Geoffrey de Neville

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Geoffrey de Neville († before December 26, 1225 ) was an English nobleman who served as King's Chamberlain and Seneschal of Gascony .

origin

Geoffrey de Neville came from the Anglo-Norman family Neville . He was a younger son of Alan de Neville († 1190), so he was a nephew of Gilbert de Neville , an ancestor of the Nevilles of Raby . The forest judge Hugh de Neville († 1234) probably belonged to his relatives . He is occasionally confused with Geoffrey de Neville († 1194), who was the great-grandfather of Robert de Neville († 1282) and probably a cousin of him.

Rise under King Johann

Neville is first mentioned when King John Ohneland gave him land ownership in 1204. In 1207 he served briefly as Steward of the Household before he was appointed King's Chamberlain . He held this office until his death. In addition, he served briefly as sheriff of Wiltshire in 1207 . 1210 he received reinforcements in the the Angevin Empire belonging Poitou sent. In 1213 the king sent him as an envoy to Count Raymond VI. of Toulouse and King Peter II of Aragon . In 1214 he tried to get the nobles of Poitous to support the ultimately failed campaign of King John . In gratitude for his loyalty, the king gave him properties from dispossessed members of the aristocratic opposition in England. In July and August 1214, Neville served as Seneschal of Gascony and the following year in July and August as Seneschal of Poitou. He had to hand over both offices to Reginald de Pontibus . During the First War of the Barons he was part of the king’s entourage until October 1, 1215, when Scarborough Castle was handed over to him for administration on that day . Later he received donations from the king to strengthen the fortifications of the castle. In the winter of 1215 to 1216 he defended the castle and the city of York against the aristocratic opposition troops. In early 1216 he was appointed Sheriff of Yorkshire , which he remained until 1223. In contrast to many other barons, he remained a loyal supporter of the king until the death of Johann Ohneland in October 1216.

Service to the Regency Council

Also the Regency Council, which is responsible for the minor Heinrich III. ran the government, Neville remained a faithful servant. In November 1217 he witnessed the renewed recognition of the Magna Carta by the regent William Marshal . In March 1218 he was confirmed as sheriff of Yorkshire, which he continued to be administrator of the royal castles of Scarborough and Pickering . In 1218 he was in Worcester when the Welsh prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth made peace with the Regency Council . In May 1218 he was again appointed Seneschal of Gascony and Poitou. In Gascony he had to put down the rebellion of Hugo X of Lusignan in 1219 , who besieged Niort . At the end of May 1219 he threatened the government that, given the insufficient support from England, he would rather go to the Holy Land to crusade instead of staying in Gascony, and before September 1219 he complained again that he had insufficient funds to defend Gascony from England would have available. In October 1219 he handed over the administration of Gascony to William Gauler and returned to England, where he reached Dover on November 1st . For his work as a seneschal he had taken on debts, the settlement of which the citizens of various towns in Gascony demanded in 1220.

In England in 1220 the government commissioned him to negotiate with Scotland the marriage of Joan , a sister of the king, with the Scottish king Alexander II . On January 23, 1221, the king summoned him to Northampton to vote against the rebellious William de Forz , who had occupied Fotheringhay Castle . In 1222, he paid the king £ 100 to guardianship of Alexander de Neville , who was believed to be a second cousin of his and owned estates in Lincolnshire , Yorkshire and Cumberland . On December 4, 1222, he was commissioned to check compliance with the compromise negotiated between Hugo X of Lusignan and some towns in Gascony. In 1223 Lusignan complained to the English king about the then Seneschal Savary de Mauléon , asking for Neville to be reinstated as Seneschal. The king did not implement this proposal, but in August that year sent Neville to negotiate with Lusignan in Gascony, which clearly weakened Mauléon's position. Neville had returned to England in January 1224 after his negotiations with Lusignan had failed. In May he was sent to the Poitou with a small force, including at least 15 knights from the royal household, and 2,000 marks as reinforcement. He reached Poitou in June, but his small force was nowhere near enough to defend the English possessions against the attack of the French King Louis VIII , which began in July. Neville returned to England. In February 1225 he testified that the Magna Carta was again recognized by the king, and in March 1225, under the command of Richard of Cornwall, he set off again for Gascony, where he probably died.

Marriage and offspring

Geoffrey de Neville had married Mabel, daughter of Adam Fitz Swane, a Yorkshire baron. Mabel became a co-heir of her father's possessions. Neville had several children with her, including:

  • John (after † 1265)
  • Alan

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990, ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 295
  2. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990, ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 355
personal data
SURNAME De Neville, Geoffrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman, Seneschal of Gascony and King's Chamberlain of the Household
DATE OF BIRTH 12th century or 13th century
DATE OF DEATH before December 26, 1225