Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex

Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex (also Geoffrey Fitzpeter or Geoffrey Fitzpiers , * around 1162 ; † October 2, 1213 ) was an English nobleman and justiciar of England.

origin

He was a son of Piers de Lutegareshale , a knight from Ludgershall . His older brother was Simon Fitz Peter , who was sheriff of Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire several times during the reign of King Henry II .

Advancement as a civil servant and through marriage

For the last five years of Henry II's reign, Geoffrey served as the Sheriff of Northamptonshire. By the favor of the king he was able to marry Beatrice de Say , a daughter of William de Say . After his father-in-law died in 1184 without male heirs, Geoffrey shared his inheritance with William de Bocland , who married a sister of his wife.

Originally, Geoffrey wanted to take part in the Third Crusade , but he resigned from participation in 1189 against payment of a fine to the new King Richard the Lionheart . After the king's departure, Geoffrey stayed in England as one of five judges of the Royal Court and Lord of the Treasury, as well as advising Legal Counsel Hugh de Puiset , Bishop of Durham. When the male line of the Mandeville family died out with William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex at the end of 1189 , Geoffrey's wife Beatrice was the great-granddaughter of William de Mandeville , the grandfather of the 3rd Earl, a right to his inheritance. However, the inheritance was also claimed by Beatrice's uncle Geoffrey de Say , who made a claim through his mother. The Lord Chancellor William Longchamp initially awarded the inheritance to Geoffrey de Say for a fee of 7,000 marks . However, when he was unable to pay the sum, the Chancellor awarded the inheritance to Geoffrey fitz Peter for 3,000 marks.

Dispute over Walden Abbey

The Mandevilles legacy included large estates in Essex , including the Priory of Walden . While the inheritance was still controversial, on August 1, 1190, the monks turned to Richard von Ely , Bishop of London, to convert their home into an abbey. Geoffrey then declared that the monks had violated his rights and occupied their land. The Bishop of London excommunicated Geoffrey, which was confirmed by William Longchamp. Nevertheless, Geoffrey still feuded the priory and only reached an agreement with the abbey during the reign of King John Ohneland .

Justiciar of England

When a rebellion against the administration of Justiciars William Longchamp broke out in 1191 while Richard the Lionheart was absent, Geoffrey supported Archbishop Walter de Coutances, who had been sent back by the King, and later the new Justiciar Hubert Walter . When he resigned on July 11, 1198, the king appointed Geoffrey as his successor. Geoffrey gathered an army, horrified the besieged Painscastle , a castle owned by William de Braose in Wales , and defeated the army of the Welsh prince Gwenwynwyn of Powys .

To finance the king's wars, Geoffrey raised taxes, against which the abbeys fought back. When collecting taxes, Geoffrey was considered tough and also enforced the fees for the confirmation of documents by a new royal seal and high penalties for forest crime . After Richard's death, Geoffrey spoke out in favor of Johann Ohneland as heir to the throne at the council meeting in Northampton . At the coronation of Johann on May 27, 1199, the latter made him Earl of Essex . When Johann deposed his half-brother, Archbishop Geoffrey of York , as sheriff of York because he could not pay the promised fee for his office, King Geoffrey appointed Peter as his successor. He later became sheriff of other counties and received several estates from the king such as Berkhamsted and Queenhithe . In May 1211 he was one of the commanders of Johann's first campaign against Prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth , which was unsuccessful. Despite his harshness, Geoffrey was considered a capable civil servant who was a pillar of John's rule and served him loyally, even if the king allegedly did not like him. As a representative of the tyrannical king, he was hated by the barons and was considered one of the king's poor advisers. When the king wanted to set out on a campaign in France in 1213, Geoffrey stayed behind as regent of England alongside Bishop Peter des Roches of Winchester. He chaired the council meeting in St Albans on August 4, 1213, where he urged the barons to obey the laws of Henry I. He died shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by Peter des Roches.

Family and offspring

He had several children with his first wife Beatrice, including:

• Geoffrey, 2nd Earl of Essex , ⚭ (1) Matilda, daughter of Robert FitzWalter , ⚭ (2) Isabel, 3rd Countess of Gloucester
• William ⚭ Christina, daughter of Robert FitzWalter
• Henry
• Maud ⚭ Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford

After his wife had died in childbirth around 1191, he married Aveline de Clare, a daughter of Roger de Clare, 2nd Earl of Hertford and Maud de St Hilary , for the second time . With her he had a son, John fitz Geoffrey , who inherited Berkhamsted. Geoffrey donated the Shouldham priory and hospital at Sutton-at-Hone , Kent .

Aftermath

Matthew Paris described Geoffrey Fitz Peter as the solid pillar of the kingdom, a man of noble disposition, lawyer and experienced in financial policy and all high offices, related by blood or by marriage to all the nobles of England, which is why the king feared him more than anyone else and him did not love, for he held the reins of England tightly in his hand. When he died, England was drifting on the high seas like a ship without a helmsman .

Geoffrey's admonition at the council of St Albans to keep the laws of Henry I encouraged the barons, who were dissatisfied with John's rule, to claim their "old" rights. After Geoffrey's death, the War of the Barons broke out in England in 1215 and the Magna Carta was concluded . Both Geoffrey and William, two of his sons, were among the barons who rebelled against the king in 1215.

Web links

• FJ West: Geoffrey fitz Peter, fourth earl of Essex (d. 1213). 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. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 106
2. ^ David Walker: Medieval Wales . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990. ISBN 978-0-521-31153-3 , p. 93
3. ↑ John T. Appleby: John "Ohneland" King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1958. p. 105
4. ↑ Aveline de Clare on thepeerage.com , accessed September 17, 2016.
5. ↑ John T. Appleby: John "Ohneland" King of England . Riederer, Stuttgart 1958. p. 176

predecessor	Office	successor
Hubert Walter	Chief Justiciar of England 1198-1213	Peter des Roches
New title created	Earl of Essex 1199-1213	Geoffrey Fitzgeoffrey