Brian Fitzalan, 1st Baron Fitzalan

Coat of arms of Brian Fitzalan, 1st Baron Fitzalan

Brian Fitzalan, 1st Baron Fitzalan (also Brian Fitzalan of Bedale , also Bryan ; † June 1, 1306 ) was an English nobleman and Guardian of Scotland .

He was the son of Brian Fitzalan († around 1276), who was sheriff of Northumberland between 1227 and 1235 and sheriff of Yorkshire between 1236 and 1239 . This is said to have been a grandson of Brian, younger son of Alain de Bretagne, 1st Earl of Richmond .

He was an English knight , was lord of Bedale in Yorkshire and owned other estates in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire .

King Edward I called him to war against the Welsh in 1282 . On May 1, 1285 in Westminster he received the king's permission to leave the country "overseas" for a period of two years in order to undertake a pilgrimage . In June 1287 Edward I called him to the council of war to Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall in Gloucester , with which he then put down the revolt of Rhys ap Maredudd in Wales . From 1290 to 1292 he was the royal overseer of the castles Forfar , Dundee , Roxburgh and Jedburgh . When the succession to the throne in Scotland was unclear in 1290 , the Scottish nobles asked the English king to decide on the claims of the aspirants to the throne . To this end, the four previous Guardians of Scotland resigned on June 11, 1291 . If they had previously been elected by the Scottish nobles, they have now been newly appointed by Edward I, supplemented by Brian Fitzalan. The previous seal of the Guardians was broken on November 19, 1292. Brian only handed the new Scottish seal to the newly elected Lord Chancellor of Scotland, William de Dumfries, after Edward I had confirmed this at the end of February 1292. Fitzalan played a leading role in the assembly which, under the chairmanship of Edward I, decided on the claims of the aspirants to the throne. Finally, in November 1292, John Balliol was appointed the new King of the Scots. After Fitzalan had testified how Balliol had taken the feudal oath against Edward I, he handed over the reign of Scotland, including the corresponding deeds and documents, to the new king.

In 1294 he was called up to suppress the uprising in Wales . For the first time with Writ of Summons on June 23, 1295 he received a call to the English Parliament from Edward I and is therefore considered hereditary Baron Fitzalan . From then on he took part regularly in the sessions of parliament.

War broke out in 1296 over the question of the sovereignty of the English king over Scotland. Edward I occupied Scotland in a brief campaign, and Fitzalan was present at Brechin Castle on July 10, 1296 , when John Balliol was deposed as king. The English king took over the administration of Scotland and appointed the Earl Warenne as its governor. There was an uprising against the English occupation in Scotland from 1297 . Fitzalan was ordered to London on July 7, 1297 to take part in a campaign in Gascony in the war against France , but on July 12, 1297 he was appointed captain of all garrisons and fortresses in Northumberland. On August 14, 1297, Edward I appointed him as the successor to Earl Warenne as the new governor in Scotland. Fitzalan protested the appointment unsuccessfully because, in his opinion, he was too poor to cover the costs he would incur in the office. On September 28, 1297, the drafts from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire were ordered to rally under his command and in October 1297 he was appointed captain of the Scottish Marches and the adjacent Northumberland. In 1298 he was replaced as governor by Earl Warenne. In 1299, 1300 and most recently in 1303 Brian was called up to take part in campaigns in Scotland.

In 1305 Fitzalan was called to the Parliament of Westminster. He was present at the accession of Crown Prince Edward to Knight of the Bath on May 22, 1306 in Westminster. After his death on June 1, 1306, he was buried next to his first wife in Bedale Church.

Marriages and offspring

He was married twice. In his first marriage he married Muriel, with whom he had three sons, Thomas, Robert and Theobald. His wife and all three sons had apparently died in 1290 when Brian donated a chapel in Bedale and entrusted it to the abbot of Jervaulx Abbey on the condition that they read masses for their souls.

In his second marriage he married Maud at the latest in 1297 († after 1340), daughter of John de Balliol and sister of the Scottish King John Balliol. From his marriage to his second wife he left two underage daughters:

• Matilda (* around 1298) ⚭ 1306 Sir Gilbert Stapleton († 1321), parents of Sir Miles Stapleton ;
• Catharine (around 1300– around 1328) ⚭ around 1320 John Gray, 1st Baron Gray of Rotherfield (1300–1359).

Leaving no sons, his baron title in Abeyance fell between his daughters.

literature

• Thomas Frederick Tout: Fitzalan, Brian, Lord of Bedale (d. 1306) . In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 19, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1889, pp. 86 f.
• Henry Edward Chetwynd-Stapylton: Chronicles of the Yorkshire family of Stapelton. London 1884, p. 53 ff.
• Hardy Bertram McCall: The early history of Bedale in the North riding of Yorkshire. London 1907.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ McCall, pp. 80 f.
2. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 49.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Peerage: Fitzalan at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
4. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 479.
5. ^ Edward Blore: The monumental remains of noble and eminent persons. Comprising the sepulchral antiquities of Great Britain. Harding, Lepard and Co., London 1826, chapter 3 ( archive.org )

predecessor	Office	successor
John II Comyn William Fraser James Stewart Robert Wishart John de Warenne	Guardian of Scotland 1291-1292	John Balliol as King of Scotland
John de Warenne	Guardian of Scotland 1297-1298	John de Warenne
New title created	Baron Fitzalan 1295-1306	Title abeyant