Richard FITZ GILBERT (DE CLARE) ( -1136)

Individual Events and Attributes

Additional Information

Marriage

Individual Note

Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare (died 15 April 1136) was a Norman nobleman, the son of Gilbert Fitz Richard de Clare and Adeliza de Claremont. He founded the priory of St, Mary Magdalene, Tonbridge.

Welsh revolt

Richard held the Lordship of Ceredigion in Wales. A Welsh revolt against Norman rule had begun in south Wales where, on 1 January 1136 the Welsh won a victory over the local Norman forces between Loughor and Swansea.

[edit]Ambush and death

Richard had been away from his lordship in the early part of the year. Returning to the borders of Wales via Hereford in April, he ignored warnings of the danger and pressed on toward Ceredigion with only a small force. He had not gone far when on 15 April he was ambushed and killed by the men of Gwent under Iorwerth ab Owain and his brother Morgan, grandsons of Caradog ap Gruffydd, in a woody tract called "the ill-way of Coed Grano", near Llanthony Abbey, north of Abergavenny.[citation needed]. Today the spot is marked by the 'garreg dial' (the stone of revenge). He was buried in Tonbridge Priory.[1]

Spur for Welsh invasion

The news of Richard's death induced Owain Gwynedd, son of Gruffydd ap Cynan, king of Gwynedd to invade his Lordship. In alliance with Gruffydd ap Rhys of Deheubarth, he won a crushing victory over the Normans at the Battle of Crug Mawr, just outside Cardigan. The town of Cardigan was taken and burnt, and Richard's widow, Adelize, took refuge in Cardigan Castle, which was successfully defended by Robert fitz Martin. She was rescued by Miles of Gloucester who led an expedition to bring her to safety in England.

Title

He is commonly said to have been created Earl of Hertford by either Henry I or Stephen, but no contemporary reference to him, including the record of his death, calls him by any title, while a cartulary states that a tenant had held "de Gilleberto, filio Richardi, et de Ricardo, filio ejus, et postea, de Comite Gilleberto, filio Richardi" (of Gilbert Fitz Richard, and his son Richard, and then of Earl Gilbert Fitz Richard), again failing to call Richard Earl while giving that title to his son. Thus his supposed creation as Earl is likely apocryphal.[2]

Family

Richard married 1116, Alice de Gernon, (c. 1102-1128), daughter of Ranulph le Meschin, 1st Earl of Chester and the heiress Lucy of Bolingbroke, by her having:

Gilbert Fitz Richard de Clare, d. 1153, 1st Earl of Hertford

Alice de Clare (Adelize de Tonbridge), m. (1) about 1133, Sir William de Percy, Lord of Topcliffe, son of Alan de Percy and Emma de Gant; (2) Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd, brother of Owain Gwynedd

Robert Fitz Richard de Clare, perhaps died in childhood

Rohese de Clare, m. Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln

Roger de Clare, d. 1173, 2nd Earl of Hertford.

NOTES:

1 "Houses of Austin canons, The priory of Tonbridge". British History Online. Retrieved 16 October 2010.

2 George Cokayne, Vicary Gibbs, ed., The Complete Peerage, New Edition, London: St Catherine Press, 1913, vol. III, p. 243

Sources