Geoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex

Coat of arms of Geoffrey de Mandeville

Geoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex and de iure uxoris Earl of Gloucester (* around 1191 - 23 February 1216 in London ) was an English nobleman and rebel. He was a member of the aristocratic opposition that forced King John Ohneland to recognize the Magna Carta in 1215 .

Geoffrey FitzGeoffey de Mandeville should not be confused with his predecessor Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex , who died in 1166.

origin

Geoffrey was the eldest son of Geoffrey fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex , the longtime lawyer of King John, and of his first wife Beatrix de Say. His mother, a daughter of William de Say, became the heir of the Mandeville family in 1189 , which is why their children eventually took the name Mandeville. After the death of his father in 1213, Geoffrey inherited his lands and the title of Earl of Essex .

Marriages to Matilda FitzRobert and Isabel from Gloucester

Geoffrey's first marriage was Matilda, a daughter of the East English Baron Robert FitzWalter . She died in 1212 and was buried in Dunmow Priory in Essex . On January 20, 1214 Geoffrey was second married to Isabel of Gloucester , daughter of William FitzRobert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and divorced first wife of King John. Geoffrey was only allowed to marry the ex-wife of the king on exceptional terms. He had to pay the king a high fee of 20,000 marks (about £ 13,666) in four installments of 5,000 marks each; the last installment was due at the end of September 1214. Should Geoffrey default on payment, the king had the right to keep Isabel's lands for himself. The high fee was impossible to pay even for a rich earl and would have ruined Geoffrey's. Although he paid the first installment on time, after King John set out on his campaign in Poitou in February 1214, he failed to make any further payments. The king then ordered his officials to occupy Isabel's lands, whereupon Geoffrey made further payments in August. The King then gave him the Honor of Gloucester , the bulk of Isabel's inheritance.

From Isabella's inheritance, Geoffrey received an annual income of 800 marks for as long as she was to live, in addition to which he could claim the title of Earl of Gloucester from her right . However, Isabella was about 30 years older than Geoffrey, she was already over 50 years old when she married him, so she could no longer have children. After her death, her lands would go to her brother-in-law Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford or his descendants. The most likely reason Geoffrey entered into the marriage on these terms was because the king threatened to rob him of his mother Beatrix de Say's inheritance. This inheritance was also claimed by his cousin Geoffrey de Say at that time , who had offered the king 15,000 marks for it. In that case, Geoffrey would have lost almost all of his possessions.

Participation in the rebellion against the king

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Geoffrey joined the aristocratic opposition to the king in 1215, led by his former father-in-law Robert FitzWalter. In June Geoffrey was elected one of 25 barons to oversee the king's compliance with the Magna Carta . When it came to open war between the barons against the king in the fall of 1215 , Geoffrey stayed on the side of the rebels. For the rebels he was supposed to hold the East English Essex, but he stayed with the main rebel force in London. As a rebel against the king, who had offered his kingdom to the Pope as a fief, he was defeated on December 16, 1215 by Pope Innocent III. excommunicated , his lands were occupied by Johann's mercenary leader Savary de Mauléon . The rebels had offered the English crown to Prince Louis of France , and in January 1216 a small troop of French knights arrived in London as the vanguard of the French army. Geoffrey was fatally injured in a tournament against one of these French knights. He was buried in the Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate .

heritage

Since both of Geoffrey's marriages had remained childless, his brother William Fitz- Geoffrey de Mandeville became his heir. His widow Isabel married Hubert de Burgh for the third time in September 1217 , but she died only a few weeks later, so that the Honor of Gloucester now fell to Richard de Clare.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, p. 429
2. ↑ Nigel Saul: Geoffrey de Say (Magna Carta 800th). Retrieved November 24, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Nigel Saul: Geoffrey de Mandeville (Magna Carta 800th). Retrieved November 24, 2015 . 

Web links

• Nigel Saul: Magna Carta 800th: Geoffrey de Mandeville
• Geoffrey de Mandeville, 4th Earl of Essex on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Geoffrey Fitzpeter	Earl of Essex 1213-1216	William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville
Amaury d'Évreux	Earl of Gloucester (de iure uxoris) 1214-1216	Isabel