Miles OF GLOUCESTER ( -1143)

Individual Events and Attributes

Additional Information

Marriage

Individual Note

Miles de Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Brecknock (1100 – 24 December 1143) was the son of Walter de Gloucester, who appears as sheriff of that county between 1104 and 1121.

Milo or Miles succeeded his father about the latter year.

He was high in the service of Henry I between 1130 and 1135, he was Constable of England and combined the hereditary office of Sheriff of Gloucester with that of local justiciar for Gloucestershire.

Miles founded Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester, in 1136.[1]

Civil war allegiances

After the death of King Henry he declared for Stephen, at whose court he appears as constable in 1136. King Stephen granted him the honour of Gloucester and Brecknock. However, in 1139, when the empress Matilda appeared in England, he declared for her, and placed the city of Gloucester at her disposal; he was further distinguished by sacking the nearby royalist city of Worcester, attacking Stephen's siege works at Wallingford Castle and reducing the county of Hereford. He was retained as her Constable.

Earldom

In 1141, he was rewarded with the earldom of Hereford when Matilda ruled the country. He remained loyal to the Empress after her defeat at Winchester the same year. John of Salisbury classes him with Geoffrey de Mandeville and others who were non tam comites regni quam hostes publici. The charge is justified by his public policy; but the materials for appraising his personal character do not exist.

Family and children

He married Sibyl de Neufmarché, daughter of Bernard de Neufmarché, Lord of Brecon and Nest, granddaughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, in 1121. Their children were:

Bertha of Hereford, married William de Braose before 1150, by whom she had issue.

Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford.

Walter de Hereford died after 1159 in the Holy Land. He was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1155-1157 and High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1155-1159.

Henry Fitzmiles Henry of Hereford, died 12 April 1165. He succeeded to the title of Baron Abergavenny in 1141/42.

William de Hereford. He died before 1160 without issue.

Mahel de Hereford, died October 1165 at Bronllys Castle, Breconshire, Wales, mortally hurt when a stone dropped from the tower during a fire; died without issue. Buried at Llanthony Priory.

Margaret de Gloucester, married Humphrey II de Bohun, by whom she had issue.

Lucy of Gloucester, married Herbert FitzHerbert of Winchester, Lord Chamberlain, by whom she had issue. Buried at Llanthony Priory.

NOTES:

1 Ward, Jennifer C (1995). Women of the English nobility and gentry, 1066-1500. Manchester medieval sources series. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0 7190 4115 0. http://books.google.com/books?id=f1rwZxGiInMC&pg=PA107&dq=Llanthony+Priory+inauthor:Jennifer+inauthor:C+inauthor:Ward&hl=en&ei=UTzFTNiUKIbAswaKoZjcCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Llanthony%20Priory%20inauthor%3AJennifer%20inauthor%3AC%20inauthor%3AWard&f=false. Retrieved 25 October 2010.

SOURCES:

Continuation of Florence of Worcester (ed. B Thorpe, 1848-1849); the Cartulary of Gloucester Abbey (Rolls series); and John Horace Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville (1892).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.²

Sources