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Individual Record for: Gilbert I DE CLARE (male)

Source:

bulkeley.txt

Notes:

3rd Earl of Gloucester; Earl of Hertford; Earl of Caerleon;9th Earl of Cla re[hutch4.ged]

3rd Earl of Gloucester; Earl of Hertford; Earl of Caerleon;9th Earl of Cla reGilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, 7th Earl of Hertford and 3rd Ea rl of Gloucester, who, by the king's procurement, m. in 1257, Alice, da u. of Guy, Earl of Angoul°me, and niece of the king of France, which monar ch bestowed upon the lady a marriage portion of 5,000 marks. This noblema n, who, like his predecessors, was zealous in the cause of the barons, pro ceeded to London immediately after the defeat sustained by the insurrectio nary lords at Northampton (48th Henry III) [1264], in order to rouse the c itizens, which, having effected, he received the honour of knighthood fr om Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at the head of the army at Lewes; of whi ch army, his lordship, with John Fitz-John and William de Montchensi, comm anded the second brigade, and having mainly contributed to the victo ry in which the king and prince became prisoners, while the whole pow er of the realm fell into the hands of the victors, the earl procured a gr ant under the great seal of all the lands and possessions lying in Engla nd of John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, one of the most faithful adheren ts of the king, excepting the castles of Riegate and Lewes, to hold duri ng the pleasure of the crown, and he soon after, with some of the princip al barons, extorted from the captive monarch a commission authorizing Step hen, then bishop of Chichester, Simon Montford, Earl of Leicester, and him self, to nominate nine persons of "the most faithful, prudent, and most st udious of the public weal," as well prelates as others, to manage all thin gs according to the laws and customs of the realm until the consultatio ns at Lewes should terminate. Being jealous, however, of the power of Leic ester, the earl soon after abandoned the baronial cause and, having assist ed in procuring the liberty of the king and prince, commanded the second b rigade of the royal arm at the battle of Evesham, which restored the king ly power to its former lustre. In reward of these eminent services he rece ived a full pardon for himself and his brother Thomas of all prior treason s, and the custody of the castle of Bergavenny during the minority of Mau d, wife of Humphrey de Bohun. His lordship veered again though in his alle giance and he does not appear to have been sincerely reconciled to the roy al cause until 1270, in which year, demanding from Prince Edward repayme nt of the expenses he had incurred at the battle of Evesham, with live ry of all the castles and lands which his ancestors had possessed and, tho se demands having been complied with, he thenceforward became a good and l oyal subject of the crown. Upon the death of King Henry, the Earl of Hertf ord and Gloucester was one of the lords who met at the New Temple in Lond on to proclaim Prince Edward, then in the Holy Land, successor to the crow n, and so soon as the new monarch returned to England, his lordship was t he first to entertain him and his whole retinue with great magnificence f or several days at his castle of Tonebruge. In the 13th Edward I [1285], h is lordship divorced his wife Alice, the French princess, and in considera tion of her illustrious birth, granted for her support during her life, s ix extensive manors and parks, and he m. in 1289, Joan of Acre, dau. of Ki ng Edward I, upon which occasion he gave up the inheritance of his castl es and manors, as well in England as i Wales, to his royal father-in-la w, to dispose of as he might think proper; which manors, &c., were entail ed by the king upon the earl's issue by the said Joane, and in default, up on her heirs and assigns, should she survive the lordship. By this la dy he had issue, Gilbert, his successor, Alianore, Margaret, and Elizabet h. His lordship d. in 1295, and the Countess Joan surviving, m. a "plain e squire," called Ralph de Monthermer, clandestinely, without the king, h er father's, knowledge, but to which alliance he was reconciled through t he intercession of Anthony Beke, the celebrated bishop of Durham, and beca me eventually much attached to his now son-in-law. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dor mant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, pp. 119-120, Cla re, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester (1243-1295), 8th earl of Gloucester a nd 9th earl of Clare, was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on Sept. 2, 124 3. He married Alice of Angoul°me, niece of king Henry III, succeeded his f ather in July 1262, and joined the baronial party led by Simon de Montfor t. With Simon, Gloucester was at the battle of Lewes in May 1264, when t he king himself surrendered to him, and after this victory he was one of t he three persons selected to nominate a council. Soon, however, he quarrel ed with Simon. Leaving London for his lands on the Welsh border he met Pri nce Edward, afterward king Edward I, at Ludlow, just after his escape fr om captivity; and contributed largely to the prince's victory at Evesh am in August 1265. But this alliance was as transitory as the one with Lei cester, Gloucester championed the barons who had surrendered at Kenilwor th in November and December 1266, and after putting his demands before t he king, secured possession of London (April 1267). The earl quickly ma de his peace with Henry III and with Prince Edward. Under Edward I he spe nt several years in fighting in Wales, or on the Welsh border; in 1289 wh en the barons were asked for a subsidy he replied on their behalf that th ey would grant nothing until they saw the king in person (nihi prius perso naliter viderent in Anglia faciem regis), and in 1291 he was fined and imp risoned on account of levying private war on Humphrey de Bohun, earl of He reford. Having divorced his wife Alice, he married in 1290 Edward's daught er Joan, or Johanna (d. 1307). The "Red Earl," as he is sometimes calle d, died at Monmouth on Dec. 7, 1295, leaving, in addition to three daughte rs, a son, Gilbert, earl of Gloucester, killed at Bannockburn. [Encyclopae dia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 10, p. 434, GLOUCESTER, GILBERT DE CLARE, E ARL OF.]



"Sir Gilbert de Clare, Knt., the Red, b. Christ Church, Hampshire, 2 Se p. 1243, d. Monmouth Castle, 7 Dec. 1299, 9th Earl of Clare, Earl of Hertf ord and Gloucester, knighted 14 May 1264; m. (1) Alice, dau. of Hu gh XI de Lusignan; m. (2) Westminster Abbey, ca. 30 Apr. 1290, Joan Planta genet ... b. Acre, Holy Land, 1272, d. 23 Apr. 1307, dau. of Edward I of E ngland and Eleanor of Castile."

"Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists", Frederick Lewis Weis & Wa lter Lee Sheppard, Jr, 7th ed., 1992-3, Baltimore MD, Genalogical Publishi ng Co., p 67

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p 37-38: "Like his father Richard, Earl Gilbert the Red was married twic e. In 1253 Richard arranged for the marriage of his son, then about ten ye ars old, to Henry III's niece Alice, daughter of Hugh de Lusignan, cou nt of La Marche and Angouleme^me. Although she had two daughters, the mat ch proved to be both a personal and a political failure; Gilbert and Ali ce were formally separated in 1271 and the marriage was finally annull ed in 1285. Even before the annulment, Earl Gilbert and King Edward I h ad discussed the possibility of a marriage into the royal family. In May 1 290, after a long delay pending the annulment and the necessity for a subs equent papal dispensation, Gilbert married Edward's fifth child and seco nd surviving daughter Joan, who had been born at Acre in Palestine in 127 2. Joan of Acre was to outlive the Red Earl by some twelve years, but betw een 1290 and his death in 1295 they had a son and heir, the last Earl Bilb ert, and three daughters, the eventual coheiresses of the Clare inheritanc e. The children of Earl Gilbert the Red by his two marriages comprised t he last generation of the Clare family.
p 39-40: "Earl Gilbert the Red left a son and five daughters. of his daugh ters by Alice de Lusignan, the elder, Isabella, was born in 1263. In 12 97 she was betrothed to Guy, son and heir of William de Beauchamp, ea rl of Warwick. Guy de Beachamp succeeded his father as earl in 1298, but t he projected marriage, although still pending, never took place. Not unt il 1216 was Isabella married, at the advanced age of fifty-three, to the G loucestershire baron Maurice de Berkeley, and she died without issue in 13 38. The other daughter, Joan, probably born sometime between 1264 and 127 1, was married in 1284 to Duncan, earl of Fife, who died in 1288. The marr iage of their son Duncan (d. 1353) to Mary, daughter of Joan of Acre and R alph de Monthermer, has already been mentioned [see note under Joan of Acr e]. In 1302 or shortly thereafter, Joan married another Scots baron, Gerva se Avenel. They entered the fealty of her kinsman Robert Bruce and were de clared rebels by King Edward II. Her estates in England, which her fath er had given as a marriage portion at the time of her betrothal to the ea rl of Fife, were forfeited, and later granted to Hugh Despenser, husba nd of Joan's half sister Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Earl Gilbert t he Red and Joan of Acre."
p 94: "Gilbert de Clare, the "Red Earl" of Gloucester and Hertford, was af ter Simon de Montfort the single most important figure in the later stag es of the baronial opposition to Henry III. From his father Earl Richa rd he inherited not only the great Clare estates and lordships in Englan d, Wales, and Ireland, but also a position of leadership among the magnat es of the realm; and he was destined to play an even more decisive ro le in the civil wars which determined the fate of the struggle between ki ng and baronage than his father had played in the initial stages of the mo vement for reform."
p 104, 107-108: "The victory at Lewes [over Henry III, 14 May 1264] mark ed the high point of Simon de Montfort's fortunes. ..... Simon's suprema cy was short-lived. ... Simon's enemies were more determined than ev er to end his regime by force. The marchers continually postponed their de parture on various pretext, and the earl was unable to enforce his order s. More ominously, a number of Simon's supporters now deserted him, includ ing the earl of Gloucester. Gilbert's defection proved the decisive fact or in the situation. The chroniclers record a long list of grievances, a nd the chancery records bear at least some of them out. He had become incr easingly dissatisfied with Simon's regime and reproached the earl for h is supposed autocratic rule. He was jealous of the position the earl's so ns held in the government. He quarreled with Simon over the control of roy alist castles and manors, and the exchange of prisoners. He objected to t he use of foreign knights in important castles and the failure to expel a ll the aliens from court. His support for Simon had not been unqualifie d, as the letter written in the winter of 1263-64 had shown. A combinati on of grievances thus drove him into opposition."
p 108-110: "Simon [de Montfort] took [Lord] Edward and Henry [III] with h im to the west, and encamped at Hereford until May 24 [1265]. Attempted ne gotiations proved fruitless, for Gilbert had already worked out a plan wi th Edward and Roger Mortimer which would seal Simon's fate. On May 28, wi th the assistance of Thomas de Clare, Earl Gilbert's younger brother, Edwa rd managed an escape. He joined forces with [Roger] Mortimer at Wigmore, a nd the next day Gilbert joined them in Ludlow. Wykes, perhaps the best inf ormed chronicler of this period, records an important set of cnditions th at Earl Gilbert demanded as the price of his support. The earl made Edwa rd swear a solemn oath that, if victorious, he would cause the "good old l aws" of the realm to be observed' evil customs would be abolished, alie ns banished from the king's council and administration; and the king wou ld rule with the counsel of his faithful subjects. If Wykes' account of t he oath is substantially correct, it clearly shows that Gilbert remained f irmly attracted to the principles of the Provisions [of Oxford (1258) a nd Westminster (1259), granted to the barons by Henry III but not much adh ered to], however vaguely envisioned and conventionally expressed, a nd to the xenophobia which the movement engendered. If he withdrew his sup port from Simon, it was not because he was willing, like his father Earl R ichard in 1260, to repudiate the Provisions, but because he felt that Sim on did not distinguish between the baronial ideals and his personal ambiti on. The cause of reform, in short, was not the exclusive prerogative of t he earl of Leicester. The military operations are quickly told. Under t he leadership of Edward and Earl Gilbert, the royalists gathered at Glouce ster, cutting off Simon's retreat across the Severn at that point. Bold ly making his way into the march, Simon renewed his alliance with Llywel yn in the middle of June. He then went through Monmouth to the borou gh of Newport in the Clare lordship of Gwynllwg and attempted to cross ov er to Bristol, but this plan was foiled when Earl Gilbert destroyed the co nvoy sent for that purpose. Simon managed to return to Hereford, and tri ed to join forces with an army led by his son. Edward and Gilbert, howeve r, surprised the younger Simon at Kenilworth in Warwick on August 1, rout ed his forces, and immediately doubled back to intercept Earl Simon. The e arl reached the Worcester manor of Evesham on August 3, but was surround ed by the royalists. The next day battle [of Evesham] was joined. As Sim on advanced on a troop led by Roger Mortimer, Earl Gilbert, who command ed the second line, suddenly attacked from the rear. The outcome was le ss a battle than a slaughter. The only important marcher who fought with S imon, Humphrey de Bohun the younger, was captured and imprisoned at Beest on castle in Cheshire, where he died on October 27. Two other men with mar cher affiliations, Henry de Hastings and John fitz John, were also impriso ned. Otherwise the royalists showed no mercy. Simon de Montfort, his son H enry, his loyal friend Peter de Montfort the elder, the justiciar Hugh Des penser and many others were slain. King Henry himself was rescued by Rog er Leyburn. The Montfortian experiment was ended. The death of Simon de Mo ntfort did not produce peace. The ferocity with which the royalists had cr ushed their enemies carried over into a period of widespread seizures of r ebel lands and indiscriminate plundering which produced further turmoil a nd unrest. In addition, the territorial policy adopted by the restored roy al government provoked those supporters of Earl Simon still at large in to guerilla operations which turned into full-scale warfare and prevent ed a final pacification of the kingdom until the end of 1267. In this peri od the actions of Gilbert de Clare again proved decisive. His support f or the disinherited rebels was a major factor in the establishment of inte rnal order following the two years of continued civil strife which constit uted the aftermath of the battle of Evesham."
p 120-121: "The most striking feature of Gilbert de Clare's role in the la ter stages of the baronial movement is its consistency. The Red Earl's shi fting allegiance was a sign not of vaillation but of independence. He w as the moderating force against the extremes of both the royalist and t he Montfortian sides. He was attracted to the baronial movement as a whol e, but even more than his father Earl Richard, he drew the crucial distinc tion between its policies and the great earl whose name is
inseparably associated with the movement. Earl Gilbert was not convinced t hat Simon de Montfort's actions were always and indisputably right, a nd he withdrew his support when he felt that Simon's regime was no bett er in its way than King Henry's had been. His adherence to the royalist s, however,
was no less qualified. When two years of continued resistance to the resto red government of Henry III produced further social and political unres t, Earl Gilbert's rising proved the decisive factor in restoring unity a nd tranquillity to the realm. Unlike Earl Richard, Gilbert had not accept ed Henry's repudiation of the principles which underlay the Provisio ns of Oxford and Westminster. His activities, while strongly colored by pe rsonal animosities and conditioned by personal interests, nevertheless rev eal a continuity of purpose which did much in helping to incorporate tho se principles into the fabric of the common law and the conduct of monarch y."
p 155-156: "On December 7 [1295] he [Gilbert] died at Edmund of Lancaster 's castle of Monmouth, and was buried two weeks later at Tewkesbuty Abbe y. Most of the chroniclers merely noted his death without further commen t, although an interpolation in the chronicle of Walter of Guisborough ref ers, in rather conventional fashion, to the earl's military prowess and st aunch defense of his rights. The Red Earl's last years were spent under t he shadow of Edward I's domination, and his stormy career ended in dispiri ted humiliation. Perhaps the soundest judgment is that contained in the ot herwise undistinguished Osnay chronicle. In referring to the earl's marria ge to Joan of Acre in 1290, the chronicler calls Gilbert the greatest of t he magnates of the realm in nobility and eminence, and incomparably the mo st powerful man in the kingdom -- next to the king. Later events proved th at the chronicler's qualification was more significant than he could ha ve realized at the time."

"A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314", Michael Al tschul, Baltimore MD, Johns Hopkins Press, 1965.

Notes Source: bulkeley.txt

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