4th Lord of Bramber William III de Braose

Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Castle of Grosmont

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

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

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

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

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

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

Family/Spouse: 4th Earl of Leicester Robert IV de Beaumont. Robert (son of 3rd Earl of Leicester Robert III de Beaumont and Petronella de Grandmesnil) was born about 1150 in Leicestershire, England; died in 1204 in Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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

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

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

Notes:

Giles' younger brother, Reginald, s. him in the representation of the family. Eventually King John, in the last year of his reign, his wrath being then assuaged, granted part of those [confiscated] lands to Reginald, which grant was confirmed by King Henry III, and he had livery of the castle and honour of Totness, with the honour of Barnstaple, having had previous possession of other estates. He m. GoÅicia, dau.... offff William de Bruere, and dying in 1221, waaas sss. by his son, 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]

Family/Spouse: Princess of Wales Gwladys "The Dark" verch Llewelyn. 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]

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]

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]