Richard De Crispin, De Clare

Notes:

de Clare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The de Clare family of Norman lords were associated with the Welsh Marches, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent (especially Tonbridge) and Ireland. They were descended from Richard fitz Gilbert, who accompanied William the Conqueror into England during the Norman conquest of England. In the paternal line they were illegitimate descendants of the House of Normandy, through one of Richard I, Duke of Normandy's sons.

Origins

The Clare family descends from Gilbert Crispin, Count of Brionne and Eu, whose father Godfrey was the eldest of the illegitimate sons of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Gilbert was one of the guardians of William II, who became Duke of Normandy as a child in 1035. When Gilbert was assassinated in 1039 or 1040, his young sons Baldwin de Meules et du Sap and Richard de Bienfaite et d'Orbec fled with their guardians to Baldwin V, Count of Flanders; they returned to Normandy when William married Baldwin's daughter in 1053, and William took them into high favour.

After the conquest of England Richard received huge estates including Clare and Tonbridge, the estate whose name was normally coupled with his. According to Richard Mortimer, he was "the founder of the English, Welsh, and Irish baronial family which historians usually call ‘of Clare’." [1]

Historical sources are vague and sometimes contradictory about when the name de Clare came into common usage, but Richard fitz Gilbert (of Tonbridge) is once referred to as Richard of Clare in the Suffolk return of the Domesday Survey.[2] Baldwin de Meules was left in charge of Exeter on its submission (1068) and made sheriff of Devonshire. Large estates in Devonshire and Somersetshire are entered to him in Domesday as "Baldwin of Exeter" or "Baldwin the Sheriff". [3]

On his death, Richard's English estates passed to his son Gilbert Fitz Richard (died 1114/7). Gilbert's eldest son Richard (died ca. 1136) was the ancestor of the earls of Hertford and Gloucester. Gilbert's younger son Gilbert, establishing himself in Wales, acquired the earldom of Pembroke or of Striguil. The elder line obtained (probably from King Stephen)[4] the earldom of Hertford, and were thenceforth known as earls of Hertford or of Clare.

John Horace Round suggested that it was probably because[Gilbert] and the Clares had no interests in Hertfordshire that they were loosely and usually styled the earls of (de) Clare.[3]

In the Dictionary of National Biography he stated that investigation showed that the claim that they were "styled earls of Clare" before they were earls of Hertford was not true; they were alternately called Hertford or of Clare.[5] On the other hand, Frank Barlow places Gilbert de Clare as Earl of Hertford in the group of barons given earldoms between 1138 and 1142, and states that they all had "substantial local interests".[6] Ralph Henry Carless Davis states that Gilbert was a witness as Earl of Hertford at Christmas 1141, and it is generally believed that he had been Earl since 1138; but that there is no prospect of clarifying the matter because of the others of the same name. He notes also that "In a military capacity earls figure largely in the capacity of defenders of their counties in the chronicles of Stephen's reign." He therefore argues against the title as a personal dignity at that period.[7] The general scholarly view is now that the title earl of Clare was self-assumed.

In 1217–20 Gilbert de Clare, earl of Hertford or Clare (died 1230), inherited the estates of William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester (died 1183), including the earldom and honour of Gloucester and the lordship of Glamorgan. Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (died 1176), known as Strongbow, had no sons and with his death this line came to an end, his many Irish and Welsh possessions passing to his daughter Isabel, who married William Marshal, (c. 1146 – 14 May 1219) who then became known as William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.[5]

Bibliography

J. C. Ward, "Fashions in monastic endowment: the foundations of the Clare family, 1066–1314", Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 32 (1981), p. 427-451

J. C. Ward, "Royal service and reward: the Clare family and the crown, 1066–1154", Anglo-Norman Studies, vol. 11 (1988), p. 261-278.

Michael Altschul, A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1965. See online summary.

References

^ Richard Mortimer, Clare, Richard de [Richard fitz Gilbert] (1030x35–1087x90), magnate, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online by subscription.

^ Suffolk return of the Domesday Survey (c. 1086) (ed. A. Rumble, Suffolk, 2 vols (Chichester, 1986), 67 ~ 1^ a b Chisholm 1911.

^ John Horace Round, 1911 Britannica article Clare (Family), http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Clare_%28Family%29.^ a b Round 1887.

^ Frank Barlow, The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042-1261 (4th edition 1988), p. 213.

^ R. H. C. Davis, King Stephen (1977), p. 136, and p. 129.

^ The Archaeological Journal, Article 51, pg 43- published under the direction of The Council of The Royal Archaeological Insutute of Great Britain and Ireland, available at Google books online at http://books.google.com/books?id=yZg8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA48

Attibution

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clare (family)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Round, John Horace (1887). "Clare, de". In Leslie Stephen. Dictionary of National Biography 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 375–376.

External links

• de Clare Family History

Richard married Rohese de Longueville Giffard in 1054 in France, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France. Rohese was born on 13 Apr 1034 in Longueville, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France; died in 1117 in Warwick Parrish, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gilbert FitzRichard De Clare was born in 1065 in Tonbridge, Kent, England; died on 17 Nov 1114 in Tonbridge, Kent, England.