Falkes de Bréauté

Sir Falkes de Bréauté († after July 18, 1226 in Rome ) was a foreign mercenary in the service of the English King John Ohneland . As a favorite of the king, he rose to become a powerful baron. After an unsuccessful revolt against Johann's successor Heinrich III. however, he had to leave England and died in exile.

origin

Falkes de Bréautés came from Normandy , but its exact origin is unclear. Allegedly he was the illegitimate son of a knight, according to other information he came from a family of the lower nobility from Bréauté . Most chroniclers, however, suspected that he was of a noble birth. He is said to have been small in stature, but smart, ruthless and brave. His name was supposedly a derivative of " Scythe " ( English Scythe ), since he had committed a manslaughter with it.

Promotion under King Johann Ohneland

Falkes and his family are not mentioned in England until 1204. Presumably he, at least three of his brothers and a sister, came to England after the French conquest of Normandy in the Franco-English War in 1204. Bréauté probably served as a sergeant to the king, according to later, however unproven information, he served as the royal bouncer. Presumably he belonged to a contingent of soldiers who were sent as reinforcements to Poitou in southwest France in January 1206 . As early as February 1207, King John entrusted him with the administration of the Welsh dominions Glamorgan and Wentloog , which the king withdrew from his previous favorite William de Braose . It is believed that Bréauté was knighted around this time and shortly thereafter appointed constable of the royal Carmarthen Castle and administrator of Gower in Wales. During the wars against Llywelyn from Iorwerth , he undertook a successful campaign from Cardiff against the Welsh prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth in 1211 , advancing to Aberystwyth. In Wales he made a name for himself as a cruel and ruthless mercenary, in 1212 the king commissioned him, for example, with the destruction of Strata Florida Abbey , because the monks had supported the king's opponents. In addition, Falkes served the king as a mercenary leader in Flanders and Poitou, where he was probably in high favor with the king. From January 1215 he was often a member of the King's entourage in England, but contrary to occasional claims he is not mentioned by name in the Magna Carta as one of the foreign favorites who were supposed to leave England. However, he was believed to be one of the king's followers who had to swear that they would obey the rules of the Magna Carta.

Role in the war of the barons

Army leader under King Johann

During the First Barons' War, which broke out shortly thereafter , Bréauté was one of the ruthless and fearless mercenaries who served King John unreservedly and loyally. For this, Bréauté was hated by the barons as well as by the medieval chroniclers. On November 28, 1215 he captured Castlethorpe Castle , a castle of William Mauduit in Buckinghamshire , shortly afterwards he captured Bedford Castle from William de Beauchamp , which King John left to him to manage. At the beginning of 1216 the king divided his army gathered near London. While one part remained under the command of the Earl of Salisbury and four mercenary leaders, including Bréauté, the king moved the other part himself to the north of England. When the French Prince Ludwig landed in England with an army in May 1216 and claimed the English throne, Bréauté was supposed to secure Oxford against the rebels. On July 17th, he and the Earl of Chester plundered Worcester , whose inhabitants had submitted to Prince Ludwig. The king rewarded Bréauté by making him sheriff of six counties in the Midlands , and in September or October 1216 the king rewarded him with permission to Margaret FitzWarin, the most recently widowed wife of Baldwin de Redvers, the earl's eldest son To marry Devon , who was entitled to a rich Wittum . Margaret was the heiress and daughter of Warin Fitzgerald , the Royal Chamberlain , as well as the heiress of her mother, Alice de Courcy, the heiress of the Courcys of Stogursey , Somerset . Through this marriage Bréauté became one of the most important landowners in England. He immediately occupied the Isle of Wight , which belonged to his wife's Wittum, and shortly afterwards Stogursey, in addition he became Chamberlain of the Exchequer . When King John suddenly died on October 19, 1216, Bréauté was one of his executors. The royal party immediately crowned the underage son of Johann as Heinrich III. to the new king, and on November 12, 1216 Bréauté was one of the royal barons who witnessed the recognition of the Magna Carta by the regent William Marshal .

Looting and atrocities

Bréauté also served Henry III as he had served King John. As sheriff of six counties in the Midlands , he was an important opponent for the rebels and Prince Ludwig. The rebels captured Hertford and Cambridge , but Bréauté held the castles of Oxford , Buckingham , Northampton and Bedford . It was in this turmoil that Bréauté's mercenaries committed their greatest cruelty. After the city and the Abbey of St Albans had to surrender to Prince Ludwig on January 12, 1217, Bréauté attacked the city ten days later. After unimaginable atrocities during the sacking of the city, the mercenaries moved to the abbey. They murdered the abbot's cook and demanded 200 marks , otherwise they threatened to pillage the abbey. Warden Abbey in Bedfordshire was also ravaged by the mercenaries. Bréauté later compensated both abbeys, but St Albans Abbey only accepted his penance because of the position of his wife.

The Battle of Lincoln. Illumination from the 13th century

Victory in Lincoln

At the end of February 1217, Bréauté moved to southern England with a royal army, but the relief of the besieged Rye , one of the Cinque Ports , failed. On their retreat to the Central England, his army conquered and sacked the Isle of Ely . Then Bréauté supported the Earl of Chester in the siege of Mountsorrel Castle in Leicestershire . Then the allied army of the rebels and the French split up. While Prince Ludwig continued to besiege Dover Castle , the other half moved to Leicestershire to relieve Mountsorrel Castle. After accomplishing this, the rebels moved on to Lincoln , where another group of rebels besieged the royalist Lincoln Castle . There they were placed by the royal army. In a bitter street fight, the royal army triumphed under William Marshal and the Bishop of Winchester . Bréauté's men had occupied Lincoln Castle prior to the battle, and his crossbowmen inflicted heavy losses on the French and the rebels of the castle walls during the battle. Then Bréauté undertook a daring venture into the city, during which he was captured, but was soon freed again by his men. He then fought on until his troops united with the royal army and decisively beat the rebels. Even Bréauté's opponents paid tribute to his valiant struggle against an outnumbered opponent and his contribution to the victory of the royal army. In the fight he made numerous prisoners, whom he released reluctantly after the War of the Barons in September 1217 through the Peace of Lambeth for King Henry III. ended victoriously.

Conflicts with the minority government

The king's victory was the culmination of Bréauté's career. At his expense he entertained the royal court in Northampton for Christmas 1217 . In the next few years, however, he was one of the winners who now stood in opposition to the legal advisor Hubert de Burgh , mainly because he reclaimed royal castles and goods that were administered by Bréauté and other barons for their own benefit. Falke's position was initially unassailable. As a leading member of the underage king's government, he ignored judgments from local courts asking him to surrender part of his castles until 1219. In Essex , Hertfordshire and East Anglia , he himself served as a royal judge, preventing judgments to his disadvantage. After the death of his father-in-law, the Earl of Devon, he received as a dowry for his wife in March 1218 Plympton Castle with the Honor of Plympton in Devon , in addition he became guardian of his stepson Baldwin , the minor heir of Devon. He also remained sheriff of the six counties in the Midlands and from 1218 to 1221 Sheriff of Rutland . Since these offices were all temporary and revocable at any time, his position was based on the favor of the Regency Council. His wife's Courcy inheritance was also challenged in court by her older half-sister Alice of Cornhill, who was married to the former rebel Hugh de Neville († 1234).

In addition, Bréauté had made numerous enemies among the king's partisans. William Marshal the Younger had had to pledge four properties to Bréauté during the Barons' War, and now he tried bitterly to get them back. In the exercise of his office as sheriff, Bréauté made further enemies. The Earl of Salisbury resented Bréauté for supporting Nicola de la Haye , mistress of Lincoln Castle, against him. Salisbury was already planning to launch an attack on Bréauté's holdings in Devon with Robert de Courtenay . These examples show how vulnerable Bréauté's position was. Without his own independent land ownership, he was dependent on the support of powerful magnates such as the Earl of Chester or Bishop Peter des Roches , who opposed the rule of Justitiar Hubert de Burgh. Bréauté seemed to be well aware of how endangered his position was as a despised foreigner, born as a non-noble foreigner. Around 1222, in a dispute he led as Sheriff of Northamptonshire with John Marshal , he declared that Marshal and all English-born men were traitors who would only work towards a restart of the Civil War. Then he claimed that all of England would not be big enough if he were to make war against them and that not even 30 royal letters would change his mind. However, his frustration that the barons' self-interest was hindering his performance as sheriff did nothing to change the fact that he himself blocked all attempts by the reign to regain the royal estates in his possession.

The government crisis in the winter of 1223 to 1224

The tensions between Bréauté and his opponents were for a time masked by his collaboration with Hubert de Burgh when they put down a revolt in London in July 1222. On behalf of the legal advisor, Bréauté arrested three ringleaders, including the former sheriff of London, Constantine Fitzaluf. He had her executed without negotiation, although Constantine offered him 15,000 marks for his life. Then Bréauté and de Burgh arrested the other leaders of the uprising and had them mutilated. In September 1223 Bréauté was one of the leaders of the royal army that advanced to Montgomery in Mid Wales and brought a humiliating defeat to Llywelyn from Iorwerth . However, the increasing influence of de Burgh led Bréauté, the Earl of Chester and their allies to band together more closely against the powerful legal counsel. The tension sparked a revolt, during which de Burgh fled to Gloucester with the king on November 9, 1223 . A few days later, the Earl of Chester, the Earl of Hertford , the Count of Aumale and Bréauté tried to occupy the Tower of London . Through the mediation of Archbishop Stephen Langton , a new civil war could be avoided, but a heated discussion on December 4 between Peter des Roches, the Earl of Chester and Bréauté in London led Bréauté and his supporters to move north. They spent Christmas in Leicester while the King was in Northampton with his court. Outnumbered and threatened with excommunication , the Earl of Chester and his followers gave in and went to the King in Northampton. There they agreed on December 29th or 30th to hand over their castles and offices to the king. Bréauté had to hand over Hertford Castle immediately and lost his offices as sheriff of Oxford and Northampton, and on January 18, his office as sheriff of Bedfordshire. After that he no longer took part in the king's large council meetings.

The archbishop and the other bishops were now keen to further defuse the political tensions. At the end of April they held a solemn reconciliation ceremony, attended by the Regency Council, its opponents and Bréauté. The legal advisor Hubert de Burgh had emerged politically stronger from the crisis and did not want to tolerate any further resistance from Bréauté to the return of royal goods. As early as February 1224, the Regency Council had fired on Bréauté to withdraw the management of the estates and the guardianship of the minor Earl of Devon. Bréauté's objection that Plympton was part of his wife's dowry was rejected by the council. Bréauté, however, ignored the request to hand over Plympton Castle. He also refused to surrender Bedford Castle, and he paid no heed to the efforts that his opponents were making against him in court. He was then charged as a peace breaker in Bedfordshire. Open action against him was delayed until June 1224, but then the assistant judges in Dunstable found him guilty of robbery in 16 cases, and according to other sources even in over 30 cases.

Bedford Castle with the executed crew. Book illustration from the 13th century

The Siege of Bedford Castle

On June 16, William de Bréauté, Falkes brother and his constable of Bedford Castle, arrested Judge Henry of Braybrooke , with whom he and Falkes were personally enemies. Given that the king was discussing the defense of Poitou after the French attack with his magnates in Northampton, just 30 km away , this attack on a royal official was foolhardy. William's immediate release of the judge was required, and when he refused on June 19, the king, assisted by the magnates, began the siege of Bedford Castle the following day. Archbishop Langton immediately excommunicated the castle crew as well as Falkes. It is unclear whether William had coordinated his actions with Falkes, but after the siege began he tried to support his brother. He expected the castle's strong defensive walls and strong garrison to withstand the siege for up to a year, and he probably hoped the Earl of Chester and other friends would intervene on his behalf. With that he had completely misjudged the political situation. In fact, he was politically isolated after last winter's crisis, while the legal advisor was determined not to let his position be jeopardized again. He was supported by the archbishop and the king, who, angry that he could not send his forces to Poitou because of Bedford Castle, demanded that the castle be captured quickly. On the orders of the king, an army of artisans and workers was assembled to erect large siege engines . Six knights and over 200 common soldiers and workers were killed in the attacks on the castle. The chroniclers of the time were shocked by the cruel siege and the high sacrifices that made it impossible to surrender the castle. Falkes de Bréauté had to realize that he received no support from his former allies and fled the pursuit of royal knights to Wales, where he sought refuge at Llywelyn from Iorwerth. The Earl of Chester joined the royal siege army in July, and the king ignored all requests from Chester and the Welsh princes to pardon Bréauté. Alexander Stavensby , the Bishop of Lichfield, met the fugitive Bréauté at Chester and was able to convince him to submit to the king. On August 12th the king assured him safe conduct to Northampton. Nevertheless, the siege of Bedford Castle continued, and in the fourth attack, after eight weeks of siege, the castle was captured on August 14th. The king had almost the entire 80-strong crew, including William de Bréauté, executed by hanging the next day .

Pardon, exile and death

The fate of his brother and his soldiers and the loss of Bedford shook Falkes badly. On August 19th, and again officially on August 25th in London, he submitted to the King and asked for forgiveness. He surrendered all of his possessions including Stogursey and Plympton, whereupon he was eventually pardoned. Given the loss of her inheritance and dowry, his wife Margaret immediately divorced him, citing the grounds that she had been forcibly forced into the marriage. Although this reason was not believed, but she was allowed to separate from Bréauté and remain in the care of the king. She eventually got some of her lands back. Since Bréauté did not want to face a condemnation by the hostile magnates, he went into voluntary exile in October. On the coast he tearfully asked William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey , to report to the king that he had not broken the peace in England alone, but only on the orders of the other magnates.

In Normandy he was immediately imprisoned by the French King Louis VIII in revenge for his defeat in the war of the barons in Compiègne . Only the intervention of Pope Honorius III. who had already stood up for him in England, or his crusader mark, which he had accepted in 1221, saved him from execution. He was released at Easter 1225. He now traveled to Rome and spent several months there. He defended his actions extensively before the Pope; he probably wrote his 14-page complaint with the help of Robert Passelewe, who had accompanied him to Rome. The Pope believed what he said and saw him as wrongly excommunicated. As a crusader placed under the protection of the Pope, Bréauté set off on his return journey to England. In August 1225, however, he was captured in Burgundy by a knight whom he had captured during the War of the Barons in England. Once again the Pope had to campaign for his release. Despite the requests of the papal nuncio in England, Master Otto, Henry III refused. abandoned Bréauté to return his wife and lands in England. Bréauté initially stayed in Troyes , but when he refused to swear allegiance to Louis VIII, he was expelled from France. He returned to Rome again and asked the Pope for help. He died after July 18, 1226 in front of the church of San Ciriaco (in the former Baths of Diocletian ), allegedly of fish poisoning, and was buried in the church.

He had appointed the former papal legate Guala Bicchieri to be his executor and guardian of his son. This son, the only child from his marriage, was possibly the Thomas de Bréauté, who in 1255 inherited a small part of the inheritance of his mother in Oxfordshire , who died in 1252 . Allegedly Bréauté should have deposited a fortune of 11,000 marks with the Knights Templar in London. Henry III. tried in vain to get this money from the Knights Templar.

rating

For the medieval chroniclers, Bréauté was the scum of the earth and the worst predator. Matthew Paris reports on him in great detail and condemns him. Letters from the barons prove his unpopularity, while court documents prove his greed as a soldier and sheriff. He was only admired as a brave soldier. Coming from Normandy, he was considered a foreigner in England in the 13th century, just like the other Poitevins such as Peter des Roches , Engelard de Cigogné or Gerard d'Athée , with whom King John surrounded himself. Matthew Paris counted him among the king's poor advisers . In addition, the English barons hated him as a climber of probably low birth, but with outrageous pride, with which he described himself as the most powerful baron in England. His temporary allies such as the Earl of Chester and Peter des Roches did not assist him in his overthrow, and even his wife left him. Although he made donations to Newnham Priory in Bedfordshire, the canons remembered him primarily for the destruction of their church, which he had demolished on behalf of the king to expand Bedford Castle. Ultimately, they supported the siege of Bedford Castle by delivering stones for the catapults.

Modern historians judge him in a more nuanced way. He was not the only military man to commit atrocities during the War of the Barons, and he did not get rich any more than anyone else. Many barons hated him above all for the fact that after the end of the war he not only pursued his own interests, but also demanded royal rights again. His pride led to his downfall, however, when in 1224 he overestimated his real power and failed to realize how isolated and hated he actually was.

Others

His wife owned a house in South Lambeth on the right bank of the Thames near London, which Bréauté occupied, which is why it was soon called Falkes Hall . Over time, this name became Foxhall and later Vauxhall for today's London borough.

Web links

• DJ Power: Bréauté, Sir Falkes de (d. 1226). 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. ^ David A. Carpenter: The struggle for mastery. Britain, 1066-1284. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 0-19-522000-5 , p. 306
2. ^ David A. Carpenter: The struggle for mastery. Britain, 1066-1284. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 0-19-522000-5 , p. 284
3. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: King John's evil counselors (act. 1208-1214) (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Retrieved November 26, 2015 . 
4. ^ Vauxhall, the Oval and Kennington: Kennington & Vauxhall: History. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 8, 2008 ; Retrieved November 26, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.