Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. Magna Charta Surety 1215.
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Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Gloucester
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Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford)
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navigation,
searchGilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford
5th (or 1st) Earl of Gloucester
Born
1180
Hertford,
Hertfordshire,
EnglandDied
25 October 1230
Penrose,
Brittany,
FranceGilbert de Clare, adapted from
Tewkesbury Abbey stained glass window
Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, 5th Earl of Gloucester (1180 – 25 October 1230) was the son of
Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford, from whom he inherited the Clare estates. He also inherited from his mother, Amice Fitz William, the estates of Gloucester and the honour of St. Hilary, and from Rohese, an ancestor, the moiety of the Giffard estates. In June 1202, he was entrusted with the lands of
Harfleur and
Montrevillers.
In 1215 Gilbert and his father were two of the barons made
Magna Carta sureties and championed
Louis "le Dauphin" of France in the
First Barons' War, fighting at
Lincoln under the baronial banner. He was taken prisoner in 1217 by
William Marshal, whose daughter
Isabel he later married on 9 October, her 17th birthday.
In 1223 he accompanied his brother-in-law,
Earl Marshal, in an expedition into Wales. In 1225 he was present at the confirmation of the Magna Carta by
Henry III. In 1228 he led an army against the Welsh, capturing
Morgan Gam, who was released the next year. He then joined in an expedition to
Brittany, but died on his way back to Penrose in that duchy. His body was conveyed home by way of
Plymouth and
Cranborne to
Tewkesbury. His widow Isabel later married
Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall & King of the Romans. His own arms were: Or, three chevronels gules.
Hertford had six children by his wife
Isabel, née Marshal:
[1] • Agnes de Clare (b. 1218)
• Amice de Clare (1220–1287), who married the
6th Earl of Devon • Richard de Clare (1222–1262)
• Isabel de Clare (1226–1264), who married the
5th Lord of Annandale • William de Clare (1228–1258)
• Gilbert de Clare (b. 1229)
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
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searchThis article is about the 13th-century noble. For the philosopher, see
Richard Rufus of Cornwall.
Richard
King of the RomansReign
13 January 1257 – 2 April 1272
Coronation27 May 1257
Predecessor
William II of HollandSuccessor
Rudolph I of GermanyEarl of CornwallSuccessor
Edmund, 2nd EarlSpouse
Isabel Marshalm. 1231; dec. 1240
Sanchia of Provencem. 1243; dec. 1261
Beatrice of Falkenburg
m. 1261; wid. 1272
Issue
Henry of AlmainEdmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall
Richard Cornwall
HouseHouse of PlantagenetFather
John Lackland, King of EnglandMother
Isabella of AngoulêmeBorn
5 January 1209
Winchester Castle,
HampshireDied
2 April 1272 (aged 63)
Berkhamsted Castle,
HertfordshireBurial
Hailes Abbey,
GloucestershireRichard of Cornwall (5 January 1209 – 2 April 1272) was
Count of Poitou (from 1225 to 1243),
1st Earl of Cornwall (from 1225) and German King (formally "
King of the Romans", from 1257). One of the wealthiest men in Europe, he also joined the
Sixth Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners, and assisted with the building of the citadel in
Ascalon.
Contents
Biography
Early life
He was born on 5 January 1209 at
Winchester Castle, the second son of
King John and
Isabella of Angoulême. He was made
High Sheriff of Berkshire at the age of only eight, was styled
Count of Poitou from 1225 and in the same year, at the age of sixteen, his brother
King Henry III gave him Cornwall as a birthday present, making him
High Sheriff of Cornwall. Richard's revenues from Cornwall provided him with great wealth, and he became one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Though he campaigned on King Henry's behalf in
Poitou and
Brittany, and served as Regent three times, relations were often strained between the brothers in the early years of Henry's reign. Richard rebelled against him three times, and had to be bought off with lavish gifts. As the second son of King John, he had to wait to be crowned as King.
Marriage to Isabel, 1231–40
In March 1231 he married
Isabel Marshal, the wealthy widow of
the Earl of Gloucester, much to the displeasure of his brother King Henry, who feared the Marshal family because they were rich, influential, and often opposed him. Richard became stepfather to Isabel's six children from her first husband. In that same year he acquired his main residence,
Wallingford Castle in
Berkshire (now
Oxfordshire), and spent much money on developing it. He had other favoured properties at
Marlow and
Cippenham in
Buckinghamshire. Isabel and Richard had four children, of whom only their son,
Henry of Almain, survived to adulthood. Richard opposed
Simon de Montfort, and rose in rebellion in 1238 to protest against the marriage of his sister,
Eleanor, to Simon. Once again he was placated with rich gifts. When Isabel was on her deathbed in 1240, she asked to be buried next to her first husband at
Tewkesbury, but Richard had her interred at
Beaulieu Abbey instead. As a pious gesture, however, he sent her heart to Tewkesbury.
On Crusade and marriage to Sanchia, 1240–43
Later that year Richard departed for the Holy Land. He fought no battles but managed to negotiate for the release of prisoners and the burials of
Crusaders killed at a battle in
Gaza in 1239. He also refortified
Ascalon, which had been demolished by
Saladin. On his return from the Holy Land, Richard visited his sister
Isabella, the empress of
Frederick II.
After the birth of
prince Edward in 1239, provisions were made in case of the king's death, which favored the Queen and her Savoyard relatives and excluded Richard. To keep him from becoming discontented King Henry and Queen Eleanor brought up the idea of a marriage with Eleanor's sister
Sanchia shortly after his return on 28 January 1242. On his journey to the Holy Land, Richard had met her in the Provence, where he was warmly welcomed by her father
Raymond Berenger IV and had fallen in love with this beautiful girl. Richard and Sanchia (whom the English called Cynthia) married at Westminster in November 1243.
This marriage tied him closely to the royal party. Eleanor and Sanchia's youngest sister
Beatrice would marry
Charles I of Naples, while their oldest sister
Margaret had married
Louis IX of France. The marriages of the kings of France and England, and their two brothers to the four sisters from
Provence improved the relationship between the two countries, which led up to the Treaty of Paris.
[1][edit] Poitou and Sicily
Richard's claims to
Gascony and
Poitou were never more than nominal, and in 1241 King
Louis IX of France invested his own brother
Alphonse with Poitou. Moreover, Richard and Henry's mother, Isabella of Angoulême, claimed to have been insulted by the French king. They were encouraged to recover Poitou by their stepfather,
Hugh X of Lusignan, but the expedition turned into a military fiasco after Lusignan betrayed them.
The pope offered Richard the
crown of Sicily, but according to
Matthew Paris he responded to the extortionate price by saying,
Template:Q[2] Instead, his brother King Henry purchased the kingdom for his own son
Edmund.
[edit] Elected King of Germany, 1256
Although Richard was elected in 1256 as
King of Germany by four of the seven
German Electoral Princes (
Cologne,
Mainz, the
Palatinate and
Bohemia), his candidacy was opposed by
Alfonso X of Castile who was elected by
Saxony,
Brandenburg and
Trier. The pope and king
Louis IX of France favoured Alfonso, but both were ultimately convinced by the powerful relatives of Richard's sister-in-law,
Eleanor of Provence, to support Richard.
Ottokar II of Bohemia, who at first voted for Richard but later elected Alfonso, eventually agreed to support the earl of Cornwall, thus establishing the required simple majority. So Richard only had to bribe four of them, but this came at a huge cost of 28,000 marks. On 27 May 1257 the archbishop of
Cologne himself crowned Richard "
King of the Romans" in
Aachen;
[3] however, like his lordships in
Gascony and
Poitou, his title never held much significance, and he made only four brief visits to Germany between 1257 and 1269.
[edit] Later life, death and successors
He founded
Burnham Abbey in
Buckinghamshire in 1263, and the
Grashaus,
Aachen in 1266.
He joined King Henry in fighting against Simon de Montfort's rebels in the
Second Barons' War (1264–67). After the shattering royalist defeat at the
Battle of Lewes, Richard took refuge in a
windmill, was discovered, and imprisoned until September 1265.
In December 1271, he had a stroke. His right side was paralyzed and he lost the ability to speak. On 2 April 1272, Richard died at
Berkhamsted Castle in
Hertfordshire. He was buried next to his second wife
Sanchia of Provence and
Henry of Almain, his son by his first wife, at
Hailes Abbey, which he had founded.
After his death, a power struggle ensued in Germany, which only ended in 1273 by the emergence of a new Roman King,
Rudolph I of Habsburg, the first scion of a long lasting noble family to rule the empire. In Cornwall, Richard was succeeded by
Edmund, son of his second wife Sanchia.
[edit] Marriages and issue
He married three times:
Firstly, on 30 March 1231, at
St Mary's Church at
Fawley in
Buckinghamshire, to
Isabel Marshal, widow of
Gilbert de Clare,
Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, and daughter of
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. She died in childbed 17 January 1240. Isabel bore him four children.
John of Cornwall (31 January 1232 – 22 September 1233), born and died at
Marlow, Buckinghamshire, buried at
Reading AbbeyIsabella of Cornwall (9 September 1233 – 10 October 1234), born and died at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, buried at Reading Abbey
Henry of Almain (2 November 1235 – 13 March 1271), murdered by his cousins Guy and Simon de Montfort, buried at
Hailes AbbeyNicholas of Cornwall (b. & d. 17 January 1240 Berkhamsted Castle), died shortly after birth, buried at
Beaulieu Abbey with his mother
Secondly, on 23 November 1243, at
Westminster Abbey, to
Sanchia, daughter of
Raymond Berenger IV,
Count of Provence. She died 9 November 1261. Sanchia and Richard had three sons.
Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall (1249–1300) but he died childless
Richard Cornwall, infant who died within a month of his birth
Richard de Cornwall (1252–96) who married Joan Saint Owen (born 1260) and had children. He, however, died at the siege of
Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1296.
Thirdly, on 16 June 1269, at
Kaiserslautern, to
Beatrice of Falkenburg, daughter of
Dietrich I, Count of Falconburg. There were no children. She was aged about sixteen to Richard's sixty, and was said to be one of the most beautiful women of her time. Beatrice died 17 October 1277 and was buried at the Church of the
Friars Minor in
Oxford.
Richard had the reputation of being a womanizer.[
citation needed] His mistress,
Joan de Valletort, was certainly the mother of at least two of his illegitimate children.
Philip de Cornwall, a cleric in 1248
Joan de Cornwall, in 1258
Walter de Cornwall, granted lands by his half-brother Edmund, and died in 1313
Berenger was the last and most illustrious of the Royal Provençal Counts; and, even had he not been the sovereign of the land of song, his own verses would have entitled him to a distinguished rank among the Troubadour poets. He was relatively impoverished count who could provide little dowry for his daughters.
The Complete Peerage vol.IV,p.320-321,note c.