Banks/Dean Genealogy

Ercc of Dalriada¹

M, #2941

Father*

Eochaid Muinremur² d. 474

Ercc of Dalriada||p99.htm#i2941|Eochaid Muinremur|d. 474|p540.htm#i16185||||||||||||||||

Family

Children

Fergus of Dalriada+¹ d. c 501
Loarn of Dalriada¹

Last Edited

24 Aug 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-1.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 223.

Loarn of Dalriada¹

M, #2942

Father*

Ercc of Dalriada¹

Loarn of Dalriada||p99.htm#i2942|Ercc of Dalriada||p99.htm#i2941||||Eochaid Muinremur|d. 474|p540.htm#i16185||||||||||

Last Edited

24 Aug 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-1.

Beatrice de Say¹

F, #2943, d. before 19 April 1197

Father*

William de Say^1,2

Beatrice de Say|d. b 19 Apr 1197|p99.htm#i2943|William de Say||p99.htm#i2944||||William de Say|d. Aug 1144|p454.htm#i13617|Beatrice de Mandeville|d. b 19 Apr 1197|p211.htm#i6317|||||||

Marriage*

before 25 January 1185

Principal=Sir Geoffrey FitzPiers^1,3,4

Death*

before 19 April 1197

in childbirth^3,4,5

Burial*

Chicksand Priory, later transferred to Shouldham Priory^3,5

Residence*

Kimbolton, Norfolk, England³

Family

Sir Geoffrey FitzPiers b. 1165, d. 14 Oct 1213

Children

Geoffrey de Mandeville⁵
Henry Mandeville⁶
Maud FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville+^1,3 b. 1178, d. 27 Aug 1236

Last Edited

29 May 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-27.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 160-3.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 87.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 88.

William de Say¹

M, #2944

Father*

William de Say² d. Aug 1144

Mother*

Beatrice de Mandeville² d. b 19 Apr 1197

William de Say||p99.htm#i2944|William de Say|d. Aug 1144|p454.htm#i13617|Beatrice de Mandeville|d. b 19 Apr 1197|p211.htm#i6317|||||||William de Mandeville|b. c 1062\nd. c 1130|p116.htm#i3479|Margaret de Rye|b. c 1075|p116.htm#i3480|

Family

Child

Beatrice de Say+^1,2 d. b 19 Apr 1197

Last Edited

20 Jul 2004

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-27.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.

Margaret de Huntingdon¹

F, #2945, b. after 1144, d. 1201

Father*

Henry of Huntingdon^2,3 b. 1114, d. 12 Jun 1152

Mother*

Ada de Warenne^2,3 b. c 1120, d. 1178

Birth*

after 1144

Marriage*

1160

Groom=Duke Conan IV Brittany^1,3

Marriage*

after 1171

Groom=Humphrey IV de Bohun^1,3,4

Death*

1201

^3,5

Burial*

Sawtrey Abbey³

Name Variation

Margaret Bretagne³

Family 1

Duke Conan IV Brittany b. 1138, d. 20 Feb 1171

Child

Constance of Brittany+³ b. bt 1161 - 1162, d. 4 Sep 1201

Family 2

Humphrey IV de Bohun b. c 1144, d. 1182

Child

Sir Henry de Bohun+^1,3,4 b. 1176, d. 1 Jun 1220

Last Edited

19 Jul 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-26.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-25.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 18-1.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 34.

Humphrey IV de Bohun¹

M, #2946, b. circa 1144, d. 1182

Father*

Humphrey III Bohun⁴ d. 6 Apr 1187

Mother*

Margaret of Hereford^2,3 b. c 1122, d. 8 Apr 1187

Birth*

circa 1144

Marriage*

after 1171

2nd=Margaret de Huntingdon^1,2,5

Death*

1182

^1,2

Note

He was constable of England and drove the Scots from Yorkshire during a rebellion against Henry II⁶

DNB*

Bohun, Humphrey (IV) de, second earl of Hereford and seventh earl of Essex (d. 1275), magnate, was the eldest son of Henry de Bohun, first earl of Hereford, and Matilda or Maud, daughter of Geoffrey fitz Peter, earl of Essex, and sister and heir of William de Mandeville, earl of Essex. His father (the first Bohun earl of Hereford) died in June 1220, and in June the following year, at the petition of King Alexander of Scotland and the barons of England, Humphrey was permitted to succeed to the family estates, concentrated for the most part in the Welsh marches and in Wiltshire, including the castle of Caldicot in Monmouthshire and a share of the honour of Trowbridge. Through the marriage of Humphrey's grandfather to Margaret, sister of King William of Scotland, the Bohuns also controlled a considerable estate in Scotland. In February 1225 Humphrey de Bohun witnessed the reissue of Magna Carta as earl of Hereford, and his title to the third penny of the county of Hereford was confirmed in October 1225, presumably at the same time that he was belted as earl. William de Mandeville died in 1227, leaving Bohun's mother as countess of Essex for the remainder of her life. Following her death in August 1236 Bohun succeeded to her title, and to the honour and castle of Pleshey in Essex. Earl Humphrey married twice. His first wife was Matilda, daughter of Raoul de Lusignan, count of Eu (d. 1219), whom he had married by 1238 and who brought her husband various lands in Kent. She died on 14 August 1241 and was buried at Llanthony. He married second Matilda of Avebury, who died on 8 October 1273 at Sorges in the Dordogne.

In 1227 Bohun joined the earls of Cornwall, Chester, and Pembroke in their brief confederation against the king, but he served on the king's expedition to Brittany in 1230, and, at the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1236, carried out the ceremonial duties of marshal of the king's household. In 1237 he made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and in 1239 he was one of the sponsors at the baptism of Edward, the king's first-born son. From 1239 until 1241 he was sheriff of Kent and constable of Dover. He took part in the king's expedition to Poitou in 1242, and in 1244 assisted the repression of a Welsh rising on the marches. However, later that same year the Welsh rose again, angered, it was said, by Bohun's retention of the dower lands of Isabella de Briouze, his son's sister-in-law and the wife of Dafydd, son of the Welsh prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d. 1240). In 1246 Bohun was among the English barons who wrote to the pope in defence of the liberties of the church in England. In 1250 he took vows as a crusader, but seems not to have gone on crusade. Two years later he was one of the barons who spoke in defence of Simon de Montfort against the king. In 1253 he joined the king's expedition to Gascony, but took offence at the actions of the king's Lusignan half-brothers who had inflicted summary punishment upon various Welsh mercenaries, without referring the case to the court over which Bohun presided as hereditary constable of the king's army. As a result he returned to England together with various other leading barons. In 1257 he was one of those set to defend the marches against attacks from the Welsh.

Humphrey de Bohun joined the confederation of the barons in 1258, and was appointed to enforce the sentence of banishment imposed upon the king's Lusignan kinsmen. Under the provisions of Oxford, he was elected to the baronial council of fifteen and in 1260 was nominated as justice on eyre for the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. Thereafter, however, he broke with the party of Simon de Montfort, and renewed his support for the king, receiving custody of the Welsh lands of the honour of Gloucester between July 1262 and August 1263. He was one of the royalists captured at the battle of Lewes in May 1264, in which his son, Humphrey (V) de Bohun (known as Humphrey the younger), took the side of the barons. Humphrey the younger was himself taken prisoner during the royalist victory at Evesham in 1265, after which Earl Humphrey obtained the reversion of his son's lands. In October 1265 he served as royalist keeper of the city of London, and in 1266 was one of the arbiters appointed to administer the dictum of Kenilworth. He died on 24 September 1275 and was buried at Llanthony (Prima) Priory, in Monmouthshire.

Shortly before his death Bohun had conveyed the honour of Pleshey to his younger son, Henry de Bohun. The remainder of his estate passed to his grandson, Humphrey (VI) de Bohun (d. 1298), son and heir of Humphrey the younger, who had died in captivity on 27 October 1265, at Beeston Castle, near Chester. Besides his son Humphrey, Bohun had other sons named Henry, John, and Savaric, and at least four daughters, including Matilda, the wife of Anselm Marshal, earl of Pembroke (d. 1245). He was a regular though not lavish patron of the religious orders, granting and confirming lands to Llanthony, to the Mandeville abbey of Walden in Essex, and shortly before his death to the nuns of Lacock in Wiltshire. Despite his supposed hostility to the king's alien courtiers, it is intriguing to note the Poitevin and Gascon connections of both of his wives.

Nicholas Vincent
Sources

chancery rolls · GEC, Peerage · Paris, Chron. · Ann. mon. · Dugdale, Monasticon, new edn, 6.135 · K. H. Rogers, ed., Lacock Abbey charters, Wilts RS, 34 (1979) · obituary notice, Llanthony Priory
Archives

PRO, chancery rolls

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

Nicholas Vincent, ‘Bohun, Humphrey (IV) de, second earl of Hereford and seventh earl of Essex (d. 1275)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2775, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Humphrey (IV) de Bohun (d. 1275): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2775⁷

HTML*

History of the Bown Surname

HTML

Les Seigneurs de Bohon
⁸

Family

Margaret de Huntingdon b. a 1144, d. 1201

Child

Sir Henry de Bohun+^1,2,5 b. 1176, d. 1 Jun 1220

Last Edited

23 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-26.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 33.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 193-5.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 18-1.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 34.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S324] Les Seigneurs de Bohon, online http://www.rand.org/about/contacts/personal/Genea/…

Duke Conan IV Brittany¹

M, #2947, b. 1138, d. 20 February 1171

Father*

Alan II (?)² b. c 1116, d. 15 Sep 1146

Mother*

Bertha of Brittany (?)² d. c 1163

Duke Conan IV Brittany|b. 1138\nd. 20 Feb 1171|p99.htm#i2947|Alan II (?)|b. c 1116\nd. 15 Sep 1146|p146.htm#i4379|Bertha of Brittany (?)|d. c 1163|p228.htm#i6829|Count Stephen I. of Brittany|d. 21 Apr 1135|p136.htm#i4059|Hawise d. Guincamp|d. a 1135|p136.htm#i4060|Conan I. of Brittany|b. 1089\nd. 17 Sep 1148|p228.htm#i6828|Maud o. E. (?)||p228.htm#i6826|

Birth*

1138

Brittany²

Marriage*

1160

1st=Margaret de Huntingdon^1,2

Death*

20 February 1171

^1,2

Family

Margaret de Huntingdon b. a 1144, d. 1201

Child

Constance of Brittany+² b. bt 1161 - 1162, d. 4 Sep 1201

Last Edited

24 Oct 2003

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-26.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.

Ada de Warenne¹

F, #2948, b. circa 1120, d. 1178

Father*

Sir William de Warenne² b. 1071, d. 11 May 1138

Mother*

Isabel de Vermandois² b. 1081, d. 13 Feb 1131

Birth*

circa 1120

Surrey, England²

Marriage*

1139

Principal=Henry of Huntingdon^1,3,2

Death*

1178

^3,2

DNB*

Ada [née Ada de Warenne], countess of Northumberland (c.1123-1178), consort of Prince Henry of Scotland, was one of the family of three sons and two daughters of William (II) de Warenne, earl of Surrey (d. 1138), and his wife, Isabel (Elizabeth) de Vermandois (d. 1147), widow of Robert de Beaumont, count of Meulan and earl of Leicester (d. 1118), daughter of Hugues le Grand, count of Vermandois, and granddaughter of Henri I of France. Her eldest brother, William (III) de Warenne, had succeeded as earl of Surrey by 1138 and her sister Gundreda married as her first husband Roger, earl of Warwick (d. 1153). Ada's wider family included the eight children of her mother's first marriage, most notably the mighty Beaumont twins, her half-brothers Robert, earl of Leicester, and Waleran, count of Meulan and earl of Worcester. Her marriage to Prince Henry (c.1115-1152), the only surviving son of David I, king of Scots, was celebrated in England soon after the second treaty of Durham of 9 April 1139, when King Stephen had sought peace with the Scots by confirming Henry's rights to the earldom of Huntingdon, and in addition granting him the earldom of Northumberland. Although Orderic Vitalis speaks of a love match, the marriage was almost certainly arranged at Stephen's command; and possibly one of the Durham treaty's terms (its text is lost) had specifically provided for it in order to bind Henry more effectively to Stephen's cause, in the support of which the Beaumont twins were then at the forefront.

While Ada's marriage failed to settle relations between the kingdoms, her contribution to Scottish history was profound. Her public role as first lady of the Scottish court (there was no queen of Scotland from 1131 to 1186) was originally limited by her numerous pregnancies; but her fecundity averted a catastrophe when Henry, the expected successor to the kingship, died prematurely in 1152. During her widowhood she enjoyed in full measure the respect and status to which she was entitled as mother of two successive Scots kings, Malcolm IV and William the Lion. After Malcolm's enthronement as a boy of twelve in 1153, she figured prominently in his counsels and was keenly aware of her responsibilities. According to the well-informed William of Newburgh, Malcolm's celibacy dismayed her, and she endeavoured, albeit fruitlessly, to sharpen his dynastic instincts by placing a beautiful maiden in his bed. She was less frequently at William the Lion's court from 1165, no doubt because of the periodic illnesses that obliged her to turn to St Cuthbert for a cure. Her chief dower estates were the burghs and shires of Haddington and Crail, and Haddington possibly became her main residence. She also had lands in Tynedale at Whitfield, near Hexham, and in the honour of Huntingdon at Harringworth and Kempston.

Ada's cosmopolitan tastes and connections reinforced the identification of Scottish élite society with European values and norms. Reginald of Durham regarded her piety as exemplary, and she played a notable role in the expansion of the reformed continental religious orders in Scotland. If she had a preference, it was for female monasticism, and by 1159 she had founded a priory for Cistercian nuns at Haddington, apparently at the instigation of Abbot Waldef of Melrose (d. 1159). Her household attracted Anglo-Norman adventurers, and she personally settled in Scotland knights from Northumberland and from the great Warenne honours in England and Normandy. Ela, the wife of Duncan (II), earl of Fife (d. 1204), was probably one of Ada's Warenne nieces, and her great-nephew Roger (d. 1202) became chancellor of Scotland and bishop of St Andrews. Two of Ada's three sons became kings of Scots; David, the youngest, was the fifth Scottish earl of Huntingdon. She and Henry also had three daughters: Ada (c.1142–1205), who married Florence (III), count of Holland; Margaret (c.1145–1201), who married first Conan (IV), duke of Brittany (c.1135-1171), and second Humphrey (III) de Bohun of Trowbridge (d. 1181); and Maud, or Matilda, who died in infancy in 1152. Ada outlived Henry by twenty-six years and died in 1178.

Keith Stringer
Sources

V. Chandler, ‘Ada de Warenne, queen mother of Scotland (c.1123–1178)’, SHR, 60 (1981), 119–39 · A. O. Anderson, ed., Scottish annals from English chroniclers, AD 500 to 1286 (1908); repr. (1991) · Reginaldi monachi Dunelmensis libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus, ed. [J. Raine], SurtS, 1 (1835) · Jocelin of Furness, ‘Vita sancti Waldeni’, Acta sanctorum: Augustus, 1 (Antwerp, 1733), 241–77 · K. J. Stringer, Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152–1219: a study in Anglo-Scottish history (1985) · D. Crouch, The Beaumont twins: the roots and branches of power in the twelfth century, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser., 1 (1986) · A. O. Anderson and M. O. Anderson, eds., The chronicle of Melrose (1936)
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

Keith Stringer, ‘Ada , countess of Northumberland (c.1123-1178)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50012, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

Ada (c.1123-1178): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50012⁴

Family

Henry of Huntingdon b. 1114, d. 12 Jun 1152

Children

Mathilda of Scotland² d. 1152
Malcolm IV the Maiden (?)² b. 20 Mar 1141/42, d. 9 Dec 1165
William King of Scots "the Lion"+^5,2 b. 1143, d. 4 Dec 1214
David of Huntingdon+^2,6 b. 1144, d. 17 Jun 1219
Margaret de Huntingdon+^1,2 b. a 1144, d. 1201
Ada of Scotland+^2,7 b. c 1146, d. 11 Jan 1922

Last Edited

24 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-25.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-23.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-24.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 93-25.
[S338] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8th ed., 100-26.

Henry of Huntingdon¹

M, #2949, b. 1114, d. 12 June 1152

Father*

David I of Scotland "the Saint"^2,3 b. c 1080, d. 24 May 1153

Mother*

Countess Maud of Huntingdon^2,3 b. 1072, d. 1131

Birth*

1114

^4,5

Marriage*

1139

Principal=Ada de Warenne^1,4,3

Death*

12 June 1152

Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland^4,3,5

Burial*

Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland³

DNB*

Henry, earl of Northumberland (c.1115-1152), prince, was the only surviving adult son of David I (c.1085-1153), king of Scots, and his queen, Maud (or Matilda) (d. 1131) [see under David I], widow of Simon (I) de Senlis. From c.1128 his name was linked with his father's in governance, and in 1144 he appears as rex designatus (‘king-designate’) . Although the exact significance of this style is unclear, it seems certain that he had formally been proclaimed as future king; and in practice from the 1130s ‘David's was a dual reign … with joint or at least coadjutorial royal government’ (Barrow, ‘Charters’, 34). This partnership—though Henry was self-evidently the junior partner—had momentous consequences for the Scots monarchy's power and prestige. Henry shared fully in David's policies of modernization by which Scotland began to be transformed into a European-style kingdom, and above all he was inseparably associated with his father in furthering historic Scottish claims to ‘northern England’. Leading vast armies against King Stephen, they made extensive gains at his expense.

By the first treaty of Durham (February 1136) Henry was given Doncaster and the lordship of Carlisle, together with his mother's inheritance, the honour and earldom of Huntingdon, which had previously been held by David. However, he never seems to have styled himself earl of Huntingdon. Having done homage to Stephen at York, Henry took the place of honour at the king's right hand during the Easter court of 1136, whereupon Earl Ranulf (II) of Chester (who wanted Carlisle for himself) and possibly Henry's step-brother Simon (II) de Senlis (who nursed rival claims to the Huntingdon honour) withdrew from court in disgust. In January 1138, after Henry had vainly demanded from Stephen the earldom of Northumberland, Scottish assaults were renewed, and at the battle of the Standard (22 August 1138), despite the Scots' defeat, his bravery in leading a cavalry charge against the flank of the Yorkshire army was widely admired. By the second treaty of Durham (9 April 1139) Stephen confirmed or restored Henry's gains of 1136 and gave him Northumberland, albeit under strict safeguards to protect English sovereignty.

Almost immediately Henry married Ada de Warenne (c.1123-1178), no doubt at Stephen's request, and then fought throughout the summer in his service. While besieging Ludlow Castle, Stephen rescued Henry from capture after he had been unhorsed, and in 1140 the king supplied an escort to thwart the earl of Chester's plans to entrap Henry on his way to Scotland. But the Scots deserted Stephen for good in the summer of 1141, when Henry's midland honour and earldom passed permanently to Simon (II) de Senlis. Thereafter Henry gave indispensable support to David in annexing the ‘English’ north to the Ribble and the Tees, or at least the Tyne, and ruling it in peace as an integral part of a greater Scoto-Northumbrian realm. He issued coins in his own name at Bamburgh, Carlisle, and Corbridge, and showed his sensitivity to local interests by endowing numerous religious houses. At Carlisle on 22 May 1149 he stood sponsor to Henry Plantagenet for his knighting, and offered to marry one of his own daughters to Chester's son in order finally to settle their differences. His last major act was to join with David in 1150 in founding a Cistercian house at Holmcultram, Cumberland, for monks from Melrose Abbey. Northern English chroniclers acclaimed his kingly qualities and it was said that both English and Scots mourned his passing.

Henry's untimely death at the age of about thirty-seven—on which the earldom of Northumberland was assigned to the second of his three sons, the future King William I (the Lion)—was a major blow for Scotland. When David died a year later, in 1153, his successor was not a mature, experienced heir, but a twelve-year-old boy-king, William's elder brother, Malcolm IV; and in 1157 the Scots meekly withdrew to the Tweed–Solway line. Nevertheless, Scotland itself was a stronger kingdom, not least because vigorous exploitation of Cumberland silver had regenerated the Scottish economy, and any assessment of its emergence as a well-founded medieval state must recognize the key importance of Henry's legacy. Perhaps never robust in health, he almost succumbed to a serious illness in 1140, when his recovery was attributed to the miraculous intervention of a revered visitor to the Scottish court, the great Irish reformer St Malachy. Henry died on 12 June 1152, probably at Peebles, and was buried in Kelso Abbey. His youngest son David was born in this same year.

Keith Stringer
Sources

A. O. Anderson, ed., Scottish annals from English chroniclers, AD 500 to 1286 (1908); repr. (1991) · A. O. Anderson, ed. and trans., Early sources of Scottish history, AD 500 to 1286, 2 (1922); repr. with corrections (1990) · G. W. S. Barrow, ed., The charters of King David I: the written acts of David I king of Scots, 1124–53, and of his son Henry earl of Northumberland, 1139–52 (1999) · G. W. S. Barrow, ed., Regesta regum Scottorum, 1 (1960) · G. W. S. Barrow, ‘The charters of David I’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 14 (1991), 25–37 · K. J. Stringer, ‘State-building in twelfth-century Britain: David I, king of Scots, and northern England’, Government, religion and society in northern England, 1000–1700, ed. J. C. Appleby and P. Dalton (1997), 40–62 · G. W. S. Barrow, ‘The Scots and the north of England’, The anarchy of King Stephen's reign, ed. E. King (1994), 231–53 · G. W. S. Barrow, ‘King David I, Earl Henry and Cumbria’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, [new ser.,] 99 (1999), 117–27 · I. Blanchard, ‘Lothian and beyond: the economy of the “English empire” of David I’, Progress and problems in medieval England: essays in honour of Edward Miller, ed. R. Britnell and J. Hatcher (1996), 23–45 · H. Summerson, Medieval Carlisle: the city and the borders from the late eleventh to the mid-sixteenth century, 1, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, extra ser., 25 (1993)
Likenesses

coins, AM Oxf. · coins, BM · coins, National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Edinburgh · coins, NMG Wales · coins, Stavanger Museum, Norway · seals, U. Durham L., archives and special collections; repro. in Barrow, ed., The charters of King David I, pls. 16, 19–20
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

Keith Stringer, ‘Henry, earl of Northumberland (c.1115-1152)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12956, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

Henry (c.1115-1152): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12956⁶

Event-Misc

1136

David resigned his earlship to his son Henry, who did homage to King Stephen, although David had supported Empress Maud, Principal=David I of Scotland "the Saint"⁵

(Scots) Battle-Standard

22 August 1138

Northallerton, Yorkshire, England, Principal=David I of Scotland "the Saint", Principal=Stephen of Blois^7,5,8

Title*

1139

Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland, after peace was made with the English⁵

Note*

He was a favorite of King Stephen and remained with him in England for some time.⁵

Event-Misc*

1150

He founded the Abbey of Holmcultram in Cumberland⁵

Family

Ada de Warenne b. c 1120, d. 1178

Children

Mathilda of Scotland³ d. 1152
Malcolm IV the Maiden (?)^3,5 b. 20 Mar 1141/42, d. 9 Dec 1165
William King of Scots "the Lion"+^9,3 b. 1143, d. 4 Dec 1214
David of Huntingdon+^3,10 b. 1144, d. 17 Jun 1219
Margaret de Huntingdon+^1,3 b. a 1144, d. 1201
Ada of Scotland+^3,11 b. c 1146, d. 11 Jan 1922

Last Edited

24 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 96-25.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-22.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-23.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 114.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 21.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 256.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-24.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 93-25.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 115.

William King of Scots "the Lion"¹

M, #2950, b. 1143, d. 4 December 1214

Father*

Henry of Huntingdon^1,2 b. 1114, d. 12 Jun 1152

Mother*

Ada de Warenne^1,2 b. c 1120, d. 1178

Birth*

1143

^1,2

Marriage*

5 September 1166

Woodstock, England²

Marriage*

Woodstock, Principal=Ermengarde de Beaumont^3,4

Death*

4 December 1214

Stirling, Scotland^1,2

Burial*

Aberbrothock, Scotland²

(Witness) Biography

In 20 Hen II, Bernard de Balliol and Robert de Stuteville relieved Alwick Castle. During the march to Alnwick, a dense fog appeared. Balliol reportedly said, "Let those stay that will, I am resolved to go forward, although none follow me, rather than dishonour myself by tarryng here." He seized the King of the Scots with his own hand and sent him to Richmond Castle as prisoner., Principal=Bernard de Baliol, Principal=Robert de Stuteville⁵

(Witness) Event-Misc

1174

Uchtred and Gilbert accompanied King William the Lion on a march into England, where William was captured, following which the brothers tried to regain their independence. They expelled the king's officers and appealed to King Henry for recognition, but fell to quarreling amongst themselves and thus ended the effort., Principal=Uchtred of Galloway, Principal=Gilbert of Galloway⁶

Event-Misc*

1206

York, William Longespée escorted King William the Lion to meet King John, Principal=Sir William Longespée⁷

Family 1

Child

Isabel of Scotland⁸

Family 2

Child

Margaret of Scotland+² d. 17 Nov 1244

Family 3

Ermengarde de Beaumont d. 11 Feb 1233

Child

Alexander II of Scotland+³ b. 24 Aug 1198, d. 8 Jul 1249

Last Edited

5 Jun 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-24.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 3.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 115.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 21.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 102.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Longespée 3.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.

David I of Scotland "the Saint"¹

M, #2951, b. circa 1080, d. 24 May 1153

Father*

Malcolm III Canmore^1,2 b. 1031, d. 13 Nov 1093

Mother*

Saint Margaret of Scotland^1,2 b. 1045, d. 16 Nov 1093

Birth*

circa 1080

^1,3

Marriage*

1113

2nd=Countess Maud of Huntingdon^1,2,3

Death*

24 May 1153

Carlisle, Cumberland, England^1,2

Burial*

Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland^2,4

Title*

Earl of Huntingdon by right of his wife, King of Scotland⁵

DNB*

David I (c.1085-1153), king of Scots, was the sixth and youngest son of Malcolm III (d. 1093) and his second wife, Margaret (d. 1093).
The royal brother, c.1085–1124
Despite the violent reaction which followed Malcolm III's death in 1093, when the succession of his eldest son, Duncan II, was opposed by the conservative Scottish nobles who wished to make Malcolm's brother, Donald III, king in accordance with older custom, there was strong support, perhaps mainly in southern Scotland, for the novel practice of linear father-to-son succession. The direct heirs of Malcolm III were supported by William the Conqueror's sons William Rufus and Henry I. Although one of David's elder brothers, Edmund, allied himself to their uncle Donald, the other brothers, Edgar and Alexander I, along with David himself, fled for safety to England. While Edgar, with Rufus's backing, strove to make himself king of Scots (successfully from 1097), David was attached to the household of the future Henry I and may have been granted a small estate in western Normandy where Henry had lands and a sizeable following of lords and knights. It must have been known that Edgar would have no children, but his heir was the next brother, Alexander, married to a bastard daughter of Henry I. David's prospects might have lain in England or on the continent, although his descent would entitle him to some share of royal lordships after Alexander I's accession in 1107. From 1100 his elder sister Edith, her name altered to Maud, had been the wife of Henry I. His association with the English court doubtless gave added force to the appeal which David was later said to have had to make to the baronage of northern England, for assistance in compelling Alexander I to hand over the appanage in Scottish Cumbria and eastern Scotland south of Lammermuir which had apparently been bequeathed to David by King Edgar. Precisely when this transfer of regional authority was made is not known, but it may have been a little before David's conspicuous promotion south of the border.

At the end of 1113 David, who had hitherto enjoyed only the style of ‘the queen's brother’, was given by King Henry the prize of a rich, highly born heiress, Maud de Senlis. Maud [Matilda] (d. 1131) was the daughter of Waltheof, earl of Northumbria (d. 1076), son of Earl Siward who had helped to put Malcolm III on the Scottish throne, and Judith (d. in or after 1086), a niece of William the Conqueror. Maud's first husband was Simon (I) de Senlis (or St Liz; d. 1111×13) , a knight who had served the Conqueror and Rufus, under whom he gained the rank of earl. With Simon, Maud had two sons, and she would have been nearly forty when she married David of Scotland, her junior by almost ten years. The lands acquired by David on his marriage, stretching from south Yorkshire to Middlesex but chiefly concentrated in the shires of Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Bedford, formed what came to be known as the ‘honour of Huntingdon’. Its possession made David an important figure in Anglo-Norman court circles. As late as 1130, after he had become king, he is recorded as presiding over the treason trial of Henry I's chamberlain, Geoffrey Clinton. Acquisition of this great lordship was marked by King Henry's grant of an earldom, but to assign the names Huntingdon or Northampton to this estate before the mid-twelfth century is anachronistic. When in Stephen's reign the Senlis family and the Scottish royal house vied for control of the honour, which was never partitioned, the former preferred the title earl of Northampton (given by Stephen), while the Scots simply spoke of the honour of Huntingdon without using any territorial style.

In southern Scotland, David quickly showed what was to prove the overriding passion of his life, reform of ecclesiastical institutions and revival of religion. Between 1110 and 1118 he restored the ancient see of Glasgow, of which he made his chaplain John bishop, consecrated by Pope Paschal II (r. 1099–1118) at David's request. In the early 1120s an inquest was held to ascertain the ancient landed endowments of the see, many of which had been sequestrated. Fresh endowments were provided and a new cathedral was begun, dedicated in 1136. David brought to Selkirk a community of monks from Tiron, north of Chartres. In 1128 the convent migrated to Kelso, beside the flourishing centre of Roxburgh, where their abbey grew into the richest in Scotland. The Tironensians, outstandingly successful in Scotland, were the earliest of the congregations of reformed Benedictines (which were the dominant feature of monastic life in north-west Europe in this period) to establish themselves north of the channel.
David I and the Scottish nobility
David's sister Queen Maud died in 1118, by which date it may have seemed probable that their brother Alexander I would die childless. Soon after Alexander's death on 23 April 1124, David was inaugurated king of Scots at Scone. It is reported by Ailred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) that the attendant bishops had difficulty persuading the new king to undergo the essentially pagan ceremony of inauguration, at which the earl of Fife, as head of a junior segment of the royal lineage, placed the king on the famous stone of Scone (or stone of destiny), while the royal bard bestowed the rod or wand of kingship.

David I's achievements as king are most easily understood if the secular and ecclesiastical spheres are treated separately. It must, however, be emphasized that the division is modern and artificial. There is no evidence, and it seems improbable, that David himself drew any sharp distinction between his roles as guardian of the realm and protector of holy church.

Given the king's upbringing and marriage and his lengthy experience of the Anglo-Norman court it was inevitable that he perceived lordship in feudal terms. Probably already while ruler of southern Scotland, during his brother's reign, he established followers from Normandy and England, such as Robert (I) de Brus (d. 1142), Hugh de Morville and Ranulf de Soulles, as lords of substantial portions of the princely demesne of Cumbria. Such men were trained in cavalry warfare and the use of motte-and-bailey castles. By the 1140s the greater part of southern Scotland, with the exception of Galloway and Nithsdale, had been allotted to incoming followers of the king. In the west they were given extensive lordships (for example, Annandale, Kyle Stewart), while in the east smaller, discrete, estates were the norm for newly created fiefs. Many (probably all) of these fiefs were held for military service, including the duty of garrisoning the king's castles.

Although David I was willing to repeat this pattern of fief-creation in Scotia, north of the Forth–Clyde line, the outstanding fact of his reign in secular affairs was the continued and peaceful coexistence of a newly established military feudalism with the older arrangement of provinces ruled by hereditary dynasties of mormaers (literally ‘great officers’, ‘chief stewards’). These were territorial in character, probably a legacy of the pre-ninth century Pictish kingdom. An exception to the rule of peaceful coexistence was the revolt in 1130 by Angus, mormaer of Moray. Angus was the son of a daughter of Lulach Mac Gillachomgan, who had been briefly king of Scots in 1057–8. Taking advantage of the king's absence in the south of England, Angus led an army south by the east coast route. Just south of the crossing of the River North Esk near Stracathro, the men of Moray were met by a force under the command of King David's constable Edward and suffered a decisive defeat, Angus himself being killed. Had the battle gone the other way, the course of Scottish history might well have been significantly different. As it was, David annexed the province of Moray to the crown and established followers of continental origin, notably Flemings, in estates which had presumably belonged to the mormaers. In all the provincial earldoms or mormaerdoms the king possessed rights, for example, military service, justice, and certain types of revenue, while in some, especially Fife, Gowrie, and Angus, as well as in Moray after 1130, he had extensive lands in demesne. These were exploited to create and support the castles and trading towns (‘burghs’) which in David I's time were established at Perth, Forfar, Montrose, Aberdeen, Elgin, Forres, and Inverness. A mixture of the old and the new, in which the crown held the initiative, characterized the political entity coming to be known as the kingdom of the Scots in the earlier twelfth century.
The transformation of the church
However powerfully he had left his mark on Scottish secular government, David I was to be remembered, not without reason, as the king who almost single-handedly transformed the church within his realm, with a generosity which is said to have prompted King James I (r. 1406–37) to observe ruefully that David's grants to the religious had made him ‘a sair sanct to the croun’ (Ritchie, 337). He was personally responsible for founding monasteries of the Tironensian, Cistercian, and Augustinian orders, while he enlarged the Benedictine priory of Dunfermline to form the second richest abbey in Scotland, and established Benedictines of the Cluniac observance on the Isle of May. He was largely responsible for founding an Augustinian cathedral priory at St Andrews, and he welcomed the military orders of the Hospital and the Temple. Such a rich infusion of monastic life, closely tied as it was to forms of regular observance universal throughout western Christendom, would have altered the Scottish church almost beyond recognition. But David went much further, imposing a territorially defined system upon the Scottish bishoprics. This involved strengthening the authority of the two largest dioceses of St Andrews (which he strove unsuccessfully to have recognized as metropolitan) and Glasgow. Almost certainly David created the dioceses of Caithness and Moray, while he re-established the see of the bishop of north-east Scotland at Old Aberdeen, close to the royal castle and burgh of Aberdeen. Within the dioceses, whose boundaries were now relatively well defined, the king encouraged the formation of parish churches with fixed territories, served by priests supported by tithes (Scottish, ‘teinds’), payment of which was enforced by the secular power.
Anglo-Scottish relations
Scotland's relations with England remained peaceful and even friendly as long as Henry I was alive. Not only was there a close personal tie between the two kings, but it is clear also that Henry's plan to have his daughter, the Empress Matilda (d. 1167), recognized as his heir—even though a woman and married to the count of Anjou—was fully accepted by the king of Scots, who in 1127 was first among the lay magnates to swear an oath of fealty to Matilda as prospective successor to her father. David enjoyed a special position within the English kingdom, being entrusted by Henry with important administrative roles and judicial decisions. The Anglo-Scottish peace was shattered by Stephen of Blois's bid for the crown at the end of 1135, when David took possession of Carlisle and Cumberland, as his father had held them, enforcing a Scottish restoration which he had never attempted as long as Henry I was king of England. The Scots were compelled to recognize Stephen's authority, at least de facto, and by David's first treaty with Stephen (February 1136) he retained Cumbria, relinquished Northumberland, and had his son and heir Henry recognized as lord of the honour of Huntingdon. Relations with Stephen broke down in 1137, however, and by 1138 the Scots were invading Northumberland and pushing even further south, towards Yorkshire, probably with the aim of establishing Scottish authority over the whole of England north of Lancashire and the Tees. But David's strategy received a setback on 22 August 1138, when a well-disciplined force of English barons and knights met a large but unruly Scottish host on Cowton Moor near Northallerton, and in the battle of the Standard inflicted a severe defeat.

Stephen's difficulties in southern England prevented him from exploiting this English victory, and by his second treaty with the Scots (Durham, 9 April 1139) he was forced in effect to cede to David control over England between Tees and Tweed, as well as continued enjoyment of the honour of Huntingdon. After Stephen was captured by his enemies in 1141, David and his son joined forces with the empress when she made her unsuccessful bid for the English throne. Even though the rout of the empress's forces at Winchester, on 14 September 1141, sent David and Henry northward again in undignified flight, their discomfiture did not affect their position north of Tees, where they remained in control until David's death. The honour of Huntingdon, however, was now lost. Indeed, at this period the Scottish king even exercised lordship over the honour of Lancaster, while in 1149 he entertained the young Henry of Anjou, son of the empress, at a splendid ceremony at Carlisle, where David conferred knighthood upon the future king of England and extracted a solemn promise, soon to be broken, that after Henry's accession the Scots would be left in undisturbed enjoyment of the English northern counties. Contemporary English writers reproached David for allowing his followers to commit many atrocities during the invasions of 1137–8, but at least one of them, William of Newburgh, gives the Scottish king credit for enforcing a twelve-year peace throughout northern England when it was conspicuously absent in the south.
The achievements of David I
David I was driven by a clear and consistent vision, pious and authoritarian, of what his kingdom should be: Catholic, in the sense of conforming to the doctrines and observances of the western church; feudal, in the sense that a lord–vassal relationship, involving knight-service, should form the basis of government; and open, in the sense that external (especially continental) influences of all kinds, religious, military, and economic, were encouraged and exploited to strengthen the Scottish kingdom. Alongside his eclecticism, David's strong sense of the autonomy of his realm and of his own position within it must be acknowledged. The surviving numbers of his charters, compared with those of his predecessors, surely point to an increase in the sophistication, and probably also in the activity, of government. During David's reign the administration of royal justice became more firmly established and was organized more effectively. Those who enjoyed their own courts were told that the king would intervene if they failed to provide justice. The addresses of royal charters and writs (Scottish ‘brieves’) show that from c.1140 justiciars were appointed. Although none is known by name, these officers were clearly the predecessors of the named justiciars of succeeding reigns.

David prevented his bishops (save only Galloway) recognizing any claims by York or Canterbury to ecclesiastical authority over the Scottish church, and he refused homage to Stephen, only allowing his son to do homage for Northumberland and Huntingdon. He restored the southern border of his kingdom west of the Pennines to Westmorland, where it had run before 1092. He was the first king of Scots to have a coinage struck in his name, in the form of silver sterlings minted at Carlisle, Berwick, Edinburgh, and elsewhere, from c.1139 onwards. His greatest failure, for which he cannot be blamed, lay in the succession. From c.1136, when his son Henry (understandably, in view of Maud's probable age at her second marriage, the only son to survive to adulthood) would have been about twenty, David had begun to associate his heir with himself in royal government. From 1139 onwards, indeed, it is not misleading to speak of joint kingship in Scotland. But Henry died tragically young in 1152. David himself died a year later, on 24 May 1153 at Carlisle Castle; he was buried in early June before the high altar of the church of Dunfermline Abbey. His heir, Henry's eldest son, Malcolm IV, was only twelve and no match for the vigorous Henry of Anjou who succeeded to the English throne at the end of 1154. Yet Malcolm succeeded comparatively peacefully and the greater part of his grandfather's legacy remained to the Scottish kingdom as it was to develop, on foundations which David had largely laid, during the remaining medieval centuries.

G. W. S. Barrow
Sources

G. W. S. Barrow, ed., The charters of King David I: the written acts of David I king of Scots, 1124–53, and of his son Henry earl of Northumberland, 1139–52 (1999) · A. C. Lawrie, ed., Early Scottish charters prior to AD 1153 (1905) · Ailred of Rievaulx, ‘Eulogium Davidis’, Vitae antiquae sanctorum qui habitaverunt in ea parte Britanniae nunc vocata Scotia vel in ejus insulis, ed. J. Pinkerton (1789) · Symeon of Durham, Opera · R. Howlett, ed., Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, 3, Rolls Series, 82 (1886) · G. W. S. Barrow, ed., Regesta regum Scottorum, 1 (1960) · R. L. G. Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland (1954) · G. W. S. Barrow, ‘The charters of David I’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 14 (1991), 25–37 · G. W. S. Barrow, David I of Scotland (1124–53): the balance of new and old (1985) · A. O. Anderson and M. O. Anderson, eds., The chronicle of Melrose (1936) · A Scottish chronicle known as the chronicle of Holyrood, ed. M. O. Anderson (1938) · GEC, Peerage · Johannis de Fordun Chronica gentis Scotorum, ed. W. F. Skene (1871) · 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 (1872), 224
Archives

Durham Cath. CL, charters · NA Scot. | NL Scot., Edinburgh Advocates MSS

Likenesses

illuminated initial, c.1159, NL Scot., charter of Malcolm IV for Kelso Abbey [see illus.]
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

G. W. S. Barrow, ‘David I (c.1085-1153)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7208, accessed 24 Sept 2005]

David I (c.1085-1153): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7208
Maud (d. 1131): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49353⁶

Crowned*

25 April 1124

King of Scotland^1,5

Event-Misc*

1136

David resigned his earlship to his son Henry, who did homage to King Stephen, although David had supported Empress Maud, Principal=Henry of Huntingdon⁵

Battle-Standard*

22 August 1138

Northallerton, Yorkshire, England, Principal=Stephen of Blois, Witness=Robert de Stuteville, Witness=Bernard de Balliol, Scots=Henry of Huntingdon, English=Robert de Lacy, English=William de Percy, English=William Peverell, Scots=Eustace FitzJohn^7,5,8

(Witness) Knighted

1149

Carlisle, England, by his great uncle, David, King of Scotland, Principal=Henry II Curtmantel⁹

Family

Countess Maud of Huntingdon b. 1072, d. 1131

Children

Malcolm (?)²
Claricia (?)^2,5
Hodierna (?)^2,5
Malcolm of Scotland⁵
Henry of Huntingdon+^1,2 b. 1114, d. 12 Jun 1152

Last Edited

24 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 170-22.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 113.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 226.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 114.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 21.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 256.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 2.

Eleanor Gifford¹

F, #2952, b. 1275, d. before 1325

Father*

Sir John Gifford b. c 1232, d. 28 May 1299; daughter and coheir^2,3

Mother*

Maud de Clifford² d. bt 1282 - 1285

Eleanor Gifford|b. 1275\nd. b 1325|p99.htm#i2952|Sir John Gifford|b. c 1232\nd. 28 May 1299|p99.htm#i2955|Maud de Clifford|d. bt 1282 - 1285|p99.htm#i2956|Elias Gifford|b. c 1185\nd. b 2 May 1248|p464.htm#i13893|Alice Maltravers||p493.htm#i14790|Walter de Clifford|d. c 23 Dec 1263|p99.htm#i2958|Margaret verch Llywelyn|d. a 1268|p99.htm#i2959|

Charts

Ann Marbury Pedigree

Birth*

1275

⁴

Marriage*

before 1307

Principal=Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere^1,5,4

Death*

before 1325

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=Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere⁵

Family

Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere b. c 1267, d. 23 Jan 1324/25

Children

Elizabeth le Strange⁶
Hamo le Strange⁷
Maud le Strange⁸
Sir John le Strange of Blackmere+ b. 26 Jan 1306/7, d. 21 Jul 1349
Fulk le Strange⁸ b. c 1330, d. bt 30 Aug 1349 - 2 Sep 1349

Last Edited

9 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-29.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 113.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 123.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 294.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-31.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 295.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 232.

Elizabeth le Strange¹

F, #2953

Father*

Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere^1,2 b. c 1267, d. 23 Jan 1324/25

Mother*

Eleanor Gifford¹ b. 1275, d. b 1325

Elizabeth le Strange||p99.htm#i2953|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|

Marriage*

before March 1323

Principal=Sir Robert Corbet¹

Event-Misc

15 March 1323

Dispensation to Robert Corbet, lord of Morton, and Elizabeth, d. of Fulk le Strange of Aquitaine, to remain married and their issue legitimate, though related in 4th degree., Principal=Sir Robert Corbet²

Last Edited

21 Oct 2004

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-31.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 295.

Sir Robert Corbet¹

M, #2954, b. 1304, d. 1375

Birth*

1304

Marriage*

before March 1323

Principal=Elizabeth le Strange¹

Death*

1375

Event-Misc*

15 March 1323

Last Edited

23 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-31.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 295.

Sir John Gifford¹

M, #2955, b. circa 1232, d. 28 May 1299

Father*

Elias Gifford b. c 1185, d. b 2 May 1248; son and heir²

Mother*

Alice Maltravers³

Sir John Gifford|b. c 1232\nd. 28 May 1299|p99.htm#i2955|Elias Gifford|b. c 1185\nd. b 2 May 1248|p464.htm#i13893|Alice Maltravers||p493.htm#i14790|Helias Giffard|b. s 1153|p494.htm#i14791|Joan Maltravers|d. a 1221|p494.htm#i14792|Sir John Maltravers||p523.htm#i15666||||

Charts

Ann Marbury Pedigree

Birth*

circa 1232

On St. Wulstan's Day (19 Jan)^1,2,3

Marriage*

circa 1257

2nd=Maud de Clifford^1,4

Marriage

1271

Conflict=Maud de Clifford³

Marriage*

1286

On 9 May 1285, Richard, Bishop of Hereford had written to the Pope for dispensation of the marriage within the 3rd and 4th degrees of consanguinity., 2nd=Margaret (?)⁵

Death*

28 May 1299

Boyton, Wiltshire, England²

Death

29 May 1299

Boyton, Wiltshire, England¹

Burial*

11 June 1299

Malmesbury Abbey^2,3

DNB*

Giffard, John, first Lord Giffard (1232-1299), baron, was born on 19 January 1232, the son of Elias Giffard (d. 1248), holder of the castle and barony of Brimpsfield, Gloucestershire, and extensive lands in both Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. His mother was Alice, daughter of John Maltravers. His father formally betrothed him at Arrow in Warwickshire at the age of four years to Alberada (Aubrée) de Canville, daughter of Thomas de Canville of Arrow, who was his age. The arrangement did not proceed to marriage, and the girl later entered a nunnery. He was in the queen's wardship until 1253, and is found in 1256 having a respite of knighthood until his return from a journey to Ireland with John de Mucegros. He was active in the campaigns against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1257–8 and 1260–61. In August 1262 he is found associated with the young aristocratic victims of the Savoyard purge of Edward's household, banned from tourneying or riding around in arms. Like them, he gravitated into the household of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, leader of the opposition to ‘alien’ influences at court.

Giffard was active in Montfort's interest through most of the period of the baronial rebellion, being one of those who seized the alien bishop of Hereford, Peter d'Aigueblanche, in June 1263. In August he was given control of St Briavels and the Forest of Dean, and in December consolidated his power in the southern march with the keeping of the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. However, he had not forgotten his former attachment to Edward. In the same month, perhaps annoyed by Montfort's temporizing with Prince Llywelyn, he undertook to support Edward (saving his oath to support the provisions of Oxford). When his friends, the former associates of Edward, returned to the latter's household in October 1263, Giffard at first accepted a £50 money fee from Edward, but returned it after Christmas, and remained with Montfort. He was active in attacking Edward's supporters in the southern march in the winter of 1263, and, according to Robert of Gloucester, he assisted Montfort's capture of the town (but not castle) of Gloucester by secretly penetrating it dressed as a Welsh wool merchant. But when the time came to defend Gloucester against the Lord Edward in February 1264 he was unsuccessful. However, he captured Warwick and its earl for the Montfortians in April. He fought in Earl Simon's household at the battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264, when he was briefly taken prisoner, but himself took prisoner William de la Zouche.

It was immediately after the battle that Giffard left Earl Simon's retinue and entered that of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford. The move made political sense for him, as Earl Gilbert was the dominant magnate in the southern march. But it led to ill feeling between Giffard and his former associates, as he took his prisoner, Zouche, with him, and also as he joined in the fighting between Earl Gilbert's brother, Thomas, and the sons of Earl Simon. The tournament at Dunstable arranged to settle the differences in February 1265 was prohibited, and Giffard and Earl Gilbert took this as their excuse to retreat to the southern march. Clare and Giffard concentrated their forces in the Dean area, uniting with the Lord Edward after his escape in late May, and assisting in his capture of the Severn valley. Giffard fought for the royalists at Evesham on 4 August 1265, taking a number of prisoners, and later accumulating great sums of money in ransoms and confiscated lands. He had pardon for his offences while with Montfort, and retained Dean until 1270.

In the aftermath of Evesham Giffard used his cash surplus to become a notable baronial player in the loan market. His adherence to Gilbert de Clare also brought him considerable gains, notably a grant in fee of a rent of £20 in the earl's borough of Burford, Oxfordshire, and manor of Badgeworth, Gloucestershire, and control of both places for life. His public career seems to have declined somewhat after Evesham, for reasons that are not immediately clear but which may have been perfectly innocent: a simple preference for rural pursuits, perhaps. The almost obsessional enthusiasm with which he devoted himself to the hunt, both in royal forests and his own parks, has been remarked upon. But he did not confine himself to hunting beasts of the chase. In October 1271 he caused a notorious scandal when he abducted from her house at Canford, Wiltshire, the (allegedly) unwilling Matilda Longespée, daughter and heir of Sir Walter de Clifford of Glasbury and widow of William (III) Longespée, sometime heir to the earldom of Salisbury. It seems that the two had already been negotiating a marriage contract, but Giffard became impatient and attempted a rough wooing. Giffard was heavily fined, but eventually managed to persuade the king to sanction the match. This marriage brought him the Clifford lordships and castles of Bronllys and Glasbury in Brecon, Llandovery in Deheubarth, and other manors in Shropshire for life, and brought him into the ranks of marcher lords.

Giffard's military skills and marcher connections remained much valued despite advancing years. He was still pursuing an enthusiasm for the tournament in 1274 (then aged forty-two), when he attended one at Newark with a large following. He played a full part in the campaigns of Edward I against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Gwynedd, and was involved in the final campaign in which the prince was killed in December 1282. A year later he was rewarded with the lordship of Is-Cennen in west Wales, and in 1290 had the grant of the castle of Dynefwr (the royal seat of the dynasty of Deheubarth) for life, which greatly enhanced his position as a marcher baron. As such, he (with others) came into conflict with Humphrey (VI) de Bohun, earl of Hereford, in 1290–91. He was involved in dealing with the major Welsh uprising of 1294–5, commanding a force that relieved the castle of Builth in November 1294. King Edward showed his faith in Giffard by employing him as commander of the castle of Podensac, south of Bordeaux in Gascony, in the Anglo-French war of 1294–5. But the castle was surrendered by Giffard to Charles de Valois, which caused outrage among the Gascon nobility, and led to Giffard's trial and further trouble, when his troops mutinied.

John Giffard returned to England, and remained in favour, attending councils and parliaments up to the time of his death. He died at his house at Boyton, Wiltshire, on 29 May 1299, and was buried on 11 June at Malmesbury Abbey. His wife Matilda had died in or soon after 1281, and he had married in 1286 Margaret, widow of John de Neville (d. 1282). She died in 1338. Giffard left several children. He had three daughters with his first wife: Katherine, who married Nicholas Audley, Eleanor, and Matilda, still unmarried in 1299, who (with an elder half-sister) shared the Clifford inheritance from their mother. His only son, also John Giffard, was born to his second wife in or about 1287, and remained in wardship until 1308, when he inherited the lordship of Brimpsfield and the rest of his father's acquisitions.

The elder John Giffard's career is not without interest. His passionate involvement with the politics of the later Henrician monarchy, and his fitful relationship with the Lord Edward, dominated his young adulthood. His later years, following his final frenzied behaviour over Matilda Longespée, are a marked contrast. He settled into the mould of the Edwardian magnate, his career revolving around public service, the king's military ambitions, and his own financial and estate interests. His foundation of Gloucester Hall at Oxford (1283–4), as a Benedictine house within the university for students from the ancient abbey his family had long patronized, is an interesting manifestation of a new direction in aristocratic patronage, and is directly comparable with the patronage of Merton College by Sir Richard de Harcourt, another middle-ranking Edwardian aristocrat.

David Crouch
Sources

Chancery records · CIPM, vol. 3 · ‘Hailes chronicle’, BL, Cotton MS Cleopatra D.iii · W. H. Hart, ed., Historia et cartularium monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, 3 vols., Rolls Series, 33 (1863–7) · exchequer, forest proceedings, PRO, E32/188 · Ann. mon., vol. 4 · [W. Rishanger], The chronicle of William de Rishanger, of the barons' wars, ed. J. O. Halliwell, CS, 15 (1840) · J. G. Edwards, ed., Littere Wallie (1940) · GEC, Peerage · J. N. Langston, ‘The Giffards of Brimpsfield’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 65 (1944), 105–28 · J. Birrel, ‘A great thirteenth-century hunter: John Giffard of Brimpsfield’, Medieval Prosopography, 15 (1994)
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

David Crouch, ‘Giffard, John, first Lord Giffard (1232-1299)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10651, accessed 25 Sept 2005]

John Giffard (1232-1299): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10651⁶

Arms*

Gules, troiz leons passauntz d'argent (Walford). Gu. 3 lions passant arg. (Charles, St. George, Segar, Camdem, (1, 2 Nob).²

Name Variation

Sir John Giffard^2,3

Event-Misc*

1256

He fought in the Welsh Wars²

Event-Misc

1263

He was Governor of St. Briavel's Castle.²

Event-Misc

11 June 1263

He and other barons seized the Bishop of Hereford and took him to Eardisley Castle.⁵

Event-Misc

18 September 1263

He was pardoned for failing to keep the Provisions of Oxford⁵

Event-Misc

24 December 1263

He was appointed keeper of the castle of St. Briavel and the forest of Dean⁵

Event-Misc

April 1264

He was in command at Kenilworth and destroyed Warwick Castle taking the Earl and Countess prisoners⁵

(Simon) Battle-Lewes

14 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 Montfort^{7,8,9,10,11,12}

Event-Misc

16 February 1264/65

He was prohibited from participating in the tournament at Dunstaple, and was ordered to attend Council three days later.⁵

(Edward) Battle-Evesham

4 August 1265

Evesham, Principal=Edward I "Longshanks" Plantagenet King of England, Principal=Simon VI de Montfort^13,14,15

Event-Misc

August 1265

He was pardoned for his previous tresspasses after fighting for the King at the Battle of Evesham⁵

Event-Misc*

10 March 1271

Commission re complaint by Maud Longespe, King's Baroness, that Jn. Giffard abducted her at Kaneford Manor, took her against her will to his castle at Brinsmead and detained her there. John says that she consented, and has made fine in 300 m. for her marriage, already contracted. She is infirm and cannot come., Principal=Maud de Clifford²

Event-Misc

5 October 1273

Prince Edmund, sine lic. has alienated Dyluin Manor to Jn. G.²

Event-Misc

24 April 1274

He was a commissioner empowered to make a truce between Llywelyn ap Gruffud and Humphrey de Bohun⁵

Summoned*

1 July 1277

serve against the Welsh. He acknowledges 1 Kt. Fee in Sherinton for his Barony, and 2 Fees in Aldinton for his wife²

Event-Misc

27 April 1279

Archbishop Walter Giffard, dec., held Boyton Maonor, Wilts., of John Giffard, and left bro. h. Godfrey, Bishop or Worcester.²

Event-Misc

26 February 1280

Grant to him for life the run of all the King's forests in Salop, so far as deer, started in his chace of Corffham, shall run in the day²

Event-Misc

8 October 1281

John and Matilda nominate attorneys in Ireland, Principal=Maud de Clifford²

Event-Misc

6 November 1281

Lic. to hunt wolves with his own hounds in all the King's forests of England but not to take the King's great deer, though if his greyhounds escape the leash and take any he shall not be molested. King's forester shall advise and assist him in the capture of wolves, and he may use nets or any other suitable means²

Summoned

1282

serve against the Welsh, acknowledges 2 Kt. Fees, to be served by himself and 1 Kt.²

Event-Misc

1282

John Giffard captured and beheaded Llewellyn, Prince of Wales²

Event-Misc

2 June 1282

King grants to him Landevery Castle, late of Rhys Vaghan, the King's enemy, charging him to keep and strengthen it.²

Event-Misc

16 August 1282

He is to receive into the King's peace such of his own Welshmen of Penverth and Hirfren as he shall see fit.²

Summoned

30 September 1283

Shewsbury, Parliament²

Event-Misc

1 October 1284

He may pay the debts of Walter de Clifford, father of his late wife Matilda de Lungespee, at £20 p.a.²

Event-Misc*

30 December 1284

Principal=Sir Humphrey VII de Bohun, Witness=Sir Walter Helion, Witness=Sir Thomas de Weyland^16,17

Event-Misc

16 October 1288

Commission re taking his deer at Brimsfield, whilst in Wales for the King²

Event-Misc

8 February 1290

Grant of the corpus of Dynevor Castle for life as a refuge for himself and his men²

Event-Misc

18 July 1290

Pardoned on 500 m. fine of all trespasses of vert and venison in Feckenham Forest to 7 Apr last²

Event-Misc

14 June 1294

He was excepted from service in Gascony²

Title*

Lord Gifford of Brimsfield¹

Feudal*

5 June 1299

Manors of Brisfield, Bagworthy, Stoke Giffard, Stonhouse, and Rochampton, Glou., 5 Manors in Wilts., Corfham Castle, Salop, Clifford Castle, Here., and many other lands in England and Wales, partly inheritance of his wife Maud.²

Family 1

Maud de Clifford d. bt 1282 - 1285

Children

Margaret Gifford²
Elizabeth Gifford¹⁸
Catherine Giffard^2,5 b. 1272
Eleanor Gifford+ b. 1275, d. b 1325; daughter and coheir^1,2
Maud Gifford^2,18 b. 1277, d. 1332

Family 2

Margaret (?) d. b 13 Dec 1338

Child

Sir John Gifford b. 24 Jun 1287, d. 1322; son and heir²

Last Edited

25 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-29.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 113.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 121.
[S338] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8th ed., 29A-29.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 122.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 4.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 10.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Fitz Alan 7.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 21.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 218.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 34.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 15.
[S342] Sir Bernard Burke, Extinct Peerages, p. 27.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 31.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 217.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 5, p. 184.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 123.

Maud de Clifford¹

F, #2956, d. between 1282 and 1285

Father*

Walter de Clifford^2,3 d. c 23 Dec 1263

Mother*

Margaret verch Llywelyn^2,4 d. a 1268

Maud de Clifford|d. bt 1282 - 1285|p99.htm#i2956|Walter de Clifford|d. c 23 Dec 1263|p99.htm#i2958|Margaret verch Llywelyn|d. a 1268|p99.htm#i2959|||||||Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"|b. 1173\nd. 11 Apr 1240|p99.htm#i2961|Joan of Wales|b. b 1200\nd. 30 Mar 1236|p99.htm#i2962|

Charts

Ann Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*

after 30 April 1244

Groom=Sir William Longespee III^1,5

Marriage*

circa 1257

1st=Sir John Gifford^1,6

Marriage

1271

Conflict=Sir John Gifford⁷

Death*

between 1282 and 1285

Death

before 12 October 1284

Name Variation

Matilda⁷

Event-Misc*

Maud de Clifford inherited Corfham Castle, which was given to her ancestor, Walter de Clifford by King Henry II for love of his daughter, the Fair Rosamond, Principal=Walter de Clifford⁴

Event-Misc*

10 March 1271

Event-Misc

8 October 1281

John and Matilda nominate attorneys in Ireland, Principal=Sir John Gifford³

Event-Misc*

10 May 1322

Grant to Hugh le Despenser, sen., reversion of Manors in Wilts. held by Margaret, wid of Jn. Giffard sen., Principal=Sir Hugh le Despenser⁸

Family

Sir John Gifford b. c 1232, d. 28 May 1299

Children

Margaret Gifford³
Elizabeth Gifford⁹
Catherine Giffard³ b. 1272
Eleanor Gifford+¹ b. 1275, d. b 1325
Maud Gifford³ b. 1277, d. 1332

Last Edited

9 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-29.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-28.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 113.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 122.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
[S338] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8th ed., 29A-29.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 121.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 114.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 123.

Sir William Longespee III¹

M, #2957, d. before 3 January 1257

Father*

Sir William de Longespée² b. c 1208, d. 7 Feb 1249/50

Mother*

Idoine de Camville^2,3 b. b 1205, d. between 01 Jan 1250/1-21 Sep

Marriage*

after 30 April 1244

1st=Maud de Clifford^1,2

Death*

before 3 January 1257

from injuries received 4 Jun 1256 during a tournament at Blyth, Notts.^1,4,5

Title

Earl of Salisbury²

Last Edited

12 Jun 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-29.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Longespée 4.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 121.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 131.

Walter de Clifford¹

M, #2958, d. circa 23 December 1263

Marriage*

after 1233

Principal=Margaret verch Llywelyn^1,2

Death*

circa 23 December 1263

^1,3

Residence*

Clifford's Castle, Herefordshire, England¹

Family

Margaret verch Llywelyn d. a 1268

Child

Maud de Clifford+^1,4 d. bt 1282 - 1285

Last Edited

11 Jun 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-28.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 122.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 2, p. 113.

Margaret verch Llywelyn^1,2

F, #2959, d. after 1268

Father*

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"^3,4,2,5 b. 1173, d. 11 Apr 1240

Mother*

Joan of Wales^3,4 b. b 1200, d. 30 Mar 1236

Margaret verch Llywelyn|d. a 1268|p99.htm#i2959|Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"|b. 1173\nd. 11 Apr 1240|p99.htm#i2961|Joan of Wales|b. b 1200\nd. 30 Mar 1236|p99.htm#i2962|Iorwerth D. ap Owain Gwynedd|d. c 1174|p103.htm#i3082|Marared ferch Madog|b. c 1134|p103.htm#i3083|John Lackland|b. 27 Dec 1166\nd. 19 Oct 1216|p54.htm#i1620|Clementia (?)||p150.htm#i4476|

Marriage*

circa 1219

Principal=John de Braose^1,4,2

Marriage*

after 1233

Principal=Walter de Clifford^1,5

Death*

after 1268

^4,6

Name Variation

Margaret of Wales⁴

Family

Walter de Clifford d. c 23 Dec 1263

Child

Maud de Clifford+^1,5 d. bt 1282 - 1285

Last Edited

11 Jun 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-28.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-27.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 122.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.

John de Braose¹

M, #2960, b. circa 1197, d. 18 July 1232

Father*

William Braose^1,2 d. 1210

Mother*

Maud de Clare^1,2 b. c 1175, d. Jan 1225

Birth*

circa 1197

^1,3

Marriage*

circa 1219

Principal=Margaret verch Llywelyn^3,1,4

Death*

18 July 1232

Brembye, Sussex, England, (fell from a horse)^3,1

Last Edited

28 Apr 2005

Citations

[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 28A-3.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-28.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"¹

M, #2961, b. 1173, d. 11 April 1240

Father*

Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd^2,3,4 d. c 1174

Mother*

Marared ferch Madog^2,3,4 b. c 1134

Mother

(?) Corbet; According to Boyer, Llywelyn's mother was English, which was hidden by the Welsh genealogists⁵

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"|b. 1173\nd. 11 Apr 1240|p99.htm#i2961|Iorwerth Drwyndwn ap Owain Gwynedd|d. c 1174|p103.htm#i3082|Marared ferch Madog|b. c 1134|p103.htm#i3083|Owain Gwynedd|b. c 1100\nd. 28 Nov 1170|p103.htm#i3088|Gwladws ferch Llywarch|b. c 1098|p103.htm#i3087|Madog ap Maredudd of Powys|b. c 1091\nd. c 9 Feb 1160|p103.htm#i3084|Anonyma (?)||p457.htm#i13694|

Birth*

1173

Dolyddelan, Wales^1,3,4

Marriage*

before 1200

Bride=Gwenliann of Brynffenigi (?)^3,6

Marriage

before 23 March 1204/5

by settlement dated Oct 1204, recorded Apr 1205, Bride=Joan of Wales⁴

Marriage*

1206

2nd=Joan of Wales^1,3

Mistress*

Principal=Tangwystl Goch (?)^7,3,6

Marriage*

without issue, 1st=(?) of Chester⁴

Marriage*

Bride=Eve FitzWarin⁴

Death*

11 April 1240

Aberconway Abbey^1,3,4

Burial*

Aberconway Abbey, Conwy, Caernarvonshire, Wales⁴

DNB*

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth [called Llywelyn Fawr] (c.1173-1240), prince of Gwynedd, was the son of Iorwerth Drwyndwn (Iorwerth Flatnose; d. c.1174) , son of Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170), and his cousin Marared, daughter of Madog ap Maredudd (d. 1160), king of Powys; according to one tradition Iorwerth was excluded from the succession to the kingship of Gwynedd because of a physical disability.
Early life
Llywelyn was born c.1173, possibly at Dolwyddelan in Nant Conwy, and may have been brought up in Powys. According to Gerald of Wales he had begun to challenge his uncles Dafydd ab Owain Gwynnedd and Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd [see under Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd] at the time of Gerald's journey through Wales in 1188, when Llywelyn would have been about fifteen (although Gerald describes him as being ‘about twelve years old’); the poet Prydydd y Moch suggested that his military career had begun when he was no more than ten.

In 1194, according to the Welsh chronicle Brut y tywysogyon, Llywelyn joined Rhodri and his cousins, the sons of Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd, in a successful bid to expel Dafydd from the eastern half of Gwynedd, leaving Dafydd with only three castles. Two poets refer to a battle near Aberconwy in which Llywelyn appears to have defeated Dafydd and in which Rhodri was also involved; this action was followed by the ejection of Rhodri from Anglesey and Prydydd y Moch mentions Llywelyn's victories at Porthaethwy and Coedana on the island. Gerald saw his success as a divine judgment, since Dafydd and Rhodri were considered by the church to be the offspring of an incestuous marriage. In 1197 Llywelyn captured Dafydd; his release was negotiated by the justiciar, Hubert Walter, and he died in exile in England in 1203.

On 6 January 1199 the castle of Mold was captured from the earl of Chester's seneschal and on the same day, according to Prydydd y Moch, Llywelyn won a victory in Arfon, almost certainly over his cousin Gruffudd ap Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd; it may be significant that Llywelyn's two charters to the Cistercian abbey of Aberconwy were dated two days later. In these charters he styled himself ‘Prince of all north Wales’ and dated them in the tenth year of his principate, although a recent study has suggested that they are not contemporary. Gruffudd took the Cistercian habit in the abbey and died there in 1200; in 1201 his brother Maredudd was ejected from Lly^n and Eifionydd ‘because of his treachery’ (Brut: Hergest), thereby completing Llywelyn's conquest of Gwynedd.
Llywelyn and King John
In September 1199 John, the new king of England, took Llywelyn under his protection and confirmed him in the possession of his lands. John was seeking to secure a balance of power between Llywelyn and Gwenwynwyn (d. 1216?) of southern Powys, who had succeeded his father, Owain Cyfeiliog, in 1197; as lord of Glamorgan in right of his wife, John understood Welsh politics. In December 1199 he also took Gwenwynwyn and Gruffudd ap Cynan under his protection, although the latter's political career may have been over by that time; as Llywelyn's power increased, however, there seems to have been a desire to reach an accommodation and after negotiations a treaty was concluded on 11 July 1201. This was the first written treaty between a Welsh ruler and the king of England and in it Llywelyn and the magnates of Wales swore fealty to John and undertook to do homage to him on his return from France; the prince would retain his territorial gains and would have the choice of English or Welsh law to settle disputes over land.

Llywelyn and Gwenwynwyn clashed for the first time in August 1202 when the former invaded Powys with a large army. War was averted by the intervention of mediators; the History of Fouke le Fitz Waryn credits Fulk (III) Fitzwarine with bringing hostilities to an end after the prince had seized Mechain and Mochnant. Llywelyn did homage to John on the latter's return from France in the summer of 1204, and it was probably in the following spring that he received a sign of royal favour when he married the king's illegitimate daughter Joan. With an earlier partner, Tangwystl, the daughter of Llywarch Goch, he had had a son, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (d. 1244), and a daughter, Gwenllian, but this relationship was not recognized by the church as a valid marriage. He was certainly seeking a politically advantageous match at this time; in April 1203 he had received a papal dispensation to marry the widow of his uncle Rhodri, a daughter of the Manx king, Ragnvald (d. 1229), but that marriage did not take place, nor is there any evidence to corroborate the statement in one of Innocent III's letters that he had been married to a sister of the earl of Chester. The marriage to Joan was a dynastic opportunity not to be missed; their children would be part of the European royal and aristocratic network, which would in turn elevate the Gwynedd dynasty to a higher status than the other Welsh ruling houses. John presented his son-in-law with the manor of Ellesmere, Shropshire, previously given by Henry II to Dafydd on his marriage to Emma of Anjou in 1174.

Llywelyn's opportunity to assert his mastery beyond Gwynedd came in 1208 when the lands of Gwenwynwyn, prince of southern Powys, were confiscated by the king on the pretext that Gwenwynwyn had attacked the lands of one of his marcher neighbours. Llywelyn promptly moved into Powys. He then entered Ceredigion, attacking Maelgwn ap Rhys (d. 1231), the member of the Deheubarth lineage who was an ally of Gwenwynwyn. In spite of his opposition Llywelyn installed Maelgwn's nephews in part of the territory. Llywelyn was demonstrating his capacity to exploit the misfortunes of other Welsh dynasties and the fissures within their ranks for his own purposes. John took an indulgent view of these activities and in 1209 Llywelyn joined his campaign against William the Lion of Scotland and was at Norham on 4 August when William submitted; this was the only occasion on which a ruler of Gwynedd joined a king of England on a military expedition outside Wales.

By 1210 Llywelyn was the dominant figure in Wales, but his relations with the king now deteriorated; it is possible that William (V) de Briouze had persuaded him to take advantage of John's absence in Ireland between June and August 1210, but, if so, this was an error of judgement. An army commanded by the earl of Chester invaded Gwynedd and the castle at Deganwy, demolished by Llywelyn, was rebuilt by the earl. John's triumphant return from Ireland seems to have been followed by a decision to move against the prince; in November 1210 Gwenwynwyn's lands were restored to him and the following spring all the other Welsh rulers were summoned to Chester. This involvement may have reflected an increasing fear and suspicion of Llywelyn's power of which John was able to take advantage. The first royal expedition entered north Wales in May 1211. Llywelyn fell back on the natural fortress of Snowdonia; the royal army, faced with a lack of supplies, was forced to withdraw to Chester, but in July a further expedition set out from Oswestry and in a lightning campaign swept into Gwynedd, capturing the bishop of Bangor in his own cathedral, holding him to ransom, and burning the town. Joan's intercession secured terms for Llywelyn and on 11 August 1211 he submitted to the king. He had to surrender the Four Cantrefs (the land between the Conwy and the Dee), along with the commote of Edeirnion, to hand over hostages, including his son Gruffudd, and to pay a heavy tribute of cattle and horses. He also agreed that if he and Joan had no heir his lands would pass to the crown, which suggests that their son Dafydd ap Llywelyn (d. 1246) had not yet been born.

This was the nadir of Llywelyn's career, but he soon recovered. The other Welsh rulers had seen John as the defender of their independence but he soon showed that he had every intention of retaining a presence in Wales by building castles. Llywelyn and Joan spent Easter 1212 with him, but by the end of June war had broken out again and now most of the Welsh rulers, including Gwenwynwyn, were on the prince's side. The Four Cantrefs, apart from the castles of Deganwy and Rhuddlan, were reconquered. John now planned a major campaign to deal with Llywelyn once and for all; he had been preparing an expedition to recover Normandy and Anjou, lost to the French in 1204, and had built up a system of alliances, including the emperor Otto IV, but this was now postponed and an army was assembled at Chester in August. Nothing came of this project, however; the king was warned, by Joan according to some sources, of a baronial plot to hand him over to the Welsh or to kidnap him. The campaign was abandoned, although some Welsh hostages were executed and there was an attempt to persuade the sons of Dafydd and Rhodri to claim lands in Gwynedd.

The planned expedition to France gave this war a European dimension. Philip Augustus of France was in close touch with the pope, Innocent III, who, from his dealings with Gerald of Wales earlier in the century, knew something of Welsh affairs. Philip offered Llywelyn an alliance, sealing his letter with his golden seal, a particular mark of respect; Llywelyn's dignified answer, in which he spoke for all the Welsh rulers and undertook not to make any treaty with the English without Philip's agreement, survives in Paris. Innocent absolved Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn, and Maelgwn ap Rhys of Deheubarth from their oaths of fealty to John, urged them to make war on him and released their lands from the interdict imposed on the English church in 1208. John's enemies saw the advantage of backing the Welsh cause.

The capture of Deganwy and Rhuddlan in 1213 completed the conquest of the Four Cantrefs. Then, on 15 May 1213, John made his peace with the papacy and became a papal vassal; this meant that the Welsh no longer enjoyed papal support but on Innocent's instructions a truce was arranged which lasted through 1214. After his defeat at Bouvines on 27 July John was faced in England with growing baronial discontent and this led to attempts to secure the support of the Welsh leaders. But when civil war broke out in 1215 Llywelyn joined the barons and in May took Shrewsbury; the key figure in this alliance may have been Giles de Briouze, the bishop of Hereford, whose brother Reginald was to marry the prince's daughter Gwladus. On 15 June 1215 John was forced by the barons to grant Magna Carta, three articles of which related to Wales; these concerned the resolution of territorial disputes, the release of Welsh hostages, including Llywelyn's son Gruffudd, and the restoration of the charters given by the Welsh in 1211 as security for peace.

The grant of the charter was followed by the renewal of hostilities, the excommunication of the king's opponents, and the baronial invitation to Philip Augustus's son Louis to take over the English throne. In December 1215 Llywelyn, accompanied by most of the Welsh rulers, invaded south-west Wales, taking Carmarthen, Cardigan, and several other castles. At an assembly of Welsh rulers at Aberdyfi in 1216 he shared out the reconquered lands among various members of the Deheubarth dynasty; this event marked his emergence as prince of Wales to all intents and purposes and the other rulers may have done homage to him. The same year saw the defection of Gwenwynwyn, persuaded by John to change sides, despite his recent homage and written pledges of loyalty; he was expelled from Powys by Llywelyn and died in exile later the same year.
Pursuit of a settlement, 1216–1230
The death of John on 15 October 1216 and the accession of the young Henry III marked the beginning of the end of the English civil war and the gradual desertion of Llywelyn's allies as they made their peace. The baronial leaders had invited him and Alexander II of Scotland to a meeting at Northampton to choose a new king, but there was no response; both rulers probably understood the potential implications of their attendance. In the summer of 1217 Llywelyn led a further invasion of south Wales which resulted in the surrender of Swansea; Haverfordwest was saved from attack by the intervention of the bishop of St David's. The civil war ended with the treaty of Lambeth on 11 September 1217; the Welsh were offered inclusion in its terms, but as these involved the surrender of all their territorial gains they were unacceptable. Further negotiations followed and at Worcester in March 1218 Llywelyn did homage to the king and his gains were confirmed; he was given the custody of Carmarthen and Cardigan until the king came of age and of southern Powys during the minority of Gwenwynwyn's sons. In the same year he made his peace with the earl of Chester.

The peace of Worcester was a cessation of hostilities rather than a treaty, but it underlined Llywelyn's supremacy; he did homage on his own on behalf of all the Welsh rulers and this symbolized his main objective for the rest of his reign. He had imposed his overlordship on the other rulers; now he sought to have this overlordship recognized by the English crown in a formal treaty. He would do homage on behalf of all the rulers and they would do homage to him. When he died his successor would inherit this position and thus a treaty would create a single Welsh principality recognized by the crown.

Llywelyn's other objective was to secure the undisputed succession of his and Joan's son, Dafydd. At a council at Shrewsbury in May 1220, attended by Pandulf (d. 1226), the papal legate, Hubert de Burgh (d. 1243), the justiciar, and the archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton (d. 1228), Dafydd was recognized as his heir. This was confirmed by the pope in the summer of 1222; Llywelyn had informed Honorius III that he wished to abolish the Welsh custom whereby an illegitimate son was entitled to a share of the inheritance and that he had therefore ordained that Dafydd, his son born in wedlock, would succeed him. This meant the disinheriting of Gruffudd, but the fact that Dafydd was related through his mother to so many royal and aristocratic houses made him the natural choice. Honorius strengthened Dafydd's position further in April 1226 when he declared Joan legitimate, probably at the instance of her half-brother Henry III; in the same year the other Welsh rulers swore fealty to Dafydd and at Michaelmas 1229 he went to London and did homage to the king as his father's heir.

Llywelyn was on friendly terms with Ranulf (III), earl of Chester, and in 1222 his daughter Elen married the earl's nephew and heir, John the Scot. But his position was not unchallenged; the regent William (I) Marshal, earl of Pembroke, had died in 1219 and his son was making life difficult for his Welsh neighbours around his lordship of Pembroke. In August 1220 Llywelyn led an army into south Wales, ostensibly to remove local Welsh rulers from marcher lands; having done this he marched into what is now Pembrokeshire, destroyed two castles, and burned Haverfordwest. There was no immediate response, but on 15 April 1223 the earl of Pembroke returned from Ireland and took Cardigan and Carmarthen. Llywelyn sent his son Gruffudd to deal with the earl, but a battle near Carmarthen was inconclusive and Gruffudd, short of supplies, returned to Gwynedd. In September Llywelyn besieged Builth after attempts at reconciliation with the earl had failed. Hubert de Burgh now assembled an army, advanced into Wales, and began work on a new castle at Montgomery; Llywelyn raised the siege of Builth, and in October 1223 he and the other rulers submitted to the king and he agreed to relinquish the lands in Shropshire that he had occupied earlier that year.

When Falkes de Bréauté, one of John's old henchmen, defied the king in July 1224 he sought the aid of the earl of Chester and of Llywelyn. Henry III ordered Llywelyn not to receive Bréauté and in a dignified reply the prince informed the king that, as an independent ruler, he could, like the king of Scotland, receive anyone he liked in his own lands (although he had undertaken at Worcester not to receive the king's enemies). But his relations with the crown at this time were generally good and there seems to have been some attempt to conclude a permanent agreement; Llywelyn and Henry met at Shrewsbury in September 1224 and again in August 1226, although both meetings were inconclusive. The legitimization of Joan may have been a sign of royal goodwill.

On 27 April 1228 the castle and lordship of Montgomery were granted to Hubert de Burgh, who began to clear the nearby forests. The Welsh response was to besiege the castle. In August the king and Hubert set out to relieve it; Joan met Henry at Shrewsbury and arranged a truce, but at the same time some of the leading marcher lords had been summoned to Montgomery. Hubert began building a castle in Ceri; this was a threat to Llywelyn's control of the adjacent cantref of Arwystli and he moved swiftly. The royal campaign was an ignominious failure; the army had to withdraw and Henry undertook to demolish the castle in Ceri, for which Llywelyn agreed to pay him £2000. One of the leading marcher lords, William (V) de Briouze, had been captured by the Welsh and a ransom of £2000 was negotiated; he was released early in 1229, having agreed with Llywelyn that his daughter Isabella should marry Dafydd and that Builth should be her dowry. Llywelyn was now in an even stronger position and in 1230 he began to style himself prince of Aberffraw and lord of Snowdon, rather than prince of north Wales; the first surviving record of the use of this title is in a charter dated 1 May 1230 (Aberffraw in Anglesey was the principal seat of the kings of Gwynedd). He may have been reluctant to call himself prince of Wales until that title had been confirmed by the crown in a formal treaty.
War and negotiation, 1230–1240
In the spring of 1230 William de Briouze visited Llywelyn's court to make the final arrangements for the marriage. During his earlier captivity there he appears to have had an affair with Joan and they were now discovered by Llywelyn. Both were imprisoned; the king knew of this by 20 April, when he ordered Briouze's castles to be secured. On 2 May, Briouze was hanged at Crogen near Bala; Llywelyn informed his widow and his brother-in-law that ‘the magnates of the land’ had insisted on the execution. There were no repercussions; Llywelyn's relations with the crown and with his marcher neighbours were unaffected and the marriage went ahead. It may have been generally felt that Briouze had received his just deserts for his abuse of Llywelyn's hospitality.

The war that came in 1231 stemmed from the ambition of Hubert de Burgh, who had built up an extensive accumulation of lordships in south Wales, including Cardigan and Carmarthen, granted to him in 1229, the overlordship of Gower, and the custody of the lands of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who died in 1230. On the death of William de Briouze's brother-in-law the earl of Pembroke in April 1231, de Burgh was given custody of all the Briouze lands. This made him the virtual ruler of south Wales and it was regarded by Llywelyn as a serious threat. War was expected; on 20 May 1231 the sheriffs of the border counties and some marcher lords were ordered to see that no food or arms were supplied to the Welsh. On 27 May Llywelyn's representatives met the king at Worcester, but at the beginning of June war broke out, precipitated, according to one chronicler, by the execution of some Welsh prisoners. In the ensuing campaign Llywelyn burned Montgomery, Radnor, Hay, and Brecon and took the castles of Neath and Kidwelly; the Deheubarth lords Maelgwn Fychan (d. 1257) and Rhys Gryg (d. 1231) burned Cardigan and captured the castle. In late July Henry III led an army into Wales and rebuilt the castle of Painscastle, but at the beginning of winter he withdrew and on 30 November a year's truce was agreed. On 30 September the justiciar of Ireland had been ordered to summon the magnates there to join the campaign and to land in Anglesey the following summer but nothing came of this.

The year 1232 saw the fall of Hubert de Burgh and the rise of Peter de Rivallis, who acquired most of Hubert's Welsh lands; the same year saw the death of Ranulf of Chester, who was succeeded by Llywelyn's son-in-law John the Scot. Another son-in-law, John de Briouze, died the same year and Peter de Rivallis was granted the custody of his lordship of Gower. In 1233 Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, clashed with the new regime in England and resorted to arms; Llywelyn joined him and attacked Brecon, while early in 1234 the Deheubarth lords mounted an unsuccessful attack on Carmarthen. But there were pressures for peace, led by Edmund Rich, the new archbishop of Canterbury, and on 6 March 1234 a truce was agreed at Brocton in Shropshire. This was followed by the fall of Peter de Rivallis and the rehabilitation of Pembroke who, however, died on 15 April. The pact of Middle, agreed at the Shropshire village of that name on 21 June, was a truce for two years and a return to the situation at the outbreak of the war. The truce was renewed annually until Llywelyn's death, so that while he lived there was no further war with the king.

Llywelyn was still anxious to secure a permanent settlement; from 1232 onwards there is a considerable body of correspondence relating to Anglo-Welsh relations but, despite various expressions of goodwill on both sides, substantive negotiations never took place. Henry seems to have been determined not to recognize Llywelyn as prince of Wales in a formal treaty. Llywelyn was also faced with the problem of Gruffudd, who had been excluded from the succession. This was a long-standing problem; father and son had clashed in 1221, when they came close to war, and this had led to the confiscation of Meirionydd and Ardudwy, which Gruffudd had held. Relations had improved by 1223 when Gruffudd was given command of the army that faced the earl marshal's challenge, but in 1228 he was imprisoned in Deganwy, where he remained until 1234. Llywelyn appears to have granted him southern Powys, the patrimony of Gwenwynwyn, possibly to be held as an apanage; he granted lands there to the Cistercian monks of Strata Marcella in 1226.

The year 1237 was particularly difficult for Llywelyn. On 2 February Joan died at Aber; she was buried at Llan-faes in Anglesey, where her husband founded a Franciscan friary in her memory. Joan had been a great support and strength to Llywelyn, especially in his dealings with her father and her half-brother. A further blow was the death in the same year of the earl of Chester, John the Scot, without an heir; according to Matthew Paris, John was poisoned by his wife, Llywelyn's daughter Elen, but there is no other evidence of this. The political implications were serious; Chester reverted to the crown, which meant that a reliable ally on Llywelyn's eastern border was replaced by the king. Matthew Paris has two other pieces of information about Llywelyn in 1237; in that year the prince suffered a stroke and he also approached Henry III to secure a treaty. Negotiations took place and Llywelyn even promised military service and to put his lands under the king's protection. His interest in such a settlement was attributed by Paris to the rivalry of Gruffudd and Dafydd, which was threatening the stability of the principality. There is no other evidence of such an offer, but there was some talk of negotiations in 1237 between the king and Dafydd, to lead to a possible settlement.

By now all parties were contemplating a Wales without Llywelyn. In spring 1238 the prince summoned the other rulers to do homage to Dafydd. This came to the king's attention and on 7 March letters were sent to the rulers and to Llywelyn and Dafydd forbidding this; at the same time several leading marcher lords were summoned to meet Henry at Oxford to discuss the matter. A meeting was eventually held at the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida on 19 October 1238 and here the assembled rulers did fealty to Dafydd but not homage; this assembly might have been the occasion of Llywelyn's effective abdication and the investiture of Dafydd as his successor, the object being to strengthen Dafydd's position in the face of an increasing threat from Gruffudd and his supporters. According to Brut y tywysogyon Dafydd took Powys from his brother immediately after the Strata Florida meeting; the same source claims that he imprisoned him in 1239, although Matthew Paris states that this happened after Llywelyn's death.
Death and legacy
Llywelyn ab Iorwerth died at Aberconwy Abbey on 11 April 1240, having taken the Cistercian habit on his deathbed; he was buried in the abbey. He stands out as one of the greatest rulers of independent Wales and he is remembered as Llywelyn Fawr or Llywelyn the Great; the title seems first to have been used by Matthew Paris. Having started from nothing, he ended his days as prince of Wales in all but name, having achieved this position entirely through his political and military ability. His reign saw great changes in Gwynedd, particularly in the field of native law; these were aimed at strengthening the position of the prince. The relationship of the prince of Gwynedd with the other Welsh rulers was permanently transformed; in future the only choice open to them was to be the vassals of the prince or of the king of England. The military needs of Llywelyn led to the building of castles to defend the borders of Gwynedd and the heartland of Snowdonia at Castell y Bere, Cricieth, Dolbadarn, Deganwy, and Ewloe. To provide an army for his campaigns grants of land to be held by military service were made to faithful servants, particularly to his steward Ednyfed Fychan [see under Tudor family, forebears of (per. c.1215-1404)]. He was a generous patron to the church; the Cistercians of Aberconwy, Basingwerk, and Cymer benefited from his munificence and he was instrumental in refounding some native monastic communities as houses of Augustinian canons. He was also generous to the poets; the leading Gwynedd court poet, Prydydd y Moch (Llywarch ap Llywelyn, fl. 1180–1220) , composed nine poems to him and the greatest of these, the Canu mawr (‘Great Song’), was probably composed in 1213 to celebrate his victories, particularly the final reconquest of the Four Cantrefs. Other poets who sang to him included Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr (fl. 1155–1195) and Dafydd Benfras.

There is little information about Llywelyn himself, though the antiquary Edward Lhwyd, writing at the end of the seventeenth century, referred to a biography of Llywelyn and Dafydd in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; its fate is unknown. Prydydd y Moch referred to his stature, but this may have been no more than one of the attributes of the ideal ruler. The same poet suggested that he cared nothing for fine clothes or gold or silver, but this could be intended to emphasize his generosity. Other poems refer to battles or campaigns for which no other evidence survives, but which must have been familiar to the poet's audience. The fate of William de Briouze suggests the response of a man who had trusted and depended on his wife.

Llywelyn and Joan had one son, Dafydd, and at least four daughters. Three of the daughters married into marcher families; Gwladus's first husband was Reginald de Briouze, the father of William; after Reginald's death in 1227 or 1228 she married Ralph Mortimer (d. 1246) and it is through her that the modern English royal family traces its descent from Llywelyn. Elen married John the Scot, and Margaret, or Marared, married first John de Briouze, lord of Gower, and, after his death in 1232, Walter Clifford (d. 1263). The fourth daughter, Susanna, does not appear in the pedigrees; in November 1228 she was put by the king in the care of Nicholas de Verdon and his wife and that is the only reference to her. Tangwystl's daughter, Gwenllian, married William de Lacy and survived until 1281. According to the History of Fouke le Fitz Waryn and the Chester annals, Llywelyn married again some eighteen months before his death, his wife being Eva, the daughter of Fulk (III) Fitzwarine, but this is unconfirmed elsewhere. The marriages of his daughters suggest a consistent policy of creating close ties with some of his marcher neighbours in the interests of stability.

Llywelyn's two aims were to secure the undisputed succession of Dafydd and to have his predominance in Wales recognized by Henry III in a formal treaty, but in both he was finally unsuccessful. Gruffudd never seems to have been reconciled to being passed over for the succession and many may have supported him as mab y Gymraes (‘the Welshwoman's son’) ; there may have been some hostility to Joan as a daughter of the king of England, and it may be significant that she is not mentioned by any contemporary poet. Although he had brought most of native Wales under his control, everything he had achieved depended in the end on the force of his personality and the strength of his arm. There was no institutional framework to sustain it, with the result that within a month of his death Dafydd was summoned to Gloucester and forced to concede the homage of the other Welsh lords to the king. Henry III could do nothing while Llywelyn lived because of the position he had attained, but he would not allow this position to be inherited by Dafydd, nor would he recognize its permanence by treaty. In the short term Llywelyn, despite his achievements, might be said to have failed; nevertheless, his career showed what could be done by an able and ambitious Welsh ruler and he made a single Welsh principality a political possibility. During his life and largely through his efforts native Wales had changed beyond recognition.

A. D. Carr
Sources

T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955) · J. Williams ab Ithel, ed., Annales Cambriae, Rolls Series, 20 (1860) · J. G. Edwards, Calendar of ancient correspondence concerning Wales (1935) · Paris, Chron., vols. 3–4 · T. D. Hardy, ed., Rotuli litterarum patentium, RC (1835) · T. D. Hardy, ed., Rotuli litterarum clausarum, 2 vols., RC (1833–4) · CPR, 1216–1247Close rolls of the reign of Henry III, 1–4, PRO (1902–11) · Gwaith Llywarch ap Llywelyn, ‘Prydydd y Moch’, ed. E. M. Jones and N. A. Jones (1991) · J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1939); repr. (1988) · J. B. Smith, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, tywysog Cymru (1986) [trans.: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales (1998)] · G. A. Williams, ‘The succession to Gwynedd, 1238–47’, BBCS, 20 (1962–4), 393–413 · J. B. Smith, ‘Magna Carta and the charters of the Welsh princes’, EngHR, 99 (1984), 344–62 · D. Stephenson, The governance of Gwynedd (1984) · R. R. Davies, Conquest, coexistence, and change: Wales, 1063–1415, History of Wales, 2 (1987)
Likenesses

M. Paris, manuscript drawing, in or before 1259, CCC Cam., MS 16, fol. 132r [see illus.] · stone head, NMG Wales
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

A. D. Carr, ‘Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (c.1173-1240)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16874, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (c.1173-1240): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16874⁸

Note*

Walter Corbet was a close friend of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, Principal=Walter Corbet⁵

Name Variation

Llywelyn⁴

Name Variation

Llewelyn Fawr⁹

Event-Misc*

1194

Llywelyn and his uncle, Rhodri ab Owain, lord of Anglesey and Snowdon, expelled Llywelyn's uncle, Dafydd ab Owain from all his territory, forcing him to take refuge in England.⁴

Event-Misc

1201

He conquered Lleyn⁴

Event-Misc*

1202

King John made peace with Llywelyn and his nobles, abandoning Dafydd ab Owain and his claims, Principal=John Lackland, Witness=Dafydd ab Owain⁴

Event-Misc*

1204

William Longespée escorted Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, to the King, Principal=Sir William Longespée¹⁰

Event-Misc

1208

King John and Llywelyn combined forces against Gwenwynwyn, prince of Powys. John seized Gwenwynwyn at Shrewsbury, and Llywelyn took possession of all of Gwenwynwyn's territory and castles in Powys, taking Aberystwyth Castle, and conquering all Ceredigion north of the Aeron., Principal=John Lackland⁴

Event-Misc

25 December 1208

He was forgiven by King John after a falling out⁶

Event-Misc

1210

Llywelyn joined in a widespread Welsh uprising against King John, Principal=John Lackland⁴

Event-Misc

1210

King John and Gwenwynwyn drove Llywelyn out of Powys., Principal=John Lackland⁴

Event-Misc

1211

King John defeated Llywelyn, reduced his holdings to Gwynedd and Meirionydd, and imposed a crippling tribute., Principal=John Lackland⁴

Event-Misc

1212

Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn, and Maelgwn ap Rhys formed a confederacy to attack the English. Llywelyn captured Aberconway and several castles in Gwynedd and won back all his previous losses.⁴

Event-Misc

1215

Llywelyn captures the castles of Llanstephan, St Clear's, Newcastle-Emlyn, Aberteifi, Cilgerran, and Kidwelly, making him prince of all Wales not ruled by the Normans.⁴

Event-Misc

1215

Under Magna Carta, John promised to release Welsh hostages and restore their lands, Principal=John Lackland⁴

Event-Misc*

1218

Llywelyn performed homage to King Henry III. He was ordered to restore the lands of some of the king's servants, and in return was put in pssession of his English estates., Principal=Henry III Plantagenet King of England⁴

Event-Misc

1220

He suddenly attacked Pembrokeshire, captured three castles, and cruelly devastated the whole province.⁴

Event-Misc*

1223

Sir William Marshal won back the castles that Llywelyn had captured in Pembrokeshire and retaliated with a destructive foray into Llywelyn's territory, Principal=Sir William Marshal⁴

Event-Misc*

1226

Llywelyn and Joan's marriage was legitimated by Pope Innocent III, Principal=Joan of Wales⁴

(Witness) Death

2 May 1230

Wales, William de Brewes was discovered in the chamber of Joan, wife of Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. William was accused of being her lover, and hanged publicly by Llywelyn. William's daughter was married to Llywelyn and Joan's son., Principal=William de Braiose^11,3,12

Note

After his marriage, Ralph's father-in-law, Llywelyn, granted him the castles of Knighton and Norton, Shropshire. These castles came as maritagium with Joan, from her father, King John. This establishes Gladys as Joan's likely daughter., Principal=Sir Ralph de Mortimer¹³

Event-Misc*

between 1232 and 1233

Richard Earl of Cornwall fought against Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Principal=Richard of England¹⁴

Excommunication

1233

He renewed his ravages on a greater scale. He marched south through Montgomery and Brecon, buring the towns and razing the castles in his path. He was excommunicated and his lands placed under interdict.⁴

Event-Misc

March 1233

Richard drove Llywelyn back and strongly fortified Radnor Castle., Principal=Richard of England¹⁴

Event-Misc

1234

A truce was arranged⁴

Title*

Prince of North Wales¹⁵

Family 1

Gwenliann of Brynffenigi (?)

Child

Helen of North Wales (?)^3,6 d. a 1291

Family 2

Children

Family 3

Joan of Wales b. b 1200, d. 30 Mar 1236

Children

Margaret verch Llywelyn+^1,3,4,16 d. a 1268
Susanna verch Llywelyn⁴
Gwenllian Las verch Llywelyn⁴ d. 1281
(?) verch Llywelyn⁴
Angharad verch Llywelyn⁴
Helen ferch Llywelyn ab Iorwerth+³ d. 25 Nov 1253
Helen ferch Llywelyn ab Iorwerth+¹⁷ d. 25 Nov 1253
Gladys Dhu ferch Llywelyn ab Iorwerth+^7,3 b. c 1194, d. 1251
Dafydd ap Llywelyn^3,6 b. c 1208, d. 25 Feb 1246

Family 4

Tangwystl Goch (?) b. c 1168

Child

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn+^3,4 b. c 1205, d. 1 Mar 1244

Last Edited

27 Aug 2006

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-27.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-6.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 62.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 27-28.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S285] Leo van de Pas, 30 Jun 2004.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Longespée 3.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 66-27.
[S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-10.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Mortimer 5.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Cornwall 4.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 176-7.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 122.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 211.

Joan of Wales¹

F, #2962, b. before 1200, d. 30 March 1236

Father*

John Lackland^2,3,4 b. 27 Dec 1166, d. 19 Oct 1216

Mother*

Clementia (?)³

Mother

Constance of Brittany b. bt 1161 - 1162, d. 4 Sep 1201; possible¹

Joan of Wales|b. b 1200\nd. 30 Mar 1236|p99.htm#i2962|John Lackland|b. 27 Dec 1166\nd. 19 Oct 1216|p54.htm#i1620|Clementia (?)||p150.htm#i4476|Henry I. Curtmantel|b. 5 Mar 1132/33\nd. 6 Jul 1189|p55.htm#i1622|Eleanor of Aquitaine|b. 1123\nd. 31 Mar 1204|p55.htm#i1623|||||||

Birth*

before 1200

Marriage*

before 23 March 1204/5

by settlement dated Oct 1204, recorded Apr 1205, 2nd=Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"⁵

Marriage

1206

Conflict=Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"^1,3

Death*

30 March 1236

Death

2 February 1237

Aber, Carnarvon, Wales⁵

Death

4 March 1237

Aber, Carnarvon, Wales³

Burial*

Friars Minors, Llanfaes, Anglesey, Wales^3,5

DNB*

Joan [Siwan] (d. 1237), princess of Gwynedd, wife of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was the illegitimate daughter of John, king of England, and an unknown mother. A charge for a ship ‘to carry the king's daughter and the king's accoutrements to England’ from Normandy in 1203 (Magni rotuli, 2.569) probably refers to her. She seems to have been betrothed to Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, prince of Gwynedd, before 15 October 1204 and to have married him in the spring of 1205, though the Chester annalist dates the marriage to 1204 and the Worcester annalist to 1206. Part of her dowry, the castle and manor of Ellesmere, was granted to Llywelyn on 16 April 1205.

Joan frequently acted as an intermediary between her husband and her father. In 1211, when John had conducted a successful campaign in north Wales, ‘Llywelyn, being unable to suffer the king's rage, sent his wife, the king's daughter, to him, by the counsel of his leading men, to seek to make peace with the king on whatever terms he could’ (Brut y tywysogyon, s.a.). Llywelyn was obliged to hand over hostages, pay a heavy tribute of cattle, and cede the four cantrefs of north-east Wales to John. In September 1212, when John was preparing another attack on Wales, Joan sent him a warning of treason among his barons, which, coupled with like warnings from other quarters, induced him to disband his host. In 1214 she interceded for some Welsh hostages in England, whose release she obtained the next year.

Joan continued her work of mediation after the accession of Henry III; a letter is extant in which she pleads earnestly with him for a good understanding between him and Llywelyn. In September 1224 she met Henry in person at Worcester, and in 1225 he granted her the manor of Rothley in Leicestershire, to be followed the next year by that of Condover in Shropshire. In 1226 Pope Honorius III declared her to be of legitimate birth. Early in 1228 the king took back the two manors, probably as a result of rising tension between Llywelyn and Hubert de Burgh, but Joan met Henry at Shrewsbury that summer and arranged a truce, and the manors were restored to her in November. Her son Dafydd did homage to the king as Llywelyn's heir at Michaelmas 1229.

Dafydd, who in 1240 succeeded his father as prince of north Wales, was Joan's only son; but she also had a daughter, Elen, married first, in 1222, to John the Scot, earl of Chester, and second, in 1237 or 1238, to Robert de Quincy. Joan was probably also the mother of Llywelyn's daughters Gwladus and Margaret, and there is a reference to another daughter, Susanna. Gwladus's first husband was Reginald de Briouze; her stepson, William (V) de Briouze, was hanged by Llywelyn, probably at Crogen near Bala, on 2 May 1230, having been ‘caught in Llywelyn's chamber with the king of England's daughter, Llywelyn's wife’ (Brut y tywysogyon, s.a.). The affair may have begun two years earlier when William was Llywelyn's prisoner; he had returned to the prince's court to make arrangements for the marriage of his daughter Isabella to Dafydd. The suggestion by Kate Norgate in the Dictionary of National Biography that this episode was the result of a plot by Llywelyn, abetted by Joan, to avenge himself on William is unlikely; Joan was imprisoned by her husband and not released until 1231. By 1232 she and Llywelyn seem to have been reconciled since she was one of a delegation given safe conduct by Henry to meet him at Shrewsbury.

Joan died on 2 February 1237 at Aber near Bangor. At the place of her burial, Llan-faes in Anglesey, Llywelyn founded a Franciscan friary in her memory. Her stone coffin, removed at the dissolution of the friary, was rescued from use as a horse-trough early in the nineteenth century. It is now in the porch of Beaumaris church. On the slab that formed its cover is sculpted an effigy of the princess.

Kate Norgate, rev. A. D. Carr
Sources

J. E. Lloyd, A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest, 3rd edn, 2 vols. (1939) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Peniarth MS 20 (1952) · W. W. Shirley, ed., Royal and other historical letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 27 (1862–6) · T. Stapleton, ed., Magni rotuli scaccarii Normanniae sub regibus Angliae, 2 vols., Society of Antiquaries of London Occasional Papers (1840–44) · T. Jones, ed. and trans., Brut y tywysogyon, or, The chronicle of the princes: Red Book of Hergest (1955)
Likenesses

effigy on coffin lid, Beaumaris church, Anglesey
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

Kate Norgate, ‘Joan (d. 1237)’, rev. A. D. Carr, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14819, accessed 23 Sept 2005]

Joan (d. 1237): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14819⁶

Name Variation

Joan Plantagenet⁷

Name Variation

Joan of England (?)³

Event-Misc*

1226

Llywelyn and Joan's marriage was legitimated by Pope Innocent III, Principal=Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"⁵

(Witness) Death

2 May 1230

Family

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great" b. 1173, d. 11 Apr 1240

Children

Margaret verch Llywelyn+^1,3 d. a 1268
Susanna verch Llywelyn⁵
Gwenllian Las verch Llywelyn⁷ d. 1281
(?) verch Llywelyn⁵
Angharad verch Llywelyn⁵
Helen ferch Llywelyn ab Iorwerth+^3,5 d. 25 Nov 1253
Gladys Dhu ferch Llywelyn ab Iorwerth+⁵ b. c 1194, d. 1251
Dafydd ap Llywelyn⁵ b. c 1208, d. 25 Feb 1246

Last Edited

23 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-27.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-26.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Plantagenet 3.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Wales 4.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 129.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 66-27.
[S232] Don Charles Stone, Ancient and Medieval Descents, 21-10.

Sir Robert le Strange¹

M, #2963, d. before 10 September 1276

Father*

Sir John le Strange¹ b. s 1190

Mother*

Lucy de Tregoz¹ b. c 1202, d. a 1294

Sir Robert le Strange|d. b 10 Sep 1276|p99.htm#i2963|Sir John le Strange|b. s 1190|p99.htm#i2964|Lucy de Tregoz|b. c 1202\nd. a 1294|p99.htm#i2965|Sir John le Strange|b. b 1157\nd. b 20 Jan 1233/34|p368.htm#i11020|Amicia (?)||p499.htm#i14949|Sir Robert de Tregoz|b. c 1168\nd. b 29 Apr 1215|p104.htm#i3092|Sibyl de Ewyas|b. c 1165\nd. b 1 Jul 1236|p104.htm#i3093|

Charts

Ann Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*

say 1250

1st=Eleanor de Whitchurch^1,2

Death*

before 10 September 1276

Litcham, Norfolk, England^1,3,2

Inquisition Post Mor*

10 October 1276

Before going to the Holy Land he enfeoffed his s. Fulk of Sutton Madok Manor, Salop, and in his lifetime gave Merbury Manor, Ches., as 1 Kt. Fee to his s. Robert. He left s. h. John. By gift of K. Henry III, he held lands at Wilylye, Salop, now in the King's hands for his debt.⁴

Arms*

Gu. crusilly and 2 lions passant arg. (St. George).⁴

Event-Misc*

19 October 1265

Granted an escheated mess. in London⁴

Occupation*

1270

a crusader¹

Event-Misc

1272

Chawton, Hampshire, He was pardoned for cutting and selling part of the woods⁵

Event-Misc

10 June 1275

The Sheriff of Salop is to deliver to Robert le Strange Wrocworthyn Manor, which Hamo le Strange granted to him. His bro. Jn. le Strange, lord of Knokyn, having released to him his rights therein., Witness=John IV le Strange, Witness=Hamo le Strange⁴

Event-Misc

18 July 1275

Hamon le Strange gave seisin of Chauton Manor, Hants., val £100 p.a. to his bro. Robert, but later the Sheriff removed him. He is to have seisin of same.⁴

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 Fulk le Strange of Blackmere³

Event-Misc

14 June 1278

The King has granted to Anian, Bp. of St. Asaph, custody of Wrockwardin Manor in minority of heir⁴

Event-Misc*

10 June 1280

King grants to Guncelin de Badlesmere, marriage of Robert le Strange's son and heir John, Principal=John le Strange, Witness=Guncelin de Badlesmere⁴

Family

Eleanor de Whitchurch d. c 1304

Children

Robert le Strange^4,5
John le Strange b. 1266, d. b 18 Jun 1289; son and heir^6,3
Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere+¹ b. c 1267, d. 23 Jan 1324/25

Last Edited

27 Aug 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 231.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 294.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 299.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 233.
[S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.

Sir John le Strange¹

M, #2964, b. say 1190

Father*

Sir John le Strange^2,3 b. b 1157, d. b 20 Jan 1233/34

Mother*

Amicia (?)³

Sir John le Strange|b. s 1190|p99.htm#i2964|Sir John le Strange|b. b 1157\nd. b 20 Jan 1233/34|p368.htm#i11020|Amicia (?)||p499.htm#i14949|John le Strange|d. b Michaelmas 1178|p368.htm#i11016|Hawise (?)||p499.htm#i14948|||||||

Marriage*

Principal=Lucy de Tregoz^1,3

Birth*

say 1190

Death

before 1 May 1266

⁴

DNB*

Lestrange [Le Strange], John (III) (c.1194-1269), marcher lord, was the son of John (II) Lestrange (d. January 1223), grandson of John (I) Lestrange (d. before 1178), and great-grandson of Roald (‘Rivallonus Extraneus’) (d. before 1158) who was a tenant in Norfolk of the founder of the Fitzalan dynasty, Alan fitz Flaald, before 1122. Roald's description was from 1166 Anglicized as Lestrange or Lestraunge (the form ‘Strange’ comes much later); in its first English context it presumably differentiated the family from fitz Flaald and other Bretons, and from Normans also. Anjou has been suggested as their land of origin. The numeration tertius, quartus, and so on began with John (III).

In Norfolk John (II) acquired Hunstanton through his mother, whose father had held it of Roger (I) Bigod in 1086; in the twelfth century, service to the Angevins and to the Fitzalans brought John (II) and his three brothers scattered but considerable grants in Shropshire, and particularly a block of manors, including Ness and Osbaston (not all of them annexed to England until 1536), near the Fitzalans' caput at Oswestry, being ‘the most advanced outpost from the Shropshire side in that part of the debatable land’ disputed with the Welsh. The Lestranges succeeded Richard de Belmeis and Pain fitz John as part of the twelfth-century answer to problems posed by the proximity of the Welsh of Powys, but in contrast to the families of Belmeis and fitz John the Lestranges lasted for several generations.

John (II) acquired Knockin (pronounced Nuckin) in Osbaston from the sisters and coheirs of his cousin Ralf (c.1198). In imitation of grander families the Lestranges developed on that unpromising site a castle, a small church, and a village. (A modern aerial photograph exists; M. Watson and C. Musson, Shropshire from the Air, 1993, 71.) A market and fair were later added; it was possibly Guy (d. 1179), brother of John (II), who commissioned from the Herefordshire school of sculptors some elaborate carvings in the church at Alveley, near Bridgnorth, which were discovered in the twentieth century in a nearby inn. But the attribution to Guy fails if, as seems possible, the carvings came not from Alveley church but from Romsley chapel two miles away (Mercer, chap. 2).

John (I) Lestrange was appointed sheriff of Shropshire for a second term after the inquest of 1170, and held Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth castles for the king in 1173–4; John (II) showed the same consistent loyalty. He and his son, John (III), were alike sheriffs of both Shropshire and Staffordshire. The latter served in 1214 under King John in Poitou, and between 1233 and 1240 was successively appointed by Henry III constable of the castles of Montgomery, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, and Chester. He spent a long life in defending the Welsh border as a marcher lord, and during the rebellion of Simon de Montfort supported the crown. One of his two daughters, Hawise, married Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, prince of Powys Fadog; from them descended the Charltons, lords of Powys. John (III) Lestrange died in 1269.

John (III) and his wife, Lucia, daughter of Robert of Tregoz, had four sons: John (IV), Hamo, Roger, and Robert. Roger Lestrange of Ellesmere, Shropshire, was a knight of the royal household, and a lieutenant of Edward I in the Welsh wars of 1277, 1282–3, 1287, and 1294; in the first two wars Roger at various times held important castles such as Dinas Brân, Builth (a new stronghold), and Montgomery; in the second war it was he who reported to Edward the death of Llywelyn and of the flower of his people and was then the first to move against the Welsh castle of Bere; later he raised troops.

Despite Roger's services, no Lestrange received any territorial reward in Wales itself after the English success of 1282–3; Roger himself received an individual summons to parliament in 1295 and in five generations the family had thus risen from the status of successor of a Domesday mesne tenant to baronial dignity. Roger's title died with him in 1311. Roger's brother Robert was father of Fulk Lestrange of Blackmere (near Whitchurch, Shropshire), who—freed from the demands of Welsh wars—served against the Scots, and was appointed seneschal of Aquitaine in 1322, dying two years later. His barony of Lestrange of Blackmere (1309) passed with an heiress to the Talbot family in 1383 and later fell into abeyance.

John (III)'s eldest son, John (IV), himself a Montfortian, was drowned early in 1276; his son John (V) (d. 1309) was in royal service and was summoned to parliament from 1299 onwards as John Lestrange of Knockin; he is deemed to have become Lord Strange. Five generations of his descendants held the title, which an heiress took to the earls of Derby. They held the barony of Strange with the earldom of Derby until the former went into abeyance in 1595; this abeyance was terminated in 1921. Another barony of Strange was created in error (in 1628) for the seventh earl of Derby, and has become merged with the dukedom of Atholl. The fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Lestranges married well, but into English families; however, Owain Glyn Dw^r himself was the great-grandson of John (V) Lestrange.

The family achieved three baronies but no earldom; it was Hamo Lestrange of Ellesmere, the only son of John (III) not so far treated, who in a short life became the only Lestrange to achieve a royal marriage. He joined the Lord Edward at an important moment in 1263, followed the future king on his crusade, and in Cyprus in 1272 married a widowed queen. This was Isabella of Ibelin, Lady of Beirut, widow of Hugh II, king of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and a descendant of those vidames of Chartres who outshone most medieval families in their rise from insignificance to riches and titular eminence. In comparison with the splendours of the palace at Beirut the castle at Knockin must have seemed unutterably provincial; Hamo himself behaved in Outremer with the pragmatism necessary on the Welsh border, committing Beirut to the custody of the Mameluke sultan Baibars whose successor was to terminate the failing western hold on the coast of Syria. Hamo's death was known in England by late April 1273, and there appear to have been no children from the most exotic of the Lestrange marriages.

J. F. A. Mason
Sources

GEC, Peerage · H. Le Strange, Le Strange Records (1916) · R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, 12 vols. (1854–60), vol. 10 · VCH Shropshire, 3.1–32 · R. R. Davies, Conquest, coexistence, and change: Wales, 1063–1415, History of Wales, 2 (1987) · E. Mercer, English architecture: the Shropshire experience [forthcoming]
© Oxford University Press 2004–5
All rights reserved: see legal notice Oxford University Press

J. F. A. Mason, ‘Lestrange , John (III) (c.1194-1269)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16510, accessed 25 Sept 2005]

John (III) Lestrange (c.1194-1269): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16510

[Previous version of this biography available here: September 2004]⁵

Arms*

D'argent a deux leons passans de goules (Glover).⁴

Event-Misc

1213

He paid a debt to King John on behalf of his father⁶

Event-Misc

1219

He made an enquiry concerning forest matters at Shrewsbury⁶

Event-Misc

1225

He was collecting taxes in Staffordshire and Salop⁷

Event-Misc

25 May 1231

He was granted the manor of Wrockwardine⁷

Event-Misc

1235

He was appointed constable of Montgomery⁷

Occupation*

3 December 1240

Justiciar of Chester and custodian of the castle.^2,7

Event-Misc

1241

He was given supreme command of the Marches⁷

Occupation

between 25 May 1242 and 28 February 1244

Justice of Chester⁴

Event-Misc

1248

He was relieved of much responsibility, preparing for a pilgrimage to Pontigny⁷

Event-Misc

1249

Knockyn, He had a grant of market and fair⁷

Event-Misc

7 January 1249

Constable of Montgomery Castle.⁴

Event-Misc

1255

John le Strange raided several of Thomas Corbet's manors and took goods valued at 700 marks, Principal=Thomas Corbet⁷

Event-Misc*

1255

John le Strange raided several of Thomas Corbet's manors and took goods to the value of 700 marks., Principal=Thomas Corbet⁸

Event-Misc*

1260

summoned to parliament²

Note*

He remained loyal to the crown during the baronial wars.²

Family

Lucy de Tregoz b. c 1202, d. a 1294

Children

Sir Robert le Strange+¹ d. b 10 Sep 1276
John IV le Strange^2,7 d. b 26 Feb 1276
Hamo le Strange^2,7 d. c 1270
Sir Roger le Strange+² d. 31 Jul 1311

Last Edited

25 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
[S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 231.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 296.
[S376] Unknown editor, unknown short title.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 232.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 233.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 64.

Lucy de Tregoz¹

F, #2965, b. circa 1202, d. after 1294

Father*

Sir Robert de Tregoz^2,3 b. c 1168, d. b 29 Apr 1215

Mother*

Sibyl de Ewyas^2,3 b. c 1165, d. b 1 Jul 1236

Lucy de Tregoz|b. c 1202\nd. a 1294|p99.htm#i2965|Sir Robert de Tregoz|b. c 1168\nd. b 29 Apr 1215|p104.htm#i3092|Sibyl de Ewyas|b. c 1165\nd. b 1 Jul 1236|p104.htm#i3093|William Tregoz||p306.htm#i9180|Agnes Tregoz|b. c 1112\nd. a 1198|p307.htm#i9181|Robert I. de Ewyas|b. c 1125\nd. 1198|p104.htm#i3097|Pernel (?)|b. c 1135\nd. a 28 Oct 1204|p104.htm#i3098|

Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire, England⁴

Marriage*

Principal=Sir John le Strange^1,4

Birth*

circa 1202

Death*

after 1294

Knocklyn, Shropshire, England^3,4

Family

Sir John le Strange b. s 1190

Children

Sir Robert le Strange+¹ d. b 10 Sep 1276
John IV le Strange⁵ d. b 26 Feb 1276
Hamo le Strange⁵ d. c 1270
Sir Roger le Strange+⁵ d. 31 Jul 1311

Last Edited

23 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 255-28.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 231.
[S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.

Eleanor de Whitchurch¹

F, #2966, d. circa 1304

Father*

William de Blauminster; daughter and coheir²

Eleanor de Whitchurch|d. c 1304|p99.htm#i2966|William de Blauminster||p474.htm#i14218||||||||||||||||

Charts

Ann Marbury Pedigree

Marriage*

say 1250

Groom=Sir Robert le Strange^1,3

Marriage*

Groom=Bogo de Knovill¹

Death*

circa 1304

Event-Misc*

10 September 1276

Eleanor, wid. of Rob. le Strange to have £30 lands in Chaulton Manor till dower be arranged⁴

Event-Misc

2 October 1276

Eleanor, wid. of Rob. le Strange to have seisin of Whitchurch Manor, her own inheritance⁴

Event-Misc

19 January 1278

Livery of Merbury Manor and of 1/4 of Whitchurch Manor at £17 12s. rent.⁴

Event-Misc*

11 February 1281

Eleanor Extranea, als. le Estraunge, 30 or more, is sis. coh. of Bertreya, d. of Wm. de Blauminister (Whitchurch), Principal=Bertreya de Blauminster⁴

Event-Misc*

18 June 1289

Eleanor Extranea is the mother of Jn. and Fulk le Strange, Principal=John le Strange⁴

Family

Sir Robert le Strange d. b 10 Sep 1276

Children

Robert le Strange⁴
John le Strange⁵ b. 1266, d. b 18 Jun 1289
Sir Fulk le Strange of Blackmere+¹ b. c 1267, d. 23 Jan 1324/25

Last Edited

23 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 294.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 231.
[S325] Rev. C. Moor, Knights of Edward I, v. 4, p. 299.
[S230] Adrian Channing, Le Strange in "Origin of Strange," listserve message 11 Apr 2003.

Bogo de Knovill¹

M, #2967, d. 1304

Marriage*

2nd=Eleanor de Whitchurch¹

Death*

1304

Last Edited

24 Oct 2003

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 29A-30.

Eleanor de Lancaster¹

F, #2968, b. circa 1312, d. 1372

Father*

Henry Plantagenet² b. c 1281, d. 22 Sep 1345

Mother*

Maud de Chaworth² b. 2 Feb 1282, d. bt 19 Feb 1317 - 3 Dec 1322

Birth*

circa 1312

Grismond Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales²

Marriage*

before June 1337

Principal=John de Beaumont^2,3

Marriage*

5 February 1345

Ditton, Buckinghamshire, England, by papal dispensation, they being related in the 4th and 4th degrees, 2nd=Sir Richard "Copped Hat" FitzAlan^1,2,3,4,5

Death*

1372

Death

11 January 1371/72

Arundel, Sussex, England^2,3,5

Burial*

Lewes Priory, Sussex, England^2,5

Name Variation

Eleanor Plantagenet²

Family 1

Sir Richard "Copped Hat" FitzAlan b. c 1313, d. 24 Jan 1375/76

Children

Sir John de Arundel+² b. c 1338, d. 15 Dec 1379
Joan FitzAlan+² b. 1344, d. 17 Apr 1419
Sir Richard FitzAlan K.G.² b. 1346, d. 21 Sep 1397
Alice FitzAlan+² b. c 1352, d. 17 Mar 1916
Thomas FitzAlan⁵ b. c 1352, d. 19 Feb 1413/14

Family 2

John de Beaumont b. 1318, d. BET 10-25 MAY 1342

Child

Henry de Beaumont+² b. 1340, d. 13 Jun 1369

Last Edited

6 Nov 2004

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 60-32.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 121-6.
[S234] David Faris, Plantagenet Ancestry, Cergeaux 10.
[S284] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, Fitz Alan 10.

Loretta la Zouche¹

F, #2969, b. circa 1211, d. before 1273

Father*

Roger la Zouche^1,2,3 b. c 1175, d. b 14 May 1238

Mother*

Margaret (?)² b. c 1179, d. a 28 Jan 1232

Loretta la Zouche|b. c 1211\nd. b 1273|p99.htm#i2969|Roger la Zouche|b. c 1175\nd. b 14 May 1238|p99.htm#i2970|Margaret (?)|b. c 1179\nd. a 28 Jan 1232|p134.htm#i4013|Alan la Zouche|b. c 1136\nd. 1190|p134.htm#i4014|Adeline de Belmeis|b. c 1136\nd. a 1190|p134.htm#i4015|||||||

Marriage*

Principal=Gilbert de Sanford^1,2,3

Birth*

circa 1211

Death*

before 1273

Name Variation

Lora¹

Family

Gilbert de Sanford d. 1249

Child

Alice de Sanford+^1,2,3 b. c 1230, d. 7 Sep 1312

Last Edited

11 Sep 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 60-29.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 120-3.

Roger la Zouche¹

M, #2970, b. circa 1175, d. before 14 May 1238

Father*

Alan la Zouche^2,3 b. c 1136, d. 1190

Mother*

Adeline de Belmeis² b. c 1136, d. a 1190

Birth*

circa 1175

Marriage*

Principal=Margaret (?)^2,4

Death*

before 14 May 1238

^2,4

Event-Misc*

1199

He paid £100 to have his brother William's lands, Principal=William de Belmeis³

Event-Misc

1204

His lands were seized after the Bretons rebelled against King John, believing that John had assassinated Arthur, Earl of Brittany on 3 Apr 1203. He offered 100 marks to regain his English lands³

Event-Misc*

15 August 1204

The King's Bailiff in Sussex had orders to give to William Briwere all Roger La Zouche's lands in the Honour of Petworth, Principal=William de Briwere⁵

Event-Misc

1215

He swore to support the Magna Carta barons, but rejoined the King 11 Jun 1216 and supported him and his son Henry III after, being reward with lands³

Event-Misc

6 August 1220

He was licensed to go on a pilgimage to Santiago de Compostella³

Occupation

between 1228 and 1231

Sheriff of Devon⁶

Event-Misc*

28 January 1236/37

Westminster, He witnessed the confimation of the Magna Carta by Henry III^6,3

Family

Margaret (?) b. c 1179, d. a 28 Jan 1232

Children

Alice la Zouche^2,3 d. 1256
Eudo la Zouche+^2,3 d. bt 28 Apr 1279 - 25 Jun 1279
Sir Alan la Zouche+² b. c 1205, d. 10 Aug 1269
William la Zouche^2,3 b. c 1209, d. b 3 Feb 1271/72
Loretta la Zouche+^1,2,7 b. c 1211, d. b 1273

Last Edited

24 Apr 2005

Citations

[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 60-29.
[S218] Marlyn Lewis, Ancestry of Elizabeth of York.
[S301] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 271.
[S168] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 39-28.
[S347] Carl Boyer 3rd, Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 43.
[S338] Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots, 8th ed., 39-28.
[S233] Frederick Lewis Weis, Magna Charta Sureties, 120-3.

Person Page - 99

Ercc of Dalriada1

Family

Citations

Loarn of Dalriada1

Citations

Beatrice de Say1

Family

Citations

William de Say1

Family

Citations

Margaret de Huntingdon1

Family 1

Family 2

Citations

Humphrey IV de Bohun1

Family

Citations

Duke Conan IV Brittany1

Family

Citations

Ada de Warenne1

Family

Citations

Henry of Huntingdon1

Family

Citations

William King of Scots "the Lion"1

Family 1

Family 2

Family 3

Citations

David I of Scotland "the Saint"1

Family

Citations

Eleanor Gifford1

Family

Citations

Elizabeth le Strange1

Citations

Sir Robert Corbet1

Citations

Sir John Gifford1

Family 1

Family 2

Citations

Maud de Clifford1

Family

Citations

Sir William Longespee III1

Citations

Walter de Clifford1

Family

Citations

Margaret verch Llywelyn1,2

Family

Citations

John de Braose1

Citations

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"1

Family 1

Family 2

Family 3

Family 4

Citations

Joan of Wales1

Family

Citations

Sir Robert le Strange1

Family

Citations

Sir John le Strange1

Family

Citations

Lucy de Tregoz1

Family

Citations

Eleanor de Whitchurch1

Ercc of Dalriada¹

Loarn of Dalriada¹

Beatrice de Say¹

William de Say¹

Margaret de Huntingdon¹

Humphrey IV de Bohun¹

Duke Conan IV Brittany¹

Ada de Warenne¹

Henry of Huntingdon¹

William King of Scots "the Lion"¹

David I of Scotland "the Saint"¹

Eleanor Gifford¹

Elizabeth le Strange¹

Sir Robert Corbet¹

Sir John Gifford¹

Maud de Clifford¹

Sir William Longespee III¹

Walter de Clifford¹

Margaret verch Llywelyn^1,2

John de Braose¹

Llewelyn ap Iorwerth "the Great"¹

Joan of Wales¹

Sir Robert le Strange¹

Sir John le Strange¹

Lucy de Tregoz¹

Eleanor de Whitchurch¹

Bogo de Knovill¹

Eleanor de Lancaster¹

Loretta la Zouche¹

Roger la Zouche¹