Sir Richard DE CLARE (1222-1262)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester (4 August 1222 – 14 July 1262) was son of Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford and Isabel Marshal.[1][2] On his father's death, when he became Earl of Gloucester (October 1230), he was entrusted first to the guardianship of Hubert de Burgh. On Hubert's fall, his guardianship was given to Peter des Roches (c. October 1232) ; and in 1235 to Gilbert, earl Marshall.[3]

Marriage

Richard's first marriage to Margaret or Megotta, as she was also called, ended with an annulment or with her death in November 1237. They were both approximately fourteen or fifteen. The marriage of Hubert de Burgh's daughter Margaret to Richard of Clare, the young Earl of Gloucester, brought de Burgh into some trouble in 1236, for the earl was as yet a minor and in the king's wardship, and the marriage had been celebrated without the royal license. Hubert, however, protested that the match was not of his making, and promised to pay the king some money, so the matter passed by for the time.[4] Even before Margaret died, the Earl of Lincoln offered 5,000 marks to King Henry to secure Richard for his own daughter. This offer was accepted, and Richard was married secondly, on 2 Feb. 1238 to Maud de Lacy, daughter of John de Lacy, 1st Earl of Lincoln [5]

Military career

A year after he came of age, he was in an expedition against the Welsh. Through his mother, he inherited a fifth part of the Marshal estates, including Kilkenny and other lordships in Ireland.[citation needed]

He joined in the Barons' letter to the Pope in 1246 against the exactions of the Curia in England. He was among those in opposition to the King's half-brothers, who in 1247 visited England, where they were very unpopular, but afterwards he was reconciled to them.[6]

On April 1248, he had letters of protection for going overseas on a pilgrimage. At Christmas 1248, he kept his Court with great splendour on the Welsh border. In the next year he went on a pilgrimage to St. Edmund at Pontigny, returning in June. In 1252 he observed Easter at Tewkesbury, and then went across the seas to restore the honor of his brother William, who had been badly worsted in a tournament and had lost all his arms and horses. The Earl is said to have succeeded in recovering all, and to have returned home with great credit, and in September he was present at the Round Table tournament at Walden.[citation needed]

In August 1252/3 the King crossed over to Gascony with his army, and to his great indignation the Earl refused to accompany him and went to Ireland instead. In August 1255 he and John Maunsel were sent to Edinburgh by the King to find out the truth regarding reports which had reached the King that his son-in-law, Alexander, King of Scotland, was being coerced by Robert de Roos and John Baliol. If possible, they were to bring the young King and Queen to him. The Earl and his companion, pretending to be the two of Roos's knights, obtained entry to Edinburgh Castle, and gradually introduced their attendants, so that they had a force sufficient for their defense. They gained access to the Scottish Queen, who made her complaints to them that she and her husband had been kept apart. They threatened Roos with dire punishments, so that he promised to go to the King.[7]

Meanwhile the Scottish magnates, indignant at their castle of Edinburgh's being in English hands, proposed to besiege it, but they desisted when they found they would be besieging their King and Queen. The King of Scotland apparently traveled South with the Earl, for on 24 September they were with King Henry III at Newminster, Northumberland. In July 1258 he fell ill, being poisoned with his brother William, as it was supposed, by his steward, Walter de Scotenay. He recovered but his brother died.[2]

Death and legacy

Richard died at John de Griol's manor of Asbenfield in Waltham, near Canterbury, 14 July 1262 at the age of 39, it being rumored that he had been poisoned at the table of Piers of Savoy. On the following Monday he was carried to Canterbury where a mass for the dead was sung, after which his body was taken to the canon's church at Tonbridge and interred in the choir. Thence it was taken to Tewkesbury Abbey and buried 28 July 1262, with great solemnity in the presence of two bishops and eight abbots in the presbytery at his father's right hand. Richard's own arms were: Or, three chevronels gules.[8]

Family

Richard had no children by his first wife, Margaret or Megotta de Burgh. By his second wife, Maud de Lacy, daughter of the Surety John de Lacy and Margaret de Quincy, he had:

Isabel de Clare, b. ca. 1240, d. 1270, m. William VII of Montferrat.

Gilbert de Clare, b. 2 September 1243, d. 7 December 1295, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester.

Thomas de Clare, b. ca. 1245, d. 1287, he seized control of Thomond in 1277; m. Juliana FitzGerald

Bogo de Clare, b. ca. 1248, d. 1294.

Margaret de Clare, b. ca. 1250, d. 1312, m. Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall

Rohese de Clare, b. ca. 1252, m. Roger de Mowbray

Eglentina, d. 1257 in infancy.

His widow Maud, who had the manor of Clare and the manor and castle of Usk and other lands for her dower, erected a splendid tomb for her late husband at Tewkesbury. She arranged for the marriages of her children. She died before 10 March 1288.[citation needed]

NOTES:

1 "Clare, Richard de (1222-1262)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

2 a b History of Tewkesbury by James Bennett 77

3 Tewkesbury Annals

4 Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 7; Tewkesbury Annals p. 102 ; Worcest Ann. p. 428 ; Matt. Paris, vi. 63, 64; Land of Morgan, p. 126

5 Dictionary of National Biography, Vol 7; Tewkesbury Annals p. 106 ; Pat. Rolls, 17 b

6 Altschul, Michael. A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314, 1965

7 Dictionary of National Biography, Author: Stephen, Leslie, Sir, 1832-1904, Volume:VII, Vol X, *Tewkesbury Annals, i. 66, 77, 83

8 Tewkes,Ann. p. 102²

Sources