eminently distinguished. In the 14th Edward II [1321], according to Thomas of Walsingham, being "a person who had a large patrimony but a great unthrift," his lordship put up for sale his noble territory of Gower Land, and absolutely sold it under the king's license to the Earl of Hereford; but its contiguity to the lands of the younger Spencer (who was then high in royal favour, and the king's chamberlain), attracting the attention of that minion, he forcibly possessed himself of the estate and thus gave rise to the insurrection headed by Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster. Lord Braose m. Aliva, dau. of Thomas de Moulton, and had issue, Aliva, m. 1st, to John de Mowbray, and 2ndly, to Sir Richard de Pershall, and Joan, m. to John* de Bohun, of Midhurst. His lordship, who had regular summons to parliament to 18 September, 1322, d. in that year, when the Barony of Braose, of Gower, fell into abeyance between his daus. and co-heirs, and it so continues with their representatives. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, pp. 72-73, Braose, Barons Braose, of Gower]

* The Bohun entry on pg. 58 in the same source cited above, states it was James de Bohun, younger brother of John de Bohun, who d.s.p., that Joan married.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth de Sully. Elizabeth (daughter of Raymond de Sully) was born in 1263 in Sully, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales; died in 1328. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord of Badlesmere on 28 Apr 1317 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. Bartholomew (son of Guncelin de Badlesmere and Joan FitzBarnard) was born on 18 Aug 1275 in Badlesmere, Swale, Kent, England; died on 14 Apr 1322 in Blean, Canterbury, Kent, England; was buried in Badlesmere, Swale, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gilbert de Umfreville. Gilbert (son of 8th Earl of Angus Gilbert de Umfreville and Elizabeth Comyn) was born before 1276; died before 23 May 1303. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 1276, Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury Borough, Gloucestershire, England

Notes:

11/11/1315 Abducted and Forcibly Remarried by Robert de Welles

Matilda married Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford on 13 Nov 1295 in Clifford's Castle, Herefordshire, England. Robert (son of Justice of Forests Roger III de Clifford and Isabel de Vipont) was born on 1 Apr 1274 in Clifford Castle, Hereford, England; died on 24 Jun 1314 in Battle of Bannockburn, Stirling, Scotland; was buried in Shap Abbey, Eden District, Cumbria, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, (c. 1294-1360), foundress of Clare College, Cambridge, was the youngest daughter of Gilbert Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1295) by his second marriage to Edward I's daughter Joan of Acre (1271-1307). She was married first to John Burgh (d. 1313), heir to the earldom of Ulster, to whom she bore her only son William. Following the childless death of her only brother Gilbert at Bannockburn in 1314, she became a great heiress and was abducted in 1316, probably with her consent, by Theobald Verdon, who died later the same year and to whom she bore a posthumous daughter Isabel. A daughter Elizabeth was born by her third marriage to Roger Damory, who died in 1321. Still only in her mid-twenties, with dowers from all three husbands and with an inheritance worth at least 2,000 a year, she was an obvious target both for marriage and for molestation by the Despensers, who defrauded her of her lordship of Usk. This was recovered after their overthrow and she did not marry again, taking a vow of chastity by 1344. At her death her inheritance descended to her granddaughter Elizabeth, wife of Edward III's son Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and thence passed to the Mortimers and house of York.

Elizabeth's widowhood is illuminated by the finest set of household accounts still surviving. These reveal that she lived in stately splendour at Clare in Suffolk, where she received a stream of visitors, including her kinsfolk Edward III and Queen Philippa. 250 people received her livery in 1343, many of them members of her household, and at least 3,000 a year and sometimes more was spent by her wardrobe and household. This was not because Elizabeth was extravagant; she ran her household and estates efficiently, obtained value for her money, and took a strong line with poachers. That 93 esquires took her livery indicates her role as a great local aristocrat, particularly in East Anglia, which also emerges from her religious patronage.

As an heiress, Elizabeth held estates in her own right, not for life, and could thus give generously to the Church without first saving up wealth, as her friend Mary of St Pol had to do. Already before her husbands' deaths, she had vowed to go on pilgrimage to Santiago and the Holy Land, a promise she was unable to fulfill, and from the early 1330s was giving property to Ely cathedral priory, Tremenhall and Anglesey priories, and West Dereham Abbey. Her attention was attracted by 1336 to the notoriously under-financed University Hall at Cambridge, which she was persuaded to take over as Clare Hall, to endow (1346), and for which she devised statutes in 1359. All this involved dealing tactfully but firmly with the university and unsatisfactory fellows. Clare College was the first college deliberately planned to include undergraduates. While Elizabeth's example may have prompted Mary of St Pol to found Pembroke College, certainly it was Mary who interested Elizabeth in the Franciscans. In 1343 Elizabeth gave a church to Mary's abbey of Franciscan nuns (Minoresses) at Denney, in 1347 she founded a Franciscan friary at the pilgrimage centre of Walsingham priory, from 1355 (like Mary) she was authorised to stay overnight in Minoress houses, and in 1360 her will asked for burial at the Aldgate house of Minoresses. Her influence helps explain the foundation of the final English house of Minoresses at Bruisyard by her granddaughter and her husband Clarence with nuns from Denney. [Michael Hicks, Who's Who in Late Medieval England, Shepheard-Walwyn Ltd, London, 1991]

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Elizabeth m. 1st, John de Burgh, son of Richard, Earl of Ulster, by whom she had issue, William, Earl of Ulster, who m. Maud, sister of Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster, and left a dau. and heiress, Elizabeth de Burgh, who m. Lionel Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, K.G., and had an only dau. and heiress, Philippa Plantagenet, who m. Edward Mortimer, Earl of March. Elizabeth, widow of John de Burgh, m. 2ndly, Theobald de Verdon, and 3rdly, Roger d'Amory; by the last she had two daus., Elizabeth, m. to John, Lord Bardolph, and Eleanor, m. to John de Raleigh. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 120, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Elizabeth de Clare, the youngest sister of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester, m. John de Burgh, son of Richard, Earl of Ulster, and through this alliance the honour of Clare came into the possession of the de Burghs. The heiress of Clare left a son, William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, who m. Maud, sister of Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 434, Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence]

Elizabeth married Lord d'Amory Roger d'Amorie before 3 May 1317. Roger was born about 1284 in of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, England; died on 13 Mar 1322 in Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, England; was buried in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married 2nd Lord Verdon Theobold de Verdon on 4 Feb 1315/16 in England. Theobold was born on 8 Sep 1278 in of Alton, Staffordshire, England; died on 27 Jul 1316 in Alton, Staffordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married John de Burgh on 30 Sep 1308 in Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. John was born about 1297 in Ulster, Ireland; died on 18 Jun 1313 in Galway, Connaught, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eleanor married 3rd Lord le Despenser1 Hugh "the younger" le Despenser on 14 Jun 1306 in Westminster Palace, London, Middlesex, England. Hugh (son of 1st Earl of Winchester Hugh le Despenser and Isabel Beauchamp) was born in 1290 in Barton, Gloucester, England; died on 24 Nov 1326 in Herford, Herfordshire, England; was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eleanor married William de la Zouche in Jan 1329. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married 8th Earl of Gloucester Hugh d'Audley on 28 Apr 1317 in Winsor, England. Hugh (son of Lord Audley Hugh (Alditheley) d'Audley and Isolda de Mortimer) was born about 1289; died on 10 Nov 1347. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 1st Earl of Cornwall Piers Gaveston. Piers was born about 1284; died on 19 Jun 1312. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married 10th Earl of Warwick Guy Beauchamp on 11 May 1297 in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England. Guy (son of 9th Earl of Warwick William Beauchamp and Maud FitzGeoffrey) was born in 1262 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England; died on 12 Aug 1315 in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Maurice de Berkeley, III in 1316. Maurice was born in Apr 1281 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England; died on 31 May 1326 in Wallingford Castle, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Donnchadh, 7th Earl of Fife III. Donnchadh (son of Colban, Earl of Fife and Anna Durward) died in 1288. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John de Mowbray, 2nd baron, summoned to parliament from 26 August, 1307, to 5 August, 1320. This nobleman, during his minority, was actively engaged in the Scottish wars of King Edward I, and had livery of all his lands before he attained majority in consideration of those services. In the 6th Edward II [1313], being then sheriff of Yorkshire and governor of the city of York, he had command from the king to seize upon Henry de Percy, then a great baron in the north, in consequence of that nobleman suffering Piers de Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, to escape from Scarborough Castle in which he had undertaken to keep him in safety. The next year Lord Mowbray was in another expedition into Scotland, and he was then constituted one of the wardens of the marches towards that kingdom. In the 11th of the same reign [1318], he was made governor of Malton and Scarborough Castles, in Yorkshire, and the following year he was once more in Scotland, invested with authority to receive into protection all who should submit to King Edward, but afterwards taking part in the insurrection of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, he was made prisoner with that nobleman and others at the battle of Boroughbridge and immediately hanged at York, anno 1321, when his lands were seized by the crown and Aliva, his widow, with her son, imprisoned in the Tower of London. This lady, who was dau. and co-heir of William de Braose, Lord Braose, of Gower, was compelled, in order to obtain some alleviation of her unhappy situation, to confer several manors of her own inheritance upon Hugh le Despencer, Earl of Winchester. In the next reign, however, she obtained from the crown a confirmation of Gowerland, in Wales, to herself and the heirs of her body by her deceased husband, with remainder to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and his heirs. Lady Mowbray m. 2ndly, Sir R. de Peshale, Knt., and d. in the 5th Edward III [1332]. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 387, Mowbray, Earls of Nottingham, Dukes of Norfolk, Earls-Marshal, Earls of Warren and Surrey]

Died:
hanged

Family/Spouse: Aline de Braose. Aline (daughter of Baron of Braose William VI de Braose and Elizabeth de Sully) was born about 1286 in Gower, Glamorganshire, Wales; died before 20 Jul 1331 in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton in 1335 in Castle Badlesmere, Kent, England. William (son of 4th Earl of Hereford Humphrey VIII de Bohun and Elizabeth "of Rhuddlan" Plantagenet) was born in 1312 in Caldecot, Northamptonshire, England; died on 16 Sep 1360 in London, Greater London, England; was buried in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Edmund de Mortimer on 27 Jun 1316 in Earnwood, Kinlet, Shropshire, England. Edmund (son of Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March and Joan de Greneville) was born in 1302 in Wigmore, Herefordshire, England; died on 16 Dec 1331 in Stanton Lacy, Shropshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]