1st Earl of Pembroke William Marshal

Notes:

Marshal of England
Protector of the Realm
Regent of the Kingdom

The office of Marshal to the king was a hereditary perquisite of a middling Wiltshire family. The duties were various, but mainly they consisted of acting as second-in-command to the constable of the royal household, maintaining order in the palace and guarding it, looking after the stables, keeping the rolls of those who performed their military service, and checking the accounts of various household and state departments.

From this family came William Marshal, whose biography was written by his squire John of Earley so providing us with one of the deepest and most fascinating insights into the life of a great baron of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

His father, John Marshal, whom the Gesta Stephani rather unkindly describes as 'a limb of hell and the root of all evil' was a man who loved warfare, and played the game of politics with great success. At first he supported Stephen but, when he began to realize the failings of the King and the potentialities of Matilda's party, he changed sides. Almost immediately he proved by a consummate act of bravery and hardihood, that he was worth having: escorting Matilda to safety in his castle at Ledgershall, John found that the party was going dangerously slowly because Matilda was riding side-saddle, so he persuaded her to ride astride, and stopped behind to delay the pursuers at Wherwell. His force was soon overpowered by the numbers of the enemy, and John took refuge with one of his knights in the Abbey. The opposing party promptly set fire to the church, and John and his knight had to take cover in the tower, John threatening to kill his knight if he made any move to surrender. As the lead of the roof began to melt and drop on the two soldiers, putting out one of John's eyes, the enemy moved off, convinced that they were dead. They escaped, in a terrible state, but triumphant, to John's castle.

He plainly expected his children to be as tough as himself, as an incident of the year 1152, when William was about six, will show. King Stephen went to besiege Newbury Castle, which Matilda had given John to defend; the castellan, realizing that provisions and the garrison were both too low to stand a long siege, asked for a truce to inform his master. This was normal practice, for if the castellan were not at once relieved, he could then surrender without being held to have let his master down. Now John had not sufficient troops to relieve the castle, so he asked Stephen to extend the truce whilst he, in turn, informed his mistress, and agreed to give William as a hostage, promising not to provision and garrison the castle during the truce. This he promptly did, and when he received word from Stephen that the child would be hung if he did not at once surrender the castle, he cheerfully replied that he had hammer and anvils to forge a better child than William.

The child was taken out for execution, but at the last moment Stephen relented with that soft heart that was his undoing, and though his officers presented such enticing plans as catapulting William over the castle walls with a siege engine, he would not give in. Later on he grew attached to the child, and one day when William was playing an elementary form of conkers with the King, using plantains, the child saw a servant of his mother, the lady Sibile (sister of the Earl of Salisbury), peeping in to check up on his safety. William cried out a greeting and the servant had to run for his life. The child did not know what danger she was running, but it was good and early training for his future career.

When he was thirteen William was sent to serve in the retinue of his father's cousin, the chamberlain of Normandy. This was his apprenticeship in knighthood, and was to last eight years. As a squire he would learn by experience all the skills of a knight, and the elaborate code of honor that went with it. After he had been knighted in 1167, he began to go round the tournaments to make his name, and earn a living by the spoils. He was eager for the fray, so eager in fact that in his earliest tournaments he concentrated too much on the fighting, and forgot to take the plunder. He had to be warned by elder and wiser knights of the dangerous folly of such quixotic behavior---a good war-horse captured from an unseated opponent could fetch 40 pounds. Even so, his heart was really set upon fame, and he recalled in old age the pride he had experienced as a youngster when, having retired to the refuge (a hut regarded as neutral territory in a tournament) to fix his helmet, he overheard two knights outside commenting on how well he was fighting.

He was, however, only the second son of a middling baron, and he could not live off honor; so it must have been wonderful news for him when in 1170 he heard of his appointment as captain of the guard and military tutor to King Henry II's heir, the fifteen-year-old Henry, already crowned in his father's lifetime in, as it turned out, a fruitless attempt to ensure the succession. In 1173 it fell to his lot to make the young King a knight.

Henry seems to have had a good sense of humor, for in 1176 when the two were cantering back into town after a tournament, William managed to bag another knight, and led him reined behind, with the King following. A low-hanging water sprout swept the knight off his horse, but Henry kept what he had seen to himself, and the laugh was definitely on William when they got home to find he was leading a horse, but no knight to ransom.

Tournaments were so frequent at that time that a real enthusiast could attend one a fortnight, and William and the King must have attained a record number of attendances. This was the equivalent of hunting to a nineteenth century country gentleman, though much more rugged. In ten months William and a colleague captured one hundred and three knights, and risked death on each occasion: one memory William kept of those days was having to receive the prize of hero of the day kneeling with his head on an anvil whilst a smith tried to prize off his battered helm. Another memory he retained was arriving too early for a fight, and dancing with the ladies who had come to watch---in full amour!

Then came trouble---William's enemies began to spread rumors that he was the lover of Henry's wife, and seeing that the suspicion could not fail to mar their relationship, William cut out on his own. He was immediately inundated with tempting offers from great lords who wanted to engage his services---three times he was offered 500 pounds a year or more, but he turned them down and went instead on pilgrimage to Cologne.

He was soon recalled to service with the young King in 1183, but it was only to see him die of a fever. At the last William promised that he would carry out Henry's vow to go on crusade, and having buried his master, he carried out his promise.

He came home in 1187 to take his place as an esteemed servant of the King, and to marry the second richest heiress in England who brought him the Earldom of Pembroke and extensive lands in England, Wales and Ireland. He served Henry II in his final bitter years and once, when he was covering the king's retreat, he put the fear of God into Prince Richard who was leading the pursuit. The Lionheart cried out, 'By the legs of God, Marshal, do not kill me, ' and William killed his horse instead.

Such conduct was dangerous, but when Richard came to the throne he showed the Marshal that he respected him for it, and when he went on crusade he made William one of the four associate justiciars appointed to help William de Longchamp, who had the care of the kingdom. This was excellent training in administration and justice, which was to stand William in good stead later when he had to bear responsibilities far greater than those with which a simple soldier can deal.

It also gave him lessons in how to deal with the immensely difficult Prince John, who, fearing, with some justice, that Richard intended to leave the kingdom to his nephew Arthur of Brittany, had to consolidate his position whilst his brother was away. When he heard that Richard had been captured on his way home and was being held to an incredibly stiff ransom, John's ambitions became boundless, and the Marshal had, added to his normal duties, the double problem of keeping the prince in check and raising a vast sum of money.

Richard returned to find William a wise counselor now as well as an incomparable soldier, and he used him well; but in 1199 he died, and William worked with skill and energy for the smooth accession of John. This King was to bring him worse problems than he had ever known.

For the next seven years William had to watch John losing Normandy to the Marshal's old friend Philip Augustus, knowing there was nothing to be done about it. Instead of knightly virtues, treachery was now the order of the day, and when he taxed the French King with using traitors, he had only this for reply: '. . . it is now a matter of business. They are like torches that one throws into the latrine when one is done with them.'

Attempting to rescue something out of the chaos of the loss of Normandy, William undertook the negotiations with France to make peace, and find a formula by which the English barons might retain their lands in France. What he found instead was the implacable suspicion of John who, fearing that William was going over to the French side, confiscated all his castles and official positions, and took his two eldest sons as hostages.

So William spent the next five years in Ireland, looking after his vast estates and interests there far away from John, but unfortunately, in an area in which John took an especial interest. Every move William made was countered by the royal officials, and active hostilities soon commenced. However, William had the better and more faithful knights and, despite the royal offensives, he tended to win, so in 1208 a truce was made.

Soon afterwards William received on his lands William de Briouse, whom John regarded as a bitter enemy, and so the quarrel flared up again. Finally the sixty-six-year-old knight had to come to court and offer to fight an ordeal by battle to prove his faith. No one dared to take up the challenge, though a winning contestant would have rocketed into favor with the King.

But by the year 1212 John was in serious trouble, and was to learn where his true friends lay. William swung the baronage of Ireland into support for the crown, helped to organize the vital rapprochement with the Pope, and prepared to gather the King's friends together and put his castles in order in readiness for the inevitable struggle. A great moderating force was Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was to be associated with William throughout the struggle, persuading John to accede to those demands of the barons which he had helped to formulate.

In 1216 William was back in the saddle as commander-in-chief of the royal forces opposing the barons and their ally the Dauphin and his French troops. All was well between the Marshal and the King who had so badly misjudged him, and now John tried to make amends. But the years of suspicion and discord still told: when he gave William the castle of Dunamase, he was upset that his justiciar failed to hand it over---he had forgotten an arrangement he had made secretly with the justiciar that William was to have nothing, whatever documents he produced, without a secret handshake (holding each other's thumbs) being given.

Now as John lay dying in Newark Castle, with half his kingdom in enemy hands, and a nine-year old child as his successor, he realized the worth of the man he had hounded so long, and urged all present to commit the kingdom into the care of the Marshal after his death.

William was an old man, the treasury was empty, discord reigned, and the position seemed hopeless---he wept and begged to be excused; but John of Earley, his squire, pointed out what honor there was to be won, and changed his mind for him in a flash. 'It goes straight to my heart that if all should abandon the King except me do you know what I would do?; I would carry him on my shoulders, now here, now there, from isle to isle, from land to land, and I would never fail him, even if I were forced to beg my bread.'

Filled with a sense of the glory of his task, the regent now raided the rich stores of jewels and clothing accumulated by the royal house 'against a rainy day' to pay the soldiers he so desperately needed. He sent out showers of letters of protection to the enemy barons, tempting them to change sides. Gradually he built up his powers for the decisive blow, at Lincoln in May 1217.

There William led the charge, with the wily Bishop of Winchester who found a way in, and fought up and down the streets of Lincoln with many a shout of 'Ca! Dieu aide au Mare-chal!' Finally they reached the open space in front of the cathedral where William personally captured the French commander and received three massive blows which left dents in his helmet. The worthy Dame Nicola, who had kept the castle for so long for the King against enormous odds, was at last relieved, and the war was almost won.

The Marshal sped down to Dover to intercept the convoy of reinforcements coming from France, and then set about making peace. He was generous---perhaps over-generous---to French and English alike, there was no victimization, and little recrimination. The speediest route back to peace was chosen, for England had suffered enormous damage from the civil war.

This was perhaps the worst time for William---the period of reconstruction. He knew well how to fight, but the sheer boredom and worry of administration of this kind must have borne heavily on the old man. Disputes and claims had to be settled so that both sides were satisfied, and no one would have a pretext for re-starting rebellion. Above all money was needed to oil the wheels and restore the losses of war, and the best way to make rebels is to overtax them. He even had to ban tournaments, which would obviously lead to dangerous positions being taken up once more. He must have wondered what he had come to---the greatest fighter in Europe, and the one who loved a fight better than anything. Instead he spent his time setting up judicial commissions and trying desperately to balance the budget.

He continued hard at work until the end of February, 1219, when he was taken ill and confined to his bed in the Tower. Doctors came and went but could do nothing, and quickly all his family and his knights and retainers gathered round him for the end. He asked to be taken up river to his manor of Caversham near Reading to die, and there, he and his household went, in mid-March, followed by the young King Henry III, the papal legate, and the highest officers of state.

He urged the king 'to be a gentleman,' and told him that if he should follow the example of some evil ancestor, he hoped he would die young. He worried long and hard over who should be his successor, and found no-one who could unite all under his rule, so wisely chose the papal legate. He made his will, and worried for a moment at the lack of provision for his young son Anselm, but, remembering his own career, felt that he could make his own way. 'May God give him prowess and skill.' He remembered an unmarried daughter and made provision for her 'until God takes care of her.' He had always been a religious man, founder of monasteries, crusader, and honest knight. He called for silken cloths he had thoughtfully brought back from the Holy Land thirty years before, and gave instruction that he should be covered with them at his funeral.

He wanted to be buried as a Knight Templar, and when the master of the order came to clothe him, he said to his wife 'Belle amie, you are going to kiss me, but it will be for the last time.' Happy now that all the arrangements had been made, William could rest a little, and wait comfortably for death. He talked gently with his knights---one of them was worried that the clerks said no one could be saved who did not giveback everything he had taken. William set his mind at rest---he had taken 500 knights in his lifetime, and could never restore the booty, so if he were damned there was nothing he could do about it. 'The clerks are too hard on us. They shave us too closely.' When his clerk suggested that all the rich robes could be sold to win his salvation, he said 'You have not the heart of a gentleman, and I have had too much of your advice. Pentecost is at hand, and my knights ought to have their new robes. This will be the last time I can supply them. . .' He was a religious man---true---but he could not abide nonsense and knew his own duty.

In his last days he was very gentle to his family. One day he said to John of Earley that he had an overwhelming desire to sing, and when John urged him to do so, as it might improve his appetite, he told him it would do no such thing, people would just assume he was delirious. So they called in his daughters to sing for him, and when one sang weakly, overcome with emotion, he showed her how she should project her voice and sing with grace.

On 14 May, William suddenly called to John of Earley to open all the doors and windows and call everyone in, for death was upon him. There was such a press that the abbots of Nutley and Reading, come to absolve the Marshal and give him plenary indulgence, were barely noticed, except by the dying man, who called them to him, made confession, prayed, and then died with his eyes fixed upon the cross.

The corte moved slowly up to London for the great state funeral, and there William's old friend Stephen Langton spoke his eulogy over the grave: 'Behold all that remains of the best knight that ever lived. You will all come to this. Each man dies on his day. We have here our mirror, you and I. Let each man say his paternoster that God may receive this Christian into His Glory and place him among His faithful vassals, as he so well deserves.' [Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1995]

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William Marshal, of the great baronial family of Marischal, marshal to the king, is first noticed as receiving from Prince Henry, the rebellious son of Henry II, upon the prince's deathbed, as his most confidential friend, his cross to convey to Jerusalem. He m. the great heiress of the Clares in 1189, and with her acquired the Earldom of Pembroke -- in which rank he bore the royal scepter of gold, surmounted by the cross, at the coronation of King Richard I, and he was soon afterwards, on the king's purposing a journey to the Holy Land, appointed one of the assistants to Hugh, bishop of Durham, and William, Earl of Albemarle, Chief Justice of England, in the government of the realm.

Upon the decease of his brother, John Mareschall, marshal of the king's house, in 1199, he became lord marshal, and on the day of the coronation of King John, he was invested with the sword of the Earldom of Pembroke, being then confirmed in the possession of the said inheritance. In the first year of this monarch's reign, his lordship was appointed sheriff of Gloucestershire and likewise of Sussex, wherein he was continued for several years. In the 5th he had a grant of Goderich Castle in Hereford, to hold by the service of two knights' fees; and in four years afterwards he obtained, by grant from the crown, the whole province of Leinster, in Ireland, to hold by the service of one hundred knights' fees.

Upon the breaking out of the baronial insurrection, the Earl of Pembroke was deputed by the king, with the archbishop of Canterbury, to ascertain the grievances and demands of those turbulent lords, and at the demise of King John, he was so powerful as to prevail upon the barons to appoint a day for the coronation of Henry III, to whom he was constituted guardian, by the rest of the nobility, who had remained firm in their allegiance. He subsequently took up arms in the royal cause and, after achieving a victory over the barons at Lincoln, proceeded directly to London, and investing that great city, both by land and water, reduced it to extremity for want of provisions. Peace, however, being soon concluded, it was relieved. His lordship, at this point, executed the office of sheriff for the cos. of Essex and Hertford.

This eminent nobleman was no less distinguished by his wisdom in the council and valor in the field, than by his piety and his attachment to the church, of which his numerous munificent endowments bear ample testimony. His lordship had, by the heiress of Clare, five sons, who s. each other in his lands and honors, and five daus., viz., Maud, Joan, Isabel, Sybil, and Eve. The earl d. in 1219, and was s. by his eldest son, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 358, Marshal, Earls of Pembroke]

William Mareschal, now Marshall (Mareschal to the King), he became Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Leinster, and Lord Marshal of Ireland, 1207, having then a grant of the whole province of Leinster. He d. 16 March, 1219, having issue, five sons and five daus. His sons, William, Richard, Gilbert, Walter, and Anselme, all succeeded to the Earldom of Pembroke and Lordship of Leinster, the last of whom dying s. p. 21 December, 1245, the title of Pembroke became extinct and the Lordship of Leinster was divided amongst the five daus., viz., (1), Maud, who being m. to Hugh le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, had issue. Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 628, Baronage of Ireland]

See also: http://www.castlewales.com/marshall.html
and http://www.castlewales.com/mar_chld.html

William married Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare in Aug 1189 in London, Middlesex, England. Isabel (daughter of 2nd Earl of Pembroke Richard FitzGilbert "Strongbow" de Clare and Eve (Aoife) MacMurrough) was born about 1172 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died in 1220 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; was buried in Tintern Abbey, Chapel Hill, Monmouthsire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eva married Lord of Abergavenny William V de Braose on 2 May 1230. William (son of Lord Bramber William IV The Younger de Braose and Maud de Clere) was born about 1197 in Brecknock, Surrey, England; died on 2 May 1230 in Crogen, Wales. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Maud Marshal m. 1st to Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk; 2ndly, to William de Warren, Earl of Surrey; and 3rdly, to Walde de Dunstanville. This lady, upon the decease of her youngest brother, Anselm, Earl of Pembroke, s.p., in 1245, and the division of the estates, obtained as her share the manor of Hempsted-Marshall, in Berks, with the office of marshal of England, which was inherited by her son Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and surrendered to the crown by her grandson, Rogert Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk. Maud, Countess of Norfolk, had likewise the manors of Chepstowand Carlogh. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 358, Marshal, Earls of Pembroke]

Matilda married 6th Earl of Surrey William de Warenne before 13 Oct 1225. William (son of 5th Earl of Surrey Hamelin de Warenne and Countess of Surrey Isabel de Warenne) was born in 1166 in Surrey, England; died on 27 May 1240 in London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married 3rd Earl of Norfolk Hugh Bigod about 1207 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Hugh (son of 2nd Earl of Norfolk Roger Bigod and Ida (Isabel) de Warenne) was born in 1186 in Thetford, Norfolk, England; died on 18 Feb 1225 in Thetford, Norfolk, England; was buried in Thetford Church, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who, in the time of his father, was as strenuous a supporter of the baronial cause as that nobleman was of the royal interests, and was constituted one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Carta, being then styled "Comes Mareschal, Jun." After the decease of King John, however, he made his peace and, becoming loyally attached to the new monarch, obtained grants of the forfeited lands of his former companions, Sayer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and David, Earl of Huntingdon. His lordship was subsequently engaged against the Welsh and defeated their Prince, Llewelyn, with great slaughter; and in the 14th Henry III [1230], he was captain-general of the king's forces in Brittany. He m. 1st, Alice, dau. of Baldwin de Betun, Earl of Albemarle; and 2ndly, the Lady Alianore Plantagenet, dau. of King John, and sister of Henry III, but had issue by neither. He d. in 1231, and was s. by his next brother, Richard Marshal.[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 358, Marshal, Earls of Pembroke]

William married Eleanor Plantagenet on 23 Apr 1224 in New Temple Church, London, England. Eleanor (daughter of King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet and Countess of Angoulême Isabella Taillefer) was born in 1215 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England; died on 13 Apr 1275 in Montargis Abbey, France; was buried in Montargis Abbey, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (d. April 16, 1234) was the brother of William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whom he succeeded to the earldom.

Richard Marshal came to the fore as the leader of the baronial party, and the chief antagonist of the foreign friends of King Henry III of England, notably Peter de Rivaux. Fearing treachery, he refused to visit the king at Gloucester in August 1233, and Henry declared him a traitor. Hostilities followed, and Richard made an alliance with Llywelyn the Great. He crossed to Ireland, where Peter des Roches had instigated his enemies to attack him, and in April 1234 he was overpowered and wounded, and died a prisoner. He was succeeded by another of his brothers, Gilbert.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: Aft 1198

Family/Spouse: Margaret de Quincy. 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]

Sibyl married William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby III before 14 May 1219. William (son of 4th Earl of Derby William II de Ferrers and Agnes de Meschines) was born in 1193 in Derby, Derbyshire, England; died before 28 Mar 1254 in Evington, Leicestershire, England; was buried on 31 Mar 1254 in Merevale Abbey. Merevale, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Joan married Lord of Swanscomb Warin de Munchensi after 14 May 1219. Warin (son of William de Munchensi and Aveline de Clare) was born about 1192 in Swanscombe, Kent, England; died on 20 Jul 1255. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Earl of Cornwall Richard Plantagenet on 30 Mar 1231 in St Mary's Church, Fawley, Buckinghamshire, England. Richard (son of King of England John I "Lackland" Plantagenet and Countess of Angoulême Isabella Taillefer) was born on 5 Jan 1209 in Winchester Castle, Hampshire, England; died on 2 Apr 1272 in Berkhampstead Castle, Hertfordshire, England; was buried on 13 Apr 1272 in Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford 1st Earl of Gloucester on 9 Oct 1214 in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Gilbert (son of 4th Earl of Hertford Richard de Clare and Countess of Gloucester Amicia) was born in 1182 in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England; died on 25 Oct 1230 in Penaroz, Departement du Finistère, Bretagne, France; was buried on 10 Nov 1230 in Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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:

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]

Maud married 9th Earl of Warwick William Beauchamp in 1255/1284. William (son of William Beauchamp and Isabel de Mauduit) was born in 1237 in Elmley Castle, Worcestershire, England; died on 5 Jun 1298 in Elmley Castle, Worcestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Theobald le Botiller. Theobald died on 26 Sep 1285 in Arklow; was buried in Black Friars', Arklow. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord of Appleby Sheriff of Westmorland Robert de Vipont. Robert (son of Lord of Appleby John de Vipont and Sibyl de Ferrers) was born in 1239 in Appleby, Westmorland, England; died on 7 Jun 1264. [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]