Nesta FitzOsbern1

F, #2701, b. circa 1079

Father*Osborn FitzRichard2,3,4 d. a 1086
Mother*Nesta of North Wales2,3,4 b. c 1057
Nesta FitzOsbern|b. c 1079|p91.htm#i2701|Osborn FitzRichard|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2710|Nesta of North Wales|b. c 1057|p91.htm#i2709|Richard FitzScrob|d. 1067|p91.htm#i2711|Anonyma de Essex||p160.htm#i4773|Gruffydd ap Llywelyn|b. c 1011\nd. 5 Aug 1063|p91.htm#i2712|Aldgyth of Mercia|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2713|

Marriage* Principal=Bernard de Neufmarché5,6,3 
Birth*circa 1079 Herefordshire, England3 
Name Variation Nesta fil Trahern3 

Family

Bernard de Neufmarché b. c 1050, d. 1093
Child

Last Edited29 Jun 2005

Citations

  1. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 176.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-2.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-4.
  5. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  6. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-5.

Geoffrey (?)1

M, #2702

Father*Thurcytel (?)1,2
Geoffrey (?)||p91.htm#i2702|Thurcytel (?)||p91.htm#i2703||||Anchetil de Harcourt|d. a 1027|p199.htm#i5960|Eva d. Boessey la Chastel||p198.htm#i5918|||||||

Marriage* Principal=Ada FitzRichard1,2 
Name Variation Geoffrey de Neufmarch2 

Family

Ada FitzRichard
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Thurcytel (?)1

M, #2703

Father*Anchetil de Harcourt2 d. a 1027
Mother*Eva de Boessey la Chastel2
Thurcytel (?)||p91.htm#i2703|Anchetil de Harcourt|d. a 1027|p199.htm#i5960|Eva de Boessey la Chastel||p198.htm#i5918|Turchetil de Harcourt|b. c 960\nd. a 1027|p198.htm#i5919|Anceline d. Montfort-sur-Risle||p198.htm#i5920|||||||

Marriage* 2 
Name Variation Thurcytal Neufmarche2 

Family
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Ada FitzRichard1

F, #2704

Father*Richard FitzGulbert1,2
Mother*Ada Hugleville2
Ada FitzRichard||p91.htm#i2704|Richard FitzGulbert||p91.htm#i2705|Ada Hugleville||p198.htm#i5922|Gulbert St. Valerie|d. a 1011|p91.htm#i2706|Papia (?)||p91.htm#i2707|Herluin d. Hugleville||p198.htm#i5923||||

Marriage* Principal=Geoffrey (?)1,2 
Name Variation Ada de Hugleville2 

Family

Geoffrey (?)
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Richard FitzGulbert1

M, #2705

Father*Gulbert St. Valerie1,2 d. a 1011
Mother*Papia (?)1,2
Richard FitzGulbert||p91.htm#i2705|Gulbert St. Valerie|d. a 1011|p91.htm#i2706|Papia (?)||p91.htm#i2707|Bernard I. de Gamaches||p147.htm#i4383|Emma de St. Valerie||p147.htm#i4384|Richard I. of Normandy "the Fearless"|b. 933\nd. 20 Nov 996|p91.htm#i2708|Papie (?)||p358.htm#i10735|

Marriage* Principal=Ada Hugleville2 
Name Variation Richard Hugleville2 
Living*between 1025 and 1053 Normandy, France1 
Title* Seigneur of Hugleville and Auffay1 

Family

Ada Hugleville
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Gulbert St. Valerie1

M, #2706, d. after 1011

Father*Bernard I de Gamaches2
Mother*Emma de St. Valerie2
Gulbert St. Valerie|d. a 1011|p91.htm#i2706|Bernard I de Gamaches||p147.htm#i4383|Emma de St. Valerie||p147.htm#i4384|William d. Gamaches||p147.htm#i4386|Alice o. P. Gamaches||p147.htm#i4387|Renaud I. (?)||p147.htm#i4388||||

Birth* of Saint-Valery-en-Caux, France2 
Marriage* Principal=Papia (?)1,2 
Death*after 1011 2 
Name Variation Gilbert de St. Valerie2 
Living*1011 1 

Family

Papia (?)
Children

Last Edited30 May 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Papia (?)1

F, #2707

Father*Richard I of Normandy "the Fearless" b. 933, d. 20 Nov 996; illegitimate1
Mother*Papie (?)2
FatherRichard II of Normandy "the Good"2 b. c 958, d. 28 Aug 1026
Papia (?)||p91.htm#i2707|Richard I of Normandy "the Fearless"|b. 933\nd. 20 Nov 996|p91.htm#i2708|Papie (?)||p358.htm#i10735|William of Normandy "Longsword"|b. c 891\nd. 17 Dec 942|p147.htm#i4389|Espriota d. St. Liz|b. c 911|p147.htm#i4390|||||||

Marriage* Principal=Gulbert St. Valerie1,2 
Name Variation Papia of Normandy2 

Family

Gulbert St. Valerie d. a 1011
Children

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Richard I of Normandy "the Fearless"1

M, #2708, b. 933, d. 20 November 996

Father*William of Normandy "Longsword"2,3 b. c 891, d. 17 Dec 942
Mother*Espriota de St. Liz2,3 b. c 911
Richard I of Normandy "the Fearless"|b. 933\nd. 20 Nov 996|p91.htm#i2708|William of Normandy "Longsword"|b. c 891\nd. 17 Dec 942|p147.htm#i4389|Espriota de St. Liz|b. c 911|p147.htm#i4390|Hrólfr Rögnvaldsson|b. 846\nd. c 927|p149.htm#i4449|Poppa de Valois||p149.htm#i4450|Hubert (?)||p149.htm#i4451||||

Birth*933 Fecamp, France2,4 
Marriage*960 (his Christian wife), Bride=Emma of Burgundy2,4 
Marriage*after 968 "Danish" wife, c 945, but married her after death of Emma to legitimize her children, born prior to marriage to Emma., Bride=Gunnora (?)2,4 
Mistress* Principal=Papia (?)2 
Death*20 November 996 Fecamp, France2,4 
HTML* 
The Little Duke
The Normans
The Norman World
Wikipedia article 

Family 1

Papie (?)
Child

Family 2
Children

Family 3

Gunnora (?) d. 1031
Children

Family 4

Emma of Burgundy b. c 943, d. 19 Mar 968
Children

Last Edited2 Jul 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-3.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 121E-19.
  4. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 121E-20.
  5. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 51.
  6. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 182.
  7. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 39-22.
  8. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 68.

Nesta of North Wales1

F, #2709, b. circa 1057

Father*Gruffydd ap Llywelyn2,3,4 b. c 1011, d. 5 Aug 1063
Mother*Aldgyth of Mercia2,3 d. a 1086
Nesta of North Wales|b. c 1057|p91.htm#i2709|Gruffydd ap Llywelyn|b. c 1011\nd. 5 Aug 1063|p91.htm#i2712|Aldgyth of Mercia|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2713|Llewelyn ap Seisyll|b. c 980\nd. 1023|p160.htm#i4774|Angharad ferch Maredudd|b. c 982|p160.htm#i4771|Ælfgar I. Earl of Mercia|b. c 1030\nd. 1062|p156.htm#i4676|Ælgifu of England|b. c 997|p80.htm#i2388|

Of Rhuddlan, Flintshire, Wales3 
Marriage* Principal=Trahearn (?)3 
Birth*circa 1057 1,5 
Marriage* Principal=Osborn FitzRichard1,3,5 
Name Variation Nesta verch Gruffydd3 

Family 1

Osborn FitzRichard d. a 1086
Children

Family 2

Trahearn (?) b. c 1044, d. 1129
Child

Last Edited12 Jul 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-2.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-1.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-3.
  5. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-4.

Osborn FitzRichard1

M, #2710, d. after 1086

Father*Richard FitzScrob1,2 d. 1067
Mother*Anonyma de Essex2
Osborn FitzRichard|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2710|Richard FitzScrob|d. 1067|p91.htm#i2711|Anonyma de Essex||p160.htm#i4773|Cynfyn ap Gwerystan||p159.htm#i4770|Angharad ferch Maredudd|b. c 982|p160.htm#i4771|Robert d. E. (?)|b. 1007\nd. 1071|p306.htm#i9175||||

Birth* of Arwystle2 
Marriage* Principal=Nesta of North Wales1,2,3 
Death*after 1086 2 
Name Variation Osbert1 
Name Variation Osbern FitzRichard2 
Occupation*1060 Herefordshire, England, Sheriff of Herefordshire1,3 
Residence* Richard's Castle, Herefordshire, England1 
Living*1100 1,3 

Family

Nesta of North Wales b. c 1057
Children

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-2.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-4.

Richard FitzScrob1

M, #2711, d. 1067

Father*Cynfyn ap Gwerystan2
Mother*Angharad ferch Maredudd2 b. c 982
Richard FitzScrob|d. 1067|p91.htm#i2711|Cynfyn ap Gwerystan||p159.htm#i4770|Angharad ferch Maredudd|b. c 982|p160.htm#i4771|Gwerystan ap Gwaithfoed|b. c 950|p160.htm#i4784|Nest ferch Cadell ap Brochwel|b. c 954|p244.htm#i7293|Maredudd ap Owain ap Hywel Dda|b. c 938\nd. 999|p160.htm#i4785|Asritha (?)||p160.htm#i4786|

Marriage* Principal=Anonyma de Essex2 
Death*1067 1 
Deathcirca 1080 2 
Residence* Richard's Castle, Herefordshire, England1 

Family

Anonyma de Essex
Child

Last Edited24 Oct 2003

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-2.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn1

M, #2712, b. circa 1011, d. 5 August 1063

Father*Llewelyn ap Seisyll2 b. c 980, d. 1023
Mother*Angharad ferch Maredudd2 b. c 982
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn|b. c 1011\nd. 5 Aug 1063|p91.htm#i2712|Llewelyn ap Seisyll|b. c 980\nd. 1023|p160.htm#i4774|Angharad ferch Maredudd|b. c 982|p160.htm#i4771|Seissyllt a. E. (?)||p171.htm#i5121|Trawst v. E. (?)||p171.htm#i5122|Maredudd ap Owain ap Hywel Dda|b. c 938\nd. 999|p160.htm#i4785|Asritha (?)||p160.htm#i4786|

Birth*circa 1011 of Rhuddlan, Flintshire, Wales2 
Marriage*circa 1057 1st=Aldgyth of Mercia1,2,3 
Death*5 August 1063 (slain)1,2,3 
Name Variation Griffith ap Llewelyn (?)2 
HTML* 
King of Wales
 

Family

Aldgyth of Mercia d. a 1086
Children

Last Edited12 Jul 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-1.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-3.

Aldgyth of Mercia1

F, #2713, d. after 1086

Father*Ælfgar III Earl of Mercia2,3,4 b. c 1030, d. 1062
Mother*Ælgifu of England2,4 b. c 997
Aldgyth of Mercia|d. a 1086|p91.htm#i2713|Ælfgar III Earl of Mercia|b. c 1030\nd. 1062|p156.htm#i4676|Ælgifu of England|b. c 997|p80.htm#i2388|Leofric I. Earl of Mercia|b. 975\nd. 31 Aug 1057|p156.htm#i4678|Godgifu (?)|b. c 1010\nd. 10 Sep 1067|p156.htm#i4679|Æthelred I. of England "the Unready"|b. 968\nd. 23 Apr 1016|p55.htm#i1636|Ælfgifu (?)|d. bt 1002 - 1003|p55.htm#i1637|

Marriage*circa 1057 Groom=Gruffydd ap Llywelyn1,2,5 
Marriage*circa 1064 Groom=Harold II Godwinson2,5 
Death*after 1086 2,3 
Name Variation Edith (?)1 
Name Variation Agatha fil Algar (?)2 

Family 1

Harold II Godwinson b. 1022, d. 14 Oct 1066
Child

Family 2

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn b. c 1011, d. 5 Aug 1063
Children

Last Edited12 Jul 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 177-1.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176A-4.
  4. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-2.
  5. [S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-3.

Sir John le Strange of Blackmere1,2

M, #2714, b. 26 January 1306/7, d. 21 July 1349

 

Father*Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere1 b. c 1267, d. 23 Jan 1324/25
Mother*Eleanor Gifford b. 1275, d. b 1325
Sir John le Strange of Blackmere|b. 26 Jan 1306/7\nd. 21 Jul 1349|p91.htm#i2714|Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere|b. c 1267\nd. 23 Jan 1324/25|p91.htm#i2715|Eleanor Gifford|b. 1275\nd. b 1325|p99.htm#i2952|Sir Robert le Strange|d. b 10 Sep 1276|p99.htm#i2963|Eleanor de Whitchurch|d. c 1304|p99.htm#i2966|Sir John Gifford|b. c 1232\nd. 28 May 1299|p99.htm#i2955|Maud de Clifford|d. bt 1282 - 1285|p99.htm#i2956|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*26 January 1306/7 3 
Birthcirca 1306/7 (aged 18 on 23 Jan 1324/5)2 
Marriage*before 1328 1st=Ankaret le Boteler3 
Death*21 July 1349 4,3 
Title* 2nd Lord Strange of Blackmere3 
Event-Misc*1 August 1325 John, son of Fulk le Strange, is made Custos of his lands at £400 rent2 
Event-Misc26 February 1326/27 proved his age and did homage5 
Summoned*from 23 October 1330 to 20 April 1344 Parliament by writs directed Johanni Lestraunge3 
Event-Misc1346 He accompanied the King to Normandy and was present at the seige of Crecy and Calais3 
Summonedbetween 1 January 1348/49 and 10 March 1348/49 Parliament by writs directed Johanni Lestraunge de Blakemere3 

Family

Ankaret le Boteler d. 8 Oct 1361
Children

Last Edited23 Apr 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8-32.
  2. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 295.
  3. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Blackmere 8.
  4. [S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.
  5. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 232.

Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere1

M, #2715, b. circa 1267, d. 23 January 1324/25

 

Father*Sir Robert le Strange2 d. b 10 Sep 1276
Mother*Eleanor de Whitchurch2 d. c 1304
Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere|b. c 1267\nd. 23 Jan 1324/25|p91.htm#i2715|Sir Robert le Strange|d. b 10 Sep 1276|p99.htm#i2963|Eleanor de Whitchurch|d. c 1304|p99.htm#i2966|Sir John le Strange|b. s 1190|p99.htm#i2964|Lucy de Tregoz|b. c 1202\nd. a 1294|p99.htm#i2965|William de Blauminster||p474.htm#i14218||||

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*circa 1267 2,3 
Marriage*before 1307 Principal=Eleanor Gifford2,3,4 
Death*23 January 1324/25 shortly before 23 Jan 1324/25, holding Manors of Chalghton (Chawton) as 1 Fee in Hants., Wrocworthyn and Whitchurch, Salop, and in right of his w. Eleanor, dec., Corfham Castle as 1 Fee in Salop, and 1/3 of Thornhagh Manor, Notts., and left s. h. John, 18. He and 2 others held 15 Fees at Gresham, howton, Aylmerton, and elsewhere in Norf., late of Aymer, E. of Pembroke.2,5 
Title* Seneschal of Aquitaine, Lord Stange of Blackmere6 
Arms* De argent a ii lions passanz de goules (Parl., Stepney).3
Event-Misc*13 September 1276 S. of Rob. le Strange, who before going to the Holy Land enfeoffed him of Sutton Madok Manor, Salop., Principal=Sir Robert le Strange3 
Event-Misc*18 June 1289 Aged 21-2, bro. h. of Jn. le Strange, s. of Rob. le Strange by Eleanor, d. coh. of Wm. de Blauminster, Principal=John le Strange3 
Event-Misc16 July 1289 He should have his brother's lands on the condition of doing homage to the King when Edward I was next in England7 
Event-Misc*14 July 1294 Going to Gascony for the King, he has Lic. to cut wood val. £40 in his wood of Chalghton in Porcestre Forest3 
Feudal*3 March 1297 Chauton Manor, Hants., late of Hamo le Strange, and for his good service in Gascony has quittance of £24 owing by Hamo as Sheriff of Hants.3 
Summoned*7 July 1297 serve over seas.3 
Summoned25 May 1298 serve against the Scots3 
Protection*16 November 1299 to Scotland for the King with Wm. le Latimer, Principal=Sir William de Latimer3 
Event-Misc14 January 1300 He is to summon Kts. and others of Cheshire to the King at Carlisle3 
Event-Misc1301 Sealed letter to the Pope as lord of Corfham3 
Event-Misc*22 October 1305 Fulk le Strange is Custos of the lands of Richard FitzAlan in Salop and Wales, Principal=Sir Richard FitzAlan8 
Event-Misc*20 December 1307 Dispensation to Fulk le Strange, lord of Witechirche, and Margaret (als. Eleanor), d. of late Jn. Giffard, lord of Corsham, to continue married and their issue legitimate, though related in 4th degree, Principal=Eleanor Gifford3 
Summonedbetween 4 March 1309 and 26 December 1323 Parliament9 
Event-Misc4 May 1309 Appointed Commissioner in Cheshire3 
Event-Misc31 December 1312 He complains that being an adherent of Thos., E. of Lancaster, though having safe conduct, his goods were seized to the King3 
Event-Misc16 October 1313 He was pardoned re Gaveston3 
Event-Misc6 November 1313 Granted amnesty re siege of La Pole Castle and deeds of arms in Powys5 
Feudal5 March 1318 Blaunchminster (Whitchurch), Rocardyne, Corsham als. Corfham, Longenolr', and Sutton in Salop, Chalston, Clanfield, Blendworth, and Catherington, Hants5 
Event-Misc22 October 1318 Pardoned as an adherent of Thos. of Lancaster5 
Event-Misc19 January 1321 He is a commissioner to make peace with Robert the Bruce.5 
Event-Misc1322 He was appointed Seneschal of Aquitaine7 
Summoned14 February 1322 march against the rebels5 
Protection*6 May 1322 to Gascony for the King5 
Event-Misc14 July 1322 Has lic. to crenellate his dwelling place of Whitecherche5 
Event-Misc2 June 1323 He was Senschal of Gascony5 

Family

Eleanor Gifford b. 1275, d. b 1325
Children

Last Edited27 Aug 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8-32.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
  3. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 294.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 123.
  5. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 295.
  6. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Blackmere 8.
  7. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 234.
  8. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 31.
  9. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 231.
  10. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-31.
  11. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 232.

Mary FitzAlan1

F, #2716, d. 1361

Father-Oth*Sir Edmund FitzAlan7 b. 1 May 1285, d. 17 Nov 1326
Mother-Oth*Alice de Warrenne7 b. bt 1285 - 1287, d. b 23 May 1338
FatherSir Richard "Copped Hat" FitzAlan2,3,4,5 b. c 1313, d. 24 Jan 1375/76
MotherIsabel le Despenser2,3,4,6 b. 1312
Mary FitzAlan|d. 1361|p91.htm#i2716|Sir Edmund FitzAlan|b. 1 May 1285\nd. 17 Nov 1326|p69.htm#i2054|Alice de Warrenne|b. bt 1285 - 1287\nd. b 23 May 1338|p69.htm#i2053|Sir Richard FitzAlan|b. 3 Feb 1266/67\nd. 9 Mar 1301/2|p100.htm#i2985|Alasia de Saluzzo|b. c 1271\nd. 25 Sep 1292|p100.htm#i2986|Sir William de Warrenne|b. 15 Jan 1256\nd. 15 Dec 1285|p69.htm#i2052|Joan de Vere|b. c 1264\nd. 21 Nov 1293|p69.htm#i2051|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*before 1354 Principal=Sir John le Strange8,9,10,5,11 
Death-alt*1361 1 
Death29 August 1363 6 
Death29 August 1396 3,9 
Name Variation Isabel FitzAlan8 

Family

Sir John le Strange b. 19 Apr 1332, d. 12 May 1361
Children

Last Edited24 Dec 2004

Citations

  1. [S183] Jr. Meredith B. Colket, Marbury Ancestry, p. 36.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8-31.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 34-6.
  5. [S234] David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry, Talbot 8.
  6. [S234] David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry, Cergeaux 10.
  7. [S213] Chris Philips,Corrections to Complete Peerage, online http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cp/
  8. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8-32.
  9. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 34-7.
  10. [S183] Jr. Meredith B. Colket, Marbury Ancestry, p.36.
  11. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Blackmere 9.
  12. [S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.

Sir William la Zouche Mortimer1

M, #2717, b. after 1274, d. 28 February 1336/37

Birth*after 1274 2 
Marriage*circa 26 October 1316 3rd=Alice de Tony2 
Marriage*circa February 1329 2nd=Eleanor de Clare1,3,4,5 
Death*28 February 1336/37 4,5 
Burial* Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England5 
Criminal*5 February 1328/29 ordered arrested, Principal=Eleanor de Clare2 

Family

Eleanor de Clare b. Oct 1292, d. 30 Jun 1337
Children

Last Edited30 Oct 2004

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8-30.
  2. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Tony 8.
  3. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 34-5.
  4. [S234] David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry, Clare 11.
  5. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Despenser 7.

Sir Richard Talbot M.P.1

M, #2718, b. circa 1305, d. 23 October 1356

Father*Sir Gilbert Talbot b. 18 Oct 1276, d. 24 Feb 1346; son and heir2,3
Mother*Anne le Boteler4
Sir Richard Talbot M.P.|b. c 1305\nd. 23 Oct 1356|p91.htm#i2718|Sir Gilbert Talbot|b. 18 Oct 1276\nd. 24 Feb 1346|p365.htm#i10933|Anne le Boteler||p365.htm#i10934|Richard Talbot|b. c 1250\nd. b 3 Sep 1306|p365.htm#i10936|Sarah de Beauchamp|d. a Jul 1317|p231.htm#i6905|Sir William le Boteler of Wem|d. b 11 Dec 1283|p365.htm#i10935|Ankaret verch Griffith|b. c 1248\nd. a 22 Jun 1308|p478.htm#i14325|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*circa 1305 1,5 
Marriage*between 24 July 1326 and 23 March 1327 Principal=Elizabeth Comyn1,6,7,8 
Death*23 October 1356 1,6 
Burial* Flanesford Priory, Herefordshire, England7
DNB* Talbot, Richard, second Lord Talbot (c.1306-1356), soldier and administrator, was the eldest son of Gilbert Talbot, the first Lord Talbot (1276-1346), a knight-banneret from Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, and an unknown mother. One of that company of young knights and bannerets who surrounded Edward III during the years of his greatest victories, Talbot fought in Scotland and France, served in the king's household, and presided as a justice. Earlier, in 1321–2, he joined the contrariants' uprising against Edward II. Said to have been dispatched with his brother Gilbert by the bishop of Hereford, Adam Orleton, to bolster Roger Mortimer's forces, Talbot was captured at Boroughbridge with his father on 16 March, when he was styled ‘bachelor’. Like his father he served in Gascony in 1324–5.

With the overthrow of Edward II in 1326–7, Talbot's fortunes dramatically improved. Some time before February 1327 he married Elizabeth Comyn, sister and coheir of John Comyn of Badenoch (d. 1314), the possessor of a plausible claim to the Scottish throne, and a daughter and coheir of Joan, sister of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke. When Aymer died on 23 June 1324 his estate was to be divided among the descendants of his sisters, Joan and Isabel. Elizabeth was potentially a very wealthy woman and thus attracted the notice of the grasping Despensers. On Aymer's death they imprisoned her and then moved her from castle to castle, until, on 20 April 1325, she granted Hugh Despenser the elder the manor of Painswick, Gloucestershire, and Hugh the younger Castle Goodrich, Herefordshire. She was also forced to acknowledge a debt of £20,000 and was apparently kept imprisoned until the Despensers were executed in 1326. After their marriage Talbot and Elizabeth embarked on a successful campaign to recover her portion of the Pembroke and Comyn estates.

In 1330 Talbot and his father, Gilbert, were both summoned to royal councils, and in 1331–2 Talbot was named one of the keepers of Ireland, beginning two decades of intense service. Like his father he was summoned to parliament for the first time in January 1332 and, on 21 March, was named a keeper of the peace in Gloucestershire. Because of Elizabeth's claim to the Comyn lands in Scotland, which had been confiscated by Robert I for Comyn's support of England, Talbot counted himself among the disinherited who rallied to support Edward Balliol's claim to the throne of Scotland in 1332. In July Talbot joined the invasion of Scotland and was present at the battle of Dupplin Moor on 12 August; in recognition of his support Balliol named him lord of Mar and summoned him to a parliament at Edinburgh on 10 February 1334. That summer, however, the Scots rebelled against Balliol. Fleeing the insurrection, Talbot was captured on 8 September and ransomed a year later for about 2000 marks. In 1336 he was again named to a Gloucestershire peace commission, and in December 1337 became keeper of the town of Berwick and justiciar of the English lands in Scotland. He held that position until April 1340 but in February and March 1339 was keeper of Southampton, responsible for garrisoning the town. According to Froissart Talbot was at the unsuccessful siege of Tournai in September 1339.

During the 1340s Talbot continued to divide his time between military and domestic service, sometimes serving with his father. They were commissioned to make arrests in Wales in 1340, were appointed justices of oyer and terminer in Shropshire and Staffordshire in February 1341, and in 1344 sat as justices in Wales. In May 1341 Richard Talbot became the chief justice on a trailbaston commission for the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, which sat on and off through 1343, and presided as a justice in Oxfordshire in 1344–5. In the summer of 1342, however, he fought as a captain of the English forces under William de Bohun at the battle of Morlaix in Brittany, where he captured Geoffroi de Charney. Recognizing his valuable services, Edward appointed Talbot steward of the household in May 1345, in which office he served for four years. In the spring of 1346 he was on another trailbaston commission in Worcestershire and, as steward, investigated accusations against the king's purveyors in several counties. That summer he embarked with Edward for France, where he was wounded during the campaign leading up to Crécy, although he was with the king at the battle and later at the siege of Calais.

Talbot continued this brisk pace of military and judicial service through the last decade of his life. He sat on several commissions of oyer and terminer, some dealing with trespasses in the royal households. Once again he served on local peace commissions: in the counties of Oxford and Worcester in 1348 and 1353 and in Gloucester and Hereford in 1351, which included enforcement of the Statute of Labourers. While still steward he was a member of the great council in 1348. Between 1348 and 1351 he had custody of Pembroke during the minority of the heir to the earldom. In 1349 he served on a commission to halt the smuggling of uncustomed wool from England into Flanders. As a result of his faithful service he reaped impressive awards, including wardships, marriages, cash, and pardons of debts. He also had some setbacks, losing the castles of Blaenllyfni and Bwlchydinas which he claimed had been granted to his father in fee. In 1343 the papacy gave him permission to found an Augustinian priory at Flanesford, Herefordshire.

Talbot died between 23 and 26 October 1356. His lands, most of which were of Elizabeth's inheritance and had been settled jointly on themselves or feoffees, passed to his son and heir, Gilbert, who was aged between twenty-five and thirty. Elizabeth remarried and survived until 1372.

Scott L. Waugh
Sources

GEC, Peerage · F. Palgrave, ed., The parliamentary writs and writs of military summons, 2 vols. in 4 (1827–34) · RotP · Chancery records · Rymer, Foedera · Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke, ed. E. M. Thompson (1889) · Œuvres de Froissart: chroniques, ed. K. de Lettenhove, 25 vols. (Brussels, 1867–77) · Scalacronica, by Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, knight: a chronical of England and Scotland from AD MLXVI to AD MCCCLXII, ed. J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, 40 (1836) · Chronicon Henrici Knighton, vel Cnitthon, monachi Leycestrensis, ed. J. R. Lumby, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 92 (1889–95) · The ‘Original chronicle’ of Andrew of Wyntoun, ed. F. J. Amours, 6 vols., STS, 1st ser., 50, 53–4, 56–7, 63 (1903–14) · Adae Murimuth continuatio chronicarum. Robertus de Avesbury de gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi tertii, ed. E. M. Thompson, Rolls Series, 93 (1889) · W. Stubbs, ed., Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 76 (1882–3), esp. Annales Paulini, Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon, Vita et mors Edward II · Justices Itinerant, PRO, Just1/1388 · J. R. S. Phillips, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307–1324: baronial politics in the reign of Edward II (1972), 2, 15, 24, 235 · N. Fryde, The tyranny and fall of Edward II, 1321–1326 (1979), 114–15, 230, 253 · N. Saul, Knights and esquires: the Gloucestershire gentry in the fourteenth century (1981), 79, 123, 173, 276, 281 · P. Chaplais, ed., The War of Saint-Sardos (1323–1325): Gascon correspondence and diplomatic documents, CS, 3rd ser., 87 (1954), 240, no. 1 · R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas, The principality of Wales in the later middle ages: the structure and personnel of government, 1: South Wales, 1277–1536 (1972), 26 · R. Nicholson, Edward III and the Scots: the formative years of a military career, 1327–1335 (1965), 66, 73, 80, 152, 158, 159–61, 163, 168–9, 172, 185 · Tout, Admin. hist. · W. Rees, ed., Calendar of ancient petitions relating to Wales (1975), 274–5, 493–4 · G. Wrottesley, Crécy and Calais (1897); repr. (1898) · CIPM, 8, no. 714; 10, no. 326 · CPR, 1327–1330, 1350–54
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


Scott L. Waugh, ‘Talbot, Richard, second Lord Talbot (c.1306-1356)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26938, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Richard Talbot (c.1306-1356): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/269389 
Event-Misc*13 March 1322 Battle of Boroughbridge, was taken in arms against the King with his father.5 
Event-Misc14 April 1329 had letters of protection, being ready to cross the sea with the King.5 
Event-Miscbetween 27 January 1332 and 20 September 1355 summoned to parliament by writ directed Ricardo Talbot5 
Event-Misc12 August 1332 Dupplin Moor, Scone, Scotland, joined Edward Balliol in his invasion of Scotland, contrary to the King's orders, and was present at the defeat of the Scots by the "disinherited lords" at Dupplin Moor .5 
Event-Misc10 February 1334 Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, sat as "dominus de Mar" in the Parliament held by Edward balliol and, as such, witnessed the treat of Newcastle, whereby Balliol surrendered Berwick, Roxburgh, etc, to Edward III, having previously received of Balliol a conditional grant of Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeen, 17 Feb.5 
Event-MiscSeptember 1334 Linlithgow, Scotland, was captured by the Scots and impresoned at Dumbarton; but after leaving hostages for his ransom of £2000, was brough south to the Marches under safe conduct from Edward III (2 Apr 1335).5 
Event-Misc21 December 1337 Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, Keeper of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Justiciar of the lands in Scotland occupied by the King of England.5 
Event-Misc23 February 1340 Southampton, Hampshire, England, He was appointed keeper of Southampton.7 
Event-MiscJuly 1340 Tournay, France, He served at the siege of Tournay.7 
Event-Misc30 September 1342 Morlaix, France, He was a captain in the army of Sir William de Bohun which defeated Charles of Blois at Morlaix, when he took prisoner Geoffrey de Charny, one of the French leaders, and sent him to his castle at Goodrich, Hereford., Witness=Sir William de Bohun K.G.7 
Event-MiscMay 1345 He was Steward of the King's household.7 
Event-Misc26 August 1346 Although wounded earlier near the Seine, he was with the King at the battle of Crecy and at Calais.7 
Event-Misc18 December 1346 Flanesford Priory, Herefordshire, England, He had a license to found the priory of Austin Canons at Flanesford within the Lordship of Castle Goodrich.7 
Title* 2nd Lord Talbot5 

Family

Elizabeth Comyn b. 1 Nov 1299, d. 20 Nov 1372
Child

Last Edited23 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-31.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 84A-30.
  3. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 3.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 242.
  5. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 612.
  6. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-5.
  7. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 613.
  8. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Talbot 10.
  9. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.

Elizabeth Comyn1

F, #2719, b. 1 November 1299, d. 20 November 1372

 

Father*John Comyn d. 10 Feb 1306; 2nd Daughter and co-heir2,3,4,5
Mother*Joan de Valence2,4
Elizabeth Comyn|b. 1 Nov 1299\nd. 20 Nov 1372|p91.htm#i2719|John Comyn|d. 10 Feb 1306|p91.htm#i2720|Joan de Valence||p91.htm#i2721|Sir John Comyn|d. c 1303|p91.htm#i2723|Eleanor de Baliol||p91.htm#i2724|Sir William de Valence|b. c 1226\nd. b 18 May 1296|p91.htm#i2722|Joan de Munchensi|d. b 21 Sep 1307|p365.htm#i10939|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*1 November 1299 1,6,4 
Marriage*between 24 July 1326 and 23 March 1327 Principal=Sir Richard Talbot M.P.1,6,7,5 
Marriage*between 21 February 1358 and 16 February 1361 Principal=Sir John Bromwych4 
Death*20 November 1372 1,4 
Arms*between 1322 and 1326 Goodrich Castle, Hereford, England, Sealed: Three Garbs (Birch).8 

Family

Sir Richard Talbot M.P. b. c 1305, d. 23 Oct 1356
Child

Last Edited30 Aug 2004

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-31.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-30.
  3. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-4.
  4. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 614.
  5. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Talbot 10.
  6. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-5.
  7. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 613.
  8. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  9. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-6.

John Comyn1

M, #2720, d. 10 February 1306

Father*Sir John Comyn2,3 d. c 1303
Mother*Eleanor de Baliol2,4
John Comyn|d. 10 Feb 1306|p91.htm#i2720|Sir John Comyn|d. c 1303|p91.htm#i2723|Eleanor de Baliol||p91.htm#i2724|Sir John Comyn|d. a 1273|p365.htm#i10940|Amabilia (?)||p365.htm#i10941|Sir John de Baliol|d. 27 Oct 1268|p91.htm#i2725|Devorguilla of Galloway|d. 28 Jan 1289/90|p91.htm#i2726|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage* Principal=Joan de Valence1,5,6,7 
Death*10 February 1306 Church of the Grey Friars, Dumfries, Scotland, Murdered by Robert the Bruce1,5,8 
Death5 April 1306 Church of the Grey Friars, Dumfries, Scotland, He was murdered by Robert the Bruce.3 
DNB* Comyn, Sir John, lord of Badenoch (d. 1306), magnate, was the son and heir of John Comyn, known as the Competitor (d. c.1302), and his wife, Eleanor (Marjory in Scottish sources), sister of John de Balliol, later king of Scots. He married Joan de Valence, daughter of William de Valence, earl of Pembroke (d. 1296), a cousin of Edward I, and had three children—John (d. 1314), Elizabeth (married Richard Talbot), and Joan (married David, earl of Atholl). He was known as ‘the younger’ or ‘the son’ until he inherited his father's extensive estates—the last reference to him as ‘the son’ appears to have been in 1301. He was made a knight by King John (de Balliol) probably soon after 1292.

John Comyn had received the gift of the important manors of Walwick, Thornton, and Henshaw in Tynedale by c.1295 but on his father's death he inherited wide-ranging and vast estates in the Scottish highlands (Badenoch and Lochaber), in Roxburghshire (Bedrule and Scraesburgh), in Dumfriesshire (Dalswinton), in Perthshire (Findogask and Ochtertyre), in the Clyde valley (Machan), in Dunbartonshire (Lenzie and Kirkintilloch), and in Atholl. Lands in England included important estates in Tynedale (Tarset and Thornton) and Lincolnshire (Ulseby). The castles of Lochindorb, Ruthven, Inverlochy, and Blair Atholl made a formidable defence to his power in northern Scotland, while the castle of Dalswinton, and probable castle sites at Machan and Kirkintilloch, added weight to his influence further south. Apart from this substantial landed base, John Comyn inherited powerful family support and a long tradition of involvement at the centre of Scottish politics. His family links—John Comyn, earl of Buchan (d. 1308), who dominated north-east Scotland, was his cousin, King John was his uncle, and William, earl of Pembroke, was his brother-in-law—had a significant influence on his key role at the forefront of Scottish political affairs from 1296 to 1306.

As a relative of John de Balliol, and one of the leading supporters of his kingship, John Comyn the younger took a prominent role when open rebellion broke out in Scotland against English overlordship in 1296. On 26 March, with seven Scottish earls, he crossed the Solway from Annandale (which had been given to him by King John), burning villages to the suburbs of Carlisle itself before trying unsuccessfully to take the city by storm. He was also present when Hexham Priory was burnt two weeks later, before retreating northwards on news of Edward I's imminent arrival, and he helped to capture Dunbar Castle on 22 April. However, this castle was forced to surrender to Edward I on the 28th, John Comyn having been handed over as a hostage to the English king on the previous day. His wife, Joan, was already in England, having been given letters of safe conduct to go to London as soon as her husband came out in open rebellion. In September 1296 she was given lands worth 200 marks in Tynedale for her support. Along with other Scottish nobles taken into captivity at Dunbar, John Comyn was taken to England where he became a prisoner at the Tower of London. In 1297 he promised to go with the king overseas, and to serve him well and faithfully against the king of France, but by 1298 he was back in Scotland.

The years 1296 to 1298 had been significant for the Badenoch branch of the family. Not only did they have their valuable Northumberland lands confiscated, but the Comyn leadership of the Scottish political community, little challenged since the mid-thirteenth century, no longer went unquestioned after the enforced absence of the chief members of the family from 1296 to 1298. James Stewart (d. 1309), Bishop Robert Wishart (d. 1316), and William Wallace (d. 1305) came to the fore in these years, and Wallace became sole guardian early in 1298. By then John Comyn was once more in opposition to Edward I, as is indicated by the English king's peremptory command on 26 March of that year to Comyn's wife, Joan, to come to London with her children without delay. After the defeat of an English army at Stirling Bridge by William Wallace and Andrew Murray (d. 1297) on 11 September 1297, Edward I had taken the Scottish threat more seriously. He set up headquarters at York in the summer of 1298, and on 22 July defeated the Scots at the battle of Falkirk. John Comyn probably contributed cavalry to the Scottish forces, led by Wallace. According to the fourteenth-century Scottish historian John Fordun, Wallace's defeat was caused by the flight of the cavalry, and he blamed the Comyns for this. However, it is more probable that panic rather than cowardice was the cause of defeat, and it seems unlikely that the Comyns were blamed at the time. Following his defeat, Wallace resigned as guardian, and between July and December 1298 John Comyn the younger and Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, the future king, were elected joint guardians of Scotland. It is possible that there had been tension between the Comyns and Wallace, who had risen to prominence in their absence. And there was certainly tension between John Comyn and Robert Bruce, probably resulting from the Bruce claim to the Scottish crown, and the strong Comyn championing of Balliol's kingship, during the Great Cause.

These resentments came into the open at a council held at Peebles on 19 August 1299, when an argument over claims to William Wallace's lands led to a brawl between Comyn and Bruce supporters, in the course of which ‘John Comyn leaped at the earl of Carrick and seized him by the throat’ (Barrow, 107). The bishop of St Andrews, William Lamberton (d. 1328), was elected as guardian alongside Comyn and Bruce to help preserve unity in government, but this unity lasted only until May 1300, when Bruce was forced from office. At a parliament held in Rutherglen on 10 May, Comyn argued with Lamberton, saying that he would no longer serve with him. Another reorganization of the guardianship led to the preservation of unity with Comyn and Lamberton remaining in office, but being joined by Sir Ingram de Umfraville, an ally of the Comyns and Balliol's kinsman. This alliance appears to have dissolved between December 1300 and May 1301, with John Soulis (d. c.1310) appearing as sole guardian at that time. It seems, from official record sources, that Comyn resigned for a short time, although, according to John Fordun, John Comyn remained in office continuously from 1298 to 1304, with John Soulis being associated with the guardianship by John de Balliol's express wish in 1301 and 1302. John Comyn was sole guardian in the autumn of 1302, however, when Soulis went with an embassy to France. Early in 1303 Comyn's leadership of the Scottish political community was again apparent, since on 24 February he was ‘leader and captain’ of the Scottish army which defeated an English force at Roslin. After this victory the Scots, led by Comyn, described by the chronicler Bower as chief guardian of Scotland, and Simon Fraser (d. 1305), harassed the English king's officers as well as the English king's supporters in southern Scotland. They were still active in the autumn of 1303 when they raised Lennox, causing Margaret, countess of Lennox, to ask Edward I's help against John Comyn. Edward's retaliation had already started in the summer of 1303. He marched north to assert English authority, and in October 1303 stayed for a while at Lochindorb, a castle at the heart of John Comyn's northern power base.

A combination of the peace made between France, hitherto Scotland's ally, and England on 20 May 1303, and the realization that the Scots could not muster an army big enough to match the English in pitched battle, led to all the leading Scottish magnates, except William Wallace, Simon Fraser, and John Soulis, submitting to Edward I on 9 February 1304. John Comyn, no doubt in his capacity as sole guardian, negotiated conditions for surrender on behalf of the community of Scotland. Negotiations had begun between the earl of Ulster, the royal commander in the west of Scotland, and Comyn on 6 February. Comyn refused to surrender unconditionally. He demanded firstly an amnesty and restoration of estates for those who had fought against Edward, and secondly that the Scottish people should be ‘protected in all their laws, customs and liberties in every particular as they existed in the time of King Alexander III’ (Barrow, 130). There was no disinheritance, but not all of Comyn's demands were met—the good old days of Alexander III could not be restored, and varying degrees of exile were imposed on the leading men. Robert Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, for instance, was initially required to leave Scotland for two to three years; in addition, John Comyn, Alexander Lindsay, David Graham, and Simon Fraser were ordered to capture William Wallace and hand him over to Edward. Edward I took over the government of Scotland, appointing his nephew, John of Brittany (d. 1334), as lieutenant of Scotland. John Comyn was one of a council of twenty-two Scots (including Robert Bruce) appointed to advise the new lieutenant.

The savage execution of William Wallace on 23 August 1305 may have raised the level of indignation in Scotland at English overlordship. This forms the background to the infamous murder of John Comyn by Robert Bruce in the Greyfriars Church at Dumfries on 10 February 1306 and Robert Bruce's inauguration as king of Scots six weeks later. According to tradition, first recounted by Scottish chroniclers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Bruce and Comyn, rivals and the two most powerful nobles in Scotland, made an agreement that Bruce should take the Scottish crown and Comyn should take Bruce's lands in return. Comyn, however, betrayed Bruce and told Edward I of Bruce's plans. After being confronted with his treachery in the church at Dumfries, Comyn quarrelled with Bruce and was murdered along with his uncle, Robert.

More contemporary, though still biased, English accounts give a different angle to the murder, and the narrative of Walter of Guisborough deserves some precedence. According to Guisborough, Bruce feared that Comyn would hinder him in his attempt to gain the Scottish crown, and sent two of his brothers, Thomas and Nigel, from his own castle at Lochmaben to Comyn's castle at Dalswinton, 10 miles away, asking Comyn to meet him at the Greyfriars Church, Dumfries, to discuss ‘certain business’. It seemed that Bruce wanted to put a plan to Comyn, no doubt involving the revival of Scottish kingship with Bruce on the throne. After initially friendly words, Bruce turned on Comyn and accused him of treacherously reporting to Edward I that he, Bruce, was plotting against him. It seems probable that their bitter antagonisms of the past were instantly revived and that in a heated argument mutual charges of treachery were made. Bruce struck Comyn with a dagger and his men attacked him with swords. Mortally wounded, Comyn was left for dead. Comyn's uncle, Robert, was killed by Christopher Seton (d. 1306) as he tried to defend his nephew.

According to tradition in both Scotland and England, John Comyn was killed in two stages, with Bruce's men returning to the church to finish off the deed. According to Bower, Bruce returned to Lochmaben Castle and reported to his kinsmen James Lindsay and Roger Kirkpatrick ‘I think I have killed John the Red Comyn’ (Bower, 6.311). Bruce's men returned to the church to make sure that the deed was done, with Roger Kirkpatrick, according to a wholly fabulous tale, exclaiming ‘I mak siccar’.

What is clear is that Comyn's rivalry with Bruce must have been intense since 1286. The Comyns had suppressed Bruce rebellions in 1286 and 1287, and were strong supporters both of John de Balliol's candidature for the Scottish crown in the Great Cause, 1291–2, and of Balliol's kingship after 1292. John Comyn represented a long tradition of Comyn leadership of the Scottish political community during most of the thirteenth century. He was a major obstacle to Robert Bruce's ambitions, especially as he could make a double claim to the Scottish crown himself, as heir to John de Balliol as well as in his own right. Contemporary English sources like Guisborough emphasize John Comyn's refusal to support Robert Bruce's treachery by overturning the lawful sovereign, Balliol.

The importance of John Comyn's murder was soon recognized in both Scotland and England. Edward I's initial response was phlegmatic, but by 5 April he had appointed Aymer de Valence (d. 1324), Comyn's brother-in-law, as his special lieutenant in Scotland with wide-ranging and drastic powers against Bruce and the alliance between the English and the remaining members of the Comyn family continued until the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. In Scotland, Bruce was forced to follow up the murder by destroying the Comyn power base in the north before being fully assured of his kingship. A civil war thus accompanied the Anglo-Scottish war. In 1306 Edward I ordered Joan de Valence to send her son, John, John Comyn's son and heir, to England where he was to be in the care of Sir John Weston, master and guardian of the royal children. His father's vast landholding was divided up among Bruce's supporters. This John Comyn lost his life, and any hope of retrieving the vast Scottish inheritance of the Comyns of Badenoch, at the battle of Bannockburn, when he fought on the side of Edward II.

Alan Young
Sources

G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the community of the realm of Scotland, 3rd edn (1988) · N. Reid, ‘The kingless kingdom: the Scottish guardianships of 1286–1306’, SHR, 61 (1982), 105–29 · R. Nicholson, Scotland: the later middle ages (1974), vol. 2 of The Edinburgh history of Scotland, ed. G. Donaldson (1965–75) · W. Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt and others, new edn, 9 vols. (1987–98), vol. 6 · CDS, vol. 2 · The chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. H. Rothwell, CS, 3rd ser., 89 (1957) · J. Stevenson, ed., Chronicon de Lanercost, 1201–1346, Bannatyne Club, 65 (1839) · J. Barbour, The Bruce, ed. W. W. Skeat, 2 vols., STS, 31–3 (1894) · Scalacronica, by Sir Thomas Gray of Heton, knight: a chronical of England and Scotland from AD MLXVI to AD MCCCLXII, ed. J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, 40 (1836) · Johannis de Fordun Chronica gentis Scotorum / John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish nation, ed. W. F. Skene, trans. F. J. H. Skene, 2 vols. (1871–2)
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


Alan Young, ‘Comyn, Sir John, lord of Badenoch (d. 1306)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6046, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

Sir John Comyn (d. 1306): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60469 
Name Variation The Red Comyn1,5 
Event-MiscMarch 1296 He was one of the leaders of a Scottish Army which raided Cumberland8 
Event-Misc*27 April 1296 He was captured at Dunbar and sent to the Tower of London.3,8 
Event-Misc30 July 1297 John Comyn was released after giving his son John as hostage., Principal=Sir John Comyn3,8 
Event-Misc19 August 1299 Peebles, At a meeting with other nobles he scuffled with Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and seized the Bruce by the throat. It was agreed that Comyn should be one of three guardians of the Kingdom.8 
Event-Misc24 February 1302/3 Rosslyn, He defeated the English8 
Event-Misc*9 February 1303/4 Comyn was defeated by Edward I at Strathord, and was banished unless he would deliver William Waleys, Principal=Edward I "Longshanks" Plantagenet King of England8 
Event-MiscOctober 1305 The fines for his rebellion were reduced to three years' rental from his estate.8 
Title* Lord of Badenoch1,5 
HTML* 
Clan Comyn
The Clan Comyn (Cumming)
John Comyn
Electric Scotland
 

Family

Joan de Valence
Children

Last Edited24 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-30.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-29.
  3. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 231.
  4. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-3.
  5. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-4.
  6. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 614.
  7. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 91.
  8. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 64.
  9. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  10. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 232.
  11. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Talbot 10.

Joan de Valence1

F, #2721

Father*Sir William de Valence1,2,3 b. c 1226, d. b 18 May 1296
Mother*Joan de Munchensi4 d. b 21 Sep 1307
Joan de Valence||p91.htm#i2721|Sir William de Valence|b. c 1226\nd. b 18 May 1296|p91.htm#i2722|Joan de Munchensi|d. b 21 Sep 1307|p365.htm#i10939|Hugh X. of Lusignan|b. b 1196\nd. a 6 Jun 1249|p97.htm#i2883|Isabella of Angoulême|b. 1188\nd. 31 May 1246|p55.htm#i1621|Sir Warin de Munchensi|d. c 20 Jul 1255|p231.htm#i6906|Joan Marshall|b. c 1204\nd. b Nov 1234|p227.htm#i6804|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage* Principal=John Comyn1,5,3,6 

Family

John Comyn d. 10 Feb 1306
Children

Last Edited4 Nov 2004

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-30.
  2. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 148-3.
  3. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 614.
  4. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 154-29.
  5. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-4.
  6. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 91.
  7. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 232.

Sir William de Valence1

M, #2722, b. circa 1226, d. before 18 May 1296

 

Father*Hugh X of Lusignan2,3,4,5 b. b 1196, d. a 6 Jun 1249
Mother*Isabella of Angoulême2,6 b. 1188, d. 31 May 1246
Sir William de Valence|b. c 1226\nd. b 18 May 1296|p91.htm#i2722|Hugh X of Lusignan|b. b 1196\nd. a 6 Jun 1249|p97.htm#i2883|Isabella of Angoulême|b. 1188\nd. 31 May 1246|p55.htm#i1621|Hughes le Brun (?)|d. 5 Nov 1219|p144.htm#i4303|Agatha de Preuilly||p461.htm#i13816|Count Aymer de Valence of Angoulême|b. b 1165\nd. 1218|p97.htm#i2884|Alice de Courtenay|b. c 1160\nd. c 14 Sep 1205|p97.htm#i2885|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Burial* Westminster Abbey, London, England2 
Birth*circa 1226 3,4 
Marriage*13 August 1247 Principal=Joan de Munchensi7,4 
Death*before 18 May 1296 4 
Inquisition Post Mor24 May 1296 he held Manors of Dunham, Notts., Geynesburgh, Lincos., Waddone, Glou., Bampton, Oxon., Inteberne, Worc., Cumptone-Pundelarch, Dors., Ixning, Kentewell, Roydon, and Wrydelington, Suff., and Nyweton, Hants., mess. and lands at Gt., Lit., and Pont-Eyland, Merdesfen, and Calverdon, Northumb., Chardesly, Bucks., and in Co.'s Wexford and Kilkenny, with Goodrich Castle, Here., and leaving s. h. Ayer, 21-8.8 
Burial Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England5 
DNB* Valence [Lusignan], William de, earl of Pembroke (d. 1296), magnate, was the fourth or fifth son of Isabella of Angoulême, widow of King John, and her second husband, whom she married in 1220, Hugues (X) de Lusignan, count of La Marche. He was born probably at Valence, a hamlet of Couhé (Vienne), some 20 miles south of Poitiers: the date is unknown, but F. R. Lewis has argued for the period 1227–31, when Isabella was, astonishingly, aged over forty. His childhood, otherwise obscure, witnessed the near ruination of the powerful Lusignans in 1241–2 in a rebellion against the Capetians supported by Henry III. After its failure his parents went into retirement, and partitioned their lands between their sons in 1242, assigning Valence the castellanies of Montignac, Bellac, Rancon, and Champagnac; but he had still not reached his majority in June 1246.
Early career and acquisitions in England
In the summer of 1247 the Lusignans accepted Henry III's invitation to visit England. Valence and his brother Aymer de Lusignan (d. 1260) and sister Alice and a few adherents settled at court, whereas two elder brothers, Guy and Geoffroi, and others, returned home with pensions. Henry hoped thereby to cultivate clients among the Poitevin nobility, to advance his interests against the Capetians, and to protect Gascony. There is some truth, however, in the chroniclers' assertion that Valence really owed his advancement to Henry's affection and plans to create a strengthened royal family in England. Henry arranged his marriage on 13 August 1247 to Joan (d. 1307), daughter of Warin de Munchensi (d. 1255), who, thanks to her brother's recent death, was a coheir to £703 p.a. of the Marshal estate; thus Valence became in the right of his wife lord of Wexford, and lord of Pembroke and Goodrich castles. Probably as part of the marriage contract, Henry granted him in 1247 Hertford Castle at pleasure (for life from 1249) and a double money fee: 500 marks p.a. for life, with an additional £500 p.a., the latter eventually to be replaced by lands held in fee. There were a handful of other lucrative perquisites which enabled him to purchase the west-country Pont de l'Arche estate in 1252 and the Northumbrian Bertram lands in the 1260s. Consequently, on 22 August 1248, during his first return to Poitou, Valence ceded Montignac to his brother Geoffroi.

Although Valence was almost constantly at court for the next ten years in England, Matthew Paris's account of his influence, much coloured by later events, is not entirely supported by the records. At first he was often unruly, probably because the king was too slow to replace his money fee with lands. Henry ceremoniously knighted him at Westminster on 13 October 1247. Until 1249 he was active in tournaments, for which the king temporarily confiscated his estates in October 1249. These tournaments won him the earliest English knights for his retinue, together with powerful friends, such as his brother-in-law John de Warenne, earl of Surrey (d. 1304), and Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester (d. 1262). Valence took the cross with Henry III on 6 March 1250 at the Great Hall at Westminster, but in November 1251 the king closed all ports to prevent his going on crusade independently to rescue Louis IX. Although this may have been one of his attempts to extract more grants from Henry, Valence did make some preparations for crusade, leasing assets and securing papal promises of 2200 marks (part of which was paid by the mid-1250s). By early 1252 Henry had replaced Valence's money-fee of 500 marks p.a. with large wardships, such as that of Fitzjohn of Warkworth, Northumberland (held until 1268), and had begun to find him additional manors.
The Lusignans and their rivals, 1252–1258
In 1252 the importance of the Lusignans was greatly increased for a while by the outbreak of rebellion in Gascony, which they were instrumental in crushing. In January Valence joined the royal council, arbitrating in Henry's dispute with Simon de Montfort (d. 1265) over the lieutenancy of Gascony. The Lusignans now began to quarrel arrogantly with magnates, confident that the king would not punish them. In October 1252 Valence raided the lands of the bishop of Ely at Hatfield, and at the end of the year he joined his brother Aymer, bishop-elect of Winchester, in the notorious raid on the palaces of Boniface of Savoy, the archbishop of Canterbury. From this point onwards, if Matthew Paris and others are to be believed, the court was divided by struggles between the Lusignans and the queen's family, the Savoyards. Valence retained the friendship of the earl of Gloucester whose heir, Gilbert de Clare (d. 1295), married his niece Alice, in January 1253, and shortly after that they went on an unsuccessful tournamenting expedition to France. By October 1253 Valence joined Henry III in Gascony where the Lusignans raised a large force of over 100 Poitevin knights for the campaign. Valence helped to settle the border areas of Bergerac and Gensac and to arbitrate in the dispute between Simon de Montfort and Gaston de Béarn over Bigorre. Characteristically, he tried further to pressurize Henry for lands, but obtained only the promise of a large wardship. During the winter of 1254 he accompanied Henry back to England via Paris and in 1255 was rewarded with the wardship for a year of his rich kinsman, William de Munchensi (d. 1287).

From 1255 to 1257 Valence remained high in the king's affections, but the records do not show him active in formulating policy; he was excluded by older rivals, especially Savoyards. In September 1255 he went north with the king and took a small part in negotiations concerning the minority of Alexander III, king of Scots. In the following month, at Windsor, he merely witnessed the king's acceptance of the ‘Sicilian business’; this is often mistaken as evidence that he proposed it. Even in January 1256 Henry ordered Valence to be consulted over Gascony only ‘if expedient’. Only over the acceptance of the crown of Germany, by Richard, earl of Cornwall, at Christmas 1256 is it possible that Valence much influenced events.

The war with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Wales which broke out in 1256, however, suddenly made Valence indispensable in his own right as a marcher lord. Many of his estates were threatened. From the spring of 1257 his men of Pembroke under Roger of Leyburn were fighting against the Welsh at Carmarthen but he remained at court, witnessing on 10 April an ordinance on household economies and, no doubt, taking the councillors' oath of about that date reported in the Burton annals. In August he joined the king's ineffectual campaign at Deganwy where, according to John of Wallingford, he quarrelled with Humphrey (IV) de Bohun, earl of Hereford. When in April 1258 the truce with Llywelyn ended and the Welsh of Cemais raided Pembroke itself, Valence demanded revenge in parliament and accused Simon de Montfort and the earl of Gloucester of treachery. This helped precipitate the ‘sworn conspiracy’ of these two earls and five other magnates—all courtiers—on 12 April, which brought about the baronial reform movement and the Lusignans' eventual downfall.

Valence's rivals at court were afraid of the Lusignans' growing hold over the king and his heir. After Richard of Cornwall's departure for Germany in April 1257 Henry III increasingly turned to them for advice and financial assistance. Valence lent Henry 1100 marks in November 1257 and shortly afterwards, according to Matthew Paris, mortgaged Stamford and Grantham from the Lord Edward. An alliance then arose between Valence and Edward, whose lands were also threatened by the Welsh. Such developments, if unchecked, promised to give the Lusignans an indefinite monopoly on power. Their many enemies were enraged. Old quarrels again came to the surface. Litigants high and low had been denied justice against them, especially thanks to the king's order of about November 1256 (noted by Matthew Paris) forbidding any writ to be filed in chancery against them or other favourites. Their feud with the queen's family has been noted. Valence himself had sparred over rights in Pembrokeshire and Ireland with the earl of Hereford and his son. In 1257 his officials clashed with Simon de Montfort, provoking another confrontation in parliament in May. These disputes were complicated by their being rivals for land-grants from the king, where Henry favoured Valence. Valence also gained at the expense of other claimants on royal patronage, such as stewards of the household. His friendship with Edward even drove him apart from the earl of Gloucester, Edward's rival on the march. Thus, by 1258, although rising royal favourites, Valence and his brothers were politically isolated at court. Peter of Savoy and Montfort now advocated peace negotiations with Louis IX, undercutting the Lusignans' position. Thanks to the harshness of their estate officials, particularly Valence's notorious steward, William de Bussay, the Lusignans were accorded little sympathy in provincial society either. Indeed, they may even have been thought responsible for advising Henry's harsh rule of the localities, in order to raise money for the recent Welsh war. The Lusignans had become a major part of the general grievances accumulating against Henry III's personal rule.
Opposition to reform, and exile
The reform movement begun in April 1258, designed to win the king the support of the ‘community of the realm’, was deftly exploited by Valence's enemies. Although he and his brothers swore to support it, and were even nominated by the king onto the committee of twenty-four to draw up reforms, they soon fell foul of the new regime. Valence continued to frustrate Montfort's patronage claims and when, at the great Oxford parliament of June 1258, it was mooted to resume all alienations made from the crown, he refused his consent, only, according to Paris, to meet Montfort's riposte ‘either you give up your castles or you lose your head’ (Paris, Chron., 5.697–8). The Lusignans and their supporters, the Lord Edward and John de Warenne, fled at the end of the month to Bishop Aymer's castle at Winchester; however, they were easily forced to capitulate on 5 July and, after Valence refused the option to remain in custody until reforms were complete, they chose exile, sailing on 14 July. Valence accepted a pension of 3000 marks and the council placed his lands under some of his men, the revenues deposited at the New Temple, a remarkable arrangement that permitted his return; but the council later confiscated 1500 marks from his account.

Valence and his brothers reached Boulogne, where they eluded an ambush from Henry de Montfort bent on avenging his father. Despite the opposition of Louis IX's wife, the sister of the queen of England, the Lusignans were allowed passage to Poitou; Louis may have believed their expulsion indicated that the peace treaty under negotiation between himself and Henry III would now go ahead. Valence's wife, displeased by the council's financial arrangements for her, was allowed to join him in exile in December. Meanwhile, efforts were made to prevent his smuggling money out of the country and, indeed, his steward, William de Bussay, was apprehended in November 1258 when he attempted to return. In the following months Bussay and a handful of Valence's bailiffs were tried and imprisoned for their oppressions.

Valence at first attempted to consolidate his interests in Poitou, but soon became involved in plots for his return. On 2 March 1259 he purchased property in Limoges, and then reacquired Montignac from his brother, for he styled himself ‘Lord of Pembroke and Montignac’, in a remission of rights granted to Charroux Abbey on 7 and 14 October (Monsabert, 246–8). By December he was at Paris where he met secretly with Simon de Montfort who had quarrelled with the baronial regime. Here, allegedly at the king's instigation, they settled their private differences and prepared for Valence's return with the support of Montfort's new ally, the Lord Edward. Their plans were foiled by the failure of Edward's rising in the spring of 1260, but this alliance held firm. From August to October 1260 Valence was ordered by Edward to defend Lourdes and Tarbes in Bigorre for Montfort against Esquivat de Chabanais; and in the truce with Chabanais at Tarbes on 2 October he represented Montfort. On 27 November he met Edward at Paris, probably again to discuss returning, but Aymer de Lusignan's death on 4 December at Paris forced another postponement.
Return to the king's side, 1261–1265
Valence returned thanks to Henry III's overthrow of the provisions of Oxford in 1261. The king could, even in February, appoint Valence's retainer Geoffrey de Gascelin constable of Hertford. However, Valence's loyalties were at first unclear, because on 27 March the king attempted to prevent him landing with the Lord Edward, then still in opposition. When he did return with Edward at about Easter (24 April) it was possibly ‘by assent of the barons [who opposed Henry's recovery of power]’ (Liber de antiquis legibus, 49), and because he swore at Dover his oath to the provisions of Oxford and to answer those who had complaint against him (Flores historiarum, 2.466). Valence may have flirted with opposition to secure himself the best terms from his Savoyard rivals at court. But the king, none the less, easily detached him from Edward and Montfort, receiving him at Rochester on 30 April to peace with restoration of all lands.

For the remainder of 1261 Valence concentrated on repairing his estates. In 1262 he was more frequently at court, but, thanks to the Savoyards, his influence was much reduced. He was unable to secure his henchmen pardons or, until 10 July, to get the king to compensate him for his exile; he was still awaiting full payment in March 1263. In July 1262 he accompanied Henry III to France and with Henry of Almain, the king's nephew, attempted unsuccessfully to reconcile the king to the new earl of Gloucester, Gilbert de Clare. Valence left the king in August, perhaps in anger, for although Henry III ordered him to return to him in France on 14 October, he was still in London on 11 November. Henry III only detached him from Clare by a grant of part of the latter's lands on 10 December, increased in July 1263 to £500, with promise of a further £500 in September. Thus, Valence did not support Clare and Almain's uprising with Simon de Montfort in 1263 and, indeed, Clare long resented this betrayal.

For the remainder of the barons' wars Valence remained loyal to the king. In February 1263 he represented Henry at Paris to secure concessions made by Louis IX; he probably proceeded to Poitou to receive on Henry's behalf the homage of the vicomte de Turenne and others. In October he accompanied Henry for the Boulogne conference before the French king, at about the same time receiving the Cressy wardship. During the fighting against Montfortians in 1264 he was frequently in the Lord Edward's force, for example at the battle of Northampton on 5 April, in revenge for which the Londoners attacked his property and stole his money deposited at the Temple. At the battle of Lewes on 14 May he fought on the right wing in Edward's squadron with John de Warenne, but made his escape with Warenne and Geoffroi de Lusignan to Pevensey Castle and the continent. His lands were forfeit, Pembroke going to the rebel earl of Gloucester and Goodrich to Humphrey (V) de Bohun (known as the younger). Valence returned a year later, landing in Pembroke in May 1265 with John de Warenne, a number of Lusignans, and a substantial force; this fanned a general marcher revolt against Simon de Montfort. Edward escaped from captivity and with Valence surprised Simon de Montfort the younger at Kenilworth and defeated Montfort himself at Evesham on 4 August 1265. Valence joined the siege of the remaining Montfortians at Kenilworth and in May 1266, with John de Warenne, punished rebels at Bury St Edmunds. He was well rewarded with the lands of Montfortians, for example Humphrey de Bohun junior, Roger Bertram, and William de Munchensi. He played no part in drawing up the dictum of Kenilworth and, indeed, seems to have opposed it, his harshness driving Munchensi into further rebellion. Valence clashed repeatedly with the renegade earl of Gloucester when they seized rebels' lands. In 1269 Valence, John de Warenne, and Henry of Almain conspired against the rebel Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, and secured his lands for Edmund, earl of Lancaster. In 1267–8 Henry III finally replaced Valence's money-fee of £500 p.a. with lands, mainly in East Anglia.
Crusade and service under Edward I
From 1264 Valence revived his friendship with the Lord Edward. On 24 June 1268 at the parliament at Northampton he took the cross with Edward, John de Warenne, and Henry of Almain, promising under one of the earliest known military contracts to recruit nineteen knights for 2000 marks. In July 1268 he again visited Pembroke and was in Ireland, probably for the first time, in the spring of 1270, taking custody of Maurice Fitzgerald's heir whose wardship he and his daughter, Agnes, purchased from his fellow crusader, Thomas de Clare. On 20 August following he sailed for the Holy Land with Edward. His movements there are not known, but he acquired a cross with a foot of gold and emeralds (which his daughter-in-law was later to bequeath to Westminster Abbey). Following the attempt on Edward's life at Acre he was one of the executors of the prince's will, made on 18 June 1272, but he left the crusade early, in August, perhaps through fear for his estates at the hands of his old enemy, the earl of Gloucester. He returned independently to London on 11 January 1273, ahead of Edward, now king. On 7 June he was hunting illegally with his retinue in Hampshire.

Valence held many commands in Gascony and Wales under Edward I. On 3 September 1273 he received for Edward the fealty of the citizens of Limoges. He remained in Gascony with the king, but was reported illegally hunting in Hampshire on 29 November. He returned to Limoges in July 1274 to honour Edward's promise to defend the citizens, appointing a seneschal and besieging the vicomtesse de Limoges's castle at Aixe. On 19 August he attended Edward's coronation at Westminster. On 4 September he was again hunting illegally with his retinue in Hampshire. In February 1275 he represented Edward at the Paris parlement at Candlemas, receiving Gaston de Béarn's challenge to do single combat with Edward. Valence returned by May and Edward duly granted him the constableship of Cilgerran Castle and the wardship of the heirs of Roger de Somery, on condition that he paid some of the king's debts.

Valence played an active part in the campaign of 1277 against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. With Prince Edmund he led a second army which marched up the coast from Pembroke and reached Aberystwyth by 25 July, where they laid the foundations of the new castle. They drove Llywelyn north into Snowdonia. Valence returned to Pembroke on 3 October, but by 27 December he was at Marwell, Hampshire.

After a quiet year spent mainly at court Valence was in June 1279 sent to receive the Agenais, ceded to Edward I under the treaty of Amiens. He entered Agen on 8 August and two days later installed Jean de Grailly as seneschal. After an embassy to the king of Castile in November, in January 1280 he returned to Agen where he laid the foundations of Tournon and the bastide of Valence d'Agen. He returned to London by 6 June and remained in England for the next two years.

Valence fought in the final struggle against Llywelyn; in July 1282 the king appointed him to replace the earl of Gloucester as commander in west Wales, and rewarded him with the wardship for a year of his son-in-law, John Hastings, lord of Abergavenny. Valence's son, William the younger, had been killed by the Welsh on 16 June in an ambush near Llandeilo. After mustering another force at Carmarthen on 6 December against Llywelyn's last sortie, he crushed a further rebellion in Cardiganshire in January. He left Aberystwyth in April with over 1000 men and captured Prince Dafydd's last stronghold, Castell y Bere, in a ten-day siege. From September to Christmas 1284 he accompanied Edward I on his triumphal tour of Wales. It is notable, however, that Edward did not reward his loyalty with increased lands or liberties on the march; indeed, in 1285, despite Valence's personal remonstration at Aberystwyth, Edward ordered royal justices into Pembrokeshire to hear appeals by the earl of Hereford and the burgesses of Haverfordwest against Valence, a significant royal intrusion into marcher liberties.

From September 1286 to June 1289 Valence accompanied Edward to Gascony; he fell ill with fever at Saintes in November 1286. In September 1289 he helped negotiate at Salisbury the proposed marriage between Prince Edward and Margaret, the Maid of Norway. From January to March 1291 he was appointed to adjudicate in the feud on the Welsh march between the earls of Gloucester and Hereford; however, he and other marchers, fearing further royal assaults on their liberties, intervened to prevent Edward I carrying out the sentence. In the following August he assisted the king in the preliminary hearings of the Scottish succession at Berwick. On 10 December, at Westminster Abbey, he witnessed Edward's grant of the heart of Henry III to the nuns of Fontevraud for reburial. On 5 February 1292, at Westminster, the king appointed him one of the five to regulate tournaments under the laws of arms. In the summer he returned with the king to Norham, declaring that the Scottish succession should be decided according to English law, which favoured John de Balliol. In October, at Berwick, he was one of those marchers who granted Edward a fifteenth, provided that it would not constitute a precedent. In October 1294 the king sent him, with Roger (IV) Bigod, earl of Norfolk, to hold south Wales against the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn.
Death and assessment
In January 1296 Valence, accompanied by his son Aymer de Valence (d. 1324), headed an embassy to Cambrai in a fruitless attempt to negotiate between Edward I and Philippe IV of France. Despite old age, he may have been involved in a skirmish, for he returned to England wounded and was met at Dover by a litter sent by his wife. He died at his manor of Brabourne in Kent on 16 May. John Leland's account that he was slain by the French at Bayonne on 13 June must, therefore, be incorrect. Valence was buried near Henry III at Westminster Abbey in the chapel of St Edmund and St Thomas the Martyr where his monument, an expensive piece of foreign workmanship, remains—a canopied stone altar-tomb bearing his effigy in wood covered with copper gilt, in full armour with heraldry and inscription, decorated in Limoges enamel. Valence was survived by his wife, Joan, who retained the title of countess of Pembroke, Pembroke and Goodrich castles, and Wexford until her death in September 1307. They had three sons: John, who died in childhood in January 1277, buried in the chapel of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey, where his grave-slab survives; William the younger, who was killed by the Welsh on 16 June 1282, and who may be buried at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire; and Aymer, born 1270×75, who succeeded in 1296 as lord of Montignac and in 1307 as earl of Pembroke. There were also four daughters: Isabel (d. 1305), who married in 1275 John Hastings (d. 1313); Margaret, who died in childhood on 24 March 1276 and was buried with John de Valence at Westminster Abbey; Agnes (d. 1310), who married first, in 1266, Maurice Fitzgerald (d. 1268), second Hugh de Balliol (d. 1271), and third Jean d'Avesnes (d. 1283); and Joan, who married John Comyn, lord of Badenoch (d. 1306).

Valence was never created an earl by Henry III or Edward I. On his seal, and in most of his charters, he merely styled himself ‘lord of Pembroke’. His wife, in fact, only inherited part of the Marshal earldom of Pembroke. However, control of the Pembrokeshire county court may have led to his assumption of the title of earl in documents by the late 1280s, and in the 1290s Edward I occasionally accepted it, even summoning him to parliament as earl in 1295, a unique example of informal elevation, perhaps an inexpensive reward for Valence's loyalty. His relationship with the king was always one of dependence as much as kinship. His scattered estates, a half held by marriage, were worth some £1500 p.a., relatively modest for an ‘earl’; his income needed royal grants, such as wardships, to increase it by an average of £1000 p.a., which prevented him from pursuing an independent political line or developing a large retinue. Thus, his benefactions were modest: mainly to Pembroke Priory and the foundation of a hospital at Tenby. His disputes with the Clares and Bohuns arose from their being fellow Marshal coheirs whose claims much reduced the extent of Pembroke. Valence pursued another vendetta against the Munchensis, culminating in his unsuccessful attempt in 1289 to have William de Munchensi's surviving daughter, Dionysia, bastardized; he was almost certainly supported by his wife, who hated the descendants of her father Warin de Munchensi's second marriage, who deprived her of the family inheritance. But Valence's poor reputation has been much exaggerated: in 1270, for example, he refused to be dishonest and break open a private letter (Shirley, 2.345). He inspired the lasting affection of his wife and his brother-in-law, John de Warenne, one of his executors. Vilified as an ‘alien’ in the reign of Henry III, his interests were, in fact, overwhelmingly English, justifying the Dunstable annalist's epitaph of satis fidelis regno Anglie (‘sufficiently faithful to the kingdom of England’; Ann. Mon., 3.400) .

H. W. Ridgeway
Sources

Chancery records · PRO · R. F. Treharne and I. J. Sanders, eds., Documents of the baronial movement of reform and rebellion, 1258–1267 (1973) · Rymer, Foedera · Calendar of inquisitions miscellaneous (chancery), PRO, 1 (1916) · A. Teulet and others, eds., Layettes du trésor des chartes, 5 vols. (Paris, 1863–1909), vol. 2, pp. 498–9, 623–4 · G. Thomas, Cartulaire des comtes de La Marche et d'Angoulême (1934) · D. P. de Monsabert, ‘Chartes et documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'Abbaie de Charroux’, Archives Historiques du Poitou, 39 (1910) · A descriptive catalogue of ancient deeds in the Public Record Office, 6 vols. (1890–1915) · RotP, vol. 1 · W. W. Shirley, ed., Royal and other historical letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 27 (1862–6) · F. Michel, C. Bémont, and Y. Renouard, eds., Rôles Gascons, 4 vols. (1885–1962), vols. 1–3 · H. S. Sweetman and G. F. Handcock, eds., Calendar of documents relating to Ireland, 5 vols., PRO (1875–86), vols. 1–2 · Littere Wallie, ed. J. G. Edwards (1940) · I. H. Jeayes, Descriptive catalogue of the charters and muniments in the possession of the Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge at Berkeley Castle (1892) · Dugdale, Monasticon, new edn · N. H. Nicolas, ed., Testamenta vetusta: being illustrations from wills, 1 (1826), 100 · Paris, Chron. · Ann. mon. · The historical works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 73 (1879–80) · H. R. Luard, ed., Flores historiarum, 3 vols., Rolls Series, 95 (1890) · T. Stapleton, ed., De antiquis legibus liber: cronica majorum et vicecomitum Londoniarum, CS, 34 (1846) · [W. Rishanger], The chronicle of William de Rishanger, of the barons' wars, ed. J. O. Halliwell, CS, 15 (1840) · Willelmi Rishanger … chronica et annales, ed. H. T. Riley, pt 2 of Chronica monasterii S. Albani, Rolls Series, 28 (1865) · R. Vaughan, ‘The chronicle of John of Wallingford’, EngHR, 73 (1958), 66–77 · F. R. Lewis, ‘William de Valence, pt 1’, Aberystwyth Studies, 13 (1934), 13–35 · F. R. Lewis, ‘William de Valence, pt 2’, Aberystwyth Studies, 14 (1936), 72–91 · H. Ridgeway, ‘William de Valence and his familiares’, Historical Research, 65 (1992), 239–57 · H. W. Ridgeway, ‘Foreign favourites and Henry III's problems of patronage, 1247–58’, EngHR, 104 (1989), 590–610 · H. W. Ridgeway, ‘The Lord Edward and the Provisions of Oxford (1258): a study in faction’, Thirteenth century England: proceedings of the Newcastle upon Tyne conference [Newcastle upon Tyne 1985], ed. P. R. Coss and S. D. Lloyd, 1 (1986), 89–99 · D. A. Carpenter, ‘What happened in 1258?’, War and government in the middle ages: essays in honour of J. O. Prestwich, ed. J. B. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (1984) · J. R. Maddicott, Simon de Montfort (1994) · P. J. Lankester, ‘A military effigy in Dorchester Abbey, Oxon.’, Oxoniensia, 52 (1987), 145–72, esp. 155–9 · J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 2nd edn, 2 vols. (1912) · J. E. Morris, The Welsh wars of Edward I (1901) · M. Prestwich, Edward I (1988) · J. R. S. Phillips, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307–1324: baronial politics in the reign of Edward II (1972) · S. D. Lloyd, English society and the crusade, 1216–1307 (1988) · J. P. Trabut-Cussac, L'Administration anglaise en Gascogne sous Henry III et Édouard I de 1254 à 1307 (Geneva, 1972)
Likenesses

tomb effigy, Westminster Abbey, London [see illus.]
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


H. W. Ridgeway, ‘Valence , William de, earl of Pembroke (d. 1296)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29481, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

William de Valence (d. 1296): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/294819 
Name Variation William de Lusignan1 
Title* Earl of Pembroke1 
Arms* Burulle d'argent et d'azure a merloz de gules bordeans (Walford). Barry arg. and az. an orle of martlets gu. (Charles, St. George, Segar). Barry arg. and az. (M. Paris I).10
Name Variation Valencia8 
Knighted*13 October 1247 3,10 
Event-Misc*6 March 1250 on crusade3 
Event-Misc9 July 1252 Oppen, Gloucestershire, He had a weir10 
Event-Misc26 July 1255 Indult granted to him, E. of Pembroke, for merits of the brother the King, to choose a confessor10 
Event-Misc*10 January 1259 The King assigns to his wife Joan £400 p.a. for maintenance whilst Wm. is out of the realm, Principal=Joan de Munchensi10 
Event-Misc30 April 1261 Admission to the King's grace, and restitution of his lands and Hereford Castle, and of his charters and treasure in the New Temple10 
Event-Misc*15 January 1263 Wm. de Valence was an executor of Aymer de Valence, Bishop of Winchester., Principal=Ademar de Lusignan10 
Event-Misc5 February 1263 He was the King's proctor to France10 
Event-Misc8 May 1264 He was made Custos of Mitford Castle and lands of Roger de Bertram, who was captured fighting against the King at Northampton10 
Event-Misc*8 June 1264 Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, is made Custos of his lands in Pembrokeshire and others of his lands in Surrey and Sussex, Principal=Sir Gilbert de Clare "the Red"10 
Event-Misc*10 May 1265 John de Warenne landed at Pembroke with William de Valence and sued for the return of his lands, Principal=Sir John de Warenne11 
Excommunication*24 May 1265 The King requires the Archbishop of Carterbury to excommunicate them, but will do them justice in his court, Principal=Joan de Munchensi10 
Event-Misc28 June 1265 They have drawn Prince Edward to their party, and the King asks Simon de Montfort, jun., Brian de Gouiz, Adam Gurdun, and others to oppose them. (P.R.)10 
Event-Misc*Mich. 1265 Wm. de Valence seized lands at Northall, Middlesex, and 90 acres and 10/- rent at Fincham, Norfolk, with Dochelinton Manor, Oxon., after Evesham, and also Remeham town, Berks., of Sir Peter de Montfort, the manor being worth £20. His bailiffs sezied Wendesclive town, Berks., val. 18 m., and took land val. £20 of the Abbot of Abindon at Dumbelton, Glou. He now holds Hallingesberi-Walle, Ess., and Kemesing Manor, Kent, was lately restored to him., Principal=Peter de Montfort10 
Event-Misc*12 November 1265 Wm. de Valence lately captured Haverford Castle from Humphry de Bohun, jun., and has grant thereof to him and heirs in minority of the daus. of Humphry and of the heirs of Joan, wid. of Humphry., Principal=Sir Humphrey VI de Bohun10 
Event-Misc*21 June 1266 Grant to him lands late of Wm. de Monte Caniso, the King's enemy., Principal=William de Munchensi10 
Event-Misc14 December 1267 William de Monte Caniso has ransomed his lands under the Award of Kenilworth, and they are restored to him., Principal=William de Munchensi10 
Event-Misc7 March 1269 For his service to the King and Prince Edward, he has grant of mthe marriage of the heir of Henry de Hastings10 
Event-Misc26 May 1270 Commissioner to treat with Llewellyn ap Griffin, Prince of Wales10 
Event-Misc4 August 1270 Grant that if he die before his heirs are of age, his Exors. may dispose of his wardships and marriages according to his will12 
Event-Misc23 April 1274 A Flemish merchant lately brought cloth and fur trimming and was imprisoned in Rochester Castle. Wm. de Valence mainperns him, saying that the stuff was for him, and the man is kept in prison for William12 
Event-Misc12 May 1275 He is made Custos of Kilgaran Castle and lands of St. Clare, late of Geo. de Cantilupo, at £46 rent12 
Event-Misc15 July 1275 The King and his brother Wm. de Valence purpose a marriage between Jn. fil. Henry de Hastings and Isabella, d. of Wm. de V., related in 3rd and 4th degrees, to settle enmity between their families. Dispensation to be granted if the marriage will conduce to peace in England., Witness=Isabel de Valence, Witness=John Hastings12 
Event-Misc*11 November 1275 Grant to Wm. de Valencia custody of his lands and marriage of heirs, Principal=Sir Roger de Somery13 
Event-Misc*26 May 1277 Wm. de Valence is Exor. of Geof. de Lusignan, the King's uncle, Principal=Geoffroy I de Lusignan12 
Event-Misc*April 1279 Thomas de Weyland arbitrated a dispute between Roger E. of Norfolk and William de Valencia, Principal=Roger Bigod, Witness=Sir Thomas de Weyland14 
Event-Misc26 February 1281 Livery to him of Bergavenny Castle and lands, inheritance of Jn. de Hastings, a minor, at 400 m. rent12 
Event-Misc28 July 1282 He is made Justice in West Wales12 
Summoned*30 September 1283 Shrewsbury, Parliament12 
Event-Misc16 December 1283 Geof. de Genevill and w. Matilda owe Wm. de Valence £1200, partly for marriage of Gerald, s. h. of Thos. FitzGerald, a minor, by demise of Thos. de Clare, Witness=Sir Geoffrey de Geneville, Witness=Maud de Lacy12 
Protection*21 April 1286 over seas with the King12 
Protection24 October 1286 to Gascony for the King12 
Event-Misc14 November 1287 He is to attack Rhys ap Merduc12 
Event-Misc14 December 1287 He held the lands of Sir William Comyn during his minority12 
Event-Misc16 February 1288 He is a commissioner to survey the state of Wales12 
Event-Misc6 October 1289 Having built and endowed a hospital for the poor and sick at Tenebit, he has lic. to have a chapel and chaplain there8 
Event-Misc3 December 1291 He witnesses in Westminster Abbey, delivery of the heart of Henry III to the abbess of Fontevraud for burial at Fontevraud8 
Event-Misc20 August 1292 Order to deliver Godrich Castle to him and wife Joan till next Parliament, Principal=Joan de Munchensi8 

Family

Joan de Munchensi d. b 21 Sep 1307
Children

Last Edited24 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-30.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 80-29.
  4. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 148-3.
  5. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  6. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 154-28.
  7. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 154-29.
  8. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 91.
  9. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  10. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 89.
  11. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 261.
  12. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 90.
  13. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 262.
  14. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 184.
  15. [S287] G. E. C[okayne], CP, XII - 614.

Sir John Comyn1

M, #2723, d. circa 1303

 

Father*Sir John Comyn2 d. a 1273
Mother*Amabilia (?)2
Sir John Comyn|d. c 1303|p91.htm#i2723|Sir John Comyn|d. a 1273|p365.htm#i10940|Amabilia (?)||p365.htm#i10941|Richard Comyn|d. bt 1244 - 1249|p365.htm#i10942||||||||||

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*between 1279 and 1283 Principal=Eleanor de Baliol1,3,4 
Death*circa 1303 1,3,5,4 
DNB* Comyn, Sir John [called Sir John Comyn the Competitor, Red Comyn], lord of Badenoch (d. c.1302), magnate and claimant to the Scottish throne, was the eldest son of John Comyn (d. c.1277) and his first wife, Eva. Between about 1270 and 1275, he married Eleanor (called Marjory in Scottish sources), sister of John de Balliol [see John], the future king of Scots, and he was also brother-in-law to Alexander MacDougall, lord of Argyll (d. 1310), making a formidable Comyn–MacDougall alliance in the north. John Comyn inherited the headship of the Comyns' senior, Badenoch, branch and became the second Red Comyn. His landed power included: Badenoch and Lochaber, with chief castles at Ruthven, Lochindorb, and Inverlochy; influence in Atholl, possibly including the castle at Blair Atholl; Bedrule and Scraesburgh, Roxburghshire; Dalswinton, with its castle, in Dumfriesshire; Findogask and Ochtertyre in Perthshire; Machan in the Clyde valley; and Lenzie and Kirkintilloch in Dunbartonshire after his brother William's death (after c.1290). He also had charge of the castles of Jedburgh and Clunie from Alexander III; and in England he had Tarset and Thornton in Tynedale, Northumberland, and Ulseby in Lincolnshire. He was religious patron to Inchaffray, Cambuskenneth, and Coupar Angus abbeys.

John Comyn was knighted by Alexander III in 1270, and was present in the royal circle at Selkirk in 1276. He swore to observe the marriage settlement between Margaret, Alexander III's daughter, and King Erik of Norway at Roxburgh in 1281, and in 1284 acknowledged the child of this marriage, Margaret, the Maid of Norway, as heir presumptive to Alexander III. When Alexander III died in 1286, Comyn was elected one of the six ‘guardians’ of the realm. He was chosen, according to John Fordun, as one of three guardians from south of the Forth, though his power was probably greater in the north. As guardian, Comyn was active in government business at Edinburgh (principally), Roxburgh, Haddington, Stirling, Perth, and Berwick between 1287 and 1291. In 1289 the guardians sent him, together with Robert (V) Brus (d. 1295) and the bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, to negotiate with the English king's representative concerning the return of the Maid of Norway to Scotland, and Comyn was among the prelates and barons who confirmed the resulting treaty of Birgham in July 1290. By then John Comyn, as one of four surviving guardians, had become head of a Comyn ‘party’, following the death of his great-uncle and fellow guardian, Alexander Comyn, earl of Buchan, in 1289. He was responsible, in 1290, for informing Edward I about the arrival of the Maid of Norway in Orkney, and in the same year was paid £100 out of £200, of the king's gift.

After the Maid's death in Orkney (October 1290), Comyn himself became one of thirteen ‘competitors’ for the Scottish throne, though his brother-in-law, John de Balliol, and Robert (V) Brus were the two strongest candidates. Comyn claimed descent from Donald III (d. 1099?), whose granddaughter Hextilda (married to the Richard Comyn who died in 1178) was the mother of John's great-grandfather. Comyn's claim significantly stated that he would not prejudice the claims of Balliol, his brother-in-law. He had already shown strong support for Balliol, and the list of Balliol's forty auditors was dominated by Comyn family and supporters. Indeed, in 1290–91 the ‘appeal of the seven earls’ accused John Comyn, with Bishop William Fraser of St Andrews (d. 1297), of trying to make Balliol king by a ‘coup’. Comyn's claim, soon withdrawn and dismissed in the final judgment (17 November 1292), was, no doubt, intended to safeguard a possible future bid after Balliol became king in 1292. The failure of the Balliol line could have given Comyn's descendants through Eleanor de Balliol a double claim.

Under Balliol's kingship, John Comyn naturally figured prominently in Scottish politics and when, by 1295, King John's leadership had proved ineffective, John Comyn was one of the council of twelve elected to take government out of John's hands. In 1295 he was sent to France to negotiate a treaty which was ratified in 1296, and after John renounced Edward I's overlordship in the latter year, Comyn was regarded as the English king's enemy and his Northumberland lands were confiscated. After the Scottish defeat at Dunbar, Comyn made submission at Montrose in July 1296 and was sent into exile with his family to the English king's manor of Geddington, where he was allowed to hunt fox, hare, and wild cat in the royal forest. Following the outbreak of revolt in Scotland under William Wallace, Comyn was sent by Edward I in 1297 to bring order to Scotland. He was commanded to assist Brian Fitzalan in the custody of the kingdom, and especially to defend the castle at Roxburgh; and he was also instructed to quell the rising in Moray, but appears soon to have joined the Scots, because late in 1297 his Tynedale lands were to be taken again into the king's hands. It is probable that Comyn contributed cavalry to the Scottish army at Falkirk in 1298, as Fordun reports that ‘the Comyns’ envied Wallace and deserted the Scottish army at the battle. But that it was John's son, John Comyn the younger (d. 1306), who was chosen guardian with Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, the future king, in 1298, suggests that John Comyn the elder was either too ill or unfit for office, or possibly discredited. He died, c.1302, at his castle of Lochindorb and was succeeded by his son, John, who married Joan de Valence, cousin of the English king.

Alan Young
Sources

J. M. Thomson and others, eds., Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum / The register of the great seal of Scotland, 11 vols. (1882–1914) · J. Stevenson, ed., Documents illustrative of the history of Scotland, 2 vols. (1870) · W. A. Lindsay, J. Dowden, and J. M. Thomson, eds., Charters, bulls and other documents relating to the abbey of Inchaffray, Scottish History Society, 56 (1908) · D. E. Easson, ed., Charters of the abbey of Coupar-Angus, 2 vols., Scottish History Society, 3rd ser., 40–41 (1947) · W. Fraser, ed., Registrum monasterii S. Marie de Cambuskenneth, Grampian Club, 4 (1872) · Scots peerage, vol. 5 · W. Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt and others, new edn, 9 vols. (1987–98), vols. 5–6 · Johannis de Fordun Chronica gentis Scotorum / John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish nation, ed. W. F. Skene, trans. F. J. H. Skene, 2 vols. (1871–2) · Rymer, Foedera, new edn · Chancery records · Andrew of Wyntoun, The orygynale cronykil of Scotland, [rev. edn], ed. D. Laing, 3 vols. (1872–9)
Archives

BM · NA Scot. · NL Scot. | PRO


© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


Alan Young, ‘Comyn, Sir John , lord of Badenoch (d. c.1302)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6045, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

Sir John Comyn (d. c.1302): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60456 
Arms* Gules iii garbes d'or (Walford, Charles, St. George, Guillim, Camden).5
Name Variation The Black Comyn1,3 
Event-Misc1281 He was present at the Convention of Roxburgh, where the marriage of margaret, daughter of King Alexander III, was agreed upon.7 
Event-Misc5 February 1283/84 He was one of the Scottish magnates engaged to maintain the title of the Maid of Norway to the throne of Scotland upon the death of her grandfather.7 
Event-Misc*6 April 1284 Jn. Comyn and w. Eleanor, staying in Galloway nominate attorneys in England5 
Event-Misc1286 He was appointed one of the six guardians of the Kingdom of Scotland7 
Event-Misc1289 He was an ambassador to the King of Norway concerning the marriage of the Maid of Norway.7 
Occupation*28 August 1290 a Keeper of Scotland5 
Summoned*1 September 1294 serve in Gascony5 
(Witness) Event-Misc3 July 1295 Charter as King of Scotland, Principal=John Baliol5 
Event-Misc*10 July 1296 Sir John Comyn swore fealty to Edward I of England following the death of the Maid of Norway, Principal=Edward I "Longshanks" Plantagenet King of England8 
Event-Misc12 October 1296 King has lent him Geddington Manor, Northants., and gives him 12 does, with Lic. to hunt the hare, fox, and cat.5 
Event-Misc9 November 1296 Received gift of 20 oak stumps for fuel from Geddington Forest, and Lic. to take 12 does there for sport.5 
Title* Lord of Badenoch1 
HTML* 
Clan Cumming History
Clan Family Histories
 

Family

Eleanor de Baliol
Child

Last Edited24 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-29.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 121A-28.
  3. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-3.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 12.
  5. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 231.
  6. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  7. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 63.
  8. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 64.

Eleanor de Baliol1

F, #2724

Father*Sir John de Baliol2,3 d. 27 Oct 1268
Mother*Devorguilla of Galloway2,3,4,5 d. 28 Jan 1289/90
Eleanor de Baliol||p91.htm#i2724|Sir John de Baliol|d. 27 Oct 1268|p91.htm#i2725|Devorguilla of Galloway|d. 28 Jan 1289/90|p91.htm#i2726|Hugh de Baliol|b. c 1182\nd. c 2 May 1229|p106.htm#i3167|Cicely de Fontaines|b. c 1186|p106.htm#i3168|Alan of Galloway|b. c 1170\nd. 1234|p64.htm#i1914|Margaret of Huntingdon|d. Epiphany 1233|p106.htm#i3180|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*between 1279 and 1283 Principal=Sir John Comyn1,6,5 
Name Variation Alianora de Balliol3 
Name Variation Margaret3 

Family

Sir John Comyn d. c 1303
Child

Last Edited26 Jan 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-29.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-28.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-2.
  5. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 12.
  6. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-3.

Sir John de Baliol1

M, #2725, d. 27 October 1268

 

Father*Hugh de Baliol2,3 b. c 1182, d. c 2 May 1229
Mother*Cicely de Fontaines2 b. c 1186
Sir John de Baliol|d. 27 Oct 1268|p91.htm#i2725|Hugh de Baliol|b. c 1182\nd. c 2 May 1229|p106.htm#i3167|Cicely de Fontaines|b. c 1186|p106.htm#i3168|Eustace de Baliol|b. c 1140\nd. 1201|p106.htm#i3169|Agnes de Percy|d. b 1190|p106.htm#i3170|Aleaume d. Fontaines|d. 1205|p106.htm#i3176|Laurette d. St. Valerie Fontaines/||p106.htm#i3177|

Of* Bywell, Northamptonshire, England3 
Marriage*1233 Principal=Devorguilla of Galloway1,2,4,5 
Death*27 October 1268 2,3 
Death1269  
Event-Misc He was Sheriff of Cumberland for 6 years and governor of the Castle of Carlisle6 
DNB* John [John de Balliol] (c.1248x50-1314), king of Scots, was the fourth and youngest son of John de Balliol (d. 1268), lord of Barnard Castle, and his wife, Dervorguilla de Balliol, lady of Galloway (d. 1290). His successful claim to the Scottish throne in 1291–2 was based on the fact that his mother was the second daughter of Margaret, eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon (d. 1219), the younger brother of William (the Lion), king of Scots (d. 1214).
Early life and career
Information on John's early life and career is slight. Born between about 1248 and 1250, possibly in Picardy, he succeeded to the Balliol family estates in 1278, following the deaths of his father, in 1268, and of his three elder brothers, Hugh (1271), Alan (date not known), and Alexander (1278). It was a much reduced patrimony, centred mainly upon Barnard Castle, in co. Durham, to which he succeeded. Other Balliol estates had been extensively used as dowers for his mother and two high-ranking sisters-in-law, Agnes de Valence and Aliénor de Genoure, widows respectively of Hugh and Alexander; his mother also retained possession of her own inheritance.

Upon his succession to the Balliol estates, homage was demanded of John by both King Edward I and Robert Stichill, bishop of Durham. Despite official acknowledgement of John's rights as heir, almost a year elapsed between Alexander's death and John's succession. During that period, Balliol lands in Northumberland were taken into royal custody, and a contemporary chronicler, Thomas Wykes, recorded that John himself was also in royal custody at about this time. According to Wykes, Balliol needed Edward's consent for his proposed marriage to Isabel, second daughter of John de Warenne, earl of Surrey (d. 1304); he describes John as a youth, adolescens, and Isabel, a young girl, adolescentula. In fact, at the date of their marriage, which probably took place in February 1281, John was about thirty years of age and Isabel was at least in her mid-twenties. Clearly, Edward could not have been exercising rights of wardship in a minority but the true reasons for his heavy-handed intervention are not clear.

Like two of his elder brothers, John de Balliol did not marry until he had attained headship of the family. But unlike his brothers, he had not already been pursuing a career in English royal service—military, crusading, or diplomatic. As the youngest son of an especially devout mother, he may well have been destined for a monastic career. According to an account by the Durham chronicler Robert Greystones, in September 1290 there was a dispute between Ranulf de Neville, lord of Raby, and the prior of Durham concerning custom and protocol to be observed within Durham Cathedral priory at the feast of St Cuthbert. Balliol was evidently present at this dispute, since he rebutted Neville's claims for precedence and privileges, declaring that he had for a long time attended the schools of Durham but had not heard of the privileges which the lord of Raby claimed. This may well have been the novices' school, which, as described in the later rites of Durham, provided education for intending monks, though it is also possible that he was taught in the Durham almonry school. The benefits of an education were certainly manifest in Balliol's case; a record of 1294, for example, testifies to his ability to read out a written petition in public (ore proprio publice fecit), a level of literacy that may have been fairly widespread but is actually attestable among relatively few contemporary members of the secular nobility.

John's wife and two sisters-in-law were of English comital families or closely associated with the English royal court, and one of his four sisters married into the celebrated de Burgh family. Another sister, Ada, married into the Anglo-Scottish baronage, her husband, William de Lindsay, being heir to the lordships of Kendal and Lamberton (Berwickshire). The only member of his generation to effect a significant Scottish connection was his sister Eleanor, who married John Comyn (d. c.1302), lord of Badenoch, justiciar of Galloway, and one of the guardians of Scotland between 1286 and 1292.

In fact, before the sudden death of Alexander III, king of Scots, in March 1286, Scotland played little part in Balliol's business affairs. However, he does appear to have begun negotiations with King Alexander concerning the release from imprisonment in Barnard Castle of his mother's half-brother, Thomas of Galloway. Upon Alexander's death, the issue was dropped and it was not until after John's abdication in 1296 that old Thomas was finally released from over sixty years' imprisonment. In contrast, John appears to have been much more active in the management of family interests in northern France. For parts of 1283, 1284, and 1289—and possibly also 1282 and 1285—he was evidently resident on his Picard estates.
Succession to the Scottish throne, 1286–1292
Within a month of Alexander III's death, according to Walter Bower, ‘bitter pleading’ between Robert (V) de Brus (d. 1295) and John de Balliol is alleged to have broken out in a colloquium or parliament. John otherwise remained comparatively uninvolved in Scottish affairs during this phase of the guardianship, but in the uncertain atmosphere surrounding the Scottish royal succession the lineage of John's mother is likely to have become a matter of common knowledge.

Upon the death of the aged Dervorguilla in January 1290, Balliol gained a rich inheritance in both England and Scotland. By early March he had been granted seisin of her considerable English lands; details of his succession to her equally extensive Scottish lands and his assumption of the title of lord of Galloway are not recorded, but three years later Edward I ‘pardoned’ him £3000 of the £3289 14s. 1½d. allegedly due as relief payment. John was now wealthy, and thus, like his father before him, an object of intense royal cupidity. It is no coincidence that in May 1291, on the eve of the Great Cause, Edward I issued writs of distraint against John's goods and chattels for alleged debts of over £1235. A small amount was levied and then the matter was suspended, only to be raised again, with an equally nice sense of timing, two years later.

Politically, too, 1290 marked a watershed in Balliol's career. In September, the death of Alexander's recognized heir, his granddaughter, Margaret, the young ‘Maid of Norway’, made Balliol a leading claimant for the vacant Scottish throne, and drew him more actively into the process of faction forming. The possibility that he might seek an audience with the king of England was referred to in a letter to Edward I from Bishop William Fraser of St Andrews, but the so-called ‘appeal of the seven earls’, which is ascribable to late 1290 or early 1291, warned against any action on John's part which might lead ‘to the prejudice and injury of the right and liberty of the seven earls of Scotland’ (Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, 45). In a document issued in November 1290 in favour of Antony (I) Bek, bishop of Durham, Balliol even went so far as to style himself ‘heir of the kingdom of Scotland’ (Fraser, 22–3), a presumption that was probably as much a reflection of the ambition of the beneficiary, as of his own.

By common consent a court was set up by King Edward I of England to determine the Scottish succession, the proceedings of which later became known as the ‘Great Cause’. After an adjournment, on 2 June Edward first demanded acceptance of his lordship. Having evidently mistaken the day, Balliol arrived on the following day, and a notary was careful to record John's personal acknowledgement of Edward's lordship and jurisdiction. In early June also auditors were appointed to hear the adjudication. It was politically significant that John Comyn of Badenoch and John de Balliol together agreed to supply forty (out of 104) nominees, their list of lay sponsors bearing a distinctively Comyn ‘party’ appearance. Comyn's own petition also specifically sought to avoid prejudicing Balliol's claim, which was presented to the court on 3 August 1291.

The records of the closing stages of the proceedings in October–November 1292 reflected the opposed legal viewpoints of seniority (Balliol) as against nearness of degree (Brus) in the transmission of the Scottish kingdom. The fact that Balliol's maternal grandmother was an eldest daughter was adjudged to give him a stronger right to the kingship over his mother's cousin, Robert (V) de Brus, son of their grandmother Margaret's second sister, Isabel. The court's award of the sasine of the kingdom in favour of Balliol was confirmed by Edward I, who finally awarded that kingdom to him on 17 November 1292. During these final sessions John de Balliol reached agreement—possibly involving money payments—with at least three of his fellow claimants, William de Ros (d. 1317), William de Vescy (d. 1297), and Florence (V), count of Holland (d. 1296).
King of Scots, 1292–1296
On 30 November 1292, when he was about forty-two or forty-four years of age, John was enthroned as king of Scots in an inauguration ceremony at Scone. His first written act as king was sealed with his personal seal, on the grounds that he had not as yet had one made bearing his regal style, an omission that was made good shortly afterwards. Throughout his reign, in fact, private family issues merged with public matters of state. The parliament of August 1293, for example, acknowledged his rights of inheritance to his uncle's lands in Berwickshire. But, although as king of Scots he had authority over episcopal appointments, and as lord of Galloway he had special authority over the see of Whithorn, in 1294 he was forced to accept a Brus nominee, Master Thomas of Dalton, as bishop of Galloway, an indication of lingering hostility and defiance from the Brus camp.

During his reign, Balliol family links with Picardy emerged particularly clearly. In 1293, for example, he issued a letter of protection in favour of the merchants of Amiens coming to or staying in Scotland, almost certainly promoting their lucrative trade in woad-dye. In Scotland they obviously took advantage of the exalted position of someone they could regard as a compatriot. As recently as June 1289, John had been in Amiens itself, confirming a sale of tithes by Gauthier de Grandsart to the college of Amiens. Also, by the terms of the Franco-Scottish treaty of 1295–6, part of the money for the dower of the infant Isabeau de Valois, to be married to John's elder son, Edward, was to be raised from Balliol's own private estates in Picardy.

John's royal councillors and officials included many trusted associates of the Balliols. Drawn mainly from the Comyn group that had formed the joint body of auditors, his councillors included two former guardians, Bishop Fraser and John Comyn of Badenoch, who, like Gilbert and Ingram de Umfraville, was related to Balliol by marriage. Royal officials included kinsmen such as Alexander de Balliol of Cavers (d. 1310), chamberlain or associate chamberlain since 1287, and his cousin, Hugh de Eure, or Iver, executor of his father's will, who served as royal envoy. Master Thomas of Hunsingore, a Yorkshireman with Balliol connections, became chancellor in 1294, and other minor royal officials who had been associated with the Balliol family included Walter of Cambo, sheriff of Northumberland, and William of Silksworth, the king's sergeant. Similar associations are observable at a more modest level in persons such as Walter of Darlington, a clerk whom Balliol presented to the church of Parton. Antony Bek, bishop of Durham, and John de Lisle, a tenant of the Balliols at East Newton in Northumberland, also took advantage of John's exalted position to press claims in Scotland.

Administratively, John's reign was distinguished. It is likely, for example, that the authoritative treatise on the government of the kingdom, known as The King's Household, was prepared for his benefit and guidance about 1292. His reign also saw a significant assertion of royal authority through parliament, no less than four sessions of which were held between February 1293 and May 1294. In one unprecedented session, ‘everyone with a complaint [was summoned before king and council] … to show the injuries and trespass done to them by whatsoever ill-doers’ (Duncan, 43). Equally constructive was the ordinance of early 1293 creating three sheriffdoms in the west highlands: Skye under William, earl of Ross (d. 1323), Lorn under Alexander MacDougall, lord of Argyll (d. 1310), and Kintyre under James Stewart (d. 1309). MacDougall, a loyal supporter of King John and the Comyns—like Balliol, he was a brother-in-law of John Comyn of Badenoch—appears to have been granted wider powers over all three sheriffdoms. King John had clearly grasped the crucial importance of establishing royal authority in the west, and conducting government through royal agents at strategic regional centres, presaging later Stewart policy.

Politically, however, John's reign was dominated by a series of appeals from Scottish courts to those of Edward I of England. The eleven known cases involved nine separate appellants, of whom three were English subjects and three were clearly political malcontents. Of the remaining appeals, that of Master Roger Bartholomew of Berwick was used by Edward I as a test case inherited from the period of the guardianship, while Macduff of Fife, who claimed he had not been allowed to succeed to lands in northern Fife and had been imprisoned by Balliol, was a man with questionable grievances.

Initially defying Edward, King John in the autumn of 1293 eventually appeared before the English parliament, protesting against the alleged right to hear appeals. Under threat, he withdrew his protest and renewed his submission and homage to the English king. The episode revealed Balliol's personal weakness when confronted, not for the first time in his career, with Edward I's uncompromising attitude. In the words of Professor Barrow, Balliol found himself:

ground between the upper and nether millstones of an overlord who demanded humble obedience and a community of the realm whose leaders insisted that he stand up manfully for their independence. A contemporary English writer [the Rishanger chronicler], conflating Saint Luke and Isaiah, compared him to a lamb among the wolves, who dared not open his mouth. (Barrow, 86–7)

A further step towards the break with England—and the end of John's reign—was taken when the king of Scots and twenty-six of his magnates tacitly defied Edward I's summons, issued in June 1294, to undertake personal military overseas service against the king of France. Indeed, by May 1295, Philippe IV, king of France (r. 1285–1314), was able to view the Scots ‘not as enemies but rather as our friends’ (Stevenson, vol. 2, no. 335), and at a parliament in Stirling in early July four Scots commissioners were appointed to negotiate a French treaty. Drawn up in October and ratified by the Scottish king and parliament on 23 February 1296, this treaty set out the terms of a military alliance between the two kingdoms; it also made provision for the marriage of John's elder son, Edward, ‘future king of Scotland’, to King Philippe's niece. So, although the council of twelve guardians elected at the Stirling parliament may have taken the direction of Scottish government out of John's hands, either because of his unfitness or untrustworthiness, they remained firmly committed to the maintenance of the Balliol dynasty.
Abdication, imprisonment, and exile, 1296–1314
War with England, which had long been threatening, finally broke out when the Scots, fortified by their military alliance with France, refused Edward's demand that certain Scottish towns and castles be granted as sureties for the answering of appeals. The war itself began on the eastern border at the end of March 1296, and the first and last decisive battle of this campaign, at Dunbar on 27 April, resulted in a clear victory for the English under King John's father-in-law, John de Warenne, earl of Surrey. Balliol himself retreated northwards through Angus, and in late June sent envoys to Edward, then at Perth, seeking peace.

At first Edward, probably having newly discovered the terms of the Franco-Scottish treaty, was prepared to offer Balliol favourable terms of surrender, including possibly the offer of an English earldom, in return for a voluntary submission. But in the event Edward's plenipotentiary, Antony Bek, bishop of Durham, required John to surrender the kingdom, formally break the seal, and submit himself unconditionally to the king of England's will. The formal surrender proceedings are recorded in three documents: at Kincardine on 2 July Balliol confessed his rebellion; at Stracathro on 7 July he renounced the French treaty; and at Brechin Castle on 10 July he resigned his kingdom and royal dignity. Chronicle accounts also record that John was taken to Montrose Castle where he appears to have been publicly cashiered, possibly even paraded as a penitent, the removal of the royal blazon from his surcoat or tabard giving rise to his undying nickname of Toom Tabard, meaning ‘empty surcoat’.

Escorted by the sons of Edmund, earl of Lancaster (d. 1296), John de Balliol was taken from Montrose to Canterbury. From early August he was detained at the Tower of London, Hertford, and elsewhere, remaining at Hertford, where he was allowed hunting privileges, until August 1297. Thereafter, until July 1299 he was kept at the Tower of London, although on one occasion at least, on 1 April 1298, he was in the lodging of the bishop of Durham ‘outside London’ where, in the presence of the bishop, he denounced his former subjects, alleging that they had tried to poison him; whether that denunciation of the Scots was authentic and unforced remains unclear.

In accordance with the terms of an Anglo-French truce concluded in June 1299, Edward accepted French and papal demands for John's transfer into papal custody. Transported from Dover, Balliol found himself at Wissant-sur-Mer on 18 July where, in the presence of the papal legate, the bishop of Vicenza, and the envoys of the king of France, he swore to keep residence where the bishop or other papal mandatory consigned him. Four days later he was handed over to the representatives of the bishop of Cambrai and was later transferred to the abbot of Cluny's castle of Gevrey-Chambertin. News that the officers of the king of France had removed Balliol from the place assigned by the pope and had established him at ‘his castle of Bailleul in Picardy’ reached English officials in early October 1301. The letter containing this news also referred to a rumour that Philippe IV might be preparing to send John de Balliol back to Scotland ‘with great strength’ (Stones, ‘Submission’, 132–4).

Ever since his enforced abdication in 1296, Scots leaders had continued to treat John as their lawful king. With his transfer to papal custody and a strong affirmation of French and papal support, a realistic prospect of his restoration, or the succession of his elder son, Edward, began to grow, and diplomatic efforts to restore him to his throne were intensified. Indeed, Scottish royal acts began to be issued again in his name, not just on his behalf, and in 1301 he may have had a direct hand in the appointment of John Soulis (d. 1318) as sole guardian. By early 1302 even Edward I was contemplating the possibility that Balliol might return, though he was not prepared to accept him as king.

All expectations of French support for such a scheme, however, were dashed by the devastating defeat of the French army by the Flemings at Courtrai in Flanders in July 1302. An Anglo-French truce was followed in May 1303 by a peace treaty which, despite strenuous efforts by Scottish ambassadors, excluded Scottish interests. Balliol himself may well have compromised the effective representation of Scottish interests in this crucial treaty. In a letter from Bailleul in November 1302, he had authorized Philippe IV to undertake and conclude negotiations on his behalf against the king of England. He probably had little choice, either as king of Scots or lord of Bailleul. The 1303 treaty permitted Edward to concentrate his efforts against Scotland, where by 1304 he appeared to have secured almost total military and political domination. Although John de Balliol's claim to the Scottish throne was never relinquished in his lifetime, any realistic prospect of his restoration—and hence his political significance—was greatly reduced after 1304.

The county of Ponthieu, where John's ancestral home and his continental exile now lay, had been inherited by Edward I's wife, Eleanor, in 1279, at about the time that Balliol himself inherited his family estates there. Subject to French overlordship, Ponthieu had been confiscated on the outbreak of Anglo-French hostilities in 1294, but had been restored to Edward by the terms of the same 1299 truce that had involved Balliol's transfer into papal custody. Once again, Balliol was in no position to escape the controlling hand of the English king; as he later acknowledged to Edward II in his last recorded act (dated March 1314), ‘we hold our land of Helicourt and its appurtenances in Vimeu in fee of our excellent prince, Edward by the grace of God, king of England and count of Ponthieu’ (Belleval, 102–4).

To the end, John retained the style of ‘king of Scots’, although to Robert I he was merely John de Balliol. His death occurred shortly before 4 January 1315, when Louis X of France (r. 1314–16) was notified of the fact and was asked to accept the fealty of Edward, John's elder son, for the Balliol estates in Picardy. John lived long enough to have learned of the outcome of the battle of Bannockburn in June 1314, and possibly even of the Cambuskenneth parliament in the following November. Of his two sons, Edward Balliol survived until early 1364, while Henry was killed at Annan in 1332; both died childless.
Assessment
Issues and events surrounding John's short reign as king of Scots were catalysts of the first importance in converting Anglo-Scottish relations to a centuries-long course of conflict and in the firm re-establishment of Scotland as an independent kingdom. However, outside the relative limelight of his short reign, John de Balliol himself has remained among the least known kings in Britain of the high and later middle ages. Historical judgements on him have focused mainly on his handling of the appeals to Edward I and on the circumstances of his abdication. When John Stewart, earl of Carrick, succeeded to the Scottish throne in 1390, he had himself crowned as Robert III, largely in order to avoid association with the failure and shame brought upon his baptismal name by the reign of the Scottish King John. Posterity's general conclusion, which cannot easily be gainsaid, is that John's personal qualities were insufficient to cope with a difficult political situation and with an exceptionally difficult English king; there was little in the discredited figure of Toom Tabard to overcome the taint of Englishness and to endear him to later generations of Scots.

G. P. Stell
Sources

A history of Northumberland, Northumberland County History Committee, 15 vols. (1893–1940), vol. 6, pp. 16–73, esp. 52–68 · G. P. Stell, ‘The Balliol family and the Great Cause of 1291–2’, Essays on the nobility of medieval Scotland, ed. K. J. Stringer (1985), 150–65 · G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the community of the realm of Scotland, 2nd edn (1976) · E. L. G. Stones and G. G. Simpson, eds., Edward I and the throne of Scotland, 1290–1296, 2 vols. (1978) · R. de Belleval, Jean de Bailleul, roi d'Écosse et sire de Bailleul-en-Vimeu (1866) · G. G. Simpson, Handlist of the acts of Alexander III, the Guardians, and John, 1249–1296 (1960) · J. Stevenson, ed., Documents illustrative of the history of Scotland, 2 vols. (1870) · M. Bateson, ed., ‘The Scottish king's household and other fragments from a fourteenth-century manuscript’, Miscellany … II, Scottish History Society, 44 (1904), 3–43 · CDS, vol. 2 · P. Chaplais, ed., Treaty rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 1 (1955) · ‘Registrum palatinum Dunelmense’: the register of Richard de Kellawe, lord palatine and bishop of Durham, ed. T. D. Hardy, 4 vols., Rolls Series, 62 (1873–8) · Records of Antony Bek … 1283–1311, ed. C. M. Fraser, SurtS, 162 (1953) · E. L. G. Stones, ‘The submission of Robert Bruce to Edward I, c.1301–2’, SHR, 34 (1955), 122–34 · E. L. G. Stones, ed. and trans., Anglo-Scottish relations, 1174–1328: some selected documents, OMT (1965) · Ann. mon., vol. 4 · Historiae Dunelmensis scriptores tres: Gaufridus de Coldingham, Robertus de Graystanes, et Willielmus de Chambre, ed. J. Raine, SurtS, 9 (1839) · N. Orme, English schools in the middle ages (1973) · S. I. Boardman, The early Stewart kings: Robert II and Robert III, 1371–1406 (1996) · W. Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt and others, new edn, 9 vols. (1987–98), vol. 6 · A. A. M. Duncan, ‘The early parliaments of Scotland’, SHR, 45 (1966), 36–58
Likenesses

seal, repro. in H. Laing, Descriptive catalogue of impressions from ancient Scottish seals, Bannatyne Club, 91 (1850), 6 (nos. 19–20)
Wealth at death

English holdings forfeited in 1306: Hardy, ed., Registrum, vol. 2, pp. 795–802 · forfeitures in 1296: CDS, vol. 2, p. 736
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


G. P. Stell, ‘John [John de Balliol] (c.1248x50-1314)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1209, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

John [John de Balliol] (c.1248x50-1314): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12097 
Name Variation Balliol5 
Arms* De goules ove ung faux escochon d'argent (Glover). Gu. An orle arg. (M. Paris I, Guillim).8
Residence* Barnard Castle9
Event-Misc*17 August 1260 Roger de Quency and Jn. Bayllol are to conduct the King and Queen of Scotland to england to speak with the King, her father, Principal=Sir Roger de Quincy, Witness=Henry III Plantagenet King of England, Witness=Margaret Plantagenet, Witness=Alexander III of Scotland10 
(Henry) Battle-Lewes14 May 1264 The Battle of Lewes, Lewes, Sussex, England, when King Henry and Prince Edward were captured by Simon of Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Simon ruled England in Henry's name until his defeat at Evesham, Principal=Henry III Plantagenet King of England, Principal=Simon VI de Montfort11,12,13,6,14,15 
Event-Misc*28 October 1267 He witnessed the charter of Rog. Bertram of Mitford (P.R.)8 
Note* Balliol College, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, the founder of Balliol College, Oxford9,8 

Family

Devorguilla of Galloway d. 28 Jan 1289/90
Children

Last Edited24 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-28.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 11.
  4. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-2.
  5. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 12.
  6. [S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 21.
  7. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  8. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 36.
  9. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 140-2.
  10. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 107.
  11. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 4.
  12. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 10.
  13. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Fitz Alan 7.
  14. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 218.
  15. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 34.
  16. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 37.

Devorguilla of Galloway1

F, #2726, d. 28 January 1289/90

Father*Alan of Galloway2,3,4 b. c 1170, d. 1234
Mother*Margaret of Huntingdon2,5,4 d. Epiphany 1233
Devorguilla of Galloway|d. 28 Jan 1289/90|p91.htm#i2726|Alan of Galloway|b. c 1170\nd. 1234|p64.htm#i1914|Margaret of Huntingdon|d. Epiphany 1233|p106.htm#i3180|Roland of Galloway|b. c 1135\nd. 19 Dec 1200|p93.htm#i2771|Elena de Morville|b. c 1153\nd. 11 Jun 1217|p93.htm#i2772|David of Huntingdon|b. 1144\nd. 17 Jun 1219|p107.htm#i3181|Maud de Blundeville|b. 1171\nd. 6 Jan 1233|p107.htm#i3182|

Marriage*1233 Principal=Sir John de Baliol1,2,6,4 
Marriage* Principal=John de Vaux2 
Death*28 January 1289/90 1,2,7,4 
Burial* New Abbey, Galloway, Scotland, (with the heart of her husband)4 
DNB* Balliol, Dervorguilla de, lady of Galloway (d. 1290), noblewoman and benefactor, was a daughter of Alan, lord of Galloway (b. before 1199, d. 1234), and his second wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon (d. 1219). Born some time after 1209, the date of her parents' marriage, her distinctive Gaelic name, Derbhforgaill, was probably derived from an Irish ancestor in the Galloway line, possibly from an aunt, and was in turn transmitted to a granddaughter through one of her own daughters. Although Dervorguilla was the lord of Galloway's third daughter, and the second of his marriage to Margaret, the fact that Margaret was herself an eldest daughter was adjudged to give Dervorguilla's son, John, the stronger right to the vacant throne of Scotland over the claims of Robert (V) de Brus, son of Margaret's younger sister, Isabel. This was the outcome of the Great Cause of 1291–2, the culmination of a series of events in which Dervorguilla's connections transformed the fortunes of the Balliol family.

In 1233, at least five years after the death of her mother, and two years after the death of her uncle—the last of her father's legitimate male heirs—Dervorguilla married John de Balliol (b. before 1208, d. 1268), lord of Barnard Castle in co. Durham. In the following year, on or about 2 February 1234, her father died, and Dervorguilla and her new husband inherited a third share of the Galloway lordship; they later took charge of her natural brother, Thomas of Galloway, imprisoning him in Barnard Castle. Following the death in 1237 of her maternal uncle John (le Scot), earl of Huntingdon and Chester, Dervorguilla and her elder sister, Christina (or Christiana), succeeded to their mother's right in the honour of Huntingdon and in Earl John's Scottish lands, mainly in eastern and north-eastern Scotland, and to various properties in eastern England granted in exchange for their claims upon the earldom of Chester which Earl John had inherited in 1232 through his mother, Maud, wife of David, earl of Huntingdon, and sister of Ranulf (III), earl of Chester; after 1237 the honour of Chester was retained in English royal hands. The deaths of Christina (in 1246) and Earl John's widow meant that Dervorguilla's share was substantially enlarged. Christina's death also meant that her share of her father's inheritance was divided between Dervorguilla and her eldest (half-)sister, Helen, wife of Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester and constable of Scotland, Dervorguilla's evidently being the larger and more valuable share.

Between 1234 and 1246 Dervorguilla clearly brought a considerable accession of wealth to the Balliol family. Precise figures are lacking, but her Scottish lands alone probably came to be worth slightly less than £470 per annum. In her widowhood, after 1268, she retained much of her vast inheritance and dower in her own hands and was a considerable patron. An early fifteenth-century chronicler, Andrew Wyntoun, composed a lengthy panegyric entitled ‘How Devorguil that Lady Spendyt hyr Tresoure Devotly’, crediting her with the foundation of friaries in Dumfries and Wigtown. As in the case of the fifteenth-century bridge across the Nith at Dumfries that bears her name, her reputation for pious munificence has probably gone beyond authenticated record. None the less, she was the first and last member of the Balliol family to have both the incentive and the means to become the founder of a major monastery. In 1273 she endowed the Cistercian abbey of Dulce Cor or Sweetheart in eastern Galloway in fond memory of her husband, whose corpse was reburied there, and whose embalmed heart she kept in an ivory casket. On his behalf, she also brought together the endowments and formulated the statutes of Balliol College, Oxford, a house of scholars founded as an indirect result of transgressions committed by her husband against the bishop of Durham in 1255 (her name is commemorated there by the Dervorguilla Society).

Dervorguilla de Balliol died on 28 January 1290 and was buried in Sweetheart Abbey. She is known to have had at least eight children with John de Balliol, and she outlived all except the youngest of her four sons, Hugh, Alan, Alexander, and John, later King John. The names and sequence of her four daughters are uncertain but they were probably Margaret, Cecily, Ada, and Eleanor, in that order.

G. P. Stell
Sources

A history of Northumberland, Northumberland County History Committee, 15 vols. (1893–1940), vol. 6, pp. 16–73, esp. 50–51 · G. P. Stell, ‘The Balliol family and the Great Cause of 1291–2’, Essays on the nobility of medieval Scotland, ed. K. J. Stringer (1985), 150–65 · A. O. Anderson, ed. and trans., Early sources of Scottish history, AD 500 to 1286, 2 vols. (1922) · A. O. Anderson, ed., Scottish annals from English chroniclers, AD 500 to 1286 (1908) · Johannis de Fordun Chronica gentis Scotorum / John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish nation, ed. W. F. Skene, trans. F. J. H. Skene, 2 vols. (1871–2) · A. O. Anderson and M. O. Anderson, eds., The chronicle of Melrose (1936) · H. E. Salter, ed., The Oxford deeds of Balliol College, OHS, 64 (1913) · Andrew of Wyntoun, The orygynale cronykil of Scotland, [rev. edn], ed. D. Laing, 3 vols. (1872–9) · W. Huyshe, Dervorgilla, lady of Galloway and her abbey of the Sweet Heart (1913) · CIPM, 2, no. 771
Likenesses

seal, BL; Birch, Seals, 15,746 · statue (headless), Sweetheart Abbey, Galloway
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice      Oxford University Press


G. P. Stell, ‘Balliol, Dervorguilla de, lady of Galloway (d. 1290)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49378, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

Dervorguilla de Balliol (d. 1290): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/493788 
Arms* Sealed: 1. A lion rampant (Galloway). Impaling an orle (Balliol). 2. Three garbs (Chester). 3. Two Piles (Huntingdon).9 
Feudal*9 December 1276 She was overlord at Offeleye, Hertfordshire9 
Feudal1286 Has her scutage in Herts., Lincs., Bucks., Rut., Leic., Cambs., Hunts., Ess., Beds., Northants., and Yorks. (S.R.)10 

Family 1

John de Vaux d. a 1306
Child

Family 2

Sir John de Baliol d. 27 Oct 1268
Children

Last Edited24 Sep 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 95-28.
  2. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  3. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 140-1.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 12.
  5. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 94-27.
  6. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 141-2.
  7. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 140-2.
  8. [S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
  9. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 36.
  10. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, p. 37.
  11. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 140-3.

Sir Edmund de Stafford1

M, #2727, b. 15 July 1273, d. 12 August 1308

 

Father*Sir Nicholas de Stafford d. c 21 Sep 1287; son and heir2,3,4
Mother*Anonyma de Langley5,6
Sir Edmund de Stafford|b. 15 Jul 1273\nd. 12 Aug 1308|p91.htm#i2727|Sir Nicholas de Stafford|d. c 21 Sep 1287|p379.htm#i11367|Anonyma de Langley||p489.htm#i14654|Sir Robert de Stafford|d. b 4 Jun 1261|p474.htm#i14211|Alice Corbet||p474.htm#i14212|Sir Geoffrey de Langley|d. 1274|p489.htm#i14655|Maud de Brightwell||p489.htm#i14656|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*15 July 1273 Madeleye, Staffordshire, England7,4 
Birth17 July 1273 8,2 
Marriage*before 1298 1st=Margaret Basset1,8,2,9,10 
Death*12 August 1308 shortly before 12 Aug 1308 holding tenement at Norton in the Moors, and jointly with his w. Margaret the Manors of Stafford, Bradeleye, and Madeley, Staff., Tysho and Wavenes-Wotton, Warw., and left their s. Ralph, 9, his heir8,2,3,4 
Burial* Church of Friars Minors, Stafford, Staffordshire, England4 
Arms* De or a un cheveron de goules (Guillim, 2, 3 Nob). Sealed, 1301: A chevron (Birch).3
Feudal*25 December 1282 Horton Manor, Staff.3 
Event-Misc*24 October 1293 Going to Wales with Ralph Basset of Drayton, Edm. de Stafford has respite of debts in Leic. and Staff., Principal=Sir Ralph Basset3 
Event-Misc*30 July 1294 Proof of his age3 
Event-Misc4 July 1297 Going overseas with the King, he has lic. to let Stafford Manor to farm for 8 yars, and to settle Tysho and Wovenes Manors in Warw. and Staff., Braddeye and Madeley Manors, Staff., on himself and w. Margaret, remainder to their heirs corp., and finally to his own right heirs.3 
Occupation*between 1298 and 1307 a Member of Parliament8,2 
Summoned*25 May 1298 serve against the Scots3 
Event-Misc1301 Sealed letter to Pope "S. Edmundi Staffordie."3 
(Witness) Crowned25 February 1308 Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England, King of England, Principal=Edward II Plantagenet11,12,13,14 

Family

Margaret Basset d. 17 Mar 1337
Children

Last Edited26 Aug 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 9-31.
  2. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 136-5.
  3. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 273.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 221.
  5. [S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
  6. [S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 230.
  7. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 272.
  8. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 55-31.
  9. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Stafford 9.
  10. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 14.
  11. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 5.
  12. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 226.
  13. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Fitz Alan 9.
  14. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 220.

Margaret Basset1

F, #2728, d. 17 March 1337

Father*Sir Ralph Basset2,3,4 d. 31 Dec 1299
Mother*Hawise (?)2
Margaret Basset|d. 17 Mar 1337|p91.htm#i2728|Sir Ralph Basset|d. 31 Dec 1299|p92.htm#i2735|Hawise (?)||p92.htm#i2736|Sir Ralph Basset of Drayton|d. 4 Aug 1265|p59.htm#i1750|Margaret de Somery|d. a 18 Jun 1293|p59.htm#i1749|||||||

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*before 1298 Groom=Sir Edmund de Stafford1,5,3,6,4 
Marriage*26 August 1308 (without license), Groom=Thomas de Pype7 
Death*17 March 1337 shortly before 18 Mar 1336/75,3,7,4 
Burial* Tysoe, Warwickshire, England8 
Event-Misc*12 July 1308 Grant to Ralph Basset on 100 m. fine the marriage of Margaret, wid. of Sir Edmund de Stafford., Principal=Sir Ralph Basset K.B.7 
Summoned*18 June 1310 serve against the Scots7 
Event-Misc*18 October 1310 She is dowered of 1/3 of mess. at Norton and other lands7 

Family

Sir Edmund de Stafford b. 15 Jul 1273, d. 12 Aug 1308
Children

Last Edited23 Apr 2005

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 9-31.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 55-30.
  3. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 136-5.
  4. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 14.
  5. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 55-31.
  6. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Stafford 9.
  7. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 273.
  8. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 221.

Margaret de Clare1

F, #2729, b. circa 1292, d. 9 April 1342

 

Father*Sir Gilbert de Clare "the Red"2,3 b. 2 Sep 1243, d. 7 Dec 1295
Mother*Joan of Acre2,3 b. Spring 1272, d. 23 Apr 1307
Margaret de Clare|b. c 1292\nd. 9 Apr 1342|p91.htm#i2729|Sir Gilbert de Clare "the Red"|b. 2 Sep 1243\nd. 7 Dec 1295|p69.htm#i2059|Joan of Acre|b. Spring 1272\nd. 23 Apr 1307|p70.htm#i2074|Sir Richard de Clare|b. 4 Aug 1222\nd. 15 Jul 1262|p100.htm#i2973|Maud de Lacy|b. 4 Aug 1222\nd. b 10 Mar 1288/89|p100.htm#i2974|Edward I. "Longshanks" Plantagenet King of England|b. 17 or 18 Jun 1239\nd. 7 Jul 1307|p54.htm#i1614|Eleanor of Castile|b. 1240\nd. 28 Nov 1290|p54.htm#i1615|

ChartsAnn Marbury Pedigree

Birth*circa 1292 1,4 
BirthOctober 1292 Caerphilly Castle3 
Marriage*1 November 1307 Groom=Piers de Gaveston1,4 
Marriage*28 April 1317 Windsor, Berkshire, England, Groom=Sir Hugh de Audley1,3,5,4,6 
Death*9 April 1342 1,3,5,4 
Burial* Queenhithe4 
Event-Misc*1314 Margaret de Clare inherited the Castle, borough, and lordship of Newport, and manors of Wentloog and Machen, Monmouthshire, the Castle and manor of Tonbridge, Kent, and manors in many other counties, including Chipping Ongar, Essex, Campden and Thornbury, Gloucestershire, Naseby, Rothwell and Whiston, Northamptonshire, Rotherhithe, Surrey., Principal=Sir Gilbert de Clare4 
Event-Misc*1319 Parilament rejected their petition from return of the lands of her late husband, Piers de Gaveston, Principal=Sir Hugh de Audley4 
Event-Misc*1322 After her husband was captured fighting against the King at the Battle of Boroughbridge, she was sent to Sempringham Priory, where she was kept prisoner.4 

Family

Sir Hugh de Audley b. c 1289, d. 10 Nov 1347
Child

Last Edited20 Oct 2004

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 9-30.
  2. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 9-29.
  3. [S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
  4. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Stafford 8.
  5. [S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 150-6.
  6. [S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 9.

Piers de Gaveston1

M, #2730, d. 19 June 1312

 

Marriage*1 November 1307 1st=Margaret de Clare1,2 
Death*19 June 1312 beheaded1,3 
Arms* Vert, 3 eagles displayed or (4 Nob). Vert, 6 eagles or (Parl.)4
Event-Misc*29 July 1304 Grant to Peter de Gavaston custody of the lands of Edmund de Mortimer in minority of his heir, Principal=Sir Edmund de Mortimer5 
Event-Misc*6 August 1307 King Edward II grants to him Earldom of Cornwall4 
(Witness) Event-Misc16 October 1313 pardoned re Gaveston, Principal=Sir John Marmion6 

Last Edited29 Dec 2004

Citations

  1. [S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 9-30.
  2. [S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Stafford 8.
  3. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 103.
  4. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 102.
  5. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 3, p. 217.
  6. [S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 3, p. 120.
Close