Elizabeth de Badlesmere

Elizabeth married Edmund de Mortimer on 27 Jun 1316 in Ernwood in Kinlet, Shropshire, England. Edmund (son of Roger de Mortimer and Joan de Geneville) was born between 1305 and 1306 in of Wigmore, Herefordshire, England; died before 21 Jan 1332 in Stanton Lacy, Shropshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Roger de Mortimer was born on 11 Nov 1328 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England; died on 26 Feb 1360 in Rouvray, Côte d'Or, Burgundy, France; was buried in Wigmore Abbey, Herefordshire, England.

Elizabeth married William de Bohun on 13 Nov 1335. William (son of Humphrey de Bohun and Elizabeth of England) was born about 1312; died on 16 Sep 1360; was buried in Walden Abbey, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Elizabeth de Bohun died on 3 Apr 1385; was buried in Lewes Priory, Sussex, England.
2. Humphrey de Bohun was born on 25 Mar 1342; died on 16 Jan 1372.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 14 Apr 1322, Canterbury, Kent, England

Notes:

Steward of the King's Household; Governor of Leeds, Tunbridge, and Bristol Castles; Sheriff of Glamorgan 1314-15; Constable of Dover Castle and the Cinque Ports. Ambassador to France, Savoy, and the Pope.

MP (knight of the shire) for Kent, 1306-7. [Royal Ancestry] "Summoned to Parliament from 26 October 1309 by writs directed Bartholomeo de Badlesmere." [Royal Ancestry]

Unusual in having been, in his lifetime, a member of Parliament both as a "knight of the shire" (chosen by local authorities) and also through being summoned to Parliament by writ.

Bartholomew de Badlesmere and Margaret de Clare were great-great grandparents of Henry V.

"He was appointed one of the peers to regulate the royal household in 1310. [...] In Feb. 1316 he was sent to suppress the rebellion of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales. He was one of those appointed as amabassador to Amadeus of Savoy in Dec. 1316. He was appointed ambassador to the Pope in Jan. 1317. In 1319 he and Hugh Despenser the younger were appointed to reform the state of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and to remove all officers there as were unable to fulfill their duties. [...] In March 1320 he was appointed ambassador to the King of France and to the Pope. In Jan. 1321 he was among those who were sent to treat for peace with Robert de Brus, King of Scots. [...] In 1321 he joined the rebellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. In October 1321, while residing at Leeds Castle with her children, his wife, Margaret, refused Queen Isabel admission to the castle. The castle was immediately taken by the king. His wife, Margaret, and their son, Giles, were taken prisoners and conveyed to the Tower of London. A writ was issued to the Sheriff of Gloucestershire to arrest him 26 Dec. 1321. He and other rebellious barons attacked and burned the town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. SIR BARTHOLOMEW DE BADLESMERE, 1st Lord Badlesmere, fought on the rebel side of the Battle of Boroughbridge 16 March 1322. He was subsequently captured at Stow Park, attainted, and hanged as a traitor at Canterbury, Kent 14 April 1322." [Royal Ancestry]

"Bartholomew of Badlesmere. of Badlesmere and Chilham Castle, Kent, s. and h. of Guncelin or Gunselm B., of Badlesmere afsd., Justice of Chester, was excused from service in the war in Gascony (1294) 22 Edw. I; suc. his father in 1301, being then aged 26; was in the Scottish wars 1303 and 1304; Governor of Bristol Castle 1307; had a grant of the Castle and Manor of Chilham, Kent, 1309, and from 26 Oct. (1309) 3 Edw. II, to 15 May (1321) 14 Edw. II, was sum. to Parl. by writs directed Bartholomeo de Badlesmere whereby he may be held to have become Lord Badlesmere. He obtained a grant of the Castle of Leeds in Kent, and in (1314-15) 8 Edw. II, was made Governor of Skipton Castle, and of all the castles in Yorkshire and Westmorland whereof Robert de Clifford had d. seized. He was also Steward of the King's Household. Notwithstanding the many favours he had received, he joined the Earl of Lancaster in his rebellion, and was defeated with him at Boroughbridge, 16 Mar. 1322, captured at Stow Park, attainted, and hung as a traitor at Canterbury, 14 Apr. 1322. He is described in the contemporary Boroughbridge Roll as a Banneret. He m., before 30 June 1308, Margaret, widow of Gilbert de Umfreville (who d. before 23 May 1303, s. and h. ap. of Gilbert 8th Earl of Angus), aunt and coh. of Thomas de Clare, Steward of the Forest of Essex, da. of Thomas de C., by Julian, (not Amy), da. of Sir Maurice fitz Maurice, Lord Justice of Ireland. He d. as afsd, 1322. His widow, notorious for having refused the Queen admission to the Royal Castle of Leeds in the summer of 1321, was besieged therein by Edward II, and being captured with the Castle on 1 1 Nov. following, was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was released 3 Nov. 1322, and after staying some time at the Minorites without Aldgate, at the King's charge (2s. a day), had leave to go to her friends, 1 July 1324. She, who was aged 40 in Mar. 1326/7, had dower on lands at Castlecombe, Wilts, &c., and d. late in 1333." [Complete Peerage I:371-72, as corrected by Volume XIV.]

Bartholomew married Margaret de Clare before 29 Sep 1305. Margaret (daughter of Thomas de Clare and Juliane fitz Maurice) was born between 1286 and 1287; died in 1333. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1287
• Alternate death: Between 22 Oct 1333 and 3 Jan 1334

Notes:

"[Bartholomew's] widow, Margaret, continued a prisoner in the Tower of London for several months. Through the mediation of her son-in-law, William de Roos, Knt., she obtained her freedom 3 Nov. 1322. She subsequently retired to the convent house of the Minorite Sisters without Aldgate, and had two shillings per day allowed for her maintenance. In 1327 she petitioned the king and council, stating that while she was in the king's prison, Robert de Welles, husband of her younger sister, Maud de Clare, with the aid and maintenance of Hugh de Despenser, had the lands of their Clare inheritance assessed, and took Maud's share, both in England and Ireland; Margaret requested that the division be made again, according to the assessments returned in Chancery, and that she might have her choice of her share, as she is the elder sister, which request was granted." [Royal Ancestry]

Notes:

Or Gunselm. Justice of Chester and Cheshire, 16 Oct 1274 to 1281. Custodian of Chester Castle.

His wife is frequently given as Joan Fitzbernard, daughter of Ralph Fitzbernard of Kingsdown, Kent, probably due to the statement to that effect in CP I, p. 372. However, CP V (p. 403, note b) states "Nor is anything known about the wife of Guncelin, father of Bartholomew de Badelesmere." CP XIV, p. 57, correcting volume I, notes the latter passage.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 1245 and 1246, of Thomond in Connacht, Clare, Ireland
• Alternate birth: Between 1245 and 1246
• Alternate death: Feb 1288

Notes:

Constable of Colchester Castle; Steward of the Forest of Essex; King's Lieutenant in Gascony; Governor of London; Warden of the Forest of Dean; Constable of St. Briavel's Castle.

Studied at Oxford 1257-9.

"He joined his brother, Gilbert, against King Henry III and was knighted by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, before the Battle of Lewes 14 May 1264. He subsequently deserted the baronial cause with his brother, Earl Gilbert. In May 1265 Thomas arranged the gift of a speedy horse to Prince Edward, by means of which Prince Edward escaped from Simon de Montfort at Hereford. Thomas fought for the king at the Battle of Evesham 4 August 1265. In 1267 he took the cross at St. Paul's, London, being moved by the preaching of the papal legate, Ottobuono. [...] He went on crusade to the Holy Land with Prince Edward in 1271, and returned in 1272." [Royal Ancestry]

This Thomas de Clare was identified in early volumes of the Complete Peerage as a son of Sir Richard de Clare d. 1262, and then removed in volume 14 in the articles on Badlesmere and Clare. Despite this, it appears to be correct; Chris Phillips lays out the details here.

Thomas married Juliane fitz Maurice before 18 Feb 1275. Juliane (daughter of Maurice fitz Maurice and Maud de Prendergast) was born in of Offaly, Ireland; died before 24 Sep 1300. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 15 Jul 1262, Ashenfield, Waltham, Kent, England

Notes:

Earl of Gloucester; Earl of Hertford; High Marshal and Chief Butler to the Archbishop of Canterbury; Privy Councillor 1255, 1258; Warden of the Isle of Portland, Weymouth, and Wyke, 1257.

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Richard de Clare was a minor at the time of his father's death, and heir to one of the greatest collections of estates and lordships in all of England and Wales. His wardship and marriage were thus matters of the keenest interest to the politically powerful and ambitious of the day. The justiciar Hubert de Burgh, using his position in the government of Henry III, managed to have custody of Richard assigned to himself. On Hubert's fall from power in 1232, the king transferred custody of both Richard and his lands to the new royal favourites, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, and his nephew Peter des Rivaux. Hubert de Burgh's wife, in an apparent effort to rescue the family fortunes, secretly married Richard de Clare to her daughter Margaret; but the marriage was apparently never consummated, and was in any event mooted by Margaret's death in 1237. In the meantime both Peter des Roches and Peter des Rivaux had themselves fallen from power in 1234, and thereafter King Henry kept the wardship in his own hands, although allowing custody of at least some of the Clare lands to be secured by Richard de Clare's uncle Gilbert Marshal, earl of Pembroke. During this time the king began searching for a suitable marriage. A proposed arrangement with the great French comital family, the Lusignans, fell through, and in 1238 Richard de Clare was married to Maud, daughter of John de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. The prime mover in the marriage negotiations seems to have been the king's brother, Richard of Cornwall, who was Richard de Clare's stepfather, having married the widowed Isabel Marshal in 1231. Notwithstanding his marriage Clare remained the ward of the king until 1243, when he came of age and received both official seisin of his inheritance and formal dubbing to knighthood.

The complexities, intricacies, and rivalries involved in the story of Richard de Clare's wardship are an excellent case study of the stakes and resources at issue when contemplating the lives of the upper aristocracy in the thirteenth century. A connection to Richard de Clare was a prize well worth pursuing at full tilt. His inheritance was vast. [...] Richard de Clare was, by every criterion--annual income (close to £4000), knight's fees (nearly 500), and both the sheer number of and the strategic location of his estates and lordships--easily the richest and potentially the most powerful baron, next to the members of the immediate royal family, in the British Isles (excluding Scotland) as a whole.

From Wikipedia:

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.

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 III, King of Scotland, was being coerced by Robert de Roos and John Balliol. If possible, they were to bring the young King and Queen to him. The Earl and his companion, pretending to be 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.

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 Richard de Clare and his brother William both fell ill. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes contemporary reports that this was due to an attempted poisoning, "supposedly instigated by King Henry's uncle, William de Valence, earl of Pembroke, in retaliation for Clare's support of the baronial reform movement; and Valence's purported agent in the plot, Clare's seneschal, Walter de Scoteny, was tried and hanged." William died, but Richard survived with the loss of his hair and nails. In 1259 Richard was appointed chief ambassador to the Duke of Brittany, presumably in hopes of frightening the duke by sending a hairless, nailless creature to his court. Three years later, Richard died at Ashenfield, Waltham, Kent, on the 15th, the 16th, or the 22nd of July 1262. It was again bruited about that he had been poisoned, this time by the Queen's uncle Peter of Savoy, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, noting that "the annals of Tewkesbury Abbey are the single most valuable literary source for the reconstruction of [de Clare] family history for this period", points out that "the silence of the Tewkesbury account on this point strongly indicates that such rumours were unfounded."

In a perfectly medieval series of postmortem events, Richard de Clare's body was borne to the Cathedral Church of Christ at Canterbury, where his entrails were buried before the altar of St. Edward the Confessor; it was then taken to the Collegiate Church of Tonbridge, Kent, where his heart was buried; finally, what remained of his body was taken to Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire where it was buried in the choir at his father's right hand.

Richard married Maud de Lacy about 25 Jan 1238. Maud (daughter of John de Lacy and Margaret de Quincy) died before 10 Mar 1289. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 1288 and 1289
• Alternate death: Aft 1288

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1286

Notes:

Justiciar of Ireland, 1272-3. Also called Maurice fitz Maurice fitz Gerald. Not to be confused with Maurice fitz Gerald (d. 1268) who was the son of his brother Gerald fitz Maurice (d. 1243).

Maurice married Maud de Prendergast before 28 Oct 1259. Maud (daughter of Gerald de Prendergast and (Unknown) de Burgh) was born about 1242; died before 1276. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]