Eustace de Vesci

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Coat of arms of Eustace de Vesci

Eustace de Vesci , also called Eustace de Vescy (* around 1170 ; † August 1216 in Barnard Castle ), Lord of Alnwick, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He was one of the leaders of the barons 'rebellion against King John Ohneland , which led to the conclusion of the Magna Carta and the First Barons' War.

Origin and follower of Richard the Lionheart

He was a son of William de Vesci and Burga, a sister or daughter of Robert de Stuteville , Lord of Cottingham. After his father's death in 1184, he became the heir to his family's extensive holdings in northern England. By paying a fee of 1,300 marks to the king, he came of age in 1190. He replaced the wooden fortifications of Malton Castle in Yorkshire , which was part of his estate, with stone peasants, and in 1194 Richard the Lionheart was a guest at the castle when he met King William I of Scotland there. In the war of Richard the Lionhearted in the same year he is mentioned in the castle Chinon in Anjou . 1199 witnessed de Vesci the contract between King John, who had succeeded his brother, and Count Raynald of Boulogne . At the end of 1200 he belonged to a royal embassy with Roger de Lacy , Henry de Bohun and several other barons, who asked the Scottish king to take his feudal oath towards John.

The ruins of Barnard Castle, where Eustace de Vesci fell during the siege

Rebel against Johann Ohneland

In 1210 he took part in King John's campaign to Ireland. Around this time he became one of the king's bitterest opponents, although the exact reasons for this are unknown. According to de Vesci, the king is said to have coveted his wife as a young man, but the historian Wilfred Warren described these statements as contradicting and untrustworthy, so that he simply took de Vesci for a contentious, aristocratic robbery. Shortly before the beginning of John's campaign in Wales in 1212, de Vescy was accused in Nottingham of belonging to a conspiracy against the king in August . Allegedly he wanted to kill King John together with Robert FitzWalter during the campaign to Wales or extradite him to the Welsh. After the discovery of the conspiracy, de Vesci fled into exile in Scotland. FitzWalter fled into exile in France, where he came to terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton , who was also in exile . Thereby he achieved that the Pope made their return and the return of their possessions in 1213 a condition for the lifting of the excommunication of the king. After returning his goods, he and other barons refused to take part in King John's planned campaign to France in 1213, as his feudal obligation would not include fighting for the king's possessions in far-away Poitou . When the king returned from his failed campaign , de Vesci openly refused in 1214 to pay the requested shield money to the king's officials. Alongside his relatives Robert de Ros and FitzWalter, he became a leader of the aristocratic opposition, whose armed resistance eventually forced the king to recognize the Magna Carta. The Pope then excommunicated de Vesci, and a civil war broke out between the king and the aristocratic opposition. After the king had undertaken a successful campaign to northern England at the end of 1215, in which de Vesci's Alnwick Castle had surrendered to John's troops, de Vesci was initially ready for a peace. However, after the arrival of the French Prince Ludwig , to whom the rebellious barons had offered the English crown, de Vesci immediately joined the prince. He supported his brother-in-law, the Scottish King Alexander II , in the unsuccessful siege of Barnard Castle , during which he was killed by an arrow in the head.

Family and offspring

He married Margaret, an illegitimate daughter of the Scottish King William I, and received the Barony of Sprouston as a dowry from his father-in-law . He left a son, William .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ British History Online: Parishes, New Malton. Retrieved January 7, 2015 .
  2. ↑ John T. Appleby: John "Ohneland" King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1965, p. 95
  3. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 189
  4. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 230
  5. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 200
  6. ^ George Tate: The history of the borough, castle, and barony of Alnwick . Blair, Alnwick, 1866, p. 41
personal data
SURNAME Eustace de Vesci
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eustace de Vescy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Norman nobleman and rebel
DATE OF BIRTH around 1170
DATE OF DEATH August 1216
Place of death Barnard Castle