Isabel DE BOLEBEC (1165-1245)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Isabel de Bolebec, Countess of Oxford (1165 – 3 February 1245) was eldest daughter and co-heiress of Hugh II de Bolebec, lord of Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England (d. c. 1166) and his wife Margaret de Montfichet. Isabel was a patroness of the Order of Friars Preacher (Dominicans) in England. She was always referred to as Isabel or Isabella de Bolebec after her second marriage to Robert de Vere in contemporary documents. She eventually inherited the entire Bolebec barony.

Marriage

Isabel married first Henry of Nonant (Novaunt), Lord of Totnes, Devonshire who died childless in 1206. In 1207, she petitioned the Crown for the right to marry whom she wished. She received permission, and that same year she married Robert de Vere, later heir to the earldom of Oxford.[1]

Isabel's only known child, Hugh de Vere (later fourth earl of Oxford), was born within a year of her marriage to Robert de Vere and Isabel became countess of Oxford when Robert inherited the earldom from his brother in 1214.

Robert joined the barons whose dissatisfaction with King John of England prompted their rebellion, and he was one of twenty-five barons elected by the terms of Magna Carta to ensure the John's continued good behaviour. That position led to his excommunication when Pope Innocent III released John from the terms of Magna Carta, and the king took Castle Hedingham, Essex, the Earl's seat, in 1216.

Robert made peace with the regents of John's son, Henry III of England, in 1217 and eventually served as a royal judge until his death in 1222. The widowed Countess Isabel purchased the wardship of her minor son and his inheritance for 6000 marks. They traveled together on pilgrimage "beyond the sea" in 1237.

Dominican Order

Isabel was one of the chief benefactors of the Dominican Order when the friars came to England. She assisted the friars in 1221 to find quarters in the city of Oxford, contributing to the building of their oratory there c. 1227. When they needed a larger priory, she and the bishop of Carlisle bought land south of Oxford and contributed most of the funds and materials needed. She was buried in the new church there.

The countess was litigious, engaging in a number of lawsuits, including one long dispute with Woburn Abbey.

NOTES:

1 Her niece bore the same first and surname, Isabel de Bolebec, and also married a de Vere, Robert's brother Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Earl of Oxford. That has led to confusion and difficulty separating the two women. Isabel the younger had died by 1207, and her aunts Isabel and Constance were her co-heirs.

SOURCES:

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Isabel de Bolebec."

Complete Peerage, "Robert De Vere, 3rd earl of Oxford", vol. X:210-3.

Survey of the Antiquities of the city of Oxford...by Anthony Wood (Oxford Historical Society, 1890)

Magna Charta Sureties 1215 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Page: 120-1, 154-3

Burke's Peerage & Baronetage by John Burke, Page: 2498

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Sources