5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester Richard De Clare

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• Reference Number: 16026

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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. 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.

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. 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.

A year after he became 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.

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.

On April 1248, he had letters of protection for going over seas on a pilgrimage. At Christmas 1248, he kept his Court with great splendor 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.

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.

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.

Richard died at John de Griol's manor of Asbenfield in Waltham, near Canterbury, 14 July 1262, 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 tTewkes,Ann. p. 102 wo bishops and eight abbots in the presbytery at his father's right hand. Richard's own arms were: Or, three chevronels gules.

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 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.
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.

Richard married Maud De Lacy 25 Jan 1238. Maud (daughter of John De Lacy and Margaret De Quincy) was born 25 Jan 1223, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England; died 10 Mar 1289. [Group Sheet]

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• Name: "Red" Gilbert de Clare
• Reference Number: 3757

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Buried:
Tewkesbury Abbey

Gilbert married Joan of Acre 30 Apr 1290. Joan (daughter of Edward Plantagenet and Eleanore of Castile) was born 1272; died 23 Apr 1307. [Group Sheet]

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• Reference Number: 16030

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• Reference Number: 16031

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• Reference Number: 16032

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• Reference Number: 16033

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• Reference Number: 16034

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• Reference Number: 16035

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• Reference Number: 3758
• Birth: Abt 1292
• Death: 13 Apr 1342

Notes:

Margaret de Clare (October 1293 - April 1342) was one of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 3rd Earl of Gloucester and his wife, Joan of Acre, and thus a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

She was married to Piers Gaveston, the favourite of her uncle Edward II, in October 1307. According to the Vita Edwardi Secundi, this marriage was arranged by the King "to strengthen Piers and surround him with friends." Gaveston celebrated the marriage with a lavish tournament at Wallingford Castle. The marriage of such a high-born lady to a foreigner was not popular among the English nobility. They had one child:
Joan Gaveston, born probably January 12/18th, 1312, at York.

King Edward threw a grand celebration after the birth of this child, complete with minstrels. However, Piers Gaveston was executed only six months later, leaving Margaret a widow with a small child. Her dower rights as Countess of Cornwall were disputed, and so King Edward instead assigned her Oakham Castle and other lands. She joined the Royal household and in 1316 accompanied the King in his journey from London to York.

Following the death of their brother, Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Hertford, at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Margaret and her sisters, Elizabeth and Eleanor de Clare received a share of the inheritance. Margaret was now one of the co-heiresses to the vast Gloucester estate, and King Edward arranged a second marriage for her to another favourite, Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester.

On April 28, 1317 Margaret de Clare wed Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester at Windsor Castle. They had one daughter:
Margaret de Audley, born between January 1318 and November 1322.

Hugh and Margaret were among the victims of their brother-in-law, Hugh the younger Despenser. In his rashness and greed for the Clare lands, he robbed Margaret of much of her rightful inheritance. In 1321, Hugh de Audley joined the other Marcher Barons in looting, burning, and causing general devastation to Despenser's lands.

Hugh was captured at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, and was saved from a hanging thanks to the pleas of his wife. He was imprisoned, and two months later Margaret was sent to Sempringham priory. She remained there until 1326, when Hugh escaped prison and she was released from Sempringham.

In the meantime, her daughter Joan Gaveston had been sent to Amesbury Priory. A marriage was arranged for Joan with the son of Thomas Multon, but the girl died in early 1325.

Hugh and Margaret were reunited sometime in 1326. In summer 1336, their only daughter, Margaret Audley, was abducted by Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford. Her parents filed a complaint, but King Edward III of England supported Stafford. He appeased Hugh and Margaret by creating Hugh Earl of Gloucester.

Margaret died in April 1342 and her sister Elizabeth de Clare paid for prayers to be said for her soul at Tonbridge priory.


Birth:
Caerphilly Castle

Margaret married Hugh De Audley 28 Apr 1317. Hugh (son of Hugh De Audley, I and Isolde De Mortimer) was born 1295, Stratton Audley, Oxfordshire, England; died 10 Nov 1347, Tonbridge, Kent, England. [Group Sheet]

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• Reference Number: 16062

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• Reference Number: 16064

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• Reference Number: 54922

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• Reference Number: 3710
• Birth: Abt 1318

Margaret — Ralph De Stafford. Ralph (son of Edmund Stafford and Margaret De Basset) was born 24 Sep 1301; died 31 Aug 1372, Kent, England. [Group Sheet]