Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon

Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon (also Baldwin de Revières or de Reviers ; * around 1095 - † June 4, 1155 ) was an Anglo- Norman magnate . At the beginning of the English succession controversy, the so-called anarchy , he was one of the leading supporters of the Empress Matilda .

origin

Baldwin de Redvers came from the Norman Redvers family . He was the eldest son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeliz, a daughter of William Peverel . His father had as a supporter of King Henry I, extensive lands in Devon , Dorset , Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight received. When he died in 1107, Baldwin was probably only around twelve years old.

Life

After he came of age, Baldwin took over several offices in south-west England in the 1120s and 1130s, but played no major political role. When after the death of Henry I, his nephew Stephan von Blois claimed the throne, Baldwin had the royal Exeter Castle occupied in the spring of 1136 . He was one of the first noblemen to rebel against the new king. The citizens of Exeter turned to Stephen, who in the summer of 1136 had Exeter Castle besieged. Baldwin was neither in Exeter Castle nor in Plympton Castle , the center of his estates in Devon. This castle was soon given to the king by the crew he had left behind, and Exeter Castle was eventually captured by the royal troops as well. Presumably Baldwin had withdrawn to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, from where he used several ships as a pirate to land ships in the English Channel . After conquering Exeter Castle, King Stephen moved to Southampton and prepared to cross over with his troops to the Isle of Wight. Since Carisbrooke Castle had an inadequate water supply and therefore would not withstand a siege, Baldwin submitted to the mercy of the king in Southampton and asked for the return of his possessions. The king refused, whereupon Baldwin went into exile and sought refuge with Gottfried von Anjou , the husband of Heinrich's daughter Matilda. As the daughter of the late king, she also claimed the English throne. In the next few years Baldwin was one of Gottfried's troops, who frequently attacked Stephen's possessions in Normandy , until he was captured by the Norman Baron Ingram de Say in 1138 in front of the castle L'Isle Marie in Manche .

Presumably he was soon released, because in July 1139 he was in command of the troops with which Matilda landed at Wareham , England. Under his leadership, the nearby Corfe Castle was conquered. He remained a loyal supporter of the Empress for the next three years. He took part in the victorious Battle of Lincoln in 1141 and was part of Matilda's escort, with whom she then moved to London in the vain hope of being crowned Queen there. Upon her arrival in London in June 1141, Matilda made him Earl of Devon . Baldwin also accompanied Matilda on her retreat from London to Oxford and in July 1141 on to Winchester . However, after the defeat of their army at the Battle of Winchester , he apparently left their army, because afterwards he is no longer mentioned. As the only high-ranking magnate, however, he never accepted the rule of King Stephen. He may have left England again and participated in the Second Crusade in the late 1140s . Only at the end of 1153 is he mentioned again in Westminster , where he testified to the agreement between King Stephen and Heinrich Plantagenet , which ended the war of succession to the throne.

Founder of the monastery and patron of the church

Baldwin was a generous supporter of the Church. In the 1130s he founded the Augustinian Priory of Breamore in Hampshire and the Cistercian Abbey of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. He later founded the Priory of St James on one of his estates south of Exeter , a subsidiary of the St-Martin-des-Champs monastery in Paris. In addition, he supported the monastery in Lyre in Normandy with the establishment of a priory in Carisbrooke . In the Plympton Priory and Christchurch Priory he established positions for Canon Regulars . He was buried in its founding Quarr Abbey.

Family and offspring

Baldwin de Redvers was married twice. With his first wife Adeliz Baluun († around 1146), whose origin is uncertain, he had at least five children:

1. Richard de Redvers, 2nd Earl of Devon ∞ Denise de Dunstanville
2. Henry de Redvers
3. William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon ∞ Mabel de Beaumont
4. Matilda de Redvers ∞ Anshetil de Gray
5. Maud de Redvers ∞ Ralph de Avenel
6. Alice de Redvers ∞ Roger II de Nonant
7. Hawise de Redvers ∞ Robert Castellan
8. Eva de Redvers ∞ Robert d'Oyly

After Adeliz's death, after 1151, he married Lucy, the widow of Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford .

literature

• William Hunt:  Baldwin of Redvers . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 3:  Baker - Beadon. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1885, pp. 34 - 35 (English).
• George Edward Cokayne : The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom ; Volume IV, pp. 311-12
• Charles Mosley (ed.): Burke's Peerage and Baronetage , 106th Edition, 1999, p. 832
• Robert Bearman: Revières, Baldwin de, earl of Devon (c.1095–1155). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marjorie Chibnall : The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother and Lady of the English (1993), p. 69

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Earl of Devon 1141-1155	Richard de Redvers